 CHAPTER 17 A genuine summer day pays a visit nearly once in the season of flamborough, and when it does come it has a wonderful effect. Often the sun shines brightly there, and often their air broods hot with thunder, but the sun hoses its brightness to sweep of the wind, which sweeps away his warmth as well. While, on the other hand, the thunder-clouds like heavy smoke capping the headland may oppress the air with heat, but are not of sweet summer's beauty. For once, however, the fine day came, and the natives made haste to revile it. Before it was three hours old they had found a hundred and fifty faults with it. Most of the men truly wanted a good sleep after being lively all the night upon the waves, and the heat and the yellow light came in upon their eyes, and set the flies buzzing all about them, and even the women who had slept out their time and talked quietly like the clock ticking, were vexed with the sun, which kept their kettles from good boiling and wrote upon their faces the years of their life, but each made allowance for her neighbor's appearance on the strength of the troubles she had been through. For the matter of that the sun cared not the selvedge of a shadow that was thought of him, but went his bright way with a scattering of clouds and a tossing of vapours anywhere. Upon the few fishermen who gave up hope of sleep, and came to stand dazed in their doorways the glare of white walls and chalky stones and dusty roads, produced the same effect as if they had put on their father's goggles. Therefore they yawned their way back to their room and poked up the fire, without which if flamborough no hot weather would be half hot enough. The children, however, were wide awake, and so were the washer-women, whose turn had been to sleep last night for the labours of the morning. These were plying hand and tongue in a little field by the three crossroads, where gaffers and gamers of bygone time had set up troughs of proven wood, and the bilge of long storm-beaten boat near a pool of softish water. Stout brown arms were roped with curd, and wedding-rings looked slippery things, and thumbnails bordered within venerate black, like prod beans ripe for planting, shone through a hubbub of snowy froth, while sluicing and ringing and rinsing went on over the bubbled and lathery turf, and every handy bush or stub and every tump of wiry grass was sheeted with white like a ship in full sail and shining in the sun glare. From time to time these active women glanced back at their cottages to see that the hearth was still alive, or at their little daughter squatting under the low wall which kept them from the road, where they had got all the babies to nurse and their toes and other members to compare, and dandelion chains to make. But from their washing-ground the women could not see the hill that brings to the bottom of the village the crooked road from Surby. Down that hill came a horseman slowly, with nobody to notice him, though himself on the watch for everybody, and there in the bottom below at the first cottage he allowed his horse to turn aside and cool hot-feed and leathery lips in a brown pool spread by the Providence for the comfort of way-worn roadsters. The horse looked as if he had labored far, while his rider was calmly resting, for the cross-felled sutures of his flank were crusted with gray perspiration and runnels of his shoulders were dabbled, and now it behooved him to be careful how he sucked the earthy-flavored water, so as to keep time with the heaving of his barrel. In a word he was drinking as if he would burst, as his hostler at home often told him, but the clever old roadster knew better than that, and timing it well between snorts and coughs was tightening his girths with deep pleasure. "'Enough, my friend, is as good as a feast,' said his rider to him gently yet strongly pulling up the far stretch-head, and too much is worse than a famine. The horse, though he did not belong to this gentleman, was hired by him only yesterday, had already discovered, with him on his back, his own judgment must lie dormant, so that he quietly whisked his tail in glance with regret at the waist of his drip, and then with a roundabout step to prolong the pleasure of this little wade, sadly but steadily out he walked, and after the necessary shake began his first invasion of the village. His rider said nothing, but kept a sharp look out. Now this was Master Jeffrey Mordox, of the ancient city of York, a general factor and land agent. What a general factor is, or is not, none but himself can pretend to say, even in these days of definition and far less in times when thought was loose, and perhaps Mr. Mordox would rather have it so, but any one who bade him well could trust him, according to the ancient state of things. To look at him nobody would even dare to think that money could be a consideration to him, or the name of it other than an insult, so lofty and steadfast as whole appearance was, and he put back his shoulders so manfully, upright, stiff, and well appointed with a Roman nose. He rode with the seat of a soldier in the decision of a tax collector. From his long steel spurs to his hard-coned hat not a soft line was there, nor a feeble curve. Stern honesty and strict purpose stamped every open piece of him so strictly that a man in a hedgerow fostering devious principles and resolve to try them could do no more than run away and be thankful for the chance of it. But in those rough and dangerous times when thousands of people were starving the view of a pistol-butt went further than the sternest aspect of strong ice. Jeffrey Mordox well knew this and did not neglect his knowledge. The brown walnut stock of a heavy pistol shone above eitherholster and a cavalry sword and a leathern scabbard hung with an easy reach of hand. All together this gentleman seemed not one to be rashly attacked by daylight. No man had ever dreamed as yet of coming to this outlandish place for pleasure of the prospect, so that when his lonely rider was decried from the washing-field over the low wall of the lane the women made up their minds at once that it must be a justice of the peace, or some great rider of the revenue, on his way to see Mr. Up-and-Down, or at the least a high constable concerned with some great sheep-stealing. Not that any such crime was known in the village itself of Flamborough, which confined its operations to the sea. But in the outer world of land that Malady was rife just now, and a Flamborough man, too fond of mutton, had farmed some sheep on the towns and lost them, which was considered a judgment on him for willfully quitting ancestral ways. But instead of turning the corner where the rector was trying to grow some trees, the stranger kept on along the rugged highway, in between the straggling cottages so that the women rinsed their arms and turned round to take a good look at him, over the brambles and furs, and the wall of chalky flint and rubble. This was just what I wanted, thought Jeffrey Mordox. Skill makes luck, and I am always lucky. Now, first of all, to recruit the inner man. At this time Mrs. Theophilia Precious, generally called Tapsee, the widow of a man who had been lost at sea, kept the cod with a hook in his gills. The only hostelry in Flamborough village, although there was another toward the landing. The cod had been painted from life or death by a clever old fisherman who understood him, and he looked so firm and stiff and hard that a healthy man with purse enough to tire of butcher's meat might grow an appetite by gazing. Mr. Mordox pulled up and fixed steadfast eyes upon this noble fish, and while a score of sharp eyes from the green and white meadow were fixed steadfastly on him. How he shines with salt water! How firm he looks in his gills as bright as a rose in June! I have never yet tasted a cod at first hand. It is early in the day, but the air is hungry. My expenses are paid, and I mean to live well, for a strong mind will be required. I will have a cut out of that fish to begin with. Inditing of this, and of matters even better, the rider turned into the yard of the inn. Where an old boat, as usual, stood for a horse trough, and sea-tubs served as buckets. Strong sunshine glared upon the over-sailing tiles, and white buckled walls and cracky lintels, but nothing showed life, except an old yellow cat and a pair of house martins, who had scarcely time to breathe such a number of little heads flipped out with a white flap under the beak of each, demanding momentous viddling. At these the yellow cat winked with dreamy joyfulness, well aware how fat they would be when they came to tumble out. What a place of vile laziness! grumbled Mr. Mordox as he got off his horse after vainly shouting, "'Hostler!' and led him to the buyer, which did duty for a stable. York is a lazy hole enough, but the further you go from it, the lazier they get. No energy, no movement, no ambition, anywhere. What a country! What a people! I shall have to go back and enlist the washer-women!' A Yorkshire man might have answered this complaint if he thought it deserving of an answer. My requesting, Master Mordox, not to be so over-quick, but to bide a wee bit longer before he made so sure the vast superiority of his own wit. For the long heads might prove better than the sharp ones at the end of it. However, the general factor thought that he could not have come to a better place to get all that he wanted out of everybody. He put away his saddle and the saddlebags and sword and a ruffled sea-chest with a padlock to it, and having a sprinkle of chaff at the bottom, then he calmly took the key as if the place were his. Gave his horse a rackful of long-cut grass and presented himself with the lordly aspect at the front door of the silent inn. Here he made noise enough to stir the dead, and at the conclusion of a reasonable time during which he had finished a pleasant dream to the simmering of the kitchen-pot. A landlady showed herself in the distance, feeling for her keys with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other. This was the headwoman of the village, but seldom tyrannical, unless ill-treated, with all precious, tall and square, and of no mean capacity. Young man! With a deep voice she said, What is that you doing with all the clatter? Alas, my dear madam, I am not a young man, and therefore time is more precious to me. I have lived out half my allotted span, and shall never complete it unless I get food. To life a man is a hoary! replied widow Precious with slow truth. Young man, what do you have? Dinner, madam, dinner at the earliest moment. I have ridden far, my back is sore, and my substance is calling for renewal. Eight, eight, eight. That's what all the minkens. Would you come in, and crack of it? Madam, you are most hospitable, and the place altogether seems to be of that description. What a beautiful room. May I sit down? I perceive a fine smell of most delicate soup. Ah, you know how to do things of flamborough. Young man, you can add none in your body. Young's for micelle and the children. My excellent hostess, mistake me not. I do not aspire to such lofty potluck. I simply refer to it as proof of your admirable culinary powers. Young's big words. What do you have to eat? A fish like that upon your signpost, madam, or at least the upper half of him, and three dozen oysters just out of the sea, swimming in their own juice with lovely melted butter. Young mong has their gutten to brass. Them at eights often forgets to