MATTHEW FROST'S NIGHT ENCOUNTER.
Old Matthew Frost sat in his room at the back of the kitchen. It was his
bedroom and sitting-room combined. Since he had grown feeble, the bustle
of the kitchen and of Robin's family disturbed him, and he sat much in
his chamber, they frequently taking his dinner in to him.
A thoroughly comfortable arm-chair had Matthew. It had been the gift of
Lionel Verner. At his elbow was a small round table, of very dark wood,
rubbed to brightness. On that table Matthew's large Bible might
generally be found open, and Matthew's spectacled eyes bending over it.
But the Bible was closed to-day. He sat in deep thought. His hands
clasped upon his stick, something after the manner of old Mr. Verner;
and his eyes fixed through the open window at the September sun, as it
played on the gooseberry and currant bushes in the cottage garden.
The door opened, and Robin's wife--her hands and arms white, for she was
kneading dough--appeared, showing in Lionel; who had come on after his
conversation with Mrs. Duff, as you read of in the last chapter; for it
is necessary to go back a few hours. One cannot tell two portions of a
history at one and the same time. The old man rose, and stood leaning on
his stick.
"Sit down, Matthew," said Lionel, in a kindly tone. "Don't let me
disturb you." He made him go into his seat again, and took a chair
opposite to him.
"The time's gone, sir, for me to stand afore you. That time must go for
us all."
"Ay, that it must, Matthew, if we live. I came in to speak to Robin. His
wife says she does not know where he is."
"He's here and there and everywhere," was old Matthew's answer. "One
never knows how to take him, sir, or when to see him. My late master's
bounty to me, sir, is keeping us in comfort, but I often ask Robin what
he'll do when I am gone. It gives me many an hour's care, sir. Robin, he
don't earn the half of a living now."
"Be easy, Matthew," was Lionel's answer. "I am not sure that the
annuity, or part of it, will not be continued to Robin. My uncle left it
in my charge to do as I should see fit. I have never mentioned it, even
to you; and I think it might be as well for you not to speak of it to
Robin. It is to be hoped that he will get steady and hard-working again;
were he to hear that there was a chance of his being kept without work,
he might never become so."
"The Lord bless my old master!" aspirated Matthew, lifting his hands.
"The Lord bless you, sir! There's not many gentlemen would do for us
what him and you have."
Lionel bent his head forward, and lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Matthew, what is this that I hear, of Robin's going about the grounds
at night with a loaded gun?"
Matthew flung up his hands. Not with the reverence of the past minute,
but with a gesture of despair. "Heaven knows what he does it for, sir!
I'd keep him in; but it's beyond me."
"I know you would. You went yourself after him last night, Broom tells
me."
Matthew's eyes fell. He hesitated much in his answer. "I--yes, sir--I--I
couldn't get him home. It's a pity."
"You got as far as the brick-kilns, I hear. I was surprised. I don't
think you should be out at night, Matthew."
"No, sir, I am not a-going again."
The words this time were spoken readily enough. But, from some cause or
other, the old man was evidently embarrassed. His eyes were not lifted,
and his clear face had gone red. Lionel searched his imagination for a
reason, and could only connect it with his son.
"Matthew," said he, "I am about to ask you a painful question. I hope
you will answer it. Is Robin perfectly sane?"
"Ay, sir, as sane as I am. Unsettled he is, ever dwelling on poor
Rachel, ever thinking of revenge; but his senses be as much his as they
ever were. I wish his mind could be set at rest."
"At rest in what way?"
"As to who it was that did the harm to Rachel. He has had it in his head
for a long while, sir, that it was Mr. John Massingbird; but he can't be
certain, and it's the uncertainty that keeps his mind on the worrit."
"Do you know where he picked up the notion that it was Mr. John
Massingbird?" inquired Lionel, remembering the conversation on the same
point that Robin had once held with him, on that very garden bench, in
the face of which he and Matthew were now sitting.
