Kitabı oku: «The Vicar's People», sayfa 13
Chapter Twenty Seven
Two Visitors at An Morlock
They were busy days which followed for Geoffrey Trethick, and his interviews with Mr Penwynn, in consequence of the latter’s desire to keep his name out of the project, were of an evening at An Morlock, where he more than once encountered Rhoda, who pleased him by the way in which she entered into the spirit of his plans.
The first time he met her was when, after a couple of visits to the mine where the Wheal Carnac machinery had been taken, and some long discussions with Pengelly, he had gone up to An Morlock to ask Mr Penwynn whether he would buy it back from the trustees of the bankrupt estate.
“But that will take quite a heavy sum, Trethick,” said Mr Penwynn. “What I want to do is to have the mine emptied and thoroughly tested without further expense.”
“Exactly so, sir,” replied Geoffrey; “but, working in your interests, I felt it my duty to lay this before you. Here, to pump out, a certain amount of money must be spent in fixing hired machinery. If the mine proves good all that money is wasted. On the other hand, if you are willing to buy back this original machinery, which is, I guarantee, to be had for a fourth of its value, it will do the work better, and you have it ready to carry on future proceedings, when a vast amount would be saved.”
“And suppose the venture – I mean the testing – proves a failure?”
“You have a valuable lot of modern machinery to sell, and cannot lose.”
Mr Penwynn sat thinking, and Rhoda raised her head from her work.
“Well, my dear,” said her father, smiling, “what should you do?”
“I think I should take Mr Trethick’s advice, papa,” she said quietly; and she had hardly spoken when the servant announced Mr Tregenna, who came in smiling, and shook hands warmly all round.
“I thought I’d just drop in for a chat,” he said, looking meaningly at Mr Penwynn. “Why, the place is ringing with the news that you are going in for mining.”
“Confound them, how did they know that I was at the back of the affair?” said Mr Penwynn, irritably; and he looked sharply at Geoffrey.
“Not from me, sir,” he said, smiling. “I’ve been as silent as an oyster.”
“Oh, from your clerks, I’ll be bound,” said Tregenna. “You sent for Mr Trethick here, didn’t you?”
“Yes, of course,” said Mr Penwynn.
“Well,” said Tregenna, laughing, “that was quite enough. I’ll be bound to say the ladies of Carnac know to a penny how much that charming costume of Miss Penwynn’s cost – the one she wore last Sunday.”
Rhoda looked up, and nodded, and smiled, feeling set at her ease by the quiet, matter-of-fact way in which Tregenna had put aside the past.
“Well, they’d have been sure to know it sooner or later,” said Mr Penwynn. “You’ve just come opportunely, Tregenna. I want a bit of advice.”
“Viva!” said Tregenna, laughing, and taking out his memorandum-book. “I came in for half an hour’s relaxation, and I shall earn a guinea in consultation. I am all attention.”
“You charge for your advice, and you see how I’ll charge in the way of discount for the next bill you present,” said Mr Penwynn, laughing. “Well, look here, Tregenna, Cropper and Grey want to sell the old Wheal Carnac machinery.”
“New machinery, you mean,” said Tregenna.
“Well, yes, it is nearly new,” said Mr Penwynn. “Mr Trethick here advises its purchase and refixing to pump out the mine.”
“But that would run into a lot of money,” said Tregenna.
“Yes,” replied Geoffrey; “but it all fits the place, and it is to be got for a fourth of its value. Even if the whole venture proved a failure, the machinery would be worth the money. It seems to me a chance.”
Tregenna sat back in his chair, tapping his teeth with the end of his pencil.
“That machinery costs a tremendous deal of money,” he said, thoughtfully.
“Yes, and is in admirable order,” said Geoffrey, “or I would not suggest such a thing.”
“What do the trustees ask for the lot?” said Tregenna, at last.
Geoffrey mentioned the sum.
