Poppy

Front matter

POPPY You must come at once, .If iss Poppy' said Tom, as soon as he had Lottie /airly on tlie ladder; 'thew's not a moment to lose.'" Pag-- 296. POPPY AN ANGRY I' ART ING Past 57 T. N ELSO X A N D S O X S London, Edinburgh, and New York P O P P Y BY MRS. ISLA SITWELL AUTHOR OF "THE GOLDEN WOOF," " IN FAR JAPAN," etc. etc. T. NELSON AND SONS London, Edinburgh, and New York 1S9S CONTENTS. I. MISSING, .... .... .... .... 9 II. THE PARTING, .... .... .... .... 23 III. MR. DEAN'S LITTLE GIRL, .... .... .... 39 IV. poppy's MESSENGER, .... .... .... 54 V. GONE, .... .... .... .... .... 69 VI. CHANGE, .... .... .... .... 85 VII. STRANGE NEWS, .... .... .... .... 100 VIII. A VISITOR, .... .... .... .... 115 IX. A LITTLE LIFE, .... .... .... .... 130 X. WITH CHRISTOPHER IN LONDON, .... .... 145 XI. MESSRS. JACOBS AND JOSEPHS, .... .... lfiO XII.

Chapter I. Missing

" How much is wasted, wrecked, forgot On this side heaven ! " — Jean Ingelow. " T T E must have taken it, he must have taken it!" A 1 repeated Ambrose Linwood to himself, in despairing accents ; " there's no other way out of it." The old man sank back in an arm-chair and wiped away the beads of perspiration which had gathered upon his forehead, partly from anxiety, and partly from the effort of the search that he had been going through on a hot summer day. It appeared to have been a thorough one, as his desk was standing open, and all the drawers in the old-fashioned bureau were pulled out. Yet again he started up to explore a corner that he might have overlooked, and once more papers were tossed about until they seemed in inextri cable confusion. MISSING. 10 " It is not as if it were a little thing," murmured the seeker.

" I must see it, or feel the weight of it, or hear the jingling of the money when I pushed it about. Besides, I am only confusing myself with looking. I was sure at first that I had put the bag in my desk. And it's not there — it's not there." Once more he turned to the desk, took out the papers, which were for the most part neatly tied in bundles, and laid them on the table. A bit of sealing wax which had rolled into a corner, and two or three broken india-rubber rings, were all he found. There was no sign of a bag of any sort or description. He went back to his chair again, and putting his elbows on the table, hid his face in his hands. His heart was sore within him, and what was next to come he could not see. He was not so rich a man that the loss of fifty pounds was of no moment to him ; yet he would have given it all, and as much more, to have lost it in any other way.

He would have gone back to work with his hands, as in his early days, and have relinquished all the ease and comfort that were now his, if he could have been spared the conviction that was forced upon him — that his nephew, the one of his kindred who alone re mained to him, was a thief. Nor was it only the feeling of pride in his honest name that was wounded ; the hurt went deeper than that, for he had loved the boy. He had trusted him, and all would have been his one day ; but now — MISSING. 1 1 Now, what was he to do ? He did not know, he could not think; he must wait, and be guided by what Christopher said. Perhaps, after all, it was only a trick : he had taken the money to show how easily it could be done ; he would never dream of keeping it, not even to carry out his absurd fancy. With this thought new life seemed to come into Mr. Linwood's drooping frame.

He put down his hands and smiled. To any one who might have seen him before and after he would have seemed ten years younger now. " Yes, that's it," he said to himself ; " it's a trick. But he shouldn't play such tricks — no, no. I must give him a good talking to about it. I'd better pre tend I take it for earnest." He put on a severe look, but it was very different from the look of pain and sorrow which had been on his face before. " He shouldn't have done it," he repeated — " not after last night especially. But there, I daresay Poppy and he have made it up again, and he thought he'd have a bit of a joke." On the evening before, Christopher Linwood had gone to see his sweetheart, and had come home in anything but a happy frame of mind. Poppy loved to tease, and found Chris an excellent subject.

