United. A novel

Chapter I

'AGE I. WAKENING TO THE AVORLD - 1 II. THE FIRST MEETING - l!l III. A ONE-SIDED ENGAGEMENT - - 55 IV. UNPROMISING SYMPTOMS - - - 78 Ar. "IT CANNOT BE" - - - 98 VI. OXE UNION ACCOMPLISHED - - - 125 VII. "I SUPPOSE SHE IS BEAUTIFUL " 155 VIII. THE RIGHT INFLUENCE - - 179 IX. SOCIAL DUTIES IN THE AVAY 220 X. IMPRESSIONS BEHIND THE.. SCENES - - 235 XL AN INSTRUCTIVE TRANCE - - - ' 2G8 UNITED.

CHAPTER I. AVAKENING TO THE AVORLD.

Ferron Kinseyle had been sorely put out when his wife died. He Avould not have been rightly described as prostrate with grief; still less so as being heartlessly indifferent. But the principal interests of his life had long been those Avhich gathered round his literary work ; and Avhen Mrs. Kinseyle, after ten or tAvelve years of a quiet existence at Compton Wood, dropped into the grave in a gentle, unobtrusive way, as if it was a matter of course, her husband, roused from his philological researches, realized for the first time that she had been seriously ill. He Avas very much distressed about it all, though ready to acknowledge, Avhen Bryle, A'OL. i. UNITED. the housekeeper, put it in that way, that Heaven was a better place, at all events for the poor mistress, than Compton Wood. But the recollection of his married life left no painful places in his conscience.

" The poor mistress " had been poor by reason of no sins of omission or commission on his part. Bad health had been her worst trouble, and in a little Avhile after that had been finally cured by the translation of the patient to the "better place," just spoken of, the lonely scholar's Avorst perplexity Avas developed by the ques tion — what ouo-ht to be done about Edith ? Edith was his only daughter — his only child — and at the period referred to had attained the majestic age of six. Her mother, till then, had looked after her in all respects. There had been a nursemaid, of course ; but the growth and furniture of Miss Edith's mind had been her mother's care altogether, except, indeed, so far as Miss Edith had partly taken the matter into her own hands — -prosecuting independent studies for herself in the library, removing volumes as she Avanted them in the early hours of the morning to her own quarters, and leaving AVAKENING TO THE WORLD. 5 Mr. Kinseyle puzzled sometimes to think what could have become of some book of grave and serious import that he might wish to consult.

Edith's reading Avas not governed by any frivolous tastes at this sta^e of her existence, though Avhat the instinct was Avhich prompted her selection of books Avas a problem Mrs. Kinseyle never attempted to grapple Avith. The mere fact that the child could read at all, "to amuse herself," so soon, Avas sufficiently surprising, and not a little creditable to her abilities as a teacher, the admiring mother conceived. For the rest, Edith never con sulted anyone as to the course she thought fit to pursue ; and Mrs. Kinseyle regarded herself as existing rather to carry out than to constrain her youthful daughter's Avishes. And this arrangement had worked so smoothly that the necessity of taking some entirely new departure was exceed ingly trying to the widower. He had shrunk from the notion — never very seriously debated Avith his wife — of having a goAxerness in the house even Avhile Mrs. Kinseyle lived.

Compton Wood Avas not a house of dimen sions that Avould have permitted a life apart 1—2 UNITED. for such an inmate, and the studious philo logist was far too shy to bear the prospect of having a stranger always at his table — a lady to whom he would have to be polite, Avhile feeling her presence, from the point of view of his native reserve, an unutterable nuisance. Now, however, the thing would have to be done under conditions much Avorse than those which had made it so unattractive before ; or else Edith Avould have to be sent right away somewhere — to school, or to relations. Ferron Kinseyle was not a man of large means, or of large estate ; but he Avas a country gentleman, in his way, of eminently respectable lineage, and the old house, Compton Wood — a better sort of farmhouse originally — had been on the family property for altogether incalculable periods.

