Chapter VIII: Part 8

The breathing came very regularly, and at last, after hesitating a great deal on the selection of a cigar, he said aloud--

"Where do you get your cigars, Mr Gartram?"

No reply; only the heavy breathing.

"I said where did you get your cigars?" said Glyddyr, still more loudly.

"He must be safe," he thought to himself; and to make sure he walked carelessly to the side of the chair, and gazed full in Gartram's face.

"He would have winced if there had been any pretence," he thought. And then, "Pooh! what a fool I am."

He glanced at the table in whose drawer the keys reposed, looked at the great section of the bookcase which swung round as upon a pivot, and then he walked quickly to the window and looked out right and left, listening the while to the beating of the waves upon the rocky coast far below.

"While I am hesitating," he thought, "I might do it. The doctor can't be back yet, and no one is likely to come."

There was a step outside.

He took a couple of strides, and then sharply threw himself into an easy-chair near the bookcase, and lay back in almost profound darkness, for the rays of the moon cut right across from the window, bathing the carpet with a soft light, but leaving beyond the well-defined line a deep shadow.

He had hardly taken his place when there was a faint tap at the panel of the door, the handle turned, and, silent and ghastly-looking in the gloom, Sarah Woodham came into the room, closed the door behind her, and walked across to Gartram's chair.

Volume Two, Chapter IX.

AN UNPLEASANT POSITION.

"It's enough to drive a man mad," said Chris Lisle, as he sat in his room with a book in his hand, one which he had been vainly trying to read. "To think of him having the run of the Fort, and constant opportunities of being at her side. But I will not think about it."

He settled himself back in his chair, raised the open book once more to his eyes, uttered a mocking laugh at his own expense, and threw the volume passionately across the room, for he had realised that he had been sitting there for a full hour making pretence of reading with the book upside down.

"I could not have believed that I was such a fool," he growled fiercely; "but always with her!" he added softly, as the wearing, tormenting thought uppermost in his brain asserted itself.

"Women are naturally weak, and it is Gartram's wish. How could I be surprised if she yielded? No, she would not; she is too firm, and I am a contemptible brute to want faith in her."

He felt a little better after that, roundly taking himself to task; and it was like a mental stimulus; but, like the action of most stimulants, the effect was not lasting.

"It is not as if she had confessed her love for me, and promised to be my wife some day. If she had pledged herself to me, I would not have cared, but I have nothing to hold on by; and if she obeyed her father's wishes, what right have I to complain? Oh, it will drive me mad!" he muttered, as he leaped up and paced the room.

At that moment there was a tap at the door.

"Come in!" roared Chris, as impatiently as if he had answered half-a-dozen times.

"It's only me, Mr Lisle," said his landlady, "and I'm sure I beg your pardon for coming in; but it does worry me so to hear you walking up and down so in such agony. Now do be advised by me, sir; I'm getting on in years, and I've had some experience of such things."

"Oh, yes, yes, Mrs Sarson; but, pray, don't bother me now."

"Indeed, no, sir, I won't; but though I can't help admiring the fortitude you show, it is more than I can bear to sit in my little room and hear you walking up and down in such pain. Now mark my word, Mr Lisle, sir, it's _not_ toothache."

"No, no," he said impatiently; "it is not toothache."

"No, sir. Which well I know. It's what the doctors call newrallergeer."

"My dear Mrs Sarson--"

"No, no, my dear, don't be cross with a poor woman whose only idea is to try and do you good. No one knows what it is better than I do. I've had your gnawing toothache, which is bad enough for anything; but your jig, jigging newrallergeer is ten times worse, and it makes me pity you, Mr Lisle."

"Yes, thank you, Mrs Sarson, I am greatly obliged to you, but--"

"Take my word for it, sir, 'tis your stomach, and you won't be no better till you've had a tonic."

"Nonsense, nonsense, Mrs Sarson," cried Chris impatiently.

"No, sir, it is not nonsense, and I don't a bit mind you being impatient with me, for it's quite natural; but do let me ask Doctor Asher to call in."

"No, no, no," cried Chris, with increasing loudness and emphasis. "And now, pray, go and leave me to myself."

The landlady sighed, and slowly left the room.

"This woman will send me crazy," muttered Chris. "What shall I do? Go right away for a long trip, and try and forget it all." And he went and leaned against the side of the window and looked out over the sea, thinking only of Claude seated alone with Glyddyr, listening to his words, and that, as the stone yields before the constant dropping, so would she at last.

"I must see, and will see her, and get her promise," he said at last excitedly; and, taking his hat, he strode out of the cottage and went right out up the east glen with the intention of getting away round over the high ground by the cliffs, and continuing under the shelter of the night to go up to the Fort by the back, so as to get within the garden, and perhaps manage to call either Claude's or Mary's attention by creeping round to the drawing-room window.

It was a miserable, clandestine proceeding, and he felt all the nervous trepidation of a boy on his way to rob an orchard. Two or three times over he hesitated and turned to go back; but the next moment the sweet, pleading face of Claude seemed to appear before him, and that of Glyddyr mocking and triumphant.

"I can't help it," he cried. "I must, I will see her to-night, if it's only for a minute."

