The Village Blacksmith

Front matter

■ ■ I ■ BV DARLEY DALE, AUTHOR OF "FAIR KATHARINE", "NOAH'S ARK", etc., etc, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : HUTCHINSON & CO., 25. PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1892. PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) BV H. C. A. THIEME OF NIHEGtIEN (HOLLAND) AND 14, BILLITER SQUARE BUILDINGS, LONDON E.C. CONTENTS. VOL. II. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. MRS. CANTER FORGETS HER STOPS I II. AN INFANT CRYING IN THE NIGHT 32 III. CAPTAIN RALEIGH DINES OUT 6l IV. THE FUCHSIA-BELLS 79 V. MARK BROWN IS DIPPED 112 VI. MR. RYOT-TEMPEST DRAWS THE LINE .... I28 VII. MRS. CANTER'S SYSTEM OF THOUGHT .... 162 VIII. MR. RYOT-TEMPEST AND HIS CURATE ARE LEFT IN THE LURCH 182 IX. THE ARCHDEACON'S SILK STOCKINGS .... 2O4 X. THE ROBBERY 234 XI. MARK'S REVENGE

Chapter I. Mrs

CANTER FORGETS HER STOPS. AysRS. Canter despised gardens. A drying-ground she could see some use in, but a lawn and flowerbeds were like most people, she was wont to say, good for nothing except to make work for others to do. Accordingly Mrs. Canter's garden was a drying-ground. Mary Jane did her best to redeem its ugliness by cultivating a few flowers, but her efforts were damped by the wet blankets which her mother literally, as well as figur atively, threw over her plants. The long grass was beyond Mary Jane, but she sowed seeds and planted bulbs, and Mrs. Canter VOL. II. B trod on the seeds and the bulbs as it suited her convenience. Still there was a survival of the fittest, and some crocuses and daffodils, with a few tulips, already rewarded the child's labour, though a prop might any day be driven remorselessly through her choicest roof if it facilitated her mother's operations.

Three days out of the seven, sheets and towels, shirts and petticoats floated in the air over Mary Jane's flow7ers, and were periodically examined with a critical eye by her mother. On the morning following Alark's midnight adventures, Airs. Canter was in her drying-ground pegging some linen on the lines to dry when she was interrupted by the postman. Good-morning, Airs. Canter. Busy as usual?" " Yes ; life's for work, not for play. I was just thinking there are a good many folks in the world would be a deal better for bleaching, as well as my linen. I know two or three I should like to peg on this line w7ith these clothes for an hour or two. " Mrs. Canter forgets her Stops. 3 Ladies or gentlemen?" asked the postman, " Both. One is a lady; a real lady too, a widow, who is going to be married again to-morrow, more shame for her; and the other is a man; at least he ought to be ; but poor things as they all are, he is hardly worthy the name.

However, Mark Brown'll come to the gallows one day without any help from me, I daresay." " Oh! I was half afraid you meant me. I bring more sorrow than comfort to most people in the course of the year, I fear." " Ah ! comfort is for heaven, " said Mrs. Canter, unconsciously quoting our greatest poet. " Well, here is a letter for you, Mrs. Canter ; I hope you'll find some comfort in that." " Not likely. I'll take it as soon as I have propped up this line. Strange, isn't it ! One prop w7ill keep a whole line full of clothes off the ground, just as one sensible woman will keep a whole family of fools out of the gutter." " Ah ! I should not mind being one of the family if you were the prop," said the postman, w7ho, though ten years her junior, was a great admirer of Airs. Canter. " Air. Lane, I am a widow," replied Airs.

Canter, putting her arms akimbo and facing her admirer with great dignity. " I know you are. If you had a husband living I should not have said it," said Air. Lane, who was a brave man in his way. " As I said before, Air. Lane, I am a widow, and I haven't waxed wanton yet; when I do I'll let you know7. Alary Jane, let me catch you out here with that baby before breakfast again, and I'll wait on you," said Airs. Canter, whose temper was ruffled ; not by the postman's wooing, or Alan Jane's imprudence, but by the thought of Air. Ryot Tempest's second marriage, which was uppermost in her mind to-day. The postman saw the moment was not propitious for pressing his suit, and de- Airs. Canter forgets her Stops. 5 parted; and as Mary Jane knew by experience the sensation of being waited on by her mother w7as not a pleasant one, she also beat a hasty retreat.

