It stood on the left of the road as you went towards Alcester: a
good-looking, red-brick house, not large, but very substantial.
Everything about it was in trim order; from the emerald-green outer
venetian window-blinds to the handsome iron entrance-gates between the
enclosing palisades; and the garden and grounds had not as much as
a stray worm upon them. Mr. Brandon was nice and particular in all
matters, as old bachelors generally are; and he was especially so in
regard to his home.
Careering up to this said house on the morning of a fine spring day,
when the green hedges were budding and the birds sang in the trees,
went a pony-gig, driven by a gentleman. A tall, slender young fellow of
seven-and-twenty, with golden hair that shone in the sun and eyes as
blue and bright as the sky. Leaving the pony to be taken care of by a
labouring boy who chanced to be loitering about, he rang the bell at the
iron gates, and inquired of the answering servant whether Mr. Brandon
was at home.
"Yes, sir," was the answer of the man, as he led the way in. "But I am
not sure that he can see you. What name?" And the applicant carelessly
took a card from his waistcoat-pocket, and was left in the drawing-room.
Which card the servant glanced at as he carried it away.
"Mr. Francis Radcliffe."
People say there's sure to be a change every seven years. Seven years
had gone by since the death of old Mr. Radcliffe and the inheritance by
Francis of the portion that fell to him; three hundred a-year. There
were odd moments when Frank, in spite of himself, would look back at
those seven years; and he did not at all like the retrospect. For he
remembered the solemn promise he had made to his mother when she was
dying, to put away those evil habits which had begun to creep upon him,
more especially that worst of all bad habits that man, whether young
or old, can take to--_drinking_--and he had not kept the promise.
He had been called to the Bar in due course, but he made nothing by
his profession. Briefs did not come to him. He just wasted his time
and lived a fast life on the small means that were his. He pulled up
sometimes, turned his back on folly, and read like a house on fire:
but his wild companions soon got hold of him again, and put his good
resolutions to flight. Frank put it all down to idleness. "If I had work
to do, I should do it," he said, "and that would keep me straight." But
at the close of this last winter he had fallen into a most dangerous
illness, resulting from the draughts of ale, and what not, that he had
made too free with, and he got up from it with a resolution never to
drink again. Knowing that the resolution would be more easy to keep if
he turned his back on London and the companions who beset him, down he
came to his native place, determined to take a farm and give up the law.
For the second time in his life some money had come to him unexpectedly;
which would help him on. And so, after a seven years' fling, Frank
Radcliffe was going in for a change.
He had never stayed at Sandstone Torr since his father's death. His
brother Stephen's surly temper, and perhaps that curious warning of
his mother's, kept him out of it. He and Stephen maintained a show of
civility to one another; and when Frank was in the neighbourhood (but
that had only happened twice in the seven years), he would call at the
Torr and see them. The last time he came down, Frank was staying at a
place popularly called Pitchley's Farm. Old Pitchley--who had lived
on it, boy and man, for seventy years--liked him well. Frank made
acquaintance that time with Annet Skate; fell in love with her, in fact,
and meant to marry her. She was a pretty girl, and a good girl, and had
been brought up to be thoroughly useful as a farmer's daughter: but
neither by birth nor position was she the equal of Frank Radcliffe. All
her experience of life lay in her own secluded, plain home: in regard
to the world outside she was as ignorant as a young calf, and just as
mild and soft as butter.
So Frank, after his spell of sickness and reflection, had thrown up
London, and come down to settle in a farm with Annet, if he could get
one. But there was not a farm to be let for miles round. And it was
perhaps a curious thing that while Frank was thinking he should have to
travel elsewhere in search of one, Pitchley's should turn up. For old
Pitchley suddenly died. Pitchley's Farm belonged to Mr. Brandon. It was
a small compact farm; just the size Frank wanted. A large one would have
been beyond his means.
Mr. Brandon sat writing letters at the table in his library, in his
geranium-coloured Turkish cap, with its purple tassel, when his servant
went in with the card.
"Mr. Francis Radcliffe!" read he aloud, in his squeaky voice. "What, is
he down here again? You can bring him in, Abel--though I'm sure I don't
know what he wants with me." And Abel went and brought him.
"We heard you were ill, young man," said Mr. Brandon, peering up into
Frank's handsome face as he shook hands, and detecting all sorts of
sickly signs in it.
"So I have been, Mr. Brandon; very ill. But I have left London and its
dissipations for good, and have come here to settle. It's about time I
did," he added, with the candour natural to him.
"I should say it was," coughed old Brandon. "You've been on the wrong
tack long enough."
"And I have come to you--I hope I am first in the field--to ask you to
let me have the lease of Pitchley's Farm."
Mr. Brandon could not have felt more surprised had Frank asked for a
lease of the moon, but he did not show it. His head went up a little,
and the purple tassel took a sway backwards.
"Oh," said he. "_You_ take Pitchley's Farm! How do you think to stock
it?"
"I shall take to the stock at present on it, as far as my means will
allow, and give a bond for the rest. Pitchley's executors will make it
easy for me."
"What are your means?" curtly questioned old Brandon.
"In all, they will be two thousand pounds. Taking mine and Miss Skate's
together."
"That's a settled thing, is it, Master Francis?"--alluding to the
marriage.