“Well, that must be very moderate,” said Tregenna, “as far as I understand such things. But business is business,” he continued, laughing. “I am growing very sordid. Look here, Mr Penwynn, I know Cropper and Grey, the trustees, of course. If you decide to purchase that machinery, which certainly, on the face of it, seems a wise stroke, especially as you want it, and it would always be worth its money, I’ll undertake to get it for you two hundred and fifty pounds below the sum named on condition of received a cheque for fifty pounds commission.”
“Certainly. Agreed,” said Mr Penwynn; “but I have not yet made up my mind.”
“Oh, of course not!” said Tregenna, making a note in his book.
“Advising you on the purchase of machinery. Long consultation – thirteen and four,” said Geoffrey, dryly.
“Oh, no, Mr Trethick,” said Tregenna, closing the book with a snap, “I shall be satisfied with my fifty pounds cheque.”
“When you get it, Tregenna,” said Mr Penwynn, laughing.
“When I get it – cashed,” replied Tregenna.
“By the way, Tregenna, would you mind coming into the study a minute or two? There’s one little point I should like to discuss with you,” said Mr Penwynn, rising. “Rhoda, my dear, Mr Trethick would, perhaps, like a little music.”
“I think I’ll be going,” said Geoffrey, rising.
“No, no, don’t go yet,” said the banker.
“I’m going your way presently,” said Tregenna; and Geoffrey sat down again as the banker and the solicitor left the room.
“I hope you are beginning to like Carnac better, Mr Trethick,” said Rhoda quietly.
“I always did like it,” said Geoffrey. “It is one long study of character; and, now that I have something to do, I quite love the place.”
“It is very beautiful and wild,” replied Rhoda, thoughtfully. “By the way, Mr Trethick, do you think there is a good prospect of this mining affair succeeding?”
“It is impossible to say,” replied Geoffrey, looking full in the large, earnest eyes before him. “Every step for some time to come must be tentative. I really think, though, that there is a good hope of success.”
“Hope? Mr Trethick.”
“Well, I might say certainty of clearing expenses – hope of making a large profit.”
“Papa has always said that he would never enter into a mining speculation, and now he seems to have been drawn into this. I should not like it to cause him trouble.”
“Honestly, I do not believe it will, Miss Penwynn,” replied Geoffrey. “It shall go very bad with me if it does.”
“I trust that you will do your best for him, Mr Trethick,” said Rhoda, earnestly.
“You may take it for granted, Miss Penwynn,” said Geoffrey, “that if only out of selfish considerations I shall leave no stone unturned – that is likely to contain tin,” he added, laughingly. “No, my dear young lady, I have had to wait too long for this opportunity to be careless. I shall, and I will, make Wheal Carnac pay.”
He got up as he spoke, and Rhoda watched him as he walked up and down the room.
“Many an earnest man has been damped over these wretched mining speculations, Mr Trethick,” said Rhoda sadly, her eyes following him the while.
“Oh, yes,” he said cheerily, “there are plenty of failures in every thing. Fellows read for honours and plenty of them fail, but the men who stick to the work the best generally get somewhere on the list. I’m going to stick to Wheal Carnac, Miss Penwynn, and if one is only last on the list it will be something.”
“To be sure,” said Rhoda, smiling. “Well, Mr Trethick, I wish you every success.”
Geoffrey stopped short to look at her in a bold, straightforward manner that made Rhoda lower her eyes.
“Thank you,” he said frankly. “I’m sure you do. And look here, Miss Penwynn, the first rich vein we strike shall bear your name.”
Rhoda smiled.
“Find it first, eh?” he said. “Well, I will if it is to be found, and I am supplied with the sinews of war. I say, Miss Penwynn, has that Mr Tregenna any thing to do with this affair?”
“Oh, no, I think not!” replied Rhoda, looking at him wonderingly.
“I’m glad of it,” said Geoffrey bluntly.
“May I ask why, Mr Trethick?” she said, watching his earnest face.
“Because I don’t like him for any thing more than an acquaintance – that’s all,” he said; and then suddenly recollecting his suspicions that Tregenna had proposed to Rhoda on the night of the dinner, he flushed slightly, and exclaimed, “Really I beg your pardon. My antipathies ought to be kept private.”