Old Matthew shook his head. "I never could learn, sir. Robin's a dutiful
son to me, but he'd never tell me that. I know that Mr. John Massingbird
has been like a pill in his throat this many a day. Oftentimes have I
felt thankful that he was dead, or Robin would surely have gone out to
where he was, and murdered him. Murder wouldn't mend the ill, sir--as I
have told him many a time."
"Indeed it would not," replied Lionel. "The very fact of Mr. John
Massingbird's being dead, should have the effect of setting Robin's mind
at rest--if it was to him that his suspicions were directed. For my
part, I think Robin is wrong in suspecting him."
"I think so too, sir. I don't know how it is, but I can't bring my mind
to suspect him more than anybody else. I have thought over things in
this light, and I have thought 'em over in that light; and I'd rather
incline to believe that she got acquainted with some stranger, poor
dear! than that it was anybody known to us. Robin is in doubt; he has
had some cause given him to suspect Mr. John Massingbird, but he is not
sure, and it's that doubt, I say, that worrits him."
"At any rate, doubt or no doubt, there is no cause for him to go about
at night with a gun. What does he do it for?"
"I have asked him, sir, and he does not answer. He seems to me to be on
the watch."
"On the watch for what?" rejoined Lionel.
"I'm sure I don't know," said old Matthew. "If you'd say a word to him,
sir, it might stop it. He got a foolish notion into his mind that poor
Rachel's spirit might come again, and he'd used to be about the pond
pretty near every moonlight night. That fancy passed off, and he has
gone to his bed at night as the rest of us have, up to the last week or
so, when he has taken to go out again, and to carry a gun."
"It was a foolish notion," remarked Lionel. "The dead do not come again,
Matthew."
Matthew made no reply.
"I must try and come across Robin," said Lionel, rising. "I wish you
would tell him to come up to me, Matthew."
"Sir, if you desire that he shall wait upon you at Verner's Pride, he
will be sure to do so," said the old man, leaning on his stick as he
stood. "He has not got to the length of disobeying an order of yours.
I'll tell him."
It happened that Lionel did "come across" Robin Frost. Not to any
effect, however, for he could not get to speak to him. Lionel was
striking across some fields towards Deerham Court, when he came in view
of Roy and Robin Frost leaning over a gate, their heads together in
close confab. It looked very much as though they were talking secrets.
They looked up and saw him; but when he reached the place, both were
gone. Roy was in sight, but the other had entirely disappeared. Lionel
lifted his voice.
"Roy, I want you."
Roy could not fain deafness, although there was every appearance that he
would like to do it. He turned and approached, putting his hand to his
hat in a half surly manner.
"Where's Robin Frost?"
"Robin Frost, sir? He was here a minute or two agone. I met him
accidental, and I stopped him to ask what he was about, that he hadn't
been at work this three days. He went on his way then, down the gap. Did
you want him, sir?"
Lionel Verner's perceptive faculties were tolerably developed. That Roy
was endeavouring to blind him, he had no doubt. They had not met
"accidental," and the topic of conversation had not been Robin's
work--of that he felt sure. Roy and Robin Frost might meet and talk
together all day long. It was nothing to him. Why they should strive to
deceive him was the only curious part about it. Both had striven to
avoid meeting him; and Roy was talking to him now unwillingly. In a
general way, Robin Frost was fond of meeting and receiving a word from
Mr. Verner.
"I shall see him another time," carelessly remarked Lionel. "Not so
fast, Roy"--for the man was turning away--"I have not done with you.
Will you be good enough to inform me what you were doing in front of my
house last night?"
"I wasn't doing anything, sir. I wasn't there."
"Oh, yes, you were," said Lionel. "Recollect yourself. You were posted
under the large yew tree on the lawn, watching my drawing-room windows."
Roy looked up at this, the most intense surprise in his countenance. "I
never was on your lawn last night, sir; I wasn't near it. Leastways not
nearer than the side field. I happened to be in that, and I got through
a gap in the hedge, on to the high road."
