The Hanleys; or, Wheels within wheels

Chapter I

'AGE I. PLEDGED - - - - - - I II. THE RECRUIT - - - - IS III. PIPE LANE - - - - - -22 IV. THE INVITATION - - - - - -1 V. RIGDEN ABBAYE - - - 37 VI. THE O'ROLLICK ASHWARDS - - 43 VII. ABYSSINIA STREET - - 54 VIII. AULD REEKIE - - - - 65 IX. MAGGIE AND LOTTA - - - 7° X. AT JOCKEY SALTER'S - - - 83 XI. A CONFERENCE - - - - - 94 XII. EDGEWOOD - - - - - - IOI XIII. VISITORS - - - - - '- - no XIV. INNOCENT GOSSIT - - - - I23 XV. THE HANLEYS' ' COME-DOWN ' - - - - I31 XVI. MRS. SCH0NFELDER ----- H2 XVII. A LETTER FROM JOSEPH - r53 XVIII. THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE AT DARROW - . - 1 58 XIX. THE TRAVELLERS - '66 XX. UNDER MR. KRANE - - - - " !73 XXI. ST. ANGELS' ------ 186 XXII. KARLFORT - - " :94 xxin. Gideon's half-holiday - - - - 203 XXIV. ALICE AT A GERMAN COFFEE-PARTY - - 21 3 XXV. IVY'S FIRST JOURNEY - - 235 XXVI.

AN IVY LEAF ------ CONTENTS. IV CHAPTER PAGE XXVII. HERR FRIEDRICHSTHAL ... - 257 XXVIII. THE WRATHFUL UNCLE - - - 277 ■ XXIX. BLACK CÆSAR - 286 XXX. MRS. KRANE AT 'THE ABEAYE ' - - 297 XXXI. THE FERNERIES - 30S XXXII. FROM 'SISTER AGNES ' ... - 322 XXXIII. A CHAPTER OF VARIETIES - - - - 325 xxxiv. gideon's errand - 335 XXXV. THE FOG ------ 346 XXXVI. A RELAPSE - - - - 357 XXXVII. HOMEWARDS ------ 361 XXXVIII. HOME AT LAST - - - 371 XXXIX. REPARATION - - - - 374. XL. SILVERMEADS - - - - OR, WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS.

CHAPTER I. PLEDGED.

It was the most remarkable day that had ever dawned on Alice Hanley. So said that young lady to herself more than once, as she sat on the little sofa at the foot of her bed in her own room, with flushed cheeks and bright eyes, her head bent slightly to one side, and her finger raised to her small rosy mouth, in the attitude of one who listens intently to some distant sound. Alice was paying attention to a low murmur of voices in her father's library, which was immediately below her room ; and once she thought she overheard her name distinctly pro nounced twice by two different people in quite a satisfactory, pleasant tone. She then jumped up from her seat, and, seizing a bunch of primroses which were in a glass on the table, fell to smelling and kissing them alternately in a most peculiar manner.

The history of these self-same primroses is as follows : The day before this remarkable day when our story begins, Alice Hanley, with her two younger sisters, Agnes and Ivy, were out for a drive in the phaeton, when they met their brother David's friend, Mr. Alfred Ashward. He was on horseback, and had ridden over the whole way from The Abbaye to pay the Hanleys a visit. But he would not have the young ladies deprive themselves ostheir 'constitutional' on his account. Oh no — he would accompany them to the glen, and help them to gather the first spring violets and primroses. A few minutes later Robert, the groom, was left in charge of the pony and phaeton and Alfred's horse, whilst the whole party alighted, and searched for wild flowers on the banks of the tiny brook that babbled through Hazel Glen.

The girls, especially Agnes and Ivy, found plenty, and soon had an enormous bunch, which they bound together in one ; whilst Alfred Ashward succeeded in gathering only a little posy of the very finest and most fragrant primroses. Handing these to Alice, with a certain anxious look in his eyes, and the shade of a tremor in his voice, he said, " Will you like to keep these for my sake ?" They were the flowers Alice now held in her fingers in her own little sleeping-room. A domestic has tapped at the door, and said, 'You are wanted, miss, in the study ;' the flowers glide into the brooch in her bosom, and fresh blushes into her cheeks, as Alice herself walks halftimidly, halfproudly down the soft carpeted staircase to meet her betrothed. The study was a small, cosy apartment, furnished in light oak, and represented rather the resting-place of an over worked merchant th? the laboratory of a student ; and from a cursory glance at the titles of some of the well bound volumes on the shelves that ran down two sides of the room, one might arrive at a fair idea of their owner and his tastes.