And Airs. Canter, having hung out her linen, proceeded to read her letter. It was from a friend of Reuben's, and it gave so bad an account of him that Mrs. Canter, who was feeling very anxious as to the effect Janet's arrival might have on her brother, decided to go over for the day and see him. She had an ulterior motive, but that she did not acknowledge even to herself. This was, that she intended to call on Air. Ryot Tempest and give him the benefit of her opinion on second marriages in general, and his own in particular. " And I shan't mind my stops to-day, as Reuben says, I can tell him," said Airs. Canter to herself, as she hastily assumed her weeds, which she always wore on Sundays and when she went out beyond the limits of the drying-ground. To forget her stops, in other words to forget herself, was, in the blacksmith's opinion, one of Norah's faults, and if present on such occasions he was wont to pull her up by saying : " Alind your stops, Norah.

" To-day, however, Airs. Canter seated her portly person in the train with the deliberate intention of not minding her stops. In fact, there was every prospect of her omitting them altogether, particularly if she arrived too late to catch a glimpse of Vera: which she did. During the journey Airs. Canter's mind was occupied not as might have been supposed with her brother's illness, but with the enormity of Air. Ryot Tempest's conduct in giving Vera a stepmother so soon after her own mother's death. "He should have said no, for she asked him, I'll be bound. Half the women do it is my belief, or there would not be so many marriages. Airs. Jamieson did, as sure as my name is Canter. She might not have said it in plain English, perhaps; she is too cunning for that; but she held up the apple and Master took and ate it like ninety-nine men out of every hundred have done since Adam's time. 'Taint as if they were young, either; there might be some excuse then; but it is true enough, no fool like an old fool !

It would be a good day's work to put a stop to that marriage, and I am not so sure I can't do it. Perhaps if Madam Jamieson knew Alaster Rex had married the blacksmith's daughter, she would not be so keen about marrying his father, for she is as puffed up with pride as an adder with poison, if half I hear of her is true. And she shall know it to-day, as sure as I am a laundress. " Thus mused Norah as the train bore her past the primrose-covered banks which would have delighted Alary Jane's eyes. But her mother was too full of her resolution to try and stop her late master's marriage to pay any attention to primroses. She was impatient to get to Woodford, for now that she had decided on her course of action she found she would have to make haste or she would not do all she wanted to do in the day.

She decided to call at the Rectory and see what was to be done with the bridegroom on her way up to Reuben's cottage ; there she would have some dinner and then get a lift over to Airs. Jamieson's, and give that lady a little wholesome advice before she returned to Alarling. However, in this case circumstances somewhat changed Airs. Canter's plans. In the first place, when she reached the Rectory she found no one, home ; Vera had left two hours earlier, and Air. Ryot Tempest was in the church superintending the decorations for his wedding the next day. The bishop w-as to perform the ceremony, but the wedding was to be a very quiet one, as both bride and bridegroom were still in mourning. This in formation Norah learnt from Alary the parlour-maid. She received it with sundry sniffs and snorts of indignation and sarcastic comments ; and having obtained it she declined to go indoors and rest, but said she would look in at the church and speak to the Rector there.

The bump of reverence was not much developed on Airs. Canter's head; she had as little of that quality for places as she had for people; so she walked up the aisle of the little church, expressing her opinion on what she saw, aloud, for the benefit of the decorators. About half-a-dozen girls and some children were very busy twining garlands of flowers round the pillars; Mr. Ryot Tempest was nailing a text over the Communion-table ; two ladies were trimming up the font; and another lady in widow's mourning, whom Norah knew to be Mrs. Jamieson, was sitting on a front bench looking on with an air of interest. "Well, I am sure! one fool makes many. Turning a church into a ball-room because the parson is marrying a second time ! The font, too ! Law, they will never want that, I should think ! I'd have let that alone for decency's sake if I had been any of them.

