Master of Men E-Book

E. Phillips Oppenheim

• Herausgeber: Jovian Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 329

Beschreibung

Upwards in long sinuous bends the road wound its way into the heart of the hills. The man, steadily climbing to the summit, changed hands upon the bicycle he was pushing and wiped the sweat from his grimy forehead. It had been a grey morning when he had left, with no promise of this burst of streaming sunshine. Yet the steep hill troubled him but little - he stepped blithely forward with little sign of fatigue...

Leseprobe

MASTER OF MEN

E. Phillips Oppenheim

JOVIAN PRESS

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review.

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

Copyright © 2016 by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Published by Jovian Press

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

ISBN: 9781537803647

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BOOK I

~

CHAPTER I

~

UPWARDS IN LONG SINUOUS BENDS the road wound its way into the heart of the hills. The man, steadily climbing to the summit, changed hands upon the bicycle he was pushing and wiped the sweat from his grimy forehead. It had been a grey morning when he had left, with no promise of this burst of streaming sunshine. Yet the steep hill troubled him but little—he stepped blithely forward with little sign of fatigue. Once he paused to gather a little clump of primroses, and once to stoop down and admire a few shoots of soft green bracken springing up by the roadside. His workman’s clothes, open at the throat, showed him the possessor of a magnificent pair of shoulders, the suggestion of great physical strength was carried out also in his hard, clean cut features and deep set piercing grey eyes. He passed a spinny where the ground was blue with budding hyacinths, and he loitered for a moment, leaning upon the saddle of his bicycle, and gazing up the sunlit grade. A line or two of Keats sprang to his lips. As he uttered them a transfiguring change swept across his face, still black in patches as though from grimy labour. His hard, straight mouth relaxed into a very pleasant curve, a softer light flashed in his steely eyes. A tiny rabbit scudded across the grass grown path and disappeared down a friendly hole. He smiled at its frantic haste, and presently resumed his climb. He reached a wooden gate at last on his right hand side, and pushing it open skirted a grey stone wall until he came to a sudden dip in the field, and with its back against a rocky eminence a tiny cottage built of the stones which lay in heaps about the turf. He leaned his bicycle against the wall, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door.

“Saturday at last,” he exclaimed aloud, in a tone which, save for a note of bitterness, would have been full and pleasant enough. “Thirty-six hours of freedom. Phew!”

He had plunged a basin into the soft water tank outside and held his head in it for a moment. Then all dripping he carried a canful to a hollow bath ingeniously fixed amongst the rocks against which the cottage was built, and throwing off his soiled clothes plunged in. Unconsciously he straightened himself at the touch of the water, stinging cold from the well, and with his head thrown back, and clean, strong limbs thrown into vivid relief against the shelving green turf, he seemed for a moment, notwithstanding a certain ferocity of bearing and demeanour, to grow into the semblance of one of those ancient and mythical gods who walked naked the dark green slopes of Olympus. Certainly there was no longer any sign of the grease-stained mechanic when he emerged, and with his towel wrapped lightly around him stepped into the cottage.

He reappeared in a few minutes clad in a grey homespun suit, which showed many signs of wear, a pipe in his mouth, a book in his hand. Leisurely he filled a kettle from the well and thrust it into the centre of the small wood fire which he had kindled. Then with a sigh of relief he threw himself upon the soft mossy turf.

