LI E. R_ARY OF THE UNIVERSITY or ILLINOIS 823 Gr 435 sc V.I The Scholar of Bygate ^ STale ALGERNON GISSING Atithor of '' A Moorland Idyl,'* ^c. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. J. LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO. 34 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1897 'I J CONTENTS OF FIRST VOLUME. Page I 22 37 6o 83 107 130 155 181 205 ^ XI. A FiNGER-PoST ----- 229 Chap. I. Jennifer II. At the Howff - III. The Orphan IV. The New Element V. Strange Lights VI. Lessons - V VII. The Disciple - VIII. 4 ^ Sympathies Mr. Brett At the Springs XII. One Touch of Nature ^ - 254 c\ ^ 4 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE CHAPTER I. JENNIFER. " Ha'd away, hinny ! " cried the busy woman again and louder, as she paused to look up, with her hands in the steaming soap-suds over which she leant. " I'll no hear it, I tell ye. Ye'se but a daft kittie to read sic words to ony lugs but thae of a whin buss." " That's a' nonsense, Maggie. Canna you see that it's no for love he's writing ? " The girl spoke severely, with her eyes upon the paper from which she read. " No for love ! Then what for does a callant like yon want to sec ye cfter dark in a place sae VOL. I. A 2 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. lonesome and ghaist-like? Dinna ta'k to me o' help. Do ye mind, lassie, that ye're bonnie ? " " Bonnie ! " The girl seemed to scorn the fact — compliment from such lips it could hardly be. "What has that to do in the matter?" "Just a' to dee vvi' it. I'll no trust 'em. Every yen o' them's a scoondrel in his heart, and yon mair nor maist. Ha'd away, now, and dinna fash yoursel' wi' the like o' him." " ril gan." " Ye winna gan." The woman stripped the soap froth from each arm swiftly, and came forward. " No, Jenniper, ye winna gan." An angry frown ruffled the girl's forehead as she drew a step back. It was but momentary, and she laughed. " What are ye feared on, woman ? " " Ye ken nicely, hinny. It's no safe, to speak naething o' seemly, for a bonnie lass to gae tryst- ing wi' a' the waffie loons that ask her," JENNIFER. 3 " Have I ever trysted vvi' yane ? " fired the girl immediately. '' I winna say that ye hae, and ye'll no begin \vi' the like o' yon." " I carena what he is. His words sound true, and if I can gie help to onybody I'll gie it, the sooner if a' other folk ha'd aby o' him." The girl's face was turned away as she spoke, for she was angry with her matter-of-fact confidant for so steadily refusing the advice required of her. Commonplace scruples thrust upon her by another went far towards extinguishing them in Jenniper herself, and even towards bringing forward their bolder opposite, at which, perhaps, the girl had hitherto but barely glanced. In the younger features you could see antagonism each moment growing, and very expressive features did the pro- cess make them. Moorland breeze and sunbeam had evidently been at their moulding, if also the storm-cloud and the mist had not been absent. 4 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. They afforded a strong contrast to the uniformly grey rigour of the masculine face opposed to them. "Yon's good enough words, hinny," said the elder dryly ; " but ye'se no apply them here. Are ye wiser, then, than a' your neighbours? And if ye hae your mind made up, what for did ye come the gate to Maggie ? " " Because I thought ye had mair sense than ye hae shown to me the now," was the prompt rejoinder. '* What for should he come to ye for help ? " demanded Maggie, evading the personal tendency of the disagreement, and really concerned on her companion's account. " Are there nae lads nor men, nor even an old lass like me, to help him at a pinch, think ye ? The bonnie face and the saft white skin are mair needful to kittle enterprises likely? Oh, Jenniper, my lass, just burn the bit letter, and gie nae mair thought about it." JMNNIPMA'. 5 "And what would I feel myself? . . . Just a thowless coward," said the other scornfully. ** That's no my opinion of Jenniper Curie." Maggie had turned as though to resume her washing, and in the momentary pause the twitter of a bird came through the open doorway from a gorse bush on the hill-slope outside. The girl's eyes travelled in that direction, and she seemed about to follow them, when Maggie w^as again at her side. " Promise me, lass, that ye'U no gang the night," said the woman with more solemnity than she had yet assumed, emotional appeal having taken the place of argument in her tone. " I canna promise ; but I'll think," returned the other, fixing her eyes suddenly upon the gaze that held her, and showing the first sign of even the smallest concession in her manner. " Ye must know that I hae good cause for what I say, hinny," continued the elder in the same 6 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. earnest tone. " I ken mair o' that kin than ony- body else i' the country-side, and I'm no just the fool ye think me." Although the hint was not without its effect upon Jenniper, she turned it off lightly. " But I'm no skeigh on 'em, Maggie, for a' that," laughed she. " If my arm is soft and white, as ye cast up to me, it's no made o' feather." The girl clutched her companion's brown and muscular arm as she said it, and bared her own fair limb almost to the socket. It shone like the trim and new-wrought blade beside the used and rusted, but as trusty steel was in it. The elder's face relaxed at the contrast, and she smiled grimly. "Ay, ay, it's weel, my lass, but it 'uU no stand ye beside yon." "Will it no?" The girl's fingers tightened, and Maggie winced. "He'll no be the first that has felt the weight on't." JENNIFER. 7 The woman was proud of her in her heart, but she wouldn't show it. " Ye'se tarr'blc het, lass, and shairp, and no just badly named," was all she said, as Jenniper al- lowed her to return to the steaming tub. The girl watched her for a minute or two longer in silence, but Maggie made no further effort to persuade her. The latter had noticed the effect of her last appeal, and could but trust to its work- ing; for if headstrong, she knew Jennie was "no hallock," — would not act, that is, like the average flighty specimen of her sex. Hearing a move- ment, Maggie looked up and gave the parting nod which the other invited. But the woman's face re- tained its severe expression as she bent to her solitary work. Outside the lonely cottage were the hills of bent and heather intermingled, enclosing a wide dale which the golden sun of middle autumn now illumined. Some scattered distant houses alone ^ THE SCHOLAk OF BYGATM. were visible, with their few sheltering trees, the last village being more than a mile off down the road which could be seen winding its open way from the bare fells in the west, behind which Scotland lay. Jenniper did not seek this road, but struck away over the grass in a slanting but upward direction, her face sobered by thought. Maggie's decisive attitude had undoubtedly im- pressed her. If she had come to the consultation in half a spirit of jocularity, she had left it in quite a different temper. Presently she reached a crease in the hill-side in which the top waters of a burn gathered to run down to the river in the vale below. It necessitated a jump, and in Jenniper's present mood she did not instinctively take it. Instead, she sat down on the bank, and