It was not so easy a task as he had told himself; and, as he descended the cliff towards where, on a separate little eminence cut off from the main cliff by a deep rift, the Fort stood, he noted for the first time that it was bathed in the soft yellow moonlight which rose above the sea.

This checked him for the moment, till it occurred to him that though the moon shone brightly in parts, there were plenty of spots where he could approach the place in the deep shadows; and taking advantage of the clumps of furze, and the ragged, stunted pines, which had obtained a foothold for their precarious existence here and there, he crept on and on, selecting the narrow little gully for his course, down which gurgled the tiny spring which supplied the moat with water.

"It's easy enough," muttered Chris, as he lowered himself down here, clung to a rock there, and managed all the time to keep in the shadow till he was at the end of the gully, where it opened on the moat, beyond which, and about fifty yards away, rose the fantastic, granite-built home of the woman he loved.

There was the moat to cross, and, beyond, the massive wall, beyond which again was the well-planted garden, with its southern wall covered with well-trained fruit trees.

It was for this part of the garden that Chris Lisle aimed, with every step of the way bringing up old remembrances of boy and girl life, and the hours he had spent in the grounds with Claude.

"And will again," he muttered. "I am not a beggar now."

After a glance or two at the back of the house, which he was facing, he took hold of one of the pendant boughs overhanging the moat, stepped to the very edge, and then lowered himself into the water.

It was deeper than he had anticipated, rising at once to his middle, and he paused for a moment, wondering whether he should have to swim; but fortunately, as he advanced, the depth was only increased by a few inches, and in a few seconds he had waded across, and was half dragging himself up by the ivy, half climbing to the foot of the wall, where, without thinking of what he was doing, he stood for a time to drain, the clear stream water trickling down, and forming a pool beneath the ivy at his feet.

All seemed still, and he crept through the abundant ivy to where a huge, massive buttress sloped down from the top of the wall to the rock, where the architect had studied the strength of his work as regarded the attacks of time, and not those of men who had designs upon the wealth Gartram would not trust in the banks. This buttress, when first built, might have been climbed by an active boy, while now, it was so densely coated with the ivy of many years' growth that Chris had no difficulty in making his way to the top of the wall, where he lay down for a few moments to reconnoitre, and, finding all still, he had only to make use of the trunk of a pear-tree, whose horizontally trained bows were as easy to descend as a ladder.

He felt perfectly determined, but, all the same, a sensation of shame, mingled with dread, assailed him as he thought of how contemptible a figure he would cut if he were discovered.

That was but a momentary thought, chased away by the recollection that he was once more within the walls which held the woman he loved; and, perfectly familiar with every foot of the ground, he soon crossed the rather open part devoted to fruit-growing, and made his way to the shrubs surrounding the upper and lower lawns.

Here there were plenty of shadowy spots, among which he crept till he was brought to a standstill by the sound of steps coming along the terrace walk, and he recognised the voices at once as those of Gartram and Doctor Asher.

The hot blood flushed the young man's face for two reasons.

If he stayed there, he would be forced to play the eavesdropper; and for the second reason, Gartram and the doctor being together, it, in all probability, meant that Glyddyr had been left alone with Claude.

At the risk of being heard, he drew back among the bushes, and crept slowly away, the voices seeming to follow him as he made from the side to the back of the house, and then in and out among the trees till he was right on the other side, where a light shone out from the drawing-room windows, and where, by a little manoeuvring, he was able to look in.

His heart beat faster as he caught sight of a black coat and the bright dress of Claude. It was just as he thought; and, unable to contain himself, he was about to cross the narrow patch of lawn, and make straight for the room, when a female figure passed the window, and he recognised Mary Dillon.

He drew a catching breath, full of relief, and remained in the shade.

Thank heaven! they were not alone.

Still, there seemed to be no opportunity for a word with Claude, and to have done what he felt he would like to do--go boldly in and speak to her--would only mean a scene with her father, and pain to her. There was nothing for it but to wait, and he remained there hidden, with his eyes fixed upon the window, and seeing, if he could not hear, much that was going on.

He heard, though, the doctor's step, and knew when he left, his heart beating fast as he saw Glyddyr leave the room.

This was his opportunity, and he cautiously approached the window, meaning to risk all, and tap upon the pane, but before he put his plan into effect the door re-opened, and Glyddyr returned, sending Chris back among the bushes, where, unable to bear the sight of his rival in Claude's presence, playing the part of the accepted lover, he stole off, intending to make his way round to the other side of the house, hoping that Gartram might be by this time following out a custom perfectly familiar to Chris, and having his after-dinner nap.

By means of a little scheming he contrived to get down among the bushes below the terrace in front of the study, but it was no easy task, for the cliff, in whose interstices the bushes were placed, sloped rapidly down here, and a false step or slip would have meant a fall of fifty or sixty feet.

Accustomed to rough climbing, though, as he was, he did not hesitate, and raising himself up till he could look over the edge, he was in time to see the study door open, and Sarah Woodham enter the room.

It was a little disappointing, for at the first glimpse of the woman's dress he thought it was Claude; and, in utter ignorance of the fact that his opportunity had come, and that the ladies were now alone in the drawing-room, he remained watching for a time, and then crept slowly back, wishing that he had had the foresight to bring a note, for, had he borne one, he could easily have contrived to send it, with a pebble inside, through Claude's open window.

