Classic Audiobook Collection - The Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Chapter 1 Farewell, too, now at last. Farewell, fair lily. The joy bells clashed out upon the clear bright air, startling the rooks on the alp trees that showed their leafy tops above the grey gables of the old church. The bells broke out with sudden jubilation.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Sudden, albeit the village had been on the alert for that very sound all the summer afternoon, uncertain as to when the signal for that joy peel might be given. The signal had come now, given by the telegraph wires to the old postmistress, and sent on to the expectant ringers in the church tower. The young couple had arrived at Wareham Station, five miles off, and four horses were bringing them to their honeymoon home yonder amidst the old woods of Chariton Chase. Chariton Village had been on tiptoe with expectancy ever since four o'clock, although common sense ought to have informed the villagers

Starting point is 00:00:57 that a bride and bridegroom who were to be married at two o'clock in the Westminster Abbey were not very likely to appear at Chariton early in the afternoon. But the village, having made up its mind to a half-holiday, was glad to begin early. A little nod of gypsies from the last race-meeting in the neighborhood had improved the occasion and set up the friendly and familiar image of Aunt Sally on the green in front of the Eagle Inn. While a rival establishment had started a pictorial shooting gallery

Starting point is 00:01:23 with a Rubicon giant's face and wide open mouth, grinning at the populace across a barrel of Barcelona nuts. There are some people who might think Chariton Village and Chariton Chase too remote from the busy world in its traffic to be subject to strong emotions of any kind. Yet, even in this region of Perbeck, cut off from the rest of England by a winding river and ostentatiously calling itself an island, there were eager interests and warm feelings, and many a link with the great world of men and women on the other side of the stream. chariton chase was one of the finest places in the county of dorset it lay south of warham between corf castle and brachsy island and in the midst of scenery which has a peculiar charm of its own a curious blending of level pasture and steep hillside barren heath and fertile water-meadow here a dutch landscape grazing cattle and winding stream there a suggestion of some lonely scottish deer-walk an endless variety of outline and yonder on the steep hill-top the grim stone walls and moldering bastions of Corf Castle, standing dark and stern against the blue fair weather sky, or boldly confronting the force of the tempest. Chariton House was almost as old as

Starting point is 00:02:36 Corf in the estimation of some of the country people. Its history went back into the night of ages. But while the castle had suffered siege and battery by Cromwell's ruthless cannon, and had been left to stand as that arch-destroar left it, until only the outer walls of the mighty fabric remained with a tower or two, and the mullions of one great window standing above the rest, the mere skeleton of the gigantic pile, Chariton House had been cared for and added to century after century, so that it presented now a picturesque blending of old and new, in which almost every corridor and every room was a surprise to the stranger. Never had Chariton been better cared for than by its present owner, nor had Sheraton Village owned a more beneficent lord of the manner.

Starting point is 00:03:21 And yet, Lord Chariton was an alien and a starvation. stranger to the soil, and that kind of person whom rustics mostly are inclined to look down upon, a self-made man. The present master of Chariton was a man who owed wealth and distinction to his own talents. He had been raised to the peerage about fifteen years before this day of clashing joy bells and village rejoicings. He had been owner of the Chariton estate for more than twenty years, having bought the property on the death of the last choir, and at a time of unusual depression. He was popularly supposed to have got the estate for an old song, but the old song meant something between 70 and 80,000 pounds, and represented the bulk of his wife's fortune. He had not been

Starting point is 00:04:03 afraid to so swamp his wife's dowry, for he was at this time one of the most popular silk gowns at the equity bar. He was making four or five thousand a year, and he was strong in the belief in his power to rise higher. The purchase, prompted by ambition and a desire to take his place among the landed gentry, had turned out a very lucky one from a financial point of view, for a stone quarry that had been unworked for more than a century was speedily developed by the new owner of the soil, and became a source of income which enabled him to improve mansion-house and farms without embarrassment. Under Mr. Dalbrook's improving hand, the Chariton estate, which had been gradually sinking to decay in the occupation of an exhausted race, became as perfect as human ingenuity,

Starting point is 00:04:46 combined with judicious outlay can make any estate. The falcon eye of the master was on all things. The famous advocate's only idea of a holiday was to work his hardest in the supervision of his Dorsetshire property. He thought of Chariton many a time in the law courts, as Fox used to think of St. Anne's and his turnips amidst the debauchery of a long night's card-playing, or in the whirl of a stormy debate.

Starting point is 00:05:11 Perbeck might have been the motto and password of his life. He was born at Dorchester, the son of humble shopkeeping parents, and was educated at the quaint old stone grammar school in that good old town. All his happiest hours of boyhood had been spent in the isle of Purbeck. Those watery meadows and breezy commons and breakneck hills had been his playground, and when he went back to them as a hard-headed, overworked man of the world, made arrogant from the magnitude of a success which had never known check or retrogression, the fountains of his heart

Starting point is 00:05:41 were unlocked by the very atmosphere of that fertile land where the salt breath of the sea came tempered by the balmy perfume of the heather. The odor of the heart of the heart. The odor of of Hedgegrove flowers, rosemary, and thyme. At Chariton, James Dalbrook, unbent, forgot that he was a great man, and remembered only that his lot was cast in a pleasant place, and that he had the most lovable of wives and the loveliest of daughters. His daughter had been born at Chariton, had known no other country home, and had never considered the first floor flat in Victoria Street where her father and mother spent the London season, and where her father had his piette-a all the year round in the light of a home.

Starting point is 00:06:20 his daughter juanita was the eldest of three children born in the old manor house the two younger both sons died in infancy and it seemed to james dalbrook that there was a blight upon his offspring such a blight as that which withered the male children of henry england and catherine of aragon much had been given to him he had been allowed to make name and fortune he whose sole heritage was a little crockery shop in a second-rate street of dorchester he had enjoyed the lordship of broad acres the honours and honours and the honours and the honour's position of a rural squire, but he was not to be allowed that crowning glory for which strong men yearn. He was not to be the first of a long line of baron's Sheraton, of Sheraton. After the grief and disappointment of those two deaths, first of an infant of a few weeks old and afterwards of a lovely child of two years, James Dalbrook hardened his heart for a little while against the fair young sister who survived them. She could not perpetuate that barony which was the crown of his greatness, or if by special grace her father's title might be an after-days

Starting point is 00:07:23 bestowed upon the husband of her choice, which in the event of her marrying judiciously and marrying wealth, might not be impracticable. It would be an alien to his race who would bear the title which he, James Dalbrook, had created. He had so longed for a son, and behold, two had been given to him, and upon both the blight had fallen. When people praised his daughter's childish loveliness, he shook his head despondently, thinking that she too would be taken like her brothers before ever the bud became a flower. His heart sickened at the thought of this contingency, and of his heir at law in the event of his dying childless, a first cousin, clerk in the auctioner's office at Weymouth, a sandy-haired freckled youth, without an aspirate, with a fixed idea that

Starting point is 00:08:07 he was an authority upon dress, style, and billiards, an insupportable young man under any conditions, but hateful to murderousness as one's next heir. to think of that freckled snob strutting about the estate in years to come blinking with his white eyelashes at those things which had been so dear to the dead his wife to whom he owed the estate had no relations nearer or dearer to her than the freckled auctioneer was to her husband there remained for them both to work out their plans for the disposal of that estate and fortune which was their own to deal with as they pleased already james dalbrook had dim notions of a dollbrook scholarship fund in which future barristers should have their own to deal with as they pleased already james dalbrook had dim notions of a dollbrook scholarship fund in which future barristers should have their long years of waiting upon fortune made easier to them, and for which they should bless the memory of the famous advocate. Happily, those brooding fears were not realized. This time the bud was not blighted. The flower carried no canker in its heart, but opened its petals to the morning of life, a strong, bright blossom, reveling in sun and shower, wind and spray.

Starting point is 00:09:08 Juanita grew from babyhood to girlhood with hardly an illness, save the regulation childish complaints, which touched her as lightly as a butterfly's wing touches the the flowers. Her mother was of Spanish extraction, the granddaughter of a Cadiz merchant, who had failed in the wine trade and had left his sons and daughters to carve their own way to fortune. Her father had gone to San Francisco at the beginning of the gold fever, had been one of the first to understand the safest way to take advantage of the situation, and had started a wine shop and hotel out of which he made a splendid fortune within 15 years. He acquired wealth in good time to send his two daughters to Paris for their education,

Starting point is 00:09:45 and, by the time they were grown up, he was rich enough to retire from business, and was able to dispose of his hotel and wine store for a sum which made a considerable addition to his capital. He established himself in a brand-new first-floor in one of the avenues of the Wadbulong, a rich widower, more of an American than a Spaniard after his long exile, and he launched his two handsome daughters in Franco-American society. From Paris they went to London, and were well received in that upper-middle-class circle in which wealth can generally command a welcome and in which a famous barrister,

Starting point is 00:10:18 like Mr. Dalbrook, ranks as a star of the first magnitude. James Dalbrook was then at the apogee of his success, a large handsome man on the right side of his 40th birthday. He was not, by any means, the kind of man who would seem

Starting point is 00:10:32 a likely suitor for a beautiful girl of 3 and 20, but it happened that his heavenly handsome face in commanding manner, his deep, strong voice, and brilliant conversation possessed just the charm that could subjugate Maria Morales as fancy.

Starting point is 00:10:47 His conquest came upon him as a bewildering surprise, and nothing could be further from his thoughts than a marriage with the Spaniard's daughter. And yet, within six weeks of their first meeting at a Royal Academy's soire in the shabby old rooms in Trafalgar Square, Mr. Dalbrook and Miss Morales were engaged, with the full consent of her father, who declared himself willing to give his daughter forty thousand pounds,

Starting point is 00:11:09 strictly settled upon herself for her dowry, but who readily doubled that sum. when his future son-in-law revealed his desire to become owner of chariton and to found a family. For such a laudable purpose, Mr. Morales was willing to make sacrifices. More especially as Maria's elder sister had offended him by marrying without his consent, an offense which was only cancelled by her untimely death soon after her marriage. Juanita was only three years old when her father was raised to the bench, and she was not more than six when he was offered a peerage, which she accepted promptly,

Starting point is 00:11:42 very glad to exchange the name of Dalbrook, still extant over the old shop window in Dorchester, though the old shopkeepers were at rest in the cemetery outside the town for the title of Baron Chariton. Has Lord Chariton James Dalbrook linked himself indissolubly with the lands which his wife's money had bought, money made in a frisco wine shop for the most part. Happily, however, few of Lord Chariton's friends were aware of that fact. Morales had traded under an assumed name in the minor series, city, and had only resumed his patronymic on retiring from the bar and the wine-balts. It will be seen, therefore, that Juanita could not boast of aristocratic lineage upon either

Starting point is 00:12:22 side. Her beauty and grace, her lofty carriage and high-bred air, were spontaneous as the beauty of a wildflower upon one of those fursy knolls over which her young feet had bounded in many a girlish race with her dogs or her chosen companion of the hour. She looked like the daughter of a duke, although one of her grandfathers had sold pots and pans, and the other had kept order, with a bowie knife and revolver in his belt, over the humours of a frisco tavern, in the days when the city was still in its rough and tumble infancy, fierce as a bull-pup. Her father, who, as the years went on, worshipped this only child of his, never forgot that she lacked that one sovereign advantage of good birth and highly-placed kindred,

Starting point is 00:13:02 and thus it was that from her childhood he had been on the watch for some alliance which should give her these advantages. The opportunity had soon offered itself. Among his Dorsetshire neighbors, one of the most distinguished was Sir Godfrey Carmichael, a man of old family in good estate, highly connected on the maternal side, and well connected all round and married to the daughter of an Irish peer. Sir Godfrey showed himself friendly from the hour of Mr. Dalbrook's Advent in the neighborhood. He declared himself delighted to welcome new blood when it came in the person of a man of talent and power.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Lady Jane Carmichael was equally pleased with James Dalbrook's gentle wife. The friendship thus begun never knew any interruption till it ended suddenly in a plowed field between Wareham and Wimborn, where Sir Godfrey's horse, blundered at a fence, fell, and rolled over his rider, ten years after Juanita's birth. There were two daughters and a son, considerably their junior, who succeeded his father at the age of 15, and who had been Juanita's playfellow ever since she could run alone. The two fathers had talked together of the possibilities of the future while their children were playing tennis on the lawn at Chariton or gathering blackberries on the common. Sir Godfrey was enough a man of the world to rejoice in the idea of his son's marriage with the heiress of Chariton, albeit he knew that a little dark-eyed girl with the tall, slim figure, and graceful movements had no place among the salt of the earth. His own estate was a poor thing compared with Chariton and the Chariton Stone Quarries, and he knew that Dalbrook's professional earning

Starting point is 00:14:33 had accumulated into a very respectable fortune invested in stocks and shares of the soundest quality. Altogether, his son could hardly do better than continue to attach himself to that dark-eyed child as he was attaching himself now in his first year at Eton, riding his pony over to Chariton every non-hunting day, and ministering to her childish caprices in all things. The two mothers had talked of the future with more detail and more assurance than the fathers, as men of the world had ventured upon. Lady Chariton was in love with her little girl's boyish admirer. His frank, handsome face, open-hearted manner, and undeniable pluck realized her ideal of

Starting point is 00:15:11 high-bred youth. His mother was the daughter of an earl, his grandmother was the niece of a duke. He had the right to call an existing duke his cousin. These things counted for much in the mind of the storekeeper's daughter. Her experience at a fashionable Parisian convent had taught her to worship rank, her experience of English middle society had not eradicated that weakness. And then she saw that this fine Frank lad was devoted to her daughter with all a boy's ardent feeling for his first sweetheart.

Starting point is 00:15:42 The years went on, and young Godfrey Carmichael and Juanita Dalbrook were sweetheart still. Sweethearts always. Sweethearts when he was at Eton. Sweethearts when he was at Oxford. Sweethearts in Union. And sweethearts in absence. Neither of them ever imagining any other love. And now, in the western sunlight of this July evening, the bells of Chariton Church were ringing

Starting point is 00:16:04 a joy-peel to celebrate their wedded loves, and the little street was gay with floral archways and bright-colored bunting, and mottoes of welcome and greeting, and Lady Chariton's Baruch was bringing the bride and bridegroom to their first honeymoon dinner, as fast as four horses could trot along the level road from quiet little wearham. By a curious fancy, Juanita had elected to spend her honeymoon in that one house of which she ought to have been most weary, the good old house in which she had been born, and were all her days of courtship, a ten years courtship had been spent. In vain had the fairest scenes of Europe been suggested to her. She had travelled enough to be indifferent to mountains and lakes, glaciers, and fjords. I have seen just enough to know that there is no place like home, she said with her pretty air of authority. I won't have a honeymoon at all if I can't have it at Chariton.

Starting point is 00:16:55 I want to feel what it is like to have you all to myself and my own place, Godfrey, among all the things I love. I shall feel like a queen with a slave. I shall feel like Delilah was Samson. When you are quite tired of Chariton and subjection, you shall take me to the priory, and whence there you shall be master and I will be slave. Sweet mastership, Tyranness slavery,

Starting point is 00:17:19 he answered laughing. my darling sheraton will suit me better than any other place in the world for my honeymoon for i shall be near my future electors and shall be able to study the political situation in all its bearings upon the isle of perbeck sir godfrey was to stand for his division of the county in the election that was looming in the distance of the late autumn he was very confident of success as a young man might be who came of a time-honoured race and knew himself popular in the district armed with all the newest ideas too full to the brim of the most modern intelligence a brilliant debater at oxford a favorite everywhere his marriage would increase his popularity and strengthen his position with the latent power of that larger wealth which must needs be his in the future the sun was shining in gold and glory upon grey stone roofs and grey stone walls clothed with rose and honeysuckle clematis and trumpet-ash upon the village forge where there had been no work done since the morning where the fire was out and the men were lounging a door and window in their sunday close upon the three or four village shops and the two village inns the humble little house of call opposite the forge with its square old sign, Live and Let Live, and the good old George Hotel, with sprawling dilapidated

Starting point is 00:18:33 stables and spacious yard where the mail-coach used to stop in the days that were gone. There was a floral arch between the little tavern and the forge, a floral display along the low rustic front of the butcher shop, and the cottage post office was converted into a bower. There were Calico Motto's flapping across the road. Welcome to the bride and bridegroom. God bless them both, long life and happiness, and other fond and hearty phrases of time-honored familiarity.

Starting point is 00:19:02 But those clashing bells, with their sound of tumultuous gladness, a joy that clambered to the blue skies above in the woods below, and out to the very sea yonder in its loud exuberance, those and the smiling faces of the villagers were the best of all welcomes. There were gentlefolks among the crowd, a string of pony-carts and carriages drawn up on the long slip of waste grass beyond the forge, just where the road turned off to Chariton Chase. And there were two or three horsemen, one, a young man upon a fine bay cob, who had been walking his horse about restlessly for the last hour or so, sometimes riding half a mile towards the station in his impatience.

Starting point is 00:19:40 The carriage came towards the turning point, the bride bowing and smiling as she returned the greetings of gentle and simple. Emotion had paled the delicate olive of her complexion, but her large, dark eyes were bright with gladness. her straw coloured to sore gown and leghorn hat were the perfection of simplicity and seemed to surround her with an atmosphere of coolness amidst the dust and glare of the road at sight of the young man on the bay cobb she put her hand on sir godfrey's arm and set something to him on which he told the coachman to stop they had driven slowly through the village and the horses pulled up readily at the turn of the road only to think of your coming so far to greet us the adore said juanita leaning out of the carriage to shake hands with the owner of the road and the owner of the road i'ma leaning out of the carriage to shake hands with the owner of the of the cob. I wanted to be among the first to welcome you, that was all, he answered quietly. I had half a mind to ride to the station and be ready to hand you into your carriage, but I thought

Starting point is 00:20:34 Sir Godfrey might think me a nuisance. No fear of that, my dear Dalbrook, said the bridegroom. I should have been very glad to see you. Did you ride all the way from Dorchester? Yes, I came over early in the morning, breakfasted with a friend, rested the cob all day, and now he is ready to carry me home again. "'What devotion!' said Juanita laughingly, yet with a shade of embarrassment. "'What good exercise for Peter, you mean?' "'Keep him in condition against the cubbing begins. "'God bless you, Juanita.

Starting point is 00:21:04 "'I can't do better than echo the invocation above our heads. "'God bless the bride and bridegroom!' He shook hands with them both for the second time. A faint glow of crimson swept over his frank, fair face as he clasped those hands. his honest gray eyes looked at his cousin for a moment with grave tenderness in which there was a shadow of a lifelong regret. He had loved and wooed her and resigned her to her more favored lover, and he was honest in his desire for her happiness. His own gladness, his own life, seemed to him of small account when weighed against her well-being. "'You must come and dine with us before we leave Charit in Dalbrook,' said Sir Godfrey.

Starting point is 00:21:46 "'You are very good. I am off to Heidelberg for a holiday as soon as I can wind up my office work. I will offer myself to you later on, if I may, when you are settled at the priory. Come when you like. Goodbye. The carriage turned the corner.

Starting point is 00:22:02 The crowd burst into a cheer. One, two, three, and then another one. And then three more cheers louder than the first three, and the horses were on the verge of bolting for the rest of the way to Chariton. Theodore Dalbrook rode slowly away from the village festivities. rode away from the clang of the joy bells and the sound of rustic triple Bob Majors.

Starting point is 00:22:23 It would be night before he reached Dorchester, but there was a moon and he knew every yard of high road, every grassy ride across the wide barren heath between Sheraton and the old Roman city. He knew the road and he knew his horse, which was as good of its kind as there was to be found in the county of Dorset. He was not a rich man, and he had to work hard for his living, but he was the son of a well-to-do father, and he never stinted the price of the horse that carried him,

Starting point is 00:22:49 and which was something more to Theodore Dalbrook than most men's horses are to them. It was his own familiar friend, companion and solace. A man might have understood as much only to see him lean over the cobb's neck and pat him as he did tonight, riding slowly up the hill that leads from Chariton to the wild ridge of Heath above Francksey Island.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Theodore Dalbrook, junior partner in the firm of Dalbrook and son, Cornhill Dorchester, was a more disdainable. relative of Juanitas than the Sandy first cousin in the auctioneer's office whom Lord Chariton had once hated as the only alternative to a charitable endowment. The Sandy youth was the only son of Lord Charitin's elder brother long since dead. Theodore was the grandson of a certain Matthew Dalbrook, a second cousin of Lord Charitans, and once upon a time the wealthiest and most important member of the Dalbrook family.

Starting point is 00:23:40 The humble-minded couple in the crockery shop had looked up to Matthew Dalbrook, a solicitor with a handsome old house in Cornhill, a smart gig, a stud of three fine horses and half the county people for his clients. To the plain folks behind the counter, who dined at one and supped on cold meat and pickles and Dutch cheese at nine of the clock, Mr. Dalbrook, the lawyer, was a great man. They were moved by his condescension when he draw it into the five o'clock tea, and talked over old family reminiscences, the farmhouse on the Waymouth Road, which was the cradle of their race, and where they had all known good days while the old people were alive, and while the homestead was a family rendezvous, that he should deign to take tea and water-cresses in the little parlor behind the shop, he who had a drawing-room almost as big as a church, and a man-servant, in plain clothes to

Starting point is 00:24:27 wait upon him at his six o'clock dinner, was a touching act of humility in their eyes. When their younger boy brought home prizes and certificates of all kinds from the grammar school, it was for Matthew they sought advice, modestly, and with the apprehension of being deemed over-ambitious. I'm afraid he's too much of a scholar for the business, said the mother shyly, looking fondly at her tall, overgrown son, pallid with rapid growth and overmuch Greek and Latin. Of course he is. That boy is too good to sell pots and pans. You must send him to the university, Jim. Jim, the father, looked despondently at James the son. The university meant something

Starting point is 00:25:06 awful in the crockery merchant's mind, a vast expenditure of money, dreadful hazards to religion and morals. Friendships with dukes and marquises, whose influence would alienate the boy from his parents, and render him scornful of the snug-back parlor, with his grandfather's portrait over the mantelpiece, painted in oils by a gifted townsman, who had once had

Starting point is 00:25:26 a picture very nearly hung in the Royal Academy. I couldn't afford to send him to college, he said. Oh, but you must afford it. I must help you, if you and Sarah haven't got enough in an old stalking anywhere, as I dare say you have. My boys are at the university, and they didn't do half as well at the grammar school as your boy has done he must go to cambridge he must be entered at trinity hall and if he works hard and keeps steady he needn't cost you a fortune you would work eh james wouldn't i just that's all james replied with emphasis

Starting point is 00:26:01 his heart had sickened at the prospect of the crockery business the consignments of pots and pans the returned empties invoices quarterly accounts matchings rivetings dust straws dirt, and degradation. He could not see the nobility of labor in that dusty shop, below the level of the pavement amid ewers and basins, teacups and beer jugs, cherries and ports. But to work in the university, hired by that great college where Bacon had worked, and Newton, and a host of the mighty dead, and where, well, a self-made man was still head, to work among the suns of gentlemen and with a view to the profession of a gentleman. That would be labor for which to live, for which to die, if not. need be. If, if mother and me were to strain a pint, mused the crockery man,

Starting point is 00:26:48 who was better able to afford the university for his son than many a gentlemen of Dorset whose boys had to be sent there, willy-nilly. If mother and me that have worked so hard for our money was willing to spend a goodish bit of it upon sending him to college, what are we to do with him after we've made a fine gentleman of him? That's where it is, you see, Matt. You are not going to make a fine gentleman of him, God forbid. If he does well at Cambridge, you can make a lawyer of him. Trinity Hall is the nursery of lawyers. You can article him to me.

Starting point is 00:27:18 And look, you here, Jim, if I don't have to help you pay for his education, I'll give him his articles. There. Now what do you say to that? The offer was pronounced a generous one, and worthy of a blood relation, but James Dalbrook never took advantage of his kinsman's kindness.

Starting point is 00:27:34 His university career was as successful as his progress at the Quaintstone Grammar School, and his college friends who were neither dukes nor marquises, but fairly sensible young men, all advised him to apply himself to the higher branch of the law. So James Dalbrook of Trinity Hall ate his dinners at the temple during his last year of undergraduate life, came out seventh Wrangler, was called to the bar, and in due course were crimson, velvet and ermine, and became Lord Chariton, a man whose greatness in some wise overshadowed the small provincial dignity of the house of Matthew Dalbrook, erstwhile,

Starting point is 00:28:07 head of the family. The Dalbrooks of Dorchester had gone upon their way quietly, thriving, respected, but in no wise distinguished. Matthew Jr. had succeeded his father, Matthew Sr., and the firm in Cornhill had been Dalbrook and son for more than 30 years, and now Theodore, the eldest of a family of five, was son, and his grandfather, the founder of the firm, was sleeping the sleep of the just in the cemetery outside Dorchester. Lord Chariton was too wise a man to forget old obligations or to avoid his kindred. There was nothing to be ashamed of in his connection with the thoroughly reputable firm like Dalbrook and Son. They might be provincial, but their name was a synonym for honor and honesty.

Starting point is 00:28:51 They had taken as firm root in the land as the county families whose title deeds and leases, wills and codicels they kept. They were well-bred, well-educated, God-fearing people, with no struggling ambitions, no morbid craving to get upon a higher social level than the status to which their professional position and their means entitled them. They rode and drove good horses, kept good servants, lived in a good house, visited among the county people with moderation, but they made no pretensions to being smart. They offered no sacrifices of fortune or self-respect to the modern Moloch, fashion. There was a younger son called Harrington destined for the church, and with advanced views upon church architecture and music,

Starting point is 00:29:34 and there were two unmarried daughters, Janet and Sophia, also with advanced views upon the woman's rights question, and with a sovereign contempt for the standard young lady. Theodore's lines were marked out for him with inevitable precision. He had been taken into partnership the day he was out of his articles, and at seven and twenty he was his father's right hand and represented all that was modern and popular in the firm. He was as steady as a rock,

Starting point is 00:30:01 had an intellect of singular acuteness, a ready wit, and very pleasing manners. He had, above all things, the inestimable gift of unequable and happy temper. He had been everybody's favorite from the nursery upwards, popular at school, popular at the university, popular in the local club, popular in the hunting field. And it was the prevailing opinion of Dorchester that he ought to marry an heiress and make a great position for the house of Dalbrook. Some people had gone so far as to say that he ought to. to marry Lord Chariton's daughter.

Starting point is 00:30:33 He had been made free of the great house at Chariton from the time he was old enough to visit anywhere. His family had been bidden to all notable festivities, had been duly called upon at not too long intervals by Lady Chariton. He had ridden by Juanita's side in many a run with a South Dorset Foxhounds and had waited about with her outside many a covert. They had picnicked and made Gypsy tea at Corfe Castle. They had rambled in the woods near Studland.

Starting point is 00:31:00 they had sailed to Brank Sea and further away to Lulworth Cove and the romantic caves of stare, but this had been all in Frank Cousinly friendship. Theodore had seen only too soon that there was no room for him in his kin's woman's heart. He began by admiring her as the loveliest girl he had ever seen. He had ended by adoring her, and he adored her still. But, with a loyal regard which accepted her position as another man's wife, and he would have died sooner than dishonor her by one unholy thought. It was nearly ten o'clock when he rode slowly along the avenue that led into Dorchester.

Starting point is 00:31:36 The moon was shining between the overarching boughs of the sycamores. The road, with that high overarching roof, had a solemn look in the moonlit stillness. The Roman amphitheatre yonder, with its grassy banks rising tier above tier, shone white in the moonbeams. The old town seemed to have asleep. The house in Cornhill had a very Philistine look as compared with that fine old mansion of Chariton, was present to his mind in very vivid colors tonight, those two wandering about the old Italian garden, hand in hand, wedded lovers, with the lamplit rooms open to the soft summer night, and the long terrace and stone balustrade and moss-grown statues of nymph and goddess silvered

Starting point is 00:32:16 by the moonbeams. The Cornhill house was a good old house notwithstanding, a paneled house of the Georgian era, with a wide entrance hall, and a well staircase with carved oak balusters and a balustre rail a foot broad. The furniture had been very little changed since the days of Theodore's great-grandfather, for the late Mrs. Dalbrook had cherished no yearnings for modern art in the furniture line. Her gentle spirit had looked up to her husband as a leader of men, and had reverenced chairs and tables, bureaus and wardrobes that had belonged to his grandfather, as if they were made sacred by that association. And thus the good old house and the good old town had a savor of bygone generations, an old family heir which the Pavis

Starting point is 00:32:58 he would buy for much gold if he could true that the dining-room chairs were over ponderous and the dining-room pictures belonged to the obscure school of religious art in which you can only catch your saint or your martyr at one particular angle yet the chairs were of a fine antique form and bore the crest of the dollbrooks on their shabby leather backs and the pictures had a respectable brownness which might mean holbein or rembrandt the drawing-room was large and bright with four narrow deeply recessed windows commanding the broad street and the antelope hotel over the way and deep window-seats crammed with flowers here the oak panelling had been painted pale pink and the mouldings picked out in a deeper tint by successive generation of vandals but the effect was cheerful and the pink walls made a good background for the chippendale secretaries and cabinets filled with willow pattern worcester or crown derby the window curtains were dark brown cloth with a border of berlin wool lilies and roses a border which would have set the teeth of an estheton edge but which blended with the general brightness of the room old mrs matthew dalbrook the grandmother and her three spinster daughters had toiled over those cross-stitch borders and theodore's mother would have deemed its sacrilege to have put aside this labour of a vanished life harrington dalbrook and his two sisters were in the drawing-room each apparently absorbed in an instructive book and yet on a all three had been talking for the greater part of the evening. It was a characteristic of their highly intellectual lives to nurse a volume of Herbert Spencer or a treatise upon the deeper mysteries of Buddha while they discussed the conduct or

Starting point is 00:34:33 morals of their neighbors, or their gowns and bonnets. I thought you were never coming home, Theo, said Janet. You don't mean to say you waited to see the bride and bridegroom. That is exactly what I do mean to say. I had to get old Sandown's lease executed, and when I had finished my my business I waited about to see them arrive. Do you think you could get me anything in the way of supper, Janie? Father went to bed ever so long ago, replied Janet.

Starting point is 00:35:00 It's dreadfully late. But I don't suppose the cook has gone to bed, and perhaps she could condescend to cut me a sandwich or two, answered Theodore, ringing the bell. His sisters were orderly young women, who objected to eating and drinking out of regulation hours. Janet looked round the room discontentedly, thinking that her brother would like crumbs. Young men, she had observed, are almost miracle workers in the way of crumbs. They can get more superfluous crumbs out of any given piece of bread than the entire piece

Starting point is 00:35:30 would appear to contain, looked at by the casual eye. I have found a passage in Spencer which most fully bears out my view, Theodore, said Sophia, severely, referring to an argument she had had with her brother the day before yesterday. How did she look? asked Janet, openly frivolous for the nods. lovelier than i ever saw her look in her life answered theodore at least i thought so he wondered as he said these words whether it had been his own despair at the thought of having irrevocably lost her which invested her familiar beauty with a new and mystic power yes she looked exquisitely lovely and completely happy an ideal bride if her nose were a thought longer her face would be almost perfect said janet how was she dressed i could no more tell you than i could say how many petals there are in that de jones rose yonder she gave me an impression of cool soft color i think there was yellow in her hat pale yellow like a primrose men are such dolts about woman's dress retorted janet impatiently and yet they pretend to have taste and judgment and to criticise everything we wear i think you may rely upon us for knowing what we don't like said theodore

Starting point is 00:36:45 he seated himself in his father's easy-chair a roomy old chair with projecting size that almost hid him from the other occupants of the room he was weary and sad and their chatter irritated his over-strung nerves he would have gone straight to his own room on arriving but that would have set them wondering and he did not want to be wondered about he wanted to keep his secret or as much of it as he could no doubt those three knew that he had been fond of her very fond that he would have sacrificed half his lifetime to win her for the other half but they did not know how fond they did not know that he would fain have melted down all the sands of time into one grain of gold one golden day in which to hold hold her to his heart, and know she loved him. End of Chapter 1. Volume 1, Chapter 2 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Starting point is 00:37:41 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 2 And warm and light I felt her clasping hand when twined in mine. She followed where I went. There is a touch of childishness in all honeymoon couples, a something which suggests that the babes in the wood, left to play together by the arch deceiver, fate, wandering hand in

Starting point is 00:38:03 hand in the morning sunshine, gathering flowers, pleased with the mossy banks and leafy glades, like those children of the old familiar story, before ever hunger or cold or fear came upon them, before the shadow of night and death stole darkly on their path. Even Godfrey Carmichael, a sensible, highly educated young man, whose pride it was to march in the van of progress and enlightenment, even he had that touch of childishness, which is adorable in a lover, and which last, oh, so short a time. Transient as the bloom on the peach, the down on the butterfly's wing, the morning dew on a rose. He had loved her all his life, as it seemed to him. They had been companions, friends, lovers, for longer than either could remember,

Starting point is 00:38:46 so gradual had been the growth of love. Yet the privilege of belonging to each other was not the less sweet because of this old familiarity. Are we really married, really husband and wife? Godfrey, asked Juanita, nestling to his side as they stood together in the wide veranda where they were breakfasted on these July mornings among climbing roses and climates. Husband and wife. Such prosaic words. I heard you speak of me to the vicar yesterday as my wife. It gave me quite a shock. Were you sorry to think it was true? Sorry, no, but wife. The word has such a matter-of-fact sound. It means a person who writes checks for the house accounts, revises the bill of fare, and takes all the blame when the servants do wrong.

Starting point is 00:39:33 Shall I call you my idol, then, my goddess, the enchantress whose magic wand wafts gladness and sunshine over my existence? No, call me wife. It is a good word, after all, Godfrey. A good serviceable word, a word that will stand wear and tear. It means forever. They breakfasted tete-a-tete in their bower of roses. They wandered about the chase or sat in the garden,

Starting point is 00:39:58 all day long. They led an idle, desultory life, like little children, and wondered that evening came so soon, and stayed up late into the summer night, steeping themselves in the starshine and silence which seemed new to them in their mutual delight. There was a lovely view from that broad terrace with its Italian balustrade and statues, its triple flight of marble steps descending to an Italian garden which had been laid out in the Augustine age of Pope and Addison when the distinctive feature of a great man's garden was stateliness. Here was the lover's favorite loitering place when the night grew late, Juanita looking like Juliette in her loose white silk

Starting point is 00:40:33 tea gown with its Venetian amplitude of sleeve and its medieval gold embroidery. The fashionable dressmaker, who made that gown, had known how to adapt her art to Miss Dalbrook's beauty. The long, straight folds accentuated every line of the finely-molded figure, fuller than the average girlish figure, suggestive of Juno rather than Syke. She was two inches taller than the average girl and looked almost as tall as her lover as she stood

Starting point is 00:40:57 beside him in the moonlight, gazing dreamily at the landscape. This hushed and solemn hour on the verge of midnight was their favorite time. Then only were they really alone, secure in the knowledge that all the household was sleeping, and that they had their world verily to themselves, and might be as foolish as they liked. Once, at sight of a shooting star, Juanita flung herself upon her lover's breast and sobbed aloud. It was some minutes before he could soothe her. "'My love, my love, what does it mean?' he asked. perplexed by her agitation.

Starting point is 00:41:30 I saw the star, and I prayed that we might never be parted. And then it flashed upon me that we might, and I could not bear the thought. She sobbed, clinging to him like a frightened child. My dear one, what should part us except death? Ah, God-free, death is everywhere. How could a good God make his creatures so fond of each other and yet part them so cruelly as he does sometimes? Only to unite them again in another world, Nita.

Starting point is 00:41:57 I feel as if our two lives must go on in an endless chain, circling among those stars yonder, which could not have been made to be forever unpeopled. There are happy lovers there at this instant, I am convinced. Lovers who had lived before us here and have been translated to a higher life yonder, lovers who have felt the pangs of parting, the ecstasy of reunion. He glanced vaguely towards that starry heaven while he fondly smoothed the dark hair upon Juanita's brow. It was not easy to win her back to cheerfulness. That vision of possible grief had too completely possessed her. Godfrey was fain to be serious, finding her spirits so shaken, so they talked together gravely of that unknown hereafter which philosophy or religion may

Starting point is 00:42:41 map out with mathematical distinctness, but which remains to the individual soul forever, mysterious, and awful. Her husband found it wiser to talk of solemn things, finding her so sad, and she took comfort from that serious conversation. Let us lead good lives, dear, and hope for the best in other worlds, he said. There is sound sense in the Buddhist theory that we are the makers of our own spiritual destiny and that a man may be in advance of his fellow men even in getting to heaven. Those grave thoughts had little place in one each as mine next day, which was the first day the lovers devoted to practical things.

Starting point is 00:43:17 They started directly after breakfast for a tte-a-te-tete drive to Millbrook Priory, where certain alterations and improvements were contemplated in the rooms which were to be Juanitas. Godfrey's widowed mother, Lady Jane Carmich, had transferred herself and her belongings to a villa at Swanage, where she was devoting herself to the creation of a garden, which was on a small scale to repeat the beauties of her flat, old-fashioned flower garden at the priory. It irked her somewhat to think how long the hedges of you and Holly would take to grow, but there was a certain pleasure in creation. She was a mild, loving creature with an aristocrat aristocratic profile, silvery-gray hair, and a small, fragile figure, a woman who looked

Starting point is 00:43:57 a patrician to her fingertips, in whom everybody imposed upon. Her blue blood had not endowed her with a power to rule. She adored her son, was very fond of Juanita, and resigned her place in her old home without a sigh. The priory was a great deal too big for me, she told her particular friends. I used to feel very dreary there when Godfrey was at Oxford and afterwards, for of course he was often away. It was only in the shooting season that the house looked cheerful. I hope they will soon have a family, and then that will enliven the place a little. Milbrook Village and Milbrook Priory lay twelve miles near Dorchester than Chariton Chase. Juanita enjoyed the long drive in the fresh morning air through a region of marsh and watery

Starting point is 00:44:41 meadow where the cattle gave charm and variety to a landscape which would have been barren and monotonous without them, a place of winding streams on which the summer sunlight was shining. the priory was by no means so fine a place as chariton but it was old and not without interest and lady jane was justified in the assertion that it was too large for her it would be too small perhaps for sir godfrey and his wife in the days to come when in the natural course of events james dalbrook would be at rest after his life labour and chariton would belong to juan no doubt they will like chariton better than the priory when we are all dead and gone said lady jane with her plaint of air i only hope they will have a family big houses are so dismal without little people the idea of a family was almost a craze with lady jane carmichael she had idolized her only son had been miserable at every parting and it had seemed a hard thing to her that there was not more of him as she had herself expressed it godfrey has been the dearest boy i only wish i had six of him she would say piteously and now her mind projected itself into the future and she pictured a bevy of grandchildren numerous as a covey of partridges in the upland fields of the home farm at chariton and fancied herself lavishing her hoarded treasures of love upon them she had grandchildren already and to spare the offspring of her two daughters but these did not bear the honoured name of carmichael and though they were to bear the honoured name of carmichael and though they were

Starting point is 00:46:08 very dear to her maternal heart, they were not what Godfrey's children would be to her. She would be gone, she told herself, before they would be old enough to forsake her. She would be gone before those young birds grew too strong upon the wing. A blessed spell of golden years lay before her. Nursery, and then a schoolroom. And then, perhaps, before the last dim closing scene, a bridle, a granddaughter clinging to her in the sweet sadness of leave-taking, a fair young face crowned with orange flowers pressed against her own in the bride's happy kiss,

Starting point is 00:46:40 and then she would say, Nunk de Mites, and feel that her cup of gladness have been filled to the brim. The lover's talk was all of that shadowy future, as the pair of Grays bowled gaily along the level road. The horses were Godfrey's favorite pair, and belonged to a team of chestnuts and grays which had won him some distinction last season in Hyde Park,

Starting point is 00:47:01 when the coaches met at the corner by the magazine, and when the handsome Miss Dalbrook, Lord Chariton's Harris, was the sinister of many eyes. The thoughts of Sir Godfrey and his wife were far from Hyde Park in the Foreign Hand Club this morning. Their minds were filled with simple rural anticipations and had almost a patriarchal turn

Starting point is 00:47:20 as of an Arcadian pair whose wealth was all in flocks and herds and green pastures like these by which they were driving. The priory stood on low ground between Wareham and Wimborn, sheltered from the north by a bold ridge of heath, screened on the east by a little wood of oaks and chestnuts,

Starting point is 00:47:36 Spanish chestnuts, with graceful drooping branches, whose glossy leaves contrasted with the closer foliage of the rugged old oaks. The house was built of perbeck stone, and its bluish-gray was touched with shades of gold and silver-green where the lichens and mosses crept over it, while one long southern wall was clothed with trumpet ash and magnolia, myrtle, and rose, as with a closely interwoven curtain of greenery from which the small latticed windows flashed back the sunshine. Nothing at the Priory was so stately as its counterpart a Chariton. There were marble balustrades and rural gods there on the terrace. Here there was only a broad gravel walk along the southern front with a little old shabby stone temple at each end. At Chariton, three flights of marble steps led from the terrace to the Italian garden,

Starting point is 00:48:24 and then again three more flights led to a garden on a lower level, and so by studied gradations to the bottom of the slope on which the mansion was built. here house and garden were on the same level and those gardens which lady jane had so cherished were distinguished only by an elegant simplicity between the garden and a park of less than fifty acres there was only a sunk fence and the sole glory of that modest domain lay in a herd of choice channel island cows which had been lady jane's pride she had resigned them to juanita without a sigh although each particular beast had been to her as a friend my dear what could i do with cow in a villa she said when juanita suggested that she should at least keep her favorites beauty and may do and coquette of course as you say i could rent a couple of paddocks but i should not like to see the herd divided besides you will want them all by and by when you have a family nita stepped lightly across the threshold of her future home the old gray porch was embedded in roses and trailing passion flowers everything had a shabby old world look compared with sheriffs here there had been no improvement for over a century all things had been quiescent as in the palace of the sleeping beauty what a dear old house it is godfrey and how everything in it speaks to me of your ancestors your own ancestors not other peoples that makes all the difference at charitin i feel always as if i were surrounded by malevolent ghosts i can't see them but i know they are there those poor strangways how they must hate me

Starting point is 00:50:01 if there are any living strangways knocking about the world houseless or at any rate landless i don't suppose they feel over kindly disposed to you said godfrey but the ghosts have done with human habitations it can matter very little to them who lives in the rooms where they were once happy or miserable as the case may be has your father ever heard anything of the old family never he says there are no strang ways left on this hemisphere there may be a remnant of the race in australia he says for Or he heard of a cousin of Reginal Strangways who went out to Brisbane years ago to work with a sheep farmer on the Darling Downs. There is no one else of the old race and the old name that he can tell me about. I take a morbid interest in the subject, you know. If I were to meet a very evil-looking tramp in the woods and he were to threaten me, I should suspect him of being a Strangway. They all must hate us.

Starting point is 00:50:55 With a very unreasonable hatred, then, Nita, for it was no fault of your fathers that the family went to the bad. i have heard my father talk of the strangways many a time over his wine they had been a reckless improvident race for ever so many generations men who lived only for the pleasure of the hour whose motto was carpe diem in the worst sense of the word there was a strangway who was the fashion for a short time during the regency wore a hat of his own invention and got himself entangled with a popular actress who sued him for breach of promise he dipped the property there was a racing strangway who kept a stable at newmarket and married well never mind how he dipped the property there was georgina strangway an heiress and a famous beauty in the sailor king's reign two of the royal dukes wanted to marry her but she ran away with a bandmaster in the blues she used to ride and hide park at nine o'clock every morning and a green cloth spencer trimmed with sable at a time when very few women rode in london she saw the van master, fell overhead and ears in love with him, and bolded. They were married at Gretna. He spent as much of her fortune as he could get at, and was reported to have thrashed her before they parted. She set up a boarding-house at Ostend, gambled, drank cheap brandy, and died at

Starting point is 00:52:15 five and forty. What a dreadful ghost she would be to meet, said Nina with a shudder. From first to last they have been a bad lot, concluded Sir Godfrey, and the Isle of Perbeck was a prodigious gainer when your father became master. of chariton chase and barren chariton of chariton. That is what they must feel worst of all, said Nita, speaking of the dead and the living as if they were one group of banished shades. It must be hard for them to think that a stranger takes his title from the land that was once theirs, from the house in which they were born. Poor ill-behaved things. I can't help being sorry for them.

Starting point is 00:52:53 My fanciful, Nita, they do not deserve your pity. They made their own lives, love. they have only suffered the result of their own karma i only hope they will be better off in their next incarnations and that they won't get that dreadful eighth world which leads nowhere said juanita she made the slight allusion to a creed which she and her lover had discussed seriously many a time in their graver moods they had read mr synod's books together and had given themselves up in some wise to the fascinating theories of esoteric buddhism and had been impressed by the curious parallel between that semi-fabulous reformer of the East, and the teacher and redeemer in whom they both believed. They went about the house together, Nita admiring everything, as if she were seeing those old rooms for the first time. The alterations to be made were of the smallest. Nita would allow scarcely any change. Whatever was nice enough for Lady Jane must be good enough for me, she said decisively, when Godfrey proposed improvements which would have changed the character of his mother's morning

Starting point is 00:53:57 room, a conservatory and a large bay window opposite the fireplace, for instance. But it is such a shabby old hole compared with your room at chariton. It is a dear old hole, sir, and I won't have it altered in the smallest detail. I adore these deep-set windows and wide window-seats, and this apple-blossom chintz is simply delicious. Faded, sir? What of that? One can't buy such patterns nowadays, for love or money.

Starting point is 00:54:25 And that old Chinese screen must have to be. belonged to a mandarin of the highest rank. My only feeling will be that I am a wretch in appropriating dear Lady Jane's surroundings. This room fitted her like a glove. She is charmed to surrender it to you, love, and your forbearance in the matter of improvement will delight her.

Starting point is 00:54:45 Your improvements would have been destruction. A conservatory opening out of that window would suggest a city man's drying-room at Tulse Hill. I have seen such in my childhood when mother used to visit odd people on the Surrey's of the river. Loveliest insolence. Oh, I am obliged to cultivate

Starting point is 00:55:03 insolence. It is a Pervinue's only defensive weapon. We new-made people always give ourselves more airs than you who were born in the purple. She roamed from room to room, expatiating upon everything with a childlike pleasure, delighted at the idea of this her new kingdom over which she was to reign with undivided sovereignty.

Starting point is 00:55:24 Cheriton was ever so much grander, but at chariton she had only been the daughter of the house indulged in every fancy yet in some wise in a state of subjection here she was to be sole mistress with godfrey for her obedient slave and now show me your room sir she exclaimed with pretty authority i may wish to make some improvements there you shall work your will with them dearest as you have done with their master he led her to his study and general den a fine old room looking into the stable-yard capatius but gloomy. This is dreadful, she cried. No view, and ever so far from me. You must have the room next to the morning room, so that we can run into each other and talk at any moment.

Starting point is 00:56:10 That is one of the best bedrooms. What of that? We can do without superfluous bedrooms, what I cannot do without you. This room of yours will make a visitor's bedroom. If he or she doesn't like it, he or she can go away and leave us to ourselves, which we shall.

Starting point is 00:56:27 like ever so much better, shan't we? She asked caressingly, as if life were going to be one long honeymoon. Of course he assented, kissed the red frank lips, and assured her that from him Bliss meant a perpetual tete-a-tete. Yes, his study should be next to her boudoir, so that even in his busiest hours he should be able to turn to her for gladness, refreshing himself with her smiles after a troublesome interview with his bailiff, taking counsel with her about every change in his table, sharing her intercourse, sharing her rest in every new book. I will give orders about the change at once, he said, so that everything may be ready for us

Starting point is 00:57:04 when you are tired of charitin. They lunched gaily in the garden. Nina hated eating indoors when the weather was good enough for an alfresco meal. They lunched under a Spanish chestnut that made a tent of foliage on the lawn in front of the house. They lingered over the meal, full of talk, finding a new world of conversation suggested by their surroundings, and then the grays were brought right. to the hall door, and they started on the return journey.

Starting point is 00:57:30 It began to rain before they reached Chariton, and the afternoon clouded over with a look of premature winter. No saunterings on the terrace this evening. No midnight meanderings among the cypresses and ews, the gleaming statues and dense green walls, as if they had been Romeo and Juliet, wedded and happy, in the garden at Verona. For the first time since the beginning of their honeymoon, they were obliged to stay indoors. It is positively chilly, exclaimed Juanita as her maid carried off her damp mantle. My dearest love, I'm afraid you've caught cold, said Godfrey with apprehension.

Starting point is 00:58:06 Do I ever catch cold, Godfrey? She cried scornfully. And indeed her splendid physique seemed too negative the idea she stood before him, tall and buoyant, with a carnation of health upon cheek and lips, her eyes sparkling, her head erect. Well, no, my Juno, I believe you are, as free from all such such. weakness as human nature can be but i shall order fires all the same and i implore you to put on a warm gown i will she answered gaily you shall see me in my copper plush thanks love that is a vision to live for shall we have tea in my dressing-room or in yours in mine i think we have taken tea in almost every other room in the house as well as in every corner of the garden it had been one of her girlish caprices to devise new places for their afternoon tea whether it had been as keen a delight to the footman to carry japanese tables and bamboo chairs from pillar to post was open to question but wanita loved to colonize as she called it i feel that wherever we establish our teapot we invest the spot with the sanctity of home she said fires were ordered and tea in sir godfrey's dressing-room it was lord dalbroke's dressing-room actually and altogether a sacred chamber. It had been one of the best bedrooms in the days of the

Starting point is 00:59:23 Strangways, but his lordship liked space and had chosen this room for his den. A fine old room, with full-length portraits of the Sir Joshua period, let into the paneling. The furniture was of the plainest and very different from the luxurious appointments of the other rooms, for these very chairs and tables, and yonder substantial mahogany desk, had done duty in James Dalbrook's chambers in the temple thirty years before. So had the heavy-looking clock on the chimney-piece surmounted by a bronze Saturn leaning upon his scythe. So had the brass candlesticks and the ink-stained red Morocco blotter on the desk. He had fallen asleep in that capacious armchair many a time in the small hours after struggling with the intricacies of a railway bill or pouring over a volume of precedence.

Starting point is 01:00:09 The thick Persian carpet, the velvet window curtains, paneled walls, and fine old fireplace gave a look of subdued splendor to the in spite of the dark and heavy furniture. There was a large vase of roses on the desk where Lord Chariton never tolerated a flower, and there were more roses on the chimney-piece, and some smart bamboo chairs, many colored, like Joseph's coat, had been brought from Nita's morning room.

Starting point is 01:00:32 And so, with logs blazing on the florinated iron dogs, and a scarlet tea-table set out with blue and gold china, and a moorish copper kettle swinging over a lamp, the room had as gay an aspect as anyone could desire. Juanita had made her toilette by the time the tea-table was ready, and came in from her room next door, a radiant figure in a gleaming copper-colored gown, flowing loose from throat to foot, and with no adornment except a broad collar and cuffs of old Venice Point. Her brilliant complexion and southern eyes and ebbin hair triumphed over the vivid hue of the gown,

Starting point is 01:01:06 and it was at her Sir Godfrey looked as she came beaming towards him, and not at the dressmaker's masterpiece. "'How do you like it?' she asked, with childlike pleasure in her fine raiment. "'I ought to have kept it till October, but I couldn't resist putting it on just to see what you think of it. "'I hope you won't say it's gaudy.' "'My dearest, you might be clad in a russet cloud for anything I should know to the contrary.' "'A quarter of a century hence, when you are beginning to fancy yourself, Passet, we will talk about gowns. It will be of some consequence than how you dress. It can be none now.' that is just a man's ignorance godfrey she said shaking her finger at him as she seated herself in one of the bamboo chairs a dazzling figure in the light of the blazing logs which danced about her eyes and hair and copper-coloured gown in a bewildering manner

Starting point is 01:01:56 you think me handsome i suppose permanently so and you think i should be just as handsome if i dressed anyhow in a badly fitting too sore for instance made last year and cleaned this year and with a hat of my own trimming eh godfrey every bit as handsome as handsome as i dressed anyhow in a badly fitting too sore for instance made last year and clean this year and with a hat of my own trimming eh godfrey every bit as handsome that shows what an ignoramus a university education can leave a man my dearest boy half my good looks depend upon my dressmaker not for worlds would i have you see me a dowdy if only for a quarter of an hour the disillusion might last a lifetime i dress to please you remember sir it was of you i thought when i was choosing my trousseau i want to be lovely in your eyes always always always you need make no effort to attain your wish. You have put so strong a spell upon my eyes that with me, at least, you are independent of the dressmaker's art. Again, I say, you don't know what you are talking about. But frankly now, do you think this gown to Goddy? That coppery background to my Murillo-Madonna, no love. The color suits you to perfection. She poured out the tea, and then sank back in her comfortable chair in a reverie, languid after explorations at the priory, full,

Starting point is 01:03:11 of a dream-like happiness as she basked in the glow of the fire, welcome as a novel indulgence at this time of the year. There is nothing more delightful than a fire in July, she said. Her eyes wandered about the room idly. Do you call them handsome? she asked presently. Godfrey looked puzzled. Was she still harping on the dress question, or was she challenging his admiration for those glorious eyes which she had been watching in their rovings for a lazy five minutes. I mean, the Strangways. That is their famous beauty.

Starting point is 01:03:46 The girl in the scanty white satin petticoat with the goat. Imagine anyone walking about a wood with a goat in white satin. What queer ideas portrait painters must have had in those days. She is very lovely, though, isn't she? She is not my ideal.

Starting point is 01:04:02 I don't admire that narrow Cupid's bow mouth, the lips pinched up as if they were pronouncing prunes and prism. The eyes are large and handsome but too round. The complexion is waxed dollish. No, she is not my ideal. I should have been miserable if you had admired her. There is a face in the hall which I like ever so much better, and yet I doubt if it is a good face. Which is that? The face of the girl in that group of John Strangway's three children. That girl with the tousled hair and bright blue eyes. Yes, she must have been handsome, but she looks—I hope you won't be sure. I'll be

Starting point is 01:04:39 But I really can't help saying it. That girl looks a devil. Poor soul. Her temper did not do much good for her. I believe she came to a melancholy end. How was that? She eloped from a school in Switzerland with an officer in a line regiment, a love match. But she went wrong a few years afterwards, left her husband and died in poverty at Boulogne, I believe. Another ghost! exclaimed Juanita, dolefully. Poor lost soul. She must walk. i can't help feeling sorry for her married to a man who was unkind to her perhaps and whom she discovered unworthy of her love and then years afterwards meeting someone worthier and better whom she loved passionately that is dreadful oh godfrey if i had been married before i saw you and we had met and you had cared for me god knows what kind of woman i should have been perhaps i should have been one of those poor souls who have a history the woman mother and her friends stare at and whispered about in the park why are people so keenly interested in them I wonder why can't they leave them alone it would be charity to do so no one is charitable in London do you think people are more indulgent in the country I suppose not I'm afraid English people keep all their charity for the continent I shall never look at the girl in that group without thinking of her sad story she looks hardly fifteen in the picture poor

Starting point is 01:06:09 thing? She did not know what was coming. They loitered over their tea-table, making the most of their happiness. The sweetness of their dual life had not begun to Paul. It was still new and wonderful to be together thus, unrestrained by any other presence. In the midst of their gay talk, Juanita's eyes wandered to the bronze time upon the chimney-piece, and the familiar figure suggested gloomy ideas. Oh, Godfrey, look at that grim old man with his scy, mowing down. Mawnda. Mawait. Mawait our happy moments so fast that we can hardly taste their sweetness before they speed away. To think that our lives are hurrying past us like a rapid river, and that we shall be like him, pointing distastefully to the type of old age, the wrinkled brow and flowing beard, before we know

Starting point is 01:06:56 that we have lived. It is a pity sweet that life should be so short. Her glance wandered to the dark oak panel above the clock, and she started up from her low chair with a faint scream, stood on tiptoe before the fireplace, snatched half a dozen straggie peacock's feathers from the panel, and threw them at her husband's feet. Look at those, she exclaimed, pointing to them as they lay there. Peacock's feathers.

Starting point is 01:07:21 What have they done that you should use them so? Oh, Godfrey, don't you know? She asked earnestly. Don't I know what? That peacock's feathers bring ill luck. It is fatal to take them into a house. They are an evil omen. and Father Will pick them up when he is strolling about the lawn

Starting point is 01:07:39 and will bring them indoors, though I am always scolding him for his obstinate folly and always throwing the horrid things away. And this kind of thing has been going on for some years, I suppose? asked Godfrey, smiling at her intensity. Ever since I can remember, and have the peacock's feathers brought you misfortune. She looked at him gravely for a few moments,

Starting point is 01:08:02 and then burst into a joyous laugh. "'No, no, no,' she said. "'Fate has been overkind to me. "'I have never known sorrow. "'Fate has given me you. "'I am the happiest woman in the world, "'for there can't be another you, and you are mine. "'It is like owning the coen or diamond.

Starting point is 01:08:24 "'One knows that one stands alone. "'Still, at the same time, peacock's feathers are unlucky, "'and I will not suffer them in your room.' she picked up the offending feathers twisted them into a ball and flung them at the back of the deep old chimney behind the smouldering logs and then she produced a chess-board and she and godfrey began a game with the board on their knees and played for an hour by firelight end of chapter two volume one chapter three of the day will come by mary elizabeth bradden this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter three a deadly silence step by step by step in creed until it seemed a horrid presence there. That idea of the Strangways had taken hold of the bride's fancy. She went into the hall with Godfrey after dinner,

Starting point is 01:09:19 and they looked together at the family group. The picture was a bishop's half-length turned lengthwise, and the figure showed only the head and shoulders. The girl stood between the two boys, her left arm round her younger brother's neck. He was a lad of eleven or twelve in an eaten jacket and broad white collar. The other boy was older than the girl, was dressed in dark green corduroy.

Starting point is 01:09:41 The heads were masterly, but the picture was uninteresting. Did you ever see three faces with so little fascination among the three? asked Godfrey. The boys look errant cubs. The girl has the makings of a handsome woman, but the lines of her mouth and chin

Starting point is 01:09:56 have firmness enough for forty, and yet she could hardly have been over fifteen when that picture was painted. She has a lovely throat and lovely shoulders. Yes, the painter has made the most of those. and she has fine eyes. Fine as to cut her in shape, but as cold as a Toledo blade,

Starting point is 01:10:14 and as dangerous, I pity your husband. That must be a waste of pity. If he had been good to her, she would not have run away from him. I am not sure of that. A woman with that mouth and chin would go her own gait if she trampled upon bleeding hearts.

Starting point is 01:10:31 I wonder your father keeps these shadows of a vanished race. He would not part with them for worlds. They are like the peacock feathers that he will bring indoors. I sometimes think he has a fancy for unlucky things. He says that as we have no ancestors of our own to speak of, I suppose we must have ancestors, for everybody must have come down from Adam somehow.

Starting point is 01:10:53 Naturally, or from Adam's ancestor, the common progenitor of the Darwinian thesis. Don't be horrid. Father's idea is that as we have no ancestors of our own, we may as well keep the Strangway portraits. The faces are the history of the house, father said, when Mother wanted those dismal old pictures taken down to make way for a collection of modern art.

Starting point is 01:11:13 So there they are, and I can't help thinking that they overlook us. They were still standing before the trio of young faces contemplatively. Are they all dead? asked Juanita after a pause. God knows. I believe it is a long time since any of them were heard of. Jasper Blake talks to me about them sometimes. He was in service here, you know, before he became my father's bailiff. In fact, he only left Chariton

Starting point is 01:11:40 after the old squire's death. He is fond of talking of the forgotten race, and it is from him that most of my information is derived. He told me about that unlucky lad, pointing to the younger boy. He was in the Navy, distinguished himself out in China, and was on the high road to getting a ship when he got broke from drunkenness,

Starting point is 01:11:58 a flagrant case, which all but ended in a tremendous disaster and the burning of a man of war. He went into the merchant service, did well for a year or two, and then the old enemy took hold of him again and he got broke there. After that he dropped through, disappeared in the great dismal swamp where the men who fail in this world sink out of knowledge. And the elder boy, what became of him? He was in the army, a tremendous swell, I believe, married Lord Dangerfield's youngest daughter, and cut a dash for two or three years, and then disappeared from society, and took his wife to Corsica on the ground of

Starting point is 01:12:32 delicate health. For anything I know to the contrary, they may still be living in that free and easy little island. He was fond of sport and liked a rough life. I fancy that a Jacksono would suit him better than Perbeck or Palmaal. Poor things. I wonder if they ever long for Chariton. If old Jasper is to be believed, they were passionately fond of the place, especially that girl. Jasper was groom in those days and he taught her to ride. She was a regular daredevil, according to his account, with a temper that no one had ever been able to control. But she seems to have behaved pretty well to Jasper, and he was attached to her. Her father couldn't manage her anyhow. They were too much alike. He sent her to a school at Lozanne soon after the picture was painted, and she never

Starting point is 01:13:19 came back to Chariton. She ran away with an English officer who was home from India on furlough, and was staying at Ushie for his health. She represented herself as a full age and contrived to get married at Geneva. The squire refused ever to see her or her husband. She ran away from the husband afterwards, as I told you. In fact, to quote Jasper, she was an incorrigible balter. Poor, poor thing, it is all too sad, sighed Juanita. Let us go into the library and forget them. There are no strong ways there, thank heaven. She put her arm through Godfries and led him off, unresisting. He was in that stage of devotion. in which he followed her like a dog.

Starting point is 01:14:03 The library was one of the best rooms in the house, but the least interesting from an archaeologist's point of view. It had been built early in the 18th century for a ballroom, a long, narrow room with five tall windows, and it had been afterwards known as the music room. But James Dalbrook had improved it out of its original character by throwing out a large bay with three windows opening on to a semicircular terrace, with marble balustrade and steps leading down to the prettiest portion of that Italian,

Starting point is 01:14:30 garden, which was the crowning glory of Chariton Manor, and which it had been Lord Chariton's delight to improve. The spacious bay gave width and dignity to the room, and it was in the space between the bay and the fireplace that people naturally grouped themselves. It was too large a room to be warmed by one fire of ordinary dimensions, but the fireplace added by James Dalbrook was of abnormal width and grandeur, while the chimney-piece was rich in colored marbles and massive sculpture. The room was lined with books from floor to ceiling. Clusters of wax candles were burning on the mantelpiece, and two large moderator lamp stood on a massive carved-doked table in the center of the room. A table spacious enough to hold all the magazines, reviews,

Starting point is 01:15:12 and periodicals in three languages that were worth reading. Quarterlies, Revue des du Monde, Runchau, Figuero, World, Saturday, Truth, and the rest of them, as well as guidebooks, peerages, clergy, and army lists, which made a formidable range in the middle. Godfrey flung himself into a long, low armchair, and Juanita pushed herself lightly beside him on the cushioned arm, looking down at him from that point of vantage. There was a wood fire here as well as in the hall, but the rain was over now, the evening had grown warmer, and the French windows in the bay stood open to the dull gray night. What are you eating now, Godfrey? asked Juanita, glancing at the cozy double table in a corner

Starting point is 01:15:55 by the chimneypiece loaded with books above and below. For duty reading, Jones' book on Grattan and the Irish Parliament. For old books, Plato. For new wider horizons. He was an insatiable reader, and even in those long summer days of honeymoon bliss, he had felt the need of books, which were a habit of his life. Is wider horizons a good book?

Starting point is 01:16:19 It is full of imagination and it carries one away, but one has the same feeling as in esoteric Buddhist. It is a very comforting theory, and it ought to be true. But by what authority is this gospel preached to us, and on what evidence are we to believe? Wider Horizons is about the life to come? Yes, it gives us a very vivid picture of our existence in other planets. The author writes as if he had been there, and according to this theory, you and I are to meet and be happy again in some distant star.

Starting point is 01:16:50 In many stars, climbing from star to star and achieving a higher state, spirituality, a finer essence, with every new existence, until we attain the everlasting perfection. And we who are to die old and worn out here are to be young and bright again there, in our next world? Naturally. And then we shall grow old again, go through the same slow decay, grey hairs, fading sight, duller hearing. Yes, as we blossom, so we must fade. The withered husk of the old life holds the seed from which the new flower must spring, and with every incarnation the flower is to gain in vigor and beauty, and the life period is to lengthen till it touches infinity.

Starting point is 01:17:31 I must read the book, Godfrey. It may be all a dream, but I love even dreams that promise a future in which you and I shall always be together, as we are now, as we are now. She repeated those last four words with infinite tenderness. The beautiful head sank down to nestle upon his shoulder, and they were silent for some minutes in a dreamy,

Starting point is 01:17:53 reverie, gazing into the fire, where the logs had given out their last flame and were slowly fading from red to gray. It was a quarter to eleven by the dial led into the marble of the chimney-piece. The butler had brought a tray with wine and water at ten o'clock and had taken the final orders before retiring. Juanita and her husband were alone amid the stillness of the sleeping household. The night was close and dull, not a leaf stirring, and only a few dim stars in the heavy sky. as the clock told the third quarter with a small silvery chime as if it were town clock in fairyland juanita started suddenly from her half-reclining position and listened intently with her face towards the open window a footstep she exclaimed i heard a footstep on the terrace my dearest i know your hearing is quicker than mine but this time it is your fancy that heard and not your ears i heard nothing and who should be walking on the terrace at such an hour do you suppose I don't suppose anything about it, but I know there was someone.

Starting point is 01:18:58 I heard the steps got free. I heard them as distinctly as I heard you speak just now. Light footsteps. Slow, very slow, and with that cautious, treacherous sound which light-slow footsteps always have, if one hears them in the silence of night. You are very positive. I know it.

Starting point is 01:19:17 I heard it, she cried, running to the window and out into the grey night. She ran along the whole length of the length. of the terrace and back again, her husband following her with slower steps, and they found no one, heard nothing from one end to the other. "'You see, love, there was no one there,' said Godfrey. "'I see nothing of the kind, only that the someone who was there has vanished very cleverly. An eavesdropper might hide easily enough behind any one of those cypresses,' she said,

Starting point is 01:19:45 pointing to the obelisk-shaped trees which showed black against the dim gray of the night. "'Why, should there be any eavesdropper, love?' what secrets have you and i that any prowler should care to watch or listen the only person of the prowling kind to be apprehended would be a burglar and as charitin has been burglar free all these years i see no reason for fear so unless your mysterious footfall belonged to one of the servants or a servant's follower which is highly improbable at this side of the house i take it that you must have heard a ghost he had his arm around her and was leading her out of the misty night into the warm bright room and his voice had the light sound of laughter But at that word ghost, she started and trembled, and her voice was very serious as she answered. A ghost, yes, it was just like the footfall of a ghost. So slow, so soft, so mysterious. I believe it was a ghost, Godfrey.

Starting point is 01:20:40 A strangway ghost. Some of them must revisit this house. End of Chapter 3. Volume 1, Chapter 4 of The Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braden. This Librevox recording is in the public domain Chapter 4 Who will dare to pluck thee from me And of thine own will

Starting point is 01:21:08 Full well I feel that thou wouldst not leave me The sunshine of a summer morning streaming in through mullioned windows That looked due south Raised one-eatous spirits and dispersed her fears It was impossible to feel depressed under such a sky She had been wakeful for a considerable part of the night brooding upon that ghostly footstep which had sent such a sudden chill to her warm young heart,

Starting point is 01:21:32 but that broad, clear light of morning brought common sense. I dare say it was only some lovesick housemaid roaming about after all the others had gone to bed in order to have a quiet think about her sweetheart and what he said to her last Sunday as they went home from church. I know how I used to walk about with no company but my thoughts of you, Godfrey, and how sweet it used to be to go over all your dearest words, over and over again, And no doubt the heart of a housemaid is worked by just the same machinery that sets mine going, and her thoughts would follow the same track. That is what we are taught to believe, dearest, in this enlightened age.

Starting point is 01:22:10 Why should it be a ghost? Pursued Juanita, leaning back in her bamboo chair and lazily enjoying the summer morning, somewhat languid after her sleepless night. They were breakfasting at the western end of the terrace with an awning over their heads, and a couple of footmen traveling to and from the house in attendance of on them, and keeping respectfully out of earshot between miles. The table was heaped with roses, and the wax and chalices of the great magnolia on the lower level showed above the marble balustrade, and shed an almost overpowering perfume on the warm air.

Starting point is 01:22:43 Why should a ghost come now? she asked, harping upon her morbid fancies. There has never been a hint of a ghost in all the years that father and mother have lived here. Why should one come now, unless... Unless what, love? Unless one of the Strangways died last night, at the very moment when we heard the footfall, died in some distant land, perhaps, and with his last dying thought, revisited the place of his birth.

Starting point is 01:23:08 One has heard of such things. One has heard of a great many strange things. The human imagination is very inventive. Ah, you are a sceptic, I know. I don't think I actually believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of being forced to believe in them. Oh, Godfrey, if it were meant for a warning, she cried with sudden terror in the large dark eyes what kind of warning a presage of misfortune sickness death i have read so many stories of such warnings

Starting point is 01:23:40 my dearest love you have read too much rubbish in that line your mind is full of morbid fancies if the morning were not too warm i should say put on your habit and let us go for a long ride i am afraid this sauntering life of ours is too depressing for you depressing to be with you all day oh godfrey you must be tired of me if you can suggest such a thing but my nita when i see you giving yourself up to gloomy speculations about ghosts and omens oh that means nothing when one has a very precious treasure one must needs to be full of fears look at misers how nervous they are about their hidden gold and my treasure is more to me than all the gold of ophia infinitely precious She sprang up from her low chair and leaned over the back of his to kiss the broad brow which was lifted up to meet those clinging lips. Oh, my love, my love,

Starting point is 01:24:39 I never knew what fear meant till I knew the fear of parting from you, she murmured. Put on your habit, Nita. We will go for a ride in spite of the sun. Or, what do you say to driving to Dorchester and storming your cousins for a lunch? I want to talk to Mr. Dalbrook

Starting point is 01:24:55 about Skinner's bill of dilapidation. her mood changed in an instant. That would be capital fun, she cried. I wonder if it is a breach of etiquette to lunch with one's cousins during one's honeymoon. A fig for etiquette? Thomas, to an approaching footman, or to the phaeton for half-past eleven.

Starting point is 01:25:15 What a happy idea, said Juanita. A long, long drive with you, and then the fun of seeing how you get on with my strong-minded cousins. They pretend to despise everything that other girls care for. don't you know and go in for literature science politics everything intellectual in short and i have seen them sit and nurse darwin or buckle for a whole evening while they have talked of gowns and bonnets and other girls flirtations then they are not such roman maidens as they affect to be far from it they will take the pattern of my frock with their eyes before i have been in the room ten minutes just watch them i will if i can take my eyes off you

Starting point is 01:25:55 juanita ran away to change her white peignoir for a walking-dress and reappeared in half an hour radiant and ready for the drive how do you like my frock she asked posing herself in front of her husband and challenging admiration the frock was old gold indian silk soft and dull made with an exquisite simplicity of long flowing draperies over a kilted petticoat which just showed the neat little tan shoes and a glimpse of tan silk stocking the bodice fitzsche the bodice fitz fitted the tall, supple figure like a glove. The sleeves were loose and short, tied carelessly at the elbow with a broad satin ribbon, and the long suede gloves matched the gown to the nicest shade. Her hat was leghorn, broad enough to shade her eyes from the sun, high enough to add to her importance, and caught up on one side with a bunch of dull yellow barley and a few cornflowers, whose vivid hue was repeated in a cluster of the same flowers embroidered on one side of the bodice. her large sunshade was of the same silk as her gown, and that was also embroidered with cornflowers, a stray blossom flung here and there with an accidental air. My love, you'd look as if you had stepped out of a fashion book.

Starting point is 01:27:07 I suppose I am too smart, said Juanita with an impatient sigh, and yet my coloring is very subdued. There is only that touch of blue in the cornflowers, just the one highlight in the picture. That is the only drawback to country life. everything really pretty seems too smart for dusty roads and green lanes one must be content to grope one's obscure way in a tailor gown or a cotton frock all the year round now this would be perfection for a wednesday in height park wouldn't it my darling it is charming why should you not be prettily dressed under this blue summer sky you can sport your tailor gowns in winter you are not too smart for me nita you are only too lovely bring your dust-grossed and you may defy the perils of the road.

Starting point is 01:27:55 Celestine, Lady Carmichael's French Swiss maid, was in attendance with the dust cloak, an ample wrap of creamy silk and lace cloud-like, indescribable. This muffled the pretty gown from top to toe, and Anita took her seat in the phaeton, and prepared for a longer drive and a longer talk than he had had yesterday. She was pleased at the idea of showing off her handsome young husband and her new frock to those advanced young ladies,

Starting point is 01:28:19 who had affected a kind of, superiority on the ground of what she called heavy reading and what they called advanced views. Janet and Sophia had accepted Lady Chariton's invitations with inward protest, and in their apprehension of being patronized had been somewhat inclined to give themselves airs, taking pains to impress upon their cousin that she was as empty-headed as she was beautiful, in that they stood upon an intellectual plane for which she had no scaling ladder. She had put up with such small snubbings in the sweetest way, knowing all the time that as the Honourable Juanita Dalbrook of Chariton Chase, and one of the debutantes whose praises had been sung in all the

Starting point is 01:28:56 society papers, she inhabited a social plain as far beyond their reach as their intellectual plane might be above hers. "'I don't suppose we shall see Theodore,' said Juanita as the bays bowled merrily along the level road. The Grays were getting arrest after yesterday's work, and these were Lady Chariton's famous Baruch horses, to whom the Fayettean seemed a toy. He must have gone to Heidelberg before now, added Juanita. He must be fond of Heidelberg to be running off there when it is so jolly at home.

Starting point is 01:29:28 He was there for a year, you know, before he went to Cambridge, and he is always going back there or to the hearts for his holidays. I sometimes tell him he is half a German. She rather hoped that Theodore was in Germany by this time, and yet she had assured herself in her own mind that there could be no pain to him. him in their meeting. She knew that he had loved her, that in one rash hour after a year's absence in America when he had not known or had chosen to forget the state of affairs between her and Godfrey, he had told her of his love and had asked her to give him hope. It was before

Starting point is 01:30:01 her engagement, but she was not the less frank in confessing her attachment to Godfrey. I can never care for anyone else, she said. I have loved him all my life. All her life. Yes, That was Theodore's irreparable loss. While he, the working man, had been grinding out his days in the treadmill round of a country solicitor's office, the young patrician had been as free as the butterflies in Juanita's Rose Garden, free to woo her all day long, free to share her most trifling pleasures and sympathize with her lightest pains. What chance had the junior partner in Dalbrook and son against Sir Godfrey Carmichael of Millbrook Priory? Theodore had managed his life so well after that one bitter rebuff

Starting point is 01:30:48 that Juanita had a right to suppose that his wound had healed and that the pain of that hour had been forgotten. She was sincerely attached to him as a kinsman and respected him more than any other young man of her acquaintance. Had not Lord Chariton, that admirable judge of character, declared that Theodore was one of the cleverest men he knew and regretted that he had not attached himself to the higher branch of the law as the more likely in his case to result in wealth and fame.

Starting point is 01:31:16 The Fayeton drove up to the old Hanoverian doorway as St. Peter's clock chimed the quarter after one. The old man-servant looked surprised at this brilliant vision of a beautiful girl, a fine pair of horses, a smart groom, and Sir Godfrey Carmichle. The two ensemble was almost bewildering even to a man accustomed to see the various conveyances of neighboring landowners at his master's door. Yes, my lady. Both the young ladies are at home, said Brown, and led the way upstairs with unshaken dignity.

Starting point is 01:31:47 He had lived in that house five and thirty years, beginning as shoe-black and errand-boy, and he was proud to hear his master tell his friends how he had risen from the ranks. He had indulged in some mild philanderings with pretty parlour-maids in the days of his youth, but had never seriously entangled himself and was a confirmed bachelor, and something of a misogynist. He was a pattern of honesty and conscientiousness. having no wife and family to be maintained upon broken victuals and illuminated with filched candle ends or stolen oil. He had not a single interest outside his master's house,

Starting point is 01:32:22 hardly so much as a thought. And the glory and honor of family were his honor and glory. So as he ushered Lady Carmichael and her husband to the drawing room, he was meditating upon what additions to the luncheon he could suggest to cook which might render that meal worthy of such distinguished guests. Sophia was seated by one of the windows painting an orchid in a tall Venetian vase. It was a weakness with these clever girls to think they could do everything.

Starting point is 01:32:50 They were not content with Darwin and the new learning, but they painted indifferently in oils and in watercolors, played on various instruments, sang in three languages, and fancied themselves invincible at lawn tennis. The orchid was top-heavy and had been tumbling out of the vase every five minutes in a manner that had been very trying to the artist

Starting point is 01:33:09 temper and irritating to Janet, who was grappling with the volume of Johann Mueller in the original and losing herself in a labyrinth of words beginning with verre and ending with height. They both started up from the occupations of which both were tired, and welcomed their visitors with a show of genuine pleasure, for although they had been very determined in their resistance to anything like patronage on Juanita's part when she was Miss Dalbrook, they were glad that she should be prompt to recognize the claims of Kindred now that she was Lady Carmichael. how good of you to come exclaimed janet i didn't think you would remember us at such a time did you think i must forget old friends because i am happy said juanita but i mustn't take credit for other people's virtues it was godfrey who proposed driving over to see you i wanted to show you what a nice couple we make said sir godfrey gaily drawing his bride closer to him as they stood side by side tall and straight and glowing with youth and gladness in the middle of the grave old drawing-room

Starting point is 01:34:09 you young ladies were not so cousinly as your brother theodore you didn't drive to chariton to welcome us home if theo had told us what he was going to do we should have been very glad to be there too replied sophy but he rode off in the morning without saying a word to anybody he is in germany by this time i suppose said juanita he is downstairs in the office his portmanteau has been packed for a week i believe explained janet but there is always some fresh business to prevent his tartarie my father relies upon him more every day dear good Theodore he is quite the cleverest man I know said Juanita without the slightest idea of disparaging her husband whom she considered perfection I think he must be very much like what my father was at his age people who are in a position to know tell us that he is exactly what his own father was at that age said Janet resenting this attempt to trace her brother's gifts to a more distant source I don't see why one need to go further My father would not have been trusted as he had been for the last thirty years if he were a simpleton and Galton observes The door opened at this moment and Theodore came in He greeted his cousin and his cousin's husband with unaffected friendliness It is against my principles to take luncheon he said laughingly as he gave Juanita his hand

Starting point is 01:35:31 But this is a red-letter day my father is waiting for us in the dining room They all went downstairs together Theodore leading the way with his cousin, talking gaily as they went down the wide oak staircase between sober-panelled walls of darkest brown. The front part of the ground floor was given up to offices, and the dining room was built out at the back, a large, bright-looking room with the bay window opening onto a square town garden, a garden of about half an acre, surrounded with high walls, above which showed the tree-tops in one of the leafy walks that skirt the town. It was very different to that Italian garden at Chariton where the peacocks trotted slowly between long rows of cypresses,

Starting point is 01:36:11 where the Italian statues showed white in every angle of the dense green wall, and where the fountain rose and fell with a silvery cadence in the still summer atmosphere. Here there was only a square lawn, just big enough for tennis court, and a broad border of hardy flowers with one especial portion at the end of the garden, where Sophia experimented in cross-fertilization after the manner of Darwin, seeming forever upon the threshold of valuable discoveries. mr dalbrook was a fine-looking man of some unassertained age between fifty and sixty he boasted that he was lord chariton's junior by a year or two although they had both come to a time of life when a year or two more or less could matter very little he was very fond of juanita and he welcomed her with a special tenderness in her new character as a bride he kissed her and then held her away from him for a minute with a kindly scrutiny lady godfrey surpasses miss dullbrook he said

Starting point is 01:37:07 said, smiling at the girl's radiant face. I suppose now you are going to be the leading personage in our part of the county. We quiet townspeople will be continually hearing of you, and there will not be a local paper without a notice of your doings. Anyhow, I am glad you don't forget old friends. He placed her beside him at the large oval table, on which the handsomest plate and the oldest china had been set forth with the celerity which testified to Brown's devotion. Mr. Dalbrook was one of those sensible people who never waste keep or wages upon a bad horse or a bad servant, whereby his cook was one of the best in Dorchester.

Starting point is 01:37:44 So the luncheon, albeit plain and unpretentious, was a meal of which no man need feel ashamed. Juanita was fond of her uncle, as she called this distant cousin of hers, to distinguish him from the younger generation, and she was pleased to be sitting by him and hearing all the news at the county town and the county people who were his clients, and in many cases his friends. It may be that his cousinship with Lord Chariton had gone as far as his professional acumen to elevate him in the esteem of town and country, and that some people, who would hardly have invited

Starting point is 01:38:15 the provincial solicitor for his own sake, sent their cards as a matter of course to the law lord's cousin. But there were others who esteemed Matthew Dalbrook for his own sterling qualities, and who even liked him better than the somewhat severe and self-assertive Lord Chariton. While Juanita talked confident, to her kinsman and while sir godfrey discussed the ladies's theory about the sun and the probable endurance of our own little planet with janet and sophia theodore sat at the bottom of the table silent and thoughtful watching the lovely animated face with its look of radiant happiness and telling himself that the woman he loved was as far away from him sitting there within reach of his touch within the sound of his lowest whisper as if she had been in another world

Starting point is 01:38:58 he had borne himself bravely on her wedding-day and smiled back her happy smile and clasped her hand with a steady grip of friendship but after that ordeal there had been a sad relapse in his fortitude and he had thought of her ever since as a man thinks of that supreme possession without which life is worthless as the miser thinks of his stolen gold, or the ambitious man of his blighted name. Yes, he had loved her with all the strength of his heart and mind, and he knew that he could never again love with the same full measure. He was too wise a man, and too experienced in life, to tell himself that for him time could have no healing power, that no other woman could ever be dear to him. But he told himself that another love like on to this was impossible, and that all the future could bring him would be some pale, faint copy of this radiant picture. I suppose it's only one man in fifty who marries his first love, he thought, and then

Starting point is 01:39:56 he looked at Godfrey Carmichael and thought that to him over much had been given. He was a fine young fellow, clever, unassuming, with a frank good face, a man who was liked by men as well as by women, but what had he done to be worthy of such a wife as Juanita? Theodore could only answer the question in the words of Figuero. He had taken the trouble to be born. That one thoughtful guest made no difference in the gaiety of the luncheon table. Matthew Dalbroke had plenty to say to his beautiful cousin, and Juanita had all the experiences of the last season to talk about,

Starting point is 01:40:32 while once having started upon Sir William Thompson and the ultimate exhaustion of the sun's heat, the sisters were not likely to stop. End of Chapter 4 Volume 1 Chapter 5 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Bradden This Librevox recording is in the public domain Chapter 5

Starting point is 01:40:58 Poor little life that totdles half an hour crowned with a flower or two And there an end Sir Godfrey's device for diverting his wife's mind From the morbid fancies of the previous night answered admirably She left Dorchester in high spirits after having invited her cousins to Chariton for tennis and lunch on the following day,

Starting point is 01:41:19 and after having bad and affectionate goodbye to Theodore, who was to start on his holiday, directly he could make an end of some important business now in hand. His father told him laughingly that he might have gone a week earlier had he really wanted to go. I believe there must be some attraction for you in Dorchester, though I'm not clever enough to find out what it is, said Mr. Dalbrook innocently,

Starting point is 01:41:40 for you have been talking about going away for the last fortnight, and yet you don't go. Lady Carmichael had lingered in the homely old house till afternoon tea, had lingered over her tea, telling her cousins all they wanted to know about smart society in London, that one central spot of bright white light in the dull, grey mass of a busy commonplace world, of which she knew so much and of which they knew so little.

Starting point is 01:42:04 Janet and Sophia professed to be above caring for these things, except from a purely philosophical point of view, as they cared for aunts, bees, and wasps. but they listened eagerly all the same, with occasional expressions of wonder that human beings could be so trivial. Five hundred pounds spent in flowers at Lady Drumlock's ball, cried Sophie,

Starting point is 01:42:25 and to think that in a few more million years the sun may be as gold as the North Pole, and what trace will there be then of all this butterfly world? Did the mountains cut a tremendous dash this season? As Janet, frivolously curious about their immediate neighbors, county people who went to London for the season. of course you know she had thirty thousand pounds left her by an uncle quite lately and she is so utterly without brains that i dare say she will spend it all in entertainments oh they did entertain a good deal and they did their best poor things and people went to them wanting to answer with a deprecating air but still i should hardly like to say that they are in society in the first place she has never succeeded in getting the prince at any of her dances and in the next place her parties have a cloud of provincial doneness about them, against which it is in vain to struggle.

Starting point is 01:43:15 He can never forget his constituents and his duty to his borough, and that kind of thing does not answer if one wants to give really nice parties. I'm afraid her legacy won't do her much good, poor soul, unless she gets some clever person to show her how to spend it. There is a kind of society instinct, don't you know, and she is without it. I believe the people who give good parties are born, not made, like poets and orators. Sir Godfrey looked down at her, smiling at her juvenile arrogance, which to his mind was more bewitching than another woman's humility.

Starting point is 01:43:48 We mean to show them the way next year if we take a house in town, he said. But we are not going to have a house in town, answered Juanita quickly. Why, Godfrey, you know I have done with all that kind of frivolity? We can go to Victoria Street in May and stay with our people there, long enough to see all the pictures and hear some good music, and just rub shoulders with the free. friends we like at half a dozen parties, and then we will go back to our nest at the priory. Do you think that I am like Lady Mountain and want to waste my life upon the society's struggle when I have you?

Starting point is 01:44:21 It was after five o'clock when they left Dorchester. It was more than half-past seven when they drew near Chariton, and the sun was setting behind the irregular line of hills towards Studland. They approached the manner by one of the most picturesque lanes in the district. A lane sunk between high banks, rugged and rocky, and with here and there a massive trunk of beech or oak jutting out above the roadway, while the gnarled and twisted roots spread over the rough shelving ground and seemed to hold up the meadowland upon the higher level.

Starting point is 01:44:49 A dark, secret-looking lane it must have seemed on a moonless night, sunk so deeply between those earth walls, and overshadowed by those gigantic trunks and interlacing branches. But in this mellow evening light it was a place in which to linger. There was a right-of-way through Chariton Chase, and this sunk lane was the favorite approach. A broad carriage drive crossed the chase and park, skirted the Great Alam Avenue that led to the house, and swept around by a wide semi-circle to the great iron gates which opened on the high road from Wareham.

Starting point is 01:45:20 The steep gable ends of an old English cottage rose amidst the trees on the upper ground just outside the gate at the end of the lane. It was a veritable old English cottage and had been standing at that corner of the park like meadow for more than 200 years and had known but little change during those two centuries. it was a good deal larger than the generality of lodges and it differed from other lodges in so much as it stood outside the gate instead of inside and on a higher level than the road but it was a lodge all the same and the duty of the person who lived in it was to open the gate of chariton chase to all comers provided they came in such vehicles as were privileged to enjoy the right of way there was a line drawn somewhere perhaps at coal wagons or tradesman's carts but for the generality of vehicles the carriage rode across chariton chase was free. A rosy-faced girl of about fourteen came tripping down the steps built

Starting point is 01:46:13 into the bank as the carriage approached, and was curtseying at the open gate in time for Sir Godfrey to drive through without slackening the pace. He gave her a friendly nod as he passed. Does Mrs. Porter never condescend to open the gate herself? he asked Juanita. Seldom for anyone, except my father.

Starting point is 01:46:32 I think she makes a point of doing it for him, though I believe he would much rather she didn't. you mustn't sneer at her godfrey she is a very unassuming person and very grateful for her comfortable position here though she has known better days poor soul that is always such a vague expression what were the better days like she is the widow of a captain and the mercantile marine i think it is called a man who was almost a gentleman she was left very poor and my father who knew her husband gave her the lodge to take care of and a tiny pension not so much as i spend upon gloves and shoes i'm afraid and she has lived here contentedly and gratefully for the last ten years it must be a sadly dull life for she is an intellectual woman too refined to associate with upper servants and village traits people so she has no one to talk to literally no one except when the vicar or any of us call upon her but that is not the worst poor thing pursued juanita dropping her voice to a subdued and sorrowful tone she had a great trouble some years ago you remember don't you godfrey i blushed a safe that Mrs. Porter's trouble has escaped my memory. Oh, you have been so much away, you would hardly hear anything about it, perhaps. She had an only daughter, her only child,

Starting point is 01:47:46 a very handsome girl, whom she had educated most carefully, and the girl went wrong and disappeared. I never heard the circumstances. I was not supposed to know, but I know she vanished suddenly, and that there was a good deal of fuss with mother and the servants and the vicar, and Mrs. Porter's hair began to whiten from that time, and people who had not cared much for her before were so sorry that they grew quite fond of her. "'It is a common story enough,' said Godfrey. "'What could a handsome girl do except go wrong in such a life as that? Did she open the gate while she was here?'

Starting point is 01:48:20 "'Only for my father, I believe. Mrs. Porter has always contrived to keep a girl in a pinafore like that girl you just saw now. All the girls come from the same family or have done for the last six or seven years. As soon as the girl grows out of pinafores, she goes off to some better service, and a younger sister drops into her place. And her pinafores, I suppose. Mrs. Porter's girls always do well. She has a reputation for making a good servant out of the raw material. A clever woman, no doubt, very clever, to have secured a lodgekeeper's birth without being obliged to open the gate,

Starting point is 01:48:56 a woman who knows how to take care of herself. You ought not to disparage her, Godfrey. the poor thing has known so much trouble. Think of what it was to lose the daughter she loved, and in such a way, worse than death. I don't know about that. Death means the end. A loving mother might rather keep the sinner than lose the saint, and the sinner may wash herself clean and become a saint, after the order of Mary Magdalene. If this Mrs. Porter had been really devoted to her daughter, she would have followed her and brought her back to the fold. She would not be here, leading a life of genteel idleness in that picturesque old cottage

Starting point is 01:49:33 while the lost sheep is still astray in the wilderness. You are very hard upon her, Godfrey. I am hard upon all shams and pretenses. I have not spoken to Mrs. Porter above half a dozen times in my life. She never opens the gate for me, you know, but I have a fixed impression that she is a hypocrite, a harmless hypocrite perhaps. One of those women whose chief object in life is to stand well with the vicar of her parish. They were all at the door by this time, and it was a quarter to eight.

Starting point is 01:50:03 Let us sit in the drying-room this evening, Godfrey, said Juanita as she ran off to dress for dinner. The library would give me the horrors after last night. My capricious one. You will be tired of the drawing-room tomorrow. I should not be surprised if you ordered me to sit on the house-top. We might rig up a tent for afternoon tea between two chimney-stacks. Juanita made a rapid toilette and appeared in one of her graceful cream-white tea-gowns, veiled in a cloud of softest lace just as the clocks were striking eight. She was all gaiety to-night, just as she had been all morbid apprehension last night, and when they went to the drawing-room after dinner, together, for it was not to be supposed that

Starting point is 01:50:43 Sir Godfrey would linger over a solitary glass of claret. She flew to the grand piano and began to play Tito Maté's famous waltz, which seemed the most consummate expression of joyousness possible to her. The brilliant music filled the atmosphere with gaiety, while the face of the player turned to her husband as she played, harmonized with a light-hearted melody. The drawing-room was as frivolously pretty as the library was soberly grand. It was Lady Charitin's taste which had ruled here, and the room was a kind of record of her ladyship's travels.

Starting point is 01:51:18 She had bought pretty things, or curious things whenever they took her fancy, and had brought them home to her charitin drawing-room. Thus, the walls were hung with Algerian embroideries on Damasco or satin, and decorated with Rhodian pottery. The furniture was a mixture of old French and old Italian. The Dresden tea services and ivory statuettes and Capodemonte vases and Copenhagen figures had been picked up all over the continent without any regard to their combined effect. But there were so many things that the ultimate result was delightful, the room being spacious enough to hold everything without the slightest appearance of

Starting point is 01:51:54 overcrowding. The piano stood in a central position and was draped with a Japanese robe of state, a mass of rainbow-hued embroidery on the ground of violet satin almost covered with gold thread. It was the most gorgeous fabric Godfrey Carmichael had ever seen, and it made the piano a spot of vivid party-colored light amidst the more subdued coloring of the room, the silvery silken curtains, the delicate Indian muslin draperies, and the dull, tawny plush coverings of sofas and chairs. The room was lighted only by clusters of wax candles and a reading lamp on a small table near one of the windows. It was a rule that wherever Sir Godfrey spent his evening there must always be a reading table and lamp ready for him. He showed no

Starting point is 01:52:38 eagerness for his books yet a while, but seemed completely happy, lolling at full length on a sofa near the piano listening and watching as Juanita played. She played more of Maté's brilliant music, another waltz, an arrangement of non-everre, and then dashed into one of Chappais's wildest mazurka's, with an audacious self-abandonment that was almost genius. Godfrey listened rapturously, delighted with the music for its own sake, but even more delighted for the gladness which had expressed. She stopped, at last, breathless, after Mendelsohn's Capricio. Godfrey had risen from the sofa and was standing by her side. I'm afraid I must have tired you to death, she said, but I had a strange sort of feeling that I must go on playing.

Starting point is 01:53:24 That music was a safety valve for my high spirits. My darling, I am so glad to see that you have done with imaginary woes. We may have real troubles of some kind to face by and by, perhaps, as we go down the hill, so it would be very foolish to abandon ourselves to fancied sorrows while we are on the top. Real troubles, yes, sickness, anxiety, the fear of parting, said Juanita in a troubled voice. Oh, God-free, if we were to give half our fortune to the poor, if we were to make some great sacrifice, do you think God could spare us such pangs as these? The fear, the horrible fear of being parted from each other. My dearest, we cannot make a bargain with Providence.

Starting point is 01:54:08 We can only do our duty and hope for the best. At any rate, let us be very, very good to the poor, urged Juanita with intense earnestness. Let us have their prayers to plead for us. the night was warm and still and the windows were all open to the terrace godfrey and juanita took their coffee in their favorite corner by the magnolia tree and sat there for a long time in the soft light of the stars talking the old sweet talk of their future life we must drive to swaniton to see lady jane to-morrow said juanita by and by don't you think it was very wrong to go to see my people only cousins after all before we went to your mother she will come to us dear directly we give her permission i know she is dying to see you in your new character how lovely she looked at the wedding in her pale grey gown and bonnet i love her almost as well as i love my own dear good indulgent mother and i think she is the most perfect lady who-y i think she is the most perfect lady's the lady who-y i love her almost as well as i love my own dear good indulgent mother and i think she is the most perfect lady I ever met. I don't think you'll find her very much like the typical mother-in-law at any rate,

Starting point is 01:55:12 replied Galfrey gaily. They decided on driving to Swanage next morning. They would go in the Lando and bring the mother back with them for a day or two if she could be persuaded to come. Juanita stifled a yawn presently and seemed somewhat languid after her sleepless night and long day of talk

Starting point is 01:55:30 and vivacity. I am getting very stupid company, she said. I'll go to bed early to-night, Godfrey, and leave you an hour's quiet with wider horizons. I know you are longing to go on with that book, but your chatter-box wife won't let you. Of course, he protested that her society was worth more than all the books in the British Museum. He offered to take his book up to her room and read her to sleep if she liked, but she would not have it so.

Starting point is 01:55:57 You shall have your own quiet corner and your books, just as if you were still a bachelor, she said, caressingly, as she hung upon his shoulder for a good-night kiss. as for me i am utterly tired out janet and sophy talked me to death and then there was the long drive home i shall be as fresh as ever to-morrow morning and ready to be off to dear lady jane he went into the hall with her and to the top of the stairs for the privilege of carrying her candlestick and he only left her at the end of the corridor out of which her room opened she did not ring for her maid preferring solitude to that young person's attendance she did not want to be worried with elaborate hair-brushing or ceremonies of any kind she was thoroughly exhausted with the alterations of emotion of which her life had been made up of late and she fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched her pillow the bedroom was over the drawing-room her last look from the open casement had shown her the reflection of the lights below on the terrace she was near enough to have spoken out of the window to her husband had she been so minded she could picture him sitting at the table at the corner window in his thoughtful attitude his head bent over his book one knee drawn up nearly to his chin one arm hanging loosely across the arm of his low easy-chair she had watched him thus many a time completely absorbed in his book she slept as tranquilly as an infant and her dream wanderings were all in pleasant places with him always with him confused after the manner of all dreams but with no sign of trouble

Starting point is 01:57:31 what was this dream about being with him at woolwich where they were firing a big gun a curious dream she had been there once with her father to see a gun drawn but she had never seen one fired there and now in her dream she stood in a crowd of strange faces fronting the river and there was a long grey iron-clad on the water, a turret-ship, and there came a flash, and then a puff of white smoke, and the report of a gun, short and sharp, not like the roar of a cannon by any means, and yet her dream showed her the dark, sullen gun on the grey deck, the biggest gun she had ever seen. She started up from her pillow, cold and trembling.

Starting point is 01:58:09 The report of the gun had seemed so real and so near that it had awakened her. She was wide awake now, and pushed back her loose hair from her eyes and felt under her pillow for her watch, and looked at it in the dim light of the night-lamp on the table by her bed. A quarter to one. She had left the drawing-room a few minutes after ten.

Starting point is 01:58:28 It was long for Godfrey to have sat reading alone, but he was insatiable when he had a new book that interested him. She got up and put on her slippers and dressing-gown, prepared to take him to task for his late hours. She was not alarmed by her dream, but the sound of that sharp report was still in her ears as she lighted. her candle and went down into the silent house.

Starting point is 01:58:51 She opened the drawing-room door and looked across to the spot where she expected to see her husband sitting. His chair was empty. The lamp was burning just as she had left it hours ago, burning with a steady light under the green porcelain shade, but he was not there. Puzzled, and with a touch of fear she went slowly across the room towards his chair. He had strayed out onto the terrace, perhaps. He had gone out for a fire.

Starting point is 01:59:17 final smoke. She would steal after him in her long white gown and frighten him if she could. He ought at least to take me for a ghost, she thought. She stopped, transfixed with a sudden horror. He was lying on the carpet at her feet in a huddled heap just as he had rolled out of his chair. His head was bent forward between his shoulders. His face was hidden. She tried to lift his head, hanging over him, calling to him in passionate entreaty, and behold, her hands and arms were drowned in blood. His blood splashed her white peignoir. It was all over her.

Starting point is 01:59:54 She seemed to be steeped in it as she sat on the floor trying to get a look at his face, to see if his wound was mortal. For some moments, she had no other thought than to sit there in her horror, repeating his name

Starting point is 02:00:07 in every accent of terror and of love, beseeching him to answer her. Then gradually came the conviction of his unconsciousness and of the need of help. He was badly hurt, dangerously hurt, but it might not be mortal. Help must be got.

Starting point is 02:00:23 He must be cured somehow. She could not believe that he was to die. She rushed to the bell and rang again and again and again, hardly taking her finger from the little ivory knob, listening as the shrill electric peel vibrated through the silent house. It seemed an age before there was any response, and then three servants came hurrying in. The butler and one of the footmen and his son.

Starting point is 02:00:46 scared housemaid. They saw her standing there, tall and white, dabbled with blood. Someone has been trying to murder him, she cried. Didn't you hear a gun? No, no one had heard anything till they heard the bell. The two men lifted Sir Godfrey from the floor to the sofa and did all they could to staunch that deadly wound in his neck from which the blood was still pouring, a bullet wound. Lambert the butler was afraid that the bullet had pierced the juggler vein. If there was life still, it was only ebbing life.

Starting point is 02:01:19 Juanita flung herself on the ground beside that prostrate form and kissed the unconscious lips and the cold brow and those pallid cheeks. Kissed and cried over him, and repeated again and again that the wound was not mortal. Is anyone going for the doctor?

Starting point is 02:01:35 She cried frantically. Are you all going to stand still and see him die? Lambert assured her that Thomas was gone to the stage, able to wake the men and dispatch a mounted messenger for Mr. Dalby, the family doctor. He might have helped us more if he had run there himself, cried Juanita. There will be time lost in waking the men and saddling a horse. I could go there faster. She looked at the door, as if she had half resolved to rush off to the village in her dressing-gown and slippers.