threw a thought- ful eye on the water before her. Such was 'not the girl's way, and perhaps she was conscious of the unfamiliar posture. The JENNIPER. ^ Springs of life were sound in her, therefore unsus- pected, unexamined. Her natural tendency rather was to the pointed and impulsive than to the smooth and the restrained. Early in childhood had her piquant characteristics revealed themselves, and earned for her the fanciful name now invari- ably adopted. To a waggish and discerning grand- father was she indebted for it, as also no doubt for much else of a less determinate kind. Several of her elders had perceived in her flashes of that departed wit from whose tongue most of the dale's later merriment, if also of its censure and even scandal, was reputed to have issued. The little girl, almost from her cradle, had shown a mis- chievous delight in putting her word in playful rivalry against this oracle, an attitude which the elder showed no less a readiness in fostering proudly. Thus passages arose between them which delighted the curious, culminating in Jennie's his- torical victory when she was ten years old, under I o THE SCHOLAR OF B VGA TE, the very eye of the dale. It was in the juniper season, and a group, returning from the Harthope Knowe with their baskets of berries (or "jennipers," as they called them), for savouring the whisky, had paused before old Ephraim's door to enjoy the joke which had been seen in his eye from a distance as he stood leaning on his ash stick to receive them. It was, however, only upon his grand-dauglitcr that his gaze now rested, as she came along with the laden basket on her arm. " Ye'll hae got your sins in that tarr'ble heavy basket, daur say, my lassie," remarked the old man. " But it's not sae heavy," said she. "Then it'll be a' that's gude o' ye likely," re- turned he. The child shook her head. " It's just a' the gude words that ye hae spoken o' your neebors in a' your lang, lang life, and ye canna tell even them frae jennipers. Look ! " *' Ha'd away, ye little bizzum ! Ye're just for fENNIPER. It a' the vvarld a jenniper your ain sel','' was the de- lighted retort. This was ten years ago, but the name had clung to her. From the water the girl's eyes travelled to the distant hill tops, from behind which the crests of clouds were peeping, all the rest of the sky being without a speck. As she looked, a movement in the air drew her glance, and she watched a heron come sailing down the valley in majestic flight. Thought, not reverie, had marked her face before, but the bird evidently gave her mind a fresh direction, and for a time she followed it. This, however, was rudely interrupted, and she leapt up. The report of a gun had suddenly snapt the silence of the valley, and that stately progress of the heron had become an uncontrolled and shape- less drop to the earth, over which it had skimmed so proudly. t2 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATR. The girl's face had changed to that of Medusa. The snake-Hke radiance of hatred and anger flashed from her eyes, as she turned them in fiery scrutiny on the little cloud of smoke which the clear air was rapidly dispersing. Distant though its object, her gaze apparently satisfied her. " A thousand curses on your arm, ye wretch ! " cried she, flinging her shrill voice to the far-off unsuspecting sportsman. "Ye promised that ye'd never do it. ... A man's promise ! " Jenniper's angry scorn seemed in her last utter- ance to spread to the whole range of perfidious man, and by no means to stop at the wanton destroyer of herons alone. She did not sit down again. A visible agitation possessed her, and as she tried to give some muscular outlet to her feel- ings, her fingers crushed up the paper which she had not put from her hand since leaving Maggie, and it was flung into the stream. The action seemed to recall her, and darting to the edge, she JENNIFER. 13 recaptured the floating letter as it came to the bank. Then she opened and re-read it. "Will you come down to the HowfT to-morrow evening at nightfall ? " so the words ran, written in a bold, educated hand. " I do not say any- thing here to explain the request, or to beg you to grant it, beyond the fact that you can be of service to a fellow-creature. That, I believe, will be enough for you. The fellow-creature is not ' The Scholar of Bygate.' " In contemplating the words once more, anger faded from her eyes, and, clearing the water at one resolute bound, she strode onwards over the bent. Beyond another ridge, in a wider tributary crease, was Jenniper's home — a white - washed shepherd's house known as Angryhaugh, where her father and mother dwelt. The ducks and geese and fowls, which were spread over the sunlit green before the door, seemed to greet the girl's return, and at the sound her mother looked out. 14 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. " Now, Jennie my lass, come awa' to the wark,'"' said the active woman, turning in again, and the daughter at once set a ready hand to her duties. Actively engaged though she was for the re- mainder of the day, her mind continued busy. Maggie's attitude had surprised as well as im- pressed Jenniper. Of course the family of Bygate was a familiar possession of the dale, and there had always been a certain amount of mystery in the popular estimation of it, but this had never greatly affected the clear-sighted girl at Angry- haugh. Perhaps her imagination was less deeply pledged to a stereotyped form of character than was the case with her general neighbours, so that any divergence from such type would be less in- comprehensible in her eyes. Here again it would be difficult to say how far her grandfather's irony had aided her. An incisive remark of his had shot a ray of sunlight (or a lightning flash) into many an obscure appearance for duller visions than that JENNIFER 15 of Jenniper had ever been. But, from whatever cause, this girl had never found any particular diffi- culty in construing all experience, whether personal or by report, that sue had hitherto had of the Crozlers of Bygate, and her interpretation had never prompted anything like fear. And certainly she had never expected that it would be Maggie Laidler, of all persons, who was to be the first to bring her even within hail of such a feeling. Rigid as Maggie was, Jennie had hitherto implicitly trusted her intelh'gence. Thus it was that the girl thought more of her elder's foolish attitude than the point involved warranted in her eyes. Her father came in from the hills to his mid- day meal ; a silent, meditative man, whose natural current of speculation was confined to the hard grey banks of theology and sheep. But within his own channel he was vigorous and clear as any moun- tain burn. The three of them seated at the table, speechless for the most part, presented a sugges- 1 6 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, tive picture to any interested in the human face. In mere feature, Jenniper bore more resemblance to her mother than to the harder grey-eyed man ; but, in common phrase, she was not quite the child of either, a fact, perhaps, of which she had grown aware. In her world, what is known as the mutual confidence of families does not exist. Strong affection (although undisplayed, perhaps, from the cradle to the grave) there is ; but for the rest, mere unquestioned authority and sub- ordination regulate domestic ties. In this par- ticular case, since absolute infancy not even the latter had found any obvious place. The daughter's early maturity of character was no doubt mainly the cause of this. She had never claimed, but had simply fallen, into her independent position in the family group, than which no fact could more plainly indicate the level of intelligence upon which the Angryhaugh household stood. Its only other member, a young man, had for some years been launched upon the general world. JENNIFER. 