The Keeper of the Keys

Front matter

VOL. I NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS AT ALL THE LIBRARIES. A VILLAGE HAMPDEN. By Algernon Gissing, author of 'Both of this Parish,' &c. 3 vols. THYME AND RUE. By Margaret B. Cross. 2 vols. DISHONOURED. By Theo Gift, author of ' Pretty Miss Bellew,' 'Victims,' &c. 3 vols. LITTLE MISS COLWYN. By Adeline Sergeant, author of ' No Saint,' ■ Jacobi's Wife.' &c. 3 vols. CUTTING FOR PARTNERS. By John Cordt Jeaffreson, author of 'Live it Down,' Ac. 3 vols. LONDON : HURST & BLACKETT, LIMITED. BY F. W. ROBINSON AUTH01- OF 'GRANDMOTHER'S MONEY,' 'THE COURTING OF MARY SMITH,' ' THE YOUNGEST MISS GREEN,' ETC, ETC. ' For him she was purity, charity, the Keeper of the Keys of whatsoever is held precious by men.' — George Meredith. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1890. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME.

Book I

. FORTUNA. CHAPTER PACE I. Mr. and Miss Vanderspur ... 3 II. The Letter from Uncle Caleb . . 19 III. ' Never is a Long Day ' . . . .32 IV. ' Young Love ' 43 V. A Recognition 57 VI. On the Spa 74 VII. The whole Truth ? 84 VIII. The new Arrival 93 IX. The End of the Day . . .113 X. The Partners of the Firm . 125 XI. How the Night ended .... 137 XII. Mr. Marney 150 XIII. The first Approaches .... 161 XIV. A Lover's Tiff CONTENTS. VI XV. A Promise - I81 XVI. A Woman in the Dark 194 XVII. Practising Deception .... 203 XVIII. The first Failure 215 XIX. The Eve of Departure . . . .230 XX. Dorcas makes Confession . ■ 241 XXI. In the Train 256 XXII. Mr. Vanderspur at Bay . . 264 XXIII. The Truth of It 274 XXIV. Mr. Wickerwill receives his Visitors . 288 XXV. Fathers and Daughters ....

BOOK I. FORTUNA VOL.

I B

Chapter I. Mr

AND MISS VANDERSPUR. Mrs. Pith's select Boarding House for Ladies and Gentlemen was situated on the North Cliff, Scarborough, a good deal out of the Avay of the hurly-burly which goes on for ever on the other side of the hill, where the hotels are legion, and the Spa is the attraction, Avhere fashion is, and shoddy, where the army, the bar, the pen, and the factory are all well represented, where money is spent with grace and agility, and all sorts and conditions of men — and b2 women — hold high festival at certain periods of the year. It Avas a festive period when our story opens. They were doing well at Scarborough, both South and North, and anyone in quest of in formation on the north side, or in search of ' all the comforts of home,' as Mrs. Pith put it in her ornate prospectus and time-table adver tisements, would haATe been told that ' Mrs. Pith was full.' Mrs. Pith — meaning, of course, the select establishment to Avhich her name was attached — Avas always the first to be full, and the last to feel the effects of the fag-end of the season.

It Avas a genteel boarding-house, and the prices Avere reasonable, considering the liberality of the table, but it was not a fashion able establishment. It would haAre been voted ' awfully sIoav ' by the mashers and dudes and chappies who thronged the hotels due south, and dressed for dinner, and toddled on the Spa after dinner, and danced after the Spa, and smoked and brandy-and-sodaed after the danc ing Avas over, and their innumerable partners MR. AND MISS VANDERSPUR. 5 had dragged themselves up to bed. It was a comfortable place, which did not go in for style. It had a Aaew of the sea. Mrs. Pith — not even to mention Mr. Pith at present — looked after the boarding-house and the boarders' requirements, and the boarders' weekly payments with exemplary perseverance, and was voted a hard-Avorking, honest soul, Avho Avas never happy unless her customers and patrons were happy too.

