The Silence of Dean Maitland. A novel

Part I

" Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou ow'dst yesterday." Ll VOI;. J.

Chapter I

The grey afternoon was wearing on to its chill close ; the dark cope of immovable dun cloud overhead seemed to contract and grow closer to the silent world beneath it ; and the steep, chalky hill, leading from the ancient village, with its hoary castle and church, up over the bleak, barren down, was a weary thing to climb. The solitary traveller along that quiet road moved her limbs more slowly, and felt her breath coming more quickly and shortly, as she mounted higher and higher, and the grey Norman tower lessened and gradually sank out of sight behind her. But she toiled bravely on between the high tangled hedges, draped with great curtains of traveller's joy, now a mass of the silvery seed-feathers which the country children call " old man's beard," and variegated with the deep-purple leaves of dogwood, the crimson of briony and roseberry, the gleaming black of privet, and the gold and orange reds of ivy hangings ; and, though her pace slackened to a mere crawl, she did not pause till she reached the brow of the hill, where the hedges ceased, and the broad white high-road wound over the open down.

Here, where the enclosed land ended, was a five-barred gate in the wild hedgerow, and here the weary pedestrian, depositing the numerous parcels she carried on the ground at her feet, rested, her arms supported on the topmost bar, and her face and the upper portion of her tall figure traced clearly against the grey gloomy sky. Some linnets fluttered out of the hedge beside her, one or two silent larks sprang up from the turf of the downland sloping away from the gate, and some rooks sailed cawing overhead. All else was still with the weird, dreamy stillness that hangs over the earth on a day of chill east-wind haze. There is a brooding expectancy about such a day that works strongly on the imagination, and suggests the dark possibilities of irre sistible Fate. There is an austere poetry in the purply grey, breathless earth and the dark, unchanging sky, and a mute pathos in the quiet hush of weary Nature, thus folding her hands for rest, which has an unutterable charm for some temperaments, and touches far deeper chords than those vibrated by the brilliance and joyous tumult of life and song in the pleasant June-time.

There is some thing of the infinite in the very monotony of the colouring ; the breathless quiet, the vague ness of outline, and dimness ofthe all-enfolding mist are full of mystery, and invest the most commonplace objects with romance. The sense of infinity was deepened in this case by the vast sweep of the horizon which bounded our pedestrian's gaze. The grey fallows and wan stubble-fields sloped swiftly away from the gate to a bottom of verdant pastures dotted with trees and homesteads ; beyond them were more dim fields, and then a wide belt of forest, principally of firs. To the right, the valley, in which nestled the now unseen tower of Chalkburne, widened out, bounded by gentle hills, till the stream indicating its direction became a river, on the banks of which stood the mist-veiled town of Oldport, the tall tower of whose church rose light, white, and graceful against the iron-grey sky, emulating in the glory of its maiden youth — for it had seen but two lustres — the hoary grandeur of its Norman parent at Chalkburne.

Beyond the town, the river rolled on, barge-laden, to the sea, the faint blue line of which was blurred by a maze of masts where the estuary formed a harbour. To the left of the tired gazer stretched a wide champaign, rich in woodland, and bounded in the far distance by two chalky summits, at whose steep bases surged the unseen sea, quiet to-day on the surface, but sullen with the heavy roar of the ground swell beneath. Here and there, in the breaks of wood and forest on the horizon, Alma's accustomed eyes saw some faint grey touches which in bright summer were tiny bays of sapphire sea. Alma Lee herself made a bright point of interest in the afternoon greyness, as she leant wearily, and not ungracefully, on the gate, her face and figure outlined clearly against the dark sky. Her dress was a bright blue, and her scarlet plaid shawl, fastened tightly about her shoulders, revealed and suggested, as only a shawl can, a full, supple form, indicative of youth and health.