Rhoda bowed and walked to the piano, where her voice was rising and falling in a well-known ballad, when Tregenna and the banker re-entered the room, the former darting a quick, suspicious look from one to the other, but without finding any thing upon which his suspicions could feed.
Whatever the business had been, Mr Penwynn seemed perfectly satisfied, and the conversation became general till Trethick rose to go, Tregenna following his example; but Mr Penwynn laid his hand upon the solicitor’s arm, and asked him to stay for a few minutes longer.
“Good-night, Mr Trethick,” he said. “I will sleep on that affair, and give you an answer in the morning.”
“Going to consult Tregenna a little more,” said Geoffrey, as he walked homeward. “Well, he is not a man whom I should trust, and I’m very glad I have no dealings with him whatever.”
He stopped at a corner to fill and light his meerschaum.
“There’s some pleasure in having a pipe now one has got to work,” he said, as he puffed the bowl into a glow, and then, as he went on – “that’s a very nice, quiet, sensible girl, that Miss Penwynn;” and then he began to think of Tregenna.
Just at the same time Rhoda had said to herself, —
“Mr Trethick is very frank, and manly, and natural,” and then she began thinking about Madge Mullion and Bess Prawle, and then – she could not tell why – she sighed.
There was a long talk that night in Mr Penwynn’s study, and when at last Tregenna left he was thinking to himself about mines and mining.
“That’s a splendid fellow, that Trethick,” he said. “I did think of trying to mould him, but he wants no touching, only leaving alone. Once set a man on the mining slide, there is no stopping till he gets to the bottom; and I think friend Penwynn will find the bottom of Wheal Carnac very deep.”
Chapter Twenty Eight
A Chat with Uncle Paul
They were busy days for Geoffrey Trethick and his factotum Pengelly, who hardly gave himself time to rest. The visit to Mr Penwynn that next morning had resulted in the information that he had commissioned Mr Tregenna to offer a certain sum for the machinery.
“And mind this, Trethick,” the banker said, “you have led me into this affair, and you will have to make it pay me well.”
“Never fear, sir,” said Geoffrey, “I’ll do my best.”
Visits to Gwennas were rare, and Geoffrey went to and from the cottage with an abstracted air, too busy to notice that Madge looked pale and careworn, and that Uncle Paul seemed a little changed.
The old man would waylay him though sometimes, poke at him with his cane, and get him into the summer-house to smoke one of the long black cheroots.
“Well,” he said one morning, “how are you getting along, boy? Swimmingly I suppose? I saw the water coming out at a fine rate.”
“Yes,” said Geoffrey, “we’ve got all the machinery fixed as far as was necessary, and the pumping has begun.”
“And you are going to make my hundred pounds come back to me, eh?”
“Well, not very likely,” said Geoffrey, “unless you buy fresh shares of the new proprietors. What do you say?”
“Bah!” exclaimed the old man; and they smoked on in silence for a time.
“Might do worse,” said Geoffrey.
“Rubbish! I tell you it will all end in a smash-up. You get your money regularly, and don’t let them have any arrears.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Geoffrey. “So you think there will, be another failure?”
“Sure of it I shall buy that piece of ground yet for a house. Sure to fail.”
“So old Prawle says.”
“Oh, old Prawle says so, does he?” continued Uncle Paul.
“Yes; and I told him the Indian file thought the same.”
“The what?” said Uncle Paul.
“The Indian file – you,” said Geoffrey, coolly.
Uncle Paul thumped his stick on the floor, and looked daggers.
“Look here, young fellow,” he said, sharply, “you go a deal too much to Gwennas Cove, and it don’t look well.”
“Haven’t been half so often lately,” said Geoffrey, coolly.
“You go ten times too much. Look here, boy, have you seen how pale and ill that jade, Madge, looks?”
“No. Yes, to be sure, I did think she looked white.”
“Fretting, sir, fretting. Now look here, boy, it isn’t square.”
“What isn’t?” said Geoffrey, coolly.
“So much of that going to Gwennas Cove, and rescuing young women from infuriated mobs, and that sort of thing. Lady very grateful?”