"Roy, I believe that you _were_ on the lawn last night, and watching the
house," persisted Lionel, looking fixedly at his countenance. For the
life of him he could not tell whether the man's surprise was genuine,
his denial real. "What business had you there?"
"I declare to goodness, if it was the last word I had to speak, that I
was not on your lawn, sir--that I did not watch the house. I did not go
near the house. I crossed the side field, cornerwise, and got out into
the road; and that's the nearest I was to the house last night."
Roy spoke unusually impressive for him, and Lionel began to believe
that, so far, he was telling truth. He did not make any immediate reply,
and Roy resumed.
"What cause have you got to accuse me, sir? I shouldn't be likely to
watch your house--why should I?"
"Some man was watching it," replied Lionel. "As you were seen in the
road shortly afterwards, close to the side field, I came to the
conclusion that it was you."
"I can be upon my oath that it wasn't, sir," answered Roy.
"Very well," replied Lionel, "I accept your denial. But allow me to give
you a recommendation, Roy--not to trouble yourself with my affairs in
any way. They do not concern you; they never will concern you;
therefore, don't meddle with them."
He walked away as he spoke. Roy stood and gazed after him, a strange
expression on his countenance. Had Lucy Tempest seen it, she might have
renewed her warning to Lionel. And yet she would have been puzzled to
tell the meaning of the expression, for it did not look like a
threatening one.
Had Lionel Verner turned up Clay Lane, upon leaving Matthew Frost's
cottage, instead of down it, to take a path across the fields at the
back, he would have encountered the Vicar of Deerham. That gentleman was
paying parochial visits that day in Deerham, and in due course he came
to Matthew Frost's. He and Matthew had long been upon confidential
terms; the clergyman respected Matthew, and Matthew revered his pastor.
Mr. Bourne took the seat which Lionel had but recently vacated. He was
so accustomed to the old man's habitual countenance that he could detect
every change in it; and he saw that something was troubling him.
"I am troubled in more ways than one, sir," was the old man's answer.
"Poor Robin, he's giving me trouble again; and last night, sir, I had a
sort of fright. A shock, it may be said. I can't overget it."
"What was its nature?" asked Mr. Bourne.
"I don't much like to speak of it, sir; and, beside yourself, there's
not a living man that I'd open my lips to. It's an unpleasant thing to
have upon the mind. Mr. Verner, he was here but a few minutes a-gone,
and I felt before him like a guilty man that has something to conceal.
When I have told it to you, sir, you'll be hard of belief."
"Is it connected with Robin?"
"No, sir. But it was my going after Robin that led to it, as may be
said. Robin, sir, has took these last few nights to go out with a gun.
It has worrited me so, sir, fearing some mischief might ensue, that I
couldn't sleep; and last evening, I thought I'd hobble out and see if I
couldn't get him home. Chuff, he said as he had seen him go toward the
brick-field, and I managed to get down; and, sure enough, I came upon
Robin. He was lying down at the edge of the field, watching, as it
seemed to me. I couldn't get him home, sir. I tried hard, but 'twas of
no use. He spoke respectful to me, as he always does: 'Father, I have
got my work to do, and I must do it. You go back home, and go to sleep
in quiet.' It was all I could get from him, sir, and at last I turned to
go back----"
"What was Robin doing?" interrupted Mr. Bourne.
"Sir, I suppose it's just some fancy or other that he has got into his
head, as he used to get after the poor child died. Mr. Verner has just
asked me whether he is sane, but there's nothing of that sort wrong
about him. You mind the clump of trees that stands out, sir, between
here and the brick-field, by the path that would lead to Verner's
Pride?" added old Matthew in an altered tone.
"Yes," said Mr. Bourne.
"I had just got past it, sir, when I saw a figure crossing that bare
corner from the other trees. A man's shape, it looked like. Tall and
shadowy it was, wearing what looked like a long garment, or a woman's
riding-habit, trailing nearly on the ground. The very moment my eyes
fell upon it, I felt that it was something strange, and when the figure
passed me, turning its face right upon me--I _saw_ the face, sir."
