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diff --git a/old/54669-0.txt b/old/54669-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 689be31..0000000 --- a/old/54669-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7216 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Kitty Alone (Volume 2 of 3), by S. Baring Gould - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Kitty Alone (Volume 2 of 3) - A Story of Three Fires - -Author: S. Baring Gould - -Release Date: May 6, 2017 [EBook #54669] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KITTY ALONE (VOLUME 2 OF 3) *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, David Edwards and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note: - -This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. -Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Bold text and -text in blackletter font are delimited with ‘=’. - -Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding -the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. - - - - - KITTY ALONE - - - - - MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH - - - - - KITTY ALONE - - A STORY OF THREE FIRES - - - - - - - BY - - S. BARING GOULD - - AUTHOR OF - “IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA” “THE QUEEN OF LOVE” - “MEHALAH” “CHEAP JACK ZITA” ETC. ETC. - - - - - IN THREE VOLUMES - - VOL. II - - - - - METHUEN & CO. - 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. - LONDON - 1894 - - CONTENTS OF VOL. II - - ---------- - - CHAP. PAGE - XIX. SUGGESTIONS OF EVIL 7 - XX. A FACE IN THE WATER 19 - XXI. AN OFFER 28 - XXII. A RACE FOR LIFE 37 - XXIII. BORROWING 45 - XXIV. SHAVINGS 55 - XXV. BORROWING AGAIN 64 - XXVI. SILVER PENINKS 73 - XXVII. TROUBLE 83 - XXVIII. ALTERNATIVES 92 - XXIX. A FRIEND GAINED 104 - XXX. UNDER THE MULBERRY TREE 111 - XXXI. ON MISCHIEF BENT 122 - XXXII. JASON IN THE WAY 132 - XXXIII. ONE CRIME LEADS TO ANOTHER 140 - XXXIV. AND YET ANOTHER 149 - XXXV. UNSUCCESSFUL 159 - XXXVI. ALL IN VAIN 168 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - KITTY ALONE - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - SUGGESTIONS OF EVIL - - -The crowd in the market-place and in the streets of Ashburton began to -thin as the afternoon crept on. In vain did the showmen blow their -trumpets, ring their bells, and invite to their entertainments. Those -who had come to the fair had spent their loose cash. The proprietors of -the stalls offered their wares at reduced prices, but found few -purchasers. Young men who had been hired by the farmers swaggered about -singing or shouting, some tipsy, others merely on the road to tipsiness. -The ostlers in the inns were harnessing horses to the traps, market -carts, gigs, dog-carts, that had brought in the farmers and their wives. -Empty waggons were departing. The roads were full of streams of people -flowing homeward to the surrounding villages. - -Pasco Pepperill started with the schoolmaster. He had surrendered Kate -to her father. The reins were in his hand, and he had whipped the cob, -when he saw Coaker, the man from whom he had bought the wool, coming -towards him. - -The blood rushed into Pepperill’s face. - -“How d’ye do?” asked the farmer. “Going home?” - -“I be,” answered Pasco, with constrained anger. - -“You’ll find all the wool there. I sent off the lot this morning—three -waggon-loads.” - -“Why did you not inform me?—and I would have waited for it, and not come -to the fair.” - -“I did not know how the weather might be—and I wished to be rid of it.” -Coaker laughed. - -This angered Pasco further, and, losing command of himself, he said, -“’Twas scurvy—that selling me at such a price when you knew wool was -down.” - -“That was your concern. Each man for himself. But I reckon you’ve made a -worse bargain at Brimpts, if, as they tell me, you have bought the -wood.” - -“How so? Is not the timber first-rate?” - -“Oh, the timber is good enough.” - -“Then what is wrong?” - -“Have you been to Brimpts?” - -“No—but Quarm has.” - -“Then you don’t know the road. It is thus”—Coaker made a motion with his -hand up and down. “The waves of the sea mountains high is nothing to -it—and bad—the road is! Lor’ bless y’! the cost o’ moving the timber -when cut will swallow up all the profits.” - -“Pshaw! The distance from Ashburton is only three miles.” - -“Better ten on a decent road. You’ll never get the timber drawn, or, if -you do, farewell to all profits. But when you have got it to -Ashburton—who will buy it there?” - -“Oh, Quarm has an idea of disposing of the oak to the Government—selling -it to the dockyard at Devonport.” - -“How far off is that? Some five-and-twenty miles—and over the moor!” -Coaker laughed. - -“If I don’t sell the oak, I am a”—Pasco’s face was as red as blood. He -checked himself from the confession that he would be a ruined man, and -said between his teeth, “I’ll never speak to Quarm again. He’s led me -into a pretty quandary.” - -“Quarm? He’s a Jack-o’-lantern—don’t trust he.” - -Coaker waved his hand, and, still laughing, went his way to the -stable-yard to get his cob. - -Pasco whipped his horse and drove homewards. His lips were closed, his -brows knitted, he looked straight before him at the ears of his horse. -He was in no disposition to speak. Nor, for the matter of that, was his -companion. Bramber was thinking of Kitty, of the uncongenial -surroundings, the hot-headed father, running himself and his -brother-in-law into speculative ventures that must lead them to ruin; of -the uncle, boastful, conceited, and withal stupid; of the hard, selfish -aunt. He saw that young Pooke admired her, and this did not altogether -please Bramber. Pooke might be well off and amiable, but he was dull of -intellect—a boor—and could never be a suitable companion to the eager -Kitty, whose mind was greedy for knowledge, and whose tastes were those -of a class above that in which she was cast. The admiration of Jan Pooke -brought on her contrariety. It had involved her in the quarrel between -Jan and Noah, and had roused the jealousy of Rose Ash. - -As the trap passed out of Ashburton, many a salutation was cast at -Pepperill, but he hardly acknowledged any. He put up his hand and beat -his hat down over his brows, then lashed savagely at his cob. - -All at once something arrested his eye, and he instinctively drew up, -then muttered, and whipped his brute again. What he had observed was a -little plate, affixed to a house, with the title of the Insurance -Company on it, with which he had that day had dealings. - -“I wonder,” thought Pasco, “what that house is insured for? Not for -twelve hundred pounds, I’ll swear.” - -Then a sense of bitterness rose in his heart against his brother-in-law -for drawing him into this expense of insuring his property;—he had that -day expended all the gold he had about him in paying the first premium. -There remained only some silver in one pocket, and coppers in the other. -Where was he to find the money for the payment of the oaks he had -bought? Where that to meet the bill for the wool? The tanner would not -pay enough for the bark to cover the cost of rending. Quarm had told him -that the sap rose badly, and that it would involve much labour and waste -of time to attempt to bark the trees. - -Fevered with anxiety and disappointment, Pasco thrashed his cob -savagely, and sent it along at its fullest pace, whirling past the gigs -and waggons returning from the fair, and giving the drivers hardly time -to get on one side to avoid him. He relieved his breast by swearing at -them for their sluggishness in making way, and some retaliated with -oaths, as, in order to escape him, they ran into the hedge or over a -heap of stones. - -Presently his horse slackened speed, as it reached a sharp ascent, and -there Pasco met an empty waggon, with “Coaker—Dart-meet” on it. He -stopped his panting horse, and shouted to the driver of the team, and -asked whence he came. - -“I’ve been to your place—Coombe Cellars,” answered the waggoner. “Master -sent me with a load of fleeces.” - -“Did my wife give you anything?” - -“Not a glass of cider,” answered the man. “We had to unload and do the -work of hoisting into the warehouse ourselves—no one was about.” - -“She left it for me—she knew you would meet us.” - -Tossing his head, to shake off the depression that had come upon him, -and with a flash of his vanity through the gloom, he put his hand in his -pocket and drew out a couple of shillings. - -“There,” said he; “you’d have had more, but I have spent most of my cash -at the fair. Buying, buying, buying, that’s my trade. Go and drink a -glass to my health.” - -Then he drove on. - -On descending the hill another waggon was encountered. This was also one -that had conveyed fleeces to Coombe Cellars. Pasco gave this driver a -couple of shillings. Then he turned to Bramber and said, “Two years of -wool—I paid as much as thirteen pence a pound, and I can’t sell at -tenpence. They say it is going down to sevenpence; that is nearly half -what I gave. A loss to me of sixpence a pound; I have bought three -waggonload. A good sheep may have sixteen pounds on his back, but the -average is ten or eleven. Coaker must keep a couple of hundred. You’re a -schoolmaster; reckon that up—two hundred sheep at eleven. I’m not a -quick man at figures myself.” - -“Nothing can be simpler than that calculation. Two thousand two -hundred.” - -“Ah! But two years’ wool?” - -“Well, that is four thousand four hundred.” - -“And I have lost, say, sixpence a pound.” - -“Then you lose a hundred and ten pounds by the transaction.” - -“Think of that. A hundred and ten pounds—say a hundred and twenty. That -is something for a man to lose and make no account of.” The vanity of -the man was flattered by the thought of the amount of his loss. “And -then,” said he, “there was what Coaker said about the oak. I’ve -undertaken to lay out two hundred pounds on that; and there is the -fellin’ and cartin’—say another hundred. Suppose I lose this also—that -is a matter of three hundred. With the wool, four hundred and twenty -pound. I reckon, schoolmaster, you’ve never had the fingering of so much -money as I am losing.” - -Bramber looked round at Pasco with surprise. He could not understand the -sort of pride that was manifesting itself in the man. - -“Are you able to meet such losses?” - -“If not—I can but fail. It’s something to fail for a good sum. But I’ll -not fail; I am full of resources.” He beat the horse. “I shall sell the -wool. It will go up. I shall sell the timber at a good figure, and -pocket a thousand pounds. I am sorry I did not give those men half a -crown each, but I have spent most of my money, and”— - -Crash! He drove against a post, and upset the trap. - -Pasco staggered to his feet. - -“Schoolmaister—are you hurt?” - -“No.” Walter sprang to the horse and seized its head. - -“It would have been best had I broken my neck and finished so,” said -Pepperill. Then he regretted the sudden outburst of despair, and added, -“So some folks might ha’ said, but I’ve disappointed ’em. I may have a -chuck down, but I’m up again in a jiffy. That’s been my way all along, -and will be to the end.” - -One of the shafts was broken, and there ensued delay whilst it was being -patched up with rope. Then, when they were able to pursue their career, -Pasco was constrained to drive more carefully and less rapidly. Night -was coming on as they neared Newton Abbot. - -“I’ll tell you what it is,” said Pasco; “I’m uncommon hungry, and I’ll -just go into the first public-house and have a mouthful of something, -and you shall do the same. The cob is a bit shaken with that spill, and -I’ll have the shaft fastened up firmer before we proceed. What say you? -Here’s the ‘Crown and Anchor.’ How the place is changed. Ah, ha! It is -insured at the same office as I am. Why—bless my life!—the old inn was a -ramshackle sort of a place.” - -Pepperill descended from his trap, and gave instructions to the ostler -what he was to do to the broken shaft. “I’ll pay you well if you do your -work,” said he. Then to Bramber, “Come in! Cold meat and -bread-and-cheese, and a glass of ale. We need refreshment, and the house -looks as if it could provide it. Don’t be concerned about the cost. I -don’t suppose you are overflush with cash. I’ll pay—you are my guest.” - -Pasco’s self-conceit was a constant spring of energy in him. Dashed his -spirits might be by disaster, but he speedily recovered his buoyancy, -owing to this characteristic element in his nature. It is said that the -fertility of Manitoba is due to the fact that below the surface the soil -is frozen hard in winter, and during the summer the warmth of the sun -penetrating ever farther thaws the ice, and thus water incessantly wells -up, nourishing and moistening the roots of the corn. There was a -perennial body of self-esteem deep in the heart of Pasco Pepperill, and -this fed and sustained in vigorous growth a harvest of generosity in -dealing with his inferiors, of liberality towards the poor, of display -in his mercantile transactions, that imposed on the public and made it -suppose that he was prosperous in his many affairs. - -The landlord came to the door. - -“How do you do, Mr. Pepperill?—glad to see you. You do not often favour -me.” - -“Well—no. If I come this way I mostly stop at the Golden Sun. You see, -you are rather near my home.” - -“I hope this, though the first visit, is not the last!” - -“I daresay not. What brings me now is an accident. Can you let us have -some supper?” - -“Certainly. What would you like—cold beef, cold mutton, or chops and -potatoes?” - -“You have a supply of good things.” - -“I am obliged to have. I get plenty of custom now.” - -“What! more than of old?” - -“Oh, double, since I have rebuilt my house.” - -“I see. The place is completely changed. You had but a poor sort of a -tavern.” - -“Yes; and now”—the landlord looked round, smiled, and put his hands into -his waistband—"middling good, I think." - -“Uncommon,” said Pasco. “I suppose it is the better look of the house -that has brought better custom.” - -“That’s just it. I had only common wayfarers before—mostly tramps. -Now—the better sort altogether. Where I turned over a penny before, I -turn over a shilling now.” - -“So you rebuilt your public-house to get better business?” - -“Well, you see, I couldn’t help myself. The old place caught fire and -burnt down.” - -“And it did not ruin you?” - -“Dear me, no. I was insured.” - -“So—that set you on your legs again?” - -“It was the making of me, was that fire.” - -“How long had you been insured before you were burnt out?” - -“Well, now, that is the curious part of the story,” said the landlord; -“hardly a week.” - -“And how did your place catch fire?” - -“There was a tramp. I refused to take him in, as he had no money. That -was the best stroke of business I ever did in my life. He hid himself in -a sort o’ lean-to there was over the pigs’ houses, joined on to the -house, and in it was straw. I reckon he went to sleep there with his -pipe alight, and he set fire to the place.” - -“Was he burnt?” - -“No; he got away all right; but the straw set fire to the rafters, and -they ran into the wall. It was a poor old wall, with no mortar in it, -and the rafters came in just under those of the upstairs chambers, so -that when the roof of the linhay was afire, it set the house in a blaze -too. That was how it all came about.” - -“And a good job it was for you!” - -“It was the making of me.” - -Pasco was silent through the meal. He seemed hardly to taste what he was -eating. He gulped down his food and drank copiously. - -Bramber was relieved when he left. He was afraid Pepperill would drink -more than he could bear. At the entrance to the village he left the -cart, and thanked Pasco for the lift. - -Pepperill drove on to Coombe Cellars. - -As he came up, he saw his wife standing at the door with a light in her -hand. - -“Pasco, is that you?” - -“Who else?” - -“So, you are home at last. There has been the coal merchant here; he -swears he will bring you no more, and that, unless you pay up this -month, he will set the lawyers on you.” - -Pepperill flung himself from his cart. - -“Heavens!” said he, looking sullenly at his stores; “if they would but -burn!” - -“Burn—what burn?” asked Mrs. Pepperill sharply. “Do you think you cannot -leave the house for a day but some mischief must come on it? As if I -were not to be trusted, and everything lay with you.” - -“I did not mean that, Zerah.” - -“Then what did you mean?” - -“I meant that it might have got me out of difficulties.” - -“What might?” - -Pasco did not answer. - -“I should like to know how, if the store were to be burnt, any good -would come of that. You’ve been drinking, Pasco.” - -“I’m insured,” said he in a low tone. - -“Oh, it has come to that, has it? Heaven help us!” - -The woman beat her face with her open palms, turned, and went within. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - A FACE IN THE WATER - -Kate Quarm was very happy on the moor. Her father had fetched her from -Ashburton, and had lodged her in a cottage near Dart-meet, the point -where the East and West Darts, rushing foaming from the moors, dancing -over boulders, breaking over granite floors, plunging under tufts of -golden gorse, and through brakes of osmund and male fern, reach each -other and meet in one silver flood. - -The weather was fine, though cold, that is to say, the sun was hot, but -a keen east wind blew. But then this is one of the charms of the moor, -that shelter can always be found from the wind. A mighty bank of -mountains rose as a wall against the east, and in its dingles and dells, -dense with gorse, now in blaze of flower, the air was warm, and balmy, -and still. - -At Coombe Cellars Kate had been kept continually employed; her aunt, an -active woman, gave the child no rest. If she saw her flag in her work, -Zerah goaded her with reproach to fresh activity; she was, moreover, -never accorded a word of encouragement. Zerah accepted her work as a -matter of course; if it was well done, that was but as it ought to be; -everything that fell short of well, was occasion for a scolding. Kate’s -nature was one that needed repose from manual and sordid labour, for her -mind desired to be active, and craved for freedom in which to expand, -and for liberty to seek material on which to feed. This Zerah did not -understand; with any other activity, except that of the body in -scrubbing and rubbing, in cooking and baking, she had no sympathy; she -entertained a positive aversion for books. She had no eye for beauty, no -ear for melody, no heart for poetry. - -Now Kate had leisure—now for the first time in her life in which her -soul could draw its tender wings out of its case and flutter them in -freedom. She felt much as must the May-fly when it breaks from its -chrysalis. - -It was, moreover, a joy to think that her father had considered her so -far as to require her to be sent to the moor to recover. He usually paid -little heed to Kitty, and now her heart was warm with gratitude because -he had given her that very thing of all others which she most -desired—rest in the presence of nature awakening under a spring sun. - -Kate had another source of pleasure with her. As Walter Bramber parted -from her at Ashburton, he put a little book into her hand, and said— - -“I will lend it you. I know you will value it.” - -The book was Wordsworth’s poems. - -As she sat beside her father in the gig, she had her hand on the volume -all the while, and her heart swelled with excitement and eagerness to -read it. At night she hugged the book to her bosom, and fell asleep with -both hands clasped over it. She could hardly endure that night should, -with its darkness, deny her the happiness of reading. She woke early, -and in the breaking daylight devoured the pages. As she read, she -laughed and cried—laughed and cried with sheer delight. She had a book -to read; and such a book! - -This happy girl turned first to the verses on the daffodils that she had -learned by heart, to make quite certain that she had all, that not a -line had been missed, not a word got awry. Then she looked at the little -poems on the celandine, and never did a famished child devour a meal -with greater avidity than did Kate read and master these verses. There -was much in Wordsworth that she could not understand, but the fact that -she encountered passages that were unintelligible to her were of -advantage, her clear intellect striking on these hard portions threw out -sparks—ideas that had light in them. The book not only nourished her -mind, but proved educative to her imagination. - -Kate was at first overwhelmed with the flood of happiness that rolled -over her. Her eyes could not satiate themselves with the beauty of the -moorland scenery. She ran among the rocks, she dived into the coombs, -she stepped on the boulders over the water, she watched the workmen -engaged in felling trees. - -Spring flowers peeped from behind rocks, bog plants peered out of the -morasses. Kate began collecting. She dried the flowers between the -leaves of her Prayer-book. - -She scrambled among the towering rocks that overhung the Dart below the -meeting of the waters, and watched the shadows and lights travel over -the vast tract of moorland that stretched away as far as the eye could -see in every direction but the east, where the river rolled out of its -mountain cradle into a lap of the richest woodland. Sometimes the beauty -of the scenery, the variety of landscape, were too much for her; she -sought change and repose by creeping among the rocks and drawing the -book from her bosom. - -Yet she could not read for long. The verses exacted close attention, and -a flash of passing sun, or impatience at some passage she could not -comprehend, made her close the volume and recommence her rambles. The -exhilarating air, the brilliancy of the light, the complete change from -the mild and languid atmosphere in the Teign estuary told on Kate’s -spirits and looks. Her cheeks gathered roundness and colour, and her -tread acquired elasticity. Her spirits were light; they found vent -occasionally in racing the cloud shadows over a smooth hillside. - -One day, with her lap full of moss of every rainbow hue, she came upon -the rector of Coombe-in-Teignhead, painting. - -At her exclamation he turned, recognised her, and smiled. - -“So—I thought I must soon see you,” he said. “My dear little Kitty, I -come with messages for you and kind inquiries.” - -“From whom—from uncle and aunt?” - -“No; not from them. The schoolmaster, Mr. Bramber, when he heard whither -I was coming, begged me to see you and ascertain how you were, and -whether you liked the book he lent you.” - -“Oh, sir, I read it every day! I know several pieces by heart.” - -“That you are well, I see. I never saw you with such a glow of health -and happiness in your bonnie face before.” - -“Thank you, sir. And will you see him soon?” - -“Whom? Bramber?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Kate, the glow in her face deepening. “And will you -say that I have been picking the flowers as they come out, and I can -find them, and that I do want to know what they are called? God brought -the beasts to Adam to name them, and I do not think Adam can have been -happy with the beasts till he had given each a name. It is so with me -and the flowers. I see them, and I love them; but I don’t feel content -till I can tell what each is called. Mr. Bramber can name them all.” - -“You have made a collection?” - -“Yes, I have dried them in my Prayer-book. They are waiting for Mr. -Bramber to name. But”—Kate drew back—"I am in your way, sir; you are -painting the old bridge." - -“Yes; but you can sit down there if you like, and will not disturb me.” - -“May I? Oh, I shall be pleased.” - -Kate placed herself on a lichen-covered rock on one side, at a little -distance from the water. - -“I have left my few sheep for a couple of days,” said Mr. Fielding -apologetically, partly to Kate, mostly to himself; “but I do not think I -have done wrong. Moses went up into the Mount, and came back to his -people with his face shining. I do not know, but it seems to me that -when I have been here aloft, speaking with nature and nature’s God, face -to face, that I can go back and carry with me some of the brightness and -the freshness and the fragrance of the mountain. I may be wrong, finding -an excuse for myself, because I love to come here.” - -“Please, sir,” said Kate, “the Great Master of all dismissed the -multitude and went up into the mountain apart.” - -“Yes, child, yes,” answered the rector, painting as he talked; “and when -He came down, He walked on the stormy waves. And I—His humble follower—I -think I can tread on the troubles and cares of life erect, and not be -swallowed up after I have been here.” - -“I do not know how I shall bear to go back to Coombe Cellars,” said Kate -sadly. - -“You will go back braced to do your work. We cannot always play, Kitty -dear. You know the fable of the bow. It was relaxed only that it might -be the better weapon when restrung. Besides, when you return you will -have pleasure.” - -“I shall think about my delightful holiday.” - -“Yes; and learn the names of the flowers you have dried in your -Prayer-book,” said Mr. Fielding, with a twinkle in the corner of his -eye. - -Kate dropped her head in confusion, but looked up again and said -frankly, “Yes, that will be pleasant; and I can tell where each grew and -how I found it.” - -“Tell whom—your aunt?” A faint crease in the old man’s cheek showed he -was smiling. - -“No, sir! she won’t care. I shall tell Mr. Bramber, if I have the -chance.” - -“Kitty, I get very downhearted over my work sometimes. Then I come up -here, and gather courage and strength, and—and trust, Kitty. You will -return to Coombe Cellars strengthened and nerved to do your duty well -and hopefully. Remember, it was kind of your aunt to let you come. She -has to drudge hard whilst you are absent, but she does it because you -have been ill and need relaxation in mind and invigoration of body. She -does it, Kitty, because she _loves_ you.” - -“Oh, sir!” Kate coloured with astonishment and with a twinge of pain at -her heart. - -“Yes, dear little friend, she loves you. She is not a demonstrative -person. She is a clear-headed, practical woman. She has had a hard life, -and much to try her, and to give her a cold and perhaps repellent -manner. Nevertheless, her heart is sound and warm. When you were ill I -spoke with her. I saw how anxious she was for your welfare. I saw into -her heart, and I read love there.” - -Kate trembled, and let the mosses fall from her lap and strew themselves -about her feet. The tears came into her eyes. - -“Oh, sir, I should like to go home at once and do everything I can for -her! I did not think she really cared for me.” - -“You do not return till your father decides that you are to go back to -work. Then, you will return with a good courage, as I said.” - -“With all my heart!” answered Kate fervently, and her face brightened as -though the sun shone on it. - -Afraid of disturbing the old rector at his painting, Kate withdrew. She -was happy at heart. What he had said had done her good. She had shrunk -from the thought of return to the humdrum of her usual life, but Mr. -Fielding had given her a motive for facing work with cheerfulness. It -was a delight to her to think that her aunt loved her. She loved her -aunt. Daily association with Zerah had made her cling to the hard, -captious woman; she had had no one else to love, and the young heart -must love someone. - -Kate delighted to lie by the river, or lie on a rock in it, and look -down into its pellucid pools, or at the flowing crystal where it broke -between the stones. She was accustomed to the muddy estuary, and though -the sea-water when it flowed was clear, it had none of the perfect -transparency of this spring water near its source. The sea sweeping up -the creek was as bottle-green glass, but this was liquid crystal itself, -without colour of any sort, and through it everything in the depths was -visible as though no medium intervened. - -Kate could look at the shining pebbles, at the waving water-weed, at the -darting fish. When she had left Mr. Fielding, she went to one of her -favourite haunts beside the Dart, where it brawled over a cataract of -rocks and then spread into a pool still as glass. - -Now she saw what puzzled her, and set her active brain questioning the -reason. As she looked into the water, she could see no reflection of her -own face; the light sky was mirrored, and where the shadow of her head -came, she could see far more distinctly to the bottom of the pool than -elsewhere. Indeed, when a fish darted past she could discern its fins -and scales, but when it passed beyond her shadow, its form became -indistinct. - -Then Kate rose on her elbows, and as she did this the sun caught her -cheek and nose, and cheek and nose were at once reflected in the water, -and where the reflection came, there the water was less transparent to -her eyes. - -To observe was to rouse in the girl’s mind a desire to find an -explanation for the very simple phenomenon that puzzled her. - -She was thus engaged, raising her face, then a hand, so as to be now -sunlit, then to intercept the light, and see what the effect was on the -water, when she was startled to observe in the liquid mirror the -reflection of a second face looking down from above. The sun was on it, -in the eyes, and they glittered up at her from below. - -With an exclamation of alarm, she turned and saw a man standing above -her. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - AN OFFER - -Kate rose to a sitting posture, and drew her feet under her, rested one -hand on the rock, and with the other screened her eyes from the glare of -the sun, to observe the intruder on her solitude. - -Then she recognised Roger Redmore. He was without his coat, an axe over -one shoulder. In his right hand he held a tuft of cotton grass dug up by -the roots. - -“I knowed as you wor here,” said he, “but I dursn’t speak before others, -lest they should find me out who I wor.” - -“Are you living here, Roger?” - -“I be working here at the felling Brimpts oaks. You see, your fayther, -he’s so little at Coombe that he don’t know me, and I thought I might -get money by working here. And I want you to do a little job for me.” - -“What is it, Roger?” - -“There’s two jobs. First, do y’ see this here root o’ white shiny grass? -Well, I want y’ to take it to Coombe and to set it on my little maid’s -grave. Stick the roots in. It may grow and it mayn’t. Hereabouts it -groweth mostly in wet land. But anyhows by it I shall know where the -little maid lies when I come back to Coombe.” - -“You are returning, Roger?” - -“Not by day. I reckon some night I shall be back just for an hour or so, -and I want, when I does come, to go to the churchyard and find out at -once where my darlin’ lieth. If it be moonlight, or dimmets (twilight), -and I see the little silver tuft glitter above her head, then I shall -know where her be. I can’t go wi’ my wife; that would be tellin’ folks I -wor home agin. I mun go by myself. Whereabouts now have they put her?” - -“By the wall where the cedar is, on the east side.” - -“There’ll niver be no headstone there,” observed Redmore, “but what o’ -that? When once I know where her lieth, sure but I’ll put a fresh new -tuft of silver tassels as oft as the old ones die, and I reckon they’ll -die, not being in a wet place. My little maid’s grave won’t be wet save -wi’ her father and mother’s tears, and her fayther he can’t be there but -on the sly, and now and then.” - -“I will do it for you gladly,” said Kate. “When do you think you will be -home?” - -“Home!” repeated Roger; “I’ve no home—not like to have. My wife and my -little ones, wherever they be, that’s all the world to me, and I cannot -see them but at night, and very chancy, when I don’t think nobody’s -about. And t’other thing be this.” - -Roger put his hand into his pocket and drew forth some coin, and gave it -to the girl. - -“Take this to my old woman. I’ve earned wi’ my work a bit o’ money, and -here is what I can send her. Tell her to leave the door ajar. I may come -any night; but,” he paused, “I reckon they’ve turned her out o’ house -and home now.” - -“Not yet, Roger,” answered Kate. “Mr. Pooke has not insisted on her -leaving at quarter-day, but I believe he has a fresh workman coming to -him in a week, and then she will have to leave.” - -“And where will she go? Will they drive her into the street?” - -“I really do not know; but”—she considered and said timidly, “I have had -it on my heart, but have been afraid to speak of it as yet to my father. -There is his cottage, never or hardly ever occupied. Now I will take -courage, and beg him to let your wife go into it till something can be -settled; but you must keep out of danger, and you are not safe here.” - -“I cannot go far till my wife and little ones are secure and have a -home. Here no one know’th me, the other woodcutters are all men from the -moor. There was but your father, and he did not recognise me when I axed -him to take me on at felling the timber.” - -“I will entreat him to allow your wife and children to go into his house -till something can be done for them. You will have to escape into -another part of the country.” - -“Ay, I will go. If I were took, it would go bad with us all, and there’d -be the shame on my little ones—that their father wor hanged. They’d -never shake it off.” Then he touched Kate on the head. “My hand be but a -wicked un. It hev set fire to a rick, but it be the hand o’ a hunted -man, as be nigh crushed with sorrows, as was druv to wickedness thro’ -his sufferin’s, and hev bitter repented it since, and swears he’ll niver -do it agin, so help me God!” He raised his hand solemnly to heaven. -“That’s one thing I ha’ larned, as doin’ wrong niver brings matters -right. There wor just that gettin’ drunk. Then there wor the cheek to -Farmer Pooke. Then my heart were all wormwood; and when my little maid -died, I thought it wor his doin’; and so in a way it wor, for I’d no -work and no wage, and us was just about starvin’, and I did that deed o’ -fire. It’s kindled a fire in here”—he touched his heart—"that nothink -can quench. The Lord ha’ pity on me. I don’t know as I’d ha’ come to -this mind but for you, little Kitty Alone, as was pitiful to me when I -were bound and like to be given over to gaol, and you let me go, and fed -me wi’ crumbs out o’ your hand; and now you will find a house for my -dear ones." He laid his hand on her head again. “Mebbe the Lord’ll hear -a sinful thief o’ a man, and I ax His blessin’ on thee; an’ if I can -iver do anything to show you I’m thankful, I will. Amen.” - -“Hah!” - -Roger. Redmore started. He was caught by a hand in his collar-band. - -Kate sprang to her feet. Her uncle, Pasco Pepperill, was there. He had -come up from behind unobserved, and had laid hold of the incendiary. - -“I have you, you burning vagabond!” shouted he; “and by heaven! I’ll -hand you over to the constables, and see you hanged, as you deserve. -Kate, run away—away at once!” - -“Oh, uncle, do not be cruel! Let him go.” - -“You mind your business,” answered Pasco sharply. “It’s my belief you -let him escape after Jan Pooke had bound him in the boat. Jan left you -in charge, and Roger slipped away then.” - -“But think, uncle, of his poor wife and children.” - -With a sudden wrench Roger freed himself, and then, standing back with -brandished axe, he said— - -“Touch me, and I’ll split your head.” - -“Get away from here,” ordered Pasco, turning to his niece; “and as for -you, Redmore, I want a word. You know very well that if I give the hue -and cry you will be caught, even though now you have slipped from me. -Lower your hatchet; I’m not going to hurt you if you be reasonable; but -wait till that girl is out of earshot.” - -Pepperill put his hands into his pockets and watched Kate as she -withdrew. Roger assumed an attitude of wariness. He was ready at a -moment’s notice to defend himself with his axe, or to take to flight. - -“Look here,” said Pasco, satisfied that he could not be overheard, “it -seems to me that you, with your head almost in the noose, have done a -wonderful silly thing to stay so near the scene of your crime.” - -“I’d my reasons as is not for you to know,” answered Redmore surlily. -“I’m sure you don’t consarn yourself for me and mine so as to care.” - -“There you are mistaken,” said Pasco. “I don’t mean to say that I am -deeply interested in you, but I don’t intend, unless driven to it, to -take any steps to get you acquainted with Jack Ketch.” - -“I can defend myself pretty well, suppose you do.” - -“I’m not the fool to risk my head in another man’s quarrel.” - -“And I can take to my heels and find a hiding-place anywhere on these -moors.” - -“Ay, and a starving-place where your bones will rot.” - -“What have you to say to me?” - -Redmore spoke surlily. Now that his whereabouts was discovered, it would -be needful for him to shift his place of refuge. - -“I suppose you don’t deny setting fire to Farmer Pooke’s rick?” said -Pasco. - -Roger shrugged his shoulders and jerked his head. - -“How did you do it? smoking a pipe under the tree when drunk?” - -“No, it warn’t.” - -“How was it, then?” - -“I warn’t drunk, niver but that once, and that wor just because o’ -Jackson’s ‘Tee-dum.’ I’ve a bit of a orgin in zingin’, and the innkeeper -he wor terrible longing to have me in the choir. So he got me in, and -they tried to teach me the tenor part o’ Jackson’s ‘Tee-dum,’ and I -cu’dn’t maister it noways; and they stood me liquor, and I tried, and I -cu’d do naught wi’ it. You see t’other parts went curling up and about, -and bothered me. If they’d a’ stopped and let me zing alone, I cu’d ha’ -done it. Then I went out into the open air, and it wor cold and frosty, -and somehow I got mazed wi’ the drink and the ‘Tee-dum’ together, and I -rinned agin my maister, Farmer Pooke, and I reckon I zed what I ort not, -and he turned me off. That wor it. I niver did it avor, and I’ll niver -do it agin. Save and presarve me from liquor and Jackson’s ‘Tee-dum’!” - -“Never mind about that. So you didn’t fire the rick with your pipe?” - -“No, I didn’t. If it had niver been for Jackson’s ‘Tee-dum,’ I’d not now -be in risk of bein’ hanged.” - -“Of course it was Jackson did it all,” sneered Pasco. - -“I don’t mean to say that. It wor the beginning on it. I were throwed -out o’ work, and were starvin’, and my little maid, her died, and then I -wor like a mazed chap, and I ran out wi’ the cann’l, and so I did it.” - -“Oh, with the candle?” - -“It wor a rushlight.” - -“I’ve heard of barns and storehouses being set fire to by men going into -them to sleep, and lighting their pipes. There was the landlord of the -Crown and Anchor at Newton. He had a miserable sort of a house, but a -tramp got in one night”— - -“What, into his house?” - -“No, into a linhay over the pigstye, and slept there, or went there to -sleep, and there was straw in the loft, and in smoking his pipe he -managed to set fire to the straw, and then the whole public-house was in -a blaze and burnt down.” - -“I’ve heard of that. Nobody knows what became o’ the tramp. There wor -roast pig found in the ashes, and whether roast tramp nobody cared to -inquire.” - -“The inn has been rebuilt. They call it a hotel now.” - -“I daresay they does.” - -“The insurance money did that.” - -“I s’pose so. Lucky the house wor insured. I wish Varmer Pooke ’ad -been.” - -“You do?” - -“I reckon I does. I’m sorry for what I did when I wor in a b’ilin’ blue -rage. Now I can’t get over it noways, and you may tell’n so.” - -“Why, that fire was the making of the landlord. He feels no ill-will -against the tramp. What are you going to do with yourself now?” - -“I don’t know.” - -“I suppose you will want to see your wife again?” - -“I s’pose I shall.” - -“For that you will return to Coombe?” - -“In coorse I must.” - -“At night—lest you should be seen?” - -“Ay—to be sure.” - -“You will lurk about—be in hiding. I’ll tell you what, I’m your good -friend. I will do you no harm. I’ll just leave the door of my stores -open—unhasped; and if you want to creep in, there’s a lot of wool and -other things there, you can be warm there, Roger, warm in the wool.” - -“Thanky’, sir. You’ll not peach?” - -“And if—if you like a pipe—well”— - -“No, Mr. Pepperill, I won’t do you that ill turn if you’re so good to -me—and the little maid, Kitty, too.” - -“Oh, I did not mean that. I can’t say but if a spark chanced to fall -among the wool, and the whole was to blaze away, I should be sorry. I -can’t say that I should be troubled, any more than was the landlord at -Newton when the tramp set fire to his linhay over the pigs.” - -Redmore said nothing. Pepperill spoke slowly, and did not look the man -in the face as he spoke. - -“If that chance was to happen to me as happened to the man at Newton, it -might, there’s no saying, be a saving of me from a great misfortune, -and—I shouldn’t mind being a liberal friend, and helping you out of the -country.” - -“That is what you mean, is it?” - -“It might be a convenience to both of us.” - -“’Tis a wonderful world,” exclaimed Redmore, “when the biggest rascals -go free, and one of them be you! A little rascal like me, who’s sorry -that ever he done wrong, is chivied like a mad dog.” - -“Well—what do you say?” - -“You’re a rascal and I despise you,” cried Roger, and turned to go. - -“Will you have me as your friend or your enemy?” - -“Your enemy rather than friend on them terms.” - -“Then I’ll hang you!” exclaimed Pasco, and set off running in the -direction of Brimpts. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - A RACE FOR LIFE - -Kate had walked away without a thought of attempting to gather the -subject of her uncle’s conversation with Redmore. She resolved at once -to seek her father and obtain from him permission to house the -unfortunate wife with her children in his cottage. She had been told -that he had gone to a farm lying somewhat to the right of the Ashburton -road, near the prominent and stately rock citadel of Sharpitor. She -therefore ascended the long, steep hill, up which scrambles the high -road from Dart-meet. - -Halfway up the ascent is an oblong mass of granite, lying in the moor, -which goes by the name of the Coffin Stone, because on it coffins are -rested by those who are bearing a corpse to its lasting resting-place in -the distant churchyards of Buckland or Ashburton. Kate had reached this -stone, and was panting for breath, when she heard shouts and cries in -the valley she was leaving, and, leaping upon the Coffin Stone, she saw -a swarm of men on the opposite bank of the Dart—the Brimpts side—running -in the direction of the bridge, headed by her uncle, who was then -levelling a gun he carried. - -From her elevation she could not only see but hear everything. - -“An incendiary! He set fire to a stack. A pound to any man who takes -him, alive or dead!” shouted Pasco, and to Kate every word was audible. -Then she saw the flash of the gun, and a little later heard the report. -The shot had missed, for her uncle urged on the men to run and not let -the scoundrel escape, and he himself lagged behind to reload his barrel. - -She looked for the fugitive, but was able to see him for one moment -only, as he leaped a ruinous fence in his flight down stream. - -Why was he taking that direction? Because the way into the fastnesses of -the moorland was closed to him by his pursuers. He could not run up the -hill that Kate ascended, as he would be exposed throughout, without the -smallest cover, to the gun of Pepperill. Though a course down the river -led ultimately into inhabited land, yet between the moor and population -lay the great woodland belt of Buckland and Holme Chase, where the river -wound its way in sweeps among dense forest and rock, and where Redmore -knew he could hide with the greatest ease. But before he could be in the -woodland he had a long stretch of moor to traverse, where there was no -road, at best a fisherman’s track, among rocks scattered in confusion, -among heather and furze bushes, with here and there sloe and thorn trees -and an occasional “witch beam” or rowan growing out of the rocks. Almost -immediately after the junction of the East with the West Dart, the -united stream doubles round Sharpitor, that shoots high above it on one -side, and under the ridges of Benjietor on the other side, in whose lap -grows a little copse, and which, from its crags to the water’s edge, is -green with bracken in summer, but at this period was russet with -withered leaves. Thence smoke rose—some boys had ignited the gorse, and -the flames ran among the withered ferns and the fallen oak-leaves, and -blackened and burnt the copse. - -Kate hastened on her way. She knew that on reaching the head of the -ridge a short distance intervened between the road and the precipices of -Sharpitor that overhung the ravine. Thence she could see all that -followed—if Roger Redmore succeeded in turning the moorland spur round -which the river foamed. - -Hot, trembling, and breathless, Kate ran, then halted to gasp, then ran -on, and did not rest for more than a minute till she had reached the -vantage-point on the rocks, and looked down into a wondrous ravine of -river, granite boulder, and glaring golden furze, and with the blue -smoke of the smouldering fern forming a haze that hung in its depths, -but which rose in places above the rocky crests of the moor and showed -brown against the luminous sky. - -Kate ensconced herself among the piles of granite, with a “clatter,” as -it is locally termed, at her feet, a mass of rocky ruin, composed of -granite, in fragments of every size and in various conditions of -disintegration. - -She saw Redmore as he doubled the foot of the mountain, and for awhile -had the advantage of being invisible to his pursuers, and safe from the -gun of Pepperill. He stood on a great rock half-way out of the water, -and looked about him. He was resolving what to do, whether to continue -his course down stream, or to endeavour to conceal himself at once. The -fire and smoke on the farther side in the bosom of Benjietor made it -impossible for him to secrete himself there—every lurking-place was -scorched or menaced by the flames. The slope of Sharpitor on his left, -though strewn with the wreckage of the crags above, offered no safe -refuge; it was exposed to full light, without any bushes in it other -than the whortle and heather. Roger did not take long to make up his -mind; he pursued his course down the river, now wading, then scrambling -over stones, then leaping from rock to rock, and then again flying over -a tract of smooth turf. Occasionally the wind, playing with the smoke, -carried a curl of it across the river, and drew it out and shook it as a -veil, obscuring Redmore from the eyes of Kate, who watched him in -panting unrest, and with prayers for his safety welling up in her heart. -Then shouts—the men who hunted him had rounded the flank of Shapitor, -and had caught sight of the man they were endeavouring to catch. One -fellow, with very long legs, familiar with the ground, accustomed all -his life to the moor, was making great way, and bade fair to catch -Roger. - -Redmore looked behind him. He had cast away his axe, and was therefore -unarmed, but was lightened for the race. - -“A sovereign to the man who catches him!” yelled Pepperill. “Knock him -down, brain him!” - -Then one man heaved a stone, picked out of the river, and threw it. A -vain attempt. He was not within reach of Redmore; but in a pursuit, none -can quite consider what is possible, and measure distances with nicety, -without much greater coolness than is possessed by men running and -leaping over difficult ground. The long-legged man kept forging ahead, -with his elbows close to his sides; he had distanced the rest. He was -fleet of foot, he sprang from stone to stone without pausing to -consider, and without ever missing his footing. Roger advanced slowly: -he was unaccustomed to such difficult ground; sometimes he fell; he -floundered into the river up to his armpits and scrambled out with -difficulty. His pursuer never got into the water. The man had not merely -long legs, he had a long nose and protruding eyes, and as he ran, with -his elbows back, he held his forefingers extended, the rest folded. -Every stride brought him nearer to Redmore, and Roger, who had just -scrambled upon a rock in the river, saw that he must be overtaken, and -he prepared for the inevitable struggle. - -Kate, leaning forward in her eagerness, at this moment displaced a large -block, that slid down, turned on its edge and rolled, then leaped, then -bounded high into the air, crashed down on another rock, and from it -leaped again in its headlong course. - -The girl held her breath. It seemed as though the rock must strike the -running pursuer, and if it struck him it would inevitably be his death. -The rattle of displaced stones, the crash of the block as it struck, the -cries of those behind, who saw the danger, arrested the long-legged man. -He halted, and looked up and around, and at that moment the stone -whizzed past and plunged into the river. Kate saw in a moment the -advantage thus gained, and in palpitating haste threw down every stone -she could reach or tilt over from its resting-place, where nicely -balanced, thus sending a succession of volleys of leaping, whistling -stones across the path, between the pursued and the pursuers. - -She heard shouts and execrations from those who were coming up, and who -stood still, not daring to continue their course, and run the risk of -having their brains beaten out by one of the falling stones. She -regarded them not. Her one idea was to save Roger. She could see that -the man for whom she acted had recognised her intervention, and -continued his flight. She could see that the pursuers were stationary, -uncertain what to do. - -Then her uncle again raised his gun. Kate put her hands to her mouth and -called to Roger, who looked over his shoulder, and dropped behind a -stone just as the gun was discharged. - -Then he picked himself up once more and ran on. Kate dared not desist. -She continued to send block after block rolling. Some were shattered in -their descent, and resolved themselves into a cloud of whizzing -projectiles. Some in striking the soil set a mass of rubble in motion -that shot down and threw up a cloud of dust. - -She was hot, weary, her hands wounded. But the consciousness of success -strung her to renewed exertion. Pasco Pepperill called the party in -pursuit together. He shouted up the height to the girl. Who it was there -engaged in dislodging stones he couldn’t discern, for Kate kept herself -concealed as far as possible, and the confusion of the granite rocks -thrown into heaps and dislocated, served to disguise the presence of -anyone among them. He threatened, but threatened in vain; Kate did not -stay her hand to give time to listen to what he cried. - -After a brief consultation, as the avalanche did not decrease, the party -resolved to cross the river and continue the pursuit down it on the -farther side, through the smoke and over the ashes of the conflagration. -By this means Roger Redmore could be kept in sight, and possibly it -would be more easy to run over the charred soil among bushes reduced to -ash. Moreover, few, if any, of the stones dislodged by Kate had -sufficient weight and velocity to carry them to the farther side of the -river. - -Accordingly, the party began to step on the rocks that projected from -the water, or to wade, so as to reach the farther side, Pepperill -lingering behind reloading his gun, and keeping his eye on the fugitive. -Then a sudden idea struck him, and, calling to the men to proceed as -they had proposed, he started to climb the steep tide of Sharpitor, at a -point where not menaced by the falling stones, judging that by this -means he would dislodge the person who had come to the assistance of the -fugitive, and at the same time be able to follow the flight of the -latter with his eye better than below, and to obtain a more leisurely -shot at him when a suitable occasion offered, as his poising himself on -a rock, or halting to resolve on his course. - -Kate desisted from sending down volleys of stones, till the occasion -should arise again. She watched the flight of Roger, and perceived that -he was aiming at a coppice which was in a fold of the hills -undiscernible by those on the farther side of the river; by means of -this coppice, if he could reach it, Roger would be able to effect his -escape. - -In three minutes he was safe; then Kate drew a long breath. At the same -moment she was touched on the shoulder, and, looking round, saw her -father. - -“What’s all this about? What’s this shouting and firing of guns?” - -“Oh, father, I hope I have not done wrong! Uncle and all the men are -after Roger Redmore.” - -“Who is he?” - -“The man who burnt Mr. Pooke’s ricks, and he has been working for you -here—and uncle recognised him, and sent the men to take him, and he ran -away, and I have helped him.” - -“You?” - -“Yes; by rolling down rocks.” - -Jason burst into a fit of laughter. “Come, that is fine. You and I, -Kitty, aiders and abettors of an incendiary. Is he clear off now?” - -“Yes; but here comes uncle up the steep side.” - -Jason hobbled to the edge of the rock, and, leaning over called, -“Halloo, Pasco! Here we are waiting for you—Kitty Alone and I.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - BORROWING - -“It is you—you two!” exclaimed Pepperill, as he reached the summit. He -gasped the words; he could not shout, so short of breath was he. His -face with heat was purple as a blackberry. “What’s the meaning of this?” -He held to a projection of granite, and panted. “Interfering with -law—protecting a scoundrel.” He paused to wipe his face. “A malefactor—a -criminal—guilty”—again gasped like a fish out of water—"guilty of -incendiarism, of arson, of felony!" - -“Why, Pasco, you’re hot. Keep cool, old boy,” said Jason, laughing. “Who -has created you constable, or sheriff of the county, that you are so -anxious to apprehend rogues?” - -“Rogues? rogues? Only rogues assist rogues in escaping the reward of -their deeds.” - -“Is there a warrant out for his apprehension?” - -“I don’t know.” - -“Then what on earth makes you put yourself in a heat and commotion to -catch him?” - -Pasco mopped his brow, and, tearing up some ferns, dry though they were, -proceeded to fan his face. - -“Why? Do you ask? For the public security, of course. And now”—again he -puffed—"now I can’t talk; my wind is gone." - -Pepperill looked into the ravine. He could see that the men on the -farther side of the stream were at a nonplus. The fugitive had escaped -them, had dived out of their sight into the coppice-wood, and they knew -that pursuit was in vain. He turned sharply on his brother-in-law. - -“This is your doing—you and Kate. First you give him work, and then you -let him escape. He who helps a felon is a felon himself.” - -“My dear Pasco,” said Jason Quarm, laughing, “what makes you so fiery in -this matter?” - -“Fiery? of course I’m fiery. And look there, Jason! There are the -workmen, a dozen of them, doing nothing, and we shall have to pay their -wages for a half day, and nothing to show for it.” - -“Whose fault is that? You sent them from their tasks.” - -“Yes, to catch a villain.” - -“Which was no concern of yours.” - -“It is a concern of mine, and of every honest man. How can one be safe -with such a malefactor at large? I have my house, my stores; I shall not -be able to sleep at night with ease, knowing that this fellow is at -large. If anything happens, I shall come on you.” - -“You’ll get nothing from me.” - -“That is the worst; I know it. Why did you help the man to escape? No -one is safe—no one. And I, least of all; for now he regards me as his -enemy. He has sworn vengeance; he may come on me and cut my throat.” - -“Not much throat to be cut, Pasco.” - -“There is my money-box”— - -“Box, not money.” - -“He may set fire to my house—my barns—burn me and my wife—your -sister—Kitty—your daughter. Don’t you care for that?” - -“I am not afraid. If you went after him, and have angered him, well, we -helped him, as you suppose, and have won his good-will.” - -“As I know. Have I not found you here? Who else could have rolled down -the rocks? Show me your hands. There, I said so!—there is blood on -Kate’s hands; they are cut and bruised. She has been doing what she -could; and you, her father, who ought to have known better, have -encouraged her. Rascals! rogues!—rogues all!” - -“And oh, how honest am I!—eh, Pasco?” - -“Of course I’m an honest man. I don’t encourage burglars, and murderers, -and incendiaries.” - -“I did not know that Redmore was a murderer or a burglar.” - -“Who can say but, having been an incendiary, he may go on to murder and -plunder; these things run together. One who can commit arson is capable -of doing the other crimes as well. I shall have to drive back to -Ashburton alone.” - -“Kitty returns with you.” - -“What help is there in Kitty? That fellow Roger, full of rage and desire -of revenge, is about the woods, and may shoot me.” - -“He has not a gun.” - -“He may spring upon me with his axe.” - -“He has thrown it away,” said Kate. - -“You mind your own concerns,” exclaimed the angry man, turning on his -niece. “There are plenty of ways in which he may fall on me and murder -me, and then he will pick my pockets and make off in my clothes, and -Kitty will help him.” - -“You are talking nonsense, Pasco. Are you such a weakling that you -cannot defend yourself? But, pshaw! the man will not injure you.” - -“He will steal by night to Coombe. His wife is there; his children are -there. He knows where I am. He has sworn revenge against me.” - -“When? When he escaped?” - -“No; before I set the men after him.” - -“Before he knew you would hunt him? A probable story!” - -“Probable or improbable, it is true. I threatened him, and I would have -arrested him, but could not. Kate knows I had him by the throat; but he -was armed with his axe, and I could not retain him. Then he swore he -would do me an evil turn, and he will keep his word.” - -“He cannot harm you; he is afraid for himself.” - -“He can harm me. He can do to my house, my stores, what he did to -Pooke’s rick.” - -“Well, that would not hurt you greatly; you are insured over value.” - -“Not over value, with the wool in.” - -“You were a fool about that wool, Pasco. Why did you not consult me -before dealing with Coaker? I knew of the fall.” - -“Oh, you know everything. You knew that the Brimpts oak bark was worth -three times more than it is; and now you are felling, without -considering that the bark at present is practically worthless.” - -“The sap doesn’t run.” - -“If the sap ran like the Dart, it would not make the bark sell for tan. -You either knew nothing about the conditions, or you wilfully deceived -me; and I dare be sworn it was the latter. I can believe even that of -you now, a favourer of incendiaries.” - -“Come, do not be extravagant. What other criminals have I ever -favoured?” - -“I am too hot and too angry to argue,” retorted Pasco. “But I want to -know something for certain about this Brimpts wood. It is well enough to -cut it down, but what I want to know is, how will you transport the oak -so as to make it pay?” - -“Sell on the spot.” - -“To whom?” - -“To timber merchants.” - -“They will reckon the cost of carriage.” - -“We shan’t have to pay for it.” - -“We shall sell at a good price.” - -“We shall sell! Such oak as Brimpts oak is not to be had every day.” - -“Have you offered it to anyone—advertised it?” - -“No, I have not. Time for that when it is all felled.” - -“You will make as much a misreckoning in this as you have along of the -bark.” - -“Trust me. The oak will sell high.” - -“You said the same of the bark. All your ducks are swans. I _must_ have -money.” - -“So must I,” said Quarm. “I want it as the March fields want April -showers.” - -“I am in immediate need,” urged Pepperill. - -“In a fortnight I shall require money to pay the men their wages,” -observed Quarm. - -“I have nothing. You were right; I have a cash-box, but no cash in it. I -have paid away all I had.” - -“Dispose of something,” said Quarm cheerily. - -“Dispose of what? Coals? No one wants coals now.” - -“Then something else.” - -“Wool, and lose on every pound? That were fatal. I have not paid for all -the wool yet. I want money to satisfy the coal-merchant, money to meet -the bill I gave Coaker; and then the agent for the bank which has its -hold on the Brimpts estate says we may not remove a stick till -everything is paid.” - -“Then do not remove,” said Quarm. “Sell on the spot.” - -“To whom?” - -“There are plenty will buy.” - -“Why have you not advertised?” asked Pasco testily. - -“For one thing, because I did not know you were in immediate need of -cash; for the other, because, till the timber is down, it cannot be -measured. Never sell sticks standing. A timber merchant will always buy -the trees before felled, and many a landowner is fool enough to sell -standing trees. The merchant knows his gain; the landlord does not know -his loss.” - -“Felled or unfelled, I must realise. My condition is desperate. I cannot -meet any of the demands on me.” - -Pepperill had lost his purple colour. He wiped his brow again, but this -time the drops did not rise from heat, but from uneasiness of mind. - -“You have drawn me into this Brimpts venture, and I have now all my -fortunes on one bottom. If this fails, I am ruined; there will remain -nothing for me but to sell Coombe Cellars, and then—I am cast forth as a -beggar into the roads. I have trusted you; you must not fail me.” - -“Oh, all will come right in the end.” - -“The end—the end! It must come right now. I tell you that I have to meet -the demands of the bank, or I can do nothing with the sale of the oak, -and all now hangs on that. Owing to the ruinous purchase of Coaker’s -fleeces, I am driven to desperate straits. I cannot sell them at a loss. -I calculated it with the schoolmaster—a loss of some hundred and twenty -pounds. You must help me out of my difficulty.” - -“I can but suggest one thing. Go to Devonport, and see if the Government -Dockyard will buy the oak. Ship-building can’t go on without material. -If Government will take the timber, you need not concern yourself about -the bank’s demand; it will be satisfied, and more than satisfied, that -the money is safe. Bless you! in these times a man is happy to see his -money within twelve months of him, and know he must have it.” - -“I don’t mind; but I’ll go to Devonport at once,” said Pepperill. - -Whilst the conversation thus detailed was taking place, the three had -crossed a strip of moor that intervened between Sharpitor and the high -road, walking slowly, for Pasco was fagged with his scramble, and Jason -was crippled. - -“I don’t mind,” said Pasco again. “But I shall want a few pounds to take -me there, and my pockets are empty.” - -“I can’t help you. Mine wouldn’t yield if wrung out.” - -“Here comes the parson,” said Pepperill—"our parson, jogging along as if -nothing were the matter and went contrary in the world. I’ll borrow of -him." - -“Oh, uncle,” protested Kate, flushing crimson, “pray do not, if you have -no chance of paying.” - -“You impudent hussy, mind your own concerns,” answered Pasco angrily. -“I, with no chance of paying! I’m a man of means. I’ll let you see what -that signifies. How d’ y’ do, parson?” - -“What! my churchwarden?” exclaimed Mr. Fielding, drawing rein. “What -brings you to the moors?” - -“Business, sir, a trifle with regard to oak timber. I’ve bought the -Brimpts wood—cost me a few hundred, and will bring me a thousand.” - -“Glad to hear it, Mr. Pepperill;—and then we shall have a double -subscription to our school.” - -“I daresay, Mr. Fielding; I’m a free man with my money, as you and -others have found. And, by the way, talking of that, could you kindly -accommodate me with a little loan of a few pounds. I started from home -without a thought but of returning to-day, and I learn that the -Government has an eye on these oaks—first-rate timber—and I must to -Devonport to strike a bargain. I won’t come to their terms, they must -come to mine. Such timber as this is worth its weight in gold.” - -“How much do you want, Mr. Pepperill?” - -“How much can you spare, Mr. Fielding?” - -“Well, let me see.” The rector of Coombe opened his purse. “I have about -six guineas here. I shall want to retain one for current expenses. When -can you let me have the loan returned.” - -“Any day. I’ll drop you a line to my wife—or—on my return. I’m only -going to Devonport to get the best price for the timber, and then I -shall be back. If you can spare me five guineas—or five sovereigns—I -shall be obliged. You know me—a man of substance, a man of means, a warm -man. We represent the Church, do we not, Mr. Fielding? and hang -Dissenters all, say I.” - -“I can let you have five pounds,” said the rector; “I see I am short of -silver.” - -“That will suffice,” answered Pasco, with dignity. “I will let you have -it back directly I have settled with Government about the oaks.” - -Mr. Fielding gave Pepperill the gold, then excused himself, as he -desired to reach home before dark, and rode on his way. - -“I had no idea that to borrow was so easy,” said Pasco. “Of course, all -depends on the man who asks. Everyone knows me—sound as the Bank of -England.” - -“And same thing,” said Quarm; “all depends on the man solicited.” - -Then Pepperill, with his hands in his pockets and head in the air, his -spirits revived as though he had borrowed five hundred pounds in place -of five pounds, walked towards Dart-meet Bridge humming the old harvest -song,— - - “We’ve cheated the parson; we’ll cheat him again; - For why should the vicar have one in ten? - One in ten? - We’ll drink off our liquor while we can stand, - And hey for the honour of Old England! - Old England!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - SHAVINGS - -With five pounds in his pocket, Pepperill drove to Plymouth and on to -Devonport. His moral courage was up again now he had gold to spend. When -his purse was empty, his spirits, his tone of mind, became depressed and -despairing. A very little—a few pounds—sufficed to send them up to -bragging point. There was no limit to his self-complacency and assurance -as he appeared at the dockyard. - -His spirits, his consequence that had so risen, were doomed to sink when -he learned that no oak, however good, was required. Okehampton Park, the -finest, the most extensive in the county, had been delivered over by the -impecunious owners to the woodman; thousands of magnificent trees, as -ancient and as sound as those of Brimpts, had been felled. The market -was glutted, oak of the best quality sold cheap as beech; and the -Government had bought as much at Okehampton as would be needed for -several years. - -“That is the way with all Government concerns, stupidly managed by -blunderheads. I can do business better with private firms. I know very -well what this means—to grease the palms of the authorities. I am a man -of principle—I won’t do it.” So said Pepperill, as he swung away from -the dockyard. “Bah! I’ve always been a staunch supporter of Church and -State, churchwarden and Tory. If the Government can’t oblige me when I -want a little favour done, but must go to the cheapest shop, blow me if -I don’t turn Whig—that’s not bad enough—roaring Radical, and cry, Down -with the Constitution and the Crown! As for the Church, I don’t say as -I’ll go in for disestablishment and disendowment just now. There is some -benefit in an Established Church when it will accommodate one at a pinch -with five pounds, and don’t press to have it returned till convenient.” - -Pasco betook himself now to private firms of shipbuilders, but was -unable to dispose of his timber. The mowing down of Okehampton Park had -flooded the market with first-quality oak. One firm was inclined to deal -with him, if he would draw the timber into Plymouth. Sanguine at this -undertaking, he returned to Dart-meet to drive a bargain with some of -the farmers on the moor for conveying the oak logs to the seaport town. -He found that their charges were likely to be high. The way was long, -the road hilly, in places bad. It would take them two days at least to -convey each load, with a pair of horses, or a team of three, to -Plymouth; and what was one load?