Humph ! Pretty goings on indeed. I wonder if there'll be a sane person left in the parish to-morrow ? " As Mrs. Canter gave vent to these sentiments, she was walking up the aisle looking about her in all directions and giving her head a series of scornful little tosses which jerked her crape veil about in a comical fashion. Airs. Jamieson looked round and wondered w7ho this portly widow with so little regard for propriety could be ; though as Airs. Canter's fame had reached her ears, she shrewdly expected it was no less a person. Her behaviour was so strange that she decided to anti cipate the office of rectoress by a few hours and administer a gentle reproof. " Aly good woman, do you know this is a church?" she said in a low voice as she rose and went towards Airs. Canter. " To be sure I do ; I am not blind.

I have come to speak to Mr. Tempest, if he don't tip up that table he is standing on and break his neck before I reach him." " The altar, you mean," said Airs. Jamieson, with a pious shudder at such irreverence. " No, I don't, ma'am. A spade is a spade, not a spoon, and a table is a table, not an altar; and that is nothing but a common deal table on four legs, for I covered it myself with red velvet, silk face and cotton back," replied Mrs. Canter aloud. Any further revelations with regard to the table Mrs. Canter might have made were cut short by Airs. Jamieson, who, secretly amused at her origin ality, was nevertheless anxious to get her out of the church and the hearing of the decorators before she gave any more scandal by her criticisms of their work. " Suppose you come into the porch and tell me what you want, " suggested Airs.

Jamieson in a low voice. "Certainly, ma'am." And the two widows made for the porch, Airs. Jamieson swimming gracefully down the aisle, her silk and crape rustling gently as she went, Airs. Canter marching behind her in loud creaking boots. A striking contrast they made, though both were fine women. At the font Mrs. Jamieson paused, and suggested that as the occasion was a wedding, to decorate the font was an æsthetic anachronism, and the flowers had better be put on the altar. " I want to tell Air. Tempest some news, and to give him my opinion of his marriage," said Norah, as Airs. Jamieson closed the church door. " Air. Ryot Tempest will, I am sure, be flattered ; and as I am interested in the matter myself, may I ask what you think of it? " " Do you wish to know my real opinion, ma'am ? " Airs.

Jamieson signified that she did. " Well, I think Alaster ought to be ashamed of himself at his time of life, and he a grandfather. Airs. Canter forgets her Stops. 13 too. And as for Mrs. Jamieson, whose first husband is hardly cold in his grave, whipping is too good for her." Oh! Mrs. Canter, where are your stops? "I am Mrs. Jamieson," said the bride-elect, with an air intended to crush her opponent utterly. She might as well have tried to crush stones with an air as Airs. Canter; she was a woman no one could repress ; a traction-engine alone would have sufficed to crush her. "Oh, I knew that, ma'am," she replied. "You asked me my opinion of Mr. Tempest's marriage; I was not going to alter my opinion or to tell a story because you were the bride." The woman's insolence was really sublime. It amused Mrs. Jamieson though she was the victim of it, and she wisely decided the best course was to treat the matter as a joke.

" Come, come, Mrs. Canter ; you are Airs. Canter, I am sure, for no one else could be so impertinent. i4 The Village Blacksmith We won't quarrel; perhaps you'll be following my example some day." Airs. Canter thought of the postman, and gave an indignant snort by way of protest. " But, tell me ; what do you mean by Air. Ryot Tempest being a grandfather? He is nothing of the kind," continued Airs. Jamieson. " Begging your pardon, Airs. Jamieson, what I say is true. I w-as with Alaster Rex w-hen he w-as married, and I was with his wife when the baby was born. If it had not been for me there's no telling what might have happened ; but Alaster don't know it yet — that's what I am going to see him about. Just then Airs. Jamieson's carriage, which was waiting for her, drew up at the gate, and as she turned to go to it she asked, casually: " Indeed.

