Renshaw

“ The sound approached nearer, and the next moment a white veiled figure with a trailing skirt slowly swept past the room. Renshaw's pulses halted for an instant in half superstitious awe. As the apparition glided on and vanished in the cabin door he could only see that it was the form of a beautiful and graceful woman—but nothing more. Bewildered and curious, he forgot himself so far as to follow it, and impulsively entered the cabin. The figure turned, uttered a little cry, threw the veil aside, and showed the half troubled, half blushing face of Rosey. ”

“ Dunstan Renshaw.
Then everything altered. I love you—I love you! In all the world there is nothing for me but you—you make my day or my night by the opening or the closing of your eyes. There is nothing for me but you! I worship you!
[The man is heard again singing to the mandolin. Leslie shudders and tries to go.]
Dunstan Renshaw.
Don’t leave me! You won’t leave me! I can’t live away from you. Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me! Mercy! [He kneels to her.] I repent! [104] Help me to begin a new life! I’m young; I won’t die till I’ve made amends. ”

“ I like it much better here."
"But you cannot bury yourself here forever, Miss Nott," said Renshaw with a sudden burst of honest enthusiasm. "Sooner or later you will be forced to go where you will be properly appreciated, where you will be admired and courted, where your slightest wish will be law. Believe me, without flattery, you don't know your own power."
"It doesn't seem strong enough to keep even the little I like here," said Rosey with a slight glistening of the eyes. "But," she added hastily, "you don't know how much the dear old ship is to me. ”

“ Could it be possible that Sleight had always suspected him, and set spies to watch—or was he guilty of some double intrigue?
"He thinks," continued Rosey, with a faint smile, "that some one is looking round the ship, and talks of setting bear-traps. I hope you're not mad, Mr. Renshaw," she added, suddenly catching sight of his changed expression, "at my foolishness in saying you reminded me of the pirate. I meant nothing."
"I know you're incapable of meaning anything but good to anybody, Miss Nott, perhaps to me more than I deserve," said Renshaw, with a sudden burst of feeling. ”

“ Sleight was in physical danger. But before he had finished speaking Renshaw's quick sense of the ludicrous had so far overcome his first indignation as to enable him even to admire the perfect moral insensibility of his companion. As he rose and walked towards the door, he half wondered that he had ever treated the affair seriously. With a smile he replied:
"Far from bluffing, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I've passed out. Let some other man take my hand. Rake down the pot if you like, old man, I leave for Sacramento to-night. Adios." ”

“ Renshaw listened, lost between shame for his late suspicions and admiration for her thoughtful delicacy, until she began to speak of de Ferrieres's strange allusions to the foreign papers in his portmanteau. "I think some were law papers, and I am almost certain I saw the word Callao printed on one of them."
"It may be so," said Renshaw, thoughtfully. "The old Frenchman has always passed for a harmless, wandering eccentric. ”

“ Come along, Mr. Renshaw." Pushing him with paternal gentleness from the cabin, with his hand still upon his shoulder, he followed him into the passage. Half annoyed at his familiarity, yet not altogether displeased by this illustration of Rosey's belief of his preference, Renshaw wonderingly accompanied him. Nott closed the door, and pushing the young man into a chair, deliberately seated himself at the table opposite. "It's jist as well that Rosey reckons that you and me is settlin' our accounts," he began, cunningly, "and mebbee it's just ez well ez she should reckon you're goin' away." ”

“ That's what I sed to myself when I seed how things were pintin'. 'Speak out,' sez I, 'Abner! Speak out if you've got anything to say. You kin trust this yer Mr. Renshaw. He ain't the kind of man to creep into the bosom of a man's ship for pupposes of his own. He ain't a man that would hunt round until he discovered a poor man's treasure, and then try to rob—'"
"Stop!" said Renshaw, with a set face and darkening eyes. "WHAT treasure? WHAT man are you speaking of?"
"Why Rosey and Mr. Ferrers," returned Nott, simply. ”

“ It seemed to mock—this voice of the earth’s antagonist—mock, in triumphant derision, the forlorn hope which that solemn invocation had roused in the girl’s heart. But in contending against Mrs. Renshaw’s knowledge of the Psalms even the North Sea had met its match. With her pale face uplifted and a wild light in her eyes, she continued to utter the old melodious incantations with their constant references to a Power more formidable than “all thy waves and storms.” ”

