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 UN IVERSITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 V. (
 
 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 H IRov^el 
 
 r.Y 
 
 ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE 
 
 author of 
 'a tangled skein,' 'cut adrift,' 'had luck,' etc. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON 
 
 ^nhlishtrs in dDrbinarg to ^tr J:TaftslK iht %\m\ 
 
 1892 
 
 [A/i rights reserved]
 
 8ft. J 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAl'TEK 
 
 * I. A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 w- IL OLD BOGEY 
 
 in. LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 
 \ 
 
 Vr IV. FATHER AND SON - - - 
 
 ■C- V. A ' SMART ' WEDDING 
 
 ^ VI. D— I C — K 
 
 VII. MARY MARTIN S HEADACHE 
 
 ^VIII. A LESSON IN CRIME 
 ^X. 'she HAS CONSENTED 
 r^ X. THE HONEYMOON - 
 
 ^XI. GAULT z;. GAULT AND BIRKETT 
 
 24 
 38 
 
 •53 
 70 
 90 
 III 
 13c 
 U3 
 158 
 176
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAl'TER PAGE 
 
 XII. 'DECREE nisi' - - - - icj2 
 
 XIII. ' IT HAS BEGUN ' - - - - 2o6 
 
 XIV. BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES - 223 
 XV. DORMOUSE _ _ _ - 238 
 
 XVI. ' HAIL TO THE CHIEF !' - - - 255
 
 
 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW. 
 
 There was quite a scene in Fairlock 
 Churchyard as the congregation were 
 coming out from morning service one 
 bright November Sunday in the year 
 1880. 
 
 Fairlock is a small town in Hopshire, 
 and there were some two score worship- 
 pers in its parish church on the day in 
 question. They came forth in dissolving 
 knots of twos and threes, some stopping 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 to have a talk, some stopping to stare.! 
 Last of all, in accordance with his rank; 
 and the position of his pew, came the Lord 
 of the Manor, Sir Claude Gault, with his 
 pale wife by his side. They had traversed 
 half the distance between the church porch 
 and the gate, where their carriage awaited 
 them, and were in full view of all, when a 
 young man joined them on Lady Gault's 
 side. Their hands met for a moment, and 
 he whispered something in her ear. Then 
 Sir Claude stepped back, struck the in- 
 truder a heavy blow from behind — which 
 sent him rolling amongst the tombstones — 
 and seizing his wife roughly by the arm, 
 hurried her to the carriage. Those whom 
 they overtook on the road saw that her 
 ladyship hadj^fainted. 
 
 The cause of this affray was found in a 
 worse plight. The blow he had received
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 on the back of his neck was a heavy one, 
 and in falling his head had struck a stone. 
 It was what the followers of a certain 
 noble Marquis would call a ' clean knock 
 out/ 
 
 This was a sad thing to happen on a 
 Sunday, and coming out of church most 
 shocking. The good folks of Fairlock 
 seemed to think that they might, some- 
 how, be blamed for it, so they retired in 
 quick order, rallied at the gate, and each 
 one told another what somebody ought to 
 do. The fallen youth was not of Fair- 
 lock. He was young Mr. Birkett, of 
 Wadehurst. What business had he to 
 come to church five miles from his own 
 parish, and make this scandal ? What 
 would Mr. Barbour say ? 
 
 The Rector of Fairlock, to whom this 
 question referred, came hurriedly upon the
 
 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 scene from the vestry door, bareheaded, 
 followed by his wife and two little 
 daughters, one of whom — the elder — out- 
 ran him, flung herself upon the delinquent, 
 and in a voice of genuine sympathy, 
 sharpened by fear, cried : 
 
 ' Oh ! it's Dick ! Dear Dick ! what is 
 it ? Oh, Dick ! He is bleeding — he will 
 die!' 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Barbour stopped short 
 as he heard this name, and what he said 
 was : 
 
 ' Bless my soul ! why am I misin- 
 formed } They told me it was Mr. 
 Birkett, and it is only Mr. Richard.' 
 
 The Honourable Frank Birkett — usually 
 called Mr, Birkett — was the only son and 
 heir of Lord Wadehurst ; and Richard — 
 usually called * Dick ' — was his cousin. 
 The relationship was a near one, but from
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 the point of view taken by good Mr. Bar- 
 bour there was an Atlantic of social dis- 
 tinction between them. It would have 
 indeed been a dreadful thing if the heir- 
 apparent to a peerage had been knocked 
 down in his churchyard ; but it was * only 
 Mr. Richard.' That comforted him a 
 little. 
 
 * Come away, Stella,' he said sharply to 
 the child. * How can you be so forward ? 
 This is most unbecoming, and — and you 
 are soiling your dress.' 
 
 By this time the little girl had Dick's 
 head in her lap, and the pretty white gown 
 was stained with crimson. 
 
 This blood, though not precisely noble, 
 had to be stanched somehow, so Dick, 
 who had opened his eyes and tried to get 
 up, was half led, half carried, into the 
 vestry, where he was wholly revived, and
 
 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 the hole in his head fastened up by the 
 village doctor. One of the first things he 
 did upon regaining full consciousness was 
 to hold out his hand to little Stella and 
 say : 
 
 ' Ah, Dormouse ! was it you ?' for he 
 saw the stain on her frock. 
 
 Then followed the inevitable investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 * Tell me now,' said the Rector, ' how 
 this dis — how this most unhappy affair 
 began.' 
 
 * Began.'* Why, by his knocking me 
 down — and ended there.' 
 
 ' But you must have given him some 
 provocation.* 
 
 'Not a bit.' 
 
 'Stella,' said Mr. Barbour to the child, 
 who was listening — her great brown eyes 
 roused with interest, tears on her cheeks,
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 and indignation in her heart — * take your 
 sister home ; and, my dear/ this to his 
 wife, ' perhaps you had better leave us/ ; 
 
 For all answer Mrs. Barbour took a 
 chair and arranged her skirts. 
 
 The speaker noted this insubordination 
 with a dry * ahem,' and continued to Dick : 
 
 ' You have been a good deal at the 
 Manor House lately ?' 
 
 ' Yes — ^just as usual.' 
 
 ' Has Sir Claude forbidden you to visit 
 there ?' 
 
 'Why, I lunched with them on Friday 
 at his own invitation.' 
 
 ' Dear me ! Was her ladyship present?' 
 
 ' Certainly. Why do you ask ?' " 
 
 ' Oh, nothing ; only ' 
 
 * Why beat about the bush, my. dear ?' 
 interposed Mrs. Barbour. * It is your 
 duty, as a clergyman, to let this young
 
 8 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 man know what has been the common talk 
 of the village for some time, and to warn 
 him. Although he is not a parishioner, 
 Sir Claude is ; and so you have a right to 
 speak.' 
 
 *Just so, my love, just so. Well, er — 
 it is very painful, and of course her lady- 
 ship is not to blame. No one would ^/nn^ 
 of attaching any impropriety to /ler; but, 
 er ' 
 
 ' Please go on, sir,' said Dick. His face 
 had regained its colour, and his eyes 
 sparkled. * This is getting interesting. 
 Lady Gault is not to be blamed — for 
 what ?' 
 
 * For your too frequent visits at the 
 Manor House,' interposed Mrs. Barbour 
 sharply. 
 
 Dick gave a long, low whistle and 
 changed colour.
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 ' ' So the brute is jealous, is he ?' 
 
 ' I will not sit here and allow you 
 to call Sir Claude ''a brute,"' said the 
 Rector. 
 
 ' He is a brute, Mr. Barbour, and you 
 know it,' retorted outspoken Dick. ' Why, 
 supposing what you say — what youVe been 
 told, I mean — is true ? No, hang it ! that 
 won't do, either. Supposing your con- 
 founded gossips say it's so, and the scandal 
 has reached him — what does he do? 
 Comes up behind me and knocks me down 
 without a word. Coming out of church, 
 too ! That's a delicate sort of hint, isn't 
 it ?' 
 
 * Sir Claude is quick-tempered.' 
 
 * I cannot understand why you should 
 stick up for him. You know he uses his 
 wife shamefully.' 
 
 ' That is no reason,' interposed the
 
 J ED WOOD yU STICK 
 
 Rector's wife, * why you should exasperate 
 him by flirting with her.' 
 
 ' Oh, Mrs. Barbour ! How can you 
 listen to such nonsense ? Why, they 
 might as well say I am flirting with Dor- 
 mouse.' 
 
 ' I strongly object to your giving my 
 daughter that ridiculous name,' observed 
 the Rector stiffly. ' We will not prolong 
 this most unpleasant conversation. I feel 
 sure that our impression is correct. You 
 have deeply offended Sir Claude by your 
 unthinking — I place It no worse than that 
 — your unthinking conduct. He was cer- 
 tainly a little — er, brusque, you know ; but 
 really you are the most to blame.' 
 
 * You are ridiculously unjust to me !' ex- 
 claimed Dick with some warmth, and 
 rising ; ' but you've made up your minds, 
 and it's no use arguing with you. Will
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW ii 
 
 you please send someone to the Crown 
 for my dog-cart ? I don't want to walk 
 through the village in this plight/ 
 
 As he drove off he muttered to himself: 
 * My God, how unfortunate ! and I mus^ 
 see her again I' 
 
 Amongst those overtaken by the Manor 
 House carriage were Lady Gault's maid 
 walking home with Mr. Spaulding, the 
 stud-groom, and chaperoned by Mrs. 
 Goodlake, the housekeeper. These, seated 
 near the door, were with the first to leave 
 the church, and had not lingered by the 
 way, consequently they knew nothing of 
 what others were discussing, freely, as 'the 
 row.' 
 
 Sir Claude stopped the carriage and 
 shouted, ' Here ! you Martin ! come and 
 attend to your mistress; she's ill. They 
 keep that church so confoundedly hot,'
 
 12 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 he added, as the girl reached the step, 
 
 *that ' Here his tone changed. * If 
 
 you look at me that way again, you jade/ 
 he muttered through clenched teeth, ' I 
 will wring your neck !' 
 
 She turned and faced him. 
 
 ' You have said that before, Sir Claude, 
 and I gave you fair warning ' 
 
 ' Well go, and be / don't want 
 
 you. Settle it with your mistress when 
 you bring her to. Spitfire ! I'll walk. 
 Get in and attend to your duty.' 
 
 He sauntered on moodily, till he came 
 to where a little brook crossed the road, 
 spanned by a plank bridge with a hand- 
 rail on one side for foot-passengers. Here 
 he stopped, lit a pipe, leaned over the rail, 
 and gazing into the bright waters as they 
 dashed on, summed up the position in these 
 two words :
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 13 
 
 ' Damned fool f 
 
 The condemnation was uttered to him- 
 self, at himself, and had deeper cause than 
 the events of that particular day. It was 
 not caused because he had struck Dick 
 Birkett, or because he had bullied his wife 
 into a fainting fit, or because he had put 
 himself in a position to be snubbed by her 
 maid. These were only some of the fruits 
 of his folly — its root was having a wife at 
 all. 
 
 * What good is she ?' he asked himself. 
 ' She won't have children ; she doesn't get 
 on with my friends ; she's no companion 
 to me. Afraid to ride ; too delicate to 
 walk ; too confoundedly pious to let things 
 slide, as she might, with her ** Oh dear, 
 Claude, how wicked !" and her '' Oh dear, 
 Claude, you don't love me any longer !" 
 •and her whimperings and her tears ! If
 
 14 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 she'd only show some pluck — hit back, 
 by Jove !' (with a laugh) ' as Spitfire 
 did just now! What eyes she has! 
 She's twice as handsome as my flaxen 
 doll !' 
 
 Such was Sir Claude's opinion, on a 
 matter of taste upon which many admirers 
 of female beauty might differ with him ; 
 but the one woman was his wife, and the 
 other wasn't. That was enough to settle 
 his judgment. Frances Lady Gault was tall 
 and slim, and exquisitely fair. Mary Martin 
 was tall and slim, with the raven black 
 hair and violet blue eyes of the race from 
 which she sprang. The maid could wear 
 her mistress's gowns with but little altera- 
 tion, and move in them as though to the 
 manner born. That is one of the tests. 
 You can dress up man or woman as 
 smartly as you can : you have to see how
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 15 
 
 they move in their clothes before you get 
 the effect. 
 
 As to speech — another test — Mary's 
 voice was soft and low, and — thanks to her 
 well-educated mother — perfectly correct. 
 To sum up, the one had beauty but no 
 spirit; the other had both spirit and 
 beauty. 
 
 ■5& * * * 
 
 * He's been at it again,' observed Mr. 
 Spaulding, as the carriage repassed with 
 Martin and her fainting mistress. 
 
 * Poor lady !' said the housekeeper, half 
 to herself. 
 
 * Poor lady indeed !' was the stud- 
 groom's comment, with a scoff. 'Why 
 don't she show some spirit ? If I was 
 a woman, and any man treated me 
 as he treats her, I'd up and leave 
 him.'
 
 1 6 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * Lady Gault is too good a woman to 
 think of such a thing.' 
 
 ' Is she now ? Then what brings that 
 Mr. Dick about the place three and four 
 times a week ?' 
 
 ' Mr. Richard Birkett,' the old house- 
 keeper replied demurely, ' has known my 
 lady all her life. They are like brother 
 and sister.' 
 
 ' I've heard that sort of excuse before,' 
 said Mr. Spaulding ; 'and it made no dif- 
 ference. They aint brother and sister — 
 are they } Did her own brothers and 
 sisters drive ten miles to see her every 
 two days when they lived here ? Not 
 they ! Why, I saw him in church just now, 
 and he lunched at the house Friday !' 
 
 'You mind your own business, Mr. 
 Spaulding/ said the old servant sharply, 
 ' I've been — child, girl, wife and widow—
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 17 
 
 in one place forty-five years, and I never 
 knew any good come of servants prying 
 about their masters and mistresses.' 
 
 * Ye-s,' the stud-groom replied, picking 
 up a piece of grass and chewing it ; ' you've 
 been forty-five years bottled up in the 
 country in one place — that's why, Mrs. 
 Goodlake.' 
 
 Fairlock Manor House was one of 
 those old-fashioned, rambling, red-brick 
 granges in which artists delight. Birket 
 Foster has drawn it over and over again. 
 Once it had a moat all round it, but one of 
 Sir Claude's predecessors filled up that 
 part of it which was at the back, and ex- 
 panded the rest into an ornamental lake, 
 over the narrowest part of which a bridge 
 (corresponding with the style of the house) 
 was thrown, replacing the old ' draw,' and 
 forming a handsome approach. 
 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 1 8 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 To do this he had to divert the Spark, 
 hardly more than a trout-stream at that 
 point, and so got a picturesque pond and 
 four law-suits. The millers below said he 
 robbed them of their water ; the farmers 
 even said he caused their lands to be 
 flooded. There was always either too 
 much or too little going over the Fair- 
 lock dam ; and down to the time at which 
 this story commences, these troubles con- 
 tinued in a more or less acute form. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst — lord of the adjacent 
 manor — was especially hard to please. 
 ' It seems,' sarcastically observed a learned 
 judge whilst trying one of the immerous 
 actions brought by his lordship on this 
 account, ' that the defendant is required 
 to regulate the flow of this brook to a 
 teaspoonful.' 
 
 The extensive lawns and flower-gardens
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 19 
 
 were laid out in a style which some in 
 these days would call *prim.' For many 
 years there had been no Lady Gault with 
 a taste for gardening ; but the wealth and 
 beauty of the trees — the grand, spreading, 
 centuries-old yews, the graceful beeches, 
 the massive oaks, and (down by that in- 
 corrigible brook) the poplars, shimmering 
 silver to every breeze — redeemed all short- 
 comings in other respects. 
 
 Inside, the house was full of quaiat 
 nooks and corners, unexpected passages, 
 and old stairways — a novel place to play 
 hide-and-seek in, a place swarming with 
 pegs for effective decoration. 
 
 When the present Sir Claude made up 
 his mind to marry, he placed his house in 
 the hands of an artist, who was also an 
 upholsterer, and this man actually revelled 
 in the wealth of his opportunities. ^
 
 20 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Few ladies in all the land had a home 
 so fair as that in which Frances Gault 
 wept day after day, and wished she had 
 never been born. 
 
 Once, about a year after her marriage, 
 she plucked up spirit, left that lovely but 
 wretched home, and sought refuge with 
 her parents in London. Some hard words 
 passed between her father and Sir Claude, 
 and eventually she was talked over by her 
 brother, a very discreet and world-wise 
 person, into returning under a treaty of 
 peace, which — like many of those of which 
 we read in history — was never, never to be 
 broken. Gradually Sir Claude slid back 
 into his old ways, and now we know how 
 he is regarded. 
 
 Later on that Sunday afternoon when 
 Dick Birkett was ' knocked out,' Mr. 
 Spaulding rode into the village, and
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 21 
 
 on his return found Mary Martin on 
 the bridge feeding the swans. 
 
 Apropos of something that had been 
 already said, he began : 
 
 ' He's all right — got a cut in the head, 
 that's all. Don t go.' 
 
 ' I must ; my poor lady is very 
 anxious.' 
 
 'Wait a bit. Has Mother Goodlake 
 been talking to you about this ?' ■ 
 
 ' No — not a word.' ^ 
 
 * Coming home from church, when yoii 
 got into the carriage, she preached us a 
 sermon about servants not minding what's 
 going on about them. She's an old fool ! 
 I know a pair who are drawing three 
 hundred a year — cash down as regular 
 as the clock on quarter-day — for keeping 
 their eyes and their ears open. D'ye 
 mind ?'
 
 22 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' I wouldn't hurt my poor lady for all the 
 money in the bank,' said Mary. 
 
 * Who's talking about hu^Hing her ? 
 I'm all for her side,' replied the stud- 
 groom. ' Did you notice that new 
 dairymaid in church, with her silk dress 
 and kid gloves ? What's she doing 
 here ?' 
 
 ' You mustn't speak to me about her ' 
 (bridling). 
 
 ' Well, I won't, then ; but it would be a 
 jolly good job for your lady if she got a 
 divorce.' 
 
 * She does not want one.' 
 
 ' More fool she ! He d jump at a chance, 
 and that's why we've got to be careful.' 
 
 * We ? 
 
 * Yes, we. You can't leave the house 
 whenever you've a mind to, and run 
 around the country, as / can. Dick
 
 A KNOCK-DOWN BLOW 
 
 23 
 
 Birkett's dead in love. There'll be fetch- 
 ing and carrying ; and the longer it goes 
 on, and the safer it's made, the better for 
 you and me, Miss Mary.'
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OLD BOGEY 
 
 Sidney Danvers Birkett, seventh Baron 
 Wadehurst, was a disappointed man, and a 
 sour. During a temporary obscuration of 
 his evil star, he was born an elder son ; and, 
 for its private ends, It allowed him to suc- 
 ceed to the title, but in all other respects 
 it had its wicked way of him. Whilst in 
 statu pMpillari, at school or university, 
 he was usually second for the prizes or 
 honours which sanguine friends or toadies 
 booked for him. He very nearly got to 
 be head boy at Rugby, and missed the
 
 OLD BOGEY 25^ 
 
 Wranglers' list afterwards by just six 
 marks. The woman he loved married his 
 younger brother, and the constituency he 
 had nursed for years jilted him at a turn- 
 ing-point in his political career for the 
 father of the present Sir Claude Gault — a 
 mere country bumpkin, who hobnobbed 
 with farmers in all houses, and did not 
 know an equation when he saw it. 
 
 His ideas were formed at a time when 
 the manly morality of the Tom Hughtis 
 school had degenerated into priggishness. 
 At Cambridge he was one of a choice band 
 of philosophers who were to regenerate 
 mankind — grave young persons, with 
 aims and systems of their own, and a lofty 
 contempt for anyone who ventured to dis- 
 agree with them. They worshipped each 
 other, and played ' Hail to the Chief !' v/ith 
 variations, on each other^s trumpet ; but a
 
 26 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ribald boating man called them ' The 
 society for teaching grandmothers to suck 
 ducks eggs ; and, sad to relate, they were 
 known as ' The Suckers ' for many a day. 
 
 In some respects Lord Wadehurst re- 
 sembled the much-quoted householder who 
 never served on a jury without finding 
 himself bound up with eleven idiots. 
 From his ' Sucker ' period onwards he 
 found his path to fame obstructed by the 
 stupidity of his fellow-men. Just as the 
 * Flying Irishman' might be delayed, or 
 even derailed, by a few clods on the line, 
 so (in his own estimation) his lordship's 
 career was blocked by the ignorance of the 
 age. He started to be at least a Cabinet 
 Minister, and ended as an Under-Secretary 
 in the House of Lords. 
 
 During his brief official life he made 
 himself a terror. The organization of his
 
 OLD BOGEY 27 
 
 department was defective throughout, and 
 had to be reformed. He warned every- 
 one, from the housekeeper upwards. He 
 quarrelled with his chief in the House of 
 Commons. He easily obtained the lasting 
 enmity of the permanent officials, with the 
 inevitable result — his own defeat. 
 
 At home he instituted the same methods 
 
 which had, for a time, made the 
 
 Office into a penitentiary. Reports were 
 exacted from the butler; minutes issued 
 for the government of the stables, and 
 memoranda for the housekeeper's room. 
 If an under-gardener did something wrong, 
 he was required to ' tender an explanation 
 of his conduct in writing, without unneces- 
 sary delay.' 
 
 Those followers of Dr. Johnson who 
 join in his admiration of a good hater, 
 would have every reason to be satisfied
 
 28 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 with Lord Wadehurst in this respect. In 
 the two cases which most directly come 
 into this history, he carried his hatred into 
 the second generation. He hated old Sir 
 Claude Gault because he had turned him 
 out of Parliament when he was the Hon. 
 Sidney Birkett, and the present baronet 
 inherited this hatred even before he had 
 earned some for himself by attempting a 
 coarse practical joke on him. He hated 
 his own brother for the cause already 
 given, and visited his sins on Dick. Most 
 people joined him in his estimate of Sir 
 Claude Gault ; but respecting his nephew 
 he was in a minority of one. All sorts 
 and conditions of men, women and chil- 
 dren — especially children — loved Dick: 
 Dick, with his handsome face, his open 
 hand, and his winning, though somewhat 
 masterful, ways.
 
 OLD BOGEY 29 
 
 Now, the house of Wadehurst was not 
 remarkable for good looks. From the 
 grim old law lord who founded it, down to 
 its present heir-apparent, it was, in sport- 
 ing parlance, ' a very ordinary lot ' — to 
 look at. All but Dick. He took after 
 his beautiful mother, and was consequently 
 a daily reminder of her bad conduct. 
 What right had he to be the only good- 
 looking one of the family } What right 
 had he to march about with his head i;i 
 the air as though the whole place be- 
 longed to him, with its rightful heir 
 following him like a dog? My lord 
 almost hated his own son for what he 
 called his ' slavish adoration ' of this re- 
 probate cousin. Yet in his heart of hearts 
 there sometimes came the whisper, ' If the 
 fellow had been my son, how proud I could 
 be of him !*
 
 30 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 In other ways he was just, almost gener- 
 ous. When Dick was left an orphan on 
 his hands, he put aside the provision which 
 had been made for him, and educated him 
 at his own expense, and on an equal 
 footing with his own son. When Dick 
 came of age — an event which took place 
 six months before this story begins — 
 every penny of the principal, with interest 
 and compound interest, was paid over to 
 him. 
 
 Nor was any hint given that he had now 
 his own way to make in the world, or that 
 Wadehurst would be less a home for him 
 than of old. He felt, in a dim sort of way, 
 that his uncle disliked him. But who was 
 there that his uncle did not dislike ? Cold 
 and snappish and fault-finding with his 
 own son, how could Dick expect better 
 treatment ? The boys grew up together
 
 OLD BOGEY 31 
 
 in unklndness. It became the normal 
 atmosphere of their Hves, and they breathed 
 it as unconsciously as they breathed the 
 air. 
 
 Wadehurst was a boys' paradise — lots of 
 good fishing, shooting, cricketing, and, 
 later on, hunting, for them ; and only the 
 dinner-hour to pay for the fun. This was 
 the one meal they were called upon to 
 take in the company of their noble re- 
 lative. It was conducted with much pomp 
 and circumstance, and led them to regard 
 their dress clothes as garments of mourn- 
 ing and humiliation. 
 
 Sometimes — dies irce ! — the butler would 
 present his lordship's compliments to one 
 (or perhaps both) of them, and beg him 
 (or them) to step into the library, when 
 most convenient, for a few^ minutes. Those 
 would be very bad ' few minutes,' for my
 
 32 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 lord had a sneering way of scolding, hateful 
 alike to boy or man. 
 
 It was thus that he earned the name of 
 * Old Bogey,' shortened to ' Bogey * as the 
 boys grew up. 
 
 Here I have to say that the heir of 
 Wadehurst was afflicted with a peculiar 
 ailment — whether of heart, or brain, or 
 nerves, the faculty could not discover — 
 which sent him occasionally into some- 
 thing perilously resembling fits. Physical 
 exertion seemed to do him no harm. He 
 could ride to hounds, row, score a good 
 innings, and come home none the worse ; 
 but anything in the nature of a moral 
 shock prostrated him. Such causes as 
 seeing a dog run over, or being cursed by 
 a poacher whom he had helped to catch, 
 brought on these attacks. The cause was 
 not fear or temper, but some mysterious
 
 OLD BOGEY 3.3 
 
 rush of emotion which he could not master, 
 and this was one reason why his cousin 
 Dick became ' masterful/ 
 
 Wishing to save * dear old Frank ' the 
 possibility of contradiction or annoyance, 
 he took charge of all that concerned them 
 in stable or on stubble, and — as Lord 
 Wadehurst scorned to take interest in such 
 matters — became acting * young master.' 
 
