Eldred

“ Though they had been together for years, sharing hardships and fortunes, and though Dimmock knew many of the secrets which Eldred held in his heart, there was ever between them that gulf which separates conscious master from conscious man, and when he entered the room, the red-haired fisherman closed the door and paused with that hesitancy which may indicate respect or fear or both. ”

“ Fired by the notion, she made one or two ineffectual dabs at the woman's draperies: then, flinging down brush and palette, sank into a deep, cushioned chair sacred to her husband, as a small table bearing ash-tray, pipes, and a pile of corrected proofs, bore witness. She glanced through them lazily, with softened eyes: then, as if drawn by a magnet, her gaze returned to the picture.
"Horrid depressing thing!" the reflected. "And yet . . how attractive! The general character of it is rather like Eldred himself. ”

“ Who asked for it, Eldred? Plain understandin' suits me, an' that's what we've got. You called me up here to make your offer. Eldred, tell me this: Do you want the Annabelle so badly now that you know her master?”
Eldred's red lips stirred, showing a gleam of white teeth.
“Knowing her master, and having him come this way, defiant and prejudiced, makes me want his hooker twice as badly.” The trader sniffed. “But you have mentioned stories; you have listened to them, and perhaps that is as well. Things have happened to men who come here as you have come—insolently, looking for trouble. ”

“ They would sit about the stove in cold weather, on the steps in fair, and yarn and expound and argue, while behind the counter the girl stood, outwardly indifferent to them, outwardly cool and collected, outwardly contemptuous and with something like her father's detached assurance. Those things the men saw and, knowing that she was backed by Eldred's strength, none seemed curious to look further. A more careful observer, however—such as Mosseau had been—could have seen indications of misgiving. ”

“ And there are others, Eldred. She'd have knifed me that night I brought her here. She drove a bargain with me for help, and she'd have knifed me before she said. She's that kind—yes! And that's the thing, likely, that lets her conspire with firebugs to draw men away from their boats while you put in your dirty licks!” The bitterness here was as pronounced as his unacknowledged love had been a moment before.
A new thrill ran through Eldred, but he did not so much as lift his gaze from the rail of his skiff, though the eyes narrowed slightly. So MacKinnon suspected innocent Eve, did he? ”

“ Eldred has unexpectedly gone to her mother."
Meanwhile he resigned his charge, much to the sorrow and dismay of all. He disposed of all the elegant furnishings of the parsonage, and with haste left the spot that had been the scene of an exquisite torture. No defined plans were before him, save to get far away from any who could have had the least knowledge of him previously. No fugitive from justice ever felt more nervous haste. He pushed on, never pausing till he reached the very verge of civilisation in the far south-west. ”

“ Then, one spring night, a storm compelled young MacKinnon to seek shelter in Eldred's harbor—the very place he had been warned to keep away from, for some years before his father had been lured to his death there by Eldred.
Eve liked David from the first, and Eldred resented this. Before two days were over, things came to a climax. David protected Eve from the advances of a French-Canadian, Mosseau, and just then her father realized her feelings for the stranger. Followed the burning of the Annabelle and the casting-out of the girl. Then it was that David had taken her to High Island. ”

“ Nobody can keep on without a heart. Just one thing she seemed to care about in those days—that Eldred didn't take the last of us, which was me. She'd talk about what I was goin' to do when she was gone and planned school and things for me that'd take me off the lakes, and make me promise over and over that I'd never set foot on the Beavers. ”

“ Sir Eldred replied. “I cannot say definitely, for I have never inquired. I have no first cousins, and I know nothing about any others.”
“That is rather odd,” I observed, “not to know who succeeds you. Now, tell me—of whom does your household at the Caspar Beeches consist?”
“The butler Parry, his wife, who is housekeeper, and four other servants.” ”

“ Mr. Eldred paced the entry, read all the notices, consulted his watch, sat and gazed up the staircase, did all that a very impatient man could, until some twenty minutes had run out. At last he addressed himself to the doorkeeper and inquired if it was a very long way to that part of the library to which Mr. Garrett had gone.
‘Well, I was thinking it was funny, sir: he’s a quick man as a rule, but to be sure he might have been sent for by the librarian, but even so I think he’d have mentioned to him that you was waiting. ”

