Dorothy Saddington

Chapter I

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; These three alone lead life to sovereign power." — Tennyson. S W Q» J I L D clouds were hurriedly chasing one another ByiWB| across the inky sky. Strong gusts of wind drove lF™Tral the rain in heavy splashes against the drawing-room windows of Fernecliffe Manor, where Lady Castletown and her three daughters were seated on a chill October evening awaiting an arrival. " I wonder if Philip will be very much altered after an absence of seven years," said Anne, a tall, handsome brunette, who was arrayed in a tea gown of heliotrope brocade, with a pearl-tinted design upon it. " At any rate, he won't have to slave away in America any longer," replied Avis, an indolent specimen of humanity, fond of novel reading and reclining upon the sofa. " Work is a disgrace to no man," put in Hope, the A _.orotfji,i S'aooington. youngest of the three sisters.

" It is only a disgrace when men won't work." " With the Radgate Park Estate to look after, your brother will have quite enough work to do, my dear," said Lady Castletown. " Very good of his cousin to leave it to him, I'm sure. And three thousand a year to keep it up with is quite a nice little sum. It was so unexpected, too ! " " I daresay you wish we were all as well provided for as Philip is, don't you, mother ? " enquired Avis. " I wish you may all marry rich men," replied Lady Castletown. " I don't want to marry anyone," cried Hope. " Books are far more interesting than men." " Ah, you're the studious one of the family," said Anne. " However, I don't suppose anyone will want to marry us, because we haven't heaps of money." " If it were not for my own private fortune, which is just enough to keep us going comfortably, I'm sure I don't know what we should do.

Your poor father left me nothing but the title," said Lady Castletown, discontentedly. " A title is better than nothing," said Hope. " But you want money as well," remarked Avis. " Well, mother has quite plenty, and more than enough for us all," said Hope. "People are so greedy," she con tinued, "when they have sufficient, then they always want more." " Especially men," returned Avis. " Oh, men are horrid," replied the girl, " they all marry for money." " I think Hope is right," said Anne. " I believe there is _8arotI.g &aoot'ngtou. 3 very little love to be had anywhere in the world in these days. Men are so cold and indifferent, and those people who happen to have feelings are always being hurt by the apathy of others." " Now, Anne, don't get sentimental and make yourself ridiculous," said Lady Castletown, severely.

" You are the eldest of the family, and should set your sisters a good example by marrying well. If you do anything contrary to my wishes in this respect, not a farthing of my money shall be yours." Lady Castletown was an aristocrat to the core, very proud and determined— a personage rather to be feared than loved. Hitherto her daughters had never dreamt of thwarting her in any way, and had always been obedient to her slightest command. In her young days she had been quite a beauty, and now at sixty-five years of age was still an exceedingly pretty woman. Her hair was quite white, and her com plexion remarkably clear. She was of a medium height, and always wore black, which enhanced the effect and becoming ness of her widow's cap, with its flowing ends. " You forget, mother, that Philip is the eldest," said Avis, " and if he is as good-natured at twenty-five as he was at eighteen years of age, perhaps he will share some of his three thousand with us."

" I trust Philip will have grown too wise ever to encourage his sisters in doing anything foolish, or else I shall wish the fortune had never been left to him," said Lady Castletown. " The American notion of equality and fraternity I cannot endure ! " " Just look at the time ! " exclaimed Anne. " It is half- JBorotrjg £aoawgtoii. 4 past seven, and Philip ought to have been here at six o'clock." " Well, you know Yorkshire moors are not the easiest places to drive across upon a dark night," said Avis. " You need not try and make us all as nervous as yourself, Anne." " I think I hear wheels now," said Lady Castletown, rising to draw aside the blind, and peer into the darkness. "I don't! It is impossible to hear anything distinctly. The river is rushing like a torrent, and the roar is perfectly deafening," said Hope.

