Who is to have it? A novel. By the author of 'The Netherwoods of Otterpool'

Chapter I

There had been a beautiful burst from the first covert into which the hounds had been thrown, but, contrary to all expectation, after a pretty little run of five minutes, master reynard had suddenly turned, and gone straight up the face of the steep chalk hill, and had disappeared in a small wood at no great distance from its brow. After poor " Charley" streamed all the hunt, the horses climbing from sheep-path, to sheep-path, which wound round the face of the hill, some panting as if already distressed, others reaching the top almost without a sob, and just in time to see the last flourishing tails of the hounds as they disappeared into the wood. Among the first to arrive on the brow of the hill were Lilian Craythorp and Helen Ruxeley, closely followed by Mr. Edgar Blake, who, anxious to distinguish himself, took care to maintain his position as near to the young ladies as the nature of the ground would allow.

It was now he blessed the foresight of his sister Kate for having per suaded his father to let him learn to ride, and for having impressed Mr. Wood, the proprietor of the mews at Eden mouth, with such a sense of the importance and wealth of the Blakes that he had, with all due obsequiousness, pro vided Mr. Edgar with the best-winded and cleverest hunter in his stable. Owing to these advantages he actually acquitted himself with greater credit than even he had anticipated, and was able, so far, to " hold his own" with some of the more experienced. " The hounds are all gone into Heronden Wood, Mr. Edmonds," said Lilian Craythorp to that gentleman, as he came galloping up from the steep climb. • " Did you see the fox at all V he inquired hastily. " No j but I thought I heard a holloa on the other side B of the wood," put in Mr. Edgar Blake, flushed with his hitherto success.

" ' I thought,' won't do here, Mr. Blake ; we must have something more certain," said the master of the hounds, as he galloped on towards the wood. " Lilian, have you seen Mrs. Montague 1 Have you any idea where she can be 1 " asked Helen Ruxeley of her friend. " You know uncle said we were to keep near her. It was only on that condition that he allowed us to come. He won't be pleased if he sees us so far away from her ! " " Oh, never mind Mrs. Montague, Helen ! " replied Lilian ; " it is such a bore being tied to her bridle ! You know her husband won't let her ride after the hounds ; and she only goes from covert to covert ! I mean to be in at the death to-day ; — such fun !" " You really must not think of it, Lilian. Your mamma would be horrified if she knew you were galloping about on that wild, high-spirited Roebuck.

I wonder you should have chosen him, when you might have had the gray pony, who is so much quieter." "A great" deal too quiet and humdrum for me! I tell you, Helen, I mean to hunt to-day, now mamma isn't here to keep me tied to her apron-string." " But you really mustn't, dear Lilian," said Helen re monstratingly. " Suppose you came to any mischief; what would she say to uncle, or to Mrs. Montague, on whose pro mise to look after you she relied so fully when she let you come 1 I shall be obliged to go and ask Mrs. Montague to come and make you hear reason." " Shall I go and find your .chaperon, Miss Ruxeley ? " asked Edgar Blake, anxious to make himself useful. " If you would be so kind," answered Helen, " and come back and tell us where she is, we would go to her. I shall not be easy till Liliau is under her care."

" I will come back directly, and help you to take care of Miss Craythorp, Miss Ruxeley, if you will allow me," said the young man, forgetting, in his desire to please the ladies, Dr. Benfield's warning not to follow Lilian out riding. "I shall feel very much obliged to you, Mr. Blake," answered Helen courteously ; whilst Edgar turned his horse and galloped away in the direction in which the stragglers of the hunt were now beginning to appear. " What is the use of making so much fuss about me, Helen ?" said Lilian Craythorp to her friend; " what can it signify to any one if I do come to some mischief or other ? If I were really heiress of Fernwold, as you are, it would be quite another thing. But as it is now, a short life and a merry one for me !" " My dear Lilian, how can you talk at random in that style !

Who ever told you that I was heiress of Fernwold? You know you are, unless— " " Unless cousin Christopher makes a will, and leaves it all to you, his adopted daughter ; and don't you think that will has been made long ago ? Don't tell me ! mamma says it's a burning shame to cheat me out of it in that fashion ; but, for my part, I don't care a pin. If I am not to have Fernwold, I'd as lief you had it as another ; I dare say you will give me lots of balls and plenty of partners to flirt with, won't you, coz ? — for, you know, you must be my coz, dear Helen, if you are cousin Christopher's daughter, as mamma so often swears you really are ! " " Don't talk in that style, dear Lilian ; I do so wish you would not think so much about Fernwold, and who is to have it ; such thoughts can only make things unpleasant.