17 "I saw Oliver Hislop the day," remarked the shepherd bluntly, breaking a period of silence, but not looking up. " Will ye hae him along to the house here, Jen ? " " With his gun likely ? " said Jenniper, affecting indifference, although her colour slightly deepened. " Ay, ay." '' It's no for me that he shall come here," added the girl with emphasis, to which the father nodded, and the mother added a distinct murmur of ap- proval. But here it ended, and the meal was finished mainly in silence as before. These few words, however, trivial as they seemed, were not without their effect upon Jen- niper. It added, if that could be, to her anger against Oliver Hislop, the wanton exterminator of herons, the man of faithless word. That he should thus, after the passage between them, try to fortify his position by gaining her father's ear seemed positively insulting to the girl. For one thing, it VOL. I. B 1 8 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. showed infallibly his crass misconstruction of her character, and it wounded Jennie's pride that so obtuse a creature should have dared to encompass her. But this only indirectly concerned her now, by way, that is, of awakening her energies in an- other direction. This meeting with Crozier, if she kept it, would re-assert her intellectual dignity. Even if there were a spice of imprudence in it, why, so much the better. It would all the more effectu- ally put her beyond the range of these ordinary commonplace mortals against which she felt this momentary wrath. The Scholar had at least granted her intelligence by so directly challenging it, whatever his ulterior schemes. If only to con- firm this fact, she would go. What pure love of adventure had so strongly urged in her, pique com- pleted, and late afternoon found Jenniper resolved. By the best of chances, her father was going down the dale to a meeting of his church. In the early twilight he set off, just as the girl came in JENNIFER. 19 with the can from milking the cow, and for a moment she paused to watch the departing figure, with the folded check plaid coiled round him from one shoulder ; the stooping gait ; the long, de- liberate stride, with which the stick drawn along the ground kept step; and at the heel the insepar- able collie. It faded in the dusk, and Jenniper went in. " Light the lamp, hinny, and I'll set the milk," said the mother, taking the can from the girl's hand in the doorway, for she also had been throw- ing a glance after her goodman down the slope. '' Ay, ay, mother." This also chanced to suit the daughter well. She seemed a minute or two in finding the matches, but that was not all she did. A drawer had been opened, and from it Jenniper had taken something. Hearing her mother busy still, she lit a candle, and then it could be seen that there was a pistol in her hand, the magnified shadow of ao THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. which was thrown on the wall. For another minute or two there were slight clicking sounds, audible only to the causer of them. The drawer was closed ; the girl unhooked the front of her gown and thrust the weapon in and secured it there. When this preparation was completed, she burst into song, oddly enough from such lips, and after such employment, into a sentimental ditty, to the air, " Clean Pease Strae." "When John and me were married, Our haddino- was but sma', For my minnie, cankered carlin, Would gie us nought ava'." ♦ " I'm right glad o' your mind about yon, Jen," said the mother, as she came into the room. " Ou ay, mother," was the jocular response, and Jenniper turned the subject of the conversa- tion. Despite the remoteness of their situation, there was nothing extraordinary in Jenniper's going out JENNIFER, 21 at night ; none the less was she glad upon this occasion that it was only her mother to whom she had to announce her intention. She did it in an easy, candid way, aware that no interrogation would be put to her on the subject. So indeed it proved. She hummed an air later as she put some things on, and also as she went out. "No, no, mother, I'll no be long," she called out from the door, and the mother pondered by the hearth alone. CHAPTER II. AT THE IIOWFF. The day had clouded during the afternoon, and it was now dark. As Jenniper went out she heard the wind rising, the sound of it coming to her like an eerie sough from the obscure heights around. A measure of light, diffused over the thick clouds in the south-east, showed where the moon was rising behind them. It was not the tremor of fear that was in the girl's fingers as she closed the door after her. Ig- norant of any self-distrust, whether by night or day, she went to an enterprise like this merely with a flutter of expectation. We have seen that love of adventure rather than of sentiment had decided her, and such interpretation of the strange 22: AT THE HOWFF. 23 summons as she had urged upon her sole con- fidant, Maggie Laidler, was her own sincere con- viction. She just felt once again in her bosom to know that her protector was secure, and then set off to the place of meeting. The spot appointed was an old burial-ground, just a quadrangular bit of hill-side walled-in, and no doubt, in times past, adequately consecrated to the solemn purposes of a long home, although far removed from any sacred building. This isolation and severance from the hint of human shelter which such an edifice affords, invested the place with an excessive solemnity where all nature in- spired a sense of awe. The Howff, therefore, had acquired more than its normal share of shadowy lore in the minds of a gloomy but imaginative people. Here whaups, corbies, and far more un- canny things were reputed to foregather, and late though her day, Jenniper knew that no rational neighbour would think of willingly disturbing such 24 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. sinister conclave after the evening sun had cast the shadow of Carter Fell upon the scene. But superstitious fears had as little power against her own soul as the more worldly and determinate ones, an intrepidity perhaps not wholly uncon- nected with the fact that the girl's grandfather had herded that territory, and, consequently, that she herself had haunted it, both in his company and alone, at most hours of the day and night, in fair weather and in foul. ■ There was nothing at all unfavourable in the present conditions. A minute or two was enough to familiarire the eye with the obscurity, and to Jenniper, of course, every yard of the ground was known. The water kept up its ceaseless murmur to the night, and the girl for some distance kept to its bank, avoiding only a jutting boulder, a stunted alder or birch, which now and then came in her path. When the land opened to the main dale, she turned over to the right and had a AT THE HOWFF. 