“Very.”
“Humph! Bewitched you?”
“Not yet.”
“Humph! Going to?”
“Don’t know.”
“Damn you, Geoffrey Trethick,” cried the old man, “you’d provoke a saint.”
“Which you are not.”
“Who the devil ever said I was, sir? Now, look here, you dog, I warned you when you came that I’d have no courting.”
“You can’t stop courting,” laughed Geoffrey. “It would take a giant.”
“None of your confounded banter, sir. I told you I’d have no courting – no taking notice of that jade – and you’ve disobeyed me.”
“Not I,” said Geoffrey.
“Don’t contradict, puppy. I say you have.”
“All right.”
“The jade’s going about the house red-eyed, and pale, and love-sick – confound her! – about you, and now you make her miserable by playing off that brown-skinned fish-wench with the dark eyes.”
Geoffrey’s conscience smote him as he thought of that day when he playfully kissed Madge, and asked himself whether she really cared for him now, but only to feel sure that she did not.
“Does this sort of thing please you?” he said.
“Confound you! No, sir, it does not. Act like a man if you can, and be honest, or – confound you, sir! – old as I am, and old-fashioned as I am – damme, sir – laws or no laws, I’ll call you out and shoot you. You sha’n’t trifle with the girl’s feelings while I’m here.”
Geoffrey’s first impulse was to say something banteringly; but he saw that the old man was so much in earnest that he took a quiet tone.
“Uncle Paul,” he said, “why will you go on running your head against a brick wall?”
“What do you mean, boy?”
“Only that you have got a notion in your head, and it seems useless for me to try and get it out. I’m busy and bothered, and have a deal to think about, so, once for all, let me tell you that I have hardly ever paid Miss Mullion the slightest attention, and, what is more, I am not so conceited as to believe she is making herself uncomfortable about me.”
The old man glared hard at him and uttered a grunt, for the eyes that met his were as frank and calm as could be.
“Then all I can say is that if what you say is true – ”
“Which it is – perfectly true,” replied Geoffrey.
“Then it’s very strange,” grumbled the old man. “She never went on like this before. Have another cheroot, Trethick?”
“Now that’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard you say to-day,” said Geoffrey, smiling, as he took one of the great black cheroots. “I say, old fellow, these are very good. What do they cost you a-box?”
“Five pounds a hundred,” said the old man, quietly.
“What?” cried Geoffrey.
“Shilling apiece, boy.”
“Why I – ’pon my word, sir, really I’m ashamed to take them.”
“Bah! stuff!” cried the old man. “Do you suppose, because I live here in this quiet way, that I’m a pauper? Smoke the cigar, boy. Here’s a light.”
Geoffrey lit up, and inwardly determined that in future he would keep to his pipe, while the old man sat watching him.
“So you mean to make the mine pay, eh, Trethick?” he said.
“Yes, I believe I shall, Mr Paul,” said Geoffrey, quietly. “I’m not starting with the idea of a fortune, but on the principles of which I have often told you of getting a profit out of a mine by economy, new means of reducing the ore, and living where others would fail.”
“Humph!” said the old man, looking at him thoughtfully, and they smoked on in silence.
“I was a bit bilious this morning,” said Uncle Paul at last, in an apologetic tone.
“Yes,” said Geoffrey, “I saw that.”
“Parson called and upset me. Wanted me to go and take the chair at a missionary meeting for the Hindoos, and I told him that the Hindoos and Buddhists ought to send missionaries to us. But don’t take any notice.”
“Not I, old gentleman,” said Geoffrey, laughing. “I rather like it.”
“Humph! I rather like you too, boy. You seem to do my biliousness good. You can stand a bullying without flying out. I haven’t found a fellow stand it so well since I left the coolies.”
“Mutual admiration,” laughed Geoffrey. “I like you, old gentleman, because you do fly out. It’s quite refreshing after a lot of disappointments to have some one to quarrel with.”
There was another pause.
“I say, Trethick,” said the old man, “then Penwynn and Tregenna are hand-and-glove in this job, eh?”