Most of the land formerly attached to the name had gone away, through the female line, to another rich dynasty, and Ferron Kinseyle, succeeding from an offshoot parentage, owned merely a rag of the old Kinseyle estates. The Miltenhams of Deerbury Park were the lords of these now ; but they did not make WAKENING TO THE AVORLD. a residence of Kinseyle Court — two miles across the fields and through its own park from Compton Wood — by reason of having a much more luxurious mansion of their own twenty miles away in another direction. Kinseyle Court Avas just kept clean by a man and his Avife at the lodge, and shown to visitors Avho wanted to inspect some old Roman remains preserved around the house. The Miltenhams were too Avell off to care to let the place ; too respectful to its history, running back to the civil war and further, to neglect it altogether ; but too fond of modern comfort to live in it.

The Miltenhams Avould have taken charge of Edith Avhen her mother died — they were very good friends Avith the Kinseyles, though their habits of life lay apart — and that seemed the natural arrangement. It Avas cordially suggested, and at first accepted by the widower ; but it Avas disturbed by an un foreseen embarrassment. Mr. Kinseyle had not up to that time been in the habit of con versing to any great extent Avith his small daughter. He had no natural affinity for children, and never found anything to say to UNITED. them. However, Avhen he had in his own mind gratefully accepted Mrs. Miltenham's invitation concerning Edith, he took that young lady on his knee while wandering through the drawing-room and out into the garden one day, soon after the miserable business of the funeral — his usual regular habits of work being thrown out still — and officially informed her of the plans proposed.

Then Miss Edith introduced the unforeseen embarrassment referred to. "But, Papa," she said, " I don't Avant to go." Mr. Kinseyle had not looked at the matter from that point of view before. He was too courteous a person to tell the young lady abruptly tbat nobody talked about her "going" — that the proposal was for her to be sent. Regardless of the risks attending the process Avhen a lady of any age is con cerned, he endeavoured to argue the matter. " My dear Edy, it will be very much the nicest plan for you. There is a little girl about your age at Deerbury Park, and a little boy a year or tAvo younger" — Edy shook her head slightly, but scornfully — " ancl — and you'll be e\Ter so happy." AVAKENING TO THE AVORLD. "Thank you, Papa, dear; but I Avould rather stop with you at Compton Wood."

" But, my dear Edy, we should have to have a governess, and that Avould be a terrible bore for both of us, you know." He did not like to be selfish, so he put the idea that way. " We'll teach her to behave nicely, Papa," Miss Edith said confidently, and Avithout the least sense of incongruity in thus inverting the natural order of things. And then, as Mr. Kinseyle still held out and pleaded for the Miltenham scheme, Edy brought up all her reserves Avith the unconscious genius of her sex. " Oh, Papa !" she cried, more in sorrow than in anger, " you don't mean that you Avill send me away from you against my will !" and Avith that she melted into tears. " My dear Edy, my pet, there, don't cry. It really never occurred to me," Mr. Kinsejde frankly confessed, " that you had a will in the matter.

It is most curious, the unexpected Avay family matters may get complicated." Of course the governess was obtained, and Mr. Kinseyle had to take all the responsi- UNITED. bility, in Mrs. Miltenham's eyes, of selfishly choosing an inferior destiny for his daughter, because his own tenderness as a father Avould not allow him to part Avith his pet plaything. He had to face a great deal of acute dis comfort Avhen Miss Barkley, the governess Mrs. Miltenham scornfully procured for him, first came on the scene. He did not see, thinking over the matter in advance, how a middle course could be steered between treating the new-comer, on the one hand, as an upper servant— front which attitude he shrank, being very little given to self assertion — and, on the other, in a Avay Avhich might entitle her to think he wanted to marry her, Avhich he did not Avish to do in the least.

But the reality of the situation soon showed itself as less alarming than the prospect. Miss Barkley Avas a tall, thin spinster, Avith very prominent teeth, a mild disposition, and a long experience of life. Mr. Kinseyle Avas relieved. He felt sure that Miss Barkley could not conscientiously expect to be married, and he began to feel more at ease. Perhaps Miss Edith, Avith her usual influence on all around her, succeeded in teaching her gover- AVAKENING TO THE AVORLD. 11 ness how to behave nicely, as she had promised. By degrees, life at Compton Wood resumed something of its old routine. The scholar subsided into his work, and Miss Barkley, impelled by conscience once or twice to inquire Avhether he wished Edith to do this or that, or leave something else undone, perceived so clearly that he did not wish at all events to be made the arbiter in such transactions, that she chose, practically, the Aviser part in her relation with her interesting pupil, and followed that young lady's guidance in all problems of difficulty.