"Yes, it is," said Frank. "Her portion is just a thousand pounds,
and her friends are willing to put it on the farm. Mine is another
thousand."
"Where does yours come from?"
"Do you recollect, Mr. Brandon, that when I was a little fellow at
school I had a thousand pounds left me by a clergyman--a former friend
of my grandfather Elliot?"
Mr. Brandon nodded. "It was Parson Godfrey. He came down once or twice
to the Torr to see your mother and you."
"Just so. Well, his widow has now recently died; she was considerably
younger than he; and she has left me another thousand. If I can have
Pitchley's Farm, I shall be sure to get on at it," he added in his
sanguine way. For, if ever there was a sanguine, sunny-natured fellow
in this world, it was Frank Radcliffe.
Old Brandon pushed his geranium cap all aside and gave a flick to the
tassel. "My opinion lies the contrary way, young man: that you will be
sure not to get on at it."
"I understand all about farming," said Frank eagerly. "And I mean to be
as steady as steady can be."
"To begin with a debt on the farm will cripple the best man going, sir."
"Oh, Mr. Brandon, don't turn against me!" implored Frank, who was
feeling terribly in earnest. "Give me a chance! Unless I can get some
constant work, some _interest_ to occupy my hands and my mind, I might
be relapsing back to the old ways again from sheer ennui. There's no
resource but a farm."
Mr. Brandon did not seem to be in a hurry to answer. He was looking
straight at Frank, and nodding little nods to himself, following out
some mental argument. Frank leaned forward in his chair, his voice low,
his face solemn.
"When my poor mother was dying, I promised her to give up bad habits,
Mr. Brandon. I hope--I think--I fully intend to do so now. Won't you
help me?"
"What do you wish me to understand by 'bad' habits, young man?" queried
Mr. Brandon in his hardest tones. "What have been yours?"
"Drink," said Frank shortly. "And I am ashamed enough to have to say
it. It is not that I have been a constant drinker, or that I have
taken _much_, in comparison with what very many men drink; but I have,
sometimes for weeks together, taken it very recklessly. _That_ is what
I meant by speaking of my bad habits, Mr. Brandon."
"Couldn't speak of a worse habit, Frank Radcliffe."
"True. I should have pulled up long ago but for those fast companions
I lived amongst. They kept me down. Once amidst such, a fellow has no
chance. Often and often that neglected promise to my mother has lain
upon me, a nightmare of remorse. I have fancied she might be looking
down upon earth, upon _me_, and seeing how I was fulfilling it."
"If your mother was not looking down upon you, sir, your Creator was."
"Ay. I know. Mr. Brandon"--his voice sinking deeper in its solemnity,
and his eyes glistening--"in the very last minute of my mother's
life--when her soul was actually on the wing--she told me that she
_knew_ I should be helped to throw off what was wrong. She had prayed
for it, and seen it. A conviction is within me that I shall be--has been
within me ever since. I think this--now--may be the turning-point in my
life. Don't deny me the farm, sir."
"Frank Radcliffe, I'd let you have the farm, and another to it, if I
thought you were sincere."
"Why--you _can't_ think me not sincere, after what I have said!" cried
Frank.
"Oh, you are sincere enough at the present moment. I don't doubt that.
The question is, will you be sincere in keeping your good resolutions in
the future?"
"I hope I shall. I believe I shall. I will try with all my best
energies."
"Very well. You may have the farm."
Frank Radcliffe started up in his joy and gratitude, and shook Mr.
Brandon's hands till the purple tassel quivered. He had a squeaky voice
and a cold manner, and went in for coughs and chest-aches, and all kinds
of fanciful disorders; but there was no more generous heart going than
old Brandon's.
Business settled, the luncheon was ordered in. But Frank was a good deal
too impatient to stay for it; and drove away in the pony-gig to impart
the news to all whom it might concern. Taking a round to the Torr first,
he drove into the back-yard. Stephen came out.
Stephen looked quite old now. He must have been fifty years of age. Hard
and surly as ever was he, and his stock of hair was as grizzled as his
father's used to be before Frank was born.
"Oh, it's you!" said Stephen, as civilly as he could bring his tongue to
speak. "Whose chay and pony is that?"
"It belongs to Pitchley's bailiff. He lent it me this morning."
"Will you come in?"
"I have not time now," answered Frank. "But I thought I'd just drive
round and tell you the news, Stephen. I'm going to have Pitchley's
Farm."
"Who says so?"
"I have now been settling it with Mr. Brandon. At first, he seemed
unwilling to let me have it--was afraid, I suppose, that I and the farm
might come to grief together--but he consented at last. So I shall get
in as soon as I can, and take Annet with me. You'll come to our wedding,
Stephen?"
"A fine match _she_ is!" cried cranky Stephen.
"What's the matter with her?"
"I don't say as anything's the matter with her. But you have always
stuck up for the pride and pomp of the Radcliffes: made out that nobody
was good enough for 'em. A nice comedown for Frank Radcliffe that'll
be--old Farmer Skate's girl."
"We won't quarrel about it, Stephen," said Frank, with his good-humoured
smile. "Here's your wife. How do you do, Mrs. Radcliffe?"