25 "dike" (a moorland wall) to climb. Having found a secure crevice for her toe, she raised herself, and with a hand on the top stone simply vaulted over. As she alighted on the other side she paused. Remote lights twinkled from two or three dis- tant points, marking known abodes, Bygate amongst the number. One, evidently, clear and unenclosed, seemed to Jenniper but a few yards away. She, however, knew the delusive effect of an open light in the dark, and therefore, that this one might be half a mile away. Still, as it was in the exact direction that she must take, it en- gaged her attention. The ray, so distinct was it, amazed and confused her eye, until a moment's reflection decided her to make directly for it. The Howfif was but a quarter of a mile from here, and whether on this side of it or beyond, the girl felt that the light marked the straight path to it. So she set off. As she advanced, Jenniper observed that the 26 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, light for an instant went out, as it seemed, at reg- ular intervals. After pondering the fact in her prompt, decisive way, she could but conclude that some object was on these occasions deliberately placed before it. It flashed upon her that a person walking to and fro would bring about this effect, if between her eye and the light. Was it he ? And had he so arranged it as to give her reassurance in the mysterious enterprise ? It was credible, and the thought undoubtedly impressed her in his favour. Further progress confirmed the girl's surmise. Whilst still some fifty yards away she could dis- cern enough to convince her that the light (from a bull's-eye lantern, probably, so piercing was the ray), must have been placed upon the very wall of the Howff, and that the Scholar had set himself to pace before it. Nearer still, and she could dis- tinguish the features, purposely held that the light should illumine them. But now Jenniper too was AT THE HOWFF, 27 in the ray, and he must have seen her, for the figure stood still, and a voice came proclaiming who it was. The girl stepped boldly forward, and the pistol, now clutched in her hand, was visible in the light. The man's eye fell upon it, and he gave a little laugh. ''You have come prepared," he said, by way of greeting. " Did you wish me to come unprepared ? " asked she. " By no means ; 1 admire your pluck. Nobody else in the dale would have accepted the invitation even on those terms." " And what is the purpose of the invitation ? " asked Jenniper, taking her stand four or five yards away, out of the shaft of light. A corresponding movement of his made her require that he should stay within it. " Yes, you have a right to demand that," said he, resuming his former place. '' Also to know the 28 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, reason why I have brought you here at such a strange hour. You, my lass, don't know what it is to have no soul in the whole world to whom you can speak in friendship, or else you would understand my behaviour better. It is not delight- ful to have friends amongst the shades only, — shades that only talk to you in echoes of your own voice. However glorious and however end- less their thoughts, wouldn't you weary of them? Wouldn't you sicken of the sound of nothing but your own voice ? " " Likely enough I would. . . . But is it books that you mean by shades, or the real ghosts that folks say there are at Bygate } " Jenniper, who, from her screen of darkness, had kept her eyes intently fixed upon the man's serious countenance, saw the smile he gave. " You don't need an answer to that," said he, " or you wouldn't be talking here to me now. Let them be ghosts if you like to think it. Don't you AT THE HOWFF, 29 hear them amongst the graves here behind us, and in that wind that is beginning to play around the cairns ? I hear ghosts every night of my life, every day, too, for the matter of that. Isn't the world made up of ghosts quite as much as of hard- headed mortals ? Thank Heaven, far more so, or else it would be an intolerable place to dwell in. But I didn't ask you here to talk about ghosts only. I wanted a word with a human soul about things that are human, and that is the sole ex- planation of my boldness. Nobody in the dale but yourself would have given me it, — nay, would have been capable of giving me it. Though you feel me to be a stranger, you see that the shades have told me something of you, and they have told me truly." " But have they told you that it was seemly o' me to be holding a tryst after nightfall with a man that is no kin to me ? " " Most assuredly they have," returned the other 30 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. vehemently, walking to and fro in the light. " Leave such language to those that it belongs to. If they had lied to me in saying so, would you have been here to support them? Are you not a woman, and does the light of heaven go out with nightfall ? Doesn't it rather break itself up into a million fragments, and scatter the firmament with its innumerable sparks ? Do you think that your womanhood is not a million times more sacred to me by night than by day ? But, of course, you canna know it. I am a man, and it is your right to suspect me. But, even at the pistol's mouth, let us recognise once for all that we meet as reasonable mortals, and not as fools, to whom the position of the sun is the guide to their morals." The youth spoke with all the energy and volu- bility of a tongue unloosed which is habitually silent, and now consequently untrained in the common restraints of conversation. His imagina- tive, almost theatrical glow, took Jenniper so com- AT THE HOWFF, 31 pletely by surprise that she was not sure how far she understood him. Report had been wholly ignorant of this quality in the man, however elo- quent of others. "Will you grant me that?" he asked, in face of her inevitable silence. "What, that I'll be a friend to ye?" " That's ower much to start wi', daur say," said he, falling into her vernacular intonation. " But, at least, that ye'll no take me for a scoundrel, nor yourself for a fool." "Ay, ay, I'll grant you that," smiled Jenniper boldly, in spite of her friend Maggie's words, which were ringing in her ears. " So far good. Now to my purpose ; for, as I said before, I did not get you here to talk of ghosts and stars merely, nor of such tragical matters as you evidently came prepared for," he went on smiling. "You almost tempt me to play the ruffian, that you may show your powers, and 3 2 THE SCHOLAR OF B VGA TE. not be altogether disappointed in your adventure. . . . Yesterday my father brought a girl of about your own age to Bygate ; his niece, my cousin. She is left, it seems, without parent and without home. You pity her, no doubt, for however wild the common notions about Bygate, you are quite right in thinking it not the most delightful abode for a young woman of twenty ; particularly for one not proof against ghosts. My cousin is from New- castle, and strange to our manners here. Rashly, I have promised to secure her one friend. You are the one. If you decline, I shall not ask another." "What made you so sure o' me as to promise before you'd got my word ? " said Jenniper, in a tone of half pique. " I deal in magic, and I saw you agree as you sat by the burn this morning before Hislop shot the heron." " Then you saw it wrong, for I'll be friend to nobody that I've to come to Bygate to ircek." AT THE riOWTF. 