It gave her a delightful sense of power to torment him and send him away angry, knowing all the while how easily she could bring him back again ; and not only MISSING. 12 that, but make him ask her forgiveness for having behaved so badly. It was rare fun, she thought ; and so thinks the child that plays with fire, until some day it burns its fingers. A worm will turn, we know, and Chris Linwood was anything but a worm. He had endured long enough, he decided ; he was not going to stand Poppy's ways any more, and give in the moment she pleased to beckon him. And yet the difficulty was that he loved her. He knew down in the bottom of his heart that, angry as he was now, the same thing would happen over again. He would not only say, but believe, that he had been in the wrong, whenever she chose to look at him once more.

He despised himself for the conviction, perhaps more than he had any reason for doing, as their quarrel had not been a very serious one, but all the same he knew it was a fact. There was only one way of getting out of this state of subjection, it suddenly flashed upon him, and that was to get out of the range of Poppy's influence. He would go away, away altogether, and see what she would do then ! In the triumphant feeling which came over Chris as he thought thus, it did not strike him that if he went away he would not see the effect upon Poppy. Perhaps even while he determined that he would go for good and all, it occurred to him that from the farthest countries there was a possibility of coming home again. MISSING. 13 And so it was that he burst in on his uncle with the announcement that he had made up his mind to leave England.

He gave a great many reasons during the half-hour that they talked together, and though none was the true one, Mr. Linwood had not the slightest doubt as to what was. He also named a great many places where he believed there would be good openings for him, far better than in this sleepy old country — Australia, Canada, the Cape. He might as well have said the moon when he was about it, for all the consideration that he had given to the subject. His uncle listened to him calmly enough, not at all disturbed by the proposal, which would have troubled him greatly had he thought there was any reality in it. He looked upon it as only the boy's way of working off his wrath against Poppy — " the little gipsy," as he called her to himself. She was a great pet of his; her kittenish ways amused him, and he had no doubt that she would sober down in time.

At last Christopher stopped, and looked at his uncle, as if expecting an answer to what he had been saying. Mr. Linwood was ready with a rejoinder which seemed to him the most apposite that could be made. " It's all very well, Chris," he said, " to say you'll go here and go there — go everywhere, it seems to me. But where are you to get the money ? " He chuckled as he spoke, for the objection appeared to him quite unanswerable, and he was amused at the blank expression which spread over his nephew's face. MISSING. 14 Christopher's plans had been so entirely in cloud land that he had not for a moment thought of how they were to be carried out. But when he did think, the reply came at once. "You'll give it to me, uncle," he said boldly. " You've often told me that I'm to have all that's yours some day.

I'm sure you'll not grudge me enough to start with." " You're out there, my lad," replied Mr. Linwood : " I'm not one to throw away money like that, and for a thing that's o*ot no sense in it." " Well, you'll lend it to me then," interrupted Chris topher. " I'll pay you interest, and give it back as soon as I can." He spoke rather contemptuously. He was excited ; he knew that his uncle could spare the money, and he could not understand its being grudged when it was absolutely necessary for his own peace of mind. That was how he looked at it, and he was not soothed by Mr. Linwood's saying, though he said it with a smile, — " When two Sundays come together ! " It would have been well if the discussion had ended even there. But the two men went on talking — the younger maintaining his own view as if it were a question of life and death ; the elder treating it as a joke, and not a very good one — until at last both got angry.

They spoke to each other as they had never done before, and when they parted, Christopher's MISSING. 15 thought of his uncle was that he was a miserly old curmudgeon, while Mr. Linwood considered his nephew an ungrateful young cub. These were only surface thoughts, however ; the real regard that they had for each other remained. Mr. Linwood was the ffr.st to shake off his anger, and to wonder that it had been roused. He smiled to himself as he said, — " It's all Poppy's fault. I hope she'll soon make it up again. Then we'll hear no more of emigrating, and my boy will be himself once more, God bless him." And so he slept peacefully ; but there was very little sleep for Christopher that night. His brain seemed all in a whirl, but the determination to go away was, he told himself, not a momentary one.

He would go ; and as he got a little calmer, he felt sure that when his uncle really understood, he would no longer stand in his way, for he had always been kind to him. Softer thoughts came : he was sorry that he had spoken as he did, and made up his mind that during the short time that remained he would do everything that was possible to please the old man. Then he suddenly remembered that Mr. Linwood had asked him to write a letter, for which he had made some rough notes, and post it that evening, so that it might reach a neighbouring farmer before he star-ted for market by train the next morning. Chris had been on the point of going to see Poppy when his uncle spoke to him, and had meant to clo it on his MISSING. return ; but, not unnaturally, what had happened had put the whole thing out of his head.