Geoffrey looked at the old man wonderingly, for he was evidently beating about the bush.
“I don’t know. There, don’t ask me questions, old gentleman,” was the reply. “I’m not at liberty to chatter.”
There was another silence.
“Madge isn’t a bad sort of girl, Trethick,” said the old man at last.
“No,” said Geoffrey; “she’s pretty and amiable, and I believe, poor lassie, she is very good-hearted. I often think you are too hard upon her.”
“Hard be hanged, sir! I’ve been her’s and her mother’s support these ten years.”
“Very likely,” said Geoffrey, dryly; “but a dog doesn’t like his crusts and bones any the better for having them thrown at him.”
“Humph!” ejaculated the old man, thoughtfully. “Well, perhaps I am a little hard upon her sometimes; but she aggravates me. Trethick, you are quite conceited puppy enough, I know, but that girl is fretting about you.”
“Ignorance is bliss, sir. I was not aware of it.”
“Ignorance is a blister, sir,” cried the old man, sharply. “But,” he added, more gently, “she is, I tell you. Trethick, she is a nice girl, and you might do worse.”
“Stuff, stuff, my dear sir!” cried Geoffrey, laughing. “You are mistaken, and I am not a marrying man. There, I must be off;” and, starting up, he swung off along the path, and away down towards the mine buildings, where steam was now puffing, water falling, and several busy hands were at work.
Uncle Paul watched him thoughtfully as he strode away, and then sat back thinking, as he gazed out to sea.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Bess Prawle’s Secret
Time goes by rapidly with the busy. To Geoffrey it went like lightning; to Madge Mullion it hung heavy as lead. When they met, which was seldom now, and he spoke a few kindly, cheery words to her, she looked at him rather piteously, but said little in return.
Once or twice there was a twinge of pain in Geoffrey Trethick’s conscience, but he said nothing, only went on with his work busily and well. The water was all out of the mine, and he had carefully examined and reported upon it – a carefully worded report, promising nothing more than a moderate return upon a small capital; and, not satisfied, he persuaded Mr Penwynn to have down an experienced mineralogist to give his opinion.
“Whom would you recommend?” said Mr Penwynn, and Rhoda watched Geoffrey anxiously for his reply.
“No one, Mr Penwynn,” said the young man. “Get somebody I don’t know – a reliable man whom you can trust, and don’t let me see him.”
He happened to turn his eyes upon Rhoda as he spoke, and there was such a bright, eager look in the glance that met his that it made him thoughtful.
“Quite right,” said Mr Penwynn, “it would be better;” and the next day Mr Chynoweth was set to write to a mining engineer in town.
That night there was a game of whist at Dr Rumsey’s, and Chynoweth and Tregenna were there. Tregenna lost heavily for such play as they had. Chynoweth was in high delight, and Tregenna and he walked home together.
The next day Mr Tregenna had business in London, and the day following the mining engineer and mineralogist came down, inspected Wheal Carnac, and made his report afterwards to Mr Penwynn, with the result that the banker said nothing to Geoffrey Trethick, only bade him go on, feeling satisfied that his venture was to be a great financial success.
A month later it was known that a new company had bought the mine, and that shares were to be had.
The matter was chatted over at An Morlock, and, as sometimes happened, Geoffrey and Rhoda were left together for a time; their talk being generally of the mine; and when he was gone, Rhoda got into the habit of sitting silent and thoughtful, in judgment upon Geoffrey Trethick’s character.
Her line of argument took somewhat this form – she did not know why she should argue out his cause – but somehow she felt compelled to do so. Scandal had made pretty free with his name, and, in spite of her efforts, Rhoda seemed obliged to hear, through Miss Pavey, all that was said.
And the sayings were these – that Geoffrey Trethick was young and gay; that he had gone so much to Gwennas Cove that old Prawle had threatened his life if he went there again, and that upon one occasion the old man had lain in wait for him with a hammer at Wheal Carnac, only Pengelly was with Trethick and had saved him; then Trethick had promised that he would go to Gwennas no more, and the matter at once ended.