Starting point is 02:02:04 And then she looked again at that marble face and again fell upon her knees by the sofa, and laid her cheek against that bloodless cheek and moaned and cried, over him, while the butler went to get brandy with but little hope in his own mind of any useful result. What an end to a honeymoon, he said to himself despondently. End of Chapter 5. Volume 1, Chapter 6 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 6 Is not short pain well-born that brings long ease?

Starting point is 02:02:48 and lays the soul to sleep in quiet grave. Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, ease after war, death after life. The morning dawned upon a weeping household. There was nothing to be done when Mr. Dolby, the village surgeon, arrived at Sheraton House. He could only examine the death wound and express his opinion as to its character.

Starting point is 02:03:13 It was certainly not self-inflicted, he told the servants as they stood about him in a stony group. self-inflicted indeed echoed lambert i should think not if there ever was a young man who had caused to set store by his life it was sir godfrey car michael it's murder mr dollby rank murder yes i'm afraid it's murder said dolby with an air which implied that suicide would have been a peggatel in comparison but who could have done it and why he asked after a pause the servants inclined to the opinion that it was the act of a poacher lord chariton had always been what they called a mark upon poachers there was doubtless a vendetta to which the pheasants staring fraternity had pledged themselves and sir godfrey was the victim of that vendetta however strange it might appear that hatred of lord chariton should find its expression in the murder of lord charitin's son-in-law we must wait for the inquest before we can know anything said dolby when he had done all that surgery could do for that cold clay which was to compose the lifeless form in its final rest in a spare bedroom at the end of the corridor remote from that bridal chamber where Juanita was lying motionless in her dumb despair. The local policeman was on the scene at seven o'clock,

Starting point is 02:04:30 prowling about the house with a countenance of solemn stolidity, and asking questions which seemed to have very little direct bearing on the case, and taking measurements between the spot where the murdered man had been found, too plainly marked by the pool of blood which had soaked into the velvet pile, and imaginary points upon the terrace outside, with the doctor at his elbow to make suggestions, and as far as in him lay behaving as a skilled London detective might have behaved under the same circumstances, which conduct on his part did not prevent Mr. Dolby telegraphing to Scotland Yard as soon as the wires were at his disposal.

Starting point is 02:05:03 He was in the village post-office when the clock struck eight, and the post-mistress, who had hung out a flag and decorated her shop front with garlands on the wedding day, was watching him with an awestricked in countenance as he wrote his telegrams. The first was to Scotland Yard. Sir Godfrey Carmichael murdered late last night. Send one of your most trustworthy men to investigate. The second was to Lord Chariton Grand Hotel, Paramee, St. Malo, France. Sir Godfrey Carmichael was murdered last night between 12 and 1 o'clock.

Starting point is 02:05:35 Murderer, unknown, death instantaneous. Pray come immediately. The third was to Matthew Dalbrook, more briefly announcing the murder. He was going to send a fourth message to Lady Jane Carmichael, began to write her address, then thought better of it and tore up the form. I'll drive over and tell her, he said to himself, poor soul, it will break her heart to let her learn how she may. But it would be cruel to telegraph all the same.

Starting point is 02:06:03 Every one at Chariton knew that Lady Jane's affections were centred upon her only son. She had daughters, and she was very fond of them. They were both married and had married well, but their homes lay far off, one in the Midlands, the other in the north of England, and although in each case there was a nursery full of grandchildren, neither the young married woman nor the babies had ever filled Lady Jane's heart as her son had filled it. And now Mr. Dolby had taken upon himself to go and tell this gentle widow that the light of her life was extinguished, that the son she adored had been brutally and inexplicably murdered.

Starting point is 02:06:40 It was a hard thing for any man to do, and Mr. Dolby was a warm-hearted man with home ties of his own. before mr dolby's gig was half-way to swanage his telegram had been delivered at dorchester and matthew dalbroke and his son were starting for chariton with a pair of horses in the solicitors need tea-cart which was usually driven with one theodore drove and father and son sat side by side in a dreary silence what could be said the telegram told so little they had speculated and wondered about it in brief broken sentences as they stood in the office fronting the sunny street waiting for the carriage they had asked each other if this ghastly thing could be if it were not some mad metamorphous of words some blunder of a telegraph's clerk rather than a horrible reality murdered a man who had been sitting at their table full of life and spirits in the glow of youth and health and happiness less than twenty-four hours ago murdered a man who had never known what it was to have an enemy who had been popular with all classes had been how awful to think of him as belonging to the past he who yesterday looked forward to so radiant a future and theodore dalbrook had envied him as even the most generous of men must needs envy the winner in the race for love could it be or if it were really true how could it be what manner of murderer what motive for the murder where had it happened on the highway in the woody labyrinths of the chase and upon the mind of theodore flashed the same idea which had suggested itself to the servants it might be the work of a poacher whom sir godfrey had surprised during a late tramble

Starting point is 02:08:25 yet a poacher must be hard bested before he resorts to murder and sir godfrey easy-tempered and generous was hardly the kind of man to take upon himself the functions of a game-keeper and give chase to any casual depreditor it was useless to wonder or to argue while the facts of the case were all unrevealed it would be time to do that when they were a chariton so the father and son sat in dismal silence save that now and again the elder man sighed poor oneita my poor oneita and she was so happy yesterday theodore winced at the words yes she had been so happy and he had despaired because of her happiness the cup of gladness which had brimmed over for her had been to him a fountain of bitterness it seemed to him as he had been to him as a fountain of bitterness it seemed to him as if he had never realized how fondly he loved her till he saw her by her husband's side an embodiment of life's sunshine innocently revealing her felicity in every look and word it was so long since he had ceased to hope he had even taught himself to think he was resigned to his fate that he could live his life without her but that delusion ceased yesterday and he knew that she was dearer than she had ever been to him now that she was irrevocably lost it was human nature perhaps perhaps, to love her best when love was most hopeless. They drove along the level roads towards Chariton in the dewy freshness of the summer morning,

Starting point is 02:09:51 by meadow and copse, by heath and cornfield, the skylarks caroling in the hot blue sky, the corncrank creaking inside the hedge, the chaffinch reiterating his monotonous tone, the jays screaming in the wood, all living creatures reveling in the cloudless summer. It was hard, awful, unsupportable, that he was with them yesterday

Starting point is 02:10:10 who had driven along this road under the wood, westering sun was now cold clay, a subject for the coroner, a something to be hidden away in the family vault, and forgotten as soon as possible. For what does consolation mean except persuasion to forget? Never had the way between Dorchester and Chariton Chase looked lovelier than in this morning atmosphere. Never had the cattle grouped themselves into more delightful pictures amidst those shallow waters which reflected the sky. Never had the lights and shadows been fairer upon those level meadows and yonder broken hills. Theodore Dalbrook loved every bit of that familiar landscape,

Starting point is 02:10:47 and even today, amidst the horror and wonder if his distracted thoughts, he had a dim sense of surrounding beauty as of something seen in a dream. He could have hardly told where he was or what the season was, or whether it was the morning or the evening light that was gilding the fields yonder. The lowered blinds at Sheraton told only too surely that the ghastly announcement in the telegram was no clerical error. The face of the footman who opened the door was pale with distress. He conducted Mr. Dalbrook and his son to the library,

Starting point is 02:11:19 where the butler appeared almost immediately to answer the elder man's eager questions. Not on the highway, not in the woods or the park, but in the drawing-room where the butler had seen him sitting in a low armchair by the open window in the tranquil summer night absorbed in his book. He was that wrapped up that I don't believe he knew a was in the room, sir, said Lambert, till I asked him if there was anything further wanted for the night, and then he starts, looks up at me with his pleasant smile, and answers in his quiet, friendly way. Nothing more, thank you, Lambert. Is it very late? I told him it was past eleven,

Starting point is 02:11:56 and I asked him if I should shut the drawing-room shutters before I went to bed, but he says no. I'll see to that. I like the windows open, and then he went on reading, and less than two hours afterwards he was lying on the ground in front of the window. Dead. Have you any suspicion, Lambert, as to the murderer? Well, no, sir, not unless it was a poacher or an escaped lunatic. The lunatic seems rather the more probable conjecture, said Matthew Dalbrook. The police are at work already, I hope. Well, yes, sir. Our local police are doing all that lies in their power, and I have done what I could to assist them. Mr. Dolby wired to Scott Lignard at the same time as he wired to you.

Starting point is 02:12:42 That was wisely done. Have there been no traces of the murderer discovered? No indication of any kind. Nothing, sir. But one of the under housemaids remembers to have heard footsteps about on the terrace after dark on several occasions within the last fortnight. Once, while Sir Godfrey and our young lady were at dinner, and two or three times at a later hour when they were in the drawing. room or the library. Did she see anyone? No, sir. She is rather a dull kind of girl, and never so much as trouble to find out what the footsteps meant. Her bedroom is one of the old attics on the south side of the house, and she was sitting at work near her open window when she heard the footsteps, going and coming, slow and stealthy-like, upon the terrace at intervals. She is sure they were not her ladyships nor Sir Godfrey's steps on either or

Starting point is 02:13:36 occasion. She says she knows their walk, and she would swear to these footsteps as altogether different. Slower, more creeping-like, as she puts it. Has no one been seen lurking about after dark? No one, sir, as we have heard of, and the constable questioned all the servants pretty close, I can tell you. He hasn't left much for the London detective to do. Matthew Dalbrook had been the only questioner in this interrogatory. Theodore had sunk into a chair on entering the room and sat silent with a face of marble. He was thinking of the stricken girl whose life had been desolated by this mysterious crime. His father had not forgotten her, but he had wanted, first of all, to learn all he could

Starting point is 02:14:22 about her husband's death. How does Lady Carmichael bear it? he asked presently. Very sadly, sir. Very sadly. Mrs. Marley and Celestine are boat with her. Mr. Dolby ordered that she should be kept as quiet as possible, not allowed to leave her room if they could help it, but it has been very difficult to keep her quiet. Poor dear young lady.

Starting point is 02:14:47 She wanted to go to him. Poor girl, poor girl, so happy yesterday, said Matthew Dalbrook. His son sat silent as if he were made of stone. far, very far off, as it were at the end of a long dark vista, cut sharply across an impenetrable wood of choking thorns and blinding briars, he saw Juanita again radiant, again happy, again loving and beloved, and on the threshold of another life. The vision dazzled him, almost to blindness. But, could it ever be—

Starting point is 02:15:21 Could that loving heart ever forget this agony of today ever beat again to a joyful measure? He wrenched himself from that selfish reverie. He felt a wretch for having yielded up his imagination even for a moment to that alluring vision. He was here to mourn with her, here to pity her, to sympathize with this unspeakable grief. Murdered. Her lover husband, shot to death by an unknown hand,

Starting point is 02:15:47 her honeymoon ended with one murderous flash, that honeymoon which had seemed the prelude to a lifetime of love. I should like to see her, said Mr. Dalbrook. i think it would be a comfort to her to see me however agitated she may be will you take my name to the housekeeper and ask her opinion lambert looked doubtful as to the wisdom of the course but was ready to obey all the same mr dobley said she was to be kept very quiet sir that she wasn't to see anybody that could hardly apply to her own people mr dolby telegraphed for me did he sir then i conclude he would not object to her her ladyship seeing you. I'll send up your name. Perhaps, while the message is being taken, you would like to have a look at the spot where it happened. Yes, I want to know all that can be known. Lambert had been so busy with a constable all the morning that he felt himself

Starting point is 02:16:44 almost on a level with Scotland Yard talent, and he took a morbid interest in that dark stain on the delicate half-tints of the velvet pile, and in such few details as he was able to expound. He dispatched a footman upstairs, and he led the dollbrooks to the drawing-room, where he opened the shutters of that window through which the assassin must have aimed, and led a flood of sunshine into the darkened room. The chair, the table, and lamp stood exactly as they had stood last night. Lambert took credit to himself for not having allowed them to be moved by so much as an inch. Any assistance in my power I shall be only too happy to give to the London detective, he said.

Starting point is 02:17:24 of course coming on the scene as a total stranger he can't be expected to do much without help there was no need to point out that ghastly stain upon the carpet the shaft of noonday sunshine seemed to concentrate its brightness on that grisly patch dark dark dark with the witness of a cruel murder the murder of a man who had never done an unkindly act or harbored an unworthy thought theodore dalbrook stood looking at that stain it seemed to bring the fatal reality nearer to him he looked at the low chair with its covering of peacock plush and its turkish embroidery draped daintily across the broad back and capacious arms a chair to live in a ciberite's estate and then at the satinwood book-table filled with such books as the lounger loves suthies doctor burton table-talk by col ridgwately rogers the sentimental journey roche foucaux cackstoniana ilia and thrown carelessly upon one of the shelves a handkerchief of cobweb cambric with a monogram that occupied a third of the fabric j c her handkerchief dropped there last night as she arranged the books for her husband's use putting her own favourites in his way lambert took up a book and opened it with a dismal smile handing it to mr dalbroke as he did so it was wider horizons the volume he had been reading when the bullet struck him and those open pages were spattered with his blood put it away for god's sake man cried dalbroke horrified whatever you do don't let lady carmichael see it no sir Better not, perhaps, sir, but it's evidence, and it ought to be produced at the inquest. Produce, if you like, but there is evidence enough to show that he was murdered on this spot.

Starting point is 02:19:14 As he sat to reading, sir, the book is a great point. And then Lambert expounded the position of that lifeless form, making much of every detail, as he had done to the constable. While he was talking, the door was open suddenly, and Juanito rushed into the room. "'Lord have mercy on us, she mustn't see that,' cried Lambert, pointing to the carpet. Matthew Dalbrook hurried forward to meet her, and caught her in his arms before she could reach that fatal spot. He held her there, looking at her with pitying eyes, while Theodore approached slowly, silently, agonized by the sight of her agony. The change from the joyous self-abandonment

Starting point is 02:19:55 of yesterday to the rigged horror of today was the most appalling transformation that he had ever looked upon. Her face was of a livid pallor. Her large dark eyes were distended and fixed, and all their brilliancy was quenched like a light blown out. Her blanched lips trembled as she tried to speak, and it was after several futile efforts to express her meaning that she finally succeeded in shaping a sentence distinctly. Have they found his murderer? Not yet, dearest. It is far too soon to hope for that. But it is not for you to think about that, Juanita. All will be done, be sure, rest secure in the devotion of those who love you.

Starting point is 02:20:34 And, with a break in his voice, who loved him. She lifted her head quickly, with an angry light in the eyes which had been so dull till that moment. Do you think I will leave that work to others, she said, It is my business. It is all that God has left me to do in this world. It is my business to see that his murderer suffers. Not as I suffer. That can never be.

Starting point is 02:20:59 But all that the law can do, the law which is so merciful to murderers nowadays. You don't think he can get off lightly, do you, uncle? They will hang him, won't they? Hang him, hang him, hang him, hang him, she repeated in hoarse dull syllables. A few moments agony after a night of terror. So little, so little. And I have to live my desolate life. My punishment is for a lifetime.

Starting point is 02:21:29 "'My love, God will be good to you. "'He can lighten all burdens,' murmured Dalbrook gently. "'He cannot lighten mine, not by the weight of a single hair. "'He has stretched forth his hand against me in hatred and anger, "'perhaps because I loved his creature better than I loved him. "'My dearest, this is madness.' "'I did, I did,' she reiterated. "'I loved my husband better than I loved my God.

Starting point is 02:21:57 "'I would have worshipped Satan if I could have saved by Satan's help. I loved him with all my heart, my mind and strength, as we were taught to love God. There was not room in my heart for any other religion. He was the beginning and the end of my creed, and God saw my happy love and hated me for it. He is a jealous God. We are taught that when we are little children. He is a jealous God, and he put it into the head of some distracted creature to come to that window and shoot my husband. a violent fit of hysteria followed these wild words matthew dalbrook felt that all attempts at consolation must needs be vain for some time to come until this tempest of grief was calmed nothing could be done she will have her mother here in a day or two said theodore that may bring some comfort juanita heard him even in the midst of her hysterical sobbing her hearing was abnormally keen

Starting point is 02:22:56 "'No one. No one can comfort me, unless they can give me back my dead.' She started up suddenly from the sofa where Matthew had placed her and grasped his arm with convulsive force. "'Take me to him,' she entreated. "'Take me to him, uncle. You were always kind to me. They won't let me go to him. It is brutal. It is infamous of them. I have a right to be there.' "'By and by, my dear girl, when you are calmer. I will be calm this. I will be calm this. instant if he will take me to him, she said, commanding herself at once with a tremendous effort, choking down those rising sobs, clasping her convulsed throat with constraining hands, tightening her tremulous lips.

Starting point is 02:23:39 "'See,' she said, "'I am quite calm now. I will not give way again. Take me to him. Let me see him, that I may be sure my happy life was not all a dream, a mad woman's dream, as it seems to have been now when I cannot look upon his face.' mr dalbrook looked at his son interrogatively let her see him said theodore gently we cannot lessen her sorrow it must have its way better perhaps that she should see him and accustom herself to her grief better for her brain however it may torture her heart he saw the risk of a further calamity in his cousin's state the fear that her mind would succumb under the burden of her sorrow it seemed to him that there was more danger in thwarting her natural desire to look upon her beloved dead than in letting her have her way. The housekeeper had followed her young mistress to the drawing-room and was waiting there. She shook her head and murmured something about Mr. Dolby's orders, but submitted to the authority

Starting point is 02:24:40 of a kinsman and family solicitor as even superior to the faculty. She led the way silently to that upper chamber where the murdered man was lying. Matthew Dalbrook put his cousin's icy hand through his arm and supported her steps as they slowly followed. Theodore remained in the drawing-room, walking up and down, in deepest thought, stopping now and then in his slow pacing to and fro, to contemplate that stain upon the velvet pile, and the empty chair beside it. In the room above, Juanita knelt beside the bed where he who kissed her last night on the threshold of her chamber lay in his last slumber. A marble figure with calm, dead face shrouded by the snowy sheet, with flowers, white wax and exotics scattered about the bed. She lifted the sheet and looked upon him

Starting point is 02:25:28 And kissed him with love's last despairing kiss And then she knelt beside the bed With her face bent in her clasped hands Calmer than she had been at any moment Since she found her murdered husband lying at her feet It's wonderful, whispered the housekeeper to Mr. Dalbrook It seems to have soothed her, poor dear, to see him And I was afraid she would have broke down worse than ever

Starting point is 02:25:51 You must give way to her a little Mrs. Morley She has a powerful mind, and she must not be treated like a child. She will live through her trouble, and rise superior to it, be sure of that, terrible as it is. The door opened softly, and a woman came into the room, a woman of about five and forty of middle height, slim and delicately made, with aquiline nose and fair complexion, and flaxen hair just touched with grey. She was deadly pale, but her eyes were tearless, and she came quietly to the bed and fell on her knees by Juanita's side and hit her face as Juanitas was hidden, and the first sound that

Starting point is 02:26:29 came from her lips was a long, low moan, the sound of greater agony than Matthew Dalbrook had ever heard in his life until that moment. Good God, he muttered to himself as he moved to a distant window. I had forgotten Lady Jane. It was Lady Jane, the gentle soul who had loved that poor clay with a love that had grown and strengthened with every year of his life, with a love that. that had one liberal response from the recipient. There had never been a cloud between them,

Starting point is 02:26:59 never one moment of disagreement or doubt. Each had been secure in the certainty of the other's affection. It had been a union such as is not often seen between mother and son, and it was ended. Ended by the red hand of murder. Matthew Dalbrook left the room in silence, beckoning to the housekeeper to follow him. Leave them together, he said.

Starting point is 02:27:23 They will be more comfort. to each other than anyone else in the world can be to either of them. Keep in the way, here in the corridor, in case of anything going wrong, fainting or hysterics, for instance, but so long as they are tolerably calm, let them be together, and undisturbed. He went back to his son, and they both left the house soon afterwards, and drove off to find the coroner and to confer with him. Later in the afternoon, they saw the local policeman whose discoveries,

Starting point is 02:27:50 though he evidently thought them important, Mr. Dalbrook, considered Nill. he had found out that a certain village freebooter ostensibly an agricultur or labourer nocturnally a poacher bore a grudge against lord chariton and had sworn to be even with him sooner or later the constable opined that being an ignorant man this person might have mistaken lord chariton's son-in-law for lord chariton himself he had discovered in the second place that two vans of gipsies had encamped just outside the chase on the night after the arrival of the bridle-pear they were in fact the very gypsies who had provided Aunt Sally in the French shooting gallery for the amusement of the populace, and he opined that some of these gypsies were in it. Why they should be in it he did not take upon himself to explain, but he declared that his experience of the tribe justified his suspicions. He was also of opinion that the murderer had come with the intent to plunder the drawing-room, which was, in his own expression, chalk full of valuables, in that

Starting point is 02:28:49 being disappointed and furthermore detected in that intent, he had tried to make all things safe by a casual murder. But man alive, Sir Godfrey was sitting in his armchair absorbed in his book. There was nothing to prevent any intending burglar sneaking away unseen. You must find some better scent than that if you mean to track the murderer. I hope, sir, with my experience of the district,

Starting point is 02:29:11 I shall have a better chance of finding him than a stranger imported from the metropolis, said Constable Barber, severely. I conclude there will be a reward offered, Mr. Dalbrook. There will, and a large one. I must not take upon myself to name the figure. Lord Chariton will be here tomorrow or next day, and he will, no doubt, take immediate steps. You may consider yourself a very lucky man, Barbara,

Starting point is 02:29:35 if you can solve this mystery. Matthew Dalbrook turned from the eager face of the police officer with a short, angry sigh. It was of the reward, the man was thinking, no doubt, congratulating himself, perhaps, upon the good luck which had thrown such a murder in his way. And presently, the man from Scotland. Scotland Yard would be on the scene, keen and business-like, yet full of a sportsman's ardor, intent

Starting point is 02:29:58 on discovery, as on a game in which the stakes were worth winning. Little cared either of these for the one fair life cut short, for the other young life blighted. End of Chapter 6. Volume 1, Chapter 7 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 7 I saw a fury. wetting a death dart. Lord Sheraton liked to take his summer holiday on a sunny seashore

Starting point is 02:30:35 where there were not many English visitors. Parame Saint-Malo fulfilled both these conditions. It afforded him a vast expanse of golden sands, firm beneath his foot, steeped in sunshine for the most part on which to pace to and fro, lifting his eyes dreamily now and then to the sea-girt city with its stony rampart and its quaint Louis Cautors' mansions, facing the sea in the sober dignity of massive stone facade,

Starting point is 02:30:59 and tall windows gray old houses which seemed too good for the age in which they find themselves solid enough to last through long centuries and to outlive all that yet lingers at that grandiose france in which they were built roof above roof rises the breton city steepled streets leading up to cathedral and municipal palace with the crocketed steeple for its pinnacle shining with the pale brilliance in the summer sunlight verdureless and with but little colour save the reflected glory of the skies and the jasper green of the sea in its ring of golden sand lord sherriton affected parame because though it was within a summer night's journey from his own isle of perbec it was thoroughly out of the beaten track and he was tolerably secure from those hourly encounters with his most particular friends to which he must have submitted at baden or spa at truvel or dieppe parame was parisian or nothing the smart people all came from paris english smartness at its centre at dinar and the english who patronized dinall will tell you there is no other paradise on earth and that its winter climate is better than that of the Riviera, if people would only have faith. So long as the Charitans could keep out of the way of exploring friends from Dinah, his lordship was exempt from the amusements which to some minds make life intolerable. Lady Chariton was distinctly social in her instincts

Starting point is 02:32:17 and looked Dinah words sometimes from her Lotus Land with a longing eye. She would have liked to ask some nice people to luncheon, and she knew so many nice people at Dinah. She would have liked to organize excursions to Mont Saint-Michel or up the rest of to dinon she would have liked to plunge into all manner of innocent gaieties but her husband stamped out these genial yearnings it seems such a pity not to have people over to dinner when there are such nice operettas and vaudeville's every night at the casino she sighed and if you had them over to dinner how do you suppose they would get back asked her husband sternly would you wish to keep them all till next morning and be bored with them at breakfast that intervening strip of sea narrow as it was afforded unspeakable comfort to lord chariton it was an excuse for refusing to go over and take afternoon tea with people he was supposed to hold in his heart of hearts in the way of friendship you can go maria if you like he told his wife but i am not a good sailor and i came here on purpose to be quiet this was his lordship's answer to every hospitable suggestion he had come to paramey for rest and not forgetting about or entertainments of anything

Starting point is 02:33:27 any kind. So the long summer days succeeded each other in a lazy monotony, and whatever gaiety there might be in the great white hotel, the English law lord and his wife had no share in it. They occupied a suite of light, airy rooms in the West Pavilion, and were served apart from the vulgar herd, after the fashion which befitted a person of Lord Chariton's distinction. They had only their body servants, men and made, so they were waited upon by the servants of the hotel, and they drove about the dusty, level roads between Saint-Sin-Saint-Saint-Sorpe. servant and dull in a hired lando driven by a Breton coachman.

Starting point is 02:34:02 Lady Chariton was dull but contented. She had always submitted to her husband's pleasure. He had been a very indulgent husband in essentials, and he had made her a peeress. Her married life had been eminently satisfactory, and she could afford to endure one summer

Starting point is 02:34:17 month of monotony amidst pleasant surroundings. She dropped in at the casino every evening, while Lord Chariton read the papers in the seclusion of his salon, with the large French window wide opened to the blue sea and the blue moonlight. Hearing the tramp of feet on the terrace, or the sea wall beyond, or now and again strains of lively music from the theatre, worthy little opera company from Paris were singing Le Cuc's joyous music. People used to turn round to look at Lady Chariton as she walked gravely between the rows of

Starting point is 02:34:45 seats to her place near the orchestra, his lordship's valet following with an extra shawl, an opera glass, and a footstool. He established her in her chair, and then retired discreetly to the back of the theatre to await her to departure, and to escort her safely back to the hotel. He was a large, serious-looking man, a French Swiss, who had lived ten years in Italy, and over fifteen years in Lord Chariton's service, and who spoke French, Italian, German, and English indifferently. Lady Chariton was handsome still, with a grand Spanish beauty which time had touched slightly. She was tall and dignified in carriage, though a shade stouter than she could have wished,

Starting point is 02:35:23 and she dressed to perfection with sobriety of coloring and richness of material. Her life had been full of pleasantness, her only sorrow being the loss of her infant sons, which she had not taken to heart so deeply as the proud father who had pined for an heir to his newly won honors. She had her daughter, her firstborn, the child for whom her heart had first throbbed with a strange new love of maternity. She shed some natural tears for the boy babies, and then she let Juanita fill their place in her heart, and her life again seemed complete in its sum of happiness. And now, in this sleepy summer holiday, cut off from most things that she cared for, Juanita's letters had been her chief joy, those happy, innocent, girlish letters,

Starting point is 02:36:05 overflowing with fond, foolish praise of the husband she loved. Letters made up of nothings, of what he had said to her, and what she had said to him, and where they had taken afternoon tea, and of their morning ride, or their evening walk, and of those plans for the long future which they were always making, projecting their thoughts into the time to come, and laying out those after-years as if they were a certainty. There had been no fairer morning than that which followed the night of the murder. Lord Chariton was an early riser at all seasons, most of all in the summer, when he was generally awake from five o'clock, and had to beguile an hour or so with one of the books on the table

Starting point is 02:36:41 by his bed, a well-thumbed Horace, or, adieu a decimo, Don Quixote, in ten volumes, which went everywhere with him. By seven o'clock he was dressed and ready to begin. the day. And between that hour and breakfast, it was his habit to attend to the correspondence which had accumulated during the previous day. This severe rule was suspended, however, at Parameix, and he gave himself up to restful vacuity, strolling up and down the sands, or walking round the walls of Saint-Malo, or sauntering into the cathedral in a casual way for an early mass, enjoying the atmosphere of the place with its old-world flavor. On this particular morning he went no further than the sands, where he paced

Starting point is 02:37:22 slowly to and fro in front of the long white terrace hotel and casino, he'd list alike of Parisian idleness coqueting with the crisp wavelets on the edge of the sea, and of the mounted officer yonder drilling his men upon the sandy flat towards Saint-Malo. He was in a mood for idleness, but with him idleness was only a synonym for deep thought. He was meditating upon his only child's future, and telling himself that he had done well for her. Sir Godfrey Carmichael would be made Baron Chariton in the days to come when he, the first baron, should be laid in the newly built vault in the cemetery outside Dorchester.

Starting point is 02:37:57 He was not going to sever himself from his kindred in that last sleep, albeit they were common folk. He would lie under the Egyptian sarcophagus which he had set up in honor of his father, the crockery dealer and his mother, the busy, anxious housewife. The sarcophagus was plain and unpretentious, hardly too good for the shopkeeper, yet with a certain solid dignity which was not unbefitting the law lord, almost as massive as that mammoth cross which marked the resting place of Henry Brewham in the fair southern land. He had chosen the monument with uttermost care, so that it might serve the double purpose. He had looked at the broad, blank panel many a time, wondering how his own name would look upon it, and whether his daughter would have a

Starting point is 02:38:37 laurel wreath sculptured above it. It might be that admiring friends would suggest his being laid in the abbey, hired by those shabby-disused courts where he had pleaded and sat in judgment through so many laborious years, and it might be that the suggestion would be accepted by Dean and Chapter, and that the panel on the Dorchester sycophagus would remain blank. James Dalbrook knew that he had deserved well of posterity, and above all of the ruling powers. He had been staunch and unwavering in his adherence to his own party, and he knew that he had a strong claim upon any conservative ministry. He had sounded, though, as an authority, and he had been assured that there would be very little difficulty in getting Sir Godfrey Carmichael

Starting point is 02:39:17 a peerage by and by, when he, Lord Chariton, should be no more. Sir Godfrey's family was one of the oldest in the country, and he had but to deserve well of his party when he had got his seat to ensure future favors. As the owner of the Chariton and Millbrook estates, he would be a worthy candidate for one of those coronets which seemed to be dealt round so freely by expiring ministries, as it were a dying father dividing his treasures among his weeping children. So far as any man can think with satisfaction of the days when he shall be no more, and when this world will go on, badly of course, but somehow without him, Lord Chariton thought of those far-off years when Godfrey Carmichael should be owner of Chariton Chase.

Starting point is 02:39:57 The young man had shown such fine qualities of heart and mind, and above all, had given such unobtrusive evidence of his affection for Juanita's father that the elder man must needs give measure for measure. Therefore, Godfrey had been to Lord Chariton almost as a son. The union of his humbly-born daughter with one of the oldest families in the south of England gratified the pride of the self-made man. His own pedigree might be of the lowliest, but his grandson would be able to look back upon a long line of ancestors glorified by many a patrician alliance. Strong and stern, as was the fabric of James Dalbrook's mind, he was not superior to the Englishman's foible, and he loved rank an ancient lineage.

Starting point is 02:40:38 He was a tory to the core of his heart, and it was the earnestness and thoroughness of his convictions which had given him weight with his party. Wherever he saw, or whatever he wrote, and he had written much upon current politics in the Saturday review and the higher-class monthlies, bore the stamp of a Cromwellian vigor and a Cromwellian sincerity. He had never felt more at ease than upon that balmy summer morning, pacing those golden sands in quiet meditation, brooding over Juanita's last letter received overnight, with its girlish raptures, its girlish dreams, picturing her in the near future as happy a mother as she was a bride with his grandson, the third baron chariton of the future in her lap.

Starting point is 02:41:18 He smiled at his own foolishness in thinking of that first boy baby by the title which was but one of the possibilities of a foreshadowed sequence of events. Yet he found himself repeating the words idly to the rhythm of the wavelets that curled and sparkled near his feet, Third Baron Chariton. Godfrey Dalbrook Carmichael. Third Baron Chariton. The Cathedral clock was striking nine as he went into the hotel. The light breakfast of coffee and rolls was laid on a small round table near the window. Lady Charitin was sitting in a recess between the mass of stone columns which supported the balcony above, reading yesterday's morning post in her soft grey cashmere peignoir, whose flowing lines gave dignity to her figure.

Starting point is 02:42:01 Her dark hair, as yet untouched by time, was arranged with an elegant simplicity. The fine old lace about her throat harmonized admirably with the pale olive of her complexion. She looked up at her husband with her placid smile and gave him her hand an affectionate greeting. What a morning, James. One feels it a privilege to live. What a superb day it would be for Mont Saint-Michel. A thirty-mile drive in the dust.

Starting point is 02:42:27 Do you really think that it is the best use to which to put a summer day? You may be sure there will be plenty of worthy people of the same opinion, and that the rock will swarm with cheap tourists, and pretty little Madame Poulal will be put to the pin of her collar. to feed them all. She had seated herself at the table by this time, and was pouring out coffee with a leisurely air, smiling at her husband all the time, thinking him the greatest and wisest of men, even when he restrained her social instincts. She was never tired of looking at that massive face, with its clearly defined features, sharply cut jaw and large gray eyes, dark and deep as the

Starting point is 02:43:03 eyes of the earnest thinker rather than the shrewd observer. The strong projection of the lower brow indicated keen perceptions and the power of rapid judgment. But above the perceptive organs, the upper brow towered majestically, giving the promise of a mind predominant in the regions of thought and imagination. Such a brow as we look upon with reverence in the portraits of Walter Scott. Intellectually, the brow was equal to Scots. Morally, there was something wanting. Neither benevolence nor veneration was on a par with the reasoning faculties. Torrey principles with Lord Chariton were not so much the result of an upward looking nature as they were with Scott.

Starting point is 02:43:41 This, at least, is the opinion at which a phrenologist might have arrived after a careful contemplation of that powerful brow. Lord Chariton sipped his coffee and leaned back in his armchair with his face to the morning sea. He sat in a lazy attitude, still thoughtful, with those pleasant thoughts

Starting point is 02:43:58 which are the repose of the working man's brain. The tide was going out. The rocky islet stood high out of the water. The sands were widening till it seemed almost as if the sea were vanishing altogether from this beautiful day. I suppose they will finish their honeymoon in a week or two and move on to the priory, said Lord Chariton by and by, revealing the subject of his reverie. Yes, Juanita says we may go home as early as the second week in August, if we like.

Starting point is 02:44:25 She is to be at the priory in time to settle down before the shooting begins. They will have visitors in September, his sisters, don't you know, the morning sides and the Grenvilles, and the children and nurses, a houseful. Lady Jane ought to be there to help her to entertain. I don't think Nita will want any help. She will be mistress of the situation, depend upon it, and would be there were forty married sisters with her husband's and belongings. She seemed to be mistress of us all at Chariton.

Starting point is 02:44:54 She is so clever, sighed the mother, remembering that Chariton House would no longer be under that girlish sovereignty. The grave-looking French-Swiss valet appeared with a telegram on a solver. Who can have sent me up in a silver? "'Cplain,' exclaimed Lord Chariton, who was accustomed to receive a good many of those little blue envelopes when he was in Paris, but expected no such communications at Saint-Malo. Before leaving for his holiday, he had impressed upon land-stuart and house-steward that he was not to be bothered about anything.

Starting point is 02:45:24 "'If there is anything wanted, you will communicate with Messrs. Dalbrook,' he said. "'They have full powers.' "'And yet here was some worrying message. Some question about a lease or an agreement or somebody's chimney had fallen through. through the roof. He opened the little envelope with a vexed air, resentful of unexpected annoyance. He read the message, and then sat blankly staring, read again, and rose from his seat suddenly with a cry of horror. Never in his life had he experienced such a shock. Never had those iron nerves, that heart burned hard in the furnace of this world's strife been so tried.

Starting point is 02:46:00 He stood aghast, and could only give the little paper with its tight-printed syllables to his scared wife, while he stood gazing at summer sky and summer sea in a blank helplessness, realizing dimly that something had happened which must change the whole course of the future, and overthrow every plan he had ever made. The third, Baron Chariton. Strange, but in that awful moment the words he had repeated idly on the sands half an hour ago echoed again in his ear. Alas, he felt as if that title for which he had toiled was already extinct. He saw as in a vividly.

Starting point is 02:46:34 the velvet cap and golden coronet upon the coffin-lid as the first and last lord chariton was carried to his grave that prophetic vision must needs be realized within a few years there would be no one to succeed him murdered why by whom what devil had been conjured out of hell to cut short that honest stainless life what had godfrey carmichael done that a murderer's hand should be raised against him lady chariton's softener naïll to cut short that honest stainless life what had gotfrey carmichael done that a murderer's hand should be raised against him lady chariton's softer nature found relief in tears before the day was done. Tears and agonized pacings up and down those rooms where life had been so placid in the sunlight, agonized supplications that God would take pity upon her widowed girl. So young and so happy, and a widow, a widow before her 19th birthday, wailed the mother. Lord Chariton's grief was of a sterner kind and found no outlet in words. He held a brief consultation with his valet, a soldierly-looking man, who had fought under Garibaldi in Burgundy, when the guerrilla captain made his brilliant

Starting point is 02:47:38 endeavor to save sinking France. They looked at timetables and calculated hours. The express to Paris would not arrive in time for the evening mail via Calais and Dover. It was Saturday. The cargo boat would cross to Southampton that night, an influence would obtain the accommodation for his lordship and party on board her. The valet took a fly and drove off to the key to find the southwestern superintendent and secure a private cabin for his master and mistress. They would have the boat to themselves, and would be at Southampton at seven o'clock next morning, and at Chariton before noon, even if it were necessary to engage a special engine to take them there. Lord Chariton telegraphed to his daughter. Your mother and I will be with you tomorrow morning.

Starting point is 02:48:21 Be brave for our sakes. Remember that you are all we have to live for. Another telegram to the house steward ordered a close carriage to be in attendance at Wareham Station at ten o'clock on Sunday morning. How quietly you bear it, James, his wife told Lord Chariton, wonderingly, when the mode of their return had been arranged, and her maid was packing her trunks with those soberly handsome gowns which had been the wonder

Starting point is 02:48:45 of many a butterfly Parisienne. She called him by his Christian name now, as in their earliest years of wedded life. It was only on ceremonious occasions, and when the eye of society was upon her that she addressed him by his title. That stern quietude of his, the fine features set and rigid frightened her more than a loquacious grief would have done and yet she hardly knew whether he felt the calamity too much for words or whether he did not feel it enough

Starting point is 02:49:13 poor godfrey she sighed he was so good to me in all that a son could have been murdered my god my god how horrible if it had been any other kind of death one might bear it and yet that he should die at all would be too dreadful so young so handsome cut off in the flower of his days and she loved him so she has loved him all her life what will become of her without him what will become of her that was the mother's moaning cry all through that dreary day lord chariton paced the sands as far as he could go from that giddy multitude in front of the sea-wall beyond the little rocky ridge by the pleasant hotel de ben were the young mothers and nurses and children and homely, easy-going visitors congregate, away towards Concal where all was loneliness. He walked up and down, meditating upon his blighted hopes. He knew now that he had loved this young man almost as well as he loved his own daughter, and that his death had shattered as fair a fabric as ever ambition built on the further side of the grave. She will go in mourning for him all the days of my life, perhaps, he thought,

Starting point is 02:50:26 and then some day after I am in my grave she will fall in love with him. an adventurer and the estate I love and the fortune I have saved will be squandered on the turf or thrown away at Monte Carlo. A grim smile curled his lip at a grim thought as he paced that lonely shore beyond the jutting cliff and the villa on the point. I am sorry I left the bench when I did, he thought. It would have been something to have put on the black cap and passed sentence upon that poor lads murderer. Who was his murderer?

Starting point is 02:51:00 and what the motive of the crime? Those were questions which Lord Chariton had been asking himself with maddening iteration through that intolerable summer day. He welcomed the fading sunlight of late afternoon. He could eat nothing, would not even sit down to make a pretense of dining, but waited chafing in the great stone hall of the hotel for the carriage that was to take him and his wife to the steamer.

Starting point is 02:51:24 End of Chapter 7. Volume 1, Chapter 8 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 8 The stars move still. Time runs. The clock will strike. Trains were favorable and there was no necessity for a special engine to carry Lord Chariton and his wife to the house of morning. It was not yet noon when the closed Lando drove in at the chief gate of the park, not that side gate in the deep rocky lane, of which

Starting point is 02:52:00 Mrs. Porter was custodian. One of the gardeners lived at the lodge, and it was he who opened the gate this Sunday morning. Lord Chariton stopped the carriage to question him. He had heard a full account of the murder already from the station master at Wareham. Have they found the murderer? he asked. No, my lord, I'm afraid they're not likely to, begging your lordship's pardon for venturing an opinion. The man was an old servant and altogether a superior person. Were the gates locked at the usual time on Friday night? Yes, my lord, the gates were locked, but that wouldn't keep out a foot passenger. They There's the turnstile in the lane.

Starting point is 02:52:37 Of course. Yes, yes. A London detective has been at work, I hear. Yes, my lord. Came yesterday before two o'clock and has been about with Barber ever since. And have they discovered nothing? Nothing, my lord, or if they have it has been kept dark.

Starting point is 02:52:54 Lord Chariton asked no further questions. The man was right. A detective from Scotland Yard was not likely to talk about any minor discoveries that he might have made. Only the one grand discovery of the guilt. mal would have been made known five minutes later the carriage drew up in front of the hall door what a blank and melancholy look the fine old house had with all the windows darkened it did not look so dismal as a london house with its level rows of windows and its flat faade would have looked under similar conditions for here there was variety of mullion and molding bay windows and oriel dormer and lattice and overall the growth of lovely creeping plants starry clematis and passion flower clustering Banskaya roses and waxen magnolia, an infinite beauty of form and color. Yet, the blind windows were there, with their dull, dead look and chilling suggestion of death.

Starting point is 02:53:47 Lady Charitin looked at the house for a moment or so as she got out of the carriage and then burst into tears. It seemed to her as if she had scarcely realized the stern reality till that moment. She went straight to her daughter's boudoir, a room with an orial window looking across the wide expanse of the park, where the turf lay openness to the sunshine and where the deer were want to congregate. The garden was at its narrowest point just below this window, and consisted only of a broad gravel path and a strip of flowers at the top of a steep grass bank that sloped down to the ha-ha which divided garden and bark. The room was full of Juanita's girlish treasures,

Starting point is 02:54:25 evidences of fancies that had passed like summer clouds, accomplishments begun and abandoned, a zither in one corner, a guitar and a mandolin against the wall, an easel in front of one window, a gigantic rush-work basket lined with amber satin and crammed with all manner of silks, wools, scraps, and unfinished undertakings in another. The room remained just as she had left it when she went to London at the beginning of May. She had not occupied it during her honeymoon, and perhaps that was the reason she was here now in her desolation, sitting silent, statue-like, with Lady Jane by her side on a sofa opposite the oriel.

Starting point is 02:55:02 She lifted her eyelids when her mother came into the room and looked up at her in speechless despair. She uttered no word of greeting, but sat dumbly. Lady Chariton went over to her and knelt by her side, and then feebly, automatically, the widowed girl put her limp, cold hand into her mother's and hid her bloodless face upon her mother's breast. Lady Chariton held her there with one hand while she stretched out her other hand to Lady Jane. Dear Lady Jane, how good of you to be with her to comfort her.

Starting point is 02:55:33 Where else should I be? I want to be near him. The gentle blue eyes filled with tears, the gracious head trembled a little. Then came a long, shivering sigh and silence. The mother knelt beside the sofa with her child's head leaning forward upon her matronly bosom. There may have been some comfort, perhaps, in that contact, some recurrence of the thoughts and feelings of earlier years,

Starting point is 02:55:58 when the mother could console every grief and soothe every pain. No words came to either of those mourners. What could be said in mitigation of a sorrow that seemed to offer no point of relief, no counter-balancing good? There was nothing to be done but to sit still and suffer. The silence lasted long, and then Juanita lifted her head suddenly from its heavy repose and looked fixedly in her mother's face. "'My father has come back with you,' she asked.

Starting point is 02:56:26 "'Yes, dearest. We did not lose an hour. had there been any quicker way of traveling, we would have been here sooner. My father will be able to find the murderer, said Juanita, scarcely hearing her mother's words, intent upon her own thought. A great lawyer as he was, a judge, too. He must be able to trace the murderer, to bring him to justice, to take a life for a life.

Starting point is 02:56:49 Oh, God! With a shrill, agonizing cry, could a thousand lives give me back one hour of that one life? Yet it will be something, something, to know that his murderer has been killed, killed shamefully in cold blood in the broad light of day. O God, thou avenger of wrong, make his last hours bitter to him, make his last moments hopeless, let him see the gates of hell opening before him when he stands trembling with the rope round his neck.

Starting point is 02:57:20 There was an intensity of hatred in this vindictive appeal which thrilled the two listeners with an icy horror. It was like a blast from a frozen region blowing suddenly in their faces and they shivered as they heard. Could it be the girl they knew, the loving, lovable girl, who in those deep harsh tones

Starting point is 02:57:38 called upon her God for vengeance and not for mercy? Oh, my love, my poor heart-broken love, pray to him to have pity upon us, ask him to teach us how to bow to the rod, how to bear his chastisement. That is the lesson we have to learn, pleaded Lady Jane, tearful and submissive even in the depth of sorrow.

Starting point is 02:57:59 Is it? My lesson is to see justice done upon the wretch who killed my husband, the malignant, the merciless devil. There was not one of those slayers of women and children in the Indian mutiny worse than the man who killed my love? What had he done? He the kindest and best, generous, frank, pitiful to all who ever came in his way? What had he done to provoke any man's enmity. Oh, God, when I remember how good he was, and how much brighter and better the world was for having him! She began to pace the room,

Starting point is 02:58:33 as she had paced again and again in her slow hours of agony. Her hands clasped above her disheveled head, her great dark eyes, so dove-like in their hours of love and happiness, burning with an angry light, lurid almost, in the excitement of her fevered brain. There had been times when Lady Jane had feared that reason must give way altogether amidst this wild delirium of grief.

Starting point is 02:58:55 She had stayed to watch and to console, forgetting her own broken heart, putting aside all considerations of her own sorrow as something that might have its way afterwards in order to comfort this passionate mourner. Comfort, even from affection such as this, was unavailing. Now and again the girl turned her burning eyes upon the mother's pale, resigned face, and, for a moment a thought of that chastened, gentle grief softened her. dear dear lady jane god may do better than any other woman on this earth i believe she cried amidst her anguish the saints and martyrs must have been like you but i am not i am not made like that i cannot kiss the rod

Starting point is 02:59:36 the meeting between juanita and her father was more painful to him than to her she hung upon his neck in feverish excitement imploring him to avenge her husband you can do it she urged you who are so clever must know how to her to bring the murderous guilt home to him. He will find him, will you not, father? He cannot have gone out of the country yet. Think it was only Friday. I was a happy woman upon Friday. Only think of that, happy, sitting by Godfrey's side in the phaeton, driving through the sunset and thinking how beautiful the world was

Starting point is 03:00:10 and what a privilege it was to live. I had no more foreboding than the Skylark had singing above our heads. And in less than an hour after midnight, my darling was dead. Oh, God, how sudden. I cannot even remember his last words. He kissed me as he left at my bedroom door. Kissed me and said something.

Starting point is 03:00:32 I cannot remember what it was, but I can hear the sound of his voice still. I shall hear it all my life. Lord Chariton let her ramble on. He had, alas, so little to say to her, such sorry comfort to offer. Only words, mere words. which must need sound idle and hollow in the ear of grief, frame his consolatory speeches with what eloquency might.

Starting point is 03:00:57 He could do nothing for her, since he could not give her back or dead. This wild cry for vengeance shocked him from those young lips, yet it was natural, perhaps. He, too, would give much to see the assassin suffer. He too felt that the dock and the gallows would be too trivial a punishment for that accursed deed. He had looked upon the marble face of him who was to have been the, the second baron chariton, looked upon it in its placid repose, and had sworn within himself to do all that ingenuity could do to avenge that cruel murder. He could not have had an enemy, he told himself, unless it was some wretch who hated him

Starting point is 03:01:35 for being happy and beloved. He had a long talk with Mr. Luke Churton, the London detective, who had exhausted all his means without arriving at any satisfactory result. "'I confess, my lord, that I am all together at a standstill,' said Mr. Churton, when he had related all that he had done since his arrival on the scene early on Saturday afternoon. The utmost information I have been able to obtain leaves me without one definite idea. There is no one in the neighbourhood open to suspicion so far as I can make out, for I am sure your lordship will agree with me that your butler's notion of a poacher resenting your treatment by the murder of your son-in-law is much too thin,

Starting point is 03:02:15 "'One cannot accept such a notion as that for a moment,' said Mr. Churton, shaking his head. "'No, that is an untenable idea, no doubt. The next suggestion is that some person was prowling about with the intention of abstracting trinkets and other valuables from the drawing-room, in an unguarded moment when the room might happen to be empty, and I admit that the present fashion of covering drying-room tables and cabinets with valuables of every description is calculated to suggest plunder, but that kind of thing would be probable enough in London rather than in the country, and nothing is more unlikely than that a prowler of that order would resort to murder.

Starting point is 03:02:52 Again, the manner in which the body was found, with the open book lying close to the hand that had held it, goes far to prove that Sir Godfrey was shot as he sat reading, and at a time when a burglar could have no motive for shooting him. Do you think it was the act of a lunatic? No, my lord, for in that event the murderer would have been heard of or found before now. the gardens park and chase have been most thoroughly searched under my superintendence it is not possible for a lap-dog to be hidden anywhere within this domain the neighboring villages solitary cottages commons and copses have been also submitted to a searching investigation the police all over the country are on the alert of course the crime is still a very recent date time to us seems longer than it really is no doubt no doubt i can find no other high

Starting point is 03:03:43 hypothesis, and that the act was done by a madman. Such a motiveless murder, a man sitting by a window reading, shot by an unknown hand from a garden terrace, remote from the outer world. Where we in Ireland the crime might seem commonplace enough. Sir Godfrey was a landowner, and that alone is an offense against the idol and the lawless in that unhappy country, but here in the midst of an orderly, god-fearing population. Had Sir Godfrey no enemy, do you think, my lord? asked the detective gravely. The crime has the look of a vendetta. There never was a young man, owner of a considerable estate, more universally beloved. His tenants adore him, for as a landlord he has been exceptionally indulgent.

Starting point is 03:04:26 He may have granted too much in some quarters and too little in others. No, no. He has been judicious in his liberality, and he has a capital bailiff, an old man who was a servant on this estate many years ago. But there are other influences, said the detective, musingly. whenever i meet with a crime of this kind motiveless apparently i remember the eastern prince i think he was one of those long-headed orientals wasn't he my lord who used to ask who is she in a thoroughly dark case i always suspect a woman behind the curtain sir godfrey had been independent of all control for a good many years and a young man of fortune handsome open-hearted with only a mother to look after him well my lord you know the kind of thing that generally happens in such cases you mean that my son-in-law may have been involved in some disreputable intrigue i don't say disreputable my lord but i venture to suggest that there may have been some ahem some awkward entanglement with a married woman for instance and the husband or another lover may have belonged to their criminal classes

Starting point is 03:05:35 there are men who think very little of murder when they fancy themselves ill-used by a woman half the midnight brawls and nearly half the murders in the metropolis are caused by jellies I know what a large factor that is in the sum total of crime, and unless you are sure there was no entanglement. I am sure as I can be of anything outside my own existence. I don't believe that Sir Godfrey ever cared for any woman in his life except my daughter. He might not have cared, my lord, but he might have been drawn in, suggested Mr. Cherton. Young men are apt to be weak where women are concerned, and women know that, unfortunately, and they don't scruple to use their power. Not the best of them even. Young men are apt to be weak.

Starting point is 03:06:21 Yes, Lord Chariton had seen enough of the world to know that this was true. It was just possible that in that young life which seemed white as snow to the eye of kindred and friends, there had been one dark secret, one corroding stain, temptation yielded to, promises given, never to be fulfilled. Such things have been in many lives, in most lives, perhaps, could we know all, Lord charit and thought, as he sat silently meditating upon the detective's suggestions. Lady Jane might know something about her son's past,

Starting point is 03:06:52 perhaps, something that she might have kept locked in the beneficent maternal heart. He determined to sound her delicately at the earliest opportunity. But on being sounded, Lady Jane repudiated any such possibility. No, again and again no. His youth had been spotless. No hint of an intrigue had ever reached her from any

Starting point is 03:07:13 quarter. He had chosen his friends among the most honourable young men at the university. His amusements had been such as became a young Englishman of exalted position. He had never stooped to low associations or even doubtful company, and from his boyhood upwards he had adored Juanita. That love alone would have kept him right, said Lady Jane, but I do not believe that it was in his nature to go wrong. It would seem, therefore, that the detective's suspicion was groundless. jealousy could not have been the motive of the crime.

Starting point is 03:07:45 If any of us could be sure that we know each other, I ought to accept Lady Jane's estimate of her son, thought Lord Chariton, but there is always the possibility of an unrevealed nature, one phase in a character that has escaped discovery. I am almost inclined to think the detective may have hit upon the truth. There must have been a motive for this devilish act, unless it were done by a maniac. The latter supposition seemed hardly probable,

Starting point is 03:08:11 lunacy wandering loose about the country would have betrayed itself before now. It was past five upon that summer afternoon and Lord Sheraton, having seen his daughter and interviewed the detective, was sauntering idly about the gardens and the blank hours before dinner. That meal would be served as usual, no doubt, at eight o'clock, with all due state and ceremony. The cook and her maids were busied about its preparation, even now in this tranquil hour, when afternoon melts into evening, sliding so softly from day to night, that only those evening hymns of the birds, and on Sundays, those melancholy church bells

Starting point is 03:08:46 thrulling across the woods marked the transition. They were scraping vegetables and whipping eggs while the birds were at Vespers, and they were talking of the murder as they went about their work. When would they ever cease to gloat with ghoulish gusto on that deadly theme,

Starting point is 03:09:01 with endless iteration of, says he, and says she? Lord Chariton left the stately garden with its quadruple lines of cypress and juniper, its marble balustrades, and clipped ewe hedges five feet thick its statues and alcoves. He passed through a little gate and across a classic single-arched bridge to the park, where he sauntered slowly beneath his immemorial elms, in a strange, dreamlike frame of mind, in which he allowed his senses to be beguiled by the balmy afternoon atmosphere and the golden light,

Starting point is 03:09:31 until the all-pervading consciousness of a great grief which had been with him all day, slipped off him for the moment, leaving only a feeling of luxurious repose, after labor. Cheriton Chase was exercising its wanted influence upon him. He loved the place with that deep love which is often felt by the hereditary owner, the man born on the soil, but perhaps still oftener, and to a greater degree by him who has conquered and won the land by his own hard labor of head or hand, by that despicable personage, the self-made man. In all his wanderings, those luxurious, reposeful journeyings of the man who has conquered fortune, James Dalbrook's heart yearned towards these ancient avenues and yonder gray walls.

Starting point is 03:10:15 House and Domain had all the charm of antiquity, and yet they were in a measure his own creation. Everywhere had his hand improved and beautified, and he might say with Augustus that where he found brick, he would leave marble. The dense green walls, those open-air courts and quadrangles, those obelisks of Cyprus and juniper had been there in the dominion of the Strangways, with here and there a moment of bouldering stone syrinx or a moss-grown pan but it was he who brought choicest marbles from rome and florence to adorn that stately pleasants it was he who had erected yonder fountain whose waters made a monotonous music by day and night the marble balustrates the mosaic floors the artistic enrichment of terrace and mansion had been his work if the farms were perfect it was he who had made them so if his tenants were contented it was because he had shown himself a model landlord considerate and liberal, but severely exacting, satisfied with nothing less than perfection. Having thus in a manner created his estate, James Dalbrook loved it, as a proud, self-contained man is apt to love the work of his own hands, and now, in this quiet Sunday afternoon,

Starting point is 03:11:25 the very atmosphere of the place soothed him as if by a spell. A kind of sensuous contentment stole into his heart, with temporary forgetfulness of his daughter's ruined life. But this did not last long. As he drew near the drive, by which strangers were allowed to cross the park by immemorial right, he remembered that he had questioned one of the lodge-keepers, but not the other. He struck across an open glade where only old-haughton trees cast their rugged shadows on the close-crop turf, and made for the gate-opening into the land. Mrs. Porter's cottage had its usual aspect. A cottage, such as any gentleman or lady of refined taste, might have been pleased to inhabit, quaint, medieval,

Starting point is 03:12:05 with heavy timbers across rough-cast walls, deep-set casements, picturesque dorm, and thatched roof, with gable-ends which were a source of rapture to every artist who visited Chariton, a cottage embowered in loveliest creeping plants, odorous of jasmine and woodbine, and set in a garden where the standard roses and carnations were rumored to excel those in her ladyship's own particular flower-garden. Well might a lady who had known better days rejoice in such a haven, more especially when those better days appeared to have raised her no higher than the status of a merchant captain's wife. Very few people, people about Chariton envied her ladyship. It was considered that, if not born in the

Starting point is 03:12:45 purple, she had at least brought her husband a large fortune, and had a right to taste the sweets of wealth. But there were many hard-driven wives and shabby, genteel spinsters who envied Mrs. Porter her sinecure at the gate of Chariton Park, and who looked grudgingly at the garden brimming with flowers and the lattices shining in the evening sun, and through the open casements at prettily furnished rooms, rich in books and photographs, and other trivial indications of a refined taste. It is well to be she, said the curate's wife, as she went home from the village with two mutton shops in her little fancy basket, a basket which suggested ferns and in which she

Starting point is 03:13:20 always carried a trowel to give a look of casual botany to her housewife lay errands. I wonder whether Lord Chariton allows her an income for doing nothing, or is it only house and coals and candles that she gets, speculated the curate's wife, who lived in a brand-new villa on the outskirts of Chariton Village, the villa that was shabby and dilapidated after three years' occupation, through whose thin walls all the winds of winter blue, and whose slate roof made the upper floor

Starting point is 03:13:46 like a bakehouse under the summer sun. Lord Chariton, still sauntering in gloomy meditation, came to the cottage garden outside his gates, and found Mrs. Porter standing among her roses, a tall, black figure, the very pink and pattern of respectability, with her prayer book in one hand and a gray silk sunshade in the other.

Starting point is 03:14:03 She turned at the sound of those August footsteps and came to the little garden gate to greet her benefactor with a grave countenance as befitted the circumstances. Good afternoon, he said briefly. Have you just come from church? Yes, I have been to the children's service. Not very interesting, I should imagine, for anybody past childhood.

Starting point is 03:14:25 It is something to do on a Sunday afternoon, and I like to hear Mr. Kempster talk to the children. Do you? Well, there is no accounting for tastes. "'Can you tell me anything about my son-in-law's murderer? "'Have you seen any suspicious characters hanging about? "'Did you notice anyone going into the park on Friday night?' "'No, I have not seen a mortal out of the common way.

Starting point is 03:14:47 "'The gate was locked at the usual hour. "'Of course the gate would make no difference. "'It would be easy for anyone to get into the park.' "'And no one was seen about. "'It is extraordinary. "'Have you any idea, Mrs. Porter, "'any theory about this horrible calamity that has come upon us?' how should i have any theory i am not skilled in finding out such mysteries like the man who came from london yesterday has he made no discoveries not one then you can't expect me to throw a light upon the subject

Starting point is 03:15:17 you have an advantage over the london detective you know the neighbourhood and you know what kind of man sir godfrey was yes i know that how handsome he was how frank and pleasant-looking and how your daughter adored him they were a beautiful couple her wan cheeks flushed and her eyes kindled as she spoke as if with a genuine enthusiasm they were and they adored each other it will break my daughter's heart you have known trouble about a daughter i think you can understand what i feel for my girl i do i do yes i know what you must feel what she must feel in her desolation with all she valued gone from her forever but she has not to drink the cup that my girl must drink lord chariton she has not to drink the cup that my girl must drink lord chariton she has not to drink the cup that my girl must drink lord chariton she has not fallen. She is not a thing for men to trample underfoot and women to shrink away from. Forgive me, said Lord Chariton in a softened voice. I ought not to have spoken of, mercy. You ought never to speak of her to me. I suppose you thought the wound was so old that it might be touched with impunity, but you were wrong. That wound will never heal. I am sure you know that I have always been deeply sorry for you, for that great affliction, said Lord Chariton gently.

Starting point is 03:16:32 sorry yes i suppose you were sorry you would have been sorry if a footman had knocked down one of your severa vases and smashed it one is sorry for anything that can't be replaced that is a harsh and unjust way of speaking mrs porter said lord chariton drawing himself up suddenly with an air of wounded dignity you can tell me nothing about our trouble i see and i'm not in the mood to talk of any older grief good-night he lifted his hat with grave respect and walked back to the park gate vanishing slowly from those grey eyes which followed him in eager watchfulness. Is he really sorry? she asked herself. Can such a man as that be sorry for anyone, even his own flesh and blood? He has prospered. All things have gone well with him. Can he be sorry?

Starting point is 03:17:19 It is a check, perhaps, a check to his ambitious hopes. It box him in his longing to found a family. He looks pale and worn as if he had suffered, and at his age, after a prosperous life, It must be hard to suffer. So mused the woman who had seen better days, embittered doubtless by her own decadence, embittered still more by her daughter's fall.

Starting point is 03:17:42 It was nearly ten years since the daughter had eloped with a middle-aged colonel in a cavalry regiment, a visitor at the chase, a man of fortune and high family, with about as diabolical a reputation as a man could enjoy and yet hold her majesty's commission. Mercy Porter's fall had been a surprise to everybody. She was a girl,

Starting point is 03:18:01 girl of shy and reserved manners, graver and sadder than you should be. She had been kept very close by her mother, allowed to make no friendships among the girls in the village to have no companions of her own age. She had early shown a considerable talent for music, and her piano had been her chief pleasure and occupation. Lady Chariton had taken a good deal of notice of her when she grew up, and she might have done well, the gossip said when they recall the story of her disgrace, but she chose to fall in love with a married man of infamous character, a notorious profligate, and he had but to reckon with his finger for her to go off with him. The circumstances of her going off were discussed confidentially at feminine tea-drinkings,

Starting point is 03:18:41 and it was wondered that Mrs. Porter could hold her head so high, and show herself at church three times on a Sunday, and entertain the curate and his wife to afternoon tea, considering what had happened. The curate and his wife were new arrivals comparatively, and only knew that dismal common story from hearsay. They were both impressed by Mrs. Porter's regular her attendance at the church services, and by the excellence of that cup of tea with which she was always ready to entertain them whenever they cared to drop in at her cottage between four and five

Starting point is 03:19:09 o'clock. The inquest was opened early on the afternoon of Monday at the humble little inn near the forge with its rustic sign, Live and Let Live. Juanita gave her evidence with a stony calmness which impressed those who heard her more than the stormiest outburst of grief could have done. Her mother and her husband's mother had both implored her not to break down, to bear herself heroically through this terrible ordeal, and they were both in the room to support her by their presence. Both were surprised at the firmness of her manner, the clear tones of her voice as she made her statement,

Starting point is 03:19:43 telling how she had heard the shot in her dream, and how she had gone down to the drawing-room to find Sir Godfrey lying face downward on the carpet in front of the chair where he had been sitting, his hand still upon the open book which had fallen as he fell. Did you think of going outside to see if anyone was lurking about? No, I thought of nothing but trying to save him. I did not believe that he was dead.

Starting point is 03:20:05 There was a look of agony in her large, wide-open eyes as she said this, a piteous remembrance of the moment while she still hoped, which thrilled the spectators. What course did you take? I rank by the servants. They came after a time that seemed long, but I believe they came quickly. And after they had come? I remembered nothing more.

Starting point is 03:20:27 They wanted me to believe that he was dead. and I would not. I could not believe, and I remembered no more till next day. That will do, Lady Carmichael. I will not trouble you further. Lady Jane and Lady Chariton wanted to take her away after this, but she insisted upon remaining. I wish to hear every word, she said. They submitted, and the three women, robed in densest black, sat in a little group behind the coroner till the end of that day's inquiry. no new facts were elicited for many of the witnesses and nothing had resulted from the elaborate search made not only throughout lord chariton's domain but in the neighbourhood no suspicious prowlers had been heard of the gipsies who had contributed to the gaiety of the wedding-day had been ascertained to have left the isle of purpeck a fortnight before the murder and to be delighting the larger world between portsmouth and haven't nothing had been discovered no sale of revolver or gun to any questionable purchaser at dorchester

Starting point is 03:21:29 No indication, however slight, which might put a keen-witted detective upon the trail. Mr. Churton confessed himself completely at fault. The jury drove to Chariton House to view the body, and the inquest was adjourned for a fortnight, in the expectation that some discovery might be made in the interim. The funeral would take place at the usual time. There was nothing now to hinder the victim being laid in his last resting place in the old Saxon church at Millbrook. Bill's offering a reward of 500 pounds for any information leading to the discovery of the murderer were all over the village and in every village in town within a radius of 40 miles.

Starting point is 03:22:07 The stimulus of cupidity was not wanting to sharpen the rural wit. Mr. Churton shook his head despondently when he talked over the inquest with Lord Chariton later in the day and owned himself out of it. I have been in many dark cases, my lord, he said, and I've had many hard nuts to crack, but this beats them all. I can't see my way to making anything of it, and unless you can furnish me with any particulars of the poor young gentleman's past life, of an enlightening character, I don't see much hope of getting ahead.

Starting point is 03:22:39 You stick to your idea of the murder being an act of revenge. What other reason could there be for such a murder? That question seemed unanswerable, and Lord Chariton let it pass. Matthew Dalbrook and his elder son were to dine with him that evening in order to talk quietly and calmly over the terrible event of last week, and the bearing which it must have upon his daughter's future life. Lady Chariton and Lady Jane Carmichael had lived entirely on the upper floor, taking such poor apologies for meals as they could be induced to take in her ladyship's morning room. That closed door at the eastern end of the corridor exercised its solemn influence upon the whole house. Those morning women never went in or out without looking that way, and again and again through the long still days they visited that chamber of death, carrying fairest blooms of Stephanotus or camellia, whitest rosebuds, wax and lilies, kneeling in silent prayer beside that white bed. During all those dismal days before the funeral, Juanita lives secluded in her own room, only leaving it to go to that silent room where the white bed and the white flowers made an atmosphere of cold purity, which chilled her heart as if she,

Starting point is 03:23:48 too were dead. She counted the hours which remained before even this melancholy link between life and death would be broken, and when she must stretch out her hands blindly to find one whom the earth would hide from her forevermore. In the brief snatches of troubled sleep that had visited her since Friday night she had awakened with her husband's name upon her lips, with outstretched hands that yearned for the touch of his, awakening slowly to consciousness of the horrible reality. in every dream that she had dreamed he had been with her, and in some of those dreams had appeared with a distinctness which involved the memory of her sorrow.

Starting point is 03:24:24 Yes, she had thought him dead. Yes, she had seen him stretched bleeding at her feet. But that had been dream and delusion. Reality was here, here in his strong voice, here in the warm grasp of his hand, here in the lying vision that was kinder than truth. Mr. Dalbrook and his son arrived at a quarter to wait and were received by Lord Chariton in the library.

Starting point is 03:24:47 The drawing-room was now a locked chamber, and it would be long doubtless before anyone would have the courage to occupy that room. The Dalbrooks were to stay at Chariton till after the funeral. Matthew Dalbrook had been Sir Godfrey's solicitor, and it would be his duty to read the will. He was also one of the trustees to Juanita's marriage settlement, and the time had come, all too soon, when the terms of that settlement would have to be discussed.

Starting point is 03:25:12 "'How is my cousin?' asked Theodore, when he had shaken hands with Lord Chariton. "'Have you seen her since Friday?' "'Yes, I saw her on Saturday morning. She was terribly changed.' "'A ghastly change, is it not?' said Lord Chariton with a sigh. "'I doubt if there's any improvement since then, but she behaved splendidly at the inquest this afternoon. We were all prepared for her breaking down. God knows whether she will ever get the better of her grief,

Starting point is 03:25:42 or whether she will go down to the grave a broken-hearted woman. Oh, Matt, turning to his kinsman and contemporary. Such a trial as this teaches us how Providence can laugh at our best laid plans. I thought I had made my daughter's happiness as secure as the foundations of this old house. You did your best, James. No man can do more. Theodore was silent, for the most part, after his inquiry about his cousin. he listened while the elder men talked and gave his opinion when it was asked for and showed himself a clear-headed man of business but his depression was not the less evident the thought of oneita's grief the contrast between her agony now and her joyousness the day she was at dorchester was never absent from his mind and the talk of the two elder men the discussion as to the extent of her possessions her power to do this and that the house she was to live in the establishment she was to keep jarred upon him horribly

Starting point is 03:26:39 by the conditions of the settlement the priory is to be hers for life with everything it contains by the conditions of sir godfrey's will in the event of his leaving no issue the priory estate is to go after his widow's death to mrs grenville's eldest son or failing a son in that direction than to mrs morningside's eldest son. Should neither sister leave a son surviving at the time of Lady Carmichael's death, the estate is to be sold, and the product divided with equal portions among the surviving nieces, but at the present rate at which the two ladies are filling their nurseries, there is very little doubt there will be a surviving son. Mrs. Grenville was Sir Godfrey's favorite, I know, and I can understand his giving her boy the estate and thus founding a family, rather than dividing the property between the issue of the two sisters. I do not think anybody can find fault with his will, said Lord Chariton.

Starting point is 03:27:32 God knows that when I saw him sign it in my room in Victoria Street, an hour after his marriage, nothing was further from my thoughts than the idea that the will would come into force within the next fifty years. It seemed almost an idle precaution for so young a man to be in such a hurry to set his house in order. Do you think Juanita will decide to live at the priory? asked Mr. Dalbrook. It would seem more natural for her to live here with her mother and me, but I fear that this house will seem forever a curse to her. She will remember that it was her own whim to spend her honeymoon here. It will seem to her as if she had brought her husband to his death.

Starting point is 03:28:08 Oh, God, when I remember how her mother and I suggested other places, how we talked to her of the Tyrol and the Dolomites of Hungary, Norway, and with what a kind of childish infatuation she clung to her fancy for this house, it seems as if a hideous fatality guided her to her doom. It is her doom. as well as his. I do not believe she will ever be a happy woman again. It may seem so now to us all, to herself most of all, poor girl, answered Matthew Dalbrook, but I never saw a sorrow yet that time could not heal, and the sorrow of a girl of

Starting point is 03:28:43 19 leave such a wide margin for time's healing powers. God grant that you and I may both live to see her bright and happy again with a second husband. There is something prosaic, I feel, in the very sound, but there may be some. some touch of romance even in a second love. He did not see the painful change in his son's face while he was talking, the sudden crimson which faded slowly to a ghastly pallor. It had never occurred to Matthew Dalbrook that his son Theodore had felt anything more than a cousinly regard for Lord Chariton's daughter.

Starting point is 03:29:15 The funeral took place on the following Wednesday, one of those funerals about which people talk for a month and in which grief is almost lost sight of by the majority of the mourners in a feverish excitement. The procession of carriages, very few of them unoccupied, was nearly half a mile long. The little churchyard at Millbrook could scarcely contain the mourners. The sister's husbands were there, with hats hidden in crape and solemn countenances. Honestly sorry for their brother-in-law's death, but not uninterested in his will. All the district, within a radius of 30 miles, had been on the alert to pay this last mark

Starting point is 03:29:50 of respect to a young man who had been universally liked and whose melancholy fate had moved every heart. The will was read in the library, and Juanita appeared for the first time since her cousins had been at Chariton. She came into the room with her mother and went to Matthew and his son quietly, and gave a hand to each, and answered their grave inquiries about her health without one tear or one faltering accent, and then she took her seat beside her father's chair and waited for the reading of the will. It seemed to her as if it contained her husband's last words, addressed to her from his grave. He knew when he wrote or dictated those words that she would not hear them in his lifetime. The will left her a life interest in everything, except twenty thousand pounds and consuls to Lady Jane,

Starting point is 03:30:35 a few legacies to old servants and local charities, and a few souvenirs to college friends. Sir Godfrey had held the estate and fee simple and could deal with it as he pleased. He expressed a hope that if his wife, that if his wife, wife survived him she should continue to live at the priory, and that the household should remain as far as possible unchanged, that no old horse should ever be sold, and no dogs disposed of in any way off the premises. This last request was to secure continuance of old customs. His father had never allowed a horse that he had kept over a twelve-month to be sold, and had never parted with a dog. His own hand shot the horse that was no longer fit for service. His own hand poisoned the dog whose life had

Starting point is 03:31:16 ceased to be a blessing. When the will was finished, and it was by no means a lengthy document, Lady Jane kissed her daughter-in-law. "'He will do as he wished, won't you, dearest?' she said softly. "'Live at the priory?' "'Yes, Lady Jane, unless he will live there instead. It would be more natural for you to be mistress there. When—when—when—my darling made that will, he must have thought of me as an old woman, likely to survive him by a few years at most, and it would seem natural to him for me to go on living in his house, to continue to live. Those were his words, you know, to continue to live in the home of my married life. But all is different now, and it would be better for you to have the priory. It has been your home so long. It is full of associations and interest for you.

Starting point is 03:32:03 I can live anywhere, anywhere except in this detested house. She had spoken in a low voice all the time, so though as to be quite inaudible to her father and Matthew Dalbrook, who were talking confidentially upon the other side of the wide oak table. My love, it is your house. It will be full of associations for you, too, the memories of his youth. It may comfort you by and by to live among the things he cared for. And I can be with you there now and then. You will bear with a melancholy old woman now and then, pleaded Lady Jane with tearful tenderness. The only answer was a sob and a clinging pressure of the hand, and then the three women quietly left the

Starting point is 03:32:46 room. Their interest in the business was over. Blinds had been drawn up and Venetian shutters opened. There was a flood of sunshine on the staircase and in the corridors as Juanita went back to her room. The perfume of the roses and the breath of summer came in at the open windows. "'Oh, God, how the sun shines!' she cried in a sudden agony of remembrance. Those odors from the garden, the blue sky, summer greenery and dazzling summer light brought back the image of her vanished happiness. Last week, less than a week ago, she had been one of the joyous creatures in that glad, gay world,

Starting point is 03:33:23 joyous as a thrush whose song was thrilling upon the soft sweet air. Lady Jane's two sons-in-law had drawn near the oak table at which the lawyer was seated with his papers before him. Jessica's husband, Mr. Grenville, was sporting. His thoughts were centered in his table, where he found an off-sufficient occupation for his intellectual powers in an endless buying, exchanging. selling, summering, and wintering his stud, in the invention of improved bits, and the

Starting point is 03:33:50 development of new ideas in saddlery, in the performance of operations that belong rather to the professional veterinary than to the gentleman at large, and in the conversation of his stud-groom. These resources filled up all the margin that was left for a man who hunted four days a week in his own district, and who often got a fifth and even a sixth day in other countries accessible by rail. It may have been a natural result of Mr. Grenville's devotion to the stable, that Mrs. Grenville was absorbed by her nursery, but it may have been a natural bent on the lady's part. However this might be,

Starting point is 03:34:22 the lady and the gentleman followed parallel lines in which their interests never clashed. He talked of hardly anything but his horses. She rarely mentioned any other subject than her children or something bearing upon her children's well-being. He believed his horses to be the best in the country. She considered her babies unsurpassed in creation. Both in their line,

Starting point is 03:34:44 were supremely happy. Mr. Morningside, married to Sir Godfrey's younger sister Ruth, was distinctly parliamentary, and had no sympathies in common with such men as Hugo Grenville. To him, horses were animals with four legs who dragged burdens,

Starting point is 03:35:00 who were expensive to keep, and whose legs were liable to fill or to develop superfluous bone on the slightest provocation. His only idea of a saddle-horse was a slow and stolid cob, for whose virtuous disposition and powerful bone

Starting point is 03:35:13 he had paid nearly three hundred pounds, and on which he pounded round the park three or four times every morning during the parliamentary season, an exercise of which he was about as fond as he was of Polnawater, but which had been recommended him for the good of his liver. Mr. Morningside had a castle in the north, too near Newcastle to be altogether beautiful, and he had a small suite upon a fifth floor in Queen Anne's mansion. He had taken this apartment as a bachelor, Pieter for the parliamentary season, and he had laid considerable emphasis upon the landowner's necessity for stern economy which had constrained him to take rooms so small as to be altogether impossible for his wife. Mrs. Morningside was, however, of a different opinion.

Starting point is 03:35:54 No place was impossible for her which her dear Stuart deigned to occupy. She did not mind small rooms or a fifth story. Was there not a lift, and were there not charming people living ever so much nearer the skies? She did not mind even what she gracefully described as pinging it for her dear Stuart's sake. She was utterly unlike her elder sister, and she had no compunction of placing over two hundred miles between her and her nursery. They'd wire me if anything went wrong, she said, and the express would take me home in a few hours.

Starting point is 03:36:27 That would depend upon what time you got the wire. The express doesn't go every quarter of an hour like a royal blue, replied Mr. Morningside, gloomily. He was a dry as dust man, one of those self-satisfied persons, who are never less alone than when alone. He had married at five and thirty, and the comfortable habits of a priggish bachelor

Starting point is 03:36:47 still clove to him after six years of married bliss. He was fond of his wife in her place, and he thought her a very charming woman at the head of his table and receiving his guests at Morningside Castle. But it was essential to his peace that he should have many solitary hours in which to pour over blue books and meditate upon an intended speech.

Starting point is 03:37:07 He fancied himself greatly as a speaker, and he was one of those parliamentary boars whose ornate periods are made mincemeat of by the reporters. He looked to a day when he would take his place with Burke and Walpole and other giants whose oratory had been received coldly in the dawn of their senatorial career. He gave himself up to much study of politics past and present and was one of those well-informed boars who are only useful as a storehouse of hard facts for the use of livelier speakers. When a man had to speak upon a subject of which he knew nothing, he went to Mr. Morningside

Starting point is 03:37:39 as to a parliamentary encyclopedia. To sustain these stores of knowledge, Mr. Morningside required much leisure for what is called heavy reading, and heavy reading is not easy in that genial family life, which means incessant talk and incessant interruption.

Starting point is 03:37:54 Mr. Morningside would have preferred, therefore, to keep his den on the fifth floor to himself, but his wife loved London, and he could not refuse her the privilege of occasionally sharing his nest on a level with the spires and towers of the great city. She made her presence agreeably felt, by tables covered with photographesels,

Starting point is 03:38:12 valorous vases, stray flowers and specimen glasses, which were continually being knocked over, Japanese screens, and every known variety of chairback. And albeit he was an essentially dutiful husband, Mr. Morningside never felt happier than when he had seen his ruth

Starting point is 03:38:27 comfortably seated in the Bournemouth Express on her way to the home of her forefathers for one of those protracted visits that no one but a near relation would venture to make. He left her cheerily on such occasions with a promise to run down to the priory on Saturday evenings whenever it was possible to leave the helm. Mr. Morningside had liked his brother-in-law as well as it was in him to like any man, and had been horrified at that sudden inexplicable doom.

Starting point is 03:38:52 But Sir Godfrey being snatched off this earth in the flower of his age, Mr. Morningside thought it only natural that the young Morningsides should derive some benefit, immediate or contingent from their uncle's estate. He was therefore, with some disgust that he heard that clause in the will which gave Jessica's the preference over all the sons of Ruth. True, that failing any son of Jessica's, the estate was to lapse to the eldest surviving son of Ruth, but what earthly value was such a reversionary interest as this,

Starting point is 03:39:21 in the case of a lady whose nursery was like a rabbit Warren? I congratulate you on your eldest boy's prospects, Grenville, said Mr. Morningside sourly. Your Tom, a boy whom he hated, will come into a very fine thing one of these days. "'Hum,' muttered Grenville, "'Lady Carmichael's is a good life, "'and I should be very sorry to see it shortened.

Starting point is 03:39:43 "'Besides, who can tell? "'Before this time next year, "'there may be a near acclaimant. "'Lord have mercy upon us!' exclaimed Morningside. "'I never thought of that contingency.' "'Eend of Chapter 8. "'Volume 1, Chapter 9 of the Day Will Come "'by Mary Elizabeth Braden.

Starting point is 03:40:08 "'This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 9 Poor girl Put on thy stifling widow's weed And escape at once from hopes accursed bands Today thou wilt not see him, nor tomorrow, and the next day will be a day of sorrow. Life falls back into old grooves

Starting point is 03:40:29 After calamities the most dependous. After fires, after plagues, after earthquakes, people breakfast and dine, marry and are given in marriage. A few more graves testify to the fever that has decimated a city. A ruined village here and there along the smiling southern shore, shells that were once houses, churches beneath whose shivered domes no worshipper dare ever kneel again, bear witness to the earthquake. But the monotonous commonplace life goes on all the same in city and village, on hill and seashore. And so, when Godfrey Carmichael was laid in his grave,

Starting point is 03:41:02 when the coroner had adjourned and again adjourned at his inquiry, and an open verdict had been pronounced, life in Chariton House resumed its old order, and the room in which the bridegroom had lain murdered at the feet of the bride was again thrown open to the sun and air, and to the sound of voices, and to the going and coming of daily life. Lady Chariton would have had the room closed. For a year at least, she pleaded. But her husband told her that to make it a sealed chamber now would be to throw it out of use for his lifetime. If we once let servants and people think and talk of it as a haunted room, nobody will ever like to occupy it again so long as this house stands, he said.

Starting point is 03:41:39 Stories will be invented. Those things shaped themselves unawares in the human mind. Sounds will be heard, and the whole house will become uninhabitable. We both love our house, Maria. Our own hands have fashioned it after our own hearts. It would be folly to put a brand upon it, and to say henceforward it shall be accursed to us. God knows I am sorry for Juanita's sorrow, sorry for my own loss, but I look to you to help me in keeping our home bright and pleasant for our declining days.

Starting point is 03:42:08 It was the habit of her life to obey him and try to. to please him in all things, so she answered gently. Of course, dear James, it will be as you wish. I feel sure you are right. It would be wicked to shut up that lovely room, with a faint shudder. But I shall never go near the west window without thinking of, our dear boy. And I'm afraid, Juanita will never be able to endure the room.

Starting point is 03:42:31 Perhaps not. We can use the other rooms when she is here. She has her own house now, and I dare say it will be some time before she will care to cross this threshold. the house must seem fatal to her it was her own caprice that brought him here i'm afraid that recollection will torture her poor child it was finally decided therefore that the drawing-room should be used nightly as it had been all the peaceful years that were gone the lamps with their gay shades of rose or amber made spots of coloured light amidst tables heaped with flowers all the choicest blooms that the hot houses or the gardens could produce were brought as a bold like offerings to a pagan shrine the numberless toys upon the tables were set out in the old orderly disorder porcelain and enamel bonbon boxes on one table antique watches and gold and silver snuff boxes on another bronzes intaglios coins medals filligree scent bottles upon a third and a background of flowers everywhere the piano was opened and the candles lighted ready for her ladyship who sang spanish ballads delightfully even yet and who was in the habit of singing to her husband of an evening whenever they were alone

Starting point is 03:43:41 they were generally alone now not being able to receive visitors from the outside world at such a time the vicar of the parish dined at chariton now and then and matthew dalbroke spent a night there occasionally and talked over business matters and the future development of attractive land at swanich which formed a portion of the original strangway estate date. The widow had taken possession of her new home, the home which they too were to have lived in for half a century of loving union. They had joked about their golden wedding, as they sat at lunch on the lawn that day, had laughed at the thought of how they would look in white hair and wrinkles, and then had cited the thought of how those they loved now would be gone before that day came, and how the friends who gathered round them would be new friends. The casual acquaintances of the passing years promoted to friendship in the place of those earlier, nearer, dearer, dearer. friends whom death had taken. They had talked of their silver wedding, which seemed a happier idea, for dear Lady Jane and one he does mother and father might all live to see that day. They would be old, of course, older by five and twenty years, but not too old to be happy and beloved. The young wife and husband pictured the lawn on which they were sitting

Starting point is 03:44:50 crowded with friends and tenants and villagers and children, and planned the feasting and the sports which were to have a touch of originality, something out of the beaten track, which something was not easy to devise. And now she and Lady Jane were sitting in the same spot in the sultry August evening. Two desolate women. The tawny giant at their feet, his dog, the mastiff sticks, looking up at them now and then with great serious eyes, as if asking what had become of his master. Juanita was strangely altered since the day of her honeymoon.

Starting point is 03:45:24 Her cheeks had hollowed, and the large dark eyes looked larger and gave a haggard expression to the pallid face. but she was bearing her sorrow bravely for Lady Jane's sake, as Lady Jane had done for her sake in the beginning of things. That gentle lady had broken down after the funeral, and Juanita had been constrained to forget her own agony for a brief space in trying to comfort the bereaved mother, and so the two acted and reacted upon each other,

Starting point is 03:45:49 and it was well for them to be together. They had settled down in the old house before they had been there a week. Lady Jane put off her return to Swanage indefinitely. She could drive over now and then to supervise the gardening, and she would stay at the priory as long as Juanita wanted her. "'That would be always,' said Juanita. "'Ah, my love, that would not do. I don't forget all that has been written about mothers-in-law. There must be some truth in it.

Starting point is 03:46:17 Oh, but you forget. That is when there is son and husband to quarrel about,' said Juanita, with a sudden sob. "'We have no cause for jealousy. We have only our dead.' Lady Jane wanted to establish her daughter-in-law in that cheerful sitting-room which had been her own, but here Juanita opposed her. I am not going to have it now, she said resolutely. It shall be your room always. No one else shall use it. I am going to have his room for my den. My dearest, it is the dullest room in the house. It was his room and I like it better than any other in the world.

Starting point is 03:46:53 She arranged all her own books and possessions in the large room looking into the stable-yard, which had been her Godfrey study from the time he went to Eton. She found all his eaten books on a lower shelf of one of the bookcases, and she sat on the floor for an hour dusting grammars and dictionary, first Greek reader, Latin gradus, and all the rest of them. She found his college books with the college arms upon them on another shelf. She would have nothing disturbed or altered, and she was supremely indifferent to the questions of incongruity. Her own bookcases from Chariton, the dainty toy bookcases of inlaid satin wood, were squeezed into the recesses on each side of the fireplace. Her photographs of mother, father, friends, horses and dogs

Starting point is 03:47:35 were arranged upon the carved oak mantelpiece above the quaint little cupboards with carved doors, spoil of old Belgian churches still full of choice cigars, the young man's store. His spurs and hunting crops, canes and boxing gloves decorated the panel between the two tall windows. His despatch box still stood upon the library table, and the dog's tics pushed the door open whenever it was left ajar and strolled into the room as by old

Starting point is 03:48:00 established right. She felt herself nearer her dead husband here than anywhere else, nearer even than in the churchyard, where she and Lady Jane went every afternoon with fresh flowers for his grave. They had not laid him in the family vault, but among the graves of gentle and simple under the sunny turf.

Starting point is 03:48:19 The marble was not yet carven, which was to mark out his grave amidst those humbler resting places. Theodore Dalbrook had not seen his cousin since the day of the funeral. His father and his two sisters had called upon her at the Priory, and had brought back in account of the quiet dignity with which she bore herself in her melancholy position. I did not think she had so much solid sense, said Janet, and then she and Sophia talked about the priory as a dwelling-house,

Starting point is 03:48:45 and of its inferiority to Chariton, and speculated upon the amount of their cousin's income. "'She has a splendid position. "'She will be a fine catch for some one by and by,' said Harrington. "'I hope she won't go and throw herself away upon an adventurer.' "'I hope not,' said his father. "'But I suppose she will marry again. "'That seems inevitable.'

Starting point is 03:49:06 "'I don't see that it is inevitable,' argued Theodore almost angrily. "'She was devotedly attached to her husband. "'I suppose there is now and then a woman who can remain faithful to her first love.' "'When the first love is alive and not always, then, put in Sophia flippantly. Of course she will marry again. If she wanted to remain single, people would not let her with her income. Theodore got up and walked to the window.

Starting point is 03:49:32 His sister's talk often set his teeth on edge, but rarely so much as it did today. You talk of her as if she were the most shallow-brained of women, he exclaimed, with his back to the family group, looking out with gloomy eyes into the old-fashioned street, the narrow, circumscribed view which he had hated of late with a deadly hatred. I don't think she is very deep, answered Sophia. She never could appreciate Darwin. She told me once that she wondered what I could find to interest me in earthworms. A woman must indeed be shallow who feels no interest in that thrilling subject, sneered Theodore.

Starting point is 03:50:08 Upon my word now, said his father, Darwin's book interested me, though I'm not a scientific man, and I never see a worm wriggling off the gardener's spade without feeling that I ought to be grateful to him as a fact. in the landed interest. Perhaps, continued Mr. Dalbrook, musingly, my own practice in the conveyance line owes something of its substantial character to earthworms. If it were not for them, there might be no land to convey. The conversation drifted lightly away from Juanita and her sorrow,

Starting point is 03:50:37 but her image still filled Theodore's mind, and he left the drawing-room and the frivolous talk and the clinking of teacups and teaspoons, and went out in the declining light to walk in the avenue of sycamores on the edge of the old city. he had not called upon his cousin in her new home he shrank from the very idea of meeting her while her sorrow was still new while her thoughts and feelings were concentrated upon that one subject while he could only be to her as an unwelcome intruder from that outside world she loathed as grief loaves all but its own sad memories had the calamity which had desolated her life brought her any nearer to him who had loved her so long and so unselfishly alas no he told himself that if she ever loved again it would be to a stranger that her reawakening heart would open rather than to the rejected lover of the past the man whom her memory would couple with the husband she had lost and whom she would compare disadvantageously with that chosen one no he told himself there was little more chance for him in the future than there had been in the past

Starting point is 03:51:38 She liked him and trusted him, with a sisterly affection which nothing short of a miracle could warm into love. Passion does not grow out of such placid beginnings. In her very dawn of girlhood she had been in love with Godfrey, had blushed at his coming, had quarreled with him and wept stormy tears, had suffered all those alternations of joy and grief, pride and self-abasement which accompany love in an impassioned nature. Theodore remembered her treatment of the fifth formitonian, the undergraduate, remembered the passionate drama perpetually being acted in those two young lives, the drama which he had watched with aching heart, and he felt that he could never be as

Starting point is 03:52:18 that first lover had been. He was associated with the commonplace of her life. She had laughed often at his dry-as-dust talk with her father, the dull discussions about leases and bills of dilapidation. A solicitor living from years end to year's end in a country town, what a dreary person he must need to appear beside the brilliant young patrician, full of the gladness of the life that knows neither labor nor care. He sickened at the thought of that contrast. He had served his father faithfully hitherto, and the bond between father and son had been one of strong affection as well as duty. But for the last year there had been growing upon him an inexpressible weariness of the

Starting point is 03:52:57 house in which he was born, and the city in which he had lived the chief part of his uneventful life. He had struggled against the disgust of familiar things, telling himself that it was an unworthy feeling, in that he was a manhuelly feeling, in the city of the he would be a snob if he indulged it. Yet the disgust grew into absolute loathing. The monotonous days, the repetitive work oppressed him like a nightmare. Since Juanita's marriage the burden had become more and more intolerable. To be so near her, yet so far. To be letting life creep away in dull drudgery which could never bring him nearer her social level. To feel that all his pursuits and associations were beneath

Starting point is 03:53:35 the woman he loved and could never arouse the faintest interest in her. her mind. This was almost too bitter to be born, and he had, for some time past, been meditating some way of escape, some manner of release from these old fetters into the wider arena of the outer world. Such escape was not easy. He had to think of his father, that indulgent, large-minded father, who had given his son a very remunerative share in his practice at an age when most young men are dependent for every suit of clothes, or a five-pound note upon parental bounty and parental caprice. He knew that his father looked to him for an entire release from work before they were many years older, and that he would then find himself sole master of a business worth at least

Starting point is 03:54:18 fifteen hundred a year. All this had come to him and would come to him easily as the reward of conscientious and intelligent work. It was a prospect which few young men would forego without considerable hesitation, but Theodore hardly thought of the substantial advantages which he was so eager to sacrifice. His soul hesitated. was on account of the disappointment which the step he contemplated would inflict upon his father. He was not without a foreshadowing of a plan by which that disappointment might be in some wise lessened. He had kept an eye upon his brother for some time past, and he had discovered that the young man's fervor for the Anglican Church had begun to cool. There were all the

Starting point is 03:54:57 signs of wavering in that gifted youth. At one time he devoted all his study to the writings of Cardinal Newman, Hurl Frood, and the Tractarian Party. He lived in the atmosphere of Oxford in the forties. He talked of Cardinal Manning as the head in front of religious thought. He was on the verge of deciding for the old faith. Then a sudden change came over the spirit of his dream. He began to have doubts, not of the reformed faith, but of every Western creed. Light comes from the east, he told his sisters with an oracular air. I doubt if there is any nearer resting place for the soul of my foot than the temple of Buddha. I find the larger creed for which my mind yearns, boundless vistas behind and before me. I begin to entertain painful doubts of my

Starting point is 03:55:42 fitness for the Anglican Church. I might be a power, perhaps, but it would be outside those narrow bounds, like Boise or Stopford Brook. The church with its present limitations would not hold me. The sisters sympathized, argued, quoted essays and reviews, and talked of Darwin and Spencer, Huxley and Comte. Theodore listened and said nothing. He saw which way the tide was was turning and rejoiced in the change of the current and now this sultry august afternoon pacing up and down the green walk he was expectant of an opportunity of discussing his brother's future with that gentleman himself as harrington was in the habit of taking his afternoon constitutional book in hand upon this very path he appeared by and by carrying an open volume of max muller and looking at the nursemaids and perambulators what theo taking your meditative cigar you don't often give yourself a holiday before dinner. No, but I wanted to talk to you alone, and I knew this was your beat. Nothing gone wrong, I hope. No, it is your future I want to discuss, if you don't mind.

Starting point is 03:56:48 My future is wrapped in a cloud of doubt, replied the younger man, dreamily. Were the church differently constituted, were the minds that rule in it of a larger cast, a wider grasp? A... Harrington, how would you like the law as a profession? Theodore asked abruptly, when the other began to hest, My dear fellow, it is all very well to ask me that question, when you know there is no room for me in my father's office, retorted Harrington with a contemptuous wave of that long, lean, white hand, which always reminded him of St. Francis de Sal or Sabonarola, not that he had any positive knowledge of what those saintly hands were like.

Starting point is 03:57:26 Room might be made for you, said Theodore. I should not care to accept a subordinate position. Ote Caesar! So far as the Caesarship of a provincial solicitor's office can go, the whole empire may be yours by and by, if you like, provided you put your shoulder to the wheel and pass your examinations. Do you mean to say

Starting point is 03:57:46 that you would throw up your position, and an income which would allow of your marrying tomorrow, if you chose, to make room for me? If I can get my father's consent, yes, decidedly. And how do you propose to exist without a profession? I don't propose anything of the kind. I mean to go to the bar.

Starting point is 03:58:05 Oh, I begin to understand. A solicitor's office is not good enough for you. I don't say that, but I have taken a disgust, an unreasonable disgust, no doubt, to that branch of the law, and I am very sick of Dorchester. So am I, retorted Harrington, gazing vaguely at a pretty nursemaid. We are agreed there at any rate. And you want to follow in Lord Chariton's track and make a great name? It is only one man in a thousand who succeeds as James Dalbrook has succeeded, but if I go to the bar, you be sure I shall do my best to get on, and I shall start with a pretty good knowledge

Starting point is 03:58:40 of common law. You want to be in London. You are pining for an aesthetic centre, sighed Harrington. I don't quite know what that is, but I should prefer London to Dorchester. So should I, and you want me to take your place at the mill,

Starting point is 03:58:55 to grind out my soul in the dull round that has sickened you. The life has begun to pall upon me, but I think it ought to suit you, answered Theodore thoughtfully. You are fonder of hope. and of the sisters than I am. You get on better with them. You have been rather grumpy lately, I admit, said Harrington. And you have let yourself cool upon your divinity exam. You evidently

Starting point is 03:59:19 don't mean the church. I have outgrown the church. You can't put a quart of wine into a pint bottle. And you must do something. I don't think you can do anything so good as to take my place and become my father's right hand until he chooses to retire and leave you the practice. He will have married by that time, perhaps, and will have sobered down, intellectually. Morally, you are one of the steadiest fellows I know. I suppose I ought to consider this, what the house agents call an unusual opportunity, said Harrington, but you must give me time to think it over. Take time, answered Theodore briefly.

Starting point is 03:59:55 I'll talk to my father in the meanwhile. Mr. Dalbrook received his elder son's communication as if it had been a blow from an enemy's hand. "'Do you suppose that ass Harrington can ever take your place?' he exclaimed, whereupon Theodore took pains to explain that his brother was by no means in ass, and that he was only laboring under that burden of small affectations which weighs down a young man who has been allowed to live too much in the society of young women, sisters and sisters' friends, and to consider all his own utterances, oracular.

Starting point is 04:00:27 "'He is not so fit for the church as Brown is,' said Theodore, and he will only addle his brain if he reads any more theology. He won't be content with Polly and Butler and the good old books which have been the Turnpike Road to ordination for a century. He is all for new ideas, and the new ideas are too big for him. But if you will give him his articles and teach him as you taught me,

Starting point is 04:00:49 I don't think I taught you much. You seem to get at everything by instinct. Ah, you taught me my profession without knowing it, and you will teach Harrington with just as little trouble. he will shake off that husk of affectation in your office. No solicitor can be affected, and he will come out a good lawyer, while I am trying my luck in Temple Chambers, reading and waiting for briefs. With your help, by and by, I'm bound to do something.

Starting point is 04:01:14 I shall get a case or two upon this circuit, anyhow. I can't think what has put this folly in your head, Theo, said his father with a vexed air. It is not folly, father, it is not a caprice, the young man protested, with sudden earnestness. for God's sake don't think me ungrateful, or that I would unwillingly turn my back upon my duty to you. Only young people have troubles of their own, don't you know? And of late I have not been altogether happy. I have not prospered in my love-dream, and so I have set up a new idol, that idol so many men worship with more or less reward. Success.

Starting point is 04:01:51 I want to spread my wings and see if they will carry me on a longer flight than I have taken yet. Well, it would be selfish of me to buy you. you, even if your loss were to cripple me altogether. And it won't do that. I am strong enough to work on for a few years longer than I intended. Oh, my dear father, I hope it won't come to that. I hope my change of plan won't shorten your years of leisure. I am afraid that's inevitable, Theo. I can't transfer a fine practice to my son till I've made him a good lawyer, and God knows how long that will take in Harrington's case. Judging by my present estimation of him, I should say half a century. But don't be downhearted, Theo. You shall eat your dinners. You shall qualify for the

Starting point is 04:02:35 woolsack. After all, I don't know how a life of leisure might suit me. It would be a change from the known to the unknown, almost as stupendous as a change from life to death. Perhaps Matthew Dalbrook had fathomed that secret woe at which Theodore had hinted darkly. In any case, he took his elder's son defection more easily than might have been hoped, and bore patiently with some preliminary fatuity from the younger son who accepted the gift of his articles an allowance of 200 pounds per annum and the promise of a junior partnership in the near future with the languid politeness of one who felt that he was renouncing a mitre everything was settled off hand and theodore was to go to london at the end of september to select and furnish his modest chambers in one of those grave old courts of the temple and be ready to begin his new life with the beginning of term he had not seen monita since the funeral and she had been told nothing of this sudden reconstruction of his life, but he determined to see her before he left Dorchester, and he considered that he had a right, as her kinsman to bid her goodbye.

