George may have been a truthful, an innocent man. You must decide for yourselves, if you can, on which side the weight of evidence seems to lie. I have told you the story as it happened, and I cannot clear up for you what has never yet been cleared for Timberdale. It remains an unsolved mystery.
SANDSTONE TORR.
I.
What I am going to tell of took place before my time. But we shall get down to that by-and-by, for I had a good deal to do with the upshot when it came.
About a mile from the Manor, on the way to the Court (which at that time belonged to my father) stood a very old house built of grey stone, and called Sandstone Torr: "Torr," as every one knew, being a corruption of Tower. It was in a rather wild and solitary spot, much shut in by trees.
A narrow lane led to it from the highway, the only road by which a carriage could get up to it: but in taking the field way between the Court and d.y.k.e Manor, over stiles and across a running rivulet or two, you had to pa.s.s it close. Sandstone Torr was a rambling, high, and ugly old building, once belonging to the Druids, or some ancient race of that kind, and said to have been mighty and important in its day. The points chiefly remarkable about it now were its age, its lonesome grey walls, covered with lichen, and an amazingly lofty tower, that rose up from the middle of the house and went tapering off at the top like an aspiring sugar loaf.
Sandstone Torr belonged to the Radcliffes. Its occupier was Paul Radcliffe, who had inherited it from his father. He was a rather unsociable man, and seemed to find his sole occupation in farming what little land lay around the Torr and belonged to it. He might have mixed with the gentry of the county, as far as descent went, for the Radcliffes could trace themselves back for ages--up to the Druids, I think, the same as the house: but he did not appear to care about it.
Who his wife had been no one knew. He brought her home one day from London, and she kept herself as close as he did, or closer. She was dead now, and old Radcliffe lived in the Torr with his only son, and a man and maid servant.
Well, in those days there came to stay at d.y.k.e Manor a clergyman, named Elliot, with his daughter Selina. Squire Todhetley was a youngish man then, and he and his mother lived at the Manor together. Mr. Elliot was out of health. He had been overworked for the past twenty years in the poor London parish of which he was curate; and old Mrs. Todhetley asked them to come down for a bit of a change. Change indeed it brought to Mr.
Elliot. He died there. His illness, whatever it was, took a sudden and rapid stride onwards, and before he had been at d.y.k.e Manor three weeks he was dead.
Selina Elliot--we have heard the Squire say it many a time--was the sweetest-looking girl that ever the sun shone on. She was homeless now.
The best prospect before her was that of going out as governess. The Elliots were of good descent, and Selina had been thoroughly well educated; but of money she had just none. Old Mrs. Todhetley bid her not be in any hurry; she was welcome to stay as long as she liked at d.y.k.e Manor. So Selina stayed. It was summer weather then, and she was out and about in the open air all day long: a slight girl, in deep mourning, with a shrinking air that was natural to her.
One afternoon she came in, her bright face all aglow, and her shy eyes eager. Soft brown eyes they were, that had always a sadness in them.
I--a little shaver--can remember that, when I knew her in later years.
As she sat down on the stool at Mrs. Todhetley"s feet, she took off her black straw hat, and began to play nervously with its c.r.a.pe ends.
"My dear, you seem to be in a heat," said Mrs. Todhetley; a stout old lady, who sat all day long in her easy-chair.
"Yes, I ran home fast," said Selina.
"Home from whence? Where have you been?"
"I was--near the Torr," replied Selina, with hesitation.
"Near the Torr, child! That"s a long way for you to go strolling alone."
"The wild roses in the hedges there are so lovely," pleaded Selina.
"That"s why I took to go there at first."
"Took to go there!" repeated the old lady, thinking it an odd phrase.
"Do you see anything of the Torr people? I hope you"ve not been making intimate with young Stephen Radcliffe," she added, a thought darting into her mind.
"Stephen? that"s the son. No, I never saw him. I think he is away from home."
"That"s well. He is by all accounts but a churlish lout of a fellow."
Selina Elliot bent her timid face over the hat, smoothing its ribbons with her restless fingers. She was evidently ill at ease. Glancing up presently, she saw the old lady was shutting her eyes for a doze: and that hastened her communication.
"I--I want to tell you something, please, ma"am. But--I don"t like to begin." And, with that, Selina burst into unexpected tears, and the alarmed old lady looked up.
"Why, what ails you, child? Are you hurt? Has a wasp been at you?"
"Oh no," said Selina, brushing the tears away with fingers that trembled all over. "I--if you please--I think I am going to live at the Torr."
The old lady wondered whether Selina was dreaming. "At the Torr!" said she. "There are no children at the Torr. They don"t want a governess at the Torr."
"I am going there to be with Mr. Radcliffe," spoke Selina, in her throat, as if she meant to choke.
"To be with old Radcliffe! Why, the child"s gone cranky! Paul Radcliffe don"t need a governess."
"He wants to marry me."
"Mercy upon us!" cried the old lady, lifting both hands in her amazement. And Selina burst into tears again.
Yes, it was true. Paul Radcliffe, who was fifty years of age, if a day, and had a son over twenty, had been proposing marriage to that bright young girl! They had met in the fields often, it turned out, and Mr.
Radcliffe had been making his hay while the sun shone. Every one went on at her.
"It would be better to go into a prison than into that gloomy Sandstone Torr--a young girl like you, Selina," said Mrs. Todhetley. "It would be sheer madness."
"Why, you"d never go and sacrifice yourself to that old man!" cried the Squire, who was just as outspoken and impulsive and good-hearted then as in these latter years. "He ought to be ashamed of himself. It would be like June and December."
But all they said was of no use in the end. It was not that Selina, poor girl, was in love with Mr. Radcliffe--one could as well have fancied her in love with the grizzly old bear, just then exhibiting himself at Church d.y.k.ely in a travelling caravan. But it was her position. Without money, without a home, without a resource of any kind for the future, save that of teaching for her bread, the prospect of becoming mistress of Sandstone Torr was something fascinating.
"I do so dislike the thought of spending my whole life in teaching!"
she pleaded in apology, the bitter tears streaming down her face. "You cannot tell what it is to feel dependent."
"I"d rather sweep chimneys than marry Paul Radcliffe if I were a pretty young girl like you," stormed the old lady.
"Since papa died you don"t know what the feeling has been," sobbed Selina. "Many a night have I lain awake with the misery of knowing that I had no claim to a place in the wide world."
"I am sure you are welcome to stay here," said the Squire.
"Yes; as long as I am here myself," added his mother. "After that--well, I suppose it wouldn"t be proper for you to stay."
"You are all kindness; I shall never meet with such friends again; and I know that I am welcome to stay as long as I like," she answered in the saddest of tones. "But the time of my departure must come sometime; and though the world lies before me, there is no refuge for me in it. It is very good of Mr. Radcliffe to offer to make me his wife and to give me a home at the Torr."
"Oh, is it, though!" retorted the Squire. "Trust him for knowing on which side his bread"s b.u.t.tered."
"He is of good descent; he has a large income----"
"Six hundred a-year," interrupted the Squire, slightingly.
"Yes, I am aware that it cannot appear much to you," she meekly said; "but to me it seems unbounded. And that is apart from the house and land."
"The house and land must both go to Stephen."
"Mr. Radcliffe told me that."