A JOYFUL SURPRISE.
All this time Miss Baynard was waiting at Stanbrook for the news which
seemed so long in coming.
As one slow day followed another without bringing the longed-for
tidings her heart grew sick within her. Perhaps the boy had been
spirited out of the country, and she should never set eyes on him
again; perhaps something worse even than that had befallen him. Mr.
Piljoy came over on business connected with the estate, but brought no
comfort with him. Till some tidings of the missing heir should come to
hand no steps whatever could be taken with reference to the settlement
of the property. After his receipt of Nell's letter containing the
news of the abduction he had communicated direct with the authorities
in London, but, beyond a reply to the effect that the case was already
in hand and having their best attention, he had heard nothing. He had
more than one question to put to Miss Baynard having reference to Mr.
Geoffrey Dare, to which she contented herself with replying that Dare
had been her cousin's bosom friend, and was the missing boy's
godfather, and had promised poor Dick to look after him as if he were
his own son. What would have been Mr. Piljoy's horror and amazement
had he been told that Mr. Geoffrey Dare and the notorious Captain
Nightshade were one and the same person! Nell could not help laughing
a little to herself as her imagination conjured up the picture.
But our heroine's state of soul-wearing suspense was not destined to
last much longer.
On the evening of the second day after Mr. Piljoy's return home a
letter was brought her which caused her to start with amazement the
moment her eyes fell on it. The address was in the same writing as
that of the packet in which her lost mask had been returned to her.
For a space of some seconds she stood staring at it like one
fascinated; then with fingers that shook a little she broke the seal
and tore open the letter. Here is what she read: "Mr. Cope-Ellerslie
presents his compliments to Miss Baynard, and has much happiness in
informing her that news has reached him not only of the safety but of
the whereabouts of her young relative, Master Evan Cortelyon.
"Should Miss Baynard think it worth her while to come as far as
Rockmount, Mr. Ellerslie will be pleased to tell her all that has come
to his knowledge in connection with the affair, in which case the
bearer of this letter is instructed to act as her guide and escort on
the journey."
She could hardly make out the last few lines for the happy tears which
already dimmed her eyes, and so had to read them again.
Go to Rockmount! Of course she would. Had it been to the end of Europe
she would have gone, and ten minutes later she was ready to start. Day
was already drawing to dusk, and timorous-hearted Mrs. Budd would fain
have persuaded her to put off her journey till morning. But timid
counsels had never prevailed with Nell, and it was not in the least
likely that they would in a case like the present.
She had at once sent word to have her mare saddled and brought round,
and it was waiting for her, in charge of John Dyce, by the time she
was ready. Nell was hardly surprised at finding that the man who had
brought the letter, and who was waiting for an answer to it, was the
one who on the occasion of her first sojourn at Rockmount had acted as
her guide as far as the Whinbarrow road. Would he recognize in her the
young spark whom he had then escorted? It seemed hardly likely that he
would, and in any case, it did not matter greatly. It was far more
probable that he would recognize her mare Peggy.
"I am going back with you to Rockmount," she said to him.
"All right, mum," he replied, with a tug at his forelock. "You
couldn't have a finer evenin' for a ride."
Neither man nor horse had lacked for refreshment while waiting. And so
presently they set out, Miss Baynard leading the way by about a dozen
yards. This lasted till they had gone some six or eight miles, and had
reached a point where it became necessary to diverge from the great
highway they had hitherto been traversing and take to one of the
tortuous cross-country roads which branched off into the desolate
region of fells and moors. Then the position of the two was reversed,
and it was the man who led the way.
It was quite dark by the time they reached Rockmount, or as nearly so
as it ever is on a clear, starlit autumnal night. As Miss Baynard drew
rein in front of the house, her mind was busy with the incidents of
that other night, now many months old, when one whom she had since
learnt to love in secret with all the fervency of a first great
passion had brought her to the door of Rockmount and had there left
her. How full of incident for her those months had been! What a
changed life, both inwardly and outwardly, had hers become between
then and now!
Her guide, having dismounted, gave a resounding knock on the great
oaken door and then helped Miss Baynard to alight. When that was done
he led the horses away towards the back premises, and the same instant
there was the sound of bolts and bars being unloosened one by one. So
remote and lonely was the house that it was no wonder the inmates
looked carefully to their fastenings.