 Given any two boys, the one three years 
 older than the other, brought up together 
 and left to their own resources as these 
 were, and the law of the survival of the 
 fittest would prevail. Frank adored his 
 cousin, and accepted his leadership as a 
 matter of course. Perhaps he did not 
 fully realize why he was told not to bother 
 himself about this or that, and put the 
 successful results down to the credit of 
 ' dear old Dick.' 
 
 VOL. I. .■;
 
 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 One of the attacks already mentioned 
 cut short Frank's career at school just as 
 Dick was leaving, and this led to the pair 
 going to ' read ' with the Rev. Mr. Barbour 
 at Fairlock, for as the faculty decided that 
 it was not advisable for Frank to go to 
 a university, Dick declined to follow his 
 uncle's academic career at Trinity. 
 
 Good Mr. Barbour had every reason to 
 be satisfied with both his pupils, but his 
 keen sense of expediency taught him that it 
 would be prudent to praise only one of them. 
 
 When Dick came of age, he had — 
 counting interest on accumulations during 
 his minority — about six hundred a year of 
 his own. At this period he was more than 
 half-way to the Bar, having kept terms for 
 two years and passed (easily) the preli- 
 minary examinations. 
 
 Mr. Barbour could not teach him law,
 
 OLD BOGEY 35 
 
 and therefore he began to read It with per- 
 haps as enhghtening a teacher — himself. 
 If certain events to be recorded hereafter 
 had not happened, the end of the year In 
 which we first make his acquaintance 
 might have found him Installed in cham- 
 bers in the Temple, and studying under 
 the famous Mr. Poser. 
 
 This arrangement suited Bogey, al- 
 though he chafed at not being consulted 
 about It. 
 
 ' I think, uncle,' said Dick, in his off- 
 hand way, ' that I'll go to the Bar. Will 
 you please let me have a cheque for the 
 stamps and things ? I think they come to 
 about a hundred.' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst, having means of ac- 
 curate Information at hand, drew for the 
 exact amount, and entered it in his guar- 
 dianship account.
 
 36 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Then it was that he began to realize 
 that this nephew was a man, that his son 
 was fast becoming one also, and that the 
 system he had pursued towards them both 
 was a mistake. He, who ever since his 
 ' Sucker ' days at Cambridge had set him- 
 self up as a teacher of mankind and a for- 
 mer of society, had done nothing to teach 
 or form his only son and heir ! It appeared 
 very odd as he thought this over, but it 
 was true. When baby Frank lost his 
 poor, unloved mother, Lord Wadehurst 
 could not be troubled with infants. When 
 boy Frank was getting into mischief, his 
 father was too busy framing rules and 
 regulations for Board Schools to attend to 
 him. And now young man Frank was a 
 stranger ! The twig he might have bent 
 so easily years ago, had grown into a 
 sapling that might not easily lend itself to
 
 OLD BOGEY 37 
 
 the bending. Worse, the sapHng had 
 found a support, and had grown up 
 against it and with it. Dick had to be 
 taken into account. To bend Frank, 
 Dick would have to be bent or broken.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS. 
 
 The day after the affray in Fairlock 
 Churchyard, the butler approached Dick 
 as he rose from luncheon with one of 
 those fateful messages already mentioned. 
 
 * My lord's compliments, sir, and he will 
 be glad to see you in the library at your 
 earliest convenience.' 
 
 Dick knew what was coming, and 
 dreaded it. 
 
 Having been received with a bow, and 
 motioned to a chair, as though he were
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 39 
 
 the Bishop of the diocese on a visit of 
 ceremon}^ my lord began : 
 
 'What is this I hear about a fight be- 
 tween you and Sir Claude Gault ?' 
 
 ' There was no fight/ Dick replied ; ' I 
 wish there had been.' 
 
 His lordship clasped the fingers of his 
 hands in front of his breast, and casting 
 up his eyes, remarked slowly, apparently 
 to the ceiling : 
 
 ' He wishes that he had been engaged 
 in a brutal affray with a blackguard on 
 consecrated ground, and on the Sabbath 
 day !* 
 
 ' Well, that's about as unfairly as you 
 can put it,' Dick replied. * I wasn't think- 
 ing of the when or the where. You 
 asked me about a " fight," and there was 
 none. The fellow came up from behind 
 and struck me like a coward, without
 
 40 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 warning. I wish that he had given me a 
 chance to fi^ht — that's what I mean.' 
 ' Was he sober ?' 
 
 * I suppose so. He hit straight enough.' 
 ' May I venture to inquire why you 
 
 went to church at Fairlock ?' 
 
 ' I often go there,' said Dick evasively. 
 
 * Attracted by the eloquence of the 
 Rev. Mr. Barbour ?' 
 
 ' I don't think there is much to choose 
 between his sermons and those we get 
 here.' 
 
 ' The difference appears to be worth a 
 drive of ten miles. Who is she ?' 
 
 Dick bit his lip, and made no reply. 
 
 ' Well,' continued Lord Wadehurst with 
 an exasperating sneer, * we shall probably 
 know in time. ' What are you going 
 to do T 
 
 ^ About what ?'
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 41 
 
 * He has been knocked down in pre- 
 sence of fifty people,' his uncle remarked 
 again to the celling, ' and when asked 
 what he purposes to do, inquires, " what 
 about "/' 
 
 ' What can I do ?' asked Dick, warming 
 up. ' I mustn't challenge him in this 
 country — the law won't let me. All I can 
 do is to wait till I get a chance, then give 
 him as good a thrashing as he'll ever get 
 in all his life.' • 
 
 * And this is the young man who has so 
 high a respect for the law I' 
 
 * I'm quite willing to hear your advice 
 on the subject,' said Dick. 
 
 ' Oh yes ; always ready to hear. You 
 heard me say some years ago that I did 
 not wish you to associate with this man 
 Gault, and yet I understand that you fre- 
 quently visit at his house.'
 
 42 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * Since his marriage, and to see his wife 
 — my old playmate.' 
 
 ' Hum — m ! Was Lady Gault present 
 when this trifling disturbance took place ?' 
 
 'She was. I may as well tell you all, 
 as you are sure to be told a heap of lies. 
 I had something particular to say to Fan — 
 to Lady Gault privately — just four words 
 — and I had hardly got them out, when he 
 hit me.' 
 
 ' Might one venture to inquire the 
 nature of your private confidences with a 
 married woman ?* 
 
 ' They have nothing to do with Sir 
 Claude.' 
 
 'Indeed! In my time it would have 
 been considered interesting to a married 
 man to know what was whispered pri- 
 vately to his wife by a man of your age. 
 Wasn't it rather clumsy of you to have
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 43 
 
 these confidences in the middle of a crowd 
 of bumpkins ?' 
 
 * It seemed to me such a very harmless 
 thing.' 
 
 * Sir Claude was not of your opinion. 
 Now I think I understand. You will go 
 to Colonel Daly at once and take out a 
 summons for assault against Sir Claude 
 Gault' 
 
 * Make a law case of it ?' cried Dick 
 aghast. ♦ 
 
 ^ Yes, sir. The dog-whip of the 
 criminal law is the only weapon you can 
 use against that man. He shall be lashed 
 with shame before the whole country.' 
 
 Never yet had Dick seen his lordship 
 so excited. He rose from his chair and 
 paced the room, muttering. Dick re- 
 membered what he had heard from the 
 Barbours, and his heart sank.
 
 44 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' You had really better let me manage 
 this my own way,' he said, in a more con- 
 ciliatory tone than he had yet assumed. 
 
 ' Yotcr way !' Lord Wadehurst sneered ; 
 * you have no way of your own. I Insist 
 on having mine.' 
 
 ' If you reflect for a moment,' Dick 
 pleaded, * you will see that Lady 
 Gault ' 
 
 ' Bah ! Suppose for a moment that I 
 give you your own way, and you make a 
 vulgar fight of it as you propose, do you 
 think you can keep her name out of it 
 then — when you are in the wrong ? No ; 
 my orders to you are that you take 
 criminal proceedings against this ruffian. 
 It would not be decent for me to issue the 
 summons in my own case, for it is my 
 case. / feel the insult, if you don't. I 
 will not have it known that there is a
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 45 
 
 coward In my family. Go to Colonel Daly 
 at once — do you hear ?' 
 
 * I have heard you use a word which 
 you will be good enough to retract,' re- 
 plied Dick, white with anger. 
 
 ' Obey my orders, sir ! Not another 
 word.' 
 
 * All right/ said Dick ; and he made 
 towards the door. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst resumed his seat with 
 something as nearly resemblinor a smile as 
 his thin lips could assume. 
 
 ' Tell the Colonel from me to notify the 
 other magistrates, so that we shall have a 
 full bench on Saturday,' he said. 
 
 ' I am not going to Colonel Daly, my 
 lord,' Dick replied. 
 
 * Then you were sneaking away out of 
 my presence under a false pretence.' 
 
 * Oh no. I answered ''All right" to
 
 46 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 your concluding order — "■ Not another 
 word." And there shall not be another 
 word about it till you have withdrawn 
 two things which you have just said/ 
 
 ' How dare you take this tone to me, 
 sir ! 
 
 ' There is no coward in your family, 
 Lord Wadehurst,' said Dick ; ' and the 
 only sneaking I am aware of is on the 
 part of one who wants to vent a personal 
 grudge at the expense of an Innocent 
 woman/ 
 
 His lordship fell back In his chair as 
 though Sir Claude had given him also a 
 right-hander straight from the shoulder. 
 
 ' I will not go to law,' continued Dick. 
 * If anyone else had assaulted me, you 
 would have made out that I was In the 
 wrong, and that it served me right. But 
 Sir Claude is your political rival in this
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 47 
 
 county, as his father was before him ; and 
 now you want to use me as a cat's-paw to 
 discredit him. No ; I loathe the man for 
 more things than the blow he gave me, 
 and I'll get even with him for that in my 
 own way.' 
 
 ' I will not endure anyone under this 
 roof,' Lord Wadehurst said, after a long 
 pause, during which he pulled himself 
 together, ' who sets my wishes at defiance. 
 I am master here, and will be obeyed. I 
 am a magistrate, and refuse to condone a 
 crime. I am the head of my family, but 
 any of its members who think they can 
 act for themselves are at liberty to do so — 
 at a distance. I give you ' (consulting his 
 watch) ' two hours to assume a demeanour 
 better fitted to your duty, your position, 
 and your prospects.' 
 
 TV" w '?*■ ^ ^
 
 48 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * Like the letting out of waters /' Anger 
 surged in two breasts, loosened the facings 
 of the dam which had restrained it those 
 many years, and forth burst the flood. 
 
 * How could I have endured the inso- 
 lent puppy so long ?' muttered the uncle, 
 left alone. 
 
 * I am a cur not to have broken with the 
 old brute long ago !' raged the nephew, as 
 he rushed up to his room. 
 
 The two hours passed very slowly in 
 the library. 
 
 * Half an hour would have been quite 
 long enough,' Lord Wadehurst thought ; 
 ' and his infernal pride will keep him out 
 till the last moment.' 
 
 He tried to read, he tried to write, he 
 tried to think about something else ; but all 
 in vain. The selection of cutting phrases 
 for his speech on the expected capitulation
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 49 
 
 broke into any other occupation, and dis- 
 persed it in confusion. 
 
 When about half the time had elapsed, 
 a happy thought struck him. He would 
 send for the butler and pump him — in- 
 terrogate was the word in his lordship's 
 mind, but it came to the same thing. 
 
 The butler, like all the other servants, 
 was fond of Dick, and did his best to 
 know as little as possible, but in an evil 
 moment spoke of him as his ' youn^ 
 master,' a phrase which nearly cost him 
 his place. After this the pump sucked, 
 and much of the village scandal about 
 Dick and Lady Gault came out. A grim 
 smile parted my lord's thin lips when he 
 was once more alone. 
 
 Dick's last words came back to his 
 memory with precision : * / loathe the man 
 for more things than the blow he gave me, 
 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 50 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 and ril get even with hmi for that in my 
 oum way.' 
 
 ' If half the gossips said were true, there 
 might be,' he thought, ' more than an ex- 
 posure at petty sessions and a five-pound 
 fine in store for Sir Claude Gault. His own 
 taay : perhaps it might be as good a one as 
 any. The woman is wretched, and might 
 be fool enough to let him have it. That 
 wotdd be blow for blow. A suit for 
 divorce — pleas, cruelty and connivance, a 
 grand disclosure in full publicity of the 
 petitioner's brutality, his drunken riots, his 
 profligacy ! And such a feast of revenge 
 might be postponed " without day "for a 
 squabble at petty sessions, that would not 
 even get into the papers ! The fellow 
 is right; Lord Wadehurst summed up. 
 * When he has apologized. I will let him 
 have his *' own way." '
 
 LIKE THE LETTING OUT OF WATERS 51 
 
 By this time the stable clock had 
 chimed five. The two hours were over, 
 and the apology not yet begun. 
 
 Six o'clock, and no sign of it. 
 
 The butler was summoned again. 
 
 ' Tell Mr. Richard that I desire to see 
 him immediately ' — in his own mind he 
 added, ' for sentence.' 
 
 ' I beg your pardon, my lord,' stammered 
 the trembling servitor, ' but Mr. Richard 
 is not in the house.' 
 
 ' Find him, then, and deliver my 
 message.' 
 
 ' I — ^I — think — my lord, that he has 
 gone to London.' 
 
 * You hiozu ' (sternly) ' that he Is gone 
 to London ?' 
 
 ' Yes, my lord.' 
 
 ^ Did he take much luggage with him ?' 
 
 * No, my lord — only a hand-bag ; but 
 
 LIBRARY 
 UMyflBintFIUiNOIS
 
 52 Jf ED WOOD J^U STICK 
 
 he left a message for Mr. Birkett to have 
 enough things for a week packed up and 
 sent on to-morrow.' 
 
 ' You may go/ said Lord Wadehurst.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FATHER AND SON. 
 
 Throw a cup of water into a red-hot pot, 
 and you know exactly what to expect. 
 The water will fly off in steam, and the pot 
 will cool down. When cold bad temper 
 falls on hot bad temper, there is indeed an 
 explosion, but no evaporation or loss of 
 caloric follows. 
 
 * The fool,' mused Lord Wadehurst, 
 * thinks to gain a point by running away. 
 It only saves me the trouble of turning 
 him out. ** Young master " indeed !' 
 
 Then he wrote this order :
 
 54 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' Mr. Richard Birkett*s personal effects 
 — clothes, books, guns, tackle, everything 
 that he has been in the habit of using ex- 
 clusively — are to be packed up carefully, 
 and forwarded to the address given in 
 respect of the portmanteau to be sent by 
 Mr. Birkett to-morrow. 
 
 ^ Mr. Birkett is on no account to be 
 informed of this order, or allowed to wit- 
 ness any part of its execution, until I have 
 communicated with him myself. 
 
 ' Wadehurst.^ 
 
 This done, he began to rehearse in his 
 own mind the manner in which this com- 
 munication should be made, not knowing 
 yet how difficult the task would be. You 
 have learned already that he scorned the 
 boy for his subserviency to Dick. He 
 never loved him, or the wife who bore
 
 FATHER AND SON 55 
 
 him. All the affection of which his heart 
 was capable had gone out to the beautiful 
 woman who had thrown him over for his 
 soldier brother. He resented poor Frank's 
 physical infirmity as an insult to a hard 
 and sturdy race, and would not allow that 
 there was anything serious about his 
 attacks. ' Indigestion !' he would sneer; 
 * the boy has been over-eating.' 
 
 Still, the boy was his only child — his 
 heir. If he died, the title — possible even- 
 tuality ! — would go to Dick. He would 
 have to be careful in case it should be 
 true that any mental shock was bad for 
 Frank. It would take a hard wrench to 
 tear these two apart. As he thought it 
 over, his conscience began to prick him. 
 ' What sort of a father have you been/ 
 it asked him, ' to this boy ? How do you 
 propose to make up to him for the com-
 
 56 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 panion, the friend, the almost brother, you 
 expel ?' 
 
 He found some consolation in blaming 
 Dick. 
 
 * Ungrateful hound !' he muttered. 'He 
 to pretend to love my son, when he leaves 
 him for a freak of pride !' This was the 
 line to take. ' Here,' he would say to 
 Frank, ' is a man who has insulted your 
 father, and shows his indifference to you 
 by running away ; we shall see more of 
 each other for the future, and get on very 
 well without him.' 
 
 He sat down to his solemn dinner of 
 two without taking any notice of the vacant 
 place to his left. 
 
 Frank, who was in unusually good spirits, 
 made the first allusion to his cousin's 
 absence. 
 
 ' Dick has gone to town,' he said.
 
 FATHER AND SON 57 
 
 * So I understand,' replied his father 
 dryly. ' Rather a sudden — freak.' 
 
 * Oh no. He had arranged to go to- 
 morrow. That was all settled last week. 
 Something or other hurried him. I was 
 out when the post came in, and when he 
 left, so I cannot tell you what it was.' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst was glad he could 
 not. 
 
 ' I am going up myself,' he said after a 
 pause, during which the soup was removed 
 with funereal solemnity, * on Wednesday, 
 for Miss Heath's wedding. I presume 
 you will accompany me ?' 
 
 Now, this Miss Heath who was to be *^ 
 married on Wednesday was the dear 
 sister of Lady Gault, and destined to score 
 the second catch matrimonial in her family. 
 For many years they had occupied their 
 country house at Wadehurst out of * the
 
 58 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 season ' ; but hard times and his London 
 engagements had recently compelled Mr. 
 Heath to rent it to that same Colonel 
 Daly who was to have issued the sum- 
 mons against Sir Claude. Thus it was 
 that Dick had spoken of Lady Gault as 
 his old playfellow, and that Lord Wade- 
 hurst presumed that Frank would accom- 
 pany him to her sister's wedding. 
 
 Frank blushed, looked intently at his 
 plate, and weakly informed the cutlet 
 thereon that he * thought not.' 
 
 * Why not ?' asked his father sharply. 
 ' I am not expected.' 
 
 ' That is very strange ! I received my 
 invitation nearly a month ago.' 
 
 * Well, they could hardly ask me without 
 
 Dick; 
 
 * If you put it the other way, I could 
 understand you. I hope you have not
 
 FATHER AND SON 59 
 
 allowed yourself to be mixed up with your 
 cousin's misconduct at Fairlock ?' 
 
 * Misconduct !' Frank warmly expostu- 
 lated. ' Oh, father ! that's unfair ! He 
 wasn't a bit to blame. He was taken at 
 a cowardly disadvantage.' 
 
 * Sir Claude had strong provocation.' 
 
 * No provocation can justify a fellow 
 hitting another from behind his back,' said 
 Frank stoutly. 
 
 As a rule, my Lord Wadehurst resented 
 contradiction. He frowned, and a rebuke 
 was in course of fulmination, but no flash 
 came out of the thunder-cloud, and the 
 cloud itself cleared away as he looked into 
 his son's brightened eyes and flushed face. 
 ' The boy has spirit,' he thought. ' When 
 we are friends, he will stand up like that 
 for me.' 
 
 * We will not argue the question,'
 
 6o y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 he said aloud ; 'it is not a pleasant 
 one.' 
 
 * Let me tell you something which may 
 please you/ said Frank, when the servants 
 had retired. ' I very nearly had one of 
 my attacks to-day.' 
 
 ' You call that something pleasant ?' 
 
 ' Yes, because I got over it. Old Bates 
 came running up with his mouth open and 
 blurted out, " He's gone ! Mr. Dick's 
 gone !" and of course it gave me a turn. 
 I thought he was dead ; but I pulled 
 myself together and fought it off. I don't 
 remember ever to have gone so far, and 
 then got back all right. Don't you think 
 it is a good sign, and that I am growing 
 out of them ?' 
 
 No one could have resisted the happy, 
 eager look with which these words were 
 spoken. Lord Wadehurst stretched out
 
 FATHER AND SON 6i 
 
 his hand, grasped that of his son, and 
 whispered huskily under his breath : 
 
 * God grant it, my boy ! God grant 
 it!' 
 
 * I shall write to Dick to-night, and tell 
 him,' Frank continued. * He'll be awfully 
 glad.' 
 
 This was an unfortunate speech. It 
 reminded my lord of the impending 
 wrench, and showed how hard it would 
 be. 
 
 Contrary to his custom, Lord Wadehurst 
 took his after-dinner wine in the dining- 
 room, and conversed pleasantly about 
 things in general. When they parted, 
 instead of the usual dry * Good-night/ 
 thrown over a shoulder, there came a 
 hand-clasp and a ' God bless you, my 
 boy !*
 
 62 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Recounting these wonders to Dick, 
 Frank wrote : 
 
 ' Bogey was supernaturally civil at 
 dinner. I expected war over your going 
 away without taking leave. He didn't say 
 a word about Fan, but got perilously near 
 her. Wanted to know why we were not 
 going to Bertha Heath's wedding. At 
 dessert he became absolutely human — 
 proposed himself that I should ask the 
 Churchills down for Christmas ; told me 
 1 would be of age next year, and must 
 prepare myself to take my proper place in 
 the world as his heir ; and shook hands 
 when he left. What does this portend '^. 
 Some fearful convulsion of nature is at 
 hand. I am prepared for his wanting 
 to marry again, or joining the Salvation 
 Army.
 
 FATHER AND SON 63 
 
 ' I had your things packed and sent. 
 Don't forgot to call at Stubbs' for my 
 pipe ;' and so on and so on. 
 
 This finished and sent to the bag, he 
 stretched himself out on the sofa, took up 
 a novel, and went to sleep over it. It was 
 not one of mine. 
 
 He woke up with the feeling that some- 
 one was in the room, and found his father 
 standing by his side. This apparitioft 
 gave him a severe shock. He sprang up, 
 speechless and livid, rocking himself to 
 and fro with his head clasped in his hands. 
 
 ' My God !' cried the father aghast, 
 * what have I done "^ Frank, my poor 
 boy, speak to me ! Is there nothing you 
 take — no medicine — no ' 
 
 ' Yes ' (faintly), ' in Dick's smoking-box, 
 there, behind the screen.'
 
 64 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Lord Wadehurst darted to the indicated 
 spot, but found nothing. 
 
 ' Oh yes,' Frank persisted, * he always 
 keeps some there, in case. It's a big oak 
 box with silver hinges — you can't miss it.' 
 
 Alas ! the smoking-box was one of 
 the things that belonged exclusively to 
 banished Dick, and it was already packed 
 up. 
 
 ' Never mind,' said Frank, with a 
 stronger and steadier voice ; ' I've fought 
 it down again. Perhaps a glass of brandy 
 will do as well now.' 
 
 The brandy was soon procured, and 
 held to his lips by hands as cold as his 
 own. 
 
 * Ah !' (with a long-drawn sigh) ' that 
 has done it. The machinery is all at work 
 again. Are you not glad, father ? This 
 is the second time I've knocked it out.'
 
 FATHER AND SON 65 
 
 Lord Wadehurst turned aside and hid 
 his face — he could not answer. When he 
 could trust himself to speak, he sat down 
 beside Frank, and gave him another sur- 
 prise by throwing his arms around him. 
 
 ' Glad r he said. * I will let you know 
 how glad hereafter. Do you feel well 
 now ?' 
 
 * Oh, Vm all right — just a little shaky, 
 though. But please don't talk about it. 
 Dick never does. He always finds some- 
 thing to put it out of my mind. Can't we ' 
 — with a smile at the new-born possibility 
 of his father becoming pleasant — 'do some- 
 thing ?' 
 
 ' I challenge you to a game of bezique,' 
 replied his lordship with alacrity. * I see 
 a box of markers on the table. Don't 
 move ; I'll bring it.' 
 
 Would wonders ever end ? 
 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * Do you play the '* royal " game ?' 
 Frank asked. 
 
 ' No ; that is a modern invention — for 
 me. I only know the old game.' 
 
 ' Dick likes that best because it's easiest. 
 I can beat his head off at the royal.' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst winced at these re- 
 peated mentions of Dick. He had joined 
 his son that night for the express purpose 
 of breaking the news — the dad news as he 
 knew it must be — of Dick's disgrace, and 
 found at every step how hard the task 
 would be. As they played and chatted, 
 the light in which he had begun to see 
 this son of his as a companion broadened. 
 The young fellow talked well and pluckily, 
 his only indiscretion being appeals to 
 Dick — as though to Caesar — when any 
 statement was questioned. This did 
 Dick's case no good. It became quite
 
 FATHER AND SON 67 
 
 clear to my lord that he could not hope to 
 gain the place he desired in his son's 
 heart in the presence of so strong a com- 
 petition. He almost blamed himself for 
 allowing the enemy to obtain so firm a 
 hold. Why not, he thought, as he retired 
 to rest, give up abusing his former 
 colleagues, and trying to worry himself 
 back into office, and, as a better post, 
 train up this bright young fellow for a 
 Parliamentary career, and guide him, in 
 the light of his own failures, to success ? 
 
 Frank also went to bed full of thoughts. 
 He wished he had not written as he had 
 done to Dick. 
 
 ' Poor old governor !' he mused. * I 
 called him " Bogey," and said he was be- 
 comine cit^nost human, and it isn't fair.' 
 
 Next morning came a message from his 
 lordship desiring to know how Mr. Birkett
 
 68 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 had passed the night. Frank tore a page 
 out of his note-book and wrote : 
 
 ' So kind of you to ask ! All right 
 ' Your loving son, 
 
 ' Frank.' 
 
 Another and longer letter was then 
 begun to Dick, describing in glowing 
 colours the great transformation scene of 
 the night before. He had got to the 
 point where his father failed to find the 
 smoking-box, and then laid down his pen. 
 