I don't think Air. Ryot Tempest is aware of it. And whom did he marry ?" " Aly niece, Janet Foreman, the blacksmith's daugh ter," said Airs. Canter coolly, secretly enjoying the sensation her news must create in Mrs. Jamieson's mind. I don't believe it," said that lady angrily. " Perhaps not, ma'am, but that won't separate them." " You are a designing woman, " said Mrs. Jamieson, losing her temper; and turning abruptly on her heel she sw7ept down the gravel-path to her car riage. "Ah! the saucepan must call the kettle black," remarked Mrs. Canter, and congratulating herself on having had the last word, she re-entered the church, and seeing Air. Ryot Tempest was no longer there, she marched straight to the vestry and knocked imperatively at the door. The little Rector had that morning received a present from his bride.

The present was a cassock, a garment he never had worn, and, had he pleased himself, never would wear, regarding it as he did as a rag of popery. But Airs. Jamieson had begged him as a personal favour to do so ; it was so much more reverent than a coat she affirmed, though how an article of clothing could be considered reverent Mr. Ryot Tempest failed to see. However, for her sake, he had consented. He had just succeeded in buttoning his little self into this garment, and was craning his person about, endeavouring to see the effect in the little square looking-glass which hung in the vestry, when Norah's knock startled him. "Romish; decidedly Romish; but I think it has a dignified appearance," he muttered complacently as he opened the vestry-door, w-hich he had taken the precaution of locking while he made his way into this reverent clerical garb.

Mrs. Canter was undoubtedly the last person in the world Mr. Ryot Tempest either expected or wished to see at that moment, and he was uncom fortably conscious of the cassock, which he knew would provoke her criticism, as Norah marched in. " Norah Canter ! dear me, I am surprised to see you here. Is Reuben worse?" " Not that I know of, sir. But excuse me, Air. Tempest, w-hat have you got on?" said Airs. Canter, holding her clasped hands in front of her and eyeing her master up and down with curiosity. "Aly cassock; it is a modern fashion; one must move with the times, " said Air. Tempest in an apologetic manner. "I don't think you'll sir; and as for the times my time is precious. I married again to-morrow. move far in that concern, they are bad indeed. But hear you are going to be Mr. Tempest."

"Yes, the Lord has chastened me with mercy; He has taken away the wife of my youth, but He has vouchsafed to supply her place " " Remarkably quickly," interrupted Mrs. Canter. " I don't believe the Lord had anything to do with it ; He is too good to go and give Miss Vera a stepmother like Madam Jamieson. So soon after VOL. II. C her poor mother's death, too ! But you are putting a rod in pickle for your own back, let me tell you, Mr. Tempest, if you marry Airs. Jamieson." " We will not discuss my marriage, Norah. What have you come to me about? I was just going to see your brother when you came in. Of course you know he has been taken to the hospital ? " said Air. Tempest, hoping to divert Airs. Canter's mind from his affairs to those of her own. " I didn't know any such thing, sir. Where is Janet, then ?

She came home last night, " exclaimed Airs. Canter, so astonished that Air. Ryot Tempest's hope was realised, and she forgot all about the w7edding. " Janet ! I know nothing about her. She has been away from home for months in service, I under stood. " "Janet came here yesterday to nurse her father. She has been with me all the winter." " Dear me ! this is very odd. I have heard no Airs. Canter forgets her Stops. 19 mention of Janet. Reuben was found insensible by the canal last night, and taken to the hospital by Mark Brown and two other men." " Then, Air. Tempest, as sure as you are a living man something dreadful has happened. Janet must be found, and you must help me to find her," exclaimed Mrs. Canter. " But I am very busy. I have not a moment to spare. I am to be married to-morrow." " Alore shame to you, sir. Your wedding will have to wait till Janet is found: that can easily be postponed.