Edith, as the years advanced, consented graciously to pay some visits to Deerbury Park, but she never merged herself altogether in the life of that more brilliant establishment, and grew up in her own quiet home, accepting occasional distractions Avith cheerful satisfaction when her father, at rare intervals, found reason to spend a month or t\vo in London, but never showing the least impatience of the uneventful and even current of existence at Compton Wood. As time went on, she promoted her father more and more into the rank of companion, UNITED. drew him out on philosophical questions, and took a friendly interest in his study of com parative Oriental philology, Avithout being impelled herself, however, to follow up these inquiries in detail. As she Avas troubled by no rude mockery from brothers or sisters, the eccentric development of her mind suffered no offensive shocks, and Mr. Kinseyle's temperament, leading him to accept all the incidents of life as they came, without criticizing them closely unless he was re luctantly compelled to choose some course of action for himself, made him not indifferent to his daughter by any means, but unob servant of her peculiarities as such.

Edith was subject in this way to no analytical Avatch fulness; and though Miss Barkley found strange traits in her character to Avonder at sometimes, these were merely oddities, in that good lady's estimation, referable to her old-fashioned bringing up. By the time she was turned fifteen, a natural sense of the fit ness of things had taught her to adapt her conversation with Miss Barkley to the governess's understanding, and in this course she Avas not conscious of any irksome self-restraint, AVAKENING TO THE WORLD. having a plentiful fund of good spirits and gaiety to spend upon the minor affairs of the hour. One of the most serious difficulties that arose between Miss Barkley and her young charge — or young mistress as she might perhaps have been better described — had to do with an exasperating propensity Miss Edith developed when she was barely out of her childhood, of sitting late in the evening on a big stone near the entrance-gate of Comp ton Wood, " looking out for the ghost."

The house, itself as old as the more stately Court in the neighbourhood, was approached by a long drive with a few trees about — not a regular avenue — Avith a gate at the end opening into the high-road. Just within the gate were some of the Ptoman remains scattered about that part of the country in great profusion, and an old labourer belonging to the nearest village, Wexley, declared that Avhen he was a young man he had been frightened nearly out of his wits one night, when going home late from Avorking at Compton Wood, by seeing a Avhite knight on horseback ride in at the gate. He met the UNITED. figure, he declared, as he Avas Avalking in the road himself, and was just close to the gate. He had stepped aside in among the old Roman stones, and the knight had passed him Avith out making any sound as the horse trod ; and then the vision had faded away in the direction of the house, before it had got far enough on to have passed out of sight if it had been a veritable man on horseback.

The labourer did not tell his story in this connected Avay, but this Avas what Edith, Avho took a great interest in the matter, had made out by prolonged cross-questioning. Investigation of this affair had employed her for many months, as Miss Barkley put every possible impediment in her Avay, and bitterly reviled an unlucky housemaid from whom she had picked up her original clue. It Avas a matter of principle with Miss Barkley all the while to repudiate the whole story Avith the utmost contempt ; and it Avas only on the ground that Miss Edith's head ought not to be stuffed with nonsense that the housemaid Avas assailed. Edith, on her part, contended that nonsense might be great fun aud that it would be delightful to hunt out WAKENING TO THE WORLD. 15 the old labourer and see Avhat he would say.

Bit by bit, in successive walks Avith Miss Barkley on summer afternoons, Edith elicited all that Hodge could tell, though she failed entirely to get any corroboration of the tale from any other observer. Then Miss Barkley had been hoping the uncomfortable subject might be alloAved to drop, when late in the dusk of one shortening evening in September, Edith, having been missed and having been seen strolling down the drive, Avas ultimately discovered by the horrified Miss Barkley sitting alone on the biggest of the Roman stones at the gate, "looking out for the ghost." The vehement though disjointed protests that Miss Barkley raised on this occasion culminated in a reference to Mr. Kinseyle. She had only been able to get Edith away from the gate — where her own nerves were too much upset to argue coherently — by abject entreaties.