It was too late now for the post, and he felt more annoyed at his forgetfulness than .vould have usually been the case. It was not irremediable, he found after a few minutes' consideration. He would write the letter at once, and by setting out early in the morning he could get to the station in time to give it to the person for whom it was meant before the train left. He sprang out of bed, lighted his candle, and went at once in search of the notes. What was his annoyance at finding that the door of the little room, in which his uncle kept his papers, was locked. The circumstance was by no means unusual, though it had never seemed to him so troublesome before. Old Hannah, who looked after their domestic affairs, had a perfect mania for tidiness. The value of clean paper she could understand, but she could never be made to see that what was written on was good for any thing but lighting the fire.

Therefore, unless Mr. Linwood had put all his papers away, he was in the habit of locking the door when he left the room, so that Hannah could do nothing but groan outside over the accumulation of dust. Christopher shook the door once or twice, in the vain hope that the lock might give way. He did not like to run the risk of awaking his uncle by going into his room to look for the key, so there was nothin" for it but to wait until the morning. MISSING. 17 He was up and dressed long before he heard his uncle stirring, but then he went to him at once. Mr. Linwood felt inclined to ask if he had come to say good-bye, but thought it was scarcely time to turn last night's proposal into a joke. They spoke to each other as if no difference had arisen between them. " What's up, Chris ? " asked Mr. Linwood.

" I forgot that letter you wanted written to old Brown, uncle," was the reply, " and I thought if I wrote it at once I could take it to the station for him ; he'll only be there in time to catch the train." " That's a good lad," returned his uncle, quite for getting the omission in the desire to remedy it. " I do want him to have it." " I thought I'd write it last night," said Chris, smiling ; " but you had locked the door for fear of Hannah, so I couldn't get in." " So I had," said Mr. Linwood, producing lhe key. " I brought back fifty pounds in gold from the bank, too, so I thought it best to be on the safe side. Not that I've any fear of Hannah's touching the money." Chris left the room while his uncle was still speaking, as he knew he had no time to lose. Hannah was rather surprised at his asking for some breakfast at once, but she did not stint him, though she grumbled to herself while she got it ready.

He ate as he wrote, and, the letter finished, ran in search of his uncle to get it signed. "You need not have been so particular, Chris," he (933) MISSING. said, as he wrote his name ; " you might have done it yourself." " And been had up for forgery ! " returned Chris, laughing ; and so he was off into the beautiful summer morning. The rose tree over the porch was covered with flowers ; he remembered, as he passed them by, that he had taken a bunch to Poppy the day before. She had pulled one to pieces as she stood talking to him. He hardened his heart, and thought of her as she had looked then, not as at many another time. He would not think of his love for her, but of his anger — his righteous anger, he told himself. And he gazed upon the country around him, the country in which his whole life had been spent, with a fresh fondness, be cause he felt that he was so soon to leave it, it might be for ever.

Amb.ose Linwood, the while, was goingabout his usual morning duties ; and when these were over, he went to his business-room, in order to get some money to take to pay a bill. Christopher had given him back his keys, and he thought that, as soon as he had put away the papers left lying about, he would let Hannah have her will about the dusting. It was better not to let her see him take the money, however; for although he in no way distrusted her, he considered it wrong to put temptation in anybody's way. The idea had not occurred to him with regard to Christopher, for he would have thought it just as MISSING. 19 likely that he himself should go into his nephew's room and steal his watch, as that Chris would take anything that did not belong to him. So he had unlocked the door of the room, and un locked his desk, and put his hand into the corner where he expected to find the bag of money — and it was not there.

He was startled. He stopped suddenly and felt in all his pockets, though the weight of the gold must at once have betrayed its presence. He realized that in a moment, and throwing back the lid of the desk, he looked over its contents hur riedly, but with no such result as he hoped for. After that he locked the door, and proceeded to make a careful and minute search. He turned out not only everything that was in his desk, but also all that was in the bureau. It was just possible, he felt, that the bag might be in it. But nowhere could it be found. At first he was only puzzled and confused. He had put the money there, and so it must be there. But when he had turned everything over, not once or twice only, it became too evident that there it was not. What could have become of it, then ? Given a bag of money put into a desk in a room to which but one other person has access besides him who has left it.