33 The girl's face had coloured in the darkness under the knowledge of his far-seeing eye. " That I also saw, although I should never have thought of asking it," was his calm response. "May she come to you, or, at least, meet you on your side of the water ? At any time and any place that you like to mention." "That would make a difference likely." " So I thought. Will you name the place, and then I need keep you no longer. Perhaps you'll let me go with you as far as the burn." "There's no need o' that. If this is all you've got to say to me " The girl's disappointment was hardly disguised. " I meant to say much more, but I don't think it would be wise to stay here longer with this light, especially as you see the moon is clearing before the breeze. Perhaps I may some day be fortunate enough to speak with you again, although you need not suspect me, as no doubt you will. VOL. I. c 34 THE SCHOLAR OF BYG ATE. Take the lantern with you." But Jennipcr dech'ned. "Then, where?" " I cross the bridge as I come from Crawston every Friday afternoon about four." "To-morrow is Friday. May she come?" " I shall be passing." At a click the lantern was darkened, and Jenniper felt just one thrill of alarm. Crozier might have read it, for immediately the light flashed forth again. " Do you trust me without the light ? " he asked ironically, ** Certainly ; I can defend myself," was the bold rejoinder. "Then, good-night." « Good-night." The wind alone again sighed around the Howff, not even the footsteps departing in opposite direc- tions being audible. Jenniper heard a restless plover calling from the slope, and she looked up to the AT Tim HOWFF. 35 broken sky where the moon had just been again hidden by a sailing cloud. She threw a glance all around her, clutched her weapon, and strode forward. Her mother was still alone when the girl came in to her, singing the refrain with which she had set off some time before. Crozier, on his part, had plunged down to the bottom of the valley, forded the river in his bare feet for want of a bridge (the only one being more than half a mile lower down), and was now ascending the pastures on the other side, above which, on an elevated terrace where the moor began, Bygate stood. He was feeling a kind of triumphant satisfaction at his recent interview, for it had confirmed some late speculations of his own. Although withholding himself from social intercourse with his neighbours, he kept a sharp look-out upon the dale, and had formed his own intolerant estimate of every inhabi- tant within it, To Jenniper Curie alone had his instinct extended the smallest favour, as he now 36 7HE SCHOLAR OF BYGA7E. decided not without cause. The incident had slightly raised his opinion of the race. Up here the wind was beginning to surge through the trees behind the house, rising into a loud gust, which brought a sycamore leaf against Crozier's face, and then dying away into the merest whisper. He was an intimate of the wind, and gloried in a flying gale which made the fir needles hiss and the branches creak as they jostled their neighbours. He looked up at the crests marked against the breaking sky, and in lowering his eyes encountered a figure running directly towards him. He had but just time to extend his arms, when his cousin fell fainting into them. Crozier burst into a loud laugh. " Are you bewitched already ? " asked he, in a jeering tone. But the girl fell to weeping violently, and it was some minutes before he could induce her to be led back into the house. CHAPTER III. THE ORPHAN. '* SiBBALD," cried a gruff voice from some room adjoining the passage by whicli the young man was accompanying his cousin to the staircase, " what's become o' yon lass ? " " She's all right," was the brief response, as the youth passed on, feeling the fingers of his com- panion tighten upon his arm. With a candle in his hand Crozler took the cfirl o upstairs and led her into a room in which he lit a lamp. There was a fire in the grate, and he bade her be seated in an armchair by the hearth-rug. None the less she stood still in the spot where he had left her, her recent emotion still apparent in her face. As he replaced the lamp-chimney she looked 37 SS THE SCHOLA R OF B VGA TE. about her with scared glances at which the man laughed openly. "Are you afraid of me, too?" he asked, receiving a negative which seemed by no means conclusive, but upon which he acted so far as to turn the key in the door without asking her further approval. As he returned to where she was still standing, he clapped his hands upon her two shoulders and looked into her face. " Now, Miss Adelfna Brett," said he, with an imperiousness which could not be mistaken for harshness, " sit down in that chair, for you have nothing to fear here." Crozier's visit to the Howff had really exhilarated him. Something in the utterance reached the girl as the most definite approach to kindness she had received since her arrival at Bygate, and with an uneasy glance at the black space of the unscreened windows, she obeyed. " There isn't a blind to pull down," he said. TIJE ORPHAN. 39 " You may put me one. But who is there to look ? " "That's just it," faltered the girl. " I—- 1 wish there were crowds. I hate the dark to look in at me." Crozier had his face against the glass looking out, and laughed at her ingenuousness. " Miles of lonely moor," remarked he, " with no* thing but the homeless wind wandering over it. Be thankful, my lass, that you are not out alone in it, as you seemed inclined to be. But look here, Lina — I shall call you Lina with your permission — do you see that little solitary light across there? That is the abode of Jenniper— a point for you to dwell on. Whatever you think we are, there is a human being who will befriend you, and one to whom you can speak without fear or reserve. Her opinion of us is pretty much the same as yours, so you need feel no restraint in talking even about your worthy relations. She has given you a meet- 4t> Yhe scholar of bygate. ing-place to which I will conduct you to-morrow, and it will be your own fault if you don't make a friend of her." She had ventured to the window to look out as he directed, and shrank closely to her stalwart cousin's side as she peered into the hideous expanse of darkness, for the inside light eclipsed the glimmer from the moon which overspread the land- scape. " What kind of a girl is she ? " asked Lina, going back shivering to her chair. " That's no' so easy to answer. You'd better wait and judge for yourself. One thing only I can tell you, which it will be as well to remember, and that is that she'll say what she means, and she'll expect you to do the same. Some people mean one thing and say another — don't try that with Jenniper, not even in the paltriest trifle." "Why do you think I need that advice?" THE ORPHAN. 