Starting point is 04:03:36 Perhaps, in his heart weariness, he was inclined to exaggerate the solemnity of that leave-taking, somewhat as if he had been starting for Australia. He drove over to the priory on a dull gray afternoon his last day in Dorchester. His portmanteaus were packed, and all things were ready for an early departure next morning. sorely as he had sickened of the good old town which was his birthplace he felt a shade of melancholy at the idea of cutting himself adrift altogether from that quiet haven and the love of those open stretches of barren heath and those swampy meadows and grazing cattle on the way to millbrook was ingrained in him deeper than he knew it was a landscape which took a peculiar charm from the gray dimness of an autumnal atmosphere and it seemed to theodore dalbrook that those level pastures and winding waters had never looked fairer than they looked today he had written to his cousin a day before to tell her of his intended visit it was too solemn a matter in his own mind for him to leave the finding her at home to chance his groom took the dog-cart round to the stables while he was ushered at once to the drawing-room where lady carmichael was sitting at her work-table in the bow-window with sticks stretched on a lion-skin at her feet the silence of the house struck theodore dalbrook painfully as he followed the footman across the hall and along a corridor which led to the drawing-room that death-like silence of a roomy old mansion in which there are neither children nor guests

Starting point is 04:04:58 only one lonely inhabitant waited upon by solemn visaged servants drilled to a phenomenal quietness and keeping all their good spirits for the remoteness of the servants hall shut off by double doors and long passages saddened by that atmosphere of gloom he entered his cousin's presence and stood with her small cold hand in his, looking at the face which had changed so sorely from that vivid beauty which had shown upon him in the low light of the sinking sun on that summer evening not three months ago. As he looked, the memory of the bride's face came between him and the face of the widow, and for a moment or two he stood speechless. The clearly-cut features were pinched and sharpened, wasted by long nights of weeping and long days of silent regret. The dark eyes were circled by purple shadows, and the oval cheese. were sunken and pallid. All the color and richness of that southern beauty had vanished,

Starting point is 04:05:50 as if some withering blight had passed over the face. "'It was very good of you to think of me before you left Dorchester,' she said gently. She pushed forward a chair for her cousin before she sat down, and Theodore seated himself opposite to her with the wicker work-table between them. He wondered a little to see that satin-lined receptacle gorged with bright-colored silks and pieces of unfinished embroidery, for it seemed to him that there was a touch of frivolity in this slight ornamental needlework which hardly harmonized with her grief-stricken countenance. "'You could not suppose that I should leave without seeing you,' he said.

Starting point is 04:06:26 "'I should have come here weeks ago, only. "'Only you wanted to give me time to grow calm, to teach myself to look my trouble straight in the face,' she said, interpreting his thought. "'That was very thoughtful of you.' "'Well, the storm is over now. I am quite calm, as you see. I dare say some people think I am getting over it. That is the usual phrase is it not.

Starting point is 04:06:48 And so you are going to the bar, Theodore. I am glad of that. You are clever enough to make a name as my father did. It will be so work, I suppose, but it will be a field worthy of your ambition, which a solicitor's office in a market town never would be. I have felt the want of a wider field for a long time, and I shall feel more interest in a barrister's work,

Starting point is 04:07:09 but I hope you don't think I am. conceited enough to expect to get on as well as your father i don't know about that i think you must know you are a clever man i have been wishing to see you for a long time theodore only i was like you i wanted to give myself time to be calm i want to talk to you about the murderer yes have you heard anything has there been any discovery nothing the offer of a reward has resulted in nothing not one little scrap of information the london detective gave up the business and went back to town a week after the funeral, having obtained only negative results. The police hereabouts are creatures without an idea, and so unless something is done,

Starting point is 04:07:52 unless some clever brain can solve the riddle, the wretch who killed my husband may go down to the grave unpunished. It is hard that it should be so, said Theodore quietly, yet it is an almost impossible case. There is not a single indication so far to put one on the track. Not one little clue. Not for these dull-brained mechanical discoverers, perhaps, but for you or me, Theo. For us who loved him, there ought to be light. Think, what a strange murder it was.

Starting point is 04:08:22 Not for gain, remember. Had it been the hand of a burglar that shot him, I could understand the difficulty of tracing that particular criminal among all the criminal classes. But this murder, which seems utterly motiveless, must have been prompted by some extraordinary motive. It was not the act of a mania. A maniac must have left some trace of his presence in the neighborhood.

Starting point is 04:08:44 A maniac could not have so completely eluded the police on the alert to hunt him down. There must have been some indication. Put madness out of the question, Juanita. What then? Hatred, Theodore. That is the strongest passion in the human mind. A savage hatred which could not be satisfied except with the brightest life that it had the power to destroy. A relentless hatred, not against him.

Starting point is 04:09:08 not against my beloved What had he done in all his good life That anyone upon this earth should hate him? But against us Against my father and mother and me The usurpers, the owners of Chariton Manor Against us who have thrust ourselves upon the soil Which that wicked race held so long

Starting point is 04:09:27 O Theodore, I have thought and thought of this Till the conviction has grown into my mind Till it has seemed like a revelation from God It was one of that wicked family who struck this blow. One of your predecessors, the Strangways, is that what you mean, Nita? Yes, that is what I mean.

Starting point is 04:09:48 My dear, Juanita, it is too wild an idea. What, after your father has owned the estate nearly a quarter of a century? Why should the enemy wait all those years, and choose such a time? Because there never before was such an opportunity of striking a blow that should bring ruin upon us. My father's hope of making his son-in-law his successor in the peerage was known to a good many people, it may easily have reached the

Starting point is 04:10:12 ears of the Strangways. My dear girl, the family has died off like rotten sheep. I doubt if there are any survivors of the old race. Oh, but families are not obliterated so easily. There is always someone left. There were two sons and a daughter of the old squires. Surely one of those must have left children. But Juanita, to suppose that any man could hate the purchaser of his squandered estate with a hatred. malignant enough for murder is to imagine humanity akin to devils. We are akin to devils, cried Juanita excitedly. I felt that I could rejoice as the devils rejoice at human suffering

Starting point is 04:10:49 if I could see my husband's murderer tortured. Yes, if he were tied against a tree as Indian savages tie their sacrificial victims, tied against a tree and killed by inches, with every variety of torture which a hellish ingenuity can suggest, I would say my litany, like those savages, my litany of triumph and content. Yes, Theodore, we have more in common with the devils than you may think. I cannot see the possibility of murder prompted by such an inadequate motive, said Theodore, slowly remembering as he spoke, how Churton had suggested that the crime looked like a vendetta. Inadequate. Ah, that depends, don't you see? Remember, we have not to deal with good people.

Starting point is 04:11:32 The strangways were always an evil race. Almost every tradition that remains about their lives is a story of wrongdoing, and think how small a wound may be deadly when the blood has poison in it beforehand. And it is a small thing to see strangers in a home that has been in one's family for three centuries. Again, remember that although nothing throve on the chariton estate while the Strangways held it, or at any rate not the last hundred years of their holding, no sooner was my father in possession than the luck changed. Quarries were developed. Land that had been worthless became valuable for building. Everything has prospered with him. and think of them outside banished forever like adam and eve out of paradise think of them with hate and envy gnawing at their hearts they would be time for them to get over that feeling in four-and-twenty years and when you talk about them i should like to know exactly whom you mean

Starting point is 04:12:24 i assure you the general idea is that they have all died off that is to say all of the direct line it is upon that very subject i want to talk to you theodore would you like to do me a service a very great service a very great service Nothing would make me happier. Then will you try to find out all about the Strangways, if they are really all gone, or if there are not some survivors or a survivor of the last squire's family? If you can do that much, it will be something gained. We shall know better what to think. When I heard that you are going to live in London,

Starting point is 04:12:58 it flashed into my mind that you would be just the right person to help me, and I knew how good you had been to me always, and that you would help. London is the place in which to make your own. inquiries. I have heard my father say that all broken lives, all doubtful characters, gravitate towards London. It is the one place where people fancy they can hide. I will do everything in my power to realize your wish, Juanita. I shall be a solitary man with a good deal of leisure, so I ought to succeed, if success be possible.

Starting point is 04:13:29 They were silent for some few minutes, Juanita being exhausted with the passionate vehemence of her speech. She took up a piece of embroidery from the basket and began with slow, careful stitches upon the petal of a dog-rose. I am glad to see you engaged upon that artistic embroidery, said Theodore presently for the sake of saying something. That means perhaps that you wonder I can care for such frivolous work as this, she said, interpreting his recent thought, when his eyes first lighted on her satin-lined basket with its rainbow-hued silks.

Starting point is 04:14:00 It seems inconsistent, I dare say, but this work has helped me to quiet my brain many a time when I have felt myself on the brink of madness. These slow, regular stitches, the mechanical movement of my hand as the flowers grow gradually, stitch by stitch through the long melancholy day, have quieted my nerves.

Starting point is 04:14:18 I cannot read. Books give me no comfort, for my eyes follow the page while my mind is brooding on my own troubles. It is better to sit and think quietly while I work. It is better to face my sorrow. Have you been long alone? No, it is only three weeks

Starting point is 04:14:34 since Lady Jane went back to Swalage, and she comes to see me two or three times a week. My father and mother come as often. You must not think I am deserted. Everyone is very good to me. They have need to be. Again, there was a brief interval of silence, and then Juanita closed her basket

Starting point is 04:14:52 and lifted her earnest eyes to her cousin's face. You know all about the strong ways, she inquired. I have heard a good deal about them from one and another. People who live in the country have long memories, and are fond of talking of the lords of the soil, even when the race has vanished from the land. I have heard elderly men tell their after-dinner stories about the Strangways at my father's table.

Starting point is 04:15:15 You know the family portraits at Chariton? The picture's in the hall. Yes, I have wondered sometimes that your father should have kept them there, effigies of an alien race. I hate them, exclaimed Juanita, shuddering. I always had an uncomfortable feeling about them, a feeling of strange cold eyes

Starting point is 04:15:33 looking at us in secret enmity, but now I abhor them. There is a girl's face, a cruel face, that I used rather to admire when I was a child, and sometimes dream about, and on the last night but one of my happy life, I looked at that picture with Godfrey and told him my feeling about that face, and he told me the pitiful story of the girl whose portrait we were looking at. The creature had a sad life and died in France, poor and broken-hearted. Two hours later I heard a strange step upon the terrace, while Godfrey and I was sitting in the library. A stealthy creeping step, coming near one of the open windows, and then creeping away again.

Starting point is 04:16:13 When we looked out there was no one to be seen. And this was the night before, Sir Godfrey's death. Yes, I told my father about it, after—after my trouble, and, when he questioned the gardeners, he discovered that footprints had been seen by one of them on the damp gravel the morning after I heard that ghost-like step. They were strange footprints, the man was sure, or he would not have noticed them. The prince of his shoe with a flat heel, not of a large foot, but they were not very distinct, and he went over them with his roller and rolled them out, and thought no more about the fact

Starting point is 04:16:46 till my father questioned him. The next day was dry and warm, as you know, and the gravel was hard next night. There were no footprints seen afterwards. Did the gardener trace those marks beyond the terrace, to the avenue, for instance? not he all he did was to roll them out with his iron roller they suggest one point that the murderer may have been lurking about on the night before the crime i am sure of it that footstep would not have frightened me if there had been no meaning in it i felt as a scotchman does when he has seen the shadow of the shroud round his friend's figure it is a point for you to remember theodore if you mean to help me i do mean to help you god bless you for that promise she cried giving you him her hand, and if you want any further information about the Strangways, there is someone here who might be useful. Godfrey's old bailiff, Jasper Blake, lived over ten years at Chariton.

Starting point is 04:17:41 He only leapt there when the squire died, and he almost immediately entered the service of Godfrey's father. If you can stay till the evening I will send for him, and you can ask him as many questions as you like. I will stay. There is a moon rather late in the evening, and I shall be able to get back any time before midnight. But, Juanita, as an honest man, I am bound to tell you that I believe you are following an Ignis Fatuus. You are influenced by prejudices and fancies, rather than by reason. End of Chapter 9. Volume 1, Chapter 10 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 10

Starting point is 04:18:26 The snow of her sweet coldness hath extinguished quite the fire that but even now began to flame. Theodore Dalbrook, a sensible, hard-headed man of business, was like a puppet in his cousin's hands. She told him to toil for her, and he deemed himself privileged to be allowed so to labor. She put him upon that which, according to his own conviction, was an absolutely false track, and he was compelled to follow it. She bade him think with her thoughts, and he bent his mind to hers. Yes, she was right, perhaps.

Starting point is 04:19:01 was a vendetta. Lord Sheraton had lived all these years hemmed round with unseen, unsuspected foes. They had not burned his ricks or tried to burn his dwelling-house. They had not slandered him to the neighborhood in anonymous letters. They had not poisoned his dogs or his pheasants. Such petty malevolence had been too insignificant for them. But they had waited till his fortunes had reached their apogee, till his only child had grown from bud to flower, and he had wedded her to an estimable young man of patrician lineage and irreproachable. character. And just when fate was fairest, the cowardly blow had been struck. A blow that blighted one young life and darkened those two other lives sloping towards the grave, the lives of

Starting point is 04:19:43 father and mother rendered desolate because of their daughter's desolation. Mastered by that will, which was his law, the will of the woman he loved, Theodore began to believe as she believed, or at least to think it just possible that there might be amongst the remnant of the Strangway race a man so lost and perverted, so soured. So sour. by poverty, so envenomed by disgraces and mortifications, heating slowly into the angry heart, like rust into iron, that he had become at last the very incarnation of malignity, hating the man who had prospered while he had failed,

Starting point is 04:20:15 hating the owner of his people's forfeited estate as if that owner had robbed them of it, hating was so passionate a malevolence that nothing less than murder could appease his wrath. Yes, there might be such a man. In the history of mankind there have been such crimes. are not common in England happily, but among the Celtic nations they are not uncommon. My first brief, mused Theodore with a grim smile, as he walked up and down the drawing-room while his cousin was writing a memorandum requesting the bailiff's presence. It is more like a case

Starting point is 04:20:48 entrusted to a detective than submitted to counsel's opinion, but it will serve to occupy my mind while I am eating my dinners. My poor Juanita. Will her loss seem less, I wonder, when she had discovered the hand that widowed her? He dined with his cousin at a small round table in the spacious dining-room which had held so many cheerful gatherings in the years that were gone. The sisters and their husbands and the sisters' friends, and Godfrey's college friends, and those old friends of the neighborhood who seemed only a little less than kindred, by reason of his having known them all his life. And now these two were sitting here alone, and the corners of the room were full of shadows.

Starting point is 04:21:26 One large circular lamp suspended over the table was the only light, the carving being done in a serving-room adjoining. Juanita was too hospitable to allow the meal to be silent or gloomy. She put aside the burden of her grief and talked to her cousin of his family and of his own prospects, and she seemed warmly interested in his future success. It was but a sisterly interest he knew, frankly expressed as the sisters might have been, yet it was sweet to him nevertheless, and he talked freely of his plans and hopes. I felt stifled in that old street, he told her,

Starting point is 04:21:58 A man must be very happy to endure life in a country town. But you are not unhappy, Theodore, she interrupted wonderingly. Unhappy, no, that would be too much to say, perhaps. You know how fond I am of my father. I was glad to work with him and to feel that I was useful to him, but that feeling was not enough to reconcile me to the monotony of my days. A man who has home ties, a wife and children, may be satisfied in that narrow circle, but for a young man with his life before him it is no better than a prison.

Starting point is 04:22:31 I understand, said Juanita eagerly. I can fully sympathize with you. I am very glad you are ambitious, Theodore. A man is worthless who is without ambition. And now tell me what you will do when you go to London. How will you begin? I shall put up at the ends of court hotel for a few days while I look about for a suitable set of chambers,

Starting point is 04:22:51 and when I have found them and furnished them and brought my books and belongings from Dorchester, I shall sit down and read law. I can read while I am qualifying for the bar. I shall go on reading after I have qualified. My life will be to sit in chambers and read law books until someone brings me business. It hardly sounds like a brilliant career, does it?

Starting point is 04:23:12 All beginnings are hard, she answered gently. I suppose my father went through just the same kind of drudgery when he began. Well, yes, he must have gone upon the same lines, I fancy. There is no royal road. and while you are studying law and waiting for briefs, will you have time to look after my interests? Yes, Juanita. Your interest shall be my first thought always, if it can make you happier to discover your husband's murderer. Happier, it is the only thing that can reconcile me to the burden of living. If it is for your

Starting point is 04:23:45 happiness, you need not fear that I shall ever relax in my endeavors. I may fail. Indeed, I fear I must fail, but it shall not be for the lack of earnestness or perseverance. I knew that you would help me, she said fervently, holding out her hand to him across the table. Dinner was over and they were alone, with the grapes and peaches of the priory hot-houses, which were not even second to those of Chariton unheeded upon the table before them. Blake is in the house by this time, I dare say, said Juanita presently. Would you like to see him here, and shall I stay, or would you rather talk to him alone? I had better take him in hand alone.

Starting point is 04:24:24 It is always hard work to get straight answers out of that sort of man, and any cross-current distracts him. His thoughts are always ready to go off at a tangent. He knows all about the squire's children. He can give you any particulars you want about them. The butler came into the room five minutes afterwards with the coffee and announced the bailiff's arrival. Juanita rose at once and left her cousin to receive Jasper Blake alone.

Starting point is 04:24:49 He came into the room with rather a sheepish air. He was about 60, young looking for his age, with a bald forehead and stubbly iron-gray hair, and a little bit of whisker on each sunburnt cheek. He had the horsey look still, though he had long ceased to have anything to do with horses beyond buying and selling cart-horses for the home farm, and occasionally exhibiting a prize animal in that line. He was a useful servant, an a thoroughly honest man of the old-fashioned order. Mr. Blake, I want you to give me some information about old friends of yours.

Starting point is 04:25:21 I have a little business in hand, which indirectly concerns the Strangway family, and I want to be quite clear in my own mind as to how many are left of them, and where they are to be found. The bailiff rubbed one of his stunted whiskers meditatively and shook his head. "'There was never many of them to leave, sir,' he said grumpily. "'And I don't believe there's any of them left anywhere's. There seems to have been a curse upon him for the last hundred years. Nothing ever throve with them. Look at what Chariton is now, and what it was in their time.'

Starting point is 04:25:51 i didn't know it in their time mr blake ah you're not old enough but your father knew the place he did business for the old squire till things got too bad mortgages and accommodation bills and overdrawn accounts at the bank and such like and your father wash his hands of the business a long-headed gentleman your father he can tell you what chariotin was like in the squire's time why do you suppose the strangways are all dead and gone well sir first and foremost it's fifteen years and more since I've heard of any of them, and the last I heard was almost as bad as bad could be. What was the last report? It was about Master Reginald. That was the eldest son, him that was Colonel of a Lancer Regiment, and married Lord Dangerfield's youngest daughter. I remember the bonfires on the hills out by Studlands, just as if it happened yesterday, but it's more than 40 years ago, and I was a boy in the stables at 14 shillings a week. Reginald, the elder son, Colonel of Lancers, married Lord Dangerfield's daughter about 1810,

Starting point is 04:26:54 wrote Theodore in a pocketbook which he held ready for taking notes. What was it you heard about him? he asked. Well, sir, it was Mr. DeLacey's servant that told me. He'd been somewhere in the south with his master where there was gambling, a place where the folks made a regular trade of it. It's a wonderful climate, says Mr. Delacey's man, and the gentry go there for their health,

Starting point is 04:27:17 and very often finish by shooting themselves and it seems Colonel Strangway was there. he'd come over from corsica which it seems was in the neighbourhood where he'd left his poor wife all among brigands and savages and he was at the tables day and night and he had a wonderful run of luck so that they called him the king of the place and it was who but he howsoever the tide turned suddenly and he began losing and he lost his last sixpence in a manner of speaking regular cleaned out mr delacy's man said and by and by there comes another gentleman a jewish gentleman a jewish gentleman from Paris, rolling in money, and playing for the sake of the science, and able to hold out where another man must have given in, and in a week or two he was the king of the place, and the colonel was nowhere, just living on tick at the hotel, and borrowing a fiver from Mr. DeLacey or any other old acquaintance whenever he had the chance, and making as much play as he could

Starting point is 04:28:13 with two or three cartwheels where he used to play with hundred-franc pieces. And so it went on, and he cut up on calm and rough, when anybody happened to offend him, and there was more than one row at the hotel or in the gardens. They don't allow no rows in the gambling rooms. And just as the season was coming to an end, the colonel went off one afternoon to catch the boat for Corsica. The boat was to start after dark from Nice,

Starting point is 04:28:38 and there was a lot of traffic in the port, but not as much light as there ought to have been, and the colonel missed his footing in going from the key to the boat and went to the bottom like a plummet. Some people thought he made away with himself on, and that the one sensible thing he did was to make it look like an accident so as not to vitiate the insurance on his life which lord dangerfield had taken care of and had paid the premiums ever since the colonel began to go to the bad anyhow he never came up again alive out of that water his death was published in the papers accidentally drowned at nice i should never have known the rights or the wrongs of it if mr delacey hadn't happened to be visiting here soon afterwards did colonel Strangway leave no children, neither chick nor child. Do you know if his widow is still living?

Starting point is 04:29:28 No, sir. That is the last I ever heard of him or his. What about the younger brother? I believe he must be dead, too, though I can't give you chapter and verse. He never married, didn't Mr. Frederick, not to my knowledge. He went on board a man of war before he was fifteen, and at five and twenty he was a splendid officer, and as fine a young man as you need wish to see. but he was too fond of the bottle. China was the ruin of him, some folk said, and he got court-martialed out there. Not long after they sacked that their summer palace

Starting point is 04:30:01 there was so much talk about. And then he contrived to pass into the mercantile marine, which was a come-down for a strangway, and for a few years he was one of their finest officers, a regular daredevil. Could sail a ship faster and safer than any man in the service, used to race home with the spring pickings of tea. When tea wasn't the cheap muck it is now,

Starting point is 04:30:21 and when there weren't no Suez Canal to spoil sport. But he took to his old games again, and he got broke again, broke for drunkenness and insubordination, and then he went and loafed and drank in Jersey, where, it's my belief, he died some years ago. You have no positive information about his death. I can't say that I have.

Starting point is 04:30:43 There was one daughter, I think. Yes, there was a daughter, Miss Eva. I taught her to ride. There wasn't a fine, her horsewoman in Dorsetshire, but a devil of a temper. The real Strangway temper. I wasn't surprised when I heard she'd married badly. I wasn't surprised when I heard she'd run away from her husband. Did she leave any children? No, not by him. But afterwards, do you know if there were children? I can't say that I do. She was living in Boulang when I last heard of her, and somebody told me

Starting point is 04:31:18 afterwards that she died there. That's vague. She may be living still. I don't think that's likely. It's more than ten years. Aye, it's nearer fifteen since I heard of her death. She was not the kind of woman to hide her light under a bushel for a quarter of a century. If she were alive, I feel sure we should have heard of her at Chariton. Lord, how fond she was of the place, and how proud she was of her good looks and her old name, and how haughty and over-bearer. she was with every other young woman that ever came in her way she must have been a remarkably disagreeable young person i take it well not altogether sir she had a taking way when she wasn't in her tantrums and she was very good to the poor people about chariton they doted upon her she never quarrelled with them it was her father she got on worst those two never could hit it off they were too much alike and at last when she was close upon seventeen and a regular clipper, things got so bad that the squire packed off the governess at an hour's warning. She was too young and silly to manage such a pupil as

Starting point is 04:32:28 Miss Trangway, and it's my belief she sided with her in all her mischief and made things worse. He turned her out of doors neck and crop, and a week afterwards he took his daughter up to London, and handed her over to an English lady who kept a finishing school somewhere abroad at a place called Lozan. At Lozanne, I think. "'Yes, that was the name. "'She was to stay there for a year, "'and then she was to have another year's schooling in Paris to finish her. "'But she never got to Paris.

Starting point is 04:32:58 "'Didn't Miss Eva. "'She ran off from Lausanne with a lieutenant in a marching regiment, "'and her father never saw her face again. "'He had no money to give her if she had married ever so well, "'but he took a pride in striking her name out of his will all the same. "'What was her husband's name?' "'Darcy. tom darcy he was an irishman and i've heard he treated her very badly do you know how long it was after her marriage that she left him i only know when i heard they were parted and that was six or seven years after she ran away from lozanne

Starting point is 04:33:33 how long was that before the squire's death and the sale of the estate nearly ten years i should say that makes it about thirty-four years ago yes that's about it theodore noted down the date in his book he had heard all these things before now loosely and in a disjointed fashion never having been keenly interested in the vicissitudes of the strangways who was the man who took her away from her husband god knows said jasper none of us a chargian ever heard we fancied he must have been a frenchman for she was heard of afterwards a good many years afterwards at boulogne our old vicar saw her there they were the a year before he died. It must have been as late as 64 or 65, I fancy. A wreck, he said. He wouldn't have recognized her if she hadn't spoken to him, and she had to tell him who she was. I heard him tell my old master all about it, one summer afternoon at the Vicarage Gate, when Sir Godfrey had driven over to see him. Yes, it must have been as late as 65, I believe. Five years after Lord Chariton bought the estate. About that?

Starting point is 04:34:46 Do you remember the name of Miss Strangway's governess? Of course you do, though. The bailiff rubbed his iron-gray whisker with a puzzled air. My memory's got to be like a corn-sive of late years, he said, but I ought to remember her name. She was a charitin over four years, and I only wish I had a guinea for every time I've sat behind her and Miss Strangway in the pony chase. She was a light-hearted, good-tempered young woman,

Starting point is 04:35:14 but she hadn't grown enough for her work. She wasn't up to Miss Drangway's wait. Let me see now. What was that young woman's name? She was a good-looking girl, Sandy with a high color and a freckled skin. I ought to remember. Take a glass of claret, Mr. Blake, and take your time. The name will come back to you.

Starting point is 04:35:39 Have you ever heard of the lady since she left Chariton? Never. She wasn't likely to come back to this part of the. world, after having been turned out, neck and crop as she was. What was the name of the man who saw the apple fall? Newton. That was it. Sarah Newton. Miss Strangway used to call her Sally. I remember that. Do you know where she came from or what her people were? She came from somewhere near London, and it's my opinion her father kept a shop, but she was very close about her home and her relatives.

Starting point is 04:36:14 and she was young, you say. Much too young for the place. She couldn't have been five and twenty when she left, and a girl like Miss Strangway, a motherless girl wanted someone older and wiser to keep her in order. Had the squire's wife been long dead at that time? She died before I went to service a charitin. Miss Eva couldn't have been much above seven years old when she lost her mother.

Starting point is 04:36:39 Theodore asked no more questions, not seeing his way to extracting any further infertion. from the bailiff. He had been acquainted with most of these facts before, or had heard them talked about. The handsome daughter who ran away from a foreign school with a penniless subaltern, the strangway temper, and the pitched battles between the spendthrift father and the motherless unmanageable girl, the lifelong breach, and then a life of poverty and an untimely death in a strange city, only vaguely known, yet put forward as a positive and established fact. He had heard all this, but the old servant's recollections helped him

Starting point is 04:37:14 to tabulate his facts, helped him too with the name of the governess, which might be of some use in enabling him to trace the story of the last of the strangways. If there is any ground for Juanita's theory, I think the man most likely to have done the deed would be at the Colonel of Lancers, supposed to be drowned at Nice. If I were by any means to discover that the story of the drowning was a mistake, and that the Colonel is in the land of the living, I should be inclined to adopt Juanita's view of the murder. He encouraged the base, to take a second glass of claret and talked over local interests with him for ten minutes or so while his dog-cart was being brought round and then mr blake having withdrawn he went to the drawing-room where juanita was sitting at work by a lamplit table and wished her good-night did you find jasper intelligent she asked eagerly very intelligent and did you find out all you wanted from him not quite all he told me very little that i did not know before but there were one or two facts that may be useful good night nita good-night and good-bye not for long she answered you will spend christmas at home of course yes i shall go home for the christmas week i suppose

Starting point is 04:38:26 you will have something to tell me by that time perhaps you will be on the track don't be too sanguine nita i will do my uttermost i am sure you will and you don't know how i trust you how i lean upon you god bless you theodore you are my strong rock. I, who never had a brother, turned to you as a sister might. If you can do this thing for me, if you can avenge his cruel death. If, what then, Juanita? he asked, paling suddenly, and his eyes flaming. I shall honour, esteem you, as I have never done yet, and you know I have always looked up to you, Theodore. God bless and prosper you. Good night. Her speech, kind as it was, fell upon his enthusiasm. enthusiasm like ice he was holding both her hands almost crushing them unawares in his vehemence then his grip loosened all at once he bent his head gently kissed those slender hands muttered a husky good-night and hurried from the room

Starting point is 04:39:29 end of chapter ten volume one chapter eleven of the day will come by mary elizabeth bradden this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter eleven the god of love i Ah, benedictite. How mighty and how great a lord is he. A week later, Theodore Dalbrook was established in chambers on the second floor of number two Ferret Court, Temple. Ferret Court is one of the few places in the temple which have not been improved and beautified out of knowledge within the last thirty years. The architect and the sanitary engineer have passed by on the other side and have left Ferret Court to its original shabbiness. Its ceilings have not been elevated or its windows widened. Nor has the early English stone front replaced the shabby old brickwork.

Starting point is 04:40:23 Its time has not come. The rooms are small and low. The queer old closets where generations of lawyers have kept their goods and chattels are dark and redolent of mice. The staircases are rotten, the heavy old balusters are black with age, and the deep old window seats are set in windows of the early Georgian era. The chambers suited Theodore, first because they were cheap, and next because the sitting-room, which was at the back, commanded a good view of the river. The bedroom was a tolerable size, and there was a dressing-room just big enough to hold

Starting point is 04:40:54 bath and boots. He furnished the rooms comfortably with solid old-fashioned furniture, partly consisting of surplus articles sent from the old house in Dorchester, and partly of his own purchases in London. The rooms were arranged with a sober taste which was by no means in artistic, and there was just enough bright coloring in the Algerian portiere and a few handsome pieces of oriental crockery to relieve the dark tones of old oak in Spanish mahogany. altogether the chambers had the established look of a nest which was meant to last through wind and weather, a shelter in which a man expected to spend a good many years of his life. He had another reason for choosing those old rooms in Barrett Court in preference to chambers

Starting point is 04:41:32 in any of those new and commodious houses in the courts that had been rebuilt of late years. It was in this house that James Dalbrook had begun his legal career. It was here on the ground floor that the future Lord Chariton had waited for briefs nearly 40 years ago, and it was here that fame and fortune had first visited him, a shining apparition, bringing brightness into the shabby old rooms, irradiating the gloomy old court with the glory of triumphant

Starting point is 04:41:57 ambition, hopes suddenly realized the consciousness of victory. James Dalbrook had occupied those dingy chambers fifteen years, and long after he became a great man, and he had gone from them almost reluctantly to a spacious first floor in King's bench walk. He had

Starting point is 04:42:13 enjoyed the reputation of a miser at that period of his life. He was never known to give a dinner to a friend. He lived in a close retirement, which his enemies stigmatized as a whole and corner life. He was never seen at places of amusement. He never played cards or bet upon a race. Socially, he was unpopular. Theodore had taken all the preliminary steps, and had arranged to read with a well-known special pleader. He was thoroughly in earnest in his determination to succeed in this new line. He wanted to prove to his father that his abandonment of the Dorchester office was neither a

Starting point is 04:42:47 priest nor a folly. He was even more in earnest in his desire to keep his promise to his cousin Juanita. Almost his first act upon arriving in London had been to go to Scotland Yard in the hope of finding the detective who had been sent to Chariton, and his inquiries there were so far successful that he was able to make an appointment with Mr. Churton for the next day but one. He had talked with Churton after the adjourned inquest and had heard all that the professional intellect had to offer in the way of opinion at that time, but he thought it worth his while to find out if the detective's ideas had taken any new development upon subsequent reflection and also to submit juanita's theory to professional consideration he was not one of those amateurs who think that they are cleverer at a trade than the man who has served a long apprenticeship to it have you thought anything more about the chariotan murder since last july mr churchon he asked or has your current work been too engrossing to give you time for thought no sir i've had plenty of other cases to think about but i am not likely to forget such a case as that

Starting point is 04:43:47 that at Chariton, a case in which I was worsted more completely than I have been in anything for the last ten years. I've thought about it a good bit I can assure you, Mr. Dalbrook. And do you see any new light? No, sir. I stick pretty close to my original opinion. Sir Godfrey Carmichael was murdered by somebody that bore a grudge against him, and there's a woman at the bottom of it. Why, a woman? Might not a man's hatred be deadly enough to lead to murder? Not unless he was egged off. by a woman, or had been jilted by a woman, or was jealous of a woman, or thought he had a woman's wrongs to avenge. Is that what your experience teaches you, Mr. Cherton? Yes, Mr. Dalbrook,

Starting point is 04:44:30 that is what my experience teaches me. And you think it was an enemy of Sir Godfries who fired that shot? I do. Do you think the enemy was a woman, the hand that pulled the trigger, a woman's hand? No, I do not. A woman couldn't have been about the place without being remarked. or got clear of as a man might. There are the servants. Could the murderer be one of them? I don't think so, sir. I've taken stock of them all,

Starting point is 04:44:56 stables, lodges everywhere. I never met with such a superior set of servants. The person at the West Lodge is a lady bred and born, I should say. She gave me a good deal of information about the household. I consider her a remarkably intelligent woman, and I know she is of my opinion as to the motive of the murder. and yet if i tell you that sir gotfrey had not an enemy in the world said theodore dwelling on the main point and not particularly interested in what the highly intelligent mrs porter might have said upon the subject i should tell you sir that no man can answer for another man there is something in the lives of most of us that we would rather keep dark i don't believe there was any dark spot in sir godfrey's life but what if there were an enemy of lord charitans a man who has been a judge is in a fair way to have made any way to have made any

Starting point is 04:45:47 a foe vindictive enough to strike at him through his son-in-law to smite him by destroying his daughter's happiness she is his only child remember and all his hopes and ambitions centre in her well mr dalbrook if there was such a man he would be an out-and-out blackguard yes it would be a refinement of cruelty a satanic hate but such a man might exist remember the murder of lord mayo one of the wisest and most beloved of india's rulers the wretch who killed him had never seen him seen his face till the day of the murder. He thought himself unjustly condemned, and he killed the man who represented the power which condemned him. Might not some wrong-headed Englishman have the same vindictive feeling against an English judge? Yes, it is possible, no doubt. My cousin, Lady Carmichael, has another theory. Theodore explained the positions of Lord Chariton and the race that preceded him as owners of the soil, and Juanita's suspicion of some unknown member of the Strangway family, but the detective rejected this notion as unworthy

Starting point is 04:46:49 of professional consideration. It is like a young lady to get such an idea into her head, he said. If the estate had changed hands yesterday, well, even then I shouldn't suspect the former owners of wanting to murder the purchaser's son-in-law, but when you reflect that Lord Chariton has been in peaceful possession of the property for more than twenty years, the idea isn't worth a moment's thought. What put such a fancy into the lady's head do you think, Mr. Dalbrook. Grief. She has brooded upon her loss until her sorrow has taken strange shapes. She thinks that it is her duty to help in bringing her husband's murderer to justice. She has racked her brains to discover the motive of that cruel crime. She has conjured up the image

Starting point is 04:47:31 of incarnate hatred, and she calls that image by the name of Strangway. I have pledged myself to act upon this idea of hers as if it were an inspiration, and the first part of my task will be to find out any surviving member of Skrower. Squire Strangway's family. He only left three children, so the task ought not to be impossible. You don't mean, sir, that you are going to act upon the young lady's theory. I do mean it, Mr. Churton, and I want you to help me, or at any rate to give me a lesson. How am I to begin? He laid his facts before the detective, reading over the notes which he had elaborated from Jasper Blake's reminiscences, and, from his own recollection of various

Starting point is 04:48:10 conversations in which the Strangways had figured. Cherton listened attentively, nodded, or shook his head occasionally, and was master of every detail after that one hearing. Jersey is not a large place. If I were following up this inquiry, I should go first for the son who is supposed to have died in Jersey, he said when he had heard all. I should follow that line as far as it goes, and then I should hunt up the particulars of the colonel's death, the gentleman who was drowned at Nice. If any Strangway had a hand in the business, it must have been one of those two or the son of one of them. But I tell you plainly, Mr. Dalbrook, that I don't put any faith in that poor lady's notion. No, not that much, said the detective,

Starting point is 04:48:52 snapping his fingers contemptuously. Yet it was you yourself who first mooted the idea of a vendetta. So it was, but I didn't mean a vendetta on such grounds as that. An estate changes hands, and after twenty years and more, the original holders tried to murder the son-in-law of the purchaser. That won't hold water, sir. There's not enough human passion in it. I've had to study humanity, Mr. Dalbrook.

Starting point is 04:49:18 It's been a part of my profession, and perhaps I've studied human nature closer than many a philosopher who sits in his library and writes a book about it. Now, there's no human nature in that notion of Lady Carmichael's. A man may be very savage because his spendthrift father has squandered his estate, and he may feel savage with a lucky man who bought and developed that estate, and may envy him and his enjoyment of it. but he won't nurse his wrath for nearly a quarter of a century, and then give expression to his

Starting point is 04:49:46 feelings all at once with a revolver. That isn't human nature. How about the exception to every rule? Might not this be an exceptional case? It might, of course. There's no truer saying than the fact is stranger than fiction. But for all that, this notion of Lady Carmichael's is a young lady's notion, and it belongs to fiction and not to fact. I wouldn't waste my time upon it if I were you, Mr. Dalbrook. I must keep my promise, Mr. Churton. I am obliged to you for your plain speaking, and I am inclined to agree with you. But I have made a promise, and I must keep it.

Starting point is 04:50:24 Naturally, sir, and if in the course of your inquiries I can be of any use to you, I shall be very glad to cooperate. I rely on your help. Remember there is a handsome reward to be earned by you, if you can bring about the discovery of the murderer. My part in the search will count for nothing. i understand sir that's a stimulus no doubt but i hardly wanted it when a case baffles me as this case is done i would work day at night and live on bread and water for a month to get at the rights of it good day you've got my private address and you can wire me any when you're a sussex man mr churchon i fancy born in the village of bramber theodore left waterloo the following evening and landed at st heliars on the following morning an hour or so before noon

Starting point is 04:51:11 he landed on the island as an absolute stranger and with the vaguest idea of the work that lay before him but with the determination to lose no time in beginning that work he sent his valise to brett's hotel and he walked along the pier to the town and inquired his way to the police office he was not going in quest of information about a member of the criminal classes but the man he was hunting had been a notorious drunkard and it seemed to him that in a small settlement like st heliars such a man would have been likely to attract the attention of the police at some states of his downward career. The first official, whom Theodore interrogated, had never heard of the name of Strangway in the island, but an elderly inspector appearing presently upon the scene, and, listening attentively to the conversation, made a suggestion. You say the gentleman was fond of drink, sir,

Starting point is 04:51:58 and in that case he'd be likely to have his favourite public, where they'd know all about him. Now, there are not so many taverns in St. Heliers where a sea-captain and a broken-down gentleman would care to enjoy himself. He wouldn't go to a low place, you see, and he wouldn't fancy a swell place. It would be some house betwixt and between, where he'd be looked up a bit,

Starting point is 04:52:18 and it would be something of a seafaring place, you may be sure. There ain't so many but what you could look in at them all and ask a few questions to get on the right track. I can give you the names of two or three of the likeliest. I shall be much obliged, said Theodore. I think it's a capital idea. The inspector wrote down the names of three taverns

Starting point is 04:52:39 tore the leaf out of his pocketbook and handed it to Mr. Dalbrook. If you don't hear of him at one of those, I doubt if you'll hear of him anywhere on the island, he said. Those houses are all near the pier and the keys. It won't take you long to go from one to the other. The Rosen Crown, that's where the English pilots go. La Belle Alliance, that's a French house with their table-dote.

Starting point is 04:53:02 They've got a very good name for their brandy, and it's a great place for broken-down gentlemen. You can get a good dinner for half a crown with Véardinardinard included. i'll try the belle alliance first said theodore it sounds likely yes i believe it's about the likeliest replied the inspector the belle aliance fronted the key and stood at the corner of a shabby old street there was a church close by and a dingy old churchyard everything surrounding the belle aliance was shabby and faded and its outlook on the dirty key and the traffic of ugly wagons and uglier trucks hogsheads and lumber of all kinds was depressing in the extreme but the tavern itself had an air of smartness which an english tavern would hardly have had in the same circumstances the interior was gay with much looking-glass and a good deal of tarnished gilding there were artificial flowers and sham silver vases on the tables and there was a semicircular counter at one end of the restaurant behind which a ponderous divinity still youthful but expansive sat enthroned her sleek black hair elaborately dressed her forehead ornamented with a crotchcar in a cross of jersey diamonds sparkling upon her swan-like throat, which was revealed by one of those open collars which are dear

Starting point is 04:54:15 to the lower order of French women. There was a row of tables in front of the windows which looked towards the key, and there was a long narrow table in the middle of the room laid for the table-dote d'ijoné, but as yet the room was empty, save for one young man and woman of the tourist order who were whispering and tittering over a café-comple at one of the small tables furthest from the buffet. Theodore went straight to the front of the buffet, and saluted the lady in throne there. Madame speaks English, no doubt.

Starting point is 04:54:45 Oh, yes, but a little. I am Livlong in Jersey, where is more English as French peoples? After this simple speech, it seemed to him that he might get on better with the lady in her native tongue, so he asked her for a cup of coffee in her own language,

Starting point is 04:54:58 and stood at the counter while he drank it, and talked to her of indifferent matters, she, nothing loth. "'You have lived a long time in Jersey,' he said. "'Does that mean a long time in this house?' "'Except one year I have lived in this house all the time, nine years. I was only nineteen when I undertook the position of Dame du Contoir. I could not have undertaken such a responsibility with a stranger,

Starting point is 04:55:22 but the proprietor is my uncle, and he knew how to be indulgent to my youth and inexperience. And then a handsome face is always an attraction. You must have brought him good fortune, madame.' he is kind enough to say so he found it difficult to dispense with my services while i was absent though he had a person from london who had been much admired at the crystal palace and you madam was it a feminine caprice the desire for change which made you abandon your uncle during that time i left him when i married replied the lady with a profound sigh i return to him a heart-broken widow pray forgive me for having recalled the memory of your grief i am a stranger in this place and i am here on a somewhat delicate mission my first visit is to this house because i knew i should find intelligence and sympathy here rather than among my own countrymen I am fortunate in meeting with a lady who has occupied an important position at St. Heliers for so long a period. I have strong reasons for wishing to discover the history of a gentleman who came to the island some years ago.

Starting point is 04:56:28 I do not know how many, after having been unfortunate in the world. He was a naval man. My poor husband was a naval man, sighed the dame de Courtois. A pilot, no doubt, thought Theodore. Theodore's manner, which was even more flattering than his words, had made a favorable impression, and the lady was disposed to be confidential. She glanced at the clock and was glad to see that it was only twenty minutes past twelve. There was time for a little further conversation with this handsome, well-bred Englishman

Starting point is 04:57:00 before the Abutuet of the Belle Alliance came trooping in for the half-past twelve o'clock, tabledote. Already the atmosphere was odorous with fried soul and ragued mouton. "'The gentleman of whom I am in quest is reported to have died on the island,' he continued. "'But this is very likely to have been a false report, and it is quite possible that Captain Strangway may still—' Captain Strangway!' echoed the woman with an agitated air. "'Yes, I see you know all about him. You can help me to find him.' "'Know him?' cried the woman.

Starting point is 04:57:32 "'I should think I did know him, to my bitter cost. Captain Strangway was my husband.' "'Good heavens!' "'He was my husband.' "'He was my husband.' husband the people will be here in a few minutes if monsieur will do me the honor to step into my sitting-room we can talk without interruption end of chapter 11 volume one chapter 12 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon this Librovox recording is in the public domain chapter 12 the comfort is you shall be called to no more

Starting point is 04:58:11 payments fear no more tavern bills the Dame de Contoir beckoned a waiter and delegated some portion of her supreme authority to him for the next quarter of an hour. She constituted, as it were, a regency, and gave her subordinate command over her wine and liquor bottles, her fin champagne, bass and Guinness, and then she ushered Theodore Dalbrook into a very small sitting-room at the back of the counter, so small indeed that a large looking-glass, a porcelain stove, two arm-chairs, and one little table left hardly standing-room. Theodore followed with a sense of bewilderment. He had told himself that the island of Jersey was a world so small

Starting point is 04:58:49 that he could not have much difficulty in tracing any man who had lived and died there within the last ten years, but an accident had been kinder to him than he had hoped. The lady seated herself in one of the ruby velvet armchairs and motioned him to the other. "'You have given me a shock, monsieur,' she said. "'My friends in the island know that my marriage was unfortunate, and they never mentioned my husband. He is forgotten as if he had never been.' I sometimes fancy that year of my life was only a troubled dream.

Starting point is 04:59:19 Even my name is unchanged. I was called Mademoiselle Corali before I married. I am called Madame Corrali now. I am sorry to have caused you painful emotion, madame, but it is most important to me to trace the history of your husband's later years, and I deem myself very fortunate in having found you. Is it about a property, a fortune left him, perhaps? exclaimed Coralie with sudden animation,

Starting point is 04:59:44 her fine eyes lighting up with hope. Alas, no. Fortune had nothing in reserve for your unlucky husband. Unlucky indeed, but not so unlucky as I was in giving my heart to him. I knew that he was a drunkard. I knew that he had been turned out of the Navy and out of the mercantile-marine on account of that dreadful vice, but he—he was very fond of me, poor fellow, and he swore that he would never touch a glass of brandy again as long as he lived

Starting point is 05:00:12 if I would consent to marry him. He did turn over a new leaf for a time and kept himself sober and steady and would hang over that counter for a whole evening talking to me and taking nothing but black coffee. I thought I could reform him. I thought it would be a grand thing

Starting point is 05:00:29 to reform a man like that. A gentleman bred and born, a man whose father had been a great landowner and whose family name was one of the oldest in England. He was a gentleman in all his ways. He never forgot himself even when he has been drinking. He was a gentleman to the last. Such a fine-looking man, too.

Starting point is 05:00:49 While he was courting me and kept himself steady, he got back his good looks. He looked ten years younger, and I was very proud of him the day we were married. He had taken a house for me, a nice little house on the hill near the Jesuits College, with a pretty little garden, and I had furnished the house out of my savings. I had saved a goodish bit since I came to Jersey, for my uncle is a little. a generous man, and my situation here is a good one. I had over two hundred pounds in hand after I paid for the furniture. These chairs were in my drawing-room, and he hadn't much more than the clothes he stood upright in, poor fellow. But I wouldn't have minded that if he had

Starting point is 05:01:27 only kept himself steady. I was prepared to keep him. He was too much of a gentleman to be able to work except in his profession, and that was gone from him forever. So I knew it was incumbent on me to work for both, and I thought that by letting our drying-room floor in the season and by doing a little millinery all the year round, I'm a good milliner, monsieur. I thought I could manage to keep a comfortable home, without touching my two hundred pounds in the savings bank. He were a brave, unselfish girl to think so. Ah, sir, we are not selfish when we love. I was very fond of him, poor fellow. I had begun with pitying him, and then he was a thoroughbred gentleman. he was vie'-roche monsieur and i have always admired the nobleness i am no republican mo and he had such winning ways when he was sober and he was not stupid as other men are when he was drunk only more brilliant la teete m'h

Starting point is 05:02:23 elas he l'est comitie de spree but it was his brain that he was burning that was the fuel that made the light but how is it you interest yourself in him monsieur she asked suddenly fixing him with her sharp black eyes. You say it is not about property. You must have a motive all the same. I have a motive, but my interest is not personal. I am acting for someone who now owns the Strangley estate, and who wishes to know what has become of the old family. What can it matter to anyone? asked Madame Corradi suspiciously. They had lost all their money, of the land that had been theirs, not an acre was left. What business is it of any one's what became of them when they were driven from their birthplace. Oh, how my poor Friedrich hated the race that had possessed itself of his estate.

Starting point is 05:03:13 There was nothing too bad for them. When he was excited, he would rave about them awfully. A beggarly lawyer, a black-hearted scoundrel. That is what he would call Lord, Lord Sherrington, when he had been drinking. Theodore's brow grew thoughtful. How strange this seemed, almost like a confirmation of one he does superstition. horror of the banished race. Perhaps it was not unnatural

Starting point is 05:03:39 than an unlucky spendthrift, ruined, disgraced, should hate the favorite of fortune who had ousted him, but not with a hate capable of murder, murdering cold blood, the murder of a man who had never injured him even indirectly.

Starting point is 05:03:52 Your husband has been dead some years, I conclude, he said presently. Three years and a half on the dent of last month. And you had a troublesome time with him, I fear. Trouble seems a light word for what I went through. It was like living in hell. There is no other word, the hell which a madman can make of all around him. For a few weeks we went on quietly. He seemed contented, and I was very happy, thinking I had cured him. I watched him as a cat watch as a mouse, for fear he should go wrong again. He never went out without me,

Starting point is 05:04:26 and at home I did all that a woman can do to make much of the man she loves, studying him in everything, surrounding him with every little luxury I could afford, cooking dainty little meals for him, petting him as if he had been an idolized child. He seemed grateful for the first few weeks and almost happy. Then I saw he was beginning to mope a little. He got low-spirited and would sit over the fire and brood. It was cutting March weather,

Starting point is 05:04:53 and would mown over his blighted life and his own folly. If I had to begin over again, he would say, Ah, it would be different, Cora. It would be all different. He was not unkind to you. No, he was never unkind, never. To the last, when he died, raving mad with delirium tremens,

Starting point is 05:05:13 he was always kind. It was seeing his madness and his ruin that made my trouble. He was violent sometimes, and threatened to kill me, but that was only when he did not know me. I watched him moping for a week or so, and then one day, I was so unhappy at seeing him fret

Starting point is 05:05:30 that I thought I would do anything to cheer him. I fancied he missed the company in this house, and the cards and dominoes and billiards, for before we were married, he used to dine at the table-dote two or three times a week, and used to be in the cafe or in the billiard room every night. How did he manage to live without a profession and without ostensible means? Madame shrugged her shoulders. God knows. I think he used to write to his old friends, his brother officers in the Navy or the merchant service, and he got a little from one and a little from another. He would borrow of anyone, and there was a small legacy from his mother's sister which

Starting point is 05:06:07 fell into him soon after he came to Jersey. That was all gone before I married him. He hadn't a penny after he'd paid the marriage fees. Well, monsieur, seeing him so darn-hearted, I propose that he should go down to the Belle Alliance and have a game at Biliards and see his old friends. You needn't take any money, I said. My uncle will treat you hospitably. He seemed pleased at the idea, and he promised to be home early. But just as he was leaving the house, he turned back and said, there was a little bill of 30 shillings he owed to a bootmaker in the street round the corner, and he didn't like to pass the man's shop without paying. Would I let him have the money? It was the first money he'd asked me for since we were married,

Starting point is 05:06:50 and I hadn't a heart to say no, so I went to my little cash box and took out three half-sufferance. I told him that the money met a week's housekeeping. I give you nice little dinners, don't I, I said, but you've no idea how economical I am. He laughed and he kissed me, and said he hated economy, and wished he had a fortune for my sake, and he went down the street whistling. Well, sir, perhaps you can guess what happened. He came home at three o'clock next morning, mad with drink, and then I knew he was not to be cured.

Starting point is 05:07:22 I went on trying all the same, though, till the last, and I lived the life of a soul in torment. I was fond of him to the last. and saw him killing himself inch by inch and saw him die a dreadful death one year and three days after our wedding day. He spent every penny I had in the world, and my uncle helped us when that was gone, and I came back to this house after his funeral,

Starting point is 05:07:46 a broken-hearted woman. All my furniture which I'd worked for was sold to pay the rent, and the doctors and the undertaker. I just saved the furniture in this room, and that is all that is left of four hundred and seventy pounds and of my married life. You were indeed the victim of a generous and confiding heart. I was fond of him to the last, monsieur,

Starting point is 05:08:09 and I forgave him all my sufferings, but let no woman ever marry a drunkard with the hope of reforming him. Were you quite alone in your martyrdom? Had your husband no relatives left to help him on his dying bed? Not one. He told me he was the last of his race. He must have had distant relations, I suppose,

Starting point is 05:08:28 but his Aldo brother was dead, and his sister. You are sure his brother was dead? Yes, he fell into the water at Nice on a dark evening when he was going on board the steamer for Corsica. I have got the paper with the account of his death. Will you show me that paper and any other documents relating to your husband's family? I know I have no right to ask such a favor, but all I can say is that I shall be very grateful if he will so far oblige me.

Starting point is 05:08:57 The tabladoat was in the table-dote was in the same. full swing in the adjoining room, as testified by the clattering of plates in the jingle of knives and forks, and a subdued murmur as of a good many confidential conversations carried on simultaneously. "'You want to see my poor Fred's private papers,' said the widow meditatively. "'That's a good deal to ask, not that there are any secrets in them that can hurt anybody above ground. The colonel is dead, and his sister. My husband was the last. But I can't understand why anybody should want to pry into a dead man's papers, unless there's property hanging to them? She looked at Theodore suspiciously, as if she could not divest herself of the idea of a fortune

Starting point is 05:09:37 having turned up somehow unexpectedly, a fortune to which her dead husband was entitled. There is no property, I assure you. It is a question of sentiment, not of money. You're a lawyer, I suppose, said Coralie still suspiciously. She supposed that it was only lawyers. who went about prying into the affairs of the dead. I am a lawyer, but the business which brings me to Jersey is not law business.

Starting point is 05:10:05 Well, I don't see any arm coming to me through your seeing my husband's papers. There's not many to see. A few letters from the colonel and two or three from a lawyer about a legacy, and he doesn't or so from old friends, refusing or sending him money. You've spoken kindly to me,

Starting point is 05:10:22 and I felt that you sympathize with me, though you're a stranger, so, well, you may, see his letters, though it hurts me to touch anything that belonged to him. Le Povee. She took a bunch of keys from her pocket, unlocked the little secretaire, and from one of the drawers produced a bundle of old letters and cuttings from newspapers, which she handed to Theodore Dahlbrook,

Starting point is 05:10:42 and then, seated herself opposite to him, planted her elbows on the table, and watched him while he read, keenly on the alert for any revelation of his purpose, which might escape him in the course of his reading. She had not altogether relinquished that idea of an inheaval. or legacy, property of some kind, involved in this endeavor to trace a dead man's history. The explanation which Theodore had given had not convinced her. He had confessed himself a lawyer, and that was in itself enough to make her doubt him. The cuttings from old newspaper belonged to the days when Frederick Strangway had commanded a warship to the days

Starting point is 05:11:17 when he fought in the Chinese war. Some of them recorded the honor he had won for himself at different stages of his career, and it was only natural that these should have been carefully preserved by him in all his wanderings. But there were other cuttings, the report of the court-martial that broke him, the trial in which he stood accused of having risked the loss of his ship with all hands aboard by his dissolute habits, a shameful and a painful story. This record of his folly had been kept by that strange perversity of the human mind which makes a man secrete and treasure documents which must wring his heart and bow his head with shame every time he looks at them. There were other

Starting point is 05:11:55 extracts of a like shameful kind. Reports of street rows, two cases of drunken assault in San Francisco, one of a fight in Sydney Harbor. He had kept them all as if they had been words of praise and honor. The letters were most of them trivial. Letters from brother officers of the past. Very sorry to hear of your embarrassments. Regret inability to do more than the enclosed small check. The numerous claims upon my purse render it impossible for me to grant the loan requested. the usual variations upon the old tune in which a heavily tax Pater Familia's fences with the appeal of an unlucky acquaintance. They were such letters as are left by the portmanteau full among the effects of the man for whom the world has been too hard. Theodore put aside all this correspondence after a brief glance, and there remained only four letters in the same strong, resolute hand, the hand of Reginald Stringway.

Starting point is 05:12:48 The first in date was written on Army and Navy Club paper and was addressed to Captain Strang. R-N-H-M-S, Cobra, Hong Kong My dear Fred I have been sorry to leave your letters so long unanswered, but I am bothered about a great many things. My wife has been out of health for nearly a year. The doctor's fear her chest is affected, and tell me I ought to get her away from England before the winter.

Starting point is 05:13:13 As things have been going very badly with me for a long time, I shall not be sorry to cut this beastly town, where the men who have made their money, God knows how, are now upon the crest of the wave, and by their reckless expenditure have made it impossible for a man of small means to live in London, if he wants to live like a gentleman. Everything is twice as dear as it used to be when I was a subaltern. My wife and I are pigging in two rooms on a second floor in German Street.

Starting point is 05:13:40 I live at my club and she lives on her relatives, so that we don't often have to sit down to a lodging-house dinner of burnt soles and greasy chops. But the whole business is wretched. She has to go to parties in a four-wheel cab, and I can hardly afford the risk of a rubber. So I shall be uncommonly glad to cut it all and settle in some out-of-the-way place where we can live cheap

Starting point is 05:14:00 and where the climate will suit Melissent. My first idea was Algiers, but things are still rather unsettled there, as you know. Lampton of the guards has been shooting in Corsica lately, and came home with a glowing account of the climate and the cheapness of the inns, which are ruggish, but clean and fairly comfortable, so I have determined on Corsica.

Starting point is 05:14:19 We shall be within a day's sale of Nise, so not utterly out of reach of civilization, and we can live there how we like without entertaining a mortal or having to buy new clothes. Melissent, who is fond of novelty, is in love with the notion, and Dangerfield has behaved very well to her, promising her an extra hundred a year if we will live quietly and keep out of debt, which, considering he is as poor as job, is not so bad. As for my creditors, they are pretty quiet since I got Aunt Bell's legacy, part of which I divided among them as a sap to Cerberus. They'll have to be still quiet, when I'm settled in Corsica.

Starting point is 05:14:54 Of course, you have heard of that wretched woman's kicking over the traces altogether at last. God knows what will become of her. I believe she had been carrying on rather badly for some time before Tom found out anything. You know what an ass he is.

Starting point is 05:15:10 However, he got hold of a letter one evening, met the postman at the door, and took her letters along with his own, and didn't like the look of one and opened it. And then there was an infernal row when she just put on her bonnet and shawl, walked out of the house and called a cab and drove off. He followed in another cab, but it was a foggy night and he lost her before she'd gone far. They were in lodgings in Essex Street, and it isn't easy for one cab to chase another on a foggy evening.

Starting point is 05:15:36 She never went back to him, and he went all over London denouncing her, naming first one man and then another, but without any definite idea as to who the real man was. The letter was only a couple of sentences in Italian, which Tom knew only by sight, but he could see it was an appointment at a theater, for the theater an hour were named. She snatched the letter out of his hand while they were quarreling, he told me, and chucked it into the fire, so he hasn't even the man's handwriting as evidence against him. It was a hand he had never seen before, he says. However, if he wants to find her, no doubt he can do so if he takes the trouble.

Starting point is 05:16:11 I am sorry that she should disgrace her family, and of course my wife feels the scandal uncommonly hard upon her. I can't say that I feel any pity for Tom Darcy. She had led a wretched life with him ever since he sold out, and I don't much wonder at her being deuce glad to leave him. As it's Tom's business to shoot her lover and not mine, I shan't mix myself up in the affair, and as for her, well, she has made her bed. There was more in the letter, but the rest was of no interest to Theodore.

Starting point is 05:16:41 The letter was dated January 3, 1851. Three of the remaining letters were, from Corsica and contained nothing of any significance. A fourth was written at Monte Carlo, in answer to an appeal for money, and the date was twelve years later than the first. It was a gloomy letter, the letter of a ruined man who had drunk the cup of disappointment to the dregs. To ask me for help seems like a ghastly joke on your part. Whatever your troubles may be, I fancy my lookout is darker than yours. My wife and I have vegetated on that a cursed island for just a dozen years. It seems like a lifetime to look back upon.

Starting point is 05:17:19 We just had enough to live upon while my father was alive, for, as bad as things were at Chariton, he contrived to send me something. Now that he is gone, and the estate has been sold by the mortgages, there is nothing left for me. And we have been living for the last two years upon the pittance my poor Millie gets from her father. Whatever your cares may be, you don't know what it is to have a sick wife whose condition requires every luxury and indulgence than to have barely enough for bread and cheese. If you were to see the house we live in, the tiled floors and the dilapidated furniture, and the windows that won't shut, and the shutters that won't keep too,

Starting point is 05:17:56 and are two corsican servants who look like a brace of savages, though they are good creatures in the main, you would be the last man to howl about your own troubles to me. I have been here a month, and with my usual diabolical luck. I am going home to-morrow, though perhaps I should be wiser if I went up into the hills behind Monaco and put a bullet through my brains. Melissa would be no worse off, God help her, for she is entirely dependent on her father, and I am only an incubus. But she might think herself worse off, poor soul, so I suppose I had better go home.

Starting point is 05:18:30 What am I thinking about? I can't afford to take refuge in the suicides haven. My life is insured in the Imperial for 3,000 pounds, and poor old Dangerfield has been paying the premium ever since I began to go to the bad financially. It would be too hard upon him if I shot myself. This was the last letter, and it was endorsed by the brother's hand. Reginald's last letter. I read in the Times newspapers of his being drowned at Nice ten days afterwards.

Starting point is 05:19:00 Theodore made a note of the dates of these letters and the name of the insurance office. Provided with these data, it would be easy for him to verify the fact of Colonel Strangway's death, and thus bring the history of the two sons of old Squire Strangway to its dismal. clothes in dust and darkness. And thus would be answered whenita's strange suspicion of the house of Strangway, answered with an unanswerable answer.

Starting point is 05:19:23 Who can argue with death? Is not that at least the end of all things? The road that leads no wither. There remained for him only the task of tracing the erring daughter to her last resting place. This would doubtless be more difficult as a runaway wife living under a false

Starting point is 05:19:40 name and in all probability going from place to place was likely, to have left but faint and uncertain indications of her existence. But the first part of his task had been almost too easy. He felt that he could take no credit for what he had done, could expect no gratitude from Juanita. He thanked Mrs. Strangway, alias, Madame Coralli, for her politeness,

Starting point is 05:20:01 and asked to be allowed to offer her a ten-pound note as a trifling acknowledgement of the favor she had done him. She promptly accepted this offering, and was only the more convinced that there was property involved in the lawyer's researches. If there is anything to come to me from any of his relations, I hope nobody will try to keep me out of it, she said. I hope his friends will remember that I gave him my last shilling,

Starting point is 05:20:26 and nursed him when there wasn't many would have stayed in the room with him. Theodore reiterated his assurance that no question of money or inheritance was involved in his mission to the island, and then bade the captain's widow a respectful adieu, and threaded his way through the avenue of tables to the door, and out of the garlic-charged atmosphere into the fresh autumnal air. He stayed one night in Jersey and left at eleven o'clock the next morning on board the Fanny and slept in his chambers in ferret court after having written a long letter to Juanita

Starting point is 05:20:56 with a full account of all that he had learned from the lips of the widow and from the letters of the dead. I do not surrender my hope of finding the murderer, he wrote finally, but you must now agree with me that I must look elsewhere than among the remnants of the Strangway race. They can prove an unanswerable alibi, the grave. He went to the office of the Imperial next morning, saw the secretary, and ascertained that the amount of the policy upon Colonel Strangway's life had been paid to Lady Melisson Strangway, his widow in April 1863, after the directors had received indisputable evidence of his death. I remember the case perfectly, said the secretary. The circumstances were peculiar, and there was a suspicion of suicide, as the man had just left Monte Carlo, and was known to have lost his last Napoleon after a most extraordinary run of luck.

Starting point is 05:21:45 There was some idea of disputing the claim, but if he did make a way with himself, he had contrived to do it so cleverly that it would have been uncommonly difficult to prove that his death was not an accident, more particularly as Lord Dangerfield brought an action against the steamboat company for willful negligence in regard to their gangway and deficient lighting. The policy was an old one, too, so it was decided not to litigate. There could be no doubt as to the identity of the map. who was drowned at Nice, I conclude. No, the question of identity was carefully gone into.

Starting point is 05:22:17 Lord Dangerfield happened to be wintering at Cannes that year, and he heard of his son-in-law's death in time to go over and identify the body before it was coffined. You know how quickly burial follows death in that part of the world, and there would have been no possibility of the widow getting over from a jack-heo before the funeral. We had Lord Dangerfield's declaration that the body he saw at Nice was the body of Colonel Strangway, and we paid the 3,000 pounds on that evidence. We have never had any reason to suspect error or foul play. End of Chapter 12.

Starting point is 05:22:54 Volume 1, Chapter 13 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 13 Thou takest not away, O death. Thou strikest, absence, perisheth, indifference is no more. The future brightens on our sight. for on the past hath fallen a light that tempts us to adore. While Juanita clung with feverish intensity to the hope of discovering her husband's murderer,

Starting point is 05:23:24 Lord Chariton seemed to be gradually resigning himself to the idea that the crime would go to swell the long list of undiscovered murders, which he could recall within his own experience of life. Crimes which had kept society expectant and on the alert for a month, and which had stimulated the police to unwanted exertions, finally to fade into oblivion or to be occasionally cited as an example of the misconduct. mysteriousness of human history. He had offered a large reward. He had brought all his own trained intelligence to bear upon the subject. He had thought and brooded upon it by day and by night, and the result had been nil. A hand had been stretched out of the darkness to slay an unoffending

Starting point is 05:24:01 young man, in whose life his daughter's happiness had been bound up. That was the whole history of the murder. A shot heard in the night, a bullet fired out of the darkness with fatal aim. Not one indication, not one suggestive fact had been discovered since the night of the murder. It is hopeless, said Lord Chariton, talking over the calamity with Mr. Scarsdale, the vicar of Chariton and Testwick, adjoining parishes. The crime and the motive of the crime are like inscrutable. If one could imagine a reason for the act, it might be easier to get upon the track of the murderer, but there is no reason that I can conceive for such a deed. It has been suggested to me that Sir Godfrey might have had a secret enemy, that his life

Starting point is 05:24:43 might not have been as spotless as we think. I will answer for it that he was never guilty of a dishonorable action, that he provoked no man's hatred by any unworthy act, interrupted the vicar warmly. He had been curate at Millbrook before he got the chariton living and had lived for two years at the priory

Starting point is 05:25:01 while he prepared Godfrey Carmichael for Eaton, so he claimed the right to vouch for the honor of the dead. There never was a whiter soul in mortal clay, said the vicar. I am inclined to estimate his care you almost as haughty as you replied lord chariton deliberately yet the straightest walker may make one false step and there may have been some unfortunate entanglement at the university or in london i will never believe it he may have been tempted he may have yielded to temptation but if he erred be sure he atoned for his error to the uttermost of his power there are errors seeming light to the steps at stumble which cannot be atoned for there was no such error in his youth

Starting point is 05:25:43 i looked in his face on his wedding-day lord chariton and it was the face of a man of unblemished life a man who need fear no ghost out of the dead past well you are right i believe and in that case the murder is motiveless the murder of a madman a madman so profoundly artful in his lunacy as to escape every eye by heaven i wish we had the old way of hunting such a quarry and that a leash of bloodhounds could have been set loose upon his track within an hour of the murder they would have hunted him down their instinct would have found him skulking and shivering in his lair, and we should have needed no astute detective primed with all the traditions of Scotland Yard. It would have been swift, sudden justice, blood for blood. His dark eyes shone with an angry light as he walked up and down the spacious floor of the library, while the vicar stood in front of the fire, looking gravely into his clerical hat and without any suggestion to offer.

Starting point is 05:26:38 I hope Lady Carmichael is recovering her spirits, he said feebly after a pause, She is not any happier than she was when her loss was a week old, but she keeps up in a wonderful way. I believe she is sustained by some wild notion that the murderer will be found, that she will live to see her husband's death avenged. I doubt if at present she has any other interest in life. But let us hope she will be cheered by the society of her husband's people. I hear that the morning sides and the Granvilles are to be at the priory in November. Indeed, I have heard nothing about it.

Starting point is 05:27:13 I was at Swanage yesterday afternoon and took tea with Lady Jane. She was full of praises of Lady Carmichael's goodness and her desire that all things at the Priory must be just as they had been in Sir Godfrey's lifetime. His brothers-in-law used to be invited for the shooting in November, and they were to be invited this year, on condition that Lady Jane would help to entertain them, and Lady Jane has consented gladly.

Starting point is 05:27:39 So there will be a large family party at the Priory on this side, of Christmas, concluded the vicar. I am glad to hear it, said Lord Chariton. Anything is better for her than solitude. Any occupation, if it be only revising a bill of fare or listening to feminine twaddle, is better for her than idleness. Yes, there will be a houseful, pursued the vicar. Mrs. Granville takes her nursery with her wherever she goes,

Starting point is 05:28:06 and Mrs. Morningside is delighted to leave hers behind her. Yes, she is one of those mothers who are always telling people, people what paragons of nurses providence has provided for their darlings or how admirably their children are being brought up by a model governess said the vicar who was severe upon other people's neglect of duty by the by talking of mothers i believe i saw mrs porter's daughter the other day while i was in town you believe you saw her yes i am not certain a face flashed past me in the street one night and when the face was gone it came upon me that it was mercy porter's eyes that looked at me for for an instant in the gaslight. I was in a busy thoroughfare on the Surrey side of Westminster Bridge. I had been to hear Vansetart preach a mission sermon at the church near Walworth, and I was walking back to the West End. It was late on a Saturday night, and the road was full of costermonger's barrows, and the pavement was crowded with working people doing their marketing.

Starting point is 05:29:04 I tried to overtake the girl whose face had startled me, but it was no use. She had melted into the crowd. I went back the whole length of the sun. street, hoping I might find her in front of one of the Costa stalls, but she must have turned into one of the numerous side streets, and it was hopeless to hunt for her there. Yet I should have been very glad to get hold of her. Is she much changed? Changed? Yes. It was only the ghost of Mercy Porter that I saw. I should not have known her but for her eyes. She had fine eyes, do you remember, and with a great deal of expression in them. I think I should be safe in swearing to he porter's eyes. Did she look poor or ill? She looked both, but the illness might be only hunger.

Starting point is 05:29:51 She had that wan-pinched look once seized in the faces of the London poor, especially in the woman's faces. Have you told her mother? No, I came to the conclusion that it would be giving the poor soul useless pain to tell her anything, having so little to tell. She knew years ago that Colonel Tremaine had deserted his victim and that the girl had dropped through. God knows where, into the abyss that swallows up handsome young women who begin their career in West End lodgings in a hired brougham. If the mother were to go in quest of her and bring her home here, it might be only to bring shame and misery upon her declining years. The creature may have fallen too low for the possibility of reformation, and the mother's last hours might be

Starting point is 05:30:34 darkened by her sin. I would do much to rescue her, but I would rather try to save her through a stranger's help than by the mother's intervention. lord chariton continued his pacing to and fro and did not appear particularly interested in the case of mercy porter he had been much troubled by her flight from chariton for the seducer was his own familiar friend and he had felt himself in some wise to blame for having brought such a man to chariton he told himself that he would not have had to remain inside his house had his own daughter been out of the school-room and yet he had allowed the man to cross the path of the widow's only child and to bring desolation and sorrow upon the woman whose life he had in some wise taken under his protection there are people whose mission it is to hunt out that kind of misery he said after an interval of silence i hope one of those good women will rescue mercy porter i think you have been wise in saying nothing to the mother she has got over her trouble and anything she might hear about the girl would be a reopening of old wounds. She is a wonderful woman, replied the vicar. I never saw such grief as hers when the girl ran away,

Starting point is 05:31:41 and yet within a few months she had calmed down into the placid personage she has been ever since. She is a woman of very powerful mind. I sometimes wonder that even at her age she can content herself with a monotonous life she leads in that cottage. Oh, she likes the place, I believe, and the life suits. her said Lord Chariton carelessly she had seen a good deal of trouble before she came here and this was a quiet haven for her after the storms of life I am very sorry the daughter went wrong he added with a sudden cloud upon his face that was a bitter blow and I shall never forgive myself for having brought that scoundrel to remain here he is dead is he not yes he was killed in Afghanistan six years ago he was a good soldier though he was a bad man I dare say he made his being ordered off to India an excuse for leaving mercy, left her with a trifle of money, perhaps, and a promise of further remittances, and then let her

Starting point is 05:32:40 drift. I told my lawyer to keep his eye upon her, if possible, and to establish her in some respectable calling, if ever he saw the chance of doing so, but she alluded him somehow, as you know. Yes, you told me what you had done. It was like you to think even if so remote a claim upon your generosity. Oh, she belonged to Chariton. I have cultivated the patriarchal feeling as much as I can. All who live upon my land are under my protection.

Starting point is 05:33:08 Lady Chariton has been a good friend to Mrs. Porter, too. My wife is always kind. Juanita accepted her cousin's account of what he had heard and read at St. Heliers as the closing of his research is in the history of the Strangways. The sister's death in a shabby exile remained to be traced, for there was no light to be expected there, and Juanita felt that she must now submit to surrender her superstition about that evil race. It was not from them the blow had come. The murderer had to be hunted for in a wider range, and the quest would be more difficult than she had thought.

Starting point is 05:33:43 She was not the less intent upon discovery because of this difficulty. I have all my life before me, she told herself, and I have nothing to live for but to see his murderer punished. It had been Juanita. does a special desire that the morning sides and the grenville should be invited to the priory just as they had been in sir godfrey's lifetime that all the habits of the household should be as he had willed them when his bodily presence was there among them as he was now in the spirit to oneita's imagination she thought of him every hour of the day and in all things deferred to his opinions and ideas shaping the whole course of her life to please him who was lying in that dark resting place where there is neither pain nor a pleasure when november came however and with it the troop of grenville's nurses and nursery governess and the morning sides with valet and maid it seemed to juanita as if the wild companions of comus or contingent from bedlam had invaded the sober old priory those loud voices in the hall that perpetual running up and down and talking and laughing upon the staircase the everlasting opening and shutting of doors the roll of carriage wheels driving up to the door a dozen times in a day the bustle and fuss and commotion which two cheerful families in rude health can contrive to make in a house where they feel themselves perfectly at home All these things were agonizing to the mourner who had lived in silence and shadow from the hour of her loss until now.

Starting point is 05:35:05 Happily, however, Lady Jane was there to take all the burden off those weary shoulders, and Lady Jane, in the character of her grandmother, was in her very fittest sphere. Between her ladyship and the housekeeper all arrangements were made, and every detail was attended to without inflicting the slightest trouble upon Juanita. You shall see just as little of them all as you like, dear, said Lady Jane. you can breakfast and lunch in your morning-room and just come down to dinner when you feel equal to being with us and then you will see the darlings at dessert i know they will cheer you with their pretty little ways such loving pets as they are too and so full of intelligence did i tell you what johnny said yesterday at lunch yes dear lady jane you did tell me it was very funny replied juanita with a faint smile she could not tell that adoring grandmother that the children were a burden to her and that those intelligent speeches and delightful mispronunciations of polysyllabic words which convulsed parents and grandparent seemed to add perceptibly to her own gloom she pretended to be interested in tom's letter from eton with a modest request for a large hamper and she made a martyr of herself by showing susy picture-books and explaining the pictures or by telling lucy her favourite hans anderson's story which never appalled upon that young listener

Starting point is 05:36:24 don't you think you would like a new one monita would ask no no not a new one the same please i want the proud darning-needle so the adventures of the proud darning-needle had to be read or related as the case might be. Juanita took Lady Jane's advice and spent the greater part of every day in her morning room, that room which had been Godfrey's den. It was further from the staircase than any other sitting room, and the clatter and the shrill voices were somewhat modified by distance. The house party amused themselves after their heart's desire, and worked the horses with the true metropolitan feeling that a horse is an animal designed for locomotion, and that he can't have too much of it. Lady Jane was the most indulgent of deputy hostesses, and spent all breakfast time in cutting sandwiches of a particularly dainty kind for her sons-in-law,

Starting point is 05:37:13 so that they might be sustained between the luxurious home breakfast at nine, and the copious luncheon with which the cart met the shooters by appointment at half-past one. When the shooters had started, there were the little Grenvilles to slave for, and Lady Jane spent another half-hour in seeing them off upon their morning constitutional, Lucy on her Shetland, and Johnny, Susie, and Godolphin on their short little legs with groom and nurses in attendance. There were so many wraps to be adjusted, so many injunctions to be given to nurses and groom, so many little pockets to be filled with gingerbreads and queen cakes, while Mrs. Grenville looked on and protested against Grandmama's infraction of hygienic rules.

Starting point is 05:37:53 Dr. Dobs and Drews had said they must never eat between meals. Juanita rarely appeared before afternoon tea when she was generally installed in her own particular easy-chair by the fire, fenced round by a seven-leaved Indian screen, which was big enough to include a couple of small tables and a creepy stool before the sisters-in-law came in from their afternoon drive, or the shooters dropped in after their day in the woods. There were no other guests than the sisters and their husbands, and it was an understood thing that no one else should be asked, unless it were Lord and Lady Chariton, the Dalbrooks from Dorchester or Mr. Scarsdale.

Starting point is 05:38:29 No one could have been sweeter than the young widow was to her visitors during the hours she spent with them, listening with inexhaustible patience to Jessica Grenville. graphic account of the measles as late-date taken by her whole brood, with all the after-consequences of the malady and the amount of cod liver oil in quinine consumed by each patient, pretending to be interested in Ruth Morningside's perpetual disquisitions upon smart people and smart people's frogs, and in every way performing her duty as a hostess. And yet George Grenville was not altogether satisfied. I'll tell you what it is, Jess, he said to his wife one night in the luxurious privacy of the good old-fashioned bedroom, seated on the capacious sofa in front of the monumental

Starting point is 05:39:10 four-poster, with elaborately turned columns, richly molded cornice, and heavy-de-mask curtains. The kind of bedstead for which our ancestors gave fifty guineas, and for which no modern auctioneer can obtain a bit of fifty shillings. I'll tell you what it is, Jess, repeated Mr. Grenville, frowning at the fire. Either your brother's widow gives herself confounded airs, or there is something in the wind. I'm afraid so, George, replied his wife, meekly. you're afraid of what why the deuce can't you be coherent afraid of her airs i'm afraid there is something in the wind faltered the submissive lady i suppose it's the best thing that could happen to her poor girl for a nursery will be an occupation for her mind and prevent her brooding on her loss but this place would have been very nice for tom all the same i should think it would indeed and he ought not be swindled out of it said mr grenville with a disgusted air i-i am surprised i am surprised

Starting point is 05:40:05 that your sister-in-law i have always considered that there is a kind of indelicacy in a posthumous child it may be a prejudice on my part but i have always felt a sort of revulsion when i have heard of such creatures and mr grenville curled his lordly aquiline nose and made a wry face at the jovial fire blazing hospitably heaped high with corals and wood and roaring up towards the frosty sky end of chapter thirteen volume one chapter fourteen of the day will come by mary elizabeth bradden this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter fourteen then through my brain the thought did pass even as a flash of lightning there that there was something in her air which would not doom me to despair and on the thought my words broke forth harrington dalbroke was as keenly impressed with a sense of stupendous self-sacrifice in giving up his prospects in the church as if the primacy had only been a question of time yet as his divinity examination had twice ended in disappointment and a shamefaced return to the paternal roof tree it might be thought that in his friend sir henry baldwin's phraseology he was very well out of it sir henry was the average young man of the epoch sharp shallow and with a strong belief in his own superiority to the human race in general, and naturally to a friend whose father plotted over leases and agreements in an old-fashioned office in a country town. But the two young men happened to have been thrown together at Oxford

Starting point is 05:41:41 where Sir Henry was at Christchurch, while Harrington-Dolbrook was at New. And as Sir Henry's ancestral home was within six miles of Dorchester, the friendship begun at the university was continued in the county town. Sir Henry lived at a good old Georgian house called the Mount between Dorchester and Weymouth. It was a red-brick house with a centre-and-and-and-a-and-oen. It was a red-brick house with a center and two wings, a Corinthian portico of Portland stone, and a wide, level lawn in front of the portico that was brilliant with scarlet geraniums all the summer. There were no novelties in the way of gardening at the Mount, and there were never likely to be any new departures while Lady Baldwin held the reins of power.

Starting point is 05:42:18 She was known in the locality as a lady of remarkable closeness, a lady who pared down every department of expenditure to the very bone. The gardens and shrubberies were always in perfect order, neat, tree, and trees. rim, weedless, but everything was reduced to the minimum of outlay. There were no new plants or shrubs, no specimen trees, no innovations or improvements. There was very little glass, and there were only two gardeners to do the working grounds for which most people would have kept four or five. The dowager was never ashamed to allude to the smallness of her jointure or to bemoan her son's college debts. She had two daughters, a younger, pale, sickly, and insignificant. The elder,

Starting point is 05:42:59 tall and large, with the beauty of the showy and high-colored order, brown eyes, a complexion of milk and roses, freely sprinkled with freckles and light-wavy hair, which in a young woman of Mina station might have been called red. The neighborhood was of opinion that it was time for the elder Miss Baldwin to marry, and that she ought to marry well, but that important factor in marriage the bridegroom was not forthcoming. It was a ground of complaint against Sir Henry that he never brought any eligible young men to the mount. "'My mother's housekeeping would frighten them away if I did,' answered Henry, when hard-driven upon this point.

Starting point is 05:43:35 "'The young men of the present day like a good dinner. "'There isn't a third-rate club in London where the half-crown-house dinner isn't better "'than the food we have here, better cooked and more plentiful.' "'Perhaps if you help mother a little, things would be more comfortable than they are,' "'remonstrated Laura, the younger sister, who generally took upon herself the part of mentor. "'You must know that her income isn't enough to keep up this place.' as it ought to be kept. I don't know anything of the kind.

Starting point is 05:44:03 I believe she is hoarding and scraping for you two girls. But she'll find by and by that she has been penny-wise and pound foolish, for nobody worth having will ever propose to Juliet in such a dismal hole as this, continued the baronet, scornfully surveying the old-fashioned furniture, which had never been vivified by modern frivolities or made more luxurious by modern inventions. Juliet is not the beginning and end of our lives, replied Laura. sourly. She has plenty of opportunities if she were only capable of using them. I know her visiting caused a small fortune. A very small one, said Juliet. I have fewer gowns than any girl I meet

Starting point is 05:44:42 and have to give smaller tips when I am leaving. The servants are hardly civil to me when I go back to a house. I dare say not, retorted Laura, considering that you expect other people's maids to do more for you than your own maid would do if you had one. Juliet sighed and shrugged her graceful shoulders. It is all very horrid and very sordid, she said, and I wish I were dead. I don't go so far as that, replied Laura, but I wish with all my heart you were married and that mother and I could live in peace. All this meant that the handsome Miss Baldwin was seven and twenty, and that although she had

Starting point is 05:45:18 drunk the cup of praise from men and women, not one eligible man with place and fortune to offer had offered himself. Eligible men had admired and had praise and had flattered, and had ridden away, like the night of old, and had married some other girl, a girl with money generally, an American girl sometimes. Juliette Baldwin hated the very name of Columbus. For want of someone better to flirt with, Juliet had flirted with Harrington Dollbrook. He was her junior by two years, and, on his first visit to the Mount, had succumbed to her beauty and to the charm of manners which somewhat exaggerated the progressive

Starting point is 05:45:54 spirit of the smart world. Miss Baldwin was amused by her conquest, though she had no idea of allowing her acquaintance with her brother's friend to travel beyond the strictest limits of that state of things which our neighbors call flirtage. But flirtage nowadays is somewhat comprehensive, and with Juliet it went so far as to allow her admirer to gratify her with offerings of gloves and flowers for her ball-dresses when she was staying with friends in Belgravia and the young man was taking a holiday in London. It may be said that the fascination of this young lady had something to do with Harrington's failure to pass his divinity examination,

Starting point is 05:46:31 and with his subsequent renunciation of the Church of England for the wider faith of the naturalist and the metaphysician. He told his family that he had got beyond Christianity as it was understood by churchmen, and set forth in the 39 articles. He had gone from the river to the sea, as he explained it, from the narrow, banked-in river of orthodoxy to the wide ocean of the new faith, faith in humanity, faith in a universal brotherhood, faith in oneself as superior to anything else in the universe, past or present.

Starting point is 05:47:02 In this enlightened attitude he had grasped at Theodore's offer, all the more eagerly perhaps because he had lately heard Juliet Baldwin's emphatic declaration apropote to nothing particular that she would never marry a parson and that the existence of a parson's wife

Starting point is 05:47:16 in town or country seemed to her of all lives the most odious. Would she take more kindly to a lawyer, he asked himself with a sinking heart? would a country practice life in an old-fashioned house in an old-fashioned market town satisfy her ambition he feared not if he wanted that radiant creature for his wife he must exchange country for town dorchester for lincoln's inn fields and a house in chester street or at least claustre place she had been used to belgravia but she might perhaps tolerate the neighbourhood of portman square the unaristocratic sound of baker street the convenience of atlas omnibuses until he had been used to belgravia but she might perhaps tolerate the neighbourhood of portman square the unaristocratic sound of baker street the convenience of atlas umnibuses until he should be able to start his broom. Led on by this guiding star, he told himself that what he had to do was to become learned in the law,

Starting point is 05:48:03 particularly in the science, art, and mystery of conveyancing, which branch of a family practice we believe to be at once dignified and lucrative. He had to make himself master of his profession, to make his experiments upon the inferior clay of Dorsetshire, upon farmers and small gentry, and then to persuade his father to buy him a London practice, an aristocratic London practice, should not call a blush to the cheek of a fashionable wife. He had met solicitor's wives who gave themselves all the airs of great ladies, and who talked as if the bench and the bar were set in motion and kept going by their husbands. Such a wife would Juliet be could he be so blessed as to win her.

Starting point is 05:48:42 The mild flirtage involving much tribute from the Glover and the florist, the bookseller and the photographer, had been going on for nearly three years, and Harrington was tremendously in earnest. his sisters had encouraged him in his infatuation, thinking that it would be rather a nice thing to have a baronet as a family connection, and with a sneaking admiration for Sir Henry Baldwin's Clubhouse manners and slangy vocabulary, which had to be translated to them in the first instance by Harrington. They liked to be intimate with Miss Baldwin of the Mount, liked to see her smart little pony cart waiting for an hour in front of the door in Cornhill, while the young lady prattled about her conquests, her frocks, and her parties over the afternoon tea-table. true that she never talked about anybody but herself except when she depreciated a rival bell but the background of her talk was a smart world and that was a world of which janet and her sister loved to hear albeit plain living and high thinking was their motto sir henry had a small hunting stud and somewhat ungraciously allowed his elder sister an occasional mount although as he took care to impress upon her he hated hunting women for the pleasure of being in the young lady's society Harrington, who had no passion for horsemanship, became all of a sudden an ardent sportsman,

Starting point is 05:49:58 borrowed his brother's cob, Peter, and was ultimately cajoled into the purchase of an elderly hunter, which was not quite quick enough for his friends for Henry. You don't mean hunting in the shires, so pace is not of so much consequence to you as it is to me, said the baronet. Mamud will carry you beautifully in our country, and he's as quiet as a sheep. It is possible that this qualification of sheepishness was Mahmood's chief merit. in Harrington's estimation. He was a black horse and looked a good deal for the money.

Starting point is 05:50:28 Sir Henry asked a hundred guineas for him and finally took his friend's acceptance for eighty, and this transaction was the first burden of debt which Harrington Dalbrook laid upon his shoulders after leaving the university. There had been college debts, and he had considerably exceeded a very liberal allowance, but his father had paid those debts to the last shilling,

Starting point is 05:50:48 and one grave and stern remonstrance with a few fatherly words of advice for the future had been all that Harrington had been called upon to endure. But he did not forget that his father had warned him against the consequences of any future folly. He felt rather uncomfortable when the black horse was brought to the door one hunting morning and when his father happened to be in the front office

Starting point is 05:51:08 whence he could see the unknown animal. Where did you get that black horse, Harrington? Is it a hire? He asked. No, the fact is I've bought him. Have you really? You must be richer than you. I gave you credit for being, if you can afford to buy yourself a hunter. He looks a well-bred one, but shows work.

Starting point is 05:51:29 I hope you didn't give much for him. No, I got him on easy terms. Not on credit, I hope. No, of course not. Sir Henry Baldwin sold him to me. I have saved a little out of my allowance, don't you know? I'm very glad to hear it. And now be off and get a good day's sport if you can.

Starting point is 05:51:49 I shall want you to stick to your desk tomorrow. harrington took up his crop and hurried out with a heart as heavy as lead never until to-day had he told his father a deliberate falsehood but matthew dalbrook's searching look had frightened him out of his veracity only six months ago he had solemnly pledged himself to avoid debt and he had broken his promise already and owed eighty guineas for a beast which he could hardly hope to ride to hounds half a dozen times that season he had involved himself for the beast's maintenance also for his father's tables were full and he had been obliged to put this new animal out at livery he began to feel now that he had made a fool of himself that he had been talked into buying a horse for which he had very little use he was jogging along in a low-spirited way when sir henry and his sister came up behind him at a sharp trot whereat mamood gave a buck jump that almost unseated him the black looks a trifle fresh this morning said sir henry you'll take it out of him presently he suits you capitally and he's well up to your weight i was a little bit too heavy for him you'll find him go like old boots miss baldwin flushed with fresh air and exercise looked more than usually brilliant she was particularly amiable too and when harrington complained that he might not be able to give mamood enough work she offered to meet the difficulty send him over to me whenever you don't want him she said cheerily i'll make him handy for you the black gave another buck jump and harrington felt inclined to lay him at her feet there and then

Starting point is 05:53:23 it was only the remembrance of that horrid slip of stamped paper which had doubtless already been turned into cash by sir henry which restrained him he made up his mind to send mamud to tattersaws at the end of the hunting season to be sold without reserve juliet was riding a thoroughbred of which he had restrained him he made up his mind to send mamud to tattersaws at the end of the hunting season to be sold without reserve juliet was riding a thoroughbed of which he was she was particularly fond and was in very high spirits during the earlier part of the day, and in her lively society, Harrington forgot the stamped paper and gradually got on good terms with his horse. Mammud had indeed no fault but age. He knew a great deal better how to keep near the hounds than his new master, and promised to be a valuable acquisition. Harrington felt that he was distinguishing himself. The black suits you down to the ground, shouted Sir Henry in the middle of a run. as he bucketed past his friend upon a pulling chestnut that had no respect for anybody,

Starting point is 05:54:15 but clove his way through the ruck of riders like a battering ram. Sir Henry boasted of this animal that he never kicked a hound. Small thanks to him, said the master, for he kicks everything else. Hounds are not good enough for him. He nearly smashed my leg last Monday. Harrington and Juliet did a good deal of quiet flirtation while the hounds were drawing a spinny rather late in the day, after a very good run and a kill. He told her all about the change in his position

Starting point is 05:54:44 and that he was to be his father's partner after a very short apprenticeship to the law. And you will live in Dorchester all your life, said Juliet, with an involuntary disgust. Not if I can help it. I don't mean to vegetate in a dead-alive provincial town. My father has a London connection already and all his business wants is a little new blood.

Starting point is 05:55:06 I hope to start chambers in Lincoln's Inn fields before I am many years older. And if I should marry, he continued faltering a little. I could afford to have a house in the West End. Mayfair, or Belgravia, for instance. Let it be Mayfair, I beg, for your wife's sake, whoever she may be, exclaimed Juliet lightly.

Starting point is 05:55:28 A small house in Belgravia is an abomination. There is an atmosphere of invincible dreariness throughout that district, which can only be redeemed by wealth and splendor. Perhaps it is because of the places on a level with Milbank. There is a flavor of the prison in the very air. Now in Curzon or Hertford Street one breezed the air of the park in Piccadilly, and one could exist in a bandbox. But really now Harrington, choking apart, is it not rather

Starting point is 05:55:55 wild in a young man like you? Not out of paternal leading strings to talk about marriage and housekeeping? One can't help thinking of the future. Besides, I am not so very young, I am four-and-twenty. Juliet laughed a short, cynical laugh, which ended in a sigh. She wondered whether he knew that she was three years older. Brothers are such traitors. I am four-and-twenty, and I feel that it is in me to succeed,

Starting point is 05:56:20 concluded Harrington, with a comfortable vanity which he mistook for the self-confidence of genius. The hounds drew blank and the riders jogged homewards presently, by Lane and Common, Sir Henry keeping in front with one of his particular friends, and talking horse-flesh all the way, while Juliet and Harrington followed slowly side by side in earnest conversation. He told her the history of his doubts about which she did not care two-pence, his phases of faith and feeling, as he expressed it alliteratively.

Starting point is 05:56:50 All she wanted to know was about his prospects, whether his father was as well off as he was said to be. She had heard people talk of him as a very rich man, those officious people who are always calculating other people's incomes, and discanting upon the little their neighbors spend. and the much that they must contrive to save. Juliet had heard a good deal of this kind of talk about Matthew Dalbrook, whose unpretentious and somewhat old-fashioned style of living gave an impression of reserved force, wealth invested and accumulating for a smarter generation.

Starting point is 05:57:21 After all, perhaps this young man, whose adoration was obvious, might not be a despicable party. He might be pretty well off by and by, with a fourth or better than a fourth, share of Matthew Dalbrook's scrapings, and he was Lord Chariton's cousin, and therefore could hardly be called a nobody. Moved by these considerations, gravely weighed in the grave and gray November dusk, as they rode slowly between tall hedges, leafy still, but sear and red with the frost, Juliet felt inclined to let herself be engaged to her legal lover.

Starting point is 05:57:54 She had been engaged to several people since she danced at her first ball. The bond did not count for very much in her mind. One could always slip out of that kind of thing if it became, inconvenient. One could manage with such tact that the man himself cried off if one were afraid of being denounced as a jilt. Juliet and her lovers had always parted friends, and she wore more than one half-hoop of sapphires or of brilliance which had once played a solemn part as her engagement ring, but which had lapsed into a souvenir of friendship. She was not so foolish as to hasten matters. She wanted to see her way before her, and she opposed Harrington's youthful ardor with the calm

Starting point is 05:58:33 Savois-Fare of seven-and-twenty. She called him a foolish boy and declared that they must cease to be friends if he insisted upon talking nonsense. She would have to accept a very urgent invitation to Lady Balgawny Briggs Castle in Scotland, which she had been fencing with for years

Starting point is 05:58:50 if he made it difficult for them to meet. She threw him into a state of abject alarm by the stupendous threat. I won't say a word you can take objection to, he protested, though I can't think why you should object. "'You forget that I have to study other people's ideas as well as my own,' she answered gently. "'I hope you won't be offended if I tell you that my mother would never speak to me again if I were engaged to you.'

Starting point is 05:59:15 "'No doubt Lady Baldwin has higher views,' the young man said meekly. "'Much higher views. My poor mother belongs to the old school. She cannot forget that her grandfather was a marquis. It is foolish, but I suppose it is human nature.' don't let us talk any more about this nonsense i like you very much as my brother's friend and i shall go on liking you if you don't make me unhappy by talking nonsense harrington took comfort from that one word unhappy it implied depths of feeling beneath that fashionable manner which held him at arm's length his spirits were somewhat dashed presently when miss baldwin looked with friendly contemptuousness at his neat heather mixture coat and mud-stained white cords and said care It's a pity you don't belong to the hunt. I fancy you would look rather nice in pink. I have so lately given up the idea of the church, he faltered.

Starting point is 06:00:14 Yes, but now you have given it up. You ought to be a member of the hunt. Let my brother put you up at the next meeting. You are pretty sure of being elected, and then you can order your pink swallow-tail coat in time for the huntfall in December. Harrington shivered. That would mean two redsion,

Starting point is 06:00:31 coats, a hunting coat and a dancing coat. But this idea of 20 pounds laid out upon coats was not the worst. Twenty years ago, when he had ridden as hard and kept as good horses as any member of the hunt, Matthew Dalbrook had resolutely declined the honor of membership. He had considered that a provincial solicitor had other work than ride to hounds twice or three times a week. He might allow himself that pleasure now and again as an occasional relaxation in a hard-working professional life, but it was not for him to spend long days tearing about the country with the men of whose lands and interests he was in some wise custodian theodore who was at heart much more of a sportsman than his younger brother had respected his father's old-fashioned prejudices whatever line they took and he had never allowed his name to be put up for the hunt he had subscribed liberally to the fund for contingent expenses as his father and grandfather had done before him but he had been content to forego the glory of a scarlet coat and the privilege of the hunt button Harrington was not strong in that chief virtue of man, moral courage, the modern and loftier

Starting point is 06:01:37 equivalent for that brute courage which was the Romans only idea of virtue. He felt that to acknowledge himself afraid to put up for election into the sacred circle of the hunt, lest he should offend his father, was to own by implication that a solicitor was not quite upon the social level of landed gentry and retired military men, the colonels and majors who form the chief ornament of the average hunt club. he murmured something to the effect that his father was not sporting and wouldn't like him to waste too much time riding to hounds what does that matter exclaimed juliet you needn't go out any oftener because you are a member of the hunt there are men who appear scarcely half a dozen times in a season men who have left the neighbourhood and only come down for a run now and then for old's sake's sake i'll think it over faltered harrington don't say anything to sir henry about it just yet as you please but i shan't dance with you at the ball if you wear a black coat said juliet giving her bridle a sharp little shake and trotting forward to join her brother mamud discomposed by that sudden start gave a shambling elderly shy

Starting point is 06:02:43 harrington pulled him up into a walk and rode sulkily on and allowed the other three riders to melt from him in the shades of the evening yes she was beautiful exceedingly and it would be promotion for a country solicitor to be engaged to a girl of such high standing but he felt that that his relations with her were hedged round with difficulty. She was expensive herself and a cause of expense in others. She had spent the brightest years of her girlhood in visiting in country houses, where everything was on a grander scale than at the Mount. She had escaped from the barrenness of home to the mansions of noblemen and millionaires. She had strained all her energies towards one aim, to be popular, and to be asked to good houses. She had run the gauntlet of most of the best smoke-rooms in the three kingdoms,

Starting point is 06:03:30 and had been talked about everywhere as the handsome Miss Baldwin. Yet her 27th birthday had sounded, and she was Miss Baldwin still. Half a dozen times she had fancied herself upon the eve of great success, such a marriage as would at once exalt her to the pinnacle of social distinction, and at the last moment, as it seemed, the man had changed his mind. Some malicious mother of ugly daughters, or disappointed spinster, had told the eligible suitor things about Miss Baldwin, harmless little deviations from the rigid lines of maidenly etiquette,

Starting point is 06:04:02 and the suitor had cried off, fearing in his own succinct speech that he was going to be had. At seven-and-twenty, damaged by the reputation of failure, spoken of by the initiated as, That handsome girl Maltravers so nearly married, don't you know? Miss Baldwin felt that all hope of a great match was over. The funeral bell of ambition had told. She began to grow reckless, eat her dinner and took her dinner, and took her dry champagne with a masculine gusto, smoked as many cigarettes as a secretary of legation,

Starting point is 06:04:34 read all the new French novels, and talked about them unreservedly with her partners, was keen upon racing, and loved Euker and Knapp. She had half made up her mind to throw herself away upon the first wealthy cotton spinner she might meet up in the north when she allowed herself to be touched by Harrington-Dahlbrook's somewhat boyish devotion, and began to wonder whether it might not be well for her to end her checkered career by a love-match. He was good-looking, much better educated than her brother

Starting point is 06:05:02 and her brother set, and he adored her. But, on the other hand, he was utterly without any claims to be considered smart, and marriage with him would mean at best bread and cheese, or would at least mean nothing better than bread and cheese until they should both be middle-aged, and she should have lost all

Starting point is 06:05:18 semblance of a waste. She had met solicitor's wives in society who wore diamonds, and who her hurried away from evening parties because they were afraid of their horses catching cold, a carefulness which to her mind implied that horses were a novelty. She had even heard of solicitors making big fortunes, but she concluded that those were exceptional men, and she did not see in Harrington's character the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice.

Starting point is 06:05:45 Moved by these mixed feelings, she allowed her lover to dangle in a state of uncertainty, and to spend all his spare cash upon those airy nothings which a young lady of Miss Baldwin's easy temper will accept from even a casual admirer. He knew the glover whose glove she approved, and she occasionally told him the color of a gown in advance, so that he might give her a suitable fan, and she had, furthermore, an offhand way of mentioning any songs or new French novels she fancied.

Starting point is 06:06:13 How very sweet of you, she would say, when the songs of the books appeared. But it is really too bad. I must never mention anything I want in your hearing. In spite of which wise remark, the volatile damsel went on mentioning things and being surprised when her wishes were gratified. Miss Baldwin had met Lady Chariton and her daughter both in town and country, and she and her people had been invited to garden parties at Chariton Chase, but there had been no intimacy

Starting point is 06:06:40 between the families. Lady Charitin shrank with an inward terror from a young lady of such advanced opinions as those which drop like pearls and diamonds, or like toads and adders, according to the idea of her hearers from Miss Baldwin's lips. Rumors of the young man's infatuation had been conveyed to the priory by Lady Jane, and Harrington, having gone to a family dinner at Millbrook, was severely interrogated by his cousin. "'I hope there is no truth in what I have heard about you, Harry,' she said confidentially, when he was sitting by her in her favorite corner within the shadow of the tall screen.