 ' He must have been awfully upset not 
 to find it,' he thought, 'when ' 
 
 Here he drew aside the screen. No 
 smoking-box was there ! He rang the 
 bell, and, as bad luck would have it, not 
 his own man, but the butler, answered it. 
 
 'Where's Mr. Dick's smoking-box ?' 
 
 He saw in a moment from the man's
 
 FATHER AND SON 69 
 
 face and manner that something was 
 wrong. 
 
 * Perhaps he took it up to his room 
 when he left,' said Frank. * I'll go and 
 see.' 
 
 Then, for the first time in his life, this 
 butler rushed into his noble master's pre- 
 sence without summons or warning. 
 
 * My lord !' he stammered, ' Mr. Birkett 
 has gone to Mr. Richard's room, and ' 
 
 * Well ? and what ?' 
 
 * Oh, my lord ! he will see ' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst turned faint with a 
 sense of the coming danger. He staggered 
 rather than ran up the stairs, and just 
 arrived in time to see his now loved son 
 give a dazed look round the dismantled 
 room, clasp his head in the old pitiful way, 
 and fall in convulsions, terrible to witness, 
 on the floor.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A * SMART ' WEDDING. 
 
 The young lady who was to be married on 
 Wednesday came of very ' smart ' people 
 in every sense of the word. Her father 
 was heir-presumptive to the Scotch earl- 
 dom of Strathfolia ; her mother was first 
 cousin to a duke. Her sister had made 
 what was supposed to be the match of the 
 season when she became Lady Gault. 
 They lived in good style, but the girls 
 were given distinctly to understand that 
 they must look out for themselves and 
 marry rich men, because all the money was
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 71 
 
 required to gild the prospective coronet. 
 And they had^a mother with a keen scent 
 forjj&sirable partis, and a short :»^y:_34ath_ 
 detrimentals, to help them. Still, the course 
 of true love had not run smoothly v^ith the 
 gentleman v^ho was to be married on 
 Wednesday. Twice had he been refused, 
 and within a week of the day fixed for her 
 wedding the bride-elect had thrown her- 
 self into the maternal arms and declared in 
 a paroxysm of sobs that she could not go 
 through with it. 
 
 Mrs. Heath was too wise a woman to 
 argue. She told the weeping girl that she 
 had to go through with it, and was very 
 angry with her second-born, to whose 
 influence she attributed this insubor- 
 dination. And she was right. From the 
 very first Lady Gault's cry had been, ' For 
 God's sake, Bertha dear, don't marry
 
 72 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 a man you cannot love ! Loo^ at 
 i7te /' 
 
 Now, Mr. Macgruther was not by any 
 means a Claude Gault. He was utterly 
 incapable of abusing a woman, but there 
 was nothing in his manner to foreshadow a 
 capacity for caressing one. His respect- 
 ability was iron - clad, his wealth con- 
 siderable. He had already made his mark 
 in the House, and was ' in the running ' 
 for Cabinet rank. Moreover, he was not 
 yet fifty, well preserved for his age, and 
 without incumbrances. But the bride was 
 twenty-two, and had illusions. 
 
 She was a blonde of what I will venture 
 to call the flamboyant type — premising 
 that flames are not red, as you may see for 
 yourself if you notice them carefully. Tall, 
 plump as a partridge, and lithe as a snake, 
 with hair glowing like ripe barley in the
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 73 
 
 sun-set ; eyes of deepest violet, and cheeks 
 of sea-shell pink — her beauty seemed to 
 blaze in any company. Blazed and burned; 
 only, unfortunately, the fuel it consumed 
 was, till recently, composed of the social 
 trash which match-making mothers used to 
 call * detrimentals.' 
 
 It was, perhaps, on this account that 
 clever Mrs. Heath precipitated her second 
 daughter's marriage. In all due course 
 Bertha should have been disposed of first, 
 being the elder, and in her fourth season ; 
 but Sir Claude did not want Bertha. He 
 was afraid of her, for she had a sharp 
 tongue, and his manners laid him open to 
 many a thrust. He preferred timid little 
 Fanny, and Mrs. Heath, fearful lest she 
 might catch her sister's fancy for the trash 
 above mentioned, or that he might cool, 
 ' ran them in ' to matrimony. They were
 
 74 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 engaged early in May and married on the 
 4th of June. It is the pace that kills. 
 
 Poor Fanny was not given breathing- 
 time, or she might have discovered that 
 the man who thought he loved her was an 
 illiterate rowdy, a haunter of music-halls 
 and drinking-bars, without a taste except 
 for football and other sports of violence, in 
 which his physical strength made him pro- 
 ficient. 
 
 Wise too late, and knowing that Bertha 
 did not care a snap of her fingers for Mr. 
 Macgruther, some sharp passages had 
 passed between Mrs. Heath and her 
 second daughter on the subject of this 
 marriage ; but Lady Gault gave in, as 
 usual, and latterly seemed to be reconciled 
 to it. So when the family division were 
 mustered for church, there was some sur- 
 prise at the non-appearance of the bride's
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 75 
 
 sister, tempered, however, with satisfaction 
 at the absence of her brother-in-law. An 
 ABC was consuhed, and disclosed the 
 fact that a train would be in at 3.5. So 
 they waited. The ceremony was to be by 
 special license, and so half an hour or more 
 did not matter. 
 
 They waited, but no Lady Gault. Per- 
 haps she had made a mistake and gone to 
 the church, and in this hope they started. 
 She was not in the church, but there her 
 mother learned that the Gaults — husband 
 and wife — had left Wadehurst for London 
 early that morning. 
 
 Her informant was that Colonel Daly of 
 whom we have heard. The Colonel was 
 one of those persons who always * happen 
 to know,' or 'happen to see,' or 'happen 
 to hear,' something which upsets things. 
 He said that as he took his seat in
 
 76 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 the train he happened to look out of 
 the window, and happened to see the 
 Gaults' carriage coming up the road at a 
 gallop, and as the station - master hap- 
 pened to be passing, he (the Colonel) 
 exclaimed : 
 
 ' Bless my soul ! That's Sir Claude and 
 Lady Gault coming, and they'll miss the 
 train. Pray, my good man, detain it; as I 
 happen to know they are going to her 
 sister's wedding.' 
 
 So the train was stopped for them. The 
 Colonel supposed that they got into a car- 
 riage for Charing Cross instead of one for 
 Victoria, and he did not happen to see 
 them on arrival. 
 
 ' She comes up to town on the very day 
 of her sister's wedding and does not attend 
 it !' thought Mrs. Heath with some bitter- 
 ness, for she lived in fear of Mrs. Grundy,
 
 A 'SMART WEDDING 77 
 
 and that lady would certainly have some- 
 thing to say in the premises. 
 
 The wedding was like any other * smart' 
 function of its order. There were brides- 
 maids with moonstone and diamond 
 lockets, the gift of the bridegroom, and 
 pages in mediaeval costumes, and a bishop, 
 and all the rest of it ; with presents galore 
 exhibited in the library at home. The 
 bride, who did not look her best in white, 
 went through it bravely enough, but fainted 
 in the vestry before she had signed her 
 name. This, her mother informed all and 
 singular, was owing to a shock given her 
 by that foolish old man, Colonel Daly, who 
 ' happened ' to think it a good time and 
 place to tell her that an old playmate — 
 Frank Birkett, poor boy ! — had been 
 stricken with paralysis, and was not ex- 
 pected to recover.
 
 78 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Of the bridegroom It may be said that 
 he looked quite handsome for a man of his 
 years, and conducted himself throughout 
 with the dignity of a duke. He took his 
 wife away on an extended tour to the 
 Continent, and you will not hear of them 
 again for some time to come. 
 
 So all was well over, the only thorn In 
 the cushion. being the unslsterly part played 
 by Fanny Gault. Not a line from her, not 
 a message, not a present, and this neglect 
 accentuated by her presence In town ! 
 
 ' We have only old Daly's word for It, 
 my love,' pleaded the father In extenua- 
 tion ; 'and you know he Is as blind as a 
 hat. They might have missed the train, 
 after all; or he' (meaning Sir Claude) 
 ' might have gone somewhere and — well, 
 got drunk. There Is no use mincing 
 matters.'
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 79 
 
 ' She could have come here without 
 him,' persisted Mrs. Heath. ' Anyhow, 
 she might have sent word.' 
 
 Further discussion was cut short by a 
 servant, who announced that Corporal 
 Byngton (a one-armed pensioner who kept 
 the gardens opposite) wished particularly 
 to see Mr. Heath. 
 
 ' The usual thing — wants to drink our 
 health,' he surmised, and felt in his 
 pocket. 
 
 But he was wrong. It was an unusual 
 thing. The corporal had picked up a 
 gold bracelet early that morning in the 
 middle of the grand walk, close to the gate 
 of the gardens, and thought it might 
 belong to Miss Bertha. 
 
 He was quite right : it did. It was a 
 Christmas gift from her brothers, and had 
 her and their initials engraved on the inside.
 
 8p JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 But how came she to have dropped it in 
 the orardens ? She had not been out of 
 the house all that day till she left it with 
 her husband. If it had been lost the day 
 before zn the light, someone must have 
 found it before the corporal went on duty. 
 If he had been asked, he would have said 
 that he passed the spot that night at ten 
 o'clock, and there was no bracelet there. 
 But he was asked no questions, and, being 
 a discreet old soldier, did not volunteer 
 any explanations. He put his half- 
 sovereign in his pocket, and left with what 
 he thought locked up in his mind. 
 
 'Well?' asked the father, when once 
 more alone with his wife, ' what do you 
 make of this ?' 
 
 * She must have been in the gardens 
 late last night.' 
 
 * Did anyone see her go out ?'
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 8i 
 
 ' Not that I am aware of, and ' (with 
 emphasis), ' my dear, it would not be wise 
 to ask.' 
 
 ' No, it would not.' 
 
 ' I made her go to bed early — about 
 nine o'clock — as she was tired with all her 
 packing up,' Mrs. Heath continued, 'and 
 did nut see her again till this morning. 
 One of the servants might have stolen or 
 borrowed the bracelet for show to some 
 follower, and lost it. I can find out if any^ 
 of the women were absent, without giving 
 any reason for the inquiry.' 
 
 This she did with much diplomacy, and 
 came upon a startling fact. None of the 
 women servants had been ou^ that night, 
 but the bride's own maid (who had gone 
 on the honeymoon with her) had been 
 seen to open the front door and let some- 
 one in at about a quarter to twelve o'clock. 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * It was quite providential,' Mrs. Heath 
 summed up, in reporting this disclosure to 
 her lord, ' that Byngton did not blurt out 
 something before the marriage. Good 
 heavens ! what would Macgruther have 
 thought ? The little tdiot ! She evidently 
 went out to wish one of her old lovers 
 good-bye.' 
 
 ' Poor girl !' said the father, with some- 
 thing very like a sob. 
 
 There were several ' old lovers ' much 
 younger in years than Mr. Macgruther, 
 to any of whom the impulsive and romantic 
 girl who now bore his name might have 
 been tempted to say a last good-bye, in 
 defiance of the proprieties. In her first 
 season she became a prey to the detri- 
 mentals. Sad-eyed, handsome creatures, 
 worthy to pose as heroes for Ouida, with 
 thousands and thousands (of debts), flocked
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 83 
 
 to her side, and moved her susceptible 
 heart to dreams of love unquenchable. 
 She had several serious ' affairs ' before 
 the eligible Macgruther appeared — regular 
 tempests of the heart, each, as she gave 
 out at the time, to calm only in a con- 
 vent or the grave. The excitement 
 suited her temperament and tickled her 
 love of admiration. So she played Lucy 
 of Lammermoor to a line of Edgar 
 Ravenswoods, who did not stable their. 
 steeds in the Kelpie's Flow, but left foot- 
 prints on stabler sands of time. Edgar I. 
 had to exchange into the Egyptian army, 
 and go to Egypt under circumstances 
 outside of her sphere of influence. 
 Edgar II. was very sorry, but he had 
 forgotten the family arrangement under 
 which he was to marry his cousin Sarah. 
 Edgar III. gave his broken heart to the
 
 84 -y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 heiress of a Chicago man, who had made 
 a ' pile ' in hogs, and absorbed some of 
 the quaHties of those useful animals. 
 Edgar IV. was a rascal who had a wife 
 and four children in the Isle of Man. 
 The other Edgar, for whose sake she cou/d 
 not go through with Macgruther, must be 
 marked x, not in its form as a numeral, 
 but as applied by mathematicians to any- 
 unknown quantity. 
 
 Poor Mr. Macgruther had much to put 
 up with, but he set his hard head upon 
 making this showy, flower-like girl his 
 wife, and with Mrs. Heath's judicious aid 
 succeeded. Strong in his purpose, and 
 with the confidence in himself and his 
 methods which had gained him every 
 other success in life, he scorned the ' detri- 
 mentals ' he had supplanted, and elected 
 himself to be a husband who would
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 85 
 
 become loved and honoured beyond the 
 common mark. But, infatuated as he was, 
 his keen sense of honour would have 
 caused him much trouble, if he had known 
 what passed in those dark gardens on the 
 last night of his bride's maiden life. 
 
 * Poor girl !' echoed Mrs. Heath. 
 ' Nonsense ! I think she is a very lucky 
 girl, and I'm sure Mr. Macgruther will 
 make her a happy woman.' 
 
 Cautious Mrs. Heath had not said any-, 
 thing to her lord about that scene we know 
 of, and was thankful for the dispensation 
 of Providence which sends girls to what 
 they deem the softer parent in such 
 straits. If poor, love-lorn Bertha had 
 thrown herself into her father's arms and 
 declared that she could not go through 
 with it, there might have been trouble. 
 
 As it was, John Heath became anxious
 
 86 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 and distressed. Here, he feared, was 
 another loveless marriage, with danger 
 ahead. Someone had gained sufficient 
 influence over his daughter to compel a 
 clandestine meeting within a few hours of 
 her marriage. Who could that someone 
 be?' 
 
 * Have you any suspicion ?' he asked his 
 wife. 
 
 * What does it matter now ?' she replied 
 evasively. ' The subject is not a pleasant 
 one, and really, John, I wonder at your 
 harping on it so.' 
 
 But he returned to the charge. 
 
 * You said something once about young 
 Birkett' 
 
 ' Dick ? Oh, he put himself too for- 
 ward, and Macgruther disliked him — that's 
 all. So I had to orive him a hint. Dick 
 flirts with every pretty woman he sees.
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 87 
 
 You couldn't have made a worse guess. 
 Why, he's playing the fool now with her 
 married sister, and got himself knocked 
 down for his pains.' 
 
 ' Lord Charles Carlson ?' 
 
 ' She never cared a snap of her fingers 
 for him. Besides, he is a gentleman, and 
 would never have compromised a woman 
 like that.' 
 
 ' Count Deciani ?' 
 
 * Possibly. There is an Italian air 
 about it. But really you are doing the 
 child an injustice. I only said she might 
 have gone out to wish some old lover 
 good-bye. And I said that hastily. Now 
 you are going through a catalogue of her 
 admirers as though it must be so. How 
 do we know that she went out at all }' 
 
 * I understood you to say that Pritchard 
 let someone in.'
 
 88 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' Well ? no one says that it was 
 Bertha/ 
 
 John Heath gave a sigh of relief. 
 
 ' I should hope not,' he said. 
 
 Later on a discovery was made which 
 put quite another complexion on the case. 
 The under- housemaid had a young man 
 engaged as a grocer's assistant, who em- 
 ployed his spare time (and some cash 
 which his master could not spare) in 
 betting upon race-horses. Watched by 
 the police, it was found that he frequently 
 met his sweetheart in the gardens after 
 dark ; and when the case was sufficiently 
 clear, and her boxes were searched, many 
 things which did not belong to her were 
 found, and (upon further inquiry) several 
 silver spoons and forks which ought to 
 have been in the pantry were missed. She 
 had made free with Miss Bertha's (to be)
 
 A 'SMART' WEDDING 89 
 
 discarded gowns, and given the plate to 
 her lover to pawn. 
 
 So here it was. Pritchard — privy to 
 the love-making, but innocent of its conse- 
 quences — had let ^er in. 
 
 ' So you see,' said Mrs. Heath triumph- 
 antly, ' how foolish we have been. As to 
 that other matter about which you seemed 
 to be anxious, you may dismiss it from 
 your mind. The girl never really cared 
 for anyone ; and now, from what she 
 writes, she is quite contented.'
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 D — I C K. 
 
 ' There is something or somebody he 
 wants,' said the great London doctor, 
 turning from the bed where Frank Birkett 
 lay; * and he is painfully excited about it. 
 Find out what it is/ 
 
 Easily said, but how to be done with a 
 man who cannot speak or write, or move a 
 limb, but whose sad eyes turn from face to 
 face imploringly ? The situation is a diffi- 
 cult one. It beats the M.D.^ and he gives 
 it up ; but the nurse (being a woman) 
 worries at it till she finds a clue.
 
 D—I—C—K 91 
 
 ' If you can hear what I say, shut your 
 eyes/ she tells her patient. 
 
 His eyes brightened as though he un- 
 derstood, and then closed. 
 
 * That will mean yeSy' she says. ' Now 
 if what you want is in this room, look 
 towards it.' 
 
 The eyes, with a ghost of a smile in 
 them, turn towards a small table whereon 
 are some books and a box. 
 
 She touches the books one by one, and 
 there is no sign. She touches the box. 
 
 That is what he wants. 
 
 What is in the box ? Ivory letters for 
 playing the old game of Logomachy ! 
 
 ' Ha, ha !' chuckles the nurse ; ' we are 
 getting on. Now then.' 
 
 She puts the letters in alphabetical order 
 and lays them one by one, face upwards, 
 on the bed.
 
 92 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 A — no sign. B and C also pass. Before 
 the next ivory can be turned the now 
 sparkling eyes are closed. It is D. 
 
 Back again to A, and stop at I. 
 
 Back again, and C has it. 
 
 Back again, and it spells DICK. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst, who has watched the 
 experiment anxiously, turns aside with a 
 sob. The struggle is short but sharp. 
 The imploring look is again in his son's 
 face. It mus^ be obeyed. He goes down 
 to his library and writes this message : 
 
 ' Richard Birkett, Esq., 
 ' 87, Ashford Street, 
 ' London. 
 
 * Your cousin is very ill. He wishes to 
 
 see you. Come back for his sake. 
 
 ' Wadehurst.' 
 
 The day drags on, and there is no reply. 
 Poor stricken Frank knows that the mes-
 
 D—I—C—K 
 
 93 
 
 sage has been sent, and becomes more and 
 more fretful and feverish. The apparent 
 neglect fills Lord Wadehurst with bitter- 
 ness, but there is a spice of comfort in it. 
 Frank will get well, of course — in time. 
 He will know that this beloved Dick car- 
 ried his resentment against his father so 
 far as to ignore him in his pain. That 
 will loosen the tie. 
 
 Nevertheless he tried again, thus : 
 
 * Second Message. — Frank dangerously- 
 ill. Begs you to come at once. You will 
 be most welcome.' 
 
 The night comes on, and yet no answer. 
 
 ' It is no use,' says his lordship; * he has 
 no heart. He will not come.' 
 
 No one dares to contradict him ; but the 
 trained nurse, who knows what fever
 
 94 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 means in such a case, takes matters 
 quietly into her own hands, and sends this 
 message : 
 
 'The Landlord, 
 
 '87, Ashford Street, 
 ' London. 
 
 'Is Mr. Birkett with you ? Has he 
 received any telegrams from Lord Wade- 
 hurst ?' 
 
 This scores within the hour : 
 
 * Mr. Birkett not arrived yet, but ex- 
 pected, as a large quantity of luggage was 
 delivered this afternoon. Two telegrams 
 waiting.' 
 
 When this is communicated to Frank a 
 look of surprise, mingled with fear, comes 
 over his face. But he seems more con- 
 tented, and the fever abates.
 
 D—I—C—K 95 
 
 Lord Wadehurst can account for the 
 * large quantity of luggage,' but the non- 
 arrival of its owner at his own rooms, 
 where he expected the small quantity to 
 be sent on by Frank, was puzzling. Well, 
 he would know all in the morning. 
 
 But he did not. No word from Dick ; 
 no further report fromi his landlord. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst sent for the butler. 
 
 ' You told me yesterday that Mr. Richard 
 had gone to London.' 
 
 ' I thought so, my lord. I ' 
 
 ' How did Mr. Richard leave the house ?' 
 
 ' In the dog-cart, my lord.' 
 
 ' Alone ?' 
 
 * Yes, my lord.' 
 
 * Who brought the dog-cart back ?' 
 ' A stableman, my lord.' 
 
 * A stableman ! What stableman ? 
 From what stables — whose ?'
 
 96 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' My lord, it was young Clark, of the 
 Crown at Fairlock.' 
 
 ' Why did you not say so at once ? 
 And how dared you tell me Mr. Richard 
 had gone to London when you knew ' 
 
 Here his lordship pulled up, and re- 
 peated his first question without com- 
 ment. 
 
 * If your lordship will please let me ex- 
 plain. Mr. Richard ordered the dog-cart 
 in a hurry, as though he watned to catch 
 the 5.40 train, and he left a message for 
 Mr. Birkett to send his portmanteau on to 
 London. So of course I thought he had 
 gone to London, and told your lordship 
 so.' 
 
 ' But yesterday morning you knew this 
 was not so. Why did you keep this 
 secret ? Why did you not tell me at once 
 what Clark had said ?'
 
 D—I—C—K 97 
 
 * My lord, excuse me, but we all 
 thought ' 
 
 ' Thought ! You are not paid to think ; 
 you are paid to do your duty and obey my 
 orders. You have general instructions to 
 report to me after luncheon all that has 
 taken place during the past twenty-four 
 hours. Why did you not report Clark's 
 return with the dog-cart ?' 
 
 * I should have done so, my lord, but for 
 Mr. Birkett's seizure. Your lordship was* 
 so overwhelmed, so ' 
 
 ' 1 understand.' His severe magisterial 
 air dropped from him like a cloak, and he 
 turned aside to hide his emotion. * But 
 you were wrong, though your motive was 
 not unkind. Orders should be obeyed 
 implicitly. See the consequences ! I have 
 been kept in the dark — misled. You let 
 me telegraph to London.' 
 
 7
 
 98 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' My lord, I felt sure that Mr. Richard 
 had gone there, after all.' 
 
 * Did you speak to Clark }' 
 
 ' I did, my lord.' 
 
 ' Well, what did he say ?' 
 
 ' My lord, he only ' 
 
 ' Trash ! The thing has been the talk 
 of the housekeeper's room and the ser- 
 vants' hall for twenty-four hours. You 
 have questioned and cross-questioned this 
 person Grant — or whatever be his name — 
 from Fairlock, and you know where Mr. 
 Richard went, and what he did. I insist 
 upon a full and true statement.' 
 
 It is a fact that most of his lordship's 
 domestics had had a turn with the pump 
 upon young Clark, and that what they got 
 out of him had been discussed for all that 
 it was worth, and would probably be under 
 discussion for some time to come. But a
 
 D—I—C—K 99 
 
 full and true statement of it may be con- 
 tained in a few words. 
 
 Mr. Dick had driven over to Fairlock ; 
 had put up at the Crown, as usual ; had 
 sauntered forth, as usual ; and if he had 
 returned in about an hour, as usual, and 
 driven back again, nothing unusual would 
 have happened. 
 
 But he did not return. 
 
 His horse and trap remained there all 
 night, and were sent home in the morning. 
 This was all young Clark knew. What 
 he had been asked, and did not know, 
 would fill several pages. And now he 
 had left I 
 
 Lord Wadehurst ordered his carriage, 
 drove to Fairlock, and drew the Crown 
 blank. Old Clark knew no more than 
 young Clark had told, and young Clark 
 had no more to tell.
 
 loo y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Barbour had not seen 
 Dick since ' that disgraceful affair of Sun- 
 day/ but placed himself entirely at his 
 lordship's orders as an investigator. So 
 the peer waited at the Vicarage, and the 
 parson went out in the not entirely new 
 character of a private detective. He as- 
 certained that several people had seen 
 Dick walking through the village on Mon- 
 day evening, and walking slowly, as though 
 he had nothing particular to do. But he 
 was going in the direction of the Manor 
 House. As Lord Wadehurst could not 
 possibly call there for any purpose, Mr. 
 Barbour took his carriage, and found that 
 Sir Claude and Lady Gault had gone to 
 town on Tuesday morning, and had not 
 yet returned. Asked if Mr. Richard Bir- 
 kett had called on Monday evening, the 
 butler wrestled with a broad grin, and
 
 D—I—C—K loi 
 
 having defeated it, replied, ' No, sir,' 
 with gravity and apparent truthfulness. 
 
 It was still worth while to ask again at 
 the lodge, which was kept by the head- 
 gardener's wife. She also had seen nothing 
 of Dick since Sunday ; ' And, oh ! Mr. 
 Barbour, do say,' she asked, * how is his 
 poor head ?' 
 
 ' I am surprised, Mrs. Pell,' he replied, 
 ' that you take any interest in a young man 
 who has behaved so shamefully. It does 
 not become your position, Mrs. Pell. If 
 Sir Claude ' 
 
 ' Oh, please don't tell, Mr. Barbour. It 
 — it slipped out like. I've known Mr. 
 Dick so long. No, sir, he wasn't here on 
 Monday. He hasn't called since ' 
 
 Here came an unlooked-for interruption. 
 Half a dozen children of various ages had 
 gathered round, as they will do in the
 
 I02 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 country when a * gentleman ' is talking to 
 mother, and a big boy, proud of the know- 
 ledge he possessed, blurted out : 
 
 Why, mother ! I seen him in the 
 gardens Monday night myself.' 
 