The book lay unheeded by his side. From his high vantage point he looked downwards at the wide panorama which stretched to the horizon, faintly and mistily blue. The glorious spring sunshine lay like a quickening fire upon the land. The tree tops, moving lightly in the west wind, were budding into tender green, the dark pine groves were softened, the patches of rich brown soil freshly turned by the plough gleamed as though with promise of the crops to come. Below him the dusty white lane along which he had travelled stretched like a narrow white belt, vanishing here and there in the woods and disappearing at times between lichen-stained grey walls. He traced it backwards across the silvery brook back to the quaint village with its clustering grey stone houses, red-tiled roofs and strange church tower, and watched for a moment the delicate wreaths of smoke curl upwards, straight with the promise of fine weather. Further still he followed it into the flat country past the reservoirs, a brilliant streak of scintillating light, back into the heart of the town from whence he had come, and which stretched there now in the middle distance a medley of factory chimneys and miles of houses—a great foul blot upon the fair landscape. He remembered it as he had ridden out an hour or so ago, the outskirts with all their depressing ugliness, a cobbled road, a shabby tram-car with a tired horse creeping along a road where dirty children played weary games and shouted shrilly to one another. A miserable region of smoke-begrimed houses and small shops, an unattractive public-house at every corner round which loafed men with the white faces of tired animals, and women dragging babies and shouting abuse to their more venturesome offspring. With painful distinctness he saw it all—the opened factory gates, the belching out of a slatternly mob of shrieking girls and ribald youths, the streets untidy with the refuse of the greengrocers’ shops, the hot, fetid atmosphere of the low-lying town. He closed his eyes—ah, how swiftly it all vanished! In his ears was the pleasant chirping of many insects, the glorious sunshine lay about him like wine, the west wind made music in the woods, one thrush in particular was singing to him blithely from the thatched roof of his cottage—a single throbbing note against a melodious background of the whole wood full of twittering birds. The man smiled to himself, well pleased. A day and half’s respite from slavery—here! It was worth while after all.

He stretched out his hand for his bode, and puffed contentedly at his pipe. Suddenly he looked up, frowning. Someone was scrambling up the rude path from behind the cottage. In a moment appeared the head and shoulders of a man against the sky line. The new comer paused for a moment to admire the view—then, seeing the figure recumbent upon the grass, came hastily down.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Strone! I am glad to find you at home.”

Enoch Strone looked his visitor up and down with frowning face.

“Have you lost your way?” he asked, gruffly. “This is private property.”

The new comer flushed slightly. He was a middle-aged, pleasant faced man, with brown beard and humourous mouth, quietly dressed in dark grey. He wore a clergyman’s hat.

“I came to see you,” he answered. “My name is Martinghoe, and I am the vicar of Bangdon.”

Strone frowned more heavily than ever. He rose to his feet without any attempt at greeting, burly, almost repulsive-looking in his slow anger.

“Yes, yes,” he said, impatiently. “I know who you are. But what do you want with me?”

“You are one of my few parishioners,” Martinghoe explained, with a smile. “I have tried twenty times to catch you, but always unsuccessfully. Once or twice I fancy that I have seen you in full retreat into the woods—this time I think I have run you to earth!”

Strone smiled grimly.

“I am afraid that you have wasted your time,” he said, shortly, “if you have come out here purposely to see me. I am not a Christian, and nothing would induce me to set foot in a church. I have no money to give away, and I get very bad-tempered when I am intruded upon. You will find a more direct path into the road by that gate,” he added, pointing downwards.

“I’ll try it soon,” Martinghoe answered, pleasantly. “In the meantime you won’t object to my sitting down for a moment and enjoying your view. I’m really out of breath.”

Strone grunted something inarticulate, relit his pipe, and took up his book. The sound of a match made him glance up quickly. His unbidden visitor had also lit a huge briar, and was puffing away contentedly.

“Not in the way, am I?” he asked. “This is such a delightful spot.”

Strone laid down his book once more.

“Yes,” he said, “you are. Listen. I’ll be frank with you, and then perhaps you’ll go. I’m a mechanic, foreman at Dobell’s engineering works in Gascester, and I’ve bought this piece of land and built this cottage myself because I’m fond of solitude, and I ride backwards and forwards, winter and summer, for the very same reason. This is my Saturday afternoon, which I look forward to all the week, and you’ve already spoilt ten minutes of it. Now is that plain enough?”

“Quite,” Martinghoe answered, without any sign of annoyance. “I’ll go! But first, is this book yours? It was brought to me by one of the keepers, and I fancied that those might be your initials in it.”

Strone literally pounced upon it The blackness vanished from his face like magic. He took the volume almost tenderly into his hands.