Starting point is 06:07:15 "'I cannot answer that question until you tell me what you have heard,' he replied with offended dignity. Something that would make me very unhappy if it were true. I was told you were getting entangled with that Miss Baldwin. I don't know why you should lay such an offensive emphasis upon the demonstrative pronoun. Miss Baldwin is beautiful and accomplished, and I am very proud of being attached to her. Has it gone so far as that, Harry? Are you actually engaged to her? I am not actually engaged. She has a right to look a good deal higher, but I hope to make her my wife as soon as I am in a position to marry. She has given me so much encouragement

Starting point is 06:07:54 that I don't think she will refuse me when the right time comes. But my dear boy, she is always giving encouragement, exclaimed Juanita anxiously. Dear little Lucy Grenville was at the piano at the other end of the room playing an infantile arrangement of Batty Batty,

Starting point is 06:08:11 with fingers of iron, while mother and grandmother hung over her enraptured, and while the rest of the family party talked their loudest, so the cousins in the nook by the fire were not afraid of being overheard. She is the most encouraging young lady I ever heard of. She has jilted and been jilted a dozen times, I believe.

Starting point is 06:08:29 You believe, echoed Harrington with intense indignation. I wonder that a girl of your good sense in most things can give heed to such idle gossip. Do you mean to say that she has not been jilted? Certainly not. I admit that her name has been associated with names of men in society. silly. Silly people who write for the papers have given out things about her. She was to marry Lord Welbeck, Sir Humphrey Random, Heaven knows whom. Her girl can't stay at big houses and be admired as she has been without all manner of reports getting about.

Starting point is 06:09:04 But she is heartily sick of that kind of life, an endless web of unmeaning gaieties. That is what she herself called it. She will be very glad to settle down to a refined, quiet life, say, at the west end of London, with the Victoria. and a broom and a small house but to thee furnished. One can furnish so prettily and so cheaply nowadays, concluded Harrington, with his mind's eye upon certain illustrated advertisements he had seen of late, Jacoby and dining-rooms,

Starting point is 06:09:31 Sheraton drawing-rooms, for a mere song. I have heard people say that a reformed rake makes a good husband, said Juanita gravely, but I have never heard that a reformed flirt makes a good wife. It is a shame to talk like that, Juanita. Every handsome girl is more or less flirt she can't help flirting men insist upon flirting with her does your father know you mean to marry miss Baldwin no I have never mentioned marriage to him that will come in

Starting point is 06:10:00 good time and do you think he will approve I don't know he is full of old-fashioned prejudices but I don't see how he can object to my marrying into one of the county families don't you think it will be more like miss Baldwin marrying out of one of the county families. I'm afraid, from what I know of her brother and of old lady Baldwin, they would both want her to marry money. I suppose they have wanted that for the last four or five years, answered Harrington, but it has not come off, and they must be satisfied if she chooses to marry for love.

Starting point is 06:10:33 Well, I mustn't plague you any more, Harry. I see your heart is too deeply involved. I hope Miss Baldwin is a nicer girl than I have ever thought her. Girls are sometimes prejudiced against each other. "'Occasionally,' said Harrington with satirical emphasis. Lucy finished Batty-Batti with a final chord in the bass, and a final twirl in the treble, and was pronounced by her grandmother to have achieved wonders. Her time is a little uncertain, her mother remarked modestly, but she has a magnificent ear.

Starting point is 06:11:06 You should see her run to the window when there is an organ in the street. "'Yes, mother,' cried Johnny, but she never stays to listen unless there is a monkey on the top. december came and the hunt ball at which more than one of miss baldwin's discarded or discarding admirers were present the young lady looked very handsome in white satin and gauze without a vestige of colour about her costume and with her bodice cut with an audacity which is the peculiar privilege of dressmakers who live south of oxford street the white gown set off miss baldwin's brilliant colouring and looked well against the pink coats of her partners harrington's dress suit had been a thing of beauty and a joy to him when it came home from his london tailors folded as no human hands could ever fold it again enshrined in layers of tissue paper his sisters had helped to unpack the tailor's parcel and had exclaimed at the extravagance of the corded silk lapels and the satin sleeve lining and he had himself deemed that the archetypal coat could scarcely be more beautiful yet in this lurid ball-room he felt ashamed of his modest black twilled kersomere and the insignificance of his white tie the fox-hunter seemed to him to have it all their own way miss baldwin however was not unkind she danced with him oftener than with anyone else, especially after supper, when she became unconscious and forgetful as

Starting point is 06:12:29 to her engagements, and when her card was found to hold twice as many names as there were dances, together with a pencil sketch of a lobster, waltzing with a champagne bottle supplied by an unknown hand. It was a cold, clear night, and youth and imprudence were going in couples to the garden behind the ballroom for coolness between the dances, and to look at the frosty stars, which in the enthusiasm of girlhood were accepted as a novelty. Harrington and Juliette were among those who ventured into the garden, the lady wrapped in a great white fur cloak, which made her look like a haystack in a snowpiece. Poor Doriscoat brought me this polar bear skin, she said. He shot the bear himself at the risk

Starting point is 06:13:09 of his life. I had asked him to bring me a skin when he came home. You asked him to give you something for which he must risk his life, and yet you make a great fuss at accepting Dode's last novel from me, said Harrington with tender reproachfulness. Ah, but you and Doris Court are so different, exclaimed Juliet rather contemptuously. He was a great daredevil who would have come down hand over hand on a rope from the moon if there had been any way of getting up there. What has become of him? Dead. He died a year ago, of drink, I'm afraid, lung complaint, complicated with Deltrem, poor fellow. She breathed a deep sigh with that

Starting point is 06:13:50 little pence of air which in a young lady of experience is as much as to say, he is the only man I ever loved. And then she turned the conversation and talked of the supper and the champagne, which she sweepingly condemned. Harrington hated that talk about the supper. He would have preferred talking of the stars like a schoolgirl, or Claude Melnot, wondering what stars should be our home when love becomes immortal. To be told that the wine which now glowed in his veins and intensified his passion was not worth three and sixpence a bottle jarred upon his finer feelings. You are such a cynic, he said.

Starting point is 06:14:26 I think I shall never get any nearer to your real self, for I know there is a heart under that mocking vein. And then he repeated his simple story of a humble, devoted love. Humble, because the woman he loved was the loveliest among all womankind, and because she occupied a higher plane than that on which his youth had been spent. But you have taught me what ambition means, he said. only promised to be my wife, and you shall see that I am in earnest, that it is in me to succeed.

Starting point is 06:14:55 She had long been wavering, touched by his truthfulness, his boyish devotion, very weary of life at the mount, where the mother scolded and the sister sneered, where the underfed and underpaid servants were frankly disobliging, where her brother rarely saw his womankind except at meals, which periods of family life he enlivened by a good deal of strong language, grumbling at the cookery, and that the deterioration of land at profit. in general and his own in particular the rest of his home life he spent in the billiard-room or the stables since he found the society of the saddle-room more congenial than the dreariness of the drawing-room where his mother and sisters were not always on speaking terms from such a house as the mount goodly and fair to look upon without as many other whited sepulchres any escape would be welcome juliet felt that she was a great deal too good for her young man of uncertain prospects and humdrum surroundings but it was a great deal too good for her young man of uncertain prospects and humdrum's surroundings but he was very much in love, and he was good-looking, and, in her own particular phraseology,

Starting point is 06:15:54 she was beginning to be rather weak about him. She was so weak that she let him hold her unresisting hand as they stood side by side in the garden, and devour it with kisses. You certainly ought to do well in the world, she said sweetly, for you are the most persistent person I ever knew. He looked round, saw that they were alone in the garden, and clasped her in his arms, polar bear and all, and kiss the unresisting lips as he had kissed the unresisting hand. My dearest, he exclaimed,

Starting point is 06:16:25 that means for life, does it not? You are taking everything for granted, she said, but I suppose it must be so. Only, remember, I don't want our engagement talked about till you are in a more assured position. My mother would make home a hell upon earth if she knew. I will do nothing, Rash, nothing that you do not approve. replied harrington considerably relieved by this injunction for although it was not matthew dalbrook's habit to make a pandemonium of the family circle harrington feared that he would strongly disapprove of such an alliance as that which his younger son had chosen for himself

Starting point is 06:17:01 he welcomed the idea of delay hoping to be more firmly seated at the office desk before he must needs make the unpleasing avowal when my father finds i am valuable to him he will be more inclined to indulgence he thought End of Chapter 14. Volume 1, Chapter 15 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 15 For men have marble, women wax and minds, and therefore are they formed as marble will. The weak oppressed, the impression of strange kinds is formed in them by force, by fraud, or skill. Then call them not the authors of their ill. inclination would have taken Theodore Dalbrook to Dorsetcher before the Christmas holidays gave him an excuse for going home,

Starting point is 06:17:56 but he wrestled with that haunting desire to revisit the priory and to begin again Taita Tate with his cousin in the dimly lighted room where she had talked to him of her own sorrows and of his ambitions. The memory of that last evening was the most vivid element in his life. It stood out like a spot of light against the doll gray of monotonous days and the burden of dry as dust reading. but he had told her that he should not see her until Christmas time, and he was not weak enough to indulge that insane longing for the society of a woman whose heart was in the grave of her husband. November and the greater part of December stretched before him, like a long, dark road which had to be trodden somehow before he came to the inn at which there would be light and comfort,

Starting point is 06:18:38 cheerful voices and friendly greetings. He set his face resolutely towards that dark prospect and tramped along, doing the work he had to do, living the life of life of a hermit in those chambers in ferret court, which had already taken the stamp of his own character, and looked as if he had lived in them for years. He had no need to sit alone at night with his books and his lamp, for there were plenty of houses in which he would have been welcome. His name was a passport in legal circles. Old friends of James Dalbrooks were ready to welcome his kinsmen to their tables, eager to be of service to him. He had his college friends, too,

Starting point is 06:19:13 in the great city, and need not have been companionless. But he was, was not in the mood for society of any kind, old or young, except the society of Blackstone, Coke and Justinian, and diverse other sages who out of the dim pass shed their light upon the legal wilderness of the present. He sat by his fire and read law, and laid down his book only to smoke his meditative pipe, and indulge in foolish waking dreams about that grave old house in Dorsetshire and the young widow who lived there. He had followed two of those three children of the old squire, two out of the three faces in the picture in the hall at Chariton to the end of their story.

Starting point is 06:19:49 No man could discover any postscript to that story, which in each case was closed by a grave. There remained only one last unfinished record. The history of the runaway wife, the end whereof, was open to doubt. That unlucky lady's fate had been accepted upon hearsay. It had been said that she had died at Boulogne within a year or so after the vicar met her there. Upon his return from Jersey, Theodore wrote to his father's oldest and most experienced clerk, begging him to hunt up the evidence of mrs darcy's death so far as it was obtainable at chariton or in the neighbourhood the clerk replied as follows after an interval of ten days dear sir i have been twice to chariton and have made inquiries cautiously as you wished with respect to the report of mrs darcy's death some fifteen years ago and saw mr dolby the doctor and gastra the general shop who as you are no doubt aware is a gentleman who busies himself a good deal about other people's affairs and sets himself up for being an authority

Starting point is 06:20:46 upon most things. Mr. Dolby I found very vague in his ideas. He remembered the late vicar telling him about having met Mrs. Darcy in the marketplace at Boulogne and being shocked at the change in her. He told Mr. Dolby that he did not think she was long for this world, but it was some time after when Dolby heard someone, he could not remember who it was, assert that Mrs. Darcy was dead. Gaster had much more to say upon the subject. He pretends to be interested in all reminiscences of the Strangways. and boast of having served Chariton House for nearly forty years. He remembers Evelyn Staringway when she was a little girl, handsome and high-spirited.

Starting point is 06:21:25 He remembered the report of her death at Boulogne getting about the village, and he remembered mentioning the fact to Lord Chariton at the time. There was an election going on just then, and his lordship had looked in to consult him, Joseph Gaster, about certain business details, and his lordship seemed shocked to hear of the poor lady's death. I suppose that is the end of the family, my lord. Gaster said, and his lordship replied, Yes, that is the end of the strangways.

Starting point is 06:21:52 Gaster believes that he must have read of the death in the newspapers, perhaps copied from the Times into a local paper. At any rate, the fact had implanted itself in his mind, and it never occurred to him to doubt it. I asked him if he knew what had become of the lady's husband, but here his mind is a blank. He had heard that the man was a scamp, and that was all he knew about him.

Starting point is 06:22:13 Since making these inquiries, I have spent a long evening at the literary insoling. where as you know there is a set of the times in volumes extending over a period of forty years i have looked through the deaths for three years taking the year in which gaster thinks he heard of mrs darcy's death as the middle year out of three but without result it is of course unlikely that the death would be advertised if the poor lady died friendless and in poverty in a foreign town but i thought it my duty to make this investigation awaiting your further commands etc etc there was nothing concluding in this, and Theodore felt that the history of Mrs. Darcy's later years remained to be unraveled. It was not to be supposed that the runaway wife, who, if she were yet living, must be an elderly woman, could have had an act or part in the murder of Sir Godfrey Carmichael, but it was not the less a part of his task to trace her story to its final chapter.

Starting point is 06:23:06 Then only could he convince Juanita of the wildness of that idea which connected the catastrophe of the 29th of July with the exiled Strangways. When he could say to her, You see that long before that fatal night the squire's three children had vanished from this earth, she would be constrained to confess that the solution of the mystery was not to be sought here. He went over to Boulog, saw the English chaplain and several of the hotel keepers. He explored the cemetery and examined the record of the dead. He visited the police and he made friends with the elderly editor of an old established newspaper, but from all his questioning of various people the result was blank.

Starting point is 06:23:43 nobody remembered a mrs darcy an englishwoman of distinguished appearance but fallen fortunes a woman long past youth and yet not old if she had lived for any time in boulogne she had left no trace of her existence if she had died and been buried there she had left no record among the graves boulogne could tell him nothing he came back to the great wilderness of london the rallying point for all wanderers it was there perhaps that the end of evelyn strangway was to be sought he had as it seemed to him only one clue the name of her governess the governess was only seven or eight years older than the pupil and she might have survived her pupil and might have been in communication with her till the end jasper blake had told him that there was a strong attachment between sarah newton and the way weird girl she taught. To hunt for a governess among the thousands of portionless gentlewoman who try to live by teaching might seem more hopeless than the proverbial search for the lost needle, but Theodore did not despair. If Miss Newton had remained a spinster and had continued to exercise her vocation as a teacher, she might be traced through one of those agencies which transact business between governess and employer. But on the other hand, if, as was more likely,

Starting point is 06:24:56 she had long ago abandoned the profession of teacher and had made some obscure marriage, she would have sunk into the vast ocean of middle-class life, in whose depths it would be almost impossible to discover her. The first thing to be done was to make a visitation of the agencies, and this task Theodore began two days after his return from Boulogne. He had methodized his life by this time, devoting a certain portion of his days to his cousin's interests, but in no wise neglecting the work he had to do for his own advancement.

Starting point is 06:25:24 He had known too many instances of men who had made reading law an excuse for an idle and desultory life, and he was resolved that his own course should be steady and persistent even to doggedness. He had been told that success at the bar was nowadays almost unattainable, that the men of the day who had conquered fame and were making great fortunes were in a manner miraculous men, and that it was futile for any young man to hope to follow in their steps. The road they had trod and was barred against the newcomer. theodore listened to these pessimists yet was not discouraged he had told himself that he would emerge somehow from the obscurity of a country solicitor's practice would bring himself in some wise nearer the social level of the woman he loved so that if in the days to come one gleam of hope should ever shine upon that love he might be able to say to her my place in life is the place your father held when he offered himself to your mother my determination to conquer fortune is not less than his he seldom passed the dingy door of the ground-floor chambers on which the several names of three briefless ones were painted in dirty letters that had once been white

Starting point is 06:26:30 Without thinking of his fortunate kinsman, without wondering what his life had been like in those darksome rooms, and in what shape fortune had first appeared to him. He had not married until he was forty. Long and lonely years had gone before that golden summer-tide of his life, when a young and lovely woman had given him happiness and fortune. How had he lived in those lonely years? Tradition accused him of miserly habits, of shabby raiment, of patient grinding and scraping to accumulate wealth.

Starting point is 06:26:59 Theodore knew that if he had hoarded his earnings it had been for a worthy end. He had set himself to win a place among the lords of the soil. The land he loved had been to him as a mistress, and for that he had been content to live poorly and spend his nights in toil. For such miserliness, Theodore had nothing but admiration, for he had seen how liberally the man who had scraped and hoarded was able to administer a large income, how generous as a master, friend, and patron, the sometime miser had shown himself.

Starting point is 06:27:29 He spent more than a week in visiting the numerous agencies which are employed by the great governess class, and the result of that painstaking exploration was not altogether barren. He succeeded in finding an elderly personage at the head of an old established agency, who kept her books with praiseworthy regularity and who remembered Sarah Newton. She had had no less than four Miss Newton's on her register at different times, but there was only one Sarah Newton among them, and for this lady she had obtained a situation in the lake country so late that. as July 20th, 1873, that is to say, about 11 years before the period of Theodore's investigation.

Starting point is 06:28:07 On that date, Miss Newton had entered the family of a Mr. Craven, the vicar of a small parish between Amble Side and Bonas. She was living in that family four years afterwards when Miss Palmer, the principal in the agency, last heard of her. And in all probability she is living there still, said Miss Palmer. At her time of life, people are not fond of change. i remember her when she was a young woman full of energy and very impatient of control i used to see her much oftener then she seldom kept a situation over a twelvemonth except a charitin chase she was more than a year in that situation i think charitin chase i don't remember the name some one else may have got her the situation how long ago was she there do you suppose asked miss palmer turning over one of her neat basal bound registers. It was in the year 47 she left Chariton. Ah, then, it was not we who got her the situation. My first entry about her is on the 11th December 48. She paid her entrance fee of one

Starting point is 06:29:15 guinea on that date. It is higher than that of inferior agencies, but we take real trouble for our clients, and we make it our business to be safe upon the point of character. We are as careful about the families into which we send governesses as about the governesses we introduced to families. The next day was Sunday, and Theodore employed that day of rest in traveling by a very slow train to Bonus, where he arrived at five o'clock in the evening to find mountain and lake hidden in the densest gray, and an innkeeper who seemed neither to desire nor deserve visitors. Happily, the traveler was of the age at which dinner is not a vital question, and he was hardly aware of the toughness of the steak, or the inferior quality of the codfish set before him

Starting point is 06:29:59 in the desolate coffee room. He had a diamond virgil in his pocket, and he sat by the fire, reading the sixth book by the paraffin lap till ten o'clock, and then went contentedly to a bedroom which suggested ghosts, or at least nightmare. No deadly visions troubled him, however, for the slow train had brought about a condition of abject weariness which resulted in dreamless slumber. The sun shone into his bleak bedchamber when he awoke next morning, and the lake stretched beneath his windows, silver-shining, melting dimly into the gray of the opposite chore. The rugged mountains were sulking still, and only showed their rugged crests above dark rolling clouds. But the scene was an improvement upon the avenue

Starting point is 06:30:38 of chimney-pots and distant glimpse of a murky Thames as seen from the ferret court. His landlord greeted him in a more cheerful spirit upon Monday morning than he had evinced on Sunday evening when his after-dinner lethargy was rudely disturbed by a guest whose business-like air and small Gladstone bag did not promise much profit. A visitor who would want a dinner off the joint most likely in a half-ground breakfast, a visitor whose libations would be limited to bitter beer and an occasional whiskey and soda. Such a guest in a house that was beginning to hibernate was a burden rather than a boon. This morning, however, the landlord was reconciled to his solitary customer, having told his wife

Starting point is 06:31:17 that, after all, little fish are sweet, and he went blithely to order the dog-cart, his own cart and own man, Osler in the season, coachman or anything you please out of the season, to drive Mr. Dalbrook to get a sferred vicarage, a nine-mile journey. It was a pretty out-of-the-way nook, half-hidden in a cleft of the hills, at which Theodore arrived a few minutes afternoon, a little, old-fashioned world-forgotten village, and a sprawling old grey-stone house covered with Virginia creeper, passion-flower, and the feathery leafage of the trumpet-ash, a long, low-house, with heavily-thatched roof projecting over its upper casements. a sleepy-looking old house in a still sleepier garden so remote and so sheltered that winter had forgotten to come there and the great yellow roses were still blooming on the wall fattened by the misty atmosphere of the adjacent lake glorified by the untainted air

Starting point is 06:32:07 november was half over yet here the only signs of autumn were the gray sky and the crimson of the virginia creeper the vicar of ketisford was one of those privileged persons who can speak with their enemies at the gate assured of being backed up in their speech by a family content the vicarage seemed overflowing with young life from the very threshold of the hall where cricket-bats a tricycle a row of well-used tennis rackets a stupendous array of hats overcoats and comforters testified to that quiverful so esteemed in the patriarchal age a conscientious performer was pounding at the harmonious blacksmith upon a wiry piano near at hand having left the door wide open with the indecent disregard of other people peculiar to juvenile performers upon all kinds of instruments. From the other side of the hall came the twanging of an equally wiry guitar, upon which girlish fingers began and forever recommenced a Spanish melody, which the performer was striving to attain by that agonizing process known among young ladies as picking up an air. Mark, gentle reader, what the learned and Reverend Hawass has to say upon this art of playing by ear. From a remoter room came young voices in young laughter, and amidst all these sounds it was

Starting point is 06:33:22 hardly surprising that Mr. Dalbrook had to ring three times, and to wait in front of the open hall door for at least ten minutes, before an elderly housemaid responded to his summons and ushered him into the vicar's study, the one room in the vicarage which was ever fit to receive a visitor. The vicar was reading a newspaper in front of a comfortable fire. He was an elderly man, of genial and even jovial aspect, and he received Mr. Dalbrook's apologetic account of himself and his business with perfect good-humor. Ah, you want to see Miss Newton, my dear, sir. I am sorry to tell you she left us nearly two years ago. Hardly sorry for Sarri Newton is a very worthy woman, and a jewel of price in a motherless family like mine, said the vicar.

Starting point is 06:34:05 I regret that you should have come such a long way to find her when, had you written to me. I could have told you where to look for her in London. Yes, it was a mistake to come so far without making preliminary inquiries, only, as she had not applied to her usual agent for a new situation, I concluded that she was still under your roof. She has not gone into a new situation, Mr. Dalbrook. She was too much valued in this house to wish to change to another employment, although she might have lived more luxuriously and done less work elsewhere. She was a mother to my girls.

Starting point is 06:34:38 Aye, and to my boys as well, while she was with us, and she only left us when she made up her mind to live an independent life. She has left off teaching, then, I conclude. Yes. She had a little bit of money left her by a bachelor-uncle, safely invested in railway stock, and yielding about two hundred a year. This, with her own savings, made her an independent woman, and she made up her mind to realize her own ideal of a useful life,

Starting point is 06:35:04 an ideal which had been developing in her mind for a good many years, a life which was to be serviceable to others and yet pleasant to herself. Do you mean that she joined some sisterhood? No, no, Mr. Dalbrook, Sarah Newton is much too fond of her own. own way, much too independent and fiery a spirit, to place herself in a position where other people would think for her, and where she would be obliged to obey. She told me her plan of life very frankly. I have about two hundred and sixty pounds a year, she said. I can live comfortably upon half that money if I live after a plan of my own, and I can do a great deal of good with

Starting point is 06:35:43 the other half if I do it in my own way. I am elderly and plain. If I were to live amongst small gentilities i should be a nobody and in all probability i should be considered a bore i shall take a lodging in a poor neighbourhood furnish my rooms with the utmost comfort treat myself to a good piano and collect my little library book by book from the second-hand booksellers i shall spend half my days in going quietly about the poor young woman of the district i ought to know what girls are after nearly forty years teaching and managing the species and i shall spend half my income in doing as much good to them as I can, in my own unorthodox way. I knew the good that brave little soul had done in this parish in her quiet, unpretentious fashion, and I felt no doubt she would carry out her plan. Have you seen her since she left you? Yes, I went to see her last June when I had a fortnight's holiday in London.

Starting point is 06:36:43 I found her in a shabby old house in Lambeth, not very far from St. Thomas's hospital, but dingy as the house looked outside, our good Sally's apartments with a picture of comfort. I found her as happy as a bird. Her plan of life had answered her highest expectations. My friends are legion, she said, but I haven't a single gentility among them. Sally is a desperate radical you must know.

Starting point is 06:37:10 Will you give me her address that I may write and ask permission to call upon her? You shall have the address, but I doubt if she will feel disposed to receive you, she will count you among the gentilities. I must try my chance at any rate. I want her to throw some light upon the history of one of her earliest pupils. Did you ever hear her talk of Chariton Chase and the Strangway family? My dear sir, I have heard her talk of any number of places at any number of people.

Starting point is 06:37:39 I used to tell her she must be a female Methuselah to have passed through so many experiences. she was very fond of telling stories of the families in which she had lived, but though I used to listen, I remember very little about them. My girls would remember better, I have no doubt. They can give you chapter and verse, I dare say, so the best thing you can do is to eat your luncheon with us, and then you can ask them as many questions as you like. Theodore accepted the offer with gratitude,

Starting point is 06:38:08 and ten minutes afterwards followed the vicar into the dining-room, where three tall good-looking girls and two straggling youths were assembled, and were a fourth girl and another boy dropped in after the rest were seated. The board was spread with a plentious but homely meal. A large dish of Irish stew smoked at one end of the table, and the remains of yesterday's roast ribs of beef appeared at the other. The girls were evidently accustomed to droppers in and received Theodore with perfect equanimity. Alicia, the eldest, carved the beef with a commanding wrist and the third daughter, Laura, administered to his appetite with pickled walnuts and mashed potatoes. The girls were all keenly interested directly he spoke of Miss Newton. They pronounced

Starting point is 06:38:52 her a dear old thing, not a bit like a governess. We all loved her, said Alicia, and we are not the easiest girls to get on with, I can assure you. We have had two poor things since Sally deserted us, and we have driven them both away. And now we are enjoying an interregnum, and we hope that dear father will make it a long one. Did you ever hear your governess talk of the Strangway's, Miss Craven? What? Evelyn Strangway of Chariton Chase? I should think we did indeed, cried Laura.

Starting point is 06:39:23 She had a good many prosy stories, chestnuts, we used to call them, but the Chariton Chase stories were the most chestnutty. It was her first situation, and she was never tired of talking about it. Do you know if she kept up her acquaintance with Miss Strangway in afterlife? asked Theodore. I think no. at any rate she never talked about that she knew something about the poor girl's later life something very bad i think for she never would tell us she used to sigh and look very unhappy

Starting point is 06:39:52 if the subject was touched upon and she used to warn us against runaway matches as if any of us would be likely to run away from this dear old father protested laura leaning over the table to pat the vicar's coat sleeve why he would let us marry chimney sweeps rather than see us unhappy There was a good deal more talk about Sarah Newton, her virtues and her little peculiarities, but nothing bearing upon Theodore's business, so he only stayed till luncheon was finished and then wished the amiable vicar and his family a friendly goodbye, offering to be of use to them in London at any time they might want some small business transacted there, and begging the vicar to look him up at his chambers when he took his next holiday.

Starting point is 06:40:31 "'You may rely upon it, I shall take you at your word,' said the parson cheerily. you've no idea what a gay old dog I am when I am in town, a theatre every night and a little bit of supper afterwards. I generally take one of my lads with me, though, to keep me out of mischief. Goodbye, and mind you don't fall in love with Sally Newton. She's old and ugly, but she's one of the most fascinating women I know. Theodore drove off in the dog-cart with all the Vickritch family at the gate, waving their hands to him, as if he had been an old friend,

Starting point is 06:41:03 and with four Vickritch dogs barking at him. he went back to london that night and wrote to miss newton asking leave to call upon her upon a matter relating to one of her old pupils on the following day he should take silence to mean consent and would be with her at four in the afternoon if he did not receive a telegram to forbid him he worked in his chambers all the morning and at a little after three set out to walk to lambeth the address was fifty-one wedgwood street near the lambeth road it was not a long walk and it was not a pleasant one for a seasonable fog was gathering when Theodore left the temple, and it thickened as he crossed Westminster Bridge, where the newly lighted lamps made faint yellow patches in the dense brown atmosphere. Under these conditions, it took him some time to find Wedgwood Street, and that particular house which had the honor of sheltering Sarah Newton. It was a very shabby old street. The shops were of the meanest order, and the houses, which were not shops, looked as if they were

Starting point is 06:42:00 mostly let off to the struggling class of lodgers, but it was a street that had evidently seen better days, for the houses were large and substantially built, and the doorways had once been handsome and architectural. Houses, which had been the homes of prosperous citizens when Lambeth was out of town, and when the perfume of bean blossom and new-mone hay found its way into Wedgwood Street. The ground floor of No. 51 was occupied by a shoemaker, a shoemaker who had turned his parlor into a shop who made to measure but was not above executing repairs neatly. The front door being open, Theodore walked straight upstairs to the first landing, where there was a neat little Dolton-Ware oil lamp burning on a carved oak bracket, and where he saw Miss Newton's name

Starting point is 06:42:41 painted in bold black letters upon a terracotta-colored door. The stairs were cleaner than they generally are in such a house, and the landing was spotless. He rang a bell, and the door was promptly opened by a lady whom he took to be Miss Newton. She was rather below middle height, strongly built, but of a neat, compact figure. She was the size of a small, sideedly plain, and her iron-grey hair was coarse and wiry, but she had large bright eyes which beamed with good nature and intelligence. Her black-stuffed gown and narrow linen collar, the knot of scarlet ribbon at her throat, and the linen cuffs turned back over perfectly fitting sleeves, were all the pink of neatness, and suited her as no other kind of dress

Starting point is 06:43:22 would have done. The trim figure, the bright eyes, and the small white hands made a favorable impression upon Theodore, in spite of the lady's homeliness of feature and complexion. "'Walk in, Mr. Dalbrook,' she said cheerily. "'Pray come and sit by the fire. You must be chilled to the bone after coming through that horrid fog. Oh, how I hate fog! It is the scourge of the London poor, and it sometimes kills even the rich. And now we are only at the beginning of the evil, and there is the long winter before us.' "'Yes, it is very bad, no doubt.' But you do not look as if the fog would do you much harm, Miss Newton.

Starting point is 06:44:01 No, it won't hurt me. I'm a hearty old plant, and I contrive to make myself comfortable at all seasons. You do, indeed, he answered, glancing around the room. I had no idea. That anybody could be so comfortable in Lambeth, she said, interpreting his thoughts. No, people think they must pay for what they call a good situation. Poor pinched widows and shabby spinsters spend more than half their income. on rent and taxes, and starve on the other half, in order to live in a genteel locality,

Starting point is 06:44:32 some dingy little street in Pimlico, perhaps, or a stucco terrace in Kensington. Here am I, with two fine, large rooms in a forgotten old street, which was built before the age of shoddy. I live among poor people, and am not obliged to sacrifice a sixpence for the sake of appearances. I buy everything in the cheapest market, and my neighbours look up to me, instead of looking down upon me as they might if I lived among gentility. You will say, perhaps, that I live in the midst of dirt and squalor. If I do, I take care that none of it ever comes near me,

Starting point is 06:45:06 and I do all that one woman's voice and one woman's men can do to lessen the evils that I see about me. It would be a good thing for poor neighborhoods if there were many ladies of your mind, Miss Newton, said Theodore, basking in the glow of the fire and looking lazily around the room with its two well-filled bookcases, occupying the recesses on each side of the fireplace, its brackets and shells. and hanging pockets its large old-fashioned sofa and substantial claw-footed table its wicker chairs cushioned with bright color its lamps and candlesticks on shelf and bracket ready to the hand when extra light should be wanted its contrivances and handinesses of all kinds which denoted the womanly inventiveness of the tenant well i believe it would if only a small percentage of the lonely spinsters of england would make their abode among the poor things would have to be mended somehow there could not be

Starting point is 06:45:57 be such crying evils as there are if there were more eyes to see them, and more voices to protest against them. "'You like this old room of mine I see, Mr. Dalbrook?' added Sarah Newton, following his eyes as they surveyed the dark red wall against which the brackets and shelves, hand-books and photographs, and bits of old china stood out in bright relief. "'I am full of admiration and surprise.' "'It is all my own work. I had lived in other people's houses so long that I was charmed to have a home of my

Starting point is 06:46:27 own, even in Lambeth. I was determined to spend very little money, and yet to make myself comfortable. So, I just squatted in the next room for the first three months, with only a bedstead, a table and a chair or two, while I prowled all over London to find the exact furniture I wanted. There's not an article in the room that did not take me weeks to find and to buy, and there's not an article that wasn't a tremendous bargain. But what an egotistical old Prattler I am. women who live much alone get to be dreadful prosers. I won't say another word about myself. At any rate, not till after I've made you a cup of tea after your cold walk.

Starting point is 06:47:06 She had seen the mud upon his boots and guessed that he had walked from the temple. Pray do not take any trouble. Nonsense. It is never trouble to a woman to make tea. I give a tea party twice a week. I hope you like tea. I adore it. But, pray, go on with your account of how you settle down here.

Starting point is 06:47:25 i am warmly interested that's very good of you but there's not much to tell about myself said miss newton producing some pretty old china out of an antique cupboard with glass doors and setting out a little brass tea-tray while she talked there was a small copper kettle singing on the old-fashioned hob and there was a covered dish of toast in the capacious fender miss newton's dinners were ever of the slightest but she was a ciborite as to her tea and toast no cheap and powdery mixture no inferior dosset for her she made her brew with a dainty position which theodore admired while she went on talking do you like the colour of the walls yes i painted them and you like that paper on the ceiling i papered it i am rather a dab at carpentering too and i put up all those shelves and brackets and i covered the chairs and stained the boards round that old turkey carpet and then after a day's hard work It was very pleasant to go and stroll about among the book-shops of an evening, and pick up a volume here and there till I got all my old friends about me. I felt like Alia, only I had no Bridget to share my pleasure. She seated herself opposite to him with a wicker table in front of her

Starting point is 06:48:39 and began to pour out the tea. He wondered to find himself as much at home with her as if he had known her all his life. "'It is very good of you to receive me so cordially,' he said presently. I feel that I come to you as an unauthorized intruder. Can you guess why I was willing to receive you? She asked, looking at him intently and with a sudden gravity. Can you guess why I didn't telegraph to forbid your coming? Indeed, no, except because you are naturally kind.

Starting point is 06:49:10 My kindness had nothing to do with it. I was willing to see you because of your name. It is a very familiar name to me. Dalbrook, the name of the man who bought the house. in which she was born. Poor soul, how she must have hated him in her desolate after years. How she must have hated the race that ousted her from the home she loved. You are talking of Evelyn Strangway?

Starting point is 06:49:35 Yes, she was my first pupil, and I was very fond of her, all the fonder of her perhaps because she was wayward and difficult to manage, and because I was much too young and inexperienced to exercise any authority over her. It is of her I want to talk to you, you will allow me. Certainly. I like talking of those old days when I was a girl. I don't suppose I was particularly happy at Chariton Chase, but I was young, and we most of us had the delusion that we were happy in our youth. Poor Evelyn, so often in disgrace, so often unhappy from the very dawn of girlhood. What reason can you have for being curious about her? I have a very

Starting point is 06:50:18 strong reason, though I cannot explain it yet a while. I have set myself to discover the history of that banished race. After the angel with a flaming sword stood at the gate, that is to say, after Mr. Dodbrook bought the property. By the by, what are you to Lord Chariton? His son, perhaps?

Starting point is 06:50:37 No, I am only a distant cousin. Is it on his account you are making these inquiries? He is not even aware that I am making them. Indeed, and pray how did you find me out? My tea parties are not recorded in the society papers. I have never figured among celebrities at home. I took some pains to find you, said Theodore, and then he told her of his visits to the agencies and his journey to the vicarage in Lakeland. You have taken infinite trouble and for a small result. I can give you very little information about Evelyn Strangway,

Starting point is 06:51:12 afterwards Mrs. Darcy. Did you lose sight of her after you left Chariton? Yes, or a long time. It was years before we met again. But she wrote to me several times from Lausanne during the first year of her banishment, doleful letters, complaining bitterly of her father's cruelty in keeping her away from her beloved charitin, the horses and dogs, the life she loved. School she detested. She was clever, but she had no taste for intellectual pursuits. She soon wearied of the lake and the mountains and the humdrum society of a small town. She wrote of herself as a galley slave. Then came a sudden change and she began to write about him. You don't know the way a girl writes about him. The first hymn she has ever thought

Starting point is 06:51:57 worthy to be written about. Her tone was light enough at the beginning. She had met a young Irishman at a little evening party and they had laughed together at Lausanne's society. He was an officer on furlough, full of wit and fun. I need not go into details. I saw her danger and aunt warned her. I reminded her that her father would never allow her to marry a subaltern in a marching regiment, and that such a marriage would mean starvation. Her father would give her nothing. It was incumbent on her to marry well, and with her attractions she had only to wait for a good offer. It would inevitably come in due time. She was handsome, I suppose. I know her face in the picture at Chariton. My cousin bought all the old portraits. She was much handsomer than the picture.

Starting point is 06:52:45 that was painted when she was only 15, but at 17 her beauty had developed, and she was one of the most brilliant blondes I ever saw. Well, I suppose you know how useless my advice was. She ran away with her Irish admirer, and I heard no more of her for nearly four years, when I met her one afternoon in the Strand, and she took me home to her lodging in Cecil Street and gave me some tea. It was in October, and I stayed with her till dark, and then she insisted on seeing me off in the omnibus to have her stock-haping. where I was then living in an artist's family. The lodgings were shabby and she was shabbily dressed. She was as handsome as ever, but she looked worried and unhappy.

Starting point is 06:53:26 Her husband had sold out of the army and had a position as secretary to a West End club. She told me that she would have been pretty well off but for his extravagance. He was getting four hundred a year and they had no children. She complained that it was her fate to be allied with spendthrift. her father had squandered his fortune, and her husband's improvident habits kept her in continual debt and difficulty. It grieved me to see the shabbiness of her surroundings, the squalid lodging-house parlor, without so much as a bunch of flowers or a stand of books to show that it was in the occupation of a lady. There was a cigar-box on the mantelpiece, and there was a heap of newspapers on the sofa,

Starting point is 06:54:09 and a pair of shabby slippers inside the fender. It was a room to make one shudder. I asked her if she was reconciled to her father, and she said no. She had heard nothing of him since her marriage. I felt very unhappy about her after we parted at Hungerford Market. I saw her standing on the pavement as the omnibus drove away, a tall, slim figure, distinguished looking in spite of her shabby mantle and rusty black silk gown. I had promised to go and see her again, though I was very seldom at liberty at that time,

Starting point is 06:54:41 and I went to Cecil Street two or three times in the course of the winter, but she was always out, and there was something in the tone of her letters that made me think she did not wish to see me again, though I believe she was fond of me always, poor soul. I saw nothing more of her, and heard nothing until nearly four years afterwards when I was spending an afternoon at Richmond with my pupils, two girls of fourteen and sixteen, and I came face to face with her in front of Thompson's seat. She was with a tall, handsome man whom at first I took to be her husband. But there was something in the manner of both of them that impressed me

Starting point is 06:55:15 uncomfortably, and I began to fear that this was not her husband. She looked much brighter than when I saw her in Cecil Street, and she was better dressed, very plainly but in excellent taste. She took me aside a little way while her companion stood and talked to the two girls. She put her arm through mine in her old, caressing way, and then she said abruptly, I almost wonder that you will speak to me. I thought you would cut me. I thought you would cut dead. I looked puzzled, no doubt, so she said. Perhaps you don't know what a lost creature I am. Perhaps you have not heard. I told her I had heard nothing about her since we parted at Hungerford Market, and then she gave a deep sigh and said, Well, I am not going to deceive you.

Starting point is 06:55:59 That, with a jerk of her head towards the man who was standing with his back to us, is not my husband, but he and I are bound together for the rest of our lives, and we are perfectly happy together. Society would scorn us and trample upon us no doubt if we gave it a chance, but we don't. We live out of the world, and we live for one another. Now, aren't you shocked with me? Don't you want to run away?

Starting point is 06:56:24 She asked, with a little laugh, which sounded as if she were very nearly crying. I told her that I was very sorry for her. I could say no more than that. You would be sorry or still if you could picture to yourself the miserable life I let, before I left my husband, she said. I bored for five years, years that seemed an eternity. He cared for me no more than for the flower-girls in the street. He left me to pine in my dingy lodging, left me to be done and worried all day long,

Starting point is 06:56:56 left me out at elbows, ashamed of my own shabbiness, while he amused himself at his club. And then he considered himself cruelly used when he found out there was another man in the world who thought me worth caring for, and that he was. And then I told him I loved that man with all my heart. My leaving him was the impulse of a moment. The moment came when his brutality turned the scale, and I ran out of the house in my despair and jumped into the first cab I could hail and drove away to him, pointing to the man in the distance,

Starting point is 06:57:27 strolling beside my two gawky girls, and to happiness. I am a wicked wretch, no doubt, to be happy under such circumstances, but I am, or, at any rate, as happy as anybody can hope. to be in this world. There is always a thorn among the flowers. She sighed as if the thorn was a big one, I thought. I suppose I shall never see you again, she said. When we say goodbye presently, it will be farewell, forever. I told her that was not inevitable. I was my own mistress, free to choose my friends. I told her that if ever she had need of a friend I would go to her. I felt that I was in some wise answerable for the bad turn her

Starting point is 06:58:09 had taken for had i been a more judicious counsellor i might have guided her better might have prevented her coming into collision with her father i asked her for her address but she told me she had promised to tell nobody where she lived we are living out of the world she said we have no visitors no friends or acquaintance she clasped my hands kissed me and hurried away to rejoin the man whose name i never learned he lifted his hat to me and the girls and they walked away together towards the star and garter leaving us standing by thompson's seat staring idly at the landscape in the summer sunlight i felt days as i stood there looking down into that lovely valley it had been a terrible shock to me to meet her again under such circumstances end of chapter fifteen volume one Chapter 16 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Bratton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 16 Be useful where thou livest,

Starting point is 06:59:16 that they may both want and wish thy pleasing presence still. All worldly joys go less to the one joy of doing kindnesses. What impression did the man make upon you in that brief meeting? asked Theodore. Did he strike you as Elouet? No, that was the odd part of the business.

Starting point is 06:59:36 He had the steady, respectable air for breadwinner, a professional, or perhaps a commercial man. I could not tell which. There was nothing flashy or dissipated in his appearance. He looked me steadily in the face when he bowed to me at parting, and he had a frank, straightforward expression and a grave decision of manner that was not without dignity. He was soberly dressed in a style that attracted no attention. I had no doubt that he was a gentleman. He was handsome, you say?

Starting point is 07:00:05 Yes, he was decidedly handsome, but I can remember only the general character of his face, not features or details, for I saw him only twice in my life. Ah, you saw him again. Once again, some years later, after her death. She is dead, then, cried Theodore, that is the fact I am most anxious to learn

Starting point is 07:00:26 from a reliable source of information. There was a rumor of her death years ago, but no one could give me. me any evidence of the fact. I went to Bellowing last week to try and trace her to her last resting place, but I could discover neither tombstone nor record of any kind. And yet it was that Bellowing she died. I will tell you all I know about her if you like. It doesn't amount to much. Pray, tell me everything you can. I am deeply grateful to you for having treated me with so much frankness. It was on her account I received you. I am glad to talk to anyone who was

Starting point is 07:01:01 interested in her pitiful fate. There were so few to care for her. I think there is no lot more sad than that of a broken-down gentleman's daughter, born to an inheritance she is never to enjoy, brought up to think of herself as a personage with a right to the world's respect, and finding herself friendless and penniless in the bloom of her womanhood, exposed to the world's contumily. Theodore's face flushed a little at this mention of his interest in the unhappy lady, for he could but feel that the interest was of a sinister kind, but he held his peace, and Miss Newton went on with her story. It was ever so many years after that meeting in Richmond Park. I think it must have been nearly ten years, when I ran against that very man upon a windy march day in Folkstone.

Starting point is 07:01:47 I had thought much and often of my poor girl in all those years, wondering how the world had used her, and whether the lover whom she trusted so implicitly had been true to her. I shuddered at the thought of what her fate might have been if he were false. I had never heard a word about her in all that time. I had seen no report of a divorce suit in the papers. I knew absolutely nothing of her history from the hour I parted with her in Thompson's seat till I ran against that man in Folkstone.

Starting point is 07:02:16 I am rather shy about speaking to strangers in a general way, but I was so anxious to know her fate that I stopped this man, whose very name was unknown to me, and asked him to tell me about my poor friend. he looked bewildered as well he might at being pounced upon in that manner i explained that i was evelyn strangway's old governess and that i was uneasy at having lost sight of her for so many years and was very anxious to see her again he looked troubled at my question and he answered me gravely i am sorry to say you will never do that your friend is dead i asked when she died and where he told me within the last month and at boulogne i asked if he was with her at the last month and at boulogne i asked if he was with her at the last and he said no. And then he lifted his hat and muttered something about having very little time to get to the station. He was going to London by the next train, it seemed, and he was evidently anxious to shake me off,

Starting point is 07:03:10 but I was determined he should answer at least one more question. Was her husband with her when she died, I asked. His face darkened at the question, which I suppose was a foolish one. Do you think it likely, he said, trying to move past me, but I laid my hand upon his sleeve in my eagerness. pray tell me that her end was not unhappy and that she was penitent for her sins he looked very angry at this if i stand here talking to you another minute i shall lose my train madam he said and i have important business in london this afternoon a fly came strolling by at this moment he hailed it and jumped in and he drove off into what thomas carlyle would call the immensities i never saw him again i never knew his name or a calling or place of abode or anything about him. I can no more localize him than I can, Gertas Mephistopheles.

Starting point is 07:04:05 God knows how he treated my poor girl, whether he was kind or cruel, whether he was faithful to a dishonorable tie, or whether he held it as lightly as such ties have been held by the majority of men from Abraham downwards. The little woman's face flushed and her eyes filled as she gave vent to her feelings.

Starting point is 07:04:24 And this is all you know of Evelyn Strangway, said Theodore when she had finished. This is all I know of her. And now, tell me why you are so anxious to learn her history, you who can never have seen her face except in the picture a charitin. I dressed her for that picture and sat by while it was painted. I will tell you the motive of my curiosity, answered Theodore. You have treated me so frankly that I feel I must not withhold my confidence from you.

Starting point is 07:04:53 I know that I can rely upon your discretion. I can talk, as you have just heard, said Miss Newton, but I can be as silent as the grave when I like. You must have read something about the murder at Sheraton last July. I read a great deal about it. I took a morbid interest in the case, knowing the house so well in every cranny and corner. I could picture the scene as vividly as if I had seen the murdered man lying there. A most inexplicable murder, apparently motiveless. apparently motiveless. That fact has so preyed upon the widow's mind that she has imagined a motive. She has a strange fancy that one of the Strangways must have been the author of the crime.

Starting point is 07:05:37 She has brooded over their images till her whole mind has become possessed with the idea of one of that banished race, garnering his wrath for long years, until at last the hour came for bloody revenge, and then striking a death blow out of the dark, striking his fatal blow and vent, vanishing from the sight of men as if a phantom arm had been stretched out of the night to deal that blow she has asked me to help her in discovering the murderer and i am pledged to do my utmost towards that end i am the more anxious to do so as i tremble for the consequences if she should be allowed to brood long upon this morbid fancy about the strong ways i think however that with your help i have now laid that ghost i have traced the two brothers to their graves and i suppose we may accept the statement of the man you met at Folkstone as sufficient evidence of Mrs. Darcy's death, especially as it seems to fit in with the account of the then vicar of Chariton, who met her in Boulog in the summer of 64, looking very ill and much-aged. It was in the spring of 65 I met that man at Folkestone. I could find the exact date in

Starting point is 07:06:42 my diary if you wish to be very precise about it, for it is one of my old, madish ways to be very regular in keeping my diary. Poor Evelyn! To think that anyone should be madden. To think that anyone should be mad enough to suspect her of being capable of murder, or Fred or Reginald. They had the Strangway temper, all three of them, and a fiery temper it was when it was roused, a temper that led to family quarrels and all sorts of unhappiness. But murder is a different kind of thing. That is the question, said Theodore gravely. Is there such a wide gulf between the temper that makes family quarrels sets father against

Starting point is 07:07:20 son and brother against brother, and the temper that pulls a trigger or uses a bowie knife. I thought they were one and the same thing in actual quality, and that the result was dependent upon circumstances. Oh, don't talk like that, please. Murder is something exceptional, a hideous solacism in nature, and in this case why murder? What had Sir Gottfrey Carmichael done that any member of the Strangway family should want to kill him. I tell you that the idea is a wild one, the morbid growth of my cousin's sorrow. Of course it is. I am very sorry for her, poor soul. I don't suppose any woman could suffer more

Starting point is 07:07:59 than she must have suffered. It is a dreadful story, and she was very fond of her husband, I dare say. She adored him. They had been lovers almost from her childhood. There never were more devoted bride and bridegroom. Their honeymoon was not even beginning to wane. They were still lovers, still in a state of sweet surprise at finding themselves husband and wife. Poor girl. I saw her the day before the murder, a brilliant creature, the very spirit of joy. I saw her the morning after, a specter with awful eyes and marble face, more dreadful to look upon than her murdered husband. It is all too sad, sighed Miss Newton. I begin to to think that chariton is a fatal house and that no one can be happy there.

Starting point is 07:08:48 However, you can tell this poor lady that the strangways are exonerated for many part in her misery. I shall write to her to-night to that effect. And now, Miss Newton, let me thank you once more for your friendly frankness and wish you good-night. Don't be in such a hurry, Mr. Dalbrook. I like your face, and I should like to see you again some day, if you can find time to waste an hour upon an old maid in such a god-forsaken place as Wedgwood Street. i shall think an hour so spent most delightfully employed answered theodore who was quite subjugated by the charm of this little person and her surroundings he did not remember having ever sat in a room he liked better than this first-floor front in wedgwood street with its terra-cotta walls prettily bound books curious oddments of old china and comfortable curtains of creamy workhouse sheeting with a bold vermilion border worked by sarah newton's indefatigable fingers i should very much like to hear all about your life in this strange neighbourhood he said there is not much to tell when my little fortune left by my uncle the dry-salter fell into me i was a lonely old woman without one surviving relative for whom i cared twopence i was pretty tired of teaching french and german

Starting point is 07:10:01 god knows how many hundred times i must have gone through hollandorf in both languages and i've done him a good many times in italian pard de suen marchet perhaps i might have held on for a year or two longer as i was very fond of those nice girls and boys at kettisford vicarage If it hadn't been for Aldendorf, he decided me. Lila, the youngest girl, had only just begun that accursed book. She was blundering over the baker's golden candlestick. The very morning I got the lawyer's letter to tell me of my uncle's death and the will and the legacy. I snatched the book out of her hand and shut it with a bang. Ain't I to do any more Allendorf, Sally? she asked. You may do as much as you like, my love, I said, but you'll do no more with me.

Starting point is 07:10:47 I'm a millionaire, or at least I feel as rich and independent as if I were a Rothchild. Well, I lay awake all that night making plans for my life, and trying to think out how I could get the most comfort out of my little fortune, enjoy my declining years, have everything I wanted, and yet be of some use to my fellow-creatures. And the end of it was that I made up my mind to take a roomy lodging in a poor neighborhood, where I should not be tempted to spend a penny upon appearances, furnish it after my own heart, and make myself happy in just my own way without caring a straw what anybody thought about me. I knew that I was plain as well as elderly, that I could never be admired or cut a figure in the genteel world, so I determined to renounce the

Starting point is 07:11:30 gentilities altogether, and to be looked up to in a little world of my own. And you have found your plan answer? It has answered beyond my hopes. Ever since I was thirty years of age and had finished with all young ideas and daydreams, I had one particular ideal of earthly bliss, and that was the position of a country squire's wife, an energetic, active, well-meaning woman, the central figure in a rural village, having her model cottages and her allotment gardens, her infirmary, her mission house, the good genius of her little community, a queen in miniature, and without political entanglements, or menace of foreign war. Now it could never be my lot to reign on a landed estate to build cottages.

Starting point is 07:12:13 or cut up fertile meadows for cottagers' gardens. But I thought, by taking up my abode in a poor neighborhood and visiting in a friendly, familiar way, no tracks or preachings, among the most respectable of the inhabitants, and, slowly feeling my way among the difficult subjects, I might gradually acquire an influence just as strong as that of the Lady Bountiful in a country parish, and might come to be as useful in my small way

Starting point is 07:12:38 as the squire's wife with her larger means. And I have done it, added Miss Newton triumphantly. There are rooms in this street and in other streets that are to be my model cottages. There are overworked, underfed women who look up to me as their providence. There are children who come and hang to my skirts as I pass along the streets. There are great, hulking men who ask my advice and get me to write their letters for them. What could a squire's wife have more than that?

Starting point is 07:13:09 And yet, I have only 150 pounds a year to spend upon my people. you give them something more than money you give them sympathy the magnetism of your strong and generous nature ah there is something in that magnetism is a good word there must be some reason why people attach themselves so ardently to mr gladstone don't you know some charm in him that holds them almost in spite of themselves and makes them think as he thinks and veer as he veers yes they swing round with him like the bow-sdard-stoned going round with the tide, and they can't help it any more than the boats can. And I think, to compare small things with great, there must be some touch of that magnetic power in me, concluded Miss Newton. I am sure of it, said Theodore, and I am sure, too, that you must be like a spot of light in this dark little world of yours.

Starting point is 07:14:05 I live among my friends. That is the point, explained Miss Newton. I don't come from Belgravia or from a fashion Terrace in Kensington and tell them they ought to keep their wretched rooms cleaner and open their windows and put flower-pots on their windowsills. I live here, and they can come and see how I keep my rooms and judge for themselves. Their landlord is my landlord, and a nice life I lead him about water and whitewash and drains. He is thoroughly afraid of me, I'm happy to say, and generally bolts round a corner when he sees me in the street. But I am too quick for his overfed legs.

Starting point is 07:14:43 tackle him about all his shortcomings, and he finds it easier to spend a few pounds upon his property now and then, than to have me upon his heels at every turn. So now Crook's tenements have quite a reputation in Lambeth. If you were to see the old dragon, you would wonder at my pluck in attacking him, I can assure you. Your whole life is wonderful to me, Miss Newton, and I only wish there were hundreds of women in this big city living just as you live. Tell me, please, what kind of people your neighbors are. oh they are people of all kinds some of course who are quite impracticable for whom i can do nothing but there are many more who are glad of my friendship and who receive me with open arms the single women and widows are my chief friends and some of those i know as well as if we had been brought up and educated upon the same social level they are work-women of all kinds tailrises shirt-makers girls who work for military outfitters extra hands for court dressmakers

Starting point is 07:15:43 shop girls at the humbler class of shops, shoe-binders, artificial flower-makers. I wonder whether you would like to see some of them. I should like it very much indeed. Then, perhaps you will come to one of my tea parties. I give two tea parties a week all the winter to just as many of my women friends as this room will hold. It holds about twenty very comfortably, so I make twenty-five the outside limit. We rather enjoy a little bit of a crush, and I give my so that they all have such pleasure as I can give them, fairly, turn and turn about.

Starting point is 07:16:19 We do not begin our evening too early, for the working hours are precious to my poor things. We take tea at eight o'clock, and we seldom separate before half-past eleven, just as if we were at a theatre. We have a little music, a little reading and recitation, and sometimes a round game of cards. When we are in a wild humor we play dunk-crambo, or even puss in the corner, and we have always a great deal of talk. We sit round this fireplace in a double semi-circle, the younger one sitting on the rug in front of us elders, and we talk and talk, about ourselves mostly,

Starting point is 07:16:55 had you can't think what good it does us. Surely God gave man's speech as the universal safety valve. It lets off half our troubles and half our sense of the world's injustice. Please let me come to your very next party, said Theodore, smiling at the little. woman's ardor. That will be tomorrow evening, replied Miss Newton. I shall have to make an excuse for your appearance as we very seldom invite a man.

Starting point is 07:17:21 You will have to read or recite something as a reason for your being asked, don't you know? I will not recoil even from that test. I have distinguished myself occasionally at a penny reading. Am I to be tragic or comic? Be both, if you can. We like to laugh, but we revel in something that makes us cry desperately. if you could give us something creepy into the bargain freeze our blood with a ghost or two it would be all the more enjoyable i will satiate you with my talents i shall feel like pentheus when he intruded upon his mother and her crew and shall be humbly grateful for not being torn to pieces morally in the way of criticism good-night and a thousand thanks wait said miss newton i'm afraid it is much fogier than when you came i have smelt the fog coming on while we've been talking

Starting point is 07:18:11 wouldn't you like a cab i should very much but i doubt if i shall succeed in finding one you wouldn't but i dare say i can get you one replied miss newton decisively she had an unobtrusive little chatelaine at her side and from the bunch of implements scissors penknife thimble she selected a small whistle then she pulled back one of the cream-white curtains opened the window and whistled loud and shrill into the fog two minutes afterwards there came a small treble voice out of the darkness What is it, Miss Newton? Who's that? Tommy Meadows. All right, Tommy. Do you think you could find a handsome without getting yourself run over?

Starting point is 07:18:52 Rather, do you want it bring to your door, miss? If you please, Tommy. I'm off, cried the shrill voice, and in less than ten minutes a two-wheeler rattled along the street and drew up sharply at Tommy's trebled command, with Tommy himself seated inside, enjoying the drive and the uncertainty of the driver.

Starting point is 07:19:11 his spirits were still further exalted by the gift of a sixpence from theodore as he stepped into the cab to be taken back to the temple at a foot-pace even that sitting-room of his which he had taken pains to make comfortable and home-like had a gloomy look after that bright room in lambeth with its terra-cotta walls and cream-coloured curtains its gaily bound books and vivid valouris vases perched in every available corner he was more interested in that quaint interior and in the woman who had created it than he had been in any one except that one woman who filled the chief place in all his thoughts. The vicar of Kettysford had not overestimated Sarah Newton's power of fascination. He was in Wedgwood Street at a few minutes before eight on the following evening. The sky above Lambeth was no longer obscured. There were wintry stars shining over that forest of chimney-pots and everlasting monotony of slated roofs,

Starting point is 07:20:04 and even Lambeth looked lively with its costers barrows and bustle of even-tide marketing. Theodore found the door open as it had been yesterday, and he found an extra lamp upon the first-floor landing, and the door of Miss Newton's room ajar, while from within came the sound of many voices, moderated to a subdued tone but still lively. His modest knock was answered by Miss Newton herself, who was standing close to the door, ready to greet every fresh arrival. "'How do you do?' We are nearly all here,' she said cheerily. "'I hope you have not just been dining, for with us D means a hearty meal, and if you can't teach anything we shall feel as if we were a Banco's ghost.

Starting point is 07:20:42 How do you do, Mrs. Kirby? To another arrival. Maybe better, I hope. Yes, that's right. How are you, Clara? And you, Rose. You've had that wretched tooth out. I can see it in your face. Such a relief, isn't it? So glad to see you, Susan Dale, and you, Maria, and you, Jenny. Why, we are all here, I do believe. Yes, Miss Newton. said a bright-looking girl by the fireplace who had been making toast indefatigably for twenty minutes and whose complexion had suffered accordingly there are two-and-twenty of us four and twenty counting the gentleman and you i think that's as many as you expected yes everybody's here so we may as well begin tea in most such assemblies where the intention was to benefit a humble class of guests the proceedings would have begun with a hymn but at miss newton's parties there were neither hymns nor prayers and yet miss newton loved her hymn-book and delighted in the pathos and the sweetness of the music with which those familiar words are interwoven nor would she yield to anybody in her belief in the efficacy of prayer

Starting point is 07:21:51 but she had made up her mind from the beginning that her tea-parties were to be pure and simple recreation and that any good which should come out of them was to come incidentally the women and girls who came at her bidding were to feel they came to be entertained came as her guests just as had they been duchesses they might have gone to visit other duchesses in Park Lane or Carlton Gardens. They were not asked in order that they should be taught or preached to, or wheedled into the praying of prayers or the singing of hymns. They went as equals to visit a friend who relished their society. And did not everybody relish the tea, which might be described as a Yorkshire tea of a humble order, not the Yorkshire tea which may mean mayonnaise and perigour pie, chicken and champagne, but tea as understood in the potteries of Hull, or the humbler alleys and streets of Leeds or Bradford. Three moderate-sized tables have been put together to make one capacious board, spread with

Starting point is 07:22:45 snowy damask upon which appeared two large plum loaves, two tall towers of bread and butter, a glass bowl of marmalade, a bowl of jam, two dishes of thinly of thinly-sized German sausage set off with sprigs of parsley. German sausage bought at the most respectable ham and beef shop in the borough, and as trustworthy as German sausage can be, and for crowning glory of the the feast a plentiful supply of shrimps freshly boiled, savoring of the unseen sea. The hot butter toast was frizzling on a brass footman in front of the fire ready to be handed round piping hot as required. There were two tea trays, one at each end of the table, and there were two bright copper kettles which had never been defiled by the smoke of the fire,

Starting point is 07:23:26 filled with admirable tea. Miss Newton took her place at the head of the table with Theodore on her right hand, and a pale and fragile-looking young woman on her left. these two assisted the hostess in the administration of the tea-tray handing cups and saucers sugar-basin and cream jug and in so doing they had frequent occasion to look at each other having gone there prepared to be interested theodore soon began to interest himself in this young woman whom miss newton addressed as marion she was by no means beautiful now but theodore fancied that she had once been very handsome and he occupied himself in reconstructing the beauty of the past from the wreck of the present the lines of the face were classic in their regularity but the hollow cheeks and pallid complexion told of care and toil and the face was aged untimely by a hard and joyless life the eyes were darkest gray large and pathetic-looking the eyes of a woman who had suffered much and thought much the beauty of those eyes gave a mournful charm to the pale pinched face and the light auburn hair was still luxuriant theodore noted the delicate hands and taper fingers which differed curiously from the hands which were busy around the hospitable board he could see that this young woman was a favourite with sarah newton and he told himself that she was of a race apart from the rest but he was agreeably surprised in finding that except for the prevailing cockney accent and a few slight lapses in grammar and pronunciation miss newton's guests were quite as refined as those ladies of dorchester with whom it had been his privilege to associate

Starting point is 07:25:00 indeed he was not sure that he did not prefer the cockney twang and the faulty grammar to the second-hand smartness and slang of the young ladies whose awfully jolly ate it and don't you know had so often irritated his ear on tennis lawn or at afternoon tea here at least there was the unsteadied speech of people who knew not the caprices of fashion or the latest catch word that had descended from belgravia to brompton and from brompton to the provinces there was a great deal of talk as miss newton had told him there would be and as she encouraged all her guests to talk about themselves he gathered a good deal of interesting information about the state of the different trades and the ways and manners of various employers most of whom seemed to be of a despotic and grasping temper the widows talked of their children's ailments or their progress at the board school the girls talked a little with all modesty of their sweethearts sarah newton was interested in every detail of those humble lives and seemed to remember every fact bearing upon the joys or the sorrows of her guests it was a wonder to theodore to see how the careworn faces lighted up round the cheerful table in the lamplight yes it was surely a good thing to live among these daughters of toil and to lighten their burdens by this quick sympathy this cheerful hospitality vast pleasure halls and people's palaces may do much for the million but here is one little spinster with her small income making an atmosphere of friendliness and comfort for the few and able to get a great deal nearer to them than philanthropy on a gigantic scale can never get to the many theodore noticed that while most other tongues babbled freely the girl called marion sat silent after her task of distributing the tea was over with hands folded in her lap listening to the voices round her and with a soft slow smile lighting her face now and then in repose her countenance was deeply sad and he found himself speculating upon the history that had left those melancholy lines upon a face that was still young i am much interested in your next neighbour he said to miss newton presently

Starting point is 07:27:03 while Marion was helping another girl to clear the table. I feel sure there must be something very sad in her experience of life, and that she has sunk from a higher level. So do I, answered Miss Newton, but I know very little more about her than you do, except that she is a most exquisite worker with those taper fingers of hers, and that she has worked for the same baby linen house for the last three years, and has lived in the same second floor back in her cuel's buildings.

Starting point is 07:27:31 I think she is as fond of me as she can be, yet she has never told me where she was born, or who her people were, or what her life has been like. Once she went so far as to tell me that it had been a very commonplace life, and that her troubles had been in no wise extraordinary, except the fact of her having had a very severe attack of typus fever which left her a wreck. Once from some chance allusion I learned that it was in Italy she caught the fever, and that it was badly treated by a foreign doctor, but that one fact is all she ever let slip in her talk, so carefully does she. she avoid every mention of the past.

Starting point is 07:28:06 I need hardly tell you that I have never questioned her. I have reason to know that her life for the last three years has been spotless, an industrious, temperate Christian life, and that she is charitable and kind to those who are poorer than herself. That is quite enough for me,

Starting point is 07:28:21 and I have encouraged her to make a friend of me in every way in my power. She is happy in having found such a friend, an invaluable friend to a woman who has sunk from happier surroundings. Yes, I think I have been a comfort to her. She comes to me for books,

Starting point is 07:28:37 and we meet nearly every day at the free library and compare notes about our reading. My only regret is that I cannot induce her to take enough air and exercise. She spends all the time that she can spare from her needlework in reading. But I take her for a walk now and then, and I think she enjoys that.

Starting point is 07:28:56 A penworth of the tram car carries us to Battersea Park, and we can stroll about amongst grass and trees and in sight of the river. she is better off than most of the girls in the way of getting a little rest after toil, for that fine, delicate needlework of hers pays better than the common run of work, and she is the quickest worker I know. The tables were cleared by this time, and space had been made for that half-circle round the fire of which Miss Newton had spoken on the previous night.

Starting point is 07:29:22 The younger girls brought hassocks and cushions, and seated themselves in the front rank, while their elders sat in the outer row of chairs. Theodore was now called upon to contribute his share to the entertainment, and thereupon took a book from his pocket. "'You told me you and your friends were fond of creepy stories, Miss Newton,' he said, "'is that really so?' "'Really and truly.' "'And you are none of you afflicted with weak nerves. You are not afraid of being made uncomfortable by the memory of a ghastly story?'

Starting point is 07:29:51 "'No, I think that with most of us the cares of life are too real and too absorbing to leave any room in our minds for a imaginary horrors. Isn't it so now, friends? Lord, yes, Miss Newton, answered one of the girls briskly. Were all of us too busy to worry about ghosts? But I love a ghost-tail for all that. A chorus of voices echoed this assertion. Then, ladies, I shall have the honor of reading the Haunters and the Haunted by Woolworth Lytton. The very title of the story thrilled them, and the whole party, just now so noisy with eager talk and frequent laughter, sat breathless.

Starting point is 07:30:29 looking at the reader with awe-stricken eyes as that wonderful story slowly unwound itself. Theodore read well in that subdued and semi-dramatic style which is best adapted to chamber reading. He felt what he read, and the horror of the imaginary scene was vividly before his eyes as he got deeper into the story. The reading lasted nearly two hours, but it was not one moment too long for Theodore's audience, and there was a sigh of regret when the last words of the story had been spoken. "'Well,' exclaimed one young lady, "'I do call that a first-class tale, don't you, Miss Newton?' "'You may go a long way without getting such a ghost-tail as that,' said another.

Starting point is 07:31:08 "'And don't the gentleman read beautifully, "'and don't he make one feel as if it was all going on in this very room? "'And the dog, too. "'There, I never see such a thing. "'A poor dog to drop down dead like that.' "'I did hope that their dog would come to life again at the end,' said one damsel. By way of diversion after the story, Miss Newton opened her piano, beckoned three of the girls over to her, and played the symphony of Blow Gentle Gales, which old-fashioned glee the girls sang with taste and discretion,

Starting point is 07:31:38 the bass part being altered to suit a female voice. Then came some songs, all of which Miss Newton accompanied, and then at her request Theodore read again, this time selecting Holmes a wonderful one-horse shay, which caused much laughter, after which the little clock on the chimney-piece, having struck eleven, he wished his hostess good-night, selected his coat and hat from among the heap of jackets and hats on a table on the landing, and went downstairs. He was still in Wedgwood Street when he heard light footsteps come quickly behind him. It seemed to him that they were trying to overtake him, so he turned and met the owner of the feet. I beg your pardon, sir, forgive me for following you, said a very gentle voice which he recognized as belonging to the girl called

Starting point is 07:32:21 Marion. I wanted so much to speak to you, alone. and i am glad of the opportunity of speaking to you he answered i felt particularly interested in you this evening there are some faces you know which interest us in spite of ourselves almost and i felt that i should like to know more of you this was so gravely said that there was no possibility of an offensive construction being given to the words you are very good sir it was your name that struck me she answered falteringly it is a dorsetshire name i think yes it is a dorsetcher name and i am a dorchester man dorchester she repeated slowly i wonder whether you know a place called chariton i know it very well indeed a kinsman of mine lives there lord chariton is my cousin i thought as much directly i heard your name you must know all about that dreadful murder then last summer yes i know about as much of it as any one knows and that is very little they have not found the murder she asked with a faint shudder. No, nor are they likely to find him, I believe. But tell me, why are you interested in Chariton?

Starting point is 07:33:32 Do you come from that part of the country? Yes. Were you born in Chariton Village? I was brought up not far from there, she answered hesitatingly. He remembered what Miss Newton had told him of her own forbearance in asking questions, and he pursued the inquiry no further. May I see you as far as your lodgings, he said kindly. it will be very little out of my way no thank you mr dalbrook i am too much accustomed to going about alone ever to want any escort good-night and thank you for having answered my questions

Starting point is 07:34:06 her manner showed a disinclination to prolong the interview and she walked away with hurried steps which carried her swiftly into the darkness poor lonely soul he said to himself now whose lost sheep is she i wonder she is certainly of a rank above a cottager's daughter and with those hands of hers it is clear she has never been in domestic service not far from chariton what may that mean not far is a vague description of locality i must ask lady chariton about her the next time I am at the chase. End of Chapter 16. Volume 1, Chapter 17 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Libre-Fox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 17 A mind not to be changed by place or time.

Starting point is 07:35:02 Christmas at Dorchester was not a period of festivity to which Theodore Dalbrook had hitherto looked forward with ardent expectations, but in this particular December, he found himself. longing for that holiday season even as a schoolboy might long for release from Latin grammar and sweat pudding and for the plenteous fair and idle days of home he longed for the grave old town with its Roman relics and leafless avenues longed for it alas not so much because his father brother and sisters dwelt there as because it was within a possible drive of Millbrook Priory and once being a Dorchester he had a fair

Starting point is 07:35:35 excuse for going to see his cousin many and many a time in his chambers at the temple he had felt the fever fits so strongly upon him that he was tempted to put on his hat, rush out of those quiet courts and stony quadrangles to the bustle of the embankment, spring into the first handsom that came within hail, and so to Waterloo, and by any train that would carry him to wear him station, and thence to the priory, only to look upon one eat his face for a little while, only to hold her hand in his, once at greeting and once at parting, and then back into the night and the loneliness of his life, and law-books and precedence, and Justinian and Chitty, and all that is commonplace and dry as dust in man's existence. He had refrained from such foolishness,

Starting point is 07:36:16 and now Christmas was at hand. His sisters were making the house odious with Holly and Laurel. The old cook was chopping suet for the traditional pudding which he had loathed for the last ten years, and he had a fair excuse for driving along the frosty roads to visit his widowed cousin. He had a pressing invitation from Lord Chariton to spend two or three days of his holiday time at the chase, an invitation which he had promptly accepted, but his first first first First visit was to Lady Carmichael. He found the house in all things unlike what it had been when last he saw it. The dear Grenvilles had been persuaded to spend their Christmas in Dorsetshire,

Starting point is 07:36:51 and the priory was full of children's voices and the traces of children's occupation. Theodore had known Jessica Grenville before her marriage, yet it was not the less a shock to find himself confronted by a portly matron and a brood of children in that room where he had seen Juanita's sad face spent over her embroidery. There was no trace of Juanita in the spacious drawing-room today, and the fact of her absence almost unhinged him and put him at a disadvantage in his conversation when Mrs. Grenville, who received him with gracious loquacity, and insisted upon his giving an immediate opinion upon the different degrees of family likeness to be seen in her four children there present.

Starting point is 07:37:28 These two are decided Carmichael's, she said, putting forward a rather flabby boy and a putting-faced girl, and the other two are thorough Grenvilles, indicating the latter and younger pair, who were seated on the floor building a tower of Babel, with a lately received present of bricks and carrying out the idea by their own confusion of tongues. Theodore felt glad he was not at Grenville, if that was the type. He murmured some vague civility about the children, while he shook hands with Lady Jane, who had come forward shyly to welcome him, almost obliterated by her more loquacious daughter. Don't you think Johnny the very image of his poor dear uncle?

Starting point is 07:38:04 Asked Mrs. Grenville urgently, a question which always was. was agonized Lady Jane, who could not see the faintest likeness between her snub-nosed and bilious-looking grandchild and her handsome son. Theodore was too nervous to be conscious of his own unthruthfulness in replying in the affirmative. He was anxious to have done with the children and to hear about his cousin. I hope when he does not ill, he said. Oh no, she is pretty well, replied Lady Jane, but we keep her as quiet as we can, and of course the children are rather trying for her. "'Nobody can say that they are noisy children,' interjected the happy mother. "'So she seldom leaves her own rooms till the evening,' continued Lady Jane.

Starting point is 07:38:44 "'He would like to see her at once, I dare say, Mr. Dalbrook. "'And I know she will be pleased to see you.' She rang and told the footman to inquire if Lady Carmichael was ready to see Mr. Dalbrook, and Theodore had to occupy the interval until the footman's return with polite attentions to the four children. He asked Lucy whence she had obtained those delightful bricks, thereby eliciting the information that the bricks were not Lucy's, but Godolphins, only he let her play with them, as he observed magnanimously. He was gratified with the further information that the tower now in process of elevation was not a church but the Tower of Babel, and then he was

Starting point is 07:39:22 treated to the history of that remarkable building as related in Holy Writ. "'You didn't know that, did you?' remarked Godolphin, boast for. when he had finished his narration in a harsh ball, being one of those coarse brats whom their parents boast of as after the pattern of the infant Hercules. The footman returned before Godolphin had rung a confession of ignorance from the nervous visitor, and Theodore darted up to follow him out of the room. He found Juanita reclining on a low couch near the fire in the dimly-leaded room, that room which he remembered having entered only once before, on the occasion of an afternoon party at the priory, when Sir Godfrey had taken him to his den to show him a newly acquired

Starting point is 07:40:01 folio copy of Thompson's seasons, with the famous Bartolozotints. It was a good old room, especially at this wintry season when the dullness of the outlook was of little consequence. The firelight gleamed cheerily on the rich bindings of the books and on the dark woodwork, and fondly touched Juanita's reclining figure and the rich folds of her dark blush tea-gown. How good have you to come to see me so soon, Theodore, she said, giving him her hand. I know you only came to Dorchester yesterday. The girls were here the day before and told me they expected you. You did not think I should be in the country very long

Starting point is 07:40:37 without finding my way here, did you, Juanita? Well, no, perhaps not. I know what a true friend you are. And now tell me, have you made any further discoveries? One more discovery, Juanita, as I told you briefly in my last letter. I have traced the squire's daughter to the sad clothes of a most unhappy life. and so ends the Strangway family as you know of their existence. That is to say, those three Strangways who had come right to feel themselves aggrieved by the loss of the land upon which they were born. Tell me all you heard from Miss Newton. Your letter was brief and vague, but as I knew I was to see you at Christmas I waited for fuller details. Tell me everything Theodore. He obeyed her

Starting point is 07:41:19 and related the bitter, commonplace story of Evelyn Strangway's life, as told him by her old governess. There were no elements of romance in the story. It was as common as the divorce court or the daily papers. Poor creature. Well, there ends my theory at least about her, said Juanita gloomily. Her brothers were dead and she was dead long before that fatal night. Did they bequeath their vengeance to anyone else, I wonder? Who else is there in this world who had reason to hate my father or me. And I know that no creature upon this earth could have caused to hate my husband. In your father's calling there is always a possibility of a deadly hate, inexplicable, unknown to the subject. Remember the fate of Lord Mayo. A judge who holds the keys of life and

Starting point is 07:42:07 death must make many enemies. Yes, she sighed. There is that to be thought of. Oh, my dearest and best, why did you ever link your life with that of a judge's daughter? I feel as if I had lured him to his doom. I might have foreseen the danger. I ought never to have married. What right had I? Some discharged felon lay in wait for him. Some relentless, godless, hopeless wretch,

Starting point is 07:42:33 whom my father had condemned a long imprisonment, whose angry heart my father had scorched with his scathing speech. I have read some of his summings up, and they have seemed cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, so cold, so deliberate, so like a god-making light of the sins of men, men. Some wretch, coming maddened out of his silent cell and seeing my husband, that white, pure life, that brave, strong youth, prosperous, honored, happy, seeing what a good man's life can be,

Starting point is 07:43:03 lay in weight like a tiger to destroy that happy life. If it was not one of the strangways who killed him, it must have been such a man. Her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed with a feverish red. Theodore took her hand, held it in both his own, and bent to kiss the cold fingers, not with a lover's ardor, fondly as he loved, but with a calm and brotherly affection which soothed her agitated heart. He loved her well enough to be able to subjugate himself for her sake. My dear Juanita, if you would only withdraw your thoughts from this ghastly subject, I will not ask you to forget. That may be impossible. I entreat you only to be patient, to leave the chastisement of crime to Providence,

Starting point is 07:43:46 which works in the dark, works silently, inevitably, to the end for which we can only grope in a lame and helpless fashion. Be sure the murderer will stand revealed sooner or later. That cruel murder will not be his last crime, and in his next act of violence

Starting point is 07:44:02 he may be less fortunate in escaping every human eye. Or if that act is to be the one solitary crime of his life, something will happen to betray him, some oversight of his own, Or some irrepressible movement of a guilty conscience will give his life to the net as a bird flies into a trap. I beseech you, dear, let your thoughts dwell upon less painful subjects, for your own sake, for the sake. He faltered, and left his sentence unfinished, and Juanita knew that his sisters had told him something. She knew that the one hope of her blighted life, hope which she had hardly recognized as hope yet a while, was known to him.

Starting point is 07:44:40 I can never cease to think of that night or to pray that God will avenge that crime, she said firmly. You think that it is an unchristian prayer, perhaps, but what does the scripture say? Whoso shetteth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed? Christ came to confirm that, righteous law.

Starting point is 07:44:59 Oh, it is well to be a humanitarian, to sign petitions against capital punishment, but let your nearest and dearest be murdered, and you will be quick to recognize the justice of that old and next law, a life for a life. That is what I want, Theodore, the life of the man who killed my husband. If I can help to bring about that end, Juanita, believe me that I will not shrink from the task,

Starting point is 07:45:25 but at present I must own that I am off the track, and see no likelihood of succeeding where a trained detective has failed. Could I but find a shred of evidence to put me on the trail I would pursue that clue to the bitter end, but so far all is dark. Yes, all is dark, she answered dejectedly. And then after a pause, she said, You are going to stay at Cheriton, I hear. I am to spend three days there at the turn of the year just before I go back to London.

Starting point is 07:45:55 I have chambers in fair at court over the rooms in which your father spent the golden years of his youth, the years that made him a great man. It will be very interesting to me to hear him talk over those ears, if I can beguile him into talking of himself. a subject which he so seldom dwells upon. Ask him if he ever made a bitter enemy. Ask him for his experience as a jud at a sizes. Find out if you can whether he ever provoked the hatred of a bad vindictive man.

Starting point is 07:46:22 I will question your father, Juanita. Do. He will not let me talk to him about the one subject that occupies my mind. He always stops me on the threshold of any inquiries. He might surely help me to find the murderer with his highly trained intellect, with his experience of the darkest side of human nature. But he will not help me. He would talk more freely to you, no doubt.

Starting point is 07:46:45 I will sound him, answered Theodore, and then he tried to beguile her to talking of other things, her home, her surroundings. It must be a comfort to you to have Lady Jane. A comfort? She is all that I have of happiness. All that reminds me of Godfrey. My mother and father are very dear to me.

Starting point is 07:47:05 I hope you believe that, Theodore. But our lives are parted now. My mother is wrapped up in her husband. Neither of them can sympathize with me as his mother can. Their loss is not the same as ours. We two are one in our grief. And she is a buffer between you and the outer world, I see. She bears the burdens that would weigh you down.

Starting point is 07:47:26 Those children, for instance, no doubt they are charming as children go, but I fancy they would worry you if you had too much of them. They would kill me, said Juanita, smiling at him. for the first time in their interview. I am not very fond of children. It sounds unwomanly to say so, but I often find myself wishing it could be born grown up. Fortunately, Lady Jane adores them, and I am glad to have the Grenville's at Christmas time. I want all things to be as they would have been were my dearest here. I lie here and look round this room, which was his, and think, and think,

Starting point is 07:48:00 and think of him till I almost fancy he is here. Idle fancy, mocking dream. Oh, if you knew how often I dreamed that he is living still, and that I am still his happy wife. I dream that he has been dead, or at least that we have all believed that he was dead, but that it was a mistake. He is alive, our own for long years to come. The wild rapture of that dream wakes me, and I know that I am alone. God keep you, Theodore, from such a loss as mine. I must gain something before I can lose it, he answered with a shade of bitterness.

Starting point is 07:48:36 I see myself as the years go on, hardening into a lonely old bachelor, outliving the capacity for human affection. That is nonsense talk. You think so just now, perhaps. There is no one beyond your own family you care for, and you fancy yourself shut out from the romance of life. But your day will come, very suddenly, perhaps. You will see someone whom you can care for. Love will enter your life unawares, and will fill your heart and mind, and the ambition that absorbs you now will seem a small thing.

Starting point is 07:49:07 Never, Juanita. I don't mean to plague you with any trouble of mine. You have given me your friendship, and I hope to be worthy of it. But pray, do not talk to me of the chances of the future. My future is bounded by the hope of getting on at the bar. If I fail in that, I fail in everything. You will not fail? There is no reason you should not prosper in your profession as my father prospered.

Starting point is 07:49:31 I often think that you are like him, more like him. him than you are like your own father. Their talk touched on various subjects after this, on the great events of the world, the events that make history, on books and theaters, and then upon Sarah Newton, whose plan of life interested Juanita. He told her of the girl called Marion and her inquiries about Chariton. I wonder if you ever knew her among your villagers, he said. I should much like to know who she is. She interests me more than I can say. There is a refinement in her manners and appearance that convinces me she must have belonged to superior people. She was never born in a laborer's cottage or missed a small shopkeeper's shabby surroundings.

Starting point is 07:50:12 She was never taught at a national school or broken into domestic service. And she was once very handsome, you say? Yes, she must have been beautiful before illness and trouble set their marks upon her face. She is only a wreck now, but there is beauty in the wreck. How old you suppose her to be? Eight or nine and twenty. It is difficult to guess a woman's age within two or three years, and this woman's face is evidently aged by trouble,

Starting point is 07:50:40 but I don't think she can be thirty. There is only one person I can think of who would in any manner answer your description, said Juanita thoughtfully. Who is that? Mercy Porter. You must have heard about Mercy Porter, the daughter of the woman at the West Lodge.

Starting point is 07:50:56 Yes, yes, I remember. She ran away with a middle-aged man, an army man, one of your father's visitors. I was a child at the time, and of course I heard very little about it. I only knew that Mercy Porter, who used to come to tea with mother, and who played the piano better than my governess, suddenly vanished out of our lives, and that I never saw her again. My mother was quite fond of her, and I remember hearing of her beauty, though I was too young myself to know what beauty meant.

Starting point is 07:51:24 I could not think anyone pretty who wore such plain frocks, and such stout useful boots as mercy wore. Her mother certainly did nothing to set off her good looks or to instill vanity. Years after, my mother told me how the girl disappeared one summer evening, and how Mrs. Porter came distracted to the house and saw my father and stormed and raved at him in her agony, saying it was his friend who had blighted her daughter's youth, his work that she had gone to her ruin. He was very patient and forbearing with her, my mother said, for he pitied her despair,

Starting point is 07:51:54 and he felt that he was in some wise to blame for her. having brought such an unprincipled man as Colonel Tremaid to Chariton, a man who had carried ruin into many homes. Mercy had been seen to leave Wareham's station with him by the night mail. He had a yacht at Weymouth. She wrote to her mother from London a fortnight afterwards, and Mrs. Porter brought the letter to my mother and father one morning as they sat at breakfast. It was a heart-broken letter, the letter of a poor, foolish girl who flings away her good name and her hope of heaven with her eyes open and knows the cost of her sacrifice, and he is a heart and yet can't help making it.

Starting point is 07:52:29 I was engaged to Godfrey when I first heard Mercy's story, and I felt so sorry for her, so sorry, in the midst of my happy love. What had I done to deserve happiness more than she, that life should be so bright for me and so dark for her? I did not know that my day of agony was to come. Did you ever hear how Colonel Tremaine treated her? No, I believe my father wrote him a very severe letter and called upon him to repair the wrong he had done.

Starting point is 07:52:57 But I don't think even took so much trouble as to answer that letter. His regiment was ordered off to India two or three years afterwards, and he was killed in Afghanistan about six years ago. And has nothing been heard of mercy since her flight? Nothing. I wonder her mother has sat at home quietly all these years instead of making strenuous efforts to find her lost lamb, said Theodore. Ah, that is almost exactly what Godfrey said of her.

Starting point is 07:53:25 He seemed to think her heartless for taking things so quietly. She is a curious woman, self-contained and silent. I sometimes fancy she was more angry than grieved at Mercy's fate. Mother says she turns to ice at the slightest mention of the girl's name. Don't you think love would show itself differently? One can never be sure about other people's sentiments. Love has many languages. Their talk drifted to more commonplace subjects,

Starting point is 07:53:52 and then Theodore rose to take leave. you must dine at the priory before your holiday is over theo said his cousin as they shook hands let me see to-morrow will be christmas day will you come the day after and bring the sisters it is too long a drive for a winter night so you must stay there is plenty of room are you sure we shall not bore you i am sure you will cheer me my sister-in-law is very good but lady jane is the only person in this house of whom i do not get desperately tired including myself she added with a sigh "'Please say you will come, and I will order your rooms.' "'We will come, then.' "'Good night, Juanita.' The shadows were falling as he drove away, after refusing tea in the drawing-room and a further acquaintance with the wonderful children.

Starting point is 07:54:40 He looked forward to that evening at the priory with an eager expectancy that he knew to be supreme foolishness, and when the evening came it brought some measure of disappointment with it. Juanita was not so well as she had been upon Christmas Eve. She was not able to dine down. downstairs and the family dinner, at which the Itonian, Tom, Johnny, and Lucy were allowed to take their places in virtue of Christmas time, was a dull business for Theodore. His only pleasure was in the fact that he sat on Lady Jane's right hand and was able to talk with her of Juanita.

Starting point is 07:55:11 Even that pleasure was alloyed with keenest pain, for Lady Jane's talk was of that dead love which cast its shadow over Juanita's youth, or of that dim and dawning hope which might brighten the coming days, and neither in the love of the past nor in the love of the few. future had Theodor and Nipart. Juanita was on her sofa by the drying-room fire when he and Mr. Grenville left the dining-room, after a single glass of claret and a brief review of the political situation. Theodore's sisters were established on each side of her. There was no chance for him while they were absorbing her attention, and he retired disconsolately

Starting point is 07:55:45 to the group in the middle of the room, where Mrs. Granville and Lady Jane were seated on a capacious ottoman with the children about them. Johnny and Lucy, who had overeaten themselves, were disposed to be quiet. The little girl leaning her fair curls and fat shining cheek against her grandmother's shoulder with an air that looked touching, but which really indicated repletion. Johnny sprawling on the carpet at his mother's feet and wishing he had not eaten that mince pie, telling himself that on the whole, he hated mince pie and envying his brother Tom who had stolen off to the saddle-room to talk to the grooms.

Starting point is 07:56:18 Godolphin and Maple having dined early were full of exuberance, waiting to be jumped, which entertainment Theodore had to provide without intermission for nearly half an hour, upheaving first one and then another towards the ceiling, first a rosy bundle in ruby velvet, and then a rosy bundle in white muslin, laughing, screaming, and raptured to be caught in his arms, and set carefully on the ground there to await the next turn. Theodore slaved at this recreation until his arms ached, casting a furtive glance every now and then at the corner by the fireplace, where his sisters were treating Juanita to the result. of their latest heavy reading.

Starting point is 07:56:54 At last, to his delight, Lucy recovered from her comatose condition and began to thirst for amusement. Let's have magic music, she said. We can all play at that, Granny and all? You know you love magic music, Granny. Who'll play the piano? Not mother.

Starting point is 07:57:11 She plays so badly, added the darling with childlike candor. Sophie shall play for you, cried Theodore. She's a capital hand at it. He went over to his. his sister. Go and play for the children, Sophie. He said, I've been doing my duty. Go and do yours. Sophie looked agonized but complied, and he slipped into her vacant seat. He sat by his cousin's side for nearly an hour while the children, mother and grandmother,

Starting point is 07:57:38 played their nursery game to the sound of dance music, now low, now loud, neatly executed by Sophie's accurate fingers. Their talk was of indifferent subjects, and the lion's share of the conversation was enjoyed by Janet, but to Theodore it was bliss to be there by his cousin's side within sound of her low, melodious voice, within touch of her tapering hand. Just to sit there and watch her face and drink in the tones of her voice was enough. He asked no more from fate, yet a while. He had a long talk with her in her own room next morning before he went back to Dorchester, and the talk was of that old subject which absorbed her thoughts. Be sure you find out all you can from my father, she said at parting.

Starting point is 07:58:23 Life at Chariton Chase bore no slight impress of the tragedy that had blighted Juanita's honeymoon. There were no festivities this winter. There was no large house party. There had been a few quiet, elderly, or middle-aged visitors during the shooting season, and there had been some slaughter of those pheasants which were wont to sit, ponderous and sleepiest barn-door fowls upon the five barred gates and post-and-rail fences of the chase. But even those sober guests, old friends of husband and wife had all departed, and the house was empty of strangers when Theodore arrived there in time for dinner on New Year's Eve.

Starting point is 07:58:57 Nothing could have suited him better than this. He wanted to be tete-tete with Lord Chariton, to glean all in the way of counsel or reminiscence that might fall from those wise lips. If there is a man living who can teach me how to get on in my profession, it is James Dalbrook, he said to himself, thinking of his cousin by that name which he had so often heard his father use when talking

Starting point is 07:59:18 of old days. Lady Chariton greeted him affectionately, made him sit by her in the library, where a richly embroidered Japanese screen made a cozy corner by the fireplace during the twenty minutes before dinner. She was a handsome woman still, with that grand-looking Spanish beauty which does not fade with youth, and she was dressed to perfection in lustreless black silk, relieved by the glitter of jet here and there, and by the soft white grape kerchief, worn at la Marie Antoinette. There was not one thread of gray in the rich black hair, piled in massive plates upon the prettily shaped head. Theodore contemplated her with an almost worshipping admiration.

Starting point is 07:59:55 It was Juanita's face he saw in those classic lines. I want to have a good talk with you, Theo, she said. There is no one else to whom I can talk so freely now my poor Godfrey is gone. We sit here of an evening now, you see. The drawing-room is only used when there are people in the house, and even then I feel miserable there. I cannot get his image out of my mind. chariton insists that the room shall be used that it shall not be made a haunted room and no doubt it is best so but one cannot forget such a tragedy as that i hope oneita will forget some day

Starting point is 08:00:31 ah that is what i try to hope she is so young at the very beginning of life and it does seem hard that all those hopes for which other women live should be over and done with for her i wish i could believe in the power of time to cure her i wish i could believe that she will be able to love somebody else as she loved Godfrey. If she does, I dare say it will be some new person who had nothing to do with her past life. I had been in and out of love before I met James Dalbrook, but the sight of him seemed like the beginning of a new life. I felt as if it had been preordained that I was to love him, and only him, that nothing else had been real.

Starting point is 08:01:11 Yes, Theodore, with a sigh, you may depend if ever she should care for anybody. It will be a new person. very lucky for the new person and rather hard upon any one who happens to have loved her all his life is there any one like that i think you know there is lady chariton yes yes my dear boy i know she answered kindly laying her soft hand upon his i won't pretend not to know i wish with all my heart you could make her care for you theodore a year or two hence you would be a good and true husband to her a kind father to godfrey's child that would be a good and true husband to her-a-kind father to godfrey's child that fatherless child oh theodore is it not sad to think of the child who will never not for one brief hour feel the touch of a father's hand or know the blessing of a father's love such a dead blank where there should be warmth and life and joy we must wait

Starting point is 08:02:04 Theo who can dispose of the future I shall be a happy woman if ever you can tell me you have won the reward of a life's devotion God bless you for your goodness to me he faltered kissing the soft white hand so likened form and outline to Juanita's hand, only plumber and more matronly. They dined snugly, a cozy trio, in a small room hung with genuine old cordovan leather, and adorned with Morish crockery, a room which was called her ladyship's parlor, and which had been one of Lord Charitin's birthday gifts to his wife, furnished and decorated during her absence at a German spa.

Starting point is 08:02:40 When Lady Charitin loved them, the two men turned their chairs towards the fire, lighted their cigars, and settled themselves for an evening's talk. The great lawyer was in one of his pleasantest moods. He gave Theodore the benefit of his experience as a stuff gown, and did all that the advice of a wise senior can do towards putting a tyro on the right track. You will have to bide your time, he said in conclusion. It is a tedious business. You must sit in your chambers and be till your chance comes.

Starting point is 08:03:09 Always be there, that's the grand point. Don't be out when fortune knocks at your door. She will come in a very insignificant shape on her earlier, visits, with a shabby little two-guinea brief in her hand. But don't you let that shabby little brief be carried to somebody else just because you are out of the way? I suppose you are really fond of the law. Yes, I am very fond of my profession. It is meat and drink to me. And you will get on. Any man of moderate abilities is bound to succeed in any profession which he loves with a heart-whole love, and your abilities are much better than moderate. There was a little pause in the talk while

Starting point is 08:03:47 Lord Chariton threw on a fresh log and lighted a second cigar. I have been meditating a good deal upon Sir Godfrey's murder, said Theodore, and I am perplexed by the utter darkness which surrounds the murderer and his motive. No doubt you have some theory upon the subject. No, I have no theory. There is really nothing upon which to build a theory. Churton, the detective, talked about a vendetta, suggested poacher, tenant, tramp, gypsy, any member of the dangerous classes who might happen to consider himself aggrieved by poor Godfrey. He even went so far as to make a very unpleasant suggestion, and urged that there might be a woman at the bottom of the business, speculated upon

Starting point is 08:04:27 some youthful intrigue of Godfrey's. Now, from all I know of that young man, I believe his life had been blameless. He was the soul of honour. He would never have dealt cruelly with any woman. And you, Lord Chariton, said Theodore, hardly following the latter part of his cousin's speech and his self-absorption. His kinsman started and looked at him indignantly. And you, in your capacity of judge, for instance, have you never made a deadly foe? Well, I suppose the men and woman I have sentenced

Starting point is 08:04:58 have hardly loved me, but I doubt if the worst of them ever had any strong personal feeling about me. They have taken me as a part of the machinery of the law, of no more account than the iron door of a cell or beam of the scaffold. Yet there have been instances of active malignity, the assassination of Lord Mayo, for instance. Oh, the assassin in that case was an Indian and a maniac.

Starting point is 08:05:21 We live in a different latitude. Besides, it is rather too far-fetched an idea to suppose that a man would shoot my son-in-law in order to avenge himself upon me. The shot may have been fired under a misapprehension. The figure seated reading in the lamplight may have been mistaken for you. The assassin must have been uncommonly short-sighted to make such a mistake. I won't say such a thing would be impossible, for experience has taught me that there is nothing in this life too strange to be true, but it is too unlikely a notion to dwell upon. Indeed, I think, Theodore, we must dismiss this painful business from our minds. If the mystery is ever to be cleared up, it will be by a fluke, but even that seems to me a very remote contingency. Have you not observed that if a murderer is not caught within three months of his crime, he is hardly ever caught at all? I might almost say

Starting point is 08:06:12 if he is not caught within one month. Once let the scent cool and the chances are a hundred to one in his favor. Yet Juanita has set her heart upon seeing her husband avenged. Ah, that is where her Spanish blood shows itself. An English woman, pure and simple, would think only of her sorrow. My poor girl hungers for revenge. Providence may favor her, perhaps, but I doubt it.

Starting point is 08:06:38 The best thing that can happen to her will be to forget her first husband, fine young fellow as he was, and choose a second. It is horrible to think that the rest of her life is to be a blank. With her beauty and position she may look high. I am obliged to be ambitious for my daughter, you see, Theodore, since heaven has not spared me a son. Theodore saw only too plainly that whatever favor his hopes might have from soft-hearted Lady Chariton, his own kinsman James Dalbrook, would be against him.

Starting point is 08:07:08 This mattered very little to him at present in the face of the ladies' indifference. One gleam of hope for money to herself would have seemed more to him than all the favor of parents or kindred. It was her hand that held his fate. It was she alone who could make his life blessed. New Year's Day was fine, but frosty, a sharp, clear day on which Chariton Park looked loveliest, the trees made fairy-like by the light rhyme, the long stretches of turf touched with a silvery whiteness, the distant copses and boundary of pine trees half-hidden in a pale gray mist. Theodore walked across the park with Lady Chariton to the eleven o'clock service in the church at the end of Chariton Village.

Starting point is 08:07:48 It was nearly a mile from the great house to the fine old 15th century church, but Lady Chariton always walked a church in decent weather, albeit her servants were conveyed there luxuriously in a capacious omnibus specially retained for their use. On the way along the Silent Avenue, Theodore told her of his meeting with Miss Newton's protege, and of Juanita's idea that the woman called Marion might be no other than Mercy Porter. i certainly remember no other case of a girl about here leaving her home under disgraceful circumstances that is to say any girl of refinement and education said lady chariton there have been cases among the villagers no doubt but if this girl of yours is really a superior person and really comes from sheraton i think wonita is right and that you must have stumbled upon mercy porter her mother ought to be told about it without delay will you tell her or will you put me in the way of doing so would you like to see mrs porter yes i feel interested in her chiefly because she may be marian's mother i shall have to go to work very carefully so as not to cause her too keen a disappointment in the event of juanita's guest being wrong i do not know that you will find her very soft-hearted where her daughter is concerned replied lady chariton thoughtfully i sometimes fear that she has hardened herself against that unhappy girl the troubles of her own early life may have hardened her perhaps

Starting point is 08:09:10 it is not easy to bear a long series of troubles with patience and gentleness do you know much of her history only that she lost her husband when she was still a young woman and that she was left to face the world penniless with her young daughter if my husband had not happened to hear of her circumstances heaven knows what would have become of her he had been intimate with her husband when he was a young man in london and it seemed to him a duty to do what he could for her so he pensioned off an old gardener who used to live in that pretty cottage and he had been intimate with her husband when he was a young man in london and it seemed to him a duty to do what he could for her so he pensioned off an old gardener who used to live in that pretty cottage and and he had the cottage thoroughly renovated for Mrs. Porter. She had a little furniture of a rather superior kind, warehoused in London, and with this she was able to make a snug and pretty home for herself, as you will see if you call upon her after the service. You are sure to see her at church. Was she very fond of her little girl in those days?

Starting point is 08:09:59 I hardly know. People have different ways of showing affection. She was very strict with poor mercy. She educated her at home, and never allowed her to associate with any of the village children. She kept the child entirely under her own wing, so that the poor little thing had actually no companion but her mother, a middle-aged woman, saddened by trouble.