Old Matthew's manner was so peculiar, his pause so impressive, that Mr.
Bourne could only gaze at him, and wait in wonder for what was coming.
"Sir, it was the face of one who has been dead these two years past--Mr.
Frederick Massingbird."
If the rector had gazed at old Matthew before, he could only stare now.
That the calm, sensible old man should fall into so extraordinary a
delusion, was incomprehensible. He might have believed it of Deerham in
general, but not of Matthew Frost.
"Matthew, you must have been deceived," was his quiet answer.
"No, sir. There never was another face like Mr. Frederick Massingbird's.
Other features may have been made like his--it's not for me to say they
have not--but whose else would have the black mark upon it? The
moonlight was full upon it, and I could see even the little lines
shooting out from the cheek, so bright was the night. The face was
turned right upon me as it passed, and I am as clear about its being his
as I am that it was me looking at it."
"But you know it is a thing absolutely impossible," urged Mr. Bourne. "I
think you must have dreamt this, Matthew."
Old Matthew shook his head. "I wouldn't have told you a dream, sir. It
turned me all in a maze. I never felt the fatigue of a step all the way
home after it. When I got in, I couldn't eat my supper; I couldn't go to
bed. I sat up thinking, and the wife, she came in and asked what ailed
me that I didn't go to rest. I had got no sleep in my eyes, I told her,
which was true; for, when I did get to bed, it was hours afore I could
close 'em."
"But, Matthew, I tell you that it is impossible. You must have been
mistaken."
"Sir, until last night, had anybody told me such a thing, I should have
said it was impossible. You know, sir, I have never been given to such
fancies. There's no doubt, sir; there's _no doubt_ that it was the
spirit of Mr. Frederick Massingbird."
Matthew's clear, intelligent eye was fixed firmly on Mr. Bourne's--his
face, as usual, bending a little forward. Mr. Bourne had never believed
in "spirits"; clergymen, as a rule, do not. A half smile crossed his
lips.
"Were you frightened?" he asked.
"I was not frightened, sir, in the sense that you, perhaps, put the
question. I was surprised, startled. As I might have been surprised and
startled at seeing anybody I least expected to see--somebody that I had
thought was miles away. Since poor Rachel's death, sir, I have lived, so
to say, in communion with spirits. What with Robin's talking of his hope
to see _hers_, and my constantly thinking of her; knowing also that it
can't be long, in the course of nature, before I am one myself, I have
grown to be, as it were, familiar with the dead in my mind. Thus, sir,
in that sense, no fear came upon me last night. I don't think, sir, I
should feel fear at meeting or being alone with a spirit, any more than
I should at meeting a man. But I was startled and disturbed."
"Matthew," cried Mr. Bourne, in some perplexity, "I had always believed
you superior to these foolish things. Ghosts might do well enough for
the old days, but the world has grown older and wiser. At any rate, the
greater portion of it has."
"If you mean, sir, that I was superior to the belief in ghosts, you are
right. I never had a grain of faith in such superstition in my life; and
I have tried all means to convince my son what folly it was of him to
hover round about the Willow Pond, with any thought that Rachel might
'come again.' No, sir, I have never been given to it."
"And yet you deliberately assure me, Matthew, that you saw a ghost last
night!"
"Sir, that it was Mr. Frederick Massingbird, dead or alive, that I saw,
I must hold to. We know that he is dead, sir, his wife buried him in
that far land; so what am I to believe? The face looked ghastly white,
not like a person's living."
Mr. Bourne mused. That Frederick Massingbird was dead and buried, there
could not be the slightest doubt. He hardly knew what to make of old
Matthew. The latter resumed.