To some minds both Mr. and Mrs. Pith were a trifle too ' serious ' in the conduct of their select establishment, for there Avere prayers before breakfast and after dinner, and a chapter from the NeAv Testament to folloAv the more important meal, and folk who had not come to Scarborough to hear Mr. and Mrs. Pith pray, or to do any extra amount of praying for themselves, gave ' Pith's ' a very wide berth indeed. But what Mrs. Pith lost in one way she probably gained in another, and so the 'select establishment ' was much patronized by quiet folk, and recommended to other quiet folk who liked a good table, and did not care to spend too much money on a holiday. And nobody was obliged to hear the Piths pray, after all ; if one came down a little late for breakfast, and started up immediately after dinner, it was possible to ignore the religious element altogether — and a certain proportion did so, chiefly to show their independence, or mental superior ity, or from a belief that they were past all praying for, or perhaps to go away and pray somewhere else by themselves — who could tell ?

The Avays of mankind are cross-ways, and the guide-posts tell of many roads. Mr. Pith Avas a sensible man, we may add. ' We don't want anyone to stop to prayers who's not disposed that Avay,' he said to every new arrival after the first day. ' We'd rather you did, but we sha'n't mind it if you don't. But it's been a rule with us. We've always done it ourselves, and we mean to,' he added firmly, if not quite grammatically. Mr. Pith Avas a frank man, but he was not liked so much as Mrs. Pith, who was his second SIR. AND MISS VANDERSPUR. 7 Avife, his junior by twenty years, and who Avas as brisk and chirpy and electric as any young woman of three-and-thirty could be with a boarding-house upon her mind, and Pith— let us be frank historians — not always in the best of tempers. There was another Pith, a Miss Dorcas Pith, by the first wife, a smart and bright young woman — of whom more anon — who Avaited at table along with four or five strapping Yorkshire wenches, who were all that could be Avished in the matter of attendance, if the clatter of their boots, as they pranced round at the backs of the company, was not taken seriously into consideration.

This is all that need be said of the Pith family at present, our business lying for awhile with more important characters in our eventful history. There were, to begin with, two of our lead ing characters in North Scarborough — a Mr. and Miss Vanderspur. They had been boarders at Pith's for some four or five weeks when our story opens, and there was no talk yet of their going away, Avhich was satisfactory to the proprietary, as the season was getting on, and the select boarding-house did not expect to be very busy much longer. The Vanderspurs were hardly general favourites with the other guests: their idiosyncrasies being somewhat marked and peculiar. They came down late to breakfast, and did not Avait for the prayers of Pith and his wife after dinner, and they Avere to their brother and sister boarders a little reserved — some folk even said ' stuck up ' a bit.

Father and daughter were courteous enough in their demeanour when directly ad dressed ; they did not give themselves airs ; there was no ' side on '; but the impression gathered force that they were not so anxious to make friends or acquaintances, or to be generally so all round familiar and chatty, as people in boarding establishments expect you to be, or to say the reason why. So far as Mr. Vanderspur was concerned, there was a very good and sufficient reason for this. Mr. Vanderspur Avas not strong. He SIR. AND MISS VANDERSPUR. 9 had come to the north side of Scarborough for health, and not for ' high jinks.' He was a man of five-and-forty, who looked five-and sixty, a grey and sallow man, very tall, and very thin and angular, AA'ith an ugly stoop in the shoulders, and a hacking cough that was worse than his stoop, and which came on regularly at dinner-time with explosive force, and attracted more attention than he cared for, or anybody else either. ' Blest if I don't think he does it on purpose,' said Mr. Robert TAvits from Liverpool, 'just to turn felloAvs off their feed.

I hate a fellow who coughs Avith his soup. Perhaps old Pith puts him up to that dodge.' Fortuna Vanderspur was more reserATed than her father to the general community, and Avithout any valid reason that was apparent. She kept 'herself to herself Avonderfully well. People fancied at first that she was shy, till it dawned upon them by degrees how strangely self-possessed she Avas, how grave and-firm and thoughtful ahvays, how singularly calm ! It was seldom that a smile rippled over her pale, refined face, but her whole character seemed changed when this did occur. Then the brightness of her being seemed to shine out like the sun. But Fortuna Vanderspur was generally in shadow, or a something that might pass for shadoAv, as of a young girl weighed down by thoughts which were heavier to bear than her youth warranted.