 * Are you sure ?' This from Mr. Bar- 
 bour. 
 
 * Yes, sir ; but he didn't want to see me, 
 for he ran into the shrubbery.' 
 
 Told by his mother that he could not 
 have seen Mr. Dick in the gardens, when 
 she had not seen him pass the gate, he 
 blubbered, but stuck to his story. It was 
 Mr. Dick, and no one else, and he was 
 hiding. Asked if he had seen anyone else, 
 he said : 
 
 'Yes; Mr. Spaulding was there' (Mr. 
 Spaulding, the reader will remember, is 
 Sir Claude's stud-groom), ' and he, too, 
 seemed to be hiding.'
 
 D—I—C—K 103 
 
 ' In fact,' summed up the Rector 
 pleasantly, * it was a game of hide-and- 
 seek between you three.' 
 
 * No it weren't, neither,' said the boy. 
 * When you plays hide-and-seek, you- ' 
 
 'There! there! there! That'll do. 
 You are a very rude little boy, and much 
 too forward. What business had you in 
 the gardens after dark ? Stealing apples, 
 I dare say. Don't dare to answer me, sir. 
 It was very careless of you, Mrs. Pell, to 
 let anyone pass the gate after dark with- 
 out taking notice.' 
 
 ' Mr. Dick did not pass the gate, sir.' 
 'Tut! tut! How else could he get to 
 the shrubbery ?' 
 
 * I don't believe he was in the shrub- 
 bery.' 
 
 ' Not when your own son says so ?' 
 
 * It was dark. If my Bill saw him, Mr.
 
 I04 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Spaulding must have seen him as well, 
 and would have told. Then I should 
 have been asked questions, and / wasftt. 
 Bill is too forward, as you rightly say, Mr. 
 Barbour, and he has made a mistake. 
 Why, it stands to reason : why should 
 Mr. Dick come prowling about the gardens 
 at night like a thief ?' 
 
 ' My good Mrs. Pell,' repHed the Rector, 
 * let me advise you to show less partisan- 
 ship in matters concerning Mr. Dick. 
 We will say no more about it now, and 
 keep that boy's tongue quiet until — he 
 is spoken to again. Good-day, Mrs. Pell.' 
 
 Mr. Barbour returned to the Vicarage 
 with this ' painful ' disclosure, in which he 
 took great pride, and naturally branched 
 out into the ' talk of the whole village ' 
 about Dick and Lady Gault. It was most 
 distressing, he declared, but he kept on at
 
 D—I—C—K 105 
 
 it as though it was pleasant ; and no inter- 
 ruptions came. 
 
 * Did you see Spaulding ?' Lord Wade- 
 hurst asked. 
 
 * No. I did not like to press the matter 
 further until I had consulted you.' 
 
 ' Right.' 
 
 * But now, if ' 
 
 ' I have been away from my poor boy 
 too long already,' interrupted his lordship. 
 ' See me in the morning, Barbour. I will 
 send a carriage for you. Do nothing more 
 at present.' 
 
 He called at the station on his way 
 home, and under cover of inquiry about 
 the expedition of Mr. Richard's luggage, 
 pumped the station-master about Mr. 
 Richard himself. Mr. Richard had not 
 been seen there for more than a week. 
 During this discussion the train from
 
 io6 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 London arrived, and with it Colonel Daly, 
 full of the wedding at which he had 
 ' assisted/ 
 
 ' Very smart affair, Lord Wadehurst,' he 
 fussed. ' The affair of the season, I should 
 say. Everybody there. So sad about 
 poor Frank ! Hope he's getting on nicely. 
 Yes, yes— only a question of time. Youth 
 and the splendid constitution he inherits 
 from you will pull him through. Dear 
 boy ! how he would have enjoyed the 
 wedding of his old playmate ! Charming 
 bride — charming !' 
 
 ' The Gaults were there, of course ?* 
 Lord Wadehurst inquired. 
 
 'Well, no. Curious, wasn't it ? I happened 
 to see them driving up to the station just 
 as the train was starting, and I ' 
 
 We know the rest of the story, which 
 had been told to twenty people already.
 
 D—I—C—K 107 
 
 ' Did you see Sir Claude ?' 
 
 * Oh yes. Ha ! ha ! I think I know what 
 you are after. Ha ! ha ! ha ! But you are 
 wrong for once, my lord. Ha ! ha ! He 
 was quite sober, and very attentive to his 
 wife. We mustn't believe half what we 
 hear, of course ; but really I have seen 
 him treat her very rudely on this very 
 platform. But this morning he was 
 like a bridegroom. Never too late to 
 mend, eh ? Well, don't let me detain 
 you,' and he fussed away. 
 
 During the rest of his drive Lord Wade- 
 hurst formed and reformed several theories 
 about Dick's movements. They came in 
 this order : ' He went to the Manor House 
 to tell Lady Gault that I had expelled 
 him, and perhaps, angered by this, to 
 have it out with Sir Claude " in his own 
 way," as he threatened. No, that could
 
 io8 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 not be. To waylay and beat the man in 
 his own grounds would compromise the 
 woman. Dick was not such a fool as to 
 do that. The most probable solution was 
 that, having seen Lady Gault, or whilst 
 waiting to see her, he found himself (as he 
 supposed) detected by Spaulding and the 
 gardener's boy, and fled. Thinking that 
 there would be a hue and cry after him, 
 he did not return to the Crown. To do 
 so would have been to run his head into a 
 trap ; and now he is hiding till he knows 
 how much or how little has been dis- 
 covered. Hiding ? Why, of course. That 
 is another reason why he has not gone 
 to his regular lodgings, for fear Sir Claude 
 should follow him there. Hiding, and no 
 one seeking him but poor afflicted Frank ! 
 ' The wicked fly when no man pur- 
 sueth,' thought his lordship piously ; ' for
 
 D—I—C—K 109 
 
 most assuredly, if he had been detected 
 after the affair of Sunday in Fairlock 
 churchyard, Lady Gault would not have 
 received those lover-like attentions at the 
 railway -station which Daly had noticed. 
 Hiding ? Where ? In London ? That 
 is the best place for anyone to hide in. 
 But how did he get to London ? Walk 
 back to Tonbridge Junction and take the 
 train there ? No, it would have to pass 
 Wadehurst, and he be recognised. Go on 
 to Redhill } A long way ; but he was a 
 good walker, and he had all night to make 
 it. Hiding ! Was he the sort of man 
 to hide ? What use in hiding, when the 
 truth — if known — would have to be faced 
 sooner or later ? Was his not just the 
 disposition to brazen it out, and take the 
 chances? Hiding! 
 
 ' My God !' exclaimed Lord Wadehurst,
 
 110 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 almost aloud, as a sudden fear struck him ; 
 ' that ruffian and his man might have 
 fallen upon him and killed him. His dead 
 body may be sunk in the lake or buried 
 in the woods, and this new behaviour 
 towards Lady Gault be put on to allay 
 her suspicions. There must be — there is 
 foul play. With all his faults, he is no 
 sneak. He would not hide.' 
 
 That night he telegraphed to a detective 
 agency to send a reliable man at once to 
 Wadehurst.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MARY MARTIN S HEADACHE. 
 
 It was an open secret that Sir Claude's 
 stud-groom, Mr. Stephen Spaulding, and 
 my lady's own maid (officially known as 
 Mrs. Martin) were engaged to be married, 
 and there did not appear to be any just 
 cause or impediment why they should not 
 be joined together in matrimony. Spauld- 
 ing was more than willing, and he had his 
 master's consent. Mary hesitated for her 
 lady's sake. She was the only servant 
 who slept in the house (occupying a room 
 next to that of Lady Gault), and was some
 
 TI2 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 sort of protection to her. All the rest of 
 the household lived in the wing which had 
 been built over the rear part of the moat, 
 and so were out of sight, and almost of 
 sound, of anything that might happen. 
 Poor Frances had declared that she would 
 die of fright if left alone at her husband's 
 mercy in that great silent grange ; and 
 Mary — who was honestly attached to 
 her — consented to remain single for 
 awhile. 
 
 Spaulding had quarters in the stable- 
 yard quite good enough for a married 
 man. His salary was high, and his pick- 
 ings numerous. He had saved money, and 
 did not see the use of wasting time in 
 single blessedness. I cannot say that he 
 was deeply in love — perhaps he was only 
 uncomfortable ; or it may be that he had 
 lately seen things which made him regard
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 113 
 
 a partnership with the blue-eyed lady's- 
 maid as likely to be a profitable one. 
 
 He took his meals in the housekeeper's 
 room, over which Mrs. Goodlake presided 
 with beneficent despotism. She has al- 
 ready given her opinion of servants prying 
 into things which her old-fashioned wisdom 
 led her to think did not concern them ; and 
 therefore you may be sure there was no 
 flavouring of scandal to the good things 
 with which her fellow (upper) servants 
 were reofaled. But the whole house was 
 full of it. A row of unusual severity, even 
 in that unhappy menage, had convulsed it 
 on Monday night, and thrown a deep 
 shadow over the following days. 
 
 Monday, be it remembered, was the 
 date of Dick's exodus from Wadehurst. 
 On that night, after all the servants had 
 retired to their quarters in the north wing 
 
 VOL. I. 8
 
 114 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 of the Manor House, screams had been 
 heard, and the scuffling of feet, and the 
 slamming of doors, and Martin had been 
 seen rushing frantically to the stables, 
 whence she returned with Spauldino^ ; and 
 the pair had gone round by the front, and 
 then disappeared together. Neither master 
 nor mistress appeared during all the next 
 day, and Martin only came down once 
 towards the evening. 
 
 Sir Claude and Lady Gault went to town 
 on Wednesday morning, miattended — a 
 most unusual thing. The thick veil worn 
 by my lady as she passed through the hall 
 could not hide the fact that she was weep- 
 ing, and she appeared very reluctant to go. 
 In fact, as we know, they nearly missed 
 the train. Martin had come down to 
 breakfast in the housekeeper's room as 
 usual, her head and part of her face
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 115 
 
 wrapped in a lace nubia. She ate nothing, 
 and appeared to be in a highly nervous 
 state. Now, Mary Martin was not given 
 up to nerves. She was usually — as Sir 
 Claude had found out — a remarkably 
 strong-minded and resolute young woman. 
 As she left the table, she said : 
 
 ' I have got a fearful headache, dear 
 Mrs. Goodlake, and my lady has excused 
 me. I'm going to have a good rest, so 
 please don't let me be disturbed all day.' 
 
 Mrs. Goodlake, not being entirely pleased 
 with the conduct of the lady's-maid, re- 
 plied dryly, ' Just as you please,' and Mary 
 retired, not to appear again. 
 
 * If she wants anything,' said the house- 
 keeper to herself, ' she can send for it. 
 /^m not going to put myself about for that 
 disrespectful hussy.' 
 
 Later on in the day a telegram arrived
 
 ii6 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 from Sir Claude, saying that her ladyship 
 had arranged to remain in London for the 
 present. 
 
 This was all that was known. What 
 was suspected would fill this book. 
 
 Mr. Spaulding alone took a light-hearted 
 view of it. 
 
 * Why, bless your heart,' he said, ' it's 
 the old game. What's the good of making 
 a fuss about it noza ? He,' meaning his 
 master, ' got drunk and abused her,' 
 meaning his mistress. ' Nothing new 
 about that, is there ? Then Miss Mary 
 gets off her side and jumps in, and he 
 abuses her. Next they send for me, and 
 I have to hold him till he sobers down. 
 It's all over — for this time. Yes, Miss 
 Mary did get hurt, and you may take your 
 oath I didn't hold the beggar like a new- 
 born babe after that'
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 117 
 
 With Mrs. Goodlake he had to fight the 
 battle of his sweetheart. 
 
 ' It seems,' said the housekeeper, * that 
 after fifty-five years' service in this family 
 I am to be treated as though I was a 
 nobody, and a chit of twenty is to take on 
 as though she were in my place. She,' 
 meaning, of course, Mary Martin, ' should 
 have come to me.' 
 
 * My dear Mrs. Goodlake,' expostulated 
 the stud-groom, ' what could you have done ?' 
 
 ' Given my orders, sir,' replied the old 
 lady with dignity. 
 
 Spaulding bit his lip. 
 
 * Have you ever seen master when he is 
 crazy drunk ?' he asked. 
 
 Wild horses could not have torn an ad- 
 mission in the affirmative from this faithful 
 old servant, and, alas ! she could not say 
 nay. She dodged.
 
 ii8 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' That is no business of yours, Mr. 
 Spaulding,' was her reply; 'and it hasn't 
 anything to do with what I'm talking 
 about now. Here's a young unmarried 
 girl who runs out of a house where I am 
 at midnight, and goes to a young un- 
 married man with whom she's keeping 
 company, and brings him back with her ; 
 and they remain upstairs, doing God 
 knows what, till morning.' 
 
 * In company of their master and mis- 
 tress. Don't forget that, Mrs. Goodlake. 
 This young man and this young woman 
 were acting all the time under orders from 
 their mistress, and for the benefit of their 
 master. Of course you'd have liked to 
 have a finger in the pie, but it was for my 
 lady to say if you should or you shouldn't.' 
 
 This was intended as a clincher, but it 
 did not clinch.
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 119 
 
 * It is probable,' said the old house- 
 keeper stiffly, ' that my lady did not know 
 what she was about.' 
 
 ' Why, there you've hit it,' said Spauld- 
 ing, with a dry laugh. ' I don't think any 
 of us knew much what we were about. 
 Come, come, don't you try to make things 
 worse than they are. If Miss Mary had 
 your head on her shoulders, she might 
 have acted different. She did her best, 
 and let me tell you she's a game one.' 
 
 * It is not a question of what you call 
 gameness, Mr. Spaulding, but of propriety ; 
 and now I think about it, I'm not at all 
 sure that my lady sent her out for you.' 
 
 The good old housekeeper was nettled 
 at the insinuation that she was not wanted, 
 and the flattering allusion to her ' head ' 
 was thrown away. 
 
 ' Ladies,' she added, somewhat spite-
 
 120 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 fully, ' do not generally send to the stables 
 for assistance.' 
 
 An evil flash came into Spaulding's 
 little gray eyes. He knew he was getting 
 the worst of it, and muttered : 
 
 ' Ladies do a heap of things nowadays 
 that you don't understand. You're on 
 the quarrel, so it's no use talking. Only 
 don't you go and set yourself up against 
 Mary Martin, or you'll get the worst of it.' 
 
 Mrs. Goodlake tossed her handsome 
 gray head in scorn. Such a warning to 
 her seemed below notice, but the time 
 came when she remembered it to her 
 sorrow. 
 
 I have seen figure-heads on several 
 German nut - crackers which might be 
 taken as portraits of Mr. Spaulding. His 
 features were wooden and hard. His eyes 
 were cold steel-gray ; his lips were thin.
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 121 
 
 Yet he was by no means an ill-looking 
 man. His clothes fitted him to perfection, 
 and were not ' horsey.' He was never 
 hot or cold, or in a hurry ; and gave you 
 the idea that you might hit him with a 
 brick anywhere without leaving a mark or 
 causing him to wince. 
 
 After his encounter with Mrs. Good- 
 lake, he returned to the stables, and 
 ordered his own particular dog-cart. 
 
 ' Put Hamet in,' he told the groom. 
 * I've got to get to Maidstone and back 
 before night. Want to see a man about 
 those horses.' 
 
 Then he lit a cigar, went up to his 
 room, and helped himself to a glass — a big 
 one — of brandy. 
 
 ' D' d old cat !' he muttered. ' We 
 
 should have had her in it. She'd go 
 through fire and water for him. And,
 
 122 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Lord ! how she might help us to- 
 night.' 
 
 He was back in time for supper, and 
 greeted the housekeeper as though he had 
 never thought of her in connection with 
 any cat, old or young. 
 
 * I've made a good deal to-day,' he 
 observed. ' Sold three of the five horses 
 master don't want to keep — sold them 
 well.' 
 
 * Ain't he going to hunt any more ?* 
 asked the butler. 
 
 ' Why, bless you ! yes ; but those 
 weeds are not up to his weight. How's 
 Miss Mary ?' 
 
 This question was addressed to Mrs. 
 Goodlake, who had not spoken during the 
 report. 
 
 * 1 cannot tell you, Mr. Spaulding,' she
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 123 
 
 replied. ' Miss Mary gave orders this 
 morning that she was not to be disturbed. 
 / have not disturbed her, and have taken 
 care that no one else should. I always 
 obey orders, Mr. Spaulding.' 
 
 The shadow of a smile passed over his 
 face. 
 
 ' So you must ask for yourself, or, if you 
 please, I will send one of the maids up to 
 inquire.' 
 
 The dear old dame was relenting. It 
 served the saucy chit right, she thought, 
 to be taken at her word, and left alone with 
 her headache, and not even a cup of tea 
 to comfort her, all day long ; but now 
 
 Further reflection was cut short by the 
 appearance of Mary herself, and it seemed 
 as though she had overheard part at least 
 of the preceding conversation ; for her 
 first words were :
 
 124 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' No occasion, dear Mrs. Goodlake. 
 Here I am to answer for myself, and, 
 thanks to your so kind attention to my 
 request, 1 have had a long, long sleep. 
 Oh, I'm all right now. Are you not 
 going to give me a chair, Mr. Spaulding ?' 
 
 Mr. Spaulding returned to his own 
 quarters, where he found the head- 
 gardener waiting for him — as often hap- 
 pened — to have a chat about things in 
 general over a pipe and glass of ' Scotch ' 
 before going to bed. But this time there 
 was something in particular to talk about, 
 and for its origin we must go back some 
 few hours. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Barbour had left the 
 lodge, good Mrs. Pell deranged a certain 
 garment of her first-born, and, in the 
 language of the poet,
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 125 
 
 ' Cruel only to be kind, 
 To his excessive dolour, 
 Gave him several slaps behind.' 
 
 This was for his saying anything against 
 Mr. Dick, and was only an instalment of 
 what might be administered if what he 
 told should turn out to be false. So his 
 father — a massive Scotchman, without a 
 shade of guile in his big head — told 
 Spaulding all about Mr. Barbour's visit, 
 and the result of inquiries it had caused 
 him (at his wife's suggestion) to make at 
 the Crown. This latter subject interested 
 Spaulding greatly, and he went back and 
 back again to it. 
 
 ' Looks odd, don't it, now ?' he asked, 
 ' that old Wadehurst shouldn't know 
 where Mr. Dick is, and his son so bad [ 
 Looks like as though there had been a 
 row.'
 
 126 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' But wus he in the shroobery Monday 
 nicht ?' queried the Scot, coming back to 
 his point. 
 
 ' Maybe he was ; he's been there before. 
 Maybe he wasn't. He don't come every 
 night, I suppose ?' 
 
 * Were ye in the shroobery yersel' Mon- 
 day nicht ?' 
 
 ' Well now, Pell, look here ! When you 
 were courting, didn't you ever take a walk 
 with your sweetheart of a fine night ?' 
 
 ' Monday was no' a fine nicht.' 
 
 Spaulding laughed. 
 
 ' It's never mind the weather, when 
 sweethearts are together,' he rejoined. ' I 
 knew a man who did all his courting under 
 an umbrella. How do you know that they 
 were sending telegrams after Mr. Dick 
 all yesterday ?' 
 
 * Sin' the lord came speering to the
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 127 
 
 Crown, every auld wife in the toon has 
 been clacking aboot it.' 
 
 * I was away — at Maidstone, selling 
 horses,' Spaulding observed. ' I only got 
 back in time for supper.' 
 
 ' Aweel, now — anent the shroo- 
 bery ' 
 
 * What was your boy doing there ?' 
 
 ' He were just poaching — the ree-pro- 
 bate !' replied Pell, with a grin. ' I gard 
 him show me his wires.' ^ 
 
 ' Then he told you the truth ?' 
 
 ' He did — he did. I'll no blame the 
 bairn for the rabbits. It's a fad o' my 
 laddie's to see the wee brown beesties 
 skirling aboot ; and they're just de-vasta- 
 tion to me pinks and carnations ; but I'd 
 no like to think that Willie tould a lee.' 
 
 ' Oh, Willie's a good boy — rabbiting and 
 all. And look here, Pell, his mother
 
 128 J ED WOOD J^U STICK 
 
 spanked him for not minding^ his business. 
 Don't you think, considering all this fuss 
 about Mr. Dick, that it would be a good 
 thing for a// of us to mind our own busi- 
 ness ? We might get a spanking (so to 
 speak) if we don't.' 
 
 * Ye've a long head, Spaulding,' said the 
 Scot, rubbing his own. ' I'll no say that 
 you're wrang.' 
 
 ' Have another tot,' replied the stud- 
 groom, pushing the whisky-bottle to his 
 visitor. 
 
 Left alone. Mr. Spaulding took a Lon- 
 don newspaper of that day out of the 
 pocket of the overcoat in which he had 
 returned from his horse-dealing journey, 
 and looked it over carefully. 
 
 ' Yes — here it is !' he said ; and this was 
 what he found :
 
 MARY MARTIN'S HEADACHE 129 
 
 ' We regret to announce the sudden and 
 serious illness of the Hon. Frank Birkett, 
 only son and heir of Lord Wadehurst.' 
 
 * They were like brothers,' the reader 
 mused. * That should fetch him, wherever 
 he may be.' 
 
 Early on the day following a thunder- 
 bolt fell out of a yellow envelope ad- 
 dressed to Mrs. Goodlake, and signed 
 ' Claude Gault ' : 
 
 ' Vou will pay Mary Martin the wages 
 due to her up to this day, and discharge her 
 from my service at once! 
 
 To the old housekeeper's utter surprise 
 and indignation, Mr. Spaulding ordered 
 Lady Gault's own brougham to take the 
 discharged lady's-maid to the station, and 
 went up to London with her himself. 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME. 
 
 Five days passed and yet no sign from 
 Dick. Paragraph after paragraph had 
 appeared in the London papers respecting 
 his cousin's state, which was now hopeless. 
 Every device known to detective skill had 
 been employed to find him. His luggage 
 — large and small — remained at his rooms 
 unclaimed. All that could be discovered 
 of him was that during a visit to London, 
 before the row in Fairlock Churchyard, he 
 sold the securities in which the savings put 
 aside for him during his minority — ninety-
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 131 
 
 five thousand pounds — had been invested ; 
 and that on the Tuesday after his sudden 
 departure from his uncle's house he drew 
 this money from his bank, taking notes, and 
 the unusually large amount of six hundred 
 pounds in gold. So, as the detective summed 
 up to Lord Wadehurst, there were two 
 things pretty clear — one, that he intended to 
 do something for which he required a large 
 amount of ready money ; and the other, 
 that he arrived safe and sound in London. 
 Could his lordship throw any light on tlie 
 first point ? His lordship could not. The 
 securities in question were what Americans 
 call 'gilt edged,' safe, and bearing good 
 interest. He did not bet or gamble. So 
 far as his uncle was aware, he did not owe 
 fifty pounds to anyone. He had never 
 spoken of investing in any business 
 Asked if there was a woman in the case,
 
 132 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Lord Wadehurst hesitated a little, but after 
 reflection said * No.' There was indeed 
 no woman in the case, from its moneyed 
 side. 
 
 * So that is all you have to tell me ?' he 
 said, in a tone of angry disappointment. 
 
 ' All,' replied the detective ; ' but I 
 should like to ask your lordship this one 
 question : Are you dealing fairly with 
 me?' 
 
 ' If you want more money, say so.' 
 
 'It is not money I'm after, but con- 
 fidence.' 
 
 ' My good man, I have told you all I 
 know.' 
 
 * Maybe, but — well, I'll tell you. There's 
 nothing like being open and aboveboard 
 in these things. There's another inquiry 
 going on about Mr. Richard Birkett' 
 
 ' By whom ?'
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 133 
 
 * Ah ! there you beat me. rm bein^ 
 watched, and there's another man, and a 
 sharp one too, on the same track. Of 
 course, I've got him shadowed. He's 
 been to the lawyer and the broker and the 
 bank. He went to Liverpool after a 
 gentleman who changed a hundred-pound 
 note for '' greenbacks," and had his trip for 
 his pains. He's pretending to make love 
 to the servant girl at %"], Ashford Street, 
 hoping to pump something out there. 
 Oh, he's doing his work well ! The only 
 part of it I don't quite understand is why 
 he hasn't come down here. Now, who 
 can be interested in this except your lord- 
 ship ?' 
 
 * Lady Gault,' was the quick and em- 
 phatic reply. 
 
 ' Maybe, but I don't see why. He's 
 got her into trouble enough already.
 
 134 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Seems to me that, having some move of 
 his own in his mind, and having to leave 
 this house sooner than he expected, he 
 went to the Manor Monday night, just to 
 wish her good-bye. After that knock 
 down, he couldn't go there openly ; so it 
 was ''over the garden wall" on the chance 
 of seeing her. Did he see her ? If they 
 met, the gardener's boy and Spaulding 
 would have peached, and there'd have 
 been the devil to pay.' 
 
 * There was some disturbance that 
 night' 
 
 ' About the black-eyed lady's-maid ? 
 Yes. Sir Claude was carrying on with 
 her so that she had to run to her sweet- 
 heart in the stables for protection. That's 
 why Lady Gault wouldn't take the girl 
 with her to London. That's why she was 
 discharged. That's how they made it up
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 135 
 
 about Mr. Dick — as he's called — and went 
 off next morning like two turtle - doves. 
 The lady had got what the lawyers call a 
 "set off" — don't you see? Her gentle- 
 man was to be sent about his business, 
 and kzs girl to be discharged ; and all was 
 to be lovely for ever.' 
 
 'From this point of view,' asked his 
 lordship, ' how do you account for their not 
 having attended Miss Heath's wedding ?' 
 