“False on the face of it!” said Rhoda, with spirit. “Geoffrey – Mr Trethick,” she said quickly, “told me that he had been twice to see old Mrs Prawle this week, and begged me to go soon.”
The next indictment was that Geoffrey had become so intimate with Madge Mullion that old Mr Paul had ordered him to leave the house, and that he was going at once.
This was Miss Pavey’s news, and she added that Mr Trethick would have to leave the town unless Mr Penwynn took compassion upon him.
“Of course, my dear,” she had said, maliciously, as she blew her nose in a gentlemanly way as if it were a triumphant note of defiance, “after what we are hearing you have quite cast him off?”
Rhoda looked at the speaker steadily, but made no reply.
But of this charge?
“Well,” Rhoda argued, “Madge Mullion is pretty and attractive, and she would probably throw herself open to the attentions of such a man as Geoffrey Trethick. But, if this were true, would Geoffrey behave as he had behaved at An Morlock of late? He seemed to be the soul of honour, and his words always had the ring of truth in them. No: it was one of the Carnac petty scandals; Geoffrey Trethick was no trifler.”
There was another long, dreamy time after this, and there were moments when Rhoda felt angry with herself for thinking so much about the man who now came to lay bare his plans, to consult her, so it seemed, when he was asking counsel of her father. And all at once she seemed to awaken to the fact that, by some means, the life of Geoffrey Trethick had become interwoven strangely with her own – that his success was her success, his failures hers; and yet he had spoken no word, given her no look. He was different to any man that she had ever met, and he even annoyed her sometimes by his quiet assumption of authority as the stronger in thought. For he would ask her advice, and often enough show the fallacy of what she had said.
Then she would think that they were becoming too intimate, and blame her father for encouraging the presence of this stranger; but Mr Penwynn seemed, after a life of immunity, to have taken the mine fever badly, and the thought of Geoffrey Trethick pretending to his daughter’s hand never occurred to him.
“No,” thought Rhoda, “papa thinks of nothing now but this speculation; and why should he? Geoffrey Trethick has never behaved otherwise than as a visitor working in my father’s interest;” and as she said this to herself, a curious feeling of pique arose, but only to be crushed at once.
Finally, Rhoda Penwynn’s verdict on Geoffrey Trethick was that he was a gentleman – a man of unstained honour, whom fate had placed in a town full of petty scandal.
The next day Rhoda endorsed her verdict, and it was in this wise.
She granted, as she started, that it was due to Geoffrey’s request, for otherwise she might not have gone. As it was, she started in the afternoon to walk over to Gwennas Cove, passing along the cliff, and looking somewhat eagerly down towards Wheal Carnac, where figures were moving and shaft smoking, while the great beam of the pumping-engine went steadily on with its toil.
She was half-startled to see how the wreck had been transformed into a busy scene of industry, and, in spite of herself, she felt a glow of pride as she recalled whose hand had brought about the change.
Her face turned hard directly after, as she thought of her father, and of how he had seemed to become inoculated with Geoffrey Trethick’s enthusiasm. He did not want for money, and yet he had entered upon this mining speculation – he of all men, who had laughed at the follies of those who embarked upon such ventures. What was to be the end?
She walked on, and soon after reached the spot where Bess Prawle had been driven to bay by the superstitious crowd; and, as the whole scene came back, with Geoffrey’s gallant behaviour, and the girl’s display of gratitude, Rhoda stopped short, with her eyes contracting, her brow ruffled with emotion, and her lips half parted. For she was startled at the pang of misery that shot through her. The contemptible scandal she had heard forced itself upon her, and she seemed obliged to couple with it the weak wanderings of poor old Mrs Prawle about Geoffrey and her child.
It was horrible! What had she been doing? How had her fancies been straying, she asked herself, as she awakened to the fact that imperceptibly her interest in Geoffrey had grown so warm that the thought of his caring for another caused her misery of the most acute kind.
She shook off the feeling, calling herself weak and childish, and, gathering mental strength with the walk, she at last reached Gwennas Cove.
