Misadventure

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MISADVENTURE " He was hanging ove;- the abyss." — Page 169. MISADVENTURE BY W. E. N ORRIS AUTHOR OF "MV FRIEND JIM," "MAJOR AND MINOR" "LA BELLE AMERICAINE," "MATRIMONY," hTC, ETC. LONDON GRIFFITH FARRAN OKEDEN & WELSH NEWBERY HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD AND SYDNEY \JThe rights of translation and us reproduction arc reserved] CONTENTS. cnip, r-cs I. MB. BLIGH I II. MISS BLIGH 12 III. THE HEIE-APFAEENT 21 IV. MADAME SOUEAVIEFF 3 1 V. MACK'S LAWYEE 40 VI. AECHIE GOES OUT FISHING 50 VII. THE AEEIVAL OF THE ALIEN 59 VIII. CICELY IS INTEEESTED 69 IX. MOETON CEFBESENTS THE FAMILY . . . . 7S X. CICELY HAS POOC SPOET 88 II. COPPACD IN TEOUBLE 98 XII. LADY DAEE'S BALL I07 XIII. BOBBY IS PUT OUT OF SUSPENSE I17 XIV. ME. BLIGH STATES HIS INTENTIONS . . . . I2j XV. MACK MAKES PEACE 1 35 XVI. AECHIE'S TB1UMTH CONTENTS VI CHAP. PAGS XVII.

MOETON SCANDALIZES HIS HOST . . . . '54 XVIII. FOETUNA SÆVO LÆTA NEGOTIO . . . . 165 XIX. DEATH BY MISADVENTUEE I72 XX. AECHIE EETUENS 1S3 XXI. COPPAED'S CONJECTUEES 19° XXII. V1CTOE REAPPEARS 20O XXIII. MAEK'S TENANT 208 XXIV. MADAME SOURAVIEFF IS CRITICIZED . . . 2l6 XXV. SIR PETER SHAKES HIS HEAD .... 226 XXVI. MADAME SOURAVIEFF SETS TO WORK . . . 234 XXVII. BOBBY'S GLOEY . 244 XXVIII. CLUMSINESS AND SKILL ...... 252 XXIX. COUNT SOURAVIEFF'S COEEESPONDENCE". . . 262 XXX. A LITTLE LOSS OF TEMPER 273 XXXI. A REVELATION 281 XXX11. THE SWORD FALLS 2QO XXXIII. A COMPETENT ADVISER 299 XXXIV. MARK'S OPPORTUNITY ... . . 308 XXXV. SYMPATHY 317 XXXVI. AN ATHLETIC MEETING 325 XXXVII. TIIE MEMORY OF THE PAST 334 XXXVIII. THE RETURN OF THE HERO 343 XXXIX. CICELY IS INCENSED 352 XL. BOBBY AS A DETECTIVE 359 XLI.

ARCHIE IS MADE TO WAIT 37O CONTENTS VII CHAP. PAGB XLII. THEODORI DECLINES A FORTUNE .... 379 XLI1I. MUTINY 3S7 XLIV. MR. LOWNDES'S LEGACY 397 XLV. ARCHIE'S SENTENCE 405 XLVI. MR. LOWNDES'S HOLIDAY 413 XLVII. LAST WORDS 42 1 XLVIII. MADAME SOURAVIEFF HEARS SOME GOOD NEWS . 429 XLIX. MARK IS SPARED A JOURNEY 438 L. CICELY DECIDES 447 LI. MARK TAKES LEAVE OF ABBOTSPORT . . . 455 LII. CONCLUSION MISADVENTURE

Chapter I. Mr

BLIGH " It is all very well," observed Mr. Bligh, " to say I am not responsible ; and perhaps in a certain sense I am not. Looking back upon the past, I suppose I may claim to have done as much for Morton as most fathers do for their sons. I sent him to Eton and Oxford ; I have always made him a handsome allowance ; I havo paid his debts for him several times with more or less of cheerfulness ; I even remember that, when he was a boy, I whipped him twice — the second time rather severely — for acts of wanton cruelty to animals. More over, he has had the full benefit of my experience of life and my large philosophy, while you, my dear Lowndes, have, I know, preached your very best sermons, both doctrinal and practical, at him. If, after all this, he has chosen to go to the deuce, the conse quences should be upon his own head, you think.

