George Manville Fenn

“ I am perfectly sane, but, Heaven knows, I am acting like a madman—like one possessed. I go always with this terrible shadow enveloping me, and I cannot shake it off, try how I may.
“What shall I do?
“Salis! No, I cannot tell him. Mr Delton? No, no, no! I could not speak out. What would they say? They must declare it to be a mania if I tell them the simple truth, and how dare I confess to having instituted those experiments on Luke Candlish?
“Was ever man so cursed for his endeavours? I have branded myself as one who is mad, and I must bear the stigma.” ”

“ I am divided between my sister and my friend. There! I must speak out. It would be the saving of Leo if she could become North’s wife; and yet, much as I love her and wish for her happiness, I feel as if I am being unjust to North to let matters go farther.”
Mary lay back with her eyes half closed for some minutes before she felt that she could trust her voice so that it should not betray her.
“It would be for Leo’s happiness could she say truly that she could love and honour Horace North,” Mary whispered at last; “but it will never be, Hartley. Leo will never marry as we wish.” ”

“ Poor Mary Salis! They must never know. And poor me! Fool! blind idiot! But I loved her,” he moaned: “and I thought her so sweet and pure and true—a woman for whom I would have shed my heart’s best blood—a woman for whom I—Pah! I must not stand puling here! Blood? Yes, blood! The brute! He’s strong as a horse.”
He took out a pocket-handkerchief, doubled it, and roughly bandaged his head; for it was bleeding from a cut at the back.
“Clear my brain,” he muttered; “I must not stand here. That place left open! Is Moredock there?” ”

“ North did not answer, but followed the sexton, after a hurried glance round.
“It’s all right, sir; nothing left,” muttered Moredock, extinguishing the candle in his lanthorn. “Why, any one would think he was growing skeered. Brandy upsets some, and does others good.”
The old man closed the massive door of the mausoleum, and locked the gates of the iron railing, and as he did so, North uttered a low sigh full of relief, as if with the shutting up of the grim receptacle certain troublous feelings had been dismissed, and a strange haunting sensation had gone. ”

“ Mrs Berens was taken ill, and the doctor was called in.
In her lonely widowed state, with nothing but her money, her dress, her mirror, and the visits and gossip of Duke’s Hampton to amuse her, thirsting the while for the communings of a kindred spirit who would tell her she was far too young yet to give up thoughts of love, Mrs Berens felt that she must have some relaxation, and she took it in the form of fits of illness of the body and ditto ditto of the mind. ”

“ So high was the wind without that the candle flames were at times wafted to and fro.
Horace North had left the bedside, and was standing with his foot upon the fender, gazing down into the tiny glowing caverns in the fire, where the cinders fell together from time to time with a peculiar musical sound—the sound that strikes a watcher’s ear so strangely in the long hours of the night.
His thoughts were wild, and a tempest was raging in his breast as furious as that without. Love had made its first attack upon a strong man, and the wound was rankling. ”

“ She loved as a tigress might love, and her affection had become centred upon the brutal, coarse-minded, athletic scoundrel, who ranked as a gentleman, but whose tastes and ways were those of a low-class stable helper; and now, after a night of miserable anxiety lest her lover should have been injured by North, while she dare make no inquiry as to what had occurred—she found herself obliged to sit there chained as much by inclination as by necessity to hear that Tom Candlish and the doctor were to be brought face to face before her brother in the scene of the previous night’s encounter. ”

“ I may go to sleep again—I may go to sleep.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll call you,” said North, as the old man seated himself once more in his corner with head against the wall, while before the doctor had settled the shade of his lamp to his satisfaction, a stertorous snore came from Moredock’s corner, accompanied at intervals by a low moaning gasp.
“How easy to produce death!” said North, in a low voice. “Science gives us the power to cause that and sleep, which is its semblance, at our will. Why should it be more difficult to produce life?” ”

“ Leo, you do not know, you cannot tell, what thoughts I have—what investigations I am making into a science which is full of wonders waiting to be discovered. You have roused once more in me the great desire to win fame: to make researches that shall benefit humanity for all time to come. I can, I will, win these secrets from Nature, and we will together go hand-in-hand, learning more and more. I shall succeed!” he cried excitedly. “Ah! you smile. You do give me hope.”
She did not speak, but veiled her eyes, to hide the mocking light within them. ”

“ And now poor Mrs Berens was in sad trouble.
“I know it,” she sobbed to herself, after a visit from the doctor. “Mary Salis will not confess, and Leo always holds one off; but he does love Leo, and she is holding him in her wicked chains, like one of those terrible witches we read about; and, poor dear man, she is breaking his heart. I’ve tried so hard to wean him from that dreadful love of a bad, base girl, and the more I try the worse he is.” ”