Low-spirited and despondent, ready to take himself to task for coming upon so mad an expedition, he made his way cautiously back towards the garden, hesitating still as to whether he should go away, or wait about on the chance of getting a word with Claude. Common sense and manly pride advocated the return, but there was the natural desire to see the woman he loved, even if he were playing the part of a spy; and with a sigh he crept from bush to bush, keeping well in the shadowy till once more he was within range of the drawing-room window, and in the act of parting two boughs to gaze between, when there was a rustling sound, a strong hand held him by the collar, another grasped his wrist, and a deep voice said--

"I've got you, have I? What are you doing here?"

Stung to the quick by shame and annoyance, Chris swung himself back to make a desperate leap and escape--feeling that he had been discovered by Gartram, and like a flash the degradation and bitterness of what was to come seemed to blaze through his brain.

But there is a good old saying: Look before you leap.

Chris Lisle did not look before he leapt, and the consequence was that he went with a crash in among the elastic boughs of a short sturdy Weymouth pine, and was thrown back into his captor's arms.

"Oh, no; you don't," rang in his ears, as he was borne to the ground, falling back on the grass with his face right out in the moonlight.

"Mr Lisle!"

"You, Brime!" whispered Chris huskily, as the hands were taken from his collar, and he struggled up, to stand facing the gardener.

"Why, sir, if I didn't think it was one of them young dogs from down the harbour after the fruit. They've got a dinner party on, and I come out of the house and ketched sight of you. I beg your pardon, sir, I didn't know you were asked."

"Hush! Don't talk so loud. No, I was not asked, Brime, but--that is--I thought I'd--I was looking at the drawing-room window."

"I understand, sir. I see, sir; but how did you manage to get in?"

"Don't--don't ask me questions, man. I--there, for heaven's sake, hold your tongue. Take this. Get yourself a glass."

"Thankye, sir."

"And don't say you saw me here."

"Oh, dear, no, sir; certainly not."

"It was a bit of a freak, Brime," continued Chris, feeling his cheeks burn, as he faltered and stumbled in his words, ready to bite out his own tongue at being compelled to lower himself like this to the man, as he was sure to go and chatter to the maids about how he had caught Mr Chris; and perhaps give Claude the credit of a clandestine meeting.

"Yes, sir; young gents will have their larks sometimes," said the gardener drily, and mentally adding to himself, "Shabby beggar! Sixpence! Bound to say if it had been Mr Glider he'd ha' made it half-a-crown."

"I trust to your discretion, Brime. Can you let me out through the side gate?"

"Oh, yes, sir: of course. I've got the key in my pocket. But don't let me interrupt you, sir, till you've quite done."

"Done! What do you mean?" cried Chris in an angry whisper, as he fancied he detected a sarcastic ring in the man's voice.

"Oh, nothing, sir. I thought perhaps you might be going to see somebody, and I'm in no hurry to go back home."

"No, no; nonsense. I am not going to see anybody," said Chris hurriedly. "Go on first; and look here, Brime, once more I must beg of you not to speak to any one of this meeting. It might cause trouble."

"You may trust me, sir," said the man sturdily.

"Thank you. Of course," said Chris hastily, as the man led the way to a door in the thick wall of the garden, which door he opened, and Chris passed out.

"Who'd ever think as such games as that was being carried on?" muttered the gardener; "and Miss Claude all the while so prim, and looking as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. If it had been Miss Mary I shouldn't have wondered, for she can be a bit larky. But he wouldn't come to see her, poor little crooked wench. Now, I wonder what Mr Glider would say if he knowed," continued the gardener, as he thoughtfully turned the key, and went slowly back towards the house. "There'd be a row, and I'll bet a tanner that he'd come down handsome if I told him; and it would serve t'other right--a mean snob. Sixpence! Yah!"

He turned the coin over in his hand, and looked at it in the bright moonlight before putting it in his pocket.

"Sixpence!" he said, half aloud. "Why, I'd have given a bob myself if it had been me, and--well! That it is! Half-a-suffrin! He's a trump, and I wouldn't let out about it for any money.

"Why, of course!" he continued, "I might have known. So he came to see Miss Claude on the sly when the governor was asleep, and couldn't see her because there's company. Well, why not? He's a good sort, that's what he is, and if I can help him without getting into trouble with the gaffer, I will, and no mistake. Half-a-suffrin! why, that may be just like a bean as I sticks in the ground. It may come up and have lots more half-suffrins. I'm glad I come up to-night. Better than gardening ever so much, that it is. Now, if I knowed exactly when he was coming next, I might happen to be here again--by accident, of course."

He stopped for a few minutes, thinking, and then walked slowly up towards the back entrance, musing slowly and deeply, as gardeners will muse.

"I don't seem to move her yet much, but I'm not going to give up. Hang me if I didn't for a moment think he might have been after her. But no; he couldn't be. Poor lass! so quiet and serious, and full o' trouble, just the sort o' woman a man could trust to bring all his savings to. Now, I wonder what it is in a widow as leads a chap on so. I don't know, but she's leading me on, and the day as she's been a widow twelve month, sir, I'll speak to her like a man."

Reuben Brime, the biggest fool in Danmouth, according to his mother, opened the back door, and went into the house just at the same moment that Doctor Asher entered up the front.

