The Sin of Hagar

Chapter I. Under

an early morning sky, beside that ocean to which the heart of man leaps instinctively, per chance as symbolising the glorious freedom to which his soul aspires, but can never reach, a man and girl were walking, absolutely blind and insen sate to the heavenly influences around them, though the causes for their indifference were wide as the poles asunder. The man was a cold scientist, too wholly engrossed in a subject that sleeping and waking never left his consciousness, to be aware of his body at all, or of any agreeable sensations affecting that body ; the other, because, with all the strong, sweet influences of Nature crying out to her, she saw only her own heart, with its seething revolt, its impotent struggles, and realised all the degra dation, the horror, of an existence that did not even belong to itself, but was sacrificed, quick and quivering, on the wicked altar of man's thirst for discovery.

A distant clock struck the hour of seven. The girl lifted her face for a moment to the pale sky, re-created over again for her, for every one of us, each day, and at that moment there burst upon them round the corner of the cliff something also new, in blood, in heart, in pure joyfulness, and rainbow glory of love — two young lovers, arm in arm, who breathed contraband bliss from every pore, as like a bunch of warm crimson roses dividing dry, fleshless bones, they passed between the wizard and his daughter, drawing closer to each other as they came. Irresponsible, gay, chattering nineteen to the dozen, just as you will see two mites, wholly engrossed with one another, start off intent upon some delicious childish game forbidden by their elders, they were apparently getting fast out of sight, when one of th»m stopped, and looked back, just as the figure at the corner of the cliff who had also been gazing after them, turned and hurried on to join the gaunt man who had not even missed her.

" Oh ! Willie ! " cried the younger of the frivolous ones, turning pale, an image of thoughtless youth who has looked in the face of old age as in a mirror, and is affronted at the sight, " why didn't we turn back sooner ? He freezes the blood in my veins. Coleridge must have had just such a man as that in his mind when he described his ' Ancient Mariner ' — and oh ! that poor, poor girl ! " Will Cassilis took prompt advantage of a sheltered nook that had proved at once the opportunity and discovery of countless Salterton lovers, and kissed her warm again before he said — " The man is ill, probably dying, and I wish he had chosen any other place to die in, as he seems to affect you in this extraordinary way, darling love." "He will never die!" cried Nadege; " he was never born, he is nothing human, though what he is no one knows.

Don't you see the fisher-people shrink and turn pale when he passes by ? He just looks at them with those awful eyes, and the very marrow in their bones dissolves — some horrible, unknown influence is abroad when he is near — you have felt it yourself, Willie, only you are a man, and obstinate, and will not own it ! " " You see, he is old," said Will, decidedly, " and we are young. It's atrophy of the muscles, of heart, of powers of enjoyment — everything — and, of course, we don't understand it — it must be awful to be like that." 3E)agar. 4 He stretched his long athletic limbs in all the rejoicing strength of five-and-twenty, and keen, alert, swift-footed, he looked a lover to be reckoned with, and only outstripped with difficulty, as he took Nadege's face in both hands, and squeezed it up together, so as to kiss as much of it all at once as he possibly could.

It was one of those dimpled, kissable little faces of which the lovableness struck one first, and the beauty after ; with something of the winning and pathetic trustfulness of a child, too, in it, as she stood on tiptoe, with one hand lifted to his shoulder. It sometimes troubled him, that pathetic look, but she always explained it by saying it was because she was so happy — had never had reason to be anything else ! " Sweetie, Sweetie," he said ruefully, " hurry up and grow old ! Only sixteen last birthday — and the Chief won't even listen to me for another year ! I shall be an old man by that time, and some one else will have carried you off — perhaps that brute Trelawny, who has stalked you from infancy — who knows?" "Willie," she said irrelevantly, "how can you call me even good-looking after that girl who has just passed us ?

And I always hated black men. They never look clean ! " " Darling," he said rapturously, " and Trelawny is black, and I detest those tall women with grand, uncomfortable ways, who want to make you live with them on a deuced cold hill-top ; and if, as you say, she has never known an hour's happiness, it would take a fellow far too long to teach her. No, thank you, Nadege, I want my own dear, sweet little Titania, and nobody else." " Just you wait, sir," she said ferociously, " for I haven't done growing yet ! Willie ! " for they had come within sight of what went by the name of the Parade at Chudleigh Salterton, and a young man's white flannel arms might be seen at a con siderable distance if enveloping a blue cambric gown. But it was quite early yet, and Lord Strau benzee's valet was only just carrying in his master's shaving water, and opening the green jalousies of the queer little house that looked on the sea, and stood back from the road, with a rustic air sug gesting a desire for privacy on the part of its owner, which in this instance was perfectly correct.