reckon. Yes, madam, I have the needful in abundance. Essay-signum, which is Latin, madam, for the stamps of the king upon twenty guineas, one to be deposited in your fair hand for a taste, for a sniff, madam, such as I had of your pot. Na, na, no tokens till I hand them. What would you boys be aiding with a boilet? The general factor, perceiving his way, was steadfast to the shoulder-cut of a decent cod. And though the full season was scarcely yet come, Mrs. Precious knew where to find one. Oysters there were none, but she gave him boiled limpets, and he thought it the matter of the place that made them tough. After these things he had a duck of the noblest and best that live anywhere in England. Such ducks were then, and perhaps are still, the most remarkable residents of Flamborough. Not only because the air is fine and the puddles and the dabblings of extraordinary merit, and the wind fluffs up their pretty feathers while alive, as the eloquent polterer by and by will do, but because they have really distinguished birth, and adventurous, chivalrous, and bright blue-norman blood, to such purpose do the gay young vikings of the world of quack pour in, when the weather and the time of year invite, equipped with red boots and plumes of purple velvet to enchant the coy lady ducks in soft water, and eclipse a familiar and too legal drake. For a while they revel in the change of scene, the luxury of unsalted mud and scarcely rippled water, and the sweetness and culture of tamed dilly ducks, to whom their brilliant bravery, as well as an air of romance and billowy peril, commends them too seductively. The responsible sire of the pond is grieved, sinks his unappreciated bill into his back, and vainly reflects upon the vanity of love. From a loftier point of view, however, this is a fine provision, and Mr. Mordox always took a lofty view of everything. A beautiful duck, ma'am, a very grand duck. In his usual loud and masterful tone, he exclaimed to widow Precious, I understand your question now is to my ability to pay for him. Madam, he is worth the man's last shilling. A goose is a smaller and a coarser bird. In what manner do you get them? They get their own sales with the will of the Lord. What will your worship be for eight and come after? None of your puddings and buys, if you please, nor your excellent jellies and custards. A red Dutch cheese with a pat of fresh butter and another imperial pint of ale. Narjan is what I call a man, thought Mrs. Precious having neither pie nor pudding as Mr. Mordox was well aware. Easy to please, and I know of the what I want. I'm out of been born a flamborough, I'm of aid for a week, if I had them at tokens. Mr. Mordox felt that he had made his footings, but he was not the man to abide for a week, where a day would suit his purpose. His rule was never to beat about the bush when he could break through it, and he thought that he saw his way to do so now. Having finished his meal, he sat down his knife with a bang, sat upright in the oaken chair, engaged in a bold yet pleasant matter at the sturdy hostess. You are wondering what has brought me here. That I will tell you in a very few words. Whatever I do is straightforward, madam, and all the world may know it. That has been my character throughout life, and in that respect I differ from the great bulk of mankind. You flamborof folk, however, are much of the very same nature as I am. We ought to get on well together. Times are very bad, very bad indeed. I could put a good trifle of money in your way, but you tell the truth without it, which is very, very noble. Yet people with a family have duties to discharge to them, and most sacrifice their feelings to affection. Fifty guineas is a tidy little figure, ma'am. With a famine growing in the land, no parent should turn his honest back upon fifty guineas, and to get the gold and do good at the same time is a very rare chance indeed. The speech was too much for widow Precious to carry to her subtle judgment and get verdict in her breath. She liked it on a whole, but yet there might be many things upon the other side. So she did what flamboro generally does when desirous to consider things as it generally is. That is to say she stood with her feet well apart and her arms of Kimbu and her head thrown back to give the hinder power to rest. Had no sign of speculation in her eyes, although they certainly were not dull. When these good people are in this frame of mind and body it is hard to say whether they look more wise or foolish. Mr. Mordox, impatient as he was, even after so fine a dinner, was not far from catching the infection of slow thought, which spreads itself as pleasantly as that of slow discourse. You are heeding me, madam. You have quick wits, he said, without any sarcasm, for she rescued the time from waste by affording a study of the deepest wisdom. You are wondering how the money is to come, and whether it brings any risk with it. No, Mr. Precious, not a particle of risk. A little honest speaking is the one thing needed. The money comes as scores of times more freely for a wrongdoing. Your observation, madam, shows a deep acquaintance with the human race. Too often the money does come so, and thus it becomes mere mammon. On such occasions we should wash our hands and not forget the charities. But the beauty of money fairly come by is that we can keep it all, to do good in getting it and do good with it, and to feel ourselves better in every way, and our dear children happier. This is the true way of considering the question. I saw some pretty little deers peeping in, and wanted to give them a token or two, for I do love superior children. But you call them away, madam. You are too stern. Widow Precious had plenty of sharp sense to tell her that her children were by no means pretty deers to anybody but herself, and to herself only when in a very soft state of mind at other times they were but three goo-mouthed lasses and two luby loons with teeth enough for crunching up the dripping-band. Their worship speaketh fair, she said. Almost too fair, I'm doubting. Would you say what the manning is and what name goeth pledge for the fafty poon, sir? Mistress Precious, my meaning always is plainer than a pike-staff, and as to pledges the pledge is the hard cash down upon the nail, madam. Bank tokens may have, and a promisey to pay, with the sign of the dragon and a woman among sheeps. Madam, a bag of solid gold that can be weighed and counted, fifty new guineas from the mint of King George in a waterproof bag just fit to be buried at the foot of a tree, or well under the thatch, or sewn up in the sacking of your bed-stead, ma'am. Ah, pretty dreams! What pretty dreams with the virtuous knowledge of having done the right! Shall we say it is a bargain, ma'am, and wetted with a glass of my expense of the crystal spring that comes under the sea? No, sir, no. Not to the now-what. I never traffics with the devil, sir. There were a chap of flamborough, deed! My good madam, I cannot stop all the day. I have far to ride before nightfall. All that I want is simply this, and having gone so far I must tell you all, or make an enemy of you. I want to match this, and I have reason to believe that it can be matched in flamborough. Produce me the fellow, and I pay you fifty guineas. With these words Mr. Mordox took from an inner pocket a little pill-box, and thence produced a globe, or rather an oblate spheroid, of bright gold rather larger than a musket-ball, a fluted or cronald like a puppy-head, and stamped or embossed with marks like letters. Widowbrushes looked down at it as if to think what an extraordinary thing it was, but truly to hide from the stranger her surprise at the sudden recognition. For Robin Leith was a foremost favourite of hers, and most useful to her vocation, and neither fifty guineas nor five hundred should lead her to do him an injury. At a glance she had known that this bead must belong to the set from which Robin's earrings came, and perhaps it was her conscience which helped her to suspect that a trap was being laid for the free trade hero. To recover herself, and have time to think as well as for closer discretion, she invited Mr. Mordox to the choice-caste chamber. "'Sit ye down here about,' she said, opening a solid door into the inner room. Never gain no fear at all of the kraken of the cities. Fair and fair anew they be, though sketterish of their looks, sir. Sit ye down, ye worship. Fifty poons deserve a good room, without only loads of enemies. "'What a beautiful room,' exclaimed Mr. Mordox. I never should have thought of finding art and taste of such degree in a little place like Flamborough. Why, madam, you must have inherited it direct from the Danes themselves.' "'Naw, sir, naw. I fetched it up from the back of the say of the cobbles. Lookful, tuneeth, naw, heed to what we do.' "'Well, it is worth a great deal of heed. Lovely patterns of seaweed on the floor. No carpet can compare with them. Shells of—I am sure I don't know—fished up from the deep, no doubt, and shells innumerable, and stones that glitter and fish like glass, and tufts like lace, and birds with the most wonderful things in their mouths. Mistress Precious, you are too bad. The whole of it ought to go to London, where they make elections. Ah, sir, how ye be laughin' at me! But pretty might be said of them without only these.' The landlady smiled as she set for him a chair toward which he drawed gingerly, and bicking every step for his own sake as well as of the garniture. For the black oak floor was so oiled and polished to set off the pattern of the sea-flowers on it, which really were laid with no mean taste, and no small scents of color, that for slippery boots there was some barrel. "'This is a sacred as well as beautiful place,' said Mr. Mordox. I may finish my words with safety here. Madam, I commend your prudence as well as your excellent skill and industry. I should like to bring my daughter Arabella here. What a lesson she would gain for tapestry. But now again for business. What do you say? Unless I am mistaken, you have some knowledge of the matter, depending on this bobble. You must not suppose that I came to you at random. No, Madam, no. I have heard far away of your great intelligence. Caution and skill, and influence in this important town. Mr. Sprecious as the Mayor of Flamborough was said to me only last Saturday. If you would study the wise people there, hang up your hat in her noble hostelry. Madam, I have taken that advice and heartily rejoice at doing so. I am a man of few words, very few words, as you must have seen already, but of the strictest straightforwardness and deeds. And now again what do you say, Madam? Your Worship has left me with notes to say. Your Worship has said the moot all yourself. Now, mistress, mistress, precious, truly that is little too bad of you. It is out of my power to help admiring things which are utterly beyond me to describe, and a dinner of such cooking may enlarge the tongue. After all the fine things it has been rolling in. But business is my motto in the fewest words that may be. You know what I want. You will keep it to yourself, otherwise other people might demand the money. Through very simple channels you will find out whether the fellow thing to this can be found here or elsewhere. And if so, who has got it? And how it was come by, and everything else that can be learned about it. And when you know all, you just make a mark on this piece of paper. Ready folded an address, and then you will seal it