Out of Court

Front matter

VOL. II, DV MRS. CASHEL HOEY, AUTHOR OF " A GOLDEN SORROW," " A HOUSE OF CARDS," " BURIED IN THE DEEP," &c. &c. "The Gospel checks the law which throws the stone." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1874. AU rights reserved. LONDON : PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUG WELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER PACK I. Castle Farney 1 II. Loud Faknet's Guests .... 29 III. In the Glen 50 IV. Severn Court 72 V. Entre L'Arbre et l'ecorce ne jiets pas le Doigt 94 VI. Ln an Interval 136 VII. Godfrey Compton 1G3 VIII. A Commonplace Countess .... 187 IX. Rumour . 218 X. On the Brink 243 XL A last Effort 209 XII. Down!

Chapter I. Castle Farney

r^OUNTY MONAGHAN is not picturesque. It is not one of the show parts of Ireland ; no one goes thither to see the beauty or to spy out the nakedness of the land. It is neither an example nor a warning, but merely an average kind of county, in which there are prosperous and unprosperous people, according as Fate, assisted in the usual proportion by Conduct, has decreed. Plenty of discontent and dis affection was to be heard of and seen in the county in the old times ; and, indeed, VOL. II. B there had been no lack of either in the new, but they did not crop plentifully up in the neighbourhood of Farney, and they did not excite much attention, or inspire any uneasiness when the ill Avinds Avhich blew so long and so strong over Ireland wafted the seeds of them in that direction. Things were always pretty quiet about Castle Farney, as Lord Farney's place was called, although the house had as little resemblance to a castle as the surrounding grounds had to an English nobleman's estate.

" The Lord," as the people called him, quite unconscious of the irreverent sound of the appellation, A^as as Irish as any of themselves ; he had ahvays lived on his property, and identified himself with them. He Avas not given to harsh judgments, he had great respect for liberty of opinion and action, and he condemned none of his neighbours by name ; but he believed absenteeism to be a serious offence, and he did not like absentees. Lord Farney's mind was of the order which holds all breaches of duty in con tempt ; and that particular form of infraction which consists of a man getting; all he can out of his native country, to spend it else where, Avithout the slightest reference to the claims of other human beings concerned, had always appeared to him especially despicable. "The Lord's" notions on this point Avere known and appreciated, and he was as poAverful and popular a man, in a quiet but effective Avay, as might be found in his class in all Ireland.

The chronic quietude of the neighbourhood Avas to be, in a great measure, attributed to his power and popularity. They created an atmosphere in which disturbance could not thrive ; and, as another of Lord Farney's notions was that every man who was not very clever indeed did well to keep out of politics — Avhich he justified by the most absolute abstention on his own part, though such absten tion necessarily and consciously narroAved his life — he escaped the perils of partisanb2 ship. Eminently practical as he was, and shrewdly appreciate of the facts and tendencies of his time, there was something about Lord Farney and his Avays better suited to the spirit of the old Avorld, as Ave possibly erroneously imagine that spirit to have been, than of the neAV. Mrs. Mac- Mahon's Irish savage Avould have fitted the role of a patriarch admirably in the days when patriarchs were peaceful ; he Avould not have made a bad Irish king, according to the unbloody chronicles of such kingships — the chronicles Avhich tell of a beneficent wisdom, and a rule both firm and generous.

According to the tastes and perceptions of different persons, they Avould pronounce him either before or after his age ; it occurred to most, even of those who had only passing knowledge of him, that he was not quite of it. For several years after John Justin Mac- Mahon had succeeded to his father's title and estates, everyone in that part of the country regarded his marriage as a matter of course and a matter of time. There Avere many and Ararious speculations about it ; but they were all equally vain. He did not marry — he did not pay any young lady in the county such special attention as could lead the quickest of sight in such matters to surmise that he contemplated marrying her ; — and, by degrees, it became an accepted fact, however extraordinary, that Lord Farney intended to live and die unmarried.

