Story of a Sin ... New edition

Front matter

JflHHOLtDS' 3/6 SERIES OF Popular Novels, By WELL-KNOWN AUTHORS. (Crown %vo, Cloth.) Uniform with " Story of a Sin." i. LOUIS DRAYCOTT. By Mrs. Leith Auams. and Edition. 2. GEOFFREY STIRLING. By Mrs. Leith Adams. 5th Edition. 3. BONNIE KATE. By Mrs. Leith Adams. 2nd Edition. 4. A NEW OTHELLO. By Hon. Iza Duffus Hardy. 2nd Ed. 5. THE MAID OF LONDON BRIDGE. By Somerville Gibney. 2nd Edition. 6. EVELINE WELLWOOD. By Major Norris Paul. 2nd Ed. 7. OLD LATTIMER'S LEGACY. By J. S. Fletcher. 2nd Ed. 8. THAT LITTLE GIRL. By Curtis Yorke. 5th Edition. 9. DUDLEY. By Curtis Yorke. 4th Edition. 10. THE WILD RUTHVENS. By Curtis Yorke. 3rd Edition. 11. THE BROWN PORTMANTEAU, and other Stories. By Curtis Yorke. 2nd Edition. 12. HUSH! By Curtis Yorke. 3rd Edition. 13. ONCE ! By Curtis Yorke. 2nd Edition. 14.

A ROMANCE OF MODERN LONDON. By Curtis Yorke. 3rd Edition. 15. HIS HEART TO WIN. By Curtis Yorke. 2nd Edition. 16. DARRELL CHEVASNEY. By Curtis Yorke. 17. BETWEEN THE SILENCES, and other Stories. By Curtis Yorke. 18. THE PEYTON ROMANCE. By Mrs. Leith Adams, and Edition. [Shortly. 19. THE GOLDEN MILESTONE. By Scott Graham. {Shortly. 20. A RECORD OF DISCORDS. By Curtis Yorke. si. "CHERRY RIPE!" By Helen Mathers. 22. STORY OF A SIN. By Helen Mathers. 23. EYRE'S ACQUITTAL. (Sequel.) By Helen Mathers. 24. JOCK O' HAZELGREEN. By Helen Mathers. 25. MY LADY GREEN SLEEVES. By Helen Mathers. 26. FOUND OUT. By Helen Mathers. [Shortly. 27. PHŒBE DEACON. By W. Lionel Green. [Shortly. 28. GILDAS HAVEN. Mrs. Haycraft. {Shortly. OTHERS IN PREPARATION. LONDON: JARROLD & SONS, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane. Jl "§tor>eC BY HELEN MATTERS Author of "Cherry Ripe," "Comin' thro' the Rye," "Eyre's Acquittal," "Jock 0' Hazelgreen" "Fashion of this World," etc., etc. NEW EDITION LONDON JARROLD & SONS, 10 & n, WARWICK LANE, E.C. [All Rights Reserved]

Chapter I

' Angel of the Sin, Such as thou standest — pale in the drear light — Which rounds the rebel's work with Maker's wrath.' ' Martha Mistake, you are found guilty by your own confession, and on the clearest possible evidence, of the murder of an infant, name unknown, i.i the Shifting Pool, in the village of Lovel, five and a half years ago ; and though the recommendation to mercy will be forwarded in due course, I can hold out no hope that the sentence I. am about to pass on you will be commuted.' And the judge proceeded to pass sentence of death in the usual way. Sordid and inexpressibly mean in the faint light of dawn, looked the court in which these words were spoken ; the sentence itself seemed too fine a thing for the wretch who received it, her lips parting in an audible ' Thank God !' as the judge ceased to speak, and, jerking aside the black cap, threw his scarlet robes about him, and instantly left the court.