But Lady Castletown was right. Even as she stood at the window a carriage stopped, and the butler and footman were heard hurrying across the hall to throw open the doors. With a rush the girls precipitated themselves out ofthe room. A sudden gust of wind extinguished the hall lamp just as the foremost of them (seeing only one person) had flung her arms round a tall, warmly enveloped figure mounting the steps, and was preparing to give him a hearty kiss, when a pleasant but utterly strange voice said, whilst gently dis engaging the clinging arms, " I think you are making a mistake. This is not your brother." Immediately she fell back in utter consternation, and the three sisters were not unthankful for the darkness. The light was quickly rekindled, and the rustle of Lady Castletown's black satin dress announced her advance to welcome home her son.

The girls could not tell whether Philip had been a witness to the foregoing scene or not. At any rate he said nothing, and amid the bustle of greetings, questions and So ro Hit. giaooingtait. 5 exclamations about his not having altered in the very least, the stranger was momentarily forgotten. At last Sir Philip, recollecting, drew him into their midst. " This is my friend Saddington, mother. The best fellow I ever met. Be kind to him, sisters mine." " What name did you say ? " " Vivian Lawrence Saddington," repeated Sir Philip. With a start of horrified surprise Lady Castletown retreated a step, letting her outstretched hand drop to her side. Then with an evident effort at self-control she made the young man a very distant bow. The girls endeavoured to atone for their mother's apparent coldness by their own cordiality, and did their best to make him welcome.

" I had hard work enough to bring him along with me," said Sir Philip, " he was so extremely afraid of intruding." " I am indeed grateful to you, Lady Castletown, for shelter at least to-night, spoke the young man ; " the Yorkshire inns do not appear very inviting." " Then you have not been in these parts before ? " enquired Lady Castletown, almost eagerly. " Never ! " replied Saddington. Meanwhile the girls were devouring his face and admiring his handsome features, as he stood erect before their mother with the firelight shining upon his golden brown hair, and in his dark grey eyes ! Their own brother, with his stout, square-built form and reddish complexion, was not to be compared with this grandly built man. They felt at home with him at once, for he possessed the most pleasant and genial manner of anyone whom they had ever met.

One thing disturbed them — they observed all that evening their mother SDorotrjj) £aootngton. spoke as little as possible, and kept stealing furtive glances at him when he was occupied in conversation with them selves. Subsequently none of the girls dare question Lady Castletown, but when alone together they spoke in awed whispers about her strange and unusual behaviour. Perhaps after all Lady Castletown might have meant nothing by it, they argued. The sudden introduction of a stranger was possibly a little distasteful upon the very first night of her son's home coming. Be that as it may, when night came and they had all retired, Lady Castletown paced her room with unwonted perturbation. What was it so familiar to her about this stranger, she wondered ? Not the face. That she knew she had not seen.

Was it the voice that stirred some memory in her heart, that perplexed and puzzled her every time its rich, musical accents fell on her ear ? Yet, where could she have heard it before ? Suddenly a thought flashed upon her, and the hot colour flushed into her cheeks.

Chapter II

" I see the rocky siphons stretch'd immense, The mighty reservoirs, of harden'd chalk, Or stiff-compacted clay, capacious form'd. O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores, The crystal treasures of the liquid world, Through the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst ; And, welling out, around the middle steep, Or from the bottoms of the bosom'd hills, In pure effusion flow." — Tlie Seasons. a ON'T leave us yet, Saddington. Nobody expects you. Mother, do ask him to stop. I met him on board the Etruria, and persuaded him to come all this way on purpose to see my home. Now he says he thinks he ought to be off. But your well known hospitality will not suffer him to leave, I'm sure." Thus spake Sir Philip at breakfast the following morning. Notwithstanding, however, this allusion to her powers of entertainment, Lady Castletown did not press her son's guest to remain.