Her dark, thick hair was crowned by a small velvet hat, adorned with a bright bird's wing ; and her dark eyes and well-formed features, reposeful and indifferent as they were at the moment, suggested latent vehemence and passion. Her hands and feet were large, the former bare, and wrapped in the gay shawl for warmth. Alma was not thinking of the mystery and infinite possibility suggested by the grey landscape before her; still less was she dream ing of the tragic shades Fate was casting even now upon her commonplace path. Un suspecting and innocent she stood, lost in idle thought, deaf to the steps of approaching doom, and knowing nothing of the lives that were to be so tragically entangled in the mazes of her own. Could she but have had one glimpse of the swift-coming future, wdth what horror would the simple country girl have started back and struggled against the first suspicion of disaster !

The silence was presently broken by four mellow, slowly falling strokes from the grey belfry of Chalkburne ; then all was still again, and Alma began to pick up her parcels. Suddenly she heard the sound of hoofs and wheels, and, dropping her packages, turned once more to the gate, and appeared a very statue of contemplation by the time a dog-cart, drawn by a high-stepping chesnut, and driven by a spick-and-span groom, fair haired and well featured, drew up beside her, and the groom sprang lightly to the ground. " Come, Alma," he said, approaching the pensive figure, which appeared unconscious of him, " you won't say no now ? You look dog-tired." " I shall say exactly what I please, Mr. Judkins," she replied. " Then say yes, and jump up. Chesnut is going like a bird, and will have you at Swaynestone in no time.

Do say yes, do ee now." " Thank you, I intend to walk.' " Just think what a way it is to walk to Swaynestone, and you so tired." " I am not tired." " Then, why are you leaning on that there gate ? " " I am admiring the view, since you are so very inquisitive." " Oh Lord ! the view ! There's a deal more view to be seen from the seat of this here cart, and it's pleasant flying along like a bird. Come now, Alma, let me help you up." " Mr. Judkins, will you have the kindness to drive on ? I said in Oldport that I intended to walk. It's very hard a person mayn't do as she pleases without all this worry," replied Alma, impatiently. "Wilful woman mun have her way," murmured the young fellow, ruefully. " Well, let me carry them parcels home, at least." " I intend to carry them myself, thank you. Good afternoon ; " and Alma turned her back upon the mortified youth, and appeared lost in the charms of landscape.

" Well, darn it ! if you won't come, you won't ; that's flat ! " the young man exclaimed angrily. " This is your nasty pride, Miss Alma ; but, mind you, pride goes before a fall," he added, springing to his perch, and sending the high-stepper flying along the level down-road like the wind, with many expressions of anger and disappointment, and sundry backward glances at Alma, who gazed with unruffled steadiness on the fields. " I wonder," she mused, " why a person always hates a person who makes love to them ? I liked Charlie Judkins well enough before he took on with this love-nonsense." And she did not know that by declining that brief drive she had refused the one chance of escaping all the subsequent tragedy, and that her fate was even now approaching in the growing gloom. But what is this fairy music ascending from the direction of Chalkburne, and growing clearer and louder every moment ?

Sweet, melodious, drowsily cheery, ring out five tiny merry peals of bells, each peal accurately matched with the other, and consisting of five tones. The music comes tumbling down in sweet confusion, peal upon peal, chime break ing into chime, in a sort of mirthful strife of melody, through all which a certain irregular rhythm is preserved, which keeps the blending harmonies from degenerating into dissonance. With a sweep and a clash and a mingling of sleepy rapture, the elfin music filled all the quiet hazy air around Alma, and inspired her wdth vague pleasure as she turned her head listening in the direction of the dulcet sounds, and discerned their origin in the nodding head of a large silk-coated cart-horse looming through the haze. He was a handsome, powerful fellow, stepping firmly up the hill with the happy con sciousness of doing good service which seems to animate all willing, well-behaved horses, and emerging into full view at the head of four gallant comrades, each nodding and step ping as cheerily as himself, wdth a ponderous waggon behind them.