“Yes, it’s mine,” he exclaimed. “I lost it last Sunday, and I’ve spent hours looking for it.”

“Heggs picked it up and he thought it might be mine. I hope you don’t mind. I read it through last night from beginning to end.”

A transfiguring gleam of humour flashed across Strone’s face.

“You!” he exclaimed, “a parson, and read fairy tales!”

Martinghoe roared out laughing.

“My dear fellow,” he answered, “if you’ve read more poetry and fairy tales than I have I’ll make you a present of my whole library. I have a first edition of the ‘Sundering Flood,’ and I know my Morris well. Do you think that we read nothing but the Bible and theology?”

“I didn’t know,” Strone answered. “How should I?”

Martinghoe’s hand fell upon his shoulder.

“Look here,” he said, “don’t send me away till we’ve had a chat. I’m a lonely man, and I ain’t so fond of it as you are. I haven’t a soul to talk to from week end to week end. You read a bit and so do I. You have grit in you, or you wouldn’t be here. Let’s have a pipe together.”

Strone smoked stolidly for a moment.

“You don’t know the sort of man I am,” he said, suddenly. “I don’t believe in a word of the Bible, and I’m not at all sure that I believe in a hereafter at all. I look upon church-going as a farce, and nothing would induce me to set foot inside one. Besides, I am a working-man—my father died of drink, mother in the asylum. Is it likely that I’m fit company for a parson?”

Martinghoe smiled.

“I don’t believe that you’ve ever spoken to one in your life,” he said, “and you’ve an idea that we go about like Salvation Army captains shouting for souls. I’m quite prepared to respect your religious beliefs or disbeliefs. Your brain is as good as mine. You may be right and I wrong. Who knows? Some day, perhaps, we’ll talk of it, but not unless you wish. As to the rest—well, it only proves that you’re a better man than I. The balance is on your side at any rate.”

Strone for the first time surveyed his visitor with some appearance of interest. He took note of the shapely, sensitive mouth, the broad forehead, the clear, bright eyes which sought his so frankly. This was a different type of parson to any with whom he had ever come into contact. A man all over, loveable, human, magnetic! Yet Strone was-obstinate to the backbone. He hated to change his mind.

“You don’t approve of the Salvation Army, then!” he remarked, gruffly.

“I didn’t say so,” Mr. Martinghoe answered, smiling. “Only I think that theirs is one of those rare cases in which enthusiasm defeats its own object—over enthusiasm, of course, I mean. Yet it is very hard to be critical, for they appeal to a class who are almost hopeless. Their mistake, I think, is that they do not limit their energies to that class. The attempt to convert men and women of education can do nothing but harm!”

Strone looked up with a grim smile.

“Proselytism is a feverish pursuit,” he remarked. “The man who has once converted another to his opinion is never happy until he can start on somebody else. You’re quite sure you haven’t a Bible in your tail-coat pocket, Mr. Martinghoe?”

Martinghoe laughed.

“If I have, I’ll keep it in its place!” he promised. “I won’t try to read it to you.”

Strone move towards the cottage without another word.

“Excuse me,” he said, “my kettle is boiling over. Will you have a cup of tea?”

Martinghoe jumped up with alacrity.

“Rather!”

CHAPTER II.

