George Manville Fenn

“ Here have I come to claim my heritage and my—I beg pardon,” he said quickly, with an admiring look at Gertrude, “my wife and my heritage, and the lady does not so much as shake hands with me.”
Gertrude, in spite of herself, gave him an apologetic look.
“And you treat me as if I were a scoundrel.”
“I am compelled to look upon your claim, sir, with suspicion.”
“Well, sir, you are a lawyer; perhaps you will let me retain your services on my behalf.”
“Certainly not, sir. You are attacking, I am for the defence.” ”

“ For a good five minutes nothing was heard in the room but the overturning and breaking of furniture, mingled with the hoarse panting animal cries of Saul, who seemed to see in George Harrington the dog he sought to destroy.
In spite of all the others could do, matters went hard with George; but the dexterity of a man used to wild life stood him in good stead, and just as in the midst of a savage, snarling sound Gertrude felt the room swimming round her, and as if insensibility was coming on, there was a heavy crash, and the shock brought her back to life. ”

“ Marry in haste and repent at leisure; but you shan’t run headlong into misery without Rachel Hampton saying a word of warning.”
“I feel that it is my duty to the dead,” cried Gertrude.
“Duty! Ha! Then you love some one else—not that dreadful Saul Harrington?”
“Oh, no, Mrs Hampton.”
“Thank goodness! You gave me quite a turn. Then it’s some other young man?”
“Indeed, no.”
“Are you sure? Don’t be afraid to confess to me. Yes, you are sure. I can read you like a book. My dear, you don’t love anyone else, and you don’t love George Harrington.” ”

“ Time soon slips by.
“Nonsense, my dear! why should we study the world? You know what my grandfather said.”
“Yes, George,” said Gertrude, with a peculiarly troubled look in her eyes.
“And very wisely; and as soon as you like to say you are ready, why, I am, and the world may go and hang itself.”
The troubled look in Gertrude’s eyes deepened, for the free and easy manner of her betrothed shocked her.
“You don’t dislike me, Gertie?” he said, laughing.
“No; oh, no,” she replied, looking at him wistfully. ”

“ She had grown to expect, as a part of her life, that she should marry the frank-hearted man whose praise her guardian had constantly sung. She did not love him, but there was the germ of love in her breast waiting to be warmed into life and burst forth as a blossom, while now, speaking quite with the voice of authority, Saul Harrington had come at the end of her weeks of patient watching and expectation, to announce brutally his full conviction of her betrothed’s death. ”

“ Poor dear master liked his two or three glasses of port after his dinner, but that was all. Unless any one was ill you never saw a drop of spirits about the place, while now it’s brandy and whiskey, and soda and seltzer, as is a pair of shams, not to make the spirits weaker, but to coax people on to drink more.”
“You think the same as I do then, Denton?” whispered Mrs Hampton.
“It don’t take any thinking, ma’am. Look at his nose and his cheeks. People don’t have those public-house signs on their fronts without going very often into the cellar. Oh, my dear ma’am; you’re a woman—I mean a lady.” ”

“ The cry was so peculiar, and impressed its hearers so painfully, that they stood looking at each other, Gertrude with blanched cheeks, and Mrs Hampton, who had not outgrown the superstitious dread common to most natures suffering from a nervous tremor that she had not felt for years.
She was the first to speak with assumed cheerfulness.
“Why, it’s that dog,” she said. “I declare for the moment it quite startled me?”
“Yes,” said Gertrude, with her voice sounding husky and strange, “it was the dog.” ”

“ Dan Portway knew better as regards the nature of the beast, but he could not think coolly and clearly then—he could not recall in the least that the grizzly and his relatives preferred to attack an active enemy when brought face to face with him, and that, at such a time, the recumbent body was no more to it than the rocks around—till he saw it rear up on its hind legs, a monster fully seven feet in height, its little eyes red with rage, its fangs bared, and its huge paws raised with the great claws spread. ”

“ Let me go!”
“It is true, or you would have screamed the house down.”
“If I do not scream for help, it is because I would not alarm your uncle. I tell you he is dying.”
“Gammon, Gertie! The old tyrant—he is too tough. No such luck for us. There, don’t struggle any more. You are going to be my darling little wife.”
“Mr Saul. Pray, pray let me go.”
“Directly you have given me your word, Gertie. There, it is your fault that I was so rough. You do love me?”
“I hate you, sir, with all my heart, and you force me to say it. This is a cruel outrage. What have I done that you should dare to treat me so? ”

