A Scarlet Sin

Chapter I. The Mistress Of Glebe Royal

ROYAL never looked more t\v^Hr beautiful than it did in autumn, when the varied hues of dying nature were on its glorious old trees, turning their mantling leaves from every shade of green, to yellow, and crimson, and copper brown — when the carpet of bracken that lay under them was rust colour, and crackled as the deer sprang over it — and when the smooth shaven lawn in front of the house was studded VOL. I. B SIN with dahlias, like living gems — for Glebe Royal had always been celebrated for its dahlias, and Sir Alan Chichester took a pride in keeping up everything as it had ever been. But on the autumn afternoon that sees this story open, the day's glory had departed, and left a misty veil like a pale gray shroud over the landscape. It had been raining heavily, and, though the shower had abated, the raindrops still hung upon the "invisible" fence that divided the gardens from the park, and dripped silently from the overhanging eaves.

The deer were huddled together in their sheds ; the dahlias hung their heavy-laden blossoms downwards ; and the adjacent stables and kennels seemed strangely quiet, for it was a hunting day, and Sir Alan Chichester, M.F. for the county, had been away since nine o'clock in the morning, with all his retinue. Not a sound was to be heard, except the crunching of the gravel drive under the clumsily shod feet and heavy tread of the Baronet's sister, Miss Chichester, as she tramped up and down, like a soldier on duty. Miss Chichester was a woman of about fifty, full ten years older than her brother, Sir Alan, and of what most people mis took for a hard and uncompromising nature. Glebe Royal had been her home (as it had been that of her brother) all her life long, and her visits to other places had been few and far between.

Her circle of acquaintance was, therefore, necessarily small, and her mind had had no opportunities of development. Her ideas were narrow and bigoted ; she wished to b SLN 4 do right, but she had a most unpleasant way of doing it. Once put a notion in her head, and it was impossible to drive it out again. Her settled opinion was, that what was right for Tom must be right for Harry, and that if a thing was advisable on Monday it was advisable on Tuesday. It was in the fulfilment of this theory that she was marching up and down the drive of Glebe Royal, after a soaking shower, at five o'clock iu the afternoon. The damp ground made her feet cold, and her frame shiver. She was swallowing the rising mists in an unlimited quantity; but she knew it was healthy exercise to walk for an hour every day, so she would have done it had the heavens rained fire.

Not only that, but she would have left no stone unturned to make her friends do the same, for herein lay the disagreeable part of Anna Chichester's character. She could not be content with carrying out her own ideas of right ; she wanted to force everybody else to think and do exactly the same as she did. The rapidly approaching shades of evening, which threatened to obscure the outer landscape, had made the inside of the house look still more gloomy. The servants had lighted the lamps in the hall and passages, but Lady Chichester had refused to let them illuminate the drawing-room in which she sat, and the vast apartment was full of fitful shadows. The huge log of wood that lay smouldering on the hearth threw up a flickering flame every now and then that made the subjects of the paintings that hung on the walls, and the statuary that stood in the corners, look almost ghostly.

But Lady Chichester had no fear of ghosts — unless they were the ghosts of the past — and was thinking only of herself and her ailments, as she cowered on a sofa close to the fire, and wondered what could be the matter with her that she felt so ill. She was a slight, frail -looking woman of about forty, round whose attenuated figure a white woollen shawl was wrapped so closely that hardly anything was to be seen of her but her face. She had been very pretty in her girlish days — one of those fairy -like, ethereal creatures that strong, vigorous men delight in for their very contrast to themselves ; but all the beauty was gone now, and only the fragility remained. Her fair hair had become scanty, and was thickly streaked with gray ; her large blue eyes gazed at you with a shrinking, scared expression that betrayed she had no confidence in herself or her own opinions — if she possessed any.

As she sat there, in the gathering gloom, she did not appear to make any effort to employ or amuse herself. A ball of wool and some knitting-pins, with the first volume of a novel, certainly lay on a small table beside her, but she did not seem to have made any progress with either. Lady Chichester was only wondering vaguely if she should ever feel better again, or if she were going to die ; and, if you had offered her the choice of the two, she would probably have chosen the latter. For she loved her husband with a meek, mute adoration felt by few wives in the present clay; and she knew she was a burden and an annoyance to him, rather than a pleasure, and that he would be better off if she were gone. She was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she never heard the hall-door bell ring, and was quite startled when the footman threw open the door and announced " Dr. Jolliffe."

