There was a scene one day at the Fort when, after finishing the business
in connection with a heavy sum which had been raised to pay over to
Gellow, the lawyer had taken upon himself to suggest that it was not
fair to his old client's daughter that such a heavy drain should be kept
up on the fortune she had brought him.
This was sufficient to send Glyddyr into a fit of passion, with the
result that Trevithick was ordered to give up all charge of the estate
for the future, and hand his papers over to another solicitor, who was
named.
"Very good, Mr Glyddyr," said the lawyer quietly. "As far as you have
claims I will do so; but I must remind you that I am your wife's
trustee, and even if she wished to obey you, I cannot be ousted from
that."
Claude suffered bitterly for this when the lawyer was gone, but she
forbore to speak. She felt that she was forced to give up the hints and
friendly counsel of one whom her father trusted, and she trembled lest
there should be a breach with regard to Mary, and that she should lose
her. Sarah Woodham had been abused and insulted almost beyond bearing a
hundred times, and ordered to go, but she always smiled sadly in
Claude's face afterwards.
"Don't you be afraid, my dear," she used to say. "Let him say what he
will, I'll never leave you."
One day Sarah Woodham entered the room to find Mary in tears, but as
they were hastily dried, they were ignored.
"I beg pardon, miss; I thought Mr Trevithick was here."
"Why should you think that?"
"Because I saw him at the hotel half-an-hour ago."
"No; he has not been, and is not likely to come after such treatment as
he received from Mr Glyddyr a fortnight ago."
"Going out, miss?" said Sarah, as she saw Mary beginning to dress
hurriedly.
"Yes. Where is your master--in the garden?"
"No, miss. He has gone down to the quarry."
"With your mistress?"
"No, Miss Mary. She is in the garden."
Mary shuddered as she thought of the future, and of Glyddyr's recovery
of his health.
"Are you cold, Miss Mary?" said Woodham earnestly.
"Yes--I mean no. That is--nothing. If Miss Claude--"
She stopped short.
"I mean, if your mistress calls for me, say I have gone for a walk. No,
no, no," she cried passionately. "I must not go. If he knew that I had
been out, it would cause trouble."
Sarah Woodham sighed. The words were incontrovertible.
Mary began to take off her things, but changed her mind and put them on
again.
"I will go. I must see him," she said. "You shall go with me, Sarah.
It would not look so then--would it?"
"I think, as Mr Trevithick cannot come here now, you have a perfect
right to go and see him."
"Mr Trevithick!" cried Mary, with her face aflame; "why do you say
that? I did not speak of going to see Mr Trevithick."
"No, Miss Mary--no, my dear; but do you think I did not know. And I'm
very, very glad."
Mary was looking at her with flashing eyes, but the flames were put out
by her tears, and she caught and pressed Sarah's hand.
"You don't seem like a servant to us," she whispered quickly. "Come
with me, please."
Five minutes later they were on their way down the slope to the beach,
with Mary trembling at what she thought was her daring behaviour; and as
she walked on everybody she passed seemed to know where she was going,
and to crown her confusion, just as they were nearing Mrs Sarson's,
Chris Lisle came out, nodded to her, changing colour a little, and was
about to pass her, but he stopped short.
It was the first time they had met for months.
"Will you shake hands, Mary?" he said, raising his own hesitatingly.
"You know I will," she cried eagerly, as she placed hers in his, glad of
the relief from her thoughts.
"I am very, very glad to speak to you again, dear," he said, in a
subdued way. "You look so well, too, with that colour. There, I will
not keep you. Perhaps some day we may meet again, and be able to have a
friendly chat. Good-bye!"
He walked hurriedly away, and the tears rose to her eyes.
"Poor dear Chris!" she said. "I always seemed to love him as if he were
my brother."
"Who could help liking him, Miss Mary?"
"Sarah?"
"Yes, miss. You were speaking aloud. Ah! poor lad, we don't often see
him about now. Look, miss; Mr Trevithick."
Mary had already seen the lawyer as he stepped out of the hotel and came
towards them slowly, till he appeared to see them suddenly, when he
turned sharply upon his heel and went back to the hotel.
Mary crimsoned with mortification, and then felt as if she would sink
beneath the weight of her misery. Nearly a fortnight had passed, and
her lover had made no sign; and now, when they were on the point of
meeting, he had openly avoided her.
Mary's heart felt as if it sank down into the darkness. There could be
but one interpretation, she said. He had repented of the engagement,
and his eyes had been opened to what a poor, misshapen little thing she
was.
"Sarah!" she whispered hoarsely, "I cannot see where I am going; please
take me home quickly, so that I am not--"
"No, no, my dear, let's walk up here first and over the bridge into the
glen. You are too agitated to be seen. Try and be firm, my dear--try
and be firm."
Totally unnerved, the poor girl clung to the sturdy woman by her side,
and readily allowed her to guide her right away up into the calm, silent
glen, where, making a sign, she let Sarah Woodham assist her to one of
the detached rocks, where she sat down to let her tears of misery have
full vent.
