Florence Warden

“ In the meantime Clifford was proceeding slowly on his way to Shingle End. It was dark by this time, and the way seemed even longer than it had done when he was on his way to Courtstairs that afternoon. There was a faint light over the gray sea, but on the right, over the marsh, and away as far as the ridge of hill on which old Fleet Castle stood, there was inky blackness. It was a lonely road at night, this long, dreary stretch of straight, hedgeless highway, with only an occasional bit of ragged bush or a still more infrequent wayside cottage, to break up its wearisome monotony. ”

“ On the whole, therefore, it was Miss Bostal rather than Nell who carried the sympathy of the ordeal. When the little, thin lady, with the pinched face and the faded hair, stepped into the witness-box and kissed the book with grave and dignified reverence, there was little or no laughter at her odd costume of fifteen years before, at the “girl-of-the-period” short jacket, bunched-up gown and Tyrolese hat, which, once so “smart” and up-to-date, had now become such a quaint relic of the past. ”

“ It was not until the first days of March, on a blustering, stormy morning, that Nell Claris, her resolution broken down by a pathetic appeal from her uncle, came back to Stroan.
George Claris met his niece at the station, and each was shocked at the changed appearance of the other. Nell seemed to have lost half her beauty; her cheeks had lost their roundness, and her eyes the look of child-like happiness which had been one of her greatest charms.
“Oh, uncle!” she cried softly, when she had received his silent kiss on her forehead, “you don’t look the same uncle! ”

“ Shingle End was a pretty, tumbledown house, which stood at the angle formed by two roads. It had once been white, but neglect and hard weather had made it a mottled gray; while cracked and dusty windows, rickety shutters and untrimmed trees and bushes combined to give the place a dreary and unprosperous appearance.
Behind the house was a garden, with a poultry-run and a paddock; and Otto had seen, as they passed, the colonel reading his paper under an apple-tree, while the flutter of a petticoat in the background among the trees seemed to confirm their suspicions. ”

“ I have just seen Nell.”
As he had expected, this answer brought the little lady down in the twinkling of an eye. He heard the bolts drawn, and a minute later he found himself dragged inside the door, while Miss Theodora, panting with her exertions, hurriedly fastened the door again.
“I have seen your bogy,” said Clifford, “the man who torments you at night. He attacked me just before I came to the corner.”
“Ah!” cried Miss Bostal, with a shake of her head. “I have found out who he is now. He is the man who is at the bottom of all these robberies and of the murder of poor Jem.” ”

“ But nobody before ’as dared to say you or me was at the bottom of it, Nell. Nobody before has dared to say we wasn’t honest. Why, man, I’ve been settled here these twenty-five years, and I’m known to every man, woman and child between Stroan and Courtstairs. Me take a man’s watch or purse—me or my niece! It’s a plant, my girl, a plant of this fine London gentleman. Twenty-five pounds! You bet it’s more than he’s worth, every rag and stick of him. ”

“ To the intense disgust of Willie, pretty Nell was evidently much amused by these remarks. And, although a feeling of condescending gratitude to her abject admirer made her try to control her enjoyment, Clifford saw in her blue eyes a merriment none the less keen that she subdued its outward manifestation.
“It’s easy to chaff,” grumbled Willie, hotly. “Perhaps you’d like to try the work yourselves.”
“No, old chap. We should never get that depth of color,” said Otto, calmly surveying the artist’s heated, crimson face.
“It wants a natural aptitude for that sort of thing,” said Clifford. ”

“ But to this Clifford answered with great composure:
“You will marry above your own rank, that is certain, whether you marry me or not. Beauty like yours has a rank of its own, to begin with. And as for these wild hordes of relations of mine, they only exist in your imagination. There is no one to prevent me doing as I like; and even if there were, they might try, but they wouldn’t succeed.”
To this Nell made no answer. ”

“ You don’t make any allowance for a woman’s nerves. And yet, if we don’t have nerves, you complain that we are mannish and unlovable. Oh, Mr. Claris, I didn’t think it of you! I didn’t, indeed. I’ve often thought that your gentleness to Nell was a pattern to be copied by other men in their treatment of ladies.”
The excitement of the day had rendered Miss Bostal much more loquacious and condescending than was usual with her. Her father, who had not been in court, came up at this moment, and, with a nod to George Claris and a cold salutation to Nell, drew Miss Theodora away. ”