“ I want to meet this man—I want to be brought face to face with him. I’ll soon bring him to his knees, and make him confess. The villain!—the murderous wretch! I—I beg pardon, ladies. You do not know the truth. This man, Dan Portway, struck me down, and, believing me dead, has imposed upon you all.”
“There! I knew it all the time,” cried Mrs Hampton emphatically.
“My dear Rachel!”
“Oh, don’t talk to me, Phineas. I knew he couldn’t be our George Harrington. A nasty, low-minded, drinking wretch, whose presence I would not have tolerated for a minute if it had not been for Gertrude here. ”

“ He paused for a few moments, and looked fixedly at Gertrude, and his gaze intensified, not in boldness, but in respectful ardour, as he slowly rose, and, with a sigh of satisfaction, held out his hand to her.
“Gertrude Bellwood,” he said, “I am a rough man; I have lived a wild pioneering life where, for the most part, I have rarely seen woman, but I inherited from my sweet, dear mother’s teaching a feeling of veneration for her, as one whom it is our duty to look upon with chivalrous respect. ”

“ Here! I like dogs,” he said softly to Gertrude, as he patted his leg, chirruped, and Bruno wagged his tail, trotted toward him, and then turned off, and went to the other side of where Gertrude was seated. “Ha, ha, ha! Dog wants to hear first whether I am the genuine article.”
Saul watched him closely, and the doctor and lawyer exchanged glances, as if satisfied by the bluff nonchalant manner of the claimant, who raised his eyes now, and looked long and searchingly at the portrait whose eyes met his.
“Will you be good enough, sir, to tell me whose son you are?” ”

“ Do you think I ought to go and nurse him, ma’am?”
“No, Denton,” said the old lady so decidedly, that the housekeeper started, and looked at her wonderingly.
Their further conversation was stopped by the sound of Gertrude’s voice singing as she came in from the garden, and the old housekeeper stood with her hands clasped, gazing towards the door.
“Like a bird,” she said softly—“like a bird. It does my old heart good to hear her sing again. Its just like old times, ma’am; while lately, since poor, dear old master’s death and those marriage troubles came upon her, she has not been like the same.” ”

“ Gertrude was silent, and crossed to a writing-table to busy herself over sundry domestic accounts, while Mrs Hampton took out her knitting and glanced at her from time to time, as her needles clicked and flashed in their rapid plying.
“And a good thing if he has gone,” she said to herself. “If I could do as I liked, he’d have his money and go to Jericho or any other place, so long as he did not come and worry her.” ”

“ With a wholesome horror of the legal tedium of the profession to which he belonged, and startled at the prospect a lawsuit opened out, the old man sank back in his chair, and, for the moment completely taken aback, stared at his verbal assailant.
“Pray do not misjudge Mr Hampton,” said Gertrude coming to his help. “He was my grandfather’s most trusted friend, and he has acted throughout with the strictest impartiality. If he has been mistaken—which we do not know yet,” she said, colouring deeply beneath the young man’s admiring gaze, “he will, I am sure, do everything that is right.” ”

“ George Harrington said nothing, but stood at the head of the couch, ready to seize and hold the sufferer the moment the next paroxysm occurred.
He had not long to wait, for with a howl that did not seem human, Saul Harrington made such a start that the couch cracked as if it was being wrenched apart.
“Ah, you here! Watching! But you can’t speak—you can’t tell tales. If I’d known, I’d have silenced you. Lie down, brute! Do you hear—lie down! Hey, Bruno, then; good dog. Lie down, old man,” he said, laughing softly, and talking in a low cajoling tone. “You know me, Bruno. Good dog, then. ”

“ Gertrude’s spirits rose a little, as in secret she began to wish that their visitor’s words were true, though she did not doubt it herself.
“Shall we walk into the dining-room?” said the lawyer; “there are several portraits there.”
“By all means. I want to clear my character, ladies. Rather hard on a man to be taken for a trickster and a cheat.”
“No one accuses you, sir, of being either,” said the old lawyer gravely. “I am one of the executors of Mr Harrington’s will, and I have a duty, greater than you realise, to perform.” ”

“ You’re getting used to me, Gertie, and I tell you what, my girl, it will be a fine thing for you. Do you now what you ought to do if you are the clever girl I think you to be?”
She shook her head. She dared not trust herself to speak, lest he should note the tremble in her voice.
“Make sure of me while you can. Not many girls have the chance of such a rich husband.”
“If he would only go,” thought Gertrude, fighting hard with the hysterical feeling which threatened to break forth in a fit of sobbing. ”

“ The dinner was naturally a failure, and her elders noted how Gertrude struggled to keep up appearances, but with ear attent and eyes constantly turning towards the door.
“Well,” said the doctor, in the course of conversation, “it is late, certainly, but I don’t know but what I like it. It seems going back to the pleasant old times.”
“Ah, when the day’s work was done, and one settled down to a comfortable supper.”
“Like to have been a lawyer; a doctor’s work is never done.”
“Pray don’t fidget so, my dear,” said Mrs Hampton, as they left the gentlemen to their wine. ”

