Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by the
Internet Archive (Library of the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign)
Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source: The Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/underlockkeystor02spei
(Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
---------
VOL. II.
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
A Story.
BY
T. W. SPEIGHT,
AUTHOR OF "BROUGHT TO LIGHT," "FOOLISH MARGARET,"
ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES,
VOL. II.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND,
1869.
[_All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved_.]
LONDON:
SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAP.
I. JANET IN A NEW CHARACTER.
II. THE DAWN OF LOVE.
III. THE NARRATIVE OF SERGEANT NICHOLAS.
IV. COUNSEL TAKEN WITH MR. MADGIN.
V. MR. MADGIN AT THE HELM.
VI. MR. MADGIN's SECRET JOURNEY.
VII. ENTER MADGIN, JUNIOR.
VIII. MADGIN JUNIOR'S FIRST REPORT.
IX. LOST AS SOON AS FOUND.
X. THE CONFESSION.
XI. THE CONFESSION CONTINUED.
XII. MADGIN JUNIOR'S SECOND REPORT.
XIII. ROOM NUMBER FOUR IN THE CORRIDOR.
XIV. AT THE CURTAINED DOOR.
XV. THE LITTLE PACKET FROM LONDON.
XVI. MADGIN JUNIOR'S THIRD REPORT.
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
CHAPTER I.
JANET IN A NEW CHARACTER.
On entering Lady Pollexfen's room for the second time, Janet found
that the mistress of Dupley Walls had completed her toilette in the
interim, and was now sitting robed in stiff rustling silk, with an
Indian fan in one hand and a curiously-chased vinaigrette in the
other. She motioned with her fan to Janet. "Be seated," she said, in
the iciest of tones, and Janet sat down on a chair a yard or two
removed from her ladyship.
"Since you were here last, Miss Holme," she began, "I have seen Sister
Agnes, who informs me that she has already given you an outline of the
duties I shall require you to perform should you agree to accept the
situation which ill health obliges her to vacate. At the same time, I
wish you clearly to understand that I do not consider you in any way
bound by what I may have done for you in time gone by, neither would I
have you in this matter run counter to your inclinations in the
slightest degree. If you would prefer that a situation as governess
should be obtained for you, say so without hesitation, and any small
influence I may have shall be used ungrudgingly in your behalf. Should
you agree to remain at Dupley Walls your salary will be thirty guineas
a year. If you wish it, you can take a day for consideration, and let
me have your decision in the morning."
Lady Pollexfen's mention of a fixed salary stung Janet to the quick;
it was so entirely unexpected. It stung her, but only for a moment;
the next she saw and gratefully recognised the fact that she should no
longer be a pensioner on the bounty of Lady Pollexfen. A dependent she
might be--a servant even, if you like; but at least she would be
earning her living by the labour of her own hands, and even about the
very thought of such a thing there was a sweet sense of independence
that flushed her warmly through and through.
Her hesitation lasted but a moment, then she spoke. "Your ladyship is
very kind, but I require no time for consideration," she said. "I have
already made up my mind to take the position which you have so
generously offered me, and if my ability to please you only prove
equal to my inclination, your ladyship will not have much cause to
complain."
A faint smile of something like satisfaction flitted across Lady
Pollexfen's face. "Very good, Miss Holme," she said, in a more
gracious tone than she had yet used. "I am pleased to find that you
have taken so sensible a view of the matter, and that you understand
so thoroughly your position under my roof. How soon shall you be
prepared to begin your new duties?"
"I am ready at this moment."
"Come to me an hour hence and I will then instruct you."
In this second interview, brief though it was, Janet could not avoid
being struck by Lady Pollexfen's stately dignity of manner. Her tone
and style were those of a high-bred gentlewoman. It seemed scarcely
possible that she and the querulous shrivelled-up old woman in the
cashmere dressing-robe could be one individual.
Unhappily, as Janet to her cost was not long in finding out, her
ladyship's querulous moods were much more frequent than her moods of
quiet dignity. At such times she was very difficult to please;
sometimes, indeed, it was utterly impossible to please her not even an
angel could have done it. Then, indeed, Janet felt her duty weigh very
hardly upon her. By nature her temper was quick and passionate--her
impulses high and generous; but when Lady Pollexfen was in her worse
moods she had to curb the former as with an iron chain, while the
latter were outraged continually by Lady Pollexfen's mean and miserly
mode of life, and by a certain low and sordid tone of thought which at
such times pervaded all she said and did. And yet, strange to say, she
had rare fits of generosity and goodwill--times when her soul seemed
to sit in sackcloth and ashes, as if in repentance for those other
occasions when the "dark fit" was on her and the things of this world
claimed her too entirely as their own.
After her second interview with Lady Pollexfen, Janet at once hurried
off to Sister Agnes to tell her the news. "On one point only, so far
as I see at present, shall I require any special information," she
said. "I shall require to know exactly the mode of procedure necessary
to be observed when I pay my midnight visits to Sir John Pollexfen."
"It is not my intention that you should visit Sir John," said Sister
Agnes. "That portion of my old duties will continue to be performed by
me."
"Not till you are stronger--not till your health is better than it is
now," said Janet earnestly. "I am young and strong; it is merely a
part of what I have undertaken to do, and you must please let me do
it. I have outgrown my childish fears and could visit the Black Room
now without the quiver of a nerve."
"You think so, by daylight, but wait till the house is dark and
silent, and then say the same conscientiously--if you can."
