It was a curious blending of the bitter and the sweet when Clive Reed
came down to the Blinkdale Moor. To a man of his temperament, it was
maddening to find himself completely supplanted at the mine--where
Jessop reigned supreme, when Wrigley did not come down; and in spite of
the past the young engineer would have insisted upon frequent inspection
of the place and statements as to the proceedings, but he dared not go,
for at his next visit the Major had excitedly told him of all that had
taken place with Jessop, and also of Dinah's complaint of insult
received from Sturgess.
"I promised her that I would leave it to her to tell, my dear boy, but
it's like going into action--one does not care to begin, but the moment
one's blood is up, one doesn't know where to stop."
"No," said Clive, with his brow contracting. "The scoundrel, the
scoundrel!"
"And that brother of yours is the worst. Why, good heavens, is he mad
with conceit as well as brazen wickedness? What does he take my darling
for--some silly country wench to whom he has only to throw the
handkerchief for her to fall on her knees at his feet?"
"Don't talk about it, please, sir!" cried Clive huskily. "I find that
my bad passions are stronger than I thought, for I dare not go over to
the mine for fear of the scene which would be sure to follow."
"No: you mustn't go, Clive, or you'd half kill him--though he's your own
brother. If I had known all when I came back that day, thanks to that
young fellow, Robson, I'd have thrashed him till he couldn't stand.
Thirty years older, my boy, but I'm a better man than he is: a
miserable, flushed-faced sot! He drinks. I know he does, and he must
have been half drunk when he came here that day."
"He will not dare to come again."
"No. Let him take the consequences if he does--him or that black-haired
scoundrel, I'll give either of them a charge of shot, I swear."
Still there was the sweet as well as the bitter, during his stays at the
cottage; and Clive often asked himself why he, with the large property
left to him by his father, should trouble about the mine, when there was
a dreamy life of simple, idyllic happiness and joy. No allusion was
made to Jessop or Sturgess by either Dinah or her lover, for it was
enough that they could be together in that little paradise the Major had
in the course of years contrived, wandering hand in hand beside the
clear sparkling river which ran on laughing in the sunshine, so stern
and calm in the deep shades beneath the rocks. They said little save in
the language of the eye, and though Dinah had again and again determined
to speak and tell Clive everything--some day when he was seated at her
feet holding her hand in his, and say to him, "I dared not tell you lest
you should despise me," those words never passed her lips. "I cannot
tell him now," she sighed to herself. "I am so happy--he looks at me so
full of joy and trust. Some day I will, some day when he is holding me
tightly in his arms, and I feel so safe. I will tell him then. How can
I make him unhappy now?"
So she went on dreaming; happy in the present. The little river valley
had never looked so beautiful before, nor her father so restful and
content. It was life's summer, a golden time with nothing to wish for
more. The storms were hushed to sleep, and like the beautiful
streamlet, they two were gliding onward in that mystic peace that
softens down the passion of a strong first genuine love.
"Bah! I wish there was no London, my boy. No work, no worry, no
struggle," cried the Major, one evening, when he was alone with Clive,
who had been looking curiously at Martha, and recalling that night when
he had first slept at the cottage. He was wondering how it all was.
Whether the sturdy elderly woman had some love affair. Then he had, in
spite of himself, thought of Sturgess, whom he had that day seen
crossing one of the hills at a distance. He recalled the Major's words
and asked himself whether he, as a man, ought not in his resentment to
have taken some step to punish the scoundrel. But with the idea within
his mental grasp, he had let it slide again. For why, he asked himself,
should he strike and jar the gentle, harmonious life of her who was so
happy.
Though the mine was so near, he had only seen his brother and the new
deputy manager from time to time, at a distance, and his knowledge of
the progress there came either from London or from Robson, who wrote
occasionally, always to say that things were miserable, for Jessop and
Sturgess were at daggers drawn, but the profits of the mine still rose.
And now a letter had come down from the old lawyer--Mr Belton--
endorsing the clerk's announcements, and saying that an extraordinary
meeting was to be held through a movement on the part of Wrigley, and in
connection with the advance of the mine under the new management.
"I don't know what plans the man is going to propose, but you had better
come up, my dear boy, and be present. I daresay you will do more good
here than by staying down there watching and keeping those people up to
their work."
So wrote the old family solicitor, and Clive's conscience smote him, as
he recalled how little he had done, and how very small was the credit he
deserved. For his days had been spent in that dreamy pleasure at the
cottage, and for the most part the mine was forgotten.
But this letter had roused him to a sense of his duties, and, commending
Dinah to her father's care, Clive departed once more for town, in happy
unconsciousness of the fact that his every step was watched; while as
his figure grew less and less as she watched him along the moorland
track, Dinah's heart sank, and the old dread crept back at first like a
faint mist, then growing more and more dense, until it was a black
shadow between her and the sunshine of her life.