Old Prawle was busy overhauling a long line, and binding on fresh hooks, a task from which he condescended to raise his eyes, and give the visitor a surly nod as she spoke.
His voice brought out Bess, looking handsomer than ever, Rhoda thought, in her picturesque dress and carelessly-knotted hair.
For a moment the two girls stood gazing in each other’s eyes, and a cold, chilling feeling ran through Rhoda as, in spite of herself, she felt that it would be no wonder if Geoffrey Trethick did love this bold, handsome girl.
The next moment the thought was gone, and Rhoda had held out her hand.
“I hope there is a good stock of sweeties, Bessie,” she said, with a frank smile. “How is Mrs Prawle?”
Bess’s breath came with a catch, as she returned the smile; and, leading the way into the cottage, the pleasant little fiction was gone through, and the invalid made happy in the thought that she had added the profits of a shilling’s-worth of sweets to the general store.
But there was no conversation this time about Geoffrey Trethick, for Bess stayed in the room, and then followed Rhoda out on to the cliff path when she left.
“Why, Bessie,” said the visitor, smiling, “I have hardly seen you since that day when those mad people behaved so ill.”
“I very seldom go into the town now, miss,” said Bess, whose colour came as she recalled the conclusion of that scene.
“It’s very sad,” continued Rhoda, “that the people should be so ignorant. Well, good-by, Bessie,” she continued, holding out her hand, “you will not ill-wish me?”
“No,” said Bessie, softly, as she watched the tall, well-dressed, graceful figure slowly receding. “No, I will not ill-wish you; but there are times when I feel as if I must hate you for being what you are.”
She let Rhoda go on till the fluttering of her dress in the sea-breeze was seen no more, and then, moved by some strange impulse, she followed, avoiding the track; and, active and quick as one of the half-wild sheep of the district, she climbed up on to the rugged down above the cliff path, and kept on gazing below at Rhoda from time to time.
She went on nearly parallel with her for a quarter of a mile or so, and then stood motionless for a time, gazing down, before, with a weary wail of misery, she threw herself amidst the heather, her face upon one outstretched arm, whose fingers clutched and tore at the tough plants and grass, while her whole frame quivered with her passionate sobs.
“Bess!”
At the sound of that hoarse voice she started up into a sitting position, but shrank away as she gazed up into her father’s fierce, rugged face. The old man was down on one knee beside her, and his gnarled and knotted hand was pointing in the direction of the cliff path a hundred feet below.
“Is – is it come to this, Bess?” he said.
“What – what, father?” she cried, catching at his hand; but she missed it, and he gripped her arm.
“Is that smooth, good-looking villain thy lover, too?” he said, in a vindictive whisper.
“Oh! no, no, no, father,” she gasped.
“I knew it would come to it,” he cried. “Curse him! I’ll crush his false head again the rocks.”
“Are you mad, father?” she whispered, throwing her arms round him.
“Mad? No,” he cried; “but do you think I’m blind as well as old? Bess,” he continued, “I wish before his gashly face had darkened our door – ”
“Oh father, father, dear father,” she moaned – and she crept closer and closer, till her arms were round his neck, and her head in his breast; “kill me, but don’t hurt him.”
“Then he has been trifling with thee, girl? I knowed it; I was sure it would come.”
“No, no, no,” moaned Bess; “he never said word to me but what you might hear.”
“Is – is this gawspel, Bess?” cried the old man, dragging up her convulsed and tearful face, and gazing in her wistful dark eyes.
“Can’t you see, father?” she said, with a low, despairing sigh. “I’m not good enough to be his wife, and he’s not the man to trifle and say soft things to me. You see down yonder,” she added, pitifully, as she waved one brown hand in the direction of the path.
“Nay, it’s along of Madge Mullion,” said the old man, wrathfully. “Yon’s nothing, and will come to naught. They say old Paul’s niece – ”
“It’s a lie, father, a cruel lie,” cried Bess, starting from him. “I heard it, and it’s a lie. Mr Trethick’s a gentleman, and he’s as noble as he’s good.”