It is so very kind of your mamma to let you come and see me so much ; and we might be so happy together, if you were not always drawing comparisons of that sort in your mind." " How can I help thinking of it, Helen, when mamma really talks of nothing else ? My only wonder is how I can possibly be so fond of you as I am, when she loses no opportunity of abusing you. Perhaps if she liked you, though, that would be the very reason why I could not bear you. Somehow or other, she and I only agree in one thing, and that is about my coming to Fernwold. She is only too anxious for me to come, that cousin Christopher may not forget me, she says. And I like to come, it is so jolly here : scampering about on Roebuck to the meets, — going to balls and parties with you and Mrs. Montague — Oh, la ! here she comes !

Now I'll give her a gallop) to catch me ! " " Lilian ! Lilian ! don't be so mad ! " called out Helen : " Roebuck won't stand it ! " But Helen called to no pur pose. The wilful girl was already flying half-across the b down, towards the corner of the wood where the hunt was patiently waiting for the re-appearance of the lost fox. There was nothing left for Helen but to follow as fast as she could, Mrs. Montague and young Blake joining her soon after she had overtaken Lilian, who now sat laughing and shaking back her curls from her face, the flush of excitement on her cheek and the spirit of mischief sparkling in her eyes. " How beautiful Lilian Craythorp looks to-day !" said one of the young men standing not far off; "Helen Ruxeley looks quite plain beside her. And how boldly Lilian rides !

" " Yes, she does. Helen Ruxeley does not show to much advantage beside her friend," returned the one he had just addressed, and who was no other than young Arthur Ham mond, cousin and great admirer of the young lady whose merits they were now discussing. " But, hark ! there goes a challenge at last ! That was old Merman's tongue, too," he added ; " it was on the other side of the wood. We had better ride round ; I expect he will break cover on that side." " Is not this Foxgrove, down here to the left, Miss Ruxeley ? " asked young Blake. Not having any experience in fox-hunting, he was not aware of the reason which had carried most of the gentlemen to the further corner of the wood, he almost alone remaining on this side with the ladies. " Yes ; is it not a pretty place 1" answered Helen. " There, where those fir-trees stand, you can see a black charred spot : that is where the old manor-house stood ; it was entirely burnt down fifteen years ago, when Lilian was quite a child.

It belonged to Colonel Craythorp, her slither ; he was nephew to uncle Christopher's father, and cousin to uncle Christopher. At his death the property, being entailed, passed to a Mr. Monckton. You can scarcely see the new house from here ; it is built more under the brow of the hill, overlooking the sea. Looking at Foxgrove from the sea, the new house seems to stand on a very steep hill. It has been sadly neg lected of late : there has been no one living there for some years now." " Yes," returned young Blake ; " my father says there must be a great deal done to it before we can come to live there ? " "Ah — yes. I had heard some one was in treaty for Foxgrove. I am glad to hear it is your father, Mr. Blake, that we are to have for so near a neighbour." " You are very kiud, Miss Ruxeley," returned the young man, politely lifting his hat in acknowledgment of the courteous speech.

"I am sure my sisters will esteem themselves fortunate in being permitted the honour of an acquaintance with a lady in every way so amiable as yourself." " Sisters ! — have you sisters 1 " exclaimed Lilian. " Oh ! how. charming, Mr. Blake ! — and can they ride ? " she asked, all in a breath. " I have two sisters," replied Mr. Blake, " and they do ride ; but they have not the advantage of being such accom plished horsewomen as yourself and Miss Ruxeley !" Whether Miss Kate Blake would have been content to be so depreciated by her brother to strangers, for the sake of the opportunity it afforded him of such a double compliment, young Blake had not time to decide, for at that moment there was a prolonged " Tally-ho ! " from the brow of the hill ; and in a moment all the field was astir. " Which way is he gone ?

" eagerly asked Lilian Cray thorp, in great excitement. " Down the hill again ! Oh, what glorious fun ! " And she shook Roebuck's reins, and dashed at full speed after the now fast-disappearing hounds and horsemen. " For God's sake, Lilian !" cried Helen Ruxeley; " Roebuck will certainly run away with you down the hill ! Oh, do, Mr. Blake, try and stop her ! Stay ! let us go round and meet her !" No one noticed Helen Ruxeley's distress in the prevailing excitement, or the fact that Roebuck had now taken the bit completely between his teeth, and Lilian had no longer the slightest control over him. Edgar Blake certainly did his best to overtake her, but the sound of his horse's feet gal loping after him only increased Roebuck's excitement, and he turned and flew down the steepest part of the hill, along a narrow path, almost jirecipitous.