A clamour of tongues broke out on his departure, and a trampling of feet set in towards the one narrow exit ; not a glance of curiosity, not a word of pity, was flung towards the prisoner in the dock ; every emotion usual to the occasion seemed to be in abeyance, as jurymen and spectators and officials hurried to quit the place, where for so many weary hours they had been incarcerated. One person alone kept his place — a man in the prime of manhood and full intellectual vigour, who throughout the trial had sat by the judge's side, keenly watching the progress of the case, and still kept his gaze fixed on the prisoner, who, in the very act of removal, had thrust aside the gaoler's arm to look back and return that curiously intent gaze. For a minute she hesitated, plunging in his eyes a strange look, to which he had no clue ; her lips moved, she made a half-gesture as though to beckon him, then turned and left the dock with a firm step. ' One of those retarded intelligences that think much and speak little ; that combine the simplicity of thought with the directness in execution of a savage or a child .... unloved, as a virgin she has been able to bring the whole forces of her nature to a difficult undertaking, and so far has — succeeded.' So thinking, he rose and made his way to the Assize Inn, where he found the judge already retired to bed, his wig suspended above him on the bed post. ' Is that you, Eyre ?' he said, opening his eyes. ' I wish I could have hanged those twelve fools as well as the woman.

Nine hours' deliberation and a recommendation to mercy, on the face of such a summing up as mine ! You'll turn in now, of course ?' ' No ; my horse is waiting. I'm bound for home.' The judge made a wry face. ' So you're still — still 1 wonder what it's like T he added, as one thinking aloud. ' Try it,' said Mr. Eyre, with a smile.

The old bachelor shook his head. 'Women,' he said, ' are — are ' but the remainder of his sentence was cut short by a snore. ' And now for Madcap,' said Mr. Eyre, as he sprang into his saddle — ' Madcap, sunshine of my breast.' But even as he spoke the governor of the gaol hurried out and begged of him to defer his departure for five minutes, as the condemned woman had been asking eagerly to see him. ' She has been so inveterately silent,' he said, as Mr. Eyre dismounted, ' that I feared if this opportunity of hearing the truth were missed, another might not occur, and so ventured to detain you.' ' Oh, she won't confess,' said Mr. Eyre carelessly. ' I have been studying her ; she fears only lest her crime be discovered to the parents, who are guiltless in the business, or I'm much mistaken.' ' If the summing-up had not been so clear,' said the governor, ' she would have got off; as it is, that recom mendation to mercy may save her neck yet.' ' Not it,' said Mr. Eyre ; ' I shall send a private line to town — guilty she is, and hanged she shall be.' These words — for the cell-door was at that moment thrown open — were heard by the prisoner. ' Shall I ?' she said, lifting her head from her knees, and fixing on him a strange look as he entered. ' Ay,' he said ; ' your crime was an inhuman one, and your life pays the forfeit.' ' If all were known,' she said, ' I should no more die on the gallows than you.' ' Then tell all,' said Mr. Eyre instantly. ' Reveal the facts that prove your innocence — denounce the guilty and let the parents be brought forward !

Ay,' he added, pursuing her rising terror, ' and they shall be, if they are living.' ' They're dead,' she said, in uncontrollable agitation, * and I did it — I laid the baby down by the pool, and it was drowned ; and I pleaded guilty — you can't alter that ; and if you tell anybody I said there's others behind me, I'll say that you lied, for all that you're a great gentleman, and a magistrate, and I'm a poor serving woman that ' ' So it was your mistress's child that you drowned,' he said, following each thought as it painted itself on her face. ' Who said it ?' she cried, starting back as if a bullet had struck her. ' If any come here after I'm dead, tell them — tell them — I thought I'd a sort of claim on you,' she went on sullenly, ' because 'twas you that gave me up to justice and put the rope round my neck ; and because there's that in your face as has seemed nat'ral to me all through, and puzzles me yet ; but I'm sorry now I sent to beg a word with you.' 1 Her arms fell to her sides.

