THE TALL GENTLEMAN IN THE LANE.
Apart from the horror of the affair, it was altogether attended with so
much mystery that that of itself would have kept the excitement alive.
What could have taken Rachel Frost near the pond at all? Allowing that
she had chosen that lonely road for her way home--which appeared
unlikely in the extreme--she must still have gone out of it to approach
the pond, must have walked partly across a field to gain it. Had her
path led close by it, it would have been a different matter: it might
have been supposed (unlikely still, though) that she had missed her
footing and fallen in. But unpleasant rumours were beginning to
circulate in the crowd. It was whispered that sounds of a contest, the
voices being those of a man and a woman, had been heard in that
direction at the time of the accident, or about the time; and these
rumours reached the ear of Mr. Verner.
For the family to think of bed, in the present state of affairs, or the
crowd to think of dispersing, would have been in the highest degree
improbable. Mr. Verner set himself to get some sort of solution first.
One told one tale; one, another: one asserted something else; another,
the exact opposite. Mr. Verner--and in saying Mr. Verner, we must
include all--was fairly puzzled. A notion had sprung up that Dinah Roy,
the bailiffs wife, could tell something about it if she would. Certain
it was, that she had stood amid the crowd, cowering and trembling,
shrinking from observation as much as possible, and recoiling visibly if
addressed.
A word of this suspicion at last reached her husband. It angered him. He
was accustomed to keep his wife in due submission. She was a little
body, with a pinched face and a sharp red nose, given to weeping upon
every possible occasion, and as indulgently fond of her son Luke as she
was afraid of her husband. Since Luke's departure she had passed the
better part of her time in tears.
"Now," said Roy, going up to her with authority, and drawing her apart,
"what's this as is up with you?"
She looked round her, and shuddered.
"Oh, law!" cried she, with a moan. "Don't you begin to ask, Giles, or I
shall be fit to die."
"Do you know anything about this matter, or don't you?" cried he
savagely. "Did you see anything?"
"What should I be likely to see of it?" quaked Mrs. Roy.
"Did you see Rachel fall into the pond? Or see her a-nigh the pond?"
"No, I didn't," moaned Mrs. Roy. "I never set eyes on Rachel this
blessed night at all. I'd take a text o' scripture to it."
"Then what is the matter with you?" he demanded, giving her a slight
shake.
"Hush, Giles!" responded she, in a tone of unmistakable terror. "I saw a
ghost!"
"Saw a--what?" thundered Giles Roy.
"A ghost!" she repeated. "And it have made me shiver ever since."
Giles Roy knew that his wife was rather prone to flights of fancy. He
was in the habit of administering one sovereign remedy, which he
believed to be an infallible panacea for wives' ailments whenever it was
applied--a hearty good shaking. He gave her a slight instalment as he
turned away.
"Wait till I get ye home," said he significantly. "I'll drive the ghosts
out of ye!"
Mr. Verner had seated himself in his study, with a view of investigating
systematically the circumstances attending the affair, so far as they
were known. At present all seemed involved in a Babel of confusion, even
the open details.
"Those able to tell anything of it shall come before me, one by one," he
observed; "we may get at something then."
The only stranger present was Mr. Bitterworth, an old and intimate
friend of Mr. Verner. He was a man of good property, and resided a
little beyond Verner's Pride. Others--plenty of them--had been eager to
assist in what they called the investigation, but Mr. Verner had
declined. The public investigation would come soon enough, he observed,
and that must satisfy them. Mrs. Verner saw no reason why she should be
absent, and she took her seat. Her sons were there. The news had reached
John out-of-doors, and he had hastened home full of consternation. Dr.
West also remained by request, and the Frosts, father and son, had
pressed in. Mr. Verner could not deny _them._
"To begin at the beginning," observed Mr. Verner, "it appears that
Rachel left this house between six and seven. Did she mention to anybody
where she was going?"
"I believe she did to Nancy, sir," replied Mrs. Tynn, who had been
allowed to remain.
"Then call Nancy in," said Mr. Verner.
Nancy came, but she could not say much: only that, in going up the front
stairs to carry some linen into Mrs. Verner's room, she had met Rachel,
dressed to go out. Rachel had said, in passing her, that she was about
to visit her father.