Really in the greatest possible concern, but seeing that it was worse than useless to attempt to follow her down such a path, Edgar Blake checked his horse, and looked out for a less dangerous descent. The last he saw of Lilian was, that Roebuck was still carrying her down with headlong speed. Not for one moment was the wild girl alarmed, or even conscious of her real danger. She was so excited and pleased with the rapidity of her flight, that she rather enjoyed the alarm she knew Helen and Mrs. Montague must have felt, when they saw her set off at that rate. It was not till she saw before her a green platform overlooking a deep chalk pit, that she was at all alive to any other thought than " the fun of the thing." Horror seized her in a moment ; for she knew that, at the rate at which her horse was going, nothing short of a miracle would arrest him ; as it would be impossible for him to stop himself on the brink of the pit, even if he saw it in time to do so ; and she now found that she had completely lost all control over him.

She shut her eyes and gave herself up for lost, whilst Roebuck continued his head long career. All at once he stopped, with a shock that unseated Lilian, and she found herself on the greensward of the platform, Roebuck panting and trembling beside her, his curb bridle tightly clutched in the powerful grasp of Mr. Woollett, an old farmer and tenant on the Fernwold estate, as his family had been for some generations. " Lord ha' massy, Miss Craythorp ! is that any sort o' a fashun to come tearing down sich hills as these be ? If you bean't just now a lying at t' bottom o' that 'ere chalk pit, you may thank the Purviddence as has kep' you out on't. Why, I luik pon't you might e'enamost as well ha' ridden down Fernwol' church steeple, as t' face o' Inky Down in t' place you tuk't ! " " Oh, Mr. Woollett, you have saved my life again, that's certain," cried Lilian, rising ; " you are, indeed, my good Providence," she continued, going up to him and laying her hand kindly on his arm.

" But there ! " she added, " they say ' nought never comes to any harm,' and I think the proverb is doubly proved in my case ; and all thanks to you both times. I hope I shan't live to make you repent your good actions ! But how came you here in the very nick of time ? A moment more, aud it would have been all over with me ! " " I corned down the broad path, which you oughten by right to ha' tuk ; an my mare being rayther tinder^futted, I went a leetle bit more cautious, like, nor I might ha' done. A good job for you as I did." " Oh, yes, Mr. Woollett, you really are the best friend I have in the world ; and I do hope you will never find me ungrateful for all I owe you. But there ! when I go back to Pinewood I'll send you the handsomest present I can find for you. But pray don't say to any one what a scrape I was nearly in, or they will all be so frightened, they will never let me ride alone again !

" " Don't spend your money on any presents for me, my good young leddy ! Why, any one would ha' done for you what I did ; I luik 'pon't they wouldn't ha' been much better nor brute beasts if they hadn't. Lucky I came 'crass you as I did. I don't think I could ha' stopped un so well an' I hadn't ha' come in front." " Will you be kind enough to help me on my horse again, Mr. Woollett ?" said Lilian, gathering up her habit for the purpose of mounting. " Well, you be just a rightdown good-pluck'd un," said the farmer. " But bean't you hurt at all ? you won't be able to ride down the rest of the hill. I luik 'pon't you'd better walk, and let me lead Roebuck down." " Oh no, Mr. Woollett ; I am not a bit hurt, only a little stiff, and that will soon wear off. As for Master Roebuck, I expect he will be pretty quiet now ; I should fancy he has had enough of it.

That's all right ! " she said, as the farmer helped her up to her saddle. " Thank you ! now if you will lead the way I'll follow you down." When Lilian reached the bottom of the hill, she found, however, that her accident and narrow escape were known to a great many coming down the hill at the same time as herself. Mrs. Montague and Helen Ruxeley were in the greatest terror ; aud above all, Mr. Ruxeley had seen the whole transaction. He insisted at first that she should return to the house. She was not in a fit state, he said, to ride any more ; he knew she must be more hurt than she chose to own. " No, indeed ! cousin Christopher ; if you would but be lieve me, I am really not hurt at all," pleaded Lilian. "Do please let me come with you ! Indeed I will be quite quiet, and remain with Mrs. Montague and Helen.