and give it to the man who calls for the letters nearly twice a week. And when I get that I come and eat another duck, and have oysters with my codfish, which today we could not have except in the form of mussels, ma'am. No, not a mussel. They was all good feathers. Well, madam, they may have been unknown animals, but good they were, and as fresh as the day. Now, you will remember that my desire is to do good. I have nothing to do with the revenue, nor the magistrates, nor his majesty. I shall not even go to your parson, who is the chief authority, I am told, for I wish this matter to be kept quiet and beside the law altogether. The whole credit of it shall belong to you in a truly good action you will have performed, and done a little good for your own good self. As for this drinket I do not leave it with you, but I leave you this model in wax, ma'am, made by my daughter, who is very clever. From this you can judge quite as well as from the other. If there are any more of these things in Flamborough, as I have strong reason to believe, you will know best where to find them. And I need not tell you that they are almost certain to be in the possession of a woman. And you skillfully inquire without even letting them suspect it. Now I shall just stretch my legs a little and look at your noble prospect. And in three hours' time a little more refreshment, and then, Mr. Sprecious, you see the last of your obedient servant until you demand from him fifty gold guineas. After seeing to his horse again he set forth for a stroll, in the course of which he met with Dr. Uparound and his daughter. The rector looked hard at this distinguished stranger, as if he desired to know his name and expected to be accosted by him, while quick Miss Janetta glanced with undisguised suspicion and asked her father so that Mr. Mordox overheard it. What business such a man could have, and what could he come spying after in their quiet parish? The general factor raised his hat and passed on with a tranquil smile, taking the crooked path which leads along and around the cliffs. By way of the lighthouse from the north to the southern landing, the present lighthouse was not yet built, but an old brown tower which still exists had long been used as a signal station, for some a four by day and at night for beacon, in the times of war and tumult, and most people called it the Monument. The station was now a very small importance, and sometimes did nothing for a year together, but still it was very good and useful because it enabled an ancient tower whose feet had been carried away by a cannonball to draw a little money once a month and to think himself still a fine British bulwark. In the summertime this hero always slung his hammock here, with plenty of wind to rock him off to sleep. But in winter King Eolus himself could not have borne it. Monument Joe, as almost everybody called him, was a queer old character of days gone by, sturdy and silent but as honest as the sun he made his rounds as regularly as the great orb, and with equally beneficial to object. For twice a day he stumped to fetch his beer from widow Precious, and the third time to get his little panicking of Grog, and now the time was growing for that last important duty, when a stranger stood before him with a crown of peace in his hand. Now don't get up, Captain, don't disturb yourself, so Mr. Mordax graciously. Your country has claimed your activity, I see, and I hope it makes amends to you. At the same time I know that it very seldom does, except this little tribute from the admiration of a front. Old Joe took the silver piece and rung it on his tin tobacco box, then stowed it inside and said, Come on, what do you want of me? Your manners, my good sir, are scarcely on a par with your merits. I bribe no man. It is the last thing of whatever dream of doing. But whenever a question of memory arises, I have often observed a great failure of that power without, if you will excuse the expression, the administration of a little Greece. Smuggling? What about smuggling? Old Joe shut his mouth sternly, for he hated and scorned the coast guards whose wages were shamefully above his own, and who had the impudence to order him for signals, while on the other hand he found free trade of policy liberal and enlightening and inspiring. No, Captain, no, not a syllable of that. You have been in this place about 16 years. If you had only been here four years more, your evidence would have settled all I want to know. But no wreck can take place, of course, without your knowledge. None of that? Believe one have. There's a twist to the tide here, but what good to tell you land-lovers? You are right, I should never understand such things. But I find them wonderfully interesting. You are not a native of this place and knew nothing of flamboroll before you came here. Monument Joe gave a grunt at this in a long squirt of tobacco juice. And don't want, he said. Of course you are superior in every way superior. You find these people rough and far inferior in manners. But either, my good friend, you will reopen your tobacco box, or else you will answer me a few short questions, which trespass in no way upon your duty to the king or his loyal smugglers. Old Joe looked up, with weather-beaten eyes, and saw they had no fool to deal with in spite of all the soft polliver. The intensity of Mr. Mordox's eyes made him blink and mutter a bad word or two, but remained pretty much at his service. And the last intention he could entertain was that of restoring this fine crown-piece. Spake on, sir, he said, and I will spake a cordon. Very good. I shall give you very little trouble. I wish to know whether there was any rackier, kept quiet, perhaps, but still some ship lost, about three or four years before you came to this station. It does not matter what ship, any ship at all, which may have gone down without any faucet all. You know of none such. Very well, you were not here, and the people of this place are wonderfully close. But a veteran of the Royal Navy should know how to deal with them. Make your inquiries without seeming to inquire. The question is altogether private and cannot in any way bring you into trouble. Whereas if you find out anything you will be a made man and live like a gentleman. You hate the lawyers? All the honest seamen do. I am not the lawyer, and my object is to fire a broadside into them. Accept this guinea, and if it would suit you to have one every week for the rest of your life, I will pledge you my word for it. Paid in advance, if you only find out for me one little fact, of which I have no doubt whatever, that a merchant ship was cast away near this head about nineteen years ago. That ancient sailor was accustomed to surprises, but this, as he said, when he came to think of it, made a clean sweep of him, for and aft. Nevertheless, he had the presence of mine required for pocketing the guinea, which was too good for his tobacco-box, and as one thing at a time was quite enough upon his mind he probed away slowly to be sure there was no hole. Then he got up from his squatting form, with the usual activity of those who are supposed to have none left, and touched his brown hat standing cleverly. What be I to do for all this? He asked. Nothing more than what I have told you. To find out slowly and without saying why, and the way you sailors know how to do. Whether such a thing came to pass, as I suppose. You must not be stopped by the lies of anybody. Of course they will deny it, if they got some of the wrecking. Or it is just possible that no one even heard of it. And yet there may be some traces. Put two and two together, my good friend, and you have the very best chance of doing, and soon you may put two to that in your pocket. And twenty and a hundred, and as much as you can hold. When shall I see you good honour again, to score long run, and come to a reckoning? Master Joseph, work a wary course. Your rating for life will depend upon that. You may come to this address if you have anything important. Otherwise you shall soon hear of me again. Goodbye. END OF CHAPTER XVIII. GOYAL BAY While all the world was at cross purposes thus, Mr. Jelikorce, uneasy at some rumors he had heard, kept in caraway splitting his poor heel with indignation at the craftiness of free traders, farmer Annerley vexed at being put upon by people, without any daughter to console him, or catch shrimps, master Mordax pursuing a noble game strictly above board as usual. Robin Leith troubled in his largest principles a revolt against revenue by a nasty little pain that kept going to his heart, with an emptiness there as for another heart, and last, and perhaps, of all most important, the rector perpetually pining for his game of chess and utterly discontented with the frigid embraces of analysis. Where was the best and most simple and least selfish of the whole lot? Mary Annerley. Mary was in a good place as even she was worthy of, a place not by any means so snug and favored by nature as Annerley Farm, but pretty well sheltered by large trees of a strong and hardy order, in the comfortable ways of good old folk who needed no labor to live by spread a happy leisure and a gentle ease upon everything under their roof tree. There was no necessity for getting up until the sun encouraged it, and the time for going to bed depended upon the time of sleepiness. Old Johnny Popwell, as everybody called him, without any protest on his part, had made a good pocket by the tanning business in having no children to bring up to it, and only his wife to depend upon him, had sold the goodwill, the yard, and the stock as soon as he had turned his sixtieth year. I have worked hard all my life," he said, and I mean to rest for the rest of it. At first he was heartily miserable and wandered about with a vacant look, having only himself to look after, and he tried to find a hole in his bargain with the man who enjoyed all the smells that he was accustomed to, and might even be heard through a gap in the fence raiding the men as Old Johnny used to do, at the same time of day and for the same neglect and almost in the self-same words which the old owner used but stronger. Instead of being happy, Master Popwell lost more flesh in a month than he used to lay on in the most prosperous year, and he owed it to his wife no doubt as generally happens, that he was not speedily gathered to the bosom of the hospitable Simon of Joppa. For Mrs. Popwell said, Go away, Johnny, go away from this village, smell new smells, and never see a hide without a walking thing inside of it. Sea weed smells almost as nice as tan, though of course it is not so wholesome. The tanner obeyed and bought a snug little place about ten miles from the old premises, which he called at the suggestion of the parson, Bersa Cottage. Here was Mary as bleat as of lark, and as petted as a robin red breast, by no means pining or even hankering for any other robin. She was not the girl to give her heart before it was even asked for, and hitherto she regarded the smuggler with pity more than admiration, for in many points she was like her father, whom she loved for most of the world, and Master Annerley was a law-abiding man, like every other true Englishman. Her uncle Popwell was also such, but exerted his principles less strictly. Moreover, he was greatly under influence of wife, which happens more freely to a man without children, the which are a source of contradiction, and Mistress Popwell was a most thorough and conscientious free trader. Now