"But it will not be long--he will not be long, he said," she whispered
to herself. "He will come back to-day."
That was on the following morning. But there was no Clive, and on the
second morning she rose hopeful, saying the same words--"He will come
to-day;" and she waited eagerly till toward evening, when the Major said
suddenly--
"No message from Clive, pet. I thought we should have a telegram."
Dinah looked at him wistfully, and then her face brightened up.
"That means," said the Major, "that he is coming back to-night. Look
here, my dear, I'll take the rod and get a brace or two of trout for his
supper. There are four or five fine fellows in the lower pool, where I
haven't been for months. You had better stop in case Clive comes."
Dinah's face clouded over again.
"Nothing to mind, my dear. I saw Robson this morning, and he told me
that Jessop and that black scoundrel went up to town to the meeting the
same day as Clive. I suppose they didn't meet in the train. If they
did, I hope my dear boy turned them both out in the first tunnel they
went through. There, I'm off."
The autumn evenings were upon them, and the sun dipped behind the crags
of the millstone grit earlier now; and that evening, to prove the truth
of the Major's prophecy, Clive Reed trudged over the hill track leading
from Blinkdale past the `White Virgin' mine, where the roadway had been
widened and fresh tram-lines laid, to meet the necessities of the vastly
increased traffic. He frowned when he saw all this, for it jarred upon
him that so much advance should have been made under other management;
but the cloud passed away, for he met a group of men returning from
their work, to the cottages down in the valley--men for whom there was
not room in the new buildings, or who preferred their old homes. These
were for the most part known to him, and they greeted him with a
friendly smile or touch of the cap as they passed.
Clive longed to stop them and ask questions, but he felt that he could
not stoop to a meanness, and he went on in the soft evening glow
watching the golden-edged purple clouds in the west, across which the
boldly marked rays of the sun struck up, growing fainter till they died
away high up towards the zenith. There was a pleasant scent of dry
thyme from the banks, and the familiar odour of the bracken as he
crushed it beneath his feet, or brushed through it and the heather and
gorse. Only a couple of miles farther and he would be passing the spoil
bank, and going along the rock shelf in the tunnel-like cutting, along
by the perpendicular buttress which stood out from the lead hills like a
bold fortification. Then half a mile down and down to the river, where
the lights from the cottage would strike out suddenly from the ravine
garden, and he could steal up, and announce his coming.
He knew he would see the light, for it would be dark before he passed
the spoil bank, almost before he reached the entrance to the gap--the
natural gateway to the `White Virgin' mine.
And how prosperous the place had proved! How correct the dear old dad
had been! But how bitterly he would have resented Jessop's
interference!
Clive laughed almost mockingly, as he thought of the vote of thanks to
Mr Jessop Reed, carried at the meeting with acclaim, for the vast
improvements he had made, and the increasing prosperity, all of which
were, of course, the natural growth of his own beginnings.
"Never mind," he said directly after; "let the poor wretch enjoy the
satisfaction of having tricked me. Better be Esau than Jacob, after
all. But I knew that lode must prove of enormous value, and I get my
share of the prosperity."
He walked on more rapidly, but with a free, easy swing, enjoying the
fresh mountain air, so bracing after the stuffy heat of the sun-baked
London streets. The heavens had grown grey in the west, and it was as
if a soft dark veil were being drawn over the sky, where from time to
time a pale star twinkled, disappeared, and came into sight again.
Then the gap was reached, and a strong desire came over him to go down
and look about to see how the place appeared, for the chances were that
he would not be heeded. But no: he resisted the desire. His brother
and Sturgess might be back, and staying late at the office, when a
meeting would probably lead to a fierce quarrel.
"Just when I want to be calm and happy, ready to take my darling in my
arms," he said softly. "Poor Janet! I thought I loved you very dearly,
but I did not know then that my fancy for the poor, weak, unhappy girl
was not love."
He walked faster, for it was as if there was a magnet at the cottage,
and its attractive power was growing stronger as he went along the shelf
path, round by the spoil bank, and on in the darkness to the path
notched in the perpendicular side of the rugged hill.
"Just the time for a cigarette," he said; and he took one, replaced his
case, and then taking advantage of the sheltered tunnel close by the
cavernous part where Sturgess had watched and waited for his return, he
prepared to light up in the still calm air away from the brisk breeze
outside.
The box was in his hand; he had taken out a little wax match to strike,
when he stopped short as if turned to stone, for there, close by him, he
heard in a low murmur--
"Yes, I knew that you would come."
Dinah's voice; and as he struck the match and it flashed out into a
vivid glare, there, within two yards, she stood clasped tightly in his
brother Jessop's arms.