Dr. Jolliffe could not have been better suited with a name, for it sounded so much like "jolly ;" and he was one of the jolliest people possible. He never entered a house without brightening it up. His cheery voice brought hope and confidence in its train ; and desponding hearts, looking doubt fully into the future, took courage from its tones to battle successfully with the disease that threatened to overcome their physical powers. "Why! how is this?" he exclaimed, as he passed the threshold. " All in the dark ? How am I to judge of my patient's looks if I can't see her ? With your leave, Lady Chichester, I must request John to light up. I have very sharp eyes, but not sharp enough for this." "It is so pleasant to sit in the twilight when one is alone," said Lady Chichester, in a plaintive voice, as the gas flared up and revealed her features.

" Pleasant, perhaps, but not prudent," replied Dr. Jolliffe, as he felt her pulse. " Have you never heard that it is not good for man to be alone, nor woman either ? Where is Miss Chichester?" "I do not know. I have not seen her since luncheon." "And Sir Alan?" " Oh ! he is out hunting. Did you not hear there was a meet to-day ? " "No. Why didn't you call for me in the carriage, and take me to it ? I should have enjoyed the sight. Did you go ? " "It Oh, doctor ! " replied Lady Chiches ter, deprecatingly. "Well, and why not? It was a lovely morning, though it has ended in rain. It would have done you good. The fact is, you shut yourself too much up in the house, Lady Chichester. I shall have to lay my orders on Sir Alan to see that you drive out every day. We shall have you ill, if this goes on."

" Oh, doctor, I am ill," returned Lady Chichester, shivering, and drawing her woollen wrap still closer. " Sometimes I think I shall never be any better — that I am going to die." The doctor laughed long and heartily. " Going to die ! So you are ! You are quite right, my dear lady ; and so am I, and Sir Alan, and every one of us in due course of time. But we won't order our coffins just 3ret." " But what use ami?" she said, earnestlv. "My good, true Alan is as kind to me as he can be, but I am only a drag upon his daily life. We can share nothing in common now, and of late I have felt much worse than usual." " Tell me all your symptoms — never mind how trifling — and I will give you a true opinion on them," he answered her. He sat silent and attentive, whilst his patient gave him various details concerning herself; but his eye twinkled occasionally as he listened, and there was just the suspicion of a smile about his mouth.

"Now, my dear lady," he said, as she concluded, "you're not ill at all, and I'm going to make you as right as a trivet." " Oh, doctor ! " "It's gospel truth, and the first thing I prescribe is exercise. You must take gentle exercise daily — either by driving or walking." " But I cannot walk — I am too weak." " Then you must go in your carriage until you regain the use of your legs. And you must have more society. It's enough to make any lady feel ill to sit by herself all day. What is Miss Chichester about to leave you alone like this ? Why isn't she here to amuse and divert you ? " "Anna has always had her own apart ments at Glebe Royal, and occupied them as she saw fit. Besides, I would rather be by myself, Dr. Jolliffe. My sister-in-law and I have never been very close friends, nor thought alike on the same subjects, and anything approaching a discussion is sure to upset me.

I am better alone." " You are no such thing, my lady, and I must see Sir Alan on the subject. You need cheerful society, and you must have it." "But I dislike evening and dinner parties exceedingly. It is quite a trial to me to preside at one. I dread that Sir Alan should see how incapable I am of amusing his guests, and lately he has been good enough to excuse me from appearing at table, and let his sister do the honours instead." "A great mistake on Sir Alan's part," replied Dr. Jolliffe, impatiently ; " but I was not alluding to parties at all. What you require is a cheerful companion, to re main with you all day and to share your walks or drives. Now, what would you say to having some nice, bright, warm-hearted girl to run after you wherever you went — to read aloud to you, or play and sing, perhaps, and make herself generally useful ?

" Lady Chichester's pale cheeks actually flushed. " I should like it very much, I think, doctor ; but I know of no young people. I have no nieces or cousins with whom I am intimate, or — or — " with a deep sio*h, "children." " I know that ; but everything can be got in this world with money ; and there are plenty of young ladies who would only be too thankful to come to a home like this. I wish / was a young lady, Lady Chichester ; i" would jump at the offer. Glebe Royal is a little paradise." " That is just what I used to say when I first came to it," replied Lady Chichester, with another sigh; "and to think it must pass away to strangers. No wonder it makes Sir Alan sad to speak of it. Some times he says he'll chuck the whole thing up, and go abroad to end his days." Dr. Jolliffe laughed again in his hearty, reassuring way.