“ And there to share the watch of Hartley Salis was Dally Watlock, as she sat behind her curtained window with the casement just ajar. She could see nothing below, but she made sure that “Master” would not go to bed till “Miss Leo” returned.
“Bless her!” she said, with a little laugh that was like a baby born of old Moredock’s chuckle. “How she will catch it! Serve her right: trying to come between us. But she may try after this. She’ll get out to see him no more, and he’ll soon forget her.” ”

“ All through this season I have been disgraced by that wretched old horse, and now when people who know me—Oh, I cannot bear to speak of it!”
“My dear sister!”
“It’s cruel—it’s abominable. If it had been Mary, she could have had what she pleased.”
“My dear Leo,” began Mary, looking up at her in a troubled way.
“Hold your tongue! You make mischief enough as it is. You always side with Hartley, who has no more feeling than a stone.”
“But, my dear child,” began the curate.
“Child! Yes; that’s how you treat me—like a child. You check me in every way. ”

“ Mrs Berens was sweetness itself to all, and Leo seemed to rouse herself to be pleasant to the doctor, the result being that Mrs Berens was seen home—to part most affectionately from Leo, and with most tenderly friendly pressures of the hand to the gentlemen; after which she hurried into her room, to tear off her new bonnet and indulge in a passionate burst of sobbing.
“She’s as deceitful as she is young,” she cried. “She has thrown over Tom Candlish, and now she is winning over that foolish doctor; while Hartley Salis is as immovable as a stone. ”

“ He knows too much. Heaven! how is it that a woman can be lost to all that is due to herself, leave alone to those she is supposed to love!”
There was an inexpressible bitterness in his tone as he spoke.
“But what are you going to do?”
“Do!” he said fiercely, but with a tinge of despair in his words; “I’m going to thank Heaven that the man whom I believe to be the soul of honour and manliness has been saved from linking his fate with that of such a woman as Leo Salis.”
“Oh, Hartley!” cried Mary, “she is our sister.”
“Yes,” he said bitterly; “she is our sister. I shall not forget that.” ”

“ Why, Miss Mary, I’ve know’d you since you was quite a little thin slip.”
“You have, Moredock,” said Mary, smiling, as she handed the tea to her brother for the old man, who paid no farther heed to Leo. “I was only fifteen when I first saw you.”
“Ay, and you was as bright and quick as now you’re—Well, never mind that, my dear. Better be an angel as can’t walk about than some beautiful gels as can.”
“Why, Moredock,” said Salis, laughing, “was that meant for a compliment?”
“I dunno, parson,” said the old man, staring hard at Mary; “’tis only what I felt. Heaven bless her! ”

“ Moredock could have walked swiftly along the church in the dark, and he had often done so when he was younger. He could recall the time, too, when he had whistled softly as he went about dusting cushions and rearranging hassocks and matting. But now he had no breath left for whistling, and he walked—almost shuffled—along slowly towards the vestry, where he had nothing to do but give the gown and surplice a shake and hang them up again, and refill the large water-bottle from Gumley’s pump, which drew water from a well in remarkably close proximity to the churchyard. ”

“ But science is a fine backer of brute force. A man with little muscle is the equal of a giant when both are armed with sword or pistol; and could Horace North have brought his science to bear in the shape of galvanism or some anaesthetic, he would have had the burly giant at his mercy instead of rapidly losing his senses.
Galvanism was, however, not at hand, the opportunity to administer a dose of ether or chloroform was also wanting, and as one of the young doctor’s hands vainly grasped the ruffian’s sinewy wrist, the other fell nearly nerveless upon the table against which he was borne. ”

“ What Hartley did not try, you thought, and suggested to him till my very soul recoiled against you both and your miserable tyranny. I say it was North—the mean wretch—who set you to watch me.”
“Horace North is too true a man to give you a second thought; too stern and upright to speak of you after your cruel treachery to him.”
“It is not true. I was neither cruel nor treacherous to him,” cried Leo. ”

“ Hartley Salis was not the only watcher. Mary lay with her eyes burning and brain throbbing with contending emotions. She was in agony, for she had to combat, in addition to the horror of the discovery that her sister could be so shameless in her acts, a sensation of gratification that would force itself to the front. ”