In the lighted drawing room the complicated issues involved were debated more at length. Miss Barkley ad hered to the position that Edith's attempt was absurd, because ghosts did not exist, UNITED. but that she ran the risk of losing her senses Avith fright if she should see anything. It was clearly Avicked to tempt Providence, and it was perilous, anyhow, in September, to sit out at night on damp stones, especially Avhen she kneAv that her chest was delicate, and that her poor dear mother had died of con sumption. " And why you're not frightened to death at the mere thought of such a thing — a child like you — I can't understand." " But dear Miss Barkley, what is there to be frightened of if there is not any white knight in the case at all ? And that you say is impossible." " If you think there's a white knight in the case," said Miss Barkley, stumbling in despera tion on an argument with a certain force, " that's just as bad."

" I don't knoAV that I think there is," Edith replied. " I Avant to find out." The governess sought in vain to extort a promise from Edith that the rash attempt Avould not be repeated. Edith persisted in surrounding the Avhole question with an air of the brightest merriment. She generously AVAKENING TO THE AVORLD. 17 offered to let Miss Barkley watch for the ghost Avith her. She proposed that they should harden themselves for the encounter Avith the white knight by talking about ghosts a good deal in the dark, in their bedroom, and only desisted Avhen Miss Barkley's strained imagination seemed to threaten hysterics. The reference to Mr. Kinseyle was not made till twice or thrice again the fair Edith had visited her post of observation in the evening. Miss Barkley could neither recon cile it to her conscience to let this go on, nor \Tenture to hang about the haunted gateway night after night in attendance on her pupil.

She kneAv Mr. Kinseyle would be upset for days if called upon to consider a charge against Edith, and in any way give judgment in the cause ; but the situation Avas desperate. She Avas miserably apologetic, but what Avas to be done about this ne\v and unprecedented freak on Edith's part 1 " She has slipped out again this evening, and she's alone at that dreadful place at this moment, I'm sure. I'm going after her hoav, at once, of course; but I felt bound this time to tell you about it." UNITED. Mr. Kinseyle, perplexed and vaguely irri tated against poor Miss Barkley, begged her to remain behind, and Avent in search of Edith himself. He found her on the big stone, aud she got up at once and joined him. " Where's the harm, Papa dear?" she urged, putting her arm through his to Avalk back down the drive.

" I'm Avrapped up, as you see, and as warm as a toast. Miss Barkley's so funny about my knight. She's quite frightened." " But, my pet, young ladies must be taken care of at all times, and especially after dark. If there are no ghosts to be frightened of really — and, as for that, it seems to me very creditable on your part not to be frightened — there are rough men about the Avorld sometimes — robbers, gipsies, and so on." " But, Papa !" said Edith, putting quite a chain of reasoning into the long emphasis on the Avord, " I stop inside our own gate, and Avho has ever been robbed about Wexley ?" " Then you see, Edy, imagination is apt to play people tricks Avhen they are expecting to see something supernatural, and — one can't WAKENING TO THE AVORLD. tell — though you're so brave about it to begin with — you might be frightened if you thought you saw something."

" I don't think I should be frightened, because I don't see Avhat harm a ghost Avould Avant to do me — if there are ghosts at all. What do you think noA\T, really, about that, Papa ?" Mr. Kinseyle fenced the question. He was too sincere a person to palm off state ments on a child without feeling sure of his own convictions. " I've not gone into the matter much, Edy. I should lean to the belief that there are not, but if there should be such manifestations in rare cases, I should say we Avere wisest to let alone Avhat Ave understand so little about." " It's very interesting," replied Edith, not entirely convinced by this reasoning. Miss Barkley met them noAv in front of the house in a state of nervous agitation. Edith gave her a consolatory kiss, and relieved her, as it were, of all further respon sibility in the matter by promising to talk it over Avith Papa. vol. i. UNITED.