Mary was from childhood so accustomed to the sea, and the relish of salt breezes, and the racy dance of little waves accrowded on one another, and the tidal delivery of delightful rubbish that to fail of seeing the many works and plays and constant variants of her never wearying or weary friend was more than she could long put up with. She called upon Lord Keppel almost every day, having brought him from home for the good of his health, to gird up his loins, or rather get his belly girth son, and come along the sands with her, and dig into new places. But he, though delighted for a while with breezes stable, and the social charms of Master Popwell's old cob and a rick of fine tan-colored clover hay and bean-halum, when the novelty of these delights was passed he pine for his home, and the split in his crib, and the knot of hardwood he had polished with his neck, and even the little dog that snapped at him. He did not care for retired people, as he said to the cob every evening. He liked to see farmwork going on, or at any rate to hear all about it, and to listen to horses who had worked hard, and could scarcely speak for chewing about the great quantity they had turned of earth, and how they had answered very bad words with a bow. In short, to put it in the mildest terms, Lord Keppel was giving himself great heirs, unworthy of his age, ungrateful to a degree, and ungraceful, as the cob said repeatedly, considering how he was fed and bedded, not a thing left undone for him, but his arrogance soon had to pay its own costs, for away to the right of Beersa Cottage, as you look down the hollow from the ground toward the sea, a ridge of high, scrubby land runs up to a forefront of bold cliff, indented with a dark and narrow bay. Goyal Bay, as it is called, or sometimes basin bay, is a lonely and rugged place, and even dangerous for unwary visitors, for at low spring tides a deep hollow is left dry, rather more than a quarter of a mile across, strewn with kelp and oozy stones, among which may often be found pretty shells, weeds richly tinted in a subtle workmanship, stars and flowers and love-knots of the sea, and sometimes carnellions and crystals, but anybody making a collection here should be able to keep one eye upward and one down, or else in his pocket to have two things, a good watch and a trusty tide table. John and Deborah Papowell were accustomed to water and small supplies, such as that of a well or a roadside pond, or their own old noble tan pits, but to understand the sea it was too late in life, though it pleased them, and gave them fine appetites now to go down when it was perfectly calm, and a sailor assured them that the tide was mild, but even at such seasons they preferred to keep their distance and called out frequently to one another. They looked upon their niece, from all she had told them, as a creature almost amphibious, but still they were often uneasy about her, and would gladly have kept her well inland. She, however, laughed at any such idea, and their discipline was to let her have her own way, but now a thing happened which proved forever how much better the old heads are than young ones. For Mary being tired of the quiet places in the strands where she knew every pebble, resolved to explore Goyal Bay at last, and she chose the worst possible time for it. The weather had been very fine and gentle, and the sea delightfully plausible, without a wave, tide after tide, bigger than the furrow of a two-horse plow, and the maid began to believe at last that there were never any storms just here. She had heard of the pretty things in Goyal Bay which was difficult of access from the land, but she resolved to take opportunity of tide, and thus circumvent the position. She would rather have done it afoot, but her uncle and aunt made a point of her riding to the shore, regarding the pony as a safe companion, and sure refuge from the waves. And so upon the morning of St. Michael she compelled Lord Couple with an adverse mind. To turn a headland they had never turned before. The tide was far out and ebbing still, but the wind had shifted and was blowing from the east rather stiffly, and with increasing force. Mary knew that the strong equinautical tides were running at their height, but she had timed her visit carefully, as she thought, with no less than an hour and a half to spare, and even without any thought of tide she was bound to be back in less time than that. Her uncle had been most particular to warn her to come home without fail at one o'clock, when the sacred goose to which he always paid his duties would be on the table, and if anything marred his serenity of mind it was to have dinner kept waiting. Without any misgivings she rode into Basin Bay, keeping within the black barrier of rocks, outside of which wet sands were shining. She saw that these rocks, like the bar of a river, crossed the inlet of a cove, but she had not been told of their peculiar frame and upshot, which made them so treacherous a rampart. At the mouth of the bay they formed a level crescent, as even as a set of good teeth against the sea, with a slope of sand running up to their outer front, but a deep and long pit inside of them. This pit drained itself very nearly dry when the sea went away from it, through some stony tubes which only worked one way by the closure of their mouths when the tide returned, so that the volume of the deep, sometimes with the tide and wind behind it, leapt over the brim into the pit, with tenfold the roar and thousandfold the power, and scarcely less than the speed of a lion. Mary Annerley thought what a lovely place it was, so deep and secluded from anybody's sight in full of bright wet colors. Her pony refused, with his usual wisdom, to be dragged to the bottom of the hole, but she made him come further down than he thought just, and pegged him by the bridle there. He looked at her sadly, and with half of mind to expostulate more forcibly, by getting no glimpse of the sea where he stood he thought it as well to put up with it, and presently he snorted out a tribe of little creatures, which puzzled him and took up his attention. Meanwhile Mary was not only puzzled but delighted beyond the description. She never yet had come upon such treasures of the sea, and she scarcely knew what to lay hands upon first. She wanted the weeds of such wonderful forms and colors yet more exquisite, and she wanted the shells of such delicate fabric that fairies must have made them, and a thousand other little things that had no names, and then she seemed almost of all to want the pebbles, for the light came through them in stripes and patterns, and many of them looked like downright jewels. She had brought a great bag of strong canvas, luckily, and with both hands she set two to fill it. So busy was a girl with a vast alight of sanguine acquisition, this for her father, and that for her mother, and so much for everybody she could think of, that time had no time to be counted at all, but flew by with feathers unheeded. The mutter of the sea became a roar, and the breeze waxed into a heavy gale, and spray began to sputter through the air like suds. But Mary saw the rampard of rocks before her, and thought that she could easily get back around the point, and her taste began continually to grow more choice, so that she spent as much time in discarding the rubbish, which at first she had prized so highly, as she did in collecting the real rarities, which she was learning to distinguish, but, unluckily, the sea made no allowance for this. For just as Mary, with her bag quite full, was stooping with a long stretch to get something more, a thing that perhaps was the very best of all, and therefore had got into a corner, there fell upon her back quite a solid lump of wave, as a horse skits to the bottom of the bucket-cast at him. This made her look up, not a minute too soon, and even then she was not at all aware of danger, but took it for a notice to be moving, and she thought more of shaking that salt water from her dress than running away from the rest of it. But soon as she began to look about in earnest, sweeping back her salted hair, she saw enough of peril to turn pale the roses, and strike away the smile upon her very busy face. She was standing several yards below the level of the sea, and great surges were hurrying to swallow her. A hollow of the rocks received the first billow with a thump and a slush, and a rush of pointed hillocks and a fury to find their way back again, which failing they spread into a long white pool, taking Mary above her pretty ankles. Don't you think the frighten me? said Mary, I know all your ways, and I mean to take my time. But even before she had finished her words of great black wall, doubled over at the top with whiteness that seemed to race along it like a fringe, hung above the rampart and leaped over, casting at Mary such a volley that she foul. This quenched her last audacity. Although she was not hurt, and jumping up nimbly, she made all haste through the rising water toward her pony. But as she would not forsake her bag, and the rocks became more and more slippery, towering higher and higher surges crashed in over the barrier, and swelled the yeasty turmoil which began to fill the basin, while a scurry of foam flew like pellets from the rampart, blinding even the very best young eyes. Mary began to lose some of her presence of mind and familiar approval of the sea. She could swim pretty well from her frequent bathing, but swimming would be of little service here, if once the great rollers came over the bar, which they threatened to do every moment, and when at length she found her way to the poor old pony her danger and distress were multiplied. Lord Capo was in a state of abject fear. Despair was knocking at his fine old heart. He was up to his knees in the loathsome brine already, and being so twisted up by his own exertions that to budge another inch was beyond him. He did what a horse is apt to do in such condition. He consoled himself with fatalism. He meant to expire, but before he did so he determined to make his mistress feel what she had done. Therefore, with a sad nudge of white old nose, he drew her attention to his last expression, sighed as plainly as a man could sigh, and fixed upon her meek eyes, telling volumes, I know! I know it's all my fault!" cried Mary, with the brine almost smothering her tears as she flung her arms around his neck. But I never will do it again, my darling, and I never will run away and let you drown. Oh, if only I had a knife! I cannot even cast your bridle off. The tongue has stuck fast and my hands are cramped. But, Capo, I will stay and be drowned with you." This resolve was quite unworthy of Mary's common sense, for how could her being drowned with Capo help him? However the mere conception showed a spirit of lofty order, though the body might object to be ordered under. Without any thought of all that she stood resolute, tearful, and thoroughly wet through, while she hunted in her pocket for a pen-knife. The nature of all knives is not to be found, and Mary's knife was loyal to its kind. Then she tugged at her pony and pulled out his bit, and labored again at the obstinate strap, but nothing could be done with it. Capo must be drowned, and he did not seem to care. But to think that the object of his birth was that, if the stupid little fellow would have only stepped forward, the hands of his mistress, though cramped and benumbed, might perhaps have unbuckled his stiff and