Walter Scott, Macaulay, Chambers's ' Encyclo pædia,' with old volumes of the Illustrated London News, and most of the standard English poets flanked one side ; whilst the other was reserved for a still larger collection of more serious literature. Dr. Chalmers's ' Life and Works,' PLEDGED. 3 McCheyne, Duff, Bonar, Fox's ' Book of Martyrs,' Reid's ' Church History,' Irving, the lives of Judson, Henry Martyn, and Merle d'Aubigne"s ' History of the Reforma tion,' shone out most conspicuous as Mr. Hanley's calm companions of a Sunday afternoon. How well Alice knew the sight of them all, as she recalled the many and many a Sabbath hour before early tea, when she and her big brother Davy, and Joseph, who came between, with Agnes — then a tiny forward thing, that had regularly to be sent away — all said their Catechism to their father, and received his approving glance as a reward when they could repeat ' the proofs ' as well !

David would often be bold or giddy, and would declare ' It was a fib to call it the Shorter Catechism '; and once, when Alice convinced him that there really existed a Longer Catechism, for she had spied it on the table with the ' Westminster Confession,' and that he must take care else they might get that one, then David had sorely puzzled her and Joseph by confiding to them that he had spied out a much longer Bible, too, than the one they knew. At present Ivy and Charlie formed the little class on a Sunday afternoon. Alice was no more a child, yet the spot had sacred associations for her; and when Mr. Hanley placed her hand in Alfred's and said " God bless you !" and left them together, her eyes grew misty, and her throat seemed suddenly to tighten. ' O Alice ! if you knew how much I want you— and how soon !' Then she looks at him with her own sweet smile, and meets the glance which accompanies his words ; and she believes and trusts in her betrothed, and makes up her little mind to look up to him, and be satisfied with his love for ever.

When the first dinner-bell rang, Alice and Alfred came to i — the drawing-room, not arm-in-arm nor hand-in-hand, but rather like two naughty children who have quarrelled, and are trying their best not to see one another. The apartment had two doors, which seemed to solve a difficulty for them, for they entered in separately, and then left the length of the room between them, until the second bell sounded, and the family and guests assembled round the dinner-table. During the meal, nobody present was supposed to be aware of anything new having taken place in the household: yet Mrs. Tufty, who sat beside Mr. Hanley, kept up an agitation at her end of the table, asking her host if he knew ' how very High Church the Ashwards were,' and insisting on learning from Mrs. Hanley whether she had been invited yet to The Abbaye.

To each and all of these inquiries the lady received a simple negative, with a slight shake of the head, which any one with more tact than Mrs. Tufty possessed might have interpreted as an invitation to change the subject. Whether she saw it or not, this fair irrepressible was not going thus to be baulked of her dear topic. She held up her fat little be ringed hands, and, staring from one to the other in feigned astonishment, whispered very distinctly : ' My dear Mr. and Mrs. Hanley, is there nothing of it at all, then ?' Some of the folk at the other end of the table smiled. Of course they knew all about it. But this made a very good opportunity for old Dr. Welch's little joke of, ' Miss Alice dear, will you try half a pear with your next neighbour;' and emboldened Davy to remark that 'the sooner brother Joseph completed his theological studies at Edin burgh, and came home to take certain agreeable duties on him, the better.' Unsophisticated Charlie, who had been at school all the morning, was really the only one mystified PLEDGED. 5 by the sallies that evidently had some reference to his eldest sister ; and he made up his mind to have the meaning of it all from Ivy after dinner.