~

THE REVEREND JOHN MARTINGHOE SAT upon a knoll, drank tea out of a mug and munched thick bread and butter with much apparent relish. Strone entertained the first guest of his life with a sort of surly cordiality, the mask of a considerable amount of shyness. Yet the two men dropped into talk naturally enough afterwards when their pipes were lit. Martinghoe himself, a scholar and a man of considerable attainments, was amazed at the extent and depth of the other’s reading. This was none of the cheap culture of the superior working-man, no free library veneer. Strone had drawn the sap where he had tapped the tree. He could quote Carlyle by the page and, more wonderful still, he had read between the lines, and he knew the other meaning. He spoke of Swinburne, and half closed his eyes as though the roar of the Cornish sea were indeed in his ears. Martinghoe became the listener—the study of the man was fascinating. Softened though his face had become during the last half hour it was yet hard, and in a measure sullen. His hands were roughened with toil, he lay in a posture which not even his massive strength could render graceful. All the while he talked oddly, jerkily, yet giving every moment proof of a marvellous memory, an insight far above that of the average well-read man. Martinghoe seemed to realise that this was the unburdening of one whose lips had never yet been unsealed. There were crudities of thought every now and then. Martinghoe caught them and smoothed them down. Strone nodded with placid approval. Here and there came a lurid piece of criticism, a passionate protest. Martinghoe felt that he was looking out upon life from a new standpoint, and the difference was wonderful. He exerted all his tact to keep the other talking. It was evident that Strone had not won his way through unscathed. His Carlylean hatred of all humbug and false pretence was a militant thing, it had come to him with experience. His tongue at times was like a lash, he himself had felt the sting of the things he loathed. So it seemed when at last they rose as though with a common impulse to their feet and Martinghoe stretched out his hand for his hat.

The sunlight had long ago faded from the land. A glimmering twilight made dim patchwork of the fields, and an evening breeze bent the tree tops in the wood below. Far away a wan glare in the sky brooded over the town. Strone pointed downwards with the bowl of his pipe.

“You’ll think me a heathen, I know,” he said, “if not you, other people, because I can’t believe in a God. Yet I tell you this. Take my place yonder for a week and your own faith would totter. Ay, that’s a sure thing.”

“Go on,” Martinghoe said. “I want to understand your point of view.”

“Mine is the point of view of the man who knows,” Strone answered. “It’s written down there in great black letters, and those who don’t see it are those who won’t. You go to Gascester sometimes, I suppose, sir?”

“Not often,” Martinghoe admitted. “I go only when I am obliged.”

Strone nodded.

“You might go every day,” he said, “and you would never know the place as I know it. You would never see what I see. It’s quite picturesque from here, isn’t it, with all those lights shining through the mist? Now, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll tell you what I see day by day. ‘Miles upon miles of dirty streets lined with small red brick houses all of a pattern, all hopelessly ugly, public-houses at every corner like flies upon a carcase, stunted and weary-eyed men, vicious because their eyes are for ever fastened upon the hideous side of life, because for ever they must look downwards—drink-sodden and foolish women, leaving their children to struggle up as best they can—and may your God help ‘em, for they’ll need it. Pavements crowded with sickly-looking youths, apeing the sins of their elders—immature girls ever hovering around the fringe of vice; drawn into it sooner or later as into a maelstrom. You think I’m exaggerating. I’m not! It’s truth! You may walk for miles, and they shall stream past you in hordes. You shall look at them one by one, and you will be amazed. It is as though the devil had smeared them all with one great daub of his brush. They are all of the same hopeless type, ever with eyes looking downwards, down into the nether world. They are worse than cattle. They are like the swine possessed with the knowledge of evil things.”

“You are speaking of the slums, of course, Mr. Strone,” his visitor said, with a sigh. “I know that they are terrible. They are the one great blot on our civilisation.”

“It isn’t the slums alone,” Strone answered. “In their way the suburbs are as bad. There’s the manufacturer, a snob, bursting with self-conceit because he’s made his bit of money, forgets his shopmates, builds a big house, sticks a crest upon his carriage, warms to his wife’s petty schemes for social advancement, goes to church, and heads a subscription list. Eats too much, drinks too much, but worships respectability. Narrow, ignorant! Great heavens, there aren’t any words to describe how ignorant and narrow such a man can be. He, too, looks ever downwards.”

“You are too sweeping, Strone. You speak of a type! It exists, I know, but not alone.”

Strone shrugged his shoulders.

“I have nothing to do with the exceptions,” he answered. “I speak of the majority. The world is governed by majorities. Slum and suburb, our cities are beastly places. Why don’t you cleanse them, sweep them clean, you Christians, who spend fortunes upon your churches and cathedrals, and send missions into every country on the globe. There’s your raw material—your humanity—ready waiting. What’s your God doing?”

“You’re a pessimist, Strone!”