“ As a matter of fact, he was himself in the vestibule when Mr Eldred arrived, very soon after the library opened, and when hardly anyone besides the staff were in the building.
'I'm very sorry,' he said; 'it's not often that I make such a stupid mistake, but I did feel sure that the old gentleman I saw took out that very book and kept it in his hand without opening it, just as people do, you know, sir, when they mean to take a book out of the library and not merely refer to it. ”

“ What had he done to Eve? What was this terrible thing he had brought upon her? For it must be terrible—else that woman would never have looked like that.
He found himself walking slowly down the path to the dock, and when, once aboard his boat and under way again, he reached to drag a stool so he might sit as he wheeled, his movements were those of a man who is very weary, whose heart is gone.
ELDRED had watched David go into the darkness of the night before with anger in his eyes, but after a moment a sort of elation came to replace it. ”

“ His eyes held steadily on David's face, and the boy lifted a hand to rub his chin with the finger-backs.
“Yeah? Go on.”
“That's it; that's what I came to say. Turn her over to me now, unharmed, and I can forget. I can forget, boy, as well as I can remember.”
“Lucky!” David laughed. “Damned lucky! I can't, Eldred. I can't forget a thing, let alone the burnin' of my hooker. And besides, anyhow, it's new and comfortable to have a woman round the place, doin' things.”
ONE of Eldred's oars slipped from his grasp. ”

“ So he set fire to his hooker—and under such circumstances that David believed Eve assisted him in the dastardly act. And then, when the girl continued to show her liking for the young fellow, Eldred in rage cast her out, and David took her over to neighboring High Island—away, as she had begged him to—where he kept her prisoner but treated her with all chivalry, in revenge upon Eldred. ”

“ Eldredge's mental condition, her evidence was the same as theirs. I had already seen for myself, by the aid of what you had told me, Mrs. Eldredge's position in this household, after leaving your office to become your wife. On entering your house, she was brought face to face with a woman already in control here—a strong and dominant woman, who had immense influence over you. ”

“ He began to wipe his palms on his hips in excitement, and after a moment he laughed briefly, as a man will who is recovering from severe fright.
“Of course!” he said aloud. “A skiff's gone, and she's gone, and the other day the old girl told her she could come there. It was Eldred who broke down this door, and she got away—she got away!”
He went out hastily to rout his men once more.
What will be the outcome of the desperate game that David and_Eldred are playing? See the concluding instalment of “The Beloved Pawn” in February Everybody's—out January 15th. ”

“ I believe they like us because we're Ardens. Or is it because Edred's a lord?"
"We must find the treasure," said Edred, looking as he always did when he was very much in earnest, so like his father that Aunt Edith could hardly bear it—"so as to be able to look after our people properly."
"And to kick out the Tallow King," said Elfrida.
"But you won't be discontented if you don't find it," said Aunt Edith. "It's only a sort of game really. No one I ever knew ever found a treasure. And think what we've found already! Arden Castle instead of Sea View Terrace—and the lodgers. Good-night, chicks." ”

“ Eight years had passed since the king's marriage with Elfrida, and the one child born to them was now seven, the darling of his parents, Ethelred the angelic child, who to the end of his long life would be praised for one thing only—his personal beauty. But Edward, his half-brother, now in his thirteenth year, was regarded by her with an almost equal affection, on account of his beauty and charm, his devotion to his step-mother, the only mother he had known, and, above all, for his love of his little half-brother. ”

“ What's the real poetry like?"
"'The mole, the mole,
He lives in a hole.
The mole is blind;
I don't mind,'"
said Edred sulkily. "Auntie told me it the day you went to her with Mrs. Harrison."
"I'm sure you ought to make it up all your self. You see, the mole doesn't come."
"There isn't any mole," said Edred.
"Let's both think hard. I'm sure I could make poetry—if I knew how to begin."
"If any one's got to make it, it's me," said Edred. "You're not Lord Arden."
"You're very unkind," said Elfrida, and Edred knew she was right. ”