When the ladies retired to the drawing-room, Agnes, the second girl, sat down to the piano, whilst Ivy tripped off to order tea, and Mrs. Tufty commenced the narration of her own and Major Tufty's engagement twenty years ago. In the meantime, mother and daughter had disappeared. The spring evenings are wont to be chilly in the north of England, and so the fire in Mrs. Hanley's dressing-room had just been kindled, and here Alice now sat on a footstool with her head on her mother's lap. Mrs. Hanley had a pale, oval face, with gray hair, and a subdued expression. Her whole soul was in her eyes ; were she glad or sorry, pleased or annoyed, well or ill, she never spoke loudly, nor complained — it was in her eyes that you could interpret all she felt. In this way she had an advantage over other people, and especially over her husband, as she could often look things which she would not have said.

For example, Mr. Hanley was wont to be exacting and stern, even in his own household, and towards his own children ; and, if a fault were committed, would rebuke it in the severest language. But, at such a moment, one sympathising look from Mrs. Hanley's large, soft eyes was sure to comfort the culprit — be it servant or child — and reinstate him in his own good opinion. The wife never contradicted her husband, yet Mr. Hanley had always a vague idea that her tender, spoiling influence was stronger in the household than his own austere rule. Certain it was that the children clung to her more, and especially Alice, who never had a greater confidante than her mother. And now Alice had got a lover, and they were engaged, as the saying is, to one another, and her father had given them his blessing.

But it was her mother's sympathy the girl's heart yearned for. ' Mamma,' she said, ' tell me you are not jealous. You know my love for you is untouched, unbroken. Alfred's is a new sort of love that never can set aside my dear little mother's place in my heart.' ' You don't need to tell me, child ; I know all about it. Haven't I come through it all with your father and my mother? — and yet they are very different from you and me and Mr. Ashward. But — ah me ! — it's hard, all the same, to have my Alice snatched from me so soon. No, child, a new life begins for you now, and you can never be the same again even to your own mother. But I have confidence in Alfred, that he will make you a good husband ; and I believe you will be happy with him, especially if you, darling, do your part well.' Such was the little talk in the mother's dressing-room.

It was soon over ; and the two mingled again with the lively throng in the drawing-room. The gentlemen had rejoined the ladies, and tea and coffee were being handed round. Alfred Ashward, at one end of the room, was showing some photographic views of The Abbaye, his father's residence, and of Silvermeads, his own estate in the South, to old Dr. Welch, who examined with keen interest the latter, as the future home of his young friend, Alice Hanley. Agnes had risen from the piano, her playing and singing having been deservedly applauded, and now sat in the centre of a knot of ladies round a gipsy-table in the bay window. Here the conversation was being carried on chiefly by Miss Warbel, a rather delicate-looking person of exceedingly juvenile attire, whose age it would have been difficult to divine.

She was the bosom friend of Mrs. Tufty, spent weeks at a time under that lady's roof, and ac- PLEDGED. 7 companied her wherever she was invited. ' An extra ordinarily affectionate, romantic, expansive creature was this Miss Warbel. ' Her heart,' she said herself many a time, ' was much too large for her frail little body.' How she sympathised now with ' dear, darling Alice ' ! Agnes must hear all she felt on the subject, and must tell her in return every detail of the new engagement, else she could not sleep a wink that night. ' You know, Agnes, I consider the gentleman so very good-looking, his figure so aristocratic, and his whole manner so thoroughly gentlemanly ! In fact, if Alice only knew how much I am in love with him, she would never forgive me. But, oh dear ! What have I said ? How frightful !

Oh, don't for the world repeat it ! But, really now, Alice must be a happy girl !' ' I suppose she is,' said Agnes drily. ' I never knew her anything else, even before this came.' 'And don't you envy her?' cried Miss Warbel. ' Not at all,' said Agnes. ' You see, Alice isn't what you would call clever, and so everything satisfies her. I could not be contented with a husband who is not cleverer than I am myself. My idea is that a woman ought not to throw herself away on the first individual who happens to fall in love with her ; but, on the contrary, to reserve herself for some one who will be the reality of her beau ideal; and in the meantime to improve herself in every way, to learn and master everything that comes within her reach. That is why I spend so much time every day on music, so much on drawing, so much on reading ; and, in fact, have my whole week divided into certain hours for study and others for rest and recreation.

