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 MRS. DENYS OF COTE.
 
 -BALtANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON
 
 MRS. DENYS 
 
 OF COTE. 
 
 BY 
 
 HOLME LEE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " SYI.VAN HOLt's DAUGHTER," " STRAIGHTFORWARD," ETC 
 
 ' Have we not all, amid life's petty strife, 
 Some pure ideal of a noble life 
 
 That once seemed possible — and just within our reach? 
 We lost it. . . . 
 
 But still our place is kept, and it will wait 
 Ready for us to fill it, soon or late." 
 
 Adelaide Proctor. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1880. 
 
 \_All rights resefz'td.^
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 53oo& tl)€ jFirst* 
 
 r//^ HOUSE WITH GOLDEN GABLES. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. MISS DELIA — MISTRESS PRIDE 
 
 II. A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG 
 
 III. A HARD REBOUND 
 
 IV. DISCLOSURE . 
 V. MR. DENYS OF COTE 
 
 VI. A WRAITH 
 VII. A ROUGH WOOING 
 VIII. HER WEDDING-DAY . 
 
 53oo& tfje ^econti* 
 
 THE BRIDE'S PROGRESS. 
 IX. HER NEW HOME 
 
 X. IN THE SUNSHINE — AN EMPTY HOUSE 
 XL NAVESTOCK— UNDER A CURSE 
 
 TAGE 
 
 I 
 
 21 
 40 
 
 57 
 69 
 
 S7 
 
 99 
 
 119 
 
 131 
 142 
 
 167
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XII. BELLS IN THE AIR . . . . . 202 
 
 XIII. WEARING TO THE YOKE .... 2X6 
 
 XIV. MR. DENYS' PEOPLE .... 236 
 XV. SIR OLIVER DENYS — AN OUTLOOK INTO THE 
 
 FUTURE ...... 257 
 
 9800& tfje €^|)irti. 
 
 COTE UNDER THE OLD ORDER. 
 
 XVI. ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE .... 277 
 XVIL NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE . . 293
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 THE HOUSE WITH GOLDEN 
 GABLES.
 
 «^ LIBRAR 
 
 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MISS DELTA — MISTRESS PRIDE. 
 
 *' My brain, methinks, is like an hour-glass, 
 Wherein imagination runs like sands, 
 Filling up time ; but they are turned and turned, 
 So that I know not what to stay upon, 
 And less to put in act." Ben Jonson. 
 
 There is no change in the picture that any 
 day in the year makes of Rood Hill at Aiild- 
 caster though we put back the clock half a 
 century or so. The street is broad, and rises 
 in a gradual ascent from the market-place 
 to the parish church — a noble church, having 
 a square tower of great massiveness, and a 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 peal of eight bells, called the finest bells in the 
 county. About half-way up the hill stands the 
 White Hart, the principal inn of the town, 
 and on the other side, looking north, is a 
 timbered house of the seventeenth century. 
 Each upper story overhangs the one below, 
 and the framework of the black cross-beams 
 in the ochre-plastered walls is shown through- 
 out. It has five gables towards the street, 
 on which falls the warm glow of the summer 
 sun at setting, and hence its name of the 
 House with Golden Gables. There is no other 
 house above it until the rectory is reached — 
 nothing but a brick wall enclosing a garden, 
 of which the antiquity may be guessed at by 
 the grand cedars that rise above it. Beyond 
 the church and the rectory the hill merges 
 into country. The land is glebe, and the 
 slow-o:rowino: town has crrown in other direc- 
 tions.
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS PRIDE. 3 
 
 The House with Golden Gables was In the 
 occupation of Judge Daventry, her grandfather, 
 when IMiss Delia — Mistress Pride— was born 
 there. She was his first grandchild, the first 
 child of his only son. The Daventrys were 
 an Auldcaster family of long and honourable 
 traditions. The judge had retired from the 
 bench before he had earned his pension. His 
 health had broken prematurely under the strain 
 of work too incessant ; and the physicians pro- 
 misinof him a lenothened life, with ease and 
 leisure, he had chosen that, and comparatively 
 straitened means, rather than a lencrthened 
 service, with Its certain penalty and doubtful 
 gain. He had bred his son to the law, had 
 countenanced his early marriage, and invited 
 the young couple to share his home. They 
 were cheerful company In the country in 
 intervals of business. The baby was born 
 while her father was absent on circuit at
 
 4 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Beaumlnster. He was back at Auldcaster 
 for her christening in September. She was 
 christened DeHa, and they made a great day 
 of it. Holy Cross Day was the day. 
 
 The rector who christened the Httle DeHa 
 was a Daventry, and his presentation to Auld- 
 caster, and his arrival with his bride, was a 
 welcome addition to the circle of relations and 
 dear friends of whom the judge was the centre. 
 Miss Delia was the forerunner of a numerous 
 progeny. Babies soon ceased to be phenomena 
 in the House with Golden Gables. It was full 
 of them, and all boys except Miss Delia. The 
 rectory more than rivalled its fecundity. But 
 the Daventrys were a good stock, and Auld- 
 caster was apt to say that there could not be 
 too many of them. 
 
 Another cousin of the name was master of 
 the grammar-school where all the boys had 
 their early education. Later, one went to Eton
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS PRIDE. 5 
 
 and two to Westminster, and two went to the 
 sea — the Church, the Law, and the Navy were 
 the professions that the Daventrys favoured. 
 The g-Irls had their education at home, and 
 the hohdays, when the brothers and cousins 
 came back, were seasons of great johity. 
 
 SimpHcity of hving prevailed amongst the 
 long-seated gentry in the neighbourhood of 
 Auldcaster much later than amongst the newly 
 enriched generation who, in more progressive 
 parts, were already pushing them from their 
 places. The House with Golden Gables had 
 a spacious freedom in its large rooms and 
 broad staircases, but no luxury of ornament 
 or pomp of furniture. The oak boards were 
 dark with age and friction, but there was a 
 scarcity of carpets everywhere. On the stair- 
 case none, in the dining-parlour none, in the 
 judge's study none, in the ante-room none ; and 
 in the withdrawing-room, as the great parlour
 
 6 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 was called, only Indian matting laid before the 
 hearth, and erandmamma's sofa, and mamma's 
 writine-table, but it had a rare comfort in its 
 homeliness. The grotesque china whim had 
 infected some lady of the house in Queen 
 Anne's time. There were jars in the corners 
 big enough to pot a baby, and bowls and jugs 
 and cups and ugly images showing themselves 
 off on black velvet shelves. A Japanese folding- 
 screen survived from the same date, and on 
 the walls hung many fine portraits of various 
 dates ; for it had been a custom of the 
 Daventrys to perpetuate the faces of their 
 distincruished men and beautiful women. The 
 glory of the house was one of these : a 
 Vandyke portrait that went in the family by 
 the name of the French Madam. It hung 
 above the fireplace in the withdrawing-room 
 — a formal, youthful figure in a dress of 
 amethyst velvet, with a collar of pearls, and
 
 MISS DELIA — MISTRESS PRIDE. 7 
 
 a band of the same in the flowing auburn hair. 
 The hands were crossed Hghtly in front, and 
 displayed a wedding-ring and some very 
 splendid jewels. The features were fine and 
 delicate, and the colouring was lovely, but 
 the countenance was without charm, pervaded 
 by a melancholy and haughty humoui;. 
 
 Miss Delia's eyes had opened to the world 
 In a bed-chamber hung with unbleached linen 
 worked all over in worsted devices of trees and 
 birds, and the same antiquated drapery still 
 adorned her mother's chamber when she was 
 a girl grown up — adorned her own chamber 
 too, which was made beautiful in a primitive 
 fashion because she was beautiful and o-ood 
 
 o 
 
 and very precious, the one sweet daughter of 
 the house. She was the mark of love and 
 homage from her birth. The boys called her 
 Mistress Pride, but in pure fun and affection, 
 because she had a likeness to the exquisite
 
 8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 French Madam ; and the lofty petulant airs 
 with which she queened it amused both bo^'s 
 and men. The judge was the only one who 
 ever took her to task, and he was, perhaps, 
 the most devoted to her, as appreciating her 
 fine qualities the most justly. 
 
 She had not many faults, and what she had 
 were the flaws of a strong character. She was 
 imperious and exacting, but with a natural 
 inclination towards goodness, and was always 
 ready, even eager, to deny herself to do a 
 kind or charitable action. Amongst the girls 
 she was allowed the first place as the one of 
 most excellent ability, though she did not 
 possess the lighter accomplishments In the 
 same perfection as Fanny, Grace, and Em- 
 meline at the rectory. The sole distinctive 
 feminine taste that she cultivated sedulously 
 was for needlework, and her embroidery-needle 
 she used with a most patient skill and Ingenuity
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS TRIDE. 9 
 
 to enrich her dress. She deHghted In grand 
 attire, and the grandest became her, as she 
 Hked to prove on festive occasions when she 
 got leave to equip herself out of an old chest 
 where reposed in tarnished lustre the court- 
 costumes and bride-clothes of her fore-mothers, 
 going back to the days of sacque and far- 
 dingale. Then the elders would signify their 
 tender and gracious approval, and the boys 
 w^ould pay her their compliments all round. 
 Vanity was quiescent in her, for she was inured 
 to admiration, but being called Mistress Pride 
 w^as sweetest flattery from lips that loved her, 
 because the oricrlnal w^as crlorlous in her 
 
 o o 
 
 beauty, and she knew no desire yet so warm 
 as the desire to rival her. 
 
 With a little more knowledge came a change 
 of sentiment. 
 
 One day, when she was about sixteen years 
 old, she said to her grandmother, standing
 
 lO MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 contemplatively before the Vandyke portrait : 
 '' Gran'ma, this lady was not French. She 
 was born in this very house where I was 
 born." 
 
 " Little girls should not ask questions," 
 replied the old lady, ignoring the fact that 
 the little girl asked no question, but made a 
 statement. 
 
 The reply was meant to silence her, and it 
 was effectual ; but when next her brothers cried 
 out on her as Mistress Pride, she cried out on 
 them aealn : " I will not be called after that 
 loathly lady ! " and voice, gesture, accent, were 
 all of the fiercest repulsion. 
 
 The boys struck comical attitudes of terror 
 and dismay, the judge clapt his newspaper 
 down on his knee, grandmamma looked over 
 her spectacles aghast, mamma exclaimed : 
 "My love ! my love ! " 
 
 Delia stood tall and towering, blushing
 
 MISS DELTA — MISTRESS PRIDE. I I 
 
 defiance, amazed, angry with herself, trembHng 
 fast Into tears, into timidity. 
 
 *' It is an unworthy name to give your 
 sister," said the judge with a significant nod 
 to the boys, who vanished. 
 
 He resumed his study of the debates, not 
 altoo^ether undisturbed. Grandmamma's hands 
 shook as she pHed her knitting - needles. 
 Mamma toyed with her pen as if what she 
 had been about to write to her absent hus- 
 band were scared out of her recollection. 
 
 " Delia, who has talked to you of the 
 French Madam ? " her mother asked her pre- 
 sently in private. 
 
 ** Abby," said she ; for she was too cour- 
 ageous to prevaricate. But the colour came 
 hot into her face. 
 
 That was enough. Abby took her de- 
 parture from the House with Golden Gables. 
 She had done loner and faithful service there.
 
 12 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and the judge pensioned her. She went too 
 far off to pervert or instruct IMIss DeHa any 
 more. Only the other day DeHa was a child 
 to them all — a simple, innocent, lovely child — 
 but from this time her elders realised that 
 the workinors of her heart and mind had 
 ceased to be an open study. She had no 
 stint of that curiosity which betrayed the 
 mother of us all. She looked and saw, heard 
 and understood, thought and discovered, as 
 Nature taught and o^uided her. Some of 
 her discoveries she kept to herself, and the 
 name of Mistress Pride, forbidden now, 
 seemed to match with her mien and air 
 better than ever. 
 
 " Give her more occupation ; give her more 
 amusement. Why does she not study and 
 exercise her mind ? She is waitinor too soon 
 for life to begin," said the rector, sought to 
 for advice by Delia's mother.
 
 MISS DELIA — MISTRESS PRIDE. I 3 
 
 When he had examined her for confirma- 
 tion the year before, he had found her less 
 well informed of her duties, moral and re- 
 ligious, than some of her humbler contem- 
 poraries. He had found also ample room for 
 improvement in her general education. He 
 warned those who were responsible that they 
 were taking too much for granted of Miss 
 Delia's powers, and mentioned the fable of 
 the hare and the tortoise. He mentioned 
 also that nothing keeps down the growth of 
 weeds in the youthful soul more effectually 
 than the steady training of the fruit-bearing, 
 active virtues. In their immense admiration 
 of their beautiful daughter her parents lightly 
 regarded these admonitions of their spiritual 
 pastor and hers. He spoke his judgment, 
 and had done. Her mother remembered later 
 when the opportunity of docile girlishness was 
 past retrieval.
 
 14 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 The young Daventrys were so large a circle 
 that they did not want society beyond them- 
 selves, and thus Miss Delia failed of one of 
 the most essential parts of education. She 
 missed the joys of youthful friendship and 
 the discipline of youthful collisions. She lived 
 at home without a rival, without an equal 
 amongst her comipanions, who were just her 
 cousins, who confessed her superiority and 
 felt her oppressive. 
 
 At nineteen Miss Delia was a will and an 
 influence in the house — a strono- will and a 
 pervading influence. She had continued to 
 follow her own ways of working and playing, 
 and had been too much indulcred in them to 
 be diverted into other ways by any hint that 
 other ways might be better. Schemes were 
 proposed for her improvement^ but she waived 
 them, or despised them. It had begun to be 
 acknowledged that Delia would do as she
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS PRIDE. I 5 
 
 liked, and would not bear control. Her 
 mother thought tenderly that what she liked 
 was almost always becoming, and said that 
 she had a fine discernment in choosing what 
 was right and ht to do. The judge as tenderly 
 demurred. Every rule has its exceptions. 
 Delia's notions were mostly evolved from her 
 own consciousness. Her opportunities of fresh 
 observation and comparison were few, and 
 what was familiar she made little account of. 
 Otherwise she had rare examples. What she 
 mused of when she sat so many hours plying 
 her needle for the flowering of a petticoat or 
 a gown, who shall tell ? She was not intel- 
 lectual. She did not read, had no store of 
 fine conceptions of fine authors to revolve. 
 She was not emotional, had no cud to chew 
 of sweet or bitter experience. Perhaps she 
 built castles in the air, and was herself the 
 illuminating presence of every chamber. Or
 
 1 6 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 perhaps she thought of nothing. Yet when 
 sjae rose from her favourite seat in the recessed 
 window at the end of the withdrawing-room, 
 and stept statelily across the floor, the judge, 
 observing her with pathetic shrewdness, saw 
 that the young creature was rapt away by 
 delusive fancies, enacting some splendid part to 
 the deafening applause of her own imagination. 
 These were her glorious moments, real and 
 unreal as when a lunatic dreams himself a 
 
 kinof. 
 
 One day her eldest brother Walter, the boy 
 from Eton, came suddenly upon her descend- 
 ing the staircase, wide enoucrh to drive a 
 coach. She held her scanty dress like a royal 
 train, she pointed her foot, straightened her 
 back, stiffened her neck, tossed up her head 
 with ineffable airs. 
 
 ''Room there for Mistress Pride!" whispered 
 the lad, and bowed low with mimic reverence.
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS PRIDE. I 7 
 
 Delia started, almost imperceptibly modified 
 her majesty of gait, and passed him with a 
 sweeping indignation. She was vexed and 
 mortified because Wat had caught her playing 
 the tragedy queen. Wat forgot it the next 
 hour, but Delia did not forget it, nor that he 
 had mocked her. She loved him the less for 
 It, and she feared him. 
 
 Her propensity to sumptuous reverie in- 
 creased. Daily the bare chambers of the old 
 house were re-hung with fantastic tapestry 
 of her weaving out of dreams, while her per- 
 ceptions of pleasure In the world of nature 
 remained faint and cold. The sincrinof of birds, 
 the scent of flowers and their loveliness, the 
 rapturous morning and evening glory, stirred in 
 her no fibres of delight at all. On the other 
 hand, she was deeply interested in the names 
 and circumstances of men and women of condi- 
 tion round about. When they were talked of 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 1 8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 she listened with an eager spirit of inquiry, 
 but if the conversation turned upon books, or 
 things, or public events, her attention soon 
 flagged. The other girls were happy in pairs, 
 but Delia seemed best pleased in her own 
 society. Even her mother stood outside her 
 confidence. Delia told her nothing of what 
 was in her mind. She had no pernicious 
 secrets, but those who dearly loved her were 
 grieved by her reserve, which was a growing 
 habit. When gently urged to talk, to say some- 
 thing, she would ask with a quiet surprise: 
 '' What shall I talk about ? " 
 
 " Let her alone. She has nothing to say," 
 the judge interposed once, hearing her thus 
 answer her o-randmother. He sat in reflection 
 
 o 
 
 a long while after, and when she had gone out 
 he muttered with a profound sigh : " God pity 
 her, poor thing ! " as if he foresaw her loneliness 
 of heart in days to come.
 
 MISS DELIA MISTRESS PRIDE. 1 9 
 
 Another time he remarked that Cricket 
 would be a savlno^ grace to his sister. Cricket 
 was Edward, the last-born son of the family ; 
 a wistful-eyed atom of deformity, warped out 
 of shape by an accident in his babyhood. 
 Delia had a tenderness for him such as she 
 bestowed on no other person. He was very 
 dependent on tenderness, but uncomplaining, 
 of a lively temper and keen wit. Now and 
 then the rough, healthy brothers would try to 
 amuse him, but he would soon beg to be left 
 to sister. Then Delia, with a conscious joy 
 and triumph, would lift him in her arms, and 
 carry him out into the garden, and walk 
 between the long rows of espaliers till they 
 were both weary. He was easier in his 
 wheeled chair, but it was a loving favour to be 
 carried in the arms of sister. When then- 
 mother saw them making this procession, and 
 Delia's face bendinir over the child, slic said
 
 20 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 to herself that, by and by, all would come 
 rio^ht with her daucrhter, when the mao^Ical 
 touch of love should unseal and set flowinor 
 the hidden treasures of her laro^e and s^ene- 
 rous heart.
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 
 
 " The merchant, to secure his treasure, 
 Conveys it in a borrowed name ; 
 Euphelia serves to grace my measure, 
 But Chloe is my real flame. 
 
 My lyre I tune, my voice I raise, 
 But with my numbers mix my sighs, 
 
 And whilst I sing Euphelia's praise, 
 I fix my soul on Chloe's eyes. 
 
 Fair Chloe blushed : Euphelia frowned : 
 I sung and gazed : I played and trembled : 
 
 And Venus to the Loves around 
 
 Remarked how ill we all dissembled." 
 
 Prior. 
 
 But twenty years old struck upon Miss 
 Delia, and no suitor had come knocking 'yet 
 at the door of the House with Golden 
 Gables. 
 
 '' I suppose we shall be courted some day,"
 
 2 2 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 she said once, thinking aloud before her cousin 
 Fanny. 
 
 Fanny hoped so, indeed — Fanny was 
 eighteen, and had the prettiest dimple In 
 the sweetest cheek in the world. 
 
 The eirls were standinof under the cedars 
 in the garden. It was Delias birthday, and 
 the occasion was being celebrated by a general 
 muster of the Daventrys and their nearest 
 friends. The lady of the day appeared 
 dressed in white, and was in a humour of lovely 
 condescension. Every one had brought her 
 flowers or gifts, and when these had been 
 presented, and the customary congratulations 
 offered and accepted, it happened that she was 
 left with Fanny alone, in the green shadow- 
 where she had stood to receive them. And 
 so left for a perceptible interval of time. She 
 fell into a muse, and was not more than half- 
 conscious of what she said in self-revelation.
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 23 
 
 Fanny did not know that her Cousin Delia 
 ever dreamed of Love. But, indeed, her 
 busy fancy went often to his encounter, in a 
 grand masque, with flourish of trumpets, and 
 pomp and universal homage. She would be 
 wooed with other charms than lovers' simple 
 vows. 
 
 Fanny had a meek, shy wish to be else- 
 where, but she was too kind to leave Delia by 
 herself. The elders were exchanging family 
 chat — the youngsters were waxing noisy at 
 some game. Many groups and pairs passed 
 by thdm. At length Cricket was wheeled into 
 the refuge of shade to his sister. Fanny might 
 have gone then, and not have been missed by 
 Delia, but the person who had wheeled up 
 Cricket robbed her of the wish to move. He 
 was a fine young gentleman of five or six and 
 twenty, a sanguine-tempered person who be- 
 lieved and confessed that life was not made for
 
 24 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 melancholy. Fanny complimented his arrival 
 with a delicate blush. Delia lifted her head 
 with the stately grace of Juno, and thanked 
 him for his care of Cricket. 
 
 This fine young gentleman was Mr. James 
 Herrick of Knowle, commonly called Jem 
 Herrick, the third son of Sir John Herrick of 
 Danesmore. Jem was born with the bene- 
 diction of fortune. He inherited a vigorous 
 frame and genial constitution from his parents. 
 They had given him, besides, a sound country- 
 home breeding, and his education at West- 
 minster and Oxford. Then the young man 
 had read for the bar, and generally amused 
 himself with foreign travel and study to the age 
 of four-and-twenty, drawing his funds from 
 his god-mother, a dowager with a handsome 
 property at her own disposal. It was an 
 understood thing that James Herrick was 
 to have it, and when this lady died in the
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 25 
 
 fulness of years and honours, she was able 
 to coneratulate herself that Jem was old 
 enouo-h to take to Knowle. He had taken 
 to it very kindly. It gave hnn a position in 
 the county, and invested him with all the 
 duties, privileges, and responsibilities of a con- 
 siderable landowner. The house at Knowle 
 was famous and picturesque, and in the 
 judgment of the neighbours wanted nothing 
 but a mistress to make it perfect. But Jem 
 Herrick seemed in no haste to find her. He 
 had been master there eighteen months, and 
 was still a prize to be won. 
 
 As Miss Delia thanked Cricket's protector 
 he bowed Avith alacrity, then stood for a minute 
 modestly abashed, recovered himself with a 
 glance in Fanny's eyes, and on a word of 
 encouragement broke Into conversation. He 
 directed it entirely to Delia, only from time 
 to time including Fanny In a kind look of
 
 26 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 reference. Fanny's voice was not heard, but 
 Delia spoke as one having power and autho- 
 rity to hold men listening. It was, indeed, 
 wonderful how well she talked when she 
 had an audience that she desired to impress. 
 Many of the guests in the garden that after- 
 noon observed her, and some who loved her, 
 and some who did not, drew the like con- 
 clusion, and whispered, or more discreetly 
 thoueht, that there would be weddini^-news at 
 Knowle erelong. And Jem Herri ck gave 
 them reason enough. He launched out with 
 an eloquent tongue in description of his travels 
 and adventures, and with his manly figure, 
 his frank countenance, and spirited air and 
 gestures, was a fair mark for any young lady's 
 fancy. Delia brightened into responsive ani- 
 mation — it was almost a rivalry of wits. Fanny, 
 in soft eclipse, contributed nothing but now 
 and then a shyly mirthful smile and a timid,
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 2'] 
 
 blithe look out of her doves' eyes, which Jem 
 Herrick never failed to appropriate. 
 
 Similar scenes had been enacted before, 
 and were enacted many times again in the 
 weeks that followed. Mr. James Herrick 
 greatly affected that old garden which was in 
 common between the rectory and the House 
 with Golden Gables. Knowle was but three 
 miles from Auldcaster, and that was a most 
 dellorhtful summer out-of-doors. Under the 
 cedars was pleasanter than any parlour. The 
 young man had no company at home, and it 
 was natural that he should seek it abroad. 
 He was always welcome, and welcome to 
 everybody except, perhaps, to Cricket. That 
 child liked to absorb his sister In silence 
 all to himself; and when Mr. James Herrick 
 came, she was changed as by enchantment ; 
 she erew vivacious, and would hold forth on 
 a score of topics that did not concern him.
 
 2 8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Possibly the reason why the rest assumed 
 that Jem Herrlck came for Deha was because 
 Delia so undoubtingly assumed the case her- 
 self. None but the jealous little observer in 
 the wheeled chair perceived differently, unless 
 the judge did, and the judge was not the man 
 to betray it, if he discerned what the lovers' 
 eyes said to each other. Fanny was gentle 
 and retiring, and Jem was no more crafty than 
 his conscience excused. Delia met him with 
 self-possession and confidence of her acknow- 
 ledged superiority. She in no wise feared 
 him, or flattered him, or idealised him. She 
 approved him, she believed that he approved 
 her, and was willing to be desired. Fanny 
 had little or nothing at his service but her 
 smiles, her blushes, and a sweet good-night or 
 good-morning. She often sat by, seemingly 
 disregarded ; but if, by chance, she went away, 
 Jem soon grew restless, uneasy; he lingered
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 29 
 
 as though loth to go, but his mind was absent, 
 let Delia be ever so gracious. It was Fanny 
 he loved, longed for, waited for. 
 