Meanwhile, Chris Lisle had walked quickly down the narrow paved stone alley leading to the main path, crossed the lower drawbridge, and, with his teeth set, felt ready to curse himself for his folly.

"The contemptible, degrading position," he muttered. "To be under the thumb of a servant who will look at me furtively, and whom I shall have to bribe into silence for fear of his confounded tongue. Oh, my darling, forgive me. It was for your sake I came, but I must have been half-mad."

He was walking quickly down the roadway leading to the public cliff path, so intent upon the events of the night that he was right upon some one coming in the other direction before he realised the fact, and they met just in a part where the moon shone clearly.

"Ah, Mr Lisle," said the doctor's cheery voice, "nice evening, isn't it?"

He passed on, and Chris almost staggered and reeled.

"Good heaven!" he groaned to himself. "I can't ask him, and now he will go and tell them all that he met me coming from the house. What will Claude think. What will Gartram say?"

He went on, trying to find some excuse for his presence in that private roadway, but there was none. Any one coming along there must have been up to the Fort, and he had done a bad night's work in yielding to his passionate desire to see Claude, and hear from her lips words of encouragement such as would make the situation more bearable--a worse night's work than he realised for some time to come.

Chris Lisle went straight back to his lodgings, for the glorious night and the glittering sea had no attraction for him now. His landlady looked at him pityingly, and longed to ask him whether he was better, but did not dare.

"Poor young man," she said to herself, as she heard him go up to bed early; "a good night's rest is better than balm."

She was quite right; but Chris Lisle had neither rest nor balm, but lay in his bed all night wakeful, seeing a pale, despicable looking man discovered like a thief in the Fort garden after he had waded the moat and climbed the wall.

"I shall have to meet Gartram and face him, and listen to his sneers and insolent bullying reproaches. Oh, how could I be such a fool?"

Chris Lisle lay awake all night working up his defence, the more strongly that he felt that he now stood more upon an equality with Claude's father; but the slip he had made troubled him sorely.

"There's only one way out of the difficulty," he said at last, as the sun shone brightly in through his window. "Go up to him, confess what one has done, and boldly and frankly ask him once more to give me a chance."

There was something so refreshing in that thought, backed as it was by forty thousand pounds, that Chris Lisle turned over and went to sleep.

But it might have been because he was utterly tired out.

Volume Two, Chapter X.

PARRY GLYDDYR IS UNWELL.

Doctor Asher did not go straight up to the Fort and tell every one that he had seen Chris Lisle coming down from the house. In fact, he hardly gave the meeting a second thought, for his mind was full of other matters.

"Well, young ladies," he said cheerily, "all alone? I hope I am not too late for a cup of the boon. No? That's right. Bless the man who first brought tea from China--the deliciously refreshing beverage we drink out of china, eh, Miss Dillon?"

"But you always have it in china, Doctor Asher," said Mary quaintly.

"No, no, no, no, no," said the doctor, smiling, as he tapped his cup with his spoon. "I am not going to be inveigled into a chop-logic or punning encounter with you, my dear, because I should be beaten. Come, now, if you want an argument, step on to my ground and give a poor man a chance. Now, what is your opinion of the effect of a vegetable alkaloid on the digestive function?"

"A very poor one," said Mary quietly. "Can't argue."

"Ah, well, but you can sing. Will you?"

"If you wish me to."

"If I wish you, eh," said the doctor. "You know I do. But where is Mr Glyddyr? Gone."

"He went to smoke in the study," said Claude quietly.

The doctor turned round sharply.

"To burn vegetable alkaloid for his digestive function," said Mary.

At that moment there was a step in the hall, and Glyddyr came in, looking rather sallow.

"Just in time, Mr Glyddyr," said the doctor; "we are going to have a song."

"Indeed?" said Glyddyr. "I am very glad."

"When I marry--that is, if I marry," said the doctor--"What delicious tea. A little too strong. Miss Gartram, would you kindly--a drop of milk--I mean cream. Thanks. What was I saying? Oh! I remember. When I marry--if I marry--I shall ask a lady who is a clever musician to share my lot. By the way, is Mr Gartram coming?"

"Sound asleep still," said Glyddyr quickly. "I spoke to him when I finished my cigar, but he didn't reply."

"Not well, Mr Glyddyr?" said the doctor, between two sips of his tea.

"Well, really, to be frank," said Glyddyr hastily, "I don't think I am quite the thing. That last cigar was of a peculiar brand, I suppose, one I was not accustomed to; and if you will excuse me, Miss Gartram, I will say good-night."

"Let me prescribe. A cup of strong coffee, or a liqueur of brandy. Miss Gartram, may I ring?"

"I will go and see that they are brought in," said Mary, leaving the piano, where she was arranging a piece of music.

"No, no; I beg you will not," said Glyddyr. "I'll walk down to the harbour in the fresh night air. My men will be waiting. I said ten-- they must be there now. Better soon."

"Mr Gartram does have some strong cigars," said the doctor quietly. "Singular that nicotine from one leaf affects you more than another."

"I am sorry you feel unwell, Mr Glyddyr," said Claude, in the most matter-of-fact tone.

"Mere trifle--nothing. Most absurd in me."

"Pray let me ring for the spirit stand."

