INSIDE THE NUNNERY.
The time had gone on at Greylands; and its great theme of excitement,
the disappearance of Anthony Castlemaine, was an event of the past.
Not an iota of evidence had arisen to tell how he disappeared: but an
uneasy suspicion of Mr. Castlemaine lurked in corners. John Bent had
been the chief instigator in this. As truly as he believed the sun
shone in the heavens, so did he believe that Anthony Castlemaine had
been put out of the way by his uncle; sent out of the world, in fact,
that the young man might not imperil his possession of Greylands'
Rest. He did not say to the public, in so many words, Mr. Castlemaine
has killed his nephew; that might not have been prudent; but the bent
of his conviction could not be mistaken; and when alone with his wife
he scrupled not to talk freely. All Greylands did not share in the
opinion. The superstitious villagers attributed the disappearance to
be due in some unconjectural manner to the dreaded spirit of the Grey
Monk, haunting the Friar's Keep. The fears of the place were augmented
tenfold. Not one would go at night in sight of it, save on the
greatest compulsion; and Commodore Teague (a brave, fearless man, as
was proved by his living so near the grim building alone) had
whispered that the Grey Friar was abroad again with his lamp, for he
had twice seen him glide past the casements. What with one fear and
another, Greylands was not altogether in a state of calmness.
Mary Ursula had come to Greylands' Rest. The once happy home at
Stilborough was given up, the furniture sold: and the affairs of the
bank were virtually settled. A sufficient sum had been saved from the
wreck to bring her in about a hundred and fifty pounds per annum; that
income was secured to her for life and would be at her disposal at
death. All claims were being paid to the uttermost shilling; liberal
presents were given to the clerks and servants thrown suddenly out of
employment; and not a reproach, or shadow of it, could be cast on the
house of Castlemaine.
Before Mary had been a week at Greylands' Rest, she was mentally
forming her plans for leaving it. Mr. Castlemaine would fain have kept
her there always: he was loud and proud of her; he thought there was
no other woman like her in the world. Not so Mrs. Castlemaine. She
resented her husband's love and reverence for his niece; and she,
little-minded, fall of spite, was actually jealous of her. She had
always felt a jealousy of the banker's daughter, living in her
luxurious home at Stilborough, keeping the high society that Mrs.
Castlemaine did not keep; she had a shrewd idea that she herself, with
her little tempers, and her petty frivolities, was sometimes compared
unfavourably with Mary Ursula by her husband, wife though she was; and
she had far rather some disagreeable animal had taken up its abode at
Greylands' Rest for good, than this grand, noble, beautiful girl. Now
and again even in those first few days, she contrived to betray this
feeling: and it may be that this served to hasten Mary's plans. Flora,
too, was a perpetual source of annoyance to everybody but her mother;
and the young lady was as rude to Miss Castlemaine as to other people.
Since her parting with Mr. Blake-Gordon, an idea had dawned upon and
been growing in Mary Ursula's mind. It was, that she should join the
sisterhood of the Grey Ladies. The more she dwelt upon it, the greater
grew her conviction that it would be just the life now suited to her.
Unlike Mr. Castlemaine, she had always held the sisters in reverence
and respect. They were self-denying; they led a useful life before
Heaven; they were of no account in the world: what better career could
she propose, or wish, for herself, now that near and dear social ties
were denied her? And she formed her resolution: though she almost
dreaded to impart it to her uncle.
Mr. Castlemaine stood one morning at the window of his study, looking
out on the whitened landscape, for snow covered the ground. The genial
weather that came in so early had given place to winter again: not
often is spring so changeable as they had it that year. The sad, worn
look that might be seen lately on the Master of Greylands' face,
though rarely when in company, sat on it now. He pushed his dark hair
from his brow with a hasty hand, as some thought, worse than the rest,
disturbed him, and a heavy groan escaped his lips. Drowning it with a
cough, for at that moment somebody knocked at the study door, he held
his breath but did not answer. The knock came again, and he did not
know the knock: certainly it was not Miles's.
