An Unwilling Witness

Front matter

■ ■ ■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ AN UNWILLING WITNESS Tfatltmt^ne jptess DALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINDURGH AND LONDON " Lean on me, Mamma."— Pa^e 33. Fi'ontUpiece. AN UNWILLING WITNESS. BY ANNETTE LYSTEE, AUTHOR OF 'KARL KRAPP S LITTLE MAIDENS, V HARRY S PERPLEXITIES, "WHAT SHE COULD," "RALPH TRULOCK's CHRISTMAS ROSES," "THE WHITE GIPSY," "ALONE IN CRdWDS," ETC. ETC. LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. MDCCCLXXXIV. CONTENTS. CHAPTER pAGE I. SIR RODXEY:3 WILL I it. TRAINING 16 HI. FOURTEEN TEARS OLD . . . . . 3 1 IV. AT CLEVELAND COLLEGE 46 V. THE " HEAD OF THE ROOM " 63 vi. rodnet's first lesson 83 VII. RODNEY S SHARPNESS I05 VIE RIVINGTON I20 EX. CRIBS 138 3 X. SUSPENSE I54 XI. RODNEY'S REVELATIONS I70 XII. A CHANGE 189 XIII. GROWN UP

Chapter I

sir rodney's will. In a large, dimly lighted room, with her chair drawn close to the fire, and some delicate needle work in her hand, though she was not working, sat a fair, delicate-looking young woman in deep mourning. It was widow's mourning, for she wore a cap with long white lappets and the pecu liar border which only a widow wears, but her face was so extremely youthful that it was hard to believe that she was really a widow. The room, handsomely furnished with every appliance for comfort that the ingenuity of man has in vented, was a bedroom, and as the fair young widow sat and mused, a pair of keen dark eyes was watching her from the half-curtained bed. A Presently a few tears ran down the pale cheeks, and the occupant of the bed grunted in a manner so odd and unexpected that the lady started, put her handkerchief hastily to her eyes, and turned softly in her chair to look at her patient.

" I am awake, child. Come here, I want to speak to you." She got up, laid down her work and went over to the side of the bed. " Go and pull up the blinds, I want to see you as well as talk to you." A faint look of surprise crossed her face, but she went silently to the window and drew up the Venetian blinds, admitting the brilliant rays of the setting sun. It was October, and the sun was bright, though not very hot. " Stand at the other side of the bed, and let me look at you." Still in silence, and with the slow step which in one so young tells of either a sad heart or failing health — perhaps of both— the lady obeyed him. She stood quietly by the bedside, looking down. Hers was a sweet face, and needed only a little colour to be lovely. But colour there was none ; the cheeks were white and the lips the faintest possible pink — only the dark-brown eyebrows and eyelashes rebeved the general whiteness.

She stood silent, but after a few minutes the long lashes slowly lifted, and she looked wistfully at the stern old face upon the pillow. Sir Eodney Mainwaring met the glance, and with a somewhat grim smile upon his face, he said — " Little girl, tell me the truth — are you a witch ? " She smded — a bttle sad gleam of a smile that was more sad than tears, and answered in a singularly clear and sweet voice — " No, I think not." "But you're not certain ? Neither am I, but I incline to think you are. First, you bewitched my poor Hugo " She made a sudden movement with both hands as if to lay them on his lips, but checked herself, and covered her face with them instead ; great tears be_ran to fall fast and thick. O " Why do you do that ? I hate to see a woman cry ! I have been praising you in my own mind because you never cried before me."

" I did not expect — you never spoke to me of him before, and you took me by surprise. There, I will cry no more." " Don't. I would rather you boxed my ears. Well, as I was saying, you began by that — began young too ! Only sixteen, I think ?" " No ; eighteen." " Young enough. And now you've bewitched me. She started and looked at him with a mix ture of anxiety aud hope. Her breath eame quickly, and she said in a whisper — '• You, Sir Rodney . I thought you disliked me?" "I thought so myself," answered Sir Rodney with one of his queer smiles ; " aud it is not my own fault that I don't. I intended to do so. and 1 can't imagine why I have failed. You are everything that I dislike, except ugly. You belong to the class which of all others I detest — you are a regular little Puritan, you disapprove of me, you dislike me : nay, don't blush over it, child, for you have had good reason.