For a long time people had ceased to think and talk about it ; the bachelor household at Castle Farney had become a permanent institution, and the suggestion of a possible Countess Avould have been regarded as ridiculous, indeed impertinent. Though the Earl Avas not a crusty bachelor, he had settled doAvn into " ways " accepted by all his people; they were thoroughly understood, and, though he had been occasionally called an " ould oddity," his ways were not only harmless, but beneficial. They included early hours, plain living, homely attire, an aversion to company, in the formal entertainment-giA'ing sense of the word, and a rigid abstinence from field-sports. The latter was a strong test of his popularity. It stood the test, however, and the man Avho neither hunted, shot, coursed, nor fished, Avas never reckoned other than a good felloAV by his neighbours, who Avere mostly devoted to some or all of those ennobling pursuits.

Lord Farney held that sport meant either the simple love of slaughter, or the complex love of excite ment. He disliked excitement, and hated to kill anything. Lord Farney had a taste for farming, which he did on a large scale, and success fully. He Avas alive to the fallacy of " gentleman-farmers," in a general Avay, but he regarded it as a fallacy, because they did not give their mind and their time to it, as the farmers Avho Avere not also gentlemen were obliged to do. Farming, he held, ■was like any other business, it must be business to pay — not play, nor experiment, nor amateurism, but just one's work. If ever it should happen to him to lose his taste for the superintendence and direction of the operations on his OAvn large farm, he Avould let it ; he Avould never dabble in anything, or pursue any occu pation, with only a lukeAvarm and lan guid industry.

He Avas active and business-like, though not fussy, and the last man in the world to be cajoled by even so skilful a practitioner as Mrs. Mac- Mahon. The "pleasure-grounds," as the ornament al portions of a gentleman's demesne are called in Ireland, were neither very large nor very ornamental at Castle Farney, though they boasted some of the best trees in that part of the country, and a beautiful trout-stream, visible from the Castle, ran through them. The house Avas an exception, in one respect, to most Irish houses of a similar date of construction. It Avas not built in the worst aspect, and Avith its back toAvards the fairest prospect. Castle Farney faced the south-west, and commanded the only really attractive view in the grounds, Avhich had little to boast of in the way of undulation and variety.

From the dreary hi«h road a Ions; Avinding avenue led to the house, flanked on either side by laurel-hedges, which Avere interspersed Avith trees, aud divided from the Avide carriage- Avay by narrow strips of grass, on Avhich Avere displayed, at regular intervals, large round balls of AvhiteAvashed stone — a species of ornament much affected in Ireland ; Avhy, nobody knoAvs, for it is exceedingly ugly and perfectly unmeaning. The avenue ter minated in a Avide oval, knoAvn as " the Circle," on one side the laurel-hedge, the rim of grass, and the stone can non-balls, Avere continued ; Avhile on the other, its long, Ioav, Avhite front rising sheer from the gravel, stood the house — roomy, ugly, with a flat roof and a crenelated para pet, behind which the chimneys looked dAvarfed and distorted.

The house was only two stories high, but it ran back to a considerable depth, and Avas a spacious, commodious dwelling, devoid of grandeur, and of most of the appliances of modern luxury, but very comfortable, aud Avith a distinct physiognomy of its own. In the centre of the front stood a spacious portico Avith fluted pillars, and on either side Avas a long line of AvindoAvs, repeated in the upper story Avith a dull uniformity of black AvindoAV-frames. The lower range had been modernised ; large squares of plate glass, in polished mahogany frames, had re placed the small panes and black settings Avhich had sufficed for the MacMahons of the past. But there Lord Farney's in novations ended. The upper rooms Avere rarely used, and then only temporarily; the old Avindows would do Avell enough for them.

Both ends of the old house Avere profusely clothed with clusters and branches of splendid westeria. The back exactly corresponded with the front in the disposition of the AvindoAVS, had a wide door- Avay answering to the portico, from which it Avas divided by a really noble hall, roofed, floored, and panelled in black oak, and Avas relieved by a handsome verandah, covered Avith clematis and jessamine, opening upon a broad terrace, beneath which stretched a spacious lawn, dotted over with some noble walnut, beech, and Spanish chestnut-trees, and bounded by the winding, Avilful little river. A thin fringe of osiers and Avillows bordered the river on the oppo site side, and there the pleasure-grounds came to an end at the back of the house ; beyond lay the home-farm. The park, Avhich Avould have horrified English ob servers, accustomed to the trimness and order of park-lands in England, stretched for some distance before the front of the house, and was bounded, far beyond sight, by a Avail composed of loose stones, and over grown Avith brambles, Avild-rose, and black berry-bushes, with a Avasteful, grassy " dip " betAveen it and the flinty grey high-road.