Then the door was opened, disclosing the same sour-visaged old
serving-man, carrying a lighted candle, whom Nell had seen on the
first occasion.
"Be good enough to tell your master that Miss Baynard is here," she
said.
Making an arch of one of his knotted hands, he peered at her for a
moment or two from under it. Then he said: "The Master is expecting yo.
Will yo be pleased to come in?"
And so for the second time, Nell crossed the threshold of Rockmount.
The door having been shut behind her, the old fellow led the way
across the hall, and so brought her presently to the same sparsely
furnished room with which she was already so well acquainted. Then she
was left alone.
As Nell looked round the room she could have fancied that only a few
hours had gone by since she was last there. The candles were alight, a
cheerful fire was burning in the grate; the heavy curtains of faded
red moreen were closely drawn; nothing was changed. From moment to
moment she looked to see Mr. Cope-Ellerslie enter.
Would he, when they met, treat her as a stranger, or as one whom he
knew already? It was a question she had asked herself more than once
while on her way to Rockmount. That he knew the pseudo Mr. Frank
Nevill to be none other than Miss Baynard, of Stanbrook, he had
himself furnished her with proof positive in the return of her mask;
but did he know at the time he gave her a night's lodging who she was,
or did he not discover it till afterwards? And, in either case, by
what mysterious means had he made the discovery? She had not
forgotten, nor was it likely she should forget, that in the chamber
assigned her at Rockmount she had found a certain feminine garment,
but whether placed there by accident or design she had no means
whatever of knowing. If by design, then must Mr. Ellerslie from the
first have penetrated the secret of her sex. It was a thought which,
even after all this time, caused the blood to tingle in her veins.
But these questions, personal to herself, perplexing though they were,
did not cause her for more than a minute or two at a time to lose
sight of the main object which had brought her to Rockmount, while
wholly at a loss to imagine how it had come to pass that the first
news of the lost child should have reached her through Mr. Ellerslie,
and neither through Bow Street nor Geoffrey Dare. Not that it mattered
greatly, so long as news of him had come to hand. She was all
impatience to hear what Mr. Ellerslie had to tell her.
She could not help starting when the door opened, thinking to see him;
but it was Mrs. Dobson, the housekeeper, who now came in. Nell had by
no means forgotten Mrs. Dobson, and she scrutinized her a little
anxiously. Would the housekeeper recognize her? Would there be
anything in her manner to betray a knowledge of their having ever met
before?
Mrs. Dobson, having shut the door, came forward a little way, crossed
her hands in front of her, and made Miss Baynard a respectful curtsey.
Then their eyes met, and Nell read nothing in those of the other which
she might not have read in the eyes of any stranger. Undisguised
admiration they betrayed of a surety, but to that our young lady was
so used that she thought nothing of it.
"Madam," began the housekeeper, with the tone and manner of a
well-bred dependent, "my master desires me to say that in another room
there is a very charming little picture, a view of which he feels sure
would please you vastly. If you will be good enough to accompany me I
will conduct you to it."
Miss Baynard stared at the housekeeper with wide-set eyes. "A
picture!" she said. "Surely Mr. Ellerslie has not asked me to
Rockmount merely to show me a picture!"
"That is more than I can say, miss. My business is simply to repeat my
master's message. But I feel quite sure that if you knew what the
picture is, you would never forgive yourself for having refused to see
it. Do come, miss," she added next moment, seeing that Miss Baynard
still hesitated.
"Very well, I will go with you," said Nell.
Mrs. Dobson led the way through the gloomy old house to a bedroom on
the first floor, but not the one occupied by Miss Baynard on the
occasion of her first visit to Rockmount, although differing very
little from it in its furniture and appointments, except in one
particular. In the middle of the floor stood a couch, to which Nell's
eyes travelled instinctively the moment she entered the room. It had
been made up temporarily with pillows and coverlets, so as to form a
child's bed. A solitary wax candle was alight on the chimney-piece.