This was not young Gair's private opinion, it is necessary to say, however : and of young Dominic Gair we shall hear a great deal before we write finis to our story. He is not in the foreground of the pic ture yet — there is one figure only standing in the early morning sun, this young, dark haired, dark-eyed, waxen-faced lady of eight een years of age, wearing a graver face than Mrs. Pith bore even in the Avinter season, Avhen Green Mount House was yawning like a church. Fortuna Vanderspur stood at the door of the Pith establishment then one morning towards the end of August. It was very early for Scarborough visitors to be abroad — certainly not later than seven of the morning, when only a few enthusiasts with a bias towards early baths are to be seen out and about and full of action. Mr. Pith, a tall man with a face as rugged as a walnut shell, was out, though, and with a dirty cloth over his arm was standing at the gate of his own premises, gazing steadily seaAvard, as if deeply interested in the horizon.

Pith did this every morning, wet or dry, for a few minutes — in his early days he had been maritime, and the sea had its fascination for him still. In the winter, when he was rather in the way indoors, and his wife and daughter were a trifle happier without his general super vision, he would stand at the gate for a good hour at a time, like a monarch of all he surveyed, and be perfectly regardless of the low state of the thermometer or of anything else, until his wife tapped at the front kitchen window to let him know that breakfast Avas ready, and the prayer-book Avas open by the side of his rasher of bacon. But they were busy now at Green Mount House, and there was very little time to spare for sea-gazing on the part of Mr. Pith. Three minutes look ahead of him, then he turned to go indoors, and became aAvare that Miss Vanderspur, equipped for walking, was standing on the top step. ' Oh, good-morning, miss,' he said, with rough but well-meant politeness, ' I didn't expect to see you up so early.' ' I am waiting for my father.' ' What, is the old gentleman actually going out at this time of day V he inquired. ' Yes,' was the reply.

Most people would have taken this brief answer as a hint that the question, or the way in Avhich the question was put, was objection able to the listener, but Mr. Pith Avas stolid. He had intended no offence, and he did not imagine that offence in any way could be re ceived. Besides, he liked to be friendly with his Arisitors — that Avas a portion of his business — and to be a kind of father to them in his little way, and most people tolerated the family foot ing upon which he put himself with them. ' Well, I am surprised,' he said, with emphasis, and with a little flourish of his dirty cloth, ' he must be getting stronger and better altogether. I am very glad, Miss Vanderspur, of that.' ' Thank you,' said Miss Vanderspur, more graciously, ' but I don't think he is any better,. Mr. Pith.' ' Lor' ! don't you now V ' He says he is much worse,' she added, thoughtfully. ' Then Avhat is the use of his tiring himself out before the best part of the day begins?' asked Mr. Pith ; ' what is the use of overdoing it ?

That isn't the way to get strong, with a Aveak man such as your father is — is it now ? I put it to you, young lady, is it V ' You had better ask him all those questions yourself, Mr. Pith, for here he is. I don't know how to answer them. I wish I did,' she added. Mr. Vanderspur, walking very carefully, as if there were grave doubts in his mind as to the whereabouts of a trap-door in the hall, through which he might vanish summarily, if he were not exceedingly careful, stepped into the sun light almost as soon as his daughter had finished, and stood on the top step, Avith his hand resting on her arm. In the full glare of the sun he Avas as yellow as a guinea, and the face looked more thin and pinched than usual. Perhaps he was Avorse, thought Mr. Pith, but he did not repeat all his inquiries to the person most calculated to answer them off-hand.

He only made him a respectful bow, said, ' Good-morning, Mr. Vanderspur,' and opened the iron gate for the egress of father and daughter on to the pavement. ' Good-morning, Mr. Pith,' said the invalid, ' a beautiful morning, is it not ?' ' A splendid morning, sir. Splendid,' an swered Mr. Pith, Avith unnecessary loudness. Mr. Pith in other days had had much practice with a speaking trumpet, and this old habit per meated his discourse, and his prayers at mealtimes, and was perhaps a little objectionable to those sensitive people who objected to be bawled at. Mr. Vanderspur shivered, but he did not re spond to his host further. Hecame shuffling doAvn the steps, ATery Avatchful of them. They were a strange contrast, as they came out together, life ending and life beginning, the flame of the lamp flickering but feebly with the man, and leaping up from the warm heart of the young woman even beyond its due and proper bounds at times.