sodden reins, or even undone their tangle, on the other hand, if he would have jerked with all his might, something or other must have given way. But stir he would not, from one fatuous position, which kept all his headgear on the strain, but could not snap it. Mary even struck him with her heavy bag of stones to make him do something, but he only looked reproachful. Was there ever such a stupid? The poor girl cried, with the water rising almost to her waist, and the inner waves, beginning to dash over her while the outer billows threatened to rush in and crush them both. But I will not abuse you any more, poor Capo. What will dear father say? What will he think of it? Then she burst into a fit of sobs and leaned against the pony to support her from a rushing wave which took her breath away, and she thought that she would never try to look up any more, but shut her eyes to all the rest of it. But suddenly she heard a loud shout and a splash, and found herself caught up and carried like an infant. Why still? Never mind the pony. What is he? I will go for him afterward. You first! You first of all the world, my Mary!" She tried to speak, but not a word would come, and that was all the better. She was carried quick as might be through a whirl of tossing waters, and gently laid upon a pile of kelp. And then, Robin Leith said, You're quite safe here. For at least another hour. I will go and get your pony. No! No, you'll be knocked to pieces! She cried for the pony, and the drift and scud could scarcely be seen, but for his helpless struggles. But the young man was halfway toward him while she spoke, and she knelt upon the kelp and clasped her hands. Now Robin was at home in a matter such as this. He had landed many kegs in a sea as strong or stronger, and he knew how to deal with the horses in a surf. There still was a break of almost a fathom in the level of the inner and outer waves, for the basin was so large that it could not fill at once. And so long as this lasted, every roller must comb over at the entrance, and mainly spend itself. At least five minutes to spare, he shouted back, and there is no such thing as any danger. But the girl did not believe him. Rapidly and skillfully he made his way, meeting the larger waves sideways, and rising at their onset until he was obliged to swim at last, where the little horse was swimming desperately. A leather still jammed in some crevice at the bottom was jerking his poor chin downward. His eyes were screwed up like a newborn kitten's, and his dainty nose looked like a jellyfish. He thought how sad it was that he should ever die like this. After all the good works of his life, the people he had carried in the chase that he had drawn, and all his kindness to mankind, then he turned his head away to receive the stroke of grace which the next wave would administer. No, he was free! He could turn his honest tail on the sea, which he always had detested so. He could toss up his nose and blow the filthy salt out, and sputter back his scorn while he made off for his life. So intent was he on this that he never looked twice to make out who his benefactor was, but gave him just a taste of his hind foot on the elbow in the scuffle of his hurry to be round about and off. Such as gratitude, the smuggler cried, but a clot of salt water flipped into his mouth and closed all cynical outlet. Bearing up against the waves he stowed his long knife away, and then struck off for the shore with might and maine. Here Mary ran into the water to meet him, shivering as she was with fright and cold, and stretched out both hands to him as he waited forth, and he took them and clasped them, quite as if he needed help. Lord Keppel stood afar off, recovering his breath, and scarcely dared to look a scance at the exerable sea. How cold you are! Robin Leith exclaimed, You must not stay a moment. No talking, if you please. Though I love your voice so, you are not safe yet. You cannot get back round the point. See the waves dashing up against it. You must climb the cliff, and that is no easy job for our lady in the best of weather. In a couple of hours the tide will be over the whole of this beach half-halm deep. There is no boat nearer than phylae, and a boat could scarcely live over that bar. You must climb the cliff and begin at once, before you get any colder. Then is my poor pony to be drowned after all? If he is, he had better have been drowned at once. A smuggler looked at her with a smile which meant, Your gratitude is about the same as his. But he answered to assure her, though by no means sure himself. There is time enough for him. He shall not be drowned. But you must be got out of danger first. When you are off my mind I will fetch a pony. Now you must follow me step by step carefully and steadily. I would carry you up if I could, but even a giant could scarcely do that. In a stiff gale of wind and with the crags so wet. Mary looked up with a shiver of dismay. She was brave and nimble generally, but now she was so wet and cold and the steep cliff looked so slippery as she said, It is useless. I could never get up there. Captain Leith, save yourself and leave me. That would be a pretty thing to do, he replied, and where should I be afterward? I am not at the end of my devices yet. I have got a very snug little crane up there. It was here when we ran our last lot. And beat the brave lieutenants, so. But, unluckily, I have no cave just here. None of my lads are about here now, or we would make short work of it. But I could hoist you very well if you would let me. I would never think of such a thing to come up like a keg. Captain Leith, you must know that I never would be so disgraced. Well, I was afraid that you might take it so, though I cannot see why it should be any harm. We often hoist the last man, so. It is different with me, said Mary. It may be no harm, but I could not have it. The free trader looked at her bright eyes and color and admired her spirit which his words had roused. I pray your forgiveness, Miss Annerley. He said, I meant no harm. I was thinking of your life. But you look now as if you could do anything almost. Yes. I am warm again. I have no fear. I will not go up like a keg, but like myself. I can do it without help from anybody. Any pleas to take care not to cut your little hands? said Robin as he began the climb, for he saw that her spirit was up to it. My hands are not little, and I will cut them if I choose. Please, not even to look back at me. I am not in the least afraid of anything. The cliff was not the soft and friable stuff to be found at Bridelington, but of hard and slippery sandstone, with bulky ribs over-sailing here and there, and threatening to cast the climber back at such spots nicks for the feet had been cut, or broken with a hammer, but scarcely wider than a stirrup iron, and far less inviting. To surmount these was quite impossible except by process of crawling, and Mary, with her heart and her mouth, repented of her rash contempt for the crane-sling. Luckily the height was not very great, or tired as she was, she must have given way, for her bodily warmth had waned again in the strong wind buffeting the cliff. Otherwise the wind had helped her greatly by keeping her from swaying outward, but her courage began to fail at last, and very near the top she called for help. A short piece of lanyard was thrown to her at once, and Robin Leith landed her on the bluff, panting, breathless and blushing again. "'Well done!' he cried gazing as she turned her face away. Young ladies may teach even sailors to climb. Not every sailor could get up this cliff. Now, back to Master Puppawills as fast as you can run, and your aunt will know what to do with you. You seem well acquainted with my family affairs,' said Mary, who could not help smiling. "'Hooray! How did you even know where I'm staying?' "'Little birds tell me everything, especially about the best and most gentle and beautiful of all birds.' The maiden was inclined to be vexed, but remembering how much he had done and how little gratitude she had shown, she forgave him, and asked him to come to the cottage. "'I will bring up the little horse. Have no fear,' he replied. "'I will not come up at all unless I bring him. But it may take two or three hours.' With no more than a wave of his hat he set off, as if the coastriders were after him by the path along the cliffs towards Phile, for he knew that Lord Keppel must be hoisted by the crane, and he could not manage it without another man, and the tide would wait for none of them. Upon the next headland he found one of his men, for the smugglers maintained a much sharper look-out than did the forces of his majesty, because they were paid much better. And returning they managed to strap Lord Keppel and hoist him like a big bale of contraband goods, for their crane had been left in a brambled hole, and they very soon rigged it out again. The little horse kicked pretty freely in the air, not perceiving his own welfare, but a cross-beam and pulley kept him well out from the cliff, and they swung him in overhandsomely and landed him well upon the sword within the brink. Then they gave him three cheers for his great adventure, which he scarcely seemed to appreciate. CHAPTER XIX. A FARM TO LET. That storm on the festival of St. Michael broke up the short summer weather of the north. A wet and tempestuous month set in, and the harvest in all but the very best places lay flat on the ground without scythe or sickle. The men of the riding were not disturbed by this, as farmers would have been in Suffolk, for these were quite used to walk over their crops, without much occasion to lift their feet. They always expected their corn to be laid, and would have been afraid of it if it stood upright. Even at Annerley Farm this salam of the wheat was expected in bad seasons, and it suited the reapers of the neighborhood who scarcely knew what to make of knees unbent, an upright discipline of stiff cravatid ranks. In a northwest corner of the county where the rocky land was mantled so frequently with cloud, and the prevalence of western winds bore sway. An upright harvest was a thing to talk of, as a legend of a century credible because it scarcely could have been imagined. And this year it would have been hard to imagine any more prostrate and lowly position than that of every kind of crop. The bright weather of August and attentions of the sun, the gentle surprise of rich doos in the morning, together with abundance of moisture underneath, had made things look as they scarcely ever looked, clean and straight and elegant. But none of them had found time to form the dry and solid substance without which neither man nor his staff of life can stand against adversity. My Lady Philippa, as the tenants called her, came out one day to see how things looked, and whether the tenants were likely to pay their Michaelmas rents at Christmas. Her sister, Mrs. Carnaby, felt like interest in the question, but hated long walks, being weaker and less active, and therefore rowed a quiet pony. Very little wheat was grown on their estates, both soil and climate declining it. But the barley crop was of more importance, and flourished pretty well upon the southern slopes. The land, as a rule, was poor and shallow, and nourished more grouse than partridges. But here and there valleys of soft shelter and fair soil relieved the eye and comforted the pocket of the owner. These little bits of goshen formed the heart of every farm, though oftentimes the homestead