Starting point is 08:10:21 I felt very sorry for the child, and I used to have her up at the house for an afternoon now and then, just to introduce some variety into her life. When she grew up into a beautiful young woman, her mother seemed to dislike these visits, and stipulated that Mercy should only come to see me when there were no visitors in the house. she did not want her head turned by any of those foolish compliments

Starting point is 08:10:43 which frivolous people are so fond of pain to a girl of that age, never thinking of the mischief they may do. I told her that I thought she was over-careful, and that as Mercy must discover that she was handsome sooner or later, it was just as well that she should gain some experience of life at once. Her instinctive self-respect would teach her how to take care of herself, and if she could be safe anywhere she would be safe with me. Mrs. Porter is a rather obstinate person, and she took her own way.

Starting point is 08:11:11 She kept mercy as close as if she had been an Oriental slave, and yet somehow, Colonel Tremaine contrived to make love to her, and tempted her away from her home. Perhaps if that home had been a little less dismal, the girl might have not been so easily tempted. They had left the park by this time and were nearing the church. A scanty congregation came slowly in after Lady Chariton and her companion had taken their seats

Starting point is 08:11:36 in the chancel pew. The congregation was chiefly feminine. Middle-aged women in everyday bonnets and fur-trimmed cloaks with their shoulders up to their ears. Girls in felt hats and smart tight-fitting jackets. A few pious villagers of advanced years, spectacled, feeble, with wrinkled faces half-hidden under poke bonnets, two representative old men with long white hair and quavering voices

Starting point is 08:12:00 whose shrill treble was distinguishable above the rustic choir. Amidst this sparse congregation, Theodore had no difficulty in discovering Mrs. Porter. She sat in one of the front benches on the left side of the aisle, which side was reserved for the tradespeople and humbler inhabitants of Charitin, while the benches on the right were occupied by the county people, and some small fry who ranked with those elect of the earth, with them, but not of them,

Starting point is 08:12:26 a retired banker and his wife, the village doctor, the village lawyer, and two or three female annuitants of good family. A noticeable woman, this Mrs. Porter, anywhere. She was tall and thin, straight as a dart, with strongly marked features and white hair. Her complexion was pale and sallow, the kind of skin which is generally described as sickly. If she had ever been handsome, all traces of that former beauty had disappeared. It was a hard face without womanly charm, yet with an unmistakable air of refinement.

Starting point is 08:13:00 She wore her neat little black straw bonnet and black cloth mantle like a lady, she walked like a lady, as Theodore saw presently, when that portion of the little band of worshippers which did not remain for the celebration dribbled slowly out of the church. He left Lady Chariton kneeling in her pew and followed Mrs. Porter out of the porch and along the village street, and thence into that rustic lane which led to the West Lodge. He had spoken to her only once in his life on a summer morning when he had happened to find her standing at her garden gate, and when it had been impossible for her to avoid him. He knew that she must have seen him going in and out of the park gates often enough for his appearance to be familiar to her, so he had no scruple in introducing himself.

Starting point is 08:13:41 Good morning, Mrs. Porter, he said, overtaking her in the deeply sunk lane, between those rocky banks where Hart's tongue and Polypodium grew so luxuriantly in summer, and where even in this wintry season, the lichens and mosses spread their rich coloring over grey stone and brown earth, and above which the snow-laden boughs showed white against the blue brightness of the sky. She turned and bowed stiffly. Good morning, sir. You haven't forgotten me, I hope. I am Theodore Dalbrook of Dorchester. I think you must have seen me pass your window too often to forget me easily. I am not much given to watching the people who pass in and out, sir. When his lordship gave me the cottage, he was good enough to allow me a servant to open the park gate,

Starting point is 08:14:23 as he knew that I was not strong enough to bear exposure to all kinds of weather. I am free to live my own life, therefore, without thinking of his life. Lordship's visitors. I am sorry to intrude myself upon your notice, Mrs. Porter, but I want to speak to you upon a very delicate subject, and I must ask your forgiveness in advance if I should touch upon an old wound. She looked at him curiously, shrinkingly even, with a latent anger in her pale eyes, eyes that had been lovely once, perhaps, but which time or tears had faded to a glassy dullness. I have no desire to discuss old wounds with anyone, she said coldly.

Starting point is 08:14:59 my troubles at least are my own. Not altogether your own, Mrs. Porter. The sorrow of which I am thinking involves another life, the life of one who has been dear to you. I have nothing to do with any other life. Not even with the life of your only child. Not even with the life of my only child, she answered doggedly. She left me of her own accord, and I have done with her forever.

Starting point is 08:15:23 I stand utterly alone in this world. Utterly alone, she repeated. And if I tell you that I think and believe I have found your daughter in London, very poor, working for her living, very sad and lonely, her beauty faded, her life joyless, would you not wish to know more, would not your heart yearn towards her? No, I tell you I have done with her. She has passed out of my life. I stand alone.

Starting point is 08:15:50 There was a tone of finality in these words which left no room for argument. Theodore lifted his hat and walked on. End of Chapter 17. Volume 1, Chapter 18 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 18 O sovereign power of love, O grief, O balm,

Starting point is 08:16:23 All records saving thine come cool and calm and shadowy through the mist of past years. harrington dalbrook having in a manner given hostages to fortune entered upon his new career with a strength of purpose and a resolute industry which took his father by surprise upon my word harry i did not think there was so much grit in you said mr dalbrook i thought you and your sisters were too much stuffed with modern culture to be capable of old-fashioned work i hope my dear father you don't think education and intellect out of place in a lawyer far from it we have had too many examples to the contrary, from bacon to brougham, from hail to Cockburn. But I was afraid of the dilettante spirit, the talk about books which you had only half read, the smattering of subjects that need the work of a lifetime to be properly understood. I was afraid of our modern electroplate culture, the process which throws a brilliant film of education over a foundation of ignorance.

Starting point is 08:17:20 However, you have surprised me, Harry. I own that I was disappointed by your want of purpose at the university. But I begin to respect you now I find you a task. your work in the right spirit. I want to get on, answered Harrington gravely, hanging his head a little in shame at his own reticence. From so good a father he felt it was a kind of dishonor to keep a secret. But Juliet Baldwin had insisted upon secrecy, and the name of every fiancé in the early stages of an engagement is

Starting point is 08:17:49 she who must be obeyed. Harrington said not a word, therefore, as to that mighty prime mover which was urging him to dogged perseverance and a profession for which he had as yet no real inclination. He put aside Darwin and Spencer, Max Mueller and Seeley, Schopenhauer and Hartman, all those true or false lights which he had followed through the mazes of free thought, and he set himself to master the stern actualities of the law.

Starting point is 08:18:15 He had not done well at the university, not because he was wanting in brains, but because he was wanting in concentration and doggedness. The prime mover being supplied, and of a prodigious power, Harrington brought his intellectual forces to bear upon a given point, and made a rapid advance in legal knowledge and acumen. The old cookhousekeeper complained of the coals and candles which Master Harry consumed during his after-midnight studies, and wondered that the household were not all burnt in their beds by reason of the young gentleman dropping off to sleep over Coke upon Littleton.

Starting point is 08:18:47 The sisters complained that they had now practically no brother, since Harrington, who had a pretty tenor voice, and had hitherto been a star at afternoon teas and evening parties, refused to go anywhere, except those few houses, county, where Miss Baldwin might be met. Scarcely had the new year begun when Miss Baldwin went off upon a visit to one of the largest houses in Wiltshire and one of the smartest, a house under the dominion of a childless widow, gifted with a large income and a sympathetic temperament, a lady who allowed her life to be influenced and directed by a family of nephews and nieces, and whose house was declared by the advanced section of society to be quite the most perfect house to stay in, don't you know?

Starting point is 08:19:29 Miss Baldwin did not leave the neighborhood of Dorchester and her lover without protestations of regret. The thing was a bore, a sacrifice on her part, but it must be done. She had promised dear old Lady Burdenshaw ages ago, and to Lady Burdenshaw's, she must go. You needed to worry about it, she said with her off-hand air, lolling on the billiard-room settee in the grey winter afternoon on the second Sunday of the year. If you are at all keen upon being at Medlow Court while I am there, I'll make dear old Lady Burdenshaw send you an invitation. You are very good, replied Harrington,

Starting point is 08:20:05 and I should like staying in the same house with you, but I couldn't think of visiting a lady I don't know, or of caging for an invitation. Sir Henry had asked his friend to luncheon, and now, after a somewhat spartan meal of roast mutton and rice pudding, the lovers were alone in the billiard-room. Sir Henry having crevary, off to the stables. The table was kept rigorously covered on Sundays, in deference to the dowager's

Starting point is 08:20:29 sabbatarian leanings, and there was nothing for her son to do in the billiard-room, except to walk glistlessly up and down and stare some very dingy examples of the early Italian school, or to take the cues out of the rack one by one to see which of them wanted topping. Oh, but you needed to mind. You would be capital friends with Lady B. We all call her Lady B because a three-syllable name is too much for anybody's patience. I tell her she ought to drop a syllable. Lady Bershaw would do just as well. I suppose, though, if I were to get an invitation,

Starting point is 08:21:00 you could hardly be spared from, The Shop, concluded Juliette with a laugh. Hardly. I have to stick very close to the shop, replied Harrington, blushing a little at the word. Remember what I am working for. A family practice in London and a house that you need not be ashamed to inhabit. To me, that means as much as the red ribbon of the bath means to a soldier or sailor.

Starting point is 08:21:22 my ambition goes no further unless it were to a seat in parliament later on you are a good earnest soul yes of course you must go into parliament in spite of all the riff-raff that has got into the house of late years boys home rulers city men there is a faint flavour of distinction in the letters m p after a man's name it helps him just a little in society to be able to talk about my constituents and to contemplate european politics from the standpoint of the town that has elected him yes you must be in the house by and by, Harry. You told me we're tired of country house visiting, said Harrington, who for the first time since his betrothal felt somewhat inclined to quarrel with his divinity. So I am heartily sick of it, and I shall rejoice when I have a snug little nest of my own in Clarkes or Hertford Street. But you must admit that Medlow Court is better than this house.

Starting point is 08:22:16 Behold our average Sunday. Roast mutton, rice pudding, and invincible dullness, all the servants except an underfootman gone to afternoon church and no possibility of a cup of tea till nearly six o'clock. A cold dinner at eight and family prayers at ten. What kind of a Sunday do you have at Medlow? Therein'en appell to their gout. Medlow is Liberty Hall.

Starting point is 08:22:39 If we were even to take it into our heads to have family prayers, Lady Burdenshaw would send for her chaplain, pluck him out of the bosom of his family, and order him to read them. She doesn't like cards on a Sunday. because of the servants. Put after the clock has struck eleven, we may do what we please. Play poker, nap, yuker, baccarat, till daylight if we are in a humor. The billiard and smoke-rooms and the ballroom are at one end of the house, ever so far from the

Starting point is 08:23:06 servant's quarters. We can have as much fun as we like while those rustic souls are snoring. Harrington sighed ever so faintly. This picture of a fashionable interior was perfectly innocent, and his betroth's way of looking at things meant nothing worse than girlish exuberance. fine animal spirits, but the Saint-Gaine of Medlo Court was hardly the kind of training he would have chosen for his future wife. And then he looked at the handsome profile, the piled-up mass of ruddy brown hair on the top of the haughtily poised head, the perfectly fitting tailor-gown with its aristocratic simplicity, costing so much more than plebeian silks and satins, and he told himself that he was privileged in having one such exalted beauty to ally itself with his humble

Starting point is 08:23:48 fortunes. Such a girl would shine as a Duchess, and if marriageable dukes had eyes to see with, and judgment to guide their choice, that lovely Auburn head would here now have been crowned with a tiara of family diamonds, instead of waiting for the poor sprigs of orange blossom, which alone may adorn the brow of the solicitor's bride. Shall we go for a stroll in the grounds? asked Juliet, with a restless air and an impatient shiver. Perhaps it will be warmer out of doors than it is here. We keep such miserable fires in this house? I believe the greats were chosen with a view to burning the minimum of pole. I shall be delighted. Laura was absent on a visit to Yorkshire cousins, strong-minded like

Starting point is 08:24:30 herself and with no pretensions to fashion. Lady Baldwin had retired for her afternoon siesta. On Sundays she always read herself to sleep with Taylor or South. On weekdays she nodded over the morning paper. She had gone to the morning room with the idea that Henry would take his friend to tables and that Juliet would require no looking after. It had never entered into her ladyship's head that her handsome daughter would look so low as the son of her solicitor. Juliet was therefore free to do what she pleased with her afternoon, and her pleasure was to walk in the chilly shrubberies and the bare grey park, sparsely timbered, and with about as little forestal beauty as a gentleman's park can possess.

Starting point is 08:25:09 She put on an old seal-skin jacket and a to match, which she kept in the room where her brother kept his overcoats, and which smelt of tobacco, and which smelled of tobacco and after the manner of everything that came with Sir Henry's influence. And then she led the way to a half-class door which opened on a grass plot at the side of the house, and she and her lover went out. "'You can smoke if you like,' she said. "'You know I don't mind.

Starting point is 08:25:32 I'll have a cigarette with you in the shrubbery.' "'Dearest Juliet, I can't tell you how glad I should be if you would smoke less,' he said nervously, blushing at his own earnestness. "'You think I smoke too many cigarettes? That they are really bad for me?' she asked carelessly. It isn't that.

Starting point is 08:25:50 I wasn't thinking about their effect on your health. But, I know you will call it old-fashioned nonsense, I can't bear to see the woman who is to be my wife with a cigarette between her lips. And when I am your wife, I suppose you will cut me off from tobacco altogether. I should never be a domestic tyrant, Juliet. But it would wound me to see my wife smoke

Starting point is 08:26:11 just as much as it wounds me now when I see you smoke half a dozen cigarettes in succession. What a Philistine you are. are, Harry. Well, you shall not be tortured. I'll ease off the smoking if I can, but a whiff or two of an Egyptian soothed me when my nerves are overstrained. You are as bad as my mother, who thinks cigarette smoking one stage on the road to perdition, and rather an advanced stage, too. You are very easily shocked, Harry, if an innocent little cigarette can shock you. I wonder if you are really fond of me, now the novelty of our engagement has worn off.

Starting point is 08:26:44 I am fonder of you every day I live. enthusiastic boy if that is true you may be able to stand a worse shocker than my poor little cigarette harrington turned pale but he took the hand which she held out to him and grasped it firmly what was she going to tell him harry i want to make a financial statement i want you to help me if you can i am up to my eyes in debt in debt yes it sounds bad don't it debt and tobacco should be exclusively masculine vices I owe money all round. Not large sums, but the sum total is large. I have had to hold my own in smart houses upon an allowance which some women would spend with their shoemaker. My mother gives me £125 a year for everything, tips, travelling expenses, clothes, music, and I am not going to say anything unkind about her on that score, for I don't see how she could give me more. Her own means come to something under 1800 a year,

Starting point is 08:27:43 and she has this place to keep up. Henry takes all the rents, and often keeps her waiting for her income, which is a first charge upon the estate. If it were not for your father, who looks after her interest as sharply as he can, she might fare much worse. Henry brings as many men as he likes here and contributes nothing to the housekeeping.

Starting point is 08:28:03 And you owe money to milliners and people, said Harrington, deeply distressed by his sweethearts humiliation, which he felt more keenly than the lady herself. Juliet had lived among girls who talked freely of their debts and difficulties, soaps to Cerberus, and getting round an unwilling dressmaker. Harrington's lines had been said among

Starting point is 08:28:23 old-fashioned, countrified people, to whom debt, and especially feminine indebtedness, meant disgrace. He had come back from the university feeling like a murderer because he had exceeded his allowance. Milleners, dressmakers, shoemakers, hatters, and ever so many

Starting point is 08:28:39 more. I am afraid I have been rather reckless. Only, I thought. I thought I should make a great match, she would have said, had she followed her idea to its clothes, but she checked herself abruptly and cut off a sprig of you with a swing of the stick she carried. "'If I can help you in any way,' began Harrington. "'My dear boy, there is only one way in which you can help me.

Starting point is 08:29:03 Lend me any money you can spare. Say, fifty pounds, and I will give it you back by installments of ten or fifteen pounds a quarter. It would be mockery for me to pretend I could pay you in a lump sum. Now I have told you the extent of my income.' harrington's worldly wealth at that moment was something under fifty pounds his father had given him a check for fifty on christmas eve and he had no right to expect anything more till lady day while he had to think of the black horse who was steadily eating his head off at livery and for whom nothing had been paid as yet he could not find it in his heart to tell his affiance that he was comparatively speaking a pauper he knew that his father had the reputation of wealth a man always ready to invest in any odd parcel of land that was in the market, and who was known to possess a good many small holdings and houses in his native town and its neighborhood. Could he tell her that her future husband was still in leading strings, and that the run of his teeth and fifty pounds a quarter were all he could

Starting point is 08:30:00 count upon till he was out of his articles? No, he would rather perish than reveal these despicable facts. So, although he had only forty-three pounds odd in his little cash-box, he told her that he would let her have fifty pounds in a day or two. If you could manage to bring it to me to-morrow, I should be very glad, said Juliet, who, once having broken the ice, talked about the loan with easy frankness. I must have a new frock for the ball at Medlow. They are to have a ball on the first of February, the ball of the year. There will be no end of smart people.

Starting point is 08:30:34 I want to send Estelle Dawson 35 or 40 pounds about half the amount of her last bill. It's a paltry business altogether. I know girls who owe their dressmakers hundreds where I owe tens. Let me have the cash to-morrow. if you can. There's a dear. Miss Dawson is sure to be full of work for the country at this season, and she won't make my frock unless I give her a week's notice. Of course, dear, yes, you shall have the money, Harrington answered nervously.

Starting point is 08:31:01 But your white gown at our ball looked lovely. Why shouldn't you wear that at Medlow? My white gown would be better described as black, retorted the young lady with marked acidity. If I didn't hate the Dorchester people like poison, I wouldn't have insulted them by wearing such a rag. I would no more appear in it at medlow than I would cut my throat. Language so strong as this for bad argument. Harrington concluded that there was a mystery in these things outside the limits of masculine understanding. To his eye, the white saturn and tool his betrothed at worn had seemed faultless. But it may be that the glamour of first love acts like limelight

Starting point is 08:31:39 upon a soiled white garment, and no doubt Miss Baldwin's gown had seen service. He walked back, to the house with her and left her at the door just as it was growing dusk and the servants were coming home from church. He left her with a fictitious appearance of cheerfulness, promising to go to tea on the following afternoon. He was glad of the six-mile walk to Dorchester, as it gave him solitude for deliberation. At home, the keen eyes of his sisters would be upon him, and he would be pestered by inquiries as to what there had been for lunch and what Miss Baldwin wore, while the still more penetrating gaze of his father would be quick to perceive anything a miss. Oh, Juliet, if you knew how hard you are making our engagement to me. He ejaculated

Starting point is 08:32:23 mentally as he walked with the unconscious hurry of an agitated mind along the frost-bound road. There had been a hard frost since Christmas, and hunting had been out of the question, whereby the existence of Mahmoud and the bill at the livery's table seemed so much heavier a burden. Somehow or other, he must get the difference between 43 pounds and 50, only seven pounds, a paltry sum, no doubt, but it would hardly do for him to leave himself penniless until Lady Day. He might be called on at any moment for small sums. Short of shamming illness and stopping in bed till the end of the quarter, he could not possibly escape the daily cause which every young man has upon his purse. He told himself, therefore, that he must contrive to borrow fifteen or

Starting point is 08:33:07 twenty pounds. But of whom? That was the question. His first thought was naturally of his brother. but in the next moment he remembered how theodore in his financial arrangements with his father had insisted upon cutting himself down to the very lowest possible allowance you will pay all my fees dad and give me enough money to furnish my chambers decently with the help of the things i am to have out of this house and you will allow me so much he said naming a very modest sum for maintenance till i begin to get briefs i want to feel the spur of poverty i want to work for my bread of course i know i have a court of appeal here if my exchequer should run dry. Remembering this, Harrington felt that he could not, at the very beginning of things, pester his brother for a loan.

Starting point is 08:33:54 The same court of appeal, the father's well-filled purse was open to him, but he had no excuse to offer, no reason to give for exceeding his allowance. He might sell Mahmoud if there were not two obstacles

Starting point is 08:34:06 to that transaction. The first that nobody in the neighborhood wanted to buy him, the second that he was not yet paid for, except by that big, bill which rose like a pale blue spectre before the young man's eyes as he was dropping off to sleep of a night and sometimes spoiled his rest. He would have to sell Mahmud in order not to dishonor that bill, and if the horse should fetch considerably less than the price given for him,

Starting point is 08:34:30 as all equine experience that his owner to fear whence was to come the difference. That was a problem which would have to be solved somehow before the 10th of March. He would have to send the beast to Tattersall's most likely, the common experience of the hunting field. having taught him that nobody ever sells a horse among his own circle. He saw himself realizing something under fifty pounds as the price of the black, and having to bridge over the distance between that amount and eighty as best he might. But March was not tomorrow, and he had first of all to provide for tomorrow, a mere trifle, but it would have to be borrowed, and the sensation of borrowing was new to Matthew Dalbrook's son.

Starting point is 08:35:09 He had frittered away his ready money at the university, and he had got into debt, but he had never borrowed money of Jew or Gentile. And now the time had come when he must borrow of whomsoever he could. He took tea with his sisters in the good, homely, old-fashioned drying-room, which was at its best in winter, the four tall, narrow windows closely curtained, a roaring fire in the wide iron grate, and a modern Japanese tea table wheeled in front of it.

Starting point is 08:35:36 Five o'clock tea was of a more substantial order on Sundays than on weekdays, on account of the nine o'clock supper, which took the place of the seven o'clock dinner, and accommodated those who care to attend evening church. Lady Baldwin's Spartan luncheon had not indisposed her guest for cake and muffins, and basking in the glow of the fire, Harrington forgot his troubles, enjoyed his tea, and maintained a very fair appearance of cheerfulness, while his sisters questioned and his father put in an occasional word.

Starting point is 08:36:03 I'm afraid you are getting rather too friendly at the mount, said Matthew Dalbrook. I don't like Sir Henry Baldwin, and I don't think he's an advantageous friend for you. oh but we're old chums said harrington blushing a little we were at oxford together you know i'm afraid we both know it harry and to our cost replied his father you might have succeeded in your divinity exam if it hadn't been for this fine gentleman friend of yours i'm not sorry i failed father the law suits me ever so much better than the church so long as you stick to that opinion i'm satisfied only don't go to the mount too often and don't let the handsome miss baldwin make a fool of you. If it had not been for the colored shades over the lamps, which were so artistic as to be useless for seeing purposes, Harrington might have been seen to turn pale. No fear of that, Sophia exclaimed contemptuously. Juliet Baldwin is not likely to give a provincial solicitor any encouragement. She's a girl who expects to marry for position, and though she is just a

Starting point is 08:37:05 shade pa say, she may make a good match even yet. She comes here because she likes us, but she's a thorough woman of the world, and you needn't be afraid of her running after Harry. Harrington grew as red as a peony with suppressed indignation. Perhaps, as the Baldwin's are my friends, you might be able to get on without talking any more about them, he said scowling at his elder sister. I've told you what we had for lunch and how many servants were in the room and what kind of gown, Juliet, Miss Baldwin was wearing. Don't you think we've had enough of them for tonight?

Starting point is 08:37:38 Quite enough, Harry, quite enough, said the father. by the by did you read the times leader on glassstone's last manifesto and where are the field and the observer bring me over a lamp that i can see by sophy my dear these crimson lamp-shades of yours suggest one of Orchardson's pictures but they don't help me to read my paper they're the beastliest things i ever saw said Harrington vindictively i'm sorry you don't like them said janet it was juliet baldwin who persuaded us to buy them she had seen some at medlow court, and she raved about them. Harrington went out of the room without another word.

Starting point is 08:38:16 How odious his sisters had become of late. Yet, while he was at Oxford, they had regarded him as an oracle, and he had found even sisterly appreciation pleasant. It was some time since he had attended evening service, but on this particular evening he went alone, not troubling to invite his sisters who were subject to an intermittent form of neuralgia which often prevented their going to church in the evening. Tonight he avoided St. Peter's, in which

Starting point is 08:38:40 his father had seats, and went to the more remote church of Fortington, where he had a pew all to himself on this frosty winter night, except for one well-behaved worshipper in the person of his father's old and confidential clerk, James Hayfield, a constant church-courgore who was punctual at every evening service whatever the weather. Harrington had expected to see him there. Hayfield sat modestly aloof at the further end of that pew, but when the service was over the young man took some pains to follow close upon the heels of the grey-haired clerk, with shoulders bent by long ears of deskwork, and respectable dark blue Chesterfield overcoat with velvet collar.

Starting point is 08:39:17 "'How do you do, Hayfield? Isn't this rather a sharp night for you to venture out in?' said Harrington as they left the church porch. "'I'm a toughish customer. I thank you, Mr. Harrington. It would take severe weather than this to keep me away from the evening service. I'm very fond of the evening service.' "'A fine sermon, sir, a fine awakening sermon. magnificent capital exclaimed harrington who hadn't heard two consecutive sentences and whose mind had been engaged upon arithmetical problems of the most unpleasant kind it is uncommonly cold though he added shivering i'll walk round your way it will be a little longer for me you're very good mr harrington very good indeed said the old clerk evidently touched by this unusual condescension never till to-night had his master's son offered to walk home from church with him. The old man's gratitude was more than Harrington could stand. He could not take credit for

Starting point is 08:40:15 kindly condescension when he knew himself intent upon his own selfish ends. "'I'm afraid I'm not altogether disinterested in seeking your company to-night, Hayfield,' he blurted out. "'The fact is, I want to ask a favor of you.' "'You may take it as granted, Mr. Harrington,' answered the clerk cheerily, provided the granting of it lies within my power. Oh, it's not a tremendous affair, in point fact it's only a small money matter. I'm exceeding my allowance a little this quarter, but I intend to pull up next quarter, and it will be a great convenience to me in the meantime if you'll lend me ten or fifteen pounds. It was out at last. He had no idea until he uttered

Starting point is 08:40:54 the words how mean a creature the utterance of them would make him seem to himself. There are people who go through life borrowing, and who do it with the easiest grace, seeming to confer rather than to ask a favor. But perhaps even with these, gifted ones the first plunge was painful. Fifteen or twenty, if you like, sir, replied Hayfield. I've got a few pounds in an old stocking, and any little sum like that is freely at your service. I know your father's son won't break his word or forget that an old servant's savings

Starting point is 08:41:27 are his only bulwark against age and decay. My dear Hayfield, of course I shall repay you next quarter without fail. Thank you, Mr. Harrington. I feel sure you will. and if at the same time I may venture a word as an old man to a young one in all friendliness and respect, I would ask you to beware of horses. I heard someone that dropped the other evening in the billiard-room at the antelope, where I occasionally play a fifty.

Starting point is 08:41:53 I heard it said, promiscuously, that Sir Henry Baldwin is a better hand at selling a horse than you are at buying one. That's Bosch, Hayfield, and people in a god-forsaken town like Dorchester will always talk Bosch, Bosch, especially in a public billiard room. The horse is a good horse, and I shall come home upon him when I send him up to Tattersalls after the hunting. I only hope he won't come home upon you, sir. You'd better not put a high reserve upon him if you don't want to see him again. I used to be considered a pretty good judge of a horse in my time. I never was an equestrian, but one sees more of a horse from the pavement than when one is on his back. Harrington fell

Starting point is 08:42:35 that he must bear with this twaddle for the sake of the twenty pounds which would enable him to lend juliet around fifty and would thereby enable juliet to go to medlow court and flirt with unknown men and forget him upon whom or impugniosity was inflicting such humiliation after all love is only another name for a suffering mr hayfield lived in westwalk terrace where he had a neat first floor in a stucco villa semi-detached and built at a period when villa strove to be architectural without attaining beauty the first floor consisted of a front sitting-room looking out upon the alley of sycamores and the green beyond and a back bedroom looking over gardens and houses towards the church tower in the heart of the town provided with the latch-key mr hayfield admitted his master's son to the inner mysteries of the villa where a lady with a very reedy voice was singing far away in the front parlor while a family conversation which almost drowned her melody was going on in the back parlor mr hayfield's bedroom candlestick and match-and-and-a-house and match-heil's bedroom candlestick and match were ready for him on a Swiss bracket near his door and his lamp was ready on a table in his sitting-room where every object was disposed with a studied precision which marked at once the confirmed bachelor and the model lodger the pilgrim's progress the christineer Wittaker's almanac and uncle Tom's cabin were placed with mathematical regularity upon the walnut-lew table surrounding a centerpiece of wax flowers in an alabaster vase under a glass shade a smaller table of the nature described as Pembroke was place nearer the fire, and on this appeared Mr. Hayfield's supper tray, set

Starting point is 08:44:09 forth with a plate of cold roast beef, a glass saucer of oriental pickle, cheese, and accompaniments, flanked by an imperial pint of Guinness. A small fire burnt brightly in the grate, whose dimensions had been reduced by a careful adjustment of fire-bricks. Sit down, my dear

Starting point is 08:44:25 Mr. Harrington, you'll find that chair very comfortable. I'll go and get out the money. My cash-box is in the next room. Can I tempt you to join me in a place? of cold ribs. There's plenty more where that came from. Mrs. Potter has a fine wing rib every Sunday, from years end to years end. I generally take my dinner with her and her family, but I sup alone. A little society goes a long way with a man of my age. I like my Lloyd and my news of the world

Starting point is 08:44:55 after supper. He went into his bedroom, which was approached by folding doors, and came back again in two minutes with a couple of crisp notes, the savings of half a year, savings which a good deal of self-denial in a man who, in his own words, wished to live like a gentleman. The old clerk prided himself upon his good broadcloth, clean linen, and respectable lodgings, and it was felt in town that so respectable a servant enhanced even the respectability of Dalbrook and Son. Harrington took the bank-notes with many thanks and insisted upon writing a note of hand, albeit the old clerk reminded him that Sunday was a Diaznan at the desk where Hayfield

Starting point is 08:45:32 wrote his letters and did any copying work he cared to do after all, office hours. He stayed while the old man ate his temperate meal, but would not be persuaded to share it. Indeed, his lips felt hot and dry, and it seemed to him as if he should never want to eat again, but he gladly accepted a tumbler of the refreshing Guinness upon the repeated assurance that there was plenty more where that came from. There was a rapid thaw on the following morning, so Harrington rode the black over to the mount in the twilight after office hours, a liberty which that high-bred animal resented by taking fright at every doubt of the morning. full object in the long leafless avenue beyond the Roman amphitheatre.

Starting point is 08:46:10 Triples, which would have been light as air to him, jogging homeward and company after a long day's hunting, assumed awful and grossly aspects under the combined influences of solitude and want of work. The twilight ride to the mount was, in fact, a series of hair-breadth escapes, and it would have needed a stronger stimulant than the dowager's wishy-washy tea to restore Mr. Dalbrook's physical balance if his mental balance had not been so thoroughly unhinged as to make him half unconscious of physical discomfort. You look awfully seedy, said Juliet, as she poured out tea from a pot that had been standing nearly half an hour. The dowager had retired to her own den, where she occupied a great portion

Starting point is 08:46:50 of her life in writing prosy letters to her relatives and connections of all degrees, but as she never sent them anything else, this was her only way of maintaining the glow of family feeling. The black nearly pulled my fingers off, replied Harrington. I never knew him so fresh. You should have taken him out on the downs, answered Juliet, rather contemptuously. The grass is all right after the thaw. Have you brought me what you so kindly promised?

Starting point is 08:47:17 He took a sealed envelope out of his breast pocket and handed it to her. Is this the fifty? How quite too good of you, she cried, pocketing it hastily. You don't know what a difficulty you have got me out of, but I'm afraid I may have inconvenienced you. This was evidently an afterthought.

Starting point is 08:47:35 being your slave what should i do but tend upon the hours and times of your desire quoted harrington with a sentimental air how sweet exclaimed juliet really touched by his affection yet she would rather he had told her that fifty pounds was a sum of no consequence and that so small alone involved no inconvenience for him i'm afraid his father can hardly be as rich as people think she said to herself while harrington relaxed his strained muscles before the fire how i wish you were not going to medlow he said presently so do i but i can't possibly get out of it and then it's a blessed escape to get away from here do you really dislike your home asked her lover wondering at this hitherto unknown characteristic in a young woman i loathe and so does my sister though she pretends to be domestic and religious and all that kind of thing lady baldwin is an impossible person and our housekeeping would disgrace the union if i had not had the entree of plenty of good houses and been in request i should have been found hanging in one of the attics years ago this candor gave harrington an uncomfortably chilly feeling as if a damp cold wind had blown over him and then he told himself that it would be his privilege to initiate this dear girl in the tranquil delights of a happy home which while modest in its pretensions should yet be smart enough to satisfy her superior tastes and aspirations when do you go he asked preparing to take leave to-morrow your kindness has made everything easy to me come back as soon as you can love and then there was some lingering foolishness permissible between engaged lovers and the beautiful miss baldwin's head reposed for two or three minutes upon the articled clerk's shoulder while he looked into her eyes and told her that they were stars to light him on to fame and fortune i hope they'll show you a short cut she said he left her cheered by the thought that she was very fond of him and so she was but he was not the first second third or fourth young man of whom she had been fond nor was it a new thing to her to be told that her eyes were guiding stars End of Chapter 18. End of Volume 1. Of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Starting point is 08:49:52 Recorded by Cilin Major. Volume 2, Chapter 1 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Bradden. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 1 All the creatures made for heaven's honors have their ends and good ones, all but the cousining crocodiles, false women. February had begun, the frost and snow had disappeared. There were soft breathings of spring in the breezes that blew over the broad, grassy downs

Starting point is 08:50:27 beyond the Roman encampment, and the sportsmen of the neighborhood were rejoicing in open weather and lengthening daylight, but Juliet Baldwin was still at Medlow Court, and the heart of Harrington-Dahlbrook was heavy as he set out in the pleasant morning for some distant meat, and it was heavier as he rode home in the evening, after a day's sport which had shown him only too distinctly that the black horse was not so young as he had been. He hugged himself with the delusion that those indications of advancing years, which were but too obvious towards the close of a trying day across a heavy country, would vanish after a week's rest, and that the horse would show no signs of staleness at tattersalls, where he must

Starting point is 08:51:04 inevitably be sold before the end of the month, his owner seeing no other way of meeting the bill that had been given in exchange for a beast whose name should have been not Mahmoud, but white elephant. Harrington's sole motive for buying a hunter, or rather his sole excuse for being trapped into the purchase, was the expectation of being able to ride to hounds in Miss Baldwin's company. She had said to him, you ought to hunt, and he had straightway hunted just as if she had told him to balloon he would have ballooned. And now Juliet Baldwin was following the hounds in another county while he was in Dorsetshire, plodding along dreary roads to inaccessible meats at places, which would seem to have been chosen with a special study of everybody's inconvenience.

Starting point is 08:51:47 The whole business was fraught with bitterness. He had never loved hunting for its own sake, had never possessed the single-mindedness of the genuine sportsman who cares not for weather or country, or companionship, or hunger or thirst, so long as there is a fox at the beginning of the day and blood at the end. Juliet was out with the hounds three days a week. She wrote rapturous accounts of forty minutes here and an hour there, and every run which she described was apparently the quickest thing that had ever been known in that country. She let her lover know en passant that she had been greatly admired, and that her horsemanship

Starting point is 08:52:22 had been talked about. Her letters were very affectionate, but they testified also to a self-love that amounted to adoration. Her frocks, her horses, provided as the young ravens are fed by a kindly providence in the shape of casual acquaintance, her breaks and billiards, her waltzing, were all dilated upon with a charming frankness. it seems rather foolish to write all this egotistical twaddle she apologised but you complain if i send you a short letter and there is literally nothing to tell here at least nothing about any one you know or that it would have the faintest interest for you so i am obliged to scribble about my frocks and my little social triumphs this was kindly meant no doubt but it stung him to be reminded that his friends were not her friends that belgravia is not further from islington than her people were from his people in one of her letters she was she wrote casually why don't you put mamud into a horse-box and come over for a day with these hounds it would be capital fun there is a dear little rustic inn where you and your horse could put up and lady b would ask you to dinner as a matter of course i dare say your highly respectable hair will stand on end at some of our ways but that won't matter i am sure you would enjoy an evening or two at medlow think about it like a dear boy harrington did think about it indeed from the first reading of his lady loves

Starting point is 08:53:43 unceremonious invitation he thought of nothing else. After much puzzling over timetables he found that trains, those particular trains which condescend with an asterisk to carry horses, could be matched so as to convey the black horse to the immediate vicinity of Medlow Court in something under a day, and this being so he telegraphed his intention of putting up at the Medlo arms on the following night, taking pains to add shall arrive at 5 p.m. so as to secure the promised invitation to dinner. He had been so chary of spending money since his loan to Juliet that he had still a few pounds in hand, enough as he thought to pay travelling expenses and hotel bills. His heart was almost light as he packed his hunting gear and dress suit, albeit March 10

Starting point is 08:54:23 was written in fiery characters across a spectral bill, which haunted him wherever he went. It was still early in February, he told himself. Some stroke of luck might happen to him. Some rich young fool at Medlow Court might take a fancy to Mahmoud and want to buy him. he had heard of men who wanted to buy horses although it had been his fate to meet only the men who were eager to sell after no less than three changes of trains he arrived at the toppleton road station for medlow and toppleton about half-past four weary but full of hope he was to see her again after three weeks severance he was going at her own express desire it was her tact and cleverness that had made the visit easy for him had he not lady burdon shaw's invitation in his pocket, in a fine, open-hearted hand, sprawling over three sides of large note-paper.

Starting point is 08:55:15 Dear Mr. Dalbrook, I hear you are coming over for a day or two with our hounds, and I hope you will contrive to dine with us every evening while you are in the neighbourhood. Your father and Sir Fillamore were old friends. Dinner at eight. Sincerely yours, Sarah Burdenshaw. Sir Fillamore had been in the family vault nearly fifteen years. The malicious averred that he had sought that dismal shelter as a refuge and a relief from the life which Lady Burdonshire imposed upon him, open house, big shoots, hunting breakfasts,

Starting point is 08:55:45 fancy balls, and private theatricals in the country, and in London perpetual gadding about. Sir Fillamore's grandfather had come up from Aberdeen, a raw boy without a penny, and had found out something about the manufacture of iron which had eventually made him a millionaire. Sir Fillamore's fortune had reconciled the beautiful Sally Tempest to a marriage with a man who was her senior by a quarter of a century, and the only license she had allowed herself had been her indulgence in boundless extravagance, and a laxity of manner which had somewhat shocked society in the sober fifties and 60s, though it left her moral character unimpeached. In the 80s, nobody wondered or exclaimed at Lady Burdenshaw's freedom of speech and manner,

Starting point is 08:56:27 or at the manners she encouraged in her guests. In the 80s, Sarah Burdenshaw was generally described as, good fun. Harrington found the dear little rustic in very very very picturesque externally, but small and stuffy within, and the bedroom into which he was ushered was chiefly occupied by a large, old-fashioned fore-post bedstead, with chinted hangings that smelt of mildewed lavender. Indeed, the pervading odor of the Medlow arms was mildew. He dressed as well as he could under considerable disadvantages, and a rumbling old lando, which had the local odor, conveyed him to Medlow Court much quicker than he could have supposed possible from his casual survey of the horse. It was ten minutes to eight. It was ten minutes to

Starting point is 08:57:07 eight when he entered Lady Birdenshaw's drawing-room. It was a very large room, prettily furnished in a careless style, as if by a person whose heart was not set upon furniture. There were plenty of low, luxurious chairs, covered with a rather gaudy chintz, and refrailed with lace and muslin, and there were flowers in abundance, but of human life the room was empty. Harrington hardly knew whether he was relieved or discomposed at finding himself alone. He had leisure in which to pace the room two or three times to arrange his tie and inspect his dress suit before one of the long glasses, and then to feel offended at Juliet's coldness. She knew that he was to be there. She might surely have contrived

Starting point is 08:57:48 to be in the drying-room ten minutes before the dinner hour. Half a dozen people straggled in, a not-too-tidy-looking matron in ruby velvet, a sharp-featured girl in black lace, and some men who looked sporting or a military. One of these times. to him i think you must be mr. dalbrook he said after they had discussed the weather and the state of the roads you are quite right but how did you guess miss baldwin told me you were coming and i don't think there's anyone else expected tonight do you know your hostess i am waiting for that privilege ah that explains your punctuality nobody is ever punctual at medlow eight

Starting point is 08:58:25 o'clock means half passed and sometimes a quarter to nine lady burdonshaw has reached her 60th year without having arrived at a comprehension of the nature of time as an inelastic thing which will not stretch to suit feminine convenience. She still believes in the elasticity of an hour and rushes off to her room to dress when she ought to be sitting down to dinner. Her girlfriends follow her example and seldom leave the billiard room or the tea room till dear Lady B leads the way. A whole bevy of ladies entered the room rather noisily at this moment and among them appeared Juliet, magnificent in a red gown, which set off the milky whiteness of her shoulders. Rather a daring combination with red hair, remarked the young lady in black, who was sitting

Starting point is 08:59:08 on a narrow cozeze with a large man, whose white moustache and padded chest suggested a cavalry regiment. You may call the lady a harmony in red, said the gentleman. Harrington scowled upon these prattlers and then crossed the room to greet his love. Yes, it was a daring combination, the scarrow. garlet gown with the reddy tints in her auburn hair, but the audacity was justified by success. She looked a magnificent creature, dazzling as Vashty in her eastern splendor, invincible as Delilah. Who could resist her?

Starting point is 08:59:43 She gave her hand to Harrington and seemed pleased to see him, but in the next moment he saw her looking beyond him towards the end of the room. He turned, involuntarily following the direction of her eyes, and saw the man who had talked to him, and who was now evidently watching them. He was a middle-aged man, handsome, tall, and upstanding, and with an air which Harrington considered decidedly patrician. Who is that man by the piano? he asked. Major Swanwick, Lord Bolia's younger brother.

Starting point is 09:00:13 Ah, I thought he was a swell, said Harrington, innocently. He was very civil to me just now. You might have been in the drawing-room a little earlier, Juliet. You must have known that I was longing to see you. My dear boy, we were playing skittal pool till five minutes to eight. I had no idea you were in the house. Ah, here comes Lady B. A fat, fair, flaxen-haired lady in a sky-blue tea gown embroidered with silver palm leaves came rolling into the room,

Starting point is 09:00:42 murmuring apologies for having kept people waiting for their dinner. I know you must all be delightfully ravenous, she said, and that's ever so much better than feeling that dinner has come too soon after lunch. juliet introduced her friend who was most graciously received how is your father asked lady burdonshaw it is ages since i saw him more than twenty years i believe sir philemore bought some land in your country and mr dalbrook acted for him in the matter and he still receives the rents and so you are going out with the hounds to-morrow they meet quite near not more than seven or eight miles from your inn juliet will show you the way across country She's always in the first plight, but if you want to know her particular talent, you should see her play pool. I can assure you she makes all the men sit up. Harrington scarcely followed the lady's meaning.

Starting point is 09:01:39 There was no time for explanations as the butler who had been waiting for her ladyship's appearance, now announced dinner, and Harrington had the bliss of going to the dining room with Juliet Baldwin on his arm. He felt as if he were in the Muslim's enchanted fields as he sat by her side. at the brilliant table, with its almost overpowering perfume of hothouse flowers, which were grouped in great masses of bloom among the old silver and the many-colored Venetian glass. Yes, it was a Mohamedan paradise, and this was the Huri, this lovely creature with the milky shoulders rising out of saw folds of scarlet crape. How long are you going to stay here, Juliet? he asked as the Huri unfolded her napkin.

Starting point is 09:02:20 She gave a little laugh before she answered the question. Compare this rumen table with our dining room at the mount. You can compare the dinner with my mother's dinners after you have eaten it, and ask yourself if any reasonable creature would be in a hurry to leave this canon for that wilderness. I'm afraid I shall stop as long as ever dear old lady B asks me, and she is always pressing me to extend my visit. I don't think dinner can be much of attraction in your mind, Juliet, said Harrington. Of course not. Girls don't care what they eat, replied Juliet, sipping her clear soup and most fully appreciating the flavor.

Starting point is 09:02:55 But there are so many advantages at Medlow. There is the hunting, for instance, which is much better than any I can get at home, where I have positively no horse that I can call my own. Here I can always rely upon a good mount. Has Lady Bird and Shaw are large stable? Oh, she keeps a good many horses, but most of hers are only fit for leather.

Starting point is 09:03:16 There are men who come here with strings of hunters and have always a young one that they like me to handle for them. "'Juliet, you will get your neck broken,' cried Harrington, pale with horror, and staring vacantly at the fish that was being offered to him. "'There is no fear of that while I ride young horses. The danger is an old one.' "'My father taught me to ride, and as he was one of the best cross-country riders in Dorset, I am not likely to make a mistake. You had better try that soul Normand. It is one of the medlow specialties.

Starting point is 09:03:46 "'Juliet, I hate the idea of your staying in this house, or in any house where there is a crowd of fast men. I hate the idea of your riding men's horses, of your being under an obligation to a stranger. Don't I tell you that the obligation is all the other way? A young hunter is a more assailable article when he has carried a lady. We'll suit a bold horsewoman in a stiff country. That sort of thing is worth a great deal in a catalogue, and the men whose horses I ride are not strangers. At the most, they are casual acquaintances. Call them that if you like, why should not one profit by one's acquaintances. There is one of your benefactors looking at you at this moment, and looking as if he objected to my talking to you. How dare you talk about my benefactors?

Starting point is 09:04:32 Do you suppose I had you invited to Medlow in order that you might insult me? This little dialogue was conducted in subdued tones, but with a good deal of acrimony upon either side. Harrington was bursting with jealousy. The house, the men, the very atmosphere awakened distrust. He detested those men for their square shoulders and soldierly bearing, for the suggestion of cavalry or household brigade which seemed to him to pervade the masculine portion of the assembly. He had always hated military men. Their chief mission in life seemed to be to make civilians look insignificant. Miss Baldwin ate the next entree in Stony's silence, and it was not till he had abjectly apologized for his offensive speech that her lover was again taken into favor.

Starting point is 09:05:19 She relented at last, however, and favored him with a good deal of information about the House party, which made such a brilliant show at Lady Bird and Shaw's luxurious board. The men were, for the most part, military, the greater number bachelors, or at any rate unencumbered with wives. Two had been divorced, one was a widower, another was separated in the friendliest way from a wife who found she could live in better style unfettered by matrimonial supervision. Major Swanwick was one of the two who had profited by Sir James Hannan's jurisdiction. His wife was Lady Flora Thirls, one of the tantalans. All the tan talon girls went wrong, don't you know?

Starting point is 09:05:57 It was in the blood. He and he seemed to be great friends, said Harrington, still suspicious. Oh, we have met very often. He is quite an old chum of mine. He is a good old thing. Seeing that the good old thing looked as if he were well under forty, Harrington was not altogether reassured, even by this comfortable tone. He washed his betrothed, and the major

Starting point is 09:06:19 all through the long evening in the billiard-room, where Poole again was the chief amusement of a very noisy party, of which Juliet and Major Swanwick seemed to him the ringleaders and master spirits. It was with difficulty that he, the affianced, got speech with his betrothed. There were just a few minutes while the old family tankards were being carried round with mulled, claret, and other cunning drinks, in which Juliet vouchsafed to give her attention to her lover, he having in a manner cornered her into a draped recess at the end of the room, where he held her prisoner while he bade her good-night. I shall see you at the meet to-morrow, he said.

Starting point is 09:06:55 I won't promise to be at the meet, but I shall find you and the hounds in plenty of time. I know every inch of this country. Whose horse are you going to ride tomorrow? A fine upstanding chestnut. I'm sure you'll admire him. Yes, yes, but whose? Whose? echoed Juliet as if she scarcely understood the word.

Starting point is 09:07:16 Oh, with a sudden flash of intelligence. You mean whose property is he? As if that mattered. He belongs to Major Swanwick. Good night, said Harrington, and he went off to take leave of Lady Burdonshaws who was sitting in the capacious ingle-nook with a circle of men about her telling her anecdotes

Starting point is 09:07:33 in Paris and French, and from whom every now and then their burst peals of jovial laughter. At my age one understands everything, and one may. hear everything, said her ladyship. Harrington went back to the medlow arms, more depressed than he had felt during any period of his courtship. Instinct had warned him of the dangers that must lurk in such a house as

Starting point is 09:07:54 medlow court for such a girl as Juliet Baldwin, but neither instinct nor imagination had prepared him for the horrible reality. To see the woman who was to be his wife smoking cigarettes, playing shilling pool, and bandying doubtful jokes with men who had obviously the very poorest opinion of the opposite sex, was an agony. which he had never thought to suffer. And, for the first time since his engagement, he began to ask himself whether it would not have been better to have trusted his future happiness

Starting point is 09:08:21 to the most insipid and colorless of the girls with whom he played tennis than to this magnificent specimen of emancipated smartness. The image of Juliet sprawling over the billiard table with her eyes on fire and her shoulders half out of her gown as she took a difficult life, pursued him like a back-an-alien nightmare

Starting point is 09:08:39 all through his troubled snatches of sleep. the stony straw mattress and lumpy bed would not have been conducive to slumber under the happiest circumstances but for a mind disturbed by care they were a bed of torture he rose at seven unrefreshed heavy-hearted detesting chanticleer cloudy skies in all the old-fashioned fuss about a hunting morning and wishing himself in his comfortable room in the good old house in cornhill where he had ample space in all things needful to a luxurious toilette he got himself dressed somehow he was in the saddle at nine o'clock, after a breakfast for which he had no appetite. It was a long, dreary ride to the little roadside inn at which the hounds met, and Harrington, being particularly punctual, had to jog along companionless till the last mile, when Major Swanwick and another man from Medlow overtook him and regaled him with their talk for the rest of the way.

Starting point is 09:09:33 "'I think I know that, black horse,' said the Major, who looked provokingly well in his red coat, chimney-pot and cream-colored tops, thereby making Harrington a show. ashamed of his neat dark gray coat, Bedford cords, and bowler hat. Wasn't he in Baldwin's stud nine years ago? I bought him of Sir Henry Baldwin. Thought so. Good hand at selling a horse, Baldwin. However, I suppose there is some work in the black horse yet. I hope so, for I mean to hunt him to the end of the season, answered Harrington, ignoring that awful necessity of selling before the end of the month. Hope glowed faintly in his breast as he saw the major's keen eye going over his mount,

Starting point is 09:10:11 as if studying the condition of every limb and every muscle. Where's well? He said, after this deliberate survey, but I'm afraid you'll find him like a wonderful one-horse shay. He'll go to pieces all at once. Did Baldwin tell you his age? He said something about Rising Eight, but I didn't inquire very particularly,

Starting point is 09:10:31 as I know the horse is a good one. And it was a good one of Baldwin to talk about Rising Eight. He would have been within the mark if he had said Rising Eighteen. I bought a horse of Sirius'clock, sir henry myself and after a brief pause i've sold him one and i dare say that made you even said harrington with acidity he would have liked to call the major out for his insolence and almost regretted that he was a britain and not a frenchman and a professed dualist faith i don't think he had altogether the best of me for when he rode that hunter of mine he was like the little old woman in the nursery rhyme of whom it was said that she should have music wherever she went he had music and to spare and so with jovial laughter they rode up to the open space in front of the red cow where the hounds were grouped about a duck pond while the master chatted with his friends it was an hour later before juliet appeared cropping up suddenly on a windy common with three other girls and two men while the hounds were drawing the furs.

Starting point is 09:11:30 You see, I could make a pretty good guess where to find you, she said to Harrington. How well the black looks. You have been saving him up, I suppose. No, I've hunted as often as I could. I had no other distraction during your absence. How sweet of you to say that, with all the gaieties of Dorchester to allure you. Hark! They've found, and we shall be off in a minute. Yes, there he goes. pointing with her whip to the spot where the fox had flashed across the short-level swore, vanishing next moment in the withered heather. Now you'll see what this horse can do, and you can tell me what you think of him when we meet at dinner.

Starting point is 09:12:08 There was the usual minute or so of flutter and expectation, and then the business-like calm, an almost awful calm, every man settling down to his work, intent upon himself, steering carefully for a good place. Harrington was a nervous rider, and if fortune helped him to get a good place he kept it. Today he was more than usually nervous, fancying that Juliet's eye was upon him, which it wasn't, and indeed could not have been, unless it had been situated in the back of her head, since she was already ever so far in front. In time, however, he too contrived to settle down, and the black horse took the business into his own hands and kept his rider fairly close to the hounds.

Starting point is 09:12:46 For the first twenty minutes there was a good deal of jumping, but of a mildish order, and Harrington felt that he was distinguishing himself inasmuch as much as he was able to stick to his horse, though not always to his saddle. They lost their first fox after a very fair run, and they waited about for nearly two hours before they started a second, which they did eventually in a scrubby copse on the skirts of a great stretch of plowed land. The plough took a good deal out of Mahmoud, and after the plow came a series of small fields with some stiffish fences, which had to be taken by any man who wanted to keep with the hounds. Here Juliet was in her glory, for the chestnut on which she was mounted was a fine fencer, and she knew how to handle him,

Starting point is 09:13:27 or perhaps it may be said how to let him alone. Mahmud had been almost as fine a fencer as the fiery young chestnut, and he was a horse of a great heart, always ready to attempt more than he could do. The livery-stable people had told Harrington that if his legs were only as good as his heart, he would be one of the best hunters in the country. And now, with some quavering of spirit on his own part, Harrington trusted that heart would stand instead of legs and get his him and the black over the fences somehow.

Starting point is 09:13:55 Just at this crucial point in the run, Juliet was in front of him, and Major Swanwick was pressing him behind. He was near the hounds, and altogether in a place of honor, could he but keep it, and to keep it he felt was worth a struggle. He got over or through the first fence somehow, not gloriously, but without too much loss of time, and galloped gaily towards the second, which looked a stiffer and more complicated affair. Juliet's horse went over like a bird, and Juliet sat him like a butterfly, no more discomposed by the shock than if she had been some winged insect that had lighted on his onches. Mammud followed close, excited by the horse in front of him, and rose to his work gallantly. But this time it was timber and knot quick-set that had to be

Starting point is 09:14:37 cleared, and that stiff rail was just too much for the old hunter's legs. He blundered, hit himself with the sharp edge of the rail, and fell heavily forward, sending his rider, flying into the next field, and sinking in a struggling mass. ass into the ditch. Major Swanwick dismounted in an instant, scrambled over the hedge, and ran to help Harrington up. Are you hurt? Not much, answered the fallen man, staggering to his feet, hatless and with a dazed look. I'm afraid my horse is done for, though, poor old chap. In that moment his only thought was of the beast he had been fond of, which had been to him as a friend, albeit often, an unmanageable one. He had no thought just then of the money value of that

Starting point is 09:15:20 doubled up mass lying in the ditch. Mahmoud had finished his course. His forearm was broken, and the most merciful thing was to make a swift end of him with a bullet from a gun which one of the whips fetched from the nearest farmhouse. His owner stood by him and waited for the end, while Juliet and the rest of the hunt galloped away out of sight. When the shot had been fired, the black horse was left to be carted off to the kennels, and Harrington turned to walk slowly and sorrowfully to the farmhouse, where he was promised

Starting point is 09:15:49 a trap to convey him to the medlow arms. Then, and then only did he discover that he had dislocated his shoulder and was suffering acute agony, and then, and then only did he remember the acceptance which he had given for the black horse. Where now were the fifty pounds which he had reckoned upon getting for the animal at Tattersalls, trusting to Providence or old Hayfield to make up the balance of thirty? He saw himself now with that horrible acceptance falling due and no assets. he got back to the rustic inn with great suffering and laid himself down upon the stony-hearted fore-poster instead of dressing to go and dine at medlow the village surgeon came and attended to his shoulder a painful business though not unskillfully done

Starting point is 09:16:34 and then he was told he must keep himself as quiet as possible for a few days and must not think of travelling till the inflammation was reduced it was his right shoulder on which he had fallen and he was utterly helpless the handy young man of the medlow arms had to valet his him and assist him to eat the tough mutton chop which was served to him in lieu of all the delicacies of medlow court. A messenger came from that hospitable mansion at ten o'clock with a little note from Juliet. Why did you not turn up at dinner time? Major Swanwick said you were all right. I waited till I saw you get up, safe and sound. So sorry for poor old Mahmood. Come to breakfast to-morrow and tell us all about it. We killed in a quarter of an hour. Yours, Juliet. Harrington's sent his best regards to Miss Baldwin and his apologies to Lady Burdonshaw, and begged to inform them that he had dislocated his shoulder and was unable to write. He had a miserable night,

Starting point is 09:17:30 sleepless and in pain, haunted by the ghost of Mahmoud, whose miserable end afflicted him sorely, and troubled by the perplexities of his financial position. Should he tell his father the whole truth? Alas, it seemed only yesterday that he had told his father the whole truth about his college debts, and though truthfulness is a great virtue, a second burst of candor coming in on the heels of the first might be too much for Mr. Dalbrook's patience. Should he borrow the money from Juanita? No, too humiliating. He had always felt a restraining pride in all his intercourse with his grand relations at Chariton Chase. They were of his own blood, but they were above him in social status, and he was sensitively alive to the difference in position. Could he apply to his brother?

Starting point is 09:18:17 again the answer was in the negative he doubted whether theodore possessed eighty guineas in the world and so he went on revolving the same considerations through his fevered brain all through the long winter night there were moments of exasperation and semi delirium when he thought he would go over to medlow court as soon as he was able to move and appealed to the beneficence of lady burdonshaw for the temporary accommodation of a check for eighty guineas and thus the night wore on till the morning sounds of the inn brought the sense of stern reality across his feverish dreams and then amidst the crowing of cocks and the bumping of pails and tramping of horses in the stable-yard he contrived to fall asleep after having failed in that endeavour all through the quiet of the night it was about half-past eleven and the handyman had helped him to make a decent toilette and to establish himself upon a sofa that was a little harder than the bed when a pony carriage drove up to the door and the chambermaid came in with an awe-stricken face to announce lady burdonshaw and another lady and would he please to see them as they wanted to come upstairs the room was tidy and he was dressed as well as a helpless man could be so he said yes they might come up which was almost unnecessary as they were already on the stairs and were in the room a minute afterwards juliette expressed herself deeply concerned at her lover's misfortune though she did not attempt to conceal from him that she considered his riding in fault lady burdonshaw was more sympathetic and was horrified at the discomfort of his surroundings you cannot possibly endure that cruel-looking sofa till your shoulder is well she said in such a small room too poor fellow and a horrid low ceiling and the house smells damp i wonder if we could venture to move him to the court jew jew was of opinion that such a proceeding would be to the last degree dangerous the only chance for his shoulder is to keep quiet she said unfortunately the surgeon had said the same thing and there could be no doubt about it

Starting point is 09:20:18 perhaps you could send him a sofa suggested juliet of course i could and i can send him soups and jellies and things but that isn't like having him at medlow where he could have a large airy room and where you and i could take it in turns to amuse him dear lady burdonshaw you are too good to an almost stranger murmured harrington moved to the verge of tears by her geniality stranger fiddlesticks don't i know your cousin lord chariton and has not your father done business for me besides i like young men when they're modest and pleasant as you are indeed i sometimes like them when they're impertinent i like young faces and young voices about me i like to be amused and to see people happy I can't endure the idea of your lying forever so many days and nights in this dog kennel when you came to Medlow to enjoy yourself. It mustn't be many days and nights. I must get home somehow by the end of the week if I post all the way. Oh, you needn't post. When you are able to be moved, my carriage shall take you to the station, and I'll get the railroad people to take an invalid carriage through to Dorchester for you. Indeed, you must not be impatient, Harry, said Juliet. I shall come to see you every day.

Starting point is 09:21:35 except on the hunting days, and even then I can walk over in the evening if Lady B. will let me. Of course I shall let you. All my sympathies are with lovers, and when you are married I shall give Mr. Dahlbrook as much of my business as I possibly can venture to take away from those dear old fossils at Salisbury, who have been the family lawyers for the best part of a century. Juliet had confided her engagement to Lady B at the beginning of her visit, and she and Lady B. had talked over the young man's chances of doing well in the world, and the wisdom or the foolishness of such an alliance. Lady B. had seen a good deal of smart young men and women, and she had discovered that the smart young men were very keen in the furtherance of their own interests, and that the

Starting point is 09:22:19 smart young women had considerable difficulty in getting themselves permanently established in the smart world by smart marriages. Some were beautiful and many were admired, but they had to wait for eligible suitors, and one false step in the early state. of their career would sometimes blight their chances of success. Juliette had taken many false steps and had got herself a good deal talked about, and Lady Burdenshaw felt that her chance of making an advantageous match had been lessening year by year, until it had come to be almost nil. If this young fellow is sensible and good-looking and has a little money,

Starting point is 09:22:55 I really think you you ought to marry him, concluded Lady B, talking the matter over with her protege before she had seen Harrington. she fancied that juliet had cooled somewhat in her feelings towards her youthful lover within the last week or ten days it might be lady b thought that she began to perceive that he was too young that the difference in their ages which was not much and the difference in their worldly experience which was enormous unfitted them to be happy together no doubt the young man is a p a lay reflected lady burdonshaw after harrington's appearance at medlow but he is a very good-looking fellow and by no means bad as a of course he is too young for juliet and much too fresh and innocent to understand her but if he knew more he wouldn't be so eager to marry her so she ought to be satisfied lady burdonshaw sent a delightful sofa and a lot of books flowers pillows foot-rests and other luxuries in one of her own wagons within an hour of her return to medlow and harrington's comfort was considerably increased by her kindness still the thought of that wretched acceptance was like a thorn in every cushion, a scorpion under every pillow, a wasp in every flower. Nor was he altogether at ease about Juliet.

Starting point is 09:24:14 He thought that he had detected a constraint in her manner, a shiftiness in her eyes. It had wounded him that she had so promptly opposed his being conveyed to Medlo. It might be that she was influenced only by concern for his safety, yet it would have been natural for his betrothed to wish to have him under the same roof with her, where she might tend and comfort him in his helplessness. pain and anguish were wringing his brow and she who should have been his ministering angel was content to limit her ministration to half an hour of somewhat disjointed conversation and to the polite attention of bringing him the morning papers when everybody at medlow had looked at them lady burdonshaw had very kindly taken upon herself to write to matthew dalbrook explaining his son's prolonged absence and making light of his accident as a matter only involving a few days rest the few days had gone on till the fourth day after his fall and in spite of all that lady burdonshaw had done to ameliorate his captivity the hours of the day and night seemed to grow longer and longer till he began to think of sylvio pelico and the man in the iron mask

Starting point is 09:25:18 juliet's visits were very short and she was obviously absent-minded and bored even during that scanty half-hour which she gave to her betrothed i'm afraid you are like colonel enderby's wife he said and that the sight of sickness or suffering is more than you can bear. Who was Colonel Lenderby's wife? Don't you know? She is the heroine of a very clever novel, an original, strange, and I fear not a natural character. Don't remember her? answered Juliet carelessly. I don't read many English novels. They are too slow for me. On the hunting day he missed even that brief visit and was expected of her coming all the evening as she had promised to make up for the day's absence. But the night was wet and she told him next day that she she did not like to take out Lady Burdonshaw's horse and man in such weather. The stable people would have resented it, and I am obliged to stand well with the stable, she said.

Starting point is 09:26:12 He thought she had a troubled look that day. It seemed to him that it cost her an effort to keep her attention upon any subject, and she lapsed into silence every now and then, looking dreamily out of the window to the thatched roofs and plowed fields in the distance. I'm afraid you have something on your mind, he said. What nonsense. What put such an idea into your head? You are so thoughtful, and so much more silent than usual.

Starting point is 09:26:39 There is so little to talk about in a sick room. If I were to tell you about our doings at Medlow, I should only bore you. Not at all. I should be very pleased to hear how you amuse yourself. Is Major Swanwick still there? Yes, he is still there. He saw that her cheeks crimsoned as she answered his question, and he wondered whether she really had any panchon for the major,

Starting point is 09:27:01 or whether she suspected his jealous apprehensions upon that subject. She got up to go before he could question her further. I shall be late for luncheon, she said, and Lady B. hates any of us to be absent. I thought there was no such thing as punctuality at Medlow. Oh, we are pretty punctual at luncheon. It's the hungry hour and we are all ravenous. Goodbye. O'ravo.

Starting point is 09:27:25 You will come tomorrow, love. And come earlier, I hope. Paisable. I shall be out with that. hounds. Another blank day for me, but don't disappoint me in the evening whatever the weather may be. She was gone, leaving him doubtful of her fidelity, though far from suspecting the extent of her falsehood. He endured the long, dull day as best he might, and improved his mind by skimming all the books which Lady Burdenshaw had sent him, which were really the cream of Moody's last

Starting point is 09:27:54 supply, travels, memoirs, gossip, magazines, books chosen with a view to the masculine mind, which which was supposed to be indifferent to fiction. Evening came at last. His lamp was lighted, his fire swept and garnished. The hunting party would be jogging homeward in the wintry darkness, he thought. There were three hours to wait before half-past nine, which was the earliest time at which he could expect his beloved. It was a little after the half-hour when his heart began to beat faster at the sound of carriage-wheels.

Starting point is 09:28:24 This time she was not going to disappoint him. He listened for her step upon the stair, the firm, quick tread he knew so well. But it was another step which he heard, a slower and heavier tread, with much rustling of silken draperies. It must be Lady Burdenshaw come to chaperone her. It was Lady Burdenshaw, but alone.

Starting point is 09:28:46 She came in and drew near his sofa with a serious countenance. Great God, he cried, starting up from his reclining position. Is anything the matter? An accident in the hunting field. Is she hurt? No, my poor, fell. "'She's not hurt. It would take a great deal to hurt her. She's too hard. But she has done her best to hurt you. What do you mean?'

Starting point is 09:29:10 "'She has gone off with that audacious scamp. Major Swanwick?' "'Yes. Did you suspect anything?' I thought there was an understanding between them. They went off together early this morning, walked five miles to the station, leaving their luggage to be looked after by the major's servant, who had received his instructions and who got everything packed and off by the one o'clock train for London. I got this telegram late in the afternoon from Salisbury. She handed him a telegram, which he read slowly, word by word, and then he slowly folded it and restored it to his visitor in heart-stricken silence.

Starting point is 09:29:47 The telegram was in these words. To Lady Burdenshaw met low court. Major Stanwyk and I were married at two o'clock before the registrar. We start for Monte Carlo to-night. "'Please break it to Harrington, and forgive me for going away without telling you. We thought it better to avoid fuss.' "'Yours lovingly, Juliet Swanwick.' "'God help this infatuated girl,' said Lady Burdenshaw.

Starting point is 09:30:12 "'She has married a scoundrel who is up to his eyebrows in debt. He behaved brutally to his first wife, and is not very likely to treat this one any better. "'I'm very sorry I ever had them in my house together.' he was an old flame and he had lost her more than one good match by his equivocal attentions as for you my dear young fellow i congratulate you upon a very lucky escape harrington put his hand before his eyes to hide the tears of mortification and wounded love yet even while the sense of disappointment was keenest he had a feeling that lady burdinshaw was right and that he had escaped a life-long martyrdom how could he with his limited means have ever satisfied a woman who lived only for pleasure and excitement dress and dissipation juliet had been very frank with him during their brief courtship and he had seen enough of her character to know that this splendid creature was not of the stuff that makes a good wife for a professional man with his struggles all before him he was sorry he was angry he was wounded to the quick but in the midst of it all he felt that there was a burden lifted off his mind and off his life that he could breathe more freely that he was no longer over-weighted in the race lady burdenshaw stopped with him for an hour and told him a good many small facts to his charmer's discredit although he begged her more than once to desist it was her only idea of comforting him and it may be that her efforts were not misdirected

Starting point is 09:31:41 he was surprised on the following afternoon by a visit from his father who was not satisfied with lady burdinshaw's report of his condition touched by this evidence of paternal affection the young man took heart of grace and made a full confession first of his engagement and the next of his his pecuniary obligations, the acceptance so soon to fall due, the twenty pounds borrowed from Hayfield. "'I can pay that very easily out of my allowance,' he said. "'I only tell you about it to show what a mean hound I was becoming.' "'You were very hard-driven, my poor boy. You had been unlucky enough to fall in love with an unprincipled woman. You may thank Providence for having escaped a life of misery. Such an alliance as that would have wrecked your future. I would rather you marry

Starting point is 09:32:26 a housemaid with a good character than such a woman as Juliet Baldwin. However, there are plenty of nice girls in your own sphere, thank God, and plenty of pretty girls with unblemished character and antecedents. Harrington went back to Dorchester with his father next day, and the acceptance was promptly honored when it was presented at the house in Cornhill. Sir Henry had discounted it at the local bank almost immediately after it passed into his possession, and the bank had regarded the document as good value for their money, Matthew Dalbrook being very unlikely to allow his son's signature to be dishonored.

Starting point is 09:33:02 End of Chapter 1. Volume 2, Chapter 2 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 2 All the springtime of his love is already gone and passed. Theodore went back to Wintry London before the year was a week old. He settled himself by his lonely. fire side in the silence of his old-fashioned rooms. All he had of the beauty of his world was a glimpse of the river, Athwart, the heavy grey mist of a London morning, or the lamps on

Starting point is 09:33:42 the embankment shining like a string of jewels in the evening dusk. There were days of sullen, hopeless fog, when even these things were hidden from him, and when it was hard to work to keep that stealthy, penetrating, grayness and damp cold out of his rooms. He had brought a fox-terrier from Dorchester on his return from his holiday, an old favorite that had seen the best days of her youth, and was better able to put up with a sedentary life, varied only by an occasional run than a younger animal would have been. This faithful friend, inanimated little beast even at this mature stage of her existence, lightened the burden of his loneliness, were it only by leaping onto his knees twenty times in five minutes, and only desisting therefrom upon most serious remonstrance.

Starting point is 09:34:25 It was pleasant to him to have something that loved him, even this irrepressible Miss Nipper, with her side-long grin of affectionate greeting, and her unconquerable suspicion of rats behind the wainscot. He felt less like Dr. Faustus on that famous Easter morning when the emptiness of life and learning came home to the lonely student with such desolating intensity, when even a devil was welcome who could offer escape from that dull burden of existence. He had come back from his brief holiday, dejected and disheartened.

Starting point is 09:34:55 It seemed to him that she who was his lowed star was more remote from him than she had ever been, more and more remote, vanishing into a distant world where it was vain for him to follow. He had failed in the task that she had imposed upon him. He was no nearer the solution of that dark mystery which troubled her life than he had been when he first promised to help her. How poor and impotent a creature he must appear in her eyes. His only discoveries had been negative. All that his keen, trained intellect sharpened by seven years of legal experience had been able to do, was to prove the unsoundness of her own theory. He had started no theory upon his part.

Starting point is 09:35:35 No flash of genius had illumined the obscurity which surrounded Godfrey Carmichael's death. He went on with his plodding work, resolutely bent upon doing the utmost that patient labor can do to ensure success. Even if it were all vain and futile, that hope of winning favor in her eyes, the mere possibility of standing better with her,

Starting point is 09:35:56 of showing her that he was of the stuff which goes to the making of distinguished men. Even this was worth working for. She may have great offers by and by, he told himself, recalling what Lord Chariton had said about his daughter's chances. With her beauty and her expectations, to say nothing of her present means,

Starting point is 09:36:15 she is sure of distinguished admirers. But at the worst, she cannot look down upon a man who is on the road to success in her father's profession. This ever-present consideration, joined to his love of his calling, sweetened all that was dry and dull in the initial stages of a barrister's career. While other men of his age were spending their evenings at the gaiety theatre, seeing the same burlesque and laughing at the same jokes night after night,

Starting point is 09:36:40 as appetite grew with what it fed on, Theodore was content to sit in chambers and read law. It was not that he was wanting an appreciation of the drama. There was no man in London better able to enjoy the dignity of Hamlet at the Lyceum or the rollicking fund of the gaiety bluebeard. He was no pedantic peop. of clay, proud of the dullness that cause itself virtue. He was only an earnest worker, bent upon a given result, enabled to put aside every hindrance upon the road that he was traveling. They that run in a race run all, but one obtaineth the prize, he said to himself, recalling a sentence

Starting point is 09:37:15 in an epistle that he had learned years ago at his mother's knee, words that always brought back the cold brightness of early spring, and a period of extra church services, long sermons in the lamp-lit church, and the voices of strange preachers, a time of daffodils and fish dinners, and much talk of high and low church. He had never faltered in his religious convictions, yet in the days of his youth that Lenton season in a country town, that recurrent sound of church bells in the chilly march twilight had weighed heavy upon his soul. Almost the only recreation which he allowed himself in this winter season was an occasional attendance at Miss Newton's tea parties. He had secured acceptance for himself, and

Starting point is 09:37:55 at these entertainments on the strength of his reading and he was now established as a shakespearean reader miss newton having taken it into her head that shakespeare is of all great poets the easiest understood by the people and having ordered him to read shakespeare until she should tell him to desist i know what they like and what they dislike she said they'll not conceal their feelings from me when we talk you over after you've gone as soon as ever i find them getting tired i'll let you know he began with with Macbeth, a story which caught them at the very first page. The witches took their breath away, and when he came to the murder scene, they were all sitting round him with their hair seemingly on end. He closed his first reading with that awful knocking at the gate, that one supreme stage effect which has never yet been paralleled by mortal dramatists. There were some of the girls who tumbled off their chairs and groveled on the floor in their

Starting point is 09:38:49 excitement. There were others who wanted to know the fate of Macbeth and his wife on the instant. I do hope they were both hung like the Mannings, said a meek widow. Oh, but he wasn't so much to blame Mrs. Kirby, that wicked woman drove him to it. So did Mrs. Manning, argued a Burmansey lady, but they hung Manning all the same when they caught him. I was a child when it happened, but I remember hearing about them. He was took in Jersey and she wore a black satin gown. Oh, don't talk about your mannings, Mrs. Hodge, cried one of the girls indignantly. They were low vulgar people. These were a king and queen in a palace. It's all different. It lifts one up out of one's own life only to hear about them.

Starting point is 09:39:32 You may read about murders in the newspapers till your eyes begin to swim, but you don't feel like that. I don't know when I felt so sorry for anybody as I feel for King Macbeth. Marion sat silent and refrained from all part in the chorus of criticism, but she moved to the piano presently and began to play a Scotch air. A grand old march, slow, solemn music that was almost too much for the nerves of the more excitable among Miss Newton's party. She glided from one melody to another, and she played those wild Scottish airs with such thrilling power that they seemed to sustain and intensify the uncanny effect of the tragic reading. Theodore went over to the piano and stood beside her as she played.

Starting point is 09:40:13 "'I knew you were a musician,' he said, though I never heard you touch the keys till to-night. "'How did you know?' my cousin wonita told me she remembered your playing in her mother's room when she was a child the woman called marian lifted her eyes to him with a look of patient reproach as if she said you are cruel to hit any one so helpless as i am and then playing all the time she answered coldly i do not know what you are talking about don't you oh but indeed i think you do and i should be very glad to be of use to you if you would let me for the sake of those old days i don't think it is possible i can be mistaken though you may have your own reason for refusing to confide in me. He was certain now in his own mind that this was Mercy Porter and no other. That fine touch upon the piano implied sustained and careful cultivation.

Starting point is 09:41:04 She did not play like a girl who had learnt music as an afterthought. He left the house when she did, and walked part of the way to the Hercules buildings with her, but did not offer to go out of his way to see her home, being very sure she would refuse. I wish you would trust me, he said, gently as they walked side by side without looking at each other. Believe me that everyone at Chariton is sorry for you. If you were to go back to the neighborhood, you would have everyone's sympathy. There would be no one to cast a stone. I am very sorry I ever mentioned Chariton to you, Mr. Dalbrook, she said impatiently. It was a foolish impulse that made me talk. You insist upon

Starting point is 09:41:42 making guesses. You try to force a confession from me. It is hardly generous. My interest in you must be my excuse. you can do me no good by that kind of interest i shall never see dorsetshire again so what can it matter who i was when i lived in that part of the world there are hundreds of women in london as lonely as i am hundreds perhaps thousands who have broken every link with their past my life suits me well enough and i am contented i shall never try to change it that is a pity you are young enough to make a good wife to an honest man to help in creating a happy home am i I feel a century old, and I have done with every thought of love or marriage. When I woke to consciousness after that dreadful fever, awoke from darkness and oblivion like that of the grave, I entered upon a new life. I came out of that sickness, like one who had passed through hell.

Starting point is 09:42:37 Passion and hope and youth and good looks have been burnt out of me in a fiery furnace. It was a wonder to myself that my body was alive. It was no wonder to me that my heart was dead. "'From that time I have lived very much as I am living now, after a brief time of struggle and starvation, and the life suits me fairly well. I shall never seek to better it.' "'That is hard, Marion.'

Starting point is 09:43:01 He called her by her Christian name, frankly, in almost paternal friendliness, not knowing any other name by which to call her. He was with Miss Newton earlier than usual on the occasion of her next tea-drinking, so early as to be before anybody else, and he talked to his hostess about Marion. Marion Gray, Miss Newton called her,

Starting point is 09:43:19 confiding to her his conviction that this young woman was no other than Mrs. Porter's missing daughter. He told her of his interview with Mrs. Porter and of the mother's angry repudiation of her child. I can but think that her hardness was assumed, he said, and that the ice would melt at a touch if the mother and daughter could be brought together. I should like to try the experiment.

Starting point is 09:43:41 It is hardly wise to try experiments with human hearts, said Miss Newton. Marian is contented and at peace if not happy. To force her back upon a mother who might be hard and bitter to her, do you think that would be true kindness? What if the mother's heart has been yearning for her lost lamb in all these years, and by bringing her back I might make two lives happy? Let the mother come to the child.

Starting point is 09:44:05 Let her who has something to forgive be the one to make the advance. It is so hard for the sinner to go back. She must be helped back. If the mother were a woman with a motherly heart, she would have been searching for her lost child in all those years instead of wrapping herself up in her sorrow at home. I own I have thought of that. Of course you have.

Starting point is 09:44:27 You can't think otherwise as a sensible man. I have no patience with such a mother. As for Marion, I think she may get on very well as she is. I am fond of her, and I believe she is fond of me. She earns from twelve to fourteen shillings a week. She pays five shillings for her room, and she lives upon eight pence a day. I need to tell you that the teapot is her piaise de resistance. Her most substantial meal on some days consists of a couple of scones from the Scotch bakers,

Starting point is 09:44:56 or a penny loaf and a hard-boiled egg. But when I go to see her, she gives me an admirable cup of tea and positively delicious bread and butter. Her room is the very pink and pattern of neatness. All the instincts of a lady show themselves in that poor little two pair back. She has curtained the iron bedstead And the window with a white dimity Which is always clean and fresh

Starting point is 09:45:17 For she washes and irons it with her own hands She generally contrives To have a bunch of flowers upon her work-table And hard as she works Her room is always free from litter She has about half a dozen books of her own Upon the Mantle Shelf Her Bible, Milton, Shakespeare,

Starting point is 09:45:34 Charles Lamb's essays Goldsmith's poems And the ideals of the king Well-worn volumes which have been her companion for years. She borrows other books from the free library, and her mind is always being cultivated. I really believe she is happy. She is one of those rare individuals who can afford to live alone. Do not disturb her lightly. You are right, perhaps. The mother struck me as by no means a pleasant character, always supposing that Mrs. Porter is her mother, of which I myself have very little

Starting point is 09:46:06 out. Theodore made no further effort to bring mother and daughter together, but he met Marion from time to time at Miss Newton's tea parties, and acquaintance ripened into friendship. Her refinement and her musical talent sustained his interest in her. He talked to her of books sometimes when they happened to be sitting side by side at the tea table, and he was surprised at the extent of her reading. She confessed when he questioned her that she was in the habit of stealing two or three hours from the night for her books. I find that I can do it as a little. I can do it. a few hours sleep, she said, if I lie down happy in my mind after being absorbed in a delightful book. My books are my life. They give me the whole universe for my world, though I have to live

Starting point is 09:46:47 in one room and to follow a very monotonous calling. He admired the refinement of that purely intellectual nature, but he admired still more, that admirable tact which regulated her intercourse with Miss Newton's homelier friends. Never by word or tone or half-involuntary glance did Marion betray any consciousness of superiority to the uncultivated herd. She shared their interests, she sympathized with their vexations. She neither smiled nor shuddered at cockney twang or missing aspirate. Winter brightened into spring, with all its varieties of good and evil, east winds rushing round street corners and cutting into the pedestrian like a knife,

Starting point is 09:47:26 west winds enfolding him like a balmy caress and bringing the perfume of violets, the vivid yellow of daffodils into the wilderness of brick and stone. Rainy days, grey, monotonous, dismal, hanging on the soul like a curtain of gloom and hopelessness. These made up the sum of Theodore's outer life. Within he had his books, his ambition, and his faithful love. He told himself that it was a hopeless love, but there are many things which a man tells himself and tries to believe, and yet does not believe. The very human longing for blessedness is too strong for human wisdom.

Starting point is 09:48:00 Where there is love, there is always hope. he had grown accustomed to his life in chambers and albeit he was much attached to his father and was amiably tolerant of his brother and sisters he could but feel that his solitary existence better suited his temper than residence in a family circle at dorchester it had been very difficult for him to be alone out of business hours his sisters considered that they had a claim upon him a right to waste his life in the most trivial amusements and engagements if he withdrew himself from their society and that of their numerous dearest friends, they accused him of grumpiness and thought themselves ill-treated. He had chafed against the waste of life, the utter futility of those engagements which prevented his keeping level with the intellectual growth of the age. He felt that his youth was slipping from under him, leaving him stationary when every pulse of his being beat impatiently for progress. And now it was pleasant to him to be his own

Starting point is 09:48:56 master, free to make the best possible use of his days. He found a few friends in London whose society suited him, and only a few. Among these, the man of whom he saw most was Cuthbert Ramsey, a young Scotchman, who had been his chief companion at Cambridge, who had studied medicine for three years in Leipzig and Paris with Ludwig and Pasteur, and he was now at St. Thomas. The two young men ran up against each other in that main artery of London life, the Strand in the January twilight,

Starting point is 09:49:25 and renewed the friendly intimacy of that bygone time when Ramsey had been at Trinity and Dalbrook at Trinity Hall. They dined together at a restaurant on the evening of that first meeting, and after dinner, Theodore took his friend to his chambers, where the two sat late into the night talking over college reminiscences of Hall and River. Cuthbert Ramsey had been one of the most remarkable undergraduates of those days, notable alike for mental and physical gifts which lifted him out of the ruck. He was six feet two, with the form of an athlete in as handsome a face as was ever seen within

Starting point is 09:49:58 the gates of Trinity, and these advantages of person, which would have been noteworthy, worthy in any man, were the more remarkable in him because of his utter indifference to them, or perhaps, it may be said, complete unconsciousness of them. He knew that he was a big man, because his tailor told him as much. But he had never taken into consideration the question as to whether he was or was not a handsome man. Indeed, except when he had his haircut, an operation which he always submitted to unwillingly and of dire necessity, it is doubtful if he ever looked into a glass long enough to know

Starting point is 09:50:29 what manner of a man he was. certainly not at his morning toilette, when he moved restlessly about the room hairbrushes in hand, belabring his handsome head, and exercising his extraordinary memory by the repetition of some scientific formula acquired during the previous night's reading.

Starting point is 09:50:46 His own estimate of his appearance was comprised in the idea that he was very scotch. That milky whiteness of complexion touched with just enough ruddy color to give life to the face, those brilliant blue eyes, the straight nose,

Starting point is 09:51:00 clear-cut nostrils, firm lips and firmer chin, the high broad brow and crisp auburn hair constituted to his mind nothing more than his brevet of nationality. No one could ever take me for anything but a Scotchman, he would say lightly, if any acquaintance ventured to hint at his good looks. There's no mistake about me. Albian is written on my brow. From his childhood upwards he had only cared for large things, intent upon investigation and discovery from the time he could crawl. asking the most searching questions of mother and of nurse, prying into those abstract mysteries which perplex philosophers before he could speak plain.

Starting point is 09:51:38 The thirst for knowledge had grown with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. His hardy boyhood had been spent for the most part in the windy streets of Aberdeen, marching with swinging stride along the granite pavement, his shabby red gown flapping in the northeaster, fearing anyhow as indifferent to what he ate as he was to what he wore, ahead of his fellows in all things intellectual, and abreast with the best athletes of his year in the sports they valued, a king among men, and of such a happy disposition that nothing in life came amiss to him,

Starting point is 09:52:09 and what would have been hardship to another seemed sport to him. Someone, a wealthy member of his extensive family, found out that this cuthbert was no common youth, and that with a little encouragement he might do honor to the clan. This distant kinsman, one of the heads of the great house of Ramsey, sent him to Cambridge, where he entered as a scholar of his college, and at the end of a year gained a university scholarship, which made him independent. This hearty youth from the city of Bonacca was able to live upon so little could not for the life of him have been extravagant, having none of that molest or soft self-indulgence which is at the root of most men's squandering. He was nine and twenty years of age,

Starting point is 09:52:49 and he had never worn a gardenia, and had only had one suit of dress clothes since he grew to a man's estate. "'Neiless to say that, albeit he went out very seldom, "'that suit was now somewhat shabby, "'but Cuthbert's superb appearance neutralized the shabbiness, "'and he looked the finest man in any assembly. "'His parents were in their graves before he left the university. "'He had no ties. "'He was free as Adam would have been if Eve had never been created.

Starting point is 09:53:15 "'There was no one near or dear to him to feel proud of his honours, "'though his name was high in the list of Wranglers, "'and he had taken a first class in science. And now, after that interval of serious scientific work in Leipzig in Paris, he was plotting at St. Thomas's with a view to a London degree, and thus the too hard-working young men, very intimate in the old days when Cuthbert's rooms in the bishop's hostel were conveniently adjacent to Theodore's ground floor in Trinity Hall,

Starting point is 09:53:41 were thrown together again upon their life journey, and were honestly glad to renew the old friendship. Ramsey was delighted with his friend's chambers. I was afraid there was nothing so good as this love. in the temple, he said, rapturously contemplating the blackened old wainscot and the low ceiling with its heavy cross beam. I thought smartness and brand-new stone had superseded all that was historical and interesting within the precincts of the lamb. But these rooms of yours have the true smack. Why, I really believe now, Dalbrook, you must have rats behind that wainscott.

Starting point is 09:54:15 Perhaps I had, till Miss Nipper came to keep me company, answered Theodore, patting the terrier, whose neat little head and intelligent ears were lifted at the sound of her name. And Nipper has made them immigrate to the next house, no doubt. I'm glad you like my rooms, Cuthbert. Like them, I envy you the ownership more than I can say. If anything can make me sorry that I am not a lawyer, it would be the fact that I can't live in the temple. We doctors have no distinctive abode, nothing associated with the past. Perhaps that is because medicine is essentially a progressive science.

Starting point is 09:54:48 is it? Sometimes I begin to doubt if it has made any progress since Galen, or Albertus Magnus. I will admit that there was progress of some kind up to his time. This house has an interest for me that it would have for no one else, said Theodore presently, while his friend filled his briarwood. My kinsman, Lord Chariton, occupy the rooms underneath these for about a dozen years, and it is a fancy of mine to keep his image before me as I sit here alone with my books. It reminds me of what a man can do in the profession which so many of my friends declare to be hopeless. No one knows anything about it, Theodore. If you went into statistics, you would find that the chances of success in the learned professions are pretty nearly

Starting point is 09:55:30 equal. So many men will get on and so many will fail at every trade, in every calling. The faculty of success lies in the man himself. I always thought you were the kind of man to do well in whatever line you hit upon. A calm, clever brain, and a resolute will are the first factors in the sum of life? And so Lord Chariton lived in this house, did he? I have heard people talk of him as a very distinguished man, as well as a very lucky one. By the by, it was in his house that strange murder occurred last year. Yes, it was in his house, and it was his daughter's husband who was murdered. Tell me the story, Theodore, said Ramsey, leaning back his handsome head and half-closing his eyes with the air of a man who liked hearing about murders. I read the account in the

Starting point is 09:56:17 papers at the time, but I've very nearly forgotten all about it. Theodore complied and gave his friend the history of the case and the failure of every attempt to find the murderer. And there has been nothing discovered since last summer. Nothing. That is rather hard upon Lord Chariton, bearing in mind your detective's suggestion of a vendetta, the vendetta would not be likely to close with the death of Sir Godfrey Carmichael. Hatred would demand further victims, Lord Chariton himself, perhaps, or this lovely young widow, but there could hardly be such a vindictive feeling without a strong cause. And metty so deadly must have had a beginning in a profound sense of wrong.

Starting point is 09:56:58 I have studied the case from that point of view, but can discover no cause for such malignity. I have almost given up all hope of unraveling the mystery. And your kinsman is to live under the sword of Damocles for the rest of his life? Upon my soul, I pity him. I can imagine nothing in Ireland worse than the murder of Sir Godfrey Carmichael, a man seated peacefully in his own drawing-room, and a high-principled, amiable young man, you tell me, who never was known to wrong his fellow man.

Starting point is 09:57:29 Theodore Dalbrook did not spend his Easter holidays in Dorsetshire. He had heard from his sisters that Juanita was staying at Swanage with Lady Jane Carmichael. He was unwilling to intrude upon her there, and he had nothing to communicate upon the subject, which was at present his only claim upon her interest. Under these circumstances, he was easily persuaded to spend his vacation in a ten-day's trip to Holland with Cuthbert Ramsey, who was keenly interested in the result of some experiments which had been lately made at Leiden, and thus it happened that Theodore let some time go by without seeing any member of his family except his father, who came to london occasionally upon business and whom his son was delighted to entertain and make much of in his chambers or at his club the serviceable constitutional towards the end of april he read an announcement in the papers which had touched him almost to tears

Starting point is 09:58:17 on the twenty-third instant at milbrook priory the widow of sir godfrey carmichael of a posthumous son he was thankful for her sake that this new interest had been given to her days that a new and fair horizon was open to her in this young life with all its possibilities of love and gladness. It might be that the coming of this child would change the current of her thoughts, that the stern desire for retribution would grow less keen, that the agonizing sense of loss would be softened almost to forgetfulness. He remembered those lovely lines of the poet philosophers. A child, more than all other gifts, brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts. This child, he hoped, freighted with healing and comfort, came like the glad

Starting point is 09:59:02 springtime itself, like Adonis or Persephone, with his arms full of flowers. He wrote to his cousin in tenderest congratulation, a letter breathing a generous affection without one selfish thought lurking between the lines. Her answer came after nearly a month's delay, but although tardy it was most delightful to him. Juanita asked him to be godfather to her boy, and he could easily imagine that this was the highest honor she could offer him. In London, half the young men I used to meet took a price. in avowing their unbelief, she wrote, but I know that you are not ashamed to acknowledge

Starting point is 09:59:36 your faith in Christ and His Church. I shall feel secure that what you promise for my child will be fulfilled, so far as it is in your power to bring about its fulfillment. I know that if you stand beside the font and take those vows in his name, you will not remember that ceremony

Starting point is 09:59:52 as an empty form, a mere concession to usage and respectability. Those promises will appeal to you for my fatherless child in a days to come. They will make you his friend and protector. He accepted the trust with greater gladness than he had felt about anything that had happened to him for a long time. And on a balmy morning in the last week of May, he found himself standing by the font of the old Saxon church at Millbrook, where he had heard the solemn

Starting point is 10:00:18 words of the burial service read above Sir Godfrey Carmichael's coffin less than a year before. He took upon himself the custody of the infant's conscience in all good faith, and he felt that this trust which his cousin had given to him made a new link between them. The Grenville's had come down from town to be present at the ceremony, though neither husband nor wife was officially concerned in it. Mrs. Grenville had seized the opportunity to bring Johnny and Godolphin to Dorsetshire for change of air. She had an idea that the Purbeck air had a particularly revivifying effect upon them, like unto no other air. I suppose that is because it is my native air, she exclaimed.

Starting point is 10:00:59 Mr. Granville submitted to his nephew's existence as a mysterious dispensation of providence, which it became him to endure with gentleman-like fortitude, but he did not cease to regard a posthumous infant as a solacism in nature and society. Your sister-in-law actually seems pleased with her baby, he told his wife grumblingly as he put on a frock-coat in honor of the approaching ceremony. But it appears to me that a woman of refined feeling would be impressed with a sense of incongruity, of indelicacy even, in the idea of a child born such ages after the father's death, a sort of no man's baby. And upon my word, it is uncommonly hard upon Thomas. With such a family as ours, five in the possibilities of the

Starting point is 10:01:42 future, it would have been a grand thing to have one well provided for. As things stand now, they must all be poppers. Lord Chariton was Theodore's fellow-sponsor, and Lady Jane was Godmother, in office which filled the dear soul with rapture. She held her grandchild throughout the service, except when she delivered him gingerly to the priest, who at one stage of the ceremony carried the new mage Christian halfway up the aisle, and, as it were, flaunted him in the face of the scanty congregation. Juanita stood like a statue while these rites were being celebrated, and in her pale, set face there was none of the tender interest which a mother might be expected to show upon such an occasion. There was a deep, pathos in that

Starting point is 10:02:24 marble face and those black garments in an hour which had generally something of a festal aspect. strangers thought her cold a proud hard young woman thinking more of her own importance perhaps than of her baby yet could they have read beneath the surface they would have pitied the girl widow in her desolation on this day which should have been blessed to her she could but think of him who was not there of the father who had been fated never to look upon his son's face of the son who was to grow from infancy to manhood without the knowledge of a father's love theodore watched that pale and lovely face full of sympathy, but not without wonder. How would this new tie affect her? Would it soften all that was hard and vindictive in her mind? Would it be strong enough to bring about resignation to the will of heaven? A patient waiting upon Providence, instead of that feverish eagerness to exact a life for a life? They too were alone together for only a few minutes after luncheon, strolling along the broad gravel walk in front of the dining-room windows in the afternoon sunshine, while Lord Chariton

Starting point is 10:03:27 and Mr. Grenville lingered over coffee and cigars, and Lady Jane and her daughter made a domestic group with children and nurses under a gigantic Japanese umbrella. Short as that Taitait was, it convinced Theodore that the child had not brought oblivion of the father's fate. You have heard nothing more? Made no new discovery, I suppose. Juanita said nervously. Nothing. Indeed, Juanita, I fear I have no talent as an amateur detective. I am not likely to succeed where Mr. Churton failed. It was easy enough for me to complete the record of the Strangways to set your suspicions at rest with regard to them. That was plain sailing. But it seems to me I shall never go any further. I'm afraid you will not, she said wearily,

Starting point is 10:04:13 and yet I had such hope in your cleverness, your determination to help me. As a lawyer, you would know how to set about it. The London detective has many cases, his mind travels from one to another. He has no leisure to think deep about anything, but you, who have had so much leisure of late, you would, I know, be glad to help me. Glad? Good God, Juanita, you must know that I would cut off my hand to give you ease or comfort, respite even from a passing trouble. If you are really set upon this thing, if your peace is really dependent upon the discovery of your husband's murderer. It is, it is, Theodore. I cannot no rest or comfort while his death remains unpunished. I cannot lie down

Starting point is 10:04:57 in peace at night while I know that their wretch who killed him is walking about, rejoicing in his wickedness, glad to have destroyed that blameless life, laughing at our feeble love which can let our dead go un avenged. If cudgling these poor brains of mine could bring me any nearer to the truth, Juanita, Theodore said, with a troubled sigh, I should have helped you better, but so far I can see no ray of light in the thick darkness. I do not think any efforts of ours will solve the mystery. Only some accident, some inconceivable imprudence on the part of the murderer can put us on his track. And then he thought, with horror of Ramsey's idea that a hatred so malignant as that which had killed Godfrey Carmichael might reveal itself in some new crime.

Starting point is 10:05:41 He thought of the young mother bending over her infant's cradle in some unguarded room, calm in the fancied safety of her English home. He thought of her wandering alone in park or wood, while that rabid hatred lurked in the shadow, waiting and watching for the moment. of attack. The horror of the idea chilled him to the heart, but he was careful not to hint at that horror to Juanita. He seized the first opportunity of being alone with Lady Jane and imparted his fears, founded upon that suggestion of Cuthbert Ramsey's to her. The kind creature was quick to take alarm, and promised to see that Juanita was guarded at all hours by all precautions that could be taken without alarming her. She is surrounded with old and faithful servants, said Lady Jane. A hint to them will

Starting point is 10:06:25 put them on their guard. But if you thought it wiser, I would take her away from this place. Take her away from England, if necessary. It is horrible to think of living at the mercy of an unknown foe. My friend's notion may be groundless. The crime of last year may have been an isolated act, the inspiration of madness. In our efforts to account for the unaccountable, we may invent theories which torture us, and which may yet have no ground, in fact. Only it is as well to think of possibilities, however hideous. He spent one night at the priory, and before departure next morning, presented his offering of a fine George

Starting point is 10:07:03 the second mug to his godson, Godfrey James Dalbrook, who, in his present stage of existence seemed to his godfather, a scarcely distinguishable morsel of humanity, smothered in over much cambric in Valenciennes. I'm afraid if I were to meet my godson in the arms of a strange nurse, I should not know him, he said, deprecatingly, after he had kissed the rosebud mouth, but please god the time will come when he and i will be firm friends as soon as he is old enough to decline mensa i shall feel that we can converse upon a common footing and when he goes to eton i shall renew my youth every time i run down to waste an hour in the playing fields watching him at cricket or to drive him to the white heart

Starting point is 10:07:43 although he put on an air of cheerfulness in his leave-taking he left the priory with a sense of deepest anxiety and it was almost a relief to him when he received a letter from lady jane a week-hour and he received a letter from lady jane a week-hour and he had a little bit of a week afterwards. I could not get over the uneasy feeling which your suggestion awakened, she wrote. So I am going to carry off mother and child to Switzerland the day after tomorrow. Interlaken and Grindelwald are delightful at this season. We shall return to Dorsetshire as soon as the tourists begin to invade our retreat, and I trust in God that some discovery may be made in the meantime, so that all our minds may be more at ease. End of Chapter 2. Volume 2, Chapter 3 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Starting point is 10:08:31 This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 3 Ruin hath thought me thus deruminate. That time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death which cannot choose but weep to have that which it fears to lose. That ghastly idea moated by Cuthbert Ramsey, the idea of an unsatisfied hatred still hovering like a bird of prey

Starting point is 10:08:56 over the heads of Juanita and her child, ready to make its dead. deadly swoop in the hour that should see her most helpless and unprotected, gave a new impetus to Theodore's mind, and he applied himself again to the apparently hopeless endeavor to find the motive of the murder and the person of the murderer. As an initial step, he invited Mr. Churton to dine with him at his chambers, entertained that gentleman with a well-chosen little dinner sent in from a famous tavern in the strand, and a bottle of unexceptionable port after dinner, and, by this innocent means, got the detective into an expansive frame of mind.

Starting point is 10:09:29 and induced him to discuss the chariton murder in all its bearings. The result of the long evening's talk differed in hardly any point from the opinion which Mr. Cherton had formulated at Chariton. The motive of the murder must be looked for in some past wrong or fancied wrong, inflicted upon the murderer. And again Mr. Churton returned to his point that there was a woman at the bottom of it. Do you mean that a woman fired the shot? Decidedly not.

Starting point is 10:09:56 I mean that a woman was the motive power. Women are not given to avenging their wrongs with their own hands. They will instigate the men who love them to desperate crimes, unconsciously perhaps, for they are the first to howl when the crime has been committed, and the lover's neck is in danger. But jealousy is the most powerful factor of all, and I take a jealousy was at the bottom of the charitin crime. I take it that some intrigue of Sir Gottfrey's youth was at the root of the matter.