Becca had come out with a wet mop in her hands, which she proceeded to
wring. Some of the splashes went on Frank's pony-gig. She wore morning
costume: a dark-blue cotton gown hanging straight down on her thin,
lanky figure; and an old black cap adorning her hard face. It was a
great contrast: handsome, gentlemanly, well-dressed, sunny Frank
Radcliffe, barrister-at-law; and that surly boor Stephen, in his rough
clothes, and his shabby, hard-working wife.
"When be you going back to London?" was Becca's reply to his salutation,
as she began to rinse out the mop at the pump.
"Not at all. I have been telling Stephen. I am going into Pitchley's
Farm."
"Along of Annet Skate," put in Stephen; whose queer phraseology had been
indulged in so long that it had become habitual. "Much good they'll do
in a farm! He'd like us to go to the wedding! No, thank ye."
"Well, good-morning," said Frank, starting the pony. They did not give
him much encouragement to stay.
"Be it true, Radcliffe?" asked Becca, letting the mop alone for a
minute. "Be he a-going to marry Skate's girl, and get Pitchley's Farm?"
"I wish the devil had him!" was Stephen's surly comment, as he stalked
off in the wake of the receding pony-gig, giving his wife no other
answer.
No doubt Stephen was sincere in his wish, though it was hardly polite to
avow it. For the whole of Frank's life, he had been a thorn in the flesh
of Stephen: in the first years, for fear their father should bequeath to
Frank a share of the inheritance; in the later years, because Frank had
had the share! That sum of three hundred a-year, enjoyed by Frank, was
coveted by Stephen as money was never yet coveted by man. Looking at
matters with a distorted mind, he considered it a foul wrong done him;
as no better than a robbery upon him; that the whole of the money was
his own by all the laws of right and wrong, and that not a stiver of
it ought to have gone to Frank. Unable, however, to alter the state of
existing things, he had sincerely hoped that some lucky chance--say the
little accident of Frank's drinking himself to death--would put him in
possession of it; and all the rumours that came down from London about
Frank's wild life rejoiced him greatly. For if Frank died without
children, the money went to Stephen. And it may as well be mentioned
here, that old Mr. Radcliffe had so vested the three hundred a-year that
Frank had no power over the capital and was unable to squander it. It
would go to his children when he died; or, if he left no children, to
Stephen.
Never a night when he went to bed, never a morning when he got up, but
Stephen Radcliffe's hungry heart gave a dismal groan to that three
hundred a-year he had been deprived of. In truth, his own poor three
hundred was not enough for him. And then, he had expected that the six
would all be his! He had, he said, to work like a slave to keep up the
Torr, and make both ends meet. His two children were for ever tugging at
his purse-strings. Tom, quitting the sea, had settled in a farm in
Canada; but he was always writing home for help. Lizzy would make her
appearance at home at all kinds of unseasonable times; and tell pitiful
stories of the wants of her scanty ménage at Birmingham, and of her
little children, and of the poor health and short pay of her husband
the curate. Doubtless Stephen had rather a hard life of it and could
very well have done with a doubled income. To hear that Frank was going
to settle down to a sober existence and to marry a wife, was the worst
news of all to Stephen, for it lessened his good chances finely.
But he had only the will to hinder it, not the power. And matters and
the year went swimmingly on. Francis entered into possession of the
farm; and just a week before Midsummer Day, he married Annet Skate and
took her home.
* * * * *
The red June sunset fell full on Pitchley's Farm, staining the windows a
glowing crimson. Pitchley's Farm lay in a dell, about a mile from Dyke
Manor, on the opposite side to Sandstone Torr. It was a pretty little
homestead, with jessamine on the porch, and roses creeping up the frames
of the parlour-windows. Just a year had gone by since the wedding, and
to-morrow would be the anniversary of the wedding-day. Mr. and Mrs.
Francis Radcliffe were intending to keep it, and had bidden their
friends to an entertainment. He had carried out his resolution to be
steady, and they had prospered fairly well. David Skate, one of Annet's
brothers, a thorough, practical farmer, was ever ready to come over, if
wanted, and help Francis with work and counsel.
Completely tired with her day's exertions, was Annet, for she had been
making good things for the morrow, and now sat down for the first time
that day in the parlour--a low room, with its windows open to the
clustering roses, and the furniture bright and tasty. Annet was of
middle height, light and active, with a delicate colour on her cheeks,
soft brown eyes, and small features. She had just changed her cotton
gown for one of pink summer muslin, and looked as fresh as a daisy.
"How tired I am!" she exclaimed to herself, with a smile. "Frank would
scold me if he knew it."
"Be you ready for supper, ma'am?" asked a servant, putting in her head
at the door. The only maid kept: for both Frank and his wife knew that
their best help to getting on was economy.
"Not yet, Sally. I shall wait for your master."
"Well, I've put it on the table, ma'am; and I'm just going to step
across now to Hester Bitton's, and tell her she'll be wanted here
to-morrow."
Annet went into the porch, and stood there looking out for her husband,
shading her eyes with her hand from the red glare. Some business
connected with stock took him to Worcester that day, and he had started
in the early morning; but Annet had expected him home earlier than this.
