The Master-Key

Front matter

" Love is the Master Key that opens every ward of the heart of man " BY FLORENCE WARDEN AUTHOR OF " THE HOUSE ON THE MARSH HonOon C. ARTHUR PEARSON LIMITED HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. the shadow on drake's hall . . . I II. A FAITHFUL FRIEND . . . . l6 III. lady lilias plays the spy . . .28 iv. escape ...... 32 v. a coquette's kindness . . . -48 VI. A HEART OF GOLD .... 38 VII. GOOD MRS. SWEECH . . . -63 VIII. AN UGLY TRANSFORMATION ... 72 IX. THE LITTLE MESSENGER . . . -83 X. THE BABY'S FRIENDS .... 96 XI. THE BABY'S ENEMIES . . . . IIO XII. A VERY PRETTY PLOT . . . IIQ XIII. A NEW LIFE ..... 128 XIV. DANGEROUS GROUND . . . . I39 XV. FAREWELL ..... 153 XVI. COLD COMFORT .... 160 v CONTENTS VI CHAP. PAGE XVII. A PRISONER . . . . • ' 75 XVIII. A CRUEL ORDEAL ..... 185 XIX. A FRUITLESS ERRAND IQ2 XX.

THE MOTHER'S DECISION .... 207 XXI. MARY'S SACRIFICE .... 220 XXII. AFTER SEVEN YEARS . . .224 XXIII. THE GARRINGTON LOCK . . 235 XXIV. ON THE TRACK ..... 244 XXV. POPPY'S DISCRETION .... 256 XXVI. THE SOFT SIDE OK GRANNY SWEECH'S TONGUE . 266 XXVII. THE ROUGH SIDE . . . 27 1 XXVIII. THE EMPTY NEST ..... 287 XXIX. THE OLD LOVE .... 302 XXX. LORD SHELVIX PREPARES A WELCOME . 309 XXXI. LORD SHELVIX IS RASH . . . 32O XXXII. A LITTLE IMPOSTOR .... 331 XXXIII. THE OLD WELL .... 349 XXXIV. A COUNCIL ...... 352 XXXV. THE REVENGE OF DOWELLS AND SNODE . 359 XXXVI. PEACE ...... A 1 THE MASTER-KEY

Chapter I The Shadow Ox Drake's Hall Drake's Hall

was an ancient mansion of rich red brick, picturesquely placed on the slope of a low hill, overlooking the little stream of the Somersetshire Avon, and embowered in trees whose leaves were just beginning to lose their summer green and to assume the fuller, more varied tints of autumn. There was a sort of hush about the place. The gardeners, instead of busying themselves with their work, stood about in knots ancl groups ; the stables, which had been wont to be the liveliest, noisiest corner of all the stately place, were silent ancl deserted. A fortnight before, the master of Drake's Hall, Lord Shelvin, had been carried to his last resting place ; and already the horses he had loved so well had been sent away to Tattersall's to be sold ; ancl the gardens in which he had taken so great a pride were showing the absence of a sharp eye at the head of the household.

Along the low, battlemented front of the house, the Tudor windows, peeping out of the well-trimmed ivy, seemed to look out upon the scene, which had undergone so great, yet so indefinable a change, like eyes which had lost the power of sight. For the new Lord Shelvin was just three months old, and his mother, most gentle, lovely, but help less of guardians, was a girl-widow of only twenty years of age. In the Long Gallery, the stateliest apartment in all the stately mansion, Lady Shelvin, the late viscount's mother, was sitting with her favourite nephew, Captain Garrington, a handsome, well-built man of about thirty, whose bold blue eyes had a charm for most women which made them blind to the cold, callous, heartless nature which, to a more dis criminating eye, they betrayed. His aunt, like most of her sex, adored him.