"Nonsense! nonsense! Sir Alan is only making fun of you. He knows a trick worth two of that. And what may your ladyship s book be ? " touching the volume on the table. "Anything new from Mudie ? " " Yes ; Mr. Rider Haggard's ' She.' A startling story, doctor, and very improbable. But the print is rather small, and made my eyes ache, else I was getting very much interested in it. Fancy ! a woman living for a thousand years. Could such a thing ever have really happened ? " " I'll go far towards making you live for a thousand years, if you'll follow my advice," said the doctor. She actually laughed. Such a thin, quavery little ghost of a laugh as it was, and yet so unused to make itself heard that it was almost immediately succeeded by tears. " If you could make me just a little like my former self — a little more like what I was when Alan married me," she faltered, "I should be so happy."

"So I will," he rejoined, "if you'll only be good. Now, will you promise me to go out driving to-morrow morning — wet or dry?" " Wet or dry ? " "Certainly. In the open carriage if it should be dry (which I think it will), and in a close one if it proves rainy. Drive to Gambletown and back, and bring me a new pair of dogskin gloves from Munster's to prove you've been there. Is it a bargain ? " "Yes, doctor, if you really consider it necessary." " It is more than necessary, it is impera tive, I want to bring* the roses back to your cheeks, Lady Chichester, and the gloss to your hair. You are not doing yourself justice at all. You will look ten years younger when you have been for a week in the open air." " I will go — indeed, I will go," she replied, quite eagerly ; " but it is almost as lonely driving by oneself as sitting here by oneself."

VOL. i. c "Take 'She' with you, then, and fancy you are sitting on the sofa at home. Before long, I hope we shall have secured some one who will talk to you, and amuse you, whether you are out or in. I ought to have thought of it long ago." He rose to take his leave, holding her pulse again for a few seconds between his fingers before he did so. The touch seemed to inspire him with some hope. " You are not so ill as you imagine, Lady Chichester, by a very long way ; indeed, I shall not be surprised if a few months see you entirely restored to health. Take heart, and resolve to be well. Then you will be well. Good-bye." He left his patient still weak, trembling, and scared looking ; but he left hope behind him, and a more contented look settled down upon her countenance as she sank back upon the sofa and resumed her perusal of "She."

Meanwhile, Dr. Jolliffe, having assumed his top-coat and an enormous woollen com forter (which he wound about half-a-dozen times round his throat) in the hall, took his umbrella, and turned out into the open air, where he ran straight up against Miss Chichester, who had walked for exactly sixty minutes by the stable clock. c

Chapter II. Home From Hunting

''ST-MIULL0 ! Doctor Jolliffe ! " exclaimed | K# K the lady, in her discourteous manner, " what on earth are you here for ? " For amongst Miss Chichester's pet aver sions she classed the entire medical fraternity, whom she commonly designated as a set of cheats and fools. " That's not a very polite way in which to welcome a visitor to Glebe Royal, Miss Chi chester," replied the doctor, good-humouredly. " Suppose I came especially to make a call upon yourself ? " " Oh, you know me better than that. You know I would rather die a natural death at any time than be forced out of the world by your filthy pills and potions. You can keep them to kill yourself with ; you'll never get me to swallow them." Her rudeness, unaccompanied by the slightest pleasantry, had no effect upon the doctor, who only laughed at it in his usual hearty manner.

" I am quite aware of it, Miss Chichester, and I never intend to ask you ; moreover, I am Christian enough to be able to add that I hope you'll never feel the want of them. No, I didn't come to see you. My visit was to Lady Chichester ; I thought she looked ill in church yesterday, and that I might venture to offer her a little advice." "Alice ill! Fudge! She's lazy; that's what you mean." " Indeed, I do not, and if you will walk back with me to the drive gates, I should like to speak to you about her." " All right," replied Miss Chichester, wheeling round. " If Alice would only come out and walk down the drive with you herself, she wouldn't need either your advice or any of your dirty messes." " I agree with you there ; but that would argue she had as fine a constitution as your self, and, unfortunately, she has not.

She is very feeble and enervated; in fact, there is no doubt she is ill." " What's the matter with her ? " demanded his companion, curtly. " That I am not quite prepared to say." 'You doctors never are prepared to say anything. You always have to go home and grub in your books before you can form an opinion, and then you're generally wrong." " I am aware that you have not a very high opinion of the medical profession, Miss Chichester ; still, I have pretty well made up my mind regarding her ladyship's symptoms, but I decline to disclose my surmise at present. What I wish to consult you about is the treatment necessary to her case. She must not be allowed to mope." " Mope ! Who makes her mope ? " " I call it moping to sit alone for the greater part of the day, like Lady Chichester, unemployed, and brooding — as she evidently does — on melancholy subjects.