He strode to open the door with a frown. It was an understood thing in
the house that this room was sacred to its master. There stood Mary,
in her deep mourning.
"I have ventured to come to you here, Uncle James," she said, "as I
wish to speak with you alone. Can you spare me some minutes?"
"Any number to you, Mary. And remember, my dear, that you are always
welcome here."
He gave her a chair, shut down his bureau and locked it, and took a
seat himself. For a moment she paused, and then began in some
hesitation.
"Uncle James, I have been forming my plans."
"Plans?" he echoed.
"And I have come to tell them to you before I tell any one else."
"Well?" said Mr. Castlemaine, wondering what was coming.
"I should like--I must have some occupation in life, you know?"
"Occupation? Well?"
"And I have not been long in making up my mind what it shall be. I
shall join the Sisterhood."
"Join the what?"
"The Sisters at the Grey Nunnery, uncle."
Mr. Castlemaine pushed back his chair in angry astonishment when the
sense of the words fully reached him. "The Sisters at the Grey
Nunnery!" he indignantly cried. "Join those Grey women who lead such
an idle, gossiping, meddling life, that I have no patience when I
think of them! Never shall you do that, Mary Ursula!"
"It seems to me that you have always mistaken them, uncle," she said;
"have done them wrong in your heart; They are noble women, and they
are leading a noble life----"
"A petty, obscure life," he interrupted.
"It is obscure; but in its usefulness and self-sacrifice it must be
noble. What would Greylands be without their care?"
"A great deal better than with it."
"They help the poor, they tend the sick, they teach the young ones;
they try to make the fishermen think a little of God. Who would do it
if they were not here, uncle? Do you know, I have thought so much of
it in the past few days that I long to join them."
"This is utter folly!" cried Mr. Castlemaine; and he had never felt so
inclined to be angry with his niece. "To join this meddling Sisterhood
would be to sacrifice all your future prospects in life."
"I have no prospects left to sacrifice," returned Mary. "You know
that, Uncle James."
"No prospects? Nonsense! Because that dishonourable rascal, William
Blake-Gordon, has chosen to forfeit his engagement, and make himself a
by-word in the mouths of men, are you to renounce the world? Many a
better gentleman than he, my dear, will be seeking you before a few
months have gone by."
"I shall never marry," was her firm answer. "Never, never. Whether I
joined the Sisters, or not; whether I retired from the world, or mixed
to my dying day in all its pomps and gaieties; still I should never
marry. So you see, Uncle James, I have now to make my future, and to
create for myself an object in life."
"Well, we'll leave the question of marrying. Meanwhile your present
home must be with me, Mary Ursula. I cannot spare you. I should like
you to make up your mind to stay in it always, unless other and nearer
ties shall call you forth."
"You are very kind, Uncle James; you always have been kind. But I--I
must be independent," she added with a smile and a slight flush.
"Forgive the seeming ingratitude, uncle dear."
"Very independent you would be, if you joined those
living-by-rule women!"
"In one sense I should be thoroughly independent, uncle. My income will
be most welcome to them, for they are, as you know, very poor----"
"Your income!" he interrupted, half scoffingly. "I wish--I wish,
Mary--you would allow me to augment it!"
"And I shall be close to Greylands' Rest," she continued, with a
slight shake of the head, for this proposal to settle money upon her
had become quite a vexations question. "I shall be able to come here
to see you often."
"Mary Ursula, I will hear no more of this," he cried, quite
passionately. "You shall never do it with my consent."
She rose and laid her pleading hands upon his. "Uncle, pardon me, but
my mind is made up. I have not decided hastily, or without due
consideration. By day and by night I have dwelt upon it--I--I have
prayed over it, uncle--and I plainly see it is the best thing for
me. I would sooner spend my days there than anywhere, because I shall
be near you."
"And I want you to be near me. But not in a nunnery."
"It is not a nunnery now you know, Uncle James, though the building
happens still to bear the name. If I take up my abode there, I take no
vows, remember. I do not renounce the world. Should any necessity
arise--though I think it will not--for me to resume my place in
society, I am at full Liberty to put off my grey gown and bonnet and
do so."