It was all Roebuck's fault ; he ran away with me." " If Mr. Ruxeley will allow me to stay with the ladies," said Edgar submissively, to the master of Fernwold, " I should be most happy to take care of them." " Indeed, Mr. Blake, we cannot allow that ! you would lose all the sport;" answered Mr. Ruxeley; "and all to stay and take care of a mad-brained girl. " No, no ; you have done enough for her already ! I saw you come down the hill to try and cut her off ! it was very well judged for one so unacquainted with the country as you must be ! But I hope to meet you many a time yet in this neighbourhood, Mr. Blake, and shall always be most happy to welcome you at Fernwold." Mr. Edgar Blake bowed low in acknowledgment of Mr. Ruxeley's hospitable speech, and begged and protested so much, that the ladies at last were formally placed under his escort.

" Woollett," said Mr. Rnxeley to the farmer, who, during this polite discussion, had been tightening the girths of his saddle, which had slipped forward during the descent, " were you not saying something about getting your son appointed keeper at Heronden Court ? If you will come with me, I will try and get speech of young Arthur Hammond for }'ou, at the next check. I have no doubt he will give the situation to your son if I ask him for it." " Thank'ee kindly, Must' Ruxeley," said the farmer, as he took off his hat and wiped his forehead with the handkerchief he took out of it, discovering, as he did so, a large scar over one side of his head, which in that place was quite bald. " I really think the present I must send Mr. Woollett from Pinewood should be a wig, to hide that dreadful scar," said Lilian, as the farmer rode off with Mr. Ruxeley ; " if is so ugly to see all that bald skull !

" "Lilian!" said Helen, in a tone of deep remonstrance, " really you are incorrigible ! You will always say the thing that comes uppermost !" " Well, it is a sight to shock a young lady's nerves," observed Edgar Blake. " I confess it rather shocked me ! " " I suppose I ought not to have said anything about it," said Lilian, " seeing it was done when he saved my life, when I was quite a baby, and was nearly burnt to death in the fire at Foxgrove. Perhaps he'd have done better to have left me to my fate ! Heigh-ho ! I know I am very bad, Helen ; but que voulez-vous, c'est ma destinee ! Where are the hounds ? All gone ! Oh, I see them, down by the wood above Sene Valley ! Look ! look ! there are some of ? 9 them going across the railway ! Oh my ! if the train were only to come now, wouldn't there be a skurry among them !

Come along, Helen, do ride faster ; do come, Mrs. Mon tague ! Now for a race, Mr. Blake ! Oh, no, I forgot ! I promised cousin Christopher to behave myself, and mamma says I am always to do everything he tells me, and be very careful not to do anything to displease him. Not that he's so particularly kind to her, that she should be so afraid I should make him angry with me ; for he don't like her a bit, and never asks her to come to Fernwold. But there, there ain't much love lost between them, I should say ! and as for me, I suppose needs must when the old gentleman drives." And so Lilian kept on a running fire till they overtook the rest of the hunt, come to anothercheck in a field just above the wood where Lilian saw them. The hounds were now all in the wood, just below where they had crossed the railway, and the huntsman and whippers-in were cheering them as they diligently sought the lost track of the fox.

" Shall we ride on to the path at the top of the gorse bank, Mrs. Montague ? " asked Helen ; " we shall see so well there what they are doing ; and it is such a pretty view ; Mr. Blake will be quite pleased with it. You are such an admirer of fine landscape, Mr. Blake, do you not like this?" she asked, as they reached a path on the brow of the hill, overlooking the whole valley. " This is the valley of Sene, which we saw from the top of Inky Down, and those fine old ruins are the ruins of Sene Castle ; does it not look well, with the beautiful bright sea beyond 1" "Oh, it is charming!" he exclaimed. "I have seldom seen anything prettier ? And what a blaze of yellow this gorse bank is, and what fine broad green meadows those are sloping down the hill ! Look ! what is that running across that broad field, down there close to that large elm tree standing alone in it ?

There ! now it has passed the tree, and is out on the path, running right through tbe meadow !" "Why, that is the fox, Mr. Blake !" exclaimed Helen. " Oh, the cunning little thing ! He has left the wet grass, and taken to the dry path !" " Tally-ho !" shouted Lilian Craythorp, at the top of her silvery voice, just as the hounds poured from the wood, and ? 10 down the field in compact order, so exactly did they follow on the scent of the fox. What an animated sight it was the next moment ! Down the bank, over bush, hedge and ditch, came the hunt — leaping, scrambling, tumbling ! The broad meadow was covered in an instant with sixty or eighty horsemen, whose steeds cut up the turf with their flying feet, whirling the pieces high into the air, and spattering each other from head to foot with tlie mud of the soft places.