" You won't be so cool and composed about it, Edith," Miss Barkley said later on, when they Avere alone together, " if some evening you do conjure up a dreadful apparition by all this Avatching." " Not if it's dreadful, certainly ; but I've confidence in my white knight. I have not seen him plainly yet, but " " What ?" cried Miss Barkley, in amaze ment at the significance of the word thus emphasised. " But I saw something this evening ; some thing shadoAvy and vague, you know, but in the shape that Avould do for a man on horse back. Soon after that, Papa came up, and I had a feeling that it Avould be no use to Avait any longer this evening, so I came aAvay." " Well, Edith, your nerves are something I don't understand. You've destroyed my night's rest by merely telling me — Avhat you've just said."

" Dear B., your nerves are in fault though, this time, not mine, surely !" Edith Avas contracting a habit about this time of calling her governess " B." as a WAKENING TO THE WORLD. 21 friendly abbreviation of her full name, Avhich, used Avithout the prefix, that grew troublesome in constant repetition, Avould have put her on too humble a level. The young lady's visits to the Miltenhams, both at Deerbury Park and in London, gave her, as time went on, the savoir vivre be fitting her natural station, Avithout quenching her taste for the quiet life of her OAvn home, where she fed her mind by enterprising excursions through realms of literature where B. found herself hopelessly unable to follow, and Avhere her beauty expanded Avithout involving her in the excitement it might have set in motion round her had she ap proached seventeen in the midst of an ebb and flow of society.

She Avas slight but very gracefully developed in figure, petite rather than otherwise as to height, but Avith a very upright carriage and a self-confident composure of manner that gave an almost comic touch of stateliness to her small pro portions, and her fair though richly tinted complexion, sweetly delicate features, large blue eyes, and golden hair, invested her Avith undeniable claims to admiration. 2—2 UNITED. Her love of the quiet seclusion of Compton Wood was born of no shrinking timidity of nature, still less of any morose dislike of her fellow creatures. The sunny brightness of her own temperament gilded the old house with all the gaiety she required. Inheriting, though transmuting to a brighter phase, some of her father's attributes, she took things as they came, ancl neA'er stopped to weigh and consider circumstances round her in a discontented or critical mood.

Compton Wood was her home, so at Compton Wood she habitually abided ; always treating her visits to the Miltenhams as such — to be enjoyed, certainly, Avhile they lasted, but to terminate in due season, as a matter of course.

Chapter II. The First Meeting

The library at Kinseyle Court Avooed her away, two or three years later, from the old Roman stones at the gate, Avhere she had first developed her inclination for ghostly watching. Miss Barkley Avas hardly the gainer by the change, however, for the half deserted old house Avas not a " canny" habitation after dusk for people nervous about such fancies, and it was sometimes difficult to draw Edith away, as evening approached, if she was seized Avith an inclination to sit on in the old library, or in the " Countess's Study" attached; ■ — a room reached up two or three steps from the larger chamber, and bearing that tradi tional name by virtue, as Edith discovered for herself in the course of her reading, of certain incidents connected with the past history of the family. UNITED. The Countess in question had been a daughter of the Kinseyle house, who returned home on her husband's death, during the troubles of the civil war.

The luckless lady had resided for a long time almost alone at Kinseyle Court, the representative of the family at the time being a younger brother, away on his travels. Then, Avhen he came home in due season Avith a wife, the Countess removed to a neighbouring house of her oavii — not very plainly identified in the old family memoirs from Avhich Edith gleaned these particulars, but suspected by her to be Compton Wood — keeping only one room at Kinseyle Court, the aforesaid " study." These comparatively trifling incidents had been recorded by a scholarly Kinseyle, of a literary turn, belonging to the following generation, because of the strange reports concerning the "Countess's Study," which he found current in his time, and set down with grave simplicity. The lady Avas alleged to have practised some variety of the " black art," and strange voices had been heard by servants from the grounds outside her win dows when she Avas knoAvn to be alone inside.