"What do you think your father would have said to this, Mary Ursula?"
"Were my father alive, Uncle James, the question never could have
arisen; my place would have been with him. But I think--if he could
see me now under all these altered circumstances--I think he would say
to me Go."
There was no turning her. James Castlemaine saw it: and when she
quitted the room he felt that the step, unless some special hindrance
intervened, would be carried out.
"The result of being clever enough to have opinions of one's own!"
muttered Mr. Castlemaine, in reference to the, to him, most unwelcome
project.
Turning to the window again, he stood there, looking out. Looking out,
but seeing nothing. The Friar's Keep opposite, rising dark and grim
from contrast with the intervening white landscape; the sparkling blue
sea beyond, glittering in the frosty sunshine: he saw none of it. The
snow must be blinding his sight, or some deep trouble his perceptive
senses. Mr. Castlemaine had other motives than the world knew of for
wishing to keep his niece out of the Grey Nunnery: but he did not see
how it was to be done.
Mary Ursula had passed into her own chamber: the best room in the
house, and luxuriously furnished. It was generally kept for
distinguished guests; and Mrs. Castlemaine had thought a plainer one
might have served the young lady, their relative; but, as she muttered
resentfully to the empty air, if Mr. Castlemaine could load the
banker's daughter with gold and precious stones, he'd go out of his
way to do it.
Drawing her chair to the fire, Mary sat down and thought out her plan.
And the longer she dwelt upon it, the more did she feel convinced that
she was right in its adoption. A few short weeks before, and had any
Nunnery and become one of the Grey Sisters, she had started back in
aversion. But ideas change with circumstances. Then she had a happy
home of splendour, an indulgent father, riches that seemed unbounded
at command, the smiles of the gay world, and a lover to whom she was
shortly to be united. Now she had none of these: all had been wrested
from her at one fell swoop. To the outward world she had seemed to
take her misfortunes calmly: but none knew how they had wrung her very
soul. It had seemed to her that her heart was broken: it seemed to her
as though some retired and quiet place to rest in were absolutely
needful while she recovered, if she ever did recover, the effects of
these calamities. But she did not want to sit down under her grief and
nourish it: she had prayed earnestly, and did still pray, that it
would please Heaven to enable her to find consolation in her future
life, and that it might be one of usefulness to others, as it could
not be one of happiness to herself. But a latent prevision sometimes
made itself apparent, that happiness would eventually come; that in
persevering in her laid-out path, she should find it.
"The sooner I enter upon it, the better," she said, rising from her
chair and shaking out the crape folds of her black silk dress. "And
there's nothing to wait for, now that I have broken it to my uncle."
Glancing at her own face as she passed a mirror, she halted to look at
the change that trouble had made in it. Others might not notice it,
but to herself it was very perceptible. The beautiful features were
thinner than of yore, the cheeks bore a fainter rose-colour; her
stately form had lost somewhat of its roundness. Ah, it was not her
own sorrow that had mostly told upon Mary Castlemaine; it was the
sudden death of her father, and the agonizing doubt attending on it.
"If I could but know that it was God's will that he should
die!" she exclaimed, raising her hands in an attitude of supplication.
"And there's that other dreadful trouble--that awful doubt--about poor
Anthony!"
Descending the stairs, she opened the door of the red parlour, and
entered on a scene of turbulence. Miss Flora was in one of her most
spiteful and provoking humours. She was trying to kick Ethel, who held
her at arms' length. Her pretty face was inflamed, her pretty hair
hung wild--and Flora's face and hair were both as pretty as they could
well be.
"Flora!" said Miss Castlemaine, advancing to the rescue. "Flora, for
shame! Unless I had seen you in this passion, I had not believed it."
"I will kick her, then! It's through her I did not go with mamma in
the carriage to Stilborough ."
"It was mamma who would not take you," said Ethel. "She said she had
some private business there, and did not want you with her."
"She would have taken me: you know she would; but for your telling her
I had not done my French exercise, you ugly, spiteful thing."