"And she came?" observed Mr. Verner, turning to Matthew Frost, as Nancy
was dismissed.
"She came, sir," replied the old man, who was having an incessant battle
with himself for calmness; for it was not there, in the presence of
others, that he would willingly indulge his grief. "I saw that she had
been fretting. Her eyes were as red as ferrets'; and I taxed her with
it. She was for turning it off at first, but I pressed for the cause,
and she then said she had been scolded by her mistress."
"By me!" exclaimed Mrs. Verner, lifting her head in surprise. "I had not
scolded her."
But as she spoke she caught the eye of her son John, and she remembered
the little scene of the afternoon.
"I recollect now," she resumed. "I spoke a word of reproof to Rachel,
and she burst into a violent flood of tears, and ran away from me. It
surprised me much. What I said was not sufficient to call forth one
tear, let alone a passionate burst of them."
"What was it about?" asked Mr. Verner.
"I expect John can give a better explanation of it than I," replied Mrs.
Verner, after a pause. "I went out of the room for a minute or two, and
when I returned, Rachel was talking angrily at John. I could not make
out distinctly about what. John had begun to tease her about Luke Roy, I
believe, and she did not like it."
Mr. John Massingbird's conscience called up the little episode of the
coveted kiss. But it might not be altogether prudent to confess it in
full conclave.
"It is true that I did joke Rachel about Luke," he said. "It seemed to
anger her very much, and she paid me out with some hard words. My mother
returned at the same moment. She asked what was the matter; I said I had
joked Rachel about Luke, and that Rachel did not like it."
"Yes, that was it," acquiesced Mrs. Verner. "I then told Rachel that in
my opinion she would have done well to encourage Luke, who was a steady
young man, and would no doubt have a little money. Upon which she began
weeping. I felt rather vexed; not a word have I been able to say to her
lately, but tears have been the answer; and I asked what had come to her
that she should cry for every trifle as if she were heart-broken. With
that, she fell into a burst of sobs, terrifying to see, and ran from the
room. I was thunderstruck. I asked John what could be the matter with
her, and he said he could only think she was going crazed."
John Massingbird nodded his head, as if in confirmation. Old Matthew
Frost spoke up, his voice trembling with the emotion that he was
striving to keep under--
"Did she say what it was that had come to her, ma'am?"
"She did not make any reply at all," rejoined Mrs. Verner. "But it is
quite nonsense to suppose she could have fallen into that wild burst of
grief simply at being joked about Luke. I could not make her out."
"And she has fallen into fretting, you say, ma'am, lately?" pursued
Matthew Frost, leaning his venerable white head forward.
"Often and often," replied Mrs. Verner. "She has seemed quite an altered
girl in the last few weeks!"
"My son's wife has said the same," cried old Matthew. "She has said that
Rachel was changed. But I took it to mean in her looks--that she had got
thinner. You mind the wife saying it, Robin?"
"Yes, I mind it," shortly replied Robin, who had propped himself against
the wall, his arms folded and his head bent. "I'm a-minding all."
"She wouldn't eat a bit o' supper," went on old Matthew. "But that was
nothing," he added; "she used to say she had plenty of food here,
without eating ours. She sat apart by the fire with one o' the little
uns in her lap. She didn't stay over long; she said the missus might be
wanting her, and she left; and when she was kissing my poor old face,
she began sobbing. Robin offered to see her home--"
"And she wouldn't have it," interrupted Robin, looking up for the first
time with a wild expression of despair. "She said she had things to get
at Mother Duff's, and should stop a bit there, a-gossiping. It'll be on
my mind by day and by night, that if I'd went with her, harm couldn't
have come."
"And that was how she left you," pursued Mr. Verner. "You did not see
her after that? You know nothing further of her movements?"
"Nothing further," assented Robin. "I watched her down the lane as far
as the turning, and that was the last."
"Did she go to Mrs. Duff's, I wonder?" asked Mr. Verner.
Oh, yes; several of those present could answer that. There was the
parcel brought up by Dan Duff, as testimony; and, if more had been
needed, Mrs. Duff herself had afforded it, for she made one of the crowd
outside.