But Janet was determined not to yield the point, nor could Sister
Agnes move her from her decision. Ultimately a compromise was entered
into by which it was agreed that for one evening at least they should
visit the Black Room together, and that the settlement of the question
should be left till the following day.
Precisely as midnight struck they set out together up the wide
old-fashioned staircase, past the door of Janet's old room, up the
narrower staircase beyond, till the streak of light came into view and
the grim nail-studded door itself was reached. Janet was secretly glad
that she was not there alone, so much she acknowledged to herself as
they halted for a moment while Sister Agnes unlocked the door. But
when the latter asked her if she were not afraid, if she would not
much rather be snug in bed, Janet only said: "Give me the key, tell me
what I have to do inside the room, and then leave me."
But Sister Agnes would not consent to that, and they entered the room
together. Instead of seven years, it seemed to Janet only seven hours
since she had been there last, so vividly was the recollection of her
first visit still impressed upon her mind. Everything was unchanged in
that chamber of the dead, except, perhaps, the sprawling cupids on the
ceiling, which looked a shade dingier than of old, and more in need of
soap and water than ever. But the black draperies on the walls, the
huge candles in the silver tripods, the pall-covered coffin in the
middle of the room, were all as Janet had seen them last. There, too,
was the oaken _prie-dieu_ a yard or two away from the head of the
coffin. Sister Agnes knelt on it for a few moments, and bent her head
in silent prayer.
"My visit to this room every midnight," said Sister Agnes, "is made
for the simple purpose of renewing the candles, and of seeing that
everything is as it should be. That the visit should be made at
midnight, and at no other time, is one of Lady Pollexfen's whims--a
whim that by process of time has crystallized into a law. The room is
never entered by day."
"Was it whim or madness that caused Sir John Pollexfen to leave orders
that his body should be kept above ground for twenty years?"
"Who shall tell by what motive he was influenced when he had that
particular clause inserted in his will? Dupley Walls itself hangs on
the proper fulfilment of the clause. If Lady Pollexfen were to cause
her husband's remains to be interred in the family vault before the
expiry of the twenty years, the very day she did so the estate would
pass from her to the present baronet, a distant cousin, between whom
and her ladyship there has been a bitter feud of many years' standing.
Although Dupley Walls has been in the family for a hundred and fifty
years, it has never been entailed. The entailed estate is in
Yorkshire, and there Sir Mark, the present baronet, resides. Lady
Pollexfen has the power of bequeathing Dupley Walls to whomsoever she
may please, providing she carry out strictly the instructions
contained in her husband's will, it is possible that in a court of law
the will might have been set aside on the ground of insanity, or the
whole matter might have been thrown into Chancery. But Lady Pollexfen
did not choose to submit to such an ordeal. All the courts of law
in the kingdom could have given her no more than she possessed
already--they could merely have given her permission to bury her
husband's body, and it did not seem to her that such a permission
could compensate for the turning into public gossip of a private
chapter of family history. So here Sir John Pollexfen has remained
since his death, and here he will stay till the last of the twenty
years has become a thing of the past. Two or three times every year
Mr. Winter, Sir Mark's lawyer, comes over to Dupley Walls to satisfy
himself by ocular proof that Sir John's instructions are being duly
carried out. This he has a legal right to do in the interests of his
client. Sometimes he is conducted to this room by Lady Pollexfen,
sometimes by me; but even in his case her ladyship will not relax her
rule of not having the room visited by day."
Sister Agnes then showed Janet that behind the black draperies there
was a cupboard in the wall, which on being opened proved to contain a
quantity of large candles. One by one Sister Agnes took out of the
silver tripod what remained of the candles of the previous day, and
filled up their places with fresh ones. Janet looked on attentively.
Then, for the second time, Sister Agnes knelt on the _prie-dieu_ for a
few moments, and then she and Janet left the room.
Next day Sister Agnes was so ill, and Janet pressed so earnestly to be
allowed to attend to the Black Room in place of her, and alone, that
she was obliged to give a reluctant consent.
It was not without an inward tremor that Janet heard the clock strike
twelve. Sister Agnes had insisted on accompanying her part of the way
upstairs, and would, in fact, have gone the whole distance with her,
had not Janet insisted on going forward alone. In a single breath, as
it seemed to her, she ran up the remaining stairs, unlocked the door,
and entered the room. Her nerves were not sufficiently composed to
allow of her making use of the _prie-dieu_. All she cared for just
then was to get through her duty as quickly as possible, and get back
in safety to the world of living beings downstairs. She set her teeth,
and by a supreme effort of will went through the small duty that was
required of her steadily but swiftly. Her face was never turned away
from the coffin the whole time; and when she had finished her task she
walked backwards to the door, opened it, walked backwards out, and in
another breath was downstairs, and safe in the protecting arms of
Sister Agnes.
Next night she insisted upon going entirely alone, and made so light
of the matter that Sister Agnes no longer opposed her wish to make the
midnight visit to the Black Room a part of her ordinary duty. But
inwardly Janet could never quite overcome her secret awe of the room
and its silent occupant. She always dreaded the coming of the hour
that took her there, and when her task was over, she never closed the
door without a feeling of relief. In this case, custom with her never
bred familiarity. To the last occasion of her going there she went
the prey of hidden fears--fears of she knew not what, which she
derided to herself even while they made her their victim. There was a
morbid thread running through the tissue of her nerves, which by
intense force of will might be kept from growing and spreading, but
which no effort of hers could quite pluck out or eradicate.