There was an air of leisurely comfort about Castle Farney, Avhere the subdued bustle of a great house was entirely wanting. The servants Avere numerous enough for convenience, and Lord Farney never con sulted the requirements of show. The plenti ful and, for the most part, old furniture was handsome, but there Avas no " nick-nackery " at Castle Farney. Some very fine old china was stoAved away in equally fine old cabinets in the long, narroAAT, lofty draAving-rooms, with a disregard to effect Avhich Avould be regarded as quite shocking by the fair owners of the magots Avhich croAvd our velvet and gold etageres, surmount our cunningly adorned brackets, and cluster upon modern mantelpieces and mirror-frames. A feAV good pictures were among the treasures of Castle Farney, and these their owner prized, next to his books, above all his pos sessions.

Of books he had a goodly store, and he lived among them. The library was the largest, best-proportioned, handsomest room in the house ; and Avhen he Avas not out of doors, Lord Farney Avas sure to be found in it, invariably attended by a fine specimen of that staunch breed, the Irish mastiff; and a beautiful brown tabby cat, Avho dAvelt in amity with his formidable looking companion. The parrot, Avho ought to have completed the resemblance of this home-scene to Robinson Crusoe, was repre sented by a peacock, who sat upon the broad AvindoAA'sill, his keen little head peer ing through the glass, and his tapping bill frequently calling his master's attention to the disappearance of the scattered biscuit and bread crumbs. The library at Castle Farney opened upon the verandah at the back of the house, and had been considerably modernised by its present OAvner.

It was a soberly handsome room, as the dwelling-place of books ought al- Avays to be ; with crimson cloth hangings, a carved oak ceiling, and a polished oak floor, partially covered Avith Persian rugs. The book-cases, Avith which the room Avas lined from floor to ceiling, Avere also of carved oak, and their tenants, on three sides, were clad in sober livery of dark broAvn and gold. Lord Farney loved book-binding little less than books, but his tastes in that respect were sober and old-fashioned, and the modern vagaries of the art had no charm for him. Such books as would not be suitably attired in tree calf, gold-lettered, Avere relegated to the fourth side of the library, where the more ephemeral literature, which he by no means disdained, was likewise handsomely harboured. In this room, on a fine, still solemn day in October, when the lawn beneath the verandah was strewn with golden leaves ever falling noiselessly through the calm air, and the outlying fields were becoming more and more widely visible through the disrobed stems of the trees which bounded the river, Lord Farney was sitting, a letter in his hand, and an expression thoughtful but pleased on his face.

" It is not a very easy thing to manage in a bachelor's house," said Lord Farney to his companion, " but they are pleasant, easy going people, with no nonsense about them ; and I am very glad they have taken me at my Avord." The individual to Avhom he addressed this benevolent sentiment did not appear to be altogether of Lord Farney's way of thinking. He Avas a tall, middle-aged spare man, with a face of the order knoAvn as "hatchet," lank, greyish hair, large, useful hands and feet, and an indescribable something about his appearance which made one knoAv instinctively that he was fond of fishing and long walks. He had contemplative grey eyes, and a countenance expressive of a sIoav sort of kindliness. The most superficial observer would have said of the Rev. Edward Ma grath that he Avas not talkative, and that he preferred his own society to that of his fel low-creatures in general.

Lord Farney was this gentleman's chief parishioner and most intimate friend. Mr. Magrath Avas not over burdened Avith clerical duties, for, though his parish Avas large, and the Protestant popu lation of that part of the country bore a tolerably fair proportion to the Catholic population, they were for the most part very Avell off, and of the class which holds that a clergyman's business is confined to one day in the Aveek, unless he happens to be especial ly sent for. This particular clergyman Avas a very good man, but not sociably inclined; and so, Avhen he was not visiting the very feAv poor to whom he Avas officially accredited, or preparing his one sermon per week, he was either taking unconscionably long Avalks over a profoundly uninteresting country, or, during the season when trout might be legally caught, fishing Lord Farney's trout stream, Avith Lord Farney's highly disap proA7ing consent.