 And Delia — was her heart touched ? That 
 was a mystery. James Herri ck was a lov 
 able man, but he had many attractions for 
 the ambitious mind besides his lovableness. 
 Delia's fancy ran much on Knowle, and she 
 realised the desirable adjuncts that the posses- 
 sion of such a fair estate ensured. Her face 
 was her fortune, and she had set her hopes on 
 rank, riches, and honours, to match It. There 
 were heirlooms at Knowle in the shape of 
 jewels, point-lace, pictures, enamels, marbles, 
 carvincrs. These thinors embellished her 
 
 o o 
 
 reveries. She looked onward and upward. 
 If James Herrick, like the majority of younger 
 sons, had been waiting on promotion, Delia 
 would have asserted her right to be admired 
 by him, but he would not have dominated
 
 30 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 her Imagination and topped her hopes as 
 the chief figure in her visions of the future. 
 Rich or poor, he would have won his pretty 
 Fanny ; poor, he might have sighed for Deha, 
 and sighed in vain. But Jem Herrick had 
 not to wait on promotion. He had achieved 
 honours at both Westminster and Oxford, 
 and meant to reap their rewards. There was 
 no name in that division of the county more 
 popular than James Herrick's, and a project 
 was on foot to bring him into Parliament as 
 one of its representatives at the next general 
 election. All these advantages Delia was 
 able to appreciate, and she was able to appre- 
 ciate the young gentleman himself as a worthy 
 suiton Love is blind, they say, but if she 
 had loved with her heart, she must have seen 
 that she had no hold on him, that she even 
 tired him sometimes. But what she wished, 
 she grew in the belief of. She put high lights
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 3 1 
 
 into her pictures. She carried Jem triumph- 
 antly into the House of Commons, let him 
 attain to swift distinction there, let him rise 
 to fame, place, power. Then she elevated 
 him to the peerage, created him Earl of 
 Knowle, Marquis of Auldcaster. 
 
 Do you laugh ? Many men and women 
 have indulged in dreams just as baseless, just 
 as foolish. 
 
 " Lady Knowle, Marchioness of Auldcaster," 
 Delia whispered, trying the sound of her 
 titles m nubibits. 
 
 She paced the bare boards of her chamber, 
 heard the trail of velvet robes behind her, felt 
 the weight of a coronet on her straight brow. 
 She meant to be great to do good, like the vir- 
 tuous woman in Scripture, and the husband of 
 the virtuous woman was known in the eates. 
 Her magnificent hallucinations kept her in 
 serene blind humour. All the world was to
 
 32 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 do her homasfe — its thank-offerlnof for noble 
 service. 
 
 When her fall came, it was a great fall, 
 indeed. 
 
 On a certain afternoon Cricket had got 
 his sister to himself in the recessed window. 
 She was at her needle-work and her dreaming, 
 and he had a book. The judge was accus- 
 tomed to say that Cricket would make a fine 
 scholar if he lived ; and between his lessons 
 and play-books and his sister s silent presence 
 he was ever supremely contented. Their 
 mother was out of sight, but within hearing, 
 and grandmamma's spectacles contemplated 
 the pair fondly, and often in the intervals of 
 changing her knitting-pins. By-and-by voices 
 were heard in the garden, and one of the 
 voices was Jem Herrick's. Delia craned her 
 neck to see. The rector was with him, and 
 Fanny walking by her father's side. They
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 2)3 
 
 turned twice or thrice on the long walk, and 
 Delia bes^an to fold her work. Cricket 
 watched her until he was sure what her 
 movements signified, and then he asked 
 with pettish sarcasm why she must go. 
 
 "When Cousin Fan is there, Jem Herrick 
 has all he wants," muttered he. 
 
 Delia o-knced at her little brother, smilinof, 
 and rallying his presumption : " How do you 
 know that ? " she whispered. " Read your 
 Latin, Cricket, you will be a wise man some 
 fine day." And with that she opened a leaf 
 of the lattice, and cried to the three in the 
 garden : *' I am coming. Wait for me." 
 
 They all looked up, and stood where her 
 
 call arrested them. Fanny blushed, and Jem's 
 
 eyes sought hers behind her father's back with 
 
 a gaze of tender urgency. The rector left 
 
 them, and walked towards the house to meet 
 
 his niece. On an impulse of the moment her 
 VOL. L c
 
 34 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 mother intercepted and delayed Delia, and the 
 lover had a minute to dispose of which he did 
 not waste. 
 
 " Fan, let me speak to your father," said he 
 o-ravely. '' I don't think we shall take him by 
 surprise." 
 
 *' No, Jem, please, no ! " cooed she ; for at 
 the thought of that serious measure her heart 
 throbbed, her blush faded to white rose, and 
 her soft eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Yes, Fan, please, yes/' rejoined Jem, 
 laughing at her, holding her by the chin 
 with kindest contemplation. 
 
 She put- up her hand on his arm, but was 
 too timorous to prolong the pleading scene. 
 She heard Delia's approach, and fled from it. 
 How could she face her cousin with swim- 
 ming eyes? Jem Herrick turned to meet her 
 with boldness^ not entirely free from confusion. 
 Delia was looking radiantly handsome, and
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 35 
 
 bore herself with a proud, conscious grace. 
 She was talking to the rector in her high, 
 decided tone as she advanced, and she glanced 
 about in search of Fanny, but made no remark 
 on her evasion. It seemed natural, and no 
 less natural that after a few minutes the rector 
 also should move off, and she should be left 
 with Jem Herrick alone. And Jem was equal 
 to the occasion, which, indeed, demanded but 
 little. Delia had no fearful expectation of- 
 being taken by the chin, rifled of kisses, or 
 girdled unawares by a strong arm — tyrannies 
 of her lover which Fannys sweet, mild per- 
 suasiveness had not, of late, been always 
 able to avert. Delia was as safe as her 
 grandmother armed with her knitting-pins, 
 and offered to Jem Herrlck's fancy no more 
 temptation. 
 
 Fanny had carried her tremors and emotions 
 to her mother's bosom : " Oh, mamma, Jem
 
 36 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Herrick wishes to speak to papa ! " sobbed she 
 on her knees. ''What shall I do ? " 
 
 '* Leave It to us, my love," said her mother, 
 stroking her hair. Then as Fanny went on 
 sobbing, she added comfortingly : "Jem is In his 
 right. Some day you will run to him as con- 
 fidently as you run to me." Fanny looked up 
 with wonder and reflection In her face : *' But, 
 indeed, my love, I think you do it alread}^" 
 
 Fanny found no more to sob and cry for. 
 It was true that she had come with orradual 
 
 o 
 
 self-consciousness to regard Jem Herrick as a 
 pillar of strength, a refuge In difficulty and 
 distress. A lovely rosy smile broke like sun- 
 light through the capricious shower of her tears, 
 and clasping her hands, she made her confes- 
 sion : " Mamma dear, I am very happy." 
 
 '' God bless you for a good child. Fan ! You 
 deserve to be happy." 
 
 Meanwhile the mother of Delia watched at
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 37 
 
 the window in troubled perplexity. James 
 Herrick paced beside her daughter with what 
 patience he might, whilst sadly eager for his 
 dismissal. Several times they stood still, Delia 
 in high animation, and Jem rather perverse 
 and cavalier, as the observer interpreted his 
 manner. They were interrupted by the judge, 
 and a few minutes after Jem made his 
 escape. 
 
 That evening Delia was asked how she 
 would like a journey to London — London was 
 yet in the swing of the season. The proposal 
 came without preface or warning, and it came 
 from her grandfather. Delia's first impulse 
 was joyfully to accept it. She had never been 
 in London. At that date young ladies of the 
 minor gentry were not expected to go to court 
 and shine in London society. But on second 
 thoughts she hesitated. Grandmamma per- 
 emptorily obliterated her hesitation.
 
 38 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 *' You must go, Delia. The chance may 
 not recur. Thank your grandpapa for his 
 kindness," said she. 
 
 Delia was instantly obedient, and thanked 
 him quite charmingly. Her mother gave her 
 some excellent advice when they were alone, 
 and seemed not a little depressed at the pro- 
 spect of parting with her. Delia, on the 
 contrary, was gay, and full of joyous anticipa- 
 tions. In the interim she was busy with her 
 wardrobe, a rather scanty wardrobe, but she was 
 to have leave to visit a milliner in town. She 
 talked openly of Jem Herrick, and wished she 
 could have bidden him come to London too. 
 She wanted him to be let know what a o;reat 
 event was happening to her, and finding Lady 
 Herrick at the rectory when she ran in there 
 to solicit Fanny's help, she invited her to 
 tell him. Jem's mother kissed the girl with 
 unusual warmth and tenderness. But she did
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG. 39 
 
 not deliver the message. And James Herrick 
 did not appear again at the House with 
 Golden Gables until after Miss Delia's de- 
 parture.
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 
 
 " Within her breast, as in a palace, lie 
 
 Wakeful ambition leagued with hasty pride." 
 
 Fletcher. 
 
 Judge Daventry's son had worked hard in his 
 vocation, but he was on the wrong side in 
 politics ; and though he had achieved pro- 
 fessional distinction, he had not achieved pro- 
 motion yet. His family was expensive, and he 
 called himself a poor man. A man is easily 
 poor who has a large family of sons to educate 
 and put out in the world. For this reason he 
 had never made himself a home independent 
 of his father's house. He was compelled to 
 be much in town, but his wnfe seldom followed
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 4 1 
 
 him. She stayed down in the country with 
 her children, and when their father came to 
 Aiildcaster it was a hoHday. He had talked 
 sometimes of a house in London, but it had 
 never been set up, and when the judge brought 
 Miss Delia to town for a month, to eive her 
 a taste of its pleasures, they went into lodgings 
 in the lawyers' region of Bedford Square — the 
 same lodgings to which he had brought his 
 wife and daughter-in-law on previous occa- 
 sions, when events were transacting which few 
 people can hope to assist at more than once 
 or twice in a lifetime. 
 
 Delia imagined her grandfather to have 
 business on hand, but his sole business w^as to 
 provide her wath agreeable distractions for 
 a while. He carried her to the play and the 
 opera, to Westminster Abbey and all the 
 public shows for which she had a curiosity or
 
 42 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 an Inclination. Ladles of his own and her 
 father's acquaintance took her under their wing 
 to balls that were crushes and crowds, to drive 
 in the Park at fashionable hours, and otherwise 
 exerted themselves to make her visit a success. 
 She o-ot attention for her father's and erand- 
 father's sake, and admiration for her own, 
 though she was not of the most popular order 
 of beauty. She appeared to greater advantage 
 in classic repose than in lively motion, and 
 was more attractive to men of the world who 
 had had enough of its noise than to her 
 youthful contemporaries who still delighted to 
 dance and sing. 
 
 A letter from her mother brought to Delia 
 the intelligence of her Cousin Fanny's en- 
 gagement to Mr. James Herrick. The 
 writer diplomatically assumed that the event 
 which was gratifying to the family generally
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 43 
 
 must be gratifying to her daughter ; and 
 Deha, startled into the refuge of Imitation, 
 seized upon that cue, and acted appro- 
 priately. 
 
 " Here is wonderful news, grandpapa ! 
 Cousin Fan Is gfoincr to be married, and to 
 whom do you think ? To Jem Herrick of 
 Knowle ! That is famous promotion for 
 Fan ! " cried she, holding out the letter. 
 
 " I have expected it for some time," said 
 the judge pleasantly. 
 
 Delia's hand shook, and there was a fluctu- 
 ating colour in her face, but she carried off the 
 surprise with admirable stoicism. Her grand- 
 father adjusted his glasses to read the letter, 
 and when he brought its perusal to an end 
 Delia was quietly drinking her tea. She did 
 not speak again, which, considering the joyful 
 nature of the tidings, would have struck the 
 judge as strange had he not possessed an
 
 44 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Insight of the truth. He was touched by her 
 instinctive moderation and control. 
 
 When breakfast was done he got up, and 
 saying mildly : " You will write to Fan. Give 
 her my love and warm congratulations," went 
 out, committing his grand-daughter to the 
 counsels of silence and her own strong 
 common sense. 
 
 Delia sat for a long while without moving. 
 She read the letter ao^ain. The event was so 
 totally unexpected that she was more be- 
 numbed by the shock than hurt by the blow. 
 Her countenance was blank, and she felt 
 nothing consciously, unless it were relief that 
 she w^as spared all softnesses, and a resolution 
 to betray none. Her mother had done wisely 
 to indicate self-suppression. It was a disap- 
 pointment not to be spoken of. 
 
 An hour elapsed before Delia could attempt 
 to write that letter which her ofrandfather had
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 45 
 
 reminded her ought to be written. It was not 
 an easy task. She had the habit of con- 
 descending to Fanny as a trivial Httle soul who 
 could not live without petting, and had often 
 summed up in tones of kindly patronage those 
 modest charms to which James Herrick had 
 surrendered — ''A small nose piquant, a cherry 
 mouth, a pair of laughing eyes blue-grey, two 
 
 blush cheeks, item, one dimpled " 
 
 And this simple, happy face had won the 
 triumph that she would not have disdained. 
 It was a lesson for her — one of those lessons of 
 experience which bite Into the memory, never 
 to be effaced. And It was a sien of the 
 generosity that leavened her character when 
 she, at once, began to see Fanny through James 
 Herrlck's spectacles, and to think the more of 
 her because he, whom all approved, had given 
 the crowning proof of manly worship In seek- 
 ing her for his wife. She re-considered Fan,
 
 46 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and took her at a truer measure, learning the 
 rule of proportion for their sex — that the most 
 womanly sweet woman is ever the best and 
 the strongest. 
 
 The letter when written was well enougrh. 
 Fanny's eyes glistened at it. Fanny's mother 
 said : '' Your cousin Delia has a noble dis- 
 position." 
 
 At the House with Golden Gables they 
 beo:an to wish now that Delia's mother had 
 gone with her to London. It was likely that 
 Delia wanted her, though she said nothing. 
 The judge perceived no difference In his 
 grand-daughter, unless It were that she laughed 
 more, and fell Into sudden fits of absence 
 between gushes of volubility. He was very 
 good to her, and found her abundant amuse- 
 ment and occupation. . 
 
 Delia endeavoured to keep her painful 
 sensations all to herself. Four-and-twenty
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 47 
 
 hours sufficed to recover her from the shock 
 she had sustained, and to probe the wound 
 she had got. It was not mortal, not more 
 than she could hide, if she were let alone. 
 And she had great recuperative power. Her 
 face burned now and again, but she was 
 able to believe that she had no reason to 
 be ashamed. 
 
 Her thoughts were active, her feelings 
 complex and shifting. Soon her fancy, 
 impatient of a vacuum, began to disport itself 
 round a new object. This new object was, of 
 course, a possible lover — a man she had met 
 several times without seeincr him, but who had 
 seen and marked her with critical approval. 
 He was of the same county as the Herricks 
 and Daventrys — Mr. Denys of Cote. 
 
 This gentleman was in great request at the 
 house where Delia had first met him. The 
 mother of the family spoke of him as being
 
 48 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 very rich, and when one of the daughters ob- 
 jected that he was very ugly, she was told that 
 after people were married that soon wore off, 
 and nothing was of less consequence. Delia 
 did not think Mr. Denys so very ugly. She 
 had never heard his name in the country, but, 
 in the town, he was for that season a rather 
 conspicuous figure in the crowd — a man 
 interesting to lawyers as the winner of the 
 famous suit for the possession of Navestock, 
 and interesting to ladies as a bachelor of great 
 estate, arrived at the age when a man must 
 make haste to marry if he mean to marry 
 well. 
 
 That Mr. Denys meant to marry was 
 confidently asserted, but it was said that he 
 would be hard to please. Delia's new face 
 caught him. , It was discreetly w^hispered that 
 she had made a conquest. Her ears were 
 quick. She knew about Navestock. It made
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 49 
 
 a figure in the county history, and had 
 les^ends belonoincr to it. 
 
 The judge had never met Mr. Denys until 
 they fell in together at the house of a common 
 acquaintance in London, but he knew him by 
 reputation, and was not of a mind to know 
 more of him. It was therefore a disao^reeable 
 surprise when Mr. Denys called upon him at 
 his lodgings, and in his absence inquired for 
 Miss Daventry. Delia saw him. He out- 
 stayed the limits of a morning visit on the 
 pretence of a neighbourly desire to be better 
 acquainted with her grandfather (he had a 
 more particular design in it than that), and they 
 made such progress in general conversation 
 that when they met again in the evening Mr. 
 Denys put himself forward with airs of friendly 
 assurance. The judge signified his astonish- 
 ment and disapprobation in a manner that 
 gave Mr. Denys pause ; and as they were 
 
 VOL I. D '
 
 50 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 driving back to their lodgings he took DeHa 
 to task for her facility. 
 
 If there had been light enough to show it, 
 Delia's face would have apprized her grand- 
 father of the need for caution. She reddened 
 with anger, but as she did not speak he 
 believed that his admonition was being taken 
 in good part. He went on to tell her that 
 there had never been any league or alliance 
 between Cote and the House with Golden 
 Gables, and that if Mr. Denys ventured to 
 presume again, as he had presumed that 
 day, she must repel him, which, said the 
 judge, no young lady was better qualified 
 to do. 
 
 Delias high spirit rebelled against this 
 direction. Her pride had not been dumb 
 since her ordeal began, and the prospect of 
 a deliverance unhoped for — of a deliverance 
 with signal triumph — had the effect of
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 5 1 
 
 spurring her ambition to new ardours. It was 
 known at home that James Herrick had 
 slicrhted her ; she thouo^ht that she did not 
 care for him any longer, but the remembrance 
 that she had cared for him was very irksome, 
 and Mr. Denys' approval was a balm that 
 went to relieve it. 
 
 A natural, modest hue of dignified reserve 
 appeared in her when they met next after her 
 grandfather's lecture. The judge received 
 Mr. Denys' civilities with a freezing coldness, 
 and withdrew the young lady from his 
 attention. Mr. Denys was piqued. But Delia 
 seemed to cast a wavering, unwilling glance 
 behind her in her retreat, and Mr. Denys was 
 encourao^ed. 
 
 Henceforward there was a covert sense of 
 attraction between the two. Mr. Den}'s knew 
 what he wanted, and that his opportunity was 
 now or never. Miss Daventry was manifestly
 
 52 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 gratified when he distinguished her above 
 others. He sent her a letter, and she kept 
 it secret. He took his answer from her eyes 
 the same evening. He wrote the next day 
 with more boldness. Delia, in a commotion 
 of feeling, vouchsafed him a reply that was 
 gracious, and her fancy crystallised into an 
 imperious resolve that no law should stand 
 between her and this chance of advancement. 
 He addressed her again, and now in the 
 rapturous accents of a lover, sending her a 
 gift of jewels that seemed to her royal. Delia 
 blushed for shame at the secrecy of the trans- 
 action, but her easy wooing had already run 
 its length, and when she accepted the offering 
 of Mr. Denys she accepted him with it, requir- 
 ing only that he would stay for her departure 
 from London before seekinor her father's con- 
 sent to their marriage. Secure of her own, 
 a week's patience was not a very cruel im^
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 53 
 
 position, but the lover railed at it, and Delia 
 was flattered with a revived sense of pre- 
 dominance. 
 
 In the course of that week many private 
 communications were exchanged between them, 
 but in public they made no sign, and when the 
 judge carried his grand-daughter back to Auld- 
 caster his kind heart yearned over her with 
 the fondest affection. He had a sincere 
 anxiety about the meeting with her cousin 
 Fan and Jem Herrick. He need have had 
 none. Delia was satisfied with the reparation 
 that had been made her, and received the 
 lovers with a superb magnanimity. Her grand- 
 father commended her for a good girl, and 
 was intensely relieved to have that over. But 
 her mother was uncomfortably perplexed, 
 discerning symptoms of gratified pride in 
 her daughter's tone and mien, for which, as 
 there was no reason that appeared, there
 
 54 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 must be a reason that was concealed. And 
 her mother did not like Delia's conceal- 
 ments. 
 
 Cricket, that keen-eyed, suspicious change- 
 ling, went straight to the root of the matter, 
 and asked if she had found a lord for a lover 
 up in London. 
 
 " No, Cricket, no lordl' said his sister with 
 an intonation which, while denying the lord, 
 admitted the lover. 
 
 " A very rich man, then ? " 
 
 Delia nodded, and laid her forefinger on 
 her lip. 
 
 Cricket acquiesced in the plea for silence, 
 but naturally wanted to know more. " Does 
 he live far off .^ " 
 
 "In this county. That is all I shall tell you 
 now — and remember, it is only between us 
 two." 
 
 Cricket looked up at his sister with a pierc-
 
 A HARD REBOUND. 55 
 
 ing scrutiny : " Then you are not overjoyed ? 
 You are afraid ? " 
 
 Delia compressed her mouth with a petulant 
 gesture, and walked away. 
 
 Cricket threw another biting word after 
 her — " You are not proud of him ? You 
 know they will be vexed ? " 
 
 Delia's conscience had given judgment 
 against her. She was well aware that her 
 grandfather did not condemn men, as he had 
 condemned Mr. Denys, lightly or for nothing. 
 She was afraid. She trembled in anticipation 
 of the day of account. And yet she knew she 
 should stand fast in the end to what she had 
 undertaken. She got down the old county 
 history, and strengthened herself with a perusal 
 of the glories of Navestock, and a study of 
 the woodcuts in queer perspective that Illus- 
 trated them. When she shut It up again, she
 
 56 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 was able to look beyond the bad quarter of 
 an hour that had to be passed, and to con- 
 template the scenery of her life in the distance 
 with a pale composure and courage.
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DISCLOSURE. 
 
 " She was ruddy through the perfection of her beauty : but her heart 
 was in anguish for fear." 
 
 " Esther.''— T/ie Apocrypha. 
 
 Miss Delia's humour did not continue lone in 
 one stay. Self-doubt and discontent crept in. 
 On the second evenino: after her return from 
 London, secluded in her white chamber, she 
 brought out her fine jewels from their hiding- 
 place, and sat by the window with them in her 
 lap, absently bathing her hands in the pliant, 
 linked brilliance of necklace and bracelet and 
 band, and looking through tears at two figures 
 in the garden. 
 
 They were James Herrick and her cousin 
 Fan.
 
 58 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 What Delia felt for their blithe condition she 
 did not analyse. It was exquisite pain. There 
 was the subtle, cruel bewitchment of envy in it. 
 She tried not to think of them, but of her own 
 triumph, soon to be disclosed. It was vain. 
 Across her visionary pageant came again and 
 aeain and ag^ain the shadows of that blissful 
 pair, felicitated by all the world, with father 
 and mother and friends doing them honour 
 and pleasure every hour, and happiest still 
 when they might stray off into some green 
 solitude, and see love alone in one another's 
 eyes. 
 
 If she had risen and beheld herself in the 
 glass, a stern face would have looked out at 
 her with a melancholy frown. But her beauty 
 did not retain the darkliuQ^ mask. And if 
 hard thoughts pestered her imagination, she 
 was the more careful to keep her heart from 
 evil, and to set a watch upon her lips.
 
 DISCLOSURE. 59 
 
 Some of them could not but see the traces of 
 her conflict, and the deep sympathy of silence 
 screened it. Her mother was sorry and piti- 
 ful beyond measure. She rose and listened 
 at her door in the night, but there was never 
 any cry for help. Once she asked to stay in 
 her daughters room, but Delias reserve was 
 invincible. 
 
 ** What for ? I am well, mamma," she said 
 sweetly. 
 
 " Are you well, Delia ? Is there nothing 
 you want to tell me ? " she whispered, 
 pressing her close. 
 
 Delia looked in her mother's eyes, and 
 kissed her soft quivering mouth, but shut her 
 out. 
 
 Her mother thought that Delia blamed her, 
 perhaps. But it was not so. Delia had not 
 that way of casting her own fault upon 
 others.
 
 6o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " There is more on her mind than we know," 
 said her grandmother. 
 
 Her mother answered : " I am sure there 
 is. She is not only very unhappy, but she is 
 very anxious. There is a secret to come out 
 — some doubtful matter. It was not wise to 
 send her away as we did." 
 
 "It was an experiment. We thought it 
 wise." 
 
 Thus they talked. The judge heard them, 
 but did not speak. He remembered Mr. 
 Denys of Cote, but still he did not speak. He 
 was observant, and perceived soon that Delia 
 was wary and suspicious of him. It must be 
 a secret, indeed, that could make her act 
 towards her grandfather as towards an enemy. 
 
 *' Pride never was a good counsellor, Delia," 
 he said to her one evening with a wistful kind- 
 ness, to draw her back to him. 
 
 Delia felt conscious, and sighed. " Don't
 
 DISCLOSURE. 6 1 
 
 believe worse of me, gran'papa, than you 
 must," was her reply. 
 