But then comes the question of how far any of us are answerable for our proclivities, or ought to be punished for the natural results of them." The speaker was a man whom most people would have pronounced at first sight to be nearer seventy than sixty, because his hair and his short beard were as white A MISADVENTURE 2 as snow, and because the clear, pale skin of his face was furrowed by such deep lines ; but closer inspection con veyed the idea that these were lines of suffering, and that he was probably younger than he looked. As a matter of fact, he had at this time only just turned his fifty-first year. He was reclining, as he did all clay long, in a wheeled chair close to a bay-window, whence he could survey some part of the broad lands which he owned but could not tread. Long periods of neuralgic or rheumatic pain (so called by the doctors, who could find neither a cause nor a cure for them) had culminated at length in what all the doctors were agreed in describing as creeping paralysis, and had changed into a frail worn-out wreck of humanity one whom many middle aged people could remember as a keen sportsman, a first-rate judge of a horse, and a very popular frequenter of London drawing-rooms.

Even now he had not lost all trace of the good looks for which he had once been famous, nor had disease, trouble and disappointment robbed his smile of its good-humoured kindliness. His friend, Mr. Lowndes, the Rector of Abbotsport, was his senior by some half-dozen years or so, and looked capable of outliving him by a quarter of a century at least. Tall, broadshouldered and ruddy, his thick black hair and whiskers being only here and there streaked with grey, Mr. Lowndes, had it not been for the clerical garb that he wore, would have had a good deal more of the appearance of a country squire than the crippled invalid whom he sat facing, with a hand on each knee. He said : " Now, Bligh, you are going to mount one of your fantastic hobbies. You want to excuse and explain everything upon some fanciful theory of inherited tendency, which cant hold water for a single moment.

Added to which, you are paying a poor compliment to your forefathers by assuming that Morton inherited his tendencies from them. He certainly didn't get them from you." A J "I should be sorry to be uncomplimentary to my forefathers," said Mr. Bligh, with a smile, "but for any thing I know to the contrary, there may have been some scoundrels amongst them. And I don't see any thing fantastic or fanciful in stating an undeniable fact. You haven't bred as many horses as I have, still you are not ignorant about the subject, and I believe you have bred dogs. You know as well as I do what an important part hereditary tendency plays in that matter, and how often it crops up in an individual after lying dormant for generations." " We're not talking of horses and dogs," returned Mr. Lowndes, " we're talking of a human being, with a soul and a conscience and a free will.

We all of us have our besetting sins, I suppose — though I'm sure I don't know what yours can be — but our business is to conquer them, and if we fail we deserve to suffer for our cowardice. Suppose I have inherited a tendency to some disease — gout, for instance — am I to shrug my shoulders and give in, instead of taking measures to counteract it ? " " Judging by my own experience, I should be in clined to back the disease," said the other. " And then you must allow that we don't all start at even weights." " Oh, well," said the Rector, a little impatiently — for he was vexed with himself for having made use of an illustration which sounded somewhat unfeeling under the circumstances — "we needn't argue the point, be cause I am sure that we don't really differ. Excuses, no doubt, can be made for everybody, and let us hope that eventually they will be made.

Meanwhile, with our imperfect knowledge of things, we are obliged to judge by what is apparent; and as for Morton — well, I will only say, as I said before, that I wish you wouldn't have him down here. He has refused scores of times when you have asked him ; why should you accept his proposal now, when you are ill and when the sight of him is quite enough to make you worse ? " MISADVENTURE 4 " Oh, I don't think the sight of him will produce that effect upon me," said Mr. Bligh, quietly. " I do, then ; I have known yon too long, my dear Bligh, to be taken in by your affectation of stoicism. In all my life I have never met a man who bore pain better or who felt it more. Morton will give you pain every time he opens his lips — you know he will. What's more, he will try to give you pain." " Perhaps not.