Starting point is 10:10:24 Strange, as you may consider such a belief, Mr. Cherton, I am inclined to think that Sir Gottfried's youth. youth was innocent of intrigues, that he never loved any woman except my cousin, whom he adored from the time he was 18 when she was a lovely child of eleven. It was a very romantic attachment, and the kind of attachment which keeps a man clear of low associations. You and Lord Chariton tell me the same story, sir, said the detective with a touch of impatience. But if this immaculate young man never injured anybody, how do you account for that bullet? It is unaccountable, except upon a far-fetched hypothesis. What may that be? That the act of vengeance, though striking

Starting point is 10:11:05 Godfrey Carmichael, was aimed at Lord Chariton, that the blow was meant to ruin his daughter's life, and, by ricochet, strike him to the heart. I think we have spoken of this possibility before tonight. After that evening, with Cherton, Theodore made up his mind that there was no assistance to be looked for from this quarter. The detective had exhausted his means of investigation and had nothing further to suggest. He was, was too practical a man to waste time or thought upon speculative theories. Theodore saw, therefore, that if he were to pursue the subject further, he must think and work for himself.

Starting point is 10:11:39 After considering the question from every possible point of view, he became the more established in the idea that Godfrey Carmichael had been the scapegoat of another man's sin, the vicarious victim whose death was to strike at a guilty life. Of his youth, it was easy to know although there was to be known. He had lived in the sight of his fellow men, a young man of too much social importance to be able to hide any youthful indiscretions or wrongdoing.

Starting point is 10:12:04 But what of that other and so much longer life? What of the early struggles of the self-made man? What of the history of James Dalbrook in those long years of bachelor life in London when he was slowly working his way to the front? Might not there have been some hidden sin in that life, some sin dark enough to awaken his sleepless vengeance, a malignity which should descend upon him

Starting point is 10:12:26 in the day of peace and prosperity? like a thunderbolt from a clear and quiet sky. A man who marries at forty years of age has generally some kind of history before his marriage, and it was in that history Theodore told himself he must look for the secret of Godfrey Carmichael's death. He was loyal to his kinsman and his friend. He was inspired by no prurient curiosity, no envious inclination to belittle the great man. He was prompted solely by his desire to unearth the hidden foe and to provide for the safety of Juanita's future life. meditating upon his past intercourse with Lord Sheraton, and upon every familiar conversation

Starting point is 10:13:04 which he was able to recall, he was surprised to find how very little his kinsman had ever related of his London life before the time when he took silk and married a rich wife. His allusions to that earlier period had been of the briefest. He had shown none of that egotistical pleasure which most successful men feel in talking of their struggles, and the rosy dawn of fame, those first triumphs, small perhaps in themselves, but the after-taste of which is sweeter in the mouth than the larger victories of the flood-tide. He had never talked of any affairs of the heart, any of those lighter flirtations and unfinished romances which elderly men loved to recall. His history, so far as it could be judged

Starting point is 10:13:43 by his conversation, had been a blank. Either the man must have been a legal machine, a passionless piece of human clay, caring for nothing but professional achievement in those eighteen years of manhood between his call to the bar and his marriage, or he had lived a life which he could not afford to talk about. He was either of a duller clay than his fellow men, or he had a hidden history. Now, as it was hardly possible that James Dalbrook, judged from either a psychological or physiological standpoint,

Starting point is 10:14:12 could have been dull and cold and plotting, and passionless at any period of his career, there remained the inference that he had a secret history. Living under the very roof that had sheltered his cousin in the greater part of his professional career, Theodore Dalbrook arrived at this conclusion. What kind of a life had he lived, that young barrister, briefless and friendless at the outset, whose name was eventually to become a power, await bringing down the judicial scale on the side of victory,

Starting point is 10:14:40 just as Archer's writing was supposed to secure the winning of a race? How had he lived in those early years when the fight was all before him? What friends had he made for himself and what enemies? What love or what hate had agitated his existence? The investigator could only approach the question in the most commonplace manner. It was nearly a quarter of a century since James Dalbrook had been a tenant of that ground-floor set, above which Theodore was basing up and down in the summer dusk. He had to find someone who remembered him at that time.

Starting point is 10:15:13 It would not be his present laundress, a buxom matron of about five and thirty, who had never been known to any present inhabitant of Farad Court without the encumbrance of a baby in arms or a baby at the breast. as fast as one baby was disposed of there was another coming forward to take its place she always brought her baby with her and left it about in obscure corners like an umbrella it was always of the order of infant designated good that is to say it was not a squalling baby there were some of mrs armstrong's clients who suspected her of keeping it in a semi-narcotized condition in the interest of her profession but when this practice was hinted at the matron referred to the necessities of teething and hoped she did not required to be reminded of her duty as a mother. This good person brought in the lighted lamp while Theodore was pacing up and down the narrow limits of his sitting-room. She placed the lamp on the table, looked inquiringly at her employer, and then retired,

Starting point is 10:16:08 only to return with the tea-tray which she arranged lingeringly. She was a talkative person, with an active intellect, and it hurt her to leave the room without any scrap of conversation, were it only an inquiry about the postman, or a casual remark upon the weather. Nothing being forthcoming from Mr. Dahlbrook, she withdrew to the door, but paused on the threshold and dropped a curtsy. I'm afraid we're going to have a storm tonight, sir, she said. The fear was a thing of the moment inspired by her desire to talk. Do you think so, Mrs. Armstrong? I do indeed, sir. It couldn't be that heavy if there wasn't thunder in the air.

Starting point is 10:16:43 Perhaps not, replied Theodore indifferently. Ah, by the way, how long have you looked after these chambers? "'From three years before I was married, sir.' "'Is that long?' "'Lor, yes, sir, I should think it was, "'why my Joseph was thirteen on his last birthday.' "'Let me see. That would mean about seventeen years, wouldn't it? "'Yes, sir.'

Starting point is 10:17:06 "'And I suppose you knew nothing about the chambers before that time.' "'I won't say that, sir. "'I have known them more or less ever since I could run alone. "'Mother looked after them before me. "'It was only when the rheumatic's time.' took such firm hold of her. This was said as if Theodore were thoroughly posted in the case, that mother gave up. She had done for the gentleman in this house for over twenty years, though when she married father she never thought to have to do such work as this,

Starting point is 10:17:33 he being a master carpenter and cabinet-maker with a nice business, and she'd been brought up different, and I had more education than any of us ever had. Then your mother must have known this house when Mr. James Dalbrook had the ground floor, the Mr. Dalbrook, who is now Lord Cheriton, said Theodore, cutting short this biographical matter. I should think she did, sir. Many's the time I've heard her talk of him. He was just like you, sir, in his ways, as far as I can gather, very quiet and very studious. She waited upon him for nearly twelve years, so she ought to be a judge of his character. I should like to have a chat with your mother some of these days, Mrs. Armstrong. Would you, sir? I'm sure she'd be delighted. She

Starting point is 10:18:15 loves talking over all times. She's none of your radicals that are all for changing things like my husband. And she feels quite proud of having done for Lord Chariton when he was just like any other young gentleman in fair at court. Any time you'd like to step round to our place, sir, Mother would be happy to see you. She'd be glad to wait upon you, but she's crippled with the rheumatics, and it's as much as she can do to get upstairs of a night and downstairs of a morning.

Starting point is 10:18:41 I'll call upon her tomorrow afternoon if that will be convenient. No fear of that, sir. shall I look round at four o'clock and show you where she lives, sir? It's not above five minutes walk. If you please, I shall be very much obliged. Gadbolts Lane was one of the obscurest alleys between the temple and St. Bride's Church, but it was as well known in the locality as if it had been Regent Street. Thither, Mrs. Armstrong conducted her employer on a sultry June afternoon

Starting point is 10:19:09 and admitted him with her own private key into one of the narrowest houses he had ever seen, a house of three stories, with one window in each story, and with a tiny street door squeezed in between the parlor window and the next house, a house which, if it had stood alone, would have been a tower. Upon the narrow street door appeared a wide brass plate inscribed with the name of J. W. Armstrong, plumber, and in the parlor window were exhibited various indications of the plumbing trade. On a smaller brass plate just below the knocker appeared the modest legend. Miss Mowbley, ladies' own materials made up. the little parlour behind the plumber's emblems was very close and stuffy upon this midsummer afternoon for mrs duggett's complaint necessitated a fire in season and out of season but it was also spotlessly clean and preparations had evidently been made for an afternoon tea of an especially delicate character

Starting point is 10:20:02 there was a rack of such thin dry toast as mrs armstrong's employer affected and there was a choice pat of ailsbury butter set forth upon the whitest of tablecloth and flanked by a glass jarred by a glass jar of jam, the glass receptacle being of that ornate character which dazzles the purchaser into comparative indifference as to the quality of the jam. Just as admiring man, caught by outward beauty, is apt to shut his eyes to the lack of more lasting charms in the way of temper and character. Mother thought perhaps you'd honor her by taking a cup of tea this warm afternoon, sir, said Mrs. Armstrong, when Theodore had seated himself opposite the invalid, and then you can have your little talk over old times while I look after Armstrong's supper. he'll eat any bit i choose to give him for his dinner and there's days he don't get no dinner at all but he always looks for something tasty for supper don't he mother mrs dugget acknowledged this trait in her son-in-law's character and theodore having graciously accepted her hospitality mrs armstrong poured out the tea and waited upon the distinguished guest and having done this withdrew to her domestic duties

Starting point is 10:21:06 she was visible in front of the window five minutes afterwards setting out with a basket over her arm evidently in quest of the something tasty that was needful to her husband's well-being your daughter tells me that you remember my cousin lord chariton when he was mr dalbrook said theodore when he and the old woman were alone together except for the presence of a very familiar black cat which pushed its chilly nose into theodore's hand and rubbed its sleek fur against theodore's legs with an air of slavish adulation it isn't everybody that tom takes to said mrs dugget touched by her favourite's conduct he's a rare judge of character is tom i've had him from a kitten and his mother before him yes sir i ought to remember his lordship seeing that i waited upon him for over eleven years and a quiet gentleman he was to attend upon giving next to no trouble and never using bad language or coming home the worse for drink as i have known a gentleman behave in that very set did he live in his chambers all that time well sir nominally he did but actually he didn't he had his bedroom and his bathroom just as you have and the rooms was furnished pretty comfortable and everything about them was very neat for he was uncommonly particular was mr dalbrook and he was always there of a day and all day long except when he was at the law courts for there never was a more persevering gentleman but after the first three years i can't say that he lived in ferret court he came there by nine or ten o'clock every morning and sometimes he stayed till ten o'clock at night and sometimes he left as early as five in the afternoon but he didn't live there no more after the third year when he was beginning to get on a bit there was his rooms and there was nothing altered except that he took away his dressing-case and a good many of his clothes but there was everything left that he wanted for his toilette and all in apple-pie order for him to fall back upon his old ways at any time

Starting point is 10:23:07 only as i said before he didn't live there no longer and instead of having his dinner in his own room at seven o'clock he never took anything more than a biscuit and a glass of sherry or a brandy and soda did this change in his habits come about suddenly yes sir it did without an hour's warning i comes to his rooms one morning and finds that his bed hasn't been slept in and i find a little bit of a pencil note from him to say that he would be stopping out of town for a few days he was away over a fortnight and from time to time to the end of my service in ferret court he never spent another night there he had taken lodgings out of town i conclude i suppose you knew his other address no sir he never told me where his home was for of course he must have had a home somewhere no man would be a waif and stray for all those years above all such a steady-going gentleman as mr dalbrook i've heard other gentlemen accuse him of being a hermit one never sees you nowhere they says you're as steady as old time they says and so he was but he was very secret with his steadiness had you any idea where that second home of his was in what part of the suburbs it could not have been very far from london since you say he came to his chambers before ten o'clock every morning it was often or nine than ten sir said mrs duggett she paused a little before replying to his question, watching him with a sly smile as he caressed the obtrusive cat. She had her own notions as to the motive of his curiosity.

Starting point is 10:24:48 He had expectations from Lord Chariton, perhaps, and he wanted to discover if there were anything in the background of his kinsman's history, which was likely to interfere with the fruition of his mercenary hopes. It was a good many years after Mr. Dalbrook left off sleeping at his chambers that I made a sort of discovery, she said, and I knew my place too well to take any advantage of that discovery. But still, I had my suspicions, and I believe they were not far off the truth. What was the nature of your discovery? Oh, well, you see, sir, it wasn't much to talk about, only it set me thinking. It was two or three years before Mr. Dalbrook left Ferret Court and went to

Starting point is 10:25:29 that first floor set in King's Bench Walk, but he was beginning to be a great man, and he had more work than he could do, slave as hard as he might. And he did slave, I can tell you, sir. His rooms in ferret court were very shabby. They hadn't had a bit of paint or a pail of whitewash, for I don't know how long, so just before the long vacation he says to me, I'm going to get these rooms done up, Mrs. Duggett, while I'm out of town. I've got a estimate from a party in Holborn, and he's to paint the wainscot and clear coal the ceiling, and do the whole thing for nine pounds seven and eight pence in a workman-like manner. You'll please to clean up after him, and do away with all the waste paper and rubbish

Starting point is 10:26:12 and get everything tidy before November. Mrs. Dugget paused and refreshed herself with half a cup of tea and apologized for the obtrusiveness of the cat. I hope you don't object to cats, sir. Theodore smiled, reflecting that any man who objected to cats would have fled from that stuffy parter before now. No, I am rather fond of them as an inferior order of dog. Well, now, as to this discovery of yours, Mrs. Duggett.

Starting point is 10:26:39 I'm coming to it as fast as I can, sir. You must know that there was a lot of waste paper in one of the closets beside the fireplace, and you are aware how roomy those closets in ferret court are. I never held with burning waste paper, first because it's dangerous with regard to fire, and next because they'll give you three shillings a sack for it at some of the paper mills. so i had always emptied the waste-paper baskets into this closet which was made no other use of in the bottom of the closet was chalk full of old letters envelopes pamphlets and such like so i took my sack and i sat down on the floor and filled it now as i was putting in the papers by handfuls taking my time over it for the painters wasn't coming till the following monday and all my gentlemen was away on their holidays i was struck by seeing such a number of envelopes addressed to the same name

Starting point is 10:27:30 J. Danvers, Esquire, Myrtle Cottage, Camberwell Grove. How did Mr. Dalbrook come to have all those envelopes belonging to Mr. Danvers? There must have been letters inside the envelopes, and what business had he with Mr. Danvers' letters? They may have been letters bearing upon some case on which he was engaged, said Theodore. So they might, sir. But would he have the letters? asked the laundress shrewdly. wouldn't that be the solicitor's business you are right mrs duggett i see you have profited by your experience in the temple i had the curiosity to look at the postmarks on those envelopes sir there was over a hundred of them i should think some hole and some torn across and the postmarks told me that they spread over years they most of them looked like tradesmen's envelopes and the camberwell postmark was on a good many of them that closet hadn't been cleared out for eight or nine years to my knowledge, and those envelopes went back for the best part of

Starting point is 10:28:34 that time, and the longer I looked at them, the more I wondered who Mr. Danvers was. And did you come to any conclusion at last? Well, sir, I had my own idea about it, but it isn't my place to say what the idea was. Come, come, Mrs. Duggett, you have no employer now and you are beholden to no one. You are a free agent and have a perfect right. to give expression to your opinion if I thought it would go no further sir it shall go no further very well then sir to be candid I thought that James Dalbrook and jay Danvers Esquire were the same person and that mr. Dalbrook had been living in Camberwell

Starting point is 10:29:18 Grove under an assumed name would not that seem a very curious thing for a professional man in mr. Dalbrook's position to do inquired Theodore gravely it might be curious to you sir but i have seen a good deal of professional gentlemen in my time and it didn't strike me as very uncommon gentlemen have their own reasons for what they do and the more particular they are from a professional point of view the more convenient they may find it to make a little alteration in their names now and again mrs dugget looked at him with a significant shrewdness which gave her the air of a female mephistopheles a creature deeply versed in all things evil did your curiosity prompt you to try and verify your suspicions, he asked. The old woman looked at him searchingly before she answered, as if trying to discover what value there might be for him in any information she had it in her power to give or to withhold.

Starting point is 10:30:13 So far she had been carried along by her inherent love of gossip, stimulated by the wish to stand well with her daughter's employer, and perhaps with a view to such small amenities as a pound of tea or a bottle of whiskey. But at this point, something in Theodore's earnest manner suggested to her, that her knowledge of his kinsman's life might have a marketable value, and she therefore became newly reticent. It doesn't become me to talk about a gentleman like Mr. Dalbrook, your namesake and blood relation, too, sir, she said, folding her rheumatic hands meekly. I'm afraid I've made too free with my tongue already. Theodore did not answer her immediately. He took a lettercase from his

Starting point is 10:30:53 breast pocket and slowly and deliberately extracted two crisp banknotes from one of the divisions. these he opened and spread calmly and carefully on the table, smoothing out their crisp freshness, which crackled under his hand. There is something very pleasant in the aspect of a new bank-note. Money created expressly, as it were, for the first owner, virgin wealth, pure and uncontaminated by the dealings of the multitude. These were only five-pound notes, it is true, the lowest in the scale of English paper money,

Starting point is 10:31:23 in the eye of a millionaire infinitesimal as the grains of sand on the seashore, yet to Mrs. Dugget, those two notes lying on the table in front of her suggested vast wealth. It is doubtful if she had ever seen two notes together in the whole of her previous experience. Her largest payment was a quarter's rent, her largest receipt had been a quarter's wages. She had managed to save a little money in the course of her laborious days, but her savings had been accumulated in sovereigns and half-sovereigns, which had been promptly transferred to the savings bank. bank notes to her mind with the symbols of the surplus wealth now i am not going to beat about the bush mrs dugget said theodore with a matter-of-fact air i have a great respect for my kinsman lord chariton who has been a kind friend to me

Starting point is 10:32:10 you may be assured therefore that if i am curious about his past life i mean him no harm i have reasons of my own which it is not convenient for me to explain for wanting to know all about his early struggles his friends and his enemies i have reasons of my own which it is not convenient for me to explain for wanting to know all about his early struggles his friends and his enemies i have a reason I feel perfectly sure that you followed up your discovery of those envelopes, that you took the trouble to find Myrtle Cottage and to ascertain the kind of people who live there. Her face told him that he was right. If you choose to be frank with me and tell me all you can, those two five-pound notes are very much at your service. If you prefer to hold your tongue, I can only wish you a good afternoon and try to make

Starting point is 10:32:46 my discoveries unaided which will not be very easy after a lapse of over twenty years. I don't want to keep any useful information from you, sir, provided you'll promise not to let anything I may tell you get to Lady Chariton's ears. I shouldn't like to make unhappiness between man and wife. I promise that Lady Chariton shall not be made unhappy by any indiscretion of mine. That's all I care about, sir, said Mrs. Duggett, piously, with her keen old eye upon the notes. And be sure of that, I don't mind, owning, that I did take the trouble to follow up the address upon the envelope. Now, when a gentleman like Mr. Dalbrook, a gentleman as always pays his way

Starting point is 10:33:27 regular and stands high in his profession, when such a gentleman as that changes his name, you may be sure there's a lady in the case. If you take up a paper, sir, and happen to glance at a divorce case, promiscuous, as I do sometimes when my son-in-law leaves his telegraph or his echo lying about, you'll find that the gentleman who runs away with the lady always changes his name first thing. Whether he and the lady go to an hotel or takes lodgings or go on the continent, he always takes another name. I don't think the change does him much good, for wherever he goes people seem to know all about him and come out with their knowledge in court directly it's wanted, but it seems as if he must always act so and act so he does. Theodore submitted

Starting point is 10:34:11 to this disquisition in silence, but he touched the notes lightly with his fingers and made them crackle by way of stimulus to Mrs. Duggott's intellect. I felt sure if Mr. Dahlbrook had been living at Myrtle Cottage under the name of Danvers, there was a lady mixed up in it, and, being in the long vacation, when I knew he generally went abroad, I thought I would try and satisfy myself about him. I thought I should feel more comfortable in waiting upon him when I knew the worst. And then Camberwell Grove was such a little way off. It would be just a nice outing for me of a summer evening. So what did I do one lovely warm afternoon, but take my tea a little earlier than

Starting point is 10:34:50 usual, and trot off to the corner of Lancaster Place, where I wait for a Waterloo bus, coming sauntering along the strand as if it was time for slaves, and there was no such things as loop lines or trains to be caught? I hadn't no train to catch, so I didn't mind the sauntering and the dawdling and the taking up and setting down. I had all the summer evening before me when I got out at the green and made my way to the grove. It's a beautiful, romantic place, Camberwell Grove, sir. I don't know whether you know it, but if you do, I'm sure you'll own that there ain't a prettier neighborhood near London. Twenty years ago they used still to show you the garden

Starting point is 10:35:29 where George Barnwell murdered his uncle, but I dare say that's been done away with by now. It took me a good time to find Myrtle Cottage, for it was one of the smallest houses in the grove, and it stood back in a pretty little garden, and there was nothing on the gate to tell if it was Myrtle or otherwise. But I did find it at last, thanks to a young housemaid who was standing at the gate talking to a grocer's lad. The grocer's lad made off when he saw me, and for the first few minutes the girl was inclined to be disagreeable, but she came round very quickly, and I dare say she was glad to have someone to talk to on that solitary summer evening. "'Cooks out for her holidays,' she says,

Starting point is 10:36:09 "'and I can't stop in the house alone.' "'And then we got talking, "'and after we talked a bit standing at the gate, "'she asked me into the garden, "'where there was a long, narrow grass plot, "'screened off from the high road "'by two horse chestnut trees and some laburnums, "'and there was some garden chairs

Starting point is 10:36:26 "'and a table on the grass, "'and the young woman asked me to sit down. "'She'd got her work-basket out there "'and she'd been making herself an apron. "'I can't bear the house of a summer evening, she says. It gives me the horrors. Well, we talked of her master and mistress, as was natural.

Starting point is 10:36:45 She'd lived with them over a twelve-month, and it was a pretty good place, but very dull, and the missus had a temper, and was dreadfully particular, and expected things as nice as if she had ten servants instead of two, and was very mean into the bargain, and seemed afraid of spending money. I shouldn't be so particular if I was her, the girl said, and then she told me that she knew things wasn't all right, though they seemed a very respectable couple, and the lady went to church regularly. What made her suspect that things were wrong? asked Theodore, Mrs. Duggett, having paused

Starting point is 10:37:18 at this point of her narrative. Oh, sir, servants always know. They can't live six months in a house without finding out how the land lies. They've got so little to think of, you see, except their masters and mistresses. You can't wonder if they're always on the watch and the listen, meaning no. harm poor things if you was shut up in a stuffy little kitchen all day never seeing no one but the lads from the tradespeople for two or three minutes at a time you'd watch and you'd listen it's human nature people don't like reading servants and they don't like gadding servants so they must put up with servants that think a good deal of what's going on round them the housemaid told

Starting point is 10:37:59 me she was sure from the solitary way mr and mrs danvers lived that there was a screw loose somewhere. No one never comes near them, she said, and she never goes nowhere except for a walk with him. No visitors, no friends. I can't think how she bears her life. She hasn't a party gown even. If anybody asked her to a party, she couldn't go. When he took her abroad last month, she was all in a fluster and excitement like a child, or like a prisoner that's going to be let out of prison. She shook hands with Cook and me when she said goodbye, and that isn't the like her. I feel so happy, Jane, she says. I don't know what I'm doing. No more I think she did. She looked quite wild with pleasure and quite young too in her new bonnet, although in a general way she

Starting point is 10:38:48 looks older than him. And then the girl told me how fond she was of him, although she showed her temper now and then even to him. Not often, the girl said, and any quarrel with him threw her into a dreadful way afterwards, and she would lie awake and saw ball night long. the girl had heard her for it was a trumpy little house though it was pretty to look at and the walls were very thin i could see with my own eyes that it wasn't much of a house a sort of dressed-up cottage smothered with creepers up to the roof it looked pretty and countrified after the temple and i could understand that mr dalbroke liked living in such a lovely place as camberwell grove did you find out what the lady was like asked theodore you may be sure i try to do that, sir. How could I help being interested in a lady that had such an influence over one of my gentlemen? The girl told me that Mrs. Danvers was one of the has-beens. She had been handsome, perhaps, once upon a time, and she might have had a fine figure once upon a time, but she had neither face nor a figure now.

Starting point is 10:39:56 She was pale and careworn, and she was very thin. She didn't do anything to set herself off, either, like other ladies of five and thirty. She wore the same marino gown month after month and she had only one silk gown in her wardrobe. She was always neat and nice like a lady, but she didn't seem to care much how she looked. She told the girl once

Starting point is 10:40:19 that she and Mr. Danvers would be better off by and by and then all things would be different with them. I am only waiting for those happier days, she says, but the girl fancied she would be an old woman before those days came. were there any children i could not find out for certain the girl fancied from chance words she had overheard that there had been a baby but that it had been sent away and that this was a grievance between them and came up when they quarrelled which was not often as i said before altogether i left camberwell grove feeling very sorry for the lady who was called mrs danvers and i thought it was a great pity if mr dalbroke wanted to make a home for himself he couldn't have managed it better i made great friends with jane the housemaid before i left that garden and i asked her when she had an evening out to come and take a cup of tea with me and if she could get leave to go to the theatre my youngest son who was living at home then could take her along with my daughter who was then unmarried and in service a new bridge street

Starting point is 10:41:20 the young woman came once about christmas time and she told me things were just the same as they had been at myrtle cottage she talked very freely about mr and mrs danvers over her tea but she had no idea that he was benown to me or that he was a barrister with chambers in the temple she thought he was something in the city i asked her if it was mr danvers who was mean and kept his lady short of money but she thought not she thought it was mrs danvers who had a kind of mania for saving for she was quite put out if mr danvers brought her home a present that cost a few pounds it seemed as if they were saving up for some purpose for they used to talk to each other of the money money he was putting by, and it was plain they were looking forward to a better house and a happier kind of life. Jane thought that either she had a husband hidden away somewhere, in a lunatic asylum, perhaps, or he had another wife. Mrs. Dugget stopped to replenish the thrifty little fire with a very small scoopful of coals, during which operation the sleek black cat leaped upon her back and balanced himself upon her shoulders while she bent over

Starting point is 10:42:27 the grate. Well, sir, that was Jane's first and last visit. she got married all of a sudden before lady day and she went to live in the country where her husband was postman in her native village and i never see no more of her i went to camberwell grove again in the long vacation when i knew mr dollbrook was away but i found only an old woman in the house as caretaker stone deaf and disagreeable into the bargain mr dollbrook moved into king's bench walk the following year and less than six months after that i saw his marriage in the papers and his clerk told me he had married a very rich young lady and was going to buy an estate in the country i went to have another look at the cottage soon after mr dalbroke's marriage and i found the garden gate locked and aboard up to say that the house was to be let unfurnished and that sir is all i could ever find out about the lady called mrs danvers and this history of the home in camberwell grove is all you ever knew about mr james dalbroke's life outside the chambers in ferret court yes sir that is all i ever heard promiscuously or otherwise well mrs dugget you have been frank with me and you have earned my little present said theodore handing her the two notes which her old fingers touched tremulously in a rapture that was too much for words it was with an effort that she faltered out her thanks for his generosity which she put protested she had never looked for. Theodore walked back towards the temple deep in thought.

Starting point is 10:43:59 Indeed, so troubled and perplexed were his thoughts that upon approaching Parrot Court, he stopped short, and instead of going straight to his chambers, turned aside and went to the gardens, where he walked up and down the same gravel path for an hour, pondering upon that picture of the hidden home in Camberwell Grove, conjured up before him by the loquacious laundress. Yes, he could imagine that obscure existence almost as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. He could fancy the solitary home were never kinsman or familiar friend

Starting point is 10:44:28 across the threshold, a home destitute of all home ties and homely associations, a home never smiled upon by the parson of the parish, cut off from all local interests, identified with nothing, a mystery among the commonplace dwellings around and about it, a subject for furtive observation from the neighbors. He could fancy those two lonely lives spraying upon each other, too closely united for peaceful union, the woman too utterly dependent upon the man, she feeling her dependence a degradation, he feeling her helplessness a burden. He could picture them, loving each other, perhaps passionately, jealously to the last, and yet weary of each other, worn out and weighed down by the narrowness of a life walled off

Starting point is 10:45:12 from the rest of the world in all its changeful interests and widening sympathies. And then he saw the picture in still darker colors, as it might have been a little more been ere that unknown figure faded from the canvas. He thought of the ambitious, successful barrister, heart-sick at the fetters which he had fastened upon his life, tired of his faded mistress, seeing all gates open to him were he but free to pass them, still living apart from the world at a time of life when all the social instincts are at their highest development, when a man loves the society of his fellow men, the friction of crowds, the sound of his own voice, and every social tribute that the world can offer to his talents and his success.

Starting point is 10:45:52 He saw his kinsman galled by the chain which love and honor had hung about him, loathing his bondage, longing for liberty, saw him with the possibility of a brilliant marriage suddenly offering itself to him, a lovely girl ready to throw herself into his arms, a fortune at his feet, and the keen ambition of a self-made man goading him like a spur. How did it end? Did death set him free? death, the loosener of all bonds. Or did his mistress sacrifice herself and her broken heart to his welfare, and of her own accord release him?

Starting point is 10:46:25 There are women capable of such sacrifices. It would seem that his disentanglement, however it came about, had been perfect of its kind, for no rumour of a youthful intrigue, no scandal about a cast-off mistress had ever clouded the married life of James Dalbrook. Even in Chariton Village were the very smallest nucleus in the way of fact was apt to swell into a gigantic scandal, even at chariton nobody had ever hinted at indiscretions in the earlier years of the local magnate. And then Theodore Dahlbroke asked himself the essential

Starting point is 10:46:57 question, what bearing, if any, had this episode of his kinsman's life upon the murderer of Juanita's husband? What dark and vengeful figure lurked in the background of that common story of dishonorable love? An outraged husband, a brother, a father, that obscure life apart from friends and acquaintances which show that some great wrong had been done, some sacred tie had been broken. Only a sinful union so hides its furtive happiness. Only a deep sense of degradation will reconcile a woman to banishment from the society of her own sex. Whether that forsaken mistress were dead or living, there might lurk in her sad history the elements of tragedy, the motive for a ghastly revenge. And on this account, the story possessed a grim

Starting point is 10:47:43 fascination for Theodore Dalbrook. He lay awake the greater part of the night, thinking in a fitful way of that illicit menage in the unfashionable suburb, the suburb whose very existence is unknown to society. He fell asleep long after the sun was up, only to dream confusedly of a strange woman who was now James Dalbrook's lawful wife, and now his victim, and whose face had vague resemblances to other faces, and who was and was not half a dozen other women in succession. He walked to Camberwell on the following afternoon, surprised at the strange world through which he passed on his way there, the teeming, busy, noisy world, the world which makes such a hard fight for life. The grove itself, after that bustling, seething road, seemed a place in which nightingales might have warbled, and laughing girls hidden from their lovers in the summer dusk. The very atmosphere of decay from a better state was soothing. There were trees still and gardens, and here and there pretty old-fashioned houses. and in a long narrow garden between two larger houses he found myrtle cottage there was a board up and the neglected garden indicated that the cottage had been a long time without a tenant

Starting point is 10:48:52 there was a policeman's wife living in it with the colony of small children in the cotton pinafore stage of existence and with noses dependent upon maternal supervision so much so that scarcely had the matron attended to one small snub than her attention was called off to another which gave a distracted air to all her conversation she took mr dollbrook over the house and expatiated upon the damp walls and the utter incompetence of the cistern and pipes to meet the exigencies of a family which was the more to be regretted on the ground that the landlord declined to do anything in the way of repairs as he intended to pull the house down in a few years with a view to making better use of the ground and indeed that's about all it's fit for said the policeman's wife it ain't fit for anybody to live in the rooms had even a more desolate look than rooms and empty houses usually have in consequence of this long neglect The cottage had been empty for two years and a half, long enough for the damp to make hideous blotches upon all the walls, and traced discoloured maps of imaginary continents upon all the ceilings, long enough for the spiders to weave their webs in all the corners, for dust to eat deep into the iron grates, and for dust and dirt to obscure every window. Theodore stood in the room which had once been a drawing-room, and which boasted of a wide French window looking out upon a lawn with a large weeping ash directly in front of the window, and much too near for ariness or health, a melancholy looking tree in which Theodore thought

Starting point is 10:50:17 Mrs. Danvers might have found a symbol of her own life as she stood at the window and looked at those dull, drooping branches against a background of ivy-covered wall. End of Chapter 3. Volume 2, Chapter 4. Of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braden. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 4 the hour, there never yet was human power which could evade if unforgiven, the patient's search and vigil long of him who treasures up a wrong. Theodore made a tour of the little garden in the summer sundown. It was very small,

Starting point is 10:51:03 but its age gave it a superiority over most suburban gardens. There were trees and hardy perennials that had been growing year after year, blooming and fading, with little care on the part of successive tenants. The chief charm of the gardens, some people might have been its seclusion. There was no possibility of being overlooked in this narrow pleasance, and overlooking is the curse of the average garden attached to the average villa. Mr. and Mrs. Jones, taking their ease, or working in their garden in the cool of the evening, are uncomfortably conscious of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, eyeing them from the drawing-room windows of next door. Here, the high wall on one side and the tall horse chestnuts on the other

Starting point is 10:51:43 made a perfect solitude, but seclusion on a very small scale, is apt to merge into dullness, and it must be owned that the Garden of Mertile cottage at sundown was about as melancholy a place as the mind of man could imagine. Theodore, contemplating it from the standpoint of Mrs. Danvers' history, her friendlessness, her sense of degradation, wondered that she could have endured that dismal atmosphere for a single summer. And she had lived there for many years. Lived there till weariness must have become loathing. God help her poor soul, he said to himself.

Starting point is 10:52:17 how she must have abhorred that weeping ash. How it must have tortured her to see the leaves go and come again year after year, and to know that neither spring nor autumn would better her fate. He took down the address of the agent who had the letting of the house and left with the intention of seeing him that evening if possible. The landlord was a personage resembling the Mikado or the Grand Lama and was not supposed to be accessible to the human vision, certainly not in relation to his house property.

Starting point is 10:52:44 The policeman's wife averred that him and the Degrored Crespigny's owned half Camberwell. The agent was represented to live over his office, which was in no less famous a locality than Camberwell Green, and was likely, therefore, to oblige Mr. Dalbrook by seeing him upon a business matter after business hours. It was not much past seven when Theodore entered the office, where he found the agent extending his business hours so far as to be still seated at his desk, deep in the revision of a catalogue. He was a very genial agent, and he put aside the catalogue immediately, asked Theodore to be seated, and wheeled round his office chair to talk to him.

Starting point is 10:53:21 Myrtle cottage, yes, a charming little box, convenient and compact, a bijou residence for a bachelor with a small establishment. Such a nice garden, too, retired and rustic. If you were thinking of taking the property on a repairing lease, the rent would be very moderate, really a wonderfully advantageous occasion for anyone wanting a pretty secluded place. To tell you the truth, Mr. Adkins, I am not thinking of taking that house or any house. I have come to ask you a few questions about a former tenant, and I shall take it as a favor if you will be so good as to answer them. The agent looked disappointed, but he put his pen behind his ear, crossed his legs, and prepared himself for conversation. Do you mean a recent tenant? he asked.

Starting point is 10:54:04 No. The gentleman I am interested in left Myrtle Cottage twenty years ago, nearer five and twenty years, perhaps. his name was Danvers. The agent gave a suppressed whistle and looked at his interlocutor with increasing interest. Oh, you wanted to know something about Mr. Danvers? Was he an acquaintance of yours? He was. Hum. He is more than old enough to be your father.

Starting point is 10:54:27 He might almost be your grandfather. Do you know him intimately? As intimately as a man of my age can know a man of his age. And position, added the agent, looking at his visitor shrewdly. Theodore returned the look. I don't quite follow your meaning, he said. Come now, sir.

Starting point is 10:54:47 If you know anything at all about the gentleman in question, you must know that his name is not Danvers, and never was Danvers, that he took Myrtle Cottage under an assumed name and lived there for nearly ten years under that assumed name, that he never let any of his friends or acquaintances cross his threshold. And that he thought he had hoodwinked me, me a man of the world, moving about in the world,

Starting point is 10:55:07 among other men of the world. why sir mr danvers had not paid me three half-year rent in notes or gold as he always paid and in his office here before i had found out that he was the rising barrister mr dalbrook and before i had guessed the reason of his whole and corner style of life what became of the lady who was called mrs danvers and who in all probability was mrs danvers said mr atkins i have reason to believe that was her name what became of her god knows servant came to me one August morning with the keys and a half-year's rent. The tenant had given notice to surrender at the Michael Mass quarter, that being the quarter at which he entered upon possession. Mr. and Mrs. Danvers had gone abroad. To Belgium, the woman thought.

Starting point is 10:55:53 And as it was their present intention to live abroad, their furniture had all been removed to the Pentecnicon upon the previous day, and the house was empty, and at my disposal. Did you hear nothing more of them after that? I heard of him, sir, as all the world heard of him. heard of his marriage with a wealthy young Spanish lady, heard of his elevation to the peerage, but of Mrs. Danvers I never heard a syllable. I take it she was pensioned off and that she lived

Starting point is 10:56:19 and may have died on the continent. Why, there are a lot of sleepy old Flemish towns. I'm a bit of a traveller in my quiet way, which seem to have been created for that purpose. Is that all you can tell me about your tenants, Mr. Atkins? I am not prompted by idle curiosity in my inquiries. I have a very strong motive. don't trouble yourself to explain sir i know nothing about mr or mrs danvers which i have any desire to hold back or which i am under any obligation to keep back my business relations with a gentleman never went beyond letting him myrtle cottage which i led to him without a reference on the strength of a twelve months rent in advance and a deuce of a hurry he was in to get into the place

Starting point is 10:56:59 as for mrs danvers you may be surprised to hear that i never saw her face i'm not a prying person and as the rent was never overdue i had no occasion to call at the house but i did see someone who had a strong bearing upon the lady's life and a very troublesome customer that person was who was he no less an individual than her husband a man dashed into this office one winter afternoon a little after dusk and asked me if i had led a house to a person called danvers i could see that he had been drinking and that he was in a state of strong excitement. So I answered him shortly enough, and I kept him well between myself and the door, so as to be able to pitch him out if he got troublesome. He told me that he'd just come from Myrtle Cottage, that he had been refused admittance there,

Starting point is 10:57:44 although the woman who lived there was his wife. He wanted to know if the house had been taken by her, or by the scoundrel who passed himself off as her husband. If it had been taken in her name, it was his house, and he would very soon let them know that he had the right to be there. I told him that I knew nothing about him or his rights, that my client's tenant was Mr. Danvers, and that there the business ended.

Starting point is 10:58:07 He was very violent upon this, abused the tenant, talked about his own wrongs and his wife's desertion of him, asked me if I knew that this man who called himself Danvers was an imposter, who had taken the house in a false name, and who was really a beggary barrister called Dalbrook. And then, from blasphemy and threatening he fell to crying, and sat in my office shivering and whimpering like a half-demand,

Starting point is 10:58:29 Mented creature, till I took compassion upon him so far as to give him a glass of brandy, and sent my office lad out with him to put him into a cab. Did he tell you his name or a profession? No, he was uncommonly close about himself. I asked him if the lady's name was really Danvers, and if he was Mr. Danvers. But he only stared at me in a vacant way with his drunken eyes. It was hopeless trying to get a straight answer from him about anything. Heaven knows how he got home that night, for a man.

Starting point is 10:58:59 he wouldn't tell the office boy his address, and only told the cabman to drive to Holborn. I'll put him up when I get there, he said. He may have been driven about half the night for all I can tell. Was that all you ever saw or heard of him? All I ever saw, but not all I ever heard. Servants and neighbours will talk, you see, sir, and I happen to be told of three or four occasions, at considerable intervals, at which my gentleman made unpleasantness at Myrtle college. He would go there wild with drink. I believe he never went when he was sober and would kick up a row. If he wanted to get his wife away from the life she was leading, he would have gone to work in a different manner, but it's my opinion he wanted nothing of the kind. He was savage and

Starting point is 10:59:44 vindictive in his cups, and he wanted to frighten her and to annoy the man who had tempted her away from him. But he was a poor creature, and after blustering and threatening he would allow himself to be thrust out of doors like a stray cur. What kind of a man did he look, a broken-down gentleman? Yes, I should say he had been a gentleman once, but he had come down a longish way. He had come down as low as drink and dissipation can bring a man. Altogether I should consider him a dangerous customer. A man capable of violence, of crime even.

Starting point is 11:00:19 Perhaps. A man who wouldn't have stopped at crime if he hadn't been a white-levered hound. I tell you, sir, the fellow was afraid of Mr. Dalbrook, although Mr. Dalbrook ought to have been afraid of him. He was a craven to the core of his heart. What age did you give him? At the time he came to me, I should put him down at about six and thirty. And that is how many years ago?

Starting point is 11:00:44 Say four and twenty. I can't be certain to a year or so. It wasn't a business transaction, and I haven't any record of the fact. Was he a powerful-looking man? he was the remains of a powerful man he must have been a fine man when he was ten years younger a handsome man too one of those fair complexant blue-eyed aquiline-nosed men who set off good clothes the kind of man to do justice to a rig out from a fashionable tailor he was a wreck when i saw him but he was the wreck of a handsome man and you take it that he was particularly vindictive he was as vindictive as a cur can be and was his anger strongest against the lady do you suppose or against the gentleman decidedly against the gentleman he was full of envy and hatred and all uncharitableness towards mr dalbrook he affected to think contemptuously of his talents and to belittle him in every way while he was bursting with envy at his growing success he was jealous and angry as a husband no doubt but he was still more jealous and still angrier as a disappointed man against a successful man

Starting point is 11:01:54 man. He was as venomous as conscious failure can be. And now, sir, that I have spoken so freely about this little domestic drama, which was all past and done with twenty years ago, and in which I only felt interested as a man of the world, now may I ask your name, and how you come to be so keenly interested in so remote an event. My name is Dalbrook, replied Theodore, taking out his card and laying it upon the agent's desk. You don't mean to say so. A relation of Lord Charitans. his cousin a distant cousin but warmly attached to him and his the motive of my inquiry need be no secret a dastardly murder was committed last summer in lord chariton's house yes i remember the circumstances

Starting point is 11:02:39 a seemingly motiveless murder unless it was the act of some secret foe foe either of the man who was killed or of his wife's father lord chariton i have reason to know that the young man who was killed had never made an enemy his life's father-heriton his life was killed had never made an enemy his life was short and blameless. Now, a malignant cur, such as the man you describe, a man possessed by that devil of drink, would be just the kind of creature to assail the strong man through his defenseless daughter. To murder her husband was to break her heart and to crush her father's hopes.

Starting point is 11:03:13 This man may have discovered long beforehand how my cousin had built upon that marriage, how devoted he was to his daughter and how ambitious for her. Upon my soul, I believe that you have given me the clue. If we are to look for a blind, unreasoning hatred, malignity strong enough and irrational enough to strike the innocent in order to get at the guilty, I do not think we can look for it in more likely a person than in the husband of Mrs. Danvers. Perhaps not, said Mr. Atkins,

Starting point is 11:03:42 keenly interested, yet dubious. But, granted that he is the man, how are you to find him? It is about four and twenty years since he stood where you are standing now, and I have never set eyes on him from that day to this, close upon a quarter of a century. I can't tell you his calling, or his kindred, the place where he lived, or even the name he bore with any certainty. Danvers may have been only an assumed name, or it may have been his name. There's no knowing, or rather there's only one person likely to be able to help you in the matter, and that is Lord Chariton. It would be difficult to question him upon such a subject. of course it would and i don't suppose that even he has taken the trouble to keep himself posted in the movements of that very ugly customer having shunted the lady he wouldn't be likely to concern himself about the gentleman a quarter of a century said theodore too thoughtful to give a direct answer

Starting point is 11:04:39 yes it must be very difficult to trace any man after such an interval but if that man went to chariton chase he must have left some kind of trail behind him and it will go hard with me if I don't get upon that trail. I thank you, Mr. Atkins, for the most valuable information I have obtained yet, and if any good comes of it you shall know. Good night. Good night, sir. I shall be very glad to aid in the cause of justice. Yes, I remember the Cherit and Chase murder, and I should like to see the mystery cleared up.

Starting point is 11:05:12 End of Chapter 4. Volume 2, Chapter 5 of The Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braden. Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 5 Upon a tone, a touch of hers, his blood would ebb and flow, and his cheek changed tempestuously. But she in these fond feelings had no share.

Starting point is 11:05:40 Her sighs were not for him. To her he was even as a brother, but no more. After that conversation with a house agent, the idea that he had found the clue to the Chariton Chase's mystery took root in Theodore Dalbrook's mind. taking as his starting point the notion of a deadly hatred reeking itself in an indirect revenge there seemed no more likely figure for the rale of avenger than that of the wronged and deserted husband

Starting point is 11:06:06 the one's startling improbability in this view of the case was the long interval between the husband's appearance at myrtle cottage and the date of the murder but even this difficulty theodore was able to account for upon the hypothesis of a gradual perversion a descent from vice to crime as the man's nature hardened under the corrupting and of a profligate life, while the old festering sore grew into a malignant canker, under the lash of misery. He had seen in that great seething cauldron of London life, men whose countenances bore the stamp of a degradation so profound that the most ferocious crime might seem the normal outcome of their perverted natures. He could imagine how the broken-down gentleman, steeped in drink, and embittered by the idea of wrongs which had been the natural consequence of his own misconduct, had sunk step by step upon the last, of ice, till he had arrived at that lowest deep where the dreams of men are stained with blood

Starting point is 11:07:00 and darkened by the shadow of a hangman. He could imagine such a man brooding over his wrongs for long years, nursing his jealous wrath as the one touch of manliness that survived in him, until some newspaper description of the Dalbrook and Carmichael wedding reminded him of the bitter contrast between his own lot and that of his rival, and, lashed into sudden fury, he set out upon his murderous errand, hardly caring whom he murdered so long as, as he could hurt the man he hated. The very fact that Mr. Danvers' husband had been described as a craven made the idea of his guilt more likely. Only a coward would have chosen such a revenge. Only a coward could have stretched out his hand from the darkness to kill a man who had never injured him.

Starting point is 11:07:43 The crime was the crime of a coward or a madman, and this man, brutalized by drink, may have been both madman and coward. Here at least was a man closely associated with James Dalbrook's life, and having good cause to hate him. In the darkness surrounding the murder of Godfrey Carmichael, this was the first flash of light. And having arrived at this point, Theodore Dalbrook saw himself face to face with the new and seemingly insurmountable difficulty. To follow this clue to the end, to bring the crime home to the husband of Lord Chariton's

Starting point is 11:08:16 cast-off mistress, was to expose the history of the great man's earlier years to the world at large, to offer up a reputation which had hitherto been stainless as a rich and savory repast to that carrion brood, consisting of almost everybody which loves to feast upon garbage. How the evening newspapers would revel in the details of such a story, what denunciations, what gloating over the weakness of a strong man's life. How the contents bills would bristle with appetizing headings, how the shrill voice newsboys would yell their startling particulars, their latest developments of the charit and chase scandal. This must all inevitably follow upon the discovery of the murder

Starting point is 11:08:56 if the murderer were indeed the injured husband. There could be no possible escape from that glare of publicity, that swelling symphony of slander. From the moment the law laid its hand upon the criminal, the case would pass beyond individual control and individual interests and reputations would become as not. Justice would have to do its work, and in the doing of it, must be able to be able to.

Starting point is 11:09:19 needs afford the usual opportunity to the newspapers. Theodore thought with horror of such humiliation coming upon Lord Chariton, and threw him upon Juanita, who loved her father with a reverential affection, and who was intensely proud of his character and position. He thought of gentle Lady Chariton, who adored her husband, and who doubtless would be made miserable by the knowledge that his first love had been given to another woman, whom he had loved well enough to sacrifice honor for the sake of that illicit love.

Starting point is 11:09:47 What agony to that single-minded trusting creature to find that dark spot upon her husband's past, and to know that the daughter's happiness had been blighted because of the father's sin. With these considerations in his mind, it seemed to Theodore that it would be better to halt on the very threshold of discovery, and yet there was the appalling thought of further possibilities in the way of crime. Of a madman's revenge carried a stage further, a madman's pistol aimed at the defenseless mother or the unconscious child, what was he to do was there no alternative between inaction and such action as must speedily set in motion the machinery of the law and thus deprive him of all free will in the future conduct of the case yes there was an alternative course if he were once assured of the identity of the assassin it might be in his power to lay hands upon him and to place him under such circumstances of control in the future as would ensure one eat his safety and render any further crime impossible If the man were mad, as Theodore thought more than likely, he might be quietly got into an asylum.

Starting point is 11:10:54 If he were still master of his actions, he might be got abroad to the remotest colony in the Antipides. The knowledge of his crime would be a hold over him, a lever which would remove him to the uttermost ends of the earth, if need were. This would be an illegal compromise, no doubt, unjustifiable in the eye of the law, but if it ensured Juanita's safety and saved her father's character, the compromise was worth making. It was indeed the only way by which her security and her father's good name could be provided for. To arrive at this result, he had to find the man who had appeared in Mr. Atkins' office about four and twenty years ago, and of whose subsequent existence he, Theodore, had no knowledge. I must begin at the other end, he told himself. If that man was the murderer, he must have been seen in the neighborhood. It is not possible that he could have come to the place

Starting point is 11:11:46 and watched for his opportunity and got clear off after the deed was done without being seen by human eyes. And yet there remained the fact that the local policeman and a London detective had both failed in obtaining the faintest trace of a suspicious-looking stranger, or indeed of any stranger, male or female, who had been observed in the neighborhood of Chariton before or after the murder. There remained the fact that a large reward had been offered without resulting in one scrap of information bearing upon the subject. How could he hope, in the face of these facts, to trace the movements of a man whose personal appearance was unknown to him, and who had come and gone like a shadow? I can but try, and I can but fail, he told himself,

Starting point is 11:12:28 Knowing what I know now, I cannot remain inactive. It may be that he had caught something of the fiery eagerness which consumed Juanita, that, in his ardent desire to be worthy of her regard, to waste his life in her service he had become, as it were, inoculated with the spirit. of his mistress, and hoped as she hoped and thought as she thought. With the beginning of the long vacation he went to Dorchester, but this time not alone. He took his friend Cuthbert Ramsey with him as a visitor to the grave old house in the grave old town.

Starting point is 11:12:59 His sisters often made a complaint against him that he never introduced any of his Scottish friends to them, that, whereas the sisters of other university men were rich in the acquaintance of Charlie's and Algernons and Freds and Tom's, who were producible at tennis parties and available for picnics at the shortest notice. They were restricted to the use of Dorchester in a horizon bounded by the country houses of the immediate neighborhood. Remembering these reproaches and seeing that his friend Ramsey was obviously pining for rest and country air, Theodore suggested that he should occupy the bachelor's room in Cornhill as long as he could venture to stop away from hospitals and lectures and scientific investigations.

Starting point is 11:13:36 You want a long fallow, Cuthbert, he said, and you couldn't have a better Lotus Island than Orchester. There's not an excitement or a fever sensation to be had within 20 miles, and then I really want to make you known to my cousin, Lord Chariton. He is a very clever man, an all-around man, and he would be interested in you and all that you are doing. I shall be proud of knowing him. And then there is your cousin Lady Carmichael. I am deeply interested in her, without having ever seen her face, and when I do see her. You will say she is one of the loveliest women you ever saw your life, Cuthbert. I have no doubt of that. You will see her beauty under a cloud, for she is not one of those women who begin to get over the loss of a husband as soon as their

Starting point is 11:14:22 crape gets rusty, but her beauty is all the more touching on account of the grief that separates her from all other women, even from her past self. I sometimes look at her and wonder if this sad and silent woman can be the one I once knew. The light-hearted, spontaneous girl, a buoyant creature, all impulse and caprice, fancy and imagination. you may be sure that I shall admire her, and you may be sure I shall not forget that there is someone whose admiration has a deeper root than the lust of the eye and the fancy of the moment.

Starting point is 11:14:54 Theodore would not affect to misunderstand him. It was not possible that he could have talked of his cousin in the freedom of friendship without having revealed his secret to his friend. My dear fellow, he said with a sigh, mine is a hopeless case. You will know that it is so when you see Juanita and me together. her mother said to me on the first day of this year if ever she comes to care for anybody it will be some new person and i have not the least doubt that her mother was right her first love was her playfellow the companion of her girlhood a woman cannot have two such loves her second attachment if she ever make one will be of a totally different character who knows theodore a woman's heart is to be measured by no calipers that i know of it is subject to no scientific test we cannot

Starting point is 11:15:42 say it shall give this or that result. It may remain cold as marble to a man through years of faithful devotion, and then, in an instant, the marble may change to a volcano, and hidden fires may leap out of that seeming coldness. Neal desperandum should be the motto of all inventors, and of all lovers. Dorchester, and especially the old house in Cornhill, received Mr. Ramsey with open arms. Harrington was in the dejected state of a young man who has been rudely awakened from youth's sweetest delusion. Fooled and forsaken by Juliette Baldwin, he had told himself that all women are liars,

Starting point is 11:16:19 and was doing all in his power to establish his reputation as a woman hater. In this temper of mind he was not averse from his own sex, and he welcomed his brother's friend with unaffected cordiality, and was evidently cheered by the new life which Ramsey's vivacity brought into the quiet atmosphere of home. The sisters were delighted to do honour to a scientific man, and were surprised on a...

Starting point is 11:16:41 attacking Mr. Ramsey at dinner with the ease and a plan of confrre in modern science, to discover one of two things, either that he knew nothing, or that they knew very little. They were at first inclined to the former opinion, but it gradually dawned upon them that their own much-valued learning was of a very elementary character, and that their facts were, for the most part, wrong. Chastened by this discovery, they allowed the conversation to drift into lighter channels, and never again tackled Mr. Ramsey, either upon the broad and open subject of evolution, or the burning question of the cholera basilus. They were even content to leave him to the enjoyment of his own views upon spontaneous

Starting point is 11:17:21 generation and the movement of glaciers, instead of setting him right upon both subjects, as they had intended in the beginning of their acquaintance. He is remarkably handsome but horribly dogmatic, Sophia told her brother, and I'm afraid he belongs to the showy, shallow school which has arisen since the death of Darwin. He would hardly have dared to talk as he did at dinner during Darwin's lifetime. Perhaps not if Darwin had been omnipresent. Oh, there is a restraining influence

Starting point is 11:17:49 in the very existence of such a man. He is a perpetual court of appeal against arrogant smatterers. I don't think you can call a man who took a first class in science a smatterer, Sophie. However, I'm sorry you don't like my friend. I like him well enough, but I'm not imposed upon by his dogmatism.

Starting point is 11:18:07 the two young men drove to milbrook priory on the following day theodore feeling painfully eager to discover what changed the last few months had made in molyta she had been in switzerland with lady jane and the baby living first at grindalwald and later in one of those little villages on the shores of the lake of the forest cantons which combine the picturesque and the dull in a remarkable degree a mere cluster of chalais and cottages at the foot of the liege facing the monotonous beauty of the lake and the calm grandeur of snow-capped mountains which shut in that tranquil corner of the earth and shut out all the busy world beyond it nowhere else had juanita felt that deep sense of seclusion that feeling of being remote from the din in press of life and now she was again at the priory she had settled down there in her new position as widow and mother a woman for whom all life's passionate story was over who must live henceforward for that new life growing day by day towards that distant age of passion and of sorrow through which she had passed suddenly and briefly crowding into a month the emotions of a lifetime there are women who have lived to celebrate their golden wedding who in fifty years of wedlock have not felt half her sum of love and who in losing the companion of half a century have not felt half her sum of grief it is the capacity for loving and suffering which differs in different people and weighed against that time counts but little she received her cousin with all her old friendliness she was a little more cheerful than when last they met and he saw that the new interest of her life had done good lady jane was at swanage and juanita was alone at the priory though not without the expectation of company a little later in the year as these sisters and their husbands were to be with her before the first of october so that the expense of pheasant reading might not be altogether wasted.

Starting point is 11:19:57 You must be here as much as you can in October, Theodore, she said, and help me to endure Mr. Grenville and Mr. Morningside. One talks nothing but sport, and the other insist upon teaching me the science of politics. She received Cuthbert Ramsey with a serious sweetness which charmed him. Yes, she was verily beautiful among women, exceptionally beautiful. Those southern eyes shone star-like in the settled pallor of her face. face, and her whole countenance was etherealized by thought and grief. It touched the stranger to see how she struggled to put away the memory of her sorrow and to receive him with all due hospitality, how she restrained herself as she showed him

Starting point is 11:20:38 the things that had been a part of her dead husband's existence, and told him the story of the old house which had sheltered so many generations of Carmichael's. Lady Chariton had been lunching at the priory, where she came at least twice a week to watch her grandson's development in all those graces of mind and person, which marked his superiority to the average baby. She came all the oftener because of the difficulty in getting Juanita to Chariton. My poor child will hardly ever visit us, she told Theodore, as they sauntered on the lawn while Juanita was showing Mr. Ramsey the pictures in the dining-room. She has an insurmountable horror of the house she was once so fond of, and I can't wonder at

Starting point is 11:21:17 it, and I can't be angry with her. I have seen how painfully her old home affects her, so I don't worry her to come to us often. I make a point of getting her there once in a way in the hope of overcoming her horror of the place as time goes by, and I have even gone out of my way to make changes in the furniture and decorations so that the room should not look exactly the same as they looked in her fatal honeymoon,

Starting point is 11:21:40 but I can see in her face that every corner of the house is haunted for her. Once, when she had been calm and cheerful with me for a whole afternoon, walking about the garden and going from room to room, she flung herself into my arm suddenly, sobbing passionately. We were so happy, mother, she said, so happy in this fatal house. We must bear with her poor girl.

Starting point is 11:22:02 God has given her a dark lot. Theodore had seen an anxious, questioning look in Juanita's eyes from the beginning of his visit, and he took the first opportunity of being alone with her, while Lady Chariton entertained Mr. Ramsey with an exposition of the merits of her grandson, who was calmly slumbering in a hammock on the lawn. unconscious of her praises and half-smothered in embroidered coverlets. Have you found out anything? She asked eagerly as soon as they were out of earshot.

Starting point is 11:22:30 Yes, I believe I have really come upon a clue, and that I may ultimately discover the murderer, but I can give you no details as yet. The whole thing is too vague. How clever of you to succeed where the police have utterly failed. Oh, Theodore, you cannot imagine how I shall value you. How deeply grateful! Stop, Juanita.

Starting point is 11:22:51 For heaven's sake, don't praise me. I may be chasing a will of the wisp. I don't suppose that any experienced detective would take up such a clue as I am going to follow. Only you have set me to do this thing, and it has become the business of my life to obey you. You are all that is good. Pray tell me everything you have discovered,

Starting point is 11:23:10 however vague your ideas may be. No, Juanita, I can tell you nothing yet. You must trust me, dear. I am at best only on the threshold of a discovery. It may be long before. advance another step. Be content to know that I am not idle. She gave an impatient sigh. It is so hard to be kept in the dark, she said. I dream night after night that I myself am on the track of his murderer, sometimes that I meet him face to face. Oh, the hideous pallid face,

Starting point is 11:23:39 the face of a man who has been hanged and brought to life again. It is always the same kind of face, the same dull, livid hue, though it differs as to features, though the man is never the same. You cannot imagine the agony of those dreams, Theodore. Lay that ghost for me if you can. Make my life peaceful, though it can never be happy. Never is a long word, Nita. As the years go by, your child's love will give life a new color. Yes, he is very dear. He has crept into my heart, a little nestling unconscious thing, knowing nothing of my love or my sorrow, and yet seeming to comfort me. I sometimes think my darling spirit looks out of those clear eyes. They seem so full of thought,

Starting point is 11:24:26 of thought far beyond human wisdom. Theodore could see that the work of healing was being done, slowly but surely. The gracious influence of a new love was being exercised, and the frozen heart was reviving to life and warmth under the soft touch of those baby fingers. He saw his cousin's smile with something of the old brightness as she stood by while Cuthbert Ramsey dantled the little Lord of Carmichael Priory in his great strong arms, smiling down at the tiny pink face peeping out a cloud of lace and muslin. Anyone can see that Mr. Ramsey is fond of children, said Lady Charrington approvingly, as if a liking for infants just short-coded were the noblest virtue of manhood.

Starting point is 11:25:07 Oh, I am fond enough of the little beggars, answered Cuthbert lightly. All the gutter brats about St. Thomas's know me and hang on to my coat-tails as I go by. I like to look at a child's face. those old shrewd London faces especially, and speculate upon the life that lies before those younglings the things those eyes are to see, the words those lips are to speak. Life is such a tremendous mystery, don't you know?

Starting point is 11:25:31 One can never be tired of wondering about it. But this fellow is going to be very happy, and a great man in the land. He is going to belong to the new order, the order of the rich who go through life shoulder to shoulder with the poor, the redressers of wrongs, the adjusters of social levels. i hope you are not a socialist mr ramsay said lady chariton with an alarmed air not much but i acknowledge that there are points where my ideas touch the boundary line of socialism i don't want impossibilities

Starting point is 11:26:03 I have no dream of a day where there shall be no more millionaires, no great patrons of art or great employers of labor, but only a dead level of small means and shabby dwellings and sorted colorless lives. No, there must be butterflies as well as ants, if it were only that the ants may have something pretty to look at. What I should like to see is a stronger bond of friendship and sympathy between the two classes. A real knowledge and understanding of each other between rich and poor, and the twin demons patronage and sycophancy,

Starting point is 11:26:33 exercise forever and ever. The tea-tables were brought out upon the lawn by this time. Sir Godfrey Carmichael was carried off by his nurse, and the two young men sat down with Lady Chariton and her daughter under the tree beneath which Juanita and her husband had sat on that one blissful day which they had spent together at the priory as man and wife. They seemed a very cheery and pleasant quartet as they sat in the sultry afternoon atmosphere, with the level lawn and flower-bed stretching before them,

Starting point is 11:27:02 and the white belt of old tithe. timber, shutting out all the world beyond. Cutbert Ramsey was the chief talker, full of animal spirits, launching the wildest paradoxes, the most unorthodox opinions. The very sound of his strong, full voice, the very ring of his buoyant laugh, were enough to banish gloomy thoughts and sad memories. Lady Chariton was delighted with his new acquaintance, first, because he was dexterous in handling a baby, next on the score of general merits.

Starting point is 11:27:31 She was not a deeply red person, but she had a very red person, but she had to be a a profound respect for culture in other people, and she had an idea that a scientific man was a creature apart, belonging to a loftier world than that which she and her intellectual equals inhabited. Theodore had told her of his friend's claims to distinction, his hard work in several cities, and seeing this earnest worker boyish and light-hearted, interested in the most frivolous subjects, she was lost in wonder at his condescension. She begged him to go to Chariton with Theodore at the earliest opportunity, an invitation which he accepted gladly. I have long wished to know Lord Chariton, he said. The two young men left soon after tea.

Starting point is 11:28:10 Cuthbert's high spirits deserted him at the priory gates, and both men were thoughtful during the homeward drive. Well, Cuthbert, what do you think of my cousin, now that you have seen her? Theodore asked when he had driven the first mile. I can only agree with you, my dear fellow. She is a very lovely woman. I think there could hardly be two opinions upon that point. And do you think as I do that it is hopeless for any man to spend his life in worshipping her? Do you think her heart is buried with her dead husband? Only as proserpenny was buried with Pluto.

Starting point is 11:28:43 It is not in human nature for so young a woman to wear her weeds for a lifetime. The hour of revival must come sooner or later. She has too bright and quick an intellect to submit to the monotony of an inconsolable sorrow. her energy expends itself now in the desire to avenge her husband's death. Failing in that, her restless spirit will seek some new outlet. She is beginning to be interested in her child. As that interest grows with the child's growth, her horizon will widen. And then, and then, when she has discovered that life can still be beautiful,

Starting point is 11:29:16 her heart will become accessible to a new love. The cure and the change, the awakening from death to life, may be slower than it is in most such cases. because this woman is the essence of sincerity and all her feelings lie deep. But the awakening will come, you may be sure of that. Wait for it, Theodore. Possess your soul in patience. You can afford to be philosophical, said the other with a sigh. You are not in love.

Starting point is 11:29:44 True, my friend. No doubt that makes a difference. End of Chapter 5. Volume 2, Chapter 6 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 6 End 1, an English home. Grey twilight poured on dewy pastures, dewy trees, softer than sleep. All things in order stored.

Starting point is 11:30:15 A haunt of ancient peace. Theodore and his friend betook themselves to Cheriton Chase on the following Friday, for that kind of visit which North Country people describe as a weekend. They carried their portmanteau in that portion of the dog cart, which is more legitimately occupied by a leash of spaniels or Irish setters,

Starting point is 11:30:34 and they arrived in the golden light of the afternoon, just when that sunk lane approaching the Westgate was looking its loveliest. Hart's tongue and rocky boulder, the great brown trunks of the oaks, and the polypodium growing amidst their clove and branches were all touched with sun gleams, while evening shadows lay soft and cool upon the tall, flowering grasses in the meadows on either side of the deep gully. That is Mrs. Porter's cottage, said Theodore. indicating the gatekeeper's house with a turn of his whip towards the end of the lane where the clustered chimneys showed through a gap in the trees. Ramsey had been introduced to Miss Newton and had constituted himself honorary surgeon and medical advisor to that lady and all her humble friends.

Starting point is 11:31:16 He had been invited to the tea parties in Wedgwood Street and had interested himself in the young woman called Marion and in her probable identity with the lodgekeeper's missing daughter, for which reason he had a keen desire to make the lodgekeeper's acquaintance. From your account of the lady She must be a piece of human adamant He said I like to tackle that kind of individual I've met a few of them And I'm happy to say that if I haven't been able to melt them

Starting point is 11:31:39 I've generally succeeded in making them smart I should enjoy exhibiting my moral aquafortus In the case of this lady I shall get you to accompany me in a morning call upon her While we are a charitin My dear Cuthbert I would sooner call uninvited And without credentials upon the Archbishop of Canterbury

Starting point is 11:31:58 I don't forget how she froze me when I tried to be friendly with her last New Year's day. She was more biting than the northeast wind that was curdling the ponds in the park. A fig for her bitingness. Do you suppose I mind? If you won't take me to her, I shall go by myself. A character of that kind has an irresistible fascination for me. I would go a hundred miles any day to see a bitter bad woman. She is bitter enough, but she may not be bad. She may be only a creature who mistakes fanaticism for religion. Who has so misread her Bible that she thinks that her bound and duty to shut her heart against a beloved child rather than to forgive a sinner? I believe she is to be pitied rather than blamed, odious as she may seem.

Starting point is 11:32:40 Very likely. A hard heart or an obstinate temper is a disease like other diseases. One ought to be sorry for the sufferer. But this woman has a strong character, anyhow, for good or evil, and I delight in studying character. The average man and woman is so colourless that there is infinite relief in the study of any temperament which touches the extreme. Think how delightful it would be to meet such a man as Iago or Othello. Picture to yourself the pleasure of watching the gradual unfolding of such a mind as Iachimos, and consider how keen would be one's interest in getting to the bottom of a woman like that poisoning stepmother of imagines whose name Shakespeare does not take the trouble to record.

Starting point is 11:33:21 So this is the lodge. Charming early English cottage. Real rustic English. Not Bedford Parkish. half timbered thatched gables dormers like eyes under bushy eyebrows walls four feet thick lattice is two hundred years old it might be the very cottage in which grandmamma wolf waited for the dear plump little girl with chubby cheeks shining like the butter in her basket and with lips as sweet as her honey poor little girl the servant-maid ran down the steps to open the gate and as the wheel stopped an uppercasement swung suddenly open and a woman's face appeared in the golden light a pale wan face whose most noticeable expression was a look of infinite weariness anemic said cuthbert as they drove in at the gate decidedly anemic i should suspect that woman of what of being a vegetarian answered cuthbert gravely but i'll call to-morrow and find out all about her lord chariton received his kinsman's friend with marked cordiality and seemed to enjoy his freshness and spontaneity they talked of cambridge the cambridge of forty years ago and the cambridge of to-day and they talked of the continental schools of medicine a subject in which the lawyer was warmly interested there were no other visitors expected before september when three old friends of lord charitans were to shoot the partridges in october there was to be a large party for the pheasant shooting which was the chief glory of chariton's chase. There had been no shooters at the chase last year, and Lord Chariton felt himself so much the more constrained to hospitality. You fellows must come in October when we have our big shoot,

Starting point is 11:34:59 he said, but Cuthbert Ramsey told him that he must be at work again in London before the end of September. Cuthbert was much impressed by the master of Chariton Chase, and the grave and quiet dignity with which he wore success that might have made a weaker man arrogant and self-assertive. It would seem as if scarcely anything were wanting to that prosperous career. Yet Cuthbert saw that his host was not free from a cloud of care. It was natural, perhaps, that he should feel the tragedy of his son-in-law's death as a lasting trouble, not to be shoved off and forgotten when the conventional period of morning was passed. Theodore had some private talk with his cousin on the first evening of his visit,

Starting point is 11:35:38 walking up and down the terrace, while Cuthbert was looking at the books in the library under Lady Chariton's guidance. He had it fully in his mind that the time must come when he would be obliged to take Lord Chariton into his confidence, but he felt that time was still far off. Whenever the revelation came, it must needs be infinitely painful to both, and deeply humiliating to the man whose hidden sin had brought desolation upon his innocent daughter, and untimely death upon the man whose fate had been linked with hers. It was for his dishonor, for the wrongs inflicted by him, that those two had made expiation. No, the time to be outspoken, the time to say in the words of the prophet, Thou art the man, had not yet come. When it should come he would be prepared to act resolutely and fearlessly,

Starting point is 11:36:24 but in the meantime he must needs go on working in the dark. He remembered his last conversation with Lord Chariton on that subject, remembered how Chariton had said that he believed Godfrey Carmichael incapable of a dishonorable action, incapable of having behaved cruelly to any woman. Had he who pronounced that judgment been guilty of dishonor, had he been cruel to the woman who sacrificed herself for him? There are so many degrees in such wrongdoing. There is the sin of impulse, there is a deliberate betrayal, the coldly planned iniquity,

Starting point is 11:36:57 the sin of the practice seducer who has reduced seduction to a science, and who has no more heart or conscience than a machine. There is the sin of the generous man, who finds his feet caught in the web of circumstance, who begins innocently illicitly. enough by pitying a neglected wife and ends by betraying the neglectful husband. Theodore gave his kinsman credit for belonging to the category of generous sinners. Indeed, the fact that he had lived aloof from the world for many years, sharing the isolation of the woman who loved him, was in itself evidence that he had not

Starting point is 11:37:28 acted as a villain. Yet it was possible that when the final hour came, the hour for breaking those illicit bonds, the rupture may have been in some wise cruel, and the remembrance of that cruelty might be a burden upon the sinner's conscience at this day. Such partings can never be without cruelty. The fact that one sinner is to marry and begin a new life, while the other sinner is to finish her days in a dishonored widowhood is in itself a cruelty. She may submit as to a fate which she foresaw dimly even in the hour of her fall, but she would be more than human if she did not think herself hardly used by the man who forsakes her. Nothing he can do to secure her worldly comfort or to screen her from the world's disdain will take the sting out of that parting.

Starting point is 11:38:12 The one fact remains that her day is done. He has ceased to care for her, and he has begun to care for another. Nothing has occurred since I was here to throw any light upon the murder, I suppose, Theodore said quietly as they smoked their cigars, walking slowly up and down the summer night. Nothing. Did her ladyship tell you that I have met a girl in London whom I believe to be no other than Mercy Porter? Yes, she told me something about that fancy of yours, for I take it to be nothing more than a fancy.

Starting point is 11:38:42 The world is too wide for you and Mercy Porter to meet so easily. What was your ground for identifying her with the lodge-keeper's girl? A lodge-keeper's girl. There was something needlessly contemptuous in the phrase, it seemed to Theodore, a studied disdain. It was she herself who suggested the idea by her inquiries about Charitin. She confessed to having come from this part of the world. and she has an air of refinement which shows that she does not belong to the peasant class she is a very good pianist plays with remarkable taste and feeling and lady chariton tells me that mercy had a talent for music i have no doubt in my own mind that this young woman is mercy porter and i think her mother ought to go to london and see her even if she should not think fit to bring her back to the home she left mrs porter is a woman of peculiar temper the girl may be happier away from her yes that

Starting point is 11:39:36 is very likely but the mother ought to forgive her the penitent sinner whose life for the last few years has been blameless ought to feel that she is pardoned and at peace with her mother i tried to approach the subject but mrs porter repelled me with an almost vindictive air and i do not think it would be any good for me to plead for my poor friend again if you or lady chariton would talk to her i will get my wife to manage her it is a matter in which a woman would have more influence than you or i in the meantime if there is anything I can do to make Mercy Porter's life easier, I shall be very glad to do it, for her father's sake. You are very good, but she is not in want, and she seems content with her lot. What is she doing for a living? Her employment is by needlework.

Starting point is 11:40:22 She lives in one small back room in Lambeth and has only one friend in the world, and that friend happens to be a lady who once lived in this house. A lady who lived in this house? exclaimed Lord Chariton. Who in heaven's name do you mean? Miss Newton, who was governess to Miss Strangway, nearly forty years ago. What brought Miss Newton and you together? That is rather a long story.

Starting point is 11:40:46 I took some trouble to find the lady in order to settle one question which had disturbed my cousin Juanita since her husband's death. What question? She was haunted by an idea that Sir Godfrey's murderer was one of the Strangways and his murder an act of vengeance by some member of that banished race. It was in order to set this question at rest forever that I had to be. took some trouble to hunt out the history of Squire Strangway's two sons and only daughter. I traced them all three to their graves and have been able to convince Juanita that they and their troubles were at rest long before the time of her husband's murder. What could have put such a notion into her head?

Starting point is 11:41:24 Oh, it came naturally enough. It was only a development of Churton's idea of a vendetta. She was always full of fancies. Yes, I remember she used to say the house was haunted by the of the Strangways. I really think she had a dim idea that I had injured that spendthrift race in buying the estate which they had wasted. And so to satisfy Juanita, you took the trouble to ferret out, Miss Newton.

Starting point is 11:41:49 Upon my word, Theodore, your conduct is more quixotic than I could have believed of any young man in the 19th century. And pray, by what means, did you discover the Cé de Vance governess? Theodore told the story of his visit to the scholastic agencies,

Starting point is 11:42:04 his journey to Westmoreland. and his friendly reception by Miss Newton in her lambeth lodgings. She was much attached to Miss Strangway, who was her first charge, and near enough to her own age to be more of a companion than a pupil, he said, and she spoke of her melancholy fate with great tenderness. It was a melancholy fate, was it? I know she made a runaway marriage, but in what way was her fate sadder than the common destiny of a spent thrift's daughter?

Starting point is 11:42:30 A girl who has been reared in extravagance and self-indulgence, and who finds herself faced? to face with penury in the bloom of her womanhood. That in itself would be sad, but Miss Trangway's destiny was sadder than that, commonplace enough, no doubt, only the old story of an unhappy marriage and a runaway wife. He could not help looking at Lord Chariton at this point, thinking how this common story of an unfaithful wife must needs remind his kinsman of that other story of another wife which had influenced his early manhood. He must surely have a sensitive shrinking from the discussion of any similar story. She ran away from her husband. Yes, I remember having heard as much.

Starting point is 11:43:11 What did Miss Newton know about her, beyond that one fact? Very little, only that she died at Boulogne nearly twenty years ago. This fact Miss Newton heard from the lips of the man for whom Mrs. Darcy left her husband. I had been at Boulog a week or so before I saw Miss Newton, and I had hunted there for any record of Mrs. Darcy's death without result. But this is not very strange, as it is quite likely that she lived at Boulogne's under an assumed name and was buried in that name, and so lies there in a foreign land, dissevered forever from many association with her name and kindred.

Starting point is 11:43:45 "'There are not many of her kindred left, I take it,' said Lord Chariton. "'There seems to have been a blight upon that race for the last half-century. But now, tell me about someone in whom I am more interested, the girl you believe to be Mercy Porter. I should be very glad to make her life happier, and so I told her ladyship.' you, Theodore, might be the intermediary. I would allow her a hundred a year, which would enable her to live in some pretty country place. In Devonshire or Cornwall, for instance, in some quiet sea-coast village, where no one would know anything about her or her story.

Starting point is 11:44:20 A hundred a year. My dear Chariton, that is a most generous offer. No, no, there is no question of generosity. Her father was my friend, and I was under some obligation to him. and then the girl was my wife's protege, and finally I can very well afford it. I am almost a childless man, Theodore. My grandson will be rich enough when I am gone, rich enough to be sure of a peerage, I hope, so that there may be a barren charitent when I am in the dust.

Starting point is 11:44:49 You are very good. I believe this girl has a great deal of pride, the pride of a woman who has drunk the cup of shame, and she may set herself against being your pensioner, but if the matter can be arranged as you wish, she may yet see. happier days. I think the first thing to be done is to reconcile mother and daughter. Mrs. Porter ought to go up to London. To see Miss Newton's protege, on no account. I tell you Mrs. Porter is a woman of strange temper. God knows how bitterly she might upbraid her daughter. And if the girl is proud as you say she is, the mother's reproaches would goad her

Starting point is 11:45:24 to refuse any help for me or my wife. No, Theodore, the longer we keep mother and daughter apart, the better for Mercy's chances of happiness. But if this young woman should refuse to confess her identity with Mercy Porter, it will be impossible to benefit her. That difficulty may be easily overcome. You can take my wife to see her. She was always fond of my wife. And you will leave the mother out of the question.

Starting point is 11:45:51 That seems rather hard upon her. I tell you, Theodore, it is better to leave the mother out of the question. She never acted a mother's part to Mercy. there was never any real motherly love. At least that was Lady Charitin's opinion of the woman, and she had ample opportunity for judging, which, of course, I had not. If you want to help the daughter, keep the mother aloof from her. I dare say you are right, and I shall of course obey you implicitly, said Theodore, inwardly reluctant. He had an exalted idea of maternal love, its obligations and privileges, and it seemed to him a hard thing to come between a penitent

Starting point is 11:46:28 daughter and a mother whose heart ought to be full of pity and pardon. Yet he remembered his brief interview with Mrs. Porter, and he could but own to himself that this might be an exceptional case. End of Chapter 6. Volume 2, Chapter 7 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 7 And from that time to this I am alone, and I shall be alone until I die. Theodore and his friend strolled across the park on Saturday afternoon in the direction of the West Gate, Cuthbert Ramsey intent upon carrying out his intention of introducing himself to Mrs. Porter, and Theodore submitting meekly to be led as it were into the lion's den. You have no idea what hard stuff this woman is made of, he said. And then he told Ramsey what Lord Chariton had said to him about Mrs. Porter on the previous evening, and how the daughter's life was to be made happy if possible without reference to the mother.

Starting point is 11:47:33 the harder she is the more i am interested in making her acquaintance replied cuthbert i don't care a jot about commonplace women were they as lovely as aphrodite i go to see this soured widow as eagerly as romeo scaled juliet's balcony did his lordship ever tell you what it was that soured the creature by the way that kind of hardness is generally in some wise the result of circumstance even where there is the adamantine quality in the original character i never heard any details about the lady's past life only that her husband was in the merchant navy upon the indian china line that he died suddenly and left her penniless that she was a lady by birth and education and had married somewhat beneath her i have often wondered how my cousin as a barrister came to be intimate with the captain in the merchant service they were at the gates of the park by this time and close to the rustic steps which led up to mrs porter's garden it was one of those tropical days which often occur towards the end of august and the clusters of cactus dahlias in the old-fashioned borrower and the tall hollylocks in the background made patches of dazzling color in the bright white light against which the cool grays of the stone cottage offered repose to the eye one side of the cottage was starred with passion flowers and on the other the great waxen chalices of the magnolia showed creamy white against the scarlet of the trumpet-ash it was the season at which mrs porter's hermitage put on its gayest aspect the crowning feast of bloom and color before the chilling breath of autumn brought rusty reds and pallid grays into the picture the two young men heard voices as they approached the steps and on looking upward theodore saw the curate and his wife standing on the little grass plot with mrs porter there could hardly be a better opportunity for approaching her as she was caught in the act of receiving visitors and could not deny herself mr and mrs kemster were young people and of that social temperament which will make friends under the hardest conditions mr.

Starting point is 11:49:27 Kemster belonged to the advanced Anglican school and minister the offices of the church, as it were with his life in his hand, always prepared for the moment when he should come into collision with his bishop upon some question of posture or vestments. He had introduced startling innovations into the village church and hoped to be able to paraphrase the boast of Augustus, and to say that he found chariton evangelical and left it ritualistic. Needless to say that while he gratified one half of his congregation, he offended the other half, and that old-fashioned parishioners complained bitterly of his guffaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe

Starting point is 11:50:01 with the Flayman's vestry. Mrs. Kemster had hard work enough to do in smoothing down the roughen furs of these antediluvians, which smoothing process she affected chiefly by a rigorous system of polite afternoon calls, in which no inhabitant of the parish was forgotten, and an occasional small expenditure in the shape of afternoon tea and half-penny buns toasted and buttered by her own fair hands. She was a bright, good-tempered little woman, whom her husband generally spoke of as a body. The chemsters had just accepted Mrs. Porter's invitation to tea, and were making an admiring inspection of her garden before going into the cottage. I don't believe anyone in Chariton Parish as such roses as you, Mrs. Porter, said the curate's

Starting point is 11:50:43 wife, gazing admiringly at the standard gluil de Lijon, which had grown into gigantic dimensions in the middle of the grass-plot. I never saw such a tree, but then you see, you give your mind to your garden as none of us can. I have very little else to think about, certainly, said Mrs. Porter. Except Algernan's sermons. I know you appreciate them, cried Mrs. Kempster in her cheroping little voice. Alginon says no one listens as attentively as you do. She quite carries me away sometimes with that rapt look of hers, he said the other day.

Starting point is 11:51:15 I am half inclined to feel jealous of you, Mrs. Porter. Oh, here is Mr. Dalbrook. How'd you do, Mr. Dalbrook? Mrs. Kemster shook hands with Theodore before he could approach Mrs. Porter, but having got past this vivacious lady, he introduced Cuthbert Ramsey to the mistress of the house. My friend is a stranger in the neighborhood, Mrs. Porter, he said, and he was so struck by the beauty of your cottage yesterday that he set his heart upon being introduced to you, and I was really obliged to bring him.

Starting point is 11:51:42 "'My cottage is not generally considered a show-place, Mr. Dalbrook,' she answered coldly, turning her dull-gray eyes full upon Theodore, with a look which made him uncomfortable, but I shall be very happy to show it to your friend, and his lordship's friend, I conclude. "'I don't know if I dear claim that distinction, Mrs. Porter,' answered Gutbert in his cheerful, resonant voice. "'This is my first visit to the chase, and if Lord Chariton has received me with open arms, it is only because I am his kinsman's friend.'

Starting point is 11:52:12 Theodore introduced the stranger to the Kemmsters, who welcomed him eagerly as one who came fraught with the interests and excitements of the outer world. May I ask if our man has got in for Southwark? demanded Mr. Kemster. His lordship would be sure to get a telegram after the polling. I blushed to say that I forgot all about the election and didn't ask after the telegram, replied Cuthbert. When you say, our man, you mean... The conservative candidate. I conclude you belong to us. Again, I blush to say I don't... belong to you the least little bit. I am an advanced liberal.

Starting point is 11:52:46 Mr. Kempster sighed, with a sigh that was almost a groan. A destroyer and disestablisher of everything that has made the glory of England since the days of the Heptarchy, he said plaintively. Well, yes, there have been a good many false gods toppled over, and a good many groves of Baal cut down since the Caxon kings ruled over the seven kingdoms. You don't want Ball and the rest of them stuck up again, do you, Mr. Kempster? mr ramsay there are times and seasons when i would to god i could wake up in the morning and find myself a subject of king egbert yes when i see the rising tide of anarchy the advancing legions of unbelief the eupestry of sensual science said kemster slipping airily from metaphor to metaphor i would gladly lay hold upon all that was most rigid and uncompromising among the bulwarks of the past i would belong to the church of wolsey and a becket i would belong to the church of wolsey and a becket i would lie prostrate before the altar at which St. Augustine was celebrant. I would grovel at the

Starting point is 11:53:47 feet of Dunstan. Ah, Mr. Camster, we can't go back. That's the plague of it, for romantic minds like yours. I am afraid we have done with the picturesque in religion and in everything else. We are children of light, of the fierce white light of science and common sense. We may regret the scenic darkness of medievalism, but we cannot go back to it. The clouds of ignorance and superstition have rolled away, and we stand out in the open in the searching light of truth. We know what we are and whom we serve. At Mrs. Porter's invitation, they all followed her into the cottage parlor where the tea-table stood ready, and much more elegantly appointed than that modest board which the curate's

Starting point is 11:54:28 wife was wont to spread for her friends. Here there appeared both old China and old silver, and the tea which Mrs. Porter's slender white hands dispensed was of as delicate an aroma as that choice Indian pico which Theodore occasionally enjoyed in Lady Chariton's boudoir. Mrs. Porter placed herself with her back to the window, but Cuthbert's keen eyes were able to note every change in her countenance as she listened to the conversation going on round her, or on rare occasions took part in it. He observed that she was curiously silent, and he was of opinion that Theodore's presence was in some manner painful to her. She addressed him now and then, but with an effort which was evident to those studious eyes of Cuthbert Ramsey's,

Starting point is 11:55:08 though it might escape any less keen observer. The conversation was of politics and of the outer world for the first ten minutes, and was obviously uninteresting to Mrs. Kemster, who fidgeted with her teaspoon, made several attempts to speak, and had to wait her opportunity, but finally succeeded in engaging Theodore's attention. "'Have you seen Lady Carmichael lately, Mr. Dalbrook?' she inquired. "'I saw her three days ago.' "'And how did you find her?'

Starting point is 11:55:34 "'In better spirits, I hope.' She hardly ever comes to Chariton now, and her own. old friends know very little about her. I am told she has a horror of the place, though she was once so fond of it. Poor thing, it is only natural. You found an improvement in her, I hope.

Starting point is 11:55:50 Yes, I saw at least the beginning of improvement, answered Theodore. Her child gives a new interest to her life. What a blessing that is. And by and by she will meet someone else who will interest her even more than her baby, and she will marry again. She is too young to go on grieving

Starting point is 11:56:07 forever. Don't you think so, Mrs. Porter? Yes, I suppose she will forget sooner or later. Most women have a faculty for forgetting. Most women, but not all women, said Cuthbert, with his earnest air, which made the commonest words mean more from him than from other men. I do not think you would be the kind of woman to forget very quickly, Mrs. Porter. She was in no hurry to notice this remark, but went on pouring out tea quietly for a minute or two before she replied. There is not much room in my life. for forgetfulness, she said after that protracted pause. So, without being in any way an exceptional person,

Starting point is 11:56:43 I made a claim to a good memory. She remembers her daughter, and yet memory does not soften her heart, thought Theodore. With her, memory means implacability. He looked around the room in the flickering light of the sunshine that crept in between the bars of the Venetian shutters. He had not expected ever to be sitting at his ease in Mrs. Porter's parlor after that unpromising conversation

Starting point is 11:57:06 upon the first day of the year. He looked around the room, thoughtfully contemplative, of every detail in its arrangement which served to tell him what manner of woman Mrs. Porter was. He was not a close student of character like Ramsey. He had made for himself no scientific code of human expression in eye and lip and head and hand, but it seemed to him always that the room in which a man or a woman lived gave a useful indication of that man's or that woman's mental qualities. This room testified that its mistress was a lady. The furniture was heterogeneous, shabby for the most part, from an upholsterous point of view, old-fashioned without being antique, but there was nevertheless a cachet upon every object which told that it had been chosen by a

Starting point is 11:57:48 person of taste, from the tall Chippendale Bureau which filled one corner of the room to the solid carved oak table which held the tea-tray. The ornaments were few, but they were old China, and china of some mark from the collector's point of view. The draperies were of madras muslin, spotless and fresh as a spring morning. Theodore noticed, however, that there were no flowers in the vases, and none of those scattered trifles which usually mark the presence of refined womanhood. The room would have had a bare and chilly aspect, lacking these things, if it had not been for a few pictures, and for the bookshelves which were filled with handsomely bound books.

Starting point is 11:58:25 You have a nice library, Mrs. Porter, he said somewhat aimlessly, as he took a cup of tea from her hands. I suppose you are a great reader. Yes, I read a great deal. I have my books and my garden. Those make up my sum of life. May I look at your books? If you like, she answered coldly.

Starting point is 11:58:46 He went about the small, low room, so low with its heavily timbered ceiling that Cuthbert Ramsey's head almost touched the crossbeams and surveyed the collection of books in their different blocks. Whoever had so arranged them had exercised both taste and, and dexterity. Everything in the room fitted like a Chinese puzzle, and everything seemed to have

Starting point is 11:59:05 been adapted to those few pieces of old furniture, the walnut wood bureau, the oak table, and the old Italian chairs. The books were theological or metaphysical for the most part, but among them he found Carlize a sartor rissartus, past and present, and French Revolution, Woolworth's mystical stories, and a few books upon magic, ancient and modern. I see you have a fancy for the black art, Mrs. Porter. lightly. One would hardly expect to find such books as these in the Isle of Perbeck. I like to know what men and women have built their hopes upon in the ages that are gone, she answered. Those dreams may seem foolishness to us now, but they were very real to the

Starting point is 11:59:43 dreamers, and there were some who dreamed on till the final slumber. The one dreamless sleep. This was the longest speech she had made since the young men entered her garden, and both were struck by this sudden gleam of animation. Even the large gray eyes brightened for a few moments, but only to fade again to that same, dull, unflinching gaze which made them more difficult to meet than any other eyes Theodore Dalbrook had ever looked upon. That unflinching stare froze his blood. He felt a restraint and an embarrassment which no other woman had ever caused him. It was different with Guthrert Ramsey. He was as much at his ease in Mrs. Porter's parlor as if he had known that lady all her life. He looked at her books

Starting point is 12:00:24 without asking permission. He moved about with a wonderful airiness of movement which never brought him into anybody's way. He fascinated Mrs. Kemster and subjugated her husband and impressed everybody by that strong individuality which raises some men ahead and shoulders above the common herd. It would have been the same had there been a hundred people in the room instead of five. Mrs. Porter relapsed into silence and the conversation was carried on chiefly by Cuthbert Ramsey and the curate until Mrs. Kemster declared that she must be going. lest the children should be unhappy at her absence from their evening meal. I make a point of seeing them at their tea, she said,

Starting point is 12:01:01 and then they say their prayers to me before nurse puts them to bed. So prettily, and Laura sings a hymn with such a sweet little voice. I am sure she will be musical by and by if it is only by the way she stands beside the piano and listens while I sing. And such a near as that child has, as fine as a bird's. You must come and hear her sing, abide with me. Someday, Mrs. Porter, when you drop in to take a couple of of tea. Mrs. Porter murmured something to the effect that she would be pleased to enjoy that privilege.

Starting point is 12:01:31 Ah, but you never come to tea with me, though I am always asking you. I am afraid you are not very fond of children. I am not used to them, and I don't think that children like people who are out of habit of associating with them, answered Mrs. Porter deliberately. I never know what to say to a child. My life has been too grave and too solitary for me to be fit company for children. The curate and his wife took leave and went briskly down the steps to the lane, and Theodore made a little movement towards departure, but Cuthbert Ramsey lingered as if he were really loath to go. I am absolutely in love with your cottage, Mrs. Porter, he said.

Starting point is 12:02:07 It is an ideal abode, and I can fancy a lady of your studious habits being perfectly happy in this tranquil spot. The life suits me well enough, she answered icily, perhaps better than any other. You have a piano yonder, I see. he said, glancing through the half-open door to an inner room with a latticed window, beyond which a sunlit garden on a bit of shelving ground sloped upwards to the edge of the low hillside, the garden vanishing into an upland meadow where cows were seen grazing against the evening light.

Starting point is 12:02:37 This second sitting-room was more humbly furnished than the parlor in which they had been taking tea, and its chief feature was a cottage piano, which stood diagonally between the lattice and the small fireplace. You too are musical, I conclude, pursued Cuthbert, like Lever. little Miss Gempster. I am very fond of music. Might we be favored by hearing you play something? I never play before people. I played tolerably once, perhaps.

Starting point is 12:03:02 At least my master was good enough to say so. But I play now only snatches of music, by fits and starts, as the humor seizes me. She seated herself by the casement with a resigned air, as much as to say, are these young men never going? Her long, thin fingers busied themselves in plucking the faded leaves

Starting point is 12:03:21 from the palergoniums which made a bank of color on the broad window-ledge. You were at home at the time of the murder, I suppose, Mrs. Porter, said Cuthbert, after a pause, during which he had occupied himself in looking at the watercolor sketches on the walls, insignificant enough, but good of their kind, and arguing a cultivated taste in the person who collected them. I am never away from home. And you heard and saw nothing out of the common course? You have no suspicion of anyone?

Starting point is 12:03:48 Do you suppose, if I had it, it would not have been made known. to the police immediately after the murder. Do you think I should hoard and treasure up a suspicion or a scrap of circumstantial evidence till you came to ask me for it? She said with suppressed irritation. Pray forgive me. I had no idea of offending you by my question.

Starting point is 12:04:07 It is natural that anyone coming to Chariton Chase for the first time should feel a morbid interest in that mysterious murder. If you had heard it talked about as much as I have, you would be as weary of this subject as I am, said Mrs. Port. rather more courteously. I have discussed it with the local police and the London police,

Starting point is 12:04:26 with his lordship, with the doctor, with Mr. Dalbrook's father, with Lady Carmichael, with Lady Jane Carmichael, these having all a right to question me, and with a good many other people in the neighbourhood who had no right to question me. I answer you as I answered them. No, I saw nothing. I heard nothing on that fatal night, nor in the week before that fatal night,

Starting point is 12:04:48 nor at any period of Lady Carmichael's honeymoon. Whoever the murderer was he did not come in a carriage and summon my servant to unlock the gate for him. The footpath through the park is open all night. There was nothing to hinder a stranger coming in and going out, and the chances were a thousand to one, I fancy, against his being observed, once clear of the house. That is all I know about it. And as an old resident upon the property, you have no knowledge of anyone

Starting point is 12:05:16 who had a grudge against Lord Chariton or his daughter, such a feeling as might prompt the murder of the lady's husband as a mode of retaliation upon the lady or her father. I know no such person, and I have never considered the crime from such a point of view. It is too far-fetched a notion. Perhaps. Yet, where a crime is apparently motiveless, the mainspring must be looked for below the surface. Only a far-fetched theory can serve in such a case. Shall I tell you what I think about the murder, Mr. Ramsey?

Starting point is 12:05:46 asked Mrs. Porter, looking up at him suddenly, and fixing him with those steady gray eyes. Pray do. I think that no one upon God's earth will ever know who fired that shot. Only at the day of judgment will the murderer stand revealed, and then the secret of the crime, and the motive will stand forth written in fire upon the scroll that records men's wrongs and sorrows and sins. You and I, and all of us, may read the story there, perhaps, in that day when we shall stand as shadows before the great white throne. I believe you are right, Mrs. Porter, answered Cuthbert quietly, holding out his hand to take leave. A secret that has been kept for more than a year is likely to be kept till we are all in our graves.

Starting point is 12:06:29 The murderer himself will be the one to tell it, perhaps. There are men who are proud of a bloody revenge, as if it were a noble deed. Good day to you, Mrs. Porter, and many thanks for your friendly reception. He held the thin, cold hand in his own. as he said this, looking earnestly at the imperturbable face, and then he and Theodore left the cottage. Well, Cuthbert, what do you think of that woman? asked Theodore, after they had passed through the gate and into the quiet of the long glade where the fallow deer were browsing in the fading day. I think a good deal about her, but I haven't thought out my opinion yet. Has she ever been off her head?

Starting point is 12:07:07 Not to my knowledge. She has lived in that house for twenty years. I never heard that there was anything wrong with her mentally. I believe there is something or has been something very wrong. There is madness in that woman's eye. It may be the indication of past trouble, or it may be a warning of an approaching disturbance. She is a woman who has suffered intensely, and who has acquired an abnormal power of self-restraint. I should like to know her history. My God, Cuthbert, cried Theodore, grasping him by the arm and coming suddenly to a standstill. Do you know what your words suggest? To what your conclusion points?

Starting point is 12:07:46 The murder of my cousin's husband was an act of vengeance or of lunacy. We have made up our minds about that, have we not? The detective, Juanita, you and I, everybody. We are looking for some wretch capable of a blindly malignant revenge, or for homicidal madness, with its unreasoning thirst for blood.

Starting point is 12:08:05 And here, here at these gates is a woman whom you suspect of madness, a woman who could have had access to the gardens at any hour, who knew the habits and hours of the servants, who would know how to allude observation. My dear fellow, you are going a great deal too far. Who said I suspected that unhappy woman of homicidal madness? The brain disease I suspect in Mrs. Porter is melancholia, the result of long years of self-restraint and solitude, the not-un frequent consequence of continuous brooding upon a secret grief. End of Chapter 7. Volume 2, Chapter 8 of the Day Will

Starting point is 12:08:46 Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 8 My eyes are dim with childish tears. My heart is idly stirred. For the same sound is in my ears which in those days I heard. That suggestion of Cuthbert Ramsey's of latent madness in the lodgekeeper came upon Theodore like a flash of lurid light

Starting point is 12:09:11 and gave a new color to all his thoughts. It was in vain that his friend reminded him of the wide, distinction between the fury of the homicidal lunatic and the settled melancholy of a mind warped by misfortune. After that conversation in the park, he was haunted by Mrs. Porter's image, and he found his mind distracted between two opposite ideas, one, pointing to the man who had claimed Mrs. Danvers as his wife, the deserted and betrayed husband of James Dalbrook's mistress, the other, dwelling upon the image of this woman living at his kinsman's gate, with an existence which was unsatisfactorily explained by the scanty facts which he had been

Starting point is 12:09:46 able to gather about her former history. He recalled her conduct about her daughter, her cold and almost vindictive rejection of the penitent sinner, hers turn resolved to stand alone in the world. Was that madness, or the consciousness of guilt, or what? It was conduct too unnatural to be accounted for easily, considerate how he might. He had heard often enough of fathers refusing to be reconciled with erring or disobedient children. The flinty hardness of a father's heart has become proverbial, but an unforgiving mother seems an anomaly in nature.

Starting point is 12:10:21 He determined upon confiding Ramsey's opinion and his own doubts to Lord Chariton without delay. Whatever abnormal circumstances there had been in Mrs. Porter's history, her benefactor was likely to be acquainted with them, and if those circumstances had affected her intellect, it was vital that he should be made aware of the fact before evil of any kind could arise. He contrived an after-dinner stroll upon the terrace with his kinsman as upon the previous evening, and entered upon the subject without loss of time. Ramsey and I took our afternoon tea with Mrs. Porter, he said. Indeed, how did that come about? She is not a sociable person in a general way or accessible

Starting point is 12:11:00 to strangers. It was to gratify a fancy of Ramsey's that I went there. He admired her cottage and was interested in her history, and took it into his head that she was a woman of exceptional character. He was not far wrong there, I believe. Mrs. Porter is a very hard not to crack. I never have been able to fathom her. And yet, with your knowledge of her previous history, you must have the safest clue to her character. I don't know about that. There is nothing exceptional in her history, and there is much that is exceptional in her character, as your friend says. Pray, what was the result of his observation of the lady in the leisure of afternoon tea-drinking? He believed that he saw the traces of madness

Starting point is 12:11:42 in her countenance and manner. Madness either passed, present or impendent. he could not decide which. There was not light enough upon the terrace to show Theodore any change in his cousin's countenance, but the movement of Lord Chariton's hand as he took the cigar from his mouth, and the sudden slackening of his pace were sufficient indications of troubled thought. It could hardly be pleasant for him to hear so melancholy a suggestion about the pensioner whom he had established in comfort at his gate, intending that she should enjoy his bounty for all the days of her life.