There he was, riding down the road at a sharpish trot; Annet heard
the horse's hoofs before she saw him. He waved his hand to her in the
distance, and she fluttered her white handkerchief back again. Thorpe,
the indoor man, appeared to take the horse.
Francis Radcliffe had been changing for the better during the past
twelvemonth. Regular habits and regular hours, and a mind healthily
occupied, had done great things for him. His face was bright, his blue
eyes were clear, and his smile and his voice were alike cheering as he
got off the horse and greeted his wife.
"You are late, Frank! It is ever so much past eight."
"Our clocks are fast: I've found that out to-day, Annet, But I could not
get back before."
He had gone into the parlour, had kissed her, and was disincumbering his
pockets of various parcels: she helping him. Both were laughing, for
there seemed to be no end to them. They contained articles wanted for
the morrow: macaroons, and potted lampreys, and lots of good things.
"Don't say again that I forget your commissions, Annet."
"Never again, Frank. How good you are! But what is in this one? it feels
soft."
"That's for yourself," said Frank. "Open it."
Cutting the string, the paper flew apart, disclosing a baby's cloak of
white braided cashmere. Annet laughed and blushed.
"Oh, Frank! How could you?"
"Why, I heard you say you must get one."
"Yes--but--not just yet. It may not be wanted, you know."
"Stuff! The thing was in Mrs. What's-her-name's window in High Street,
staring passers-by in the face; so I went in, and bought it."
"It's too beautiful," murmured Annet, putting it reverently into the
paper, as if she mistook it for a baby. "And how has the day gone,
Frank? Could you buy the sheep?"
"Yes; all right. The sheep--Annet, who _do_ you think is coming here
to-morrow? Going to honour us as one of the guests?"
At the break in the sentence, Frank had flung himself into a chair, and
thrown his head back, laughing. Annet wondered.
"Stephen! It's true. He had gone to Worcester after some sheep himself.
I asked whether we should have the pleasure of seeing them here, and he
curtly said that he was coming, but couldn't answer for Mrs. Radcliffe.
Had the Pope of Rome told me he was coming, I should not have been more
surprised."
"Stephen's wife took no notice of the invitation."
"Writing is not in her line: or in his either. Something must be in the
wind, Annet: neither he nor his wife has been inside our doors yet."
They sat down to supper, full of chat: as genial married folks always
are, after a day's separation. And it was only when the house was at
rest, and Annet was lighting the bed-candle, that she remembered a
letter lying on the mantel-piece.
"Oh, Frank, I ought to have given it to you at once; I quite forgot it.
This letter came for you by this morning's post."
Frank sat down again, drew the candle to him, and read it. It was from
one of his former friends, a Mr. Briarly; offering on his own part and
on that of another former friend, one Pratt, a visit to Pitchley's Farm.
Instincts arise to all of us: instincts that it might be well to trust
to oftener than we do. A powerful instinct, _against_ the offered visit,
rushed into the mind of Francis Radcliffe. But the chances are, that, in
the obligations of hospitality, it would not have prevailed, even had
the chance been afforded him.
"Cool, I must say!" said Frank, with a laugh. "Look here, Annet; these
two fellows are going to take us by storm to-morrow. If I don't want
them, says Briarly, I must just shut the door in their faces."
"But you'll be glad to see them, won't you, Frank?" she remarked in her
innocence.
"Yes. I shall like well enough to see them again. It's our busy time,
though: they might have put it off till after harvest."
As many friends went to this entertainment at Pitchley's Farm as liked
to go. Mr. Brandon was one of them: he walked over with us--with me, and
Tod, and the Squire, and the mater. Stephen Radcliffe and his wife were
there, Becca in a black silk with straps of rusty velvet across it.
Stephen mostly sat still and said nothing, but Becca's sly eyes were
everywhere. Frank and his wife, well dressed and hospitable, welcomed
us all; and the board was well spread with cold meats and dainties.
Old Brandon had a quiet talk with Annet in a corner of the porch. He
told her he was glad to find Frank seemed likely to do well at the farm.
"He tries his very best, sir," she said.
"Ay. Somehow I thought he would. People said 'Frank Radcliffe has his
three hundred a-year to fall back upon when he gets out of Pitchley's':
but I fancied he might stay at Pitchley's instead of getting out of it."
"We are getting on as well as we can be, sir, in a moderate way."
"A moderate way is the only safe way to get on," said Mr. Brandon,
putting his white silk handkerchief corner-wise on his head against the
sun. "That's a true saying, He who would be rich in twelve months is
generally a beggar in six. You are helping Frank well, my dear. _I_ have
heard of it: how industrious you are, and keep things together. It's not
often a good old head like yours is set upon young shoulders."
Annet laughed. "My shoulders are not so very young, sir. I was
twenty-four last birthday."
"That's young to manage a farm, child. But _you've_ had good training;
you had an industrious mother"--indicating an old lady on the lawn in a
big lace cap and green gown. "I can tell you what--when I let Frank
Radcliffe have the lease, I took into consideration that you were coming
here as well as he. Why!--who are these?"
Two stylish-looking fellows were dashing up in a dog-cart; pipes in
their mouths, and portmanteaus behind them. Shouting and calling
indiscriminately about for Frank Radcliffe; for a man to take the horse
and vehicle, that they had contrived to charter at the railway terminus;
for a glass of bitter beer apiece, for they were confoundedly dry--there
was no end of a commotion.