I imagine his object in paying us this visit is quite the reverse of that." " What is his object ? " inquired the Rector, who, however, could have answered his own question easily enough. Mr. Bligh laughed. "After all," he said, " it is only what you and I should do under similar circumstances. Given a dying father, who has absolute control over the disposal of his property, shouldn't we think it our duty to seek him out and express to him a sincere regret for any little differences which might have arisen between us and him ? " "No," answered the Rector, stoutly; "neither you nor I would stoop to such meanness. Besides, you are not dying." " So the doctors are kind enough to assure me. They say that I may live for a great many more years ; but they think it will be a very strange thing if I do.

Doctors, of course, can't tell the real truth, but there is no reason that I know of why patients shouldn't, when they happen to be aware of it. The real truth is always bracing and invigorating, though I admit that it often looks rather ugly from a distance ; and the truth, I take it, is that Morton is coming because he has heard that his cousin Archie is here, and because that has very naturally alarmed him." Mr. Lowndes had a pair of round, projecting brown eyes, which now became rounder and projected them selves somewhat more prominently than usual. " Do yon mean to say," he began, " that you really propose " " Oh no, I don't think it would be right or wise, or in any way desirable. All the same I wish Archie were my son. Even though he is younger than Morton, I might perhaps be justified in making an elder son of him in this case ; but nephews, I suppose, must be regarded as out of the question.

What do you think of him?" " I think he is a fine, manly young fellow : I always did think so, and soldiering has improved him im mensely. Still, as you say, he is only your nephew. I should have thought — will you allow me to speak my mind plainly to you, Bligh ? " " Haven't I just told you that the unvarnished truth is full of fascination for me ? " "Well, then, I should have thought that if you con sidered your son unworthy to succeed you — which he most undoubtedly is — you could have left this place to your daughter. I know you can provide for her amply without doing that, and I know that the man agement of a large property is a heavy burden to place on the shoulders of a young girl. Still, when one has to face two evils one can but choose the smaller ; and although Cicely is inexperienced, and a little headstrong at times, her heart is in the right place.

And then she will marry. Surely it would be better for us all to have decent Christian people at the Priory than an avowed atheist." " Is Morton an avowed atheist ? " " If he isn't he ought to be. Holding the views that he does, and living the life that he lives, he has no business to call himself anything else." " Ah, I think I remember that he once got rather the better of you in a theological discussion." " No, he didn't," returned the Rector, reddening slightly, " he didn't get the better of me at all. Of course he asked me questions which I couldn't answer ; any Sunday-school child could do that — and indeed they often do. The times that I have been bothered MISADVENTURE with that tiresome old difficulty about the rainbow and its appearance in waterfalls and fountains ! Why, only last week a wretched little whipper-snapper wanted me to explain how it was that Balaam showed so little surprise when his ass entered into conversation with him."

" I have always felt a good deal of curiosity upon that point myself," observed Mr. Bligh. " What did you say?" " I said that Balaam was a prophet, that he was accustomed to supernatural manifestations, and that an incident of that kind wouldn't be at all likely to astonish him. Then, if you please, my young gentleman wanted to know whether the mouth and tongue of an ordinary donkey were so formed that it would be possible for it to produce sounds resembling articulate speech. He didn't put it in those words, but that was the gist of his inquiries. Now I only mention this to show you how easy it is for a mere child to throw doubts upon the truth of the Scripture narrative." " I quite see that it is very easy indeed," replied Mr. Bligh, gravely ; " but we are wandering away from our rival candidates.

Not that Archie is a conscious candi date — at least I hope he isn't." " I am perfectly sure that no such notion has ever entered his head," cried the Rector, warmly. " There is no occasion to be so sure as all that ; such a notion might have entered his head without disgracing either it or his heart. I only meant to say that I hoped for his sake that he didn't cherish expectations which are so very unlikely to be fulfilled." There was a pause of a few moments, after which Mr. Bligh resumed : " It will be rather amusing to watch them." " To watch whom ? " asked the Rector. "Archie and Morton. Of course they will fight; Morton will take good care of that. But Morton never loses his temper, whereas Archie is decidedly peppery. I should say that Archie would get the worst of it." " I don't see what there will be amusing in that," grunted Mr. Lowndes, who was a very straightforward, matter-of-fact sort of person, and did not sympathize with all his friend's moods.