 It was not a confession, but it admitted that 
 there was need of confession. She was waitinor- 
 expectantly, and very uneasily now until the 
 disclosure was made. 
 
 They were walking in the garden in the 
 twilight, and others were walking there too. 
 It was one of the last times of her life. 
 
 The post letters were laid every morning 
 at the judge's end of the breakfast table, and 
 he distributed them. A little over a week 
 after their arrival at home he handed Delia a 
 letter, at the same time lookinof at her lone and 
 penetratingly. A torrent of blushes dyed her 
 face, and her eyes fell. The letter was one 
 about which there was no pretence of hiding 
 the matter. Mr. Denys had sealed it with his 
 own seal. Delia laid it down seal upwards, 
 and scorned to reverse it when Cricket espied
 
 62 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 the crest, and Instantly referred it to the 
 owner. 
 
 There was no more talk after he had 
 spoken, but just as they began to move from 
 the table a noise was heard in the hall, and 
 Delia's mother glancing at her, said : '' It is 
 your father." 
 
 The young lady kept her place, her un- 
 opened letter in her hand. All the others 
 turned towards the door to greet the new- 
 comer. There was a second door leading to 
 the servants' quarters and the back-stairs. 
 Delia bethought herself of that way of escape, 
 and when her father came in she had dis- 
 appeared : she was secure in her room, tearing 
 open, reading her letter, to get w^hat light 
 and preparation from it she could for the 
 impending scene. Her heart throbbed, her 
 colour came and went, all her limbs shook, 
 but her pride swelled high.
 
 DISCLOSURE. 63 
 
 Mr. Denys wrote that her father had given 
 his proposal a short hearing and a curt dis- 
 missal. With many lover-like expressions he 
 added, that he depended upon her to keep 
 her word, and said that he should come to 
 Auldcaster to see her, whether her family gave 
 him leave or refused it. Delia felt that she 
 should see him thankfully — and confirm her 
 promise when he came. 
 
 She was in some awe of her father. His 
 lonof absence made him less familiar to his 
 children than the judge was. Cricket called 
 to her presently : " Sister, are you not coming 
 to kiss papa ? " and she made ready to brave 
 them all. 
 
 That was a sad day at the House with 
 Golden Gables. Delia was pale and rigid, and 
 fierce too, as she went slowly down the grand 
 staircase. Her mother looked out of the 
 judge's study, and said: ''We are here, my
 
 64 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 love;" and as she went in, and was folded in 
 a warm embrace, she was surprised to find 
 herself lapsing into tears. 
 
 The judge sat in his elbow-chair, leaning 
 back and wearinor that austere countenance 
 
 o 
 
 which had made him awful on many a day to 
 conscious criminals. He was awful to Delia 
 now — a man so upright, yet so tender and 
 good, that the most hardened sinner might 
 well shrink from his merited rebuke. And 
 she had deceived him, had played a double 
 part — meanly double, immodest too. Her 
 pride could not blind her to that meanness, 
 that immodesty. The judge's opinion of her 
 behaviour, visible though not spoken, covered 
 her with shame and confusion. 
 
 Her father kept her for a minute within his 
 arms, surveying her with a mild sarcasm which 
 issued in the query : ''Why so warlike, Delia ? 
 We are not enemies here."
 
 DISCLOSURE. 65 
 
 Until now, Delia had been simply his 
 beauty. He had formed great expectations 
 of her. It had sometimes occurred to him 
 'hat she mig^ht have been more charminor for 
 a strain of fun, a spark of wit, because he 
 loved a briorht woman. He had even once 
 told her mother that they were spoiling her 
 in the country, letting her be too idle. And 
 here was the result. 
 
 He gave her a chair and seated himself, and 
 Delia found her mother and grandmother both 
 confronting her. She met their grieved eyes 
 with a clouded, stubborn look which augured 
 ill for them all. Unintentionally, perhaps un- 
 consciously, she had brought Mr. Denys' letter 
 crushed in her hand, and an instant call upon 
 her obedience was made by her father, saying, 
 " Give me that letter, Delia." She started, 
 hesitated, but gave it. It was the shortest 
 way of making known her determination. 
 
 VOL. L E
 
 66 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Had Mr. Denys been a poor young gentle- 
 man, handsome and high-spirited, whose suit 
 was resisted by her family for low, prudential 
 reasons, his letter would have seemed a very 
 fine letter, indeed; but to Mr. Daventry, who 
 knew him for what he was, it read like a 
 hollow, rhetorical effusion. There could be 
 no mistaking the derision and contempt with 
 which he glanced through it, and restored it 
 to his daughter. 
 
 ''Your grandfather played the duenna very 
 badly, my dear, to let such a gallant, gay 
 Lothario as Mr. Denys of Cote get posses- 
 sion of your virgin affections, and with such 
 despatch too," he said causticly. " Can you 
 tell us how it happened ? " 
 
 Delia held up her head, blushing intensely, 
 but kept her eyes down, and answered not 
 a word. 
 
 '* Poor child, she does not know him,"
 
 DISCLOSURE. 67 
 
 said her mother, In the voice of a mode- 
 rator. 
 
 " She soon can know him. Denys of Cote 
 is not a man gentlemen care to have in their 
 company," the judge said. 
 
 The fashion of locking daughters up was 
 gone by. Her grandfather said, let there be 
 no harshness, no precipitation. Delia had 
 used a cunning against himself capable of 
 defeating any guard that might be placed on 
 her. Let her hear now what the world at 
 large had to say of her lover : if that did 
 not sink in and work a cure, her case was 
 hopeless. The sacred name of love was not 
 taken on anybody's lips. No one believed 
 that love could be concerned in Delia's in- 
 fatuation. 
 
 She was not required to give any promises. 
 There had been an Intention of appealing to 
 her sense of honour and duty, but that had
 
 68 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 passed out of mind before her coldly obstinate 
 aspect. 
 
 The scene was not prolonged. Her father 
 signified that she might go. Her mother put 
 out a hand to touch her as she passed. Delia 
 never looked up, offered no excuse, pleaded 
 nothing in extenuation of her fault. She 
 took her dismissal passively, and went away 
 wondering whether she, poor soul, w^as alone 
 to blame. She shed some tears in pity for 
 herself. Then presently came her mother in 
 the hope to comfort and persuade. But for 
 that time it was of no avail. Delia would say 
 nothing, would answer nothing. She felt 
 weak and vulnerable, and souo^ht refus^e in 
 silence.
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " Some men, like pictures, are titter for a corner tlian a full Hglit." 
 
 Seneca. 
 
 The House with Golden Gables was not like 
 itself after the disclosure of Miss Delia's 
 secret and hasty engagement. Nobody knew 
 what sunshine she had made there until this 
 cloud fell upon her, nor did she know how 
 much she had lived by love until she had to 
 endure coldness and averted looks. 
 
 Mr. Denys came to Auldcaster as he had 
 promised, and saw Delia in the presence of 
 the judge and her mother. She put herself 
 into his hands, and Mr. Denys claimed to
 
 70 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 hold her bound. The judge said that her 
 marriage with him should never have his 
 consent. It was Delia herself who rejoined, 
 that she should be of age within the year, 
 and free to marry without it. 
 
 This rejoinder was the key-note of her 
 subsequent behaviour. After Mr. Denys' visit 
 she was open with her mother. She told her 
 everything. Everything was not so very 
 much. Her mother coloured when she was 
 shown the jewels, and said, that was a pity ; 
 but besides that there was nothing any of 
 them need have taken exception to had the 
 lover himself been unexceptionable. Her 
 Q^randfather had conceived a hicrh indio-nation 
 against Delia ; but even he allowed, that had 
 she played off her deceits for the sake of 
 some ardent vouno: fellow of her own a^e, 
 he would have known how to forcrive her. 
 It was skittish, sly tricks on behalf of
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 7 1 
 
 Mr. Denys of Cote that were beyond his 
 excusinof. 
 
 Save the judge, they all privately referred 
 the disaster to Delia's disappointment about 
 James Herrick. The judge would not hear 
 it. He said, Jem was not to blame : Jem 
 had never touched her heart. He said that 
 nothing was to blame but her indulged pride, 
 which had shot up into a mad rivalry, and 
 was hurrying her towards endless repentances 
 for the sake of an imagined triumph. She 
 had set her mind on being a great lady and 
 very rich. She believed that riches would 
 buy many things that are not, in fact, to be 
 purchased with money ; and to get them, she 
 was ready to run into a marriage which every 
 one who loved her airreed in reo^ardincr as 
 
 O CD O 
 
 a consummate degradation. 
 
 Delia was easier within herself when all 
 was told, but the tax on her fortitude was
 
 72 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 very heavy. The assumption that she did 
 not care for Mr. Denys was general and 
 obtrusive. 
 
 '' Luxury and show you may get by your 
 sacrifice, but none of the joys that content 
 the heart," her mother pleaded with her. 
 
 It did not appear that Delia coveted those 
 joys. " I am not like Cousin Fan. The 
 foolish fondnesses that fill up the measure 
 of her happiness would be troublesome to 
 me." 
 
 *'You don't know what you say, Delia. 
 Some day your heart will ache for the simple 
 affection you make so light of now." 
 
 Delia sighed. Did she make light of simple 
 affection ? She thought not. Her mouth was 
 set, but not In scorn. Her grandmother, who 
 came of a stricter and sterner generation, did 
 not mince her speech in delicate remonstrance. 
 *' What most shocks me is your bad taste,"
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. J ;^ 
 
 cried she, her fine old face wrinkled with 
 anger and disgust. " IMr. Denys may have the 
 air of a gentleman, but he is such an ugly 
 fellow. He comes of a bad lot, and is saddled 
 with a bad inheritance. A curse goes with 
 Navestock. You may laugh, Delia, but never 
 a man who has had it has kept a son to 
 take his seat ! " 
 
 Delia said that she knew of the curse, but 
 she was not superstitious. The old lady 
 flushed at her manner, and bade her not be 
 disrespectful. Then Delia flushed, assuming 
 the air and tone of a woman of consequence, 
 with a right to her own opinion. 
 
 Cricket was very miserable in these days. 
 He got up in haste much curious information 
 about the successive owners of Navestock, 
 which, with the odd spite of a jealousy that is 
 not inconsistent with affection, he retailed to 
 his sister in the intention of vexing her as
 
 74 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 thoroughly as she was vexing everybody 
 else. 
 
 Delia kept her temper, and retorted that a 
 man was not to be held responsible for the 
 bad deeds of his ancestors. 
 
 ''He is not hanged for them, perhaps," 
 Cricket admitted, with a pensive air of con- 
 siderinof whether it mio^ht not be safer for 
 society if he were. 
 
 " You are unkind. Cricket, and very pre- 
 judiced and silly." 
 
 " I state historical facts, sister. And the 
 sins of the fathers are visited upon the chil- 
 dren to the third and fourth generation." 
 
 " The third and fourth generation are 
 dead and gone. Mr. Denys is ever so far 
 removed from your heroes of the elder 
 branch." 
 
 '' The curse o^oes with Navestock — the love 
 of money and the death of children."
 
 MR. DENVS OF COTE. 75 
 
 " Cricket, you are cruel, cruel ! " 
 
 '' If you do not believe me you can read it 
 in the old county history — and how Navestock 
 was got by Giles Denys of Cote in the time 
 of Old Noll. It is a very black old story, 
 indeed. I would not have it in our annals 
 for all the world." 
 
 Delia knew the black old story, but was 
 incredulous of its consequences. She ex- 
 pressed her incredulity quite coolly, and said, 
 that if the misdeeds of his fathers were the 
 worst that could be brought up against Mr. 
 Denys she did not care. 
 
 " I am not saying that they are the worst. 
 He has a reputation of his own, and there 
 is time enough for the family likeness to come 
 out very strong in him. It is easy for God 
 to make a poor man rich, and money covers 
 a multitude of sins. The world will have 
 a short memory for his now, but grandpapa
 
 '](i MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 can tell you what there is to be for- 
 gotten." 
 
 '' Don't, Cricket dear. Be you good to me," 
 Delia whispered entreatlngly, kneeling by his 
 chair, and laying her face against his face, as 
 her loving way was to soothe him when he 
 suffered. 
 
 After that Cricket had mercy on her, under- 
 standing, in part, her pain. 
 
 Her grandmother was her most persevering 
 adversary. Towards her mother Delia con- 
 tinued always mild and persuasive, but her 
 grandmother encountered in the girl a spirit 
 as Intrepid as her own. 
 
 First Impressions go for much. In the 
 beginning when Mr. Denys was Introduced to 
 her, she saw him in company where he was 
 courted, and well liked enough. She had 
 found in him no defect of manliness, and If she 
 had spoken out her motives, so far as she knew
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 7/ 
 
 them, she might have said that she was grate- 
 ful to him. She did say so to her mother 
 a Httle later, in reply to one of her frequent 
 tender appeals. 
 
 " I am very grateful to Mr. Denys. I am 
 sure that he loves me." 
 
 " And don't we love you ? " her mother 
 rejoined with pathetic reproach In her 
 voice. 
 
 There had not been much show of It since 
 Mr. Denys' visit to Auldcaster, and Delia 
 implied a doubt by her silence. The judge 
 was distant and reserved in manner, and did 
 not talk to her or make her his companion 
 as he used to do. The like constraint was 
 visible In her father, and even affected her 
 elder brother. She felt it In every vein of her 
 heart, but it did not relax her resolution. Nor 
 did she resent it. Apart from the cause, It was 
 readily admitted that she bore herself with
 
 78 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 sufficient dignity In treating the present diffi- 
 culty as an evil that might, perhaps, by time 
 and patient steadfastness be overcome. 
 
 She had to be very wary of undermining and 
 surprises. Her grandmother recommended to 
 her perusal a neat duodecimo In white and 
 gold (a present to herself In her young lady- 
 hood), containing " Letters on the Improve- 
 ment of the Mind," by Mrs. Chapone, and ''A 
 Father's Legacy to his Daughters," by Dr. 
 Gregory of Edinburgh. Delia found there 
 more besides the precepts of filial obedience 
 which were specially directed to her address by 
 silken strings between the leaves, and being 
 inquired of by-and-by whether she had yet 
 given herself to the study of the book, she was 
 prepared with her answer. 
 
 ''Yes, gran'ma, I have," she said seriously. 
 "It is a little book full of sound counsel. 
 Some of it is too late, but I have discovered
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 79 
 
 a few wise and beautiful sentences that miorht 
 have been written for me. This, for instance : 
 ' As Nature has not orlven us that unlimited 
 
 o 
 
 range in our choice which men enjoy, she has 
 therefore assigned to us greater flexibility of 
 
 taste. 
 
 The elder lady perceived with chagrin that 
 her moral armoury had furnished weapons to 
 serve ao^alnst herself. 
 
 Delia proceeded : '' I take it that England 
 and Scotland are one on this subject, gran'ma ? 
 because Dr. Gregory says that In his country, 
 without an unusual share of natural sensibility 
 and very peculiar good fortune, a woman has 
 very little probability of marrying for love. 
 He thinks that what is called love amoncjst us 
 is rather gratitude, and a partiality to the man 
 who prefers us to the rest of our sex. I am 
 convinced that he is riorht. It must have 
 been that partiality which invaded me when I
 
 8o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 was singled out by Mr. Denys as the young 
 lady who would suit him best'; for everybody 
 else calls him so very ugly, and I cannot 
 see it." 
 
 Lady Daventry was vastly disconcerted. 
 Delia grew bolder with a sense of triumph : 
 " The old Scotch doctor says further, that if 
 crosses and difficulties are put in the way, 
 this gratitude is likely to rise into a preference 
 which, with suspense, may advance at last to 
 a degree of attachment that is very near to 
 love " 
 
 With great irritation her grandmother br-^ke 
 in : " Delude yourself, Delia, with whatever 
 pleas and pretences you can invent, but the 
 true sum of the matter is that you are willing 
 to marry for money. That was what she did " 
 — with a fierce gesture of reprobation towards 
 the glowing portrait of the French Madam. 
 " She sold her beauty to be rich — and in a
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 8 1 
 
 year what befell her beauty ? You know — 
 and how she lived after : blinded, neglected, 
 the most despised and pitiable of women." 
 
 Delia looked white and sick, but made her 
 rejoinder firmly : '' Gran'ma, mine will not be 
 a mere mercenary marriage such as hers was. 
 Mr. Denys is in every way a fit match for 
 me if I think so. Had he not been rich he 
 would never have addressed me. And had 
 grandpapa been civil, he was intending to go 
 about his courtship in the old-fashioned way 
 of laying his proposals first before my parents, 
 when they could have raised what objections 
 and asked what explanations they pleased. I 
 am not to blame for all that has passed which 
 you disapprove." 
 
 Then Delia retreated, and left her grand- 
 mother with something new to reflect upon. 
 
 Reflection did not, however, induce Lady 
 Daventry to change her tactics. She believed 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 S2 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 herself strong In good reasons for interrupting 
 the engagement, and was ready to do it at all 
 hazards. She returned to the charQ^e a^ain 
 and again. She kept no terms with the girl, 
 and once availed herself of an opportunity 
 against her which Delia could never quite 
 forgive. 
 
 Lady Herrick had a married daughter resid- 
 ing in the neighbourhood of Cote, and Lady 
 Daventry inquired of her, as by the way, in 
 Delia's presence, whether Mr. Denys was in 
 better odour there than formerly. 
 
 Lady Herrick smiled, and answered crisply : 
 ''He has always the same autocratic temper 
 and high sense of his prerogative which 
 brought him into collision with the judge 
 when he was a young man. Sir John 
 still tells the story of that famous cause, 
 and talks of what a good Grecian Daventr}' 
 was.
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 83 
 
 •'What was that famous cause .^ " DeHa 
 asked with an air of quiet interest. 
 
 " It was a small matter involving a great 
 principle which Mr. Denys had despised. It 
 is too long to tell you the particulars, but the 
 judge had to state the law in Mr. Denys' 
 favour, and the pith of the story is, that hav- 
 ing done that, he came down upon him with a 
 fine quotation from a speech of Pericles, to 
 this effect : that while hearkening to the con- 
 stituted authorities and the laws, Mr. Denys 
 appeared to have but a dull perception of 
 those other laws which, though never for- 
 mally enacted, all men hold it shame to 
 violate." 
 
 '' Mr. Denys was not in court unfortunately, 
 and he missed it," Lady Daventry said. 
 
 Delia blushed and quivered to her finger- 
 tips : '' It was very severe. And was it quite 
 deserved ? " she asked keenly.
 
 84 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " It was thought to be deserved," Lady 
 Herrick answered, struck by the marked 
 intonation of the question. She paused an 
 instant, considering it, and no one else taking 
 up the word, she added : " Mr. Denys has the 
 character of being a hard and mean man, but 
 people are Indulgent to his foibles, and have 
 ceased to expect from him better than he 
 knows. He is a great prize in the matrimonial 
 lottery since his accession to Navestock, but 
 the she must be quick indeed, who means to 
 make sure of such a slippery, changeable 
 lover." 
 
 Lady Daventry looked at her grand- 
 daughter with a directness that could not fail 
 to ^y^ Lady Herrick's notice. Delia looked 
 at her again with a pale defiance that said 
 as plainly as if she had spoken, that she was 
 not afraid. The visitor understood that covert 
 feelings were at work here, and to further
 
 MR. DENYS OF COTE. 85 
 
 inquiries she replied with management. Delia 
 gathered up some of her words. 
 
 "Whatever faults Mr. Denys has — and it is 
 not to be denied that he has many and great 
 faults — he is good to his own. I have never 
 heard any one say otherwise of him than that 
 he \NdJ^ good to his oiun^ 
 
 Delia brightened, and said that she valued 
 the homely virtues. Then she blushed. 
 Then she laughed Qutright. This was telling 
 the whole story. 
 
 Lady Herrick asked no questions, but said 
 kindly : '' You are reasonable, Delia. The 
 homely virtues most affect the happiness of 
 women ; " and she kissed the girl. 
 
 Lady Herrick was one of those who 
 believed that Delia had loved her son James, 
 and her first thouo^ht on this disclosure of her 
 ambitious match was that she had rushed Into 
 it to conceal or quell the sting of her dis-
 
 S6 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 appointment. She wished her well and very- 
 well, and was sorry that she had said what 
 she had said. But Delia accepted her kiss 
 cordially, and with it was given to her the 
 heart of a true friend.
 
 ( ^7 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A WRAITH. 
 
 " The finding out of trouble is a wearisome labour of the niiiul." 
 
 £ir/csias^/cus. 
 
 After the conversation with Lady Herrick, 
 Miss Daventry's engagement to Mr. Denys 
 of Cote could not any longer be kept a secret 
 from the intimate friends of the family. It 
 was a wonder and surprise to nearly all. The 
 Daventrys had been very strict in their 
 marriages, and the Denyses had been a race 
 peculiarly unfortunate. Nevertheless, some 
 people said that the young lady had done 
 remarkably well for herself. 
 
 The judge declared his own prejudice
 
 88 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 invincible, and refused Mr. Denys any access 
 to the society of his grand-daughter at the 
 House with Golden Gables. But he was 
 seen in Auldcaster from time to time, and 
 Delia did not conceal that she met him. More 
 than once she communicated to Cricket pass- 
 ages of their conversation which interested 
 
 o 
 
 the boy : — 
 
 The ancestor from whom Mr. Denys 
 inherited his title to Cote was a half-brother 
 of the unredeemed villain who brought 
 Navestock into the family. His name was 
 Hugh. He had married the daughter and 
 heiress of a man of Kent, and his name and 
 the land he got with her — no great deal of 
 it — had been handed down from father to 
 son without a break to the present day : — 
 
 " Acklam, in the parish of Sevenoaks. 
 You shall see it, Cricket," his sister pro- 
 mised. " The eldest son always had a public-
 
 A WRAITH. 89 
 
 school education, and stuck to the land. The 
 others followed commerce. There have been 
 Denyses aldermen of London — most respect- 
 able people." 
 
 Cricket went to work to investigate these 
 respectable people, and Delia borrowed for 
 him from Acklam a fine old history of the 
 crjnty of Kent, which told him what pre- 
 tensions the Kentish Denyses had to rank 
 amongst the county worthies. Their preten- 
 sions were small, but they seemed to have had 
 regard to their name ; for though not shining 
 with glorious deeds, their record was fair 
 and honourable. Cricket found it somewhat 
 dull. The deeds of these good men were 
 burled with their bones. A half-timbered 
 house no better than a grange, a few fields, 
 and a few old stones in the churchyard, were 
 all that Mr. Dcnys of Cote was born to, and 
 all he had in prospect until he had done with
 
 90 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 school. It was open to any one who desired 
 to believe the best of him to say, that, bred 
 to narrow fortunes, he had learned narrow 
 ways, and had never been able to get out 
 of them. 
 
 And why had he not been able to get out 
 of them ? 
 
 There were circumstances — extenuating or 
 not, as men chose to treat them. Their 
 aspects were various, according to the point 
 of view. As yet Delia knew nothing of these 
 circumstances, but it was necessary that she 
 should be informed, and her grandmother 
 found the occasion on a day when she seemed 
 in better cheer than usual. She had walked 
 a mile on the road to Beauminster to meet Mr. 
 Denys, who was at Navestock on affairs of 
 business,*and being asked if she was in good 
 spirits because she had seen her lover, she 
 confessed frankly that so it was.
 
 A WRAITH. 91 
 
 " I am sorry for you, Delia, building your 
 castles in the air still. You are looklno^ to 
 Mr. Denys to give you a great place in the 
 world — let me tell you, that is not in his 
 power. He has never even taken his place 
 amongst his equals. Since his mother's death 
 he has lived in the country, where everything 
 is known, in open defiance of social order." 
 
 "What do you mean, gran'ma — in open 
 defiance of social order ? " Delia asked. She 
 had become very pale, and shook from head 
 to foot. 
 
 '* There is only one thing that I can mean. 
 You are not a child — you are old enough to 
 understand. Mr. Denys has made his home 
 for years with a lady who is not his wife, and 
 he has sons, half-grown young men." 
 
 Delia was not a child, nor were her feelings 
 any longer childlike. She got up and went 
 out of the room, supporting herself by the
 
 92 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 wall as she went, and began to climb the great 
 staircase. The window was open on the land- 
 ing over the door towards the street, and Mr. 
 Denys' black horse that he had ridden in the 
 morning was being led up and down in front 
 of the White Hart. Mr. Denys himself came 
 out of the inn at that instant, and caught sight 
 of Delia's face at the window. She made him 
 a sign, and stopped there while he crossed to 
 the house. 
 
 The judge In his study heard Mr. Denys' 
 foot at the door and his strong peremptory 
 voice saying : " There is a lady here who 
 wishes to speak with me. I will step through 
 into the orarden." 
 
 Delia came trembllnor down the stairs ao^aln, 
 and went to meet him on the lawn. 
 
 *' I have something to say to you," were 
 her words, faint as a sigh almost, looking up 
 in his eyes with a death-like solemnity.
 