"Mamma asked me whether you had done it, and I said no."
"And you ought to have said yes! You ill-natured, wicked, interfering
dromedary!"
"Be still, Flora," interposed Miss Castlemaine. "Unless you are, I
will call your papa. How can you so forget yourself?"
"You have no business to interfere, Mary Ursula! The house is not
yours; you are only staying in it."
"True," said Miss Castlemaine, calmly. "And I shall not be very much
longer in it, Flora. I am going away soon."
"I shall be glad of that," retorted the rude child; "and I am sure
mamma will be. She says it is a shame that you should be let take up
the best bedroom."
"Oh, Flora!" interposed Ethel.
"And she says----"
What further revelations the damsel might be contemplating, in regard
to her mother, were summarily cut short. Harry Castlemaine had entered
in time to hear what she was saying, and he quietly lifted her from
the room. Outside, he treated her to what she dreaded, though it was
not often she got it from him--a severe shaking--and she ran away
howling.
"She is being ruined," said Harry. "Mrs. Castlemaine never corrects
her, or allows her to be corrected. I wish my father would take it
seriously in hand! She ought to be at school."
Peace restored, Mary told them what she had just been telling Mr.
Castlemaine. She was about to become a Grey Sister. Harry laughed: he
did not believe a syllable of it; Ethel, more clear-sighted, burst into
tears.
"Don't, don't leave us!" she whispered, clinging to Mary, in her
astonishment and distress. "You see what my life is here! I am without
love, without sympathy. I have only my books and my music and my
drawings and the sea! but for them my heart would starve. Oh, Mary; it
has been so different since you came: I have had you to love."
Mary Ursula put her arm round Ethel. She herself standing in so much
need of love, had felt the tender affection of this fresh young girl,
already entwining itself around her heart, as the grateful tree feels
the tendrils of the clinging vine.
"You will be what I shall most regret in leaving Greylands' Rest,
Ethel. But, my dear, we can meet constantly. You can see me at the
Nunnery when you will; and I shall come here sometimes."
"Look here, Mary Ursula," said Harry, all his lightness checked.
"Sooner than you should go to that old Nunnery, I'll burn it down."
"No, you will not, Harry."
"I will. The crazy old building won't be much loss to the place, and
the ruins would be picturesque."
He was so speaking only to cover his real concern. The project was no
less displeasing to him than to his father.
"You do not mean this, Mary Ursula!" But the grave look of her earnest
face effectually answered him.
"It is I who shall miss you," bewailed Ethel. "Oh, can nothing be
done?"
"Nothing," said Mary, smiling. "Our paths, Ethel, will probably lie
far apart in life. You will marry, and social ties will form about
you. I----" she broke off suddenly.
"I intend to marry Ethel myself," said Harry, kicking hack a large
live coal that flew far out into the hearth.
"Be quiet, Harry," said Ethel, a shade of annoyance in her tone.
"Why, you know it's true," he returned, without looking at her.
"True! When we are like brother and sister!"
Miss Castlemaine glanced from one to the other. She did not know how
to take this. That Harry liked Ethel and was in the habit of paying
her attention, told nothing; for he did the same by many other young
ladies.
"It was only last week I asked her to fix the day," said Harry.
"And I told you to go and talk nonsense elsewhere; not to me,"
retorted Ethel, her tone betraying her real vexation.
"If you won't have me, Ethel, you'll drive me to desperation. I might
go off and marry one of the Grey Sisters in revenge. It should be
Sister Ann. She is a charming picture; one to take a young man's heart
by storm."
Mary Ursula looked keenly at him. In all this there was a semblance of
something not real. It struck her that he was wanting to make it
appear he wished for Ethel, when in fact he did not.
"Harry," she cried, speaking upon impulse, "you have not, I hope, been
falling in love with anybody undesirable?"
"But I have," said Harry, his face flushing. "Don't I tell you who it
is?--Sister Ann. Mark you though, cousin mine, you shall never be
allowed to make one of those Grey Sisters."
"You are very random, you know, Harry," said Miss Castlemaine, slowly.