"We must have Mrs. Duff in," said Mr. Verner.
Accordingly, Mrs. Duff was brought in--a voluble lady with red hair. Mr.
Verner politely asked her to be seated, but she replied that she'd
prefer to stand, if 'twas all the same. She was used to standing in her
shop, and she couldn't never sit for a minute together when she was
upset.
"Did Rachel Frost purchase things of you this evening, Mrs. Duff?"
"Well, she did, and she didn't," responded Mrs. Duff. "I never calls it
purchasing of things, sir, when a customer comes in and says, 'Just cut
me off so and so, and send it up.' They be sold, of course, if you look
at it in that light; but I'm best pleased when buyers examines the
goods, and chats a bit over their merits. Susan Peckaby, now, she--"
"What did Rachel Frost buy?" interrupted Mr. Verner, who knew what Mrs.
Duff's tongue was, when it was once set going.
"She looked in at the shop, sir, while I was a-serving little Green with
some bone buttons, that her mother had sent her for. 'I want some Irish
for aprons, Mrs. Duff,' says she. 'Cut off the proper quantity for a
couple, and send it me up some time to-morrow. I'd not give the
trouble,' says she, 'but I can't wait to take it now, for I'm in a hurry
to get home, and I shall be wanting the aprons.' 'What quality--pretty
good?' said I. 'Oh, you know,' says she; 'about the same that I bought
last time. And put in the tape for strings, and a reel of white cotton,
No. 30. And I don't mind if you put in a piece of that German ribbon,
middling width,' she went on. 'It's nicer than tape for nightcaps, and
them sort o' things.' And with that, sir, she was turning out again,
when her eyes was caught by some lavender prints, as was a-hanging just
in the doorway. Two shades of it, there was, dark and light. 'That's
pretty,' says she. 'It's beautiful,' said I; 'they be the sweetest
things I have had in, this many a day; and they be the wide width. Won't
you take some of it for a gownd?' 'No,' says she, 'I'm set up for cotton
gownds.' 'Why not buy a bit of it for a apron or two?' I said.
'Nothing's cleaner than them lavender prints for morning aprons, and
they saves the white.' So she looked at it for a minute, and then she
said I might cut her off a couple o' yards of the light, and send it up
with the other things. Well, sir, Sally Green went away with her
buttons, and I took down the light print, thinking I'd cut off the two
yards at once. Just then, Susan Peckaby comes in for some gray worsted,
and she falls right in love with the print. 'I'll have a gownd of that,'
says she, 'and I'll take it now.' In course, sir, I was only too glad to
sell it to her, for, like Rachel, she's good pay; but when I come to
measure it, there was barely nine yards left, which is what Susan
Peckaby takes for a gownd, being as tall as a maypole. So I was in a
mess; for I couldn't take and sell it all, over Rachel's head, having
offered it to her. 'Perhaps she wouldn't mind having her aprons off the
dark,' says Susan Peckaby; 'it don't matter what colour aprons is
of--they're not like gownds.' And then we agreed that I should send Dan
up here at once to ask her, and Susan Peckaby--who seemed mighty eager
to have the print--said she'd wait till he come back. And I cut off the
white Irish, and wrapped it up with the tape and things, and sent him."
"Rachel Frost had left your shop, then?"
"She left it, sir, when she told me she'd have some of the lavender
print. She didn't stay another minute."
Robin Frost lifted his head again. "She said she was going to stop at
your place for a bit of a gossip, Mother Duff."
"Then she didn't stop," responded that lady. "She never spoke a single
word o' gossip, or looked inclined to speak it. She just spoke out
short, as if she was in a hurry, and she turned clean out o' the shop
afore the words about the lavender print had well left her. Ask Sally
Green, if you don't believe me."
"You did not see which way she took?" observed Mr. Verner.
"No, sir, I didn't; I was behind my counter. But, for the matter o'
that, there was two or three as saw her go out of my shop and take the
turning by the pound--which is a good proof she meant to come home here
by the field way, for that turning, as you know, sir, leads to nowhere
else."
Mr. Verner did know it. He also knew--for witnesses had been speaking of
it outside--that Rachel had been seen to take that turning after she
left Mrs. Duff's shop, and that she was walking with a quick step.