 A WRAITH. 93 
 
 What more she said, or how, neither could 
 well remember afterwards, but Mr. Denys 
 understood her to be adjuring him to tell 
 her the truth, If there was anything in his 
 life concealed that It would kill her kind- 
 ness to discover when no door of repentance 
 or escape was left her. 
 
 He answered her emphatically that there 
 was not — and listened breathless for what 
 was to come next. 
 
 Delia with passionate intensity went on : 
 " Because I should die of shame to supplant in 
 her lifetime a woman who is the mother of 
 your children. She Is your wife though you 
 were not married in church." 
 
 *' I wish I had told you the story myself. 
 She is dead, Delia : I lost her three years 
 ago. You call her my wife, and so she 
 was. She was a q^ood and lovlncr woman. 
 Some day I will talk to you about her "
 
 94 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Mr. Denys was as powerfully stirred as 
 Delia herself. Her eyes filled. She was 
 sorry if she had hurt him. He saw it, and 
 was quick to reassure her. 
 
 *' For what you have said, I honour you the 
 more. It is not your fault that you were 
 misled. But you must believe me when I tell 
 you that the lady you have heard of was every- 
 thing to me that a true wife could be. She 
 never had a rival while she lived. Even you 
 can be no more than second to her " 
 
 There was little need to say that. While he 
 was speaking Delia felt by the vibration of his 
 voice that Mr. Denys did not care for her as 
 he had cared for his love whom he had loved 
 when he was young. The interview thrilled 
 them both with pain, but they parted friends. 
 And the next day Mr. Denys wrote to her. 
 There are two ways of telling most stories. 
 He chose the right way — the shortest and
 
 A WRAITH. 95 
 
 plainest. There was something for Delia to 
 read between the lines. She read it fairly, and 
 was bereaved in the process of many fine, 
 delusive fancies. But her mind was fixed. 
 She had lost her ideal of a perfect life, and of 
 this real life that was substituted for it she was 
 purposed to make the best. She showed Mr. 
 Denys that she trusted him, and in due time 
 he gave his proofs that she had not trusted 
 him for nothino;-. 
 
 To her grandmother she said not a word — 
 her grandmother had used her disingenuously 
 — but to her mother she recited all she knew 
 of the lady whom she chose to describe as 
 Mr. Denys wife, not married in church. Her 
 mother listened with a red flush on her cheek, 
 which confessed to a sense of humiliating, 
 patient pain. 
 
 " Don't speak till I have done, mamma. I 
 will use ]\Ir. Denys' own words. He insists
 
 96 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Upon It that their marriage was good, because 
 they broke no law of God, and they were faith- 
 ful each to the other until death parted them. 
 She was a Greek by birth. They were very 
 young and much thrown together, and they 
 had a passionate attachment. His mother was 
 urgent with him to make a different connection 
 because of Cote looming in sight, and the 
 young lady was sent out of his way. He 
 sought her, and she found him. If either 
 sinned, both sinned — he says the sacrament 
 of marriaofe lies not in rites but in consent. 
 When he came to his kingdom and came 
 home again, they had two sons. Any day he 
 would have o^one to church with her, but she 
 would not. She was warned of the curse of 
 Navestock, which already he was contending 
 for, and she said, ' Let me keep my children ;' 
 and when he reasoned with her she still 
 refused, on the plea that she loved her first-
 
 A WRAITH. 97 
 
 born best, and no younger son should come 
 before him In any right they had. And in this 
 she persevered. They paid their penalty, of 
 course, and perhaps her share of it was not the 
 heaviest. She had her children, and she had 
 him, all she cared for most, and she had her 
 house and garden, and friends of her own 
 people. She was a sweet and happy-tempered 
 woman of great energy and cultivated talents 
 — a companion with whom he would have 
 been contented to grow old. Yes, mamma, he 
 has told me so. All this is true. INIistress 
 Pride has had a great fall. Nothing, I think, 
 will ever set her up again." 
 
 The tears were runnincr down her mother's 
 face when Delia ceased. It was her voice set 
 them flowing, the emotion of it, strongly con- 
 trolled. 
 
 '' And now, mamma, I think I ought to be 
 let alone, and to suffer no more persecution on 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 gS MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 account of Mr. Denys. Say it shall be so," 
 she entreated. 
 
 '' For myself I promise, Delia. I cannot 
 undertake for the rest," her mother said. ''It 
 is cruelly mortifying- to us all — but if this man 
 has elicited your sympathy, I know that to try 
 to turn you is vain." 
 
 '' I shall never be turned, mamma. If that 
 is the best you can say, let us make an end of 
 talking about it."
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. 
 
 " Reputalion oft got without merit, and lost without deserving." 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 This serious remonstrance of Delia addressed 
 to her mother did not fail entirely of its desired 
 effect. She had another advocate near home 
 in the rector, who called the judge's resentment 
 exaggerated, and advised more lenient treat- 
 ment for the young lady. The judge main- 
 tained his right to exclude Mr. Denys from his 
 house, and to withhold his consent to his 
 grand-daughter's engagement ; but, by degrees, 
 Delia was permitted to see that though her 
 marriage with Mr. Denys might not have the
 
 lOO MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 cordial acquiescence of any of her family, yet 
 it was not a marriage that would justify them 
 in cutting her off from their kindness ; and her 
 mother, at lenQ^th, told her that thouorh she 
 must not expect a wedding such as was pre- 
 paring for her cousin Fan, neither need she 
 fear being sent away from home like a 
 daughter who had offended. Delia's pride and 
 hopes of glory were now so far subdued that 
 this concession satisfied her. 
 
 Before that weddinor was celebrated it 
 
 o 
 
 became news for the whole county that Mr. 
 Denys of Cote was a suitor for the hand of the 
 beautiful grand-daughter of Judge Daventry, 
 and that it was sure to be a match ; for though 
 her family disliked the connection, the young 
 lady herself was not discouraging. The news- 
 mongers of Auldcaster pondered whether, in 
 these conflicting circumstances, Mr. Denys 
 would be present amongst the guests at the
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. lOI 
 
 marriage of Mr. James Herrick and the 
 rectors eldest daughter. The propriety of 
 inviting him was debated in a family council, 
 but firmly negatived by the judge, on the plea 
 that twice before there had been a slip between 
 the cup and the lip of a lady Mr. Denys had 
 made conspicuous by his notice, and that the 
 same thing might happen again. Her grand- 
 mother, who spared Delia no pain that she 
 thoucrht it salutarv to inflict, told her of the 
 council and its conclusion. 
 
 Delia with a curl of her delicate lip said 
 quietly : " Mr. Denys has no wish to go where 
 he is not welcome. About those ladies whom 
 grandpapa says he made conspicuous by his 
 notice, I should have expected grandpapa to 
 inquire before speaking. There may have 
 been ladies willing to deliver Mr. Denys from 
 social ostracism, but I am ([uite sure he never 
 asked them."
 
 I02 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 The marriage from the rectory took place 
 on a morning in October, a fine hunting morn- 
 ing with a southerly wind and a cloudy sky, 
 when, if Mr. James Herrick had not been 
 going to be married, he would certainly have 
 been out with the hunt. The hounds were to 
 throw off at eleven o'clock at Holmwood, about 
 a mile to the north of the town, and it hap- 
 pened that just as the bride's procession was 
 starting to cross the road from the garden-door 
 to the church that several gentlemen came at 
 full trot up Rood Hill on their way to the 
 meet. 
 
 " Denys of Cote and his two sons," Sir 
 John Herrick whispered to the bride's mother 
 as the three rode by, the last of the caval- 
 cade. 
 
 The boys were attracted by the vision of 
 beauty, and wheeled about to see. Their 
 father pulled up a little farther on, and Delia
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. IO3 
 
 amonorst the bridesmaids looklnor that wav 
 gave him a surprised bright sign of recogni- 
 tion, then a little wave of the hand, most grace- 
 ful, which he acknowledged with a sweeping 
 bow. The boys copied their father, and when 
 the fair ladies had vanished into the eloom 
 of the church they galloped forward, the 
 clattering of their horses' hoofs on the paved 
 road ringing and echoing from a long way 
 off. 
 
 Delia had a soft blush on her cheek and a 
 waverinof smile on her mouth all through the 
 ceremony. She was composedly happy to the 
 end of the day, and to her mother her 
 demeanour was especially gratif\'ing. She had 
 not witnessed the episode at going into church, 
 nor had it been reported to her yet ; but they 
 all heard of it later, and her grandmother 
 expressed great disgust. 
 
 Sir John llerrick, who had seen It, said to
 
 I04 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 his wife afterwards : " There are worse fellows 
 than Denys of Cote. Never tell me again 
 that Miss Delia does not care for him." 
 
 " She cares for him quite enough. I am 
 very glad of it," said Lady Herrick. 
 
 The newly-married pair went upon the 
 Continent for a few weeks, and were welcomed 
 home to Knowle shortly before Christmas. 
 The season was kept up with great festivity 
 on their behalf all round the neirfibourhood. 
 Mr. Denys of Cote was not of that society, 
 but bv a little effort he mieht have been 
 included in it. Nobody, however, chose to 
 make the effort. Miss Daventry went every- 
 where, and was much observed, much admired. 
 Probably she was envied now and again. But 
 she had a difficult part to play. That her 
 enoraorement was still without the consent of 
 her family was evident, because Mr. Denys 
 was never to be seen at any of their houses.
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. I05 
 
 People speculated how he liked It, and why 
 he put up with it. He did not like it at all, 
 but he was a man who could reserve his 
 feelings, and he put up with it for his love's 
 sake. Delia had endeared herself to him in 
 a way and degree that she did not yet know 
 of. He was perfectly thoughtful and con- 
 siderate for her. It was her sweet look of 
 goodness that had charmed him, and this 
 goodness rang true. When he saw her 
 grieve, he was sorely tempted to try a rescue, 
 but she had it so much at heart to leave all 
 friends at home that he dared not vex her 
 with a word. 
 
 How keenly Delia felt the position of Mr. 
 Denys she betrayed by a request that she 
 preferred at this time to her cousin Fan. 
 Fanny made much of Delia, and invited her 
 to Knowle amoncrst the earliest of the (guests 
 who came to stay.
 
 I06 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " I want you to do me a kindness, Fan — 
 ask Mr. Denys to dine at Knowle while 
 I am here. James knows him," she said, 
 blushing warmly in her earnestness to have 
 what she asked granted. 
 
 Fanny was struck with consternation. 
 *' James knows him in a manner, but he 
 cannot bear him. I should not like to 
 propose having him here. Oh, poor 
 Delia! Why did you despair of yourself 
 so soon ? If you could have had patience, 
 somebody as good as James would have 
 wanted you before long. None of us 
 can ever feel friends with Mr. Denys of 
 Cote." Fanny's pleading was certainly not 
 judicious. 
 
 Hot tears rushed to Delia's eyes : " You 
 are all determined that he shall be the only 
 friend I have," she said with passionate force. 
 " I am sorry that I mentioned it — but I
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. 10 7 
 
 will never ask you to do me a favour 
 again 1 " 
 
 Fanny mingled her tears with Delias, 
 but Mr. Denys was not Invited to dine at 
 Knowle. 
 
 The remaining months that Intervened be- 
 fore Delia came of ao-e llno-ered alonc^ under 
 clouds of alienation and discomfort. There 
 was for her none of the sweet spring courting- 
 time, such as makes beautiful most young 
 lives with a green pleasant place for memory 
 to go back and rest upon in dull and arid 
 after-weather. Mr. Denys never saw her 
 under a roof all this long wdiile, and saw her 
 but seldom anywhere. But their correspond- 
 ence was unremittinor and it became clear as 
 the summer advanced that she had an under- 
 standincr with him to end her ordeal at home 
 with her first day of liberty. Her father
 
 I08 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 had remained neutral, hoping, and perhaps 
 expecting, a silent change ; but when her 
 mother convinced him that the thine was 
 inevitable, he agreed that it had better be 
 done decently and in order, and she was 
 bidden to bring her to London to buy new 
 clothes. 
 
 Delia was glad to go to London, but she 
 told her mother that she should want no 
 wedding-dress. " Only a travelling-dress, 
 mamma. Mr. Denys will not enter this 
 house. He will take me away straight from 
 the church-door." She spoke in a low, 
 strained voice, smiling with tremulous lips, 
 and lookinor full in her mother's face. 
 
 " Oh, my love, how sad it is ! What a pity 
 that you should leave us so. It is fit to break 
 my heart ! " 
 
 Delias eyes began to shine. "It shall be 
 a white dress, mother, because I am young,
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. IO9 
 
 you know. And though we are not to 
 have a show, people will come to see me 
 married." 
 
 When the judge was informed of the ar- 
 rangements for the marriage, he was relieved, 
 and Delia's grandmother said austerely that 
 so it would be best : it would be inconsistent 
 to affect rejoicings for an event that they 
 deplored. 
 
 Then to Delia she said in her cutting tone : 
 " Had I been in your shoes, my dear, I would 
 have made it easier for everybody by playing 
 the heroine, and running away with Mr. 
 Denys." 
 
 " I would — only then it would have made 
 it harder for me ever to come home acrain," 
 was Delia's rejoinder in a half-whisper to 
 herself. 
 
 The judge heard it, and was struck by 
 sigrns of mental sufferin'j" in her that had
 
 no MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 crept on so gradually as to have escaped 
 them all. Their eyes met, and hers were 
 full. Such weakness in Delia was strangle 
 to him. 
 
 " I am weary with crying," she said, wiping 
 her tears, " and I wish it were over. You 
 have not been very kind to me, gran'ma, 
 but I don't want to say anything that it 
 may hurt you to remember when I am 
 gone." 
 
 The judge was touched and perplexed. 
 Could It be that her affections, hunted away 
 from home, had found a refuge and rest in 
 this man whom they all contemned — but 
 who had the character of being ^-ood to his 
 own ? 
 
 Another inconsistency offered Itself for 
 solution. 
 
 Lady Herrick had said that Mr. Denys 
 bore the reputation of a very mean man ; yet
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. I I I 
 
 the best gentleman in the county could not 
 have behaved more generously in the matter 
 of marriage-settlements than Mr. Denys be- 
 haved to the poor young lady he had chosen 
 for his wife. And he reposed in her, besides, 
 a trust and confidence which gratified her 
 with a new sense of honour after the con- 
 tumely she had undergone. 
 
 At the last there was re2:ret amonorst her 
 friends that they had not made better of it for 
 her dear sake. For they loved her — they all 
 loved her, even her grandmother, who was 
 so angry and so bitter. 
 
 It was dreadful to Cricket to watch his 
 sister going about gathering up her small 
 property in old birthday gifts and Christmas 
 books, and to think that to-morrow she would 
 be gone — gone clean out of sight, never to be 
 at his beck and call any more. Her tears fell 
 constantly, and she avoided every face. It
 
 I I 2 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 was no use saying now that they had forgiven 
 her, and they would try to hope — to hope that 
 God would bless her, and she might be happy. 
 She could anticipate nothing but the tragedy 
 of her near departure, and all the loss that it 
 involved. There were no busy, lively pre- 
 parations to divert her thoughts. Mr. Denys 
 had arrived at the White Hart just across 
 the street, and no one wanted him but 
 her. 
 
 In the afternoon Grace and Emmeline came 
 from the rectory to see if they could do 
 anything for her. They could not, but they 
 kissed her often, by way of being comfortable. 
 Delia found it very hard to bear — so hard that 
 it wrung a cry from her. 
 
 '' It is like a bad dream. I never could 
 have believed my life would turn so ill ; " and 
 then she quite broke down. 
 
 Grace asked presently who was going with
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. II3 
 
 her — on her wedding journey — to wait upon 
 her. 
 
 " Phoebe/' DeHa said, recovering herself with 
 a sad sort of mirth — " droll little Phoebe ! 
 Gran mamma calls her a queer little body to be 
 own woman to a young married lady,, but I 
 am very fond of Phoebe. She has been with 
 me ever since Abby was sent away, and I can 
 talk to her about all of you here at home. 
 Cote is her country too; she will be going back 
 to her own people." Delia did not show her- 
 self in the drawinor-room ao^ain after her out- 
 burst of natural sorrow. That exhausted her. 
 
 " She has shut herself up from us," her 
 mother said, late in the night, when all but 
 the heads of the house had separated. 
 
 '' Everything is ready for the morning ? " 
 the judge asked. 
 
 " Yes, everything. We are to be at the 
 church by a quarter to ten." 
 
 VOL. I. IT
 
 114 M^S- I^ENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " Go upstairs last. When we have shut our 
 doors, perhaps, she will call you." 
 
 And Delia did call her mother. She was 
 listening for her footstep down the little 
 passage that led to her room. 
 
 " I want to talk to you, mamma. I have 
 been waiting — I thought you were never 
 coming. One has but one mother, and 
 there is nothing like her," she said with a 
 tenderness that was very sweet to remember 
 afterwards. 
 
 " So you have found that out, Delia. Late 
 in the day, dear, late in the day." 
 
 Her clothes to be married in were laid out, 
 white upon white like snow upon snow. 
 Delia made her mother admire them, stand- 
 ing with her hand-in-hand. They were very 
 pretty, as bride-clothes are always, be the 
 bride glad or sad. 
 
 "You have a great deal to go through to-
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. II5 
 
 morrow, Delia," her mother said, looking from 
 them in her face anxiously. 
 
 " Yes, mamma. More and worse than it 
 need have been. But there'll be no tears. 
 I have done with crying.' 
 
 " I wish, my love, that it may be so." 
 
 "It mtist be so. I have some one else to 
 think of now. So this I say — I cannot bid 
 grandpapa good-bye in the morning. I shall 
 be gone out of the house quite early — and 
 that is why." Delias voice was painfully 
 eager ; her grasp on her mother's hand made 
 her almost cry out. 
 
 " Do you feel it like that, my poor child } 
 Oh, I am sorry." 
 
 '* He used to be so good to me, mamma. I 
 think I loved him more than you all. I have 
 grieved and disappointed him beyond every- 
 thing, and I cannot bear the sight of his cold 
 displeasure. I must go — let me go in peace."
 
 Il6 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 ''My darling, you shall go in peace. He 
 has not ceased to love you." 
 
 " Then let me bid him good-bye to-night." 
 
 The judge had wandered down to the study 
 again, restless as Delia's self, to stay for her 
 mother's report. He came to her, and they 
 had a few words. He began by saying that 
 her marriage was too near now to make 
 counsel available for anything but her duty to 
 the partner In whose company she was going 
 to walk through life. 
 
 At this point Delia with spirit spoke out : 
 " He shall teach me that himself, gran'papa. 
 Mr. Denys has, perhaps, more virtues than you 
 give him credit for. If I have been good at 
 all since I turned rebel, it is owing to his 
 forbearance. We both should have been 
 happier had submission to you been compatible 
 with loyalty to each other." * 
 
 The judge said drily that he was glad to
 
 A ROUGH WOOING. I I 7 
 
 hear it — he was certainly surprised. And in 
 this humour their parting was effected, and 
 proved less distressing than it might otherwise 
 have done. 
 
 " Mr. Denys has given you reason to believe 
 that he respects me, gran'papa, has he not ? " 
 Delia said further. 
 
 '' Yes, Delia, he has, indeed." 
 
 " And, gran'papa, I respect him too. I 
 believe you have done him injustice. All I 
 have seen of him, and know of him from him- 
 self, has my approval." Delia's face burned. 
 She was conscious that her praise was 
 moderate, but it was sincere, and she was 
 pleased to be able to utter it. 
 
 The judge said no more, but he gave her 
 his blessing. And she went, and kissed her 
 grandmother. 
 
 When Delia was alone again with her 
 mother, she said in a tone of appeal : " Now,
 
 Il8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 mamma, I want a little cheering with good 
 prophecies. Tell me truly — did you care for 
 papa the day you were married as much as 
 you cared for him the day Walter was born — 
 or as you care for him now ? " 
 
 *' First and last, my dear, I loved your 
 father with my whole heart. Ours was a 
 love-match." 
 
 Delia sighed. " Then, mother, let us have 
 done. There's no comparison. You had 
 better luck than your poor daughter. It was 
 not written that I should make a love-match. 
 But such as mine is, I will try to live so that 
 some day we may thank God for it."
 
 ( 119 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HER WEDDING-DAY. 
 
 ** The end is, to have two made one 
 In will and in affection." 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 
 AuLDCASTER wokc Up on the morning of the 
 wedding without any of the jubilant sensations 
 that ought to have attended a wedding from 
 the House with Golden Gables. It was an 
 August morning, and a sultry gloom over- 
 spread the sky, causing people to observe 
 that there was thunder in the air, and the 
 storm would come before nicrht. 
 
 Mr. Denys had taken up his quarters at 
 the White Hart, with a new travelling car- 
 riage, a pair of fine bay horses, and his own
 
 I20 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 servants. He had no friend with him; for 
 there were to be no festivities. None of 
 the neighbours, small or great, were invited 
 to rejoice at the marriage. Nevertheless, 
 the townsfolk came out into the streets, 
 mustered up Rood Hill, and crowded into 
 the church. 
 
 There was much curiosity to see the 
 bridegroom amono^st such as did not know 
 
 o o 
 
 him, and some disappointment that he was 
 not more remarkable when seen. He was 
 in the church ten minutes before the arrival 
 of the bride, and sustained the scrutiny of 
 the conofreofation without flinchino-. The 
 majority were of Miss Delia's opinion — that 
 he was not so very ugly. He stood a little 
 over the middle height, and was solidly 
 built — a robust and powerful figure of a 
 man, forty-five years old, or thereabouts, 
 naturally fair, but tanned to the colour of
 
 HER WEDDING-DAY. 121 
 
 a nut-brown berry. His light hair was 
 thick, Hke thatch, upon his head, which was 
 large, square, and well set on his shoulders. 
 His clean-cut lips closed with a firm pres- 
 sure, and he had the blue eyes of his race — 
 eyes extraordinarily bold and lively, which 
 looked thunder when he was angry, but were 
 mild to-day as became the occasion. His 
 countenance was cheerful, expressive of a 
 heart in prosperity ; and one of the spec- 
 tators — the old country doctor who had 
 known Miss Delia from her birth, and was 
 very fond of her — gave it for his opinion, 
 that she might have made a worse choice, 
 a deal worse choice, and have gone away 
 with flying colours. 
 
 There were no flying colours for her 
 to-day. It was a dull wedding. The bride 
 came attended only by her father and mother, 
 two of her brothers, and the two oirls from
 
 122 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 the rectory. She was simply apparelled in 
 a dress of white poplin, and a broad-leaved 
 hat, turned up at one side, with a long 
 feather. Her blushing soft grace of manner 
 was very beautiful, and Mr. Denys gave 
 great popular satisfaction by his visible pride 
 and deliofht in her. The rector read the 
 whole of the service, and a pin might have 
 been heard to drop in the solemn rests 
 and pauses of his voice. The responses 
 were made by both as if they meant what 
 they said, and before the ceremony was over 
 many persons had wondered in whispers why 
 the judge was so set against the marriage ; 
 for the pair seemed not unequally yoked. 
 
 They were to start from the church- door, 
 and as they walked down the aisle together, 
 it was noticed that the bride betrayed none 
 of the tearful trepidation of a girl leaving 
 her home for the strange house of a husband.
 
 HER WEDDING-DAY. I 23 
 
 She had enough to weep for, if weeping 
 would have availed her, but as she had told 
 her mother, she must think now of some one 
 else. And it was her compensation for their 
 want of welcome to let the world see that 
 she went to him with joy. 
 
 As soon as they were seated in the car- 
 riage, driving away on the road to Beau- 
 minster, Mr. Denys said : " You have behaved 
 capitally, Delia, and I thank you " — his first 
 words outside the church, made more emphatic 
 by his first kiss. 
 
 Delia drew a lone breath of oladness that 
 the strain was over. " I have heard that you 
 are always good to your own — and you will 
 be good to me, will you not ? " she said in 
 a voice of confident appeal. 
 
 " I will be as good to you as I know how — 
 so help me God," Mr. Denys answered with 
 a glow of sincerity.
 
 124 ^^^S. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 He felt and she felt at that moment very 
 strongly that the hands which had been her 
 defence had quite left hold of her. But he 
 believed that she loved him best ; and It is 
 certain that she never gave any one the 
 right to doubt it after that day. 
 
 The sweet clamour of the bells, the famous 
 bells of Auldcaster, followed them far on the 
 road. At three miles from the town, half-way 
 up a long hill where it made a sharp curve, the 
 carriage rested to breathe the horses. Delia 
 wished to eet out and walk a little, and take a 
 last look of the valley. Mr. Denys gave her 
 his arm, and they walked very gently to the 
 top of the hill. Here they met a sturdy old 
 woman with a brace of market-baskets going 
 down to Auldcaster. She had carried butter 
 and eorors to the House with Golden Gables 
 for fifty years, and at the sight of Miss Delia, 
 all in her white array, she dropt a curtsy, and
 
 HER WEDDING-DAY. I 25 
 
 spoke with the kindly, respectful interest of an 
 old servant of the family. 
 