—what, but a single log. Then there was -the return journey, that might be done in a long day; but after three -such days, the horses would not be fit for work on the fourth. A pair of -horses was ten shillings; and for three days—that was five-and-twenty; -but in reality three horses would be needed, and that would be thrice -fifteen—two pounds five for each stick of timber before it was sold. As -for the spray,—all the upper portion of the trees,—that would have to be -disposed of on the spot; and Pepperill foresaw, with something like -dismay, that he would get no price for it. The expense of carriage would -deter all save moor farmers from purchasing, and they were so few in -number, that the supply would exceed the demand, especially as they -could have as much turf as they wanted for the cutting; and practically -not sufficient would be got from the sale of the faggot wood to pay for -the felling of the timber. - -It is one of the peculiar features of England that our roads are -absolutely without any of the facilities which modern engineering would -yield to travellers on wheels. Our ancient highways were those struck -out by packmen, and when wheeled conveyances came into use, the -carriages had to scramble over roads only suitable for pack-horses. In -France and Germany it is otherwise, there modern road-engineering has -made locomotion easy. The main arteries of traffic ascend and descend by -gentle gradients, and make sweeps where a direct course would be arduous -and exhaustive of time. - -Now the road from Dart-meet, a main thoroughfare over the moor, might be -carried along the river-bank, with a gentle fall of a hundred feet in -the mile, for six miles. But instead of that, it scrambles for a mile up -a hogsback of moor, nearly five hundred feet in sheer ascent, then comes -down to the Dart again; then scrambles another ridge, and then again -descends to the same river. Nothing could be easier than to have a -trotting road the whole way; but in mediæval times packmen went up and -down hill; consequently we in our brakes, and landaus, and dog-carts -must do the same; not only so, but the transport of granite, peat, wool, -and the oaks from the felled forest was rendered a matter of heavy -labour and great cost. Pepperill saw that it was quite hopeless to -expect to effect any dealings on the Ashburton side, on account of the -tremendous hills that intervened. - -With rage and mortification at his heart, he sought for his -brother-in-law, and could not find him. He was told that Quarm had gone -to Widdecomb. Some repairs were to be done in the church, the parsonage -was to be rebuilt, and he was going to ascertain whether oak timber -would be required there, and how much, and whether he could dispose of -some of the wood of Brimpts for this object. - -He could not wait for Quarm. He wanted to be home. He was to convey Kate -to Coombe Cellars—it had been so arranged. His wife was impatient for -her return, had begun to discover what a useful person in the house Kate -was. Moreover, the moor air had done what was required of it, had -restored health to the girl’s cheeks. - -In rough and testy tone, Pepperill told his niece to put together her -traps and to jump up beside him. - -“You’ve had play enough at our expense,” he growled. “Your aunt has had -to hire a girl, and she’s done nothing but break, break—and she’s given -Zerah cheek—awful. Time you was back. We can’t be ruined just because -your father wants you to be a lady, and idle. We’re not millionaires, -that we can afford to put our hands in our pockets and spend the day -loafing. If your father thinks of bringing you up to that, it’s a pity -he hasn’t made better ventures with his money.” After a pause, with a -burst of rancour, “His money! _His_ money, indeed! it is mine he plays -games with, it is my hard-earned coin he plays ducks and drakes -with—chucks it away as though I hadn’t slaved to earn every groat.” - -As he talked, he worked himself up into great wrath; and like a coward -poured forth his spite upon the harmless child at his side, because -harmless, unable to retaliate. He was accustomed to hear his wife find -fault with Kate, and now he followed suit. We all, unless naturally -generous, cast blame on those who are beneath us; on our children, our -servants, the poor and weak, when we are conscious of wrong within -ourselves, but are too proud for self-accusation. It has been so since -Adam blamed Eve for his fall, and Eve threw the blame on the serpent. - -“I don’t hold with holiday-making,” said Pasco. “It is all very well for -wealthy people, but not for those who are workers for their daily bread. -I might ha’ been, and I would ha’ been, an independent man, and a -gentleman living on my own means, but for your father. He’s been the -mischief-maker. He has led me on to speculate in ventures that were -rotten from root to branch, and all my poor savings, and all that your -aunt Zerah has earned by years of toil—it is all going—it is all gone. -There are those workmen cutting down the oak, they are eating my silver, -gorging themselves on my store, and reducing me and Zerah to beggary. To -the workhouse—that’s our goal. To the workhouse—that is where your -father is driving us. What are you staring about you for like an owl in -daylight?” - -“Oh, uncle,” answered Kate in a voice choked with tears, “I have been so -happy on the moor, and it is all so beautiful, so beautiful—a heaven on -earth; and I was only looking my last—and saying good-bye to it all.” - -“Not listening to what I said?” - -“Indeed I was, and I was unhappy—and what you said made me feel I should -never come back here, and I must work hard now for Aunt Zerah. There was -no harm in my looking my last at what I have loved and shall not see -again! It is so beautiful.” - -“Beautiful? Gah!” retorted Pasco. “A beastly place. What is beautiful -here? The rocks? The peat? The heather? Gah! It is all foul stuff—I hate -it. What are you hugging there as if it were a purse of gold?” - -“Oh, uncle, it is something I love so! The schoolmaster sent it me by -Mr. Fielding. It’s only a book.” - -“A book? of what sort? Let me see.” - -Kate reluctantly produced the cherished volume. - -“Pshaw!” said Pasco, rejecting it with disgust. “Poetry—rotten rubbish—I -hate it. It’s no good to anyone, it stuffs heads with foolery. I wish I -was king, and I’d make it a hanging matter to write a line of poetry and -publish it. It’s just so much poison. No wonder you don’t like work, -when you read that vile, unwholesome trash.” - -Kate hastily folded up the volume and replaced it in her bosom. - -“No wonder you and your father encourage vagabonds and incendiaries if -you read poetry.” - -“Father did not help Roger Redmore to escape,” said Kate. “It was I who -rolled down the stones. Father came up when he had already got away to a -hiding-place. I, and I alone, did it.” - -“More shame to you! You’re a bad girl, a vicious girl, and will come to -no good.” - -He continued grumbling and snarling and harping on his grievances, and, -for some while, jerking out spiteful remarks. Presently he relapsed into -silence, and let the tired cob jog along till he reached a point where, -near Holne, roads branched: one went down the hill to Ashburton without -passing through the village, the other went round by the church and -village inn. Here Pasco drew up, uncertain which road to take. There was -not much difference in the distance. The direct way was the shorter, but -by not more than half a mile, whereas the other afforded opportunity for -refreshment. - -At this point was a carpenter’s shop. The workman was not there, but he -had left his shop open, and outside was a great pile of shavings. - -As Pasco sat ruminating, doubtful which way to take, his eye rested for -some while on the shavings. Presently, without a word, he got out of the -conveyance, let down the back of the cart, collected as many shavings as -he could carry, and thrust them in, under the seat. He went back to the -pile, took as many more as he thought would suffice, and crammed the -body of the cart with them. Then, still without speaking, he shut the -back, remounted, and drove down the shortest way—the steep hill, the -direct road to Ashburton that avoided the village. - -“Uncle!” said Kate, after a while. - -Pepperill started, as though he had been stung. “Bless me!” he -exclaimed; “I had forgotten you were here.” - -“Uncle,” pursued the girl, “you know my dear mother left a little money, -a few hundred pounds, for me. And my father is trustee, and he has -charge of it, and has invested it somewhere for me. If you are in -difficulties, and really want money, I am sure you are heartily welcome -to mine. I will ask my father to let you have the use of it. I cannot do -other—you and Aunt Zerah have been very kind to me.” - -“Yes, that we have, and been to tremendous expense over your keep; and -there was your education with Mr. Puddicombe, and the doctor’s bill -coming in, and the medicines; and there has been your clothing—and you -have always eaten—awful. That costs money, and ruins one. Yes, you are -right, you couldn’t do other. I had not thought of that. But I don’t -know what your father will say.” - -“In a very few years I shall be old enough to have it as my own to do -with as I like. I do not think that my father will object to its being -employed as I wish. And I know it will be quite safe with you.” - -“Oh, perfectly safe, safe as in the Bank of England. I’m one of your -sound men. Sound, and straight, and square, all round—everything you can -desire, you know. Everyone trusts me. A man of substance, a man of -means—and with a head for business.” - -“I will ask father when I see him.” - -“That is right. It will be a little relief. You are a good girl, I -always said you were, and had your heart in the right place. You will -write to your father to-morrow.” - -Pasco Pepperill was comparatively genial, even boastful, on the rest of -the way. When he arrived at Coombe Cellars, his wife heard the wheels -and came to the door. She received Kate without cordiality, and took her -husband’s little bag of clothes he had taken with him. Kate carried hers -in her hand. - -“Anything in the cart? Shall I open?” asked Zerah. - -“Nothing—absolutely nothing. Leave the cart alone,” answered Pasco -hastily. “Nothing at all.” - -Pepperill drew his horse away, unharnessed it, and ran the dog-cart into -the coach-house. Then he stood for a moment musing, and looking at it. -Presently he turned his back, locked the door, and left his conveyance -undischarged of its load of shavings. - -“I may chuck ’em away, any time,” said he, “or give ’em to Zerah to -kindle her kitchen fire with, or”— He did not finish the sentence, even -in thought. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - BORROWING AGAIN - -When Pepperill, tired with his long day’s journey, and harassed in mind, -went to his bedroom, Zerah at once fell upon him. - -“How have you fared, I’d like to know? But lawk! what’s the good of my -axing, when I’m pretty confident your journey has been all down hill, -with an upset of the cart presently.” - -“And if it be so, who is to blame but your brother?” retorted Pepperill -angrily. - -“My brother may have made his mistakes sometimes, but not always—you -never by any chance fail to do the wrong thing.” - -“He has dragged me into this confounded affair of the Brimpts timber; -and now—I cannot sell the bark or the oaks.” - -“He had nothing to say to the wool. What made you buy at a wrong price?” - -“The market is always changing.” - -“Yes—against your interests. We shall end in the workhouse.” - -“Things will come right.” - -“They cannot. Look here! Here is a lawyer’s letter about the coals. You -must pay by the first of the next month, or they will put in the -bailiffs.” - -“It will come right. I have had an offer.” - -“For the oak?” - -“No, of a loan. Kate, like a good and reasonable and affectionate girl, -is going to get Jason to withdraw her money and lend it to me.” - -Zerah flushed crimson. “So!” she exclaimed, planting herself in front of -her husband, and lodging her hands on her hips; “you want to swindle the -orphan out of her little fortune. You know as well as I do, if that -money gets into your hands, it will run between your fingers as has all -other money that ever got there. Folks say that there is a stone as -turns all base metal to gold. I say that your palm has the faculty of -converting gold into quicksilver, that escapes and cannot be recovered.” - -“This is only a temporary embarrassment.” - -“It shall not be done,” said Zerah. “I don’t myself believe Jason will -hear of it, and if he does, and prepares to carry it out, I’ll knock his -head off—that’s my last word. The parson said I didn’t love Kate, that I -was starving her; but I’ll stand up for her against you—and her own -father if need be.” - -“The coal merchant must wait,” said Pasco, shrugging his shoulders. - -“He will not wait. You have passed over unnoticed his former demands, -and now, unless in a fortnight the money is paid, he will make the house -too hot to hold us.” - -“We can sell something.” - -“What? You have parted with your farm, the orchard, the meadow—with -everything but the house, to follow your foolish passion to be a -merchant.” - -“He must wait. I have to wait till folk pay me my little bills. Money -doesn’t come in rushes, but in leaks.” - -“He will not wait. Where is the ready money to come from?” - -Pasco scratched his head. - -“If everything else fails,” said she further, “then I propose you go to -old Farmer Pooke and get a loan of him.” - -“Pooke? he won’t lend money.” - -“I am not so sure of that. Jan has called several times since Kitty has -been away, and yesterday he told me, in his shy, awkward fashion, that -he had spoken with his father about her. The old man made some to-do—he -had fancied Rose Ash as a match for his son, as she is likely to have a -good round sum of money; but when Jan insisted, he gave way. You see -everyone in the place knows that Kate has something left by her mother, -but they don’t know how much, and, instead of three hundred pounds or -so, they have got the notion into their heads that it is a thousand -pounds. Now, as the father is ready to let his son marry Kate, I think -it like enough he would help you, so as to prevent the scandal of -bailiffs in Coombe Cellars.” - -“He may make that the excuse for breaking off the match.” - -“Jan is obstinate. When that lad sets his head on a thing, there is no -turning him, and that his father knows well. He’d ha’ turned his son -away from Kitty and on to Rose if he could, but he can’t do it; and what -he is aware of is, that the least show of opposition will make Jan ten -times more set on it than before.” - -“Then you go to Farmer Pooke and borrow.” - -“I! I made to go round as a beggar-woman! You have brought trouble on -the house. You must ask for the loan.” - -Next day, Pasco Pepperill started for Pooke’s house. The lion is said to -lash itself with its tail till it lashes itself into fury. Pasco -blustered and bragged with everyone he encountered, till he had worked -himself up into self-confidence and assurance enough for his purpose, -and then, with bold face and swaggering gait, entered the farm-house. - -Pooke senior was a stout man, as became a yeoman of substance; he had a -red, puffed face, with stony dark eyes; his hands were enormous, and -their backs were covered with hair. - -Pooke and Pepperill had not been on the best of terms. Pooke for some -time had been churchwarden, but in a fit of pique had thrown up the -office, when Pepperill had been elected in his room. But Pooke had not -intended his resignation to be accepted seriously. He had withdrawn to -let the parish feel that it had absolutely no one else fit to take his -place, and he had anticipated that he would have been entreated to -reconsider his resignation. When, however, Pepperill stepped into his -vacant office, and everything went on as usual, Pooke was very irate, -and spoke of the supplanter with bitterness and contempt. - -“How do y’ do?” said Pooke, and extended his hand with gracious -condescension, such as he only used to the rector and to those whom he -considered sufficiently well-off to deserve his salutation. “What have -you come here about?—that matter of Jan?” - -“Well, now,” answered Pepperill, with a side look at a servant, “between -ourselves, you know, we are men who conduct business in a different way -from the general run.” - -“Get along with you, Anne,” said Pooke to the maid. “Now we are by -ourselves, what is it? That boy Jan is headstrong. It runs in the blood. -I married, clean contrary to my father’s wishes, just because I knew he -didn’t like the girl. I don’t think that it was anything else made me do -it. But your niece, Kitty, has money.” - -“Money? oh, of course! We are a moneyed family.” - -“That is well. Mine is a moneyed family. One cannot be comfortable -oneself without money, nor have anything to do comfortably with other -people unless they’re moneyed. I have often thought there is a great -gulf fixed between the comfortably off and those who are in poor -circumstances, and those who are in comfort can’t pass to the other -side—not right they should; let them make their associates among the -comfortably off. That’s my doctrine.” - -“And mine also,” said Pasco. “I like to hear you talk like this—it’s -wholesome.” - -“Well, and what do you want with me?” - -Pepperill crossed his legs, uncrossed them, and crossed them again. - -“I’ve been doing a lot o’ business lately,” said he. - -“So I hear. But do you want to do business with me? I bought your -orchard and meadow. There I think you did wrong. Hold on to land; never -let that go—that’s my doctrine. You got rid of it, and where are you -now? In Coombe Cellars, without as much as five acres around it of your -own.” - -“I never was calculated to be a farmer,” said Pasco. “My head was always -set on a commercial life, and I can’t say I regret it. A lot of money -has passed through my hands.” - -“I don’t care so much for the passing as the sticking of money,” -retorted Pooke. - -“Well, in my line, money comes in with a tide and goes out with a tide. -When it is out, it is very much out indeed; but I have only to wait -awhile, and, sure as anything in nature, in comes the tide once more.” - -Pooke’s stony eye was fixed on Pepperill. - -“Which is it now—high tide or low water?” - -“There it is—low.” - -“Oh!” - -Pooke thrust his chair back, and looked at the space between him and -Pepperill, as though it were the great gulf fixed, across which no -communication was possible. - -“Merely temporary,” said Pasco, with affected indifference. -“Nevertheless, unpleasant rather; not that I am inconvenienced and -straitened myself, but that I am unable to extend my money ventures. You -see, I have been buying a great oak wood on Dartmoor—splendid oak, hard -as iron; will make men-of-war, with which we shall bamboozle the French -and Spaniards. Then I’ve bought in a quantity of wool.” - -“What, now? It is worth nothing.” - -“Exactly—because there is a panic. In my business this is a time for -buying. There will be a rebound, and I shall sell. It is the same with -coals. I lay in now when cheap, and sell when dear—in winter.” - -“What do you want with me?” asked Pooke suspiciously. - -“The thing is this. I find I have to pay for the timber before I can -sell a stick to Government, and I haven’t the cash at this instant. I’ve -had to pay for the wool,—I bought in two years’ fleeces,—and for the -coals, and if I could lay my hand on four hundred pounds”— - -“Four hundred pound ain’t things easy laid hands on.” - -“I want the money for three months at the outside. I’ll give you my note -of hand, and what interest you demand.” - -“Likely to make a good thing out of Government? I’ve always heard as -dealing with Government is like dealing with fools—all gain your side, -all loss theirs.” - -“Well! ’Tis something like that,” said Pepperill, with a knowing wink. -“But don’t trouble yourself; if you can’t conveniently raise four or -five hundred, I can easily go elsewhere. I came to you, because my wife -said there was likely to be a marriage between the families, and so I -thought you might help me to make this hit.” - -“Now, look here,” said Pooke. “I’ve often had a notion I should like to -deal with Government. I’ve a lot of hay and straw.” - -“I’m your man. Trust me. If I get to deal with Government about the -timber, they’ll have confidence in me, for the oak is about first-rate, -and no mistake. They’ll become confiding, and I’ll speak a word for you. -But if you haven’t any loose cash, such as four or five hundred pounds”— -Pepperill stood up, and took his hat. - -“Don’t go in a hurry,” said Pooke. “That’s been my ambition, to deal -with Government. Then if one has mouldy hay, one can get rid of it at a -good figure, and Government is so innocent, it will buy barley straw for -wheaten.” - -“If you are so hard up that you have no money”— - -“I—I hard up? Sit down again, Pasco.” - -Pooke considered for a moment, and then said, “Now, I know well enough -that in business matters sometimes one wants a loan. It is always so. If -you’ll just give me a leg up with Government, I don’t mind accommodating -you. But—I must have security.” - -“On my stores?” - -“No; they might sell out. On your house.” - -“Won’t my note of hand do?” - -“No, it won’t,” answered Pooke. “See here: my Jan has gone down your way -to make it up with Kitty. When they have settled, you get me your deeds, -and then I don’t mind advancing the sum you want on that security—that -is, if Kitty accepts Jan.” - -“She will do so, of course,” said Pepperill. - -“Well, of course,” said Pooke. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - SILVER PENINKS - -As soon in the morning as Kate could disengage herself from the tasks -which her aunt at once imposed on her, she ran to the cottage occupied -by the wife and children of Roger Redmore. It was of cob, or clay and -straw beaten and trampled together, then shaved down, and the whole -thatched. - -Such cottages last for centuries, and are warm and dry. So long as the -thatch is preserved over the walls, there is simply no saying how long -they may endure, but if the rain be suffered to fall on the top of the -walls, the clay crumbles rapidly away. The cob is usually whitewashed, -and the white faces of these dwellings of the poor under the brown -velvet-pile thatched roofs, with the blinking windows beneath the straw -thatching just raised, like the brow of a sleepy eye, have an infinitely -more pleasing, cosy appearance than the modern cottages of brick or -stone, roofed with cold blue slate. - -The cottage of the Redmores was built against a red hedge, rank with -hawthorn and primroses. But in verity it was no longer the cottage of -the Redmores, for the family had been given notice to quit, and although -after Lady-Day Farmer Pooke had suffered the woman to inhabit it for a -few weeks, yet now the term of his concession was exceeded. He had a new -workman coming in, and the unhappy woman was forced to leave. - -When Kate arrived at the dwelling, she found that some sympathetic -neighbours were there, who were assisting Jane Redmore to remove her -sticks of furniture from the interior. The labourer who was incomer was -kindly, and also lent a hand. Her goods had been brought out into the -lane, and were piled up together against the bank, and on them she sat -crying, with her children frightened and sobbing around her. Neighbours -had been good to her, and now endeavoured to appease the tears and -distress of the children with offers of bread and treacle, and bits of -saffron cake, and endearments. The woman herself was helpless; she did -not know whither she should betake herself for the night, where she -should bestow her goods. - -The incomer urged Mrs. Redmore to tell him what were her intentions. He -must bring in his own family that afternoon, and would help her, as much -as he was able, to settle herself somewhere. It was not possible for her -to remain in the road. The parish officers would interfere, and carry -her off to the poorhouse; but it was uncertain whether she could be -accommodated there, interposed a neighbour, as the house was full of -real widows. - -Mrs. Redmore was a feeble, incapable creature, delicate, without the -mental or moral power of rising to an emergency and forming a -resolution. She sat weeping and crying out that she was without Roger, -and he always managed for her. - -“But you see, Jane,” argued a neighbour, “as how Roger can’t be here for -very good reasons, which us needn’t mention, and so someone must do -something, and who else is there but you?” - -“I wish I was dead,” wailed the poor creature. - -“Well, now, Jane,” said the neighbour, “don’t ye be so silly. If you was -dead, what ’d become o’ the childer?” - -At this juncture Kate arrived, breathless with running. - -“It is well.” She stood panting, with her eyes bright with pleasure at -the consciousness that she brought relief. “I asked my father, and he -says Mrs. Redmore and the little ones may go into his cottage at Roundle -Post, and stay there till something is settled.” - -“That’s brave!” exclaimed the women who were standing round. “Now, let -me take the little ones, Jane, and you lead the way, and Matthew -Woodman, he’ll help to carry some of your things.” - -“I have the key,” said Kate; “and the distance is nothing.” - -“Lawk a mussy!” exclaimed one of the women; “what would us ever a’ done -wi’out you, Kitty. The poor creetur is that flummaged and mazed, her -don’t seem right in her head, and us couldn’t do nothing with she.” - -Mrs. Redmore caught Kate’s hand, and kissed it. - -“We’d all a’ died here, but for you,” she said. - -“Indeed,” answered Kate, hastily snatching her hand away, “it is my -father who has come to your assistance not I. He lends you the house.” - -“But you axed him for it. Oh, if Roger could do anything for you!” - -“I assure you my father is the one to be thanked, if anyone is.” - -“Well, if Roger could do aught for he, it would be the same as to you.” - -“Come, let us be on the move.” - -A little procession formed—women carrying the children, or crocks, a -couple of men with wheelbarrows, removing some of the heavier goods. -Then up came Jan Pooke, and at once offered his assistance, and worked -as hard as any. - -As soon as the poor woman was settled into her new quarters, Jan sidled -up to Kate, and, seizing her hand and breathing heavily, said, “Kitty, I -want to say something to you.” - -The girl looked at him inquiringly, waiting for what he had to say. - -“I mean, Kitty, alone.” - -“I am Kitty Alone,” observed she, with a smile. - -“I don’t mean that. I have something I want to say to you.” - -“What is it?” said she. “You look very odd.” - -“It’s—it’s—the silver peninks.” - -“What of them?” - -It must be premised that the “silver peninks” are the _narcissus -poeticus_. - -“They are in an orchard.” - -“I know it,” said Kate. “Lovely they are—and yet, somehow, I like the -daffodils as well.” - -“Now, it’s a curious thing,” said Jan, “that the same roots bring up -first daffies, and then silver peninks.” - -“That is not possible,” objected Kate. - -“But it is so. Come into the orchard, Kitty, and see for yourself.” - -“I know, without seeing, that it cannot be.” - -“If you will come and look, Kitty, you will see that just where the -daffies were, there the peninks are now. When the daffies die down, the -peninks bloom.” - -“Exactly, Jan, because their time for blooming is a month later than the -daffodils.” - -“But they come out of the same roots.” - -“That cannot be, by any means.” - -Pooke rubbed his head, and said humbly, “I know, Kitty, I’m a duffer, -and that you’re clever, but I’ve seen ’em with my own eyes.” - -“Have you ever dug up the bulbs?” - -“No, I can’t say I have done that.” - -“Till you have, you cannot say that the golden flower and the silver -flower spring from one root.” - -“It isn’t only the peninks, Kitty—can’t you understand?” - -“I do not. You are very wonderful to-day.” - -“I want to talk to you in the orchard.” - -“You can say what it is, here.” - -“No, I cannot. I want to show you the silver peninks, and I want to -say”—he let go her hand, with which he had been sawing. - -Kate looked round. It would be considerate to leave the poor woman alone -with her children to get settled into her new quarters, and she desired -to escape another outburst of gratitude. - -“Well, Jan, I will go and look at the flowers, and I hope to show you -your mistake—the withered heads of daffodil apart from the bursting bud -of the penink.” - -The two young people walked together down the lane to the gate into the -orchard. Jan threw this open, and Kate, without hesitation, stepped in. - -“Now,” said Jan, “I said it was not the peninks.” - -“What is not the peninks—the daffodils? I thought you said that the one -plant was the same which throws up yellow flowers and white ones.” - -“You try not to understand me, Kitty.” - -“I am trying hard to understand you, Jan.” - -“Look here,” he exclaimed, letting go the gate. Kate did as desired; she -looked him full in the face. His mouth was twitching. “Tell me, Kate”— - -She waited for him to conclude the sentence, and as he did not, she -asked him gently what it was that he desired her to tell him. - -“You know already what I mean,” he exclaimed, breathing short and quick. - -Kate shook her head. - -“Look here, Kitty. My father has given his consent at last, and I am -going to be married.” - -“I am so glad to hear it, Jan.” - -“Kate, you tease me. You—you”— - -“Indeed, I wish you all happiness.” - -“That I can only have with you.” - -“With me?” Kate was frightened, drew back, and fixed her great, dark -blue, tranquil eyes on him. The sweat rolled off his brow. - -“Oh, Jan! What do you mean?” - -“You know what I mean. You shall be my missus.” - -“Jan—that cannot be.” - -“Why not? Give me your hand—no, give me both.” - -“I cannot do that.” - -A pause ensued. - -“Kitty, you don’t care for me?” - -“I do care for you, Jan.” - -“Then love me—take me. Sister Sue will be so pleased.” - -“I cannot do it, Jan, even for sister Sue.” - -“You cannot love me?” he gasped, and his face lost its colour. “Oh, -Kitty, since we were in the boat together I have thought only of you.” - -“And before that, of Rose. Was it not so?” - -“No, Kitty. Rose rather teased me.” - -“Jan, you are a dear, good old fellow, and I like you better than any—I -mean, almost better than anyone else in the world.” - -“Whom do you like better?” he inquired in a tone between sulk and anger. - -“My dear father, of course.” - -“Oh, your father!—anyone else?” - -“I love the dear old parson.” - -“The parson? why so?” - -“Because one can learn so much from him.” - -“Oh, learn, learn!” exclaimed Pooke impatiently. “At that rate you will -love the schoolmaster, for he can teach you all sorts of things—why some -stars twinkle and others do not; and why the tides do not come regular -by half an hour. If that sort of foolery suits you, he’ll do.” - -“It is no foolery, dear friend Jan. I have said that I did regard and -like you.” Her face had become crimson. - -“But you will not love me.” - -“Jan, I shall always think of you as a brother or a cousin. You are so -good, so true, so kind. You deserve the best girl in Coombe, and I am -not that.” - -He wanted to interrupt her, but she proceeded, laying her finger-tips on -his breast. - -“No, Jan, I am not that—I know it well; and I know that your father, not -even sister Sue, would have you marry me. I cannot love you, and you -would be unhappy with me.” - -“Why that?” - -“Because I would be for ever asking you questions which you could not -answer. And I, with you, would not be happy, because I could get no -answers out of you. You would be telling me such things as that silver -peninks sprang out of daffodil roots, and that—I could not believe.” - -“So you refuse me?” - -“Jan, you must get a good dear wife, who will believe that silver -peninks grow out of daffodil bulbs—will not bother whether they do or -not—one who loves you with her whole heart. I know one who does -that—no—listen to me!” as he made a gesture of impatience, as if he -would turn away. “Let me speak plainly, Jan. Rose is a merry, -good-hearted girl; and if she has done an unkind thing to me, it has not -been out of malice, but because it made her mad to think that you did -not love her, and cared a little for me. No one in Coombe can say a bad -word against her. She is the prettiest girl in all the country round. -She is always neat and fitty (dapper). If you know at all what love is, -Jan, you must judge how miserable Rose is, when, loving you with all her -heart, she finds you indifferent, and even rough towards her; she hates -me, only because you prefer me to her. Your father, I am quite sure, has -no wish to see you marry anyone but Rose. Sister Sue is her friend, and -Sue knows and cares nothing about me. Let us always remain friends. I -shall ever value you for your goodness of heart, dear Jan. I wish I -could love you enough to accept you, but I cannot—I cannot, Jan—and -after saying that silver peninks”— - -“Oh, confound the peninks!” he used a worse word than “confound.” - -“Jan! Do not say that. It is a necessity of my heart to learn. I must -ask questions, and I never can love a man who cannot give me something -to satisfy my mind. Dear Jan, if we were married, and you said that -silver”— - -He stamped his feet. - -“Well, never mind the peninks. It cannot be, Jan. It cannot be. We were -never created for each other. Woman is made out of a rib of the man to -whom she must belong. If I am so eager to ask questions, and get to know -things, that shows, Jan, I was never made out of your rib, never taken -from your side, and so never can go there.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - TROUBLE - -When Kate returned to Coombe Cellars, she saw that some trouble had -occurred. Her aunt was sitting at the table in tears, Pasco had planted -himself on the settle, with his legs stretched before him, wide apart, -the soles turned up and his hands in his pockets. His hat was on and he -was whistling a tune—a strain out of Jackson’s “Tee-dum”—in unconcern. - -Kate had heard enough of the altercations between her aunt and uncle to -be aware that their circumstances were strained, and that Zerah -disbelieved in her husband’s business capacities. Pasco had himself -admitted to her, on the drive from Brimpts, that he was in difficulties. - -Zerah, so far from refraining from her comments before Kate, hailed her -entrance as an opportunity for renewing her animadversions on Pasco. - -“Look here, Kitty! Here is what we have come to—read that! Your uncle, -like a reckless fool, has gone and bought wool when there is no sale for -it, and has given a bill for it which has expired. The bank has returned -it to Coaker, dishonoured,—dishonoured, do you hear that, Pasco?—and -here is Coaker, furious, and demanding immediate payment. On the other -side, there is the Teignmouth coal merchant threatening proceedings. -What is to be done?” - -Kate looked at her uncle. - -“Don’t be excited and angry, Zerah,” said he, with the utmost composure. -“After rain comes sunshine. It is darkest before dawn. When the tide is -at lowest ebb, it is on the turn to the flow.” - -“But what is to be done? Dishonoured!” exclaimed Zerah. - -“Dishonoured?—fiddlesticks! The bill is returned, that is all. The money -will come.” - -“Whence. Can you stamp on the ground and make the coin leap up? Can you -throw your net into the Teign and gather guineas as you can shrimps?” - -“It will come right,” said Pasco. “There is no need for this heat, I -tell you. I have seen Farmer Pooke, and he will advance me five hundred -pounds.” - -“Yes—on the security of this house.” - -“Well, what of that?” - -“And five hundred pounds will not suffice to meet all the claims.” - -“Well, there are Kitty’s hundreds.” - -“They shall not be touched.” - -“You promised me the loan of them, did you not, Kitty?” asked her uncle, -scarcely raising his head to look at her. - -“Yes, you are heartily welcome to them,” said the girl. - -“They shall not be touched!” exclaimed Zerah, leaning her fists on the -table. - -“That is as Jason thinks and chooses,” answered Pasco. “He is trustee -for Kitty, not you. He got me into the hobble, and must get me out.” - -“What!