You are, as I said before, everything that I don't like — and yet ! Well, bring a chair close to my side and sit down, for you don't look able to stand. There again ! You're not even healthy, and very likely my heir, healthy as he looks now, will inherit your delicacy and be a poor puny little fellow, whereas we Mainwarings have seldom failed to attain to six feet two, and so vigorous, so healthy ! And yet all are gone now, little girl. Three sons and four daughters grew up in this house, and yet here I lie with you by my side, the only thing left to me of any of them — you and your little one, the last Main waring of Kingsdale Hall ! Now, I am going to tell you something, Mrs. Mainwaring." " Yes ; but, Sir Rodney, could you not wait until to-morrow ? For the doctor said " " Bother the doctor, ma'am !

If you don't obey me I shall use worse words than bother, and you don't like that. Yet Hugo used to swear a good deal, too. I should have thought you would have got used to it." The gentle blue eyes fired up, and a colour crept into the poor white cheeks. " I never heard him swear," she said, her voice ringing out clear and emphatic. " Well — he was changed, then ; that's all I can say. Child, tell me, if it does not pain you too much, — tell me of your meeting with Hugo and your marriage. I never would hear about it." Mrs. Mainwaring hesitated for a moment. It did pain her, almost more than she could bear, to speak of those brief, happy days. She was a reserved woman, too, and to speak of her own feeliDgs was almost impossible to her. But she felt that she ought to do it, for she knew that much might depend upon the softened mood which dictated the request.

Shading her eyes with her hand, she began — " You know where we met ? " " Malta, wasn't it ? " " Yes, we were in quarantine there together. My dear father had been very ill, and we had been advised to keep him at sea as much as pos sible. We had come in a sailing ship from Beyrout, and meant — my father and I — to take another voyage after a short stay in Malta. He — Hugo — came to see us several times, and at last offered to take us up to Corfu in his yacht ; and we went. And when we got to Corfu he said we had better stay on board, as it was a kindness to him, because he was lonely. So — we stayed." " Yes ; and your father got worse, and then Hugo married you ? " " My father suddenly became very ill. He knew that he was dying, and he wished to see me married. We knew nothing — I have often wished to tell you this, Sir Rodney — we knew nothing of you or of his family.

If we had come home, as we intended, before my marriage, of course we must have known ; but in the hurry and sorrow of that last illness no questions were asked ; and if Hugo knew that you did not approve of the marriage, he did not tell us. " He never asked me. He knew what I should say, well enough." " But — do not be angry with me for saying this — I do not think it would have prevented his marrying me even if you had told him your objections. For he did not agree with you about such things, and he said as he was only a younger son it did not matter ; and he loved me very much — indeed he did, and he said he had never known such real happiness before." " Ay ; and now look here, my very excellent and pious young lady. Suppose you had known that his father would not consent to his marriage, having some old-fashioned and foolish prejudices on the subject of birth and breeding, should you have refused to help him to disobey ?

Answer me that, little Puritan." Agnes Mainwaring thought seriously for perhaps five minutes, then she let her hand fall from before her eyes, and looking at the old man with a half smile, she said — " I think, Sir Rodney, I should have done as he bade me. He was sure to be rioht." " Little girl, give me a kiss," shouted Sir Rod ney. " I like that answer. Of course you would, and I don't believe it would have been because it was a great marriage or anything of that kind, but just because you were a little girl of eighteen and he was a man of five-and-thirty, and you would have obeyed him, — and you would have done right. He had a right to choose for him self. Yes, my child, I acknowledge it, my objections were silly and narrow-minded. You are as true a lady as any wife ever brought home by a Mainwaring, and I have watched you closely, with unfriends eyes, so I may be trusted in that matter.

You are a sood, sweet, silent little woman, child, and if my life is prolonged in spite of Dr. Atkins, we shall be better friends henceforth. My boy Hu«-o chose well, and I am grateful to him for the daughter he gave me. Now, can I say more than that ? " "0 Sir Rodney, you have given me such joy ! You do not know — you cannot understand — how it has felt to be here, and yet a stranger and almost an enemy." " Not lately — not lately ! you must have seen that." " Sometimes I dared to hope, but now I know. And I'm so glad — both for myself and for him — glad that you don't think that he was . . . . foolish." There was silence for a short time. Sir Rod ney looked kindly at the girl (for truly she looked but a girl in spite of her dress), and was touched to see her brave endeavour to calm her self that she might not annoy him.