“ Nell flashed upon him a look of supreme contempt.
“I don’t do this because I am good, but because I am angry and worried,” she said, glancing at the broom in her hand. “I could have sent some one to sweep out Mrs. Corbett’s cottage; there are plenty of people about here poor enough to be glad to do it for a few pence. I do it because I am miserable and want to make a martyr of myself!”
Now Clifford liked her even better for this show of spirit than he had done for her courage. ”

“ There was a buzz of excitement in court when Miss Bostal was called. With the feminine witnesses began the real interest of the case. Enough had leaked out by this time for every gossip in Stroan to be aware that the quarrel between the gentleman, Clifford King, and the fisherman, Jem Stickels, had been on Nell Claris’s account; and everybody knew, also, that Miss Bostal had espoused the cause of Jem Stickels, and so had brought herself prominently forward into the romantic story. ”

“ I have an idea that the lean spinster is a heroine. Not the sort of heroine one troubles oneself about, of course. But while they were talking about a certain ‘Nell,’ who is evidently the object of Jordan’s priceless but transient affections just now, I looked into their rooms, their poor little dining-room, their bare, long drawing-room, and I saw such a history of pinched lives and sordid struggles as made me long for pen and paper. ”

“ Why, man alive! You wouldn’t sure dare to say as my niece, my lovely Nell, was a thief to take your dirty money!” shouted the landlord, with sudden fury, all the more fierce that, as Clifford could see, he had heard whispers of the same sort before. “Here, Nell, Nell! Where are you?”
And, not heeding Clifford’s angry protests, Claris rushed into the house, and almost into the arms of his niece, who, apparently suspecting nothing, came running quickly in from the garden at the sound of her name. ”

“ In the little dining-room at Shingle End Miss Bostal and Nell were sitting by the fire, the latter still absorbed in thoughts of Clifford, while the former tried to divert her companion’s gloomy reverie by gossip about the doings of the vicar’s wife and the high price of vegetables.
Miss Bostal looked anxiously from time to time into the coal-scuttle, divided between a wish to be economical with the fuel, on the one hand, and to have a good fire ready for her father’s return on the other. ”

“ Claris. I should not think of doing so. All I want is to clear up this detestable puzzle, much more in your interests than in mine. I am not a rich man, but neither am I a beggar, as you have rather unkindly suggested. I can afford the loss of my watch and money, but I cannot afford to leave you and poor Miss Nell here without doing my best to find out the cause of these unfortunate occurrences. ”

“ I was listening,” answered Otto, “and working out in my mind a romance, a pitiful romance, of the kind that is not showy enough for people to care to hear about.”
“What! Do you mean to say that Jordan’s fallen in love with that mature and lean spinster?” asked Clifford in astonishment.
“Oh, dear, no. He’s fallen in love; I’ve found that out; but it is with the usual maid of the inn—nobody half so interesting as Miss Bostal.” ”

“ A thief is a thief, and should be punished. And if it is a person you know, you may be sorry; but you must not shrink from your duty, which is to bring the criminal to justice.”
Nell withdrew herself with a sad smile from the lady’s caressing hand, and shuddered.
“Supposing it were—it were some one you knew—and loved. What would you say?”
Miss Bostal shook her head deprecatingly.
“My dear,” she said, “I can see what it is: Stickels has been threatening to tell the detective that he can prove you to be the thief. And you let yourself be frightened like that! ”

“ The Blue Lion itself looked melancholy enough, having been uninhabited for a month. With its doors closed, its shutters barred, with broken panes in its upper windows, it was a dreary contrast to the little inn he had known. No market-carts now drew up before the door; the ducks and the chickens no longer wandered about the road; the shed where the cart had stood was empty and already out of repair. Clifford, after one walk round into the little garden and down to the shed where he had first met Nell, hurried away from [249] the desolate spot and made haste to reach Shingle End. ”

“ The night was dark, and one of Hemming’s nearest followers held a lantern, which threw a ray of dancing light to right and left upon the white road, the ditch on either side, the wide stretch of marsh to the left, and the dull line of the sea far away on the right.
Just past the “big house,” a lonely mansion standing in flat, wind-swept grounds between Stroan and the sea, they came upon the man, lying, as the boy had described, by the side of the road, with his head hanging over on the grassy bank that sloped into the ditch. ”

“ Her own utter hopelessness, her nervous dread, had affected him during the short silences between their questions and answers to each other; she seemed to be always listening, straining her ears for any sound outside. The cry of a street urchin made her start, a cart passing quickly at the corner of the street sent the blood to her forehead. Her nerves, poor child, were altogether shaken.
Clifford looked at her in dismay. Even the strong love which had stood every test was apparently powerless to give her more than momentary comfort. ”