 ' Easily,' the detective replied, taking 
 out his notebook and reading : * Wednes- 
 day, Nov. 19 — London. Sir Claude and 
 Lady Gault arrived at Charing Cross 
 station from Fairlock by the 11. 15 train, 
 and went to rooms at the Metropole, which 
 had been taken for them. At 11.30 a.m. 
 Lady G. sent out a prescription, which 
 was made up at Black's in the Strand. It 
 contained a good lot of chloral. At about
 
 136 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 the same time Sir Claude ordered a bottle 
 of brandy, which was taken up to his 
 room. At 1.20 Lady G. left the hotel, 
 carrying a dressing-bag (dark green 
 leather, with gilt fastenings), and did not 
 return. At two o'clock Sir Claude sent 
 for another bottle of brandy, and it was 
 noticed by the waiter who served it that 
 he was then more than three-parts drunk. 
 He left the following afternoon (Thurs- 
 day, the 20th) quite sober.' 
 
 ' They must have quarrelled again.' 
 ' A man who drinks a whole bottle of 
 brandy between half-past eleven in the 
 morning and two at noon is apt to be 
 quarrelsome. Anyhow, he wasn't in a fit 
 state to be at a wedding, and I suppose 
 his lady didn't like to go alone. That 
 answers your lordship's question. Now 
 let me get back. Mr. Dick evidently
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 137 
 
 thought that he had been seen in the 
 Manor House gardens, or he would have 
 gone back to the Crown for his dog- 
 cart. He got to London somehow and 
 drew that money. If the poor young 
 gentleman upstairs could speak, we should 
 know for what that money was required ; 
 but the very fact of his wanting to see his 
 cousin, and expecting him to come, shows 
 that it wasn't wanted to run away with, 
 and that he could come.' 
 
 ' You beg the question that he confided 
 in my son.' 
 
 ' If my information be correct, I think 
 it fair to do so. Very few brothers are 
 better friends than they were. I heard 
 someone say that if Mr. Dick knew that 
 Mr. Birkett was ill, wild horses couldn't 
 keep him from his side. That's the sort 
 of terms they were on.'
 
 138 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' And yet,' said Lord Wadehurst bitterly, 
 *he keeps away. It is so heartless, so 
 ungrateful !' 
 
 ' Now you're begging the question that 
 he knows.' 
 
 ' Mr. Biggs,' replied his employer, ' I do 
 not understand you. You contend that 
 my nephew has not gone away. If this 
 be so, he must have seen some of the 
 notices that have been published respect- 
 ing his cousin's severe attack and critical 
 position.' 
 
 ' The first of those notices was published 
 on the Wednesday morning,' replied the 
 detective. ' It is my opinion that Mr. 
 Dick met with foul play some time on 
 Tuesday night.' 
 
 * Good God ! Do you think he is 
 dead ?' 
 
 ' Maybe. That will depend upon who
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 139 
 
 had charge of the job. Some would go 
 clumsily to work and make a murder of it. 
 Some would get all they wanted without 
 risking their necks. There's nothing so 
 hard to work off as a dead body. See 
 now. There isn't a bank in London but 
 is watched by professional thieves for what 
 they can pick up, for what they can snatch, 
 for what they can follow and get at 
 leisure. Mr. Dick draws six hundred 
 sovereigns. Did he take them in a bag ? 
 If so, anyone could see it. Did he sow 
 them about in his pockets ? If so, any 
 crook would know it by the drag and the 
 swagging of his clothes. He avoided his 
 regular lodgings, and probably went to 
 some quiet place — ^just proper for a plant. 
 He was followed, and as no alarm was 
 raised, and no complaint made, we must 
 conclude that there were experts in it.
 
 I40 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 The thing has been done before, and 
 will be again. No violence, no noise, 
 and in a few days or a few weeks the 
 victim wakes up one morning with a bad 
 headache on Hampstead Heath, or on 
 board a ship bound for Valparaiso, and 
 hasn't an idea what has happened to him.' 
 
 * Unconscious for weeks, Mr. Biggs } 
 Incredible !' 
 
 ' Your lordship is thinking of old times, 
 before the hypodermic syringe was in- 
 vented,' replied the detective quietly. 
 ' Once get a man under that influence, and 
 he is all right — much handier to deal with 
 than if he were dead. You want to move 
 him ? Well, he's a poor gentleman in a 
 fit, or a bad lot that's always getting drunk. 
 He can't contradict you. You get him 
 where you want him, and then he's the 
 poor sick gentleman upstairs who mustn't
 
 A LESSON IN CRIME 141 
 
 be disturbed. That's the game. You're 
 his brother and his sister — there's generally 
 a woman in it — or his wife and his son — 
 according to age — and no one thinks of 
 interfering. You watch your time, and let 
 him loose.' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst listened to this lesson 
 in crime with bent brows. The off-hand 
 ways and superior knowledge affected by 
 Mr. Biggs did not please him. He sharply 
 asked : 
 
 ' What do you advise ?' 
 
 ' The case must be reported to the 
 regular police. They won't do a bit of 
 good, but it's the right thing to do, and 
 there'll be a row if it isn't done. The 
 other party will blow, sooner or later, if we 
 don't' 
 
 ' I will think it over, Mr. Biggs. In the 
 meantime go and get some luncheon.'
 
 142 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 The detective returned to tv.wn, and 
 found a disagreeable surprise awaiting him. 
 Like so many of his trade, he got up a 
 theory first, and then picked out facts to 
 suit it. Now an entirely new theory was 
 sprung upon him, and he felt — to use his 
 own words — as though he ought to kick 
 himself for not having thought of it before.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 'SHE HAS CONSENTED.' 
 
 Lord Wadehurst grudged every moment 
 that was not spent by the bedside of his 
 son. Let us pass over what he saw. 
 Many know by heart the weary waiting fpr 
 the changes which do not come, the hope- 
 ful ignoring of the change which is coming. 
 Those happy ones who have not seen a 
 dear life pass away under their eyes, and 
 know not the misery of the thought that 
 nothing they can do will save it, may rest 
 in blissful ignorance. The great London 
 doctor — who had been told the whole truth
 
 144 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 as to the moving cause of poor Frank's 
 seizure — persisted in his opinion that the 
 sight of his cousin might cause a counter- 
 shock, out of which good might come ; and 
 he added fuel to the fire already burning 
 in Lord Wadehurst's heart against the 
 absent Dick by comments upon his ' want 
 of good feeling.' For although his lord- 
 ship had to give up — with regret — his own 
 theory as to * foul play,' he would not 
 accept that of Mr. Biggs. Mr. Biggs had 
 presumed to dictate, had suggested that 
 his ideas were old-fashioned, and that was 
 enough to discredit him. 
 
 No ; Dick had not fallen amongst 
 thieves. He was hiding out of spite. 
 He was a cold-hearted hypocrite. His 
 whole life at Wadehurst was an acted 
 lie. His affection for his cousin was put 
 on to enjoy the luxuries their companion-
 
 'SHE HAS CONSENTED' 145 
 
 ship assured him. As soon as the one was 
 lost, he cast aside the other. He was 
 taking revenge for his expulsion. Nay, 
 worse still ! he was plotting the death of 
 the boy who alone stood between him and 
 the barony of Wadehurst. ' Anger is like 
 the letting out of waters.' It saps the 
 barriers of truth and justice, and whirls us 
 along upon its waves of hatred, malice, 
 and all uncharltableness. 
 
 The letter written by Frank, just before 
 his attack, to Dick in London, had been 
 returned, and read for any clue it might 
 contain. The sorrowing father saw him- 
 self for the first time, and with a shudder, 
 as these bright boys had seen him. 
 
 They had been in the habit of calling 
 him ' Bogey.' He was becoming ' almost 
 human '! In the unfinished writing left upon 
 his desk, Frank had repented : * We won't 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 146 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 call him " Bogey" any more. It Isn't 
 fair.' Oh, what a heart of gold was here ! 
 All those years of neglect and unkind ness 
 swept away by one touch of love ! The 
 words that followed could hardly be read 
 for the tears which fell upon them. 
 
 ' It has been more than half our fault, 
 old man,' Frank wrote. ' Think of all the 
 things we've done to draw him. What 
 have we ever given up to try and please 
 him ? Let us begin all over again on a 
 clean slate. Just consider the lonely life 
 he leads — it's enough to make a saint cross. 
 After to-night I shall know how to draw 
 him — ^/le right way — and between us both 
 we'll make quite a nice chirpy old gentle- 
 man of him in time.' 
 
 From a Chesterfield point of view, the 
 style of this epistle is open to objection. 
 Written of another father. Lord Wade-
 
 ' SHE HA S CONSENTED ' 147 
 
 hurst would have considered it excessively 
 pert and disrespectful ; but, oh, the balm 
 it spread upon his aching heart ! What a 
 wide approach to hope, what never-ending 
 avenues to happiness, those light words 
 opened up ! 
 
 Good Mr. Barbour had called as ordered 
 the morning after his interview with Mrs. 
 Pell, and was much distressed to find him- 
 self superseded by a regular detective. 
 Nevertheless, he felt it his duty to con- 
 tinue the investigation, and considered 
 himself fortunate in securing Mr. Spauld- 
 ing (who had returned) as an ally. In 
 this way the stud -groom became aware of 
 all that passed at Wadehurst, and of the 
 different views taken as to Dick's dis- 
 appearance. 
 
 On the table of his now abandoned
 
 148 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 library, arranged in serried ranks, reposed 
 unopened the contents of Lord Wadehurst's 
 mail-bags — blue-books, reports, pamph- 
 lets, and the proof-sheets of his last article, 
 proving that all the recent misfortunes of 
 her Majesty's Ministers arose from their 
 obstinate rejection of his advice. Time 
 was when he would have gone over these 
 with a thrill of delight, adding an extra 
 sting here, and polishing up a sarcasm 
 there ; but now he had no heart for the 
 work. What were politics to him when 
 his boy lay dying ? 
 
 Several letters for Frank were brought 
 up as a matter of ceremony to the sick- 
 room, and placed on the mantel ; and one 
 of them had frequently attracted Lord 
 Wadehurst's attention. On a dirty enve- 
 lope, in an unformed and crooked hand, 
 was written * The honorable J/r. Birkett,
 
 * SHE HA S CONSENTED ' 1 49 
 
 Esquire. Privit', and the post-mark was 
 Islington — a begging-letter, evidently. 
 
 The long nights set in early. No one 
 who has not watched as this man did 
 knows how slowly the dark hours can drag 
 their weary lengths towards the dawn. 
 There was absolutely nothing to be done 
 but wait. He could not read, he would 
 not try to sleep, lest the hoped-for moment 
 of consciousness might come and pass. 
 He sat and thought — thought over for 
 the tenth time all the detective had told 
 him that day ; thought over some gossip 
 which Mr. Barbour had brought him in 
 the evening, and which seemed to confirm 
 his own theory as to Dick's guilt ; and in 
 the midst of all this thinking that wretched 
 scrawl on the mantelpiece — * The honorable 
 Mr, Birkett, Esquire. Privit' — persisted 
 in coming before his mind's eye. A
 
 I50 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 begging-letter ? Someone in want. Some- 
 one who thought that Frank would help 
 him. Someone, perhaps, whom Frank 
 would like to help. Someone who, if 
 helped, would say ' God bless him !' and 
 might pray for him. There is a germ 
 of superstition in the hardest head. A 
 week ago Lord Wadehurst would have 
 scoffed at the notion that a law of Nature 
 could be repealed by prayer. A week ago 
 he held philosophical objections to the 
 encouragement of beggars. Now he found 
 himself lifting the seal of the begging, 
 letter, and saying to himself: 
 
 * The man shall have what he wants, for 
 Frank's sake.' 
 
 He tore the dirty envelope in twain and 
 threw it on the floor, and there appeared 
 another letter properly addressed, and in 
 Dick's own handwriting / :
 
 ' SH E HAS CONSENTED ' 151 
 
 Here was the secret — here the clue to 
 all! 
 
 It almost fell from his trembling hands. 
 A blindness came over his eyes. Here 
 was what would put an end to all doubt ; 
 and yet he stood irresolute, turning the 
 paper over and over, and wondering what 
 it might contain. 
 
 At last he pulled himself together, took 
 it into his own room, turned up the lamp, 
 and read thus : 
 
 ' Dear old Man, 
 
 'It's all right, and you were all 
 wrong. She has consented — bless her dear 
 heart ! — and off we go. Of course, there 
 will be a hideous row, and I shall be the 
 best abused man in England for a week or 
 two. I don't mind a bit. I shall save the 
 woman I love — and who loves me — from
 
 152 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 a life of misery, and things will blow over 
 
 in time. You won't get this till we are 
 
 well out of reach, and if my plans go right 
 
 (and I think they will) the devil himself 
 
 cannot catch us. 
 
 ' The worst part of it is leaving you. 
 
 But cheer up. It won't be for very long 
 
 I dare say. Perhaps, when I am gone, 
 
 Bogey will behave himself. So it may be 
 
 for your good. ''Wait till the clouds roll 
 
 by, Jenny," and then you'll hear again 
 
 from your loving 
 
 ' Dick.' 
 
 A erim smile curdled over Lord Wade- 
 hurst's face as he read this letter, and 
 realized what was writ between the lines. 
 The writer had indeed ' got even ' with 
 Sir Claude in his 'own way.' He had 
 struck promptly and hard. The house of 
 Gault had received a supreme humiliation
 
 ^SHE HAS CONSENTED' 153 
 
 at the hands of the house of Birkett. The 
 
 humihation would endure, but the humili- 
 
 ator could be repudiated. No necessity 
 
 now for explanations or excuses for Dick's 
 
 banishment. He had run away with 
 
 another man's wife, and there was an end 
 
 of him. 
 
 * The sword that slew the slayer 
 Was itself amongst the slain.' 
 
 ' And they are trying to hush it up,' 
 mused his lordship — ' trying to catch them 
 and bring her back. That other detective 
 of whom Biggs spoke is in Sir Claude's 
 pay, of course.' 
 
 Reprobate as Dick was, it gave his 
 noble uncle some satisfaction to think that 
 he had outwitted the enemy so far. 
 
 He was roused from these musings by 
 the hurried entrance of the nurse with 
 good news. Her patient had recovered
 
 154 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 consciousness ; his eyes were open ; he 
 was even movinor his left arm. He did 
 move anon ; he recognised his father as 
 he bent over him, pressed his hand, and 
 smiled. 
 
 The great London doctor had left orders 
 that he was to be summoned if any change 
 took place. At break of day a groom was 
 despatched with a telegram to Sir Charles, 
 and returned with one for Lord Wade- 
 hurst, which had arrived the night before, 
 but too late for transmission. It came 
 from the Private Inquiry Office to which 
 Mr. Biggs was attached, and read : 
 
 ' New developments. Lady Gault is 
 missing. Am following up the clue. 
 
 ' Spiers and Co.' 
 
 To which they received in reply : 
 
 ' Case mismanaged by you from the
 
 'SHE HAS consented: 155 
 
 beginning. Made worse by mention of 
 name. Suspend all operations and send 
 in account. 
 
 * Wadehurst.' 
 
 It did his lordship good to have this 
 fling at Mr. Biggs. 
 
 The famous specialist and Mr. Barbour 
 arrived almost together. The latter 
 clasped his hands devoutly, and declared 
 that the Lord had heard his prayers. The 
 former was not so sanguine. There was 
 a change, certainly — a very remarkable 
 change. The next twelve hours would 
 show to what it tended. 
 
 ' Let him have as much nourishment as 
 he can be induced to take, and be kept 
 perfectly quiet,' he wound up. ' I think 
 that Mr. Crawford ' — the local practitioner 
 — ' understands the case thoroughly.
 
 156 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 There will, perhaps, be no necessity to 
 send for me again.' 
 
 The nurse understood him, and feared 
 against hope. The father hoped against 
 fear. 
 
 Later on he took Mr. Barbour aside and 
 disclosed the ' new developments.' 
 
 ' These idiots,' referring to Spiers and 
 Co., he said, ' by using the woman's name 
 in a telegram, have upset Sir Claude's 
 plan. The affair cannot be kept secret 
 any longer, and I consider it my duty to 
 act openly. I might be misunderstood 
 hereafter if I did not. You will therefore 
 be good enough to go up to town at once, 
 see Sir Claude's solicitors, show them this ' 
 — Dick's letter — ' and allow them to take 
 a copy of it if they so desire.' 
 
 Mr. Barbour departed with chastened 
 joy. The interloping detective had been
 
 SHE HAS CONSENTED' 
 
 ^57 
 
 deposed. He was again Lord Wade- 
 hurst's confidential agent, and his lordship 
 had a better living than Fairlock in his 
 gift.
 
 o\.oi^#e 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HONEYMOON. 
 
 Mr. Macgruther and his bride visited the 
 great capitals of Europe on their wedding 
 tour, and received exceptional recognition. 
 In and out of Parliament the bridegroom 
 had rendered valuable services to the 
 Governments of France and Austria ; a 
 subject on which he was a recognised 
 expert was perplexing that of Italy; and 
 the bride was a very pretty woman. She 
 found herself a persona grata alike with 
 famous statesmen and the grandes dames 
 of the Courts in which they moved, and her
 
 THE HONEYMOON 159 
 
 mind's eyes opened to possibilities to which 
 they had hitherto been shut. The varied 
 romances of her life went out of it as she 
 left the church on Mr. Macgruther s arm. 
 There could be no more tender dalliance 
 with despairing detrimentals in dimly-lit 
 conservatories ; no more scheming to cir- 
 cumvent poor dear mamma with regard to 
 lordly but undesirable gentlemen forbidden 
 the house. No one could be kinder — in 
 his cold way — than her permanent lord ; 
 but she knew he was not a man with 
 whom she could trifle. 
 
 One night, when they had returned to 
 their hotel from a function at which some 
 very great people had assisted, she asked 
 him : 
 
 ' Well, how did I behave ?' 
 
 * You were charming,' he replied gal- 
 lantly ; ' only '
 
 i6o J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' Only what ?' 
 
 ' I do not find you quite so animated as 
 you used to be.' 
 
 ' I am a married woman now.' 
 
 This jarred. 
 
 ' I hope there is nothing in your married 
 Hfe to make you less happy than you were 
 as a girl,' he said rather sadly. 
 
 * I am quite happy,' she replied, ' and I 
 am getting wise. Tell me,' taking a seat 
 close beside him, and to his great inward 
 delight putting a plump white arm round 
 his neck, ' tell me what you would think if 
 one day I made for you such a salon as 
 Madame de Lansdoff has ?' 
 
 ' That would indeed be a success.' 
 
 ' Why not ?' gaily. ' You are rich, and 
 1 am pretty.' 
 
 ' The partnership capital is unfairly 
 divided,' he answered her. ' There are
 
 THE HONEYMOON i6i 
 
 many men far richer than I am, but no 
 woman so pretty as you.' 
 
 ' That is the nicest thing you have ever 
 said, and it is very good and dear of you 
 to say it. Accustom yourself to pay such 
 pretty compliments as that, and our salon 
 is made.' 
 
 ' A salon of two ?' 
 
 ' You know what I mean. As for me, I 
 am feeling my way. I am not going to 
 take a hand in any game until I have 
 learned it' 
 
 ' Quite right.' 
 
 ' I am forming myself on the Princess 
 and Madame de Lansdoff and her set. 
 Animation ! We English have no idea of 
 it. We giggle, and we jerk ourselves. 
 We are to these Austrian and Italian 
 women what a guinea-pig is to a squirrel. 
 Do you know why we have no salons ? 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 i62 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Because we have ground ourselves down 
 to one dull level, and are afraid of clever 
 people. Did you notice the Countess to- 
 night ? She had an audience before she 
 was in the room ten minutes. She not 
 only said all sorts of witty things herself, 
 but she knew how to draw out other 
 people, and wit breeds wit. What should 
 we do at home ? She'd scare us out of 
 our wits. We should say, ** This is dread- 
 ful !" We may laugh in the wrong place. 
 She may say something to us and expect a 
 smart answer ; and we should fly from her, 
 as though she were a pestilence, or wore 
 darned gloves, and grunt monosyllables at 
 each other.' 
 
 * And how do you propose to change 
 this ? Please go on. I am much in- 
 terested.' 
 
 And he was. It was the first real con-
 
 THE HONEYMOON 163 
 
 versation he had held with his bride. 
 They had talked things over, and ex- 
 changed remarks, and asked and answered 
 questions, but conversation is a different 
 thing ; and this was it. 
 
 * I think it is our fault,' she continued 
 with a smile ; ' we have taught the men to 
 be stupid. If a score of bright women 
 were to get together and resolve that they 
 would have no man about them who didn't 
 amuse them, there would be a good be^- 
 ginning. But we offer a premium for 
 silliness. We are faithless to ourselves. 
 We are afraid to shine.' 
 
 ' Under the conditions you mention, this 
 may apply also to the men.' 
 
 ' No doubt it does, and so we go round, 
 round, round ; being dull, because we 
 expect dulness. We take no interest in 
 what we do. We run here and there, like
 
 1 64 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 a flock of sheep, because other people go ; 
 and to show our gowns. We go to Ascot 
 and Goodwood, and don't care for the 
 races. We go to Henley, and are bored 
 by the boats. We go to Lord's without an 
 idea of cricket ; and when the Eton captain 
 spoons up a ball to '' point," we — wearing 
 the light blue — simper " Dear me ! how 
 nice ! 
 
 * You, at least, appear to understand the 
 game.' 
 
 *Of course, Dick Birkett taught it me 
 years ago. Fan and I used to long-stop 
 for him and Frank, practising. Poor 
 Frank ! I hope he's better.' 
 
 ' Let us get back to our subject,' said 
 Macgruther. ' What is your plan of reform ?' 
 
 * I have no plan. Some woman must 
 creep up gradually into such a position as 
 to make her will a social law.'
 
 THE HONEYMOON 165 
 
 ' How ?' 
 
 ' Ah ! there's the rub. I sometimes 
 think that we might get in the small end 
 of the wedge by taking interest in people 
 and things, and showing it. See how 
 American women have got on in London ! 
 A man says, " 1 think I can hnd you a 
 seat," or some such simple thing, and they 
 brighten up all over as though he had 
 said, " I think I can find you a dodo in a 
 gold cage." They never look as if th^ 
 were bored, and of course they often are. 
 They seem to start with the idea that 
 there is something coming — something to 
 be got that is pleasant. They go about 
 the world scratching like hens, and find 
 lots of things. We sit on our perches like 
 so many Poll parrots and wait for our 
 pap. We haven't sense enough to see 
 that the other sort of thing pays, or else
 
 1 66 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 we pretend to look down upon it because 
 it's Yankee. My coming woman won't 
 throw away a chance, though it came 
 from Timbuctoo. Once she can make 
 dulness ridiculous, half the battle is won.' 
 
 * Will you be that woman ?' her husband 
 asked, smiling at her warmth. 
 
 * I will try,' she replied, * and you must 
 help me.' 
 
 ' I care little for society.' 
 
 ' You must get over that, dear. You 
 have a young wife who loves it, with all its 
 faults.' 
 
 ' How about its vices ? Young and in- 
 experienced as you are, you must know 
 that the morals of what we call '' society " 
 are fearfully lax.' 
 
 ' Lax is the word. We are not bril- 
 liantly vicious, as our great-grandfathers 
 and great-grandmothers were. We are
 
 THE HONEYMOON 167 
 
 bad out of idleness and want of something 
 else to do. What I call dulness is the 
 root of all the evil. Let people learn to 
 think and reason and ask themselves 
 " why T for two months — and, my good- 
 ness ! what a revolution there would be !' 
 
 Alexander Macgruther drew his wife's 
 face to his shoulder and kissed it. He 
 was very pleased. He had married her 
 for her beauty — he began to respect her 
 for her brains. His political party had 
 few bright women. The other side was 
 all a-bloom with them. Yes, that salon 
 was not on the first floor of a chateau 
 en Espagne, as he thought when she firsc 
 mentioned the word. 
 
 As for Bertha, her new life did not 
 pinch anywhere. The frequent heart- 
 quakes of her maidenhood had hardened 
 her. The respect with which her husband
 
 1 68 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 was received everywhere made her proud 
 of him. She found that other women 
 admired him, which was a great consola- 
 tion ; for when one marries a man much 
 older than one's self, the horror is lest other 
 women should say ' poor thing !' No one 
 thought ' poor thing !' of Bertha. On the 
 Continent the husband is usually the 
 elder. A princess told her that her 
 husband was ' adorable,' and a countess 
 who ruled a Court praised his ' dis- 
 tinguished air.' And really Alexander 
 Macgruther was a fine man. 
 
 Looking around her, she saw that 
 within the grasp of a handsome woman, 
 with a rich and famous husband, there 
 was a delight almost as good as flirting — 
 power. Looking back, she began to 
 realize that in many of her little * affairs ' 
 love for the man of the moment was sub-
 
 THE HONEYMOON 169 
 
 ordinate to love of power over him — 
 power to please or to pain, power to fire 
 his eyes, or whiten his lips, or to set his 
 teeth grinding at a rival. A power — as 
 some of her young married friends assured 
 her — that was not of a permanent order. 
 She had, indeed, seen husbands grind 
 their teeth, but one who shivered at the 
 passing touch of his wife's dress had yet to 
 be introduced. She had a long life before 
 her. She must live for something. With 
 high spirits, plenty of pluck, and now 
 ambition, she could not rest as a pretty 
 doll to be dressed up in fine clothes and 
 shown round for admiration. She would 
 become a leader, and snub people. 
 