If the parson's propensity to kill had extended beyond fish, it Avould have militated against the friendship which existed betAveen himself and the proprietor of the trout stream ; but he drew the line at creatures Avith fins. Fur and feathers Avere safe from him, and Lord Farney's liberality of mind was practical on this point. " I can't conceive hoAV you like fishing," he once said, "and you can't conceive how I like farming — and so Ave are even." " People say Ave are odd," was the par son's quaint reply ; and thenceforth they agreed to differ, though there is no doubt that Lord Farney liked Mr. Magrath better in the close season, and Mr. Magrath found Lord Farney a pleasanter companion when the harvest was in. Lord Farney was seated at a large table covered Avith books, papers, and Avriting materials, all of a solid and plain kind.

Mr. Magrath occupied a chair close by the wide hearth, on which burned a small turf fire, glared at by Feargus, the mastiff, with red and Avatchful eyes. Feargus approved of Mr. Magrath, even to the point of occasion ally accompanying him in those Avalks which were so incomprehensible to everybody ex cept the dog. They Avould have been off on this particular day, which was very tempting for stretching one's legs, as the Rev. Edward Magrath was in the habit of describing severe bodily exercise extending over tAventy miles of bard road and ploughed field, but that Lord Farney had requested the presence of the man at a consultation concerning an expected event ; and the dog was, of course, of the party. " I daresay they are pleasant, easy-going people," replied Mr. Magrath, with a remarkable absence of conviction in his tone, "but I can't imagine how you are going to amuse them, and I never saw a Avoman in a country-house that didn't Avant amusing, except Mary." vol. n. C " Oh, as to that," said Lord Farney, " I am not uneasy.

It is about the arrangements in the house I'm thinking." " Leave them to Whittaker," said Mr. Ma grath, as readily as a bishop would suggest the preaching of a sermon to a chaplain. He had not seized the difficulty yet. " Whittaker is all right for breakfasts, dinners, and so forth," said Lord Farney ; " but you see, it is just this — there is no lady to meet Miss Keith and her niece, and I don't know Avhether the old lady considers her self old enough to come to a bachelor's house Avithout a party." " I thought you said she Avas very sensi ble," said Mr. Magrath, drily. " You surely did not lead them to imagine that you were going to fill the house with company, did you?" and he looked as if he were going to run away from the mere vision conjured up by his OAvn words. " Certainly not," said Lord Farney, " but they have been visiting one place and another, and there is no knoAving what mis taken notions people Avho have never been in Ireland before may form of the sort of thing ,to be expected here.

HoAvever, we have got a week before us ; Miss Keith " — referring to the letter — " doesn't talk of starting from Killarney until Wednesday, and I shall simply write and tell her my difficulty, and leave it to her to vindicate her good sense in your eyes by solving it in a rational Avay." " Couldn't you have asked Mrs. MacMa hon over to meet them?" asked the innocent parson, to whom Lord Farney had not divulged his feelings respecting his sister-in law, and Avho Avas the last man living to divine them. " Certainly not," said Lord Farney, has tily. "Mrs. MacMahon does not like the Keiths, and I suspect the Keiths don't like Mrs. MacMahon. That Avould not do at all. Stop ! a capital idea ! — why shouldn't you and Mary come and stay C2 while they are here ? Mary would like the younger Miss Keith, I know."

"Very likely," said Mr. Magrath. "It Avould be very pleasant for Mary if it did not turn her head, by giving her notions outside the bounds of the barony, and there by lay up a store of trouble for me by making her want to break them ; but I don't see Iioav it Avould get you out of your difficulty. To Avhich of us do you propose to assign the office of chaperon — to Mary or to me?" Lord Farney calmly disregarded the ques tion, and went on as if the assent of his com panion were a foregone conclusion. "That Avill do nicely. The two young Avomen will be capital companions for one another, and you and Mary will pass admirably for a party. Is Mary at home?" " I suppose so," said Mr. Magrath, drop ping the previous question with a facility characteristic of the man. "She Avas going to the lace-school when I was coming out.