On the contrary she said, " If Mr. Saddington thinks his duty calls him elsewhere at once, I should be sorry to urge him to prolong his visit." JBorntljn Js-aooington. " Many thanks, Lady Castletown," replied the young man, easily : " but there is no real urgency in the case. Even my mother is not aware that I am in England. I am, however, anxious to go to London in order to get work." " Well, you'll stay to-day at all events," said Sir Philip. " I am going to drive the girls over presently to my new place. We should all like to explore, I think ? " " Oh, that we should ! " agreed his sisters. " And Mr. Saddington must come with us." " Then that settles it," said Sir Philip. " I shall like it indeed," replied the young man, emphatically. Lady Castletown made no remark, but her daughters fancied that she did not look very well pleased, and, more over, she declined to accompany their expedition.

" Now you will see the beauty of the Yorkshire dales, Mr. Saddington," said Avis, as the carriage rolled over the stone bridge which spanned the little river Feme, rushing rapidly past the garden in front of their home. " I should think the late rains will show all the waterfalls to advantage, and they appear to be both numerous and striking, with their rocky and woody accompaniments," he replied. " Yes, and our little river flows with a very rapid course to-day, after collecting so many tributary streams," said Anne. " There is no English county in which romantic scenes are so abundant as in Yorkshire," observed Sir Philip. " Hill and dale, wood and water, and all the varieties of landscape you'll find, as well as cheerfulness and good-humour amongst the inhabitants." SBorcithg jg-aaoington. 9 " I believe the road from our little village to Settle is reckoned by the Poet Gray among the most striking ' scenes and situations ' in this part of Yorkshire," said Hope.

"That's right! Air your knowledge, Hope, and show Saddington that you don't read for nothing," laughed her brother. " Ah, you know it all by heart, Philip, but as Mr. Sad dington is quite a stranger to Yorkshire I thought he would not mind being told a little about it." " Indeed, I am only too pleased to have this opportunity of making the acquaintance of such grand scenery," said Saddington. " What a romantic situation has your hand some church ! " " Yes," replied Anne, " it stands quite on an eminence, solitarily overlooking the falls. I often think the rural churchyard, the dying sounds of water, amidst woods and rocks, wildly intermixed, and the variety and magnitude of the surrounding hills, concur to render this scene both awful and picturesque in a high degree." " What a very curious sign, Hark-to-Melody Inn," remarked Saddington, as the carriage bowled past a little wayside public-house, near which stood two or three poor cottages.

" Yes, it belongs to the village of Mossgill, where is a waterfall which makes a grand vertical fall of twenty-five yards, and then rushes down the rocky bed of a ravine," said Hope ; " and," she continued, " if Philip won't mind hear ing again a little about what he already knows, a mile farther is Milfields Fall, a fine cascade ; and, about five miles up the dale from Mossgill, is another force, where the Eoratbg jg'aoatnatan. water falls in one vast sheet from a ledge of rocks ninety nine feet in perpendicular height. The ravine or chasm, which extends below the fall, is bounded on each side by huge masses of rock, and is about three hundred yards in length." " What is that large building on the right of the village amongst the trees ? " enquired Saddington. " That is called The Towers — my uncle and Cousin Alison have just come to live there," replied Anne.

" Uncle married a French lady," she continued, " and has lived away from his property quite twenty years. His wife died recently, and now he has determined to settle down in England once more." " It will be very nice for us," said Avis. " Uncle will have lots of foreign visitors, and The Towers is only three miles from Fernecliffe by the road, but across the fields it is much nearer." " And Radgate Park only six," remarked Sir Philip. " By the way, what is our fair cousin like ? " " Wait and see — we shan't tell you anything about her ! " they exclaimed in chorus. " Is that man a Roman Catholic Priest ? " asked Sad dington, as a youthful cleric issued from a cottage in the vicinity. " He's not a Roman Catholic," laughed Avis, " he's the clergyman belonging to Mossgill and Fernecliffe. Uncle presented him to the living about a year ago.