" Do you think I might venture to come in to breakfast?" inquired Will coaxingly, as he and Nadege slowly, very slowly, advanced. " I haven't called openly since the day before yesterday, and fjagar. 6 there's a cricket match on here to-day, which makes a capital excuse." " Cricket matches don't begin at eight o'clock in the morning, you silly boy," said Nadege rebukingly, " and father won't stand too much — he doesn't believe your story about coming down to Sidmouth to nurse an old friend ! " " If only he had stopped there ! " grumbled Willie. " He must needs leave that jolly old Knowle Hotel — such walks there, Sweetie, for lovers ! — and come over to this hole, where there is not even a railway, to bury himself — and you. And I do waste such lots of time in a boat that I might spend with you — good for my muscles, lovey, but very bad for my heart !

" " I think the golf-maniacs drove father away," said Nadege, laughing ; "there used to be no links there, you know, and some people grumbled and declared it was dull ! We didn't find it dull, did we ? " Both young people burst out into a peal of joyous reminiscence, then remembered, and capered horror-struck, and held their hands over their mouths, giving themselves up for lost as a head appeared in Lord Straubenzee's window. " It is only Coleman," said Will, reassuringly. "But it might have been father! Now go, Jgagar. 7 Willie, before we are caught ; and if you keep your eyes open during the morning, we may get half an hour together later on, and you must be so hungry, poor boy ! " Behind the umbrella, that bobbed responsive, they clung, and kissed, and parted. Lord Strau benzee happening to be a witness to that parting, smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.

Going back by the way he had come, having first watched the light of his eyes into the house, Will Cassilis met the strange pair who had so greatly exercised the mind of Chudleigh Salterton, and he looked at them both, keenly, inquiringly, as a young man who is afraid of nothing looks at something entirely outside his own interests that is yet interesting. That cool masculine look to which some women joyfully submit, which is to others only the arrogant assertion by a man of their own absolute helplessness and stultification, struck like a quiver of light the dark, stagnant pool of the girl's heart, and stirred it to depths that had never hitherto been sounded. A faint tinge of colour came to her cheek ; her lagging step rose elastic ; somehow, the sky, the sea and shore spoke to her trumpet-voiced ; and for the first time it came home to her how priceless, no matter under what conditions, is the boon of gagar. existence.

For years she had prayed passionately for death, for its peace and loveliness — the shining reverse of that shield which had shown to her black as night — for to her life was death, and death life. But now she came back with a start to herself as her father said — " At two, Hagar, — be ready by two. The woman does not return till to-morrow morning. There will be no interruption ; it will be exceedingly interesting. I shall try a new combination." . . . She turned her head away, and her face was grey. No ; there was no one to interrupt such devil's work — no one on earth or in heaven to free her from her devil's bondage.

Chapter II. Coleman

had seen that the long narrow oak table — as fastidiously covered with fine linen, old silver, and delicate china as for a shooting or hunting breakfast at Straubenzee — was drawn close to the open window, and that there were roses for Nadege, placed so as not to interfere with those consummate breakfast dishes that it was the triumph of the chef, in spite of his meagre sur roundings and cramped space, to vary each morning for his master. Nadege liked the roses best — naturally ; and her father, who had by slow degrees come to regard the inevitable drawbacks of existence, such as death, love, illness, and so on, as matters by no means intended to interfere with the ordinary routine of daily life, enjoyed his kidney omelette, and remarked with satisfaction that the day pro mised to be extremely fine.

If he had not himself seen his daughter's parting with Will Cassilis, her straw hat lying on a chair fj agar. 10 would have announced her early morning stroll, and young maids do not usually rise at five in the morning to walk alone ; but having seen most fathers bring up their daughters for other men's delectation, and their sons to love stranger women better than the mothers who reared them, he did not expect his own daughter to turn out an abnormal person — nor did he wish it. There is a significant Japanese proverb which advises you to sweep the snow from your own doorstep and leave your neighbours' tiles alone ; and Lord Straubenzee found it enough to do to manage and control his own life without inter fering with the just rights of others. Personally, he liked Will Cassilis, who was one of the best fellows, and had one ofthe best places in the county; but he did object to Nadege, who was but a school girl, tying herself up before she knew her own mind — as possibly Will did not know his.