No sooner was her son in his coffin than she gave permission to Captain Garrington, who had been forbidden the house in his cousin's lifetime, to come ancl stay with her in the family mansion. Hugh Garrington had not been slow to avail him self of the invitation. And now, after luncheon, on a brilliant October afternoon, he half sat, half reclined on a low settee opposite to the high-backed chair where his aunt sat, blinking lazily at the fire, and watching the struggle between the languid flames on the hearth and the piercing, slanting rays of the already declining sun. "This is a lovely room, aunt! How well I remember it when I was a little chap ! " said he, after a long silence, in the soft caressing voice which he generally used to women, a voice which usually had an irresistible fascination for them.

" Ah ! " said old Lady Shelvin, who, in her deep black, with her clear-cut face, which looked like old ivory in a frame of silver hair, had a look as of an old picture descended from its frame, "That was before you got into disgrace, Hugh ! You had no one but yourself to thank for your exile." " Oh, aunt ! is it you I hear ? Really you, who always used to take the part of your scapegrace nephew ? " And he crossed from the settee to an old-fashioned carved chair beside her, and throwing himself into it in an attitude of plaintive entreaty, looked up appealingly into her eyes. A very faint smile flitted over Lady Shelvin's face. She had not been used to these deferential tones and looks. Lord Shelvin, her son, upright and just, had been also stern and unbending, and under his sway old Lady Shelvin had had to take a place in the background, to which she had never, in all the twenty years of her widowhood, got accustomed.

It was in a very indulgent voice that slie answered her nephew, shaking her head in gentle reproach. " I have taken your part, certainly, as strongly as I could. I have spoken up for you, made excuses for you. But really your extravagance " " Extravagance ! " echoed Hugh, not angrily, but in a tone of the gentlest reproach. " Now how could I, my father's son, ancl in a crack regiment, be any thing else but what you call extravagant ? I haven't been more extravagant than I could help ! Would you have had me go about town on the top of an omnibus, get my clothes at a second-rate tailor's, or live in a back room over an oil-shop ? Now, aunt, tell me that ! " " I would have had you," answered his aunt, not at all harshly, "live within your allowance, which was a very fair one. Greville was always just."

" Just ! Do you call it just for him to marry, when he was over fifty, and I had got used to the natural expectation of being his heir ? " Under all his easy good-humour of manner the bitterness peeped out as he spoke. Lady Shelvin shrugged her shoulders. " It was foolish of him to marry, no doubt," said she, in a tone which betrayed, in its turn, how dis tasteful this step on her son's part had been to her. " At least, it was foolish to marry so late, and so well, so unexpectedly." " Lady Lilias was young enough to have been his daughter, wasn't she ? " " Yes, yes. He was thirty-five years older than she ! It was an absurd difference ! " " Did they get on well together ? " " Oh, yes, if you call it well," said Lady Shelvin, grudgingly, " for a man of Greville's age to go mad about a mere child, whose intelligence he could certainly not respect ; a girl with no force of character, no strength of mind whatever !

" It crossed Hugh's mind that perhaps his cousin had had enough of strong-willed, strong-charactered women in his domestic life, ancl that the sweet, yielding Lady Lilias might have seemed not the less admirable for the contrast she made to his lynx-eyed, masculine-voiced mother. " Where did he meet her ? " "At a hunt breakfast, at her father's place in Nor folk -Hillingham Towers. He fell in love with her on the spot, and carried her off from the man she was fond of, but whom her father did not wish her to marry. Fancy the force of character of a girl who will let herself be disposed of like that," ended Lady Shelvin, scornfully. " But she didn't pine away for the loss of her first love ! " pursued Captain Garrington, interested. " Oh, clear, no. She's one of those backboneless creatures whom any one who tries can clo what he likes with !

And she was fond of her husband in her way, I've no doubt." " He's left her well provided for, of course ? " said Captain Garrington, musingly. " Oh, clear, yes. He has considered no one else, by comparison. Her jointure will cripple the estate, positively cripple it, all through the child's minority." " Ancl will she live here ? " " She must live here," retorted Lady Shelvin sharply. "She must spend her income on the estate, and not be simply a burden upon it." " She will marry again, probably," said Captain Garrington, with a quick glance at his aunt which she did not see. He was feeling his way. " Does her allowance cease if she marries again ? " he asked, with affected carelessness. But Lady Shelvin's eyes were sharp ; and at this question she frowned. " Surely," she said, with some reserve in her tone, " it can have no particular interest for you, Hul;1i, whether your cousin's widow marries again or not ?"