The bag has been taken away ; who has taken it ? There seems to be only one possible answer, and MISSING. 20 yet it was some time before that occurred to Mr. Lin wood. He merely felt bewildered, as if there could be no reply to the question, which yet was calling out for one. And when the answer at last suggested itself, he would not hear it — he thrust it away with both hands, as it were ; it was horrible, impossible. Christopher could not have done this thing. There was no reason in it, he told himself, and then, with horrible insistence, the reasons kept crowding upon him. Christopher wanted the money, and he had refused it. Perhaps even his proposal to write the letter at that early hour was a plan for getting at it unseen. But no, that he could not believe. He was not even sure that his nephew knew that it was there, until he mentioned the fact in the morning.

The temptation had proved too strong for him, ancl he had taken it. This conviction, against which he struggled with all his might, but struggled in vain, was crushing for Mr. Linwood. It seemed one of those things that could not be borne. It was like a ray of light in the midst of his misery when the idea struck him that the bag might have been taken as a joke. He even supposed that Christopher had had a reconciliation with Poppy, to account for his being in sufficiently good spirits to think of such a thing. He did not stop to consider that there had been no possible oppor tunity for that ; he was too glad to see any wav out of his difficulties. MISSING. 21 He had forgotten all about Hannah and her dusting; but he leaned out of the window, watching the road by which Christopher should come back, longing for his appearance, and wondering at his delay.

The lad had no business to play such a trick, he told himself; he should give him a good scolding for it. But still what a comfort it was that he could feel certain that it was a trick, instead of what at first had overpowered him with horror * He shuddered at the very idea. Was he really so certain after all, poor old man ? or was he struggling to shut out fear from his heart, and catching frantic ally at the wings of hope ? In the meantime Christopher had done his errand, and was returning in more leisurely fashion. He had determined to approach his uncle again on the subject of his going away, and determined also that he would do so soon. He must go directly, and not give Poppy any chance of getting the better of him once more. A vision of Poppy as she generally looked when engaged in getting the better of him, with the expression of injured innocence or offended dignity which sat so comically upon her piquant face, floated before him.

But he put it resolutely away, for he knew that danger lay in that direction. He would tell his uncle the real facts of the case, quietly and dispassionately, he determined ; and then he was sure not to refuse his help. " It will only be for a time, maybe," he allowed to himself now, for- MISSING. 22 getting the " for ever " of the night before, " and he will see that it's for my good. I will tell him that I'm foolish ; " and here Chris smiled in spite of the heavy burden of his woes that he was repeating to himself, for he could easily imagine his uncle's retort that there was no news in that. " Any way," he concluded, " I'll make him see that it's for the best, and then he'll help me — I'm convinced of that. And if he won't," for the conviction wavered apparently, " why, then, I must manage some other way.

There are plenty of ways." Not one of the plenty occurred to Chris at the moment, apparently, and he went back to his conviction, which after all was certainly not unjustifiable. His uncle had always been most kind and indulgent to him. He had the means to help, and if he could but be brought to see the need, he would surely not refuse. That need was so very clear to Christopher himself that he did not acknowledge the possibility of any sane person's denying it. He only wanted the oppor tunity of a quiet conversation with his uncle to con vince him of it. Last night he had been too much agitated to be calmly reasonable. The opportunity was to come soon, it appeared ; sol as he walked up to the house, he heard his uncle's voice from the window above the doorway. " Christopher," it said, " come up here. I want to speak to you."

Chapter II. The Parting

" To be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain. " S. T. Coleridge. MR. BROWN was only just in time to catch the train, uncle," remarked Christopher. " So it was a good thing I hadn't trusted to telling him what you wanted ; and as he has it written, he can't forget." " Yes, yes," returned Mr. Linwood hurriedly : he had forgotten all about Mr. Brown and his business, and scarcely understood what Christopher meant. He paused for a moment, and then began again. " A joke is a joke, my boy, but you shouldn't play tricks like that. You gave me a bad fright and a lot of trouble. I really can't have such doings, Chris topher." He hardened his voice, and spoke more decidedly at the end, just because, with his nephew standing there, the thing that had caused his fright seemed so utterly impossible.

