"What a roundabout way of letting you know things. Can"t Lucy write?"
Gore shook his head again. "No. You see, she is engaged to Julius, who hates me."
"Oh, that Beryl man. He comes in for the money?"
"Now that I"m chucked I suppose he will," said Bernard, gloomily; "and I don"t want to get poor Lucy into his black books, as he isn"t a nice sort of chap. He won"t thank her if she tries to bias the old man in my favor. And then there"s the housekeeper who doesn"t like me--Mrs. Gilroy her name is. She and Julius will both keep Sir Simon"s temper alive. I can"t write to him, or my letter would be intercepted and destroyed by Mrs. Gilroy. Lucy can"t write me because of Julius, so my only chance of knowing if the old man is thinking better of his determination is by watching for the red light. I shall go down again twice before I leave for Africa."
"And if you see the red light you won"t stick to soldiering?"
"Yes, I will. But I"ll then walk boldly up to the Hall and tell Sir Simon how sorry I am. But in any case I intend to fight for my country.
Alice herself wouldn"t ask me to be a coward and leave. I go to the Cape with you, Conniston," said Bernard, rising.
"Good old chap," said Conniston, delighted, "you"re the only fellow I"d care to chum up with. I have often thought of you since we parted. But you rarely wrote to me."
"You were the better correspondent, I admit," said Gore, as they walked across the bridge. "I am ashamed I did not continue our school friendship, as we always were such chums, but--"
"The inevitable woman. Ah, Delilah always comes between David and Jonathan."
"Don"t call Alice by that name!" fired up Gore.
"Well, then, I won"t. But don"t get in a wax. What a fire-brand you are, Gore! Just as fierce as you were at school."
"Yes," said Bernard, quieting down. "I only hope my bad temper will not ruin me some day. I tell you, Conniston, when Sir Simon pitched into me I felt inclined to throw something at his head. He was most insulting. I didn"t mind what he said about me, but when he began to slang Alice I told him I"d pitch him out of the window if he didn"t stop. And I said many other foolish things."
"Shouldn"t do that. He"s an old man."
"I know--I know. I was a fool. But you have no idea how readily my temper gets the better of me. I could strangle anyone who said a word against my Alice."
"Well, don"t strangle me," said Conniston, laughing. "I won"t call her Delilah again, I promise you. But about your Red Window business--you needn"t go down to the Hall for a week or so."
"Why not?"
"Because Sir Simon is in town."
"Nonsense. He never comes to town."
"He has this time. Queerly enough, his lawyers are mine. I saw him at the office and asked who he was. Durham, my lawyer friend, told me."
"How long ago was that?"
"Three days. I came up on business, and was in plains!"
"Plains?"
"What! you a soldier and don"t know plain clothes are called so. You are an old a.s.s, Bernard. But, I say, I"ve got digs of a sort hereabouts.
Come and dine with me to-night."
"But I haven"t any dress clothes. I got rid of them, thinking I was going to the Cape sooner."
"Then come in khaki. You look A 1 in it. Here"s the address," and Conniston hastily scribbled something on his card. "I shall expect you at seven."
The two friends parted with a hearty handshake, and Gore walked away feeling happier than he had been. Conniston, gazing after him, felt a tug at his coat. He looked down, and saw a small boy. "Judas," said Conniston, "you young brute! How did you know me?"
CHAPTER II
SIR SIMON GORE
Avarice, according to Byron, is a gentlemanly vice appertaining to old age. It certainly acted like Aaron"s rod with Sir Simon, as it swallowed up all his more youthful sins. During the early part of the Victorian epoch, the old man had been a spendthrift and a rake. Now, he never looked agreeably upon a woman, and the prettier they were the more he frowned upon them. As he was close upon eighty, it was not to be wondered at that his blood ran thin and cold; still, he might have retained the courtesy for which he was famous in his hot youth. But he eschewed female society in the main, and was barely civil to his pretty, fascinating niece, who attended to him and bore with his ill-humors.
Only Mrs. Gilroy succeeded in extorting civil words from him, but then Mrs. Gilroy was necessary to his comfort, being a capital nurse and as quiet as a cat about the house. Where his own pleasure was concerned Sir Simon could be artful.
Long ago he had given up luxury. He never put liquor to his withered lips, he ate only the plainest food, and surrounded himself with merely the bare necessities of life. All his aims were to gather money, to see it increase, to buy land, to screw the last penny out of unwilling tenants, and to pick up a farthing, in whatever mud it might be lying.
He never helped the poor, he grudged repairs to the property, he kept Lucy on short commons, and expressed such violent opinions concerning the rector"s t.i.thes that the poor man was afraid to come near him. As Sir Simon, like a G.o.dless old pagan, never went to church, the absence of the clerical element at the Hall troubled him little. He was a typical miser in looks, being bent, withered and dry. As a young man he had bought, in his spendthrift days, a great number of suits, and these he was wearing out in his old age. The garments, once fashionable, looked queer in the eyes of a younger generation; but Sir Simon minded no one. He was always scrupulously dressed in his antique garb, and looked, as the saying goes, as neat as a new pin. His health was tolerable, although he suffered from rheumatism and a constant cough.
Owing to his total abstinence, he was free from gout, but could not have been worse tempered had he indeed suffered, as he a.s.suredly deserved to.
