Robert Buchanan

“ Sutherland rose to his feet, crushing the paper between his clenched hands.
‘It is simply devilish,’ he cried. ‘O that I had the ruffian by the throat! I would choke him like a dog!’
‘I grant you it is horrible,’ said Crieff, ‘but what does it mean?’
‘Cannot you see? It is an infernal plot to ruin an unhappy woman.’
‘There is no doubt as to whom it points?’
‘None.’
‘Diana Vere was her stage name, you see? But is there any truth————’
‘Truth? Do you expect it from these vermin? Their end is calumny, torture their delight. ”

“ She tore herself free from his hold, and moved towards the vestry door.
‘You are a brave man,’ she said, ‘to threaten a woman! But the law will protect me from you, and I shall claim my rights!’ Pale as death, he blocked her passage.
‘Let me pass!’ she cried.
‘Not yet. Before you go, you shall tell me what you mean to do!’
‘Never mind,’ she answered, setting her lips together.
‘I will know. Do you mean to proclaim my infamy to the world?’
‘I mean,’ she replied, ‘to prevent you from passing yourself off as a free man, when you are bound to me. Our marriage has never been dissolved ”

“ Here Marshall turned with a wink to William Jones, and nudged him in the ribs.
“Don’t you think now,” he asked, “it might be worth while looking for it in that little underground parlour of yours, down alongside the sea?”
William Jones uttered a despairing groan, and fell on his knees.
“I’m ruined!” he cried. “Oh, Mr. Monk, it’s your doing! Lord help me! They knows everything.”
“Curse you, hold your tongue!” said Monk, with a look of mad contempt and hatred. “These men are only playing upon your fears, but they cannot frighten me.” ”

“ Presently, without turning his eyes again from the far distance, the man spoke in a husky, far-away whisper:—
“Matt, do you see summat out yonder?” Matt strained her gaze through the dazzling sunlight, but failed to discern any object on the light expanse of water.
“Look ye now,” continued the man; “it may be drifting weed, or it may be wreck; but it’s summat. Look again.”
“Summat black, William Jones?”
“Yes. Coming and going. Now it comes, and it’s black; now it goes, and the water looks white where it was. If it isn’t wreck, it’s weed; if it ain’t weed, it’s wreck. ”

“ Matt’s answer was embarrassing. She quietly sat down on his knee, and gave him a smacking kiss.
“Matt! Matt!” he cried. “You mustn’t!”
But she put her warm arm round his neck, and rested her cheek against his shoulder.
“I should like to have pretty dresses and gold bracelets and things, and to go away from William Jones and to stay with you.”
“My dear,” said Brinkley, laughing, “you couldn’t. It wouldn’t be proper.”
“Why not?” asked Matt simply.
“The world is censorious little one. I am a young man, you are a young lady. We shall have to shake hands soon and say good-bye. ”

“ Eustasia, the medium, was calmly leaning back in her chair. In a moment, however, she started, put her hand quickly to her forehead as if in pain, and seemed to emerge from her trance.
‘Salem,’ she cried in her own natural voice, ‘has anything happened?’
‘Mr. Bradley has broken the conditions, that’s all,’ returned the Professor, with an air of offended dignity. ‘I do protest, ladies and gentlemen, against that interruption. It has brought a most interesting seance to a violent close.’
There was a general murmur from the company, and dissatisfied glances were cast at the offender. ”

“ You ain’t been out all night for nothing.”
The girl gave him a look half of defiance, half of curiosity; then she threw herself down, rather than sat, upon a chair.
“I’m tired, I am,” she said; “and hungry, and cold!”
“Will you tell me where you’ve been, Matt?” cried William Jones, trembling with suspicious alarm.
“‘Course I will, if you keep quiet,” said the girl in answer. “There ain’t much to tell neither. I were away along to Pencroes when the heavy rain came on, then I lay down behind a haystack and fell asleep, and when I woke up it was daylight, and I came home.” ”

“ He gently disengaged himself, and Matt sat down on a camp stool close by. Her face had grown very wistful and sad, “Matt,” he said, anxious to change the subject, “tell me something more about William Jones.”
“I hate William Jones. I hate everybody—but you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, I feel greatly flattered. But about the gentle Jones? You say he was out all last night.”
Matt nodded.
“He goes out nigh every night,” she said, “and often don’t come home till morning, Sometimes he finds things and brings ’em. He finds bits o’ gold and old ropes and bottles o’ rum.” ”