“ Renshaw had taken the loft, he did not seem in haste to occupy it. He spent part of the morning in uneasily pacing his room, in occasional sallies into the street from which he purposelessly returned, and once or twice in distant and furtive contemplation of Rosey at work in the galley. This last observation was not unnoticed by the astute Nott, who at once conceiving that he was nourishing a secret and hopeless passion for Rosey, began to consider whether it was not his duty to warn the young man of her preoccupied affections. ”

“ It seemed to be used as a store-room, and Renshaw's eye was caught by a trunk the size and shape of the one that had provided Rosey with the materials of her masquerade. Pointing to it, Mr. Nott said in a grave whisper: "This yer trunk is the companion trunk to Rosey's. She's got the things them opery women wears; this yer contains the he things, the duds and fixins o' the men o' the same stripe." Throwing it open he continued: "Now, Mr, Renshaw, gals is gals; it's nat'ral they should be took by fancy dress and store clothes on young chaps as on theirselves. ”

“ Renshaw. Father is forgetful at times. But tell me about last night."
In a few words Mr. Renshaw briefly but plainly related the details of the attempt upon the Pontiac, from the moment that he had been awakened by Nott, to his discovery of the unknown trespasser's flight by the open door to the loft. When he had finished, he hesitated, and then taking Rosey's hand, said impulsively, "You will not be angry with me if I tell you all? Your father firmly believes that the attempt was made by the old Frenchman, De Ferrières, with a view of carrying you off." ”

“ Her eyes had so strange and illumined an expression as she uttered these words that Nance could not help shuddering.
“We, too,” she murmured, “fall into depths of horror sometimes and it is men who drive us into them.”
Mrs. Renshaw did not seem to hear her. She went on dreamily.
“We can console ourselves. We have our duties. We have our little things which must be done. God has given to these little things a peculiar consecration. He has touched them with his breath so that they are full of unexpected consolations. ”

“ Dunstan Renshaw.
Why, of course I am troubled.
Leslie.
About nothing worse than leaving me?
Dunstan Renshaw.
Isn’t that bad enough?
Leslie.
[Giving him a bunch of flowers.] For you. [To Hugh.] Is it unbusiness-like to give you a flower?
Hugh Murray.
Thank you.
[Weaver enters dressed for travelling.]
Weaver.
The carriage is at the door, sir.
Dunstan Renshaw.
Send it round to the gate. I will walk with Mrs. Renshaw through the garden.
[Weaver retires.]
Leslie.
Wilfrid is here to amuse you, Mr. Murray, if I am poor company. Must you leave us too?
Hugh Murray. ”

“ Bella saw the uselessness of further resistance, and, like a sensible girl, she capitulated without another word.
When Friday morning broke clear and sunny, Lady Renshaw’s good temper, which seemed somehow to have evaporated in the rain and fog of the previous day, came back to her in a lump as it were. She spent an extra half-hour over the mysteries of her toilet, donned one of her most becoming costumes, and descended to the breakfast-room, on conquest bent. But, alas, when she reached the room she found no one there to conquer; the enemy was nowhere to be seen. ”

“ I only meant if you had taken me into your confidence it would have been better."
"Might I not say the same to you regarding your friend, the old Frenchman?" returned Renshaw. "What if I were to confess to you that I lately suspected him of knowing the secret, and of trying to gain your assistance?"
Instead of indignantly repudiating the suggestion, to the young man's great discomfiture, Rosey only knit her pretty brows, and remained for some moments silent. Presently she asked timidly—
"Do you think it wrong to tell another person's secret for their own good?"
"No," said Renshaw, promptly. ”

“ Never in her life had Lady Renshaw felt herself so much like an intruder. She recovered herself somewhat behind the shelter of a little cough. Then she said: ‘Before explaining my intrusion, allow me to introduce my niece, Miss Wynter.’
The two ladies bowed, and the eyes of the elder one kindled with a smile. There was something in the girl’s face that attracted her.
‘An adventuress indeed!’ exclaimed Bella to herself. ‘Aunt never made a greater mistake in her life.’
Her ladyship had recovered her fluency by this time. ”