 But how about her lord ? She knew 
 that party lines penned him in the fold of 
 the women's rights movement, and that in 
 his heart he was a wolf outside. He was,
 
 I70 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 in fact, for other mens women's rights, and 
 if presented with the dire alternative of 
 seeing one of his own women (his sister or 
 his wife, for example) spouting on a plat- 
 form or smoking a pipe in a music-hall, 
 he would have accepted the lattQr as the 
 lesser evil of the two. A forward woman 
 was an abomination in his sight. 
 
 So Bertha felt some trepidation when 
 she asked : 
 
 ' What would you think if some day I 
 made for you such a salon as Madame de 
 Lansdoff has ?' 
 
 The result made her very happy, and 
 so, of course, a damper had to fall. 
 
 Returning from a drive with one of the 
 grandes dames upon whom she was form- 
 ing herself, she found her husband looking 
 unusually grave. 
 
 ' I have had a letter from your father,'
 
 THE HONEYMOON 171 
 
 he said, clearing his throat. ' He is well. 
 Your mother is well.' 
 
 'Oh, Alex!' she cried, * there's bad 
 news. You wouldn't begin like that if 
 there wasn't' 
 
 * There is — very bad news.' 
 
 * Of George, or Archie ? Oh !' clasping 
 her hands, ' what has happened ?' 
 
 * Your brothers are not mentioned. 
 Lady Gault ' 
 
 ' Poor dear Fan ! What has that brute 
 done to her now ?' 
 
 ' I am sorry to say, my dear, that the 
 sin is not on /its side. She has left him.' 
 
 * And serve him right ! I hope papa 
 and mamma will not send her back this 
 time,' said Bertha warmly. 
 
 ' She has eloped.' 
 
 * Impossible !' 
 
 * I should have said so yesterday, but it
 
 172 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 is unfortunately true. She has eloped with 
 Mr. Richard Birkett.' 
 
 ' With Dick ? Absurd ! Alex, how 
 can you ?' 
 
 ' If you doubt me, read for yourself ;' and 
 he handed her Mr. Heath's letter. 
 
 She had turned deadly pale, and was 
 trembling all over. Her husband placed 
 his finger on the damning words. She 
 flung the paper from her with a wild 
 hysterical cry. 
 
 ' Oh, the shame of it ! — my own sister ! — 
 the shame of it! It will kill me. How 
 shall I ever lift my head again ! My own 
 sister !' 
 
 There was no comfort for her. Mac- 
 gruther's stern morality held that nothing 
 could justify a wife in leaving her husband 
 with another man. 
 
 She picked up the letter and read it
 
 THE HONEYMOON 173 
 
 through with bitter comments — some in a 
 burst of tears, some with a sharp cry of 
 anger. 
 
 * So they chose the very day of our 
 marriage. How considerate of them, and 
 what a pretty wedding-present they left 
 me ! I suppose some people are asking 
 now when the other girl will bolt. You 
 poor Alex ! it's hard on you. If they had 
 only been quicker about it, you could have 
 got off marrying me. Don't touch me ! 
 You know you are thinking about what's 
 bred in the bone coming out in the flesh. 
 You will never love me — never trust 
 me.' 
 
 * I am not a Claude Gault,' he answered 
 kindly. * Nor shall I visit the sins of one 
 sister on the other. It is a hard blow. 
 Let us bear it together as best we can.' 
 
 ' It is unbearable f she exclaimed. ' Why
 
 174 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 did not Claude catch him that night and 
 kill him ? — yes, kill him. Such a man 
 deserves to die. If Dick Birkett stood 
 where you are, and I had a pistol, Fd kill 
 him myself. And only last night I dreamed 
 of having a salon, and being a great lady ! 
 In a month or two we shall have the 
 divorce case in all the papers, and it will 
 be, " Macgruther ? Oh yes, I know ; 
 married a girl young enough to be his 
 daughter. Sister went to the bad, didn't 
 she ? Bolted on her wedding-day." Oh, 
 the shame of it !' 
 
 In a postscript Mr. Heath had more bad 
 news to tell. 
 
 * Poor Lord Wadehurst,' he wrote, ' has 
 lost his son, and all through this villain ' 
 (meaning Dick). ' The shock caused by 
 his misconduct brought on one of the 
 seizures to which Frank was subject, and,
 
 THE HONEYMOON 175 
 
 after lingering for nearly a fortnight, he 
 died yesterday.' 
 
 * There again !' Bertha sobbed, ' the good 
 one has to suffer. Dear, gentle Frank, 
 who would not hurt a fly, he has to be 
 stricken down and die. There is no jus- 
 tice, no mercy ! We've only got to be 
 wicked to get ev — ev — everything.' 
 -y? -y? -5'? -5^ re 
 
 Dear, gentle Frank was, indeed, at rest ; 
 but we know the true cause of that fatal 
 stroke. His return to consciousness, re- 
 corded in my last chapter, was, as the 
 great doctor foresaw, the beginning of the 
 end. His last words were, ' Oh, my Dick ! 
 — my poor, dear Dick !' as though some- 
 thing had revealed to him that this loved 
 companion, this more than brother, was in 
 trouble and in grief.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT. 
 
 I HAVE not given you Mr. Heath's letter 
 to his son-in-law in extenso, because, written 
 under the excitement of the moment, it 
 was not coherent, and contained some mis- 
 takes and many omissions. It will be best 
 to go to the office of Messrs. Lucas and 
 Lucas (the great divorce lawyers employed 
 by Sir Claude Gault) and, with or without 
 permission, look over the ' proofs ' they 
 had prepared in the case of Gault v. Gault 
 and Birkett. 
 
 From the evidence to be given by
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 177 
 
 Stephen Spaulding, Mary Martin, and 
 the Reverend Thomas Barbour, it ap- 
 peared that the co-respondent (Mr. Richard 
 Birkett) had been a constant visitor at 
 Fairlock Manor for several weeks prior to 
 November 1 7, and that he and Lady Gault 
 had been seen walking together in secluded 
 parts of the grounds, talking earnestly. 
 Mr. Barbour would say that he felt it 
 his duty as a clergyman to communicate 
 these facts to Sir Claude on Saturday, the 
 J 5th, and that a lamentable affray took 
 place in consequence between him and the 
 co-respondent on the following day. 
 
 On Monday night, the 17th, Richard 
 Birkett entered the shrubbery of the Manor 
 House in some secret way, probably by 
 scaling the wall, as it would be shown that 
 he did not pass the lodge, and was seen 
 there — first by the gardener's boy, William 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 178 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Pell, and afterwards by Spaulding and 
 Martin — in the company of Lady Gault. 
 The last-named witnesses saw them meet 
 in a dark walk, and noticed what passed. 
 Mr. Richard seemed very much excited 
 and anxious. Almost his first words (at 
 any rate, the first overheard) were, ' Don't 
 keep me in suspense ! Tell me at once !' 
 Lady Gault said something in a low voice, 
 and instantly he threw his arms around 
 her and kissed her. Then they walked up 
 and down, he holding her arm by the 
 elbow, for about a quarter of an hour, 
 whispering. By this time Mr. Richard 
 appeared to be highly elated and her lady- 
 ship sad, walking with bent head and 
 hardly answering him. 
 
 Having seen and heard so much, and 
 fearing that an elopement would come oft 
 there and then, they (the witnesses) deter.
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 179 
 
 mined that Sir Claude should be called to 
 judge for himself, and Martin went for 
 him. He arrived just in time to see the 
 co-respondent struggling on the top of the 
 wall with a branch of a tree, on which he 
 dropped down to the other side. Spauld- 
 ing, light and active, took the same route, 
 and gave chase. Sir Claude, not quite 
 sober, could not follow, but went back to 
 the house, roused the servants, got lan- 
 terns and dogs, and joined in the hunt. 
 On the other side of the wall were open 
 grass fields, then a line of pheasant covers, 
 then the much-litigated brook, and then a 
 lane leading into the main road to London. 
 The grass gave no track, the woods were 
 drawn blank, the stream was in several 
 places narrow enough for a man like Mr. 
 Richard to jump, and so he got clear 
 away.
 
 i8o J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Then, according to Mary Martin, who 
 was present, a fearful scene took place 
 between Sir Claude and his wife ; he 
 accusing her in no measured words, she 
 protesting by all she held sacred that no 
 word of love had ever passed between her- 
 self and Richard Birkett, and that he had 
 come only to tell her that he had quarrelled 
 with his uncle, Lord Wadehurst. At first 
 Sir Claude would not believe her, and 
 became so violent that the witness Martin, 
 fearing personal injury to her mistress, ran 
 to the stables for Spaulding to aid her in 
 protecting the very life of that lady. And 
 yet nothing had been said to Sir Claude 
 so far as to the embrace and kissing. He 
 only knew that Lady Gault and the co- 
 respondent were together in the shrubbery. 
 Eventually he calmed down, and something 
 like a peace was made, so that when they
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT i8i 
 
 started on Wednesday morning for Miss 
 Heath's wedding he was ' quite pleasant.' 
 
 Charles James, a waiter at the Metro- 
 pole Hotel, would state facts already 
 known to the reader through the detective 
 Biggs. To recapitulate, Sir Claude got 
 very drunk, and Lady Gault left about 
 half-past one o'clock, with nothing but her 
 dressing-bag. That was the last that was 
 seen of her. 
 
 For himself, Sir Claude would say that, 
 deeming it just possible that his wife might 
 have left him innocently (on account of his 
 violence on the Monday night, which he 
 now deeply regretted), and to avoid a 
 public scandal, he did his best to find her 
 and bring her back. He employed de- 
 tectives to trace her, and, as a means 
 towards that end, to find out what had 
 become of the co-respondent. They failed
 
 i82 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 utterly. The fugitives had disappeared, 
 as though the ground had opened and 
 swallowed them ; but one left clear indica- 
 tions that he had contemplated a long and 
 far flight before his quarrel with Lord 
 Wadehurst. Banker and broker would 
 depose to this. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst would consent, with 
 great reluctance, to say what had passed 
 between him and his nephew with regard 
 to Sir Claude — how he had threatened to 
 get even with him ' in his own way '; and 
 would produce his letter to his (Lord 
 Wadehurst's) late son, which was indeed 
 the touchstone to the whole case. 
 
 Learned counsel, commenting on this, 
 would say : 
 
 ' Gentlemen of the jury, you can tell by 
 the light of these written words exactly 
 what passed in the shrubbery. *' Do not
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 183 
 
 keep me in suspense," he said. '' Tell me 
 at once." ''What?" ''Why, that you 
 consent to fly with me." She replies, and 
 he snatches her to his heart and kisses her. 
 S//^ has consented. " All is right," he 
 writes to his cousin, " and you are wrong." 
 This high-minded young gentleman had 
 evidently tried to turn him from his pur- 
 pose, and, with a noble trust in the honour 
 ot his old playmate, had deemed it im- 
 possible that she could consent ; but he is 
 told in heartless ribaldry, " She has con- 
 sented, and off we go r ' 
 
 Such was the case prepared for presen- 
 tation before a jury of his countrymen on 
 behalf of Sir Claude Gault, but an unto- 
 ward hitch delayed the trial. The learned 
 judge before whom it was to be heard was 
 not satisfied with the endeavours made by 
 the petitioner to serve the other parties
 
 1 84 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 with notice of the proceedings against 
 them. Reminded of the precautions taken 
 by the co-respondent to baffle pursuit, and 
 of that portion of his letter to his deceased 
 cousin in which he wrote, ' If my plans go 
 right (and I think they will), the devil 
 himself cannot catch us,' his lordship re- 
 plied dryly that this was merely an expres- 
 sion of opinion by one person as to what 
 another person (not before the Court) 
 could not do. 
 
 This spoke in the wheels of justice was 
 the joint production of Mrs. Heath and 
 Sir Claude's younger brother, Horace 
 Gault. 
 
 Mrs. Heath, who had yet another 
 daughter to marry, dreaded the threatened 
 exposure, and worked like a beaver in and 
 around the office of the Queen's Proctor, 
 not by any means to obtain his interven-
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 185 
 
 tion — that might make bad worse — but to 
 get such a menace of it as would frighten 
 the petitioner out of Court. 
 
 Horace Gault wanted intervention pure 
 and simple and strong. His big brother 
 had bullied him as a boy, and behaved 
 shabbily when their father died. He 
 loved him not, and the present condition 
 of affairs suited him down to the ground. 
 There was no heir. If a divorce were 
 obtained, there might be one. Sir Claude 
 had a good deal of property in his own 
 right (including the Manor House), but 
 still there was some under entail and the 
 title to go for. He also worried the 
 Queen's Proctor with the usual pleas in 
 bar, but failed to obtain his assistance. 
 Cruelty } That would do ; but who in 
 the absence of the wife was to prove it 1 
 Sir Claude had been careful not to commit
 
 1 86 J^ ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 himself before witnesses, and many a white 
 lie had been told about cuts and bruises to 
 screen him. Everyone knew that he beat 
 his wife, but no one could prove it. Con- 
 nivance ? Out of the question. Had not 
 Sir Claude knocked the man down the 
 first time he saw him, after Mr. Barbour's 
 warning ? The evidence as to the other 
 thing, which lawyers know of, had to refer 
 to post-nuptial days, and was not to be 
 had when the pinch came. The alleged 
 dairymaid at Fairlock (too young and 
 pretty for her place), who went to church 
 in silk attire, disappeared ; and a lady 
 (the delight of several London music- 
 halls), when approached on the subject, 
 exclaimed : 
 
 'What! go against poor old " Polly- 
 and-Scotch ".^ Not I! Let him have 
 his divorce — perhaps he'll marry me."
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 187 
 
 But he did not. 
 
 It is probable that some of this reached 
 the ear of the Court, and akhough the 
 judge was by far too good a one to listen 
 to outside gossip, it pointed and strength- 
 ened his technical objection. 
 
 ' It is you7^ business to find them, you 
 know/ he told the Q.C. who appeared for 
 Sir Claude ; ' and really you must do 
 something more in that direction.' 
 
 Some people, when they read the report 
 of these passages, said : 
 
 ' Silly old man ! What is the use of 
 serving them ?' (meaning the runaways)= 
 ' What could they have to say ?' 
 
 Now, this judge was old, but by no 
 means silly. A man of the world, with 
 intimate knowledge of the men and women 
 who compose it, he was not prepared on 
 all occasions to hold that law was justice.
 
 1 88 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Something, perhaps, like this passed 
 through his mind : * Here is a drunken 
 lout who seeks to throw off a wife whom 
 he has driven into sin. He asks for law, 
 and he shall have it ; but I will take good 
 care that he shall conform to every rule of 
 it that I can enforce.' And he did so. 
 
 Asked to suggest any steps which would 
 be satisfactory to him, he replied that it 
 was no duty of his to advise either side. 
 Asked if an advertisement would do, he 
 said : 
 
 ' Perhaps, if you show that it will pro- 
 bably come to their notice.' 
 
 ' My lord,' pleaded the Q.C. in despera- 
 tion, ' we have not the faintest idea in 
 what quarter of the globe to look for 
 them.' 
 
 ' Then I am afraid ' (from the Bench) 
 ' you will have to wait till you get one.'
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 189 
 
 So the case hung fire. Dick had in- 
 deed laid his plans well, and the partner of 
 his flight had not (as women will often do) 
 betrayed herself. They might be lodging 
 in Camberwell, or hiding in Darkest Africa 
 or the Ural Mountains, for anything that 
 could be discovered. Some of the Bank of 
 England notes which Dick had taken with 
 him came back, but from widely divergent 
 points — one from Constantinople, one from 
 
 Boston, one from Melbourne. They had 
 
 • 
 
 passed through many hands, and abroad 
 one does not write one's name on the back 
 of them. They came in, from first to last, 
 within about six weeks, and so it was im- 
 possible that he could have passed them in 
 person at the places named within the 
 time. 
 
 Under these circumstances, astute Mrs. 
 Heath pleaded with her son-in-law: Was
 
 iQo JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 it any use going on ? Why spend money 
 on a fruitless search ? Surely, under all 
 the circumstances, we should not harbour 
 vindictive feelings against poor Fanny ; 
 and as for Dick, no jury would give 
 damages against him. Why not let things 
 rest as they were ? He had often said 
 his marriage was a failure, that he was not 
 the sort of man to be bothered with a wife. 
 He could not want to marry again. If he 
 did, no decent woman would have him 
 (this was not put in so many words, but 
 clearly implied, though the lady knew 
 there were dozens of mothers ready to 
 pop their daughters down his throat). 
 There would be terrible disclosures in 
 open Court — and so on, and so on. 
 
 But Sir Claude was doggedly resolute. 
 He would not see Mrs. Heath. In a 
 hand somewhat less shaky than usual he
 
 GAULT V. GAULT AND BIRKETT 191 
 
 acknowledged the receipt of her letters, 
 and declined the propositions therein con- 
 tained. He would not be drawn into any 
 argument. He would go on, if it cost him 
 every penny that he had and twenty years 
 of his life.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ' DECREE NISI.' 
 
 In the meantime great changes had been 
 made at the Manor House. Horses and 
 carnages were sold, and most of the 
 servants dismissed, including the old 
 housekeeper, whose place was filled by — 
 Mary Martin ! Mary Martin, whom Sir 
 Claude had summarily dismissed from his 
 service ! This was gall to Mrs. Good- 
 lake. 
 
 ' I've been in the family,' mourned this 
 good and faithful servant, 'girl, wife, and 
 widow, forty-five years, and I'm turned
 
 'DECREE NISr 193 
 
 out in my old age for that hussy ! It 
 isn't right to me. It isn't decent that a 
 girl like that should live alone in this 
 house.' 
 
 But Mary Martin was not to live alone. 
 Her father came, by arrangement with Sir 
 Claude, to keep her company. She was 
 an important witness in the divorce case, 
 and had to be provided for. 
 
 Mr. Wickham Martin, in his younger 
 and better days, had been a solicitor at 
 Cork, but had to leave his country under 
 suspicion of being a ' minion ' of the * base, 
 bloody, and brutal ' Chief Secretary who 
 then (and ever since under all Govern- 
 ments has) tyrannized over the ' distressful 
 country,' and all the time he was posing as 
 a patriot of the deepest dye. In point of 
 fact, he was that necessary but despised 
 reptile, an informer. 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 He came to England with his wife and 
 child, and did not succeed. The Govern- 
 ment were ungrateful. His legal talents 
 were not appreciated. He went down, step 
 by step, till he became a * man in posses- 
 sion ' for brokers, and would have starved 
 if his wife (a well-educated and lady-like 
 woman) had not assisted him by what she 
 could earn as a teacher. In this capacity 
 she gained experience which taught her 
 that her handsome daughter would be 
 happier in the housekeeper's room than 
 the schoolroom, and therefore brought 
 her up to be a lady's-maid, much to her 
 father's disgust. 
 
 'We are gentlefolk,' the broken-down 
 man whimpered. ' My aunt Jane was 
 cousin to the Countess of Kildbarney. It 
 is too shocking to think that my child 
 should be a servant.'
 
 'DECREE NISr 195 
 
 This, however, did not prevent him 
 from accepting a portion of Mary's wages, 
 or from calling upon her too frequently 
 with the paternal desire to see how his 
 dear child was getting on, and (incidentally) 
 to obtain an advance of three half-crowns. 
 
 These visits were terrors to Mary. The 
 appearance of her parent after a tramp 
 from London was not in his favour ; and, 
 as bad luck would have it, there were 
 always plenty of people about when he 
 came, with whom he would enter into 
 conversation in an unabashed and airy 
 manner, as though he were an expected 
 and welcome guest. On one occasion he 
 invited himself to a cricket match which 
 was going on, had a discussion upon re- 
 ligious subjects with the Reverend Mr. 
 Barbour, and borrowed a sovereign from 
 Dick.
 
 196 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 When Mary was dismissed she went 
 straight to her father, with the result that 
 he appeared next day in a new suit of 
 clothes and took a respectable lodging, in 
 which his daughter afterwards joined him 
 for a time. 
 
 Mr. Spaulding did not remain long at 
 Fairlock. He joined his master in London, 
 and assisted in the search for Lady Gault. 
 It seems odd that a trainer of horses should 
 suddenly become ' a gentleman's gentle- 
 man ' ; but odd things were going on all 
 round. Stephen Spaulding became Sir 
 Claude's valet (some said ' keeper '), and 
 took excellent care of him. I think it was 
 Lord Chancellor Thurlow who said of his 
 personal attendant that for two years he 
 had been an excellent servant, for two 
 years more a kind master, and for the rest 
 of his time a d d tyrant. Sir Claude's
 
 'DECREE NISr 197 
 
 new valet began at the end, and during 
 all the time the divorce proceedings were 
 dragging along his master was a sober 
 man. His tyranny was, therefore, a bene- 
 ficent one. 
 
 First of all he took his master to a 
 famous establishment near Malvern, where 
 he earned golden opinions. 
 
 ' A remarkably able man,' said the 
 doctor — ' cool, firm, and respectful. I 
 wish I had him in my own service.' 
 
 Of Sir Claude he reported at the end of 
 his * cure ' : 
 
 ' He is much better in all respects ; but 
 take care ' (this to Spaulding). ' Total 
 abstinence for at least a year. If he were 
 to taste spirits, and the craving for them 
 returns, I will not answer for the conse- 
 quences.* 
 
 The next move (under medical advice)
 
 198 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 was to Broadstairs, where a furnished 
 house was taken. 
 
 The deposed housekeeper, Mrs. Good- 
 lake, removed to a pretty cottage on the 
 Wadehurst estate, and induced her brother, 
 a one-armed pensioner whom we have met 
 before, to join her, for company. She had 
 her savings, he his pension, and they made 
 themselves comfortable, keeping hens, cul- 
 tivating the garden, and discussing over 
 and over again their respective grievances. 
 The good old woman had transferred some 
 of her anger against Mary Martin to the 
 man she would always speak of as ' fAal 
 Spaulding.' It was he who, with his 
 spying and his tale-bearing, had brought 
 sorrow and shame upon the old family. 
 He it was who had predicted her own 
 dethronement in favour of his sweetheart. 
 The shutting up of the Manor House was
 
 DECREE NISr 199 
 
 his work. The dream — night and day — 
 of her age was to get even, in some way, 
 with * that Spaulding !' 
 
 Mr. Wickham Martin gave himself out 
 to be Sir Claude Gault's private solicitor, 
 and established what he proudly called his 
 ' chambers ' in the village. With this re- 
 commendation, he laid himself out for 
 general practice, and had already appeared 
 twice at petty sessions as a defender of the 
 innocent. He had also some mysterious 
 business of his own, which took him occa- 
 sionally to London — first - class. Good 
 food and clean raiment had made another 
 man of him. Mary was no longer ashamed 
 of her father, and his love for her amounted 
 to adoration. All this time Mrs. Martin 
 was travelling in Italy with an old lady of 
 title, partly as her companion, and pardy 
 as governess to her orphaned grandchild.
 
 200 J^ ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Lord Wadehurst remained alone in his 
 gloomy old house, and became day by day 
 more morose. His triumph over the 
 house of Gault was incomplete. Perhaps 
 there would be no divorce suit, after all. 
 His hatred for Dick so distorted what had 
 passed that he considered him the actual 
 slayer of his son. Very soon after poor 
 Frank's funeral he sent for his solicitor and 
 made his last will. 
 
 So the new year came, and was in its 
 flowery and fruity prime, when at last the 
 long worked-for clue was obtained, to the 
 honour and glory of Wickham Martin. 
 The only thorn in his otherwise soft 
 cushion was represented by the repeated 
 refusals of Messrs. Lucas and Lucas to let 
 him have a finger in the divorce pie. Now 
 he had a whole hand in. 
 
 Working quietly in his own way — as he
 
 'DECREE NISr 201 
 
 reported — he found an ex-patrlot, recently 
 arrived from America, who had fallen in 
 with Dick in Denver, State of Colorado, 
 where he was speculating in silver-mines, 
 with the usual result, z e,, setting herrings 
 to catch sprats, and not catching anything. 
 To this man he confided his intention of 
 moving on to Mexico, where he had 
 actually been seen with a companion who 
 answered the description of Lady Gault. 
 Martin had ofiven his word of honour 
 not to divulge the name of this latter in- 
 formant, but pledged his honour and his 
 reputation that the information was true. 
 Messrs. Lucas and Lucas, after a long 
 and searching examination — prompted, as 
 Martin explained, by jealousy — decided 
 that it would be worth while to send some- 
 one to the land of the Montezumas to follow 
 up this clue ; and who so fit for such
 
 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 following as the starter thereof himself? 
 He knew both the parties by sight, and, 
 being a lawyer, could serve the citations, 
 and prove their service in such a way as 
 to leave no loophole open for objection. 
 Wickham Martin was obviously the ' some- 
 one ' to be sent, and sent he was, with an 
 open credit for expenses. 
 
 He went to a fashionable tailor and 
 ordered several suits of clothes. He pro- 
 vided himself with a dressing-case — silver- 
 mounted — a revolver, an express rifie, a 
 field-glass, an elaborate despatch-box, and 
 other articles suitable for a gentleman on 
 his travels, together with a supply of 
 hosiery enough for three, and started on 
 his quest, which he conducted leisurely. 
 
 His reports were quite literary produc- 
 tions — somewhat discursive and flowery, 
 but in the main point conclusive. After
 
 DECREE NISr 203 
 
 describing the scenery on the Texas and 
 Pacific Railway, and giving a sketch of 
 the Aztec dynasty, the fall of Maximilian, 
 and the origin of the ' Monroe Doctrine,' 
 he came to the point. He found Dick and 
 Lady Gault living together as man and 
 wife in a lovely ranch — over the beauties 
 of which he lingered with poetic fervour — 
 near Monterey. Dick was swinging in a 
 hammock smoking lazily ; Lady Gault was 
 busy training a rose-bush — botanical name 
 of the rose given in full — when he intro- 
 duced himself. At the production of the 
 papers the lady nearly fainted, and cried : 
 ' Oh, Dick ! will this separate us ?' to which 
 he replied with a laugh : ' Not a bit ; it's 
 just what we want.' 
 