Each horse wore his mane in love-locks, combed over his eyes, the hair on the massive neck being tied here and there with bows of bright wroollen ribbon. Each tail was carefully plaited at its spring from the powerful haunches for a few inches ; then it was tied with another bright knot, beneath which the remainder of the tail swept in untrammelled abundance almost down to the pasterns, the latter hidden by long fringes coming to the ground. The ponderous harness shone brightly on the broad, shininobrown bodies, and, as each horse carried a leading-rein, thickly studded with brass bosses and fastened to the girth, and there was much polished brass about headstall, saddle, and collar, they presented a very glittering appearance. But the crowning pride of every horse, and the source of all the music which was then witching the wintry air, was the lofty erection springing on two branching wires from every collar, and towering far above the pricked ears of the proud steeds.

These wires bore a long narrow canopy placed at right angles to the horse's length, and concealing beneath a deep fringe of bright scarlet worsted the little peal of nicely graduated bells. Balls of the same bright worsted studded the roof of the little canopy, and finished the gay trappings of the sturdy rustics, who bore these accumulated honours with a sort of meek rapture. The waggon these stout fellows drew needed all their bone and sinew to bring it up and down the steep, hilly roads. Its hindwheels were as high as Alma's head ; their massive felloes, shod with double tires, were a foot broad ; the naves were like moderate-sized casks. High over the great hind wheels arched the waggon's ledge in a grand sweep, descending with a boat-like curve to the smaller front wheels, whence it rose again, ending high over the wheeler's haunches, like the prow of some old ship over the sea.

A massive thing of solid timber it was, with blue wheels and red body, slightly toned by weather. On the front, in red letters on a yellow ground, was painted, " Richard Long, Malbourne, 1860." Two human beings, who interrupted the fairy music with strange gutturals and wild ejaculations to the steeds, mingled with sharp whip-cracks, accompanied this imposing equipage. One was a tall, straight-limbed man in fustian jacket and trousers, a coat slung hussar-wise from his left shoulder, and a cap worn slightly to one side, with a pink chrysanthemum stuck in it. His sunburnt face was almost the hue of his yellow-brown curls and short beard ; his eyes were blue ; and his strong, laboured gait resembled that of his horses. The other was a beardless lad, his satellite, similarly arrayed, minus the flower.

Sparks flew from the road when the iron hoofs and heavy iron boots struck an occasional flint. When the great waggon was fairly landed on the brow of the bill, the horses were brought to by means of sundry strange sounds and violent gestures on the part of the men, and, with creaking and groaning and halloing, the great land-ship came to anchor, the elfin chimes dropped into silence, interrupted by little bursts of melody at every movement of the horses, and the lad seized a great wooden mallet and thrust beneath the hind wheel. The carter leant placidly against the ponderous shaft with his face to Alma, and struck a match to kindle his replenished pipe. " Coldish," he observed, glancing with surly indifference towards her. " It is cold," returned Alma, drawing her shawl cosily round her graceful shoulders ; while the wheeler, stimulated into curiosity by his master's voice, turned round to look at Alma, and shook out a little peal of bells, which roused the emulation of his four brothers, who each shook out a little chime on his own account; while the waggoner glanced slowly round the vast horizon, and, after some contemplation, said in a low, bucolic drawl — " Gwine to hrain, I 'lows."

" It looks like it," replied Alma. "How is your wife, William ? " The waggoner again interrogated the horizon for inspiration, and, after some thought, answered with a jerk, " Neuce the same." " I hope she will soon be about again," said Alma ; and the leader emphasized her words by shaking a little music from his canopy, and thus stimulated his brothers to do like wise. " You come home lighter than you set out," she added, looking at the nearly empty waggon, which she had seen pass in the morning filled with straw. William turned slowly round and gazed inquiringly at the waggon, as if struck by a new idea, for some moments ; then he said, "Ay." After this he looked thoughtfully •at Alma and her parcels for some moments, until his soul again found expression in the words, " Like a lift ? " the vague meaning of which wras elucidated by the pointing of his whip towards the waggon.