I want more life and sunshine for her." "But, bless you, man!" cried Miss Chichester, stopping short on the gravel drive, and arresting his attention with a violent dig from her umbrella, " why doesn't she take them, then ? She's alive, and she's got legs ; but she won't stir from the sofa. She won't even go out in the carriage, and as for a walk, such as I've just been taking, why, she'd die straight off at the thought of it. She's a fool, that's what she is, and always has been," concluded Miss Chichester, resuming her walk. "You're too hard upon her — indeed you are. You cannot judge of her capabilities by your own. Lady Chichester is naturally of a very delicate constitution, and has increased her physical weakness by giving in to it. She wants rousing and encouraging, and more cheerful society."

"Cheerful society. Isn't Sir Alan cheerful? One of the happiest dispositions possible, and active and vigorous as can be. All the greater misfortune for him to be tied to such a useless creature as Alice." " Your brother is everything you say, Miss Chichester ; but then he possesses an unusual amount of strength and vitality, and his habits have become a second nature. But he is very seldom with Lady Chichester. She does not see much of him." "How can she when she scarcely ever leaves the house ? " " And has almost arrived at that pitch when she is incapable of leaving it. Well, if she can't go out, she must have com panionship indoors. I insist upon it, and shall take the earliest opportunity to tell Sir Alan so." Dr. Jolliffe spoke so unusually gravely and decidedly (for him) that Miss Chichester became a little alarmed.

" Is Alice really ill ? " she asked. " She will be, if my orders are not attended to." "But / am a great deal with her. I have lived at Glebe Royal ever since my brother's marriage, twenty years ago. I always meet my sister-in-law at meals." " That is not sufficient, and excuse me for saying I want a younger and more genial companion for Lady Chichester than yourself — some one who will be always with her, to sing or play, and suggest means of amusement — who will let her have her own way, in fact, and not argue with or contradict her." Miss Chichester tossed her head. "And, pray, where will you find this rara avis? They don't grow in Glebe Royal." "We must advertise for one." "You mean to engage a paid companion for Lady Chichester ? I won't allow it ! " " Then I must speak to Sir Alan myself on the subject.

I thought you might have paved the way for me ; but it is no matter. I shall call in again shortly. Good evening." And without offering to shake hands with her, Dr. Jolliffe passed through the drive gates, and left Miss Chichester alone. It was very dark and very damp as she stood there for a few minutes looking after his retreating figure, and almost wishing she had not spoken so hastily. But the pro posal had annoyed her. They were very conservative at Glebe Royal, and the idea of a stranger being admitted to the family circle, to hear all their secrets, and be a constant spy upon their actions, was very distasteful to her ; added to wdiich, her pride was hurt at the idea that her society was not considered sufficient for her sister-in-law. She had lived under the same roof as Alice ever since Sir Alan had brought her home to Glebe Royal, a blushing, shy girl of twenty — had nursed her in her rough, un sympathetic way through her illnesses, and been regarded in every respect as an elder sister.

And now this doctor (who was as great a fool as the rest of his profession) threatened to depose her, and set up a stranger in her place. She waited at the drive gates for full twenty minutes, watching for the return of her brother and his friend, Captain Henry Fauntleroy, from hunting ; and when they arrived, muddy and splashed, she placed her gauntleted hand on Sir Alan's saddle-bow, and commenced to march up the drive with him in that position. "Take care, Anna," said her brother, " the Squire and I are dreadfully dirty ; he came a cropper over the last brook in Tanglefield ; he will soil your dress if you walk so close to him." "Rubbish ! What do I care for a little mud ? I'm not made of sugar, like Alice. By the way, Dr. Jolliffe has just been talking to me about her. He thinks she's ill."

If the evening shadows had not already commenced to fall, Miss Chichester would have seen the change that passed suddenly upon her brother's face. He and his wife had drifted very far asunder in the last few years, but she had been the one love of his life, and he would never quite for get it. "Ill/" he reiterated, quickly. "What's the matter ? Surely nothing serious ! " Miss Chichester gave a kind of snort of contempt. " I only said that Jolliffe thinks she's ill, and you must know what fools these doctors are. For my own part, I don't believe a word of it. Alice is a chilly mortal, and somewhat lazy, and she won't go out this weather ; if she did, she'd be all the better for it. But Jolliffe declares she requires amusement, and we must set O a companion for her." " A companion ! " repeated Sir Alan, knitting his brows; "a companion when she has me."