" I am interested in anything that affects you, or the estate that I always thought was to have been mine, or my young cousin, aunt," answered Captain Garrington quickly. As she said nothing, he added, after a short pause, " Lady Lilias seems to resent my being here. During the three days I've been here I've scarcely got more than a side-view of her face, ancl that only for a moment at a time." " You can hardly complain of that, in the circumstances," said Lady Shelvin. " She has scarcely been a widow three weeks yet ! If it were not for your close relation to the family, your presence would seem strange to everybody so soon after Greville's death. But I own I am not equal to the task of seeing myself to all that has to be done. There is so much in the stables, for instance, to be settled, that a woman cannot undertake herself."

Captain Garrington raised his eyebrows. " I had heard," said he, " that Lady Lilias was as much interested in hunting and horses as Greville himself ? " " But she cannot attend to that sort of thing just now," retorted Lady Shelvin sharply. "There are decencies to be considered." " Oh ! Then it was you who ordered the sale of the horses ? " " Certainly. Those things cannot be brought before the notice of a young thing like Lilias at such a time ! " " I see. She is supposed, for the present, to be incapable of the slightest exertion, as well as invisible !" said Hugh, with a dry look. " She will be visible presently, when the baby makes his appearance," said Lady Shelvin. " If you will touch that bell, Hugh, the nurse will bring little Greville to see me. You haven't had a good look at him yourself yet."

" No, I haven't. I've caught fleeting glimpses of a long white fluffy parcel being hastily whisked along corridors and in and out of rooms, but that can hardly be styled a close acquaintance. What if I were to go and escort him downstairs ? I know the way to the nursery ; I've discovered the apartment by the mysterious squeaks my cousin utters over his bottle, and the singular diddle-iddle-chuck chuck-chuck language in which I hear the nurses converse with him as I pass the door. " Lady Shelvin laughed. " Very well. Go up if you like, and tell nurse to bring him down to me, whatever Lady Lilias says." " All right, aunt." Captain Garrington was at the door when his aunt called him back. " By the by, Hugh, did you take my message to the head keeper this morning ? " " Yes, aunt. I went straight to his cottage after breakfast, and gave your message to a little plump white-toothed person, whom I took for his wife, but who turned out to be his sister."

" I hope you won't take any notice of her, Hugh," said Lady Shelvin in a tone of annoyance. " She is a forward young person, with ideas above her station. The way she dresses on Sunday is simply a scandal. I've spoken to Mallory about it ; but he spoils her." " I hate that Mallory ! " said Captain Garrington. " He's such a self-assertive rascal. Now that's the member of the family whom I call presuming ! He would be out of the place in two minutes if I were master here ! " Just for one fleeting moment there passed over Captain Garrington's face a look which it was lucky for him that his aunt did not see : so full of baffled malignity, of rage, of hate, of savage disappointment, that his features, so easily good-humoured a moment before, looked like a hideous mask, distorted by evil, ugly passions.

Lady Shelvin shrugged her shoulders slightly. " Jack Mallory is a most faithful servant," she said. " Greville, your cousin, had the highest opinion of him. He treated him, indeed, as a personal friend." " Ah, and that's been the ruin of the beggar !" said Captain Garrington, lightly. " It's encouraged him to take liberties. Old servants who are old are bad enough to deal with ; but an old servant who is still a young man, why, aunt, I can't tell you what I think about that sort of animal without using language unfit for you to hear ! " And, with a laugh, to which Lady Shelvin replied by a good-humoured little shake of the head, he left the room. At the end of the long corridor into which the gallery opened, was the great hall of the house, wide and lofty, with oak-panelled walls, and a carved oak staircase which was one of the sights of the mansion.