After her death, her wraith had been seen at these same Avindows in the moonlight ; and though the room was shut up and put to no ordinary uses by her imme diate successors at the Court, it Avould some times be seen from afar lighted up Avith a steady Avhite light, that suggested no alarm of fire, but even more acute, if more fantastic, terrors connected with the supernatural. Since those days the room had been turned to ordinary uses by later generations of Kinseyles ; but still it retained the old name, and remained furnished as a study or writing-room, though refitted and modern ized, of course, more than once since the remote epoch in Avhich it had served the needs of the mysterious Countess. It pleased Edith to sit there in an old green Utrecht velvet arm-chair that stood by the table, or in one of the deep Avindow-seats that looked out upon the park, and dream of the bygone time, or take some books up there from the library below, gathered at random from the shelves, and dive into them in the spirit of an explorer travelling through an unknown country.

Perhaps these desultory UNITED. studies left no particular fruits of culture in her mind, but they interested her for the time ; and Miss Barkley had learned long before the period at Avhich Edith took to fre quenting Kinseyle Court that her duties did not include the exercise of any censorship over the young lady's literary taste. Miss Barkley's anxiety in the matter had to do, not so much with the direction this took, as with the un seemly hours at Avhich Edith persisted in gratifying it. Dinner was an early ceremony at Compton Wood, for Mr. Kinseyle liked an evening that Avas something more than the ragged end of dessert, and, regardless of convention, took his principal meal at five o'clock. This left the ladies Avith so much daylight on their hands afterwards in the summer and autumn, that Edith Avas enabled to march her reluctant chaperone across the fields, sometimes in the evening for an eerie visit to the Countess's Study in the dusk.

Miss Barkley Avould put impedi ments in the Avay as far as she could, preferring asimplerand more domestic routine; butEdith met all difficulties Avith her usual promptitude and determination. Squires could see them home if they Avere tempted to stay too late. Squires, Avith his wife, constituted the care takingestablishment of Kinseyle Court, and re sided at the lodge. Both by reason of orders from his regular superiors at Deerbury Park, and by virtue of his ready inclination to serATe the young lady's caprices, he regarded her in all respects as having authority at the Court, and loyally put aside Miss Barkley 's suggestion Avhen the practice first arose — that it Avas a tax on his time to perform, escort duty in the evening. " I Avas quite sure Squires would be glad to be of use to me," Edith said graciously, with the air of a young queen conferring a favour in accepting her subject's homage ; ancl the veteran retainer besought her "never to be within sending for Squires," Avhatsoever it might be that was wanted.

Of course Edith joyously recounted to Miss Barkley all the tales she could find in the old family memoir above mentioned Avhich bore reference to spectral phenomena associated Avith the Countess's Study. Miss Barkley scoffed — and shivered a little in secret at times — but Avould not give in to UNITED. Edith's whim so far as to recognise the danger of seeing the ghost as an objection attending evening visits to the Court. Indeed, there had been no pretence of any ghost in the case for several hundred years. It was too absurd of Edith to be making believe to expect one in this case. " Then you do feel that in the other case Hodge's story about the White Knight is important 1" Miss Edith maliciously urged in reply. But " B." Avould only stand to her guns during the day time in safe places. In serious emergencies after sunset, she would fall back upon honest confessions of feeling fidgety and plaintive entreaties to be taken home.

Then Edith would compromise matters, and promise to join her at the lodge in half an hour if left at peace and undisturbed in her dear old librar}r or in the study, as the case might be, for the pleasant interval betAveen the lights. " It is quite unaccountable how Miss Edith can dare to stop alone in those old rooms, when it's getting dark like this," Miss Barkley exclaimed, in conversation with Mrs. Squires at the lodge one evening under circumstances of this kind. " It isn't as if she was a mas culine sort of girl. She isn't the least of a tomboy, but she actually likes to be alone in places that Avould make anybody else nervous with all sorts of foolish fancies." " Bless your soul, m'm, it's all right," put in Mr. Squires from the little garden outside. Long familiarity Avith the Court, and its clean bill of health in regard to such matters as those Miss Barkley hinted at, made the custodian of the place disinclined to admit that anyone could incur peril there.