"You talk to young ladies without meaning anything--but they may not
detect that. Take care you do not go too far some day, and find
yourself in a mesh." Harry Castlemaine turned his bright face on his
cousin. "I never talk seriously but to one person, Mary Ursula. And
that's Ethel."
"Harry," cried the young girl, with flashing eyes, "you are not fair
to me."
"And now, have you any commands for the Commodore?" went on Harry
lightly, and taking no notice of Ethel's rebuke. "I am going to the
Hutt."
They said they had none; and he left the room. Mary turned to Ethel.
"My dear--if you have no objection to confide in me--is there
anything between you and Harry?"
"Nothing, Mary," was the answer, and Ethel blushed the soft blush of
girlish modesty as she said it. "Last year he teased me very much,
making me often angry; but latterly he has been better. The idea of my
marrying him!--when we have grown up together like brother and sister!
It would seem hardly proper. I like Harry very much indeed as a
brother; but as to marrying him, why, I'd rather never be married at
all. Here's the carriage coming back! Mamma must have forgotten
something."
Mrs. Castlemaine's carriage was seen winding round the drive. They
heard her get out at the door and hold a colloquy with Flora. She came
to the red parlour looking angry.
"Where's Harry?" she demanded, in the sharp, unkindly tones that so
often grated on the ear of those offending her, as she threw her eyes
round the room.
"Harry is not here, mamma," replied Ethel.
"I understood he was here," suspiciously spoke Mrs. Castlemaine.
"He went out a minute or two ago," said Ethel. "I think he is gone to
Commodore Teague's."
"He is like an eel," was the pettish rejoinder. "You never know when
you have him. As to that vulgar, gossiping old Teague, that they make
so much of and are always running after, I can't think what they see
in him."
"Perhaps it is his gossip that they like," suggested Ethel.
"Well, I want Harry. He has been beating Flora."
"I don't think he beat her, mamma."
"Oh, you great story-teller!" exclaimed Flora, putting in her head.
"He shook me till all my bones rattled."
Mrs. Castlemaine shut the door with a click. And the next that they
saw, was Miss Flora dressed in her best and going off with her mamma
in the carriage.
"With this injudicious treatment the child has hardly a chance to
become better," murmured Mary Ursula. "Ethel, have you a mind for a
walk?"
"Yes: with you."
They dressed themselves and started for the village, walking lightly
over the crisp snow, under the clear blue sky. Miss Castlemaine was
bound for the Grey Nunnery; Ethel protesting she would do no act or
part towards helping her to enter it, went off to see some of the
fishermen's wives on the cliff.
Passing through the outer gate, Mary Ursula rang at the bell, and was
admitted by Sister Phoeby. A narrow passage took her into the hall.
Opening from it on the left hand was a moderate-sized room, plain and
comfortable. It was called the reception parlour, but was the one
usually sat in by the Grey Ladies: in fact, they had no other sitting
room that could be called furnished. Dinner was taken in a bare, bleak
room, looking to the sea; it was used also as the schoolroom, and
contained chiefly a large table and some forms. Miss Castlemaine was
shown into the reception parlour. Two of the ladies were in it: Sister
Margaret writing, Sister Betsey making lint.
An indication of Miss Castlemaine's wish to join the Sisters had
already reached the Nunnery, and they knew not how to make enough of
her. It had caused quite a commotion of delight. To number a
Castlemaine amidst them, especially one so much esteemed, so high, and
grand, and good as the banker's daughter, was an honour hardly to be
believed in; the small fortune she would bring seemed, like riches in
itself, and they coveted the companionship of the sweet and gentle
lady for their own sakes. Her joining them would swell the number of
the community to thirteen; but no reason existed against that.
Sister Margaret put down her pen, Sister Betsey her linen, as their
visitor entered. They gave her the one arm-chair by the fire--Sister
Mildred's own place--and Mary put back her crape veil as she sat down.