 ' He then,' Martin wrote, * nearly 
 poisoned me with an odious native fluid 
 called ** Pulque," but repented, and gave
 
 204 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 me some excellent English bottled ale to 
 take the taste out of my mouth. They 
 were passing as Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, ap- 
 peared to be very happy and contented in 
 their new home, and informed me that 
 they had not the slightest intention of 
 opposing the divorce proceedings, which, 
 indeed, they regarded as a blessed de- 
 liverance.' 
 
 So the case of Gaiilt v. Gault and 
 Birkett was set down for hearing at last, 
 and in the undefended list. Society had 
 forgotten all about it, and never cared 
 much. Lady Gault — married three months 
 after her presentation, and carried off into 
 Hopshire — made no mark in the fashion- 
 able world. Dick was a country lad, and 
 baronets like Sir Claude were cheap. The 
 case made no stir. About five inches of 
 the Times sufficed to report it. The only
 
 'DECREE NISr 205 
 
 item of Interest was the appearance of 
 Mary Martin. The gravity of the occa- 
 sion suited her style of beauty, and she 
 had the honour of having her Hkeness 
 sketched by a popular Q.C. who was 
 waiting for the next cause. 
 
 The usual decree was pronounced, and 
 in six months, if nothing happened — and 
 what could happen now ? — Sir Claude 
 would be a free man. 
 
 No damages or costs were asked against 
 the co-respondent, for the excellent reason 
 that he had not any property within the 
 jurisdiction of the Court upon which these 
 could be levied.
 
 ^^M 
 
 m 
 
 ^^^^S^S 
 
 ^B 
 
 ^^m 
 
 !^^^^|m 
 
 ^m 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ' IT HAS BEGUN.' 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Macgruther were now 
 fairly settled in their London house, and 
 the bride's mother found that the axiom, 
 
 * My son's my son till he gets him a wife ; 
 
 My daughter's my daughter all the days of her life,' 
 
 has exceptions. Poor Fanny had sub- 
 mitted to maternal rule as though she had 
 never sworn to give up all her relations, 
 and did nothing without consultation with 
 
 * dear mamma.' Bertha was made of 
 sterner stuff, and showed signs of insub- 
 ordination immediately upon her return 
 from the honeymoon trip. She would
 
 'IT HAS BEGUN' 207 
 
 listen with a sweet smile to ' dear mamma's' 
 instructions about furnishing and house- 
 keeping and servants, and so on, and then 
 go and do exactly as she pleased. Ad- 
 vised to be very quiet just at present, lest 
 people might be set talking about her unfor- 
 tunate sister, she accepted every invitation 
 she received, and gave three large dinner- 
 parties and a ball on her own account. 
 
 ' It isn't catching, my dear,' she replied 
 to Mrs. Heath's expostulations; 'and 
 Alex agrees with me that we should not 
 go into mourning about it. We are not 
 responsible for my sister's unfortunate 
 marriage.' 
 
 ' No,' said her mother, nettled at the 
 taunt ; ' and if you had been given your 
 way, you would not be responsible for 
 your own.' 
 
 Bertha laughed.
 
 2o8 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 * Don't you see that, not having had it 
 
 quite on that occasion, I am entitled to 
 
 have it now and evermore ?' 
 
 ' Take care that it is your husband's 
 
 way too. You can't play the fool with 
 
 Macgruther.* 
 
 ' No, dear ; I play the wife,' she replied 
 
 languidly. ' When Alex finds fault with 
 
 anything I do, he will tell me.' 
 
 Then it was that Mrs. Heath mentioned 
 
 Corporal Byngton and the lost bracelet for 
 the first time, because she had not dared 
 to write upon the subject, lest Macgruther 
 might see the letter. The whole story 
 was told, the narrator watching carefully 
 to see where it might pinch. It did not 
 pinch at all. Bertha listened with an ex- 
 pression of freedom till the misdeeds of the 
 under-housemaid were mentioned. Then 
 she laughed.
 
 ^ IT HAS BEGUN' 209 
 
 ' See now,' she observed, * what a scrape 
 she might have got me into ! Why, they 
 might have said that /went out.' 
 
 * To tell you the truth, my love,' said 
 her mother, ' we half feared, at first, that 
 you had done so.' 
 
 ' For what, please ?' 
 
 ' We thought perhaps that, in a moment 
 of folly, you might have consented to wish 
 one of your old admirers good-bye.' 
 
 ' Ridiculous ! I wished them all good- 
 bye in the most practical manner at church 
 next day. By-the-by, where is my brace- 
 let ? George and Archie gave it to me, 
 and I'm rather fond of it.' 
 
 Now, I will not even suggest that Mrs. 
 Heath was worming at a secret for the 
 purpose of holding it i7i terrorem over her 
 daughter. The idea did not go that far, 
 but she was in hopes of finding a hole, or 
 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 even a loose stitch, in Bertha's tailor-made 
 self-complacency, and thus render her less 
 — what her young brothers would call — 
 'cocky.' She failed, and, upon the whole, 
 was rather glad of it. 
 
 This, I have said, was the first time 
 Mrs. Heath had mentioned the bracelet- 
 finding to Bertha. It was not, however, 
 the first time that Bertha had heard about 
 it, and this may account for the want of 
 interest with which she listened. Her 
 original informant was her maid, Pritchard. 
 This young person (soon after the Mac- 
 gruthers had returned from the Continent) 
 called upon her old fellow -servants at 
 Winchester Gardens, and naturally heard 
 the news. She came back in anger and in 
 tears, and told her young mistress all about 
 it, including, of course, how she had been 
 accused of letting in the tender-hearted,
 
 IT HAS BEGUN 
 
 but larcenous, under-housemaid at mid- 
 night. 
 
 ' And, oh !' she sobbed, ' it's a sin and a 
 shame ! Me ! with ten years' good char- 
 acter — to mix 77ze up with a thief!' 
 
 Bertha agreed with her warmly. It 
 was a shame, and there followed much 
 questioning as to who was to be held re- 
 sponsible for it, with the usual result. No 
 one could say that he or she had actually 
 seen her open the front door — no one had 
 seen her in the hall. Everybody had 
 heard that somebody else had said so and 
 so, and indignantly repelled the authorship 
 of the scandal. This being so, Bertha 
 cooled down and comforted the still weep- 
 ing waiting-maid. 
 
 ' You might as well try to catch an eel 
 out of a pond with your bare hand, as to 
 trace such trash as this to its inventor. /
 
 212 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 am quite satisfied with you, Pritchard, and 
 desire that there may be no more fuss 
 about the matter.' 
 
 She quoted the old French proverb, and 
 there it ended. 
 
 When the subject came up again, md 
 Mrs. Heath, and that lady asked how it 
 happened that Pritchard did not miss the 
 bracelet, Bertha had an opportunity of 
 defending her favourite attendant. She 
 remembered how tired the poor girl was 
 with all her hard work that day. The 
 idea of her sitting up for an under-house- 
 maid was ridiculous. 
 
 * And, dear mamma,' she concluded, ^ I 
 wish, when you have a chance, you'd say 
 a kind something or other to Pritchard 
 about this, as it annoyed her greatly.' 
 
 This was spoken much more like Bertha 
 Heath than Mrs. Macgruther.
 
 'IT HAS BEGUN' 213 
 
 When it became possible that the 
 divorce case would not be tried after all, 
 owing to circumstances already narrated, 
 this mother and daughter were brought 
 together closely, and the latter began to 
 take an interest in the proceedings which 
 she had not evinced before. The former 
 found comfort in being able to relieve her 
 mind aloud respecting the idiotic be- 
 haviour of Sir Claude Gault, the criminal 
 negligence of the Queen's Proctor, and tlje 
 general depravity of all concerned. Thus 
 Bertha got all the facts at her fingers' 
 ends, and delivered herself philosophically 
 from time to time. 
 
 ' There is nothing to fret about,' she 
 would say. * It isn't our fault, and we're 
 not in it. How many people do you sup- 
 pose remember that Lady Gault was once 
 Fanny Heath ? Outside the family, I
 
 214 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 should say about twenty-five, out of four 
 millions. And It doesn't matter with these, 
 as it used to do when you were a girl. 
 Things have changed since then, dear 
 mamma. People are not supposed to play 
 the martyr now. If we are in pain, we 
 take chloral. If we like someone better 
 than we do our husbands, we take him. 
 It is understood. When I say '' we," I 
 am speaking of our world, and not of my- 
 self. I think this is not only wicked, but 
 cowardly ; and some day I intend to fight 
 it. In the meantime, as it works for our 
 good, we will take advantage of it. If we 
 do not allow anyone to imagine that we 
 are ashamed of ourselves, there will be 
 nothing shameful about it.' 
 
 •J'r -5^ -rr -SJ -SS- 
 
 Sir Claude Gault spent the greater part 
 of his probation at Broadstairs, where he
 
 IT HAS BEGUN' 215 
 
 entertained Mr. and Miss Martin for some 
 ten days. Anyone conversant with the 
 relations which had existed between the 
 latter and Stephen Spaulding at Fairlock 
 would have been surprised at the change 
 which marked their demeanour during this 
 period. True, that the ' private solicitor ' 
 and his daughter were guests, and the ex- 
 stud -groom still held the position of a 
 servant ; but this did not fully account for 
 it, because the ' private solicitor ' and the 
 actual valet were on terms of closest inti- 
 macy. Miss Mary's health had not been 
 good lately. The doctor said she was 
 ' run down,' and wanted bracing up. That 
 was one reason why she had come to Broad- 
 stairs. The other one will surprise you. It 
 was to ratify her engagement to Sir Claude 
 Gault, and fix a day for the marriage. 
 Profound study of proverbial philosophy
 
 21 6 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 has armed me against those pesky people 
 who pelt a proverb at you as a clincher in 
 argument. Set me up one of these wise 
 saws, and I will undertake to knock it 
 down (like a ninepin) with another. In 
 this case you may quote : ' Happy is the 
 wooing that is not long a-doing.' To 
 which I reply, ' Marry in haste, and 
 repent at leisure,' and down you go! If 
 there was any wooing, I cannot say 
 where Sir Claude pressed his second 
 suit. He never left the house or its 
 gardens. 
 
 Mary spent most of the day wandering 
 alone and aimlessly on the beach ; and 
 what the wild waves said to her must 
 have been sad to hear, judging by the 
 lines it drew upon her face. But it was 
 done somewhere. The decree which 
 would make Sir Claude Gault a free man
 
 ^ IT HAS BEGUN' 217 
 
 was expected in due course on Monday, 
 and the following Thursday was to find 
 him again in matrimonial bondage. 
 
 When this was known, the great world 
 (male) put its tongue in its cheek and 
 sniggered : * T/ia^ accounts for it !' The 
 great world (female) raised its hands in 
 holy horror : ' Her own maid ! The 
 wretch !' it cried. 
 
 Their wedding was quite private, by 
 special license (no cards), at the Charing 
 Cross Hotel. The bride, accompanied by 
 her father, came up the same morning 
 from Fairlock. Sir Claude and his man 
 arrived at about the same time from 
 Broadstairs. The settlements (prepared 
 by the bridegroom's ' private solicitor ') 
 were signed and the knot tied. Shortly 
 afterwards Sir Claude executed his will 
 (also prepared by his ' private solicitor)
 
 2i8 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 and it was witnessed by the clergyman 
 and a waiter. 
 
 An air of dry business prevailed. The 
 bridegroom appeared to be in good health, 
 but had a dejected, hang- dog look about 
 him. Mary's beautiful Irish blue eyes 
 were dim with tears. The only one who 
 seemed to enjoy the proceedings was 
 the ' private solicitor.' Mr. Spaulding 
 did not appear. He had been sent to the 
 Manor House to take his former sweet- 
 heart's place as caretaker ; and he, too, 
 was fretful, and had an anxious look on 
 his wooden face for many a day. 
 
 The (officially) happy pair started for 
 the Continent by the tidal train, but, 
 unlike so many of their newly - married 
 predecessors on that route, did not break 
 the journey at Folkestone or Dover after 
 the manner of their kind. They went
 
 '/r HAS BEGUN' 219 
 
 straight on to Paris, and descended at the 
 Hotel du Louvre, where an unusually large 
 suite of rooms had been engaged for them. 
 They were not suspected of recent 
 matrimony ; indeed, an English-speaking 
 femme de chambre (who had served as 
 chambermaid in London, and was specially 
 detailed to wait on distinguished Britons) 
 declared that she knew well mi lord 
 Gault, and he had been married a long 
 time. 
 
 Ten days afterwards Mr. Spaulding 
 received this laconic telegram : 
 
 * It has begun. — Mary.' 
 
 He threw his hat in the air — a most 
 unnatural ebullition for so dry a man. 
 * She has kept her word,' he chuckled, as 
 he brushed the dust from his recovered
 
 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 head-gear. * Begun — has it ? Well, then 
 it will be over before the month is out.' 
 
 Before the month was out the following 
 appeared in the column of deaths : 
 
 ' At Paris, on the 29^/2 ult., Sir Claude 
 Gault, Bart., of Fair lock Manor, Hop- 
 shire. Aged 28.' 
 
 Horace (now Sir Horace) Gault brought 
 his brother's body home, and buried it 
 with some pomp in the great tomb 
 of his race in Fairlock Churchyard. Mr. 
 Barbour performed the funeral service 
 with (as the local paper said) ' deep feel- 
 ing.' When the will was read, it appeared 
 that the dear departed, after making a few 
 legacies, had left his wife (in addition to 
 two thousand a year under her marriage 
 settlement) every penny and every acre
 
 'IT HAS BEGUN' 221 
 
 and brick that he could dispose of. This 
 included the Manor House. And all for 
 herself absolutely, without any deduction 
 in case she married again ! 
 
 The legacies were : A thousand pounds 
 to his brother Horace; five hundred pounds 
 to the respected tutor of his youth — the 
 Reverend J. Barbour ; the same to his 
 dear father-in-law, Wickham Martin ; two 
 hundred to his faithful servant, Stephen 
 Spaulding ; and a hundred scattered in 
 sums of ten and twenty pounds amongst 
 other domestics. 
 
 On the Sunday following the funeral, 
 the second-named legatee preached the 
 funeral sermon of his ' beloved pupil'; and 
 it was not an easy work to compose. He 
 had to skim lightly over much that was 
 still fresh in the memory of his congrega- 
 tion, and make the most of his subject's
 
 2 22 y ED WOOD yU STICK 
 
 respect for spiritual pastors and masters 
 (five hundred pounds' worth !), his gener- 
 osity, and his reform. It was not neces- 
 sary to mention his relapse, which degan 
 ten days after his marriage, or to utter 
 the ugly word which was on the doctor's 
 certificate of death. 
 
 This (translated from the French) was 
 delirium tremens.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES. 
 
 Six years have passed, and many things 
 have happened since Dick Birkett dis- 
 appeared. Taking them in their order pf 
 sequence, Mary, Lady Gault, returned to 
 her first love, and became plain Mrs. 
 Spaulding. She would not be called * my 
 lady,' though pressed by her father to keep 
 up the family dignity. Anything which 
 recalled her life at Fairlock was distressing 
 to her, and nothing would induce her to 
 reside at the Manor House. She pre- 
 ferred to live abroad, and her husband
 
 224 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 amused himself by keeping racehorses, and 
 running them at French and Italian meet- 
 ings. As he was to the manner born, 
 sported on business principles, and was a 
 match for his trainer, he did not lose 
 money. These pursuits kept him a good 
 deal away from his wife and family (for 
 Mary was twice a mother), but they 
 seemed to get on very well with each 
 other — apart. 
 
 Mary has aged and faded. The violet 
 fire has gone out of her eyes, the sea-shell 
 pink and white of her skin have ' run,' and 
 there are threads of silver in her once 
 raven-black hair. And there is something 
 radically wrong with her nervous system, 
 which represents an annuity to several 
 eminent physicians. 
 
 The five hundred pounds bequeathed to 
 Mr. Wickham Martin by his first son-in-
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 225 
 
 law seemed to go a long way. He estab- 
 lished an elegantly-furnished apartment in 
 Paris (Rue Siren), set up a mail phaeton, 
 gave * little dinners,' backed racehorses, 
 and played baccarat. This lasted for 
 about two years, and now we find him 
 living with his daughter at Dieppe in (so 
 far as he is concerned) a very moderate 
 way. He will tell you that he has given 
 up society for the sake of his poor dear 
 child. His poor dear child can say (if she 
 pleases) how much this reclamation has 
 cost her — in cash. 
 
 Fairlock Manor House is now the 
 country seat of the Right Hon. Alexander 
 Macgruther, whose political (you see he is 
 of the Privy Council) and social success 
 (thanks to his wife) are accomplished 
 facts. 
 
 For Bertha has indeed established a 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 salo7t — not such a potent one as that over 
 which Madame de Lansdoff presided, but 
 still a salon ; and as in the realms of the 
 blind the one-eyed man is king, it had its 
 influence in still unregenerate London, and 
 its mistress is a power in the land. She 
 began by making things unpleasant for the 
 chappies, and the mashers,and the Johnnies, 
 by getting several attractive young matrons 
 of her order to join her in laughing at 
 them. Chappie, for example, would be 
 told confidentially that Masher was really 
 too stupid for anything; and Masher would 
 learn that Chappie and Johnnie had been 
 struck out of invitation lists because they 
 were ' no use.' 
 
 No use ! Heavens and earth ! They, 
 the flowers of their flock, the adored of the 
 Gaiety, the glass of (concert hall) fashion, 
 and the mould of (shirt-front and collar)
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 227 
 
 form, no use ! * Was the woman de- 
 wanged ?' 
 
 Married ladies matrimonially unattached 
 were not obliged by invitations, in town 
 or country, for their usual escorts. Our 
 reformers made a dead-set against the 
 ' usual escort,' and so got rid of several 
 amongst the usually escorted. 
 
 During her honeymoon trip Bertha had 
 learned the convenience of knowing foreign 
 languages, and on her return worked hard 
 at them one after another. So the time 
 came when she was a persona gratissima 
 at the embassies, and when any distin- 
 guished visitors arrived it was, * We will 
 take you to Mrs. Macgruther ; she is 
 charming, and speaks Italian ' (or German 
 or Spanish, as the case might be). 
 
 This gave her the pull over her set, and 
 placed her at its head. A few favoured
 
 2 28 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ones were permitted to call her ' Mrs. 
 Mac ' to her face, and a great many others 
 spoke of her by this abbreviation. This 
 pleased her, for she was aware that in 
 bygone days two great ladies who had filled 
 the throne to which she aspired had been 
 known affectionately, one by the first, and 
 the other by the last, syllable of her name. 
 Noblesse oblige was her adopted motto. 
 No peer of the realm or other titled person 
 was safe if he did not conduct himself like 
 a gentleman. He was not permitted to 
 show himself publicly between the gra^tde 
 and the demi monde. One very smart 
 delinquent — a setter of fashions and leader 
 of cotillons, and so on — was cut because, 
 in the presence of ' Mrs. Mac,' he recog- 
 nised a fair equestrian who had disqualified 
 herself notoriously for service in the Temple 
 of Vesta.
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 229 
 
 This was made what the lawyers call * a 
 test case.' The cotillon man called his 
 friends together in social caucus, and it 
 was resolved to boycott 'Mrs. Mac ' by 
 keeping all the regular dancing men away 
 from her ball. Now, a very Illustrious 
 Personage was to be present at this 
 function with his wife and daughters ; and, 
 having a world-wide reputation for doing 
 the right thing in the right time and the 
 right way, he gave out, when he heard pf 
 this plot, that anyone who kept away in the 
 interest of the cotillon man might find 
 himself excluded thereafter from entertain- 
 ment within the sphere of his (the I.P.'s) 
 influence. This setded it. The bottom 
 of the boycott fell out, and the dancing- 
 men came thick and early. 
 
 Nor was this the only good result. 
 Many a noble matron with frisky sons
 
 230 jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 patted Bertha on the back, and an in- 
 fluential section of her husband's con- 
 stituents — serious people, who had blamed 
 him for encouraging his wife's worldly- 
 pursuits — swung right round to her 
 side. 
 
 Even the poor defeated cotillon man 
 managed to crawl back. He intimated 
 through a mutual friend that ' Mrs. Mac ' 
 had really been too hard upon him. It 
 was all a mistake. He had seen a face he 
 knew approaching, and instinctively raised 
 his hat. If he had thought for an instant, 
 he never would have done such a thing 
 — never ! 
 
 Her father (Mr. Heath) had come into 
 his title, and was now Lord Strathfolia. It 
 annoyed him greatly that his son-in-law 
 should have rented Fairlock Manor House, 
 when he could have bought East Denne
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 231 
 
 (rented by Colonel Daly), only three miles 
 off. It was really unkind, he thought, of 
 Bertha not to have influenced her husband 
 in the matter ; for the Strathfolia coronet 
 sadly required regilding, there was a big 
 house in Scotland which musl be kept up, 
 East Denne was a white elephant, 
 and what a load of mortgage might 
 be paid off with the money it would 
 bring ! 
 
 Now, Bertha had used her influence in 
 this matter, and all in favour of the Manor 
 House. 
 
 ' My dear Alex,' she said, ' it is all very 
 well trying to please papa, but the first 
 thing, I think, is to please me. East 
 Denne is a house, and there are fifty like 
 it anywhere. Fairlock is a place. You 
 can't match it unless you buy Haddon 
 Hall, and that's not for sale. Besides,
 
 232 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 you know, there is always trouble when 
 one buys of one's own people. We should 
 surely have rows about the roof, or the 
 drains, or something. We shall have to 
 invite dear mamma once a year at least, 
 and how could she help interfering in a 
 house which was once her own, and in 
 which I was a baby ? No ; if I cannot 
 have Fairlock, I'll do without a country- 
 house. We can go to the seaside or 
 abroad as usual, and perhaps that will be 
 best, after all, for the boys.' 
 
 There are two small Macgruthers now, 
 aged five and four respectively, and the 
 lake we know of has a four-feet-high 
 wire -netting all round it for their 
 benefit. 
 
 Sir Horace Gault did all he could to 
 upset his brother's will, which was, to his 
 mind, redolent of undue influence very
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 233 
 
 craftily exercised. It read like the will of 
 a grateful and generous man, and conse- 
 quently he felt sure it had been dictated. 
 He knew that the person therein described 
 as * the respected tutor ' of his youth had 
 been habitually spoken of by the testator 
 as ' that old fool.' He knew he him- 
 self would never have been left a shilling 
 on account of brotherly love. The diffi- 
 culty was to impress this on others. His 
 own legal advisers shook their heads. \t 
 was not an improper will upon its face, 
 they said. At the time of its execution 
 Sir Claude was a reformed man — that was 
 an all-important point. And if influence 
 had been used, he (Sir Horace) was one 
 thousand pounds the richer for it, accord- 
 ing to his own showing. Asked what was 
 a thousand pounds towards keeping up a 
 baronetcy, they replied that the de-
 
 2 34 y ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ceased, having just married a young wife, 
 could not be supposed to consider his 
 brother as his heir. 
 
 So no action was brought ; but Sir 
 Horace stuck to his own convictions with 
 the bull-dog tenacity of his race. He felt 
 that there was foul play somewhere. Why 
 did his brother marry Mary Martin ? 
 Why, if he was so infatuated about her as 
 his will seemed to imply, could she not 
 have done as much as Spaulding did to 
 keep him sober ? Why had he (Sir 
 Claude) relapsed almost immediately after 
 his marriage ? He had a watch set on 
 Mary (Lady Gault), in case she might 
 present an heir, real or pretended, and 
 took nothing for his pains. 
 
 Lord Wadehurst continued his instruc- 
 tions to her Majesty's Government, and 
 partly out of pity for the loss of his heir,
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 235 
 
 and partly as a sop, he was sent on an 
 ornamental embassy to invest somebody 
 with something, and raised a step in the 
 peerage, which did not cost much, as he 
 was understood to have no heir and his 
 earldom would die with him. He held it 
 for nearly four years, and when he died 
 people said he was a very able man, and 
 might have done something if he had only 
 had a little common-sense. No mention 
 
 of Dick was made in his will, though he 
 
 • 
 
 had reasons (which he kept to himself) to 
 believe that this malefactor was still with 
 the minority. He was disinherited so far 
 as the entail would allow. It gave the 
 testator some pleasure to think that the 
 new Earl would be a pauper with a white 
 elephant in the shape of Wadehurst House 
 on his hands. 
 
 Most of the property went to two sisters
 
 2 36 Jf ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 of the deceased whom he detested — one 
 for marrying against his wishes, the other 
 for not marrying at all — and there were 
 liberal legacies to charitable institutions in 
 the county and London. For Dick there 
 remained the house and the ground on 
 which it stood (about six acres), with the 
 lordship of the manor, worth exactly forty- 
 five pounds six shillings and twopence 
 a year, until some leases, terminating in 
 1923, should fall in. 
 
 And there was no Dick or any sign of 
 him. What, then, was to be done with 
 the house ? If it had not been for an old 
 chum, who took upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of farming out the kitchen-garden 
 and applying the proceeds to pay a care- 
 taker, it would have been given over to 
 the rats and the bats. 
 
 This friend in need was the son of that
 
 BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES 237 
 
 Dr. Crawford in whose charge poor Frank 
 had died. 
 
 Mrs. Goodlake is alive and hearty, and 
 has not given up her fond hope of having 
 it out with ^/la^ Spaulding. 
 
 -^^^
 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 DORMOUSE. 
 