The next person called in was Master Dan Duff--in a state of extreme
consternation at being called in at all. He was planted down in front of
Mr. Verner, his legs restless. An idea crossed his brain that they might
be going to accuse him of putting Rachel into the pond, and he began to
cry. With a good deal of trouble on Mr. Verner's part, owing to the
young gentleman's timidity, and some circumlocution on his own, the
facts, so far as Dan was cognisant of them, were drawn forth. It
appeared that after he had emerged from the field when he made that
slight diversion in pursuit of the running animal, he continued his
road, and had gained the lonely part near where the pond was situated,
when young Broom, the son of Mr. Verner's gamekeeper, ran up and asked
him what was the matter, and whether anybody was in the pond. Broom did
not wait for an answer, but went on to the pond, and Dan Duff followed
him. Sure enough, Rachel Frost was in it. They knew her by her clothes,
as she rose to the surface. Dan Duff, in his terror, went back shrieking
to Verner's Pride, and young Broom, more sensibly, ran for help to get
her out.
"How did young Broom know, or suspect, there was anybody in the pond?"
questioned Mr. Verner.
"I dun know, please, sir," sobbed Dan Duff; "that was what he said as he
runned off to it. He asked me if I had seen any folks about, and I said
I'd only seen that un in the lane."
"Whom did you see in the lane?"
"I dun know who it was, please, sir," returned Dan, sniffing greatly. "I
wasn't a-nigh him."
"But you must have been nigh him if you met him in the lane."
"Please, sir, I wasn't in the lane then. I had runned into the field
after a cat."
"After a cat?"
"Please, sir, 'twere a cat, I think. But it got away, and I didn't find
it. I saw somebody a-passing of the gate up the lane, but I warn't quick
enough to see who."
"Going which way?"
"Please, sir, up towards here. If I hadn't turned into the field, I
should ha' met him face to face. I dun know who it was."
"Did you hear any noise near the pond, or see any movement in its
direction, before you were accosted by Broom?"
"Please, sir, no."
It appeared to be of little use to detain Mr. Duff. In his stead young
Broom was called in. A fine-grown young fellow of nineteen, whose
temperament may be indicated by two words--cool and lazy. He was desired
to give his own explanation.
"I was going home for the night, sir," he began, in answer, "when I
heard the sound of voices in dispute. They seemed to come from the
direction of the grove of trees near the Willow Pond, and I stayed to
listen. I thought perhaps some of the Dawsons and Roy had come to an
encounter out there; but I soon found that one of the voices was that of
a woman. Quite a young voice it sounded, and it was broke by sobs and
tears. The other voice was a man's."
"Only two! Did you recognise them?"
"No, sir, I did not recognise them; I was too far off, maybe. I only
made out that it was two--a man's and a woman's. I stopped a few
minutes, listening, and they seemed to quiet down, and then, as I was
going on again, I came up to Mrs. Roy. She was kneeling down, and--"
"Kneeling down?" interrupted Mr. Verner.
"She was kneeling down, sir, with her hands clasped round the trunk of a
tree, like one in mortal fright. She laid hold of me then, and I asked
what was the matter with her, and she answered that she had been a'most
frightened to death. I asked whether it was at the quarrel, but she only
said, 'Hush! listen!' and at last she set on to cry. Just then we heard
an awful shriek, and a plunge into the water. 'There goes something into
the Willow Pond,' said I, and I was turning to run to it, when Mrs. Roy
shrieked out louder than the other shriek had been, and fell flat down
on the earth. I never hardly see such a face afore for ghastliness. The
moon was shining out full then, and it daunted me to look at her. I
thought she was dead--that the fright had killed her. There wasn't a bit
o' breath in her body, and I raised her head up, not knowing what to do
with her. Presently she heaved a sort of sigh, and opened her eyes; and
with that she seemed to recollect herself, and asked what was in the
pond. I left her and went off to it, meeting Dan Duff--and we found it
was Rachel Frost. Dan, he set on to howl, and wouldn't stay, and I went
for the nearest help, and got her out. That's all, sir."
"Was she already dead?"