Wait, Avhat o'clock is it ?" " Just three," said Lord Farney. "Then she will be here in a few minutes. She is coming up this afternoon to talk Whittaker over into taking a protegee of hers into the house here, as a sort of extra, unnecessary, and destructive sub-kitchenmaid. A deserving girl, Avith the reddest head and the unreadiest hands in the parish. , I believe Mary has found out that she can't work lace, and the most natural deduction from that discovery is, that she ought to be taken into the Castle scullery, to break the plates and put the sinks out of order ! I am telling you all this in the most perfect breach of confidence, for Mary swore me not to let a word of it out to Mrs. Whittaker ; but I know you may be trusted." " I Avill give the girl a recommendation myself," said Lord Farney, " provided she does not want to come until my visitors have left ; otherwise she might spoil Whit taker's temper before I could afford that operation.

And you promise for Mary?" " Here comes Mary to promise for herself," said Mr. Magrath, crossing the room to one of the windoAvs that opened doonvise upon the verandah, through which he had caught sight of a female figure moving across the lawn towards the terrace. " Yes, here she comes, with her most persuasive smile on, ready to delude your housekeeper. Mind you don't betray me ; and, above all, never let out that I told you her interesting young friend, during her probation in our humble establishment, had the daring originality to polish my boots Avith blacklead !" He opened the AvindoAV and stepped into the verandah, folloAved by Lord Farney ; and the two men Avent to meet the lady, who Avas now ascending the short flight of steps Avhich connected the terrace with the laAvn. Mary Magrath was the parson's niece, and, though she Avas a good-looking girl of four-and-twenty, and her uncle was a grizzled man of fifty, the relationship be tAveen them might be easily traced in their faces — in the contemplative grey eyes and the kindly expression, and in an undefinable look of likeness which sometimes comes of kindred blood, and sometimes of uncon scious imitation.

Mary Magrath had never knoAvn any kinship or protection but those of her uncle. They had, however, amply sufficed. Mary Thorne and that incompar able doctor — Avhom all the Avorld grudged to Miss Dunstable, because it is impossible to believe that he has not since been exten sively henpecked, whatever Mr. Trollope may say to the contrary — did not agree more perfectly, or love each other more sin cerely, in a very quiet Avay, than did the Irish parson Avith a taste for fishing, and his niece with a taste for doing good to every body. She came up to them smiling, and Lord Farney greeted her with : "You are more welcome even than usual, Mary ; your uncle and I want you to decide a knotty point for us." "Then you must let me go and see Mrs. Whittaker first. I will come back to you in ten minutes."

" Very well," said Lord Farney. " Mind you do come back in ten minutes, Mary," said her uncle. " Feargus and I are going to stretch our legs, and it is get ting late." She Avent aAvay along the terrace to a door at the end of the house which commu nicated Avith the housekeeper's special domain ; and the friends turned in at the library-Avindow. " Mary seems to like a confabulation with Mrs. Whittaker better than I do," said Lord Farney. " She has not much doubt of talking her over, apparently." " Not a bit of it," said Mr. Magrath ; " that is her policy. To look cock-sure of winning her point is half the battle." " A useful hint," said Lord Farney ; " I will act upon it when I tell Mary Avhat I want her to do." Mary Magrath Avas a girl of Avhom her warmest admirers, hoAvever addicted to exaggeration, neArer said more than that she was "good-looking."

They Avould have found many to assure them that she Avas as good as she looked. Her countenance Avas the great charm of her face, one so potent that many of her friends had never critically looked beyond it, and would not, under cross-examination, have been able to swear to the colour of her eyes or the form of her features. Hers Avas just an innocent, but sensible, mobile, beaming face ; so frank, kindly, and unaffected that all liked Mary Magrath instinctively until they came to knoAv her, and then they loved her. She had grey eyes and brown hair, a fresh colour, and both her face and figure signified health. Mary Magrath Avas more generally applied to and confided in by her uncle's parishioners than he was, in their little troubles, and she had many humble friends among the Catholic popula tion, whom she never attempted either to molest or to bribe out of their own faith.