 Having thus accounted for a six years' 
 lapse, I will take up the thread of my 
 story. The ' silly season ' is in its prime. 
 The daily newspaper having the largest 
 circulation has set one of its usual social 
 problems, and is full of letters pro and 
 con, the writers abusing each other as 
 is their wont. Smart people say that 
 there is not a soul in London, but have 
 to look out for themselves when — ' passing 
 through ' — they cross the Strand. A cab 
 containing an elderly lady, a young and
 
 DORMOUSE 239 
 
 very pretty girl, and numerous brown- 
 paper parcels indicating a recent visit to 
 the ' stores,' is delayed in the desert of 
 crowd, and pulls up at the Charing Cross 
 Station barely in time to catch a departing 
 train. Fortunately, the young lady has a 
 return ticket, but is sadly encumbered 
 with her load. The elder one (who is 
 not going), whom she calls ' auntie,' being 
 flustered, is of little help. 
 
 Time is up ; the guard's whistle is at 
 his lips when they reach the platform. 
 He opens the first door at hand, and 
 hustles the girl and her belongings in. 
 
 * Oh, but this is a smoking-carriage !' 
 she pleads. 
 
 * Can't help it, miss,' says the man. 
 ' Get in, or you can't go at all.' 
 
 * Heavens, auntie ! my rugs !' she cries 
 again.
 
 240 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 The guard snatches them from the 
 bearer. The train is moving. He follows 
 it at a run, and throws the bundle through 
 the window. It falls on the floor at her 
 feet — and squeaks ! 
 
 The only other occupant of the carriage 
 is a very sunburnt gentleman, rather good- 
 looking, and about six or eight and twenty 
 years of age. The sudden entrance of 
 his travelling companion, and the un- 
 natural squeak of her rugs, dispel all 
 reserve. 
 
 * Good gracious !' he exclaims, ' there 
 must be something alive in them.' 
 
 * Oh yes, there is ' (almost crying), ' and 
 he must be horribly hurt !' 
 
 She quickly unfastens one end of the 
 roll, and out comes a very smart little 
 Yorkshire terrier, who is too disgusted 
 to shake himself.
 
 DORMOUSE 241 
 
 ' He is the best little thing in the world,' 
 explains his mistress (for really an explana- 
 tion was in order) ; ' but he cannot bear 
 the dog-box, and becomes a perfect fiend 
 if he thinks he is going to be taken 
 there — bites the porters, and gets me into, 
 oh ! such a lot of trouble. So, you see, I 
 am obliged to smuggle him ; but I have 
 a dog-ticket,' she adds quickly, to save 
 her reputation for honesty. 
 
 Such a bright little face is hers, set in 
 soft brown hair, and lit with kind brown 
 eyes ! Derangements of her ulster, caused 
 by the unrolling of the rugs, reveal a 
 brown dress fitting to perfection a perfect 
 figure. She might have posed for ' ye 
 nut-brown maide.' She gives one rather 
 startled look at the man, and then settles 
 herself in her own corner. 
 
 ' It was an ugly fall,' says the man. 
 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 242 J^ ED WOOD J^U STICK 
 
 ' He doesn't seem much hurt, though. 
 Come here, you rat ' (to the fallen), ' and let 
 me feel your ribs.' 
 
 The little dog obeys, goes up to him, 
 sniffs him, jumps on his knee, and is 
 rolled about in his hands playfully, trying 
 to lick his face. 
 
 * He's all right,' is the verdict. 
 'Thank goodness — yes/ she replies; 
 
 ' but you must not call him a raif. He 
 is a Boodler.' 
 
 Now, Boodle was a dog owned years 
 ago by Dick Birkett, and his progeny — 
 more or less legitimate — had bred and 
 mustered around Wadehurst. It was 
 a great thing to own a real Boodler, 
 and they were sought and promised (in 
 advance) to the third and fourth generation. 
 
 * Then you're from Wadehurst ?' the 
 man asked.
 
 DORMOUSE 243 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 * You wouldn't have told me that this ' 
 (patting him) 'was a Boodler unless 
 you thought I knew what a Boodler 
 was.' 
 
 * No, indeed,' with a perplexing smile. 
 
 * Perhaps I am taking a liberty, but — 
 you puzzle me. May I ask a question ?' 
 
 ' Certainly.' 
 
 ' Do you know who I am V 
 
 She looked him straight in the face 
 with her pretty honest eyes, and 
 said : 
 
 ' You are Dick — I beg your pardon — 
 Lord Wadehurst. I thought I recognised 
 you at first, but I was sure when you took 
 Tip up and teased him. You always used 
 to do so with little dogs, holding their 
 heads under your chin, and not letting 
 them kiss your face.'
 
 244 J ED WOOD yU STICK 
 
 * I am ashamed,' said Dick sadly (for 
 Dick it was), ' to have forgotten one who 
 remembers me so kindly.' 
 
 * Oh, but, you see, I knew very few 
 people,' she replied, ' whilst you — and I was 
 only a little girl. Oh, I am not hurt at 
 all. It is quite natural.' 
 
 * Look here ' (cheerily). * Let's have fair 
 play ! You say you only thought you 
 knew me, and were sure when I did 
 something you remembered. Now you 
 do something that / may remember, won't 
 you ?' 
 
 She rose quickly, blushed, and sat down 
 again. 
 
 ' No,' she said ; ' I'm too big now. I 
 couldn't do it.' 
 
 ' Well, then, tell we what it is.' 
 
 ' If I were to curl myself up sideways 
 in this corner with my feet under me, dig
 
 DORMOUSE 245 
 
 my head into the cushion and read, what 
 would you say ?' 
 
 ' Dormouse /' he exclaimed, delighted. 
 ' No one but Dormouse !' 
 
 ' Yes, you used to call me so when I 
 was a child, but you know papa ' 
 
 ' Bother papa ! You are Dormouse ' 
 (seizing both her hands, and seatmg him- 
 self by her side), ' and I take it as the best 
 of good omens that you are the first of 
 the old set to meet and know me. We 
 were always such good friends, weren't 
 we Y 
 
 ' You were very kind to us all.' 
 
 ' But you were my special pet, with 
 your dear quiet ways and your big heart. 
 Do you remember that day when I was — 
 was hurt at Fairlock ?' 
 
 ' We mustn't speak of that/ she said 
 uneasily.
 
 246 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' Well, perhaps you're right. Let's talk 
 of something pleasant. Tell me every- 
 thing.' 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 * Everything is rather wide, isn't it ? 
 Where am I to begin ?' 
 
 ' I know,' he answered, 'that my dearest 
 Frank is dead ; that I have inherited a 
 title, and am a pauper ; that I am ac- 
 cused ' here he pulled up. ' I only 
 
 landed the day before yesterday, so there's 
 nothing you can tell me that will not be 
 news.' 
 
 She told him what had passed within 
 her view — much of which you know — and 
 local gossip galore. How Jinks, the miller, 
 had failed, poor man ! and old Mrs. Rawlins 
 had married again. (Dick flinched at this 
 name, for it was not a savoury one.) How 
 the Nethercliffs had moved, and the Rolfs
 
 DORMOUSE 247 
 
 had taken their house ; and three new shops 
 — quite nice ones ! — had been opened at 
 Poundbridge ; and so forth and so on. 
 Asked about her own people, she had bad 
 news. Her eldest brother had got into 
 trouble at Oxford, and cost poor papa a great 
 deal of money, which was so strange, con- 
 sidering he was intended for the Church, 
 and had been brought up so strictly. Dick 
 didn't think it strange at all. He knew in 
 what sort of harness young Barbour had 
 been driven all his boyhood, and was not 
 surprised at his kicking over the traces 
 and bolting at the first opportunity. But 
 he did not say so. 
 
 By this time rain, which had been 
 threatening when the train started, began 
 to pour down resolutely, and the early 
 autumn evening darkened into night. 
 
 ' You will have a wet drive home/ said
 
 248 J^ ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Dick. ' I suppose your father will meet 
 you ?' 
 
 ' I am not going to Fairlock,' she re- 
 plied ; ' I am staying at Wood End.' 
 
 Dick's heart sank. He knew Wood 
 End as a select seminary for young ladies, 
 presided over by the Misses James. Old 
 Mr. Barbour's income was small, his family 
 numerous ; his son had been extravasfant, 
 and Dormouse was at Wood End. Dear 
 gentle Dormouse a governess, at the 
 mercy of dull-headed and saucy - lipped 
 daughters of shop and farm ! 
 
 ' You haven't asked me a word about 
 myself,' he said, to change the subject. 
 * Don't you care to know ?' 
 
 * I hope you have been well and — and 
 happy,' she said ; but her eyes did not 
 meet his as usual when she spoke. 
 
 ' I have twice been as near death's door
 
 DORMOUSE 249 
 
 as a man can well be and get back into 
 life ; and I have had many ups and downs 
 — particularly downs. Happy ? Well, I 
 don't know. It depends upon what you 
 call happiness. Perhaps I have been — 
 sometimes. Anyhow, I've seen lots of the 
 world, learned plenty of hard lessons, 
 made some good friends, and if I have an 
 enemy, I'm sorry for him. I'm in for 
 peace and quiet now.' 
 
 She looked at him then, and there were 
 tears in her eyes. This was the man 
 whose name, by stern parental decree, was 
 not to be mentioned in Fairlock, and she 
 had only a dim idea of the reason why. 
 But he was Dick, the hero of her child- 
 hood ! and with the instincts of her sex 
 she foresaw disappointment and sorrow for 
 him. 
 
 They were now nearly at the end of
 
 250 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 their journey. Dick tied her parcels to- 
 gether deftly, so that one hand could hold 
 them all, and prepared to repack Tip in 
 his rugs, but met with objections on his 
 part. 
 
 ' Oh !' laughed his mistress, ' he knows 
 that he is all right now. They won't inter- 
 fere. It's only in London they are so 
 strict.' 
 
 * Of course there is a fly ordered for 
 you ?' he asked, as the train stopped. * If 
 not ' 
 
 Here his good offers were interrupted. 
 Something in a waterproof, with the hood 
 up, fell upon Stella Barbour and kissed 
 her, and bore her away swiftly. 
 
 Dick had some trouble about his luggage, 
 which was in the wrong van, and he saw 
 no more of Dormouse. He had not even 
 a chance to say ' Good-bye.'
 
 DORMOUSE 251 
 
 All the railway people, from the station- 
 master down, were strangers to Dick. He 
 went through to the outside platform to 
 find the fly he supposed to be awaiting 
 him. There was no carriage of any sort. 
 The town 'bus had just left. He stood 
 alone in the dark and the rain, and 
 shivered. 
 
 This railway had been made at a time 
 when towns were shy of the iron horse. 
 The station which served Wadehurst was 
 a mile and a half from its main street, and 
 nearly three miles from 'the House.' It 
 had gathered around it a few labourers' 
 cottages, and the inevitable Railway Inn — 
 a too pretentious affair, which did little 
 business out of the local County Court, 
 where most of its proprietors had figured 
 as bankrupts. For some time past it had 
 been little more than a ' tap,' but it gener-
 
 252 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ally — to Dick's knowledge — supported a 
 fly. So he told the porter who followed 
 him with his luggage to go and ask if 
 a fly had been ordered for Lord Wade- 
 hurst 
 
 The man grinned. 
 
 ' Why, bless your life,' he said, ' his 
 lordship's been dead and buried this four 
 year and more.' 
 
 * We won't argue the question,' Dick 
 replied; 'go and ask.' And he put his 
 hand in his pocket. 
 
 The answer came that ' no fly hadn't 
 been ordered for nobody ; but the gentle- 
 man could have it in a few minutes.' 
 
 It came round in half an hour. 
 
 'Wadehurst House/ said Dick to the 
 driver, as he stepped in. 
 
 ^ Beg your pardon, sir,' observed the 
 jehu ; * but there ain't no one there.'
 
 DORMOUSE 
 
 253 
 
 ' There will be when I arrive,' said 
 Dick. ' Go on.' 
 
 They went on in the dark and the 
 driving rain at the irritating slippety-slop, 
 slippety-slop pace of the representative 
 fly-horse, over a road that Dick had been 
 accustomed to take in his dog-cart at a 
 2-45 pace. How slow now — how slow ! 
 He looked through the storm -blurred 
 window for some landmark to show if they 
 were getting on at all, but the black night 
 hid even the hedges from his view. Slip- 
 pety-slop, slippety-slop I Could the fellow 
 have missed his way, or had the house 
 moved into the next parish ? 
 
 ' Why the deuce,' he mused, '■ couldn't 
 Wainwright have met me at the station 
 with some sort of decent trap ? Stop — 
 did I write station or house, or both ? 
 Perhaps I made a mistake about the train.
 
 254 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 Anyhow, he'll be at the house and have 
 some dinner ready. Confound the old 
 shandrydan! the roof leaks. It's a re- 
 gular shower-bath. Wonder if we've 
 got to Wood End yet ? Dear little Dor- 
 mouse, she's housed and dry by this time, 
 and eating her supper with the girls. 
 Holloa! what's this T 
 
 The slippety-slop has ceased ; the jehu 
 has crawled down from his perch and is 
 opening some iron gates. 
 
 ' By Jove ! it's Wadehurst at last !'
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 HAIL TO THE CHIEF !' 
 
 The fly lumbered up to the grand entrance 
 of Wadehurst House, and Dick sprang up 
 the steps. Jehu dragged his portmanteau 
 into as dry a spot as could be found under 
 the portico, and awaited events. 
 
 The house was as dark as a wolfs 
 mouth. Not a gleam in any window ; not 
 a sign of life, much less of welcome. 
 
 Dick pulled the bell and heard its 
 familiar clang ! clang ! loud and clear in 
 the silence. He pulled again and again, 
 and looked through the side-lights of the
 
 256 JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 great door. All within was dark — not a 
 sound, not a movement. 
 
 ' Well, this zs pleasant !' he muttered 
 aloud. 
 
 ' Better go back, sir,' the jehu suggested. 
 * Told you there wasn't nobody here.' 
 
 ' But there mus^ be !* persisted Dick. 
 ' I wrote — ah ! they are coming now ; I 
 see a light in the hall. Here ' (handing 
 a liberal tip), ' I won't keep you waiting in 
 such weather. Get yourself a glass of 
 something hot.' 
 
 Jehu took the money and drove off, 
 nothing loath. 
 
 The light (a very dim one) came on 
 slowly. Sounds of drawing bolts and the 
 putting up of the chain were heard. The 
 door was opened four inches, and a shaky 
 voice demanded : 
 
 ♦ Who's there ?'
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF P 257 
 
 ' Lord Wadehurst.' 
 
 ' That won't do. You'd better be off. 
 I — I ain't alone, and we've got a 
 gun.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't be so stupid ! Is Mr. Wain- 
 wright here ?' 
 
 ' Mr. Wainwright !' scoffed the voice. 
 ' That won't do, neither. Old Mr. Wain- 
 wright's sick abed at Maidstone 'sizes ; and 
 Mr. Joe, he's with him, as everybody 
 knows. You don't come over me witU 
 your Mr. Wainwright, so be off, or it'll be 
 the worse for you ! You ain't the only 
 tramp as has tried this little game, and so 
 I tell you.' 
 
 ' My good man,' Dick pleaded, * I am 
 not a tramp. I am Lord Wadehurst, 
 really. I wrote to Mr. Wainwright to meet 
 me at the station or here, and have things 
 ready. I see now why he could not come. 
 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 258 REDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 I have sent away my fly, and you must 
 
 let me in.' 
 
 ' I shan't do nothing of the sort — be off!' 
 'Idiot!' murmured Dick to himself; 
 
 then aloud, ' Open the door ; look at me, 
 
 and satisfy yourself. It's quite right of 
 
 you to be careful, but this is absurd.' 
 
 ' Oh yes, open the door for you and 
 
 your pals to bust in. Not much !' scoffed 
 
 the voice. 
 
 * I am alone. I give you my word of 
 honour I will not attempt to enter till you 
 are satisfied that I am Lord Wadehurst.' 
 
 ' I never set eyes on any Lord Wade- 
 hurst, so how can I tell ?' 
 
 * Good heavens !' moaned Dick, ' what 
 is to be done ?' 
 
 * Go on about your business. I ain't 
 a-going to stand here talking any more.* 
 
 Here the door was shut.
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF r 259 
 
 ' Stop ! stop !' shouted Dick. * You say 
 you are not alone. Is there anyone there ' 
 (loudly) * who knows me — Mr. Dick that 
 was }' 
 
 A female voice — still more shaky than 
 the male — now whispered : 
 
 ' I used to know him. Oh, John ! if it 
 were really Mr. Dick !' 
 
 ' Land at last !' exclaimed the out-barred 
 joyfully. ' A woman ! We shall have 
 some sense now. What is your name, 
 please — you who said you used to know 
 Mr. Dick ?' 
 
 * Mrs. Killick.' 
 
 ' Don't remember any Mrs. Killick. 
 Is this man with the gun your husband ?' 
 
 * Yes, he is.' 
 
 ' Hum ! Where did you know me ?' 
 ' If you be Mr. Dick, in this very 
 house.'
 
 26o JED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 ' Were you a servant ?' 
 
 ' Yes, and my mother before me.' 
 
 * And your name before you married 
 this— this Mr. KilHck ?' 
 
 ' Don't you tell him,' said her husband. 
 ' He'll try to gammon us by pretending to 
 remember you.' 
 
 ' Hush, John ! I seem to know the 
 
 voice. I do believe in my bones he is 
 
 I'll tell you one of them ' (to the outsider) 
 — ' it's Patsey ; and I was once hurt, and 
 Mr. Dick was awful good to me. Now, if 
 you be truly Mr. Dick, who am I ?' 
 
 He thought for a moment, and then 
 shouted : 
 
 ' Patsey .^ Why, of course ! — Patsey 
 Turpin ! You were kitchen-maid. You 
 burnt yourself badly one Christmas Eve, 
 and I and Mr. Frank got you some carron- 
 oil and lint and dressed your arm, and you
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF f 261 
 
 went home, and didn't come back for — oh, 
 I don't know how long.' 
 
 ' Get out of the way, you old stupid !' 
 cried the voice, now strong and cheery. 
 * It's him. It's Mr. Dick, for sure ; and 
 he's my lord now. The idea of keeping 
 him a-waiting in the rain at his own door ! 
 You ought to be ashamed of yourself, John 
 Killick !' 
 
 So, to the light of a solitary ' dip,' 
 guttering in a tin candlestick, Richard 
 Birkett, second Earl and eighth Baron 
 Wadehurst, entered his ancestral hall ! 
 
 He looked around him. In the old 
 lord's time there were ten duplex lamps 
 burning at night in this hall, and they did 
 not light it up properly. Holding the 
 candle up above his head, his accustomed 
 eye got vague outlines of the old armour, 
 old pictures, and mouldering trophies of
 
 262 J^EDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 the chase, just as he had left them. It 
 was something like home, but the silence 
 and the gloom chilled him. 
 
 * Never mind,' he told Patsey, profuse 
 and incoherent with excuses. * It isn't 
 your fault there is nothing ready ; only, 
 please, get some better light, and I'll go to 
 the Blue Room, where poor Mr. Frank 
 and I ' 
 
 He could not finish. 
 
 * Oh dear ! oh dear !' moaned Patsey. 
 * We've only one lamp, and that's in the 
 kitchen. And as for the Blue Room, there 
 ain't a stick of furniture in it !' 
 
 * Well, anywhere out of this vault — the 
 small study.' 
 
 'And that's as bare as my hand.' 
 
 * What the deuce have you done with all 
 the furniture ? Where can I go ?' 
 
 ' There's no place but the kitchen,'
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF f 263 
 
 Patsey replied, with a sob of despair ; * and 
 oh, my Lord Dick — I mean Mr. Wade- 
 hurst — no, no, Tm so flus — flustered, I 
 can't get right. It's a ha — hard and a 
 cru — cruel shame — on me — to have — to 
 say so.' 
 
 So he was taken to the kitchen, where 
 there was light and warmth, and consoled 
 the sobbing woman. 
 
 ' Can you give me anything to eat, 
 Patsey }' he asked, when he had taken ofY 
 his wet ulster. * I'm as hungry as a wolf/ 
 
 ' A rasher and fried eggs, and some 
 toasted cheese, is all I can do.' 
 
 If she had offered sackcloth and ashes 
 and Dead Sea fruit, she could not have 
 spoken more mournfully. 
 
 ' Splendid ! Bring on your rasher and 
 eggs, my good Patsey, and I'll do them 
 justice,' said Dick.
 
 264 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 When these delicacies were about half 
 frizzled, he asked : 
 
 ' Have you got the key of the 
 cellar ?' 
 
 ' Yes, my lord ; but there ain't anything 
 there.' 
 
 ' No wine ?' 
 
 ' Not a single bottle.' 
 
 ' This is very strange — no furniture in 
 the rooms, no wine in the cellar ! 
 What ' 
 
 ' There, there now ! you eat your supper. 
 The chaney closet's open, and I can get 
 you a nice plate and glass ; and Mr. Sam 
 Crawford, he sent us a cask of gentlefolks' 
 cider only last week. Eat your supper 
 like a — eat your supper.' 
 
 Seated on a Windsor chair, my Earl 
 Wadehurst ate his first meal under his 
 own roof- tree — ate his rasher and eggs
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF P 265 
 
 off a priceless Sevres plate, with a black- 
 handled knife and two-pronged fork ; and 
 drank his Hopshire cider from a Venetian 
 goblet worthy of a place in any art 
 collection. Then he lit a cigar and 
 finished his question, ' What does all this 
 mean ?' 
 
 With some tears and many personal 
 observations unflattering to their objects, 
 and which must not be repeated here, 
 she told him that a week after the old 
 lord's funeral the executors had come 
 with an auctioneer from Poundbridge and 
 an old man who had been butler before 
 her listener was born, and that they had 
 taken a list of everything in the house — 
 that the old butler had ticked off such 
 things as he remembered, and that all 
 the rest had been either sent to London 
 or sold at auction on the premises. The
 
 266 J ED WOOD JUSTICE 
 
 order was that any object which the late 
 lord had inherited was to stay, and all else 
 was to go — and they went. 
 
 • I understand,' said Dick bitterly. ' I 
 wonder he didn't melt up the armour and 
 sell it for old iron, whilst he could. What 
 is there left, Patsey ?' 
 
 * There's a-most everything in the hall 
 and in the state bedroom where King 
 William slept, and the big sideboard, and 
 a lot of old oak stuff in the attic, and the 
 Turkey carpet in the library, and some 
 books ; and ' (brightening up) ' there's the 
 family plate at the bank, and some odds 
 and ends of chaney and glass like thickey ' 
 (indicating the plate and goblet), ' and 
 that's about all ; but what there is, Mr. 
 Di — my lord, is as clean as the head of a 
 new pin — that it is, for sure !' 
 
 ' Why, of course — didn't you have it in
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF f 267 
 
 charge ? But tell me, how did you come to 
 have charge ?' 
 
 Then she told him about Mr. Sam 
 Crawford and the kitchen garden. 
 
 ' So/ he mused, ^ the only one to stick 
 up for me was Sam ! And those Wain- 
 wrights, who have made thousands and 
 thousands out of us, never did a thing !' 
 
 'They was the executors' lawyers.' 
 
 * And went with the swim. But where's 
 your husband ? I hope I haven't scared 
 him away i*' 
 
 He had, though. Honest John Killick 
 was in fear and tribulation. He had 
 barred the Earl out of his own house and 
 treated him as a tramp, and didn't know 
 if it wouldn't be a 'sizes case. He was 
 found, reassured, and given some tobacco 
 such as he never smoked before. 
 
 He also had disagreeable news. How
 
 268 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 the flower-o'arden was all oversfrown with 
 
 t5 
 
 gi 
 
 weeds, the pigsties gone to rack and ruin, 
 and the roof of the dairy fallen in. But 
 he had not known it otherwise, and could 
 tell his tale without the tears which had 
 sometimes choked the faithful Patsey. 
 He was a Sussex man (he told Dick), from 
 a small place near Petworth, and having 
 been sent to Poundbridge Fair after some 
 new harvester, had himself been gathered 
 in by buxom Patsey. Yes, they had a 
 good place, but lonely at nights. Tramps 
 had tried to get in, and that w^as why, etc., 
 etc. He wasn't afraid. Mr. Sam paid 
 them ' handsome.' Patsey made some- 
 thing extra rearing chickens and ducks, 
 and he did odd jobs for the farmers around. 
 No, they had nothing to complain of. 
 
 His wife, who had disappeared at the 
 beginning of this conversation, now re-
 
 'HAIL TO THE CHIEF r 269 
 
 turned, and was met with the important 
 question : 
 
 ' Where am I to sleep ? Is there any 
 sofa or bench, or — I can rough it. I've 
 slept many a night on the bare ground 
 with my saddle for a pillow.' 
 
 ' I've made up the state bed for you, 
 my lord,' said Patsey quietly. 
 
 ' The state bed ! Ghosts of all the 
 Wadehursts, wherever you may be, rest 
 easy this night ! The state bed, sacred 
 to the memory of Sailor Bill's snores ! 
 This is desecration, Patsey! I'm not sure 
 it isn't high treason !' 
 
 ' But it's quite clean, sir — my lord. It 
 is indeed ! The sheets don't quite go 
 across it, and there's only one blanket ; 
 but if you don't mind using your railway 
 rug ' 
 
 ' Patsey ' (with warning finger at her
 
 270 JEDWOOD JUSTICE 
 
 face), * you've been stripping your own 
 room !' 
 
 ' No, indeed ; I'd plenty of good linen 
 when 1 married — hadn't I, John ? And 
 I'll get you a wash-bowl and things before 
 you're up in the morning, and borrow some 
 proper knives and forks for breakfast.' 
 
 This was the coming home of the 
 heir! 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
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