George R. Sims

“ Lying with his head upon his paws stretched out in front of his young mistress, is an old dog, who has his meat cut very small for him, and who now and then wags his tail with a stateliness suitable to grey hairs, but whose old eyes brighten still with a fond look of love when a gentle hand pats him and the voice which is the sweetest music he ever heard calls ‘Lion.’ Together they form a picturesque group that arrests the attention of a very dusty, very hot, and very fat gentleman, who takes his pocket-handkerchief from his hat and mops a shiny bald head with it. ”

“ Miss Adrian sighed. She was woman of the world enough to have gathered, from Gertie’s innocent confessions, what manner of man this old dog-fancier was. She had divined, far more than the child herself knew, and had long ago felt convinced that this little flower had been reared in a den of thieves.
For a weak woman like herself to attempt the regeneration of this burly reprobate she felt would be foolish, and could lead to no good result. The chances were that she would be forbidden the place, and then Gertie would be without a friend. ”

“ Here was a man who had led a roving life, who had been under a cloud for years—a man whom Egerton had known to be in the very depths of poverty—here was this adventurer, Edward Marston, without fortune and without position, boldly aiming at both, and not hesitating to aspire to political fame.
If Marston could do all this with no advantages, what could not he, Gurth Egerton, do with the money at his command?
Here, at last, was an aim in life. He would put all the old foolish fears behind him and be somebody. ”

“ GERTIE’S BIBLE. Gertie Heckett sat by the bedside of her grandfather, holding his thin, trembling hands in hers.
It was a bright sunshiny day, and the light streamed in through the curtained window and fell upon the fair young face as it bent in gentle sympathy over the prostrate and suffering man.
Gertie had been with her grandfather all the afternoon. Much had been said. Gertie had told the old man the simple history of her later life, and how she had heard once that he had gone away never to come back any more.
The old man’s eyes never left the child’s face. ”

“ MR. GURTH EGERTON COMES TO LIFE. Gurth Egerton’s first feeling when saved from the wreck of the Bon Espoir was one of intense thankfulness that his life had been spared. But as the fearful danger to which he had been exposed receded, he began to contemplate the past less and the future considerably more.
The most terrible situations are those which fade most rapidly from the mind. A man will remember going to the dentist’s to have a tooth drawn long after he has forgotten a surgical operation in which his life was at stake. There is nothing so soon forgotten by the ordinary mind as death. ”

“ The evening of her life is far spent, and the night is at hand, but loving hands are ever ready to guide her tottering footsteps to the journey’s end.
Old Mrs. Adrian—dead to the past, dead to the future—dozes her declining days away here in this peaceful cottage, still finding a tongue that can chide for fancied slights, still in her feeble frame finding the strength to oppose and to contradict, but never failing, when she hears a gentle footstep approaching, to brighten into a smile, and to mumble out a loving word to the pale, gentle lady who bends over her and kisses the wrinkled brow. ”

“ I pity the lad or the lass whose pulse does not beat quicker on a bright spring day, whose heart does not fill to overflowing with love for Nature as he gazes on the young earth quickening into life and beauty beneath the bright smile of the early spring sun.
It was on one of those spring days that Bess and George trod the old road towards the park for the first time since their marriage. ”

“ I am the wife of George Heritage. I am the rightful mistress of these broad lands. My husband is a convict—a hunted felon. He was the victim of a vile plot, which your husband concocted. I know all now; and yet I forgive him for your sake. I want no wife’s agony on my head if it can be spared. Your husband ruined mine. I have come to save yours!’
Ruth buried her face in her hands as Bess poured out her wild words—words wrung from her heart. ”

“ As the train rushed down to the sea with them, the scene of the gold robbery came back vividly to his mind.
Something on the journey brought it to Ruth’s mind, and she spoke of it to Marston. Little did she dream how every word stabbed her husband like a knife.
She spoke first of the marvellous way in which the crime had been effected, for she had read the graphic newspaper accounts. She wondered what the thieves would do with so large a sum, and how they had managed to escape detection.
‘But it will bring them no good!’ she said. ‘I always pity the men who commit these terrible crimes. ”