The narrow mean face suddenly became fixed and sharpened to an intensity of expression that almost reached power ; still think ing intently, her right hand stole to her throat and gripped it, while a faint smile crossed the intensity of her gaze, as one who in secret nourishes a pleasant thought. 1 When's my hanging ?' she said abruptly. ' Saturday.' ' Those fools recommended me to mercy,' she said slowly ; ' I want you to look to it, that none of that rubbish comes between this and Saturday.' ' Nothing will ; it's fixed as fate.' ' Four days,' she said, thinking hard ; ' lots might happen in four days. You're a magistrate,' she added suddenly ; ' couldn't you give orders that nobody's to be let come and see me before I die, not if they begged ever so ? and if I die between this and Saturday — for folks sometimes die as quick at home as on the gallows — couldn't you make them bury me quick, so as them that come mightn't be able to take a look at me ?' Mr. Eyre glanced round at the tall narrow grating, the straw pallet, the wooden bowl and spoon — no ; there was no instrument of self-destruction here — not even a beam whence she might simulate that awful leap in the dark which in all human probability awaited her. ' And so you would commit a second crime rather than face some unknown person — probably the mother,' he said, looking at her fixedly. ' No, no !' she almost screamed ; 'if anybody came after I'm dead it couldn't be the mother . . . tell her that 'twas my own child I drowned in the pool . . . you'll have more on your soul than you know of if you tell her any different. . . .

I'm mad, 'she muttered, ' to tell you this, and maybe you'll tell her, and I'll have died for nothing, and she'll live on believing what's worse than the truth.' 'You did not hate this woman,' said Mr. Eyre, still watching her, 'yet you killed her child; what, then, was your motive for the deed ?' ' Love,' she said. ' I'd have given my heart's blood for her, as I'd have lost my soul to punish him! Her eyes had the fixity of a tiger's, her body the spring and crouch of one, as she looked straight before her, seeming to see what to Mr. Eyre was invisible. ' So it is the old story,' he said. ' And you, poor wretch, thinking to revenge yourself on him, have only called down punishment on what you loved. But what brought you to Lovel ?' he added suddenly. ' I got a clue,' she said, ' but 'twas a false one.

It's been a "black, bitter mistake (like my name) from the beginning.' 'You came here in search of the father?' said Mr. Eyre. ' I'll tell you no more,' she said doggedly ; ' and though there's one or two questions I'd like to ask you, I won't do it. I'll leave nothing behind as she could know me by, if she came after I was gone. I'll be just a nameless woman as neither she nor you could be sure was her as she was looking for.' 'Your conviction will to-morrow be in every paper,' he said, ' and draw momentary attention to your crime. Your absence from her, too, may have excited her suspicions. In all human probability you will see her before you die.' ' To-morrow,' she said, below her breath. ' Ay, but to-day's mine.' ' Not so,' said Mr. Eyre rising ; ' for since your intention is known, means will be taken to defeat it.

You will be closely watched, and the escape you meditate rendered impossible.' ' You're a hard man,' she said, looking up. ' Have you got a wife, or a child, or any that may want pity shown to them some day? I'm thinking they'll get hard measure if they're judged by the mercy you've shown to others; and though you're high, God-a mercy's higher. Perhaps He'll call me afore I'm fetched on Saturday.' ' Miracles are rare in these days,' he said, as he struck the door with his whip. Then added, as the turnkey hurried to unlock it, ' You have nothing more to say ?' 'No ; that's all,' she replied bitterly. ' One ruined life, two broken hearts, a murder, a hanging — that's all ; and enough, too, for one man's holiday work !' 'And who is the man?' he said, pausing on the threshold of the now open door ; but the woman had sunk into a sullen silence, her face shrouded on her knees. ' She has confessed nothing but what we knew or guessed before,' said Mr. Eyre to the chaplain, who was waiting without ; ' but a watch must be placed in her cell, and relieved night and day till the end.

Should a stranger come to see her, send for me im mediately.' 'Colonel Busby is interesting himself about a memorial,' said the governor, as they crossed the courtyard, 'and talks of himself taking it to town.' ' Pooh !' said Mr. Eyre; ' he'd better stay at home. Though if he goes he'll take no harm ; " no creature smarts so little as a fool." ' ' Here he is,' said the governor, repressing a smile, as at that moment a short, pursy man rushed through the gates and unfurled a scroll on which a considerable number of names were inscribed. ' We want your signature, Eyre,' he said breathlessly. 'You see I began betimes, knowing the verdict was a foregone conclusion. But with the recommendation to mercy to back it, I flatter myself that this will put a different face upon matters.' ' On what ground do you base your application ?' said Mr. Eyre quietly. ' The woman pleaded guilty.