And, happen what may in the family, you may be sure I do not allow myself to be disturbed, else there could be no result.' 'Ah, but my dear Miss Agnes, you are so dreadfully intellectual and accomplished, and all that! I do really envy your talents. Would you believe it now, I cannot spell, even enough to write a decent letter ! Just ask Mrs. Tufty. And, as for history and geography and dates, I am as ignorant as a baby ! You see, it has ever been my greatest dread to be called a " blue-stocking." But now that all those things are fashionable, and these horrid female University Examinations are in vogue, I declare I do envy you, dear !' In the meantime, David, the eldest of the family, a handsome, blue-eyed, careless youth of some five-and twenty summers, had proposed to young Finner and Captain Skinner to stroll out for a smoke on the flags of Ormsby Crescent. ' For,' added he in his usual good-natured, disrespectful tone, 'the governor allows no smoking indoors; and I know you are both like me this minute, starving for a draw.' The stars shone out clear, the night was cool and re freshing, and the three, with their hands in their pockets, sauntered up and down, their feet clanking in step on the pavement, whilst from behind the illuminated windows overhead stole forth the sounds of music and laughter. ' I say, you're a lucky dog, old Davy,' remarked Captain Skinner, pausing to whiff out some tobacco-smoke, ' to get such a trump of a new brother-in-law.

Seems a very nice fellow indeed, this Ashward.' ' Oh, first-rate !' cried Davy ; ' though just a bit too much taken up with our sister at present to be much company. And to think of the whole affair coming about through my having met him at the hunt two months ago ! Nice work I had then to obtain the governor's leave for a day's absence from the office. But I'm to have my reward. Ashward says so. When they are married, I'm to have the run of PLEDGED. 9 Silvermeads ; and they say there's not better shooting and fishing in the south of England.' ' And when do you think the marriage is to come off ?' inquired young Finner, squinting intently at the bowl of his meerschaum. At this moment a sound like a deep-drawn sigh issued from among the evergreens that bordered the crescent shaped grass-plot in front of the houses.

The three young men overheard it, and stood still, and it seemed as if they could distinguish the tread of footsteps softly retreating and vanishing into indistinctness. ' I heard some one,' said David decidedly. ' Perhaps the watchman?' suggested young Finner. 'Or some stranger, attracted by the lights and the music,' replied Captain Skinner. And now other feet have turned into the Crescent ; heavy hobnails tramp short and sharp along the kerbstones, accompanied by a variation in clear whistling tones of the well-known melody, 'The Men of Merry England.' The whistler is a young man with a slight, boyish figure, who stares up at the great houses of Ormsby Crescent, and who carries a letter between his singer and thumb. As he approaches the many-lighted windows the whistling ceases, and the hobnails clank less heavily, the figure seems to stop and hesitate, and gazes, now at the open hall-door, now at the trio sauntering up and down. ' Ah !

Rayburn, it's you,' cries out David. ' Want the governor, I s'pose ?' ' Yes, Mr. David, I have got a letter for him of — of some importance. And please is this Number Four?' 'Oh yes, you're all right. Just go in, and ask for himself.' Then David Hanley apologised to his companions for the interruption. ' I take it that's our new hand in the office, although I have not set eyes on him more than twice, having been myself absent of late. Cartrell, the clerk in our room, seems to think a good deal of him, however, for he told me so the other day.' ' Is Cartrell the individual who was playing tennis with your sisters in the Crescent last time I dined with you ?' drawled out Captain Skinner. ' The same,' said David. ' Is he here to-night ?' interrogated young Finner. ' No ; I am sure I don't know why,' returned David musingly. ' I think he's a very nice fellow.

I declare I don't know why he is not here to-night, for he is my particular friend.' Gideon Rayburn, carrying the letter in his hand, was admitted for the first time in his life into the interior of his employer's dwelling, and was somewhat astonished by the luxury that met his eye at every turn, as he was conducted from the large entrance-hall through a corridor furnished with oil-paintings and redolent of hothouse odours, and was safely bestowed in the oaken library by the footman, who lighted a reading-lamp, and then left him for a while to his own meditations. It was a rough pea-jacket Gideon wore, his thick hob nailed boots were gray with the dust, his hands had not been washed since twelve o'clock, and were moreover a little inkstained. Mr. Gideon Rayburn was not accustomed to notice such details ; but standing to-night in Mr. Hanley's elegant study, and making the reflection that Mr. Hanley had once been a poor, simple, rather penniless youth like himself, he became for the first time painfully conscious of certain little defects in his person and attire.