"Well, sir, when you first get a person out of the water it's hard to
say whether they be dead or not. She seemed dead, but perhaps if there
had been means right at hand, she might have been brought-to again."
A moan of pain from old Matthew. Mr. Verner continued as it died out--
"Rachel Frost's voice must have been one of those you heard in dispute?"
"Not a doubt of that, sir," replied young Broom. "Any more than that
there must have been foul play at work to get her into the pond, or that
the other disputing voice must have belonged to the man who did it."
"Softly, softly," said Mr. Verner. "Did you see any man about?"
"I saw nobody at all, sir, saving Dan Duff and Mrs. Roy; and Rachel's
quarrel could not have been with either of them. Whoever the other was,
he had made himself scarce."
Robin Frost took a step forward respectfully.
"Did you mind, sir, that Mother Duffs Dan spoke to seeing some person in
the lane?"
"I do," replied Mr. Verner. "I should like to ask the boy another
question or two upon that point. Call him in, one of you."
John Massingbird went out and brought back the boy.
"Mind you have your wits sharp about you this time, Mr. Duff," he
remarked. Which piece of advice had the effect of scaring Mr. Duff's
wits more completely away than they had been scared before.
"You tell us that you saw a man pass up the lane when you were in the
field after the cat," began Mr. Verner. "Was the man walking fast?"
"Please, sir, yes. Afore I could get out o' the gate he was near out o'
sight. He went a'most as fast as the cat did."
"How long was it, after you saw him, before you met young Broom, and
heard that somebody was in the pond?"
"Please, sir, 'twas a'most directly. I was running then, I was."
As the boy's answer fell upon the room, a conviction stole over most of
those collected in it that this man must have been the one who had been
heard in dispute with Rachel Frost.
"Were there no signs about him by which you could recognise him?"
pursued Mr. Verner. "What did he look like? Was he tall or short?"
"Please, sir, he were very tall."
"Could you see his dress? Was it like a gentleman's or a labourer's?"
"Please, sir, I think it looked like a gentleman's--like one o' the
gentlemen's at Verner's Pride."
"Whose? Like which of the gentlemen's?" rang out Mr. Verner's voice,
sharply and sternly, after a moment's pause of surprise, for he
evidently had not expected the answer.
"Please, sir, I dun know which. The clothes looked dark, and the man
were as tall as the gentlemen, or as Calves."
"_Calves?_" echoed Mr. Verner, puzzled.
John Massingbird broke into an involuntary smile. He knew that their
tall footman, Bennet, was universally styled "Calves" in the village.
Dan Duff probably believed it to be his registered name.
But Frederick Massingbird was looking dark and threatening. The
suspicion hinted at--if you can call it a suspicion--angered him. The
villagers were wont to say that Mr. Frederick had ten times more pride
than Mr. John. They were not far wrong--Mr. John had none at all.
"Boy!" Frederick sternly said, "what grounds have you for saying it was
like one of the gentlemen?"
Dan Duff began to sob. "I dun know who it were," he said; "indeed I
don't. But he were tall, and his clothes looked dark. Please, sir, if
you basted me, I couldn't tell no more."
It was believed that he could not. Mr. Verner dismissed him, and John
Massingbird, according to order, went to bring in Mrs. Roy.
He was some little time before he found her. She was discovered at last
in a corner of the steward's room, seated on a low stool, her head bent
down on her knees.
"Now, ma'am," said John, with unwonted politeness, "you are being waited
for."
She looked up, startled. She rose from her low seat, and began to
tremble, her lips moving, her teeth chattering. But no sound came forth.
"You are not going to your hanging, Dinah Roy," said John Massingbird,
by way of consolation. "Mr. Verner is gathering the evidence about this
unfortunate business, and it is your turn to go in and state what you
know, or saw."
She staggered back a step or two, and fell against the wall, her face
changing to one of livid terror.
"I--I--saw nothing!" she gasped.
"Oh, yes, you did! Come along!"
She put up her hands in a supplicating attitude; she was on the point of
sinking on her knees in her abject fear, when at that moment the stern
face of her husband was pushed in at the door. She sprang up as if
electrified, and meekly followed John Massingbird.