They were the two visitors from London, Briarly and Pratt. Their tones
moderated somewhat when they saw the company. Frank came out; and
received a noisy greeting that might have been heard at York. One of
them trod on Mr. Brandon's corns as he went in through the porch. Annet
looked half frightened.
"Come to stay here!--gentlemen from London!--Frank's former friends!"
repeated old Brandon, listening to her explanation. "Fine friends, I
should say! Frank Radcliffe,"--laying hold of him as he was coming back
from giving directions to his servant--"how came you to bring those men
down into your home?"
"They came of their own accord, Mr. Brandon."
"Friends of yours, I hear?"
"Yes, I knew them in the old days."
"Oh. Well--_I_ should not like to go shouting and thundering up to a
decent house with more aboard me than I could carry. Those men have both
been drinking."
Frank was looking frightfully mortified. "I am afraid they have," he
said. "The heat of the day and the dust on the journey must have caused
them to take more than they were aware of. I'm very sorry. I assure you,
Mr. Brandon, they are really quiet, good fellows."
"May be. But the sooner you see their backs turned, the better, young
man."
From that day, the trouble set in. Will it be believed that Frank
Radcliffe, after keeping himself straight for ever so much more than a
year, fell away again? Those two visitors must have found their quarters
at Pitchley's Farm agreeable, for they stayed on and on, and made no
sign of going away. They were drinkers, hard and fast. They drank,
themselves, and they seduced Frank to drink--though perhaps he did not
require much seduction. Frank's ale was poured out like water. Dozens of
port, ordered and paid for by Briarly, arrived from the wine-merchant's;
Pratt procured cases of brandy. From morning till night liquor was under
poor Frank's nose, tempting him to sin. _Their_ heads might be strong
enough to stand the potions; Frank's was not. It was June when the new
life set in; and on the first of September, when all three staggered in
from a day's shooting, Frank was in a fever and curiously trembling from
head to foot.
By the end of the week he was strapped down in his bed, a raving madman;
Duffham attending him, and two men keeping guard.
Duffham made short work with Briarly and Pratt. He packed them and their
cases of wine and their portmanteaus off together; telling them they
had done enough mischief for one year, and he must have the house quiet
for both its master and mistress. Frank's malady was turning to typhus
fever, and a second doctor was called in from Evesham.
The next news was, that Pitchley's Farm had a son and heir. They called
it Francis. It did not live many days, however: how was a son and heir
likely to live, coming to that house of fright and turmoil? Frank's
ravings might be heard all over it; and his poor wife was nearly
terrified out of her bed.
The state of things went on. October came in, and there was no change.
It was not known whether Annet would live or die. Frank was better in
health, but his mind was gone.
"There's one chance for him," said Duffham, coming across to Dyke Manor
to the Squire: "and that is, a lunatic asylum. At home he cannot be
kept; he is raving mad. No time must be lost in removing him."
"You think he may get better in an asylum?" cried the Squire, gloomily.
"Yes. I say it is his best chance. His wife, poor thing, is horrified at
the thought: but there's nothing else to be done. The calmness of an
asylum, the sanatory rules and regulations observed there, will restore
him, if anything will."
"How is _she_?" asked the Squire.
"About as ill as she can be. She won't leave her bed on this side
Christmas. And the next question is, Squire--where shall he be placed?
Of course we cannot act at all without your authority."
The Squire, you see, was Frank Radcliffe's trustee. At the present
moment Frank was dead in the eye of the law, and everything lay with the
Squire. Not a sixpence of the income could any one touch now, but as he
pleased to decree.
After much discussion, in which Stephen Radcliffe had to take his share,
according to law and order, Frank was conveyed to a small private asylum
near London. It belonged to a Dr. Dale: and the Evesham doctor strongly
recommended it. The terms seemed high to us: two hundred pounds a-year:
and Stephen grumbled at them. But Annet begged and prayed that money
might not be spared; and the Squire decided to pay it. So poor Frank was
taken to town; and Stephen, as his nearest male relative--in fact, his
only one--officially consigned him to the care of Dr. Dale.
And that's the jolly condition things were in, that Christmas, at
Pitchley's Farm. Its master in a London madhouse, its mistress in her
sick-bed, and the little heir in Church Dykely churchyard. David Skate,
like the good brother he was, took up his quarters at the farm, and
looked after things.
It was in January that Annet found herself well enough to get upon her
legs. The first use she made of them was to go up to London to see her
husband. But the sight of her so much excited Frank that Dr. Dale begged
her not to come again. It was, he said, taking from Frank one chance of
his recovery. So Annet gave her promise not to do so, and came back to
Pitchley's sobbing and sighing.
Things went on without much change till May. News came of Frank
periodically, chiefly to Stephen Radcliffe, who was the recognized
authority in Dr. Dale's eyes. On the whole it was good. The improvement
in him, though slow, was gradual: and Dr. Dale felt quite certain now of
his restoration. In May, the cheering tidings arrived that Frank was
all but well; and Stephen Radcliffe, who went to London for a fortnight
about that time and saw Frank twice, confirmed it.