HOME FEOM HUNTING 31 " And me, too ! That's just what 1 said ; but he was obstinate, and declared he should speak to you himself on the subject." " I shall send down the groom to ask him to come up again to-night," said her brother as he dismounted at the hall-door. " I shan't rest till I've heard the truth of it. Alice ill ! Why, I have never heard her make the slightest complaint ! " He turned abruptly from his sister and his friend as he spoke, and walked straight into the drawing-room, where his wife was still lying on the couch before the fire, with her book in her hand. But she had heard his footstep, and her large eyes were turned towards the door expectantly. As she caught sight of him, and saw that he had not stayed to change his dress before seeking her presence, her pale face lighted up with pleasure, which increased to the verge of making her tremble as he came up to her side and kissed her.

He was a man to be proud of. His two - and - forty years had but perfected his muscular figure until it assimilated with his height. He had a small head covered with close cropped curling hair, brown eyes, a well formed nose, and a full - lipped mouth shaded by a heavy moustache. His pink coat, and top-boots, and breeches suited him admirably, and he appeared to be (as indeed he was) the essence of manly strength and vitality. He looked as if he could have taken the fragile woman on the sofa and crushed her between his finger and thumb ; and some feeling of this sort — some sense of the vast gulf that had yawned between them with the passing HOME FEOM HUNTING 33 years — had done more to estrange them than anything else. How could a man who revelled in hunting, shooting, fishing, and all other manly sports — to whom, indeed, they were essentially necessary as part of his existence — derive much enjoyment from the society of a wife too feeble to accompany him anywhere ?

And she had never given him any children. That was the great secret disappointment of Sir Alan Chichester's life. How often, when she had been the one great passion of his boyhood — his promised bride, as yet unclaimed — had he not dreamed with the confidence of two-and-twenty years of the sons and daughters she would bring him, and of whom he should be so proud, because they belonged to his pretty, fairy-like Alice, with her wild-rose complexion and VOL. I. d her dainty ways ! And then came marriage, but without the realisation of that boyish dream. The wild-rose bloom on Alice's cheek had faded into pallor, and the dainty ways had degenerated into lassitude, for Lady Chichester was also a disappointed and unhappy woman. She recognised that — though from no fault of her own — she was a failure, and that her husband could never look at her without remembering that his vast estates, and riches, and title, must pass at his death to strangers, because she had borne no son to inherit them.

Miss Chichester, too — with the pride of a member of an old county family — felt the disappointment almost as keenly as themselves, and many a bitter hint or allusion from her lips had made Lady Chichester's lot more hard to bear. But, HOME FEOM HUNTING 35 through it all, the wife had adored her husband, perhaps all the more so because she felt as if she had innocently wronged him, and he — well ! he loved her still (or he thought he did), that is to say, waves of tenderness for her would sweep over him occasionally, when he remembered what she had been ; but when he had remained for a few minutes in her society, he gene rally contrived to escape from it to that of his male companions — so opposite had they grown in all their tastes, opinions, and pursuits. Miss Chichester's intelligence, how ever, had awakened one of those sudden ebullitions of feeling to which Sir Alan was subject, and as he embraced his wife, he asked her, quite affectionately : "Well, little woman, and what's the matter with you ?

" d "Matter! dear Alan! Nothing at all, that I know of; only I feel very tired sometimes, and good for nothing. Dr. Jolliffe has been here." " So Anna tells me. What did he say? " He said he would make me quite well if I would obey his orders." "Then you must obey them. By Jove! I wish you could come out hunting with me. That would set you up. You should have tried it twenty years ago, Alice, when I wanted to teach you." "Ah, Alan! I was always too silly and timid to make a good horsewoman. All your instructions were so much time thrown away." " You would have been a different woman if you had followed my advice. It would HOME FROM HUNTING 37 have put new life into you. You should have seen the run we had to-day. Straight as the crow flies, from Brierley Downs to Tanglefield, and without a check.

The Squire and I came to grief over the last brook. The bank was so soft from the rain, he couldn't get a grip of it, so we both flopped in." " Not in the water ! " exclaimed Lady Chichester, in a voice of terror. " Of course, in the water ! head over ears. How could we ' flop ' on dry land ? Hullo ! What's the matter with you now ? " For even that slight excitement had been too much for Lady Chichester's enfeebled frame, and she had sunk back upon her sofa cushions in a faint. Sir Alan rang the bell furiously. The sight of extreme weak ness did not soften — it rather hardened him. He believed so fully, in the arrogance of his own strength, that it was quite avoid able. He ordered the servant who answered the bell to send Lady Chichester's maid to her assistance at once, and as soon as Jane Wood appeared, he resigned his wife into her charge.