With his withered skin, his thin, high nose, his pinched features and his bent form he looked anything but agreeable. When walking he supported himself with an ebony cane, and had been known on occasions to use it on the backs of underlings. From this practice, however, he had desisted, since the underlings, forgetful of the feudal system, brought actions for a.s.sault, which resulted in Sir Simon losing money. As the old Baronet said, radical opinions were ruining the country; for why should the lower orders not submit to the stick?
It was rarely that this agreeable old gentleman came to town. He lived at the Hall in Ess.e.x in savage seclusion, and there ruled over a diminished household with a rod of iron. Mrs. Gilroy, who had been with him for many years, was--outwardly--as penurious as her master, so he trusted her as much as he trusted anyone. What between the grim old man and the silent housekeeper, poor Lucy Randolph, who was only a connection, had a dreary time. But then, as the daughter of Sir Simon"s niece, she was regarded as an interloper, and the old man grumbled at having to support poor relations. Bernard he had tolerated as his heir, Lucy he frankly disliked as a caterpillar. Often would he call her this name.
As usual, Sir Simon came to town with the least expense to himself, since it agonized him to spend a penny. But an old friend of his, more open-handed than the baronet, had lent him his town house. This was a small residence in a quiet Kensington square, by no means fashionable.
The central gardens, surrounded by rusty iron railings, were devoid of flowers and filled with ragged elms and sycamores, suffered to grow amidst rank gra.s.s untrimmed and unattended. The roads around were green with weeds, and the houses appeared to be deserted. Indeed, many of them were, as few people cared to live in so dull a neighborhood; but others were occupied by elderly folk, who loved the quietness and retirement.
Crimea square--its name hinted at its age--was a kind of backwater into which drifted human derelicts. A few yards away the main thoroughfare roared with life and pulsed with vitality, but the dwellers in the square lived as in the enchanted wood of the sleeping beauty.
No. 32 was the house occupied by Sir Simon, and it was distinguished from its neighbors by a coat of white paint. Its spurious, smart air was quite out of keeping with the neighborhood, and Sir Simon made ironical remarks when he saw its attempt at being up-to-date. But the house was small, and, although furnished in a gimcrack way, was good enough for a month"s residence. Moreover, since he paid no rent, this enhanced its value in his avaricious eyes. It may be mentioned that the servants of the owner--a cook, a housemaid and a pageboy--had stopped on to oblige Sir Simon, and were ruled over by Mrs. Gilroy, much to their disgust.
The housekeeper was by no means a pleasant mistress, and turned their intended holiday into a time of particularly hard work.
It was about the servants that Mrs. Gilroy spoke to her master one morning shortly after the occupation of the house. Sir Simon, accurately dressed as usual, and looking like a character out of d.i.c.kens as delineated by Phiz, was seated beside a comfortable fire supping a cup of plasmon cocoa, as containing the most nutriment in the least expensive form. While enjoying it, he mentally calculated various sums owing from various tenants about which he had come to see his lawyers.
The room was of no great size, on the ground floor, and had but two windows, which looked out on the dreary, untidy gardens. Like the exterior of the house, it had been newly painted and decorated, and was also furnished in a cheap way with chairs and tables, sofas and cabinets attractive to the uneducated eye, but detestable to anyone who could appreciate art. The scheme of color was garish, and, but that the blinds were pulled half-way down, so as to exclude too searching a light, would have jarred on Sir Simon"s nerves. Lucy Randolph, who sat reading near the window, shuddered at the newness and veneer of her surroundings and thought regretfully of the lovely, mellow old Hall, where everything was in keeping and hallowed by antiquity. All the same, this too brilliantly-cheap room was cosy and comfortable, bright and cheery, and a pleasing contrast to the foggy, gray, damp weather. Perhaps it was this contrast which its decorator had desired to secure.
Mrs. Gilroy, with folded hands, stood at her master"s elbow, a tall, thin, silent, demure woman with downcast eyes. Plainly dressed in black silk, somewhat worn, and with carefully-mended lace, she looked like a lady who had seen better days. Her hair, and eyes, and skin, and lips, were all of a drab color, by no means pleasing, and she moved with the stealthy step of a cat. Indeed, the servants openly expressed their opinion that she was one, and she certainly had a somewhat feline look.
But, with all her softness and nun-like meekness, an occasional glance from her light eyes showed that she could scratch when necessary. No one knew who she was or where she came from, but she looked like a woman with a history. What that was only she and Sir Simon knew, and neither was communicative. Lucy Randolph hated her, and indeed no love was lost between the two. Mrs. Gilroy looked on Lucy as a pauper living on Sir Simon"s charity, and Miss Randolph regarded the silent housekeeper as a spy. Each annoyed the other on every occasion in that skilful way known to the s.e.x. But the war was carried on out of the old man"s sight. That autocrat would speedily have put an end to it had they dared to skirmish in his presence.
"Well! well! well!" snapped Sir Simon, who talked something like George III. in reiterating his words. "What"s the matter? What?"
"I have to complain of the housemaid Jane, sir."
"Then don"t. I pay you to keep the servants quiet, not to bother me with their goings-on. Well! well! well!" somewhat inconsistently, "what"s Jane been doing?"
"Receiving a follower--a soldier--one of those new young men who are going to the war."
"An Imperial Yeoman?" put in Miss Randolph, looking up with interest.
"Yes, Miss," responded Mrs. Gilroy, not looking round. "Cook tells me the young man comes nearly every evening, and makes love to Jane!"
"What! what!" said the baronet, setting down his cup irritably. "Tell the hussy to go at once. Love?" This in a tone of scorn. "As though I"ve not had enough worry over that with Bernard. Tell her to go."