 ''God bless you, Miss Delia! You was 
 married this morninor ? " said she. 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Jesse, and this is my husband. 
 Tell them at home that you saw us," said the 
 lady, and Mr. Denys lifted his hat. 
 
 It was something for Mrs. Jesse to tell. 
 
 The judge and his wife were still in the 
 garden, where they had waited while the 
 wedding-party were in church. The others 
 had come back to them there when the bride 
 was gone, and they had stayed all together 
 under the cedars in the scented warm air, some 
 talking about It, some silent, hearing the rush 
 of the bells, and hearing nothing else. 
 
 Mrs. Jesse delivered her message. 
 
 " And sister was not crying ? " Cricket 
 earnestly inquired. He had been crying, poor 
 child.
 
 126 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " Crying ! bless you, dear, no ! What should 
 she cry for ? ' This is my husband,' says she ; 
 ' tell them at home that you saw us ; ' and the 
 gentleman laughs, and takes off his hat, as 
 proud and pleased as could be." Mrs. Jesse 
 judged rightly that Miss Delia's words would 
 bear repeating, and that her story was best 
 told just as it happened. 
 
 Delia's mother was comforted. 
 
 Cricket said : " Give me my book. I wish 
 she had gone with a bit of glory. I think she 
 deserved it." 
 
 " And she was all the sister we had," said 
 Walter. 
 
 The young people had not spoken or inter- 
 fered before. It had seemed towards the end 
 too serious and trasfical for them to touch. 
 But there was a curt finality in the scene 
 coming out of church that had shocked them. 
 
 " Whose fault was it .'^ " Walter said again.
 
 HER WEDDING-DAY, I 27 
 
 '' Her own fault," said her grandmother 
 sternly, but there were tears in her eyes. 
 
 The judge and her father got up and walked 
 away together, and Cricket opened his book 
 to read. 
 
 " She is gone. We have lost her," he said, 
 turning the leaves to and fro, with absent mind 
 forgetting his place. 
 
 " Not lost her. Cricket. She will come 
 and see us — often, often, we hope," his mother 
 whispered. 
 
 ''Will he let her come ? " Cricket whispered 
 back. 
 
 That was a question that had not occurred 
 to any of them, nor to Delia herself. And only 
 time could answer it.
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 THE BRIDE'S PROGRESS. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 ( 131 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HER NEW HOME. 
 
 " Now came still evening on, and twilight grey j 
 Had in her sober livery all things clad. 
 Silence accompanied — for beast and bird, 
 They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, 
 Were slunk — all but the wakeful nightingale ; 
 She all night long her amorous descant sung. 
 Silence was pleased. Now glowed the firmament 
 With living sapphires. Hesperus, that led 
 The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, 
 Rising in clouded majesty, at length 
 Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, 
 And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw." 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Mr. Denys proposed to carry his bride through 
 to Cote all in the day. He hoped that she 
 would love it the better for beincr able to date 
 her bringing home from her wedding-day. 
 His own mother had often so talked of her 
 bringing home to Acklam by his father, and
 
 132 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Mr. Denys had no standard for good wives 
 higher than his mother. 
 
 They made three stages of the journey, and 
 accompHshed it easily before the sun went 
 down. They had left the storm behind hours 
 aofo. The thunder-clouds that huno^ over 
 Auldcaster in the morning pursued them across 
 the hills with salvoes and flying showers till 
 past noon, and then rolled off In faint rever- 
 berations to the north. Their faces were set 
 to the sea and westward, and it was the time 
 of evening when shadows lengthen, and the 
 reapers in the cornfields begin to look tiredly 
 for nightfall and rest, that they came in sight 
 of home. 
 
 There was no noise of bells to welcome 
 them. Cote Church was an edifice of vast 
 antiquity that had only one bell to ring the 
 living to prayers, and the dead to burial. It 
 stood upon a green ' mound, girt with a low
 
 HER NEW HOME. 1 33 
 
 wall and screened by trees, close to the gate 
 of the Manor House. This was a great square 
 house with a waggon roof and low, thick 
 chimney-stacks, plainly built of the stone 
 native to the country. The windows were 
 shaded by luxuriant vines, out of which hung 
 clusters of pale roses and tendrils of jessamine. 
 A wide expanse of lawn lay in front, and 
 beyond that, looking from the gate, were 
 glimpses of a garden through archways in 
 clipped hedges of yew, where splashes of vivid 
 colour glowed against the intense gloom of 
 green. It was a quiet picture in the warm, 
 low light, and beautiful to remember. 
 
 Just before the carriage turned in at the gate 
 a gentleman came by, with a serious, mild face, 
 bowed, and went on. 
 
 " Mr. Clarges, the rector," Mr. Denys 
 said, and the next minute they were at the 
 door.
 
 134 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 They were old servants who were on the 
 watch, waiting for the arrival of their master 
 and his bride, and, as old servants, were likely 
 to be hard to please. But their master looked 
 in rare good-humour, and as the young lady 
 appeared both gracious and handsome, they 
 said, one and all, that she would do. 
 
 It was a very simple reception. Mr. Denys 
 made the necessary presentations. 
 
 " This is Mrs. Brice, Delia, my mother's 
 maid, and my housekeeper at Acklam since; " 
 and Mrs. Brice curtseyed. 
 
 " And this is Knapp — my man, ever since 
 I have had a man. We shall be ready for 
 dinner in half-an-hour, Knapp," Mr. Denys 
 said again in a comfortable, matter-of-fact way ; 
 and then he conducted his bride up the fine 
 staircase, not unlike the staircase at the 
 House with Golden Gables, and committed 
 her to his mother's maid to be adorned
 
 HER NEW HOME. 1 35 
 
 for the meal for which he was in such a 
 hurry. 
 
 Phoebe came anxiously after in her bonnet 
 and travelling gear, but was forthwith dis- 
 missed. *' You may leave me to Mrs. Brice, 
 Phoebe, and go and be taken care of yourself," 
 her mistress said, and Phoebe went. 
 
 Mrs. Brice's countenance recommended her 
 as a servant to be made a friend of. 
 
 Delia had got an impression at the instant 
 of entering the house that it had been swept 
 and garnished with the utmost pains and 
 thoughtfulness to please her. It was an old 
 house, and of itself perhaps not beautiful, but 
 thino^s had been done to orive it orrace and 
 pleasantness. It was airy and fresh and 
 sweet. There were flowers everywhere, and 
 abundant lio^ht from sconces fixed ao^ainst the 
 dark wainscoted walls. The old fashions had 
 not been abolished, but only adapted to newer
 
 136 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 needs, and the finished effect was rich and 
 full of repose. 
 
 After they had dined — and that ceremony 
 was not suffered to be formally tedious — Mr. 
 Denys invited Delia to come to her drawing- 
 room, and see what he had done for her there. 
 Evidently he thought that he had done 
 wonders, and was impatient to display them. 
 And indeed she would have shown herself ill 
 to please had she not been touched with 
 admiration for the beauty and glory that were 
 revealed as they went in. It was a room some 
 forty feet long, and wide and high in propor- 
 tion, at the farther end of which had been 
 thrown out an immense bay-window, that set 
 as in a picture-frame a prospect of fields and 
 woods, with the moon rising over the sea — the 
 August moon, red as red gold, and barred 
 with purple cloud, till it mounted into high 
 heaven and hung there like a silver shield.
 
 HER NEW HOME. I 37 
 
 Delia was moved and silent, and Mr. Denys 
 stood watching her for some reward. 
 
 " Now I think you must feel at home. 
 Is it as pretty as the window that I have 
 heard of looking into the cedars ? " he 
 said. 
 
 " That is only an enclosed garden-view. 
 This is far lovelier. I have seen nothincr to 
 compare with this. I have not often seen 
 the sea, and never with the moon and stars 
 shining in such a sky." 
 
 *' Then thank me for it. Call me by my 
 name. I made this window just to gladden 
 your eyes. Because I want you to be happy, 
 and to believe that I love you ; for indeed 
 I do." 
 
 Delia thanked him with a sweet dignity. 
 *' We are strangers yet. Your name does 
 not come to my tongue trippingly," she 
 said.
 
 1^8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 J 
 
 " We shall be better acquainted. Every- 
 thing comes in time to those who know how 
 to wait." 
 
 Mr. Denys knew how to wait. He had 
 learnt some useful lessons during that year 
 which had been to Delia so dreary an ordeal, 
 and in the result both were likely to be the 
 wiser for it. 
 
 The bride's window looked down into the 
 garden, which was visible in the distance from 
 the gate. 
 
 '' We call it the Dutch garden/' Mr. Denys 
 said. " You see those broad green walks ? 
 ■ They are delightful in these hot summer 
 nights when the moon is up. Let us go out 
 there for a little while. The place has been 
 kept precisely as it was planted a hundred and 
 fifty years ago. It must have seen a world of 
 people, lovers and others. There used to be 
 a wooden balcony and steps down from the
 
 HER NEW HOME. 1 39 
 
 old window, but we did away with them when 
 we enlarged the opening. Perhaps it was a 
 mistake ; for now we must go through the 
 house." 
 
 Mr. Denys talked fast, and moved on as he 
 talked, drawing Delia by the hand. In the 
 hall he seized a plaid of his own, and folded it 
 about her shoulders with the practised art of 
 a man who has had to take thought habitually 
 for a tender companion. The door was not 
 shut, and Delia stepped out upon the lawn 
 into the full light of the moon, and stood 
 gazing abroad at the serene majesty and 
 splendour. Then she looked back at the 
 house, and as Mr. Denys came and stood 
 by her, she asked him if he had lived 
 there always. 
 
 " Never, until you promised to come and 
 live with me. Since then I have been building 
 your nest. There is half a life-time behind
 
 I40 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 me, Delia. You shall be welcome to all its 
 history, but not now." 
 
 " I will not be afraid of shadows if I can 
 help it, nor jealous of what never belonged 
 to me." 
 
 " That is well and kindly spoken. Will you 
 take my arm ? I want my young wife to be 
 my best friend — I have set some hopes upon 
 her. We turn this way." 
 
 This way was down a step or two, and then 
 along a tile-paved path through an arch cut in 
 the green wall of the Dutch garden, which 
 appeared to Delia as if laid out in moonlight 
 •chequers of black and white. It was a sweet- 
 scented seclusion, divided into four equal parts 
 by turfed walks crossing at right angles, the 
 centre being marked by a sun-dial raised 
 on an octagonal base. One heard there the 
 rustle of the waves washing the shingle to 
 and fro on the beach when the day was
 
 HER NEW HOME. I4I 
 
 Still, but got no bonny blue gleam of the 
 water. 
 
 Afterwards, when she became familiar with 
 the place, and knew it in the garish sunshine, 
 Mrs. Denys did not much affect its trim 
 monotony unless to entertain company there. 

 
 ( 142 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE — AN EMPTY HOUSE. 
 
 ** The earth lay like one great emerald, ringed and roofed with 
 sapphire ; 
 Blue sea, blue mountain, blue sky overhead." 
 
 C. KlNGSLEY. 
 
 The splendid weather that Mr. Denys brought 
 his bride home to held for a considerable 
 while. A series of thunder-storms with bounti- 
 ful rain had refreshed the earth at the beorin- 
 
 o 
 
 ning of harvest, and the country round Cote 
 was in the perfection of its beauty. Delia 
 woke to the enjoyment of new pleasures in this 
 fair, pastoral land by the sea. Every day 
 Mr. Denys had something to show her, some- 
 where to take her.
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 43 
 
 ** It is paradise ! I think I can live and be 
 good here," she said with a soft enthusiasm 
 that was half surprise at herself. 
 
 Mr. Denys did not remind her who went 
 disguised in Eden. Her air of perfect well- 
 being amused and gratified him. 
 
 " You might have escaped from some 
 great city canopied with smoke, where the 
 rain rains every day, and the whirr of 
 money-spinning never gives over," he said. 
 
 They had gone up that morning to a ridge 
 where nothing grew but gorse and little wild 
 flowers akin to the wind. It was a lonesome 
 spot, but very lovely. On both sides it ran 
 down into the dusk entanglement of woods, 
 and all that could be seen from it then was 
 open sea, green wilderness, and shccp-fed 
 down, with clouds of faint blue smoke hover- 
 ing here and there, to the betrayal of solitary 
 farmsteads and remote villac^cs hidden in the
 
 144 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 low, sheltered spots which the old builders 
 favoured. Lonof since those villao^es have 
 
 o o 
 
 emerged into the open, and reached out their 
 hands to one another. All that fine, indented 
 part of the coast is fringed with human habita- 
 tions. Houses cluster thick upon the cliffs 
 where on that peaceful day were none of them, 
 but only clumps of broom, and rows and 
 groups of umber-stemmed pine-trees, amongst 
 which the thatched roofs of Cote lay buried in 
 their orardens out of siorht. 
 
 On the right hand the high down closed the 
 prospect, and the fields, arable and pasture, 
 swelled to meet it with many gentle slopes 
 and shallow depressions. There was no level 
 line except the sea-line, and no house to be 
 seen but the Manor House, set under a 
 round wooded hill, with its numerous windows 
 glancing in the sun. 
 
 ** He has a beautiful share of the world who
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 45 
 
 owns all this," Delia said, looking straieht 
 before her. 
 
 '' It is a partnership now — mine and thine, 
 Delia. We will do with it what you like. 
 Cote is your dower — your house till death." 
 
 His wife turned to Mr. Denys inquiringly : 
 " What can we do with it ? It is charminor as 
 it is," she said. 
 
 He began to tell her of the stir of life and 
 prosperity at that period almost universal in 
 the world — of out-of-the-way places roused 
 from the slumber of ages by the shrill alarum 
 of the railway-whistle, and of fortunate pro- 
 prietors of land where main lines passed 
 putting money in their purses beyond the 
 wildest dreams of cupidity. 
 
 Delia was not moved to admire the prospect 
 of rude changes. She said that she preferred 
 her paradise in quiet. 
 
 " We are not likely to be tempted this year, 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 nor, perhaps, next," Mr. Denys told her. 
 " But Sir Thomas Britton, over yonder at 
 Marshleas, is all for progress, and Midas at 
 Cambourne is with him. Cote lies between 
 the two, and when the time comes we shall 
 have to make up our minds whether to let it go 
 with the stream or be stranded and left high 
 and dry on one side. Cambourne is starting 
 at a great pace already, but it would not be 
 difficult to cut us all out of the world. If you 
 observe the configuration of the coast, you will 
 see that we live in a peninsula. Rowboro', 
 which is our market-town, is on the isthmus 
 that connects us with the mainland." 
 
 Delia listened thoughtfully, glad that there 
 was no call upon them for instant decision, but 
 able to foresee that neither might enjoy being 
 stranded when their neighbours were rising 
 with the tide. She had seen Marshleas from 
 the sea, and Cambourne she had driven
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE — AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 47 
 
 through, Marshleas consisted of a grey-green 
 mansion surrounded by watery pastures, and a 
 few fishermen's huts on the low shores of the 
 bay. Cambourne was a verdant bower amidst 
 limestone crags, with intricate break-neck roads, 
 a barn - Hke church, and a few cottages of 
 labourers. Cote, midway between the two, 
 was as primitive as Cambourne and almost 
 as picturesque ; but being open to the north, 
 the air was more bracing, and from the lie of 
 the land the climate was drier — the fault of all 
 that region being a too great abundance of 
 moisture. 
 
 Mrs. Denys had not yet walked about the 
 village — Mr. Denys rather avoided the village 
 — but he acquiesced when Delia proposed that 
 they should take a turn round that way on 
 the road home. It was a windino- road, and 
 at several points composed into lovely pictures 
 with the sea for a background. The first
 
 148 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 houses they came to were casemented stone 
 houses, all under thatch. Here was the inn ; 
 the shop where bread, groceries, and drapery 
 formed a mingled store ; and the library and 
 bazaar, where a few shelves of books, a few 
 phials of drugs, and a scanty miscellaneous col- 
 lection of shells, pebbles, toys, and stationery,' 
 invited strangers to read, take physic, and carry 
 away a small memorial of the isolated village. 
 Wherever there is sea, and easy access to a 
 pleasant beach, strangers will find their way, 
 and though Cote had provided no special 
 accommodation for them, there were over the 
 "shops and elsewhere some little rooms where 
 gentle people were contented to eat and sleep 
 for a week or two of summer weather, in 
 consideration of the charms that were to be 
 enjoyed out of doors. And every year of 
 late more had sought to come. 
 
 Beyond this cluster of houses the road bent 
 
 --^
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMrXY HOUSE. 1 49 
 
 uphill, bordered by tall hedgerows and over- 
 hanging trees. A lane on the right diverged 
 to the cliffs and the way down to the shore. 
 The cliffs at Cote were severed by a deep 
 wooded glen, wide at the mouth next the sea, 
 and narrowing as it ran inland until it was 
 lost in the copses under the down. High 
 up on the sunny side, and well sheltered at 
 the back, were a few cottages of gentility, 
 enclosed in gardens that mounted by slopes 
 and terraces of rude, irregular construction, 
 by groves of bays, myrtles, and fuchsias, by 
 stone steps and rows of pines, grotesque and 
 shadowy. The position of these cottages was 
 very fine, but an old house, called the Glen 
 House, occupied on a lower level a site more 
 delightful than any. It was accounted, indeed, 
 the most characteristic and beautiful spot in 
 Cote. 
 
 Nothino- was to be seen of the Glcn House
 
 150 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 from the road. Beeches and sycamores and 
 the dusky ilex cast a wavering gloom over the 
 lane, and hedges of yew and holly made an 
 impervious screen below. 
 
 " It is not inhabited," Mr. Denys said as 
 they passed the gate. 
 
 ** Then may we go in, and see the view ? " 
 Delia asked. 
 
 ''Yes — yes, if you wish it," he said, and 
 turned with just a perceptible shade of 
 reluctance. 
 
 A thought had flashed into Mrs. Denys* 
 mind, but it was just too late. A gardener 
 at work close inside the gate louted low to 
 the squire and the lady, and Mr. Denys walked 
 on, not speaking, but looking about as if he 
 had not lately seen the place, and was noting 
 chancres. 
 
 The house had three low gables in front, 
 and wide lattices glazed in the Venetian
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE — AN EMPTY HOUSE. I5I 
 
 manner. The roof was thatched, and the 
 walls were completely clothed with myrtle. 
 There was a magnolia in blossom sheltered 
 by a projecting wing, and roses in profusion 
 dropped over the light iron fence that pro- 
 tected the cliff. The turf was like velvet, and 
 even the Dutch garden at the Manor House 
 could not more than vie with the jewelled 
 mosaic-work of the flower-beds and borders. 
 The place was kept with the most careful 
 labour. Not a weed, not a faded leaf, appeared 
 anywhere. And yet it was an empty house. 
 The windows were closed and darkened as 
 if one lay dead there. But the dead and the 
 mourners were long gone out of it. It was 
 only an empty house. 
 
 It stood on a plateau fifty feet or so back 
 from the edge of the precipitous sandstone 
 cliff, where it made a hollow curve, facing the 
 mouth of the crlcn, which was full of trees.
 
 152 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Looking from the rustic verandah across this 
 expanse of foHage, tinted with early autumn 
 and softened by sunny haze, the view drop- 
 ped abruptly on the sands, where a thread 
 of water ran into the sea. And here a few 
 boats, fishing-nets, crab-pots, and bare-legged 
 men and boys in blue jerseys and red night- 
 caps, gave life and animation to the scene. 
 
 " You can guess what this place is, Delia ? " 
 Mr. Denys said. 
 
 " Your former home : I am so sorry, 
 Hugh;" and Delia sounded very sorry, 
 indeed. 
 
 - They did not say much, but Mr. Denys 
 led the way down a hollow green walk between 
 two rows of beech-trees, mossy under foot 
 and cool over head, with boughs arching 
 and interlacing — a very sweet spot, a shade 
 and a silence apart from the world. On the 
 outside of the trees was a path wide enough
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 53 
 
 for two, which skirted the cHff, and had a 
 margin of wild garden and bushes that in 
 the season were orarrulous with the chatter 
 of birds. 
 
 ''We were always here when the spring 
 was turning to summer," Mr. Denys said. 
 "It was the time of the year that Agnes 
 loved best. She was a hopeful soul." 
 
 They had come to a seat where the prospect 
 was open towards the house, and Mr. Denys 
 invited his wife to rest there while he went 
 farther. Delia accepted the invitation, taking 
 it for a command. 
 
 She had determined already on her line 
 of behaviour — she would be nothino- but o-ood 
 to her husband as concernino- the former 
 circumstances and events of his life. If she 
 trespassed, it would be by accident; if she did 
 not perfectly sympathise, it would be through 
 ignorance. She perceived that there was a
 
 154 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 soreness in his recollections of past years, 
 though he never spoke but of their sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 This thing seemed to her especially hard 
 — to have sons that he loved and was proud 
 of, and not to have them with him, and a 
 little maid-child besides whom he never saw. 
 Delia had heard of her from Mrs. Brice. She 
 was a baby when her mother died. 
 
 Mrs. Denys set her heart to consider 
 whether she could not chancre this for the 
 
 o 
 
 peace and comfort of them all. Pride 
 whispered that it might be safer to let well 
 alone. But Delia desired to be wise, and 
 wisdom is a loving spirit. 
 
 The next Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Denys 
 went to church at home — to Cote Church. 
 They had gone to Cambourne, and farther 
 still, to say their prayers on the previous 
 Sundays, and Delia had not yet been within
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 55 
 
 the gates. As they walked up the path 
 the bell was performing Its five minutes' 
 ritual of ringing the people In, and Mr. 
 Denys drew his wife on one side to wait 
 until it ceased. 
 
 The churchyard was pretty of itself, and 
 the pretty custom prevailed of putting flowers 
 upon the graves. Near by where they 
 stood, below the east window, adjoining the 
 vault In the chancel where mouldered the 
 bones of all the Denyses who had died at 
 home, was a grave, and three in It for 
 company. A granite slab against the wall 
 enclosed a lozenee of brass, on which their 
 
 names were written 
 
 " Marie Theodora Denys. Marie Placidia 
 Denys. Marie Agnes : their dear Mother." 
 
 A cross and three crowns lay upon the 
 green grass above the dead. They were 
 never forgotten.
 
 156 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 They had been taken all together. '' It 
 was the fever/' Mr. Denys said, alluding to 
 the familiar enemy of rich and 230or at Cote. 
 
 Delia bent her head, deeply touched, not 
 attempting to speak. 
 
 In a simple, pleasant tone as if it were 
 nothing, Mr. Denys added: "When my time 
 comes it is my wish to be burled next them. 
 There will be your place over beyond me." 
 
 Delia drew herself up, shuddering strongly : 
 " It is soon to talk of dying, and only married 
 the other day," she said, and the moment 
 after: "Look, Hugh! there is somebody 
 walking over our grave." 
 
 It was a very little girl, beautifully dressed 
 in white and carrying a posy, who was making 
 her way on the level sward to the mound. 
 She laid her offering by the cross, and then 
 knelt down and lifted her hands in the attitude 
 of supplication. There were many witnesses.
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 57 
 
 The rector hurried by — a good man apt to 
 be five minutes late — shedding a tender, pitiful 
 glance on the small devotee and a benign 
 smile on the squire's lady. 
 
 " Is this your doing, Delia ? " her husband 
 asked in a quiet, neutral voice. 
 
 Delia said first, '' No." But that was not 
 quite true, perhaps, and she made haste to 
 add : *' It may be. If you are glad she is 
 here, so am I. After service I will tell 
 you." 
 
 The child's attendant was a lady in black, 
 who stood behind her, and took no notice of 
 anybody else. Her dress was much like that 
 of an Anglican sister of charity. In fact, she 
 belonged to the religious house where, at the 
 request of her mother in dying, the little girl 
 had been sent to be taken care of and brouc^ht 
 up. 
 
 Mr. Denys conducted his wife into church,
 
 158 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 but presently went out again, and remained 
 outside until the singing began, when he re- 
 appeared with the child, and set her up on the 
 seat next himself, holding her within his arm, 
 from which vantage-ground she surveyed the 
 congregation as if they all belonged to her. 
 The old building was full to overflowing with 
 distinguished visitors, many of whom, finding 
 no room in pews, sat on chairs in the aisle, 
 stood in the porch, and hung about the open 
 windows, if by chance they might hear a 
 word. 
 