If she did not actually drown the child, she delibe rately abandoned it to its death ; the crime's all one in the eyes of the law.' ' But the length of time that has elapsed,' said Colonel Busby, 'the certainty that there are others in the background as guilty as herself, pro bably in this very neighbourhood.' His sidelong look fell before Mr. Eyre's glance, as the latter said : ' You will not count on me. Indeed, I'm about to send a private line to town, pointing out the facts of the case, and how the gross ignorance and stupidity of the jury is responsible for the error of justice con tained in a recommendation to mercy.' Colonel Busby turned pale. Mr. Eyre's influence in high quarters was well known, and did he choose to exercise it, the memorial, though vouched by every signature of note in the country, was so much waste-paper.

With a brief good-morrow to the two gentlemen, for dawn was now giving place to day, Mr. Eyre mounted his horse and rode off at a good pace, pausing, however, on the outskirts of the town to burst out laughing, as at a sudden recollec tion. 'How true,' he said aloud — 'how true that " with stupidity and a good digestion we may front much."'

Chapter II

"Twixt de.v and bird So sweet a silence ministered, God seemed to use it for a word.' BETWEEN the darkness of night and the brightness of morning, there is in spring and time of full summer a space that surely outweighs, in its peace and beauty, all the hours that have gone before or will come after. It is that in which Nature still slumbers, yet trembles each moment towards awakening — when no quiver of leaf, nor cry of bird, nor footfall of her lightest creature, breaks the intense stillness — when, in the hushed pause between earth and heaven, man involuntarily hearkens for the voice cf God, but finds it not ; then, looking upward and descrying that Presence made manifest — In light instead of sound.' draws as nigh into his Creator as human being may. Nothing moves but the dawn, whose outgoing breath is that wan pellucid blue that overruns the heavens — whose footsteps fall in hyacinth and gold on the edge of the sky, and who climbs with a mea sureless calm, a grand austerity that ofttimes lifts to its own peace the soul of him who lonely worships from below.

So will you see the skylark, as though caught out of herself by this moment so solemnly sweet, so divinely still, break suddenly away from earth, and springing sheer up to Heaven's gate, pour her exalted song in at it — then, that throbbing rapture over, sink heavily to earth, the music in her quenched for sorrow that she must return to the haunts of men, nor make her home in that cold, pure splendour which for a moment her eager heart and wing have touched. That magic voice breaks the charm : slowly above the horizon shows the blood-red disc of the sun, whose beams, arrowstraight, pierce to the very heart of Nature — and lo ! there is life in the air, there is colour in the landscape ; like a choir led by an in visible hand uprise the million subtle sounds and scents of the morning .... day has come, and with it unrest, joy, sorrow .... and we look to the fading jasper in yon far-off sky with a dim mysterious pain stirring at the heart, and the pæans of praise around us ring in our ears like rude echoes of the worship 2—2 that but now lay like an unuttered word 'twixt God and the soul of His creatures.

At such a moment Mr. Eyre, checking his horse on the brow of a hill that overlooked his home, sent his glance in search of the rugged pile that crouched at the foot of the rock whence it sprung, its summit clothed with gorse that at sunset flung a blood-red banner above the ancient house, so that far and wide it was known as the Red Hall. But in the smile of the morning one thought less of the grim battle ments than of the little flowers that crept between, and peeped over to those brighter sisters below, that bloomed in the old courtyard that had once trembled to the thunder of a thousand feet ; and even as Mr. Eyre gazed, there floated up to him a sound — the most joyous note surely in the whole gamut of earthly sound, so pure, so silvery — the laughter of a very young child. It came as sudden, as clear, as dropped notes of the skylark's song — a moment, and some thing flitted across the open — ' Moving light, as all young things, As young birds and early wheat, When the wind blows over it ' — something that pattered barefooted over the stones as unconcernedly as rose-leaves sinking on moss ; that held a nightgown up in one dimpled hand, and chuckled wisely to itself as it went, never pausing till the garden was reached, where its tiny feet left a print as of fairies' footsteps all along the silvered grass.