Christopher's face bore a puzzled expression, none other. He had played many more or less successful tricks upon his uncle, in his boyish days and even lately, though they had been generally of a very harm less kind ; but he had no remembrance of any that could only now have been discovered. " What is it, uncle ? " he asked ; " I don't recollect." " Don't recollect ! " said Mr. Linwood. " Stuff and nonsense ! you can't have forgotten. Where have you put it ? " " Put what ? " inquired Christopher, now thoroughly perplexed ; " your hat — your stick ? " He looked round the room for some suggestion, oo and then noticed the open drawers and the disordered state of their contents. " You have had a fine hunt for whatever it is," he said, with a laugh. " Tell me, and I'll help you ; but I haven't touched anything that I can think of."

" It's no laughing matter," returned his uncle, seriously, " and you had no business to play a trick of that kind. Where's my bag of money ? " " What bag of money ? " repeated Chris, looking more amazed than ever. " Come, come," said Mr. Linwood, " I can't have any more of this foolery. I want the money ; give it back to me at once." " But I tell you, uncle, that I haven't touched any bag of money of yours, and this is the first I've heard of your having one about." Mr. Linwood was annoyed. " Really, Christopher," he said, " I did not think you were so childish." He seated himself in his chair, and Chris went and sat down beside him. " Uncle," he said, " honour bright, I don't know what you are talking about. Tell me exactly, and I'll help you to find what you've lost." Now Mr. Linwood did not care to be told that he had " lost " that which he was sure he had put away so carefully.

Why did Chris deny having played a trick upon him ? Was it possible that, after all, it was not a trick, but done in sober earnest? " Christopher," he said, very gravely, " I drew fifty pounds out of the bank yesterday. I put the bag in the corner of my desk and locked the desk. I locked the room door too, you know, ancl no one has been in it since or hacl the keys but you and myself." " I know that, uncle," returned Chris, " but this is the first Tve heard of your money and — " " The first you've heard of it ! " exclaimed Mr. Linwood, interrupting him ; " why, I told you myself this morning when I gave you the key." " Well, I never heard a word of it," said Chris topher, decidedly. " It lies between you and me," returned his uncle, in a hesitating manner ; "ancl you asked me for money last night, to go away with."

Chris coloured scarlet all over his fair young face and up into the roots of his hair. " Do you mean to say I have stolen your money ? " he shouted. " You've put it somewhere else and for gotten where, that's the English of it all." Mr. Linwood had prided himself upon his good memory all his life, ancl to hint even that it was no longer what it had been was the very way to offend him. " I will keep my temper," he said to himself, and instead of flaring up he spoke hardly and coldly. " Being rude does not alter the state of the case, and no wonder you colour when you have done such a thing." Chris had started to his feet, and stood with his hand pressed on the table. " You believe that I am a thief, uncle ? " he asked ; " it is not possible ! " Just because it hacl seemed to himself so impossible Mr. Linwood was the more angry.

He could not see any other way out of it. Why would not the boy confess that he had taken the bag, if not for a joke, yet in a moment of madness? " Look here, Christopher," he said. " I put the money here yesterday ; I locked the desk ancl door, and kept the keys. No one knew that it was there but you ancl I. You asked me for money last night, and I refused you. This morning you come with an excuse, and get the keys from me ; and when I come to look for it, the money is gone. What would a magistrate or a jury make out of that ? You had much better confess it, and I won't be hard upon you." Christopher had more than once been on the point of interrupting his uncle, but had restrained himself with difficulty. Now he spoke, and still with an accent of incredulity. " You think that I am a thief !

Then you had better give me up, and see what your magistrate and jury say to me. Wouldn't you like to have me searched ? " He began turning out his pockets in his wrath and scorn ; but his uncle said, — "You had plenty of time to hide it this morning. You've forgotten things often before, but I never knew you in such a hurry to mend them." The poor old man was trying to convince himself that the thing he most dreaded was true, because it seemed so impossible that he should bring such an accusation falsely against the child of his love. Ancl suddenly there came upon Christopher the horrible conviction that his uncle believed it — believed it of him. It was not merely a suspicion thrown out in a moment of annoyance. And then he, too, ran over the facts, and saw how clearly they pointed to himself.