—did he get you into this about the wool?” - -“I should have managed about the wool, were it not for the Brimpts -business.” - -“And the coals?” asked Zerah ironically. - -“I can manage well enough when not drawn away into foreign speculations. -Jason persuaded me against my will to embark in this timber business, -and that is it which is creating this obstruction. He got me in—he must -get me out. Kate’s a good girl,—she helps, and don’t rate and rant as -you do, Zerah.” - -“I don’t say she is not a good girl,” retorted Zerah. “What I say is, -you are a bad uncle to desire to rob her”— - -“Rob her? I ask only a loan for a few weeks. Her money and that from -Pooke will set us on our feet again.” - -At that moment, the man just alluded to came in with much noise. His -face was red, his expression one of great anger, and without a greeting, -he roared forth— - -“It is an insult. The girl is an idiot. She has refused him—him—a -Pooke!” - -“Who? What?” asked Zerah, letting go the table and staggering back, -overcome by a dreadful anticipation of evil. - -“Who? What?” retorted Pooke, shaking his red face and then his great -flabby hand at Kate. “She—Kitty Alone—has said No to my John!” - -Zerah uttered an exclamation of dismay. Pasco’s jaw fell, and, drawing -in his feet, he pulled his hands from his pockets and leaned them on the -arms of the settle, to be ready to lift himself. - -“She—that chit—has dared to refuse him!” roared Pooke. “Not that I -wanted her as my daughter. Heaven defend! I think my John is worth -better girls than she. But that she should have refused him—my John—she -who ought to have gone down on her knees and thanked him if he gave her -a look—that she should have the impudence—the—the”—he choked with rage. -“Now, not one penny of mine shall you have, not on note of hand, on no -security of your beggarly house—a cockle and winkle eating -tea-house—bah!—not a penny!” - -Then he turned, snapped his fingers at Zerah and Pasco, and went out. - -There ensued a dead hush for some moments. Kate had turned very white, -and looked with large frightened eyes at her uncle, then at her aunt. -She felt that this was but the first puff of a storm which would break -in full force on her head. - -Pasco stumbled to his feet, planted his right fist in the hollow of his -left palm, and, coming up close to Kate, said hoarsely, “You won’t have -him? You, you frog in a well! You won’t have him, the richest young chap -in Coombe! I say you shall have him. You shall run after Mr. Pooke, and -say it is all a mistake—you take Jan thankfully—you only said No just -out of bashfulness, you did not think yourself worthy. Tell him you said -No because you thought Jan was asking you against his father’s wishes. -Say that now you know how the old man feels, you gratefully accept. Do -you hear? Run.” - -Kate did not move. Her head had fallen on her bosom when he began, now -she raised it, and, looking her uncle steadily in the face, she said, “I -cannot. I have told Jan my reasons.” - -“Reasons, indeed! precious reasons. What are they?” - -Kate did not answer. Her reasons were such as Pasco could not -understand. - -“Kate,” interposed Zerah in an agitated voice, “what is the meaning of -this?” - -“Oh, dear aunt, it is true, I cannot take Jan. I have refused him, and I -cannot, will not withdraw the No. In this matter I alone am answerable, -and answerable to God.” - -“I insist,” stormed Pasco. - -“I cannot obey,” answered Kate. - -“Cannot—will not obey us who have brought you up. I suppose next you -will refuse to obey your father?” - -“In this matter, yes, if he were to order me to take Jan Pooke.” - -“I’ll force you to take him.” - -“You cannot do that, uncle.” She spoke with composure, whereas he was in -a towering passion. - -“Look at this,” said he, snatching up the letter from the table. “I’m -dishonoured now, indeed, as Zerah says. If you take Jan, all is well. -The old father will find me money, and all runs on wheels. You put in -your spoke, and everything is upset. Dishonoured, ruined, beggared—and -all through you.” - -He beat down his hat over his brows, laughed wildly, and shook his fist -at Kate. “I was chucked out of the trap t’other day. I wish I had broken -my neck sooner than come to this. I’ve nourished a viper in my bosom, -and now it turns and stings me.” - -“Leave her to me,” said Zerah. “You make matters worse by your violence. -That is the way with you men. Leave her to me.” - -Pasco flung himself back in the settle, and thrust out his legs as -before, and rammed his fists into his pockets. Before he had held his -chin up, now it was buried in his shirt front. - -Then Zerah pulled her niece into the window. Kate drew a long breath. -She knew that now came the worst trial of all. - -“Kitty,” said the aunt, holding both the girl’s arms, and looking into -her face. “Are you utterly heartless? Is it a matter of no concern to -you that we should be ruined? You have but to run after Mr. Pooke, and -all will be well. Why should you not give way to my wishes and those of -your uncle? What have you against the lad? He is good, and he is rich.” - -“I do not love him,” answered Kate confusedly. - -“But he is so well off. There is no one with half his prospects in the -place. I can’t understand. He likes you. He is desperately fond of you.” - -“I will never take one I do not love,” said Kate, shaking her head. - -“And you have heard the condition we are in? Your uncle owes money on -all sides. If money is due to him, he cannot recover it. He has sold the -farm, there remains only this house. If he sells that, we are without a -home. Then where will you be? Come—yield to our wishes, child.” - -“I cannot, indeed I cannot,” answered Kate, trembling in all her limbs. -“I would have taken Jan if I could.” - -“What is to prevent you?” - -Kate was silent. - -“There is—there can be no one else in the way?” pursued Zerah. - -Again no answer. - -“Stubborn and hardhearted, that is what you are,” said Zerah bitterly. -“It is all the same to you what becomes of us. We reared you. We have -loved you. I have been to you as a mother. You have never shown either -your uncle or me that you were grateful for what we have done for you. -Your own father you treat as though he were a dog—take no notice of him. -I have heard of hearts of stone, I never believed in them before. I do -now. No; there is—there can be no one else so insensible. You have not -got it in you to love anyone.” - -Kate sighed. The tears ran down her cheeks. - -“Dear aunt, I have always loved you, and I love you now, and ever will.” - -“Then show me that you have a heart,” said Zerah. “Words without deeds -are wind. If my own dear child Wilmot had been alive, this would not -have happened. Jan would have loved her, not you; and even if she had -not cared for him, yet, when she knew my wishes, she would have yielded. -She would have given her heart’s blood for me.” - -Kate pressed her folded hands to her bosom; her heart was bursting with -pain. - -“What is it that I ask of you?” pursued Zerah, and brushed the tears -from her own eyes. “Nothing but what is for your own advantage, your own -happiness. How will you like starvation—rags, no roof over your head? If -you take Jan Pooke, you become the first woman in the place. You will -have money to do with just as you likes. Jan is a good-hearted fellow. -Never have you heard of his having wronged man, woman, or child. He is -amiable; you can turn him round your little finger. What more can a -woman wish for?” - -Kate’s mind was tossed with trouble. She had so often longed that the -opportunity might arise for her to prove to her aunt that she loved her. -Now the occasion had come. The future was full of threat and disaster, -and one word from her might avert this and restore serenity; and not -only would that one word relieve her uncle and aunt in their present -distress, but it would also suffice to make poor, worthy Jan a happy -man. But that word she could not speak, she could not prevail with -herself to speak it. She liked John Pooke, and but for one thing she -perhaps might have yielded—that one thing was that she had met with a -man very different from the young yeoman, one who could answer questions -and satisfy her hungry mind. - -“I cannot, dear auntie.” - -“Cannot? What stands in the way? _Who_ stands in the way?” - -“I cannot, auntie.” - -“Perverse, headstrong, heartless child! When luck comes to you, you -throw it away, and cast your own self, and all belonging to you, into -misery. I wish you had never come here; I wish I had never nursed you in -my arms, never cared for you as a child, never watched over you as a -grown girl.” - -“Auntie!” - -“Away—I will not speak to you again.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII - ALTERNATIVES - -Pasco had left the room and the house. His anger with Kate was obscured -by his unrest as to his own condition. What could he do? He must meet -the bill for the wool, he must pay for the Brimpts timber before he -removed any of it, or forfeit what had already been spent over felling -the trees. He must pay the coal merchant’s account, or bailiffs would be -put into the house. - -He went into his stores and observed the contents of his warehouse. -There was wool on the upper storey, coal was lodged below. Above stairs -all the space was pretty well filled with fleeces. - -Then he went to his stable, and looked at his cob, then into the covered -shed that served as coach-house. He put his hand in his pocket, pulled -out the key, and opened the back of the cart. The shavings he had put in -were there still. He could not carry them into the house now, whilst -Zerah was engaged with Kate. Besides, he would not require so much -kindling matter within doors. Where should he bestow it? - -Suspecting that he heard a step approach, Pasco hastily closed the flap -of the cart, and went to the front of the shed. No one was there. He -returned to the shed and reopened the box of the cart, and filled his -arms with shavings, came out and hastily ran across with them to his -warehouse. - -Then he came back on his traces, carefully picking up the particles that -had escaped him. There remained more in his dog-cart. Would it do for -him to run to and fro, conveying the light shavings from shed to -warehouse? Might it not attract attention? What would a customer think -were he to come for coals, and find a bundle of kindling wood among -them? What would neighbours think at the light curls caught by the wind -and carried away over the fields? - -He went hastily back to the warehouse and collected the bundle he had -just taken there, and brought it all back in a sack, and rammed this -sack into the box of his cart; and then went again to the stores, and -raked the coals over the particles of shavings that remained. - -Then Pasco harnessed his cob, and drove away to the little town of -Newton. A craving desire had come over him to see again the new -public-house erected in the place of that which had been burnt. He had -no clear notion why he desired to see it. - -As he drove along, he passed the mill, and Ash, the miller, who was -standing outside his house, hailed him. - -“By the way, Pepperill—sorry to detain you; there is a little account of -mine I fancy has been overlooked. Will you wait?—I will run in and fetch -it; my Rose—she does all the writing for me, I’m a poor scholard—she has -just made it out again. It was sent in Christmas, and forgot, I s’pose, -then again Lady-Day, and I reckon again overlooked. You won’t mind my -telling of it, and if you could make it convenient to pay”— - -“Certainly, at once,” answered Pasco, and thrust his hand into his -pocket and drew it forth empty. “No hurry for a day or two, I reckon? I -find I have come away without my purse.” - -“Oh no, not for a day or two; but when it suits you, I shall be -obliged.” - -“Will to-morrow do?” - -“Of course. I say, Pepperill, your brother-in-law is a right sort of a -man.” - -“Why do you say that?” - -“Giving up his cottage to that poor creetur, Jane Redmore.” - -“I do not understand you.” - -“What—have you not heard? There was like to be a proper mess. Farmer -Pooke wanted Roger’s cottage for his new man, and so she, poor soul, had -to turn out. There was no help for it. She had no notion where to go, -and what to do. A lost sort of creetur I always thought, and now that -Roger is away and not to be found, and what wi’ the death of her little -maid, gone almost tottle (silly). Her had to clear out, and folks was -nigh mazed to know what to do wi’ her, when your niece, Kitty Alone, -came and said as how her father Jason gave his cottage till Jane Redmore -could settle something.” - -“I never heard a word of this till this moment,” said Pasco. “When did -it happen?” - -“To-day—not long ago. Jane Redmore is in Jason Quarm’s house now. Kate -gave her the key.” - -Pepperill grew red, and said, not looking Ash in the face, but away at -the ears of his horse, “I don’t like this—not at all. We ought to get -rid of Redmore and all his belongings. You are not safe in your house, -your mill is not safe, I am not safe, with that firebrand coming and -going amongst us—and come and go he will so long as his wife and -children be here. He were mighty fond of they.” - -“Roger will do you no harm. Your people have been good to him.” - -“What! do you call Jason ‘my people’?” - -“Jason and Kitty have housed his wife.” - -“It don’t follow that he loves me. I set the men in pursuit of him at -Dart-meet, and he knows it, and hates me. I live in fear of him as long -as he is uncaught.” - -The miller shrugged his shoulders. “Roger is not so bad, but Farmer -Pooke did try him terrible. I won’t detain you. You’ll mind and pay that -little account, will you not—to-morrow?” - -“Yes—certain.” - -Then Pepperill drove on. He passed a man in a cart, and the man did not -salute him. In fact, the way was narrow, and the fellow was careful that -the wheels should clear, and had not leisure to look at and touch his -hat to Pasco. But Pepperill regarded the omission as an intentional -slight. He was in an irritable condition, and when shortly after he -drove before a cottage, and the woman in the doorway, hushing her child, -did not address him, or answer his address, his brows knitted and he -swore that everyone was against him. His disturbed and anxious mind -longed for recognition, flattery, to give it ease, and unless he -received this from everyone, he suspected that there was a combination -against him, that a wind of his difficulties had got abroad, and that -folk considered he was no longer worth paying attention to. - -There were not many on the road, and he acted capriciously towards those -few. Some he greeted, others he passed without notice. He fancied he -detected a sneer in the faces of such as returned his salutation or a -purposeful lessening of cordiality. On reaching the new inn at Newton, -his heart was full of anger against all mankind. - -The host did not receive him with cordiality, as he expected; he looked -out at the door and went in again with a hasty nod. - -In the yard Pasco cautiously opened his gig-box when the ostler was not -looking and drew out a halter, then, hastily closed the flaps, and, -extending the cord, said, “I’m not going to stay many minutes; don’t -take the cob out of harness. Let him stand and eat a bite, that is all.” - -Then Pepperill went into the inn and called for a glass of ale. - -“Halloa, Pepperill!” said a cheery voice, and Coaker moved up to him at -the table. “How are you? Sold the wool yet? I hear there is a rise.” - -Pepperill drew back and turned blood-red; this was the man to whom he -owed so much money—the man to whom he had given the bill that was -dishonoured. - -“No, I haven’t sold,” answered Pasco surlily. - -“I advise you not to. You’ll make something yet. That Australian wool -won’t go down with our weavers. It’s not our quality, too fine, not -tough enough. Hold back, and you will make your price.” - -“That is all very well for you to say, but”— Pasco checked himself. What -was on his lips was—"It is ready-money I need, not a profit a few months -hence." - -“There’s good things coming to you yet,” continued Coaker. “I heard on -the moor that your brother-in-law has near on made a sale of the Brimpts -oaks.” - -“He has?” - -“Yes; there has been a timber merchant from Portsmouth come there. He -wanted the Okehampton oaks, but was too late, they had been picked up, -so he came on to Dart-meet, and I reckon now it is only about price they -are haggling, that is all.” Coaker dropped his voice and said, “There’s -an awkwardness about that bill of yours. Nay, don’t kick out; I won’t be -so terrible down on you just for a fortnight or three weeks. I’ll let -you turn that timber over first if you will be sharp about it. There, -don’t say I’m down on you. A fortnight or three weeks I give you.” - -Pasco held up his head, but the sudden elation was damped by the thought -that he could not remove any of the timber till the covenanted price had -been paid for it, and whence was this money to come? Money he must have -to enable him to hold on with the wool till it fetched a better price, -and to dispose of the oaks he had felled on the moor, to enable him to -escape the scandal and humiliation of having the bailiffs put in his -house by the coal merchant. - -But then, in the event of a certain contingency which loomed before -Pasco’s inner eye, there would be no wool to be disposed of, it would -have been reduced to—even to himself he would not complete the sentence. -Would that matter? The insurance would more than cover the loss, and he -would be able to dispose of the oak. - -“Will you have a pipe?” asked Coaker, and after having stuffed his -tobacco into his bowl, he produced a match-box and struck a light with a -lucifer. At the period of this tale lucifer matches were a novelty. The -tinder-box was in general use for domestic purposes, and men carried -about with them small metal boxes, armed with a steel side, containing -amadou and flint, for kindling their pipes and cigars. - -“What do you call that?” asked Pepperill, observing the proceedings of -the farmer. - -“Ah! I reckon this be one of the finest inventions of the times. Have -you never seen or read of this yet? It is better than the phosphorus -bottle, and than Holmberg’s box. Look here. This little stick has got -some chemical stuff, sulphur and something else, phosphorus, I believe, -at the end; all you have to do is to rub, and the whole bursts into -flame.” - -Pepperill took the box, turned it over, opened it, looked at and smelt -the matches. - -“Are they terrible expensive?” he asked musingly. - -“Oh no. There, as you are curious about it, I’ll give you the box, and -you can show it to your missus.” - -Pasco put out his hand to shake that of Coaker. It was cold and -trembled. - -The devil was playing a game with him. He was offering him a reprieve -from his embarrassments, and at the same time thrusting him forward to -the accomplishment of the evil deed on which he brooded, and was placing -in his hands the means of executing it. - -Pasco sank into deep thought, looking at the match-box and playing with -it, now opening, then shutting it. - -“I’m depriving you of it,” he said. - -“Not a bit. I have a dozen. They are just brought in from London and are -selling off amazin’ fast at Ashburton. In a week they’ll be all over the -country and the tinder boxes chucked away.” - -“Are they dangerous—I mean to carry about with one?” asked Pasco. - -“Not a bit. There is no fire till you strike it out.” - -Then Pepperill again fell into meditation. He put the box into his -pocket, and sat looking before him into space, speechless. - -Suddenly a shock went through his frame. He had been touched on the arm -by Coaker. - -“What is it?” he asked, with quivering lips. - -“Look at the landlord,” said the farmer in an undertone, with his hand -to his mouth. “Do you know what folks say of him?” - -Pasco asked with his eyes. He could not frame the words with his lips. - -“They do say that he set fire to the old place, so as to get the -insurance money for rebuilding in grand style.” - -“A tramp did it—got into the cellar,” said Pasco in a whisper. - -“Nobody never saw thickey tramp come, and sure and sartain nobody never -saw him go. I don’t believe in the tramp. He did it himself.” - -“You should not speak that unless sure of it,” said Pepperill, thrusting -back his chair. “You have no evidence.” - -“Oh, evidence! Folks talk, and form their opinion.” - -“Talk first and form opinions after on the idle chatter—that’s about -it.” - -Pasco stood up. He was alarmed. He was afraid he had not fastened the -box of his dog-cart. The flap might have fallen, and then the interior -would be exposed to view; and what would the ostler, what would anyone -think who happened to come into the stable-yard and saw what constituted -the lading of his cart? His hand had shaken as he turned the key, after -bringing out the halter; almost certainly in his nervousness he had -imperfectly turned it. He could not rest. He went out into the yard and -looked at his dog-cart. It was closed. He tried the key. The lock was -fast. - -“Put the cob in,” said he to the ostler, and he returned, much relieved, -to the house. - -Coaker had departed. Pepperill called for another glass of ale, and -found interest in observing the landlord. That man had set fire to his -tavern so that he might construct an hotel. He seemed cheery. He was not -bowed down with consciousness of guilt. His voice was loud, his spirits -buoyant. He looked Pepperill full in the eyes, and it was the eyes of -Pepperill that fell, not those of the landlord. - -“I wonder,” considered Pasco, “whether he did do it, or did not? If he -did not, it is just as bad as if he did, for people charge him with it -all the same. No one will believe he is innocent. Suppose he did it—and -I reckon it is most likely—well, Providence don’t seem to ha’ turned -against him; on the contrary, it is a showering o’ prosperity over him. -P’r’aps, after all, there ain’t no wrong in it. It was his own house he -burnt. A man may do what he will with his own.” He put resolutely from -him the thought of fraud on the insurance company. What was a company? -Something impersonal. Then Pepperill rose, paid for his ale, and went -forth. As he jumped into the dog-cart, the ostler held up the halter. - -“Will you give me the key and I will put it inside?” asked the man. - -“No, thank you—hand it to me.” - -The ostler gave him the halter, and Pepperill fastened it to the -splashboard and drove on. He had attached it hastily, carelessly, and -before long the rope uncoiled and hung before him. His eyes were drawn -to it. - -“What would come to me if the bailiffs were put into the house, and -Coombe Cellars were sold over my head to pay what I owe?” - -Pasco was a man who could live only where he was esteemed, looked up to, -and where he could impose on underlings and brag among equals. The idea -of being in every man’s mouth as “gone scatt”—a ruined man—was -intolerable. “I would die rather than that,” he exclaimed aloud, and put -his hand to the halter to twist it and knot it again. - -It was a sin to commit suicide. His life was his own, but he could not -take that. His storehouse with his stores was his own. Would it be wrong -for him to destroy that? Better that than his own life. There were but -two courses open to him. He must either use the halter for his own neck -and swing in the barn, or recover himself out of the insurance money on -his stores. He drove on brooding over this question, arguing with his -conscience, and presently he held up his head. He saw that his life was -too precious to be thrown away. What would Zerah do without him? He must -consider his wife, her despair, her tears. He had no right to make her a -widow, homeless. Were he to die—that would not relieve the strain. The -sale would take place just the same, and Zerah be left destitute. -Pepperill held up his head. He felt virtuous, heroic; he had done the -right thing for the sake of his dear wife, made his election, and saw a -new day dawning—dawning across a lurid glare. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - A FRIEND GAINED - -Kate fled upstairs to her bedroom, where she might be alone and have -free scope for tears. She threw herself on her knees by her bed, and -putting her hands under the patchwork quilt, drew it over her ears and -head, that the sound of her sobs might be muffled, so as not to reach -her aunt were she to ascend the staircase. She feared lest there should -be a repetition of the scene on the return of her father. Aunt Zerah -would wait impatiently for him, and the moment that he arrived, would -pour forth her story, not in his ear only, but in Kate’s as well, whom -she would forcibly retain to hear it and receive the reproaches of her -father. That her father would be disappointed that she had put from her -the chance of becoming a well-to-do yeoman’s wife, she knew for certain. -He had never concerned himself very greatly about her, had never -endeavoured to sound her mind and put his finger on her heart, and would -be quite unable to appreciate the reasons she could give for her -conduct; he would look on her refusal of young Pooke as a bit of girlish -caprice. She feared that he would view it as a bad speculation, and -would hasten off without consulting her, to endeavour to pacify the -mortified vanity of the old man, and to assure the young one that she, -Kate, had rejected him out of girlish bashfulness, whilst loving him in -her heart. There was no bond of sympathy between her father and herself. -That which filled his mind had no place in hers; what interested him she -shrank from. She had returned from Dartmoor with heart glowing with -gratitude to him for having insisted on her having a holiday, to her -uncle for having taken her out to Dartmoor, and to her aunt for having -spared her. It had been her desire to find occasions to prove to them -that she was grateful, and now, her first act on return was to run -contrary to their wishes, and anger her uncle and aunt, and lay up -matter for reprimand on the arrival of her father. - -Her aunt had never comprehended the character of Kate, filled to the -full as her heart was with bitterness at the loss of her own daughter. -Kate was in all points the reverse of Wilmot, and because so unlike, -woke the antipathy of the bereaved mother, as though the silence and -reserve of Kate were assumed out of slight to the memory of the merry, -open-hearted girl. She looked on her niece as perverse, as acting in -everything out of a spirit of contrariety. How else explain that a young -girl with warm blood in her veins should not retain the longings and -express the wishes common to other girls of her age? that she had no -fancy for dress, made no efforts to coquette with anyone, had no desire -for social amusements? - -Wilmot had been frolicsome, roguish, winsome—did Kate desire to eschew -everything that had made her cousin a sunbeam in the house, and the -delight of her mother’s heart, out of wilfulness, and determination not -to please her aunt, not to make up to her for the loss of her own child? - -Not only by her aunt was Kate regarded as heartless and perverse. That -was the character she bore in the village, among the girls of her own -age, among the elders who adopted the opinions of their daughters. Kate -had been brought in contact with the village girls at school, in the -choir, and elsewhere, and some had even attempted to make friends with -her. But those things which occupied the whole souls of such young -creatures—dress, the budding inclination to attract the youths of the -place—were distasteful to Kate; there was nothing in common between them -and her, and when both became conscious of this, they mutually drew -apart, and the girls arrived at the same conclusion as her aunt, that -she was a dull, unfeeling child, who was best left alone. - -Kate had felt acutely this solitariness in which she lived; her aunt had -often thrown it in her teeth that she made no friends. Her father was -displeased that he heard no good report of his daughter; her uncle had -rudely told her that a girl who made herself so unpopular to her own sex -would never attract one of the other. Now the opportunity had come to -her to falsify his predictions, to gratify her father, and to make her -aunt proud—but she had rejected it, and was more than ever alone. -Loneliness was endurable ordinarily. Kitty had her occupations, and, -when not occupied, her thoughts, recently her book, to engross her; but -now, when her own relatives were against her it was more than she could -bear. The pain of desolation became insupportable. There were but two -persons she knew with whom she was in touch, two persons only who could -feel with and for her, and to one of these she could not fly. - -The rector, whom she had loved and respected, was the only friend to -whom she could unburden her trouble, and she feared to approach him, -because she had just done what he might not like, any more than did her -uncle and aunt. He would hear, and that speedily, of her conduct, and -Kate wished greatly to see him, and explain her refusal to him as far as -she could, that he might not blame her. But even should her explanation -prove unsatisfactory to him, she was not prepared to withdraw her -refusal. Kate never wavered. She was one of those direct persons who, -when they have taken a course, hold to it persistently. - -She rose from her knees, bathed her face, brushed her hair, and -descended. - -Her aunt was in the kitchen, and averted her face as the girl entered. -She did not ask Kate where she was going, nor turn her head to see what -she was about. - -“I shall be back again in a few minutes, auntie; if you can spare me, I -should like to go out.” - -No answer; and Kate left. - -She had not taken many steps from the house, walking with her head down, -as the glare of the sun was too strong for her tear-stung eyes, when she -was caught, and before she could see in whose arms she was, she was -boisterously kissed. - -“You are a dear! you are a darling! I shall always love you.” - -Kitty saw before her Rose Ash, with glowing cheeks and dancing eyes. - -“You darling! I never believed it of you, you are so still. I thought -you were sly. I am so sorry I misunderstood you; so sorry I did anything -or said anything against you. I will never do it again. I will stand -your friend; I will fight your battles. And, look here!” - -A polished wood workbox was at her feet. She had put it down for the -purpose of disengaging her hands to hug Kate. - -“Look, Kitty! This is my own workbox. Is it not beautiful? It has a -mother-of-pearl escutcheon on it and lock-plate. And it locks—really -locks—not make-believe, like some you buy. And, see! pink silk inside. -It is for you. I give it to you. It is nearly new. I am not much of a -needlewoman, and so have not used it. It is really a hundred times -better than that which Noah knocked—I mean, that which the bear danced -upon and smashed. And there is a silver thimble in it. I give it you -with all my heart—that is to say, with as much heart as I have left to -give to anyone.” - -Kate stepped back in astonishment. What did this mean? - -“O Kitty! you really shall no longer be Kitty Alone; it shall be Kitty -and Rose. We shall be regular friends. Only think! I was so jealous of -you. I thought that Jan Pooke had taken a fancy to you—and I suppose the -silly noodle had done so for a bit, but you know he properly belongs to -me. We are to make a pair—everyone says so, and his father and sister -Sue wish it; and I’m sure, I’m sure, so do I. But men are cruel giddy, -they turn and turn like weathercocks; and just for a while Jan fancied -you. But you put him off bravely, you did.” - -“What have I done to you?” asked Kate. - -“My dear, I heard it all. I saw you and Jan going to the orchard, and I -was so jealous that I hid myself in the linhay. I got over the hedge and -tore my frock in a bramble, but I did not heed it; I slipped in where I -could peep and see, and put out my ears and listen. I know everything. I -heard how you spoke up for me, and quite right and reasonable too; and -how you refused him, and very sensible you was. Just think what a thing -it would ha’ been, Kitty, if he’d gone right off his head and married -you, and then come to his senses and found he had got the wrong one, and -it was me all along he should have had. You would never have known -happiness after. You never would have enjoyed peace of conscience again. -But you were a sensible child, and did what you ought to ha’ done, and -nobody can’t do more than that; nor promise and vow to do more than what -is in the catechism. So, now, I’m all for you, and there is my workbox I -give you in place of that the bear kicked to pieces. I don’t mind -telling you now, Kate, that Noah did it. I put him up to it; I told him -he was to do it. He didn’t like it, but I forced him to it—I mean to -knock the workbox from under your arm. He’s a good chap is Noah, and now -that it is all put right between Jan and me”— - -“Is it? Have you spoken with him?” - -“Oh no, I can’t say that; but you have refused him. It will take him a -day or two to steady his head, and then he will come up right again, and -we will make it up, and be the better friends in the end. And, what is -more, I’ll stand friend to you, Kate. I daresay you’d like Noah, and -I’ll get him to walk you out on Sundays and to sweetheart you.” - -“I don’t want Noah,” said Kate, shrinking. - -“Oh yes, you do. Every girl must have her young chap. It ain’t natural -without. I’ll speak with him. He’s a terrible good chap is Noah; he’ll -do anything I ask him. I made him knock the workbox under the bear’s -feet, and if he’d do that much for me, I’m sure you need not be afraid -but he’d sweetheart you at my axing. Besides, he’ll be tremendous thrown -out when he sees me take up with Jan again, and he’ll want some one to -walk with, and may just as well take you as another.” - -“No; please, Rose, do not. I had rather be left alone.” - -“Stuff and fiddlesticks! It is not right that you should be without a -sweetheart. You leave all that to me.” - -“No, dear Rose, no. You be my friend; that suffices.” - -“It is because I am your friend that I will do a friend’s part.” - -“No, no, Rose.” - -“Well, you always were queer; I can’t understand you. But never mind; we -are friends, though you make me a helpless one. What is the good of a -friend but to assist a girl to a lover?” - - - - - CHAPTER XXX - UNDER THE MULBERRY TREE - -Kate disengaged herself from Rose, and hastened to the Rectory. She -opened the garden gate. She was a privileged person there, coming when -she liked about choir matters, sent messages by her uncle, who was -churchwarden, running in when she had a spare hour to look at Mr. -Fielding’s picture-books, in strawberry time to gather the fruit and eat -it, in preserving time to collect his raspberries, currants, plums, for -the cook to convert into jams. - -She saw the rector sitting under a mulberry tree on his lawn with a book -on his lap. He had removed his hat, and the spring air fluttered his -silver hair. - -He saw Kate at once, and, smiling, beckoned to her to come and sit by -him on the bench that half encircled the old tree. - -This she would not do, but she stood before him with downcast eyes and -folded hands, and said, “Please, sir, I am afraid you will be cross with -me.” - -“I am never that, Kitty.” - -“No, sir, never.” She raised her flashing blue eyes for a moment. -“Perhaps you may be vexed with me. I’ve just gone and done clean -contrary to what you said.” - -“What did I say?” - -“You said after my holiday I was to go home, and obey my uncle and aunt -in everything.” - -“I am sure I never said that.” - -“It was something like it—be obliging and good.” - -“Well, have you not been obliging and good?” - -“No, sir.” - -“What have you done?” - -“I’ve crossed them, and I fancy father will be cross too.” - -“What have you done to cross them?” - -“Refused Jan Pooke.” - -The rector drew back against the tree and smiled. - -“Refused? I don’t quite understand.” - -“Please, sir, Jan wanted to make me his wife.” - -“Well?” - -“And I said ‘No.’” - -“You had made up your mind already?” - -“I knew I must say ‘No.’ Do you know, sir, Jan thought that silver -peninks came from daffodil roots.” - -“Oh! and accordingly you could not say ‘Yes’?” - -“It was silly; was it not?” - -“And that was your real, true reason for saying ‘No’?” - -Kitty looked down. - -“You are not angry with me, sir?” - -“No. Are your relations so?” - -“Yes; uncle and aunt are dreadfully vexed, and that is what has made me -cry. I came home wishing to do everything to please them, and the first -thing I did was to make them angry and call me a little viper they had -brought up in their bosom. You do not think I did wrong? You are not -angry also?” - -“No; I do not think you could have done otherwise, if you did not care -for John Pooke.” - -“I did, and I do care for John Pooke.” - -“Then why did you not take him? Only because of the silver peninks?” - -“No, sir; not that only. I care for him, but not enough; I like him, but -not enough.” - -“Quite so. You like, but do not love him.” - -“Yes, that is it.” Kate breathed freely. “I did not know how to put it. -Do you think I did right?” - -The rector paused before he answered. Then he said, signing with his -thin hand, “Come here, little Kitty. Sit by me.” - -He took her hand in his, and, looking before him, said, “It would have -been a great thing for this parish had you become John Pooke’s wife, the -principal woman in the place, to give tone to it, the one to whom all -would look up, the strongest influence for good among the girls. I -should have had great hopes that all the bread I have strewed upon the -waters would not be strewn in vain.” - -“I thought you wished it,” burst forth from the girl, with a sob. “And -yet I could not—I could not indeed. Now I have turned everyone against -me—everyone but Rose,” she added, truthful in everything, exact in all -she said. - -“No, Kitty, I do not wish it. It is true, indeed, that it would be a -rich blessing to such a place as this to have you as the guiding star to -all the womanhood in the place, set up on such a candlestick as the -Pookes’ farm. But I am not so sure that the little light would burn -there and not be smothered in grease, or would gutter, and become -extinguished in the wind there. The place is good in itself, but not -good for you. It might be an advantage to the parish, but fatal to -yourself. John Pooke is an honest, worthy fellow, and he has won my -respect because he saw your value and has striven to win you. But he is -not the man for you. For my little Kitty I hope there will come some one -possessed of better treasures than broad acres, fat beeves, and many -flocks of sheep; possessed of something better even than amiability of -temper.” - -“What is that, sir?” - -“A well-stored intellect—an active mind. Kitty, no one has more regard -for young John than myself, but it would have been terrible to you to -have been tied to him. ‘Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass -together’ was the command of Moses, and we must not unite under one yoke -the sluggish mind with that which is full of activity. No, no, Kitty. -You acted rightly. The man who will be fitted to be coupled in the same -plough with you will be one of another mould. He will be”— - -The garden gate opened, and Walter Bramber entered. A twig of laurel -caught his sleeve, and he turned to extricate himself, and did not -perceive the rector and Kate. A sudden confusion came over the girl, -caused—whether by her thoughts, whether by the words of the rector, -whether from natural shyness, she could not tell, but she started from -the seat and slipped behind the mulberry. - -The schoolmaster came up to the rector when called, and found the old -man with a smile playing about his lips. - -“I have come, sir,” said Bramber, “to ask your advice.” - -“In private?” - -“Yes, sir, if you please.” - -“Then I cannot grant you an audience now. If you will run round the -mulberry, you will discover why.” - -Bramber was puzzled. - -“Do what I say. There is someone there, someone who must retire farther -than behind a tree if you are to consult me without being overheard.” - -The schoolmaster stepped aside to go about the mulberry, and saw Kate -standing there, leaning against the trunk, holding together her skirts, -and looking down. - -“Oh!” laughed Walter; “this is the audience! I do not in the least mind -a discussion of my concerns before such an one.” - -“Come out, Kitty! You hear your presence is desired,” called Mr. -Fielding, and the girl stepped forward. “Take the place where you were -before on one side of me, and Mr. Bramber shall sit on the other, and we -will enter on the consideration of his affairs. What are they as to -complexion, Bramber, sanguine or atrabilious?” - -“Not cheerful, I am afraid. I have my troubles and difficulties before -my eyes.” - -“So has Kitty. She comes to me from the same cause.” Then he added, -“Well, let us hear and consider.” - -“It concerns Mr. Puddicombe. I do not know what I ought to do, or -whether I should do anything. There is an organised opposition to me, -and the late schoolmaster is at the bottom of it. I can clearly perceive -that not parents only, but children as well, have been worked upon to -offer stubborn opposition to all my changes, and to make myself -ridiculous. I need not enter into details. There is this feeling of -antagonism in the place, and it paralyses me. If the children were left -unmanipulated, I could get along and gain their confidence; but at home -they hear what their parents say, what is said to their parents, and -they come to school with a purpose not to obey me, not to listen to my -instructions, and to make my task in every particular irksome and -distasteful. I see precisely what Puddicombe is aiming at—to force me to -use the cane, not once or twice, but continuously, and to force me to it -by making discipline impossible without it. Then he will have a handle -against me, and will rouse the parish to hound me out. What am I to do?” - -“Have you called on him?” - -“No, sir, I have not. I really could not pluck up courage to do so. I -hardly know what I could say to him that is pleasant if we did meet.” - -“You have not yet met him?” - -“No. I do not know him by sight.” - -“He is not a bad fellow; jovial, a sportsman at heart, and his heart was -never in the school; it was to be sought in the kennels, in stables, in -the ring, anywhere save in class. That was the blemish in the man. His -thoroughness was not where it should have been. His centre of gravity -was outside the sphere in which it was his duty to turn. But he is not a -bad fellow, good-hearted, placable, and only your enemy because his -vanity rather than his pocket is touched by his dismissal. I hear he has -announced his intention of becoming a Dissenter; but as he hardly ever -came to church when he was professedly a Churchman, I do not suppose -chapel will see much of him when he professes himself a Nonconformist. -It is a great misfortune when a man’s interests lie outside his -vocation.” - -“What shall I do, sir?” - -“Call on him.” - -“What shall I say to him?” - -“Something that will please him—nothing about the school; nothing about -your difficulties.” - -“I am supremely ignorant of the cockpit and the race-course. It is very -hard when two men belonging to different spheres meet; they can neither -understand the other.” - -“My dear young man, that is what I have been experiencing these many -years here; we must strive to accommodate ourselves to inferior ways of -thinking and speaking, and then, then only, shall we be able to -insinuate into the gross and dark minds some spark of the higher life. -Kitty, have I your permission to tell Mr. Bramber what it is that you -have just communicated to me? It will be public property throughout -Coombe in half an hour, if everyone does not know it now, so it will be -revealing no secrets.” - -Kate looked, with a startled expression in her eyes, at the rector. Why -should he care to speak of this matter now? Why before Bramber? But she -had confidence in him, and she did not open her lips in remonstrance. - -With a quiet smile, Mr. Fielding said: “You have not yet heard the -tidings with regard to our little friend here, I presume?” - -“Tidings—what?” The schoolmaster looked hastily round and saw Kate’s -head droop, and a twinkle come in the rector’s eye. A slight flush rose -to his temples. - -“Merely that she has received an offer”— - -“Offer?” Bramber caught his breath, and the colour left his face. - -“Of marriage,” continued Mr. Fielding composedly. “A most remarkable -offer. The young man is eminently respectable, very comfortably off; age -suitable; looks prepossessing; parents acquiescing.” - -“Kate! Kitty!” Bramber’s voice was sharp with alarm and pain. - -“I do not know whether the attachment has been one of long continuance,” -proceeded the rector. “The fact of the proposal—now passing through -Coombe—is like the dropping of a meteorite in its midst. Popular fame -had attributed Rose Ash to John Pooke.” - -“John Pooke, is it?” gasped the schoolmaster, and he sprang to his feet. - -“John Pooke the younger, not the father, who is a widower of many years’ -standing. The disparity of ages makes that quite impossible. The younger -John it is who has aspired.” - -“Kate, tell me—it cannot be. It must not be,” exclaimed Bramber, -stepping before the girl, and in his excitement catching her hands and -drawing them from her face, in which she had hidden them. She looked up -at him with a flutter in her eyes and hectic colour in her cheeks. She -made no attempt to withdraw her hands. - -“By the way,” said the rector, “I will look up cockfighting in my -_Encyclopædia Britannica_, and make an extract from the article, if I -find one, that may be serviceable to you, Bramber, when you call on Mr. -Puddicombe. I’ll go to my library. I shall not detain you many minutes.” - -The many minutes were protracted to twenty. When Mr. Fielding returned, -the young people were seated close to each other under the -mulberry-tree, and still held hands; their eyes were bright, and their -cheeks glowing. - -“I am sorry I have been so long,” said the rector; “but there was a -great deal of matter under the head of ‘Cock-pit’ in the _Encyclopædia_; -and I had to run through it, and cull what would be of greatest utility. -I have written it out. Do not rise. I will sit beside you—no, not -between you—listen! ‘It must appear astonishing to every reflecting -mind, that a mode of diversion so cruel and inhuman as that of -cockfighting should so generally prevail, that not only the ancients, -barbarians, Greeks, and Romans should have adopted it; but that a -practice so savage and heathenish should be continued by Christians of -all sorts, and even pursued in these better and more enlightened times.’ -That is how the article begins—very true, but won’t do for Mr. -Puddicombe. ‘The islanders of Delos, it seems, were great lovers of -cockfighting; and Tanagra, a city in B[oe]otia, the Isle of Rhodes, -Chalcis in Eub[oe]a, and the country of Media, were famous for their -generous and magnanimous race of chickens.’ I don’t think this is much -good. Puddicombe, though a schoolmaster, will hardly know the -whereabouts of Delos, Tanagra, Rhodes, and Chalcis. ‘The cock is not -only an useful animal, but stately in his figure, and magnificent in his -plumage. His tenderness towards his brood is such, that, contrary to the -custom of many other males, he will scratch and provide for them with an -assiduity almost equal to that of the hen; and his generosity is so -great, that, on finding a hoard of meat, he will chuckle the hens -together, and, without touching one bit himself, will relinquish the -whole of it to them. He was called _the bird_, κατ’ ἐξοχήν by many of -the ancients’—But, bless me, are you attending?” - -“Mr. Fielding,” answered Bramber, “I do not think I shall have much -trouble in finding a topic on which to speak with my predecessor in the -school. He was Kitty’s schoolmaster. She will introduce me to him. We -will go to him at once; and when he hears what we have to say,—that I, -the new schoolmaster, am going to take to me the favourite, most docile, -the best scholar of the old one; and when he learns that he is the first -person to whom we make the announcement, and that he is at liberty to -run up and down, and in and out of every house, communicating the -news,—why, I am pretty sure that he will be won.” - -“Well, now!” - -“And Kitty will cease to be Kitty Alone some time next year.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI - ON MISCHIEF BENT - -When Pasco returned from Newton, he drew up his tax-cart close to the -door of the storehouse, took the horse out, but did not unharness him; -he merely removed the bridle and gave the brute a feed. - -Then he entered the dwelling-house and seated himself at the kitchen -table without a word to his wife, and emptied his pocket on the board. A -couple of sovereigns and a few shillings clinked together. With his -forefinger he separated the gold from the silver coins. - -“What! money come in, in place of going out?” asked Zerah. Then, looking -over his shoulder, she said, “And precious little it is.” - -“Little is better than nothing,” growled Pasco. “I got this from Cole, -the baker. I’d somehow forgot he owed me a trifle, and he stopped me and -paid his account. I owe something to the miller, so I’m no better off -than I was. In at one pocket, out at the other.” - -“Now look here, Pasco,” said his wife. “For first and last I say this. I -have laid by a trifle that I have earned by cockles and winkles, whilst -you have been chucking away in coals and wool. If you will pass me your -word not to run into extravagance, and not to listen to any more of -Jason’s schemes, I will let you have this. No”—she corrected her intent; -“you are not to be trusted with the money. It shall not leave my hand to -go into yours. And your word ain’t of any strength, it is as weak as -your resolutions. I’ll settle the matter of the coals with the merchant -at Teignmouth; that is the great call at this moment. I don’t do it for -you, but to avoid the scandal of having bailiffs in the house—a house -where I’ve kept myself respectable so many years, and where my Wilmot -was born and died. I wouldn’t have the brokers sell the bed she laid on -when dead, not for all my savings. So I’ll over to Teignmouth and see -what I can manage about the coal merchant’s bill; and you, just take -that money and pay Ash the miller, and have done with him.” - -Again the thought rose up in the mind of Pasco that the Evil One was -making sport of him. At one time he was in a condition of hopelessness, -in another moment there was a lightening in the sky before him. The -means of striking fire had been put into his hands at the same time that -he was shown that his difficulties were not insurmountable. But the -heart which has once resolved on a crime very speedily comes to regard -this object as a goal at which it must necessarily aim, and to look with -impatience upon all suggestions of relief, upon all dissuasives, and -stubbornly, with shut eyes, to pursue the course determined on. The -struggle to form the determination once overpassed, the mind shrinks -from entering into struggle again, and allows itself to be swept along -as though impelled by fatality, as though launched on a stream it is -powerless to oppose. - -Now his wife’s suggestion that she should go to Teignmouth and settle -with the merchant for the coals opened up to him a prospect, not of -relief from his pecuniary difficulty, but of getting rid of her to -enable him the more easily to carry out his intention unobserved. He put -his shaking hand into his breast-pocket for his handkerchief, and in -pulling this forth drew out also the lucifer match-box, that in falling -rattled on the table. - -“What have you there, Pasco?” asked Zerah. - -“Nothing,” he answered, and hastily replaced the box. - -“Don’t tell me that was nothing which I saw and heard,” said his wife -testily. - -“Well—it’s lozenges.” - -“Didn’t know you had a cough.” - -“Never mind about that, Zerah,” said Pasco. “If you go to Teignmouth it -must be at once, or the tide will be out, and I don’t see how you can -get back to-night.” - -“I’ve my cousin, Dorothy Bray, there. I’ll go to her. I’ve not seen her -some months, and she has a room. I’ll leave Kitty at home now, to attend -to the house, and you won’t need me to the morning flow. I suppose, -between you, you can manage to light a fire?” - -Pasco started and looked at his wife with alarm, thinking that she had -read his thoughts; but he was reassured by her changing the topic. -“There—I’ll give you three pounds towards the miller’s bill.” - -Pepperill was now all anxiety to hurry his wife off. He urged -precipitancy on account of the falling tide. He bade her row herself -across, and leave the boat on the farther shore till the next morning. - -His impatience in a measure woke her suspicion. - -“You seem mighty eager to get rid of me,” she said querulously. - -“’Tain’t that, Zerah,” he answered; “but I want myself to be off to -Brimpts.” - -“To Brimpts?—and leave Kitty alone in the house?” - -“No; I shall take her with me.” - -“What!—leave the house to take care of itself?” - -“What can harm it? No one will break in. They know pretty well there is -nothing to be got but bills that ain’t paid.” - -“I don’t half like it—and the stores?” - -“There is no moving wool or coals without waggons, and I shall lock up.” - -Zerah stood in uncertainty. - -“I wish you’d not go, Pasco.” - -“I may or may not—but be off, or you’ll get stuck in the mud, as did -Kitty.” - -In ten minutes Pasco was alone. He stood on the platform where were the -tea-tables and benches, and watched till his wife was half-way across. -Then he drew a long breath, and passed through the house, went out at -the main door, and hastened to the cart. Again he stood still, and -looked searchingly in every direction; then he let down the flap behind, -drew out first the sack of shavings and carried it within, and then he -cleared out all that remained. He was not satisfied till with a broom he -had swept every particle of chip within, leaving not a tell-tale white -atom without. Then he tacked some scraps of sacking over the window that -no one might look within, and he proceeded to place bundles of the -shavings among the coals, not in one great heap, but dispersed in -handfuls here and there, and he broke up some pieces of board into -splinters and thrust them among the shavings. - -He was startled by a voice calling in the door, “Uncle, are you here?” - -Hot, agitated, and alarmed, Pasco hastened to the entrance, and saw -Kate. - -“What do you want? Why are you shouting?” - -“Where is aunt? I want to see her. I cannot find her in the house. I -have something to tell her.” - -“You are not like to find her,” said Pepperill, coming outside and -locking the door behind him. “She is gone over the water, and will stay -at Cousin Bray’s; and I’m off to Brimpts again, and mean to take you.” - -“Why, uncle! we have but just returned from there.” - -“Well, that’s no concern of yours, where you are, so long as you have -your eatin’ and drinkin’. I must go, and your aunt thinks I mustn’t -leave you alone. So be sharp; run and put what things you require -together, and I will harness the cob.” - -“How long shall we be away, uncle?” - -“We shall be back to-morrow evening, or the day after. I can’t say. -Come, be quick. I can’t wait talking with you; it is late already.” - -Kate obeyed, a little surprised. She speedily returned, with her little -bundle tied up in a scarlet kerchief. - -Pasco was ready and waiting. He was looking up at the drift of the -clouds. The wind was from the east and blowing strongly. - -Pepperill drove through the village. He halted at the public-house to -call out the taverner, ask for a glass of ale, and tell him he was bound -for Dartmoor. At the mill he again drew up, and shouted for the miller, -who, on emerging from his door, saluted Pasco with the remark, “Why, you -are on the road to-day a great deal. I thought you had gone this way -already.” - -“So I had—to Newton; but there I learned something. The Government has -come round to a reasonable mind, and will buy my timber. Not at -Devonport, but at Portsmouth; and I am going to measure up. I ran home -to tell my old woman. And now, by the way, I will settle that little -account between us, if agreeable to you.” - -“Always right with me to receive,” said the miller. - -Pasco drew out a handful of money and discharged his debt. “Just receipt -it, will you, with the date, and say what o’clock in the afternoon -also—that there may be no mistake.” - -“You are not going to Brimpts to-night?” - -“Yes, I am. Business must be attended to.” - -“Rather late for the little maid by the time you get there.” - -“That can’t be helped—she is strong now.” - -Then Pepperill drove on. He continued his course without interruption, -as the country he passed through was sparsely populated. - -Kate’s heart was full. She was in doubt whether to tell her uncle that -which had taken place between herself and Walter Bramber. She would -greatly have preferred to have made the communication to her aunt and -let her inform Mr. Pepperill. She was afraid of Pasco. He was violent -and brutal. Her aunt was merely harsh. Pasco had been very angry with -her for refusing Jan Pooke, and she did not believe that he would -receive with favour the communication she had to make relative to the -schoolmaster. She dreaded another outburst. Yet her strong sense of duty -pressed her to communicate to him what he must learn within a short -time, from other lips if not from her own. Then ensued a painful -struggle in her breast, and she was constrained to free herself at -length, and to say— - -“Uncle, you know I refused Jan Pooke, but since then, what I could not -say to him I have said to Walter Bramber, the schoolmaster.” - -“Oh, ah! Jan Pooke—yes, to be sure.” - -“No, not Jan, but the schoolmaster.” - -“Drat it!” exclaimed Pasco, stroking his head; “I’ve forgotten to lock -up the house. I let the door stand as it was when you came out. Now -anyone can go in and take what they like, break into my bureau and steal -my money, get hold of Zerah’s silver spoons. I say, Kitty, jump out and -open that field-gate. There is a linhay there. I’ll put up the trap and -horse, and you shall wait by ’em whilst I run back to Coombe Cellars and -lock the house.” - -“But how is aunt to get in when she returns?” - -“You be easy. I’ll put the key in the little hole over the lintel. She -knows where to find it. Look alive, jump and open the gate. Drat it! -what a way I shall have to run!” - -“Why not drive back, uncle?” - -“Why not?—Because the cob must be spared. I’ve been into Newton already -to-day, and the distance he has to go is just about enough to rub his -hoofs down.” - -Pepperill drove the cart into the field indicated, whilst Kate held wide -the gate. Then he took the cob out and ran the cart under cover. - -“You keep in shelter, and mind you do not show yourself. If anyone pass -along the road, be still as a mouse. Never mind who it may be. I shall -be gone perhaps an hour, perhaps a little more. It will be dark before I -am back. You keep close. There is some straw in the corner, lie on that -and go to sleep. We have still a long journey to take, and get on we -must, through the night, and this is a darned matter detaining me. -Hush!” - -They heard something like a cart rattling along. - -“Git along, Neddy! ‘If I had a donkey ’wot wouldn’t go’—you know the -rest, Neddy.” - -“It is my father, I believe,” said Kate. - -“I don’t believe it is. Anyhow, be still,” whispered Pasco. “Your father -is at Brimpts. He can’t be returned here. It’s some other chap with a -donkey.” - -The sound of the wheels was lost, as at the point where they had turned -in at the gate there was a sweep in the road between high hedges and -overarching trees. - -“I think it was father,” said Kate. - -“And I say it was not. However, whoever it was, he’s gone now. You bide -here. I’m off—mind don’t be seen or heard by nobody till my return.” - -Then Pasco departed. - -He did not take the way by the road. He crossed the field, scrambled -over a hedge, and directed his course towards the river. This was not -the shortest way, and it was certainly the most arduous, for it entailed -the breaking through of several hedges, and the scrambling over many -banks. - -The evening was rapidly closing in. - -He saw—or heard—the keeper, and crouched under a hedge, holding his -breath. Happily for him, the man passed at some distance. His dog -barked, but was called to heel, and Pasco did not venture from his -lurking-place till ten minutes after the man had gone his way. Then he -sprang up and ran, and did not relax his pace till he had reached the -river bank, having first floundered through a backwater deep in mire. On -the bank was a foot-path, somewhat frequented by lovers at dusk, and -Pasco advanced along it stealthily, listening and peering before him at -intervals, to make certain that no one approached. - -The tide was out, the mud exhaled its peculiar and not pleasant odour. -Something flopped into it near at hand—whether a bird had dropped, or a -stone had been flung, or a flounder had been left by the tide, and beat -the mud with his tail, Pasco could not tell. The sound sent the blood -with a rush to his heart and turned him sick and giddy. - -Looking at him over a rail was a white horse. He did not see it until -close upon the bank, and then the apparition of the great head turning -to him and rubbing its chin on the rail gave him another start, and he -almost slipped into the mud beside the path. - -At length he reached the field adjoining the spit of land on which stood -Coombe Cellars; here the path turned towards the village, but there was -a way through the hedge to his own house. Pasco took this track, emerged -in front of the Cellars, and found the door open, a light shining -through the window of his kitchen and Jason Quarm inside. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXII - JASON IN THE WAY - -Jason had lighted a candle, and had made himself comfortable in the -settle. Pepperill stood staring at him in speechless anger and -uncertainty. - -“Where’s the sister? Where’s Kitty?” asked Jason in unconcern. - -“What are you doing here?” roared Pasco, convulsed with sudden rage. “Is -this your house, that you dare come in and use it as your home?” - -Quarm looked at his brother-in-law in surprise. - -“Get out of the place at once,” shouted Pasco. “If I happen to go away -for ten minutes, is that a reason for every Jack and Tom to come here, -as if it was ‘Beggars’ Hall’?” - -“Why, what on earth has put you out?” - -“What has put me out? you—by coming in here. This is my house, not -yours.” - -“Brother-in-law,” said Jason, puzzled at the strange humour of Pasco, -“is not that a sufficient answer, when I give you that title? Zerah is -my sister—I have ever been welcome here. Kate is my daughter—she lives -with you. Why am I here? Put it—I have come to see my sister, come to -kiss my child.” - -“Neither is in the house.” - -“Then where are they?” - -“I am not bound to answer you,” shouted Pepperill in anger, vexation, -and fear, aggravated by the coolness with which Quarm answered him. - -“Yes, you are. I have ties of blood, and ties of affection, your bad -temper can’t snap. I ask, where is my daughter?” - -“Gone back to the moor.” - -“That can’t be—alone.” - -“She is not alone.” - -“Is Zerah with her?” - -“No, she is not; Zerah is at Teignmouth, gone there to get me out of one -of the difficulties into which you have plunged me.” - -“I—I got you into difficulties? I am always showing you rope’s-ends by -which you may crawl out.” - -“Who else but yourself has now put me in such an upsetment that I do not -know under what stone to look for money; that I’m threatened with legal -proceedings; that the bailiffs are on the way to my house?” - -“It is your own doing, not mine. Who threatens you?” - -“There is my bill for the wool unmet. There is my account for coals -unpaid.” - -“I have had to do with neither. You acted like a fool about Coaker’s -wool—buying when in all the papers it was told how that there had been -an importation from New South Wales.” - -“I never read the papers.” - -“Then you have no right to do business. You do it at inevitable loss. -But this is neither here nor there, above nor below. Where is Kate?” - -“I have told you—gone to the moor.” - -“When?” - -“An hour or two ago.” - -“With whom?” - -“With me.” - -“Then how came you here?” - -“Because I had left the doors unlocked against impertinent fellows -coming in. I left Kate with the trap whilst I ran back. Now, are you -content? Out of my house immediately. I want to lock up and go back to -her.” - -“This is a queer tale,” said Quarm. “I have myself but just arrived. I -must have passed you on the way.” - -“Not at all, if we had gone into a friend’s for a cup of tea.” - -“With what friends were you?” - -“I shall not stand and be catechised by you. I say, get out. I am going -to lock up.” - -“Now look here, Pasco, and be reasonable. I would not have returned to -Coombe and left the men at Dart-meet unlooked after, had I not good news -to communicate.” - -“Good news?” mocked Pepperill. “The best of news would be that you were -going to take yourself off.” - -“I believe we shall sell the oak.” - -“I have heard of that already—from Coaker.” - -“Well, I tell you it is so. The authorities at Portsmouth will take it -at a reasonable price, if we deliver it.” - -“There is the thing we can’t do—that spoils it all.” - -“Yes, we can—deliver it here in the Teign. There is the Stover Canal—we -can send it down by that and ship it all to Portsmouth right away.” - -Pepperill was silent. This was indeed a rift in the cloud. “The only -difficulty is not this—it is that we must have the timber sawn at -Brimpts, and sent down and put on board in planks. They cannot freight a -vessel with rude oak timber unsawn. Now I have a scheme—there is the -river Dart pouring down its volumes of water of no good to anyone. Let -us put up a saw-mill, and we shall have the oak run into planks and -ready for transport in a jiffy.” - -“And the cost?” - -“Forty pounds.” - -“Forty pounds?” roared Pasco, and thrust Quarm from him by a rude stroke -on the shoulder. “Where am I to look for forty pence?” - -“It is our only chance. I must agree to-morrow, or the thing is off. If -I engage to saw up the timber and despatch it by water, we shall get a -very tidy profit—not what we had hoped, but something. If I do not -accept the offer, then I really do not see my way to disposing of the -oak at all. The felling of the Okehampton Park oaks has spoiled the -market in this country. Come, what say you, Pasco—shall I settle?” - -“I cannot do it,” answered Pepperill, a cold sweat breaking out over his -brow. - -“There is an old mine wheel available. I can buy it for a song,” said -Quarm. - -“I have no money. Have I not told you that—or must I knock it into your -brain with my fist—or the house key?” He raised his hand threateningly. - -“Be reasonable, Pasco. I cannot tell what has come over you to-night. -You are not yourself. If you do not care about the outlay for a -saw-mill, we must saw all up by hand, and that will come costlier in the -end. I fancy if you bestirred yourself you could raise a loan.” - -“I will not. I will have but one thing now—your absence. Get out of my -house!” - -“Where be I to go to?” asked Quarm, settling himself from one leg to the -other. “There’s Jane Redmore in my cottage, with all her children.” - -“Well”— - -“I can’t go there—the place is full.” - -“You are a fool to have suffered it.” - -“Kate begged and prayed of me”— - -“Take the consequences, and be homeless.” - -“I cannot, for to-night. You are going to Brimpts, and it is as well the -men should see you. I shall return to-morrow, but to-night I must house -me somewhere. Let me stay here; there is no one in the place, and I’ll -keep guard for you if you wish.” - -“There is nothing here to guard, but emptiness. I want no help of -yourn.” - -“But I must have a roof over my head at night.” - -“Any roof but mine. Will you go, or must I fling you out and down the -steps?” - -“You’re in a wonderful queer temper to-night. What is up?” - -“My temper, as you say, is up; and like to be so—when it is through you -I am brought to ruin and beggary.” - -He caught Jason by the shoulders, whirled him round, and with hands and -knees thrust him out of the door, and then he slammed it behind him and -turned the key. Next moment he blew out the light. Then he threw himself -panting on the settle and buried his head in his hands. - -He had not sat there many minutes before Quarm was kicking at the door, -and calling him by name. Transported with anger, Pasco sprang to his -feet, took down the blunderbuss that was over the kitchen fire, and, -going to the door, half opened it and thrust forth the muzzle of his -piece. - -“Go away, or I will shoot.” - -“This is rank folly!” bawled Jason. “Are you gone demented? Give me -shelter for the night; I will do no harm. What do you mean by refusing -me such a reasonable request? I tell you I can’t go home—all the -Redmores are there packing every corner.” - -Jason thrust up the end of the blunderbuss, and put his shoulder to the -door. - -“I’ll kill you if you trouble me further,” said Pasco between his teeth. -“Take the consequences of befriending scoundrels and their families.” - -He drove Quarm back and refastened the door, then he stood at the door -listening, with the butt of the gun on his foot. He heard his -brother-in-law growl and pass remarks upon him. He heard him limp away, -and then all was still. - -Pepperill stepped to a window and looked out, to observe the direction -taken by Quarm, but the darkness was too great for him to see anything. -He went back to the settle and tried to think. - -The elaborate precautions he had taken to dissemble his return, to make -believe that he had departed before sunset, had been made futile by the -appearance of Jason on the scene. Should what he purposed take -place—then he could not declare that he had been from home at the time. -What availed it that he had paid the miller’s bill at a quarter to -seven, when his brother-in-law could aver that he had been back at the -Cellars an hour later? - -What was to be done? Should he abandon his intention because of this -mischance? Rage against his brother-in-law ate into his heart. All had -promised so well. Everything was moving with such smoothness, till Quarm -appeared. What but a malevolent mind could have brought this fellow back -from Brimpts to cross him? - -What was to be done? It was of no practical use storming against Jason. -Should he abandon his purpose or defer it? - -To abandon it seemed to him an impossibility. By carrying it out alone -could he be released from his present pecuniary difficulty. To defer it -was difficult, for he wanted immediate relief; moreover, when again -could he calculate on having the ground so clear now—his wife as away in -Teignmouth, his niece waiting at a distance with the cart? - -What if Jason had seen him? Would he dare to give evidence against -him—his own brother-in-law? Was it not to Jason’s interest that he, -Pasco, should be flush of money, and ready to embark in the proposed -scheme of erecting a saw-mill? - -Even if Jason spoke of having seen him, he could deny it. Pasco sprang -from the settle. He would run the risk. It was worth it. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIII - ONE CRIME LEADS TO ANOTHER - -Pasco remained in the dark in his house for about half an hour, waiting -till he supposed that Jason was far away. He allowed him time to harness -his ass, put it into the cart, and depart. He went once or twice to the -door to listen, but did not venture to open it, lest Jason should be -without, and should take advantage of the occasion to burst in. He -remained all the while bathed in a clammy sweat, his hair stuck to his -skull as though plastered about his temples with fish-glue, he felt it -heavy and dank on his head like a cap. - -Repeatedly did he try to collect his thoughts and to coolly consider -whether it were not advisable for him, under the circumstances, to -abandon his scheme. But his thoughts were in a condition of dislocation, -he could not gather them and fit them together into consecutive order. -He felt himself impelled, having formed his resolve, to proceed with it, -and to leave to the future the removal of such difficulties as might -spring up, as came in his way. - -He was restless, yet afraid to be stirring. He was impatient for the -time to pass, and counted the ticks of the clock, yet forgot after a few -minutes the number he had reached. - -The seat was hard and bruised him, he leaned back, and his back ached. -He held out his hand, placed it on the table and endeavoured to steady -it. He was aware that it shook, and he used all the power of his will to -arrest its convulsive quiver, but ineffectually. At length, unable -longer to endure inaction, and convinced that sufficient time had -elapsed for his brother-in-law to have got away, he cautiously unlocked -the door and looked out. - -In the dark he could see no one; he listened and could hear no sound. - -Then he stepped back to the kitchen table and removed the candle-end -from the stick, and put it into his pocket. No sooner had he reached the -door again, however, than it occurred to him that a candlestick without -a tallow candle in it, if left on the table, would attract attention and -comment. He therefore returned for it, and placed it on the mantelshelf -above the hearth. In doing this he knocked over a canister that fell at -his feet. He groped and found the canister; the cover had come off, and -some of the contents were spilled. This was gunpowder. Greatly -disconcerted, Pasco felt for a brush and swept all the grains he could -into the hollow of his hand, and shook them into his trousers-pocket, -then he swept the brush vigorously about, so as to disperse over the -floor any particles that had escaped him in the dark. After which he -proceeded carefully to replace the canister. He now again made his way -to the door, passed without, locked the door behind him, and placed the -key in a hollow above the lintel, known to Zerah and himself. - -Then he stealthily crossed the yard to his great warehouse, but at every -second step turned his ears about, listening for a sound which might -alarm him. - -He did not breathe freely till he was within his store. He had not -locked it—indeed, of late he had been wont to leave it unfastened, -labouring under the hope that the hint thrown out to Roger Redmore might -be taken by the fellow, thus relieving himself of his self-imposed task. - -Without, there was a little light from the grey sky. Within was none. -What amount might have found its way in through the window was excluded -by the sacking that Pasco had nailed over the opening. - -He now proceeded to light his candle end. When the wick was kindled, he -looked about him timidly, then with more confidence; lastly with a -sensation of great regret and even pity for the fabric in which he had -so long stored his supplies that he retailed to the neighbourhood. - -But no thought of retreat came over his mind now, he was impelled -forward irresistibly. The doubt was past that had tortured him, after -his interview with Jason Quarm. - -He stuck the candle-end upon the ground, and went about among the coals, -examining the places where he had put the shavings, adding here and -there some bits of stick, or rearranging the coals, and then strewing -over them the contents of his out-turned pocket. Then he sat down and -panted. He must rest a moment and wipe his brow before the irrevocable -act was accomplished. - -Presently, slowly, painfully, he rose from the block of coal on which he -had seated himself. The sack lay hard by into which he had stuffed the -shavings. It was now empty. - -He took up the candle-end and went towards the nearest mass of shavings, -stooped—the grease ran over his fingers. The wick had become long and -the flame burnt dull. He thought to snuff it with his fingers, but they -shook too much to be trusted. He might extinguish the flame, and he -shuddered at the thought of being left there—in his old storehouse—in -the dark. He again set down the candle, and with a bit of stick beat the -red wick, and struck off sparks from it, till he had somewhat reduced -the length of the snuff. - -He was about to take up the candle to apply it to the shavings, when he -heard a sound—a strange grating, rattling sound behind him. - -He looked round, but could see nothing, his great body was between the -light and the rear of the shed, whence the sound proceeded. He was too -much alarmed to perceive the cause of the obscurity. Then he heard a -voice— - -“Pasco, I never thought you a scoundrel till now—but now I know it.” - -Pepperill recognised the voice at once—it was that of Jason Quarm. - -Immediately he realised the situation. Expelled from Coombe Cellars, -debarred from sheltering in his own house, Quarm had entered the -store-shed, and had climbed the ladder into the loft to lie among the -wool, and there sleep. - -A sudden wild, fierce thought shot through Pasco’s brain like the flash -of summer lightning. He sprang to his feet. The terror that had -momentarily unnerved him passed away. Leaving the candle burning on the -ground, without a word, he strode to the ladder, which Quarm was -descending laboriously, owing to his lameness. - -With clenched teeth and contracted brow, and with every muscle knotted -like cord, Pepperill threw himself on the ladder, just as Jason got his -head below the opening of the loft, and shook it. - -“For Heaven’s sake! what are you about?” screamed Jason. - -“I’ll rid myself of a danger,” answered Pasco between his teeth and -lips, indistinctly, and he twisted the ladder, and kicked at its feet to -throw it down. - -“Pasco, let go! Pasco, will you kill me?” shrieked the crippled man, -catching ineffectually at the floor through which he had crawled, then -clutching the side of the ladder. - -Pepperill uttered an oath; he ran under the ladder, set his back against -it and kicked with his heels. - -“Pasco! I’ll not tell—I swear!” - -“I won’t give you the chance,” gasped Pepperill. The ladder was reeling, -sliding, the feet were slipping on the slate floor. A piercing scream, -and down came ladder and man upon Pasco, throwing him on his knees, but -precipitating the unfortunate cripple with a crash on the pavement. - -Pepperill, though shaken and bruised, was not seriously hurt. He -gathered himself up, stretched his limbs, felt his arms, and with -lowering brow stepped towards his prostrate brother-in-law, who lay on -his back, his arms extended, the hands convulsively contracted. His chin -was up, and the dim glow of the candle cast its light below the chin, -and had no rays for the upper portion of the face. - -Pepperill felt in his pocket for the lucifer matches, and, stooping over -Quarm, lit one, and passed the flame over his countenance. Jason was -apparently insensible. Blood was flowing from his mouth at the corners. -The flame of the match was reflected in the white of the upturned eyes. - -Pasco held the match till it burnt his fingers, then he let it fall, and -remained considering for a moment. Should he let his brother-in-law lie -where he was? Could he be sure that he would not awake from a momentary -daze caused by the blow on his head as he fell on the stone floor? - -Pasco picked up a huge lump of coal and stood over Jason, ready to dash -it down on his head, and make sure of his not awaking. But though his -heart was hard, and he was launched on a course of crime, yet conscience -makes strange distinctions in crime, and shrinks from doing boldly the -evil at which it aims covertly. - -Pasco laid aside the block of coal. He would not dash out his -brother-in-law’s brains, but he would by other means make sure that he -should not rouse to give him future trouble. - -He took the sack, in which had been the shavings, and proceeded to -thrust into it the legs of Quarm, who offered no more resistance than -would a dead man, and gave no sign of consciousness. With much labour, -Pasco drew the sack up, enclosing the body; he pulled down the arms and -forced them into the sack also. But he was unable to envelop Jason -completely. The sack was not of sufficient length for the purpose. It -reached to his breast and elbows only. - -There was a rope hanging in the store to a crook in the wall. Pepperill -disengaged this, and with the cord bound Jason’s feet, then tightly -strapped him about the arms so as to make it impossible for him to free -himself, should he return to consciousness. - -The exertion used by Pasco had steadied his nerves. He no longer -trembled. His hand had ceased to shake, and his heart no longer -contracted with fear. - -Greatly heated by his labour, he stood up and wiped his brow with his -sleeve. Then he was aware of a cool current of air wafting across him, -and he saw that in this same current the candle-flame consumed its wick -and swaled away profusely. He turned in the direction of the draught, -and found that the door into the shed was partly open. He had not locked -it when he entered, but had closed it. The night wind had swung it ajar, -and then by its own weight it had opened farther. Pepperill shut it -again, and placed a lump of coal against the foot to prevent a -recurrence of the same thing. - -As he returned to where Jason lay, he heard a slight noise overhead, and -saw a white and black pigeon perched on a swinging pole. - -The bird was young. It had been given to Pasco the week before, as he -had expressed a wish to have pigeons. He had shut the bird up in his -shed to accustom it to regard the shed as its home, and to remain there. -He had fed the bird himself with crumbs, and had entertained an -affection for it. - -Now a qualm came over his heart. He could not bear to think of this -innocent bird falling a victim. He had compunction for the pigeon, none -for the unconscious Jason. Therefore, rolling a barrel under the perch, -he climbed upon it, captured the sleep-stupid bird and carried it -between his hands to the door, pushed aside the lump of coal, and threw -the pigeon into the open air without. - -That act of mercy accomplished, he shut the door and went back to where -the candle was. This he now detached from the floor and the mass of -melted tallow around it, and applied the flame to one, then to another, -of the little parcels of combustibles in various places. Flames danced -about, and for a minute Pasco looked on with satisfaction, assuring -himself that the shavings had ignited the sticks, and the sticks had -kindled the coals. When well satisfied that all was as he desired, he -knelt down, and by sheer force rolled the heavy, lifeless body of Jason -Quarm from the floor, up the slope of the coals, and lodged it among -large blocks on the top. - -Then Pepperill turned, extinguished his candle, went out through the -door, locked it, and started at a run across the fields in the direction -whence he had come an hour before. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIV - AND YET ANOTHER - -Pasco ran on, easily surmounting the hedges which he had clambered over -with difficulty on his way to Coombe Cellars. He reached the track by -the water’s edge, and ran along that without once looking behind him, -and only paused when he arrived at the point at which he must strike -inland, to his left, leaving the river margin to ascend the sloping -shaws in the direction of the shed where tarried Kitty with cob and -cart. Here he halted, and a chill ran through his arteries, making him -shiver and his teeth chatter. He was hot with running, yet withal in an -icy tremor, and with a feeling of swimming in his head and sickness at -his heart. - -The thought had risen up in him, an almost tangible thought, like a -great beast coiled in his heart, stretching itself, getting on its feet, -and turning. The thought was this—that it was not too late to save his -brother-in-law. He might return, unlock the store, rush in, and drag the -unconscious man down from the heap of coals, through the smoke and -flame. The fire had not yet reached him; it was tonguing up the heap, -sending the tips of its flames tastingly towards him; the fire was hot -beneath, but the crust still upheld the man in the sack; would it be so -much longer? As the coals were consumed beneath, there would be formed a -great core of red fire, and if Jason moved, the crust would give way, -and then, shrieking, unable to assist himself, he would drop into that -glowing mass, where the cords would be burnt to free him, but only when -it would be too late for him to escape. - -Had Jason already woke from his trance, and was he cuddled up in his -sack, watching the approaching flames, crying for help, and getting -none? Was he tearing at his bands with his teeth, writhing—trying to -precipitate himself down the black mound of combustible material, in the -hopes of being able to roll along the floor to the door? And if he -succeeded so far—what more could he do? Nothing but watch the fire grow, -break out in gushes of scarlet and orange, pour forth volumes of -stifling smoke, and then lie with his mouth below the door, gasping for -the air that rushed in beneath. - -Shuddering, Pasco Pepperill stood with eyes open, looking into the -night, seeing all this as really as though the vision were unrolled -before his naked eyes. He dared not look behind him, his neck was stiff, -and he could not turn it—he could not even turn his eyes in the -direction of the Cellars. - -Should he retrace his course and free Jason? Could he not rely on Jason -to remain silent after this terrible experience? But what if he arrived -too late? What if the fire had already broken out, and had laid hold of -its prey? Why should he give himself the lasting horror of seeing what -he must then see? And of what avail would it be to the burning man? - -It was too late. Pasco had taken his line, had cast his lot, and there -was no return. He resumed his run up the hill, through the meadows; the -wind blowing off the river assisted him. When he reached the field in -which was the shed, he knew that Coombe Cellars was no longer visible. -There was a shoulder of hill between. - -But though the Cellars might not be visible, the sky overhead might show -redness, might throb with light; and lest he should see this, he fixed -his eyes resolutely in an opposite direction. - -In crossing the field he no longer ran. He had lost his breath ascending -the hill; he walked slowly, panting, and ever and anon stopped to wipe -his brow, and remove his hat, that the cool wind might play about his -wet hair. - -The qualm of conscience relative to Jason was overpassed, and now -Pepperill congratulated himself on his success. Now—all was as could be -desired, there was nothing to inculpate him, no one to turn evidence -against him, except— - -There was one person, and one only, who was a danger to Pasco; one -person, and one only, who knew that he had been to Coombe Cellars after -having ostensibly left it; one, and one only, that he had been on the -spot precisely at the time when, presumably, the fire broke out. - -If Kate Quarm were to speak, then what he had done was done in vain; the -Company would refuse to pay the sum for which his stock was insured, and -he might be suspected of having caused the death of his brother-in-law. -Would not Kate speak—when she knew that her father was dead? Might she -not make dangerous admissions should there be an inquest? The charred -corpse or burnt bones would be discovered when the ashes of the store -were removed, and Jason’s cart and ass being in Coombe, would lead to -the conclusion that he, Jason Quarm, had caused the conflagration and -had perished in it. It would be supposed that he had gone to the -Cellars, and, finding it locked and no one within, had taken shelter for -the night in the warehouse, where he had lit his pipe, gone to sleep, -and inadvertently had set fire to the coals and wool. - -But then—what might Kate be brought to say if questioned by the coroner? - -Pepperill entered the shed and called the girl. He called twice before -he received an answer. Then he struck a light, and as the match flared -he saw before him the drowsy face of Kate. - -“Oh, uncle! What a long time you have been away! I fell asleep.” - -“Long time? I have not been a quarter of an hour. I ran to the Cellars -and ran back the whole way.” - -“It has been more than a quarter of an hour, Uncle Pasco. I waited, -watching for ever such a time, and then I went to sleep.” - -“You are mistaken. Because you shut your eyes you think the time was -long.” - -“What is that, uncle, you are burning?” - -“A lucifer match.” - -“How did you get it alight?” - -“By striking it on the box.” - -"How could that light it? Is there a bit of tiny flint on the match and -steel on the box? - -“No, there is not. I don’t know how the fire comes—but it comes -somehow.” - -“That must be a very curious contrivance, uncle.” - -“Whether curious or not is no concern of yours.” - -He struck another match and held it aloft. The girl stood on one side of -the cart, he on the other. The lucifer flame twinkled in her eyes. Her -hair was ruffled with sleep. - -As Pasco looked at her by the dying flame, he was considering what to -do. He had no doubt that he was insecure so long as she lived. -Desperate, hardened, projected along an evil course, could he withhold -his hand now and not make himself secure? Would it not be weakness as -well as folly to allow this testimony to remain who could at any moment -reveal his guilt? But if he were to strike her down with a stake or -stone, what could he do with the body? - -“Take care, uncle,” said Kate. “There is dry furze here. If the spark -falls, there may be a blaze.” - -He extinguished the match with his fingers. He did not desire that his -course should be marked by fires. - -“Is there much furze here, Kitty?” he asked in a smothered voice. - -“Oh no! only just under foot.” - -“No great heap in a corner?” - -“None, uncle.” - -“Not enough to cover you over if you were asleep.” - -Kate laughed and answered, “I would never lie on furze if I could help -it, and be covered with it—I should be tormented with prickles. I sat -down and laid my head against the hedge that makes the back of the -linhay.” He was prodding the bedding of furze with his whip. “It is all -fresh,” said Kate. “I reckon Miller Ash is going to turn his cow in -here, when he has taken away her calf.” - -“Ah! she has calved?” - -“Yes; last week.” - -“True—the cow will be here to-morrow, or in a couple of days.” To -himself he muttered, “It won’t do”—then aloud, “Jump into the cart, -Kitty. We must push on. You drive out, I will open the gate.” - -In another minute Pasco Pepperill was in his seat with Kitty at his -side, driving in the direction away from the Cellars. - -He feared every moment to hear her say, “Uncle, what is that light -shining over Coombe? Can there be a fire?” - -Instead of that she said, “Uncle, did you see nothing of my father? I am -quite sure that was he who drove by after we had got into Mr. Ash’s -field. I heard his voice. I know his way with the donkey. I am quite -certain that was father.” - -“Your father?—no. Never set eyes on him. You were mistaken.” - -“I am sure it was my father. I know the rattle of the cart wheel.” - -“I say it was not; and take care how you say a word about ever having -gone into the field, and about my having returned to the Cellars.” - -“Why, uncle?” - -“Because Ash will summons me for trespass, and because my horse ate the -grass. That’s one reason; but there’s a better one—I don’t choose that -you should speak.” - -Kate was accustomed to his rough manner, and she did not answer. - -Then Pasco’s mind began to work on the theme that had occupied it -before. He had been seen driving out of Coombe with Kate at his side. -But what of that? Would it not be a sufficient answer to give, were she -not to be seen again, that he had met Jason Quarm on the road, and that -the man had taken his daughter with him, and that thereupon both had -perished in the flames? - -The more he considered the matter, the more essential to his security -did it seem to him that Kate should be got rid of. The only -embarrassment he felt was as to the means to be employed, and the place -where it was to be done. Not till she was removed could the weight now -oppressing his mind be cast off. - -“Uncle,” said Kate after a long course in silence, “I cannot think how -that lucifer acts, if there be no flint and no steel. How else can the -match be made to light?” - -“How is no matter to me—kindle it does, somehow.” Then, abruptly, “Have -you got your cotton dress on? The wind is from the east and chilly.” - -“Oh no, uncle, I have on my thick woollen dress, and am very warm—thank -you kindly for considering me.” - -“The thick wool, is it?” - -“Yes, uncle—very sure, very thick and warm.” - -Then that would not do. It had occurred to him to drop a lighted match -on her frock, set her in flames, and throw her out into the road at a -lonely spot. No, that would not do. He reversed his whip and beat the -cob with the handle. - -“Diamond is not going badly, uncle,” said Kate in mild remonstrance. - -He was in reality trying the weight of the whip handle and the stiffness -of the stem. That would not effect his purpose; there was no metal to -signify at the butt-end. The horse did not greatly mind a blow dealt it -with a full swing of its master’s arm. - -Pasco bore no malice against his niece. In his cold fashion he liked -her. She was useful in the house, and saved him the expense of a maid. -It was doubtful whether any servant would have been as submissive to -Zerah as was Kitty, whether any would have continued so long in service -to her. He had forgotten his momentary resentment at Kate refusing the -offer of John Pooke. He wished the girl ill for no other reason than his -own safety. Had he been able to send her away, out of the country, that -would have satisfied him. But as there was no opportunity for getting -her out of the way without hurt to himself, she must be removed by such -means as were possible to him. - -How to do this, and where to do it, remained undecided. Not where he -then was could it be attempted, for he was now approaching Newton. The -lights were twinkling through the trees, cottages were passed with -illumined windows, and sometimes with persons standing in the doors. - -On entering Newton, Pepperill turned his horse’s head to make a detour, -so as to avoid passing the inn that had been rebuilt after having been -burnt down. For some reason undefined in his own heart, he shrank from -driving before that house. - -In a few minutes the cob was trotting along the Ashburton road. Pasco -looked behind him. He heard the sound of the hoofs of another horse, and -the rattle of other wheels. Some traveller was on the road that night. - -“Uncle,” said Kate, “I think the moon is going to rise.” - -“I suppose so.” - -“Will it not be grand on the moor, with the moon shining over it, and -the Dart flowing like silver below?” - -“Silver? I wish it were silver, and I’d pocket it,” growled Pasco. “Dang -it! what is that which is following?” - -He slackened his pace, but the conveyance did not pass him; it -approached, and the driver was content to keep in the rear. - -“Will you go on?” shouted Pasco, turning his head. - -“No, we’ll remain as we are,” answered the driver. - -“How far are you going?” - -“To Ashburton.” - -Well, thought Pasco, the loneliest, wildest part of the road is that -between Ashburton and Brimpts. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXV - UNSUCCESSFUL - -On leaving Ashburton, Pasco Pepperill was relieved of the attendance -which had been so irksome to him. He would not, probably, have carried -out his purpose between Newton and Ashburton, as that was a high road, -much frequented, running through cultivated lands, and with farms and -cottages along it at no great intervals. Nevertheless, the knowledge -irritated him that someone was following him, that should an opportunity -otherwise propitious arise, he could not seize it because of the man in -the trap at his heels. Never able clearly to bring all contingencies -together before his inward eye, in the conduct of his business, he was -now more dull and confused in mind than usual. - -He took it into his head that there was something menacing in the -pursuit; that the man in his rear was aware of what he had done at the -Cellars, that he foresaw his present purpose, and was intentionally -following him, keeping him in sight, either that he might deliver him up -to justice for what he had done, or to prevent the execution of his -present design. - -It was consequently with immense relief that he heard the man’s cheery -“Good-night,” and his wheels turn off by a by-street, as he trotted -through Ashburton and along the road leading to Dart-meet and Brimpts. - -At a distance of rather over a mile from Ashburton the Dart is crossed, -then the road climbs a steep hill, cutting off the great sweep made by -the river as it flows through Holne Chase, and it crosses the river -again as it bursts from the moor at Newbridge. Nearly the whole of this -way is through woods, and does not pass a single human habitation. - -Directly New Bridge is crossed, the character of the surroundings -changes. In place of rock and woods of pine and oak and beech, succeed -the solitude and desolation of moorland, heather, and furze brake, with -at one spot only a cluster of small cottages about a little inn, with a -clump of sycamores behind them and a few acres of mountain pasture -before them, laboriously cleared of granite boulders. Immediately after -passing this hamlet, the road traverses moorland entirely uninhabited. -Tors rise to the height of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet; their -sides are strewn with rocky ruin. Dense masses of furze cover the -moorland sweeps, and between the clefts of the rocks whortleberry grows -rankly into veritable bushes, hung in June with purple berries. Below, -at the depth of a thousand feet, foams and roars the Dart amidst -boulders and bushes of mountain-ash and thorn. - -It was obvious to the clouded mind of Pepperill that if he was to get -rid of Kitty, it must be done either in the Holne Wood or on the moor. -One place was as good as the other for disposal of the child’s body; the -dense forest growth or the equally dense whortle and furze would -effectually conceal it. - -When the first Dart bridge was crossed, and the steep ascent begun, -Pepperill said roughly to his niece— - -“You ain’t going to sit here and make the horse drag you all the way up -this tremendous hill, be you?” - -“No, uncle dear; I was only waiting for you to draw up that I might jump -out. Do you see the moon coming up behind the trees, shining through -them, like a good thought in the midst of dark imaginings?” - -“Dang the moon and your imaginings! Get out.” - -“I was thinking of something my book says,” apologised Kate, descending -to the road. - -“Your book? What do you mean?” - -“I mean that which the schoolmaster gave me, which I have read and read, -and in which I always find something new, and always am sure of -something true.” - -“What does the book say?” - -“I learned it by heart— - - ‘Within the soul a faculty abides, - That with interpositions’— - -That means things which come between. He explained that to me. I cannot -always make out what is said till it is explained; but when it is, then -the full truth and loveliness rises and shines into me like the moon -when it has got over the hills and the woods.” - -“Go on.” - - “‘A faculty abides, - That with interpositions, which would hide - And darken, so can deal that they become - Contingencies of pomp, and serve to exalt - Her native brightness.’ - -I did not understand what contingencies meant, but he told me, and now -all is quite plain as it is quite true. And it goes on— - - ‘As the ample moon - Rising behind a thick and lofty grove, - Burns like an unconsuming fire, light - In the green trees’”— - -“Cease this foolery,” said Pasco impatiently. He was fumbling in his -pocket for his clasp-knife, and was opening it. - -“Do look, uncle dear!” exclaimed Kate, turning to observe the moon as it -mounted over the rich Buckland Woods on the farther bank of the Dart. - -“Halt,” shouted Pasco to the horse. - -They had reached an eminence. The girl stood wrapped in delight, with -the silver shield of the moon before her, casting its glorious light -over her face and folded hands. Pasco had his knife out. She heard the -click, as the spring nipped the blade firmly, but did not turn to see -what occasioned the sound. - -“The moon has come up out of the trees just as he said—I mean the -poet—like a power in the heart and soul that has been entangled in all -kinds of dark and twisted matters of every day. Oh, uncle, what is -that?” - -Pasco drew back. A white dog—a mongrel, short-haired lurcher—crossed the -road. Simultaneously a whistle was heard, and this was answered by -another in the distance. - -“There are poachers about,” said Pepperill. He shut his knife, pocketed -it, and called Kate to get into the trap. He was not going to halt to -see a darned moon rise, when all kinds of vagabonds were about, and -there was no safety for honest men. - -Pasco drove rapidly down the hillside into the Dart Valley at New -Bridge. The road was mostly in shadow, but the bare moor on the farther -side was white in the moonlight, as though it had been snowed over. The -horse was tired, and tripped. Pasco had to be on his guard lest the -beast should fall. In the shadow of the trees it could not see the -stones that strewed the way. At the bottom of the valley flowed the -Dart; the rush of the water breaking over the rocks was audible. - -“If a harm came to you or me in the river, I reckon the body would be -washed right away to Sharpitor,” said Pepperill. - -“Uncle!” said Kate, with a laugh, “that would be going up hill.” - -“I’m getting mazed,” growled he; “so it is. Well, folk would say one or -other of us had come by an accident among the rocks o’ Sharpitor, and -tumbled into the river and been carried down by the stream. That’s -likely—eh?” - -“I suppose so, uncle. But if anything were to happen to one, that the -other would know, and do all he could to help.” - -“Of course.” - -Pepperill was looking at the brawling torrent. - -“And if anything were to chance to one here, the body would be carried -right down the Chase for miles till it came to the other bridge.” - -“I daresay, uncle. But don’t talk like that. Let us look at the -moonlight. There is a man yonder—by the side of the river.” - -“A man—where?” - -“By that large stone.” - -“He is catching salmon. Not a fish has a chance up here on the moor. -What a parcel of rascals there be!” - -Pepperill drove across the bridge. He had intended—he hardly dared -articulately to express to himself his intention. Again he was -frustrated—just at a suitable point—by this fellow catching salmon by -night. - -Beyond the bridge the road rose rapidly. Both uncle and niece were -forced to descend from the cart, and relieve the horse. Some six hundred -feet had to be mounted without any zigzags in the road. Kate walked -along cheerily. Pasco lagged behind. The horse, with nose down, -laboriously stepped up the steep incline. Pasco took out his knife and -cut a branch of thorn from the hedge, and in doing so tore his fingers. -He put the thorn behind the seat. - -When the summit of the hill was almost reached, he said to Kate, “I -shall turn to the left, and leave the road.” - -“What—out on the moor?” - -“Yes; I think we can cut off a great curve and avoid the cottages. You -walk by the horse’s head; I will mount and hold the reins. There are -large stones in the way.” - -This was the case. Kate thought that her uncle was rash in taking the -track across the moor at night, a way he could not know, merely to save -a mile that the road made in detour. But she said nothing. She was -pleased to go by a way that commanded the gorge of the Dart, and had no -fear, as the moon shone brilliantly, and every bush and stone was -visible as in the day. The mica and spar in the granite made each rock -sparkle as though encrusted with diamonds. A heavy dew had fallen, -cobwebs hanging on the furze were as silvery fairy tissue. - -Rabbits were out sporting, feeding, darting away with a gleam of snowy -tail when alarmed. Owls were flitting and hooting in the ravine. The -wind from the east hummed an Æolian strain in the moor grass and -heather. - -The moon rose high above all obstruction to its placid light, and Kate -breathed slowly, and in the chill air her breath came away as a fine -shining vapour. Every now and then the cob struck out a red fire-spark -from the stones against which his shoe struck. Kate held the reins at -the bit, and paced at his head, her heart swelling with happiness, as -she drank in the loveliness of the night, till she was so full of the -beauty that her eyes began to fill. Pasco Pepperill was silent. He was -knotting the thorn-branch to his whip. His eye was on her. - -Presently the track on the turf ran at the edge of a steep slope. Rocks -from a tor overhead had fallen and strewn the incline, and formed -fantastic objects in the moonlight, casting shadows even more fantastic. -A sheep that had been sleeping under one of the rocks started up and -bounded away. The spring of the sheep close beside him alarmed the -horse, and he started back, plunged, and dragged Kate off her feet. - -Then, with a cry of rage, Pasco rose in the cart, whirled his whip -about, and lashed the cob with the full force of his arm, at the same -time that he raised the reins in his left and beat with them as well, -and jerked at the brute’s mouth. - -Kate was down. She had slipped; she was before the plunging beast. Pasco -saw it. He swore, lashed this side, that, then at the flanks, at the -head, at the belly of the tortured brute, that leaped and staggered, -kicked and reeled under the strokes of the thorns which tore his skin. -He snorted, reared, put down his head; the steam came off him in a -cloud. - -There was one thing the beast would not do—rush forward and trample on -the fallen girl. Pasco saw it, and cursed the horse. He flung himself -from the trap, he rushed at the bridle; his foot was on Kate’s gown. - -“Uncle! uncle!” she cried. - -With one hand he dragged the horse forward, with the other he swung the -thorn-bush. A step, and the hoofs and wheels of the horse and cart would -be over the girl. Then a thrust would suffice to send her down the side -of the slope into the torrent below. - -But the brute leaped into the air before the swinging thorn-bush, -swerved up hill, dragging Pasco at his head, and flung him over a rock. -His hand became entangled; he could not for a moment disengage it; he -was dragged forward; the head-gear gave way, and Pasco fell among the -bushes, crying out with rage and pain. Next moment Kate stood before -him. - -“What is the matter, uncle dear? Are you hurt? I am safe.