Alma assented, and wdth the waggoner's assistance soon found herself, with all her merchandise, comfortably installed in the great waggon, which was empty save for a few household and farming necessaries from Oldport. Before mounting — a feat, by the way, not unworthy of a gymnast — she stroked the wheel horse's thick silken coat admir ingly. " You do take care of your horses at Malbourne, William," she said. " I heard father say this morning he never saw a better groomed and handsomer team than yours." William went on silently arranging Alma's seat, and stowing her parcels for her ; but a smile dawned at the corners of his mouth, VOL. i. c and gradually spread itself over the whole of his face, and his pleasure at length found a vent, when he reached the ground, in a sound ing thwack of his broad hand on the wheeler's massive flank — a thwack that set the bells a-tremble on the horse's neck, and sent a sympathetic shiver of music through all the emulous brotherhood.

" Ay," he observed, with a broad smile of admiration along the line of softly swaying tails and gently moving heads, with their nostrils steaming in the cold air ; " he med well say that." " Ay," echoed Jem, the satellite, removing the sledge mallet from the wheel and striding to the front, with a reflection of his chief's pleasure in his ruddy face as he glanced affectionately at the team, " that he med." It was not Alma's admiration which evoked such satisfaction — she was but a woman, and naturally could not tell a good horse from a donkey ; but her father, Ben Lee, Sir Lionel Swaynestone's coachman, a man who had breathed the air of stables from his cradle, and who drove the splendid silk-coated, silver-harnessed steeds in the Swaynestone carriages, his opinion was something. With a joyous crack of the whip, and a strange sound from the recesses of his throat, William bid his team " Gee-up !

" The mighty hoofs took hold of the road, the great wheels slowly turned, a shower of confused harmony fell in dropping sweetness from the bells, and with creaking and groaning, and nodding heads, and rhythmic blending of paces and music, the waggon lumbered ponderously along the level chalk road which led, unenclosed by hedge or fence, over the open down. To ride in a waggon with ease, and at the same time enjoy the surrounding landscape without a constant exercise of gymnastic skill in balancing and counter-balancing the body in response to the heavy swaying and jerking of the unwieldy machine, is difficult ; to sit on the ledge is to be an acrobat ; to lie on the floor is to see nothing but sky, besides having one's members violently wrenched one from the other. Alma, however, was very comfortably placed on a pile of sacks, wdiich served as an arm-chair, deadened the jerking power of the motion, and left her head and shoulders above the ledge, so that she could well see the grey surrounding landscape in the deepening haze.

She leant back with a feeling of agreeable languor, wrapped her hands in her shawl, and gazed dreamily on the down rising steeply to the left, and forming, where chalk had been quarried in one place, a miniature pre cipice, crested with overhanging copse, rich in spring with fairy treasures of violets in white sheets over the moss, clusters of primroses and oxlips among the hazel stumps, blue lakes of hyacinth, and waving forests of anemone ; and she gazed on the sloping fields, farmsteads, and bounding forest to the right, lulled by the steady music of the bells, among which she heard from time to time William's satisfied growl of " Ay, he med well say that," and the occasional song of Jem, as he trudged along by the leader — " For to plough, and to sow, and to reap, and to mow, Is the work of the farmer's bu-oy-oy."

Happy and harmless she looked in her rustic chariot, as they rolled slowly along in the gathering gloom, now over a heathy stretch nearly at the summit of the down, past a lonely, steep-roofed, red-tiled hostelry, with a forge cheerily glowing by its side, whence the anvil-music rose and blended pleasantly with that of the bell-team, and over which hung a sign-board bearing the blacksmith's arms, the hammer, with the couplet inscribed beneath, " By hammer and hand, AU arts do stand." Downhill now, with the heavy drag cast beneath the wheel by mighty efforts on the part of Jem ; then again on the level road, with the chalk down always rising to the left, and falling away to the right ; past farm houses, where the cattle stood grouped in the yard and the ducks quacked for their evening meal ; then once more down a hill, steep and difficult, down to the level of a willow-shaded stream by a copse, outside which daffodils rioted all over the sloping lea descending to the brookside in spring ; and then again up and up, with straining and panting and creak ing, with iron feet pointed into and gripping the steep chalk road, with louder pealing of the fairy chimes, whose rhythm grows irre gular and fitful, with strange shouts and gestures from the men, with " Whup !