"Indeed, no. Good-night--good-night, Miss Dillon. I'm going to be independent of you, Doctor Asher. Good-night."

"Smokes too much, I'm afraid," said the doctor, as the door was closed on Glyddyr's retreating figure. "Seems unnerved. I shall be called upon to prescribe for him, only I'm afraid that you would quarrel with my medicine, Miss Gartram."

"I?" said Claude quickly.

"I am afraid I have been indiscreet. Elderly men will presume upon their years, my dear Miss Gartram, and think that they have a right to banter young ladies. I was only going to say that my prescription would be, go away for a good long sea trip."

"Is not papa sleeping an unusually long time, Mary?" said Claude, ignoring the doctor's remark, as she proceeded to refill his cup.

"Oh, I don't know," replied Mary; "I'll go and see."

She left the room, and Claude at once turned to the doctor.

"Do you think papa is acting rightly about the medicine he takes?"

Asher raised his eyebrows, and gave his shoulders a slight shrug.

"It makes me terribly uneasy," said Claude. "Of course, I know very little about these matters, but I have naturally learned how the use of narcotics grows upon those who indulge in them; and papa seems to fly more and more to that chloral."

The doctor pursed up his lips in the most professional way.

"Really, my dear young lady," he said, "you are, to speak vulgarly, putting me in a corner."

"Pray do not trifle with me, doctor. You cannot think how I suffer."

"I will be perfectly frank with you, my child. No he is not acting rightly, and the use of this drug is doing him harm."

"Ah!" ejaculated Claude; and then, with eyes flashing and an indignant look, "How can you let him go on taking it, then?"

"Because I cannot help myself, my dear madam; and as I have before observed, it is better that he should take it under my supervision than left to himself, though even now I am helpless. I prescribe certain quantities, but I cannot prevent his taking more."

"But why don't you tell him that it is bad for him?"

"I have done so a score of times."

"And what does he say?"

"That I am a fool, and am to mind my own business."

"Oh!" ejaculated Claude, with the troubled look in her face increasing.

"He tells me plainly that if I do not choose to go on attending him as he wishes, he will call in some one else. My dear Miss Gartram, your father is not a man to drive; he always insists on holding the reins himself."

"But, Doctor Asher, cannot anything be done?"

"I am doing all that is possible, my dear. I am giving him tonic medicine with the idea of counteracting any evil produced by the sedative dose he takes. If you can suggest a better line to pursue, pray let me hear it."

"No, no," said Claude sadly; "I am very ignorant and helpless. Does he really require this medicine?"

"Yes, and no, my child. He suffers terribly from insomnia, and nothing can be worse for a weary man than to be lying sleepless, night after night. It is a serious complaint."

"Yes," sighed Claude.

"He must have sleep, and to my mind the chloral seems the best thing to get it."

"But you said _yes_ and _no_, doctor?"

"I did. Well, then, no. Your father does not require this medicine if he will only change his course of life."

Claude sighed.

"Do you wish me to speak plainly as your friend?"

"Yes; of course."

"Then here is the case. All this insomnia is the consequence of an over-excited brain. Your father has certain ideas, and unfortunately they grow upon him. He has struggled hard to be rich. Now, of course, I know very little about his affairs, but everything points to the fact that he is a very rich man."

"Yes," sighed Claude; "he is, I think, very rich."

"We will take it to be so. Well, then, why cannot he be content, and not be constantly striving for more?" Claude sighed again.

"I like money, wealth, power, and the rest of it; and I could go into London, say, and work up a prosperous practice; but I am happy here, with just enough for my needs; so I say to myself, `why should I stir?'"

"You are right, doctor. But my father's case--what can we do?"

"I'll tell you. Let me have your co-operation more. I want him weaned from this hunt for wealth; and the only way to achieve this is for you and your cousin to give way to him in everything. Never thwart him, for fear of bringing on one of those terrible fits."

"I will try in every way," replied Claude.

"Any opposition to his will would be seriously hurtful. Then, as to his life, it really rests with you to wean him in every way from his present pursuits. Company, visits, travel, anything to diver his attention from the constant struggle for more of the sordid dross."

"But if you told him all this, doctor? I feel so helpless."

"I have told him again and again, without success, but if we all combine more and more to keep up the pressure, we may win at last."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime we can quiet our consciences with the knowledge that we are doing what is right."

"Fast asleep, dear," said Mary, entering the room just then; and Claude directed an uneasy look at the doctor.

"Papa does not often sleep so long as this," said Claude, after an uneasy interval.

"But it seemed a pity to disturb him," replied Mary, and the doctor bent his head gravely. "He seemed to be so comfortable. Woodham was there when I went in. She had been shutting the window, as it was growing chilly."

"Quite right," said the doctor.

"She said she had been in before to remove the coffee cups; and I waited some time to see if he would wake, but, as he did not, I came away. That's what is the matter with uncle."

The doctor looked round sharply.

"Sleeping in the day time, and in the evenings. Why doesn't he save it all up till night?"

They sat a few minutes longer, and then, unable to keep back the feeling of uneasiness which troubled her, Claude rose, excused herself, and left the drawing-room to see if her father was awake.

"Still asleep?" said Mary, as she returned.