After a while he spoke again in a somewhat weary voice, as if the sudden strength that had surprised her were waning. " Agnes," he said, " I know the rest of the story. You need say no more. I know how happy you both were for that brief year, and how you lost him before the boy was born. But I have a bit of a story to tell you. When my poor Jocelyn, my last remaining son, died, I sent for you that my heir might grow up at Kings dale. If I had had any hope that you would consent, I should have asked for the boy only, but I knew you would not give him up. I knew even then that my life was near its close, and before you came to the house I made my will. Perhaps you don't know that I have the power to leave everything, except, of course, the baro netcy, this place, and a few hundreds a year, to any one I like.

However, I left all to the boy, and I appointed two guardians — my sons-in-law, Delawarr and Spencer." "0 Sir Rodney" " Hush, child ; let me finish. I wrote plain and distinct instructions — private, of course — to them, to separate the boy as soon and as com pletely from you as they possibly could, to send him to Eton at eight years old, and to ignore you as far as they could." Acmes Mainwaring started to her feet and made a few hasty steps towards the door, with some wild idea of seizing her treasure aud runnino away with it ; but the old mau said quickly — " Don't go, Agnes. Hear me out." "But must I allow this ?" she said piteouslv. " Shall I have no power to prevent it ? I have done nothing wrong. He is my own, and I have nothing else. Sir Rodney, you are more cruel than I thought you !

" " Was," he said emphatically. " I did not know you then. If you could see the woman I pictured you — the designing, vulgar, badly edu cated there, I need not confess what an old donkey I was, but you would almost forgive me. You will forgive me now, for I am telling you all this because I wish to undo my work, and I want you to help me." Mrs. Mainwaring came back to the bed and waited. " Take this key," he said, detaching one from his watch-chain. " Call my servant Drake and the housekeeper, and go to my desk in the library. In the lower division you will find my will and the letter I spoke of ; they are tied together. Bring them to me, and desire the two servants to come here with you." Guessing that he wished to destroy the papers, Mrs. Mainwarins: went in nervous haste to do his bidding.

In a few minutes she came back, followed by the two servants, and carrying a neatly tied-up packet in her hand. " Drake," said Sir Rodney, " you and Andrews there witnessed my will. In order that there may be no doubt hereafter on the subject I have sent for you to see it destroyed. If I live until to-morrow you shall witness a new one. Here, Drake, poke up the fire and burn it ; and this letter too." In five minutes only a very nasty smell re mained to remind anyone of a very cruel and unjust will. " You can go now," said Sir Rodney to the two servants. When they had left the room, Agnes bent suddenly down and kissed the large and once powerful hand that lay on the silken coverlet. " To-morrow," said he, " I shall make another will. I shall leave everything to the boy, leaving you three thousand a year, and making you his guardian, with Sedley, my other son-in-law, who is much more to your taste than the others, if you'll give me one promise ?

" " What promise . " she asked breathlessly. " That you'll send him to Eton at twelve years old." She looked at him wistfully. " Listen to me patiently," she said. " I should like to please you — you are so very kind, and I know that you have a right, too, to choose for the child. And I know too — and am grateful for it — that you would like him to go younger than that, but for kindness to me. But Hu^o told S me, when he was dying, that if my child were a boy he wished him to be sent to Cleveland Col lege, near Brighton — to his old friend, Bertrand Moreland : he had so high an opinion of him and of his school." " Well, if Moreland is still there, of course Hugo's wish must be your law. If the school has changed hands you'll send him to Eton." " At fourteen," said she softly. " I said twelve, ma'am," he answered.

" But please say fourteen. I will obey you exactly if I live and nothing happens to make it impossible. But do say fourteen ; twelve is so very young." " Well, there ! have it your own way. But there is to be no delay then. Unless the boy is ill, he is to go. I cannot have my heir altogether ruined, ma'am, even to please you." " I promise. You have been very kind, and you may be certain that I shall keep my word." " I am certain. Now, my dear, good-night. You are dying to be off and to see young Hope ful tucked up in his crib, and I am tired. This was a sharpish attack, Agnes. A few more such, and it will be Sir Hugo instead of Sir Rodney. What are you doing ? I told you to go." " But I want to read you a chapter first, be cause I know you ought not to read to yourself to-night," she said gently.

And disregarding a chuckle, the meaning of which she quite under stood, she read her chapter, choosing the eigh teenth of St. John's Gospel. " I can read the nineteenth to-morrow, if you like," she said. " 0 Sir Rodney ! did not He bear a great deal — for you ? " " Why do you say this ? " he asked half an grily. " You have lived here nearly a year, and yet this is the first time you have ventured " " Don't be angry," she said gently. " It is because you have been so good to me. You have given me so much, and I feel so grateful. You never let me near enough before. Good night, father." She went away, and Sir Rodney lay and thought of what she had said, and the words she had read to him were ringing in his ears. He had heard them often, of course ; but to-night something brought them home to him.

