"But why?"
"Well, the boat"s painter"s got frailed, and I want a bit o" whipcord to lap it with. They have the thing at the Ferry shop, and I must get there afores they shut up."
A fib, perhaps pardonable, as the thing he designs lapping is not his boat"s painter, but the waist of Mary Morgan, and not with slender whipcord, but his own stout arms.
"Why won"t it do in the mornin"?" asks the ill-satisfied mother.
"Well, ye see, there"s no knowin" but that somebody may come after the boat. The Captain mayent but he may, changin" his mind. Anyhow, he"ll want her to go down to them grand doin"s at Llangorren Court?"
"Llangorren Court?"
"Yes; that"s where the young lady lives."
"That"s to be on Thursday, ye sayed?"
"True; but, then, there may come a fare the morrow, an" what if there do? "Tain"t the painter only as wants splicing there"s a bit o" leak sprung close to the cut.w.a.ter, and I must hae some pitch to pay it."
If Jack"s mother would only step out, and down to the ditch where the _Mary_ is moored, with a look at the boat, she would make him out a liar. Its painter is smooth and clean as a piece of gimp, not a strand unravelled--while but two or three gallons of bilge water at the boat"s bottom attest to there being little or no leakage.
But she, good dame, is not thus suspicious, instead so reliant on her son"s truthfulness, that without questioning further, she consents to his going, only with a proviso against his staying, thus appealingly put--
"Ye won"t be gone long, my son! I know ye won"t!"
"Indeed I shan"t, mother. But why be you so partic"lar about my goin"
out--this night more"n any other?"
"Because, Jack, this day, more"n most others, I"ve been feelin" bothered like, and a bit frightened."
"Frightened o" what? There han"t been n.o.body to the house--has there?"
"No; ne"er a rover since you left me in the mornin"."
"Then what"s been a scarin" ye, mother?"
""Deed, I don"t know, unless it ha" been brought on by the dream I had last night. "Twer a dreadful unpleasant one. I didn"t tell you o" it "fore ye went out, thinkin" it might worry ye."
"Tell me now, mother."
"It hadn"t nought to do wi" us ourselves, after all. Only concernin"
them as live nearest us."
"Ha! the Morgans?"
"Yes; the Morgans."
"Oh, mother, what did you dream about them?"
"That I were standin" on the big hill above their house, in the middle o" the night, wi" black darkness all round me; and there lookin" down what should I see comin" out o" their door?"
"What?"
"The canwyll corph!"
"The canwyll corph?"
"Yes, my son; I seed it--that is I dreamed I seed it--coming just out o"
the farmhouse door, then through the yard, and over the foot-plank at the bottom o" the orchard, when it went flarin" up the meadows straight towards the ferry. Though ye can"t see that from the hill, I dreamed I did; an" seed the candle go on to the chapel an" into the buryin"
ground. That woked me."
"What nonsense, mother! A ridiklous superst.i.tion! I thought you"d left all that sort o" stuff behind, in the mountains o" Montgomery, or Pembrokeshire, where the thing comes from, as I"ve heerd you say."
"No, my son; it"s not stuff, nor superst.i.tion neyther; though English people say that to put slur upon us Welsh. Your father before ye believed in the _Canwyll Corph_, and wi" more reason ought I, your mother. I never told you, Jack, but the night before your father died I seed it go past our own door, and on to the graveyard o" the church where he now lies. Sure as we stand here there be some one doomed in the house o" Evan Morgan. There be only three in the family. I do hope it an"t her as ye might some day be wantin" me to call daughter."
"Mother! You"ll drive me mad! I tell ye it"s all nonsense. Mary Morgan be at this moment healthy and strong--most as much as myself. If the dead candle ye"ve been dreamin" about were all o" it true, it couldn"t be a burnin" for her. More like for Mrs. Morgan, who"s half daft by believing in church candles and such things--enough to turn her crazy, if it doesn"t kill her outright. As for you, my dear mother, don"t let the dream bother you the least bit. An" ye mustn"t be feeling lonely, as I shan"t be long gone. I"ll be back by ten sure."
Saying which, he sets his straw hat jauntily on his thick curly hair, gives his guernsey a straightening twitch, and, with a last cheering look and encouraging word to his mother, steps out into the night.
Left alone, she feels lonely withal, and more than ever afraid. Instead of sitting down to her needle, or making to remove the tea-things, she goes to the door, and there stays, standing on its threshold and peering into the darkness--for it is a pitch dark night--she sees, or fancies, a light moving across the meadows, as if it came from Farmer Morgan"s house, and going in the direction of Rugg"s Ferry. While she continues gazing, it twice crosses the Wye, by reason of the river"s bend.