And then he grew uncomfortable as he overheard the strains of music and the buzz of voices from the drawing-room ; and he wished with PLEDGED. 11 all his heart that his interview was over, and he himself safe out again in the open air. ' How long Mr. Hanley keeps me waiting !' he thought; ' and why does he not come at once, and he so very particular and prompt in the office ?' But Mr. Hanley was deeply engaged at this very moment in a discussion with Major Tufty about the new Land Act, and, if he were to retire, Major Tufty might cry 'victory.' He chose, therefore, to call his daughter Ivy, the Hebe of the family, to his side. ' Go, Ivy,' he said, ' and bring young Rayburn here. He has some message from the office for me.' Gideon was somewhat surprised, then, to be aroused from his unpleasant reveries by the pleasant apparition of a gentle little maiden of sixteen, with blue eyes and golden hair, and ■with a particularly sweet, kind expression.

The young man had not had much experience of young ladies ; but this one, at that moment, corresponded to his idea of what an angel might be. She requested him in a low voice to accompany her to her father, and Gideon rose and followed her. Mr. Hanley took the letter, but did not read it at once ; and so Gideon was offered a seat, and invited to wait. And now again the poor young fellow's bashfulness and discom fort returned, as he inwardly contrasted his careless toilet with the well-cut evening costumes of the company gliding about the drawing-room. But Ivy came to the rescue with a cup of coffee on a tiny Japanese tray, followed by her minion, Charlie, bearing light cake. These two, as if by mutual agreement, set themselves to the task of making the newcomer feel comfortable ; and they succeeded. ' Won't you have another cup, Mr. Rayburn ?

Do you take cream and sugar ?' Gideon was in Elysium. What did it matter now if the stout lady at the far end of the room were ogling him through her mother-of-pearl eye-glasses, and a couple of thoughtless young Adonises in swallow-tails raised their eye brows significantly to one another — she, Miss Ivy, had brought him in, and was by him. At last Mr. Hanley broke open the letter, and as he read his face expressed astonishment. Gideon noticed it, and at the same moment he said ' Will you tell me, Miss Ivy, please, which of the ladies here is your second sister, Miss Agnes ?' Ah ! that tall graceful girl, with the clear complexion, regular features, and dark eyes — the most perfect figure in the room. She might have been a princess ! Gideon was not surprised that that was Agnes, from something he had heard of her.

And now Mr. Hanley had risen from Major Tufty's side, and was motioning the young man towards him. 'This is strange news,' he whispered hurriedly, 'about Cartrell's resigning his post. For the next few days you, Rayburn, must undertake some of his duties in the office, in addition to your own, and we shall see if you are qualified to replace him. In that case we should probably advertise for a new hand. You seem intimate with Cartrell. Now, do you know where he has gone, or any of the motives that ' ' Yes, sir, I do,' interrupted Gideon. ' I am his friend ; but I cannot ' ' Oh, ah ! It's all right ; say no more,' cried Mr. Hanley. 'I don't ask you to betray your friend's confidence. Only to-morrow morning, if you see my partner, Mr. Krane, before I come, tell him what I have now said.' Gideon murmured his thanks, and took leave of his employer.

Before departing he glanced once more at the fair form of Miss Agnes at the far end of the room, and heaved PLEDGED. 13 a sigh. Then, exchanging his serious expression for a look of satisfaction, went up to Ivy and bade her 'good-night.' Charlie saw him to the hall-door, and looking up at the many twinkling stars, remarked : ' What a glorious evening it is !' 'The brightest I ever remember,' returned Gideon, gazing up, too, at one particular diamond orb ; and then he hastened away, silent and thoughtful, altogether a different person from what he had been half an hour before. And our betrothed couple ! Have we forgotten them altogether ? If so, they for their part have forgotten you and me, and everybody else in the world except themselves, as people deeply in love with one another are very apt to do.