“I’m not! I’m simply a man who likes to see things as they are. I like the truth and the daylight. Most of you who should have your hand to the plough prefer to grope through life with a bandage about your eyes—only your noses seem to lead you to the pleasant places.”

Martinghoe was silent. The man’s words were bitter enough, but his earnestness robbed them of offence.

“You are rather severe upon us as a class, I think,” he said. “Yet you must remember that these cities you speak of—Gascester, for instance—have many workers who are giving their lives for their fellows. In every district practical efforts are being made to get at the people. The generations to come will bear witness to the labours of to-day.”

Strone shrugged his shoulders.

“It may be so,” he answered. “It’s easy to talk, I know. But you must remember that I am one of the people. I see these things day by day. I believe that whoever made the world, it was meant to be a place beautiful, and life was meant to have its joys. Yet for ninety-nine out of every hundred down there it is like a foretaste of Hell. Vice takes the place of joy, and men and women go groping through the quagmire of life with fast closed eyes. They see nothing, know nothing—save of evil. It’s beastly.”

Martinghoe sighed.

“It is an inexhaustible subject,” he said, “and I am deeply interested in it. May I come and talk with you again?”

“Why not! I’ve had my say. Next time I’d like to hear you talk.”

Martinghoe held out his hand.

“Well, I won’t preach. I can promise you that. Good-bye.”

Martinghoe had gone—was out of sight. Strone refilled his pipe, and sat looking down upon the blurred landscape—the lights flashing here and there, the glow in the sky, redder now and deeper. All around a soothing and delicious silence was brooding over the land. The unwonted excitement of speech was tingling still in his veins,—called for action. He rose and strolled down to the boundary of the wood. For awhile he lingered with his arms resting upon the paling looking into the cool, dark wilderness, the tangled shades of bramble and young pines, a delicate study in tender green only a few hours ago, now impenetrable, a shadowy chaos. There was no reason apparently for him to proceed further, nothing to attract him save the faint sweet music of creaking boughs and moving tree tops, yet every moment he was conscious of a stronger impulse to go forward. Afterwards he remembered and marvelled at it, sometimes with wonder, sometimes a deeper feeling, as he remembered all that hung upon those few moments’ indecision. A man without any superstitions himself, although a delighted student of the ancient and picturesque superstitions of earlier races, he nevertheless moved slowly along that dimly visible path with quickly beating heart and a very distinct sense of excitement. There was something mysterious in these shadowy solitudes, the deep silence broken only by the wind music and the occasional scurrying of a scared rabbit. Yet his common sense mocked him. What could happen to him here? Surely nothing! A meeting with Heggs, the keeper, perhaps, the exchange of a pipe of tobacco, a little chat about the nest of young owls over which he had been watching so tenderly. Yet he was conscious of some such feeling of half mysterious wholly pleasant excitement as had stolen into the heart of Walter when he had passed into the Strange Land.

CHAPTER III.

~

STRONE CAME TO A BREAK in the wood, where the ground was carpeted with hyacinths and the air faint with their soft, sweet perfume, and here in the middle of the path his foot kicked against something soft. He stooped and picked it up. It was a woman’s shoe. He turned it over and over again in his hand. It was made of some soft black material, nearly new, with high heel and arched instep, and the lining was warm. It was a cheap enough article of its sort, turned out by thousands with the help of modern machinery, but it possessed a certain daintiness of shape, and it had probably been labelled “direct from Paris.” It was not a shoe, in any case, to have been discarded, nor was it likely to have come into its present position by supernatural means. The fact was borne in upon him that the wearer must be somewhere close at hand.