Starting point is 12:12:12 Upon what does your friend base this fantastical notion? He asked angrily. Upon physiological and psychological evidence, you can question him if you like. It appears to me that you ought to know the truth. I have no objection to hear anything he may have to say, but it is very unlikely I shall be influenced by him. These young men who are by way of being savants

Starting point is 12:12:35 are full of crochets and theories. They look at everyone as Darwin looked at a Virginia creeper or a cow ship, with a preconceived notion that they must find out something about him. I believe Mrs. Porter, with her calm, impassable nature, is much better able to reckon up your friend Ramsey than he is able to come up to a correct opinion about her. I should like to discuss the question with him at any rate, said Theodore.

Starting point is 12:12:58 The horror of last year's calamity is a reason you should have nobody about the estate whom you cannot trust. What do you mean? I mean that while you have madness at your gate, you may have murder in your house. Theodore, you cannot. be so cruel as to associate that unhappy woman with Godfrey Carmichael's death. God knows. That murder has to be accounted for somehow. Can you, as one eat his father, no rest or peace, till it has been accounted for? I could not in your place. I hope you do not think

Starting point is 12:13:30 it necessary to teach me my duty to my daughter, said Lord Chariton coldly, and Theodore felt that he had said too much. His cousin addressed him upon some indifferent subject a minute or so afterwards, when he had lighted a fresh cigar, and his manner resumed its usual friendliness. There was no further mention of Mrs. Porter that night, but on Sunday, Lord Chariton walked home from church with Cuthbert Ramsey, and questioned him as to his impressions about the lodge-keeper. Theodore has exaggerated the significance of my remark, explained Cuthbert. I take it, Mrs. Porter's case is one of slight aberration brought on by much brooding upon troubles, real or imaginary. If my power to diagnose is worth anything,

Starting point is 12:14:11 her mind has lost its balance. Her thoughts have lost their adjusting power. She is like a piece of mechanism that has got out of square and will only work one way. You may hardly consider that this amounts to madness, and I may have done wrong in speaking of it. Only, where Mrs. Porter concerned in my existence, I should feel it incumbent on me to watch her,

Starting point is 12:14:32 and I recommend you to have her watched so far as it can be done without alarming or annoying her. I will do what I can. I will get another opinion from a man of long experience, and mental cases. I have an old friend in the medical profession, a specialist, who has made mental disease a study of his life. He will give me any advice I want. You cannot do better than get his opinion of Mrs. Porter if you are interested in her welfare. I am interested in all who are dependent upon me, and in her especially on account of old associations.

Starting point is 12:15:04 Lady Carmichael drove over to Chariton after luncheon, upon one of those Sunday visits which she paid from time to time in deference to her father, albeit, she could never approach the house without pain. She came in the useful family Lando, which had carried the Mrs. Carmichael to tennis parties, dinners and dances, before they married, and which now conveyed the nurse and baby on their visits to Chariton. She came for what Lady Chariton called a long afternoon, and she was received in the library, which was now the most used room in the house.

Starting point is 12:15:33 No one cared to occupy that fatal drawing-room? And although it was always accessible, and there was a faint of daily occupation, its cold elegance was for the most part untenanted. And over all there hung a cloud of fear. Today, for the first time, Theodore discovered numerous alterations in the arrangement of pictures and furniture in the hall. He had promised Cuthbert to show him the portraits of the Strangways,

Starting point is 12:15:58 and most particularly that picture of the squire's three children painted nearly forty years before, but he found that this picture, among others, had been removed, and that a fine Rhodian plate occupied its place on the dark oak paneling. He noticed the fact to his cousin. I am sorry to miss the family group, he said. It was a really interesting picture. Interesting to you, perhaps, who knew the history of the race, answered Lord Chariton,

Starting point is 12:16:25 but very uninteresting to a stranger. I think I've made an improvement over there. That plate is a splendid bit of color and lights up a dark corner. But that was not my motive. I wanted to make such trifling alterations as would change the aspect of the hall for Juanita without any ostensible refurnishings. I have done the same thing in the library. The changes there are slight, but the room is not as it was when she and her husband occupied it. I should like to show Ramsey the Strangway portraits, if they are get at Abel.

Starting point is 12:16:57 They are not, just at present. The canvases were rotting, and I have sent them to London to be lined. You can show them to your friend by and by when I get them back. mr ramsay's thought seemed a long way from the strangway portraits this afternoon although he had expressed a curiosity as to the lineaments of that luckless race he was out in the garden in lady chariton's rose garden with juanita and her son and was giving further proofs of his adaptability to infantile society the grandmother was of the party looking on with profound admiration at that phase of awakening intellect which is described as taking notice it was held now as an established fact that the infant Godfrey James Dalbrook took notice, and that his notice dwelt with a special favor upon Cuthbert Ramsey. "'I think it must be because you are so tall and big,' said Juanita lightly.

Starting point is 12:17:46 "'He feels your power and he wants to conciliate you.' "'Artful little beggar. No, that is much too low a view. There is a magnetic affinity between us. Love at first sight. When babies do take a fancy, they are thoroughly and earnest about it. Loafing about in the new cut sometimes, studying he human nature from the Saturday night point of view, I have had a poor woman's baby take a fancy to me. A poor little elf and creature, a year old, perhaps, and not half so big as this bloated aristocrat, a sour-smelling baby which would give you maloccur, Lady Carmichael, and the wretched little waif would hook on to my elephant-tine finger and cleave to me as if I were its mother.

Starting point is 12:18:26 Oh, how sorry I felt for such a baby, with the pure starry eyes of infancy shining in the flabby withered face that has grown old for want of cold water and fresh air. For such infancy and for stray dogs I have suffered acute as agonies of pity, and yet I have done nothing, only pitied and passed on. That is the worst of us. We can all pity, but we don't act upon the divine impulse. You may be sure the Levite felt very sorry for the wounded traveller, though he did not see his way to helping him.

Starting point is 12:18:57 This was one of Cuthbert's tirades, which he was wont to indulge in when he found himself in congenial society, and Juanita society was particularly congenial. to him. He felt as if no other woman had ever sympathized with him or understood him, and he gave her credit for doing both. Never had he felt so happy in the society of any woman as he felt in the sunlit garden today, among the roses which were just now blooming in a riotous luxuriance, the branching heads of standards top-heavy with great balls of blossom, swaying gently in the summer wind. He had expected to see her a gloomy creature, self-conscious in her grief,

Starting point is 12:19:33 where the child's little fingers had loosened her heartstrings. If she was not gay, she was at least able to endure gayity in others. She listened to the young man's rhapsodies and paradoxes with a gentle smile. She admired her mother's roses. She cast no shadow upon the quiet happiness of the summer afternoon, that tranquil contentedness which belongs to the loveliness of nature, and which makes a blessed pause in the story of human passion and human discontent. It was one of those summer afternoons which make one's

Starting point is 12:20:03 say to oneself, could life be always thus? What a blessed thing it were to live. And then the sound of evening bells break the spell, and the shadows creep across the woods, and it is dinner-time, and all that halcyon peace is over. How lovely she looked in her simply-made black gown, with its closely-fitting bodice and straight-flowing skirt, of that thick, illustrious silk which falls in such statuesque folds. The plain little white crape cap seemed in perfect harmony with that raven hair and pure white forehead. She was unlike any other woman Cuthbert Ramsey had ever known. There was not one touch of society slang, nor of the society manner of looking at life.

Starting point is 12:20:44 She had passed through the fiery ordeal of two London seasons unscourched in the furnace. Love had been the purifying influence. She had never lived upon the excitement of everyday pleasures and volatile loves, the intermittent fever of flirtations and engagements that are on and off half a dozen times, in a season the influence that guided all her thoughts and all her actions had been one steadfast and single-minded love she had cared for no praises but from her lover's lips she had dressed and danced and played and sung for none other than he and now in her devotion to her child there was the same concentration and simplicity

Starting point is 12:21:23 she did not know that she was looking her loveliest in that severe black gown and white cap she did not know that cuthbert Ramsey admired her far too much for his peace. She only felt that he was very sincere in his devotion to the baby, and that he was a clever young man whose society suggested new ideas, and made her for the moment forgetful of her grief. It was evening before she left Sheraton. She had stayed later than usual, and the shadows were creeping over the park as she walked to the west gate with Theodore and his friend, the carriage following slowly with nurse and baby asconced among light fleecy wraps, lest Vesper breezes should visit the human blossom too roughly.

Starting point is 12:22:03 Theodore had proposed the walk across the park, and Juanita had assented immediately. I am always glad of a walk, she said. I have so few excuses for a ramble nowadays. I have to stay at home to take care of baby. You doubt the capabilities of that highly experienced nurse, asked Ramsey laughingly. I doubt everyone but myself, and I sometimes doubt even my own discretion where my precious one is concerned. "'You will have more reason to doubt by and by "'when your precious one is old enough to be spoiled,' said Theodore.

Starting point is 12:22:34 "'He has begun to take notice, "'and before very long he will notice that he is monarch of all he surveys, "'and that everybody about him is more or less his slave. "'He will live in that atmosphere till you sent him to Eaton, "'and then he will find himself suddenly confronted "'with the hard, cruel world of strictly Republican boyhood, "'which will jostle and hustle him with ruthless equality. Lady Chariton had business in London early in the following week.

Starting point is 12:23:00 She was going to London to see her dentist and her dressmaker, the latter being one of the arbiters of fashion who never go out of their way to wait upon their clients, but who do the rather exact reverence and attention from those clients. She had shopping to do at the west end of London, that shopping which is so delightful to a lady who spends two-thirds of the year in the country. Above all, she had things to get at the stores, an institution which was dear to Lady Chariton's heart,

Starting point is 12:23:24 in spite of all her husband's lectures upon political economy and the necessity of sustaining private enterprise and the shopkeeping interest hearing of the engagements and that lady chariton intended to spend two nights in victoria street theodore suggested that he should be allowed to accompany her ladyship to london and to arrange a meeting between her and the young woman who called herself marian gray if you really wish to help her he concluded i do really wish it answered lord chariton earnestly and the sooner the matter is put in hand the better pleased i shall be shall my wife call on this person she is very proud and very reserved it might be better to bring about a meeting which would appear accidental marion goes for a walk with miss newton once or twice a week i could arrange with her good friend that they should be walking in a particular place battersea park for instance at a certain hour and lady chariton could drive that way with me and we could meet them it would be the easiest way of arriving at the truth as to marian gray's identity with mercy porter very good you might suggest that to my wife lady chariton who was the soul of good nature fell in at once with theodore's idea i would do anything in my power to help that poor girl she said for i think her sadly to be pitied her girlhood was so dull and joyless such a ceaseless round of lessons and practice without any of those pleasures to which most schoolgirls look forward her her mother seemed to take a pride in keeping the girl apart from everyone in dressing her plainly and in making her whole life as dreary as she could i hardly wonder that the poor hopeless creature surrendered to the first tempter a man whose manner to women had always been called irresistible even by women of the world and a man who would not shrink from any amount of falsehood in pursuing his wicked aim and now she is paying forfeit for her sin with a lonely life of toil in a london garret poor mercy she was so pretty and so refined, a lady in all her instincts.

Starting point is 12:25:24 Cuthbert Ramsey left on Monday, promising to return at the end of the week, and Theodore went up to town with Lady Chariton on the following Wednesday. He went straight from the terminus to Wedgwood Street, where he saw Miss Newton, told her of Lord Chariton's benevolent intentions to Marion, alias Mercy, and arranged the walk in Battersea Park for the following afternoon. Miss Newton and her protege were to be walking upon the pathway beside the river at a half-past three o'clock, when Lady Chariton would drive that way. Miss Newton had no difficulty in carrying out her part of the little plot.

Starting point is 12:25:57 Marion was always ready to put aside her work for the pleasure of an afternoon with that one friend to whom her heart was ever open. She met Miss Newton at the starting place of the tram car, and they rode through the dusty crowded highways to the people's park, where the flower-beds were gaudy with the rank luxuriance that is the beginning of the end of summer's good things, and where the geranium leaves were riddled by voracious slugs. There was a dustiness and worn-out air upon all the foliage and all the flowers, despite the coolness that came from the swiftly flowing river, an air of fading and decay, which pervades even the outermost regions of London when the season

Starting point is 12:26:33 is over and the world of fashion has fled, the air of a theatre when the play is done and the lights are extinguished. Sarah Newton and her young friend walked slowly along the raffle pathway, looking dreamily at the right river, with its gay movement of passing boats and flowing waters. The elder of the two friends, who was wont to be full of cheery talk of newspapers and books, the history of the present and the history of the past, was today unusually grave and silent. "'I'm afraid you are not well, dear Miss Newton,' said Marion, looking at her anxiously. "'Oh, yes, my dear, I am well enough. You know I am made of cast iron, and except for the toothache or a cold in my head. I hardly know what illness means. I am only a little thoughtful.

Starting point is 12:27:16 They walked a few paces in silence, and then Miss Newton stopped suddenly to admire an approaching carriage. What a stylish Victoria. Why, I declare there is Mr. Dalbrook, with a lady. The carriage drew up as she spoke, and Theodore alighted. Marion had reddened a little at the mention of his name, but the flush upon her cheek deepened to crimson when she saw the lady in the carriage, and as the lady got out and came towards her, the crimson faded to a deadly white. Mercy, child, I am glad with all my heart to find you, said Lady Chariton, holding out both her hands.

Starting point is 12:27:53 She was determined that there should be no doubt in the young girl's mind as to her friendship and indulgence, that there should be nothing in the mode of her approach, in the tone of her voice, or the expression of her countenance that could bruise that broken reed. Love and pity looked out of those lovely southern eyes, which even in mature her age retained much of their youthful beauty. Mercy Porter went towards her, trembling, and with eyes brimming with tears. The calm, self-restrained nature had melted all at once at those gentle words in the familiar voice, which had given her words of kindness and of praise in her desolate childhood.

Starting point is 12:28:29 The transformation filled Theodore with wonder. Dear Lady Chariton, I thought you would long ago have forgotten the wretched girl to whom you were once so kind, she faltered. No mercy, I have never forgotten you. I have always been sorry, deeply sorry for you. And when Mr. Dalbrook told me about having met a person who interested him, a person associated with Chariton, I knew that person must be you. My dear girl, I thank God that we have bound you.

Starting point is 12:29:00 My cousin will call upon you tomorrow and talk to you about your future and of our plans for making your life happier than it is. There is no need, said Mercy quickly. I get on very well as I am. My life is quite good enough for me. I hope for nothing better. Wish for nothing better. Nonsense, mercy.

Starting point is 12:29:20 His lordship and I are your friends, and we mean to help you. I will accept help from no one, Lady Chariton. I made up my mind about that long ago. I can earn my own living very well now. If ever my fingers or my eyes fail me, I can go to the workhouse. I am deeply thankful for your pity, but I ask for no more. I will accept no more. We will see about that, Mercy, said Lady Chariton with her gentle smile,

Starting point is 12:29:47 quite unable to estimate the mental force in opposition to her. She could understand a certain resistance, the pride of a sensitive nature painfully conscious of disgrace, unable to forget the past. She was prepared for a certain amount of difficulty in reconciling this proud nature to the acceptance of benefits, but she never for one moment contemplated an implacable resistance. Let me see your friend, Mercy, she said, the lady who has been kind to you.

Starting point is 12:30:15 Kind is a poor word. She has been my angel of deliverance. She has saved me from the great dismal swamp of self-abasement and despair. Miss Newton had walked briskly ahead with Theodore so as to leave Lady Chargant and Mercy together. Mercy ran after her friend and brought her back a little way as Lady Chariton advanced to meet her. Miss Newton, my one true and good friend in all this great world of London,

Starting point is 12:30:40 and the only friend of my miserable childhood. Lady Chariton, said Mercy, looking from one to the other with that intent look of thoughtful minds that work in narrow grooves. I thank you for being good to one in whose fate I am warmly interested Miss Newton, said Lady Chariton. You have done the work of the Good Samaritan, and at least one wounded heart blesses you. They walked on a little way together, and Lady Chariton spoke of the old house and the old family, the vanished race with which Sarah Newton had been associated in her.

Starting point is 12:31:10 her girlhood. "'They are all dead, I understand,' she said in conclusion. "'Yes, there is none left of the old family. They are not a fortunate race, and I fear there are few who regret them. But I cannot help feeling sorry that they are all gone. They have passed away like a dream when one awakens.' Lady Chariton lingered on the Riverside pathway for nearly half an hour, talking to Mercy and Miss Newton. Theodore left them together, after having obtained Mercy's permission to call at her lodgings on the following afternoon. End of Chapter 8

Starting point is 12:31:43 Volume 2 Chapter 9 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon This Liebervox recording is in the public domain Chapter 9 I saw her too Yes, but you must not love her I will not as you do to worship her as she is heavenly and a blessed goddess I love her as a woman

Starting point is 12:32:09 A decent looking woman opened the door of the house in Herkite's buildings and ushered Mr. Dahlbrook up two flights of stairs to the small back room in which Mercy Porter had lived her lonely life from year's end to years end. The tasteful arrangement of that humble chamber struck Theodore at the first glance. He had seen such rooms at Cambridge, where an undergraduate of small means had striven to work wonders with a few shabby old sticks that had done duty for a half a dozen other undergraduates in which had been of poorest quality when they issued, new and sticky with cheap varnish from the emporium of a local upholster.

Starting point is 12:32:44 mercy was very pale and although she received her visitor with outward calmness he could see that she had not yet recovered from yesterday's agitation what induced you to take so much trouble to betray me mr dalbrook she asked betray is a very hard word miss porter you don't suppose that i believed yesterday's meeting was accidental you took the trouble to bring lady chariton across my path in order to satisfy your curiosity about my identity was that generous "'God knows that it was meant in your best interests. "'I knew that Lady Chariton was your true and loyal friend, "'that she had more of the mother's instinct than your real mother, "'and that no pain could possibly come to you from any meeting with her. "'And then I had a very serious reason for bringing you together. "'It was absolutely necessary for me to make sure of your identity.

Starting point is 12:33:35 "'Why, necessary? What can it matter to you who I am?' "'Everything. I am the bearer of a very generous offer from Lord Chariton. and it was essential that I should make that offer to the right person. Mercy's face underwent a startling change at the sound of Lord Chariton's name. She had been standing by the window in a listless attitude, just where she had risen to receive her visitor. She drew herself suddenly to her fullest height, and looked at him with flushed cheeks and kindling eyes.

Starting point is 12:34:05 I will accept no generosity from Lord Chariton, she said. I want nothing from him except to be let alone. I want nothing from Lady Chariton, except her sympathy, and I would rather have even that at a distance. You have done the greatest harm you could do me in bringing me face to face with my old life. Believe me, I had but one feeling, anxiety for your happiness. What is my happiness to you? She retorted almost fiercely.

Starting point is 12:34:32 You are playing at philanthropy. You can do me no good. You may do me much evil. You see me contented with my life, accustomed to its hardships, happy in the possession of one true friend. why come to me with officious offers of favors which i have never sought you are ungenerous and unjust from the first hour of our acquaintance i saw that you were of a different clay to that of the women among whom i found you different by education instinct associations family history how could i help being interested in one who stood thus apart how could i help wanting to know more of so exceptional a life yes you were interested as you might have been in any other wreck in any derelict vessel stranded on a lonely shore battered broken empty rudderless picturesque in ruin it was a morbid interest an interest in human misery he stated his commission plainly and briefly he told her that it was lord chariton's earnest wish to provide for her to her to her

Starting point is 12:35:32 her future life, that he was ready, and even anxious, to settle a sum of money which would ensure her a comfortable income for the rest of her days. He urged upon her the consideration of new happiness and larger opportunities of helping others which this competence would afford her, but she cut him short with an impatient movement of her head. Upon what ground does he base his generous offer? She asked coldly. Upon the ground of his interest in your mother and yourself, an interest which is his only natural for him to feel in one who was brought up on his estate and whose father was his friend. It may be also that he feels himself in some wise to blame for the great sorrow of your life. Tell him that I appreciate his noble contempt for money, his readiness to shed the sunshine of his prosperity upon so remote and outcast as myself,

Starting point is 12:36:19 but tell him also that I would rather starve to death, slowly in this room, than I would accept the price of a loaf of bread from his hands. Do not hesitate to tell him this, in the plainest form of speech. It is only right that he should know the exact measure of my feelings towards him. After this, Theodore could only bow to her decision and leave her. Lord Chariton is my cousin and a man whom I have every reason to regard with affection and respect, he began. She interrupted him sharply. He has never denied the cousinship, never treated you as the dirt under his feet,

Starting point is 12:36:54 never look down upon you from the altitude of his feet. grander with insufferable patronage. Never. He has been most unaffectedly my friend, and ever since I can remember. Then you are right to think well of him, but you must let me have my opinion in peace, even although you are of his blood, and I am— Nothing to him. Goodbye.

Starting point is 12:37:15 Forgive me if I have been ungracious and ungrateful. I have no doubt you meant well by me, only I would so much rather be let alone. It did me no good to see Lady Chariton yesterday. My heart was tortured by the memories her face recalled. She gave him her hand, the thin white hand with taper fingers worn by constant work. It was a very pretty hand, and it lay in his strong grasp to-day for the first time, so reserved had been her former greetings and farewells. He looked at the delicate hand for a moment or two before he let it go,

Starting point is 12:37:47 and from the hand upwards to the fair, finely-cut face and the large dark-gray eyes. That look of his startled her, the hollow cheeks flushed, the eyelids fell beneath his steady gaze. Goodbye, Mercy, he said gently. Let me call you, Mercy, for the sake of the link between us, the link of common recollections and the sad secrets of the past. Call me what you like. It is not very probable we shall meet often.

Starting point is 12:38:14 You are very stubborn, cruel to yourself, and more cruel to those who want to help you. Goodbye. Goodbye, she echoed, almost in a whisper. He went out. into the shabby street, haunted by those sad, uplifted eyes, and the hollowed cheeks faintly flushed with delicate bloom. How lovely she must have been in her dawning womanhood, and how closely she must have kept at home in the cottage by the Westgate, seeing that he,

Starting point is 12:38:40 who had been so frequent a guest at Sheraton had never once met her there. He was not satisfied to submit to this total failure of his mission without one further effort. He went from Hercules' buildings to Wedgwood Street, and saw his admirable Sarah Newton, into whose attentive ear he poured the story of Mercy's obstinacy. She is a strange girl. Her girl who could live in closest friendship with me all this time, and never tell me the secret of her past life, said Miss Newton thoughtfully. Why she should be so perverse in her refusal of Lord Chariton's offer I can't imagine, but you may depend she has a reason.

Starting point is 12:39:17 Theodore escorted Lady Chariton back to Dorsetshire by the afternoon train, but they parted company at Wareham Station, he going on to Dorchester, where his sisters received him with some wonderment at his restlessness. "'It is rather a farce for you and Mr. Ramsey to make engagements which you never intend to keep,' said Sophie peevishly, and it was thereupon expounded to him that he and his friend had pledged themselves to be present at a certain tennis party upon the previous afternoon. "'I'm very sorry we both forgot all about it,' he apologized, "'but I don't suppose we were missed.'

Starting point is 12:39:49 "'I don't suppose you would have been,' answered his sister sulkily, if there had been half a dozen decent young men at the party but as harrington preferred the office to our society or our friends and as there were only three curates and one banker's clerk at mrs hazel deans you and mr ramsay would at least have been something it is hardly worth any man's while to endure an afternoon's boredom to fetch and carry teacups in a sweltering sun and play tennis upon an unlevel lawn if he is only to count for something a mere make wait oh you young men give yourself such abominable air nowadays retorted Sophie with a manner which implied that the young men of former generations had been modesty incarnate. As for your friend, he has made a mere convenience of this house. As how, Sophie? I don't think the fact requires explanation. First he goes to the priory and then to Chariton, and then he is off to London, and then he is to be back on Saturday in order to lunch at the priory on Sunday. If that is not making an hotel of your father's house, I don't know what

Starting point is 12:40:51 is. "'Perhaps I have been too unceremonious, forgetting that I no longer live here, that it behoves me now, perhaps, to act in all things as a visitor. "'It was I who made the engagement, Sophie. You must not be angry with Ramsey.' "'I am not angry. It cannot matter to me how Mr. Ramsey treats this house. No doubt he thinks himself a great deal too clever for our society, although we are not quite so feather-headed as most girls. He finds mental more attractive at the priory.

Starting point is 12:41:19 "'What do you mean, Sophie?' that he is overhead and ears in love with juanita it does not need a very penetrating person to discover that what nonsense why he has not seen her above three times quite enough for a young man of his vehement character what can have put such an idea into your head his way of talking about her the expression of his face when he pronounces her name the questions he asked me about her showing the keenest interest in even the silliest details what kind of a girl was she before she married, and how long had she known Sir Godfrey before they were engaged, and had their love been a grand passion full of romance and poetry, or only a hundrum kind of affection encouraged by their mutual relations? Idiotic questions of that kind could only be asked by a man who is in love? And then how eagerly he snapped at your suggestion that he should go with you to the priory next Sunday? It may be as you think, Theodore answered gravely.

Starting point is 12:42:18 I know his fervid temperament about most things, but I did not think he was the kind of man to fall in love, upon such very slight provocation. She may have given more encouragement than you suppose, said Sophie. He is the kind of man that a frivolous half-educated girl would think attractive. She would never find out the want of depth under that arrogant, self-assured manner. However, she has asked Janet and me for next Sunday, and I shall soon see how the land lies.

Starting point is 12:42:46 you were always unobservant. Theodore did not try to vindicate his character as an observer, albeit he knew no look or tone of his cousins was likely to escape him, that even sharp-eyed malevenants could never watch her more closely than love would watch out of his eyes. Yes, it was not unlikely that Cuthbert admired her too much for his own peace. He recalled words which had passed unnoticed when they were together. Poor Cuthbert! He felt he had done wrong in the same thing.

Starting point is 12:43:16 exposing his friend to such an ordeal. Who could know her and not love her? End of Chapter 9. Volume 2, Chapter 10 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 10 For life must life, and blood must blood repay. Cuthbert Ramsey arrived at Dorchester on Saturday,

Starting point is 12:43:49 just in time to dress for dinner, and he contrived to make himself so agreeable to all the family in the course of that friendly meal that Janet and Sophia forgave him for his base desertion, and Harrington forgave him for being a great deal cleverer and happier than himself. He was in very high spirits, had been working hard in London, attending lectures, witnessing operations, and looking after those gratis patience in the slums who were his chief delight. I love to find out what life means below the surface, he said. One only gets at realities when one comes face to to face with the struggle for existence.

Starting point is 12:44:23 The children, the poor pinched atomies whom one looks at with a shudder, remembering that they are the men and women of the future. That is the terrible point. To think that in those little half-starred faces one sees the men who are to meet in Trefalgar Square and unmake our smooth easy world. To think that in those wise and morsels of humanity we have all the elements of discord and destruction in the days to come. That is the appalling thought.

Starting point is 12:44:50 "'It is a thought that should teach us our duty to them,' said Janet. "'What do you take that duty to be?' "'To educate them?' "'Educate, yes. "'Educate them in the ways of health and cleanliness "'after we have fed them. "'That I take to be our primary duty to the children "'as much as to the lower animals.

Starting point is 12:45:08 "'You know the old adage, Miss Dalbrook, "'Menzana Incorporay Sano. "'Did you ever hear of a sound and a healthy mind "'in an unsound scrofulous body?' "'So long as we leave the little children a semi-starvation, we are sacrificing to the demon scrofula, which is to our enlightened age what the demon leprosy was to those darker ages whose ignorance we prate about. I am not in favor of pauperizing the working classes, said Harrington.

Starting point is 12:45:34 The idea of pauperism is a bug-bear and a stumbling block in the path of benevolence. Do you pauperize an agricultural laborer whose utmost wages are fifteen shillings a week if you provide his children with two good meals of fresh meat in the seven days, and so grow better bone and sinew than can be produced upon bread and dripping or bread and treacle do you pauperize a man by giving him a free supply of pure water and larger area rooms and his scanty wages will buy for him to subsidize not to popperize mr dalbrook and if england is to hold together upon the old lines during the coming centuries the well to do will have to help the poor upon a stronger and wider basis than that on which they have helped them in the past and a good deal of the spare cash that is now being spent on fire clothes and dinner parties will have to be spent upon feeding and housing the million. The two young men drove over to Millbrook early on Sunday morning in order to attend morning service at the picturesque old church. Matthew Dalbrook and his daughters were to join them at

Starting point is 12:46:32 the priory in time for luncheon, which was to be a regular family party. Cuthbert was silent for the greater part of the drive, and Theodore was thoughtfully observant of him. Yes, there might be something in Sophie's idea. More than once during the long drive, the young man's face brightened with a sudden smile, a smile of ineffable happiness, as of a dreaming lover who sees the gates of his earthly paradise opening, sees his mistress coming to meet him on the threshold. Theodore's heart sank at the thought that Sophie had hit upon the truth. Anyway, there was hopelessness in the idea. If it were to be Theodore's blessed fate to see the one love of his life victorious soon or late, after long, patience,

Starting point is 12:47:13 and devoted sacrifice, Cuthbert must taste the bitterness of having loved in vain. But he would hardly be worth of pity, perhaps, seeing that he had known from the first how the land lay, seeing that honor forbade his falling in love with Juanita. But will honor make a manned blind to beauty, deaf to the music of a voice, impervious to the subtle charms of all that is purest, best, and loveliest in womanhood? Theodore began to think that he had done wrong in bringing his friend within the influence of irresistible charms. I was a fool to think that he could help himself. i was a worse fool to suppose that she will ever care for me the humdrum cousin whom she has known all her life the country solicitor whose image she has always associated with leases and bills of dilapidation and a little less than a gentleman

Starting point is 12:48:01 they consigned the dog-cart to the village osler who was expiating the jovial self-indulgence of saturday night in the penitential drowsiness of sunday morning and they were in their places in the gray old church when lady carmichael came to the chancel pew theodore's watchful eyes followed her from her entrance in the halo of sunshine which was suddenly obscured as the curtain dropped behind her to the moment when she bowed her head in prayer he saw her face brighten as she passed the pew where he and his friend were sitting and he told himself that it was cuthbert's presence which conjured up that happier light in her soft dark eyes on the walk from the church to the priory it was with cuthbert she talked cuthbert the irrepressible who had so much to say that he must needs fine listeners it was cuthbert who sat next her at luncheon and who engrossed her attention throughout the meal it was cuthbert who went through the hothouses fern houses and greenhouses with her after luncheon and gave her practical lessons in botany and entomology as they went along and who promised her some austrian frogs the day was one long triumph for cuthbert ramsay and he gave himself up to the intoxication of the hour as a drunkard surrenders to strong drink unconditionally without thought of the moral what do you think of your friend's infatuation now asked janet with her most biting accent as she and theodore followed in the horticultural procession she carefully picking up her gown at every one of those treacherous puddles which are to be found in the best regulated hot-houses have you any doubt in your mind now no i have no doubt the carriages were at the door half an hour afterwards and all through the homeward drive cuthbert was silent as the grave only as they came into dorchester did he find speech to say i shall have to go back to town early to-morrow morning theodore so soon what an unquiet spirit you are you'll come back to us next friday or saturday i hope i don't know i'll try but i'm rather afraid i can't

Starting point is 12:49:57 theodore did not press the point and his friend kept his word and left by the first train on monday morning after having been intolerably stubert on sunday evening according to the sisters who were disposed to think themselves especially ill-used by mr ramsay's obvious infatuation or lady carmico I was beginning to respect Juanita for her conduct in the difficult position of a young widow, said Sophie, but I begin to fear that she is no better than the rest of them, and that her leaving off crape upon her last gowns is a sign that she means to marry again before the second year of her widowhood is over. Lady Chariton's roses were in danger from a failure of the water in that old-fashioned well which had hitherto supplied the Fower Gardens. There had been an unusually long spell of dry weather since the beginning of july and the gardeners were in despair when theodore went over to the chase with his portmanteau in accordance with an engagement made the previous week he found that lord chariton had that morning given an order for the sinking of the old well well well well well well well well well well the water-bearing strata there is plenty of water my lord said the head gardener if we only go deep enough for it very well mackenzie go as deep as you like so long as you don't go below the water-bearing strata you had better put on plenty of hands her ladyship is uneasy about her roses seeing how you have been stinting them lately

Starting point is 12:51:15 it has been hard work my lord to do our duty by the roses and keep the lawns in decent order the grounds would be hard as iron if we didn't use a good deal of water for the grass get to work mackenzie and don't waste time in talking about it drive over to gadby's and tell him to send some good men this conversation took place upon the terrace directly after theodore's arrival and when the gardener had gone off to the stables to get the dog-cart of all work lord chariton and his cousin walked in the direction of the well the well was in one of the kitchen gardens quite the oldest bit of garden ground at chariton a square garden of about two acres shut in with high crumbling old red brick walls upon which grew blue gauges and william pears egg-plums and apricots attaining more or less to perfection as the aspect favoured them It was a pleasant garden to dream in upon a summer afternoon, for there was an air of superabundant growth that was almost tropical in the century-old espaliers, albeit they had long ceased to produce meritorious fruit, and in the sprawling leaves and yellow blossoms of the vegetable marrows, which seemed to be grown for no purpose, except to produce champion gores or pumpkins, to be ultimately hung up as ornaments in the gardener's cottage, or to rot in a corner of the greenhouse.

Starting point is 12:52:26 There is always one old greenhouse in such a garden given over to preserving spiders and accumulating rubbish. In the middle of a vegetable marrow warren stood the well, a well of eight feet in diameter, surrounded by a low brick wall of that same bright red brick which crumbled behind the blue gauges and the eggplums and which the birds pecked and perforated for very wantonness. It was a well of the old pattern with a ponderous wooden roller and an iron spindle which had wound up water from those same cool depths for over a hundred years. It had run dry often in the time of the Strangways, that good old well, but no Strangway had ever thought of improving anything upon the estate.

Starting point is 12:53:06 So in seasons of drought, the flowers had drooped and the turf had withered unheeded by the proprietorial eye. Mr. Gadby's men appeared after their dinner, and got seriously to work by about three o'clock, at which hour Theodore and Lady Chariton were strolling in the Rose Garden, while the master of the house sat in the library reading. Theodore had observed a marked change in his cousin since his last visit to the chase. There was a worried look in Lord Chariton's face, which had not been there even after the shock of the murder, a look of nervous apprehension which showed itself from time to time,

Starting point is 12:53:38 in a countenance where firmness of character and an absolute fearlessness had been hitherto the strongest characteristics. He had not yet told his lordship the result of his interview with Mercy Porter. He had waited till an opportunity for quiet, confidential talk should come about naturally, and that opportunity now occurred. Lady Chariton left him after half an hour's review of the roses, and he went through the open window into the library where Lord Chariton sat in his large armchair,

Starting point is 12:54:06 at his own particular table, reading the political summing up in the last quarterly. Shall I be disturbing you if I sit here? asked Theodore, taking a volume from the table where the newest books were always to be found. On the contrary, I shall be very glad of a little conversation. I have been struggling through an analysis of life. session, which is all weariness and vexation of spirit. The session was dull. The commentary is duller.

Starting point is 12:54:32 I am anxious to know how you got on with Mrs. Porter's daughter. Very badly I regret to say from our point of view. She rejects your generous offer. She prefers her present hard life with its independence. She will accept no obligation from anyone. Humph, she must be a curious, young woman, said Lord Chariton with a vexed air. I should have liked very much to have made her life bright and easy if she would have let me, for her father's sake. On what ground does she refuse my offer? On the ground of preferring to work

Starting point is 12:55:03 for her living and to live a hard life. She has taken that upon herself, I believe, as an expiation for her past errors, although she did not say that in so many words. She is wonderfully firm. I never saw such a resolute temper in so young and so gentle-mannered a woman. You tried to overcome her objections, you represent. presented to her how easy and pleasant her life might be in some picturesque village among the hills and lakes or by the sea and how she might live among people who would know nothing of her past history who would grow to be fond of her for her own sake i urged all this upon her i am as anxious as you are that she should leave that dreary attic that monotonous labor but nothing i could say was of the least use she was resolute she would accept nothing from you from me ah that is it cried Lord Sheraton suddenly. Had the offer come from anyone else, she might have been less stubborn.

Starting point is 12:55:59 But from me she will take nothing, not a loaf of bread if she were starving. That is the explanation of her hardness. It is to me she is adamant. Tell me the truth, Theodore. Don't spare my feelings. This girl hates me, I suppose. I fear she has a deeply rooted prejudice against you. She may, most unjustly, blame you for her misery because Colonel Tremaine was your friend.

Starting point is 12:56:22 Yes, that is her feeling, no doubt. It is on that account she hates me. Perhaps she is justified in her anger. I ought to have shot that scoundrel. Had we both lived fifty years sooner, I suppose I should have shot him. I don't think you could have been called upon to do that even by the old cold of honor. Mercy was not allied to you. No, but she dwelt at my gates.

Starting point is 12:56:47 She was under my protection. She had no other man living to defend her. I ought to have punished her seducer. It was incumbent on me to do it. Because there was no one else, he added slowly after a long pause. It may be on that account she rejects your generous offer. I cannot pretend to interpret her feelings, but there was certainly some strong personal prejudice on her part.

Starting point is 12:57:13 She was deeply moved. She burst into a passion of sobs. Not from him, she cried. I will accept nothing from him. him. Of all the men upon this earth, he shall be the last to help me. Lord Chariton flung the quarterly from him with a passionate gesture, as he started to his feet and began to walk up and down the long, clear space in front of the windows. Theodore, he said suddenly, you have not yet come face to face with all the problems of life.

Starting point is 12:57:42 Perhaps you have not yet found out how hard it is to help people. I would have given much to be able to help that girl, to assure her an easy and reputable existence, the refinements of life amidst pleasant surroundings. What would it matter to me whether I allowed her one hundred or two hundred a year? All I desire is that her life should be happy. And of deliberate malice, of sheer perversity, she rejects my help. She dooms herself to the seamstress slavery and to a garret in Lambeth. My God, to think that with all the will and all the power to help her,

Starting point is 12:58:16 I cannot come between her and that sordid misery. It is hard, Theodore, it is very hard upon a man like me. There is nothing I hold of this world's goods that I have not worked for honestly, and when I want to do good for others with what I have won, I am barred by their folly. It is enough to make me mad. Never before had Theodore seen this self-abandonment in his stately cousin, the man who bore in every tone and every gesture the impress of his acknowledged descendency over his fellow men.

Starting point is 12:58:46 To see such a man as this so completely, unhinged by a woman's perversity was a new thing to Theodore Dahlbrook, and his heart went out to his kinsman as it had never done before. My dear, Chariton, you have done all that was in your power to do for that mistaken young woman, he said, holding out his hand which the elder man grasped warmly. Whatever wrong you may have unwittingly brought about by the presence of a blackguard under your roof, you have done your best to atone for that wrong. The most sensitive, the most punctilious of men could do no more.

Starting point is 12:59:16 I thank you, Theodore, for your sympathy. Yes, I have done my best for her. You will bear witness to that. A father could scarcely do more for an erring daughter. I only wish her mother felt half as kindly towards her as you, upon whom her claim is so slight. No, no, it is a substantial claim. She is fatherless, and her mother is dependent upon me.

Starting point is 12:59:41 I stand, as it were, in loco parentis. Well, we will say no more about her, she must go her own way. Only, if ever you find an opportunity of helping her, for me, you will do me a great favor by taking prompt advantage of it. I shall gladly do so. I am interested in her for her own sake, as well as for yours. You are a good fellow, Theodore, and I know you wish us well.

Starting point is 13:00:06 I will go a step further than that and say I know that I can trust you. This was said with an earnestness which impressed Theodore. It seemed to him almost as if his his kinsman foresaw that inevitable hour in which there must be perfect unreserved between them, in which the younger man would have to say to his senior and superior in rank, I know the secret of your earlier years, I know the dark cloud that has overshadowed your life. They talked for a little while of indifferent subjects, and then Lord Chariton proposed a stroll in the direction of the well.

Starting point is 13:00:38 I should like to see whether those fellows have begun work, he said. The old garden looked at sleepiest in the western southern. but there was business going on there nevertheless, and a great heap of damp clay had been flung out by the side of the low brick parapet. Two men were at work below, and there were two men above, while a fifth, a foreman and leading light, looked on and gave directions. Glad to see you've tackled the job, Carter, said Lord Chariton. Yes, my lord, we've got onto it pretty well. Could I have a word with your lordship? Certainly, as many words as you like. How mysterious you look, Carter. There is nothing in your

Starting point is 13:01:15 communication that Mr. Dahlbrook is not to hear, I suppose. No, my lord, Mr. Daubrook don't matter, but I thought you wouldn't care for anybody to know, lest he should get round to her ladyship and give her a scare. What are you driving at, Carter, with your ladyships and your scares? Have you seen a ghost at the bottom of the well? No, my lord, but the men found this on the surface clay, and I thought it might have some bearing upon last year. The murder.

Starting point is 13:01:41 He dropped out his words, hesitatingly, as if he hardly dared approach that ghastly theme, and then took something out of his jacket pocket, and handed it to Lord Chariton. It was a colts revolver, by no means of the newest make, rested by lying long under water. The foreman had amused his leisure since the discovery in trying to rub off the rest with a large cotton handkerchief, assisted by his corduroy coat-sleeve, and had succeeded in polishing a small silver plate upon the butt of the pistol so as to make the initials, T.D., engraved upon it easily decipherable. There was not much in the discovery, perhaps, but by the ghastly change in Lord Chariton's face,

Starting point is 13:02:18 Theodore saw that to him at least it appeared a fatal significance. His hand shook as it held the pistol. His eyes had a look of absolute horror as they scrutinized it, and nothing could be more obvious than the effort with which he controlled his agitation, and looked from the builder's foreman to Theodore with an assumption of tranquility. "'It may mean much or nothing, Carter,' he said, putting the pistol in his coat pocket. "'It was quite right of you to bring the matter before me.' "'I thought the initials on the pistol might lead to something being found out, my lord,' said the foreman.

Starting point is 13:02:50 "'I don't think there can be much doubt the murderer chucked it in there. "'Don't you?' "'I have gone into the subject of circumstantial evidence a little deeper than you have, Carter. "'It was my trade, don't you know, just as laying bricks was yours, "'and I can tell you that the odds are ten to one against this pistol having belonged to the murderer.' "'Do you think it likely that the man who shot Sir Godfrey Carmichael "'would have gone out of his way to throw his pistol down that particular well?' I don't know about that, my lord.

Starting point is 13:03:17 It would have been a safe hiding-place if the water hadn't given out, and would be in his way if he were making for the Westgate. He could hardly have taken a shorter cut than across this garden. Perhaps not, if both the garden doors were open that night. I don't think anybody ever saw them shut, my lord, night or day, answered Carter, with respectful persistency. Theodore knew by the very look of the clumsy wooden doors, pushed back against the old wall with rusty hinges,

Starting point is 13:03:44 and, with the tendrils of vine or plum tree growing over their edges that the man was right. The path across this garden and the next garden led in a direct line to the West Lodge, and it was by this way by which the servants went on most of their errands to the village. The one idea suggested by the choice of that hiding-place was that the person who threw away that pistol was familiar with the premises. The whale was about thirty feet away from the path and screened by the old espaliers. There was a gap in the espaliers where an ancient and cankered apples, tree had been taken out, and it was by this opening that the gardeners generally went to draw

Starting point is 13:04:18 water. They had trod in a hard foot-track in their going and coming. It was always possible that a stranger exploring the grounds furtively and in haste might have been sharp enough to hit upon the well as a safe and handy hiding-place. It would, of course, have been vital to the murderer to get rid of his weapon as soon as possible after the deed was done, lest he should be taken red-handed and with that piece of evidence upon him. Theodore saw in that pistol with the initials T.D. confirmatory evidence against the husband of Mrs. Danvers, the one person in the world who had ground for an undying hatred of Lord Chariton and his race. He made no remark upon the discovery of the weapon, fearing to say too much, and he waited quietly to see how his kinsman would act in

Starting point is 13:04:59 the matter. That ghastly change in Lord Chariton's countenance as he examined the pistol, suggested that he had come to the same conclusion as Theodore. Remorse and horror could hardly have been more plainly expressed by the human countenance. And what remorse could be more terrible than that of the man who saw the sin of his youth visited upon his innocent daughter? Shall you take any steps with reference to this discovery? asked Theodore, when they had gone halfway back to the house in absolute silence. What steps can I take, do you think?

Starting point is 13:05:30 Send for another London detective, or for the same man again and give him the pistol. To what end? He would be no nearer finding the murder because of the finding of the pistol. The initials might lead to identification. Did you ever hear of such a thing as a second-hand pistol? And do you think an assassin would make use of a pistol with his own initials upon it to commit murder? I do not. Not the professional assassin, but we are all agreed that this murder was an act of vengeance,

Starting point is 13:05:59 for some reason at present unknown, and the semi-lunatic who would commit murder for such a motive would not be likely to do his work very neatly. His brain would be fevered by passion or alcohol in all probability, and he would go to work blindly. That is no more than a theory, and my experiences show me that such theories are generally falsified by fact. The murder was so far neatly done that the murderer got clear off, in spite of a most rigorous search. I doubt if the pistol, with initials which may belong to anybody in the world, will help us to track him after more than a year. Then you mean to do nothing in the matter? I think not. I cannot see my way to doing anything at present, but if you like to take the pistol to

Starting point is 13:06:41 Scotland yard and see what impression it makes upon the experts there. I should much like to do so. I cannot ignore the fact that so long as Sir Godfrey's murderer remains undiscovered, there is a possibility of peril for you and for Juanita and for Juanita's child. Who can tell whether that deadly hatred is appeased? Whether the man who killed your daughter's husband is not on the watch to kill you or your daughter when he sees his opportunity? As for myself, I must take my chance.

Starting point is 13:07:10 I would to God that the ball had struck me instead of my son-in-law. It would have been better, a lighter chastisement. I have lived my life. I have done all I ever hoped to do in this world. A few years, more or less, could matter very little to me. And yet, life is sweet, Theodore, life is sweet. However heavily we are handicapped, we most of us would choose to finish our race. There was infinite melancholy.

Starting point is 13:07:40 his tone, the melancholy of a man who sees the shadows of a great despair darkening around him, the melancholy of a man who gives up the contest of life and feels that he is beaten. Do not say anything to my wife about this business, he said. Let her be happy as long as she can. She has not forgotten last summer, but she is beginning to be something like what she was before that blow fell upon us. The advent of Juanita's baby has worked wonders. There is something to look forward to in that child's existence. "'Life is no longer a cul-de-sac.' "'There is one thing to be done,' said Theodore after an interval of silence.

Starting point is 13:08:19 "'The bullet was kept, of course. "'Yes, it is in the possession of the police, I believe. "'Would it not be well to ascertain if it fits the pistol you have in your pocket?' "'Yes. I will go to the station to-morrow and look into that.' "'There was no more said about the pistol that evening. "'Theodore felt that it would be cruelty to dwell upon the subject. seeing that his kinsman had been deeply affected by the discovery, and that he was oppressed by a gloom which he strove in vain to shake off. It was evident to Theodore that those initials on the pistol had a terrible meaning for Lord Chariton,

Starting point is 13:08:53 that he recognized in those initials the evidence of an injured husband's vengeance, a hatred which had been undiminished by the lapse of years. He told himself that the tardiness of that revenge might be accounted for by various contingencies, any one of which would lessen the improbability of that long interval between the wrong done and the retribution exacted. It might be that the murderer had been an exile in a distant world. It might be that he had been a criminal fretting himself against the bars of a felon's prison, nursing his anger in the dull, dead days of penal servitude. Such things have been.

Starting point is 13:09:28 It was clear to Theodore Dalbrook that in those initials upon the Colts revolver lay the clue to the murderer, and that Lord Chariton shrank with horror for the murder. from the revelation which those two letters might bring about. Yet whatever evil might come upon the master of Chariton out of the secret past, it was vital that the murderer should be found, lest his second crime should be more hideous than his first. And Theodore was resolved that he would spare no effort in the endeavor to find him, living or dead. God grant that I may find a grave rather than a living man, he thought, for Chariton's sake. God grant that he may be spared the humiliation of having his story told.

Starting point is 13:10:07 to all the world. He went into Chariton Village early upon the following afternoon, and dropped in upon the doctor, an old inhabitant whose father and grandfather before him had prescribed for all the parish, rich and poor. Mr. Dolby, per excellence, Dr. Dolby was a bachelor, a spare, sharp-visaged man of about forty, social and expansive, a keen sportsman and a good billiard player, a man whose lines had been set in pleasant places, where he had inherited a roomy old cottage with capacious stapling and twenty acres of the fattest meadowland in chariton parish, and he led exactly that kind of life which is so loved. It would have been no gain to such a man to have changed places with barren-mouthed child or

Starting point is 13:10:49 Lord Salisbury. He would have been in all that constitutes human happiness a loser by such an exchange. So cheery a person was naturally popular in a narrow world like Chariton, and Mr. Dolby was a general favorite, a favorite in polite society, and in the billiard-room at the Chariton Arms, which, in default of a club, served as the afternoon and evening rendezvous for lawyer, doctor, and the tenant farmers of a gentlemanly glass, the smock-frock farmers and tradespeople having their own particular meeting place at the old house at home, a public house at the other end of the village. Theodore had known Mr. Dolby from his childhood, and the medical advisor of Chariton was an occasional dropper-in at the luncheon table in Cornhill,

Starting point is 13:11:30 when business transactions with his tailor or his banker took him to the county town. There was nothing unusual, therefore, in Theodore's afternoon call a dovecoats, a somewhat ficturesque name which had been given to the doctor's domicile by his predecessor, who had devoted his later years to an ardent cultivation of barbs and jacobins and other aristocratic birds, and who had covered a quarter of an acre of garden ground with pigeon-houses of various construction. Theodore found Mr. Dolby smoking his afternoon pipe in the seclusion of his surgery. He had made a long morning round, had driven something between twenty and thirty miles, and considered himself entitled to what he called his otium cum, whiskey, and water,

Starting point is 13:12:09 which refreshment stood on a small table at his elbow while he lolled in his capacious easy-chair. He welcomed his visitor with effusion, and insisted on calling for another siphon and having another little table arranged at the elbow of the other easy-chair. "'Make yourself comfortable, old chap, and let us have a jaw,' he said. "'I haven't seen you for ages. Are you at the chase?' They talked of the usual village topics, glanced at the same. the great world of politics, speculated upon the prospects of the shooting season,

Starting point is 13:12:40 and then Theodore approached the real business of his visit. There is a fellow I am interested in from a business point of view, he began, who has been hanging about this place off and on for the last five and twenty years, I believe, though I have never happened to meet him. He is a drinking man and altogether a bad lot, but it is my business to hunt him down. On account of some property, I suppose? Yes, on account of some property.

Starting point is 13:13:05 property. Now I know what an observer you are, Dolby, and what a wonderful memory you have. I haven't wasted it up in London, interjected Dolby. A week in Oxford Street and the Strand would take ten years off by memory. It's pretty clear at present, thank God. Well now, what about this fellow? What kind of a fellow is he? A gentleman or a cad? He was once a gentleman, but he may have tumbled pretty low by this time. He was going downhill at a good pace five and twenty years ago. E, gad, then he must be at the bottom of the hill, I take it. What is he like, fat or lean, dark or fair, short or tall? A tall man, fair complexion, a man who has once been handsome, a showy-looking man, answered Theodore, quoting the house agent. That will do. Yes, just such a man

Starting point is 13:13:56 as that was at the arms one night, six, eight. Upon my word, I believe it must have been ten years ago. A man who put on a good deal of side, though his clothes were no end seedy. Ragged edges to his trousers, don't you know? And though his hands shook like an aspen leaf, I played a fifty game with him, and I should say, though I beat him easy, that he had once been a fine player. He was in wretched form, poor creature, but... Ten years ago, do you really think it was as long ago you saw him? I know it was. It would be in 74. That was the year Potter was returned from Scrumath. I remember we were all talking of the election the night that fellow was there. Yes, I remember him perfectly. A tall fair man, a wreck, but with the traces of former good looks.

Starting point is 13:14:44 I fancy he must have been a soldier. He slept at the arms that night, and I met him rather early next morning, before nine o'clock, coming away from the chase, met him within ten yards of the West Lodge. Did he talk about Lord Chariton? A good deal, talked rather wild, too, and would have blacked guarded your cousin if we hadn't shut him up pretty sharply. He pretended to have been intimate with him before he made his way at the bar, and he talked in the venomous way a man who has been a failure very often does talk about a man who has been a success. It's only human nature, I suppose.

Starting point is 13:15:17 There's a spice of venom in human nature. Have you never seen this man at Chariton since that occasion? Never, within the last ten years. Never, and I should be inclined, looking at the gentleman from a professional point of view, to believe that he must have been under the turf for a considerable portion of that period. I don't think there could have been three years' life in the man I played billiards with that evening.

Starting point is 13:15:41 Hard lines for him, poor beggar, if there was property coming to him. He looked as if he wanted it bad enough. What had he been doing at the chase, do you suppose? I haven't the least idea. I was driving in my cart when I passed him. I looked back and watched him for two or three minutes. He was walking very slowly,

Starting point is 13:16:00 and with a languid air, like a man who was not used to walking. Ten years. No, Theodore, I don't think it's possible such a shaky subject as that could have lasted ten years. One certainly does see very miserable creatures crawling on for years after

Starting point is 13:16:16 they have been ticketed for the undertaker. But this man? No. I don't think he could hold out long after that October morning. I fancy he was booked for a quick passage. He may have pulled himself to and turned over a new leaf. Too old and too far gone for that.

Starting point is 13:16:36 Or what if he had done something bad and got himself shut up for a few years? Penal servitude, do you mean? Well, that might do something. It's a very severe regimen for the habitual drunkard, and it means kill or cure. In this case, I should say decidedly kill. But it might cure. I should think the chances of cure were as two and two hundred.

Starting point is 13:17:00 I won't say it would be impossible, not having examined the patient, but so far as observation could teach a man anything, observation taught me that the case was hopeless. And yet it is my belief that this man was a charitin some time last year. You know everybody and talk to everybody, my dear Dolby. I wish you'd find out for me whether I am right. I'll do my best, answered Mr. Dolby cheerfully. If the man has been seen by anybody in the village I ought to be able to hear about him. Everybody was tremendously on the lookout last year after the murder, and no stranger could have

Starting point is 13:17:36 escaped observation. Perhaps not, but before the murder. Anybody who had been seen shortly before the murder would have been remembered and talked about. You can have no idea of the intense excitement that event caused among us. We seem to talk of nothing else, and to think of nothing else for months. And you suppose that if the man I want had been about, for a few hours only, just long enough to come and go away again on that fatal night, he would have been remembered. I am sure of it. He would have inevitably been taken for the murderer. Remember, we were all on the alert, ready to fix upon the first suspicious-looking person our memory could suggest to us. Do you think Johnson would remember the man? Johnson was the proprietor of the

Starting point is 13:18:24 Sheraton Arms. My dear fellow, did you ever find Johnson's memory available about any transaction six months old. Johnson's memory is steeped in beer, buried in flesh. Johnson is a perambulating barrel of forgetfulness, a circumambulatory hogshead of stupidity. Ask Johnson to tell you the Christian name of his grandmother, and I would venture a new hat he would be unable to answer you. There is nothing to be got out of mine host of the charit and arms. Be sure of that. I'm afraid you are right, said Theodore. he felt as if he had come to a point at which there was no thoroughfare there was the pistol with the initials t d and he had made up his mind that the man for whom these initials had been engraved was the man who gave his name as danvers when he called upon the house agent the man whose wife had been known for years as mrs danvers he had made up his mind that this man and no other had murdered godfrey carmichael that many years after the wife's death the husband had returned from exile or imprisonment embittered so much the more so much the more so much

Starting point is 13:19:30 the more vindictive, so much the more malignant for all that he had suffered in that interval, and had taken the first opportunity to attack a hated household. That he would strike again if he should be allowed to live and be at large, Theodore had no doubt. A second murder and a third murder seemed the natural sequence of the first. He remembered the murders of the germys at Stanfield Hall, the savage hatred which tried to slay four people, two of whom were utterly unconnected with the wrong that called for vengeance. In the face of of such a story as that of the murderer rush, who could say that Theodore's apprehension of an insatiable malignity, reeking itself in further bloodshed, was groundless. He left Dovecoats

Starting point is 13:20:11 disheartened, hardly knowing what his next step was to be, and very hopeless of tracking a man who so contrived as to be unseen upon his deadly errand. He must have come and gone verily like a thief in the night, sheltered by darkness, meeting no one. And yet there was the evidence of the servants at the inquest, who swore to having heard mysterious footsteps outside the house late at night upon more than one occasion shortly before the murder. If the murderer had been about upon several nights, creeping round by the open windows of the reception rooms, watching his opportunity, what had he done with himself in the day? Where had he hidden himself? How had he evaded the prying eyes of a village, which is all eyes, all ears for the unexplained stranger?

Starting point is 13:20:54 End of Chapter 10. Volume 2, Chapter 11 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 11 When haughty expectations prostrate lie, and grander crouches like a guilty thing. Theodore walked moodily along the lane leading to the West Gate, brooding over discrepancies and difficulties in the case which he had set himself to unravel. As he drew near Mrs. Porter's cottage, he saw Lord Chariton come out of the porch

Starting point is 13:21:35 unattended. He came slowly down the steps to the gate with his head bent, and his shoulders stooping wearily, an attitude which was totally unlike his usual erect carriage, an attitude which told distinctly of mental trouble. Theodore overtook him and walked by his side at the risk of being considered intrusive. He was very curious as to his kinsman's motive for visiting Mrs. Porter after yesterday's conversation about mercy. Have you been trying to bring about a reconciliation between mother and daughter, he asked. No, I have told you that little good could result from bringing those two obstinate spirits together. You have seen for yourself what the daughter can be. How perverse, how cruel, what a creature

Starting point is 13:22:17 of prejudice and whim. The mother's nature is still harder. What good could come of bringing such a daughter back to such a mother? No, it was with no hope of reconciliation that I called upon Mrs. Porter. I have been thinking very seriously of your friend Ramsey's suggestion of mental trouble. I regret that I did not act upon the hint sooner, and get my friend Mainwaring to see her and advise upon the case. I shall certainly consult him about her, but as he has a very important practice and a large establishment under his care, it may be very difficult for him to come to Chariton. I think, therefore, it might be well to send her up to the neighbourhood of London, to some

Starting point is 13:22:57 quiet northern suburb, for instance, within half an hour's drive of mainwaring's asylum, which is near Chess Hunt. Then, if it should be deemed advisable to place her under restraint for a time, though I cannot suppose that likely, the business could be easily accomplished. Your idea, then, would be, to take her up to London with her servant as soon as I have found comfortable lodgings for her in a quiet neighborhood. I have proposed the journey to her this afternoon on the ground of her being out of health and in need of special advice. I told her that people had remarked upon her altered appearance, and that I was anxious she should have the best medical care. She did not deny that she was ailing. I think, therefore, there will be very little

Starting point is 13:23:36 difficulty in getting her away when I am ready to remove her. What is your own impression as to her mental condition? I regret to say that my impression very much resembles that of your friend. I see a great change in her since I last had any conversation with her. Yes, I fear that there is something amiss, and that it is no longer well for her to live in that cottage with a young girl for her only companion. It would be far better for her to be in a private asylum, where hers, being a very mild case, life might be made easy and agreeable for her. I know my friend mainwaring to be a man of infinite benevolence, and that there would be nothing wanting to lighten her burden. He sighed heavily. There was a look in his face

Starting point is 13:24:20 of unutterable care, of a despondency which saw no issue, no ray of love. light far off in the thickening gloom. Theodore thought he looked aged by several years since yesterday, as if the evidence of the pistol had struck him to the heart. He knows now that it was his own sin that brought about this evil, thought Theodore. He could conceive the agony of the father's heart, knowing that for his own wrongdoing his innocent daughter

Starting point is 13:24:45 had been called upon to make so terrible an expiation. He could penetrate into the dark recesses of the sinner's mind, were remorse from that early age, and, for all the false steps which it had necessitated, dominated every other thought. Till yesterday, James Dalbrook might have supposed his sin a thing of the past, atoned for and forgiven, its evil consequences suffered in the past, the account ruled off in the book of fate, and the acquittance given. Today he knew that his sin had cost him his daughter's happiness,

Starting point is 13:25:16 and over and above that horror of the past there lay before him the hazard of some still greater horror in the future. Could anybody wonder that his eyes were sunken and dull, as they never had been before within Theodore's memory? Could anybody wonder at the strained look in the broad open forehead, beneath which the eyes looked out wide apart under strongly marked brows, or at the hard lines about the mouth which told of sharpest mental pain? Late that evening, when Lady Chariton had gone to bed, Theodore approached the subject of the pistol. Did you compare the ball with the revolver that we found yesterday? he asked. yes the ball fits the bore i don't know that the fact goes to prove much but so far as it goes it is now in the knowledge of our local police unfortunately they are not the most brilliant intellects i know of

Starting point is 13:26:05 if you will let me have the pistol to-night before we go to bed i will go up to town by an early train to-morrow and take it to scotland yard as you suggested i suggested nothing of the kind my dear theodore i attach very little importance to the discovery of the pistol as a means towards discovering the murderer. I said you might take it to Scotland Yard if you liked. That was all. I should like to do so. I should feel better satisfied. Oh, satisfy yourself by all means, interrupted Lord Chariton irritably. You are great upon the science of circumstantial evidence. There is the pistol, taking it out of a drawer in the large writing table. Do what you like with it. You are not offended with me, I hope. No, I am only tired. Tired of the whole business. and of the everlasting talk there has been about it. If it is a vendetta,

Starting point is 13:26:57 if the hand that killed Godfrey Carmichael is to kill me and my daughter and her son, if my race is to be eradicated from the face of this earth, by an unpeaceable hatred, I cannot help my fate. I cannot parry the impending blow. Nor can you or Scotland Yard protect me from my foe, Theodore. Scotland Yard may find your foe and lock him up. I doubt it, but do as you please.

Starting point is 13:27:22 Theodore's train left Wareham at nine o'clock. There was a still earlier train at seven, by which farmers and other enterprising spirits who wanted to take time by the forelock were accustomed to travel. But to be in time for the nine o'clock train, Theodore had to leave chariotan at a quarter to wait, and to drive to the distant town in the dog-cart made and provided for station work, and drawn by one of two smart cobs kept for the purpose. He left the park by the west gate. He had to wait longer than usual for the opening of the gate, and when the chubby-cheeked mate-servant came down the steps with a key in her hand and unlocked the gate, there was that in her manner which indicated a fluttered mind.

Starting point is 13:28:00 Oh, if you please, sir, I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long, but I couldn't find the key just at first, though I thought I'd hung it up on the nail last night after I locked the gate, but I was so upset at my mistress leaving so suddenly, never saying a word about it beforehand, that I hardly knew what I was doing. Theodore stopped the groom as he drove through the gate. he had a few minutes to spare and could afford himself time to question the girl who had a look of desiring to be interrogated what is this about your mistress leaving suddenly he asked do you mean that mrs porter has gone away on a journey yes indeed sir she that never left home before since i was a child for i've known her ever since i can remember and never knew her to be away for so much as a single night and the first thing this morning when i was lighting the kitchen fire she opens the door and just looks in and says martha i'm going to london don't expect me back till you see me there's a letter on the parlor table she says let it lie there till it's called for don't you touch it nor yet the box and she shuts the kitchen door and walks off just as quietly as if she was going to early church as she has done many a time before it was daylight

Starting point is 13:29:09 i was that upset that i knelt before the stove a good few minutes before i could realize that she was gone and then i ran out and looked after her she was almost out of sight walking up the lane towards chariton had she no luggage did she take nothing with her nothing not so much as a hand-bag what time was this it struck six a few minutes after i went back to the kitchen what about the letter and the box your mistress spoke up there they are sir on the parlor table where she left them i'm not going to touch them said the girl with emphasis she told me not and i'm not going to disobey her to whom is the letter addressed do you mean who it's for sir Yes. It's for his lordship, and is to lie there till his lordship sends for it. In that case, I may as well give it to his lordship's servant who can take it up to the house presently. I don't know if that will be right, sir. She said it was to be called for.

Starting point is 13:30:08 Then we call for it. I, his lordship's cousin and James is lordship's groom. Won't that do for you? I suppose that will be right, sir, the girl answered doubtfully. The letter and the box are both on the table. and i wasn't to interfere with either of em and i'm not going to it that's all i can say the girl was swollen with the importance of her mission as being associated with a mystery and she was also in lively dread of her very severe mistress who might come down the lane at any moment and surprise her in some act of dereliction the theodore passed her by and went into the sitting-room where he had taken tea with the chemsters and cuthbert ramsay a letter lay on the carved oak table in front of the window and beside the letter there stood a walnut wood box 18 inches by nine the letter was addressed in a bold

Starting point is 13:30:57 characteristic hand to Lord Chariton to be called for the box had a small brass plate upon the lid and a name engraved upon the plate Thomas C. Darcy ninth foot no one who had ever seen such a box before could doubt that this was a pistol case it was unlocked and Theodore lifted the lid one pistol lay in its place neatly fitted into the velvet it lined receptacle. The place for the second pistol was vacant. Theodore took the colt's revolver from his pocket and fitted it into the place beside the other pistol. It fitted exactly, and the two pistols were alike in all respects, alike as to size and fashion, alike as to the little silver plate upon the butt and the initials, T.D.

Starting point is 13:31:44 Thomas Darcy Darcy was the name of Evelyn Strangway's husband, and one of those pistols which had belonged at some period to Evelyn Strangway's husband had been found in the well in the fruit garden, and the other in possession of Lord Charitin's protege and pensioner, the humble dependent at his gates, Mrs. Porter. Theodore changed his mind as to his plan of procedure. He did not send Mrs. Porter's letter to Lord Chariton by the groom as he had intended, after he himself had been driven to wear him.

Starting point is 13:32:14 His journey to London might be deferred now. Indeed, in his present condition of mind, he was not the man to interview the authority. of Scotland Yard. He left Mrs. Porter's letter in its place beside the pistol case, and wrote a hasty line to his kinsman at Mrs. Porter's writing-table, where all the materials for correspondence were arranged ready to his hand. The West Lodge, 815. Pray come to me here at once if you can. I have made a terrible discovery. There is a letter for you. Mrs. Porter has gone to London. He put these lines into an envelope, sealed it, and then took it out to the groom who was waiting stolidly, neatly tickling the Cobbs' ears now and again, with an artistic circular movement of

Starting point is 13:32:56 the lash which brought into play all the power and ease of his wrist. "'Drive back to the house with that note as fast as you can,' said Theodore, and let his lordship know that I am waiting for him here. End of Chapter 11. Volume 2, chapters 12 and 13 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Liebervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 12 Thy love and hate Are both unwise ones, lady

Starting point is 13:33:31 Well, Theodore, what is your discovery? Asked Lord Chariton half an hour later, The two men standing face to face in Mrs. Porter's sitting-room Amidst the silence of the summer morning, A gigantic bee buzzing in the brown velvet heart of a tall sunflower, painfully audible to the younger man's strained ears. There is a letter, sir. You had better read that before I say anything,

Starting point is 13:33:53 answered Theodore. it was years since he had called his cousin sir not since he had been a schoolboy and had been encouraged to open his mind upon politics or cricket over his single glass of claret after dinner on those occasions a boyish respect for greatness had prompted the ceremonious address to-day it came to his lips involuntarily as if a barrier of ice were suddenly interposed between himself and the man he had esteemed and admired for so many years of his life lord chariton held the letter in his hand unopened while he stood looking at the pistol case where both pistols occupied their places one bright and undamaged the other rested and spoilt as to outward appearance at least he was ghastly pale but not much more so than he had looked yesterday after he left mrs porter's cottage that is my discovery said theodore pointing to the pistols i stopped short in my journey to scotland yard when i found that case upon the table here i want to see-i want to see that case upon the table here i want to see secure Juanita and her son from the possibilities of an insatiable hatred, but I don't want to bring trouble, or disgrace, upon you if I can help it. You have always been good to me, Lord Chariton. You have regarded the claims of kindred. It would be base in me if I were to forget

Starting point is 13:35:06 that you are of my own blood, that you have a right to my allegiance. Tell me, for God's sake, what am I to do? Trust me if you can. I know so much already that it will be wisest and best for you to let me know all, so that I may help you find the murderer and to avoid any reopening of old wounds. I doubt if you or anyone else can help me, Theodore, said Lord Chariton wearily, looking straight before him, through the open lattice and across the little flower garden where the roses were still in their plenitude of color and perfume. I doubt if all my worldly experience will enable me to help myself even.

Starting point is 13:35:42 There is a path to which a man may come in his life, not wholly by his own fault, at which his case seems hopeless. He sees himself suddenly brought to a dead stop, deep in the mire of an impassable road, and with the words, no thoroughfare staring him in the face. I have come to just that point. Oh, but there is always an issue from every difficulty for a man of courage and resolution, said Theodore. I know you are not a man to be easily broken down by fate.

Starting point is 13:36:11 I am half in the light and half in the dark. It must have been the owner of that pistol who killed Godfrey Carmarmer. Michael. But how came the case and the fellow pistol into Mrs. Porter's possession? Was she that man's accomplice? And who was he, and what was he, that she should be associated with him? You believe that it was a man who fired that pistol? Most assuredly, I believe it was the man whose wife lived for many years at Myrtle Cottage, Camberwell Grove, the man who called upon a house agent at Camberwell to make inquiries about his wife, and who called himself by the name she bore in the neighborhood, the name of Danvers.

Starting point is 13:36:47 danvers may have been only an alias for darcy and in that case the man who called upon the agent was the husband of evelyn strangway and the woman who lived for so many years in the seclusion of myrtle cottage was old squire strangway's only daughter and captain darcy's runaway wife and you think tom darcy murdered my son-in-law asked lord chariton with a ghastly smile i do and what do you suppose to have been the motive of that murder revenge revenge upon the man who tempted his wife away from him the cur who ill-used and neglected his wife whose conduct drove her from her wretched home and justified her abandonment of him was never man enough to conceive such a revenge or to hate with such a hatred however in this case we need to need need not enter upon the question of motive. There is one reason why Tom Darcy cannot be suspected of any part in Sir Godfrey's murder. He died nine years ago, and was buried at my expense in Norwood Cemetery. Great God! Then who could have fired that pistol?

Starting point is 13:37:51 The answer to that question is most likely here, replied Lord Chariton quietly as he tore open the envelope of Mrs. Porter's letter. The letter was brief, but comprehensive, and all-sufficing. You know now who killed your cherished daughter's husband. If she is like me, she will carry her sorrow to the grave. If she is like me, all her days will be darkened by cruel memories. Your broken promise blighted my life? I have blighted her life.

Starting point is 13:38:21 An eye for an eye. I told you three and twenty years ago that a day would come when you would be sorry for having abandoned me? I think that day has come. Evelyn Darcy Lord Chariton handed the letter to his kinsman without a word Since you know so much of my history You may as well know all, he said

Starting point is 13:38:43 So know the thorny pillow Which a man makes for himself When he sacrifices the best years of his life To an illicit love Theodore read those ghastly lines in silence The signature told all What in heaven's name brought Evelyn Strangway To be a lodgekeeper at the end of

Starting point is 13:39:02 of the house where she was born, he asked at last. How could you permit such a lifelong humiliation? It was her own desire. It was at her insistence I allowed her to come here. I opposed her fancy with all my power of argument, with all the strength of opposition. I offered to provide her with a home in town or country, at home or abroad, near at hand or at the antipodes.

Starting point is 13:39:26 I offered to settle four hundred a year upon her, to sink capital to that amount, to make her future in that up our child, secure against the chances of fate. Your child, mercy, exclaimed Theodore. Yes, mercy, my daughter and hers. You understand now why she refused my help. She would take nothing from her father.

Starting point is 13:39:49 There was a like perversity in mother and daughter, a determination to make me drink the cup of remorse to the dregs. Oh, Theodore, it is a long and shameful story. To you, for the first time. in my life, to you only among mankind these lips have spoken of it. I have kept my secret. I have brooded upon it in the slow hours of many and many a wakeful night. I have never forgotten. I have not been allowed to forget. If time could have erased or softened that bitter memory under other conditions I know not, but for me the case was hopeless. My victim was

Starting point is 13:40:26 there, at my gates, a perpetual memento of my folly and my wrongdoing. Strange that a woman of refinement and education should elect to feel so degrading a position. Perhaps only a refined and highly educated woman could have devised so refined a punishment. Let me live near you, she pleaded. Let me live at the gate of the park I loved so well when I was a child. Let me see you pass sometimes. Open the gate for you and just see you go by, without a word, without a look even upon your part. It will be some consolation for me in my lonely, loveless life.

Starting point is 13:41:02 I shall know that at least I am not forgotten. Forgotten, as if it had been possible for me to forget, in the happiest circumstances, even if she had made for herself a home at the farthest extremity of Europe, or in the remotest of our colonies. As it was, her presence embittered the place I loved, the great reward and aim of my life. Her shadow fell across my young wife's pathway. Her influence darkened all my days. He began to pace a face. up and down the little room with a feverish air.

Starting point is 13:41:35 He seemed to find a sort of relief in talking of this burden which he had borne so long in secret, born with a smile upon his lips, suffering that silent agony which strong men have borne again and again in the history of mankind, carrying their silent punishment upon them till the grave revealed the hidden canker, and lay bare the festering wound

Starting point is 13:41:54 which had rankled unsuspected by the world. She was cruelly treated by her husband, Theodore. A young and beautiful woman married to a profligate and a sought. It had been a love-match, as the world calls it, that is to say, a marriage brought about by a schoolgirls impatience to break her bonds and a woman's first delight in hearing herself called beautiful. She had flung herself away upon a handsome reprobate, and three or four years after marriage she found herself alone and neglected in a shabby lodging in one of the squalidous streets of the strand. I can see the wretched

Starting point is 13:42:27 room she lived in today, as I stand here, the lodging-house furniture. The dingy curtains darkening the dirty windows looking into the dirty street. What a home for youth and beauty. He paused with an impatient sigh, took another turn across the narrow space, and then resumed. Our acquaintance began by accident, under an umbrella. I met them together one night, husband and wife, leaving the little Strand Theatre in the rain. I heard him tell her that it was not worthwhile to take a cab, they were so near home, and something in her proud, handsome face and her husband.

Starting point is 13:43:02 contemptuous way of replying to him caught my attention and interested me in her. I offered my umbrella, and we all three walked to Essex Street together. Just in that fortuitous way began the alliance which was to give its color to all my life. The husband cultivated my acquaintance, was glad to meet me at my club, and dined with me as often as I cared to ask him. We used to go to Essex Street after dining together and finish the evening with her, and so by degrees I came to know all about her, that she was the only daughter of the owner of Chariton Chase, that she was very handsome and very clever, though only half educated, that she had offended

Starting point is 13:43:40 her father by her marriage, and that she had not brought her husband a penny, that he neglected her, and that he drank, and that she was miserable. I came to know this very soon, I came very soon to love her. She was the first woman I had ever cared for, and I loved her passionately. He took another turn and sighed again, regretfully, despairingly, as one who looks back upon the pallid ghost of a love that has long been dead. It began with pity. I was so sorry for her, poor soul, her wasted life, her slighted beauty. God knows that for a long time I had no thought of sin.

Starting point is 13:44:19 Gradually, the yearning to see more of her, to bring some brightness and pleasure into her life, became too strong for prudence, and I persuaded her to meet me unknown to her husband. We planned little excursions, innocent enough in themselves, a morning drive and a modest luncheon at Richmond or Greenwich, or Jack Straw's Castle, a trip to Hampton Court or Windsor by boat or rail. She had hardly any acquaintances in London and there was little fear of her being recognized. We went to a theatre together now and then and sat in a dark stage-box, happy, talking of an impossible future in the intervals of the performance. We never said as much, but I think we both had a vague idea. that Providence would help us, that her husband would die young and leave us free to be happy together. Yes, we were very fond of each other, very single-hearted in those days.

Starting point is 13:45:09 She was only two-and-twenty, remember, and I was still a young man. Another pause, another sigh, and a look across the roses, as if across the long lapse of years to an unforgotten past. Heaven knows how long we might have gone on this way without sin, if not without treachery to the husband, who cared so little for his wife that it seemed scarcely dishonorable to deceive him. Our fate was precipitated by circumstances. Darcy surprised a little note of mine, asking Evelyn to meet me at a theatre. He attacked his wife brutally, refused to believe anything except the worst. He called her by names that were new and hideous to her ear, and her soul rose up in arms against him. She defied him, men out of the house, took a cab,

Starting point is 13:45:55 and came to my chambers in the foggy November evening. She came to me helpless, friendless, with no one in this wide world to love her or to protect her except me. This was the turning point. Of course, she could not stay there to be seen by my clerk and my laundress. I took her to Salisbury that night, and we spent a fortnight moving from village to village along the south coast of Devonshire. My hope was that Dorsey would apply for a divorce,

Starting point is 13:46:22 and that in less than a year I might make the woman I love, my wife i rejoiced in the thought of his obscurity and hers the record of the case would pass unnoticed in the papers and years hence when i should have made a position at the bar nobody need know that the wife i loved and honoured was once the runaway wife of another man i had argued without allowing for the malignity of a cur darcy wrote his wife one of the most diabolical letters that ever was penned by man he wreaked his venom upon her upon her the weaker sinner he called her by all the vile epithets in his copious vocabulary and he told her that she should never have the right to the name of an honest woman for that he would sooner hang himself than divorce her and so she was to drag her chain for the rest of his days and so she was to pay the bitter price of having trusted her young life to a low-bred scoundrel hard luck for both of you said theodore yes it was indeed hard luck if you could know how truly and entirely I loved her in those days. How completely happy we should have been in each other's society, but for the embittering consciousness of our false position. Cut off by his malevolence from escape by divorce, we naturally hoped for a day when we should be released by his death.

Starting point is 13:47:41 His habits were not those which conduce to length of years. We talked of the future. We had our plans and dreams about that life which was to be ours and after days, when I should be making a large income, and when she would be really my wife. with that hope before her she was content to live in the strictest seclusion to economize in every detail of our existence to know no pleasure except that of my society never did a handsome woman resign herself to a duller or more unselfish existence and yet i believe for the first few years she was happy we were both happy and we were full of hope i remember the day she first suggested to me that i should buy chariton chase when it came into the market i was beginning to be employed in important cases and to get big fees marked upon my briefs and i had taken silk i had made my name and i was saving money yet the suggestion that i should buy a large estate was too wild for any one but a woman to have made from that hour however it was evelyn's edifix she had a passionate love for her birthplace an overweening pride in her race and name she urged me to accumulate money the estate would be sacrificed at half its value perhaps would go for an old song she became rigidly economical would hardly allow herself a new gown and her keenest delight was in the deposit

Starting point is 13:49:05 notes I brought her as my money accumulated at the Union Bank. She had no idea of investments or interest for my accumulations. Her notions about money were a child's notions, the idea of saving a large sum to buy the desire of her heart, and the desire of her heart was charit and chase. God knows I was honest and earnest enough in those days. I meant to buy that estate for her sake if it was possible to be done. I meant to marry her directly she was free to become my wife. my fidelity had not wavered after a union of ten years and more but darcy was very far from dying he had hunted out his wife in her quiet retreat had threatened and annoyed her and i had been obliged to buy him off by paying his passage to canada

Starting point is 13:49:50 where he had been quartered with his regiment years before and which he pretended would open a new field for him our case so far as he was concerned seemed hopeless and i was beginning to feel the darkness of the outlook when i made maria morales's acquaintance it was the old old story theodore god forbid you should ever go through that hackneyed experience just as the old chain was beginning to drag heavily a new face appeared upon my pathway a girlish face bright with promise and hope i saw the opportunity of a union which was smoothed my way to a great position crown the edifice of my fortune give me a wife of whom i might be proud could i ever have been proud of the woman who had sacrificed her good name for my sake I was bound to her by every consideration of honor and duty, but there was the fatal stain across both our lives. I could not take her into society without the fear of hearing malignant whispers as we passed. However well these social secrets may be kept, there is always some enemy to hunt them out,

Starting point is 13:50:53 and the antecedents of Jane Dollbrook's wife would have been public property. And here was a beautiful and innocent girl who loved me well enough to accept me as her husband, although I was twenty years her senior, loved me with that youthful upward-looking love, which is of all sentiments the most attractive to a man who has lived a hard-work-a-day life in a hard-work-a-day world.

Starting point is 13:51:14 To spend an hour with Maria was to feel a Sabbath peacefulness which solaced and refreshed my soul. I felt ten years younger when I was with her than I felt in my own home. He stopped with a heart-broken sigh. Oh, Theodore, beware of such burdens as that

Starting point is 13:51:31 which I laid upon my shoulder, "'Beware of such a chain as I wound about my steps. "'What a dastard a man feels himself "'when his love begins to cool for the woman who cast your life upon one chance, "'who leans upon him as the beginning and end of her existence. "'I have walked up and down the quiet pathway "'before Myrtle cottage for an hour to stretch, "'dreading to go in lest she should read my treason on my face.

Starting point is 13:51:56 "'The break came at last, suddenly. "'I paltred with my fate for a long time. I carried on a kind of platonic flirtation with Maria Morales, taking monstrous pains to let her know that I never meant to go beyond platonics, reminding her of the difference of our ages and of my almost paternal regard, the vain subterfuge of a self-deluded man. One moment of impulse swept away all barriers, and I left Onslow Square Maria's engaged husband. Her father's generosity precipitated matters. Squire Strangway had been dead nearly a year, and the estate was in the hands.

Starting point is 13:52:31 hands of the mortgagee, who had been trying to sell it for some time. My future father-in-law was eager for the purchase directly I suggested it to him, and my wife's dowry afforded me the means of realizing Evelyn's long, cherished dream. Cruel for her, poor creature. Cruel? Brutal? Diabolical. I felt the blackness of my treason, and yet it had been brought about by circumstances, rather than by any deliberate act of mine.

Starting point is 13:52:59 I had to go to the woman who still took to the woman who still loved me and still trusted me, and tell her what I was going to do. I had to do this, and I did it, by word of mouth, face to face, not resorting to the cowards expedient of pen and ink. God help me, the memory of that scene is with me now. It was too terrible for words, but after the storm came a calm, and a week later I went across to Bulang with her and saw her comfortably established there at a private hotel, where she was to remain as long as she liked, while she made up her mind.

Starting point is 13:53:31 as to her future residence the furniture was sent to the Pentechnicon the home was broken up forever and the daughter where was she lord chariton answered with a smile of infinite bitterness the daughter had troubled us very little evelyn was not an exacting mother the child's existence was a burden to her rendered hateful by the stigma upon her birth which the mother could not forget mercy's infancy was spent in a buckinghamshire village in the cottage of her foster-mother mother and daughter never lived under the same roof till they came here together when mercy was seven years old yet according to the village tradition mrs porter was passionately fond of her daughter and broken-hearted at her loss village tradition often lies i do not believe that evelyn ever loved her child she bitterly felt the circumstances of her birth she bitterly resented her unhappy fate but a-i i do not believe that evelyn ever loved her child she bitterly felt the circumstances of her birth she bitterly resented her unhappy fate but a I believe it was her pride, her deep sense of wrong done to herself, which tortured her rather than her love for her child. She is a strange woman, Theodore, a woman who could do that deed, a woman who could write that letter. Your friend has fathomed her unhappy secret.

Starting point is 13:54:46 She was a mad woman when she fired that shot. She was mad when she penned that letter. And now, Theodore, I have trusted you as I have never before trusted mortal man. I have ripped open an old wound. You know all, and you see what lies before me. I have to find that woman and to save her from the consequences of her crime, and to save my daughter and my grandson from the hazards of a mad woman's malignity. You can help me, Theodore, if you can keep a cool, clear brain, and do just what I ask you to do, and no more. He put aside his emotion with one stupendous effort, and became a man of iron, cool, resolute, unflinching. I will obey you implicitly, said Theodore.

Starting point is 13:55:33 He had been completely won by his kinsman's candor. Had James Dalbrook told him anything less than the truth he would have despised him, as it was he felt that he could still respect him, in spite of that fatal error which had brought such deadly retribution. It is early yet, said Lord Chariton, looking at his watch, and from that to the neat little clock on the mantelpiece where the hands pointed to twenty minutes past nine. The dog-cart is waiting outside. Do you drive to the priory and put yourself on guard there till—till that unhappy woman has been

Starting point is 13:56:04 traced? You can tell Juanita that I have sent you there, that I have heard of dangerous characters being about, and that I am afraid of her being in the house with only servants. My wife shall follow you later, and can stay at the priory while I am away from home, which I must be, perhaps for some time. I have to find her the other. "'Have you any idea where she may be gone?' "'For the moment none.

Starting point is 13:56:29 "'She may have made her way to the nearest river and thrown herself in. "'Living or dead, I have to find her. "'That is my business. "'And when I have found her, I have to get her put away out of the reach of the law. "'That is my business.' "'God help you carry it through,' said Theodore. "'I shall stay at the priory till I hear from you. "'Be so kind as to ask Lady Chair,

Starting point is 13:56:53 to bring my portmanteau and dressing-bag in her carriage this afternoon i may tell Juanita that her mother is coming today may I not decidedly good-bye God bless you Theodore I know that I may rely upon your holding your tongue I know I can rely upon your act of help if I should need you and so with a cordial grasp of hands they parted Theodore to take his seat in the dog-cart and drive towards the priory to offer himself to his cousin as her guest for an indefinite period it was a curious position in which he found himself but the delight of being in juanita's society of being in some wise her protector was a counterbalance to the embarrassing conditions under which he was to approach her end of chapter twelve chapter thirteen love's reasons without reason the cobb was all the fresher for the impatience which he had suffered in standing for nearly an hour in the lane and he bowled the dog-cart along the level roads at a tremendous base. Theodore arrived at the priory before eleven, and found Juanita sitting on the lawn with her baby in her lap and her dog sticks at her side. His heart leapt with gladness at the sight of her sitting there, safe and happy in the morning sunshine, for his morbid imagination had been

Starting point is 13:58:13 at work as he drove along, and he had been haunted by hideous visions of some swift and bloody act, which might be done by the fugitive madwoman before he could reach the priory. What deed might not be done by a woman in the state of mind which that woman must have been in when she left the evidence and the confession of her crime upon a table and fled out of her house in the early morning. A silent thanksgiving went up from his heart to his God as he saw Juanita sitting in the sunshine, smiling at him, holding out her hand to him in surprised welcome. She was safe, and it was his business to guard her against that deadly enemy. He knew now whence the danger was to come, who's the hand he had to fear.

Starting point is 13:58:52 It was no longer a nameless enemy, an inscrutable peril from which he had to defend her. How early you are, Theodore. Everybody is well, I hope. There is nothing wrong at home. No, everyone is well. Your father is going to London for a few days, and your mother is coming to stay with you during his absence, and I come to throw myself on your hospitality while she is here.

Starting point is 13:59:15 His lordship has heard of some suspicious characters in your neighborhood, and has taken it into his head that it will be well for you to have me as your guest until your brother's in-law come to you for the shooting. I hope you won't mind having me, Juanita. Mind, no, I am delighted to have you and my mother, too. I was beginning to feel rather lonely and had half decided on carrying baby off to Swanage. Isn't he a fortunate boy to have two doting grandmothers?

Starting point is 13:59:41 She checked herself with a sudden sigh, remembering in what respect the richly-dowered infant was so much poorer than other babies. Yes, darling, she murmured, bending over the sleeping face, Rosie amidst its lace and ribbons as it nestled against her arm. Yes, there is plenty of love for you upon earth, my fatherless one, and, who knows, perhaps his love, is watching over you in heaven. After this maternal interlude, she remembered the obligations of hospitality.

Starting point is 14:00:08 Have you breakfasted, Theodore? You must have left Chariton very early. Theodore did not tell her how early, but he confessed to having taken only a cup of tea. Then I will order some breakfast out here for you. It is such a perfect morning. baby and i will stay with you while you take your breakfast she called the nurse who was close by and gave her orders and presently the gipsy table was brought out and a cosy breakfast was arranged upon the shining damask and theodore was having his coffee poured out for him by the loveliest hand he had ever seen while the nurse paraded up and down the lawn with the newly awakened baby i cannot understand my father taking an alarm of that kind whatita said presently after a thoughtful silence it is so unlike him as if any harm could come to me from tramps or gypsies, or even professional burglars, with half a dozen men's servants in the house and all my jewels safe at the bank?

Starting point is 14:00:59 Theodore, does it mean anything? She asked suddenly. Does it mean that my father has found out something about the murder? He was silent, painfully embarrassed by this home question. To answer it would be to break faith with Lord Chariton. To refuse to answer was in some manner to break his promise to Juanita. I must ask you to let me leave that question unanswered for a few days, he said. whatever discovery has been made it is your father's discovery and not mine.

Starting point is 14:01:25 His lips alone can tell it to you. You know who murdered my husband? No, Juanita, I know nothing. The light we are following may be a false one. He remembered how many lying confessions of crime had been made by lunacy since the history of crime began. How poor distraught creatures, who would not have killed a worm, had taken upon themselves the burden of notorious assassinations,

Starting point is 14:01:48 and had put the police to the trouble of proving them, accusing perjurers. Might not Mrs. Porter be such an one as these? Ah, but you are following some new light. You are on the track of his murderer. I think we are, but you must be patient, Juanita. You must wait till your father may choose to speak. The business is out of my hands now and has passed into his.

Starting point is 14:02:11 And he is going to London today, you say. He is going upon that business. I have said too much already, Juanita. I entreat you to ask me no more. She gave an impatient sigh and turned from her cousin to the dog, as if he were the more interesting companion of the two. "'Well, I suppose I must be content to wait,' she said. "'But if you knew what I have suffered, what I shall suffer till that mystery is solved. You would not wonder if I feel angry at being kept in the dark?

Starting point is 14:02:39 Has your friend gone back to London?' "'Yes, but he is coming again before my holiday is over.' "'You like him, I know, Juanita,' he added, looking at her somewhat earnestly. Yes, I like him, she answered carelessly, but with a faint blush. I suppose most people like him, do they not? He is so bright and clever. I am very glad you like him. He is the most valued friend I have.

Starting point is 14:03:03 Indeed, I might almost say he is the only friend I made for myself at the university. I made plenty of acquaintances, but very few I cared to meet in afterlife. Ramsey was like a brother. It would have been a real grief to me if our friendship had not lasted. He is ambitious, is he not? Very ambitious. And proud? Very proud.

Starting point is 14:03:24 But it is a noble pride, the pride that keeps a man straight in all his doings, the pride that prefers bread and cheese in a garret to turtle and venison at a parvenus table. He is a splendid fellow, Nita, and I am proud of his friendship. Is he very busy that he should be so determined to leave Dorchester? Yes, he is full of work always.

Starting point is 14:03:44 I thought he might have been content to take two or three weeks quiet reading, in our sleepy old town, but he wanted to get back to the hospital. He will come back for a day or two when the whim seizes him. He has always been erratic in his pleasures, but steady as a rock in his work. End of Chapter 13. Volume 2, Chapter 14 of the Day is Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 14:04:16 Chapter 14 The heaviness and guilt within my bosom takes off my manhood. Lord Chariton put the pistol case under his arm and left the cottage. The case was covered by his loose summer overcoat, and anybody meeting him in the park might have supposed that he was carrying a book, or might have failed to observe that he was carrying anything whatever. As it happened, he met nobody between the Westgate and the house. He went in at the open window of the library,

Starting point is 14:04:44 locked the pistol case in one of the capacious drawers of the large writing table, drawers which contained many of his most important documents, and which were provided with the safest lover locks. When this was done, he went to his wife's morning room, where she was generally to be found at this hour. Her light breakfast finished, and her newspaper reading or letter-writing begun. "'Where have you been so early, James?' she asked,

Starting point is 14:05:07 looking up at him with an affectionate smile. "'I was surprised to hear you had gone out before breakfast.' He looked at her in silence for a few moments, lost in thought. The beautiful and gracious face turned towards him and gentle inquiry had never frowned upon him in all their years of wedded life. Never had that tranquil affection failed him. There had been no dramatic passion in their love, no fierce alternations of despair and bliss,

Starting point is 14:05:34 no doubts, no jealousies. His girlish wife had given herself to him in implicit trustfulness, fond of him and proud of him, believing in him with a face second only to her faith in God. For three and twenty years of cloudless, wedded life she had made his days happy. Never in all those years had she given him reason for one hour of doubt or trouble. She had been his loving and loyal helpmate, sharing his hopes and his ambitions, caring for the people he cared for, respecting even his prejudices, shaping her life in all things to please him.

Starting point is 14:06:06 Great heaven! What a contrast with that other woman, whose fiery and exacting love had made his life subordinate to hers, whose jealousy had claimed with the total surrender of all other ties, of all other pleasures, had cut him off from all the advantages of society, had deprived him of the power to make friends among his fellow-men had kept him as her bond slave accepting nothing less than a complete isolation from all that men hold best in life he looked at his wife's calm beauty were scarce a line upon the ivory-white forehead marked the progress of years the soft gazelle-like eyes lifted so meekly to meet his own he compared this placid face with that other face handsome too after its fashion long after the bloom of youth had gone but marked in every feature with the traces of a nervous temperament a fiery temper the face of a woman in whose character there were none of the elements of domestic happiness or in a word a face of a strangway the daughter of a perverse and unhappy race from whose line no life of happiness and well-doing had arisen within the memory of man My dear Maria, I was wrong in not leaving a message.

Starting point is 14:07:12 I was sent for to Mrs. Porter's cottage. She has gone away in a rather mysterious manner. Gone away? Yes, that in itself is rather astonishing, you know, but there was something so strange in her manner of leaving that I feel it my duty to look after her. I shall go up to town by the midday train. I have other business which may keep me in London for a few days

Starting point is 14:07:33 till the shooting begins, perhaps. I have sent Theodore to the priory to tell Juanita that you are going to her this afternoon, and that you will stay with her till I come back. That is, disposing of me rather as if I were a chattel, said his wife, smiling. I knew you would be glad of a few days' quiet baby-worship at the priory, and I knew this house would be dull for you without any visitors.

Starting point is 14:07:54 Yes, there is always a gloom about the house when you are away, a much deeper gloom since last summer. No sooner am I alone than I begin to think of that dreadful night when my poor girl saw her murdered husband lying at her feet. yes james you are right in sending me away i shall be happy at the priory with my darling and she can never again be happy with me in this house lord chariton breakfasted in his wife's room it was only an apology for breakfast for he was too agitated to eat but he refreshed himself with a cup of strong tea and he enjoyed the restfulness of his wife's companionship while he sat there waiting for the carriage which was to take him to wear him what makes you so uneasy about mrs porter lady chariton asked presently the suddenness and strangeness of her departure in the first place it would have been only natural she should have communicated with you or me before she left and in the second place i have been made uneasy by an observation of mr rames's he has conceived the opinion that mrs porter is not altogether right in her mind that there is a strain of madness oh james that would be dreadful yes it would be dreadful to think of her wandering about alone

Starting point is 14:09:02 the very fact that she has hardly left that cottage for the last twenty years except to go to church would make her nervous and helpless among strangers and in a strange town she would hardly be able to take care of herself perhaps and if in addition to this her mind is not quite right oh poor thing it is terrible to think of it and you do not even know where she has gone she told the servants she was going to london god knows whether that is true or false she took no luggage not even a hand-bag she made have gone to her daughter. To mercy. Yes, that is an idea. It never occurred to me. She has been so cold and hard about her daughter in all these years, and yet it may be so. She may have relented at last. A servant announced the carriage. His lordship's portmanteau had been got in and all was ready. Goodbye, Maria. I have no time to lose, as I have inquiries to make and telegrams to dispatch at the station. He will stay in Victoria Street, of course. yes i shall telegraph mrs begbie i am taking wilson i shall be very well taken care of be sure dearest he kissed her and hurried away he sighed as he left that atmosphere of perfect peace sighed again as he thought of the business that lay before him

Starting point is 14:10:19 he had to find her this murderous he had to prove that she was mad if it were possible and to put her away for the rest of her days in some safe retreat secure from the hazard of discovery a hard and bitter task for the man who had once loved her, and whose love had been her destruction. He made his inquiries of the station-master. Yes, Mrs. Porter had left by the early train. She had taken a second-class ticket for Waterloo. Lord Chariton telegraphed to Miss Marion Gray at 69 Hercules buildings, Lambeth. If your mother is with you when you receive this, I beg you to detain her till I come. Chariton.

Starting point is 14:10:59 His wife's suggestions seemed to him like an inspiration. where else could that desolate woman seek for a shelter but under the roof which sheltered her only child she was utterly friendless in london and elsewhere unless indeed her old governess sarah newton could be counted as a friend the waymouth up-train steamed in and he took his seat in the corner of a first-class compartment where he was tolerably secure of being left to himself for the whole of the journey guards and porters conspiring to protect his seclusion albeit he had not taken the trouble to engage a compartment His greatness was known all along the line. He had ample leisure for thought during that three hours' journey, leisure to live over again that life of long ago which had been brought so vividly back to his memory by the events of today. He had made it his business to forget that past life, so far as forgetfulness was possible, with that living reminder forever at his gate.

Starting point is 14:11:53 Habit had even reconciled him to the presence of Mrs. Porter at the West Lodge. Her supreme quietude had argued her contentment. never by so much as one imprudent word or one equivocal look had she arouse his wife's doubts as to her past relations with her employer she had been accepted by all the little world of chariton she had behaved in the most exemplary manner and although he had never driven in at the west gate and seen her standing there in her attitude of stern humility without a pang of remorse and a stinging sense of shame yet that sharp moment of pain being passed he was able to submit to her existence as the one last forfeit he had to pay for his sin and now he knew that the statue-like calm of her face as she had looked up at him in the clear light under the branching beeches had been only the mask of hidden fires that through all those years in which she had seemed the image of quiet resignation of submission to a mournful fate she had been garnering up her vengeance to wreak it upon the offender in his most unguarded hour piercing the breast of the father through the innocent heart of the child he knew now that hatred had been for ever at his doors that angry pride had watched his going in and coming out under the guise of humility that by day and by night hideous thoughts had been busy in that hyperactive brain such thoughts as point the way to madness and to crime when he had made up his mind to break his promise to evelyn darcy and to marry another woman fifteen years her junior he had told himself that the wrench once made the link once sundered all would be over

Starting point is 14:13:25 she would submit as other women have submitted to the common end of such ties she could not deem herself more unfortunate than those other women had been since his attachment had endured far longer than the average span of illicit loves he had been patient and faithful and unselfish in his devotion for more than a decade he would have gone on waiting perhaps had there been a ray of hope but tom darcy had shown him malignant persistency in keeping alive and even were tom darcy dead how bitter a thing it would be for the fashion Queen's counsel to enter society with a wife of damaged character in the old days of hopefulness and fond love they had told each other that the stain upon the past need never be known in that brilliant future to which they both looked forward but now he told himself that despite their secluded life the facts of that past would ooze out people would insist upon finding out who mr. Dollbrook's wife was it would not be enough to say she is there handsome clever and a lady society would peer and pry into the background of her life. Whose daughter was she? Had she been married before? And in that case, who was her husband?

Starting point is 14:14:33 Where had she lived before her recent marriage? Had she spent her earlier years in the colonies or on the continent? Or how was it that society had seen nothing of her? Those inevitable questions would have made his life a burden and her life and agony, James Dalbrook told himself. Even had Darcy been so complacent as to die and leave them free to rehabilitate their position by marriage? But Darcy had shown no disposition towards dying, and now here was a lovely girl with a fortune

Starting point is 14:15:00 willing to marry him, a girl to whom his heart had gone out, despite his conscientious endeavor to be faithful to that old attachment. Today, in his agony of remorse and apprehension, he could recall the scene of their severance as well as if it had happened yesterday. He had gone home in the chill-march twilight in that depressing season when the pale spring flowers, daffodils, primroses, and narcissists are fighting. their ineffectual battle with the cutting east wind when the sparrows have eaten the hearts of all the crocuses and the scanty grass in suburban gardens is white with dust when the two early lighted lamps have a sickly look in the windy streets and the neglected fires in suburban drying-rooms are more dismal than fireless hearths camberwell grove was not at its best in this bleak march season the time had been when the long narrow garden at myrtle cottage was carefully kept and when evelyn had taken a pride in the old-fashioned flower borders and the blossom

Starting point is 14:15:54 croxoming creepers upon the veranda. But for the last two or three years she had been careless and indifferent, and one jobbing gardener having left the neighborhood, she had taken no pains to get another in his place. Nor had she done any of that weeding and watering and pruning, which had at one time helped to shorten the long light evenings. A weariness of all things had come upon her, tired out with waiting for brighter days. He had refused Don Jose's pressing invitation to dine on Oslo Square. He had turned his back upon the warm brightness of newly furnished drawing-rooms, an atmosphere of hot-house flowers, great rush baskets of tulips, hyacinths, low vases of lilies of the valley in parma violets, and amidst all this brightness and

Starting point is 14:16:36 color, the beautiful Spanish girl with her pale, clear complexion and soft black eyes. He had left his newly betrothed wife reluctant to let him go in order to face the most painful crisis that can occur in any man's life. In order to tell the woman who had loved and trusted him that love was at an end between them, that the bond was broken and his promise of no account. I expected you earlier, James, she said opening the door to him. It was rarely that the door was opened by a servant when he went home. She was always waiting for his knock. Yes, it is late, I know.