At the back of Mrs. Hanley's drawing-room there is a little conservatory built out over the tool-house. It is very prettily arranged, with a variety of flowers, ferns, and exotic plants, and can be lighted up with gas. A pale streak of moon light is enough illumination at present for the two lovers, who have just now stolen away here to be for a little together and alone, ere their separation of a few weeks begins. ' Tell me again that you are mine, altogether mine, Alice dear,' says Alfred ; ' and to show me that you are, take, darling, one of these rings, and wear it for me. Can you see them ?' ' Oh yes, I see them perfectly. Look, Alfred, only this one fits quite well. It has an opal in the centre.' ' Does that one please you, love ?' ' Yes, as well as any other, and better, because it fits my finger.' He took her hand in his and kissed it ; kissed the ring and the little hand, and said : ' Now you are mine, and I am yours, and, by this little ring, nobody shall steal you from me.' ' O Alfred, I don't want ever to be stolen away from you.

I am too happy for that !' And so they whispered to one another. But I am afraid we have overheard too much already. There is a sacred domain appertaining to pure love, upon which even the most privileged outsiders have no liberty to intrude.

Chapter II. The Recruit

The city of Castleton played a conspicuous part in the olden days. Its massive fortifications, encircling an ancient cathedral, rendered it a prominent feature in the midst of a rural landscape of hills, glens, and lonely waterfalls. It contained, moreover, as one of its principal public edifices, a grim, heavily-guarded prison with walls like adamant, over which the head of many a traitor had been exposed, as a warning and terror to the country-side in bygone years, when the remnants of the great House of Stuart amused them selves for a while with the exciting pastimes of ' hide and seek ' and ' follow my leader ' on their native soil. At the present day Castleton strikes the tourist as one of the most old-fashioned, out-of-the-way little county-towns in England, with its air of being half lost among the hills, and the wonder is that it can actually be reached by rail.

There is a quaint old inn somewhere near the entrance of the prison, in which the rooms are panelled with oak, and the staircase lined with ancient shields and targets. The landlord has a rare collection of antique armour, hunting-knives, and bows, which it is his great delight to exhibit to an inquisitive stranger ; and his wife has a bond-fide spinning wheel, which she uses as a recreation to herself every after noon. She has, indeed, heard of sewing machines, but she doesn't believe in them. Mrs. Brown may run up her own ' Wheeler and Wilson ' against Mrs. White's ' Singer,' but my good landlady of the Stag's Head has a sovereign con tempt for every new invention she has ever heard of, from a steam-engine to a spring-mattress. Any traveller having to stay at Castleton ought to put up at the Stag's Head, if he desires quietness and simple comfort, with clean and excel lent fare, and the unassuming attentions of as worthy an old couple as ever lived.

It was the prepossessing appearance of the hostess herself, spinning in the door-porch, that decided Alfred Ashward one Saturday evening to seek at the Stag's Head repose and refreshment for himself and his horse. Nor was he disappointed in his expectations. He supped heartily, and slept soundly in a fragrant, dimity-curtained bed, and was only to be roused from his agreeable dreams the next morning by the landlord knocking at least half a dozen times at his door. His toilet completed, Alfred went to have a look at his horse, and being satisfied that the animal was comfortable in its loose box, he sat down to his breakfast. While he enjoys that meal in silence, we will for the first time note the appearance of this young man, whom we have introduced to our readers at the beginning of our story as Miss Alice Hanley's lover.

He was above middle height, with short, smooth, auburn hair and brown eyes. He had no whiskers, but wore a slight, pointed moustache. His clothes were of a light gray, a colour which became him well ; and his figure was fairly proportioned and athletic for his years, which numbered twenty-seven. His manner was calm, and the expression of his face betokened a mixture of modesty and resolution thoughtfulness and content. ' Can you tell me if there is anything worth seeing in this place?' he asked of the landlord. 'I mean, what is a stranger to do with himself here on a Sunday ?' THE RECRUIT. 17 ' Why, sir, there is a very fine Roman Catholic chapel in Hill Lane, where my missus goes sometimes to hear Mass ; and, if you are of the other persuasion, there are services enough for you, and first-rate preachers, as I am told.