"And I was so happy," she moaned at last, as she looked up piteously in
Sarah Woodham's face. "Is there real happiness, Sarah, for poor
creatures such as we? Life appears to be all misery and care."
It was only about the third walk that Glyddyr had taken alone, and he
left home reluctantly, and with a shadow as it were following every
step.
"I oughtn't to have gone and left her," he muttered. "It's of no use
trying to deceive myself; all that quiet, calm way means something, and
I'm sure they meet--I could swear it. She never dares to look me
straight in the face. I won't stay away long. I won't stay here long
either. I see him; he's always hanging about trying to catch sight of
her. Does he think I'm blind? I know! I know!"
He walked on hurriedly toward the quarry, but he had over-rated his
strength, and grinding his teeth with rage, he sat down and began to
wipe his wet brow.
"This cursed weakness," he groaned. "But I'm stronger and better now.
If I could have a drop of brandy now and then--not much--I should soon
be all right."
"Yes," he said, after a pause, during which he had been looking
nervously round, "I'll go away and take her on the Continent for our
wedding trip. In another week I shall be strong and well enough, and
we'll go away, and Chris Lisle may grind his teeth, and say the grapes
are sour.
"I wonder whether they ever have met while I was so ill and at my worst?
He knows the way. He was found in the grounds that night. Would she
dare?
"No, no," he muttered, after a long pause. "She wouldn't dare, but he
might persuade her. Curse him! Why does he stay in the place?
"There, there; this won't do. I'm getting hot and excited, and I can't
bear it yet. I'll go on now and see what the scoundrels are doing with
the stones. I know they rob me because I'm ill and don't understand the
trade; but I'll startle some of them.
"Now, then, I'm better now. The old strength's coming back, and--No,"
he cried, with a whine of misery, "I can't go on. If I go there it will
seem as if he's back and at my elbow always. It's bad enough at home.
He seems to haunt the cursed place, and I'm always fancying he's there.
That doctor does me no good; no good. I want strength, strength.
There, I'll go back."
He was so weak that, short as the distance was, he was well-nigh spent,
and had to sit down twice. But as he reached the end of the hollow
road, overshadowed by trees, and came out in the open, where he could
see the sea and feel the cool breeze, he recovered himself.
"Yes, there she lies," he said, as he let his eyes rest upon his yacht.
"What a time since I have been aboard! Yes, why not at once? We'll go
to-morrow and sail across to France, and coast down to the Pyrenees.
Get away from here; curse the place. It will be long before I come
back."
He panted a little as he turned up the slope and passed through the
gateway, to pause on the terrace, and look once more upon the yacht, as
she lay about a quarter of a mile from where he stood.
"I was a fool not to think of it before. Get her right away; she
daren't refuse. No, no; not so bad as that. She wouldn't have dared.
And yet it would have been so easy while I was lying by."
He entered the hall with curious thoughts buzzing through his brain.
"A miserable, puling, white-faced thing! Where is she? I'll tell her
to get ready. We will go to-morrow."
He went into the drawing-room, but Claude was not there, and in an
instant suspicion was master of his brain. Where was she?
He crossed the room and looked out through the open window, but no
Claude. Then, hurrying to the dining-room, he saw that she was not
there.
As he came out, he caught sight of a skirt just passing through a
swing-door, and he dashed after it.
It was one of the maids.
"Here," he said, in a half-whisper. "Your mistress--upstairs?"
"No, sir. In the library, I think. A gentleman came."
"That'll do," he said sharply. "No; stop. Where is Miss Mary?"
"Gone out, sir, with Mrs Woodham."
He turned quickly and swung to the door, with a look in his face that
was diabolical.
"Gun--pistol?" he muttered. "No, no; not that--not murder. Better
revenge. Lot of the money's mine. Free, free! Let him take her--let
him--curse him! I wish I was strong once more."
As if impelled by the wave of passion that came over him, he walked
quickly to the library door, and as he reached it, he heard a peculiar
clang, as of the closing of the book-shelf doors which screened the iron
safe.
A peculiar look of rage and cunning distorted his face; and, twisting
the handle round, he threw open the door and rushed in, as, with her
face wild from excitement, Claude turned towards him.
"Hah!" he cried, with a look of fierce triumph, as he caught her by the
wrist, "I've come back." And he uttered a low laugh as he pointed to
the great safe.
Claude tried to speak, but no words would come, and she clung to the
hand which held her to keep herself from falling.
"Didn't expect me back, eh? Didn't expect me back?"
"Come away quick; come away!" panted Claude, in a voice hardly above a
whisper.
"Yes, of course," he snarled, as he held her at arm's-length, nearly
fainting from terror and agony. "Come away, so as not to disturb our
dear Chris!"
Claude looked at him wildly.
"Parry Glyddyr!" she cried, as a look of horror dilated her eyes, and
she tried to cling to him and push him towards the door, for no further
words words would come.
"Yes! Parry Glyddyr, your lawful husband," he yelled. "Found out at
last!"
Volume Three, Chapter XVIII.