He drew a deep breath which was almost a gasp. The little shoe seemed to bum his hand. He looked slowly around him, and his heart was beating like a sledge hammer. The shoe was probably an accident, its owner a matron of years and many children. He scarcely cared. To him it was emblematical of an unknown world, the world feminine, whose daughters had filled the universe with poetry and swayed the lives of giants. Nevertheless, a world unknown to him, a paradise across whose portals he had never passed. How should he indeed? Those who had come his way he had not even considered. Loud-tongued factory girls, anaemic dressmakers, befringed barmaids he had counted sexless—the music of Byron, the love-yearnings of Keats were never for such as these. The women of his thoughts dwelt together in a wonderful garden fenced jealously about with rosebushes and lilac trees, and many sweet-smelling flowers and shrubs. The mechanic’s place was outside. And now—

He found her almost at once—a dark prostrate body, her head resting upon a fallen tree. What he had feared at first might be death, or at least a faint, was only sleep. She lay there in the full grace of natural, unaffected repose, and Strone stood over her with fast-beating heart. At first he was vaguely disappointed. She was, after all, of his order. Her little black jacket was shabby, and her brown skirt ancient. Around her throat was a piece of ribbon, her hair was a deep soft brown. It struck him that her eyes might be pretty. The mystery of the shoe was explained in a manner which gave him a quick start. One foot lay bare upon the turf, soft and white enough in the twilight—2 black stocking by her side. In her sleep she had probably kicked the shoe away. Strone watched and came back to earth.

“One of that noisy factory crew who had their treat at Crooks’ farm, T suppose,” he muttered. “But what on earth is she doing here?”

He looked around with quick suspicion—groundless as it proved. She was alone. Then he hesitated.

“Lost her way and fallen asleep. She’ll be an awful nuisance. I’ll go.”

But he didn’t. In his heart he knew that he had never meant to. Instead he filled his pipe, lit it carefully so that the sound should not disturb her, and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree a few feet away. He leaned forward with folded arms and studied her as a problem.

“Pity that sort of woman cannot sleep for ever—always dumb, free from vulgar speech or awkward movement,” he said to himself, softly. “She’s of her class no doubt. Just now she’s graceful, long limbs, soft curves, pretty hair. Probably when she walks she swaggers, and when she opens her mouth—”

He shuddered, smoked on thoughtfully, and waited.

“Perhaps I’d better wake her. I can’t sit here all night, and she’s got to get home somehow.”

He stood up frowning, angry with himself for his little attempt at self-deceit. For, apart from other considerations, he had been very well content to sit there watching her. He stooped down and touched her arm. She awoke at once, sat up in blank bewilderment, and screamed.

“It’s all right,” he said, gruffly. “I found you asleep here—thought I’d better wake you. It’s getting late.”

“Late! Why, good gracious, it’s dark.”

She caught up her stocking and shoe, and, turning sideways, hastily put them on. Then she rose lightly to her feet.

“What time is it?” she asked, fearfully.

“Nigh upon nine o’clock, I should say,” he answered.

She looked around her helplessly.

“It’s beastly of them,” she declared. “They’ve gone and left me on purpose. If they’d taken the least trouble to shout I must have heard them. It’s that mean Julia Ross. I’ll pay her out for this.”

“They have certainly gone,” Strone remarked. “Where do you come from—Gascester?”

She nodded. Her eyes were full of tears.

“Yes. How far is it?”

“Nine miles!”

Her under lip twitched.

“Oh, lor!—and my foot’s hurting awful. That’s why I took my shoe off. I ran away from Jim Hassell—he was plaguing me so, and I fell down. Nine miles. I can’t walk it. What shall I do?”

“Well, I don’t know,” he answered, puzzled. “There’s an inn at Lingford.”

“I’ve no money for an inn,” she answered quickly. “I’d stayed here only I’m afraid. Are you a keeper?”

“No. I live close by.”

She looked at him anxiously, drawing her gloves through her hand.

“Can’t I, couldn’t I sit in your house till morning? Would your wife mind? I don’t want a bed. An easy chair would do proper.”

“I have no wife,” he answered. “I live alone.”

“Is there no other house?” she asked, in despair.

“Not within two miles—and they’d all be gone to bed,” he answered. “You can have my room if you like.”

She accepted without the slightest hesitation.

“I’ll be no trouble,” she said, eagerly, “and I’ll start off as soon as it’s light. Which way?”