A low, inarticulate cry broke from Nell. Brushing past the
housekeeper, she went swiftly forward and bent over the couch. The
truth had flashed across her as she set foot over the threshold, and
now her eyes verified it. There, in rosy slumber, his cheek pillowed
on one hand, the other arm flung with graceful abandon outside the
coverlet, lay the missing child. This was the picture Mr. Ellerslie
had invited her to come and see!
Tears rushed to her eyes and overbrimmed them; a sob broke in her
throat. Not for a full minute, for fear of waking him, did she venture
to stoop and touch the peach-bloom of his cheek with her lips. Her
heart was full, and not till a few more moments had gone by would she
trust herself to speak. The housekeeper was at her elbow.
"Who brought him, and how long has he been here?" she asked.
"I found him keeping master company in the library when I came
downstairs this morning. Some one had brought him in the course of
the night. He has been playing about on the moors a good part of the
day--not, of course, without some one to look after him--and came to
bed thoroughly tired out. What a dear little gentleman he is! Not a
bit like many children I've known, but trying to make friends with
everybody. I suppose, miss, that you won't have any objection to
sharing this room with him to-night?"
Miss Baynard was startled. "But I have not seen Mr. Ellerslie yet,"
she objected. "When his message reached me, my only aim was to lose no
time in getting here, and certainly I had no thought or intention of
staying the night at Rockmount."
"But consider the lateness of the hour, miss; and you would hardly
care, I should think, to have the child wakened in order to take him a
long journey in the middle of the night."
"No, I certainly should not care for that. But when I left home I did
not know that Evan had been found, and that I was going to see him;
only that Mr. Ellerslie had a message of some kind for me which
concerned him."
"Well, miss, master certainly expects you to stay till morning, and
asked me hours ago to arrange accordingly. But most likely he will
speak to you himself about it. And now, if you are ready, we will go
downstairs."
But Nell could not go without another kiss. "He is not left alone
while he sleeps," remarked Mrs. Dobson as they left the room; "my
niece watches by him."
Downstairs Miss Baynard found the table laid for one person, and three
minutes later a dainty little supper was brought in.
"When shall I see Mr. Ellerslie?" she asked, as the housekeeper was on
the point of leaving the room.
"He will do himself the honor of waiting upon you in the course of
half an hour."
It was very rarely that Nell's appetite failed her, and her long ride
through the night air had, if anything, tended to sharpen it on the
present occasion. She was a healthy English girl, who came of a
healthy stock. She hardly knew that she had such things as nerves. She
was neither hysterical, nor anæmic, nor introspective. No
_fin-de-siècle_ questions troubled her, because the century was yet in
its infancy. She was a warm-hearted, warm-blooded creature, somewhat
too impulsive perhaps, and too easily led away by her own generous
instincts, and although an existence such as hers would nowadays be
regarded as intolerably narrow and antiquated, yet was her life an
exemplar of several of those minor if homely virtues with which so
many of our up-to-date young women profess to be, and probably are,
wholly unacquainted, and to regard with silent contempt. At any rate,
Miss Baynard did full justice to her supper.
Scarcely had the table been cleared when Mr. Ellerslie entered the
room. To Nell it seemed as if she might have parted from him no longer
ago than the day before, so wholly unchanged was he from the picture
of him which still lived so freshly in her memory. There was the long,
grizzled hair parted down the middle, the short Vandyck beard and
moustache, the black velvet skull cap, and the dark monkish robe which
wrapped him from head to foot. There, too, was the set, mask-like face
with its thousands of fine wrinkles, which from a little distance
looked as if it were carved out of old ivory, a face which seemed to
emphasize the pair of brilliant black eyes that looked out from under
their heavy penthouse brows with an illusive something in them which
reminded Nell strangely of Geoffrey Dare.
As he entered the room Miss Baynard rose and advanced to meet him with
both hands outstretched. "Oh, Mr. Ellerslie!" she said, and in her
voice there was a veiled emotion not far removed from tears, "how can
I ever thank you enough, how ever be sufficiently grateful to you, for
the glad surprise you have given me this evening? Surely you must be a
necromancer, or the good wizard of a fairy tale, for to me it seems
nothing less than a fairy tale to have one I hold so dear restored to
me in this fashion."