Calm, quiet, good, looked the ladies in their simple grey gowns, their
hair smoothly braided under the white cap of worked muslin; and Mary
Ursula seemed to feel a foretaste of peace in the time when the like
dress, the like serene life, would be hers. The Superior Sisters came
flocking in on hearing she was there; all were present save sister
Mildred: Margaret, Charlotte, Betsey, Grizzel, and Mona. The working
Sisters were Phoeby, Ann, Rachel, Caroline, Lettice, and Ruth.
The ladies hastened to tell Miss Castlemaine of a hope, or rather
project, they had been entertaining--namely, that when she joined the
community, she should become its head. Sister Mildred, incapacitated
by her tedious illness, had long wished to resign control; and would
have done so before, but that Sister Margaret, on whom it ought to
descend, declined to take it. Miss Castlemaine sat in doubt: the
proposal came upon her by surprise.
"I do all the writing that has to be done, and keep the accounts; and
you see that's all I'm good for," said Sister Margaret to Miss
Castlemaine, in a tone of confidence. "If I were put in Sister
Mildred's place, and had to order this and decide that, I should be
lost. Why, if they came and asked me whether the dinner for the day
should consist of fresh herrings, or pork and pease-pudding, I should
never know which to say."
"Sister Mildred may regain her health," observed Miss Castlemaine.
"But she'll never regain her hearing," put in Sister Grizzel, a little
quick, fresh-coloured, talkative woman. "And that tells very much
against her as Superioress. In fact, her continuing as such is like a
farce."
"Besides, she herself wants to give it up," said Sister Charlotte.
"Oh, Miss Castlemaine, if you would but accept it in her place! You
would make us happy."
Mary Ursula said she must take time for consideration. She was invited
to go up to Sister Mildred, who would be sure to think it a slight if
she did not. So she was conducted upstairs by the ladies, Charlotte
and Mona, and found herself in a long, dark, narrow corridor, which
had doors on either side--the nuns' cells of old. The Head Sister's
room was at the extreme end--a neat little chamber, whose casement
looked out on to the sea with a small bed in a corner. Sister Mildred
was dressed and sat by the fire. She was a fair-complexioned,
pleasant-looking, talkative woman, slightly deformed, and past fifty,
but still very light and active. Of her own accord, she introduced the
subject of resigning her post to Miss Castlemaine, and pressed her
urgently to take it.
"The holding it has become a trouble to me, my dear," she said.
"Instead of lying here at peace with nothing to think of--and some
days I can't get up at all--I am being referred to perpetually. Sister
Margaret refuses to take it; she says she's of more good for writing
and account keeping. As to Sister Charlotte, she is always amid the
little ones in the school; she likes teaching--and so there it is.
Your taking it, my dear, would solve a difficulty; and we could hardly
let one, bearing the honoured name of Castlemaine, be among us, and
not be placed at our head."
"You may get better; you may regain your health," said Mary.
"And, please God, I shall," cheerfully returned Sister Mildred, when
she could be made to comprehend the remark. "Mr. Parker tells me so.
But I shall be none the more competent for my post. My deafness has
become so much worse since health failed that that of itself unfits me
for it. The Sisters will tell you so. Why, my dear, you don't know the
mistakes it leads to. I hear just the opposite of what's really said,
and give orders accordingly. Sister Margaret wrote a letter and
transacted some business all wrong through this, and it has caused
ever so much trouble to set it to rights. It is mortifying to her and
to me."
"To all of us," put in Sister Charlotte.
"Why, my dear Miss Castlemaine, just look at my facility for
misapprehension! Only the other day," continued the Superioress, who
dearly loved a gossip when she could get it, "Sister Ann came running
up here in a flurry, her eyes sparkling, saying Parson Marston was
below. 'What, below then?' I asked. 'Yes,' she said, 'below then,' and
ran off again. I wondered what could have brought the parson here, for
we don't see him at the Nunnery from year's end to year's end, but
was grateful to him for thinking of us, and felt that I ought to get
down, if possible, to receive and thank him. So I turned out of bed and
scuffled into my petticoats, slipping on my best gown and a new cap,
and down stairs I went. Would you believe it, my dear young lady, that
it was not Parson Marston at all, but a fine sucking pig!"