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVI - ALL IN VAIN - -Pasco Pepperill staggered to his feet, and at once felt pain in one -ankle. - -“Are you hurt, dear uncle?” again inquired Kate. - -“Hurt? I’ve strained and bruised myself all over. My right arm—my leg—I -can hobble only. Where’s the trap?” - -“If you have no bones broken, uncle, sit down, and I will see after -Diamond.” - -The horse was browsing unconcernedly at no great distance. Too tired to -run far, too hungry to heed his wounds, he had at once applied himself -to the consumption of the sweet moorland grass. Happily the cart was -uninjured. It had not been upset, and no more of the harness was broken -than a strap at the head. The cob allowed Kate to approach and take him -by the forelock without remonstrance. He knew Kate, who had been -accustomed to fondle him, and who, in the absence of friends of her own -order, had made one of the brute beast. She managed to fasten up the -broken strap and replaced the headstall; then she drew the horse along -to where her uncle sat rubbing his leg and arm. - -“It’s the right arm, drat it!” said Pasco; “won’t I only give that -cursed beast a leathering when I can use my arm again!” - -“Surely, uncle, poor Diamond was going on all right till you beat him. -He is so patient that he does not deserve a beating. There is a thorn -branch about which the whip has become entangled. I suppose that must -have hurt him, poor fellow. He was good, too; when my foot slipped and I -fell, he would not trample on me. You were beating him, uncle, and did -not see where I was. Just think how good he was!—notwithstanding the -thorns, yet he would not tread on me.” - -“Oh yes, that is all you think about, you selfish minx, your own self. -Because you are uninjured, you don’t care for me who am bruised all -over.” - -It was of no use pursuing the matter. Kate knew her uncle’s unreasonable -moods, so she changed the subject and asked, “What is to be done now? -shall we go on along the moor or turn back?” - -“It is of no use going along the moor now. We may come to some other -darned accident with this vile brute. Lead him back along our tracks to -the road. I don’t want to be thrown out again. This is the second time -he has treated me in this manner. If I had a gun, I’d shoot him.” - -“Uncle, that other occasion was no fault of his. You were driving the -schoolmaster, and Walter Bramber told me about it—you sent the wheel -against a stone.” - -“Of course the blame is mine, and this time also. The horse is -innocent.” - -“If you had not beaten poor Diamond”— - -“Go on with the cart, and hold your tongue.” - -But Pasco walked with pain. He had not taken many steps before he asked -to be helped up into the trap. - -Kate led the horse and spoke caressingly to the brute, that was greatly -fagged with the long journey without a break he had taken that evening. -Usually he would be given an hour’s rest and a feed at Ashburton, before -the worst and most arduous portion of the journey was taken; but on this -occasion he had been urged on at his fastest pace and never allowed to -slacken it, and not given any rest, not even a mouthful of water, at -Ashburton. No wonder that he tripped. - -Pasco looked sullenly before him at the girl walking in the moonlight, -speaking to the horse. The chance of doing her an injury was past. He -could with difficulty move his arm. If he drew his knife on her and -attacked her there on the moor, she could run from him, and he would be -unable to pursue her, owing to his sprained ankle. - -There was no help for it, he must make the best of the circumstances, -threaten her if she showed an inclination to speak and compromise him. -Perhaps, taken all in all, it was as well that his purpose had been -frustrated. There was no telling; he might have got into difficulties -had he killed her. In escaping from one danger, he might have -precipitated himself into another. - -He saw now what he had not seen before. It had been his intention to -attribute the fire to Jason Quarm. Had Kitty disappeared according to -his purpose, then he would have said she had returned to Coombe with her -father. It was known that she had left the place in his own company in -the trap. She had been seen by the publican and by the miller. But it -was possible, it was probable, that Jason had been seen as he drove -through Coombe to the Cellars. If so, then it would have been observed -that he was alone; accordingly his—Pasco’s—story of her return with her -father would have been refuted. Then, what explanation could he have -given of her disappearance? - -Pepperill drew a long breath. He had been preserved from making a fatal -mistake. He was glad now that his attempt on Kate had been frustrated. - -Then, again, a new idea entered his brain. Could he not have attributed -her death to accident on the moor, had the horse trampled on her? He -might have done so, but then, would not folks have thought there was -something more than coincidence in the death, the same night, of father -and daughter? - -“I believe I’d ha’ been a stoopid if I’d ha’ done it,” said Pasco, and -resigned himself to circumstances. “Be us in the road? I reckon us be.” - -“Yes, uncle; here is where we turned off from the highway. Which turn -shall I take—on to Brimpts or back to Ashburton?” - -“On ahead, Brimpts way. There’s a little public-house at Pound Gate, and -I be that dry, and the cob, I reckon, be that lazy—we’d best turn in -there and rest the night. The shaking of the cart hurts me, moreover.” - -Kate got up into the vehicle and drove. Her uncle gladly resigned the -reins to her. He could have held them, indeed, but not have used the -whip, and Diamond would not go with him unless he used the whip. - -Before long the little tavern was reached—a low building of moorstones, -whitewashed, with a thatched roof, and a sign over the door. - -To the surprise of Pepperill, he saw a chaise without horses outside. - -At the inn he drew up. The landlord came to the door and helped him to -descend. - -“What! hurt yourself, Mr. Pepperill?” - -“Yes; had a spill.” - -“On your way to Brimpts, I suppose? I hear you are selling the timber.” - -“Yes, to Government. Have you visitors?” - -“Ay! Some one come after you.” - -“After me?” - -Notwithstanding his bad ankle, Pasco started back. Had his face not been -in shadow, the landlord might have observed how pale he had become. - -“What! come from Coombe?” he asked in a faltering voice. - -“Hardly that, master,” answered the landlord. “Not likely _that_ when -you be come from there. No, o’ course, came t’other road. He asked about -you at Brimpts, and then drove on. He’s purposing to sleep the night -here, and was intending to push on to Coombe to-morrow. He’s ordered -some supper, and my old woman ha’ done him a couple of rashers and some -eggs. Have you a mind to join him?” - -“But who is he? What does he want?” Pasco was still uneasy. - -“A sort of a lawyer chap.” - -“A lawyer?” Pepperill hobbled to his trap. “I’ll push on, thank ye, I’ll -not stay.” - -“Nay, you’d better. I hold wi’ you, master, that it is best in general -to give clear room to lawyers. But this time I don’t think but you’d -safest come in. He’ll do you no hurt, and maybe he brings you good, Mr. -Pepperill.” - -“I’ll go on,” said Pasco decidedly. “I hate all lawyers as I do ravens.” - -“Halloo! What is this?” A gentleman put his head out of the bar parlour -window, which was open. “Who is it that hates lawyers? Not Mr. -Pepperill?” - -Pasco attempted to scramble into his trap. - -“Is that Mr. Pepperill, of Coombe Cellars? You must stay. I have a word -to speak with you.” - -“I won’t stay—not a minute.” - -“I’ll not charge you six-and-eight. Yet it is something to your -advantage. I’m Mr. James Squire, solicitor, Tavistock. I have come about -your affairs. Your old uncle, Sampson Blunt, is dead—died of a -stroke—sudden—and you come in for everything. What say you now? Will you -stay? Will you put up your horse? Will you come in and have some of my -rasher and eggs? I’m drinking stout—what will you take? You won’t drive -any farther to-night, I presume? Sampson has died worth something like -three thousand pounds; and every penny comes to you, except what -Government claims as pickings—probate duty, you understand.” - -“Three thousand pounds?” gasped Pasco. - -“Ay, not a guinea under, and it may be more. His affairs haven’t been -properly looked into yet. I came off post-haste, took a chaise from -Tavistock, didn’t think to meet you. Was coming on to-morrow. An -apoplectic stroke. No children, no one else to inherit but yourself, the -only heir-at-law. Now, then, what do you say? Rum and milk, they tell -me, is the moor tipple, but I go in for stout.” - -With glazed eyes and open mouth stood Pasco Pepperill, his hands fallen -at his side; he seemed as though he had been paralysed. - -“Three thousand five hundred—there’s no saying,” continued Mr. Squire, -through the window. “Look sharp, come in, or the rashers and eggs will -be cold. I asked for a chop. Couldn’t have it. Pleaded for a steak. No -good. No butchers on the moor. So ham and eggs, and ham salt as brine. -Never mind—drink more. Come in.” - -Then the head of the lawyer disappeared behind the blind, and the click -of his knife and fork was audible. - -Pasco tried to raise his right arm, failed, then he clapped his left -hand to his brow. - -“Good heavens!” he almost shouted; “I’ve done it all for naught.” - -“Done what?” asked the innkeeper. - -Pasco recovered himself. - -“Nothing. I am stunned. This has turned my head. Lend me your arm. I -must go in. No—I must return home—get me another horse—I cannot stay. -Quick; I must return—oh, be quick.” - -“Well, that’s coorious!” said the landlord. “I reckon you ought to go in -and listen to what the lawyer has to say, first. As for horses, I don’t -keep ’em, and the lawyer’s post-horses be gone into the stable for the -night.” - -“Lend me your arm,” said Pepperill. “I don’t know right what I’m about. -This has come on me quite unexpected.” - -“I wish three thousand pounds’d come unexpected on me,” replied the -host. - -Pasco entered the room where the lawyer was eating. - -“That’s right,” said the latter. “Take a snack. There’s some for all, I -say, with my rasher, and you may say so with your legacy, and give me a -slice off your dish. Polly—a plate and knife and fork for the -gentleman.” - -Pepperill seated himself. He was as if stupefied. Then he put both -elbows on the table, though the movement of his right arm pained him, -and began to cry. - -“That’s what I like,” said the lawyer. “Feeling, sentiment. It’s what we -all ought to do. Amen. When grieving is done, there’s a couple of eggs -left. But I like that. Heart in the right place. Quite so. What is your -tipple? That’s very nice. Feeling—I love it. I didn’t know, though, that -you had seen your uncle for twenty years, and cared twopence about him. -P’r’aps you didn’t in times gone by; now, of course, it’s different with -three thousand pounds. I respect your emotion; I love it. But cry when -you go to bed. Eat now. There is a place and there is a time for -everything. It does you credit, I shall make a point of mentioning it—no -extra charge.” - - END OF VOL. II. - - MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - A LIST OF NEW BOOKS - AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF - METHUEN AND COMPANY - PUBLISHERS: LONDON - 36 ESSEX STREET - W.C. - - - - - CONTENTS - - PAGE - FORTHCOMING BOOKS, 2 - POETRY, 13 - GENERAL LITERATURE, 15 - THEOLOGY, 17 - LEADERS OF RELIGION, 18 - WORKS BY S. BARING GOULD, 19 - FICTION, 21 - NOVEL SERIES, 24 - BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, 25 - THE PEACOCK LIBRARY, 26 - UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES, 26 - SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY, 28 - CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS, 29 - COMMERCIAL SERIES, 29 - WORKS BY A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A., 30 - SCHOOL EXAMINATION SERIES, 32 - PRIMARY CLASSICS, 32 - - - - - OCTOBER 1894 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - October 1894. - - - MESSRS. METHUEN’S - - ANNOUNCEMENTS - - ---------- - - Poetry - - [_May_ 1895. - =Rudyard Kipling.= BALLADS. By RUDYARD KIPLING. - _Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s_ - - The announcement of a new volume of poetry from Mr. Kipling will - excite wide interest. The exceptional success of ‘Barrack-Room - Ballads,’ with which this volume will be uniform, justifies the hope - that the new book too will obtain a wide popularity. - -=Henley.= ENGLISH LYRICS. Selected and Edited by W. E. HENLEY. _Crown - 8vo. Buckram. 6s._ - - Also 30 copies on hand-made paper _Demy 8vo. £1, 1s._ - Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. _Demy 8vo. £2, 2s._ - - Few announcements will be more welcome to lovers of English verse than - the one that Mr. Henley is bringing together into one book the - finest lyrics in our language. Robust and original the book will - certainly be, and it will be produced with the same care that made - ‘Lyra Heroica’ delightful to the hand and eye. - -=“Q”= THE GOLDEN POMP: A Procession of English Lyrics from Surrey to - Shirley, arranged by A. T. QUILLER COUCH. _Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s._ - - Also 40 copies on hand-made paper. _Demy 8vo. £1, 1s._ - Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. _Demy 8vo. £2, 2s._ - - Mr. Quiller Couch’s taste and sympathy mark him out as a born - anthologist, and out of the wealth of Elizabethan poetry he has made - a book of great attraction. - -=Beeching.= LYRA SACRA: An Anthology of Sacred Verse. Edited by H. C. - BEECHING, M.A. _Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s._ - - Also 25 copies on hand-made paper. _21s._ - - This book will appeal to a wide public. Few languages are richer in - serious verse than the English, and the Editor has had some - difficulty in confining his material within his limits. - -=Yeats.= AN ANTHOLOGY OF IRISH VERSE. Edited by W. B. YEATS. _Crown 8vo. - 3s. 6d._ - - - Illustrated Books - -=Baring Gould.= A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES retold by S. BARING GOULD. With - numerous illustrations and initial letters by ARTHUR J. GASKIN. - _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - Also 75 copies on hand-made paper. _Demy 8vo._ £1, 1_s._ - Also 20 copies on Japanese paper. _Demy 8vo._ £2, 2_s._ - - Few living writers have been more loving students of fairy and folk - lore than Mr. Baring Gould, who in this book returns to the field in - which he won his spurs. This volume consists of the old stories - which have been dear to generations of children, and they are fully - illustrated by Mr. Gaskin, whose exquisite designs for Andersen’s - Tales won him last year an enviable reputation. - -=Baring Gould.= A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES. Edited by S. BARING - GOULD, and illustrated by the Students of the Birmingham Art School. - _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. _4to. 21s._ - - A collection of old nursery songs and rhymes, including a number which - are little known. The book contains some charming illustrations by - the Birmingham students under the superintendence of Mr. Gaskin, and - Mr. Baring Gould has added numerous notes. - -=Beeching.= A BOOK OF CHRISTMAS VERSE. Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A., - and Illustrated by WALTER CRANE. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - Also 75 copies on hand-made paper. _Demy 8vo._ £1, 1_s._ - Also 20 copies on Japanese paper. _Demy 8vo._ £2, 2_s._ - - A collection of the best verse inspired by the birth of Christ from - the Middle Ages to the present day. Mr. Walter Crane has designed - some beautiful illustrations. A distinction of the book is the large - number of poems it contains by modern authors, a few of which are - here printed for the first time.. - -=Jane Barlow.= THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE, translated by JANE - BARLOW, Author of ‘Irish Idylls’ and pictured by F. D. BEDFORD. - _Small 4to. 6s. net._ - - Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. _4to. 21s. net._ - - This is a new version of a famous old fable. Miss Barlow, whose - brilliant volume of ‘Irish Idylls’ has gained her a wide reputation, - has told the story in spirited flowing verse, and Mr. Bedford’s - numerous illustrations and ornaments are as spirited as the verse - they picture. The book will be one of the most beautiful and - original books possible. - - - =Devotional Books= - _With full-page Illustrations._ - -THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By THOMAS À KEMPIS. With an Introduction by - ARCHDEACON FARRAR. Illustrated by C. M. GERE. _Fcap. 8vo. 5s._ - - Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. 15_s._ - -THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By JOHN KEBLE. With an Introduction and Notes by W. - LOCK, M.A., Sub-Warden of Keble College, Author of ‘The Life of John - Keble,’ Illustrated by R. ANNING BELL. _Fcap. 8vo. 5s._ - - Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. 15_s._ - - These two volumes will be charming editions of two famous books, - finely illustrated and printed in black and red. The scholarly - introductions will give them an added value, and they will be - beautiful to the eye, and of convenient size. - - - General Literature - -=Gibbon.= THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By EDWARD GIBBON. A - New Edition, edited with Notes and Appendices and Maps by J. B. - BURY, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. _In seven volumes. - Crown 8vo._ - - The time seems to have arrived for a new edition of Gibbon’s great - work—furnished with such notes and appendices as may bring it up to - the standard of recent historical research. Edited by a scholar who - has made this period his special study, and issued in a convenient - form and at a moderate price, this edition should fill an obvious - void. - -=Flinders Petrie.= A HISTORY OF EGYPT, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE - HYKSOS. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, D.C.L., Professor of Egyptology at - University College. _Fully Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - This volume is the first of an illustrated History of Egypt in six - volumes, intended both for students and for general reading and - reference, and will present a complete record of what is now known, - both of dated monuments and of events, from the prehistoric age down - to modern times. For the earlier periods every trace of the various - kings will be noticed, and all historical questions will be fully - discussed. The volumes will cover the following periods;— - - I. Prehistoric to Hyksos times. By Prof. Flinders Petrie. II. - xviiith to xxth Dynasties. III. xxist to xxxth Dynasties. IV. - The Ptolemaic Rule. V. The Roman Rule. VI. The Muhammedan Rule. - - The volumes will be issued separately. The first will be ready in - the autumn, the Muhammedan volume early next year, and others at - intervals of half a year. - -=Flinders Petrie.= EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, - D.C.L. With 120 Illustrations. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ A book which - deals with a subject which has never yet been seriously treated. - -=Flinders Petrie.= EGYPTIAN TALES. Edited by W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. - Illustrated by TRISTRAM ELLIS. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - A selection of the ancient tales of Egypt, edited from original - sources, and of great importance as illustrating the life and - society of ancient Egypt. - -=Southey.= ENGLISH SEAMEN (Howard, Clifford, Hawkins, Drake, Cavendish). - By ROBERT SOUTHEY. Edited, with an Introduction, by DAVID HANNAY. - _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - This is a reprint of some excellent biographies of Elizabethan seamen, - written by Southey and never republished. They are practically - unknown, and they deserve, and will probably obtain, a wide - popularity. - -=Waldstein.= JOHN RUSKIN: a Study. By CHARLES WALDSTEIN, M.A., Fellow of - King’s College, Cambridge. With a Photogravure Portrait after - Professor HERKOMER. _Post 8vo. 5s._ - - Also 25 copies on Japanese paper. _Demy 8vo._ 21_s._ - - This is a frank and fair appreciation of Mr. Ruskin’s work and - influence—literary and social—by an able critic, who has enough - admiration to make him sympathetic, and enough discernment to make - him impartial. - -=Henley and Whibley.= A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE. Collected by W. E. HENLEY - and CHARLES WHIBLEY. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._ - - Also 40 copies on Dutch paper. 21_s._ _net._ - Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. 42_s._ _net._ - - A companion book to Mr. Henley’s well-known ‘Lyra Heroica.’ It is - believed that no such collection of splendid prose has ever been - brought within the compass of one volume. Each piece, whether - containing a character-sketch or incident, is complete in itself. - The book will be finely printed and bound. - -=Robbins.= THE EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. By A. F. ROBBINS. - _With Portraits. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A full account of the early part of Mr. Gladstone’s extraordinary - career, based on much research, and containing a good deal of new - matter, especially with regard to his school and college days. - -=Baring Gould.= THE DESERTS OF SOUTH CENTRAL FRANCE. By S. BARING GOULD, - With numerous Illustrations by F. D. BEDFORD, S. HUTTON, etc. _2 - vols. Demy 8vo. 32s._ - - This book is the first serious attempt to describe the great barren - tableland that extends to the south of Limousin in the Department of - Aveyron, Lot, etc., a country of dolomite cliffs, and canons, and - subterranean rivers. The region is full of prehistoric and historic - interest, relics of cave-dwellers, of mediæval robbers, and of the - English domination and the Hundred Years’ War. The book is lavishly - illustrated. - -=Baring Gould.= A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG: English Folk Songs with their - traditional melodies. Collected and arranged by S. BARING GOULD and - H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD. _Royal 8vo. 6s._ - - In collecting West of England airs for ‘Songs of the West,’ the - editors came across a number of songs and airs of considerable - merit, which were known throughout England and could not justly be - regarded as belonging to Devon and Cornwall. Some fifty of these are - now given to the world. - -=Oliphant.= THE FRENCH RIVIERA. By Mrs. OLIPHANT and F. R. OLIPHANT. - With Illustrations and Maps. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A volume dealing with the French Riviera from Toulon to Mentone. - Without falling within the guide-book category, the book will supply - some useful practical information, while occupying itself chiefly - with descriptive and historical matter. A special feature will be - the attention directed to those portions of the Riviera, which, - though full of interest and easily accessible from many - well-frequented spots, are generally left unvisited by English - travellers, such as the Maures Mountains and the St. Tropez - district, the country lying between Cannes, Grasse and the Var, and - the magnificent valleys behind Nice. There will be several original - illustrations. - -=George.= BRITISH BATTLES. By H. B. GEORGE, M.A., Fellow of New College, - Oxford. _With numerous Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - -This book, by a well-known authority on military history, will be an - important contribution to the literature of the subject. All the great - battles of English history are fully described, connecting chapters - carefully treat of the changes wrought by new discoveries and - developments, and the healthy spirit of patriotism is nowhere absent - from the pages. - -=Shedlock.= THE PIANOFORTE SONATA: Its Origin and Development. By J. S. - SHEDLOCK. _Crown 8vo. 5s._ - - This is a practical and not unduly technical account of the Sonata - treated historically. It contains several novel features, and an - account of various works little known to the English public. - -=Jenks.= ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. By E. JENKS, M.A., Professor of Law - at University College, Liverpool. _Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d._ - - A short account of Local Government, historical and explanatory, which - will appear very opportunely. - -=Dixon.= A PRIMER OF TENNYSON. By W. M. DIXON, M. A., Professor of - English Literature at Mason College. _Fcap. 8vo. 1s. 6d._ - - This book consists of (1) a succinct but complete biography of Lord - Tennyson; (2) an account of the volumes published by him in - chronological order, dealing with the more important poems - separately; (3) a concise criticism of Tennyson in his various - aspects as lyrist, dramatist, and representative poet of his day; - (4) a bibliography. Such a complete book on such a subject, and at - such a moderate price, should find a host of readers. - -=Oscar Browning.= THE AGE OF THE CONDOTTIERI: A Short History of Italy - from 1409 to 1530. By OSCAR BROWNING, M.A., Fellow of King’s - College, Cambridge. _Crown 8vo. 5s._ - - This book is a continuation of Mr. Browning’s ‘Guelphs and - Ghibellines,’ and the two works form a complete account of Italian - history from 1250 to 1530. - -=Layard.= RELIGION IN BOYHOOD. Notes on the Religious Training of Boys. - With a Preface by J. R. ILLINGWORTH. by E. B. LAYARD, M.A. 18_mo._ - 1_s._ - -=Hutton.= THE VACCINATION QUESTION. A Letter to the Right Hon. H. H. - ASQUITH, M.P. by A. W. HUTTON, M.A. _Crown 8vo. 1s._ - - - Leaders of Religion - _NEW VOLUMES_ - _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - -LANCELOT ANDREWES, Bishop of Winchester. By R. L. OTTLEY, Principal of - Pusey House, Oxford, and Fellow of Magdalen. _With Portrait._ - -St. AUGUSTINE of Canterbury. By E. L. CUTTS, D.D. _With a Portrait._ - -THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. _With a Portrait. Second Edition._ - -JOHN KEBLE. By WALTER LOCK, Sub-Warden of Keble College. _With a - Portrait. Seventh Edition._ - - - English Classics - Edited by W. E. HENLEY. - -Messrs. Methuen propose to publish, under this title, a series of the - masterpieces of the English tongue. - -The ordinary ‘cheap edition’ appears to have served its purpose: the - public has found out the artist-printer, and is now ready for - something better fashioned. This, then, is the moment for the issue of - such a series as, while well within the reach of the average buyer, - shall be at once an ornament to the shelf of him that owns, and a - delight to the eye of him that reads. - -The series, of which Mr. William Ernest Henley is the general editor, - will confine itself to no single period or department of literature. - Poetry, fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, letters, essays—in - all these fields is the material of many goodly volumes. - -The books, which are designed and printed by Messrs. Constable, will be - issued in two editions— - -(1) A small edition, on the finest Japanese vellum, limited in most - cases to 75 copies, demy 8vo, 21_s._ a volume nett; - -(2) The popular edition on laid paper, crown 8vo, buckram, 3_s._ 6_d._ a - volume. - - The first six numbers are:— - -THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY. By LAWRENCE STERNE. With an - Introduction by CHARLES WHIBLEY, and a Portrait. 2 _vols._ - -THE WORKS OF WILLIAM CONGREVE. With an Introduction by G. S. STREET, and - a Portrait. 2 _vols._ - -THE LIVES OF DONNE, WOTTON, HOOKER, HERBERT, and SANDERSON. By IZAAK - WALTON. With an Introduction by VERNON BLACKBURN, and a Portrait. - -THE ADVENTURES OF HADJI BABA OF ISPAHAN. By JAMES MORIER. With an - Introduction by E. S. BROWNE, M.A. - -THE POEMS OF ROBERT BURNS. With an Introduction by W. E. HENLEY, and a - Portrait. 2 _vols._ - -THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS. By SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. With an - Introduction by JAMES HEPBURN MILLAR, and a Portrait. 3 _vols._ - - - Classical Translations - _NEW VOLUMES_ - _Crown 8vo. Finely printed and bound in blue buckram._ - -LUCIAN—Six Dialogues (Nigrinus, Icaro-Menippus, The Cock, The Ship, The - Parasite, The Lover of Falsehood). Translated by S. T. IRWIN, M.A., - Assistant Master at Clifton; late Scholar of Exeter College, Oxford. - 3_s._ 6_d._ - -SOPHOCLES—Electra and Ajax. Translated by E. D. A. MORSHEAD, M.A., late - Scholar of New College, Oxford; Assistant Master at Winchester. - 2_s._ 6_d._ - -TACITUS—Agricola and Germania. Translated by R. B. TOWNSHEND, late - Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. 2_s._ 6_d._ - -CICERO—Select Orations (Pro Milone, Pro Murena, Philippic II., In - Catilinam). Translated by H. E. D. BLAKISTON, M.A., Fellow and Tutor - of Trinity College, Oxford. 5_s._ - - - University Extension Series - _NEW VOLUMES. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d._ - -THE EARTH. An Introduction to Physiography. By EVAN SMALL, M.A. - _Illustrated._ - -INSECT LIFE. By F. W. THEOBALD, M.A. _Illustrated._ - - - Social Questions of To-day - _NEW VOLUME. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d._ - -WOMEN’S WORK. By LADY DILKE, MISS BULLEY, and MISS WHITLEY. - - - Cheaper Editions - -=Baring Gould.= THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS: The Emperors of the Julian - and Claudian Lines. With numerous Illustrations from Busts, Gems, - Cameos, etc. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. _Third - Edition._ _Royal 8vo._ 15_s._ - - ‘A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying - interest. The great feature of the book is the use the author has - made of the existing portraits of the Caesars, and the admirable - critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing with this line of - research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are - supplied on a scale of profuse magnificence.’—_Daily Chronicle._ - -=Clark Russell.= THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. By W. CLARK - RUSSELL, Author of ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor.’ With Illustrations - by F. BRANGWYN. _Second Edition. 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in - the hands of every boy in the country.’—_St. James’s Gazette._ - - - Fiction - -=Baring Gould.= KITTY ALONE. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of ‘Mehalah,’ - ‘Cheap Jack Zita,’ etc. _3 vols. Crown 8vo._ - - A romance of Devon life. - -=Norris.= MATTHEW AUSTIN. By W. E. NORRIS, Author of ‘Mdle. de Mersai,’ - etc. _3 vols. Crown 8vo._ in 4 A story of English social life by the - well-known author of ‘The Rogue.’ - -=Parker.= THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. By GILBERT PARKER, Author of ‘Pierre - and his People,’ etc. _2 vols. Crown 8vo._ - - A historical romance dealing with a stirring period in the history of - Canada. - -=Anthony Hope.= THE GOD IN THE CAR. By ANTHONY HOPE, Author of ‘A Change - of Air,’ etc. 2 VOLS. CROWN 8VO. - - A story of modern society by the clever author of ‘The Prisoner of - Zenda.’ - -=Mrs. Watson.= THIS MAN’S DOMINION. By the Author of ‘A High Little - World.’ _2 vols. Crown 8vo._ - - A story of the conflict between love and religious scruple. - -=Conan Doyle.