was, as if by some perversity, set up in bleak and barren spots, outside of comforts elbow. The ladies marched on without much heed for any other point than one. Would the barley crop do well? They had many tenants who trusted chiefly to that, and to the rough hill oats and wool. To make up in coin what part of their rent they were not allowed to pay in kind. For as yet machinery and reeking factories had not besmirched the countryside. How much further do you mean to go, Philippa? asked Mrs. Carnaby, although she was not traveling by virtue of her own legs. For my part I think we have gone too far already. Your ambition is always to turn back. You may turn back now, if you like. I shall go on." Mrs. Yordis knew that her sister would fail of the courage to ride home all alone. Mrs. Carnaby would never ride without Yordis, or some other serving-man behind her, as was right and usual for a lady of her position. But Lady Philippa was of bolder strain and cared for nobody's thoughts, words, or deeds, and she had ordered her sister's servant back for certain reasons of her own. Very well, very well, you always will go on and always on the road you choose yourself, although it requires a vast deal of knowledge to know that there is any road here at all. The widow, who looked very comely for her age, and sat her pony prettily, gave way as usual to the stronger will, though she always liked to enter a protest which the elder scarcely ever deigned to notice. But hearing that Eliza had a little cough at night and knowing that her appetite had not been as it ought to be, Philippa, who really was wrapped up in her sister but never or seldom let her dream of such a fact, turned round graciously and said, I have ordered the carriage here for half-past three o'clock. You will go back by the scar-bend road and heart-sees can trot behind us. Heart-sees, uneasy if you have kept my heart by your shufflings and trippings perpetual. Philippa, I want a better stepping-pony. Pat has ruined heart-sees. Pat ruins everything and everybody, and you are ruining him, Eliza. I am the only one who has the smallest power over him, and he is beginning to cast off that. If it comes to open war between us, I shall be sorry for Lancelot, and I shall be sorry for you, Philippa. In a few years Pat will be a man, and a man is always stronger than a woman at any rate in our family. Stronger than such is you, Eliza, but let him only rebel against me and he will find himself an outcast, and to prove it I have brought you here. Mistress Yorda has turned round and looked in a well-known manner at her sister, whose beautiful eyes filled with tears and fell. Philippa, she said with a breath like a sob, sometimes you look harder than poor dear Papa in his very worst moments used to look. I am sure that I do not at all deserve it, and all that I pray for is peace and comfort and little do I get of either. And you will get less as long as you pray for them instead of doing something better. The only way to get such things is to make them. Then I think that you might make enough for us both, if you had any regard for them or for me, Philippa. Mistress Yorda smiled, as she often did, at her sister's style of reasoning, and she cared not a jot for the last word, so long as the will and the way were left to her, and in this frame of mind she turned a corner from the open moor track into a little lane, or rather the expiring delivery of a lane, which was leading a better existence further on. Mrs. Carnaby followed dutifully, and heartsees began to pick up his feet, which he scorned to do upon the negligence of Sward, and following this good lane they came to a gate, corded to an ancient tree, and showing up its foot, as a dog does when he is a thorn in it. This gate seemed to stand for an ornament or perhaps a landmark, for the lane instead of submitting to it passed by upon either side and plunged into a dingle, where a gray old house was sheltering. The lonely moorside farm, if such a word and desolate spot could be a farm, was known as Wall Head, from the relics of some ancient wall, and the folk who lived there, or tried to live, although they possessed a surname, which is not a necessary consequence of life. Very seldom used it, and more rarely still had it used for them. For the ancient fashion still held ground of attaching the idea of a man to that of things in more extensive and substantial. So the head of the house was Will of the Wall Head. His son was Tommy a Will of the Wall Head, and his grandson, Willia Tommy a Will of the Wall Head, but the one their great lady desired to see was the unmarried daughter of the house, Sally a Will of the Wall Head. Mistress Yordes knew that the men of the house would be out upon the land at this time of day, while Sally would be full of household work, and preparing their homely supper. So she walked in bravely at the open door while her sister waited with the pony in the yard. Sally was clumping about and clogged shoes and a child or two sprawling after her, for Tommy's wife was away with him at work, and if the place was not as clean as it could be it seemed as clean as need be. The natives of this part are rough in manner and apt to regard civility as the same thing was civility. Their bluntness does not proceed from thickness, as in the south of England, but from a surety of their own worth and inferiority to no one, and to deal with them rightly this must be entered into. Sally a Will of the Wall Head bobbed her solid and black curly head, with a clout like a jelly on the pall of it, to the owner of their land and a lady of high birth, but she vouchsafed no courtesy, neither did Mistress Yordes expect one, but the active and self-contained woman set a chair in the low dark room which was their best and stood waiting to be spoken to. Sally, so the lady who also possessed a Yorkshire gift of going to the point, you had a man ten years ago, you behaved badly to him, and he went into the Indian Company. A deed, replied the maiden without any blush, because she had been in the right throughout. And no had come in a better mind, and you have come to know your own mind about him. You have been steadfast to him for ten years. He has saved up some money, and has come back to marry you. Aye, nana the brass, but my Jack is back again. His father held under us for many years. He was a thoroughly honest man, and paid his rent as often as he could. Would Jack like to have his father's farm? It has been let to his cousin, as you know, but they have been going from bad to worse, and everything must be sold off unless I stop it. Sally was of dark Lancastrian race, and handsome features and fine brown eyes. She had been a beauty ten years ago, and could still look comely when her heart was up. My lady, she said with her heart up now at the hope of soon having a home of her own and something to work for that she might keep. Such words should not pass the mouth where I have been mint. What she said was very different in sound, and not to be rendered an echo by any one born far away from that country, where three dialects meet and find it hard to guess what each of the others is up to, enough that this is what Sally meant to say, and that Mistress Yordus understood it. It is not my custom to say a thing without meaning it, she answered, but unless it is taken up at once it is likely to come to nothing. Where is your man, Jack? Jack is away to the minister to tell of us coming together. Sally made no blush over this as she might have done ten years ago. He must have been an excellent and faithful man. He shall have the farm if he wishes it, and can give some security at going in. Let him come and see Yordus to-morrow. After a few more words the lady left Sally full of gratitude, very little of which was expressed aloud, and therefore the whole was more likely to work, as Mistress Yordus knew right while. The farm was a better one than Wallhead, having some good barley land upon it, and Jack did not fail to present himself at Scargate upon the following morning, but the lady of the house did not think it fit herself to hold discourse with him. Yordus was bidden to entertain him, and find out how he stood in cash and whether his character was solid, and then to leave him with a jug of ale, and come and report proceedings. The dogman discharged this duty very well, being as faithful as the dogs he kept, and as keen a judge of human nature. The man hath no harm in him, he said, touching his hair to the ladies as he entered the audit room, and hath been knocked about a bit to win them wars and injury, and hath only one hand left, but I can lay it upon fifty poon and get surety for another fifty. Then tell him, Yordus, that he may go to Mr. Jelly-Course tomorrow, to see about the writings which he must pay for. I will write full instructions for Mr. Jelly-Course, and you go and get your dinner, and then take my letter, that he may have time to consider it. Wait a moment. There are other things to be done in Middleton, and it would be late for you to come back to-night. The days are drawing in, so sleep at our tea-grocers, and he will put you up. Give your letter at once into the hands of Mr. Jelly-Course, and he will get forward with the writings. Tell this man, Jack, that he must be there before twelve o'clock tomorrow, and then you can call about two o'clock, and bring back what there may be for signature. And be careful of it, Eliza, I think I have set forth your wishes. But, my lady, lawyers do take such a time, and who will look after Master Lancelot? I fear to have my feet two-moils off here. Obey your orders without reasoning. That is for those who give them. Eliza, I am sure that you agree with me. Jordus, make this man clearly understand, as you can do, when you take the trouble. But you first must clearly understand the whole yourself. I will repeat it for you. Philippa Jordus went through the whole of her orders again most clearly, and at every one of them the dog-man nodded his large head distinctly and counted the nods on his fingers to make sure, for this part is gifted with high mathematics, and the numbers stick fast like pegs driven into clay. Poor Jordus. Philippa, you are working him too hard. You have made great wrinkles on his forehead. Jordus, you must have no wrinkles until you are married. While Mrs. Carnaby spoke so kindly the dog-man took his fingers off their numeral scale and looked at her. By nature the two were first cousins of half-blood. By law and custom and education and vital institution they were sundered more widely than black and white. But for all that the dog-man loved the lady at a faithful distance. You seem to me to now have it clearly, Jordus, said the elder sister looking at him sternly because Eliza was so soft. You will see that no mischief can be done with the dogs or horses while you are away, and Mr. Jelly-Course will give you a letter for me to say that everything is right. My desire is to have things settled promptly because your friend Jack has been to set the bands up, and the church is more speedy in such matters than the law. Now the sooner you are off the better. Jordus in a steady but by no mean stupid way considered at his leisure what such things could mean. He knew all the property in the many little holdings as well as and perhaps a great deal better than if they had happened to be his own. But he never had known such a hurry made before, or such a special interest shown about the letting of any tenement, of perhaps tenfold the