“ She was certainly an extraordinary young person, and wore her mysterious finery with a coolness I thought remarkable, it being quite clear, from her explanation, that all was fish that came to her net, or, in other words, that dead men’s clothes were as acceptable to her unprejudiced taste as any others. However, the time was hastening on, and I had my promise to keep. So I got my crayon materials, and made Matt sit down before me on a stool, first insisting, however, that she should divest herself of her head-gear, which was an abomination, but which she discarded with extreme reluctance. ”

“ It would demonstrate, at all events, that our experience does not cease with the body, which limits its area so much.’
Eustasia sighed wearily, and folding her thin hands on her knee, looked wearily at the fire, which flickered faintly in the grate. With all her candour of speech, she still presented to her interlocutor an expression of mysterious evasiveness. Nor was there any depth in her complaining sorrow. It seemed rather petulant and shallow than really solemn and profound.
‘I wish you wouldn’t talk about it,’ she said. ‘Talk to me about yourself, Mr. Bradley. ”

“ I’ll send ye all ye can want by a sure hand. Kiss your son, and say good-bye to him for a day or twa. Trust to me!’
Desmond and his mother took each other again in their arms, and for a minute the deep silence of the night was broken only by the babble of the brook and the sound of their sobs and kisses. Then the old mill, which had been blazing furiously, though unheeded, fell in upon itself with a thunderous crash.
‘Lord save us!’ cried Peebles, ‘come awa’ if ye don’t want the countryside about us! It’s jest a wonder that naebody’s come already. Hoot! ”

“ In the second place, you attempted murder, at any rate. But upon my life, I don’t think you are worth prosecuting. I think, Mr. Marshall, you might let him go.”
“It’s letting a mad dog loose, sir,” replied Marshall. “He’ll hurt somebody.”
“What do you say, Miss Monk?” said Brinkley. “This amiable-looking person is your father’s cousin. Shall I release your bridegroom, in order that you may go with him to the altar of Hymen and complete the ceremony?”
“I hate him,” cried Matt; “I should like to drown him in the sea.” ”

“ Conscious of his dream he blushed while greeting her with a friendly nod.
“Well, Matt? Here again, eh?” he said; adding to himself, “This won’t do at all, my gentleman; if the young person continues to appear daily, the caravan will have to ‘move on.’”
Matt had evidently something on her mind. After looking at Brinkley thoughtfully for some few minutes, she exclaimed abruptly—
“William Jones don’t like you neither. No more does William Jones’s father.” ”

“ Robert Buchanan's ban as a pessimistic young man, has a power of observation truly marvellous, and as this faculty is combined with another equally rare—that of recording what he observes with caustic and brilliant touches—the result is easy to imagine. ”

“ It came nearer and nearer, then it ceased close to the abbey wall; and, almost simultaneously, the white steed threw forth his head and neighed aloud.
The woman smiled happily, and patted his neck with her gloved hand.
A minute passed. Then through the great archway slowly came another rider, a man. On seeing the first comer, he rose in the saddle and waved his hand; then leaping down, he threw his reins over an iron hook fixed in the wall, and came swiftly through the long grass.
A tall man of about thirty, wrapt in a dark riding cloak and wearing a broad-brimmed clerical hat. ”

“ Monk?”
“Ever since I come ashore,” was the reply.
“Humph! Is he well-to-do?—rich?”
Matt nodded emphatically.
“All Abertaw belongs to him,” she said; “and the woods up there, and the farms, and the horses up at the big house, and—everything.”
“And though he is such a great person he is very friendly with William Jones?”
“Oh yes,” answered Matt; “and I think William Jones is afraid of him—sometimes; but he gives William Jones money for keeping me.”
“Oh, indeed! He gives him money, does he? That’s rather kind of him, you know.” ”