The floor, of polished oak, was spread with oriental rugs ; while trophies of war and the chase, spears, old swords, helmets and breastplates, mounted heads of bison and of stag, hung on the dark walls among full - length portraits of dead ancl gone Shelvins, who had hunted and fought, made love, lived, married and died, from the days of the Tudors. Just as Captain Garrington emerged from the corridor, a procession reached the bottom of the staircase, ancl announced to him the fact that his errand was a useless one. The head nurse, a portly person in a state dress of black silk, came first with her precious charge, the baby Lord Shelvin. Behind her followed the under-nurse, a bright-faced, giggling girl, Emily by name. And by her side came Hannah Mallory, the gamekeeper's sister, whom Captain Garrington had met at her brother's cottage that morning.

On his first sight of the procession, Captain Garrington came quickly forward and waylaid the nurse. " Now, Nurse," cried he, in a gay and careless manner which went straight to the hearts of all three women, " I'm not going to allow you to escape this time. You've waved that fluffy white bundle persistently in my face ever since my arrival, yet I've not once been allowed to see inside. Now, on my soul, I begin to doubt whether you have got a baby there at all. I begin to think it's just clothes and nothing else ; and that you're all in a conspiracy to do me out of the property by false pretences ! " Hannah and Emily tittered with appreciation all the time he spoke ; and Hannah in particular cast at him many languishing glances. She was a pretty, dark-haired girl, frivolous and vain ; ancl she had been delighted with Captain Garrington's easy flattery that morning.

The head nurse, however, a more serious person, was at first inclined to be a little offended by the suggestion. " I'm sure, sir, there's no wish on anybody's part to do anything by false pretences," said she, earnestly. " You could have seen his lordship any time, if you had liked to come up to the nursery. But I thought you didn't care for babies, sir. Many gentlemen don't ! " The Captain drew a comically long face. " Many gentlemen," said he dolefully, " don't have so much reason for looking askance at babies as I have ! Oh, you little pink-faced, pulpy morsel of humanity," he cried in a tragic tone, as the nurse uncovered the baby's face, and exposed to view the face of the infant viscount, " what have you done, that you should be born so lucky ? Why should you be cuddled and petted, and sung to and worshipped ?

Why, above all, should you be grow ing up to twenty thousand a year and a few other delightful little things such as titles and family mansions, while your poor, deserving old cousin has to scrape along as best he can, ancl think himself lucky if he can just keep his miserable head above water ? Oh, baby, tell me, tell me why this is thus ? " Ancl as he spoke, Captain Garrington, who had been rattling on in a mock-dismal manner to an accompaniment of sympathetic giggles ancl sighing murmurs from the two girls, and deprecatory shakes of the head from the head nurse, suddenly snatched the baby out of her arms, and held him aloft, looking appealingly into his small pink face, and uttering deep groans of mock-misery. Hannah ancl Emily uttered faint little screams, half of surprise ancl half of amusement.

The nurse was almost too much astonished to do anything but stare. She recognised, however, that the Captain's hand was strong ancl his touch sure, ancl that the child would come to no harm in his keeping. She also, therefore, though rather disturbed by this piece of levity, tried to smile, and only put a proprietary hand upon the baby's long garments, as they floated in the air. The Captain, amusing himself in amusing his audience, went on in a more tragic tone than ever. " Oh, Lord Shelvin, why don't you answer me ? Why don't I spend my time in the arms of an amiable and devoted woman, as you clo ? " The head nurse lost her slight frown, and smiled instead. " Why don't I have charming young creatures waiting upon me all day long ? " Here Emily and Hannah exchanged glances, and giggled together.

" Why, in short, is life all kicks for me, and all halfpence for you ? Tell me that, oh, Lord Shelvin, I pray you tell me that ! To think that you, nothing more solid and substantial than you, stand before me and fortune ! " To the girls, even to the middle-aged woman, all this was the easiest, the most light-hearted banter, the amusing lament of a good-humoured, careless fellow, who took life easily, and was too shallow natured to think deeply about that, or about any thing else. But Captain Garrington had another listener, one he neither saw nor heard, but upon whom every word, every gesture of his produced a strong, a terrible impression. Down the wide oak staircase, with the afternoon sunlight shining through the diamond - paned window above upon her silky fair hair, Lady Lilias, the slender girl-widow, was coming, by slow steps, as he talked.