" I wish you wouldn't say such things, Bligh. They sound — not to me, because I know you— but to other people they might sound a little bit malicious." " Cripples are always malicious," said Mr. Bligh ; " they can't help it. So long as one lives one is bound to get some sort of fun out of existence ; and what sort of fun is there within the reach of a man who has lost the use of his legs, except studying his fellow-creatures, and laughing in his sleeve at them ? I lie here on my back from morning to night and watch you — Cicely and Archie and the servants, and the people who come to call, and your reverend and respected self. You have no idea how funny you all are." " Well, I'm glad that I'm not the only subject of ridicule, at all events," observed Mr. Lowndes, with a somewhat dissatisfied look.

" What makes us so funny, if I may ask ? " " You would have to break your back before you could understand ; and that perhaps is rather too long a price to pay for the privilege. I'm completely out of it, don't you see ; I'm still alive, though I'm as good — or as bad — as dead; and that gives me a fine sense of the triviality of everything that excites the rest of you. What does it all matter ? In quite a short time the whole generation of us will be wiped out and clean forgotten ; isn't it a little comical that we should make so much ado about nothing ? " Thi3 (as possibly it may have been intended to do) drew from the Rector an eloquent vindication of the seriousness of life and the far-reaching consequences of every individual act. Furthermore, he thought fit to wind up with a final application of his remnrks.

" You MISADVENTURE have no right to say that you are ' out of it,' Bligh : on the contrary, very great power for good or for evil remains in your hands. The temporal, and for aught I know, the eternal welfare of many people depends upon you, and you can't joke yourself free from your_ respon sibilities. * I think you ought to bear that in mind and consider it carefully before you decide to nominate as your successor a man who will — who will " Who will play the deuce generally," suggested Mr. Bligh. " Well, I'll consider it— and him too. He seems to have challenged consideration, so that he can't com plain. Nevertheless, I doubt whether any conceivable arrangement that I could make would be wholly satis factory." The Rector sighed, and went sorrowfully away. He was very much afraid that his old friend's days were numbered ; he was pretty sure that his old friend would not set established custom aside in making his will, and he was quite convinced that infinite harm might be done in the parish of Abbotsport by such a Squire as Morton Bligh would be.

" It's all very unfortunate," he muttered to himself as he mounted his brown cob ; " very unfortunate indeed ! " When he had ambled down the long, gently sloping approach, bordered on either side by rhododendrons, which were one of the chief glories of the Priory, and when he had passed through an iron gate, which separated lawns, shrubberies and flower-beds from the park, he turned his horse off the road and cantered across the grass, until he reached a point from which he could look down upon the slate roofs of Abbotsport and the blue veil of smoke which hung motionless over them on that still afternoon of early spring. The little fishing village, overhung by lofty chalk cliffs and pro tected both from easterly and from westerly gales by sheltering promontories, had been made additionally safe and snug by a breakwater, constructed some years back at the expense of Mr. Bligh.

The same munificent benefactor had supplied the inhabitants with the solid school-house, which Mr. Lowndes could descry, and had carried out a great many other works of public utility during his reign. There had always been Blighs at the Priory, and they had always owned the whole of Abbotsport ; but they had been far less powerful, because far less wealthy, than the present holder of the estate, who, while still a young man, had inherited a large fortune from his mother's family. That he had spent his income wisely and well could not be denied. He had found Abbotsport poverty-stricken, dirty and over populated, and by dint of judicious expenditure, com bined with some exercise of authority, which had been at first resented, but subsequently acquiesced in (because improved circumstances always promote a spirit of toleration), he had converted the community over which he ruled into a prosperous and contented one.