Why was it, he wondered, that he could not help thinking of them ? Perhaps, because in her own room, beside her boy's cot, Agnes Mainwaring was kneeling, praying earnestly for the old man whose heart was at last softened to her, and whose carelessness about religion had often made her tremble. It was not her first prayer for him, though she had never spoken to him before. Sir Rodney Mainwaring lived for about a year after this eventful night, and then he died, humbly trusting in his long-forgotten Saviour ; and little Sir Hugo "reigned in his stead."

Chapter II. Training

When I said that Sir Hugo Mainwaring reigned in the room of Sir Rodney, I was only using a form of words : for there has seldom been a boy who became a Baronet and the possessor of a large fortune at two years old, who had so little injury done to him by it as Hugo had. Agnes Mainwaring, though barely one-and-twenty when left her son's sole guardian (Mr. Sedley had died before Sir Rodney, and the old mau had not named anyone iu his place), was a very sensible, clever womau : her great affliction had made her older than her years, and she had received a really good education. Her father, a junior part ner in the great house of Smith & Jackson, had been a wise man, who never forgot that " the changes and chances of this mortal life " are many, aud that his darling might one day have to earn her bread.

So he was determined that TRAINING. 17 she should be able to do so without difficulty. He gave her a splendid education, and as she had very good abilities and loved study, she became a really good scholar : a much better one than most boys are when they leave school — or even college, sometimes. She had read much, and had travelled a good deal : two means of acquiring knowledge of which she had taken full advantage ; and therefore, young as she was, she was no inexperienced, frightened girl, unable to decide any question of importance for herself or to arrange her plans for her son's education. Mr. Spencer and Mr. Delawarr, when they came to Kingsdale for the old man's funeral, were full of curiosity to see the "little Smith woman," as they called her, and meant to carry matters with a high hand if she tried to resist the authority with which they never doubted that they were invested by the will.

They did not see her until after the funeral : when they returned to the house, the lawyer who had drawn up Sir Rodney's will announced that he wished to read it -to the assembled household. They were all gathered in the great library, where Sir Rodney had loved to sit of late years. Not that he was a reader — but that round the walls hung pictures of his B handsome, stately sons and daughters. And though he would never show any feeling about them, not even allowing a falter to be heard in his voice when he spoke of them, he would sit gazing at their portraits in silence for hours tog-ether. The servants all sat iu a row at the end of the fine old room next the door. Mr. Delawarr, a tall, dignified man, middle-aged, but still handsome, with a bland smile covering a somewhat hard look, sat in Sir Rodney's great easy-chair, and looked about him with an eye that seemed searching for small improvements to be made under his administration.

Mr. Spencer, a wiry little man with a keen, eager face, watched him covertly, and smiled to himself, reflecting that Sir Rodney had certainly liked him better than Delawarr, and that the latter would find that he was not sole guardian ; not going to have everything his own way, by any means. The old lawyer maintained a very creditable gravity, but had he been alone, he could have enjoyed a laugh ; for he was a jolly old fellow with some sense of humour, and he knew the contents of the will. " Ah, Mr. Perkins — ah — do you know whether TRAINING. 19 Mrs. Hugo Mainwaring means to favour us with her presence, or not ? " inquired Mr. Dela warr. " Parker is my name, Mr. Delawarr. Yes, I have received a message from Mrs. Main waring to say that she will join us in a few minutes." " Mrs. Hugo is not a very punctual person, apparently," said Mr. Delawarr, " although, in the clays of her youth, she was probably taught that 'time is money.'" " Mrs. Mainwaring is not very old yet," an swered Mr. Parker, quietly.

" Why do you call her Mrs. Mainwaring ? Poor Hugo was the third son, if I mistake not, and Joscelyn outlived him." " Well, you see we have fallen into the habit, sir. Sir Rodney did so himself, and as neither of the other sons left a widow — and " " It can't possibly matter what she calls her self," remarked Mr. Spencer, his sharp decided voice making them all start. " I daresay," he added aside to Mr. Delawarr, " she will call her self Lady Mainwaring when she returns to her own sphere. I hope she does not mean to be troublesome." Mr. Delawarr nodded — and Mr. Parker took up a paper to conceal a grin. " Poor old Sir Rodney," murmured Mr. Dela warr, in a voice not unlike the purring of a cat. " How he hated having her here. Of course, as the boy was quite an infant, it was necessary — but it was hard on the old man."

