IN CORNWALL
It was August when Alice returned home. As soon as her father learned
that she had become engaged to Montrose, he sent for her. Now that the
mouse had entered the trap there was no need for the girl to remain in
London and spend money. Mrs. Barrast was sorry to lose the companionship
of Miss Enistor, not only because she liked her as much as one of her
shallow nature could like any one, but for a more selfish reason. With
Alice departed Montrose, and although he did not go immediately down to
Cornwall, he scarcely came near the house in Hans Crescent. Thus Mrs.
Barrast was deprived of the many presents which she loved to receive.
However, she had done very well, and made the best of her loss, since
the girl's visit, because of Montrose's love-making, had not been
unprofitable to her. Mrs. Barrast was very affectionate when Alice
departed, and made her promise to return when she became Mrs. Douglas
Montrose. Alice readily consented, for though Amy was vain and selfish,
yet the fact that the love-romance had taken place beneath her roof made
the girl regard her as a most excellent friend. All the same she was not
sorry to return to Cornwall, as she was weary of the frivolous London
life.
In the railway train Alice became quite depressed. She was coming back
to dreary Tremore, to her father's uncongenial society, and perhaps to
the unpleasant attentions of Don Pablo. But on this latter point she
was reassured by her father's letter. Although he had not quite
consented to the marriage with Montrose, and would not consent until he
had seen the young man, yet, in the face of his half-approval, he
certainly would not allow her to be troubled by Don Pablo. Certainly the
Spaniard had great influence with the squire of Polwellin, and might not
be inclined to surrender the girl whom he desired to make his wife. But
Douglas, as Alice reflected, would soon be on the spot, and he would
deal with Narvaez, if the old man became troublesome. On the whole,
therefore, even though matters were a trifle unsettled, Alice concluded
that the new life would be better than the old. At all events she would
not be quite so lonely, and that was something. Of course Dr. Eberstein
had predicted trouble, but also he had agreed to come down when the
trouble arrived. This comforted the girl not a little, as she had the
greatest confidence in Montrose's friend. Why, she could scarcely say,
as she knew next to nothing about him. But his mere look, let alone the
touch of his hand, was enough to make her feel strangely brave and
happy. If Don Pablo was all evil, Dr. Eberstein was all good. Yet why
one should be this and the other that, Alice could not tell. Doubtless,
as Douglas had suggested, Eberstein could have enlightened both on this
point. But he had not done so, and beyond warning them that they could
count upon his help in the trouble which was surely coming, he had said
very little. Therefore, these two young people had to walk by faith, and
very bravely did so.
At Perchton, which was the nearest station to Polwellin, Alice quite
expected to find her father waiting for her, since, little as he loved
her, he must surely be anxious to see how she looked after her long
absence. But Mr. Enistor was not on the platform, and Alice with a
rather forlorn feeling alighted from her compartment. In London she had
grown accustomed to love and attention, so the neglect of the present
moment brought on her depression again. But that vanished in a trice
when a strong hand took the small bag she was carrying, and a strong
voice sounded in her ears.
"Here you are at last," said Julian brightly. "I have been waiting for
nearly an hour, Alice."
"Oh, Julian!" she took his hand, to press it warmly. "I am so glad you
are here. I was feeling quite dismal because father has not come to meet
me."
"I thought you would be. Yesterday I asked him if he intended to come to
Perchton, but as he said that he had no time I came in his stead."
"And left your painting. How good of you."
"Not at all. We are brother and sister, are we not?"
"I don't think many brothers would take so much trouble to be kind to
their sisters," said Alice brightly. "Did father send the carriage?"
"No. One of the horses is laid up. But a friend of mine has a motor, so
I made him lend it to take you to Tremore. Where is your baggage?"
"Oh, I must look for it in the van and get a porter and----"
"You'll do nothing of the sort," interrupted Hardwick quickly, "go and
sit in the motor; there it is. I can see to your boxes. How many?"
"Two large and one small," said Alice, and gladly settled herself in the
very comfortable vehicle, while Julian went back into the station.