Mr. Pith looked after them, and shook his duster in the early morning air. ' Don't like 'em a bit,' he said to himself as he Avent up the steps. The feeling was reciprocal. ' Don't like that Pith,' said Mr. Vanderspur to his daughter as they walked on. ' He is a little familiar,' she added. ' And vulgar.' ' Perhaps so.' ' I am sure of it, Fortuna. The whole place is vulgar, for the matter of that — the establishment, the people in it, the proprietor, the very servants,' he said, tetchily. ' I don't think Mrs. Pith is — I like her. And I am sure Dorcas is not ; I like her, too.' ' They are better than the rest. That is all that can be said for them.' ' Or what Ave want to say for them just now,' she added, quietly. He gave a nervous glance doAvn at his daugh ter's face. ' Ahem — yes — that's true.

We have not come out at this unreasonable hour to discuss Mr. Pith and his wife and daughter. Out here — in the open — is the only place where we are safe from eavesdroppers.' ' Yes — possibly.' ' And I thought it AAras important that I should talk to you as soon as I could,' the father con tinued. ' Hear what you tbink of your uncle's letter, of his propositions, his, his— his hateful style of doing things altogether. That is Avhy I slipped a note under your bed-room door last night.' ' Yes. But was there any necessity for haste V ' Who can tell ? Who on earth can tell V he added, more irritably ; ' the letter has unsettled me. I have not slept all night for thinking about it, Fortuna.' ' I am sorry for that, father.' ' Good girl, I thought you would be,' he said ; ' have you brought the letter with you V ' Yes.' ' Let us sit down Avhile jtou read it to me,' he said, with a wave of his hand to a seat they were passing. ' It is cold here for you.' ' It's in the sunshine.

It is very Avarm this morning. Good Heavens, girl, don't you see how hot I am — how anxious,' he cried ; ' don't you understand what all this is to me V 'I am trying to understand,' she said, She laid her hand upon his arm, and he Avinced a little as she did so, unless this was a mere fancy on her part. Women are full of odd fancies, the men say. And the men are always VOL. I. C so wise in their estimation of women-folk — Avhich accounts for this little world of ours re volving so nicely in its right orbit.

Chapter II. The Letter From Uncle Caleb

FATHER and daughter sat doAvn in the sunshine together. The morning air was cold, as Fortuna Vanderspur had prophesied that it Avould be, for her father, but Mr. Vanderspur turned up the collar of his coat, thrust his hands into his trousers' pockets, stretched out a pair of long, thin legs, and endeavoured to make the best of the position. ' Go on, Fortuna, I'm all attention.' ' You think you have a right to hear this letter?' ' Undoubtedly I have.' ' I think so, too. But I Avould rather tell you generally the nature of its contents.' c2 ' Why V was the sharp inquiry. 'Because,' she said, 'it is, as you imply, a hateful letter, and Uncle Caleb has a hateful way of saying things and doing things, as we both know too well.' ' As Ave both knoAv too well,' he repeated, very slowly after her, like a child learning its lesson. ' And so has Uncle Caleb's daughter, too, a very hateful Avay,' she added, ' although she is my first cousin — the niece — the ' ' The cat.' Fortuna laughed merrily at this.

It was one of her rare laughs seldom heard noAv, hardly heard at all by the man at whose side she was sitting, and sounding all the more musically and pleasantly in his ear from the rarity of its occurrence. The man's sad, sallow face brightened for an instant, and he laughed too, but, oh, so rustily ! The laugh disagreed Avith him and brought on that tiresome cough of his Avhich so harassed the boarders at Green Mount House, and he sat •and barked for awhile, his daughter mechanic ally loosening the grey silk Avrap which he had wound round his throat, boa constrictor fashion. 'Never mind about Eugenie— your dear cousin,' he said, when he had recovered sufficient breath to jerk out a word or two by Avheezy instalments, ' read me the letter, Fortuna, Avord for Avord.' ' Very well — if it must be,' she added. ' Of course it must be.