"Had I been flurried or terrified by it, sir, so as to lose my presence
of mind, or if I was one of those timid folks that see signs in dreams,
or take every white post to be a ghost, that they come to on a dark
night, you might laugh at and disbelieve me. But I tell it to you, sir,
as you say, deliberately; just as it happened. I can't have much longer
time to live, sir; but I'd stake it all on the truth that it was the
spirit of Mr. Frederick Massingbird. When you have once known a man,
there are a hundred points by which you may recognise him, beyond
possibility of being mistaken. They have got a story in the place, sir,
to-day--as you may have heard--that my poor child's ghost appeared to
Dan Duff last night, and that the boy has been senseless ever since. It
has struck me, sir, that perhaps he also saw what I did."
Mr. Bourne paused. "Did you say anything of this to Mr. Verner?"
"Not I, sir. As I tell you, I felt like a guilty man in his presence,
one with something to hide. He married Mr. Fred's widow, pretty
creature, and it don't seem a nice thing to tell him. If it had been the
other gentleman's spirit, Mr. John's, I should have told him at once."
Mr. Bourne rose. To argue with old Matthew in his present frame of mind,
appeared to be about as useless a waste of time as to argue with Susan
Peckaby on the subject of the white donkey. He told him he would see him
again in a day or two, and took his departure.
But he did not dismiss the subject from his thoughts. No, he could not
do that. He was puzzled. Such a tale from one like old Matthew--calm,
pious, sensible, and verging on the grave, made more impression on Mr.
Bourne than all Deerham could have made. Had Deerham come to him with
the story, he would have flung it to the winds.
He began to think that some person, from evil design or love of
mischief, must be personating Frederick Massingbird. It was a natural
conclusion. And Matthew's surmise, that the same thing might have
alarmed Dan Duff, was perfectly probable. Mr. Bourne determined to
ascertain the latter fact, as soon as Dan should be in a state of
sufficient convalescence, bodily and mentally, to give an account. He
had already paid one visit to Mrs. Duff's--as that lady informed Lionel.
Two or three more visits he paid there during the day, but not until
night did he find Dan revived. In point of fact, the clergyman
penetrated to the kitchen just after that startling communication had
been made by Dan. The women were standing in consternation when the
vicar entered, one of them strongly recommending that the copper furnace
should be heated, and Dan plunged into it to "bring him round."
"How is he now?" began Mr. Bourne. "Oh! I see; he is sensible."
"Well, sir, I don't know," said Mrs Duff. "I'm afraid as his head's
a-going right off. He persists in saying now that it wasn't the ghost of
Rachel at all--but somebody else's."
"If he was put into a good hot furnace, sir, and kep' at a even heat up
to biling pint for half an hour--that is, as near biling as his skin
could bear it--I know it 'ud do wonders," spoke up Mrs. Chuff. "It's a
excellent remedy, where there's a furnace convenient, and water not
short."
"Suppose you allow me to be alone with him for a few minutes," suggested
Mr. Bourne. "We will try and find out what will cure him; won't we,
Dan?"
The women filed out one by one. Mr. Bourne sat down by the boy, and took
his hand. In a soothing manner he talked to him, and drew from him by
gentle degrees the whole tale, so far as Dan's memory and belief went.
The boy shook in every limb as he told it. He could not boast immunity
from ghostly fears as did old Matthew Frost.
"But, my boy, you should know that there are no such things as ghosts,"
urged Mr. Bourne. "When once the dead have left this world, they do not
come back to it again."
"I see'd it, sir," was Dan's only argument--an all sufficient one with
him. "It was stood over the pool, it was, and it turned round right upon
me as I went up. I see the porkypine on his cheek, sir, as plain as
anything."
The same account as old Matthew's!
"How was the person dressed?" asked Mr. Bourne. "Did you notice?"
"It had got on some'at long--a coat or a skirt, or some'at. It was as
thin as thin, sir."
"Dan, shall I tell you what it was--as I believe? It was somebody
dressed up to frighten you and other timid persons."
Dan shook his head. "No, sir, 'twasn't. 'Twas the ghost of Mr. Frederick
Massingbird."