4I " Tecause most people do, and you are no better than your neighbours." " And Jenniper is, I suppose." Human nature outstripped even nervousness for a moment. Sibbald threw one sharp glance at her which she missed, as her eyes were on the fire. "She has more sense than most," was all his comment. " Now, I want to know what you were running away from.." " I felt so frightened and wretched." " Wretched you might well feel, poor lass ; but what frightened you ? " "Your father." "In what way?" " He is so fierce." " And what made him fierce just at that moment ? " The girl stared into the fire, with her chin in one hand, but gave no answer. Crozier stood up beside her. 42 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. " Now I want to know, my lass. And you will find it just as well to be open with me whilst you're here, if only for your own comfort. We're not all ruffians, whatever we may seem to you." " He'd been talking of things." " Of your things ? Your position, your prospect, and so forth?" " Yes, and of father's. He was cruel and wicked," exclaimed the girl more impulsively, and with a threatening of tears. " I wish you would tell me what he said. I shall know better how to befriend you." *' He said that he never ought to have taken me into his house; that my proper place was the workhouse or the jail ; that my father was a thief, a liar, and I don't know — what — " " It was not the proper time to tell you that, whether true or false. But tell me, Adclina, do you know, have you the slightest suspicion of what is the meaning of it all?" THE ORPHAM. <3 " N — no. It is all false and wicked, and I won't stay here after to-night. My father used to preach sometimes on the Quayside." " That is quite possible," replied Sibbald dryly. " But however fierce my father may be, he never says anything for which he has no foundation, at any rate in his own mind. I want to know why he is so fierce against your father. Can you tell me?" " No, there is no reason. It is only because my father was a good man, and he is a bad one." "That is conclusive," said the youth, unable to resist a laugh at the naive explanation. " But, whatever the quarrel, I don't see that it ought to be carried on against you. Did my father say why your proper place was the workhouse or the jail ? " *' No, indeed. He said something about people living honestly ; but did I or father ever do any- 4-1 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. thing dishonest, I should like to know? If I ought to be in jail why did he bring me here ? " "Perhaps he thought Bygate was next best to it — some do." The girl looked up at him with her shining eyes full of alarm at first ; but ultimately she gave the watery smile that he invited. " Do you ? '' asked she. " No, I don't. I should never dream of living anywhere else." " Lor ! You seem such a sensible man that I should have thought you would have been sick of living with sheep." " I have a few other things as well as sheep to live with." Adelina longed to say Jcnnipers ; but she over- came it, and simply asked what. " These amongst others," was Crozler's response, as he waved his hand in the direction of the THE ORPHAN. 45 bookshelves with which the room was amply pro- vided. *' You may come in here when you like ; but no book is to leave this room, remember. It is an agreement between my father and me, and if it is once broken, I shall lock the door." ** I soon get tired of reading," said Lina, with scant appreciation of the favour intended. "But I suppose there is nothing else to do here." " What else would you have to do ? " The youth scanned his companion closely, but it seemed with- out Impatience. " There are so many things in a town." " I don't know much about a town," said Crozier lightly ; " but I don't see that people are much better or wiser for their many things there." " Surely we dcn't do everything to make us wiser and better," exclaimed Adelina, looking up with genuine surprise and a little amusement, as at a new thought. " We have to amuse ourselves a little, I suppose ?" 46 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, " Yes, I suppose so," was the response, given in a vague, indirect manner. " You'll miss your piano, I'm afraid ? " " Haven't you got one ? " The question was put in such a tragic tone, and was accompanied with such a look of startled amazement that Crozier could not repress a laugh as he uttered his negative. That the youth had a perception of the humor- ous was evident, despite the solemn expression which was ordinarily upon his face. As Adelina had felt from the outset, even he was not a man to be immediately understood like the acquaintances she was used to. She no longer stood in actual fear of him, but the inability to feel familiar prevented anything like ease. She never knew what would come next, nor could she feel at all sure of what he was thinking of her. Her sense of uneasiness, moreover, was confused with one of resentment, for she ^'id come with a very firm conviction of THE ORPHAN, 47 her mental, moral, and material superiority over her sheep-tending, hill relations — the least barbarous of whom, at the age of twenty-four, could admit, with- out blushing, complete ignorance of a town, and the diversions of it. She had, at least, expected unquestioned deference, however boorish their way of manifesting it. Instead of all this she had found the father a positively ferocious savage of whom she stood in bodily dread, and the son a supercilious nondescript, who took little pains to disguise his very light opinion of her. There was excuse for Adelina in her perplexity, for the local reputation of the Crozicrs, where they had for generations dwelt, and where, conse- quently, their characteristics might presumably be got at, was obscure and mythical. Even their neighbours were shy of them, and never in the memory of man had any member of the family made the smallest movement towards a removal of the haze, or even fog, which encircled Bygate. 4S THE SCHOLAR OF B VGA TE. Inhumanly fierce to begin with had been one and all accounted, so outrageously so, indeed, that the early death of a younger brother of Sibbald's was attributed in the popular mind to the direct viol- ence, if not to the direct act, of the boy's own father. However, as no peace authorities had in- terfered with the normal burying of the child at the Howff, there was possibly some other construc- tion of the event had the family deigned to pro- claim it in public. The old v/oman that ministered to the dead stoutly upheld the theory of violence to her dying day. In a character of any imagination and any native independence, reputation such as this easily becomes rather a cherished inheritance ; possibly it was so with the Croziers of Bygate. They seemed to live comfortably under the suspicion of their neighbours, and (if in this also common report was accurate), to thrive on it. Shepherd yeomen though they were, they were said to be THE ORPHAN. 