She followed him along the path, limping a little and shaking out her crumpled skirts. ‘He helped her awkwardly over the paling, and led the way up the steep green bank. At the entrance to the cottage he paused and pointed backwards to that dome-like glow in the sky.

“That’s Gascester,” he said briefly.

She looked downward with a little cry.

“Why, how near it seems—and what a colour the sky is! Is that a fire?”

He shook his head.

“It’s only the reflection of the lights in the sky. Come in.”

“Is this where you live? What an odd little place.”

“I hope that you were not expecting anything palatial,” he remarked, sarcastically.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing! You see as I live alone I don’t require much room. Come in.”

She peered about, and laughed softly to herself. It was a pleasant laugh, and Strone was relieved. He had dreaded a giggle.

“Why, it looks as though you’d made all the things yourself,” she exclaimed. “Chairs and tables and bedstead and all!”

“That is precisely what I did,” he answered, poking the fire.

“Why? Are you poor?” she asked. “We are.”

“Well, I’m not rich,” he answered, “but it wasn’t that so much. I don’t like modern furniture—the cheap sort, anyway. I like this better.”

“They look ever so funny,” she said. “It’s like a doll’s house. There’s some beautiful furniture in the shop at the corner of our street—green plush chairs and a sideboard, with a mirror in it.”

He shuddered, and plunged his head into a cupboard.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Yes,” she declared, promptly. “I ain’t going to take your supper, though.”

“There’s enough for two,” he answered.

He produced some bread and cheese and cold meat, and busied himself making coffee. Suddenly he stopped in the midst of cutting bread.

“What about your people?” he asked. “Won’t they be anxious?”

She laughed heartily.

“It’s Saturday night,” she said, “and father will be too drunk to know whether I’m home or not, and mother won’t care. Someone else will have to look after the kids, though.”

He asked no more questions, but summoned her to the table, dividing up the crockery as well as he could, for the entertainment of guests had never entered into his scheme of life. She laughed at his efforts to cut meat with a spoon, and drank her coffee as though scarcely used to it. If there was any embarrassment between them it was not on her side. In the midst of the meal she took her hat off, and threw it down. He knew then that she was pretty, notwithstanding an abominable attempt at a fringe.

“What do you do with all those books?” she asked.

“Read them!”

“My! Are they novels?”

“A few.”

“You must be very fond of reading.”

“I am,” he answered. “Aren’t you?”

She shook her head.

“No time. I read the ‘Young Ladies’ Journal’ sometimes. My married sister takes it. I like the stories—real, good, love stories they are. Have you any love stories?”

“One,” he admitted, smiling faintly.

“What’s it called? I wonder if I’ve read it?”

“It is the love story of Abelard and Heloise,” he answered.

She shook her head disparagingly. She did not think much of the title.

“Never heard of it.”

“It is scarcely a popular story,” he said. “Tell me your name.”

“Milly Wilson. Don’t you want to talk about stories?”

“Not just now,” he admitted. “Where do you live in Gascester?”

“Plumb Court, Wharf Street. Nice neighbourhood, ain’t it? It’s near the shop where we work. I say, are you a gentleman?”

He shook his head.

“I have never been mistaken for such a thing in my life,” he assured her.

“A schoolmaster, then?”

“No, I am a mechanic,” he told her. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I don’t know. You don’t talk like me, and you seem to kind of fancy yourself.”

He laughed long and heartily. She seemed doubtful whether to join in or to be offended. As for Strone, he felt more at ease than as yet he had done. After all he had better have stolen away while she slept, kept the shoe—and the romance.

“I am sorry,” he said. “You see I live alone and my manners suffer. What are you looking for now?”

She was gazing about the room in a puzzled sort of way.

“I don’t see any stairs,” she said.

“There are none.”

“Then where’s your other room?” she asked, suddenly.

“I haven’t one. In the summer I sleep out of doors. I am going to to-night.”

She looked away awkwardly.

“I’m sorry to put you out. You must be sorry you found me.”

“I don’t think I am,” he answered. “You would have caught cold there.”