Business was clearly in its mind, but, to a truant of three or thereabouts, there are fifty things abroad at this hour of the morning calculated to make him for get why he got up thus early ; and it was not long before he fell in with a lame blackbird, before whom he went down on his hands and knees, the two exchanging confidences without a trace of shyness on either side ; and then there was a squirrel to be assisted in the fascinating duty of washing her face, and a bird's-nest to be peeped into — though, to be sure, he was soon scared away from that by the fierce, wistful eyes of the mother-bird ; and two field-mice to be put back into a hole : and altogether he wasted much valuable time, and brought down on his own head the fate that presently overtook him. He was just trying to coax a butterfly to perch on his forefinger, when a slight sound in the distance made his heart sink like lead to where his shoes ought to have been.

He set off running in the direction of a certain rose-bush, but too late ; the next moment something flashed past him, and the coveted flower for which he had risen so early was snatched from him by his pursuer's hand. 'And me got up to yerly,' said Dody, too dejected even to hold his nightgown up, as he approached his brother. ' Me opied the door all alone, and every think f _" STORY OF A SIN. ' You couldn't expect to beat me, you know, Dody,' said Doune, with some contempt; 'and it's a pity you can't dress yourself — /can.' ' You is not dressed proper,' objected Dody ; 'your strings is hanging out.' ' O ! that's nothing ; Josephine often does that when she's in a hurry. I say, Dody, I know some thing that you don't' ' Iss,' said Dody, too humiliated by his recent failure to hazard even a guess at the secret. ' Now what would you say to going cowsliping this morning with mother ?' Dody clasped his hands in momentary ecstasy, then his face fell. ' Daddy won't let us,' he said gravely ; ' we've never been cowsiping wiz mummy all our lives — not never.' ' All our lives!' said Doune, with immense contempt ; ' why, you're only four ; I'm five, and I. went cow sliping when you were a baby, eating pap and all that' ' You was a baby once,' said Dody, with dignity ; ' so was daddy.

Wonder if anybody ever 'macked daddy, eh, Doony ?' ' Nobody 'ud dare,' said Doune ; ' he punishes every body. I heard Josephine tell Molly last night he was away punishing a poor woman, and that's why we're going to have a treat' ' Poor 'ooman !' said Dody. shaking his head with much concern ; ' rather not go cowsiping than hurt her, Doony. Wonder if he whipped her very hard ?' ' Oh ! he doesn't whip her,' said Doune. ' I don't quite understand what he does, but he won't be back till breakfast-time.' ' Oh my !' said Dody, hugging himself all up together with delight ; ' does '00 think mummy '11 wake up soon, Doony?' 'She'll have her cup of tea at seven, you know, and ' ' Us '11 take it to her,' cried Dody, shouting with joy, as he set off running towards the house, his thoughts flying in and out of a thousand golden bells that for him were nodding out yonder, while his heart sped before to the mother without whom cowsliping was no joy.

She heard that happy laughter in her sleep, and, waking, looked through her window, and saw the little brothers crossing the courtyard, so that when they came down the gallery on tiptoe there was a wild cry of ' Mother ! mother !' a rush forward, and then two fond arms closed upon the pair, and heaven was in that narrow compass ; and, even to Dody, earth, with its store of cowslips, was forgot. Then, as you will see a young apple-tree overborne by the weight of its first-fruits bend proudly to earth, content rather to break than to forego them, so sank this young mother with her treasures to the ground, S/N. 24 where they clung about and kissed her as though they could no more be a-weary of her lips than she of theirs, till, out of breath, they kissed no more, but squeezed her to them with all their little tender might — the truest, fondest pair of lovers woman ever had yet.