For nearly three months before he came we had a locum tenens, and we were so glad to see his back ! " " Why ? " asked Sir Philip. _8or0tl)i> £aaoington. 11 " His sermons were such twaddle," said Avis. " Once he preached from that text about the Gate Beautiful, and kept telling us the man had been lame from his mother's birth." " We thought it was going rather a long way back," remarked Hope. " Well, are you better satisfied now ? " enquired Sir Philip, laughing. " What's his name, Anne ? " " Mr. Joseph Trefusis," she replied. " How did uncle pick him up ? " " As far as I can make out it was quite an accident which brought him in contact with uncle, who took a great fancy to him and made him Alison's tutor, so when the old Vicar of Mossgill died, Mr. Trefusis was sent by uncle to fill his place.

We like him very much ! " added Anne. Saddington darted a look at her. Though he had not been acquainted with Miss Castletown twenty-four hours he somehow did not like to hear her praise this man. As they drove along, the beauty of the scenery surround ing them on all sides became for a time the engrossing topic of conversation. At length a sudden turn of the road, which wound its devious way along the precipitous side of a hill, revealed Radgate House calmly reposing in a sheltered vale. The house had not shared in the decay of its owner — was beautifully and luxuriously furnished. They all fell in love with it at first sight, and declared the new possession to be as comfortable and picturesque a home as any man could desire. It stood in the midst of lovely country, and within driving distance of all their best friends.

The drawing-room windows opened on to a terrace, and two or three broad and shallow steps led from the end window straight on to a _Bnrott>_ i,aootngt0ii. sweep of velvety lawn. Large stone vases on the terrace were ablaze with many-coloured hydrangea, and the warm sunshine filtered pleasantly through the clustering vine leaves and purple clematis on the verandah. Far away down the Park they could see a small lake, where some graceful Canadian geese were floating idly upon the water. " Philip, you must have me to stay with you very often. I could make this the most charming and well-ordered home in the neighbourhood. I was born to live in a Park," asserted Avis, raising her lovely golden head with an air of proud conviction. " I always felt that I was, and feel that a Park is my destiny." " I suppose there is not much doubt about its being mine," her brother answered, laughing. ' Then you will have me?

" she enquired " Come and stay until you find another desirable country residence, if you like. But now, who feels inclined for a walk ? I see the bailiff is just coming along to show me the farm buildings and Park. You see, Saddington, this is all new to me, for we were never invited here as children, so consequently I know nothing whatever about the place." " I don't think I will go, I want to look at the library, Philip, if you do not mind," said Hope. " Please yourself. Those dry and dusty volumes will give you an appetite for lunch," I daresay, replied her brother. " Anne, you must go with them," said Avis. " I am not a good walker, Mr. Saddington," she continued half apolo getically, as she threw her hat upon a chair and nestled her golden head comfortably against the blue damask of the sofa cushion.

EBorothn j&ao-tngtoii. 13 Saddington stooped down to pick up a tiny glove which she had dropped, and handed it to her. He admired these three sisters greatly, and had made many vain attempts that morning to discover which of them had so nearly embraced him the evening before. But at present he was none the wiser. The girls were very loyal to one another, and had determined never to tell. " I am wondering, Mr. Saddington," said Anne Castletown, half hesitatingly, as they followed her brother and the bailiff down the drive, "who you are in mourning for." " For the best — I may say the only friend I ever had," he replied. " I am very sorry," said Anne, softly. " Does Philip know this ? " " I think not. I never speak of my private affairs to any one." " But you won't mind telling me a little about yourself, will you ?

" enquired Anne. " There is very little to tell, Miss Castletown," answered her companion. " What I can remember of my childhood was living still and solitary with my mother in a poor cottage, and she earned our sustenance by needlework, and instructed besides several children. I was her only joy. Upon my education she spent all that she could spare from our mouths. Her care did not remain unrewarded. I believe I was a good boy, only my insuppressible wish to go out into the wide world caused her much distress. One day a gentleman, long past middle age, passing through the village, saw me standing at our garden gate. He entered into conversation with me, and learnt the longings of my heart. He was a fflorothti stranger, but he went in to see my mother, and promised to educate, feed and clothe me, and to take me everywhere with him on his travels, if she would allow me to leave her for five years.