Ambition for his daughter to marry brilliantly could not possibly dwell in the mind of a man who had lived all his life on his own estate, knew his own tenants and neighbours well, and, while abhorring strangers, loved tenderly those old friends in his library who were ever at his beck and call. If his health did not always equal his capacity for enjoyment — what then ? He could still admire those treasures of earth that were any beggar's as well as his; he could feel all human worries slip from him as he looked at the stars; he could thank God if he got a whole night's quiet sleep, and imagine the youth in him renewed, over and over again, in each year's spring. He was very fond of Nadege ; but there were moments when he feared for her, she was so malle able — to be turned this way or that, according to the whim of the person who moulded her, so that one could not help praying that she might fall into the right hands — but were Will Cassilis' young strong ones clever enough ?

Trelawny's would have been strong enough and clever enough — but kind ? It was the fear of a Trelawny that had made a Cassilis so suitable and possible, and it was by no means to stop the lovers' meetings that Lord Straubenzee had come to this sleepy corner, which you could not even get at, save by coach or boat. Sidmouth, with its golf-links, its music, its summer air of fashion spoiling that delicious draught of coolness which spreads through its lovely valley on the hottest days, just as warmth clings to it through the long winter, making it the Riviera of all the West, had for once palled on him; and the little, sleepy, shuttered house, blinking in the sunlight, and marked " To Let," had taken Lord Straubenzee's fancy when he had been rowed over to Salterton one hot afternoon ; and next day Coleman had gone up to Worcestershire, returning later with a coach load of servants, and such trifles as are essential to the comfort of the rich, and the gardens of the Knowle Hotel had one pair of lovers the less to rejoice in their exceeding loveliness.

Chudleigh Salterton might perhaps have been impressed by its new visitors, but that there is a density of ignorance which is beyond being im pressed ; and save that, being a lord, it was, of course, understood that he was not bound by any ordinary laws — he and his were accepted as an everyday matter, and troubled about by nobody — with one exception. The man who had chosen this place as being the very end of the earth, displayed an alarm and un easiness at sight of the new comers curious in so scientific a person, who was supposed to dwell in his books ; and after the first meeting he walked with his daughter at hours when he knew he should not come across Lord Straubenzee, though the lovers seemed perpetually to spring up in his path. " So there is a cricket match to-day," said Lord Straubenzee, as he ate his last strawberry.

Like all epicures, he never touched fruit save at breakfast. " Is Cassilis playing ? " he added, looking out of the window. " I believe not, father," said Nadege, feeling that this was indeed going to be a fine day, and that it might not be impossible, after all, for Willie to pay an afternoon call, and be asked to stay to dinner — for time was getting so dreadfully short ! It was late August now. Early in September Nadege, otherwise Annabella, and a few other four syllabled names duly set down in her baptismal register, would return to the elegant obscurity of school, and Will Cassilis to the pursuit of partridge shooting, and other occupations dear to the right minded man, who believes that God, in giving one life only, meant that life to be spent entirely in the country. Half an hour later Coleman had established his master on the beach ; and Nadege, after hovering restlessly about in ever-widening circles, had at last made a bolder skip, rounded the cliff, and vanished.

For a considerable time past, a good part of Will's straw hat had been plainly visible peeping round the corner of that cliff, it being a delusion with most lovers that they are as invisible to the enemy as they desire themselves to be, and Nadege's father for a while looked away from his book — in which were peace, consolation, but not the heaven that Nadege had that moment found in Willie. After all, why should they not marry now, while they could grow like to like, their characters welding like unalloyed gold one into the other, with love at its freshest and strongest, enjoying their best years together, instead of looking back upon them some day wistfully', as the very spring time of their lives wasted ? She was only sixteen, but her mother had been as young before her, when she had run away with Charles, Lord Straubenzee, and never repented it.

That she had died young, and most passionately loved, was only another signal proof of her good luck, though for Nadege perhaps it was ill — as for every woman-child to be without her mother. Perhaps if she had come back then, bringing Willie, and they had pleaded their cause well, they would have won him over; but some one else came instead — a man with a dark foreign face, who walked rapidly over the shingle from the town, pushed a small boat into the sea, and pulled swiftly away. He was young, he was handsome ; but his face was stamped with so awful a look that you knew instinctively he came straight from some scene that had violently aroused in him all his worst passions, and that those passions were boiling in him still. He had scarcelypassed out of sight round the cliff when the girl in whom Nadege had taken so great an interest appeared from the opposite direction, walking slowly, and passing within a few feet of Lord Straubenzee, sat down close to thc water at a considerable distance.