Stephen's visit up arose in this way. One Esau D. Stettin (that's how
he wrote his name), who owned land in Canada, came to this country on
business, and brought news to the Torr of Tom Radcliffe. Tom had every
chance of doing well, he said, and was quite steady--and this was true.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen were almost as glad to hear it as if a fortune
had been left them. But, to ensure his doing well and to make his farm
prosperous, Tom wanted no end of articles sent out to him: the latest
improvements in agricultural implements; patent wheelbarrows, and all
the rest of it. For Stephen to take the money out of his pocket to
purchase the wheelbarrows was like taking the teeth from his head; but
as Esau D. Stettin--who was above suspicion--confirmed Tom's need of
the things, Stephen decided to do it. He went up to London, to buy the
articles and superintend their embarkation, and it was during that time
that he saw Frank. Upon returning to the Torr, he fully bore out Dr.
Dale's opinion that Frank was recovering his mind, was, in fact, almost
well; but he privately told the Squire some other news that qualified
it.
Frank's health was failing. While his mind was resuming its tone, his
body was wasting. He was, Ste said, a mere shadow; and Dr. Dale feared
that he would not last very long after complete sanity set in.
How sorry we all were, I need not say. With all his failings and his
instability, every one liked Frank Radcliffe. They kept it from Annet.
She was but a shadow herself: had fretted her flesh to fiddlestrings;
and Duffham's opinion was that she stood a good chance of dwindling
away till nothing was left of her but a shroud and a coffin.
"Would it be of any use my going up to see him, poor fellow?" asked the
Squire, sadly down in the mouth.
"Not a bit," returned Stephen. "Dale would be sure not to admit you: so
much depends on Frank's being kept free from excitement. Why, he wanted
to deny me, that Dale; but I insisted on my right to go in. I mean to
see him again, too, before many days are over."
"Are you going to London again?" asked the Squire, rather surprised. It
was something new for Stephen Radcliffe to be a gad-about.
"I shall have to go, I reckon," said Stephen, ungraciously. "I've to see
Stettin before he sails."
Stephen Radcliffe did go up again, apparently much against his will, to
judge by the ill words he gave to it. And the report he brought back of
Frank that time was rather more cheering.
* * * * *
The Squire was standing one hot morning in the yard in his light buff
coat, blowing up Dwarf Giles for something that had gone wrong in the
stables, when a man was seen making his way from the oak-walk towards
the yard. The June hay-making was about, and the smell of the hay was
wafted across to us on the wings of the summer breeze.
"Who's that, Johnny?" asked the pater: for the sun was shining right in
his eyes.
"It--it looks like Stephen Radcliffe, sir."
"You may tell him by his rusty suit of velveteen," put in Tod; who stood
watching a young brood of ducklings in the duck-pond, and the agonies of
the hen that had hatched them.
Stephen Radcliffe it was. He had a stout stick in his hand, and his
face was of a curious leaden colour. Which, with him, took the place
of paleness.
"I've had bad news, Mr. Todhetley," he began, in low tones, without any
preliminary greeting. "Frank's dead."
The Squire's straw hat, which he chanced to have taken off, dropped on
the stones. "Dead! Frank!" he exclaimed in an awestruck tone. "It can't
be true."
"Just the first thought that struck me when I opened the letter," said
Stephen, drawing one from his pocket. "Here it is, though, in black and
white."
His hands shook like anything as he held out the letter. It was from one
of the assistants at Dale's--a Mr. Pitt: the head doctor, under Dale,
Stephen explained. Frank had died suddenly, it stated, without warning
of any kind, so that there was no possibility of apprising his friends;
and it requested Mr. Radcliffe to go up without delay.
"It is a dreadful thing!" cried the Squire.
"So it is, poor fellow," agreed Stephen. "I never thought it was going
to end this way; not yet awhile, at any rate. For him, it's a happy
release, I suppose. He'd never ha' been good for anything."
"What has he died of?" questioned Tod.
The voice, or the question, seemed to startle Stephen. He looked sharply
round, as if he hadn't known Tod was there, an ugly scowl on his face.
"I expect we shall hear it was heart disease," he said, facing the
Squire and turning his back upon Tod.
"Why do you say that, Mr. Radcliffe? Was anything the matter with his
heart?"
"Dale had some doubts of it, Squire. He thought that was the cause of
his wasting away."
"You never told us that."
"Because I never believed it. A Radcliffe never had a weak heart yet.
And it's only a thought o' mine: he might have died from something else.
Laid hands on himself, maybe."
"For goodness' sake don't bring up such an ill thought as that," cried
the pater explosively. "Wait till you know."
"Yes, I must wait till I know," said Stephen, sullenly. "And a precious
inconvenience it is to me to go up at this moment when my hay's just
cut! Frank's been a bother to me all his life, and he must even be a
bother now he's dead."
"Shall I go up for you?" asked the Squire: who in his distress at the
sudden news would have thought nothing of offering to start for
Kamschatka.
"No good if you did," growled Stephen, folding up the letter that the
pater handed back to him. "They'd not as much as release him to be
buried without me, I expect. I shall bring him down here," added
Stephen, jerking his head in the direction of the churchyard.
"Yes, yes, poor fellow--let him lie by his mother," said the Squire.