He had been a benevolent despot, but like other benevolent despots he laboured under the disadvantage of being mortal ; so that there could be no certainty of the work which he had inaugurated being carried on. "Besides, I am not sure that he hasn't sapped their independence," mused the Rector, as he gazed down on the little fleet of fishing smacks, which were stealing in before a very light, southerly breeze. " They have got too much into the habit of looking to the Priory for help the moment that anything goes wrong, and it's precious little help they are likely to get from Morton Bligh. Cicely would take care that their wants were supplied, at any rate, though no doubt she would be injudicious, and she has inherited her father's disincli nation to be guided by advice. Still she would be sure to marry before long ; and if she had a husband who was a decent fellow" — Mr. Lowndes paused for a moment in his meditation and tapped his boot pensively with the handle of his riding-whip.

" Now, if Cicely would marry her cousin," he resumed presently, " and I MI SA D VENTURE 10 strongly suspect that her cousin wouldn't object to the arrangement — Good gracious, Archie, how you made me jump! You ought to know better than to play such tricks upon an old man whose reins are hanging loose. It's lucky that nothing ever startles the cob." The young man, who had playfully thrown a fir-cone at the Rector's broad back, laughed and said: "The cob's ears are quicker than yours, Mr. Lowndes; he knew I was behind you two or three minutes ago." This young man, who was tall, spare and broad shouldered, and had a slight, fair moustache, with an upward twist to it, bore the marks of his profession as plainly as if he had been dressed in full cavalry uniform. Without being exactly good-looking, he possessed the beauty which belongs to youth and physical vigour, and he had a pleasant, smart, sunburnt appearance.

Also his blue eyes seemed to belong to an honest mortal. " What were you dreaming about?" he asked. "About the future fate of that intemperate flock of yours ? " " Well, yes," answered the Rector. " I was thinking about their future, poor fellows ! Not that they are so very intemperate, except now and then, when they have had a great catch of fish, and even at such times they are a good deal better than they used to be. Neverthe less, I sometimes feel anxious about them. I've just seen your uncle, and he tells me that Morton is expected at the Priory this evening." " Yes, I believe so ; it's rather a bore. I don't know much about him, but I've always understood that he is an awful blackguard." "He isn't so much that — at least not in the way that you probably mean. There's always hope for the sort of man whom you would call an awful blackguard."

" Oh ! And isn't there any hope for Morton ? " The Rector shook his head. "I'll tell you what Morton is," said he; "he's a thoroughly bad-hearted fellow. You may have heard stories about him. I don't want to enter upon them, and indeed they are stories of a sort which you young fellows don't generally mention before parsons. It would be very wrong of me and quite against my duty and my con science to make light of sin of any kind : yet there is a difference, you know. A man may be chivalrous in spite of his wickedness. It isn't very long since Sir James Hannen addressed Morton Bligh from the Bench in words which — which, upon my honour, I think I would rather have been hanged than have heard addressed to me. But I don't believe he cared." " Everybody said he behaved thundering badly," observed the young man.

" I was in India at the time, you know ; so I only heard about it through the newspapers. Was that why Uncle Wilfrid quarrelled with him ? " " Oh, there wasn't any quarrel. Your uncle never quarrels ; and if he had meant to wash his hands of Morton, as most fathers would have done, he might have found ample excuse for that years ago. I don't mind telling you that that is what I should have done. As a general principle. I am opposed to placing women in positions of authority, but supposing I had to choose between Cicely and Morton my choice would be very soon made." " Only Cicely will marry some day, I suppose." " Yes ; but when she does, her husband won't have things all his own way. That fortunate fellow — because he will be a very fortunate fellow — may as well make up his mind to accept the part of a prince consort."