value. Moreover he said like a sensible man, and therefore to himself only, that the ways of women are beyond compute and must be suitably carried out without any contradiction. End of Chapter 19 Recording by Keith Salas Chapter 20 of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julian Hendry An Old Soldier Now Mr Jellycourse had been taking a careful view of everything. He wished to be certain of placing himself both on the righteous side and the right one. And in such a case this was not to be done without much circumspection. He felt himself bound to his present clients and could not even dream of deserting them. But still there are many things that may be done to conciliate the adversary of one's friend without being false to the friend himself. And some of these already were occurring to the lawyer. It was true that no adversary had as yet appeared, nor even shown token of existence. But some little sign of complication had arisen, and one serious fact was come to light. The solicitors of Sir Ulfus de Rouse, the grandson of Sir Furson, whose daughter had married Richard Yordus, had pretty strong evidence in some old letters that a deed of appointment had been made by the said Richard and Eleanor, his wife, under the powers of their settlement. Luckily they had not been employed in the matter and possessed not so much as a draft or a letter of instructions. And now it was no concern of theirs to make or meddle or even move. Nor did they know that any question could arise about it, for they were a highly antiquated firm of most rigid respectability, being legal advisers to the chapter of York and clerks of the prerogative court, and able to charge twice as much as almost any other firm, and nearly three times as much as poor Jellicourse. Mr. Jellicourse had been most skillful and wary in sounding these deep and silent people, for he wanted to find out how much they knew, without letting them suspect that there was anything to know. And he proved an old woman's will gratis, or at least put it down to those who could afford it, because nobody meant to have it proved, simply for the sake of getting golden contact with Messrs Ake Borum, Mikkelgate and Brigant. Right craftily then did he fetch a young member of the firm, who delighted in angling, to take his holiday at Middleton and fish the goodly teas, and by gentle and casual discourse of gossip in hours of hospitality, out of him he hooked and landed all that his firm knew of the Yordus race. Young Brigant thought it natural enough that his host as the lawyer of that family and their trusted adviser for five and twenty years should like to talk over things of an elder date, which now could be little more than trifles of genealogical history. He got some fine fishing and good dinners, and found himself pleased with the river and the town, and his very kind host and hostess, and it came into his head that if Miss Emily grew up as pretty and lively as she promised to be, he might do worse than marry her and open a connection with such a fishing station. At any rate, he left her as a chose in action, which might be reduced into possession some fine day. Such was the state of affairs when Yordus, after a long and muddy ride, sent word that he would like to see the master for a minute or two if convenient. The days were grown short, and the candles lit, and Mr Jellicourt was fast asleep, having had a good deal to get through that day, including an excellent supper. The lawyer's wife said, ''Let him call in the morning, business is over and the office is closed. Susanna, your master must not be disturbed.'' But the master awoke and declared that he would see him. Candles were set in the study while Yordus was having a trifle of refreshment, and when he came in, Mr Jellicourt was there, with his spectacles on and full of business. ''Asking off your pardons, sir, for disturbing off you now?'' said the dogman, with the rain upon his tired coat shining in a little course of drainage from his great brown beard. ''My orders were to lay this in your own hand and seek answer tomorrow by dinnertime, if maybe.'' ''Mr Jordus, you shall have it, if it can be. Do you know anybody who can promise more than that?'' ''Plenty, sir, to promise it, as you must know by this time, but never a body to perform so much as half. But, craving off your pardon again and separate, I would find spake a word or two of myself.'' ''Certainly, Jordus, I shall listen with great pleasure. A fine-looking fellow like you must have affairs, and the lady ought to make some settlement. It shall all be done for you at half-price.'' ''No, sir, it is none of that kind of thing,'' the dogman answered with a smile, as if he might have had such opportunities, but would trouble no lawyer about them. ''I do get too much of half-price at home. It is about my ladies I desire to make speech. They keep their business too tight, master. Jordus, you have been well-taught and trained, and you are a man of sagacity. You know faithfully what you mean. It shall go no further, and it may be of great service to your ladies.'' ''It is not much, Master Jellicos, and you may make less than that of it. But a lie should be met and not done, sir,'' according to my opinion. ''Certainly, Jordus, when an action will not lie, and sometimes even where it does, it is wise to commit a defensible assault, and so to become the defendant. Jordus, you are big enough to do that.'' ''Master Jellicos, you are a pleasant man, but you twist my meaning as a lawyer must. They all does it to keep their hand in. I am speaking of the stories, sir, that is so much about, and I think that my ladies should be told of them right out, and come forward, and lay their hands on them. The Jorduses always did wrong of old time, but they never was afraid to jump on it. My friend, you speak in parables. What stories have arisen to be jumped upon?'' ''Well, sir, for one thing, they do tell that the proper owner of the property is Sir Duncan, now away in India. A man has come home who knows him well, and sayeth that he is like a prince out there, with command of a country twice as big as Great Britain. And they up and made Sir Duncan of him by his duty to the king, and if he cometh home, almost fall before him. Even the law of the land, I suppose, and the will of his own father. Pretty well so far, Jordus, and what next?'' ''Now, sir, now, but I thought I were duty bound to tell you that. What is women before a man, Jordus?'' ''My good friend, we will not despair, but you are keeping back something. I know it by your feet. You are duty bound to tell me every word now, Jordus.'' ''The lawyer is the devil,'' said the dogman to himself. And being quite used to this reflection, Mr Jellicourt smiled and nodded. ''But if you must have it all, sir, it is no more than this. Jack of the Smithies, as is to marry Sally, or will of the wall-head, is to have the lease of ship for a farm, and he is the man as hath told it all.'' ''Very well, we will wish him good luck with his farm,'' Mr Jellicourt answered cheerfully. ''And what is even rarer nowadays, I fear, good luck off his wife, Master Jordus.'' But as soon as the sturdy retainer was gone, and the sound of his heavy boots had died away, Mr Jellicourt shook his head very gravely, and said, as he opened and looked through his packet, which confirmed the words of Jordus, ''Sad in discretion, want of legal knowledge, headstrong women, the very way to spoil it all. My troubles are beginning, and I had better go to bed.'' His good wife seconded this wise resolve, and without further parley it was put into effect, and proclaimed to be successful by a symphony of snores. For this is the excellence of having other people's cares to carry, with the carriage well paid, that they sit very lightly on the springs of sleep, that well-balanced vehicle rolls on smoothly without jerk or jar or cake, so long as it travels over alien land. In the morning Mr Jellicourt was up to anything, legitimate, legal, and likely to be paid for. Not that he would stir half the breath of one wheat-corn, even for the sake of his daily bread, from the straight and strict line of integrity. He had made up his mind about that long ago, not only from natural virtue, strong and dominant as that was, but also by dwelling on his high repute, and the solid foundations of character. He scarcely knew anybody when he came to think of it, capable of taking such a lofty course, and that simply confirmed him in his stern resolve to do what was right and expedient. It was quite one o'clock before Jack of the Smithies rang the bell to see about his lease. He ought to have done it two hours sooner, if he meant to become a humble tenant. And the lawyer, although he had plenty to do of other people's business, looked upon this as a very bad sign. Then he read his letter of instructions once more, and could not but admire the nice brevity of these, in a skillful style of hinting much and declaring very little. For after giving full particulars about the farm and the rent and the covenants required, Mistress Yordis proceeded thus, the new tenant is the son of a former occupant who proved to be a remarkably honest man, in a case of strong temptation. As happens too often with men of probity, he was misled and made bankrupt, and died about twelve years ago, I think. He is to verify this by reference. The late tenant was his nephew and has never perceived the necessity of paying rent. We have been obliged to destrain, as you know, and I wish John Smithies to buy in what he pleases. He has saved some capital in India, where I am told that he fought most gallantly. Singular to say he has met with and perhaps served under our lamented and lost brother Duncan, of whom and his family he may give us interesting particulars. You know how this neighbourhood excels in idle talk, and if John Smithies becomes our tenant, his discourse must be confined to his own business. But he must not hesitate to impart to you many facts you may think it right to ask about. Yordis will bring us your answer under seal. Skillfully put, up to that last word, which savours too much of teaching me my own business. Abertha, are you quite ready with that, Lease? It is wanted rather in a hurry. As Mr Jellicourse thought the former and uttered the latter part of these words, it was plain to see that he was fidgety. He had put on superior clothes to get up with, and the clerks had whispered to one another that it must be his wedding day and ought to end in a half-holiday all round and be chalked thenceforth on the calendar. But instead of being joyful and jocular, like a man who feels a saving providence over him, the lawyer was as dismal and unsettled and splenetic as a prophet on the brink of wedlock. But the very last thing that he ever dreamed of doubting was his power to turn this old soldier inside out. Jack of the Smithies was announced at last, and the lawyer, being vexed with him for taking such a time, resolved to let him take a little longer and kept him waiting without any bread and cheese for nearly half an hour. The wisdom of doing this depended on the character of the man and the state of his finances, and both of these being strong enough to stand to keep him so long on his legs was unwise. At last he came in, a very sturdy sort of fellow, thinking no atom the less of himself because some of his anatomy was honourably gone. Servant, sir, he said, making a salute, I had orders to come to you about a little lease. Right, my man, I remember now, you