 Mrs. Denys, from her spacious seat apart in 
 the chancel, regarded them with compassion, 
 and wished the church enlarged. It was a 
 customary sight to the rector and his native 
 flock, a sign of a crowded season that caused 
 them to rejoice. During the hymn before 
 sermon two or three ladies went out overcome 
 by the heat, and all the younger ones amongst
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 59 
 
 the school-children, awakening some envy in 
 the breasts of their elder companions arrived 
 at the years of confirmation. The little girl, 
 who had been contented till now with her 
 father s knee, cast a glance towards the lap of 
 the lady, white like her own frock, and after 
 walking about a little came to a stand there, 
 resting her hands and looking up in the sweet 
 serious face. Delia looked down at her as she 
 used to look at Cricket, and the child intimated 
 a wish to be better friends. Then Delia lifted 
 her up, and settled herself comfortably in her 
 corner. The child intimated further that her 
 hat and gloves must come off, and beino- 
 relieved of these, she nestled softly down with 
 a sigh of baby satisfaction, watched for a 
 drowsy moment a bird flying amongst the 
 brown old rafters of the roof, and then fell 
 asleep. 
 
 Mr. Clarges had a very agreeable delivery.
 
 l6o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and in his matter nothing exciting. It was 
 a warm morning, and Mrs. Denys seemed to 
 hear the humming of bees. They were hum- 
 ming in the land of Nod. The fashionable 
 bonnets wagged, wavered, melted into a cloud 
 with the round heads of the dearly beloved 
 brethren. Her eyes closed, her face drooped 
 over the child's flower-face. Mr. Denys 
 blushed for them. The preacher looked 
 down, and turned over two leaves of his 
 sermon. 
 
 There was a famous painter in the congre- 
 gation who had the pair full in view : " Wasn't 
 it lovely ? " he said to a comrade at going out 
 of church. 
 
 And that the squire's young wife made a 
 soft lap for the motherless bairn was a favour- 
 able introduction of her to their tenants and 
 humble neio:hbours. She was much talked of 
 under cottage-roofs that day.
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. l6l 
 
 A man who knew him well, said : " Denys 
 is a rou^h fellow, and will orive her a sore 
 heart before he has done with her ; " to 
 which a woman who heard him made 
 answer : *' So he may, — so he may. But she 
 has orot the love in her that's a sovereiorn 
 heal-all." 
 
 There was no sign of the nun-like person 
 when Mr. and Mrs. Denys, with the little girl 
 between them, walked through the church- 
 yard home. That lady was found in the Dutch 
 garden. Delia suddenly bethought her of her 
 promised explanation, but there was no need 
 of it. 
 
 " I have remembered — it is an anniversary 
 to-day," Mr. Denys said. " Already you 
 have begun to put things out of my mind, 
 Delia. This little Marie- Irene is four years 
 old, complete since the sunrise, and they have 
 sent her from her convent to pray at her 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1 62 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 mother's grave. That was a promise when 
 the eood sisters took her in chars^e." 
 
 Little Marie-Irene had slept at sermon 
 enough, and was very lively and active the 
 rest of the day — a most affectionate child, 
 and docile for such an energetic spirit. Mrs. 
 Denys was even tired when she went away, 
 but the ' tiredness was of a happy sort. It 
 reminded her of the houseful at Auldcaster. 
 
 " I should like to have the noise of the 
 little feet and voice always here. You can- 
 not think how still it is when I am left 
 alone by myself," she said, without con- 
 sidering. 
 
 Mr. Denys was silent for an instant, then he 
 replied : " I have not brought you to Cote to 
 bury you all at once. I ought to go to Nave- 
 stock early this week, and you shall go with 
 me. Let it be to-morrow — the country is 
 beautiful before the corn is cut. I cannot
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 63 
 
 bring the child home : my word to her 
 mother is sacred. Think of another toy." 
 
 '' I want no toy, Hugh. Since we have 
 shown ourselves at church, the people round 
 about will call, will they not ? " 
 
 " Some of them will Delia, but we need not 
 stay at home for them. We have not many 
 neio^-hbours. There is Mrs. Wilton, a dauehter 
 of Sir John and Lady Herrick, who made a 
 poor match. She is the only young lady in 
 the place likely to be a companion for you." 
 
 Mrs. Denys was silent now in her turn. 
 Then she asked some question respecting 
 Navestock, which caused her husband to 
 regard her with a sudden surprised intentness. 
 
 *' Do not you know that Navestock was dis- 
 mantled and abandoned as a residence forty 
 years ago ? " he said. 
 
 Delia would have given much to keep 
 the blush out of her face that betrayed how
 
 164 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 immensely she was disconcerted. "No," she 
 said, " I did not know that. I read a fine 
 description of the house in the county 
 history." 
 
 Mr. Denys turned his eyes upon the ground. 
 '' That was all true when it was written half 
 a century back. It was a great and famous 
 house once, but the fortunes of the family 
 have been long unequal to its maintenance." 
 
 Delia had taken for granted whatever her 
 lively imagination was pleased to depict in 
 adornment of the original plain statement that 
 Mr. Denys was very rich. If she was making 
 discoveries, he was making discoveries too. 
 He had it very much at heart to fulfil her 
 expectations, and he did not quite know what 
 these expectations were. Delia was anxious to 
 drop the subject, but Mr. Denys went on to say 
 that he had never cared to make a home of 
 more than one house, and amongst the country
 
 IN THE SUNSHINE AN EMPTY HOUSE. 1 65 
 
 places that belonged to him he had chosen for 
 their married life this — Cote Manor House — 
 because of its being the ancient seat of his 
 family. It Avas not grand, but it was grand 
 enough for him, whose habits were early 
 formed on simple lines. 
 
 Delia's cheeks burned at the thought of her 
 magnificent castles in the air. "• And for me 
 too, dear Hugh, for me too," she said in haste 
 deprecatingly, sensible all the while of a pain- 
 ful, shame-faced embarrassment. 
 
 Mr. Denys was blind to it: ''We will go 
 to Navestock ; and when you have seen Nave- 
 stock, afterwards we will go into Kent," he 
 said quietly, as if something had been given 
 him to reflect on. 
 
 Delia was relieved and crlad. The tedium 
 of life visits new homes, even the best, until 
 with use and custom they grow friendly. She 
 was restless yet, and the prospect of more
 
 1 66 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 change and variety was agreeable to her. 
 What was unknown was still a background for 
 the bright weavings of her fancy, which she 
 indulged again now with a sort of wilful delight 
 in its recovered freedom. Mr. Denys was be- 
 yond the age of day-dreams, but perhaps his 
 experience was better.
 
 i67 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. 
 
 " The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive nor lay 
 any fast foundation." — The Wisdom of Solomon. 
 
 Mrs. Denys had not to suffer in her early- 
 married life what young people of active dis- 
 position most dread — she had not to suffer 
 dulness. They heard of her at the House with 
 Golden Gables as driving about the country 
 with her husband in his mail-phaeton, looking 
 handsomer than ever, and wearing a becom- 
 ing dress of fme dark serge, and a black 
 plumed hat. 
 
 '' My lady recommends a close- fitting
 
 r68 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 costume of that sort to Jem's wife," said Sir 
 John Herri ck, who was their informant. 
 ** Pretty Fan is rather too fond of light, bright 
 colours." 
 
 '' And how does Mr. Denys look ? " Lady 
 Daventry asked. Delia's mother winced at 
 the question. 
 
 " Denys looks good friends with his com- 
 pany," Sir John answered. ''We shall have 
 to hold out a hand to him for your dear girl's 
 sake. Luttrell was talkinor of them at the 
 magistrates' meeting on Saturday at Beau- 
 minster." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Denys had been seen in Beau- 
 minster the day before. It had been decided 
 on the road to stop the night there, and 
 proceed to Navestock in the morning. The 
 minster bell was going for evening service 
 when they arrived as the Cross Keys. Delia 
 would have liked to go to prayers, but Mr.
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. 1 69 
 
 Denys was not prayerfully disposed, and did 
 not judge it fit to let his young wife go alone. 
 He pleaded business, and left her with Phoebe 
 for an hour or two in a loner low room of the 
 old inn, which had a line of windows looking 
 into the Close, and a bow commanding the 
 entrance from the Hio^h Street. 
 
 The owner of Navestock was known in 
 Beauminster, and eager, deferential greetings 
 met him at almost every step. Mr. Denys' 
 ordinary manner was abrupt and cold, the 
 reverse of a popular manner, and he did not 
 once halt for a crreetincr until a s^entleman 
 having an air of some distinction came up with 
 outstretched hand and audible inquiries how 
 he did. This gentleman turned and walked 
 with him the way he was going. 
 
 It was getting on for six o'clock, and Mrs. 
 Denys was tiring of her solitude in a strange 
 place, when an open carriage with a pair of
 
 170 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 handsome bay horses driven by a lady passed 
 up the High Street, and a few minutes later 
 returned, bringing back the gentlemen. Mrs. 
 Denys was witness to a very animated con- 
 versation scene between her husband and the 
 lady. Delia did not admire her. Finally the 
 strangers drove away, and Mr. Denys came 
 upstairs to his wife in an exhilarated humour. 
 It had done him o^ood to fall in with old 
 friends to whom he could talk with his old 
 freedom, and he began to speak of them to 
 Delia, not very delicately, but with the inten- 
 tion of prepossessing her in their favour. 
 
 '* Some of you poor young ladies have 
 wonderful great luck," he said. " That lady 
 was as poor as yourself, Delia, until she 
 captivated Mr. Essex-Brough." 
 
 " She must be much older than I am. 
 Has she been married long ? " Delia said 
 crisply.
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. 171 
 
 " No. She wears well. She does not tell 
 her age at all." 
 
 Delia thought that the lady's face and 
 figure told of six-and-thlrty, but she did not 
 express her opinion. Also she thought her 
 bold-looking and boisterous, but of this too 
 she was reticent. She inferred from her 
 husband's sudden elation of spirits that they 
 were amonorst his favourite and familiar 
 
 o 
 
 associates, and she listened attentively while 
 he explained them further. 
 
 '' She was Miss Charlotte Deane Foxe, a 
 daughter of Sir Martin Deane Foxe, a capi- 
 tal horsewoman. Mr. Midas at Cambourne 
 is her cousin. They are living now at 
 Lingfield, a fine place midway between 
 Beauminster and Navestock, but they do not 
 get on well in the clerical society here. He 
 talks of selling it, and coming out Cote way. 
 Cote has not too many neighbours, and you
 
 172 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 might find her an acquisition. She is a 
 clever woman." 
 
 Mrs. Denys' countenance did not promise 
 a very cordial welcome to Mrs. Essex- Brough, 
 but she said " Yes " musingly. She was 
 considering that so far as neighbours went 
 Cote was unexplored country yet. Cricket 
 had acquainted her carefully with the names 
 and standing of the county families within 
 a twelve miles' round. She desired to 
 begin well, and was not without rules and 
 precedents for so beginning. At Auldcaster 
 the best society in the best sense was all she 
 had known, and her experience was sufficient 
 to warn her that the lady loudly jesting and 
 laughing at the inn-door with Mr. Denys 
 was not of the type and good form she had 
 been used to. 
 
 On the wav to Navestock the next morninof 
 they called at Lingfield and took luncheon,
 
 NAVESTOCK — UNDER A CURSE. I 73 
 
 the mail-phaeton being sent on with notice 
 that they would follow shortly. Delia was 
 not quite pleased with the arrangement, which 
 had been made without consultine her, and 
 she was not apt at concealing her feelings, 
 but Mrs. Essex-Broucrh made no si^n of re- 
 
 CD O 
 
 garding them. She talked with lively fluency 
 and inobservance, decided at a glance that 
 Mrs. Denys was very young in the ways 
 of the world, and probably very tame. Her 
 manner of offended princess she found rather 
 absurd, and then she thought of her no more, 
 but devoted all her attention to j\Ir. Denys. 
 Delia was not angry, but in her own mind 
 she called Mrs. Essex-Brough odious, pre- 
 suming — a pale, sallow woman with a great 
 mouth and rovincr eves. Mr. Denvs knew 
 the fastidious turn of his wife's lip, and the 
 other lady was sensible presently of being 
 checked and curbed, and her famiharity held
 
 174 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 in. Mr. Essex-Brough sat silent, his arms 
 folded across his chest, and his chin down, 
 eating nothing and speaking seldom. His 
 features were refined, but he was not agreeable 
 to look at. He had a bad countenance, Delia 
 said to herself, almost suddenly becoming 
 aware of it. Altogether she did not like 
 these friends of her husband, whom he seemed 
 desirous of making her friends too. 
 
 After luncheon Mrs. Essex-Brough under- 
 took to drive her guests to Navestock. The 
 distance was about three miles through 
 delightful scenery. When the carriage turned 
 off the highway in at a stout wooden gate, 
 it rolled smoothly along a good road, on both 
 sides of which the wheat was ripening 
 unfenced. The expanse of undulating ground 
 was clear of hedges and bare of trees, saving 
 isolated groups and single trees spared for 
 their beauty, or to relieve the monotony.
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 75 
 
 *' It looks like a park sown with corn," 
 Mrs. Denys said, gazing about curiously 
 interested. 
 
 Mrs. Essex- BrouQ^h answered her : " That 
 is just what it is. At the top of the next rise 
 you will see the house. If it belonged to us, 
 I would have it pulled down. I would sell 
 the materials or burn them, and pass the 
 plough over the site. Then, perhaps, there 
 would be no more curse." 
 
 Mrs. Denys wished this rude woman were 
 out of the way with her terribly coarse sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 ** There it is, Delia, there is Navestock," 
 said her husband, and she leaned forward to 
 contemplate the exquisite scene. 
 
 It was exquisite indeed, but strange, but 
 unexpected. The house stood out white and 
 clear, a vision of architectural grace, against 
 a waving sea of eolden erain. There was no
 
 176 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 wilderness of neglected gardens, but every- 
 where labour and rich culture. The fine plan 
 of the terrace could be traced looking down 
 the valley to the Avon, but corn grew on and 
 under its slopes. The great centre flight of 
 steps with their balustrade remained, and for 
 a little way a footpath that was presently 
 lost. Far as eye could see stretched a 
 soft, luxuriant, rolling country, lilac in the 
 far-off clouds of air, sun-colour, hot and 
 vivid near. 
 
 " Did I not tell you that it had ceased to 
 be a house and home forty years ago, 
 Delia?" Mr. Denys said after a pause of 
 several minutes, during which he had been 
 watchinof his wife's face. 
 
 Delia's dumb astonishment continued un- 
 broken. She looked at him, but her mind 
 was absent. 
 
 The carrlao^e, which had halted at this fine
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 77 
 
 point of view, drove gently on until it came 
 under the shadow of the walls, then turned 
 in at an archwav below a maornificent over- 
 hanging window, and came to a stand in a 
 great quadrangle with buildings all round it, 
 and siofns of life enough, but of a life that 
 looked oddly out of character with its environ- 
 ments. Delia might have known it before 
 had she heeded, or had her heart not been 
 so set against hearing. And yet she could 
 not remember that even Cricket had ever 
 spoken of Navestock as degraded into a 
 farmstead. 
 
 In the centre of the spacious square the 
 pavement had been taken up to turn it into 
 a fold-yard. A very populous fold-yard it 
 was, and most comfortably well-to-do. Milch- 
 cows drowsed in the warm, quiet afternoon, 
 and families of pigs were fat and happy, knee- 
 deep in trampled straw. Pigeons and Ixirn- 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 door fowls were there in cheerful multitudes ; 
 and the house-dog, after one sonorous bark of 
 warning to his friends, disposed himself in 
 front of his kennel to receive the fine company 
 with affability. His voice brought out men 
 and women, a stableman and Mr. Denys' 
 groom, a dairy-maid with her pails, and a 
 large ruddy person in a white-bibbed apron, 
 who called to the men to seek the master. 
 This ruddy personage looked towards the 
 carriage inquisitively, but did not approach. 
 
 " You see what it is, Delia — a great farm. 
 It was done long before my time," Mr. Denys 
 said, getting down from the carriage, and 
 eivinof her his hand to descend. 
 
 Delia cast her eyes upwards, and saw 
 throuo^h the rich, stone-transomed windows of 
 splendid chambers that they had been con- 
 verted into storehouses, granaries, and barns. 
 The building was so strong that it might
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 79 
 
 serve these common uses for centuries yet. 
 From one high opening hung a powerful 
 crane ; against another was leant up a 
 wide - stepped ladder. A brick stairway 
 had been built in a corner, and a window 
 removed to make room for a strono- oaken 
 door. 
 
 The clatter of a horse's hoofs on the pave- 
 ment announced the arrival of the master, who 
 dismounted, and came up to Mr. Denys with 
 the frank deference of a prosperous tenant per- 
 ceiving his landlord. He was a young man, 
 a modern, farmer with progressive notions, 
 who had been educated at an agricultural 
 college, had succeeded to his father's place, 
 and was filling it adequately. The ruddy 
 personage still at the door was the widow, his 
 mother, Mrs. Gooden. 
 
 Mrs. Gooden had no great favour for Mr. 
 Denys, and none at all for Mr. and Mrs.
 
 l8o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Essex-Brouofh, whom she knew well. She 
 waited for them to approach before stirring to 
 offer her welcome, then to Mrs. Denys she 
 curtseyed, relaxed, and was gracious. News 
 had come to Navestock of the marriage at 
 Auldcaster without consent of friends, and 
 had raised no wonder ; for the Daventrys 
 were a family of honour and renown in all 
 that part of the country. Mrs. Gooden ad- 
 mired the beautiful bride, but thought her 
 not to be envied, whether she had married 
 for love or for money, as the tale was told 
 to her. She had a long memory, and knew 
 many things. 
 
 " The young gentlemen are out, and about 
 somewhere with their guns," she informed 
 Mr. Denys curtly. '' Half their time they 
 spend at Lingfield. Bed and board, that is 
 all they trouble me for." 
 
 '' I am sorry they are not acceptable guests,"
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. l8l 
 
 Mr. Denys answered, looking her straight in 
 the eyes. 
 
 " I never said so, sir," she rejoined, her 
 ruddiness flamine into heat. 
 
 Mr. Denys turned to his wife, speak- 
 ing in an undertone : " The boys are 
 here, DeHa. They ought to have met us. 
 They will come in by and by when we are 
 alone." 
 
 Delia knew the boys were there, and was 
 well inclined towards making their acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 After this Mr. Denys signified that the two 
 ladies wished to see the house, and perhaps 
 Mrs. Gooden would act as their guide, or find 
 a deputy while he transacted some immediate 
 business with her son. Mrs. Gooden had 
 better manners than to refuse the respect 
 due to their landlord's wife, and, preceded 
 by a woman-servant to unfasten shutters
 
 1 82 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and let daylight into the deserted rooms, 
 she led the way herself. 
 
 The place had never been made a show 
 of since it was dismantled, when the great 
 sale that ensued was a nine days' work. Once 
 it had been royal in its state and grandeur, 
 but now it was denuded and dead-alive. 
 Their footsteps echoed in the empty rooms, 
 and their voices echoed too. 
 
 '' It feels like walking amongst ghosts,'* 
 Mrs. Essex-Brough whispered, treading with 
 stage-stealthiness down the long ball-room, 
 where the smell of must and mildew met 
 them in the face like a chill breath out of 
 a grave. 
 
 " This is the north side of the house. There 
 is never any sun here — that is why it smells 
 damp," Mrs. Gooden explained, seeing Mrs. 
 Denys shiver. " It has never been used 
 since " She checked herself and hesitated.
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 83 
 
 ''Since when? since what?" Mrs. Denys 
 said. " You need not fear to shock me — 
 I know. They say it was murder — I have 
 no doubt it was accident." Her voice 
 was low but peremptory, quite forbidding 
 reply. 
 
 From the ball-room they passed into an 
 ante-room which had furniture of a motley sort 
 and a glass door opening on a flight of steps 
 that led down into a small, square garden, 
 turfed and intersected by straight walks. A 
 perforated stone balustrade enclosed this 
 garden, over which ancient lime-trees ex- 
 tended their branches, the only shaded 
 green loveliness they had seen yet. Then 
 they turned back along the floor where 
 lords and ladles of successive generations had 
 danced the corante and the minuet, the 
 country-dance and the quadrille, until the 
 lamps were finally put out after a grand
 
 184 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 rout, which ended with hot words and per- 
 haps a passionate blow. 
 
 '' It was here they found him," Mrs. Gooden 
 said, speaking with awe. 
 
 She had opened a narrow door formed of 
 a panel in the wainscot to show the dreadful 
 spot — a sort of stone entry at the bottom of 
 a turret-stair, dimly lighted from above by a 
 slit in the wall. The ladies would not go up. 
 Mrs. Denys drew her breath through her 
 teeth with an audible gasp. 
 
 Mrs. Gooden said again: "Just here: as 
 if he had missed his footing coming down, 
 and had fallen headlong. His neck was 
 broken, and his flaxen hair all dabbled with 
 blood from a wound in the right temple." 
 
 Mrs. Denys stared with a pallid face, and 
 asked if she remembered it. 
 
 " I remember it as if it had happened 
 yesterday. I was the wood-steward's niece,
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 85 
 
 a servant in the house, waiting on the ladies. 
 The young man was bonnier than some I've 
 seen, but real wild and wilful : no great loss 
 if there'd been other sons, but there was 
 none. It was the old story over again, and 
 the curse come true. A quarrel with his 
 father about money. It always is money, they 
 say. Their voices were heard in loud con- 
 tention and anger, but only God above was 
 witness to what was acted." 
 
 Mrs. Denys moved away, and Mrs. Gooden's 
 further moralities were lost in the creaking of 
 the panel-door as she re-closed it. 
 
 Mrs. Essex- Brough muttered to herself, 
 snuffing the malodorous air: "If I were wife 
 to Denys of Cote I would not bring my babies 
 to Navestock for all that it is worth." 
 
 Mrs. Denys caught her meaning, but 
 offered no remark. 
 
 There was a name for each of the rooms
 
 1 86 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 through which the ladles wandered farther. 
 All w'ere reduced to the same level of naked- 
 ness, but the fabric was scarcely touched 
 yet with decay. The oaken floors were sound, 
 the floriated ceilings sharp and clear. In the 
 saloon looking south over the terrace, the 
 great central window had many panes open, 
 and the wind blew in pure and sweet. 
 Certain iron hooks, from which stout lines 
 stretched across between wall and wall, just 
 high enough to clear the heads of persons 
 walking underneath, told the reason why. 
 The farmeress dried her clothes there in bad 
 weather. Indeed, nothino- was sacred now. 
 The smell of cheese and apples was strong in 
 the guest-chambers on the grand gallery that 
 went round the hall, and dust was everywhere 
 in the upper stories— dust of meal and dust of 
 ages. And finally, for a climax of surprises, 
 from a wing shut off by lofty, double-leaved
 
 NAVESTOCK — UNDER A CURSE. IS/ 
 
 doors came a noise of children — of so many 
 children that it might have been a school 
 broke loose. 
 
 Mrs. Gooden explained it. '' The labourers' 
 families are accommodated in the west wing, 
 which makes six eood tenements. Navestock 
 is a village of itself. The clergyman holds a 
 service on Sunday afternoons in the chapel, 
 and a comfort it is in the short winter days, for 
 the church is over a mile off You see,ma'am, 
 when the park and pleasure-grounds were 
 broken up for cultivation it seemed better to 
 turn the old house to whatever purposes it 
 would serve than to spend money on new 
 buildings, when money, perhaps, there was 
 none to spare." 
 
 When Mrs. Gooden launched into details 
 Mrs. Denys' attention flagged. Her brain 
 was busy with speculations on what she saw, 
 and the interruption was not unwelcome when
 
 1 88 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Mr. Essex- Brough called for his wife, and 
 they two drove off. 
 
 Mr. Denys was still engaged out of doors 
 with his tenant, and Mrs. Gooden invited Mrs. 
 Denys to her parlour and a cup of tea, which 
 was a comfortable parlour and excellent tea. 
 Phoebe presented herself with the tray, seek- 
 ing instructions and looking serious. Mrs. 
 Gooden, perusing the young woman's coun- 
 tenance, inquired whether it was the squire's 
 intention to stay the night at Navestock, 
 because, though he had stayed sometimes by 
 the week tos^ether in the huntinof-season and 
 for the partridge-shooting, there was nothing 
 fit for a lady, unless Mrs. Denys would be 
 pleased to accept of her best room, which 
 was plain, but sweet and dry as sunshine 
 and fresh air could make it. 
 
 This told more than met the ear, taken 
 together with her tone in speaking to Mr.
 
 NAVESTOCK — UNDER A CURSE. I 89 
 
 Denys of his sons ; and Mrs. Denys rightly 
 inferred that she had been received into favour 
 by this worthy but formal and conventional 
 person. Her husband had spoken of having 
 business at Navestock for a week, and before 
 accepting or declining the proffered lodging, 
 she asked to be shown his customary quarters. 
 To reach them she was conducted through the 
 ball-room again, and though rough and bare 
 quarters they proved to be, she said, neverthe- 
 less, that they would do. Phoebe's solemnity 
 was abated in proportion as her mistress was 
 pleased. She was one of those paradoxical 
 characters who do not believe in ghosts, 
 yet are mortally afraid of them, and being 
 shown a passage that led by roundabout 
 methods to the cheerful kitchen without 
 ofolnof near the haunted door, she was 
 heartened up to her duties, and the results 
 were capital for a makeshift.
 