“ And day by day the cough grew worse and worse, and his brawny limbs lost more and more of their strength. Long sleepless nights and days of unrest were telling on him, and at times he would lean back in the easy-chair, which Bess had wheeled to the fire for him, close his eyes, and wonder what sort of a world it was men like himself went to when they died.
Bess and George knew only a portion of their protector’s secret. They knew that he, like themselves, had been foully wronged by Marston. ”

“ His massive jaws were sunken, and the fierce eyes, large and bright with the fatal light of consumption, were set in deep violet circles. Every now and then a distressing cough shook him as a whirlwind shakes the old tree, and the great beads of perspiration caused by the paroxysm trickled down his attenuated face.
‘You’re very bad, Josh,’ said Gurth, as he sat by his side.
‘Ay, ay,’ answered the old man. ‘I’m goin’ to make a die of it, mate. Josh Heckett’s had his sentence. I’m to be put away for good and all.’
‘Have you made your will?’
‘Will!’ said the old man, almost fiercely. ”

“ Ruth, when her first paroxysm of grief was over and she could think calmly, acknowledged that it was far better that the man whom she had loved so devotedly should be lying in the green churchyard than that he should be living a hunted outcast, perhaps imprisoned in a living tomb on which the iron hand of the law had turned the key for ever.
At the grave Justice halts—beyond it neither friends can aid nor foes pursue. With all his sins upon him, Edward Marston slept the long sleep until the Great Judge should call him. ”

“ Here you have what the auctioneers would call a catalogue of the features of Ruth Adrian. Picture her thus and you will behold a marble statue; to see her as she was, a sweet and noble English woman, the beautiful spirit that was hers must animate the lifeless clay. Let truth and love shine out from the soft grey eyes, over the fair cheeks spread the glow of health and the smile of innocence, listen to the gentle words of sympathy with all God’s creatures that fall so softly from the well-shaped lips ”

“ GERTIE MAKES A PROMISE. Since the accidental meeting with Marston at the house of the dog-fancier, Heckett, Ruth Adrian had avoided the place. The sight of her old sweetheart had opened the floodgates of memory, and the torrent sweeping over her had washed away all that time in ten long years had piled above the remains of the hurried love. Once more it lay bare; once more her heart was filled with it. Her love had been so earnest, so real, it had permeated her whole being. ”

“ Ruth—my poor Ruth—for your dear sake I will forgive him all!’
For a few minutes the old man, a prey to violent emotion, the tears streaming down his face, struggled with himself. The old love he had trampled beneath the heel of supposed duty was beating at his heart and striving to enter. The wall of faith was weak to-night—it gave way, and love marched in a conqueror. ”

“ Tell him that the secret of the great gold robbery is known to Mr. Gurth Egerton, and that to-morrow he may be arrested.’
Ruth gave a cry of horror—a cry which died away on her lips as a loud rustling by the hedge announced the presence of some one—some one who had perhaps overheard all.
Ruth and her informant walked quickly away.
‘Go now,’ said the woman. ‘You have no time to lose. Let your husband fly at once. To-morrow it will be too late.’
‘Yes; I will! I will!’ cried Ruth, almost fainting with horror and grief. ”

“ Mr. Duck has come to tea this evening by special invitation, for something has occurred of the deepest interest. The firm have news of a very startling character; and what more natural than that, having called in the morning and hinted that he should perhaps have something of great importance to communicate, Mr. Duck should have been requested to come to tea that evening and have a quiet chat?
Mrs. Turvey hated to hear important intelligence on the doorstep, or to have a secret imparted to her in the vulgar daylight, when brushes and brooms were about. ”

“ Once free from this odious stigma, I can work, my darling, and make a home for you, where, with God’s help, we shall be happier than had we had the lands and the fortune my poor father willed away to the stranger—to come into the hands of the very man who was the ruin of his son. But to-morrow we shall strike the first blow for freedom. Nay, today. What time is it?’
‘Past one,’ answered Bess; ‘and there’s Mr. Egerton come with a strange gentleman to see Heckett.’
‘It’s about this business, I expect,’ answered George. ‘Heigho! I’m tired. ”