As no mortal hand could thus carry it, surely it is the _canwyll corph_!
CHAPTER XVIII.
A CAT IN THE CUPBOARD.
Evan Morgan is a tenant-farmer, holding Abergann. By Herefordshire custom, every farm or its stead, has a distinctive appellation. Like the land belonging to Glyngog, that of Abergann lies against the sides of a sloping glen--one of the hundreds or thousands of lateral ravines that run into the valley of the Wye. But, unlike the old manor-house, the domicile of the farmer is at the glen"s bottom, and near the river"s bank; nearer yet to a small influent stream, rapid and brawling, which sweeps past the lower end of the orchard in a channel worn deep into the soft sandstone.
Though with the usual imposing array of enclosure walls, the dwelling itself is not large, nor the outbuildings extensive; for the arable acreage is limited. This because the ridges around are too high pitched for ploughing, and if ploughed would be unproductive. They are not even in pasture, but overgrown with woods; less for the sake of the timber, which is only scrub, than as a covert for foxes. They are held in hand by Evan Morgan"s landlord--a noted Nimrod.
For the same reason the farmhouse stands in a solitary spot, remote from any other dwelling. The nearest is the cottage of the Wingates--distant about half a mile, but neither visible from the other. Nor is there any direct road between, only a footpath, which crosses the brook at the bottom of the orchard, thence cunning over a wooded ridge to the main highway. The last, after pa.s.sing close to the cottage, as already said, is deflected away from the river by this same ridge, so that when Evan Morgan would drive anywhere beyond the boundaries of his farm, he must pa.s.s out through a long lane, so narrow that were he to meet any one driving in, there would be a dead-lock. However, there is no danger; as the only vehicles having occasion to use this thoroughfare are his own farm waggon and a lighter "trap" in which he goes to market, and occasionally with his wife and daughter to merry-makings.
When the three are in it there is none of his family at home. For he has but one child--a daughter. Nor would he long have her were a half-score of young fellows allowed their way. At least this number would be willing to take her off his hands, and give her a home elsewhere. Remote as is the farmhouse of Abergann, and narrow the lane leading to it, there are many who would be glad to visit there, if invited.
In truth a fine girl is Mary Morgan, tall, bright-haired, and with blooming cheeks, beside which red rose leaves would seem _fade_. Living in a town she would be its talk; in a village its belle. Even from that secluded glen has the fame of her beauty gone forth and afar. Of husbands she could have her choice, and among men much richer than her father.
In her heart she has chosen one, not only much poorer, but lower in social rank--Jack Wingate. She loves the young waterman, and wants to be his wife; but knows she cannot without the consent of her parents. Not that either has signified opposition, since they have never been asked.
Her longings in that direction she has kept secret from them. Nor does she so much dread refusal by the father. Evan Morgan had been himself poor--began life as a farm labourer--and, though now an employer of such, his pride had not kept pace with his prosperity. Instead, he is, as ever, the same modest, unpresuming man, of which the lower middle cla.s.ses of the English people present many n.o.ble examples. From him Jack Wingate would have little to fear on the score of poverty. He is well acquainted with the young waterman"s character, knows it to be good, and has observed the efforts he is making to better his condition in life; it may be with suspicion of the motive, at all events, admiringly--remembering his own. And although a Roman Catholic, he is anything but bigoted. Were he the only one to be consulted, his daughter might wed with the man upon whom she has fixed her affections, at any time it pleases them--ay, at any place, too, even within the walls of a Protestant Church! By him neither would Jack Wingate be rejected on the score of religion.
Very different with his wife. Of all the worshippers who compose the congregation at the Rugg"s Ferry Chapel, none bend the knee to Baal as low as she; and over no one does Father Rogier exercise such influence.
Baneful it is like to be; since not only has he control of the mother"s conduct, but through that may also blight the happiness of the daughter.
Apart from religious fanaticism, Mrs. Morgan is not a bad woman--only a weak one. As her husband, she is of humble birth, and small beginnings; like him, too, neither has prosperity affected her in the sense of worldly ambition. Perhaps better if it had. Instead of spoiling, a little social pride might have been a bar to the dangerous aspirations of Richard Dempsey--even with the priest standing sponsor for him. But she has none, her whole soul being absorbed by blind devotion to a faith which scruples not at anything that may a.s.sist in its propagandism.