In fact, if it was put off altogether it would be more to your credit, Air. Tempest." " Norah, really you are forgetting yourself strange ly," and Mr. Tempest drew himself up in his cassock and inwardly hoped it lent him an air of dignity to compensate for its Romish tendency. " Not so strangely as you are forgetting your poor wife, Mr. Tempest," interrupted Norah. " I really cannot allow this. I — I — I must ask you to leave the vestry unless you remember to whom you are speaking," said Mr. Tempest, pulling at the sash of his new cassock in his nervousness. " You may ask, but I am not going till I have told you all I have to tell, Mr. Tempest," returned the irrepressible Airs. Canter. " Say what you have to say, then, please, for I have no time to lose." " No more have I, Air. Tempest, so I may as well tell you at once.

Janet must be found, and you must help me to find her, for she is Alaster Rex's wife." "Janet! Janet Foreman! " almost shrieked the Rector. "Janet Tempest, you mean, sir. She was married to Alaster Rex in my presence last July, and their baby was born five weeks ago. Janet came here with the child last evening, and as sure as I stand here something must have happened. What was Reuben doing by the canal in the middle of the Mrs. Canter forgets her Stops. 21 night? What was Alark Brown doing? Where is Janet? Air. Tempest, we must find her." But Air. Ryot Tempest was so dumbfounded by the startling news he had just heard, that he could do nothing but ejaculate "Janet! Janet Foreman! the blacksmith's daughter ! " "Janet Tempest! your son's wife, sir; as good a girl as ever breathed. He insisted on keeping his marriage a secret for fear you should not let him have the rest of the money you have promised him; and Janet, silly thing! agreed to be silent, though I told her she was wrong.

I expect Reuben has seen the baby, and that has made him worse; for I believe Janet is that silly she'd rather die herself, or see her father die, than disobey her hus band. Something has happened. That magpie didn't cross my path for nothing this morning as I went to the station. Put on your coat, Mr. Tempest, and come w7ith me to the hospital. Perhaps we shall hear something there." "I'll— I'll follow you," said Mr. Tempest, who was trembling with suppressed emotion. And he looked so miserable and so incapable of action just at present that Mrs. Canter pitied him, and had the grace to leave him alone. It was a terrible blow to him to learn that his only son — a Ryot Tempest — had made such a mesalliance. Pride of birth was the Rector's great est weakness; he was wounded in his most vul nerable spot.

A Ryot Tempest had stooped from the eminence on which a beneficent Providence had placed both Ryots and Tempests, and had picked up a wife from the gutter. It was w7icked ; it was cruel; it was almost unbearable! And Airs. Jamieson ? What w7ould she say ? He must tell her, of course, and he was by no means sure that she would not break off her marriage ; she would, in his opinion, be quite justified in doing so. Perhaps in his heart of hearts he half hoped she would, for he had some secret qualms as to Airs. Canter forgets her Stops. 23 the wisdom of his choice. The cassock worried him, and he pulled it off and put on his coat ; but the trouble Airs. Canter had brought him was not so easily laid aside. Not even by his first wife's death-bed had he felt more miserable than he now did on the eve of his second marriage.

He thought of Vera, and his conscience told him he was not treating her as her mother would have liked him to do. Was this low marriage of Rex's a judgment on him for refusing to accept Captain Raleigh as a son-in-law? Should he relent and send for Captain Raleigh? Would the equilibrium of the Ryot Tempest family be restored if, now that Rex had dragged down the male side of the house, Captain Raleigh were put into the other scale? Air. Ryot Tempest could not decide this knotty question. He felt utterly miserable. His wife dead ; his son married to a daughter of the people — for so he phrased his trouble ; his own daughter's life The Village Blacksmith. made unhappy by his act; his own future happiness doubtful; he almost wished he were lying by the side of the wife of his youth, the love of his life, at Avranches.

He sank into a chair, and bending his chin on his chest, covered his eyes with one of his hands, and sat there for half-an-hour. When at last he got up, his eyes were red w7ith weeping, though it was neither Rex nor A^era he had been thinking of, but their mother, whom he had truly loved, though he wras marrying another wife the next day. Unless — there was a fear, a chance, a hope — Mrs. Jamieson might decline to connect herself with the blacksmith's family. He must go and see her, and communicate the disastrous news. But then he remembered Janet had to be found before he would be allowed to attend to his own affairs ; so he went home, intending to send Alark out to institute inquiries. There, as he entered the house, to his dismay, he heard Norah's voice inquiring for Mrs. Canter forgets her Stops. 25 him, a sound about as welcome to him as the baying of the hounds to the hunted stag; but wel come or unwelcome he must consent to see her, and learn if Janet Foreman ; no, Janet Tempest — Rex must drop the Ryot — were found.