Stephen said a good-morrow, meant for the whole of us; and had rounded
the duck-pond on his exit, when he stopped, and turned back again to the
pater.
"There'll be extra expenses, I suppose, up at Dale's. Have I your
authority to discharge them?"
"Of course you have, Mr. Radcliffe. Or let Dale send in the account to
me, if you prefer it."
He went off without another word, his head down; his thick stick held
over his shoulder. Tho Squire rubbed his face, and wondered what on
earth was the next thing to do in this unhappy crisis.
Annet was in Wales with her mother at some seaside place. It would be a
dreadful shock to her. Getting the address from David Skate, the Squire
wrote to break it to them in the best manner he could. But now, a
mischance happened to that letter. Welsh names are difficult to spell;
the pater's pen put L for Y, or X for Z, something of that sort; and the
letter went to a wrong town altogether, and finally came back to him
unopened. Stephen Radcliffe had returned then.
Stephen did not keep his word, instead of bringing Frank down, he left
him in London in Finchley Cemetery. "The heat of the weather," he
pleaded by way of excuse when the Squire blew him up. "There was some
delay; an inquest, and all that; and unless we'd gone to the expense of
lead, it couldn't be done; Dale said so. What does it signify? He'll lie
as quiet there as he would here."
"And was it the heart that was wrong?" asked the pater.
"No. It was what they called 'effusion on the brain,'" replied Stephen.
"Dale says it's rather a common case with lunatics, but he never feared
it for Frank."
"It is distressing to think his poor wife did not see him. Quite a
misfortune."
"Well, we can't help it: it was no fault of ours," retorted Stephen:
who had actually had the decency to put himself into a semblance of
mourning. "The world 'ud go on differently for many of us, Squire, if
we could foresee things."
And that was the end of Francis Radcliffe!
"Finchley Cemetery!" exclaimed Mr. Brandon, when he heard it. "That
Stephen Radcliffe has been at his stingy tricks again. You can bury
people for next to nothing there."
Poor Annet came home in her widow's weeds, In health she was better;
and might grow strong in time. There was no longer any suspense: she
knew the worst; that was in itself a rest. The great doubt to be
encountered now was, whether she could keep on Pitchley's Farm. Mr.
Brandon was willing to risk it: and David Skate took up his abode at the
farm for good, and would do his best in all ways. But the three hundred
a-year income, that had been the chief help and stay of herself and
Frank, was gone.
It had lapsed to Stephen. Nothing could be said against that in law, for
old Mr. Radcliffe's will had so decreed it; but it seemed a very cruel
thing for every shilling to leave her, an injustice, a wrong. The tears
ran down her pale face as she spoke of it one day at Pitchley's to the
Squire: and he, going in wholesale for sympathy, determined to have a
tussel with Stephen.
"You can't _for shame_ take it all from her, Stephen Radcliffe," said
the Squire, after walking over to Sandstone Torr the next morning. "You
must not leave her quite penniless."
"I don't take it from her," replied Stephen, rumpling up his grizzled
hair. "It comes to me of right. It is my own."
"Now don't quibble, Stephen Radcliffe," said the Squire, rubbing his
face, for he went into a fever as usual over his argument, and the day
was hot. "The poor thing was your brother's wife, and you ought to
consider that."
"Francis was a fool to marry her. An unsteady man like him always is a
fool to marry."
"Well, he did marry her: and I don't see that he was a fool at all for
it. I wish I'd got the whip-hand of those two wicked blades who came
down here and turned him from his good ways. I wonder how they'll answer
for it in heaven."
"Would you like to take a drop of cider?" asked Stephen.
"I don't care if I do."
The cider was brought in by Eunice Gibbon: a second edition, so far as
looks went, of Mrs. Stephen Radcliffe, whose younger sister she was. She
lived there as servant, the only one kept. Holt had left when old Mr.
Radcliffe died.
"Come, Stephen Radcliffe, you must make Annet some allowance," said the
Squire, after taking a long draught and finding the cider uncommonly
sour. "The neighbours will cry out upon you if you don't."
"The neighbours can do as they choose."
"Just take this much into consideration. If that little child of theirs
had lived, the money would have been his."
"But he didn't live," argued Stephen.
"I know he didn't--more's the pity. He'd have been a consolation to her,
poor thing. Come! you can't, I say, take all from her and leave her with
nothing."
"Nothing! Hasn't she got the farm-stock and the furniture? She's all
that to the good. 'Twas bought with Frank's money."
"No, it was not. Half the money was hers. Look here. Unless she gets
help somewhere, I don't see how she is to stay on at Pitchley's."
"And 'twould be a sight better for her not to stay on at Pitchley's,"
retorted Stephen. "Let her go back to her mother's again, over in the
other parish. Or let her emigrate. Lots of folks is emigrating now."
"This won't do, Stephen Radcliffe," said the Squire, beginning to lose
his temper. "You can't for shame bring every one down upon your head.
Allow her a trifle, man, out of the income that has lapsed to you: let
the world have to say that you are generous for once."
Well, not to pursue the contest--which lasted, hot and sharp, for a
couple of hours, for the Squire, though he kept getting out of one
passion into another, would not give in--I may as well say at once that
Stephen at last yielded, and agreed to allow her fifty pounds a-year.