" You've never seen her V asked Mr. Spencer. " No. I always intended running down for a day or so to see the old man, but my time is so fully occupied." " I never could manage it either," answered the other; and it never occurred to either of them that if the " little Smith woman " were really as undesirable as they imagined her, they had not been particularly kind to the poor old Baronet. At the same time, it must be acknow ledged that Sir Rodney's own wrath at the time of Hugo's marriage, and his dislike to poor Agnes at first, must be held accountable for their low estimate of " Mrs. Hugo," as they chose to call her. Mr. Delawarr was just about to propose that Mr. Parkins, or Perkins, should proceed to business without waiting any longer for the lady in question, when the door opened, and Agnes came in, carrying her child in her arms, TRAINING. 21 and followed by a maid.

The delay had been occasioned by her shy reluctance to face these strangers, who had never acknowledged her ex istence hitherto ; and it was only when her child's maid, seeing how nervous she was, proposed that she should take him with her, that she could summon up courage to go to the library. The two gentlemen looked at the slight, youthful figure in deep mourning — she had left off her widow's cap, and her dark hair was uncovered — and then they glanced hurriedly at each other. This delicate, graceful lady, was not " the little Smith woman " surely ; but instinct made them both rise. Agnes walked steadily up the long room with her lovely, rosy boy in her arms, and stopped beside Mr. Parker, who had risen to greet her. " I hope I have not inconvenienced you," she said, in her clear, soft voice.

" Will you intro duce me to Mr. Spencer and Mr. Dela warr, Mr. Parker ? I have never met them before." The introductions over, she sat down, holding the child on her knee. He stared round with big brown eyes, but behaved extremely well, only turning suddenly if he caught any one looking at him, and burying his face iu his mother's dress; which was a piece of line acting on his part, for he was not in the least shy. Then Mr. Parker read the will, which left handsome legacies to Drake, Mrs. Andrews, aud various other old servants, three thousand a year to "my beloved daughterin -law, Agnes Mary Mainwaring," and everything else to the round faced baby who was staring at his father's picture, attracted by the red hunting-coat in which he was attired. But the crowning surprise was when Mr. Parker finished by announcing that the "said Agues Mary Mainwaring, and George Sedley, my son-in-law," were appointed guardians.

" When Mr. Sedley died," said Mr. Parker, "I came here and asked Sir Rodney to choose some one to succeed him. But he said that the boy's mother would be his best guardian, and only desired me to tell her — which I take this opportunity of doing — that she ought at once to make her will, and appoint guardians iu case of her decease during her son's minority." The somewhat unfriendly eyes that had been watching the young mother all this time had TRAINING. 23 perceived that she was not taken by surprise in the least. Both gentlemen were intensely dis gusted, but both wished to conceal their feelings. So when Agnes courteously asked them if they would not remain at Kingsdale that night, they accepted, and beyond muttering to each other, " must have played her cards uncommonly well," they did not fail iu deference.

But they went home to their own abodes next day, assuring each other that Mrs. Mainwaring was a regular nun, and that the boy would be ruined long before he was fourteen. However, as I have said, no boy was ever less spoiled than little Hugo Mainwaring. Very likely Agnes made mistakes, for she was a humau being, and a very young one ; but she neither spoiled her son, nor made a "molly " of him. Truth to say, it would have been very hard to make a "molly" of young Hugo, who inherited some thing of the Mainwaring disposition along with the Mainwaring estates. He was a daring, active fellow, wonderfully strong aud vigorous for his age, and full of abundant vitality. The Maiu warings had ever been a healthy, idle, hot headed set, living for field-sports, and despising sedentary pursuits and all who followed them.

Had Hugo been brought up in the same way that his father had been, he would probably have been a perfect Mainwaring, which his father had not been, having always had rather quieter tastes than the rest. But the influence of his mother, and his unbouuded love and reverence for her, had so softening an effect on him that he early promised to be a very fine fellow. Agnes often told herself that for the first few years of his life he was hers, and hers only ; he might never be hers only any more. At fourteen he must go to school, and who could say what influences might be brought to bear upon him . He must then meet his cousins, his uncles, and take his part in the busy world from that time forth. For twelve years she had him to herself, and her great anxiety was so to use that time that the lessons then learned should colour all the rest of his life.