Shortly he returned with a porter and the boxes were duly placed on the
motor. Julian stepped in beside the girl, and a word to the chauffeur
sent the splendid machine humming down the narrow street like a giant
bee. Then the two had time to look at one another, and Julian approved
of the girl's appearance. Love had made her blossom like a rose. She was
less ethereal than she had been, and the sad look on her delicate face
had vanished. Also, as Mrs. Barrast had attended to her frocks, and had
introduced her to Madame Coralie, the girl was singularly smart and
attractive as regards clothes. A smile was on Julian's face as he looked
at her.
"You went away a duckling and you return a swan," he said.
"Oh, what a doubtful compliment," said Alice gaily; "am I then, or
rather was I, an ugly duckling?"
"No, my dear, you were never an _ugly_ duckling, but what I mean is that
you have turned from a fairy into a pretty nymph."
"That is better," said Miss Enistor graciously, as the motor whizzed out
of the town and began to climb the long winding road to the moors. "You
are improving, Julian. But you don't ask me how I have enjoyed myself."
"There is no need. Your appearance speaks for you."
Alice laughed. "Do you think that my looks are due simply to a short
season of pleasure in London?"
"Well, not exactly," rejoined Hardwick in his stolid way; "in fact,
seeing that you have been staying with Amy, I expected you to look more
fagged than you do. Amy makes a toil of pleasure and is certainly a very
wearing woman to live with."
"She is a dear," said Miss Enistor warmly, "and has been most kind. But
you are right about her feverish pursuit of pleasure," she said, with an
after-thought. "Amy never rests!"
"And never lets any one else rest, which is worse," said Julian grimly;
he looked at her sideways. "Yes! Mere London pleasure cannot account for
your happy looks. Well, let me know who he is!"
"Let you know who he is?" repeated Alice, blushing and looking prettier
than ever, "do you mean----"
"I think you know what I mean. You are in love at last."
Like a woman Alice did not reply directly to the remark. "Are you very
angry, Julian?" she asked, laying a timid hand on his arm.
"My dear, I am not angry at all. We are brother and sister, you know.
Long ago I discovered that you were right as to my proposal and I was
wrong. All that I could do for you was to accept the situation of your
future husband if Don Pablo insisted upon marrying you. But I presume I
can now resign that position," ended Hardwick gravely.
"He is called Douglas Montrose," said Alice, still evasive.
"A very pretty name for Prince Charming. Yes, your father mentioned to
me that the young man had written to him, and he also mentioned that
Montrose is the fortunate person who has inherited Lady Staunton's
money. So Amy got her own way, as I knew she would. An inveterate
matchmaker is Amy."
Alice opened her eyes widely. "Did you guess then?"
"Not so much guess as know," replied Hardwick composedly. "Amy wrote
about her desire that you should become Mrs. Montrose."
"And you?"
"I was pleased, of course. Amy told me how deeply you loved the man."
"She could not tell that for certain," pouted Alice doubtfully.
"I am not so sure of that. Women are proverbially clever and shrewd in
anything that has to do with love-making. However, it seems she was
right: your bright eyes and crimson cheeks tell me as much."
"I may as well confess that I love Douglas," admitted Alice boldly, "and
he loves me. Already we have asked father's consent to our marriage."
"He will give it without doubt, Alice. It is a happy way of getting back
the lost money."
"Oh the money! the money!" she cried petulantly; "you talk just as Amy
talks, Julian. As if I cared for money. I love Douglas, and if he were a
pauper I would marry him. And my father has not jumped at the chance of
getting back the money, as you seem to think. He won't say yes and he
won't say no."
"He must say something," remarked Julian, with a shrug.
"Nothing. He refuses to give his decision until he knows more about
Douglas."
Hardwick nodded. "That is natural and sensible. So the young man is
coming to Tremore to be put through his paces?"
"How clever of you to guess that. He is--in a few days. Oh, how anxious
I feel, Julian. So much depends upon my father."
"He will consent, I am sure, Alice. With such a disposition as you have,
you could choose no one but a really good man for your husband."