"Yes," said Claude, looking in a troubled way from one to the other; but the doctor seemed to be so very calm that she felt ashamed of the uneasy sensation which was troubling her, and, telling herself that she was foolishly nervous, she joined in the conversation. Then Mary sang a song, which the doctor insisted upon being repeated.

"I always felt and said that if ever I married it would be a lady with a charming voice."

"Well," said Mary sharply, "every one says I have a charming voice."

"You have indeed," said the doctor enthusiastically.

"I need have something charming about me by way of compensation," cried Mary, as she made a grimace. "Perhaps, Doctor Asher, you had better propose for me."

"Mary!" exclaimed Claude, flushing up to the roots of her hair.

"I don't mean it, dear," said Mary demurely. "The tongue is an unruly member, you know."

"Well," said the doctor, as he leaned back in his chair, with his eyes half closed, "some young ladies do not object to marrying a man thirty years their senior. Why not?"

"Shall I stand up and walk round, so that you may see all my graces and action?" said Mary banteringly.

"A young man looks at the outward graces of form and complexion," said the doctor gravely; "a man of my age looks for those of the mind. He wants a companion who can talk."

"Oh, I can talk," said Mary merrily; "can't I, Claude?"

"Mary, dear, I must request that you will not speak like this," said Claude, very gravely. "You hurt me; and would you mind going in again and seeing if papa is awake."

"Are you going to send me to bed, too, for being a naughty girl?" said Mary, rising.

Claude made no reply, but there was a good deal conveyed in her intent gaze, which for that moment Mary seemed to resent; but directly after her bright eyes beamed upon her cousin, and she passed close behind her chair, giving her an affectionate tap on the shoulder as she passed.

As she reached the door she turned, and there was a merry, yet half-pathetic look in her eyes as she said quickly--

"No, thank you, Doctor Asher, I am a kind of lay nun."

"Mary says a great deal sometimes that she does not mean," said Claude quickly. "But as papa does not seem to come, you would like a little seltzer water and the spirits, would you not?"

"I? No, no, my dear child, no," said the doctor, taking out his watch. "I do take these things sometimes for sociability's sake, but I always avoid them if I can, and I have a good opportunity here. Eleven o'clock. How the time flies. I must be off."

"Pray don't say no because the spirits are not in the room."

"Believe me, I am so old a friend now, that I should not scruple to ask for them if I was so disposed.--Hah! Yes, that is one of the things which teach us that we are growing old."

"I do not understand you."

"I meant your cousin's acuteness; when a man is about fifty, young ladies consider him a safe mark for their shafts."

"Don't think that, Doctor Asher. There is no malice in my dear cousin, but her deformity has caused her to be petted and indulged. She has not had a mother's constant care."

"Neither have you, my child."

"No," said Claude quietly; "but believe me, my cousin would be deeply grieved if she knew that she had said--Yes. What's the matter? Papa?"

Claude had started from her chair, for, after giving a sharp tap at the door, Sarah Woodham had entered, looking ghastly, her dark eyes so widely open that they showed a white ring about the iris, her lips apart, and her hands convulsively twisting and tearing the apron she held out before her.

"Master, my dear. He frightens me."

"Don't be alarmed," said the doctor quickly, as he rose perfectly cool and collected, and followed Claude out of the room, while, as the door swung to, the woman uttered a hoarse, panting sound, threw herself upon her knees, and clasping her hands together, she rocked herself to and fro.

"Oh, Isaac! husband!" she moaned, "it is too terrible. Heaven help me! Why did I come here?"

"Mary! Papa!" cried Claude, as she ran into the study, followed by the doctor.

"Hush! Don't be alarmed," said Mary. "I only thought that he was not breathing quite so naturally as he should, and I sent Woodham to fetch you."

Claude flew to her father's side, and caught his hand, looking intently in his face and then inquiringly at the doctor, who advanced in a calm, professional way, removed the lamp shade, drew the light so that it would fall upon the patient's face, proceeded to feel his pulse, and then opened his eyelid to gaze attentively in the pupil.

"Quick, tell me!" cried Claude, in an excited whisper; "is it another fit?"

"No," said the doctor gravely. "Be calm and quiet. I should like him to wake up naturally. There is nothing to mind."

Claude uttered a sigh of relief, and closed her eyes for a few moments.

"What is the matter?" she said then.

"I am not sure yet, but I fear that it is what we said--an overdose."

"Oh, Doctor Asher!"

"Hush, my child; don't be agitated. There, he will sleep more easily now," he continued, as he unfastened the insensible man's collar and drew off his tie.

"You are not deceiving me?"

"Deceiving you?" said the doctor reproachfully.

"Can I do anything, ma'am?" said Woodham, softly entering the room.

"No, I think; nothing," said the doctor thoughtfully. "I am very glad I had not gone."

"Then you think--there is danger?"

"Danger? No, no, my dear child. There, let him rest. Miss Dillon, will you draw back that lamp and replace the shade? That's it. Better let him sleep it off quietly."

Woodham quickly raised the lamp and set it down in its old place, while Mary carefully put on the shade, with the effect that the room was once more gloomy of aspect, save where the bright light was condensed upon the table.

As soon as this was done, Claude looked appealingly in the doctor's face, her eyes seeming to ask--What next?

The question was so plainly expressed that Asher said, with a smile--

"What next? Oh, we must let him sleep it off. I don't suppose that he will be very long before he wakes."