“ I’m dashed if my pious young Scotch solicitor isn’t in love with the girl himself.
[Ephgraves comes from the clerk’s office.]
Hugh Murray.
Mr. Renshaw?
Ephgraves.
Yes.
[9]
Lord Dangars.
Dunstan!
Dunstan Renshaw.
[Speaking outside.] Why, George!
[Dunstan Renshaw enters as Ephgraves retires. He is a handsome young man with a buoyant self-possessed manner, looking not more than thirty, but with the signs of a dissolute life in his face; his clothes are fashionable and suggest the bridegroom.]
Dunstan Renshaw.
Congratulate you! So the law has turned you into a jolly old bachelor? ”

“ Bridge, when it’s obviously so very old? Do you remember that, Mr. Renshaw?”
He looked at her curiously, screwing up his eyes and wrinkling his forehead. “My mother told me you’d come back,” he muttered. “She was always fond of you. She used to hope—well, you know what I mean.”
“That I’d marry Captain Herrick?” Miss Doorm threw in. “Don’t be afraid to say it. The dead can’t hear us and except the dead, there’s none who cares. Yes, she hoped that, and schemed for it, too, dear soul. But it was not to be, Mr. Renshaw. ”

“ How do you know he doesn’t want you now? How do you know he’s not waiting for you now over there by the pines? Take care, my girl! Mr. Renshaw isn’t a man you can play with, as you played with those boys in London. It’ll be you who’ll do the whining and crying this time. The day’s near when you’ll be on your knees to him begging [164] and begging for what you’ll never get! Did you think that a chit of a child like you, just because you’ve got soft hair and white skin, could keep and hold a man like that?
“Don’t say afterwards that Rachel Doorm hadn’t warned you. ”

“ I'm not going to Sacramento. I shall stay here, old man, until I see you safe through the business, or my name's not Dick Renshaw. There's my hand on it! Don't say a word. Maybe it is no more than I ought to do—perhaps not half enough. Only remember, not a word of this to your daughter. She must believe that I leave to-night. And the sooner you get her out of this cursed ship the better."
"Deacon Flint's girls are goin' up in to-night's boat. I'll send Rosey with them," said Nott, with a cunning twinkle. Renshaw nodded. Nott seized his hand with a wink of unutterable significance. ”

“ You will like that much better than staying in London."
"There is no reason why I should not like to stay in London," said Renshaw, with an angry glance.
"No reason in the world, that I can see."
"I am going out to India--to Bombay. I proceed to Aden by the 'Oceana,' and there I exchange into the 'Cylde.'"
"It is really very good of you to tell me all this, doctor," said Fanks, ironically; "I trust that you will have a pleasant voyage."
Renshaw looked nonplussed and a trifle disappointed at the coolness of the detective. It was Fank's intention to bring about this feeling ”

“ The two men looked at each other. "Seein' ez I've turned the Pontiac over to Sleight jist as it stands, I don't know ez it's 'zactly on the square," said Nott doubtfully.
"You've a right to know at least what you deliver to him," interrupted Renshaw, brusquely. "Bring a lantern."
Followed by Rosey, Renshaw and Nott hurriedly sought the lower deck and the open hatch of the forehold. The two men leaped down first with the lantern, and then assisted Rosey to descend. Renshaw took a step forward and uttered a cry. ”

“ Atherton said.
"I will fetch it," Mrs. Renshaw broke in, hurrying away. "No, Milly," she said, as the child who had been ordered to stay with the basket came running to meet her. "You must stay here for a little while. The natives have all run away, but your father is hurt and for a time must be kept quite quiet. I will send Wilfrid to sit with you."
Taking a bottle of water and a cloth which covered the basket, Mrs. Renshaw hurried back. "Wilfrid," she said, "do you go and sit with the little one. You can do no good here, and look completely worn out. ”

“ Renshaw's suggestion that he keep in touch with the paper during his vacation. He was adamant. He had seen copies of Peaceful Moments once or twice, and refused to permit a man in Mr. Renshaw's state of health to come in contact with Luella Granville Waterman's "Moments in the Nursery" and B. Henderson Asher's "Moments of Mirth."
"You must forget that such a paper exists," he said. "You must dismiss the whole thing from your mind, live in the open, and develop some flesh and muscle." ”