“ Before long Clifford saw her speak to Otto and glance in the direction of himself.
“Now,” thought he, “I shall get to the bottom of the mystery.” For he had had no opportunity of getting hold of Otto, or of any one who could tell him who she was. Otto came straight toward him.
“I want to introduce you to Miss Lansdowne,” said he.
Lansdowne! The name was quite unfamiliar to Clifford. But as soon as he was introduced the puzzle came to pieces.
“I wanted so much to know you, Mr. King,” said the girl, who was pleasant, unaffected and amiable-looking. ”

“ A few late visitors of this sort were in the little bar when Clifford and Otto entered. But there was no sign of Jordan. Both the young men looked with curiosity at the woman who was serving behind the bar, a portly young woman with a ready tongue, who in her sturdy build and large coarse hands, as well as in the weather-beaten look of her complexion, betrayed that she was accustomed to fill up her time, when work was slack inside the house, with out-door labor of the roughest kind. ”

“ Far from yielding at once to the apparently inevitable conclusion, Clifford fought against it with all his might. Quickly as his passion for the girl had sprung up, it was strong enough to make him ready to accept any hypothesis, however improbable, rather than accept the evidence of his own senses when that evidence was against her. He was ready to believe that there was in the house another woman with a hand as small, as soft, as smooth-skinned as the one he had held in his hand when [35] he bade Nell good-night. ”

“ But I must tell you frankly that if you have any suspicions of old Claris or his niece, it is of no use your talking to me, for you will get no sympathy. I have known old George Claris for nearly twelve years; and as for Nell, I don’t think I could care more for the girl if she were my own sister. She is as incapable of theft as an angel.”
The lady’s thin, pale face grew quite pink under the energy of this protest, which Clifford hastened to assure her was not needed. ”

“ The Blue Lion was a very unpretending establishment, old, but without any pretensions to historical or archæological interest, small, inconvenient, and weather-beaten. Standing as it did midway between sleepy Stroan and democratic Courtstairs, it was the house of call for all the carriers, farmers and cattle-drovers all the year round, while in the months of July and August its little bar was thronged with the denizens of the Mile-end [16] Road, who take their pleasure in brakes, with concertinas and howls and discordant songs. ”

“ Nell looked up in some distress, her blue eyes brighter with excitement, and her voice quite tremulous in its earnestness.
“Ah, you don’t know!” she said, quickly. “I am not ungrateful, but I am in a very difficult [27] position, and I have to be careful how I treat people. Don’t you know yourself that a great many men, gentlemen too—or they call themselves so—think they have a right to treat a girl who lives at an inn differently from other girls? Surely you must know that?”
Clifford grew red, conscious that the girl had penetrated a weak spot in Willie’s social armor. ”

“ But Miss Bostal glanced at the letter and shook her head.
“There is no one with my father,” she said, “and I don’t know any one of that name. But if you will come into the drawing-room I will ask him.”
“Oh, no, not for the world. We could not think of intruding. We must have made a mistake,” stammered Otto, while Clifford hurriedly passed out by the little wooden gate into the road.
In the meantime, however, Colonel Bostal, having heard the voices, had come through the narrow passage from the garden to learn the meaning of this unusual sound. ”

“ When a man is found dead, with a bullet in his head—”
He stopped short, his attention arrested, like that of every other person in the court, by a cry, a movement, on the part of Nell Claris. Springing upon her feet she gave a moan, a gasp, and then looking round her with one quick, frightened stare, sank down into her seat.
There was a buzz of whispering, which was checked by the loud cry of “Silence!” as the second doctor was called and sworn. ”

“ So anxious was the detective to learn what it was which produced so strong an effect upon the girl, that he crawled from his hiding-place to the ditch which ran alongside the road, and crept along, sometimes in the water and sometimes only in the mud, until he was close enough to the two speakers to catch most of their words. When he stopped, the girl was refusing some request of the man’s, with all the energy of loathing and detestation. ”

“ But she had to give way, being touched by the self-reproach of the prim little elderly lady, who blamed herself as much for Jem’s misfortune as Nell blamed herself for Clifford’s.
“It was all my fault. I feel that I have brought it upon the poor fellow myself,” was the burden of Miss Bostal’s lament, just as it had previously been of Nell’s.
She even shed tears at the thought of facing the young man upon whom she had brought more than one misfortune. For she persisted in regarding his assault upon Clifford as another grievance of Jem’s rather than of the hated rival’s. ”