Claude's hands seemed to go naturally together, and she passed one over the other, while Sarah Woodham stood gazing intently at Gartram, and a curious shudder ran through her from time to time.

"But, Doctor Asher," said Claude at last, "I do feel so helpless--so lonely. I--"

"Oh, come, come," cried the doctor encouragingly; "don't look at it so seriously. It is a heavy sleep, and may last for hours. I'll stop for a bit, and then come in quite early in the morning. Perhaps it would be as well for somebody to sit up."

Claude tried to speak, but she could not. She laid her hand upon the doctor's arm, and stood, with her lip quivering, gazing down at her father till she could command her voice, and then she whispered huskily,--

"Don't go."

She could say no more, but stood looking appealingly in his eyes.

"You mean stay till he wakes?"

She nodded quickly.

"Oh, certainly, if you wish it; but I ought to tell you that I hardly think it necessary."

"I do wish it," said Claude. "Do not you. Mary?"

"Yes."

"By all means."

"I will sit with you. Mary, too, will keep us company."

"No, no," said the doctor in a whisper, "there is no need for that. If I stay, it is with the understanding that you both go to bed."

Sarah Woodham was standing back in the shadow, but she appeared to be listening eagerly to every word.

"But we should make it less dull for you," pleaded Claude.

"I am never dull when I sit up with a sick person," said the doctor didactically. "These are my hours for study of my patient. No, no; if I am to stay it is as the doctor--the master of the situation. You will go to bed."

"But you will want refreshments--somebody within call."

"To be sure, and there will be our old friend Mrs Woodham. You will sit up?"

"Yes, sir, of course," said the woman eagerly.

"That's right. Now, then, ladies, if you please, we must have utter silence till Mr Gartram wakes."

Claude sighed, but she bowed her head, and turned to leave the room with Mary; but as she reached the door, she hurried back to where her father was seated, and bent over him to kiss his forehead.

"Must I go, doctor?" she whispered.

"Certainly," he said quietly.

"But if he seems worse, you would have me called?"

"Directly."

The two girls left the room, Claude beckoning to Sarah Woodham, who followed them out.

"You will make coffee for Doctor Asher."

"Yes, ma'am, of course."

"Go back and ask him when he would like it brought to him; and, Sarah, you will come and tell me how papa is. I shall not undress--only lie down."

"You may depend on me, Miss Claude."

"But you--is anything the matter? You look so ill."

"I was a bit startled at master's way of breathing, my dear. I thought he was going to be much worse."

Claude went back into the drawing-room with Mary Dillon, neither of them noticing how wild and excited the servant grew, and a few minutes after they went slowly upstairs to Claude's room.

Sarah Woodham softly retraced her steps to the study, tapped gently, and the door was opened by the doctor, who stood in the opening, book in hand.

"When will I have coffee? Oh, about four o'clock. I have only just had tea. Go and lie down somewhere within call--where I can find you."

"I am not sleepy, sir."

"No; but you may be by-and-by. Go and lie down on the sofa in the dining-room, I can easily find you there. Why, my good woman, you look ghastly."

Sarah Woodham shrank away.

"Don't disturb me till I ring. No: I'll come for you. Sleep is the best thing for him."

"Sleep is the best thing for him," said Sarah Woodham in a hoarse whisper, as she went slowly back into the hall, and then into the servants' quarters, from whence, after a few minutes, she returned to go about in a silent way like a dark shadow, closing and fastening doors, before listening for awhile on the study mat, and then going into the dining-room, where she seated herself on one of the chairs, resting her chin upon her hands, and gazing straight before her in the darkness. Then for a time all was still, save a low sigh, almost like a moan, which came from the suffering woman's breast, followed by a shiver and a start, for it was as if the hand of the dead had just been laid upon her shoulder.

Volume Two, Chapter XI.

THE NIGHT ALARM.

"Asleep!"

"You, sir? I--I suppose I must have been," faltered Sarah.

"Well, why not? I just came to see if you were within reach, in case I wanted you."

"Master, sir?"

"Just the same."

The doctor went out just as silently as he had entered, and Sarah heard the study door softly close, when once more she uttered the same low, moaning sigh, and rocked herself to and fro in her chair as she seemed to see the hard, thin face of her husband gazing straight at her, as she had seen it when he was dying in their cottage, and laying upon her the terrible duty she was to fulfil.

How long she sat like that she could not tell, but hours must have passed unnoted--hours during which, with eyes unvisited by sleep, she had gone on and on through her old life, and the scenes, when her husband had returned from his work, bitterly reviling Gartram for some real or fancied wrong, and then a light seemed to flash into the room like the light she had been expecting, and the doctor stood before her with a curious, intense look in his countenance, one she recalled vividly as having been there on the day her husband died.

Meanwhile Claude and Mary had sat talking for some time about the strange ending of the evening. Claude, in spite of her anxiety on her father's behalf, feeling half pleased, half frightened by Glyddyr's acts.

He appeared so strange, she thought, so shrinking in her presence, and so fearful of intruding upon her, even to be ready to go away.

Was this the man's real love for her? Did he really care for her? and was she misjudging him in thinking that his desire was for her future prospects alone--her money?