“ William Jones fidgeted a bit, then he said—
“They’re put where you won’t find ’em. Look ye now, Matt, you’d better be doin’ summat more useful than runnin’ about after a painter chap. I was down on the shore this morning, and I seen heaps o’ wood—you’d best get some of it afore night!”
Matt gave a snort, but said nothing. A few minutes later her benign protector left the cottage, and a little after he had disappeared Matt issued forth; but instead of beating the shore for firewood, as she had been told to do, she ran across the fields to the painter. ”

“ He threw down his brush, rose and stretched himself, and said—
“Look here, Matt, I’m tired of work. The sun shining on those sand-hills and on the far-off sea is too tempting. I shall go for a walk, and you, if you are in the mood, shall be my guide.”
She evidently was in the mood, for she was on her feet in an instant.
“All right, master,” she said, “I’ll go.”
“Very well.—Tim, bring forth some refreshment. We will refresh the inner man and girl before we start.”
Tim disappeared into the caravan. ”

“ Placing the box down, William Jones carefully covered it with a portion of an old sail.
“It’s summat, but it ain’t much,” he muttered discontentedly. “Lucky them coastguards didn’t see me come ashore. If they did, though, it wouldn’t signify; for what’s floating on the sea belongs to him as finds it.”
A sound startled him as he spoke, and looking round suspiciously he saw Matt entering the room, loaded with broken wood. But she was not alone; standing behind her in the shadow was a man—none other, indeed, than Monk of Monkshurst. ”

“ One of the last of the true Bohemians, a man of undoubted genius, he never learned the trick of wearing fine linen and touting for popularity; but those who value good work hold him in grateful remembrance, and I am proud to think that so great a master in black and white honoured me by associating himself with a book of mine.
Robert Buchanan.
ORIGINALLY PREFACED TO SAINT ABE AND HIS SEVEN WIVES. TESTIMONIES OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS.
I. From P—————t G———t, U.S. Smart. Polygamy is Greek for Secesh. ”

“ In the commotion which ensued Gavrolles slipped away, stepped into a hansom, and was driven off.
‘Keep back—give her air!’ cried Sutherland. ‘Does any one know where she lives?’
At this moment the woman whom he had first seen in her company stepped forward.
‘Yes, monsieur, we lodge together. Look up, Adèle! What ails you?’
‘Help me to take her home,’ said Sutherland, in a low voice.
The policeman called a cab, and Sutherland raised the girl in his arms and placed her in it; then he stepped in himself, followed by the other woman. ”

“ Strange as the fancy may seem to you, I should like for once in my life to stand face to face with a real live wrecker.”
They made their way back along the coast, until they reached William Jones’s cottage. Here they paused, principally for Brinkley to take a glance at the quaint dwelling, then they crossed the threshold. What sort of a place he had got into, it was utterly impossible for Brinkley to tell; it was so dark, he could see nothing. Having crossed the threshold, therefore, he paused; but Matt went fearlessly forward, struck a light, and ignited the rushlight on the table. ”

“ Third party proceeds leisurely with his dinner, only addressing the waiter in monosyllables. He is a man of thirty, of splendid physique and perfect health. He seems to see and hear nothing, but all the time his eyes and ears are wide open. He starts when the young lady—whom he has been watching quietly—speaks in the English tongue.
‘The chambermaid says there is a train from this place to Rouen. It leaves at daybreak, Monsieur Belleisle.’
‘We will talk of that to-morrow,’ murmurs the Frenchman, with his mouth full. ”

“ As he turned to go, his eye fell for the first time on her attire.
“What’s this, Matt? What are you doing in your Sunday clothes?”
The girl was at a loss how to reply. She blushed scarlet and hung down her head. Fortunately for her the man was too absorbed in his main object of thought to catechize her further. He only shook his fat head in severe disapprobation, and led the way down to a small creek in the rocks, where a rough coble was rocking, secured by a rusty chain. ”

“ Matt shook her head again. Once more the young man was lost in meditation. Doubtless it was owing to his abstraction of mind that he quietly placed his arm round Matt’s waist, and kept it there. At first Matt went very red, then she glanced up at his face, and saw that his eyes were fixed thoughtfully on the distant sand-hills. Seeing he still kept silence, she moved a little closer to him, and said very quietly—“I didn’t tell William Jones that you—kissed me!”
Brinkley started from his abstraction, and looked at the girl’s blushing face. ”