Mary could not avoid a laugh.
"A beautiful sucking-pig, that lasted us two days when cooked. It
came, a present, from Farmer Watson, a good, grateful man, whose
little boy Sister Mona went to nurse through a fever. I had mistaken
what she said, you see, and got up for nothing. But that's the way it
is with me; and the sooner I am superseded by somebody who can hear,
the better."
"I have said lately that you ought to change your room," cried Sister
Margaret to her. "In this one you are sometimes exposed to a sharp
breeze."
"Cheese?" returned the deaf lady, mistaking the word. "Bread and
cheese! By all means order it into the parlour if Miss Castlemaine
would like some. Dear me, I am very remiss!"
"No, no," returned Sister Margaret, laughing at the mistake, and
speaking in her ear, "I only suggested it might be better for your
deafness if you exchanged this room for a warmer one: one on the other
side."
"Is that all! Then why did you mention cheese? No, no; I am not going
to change my room. I like this one, this aspect; the sea is as good to
me as a friend. And what does Miss Castlemaine say?"
Mary stood at the casement window. The grand, expansive sea lay below
and around. She could see nothing else. An Indiaman was sailing
majestically in the distance; on the sails of one of the fishing
boats, dotting the surface nearer, some frosted snow had gathered and
was sparkling in the sunshine. There she stood, reflecting.
"For the sake of constantly enjoying this scene of wondrous beauty, it
would be almost worth while to come, let alone other inducements!" she
exclaimed mentally in her enthusiasm. "As to acceding to their wish of
taking the lead, I believe it is what I should like, what I am fitted
for."
And when she quitted Sister Mildred's room she left her promise of
acceptation within it.
Meanwhile an unpleasant adventure had just happened to Ethel. Her
visits to the wives of the fishermen on the cliff concluded, and
seeing no sign yet of Mary Ursala's leaving the Nunnery, she thought
she would make a call on Mrs. Bent, and wait there: which, in truth,
she was rather fond of doing. But to-day she arrived at an inopportune
moment. Mr. and Mrs. Bent were enjoying a dispute.
It appeared that a letter had been delivered at the inn that morning,
addressed to Anthony Castlemaine: the third letter that had come for
him since his disappearance. The two first bore the postmark of Gap,
this one the London postmark, and all were addressed in the same
handwriting.
Mrs. Bent had urged her husband to hand over the others to the Master
of Greylands: she was now urging the like as to this one. John Bent,
though in most matters under his wife's finger and thumb, had wholly
refused to listen to her in this: he should keep the letters in his
own safe custody, he said, until the writer, or some one of Mr.
Anthony's connections from over the water, appeared to claim them.
Mrs. Bent was unable to stir his decision: since the fatal night
connected with the Friar's Keep, she could but notice that John had
altered. He was more silent than of yore; yielded to her less, and
maintained his own will better: which was, of course, not an agreeable
change to Mrs. Bent.
They were in their ordinary room, facing the sea. The door
stood open as usual, but a screen of two folds now intervened between
the fire-place and the draught. John sat in his carved elbow-chair;
Mrs. Bent stood by, folding clothes at the table; which was drawn near
the fire from its place under the window.
"I tell you, then, John Bent, you might be taken up and prosecuted for
it," she said, sprinkling the linen so vigorously that some splashes
went on his face. "Keeping other people's letters!"
"The letters are directed here, to my house, Dorothy woman; and I
shall keep them till some proper person turns up to receive them," was
John's answer, delivered without irritation as he wiped his face with
his pocket-handkerchief.
"The proper person is Mr. Castlemaine. Just take your elbow away:
you'll be upsetting the basin. He is the young man's uncle."
"Now look here, wife. You've said that before, and once for all I tell
you I'll not do it. Mr. Castlemaine is the last person in the world I'd
hand the letters to. What would he do with them!--Put 'em in the fire,
I dare be bound. If, as I believe; I believe it to my very heart; Mr.