He intended I should read it.' ' Perhaps he did.' ' You know he did.' ' Yes, I think I know him well enough for that ;' and for a fleeting instant it looked as if she were half-disposed to laugh again, until a shadow — as of reminiscences not too pleasant to reflect upon — passed across the fair girl's face and deepened its expression. She drew the letter from her pocket, opened it, and began to read in a low, clear \roice and Avithout further delay. If it were to be done, 'twere well it should be done quickly, she thought with William Shakspeare, and she ran on very quickly indeed to begin with. Brelade Mansion, Streatham, August 29, 18—. Dear Fortuna, ' I have given my best consideration to the various propositions which you have thought it worth while to make to me on ac count of your father and yourself, and I regret that I have to say, emphatically and unhesi tatingly, No, to every one of them.

They are, to my humble capacity ' 'Humble is underlined,' she added here. ' Damn his humility,' muttered Mr. Vanderspur at once ; 'go on.' Fortuna nodded, as if she perfectly agreed Avith him in consigning the Avriter's humility to the same unfortunate fate, and continued : ' To my humble capacity, perfectly illusory, Utopian, and Avholly impracticable. You knoAv by this time what your father is — of late years you have had an opportunity of judging what /"am ' 'A very capital "I" here,' she broke off again to remark. ' I suppose so. Caleb always was a capital I,' remarked the father ; ' but pray continue. I Avould rather that you read the letter straight off without any remarks, Fortuna. I shall under stand it better that way — if it is possible to un derstand it at al!.' ' Very well,' said his daughter.

Here she read on to a conclusion without further comment. ' The whole thing, as I take it, resolves it self simply into a choice between me and your father — between his life and mine — betAveen Avhat I may almost term a nomadic existence in some second-rate foreign city, surrounded by people Avho will not care for you, and for Avhom you Avill not care, and that of a society Avhere you will meet people of a high class, people who admire you, who appreciate you — despite a brusquerie that is to me and Eugenie, as you are aware, not a little painful, but which you Avill grow out of in good time — and who, at some future period, may advance you materially in that social position for which we should all strive, as towards a goal of legitimate ambition fortified by the teachings of a good conscience and the example of an upright life.

To devote yourself to your father, hoAvever deceptive and exemplary that may seem to you in your new and wild enthusiasm, is to misdirect your life, even to completely submerge it. Under the circumstances, concerning which I knoAv everything and you nothing, it would be foolish in the extreme. My brother — your father — Avill bear me Avitness to this. Though there are so many points on Avhich Ave do not agree, and are never likely to agree, he will testify to this for your sake and his own, and Avithout taking me in any way into consideration. He will, at least, give you your choice. ' I will add, in conclusion, that this is Eugenie's wish as Avell as mine, but she AviU write to you on this point in the course of a few days ; and with our united regards, ' Believe me, dear Fortuna, ' Yours truly, ' Caleb Vanderspur.' The letter Avas finished, crumpled up a little unceremoniously, and thrust into a side pocket of the cloth jacket she Avas wearing, but Mr. Vanderspur did not make any comment for a while after its perusal.

He sat tracing various hieroglyphics on the path with the end of his AAralking-stick, and his daughter's keen glance noticed that the gloA-ed hand shook a little, and that the lines upon the path Avere A'ery scratchy, signifying nothing. She remained silent also, as if anxious for her father to speak first ; but there Avas a heightened colour, an ominous red spot on either cheek, that shoAved that a second perusal of her uncle's epistle had not tended to any greater appreciation of the Avisdom of its contents. The father broke the silence between them at last, and said, in a quavering little voice, ' Caleb is as verbose as ever — painfully ver bose,' he said, more to himself than to his daughter ; 'lam even inclined to consider that his style gets worse and worse.' ' It is like himself then,' Avas the quick reply. 'Does he get worse and worse, Fortuna?' ' I think he does — more vain and purse proud, and irritable and foolish, altogether.