49 wealthy. The only concession to anything like a sympathetic estimate confessed by their neighbours was this appellation of Scholar given to the latest representative of the race. But into this, too, en- tered a fair share of the traditional credulity, and it was by no means intended to displace the qual- ities which were the common property of his family. His extraordinary learning, evidenced mainly by backstair gossip of his books, was ac- counted an addition merely, and there was small doubt but that it was used mainly for purposes which were by no means canny. Fortunately for Adelina, she had known nothing of all this. Her opinion was formed upon what shd had seen and felt since her arrival, and that was sufficient for her. Had it been otherwise, Sibbald's task of comforting her would, no doubt, have been harder. That he had in some measure comforted her was obvious, for she no longer wept, and she disclosed from time to time a glimpse of pettish- VOL. I. D 50 THE SCHOLAR OF BY GATE. ness in her behaviour. An uneasy glance at the dark window, though, against which the wind hurled itself, and at the hollow chimney in which it moaned, betrayed a constant source of alarm. The wind does sound differently in different locali- ties, and the girl might be pardoned if she here felt it a stranger to her. The sombre personality of it, too, w^as not to be avoided in such a situa- tion. As Crozier had reminded her, it alone was in possession of the hills at that hour, ruffling the bent, whistling in the heather and the gorse knobs, mowing down the brown bracken on the slopes over v/hich it sped. Whatever the man's fanciful brain might see in all this, to Adelina it was simply horrible. So far as they had any existence at all for her, the natural forces had hitherto been but the varying fringe of each day's garment ; here they claimed a whole empire for themselves, for which she felt scant sympathy, since, for one thing, they hinted so broadly that perhaps they were the superior. THE ORPHAN, 51 When Sibbald had convinced himself that no further enh'ghtenment on the situation was to be had from his cousin, he drew her on to other sub- jects with a genuine attempt at making her posi- tion more tolerable. The undertaking was a novel one for him, and not one for which he was es- pecially suited. Although a man of open-air exist- ence, his mind had been formed in solitude and in communion with books. This had never been irksome to him, for (owing perhaps to the circum- stances of generations), the social instinct had but the smallest development in him. Nature had en- dowed him with a strong intelligence, and with more imagination than had been the common lot of his family, so that he had inevitably tended towards the cynical, or, at least, the over-critical in his judgment of men and of the world. It was scarcely strange, in view of his ancestry, that theology had never to any extent engaged his energies, as is commonly the case with men in " ' 'mis $2 THE SCHOLAR OF B VGA 7 E, his position. This fact alone had helped to separate him from his kind, and to foster the un- sociable temperament with which he had set out. Adelina was doing her little best to get her mind into submission to the inevitable, for that one night at least, when fate again stepped in to disturb her. As she listened with one ear to her cousin and with the other to the wind, a fresh sound came to break the quiet of the house ; a sound which her ruffled nerves found no difficulty in explaining. " He is coming up," she exclaimed in a terrified whisper, and looking with a tragical stare at the door. There was, undoubtedly, a heavy footstep on the uncarpeted stairs, and it came upwards. " Well, he won't eat you," said Sibbald with a frown. " Listen ; yes, he is coming here. . . , Well, father?" " The deil's in you," said the gruff voice outside, THE ORPHAN. 53 as the door was tried and found to be fastened. " Come away, Sib, I want to speak to ye, man." " Don't open it," shrieked the girl, as she clung to her cousin for protection. It was with difficulty that he repressed his impatience, or even anger, for he was not accustomed to displays of this kind. Calling to his father that he would come, the footsteps departed, and Adelina grew more calm, " Novv^ come, and you can go to Isabel.'* When Sibbald had placed his timid charge in the hands of the woman who played the part of servant and housekeeper in the place, he went to the room which his father occupied. It might be called the parlour of the house, and it was not furnished with a view to any special require- ments in the owner. In this respect it offered a contrast to the room in which the young man and his cousin had been sitting. You could hazard a guess as to some, at least, of the special charac- teristics of the occupant of that one, but this 54 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. room might have pertained to any grim yeoman of the hills, from the moss-troopers downwards. The furniture was very plain, very solid, evidently of great age, and in nothing superfluous. The dusk of ages seemed to linger in the shadows of its legs and corners, and the ancient leather and hangings exhaled the questionable fragrance of one or two lost chapters of border history. The middle-aged figure now seated at the table (such a table ! whereon, perchance, spurs had in its time been significantly dished by some imagina- tive mistress), was equally typical, and in every way appropriate to the peculiar setting. Papers were spread out before him, over which he had apparently been poring. Over his forehead fell ruffled grizzly hair, through which, no doubt, his fingers had passed occasionally, as they did now when his son appeared. You could associate ferocity with such a countenance, but by no means habitual bad nature or even ignoble rage, THE ORPHAN. 55 As Sibbald had hinted, such a man would have a cause for every ebullition of his wrath. In look- ing closer, too, although far from discerning any positive degradation or decay, you might have suspected that the man had lived hard, had been beset by some of the elemental passions of his kind, and had not been always the victor. It was a rugged face, such as you see sometimes carved in a massive cloud which rises from behind a mountain when the sky is blue. " What do you think o' yon ? " was the blunt inquiry with which the son was met. " Partly fool ; mainly unfortunate." " Hoot, man, cut out the unfortunate and yc're no exactly wrong. Scoundrels aye breed fools i' the gimmcr line. But do you think she'll mend ?" " ' Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him,' " said Sibbald 56 THE SCHOLAR OF B YCA TE. sententiously, whereat his father frowned but then burst into laughter. ''That'll be Solomon, daur say. We'll mak' the old Israelite a fool for yence. Anyway we'll bray yon lass, and see." " Is that what you have brought her here for ? " " No just entirely ; but it'll do to start wi', ye ken," said the old man, handling some of his papers. " If we canna get the foolishness oot, we'll see if we canna get a pickle honesty in, anyway," added he vehemently. " My sartie, if I could get yon man i' my nieve ! " The table shook with the weight of that nieve — a fist of Herculean propor- tions and power. " And, look you, lad, I dinna believe yon's dead at a'." The voice was lowered at this singular sugges- tion, and the father fixed his eyes resolutely upon those of his son. "What, her father!" " Ay, ay, just. . . , But, never heed — never heed. THE ORPHAN. 