Alice laughed a trifle bitterly, which was strange considering her
prospects and happy state of mind. "Goodness or badness matter very
little when one is in love, Julian. And they do not matter at all to my
father so long as I marry a rich man. It is a good thing for me that
Douglas has plenty of money, for only in that way will things run
smoothly for both of us. Otherwise I feel certain that my father would
still insist upon my marrying Don Pablo."
"Humph!" said Hardwick meditatively. "The question is, 'Would Don Pablo
marry you?' my dear girl."
"He is supposed to be in love with me," said Alice, puzzled. "You know
how he has bothered me, Julian."
"Oh, yes, I know. But there is Rose Penwin, you know, that fisherman's
pretty daughter."
Alice turned to look at him in astonishment. "What about her?"
"Señor Narvaez has taken an unaccountable admiration for her since you
departed for London."
"Unaccountable!" Miss Enistor's lip curled. "There is nothing
unaccountable in any man admiring a pretty girl, and Rose is more than
pretty!"
"She is," said Hardwick calmly. "Pretty is not the word to apply to a
beautiful and stately woman such as Rose Penwin is."
"Brunhild or Brynhild--what do you call that Norse goddess you said you
so admired until you met me?"
"I never admired any Norse goddess," said Hardwick, laughing. "I simply
quoted Brynhild as a type. Yes, Rose Penwin is of that type, but I am
not in love with her."
"Don Pablo is?"
"So I am given to understand from village gossip. You know I chatter
frequently to the fishermen and their wives. Well, Don Pablo has been
paying great attention to Rose; giving her presents and----"
"Does she accept his attentions?" interrupted Miss Enistor, astonished.
"Yes and no. She does in a way, as she wants to make Job Trevel
jealous!"
"Job Trevel," said Alice thoughtfully; "to be sure! He is my
foster-brother, Julian, as I told you how Dame Trevel brought me up. But
I thought it was understood that Rose was to marry Job."
"Too thoroughly understood," said Julian dryly. "It seems that Job is so
certain of Rose that he does not trouble to pay her those pretty
attentions which a lover should. Thus, to make him jealous, Rose
pretends to accept the attentions of Don Pablo."
"That old mummy. He can't even feel love."
"No! I agree with you there, and I am puzzled to know what his game is.
Why should an old man of eighty run after a girl of nineteen?"
"He ran after me and bothered me enough, as you know," said Alice in a
thoughtful manner. "He must be mad. Yet I do not think a madman would
or could exercise such an influence over my father. However, Job
can scarcely be jealous of Señor Narvaez, who might be Rose's
great-grandfather."
"He is jealous, however. Don Pablo is wealthy and Rose likes pretty
things, you know. She may not love the old reprobate: she could not. All
the same the prospect of unlimited money----"
"Oh, nonsense!" broke in Alice vigorously, "she would not be so wicked.
If I see anything of her treating Job badly I shall speak to her. I am
very fond of my foster-brother even though he has a bad temper."
"All the worse for Don Pablo if he has," said Hardwick significantly.
"Rose is playing with fire. Love on one hand, wealth on the other: which
will she choose, do you think? I assure you, Alice, that there are the
elements of a tragedy in these things."
"It may be all imagination on your part," said the girl after a pause,
"and in any case, if Don Pablo now admires Rose, he will leave me alone,
and my father will have no excuse to forbid my marrying Douglas."
Julian wrinkled his brow disapprovingly. "Isn't that a selfish way of
looking at the matter?"
"It is! It is!" acknowledged Alice with sudden compunction. "Love does
make one selfish, Julian."
"Yet love should have the opposite effect, my dear girl. You usually
have such a high standard that it seems strange you should fall short of
it in this way. But you have been with Amy, and although she is my own
sister, even a short time in her company does harm. She is not bad--I
don't mean that, Alice: but Amy is excessively selfish and she seems to
have contaminated you in some way."