 190 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs. Denys waited in the 
 ante - room which opened on the garden 
 where the Hme- trees made a fragrant screen 
 against the sun. By every token it was 
 her husband's den. Here were guns and 
 whips, fishing-tackle, foils, and boxing-gloves. 
 Here were books of farriery, agriculture, 
 sport, and law. There were maps and 
 surveys on the walls. Here were old 
 pictures almost extinct, and old pieces of 
 furniture, without doubt the refuse of the 
 great sale of forty years ago. Delia had 
 that habit of observation which accurately 
 registers details. The next room, which 
 served apparently as a room to eat in, pos- 
 sessed a series of ideal landscapes painted 
 in the tall panels of the wainscot, and in 
 medallions above them was a series of family 
 portraits. Delia wished they had been 
 ideal too, but she could not deny her
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I9I 
 
 husband's ancestry. They were a race of 
 thick-set, strong-featured men Hke himself, 
 and had deHghted in exuberant fat women, 
 if the witnesses on the walls were to be 
 believed. The present Denys of Navestock 
 seemed to be the first who had brouoht a 
 beauty into the family. 
 
 As Delia contemplated the ladies whose 
 successor she was, an indescribable feeling 
 of humiliation crept into her heart. She 
 recognised that they had not all been wrong 
 at the House with Golden Gables ; that she 
 had indeed fallen on a prodigious blunder, 
 that she had indeed married under a cloud 
 of delusion. Navestock was an old place, 
 Denys was an old name, but this she had 
 failed to grasp — that a place may be old 
 without dignity, and a name may be old 
 without honour. If she could have seen this 
 house with its desecrated chambers, its uorlv
 
 192 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 effigies, she would have paused, she would 
 have understood the meanino^ and siofnificance 
 of such a dearth of treasures and glories, 
 and would hardly, perhaps, have cared to 
 make herself a unit in a line so ignoble. 
 
 But the deed was done, and by good-luck 
 that had happened since which hindered 
 regret, though her world of dreams lay behind 
 her, and before her a life which had no glow 
 of them at all : she had learned to care for 
 her husband more than for any of the things 
 that he could or could not eive her. 
 
 This shabby museum of odds and ends 
 collected to serve the day's necessities touched 
 her sense of the inconorruous, and the lauo-h 
 was still on her lips when Mr. Denys came 
 by some way unseen into the garden, and 
 made straight for the elass door. This was 
 the means of access to the house which he 
 and his sons used always. Delia appeared
 
 NAVESTOCK — UNDER A CURSE. 1 93 
 
 on the steps as he approached — Hght in her 
 eyes, mirth in her face. 
 
 "Weary of waiting for me, DeHa ? " he 
 said, running up to meet her. 
 
 '' Yes, Huo^h. I have been over this s^reat 
 house. It would lodge an army, but there 
 is nothing in it so enchanting as my window 
 at Cote with its beautiful view of the sea." 
 
 Mr. Denys was gratified by her apprecia- 
 tion of his gift : '' Ah, you will find it hard 
 to match that, whether at home or abroad. 
 Now, Navestock never touched my heart 
 at all, but it gives me an immensity of 
 work." 
 
 " Can I help you ? I should like to help 
 you," Delia said with perfect simplicity of 
 intention. 
 
 " Your life will be better furnished if you 
 can take a real interest in affairs. There 
 is a vast deal to do and think of in the 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 •administration of estates in land, but perhaps 
 it is scarcely in a young lady's way." Mr. 
 Denys seemed at the same time amused and 
 pleased by his wife's wish to help him. 
 
 "If you will let me learn things, I have 
 notions, Hugh," Delia said modestly. 
 
 " So I have discovered," was his shrewd, 
 lauo^hinor answer. He had discovered, too, 
 that their notions were not always in accord. 
 His standard was a long way below that 
 which the Daventrys and Herricks measured 
 by — the only standard Delia knew — and would 
 have to be raised considerably before he 
 would endure to have his actions tested 
 under her inspection ; for he ardently desired 
 that she should believe well of him. 
 
 The sound of boys' clear voices in animated 
 talk arrested what more they might have 
 said. Delia was still standing at the elass 
 door, and saw them coming. They looked
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 95 
 
 Up at their father's call, blushing vividly both 
 of them, but not more vividly than Delia 
 herself. 
 
 " Here they are, George and John, the 
 artist and the merchant," Mr. Denys said, 
 and took his wife's hand, who moved for- 
 ward with a sweet, kind stateliness to 
 receive them. 
 
 The boys were handsome and perfectly 
 well-behaved. They bore little resemblance 
 to their English father, were dark-eyed and 
 dark-haired, taller than he was, but with 
 nothing like the promise of his strength. 
 Their mother had never visited Navestock, 
 nor had they in her lifetime, but since they 
 lost her, when the Glen House was per- 
 manently closed, they had come there in 
 the holidays, consigned to the care of Mrs. 
 Gooden, who would perhaps have loved them 
 better had they been of more trouble to
 
 T96 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 her. They were companions for each other, 
 and so warmly attached that they were never 
 separate in the country. Mr. Denys had 
 eiven to all his children his own name at 
 baptism, but his sons had a distinct under- 
 standing of their position ; and though it 
 induced some reserve of manner amongst 
 strangers, they cherished no resentment be- 
 cause of it that could be detected. With 
 their father they appeared on cordial terms, 
 and when their father's young wife said 
 kindly that she trusted they would let her 
 be their friend, John thought that would 
 be easy, and George with an odd, shy grace 
 touched her hand with his lips. 
 
 They dined in company, and dined well, 
 Mrs. Gooden's unpromising reception notwith- 
 standing, and afterwards Mr. Denys proposed 
 an adjournment to the terrace. There they 
 walked in the balmy cool of the evening
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. I 97 
 
 between sunset and dusk, and the young people 
 grew pretty well acquainted. Delia spoke of 
 her brothers who were of the same age, an 
 introduction which developed a latent socia- 
 bility in both the boys. Mr. Denys listened 
 to them, not taking much part in the conversa- 
 tion, and gradually losing himself in thought. 
 They exchanged information about schools 
 and professions. George and John had both 
 gone from the first to international schools, 
 spending terms alternately in London, Paris, 
 and Vienna, acquiring the education of mer- 
 chants destined to trade with the wide world, 
 until Georo^e declared himself too much the 
 artist to be anything else successfully, since 
 which date he had been a student worklncr 
 hard at the Academy, 
 
 '' George will presently go to Rome. I am 
 going to Smyrna in the spring, to enter the 
 mercantile house of the Czcrnys — our mother's
 
 198 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 people," John said. "Next Christmas will be 
 our last holiday together here." 
 
 " Oh, but you must come and spend Christ- 
 mas at Cote. That will be merrier and 
 happier for all of us," Delia answered in an 
 expostulatory voice. She had taken to the 
 boys. She was touched by their gentleness 
 and frankness. 
 
 George asked rather quickly : *' Shall you 
 have our little sister with you?" 
 
 Delia told them of Marie-Irene at Cote last 
 Sunday, and promised to have her at the 
 Manor House at Christmas, If leave lay with 
 her. " You will let her come, Hugh ? the 
 Sisters will let her come, will they not ? " 
 she said to her husband. 
 
 Mr. Denys roused himself with an effort from 
 his fit of abstraction, and needed to have the 
 query explained. But he did not relapse. 
 The motherly impulse of his young wife
 
 NAVESTOCK — UNDER A CURSE. 1 99 
 
 towards his children was very grateful to him, 
 and he had not expected it. "If you make 
 them feel that they have a home with us, my 
 boys and their little sister, I shall thank you, 
 indeed," he said, in a tone penetrated with 
 tenderness. 
 
 Delia just put her hand within his arm, and 
 they continued to pace the terrace until the 
 stars came out. 
 
 George and John discoursed with animation 
 of the pleasures of the sea, which they loved 
 and had missed at Navestock, and of Cote and 
 Cote people, making them known to Mrs. 
 Denys from their point of view. There was 
 old Crump, the agent, a name of fear, and 
 Richard and Jack Blythe at the Orchard, 
 names of renown, and the three Todds who 
 were boatmen, and probably smugglers, and 
 others besides to whom were attached familiar 
 memories of boyish adventures.
 
 200 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Their father crave them some links of in- 
 <_> 
 
 formation. The years of their exile from Cote 
 had not lapsed without events. 
 
 " Richard Blythe is married, but he goes on 
 livine with his orrandmother at the Orchard," 
 he said in the manner of one who imparts an 
 unwelcome fact. 
 
 It was unwelcome ; yet it seemed a mitiga- 
 tion of the boys' injury and bereavement that 
 Richard and not Jack had got married. Their 
 beloved Jack, entangled in the holy bonds of 
 matrimony, could never more have been play- 
 fellow of theirs as he was once — their comrade 
 in sport, master in woodcraft, helper in many 
 a peril rashly and wilfully incurred. Delia 
 knew their hero as well as a man could be 
 known by his description before they had 
 done praising him. 
 
 '' The Blythes are a family of shepherds. 
 Two hundred years, from father to son, that
 
 NAVESTOCK UNDER A CURSE. 20I 
 
 family have had the Orchard. A good stock, 
 but puritanical — a perpetual reproach to their 
 squires," Mr. Denys said, explaining them 
 further. 
 
 Delia looked up, feeling an edge in her 
 husband's tone that was strange to her, 
 and the boys were silent. Their o^lorifica- 
 tion of Jack Blythe had touched some jarring 
 chord of recollection in Mr. Denys' mind, 
 which was suddenly re-awakened in their 
 minds too, and the conversation dropped.
 
 ( 202 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 
 
 " Man and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offence of each 
 other in the be^^inning of their conversation. Every little thing can 
 blast an infant blossom."— Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Navestock was not more than a two hours' 
 drive from Auldcaster for those who knew 
 the cross - country roads, and over the hills 
 by the bridle - tracks it was considerably 
 less. 
 
 News was brouo^ht to the House with 
 Golden Gables that Mr. and Mrs. Denys 
 were at Navestock. Mrs. Daventry was hope- 
 fully excited. Cricket said: "Now, mother,
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 2O3 
 
 what do you think — will Mr. Denys let sister 
 Dil come to see us ? " 
 
 " We will send her a letter," his mother 
 answ^ered, with a soothln^^ caress. 
 
 The letter went by a special messenger, 
 and Delia had it early in the morning. She 
 did not anticipate this Invitation, and the 
 surprise brought a joyful flush to her face. 
 They were just rising from breakfast, they 
 and the boys. 
 
 " Look here, Hugh," she whispered to her 
 husband, holdlnor him bv the arm, and offerlnor 
 the letter to his eyes. 
 
 He read it, and lookinof down at her, said 
 kindly enough, yet with a remonstrative tone : 
 " I shall deny you nothing that you set your 
 heart on, Delia ; but I cannot go to Auldcastcr, 
 and judge you whether it be right and fair 
 that my wife should go home to her own 
 people for the first time without me .'^ " He
 
 204 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 was, In fact, amazed that she could propose 
 to go. 
 
 Delia spoke not another word, but she 
 wrote : " Dear, dear mother, I cannot come 
 to you now. Tell Cricket we are on our way 
 into Kent, and I shall write him a letter from 
 Acklam, as soon as I have a long hour to 
 mvself." 
 
 Mr. Denys was going to be occupied with 
 his tenant about matters that could give no 
 entertainment to the young people, and he 
 entrusted Delia to the boys, who promised to 
 be her escort wherever she might wish to go. 
 Delia could form no precise wishes yet, know- 
 ing nothing of the place, and to begin at the 
 beginning, John asked if she had seen that 
 terrier of Navestock that hung in the justice- 
 room. Delia did not seem to know what the 
 ter7'ier was, and she had not been in the 
 justice-room. John undertook to instruct her.
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 205 
 
 He had an historical mind that would have 
 made him acceptable to Cricket. No one 
 was more intimately acquainted with the 
 annals and traditions of his father's family 
 than John Denys. 
 
 " The terinerl' he said, " is a roll of the 
 tenants on the manor, with a map showing 
 the boundaries, roads, and water-courses, and 
 in what state of cultivation the soil was two 
 hundred years ago. It is older than the house 
 itself. They have a later survey shut up in 
 a strong box somewhere, from which we 
 know how Navestock has spread since it 
 came into possession of the Denyses of Cote ; 
 but this is much more curious. Come and 
 see it." 
 
 The lady was decoyed into a bleak and 
 lofty room where defunct law-breakers had 
 been brought to judgment before dead and 
 gone squires, and where were preserved, be-
 
 206 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 sides the map on the wall, a worm-eaten oak 
 table and chair, unholy relics of that Denys 
 of Cote whose black deeds had brought the 
 broad acres of Navestock into his famil}^ 
 saddled with a curse. She examined it with 
 an interest that increased as John's exposition 
 grew long. It was worth his while to take 
 pains with her ; she wanted to learn, and Mr. 
 Denys, dropping in on them unexpectedly in 
 the middle of the morning, found her seem- 
 ingly quite absorbed. 
 
 "At work in earnest already, Delia .'^" he 
 said with an intonation that caused the colour 
 to rise warmly in her face. 
 
 Delia's peculiar self - consciousness about 
 Navestock was likely to be embarrassing. 
 She replied that John had brought her there 
 to give her a general idea of the country before 
 taking her out. Now she was prepared to go. 
 Her blush deepened as she spoke, and Mr.
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 20/ 
 
 Denys read her feelings at a glance. She 
 had been distressed by the incident of her 
 mother's letter, and was in a sensitive mood, 
 vibrating at a word, at a tone in his voice 
 even. 
 
 He turned to his sons : " Come up through 
 Branksome Wood to the Three Beeches, and 
 bring with you something to eat and drink. 
 It is a pretty knoll, Delia, and you will find 
 shelter from the sun nearly all the way. I will 
 join you presently," he said, and was gone 
 again as suddenly as he came, averting a 
 peril — the sight of tears in his young wife's 
 eyes. 
 
 Delia rallied her courage, and inquired of 
 the boys how far it was to the Three Beeches. 
 John said a mile, George said two, and they 
 set off about noon when the sun was hot. It 
 was a sweltering day without a breath of air 
 in the woods. Delia w^ished the\' could feel
 
 208 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 a breeze from the sea, but she persevered 
 to the appointed spot, which was on the verge 
 of Navestock Chase, and had the same glorious 
 expanse of prospect as she had seen from the 
 road on arrivinof. 
 
 The harvest was later on these hio-h lands 
 than in the neicrhbourhood of Cote, but the 
 ripe corn was falling before the sickle to-day 
 in many a long furrow. The boys found for 
 the lady a good place where she could rest, 
 and as their father delayed to come they fed 
 her and themselves, and talked meanwhile of 
 things past, present, and future, with a fiatter- 
 inof confidence. 
 
 There are hours and scenes that memory 
 photographs in a beautiful aspect. This 
 drowsy afternoon at the Three Beeches was 
 one. The distant hills were dim with mist 
 of heat, and in the silence brooding over the 
 plain Delia imagined dear, familiar voices.
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 209 
 
 Georee was observlnor her countenance : 
 ''What do you hear?" he said. 
 
 '' I thought I heard bells. Can you hear 
 Auidcaster Church bells all this way?" 
 
 " No. If you hear bells, they are Beau- 
 minster bells. I hear nothing but the 
 thrumminQ: of some creature in the lonor 
 grass. What is it, John?" 
 
 George saw more than he cared to see, 
 and was sorry for the break in the lady's 
 voice. John looked up, and the brothers 
 moved off in search, or feigned search, of 
 the creature, leaving her to herself for a 
 little while. When they re-appeared they 
 had a proposal to make. John was spokes- 
 man. 
 
 "If you could be up at six o'clock, wc would 
 
 ride with you to Auidcaster in the cool of the 
 
 morning. There is a beautiful little bay horse 
 
 here that carries a lad\- — you might have all 
 VOL. I. o
 
 2IO MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 the day to rest, and return after the sun has 
 set." 
 
 Delia shook her head. " I am not so 
 homesick as that," she said between laughing 
 and crying. " But I do thank you both for 
 the kind thought." And she did not forget 
 to tell Cricket when she wrote him that pro- 
 mised letter. 
 
 When Mr. Denys came, he came riding that 
 beautiful little bay horse that would carry a 
 lady, and which he said he had brought to 
 carry Delia back. It did carry her back, by 
 the bridle-path through the woods and fields, 
 her husband walking at its head, and the boys 
 following, twined arm-in-arm lovingly. The 
 husband and wife did not find much to say on 
 the road. She was quiet, and he was grave. 
 It was a retired way, but a right-of-way for all 
 the world nevertheless, and they had not gone 
 very far when they met Sir John Herrick and
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 2 I I 
 
 his eldest son returnlnor from Beauminster to 
 Danesmore. Delia's face of sudden joy was 
 like a call to them to stop, and stop they did, 
 the gentlemen shaking hands, and Sir John 
 good-humouredly expressing a hope that he 
 should have the pleasure of finding his neigh- 
 bours at home when he went next to Cote. 
 For ten minutes they halted in a group, 
 talkinor with a discursive confusion of a ereat 
 medley of things, as Delia perceived when she 
 came to think it all over afterwards. But it 
 did her heart good that had felt quite sore 
 since the mornincr. 
 
 " You will see them a^rain before I do — I 
 need not tell you what to say," was her fare- 
 well to Sir John. 
 
 He gave her a nod full of comprehension, 
 and threw a glance behind him when he 
 had ridden on. " If a woman's looks are 
 to l^e trusted, she is happy enough," he re-
 
 212 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 marked to his son, and his son agreed with 
 him. 
 
 There was a dark blush on the face of Mr. 
 Denys, and for several minutes, walking at 
 his wife's bridle-rein, he said no word at all. 
 Delia had quite cheered up, and was no 
 longer shy of speaking. She told him that 
 belne so near to Auldcaster she would 
 have liked to gO home for a day, for her 
 mother s sake and Cricket's — nobody else 
 need have missed her.— and asked, would 
 he let her m the next time he brouo^ht 
 her to Navestock ? He answered that he 
 would let her go 7iow — had he not said so 
 before ? 
 
 ''You know very well, Hugh, that I shall 
 not accept such a grudging permission. I shall 
 not go without you," was her rejoinder. Mr. 
 Denys was pleased with it. His young wife's 
 people had used him so hardly that he had
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 213 
 
 begun his married life \vith the angry inten- 
 tion of keeping her away from them, for 
 fear, hke a child gone to school for the first 
 time, she might be distracted by thoughts of 
 home from her new affections and duties. 
 The danger seemed already inconsiderable, 
 and Delia's method was persuasive. The 
 resolution that tears and urgency w^ould 
 have confirmed and strengthened, her con- 
 trol and reasonableness absolved him from. 
 He gave her no promise, but he left 
 her in hopes that he would not continue 
 obdurate. 
 
 They did not return to the house by 
 the same way as they had quitted it, but, 
 submitting to the guidance of George, went 
 through a picturesquely ruinous waste place 
 of broken walls clothed with old ivy, where 
 the deadly nightshade made a purple con- 
 trast with the white bindweed and slinging
 
 2 14 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 nettle all over the uneven orround. It was 
 In the cold north shade, and here were 
 traces of a moat Imperfectly drained ; for 
 the soil oozed under the foot, and the 
 print filled with blackish, dank water. This 
 was the most ancient part of the house. 
 The lower walls were blank and grim as 
 the walls of a fortress ; and hlMi up the 
 murky windows of the ball-room let In the 
 reeking moisture, Impregnated with seeds 
 of death. 
 
 *' The curse of malaria must have huncr 
 about Navestock In Its golden days. One 
 mieht catch a fever here. No need of anv 
 curse besides to carry off the children," 
 Delia said, and covered her mouth, remem- 
 bering Mrs. Essex-Brouorh's remark that 
 had offended her, and esteemlno^ It now a 
 remark with much reason. 
 . " You ordered this place to be cleared
 
 BELLS IN THE AIR. 21 5 
 
 out — It has not been touched," John said, 
 looking to his father. 
 
 Mr. Denys did not speak ; his silence 
 seemed to express weariness of speaking.
 
 ( 2i6 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 
 
 " Remember that marriage has a morrow, and again a morrow." 
 
 Frederika Bremer. 
 
 *' Do the duty which lies nearest thee — which thou knowest to be a duty." 
 
 Carlyle. 
 
 Mr. Denys was never a man for much talk 
 about thincrs. Delia had discovered this 
 soon, and having the gift of silence herself, 
 she found it easy to respect her husband's 
 taciturn humours. 
 
 That evening after dinner the boys vanished 
 promptly, taking a hint from their father 
 which the lady did not see. Mr. Denys rose 
 too — it was not his habit to sit lono^ at his 
 wine — and giving his hand to his wife, they
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 2\J 
 
 passed Into that miscellaneous den which was 
 all the withdrawing-room they had. An old 
 leathern seat, settle-shaped, of which the 
 pattern stamped In gold was nearly worn out, 
 had been moved up to the glass door, and 
 there Mr. Denys cast himself down, motioning 
 to Delia to sit by him. 
 
 Their attitude was sociable, and in the 
 twilight their silence felt sympathetic. Delia 
 was yearning to know what had struck her 
 husband dumb. It was nothincr but the 
 vapour of discontents, the legacy of his dead 
 past, evoked by the encounter with Sir John 
 Herrick and his son, and in a little while 
 her livini: breath, a touch of her livlnof 
 hand, made them away. The present 
 reigned again. 
 
 " I am very glad of you, Delia," was his 
 response to her gentle advances. 
 
 '* That is irood. Then tell me what vexes
 
 2l8 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 you — or don't tell me, if it would be better 
 not put into speech." 
 
 Probably it was better not put into speech. 
 ** What are these pretty beads about your 
 neck — sculptured cherry-stones ? " was the 
 irrelevant query that came after a pause by 
 way of answer. 
 
 *' Nothing much more precious : I think 
 they are the seeds of some foreign plant. 
 Nurse Abby gave them to me when she left 
 us. She said they were a rosary that she 
 had from her first mistress, Mrs. Meade 
 of Updeane. Here is the crucifix;" and 
 Delia showed it, hidden in the folds of her 
 dress. 
 
 ''Ah, it is wrought gold, very curious: old 
 Norman work." Mr. Denys fingered it, and 
 let it drop, thinking, perhaps, of something 
 else. 
 
 There had been mention of diamonds
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 219 
 
 between them for Delia ; she wondered 
 whether this was In his mind. 
 
 The next morning after breakfast Mr. 
 Denys invited his wife to ride with him, 
 saying that he wanted to take her where 
 they coukl not drive, and farther than she 
 could walk. " I want you to see what I am 
 lord of here," he explained, and Delia made 
 haste to be ready and go. 
 
 The day was cooler than yesterday. There 
 had been a sharp rain in the night, and 
 vegetation was refreshed. The atmosphere 
 was clear, and the towers of Beauminster were 
 greyly visible on the horizon. But it was 
 not views or far, fair prospects that Mr. 
 Denys was come out to see with Delia to- 
 day. They left the beaten roads, and 
 travelled across the fields from point to 
 point as the crow flies, through gaps
 
 2 20 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 of hedges sometimes, and sometimes by 
 gates badly In want of mending with new 
 ones. 
 
 " Have you ever followed the hounds, 
 Delia ? " Mr. Denys asked once when the 
 little bay horse and she had pulled cleverly 
 through a battered fence with a ditch at the 
 farther side. 
 
 " No. I don't think I should have the 
 courage," Delia said. 
 
 " You have courage enough. But, perhaps, 
 you don't care for sport ? " 
 
 " I think it Is cruel for ladles. We had a 
 rough little pony or two at home between 
 our boys and the rectory, and they often gave 
 me a canter on the Stray. It Is pleasant 
 riding on Auldcaster Stray." 
 
 " Mrs. Essex-Brouo^h hunts all throuo^h the 
 season."
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 22 1 
 
 " Don't bid me copy her, dear Hugh. I 
 can ride, but I was never passionately fond 
 of ridinfr." 
 
 *' I am sorry to hear that. You must ride 
 at Cote, or often stay at home. I had that 
 little bay horse broke on purpose for you, 
 and Mrs. Essex-Brough has taken pains to 
 bring him into perfect training. His action 
 is very fine and his mouth capital. You 
 must try to like him — he is yours. What 
 will you call him ? " 
 
 ''You are very good to me, Hugh. What 
 shall I call him ! Let me consider — I will 
 call him Phoebus." 
 
 Delia was q-rateful for her husband's o^ift, and 
 amused him by putting Phoebus through his 
 paces. '' I shall not teach him any antics ; he 
 has too much solid merit," she said, and the 
 next minute they were careering at accelerated 
 speed down a green slope, at the bottom of
 
 2 22 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 which was a low hedge of quick that Phoebus 
 skimmed as lightly as a bird. 
 
 " It is warm weather, my wife," Mr. Denys 
 said, overtaking her at his leisure. '' Don't tell 
 me that you are not fond of riding." 
 