Away they flew, down the Sene Valley, up Winder Gorse, away along the meadows of Ingrove Farm, across the bridge spanning the railway, down into Foxgrove ; the hunt, tailing off as some rolled into ditches, disappeared down banks, fell behind, the horses quite spent with the pace, till only two or three of the whole field actually came up to the hounds, just as they had pounced upon poor reynard, in a ploughed field, and pinned him to the ground. "That was well done, gentlemen !" said Mr. Edmonds, while the hounds were tearing to pieces the poor fox, which he had just thrown to them, after cutting off his brush and the skin of his nose, to nail up in the kennel with the rest of those he kept as a tally of the foxes they had killed that season. " Mr. Hammond, I think you were first over the hedge into the field ; allow me to present you with tbe brush," said the politic master of the hounds, handing the well dragged brush, the whilom handsome appendage of poor reynard, to young Arthur Hammond, who had just suc ceeded to a large property in the neighbourhood, and was a liberal subscriber to the Fernwold Hunt.

" Oh, Arthur Hammond ! I'll forgive you the gloves you owe me if you will but give me that beautiful brush," cried Lilian Craythorp, riding up by a short cut to the place where they all stood. " Can't part with it for so little, Lilian ; indeed, I can't. You must bid higher for it," cried the young man, elated with the gallop, and well pleased with Mr. Edmonds's courtesy. " I'll give you anything you like for it, cousin Arthur." They were cousins in the third or fourth degree, certainly a very slight relationship ; but Lilian was very eager to have the brush, and knew it would please the young man very much to acknowledge the cousinship which at other moments she thought proper indignantly to deny. " I must have the brush," she continued ; " indeed, I must. I did mean to have been in at the death myself ! — only — only I had pro mised cousin Christopher !"

" Will you give me what I asked you for in the library at Fernwold the other day," said the young man, coming up close to her where she sat, and looking pleadingly into Lilian's face. " I will give it to you if you will only say yes." " Oh, you are too exorbitant in your demands, Arthur Hammond," said Lilian, turning away. " You are unkind, ungenerous, too ; for you know I want the brush, but cannot think of paying such a price for it as that ! " " Take it, then, for nothing," Lilian, cried the young man, holding it out to her : " I will buy nothing from you ; least of all, that ! " Arthur Hammond was obliged to beg hard before he could induce Lilian to take the brush, much as she longed for it. She was very much annoyed that he had attempted to make a condition with her of the very thing she had forbidden him to speak of again, under pain of her great displeasure ; but Arthur Hammond really did admire the young girl, and would have been well pleased to see her mistress at Heronden Court.

If any one had asked the way ward girl why she had said " No" to him on the memorable evening to which he had referred, she would have been hard puzzled to give an answer, except that she was very well off as she was, and did not want to be fettered so soon. As it was, she took the brush from the now penitent young man, and rode back silently to Fernwold. " I hope you will dine with us next Monday, Mr. Blake," said Mr. Ruxeley, most courteously, to that young gentleman, as they shook hands at the gates of Fernwold. "I am much pleased in having made your acquaintance." Mr. Edgar Blake trotted home in a high state of delight. Long before he had reached Edenmouth he had built such towering castles in the air that, had they fallen then and there about his ears, he would most inevitably have been smothered in the ruins.

Chapter II

The boat which had left the port of Hauteville that morning was within ten minutes of reaching the lighthouse at the end of the chain pier of Edenmouth Harbour, when Kate and Fanny Blake made their appearance amongst the rest of the winter visitors and inhabitants of the place, con gregating on the quays to witness the animated scene which usually took place on the arrival or departure of the steam boats. It afforded Kate a capital opportunity for making acquaintances, strengthening those already made, or bringing in, " quite permiscus-like," as the good people of Edenmouth had it, the very object which might happen to be the main end of her appearance on the quay. As they took two or three turns up and down the chain pier, Kate Blake was perfectly conscious of the murmur of admiration which greeted their arrival amongst the rest of the people walking or standing there, awaiting also the the arrival of the boat.

No one, however, coidd have guessed, from her looks, that she was in the least degree aware of the impression she and her sister were making ; an impression she had yet fully intended and prepared in the studied good taste of their dress, the unconsciousness of their looks, aud the intimate affectionate manner in which they walked up and down, arm close-linked in arm, chatting gaily to each other in subdued but merry prattle. " Oh, there is Captain Sinclair!" exclaimed Kate, loud enough for that gentleman to be arrested by the sound of his name ; " let us go and speak to him. I am glad he is here," . she added, but, this time, so that her sister only should hear her observations, " it will be so much better to have some one to walk with than to be quite with out a gentleman, as we must have been now Edgar is at Fernwold."