Mrs. Canter was a woman who rose to the occasion. In cases of emergency she was invaluable. Water was her element, whether we take it figuratively. as a type of trouble and unrest, or literally as the medium through which her professional duties were performed. She revelled in troubles, she delighted in washing. When things all went smoothly around her, and there was no washing to be done, her temper was ruffled. But now Mr. Tempest knew by the subdued tone she was speaking in something serious had happened. Norah was calm and self possessed, her surroundings were therefore in a state of chaos. " Here is the master. Reuben is very bad indeed, sir. The doctor says it'll go very hard with him," said Airs. Canter, as the Rector entered the hall. " Indeed, Norah, I am very sorry to hear it ; what is the matter?"

" Brain-fever. The doctor says he must have had a terrible shock last night. He is delirious, and keeps saying " " Come into my room, Norah," interrupted the Rector. "And tell Alark I want him," he added to Alary. " All he says is, ' The child, the child, I have lost the child,' but whether he saw Janet last night or not I can't make out; he does not mention her name," proceeded Norah. " Perhaps he means the baby," suggested the Rector. " He does not know she has one, unless she told him last night. If so that would account for the shock, as Janet never told him she was married, I am sure. But it's no use wondering what a delirious man means. The worst of it is, sir, there is no Airs. Canter forgets her Stops. 27 sign of Janet. I have been up to the cottage since I saw you; the key was in Reuben's pocket; and she does not seem to have been home at all.

Yet Mark Brown says she called him last night." "Come in, Alark," interrupted the Rector, as Mark knocked at the study-door. " Perhaps you can help us. Just be good enough to tell us as quickly as possible how you found Reuben Foreman last night. How came you to know he was lying insensible by the canal, Mark?" Well, sir, it was the mussels," said As ark, The mussels! what do you mean?" " We had mussels for supper in the kitchen, sir, and I could not sleep after I got to bed, so I put on my clothes and sat by the window looking at the moon, for it was as light as day. Presently I saw Reuben come through our grounds by the short cut from his cottage, and as I knew he was ill, I wondered what he could be doing. The more I wondered, the less I liked it. So at last, asking your pardon for the liberty I took, which I know was not quite square, I slipped dow7n and went out after him.

I went down the drive, for I heard the gate go, but when I got to the canal I saw nothing of Reuben till I walked a little way, and there, by the hollow-tree, I found him insensible. I saw he was alive, and I went and knocked up the Liddiatts, and we took him to the cottage-hospital. And that is every word I know7, sir." Mark said all this as coolly as if it were an exact narrative of what had taken place, and Air. Ryot Tempest believed him implicitly. Not so Airs. Canter ; her opinion of Alark Brow-n did not permit her to put the slightest faith in his story. " I thought Janet came and called you, " said Norah. "Janet! I haven't seen her since she left here six months ago, as true as I am a living man ! " " That will do, Mark ; there is no need for strong language; we believe all you have told us," said the Rector.

Mrs. Canter forgets her Stops. 29 "I don't, sir; I don't believe half. Mark Brown, if you have done anything to Janet, it'll be the worst day's work you ever did in your life. Why did you tell the Liddiatts she came for you and was gone for the doctor ? " " It was not true if I did. But though I didn't see her, Janet was home last night." "How do you know?" asked his listeners in the same breath. " Because I found this inside the tree close by Reuben." And, as Alark spoke, he laid the little pink baby's sock he had picked up by his master, and gave Airs. Canter a triumphant leer. " That is the child's, sir ; I knitted it myself, and I saw Janet put it on the baby when she left my house. She has been home, that is certain. As for Mark, we shall never get the truth out of him, so the sooner you send him about his business, the better," said Mrs. Canter.