“ Gertrude looked at him almost resentfully, and then there was quite an air of sympathy in her manner, as she turned to their visitor, who said gravely:
“Yes, Miss Bellwood, I quite agree with this gentleman, it would, perhaps, be better that we should discuss the question alone. Indeed, till I have proved that I am no impostor, I am no fit company for ladies.” ”

“ He lay for hours together without stirring, till he heard his mistress’ step, and then he uttered a low whine, and feebly raised his head as his eyes sought hers before he lowered his muzzle again, as if it was too heavy for the strength he had left.
Gertrude let many a tear fall upon the poor brute’s head as she patted it gently and bandaged the wound, the dog submitting to what must have been a painful operation without so much as a whine, till the time came when he could get his head in his mistress’ lap, and sink into a kind of stupor more than sleep. ”

“ There were other little things, too, there in the saddlebags, all of which seemed to fit in with a misty chaotic set of ideas which floated through his brain. Lastly, his eyes seemed to be fascinated by his companion’s breast as he lay there with his head thrown back, his flannel shirt all open at the collar and chest, and as he gazed a ray of sunlight shot between the boughs, and fell right upon the white skin.
Dan Portway leaned a little more forward, and his gaze grew more intent, till all at once he let himself fall sidewise on the soft pine-needles. ”

“ His musings were interrupted by a fresh paroxysm, so horrible that those who held the delirious man shuddered, and George Harrington felt a strange dread of the doctor’s patient, as it seemed to him probable that this might be all the result of that bite—a form of hydrophobia—that horrible incurable disease which sets medicine knowledge at defiance, and laughs all remedies to scorn. ”

“ Surely a weak trusting woman has power over even the strongest man.”
“In novels, and poems, and plays, my dear, more than in real life, I am afraid,” said Mrs Hampton, with a sigh of resignation; “but remember this, my dear, when in the future you recall all I have said—No, no, no, my darling; I can’t stoop to talk to you like that. Gertie, my child, I am very sorry, but I am going to help you carry out your noble resolve with all my heart.”
“Mrs Hampton?” cried Gertrude joyously.
“Yes, my dear; and if women can win, we’ll make a hero of George Harrington—good Heavens! ”

“ There was another fierce struggle, but the bandages held firm, and he lay panting for a time.
“Man must joy self sometimes. Ah, there you are, little one. It’s all right—it’s all right.”
His eyes closed, and he lay passive for quite a quarter of an hour, the doctor watching every change, and at last joining his entreaties to those of Mrs Hampton.
“You had better go, Gertrude, my dear. You can do no good. I shall stay here by him—perhaps all night. He’ll be better in the morning.”
“Never better to me,” thought Gertrude, as she looked wistfully in the doctor’s eyes. ”

“ If she marries now, it will be the man who has stolen away her heart.”
There was no news that evening when the lawyer came from town, seeming quite to have settled down now to the place, and making but rare references to his departure. Gertrude had just come in from a visit to Bruno, who had altered wonderfully during the past few days; and as she came in, it was plain to see the heart was light which animated her step, telling the thoughtful of the calm and satisfied waiting of the heart for that which was to be.
“I thought Doctor Lawrence was coming down with you, Mr Hampton?” she cried. ”

“ I can only say now that I am George Harrington.”
Gertrude, in spite of herself, gave him a pitying glance, to which he responded by one so bold and masterful that he felt for the moment as if held, and the colour, which had been absent from her cheeks for weeks, slowly began to mantle there.
“Here, stop a bit, sir. This is The Mynns. I came and stayed here once.”
“Ah!” said the lawyer slowly; “then you recollect all about the place?”
“No,” said the young man thoughtfully, “I was such a little kidling. No; I don’t recollect anything. I don’t know, though; have you any portrait of the old man? ”

“ Gertrude’s coming was sufficient to take his attention directly, and he suffered himself to be led back to his quarters.
“I seem very rude,” was on Gertrude’s lips as she reached the dining-room door, but the words were not spoken, for she stood, chained, as it were, to the spot, listening to the doctor’s words.
“No, Hampton,” he said, “we medical men know too much of nature to be superstitious; but I have known cases where a dog has seemed to have a strange presage of death.” ”

“ Hardly flinched, and I know I must have hurt him a good deal.”
“He has always been so patient while I bathed his head, and bandaged the cut.”
“Yes; he knows. There, old chap, you’ll know me again, eh?”
Bruno licked the hand which took hold of his muzzle, and whined softly.
“See that, Miss Bellwood?”
“Yes, it is his way of thanking you for what you have done.”
“No, I think not. It is his way of showing you that I am not an impostor. No dog would make such friends with a rogue.”
“Are we not giving him the credit of having too much sense?” said Gertrude archly. ”