= ROUND THE RED LAMP. By A. CONAN DOYLE, Author of ‘The - White Company,’ ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,’ etc. _Crown - 8vo. 6s._ - - This volume, by the well-known author of ‘The Refugees,’ contains the - experiences of a general practitioner, round whose ‘Red Lamp’ - cluster many dramas—some sordid, some terrible. The author makes an - attempt to draw a few phases of life from the point of view of the - man who lives and works behind the lamp. - -=Barr.= IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS. By ROBERT BARR, Author of ‘From Whose - Bourne,’ etc. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A story of journalism and Fenians, told with much vigour and humour. - -=Benson.= SUBJECT TO VANITY. By MARGARET BENSON. With numerous - Illustrations. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - A volume of humorous and sympathetic sketches of animal life and home - pets. - -=X. L.= AUT DIABOLUS AUT NIHIL, and Other Stories. By X. L. _Crown 8vo. - 3s. 6d._ - - A collection of stories of much weird power. The title story appeared - some years ago in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine,’ and excited considerable - attention. The ‘Spectator’ spoke of it as ‘distinctly original, and - in the highest degree imaginative. The conception, if - self-generated, is almost as lofty as Milton’s.’ - -=Morrison.= LIZERUNT, and other East End Idylls. By ARTHUR MORRISON. - _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A volume of sketches of East End life, some of which have appeared in - the ‘National Observer,’ and have been much praised for their truth - and strength and pathos. - -=O’Grady.= THE COMING OF CURCULAIN. By STANDISH O’GRADY, Author of ‘Finn - and his Companions,’ etc. Illustrated by MURRAY SMITH. _Crown 8vo. - 3s. 6d._ - - The story of the boyhood of one of the legendary heroes of Ireland. - - - New Editions - -=E. F. Benson.= THE RUBICON. By E. F. BENSON, Author of ‘Dodo.’ _Fourth - Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - Mr. Benson’s second novel has been, in its two volume form, almost as - great a success as his first. The ‘Birmingham Post’ says it is - ‘_well written, stimulating, unconventional, and, in a word, - characteristic_’: the ‘National Observer’ congratulates Mr. Benson - upon ‘_an exceptional achievement_,’ and calls the book ‘_a notable - advance on his previous work_.’ - -=Stanley Weyman.= UNDER THE RED ROBE. By STANLEY WEYMAN, Author of ‘A - Gentleman of France.’ With Twelve Illustrations by R. Caton - Woodville. _Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A cheaper edition of a book which won instant popularity. No - unfavourable review occurred, and most critics spoke in terms of - enthusiastic admiration. The ‘Westminster Gazette’ called it ‘_a - book of which we have read every word for the sheer pleasure of - reading, and which we put down with a pang that we cannot forget it - all and start again_.’ The ‘Daily Chronicle’ said that ‘_every one - who reads books at all must read this thrilling romance, from the - first page of which to the last the breathless reader is haled - along_.’ It also called the book ‘_an inspiration of manliness and - courage_.’ The ‘Globe’ called it ‘_a delightful tale of chivalry and - adventure, vivid and dramatic, with a wholesome modesty and - reverence for the highest_.’ - -=Baring Gould.= THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of ‘Cheap - Jack Zita,’ etc. _Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s._.in 2 - - ‘The scenery is admirable and the dramatic incidents most - striking.’—_Glasgow Herald._ - - ‘Strong, interesting, and clever.’—_Westminster Gazette._ - - ‘You cannot put it down till you have finished it.’—_Punch._ - - ‘Can be heartily recommended to all who care for cleanly, energetic, - and interesting fiction.’—_Sussex Daily News._ - -=Mrs. Oliphant.= THE PRODIGALS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. _Second Edition. Crown - 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - -=Richard Pryce.= WINIFRED MOUNT. By RICHARD PRYCE. _Second Edition. - Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - The ‘Sussex Daily News’ called this book ‘_a delightful story_’, and - said that the writing was ‘_uniformly bright and graceful_.’ The - ‘Daily Telegraph’ said that the author was a ‘_deft and elegant - story-teller_,’ and that the book was ‘_an extremely clever story, - utterly untainted by pessimism or vulgarity_.’ - -=Constance Smith.= A CUMBERER OF THE GROUND. By CONSTANCE SMITH, Author - of ‘The Repentance of Paul Wentworth,’ etc. _New Edition. Crown 8vo. - 3s. 6d._ - - - School Books - -A VOCABULARY OF LATIN IDIOMS AND PHRASES. By A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A. - 18_mo._ 1_s._ - -STEPS TO GREEK. By A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A. 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._ - -A SHORTER GREEK PRIMER OF ACCIDENCE AND SYNTAX. By A. M. M. STEDMAN, - M.A. _Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d._ - -SELECTIONS FROM THE ODYSSEY. With Introduction and Notes. By E. D. - STONE, M.A., late Assistant Master at Eton. _Fcap. 8vo. 2s._ - -THE ELEMENTS OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. With numerous Illustrations. - By R. G. STEEL, M. A., Head Master of the Technical Schools, - Northampton. _Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d._ - -THE ENGLISH CITIZEN: HIS RIGHTS AND DUTIES. By H. E. MALDEN, M.A. _Crown - 8vo. 1s. 6d._ A simple account of the privileges and duties of the - English citizen. - -INDEX POETARUM LATINORUM. By E. F. BENECKE, M.A. _Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d._ A - concordance to Latin Lyric Poetry. - - - Commercial Series - -A PRIMER OF BUSINESS. By S. JACKSON, M.A. _Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d._ - -COMMERCIAL ARITHMETIC. By F. G. TAYLOR. _Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d._ - - - =New and Recent Books= - - Poetry - -=Rudyard Kipling.= BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And Other Verses. By RUDYARD - KIPLING. _Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A Special Presentation Edition, bound in white buckram, with extra - gilt ornament. 7_s._ 6_d._ - - ‘Mr. Kipling’s verse is strong, vivid, full of character.... - Unmistakable genius rings in every line.’—_Times._ - - ‘The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the - world; for a man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, - beyond all cavilling, that in its way it also is a medium for - literature. You are grateful, and you say to yourself, half in envy - and half in admiration: “Here is a _book_; here, or one is a - Dutchman, is one of the books of the year.”’—_National Observer._ - - ‘“Barrack-Room Ballads” contains some of the best work that Mr. - Kipling has ever done, which is saying a good deal. “Fuzzy-Wuzzy,” - “Gunga Din,” and “Tommy,” are, in our opinion, altogether superior - to anything of the kind that English literature has hitherto - produced.’—_Athenæum._ - - ‘These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they are - vigorous in their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the - English language more stirring than “The Ballad of East and West,” - worthy to stand by the Border ballads of Scott.’—_Spectator._ - - ‘The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We - read them with laughter and tears; the metres throb in our pulses, - the cunningly ordered words tingle with life; and if this be not - poetry, what is?’—_Pall Mall Gazette._ - -=Henley.= LYRA HEROICA: An Anthology selected from the best English - Verse of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. By WILLIAM ERNEST - HENLEY, Author of ‘A Book of Verse,’ ‘Views and Reviews,’ etc. - _Crown 8vo. Stamped gilt buckram, gilt top, edges uncut. 6s._ - - ‘Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike for - poetry and for chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and - even unerringly, right.’—_Guardian._ - -=Tomson.= A SUMMER NIGHT, AND OTHER POEMS. By GRAHAM R. TOMSON. With - Frontispiece by A. TOMSON. _Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - An edition on hand-made paper, limited to 50 copies. 10_s._ 6_d._ - _net._ - - ‘Mrs. Tomson holds perhaps the very highest rank among poetesses of - English birth. This selection will help her reputation.’—_Black and - White._ - -=Ibsen.= BRAND. A Drama by HENRIK IBSEN. Translated by WILLIAM WILSON. - _Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to “Faust.” - “Brand” will have an astonishing interest for Englishmen. It is in - the same set with “Agamemnon,” with “Lear,” with the literature that - we now instinctively regard as high and holy.’—_Daily Chronicle._ - -=“Q.”= GREEN BAYS: Verses and Parodies. By “Q.,” Author of ‘Dead Man’s - Rock’ etc. _Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘The verses display a rare and versatile gift of parody, great command - of metre, and a very pretty turn of humour.’—_Times._ - -=“A. G.”= VERSES TO ORDER. By “A. G.” _Cr. 8vo. 2s.6d. net._ - - A small volume of verse by a writer whose initials are well known to - Oxford men. - - ‘A capital specimen of light academic poetry. These verses are very - bright and engaging, easy and sufficiently witty.’—_St. James’s - Gazette._ - -=Hosken.= VERSES BY THE WAY. By J. D. HOSKEN. _Crown 8vo. 5s._ - - A small edition on hand-made paper. _Price 12s. 6d. net._ - - A Volume of Lyrics and Sonnets by J. D. Hosken, the Postman Poet. Q, - the Author of ‘The Splendid Spur,’ writes a critical and - biographical introduction. - -=Gale.= CRICKET SONGS. By NORMAN GALE. _Crown 8vo. Linen. 2s. 6d._ - - Also a limited edition on hand-made paper. _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net._ - - ‘They are wrung out of the excitement of the moment, and palpitate - with the spirit of the game.’—_Star._ - - ‘As healthy as they are spirited, and ought to have a great - success.’—_Times._ - - ‘Simple, manly, and humorous. Every cricketer should buy the - book.’—_Westminster Gazette._ - - ‘Cricket has never known such a singer.’—_Cricket._ - -=Langbridge.= BALLADS OF THE BRAVE: Poems of Chivalry, Enterprise, - Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. - Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. LANGBRIDGE. _Crown 8vo. Buckram 3s. - 6d._ School Edition, _2s. 6d._ - - ‘A very happy conception happily carried out. These “Ballads of the - Brave” are intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit - the taste of the great majority.’—_Spectator._ - - ‘The book is full of splendid things.’—_World._ - - - General Literature - -=Collingwood.= JOHN RUSKIN: His Life and Work. By W. G. COLLINGWOOD, - M.A., late Scholar of University College, Oxford, Author of the ‘Art - Teaching of John Ruskin,’ Editor of Mr. Ruskin’s Poems. _2 vols. - 8vo. 32s. Second Edition._ - - This important work is written by Mr. Collingwood, who has been for - some years Mr. Ruskin’s private secretary, and who has had unique - advantages in obtaining materials for this book from Mr. Ruskin - himself and from his friends. It contains a large amount of new - matter, and of letters which have never been published, and is, in - fact, a full and authoritative biography of Mr. Ruskin. The book - contains numerous portraits of Mr. Ruskin, including a coloured one - from a water-colour portrait by himself, and also 13 sketches, never - before published, by Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Arthur Severn. A - bibliography is added. - - ‘No more magnificent volumes have been published for a long - time....’—_Times._ - - ‘This most lovingly written and most profoundly interesting - book.’—_Daily News._ - - ‘It is long since we have had a biography with such varied delights of - substance and of form. Such a book is a pleasure for the day, and a - joy for ever.’—_Daily Chronicle._ - - ‘Mr. Ruskin could not well have been more fortunate in his - biographer.’—_Globe._ - - ‘A noble monument of a noble subject. One of the most beautiful books - about one of the noblest lives of our century.’—_Glasgow Herald._ - -=Gladstone.= THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES OF THE RT. HON. W. E. - GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes and Introductions. Edited by A. W. - HUTTON, M.A. (Librarian of the Gladstone Library), and H. J. COHEN, - M.A. With Portraits. _8vo. Vols. IX. and X. 12s. 6d. each._ - -=Clark Russell.= THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. By W. CLARK - RUSSELL, Author of ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor.’ With Illustrations - by F. BRANGWYN. _Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘A really good book.’—_Saturday Review._ - - ‘A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in - the hands of every boy in the country.’—_St. James’s Gazette._ - -=Clark.= THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD: Their History and their Traditions. By - Members of the University. Edited by A. CLARK, M.A., Fellow and - Tutor of Lincoln College. _8vo. 12s. 6d._ - - ‘Whether the reader approaches the book as a patriotic member of a - college, as an antiquary, or as a student of the organic growth of - college foundation, it will amply reward his attention.’—_Times._ - - ‘A delightful book, learned and lively.’—_Academy._ - - ‘A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the - standard book on the Colleges of Oxford.’—_Athenæum._ - -=Wells.= OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of the University. Edited by - J. WELLS, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Wadham College. _Crown 8vo. 3s. - 6d._ - - This work contains an account of life at Oxford—intellectual, social, - and religious—a careful estimate of necessary expenses, a review of - recent changes, a statement of the present position of the - University, and chapters on Women’s Education, aids to study, and - University Extension. - - ‘We congratulate Mr. Wells on the production of a readable and - intelligent account of Oxford as it is at the present time, - written by persons who are, with hardly an exception, possessed of - a close acquaintance with the system and life of the - University.’—_Athenæum._ - -=Perrens.= THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM THE TIME OF THE MEDICIS TO THE - FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. By F. T. PERRENS. Translated by HANNAH LYNCH. - _In Three Volumes. Vol. I. 8vo. 12s. 6d._ - - This is a translation from the French of the best history of Florence - in existence. This volume covers a period of profound - interest—political and literary—and is written with great vivacity. - - ‘This is a standard book by an honest and intelligent historian, who - has deserved well of his countrymen, and of all who are interested - in Italian history.’—_Manchester Guardian._ - -=Browning.= GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES: A Short History of Mediæval Italy, - A.D. 1250-1409. By OSCAR BROWNING, Fellow and Tutor of King’s - College, Cambridge. _Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s._ - - ‘A very able book.’—_Westminster Gazette._ - - ‘A vivid picture of mediæval Italy.’—_Standard._ - -=O’Grady.= THE STORY OF IRELAND. By STANDISH O’GRADY, Author of ‘Finn - and his Companions.’ _Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d._ - - ‘Novel and very fascinating history. Wonderfully alluring.’—_Cork - Examiner._ - - ‘Most delightful, most stimulating. Its racy humour, its original - imaginings, its perfectly unique history, make it one of the - freshest, breeziest volumes.’—_Methodist Times._ - - ‘A survey at once graphic, acute, and quaintly written.’—_Times._ - -=Dixon.= ENGLISH POETRY FROM BLAKE TO BROWNING. By W. M. DIXON, M.A. - _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - A Popular Account of the Poetry of the Century. - - ‘Scholarly in conception, and full of sound and suggestive - criticism.’—_Times._ - - ‘The book is remarkable for freshness of thought expressed in graceful - language.’—_Manchester Examiner._ - -=Bowden.= THE EXAMPLE OF BUDDHA: Being Quotations from Buddhist - Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled by E. M. BOWDEN. With - Preface by Sir EDWIN ARNOLD. _Third Edition. 16mo. 2s. 6d._ - -=Flinders Petrie.= TELL EL AMARNA. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, D.C.L. With - chapters by Professor A. H. SAYCE, D.D.; F. LL. GRIFFITH, F.S.A.; - and F. C. J. SPURRELL, F.G.S. With numerous coloured illustrations. - _Royal 4to. 20s. net._ - -=Massee.= A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By GEORGE MASSEE. With 12 - Coloured Plates. _Royal 8vo. 18s. net._ - - ‘A work much in advance of any book in the language treating of this - group of organisms. It is indispensable to every student of the - Myxogastres. The coloured plates deserve high praise for their - accuracy and execution.’—_Nature._ - -=Bushill.= PROFIT SHARING AND THE LABOUR QUESTION. By T. W. BUSHILL, a - Profit Sharing Employer. With an Introduction by SEDLEY TAYLOR, - Author of ‘Profit Sharing between Capital and Labour.’ _Crown 8vo. - 2s. 6d._ - -=John Beever.= PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING, Founded on Nature, by JOHN BEEVER, - late of the Thwaite House, Coniston. A New Edition, with a Memoir of - the Author by W. G. COLLINGWOOD, M.A. Also additional Notes and a - chapter on Char-Fishing, by A. and A. R. SEVERN. With a specially - designed title-page. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - A little book on Fly-Fishing by an old friend of Mr. Ruskin. It has - been out of print for some time, and being still much in request, is - now issued with a Memoir of the Author by W. G. Collingwood. - - - Theology - -=Driver.= SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE OLD TESTAMENT. By S. R. - DRIVER, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in - the University of Oxford. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘A welcome companion to the author’s famous ‘Introduction.’ No man can - read these discourses without feeling that Dr. Driver is fully alive - to the deeper teaching of the Old Testament.’—_Guardian._ - -=Cheyne.= FOUNDERS OF OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM: Biographical, - Descriptive, and Critical Studies. By T. K. CHEYNE, D.D., Oriel - Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford. _Large - crown 8vo. 7s. 6d._ - - This important book is a historical sketch of O.T. Criticism in the - form of biographical studies from the days of Eichhorn to those of - Driver and Robertson Smith. It is the only book of its kind in - English. - - ‘The volume is one of great interest and value. It displays all the - author’s well-known ability and learning, and its opportune - publication has laid all students of theology, and specially of - Bible criticism, under weighty obligation.’—_Scotsman._ - - ‘A very learned and instructive work.’—_Times._ - -=Prior.= CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by C. H. PRIOR, M.A., Fellow and - Tutor of Pembroke College. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A volume of sermons preached before the University of Cambridge by - various preachers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop - Westcott. - - ‘A representative collection. Bishop Westcott’s is a noble - sermon.’—_Guardian._ - - ‘Full of thoughtfulness and dignity.’—_Record._ - -=Beeching.= BRADFIELD SERMONS. Sermons by H. C. BEECHING, M.A., Rector - of Yattendon, Berks. With a Preface by CANON SCOTT HOLLAND. _Crown - 8vo. 2s. 6d._ - - Seven sermons preached before the boys of Bradfield College. - -=James.= CURIOSITIES OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION. By - CROAKE JAMES, Author of ‘Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.’ _Crown - 8vo. 7s. 6d._ - - ‘This volume contains a great deal of quaint and curious matter, - affording some “particulars of the interesting persons, episodes, - and events from the Christian’s point of view during the first - fourteen centuries.” Wherever we dip into his pages we find - something worth dipping into.’—_John Bull._ - -=Kaufmann.= CHARLES KINGSLEY. By M. KAUFMANN, M.A. _Crown 8vo. Buckram. - 5s._ - - A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his achievements in - social reform. - - ‘The author has certainly gone about his work with conscientiousness - and industry.’—_Sheffield Daily Telegraph._ - - - Leaders of Religion - Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A. _With Portraits, crown 8vo._ - - 2/6 & 3/6 - A series of short biographies of the most prominent - leaders of religious life and thought of all ages and countries. - - The following are ready— =2s. 6d.= - -CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. HUTTON. _Second Edition._ - - ‘Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful - insight it displays into the nature of the Cardinal’s genius and the - spirit of his life.’—WILFRID WARD, in the _Tablet_. - - ‘Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in criticism. - We regard it as wholly admirable.’—_Academy._ - -JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. OVERTON, M.A. - - ‘It is well done: the story is clearly told, proportion is duly - observed, and there is no lack either of discrimination or of - sympathy.’—_Manchester Guardian._ - -BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. DANIEL, M.A. - -CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. HUTTON, M.A. - -CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A. - - 3s. 6d. - -JOHN KEBLE. By WALTER LOCK, M.A. _Seventh Edition._ - -THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. _Second Edition._ - - Other volumes will be announced in due course. - - - Works by S. Baring Gould - -OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by W. PARKINSON, F. D. - BEDFORD, and F. MASEY. _Large Crown 8vo, cloth super extra, top edge - gilt, 10s. 6d. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. 6s._ - - ‘“Old Country Life,” as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life - and movement, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be - excelled by any book to be published throughout the year. Sound, - hearty, and English to the core.’—_World._ - -HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. _Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume - is delightful reading.’—_Times._ - -FREAKS OF FANATICISM. _Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the - subjects he has chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and - analytic faculties. A perfectly fascinating book.’—_Scottish - Leader._ - -SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional Ballads and Songs of the West of England, - with their Traditional Melodies. Collected by S. BARING GOULD, M.A., - and H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD, M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 - Parts (containing 25 Songs each), _Parts I., II., III., 3s. each. - Part IV., 5s. In one Vol., French morocco, 15s._ - - ‘A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic - fancy.’—_Saturday Review._ - -YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. _Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - -STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. With Illustrations. By S. BARING - GOULD. _Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 6s._ - - A book on such subjects as Foundations, Gables, Holes, Gallows, - Raising the Hat, Old Ballads, etc. etc. It traces in a most - interesting manner their origin and history. - - ‘We have read Mr. Baring Gould’s book from beginning to end. It is - full of quaint and various information, and there is not a dull page - in it.’—_Notes and Queries._ - -_THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS_: The Emperors of the Julian and Claudian - Lines. With numerous Illustrations from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By - S. BARING GOULD, Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. _Third Edition. Royal - 8vo. 15s._ - - ‘A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying - interest. The great feature of the book is the use the author has - made of the existing portraits of the Caesars, and the admirable - critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing with this line of - research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are - supplied on a scale of profuse magnificence.’—_Daily Chronicle._ - - ‘The volumes will in no sense disappoint the general reader. Indeed, - in their way, there is nothing in any sense so good in English.... - Mr. Baring Gould has presented his narrative in such a way as not to - make one dull page.’—_Athenæum._ - - _MR. BARING GOULD’S NOVELS_ - -‘To say that a book is by the author of “Mehalah” is to imply that it - contains a story cast on strong lines, containing dramatic - possibilities, vivid and sympathetic descriptions of Nature, and a - wealth of ingenious imagery.’—_Speaker._ - -‘That whatever Mr. Baring Gould writes is well worth reading, is a - conclusion that may be very generally accepted. His views of life are - fresh and vigorous, his language pointed and characteristic, the - incidents of which he makes use are striking and original, his - characters are life-like, and though somewhat exceptional people, are - drawn and coloured with artistic force. Add to this that his - descriptions of scenes and scenery are painted with the loving eyes - and skilled hands of a master of his art, that he is always fresh and - never dull, and under such conditions it is no wonder that readers - have gained confidence both in his power of amusing and satisfying - them, and that year by year his popularity widens.’—_Court Circular._ - - =SIX SHILLINGS EACH= - - IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA: A Tale of the Cornish Coast. - MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. - CHEAP JACK ZITA. - THE QUEEN OF LOVE. - - =THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE EACH= - - ARMINELL: A Social Romance. - URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. - MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. - JACQUETTA, and other Stories. - - - Fiction - - SIX SHILLING NOVELS - -=Corelli.= BARABBAS: A DREAM OF THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. By MARIE CORELLI, - Author of ‘A Romance of Two Worlds,’ ‘Vendetta,’ etc. _Eleventh - Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - Miss Corelli’s new romance has been received with much disapprobation - by the secular papers, and with warm welcome by the religious - papers. By the former she has been accused of blasphemy and bad - taste; ‘a gory nightmare’; ‘a hideous travesty’; ‘grotesque - vulgarisation’; ‘unworthy of criticism’; ‘vulgar redundancy’; - ‘sickening details’—these are some of the secular flowers of speech. - On the other hand, the ‘Guardian’ praises ‘the dignity of its - conceptions, the reserve round the Central Figure, the fine imagery - of the scene and circumstance, so much that is elevating and - devout’; the ‘Illustrated Church News’ styles the book ‘reverent and - artistic, broad based on the rock of our common nature, and - appealing to what is best in it’; the ‘Christian World’ says it is - written ‘by one who has more than conventional reverence, who has - tried to tell the story that it may be read again with open and - attentive eyes’; the ‘Church of England Pulpit’ welcomes ‘a book - which teems with faith without any appearance of irreverence.’ - -=Benson.= DODO: A DETAIL OF THE DAY. By E. F. BENSON. _Crown 8vo. - Fourteenth Edition. 6s._ - - A story of society by a new writer, full of interest and power, which - has attracted by its brilliance universal attention. The best - critics were cordial in their praise. The ‘Guardian’ spoke of ‘Dodo’ - as _unusually clever and interesting_; the ‘Spectator’ called it _a - delightfully witty sketch of society_; the ‘Speaker’ said the - dialogue was _a perpetual feast of epigram and paradox_; the - ‘Athenæum’ spoke of the author as _a writer of quite exceptional - ability_; the ‘Academy’ praised his _amazing cleverness_; the - ‘World’ said the book was _brilliantly written_; and half-a-dozen - papers declared there _was not a dull page in the book_. - -=Baring Gould.= IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA: A Tale of the Cornish Coast. By - S. BARING GOULD. _New Edition. 6s._ - -=Baring Gould.= MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. By S. BARING GOULD. _Third - Edition. 6s._ - - A story of Devon life. The ‘Graphic’ speaks of it as _a novel of - vigorous humour and sustained power_; the ‘Sussex Daily News’ says - that _the swing of the narrative is splendid_; and the ‘Speaker’ - mentions _its bright imaginative power_. - -=Baring Gould.= CHEAP JACK ZITA. By S. BARING GOULD. _Third Edition. - Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A Romance of the Ely Fen District in 1815, which the ‘Westminster - Gazette’ calls ‘a powerful drama of human passion’; and the - ‘National Observer’ ‘a story worthy the author.’ - -=Baring Gould.= THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By S. BARING GOULD. _Second Edition. - Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - The ‘Glasgow Herald’ says that ‘the scenery is admirable, and the - dramatic incidents are most striking.’ The ‘Westminster Gazette’ - calls the book ‘strong, interesting, and clever.’ ‘Punch’ says that - ‘you cannot put it down until you have finished it.’ ‘The Sussex - Daily News’ says that it ‘can be heartily recommended to all who - care for cleanly, energetic, and interesting fiction.’ - -=Norris.= HIS GRACE. By W. E. NORRIS, Author of ‘Mademoiselle de - Mersac.’ _Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘The characters are delineated by the author with his characteristic - skill and vivacity, and the story is told with that ease of manners - and Thackerayean insight which give strength of flavour to Mr. - Norris’s novels. No one can depict the Englishwoman of the better - classes with more subtlety.’—_Glasgow Herald._ - - ‘Mr. Norris has drawn a really fine character in the Duke of - Hurstbourne, at once unconventional and very true to the - conventionalities of life, weak and strong in a breath, capable of - inane follies and heroic decisions, yet not so definitely portrayed - as to relieve a reader of the necessity of study on his own - behalf.’—_Athenæum._ - -=Parker.= MRS. FALCHION. By GILBERT PARKER, Author of ‘Pierre and His - People.’ _New Edition. 6s._ - - Mr. Parker’s second book has received a warm welcome. The ‘Athenæum’ - called it _a splendid study of character_; the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ - spoke of the writing as _but little behind anything that has been - done by any writer of our time_; the ‘St. James’s’ called it _a very - striking and admirable novel_; and the ‘Westminster Gazette’ applied - to it the epithet of _distinguished_. - -=Parker.= PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By GILBERT PARKER. _Crown 8vo. Buckram. - 6s._ - - ‘Stories happily conceived and finely executed. There is strength and - genius in Mr. Parker’s style.’—_Daily Telegraph._ - -=Parker.= THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. By GILBERT PARKER, Author of - ‘Pierre and His People,’ ‘Mrs. Falchion,’ etc. _Crown 8vo. 5s._ - -‘The plot is original and one difficult to work out; but Mr. Parker has - done it with great skill and delicacy. The reader who is not - interested in this original, fresh, and well-told tale must be a - dull person indeed.’—_Daily Chronicle._ - -‘A strong and successful piece of workmanship. The portrait of - Lali, strong, dignified, and pure, is exceptionally well - drawn.’—_Manchester Guardian._ - -‘A very pretty and interesting story, and Mr. Parker tells it with much - skill. The story is one to be read.’—_St. James’s Gazette._ - -=Anthony Hope.= A CHANGE OF AIR: A Novel. By ANTHONY HOPE, Author of - ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ etc. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - A bright story by Mr. Hope, who has, the _Athenæum_ says, ‘a decided - outlook and individuality of his own.’ - - ‘A graceful, vivacious comedy, true to human nature. The characters - are traced with a masterly hand.’—_Times._ - -=Pryce.= TIME AND THE WOMAN. By RICHARD PRYCE, Author of ‘Miss Maxwell’s - Affections,’ ‘The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,’ etc. New and Cheaper Edition. - _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘Mr. Pryce’s work recalls the style of Octave Feuillet, by its - clearness, conciseness, its literary reserve.’—_Athenæum._ - -=Marriott Watson.= DIOGENES OF LONDON and other Sketches. By H. B. - MARRIOTT WATSON, Author of ‘The Web of the Spider.’ _Crown 8vo. - Buckram. 6s._ - - ‘By all those who delight in the uses of words, who rate the exercise - of prose above the exercise of verse, who rejoice in all proofs of - its delicacy and its strength, who believe that English prose is - chief among the moulds of thought, by these Mr. Marriott Watson’s - book will be welcomed.’—_National Observer._ - -=Gilchrist.= THE STONE DRAGON. By MURRAY GILCHRIST. _Crown 8vo. Buckram. - 6s._ - - ‘The author’s faults are atoned for by certain positive and admirable - merits. The romances have not their counterpart in modern - literature, and to read them is a unique experience.’—_National - Observer._ - - =THREE-AND-SIXPENNY NOVELS= - -=Baring Gould.= ARMINELL: A Social Romance. By S. BARING GOULD. _New - Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - -=Baring Gould.= URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. By S. BARING GOULD. _Third - Edition. 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STEDMAN, M.A. _1s. 6d._ - -EASY SELECTIONS FROM CAESAR—THE HELVETIAN WAR. Edited by A. M. M. - STEDMAN, M.A. _1s._ - -EASY SELECTIONS FROM LIVY—THE KINGS OF ROME. Edited by A. M. M. STEDMAN, - M.A. _1s. 6d._ - -EASY SELECTIONS FROM HERODOTUS—THE PERSIAN WARS. Edited by A. G. - LIDDELL, M.A. _1s. 6d._ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note - - The few errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been - corrected, and are noted here. The minor errors in the section of - advertisments have been corrected with no further notice. - - The references are to the page and line in the original. The - following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions. - - 13.19 but I’m up again in a jiff[e]y. Removed. - 29.22 [“]By the wall where the cedar is Added. - 71.9 and no mistake[.] Added. - 119.10 I will [l]ook> up cockfighting Inserted. - 77.26 [‘/“]No, I cannot. Replaced. - 78.8 the withered heads of daffodil[l] Removed. - 130.17 after the man had gone his way[,/.] Replaced. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Kitty Alone (Volume 2 of 3), by S. 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