“ He dissipated a fortune in reckless extravagance, broke his wife’s heart by careless cruelty and systematic neglect, and, having brought up his son in an atmosphere of plenty, ran away from his creditors just as that son was twenty-one, and left him to shift for himself and make what he could by his brains and out of the acquaintances which he had made in his butterfly days.
Given a fair start, compelled from the outset to work for his living, young Marston might have settled down into a respectable citizen. ”

“ He shook his head sorrowfully.
‘Failure, Bess,’ he said. ‘I must leave this place to-night.’
The girl gave a little cry, and, taking the man’s arm, clung closely to him.
‘Yes, Bess; the old man’s as hard as iron. I flung myself on his mercy. I told him all. He heard what I had to say, and then turned me out like a dog. Swore I wanted to ruin him. The old miser!’
‘Hush, George—he is your father.’
‘He was, you mean. We’ve parted for ever. He says I’m no son of his. So be it. He’s no father of mine. ”

“ The clergyman surveyed his interviewer earnestly for a moment.
‘Is it a crime?’ he asked.
The passenger nodded.
‘I don’t want to die with it on my mind,’ he murmured. ‘I fancy when the—the end comes, I shall die easier.’
‘My friend,’ said the clergyman, kindly, ‘do not imagine that a confession at the last moment takes guilt from the soul. To confess a crime to one who is about to share your fate is, perhaps, rather a superstitious than a religious deed. Let us understand each other. We both believe that we are about to die. ”

“ Turvey and Topsey, her twelve-year-old niece, were the sole inhabitants of a great old-fashioned house in a street near Russell Square. Mrs. Turvey was housekeeper to Mr. Gurth Egerton, a gentleman who was travelling abroad for the benefit of his health, and feeling lonely with fourteen rooms all to herself, not to speak of cellars, dark corners, and gloomy passages, she had, in an evil hour, obtained permission of her brother, a widower and a railway guard, to take his little daughter into her keeping, and so have the echoes of the desolate mansion occasionally awakened with a human voice. ”

“ Bess Marks was no ordinary rustic beauty, or I question very much if she would have won George Heritage’s heart. She was a strong-minded, pure-hearted, clever girl—a girl who exercised a strange fascination over the young squire.
Their sweethearting was a profound secret from every one. There was enough romance in it to redeem it from vulgarity, and it was a perfectly serious affair.
No thought of harm had ever entered the young man’s breast. He had accepted the fact that he had fallen in love with a lodge-keeper’s daughter as he accepted the fact that he had got heavily into debt. ”

“ One by one, the barriers had gone down before the weapons which Marston brought to bear upon it. The old love had never died out—it had but languished awhile; and now that Ruth believed Marston to be leading a new life, and to be the brave, honest-hearted, good fellow she once prayed that he might become, she was thankful he had never met that good woman she had once prayed might be flung in his path. ”

“ Every sound terrified her. She dreaded lest the police might suddenly appear upon the scene. It seemed so cruel that, now they were united after these long years of absence, George should still be a hunted felon, with a price upon his head.
The old showman and his good wife saw how matters lay, and did their best to cheer them. Shakspeare and granny were not in the secret of the circumstances under which George had been found, and they could not understand the nervous little jumps which Bess kept giving when there was a knock next door, or the sound of a cab stopping in the street. ”

“ What could you—an adventurer, a runaway from America, a penniless schemer—say or do that would injure a man of my wealth and position? Come, what do you want? A thousand—two thousand? Name your figure, take a cheque, and disappear. You are good at disappearing, you know.’
Marston had controlled himself with difficulty for some time, but when, in stinging tones of contempt, Gurth offered him money—offered to buy Ruth of him, as it were—his calmness forsook him. With a flushed face and flashing eyes he sprang forward and seized Gurth by the shoulders. ”

“ How often the cherished dream of our life is accomplished amid surroundings which make it a hollow mockery, and only serve to intensify the bitter disappointment! We can look back upon yesterday with regret, and we can look forward to to-morrow with pleasure; but, alas! to-day is ever present, and to-day is generally a very dull affair.
George and Bess sauntered along the road, dusty, tired, and travel-stained. George’s face was white and haggard, and he had let his beard grow during the fortnight, which did not add to the picturesqueness of his appearance. ”