Starting point is 14:17:12 I have been detained. I have lingered a little on the way. I walked from the west end. What, all the way? By the Walworth Road. The neighborhood you dislike so much. i did not care where i walked evelyn i was too miserable to think about my surroundings miserable she asked looking at him searchingly and growing pale as she looked as if the pallor of his face reflected itself in hers what should make you miserable they were standing in the drawing-room where the moderator lamp upon the table shone bright and clear upon his troubled face you have lost your money james you have speculated you won't be able to buy charit and chase she said breathlessly

Starting point is 14:17:53 "'Nonsense, Evelyn. "'Don't you know that you have the deposit notes "'for every pound I ever saved locked up in your desk? "'Ah, but you might speculate. "'You may have ruined yourself all the same. "'I have not ruined myself that way, Evelyn. "'Oh, for God's sake, forgive me. "'Bitty me if you can.

Starting point is 14:18:12 "'I have engaged myself to a girl who loves me, "'though I am twenty years her senior, "'a girl who is proud of me and believes in me. "'This engagement means a new and happy life for me and may mean release for you. Who knows? We have neither of us been happy lately. I think we have both felt that the end must come. She laid her hand upon his breast, holding the lapel of his coat tightly within her thin white fingers, as if she would pin him there forever, looking straight into his

Starting point is 14:18:40 eyes with her own eyes dilated and flaming. You are a coward and a traitor, she said between her clenched teeth. You are lying and you know you are lying. The tie has grown weak. for you, perhaps, not for me. For me every year has strengthened it. For me, every hope I have has pointed to one future, the future in which I am to be your wife. You know what my husband's habits are. You know what his life is worth as compared with yours. You know that we must be near the end of our probation, that suddenly, without any hour's warning, we may hear of his death, and you will be free to give me the name and place I have earned for ten years' fidelity and

Starting point is 14:19:19 patience and self-denial. You know this, and that my life is bound up in yours, that I cannot exist without you except as the most miserable of women, that I have not a friend in the world, not a hope in the world, not an ambition in the world but you, and you look at me in the face with those cold, cruel eyes, and tell me you have engaged yourself to a girl twenty years your junior that you are going to cast me off, me, your wife of ten years, more than wife in devotion, more than wife in self-sacrifice. knows the sacrifice was mutual, Evelyn. If there has been surrender on your side, there has been surrender on mine. I have turned my back upon society just at the time when it would have been

Starting point is 14:20:02 most enjoyable and most valuable. But I won't even try to excuse myself. I have acted very badly. I deserve the worst you can say of me. I thought I was sure of myself. I thought I was a rock. But the hour of temptation came and I was not strong enough to withstand it. Be generous Evelyn, class-pans, and forgive me. Wherever I am, and whatever I do, your welfare shall be my first, most sacred care. The money I have saved shall be invested for your benefit, shall be secured to your use in our daughters after you. Money, benefit, she cried wildly.

Starting point is 14:20:40 How dare you talk to me of money? How dare you put my wrongs in the balance against your sordid money? Do you think money can help me to forget you, or to hate myself less than I do for having loved and trusted you? And then followed a paroxysm of passionate despair at the memory of which, after all the intervening years of peace and prosperity, wedded love and deadened conscience, his blood ran cold. He found himself face to face with a woman's frenzy, impotent to comfort or to tranquilize

Starting point is 14:21:11 her. There was a moment when he had to exert brute force to prevent her from dashing her brains out against the wall. All through that long, hideous night he watched by her and pleaded with her and guarded her from her own violence. At one time he was on his knees before her, offering to give up the desire of his heart, to break his solemn engagement of a few hours old, and to remain true to her till the end of time, but she spurned as offered sacrifice.

Starting point is 14:21:37 What? Now that I know you love another woman? What? Keep you by my side while I know your heart is elsewhere? What? Have you mine by the strength of a chain, like a galley slave linked to his jail companion knowing that you hate me? "'Not for worlds, not to be a Duchess.

Starting point is 14:21:55 "'No, no, no. "'The wrong is done. "'The wrong was in withdrawing your love. "'There is no such thing as faithfulness from you to me. "'All is over.' "'He argued against himself, implored her to accept his sacrifice. "'I would do anything in this world, pay any price, "'rather than see such despairs I have seen to-night,' he said,

Starting point is 14:22:19 "'standing in the cold, grey dawn, haggard and aged by the long night of agony, beside the bed where that convulsed form lay writhing with tear disfigured face, lips wounded and blood-stained, strained eyeballs and disheveled hair. She was adamant against his pleading. You cannot give me back my trust in you. I am not the coarse common creature you think me. I do not want to keep your dull clay when your heart has gone to another. I will show you that I can live without you. This was the beginning of a calmer mood, which he was fain to welcome, though he knew that it was the icy calmness of despair.

Starting point is 14:22:57 Before the world was a stir in Camberwell Grove, she had grown curiously quiet and rational. She had bathed her distorted features and bound up her hair. She was clothed and in her right mind again, and she sat quietly listening while he told her the story of his temptation, and how this new love had crept into his heart unawares, and how an innocent girl's naive preference had flattered him into infidelity to the love of ten years. She listened quietly while he spoke of the future, trying to make a sunny picture of the new home, in England or abroad, which she was to create for herself.

Starting point is 14:23:30 You have been far too self-denying, he said. You have sacrificed even your own comfort to help me to grow rich. You must at least share my prosperity. Money need be no object in your future existence. Choose your new home where you will, and let it be as bright and enjoyable as ample means can make it. i will take nothing from you but the bare necessities of existence she said i will go to the obscurest spot that i can find and rot there alone or with my daughter as you think fit i may ask one favor of you get me out of this house as soon as you can i was once happy here she added hoarsely looking round the room with an expression that tortured him i will take you across the channel to-day if you like change of air and scene may do you good

Starting point is 14:24:19 you have lived too long in this place ten years too long she answered with a faint laugh he went across to boulogne with her by the night-mail established her in a private hotel in the grand rue and left her there within an hour of their landing with a pocket-book containing a hundred pounds in her lap nothing could exceed his tenderness in this parting nor could any man's compassion for a woman he had ceased to love be deeper than his he was full of thoughtfulness for her future he implored her to think of him as her devoted friend, to whom her welfare was of the uttermost importance, to call upon him unhesitatingly for any help in any scheme of life which she might make for herself. I shall warehouse your furniture at the Pentechnicon, so that wherever you fix your future abode it may be conveyed there, he said. We took some pains in choosing those things, and you may prefer them to newer and even

Starting point is 14:25:12 better furniture. Write to me when you have made your choice of a new home. Home, she echoed, and that was all. When you have found that home and settled down there, you will have mercy to share your life, will you not, he pleaded. The child will be a comfort to you. A comfort, yes. She was born under such happy conditions.

Starting point is 14:25:33 She has such reason to be proud of her parentage. Mercy. Mercy what? She must have some kind of surname, I suppose, before she is much older. What is she to be called? You are very cruel, Evelyn. What does a name matter? everything a name means a history should i be here and you bidding me good-bye if my name were dalbrook it is just because my name is not dalbrook that you can cast me adrift like a rotten boat which a man sends down the stream to be stranded on a mud-bank and moulder their piecemeal inch by inch

Starting point is 14:26:10 End of Chapter 14 Volume 2, Chapter 15 Of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Libre Fox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 15 One little flash of summer light, one brief and passionate dream. Lord Chariton sent his valet and his portmanteau

Starting point is 14:26:38 to Victoria Street in a cab and walk to Hercules' buildings. It was a short distance from the terminus, and the movement was a relief to his troubled brain. He was strangely agitated in approaching the girl whom he had known only as Mercy Porter, who had lived to 27 years of age, almost as a stranger to him, whom he had looked upon in her girlhood

Starting point is 14:26:57 with a keen and painful interest, but an interest which he had never betrayed by one outward sign. It was her mother's perversity and wrong-headedness, he told himself, which had necessitated this complete estrangement. Had she consented to bring up her daughter anywhere else, he might have acted in some wise as a father to her. But she had chosen to plant the girl there at his gates in the sight of his wife

Starting point is 14:27:19 and her child, and he was thus constrained to ignore the tie, to repress every token of interest, every sign of emotion, to act his lifelong lie and play his part of benefactor and patron to the end. And now he had reason to believe that Mercy had discovered the secret of her birth. Her contemptuous refusal of his bounty could proceed, he thought, from no other cause. She knew that he was her father, and she would accept no boon from a father who had denied her his name and his love. She resented her mother's wrongs as well as her own. His heart sank at the thought of standing before her, his daughter and his judge. The house in Hercules' buildings was decent and clean-looking.

Starting point is 14:28:03 The woman who opened the door told him that Miss Gray was at home and directed him to the second floor back. Is she alone? he asked. Has there been no one with her this morning? No, sir. She don't have anybody come to see her once in six months except Miss Newton. Lady Charitin's conjecture was not the inspiration he had thought. Mrs. Porter had not made her way here. What if she had doubled back after starting in the train for London,

Starting point is 14:28:29 got out of the first station and gone to the priory, to realize that ghastly apprehension of Theodore Dalbrooks and to follow up her scheme of vengeance by some new crime? once admit that she was mad and there was no limit to the evil she might attempt and do. His only comfort was in the idea that Juanita's cousin was there, on the alert to guard her from every possible attack. He knocked at the door of the back room on the second floor landing, and it was opened by the faded woman he had seen last in her fresh young beauty, a fair, bright face at a rustic casement framed in Berger. The face was sadly aged since he had looked upon it, and if it was beautiful

Starting point is 14:29:07 still, it was with the beauty of outline and expression rather than of youthful freshness and coloring. The grave's sad eyes were lifted to his face as Mercy made way for him to enter. She placed a chair for him and stood a little way off, waiting for him to speak. He looked at the small room with infinite sadness. Her neatness and ingenuity had made the best of the poorest means, and the shabby little room had as fresh and gay in air as if it had been the room in an alpine chalet or a farmhouse in Normandy. The poor little pallet bed was hidden by white dimmitty curtains. The washstand was screened by a drapery of the same white dimity, daintily arranged with bright ribbon bows. There was a shelf of neatly bound books above the mantelpiece,

Starting point is 14:29:50 and there were bits of Japanese china here and there, giving a touch of brilliant color to the cheap white paper on the walls and the white draperies. The room had been furnished by Mercy herself. The chairs were of wickerwork, cushioned and down. The chairs were of wickerwork, cushioned and decorated by Mercy's clever hands. There was a pine chest of drawers with a Japanese-looking glass hanging above it, and there was a quaint little Japan table of bright vermilion at the side of Mercy's armchair. The poor little second-floor bedroom with its one window and most unlovely outlook was Mercy's only source of pride. She had pinched herself to buy those inexpensive chairs and the luxury of the Japanese class, the lacquered tea tray with its Tsatsuma cups

Starting point is 14:30:29 and saucers, and the turquoise and absence-tinted vases, all those trifling details which made her room so different from the rooms of most work-girls. She had stained and waxed the old deal boards with her own hands, and it was her own labor that kept the floor polished and dustless and the window-panes bright and clear. The natural instinct of a lady showed itself in that love-of-fair surroundings. "'I hope to find your mother with you,' said Lord Chariton. "'Why?' I received your telegram and could not understand what a it meant. Is there anything wrong with my mother? She left her home early this morning, suddenly. No one knows why or wherefore. I am intensely

Starting point is 14:31:08 anxious to find her. But why? She has been able to take care of herself very well for the last twenty years. You have not been particularly interested in her in all that time. Why should you be anxious today? Because I have reason to think that all is not well with her, that her mind is not quite right. And I am full of fear lest she should do something rash. God help her, sighed mercy, the pale face growing just a shade whiter.

Starting point is 14:31:36 If you had seen much of her in the years that are gone, your fears would not have come so late in the day. What do you mean? I mean that her mind has been unsettled ever since I was old enough to observe and to understand her. I was little more than a child when I found out that she had brooded upon one great sorrow until all her thoughts were warped,

Starting point is 14:31:54 all charity and kindly feeling were dead in her, dead or frozen into a dreadful numbness, a torpor of the soul. She never really loved me, me, her only child who tried very hard to win her love. God knows how I loved her, having no one else to love. There was always a barrier between us, the barrier of some bitter memory. I could never get near her heart. He did not answer for some minutes, but stood up, looking out of the window at the dreary prospect of slated roof in smoke-black and chimney-pot, prospect in which a few red tiles or an old gable-end were as a glimpse of beauty amidst the all-pervading grayness and cruel monotony of form and hue. He felt a constraint upon him such as he had never felt in all his life before, felt tongue-tied,

Starting point is 14:32:43 helpless, paralyzed by a deep sense of shame and self-humiliation before this unacknowledged daughter, who under happier circumstances might have looked up to him and honored him as the first among men. In this bitter hour, the name that he had won for himself in the world, the fortune which his talent had earned for him were as dust and ashes. The bitter ashes beneath the dazzling brightness of the dead sea-fruit. Why do you stop in this back room, mercy? he asked abruptly. Why do you condemn yourself to look out upon chimney-pots and blackened roofs, when you have all the world to choose from if you like? Why, in people, Fitty's name did you refuse my offer of an income?

Starting point is 14:33:22 Because I will take nothing from you. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Her lips closed in a rigid line after that reiterated word. Her eyes looked straight before her. Cold, calm, resolute. Why are you so horrid upon me? Why? You ask me why, you, who let me live at your gates

Starting point is 14:33:45 and make dependence on your bounty, nameless, fatherless, living a life, of miserable monotony with a heart-broken woman, in whose frozen-breast even maternal love was dead. You who patted me on the head once and half a year and patronized me, and condescended to me as if I were of another race and of a different clay. You, my father, you who could be content to let me grow from a child to a woman and never once let your heart go out to me, and never once be moved to clasp me in your arms and confess the tie between us. You who saw me come to your fine house and go away, and often pretended not to see me, or passed me with a side glance and

Starting point is 14:34:22 a little motion of your hand, as if I were a dog that ran by you in the street. You, my father, you, whose friend saw me so friendless and alone that he could lie to me with impunity, knowing there was no one in this world to take my part or to call him to account for his lies. Had you been different, my fate might have been different? He was a villain, mercy. God knows I have suffered enough on that score. I would have called him to account.

Starting point is 14:34:50 I would have punished him. But I had to think of my wife. I dared not act. There was a monster in my path before which the boldest man sometimes turns coward. Publicity. Who was it told you, Mercy? When was it that you discovered my secret?

Starting point is 14:35:06 He told me. Taunted me with my mother's story. He had guessed it, I think. But though he had no proofs to give me, instinct told me that it was true. My mother's life and character had always been a mystery to me. I understood both by the light of that revelation.

Starting point is 14:35:23 He told you the truth, Mercy. Yes, all my life as regards you was a solemn sham. It was your mother's determination to live at Chariton and nowhere else, which made me a stranger to my own child. Had your home been elsewhere, far from my wife and her surroundings, I might have acted in some wise a father's part. I might have acknowledged our relationship. I might have seen you from time to

Starting point is 14:35:45 time in the freedom of paternal intercourse. I could have interested myself in your education, watched over your welfare. As it was, I had to play my difficult part as best I might. You would have had to reckon with my mother's broken heart wherever she had lived, answered Mercy. Do you think I could have ever valued your fatherly interest, knowing the measure of her wrong? In my ignorance I looked up to you as our benefactor. You cheated me of my gratitude and respect.

Starting point is 14:36:13 You, who were the cause of all of you? our sorrows. I saw my mother's mind growing more and more embittered as the years went by. My youth was spent with a woman whose lips had forgotten how to smile, with a mother who never spoke a motherly word or kissed her child with a motherly kiss. And then when love came, or that which seemed love, can you wonder that I was weak and helpless in the hour of temptation? I, who had never known what tenderness meant before I heard his voice, before his lips touched mine. The only happiness I ever knew upon this earth

Starting point is 14:36:46 was my happiness with him. It was short enough, God knows, but it was something. It was my only sunshine, the only year in all my life in which the world seemed beautiful in life worth living. Yes, it was at least a dream of loving and being loved, but it was followed by a bitter waking.

Starting point is 14:37:06 He was a scoundrel mercy. You were not his first victim. But his youth was past, and I believed in his reform. I should not have asked him to my wife's house had I not so believed. When I heard that he had tempted you away from your mother, I was in despair. I would have made any sacrifice to save you, except the one sacrifice of facing a hideous scandal, except the sacrifice of my social position in my wife's happiness. Had you alone been in question, I might have taken a bolder and more generous course, but you are right when you say I had to reckon

Starting point is 14:37:39 with your mother. I might have confessed the existence of my daughter. I might have confessed the existence of my daughter, might have secured my wife's kindness and sympathy for that daughter. But how could I say to her, the woman who lives beside your gate is the woman who ought to have been my wife, and who, for ten years, was to me as a wife, and relied upon my promise that no other woman upon earth should ever occupy that place? I was fettered, mercy, caught in the toils, powerless to act a manly part. I did what I could. I tried to trace you and to remain.

Starting point is 14:38:10 failed and never knew what had become of him till I read of his death in Afghanistan. He was a married man when he crossed your path, separated from his wife who had not used him over well. It was the knowledge of his domestic troubles that inclined me to hold out the hand of friendship to him at that time. He behaved infamously to you, I fear, my poor girl. He only did what most men do, I suppose, under the same circumstances. He only acted as you acted to my mother. he grew tired of me. Only his weariness came in less than ten years, in less than two. He took me roaming all over the world in his yacht. Those days and nights at sea, or lying off

Starting point is 14:38:51 some white city, gleaming against a background of olive-clad hills, were like one long dream of beauty. Sometimes we lived on shore for a little while, in some obscure fishing village, where there was no one from England to ask who we were. We spent one long winter coasting about between Alde's years and Tunis. I could hardly believe that it was winter in that world of purple sea and sky and almost perpetual sunshine. We spent half a year among the Greek islands. We stayed at Constantinople and sailed from there to Naples. It was at Naples, I caught a fever and lay ill on board the yacht. It was a tedious illness, a long night of darkness and delirium. When I recovered Colonel Tremaine was gone. He had left the yacht on the first day of my unconsciousness,

Starting point is 14:39:38 leaving me in charge of his sister of mercy and three sailors. He had sold the yacht, which was to pass into the new owner's possession as soon as I was strong enough to go on shore. He left me a letter, telling me that he had deposited fifty pounds for me at the English bankers where he had been in the habit of cashing checks. I had been at the bank with him on more than one occasion. He advised me to stay in the south and get a situation as governess in an Italian family. He was obliged to go back to England on account of monetary difficulty.

Starting point is 14:40:08 but he hoped to be able to meet me later. He did not even take the trouble to tell me where a letter would find him. He had abandoned me at the beginning of a dangerous illness, left me to live or die, friendless in a foreign land. End of Chapter 15. Volume 2, Chapter 16 of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Bratton. This Lieber-Vox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 16 that depend on greatness favor dream as I have done, wake, and find nothing. Lord Chariton heard this story of his daughter's fate in silence. It was an old and a common story, and any words of reprobation uttered now would have

Starting point is 14:40:58 seemed a mockery from the lips of the father who had allowed his daughter's seducer to go unpunished. What did you do in your loneliness? he asked after a pause. I wandered from village to village for some months living as the peasants live. I did not take Colonel Tremaine's advice and offer myself as a teacher of youth. I did not try to enter a respectable home under a false character. I lived among peasants and as they lived and my money lasted a long time. I had always been fond of needlework, so I bought some materials before I left Naples

Starting point is 14:41:29 and I used to sit in the olive woods or by the seashore, making baby linen which I was able to dispose of when my wanderings brought me to Genoa, where I lived in a garret all through the winter after my illness. I remained in Italy for more than a year, and then my heart sickened of the beauty of the sea and the sky, the streets of palaces, the orange groves, and olive woods, the bright monotony of loveliness. Some of my own misery seemed to have mixed itself with all that was loveliest in that southern world, and I felt as if gray skies and dull streets would be a relief to me. So I came to London, and found this lodging, and have managed to live as you see ever since.

Starting point is 14:42:06 I have no wish to live any better. I have only one friend in the world. I have no desire to change. If my mother cared for me and wanted me, I would go to her, which she never wanted me in the past, and I doubt if she will ever want me in the future. Your mother is a most unhappy woman, mercy, and she has made her unhappiness a part of my life and a part of other lives.

Starting point is 14:42:27 She left her home this morning alone, without giving anyone notice where she was going or why she was going. I am full of fear about her. My only hope was to find her here. and not having found her here what are you going to do where will you look for her i don't know i am altogether at fault she had no friends in london or anywhere else she had isolated herself most completely at charitin she was respected but she made no friends how could she make friends in a place where her old existence was a secret ah mercy have compassion upon me in my trouble give me something of a child's love for the burden of my sin is too heavy for me to bear. He sank into a chair, covering his face with his hands, and she knew that the strong man was crying like a child. Her heart was touched by his distress, as a woman, if not as a

Starting point is 14:43:20 daughter. I am sorry for you in your trouble, she said in a low voice, and I would gladly help you if I could. But I cannot forget my mother's broken heart, the slow torture of long years. I had to look on and see her suffer, not even knowing the cause of her sorrow, utterly unable to comfort her. Sorrow had hardened her. She was hard to me, a hard-to-ask mistress rather than a mother. And now you tell me she has gone away

Starting point is 14:43:47 no one knows where. What can I do to help you and her? God knows if you can do anything, Mercy, he answered, looking up at her gently, relieved somewhat by those unaccustomed tears. He took her hand which she did not withhold from him. Sit down, Mercy, he said.

Starting point is 14:44:05 Sit here by my side, and let us consider calmly what we can do. Your mother has no friends to whom she could go, no one, unless it were Miss Newton. Miss Newton, cried Mercy. What does my mother know of Miss Newton? They were acquainted many years ago, but your mother would hardly go to her now.

Starting point is 14:44:24 My mother knew Miss Newton, my one friend. Yes, long ago. How did you come to know her? She sought me out. It is the business of her life to seek out those who have most need of her, to whom her friendship can do most good. She heard of me from a girl who lives in this house,

Starting point is 14:44:41 and she came to me and invited me to her lodgings and brightened my life by her kindness. And did she really know my mother years ago? Yes, more than thirty years ago when they were both young. How strange that is. I am thinking, Mercy. I am trying to think what refuge your mother could have found in London. Remember, I have to think of her as of one

Starting point is 14:45:03 who was scarcely accountable for her actions. I have to think of her as under the influence of one fixed idea, not governed by the same laws that govern other people. I am powerless to help you, answered mercy hopelessly. I will do anything you tell me to do, but of all people in this world I am least able to advise you. I know nothing of my mother's life except as I saw it at Chariton. One long weariness.

Starting point is 14:45:29 You shall know all by and by, all. I will stand before you as a. criminal before his judge. I will lay bare my heart to you as a penitent before his father confessor, and then, perhaps, when you have heard the whole story, you will take compassion upon me. You will understand how hard a part I had to play, and that I was not altogether vile. I will say no more about your life here and your future life as I would have it, until that confession has been made. Then it will remain for you to decide whether I am worthy to be treated in some wise as a father.

Starting point is 14:46:04 She sat in silence, with her head bent over her folded hands. He looked at the dejected droop of the head, the gray threads in the auburn hair, the hollow cheek, the attenuated features and wan complexion, and remembered how brilliant a creature she had been in the first bloom of her beauty, and, with what furtive apprehensive glances, he, her father, had admired that girlish face. She was handsomer in those days than ever her mother had been,

Starting point is 14:46:28 with a softer, more refined loveliness than the strength. rangway type. And he had let this flower grow beside his gate like a weed and be trampled underfoot like a weed. And now the face bore upon it all the traces of suffering. The lines about the mouth had taken the same embittered look that he remembered only too well in Evelyn Darcy, that look of silent protest against fate. He watched her for some minutes in an agony of remorse. She was his daughter, and it had been his duty to shelter her from the storms of life, and he had let the storms beat upon that undefended head. He had let her suffer as the nameless waifs of this world have to suffer uncared for, un avenged. If she should ever be brought to forgive him,

Starting point is 14:47:12 could he ever forgive himself? But he had nearer anxieties than these sad thoughts of that which might have been and that which was. He had the missing woman to think of, and the evil that might come to herself or others from her being at large. He had to speculate upon her motive in leaving Cheriton. Perhaps it was only a natural result of his interview with her yesterday afternoon when he had shown her the pistol and told her where it had been found, that pistol which he and she knew so well, one of a pair that had been in her husband's possession at the time of her marriage, which had been pledged while they were living in Essex Street, and when their funds were at the lowest. She had kept the duplicate, with other duplicates which Darcy's carelessness abandoned

Starting point is 14:47:53 to her, and afterwards some womanish apprehension of danger in the somewhat isolated cottage and Amberwell Grove, some talk of burglorious attacks in the neighborhood, had induced her to redeem the pistols, and they had been kept in their case on the table beside her bed for years. No burglar had ever troubled the quiet cottage, where there was neither plate chest nor a jewel case to tempt an attack. The pistols had never been used. They had been packed up with other things and stored in the Pentechnicon, and James Dobbroke had forgotten the existence of Captain Darcy's revolvers, till the builder's foreman showed him the pistol that had been found in the well. then there came back upon him in a flash the memory of the case that had stood beside his bed and the fact that the pistols had been sent down to chariton with mrs darcy's other goods that pistol could not have passed out of her possession without her knowledge and consent

Starting point is 14:48:44 if hers was not the hand that pulled the trigger she must at least have furnished the weapon and she must have known the murderer he told her as much as this yesterday afternoon when he showed her the pistol she heard him in a dogged silence looking at him with wide open eyes, in which the dilatation of the pupil never altered. She neither admitted nor denied anything. He could extort no answer from her except some scornful and evasive retort. And so he left her in despair, having warned her, that discovery was now a question of time. The finding of the pistol would put the police on the right track, and link by link, the chain of circumstantial evidence would be fitted together. You had better tell me the truth and let me help you if I can. He'd told her. She had acted upon his warning, perhaps, but without his help. It was like her perverse

Starting point is 14:49:36 nature to go out into the world alone, to make a mysterious disappearance just at the time when suspicion might at any moment be directed towards her, just when it was most essential that there should not be the slightest deviation from the sluggish course of her everyday life. Lord Chariton started up suddenly. Yes, that is at least an idea, he muttered. Goodbye, mercy. I have thought of a place where your mother might possibly go, a place associated with her past life. It is a forlorn hope, but I may as well look for her there. Wherever and whenever I find her, you will come to her, will you not, if she should need

Starting point is 14:50:12 your love? Of course I will go to her, and if she has no other shelter I can bring her here. I should not be afraid to work for her. It is cruel of you to talk of working for her. You know that the want of money has never been an element in her troubles. She might have lived an easy and refined life among Plains. people, if she would have been persuaded by me. As it was, I did what I could to make her life comfortable. Yes, I know she had plenty of money. She gave me expensive masters, as if she

Starting point is 14:50:40 had been a woman of fortune. I used to wonder how she could afford it. We lived very simply, almost like hermits, but there seemed always money for everything she wanted. Our clothes, our furniture, and books seemed far too good for our station. I used to wonder who and what we were, and I have been asked questions sometimes about my former home. What did I remember of my childhood? Where had I lived before my father died? I could tell people nothing. I only remembered a cottage among fields

Starting point is 14:51:12 and the faces of the woman who nursed me and her children who played with me. I remembered nothing but the cottage and the great cornfields and the lanes and hedge rose till one summer day my mother came in a carriage and took me on a journey by the railroad, a journey that lasted a long time. for we had to wait and change trains more than once,

Starting point is 14:51:31 and in the evening I found myself a chariton. That was all of my life that I could recall, and I did not even know the name of the woman with whom I lived till I was seven years old, or of the village near her cottage. You were hardly used, Mercy, but it was not all my fault. He would not tell her that it was his wish

Starting point is 14:51:50 to have her reared at Merchall Cottage, where he would have watched her infancy and childhood. He would not tell her that it was the mother's sensitiveness, her resentful consciousness of her false position which had banished the child. You will come to me whenever I summon you, mercy, he said. Yes, I will come. He held out his hand, and she gave him hers, which was cold as death. He drew her to his breast and kissed the pallid, care-worn forehead,

Starting point is 14:52:16 and so they parted, father and daughter, the daughter acknowledged for the first time at seven and twenty years of age. Lord Chariton hailed the first handsome he found upon his way and told the man to drive him to Camberwell Grove. The neighborhood through which he went was curiously unfamiliar after the changes and forgetfulness of twenty years, and yet it was curiously familiar to him

Starting point is 14:52:37 and brought back the memory of that dead time when a man who was himself, and yet not himself, had gone to and fro that road until its every shop front and every street corner seemed engraven upon his brain. It is a busy, teeming world,

Starting point is 14:52:51 a world of seething humanity, jostling, striving, anxious, hollow-cheeked, and eager-eyed. He had chosen to plant his hidden Eden upon the Surrey side, and had gone to and fro by that squalid highway with a contented spirit, because it was a world in which he was least likely to meet any of his professional brotherhood. What other barrister in decent practice, what other Queen's Council, above all, was likely to pitch his tent at Camberwell. There might be old-fashioned men who would be content to grow their early cucumbers and glowed

Starting point is 14:53:21 over their pines and peaches in some citizens' paradise on Clapham Common. There might be men who would resign themselves to life at Wandsworth, but where was the spirits so lowly within the precincts of the Lamb, who would stoop to live in a place which was accessible only by the elephant and castle, and the Walworth Road? Do not the very names of those places stink in the nostrils of gentility? The elephant has never held up his trunk since the glories of the Queen's bench departed, since Icobod was written on those walls against which Lord Hunting Tower played rackets,

Starting point is 14:53:53 and in whose shadow so many of Earth's great ones have paced up and down in the days when the noble debtor was till a person apart and distinguished, not amenable to the laws which govern the bankrupt trader. He had borne with the Walworth Road because it lay so far out of Gentility's track. The very odor of the neighborhood was familiar, the reek of cooked meats and stale vegetables blended with all pervading fumes of beer. But there were were numerous changes. He missed familiar shops and well-remembered features. All that had been shabby of old looked still shabbier today. How often he had trapped those pavements, economizing the cost of a cab, and not caring to rub shoulders with the ebuittes at the knife-board

Starting point is 14:54:35 on Atlas or Waterloo. The walk had suited him. He could think out the brief red overnight as he tramped to Westminster in the morning. How well he remembered the cool breath of the river blowing up the Westminster Road on Bright Spring Mornings, when the flower girls were offering violets and primroses on the street corners. How well he remembered the change to a cleaner and a statelyer world when he had crossed the bridge. The solemn grandeur of Westminster Hall, the close, sickly atmosphere of the crowded courts. Looking back, he wondered how he bore the monotony of that laborious life, forgetting that he had been born up and carried along by his ambition, always looking onward to the day when his name and fortune should be made, and he should taste the strong

Starting point is 14:55:17 strong wine of success. He remembered what an idle dream, Evelyn's idea of buying the chariotan estate had seemed to him when first she mooted it, how he had talked of it only to indulge her fancy, as one discusses impossible things with a child, and how, by slow degrees, the notion of its feasibility had crept into his mind, how he had begun to calculate the possibilities of his future savings, how he had covered stray half-sheets of paper with elaborate calculations, taking pleasure in the mere figures as if they were actual money. He remembered how, when he had saved five thousand pounds, a rabid eagerness to accumulate took hold of him, and with what keen eyes he used to look at the figures on a brief.

Starting point is 14:55:57 He had caught the infection of Evelyn's sanguine temper, and of Evelyn's parsimonious habits. They used to hang over his bankbook sometimes of an evening, as Paolo and Francesca hung over the story of Lancelot, calculating how much could be spared to be placed on deposit, how little they could contrive to live on for the next quarter. As the hoard increased, Evelyn grew to grudge herself the smallest luxury, a few flowering plants for the drying-room, a days higher of the job in Gardner, a drive-in-a-handsome to Richmond or Greenwich, little pleasures that had relieved the monotony of their isolation.

Starting point is 14:56:30 "'My father cannot live many years,' she told James Dalbrook, "'and when he dies the estate will have to be sold. I have often heard him say so.' Mr. Dalbrook went on a stolen journey to Chariton and saw every bit of the estate which you could get to see. He was careful to say nothing of this expedition to Evelyn lest she should want to go with him, as he felt that her presence would have been a difficulty. Someone might have recognized the squire's young daughter in the mature woman. He went back to London passionately in love with the property,

Starting point is 14:57:00 which he remembered as one of the paradises of his boyhood, in the days when he had been fond of long excursions on foot to Kof or Swanage or the Great Sunburne. hills by the sea. He saw charit and chase now with the entranced eyes of an ambitious man to whom territorial possessions seemed the crowning glory of life. He had saved 10,000 pounds, very little compared with the sum which would be required, but he told himself that when he had amassed another ten, he might feel secure being able to buy the estate, since it would be easy to raise 70% of the purchase money on mortgage. He began to see his way to the realization of that dream. He would have to go on living laborious days, to go on with those habits of self-denial

Starting point is 14:57:42 which had already become a second nature, even after the prize was won. But he saw himself the owner of that noble old house, amidst a park and woodland that were the growth of centuries, and he thought of the delight of restoring and improving and repairing after fifty years of slipshoded poverty and gradual decay. And now, as the hoard increased to twelve, fifteen, eighteen thousand, James Dalbrook began to talk to his companion of their future ownership of Chariton as a certainty. They planned the rooms they were to occupy. They allotted their small stock of furniture about the old mansion house, things they had bought by slow degrees in the happy hunting grounds of Warder Street and the Portland Road, and which were all good of their kind. They discussed the number of servants that they could manage to carry on with for the first few years,

Starting point is 14:58:29 while economy would still be needful. It was understood between them, though rarely spoken about, that Tom Darcy would be dead before that fruition of their dreams. He had been sent off to Canada, a broken man, who could doubt that a few years more would see the end of that worthless existence. And then the bond between those two who had held to each other so faithfully would be realized, and Evelyn could go back to the house in which she was born, its proud and happy mistress. She had fed upon those dreams, lived upon them,

Starting point is 14:59:00 had thought of little else in her solitary days in the isolation of her home, She had put away her child with stern resolve that no difficulty should arise out of that existence when she came to take her place in society as Jane Dalbrook's wife. She never meant to acknowledge the daughter born at Myrtle Cottage. She would do her duty to the child somehow, but not in that way. Lord Chariton remembered all these things as the cab rattled along the Walworth Road. Our waking thoughts have sometimes almost the rapidity of our dreams. He surveyed the panorama of the past. past, recalled the final bitterness of that meeting at Boulang when he went over to see Mrs.

Starting point is 14:59:39 Darcy, and when he had to tell her that he was master of charitin chase, by the help of his wife's dowry, and that he had begun life there on a far more dignified footing than they two had contemplated. She received the announcement with sullen silence, but he could see that it hurt her like the thrust of a sword. She stood before him with a lowering brow, white to the lips, her thin fingers twisting themselves in and out of each other with a convulsive movement, and one corner of the bloodless underlip caught under the sharp white teeth fiercely. "'Well,' she said at last, "'I congratulate you. Cheriton has a new master, and if the lady of the house is not the woman whose shadow I

Starting point is 15:00:18 used to see there in my dreams, it matters very little to you. You are the gainer in all ways. You have got the place you wanted, and a fair young wife instead of a faded, mistress.' She lifted up her eyes, pale, with anguish. and looked at him with an expression he had never been able to forget. He was silent under this thrust, and then, after a troubled pause, he asked her if she had made up her mind where her future days were to be spent. He was only desirous to see her settled in some pretty neighbourhood,

Starting point is 15:00:49 in the nicest house that she could find for herself, or that he could choose for her. Do not let money be any consideration, he said. My fees are rolling in very fast this year, and they are big fees. I want to see you happily circumstanced with, mercy. There is only one place I care to live in, she answered, and that is Chariton Chase. He told her, with a sad smile, that Chariton was the only place that was impossible for her. It is not impossible. Do you think I want to be a fine lady or to tell people that I was once

Starting point is 15:01:21 Evelyn Strangway? I only want to live upon the soil I love, and to see you sometimes as you go past my door. There is the West Lodge now, one of the most picturesque old cottages in English. i loved it when i was a girl sally newton and i used to picnic there when my father and i were not on speaking terms who is living in that cottage now one of the gardeners turn out the gardener and let me live there he rejected the idea as preposterous degrading that she should live at the lodge gates she who had once been the squire's daughter do not talk to me of degradation she answered bitterly there will be no degradation for me in living at your gates now that you and i are strangers my degradation belongs to the past nothing in the future can touch me i am nameless henceforward a nullity but if you should be recognized there who is there to recognize me do you think there is one line or one look of evelyn strangway's sixteen-year-old face left in my face to-day knowing the portrait in the hall at chariton he was vain to confess that the change was complete it would have been difficult for any one to find the lines of that proud young beauty in the care-worn features and sunken cheeks of the woman who stood before him now the months that had gone by since their parting had aged her as much as if they had been years if your husband should find you there not likely it is the very last place in which he would look for me and the chances are against his ever returning to england why is your mind set upon living a chariton why because i have dreamt and i have dreamt and

Starting point is 15:02:59 thought of that place till my love for it has become almost a disease, because I have not the faintest interest in any other spot upon earth. I don't care how I live there. I have no pride left in me. Pride, self-respect, care for myself died a sudden death one day you know of when I found that you had ceased to care for me, when I awoke from a long dream and knew that my place in life was lost. I shall be content to vegetate in that cottage. And, and if you think I to have mercy with me why mercy can be there too i shall be mrs jones or mrs brown and there can be no particular reason why mrs jones or mrs brown should not have a daughter she was so earnest so intent so resolute upon this and nothing else than this that he was constrained to yield to her wishes and once having yielded he did all in his power to make her life comfortable and free from humiliation he had the cottage as tastefully restored as if he had been going to occupy it himself he opened an account for Mrs. Porter at a Dorchester bank, and paid in four hundred pounds to her credit,

Starting point is 15:04:02 and he told her that the same amount would be paid in yearly on the first of January. There should be nothing uncertain or pinched in her circumstances. This being done, he resigned himself as best he might to bear the burden of that unwelcome presence at his gates. He and the woman who was to have been his wife rarely spoke to each other during those long, slow years in which the master of Chariton grew in honor and dignity and in the respect of his fellow men. He whose career Evelyn Darcy had watched from the very dawn of success was now a personage,

Starting point is 15:04:35 a man of Mark in his native country, a man who could afford to hold out the hand of friendship to his less distinguished relatives, and who could afford to confess himself the son of a small shopkeeper in the county town. Lady Chariton had been inclined to interest herself in the lonely woman at the West Lodge. She was impressed by the unmistakable refinement

Starting point is 15:04:54 of Mrs. Porter's appearance, and wanted to befriend her. but Lord Chariton had forbidden any friendly relations between his wife and the lodge-keeper, on the ground that she was a woman of very peculiar temper, that she would resent anything like patronage, and that she would infinitely prefer being left alone to being taken up or petted. The tender-hearted Maria, always submissive to the husband she adored, had obeyed without question. But some years later, when Mercy was growing up and being educated by the best masters available in the neighborhood, Lady Chariton had taken a fancy to the hard-worked girl, and had interested herself warmly in her

Starting point is 15:05:27 progress. And thus it had happened that although Mrs. Porter never was known to cross the threshold of the great house, her daughter went there often, and was made much of by Lady Chariton and admired by Juanita, whose accomplishments were still an embryo, while Mercy was far advanced in music and modern languages. I suppose her mother means her to go out as a governess by and by, Lady Chariton told her husband. She is overeducated for any other walk in life, and in any case she is overworked. I feel very sorry for her when I see how to tired she looks sometimes, and how anxious she is about her studies. Juanita must never be allowed to toil like that.

Starting point is 15:06:05 Lord Chariton remembered all that had happened with reference to the woman who called herself Mrs. Porter in all these long years, his daughter Juanita's lifetime. She had seen the funeral trains of his infant sons pass through the gate beside her cottage. She had seen the little coffins covered with snow-white flowers, and she must have known the bitterness of his disappointment. She had lived at the west lodge for all these years, and had made no sign of a rebellious heart, of anger, jealousy, or a revengeful feeling. He had believed that she was really content so to live, that in granting what she had asked of him he had satisfied her, and that her sense of wrong was

Starting point is 15:06:42 appeased. At first he had lived in feverish apprehension of some outbreak or scene, some revelation made to the wife he loved, or to the friends whose esteem he valued, but as the years went by, without bringing him any trouble of this kind, he had ceased to think with uneasiness of that sinister figure at his gates. And now, by the light of the hideous confession which he carried in his breast pocket, he knew that in all those years she had been cherishing her sense of wrong, heaping up anger and revenge and malice and every deadly feeling engendered of disappointed love against the day of wrath. Could he wonder if her mind had given way under that slow torture, until the concealed madness of years culminated in an act of wild revenge? A seemingly motiveless

Starting point is 15:07:25 crime. Heaven knows by what distorted reasoning she had arrived at the resolve to strike her deadly blow there rather than elsewhere. Heaven knows what sudden access of malignity might have been caused by the spectacle of the honeymoon lovers and their innocent bliss. The cab had turned into Camberwell Grove, and now he asked himself if it were not the wildest fancy to suppose that she might have gone back to Myrtle Cottage, or that she might be hanging about the neighborhood of her old home. The cottage was, as a little bit of her old home. The cottage was, all probability occupied, and even if she had wandered that way, she would most likely have come and gone before now. The idea had flashed into his mind as he sat in Mercy's room,

Starting point is 15:08:05 the idea that in her distracted state all her thoughts might revert to the past, and that her first impulse might lead her to revisit the house in which she had lived so long. End of Chapter 16. Volume 2, Chapter 17 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public. domain. Chapter 17. The love of these is like the lightning spear, and shrivels whom it touches. They consume all things within their reach, and, last of all, their lonely selves.

Starting point is 15:08:45 The cottage was to be let, a board offering it upon a repairing lease announced the fact. Lord Chariton opened the familiar gate. The very sound with which it swung back as he passed recalled a life that was gone, that had left nothing but an exceeding bitter sorrow. How weedy and dejected the narrow garden looked in the sunshine! How moss groan the gravel path which he and Evelyn had once taken such pains to weed and roll, in those early days when that modest suburban retreat seemed a happy home, and the demon of Henri had not darkened their threshold.

Starting point is 15:09:19 He entered the well-remembered porch over which the Virginia creeper hung in rank luxuriance. The house was not unoccupied, for a slipshod feet came along the passage of the sound of the bell, and he heard children's voices in the back premises. A slatternly woman with a year-old baby on her left arm opened the door. Has a lady called here this morning? he asked. Yes, sir, there is a lady here now in the drawing-room. The woman answered eagerly. I hope you belong to her, for I've been feeling a bit nervous about her

Starting point is 15:09:49 with me and the children alone in the house, and my husband not coming back till night-time. I'm afraid she's not quite right in her head. Yes, I belong to her. I have come to fetch her. he went into the drawing-room the room that had looked pretty and picturesque enough in those unforgotten days a small room furnished with quaint old secretaire and bookcase chippendale chairs and a carved oak table a pair of old blue and white jars on the top of a dark mahogany bureau a high brass fender that used to glitter in the firelight sober-brown damask curtains and half a dozen bartolotti engravings of rustic subjects in neat oval frames a room that always looked like a dutch picture now that room was a scene of squalor and desolation for furniture there was nothing but a shabby pembrook table wanting two casters and two old cane seated chairs in each of which the cane was broken and bulging a dilapidated doll in a ragged red gauze frock sprawled amidst the dirt on the bare floor and a greasy rug lay in front of the fireless hearth mrs porter was sitting with her elbows on the table and her head resting on her clasped hands she did not notice lord charred

Starting point is 15:10:59 approach till he was standing close beside her when she looked up at him at first her gaze expressed trouble and bewilderment then her face brightened into a quiet smile a look of long ago you are earlier than usual james she said holding out her hand he took her hand in his it was hot and dry as if with a raging fever it was the hand of a murderess but it was also the hand of his victim and he could not refuse to take it was your work over so soon to-day she asked i'm afraid it will be ever so long before dinner will be ready and the house is all in a muddle everything wretched looking about her with a puzzled air i can't think what has happened to the rooms she muttered servants are so troublesome she passed her hand across her forehead as if her head were painting her and then looked at him helplessly you are ill evelyn he said gently it was twenty years since he had called her by the name that had been so often on his lips in this house it was almost as if the very atmosphere of the house even in its desolation recalled the old link between them and made him forgetful of what had happened in dorsetcher no i have a headache that is all i shall set to work presently and make every comfortable for you only I can't find Mary I can't get on without Mary I don't like the look of that charwoman a wretched untidy creature and I don't know what she has done with the furniture I suppose she moved it in order to clean the rooms it is just

Starting point is 15:12:31 like their tricks clearing out the furniture and then doddling every so long before they begin to scrub the floors he looked at her earnestly wondering whether she was pretending whether she had repented that written acknowledgment of her crime and was simulating madness. No, it was real enough. The eyes, with their dull, fixed a look and dilated pupils, the troubled movements of the hands, the tremulous lips, all told of the unsettled brain. There was but one course before him, to get her madness established as an accepted fact

Starting point is 15:13:03 before there was any chance of her crime being discovered. Do not trouble about anything, he said gently. I will get some of the furniture brought back presently, and I will get you a servant. Will you wait quietly here, while I see about two or three small matters? Yes, I will wait, but don't be long. It seems such a long while since yesterday, she said, looking round the room in a forlorn way, and everything is so strangely altered. Don't be long if you must go out.

Starting point is 15:13:32 He promised to return in half an hour, and then he went out and spoke to the woman. How did she come here, and when? She walked up to the door. It was just dinner time, half past twelve o'clock. i thought it was someone to see the house so i let her in without asking any questions and i showed her all the rooms and it was some time before i saw she was wrong in her head she looked about her just as people mostly do look and she was very thoughtful as if she was considering whether the place would suit and then after she'd been a long time looking at the rooms and the garden she went back into the drawing-room and sat down at the table i told her i should be glad if she could make it convenient to leave as i had my washing to do but she said she lived here this was her home and she told me to go away and get on with my work she gave me such a scare that I didn't know how to answer her she spoke very mild and I could see she was a lady

Starting point is 15:14:25 but I could see she was out of her mind and that frightened me for fear she should take a violent turn and die all alone in the house with those young children I was afraid to contradict her so I just let her please herself and sit in the drawing-room alone while I got on with my bit of washing and kept the children well out of the way I never felt more thankful in my life than when you rang the bell i'm going as far as the post office to send off some telegrams and i want you to take care she doesn't leave this house while i'm away said lord chariton emphasizing his request with the sovereign thank you kindly sir i'll do my best i'm sure i'm sorry for her with all my heart poor dear lady and i want you

Starting point is 15:15:05 to give me the use of this house for today and possibly for tonight if by any chance i should not be able to get her away tonight. Yes, sir, you are free and welcome to the house as far as it's mind to give leave, and it's been empty too long for there to be much chance of a tenant turning up between now and tomorrow. Very good. Then I shall send in a little furniture, just enough to make her comfortable for a few hours, and when I come back you can get her something to eat and make her some tea. Yes, sir. You won't be gone long, I hope, for fear she should turn violent. She will not do that. She has never been violent. I am very glad to hear that.

Starting point is 15:15:42 Appearances are so deceitful sometimes when folks are wrong in their heads. Lord Chariton had told the cabman to wait. He got into the cab and drove to the nearest upholsterers where he hired a table, a comfortable sofa, a couple of chairs, a small square carpet, and some pillows and blankets in the event of Mrs. Porter having to bivouac in Myrtle Cottage. He meant her only to leave that shelter for a place of restraint under medical care. This done, he went to the post office and telegraphed first to Marion Gray, Hercules

Starting point is 15:16:13 buildings. Your mother is at Myrtle Cottage, Camberwell Grove, and very ill. Go to her without delay. Chariton. His second telegram was to Dr. Mainwaring, Welbeck Street. Meet me as soon as possible at Myrtle Cottage, Camberwell Green, and send a trained nurse, experienced in mental cases to the same address. I want your advice upon a case in which time is of vital importance. he sent another telegram to another medical man dr wilmot also an old acquaintance and a fourth to theodore dalbrook at the priory mrs porter is in london and in my care you need have no further apprehension he was back at myrtle cottage within the half-hour and was able to direct the men who had just brought a small van containing the furniture he saw the things carried into the room that had been the dining-room which was empty the policeman's family preferring to camp in the kitchen and had them arranged there with some appearance of comfort. Then he went back to the drawing-room

Starting point is 15:17:11 where Mrs. Porter was standing at the window, staring at the weeping ash. I didn't know the tree was so big, she muttered. The dining-room is in better order, he said gently. Will you come and sit there while you get you some tea?

Starting point is 15:17:25 Yes, James, she answered meekly, and then she added, with almost the voice and manner of twenty years ago. Tell me about your day? She followed him into the other room and seated herself opposite him, him, looking at him expectantly. Tell me about your day in the law courts.

Starting point is 15:17:42 Was it dull or interesting? Had you any great case on? I forget. I forget. She had always questioned him on his return from the law courts. She had read the reports of all his cases and all his rival's cases interesting herself in everything that concerned his career.

Starting point is 15:17:59 And now there was so much of the past in her manner that his heart ached as he listened to her. He could not humor her delusion. i have sent for your daughter he said gravely thinking that name might bring her back to a sense of the present time she will be here before long i believe i hope you will receive her kindly why have you sent for her she cried vexed and startled she is very well where she is happy and well the nurse told me so in her last letter i can't have her here you know that james you know how people would talk by and by and how they would ferret out the truth by and by when we want to stand clear of the past evelyn the past is long past and our child is a woman a sorrowful woman i want you to take her to your heart again if you have any heart left in you i have not she cried with a sudden change appalling in its instantaneously my heart died within me twenty years ago when you broke it in this house yes in this house james dalbroke god help me i have been dreaming i thought i was living here again in the old time and that you had come home to me as you used to come before you broke your promise and abandoned me to marry a rich young wife heart no i have a fiery scorpion here where my heart used to be

Starting point is 15:19:22 do you think if i had had a heart i could have killed him that young man who never injured me by so much as one scornful word it was the thought of your daughter that maddened me the thought of her happiness the sound of the church bells and the cheering and the sight of the flags and garlands and laurel arches while my daughter your nameless unacknowledged child was an outcast and i who should have been your wife and the happy mother of just as happy a bride i was living in that silent solitary cottage alone and unloved upon the land where my father and his forefathers had been owners of the soil i had dreamed the dream and you had realized it all through those moonlight nights i was awake and roaming about in the park from midnight till dawn thinking thinking thinking till i felt as if my brain must burst with the agony of thought and then i remembered tom darcy's pistols and i took one of them with me of a night i hardly knew why i carried that pistol about with me but i felt a necessity to kill something once i was near shooting one of the red deer but the creature looked at me with its plaintive eyes so bold and so tame in his sense of security, and I fondled him instead of killing him. And then I took to prowling about by the house, and I saw those two in the lamplit room in their wedded happiness. Their wedded happiness, James, not such a union as ours, secret,

Starting point is 15:20:48 darkened by a cloud of shame. I saw your daughter in her bright young beauty, the proud, triumphant wife, and then a devilish thought took hold of me, the thought of seeing her widowed, broken-hearted. the thought that I might be her evil destiny, that just by stretching out my arm and pulling a trigger I could bring down all that pride into the dust, could bring youth and beauty down to my level of dull despair. It was a devilish thought.

Starting point is 15:21:17 It was, but it was my thought all the same. For three days and three nights it was never absent from my mind. God knows how I got through the common business of the day, how the few people with whom I came in contact, did not see murder in my face. I watched and waited for my opportunity, and when the moment came I did not waver.

Starting point is 15:21:39 There are old people at Chariton who could tell you that Evelyn Strangway at fifteen years old was as good a shot as either of her brothers. My hand had not forgotten its cunning, and your daughter was a widow three weeks after she was made a wife. By so much as she was happier than I,

Starting point is 15:21:56 by so much was her joy briefer than mine. She sank into her. a corner of the large armchair and covered her face with her hands muttering to herself. He heard the words, I made myself her evil destiny. I was her fate. Nemesis, nemesis, the sins of the fathers, it is the scripture. He could not stay in the room with her after that confession. She had been perfectly coherent in telling the story of her crime, and it seemed to him that even now she gloated over the evil she had wrought, that had it been, in her power to undo her work by the lifting of her hand, she would hardly have used that power.

Starting point is 15:22:36 She seemed a malignant spirit, rejoicing in evil. He went out into the passage and told the policeman's wife to look after her, and then he went to the desolate drawing-room and walked up and down the bare boards, waiting for the arrival of one or both of the doctors. What would they think of her mental condition? She had been curiously coherent just now. The temporary delusion had passed away like a cloud. she had spoken as a person fully conscious of her acts and accountable for them.

Starting point is 15:23:05 Judged by her speech just now, she was a criminal who deserved the sternest measure of the law. But he who knew of those long years of brooding, he who knew the story of her wrongs, and how those wrongs must have acted upon that proud and stubborn spirit, to him there seemed little doubt that her mind had long lost its balance, and that her crime had been the culminating crisis of a long period of melancholia. He waited the verdict of the doctors with the cutest anxiety, for only in an asylum did he see safety for this unhappy sinner. The finding of the pistol would inevitably be talked about at Chariton,

Starting point is 15:23:40 and it was possible that at any moment's suspicion might take the right direction. To get her away, to get her hidden from the world was his most ardent desire, but this was not inconsistent with his desire to spare her to do the best that could be done for her. The thought that he had ruined her life, that his wrongdoing was at the root of all her miseries, was never absent from his mind. Dr. Mainwaring was the first to arrive. He was a man of supreme refinement, gentle, compassionate,

Starting point is 15:24:09 an artist by talent and temperament, intellectual to the tips of his fingers. He had made insanity and the care of the insane the work of his life, as his father and grandfather had done before him, and he enjoyed the privilege of having been born in an age of enlightenment, which they had not even foreseen in their happiest anticipations. He had met Lord Chariton often in like, and had visited him in the country, and they were as close friends as too busy men of the world can be. He was mystified by so sudden a summons and to such a locality, but he had

Starting point is 15:24:40 too much tact to betray any surprise. He listened quietly to Lord Chariton's explanation that he was wanted to form an opinion of a dependent whose state of mind had given him cause for uneasiness. I will say very little about her till you have seen her, said Chariton, if it should appear to you and to my friend Wilmot whom I have asked to meet you, If you should decide that she ought to be placed under restraint, I should wish her to be removed immediately to your house at Chesshunt. I know that she will be made as happy there as her state of mind will admit, and I shall rely upon your kind consideration for making this a special case.

Starting point is 15:25:15 You may be assured I shall do my uttermost for anyone in whom you are interested, my dear chariton, but indeed I think you must know that I do my uttermost in every case. It is only in some small details that I can ever show special attention. Is this poor lady very violent? No, she is very quiet. And there is no suicidal mania, I hope. I have seen no evidence of it, which she left her home in a strange and motiveless manner this morning,

Starting point is 15:25:41 and that, coupled with other indications in the past, gave me the alarm. Has she any delusions? Yes, it was under a delusion that she came to this empty house. She lived here many years ago, and on talking to her just now I found her unconscious of the lapse of time and fancying that all things were still as they were when she was a young woman. Has she had any illness lately? None that I know of.

Starting point is 15:26:06 I fear there can be little doubt as to her malady. Will you take me to her? She will be less alarmed if you are with me. Oh, by the by, the nurse you asked for will be here almost immediately. I am glad of that. There is only a wretched slatter in the house whom I don't like to see in attendance upon my poor friend. Lord Chariton and the doctor went into the room where Mrs. Porter was sitting facing the window, staring moodily at the trailing tendrils of Virginia Creeper,

Starting point is 15:26:33 and a passion flower hanging from the roof of the veranda and shutting out the light. There was something unspeakably desolate in that glimpse of neglected garden seen Athwart, the neglected verger, with the smoky London sky as a background. She looked round quickly at the sound of footsteps and started up from her chair. "'Who is this man?' she asked. turning to Lord Sheraton. Are you going to send me to prison? You have lost no time. This gentleman is my old friend, and he is interested in helping you if he can. You had better leave us together, said Dr. Mainwaring gently.

Starting point is 15:27:09 Lord Chariton left the room silently and paced the narrow entrance hall, listening with intense anxiety to the low murmuring sound of voices on the other side of the door. There were no loud tones from either speaker. There could be neither anger nor a profound agitation upon Mrs. Porter's side, the listener thought, as he awaited the result of the interview. A knock at the hall door startled him from his expectancy, and he hastened to admit the new arrival. It was his other medical friend, Dr. Wilmot, stout and jovial, more adapted to assist at a wedding than a funeral, more fitted to prescribe from wine-bibbing aldermen or dowagers who needed to be kept up on Roderre or Mum than to stand beside the bed of agony or listening

Starting point is 15:27:51 to the ravings of a mind distraught. Mainewaring came out of the dining room at the sound of voices in the hall. Ah, how do you do, Wilmot? You will have very little trouble in making up your mind about this bore soul. Go in and talk to her while I take a turn in the garden with his lordship. He opened the dining-room door and Dr. Wilmot passed in, smiling, agreeable, and beginning at once in an oily voice. My dear lady, my friend Mainwaring suggests that I should have a little chat with you while. while Lord Chariton and he are admiring the garden. A very nice garden upon my word for the immediate vicinity of London.

Starting point is 15:28:29 One hardly expects such a nice bit of ground nowadays. May I feel your pulse? Thanks. A little too rapid for perfect health. What do you and that other man mean by all this pretense? She exclaimed indignantly. I am not ill. Are you a doctor or a policeman in disguise? If you want to take me to prison, I am ready to go with you,

Starting point is 15:28:50 I came to London on purpose to give myself up. You need not beat about the bush. I am ready. Mad, very mad, thought Dr. Wilmot, detaining the unwilling wrist, and noting its tumultuous pulsations by the second hand of his professional watch. Lord Chariton and Dr. Mainwaring were pacing slowly up and down the moss-grown gravel while this was happening. How did you find her?

Starting point is 15:29:15 Curiously call Mant collected with the first part of the interview. Had it not been for her troubled eye and the nervous movements of her hands, I should have supposed her as sane as you or I. I talked to her of indifferent subjects, and her answers were consecutive and reasonable, although it was evident she resented my presence. It was only when I asked her why she had come to London that she became agitated and incoherent, and began to talk about having committed a murder, and wishing to give herself up and make a full confession of her guilt.

Starting point is 15:29:45 Instead of waiting for the law to find her out, she was going to find the law. she had no fear of the result she had long been tired of her life and she was not afraid of the disgrace of a felon's death her whole manner as she said this showed a deep-rooted delusion and i am of opinion that her mind has been unhinged for a long time that notion of an imaginary crime is often a fixed idea in lunacy a madman will conceive a murder that never took place or he will connect himself with some actual murder and insist upon his guilt often with an extraordinary appearance of a man will conceive of murder that never took place or he will connect himself with some actual murder and insist upon his guilt often with an extraordinary appearance of of truth and reality until he is shaken by severe cross-examination. You will receive her in your house at once? I have no objection, if Wilmot's opinion coincides with mine, but another medical man must sign the certificate if she is to enter my house. I have no doubt as to her being in a condition to require restraint.

Starting point is 15:30:39 She is not violent at present, but if she is not taking care of, she will go wandering about in search of a police magistrate, and with increasing excitement there will be every likelihood of acute mania. Ah, here comes Wilmot. Well, what do you think of the case, Wilmot? Mad, undeniably mad. She took me for a policeman, and raved about a murder for which she wanted to give herself up to justice.

Starting point is 15:31:04 A fixed delusion, you see, said Mainwaring with a gentle sigh. Do you know how long she has had this idea, Chariton? Indeed, I do not. Her position on my estate was a peculiar one. She lived at one of the lodges, but her status was not. not that of an ordinary dependent. She was her own mistress and lived a very solitary life, after her daughter left her. I have sent for the daughter, who will be here presently, I hope. My first notice of anything amiss was a hint dropped by a young medical man who was visiting

Starting point is 15:31:34 at Chariton. He saw Mrs. Porter and formed the opinion that she either had been off her head in the past or was likely to go off her head in the future. That startled me, and I had it in my mind to ask you to come down to see her, mainwaring, when there came the sudden departure of this morning, a departure which was so at variance with her former habits that it made me anxious for her safety. I followed her to London, first to her daughter's lodging, and then here, whereby mere guesswork I found her. Do you think that it may be the sad event of last year, the murder of your son-in-law which has put this notion into her head? It is not unlikely. That dreadful event made a profound impression upon everybody at Chariton. She, being a

Starting point is 15:32:16 reserved and thoughtful woman may have brooded over it. Until she grew to associate herself with the crime, said Wilmot. Nothing more likely. Was the murderer never found, by the way? Never. But there can be no suspicion against this lady, I conclude. She can have been in no way concerned in the crime. I think you only have to look at her in order to be satisfied upon that point,

Starting point is 15:32:39 said Lord Chariton, and the two physicians agreed that the poor lady in question was not of the criminal type, and that nothing was more. common in the history of mental aberration than the hallucination to which she was a victim. Those monotonous lives of anuitance and genteel dependence, exempt from labor, and to the outward eye full of placid contentment, do not infrequently tend towards madness, said Dr. Wilmot. I have seen more than one such case as this. There are some minds that have no need of action or variety, some natures which can vegetate in harmless nullity. There are other tempers which prey upon themselves in solitude, and brood upon pansies till they lose touch of realities.

Starting point is 15:33:20 This lady is of the latter type, highly organized, sensitive to a marked degree of the genus irritable. You will take all necessary steps at once, said Lord Chariton, looking from one doctor to the other. Both were consensient. Dr. Wilmot drove off at once to find the nearest medical man and brought him back in his carriage. A very brief interview with the patient convinced this gentleman of the necessary.

Starting point is 15:33:44 necessity for gentle restraint, and the certificate was signed by him and Dr. Wilmot. It was six o'clock, and the shadows were deepening in the room where Mrs. Porter was sitting, quiescent, silent, in a kind of apathy from which she was scarcely roused by the entrance of the nurse from Chesshunt, a tall, comely-looking woman of about thirty, neatly dressed and with pleasant manners. Mrs. Porter sat there in her dull lethargy, the food that had been prepared for her untasted at her side. The nurse looked at the patient, with a keen, professional eye, and from the patient to the tray where an ill-cooked chop stagnated in a pool of grease, and where the unused teacup showed that even the feminine refreshment of tea had failed to tempt her.

Starting point is 15:34:24 "'She hasn't eaten anything,' said the nurse, and she looks weak and wasted, as if she had been for a long time without food. You'd better send for some beef essence and a little brandy. She ought to be kept up somehow if she is to be taken to chess hunt to-night. It will be a long drive.' Lord Sheraton dispatched the policeman's wife to the nearest chemist, and the nearest wine merchants, while he went himself to a livery stable and ordered a brewham and pair to be at Merrill Cottage at seven o'clock. The certificate had been signed, and there was

Starting point is 15:34:54 nothing to hinder the removal of the patient. He found mercy with her mother upon his return, but the mother had given no sign of recognition, and the daughter, sorrowfully acknowledged the necessity of the case after Dr. Mainwaring had gently explained her mother's condition to her. "'I am not surprised,' she said with sad submission. "'I saw it coming years ago.' i have lain awake many a night when i was a girl listening to her footsteps as she walked up and down her bedroom and to the heart-broken sigh that she gave every now and then in the dead of the night when she thought there was no one to hear her an hour later the woman who for twenty years had been known as mrs porter and who was to carry that name to her dying day was on her way to the grange chesunt with her daughter and the nurse in the carriage with her she had made no resistance had gone where she was asked to go with an apathetic indifference had given no trouble but although her daughter had been with her for an hour doing all that tender

Starting point is 15:35:49 attention could do to awaken her memory there had been not a word or a look from the mother to be token consciousness of her existence yet it was clear that the mental powers were only clouded not extinguished for as Lord Chariton stood a little way outside the porch watching her as she passed out to the carriage she stopped suddenly and looked at him will you and I ever meet again James Dalbrook she asked solemnly he paled at the the address in those clear incisive tones, dreading what she might say next. I think it may be better we should not meet, he said gloomily.

Starting point is 15:36:23 I have placed you in the care of those who will do the best that can be done for you. You are sending me to a mad house in the care of a mad doctor. That is your substitute for Chariton Chase, the home I used to dream about ages ago in this house, the home you and I were to have shared as man and wife. It was my birthplace, James, and I would to God it had been my grave before I ever looked upon your face. The nurse hustled her charge into the carriage, muttering something about delusions, but Dr. Mainwaring was too shrewd a student of humanity not to perceive some meaning in these consecutive

Starting point is 15:36:58 utterances. He had no doubt that Mrs. Porter was deranged, and a person who would be the better for the moderate restraint of a well-ordered asylum, but he had also no doubt that she had her lucid intervals, and that in this farewell speech she had let in the light upon her past relations with James Dalbrook, First Baron Chariton. That revelation accounted for some points in the law lord's conduct, which had hitherto been incomprehensible to his friend the doctor. End of Chapter 17.

Starting point is 15:37:33 Volume 2, Chapter 18 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 18 Mine After Life What is Mine After Life? My day is closed. the gloom of night has come. A hopeless darkness settles over my fate.

Starting point is 15:37:55 It seemed to Lord Chariton as he drove to Victoria Street in Dr. Mainwaring's Brougham that the day which had just come to an end had been the longest day of his life. He looked back at the sunny morning hour in which he had lingered over the business of the toilette, brooding upon that discovery of the pistol. His spirits weighed down by a vague foreboding, a dim horror of approaching evil, scarcely able to measure the extent of his own fears. He recalled the moment at which his valet brought him Theodore's brief summons to the West Lodge,

Starting point is 15:38:23 a moment that had given new reality to all he dreaded, a summons which told him that the shadowy horror which had been beside his pillow all through the night was going to take a tangible shape. Oh, God, how long it seemed since that penciled line was put into his hand, since he stood in the blinding sunshine staring at the Kurtz summons, before he recovered himself so far as to turn to his servant with his habitual grave authority, and give some trivial order about his overcoat. Since then, what slow agonies of apprehension, what self-abasement before the daughter whom he met for the first time as his daughter,

Starting point is 15:38:58 face to face? What terror lest the woman whom his perfidy had driven to madness and to crime should be called upon to answer to the law for that crime, while England should ring with the story of his treachery and his hidden sin? He felt as if he had lived through half a lifetime of shame and agony between the vivid light of the August morning and the cool gray shadows of the August night. He leant back in his corner of the cozy little broom, pale and dumb, a worn-out man, and his friend the physician respected his silence.

Starting point is 15:39:29 "'Will you come and dine with me, Chariton?' said Dr. Mainwaring as they crossed the bridge. "'It may be pleasanter for you than the solitude of your own rooms.' "'You are very good. No, I am not fit for society, not even for yours. I am deeply indebted to you. I feel that you are indeed, my friend, and that you will do all that can be done to make that broken life yonder and durable. You may be sure of that.

Starting point is 15:39:53 I would do as much were Mrs. Porter a nameless waif whom I had found by the roadside, but as your friend she will have an unceasing interest for me. Shall you stay long enough in town to be able to spare time to go and see her at the Grange? No, I must go back to Dorsetshire to-morrow. I doubt if I shall ever see her again. except that fact as the strongest proof of my confidence in you. Had I any doubt as to her treatment, I would see her from time to time at whatever cost of pain to myself. There is nothing but pain, then, in your present feeling about that poor lady.

Starting point is 15:40:25 Nothing but pain. And yet, forgive me if I touch an old wound, I think you must have once loved her. The shadows were deepening, the lamps shone with faint yellow light upon the greystone parapet, and the interior of the carriage was very dark. perhaps it was the darkness which emboldened dr mainwaring to push his inquiry to this point you are right his friend answered slowly i loved her once the broom stopped at his lordship's door in victoria street and then drove northwards with the physician there was time for much serious reflection between westminster and wellbeck street my new patient must be carefully looked after used the doctor for i'm afraid there's more meaning in herself accusation than they're generally is in such cases, and that Sir Godfrey Carmichael's murderer is now in my keeping. The long August day pass very quietly at Millbrook Priory.

Starting point is 15:41:21 Lady Chariton arrived in the afternoon and the three generations spent the summer hours on the lawn, mother and daughter sitting at work under the tulip trees, grandson and nurse in that state of perpetual motion, which is infancy's only alternative with perpetual slumber. Theodore spent his afternoon in a somewhat restless fashion and appeared as if possessed by a rage for locomotion. He rambled about the grounds, explored the shrubberies, and every yard of the plantation that girdled the little park. He went to both lodges and talked to the caretaker at each. He made two different excursions to the village on pretense of making inquiries at the post-office,

Starting point is 15:41:58 but in reality with the idea of meeting with or hearing of Mrs. Porter, should she have wandered that way. He behaved like a member of the secret police who had been charged with the guardianship of the most precious life in the land, and if his mother, movements betrayed the nervous anxiety of the amateur, rather than the business-like tranquility of the professional, he made up in earnestness for what he lacked in training and experience. It was on his return from his second sauntering perambulation of the village that he found Lord Chariton's telegram waiting for him at the priory. The relief that message brought was unspeakable, and his countenance showed the change

Starting point is 15:42:32 in his feelings when he rejoined the two ladies on the lawn. "'Something very pleasant must have happened to you, Theodore,' said Juanita. I've been looking the picture of gloom all day, and now you are suddenly radiant. Have you been talking to one of the vicar's pretty daughters? No, Juanita. Neither of those wax doll beauties glorified my path. I heard their treble voices on the other side of the holly hedge as I passed the vicarage, and I'm afraid they were quarrelling.

Starting point is 15:42:58 I have had good news from London. From my father? Yes. Oh, Theodore, why do you torture me by hiding things from me? Something has happened, I know. You will know all in a few days. days, Juanita. Thank God, a great fear that has haunted me for some time past is now at an end. I can look at you and your child without seeing the shadow of an enemy across your path.

Starting point is 15:43:22 She looked at him searchingly. All this amounts to nothing, she said. I have never feared for myself or thought of myself. Will my husband's death be avenged, and soon, soon, soon? That is the question. That is a question which you yourself may be called upon to answer, and very soon, he said. He would say no more, in spite of her feverish eagerness, her impatient questionings. I have changed my mind, Juanita, he said presently. I will not bore you with my company till I am free to answer your questions. The motive for my presence in this house is at an end.

Starting point is 15:43:58 Is it? What has become of the suspicious characters my father talked about? The danger has not come this way, as he feared it might. Stay, she said. Whether there is danger or not you are going to stay. I will not be played fast and loose with by any visitor. Mother likes to have you here, and baby likes you. Not so well as he likes Cuthbert Ramsey, retorted Theodore with almost involuntary bitterness.

Starting point is 15:44:23 This time, Juanita's blush was an obvious fact. She walked away from her cousin indignantly. You may go or stay as you please, she said, and he stayed. Stayed to be a footstool under her feet if she liked. Stayed with a heart nod by jealousy, consumed by. despair. It is useless. Hopeless beyond the common measure of hopelessness, he told himself. She never cared for me in the past, and she never will care for me in the future. I am doomed to stand forever upon the same dull plain of affectionate indifference.

Starting point is 15:44:57 If I were dangerously ill, she would nurse me. If I were in difficulties, she would load me with benefits. If I were dead, she would be sorry for me. But she is fonder of Ramsey, whom she has seen half a dozen times in her life. than she will ever be of me. Lord Chariton returned to Dorsetshire on the following afternoon. He drove from Wareham to the priory and had along Taitate with Theodore in the garden before dinner. You have acted for my daughter throughout this miserable business,

Starting point is 15:45:25 he said, when he had told all that was to be told about Mrs. Porter's seclusion at Chesshunt. She has confided in you more completely even than in me, her father, and I leave my cause in your hands. You must plead to the daughter for the airing father whose sin has exercised a fatal influence upon her life. Win her forgiveness for me. Win her pity for that most unhappy woman, if you can.

Starting point is 15:45:47 It is a difficult task which I entrust to you, Theodore, but I believe in your power to move that generous heart to mercy. You may believe in my devotion to you both, said Theodore, and Lord Chariton left the priory without seeing his wife and daughter, who had gone to dress for dinner just before his arrival, and, who came to the drawing-room presently, both expecting to find him there. Theodore explained as hasty departure as best he might. Your father drove over to speak to me upon a matter of business, he said to Juanita.

Starting point is 15:46:15 He was tired after his journey and preferred going home to dine. He was not ill, I hope, cried Lady Chariton with a look of alarm. No, there is nothing amiss with him except fatigue. Juanita looked at him intently, eager to question him, but the butler's entrance to announce dinner stopped her, and she told Theodore to give his arm to her mother and follow them both to the dining-room. The meal was a mockery as far as two out of the three were concerned. Juanita was nervous and ill at ease, impatient of the lengthy ceremonial.

Starting point is 15:46:46 Theodore ate hardly anything, but kept up a slipshod conversation with Lady Chariton, talked about the grandchild's abnormal intelligence, and assured her in reply to her reiterated inquiries that her husband was not ill, was not even looking ill, and that there was no reason for her to go back to the chase that night as she was disposed to do. Juanita rose abruptly before the grapes and peaches had been taken round. Would you mind coming to my room at once, Theodore, she said. I want half an hour's talk with you about business. You will excuse my leaving you, won't you, mother?

Starting point is 15:47:19 My dear child, I shall be glad to get half an hour in the nursery. Boyle tells me that little rascal is never so lively as just before he settles down for the night. Lady Chariton went off in one direction, Juanita and Theodore, in the other. The lamp was lighted in the study on the table where two rows of books told of the widow's studious solitude. Theodore glanced at the titles of those neatly arranged volumes

Starting point is 15:47:42 and saw that they were mostly upon scientific subjects. I did not know that you were fond of science, Juanita, he said. I am not. I used to hate it. I am as ignorant as a baby. I don't believe I know any more about the moon than Juliet did when she accused it of inconstancy. Only, when one comes to my age,

Starting point is 15:48:01 one ought to improve oneself. Godfrey will be asking me questions before I am much older, and when he wants to know whether the earth goes round the sun or the sun round the earth, I must be prepared to answer him. She spoke with a nervous air, facing him in the soft, clear lamplight, her hand upon the row of books, her eyes eager and questioning. You have seen my father, Theodore. Is the embargo removed? It is. And you know who murdered my husband? So far as the assassin's own confession is to be believed, yes. He has confessed. He is in prison. He will be hanged, she cried breathlessly. The murderer has confessed, but is not in prison, and will not be hanged. At least I trust not

Starting point is 15:48:44 in God's mercy. You are full of pity for a murderer, Theodore, she cried bitterly. Have you no pity for my husband? Is his death to go unpunished? Is his life, the life that might have been as long as it was happy? Is that to count for nothing? It is to count for much, Juanita. Believe me, your husband is avenged. His death was a sacrifice to a broken heart and a disordered brain. The hand that killed him is the hand of one who cannot be called to account. The hand of a mad woman. A woman? Yes, a woman. The woman you have seen many a time as you passed in and out of chariot and chase in your father's carriage by the Westgate. Mrs. Porter? Yes. Great God. Why did she kill my husband? Because she was

Starting point is 15:49:31 unhappy, because she had suffered until sorrow had obscured her intellect, till her life had become one long thirst to do evil, one hatred of youth and beauty, and innocent gladness like yours. She saw you in your wedded happiness, and she thought of a happiness which was once her own daydream, the hope and dream of patient self-denying years. She struck at you through your husband. She struck at your father, through you. My father? What was he to her, ever, except a friend and benefactor. He was once more than that to Evelyn Strangway. Strangway! shrieked Juanita, clasping her hands.

Starting point is 15:50:13 Did I not tell you so from the first? It was the footstep of a Strangway that crept past our window while we sat together in our happiness without thought of peril. It was a Strangway who killed my husband. You told me that they were all dead and gone, that the race was extinct, that the people I feared were phantoms. i told you it was a strangway who fired that shot and you see my instinct was truer than your reason and there was a strangway at our gates disguised under a false name looking at us with smooth hypocritical smiles nursing her wrath to keep it warm unhappily your instinct hit upon the fatal truth the hatred of the strangways was not dead one member of that family survived and cherished a more than common malignity against the race that had blotted out the old name

Starting point is 15:51:00 but my father how had he provoked her hatred he once loved her juanita many years ago before he saw your mother's face evelyn strangway and he had been lovers pledged to each other by a solemn promise as a man of honor he should have kept that promise there were stringent reasons that bound him but he saw your mother and loved her and broke with evelyn strangway openly with no unmanly deceit but still there was the broken promise and that involved a deep wrong He believed that wrong forgiven. He believed the more in her pardon because it was her earnest desire to live unrecognized and unnoticed upon the estate where she was born. He could not fathom the depth of patriot

Starting point is 15:51:41 in that warped nature. He did all that there was left to him to do, having taken his own course and entered upon a new and fairer life with the woman he loved, to make amends to the woman he had deserted. He never suspected the depth of her feelings. He never suspected the seeds of madness

Starting point is 15:51:59 with its ever-present dangers. He did what in him lay to atone for the sin of his youth, but that sin found him out, and it was his bitter lot to see his beloved daughter the innocent victim of his wrongdoing. He trusted me to tell you this miserable story, Juanita. He humbles himself in the dust before you, stricken at the thought of your suffering.

Starting point is 15:52:22 He appeals through me to your love and to your pity. How am I to answer him when I answer for you? She was silent for some moments after he had asked this final question. Her eyes fixed, her chest heaving with the stormy beating of her heart. What has become of this woman, this pitiless devil? She gasped. She is in a madhouse. Is no punishment to overtake her?

Starting point is 15:52:46 Is she not to be tried for her life? Let them prove her mad or let them find her guilty and hang her. Hang her. Her life for his, her worn-out remnant of wretched, disappointed days for his bright young life, with all its promise and all its hope. It would be a poor revenge, Juanita, to take so poor a life. This unhappy woman is under restraint that will, in all probability, last till the day of her death. Her crime is known only to your father and to me.

Starting point is 15:53:16 Were it to become known to others, she would have to stand in the dock, and then the whole story would have to be told. The story of your father's broken promise. Of this woman's youth, bound so closely with his, that to many it would seem almost as if stood side by side at the bar. Do you think that the fierce rapture of revenge could ever atone to you for having brought dishonor upon your father's

Starting point is 15:53:36 declining years, Juanita? And my husband's death is to go un avenged? Do you think there is no retribution in the slow agony of a shattered mind? The long blank days of old age in a lunatic asylum, the apathy of a half-extinguished intellect varied by flashes of bitter memory. God help

Starting point is 15:53:54 and pity such a criminal, for her punishment must be heavier than hemp and and quicklime. She seemed scarcely to hear him. She was walking up and down the room, her hands clenched, her brows contracted over the fixed eyes. I caught just one glimpse of her as we drove past, but that glimpse ought to have been enough, she said. I can see her face as we past the lodge, looking out at us from the parlor window, within a few hours of my darling's death, a pale, vindictive face. Yes, vindictive. I ought to have understood. I ought to have taken warning and guarded my beloved one from her murderous hate.

Starting point is 15:54:31 What am I to say to your father, Juanita? I ought not to leave him long in doubt. Think what it is for a father to humiliate himself before his daughter, to sue for pardon. Oh, but he must not do that. I have nothing to forgive. How could he understand that there could be such diabolical malignity in any human breast? How could he think that the wrong done by him would be revenged upon that innocent head? Oh, if she had gone a near way to revenge herself, if she had killed me rather than him.

Starting point is 15:55:03 It is such bitterness to know that my love brought him untimely death, that he might have been here now, happy, with long years of honor and content before him if he had chosen any other wife. It is hopeless to think of what might have been, Nita. Your husband was happy in your love, and not unhappy in his death. Such a fate is far better than the dull and slow decay which closes. as many a fortunate life, the inch by inch dissolution of a protracted old age, the gradual extinction of mind and feeling, the apathetic end.

Starting point is 15:55:35 You must not talk as if your husband's death was the extremity of misfortune. It was, for me. Can I forget what it was to lose him? Oh, there is no use in talking of my loss. I wanted to avenge his death. I have lived for that, and I am cheated of even that poor comfort. what shall i say to your father say that i will do nothing to injure him or to distress my mother i will remember that i am their daughter as well as godfrey's widow good-night theodore you have done your uttermost to help me we cannot help it either of us if fate was against us she gave him her hand very cold but with the firm grasp of friendship the very touch of that hand told him he would never be more to her than a friend not so is a woman's hand

Starting point is 15:56:26 given when the impassioned heart goes with it. End of Chapter 18. Volume 2, Chapter 19 of the Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 19 A malady prays on my heart that medicine cannot reach, invisible and cureless. Mrs. Porter's evanishment created considerable talk in the little village of Chariton,

Starting point is 15:56:59 and would doubtless have been the occasion of still greater wonder, but for the impenetrable stupidity of the young-maid servant, from whom no detailed account of her mistress's departure could be extorted. Had the girl, Phoebe, been observant and loquacious, she might have stimulated public curiosity by a lively narrative of events, setting forth Theodore Dalbrook's emotion at finding the lodge deserted, and how he had sent up to the house for his lordship, and how his lordship and Mr. Dalbrook had remained in earnest conversation for nearly an hour in the lodge parlour, and how Mrs. Porter had left a mahogany box upon the table, a flat mahogany box with brass corners, which Phoebe had never seen before,

Starting point is 15:57:37 and how this very box had disappeared mysteriously when the two gentlemen left. All this would have afforded mental pabulum for the acuter wits of the village, and would have formed the nucleus of an interesting scandal to be uttered with bated breath over the humble tea-tray, and to give zest to the unassuming muffin in the back-parters of small rustic shopkeepers. As it was, thanks to Phoebe's admirable stolidity, all that was known of Missing Mrs. Porter's departure was that she had gone to London by the early train on a certain morning, and that her luggage had been sent after her address unknown. It was the general opinion that Mrs. Porter had had money left her,

Starting point is 15:58:13 and that she had reassumed her position in life as a genteel personage. This afforded some scope for speculative gossip, but not for a wide range of conjecture, and in less than a month after Mrs. Porter's departure, the only talk in relation to the West Lodge was the talk of who would succeed the vanished lady as its occupant. this thrilling question was promptly settled by the removal of the head gardener and his wife from their very commonplace abode in the village to the old english cottage chariton was furnished with a more interesting topic of discourse before the end of october when it was given out that lord and lady chariton were going to winter abroad an announcement which struck consternation to a village in which the great house was the centre of light and leading and the chief consumer of butcher's meat farm produce over and above the supply from the home farm and expensive groceries not to mention hardware, kitchen crockery, coals, saddlery, forage, and odds and ends of all kinds. To shut up Chariton Chase for six months was to paralyze trade in Chariton.

Starting point is 15:59:12 To draw down the blinds and close the shutters of the great house was to spread agglom over the best society in the neighborhood, and to curtail the weekly offertory by about one-third. Everybody admitted, however, that his lordship had been looking ill of late. He had aged suddenly, as those fine well-set-up men are apt to do, said Mr. Dolby the doctor. He looked careworn and haggard. The village solicitor hoped that he had not been dabbling with foreign loans or had invested blindly in the fortune of an impossible canal,

Starting point is 15:59:43 yet opined that nothing but the stock exchange could make such a sudden change for the worse in any man. Mr. Dolby declared that Lord Chariton's lungs were as sound as a bell and that if he were ordered abroad it was not an account of his chest. Everybody pitied her ladyship and talked of her as despondingly as if it had been proposed to take her to Botany Bay in the days of transportation for felony. It was so cruel to separate her from her flower gardens, her hot houses, her poultry-yard, and her daughter, for all which things a correct British matron was supposed to exist.

Starting point is 16:00:16 To take her from these placid domestic pleasures, from these strictly ladylike interests, and to plunge her in a hotbed of vice such as Montecarlo, as pictured by the rustic mind, would be a kind of moral murder. Charitin recovered its equanimity somewhat upon hearing that his lordship was going to winter at Mustafa Superiard, but it was opined that even there, Baccarat and Parisian morals would be in the ascendant, and a photograph of a square in Algiers, which looked like a bit broken off the rue de Rivoli was by no means reassuring. Yet, whatever Dr. Dolby might say as to the soundness of his lungs, there remained the fact that his lordship had altered for the worse since the shooting season began. He, who used to go

Starting point is 16:00:57 out daily with the guns had this year not gone with them half a dozen times in the whole season. He, whose active habits and personal superintendents of his estate had been the admiration of his neighbors had taken to staying at home, dreaming over Horace or juvenile in the library. Yes, Lord Chariton was a broken man. From the hour in which his daughter had laid her head upon his breast, and sobbed out fond words of compassion and forgiveness for the weakness and the sin that had brought about her one great sorrow, from that hour, James Dalbrook's zest of life dwindled, and the things that he had cared for pleased him no more.

Starting point is 16:01:32 His heart sickened as he rode his cob by the familiar lanes, and surveyed widespread widespread cornfield and undulating pasture, sickened at the thought of that wretched creature whose dream he had darkened, whose long-cherished hope he had ruthlessly disappointed. The image of Evelyn Darcy, eating out her heart in the dull monotony of a private madhouse, came between him and that sunlit prospect, haunted and tortured him wherever he turned his eye. He had to give up the quiet morning rides which had once been the most restful portion of the day, his thinking hours, his time for leisurely discursive meditations, for indulgence in happy thoughts and humorous reverie.

Starting point is 16:02:09 His wife saw the change in him, knowing nothing of the cause, and urged him to take advice. He gratified her by seeing Sir William Jenner, confessed to being fagged and out of spirits, and obtained just the advice he wanted. Complete change of scene. A winter in Egypt or Algiers. We'll try Algiers first, and if we don't like it, we can try the Nile, he said, and his wife who would have gone to Vancouver Island or Patagonia just as cheerfully, forthwith, ordered her trunks to be packed, and began to take leave of her grandson, an operation which would

Starting point is 16:02:40 require weeks. They left England in the middle of November, just when the last leaves were being stripped from the oaks and beaches by the blustering southwest wind, which is a specialty in that part of the country, where it comes salt with the bitter breath of the sea, and, some sometimes thick and gray with sea fog. Mrs. Porter had been nearly three months at Chesshunt Grange, and Theodore had been three times to see her in that carefully chosen retreat, and on two of those visits had met her daughter Mercy, who went to her twice a week.

Starting point is 16:03:10 He had found Dr. Mamewaring's patient strangely calm and tractable, professing herself contented with her life, and having established her reputation among the other patients as a lady of blameless character and reserved manners. I sometimes wonder how they would feel if they knew what I did that night, she said to Theodore once with a sinister smile. They think me a commonplace person. They call my complaint nervous debility. Nobody here would believe me if I were to tell them that I murdered a man who never offended me by so much as an uncivil word. They don't believe that

Starting point is 16:03:43 such a deed as that would be possible in our day and in our country. They think it was only a couple of centuries ago in southern Europe that women knew the meaning of revenge. This was the solitary occasion on which she spoke of her crime. On the other visits he found her apathetic. Although she was elaborately polite, it was evident that she did not recognize him. She had, however, recognized her daughter, and now received her with some faint show of tenderness, but not without a touch of fretful impatience. It was evident that Mercy's presence gave her no pleasure. I go to see her as often as Dr. Mainwaring allows me, Mercy told Theodore as they walk to the station together. It is all I can do, and it is

Starting point is 16:04:24 is very little. Have you thought any more of Lord Charitin's earnest desire to improve your position? Have you learned to take pity upon him, to think more kindly of him on account of all he has suffered? I am very sorry for him, but I can never accept any favor at his hands. I can never forget what my mother's life has been like, and who made her what she is? And is your own life to be always the same, a monotony of toil? I am used to such a life, but I have some thought of a change in my employment. I had a long talk with your friend Mr. Ramsey last night at Miss Newton's, and through his help I hope to learn to be a sick nurse. I should be of more use to my fellow creatures in that capacity than in stitching at fine needlework for rich people's

Starting point is 16:05:08 children. It would be a hard life, mercy. I am content to live a hard life. I had my span of a soft life, a life of idleness on a summer sea, amidst the loveliest spots upon earth, a life that would have been like a glimpse of heaven itself, if it had had a span of a soft life. I had a life that would have been like a glimpse of heaven itself, if it had not been for the consciousness of sin and disgrace. Do you think I forget those days on the Mediterranean, or forget that I have to atone for them? The man I loved is dead. All that belonged to that life has vanished like a dream. They parted at the railway station, she to go to her place in a dusty third-class carriage, he to a smoking carriage to smoke the meditative pipe, and think sadly of those two blighted

Starting point is 16:05:48 lives which had been ground beneath the wheels of Lord Chariton's triumphal car. chariton chase was deserted the blinds down the servants on board wages the flower beds empty and raked over for the winter but at millbrook priory all was life and movement the sisters and their husbands were again established in their favorite rooms lady jane was again at hand to assist her daughter-in-law to bear the burden of a family party and all was much as it had been in the previous winter except that juanita had a new interest in life and was able to take pleasure in many things that had been an oppression to her spirits last year most of all were her feelings altered towards Mrs. Grenville and her nursery. She was now warmly interested in the history of Johnny's measles, and deeply sympathetic about that constitutional tendency towards swollen tonsils, which was dear little Lucy's weak point, for must not her Godfrey inevitably face the ordeal of measles,

Starting point is 16:06:42 and might not his tonsils show a like weakness at the growing age? All those discussions about nursery dinners, the children who fed well and the children who fed badly, those who liked milk puddings and those who could not be induced to touch them, the advisability of a basin of cornflower or bread and milk at bedtime, the murderous influence of buns and pastry, and the lurking dangers of innocent seeming jam, all these things to hear of which last year bored her almost to exasperation

Starting point is 16:07:09 were now vital and spirit-moving questions. The little visitor's nurseries were near the infant Sir Godfrey's rooms, and it was a delight to find the baby taking pleasure in his youthful cousin's society and reveling in their noise. His own young lungs revealed their power and scope as they had never done before and led the infant orchestra. Juanita spent hours in this noisy society

Starting point is 16:07:32 sitting on the floor to be crawled over by her son, who was just beginning to discover the possibility of independent locomotion, and to have her hair pulled affectionately by the younger Grenvilles who found her the most accommodating playfellow. She insisted that the children should dine at the family luncheon table,

Starting point is 16:07:49 much to the gratification of their mother and grandmother, and to the exasperation of Mrs. Morningside, who, having left her own children with their conscientious governess and nurses in the north of England, did not see why her midday meal should be made intolerable by the boisterous egotism of her nephews and nieces. This was the condition of things at Christmas when Theodore reappeared at the priory, having come to Dorchester for his holidays after three months earnest work. He had been reading with a man of some distinction at the Chancery Bar, and he had been writing for one of the law journals. He was struck by the change in his cousin. She looked younger,

Starting point is 16:08:26 brighter, and happier than she had ever looked since her husband's death. No one could accuse her of having forgotten him, of having grown indifferent to his memory, for at the least illusion which recalled his image her expression clouded and her eyes grew sad. But there could be no doubt that the dawn of a happier existence was beginning to disperse the darkness of her night of grief. The influence of her child had done much, the solution of the mystery of her husband's death had done more to relieve her mind of its burden. She was no longer tortured by wonder. Her thoughts were no longer forced to travel perpetually along the same groove. She knew the worst, and pity for her father prompted

Starting point is 16:09:04 her to try to forget the wretch who had blighted her young life. She received Theodore with all her old kindness, with that easy cordiality which was of all indications the most hopeless for the man who loved her. She took him to the nurseries, where Christmas fires blazed merrily, and Christmas gifts drew the carpet, a plethora of toys, a litter of foil paper and gold and silver fringe, and tissue paper-cocked hats and piero caps from the wreck of Cracker bonbons. The children were masters of the situation in this Christmas week. It is their season, said Juanita tenderly. I don't think we can never do too much to make our children happy at this time, remembering that he who made the season sacred was once a little child. She took her baby up in her arms as she spoke,

Starting point is 16:09:49 impressed the little face lovingly against her own. Why does Mr. Ramsey never come to see me? she asked with a sudden lightness of tone. He used to be so fond of baby. He is working hard at the hospital, and he is not to have any holiday with you. I fear not. Her manner in making the inquiry, light as it was, told him so much, and he noticed how she bent her face over the child's flaxen head as she talked of Ramsey. Why does he work so hard? she asked after a silence. He has never given me any reason, yet I have my own idea about his motive. And what is your idea?

Starting point is 16:10:26 Have you ever heard of a man trying to live down a hopeless attachment, trying to medicine a mind diseased with a strong physic of intellectual labor? That is my case, Juanita. And I am inclined to think that it may be Ramsey's case, too. He has altered, curiously, within the last few months. I cannot get so near his inner self as I used to get, but I know him well enough to form a shrewd, opinion. I am sorry for you both, she said with a little nervous laugh, still hiding her face

Starting point is 16:10:55 against the baby's incipient curls and wrinkled pink skin. I am sorry you should be so sentimental. Sentimental, Nita? Is it sentimental to cherish one love for the best part of a lifetime, knowing that love to be hopeless all the time? If that is your idea of sentimentality, I confess myself sentimental. I have loved you ever since I knew the meaning of the word love. and I have gone on loving you in spite of every discouragement. I loved you when your love was given to another. Yes, I stood aside and harbored not one malevolent thought against the man you had so blessed and honoured.

Starting point is 16:11:32 I have loved you in your sorrow, as I loved you years ago in your light-hearted girlhood. I shall love you till I am dust, but I know that my love is hopeless. Your very kindness, in its level uniformity of sweetness, has told me that. Dear Theodore, if you knew how I value you, how I admire and respect you, I think you would be content to accept my sisterly regard, she said, looking up at him with tearful eyes. Perhaps had we met differently as strangers, I might have felt differently, but from my earliest remembrance you have been to me as a friend and brother. I cannot teach myself any other love.

Starting point is 16:12:11 Ah, Nita, that other love comes untaught. You want no teaching to love. of cuthbert ramsay don't be angry i can't help speaking of that which has been in my mind so long i saw my doom in your face when cuthbert was here i saw that he could interest you as i had never interested you i saw that he brought fresh thoughts and fancies into your life i saw that he could conquer where i was beaten you have no right to say that i have the right that goes with conviction wonita and with disinterested love. I have the right of my loyal friendship for the man who has shown himself loyal to me. Unless you or I make some sign to prevent him, Cuthbert Ramsey will have made himself an exile from

Starting point is 16:12:56 this country before the new year is a month old. What do you mean, Theodore? I mean that he is in treaty with the leader of a scientific expedition to the Antarctic Ocean. The ships will be away three years, and if he joined that expedition as doctor, he will be absent for that time, with the usual hazard of being absent forever. Why is he going? He has never given me any reason, but I suspect that the reason is, you.

Starting point is 16:13:23 Theodore! If I read his secret right, he left this place deeply in love with you. He knew I loved you, and that was one reason for a man of his generous temper to withdraw. You are rich and he is poor.

Starting point is 16:13:36 That makes another reason. He is too honorable to come between his friend and his friend's love. He is too proud. to offer himself with only his talents and his unfulfilled ambition to a woman of fortune. So he takes his old mistress science for his comforter, and is going to the other side of the world to watch the planets in the polar skies, and to keep the crew free of fever and scurvy if he can.

Starting point is 16:13:59 "'Three years,' faltered Juanita. "'It would not be so very long anywhere else, but those polar expeditions, so often end in deaths.' "'Shall I tell him not to go?' "'Pray, do.' I'm afraid I shall hardly prevail with him, unless—unless what? Unless you will let me say that you wish him to stay. She blushed deepest crimson and again had resource to the baby's pink little head as a hiding place for her confusion.

Starting point is 16:14:28 Tell him anything you like. Ask him to come and romp with the children next Easter. He is fond of children, and I'm sure he would like my nephews and nieces. Ah, Theodore! She cried, holding out her hand. Now, you are indeed my brother. forget that you ever wish to be more and let me hear of your having found a new love by and by by is easily said juanita what would that by and by have revealed could the curtain of the future have been lifted that christmas eve as the children danced in the shadowy room while their elders sat beside the fire in the winter dusk a coffin brought by land and sea and laid with stately ceremonial in the cemetery at dorchester a respectful obituary notice of lord with allauditory biography, setting forth his remarkable gifts and his honorable career. Much wonderment among his lordship's friends at the premature termination of that prosperous life.

Starting point is 16:15:24 A man of sixty who had looked ten years younger, in whose vigorous constitution and grand bearing had denoted one of the semi-immortals, a Bruham, a Lydhurst, or a St. Leonard's. What else? A lovely matron, proud of her handsome Scotch husband and his scientific successes, reigning over one of the most delightful houses in London, a house in which the brightest lights of the intellectual world are to be found shining in a congenial atmosphere. Sir Godfrey Carmichael's widow, now Cuthbert Ramsey's wife, and one of the leaders in all movements that tend towards the welfare and enlightenment of mankind. What else? A rising barrister,

Starting point is 16:16:01 living quietly in a secluded old house at Chiswick, with a sweet, serious-looking wife and two lovely babies, supremely contented with his lot and with his home, which is managed for him with that perfection of art which conceals art. His wife and he are exactly of the same age, have the same deep love of good books, good pictures and good music, and the same indifference to frivolous pleasures and fashionable amusements. They have a few friends, carefully chosen, and of choicest quality, and amongst the most honoured of these is Sarah Newton, still brisk and active,

Starting point is 16:16:33 though her abundant hair is snow-white, and there are the deep lines of age about her shrewd and kindly eyes. They have their garden with its old cedar, and old walls shutting off the world of gig and villa respectively. They have their boathouse and boats, in which they live for the most part on summer evenings, and they have hardly anything left to wish for, except a lock and weir. The barrister is Theodore Dalbrook,

Starting point is 16:16:56 and his wife's name is Mercy. He found her four years ago established as nurse at Chesshunt Grange, administering to her mother till the day of her death, which happened by a strange fatality within a few hours of that other death in Algiers, a sudden death by cerebral apoplexy swift as a thunder-clap. He found her there, and saw her frequently in his duty visits to the asylum, visits paid in performance of a promise to his unhappy kinsman, and little by little that sympathy which he had felt for her in the first hour of their

Starting point is 16:17:25 acquaintance, warmed and ripened into love, and in mercy, the woman who had sinned and paid the bitter penalty of sin, he found the consoling angel of his disappointed youth. The world knows nothing of her story. That dead past is being, buried deeper than ever ship went down into the treacherous waters of the tideless sea. To mercy herself, in her plenitude of domestic bliss, it seems as if it was another woman who shed those bitter tears and drank that cup of shame. The world knows only that Theodore Dalbrook has a lovely and devoted wife, who thoroughly understands and realizes the duties of her position. Lord Chariton's will executed three months before his death

Starting point is 16:18:04 at Mustafa Superiour, bequeathed a life interest in the sum of twenty thousand pounds, to Sarah Newton, Spinster, the principal to go to Mercy Darcy, otherwise Mercy Porter, upon that lady's death. End of Chapter 19. End of the day will come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Classic Audiobook Collection - The Day Will Come by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.