Alice grew scarlet, as never before had Julian dared to speak to her in
this reproving style. Yet she felt that he was right, and took no
offence. "I am glad you have said what you have said, Julian. I should
not have spoken as I did. It was narrow and selfish, as you say. I must
think of others even if love for Douglas fills my heart. I shall see
Dame Trevel and Job and in some way I shall learn the truth. You may be
sure that I shall do what I can to put matters right between Rose and
Job."
Hardwick patted her hand. "That is spoken like the trump you are, Alice,
my dear. I knew that you were not thinking of what you were saying. As
you are in love, there is some excuse----"
"No! No! Don't weaken your good advice, Julian. There is no excuse for
one to fall short of one's standard. Your warning has done me good. You
are a dear kind boy, and if I had not met Douglas----"
"You would have loved me," ended Hardwick, smiling. "No, dear, don't
deceive yourself. If we had married we should have been comrades, but
never man and wife in the true spiritual sense. The marriage made in
heaven is the only true marriage. You said something of that sort when
you refused me. How entirely right you were, Alice!"
The girl looked at him with a whimsical look in her eyes and wondered at
his simplicity. "What a child you are, Julian. Nine women out of ten
would take offence at such a cool assurance that your love for me has
perished."
"Probably," returned Julian composedly, "nine women out of ten are dogs
in the manger, but you, my dear Alice, are the tenth. I shall be glad to
see Montrose. Tell me all about him."
"That is difficult," said Miss Enistor absently, "let me think for a
moment."
Julian could not see why it should be difficult for a young girl in the
first delicious phase of a perfect passion to talk to an intimate
friend, such as he truly was, of her feelings. But he did not understand
what was passing in Alice's mind. Her wooing was of so unusual a
character, and had so much to do with psychic matters concerning which
Hardwick knew nothing, that it was hard to explain the swift love which
had drawn her and Douglas together. For one moment she hesitated, and
the next decided not to speak. Julian would not understand, and she
evaded a direct answer to his question by a truly feminine subterfuge.
"I would rather you judged Douglas for yourself without looking at him
through my eyes. He will be here in a few days and then you can give me
your opinion."
"Well," said Julian in his usual stolid way, "perhaps you are right!"
after which calm acceptance of the situation he became silent.
While the two young people had been talking, the car had pursued its way
towards Tremore steadily and swiftly. Along the winding white roads it
glided, with the spreading no-man's-land of purple heather on either
side. How Alice loved it all; the vast moorlands sprinkled with grey
blocks of granite; the tumbled steepness of black cliffs; the
far-stretching spaces of the gleaming ocean and the life-giving winds
that breathed across the limitless lands. For the moment she wondered
how she had ever endured the narrow, muffling London streets, with their
twice-breathed airs and garish lights. Like a thing of life the great
car swung untiringly along, and the landscape widened out at every turn
of the road. She felt as though she had come out of a stifling cavern
into a spacious world, and flung out her hands in ecstatic greeting to
the majesty of Nature. Reborn through love into a wider consciousness,
the girl's seeing and hearing now embraced an appreciation of much to
which she had been formerly deaf and blind. Sound seemed sweeter, colour
more vivid and life dearer. There was a feeling of spring in the
autumnal air, and Alice felt that she wished to dance and sing and
generally rejoice out of sheer lightheartedness.
"I am made one with Nature," she exclaimed, thrilling to the beauty of
land and sea. "Doesn't Shelley say something like that in 'Adonais'?"
"I never read poetry," replied Julian stolidly. "To my mind poets only
say in many words what a journalist says in few."
"What a pagan sentiment," cried Miss Enistor gaily, "and how untrue. Oh,
there is Tremore!"
Assuredly it was, and the grey house looked more sinister than ever in
the pale sunshine. It placed its dark spell on Alice, for as the
motor-car breasted the hill, her gay spirits left her and she became as
pale as hitherto she had been rosy. With wonderment and regret Julian
saw again the wan girl who had left for London weeks before, and
anxiously inquired if she felt ill.