"Just for a year or so," as he ungraciously put it, "while she turned
herself round."
And it was so tremendous a concession for Stephen Radcliffe that no one
believed it at first, the Squire included. It must be intended as a
thanksgiving for his brother's death, said the world.
"Only, Ste Radcliffe is not the one to offer thanksgivings," observed
old Brandon. "Take care that he pays it, Squire."
And thus things fell into the old grooves again, and the settling down
of Frank Radcliffe amongst us seemed but as a very short episode in
Church Dykely life. Stephen Radcliffe, in funds now, bought an adjoining
field that was to be sold, and added it to his land: but he and his wife
and the Torr kept themselves more secluded than ever. Frank's widow took
up her old strength by degrees, and worked and managed incessantly:
she in the house, and David Skate out of it; to keep Pitchley's Farm
together. And the autumn drew on.
The light of the moon streamed in slantwise upon us as we sat round the
bay-window. Tod and I had just got home for the Michaelmas holidays: and
we sat talking after dinner in the growing dusk. There was always plenty
to relate, on getting home from school. A dreadful thing had happened
this last quarter: one of the younger ones had died at a game of Hare
and Hounds. I'll tell you of it some time. The tears glistened in Mrs.
Todhetley's eyes, and we all seemed to be talking at once.
"Mrs. Francis Radcliffe, ma'am."
Old Thomas had opened the door and interrupted us. Annet came in
quietly, and sat down after shaking hands all round. Her face looked
pale and troubled. We asked her to stay tea; but she would not.
"It is late to come in," she said, some apology in her tone. "I meant
to have been here earlier; but it has been a busy day, and I have had
interruptions besides."
This seemed to imply that she had come over for some special purpose.
Not another word, however, did she say. She just sat in silence, or
next door to it: answering Yes and No in an abstracted sort of way when
spoken to, and staring out into the moonlight like any one dreaming. And
presently she got up to leave.
We went out with her and walked across the field; the pater, I, and Tod.
Nearly every blade of the short grass could be seen as distinctly as
in the day. At the first stile she halted, saying she expected to meet
David there, who had gone on to Dobbs the blacksmith on some errand
connected with the horses.
Tod saw a young hare scutter across the grass, and rushed after it, full
chase. The moon, low in the heavens, as autumn moons mostly are, lighted
up the perplexity on Annet's face. It _was_ perplexed. Suddenly she
turned it on the Squire.
"Mr. Todhetley, I am sure you must wonder what I came for."
"Well, I thought you wanted something," said the Squire candidly. "We
are always pleased to have you; you ought to have stayed tea."
"I did want something. But I really could not muster courage to begin
upon it. The longer I sat there--like a statue, as I felt--the more my
tongue failed me. Perhaps I can say it here."
It was a curious thing she had to tell, and must have sounded to the
Squire's ears like an incident out of a ghost story. The gist of it was
this: an impression had taken hold of her mind that her husband had not
been fairly dealt with. In plain words, had not come fairly by his end.
The pater listened, and could make no sense of it.
"I can't tell how or when the idea arose," she said; "it seems to have
floated in my mind so long that I do not trace the beginning. At first
it was but the merest shadow of a doubt; hardly that; but it has grown
deeper and darker, and I cannot rest for it."
"Bless my heart!" cried the Squire. "Johnny, hold my hat a minute."
"Just as surely as that I see that moon in the sky, sir," she went on,
"do I seem to see in my mind that some ill was wrought to Frank by his
brother. Mrs. Radcliffe said it would be."
"Dear me! What Mrs. Radcliffe?"
"Frank's mother. She had the impression of it when she was dying, and
she warned Frank that it would be so."
"Poor Selina! But--my dear lady, how do you know that?"
"My husband told me. He told me one night when we were sitting alone in
the parlour. Not that he put faith in it. He had escaped Stephen's toils
until then, he said in a joking tone, and thought he could take care of
himself and escape them still. But I fear he did not."
"Now what is it you do fear?" asked the Squire. "Come."
She glanced round in dread, and then spoke with considerable hesitation
and in a low whisper.
"I fear--that Stephen--may have--murdered him."
"Mercy upon us!" uttered the Squire, recoiling a step or two.
She put her elbow on the stile and raised her hand to her face, showing
out so pale and distressed under its white net border.
"It lies upon me, sir--a great agony. I don't know what to do."
"But it _could not_ be," cried the Squire, collecting his scared senses.
"Your imagination must run away with you, child. Frank died up at Dr.
Dale's; Stephen Radcliffe was down here at the time."
"Yes--I am aware of all that, sir. But--I believe it was as I fear. I
don't pretend to account for it; to say what Stephen did or how he did
it--but my fears are dreadful. I have no peace night or day."
The Squire stared at her and shook his head. I am sure he thought her
brain was touched.
"My dear Mrs. Frank, this must be pure fancy. Stephen Radcliffe is a
hard and griping man, not sticking at a trick or two where his pocket is
concerned, but he wouldn't do such a thing as this. No, no; surly as he
may be, he could not be guilty of murder."
She took her arm off the stile, with a short shiver. David Skate came
into sight; Tod's footsteps were heard brushing the grass.
"Good-night, sir," she hurriedly said; and was over the stile before we
could help her.