There is in all ages a type of woman whom you may call Mary or Magdalene, as you will ; but, with out being able, perhaps, to tell the colour of her hair, or the formation of her features, she will instantly satisfy some divine craving for beauty in you ; and Helen of Troy ceases to be a myth, and Cleopatra a dream. Looking at the pallid outline of the face resting on the girl's clasped hands, Lord Straubenzee felt a sudden pity move him, and he no longer wondered at Nadege's keen interest in this desolate creature, at once the favourite and derision of the gods. " Such a woman in such a place ! " he said to him self, but without a tinge of worldly contempt ; and the man in the boat was her lover, he supposed, and she had sent him away — and now she was sorry, after the manner of women ; and then he saw Coleman coming, treading delicately over the % agar. pebbles that were one of the passing misfortunes of an excellent situation, and standing at a distance, with no horrible town-cries of murder, respectfully announced it. '• In case you might hear it accidentally, my lord," he said, " I came to tell you that there has been a shocking occurrence in the place.

The person whom they call the Wizard has been found dead, strangled as he sat at table in his chair. The daughter " (Coleman looked significantly across at the motionless figure beyond) " is not yet aware of the — accident." " And, pray, how did you hear it? " inquired his master, sharply, and feeling keenly the incon sidcrateness of Providence in directing the spirit of murder to this truly rural spot, which he had selected on account of its apparent retirement from all aggressively noisy human passions. " I was passing the very door, my lord, when a woman rushed out — I believe she was a charwoman who had forgotten something, and went back against orders, and she found him dead. I viewed the body, and came at once to tell you." "And who is to tell her?" said his master, pointing to the girl.

" No, stop ! " he cried, as the man, with all the ghoulish instincts of his class, was hurrying towards her, " I'll tell her 2>agar. 17 myself," and up he got, to Coleman's profound amazement. The girl, hearing steps at hand, looked up to see a kind, stocky, little figure standing opposite her. " Pardon my intrusion," he said, then paused. " I have bad news for you," he went on gently, kindly. "Your father is dead." " Dead ! " Her white lips repeated the word stupidly, her arms fell to her sides, then like a wild thing she leapt up,- — up, as if in the release of an awful burden she would have sprung clean away from its very memory, and leave earth far behind her! "Free!" she cried, "O my God, free! Nadege and Will came running, people were beginning to gather, down from the cottage on the hillside to the sleepy town, the news had trickled, and on the blazing shore stood that white creature, looking upwards, and with almost fatuous exulta tion shouting out, "Free!

Free! Free!" " O father," cried Nadege piteously, " let us take her home ! " And there they took her. Not up the climbing stair, planted with fuchsia trees, that ran past the cottage, where the Wizard still sat at his table, his brain frozen for ever in his last thought, good or evil, but to one of those where all the worst ills of ZU gm of gagar. 18 life are blunted and turned aside by the sword of riches ; and Will Cassilis followed, gloomily and apart. This was his sweetheart's threshold, his sweetheart's home ; and a sure male, fastidious instinct gave him clear warning that in admitting this unknown woman to his house Lord Strau benzee was making a terrible mistake. ro

Chapter III

It was not so long ago that the Vicar of Chudleigh Salterton, on Saints' days that were also hunting mornings, would read prayers with his surplice thrown over his pink coat, and his spurred and booted legs in full view of the congregation ; but no one ever thought a pin the worse of him, and we may be sure that neither the quality of his life, nor of his sermons, was impaired by the healthful exercise in which he delighted ; and the only doctor now in the place, to its honour and glory, was also a relic of bygone times, who in summer wore white kicksies and a cut-away tweed coat, and at all times, when he made professional visits at a distance, rode on horseback with his daughter on a pillion behind him. She minded the horse while he went within ; and thus, with great simplicity, he combined economy, health, and affection ; and many a pleasant hour did the two little bodies spend jogging along the ZU gm of fjagar. 20 Devonshire lanes, or climbing the hog-backed hills, even enjoying now and again a springy gallop across the ling and heather of the all embracing, glorious Mutter's Moor, that over looks the whole of the gracious Sid valley.

He was abroad on one of these pleasant expe ditions when sent for to the scene of murder, and when he arrived, the police were in possession of the place — if the sole custodian of the Chudleigh Salterton safety, as represented by a ruddy-faced and frightened young man, could be so desig nated. The little garden, choked with summer flowers, was crowded with peepers, who pushed each other away to look through the window at the dead man huddled up in his chair, his open eyes staring out straight before him, a curious blending of mockery and surprise over-riding the physical agony stamped on his features. He had been taken at a disadvantage, the shape of the chair pinning him down as in a trap, so that, once seized, he had found it impossible to rise ; and he had evidently been reading when Nemesis came up with him, for a French book lay open at his elbow, and the table was heaped with others, while the only furniture in the room consisted of a long, peculiarly shaped couch, and a shelf laden fjagar. 21 with what looked like the chemical contents of a chemist's shop.