“ Now, Master Tom Candlish, if you are there, I’ll—”
He gave himself a sharp slap on the mouth.
“Steady! Man, man, man! how you do forget your cloth! But if Tom Candlish—Pish! Steady, man! Let’s go and see.”
Mary Salis stood in the deep old mullioned window, gazing after him.
“Hartley never leaves and speaks like that unless there is something wrong,” she said to herself. “If that wretched man has persuaded Leo—she has just gone out—without a word. Oh, no, no! she would not do such a thing as that. How I do picture troubles where there are none!” ”

“ He set down the candle, and pressed his hand softly once more upon her burning brow, listening the while to the dull throbbings of his heart.
“Yes, Horace North,” he said at last, “you, the much-praised would-be savant, are as weak as the weakest of your sex, ready to be flattered into a passion by the first sweet words which fall from a woman’s lips. You are strong in knowledge, you have mastered endless difficulties, but you have not mastered Horace North.” ”

“ Leo Salis, where have you been?”
She turned her handsome, defiant face towards where he stood, and now it was beginning; to be visible in the soft dawn, pale, fierce, and implacable as that of one who has recklessly set every law at defiance and is ready to dare all. ”

“ I say, though, seriously, dear, you don’t think he cares for Mrs Berens?”
“Oh, no, Hartley,” said Mary, with a confident smile. “I am sure he thinks of nothing but his profession.”
“Exactly. I often think the same, but I often wish something.”
“What, dear?” said Mary earnestly.
“That he had taken a fancy to Leo. It would have been a happy day for me to have seen her with such a protector for life.”
“Yes,” said Mary softly. “He is a true gentleman at heart.”
“Why, Mary,” cried the curate enthusiastically, “he never takes a penny of any of the poor folk, and he works for them like a slave. ”

“ Oh, yes, I know all that,” said North hastily.
Salis extended his hand, which the other took.
“Don’t be offended with me, Horace, old friend. I wish to see you both happy.”
“I know it, I know it,” said the doctor; and then catching; sight of Moredock in the churchyard, he hesitated, half nervous as to what Salis might have to say to the old man, but, convinced the next moment that his fears were without base, he hurriedly said a few words and went away.
“I can’t see it,” said Salis bitterly. “They seem so thoroughly unsuited the one for the other. I wish it could have been so, for Leo’s sake. ”

“ But after a time her stubborn and determined nature had taught her that she would be at a great disadvantage with Tom Candlish if she went to him. He would be no longer the suer but the sued, and she was determined that he should make her his wife.
“North dare not speak to me; and if he did, what then? He is my slave, and I will meet him. Let him come, and say what he likes. I am no sickly, sentimental girl who feels bound to obey every one in turn. ”

“ If you’d thought me well off, and you could send me in a big bill, you’d have had me in such condition that I shouldn’t have seen my fetch last night.”
“Seen your grandmother, man.”
“Ay, you may laugh, doctor; but what have you told me over and over again? ‘Moredock,’ says you, ‘a healthy man’s no business to die till he’s quite worn out.’ And ‘What age will that be, doctor?’ says I. ‘Oh! at any age,’ says you; and here am I, a hale, hearty man, only a little more’n ninety, and last night I see my fetch.” ”

“ Those were the words he wanted to say, but they would not come now after the damping he had received, and involuntarily his fingers glided slowly to her wrist, and he held them pressed against the calmly-beating pulse, gazing down at her half-averted eyes the while.
There was no coquetry, no playful manner; she was as calm and resigned as any patient he had ever visited, and yet, time back, she had clung to him, gazed passionately into his eyes, and whispered of her love. ”

“ I only spend what is my own; and if I had spent all, I shouldn’t come begging to you.”
“Lucky for you,” cried Tom Candlish tauntingly. “Look here, Luke, how many years does it take a man to drink himself to death?”
“Don’t know,” said the squire, wincing.
“Well, you’re hard at work, and I shall watch the experiment with some curiosity. I’ve a good chance.”
“Healthier man than you, Tom; and it’ll take me longer to kill myself than it will take you. I shall be a hale man long after you’ve broken your neck hunting.”
“Look here!” cried Tom savagely, “once more: do you want to quarrel?” ”

“ No. Let me lie and look at you. Don’t speak. I want to think. Shall I die?”
“Die? No; you must get better now, and grow strong, for Mary’s sake and for Hartley’s.”
“And for yours,” said Leo softly, as she smiled lovingly in his face. “I shall be your wife if I live.”
“You shall live, and grow to be happy with all who love you.”
“Yes,” she said softly, “with all who love me;” and she closed her eyes.
“It is delirium, poor child,” said North to himself. “Good heavens! am I such a scoundrel as to think otherwise?”
He sat back in his chair startled by the thoughts which had surged up to his brain. ”