The Rector looked rather hard at his companion, who gazed imperturbably out to sea, and then he added, with an abrupt chuckle : " Put that in your pipe and smoke it, young man,"

Chapter II. Miss Eligh

The young lady who Mr. Lowndes had quite accu rately described as possessing a strong will of her own was, at the time when she was being thus criticized, discharging one of the duties incident to her station in life, by visiting the poor. There were always plenty of poor people in the village of Abbotsport, which, being situated at a distance of three miles (and mostly up-hill miles) from the nearest railway station, could not dispose of its fish with the ease and profit enjoyed by some of its neighbours on the south coast. However, they were none of them destitute, nor in any danger of becoming so, because they had Miss Cicely Bligh, as well as her father, to look after them. Whenever Miss Cicely walked down to the village (and that was three or four times a week on an average) she carried on her arm a basket, which was heavy on leaving the Priory and light on its return.

For this reason she was always a welcome visitor ; and if her instructions and rebukes were rather more peremptory than some folks thought becoming in one so young, yet they were magnanimous enough to pardon her in consideration of her pretty face and her kind heart, and smiled with good l.umoured toleration, when her back was turned, at her mania for cleanliness, her determination that everybody should go to church once a week, and all her other little fads and fancies. In reality, the housewives of Abbots port were mortally afraid of her, though they would have died rather than admit such a thing. It mattered very little to Cicely whether they admitted or denied a circumstance of which she was fully aware. She knew that she could always carry her point, whatever it might be, and the onlv thing she regretted was that people should ever waste time by arguing with her, when it would have been so much more simple and sensible to give in at once.

To be sure she shared the inestimable boon, with which Abbotsport at large was blessed, of being seldom pressed for time. On this particular afternoon she had gone her rounds and had administered her charities, together with a few necessary scoldings, as usual, and now she thought she would stroll down to the harbour and see the trawlers come in. So she made her way along the steep streets to the water side — a natty, well proportioned, and very upright little figure, with her long sable boa flung back over her shoulders and her empty basket swinging. Cicely Bligh had the family features, which were such as the family had no reason to complain of. Her nose was slightly aquiline ; but it was such a diminutive specimen of that class that nobody with the slightest sense of the fitness of terms would have dared to call it a hook.

Her upper lip, which was very short, had an outward curve ; the lower one was somewhat full ; her chin was perfectly rounded, without being too pro minent, her dark eyebrows were straight, and from beneath them there looked forth a pair of large, stead fast, grey eyes, for the discomfiture of evil-doers aDd the sad undoing of suscejitible young men. She was, beyond all reach of rivalry, the beauty of the county ; and how could she help knowing it when she had been told as much such a number of times ? She did not, however, value herself so much upon her good looks — which were hers by clear right of inheritance, and, therefore, not worth boasting about — as upon her strict integrity of purpose, and her truly remarkable accuracy of judgment. To these fine qualities she flattered her self that her claim was undisputed ; and so, in truth, it was, because nobody wanted to dispute it with her.

From her father — the only human being to whom she owed or owned allegiance — she met with little or no opposition, MISADVENTURE her views and tastes being fortunately very much the same as his own. Illness had of late so incapacitated him that he had been compelled to manage a great part of his affairs vicariously, and from being his delegate his daughter had insensibly become his substitute. As for her aunt, Miss Skipwith, who had been asked to stay a few weeks at the Priory soon after Mrs. Bligh's death and who had remained there for fifteen years, Cicely had never been told to regard that lady as placed in authority over her, and had never dreamt of doing so. Thus she was about as independent as a young woman can be ; and perhaps rather more so than it is good for any young woman to be, seeing that the absolute equality of the sexes has not yet been admitted, even in the most progressive countries.

The trawlers, of which Abbotsport boasted but four, had already entered the harbour when she reached it, and a knot of more or less interested persons had col lected on the pier, to watch them discharge their load of fish and to help in carting it away. This was a somewhat lengthy operation — because, as has been mentioned, Abbotsport disdained hurry — but Cicely waited patiently until it was almost completed, when she caught sight of a weather-beaten, grey-bearded man, who touched the brim of his sou'-wester to her with a slightly deprecating air. "Coppard," said she, fixing her eyes upon him severely, " I am surprised to see you going out with the trawlers among these boys. I should have thought you might have found some better employment than that." " You're right there, Miss," answered the man, " as you mostly are.