And to such lovers as these she never grows old, nor waxes their love chill ; twenty years hence, whether here or with God, she will be as dear, as beautiful in their eyes as now, while far away (whether here or beyond) in the innermost recesses of her heart, she will cradle them warm, the tiny creatures whose tender feet had neither will nor strength to stray farther from her side than her voice had power to win them back. ' Happy a year, mummy !' said Dody, patting her face with a little velvet hand ; ' it's your burfday, but I've got noting for you,' he added, his voice rising as his heart swelled. ' He means many happy returns of the day,' said Doune, presenting the rose and struggling out of his mother's arms ; ' but he's so very little, you really must excuse him.' ' Thank you, my sweethearts,' she said, and her voice might have painted her to a blind man as she stood, Dody's pink toes curled like rose-leaves at her waist, and on her young face such a glow as makes the mothe,- yet •The holiest thing alive.' * But these cold wet feet,' she added, feeling them anxiously, ' and this dripping nightgown ' — and she shivered as though a blast of death had struck her, as she wrapped her arms about him.

Dody clung to her in almost as much fear as love when she carried him over the threshold he was so rarely privileged to cross ; but when he found himself warmly wrapped in her elbow-chair, and she on her knees before him warming his cold feet at her breast, while against his little limbs she laid her head in the old, old worship that requires no teaching, he resigned himself to circumstances with all the unconscious grace and dignity of childhood. 'You is a sweet little mummy,' he said, framing her chestnut head in his hands, adding, as one struck by a sudden recollection, ' would 'oo like to hear me say my pairs ? me knows such pitty worses, and 'oo's never heard me say them — not never !' ' Say them to me now,' whispered Mrs. Eyre, hiding her face in his neck that he might not see the colour that overspread it ... . not for her had been the joy of folding these little hands in prayer, as rarely, indeed, had she stood by her children to bless them as they slept ; her husband's love overshadowed all her life, and demanded of her an undivided allegiance in which her motherhood found no place. ' Oh, mummy !' he cried, his eyes wandering over her head to the open window beyond ; ' me quite forgot — us is going cowsiping wiz 'oo ; lots of time for pairs bimeby !' 'No, no,' she said, the red of her cheek pressed to the warm white of his neck, ' I want to hear them ' Perhaps the man who believes in nothing receives no greater shock to his unbelief than when he hears his child lisping out at its mother's knee : ' Pity my simplicity, Teach me how to come to Thee ' He would be less than human could he detach those little folded hands, cloud with doubt that innocent mind .... as he listens he must surely put himself in the child's place, and, for one brief moment, believe. ' And peese Gawd, don't send daddy 'ome till we'se bin cowsiping, 'cos cowsips is nearly over, Amen,' concluded Dody ; adding in the same breath, ' Oh, look at that little boy in your eyes !' ' Is 'oo going to ky ?' he said, in wonder.

Then, spying a brown mole on her beautiful neck, and thinking that it was something that hurt her, he leaned forward and pressed with devout faith his tender lips to it, ' to make it well,' as she had now and again done for him in his childish aches and bruises, and for want of which he had so often cried himself to sleep. 'Madcap!' said a stern voice behind them; and they turned aghast to see the master of the house looking with a frown of strong disapproval at the group. ' Off with you !' he said, glancing from one child to the other, for Doune had just reappeared, bearing his brother's clothes ; but the one stood motionless, his brows drawn into an absurd reproduction of his father's frown, while Dody, made desperate by vanishing joys, actually dared to nod his small head gravely at his father, and remark : ' Us is going cowsiping wiz mummy !' 'Next year, perhaps,' said Mr. Eyre drily, and p Dinted to the door with a gesture that neither child dared resist : they ran to each other, and not daring even to pause and kiss their mother, clasped hands and trotted down the corridor, sobbing bitterly as they went. 'Good morning, ma'am!' said Mr. Eyre, with trenchant emphasis, as the sound of those little footsteps died away, and still Madcap had not advanced a step to greet him. 'Good morning, sir!' she replied, wiping a tear away with equal spirit. 'And pray,' said he, ' is that tear due to my absence or my return ?' 'To neither,' she said, sitting down by the open window, and looking up at the pale sky as if she sought and found her children's faces there. ' So that's over,' said Mr. Eyre, as he loosened his riding-cloak and threw it aside. ' What is ?' said Madcap, looking round. 'No more than I can make shift to live without,' he said, as he sat down at some distance, and stooped to unfasten his spurs.