Mr. Ellerslie took her hands in his, bent over them, and raised them
for a second to his lips. "Nay, nay, my dear young lady," he replied,
"if any thanks be due in the matter--though why there should be I fail
to see--then must they fall not to my share, but to that of my nephew,
Geoffrey Dare."
An involuntary "Oh!" broke from Miss Baynard. His nephew! It was a
revelation which seemed to throw light on several things.
"It was Geoff who brought the child here at a late hour last night,
asleep and perched on his horse in front of him. As to whom, where,
and how he picked the youngster up, I must refer you to him in
person."
"But when shall I see Mr. Dare? Is he not here?"
"At present he is not. Some business called him away in the course of
the day. But I have his promise that he will be back not later than
ten o'clock to-morrow morning."
"And I shall see him then?"
"Certainly you will, my dear Miss Baynard. He will be here immediately
after breakfast."
By this time he had led her back to her chair, and had seated himself
in another on the opposite side of the hearth.
Miss Baynard hesitated a moment, then she said: "When I left Stanbrook
in consequence of your message, Mr. Ellerslie, it was certainly
without any design of staying over night at Rockmount."
"But, my dear young lady, as circumstances have fallen out, I fail to
see how you can very well help yourself; that is to say, unless it is
your intention to leave your young cousin for a time under my charge,
a charge, I need scarcely tell you, which I will very gladly
undertake."
"You are very good, Mr. Ellerslie, but when I go back Evan must go
with me."
"Then permit me to observe that, putting yourself out of the question,
the hour is far too late a one for the child to travel." It was the
same argument the housekeeper had made use of.
"Besides, where's your hurry?" resumed Mr. Ellerslie. "The boy is
restored to you, and that, as I take it, is the main thing. The rest's
but leather and prunella."
"You might have added, Mr. Ellerslie, by way of clinching your
argument, that it would not be the first time I have slept under the
roof of Rockmount."
"Eh?" exclaimed Mr. Ellerslie, with a palpable start.
"A certain Mr. Frank Nevill sought and found shelter here one night
early in the present year. It may be that you have not quite forgotten
the young man in question?"
"I have not by any means forgotten him."
"Furthermore, you have been for some time aware--for how long I do not
know--that the aforesaid Mr. Nevill and Miss Baynard, of Stanbrook,
were and are one and the same person. And how I happen to know this I
will now make clear to you. For a certain reason--which at the time
seemed to him all-powerful, but which after-circumstances turned to
foolishness--the _soi-disant_ Frank Nevill chose, for one night, to
enact the part of an amateur highwayman, and wound up his adventure by
accepting the hospitality of Rockmount. On quitting here next morning,
by some oversight he left his mask behind him. Time passed on, and
when three or four months had gone by the missing mask was forwarded
through the post to Miss Baynard, but without any word of explanation,
or any clue to the sender of it. And there the matter rested till this
afternoon, when Miss Baynard received a note from Mr. Ellerslie
informing her that he had certain news to communicate. To Miss B. the
writing seemed not wholly strange, and on comparing it with the
address on the sheet of paper, which she had kept, in which the mask
had been enclosed, she could not doubt that they had both emanated
from one pen. But doubtless much of this is old news to you, Mr.
Ellerslie. To Mr. Dare my double identity has for some time been no
secret, and he----"
Mr. Ellerslie held up his hand. "Pardon me. Not even to me would my
nephew speak of matters which involved a point of honor between
himself and another. That which you have just told me has now become a
matter of little or no moment, and such being the case, there can be
no harm in my confessing that the identity of Miss Baynard with Mr.
Frank Nevill was suspected by me almost from the first. Why was the
same mare ridden by both, as one of my men, who chanced on Miss
Baynard next day when on her way back to Stanbrook, averred to be the
fact? But it was my housekeeper who was the first to raise a doubt in
my mind with regard to the sex of 'Mr. Frank Nevill.' That young blade
had not been ten minutes under my roof before she came to me and said,
'You may take my word for it, sir, that yon young gentleman in the oak
parlor is no more a gentleman than I am, and would be far more at home
in petticoats than in what he's wearing now.' Evidently Mrs. Dobson
knew what she was talking about. She is a woman of penetration, and I
have a great respect for her."