Her plain black gown, severely simple in cut, made her look slighter ancl more childish than ever ; while the tiny widow's cap looked strangely, tragically out of place on her bright, soft hair. She was very pale, with dark rings under her ■4 THE MASTER-KEY large blue eyes, rings that told of sleepless nights and heavy days. Her little red mouth, less like a woman's than a child's, was slightly open, as she drew her breath quickly, and descended slowly, watching Captain Garrington's face with a keen, frightened look as she did so. Nobody saw her. The three women had their hacks turned to the staircase ; while Captain Garrington, whose eyes were fixed upon the baby, presented his profile only to the view of Lady Lilias. When he seized the child and held it up aloft, Lady Lilias stopped ancl held her breath.

The next moment, descending upon him like a whirl wind, she snatched the infant from him, and clasped it to her own breast. She did not utter a word. But the action, the manner in which she performed it, were so eloquent of fear and horror, that all the onlookers, including Captain Garrington himself, were aghast. For a few seconds no one spoke. Then the head nurse came forward, offering to take the child ; and Captain Garrington, stammering a little and trying to laugh, addressed the angry, frightened mother — " Lady Lilias, I'm sure you don't think I was doing any harm to your child ! The baby was safe, perfectly safe ! " But Lady Lilias, pale and passionate, turned upon him sharply — "Not with you! Not while you are in the house ! " There was a moment's breathless pause. Captain Garrington stepped back with a muttered exclama tion.

The two servants and Hannah Mallory drew together, shocked and scandalised. In the hush that fell upon them all, Lady Shelvin's voice, from the entrance to the long corridor, rang out, sharp and clear, startling them all — " Lilias, don't be ridiculous ! Give the child back to its nurse. And Hugh, don't make an exhibition of yourself, pray ! "

Chapter II

A FAITHFUL FRIEND TAKE the baby into the Long Gallery, Nurse," went on Lady Shelvin, in her coldest, most cutting tones. " And who is this ?" As she spoke, she raised her gold double-eyeglass, and stared coldly at Hannah, who, though by no means so much abashed as the others, was a little put out of countenance by this very marked reception. " I — I — I came up, my lady," said she, raising her eyebrows and lowering her eyelids with as pert an air as she dared to use, " to — to tell you that I gave your message to my brother, and that he'll be up to speak to your ladyship this afternoon." "There was no need for you to come up to tell me that," said Lady Shelvin icily. She turned abruptly away, ancl with a gesture to her nephew to follow her, returned to the Long Gallery. Lady Lilias had already disappeared, flitting noiselessly upstairs while Hannah was speaking.

Hannah, as soon as the ladies had turned their ' 17 backs, made a demure grimace, looking at Captain Garrington with sly eyes. The invitation was enough for him. Disregarding his aunt's injunction, and trusting to his own powers to make it right with her afterwards, he lingered in the hall, listening with amusement to the girl's pert sallies, ancl making her, in return, the grossly flattering speeches which girls of her type are ready to absorb with avidity. " What made you come up here this afternoon ? " asked he at last, bending his head till it was very near to her bold, black eyes, ancl even daring to touch her shoulder with the tips of his fingers. " Why, I came to see the baby, of course ! " said she, gigging. "Confound the baby!" replied the Captain sharply, between his teeth. " If it were not for that little miserable brat, I should be Lord Shelvin, and able to — to " He stepped back a little, and gave her a bold stare of much meaning, " to make handsome presents, and to enjoy life !"

"Why, that's just what I've been saying, and all the girls," answered Hannah readily, " what a shame it seems that you, who would be such a splendid master for the place, as different as possible from Lord Shelvin that's gone, that you should be turned out — and just at the last, too ! " " It's just my luck ! " cried Captain Garrington, shrugging his shoulders, but with a rather wry face. " However, I shall be about the place a good deal, expect, and I hope I shall see a good deal of you, eh, Miss Mallory ? " Ancl again he came very near. She giggled once more. " I don't know about that," said she, with a dubious shake of the head, which was not meant to be too discouraging. " My brother looks after me pretty sharply, I can tell you ! If he was to catch me here this afternoon, he'd be sure to say " — and she ogled the Captain frankly — " that it wasn't the baby brought me here !