Poor mother ! it was a great trial to her. But she would not put any obstacle in my way, although her heart was nearly broken by the separation. She gave me money to take away, as much as she could spare — perhaps more than she ought to have spared." " But where was your father all this time ? " enquired Anne. " That I cannot say," replied the young man. " When I parted from my mother, five years ago, she supplied me excellently with clothing and money ; only one small matter she had surely forgotten — the certificate of my birth. I was at that time a thoughtless boy of fifteen years, and unmindful of the future ; this oversight has since vexed me very much." " But you will be able to get it now, surely," said Anne. " I find it will be quite necessary to do that at once, Miss Castletown, for when I was on board the Etruria it came into my mind that I ought to learn some honest trade or profession.

To one gentleman I ventured to say, ' Sir, I should like to hire myself out and learn your trade.' There were so many questions to be answered, and always the one, ' Where is the certificate of your birth ? ' It kept running in my head and vexed me, so now I have determined to go to Guckfield, a little village in Sussex, in order to get it before I attempt to seek a situation." " I daresay you are right," said Anne. " But now tell me about the friend who took you abroad with him." " His end was a most lamentable one, Miss Castletown. S-orotrjjj __-aooingtou. 15 For nearly five years we travelled from place to place in many parts of the world. Our last expedition together was to the Rocky Mountains. One other gentleman (a casual acquaintance) accompanied us. We were overtaken by night on a mountain ridge.

The path behind was too perilous to be retraced in the darkness, and the way in front was stopped by a projecting rock, which in our exhausted state we couldn't scale. Our only alternative was to wait for the morning. But our resting place was a steep slope, ending in a sheer precipice. One careless movement might prove our destruction. As the darkness deepened, the danger was disguised. With a lessening sense of peril, there came an increasing drowsiness. What efforts we made during those long hours to drive off sleep ! How we had to stir up our minds to a conviction of the necessity of unremitting vigilance ! Unconsciously at last my poor friend became overpowered. I and my companion (a native of Virginia) heard him slide down his sloping couch, and we knew that he was hurled into the valley below."

A sad look of trouble was upon Mr. Saddington's face as he spoke, and he appeared lost in deep thought, as though he were living through again the awful moments of the past. For the time being he was oblivious of Miss Castletown's presence. . . . She did not disturb him, but continued walking by his side in silence until Sir Philip's voice was heard calling to them to hurry along, as he thought it best to turn in for some lunch and inspect the stables later.

Chapter III

"O too dear knowledge! O pernicious earning ! Foul curse engraven upon beauty's page ! E'en now the sorrow of that deadly learning Ploughs up her brow, like an untimely age, And on her cheek stamps verdict of death's truth, By canker blights upon the bud of youth ! For as unwholesome winds decay the leaf, So her cheek's rose is perished by her sighs, And withers in the sickly breath of grief ; Whilst unacquainted rheum bedims her eyes, Tears, virgin tears, the first that ever leapt From those young lids, now plentifully wept." — Hero and Leander. " Ik&OMI***^ sa^' to th's ' Such a discovery! WYAWH cr'ed Hope, rushing into the morning-room t_1_JX_\tM with an open newspaper in her hand, where her sisters were engaged in writing letters, about a couple of hours after Mr. Saddington had left. " Well, what is it, Hope ?

" enquired Avis, unconcernedly. " You've generally some mystery on hand." " I'm sure this really is one," returned she. " Here is the Morning Post with a paragraph ad out of it I " flBorotrjg S>attt(tngton. 17 " What of that," said Anne. " People very often cut little bits out of newspapers." " But no one in this house has cut it out, because I've asked mother and Philip ; so, of course, it must have been Mr. Saddington." " Then why should he not do it ? You know," said Anne, " he wanted to get definite work, and no doubt it is some advertisement which has caught his eye." " It can't be," asserted Hope, " for it is not in that part of the paper where the advertisements generally appear. I am convinced it is something of far greater importance. I shall take down the date of this paper, and wire fora fresh copy."