were thinking of taking to your father's farm after knocking about for some years in foreign parts, ah, nothing like Old England after all, and to tread the ancestral soil and cherish the old associations and to nurture a virtuous family in the fear of the Lord and to be ready with the rent. Rent is too high, sir. I must have five pounds off. It ought to be ten, by right. Cousin Joe has taken all out and put not in. Journalist Smithies, you astonish me. I have strong reason for believing that the rent is far too low. I have no instructions to reduce it. Then I must try for another farm, sir. I can have one of better land under Sir Walter. Only I seem to hold on to the old place, where my sally likes to be under the old ladies. Old ladies? Jack, what are you come to? Beautiful ladies in the prime of life, but perhaps they would be old in India. I fear that you have not learned much behaviour, but at any rate you ought to know your own mind. Is it your intention to refuse so kind an offer which was only made for your father's sake and to please your faithful sally? Simply because another of your family has not been honest in his farming? I have never took it in that way before, the steady old soldier answered, showing that rare phenomenon the dawn of a new opinion upon a stubborn face. Give me a bit to turn it over my mind, sir. Lawyers be so quick and so nimble and all cornered. Turn it over fifty times, Master Smithies. We have no wish to force the farm upon you. Take a pinch of snuff to help your sense of justice, or if you would like a pipe, go and have it in my kitchen. And if you are hungry, cook will give you eggs and bacon. No, sir, I am very much obliged to you. I never make much of my thinking. I go by what the Lord sends right inside of me whenever I have decent folk to deal with. And in spite of your cloth, sir, you have an honest look. You reserve another pinch of snuff for that, Master Smithies. You have a gift of putting hard things softly. But this is not business. Is your mind made up? Yes, sir, I will take the farm at full rent if the covenants are to my liking. They must be on both sides, both sides, mind you. Mr Jellicour smiled as he began to read the draft prepared from a very ancient form which was firmly established on the Scargate Hall Estates. The covenants, as usual, were all upon one side, the least sea being bound to a multitude of things and the lesser to little more than acceptance of the rent. But such a result is in the nature of the case. Yet Jack of the Smithies was not well content. In him, true Yorkshire stubbornness was multiplied by the dogged tenacity of a British soldier and the aggregate raised to an unknown power by the efforts of shrewd ignorance. And at last the lawyer took occasion to say Master John Smithies, you are worthy to serve under the colours of a Yordus. That I have, sir, that I have, cried the veteran, taken unawares and shaking the stump of his arm in proof. I have served under Sir Duncan Yordus, who will come home some day and claim his own, and he won't want no covenants of me. You cannot have served under Duncan Yordus, Mr Jellicour's answered with a smile of disbelief craftily rousing the pugnacity of the man, because he was not even in the army of the company or any other army. I mean, of course, unless there was some other Duncan Yordus. Tell me, Jack of Smithies almost shouted, tell me about Duncan Yordus indeed, who he was and what he wasn't, and what do lawyers know of such things? Why, you might have to command a regiment and read covenants to them out there. Sir Duncan was not our Colonel nor our Captain, but he was under his orders all the more, and well he knew how to give them. Not one in fifty of us was white, but he made us all as good as white men, and the enemy never saw the colour of our backs. I wish I was out there again, I do, and would have stayed but for being horse of combat, though the fault was never in my throat but in my arm. There is no fault in your throat, John Smithies, except that it is a great deal too loud. I am sorry for Sally with a temper such as yours. That shows how much you know about it. I never lose my temper without I hearken lies, and for you to go and say that I never saw Sir Duncan. I said nothing of the kind, my friend, but you did not come here to talk about Duncan or Captain or Colonel or Nabal or Raja or whatever potentate he may be. Of him we desire to know nothing more. A man who ran away and disgraced his family and killed his poor father knows better than ever to set his foot on Skargateland again. You talk about having a lease from him, a man with fifty wives, I dare say, and a hundred children. We all know what they are out there. There are very few tricks of the human face divine more forcibly expressive of contempt than the lowering of the eyelids so that only a narrow streak of eye is exposed to the fellow mortal, and that streak fixed upon him steadfastly, and the conchimally is intensified when, as in the present instance, the man who does it is gifted with yellow lashes on the underlid. Jack of the Smithies, treating Mr Jellicorps to a gaze of this sort, and the lawyer whose wrath had been feigned to rouse the others and so extract full information, began to feel his own temper rise, and if Jack had known when to hold his tongue, he must have had the best of it. But the lawyer knew this, and the soldier did not. Mr Jellicorps, said the latter, with his forehead deeply wrinkled and his eyes now open to their widest, in saying of that you make a liar of yourself, lease or no lease, that you do. Leasing stands for lying in the Bible and a Smith to do the same thing in Yorkshire. Fifty wives and a hundred children. Sir Duncan hath had one wife and lost her through the Belgian fever and her worry, and a Yorkshire lady, as you might know, and never hath he cared to look at any woman since. There now, what you make of that, you lawyers that make out every man a rake and every woman a light of love. Get along, I hate the lot of you. What a strange character you are. You must have had jungle fever, I should think. No, Diana, there is no danger. Poor Jack of the Smithies had made such a noise that Mrs Jellicorps got frightened and ran in. This poor man has only one arm, and if he had two he could not hurt me, even if he wished it. Be pleased to withdraw, Diana. John Smithies, you have simply made a fool of yourself. I have not said a word against Sir Duncan Yardus or his wife or his son. You have no son, I tell you, but that was partly how he lost his wife. Well, then, his daughters. I have said no harm of them, and very good reason, because he hath none. You lawyers think you are so clever and you never know anything rightly. Sir Duncan hath himself alone to see to, and hundreds of thousands of darkies to manage with a score of British bayonets. But he never heedeth of the bayonets, not he. I have read of such men, but I never saw them, as Mr Jellicorps said, as of thinking to himself. I always feel doubt about the possibility of them. He hath ten elephants, continued soldier Smithies, resolved to crown the pillar of his wonders while about it. Ten great elephants that come and kneel before him and a thousand men ready to run to his thumb. And his word is law, better law than is in England, for scores and scores of miles on the top of hundreds. Why did you come away, John Smithies? Why did you leave such a great prince and come home? Because it was home, sir, and for the sake of Sally. There is some sense in that, my friend. And now, if you wish to make a happy life for Sally, you will do as I advise you. Will you take my advice? My time is of value, and I am not accustomed to waste my words. Well, sir, I will hearken to you. Oh, man, that meaneth it can say more than that. Check of the Smithies, you are acute. You have not been all over the world for nothing. But if you have made up your mind to settle and be happy in your native parts, one thing must be attended to. It is a maxim of law, time honoured, and of the highest authority, that the tenant must never call in question the title of his landlord. Before returning, you may do so. After that, you are stopped. Now, is it or is it not your wish to become the tenant of the Smithies farm, which your father held so honourably? Farm produce is fetching great prices now. And if you refuse this offer, we can have a man the day after tomorrow who will give my ladies ten pounds more, and who has not been a soldier, but a farmer all his life. Lawyer Deli Course, I will take it, for Sally hath set her heart on it, and I know every crumple of the ground better than the wisest farmer doth. Sir, I will sign the articles. The lease will be engrossed by next market day, and the sale will be stopped until you have taken whatever you wish at evaluation. But remember what I said, you are not to go preting about this wonderful Sir Duncan, who is never likely to come home if he lives in such a grand state out there, and who is forbidden by his father's will from taking an acre of the property. And as he has no heirs, and is so wealthy, it cannot matter much to him. That is true, said the soldier, but he might love to come home, as all our folk in India do, and if he doth, I will not deny him. I tell you fairly, Master Deli Course. I like you for being an outspoken man, and true to those who have used you well. You could do him no good, and you might do harm to others, and unsettle simple minds, by going on about him among the tenants. His name hath never crossed my lips till now, and shall not again without good cause. Here is my hand upon it, Master Lawyer. The Lawyer shook hands with him heartily, for he could not but respect the man for his sturdiness and sincerity. And when Jack was gone, Mr. Deli Course played with his spectacles and his snuff box for several minutes before he could make up his mind how to deal with the matter. Then hearing the solid knock of Jordus, who was bound to take horse for Scargate House pretty early at this time of year, with the weakening of the day among the mountains, he lost a few moments in confusion, the dogman could not go without any answer, and how was any good answer to be given in half an hour at the utmost? A time had been when the Lawyer studied curtness and precision under minds of abridgment in London, but the more he had laboured to introduce harsh brevity into Yorkshire and to cut away nine words out of ten when all the ten meant one thing only, the more of contempt for his ignorance he won and the less money he made out of it, and no sooner did he marry than he was forced to give up that, and like a respectable butcher put in every pennyweight of fat that could be charged for. Thus had he thervent and grown like a goodly deed of fine amplification, and if he had made Squire Phillips will now, it would scarcely have gone into any breast pocket, and luckily it is an easier thing to make a man's will than to carry it out, even though fortune be favourable. In the present case, obstacles seem to be arising which might at any moment require great skill and tact to surmount them, and the Lawyer, hearing George as striding to and fro impatiently in the waiting room, was feigned to in time for consideration by writing a short note to say that he proposed to wait upon the ladies the very next day, for he had important news which seemed expedient to discuss with them. In the meantime he begged them not to be at all uneasy, for his news upon the whole was propitious. End of chapter 20