She shuddered with dread lest he really should love her, and then her heart sank lower and lower, for the stern, upbraiding look of Chris Lisle was before her. The face of the boy companion, for whom she had always felt a warm affection, one which she knew in her heart, though she had not confessed it, had ripened into woman's love for man.

"Are we going to sit up, or try to sleep, Claude?" said Mary at last.

"I am going to sit up, Mary. You are going to lie down and sleep."

"Doctor Asher said that we were both to lie down and rest."

"Yes; and you will do so. I could not sleep if I did. It is impossible."

"But uncle is not seriously ill now, dear."

"How do we know, Mary? He is not as he should be. I know--I feel that he is in an unnatural state."

Mary slowly rose, walked across the room to the washstand, and stood there for some minutes before turning to her cousin.

"There," she said; "now I feel as you do--that it would be impossible to sleep. Let's have a quiet talk about uncle, and see if we cannot devise some means for making him think less about the quarry and money. Oh, Claudie, what a happy world this would be if there were no money and no love."

Claude made no reply but sat gazing out through the window at the sea, where the moon, now high in the heavens, sent a path of silvery light along the dark waters, while, from far below, the waves washed and whispered among the rocks with a musical, plashing sound that rose in a drowsy murmur to the window against which she sat.

"Claude, dear, shall I shut the window now? Isn't it too cool on a night like this?"

Claude turned to her, and looked rather vacantly in her face.

"The tide is going out fast, Mary," she said, in a low, dreamy whisper. "Don't you ever feel that there may be some truth in what they say, that people who are near the end pass away from us with the falling tide?"

"Claudie, dear, are you going to be ill?"

"I hope not."

"And so do I; but do you know you are talking a lot of dreamy nonsense, such as is most distressing at a time like this. We haven't got anybody near the end. Oh, what nonsense! It's all old-fashioned silliness."

Claude shook her head.

"No," she said, "there is something in it all, Mary, and to-night it is as if some great trouble were coming upon us."

"Are you going to set up for a prophetess, dear?"

"Shall we go down and see how my father is, Mary?"

"And insult Dr Asher by setting his commands at defiance. No; I am going to sit here patiently till morning, unless he sends word to us that uncle has woke up, and that he has gone to bed like a Christian. Claude, dear, your father must be a very unhappy man."

"Then it is our duty to try and make him happy."

"By doing everything he wishes us to do?"

Claude felt the hot blood flush into her cheeks again and she made no reply. She only turned to look out at the broad path of light stretching far away over the sea, and, as the water murmured about the rocks, it was as if some solemn spell of silence had fallen upon them, influencing Mary so that she ceased speaking, leaving the bantering remarks ready, unsaid. Claude put her arm around her cousin, and laid her head upon her shoulder, thinking of the words that had been spoken, and of why they were sitting up, till her heart almost sank, and the sea began to be to her full of strange whisperings and portents of some trouble to come.

And so hour after hour glided by, till they were chilled by the cold night air, but neither moved till they were electrified by a quick, light tapping on the door, which was opened before they could reach it, and from out of the darkness came a husky voice which sounded familiar.

"Come down, Miss Claude, at once."

"Ah! Woodham? How is he?"

"Don't ask me, my dear, but make haste down. You may be wanted. Doctor Asher wishes me to go and fetch Doctor Rixton."

"But why? What for?"

"Miss Claude, dear, don't ask me," said the woman, in suffocating tones, as she turned slowly away.

Claude hurriedly followed her down toward the study door, where she stood trembling for a few moments, feeling that there had then been a meaning in the portent which had troubled her that night. Then, turning the handle, she went into the room.

"Well, back so soon?" said the doctor, whose face was from her. "Is he coming?"

"Doctor Asher."

"You, Miss Gartram!" he said, in a hoarse whisper, as he turned sharply round. "What is it? Why have you come?"

"Woodham called me. What is the matter? Is he worse?"

"Hush!" said the doctor, in a hurried way, as he took her hand. "Don't be agitated. We must hope for the best, and--"

"Then he is worse," cried Claude, breaking from him and running to her father's side, but only to shrink back.

For the light had been shifted so that it should fall upon Gartram's fixed, stern face, in which she read so terrible a reality that it was as if a hand of ice had clutched her heart, paralysing thought and action, so that she stood there with staring eyes and parted lips, feeling that she was in the presence of death.

Then the reaction came, and, uttering a gasp, her womanly, helpful nature came to the front.

"I am not a child," she said in a quick, passionate voice. "Tell me; how is this? When was he taken worse? Doctor Asher, why don't you speak to me? Tell me what I can do to help."

He shook his head.

"I am doing everything possible, and have sent Mrs Woodham for Doctor Rixton to share the responsibility."

Claude caught him in turn by the wrist, drew him right to the far side of the room, by the panel of the bookshelves which formed the masked door, and in a whisper, as if she were afraid that her father should hear, she said--

"Is he dead?"

"No, no--no, no, my dear Miss Gartram. It is only what I have always feared, but he would not be advised. Look, my child, look!"

He went quickly to Gartram's side, and drew something from his breast-pocket and held it before Claude in the light.

"Yes, I know," she said, "the medicine bottle--the sedative draught."

"Yes," said Asher, quietly. "You saw that he had it in his breast."

"It is generally in that cabinet. He keeps it there."