" and " Whoa ! " and " Hither ! " with many pauses, when the great heads droop, the music stops, and the mallet is brought into requisition. Happy and harmless indeed was Alma, the lashes drooping over her rose-leaf cheeks, her fancies roving unfettered. She was hoping to get home betimes, for she had something nice for father's tea among her parcels, and she was thinking of the penny periodical folded upin her basket, and wondering how the heroine was getting on in the story which broke off abruptly at such an interesting moment in the last number. Was the peasant girl, in whom Alma detected a striking like ness to herself, really going to marry the poor young viscount who was so deplorably in love with her ? She could not help furnish ing the viscount with the form and features of Mr. Ingram Swaynestone, Sir Lionel's eldest son, though the latter was fair, while the viscount happened to be dark.

Now they are at the summit of the steep hill, and pause to breathe and replenish pipes. On one side is dense coppice ; on the other, Swaynestone Park slopes down in woodland, glade, and park-like meadow to the sea-bounded horizon. Then on again, up hill and down dale, past cottage and farmstead, with the park always sloping away to the sea on the right. Lights glow cheerily now from distant cottage windows, and they can even catch glimpses of lights from the facade of Swaynestone House between the trees occa sionally, while the merry music peals on in its drowsy rhythm, and little showers of sparks rise at the contact of iron-shod wheel and foot with the flinty road. They have just passed the entrance-gates of Swaynestone — lonely gates, unfurnished with a lodge — and the waggon stops with interrupted music at some smaller gates on the other side of the road, where the upland still rises, not in bare down, but in rich meadow, to a hanging wood, out of which peeps dimly in the dusk a small white structure, built with a colonnade supporting an architrave, to imitate a Greek temple — Alma's home.

" Ay ! he med well say that," repeated the waggoner, still digesting the pleasure of Ben Lee's compliment, and slapping the wheel-horse's vast flank, so that the fairy chime began again, and the smack resounded like an accompaniment to its music. It was fairly dark in the road ; the misty dusk of evening was overshadowed by the thick belt of chestnut, lime, and beech bounding the park by the roadside ; and the large horn lantern was handed to Alma to aid her in gathering her parcels together, and its light fell upon her bright dark eyes, and rosy, dimpled cheeks, making her appear more than ever as if her gaudy dress was but a disguise assumed for a frolic. Her almond shaped, rather melancholy eyes sparkled as she looked in the young carter's stolid face, and thanked him heartily. " I have had such a nice ride," she added pleasantly, and the horses one by one dropped a bell-note or two to emphasize her words.

" You must gie I a toll for this yere ride," returned William, with a look of undisguised, but not rude admiration. Alma flushed, and drew back. " How much do you want ? " she asked, taking out her purse, and pretending not to understand. " You put that there in your pocket," he replied, offended, " and gie I a kiss." " Indeed, I shall do nothing of the kind," retorted Alma. " Let me get down. I'll never ride with you again, if I walk till I drop — that I won't." But the waggoner insisted on his toll, and vowed that she should not descend till it was paid ; and poor Alma protested and stormed vainly, whilst Jem leaned up against a horse and laughed, and adjured her to make haste. Alma burst into tears, wrung her hands, and wished that she had not been so obdurate to poor Charlie Judkins. He would not have been so rude, she knew.

Nor, indeed, would William have been so persistent had she not offended him by her unlucky offer of money, and roused the dogged obstinacy of his class. She darted to the other side of the waggon, but in vain ; William was too quick, and she was just on the point of raising her voice, in the hope that her father might be near, when a light, firm step was heard issuing from the park gates, and a clear and singu larly musical voice broke into the dispute with a tone of anthority. " For shame, William Grove ! " it said. " How can you be so cowardly ? Let the girl go directly. Why, it is Alma Lee, surely ! "

Chapter II

The speaker emerged into the little circle of light cast by the lantern — a slight, well-built, youthful figure of middle height yet com manding presence, clad in dark grey, with a round, black straw hat and a neat white necktie, the frequent costume of a country curate in those days, when the clerical garb had not reached so high a stage of evolution as at present. His beardless face made him look still younger than he really was ; his features were refined and clearly cut; his hair very dark ; and his eyes, the most striking feature of his face, were of that rare, dazzling light blue which can only be compared to a cloudless, boon sky in June, when the pale, intense blue seems penetrated to overflowing wdth floods of vivid light. " I waren't doing no harm," returned the waggoner, with a kind of surly respect ; " I gied she a ride, and she med so well gie I a kiss."