" " And who was it, eh ?" asked Captain Garrington, with his arm round her waist. Before he could take the kiss he wanted, Hannah drew herself sharply away from him, as a heavy tread sounded in the passage under the staircase which led from the servants' quarters. " It's him ! I must get away ! " cried she, in a frightened whisper. But before she could do more than retreat a few steps, the door at the back opened, and Jack Mallory came in. A handsome, stalwart young fellow, with a fresh, open face, honest grey eyes, and crisply curling brown hair, Jack Mallory, the head gamekeeper, in his corduroys and gaiters, looked as fine a specimen of English manhood as you could find in the king dom. His step was firm, his eyes were bright ; ancl his every movement, his every gesture, was full of the grace which belongs to healthy, well - trained, vigorous manhood.

Hating the man for his sturdy independence, ancl for the honesty which made Jack look askance at the visitor to whom his late master had refused admittance to his house, Captain Garrington was forced to admit, as he looked at the young gamekeeper, that he was one of the finest-looking men he had ever seen. But Jack looked stern and angry, as his eyes travelled quickly from the Captain to his own sister, who put a bold face on it, and said at once — " I've been to see the baby, Jack." " Ah ! " said Jack Mallory, shortly, in a deep, musical voice, the right voice for such a man. " And now you'd better go home ! " " All right ! You needn't speak like that. There's no harm in wanting to see the young master." But her brother made no answer to this, except by a gesture of command so imperative that Hannah, with a toss of the head, ancl a side-glance of malice at the Captain, thought it best to take the advice he offered, and to retreat by the way he had come.

When she had gone, Captain Garrington, sitting on the edge of one of the hall-tables, as he took out a pouch and made himself a cigarette, laughed disagreeably. "You're so used to living among animals, Mallory, that I suppose you get into the way of talking to human beings as if they were on the same level ! " drawled he, as Jack, on his way to the Gallery, stopped, with a sort of respectfulness which was on the surface only, to listen to him. " Some of them are ! " he answered rather sullenly. " Oh ! Your sister, for instance ? " " No. Some of her — acquaintances." There was something in his tone which jarred mightily on the sensitive nerves of the Captain. He betrayed his annoyance in his next speech — "Are you allowed to wander over the house at your own sweet will, Mallory ? Outdoor servants are not usually accorded such privileges !

" His tone was offensive in the extreme ; but the mention of the privilege in question recalled his late master to the gamekeeper's mind ; and it was in a voice full of emotion that he replied — " My master, sir, treated me better than any other master ever treated any man ! " And then, as Captain Garrington had nothing to say to this, he went on, with a cold salute, in the direction of the Long Gallery. Before he had reached the corridor, however, Lady Lilias, with light and rapid steps, flew down the staircase after him. But at the foot of the stairs she was intercepted by Captain Garrington, who placed himself in her way, and, looking up with all the tenderness he could manage to throw into his eyes, said, in his lowest, tenderest tone — " Lady Lilias, one moment, listen ! " She had become in an instant as still as a statue, ancl almost as white.

Erect, motionless, she stood on the bottom stair, and, with averted head, listened to his next words. " Lady Lilias, you have given me to-day the cruellest shock I have ever received in my life ! I have thought of nothing else ever since. Is it possible that you ever really thought — dreamt — imagined, that I could wish to harm your child, my cousin ! I cannot, I will not believe that you did !" Lady Lilias, still with averted eyes, answered in a constrained, troubled voice — " I was foolish, of course. I am sorry if — if I said anything to hurt you ! " But there was no apology in her tone, though her words were conciliatory enough. She looked towards the entrance of the corridor, and moved impatiently. Captain Garrington drew back. " You came clown to see young Mallory ? Shall I call him back ?"