57 Ye'll hae to be through to Newcastle in tvva-three days. They ken me ower weel. Ye maun be down to the post every day, hear ye. If he's a tod, or a brock, daur say, we'll be the hounds. Twa thousand pounds, man ! A' your ain one day. And to be fair swindled by the like o' yon ! And that I should live to be a fool, the worst part on't. Ha'd awa', man ! Gash — " And the old man leaped up with a torrent of round oaths, — good, deep, moss-trooping impreca- tions, before which his son stood unmoved, with an aspect of philosophical reflection. When the flood was spent, the latter spoke. " But can we punish the lass for it ? " Sibbald had quailed before that eye in by- gone days; but, until now, not latterly. He stood firm, however, outwardly unmoved, so the frenzy passed. " Dinna you be a fool, too," muttered his father, composing himself abruptly at the table, to show 58 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, that the interview was at an end or broken. " And mind the letters the morrow's morn." The young man understood the dismissal, and went without another word. It seemed that snatches of the raised voice had been audible throughout the house, for Adelina sat trembling in the ingle as Sibbald put his head into the back room. But, without speaking, he turned again, and went up to his own room, where he stood for some time in meditation. The surging of the wind drew him to the window, which he threw up ; but after a brief survey of the clear but boisterous night, he shut it out again, and sat down with a book. Whilst thus occupied, a tap at the door aroused him, which, when he at length noticed it, seemed to have been several times repeated. He let his cousin in. " I must go to-morrow," said she, looking into his face in piteous appeal. " I — I'd rather live in the workhouse," THE ORPHAN, 59 " All right," he replied readily. " We'll see about it to-morrow. You wouldn't care to go to-night in this wind ? " " Even you — o — only laugh at me." " I only laugh at your absurdity. Go to bed and forget all your troubles. You'll be safe there." " I am going to sleep with Isabel to-night." " Then sit here until supper-time." In his prompt way he put her into a chair, and gave her a picture-book to look at, then reverted to his own reading. Presently he looked up from his book unex- pectedly, and found Lina's eyes upon him. " How long was your father ill ? " he asked. ** He died very suddenly when I was away from home. I had not heard of his being ill at all." " H'm," and they relapsed into silence. CHAPTER IV. THE NEW ELEMENT. Worn out by nervous exhaustion from her fright, Adeliiia at length slept, long and soundly. When she awoke she was in the bed alone ; sunshine flooded the chamber, and the wind whistled, even occasionally howled, around the house. The board which was fitted in the fireplace flapped to and fro, and made soft, strange noises, highly alarming to the timid girl until she recalled the explanation of them which had satisfied her over-night. Em- boldened by the brilliant sunshine in her conflict with the evils of the day, she at length got up, and was horrified to find that her door stood ajar. She had slept with it in that condition, at 60 THE NEW ELEMENT. 6l any rate since her companion had left her, pro- bably before the dawn ! As there was no key in the lock, she had to adopt the time-honoured method of barricading by means of a chair-back beneath the handle. Her precaution proved to be needless, for when Adelina ventured downstairs she could find nobody at all in the house. In the large room, which she called the kitchen, there were signs of a repast upon the table, and elsewhere indications of house- hold work recently abandoned. Whilst surveying the place, and wondering what might next befall her, a door was opened with unnecessary clatter, and Isabel came in, her thick boots echoing loudly on the stone floor. -^ "Tarr'ble blawy the day, hinny," was the woman's greeting, to which Adelina timidly assented, how- ever imperfectly she understood. " Ye'U be want- ing your breakfast, likely ? " Despite her fears, upon this point the girl had 62 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE. no doubt, and answered with increaseJ assurance accordingly. A minute or two was enough for the readjust- ment of the table, and for Lina to see unfolded before her a very appetising repast. From the oven a dish of savoury matter was produced, which she had to discover for herself to consist of smoked salmon cutlets mingled with rashers of bacon floating in the combined juices of the two. The usual accompaniments of a north country breakfast were already on the board — porridge, marmalade, and the rest. " Mr. Sibbald cooked it for ye himsel', ye ken," said Isabel with a grin, as she watched the youn.j woman begin. '* I didna het the few parritch," she went on presently, " for I sec'd ye didna like 'em owcr weel yesterday. They'll no eat 'em in Newcastle, daur say } " Although Adelina's replies were mostly mono- syllabic, the woman chattered on in this friendly THE NEW ELEMENT, 63 way as she prosecuted her own work at a table beneath the window, and the sound was neither unpleasant nor discouraging to the girl. She pondered the fact of her cousin's kind intention in preparing her so acceptable a breakfast whilst she slept ; recalled his blunt kindness of the night before; saw the clear sunlight from the wind- swept sky, and felt that, perhaps, her situation was not, after all, so terrible and unendurable as at other moments it had seemed to her. At any rate she would postpone that premeditated flight for a little further consideration. Miss Brett was not of unbounded resource, and here at any rate was a roof over her fair head. She gathered additional courage from the assur- ance, given by Isabel, that both the master and his son would be absent until mid-day. Although the wind was so high there was the sun, and in the light of that she could examine the immediate locality more closely than her distress of the day 64 THE SCHOLAR OF B YGA TE. before had permitted. So when her meal was done, Adelina arrayed herself in her very becoming mourning jacket and hat, and went forth. The wide expanse of desolate country, in which the imaginative eye might have found diversion and delight enough, fell as a dead chill upon the girl's heart. It mattered not that the autumn had transformed the surface of the great round up- lands into a sweeping carpet of infinite variety and richness ; to her eye, inured to the attractions of Grey and Grainger Streets, it was a drear and desolate waste. To and fro, within the shelter of the strip of firs skirting the house, she walked, and with all possible intensity fancied herself elsewhere. In the train of such fancy came vehement raih'ng against those nominal friends of her family who, in the face of her heart-breaking farewells, could permit her to be banished to such a spot as this. She pictured the houseful of orphans that she should harbour if only positions were reversed THE NEW ELEMENT. 65 What difference could sJie make in any household? And some of them were so rich, — ah, if truth were told ! She had always thought her father rich, she only — ay, she only hoped that some of their riches would prove of the same quality, and then they'd know. If she could only make her own living and defy them all ! If she could — but here Charlie Robson, Tom Lisle, not even poor Dick Blenkinsopp, — besides, her father dead and a bank- rupt. Hardships and ignominy on every hand. She had come out to view the locality, but up- wards of two hours had flown in reflections of this kind, and she had no conception even of the ground she walked upon. Doubtless more time still could have passed in this profitable employ- ment had not Adelina been rudely interrupted in a manner calculated to awaken her worst fears, and finally dispel the hopes with which she had begun the day. " Profitable wark yon," cried a stentorian voice, VOL. I. E 66 THE SCHOLAR OF BYGATE, from but a {