Castlemaine took his nephew's life that night in the Friar's Keep----"
"Hist!" said Mrs. Bent, the rosy colour on her face fading as a sound
caught her ear; "hist, man!"
And, for once, more alarmed than angry, she looked behind the screen,
and found herself face to face with Ethel Reene.
"Mercy be good to us!" she exclaimed, seeing by the young lady's white
face that they had been overheard. And, scarcely knowing what she did,
she dragged the horror-stricken girl round to the hearth, before John.
"Now you've done it!" she cried, turning upon him. "You'd better pack
up and be off to jail: for if Miss Ethel tells the Master of Greylands
what she has heard, he'll put you there."
"No, he won't," said John, full of contrition for the mischief he had
done, but nevertheless determined not to eat his words, and believing
the suspicion must have reached the young lady sooner or later.
"You cannot think this of papa!" said Ethel, sinking into a chair.
"Well, Miss Ethel, it is a great mystery, as you must know," said the
landlord, who had risen. "I think the Master of Greylands could solve
it if he liked."
"But--but, Mr. Bent, what you said is most dreadful!"
"I'm heartily sorry you chanced to overhear it, Miss Ethel."
"There's no cause to wink at me like that, wife. The words are said,
and I cannot unsay them."
"But--do--you---believe it?" gasped Ethel.
"Yes, he does believe it," burst forth Mrs. Bent, losing sight of
prudence in her anger against her husband. "If he does not get into
some awful trouble one of these days through his tongue, his name's
not John Bent--And there's Miss Castlemaine of Stilborough crossing
over the road!"
Not less overcome by terror and dismay than Mrs. Bent had been by
anger, Ethel rushed out of the house and burst into a storm of
hysterical sobs. Mary Ursula, wondering much and full of concern, drew
her arm within her own and went over to the little solitary bench that
stood by the sea.
"Now, my dear, tell me what this means," she said, as they sat down.
But Ethel hesitated: it was not a thing to be told to Miss;
Castlemaine. She stammered an incoherent word or two between her sobs,
and at the best was indistinct.
"I understand, Ethel. Be calm. John Bent has been making a terrible
charge against my Uncle James."
Ethel clung to her. She admitted that it was so: telling how she had
unintentionally overheard the private conversation between the
landlord and his wife. She said it had frightened and confused her,
though she did not believe it.
"Neither do I believe it," returned Miss Castlemaine calmly. "I heard
this some time ago--I mean the suspicion that is rife in
Greylands--but I am sorry that you should have been startled with it.
That my uncle is incapable of anything of the kind--and only to have to
say as much in refutation seems a cruel insult on him--I am perfectly
sure of; and I am content to wait the elucidation that no doubt time
will bring."
"Bat how wicked of John Bent!" cried Ethel.
"Ethel, dear, I have gone through so much misery of late that it has
subdued me, and I think I have learnt the great precept not to judge
another," said Mary Ursula sadly. "I do not blame John Bent. I respect
him. That a strange mystery does encompass the doings of that February
night--so fatal for me as well as for poor Anthony--I cannot ignore:
and I speak not now of the disappearance only. There's reason in what
John Bent says--that Mr. Castlemaine is not open about it, that it
might be fancied he knows more than he will say. It is so. Perhaps he
will not speak because it might implicate some one--not himself,
Ethel; never himself; I do not fear that."
"No, no," murmured Ethel.
"It is Mr. Castlemaine's pride, I think, that prevents his speaking.
He must have heard these rumours, and naturally resents them----"
"Do you think Anthony is really dead?" interrupted Ethel.
"I have never had any hope from the first that he is not. Now and then
my imagination runs away with me and suggests he may be here, he may
be there, he may have done this or done that--but of real hope, that
he is alive, I have none. Next to the death of my dear father, it has
been the greatest weight I have had to bear. I saw him but once,
Ethel, but I seemed to take to him as to a brother. I am sure he was
honourable and generous, a good man and a gentleman."
"You know what they are foolish enough to say here?" breathed Ethel.
"That the ghost of the Grey Friar, angry at his precincts being
invaded----"
"Hush!" reproved Miss Castlemaine.