"No," said Alice, rousing herself with an effort from the lethargy which
had fallen on her. "I feel quite well, but less full of vitality than
when I arrived at Perchton. It is the idea of Tremore, I think," she
shuddered. "You know what a gloomy house it is."
"Montrose will dispel the gloom when he arrives," suggested Hardwick.
Alice brightened. "Oh, I am sure he will. But how nice of you to say
that. You are not a bit jealous."
"I believe you are annoyed because I am not, my dear girl," laughed the
artist.
"Julian, how can you say such a thing?" she replied absently; then added
in a markedly irrelevant manner, "I hope father will be glad to see me."
Mr. Enistor may have been glad, but he certainly did not appear at the
door to show his gladness. Alice's boxes were taken into the house, and
Julian departed in the car, declining to enter, on the plea that father
and daughter would have much to say to one another. Alice did not seek
to stay him. She felt chilled by the absence of welcome and the sombre
atmosphere of the big house. The beaten space of ground upon which it
stood seemed to isolate it from the warm laughing world of vivid life,
and she entered with the feeling that she was descending into a vault.
Nor did the greeting of her father tend to dissipate this impression of
dismay. He received her in the library with a cold kiss and without
rising from his chair.
"Well, Alice, how are you?" He looked at her keenly as she stood by the
table, white and frozen into silence. "Your stay in town does not appear
to have done you much good."
"Oh, I feel all right," said the girl, with an effort to be her true
self.
"You don't look all right," snapped Enistor, rather disappointed. "After
all the money you have spent you certainly should have a more healthy
appearance. H'm! I think I understand," he paused a moment, then added
bitingly, "your new lover has disappointed you. Is that it?"
"No!" Alice roused herself to offer a protest. "Douglas is all that I
can wish, father."
"I hope for your sake that he is all _I_ can wish. If he isn't I shall
certainly not allow you to marry him. There is always Don Pablo to----"
At this speech Alice did wake up and a colour flushed her cheeks. "Don
Pablo, if I am to believe Julian, has fallen in love with Rose Penwin."
"I didn't know that Hardwick was such a gossip," said Enistor coolly.
"As to falling in love, Narvaez is much too sensible a man. He admires
the girl for her beauty and has given her several presents of jewellery.
At Don Pablo's age no one can object to that."
"Job Trevel can, and Job Trevel does."
"More gossip," sneered Enistor. "Your artist friend appears to have
informed himself accurately of the situation. But it matters nothing to
you or to me, since neither of us has any right to interfere with Don
Pablo's likes or dislikes. You are the one he loves, Alice."
"I thought you said a moment ago that he was too sensible to fall in
love!"
The Squire shrugged his shoulders. "I meant in the silly way of boys and
girls. Narvaez' love is of a deeper and more spiritual kind. He admires
Rose as a beautiful girl; he adores you as a soul."
"I don't want his adoration!" said Alice wearily, for it seemed hard
that the usual wrangling should begin the moment she returned home.
"You prefer Montrose's adoration no doubt. Well, I have no objection so
long as I approve of the young man and he does what I want."
"What is that?"
"He must restore the money which your aunt left him."
"I thought you did not care for the money, father?"
"I care very much indeed for the money, although I have never emphasised
the fact. Only because he has it did I even consider the possibility of
your marrying him. I should much prefer you to be Narvaez' wife.
However, we shall see when the young man arrives. Meantime you had
better lie down as you seem to be worn out by your journey. It's waste
of money to send you away."
Alice bit her lips to keep back her tears and breathed a prayer that
Eberstein should help her to throw off the deadly influence of the
house. Even as she did so the relief came, and she felt a wave of
vitality run through her body. The weary, languid sense of utter
desolation left her; the colour returned to her cheeks, the brightness
to her eyes and the strength to her whole being. Enistor saw the statue
come to life, and in place of a wan, weak girl beheld a living,
breathing woman, very much alive. He stared amazed.
"What has come to you?" he demanded, startled and puzzled.
"Love," said Alice quietly, "love and life instead of hate and death!"
Enistor quivered, since he knew that the first mentioned forces were at
war with himself and his dark Master.