" And you a married man ! " cried the indignant young deacon ; " for shame ! " " There ain't no harm in a kiss," growled William, with a sheepish, discomfited look, while he stood aside and suffered the new comer to help Alma in her descent. " There is great harm in insulting a respectable young woman, and taking ad vantage of her weakness. As for a kiss, it is not a seemly thing between young people who have no claim on each other, though there may be no positive harm in it. You ought to know better, William." " There ain't no harm for the likes of we," persisted the waggoner. " 'Tain't as though Alma was a lady ; she's only a poor man's daughter." " And a poor man's daughter has as much right to men's respect as a duchess," cried the young fellow, with animation. "I wonder you can say such a thing, Grove.

And you a poor man yourself, with a little daughter of your own ! How would you like her to be kissed against her will ? " William muttered to the effect that " Any body med kiss she" — which was true enough, as she had seen but three summers yet — and went on twining his whip with a cowed, injured look, while Alma gazed in awed admiration at her handsome young champion, whose kindling eyes seemed to send forth floods of pale-blue light in the gloom. " There is something so unmanly in at tacking a girl's self-respect," continued the eager champion. " I did not think you capable of it, William. A stout fellow like you, a man I always liked. Go home to your wife, and think better of it. I will see you across the meadow myself, Alma, though it is hard that a girl cannot be abroad alone at this hour."

So saying, the young Bayard possessed himself of sundry of Alma's parcels, and with a pleasant " Good night, Jem," turned his back on the waggon and opened the gate, through which Alma passed quickly, followed by her protector, while the cumbrous waggon went on its way to the rhythmic jangle of the sweetly clashing bells, and William trudged stolidly on with his accustomed whip crackings and guttural exclamations, mur muring from time to time with a mortified air, " There ain't no harm in a kiss ! " And, indeed, he meant no harm, though he took care not to relate the incident to his wife ; it was only his rough tribute to Alma's unaccustomed beauty, and signified no more than a gracefully turned allusion in higher circles. " And Mr. Cyril must go a-spiling of she," he added, " as though she didn't look too high already.

But pride goes before a fall, as I've heerd 'un zay." Ominous repetition of Judkins's words ! - Alma, in the mean time, murmured her thanks to her chivalrous protector, and stepped up the dewy meadow with a beating breast and a flushing cheek, her ears tinglino with the words, " A poor man's daughter has as much right to respect as a duchess," her heart swelling at the memory of the courtesy with which Maitland handed her down from the waggon and carried half her parcels ; she knew that a veritable duchess would not have been treated with more honour. All her life she had known Cyril Maitland. She had sported with him over that very lea, where the tall yellow cowslips nodded in spring, and where they had pelted each other with sweet, heavy cowslip-balls ; she had kissed and cuffed him many a time, though he was always " Master Cyril " to the coach man's child ; and, as they grew up, had been inclined to discuss him with a half-respectful, half-familiar disparagement, such as well known objects receive.

Never till that fatal evening had his grace of mind and person and the singular charm of his manner keenly touched her. But when he stood there in the lantern's dim rays, looking so handsome and so animated by the impulsive chivalry with which he defended her, and she heard the musical tones and refined accents of the voice pleading her cause and the cause of her sex and her class, a new spirit came to her — a spirit of sweetness and of terror, which set all her nerves quivering, and opened a new world of wonder and beauty to her entranced gaze. As holy as a young archangel, and as beautiful, he seemed to the simple girl's dazzled thoughts, and she felt that no harm could ever come to her in that charmed presence, no pain ever touch her. All unconscious of the tumult of half conscious emotion awakening beside him, Cyril Maitland walked on, chatting with pleasant ease on all sorts of homely topics, in no wise surprised at his companion's faltering, incoherent replies, which he attributed to the embarrassment from which he had just delivered her.