The little doctor looked at the man, and shook his head. It was a case of strangulation, but the marks were so slight as to suggest that heart failure had set in before the murderer had half done his work — though the inquest, of course, would decide that point. He heard all the frightened policeman had to say, which was little, also the char-lady, which was much, but nothing in the least relevant to the case, save that the good lady had left a letter behind her when she went away that morning, and though forbidden to come, save at certain hours, had stolen in to fetch it, and through the window saw the old gentleman — but here came hys terics, and a full enjoyment of the situation, so she was promptly suppressed, and led away weeping. "Where is the young lady?" inquired Dr. Martin. A chorus of voices came from the window : " She do be with the great lord, she be — and she do say she be glad!"

Dr. Martin shuddered. There was something queer, horrible, even in the room and its belong ings, that he could not fathom— does, indeed, the Igagar. 22 earth, the air, record secrets that were best for gotten ? He lifted a book from the table and glanced at its subject, at another and another ; they were all the same. The name written within was " Silas Gregorias ". Then he looked at the contents of the shelf, glanced at the couch, shook his head, and if he had been a Roman Catholic would have crossed him self. As it was, the colour in his healthy old face paled, and he muttered " victim " under his breath as he turned to the door. " I'll see to the coroner, and so on," said the doctor to the policeman, "and I'll send some women in. You've wired to Sidmouth ? Quite right. I'm going down now to Miss Gregorias."

He stumbled a little over the name, for it was one he had never heard before. In the place the strange pair were known as the Wizard and his daughter; and the very landlord, who was paid week by week in advance, was as ignorant about them as the rest. They received no letters, no visitors— save the one who had come and gone in such haste that day. The stranger had been seen by the neighbours, as a clamour of soft Devonshire tongues hastened to inform the doctor when he issued from the door, and they all thought he had come after the poor young lady ; but she went out directly, and then sounds of quarrelling had been heard, but not very loud, and Dr. Gregorias' voice had not even been raised ; but presently out the young man had rushed, and down the steep path headlong, and then they had all gone to their dinners, and didn't look to see who went in or out.

The little doctor put them all by, and went slowly down the steep path, the royal blue of the sea seeming to rise up to meet him on his way. Strange, but he felt none of the shock, the re volt against the murderer that he ought to feel, — no pity for the murdered man, whose evil, he hoped, had ceased with him, leaving the young shoots of a fresh life free to spring and thrive, now his baleful shadow was removed from it. To the man who lives in constant and loving companionship with Nature, there is always some thing pitiful in the sight of one who shuts himself closely up with dead men's thoughts, however noble, for sole company, and he is of the same mind as that great man who had a library indeed, but " studied in the fields," as his little maid said when she showed a visitor the way. For what had this murdered man, as his books proved, done ?

Devoted his life to the study of things not meant of God to be meddled with by man, and God had punished him in His own way, before a girl's soul had been stamped out of all likeness to her Creator, and another life sacrificed to the Moloch of science. He had never spoken to Miss Gregorias in his life — only pitied her, as full, happy lives pity starved, thwarted ones ; but now, as he crossed the little lawn, and saw Lord Straubenzee at the window, he rejoiced in her having found so powerful a friend, and presently told him so. They walked up and down the lawn together, two simple-minded, contented English gentlemen, who thought alike on all essential points ; while Will Cassilis, chafing, wondered if Nadege would never come downstairs, and foresaw that the last state of their seaside junketings would be con siderably worse than the first.

" I should like to see her," Dr. Martin was saying. " Of course, the shock must be very great." " I don't think so. She has the courage to say she is glad — I hate a hypocrite. And I have my own ideas about these things, and don't consider that the mere fact of blood-relationship entitles any one to love or respect, if he have forfeited all right to them. Of course, I am quite in ignorance igagar. 25 as to the real facts of the case — these persons are entire strangers to me." " Have you any theory?" inquired the doctor. " None, save that from his appearance hc was a fanatic, and obviously made wretched the person who depended upon him for happiness. Who knows but he was hurried to his last account by another person to whom he had done unspeakable wrong and injury? The man I saw did not look capable of a cowardly crime, but " " You saw him ?