My brusquerie ! ' she quoted, indignantly, ' as if with their training, their example, their ar rogance, I could do anything but grow up as I am. ' You have grown up all that I could wish,' said the father, gently, ' and I have been very much surprised, ancl very glad, and very, very grateful.' 'I don't think that they wholly spoilt me, though they tried hard, both of them,' she said, some angry tears springing to her dark eyes ; ' I was always thinking of you, dad — always Avaiting for you to come back from that dread ful India, and fetch me away. If you had not come at last, I don't know Avhat Avould have been the end of it.' ' It might have been the better for you. You Avould have got used to your uncle's ways, your uncle's world, your ' ' Never, never, neA'er !' cried the girl ; ' I should haA^e grown more proud and callous, and singular, than I am already.

I but it is all over and gone ; I am quit of them, a free and independent woman, and you are home again in England.' ' You speak as if you had made up your mind." ' I have.' ' Completely ?' ' Completely,' she repeated. Mr. Vanderspur for a moment looked pleased, then his face changed its expression. ' It is that of which I am afraid,' he mur mured. 'Why? ' I will tell you in a minute or tAvo — give me a little time,' he said, almost imploringly ; ' I kneAv, Avell enough, it would come to this at last. He did not. He is obtuse — despite all his capacity for making money, he is frightfully obtuse.' ' Uncle Caleb V ' Yes ; your Uncle Caleb.' <Heis ' ' Not bad at heart. When I was compelled to leave you, he took care of you, a poor, mother less girl ; he gave you a home, a liberal education, be surrounded you with Avhat the Avorld calls luxuries, and I don't know,' he said, a little doubtfully, 'if I am not, in that Avay, his debtor.

I think I am,' he added, more confidently ; ' yes, I knoAv I am.' ' I believe I should have grown up a better woman — if eighteen is really Avoman's estate, clad — if I had never been placed under his care.' ' You must not be too certain on that point. If your mother had lived ' ' Oh ! please do not say anything of my mother. To me she is a fair, far-off dream, and all the brightness of my life passed out Avith hers. As you can guess,' she said, touching his arm, ' as you only can guess, along with me.' ' Yes, yes,' he said, ' I know. But Ave are not looking at the past now, Fortuna, but ahead of us — over there.' ' As Mr. Pith looks at the sea every morn ing,' she said, lightly. ' Well, why look at it at all ?

I have made up my mind, I tell you again, dad.' 'No.' ' Oh, yes, I have,' was the confident reply. ' If you had hesitated, or thought that it would be better to return to your uncle's home and see me only now and then — at stated intei-A'als, fixed perhaps by Uncle Caleb — life might have been easier for both of us, altogether more preferable, in many respects.' ' Preferable !' she repeated. ' Why ?' ' My pride — and I have a fair share of it, or I should not be your uncle's brother — would have been spared a blow, and you a revelation,' said the father. ' What is there to reveal ?' ' Have you never thought that there was a mystery about me and my life so long aAvay from you?' ' At times it has not been quite clear,' she con fessed. ' But I kneAv your health Avas delicate, that your business lay abroad, and that you would be back some day, God willing.' ' God has so Avilled it,' he answered, ruefully, ' but Avhether it is for better or AVorse, He only knows.' ' For the better lives of us tAvo, surely, father.' ' I will not prophesy as much, Fortuna.' 'You have no confidence in me, then?' ' Oh, yes, I have.' ' Why should ' ' Why should I be doubtful ?' he said, inter rupting her, ' 1 will tell you.

My brother Caleb knew that I should — I must — tell you everything before your decision Avas finally made, that I could not in any way deceive you by the glamour of false appearances. The truth was to folloAv if this wish of yours — craze of yours, he called it — were insisted upon, as he feared it might be.' ' I am not afraid of the truth,' she answered. ' Oh, my little girl, but the truth will make you very much afraid of me.' ' On my honour, no.' ' On my honour, yes, I would reply, Fortuna, if tliere were any honour left in me, but there is not,' he said, sorroAvfully. ' I do not understand. Tell me what you mean,' she said, almost peremptorily. Her father looked aAvay from the searching light in the dark eyes confronting his, and then said, in a low broken voice, ' 1 am a convict from Woking Prison. No thing better than that, God help me !'