“ Elfrida rose ecstatic, clasping her hands.
“’Tis he himself!” she cried, and advancing, as the curtain parted, almost ran into the arms of her husband Athelwold.
He was tall, sinewy, pale-haired and lashed. His tunic of fine cramasie was torn, his gold garters trailed; he looked like a man in the last extreme of haste and agitation. He took the wondering beauty in his arms, and gazed into her face, searchingly, passionately. ”

“ They saw themselves in blue silk and lace and black velvet, and they saw on their own faces fear and love, and the wonder what was to happen next. They saw themselves embraced by the grown-ups, who were quite plainly father and mother—they saw themselves speak, and the grown-ups reply.
"I'd give all my pocket-money for a year to hear what they're saying," Edred told himself.
"That daddy's just like my daddy," Elfrida was telling herself; "and just like the daddy in the Tower that was so like my own daddy." ”

“ By the goodness of my white father, whom I am proud to hope you may some time see with me in your settlement, I have all the comforts and indulgences that a heart at ease could desire; warm, carpeted rooms, dress, books, company, smooth flatterers, who mean little, it may be, together with real friends, who mean much, and prove it by actions, which do not, like words, ever deceive. And yet, Mrs. Elwood, they are all now without any charms for me. My heart is in your settlement. The grand old forest, and the bright lake, were always things of beauty for me, before I saw him ”

“ I allude chiefly to the passionate expression of particular portions, to delineation of character, and to occasional scenic effect; in construction, (that is to say, plot,) in general conduct and plausibility, the play fails — comparatively, of course, for the hand of genius is evinced throughout.
The story is the well-known one of Edgar, Elfrida and Earl Athelwood. The king, hearing of Elfrida's extraordinary beauty, commissions his favorite, Athelwood, to visit her and ascertain if report speaks truly of her charms. ”

“ So I said:
"Master Ellgood, we have met before."
And when he regarded me steadfastly, yet without any sign of knowing me, I said, "Do you remember one Dashwood at Copredy Bridge?"
"Ay," said he, "as gallant a gentleman as ever sat on horseback. He saved me when I was in no small peril of my life, and gave me as courteous treatment as prisoner ever had, and settled for me my exchange, so that my captivity had scarce begun when it was ended. I hope that he is in good health and prosperity. But you are not he; you must be younger by a score of years at the least." ”

“ Shall I not be merry, when steel, and nobility, and a wife are put upon my shoulders?”
“My lord groweth complimentary,” said Elfrida, hardly able to speak for laughter. “I do feel afraid that the air of Kennet Hold, and the drink it affords, have somewhat unsettled his brains!”
“Beautiful Elfrida,” said the bridegroom, “true it is that the brains of Sir Reginald had a terrible knock this day, and thy brother knows whence it came; but we will forget these quarrelsome topics, and give up the evening to merriment. My brains are as firm as thine own. Marry, the wine is marvellous good!” ”

“ He was a brown-faced, sturdy, sailor-looking man, with a short pigtail sticking out from the back of his head like the china handle of a Japanese teapot.
“Oh, yes,” said Elfrida, and Edred did not say “Oh, no.”
“Then just you wait till I’m out of sight, and then come down the way you see me go. Go long same as if you was after butterflies or the like—a bit this way and a bit that—see?” said the man. And they obeyed.
Alas! too few children in those uninteresting times of ours have ever been in a smuggler’s cave. To Edred and to Elfrida it was as great a novelty as it would be to you or to me. ”

“ It is always difficult to remember exactly where one is when one happens to get into a century that is not one’s own.
Edred would have liked to stay all day watching the busyness of every one and the beautifulness of the horses, but Elfrida dragged him away.
They had to find the witch, she reminded him; and in a dreadful tumble-down cottage, with big holes in its roof of rotten thatch, they did find her. ”