She Avas busy, bright, homely and happy ; and she kneAv nothing of any Avorld out side the quiet nook of County Monaghan, in which she had passed the tAventy-four years Avhich she iioav counted. Neither was her OAvn mind nor that of her uncle troubled by speculation about Mary's future. There avus nobody very likely to want to marry her — she had never had the most passing and innocent flirtation in her life, — and she Avas likely to continue to the end of the chapter the household angel of the parson's house, and the lesser providence of the people about Castle Farney. The most astonishing event Avhich had yet befallen Mary Magrath occurred when Lord Farney, Avith all proper courtesy, but at the same time Avith an air of undoubtins: expectation of her compliance, which proved his readiness at taking a hint, invited her to visit him for a Aveek, in order to meet his expected guests ; two strangers, tAvo ladies of fashion (Avords of mysterious import to Mary), Avho had never been in Ireland before.

The anticipation was a little alarming, but it Avas also exceedingly pleasant, and, as Mary Avas free from the self-consciousness Avhich would have made a more ordinary girl begin immediately to think about her dress and her manners, she unaffectedly accepted the position Avhich Lord Farney assigned to her. Mary and he Avere great friends. He forwarded all her little plans, encouraged all her charitable schemes, had a mind as ill-regulated as her OAvn on the subject of beggars, Avas incapable of drawing fine dis tinctions as to the deserving poor, liked her unpretending playing and singing, and had given a pretty little ornamented cottage on the river-side, Avhich had been a boat and fishing-house in his father's time, for her lace and Avork school. For these good and sufficient reasons, Mary Magrath liked Lord Farney next to her uncle — better than any one in the Avorld, meaning her own tiny nook of it.

So she readily assured him that she Avould do her best to be agreeable to the stranger ladies, Avho would, no doubt, be delighted Avith Castle Farney, in Mary's estimation the grandest and most beautiful place in existence.

Chapter II. Lord Farney's Guests

/T1HE odd arrangement by which Lord -*■ Farney proposed to settle the difficulty presented by the absence of a lady of the Castle was carried out. " Mary is the only Avoman in this part of the world who Avould get on with Marcia Keith," Lord Farney said to himself. " They are so different in almost every aspect, and in those few in which they do resemble one another they are exactly alike, so that they will neither bore each other nor quarrel ; and I have known the very finest ladies to do both Avhen they have been a short time in a country-house, and there Avere not enough men to flirt Avith them all." But Farney Avas old-fashioned of speech, and had not acquired the modern vocabulary. " If Miss Keith is as little dis posed to flirtation as Mary, Ave shall do Avell, and I shall consider myself the luckiest of bachelor hosts."

The expected guests arrived with exem plary punctuality, and in high good-humour. Miss Keith's sole fidget in travelling was concerning the safety of her reading-chair, and that of the iron coffer Avhich contained her lace ; and the well-being of those treasures had not been endangered during the journey, or in the transit across country from the railway station to Castle Farney, so that she was in her happiest mood. She emphatically approved of the library, and Avas much gratified when Lord Farney told her that her reading-chair Avas to be per manently established there. " I like him better at home than I did in London — better in harmony Avith his surroundings than in contrast with them," said Miss Keith to Marcia, when the visitors had been shoAvn to their rooms ; " and I like the look of the place, too, though it's ugly after Killarney."

" Yes, it's ugly," Marcia assented ; " but there's a character — I mustn't say a cachet about it, because you hate French Avords ; — and I think I shall like Lord Farney and Miss Magrath very much." The little party Avas a pleasant one. A very short time made its members familiar with each other's ways, and en abled them to decide that they suited each other admirably. Marcia Keith Avas a revelation to Mary Magrath, and Mary Ma grath Avas an interesting study to Marcia Keith. The self-possessed, calm, highly informed young woman, who had seen so much of the Avorld, came into the little sphere of the country girl, Avho had seen so little of it, like an unknoAvn and un dreamed-of being; but she did not move Mary to mere stupid and underbred Avon der. The native shreAvdness and good sense of the Irish girl prevented anything of that kind.