" Oh, why need you do that ? " exclaimed Anne. " To gratify her natural curiosity, I suppose," said Avis. " Nothing of the sort. I am only anxious about Anne." " Anxious about me ! What can you mean, Hope ? " " I expect she means that anyone can see that he is over head and ears in love with your pretty face, dear," laughed Avis. " But I'm not half so pretty as you are," said Anne, vainly endeavouring to conceal her agitation. " My beauty is of quite a different order, and will fade just when you are in your prime," returned Avis. " Anyhow, Anne, it's best to be on the safe side, for we should not like you to marry a doubtful character," said Hope. " You are not speaking very fairly or kindly of our recent guest, and I thought you both liked him," said Anne. " And so we do— as much as you like him yourself, only we don't mean ' to poach on your manor,' " added Avis.

" The game's too far gone for that." B JBoratljjj £aaDtngton. 18 " You see, Anne, it will be much better for us to find out all about him before you get yourself entangled in any way," said Hope. Anne burst out laughing. " Really this is too amusing! One would think you were a great grandmother and had been married two or three times already to hear you talk ! " " I read a good deal, and I think more," replied her sister with imperturbability, " so I can afford to look on and contemplate the folly of others. And seeing that they will go headlong at a thing, I like to do my best to make affairs as smooth as possible. Yes, I have a great sympathy for lovers, although I never mean to have one of my own." Towards eleven o'clock on the morning following the above conversation the sisters were crowding round their mother as she unfastened the letter bag.

" Here is your Morning Post, Hope. You were the one to send for it, so you had better read out the wonderful piece of intelligence which you seem to expect to find," said Lady Castletown, as she pulled out the paper from the depths of the bag. " Now, mother, I do believe you are quite as curious as we are," laughed Avis, observing that Lady Castletown sat with her hands folded, watching Hope's busy fingers take the paper from its wrapper, instead of moving off immediately, as was her wont, to her boudoir. " I may as well wait and see what it is all about, and then you will not be interrupting me later," replied Lady Castle town. " Be quick, Hope." " It must be here. Yes, this is the place," said Hope, as QurtiUin 19 her sisters bent eagerly over her shoulder. A second elapsed, and then a cry of surprise, horror and distress broke from the lips of the three girls.

"Dear me, how foolish you all are! " exclaimed Lady Castletown, picking up the paper which Hope had dropped. " I suppose I must find it myself after all." With strong determination written upon every feature of her face, Lady Castletown read aloud the following article, which was headed — " Extradition. " On 29th September, in South Francis Street, Phila delphia, a young man was arrested for the murder of a girl named Minnie Thompson. Soon after the arrest, a run away horse on the street knocked down the policeman in charge of the prisoner. In the confusion which followed the prisoner escaped, slipping the hand-cuffs as a dog would his collar. He let fall a somewhat worn overcoat, in a pocket of which was found a miniature note-book, filled with various jottings of no apparent consequence to anyone but the owner, whose name appeared on the fly leaf as Vivian Lawrence Saddington.

He is believed to have sailed for Great Britain on the Etruria, which left New York on 2nd October, arriving at Liverpool on 10th October last. The murderer is a tall fair man, and appears to have received a good education." "Oh, Anne, dear, I'm so sorry I sent for the paper," cried Hope, who was very tender-hearted. She was per fectly aghast at the sight of her sister's pale face, out of which every vestige of colour had vanished. {_or0tfjj! giaoBington. 20 " How very unpleasant to think that we have been driving about with a murderer," said Avis, with a quaint little shudder. " But surely you can't believe in such an idea ! " exclaimed Anne, indignantly, whilst the tears welled up into her beautiful dark eyes and slowly coursed down her pallid cheeks. " I think we are bound to believe the truth of this matter until we have sufficient proof to the contrary, and really, Anne, I am quite ashamed of you," began Lady Castletown, when the door suddenly opened.