“I should have been mortal scared,” she declared, laughing.

He rose, filled his pipe, and walked to the door. A flood of yellow moonlight had fallen upon the earth. The dark tree tops were still, every leaf and bough distinct upon the deep blue sky. For miles around the outline of the country, the hedgerows and the sentinel trees were like a painted landscape—a wonderful picture of silent life. Of movement or of sound there was nothing. The whole land was sleeping. A few insects were chirping in the hollow near the wood, the music of a distant sheep bell came faintly from a great distance. Strone puffed out dense volumes of smoke, and leaned against the doorway, happy after his own fashion. This was the solitude he loved. Then he started and nearly dropped his pipe, A soft hand touched his. The girl was by his side—her pale face spiritualised in the moonlight, her eyes glistening with tears.

“It is so beautiful here,” she murmured, “and so still.”

He smiled.

“You would rather be under the gas-lamps, perhaps!”

She shuddered.

“I wish that God would burn the whole town,” she cried, passionately; “house by house, street by street. I wish that I was never going to see Gascester again. I wish—I wish—”

She was sobbing. Strone looked at her, surprised, curiously sympathetic. She was so pretty, so much in earnest, and the story of her life, ay, and the life of her kind, was written so painfully in her wan face.

“You are over-tired,” he said, gently. “See, I will show you where to sleep; to-morrow you will have forgotten all this, and I will take you home across the fields.”

She followed him wearily into the house; afterwards he climbed the hill above the cottage, and smoked there for hours. He was restless, and ill disposed for sleep. For ever there seemed to ring in his ears the passionate unspoken wish of the child who slept now peacefully enough on his rude oaken bedstead.

CHAPTER IV.

~

A GREY MORNING, WINDLESS BUT cold. Strone awoke with a start, sat up and listened. Surely he had heard light footsteps close at hand, or had he been dreaming? He rose slowly to his feet, stiff, for the woodshed was draughty, and he had not even a rug for covering. A distinct sound now—the gate leading to the road was softly opened and closed. He hastened to the front, lifted the latch of his cottage, and looked in.

The room was empty, the bed neatly made, and the remains of their supper cleared away. His visitor had gone.

Curiously enough, his first impulse was of vexation. To steal away so was surely ungrateful. Her absence should have been a relief—he was inconsistently disappointed. Then he saw a piece of folded paper upon the table. He opened it and smiled. In plain, childish characters he read:—

My dear friend,—Thank you very, very much. I have slept well, and I do not want to bother you any more, so I have gone away quietly. I shall often think of this beautiful place, and good-bye.

MILLY WILSON.

He thrust it into his pocket, and then, without a moment’s hesitation, started swiftly for the road. He took a short cut, clambered over a stone wall. She was already in sight, walking with downcast head in the middle of the road. He stole near her on the grass border watching her gait. She limped slightly. There was a curious listlessness in her movements, not altogether, however, devoid of grace. He was almost at her side before the snapping of a dry twig betrayed him. She raised her head and looked at him startled.

“You’re a nice guest,” he exclaimed, “to steal away like this. What’s the matter?”

She flushed almost painfully. He saw signs in her of a new nervousness.

“I left a note,” she faltered. “I’m such a bother to you—and I didn’t want to spoil your Sunday. I’m quite rested—I’ll get on famous now!”

“You’ll come back with me at once and have some breakfast,” he said firmly. “The idea of starting for a nine-mile walk like this. You’d faint on the way.”

“I thought maybe I’d get a drop of milk at Lingford,” she said, hesitatingly, “and I think I’d better go.”

“Just as you like,” he answered, gruffly. “I don’t want to keep you.”

Her eyes filled with tears. His gruffness vanished.

“Better come back.”

She yielded at once. They climbed the hill together. The sunlight streamed through the grey vaporous sky, and from a grassy field to their left a lark rose in little circles singing to the morning. Down the long, dusty road, with his feet up and a black bag in front, came John Martinghoe on his way to an Early Celebration. He put on the brake when he saw Strone, and gazed with wonder at his companion.