 They went on, companionably silent, pass- 
 ing, now and then, near a farmstead or a group 
 of cottages, all more or less picturesquely in 
 need of repair, but halting nowhere until, on 
 rounding a half-grown plantation of spruce, 
 they came full in view of a house that it 
 had screened. It was the Warren House, an 
 isolated dwellinor set in the midst of the fields, 
 that had no approach but by a rough cart- 
 track. Mr. Denys had given it for a shelter to 
 the man who had contested his title to Nave- 
 stock — to Ralph Denys, otherwise Wayland. 
 Cousins they were called. 
 
 Thatch was its roof, where the stone-crop 
 grew in orolden cushions, and rubble were its
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 223 
 
 walls, white-washed, and stained with russet 
 lichens. In front lay a small garden exhaling 
 all manner of sweetness, and at the foot of the 
 old walls was a vigorous growth of young 
 plants straining upwards to cover their 
 bareness. 
 
 Very busy in this garden, and to all appear- 
 ance happily busy, were three persons, and 
 one lookinor on — the workers a woman and 
 two girls, not working-people born, but work- 
 ino- with a will, as emigrants cast on a strange, 
 barren shore might work on a hopeful day. 
 The one standino- idle was a man. 
 
 o 
 
 For a minute and not lono^er Delia saw 
 the three stooping and moving amongst the 
 bushes, then the man turned, straightened 
 himself, and came towards the gate, taking 
 off his straw hat to the lady with a sullen 
 courtesy. 
 
 " Good morning. Cousin Ralph," said ]\Ir.
 
 2 24 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Denys. '' Good morning," said the other, 
 and the two shook hands, but scarcely Hke 
 men ivho are friends. At a siQrn from Mr. 
 Denys the woman and girls approached, and 
 he named them to Delia as his Cousin 
 Ralph's wife and daughters. They had been 
 gathering fruit, and the younger girl held 
 up her basket of plums, ripe and purple, 
 tempting the lady to eat. The elder stood 
 at gaze, a finger on her lip, only wondering 
 and perhaps envying. 
 
 It was a remarkable scene that Delia 
 witnessed. She heard the Osiris called Anofel 
 and DIavola. 
 
 Ralph Denys had a visage lean and hard- 
 lined — the visai2:e of a man with a Q;rievance 
 which he lets gnaw at his heart constantly. 
 On his wife's face there was the reflection 
 of It, softened by much patience and much 
 pity. She was not a lady, but she had
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 225 
 
 some of those orraces of nature which nature 
 distributes without regard to rank. Indin- 
 ing her head gravely to Mrs. Denys by way 
 of excuse for leaving her to the girls, she 
 drew to her husband's side to listen to what 
 he was saying. He had begun on his griev- 
 ance, of course, but Mr. Denys was not in 
 the humour to hear it. 
 
 " Don't hark back on that, Ralph," he said, 
 with suppressed irritation. " You fought 
 your quarrel to the bitter end, and left me 
 but a hungry triumph when all was done. 
 What am I here — what shall I ever be but 
 steward of Navestock ? You hate toil and 
 trouble, and Navestock is nothing but labour 
 and care from year's end to year's end." 
 
 " I would have had blood out of it yet ! " 
 
 cried the other with a passionate fling. " It 
 
 is a poor heart that never rejoices ! Oh, )-ou 
 
 are not like the fine old stock that ate, drank, 
 VOL. I. r
 
 2 26 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and were merry, pine who would to nourish 
 their waste ! " 
 
 Mr. Denys turned from him deUberately, 
 and surveying the garden, spoke to the wife : 
 '' The flowers have thriven. I trust that the 
 kitchen stuff, the pease and potatoes, have 
 done as well ? " 
 
 '' Yes, sir, thank you. The seed was all 
 of the best. We have wanted for nothing ; 
 but our needs here are few," she said 
 with a strong cheerfulness that told her 
 character. 
 
 Mr. Denys cast an eye over the girls. 
 They were dressed in brown holland plainly 
 braided with white, and wore sun-bonnets of 
 the same material which shaded entirely their 
 necks and faces. The mother was clothed 
 in a similar fashion. Some of the worst 
 Ills of poverty she was able yet to stave off 
 by dint of Industry and thrift, and the
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 227 
 
 younger girl was her willing, effectual helper 
 
 — Anorel. 
 <_> 
 
 " And how about a shootincr licence ? If 
 Ralph will carry his gun to levy war on the 
 ground-game, the pot need never be empty," 
 Mr. Denys said, satisfied apparently with the 
 general results of his inspection. 
 
 The wife from her manner would have 
 deprecated the leave to carry a gun, but 
 her husband caught at it with cynical eager- 
 ness. " Let me have the licence. Cousin 
 Hugh, and send plenty of ammunition. When 
 I carry my gun, I have the false air of a 
 gentleman still." 
 
 Mr. Denys nodded, turned his horse's 
 head, and, leading the way, beckoned Delia 
 to follow. 
 
 •* Poor Ralph has great luck in that good 
 woman. He would have gone to the dogs 
 in raging despair long since but for her,"
 
 228 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 he said, and gave a sigh to the dreary 
 presence they had left. 
 
 Delia did not feel that she knew this 
 story, and Mr. Denys was indisposed to 
 tell it, except so far as his cousin Ralph 
 was to blame for the pillage that Navestock 
 had suffered under the lawyers in the 
 lineerine suit that had been between them — 
 tokens of which were everywhere visible 
 before her eyes. 
 
 They took the rough cart-track from the 
 Warren House, which, after skirting the 
 hedges through three fields, merged into a 
 deep, hollow lane, and joined the high-road 
 where the first scattered houses of the village 
 formed the approach to the parish church. 
 The parsonage was close by, the churchyard 
 and parson's barnyard being separated only 
 by a low wall of unmortared stones. They 
 pulled up.
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 229 
 
 '' Here is a picture for you, Delia. I 
 warrant you never saw such a picture," 
 Mr. Denys said, and looked from it to 
 her. 
 
 Delia was startled. *' I never did, Hugh," 
 she said softly. " Never have I seen so 
 much poverty in a day as I have seen since 
 we set out on our ride this morning." 
 
 " And the poverty is mine," was her 
 husband's grim rejoinder. 
 
 The church was centuries old, and had 
 stood through many evil days, of which the 
 present days were not, perhaps, the worst ; 
 for it was in quiet if it was in ruin. The 
 gate opened on a pathway green with 
 moss, and the orraves were lost in the rank 
 growth of grass. The parsonage was but 
 a larger cottage with broken, falling thatch, 
 and half the windows darkened with moulder- 
 ino- shutters. The villasfe ale-house was
 
 230 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 in sight and a cluster of village houses, all 
 pictures of a like mean and squalid type. 
 
 Delia asked what the clergyman was 
 about — was there no clergyman ? Mr. Denys 
 answered that there was a curate-in-charore 
 who did the best he could, but the livine 
 was sequestrated. Delia understood what 
 that meant — a shepherd out of the way, a 
 sheepfold broken down, and a flock left to 
 wander. 
 
 They rode back slowly to the desolate great 
 house, passing more and more evidence of 
 the want of money. 
 
 "There is nothinof like this at Cote," 
 Delia remarked once, on the aspect of an 
 abandoned farmstead oroino- to utter wreck. 
 
 o o 
 
 " There is nothing quite so bad, but there 
 are things bad enough even at Cote," Mr. 
 Denys said. 
 
 He spoke in a tone and with an air of
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 23 1 
 
 making, once for all, a clean breast of 
 some troublesome fears that were perplex- 
 ing him. Delia gazed straight before her, 
 drawing certain obvious conclusions which 
 were not the less surprises because they 
 were so obvious. The events of her life had 
 changed their perspective quickly, indeed. 
 
 Mr. Denys after a short silence went 
 on : 'M have only Acklam to show you 
 now — all the greatness I was born to. TJiis 
 was thrust upon me — Cote and this. And 
 truly, Delia, I have been none the better 
 for It!" 
 
 Delia turned her face to her husband with 
 her beautiful look of goodness, and answered 
 him : " Don't say that, dear Hugh. I am 
 ready to share every burden you have. 
 They used to tell me at home that I should 
 never be happy without power and praise. 
 This shall be my praise — not to want
 
 232 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 diamonds to set me off, but good works 
 such as the helpmeet of a poor rich man 
 may find to do." 
 
 Mr. Denys thanked her. He was de- 
 livered from a secret anxiety. His counte- 
 nance cleared as if a cloud had been lifted. 
 "It is not a narrow life that is before you, 
 forego what you may. If I take you at 
 your word, will you ever reproach me ? You 
 are Qrenerous, but this is a lono- and severe 
 test. Shall I tell you what It means ? " 
 
 '* Not now. Tell me by and by." Delia 
 remembered how she had dreamt of velvet 
 robes and coronets, of the world at her 
 feet, of incense, homage, and cymbals of 
 applause. ''Yet I never cared for those 
 things in my heart," she said. 
 
 Mr. Denys' views in his marriage had 
 been quite simple and natural. In taking 
 that yoke upon him he meant to wear it
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 233 
 
 with a good grace, and In this virtuous, 
 portionless young lady, country-born and 
 bred, he had looked to find a grateful, 
 easy, and submissive yoke-fellow, who would 
 give him children to be his heirs, guide his 
 house, and keep him company In the dull 
 decline of as^e. 
 
 For his comfort, she promised to be much 
 more than this — a tender, true friend and 
 loving spouse. 
 
 In the eveninor he told her a little of 
 his fortunes that It was prudent for her to 
 know. He told her that he had planned 
 to live as free of Navestock as if it did 
 not belong to him. 
 
 '' You must never let your mind run on 
 restoring It to Its ancient splendour," he 
 said, proving that he had made a silent 
 note of her disconcerted manner on a 
 former occasion.
 
 2 34 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Delia blushed as warmly now as she 
 had done then, but she laughed too, and 
 said that, indeed, she had no encouragement. 
 
 " My lifetime will not suffice to redeem 
 it from debt," he went on. '' Much of the 
 land is gone out of cultivation, and desirable 
 tenants are not to be found for farms where 
 the buildings are falling down. Only Gooden's 
 land is really well done to. His father had 
 a long lease, and I have a scheme for grant- 
 ing other long leases which I expect will 
 work and bring the estate round in the 
 course of years. You may see it, but I 
 cannot. Meanwhile, there is Cote for us to 
 enjoy, and Acklam if you like it." 
 
 Delia was sure that she should like 
 Acklam : it was in the midst of charminor 
 scenery, and within a drive of town. 
 
 Acklam was dear to Mr. Denys for 
 better reasons than these. " Then to-
 
 WEARING TO THE YOKE. 235 
 
 morrow," he said, ''we will go into Kent. 
 There I shall bring you acquainted with 
 my people — homely people some of them, 
 but not a knave or a fool amongst them 
 all."
 
 ( 236 ) 
 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MR. DENYS' PEOPLE. 
 
 "Enjoy the blessings of this day if God sends them. . . For this 
 day only is ours ; we are dead to yesterday, and we are not born to 
 to-morrow." — Fuller. 
 
 Mr. Denys was always at his best at 
 Acklam. It was his birthplace, and the 
 old home to him where were rooted the 
 kindly fibres of early remembrance. He 
 had broken some of them in his strono- 
 and self-willed youth, but they had grown 
 together again, and had long ceased aching. 
 If it had been his lot to stay there, walk- 
 ing in the paths of humble fortune, he 
 might have lived like his fathers, useful 
 and beloved, and have died like them,
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 237 
 
 leaving a good name to his children. But 
 at the ao^e when a man is ^enerous and 
 impetuous, if ever he is to be generous 
 and . impetuous, a mirage of great riches 
 and' 'position had opened before him, and 
 the sacrifice of a pure and loyal love 
 was asked in their name. He refused 
 to make it, and he did right in refusing 
 to make it. His mother was angry and 
 he was hasty ; and there was no prudent 
 counsellor at hand to speak a moderating 
 word, and bid him temporise. 
 
 Everybody blunders, everybody misses 
 something, but Hugh Denys blundered 
 more fatally, missed far more than the 
 common run of men. His bark carried 
 that precious freight which no money can 
 buy — if only he had waited for a favour- 
 able wind. But in the sunshine, when 
 the tide was flowing, all for want of just
 
 238 MRS. DENYS OF COTE, 
 
 a little patience, he cast away his hopes 
 of a successful voyage, and got amongst 
 perilous rocks on the shores of an island 
 out of the main track of ships. It was 
 not a desert island. He was not solitary 
 there, not without joys, but he had the 
 heart of a man, and must have looked 
 with longing often to the great highways 
 of the sea where life is adventurous and 
 full of meaning. 
 
 It was a bitter day that brought the 
 news to Acklam. His mother never looked 
 the world in the face after. 
 
 " Not married, not lawfully married, 
 yet living as man and wife together, my 
 son and Agnes ? " she muttered miserably. 
 
 No plea availed with her to whiten their 
 sin — she called it their sin — and their sin 
 was her shame. Her son visited her from 
 time to time, but she never saw Agnes
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 239 
 
 any more, nor did she once see his 
 children. 
 
 A paradoxical sort of respect was paid 
 to Mr. Denys always by a few men and 
 women who knew what his misfortune had 
 been. His young wife noticed it first at 
 Acklam. The clergyman, who was of much 
 the same age, called him by his name, 
 and went to and fro in the house as none 
 but the oldest and dearest intimates ever 
 do go. This gentleman, with a touch of 
 confidential enthusiasm, thanked Delia for 
 being so good to Hugh Denys, and told 
 her that she would not lose her reward. 
 Delia was troubled and confused for a 
 moment, but she did not esteem her hus- 
 band's friend the less. 
 
 It happened to be true September weather 
 while they were at Acklam, thick dews 
 on the grass in the mornings, hot mid-day
 
 240 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 sun, and sweet, still evenings. The house- 
 door stood constantly open upon the garden, 
 and Delia had a sense of peaceful, easy- 
 life there. Knapp and Mrs. Brice had 
 arrived before their master, and the order 
 of the place went on as if it were always 
 going. They had quiet dinners with a guest 
 or two nearly every day — relatives or friends 
 of Mr. Denys, who arrived from London 
 in the late afternoon, and left the next 
 morning in time for business. They im- 
 pressed Delia very agreeably, and they were 
 one and all agreeably impressed by her. 
 She appeared to them a beautiful young 
 lady of gentle manners and strong mind, 
 who did not talk much but listened well, 
 and seemed kindly disposed towards her 
 husband's people, and his friends before his 
 
 marriage. 
 
 When they had been a week at Acklam,
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 24 1 
 
 Delia was willing, and even glad, that their 
 stay should be prolonged ; for when they 
 returned to Cote she understood that it 
 was to be for the winter. The house was 
 not large, but it was large enough, and full 
 of quaintness — a chequered hall, parlours 
 low and gloomy, with deep window-seats 
 where you could lie and read, and smell 
 the flowers, and hear the birds sing, all 
 in a rural shade and simplicity. There had 
 never been money to spoil the old house 
 by way of improving it, but it had been 
 kept in sound repair, and the old silver, 
 old china, and old linen were in good con- 
 dition for service still. 
 
 " Everything is as my mother left It, and 
 as she liked it," Mr. Denys told his young 
 wife. " Brice wanted new thincrs when her 
 mistress was alive, but now she says the 
 
 old are better — and so do I." 
 
 VOL. L Q
 
 242 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 ''It would be a pity to change them. If 
 we were not to live at Cote, I think I could 
 be contented to live here," Delia answered. 
 
 Mr. Denys said he should not like to 
 put her to that proof. " But it is within easy 
 reach of London, and if you do not care 
 for a house there, we may have enough of 
 its noise and amusements in the season by 
 going up from this place for a few days 
 at a time." 
 
 " Did you contemplate giving me a house 
 in London ? Oh, but I should like that, and 
 to be presented ! " Delia cried with an air 
 of Mistress Pride again. 
 
 " You shall have what you would like, 
 then," her husband said quietly. 
 
 Mr. Denys seemed the very pattern of 
 a considerate, indulgent husband. Delia 
 might have encroached, she might have been 
 capricious and exacting with impunity, had
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 243 
 
 that been her humour. But she ^vas, on 
 the contrary, perfectly obHglng. One morn- 
 ing there was a letter by post over which 
 Mr. Denys cogitated in silence some minutes, 
 reading it a second time. Then he o^ave 
 it to her. It was from " Aunt Alice," Mrs. 
 Bulkeley, a sister of his mother, inviting 
 him to brine: his bride to visit her at '' Barn 
 Oaks." 
 
 Delia smiled over the letter, and said : 
 " Take me, Hugh." 
 
 " Don't imagine from her expressions of 
 humility that Aunt Alice is a humble person, 
 Delia. Mr. Bulkeley is a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, a justice of the peace, and belongs 
 to the rich fraternity of brewers. Barn Oaks 
 is one of the few fine old houses left in the 
 ncid'hbourhood of London, which he boucrht, 
 and improved to suit himself He will tell 
 }-ou that he has spent a fortune on it. If
 
 244 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 you are interested, he will tell you every 
 item of expense." 
 
 Delia determined not to be interested, 
 
 but she liked well enough oroinor to Barn 
 
 O tj o 
 
 Oaks. It was, indeed, a very fine house, 
 and gilded and blazoned in the very finest 
 taste. Mr. Bulkeley had bought it as it 
 stood when the family that had owned it 
 before him fell into decay. In the hall and 
 on the staircase were their portraits, going 
 back to the days of the Young Pretender, 
 concerning whom there was a legend that 
 he had slept a night there on his last visit 
 to England ; in witness of which his room 
 was shown, and the very bed he slept in, 
 and a likeness of a man in armour that any- 
 body not embarrassed with authentic memo- 
 ries of that historical hero might accept as 
 his. 
 Mrs. Bulkeley had prepared a delightful
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 245 
 
 entertainment for her visitors from Acklam 
 on the afternoon of their arrival — a reception, 
 with music in the o^ardcns — at which " the 
 bride of my nephew, Mr. Denys of Cote 
 and Navestock," was explained as a grand- 
 daughter of Judge Daventry to the majority 
 not entitled to claim a personal introduction. 
 Some of the o^uests smiled at these asides 
 ©f the proud humility for which the lady 
 of Barn Oaks was famous, recollecting that 
 rebuke of the judge to Mr. Denys — a winning 
 suitor in a bad cause — of which she was 
 probably never informed. 
 
 Mrs. Denys was the newest and quite 
 the loveliest face and ficrure there. She wore 
 her weddinor dress and hat, and shone con- 
 spicuous in the grace of simplicity, admirable 
 above envy, with a distinguished repose and 
 a most charming expression of sense and 
 sweetness. To her husband's rich kinsfolk
 
 246 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 of the City she was as modestly gracious as 
 the most exactincr could wish. She became 
 a sort of standard and tradition in that society, 
 which she did not much frequent afterwards ; 
 and friends at Barn Oaks who saw her on that 
 day were heard in later years diminishing 
 the pretensions of succeeding beauties with 
 the unkind comparison that, beautiful as they 
 were in their way, they were not so perfect 
 as Mrs. Denys of Cote. 
 
 Mrs. Bulkeley was inclined to apologise 
 to Mrs. Denys for her company, saying that 
 there was nobody, literally nobody, in town 
 in September, but to Delia, whose fashionable 
 experiences were of the slenderest, there 
 seemed to be a considerable residue of very 
 fine people left amongst the crowd scattered 
 through the gardens. And they enjoyed 
 themselves. They were not of that rank 
 and deeree to which belong ancestral houses
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 247 
 
 in the country, but of the upper, moneyed 
 middle-class whose places of business are 
 open all the year round. The fashion 
 of a universal exodus had hardly yet set 
 in, and though Mr. Bulkeley spent annually 
 three weeks with the crrouse in Scotland 
 after Parliament rose, both he and his wife 
 had the courage to avow that their happiest 
 holidays were spent at home, at Barn Oaks, 
 when long acquaintances came to stay with 
 them, and were satisfied with a visit to Drury 
 Lane, to Westminster Abbey and the British 
 IMuseum, In the simple way of visitors from 
 the country. 
 
 The reception in the garden was followed 
 by a small dinner party, at which the bride 
 was presented to the best known of her 
 new connections — Sir Oliver Denys — a stately 
 and handsome old man who had been 
 Lord Mayor of London in famous times,
 
 248 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and g-Qt knighted for his hospitality in feast- 
 ing royal guests. 
 
 Sir Oliver came attended by a lady known 
 throughout the family as " Cousin Elizabeth 
 Paul." She was no cousin, but her title 
 to cousinship was allowed because Sir 
 Oliver had acknowledo^ed her as his heiress, 
 and to stand well with him, it was supposed 
 to be essential to stand well first with her. 
 She had won her place by the practice of 
 no low arts. Sir Oliver knew her parentage 
 when he adopted her at the solicitation 
 of his childless wife, who had been dead 
 now some years. As a girl she had given 
 no promise but of average sense, and she 
 had grown up into a woman of talents, 
 wise-hearted and clear-headed, but a sad 
 little woman to look at, being very small 
 and deformed. She had a fine head and 
 pretty features, and her eyes were wonder-
 
 MR. DENYS PE-OPLE. 249 
 
 fullv intelliofent and beautiful — so remarkable, 
 indeed, that it was no uncommon thing for 
 strangers who saw her but casually to carry 
 away an impression that she was altogether 
 a beautiful person. 
 
 That was Mrs. Denys' original impression 
 of her. Her age must have been over fifty 
 now. She wore her own hair, which was 
 white as silver and very abundant, and a 
 dress of grey satin with a profusion of 
 delicate lace to shroud her deformity. She 
 took a leading part in the conversation, and 
 everybody, not excepting Sir Oliver, deferred 
 to her with kindness and respect. That her 
 influence was likely to be a prevailing influ- 
 ence with him appeared evident. Mr. Denys 
 had praised her to Delia. She had always 
 taken his part, and she inclined at once and 
 spontaneously to his young wife, a disposi- 
 tion that she was at no trouble to conceal.
 
 250 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 The next morninor she invited Delia to lend 
 her an arm, and to walk with her in the sun 
 for an hour by the river. During this stroll 
 Mrs. Denys learned more of her husband's 
 early life than it was, perhaps, in the power 
 of any one else, unless it were himself, to tell 
 her. He was not communicative except by 
 chance, when some incident or object touched 
 a chord of remembrance, and made it easy for 
 him to speak ; nor had Delia any of that 
 dangerous curiosity which tempts some women 
 to search persistently into what is best un- 
 known. She had been abundantly warned 
 before her marriage that Mr. Denys of Cote 
 did not enjoy a general popularity, nor a 
 general esteem, and the reasons why were 
 set forth in terms so uncompromising that the 
 very breadth of statement caused her to doubt 
 of its absolute truth. Cousin Elizabeth Paul 
 p^ave her more lis^ht.
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 25 I 
 
 '* Hugh Denys has great capacity and great 
 force of character," she said in the manner 
 of a person who forms her own opinions and 
 cherishes them. ''He did well at Rugby — 
 very well — but his father died just as he 
 was leaving, and a father's hand is missed 
 at that aee. His mother was a sfood mother 
 till she became ambitious for him in a foolish, 
 proud wa}'. The girl he loved was a treasure. 
 That was a sad story — a very pitiful, sad 
 story. Of course, you know it ? " 
 
 "Yes, I know it," said Delia gently. "It 
 is easier to be sorry for both than to blame 
 either." 
 
 " I was very sorry for both. It went hard 
 with him when he would have taken up his 
 position as Denys of Cote. None of the public 
 duties were given him to do which provide 
 country gentlemen with occupation. Then 
 he had a suit with a neicrhbour, and won it,
 
 252 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 but with a loss of honour. It has always 
 seemed to me that he was unfairly handled 
 by the judge before whom that cause was 
 tried. The law was on his side, and the 
 judge went out of his way to condemn him 
 on a question of honour, using some forcible 
 w^ords of Pericles for the purpose, which 
 made the thinor the better to be remem- 
 
 o 
 
 bered." 
 
 " It was Judge Daventry, my grandfather. 
 I have always wished to know the truth 
 about that," Delia said, blushing painfully. 
 
 "With those who loved him, Hugh Denys 
 needed no exculpation, and those who were 
 prejudiced against him before wanted none, 
 and would listen to none. The case was 
 never fully heard in court. Hugh and his 
 witnesses were examined and cross-examined 
 with all the power and ingenuity of malicious 
 suggrestion that counsel could brine to bear
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 253 
 
 against him, and when his opponent should 
 have been subjected to the same pressure, 
 he avoided it by meeting half-way the defeat 
 that he foresaw. Had he dared the ordeal 
 of the witness-box he would have had 
 dragged out of him a long tale of petty 
 tyrannies and sharp practices such as abun- 
 dantly justified Hugh Denys in the high- 
 handed act which he was appealing to the 
 law to enforce. Sir Oliver was always of 
 that opinion, and other persons, equally able 
 to review the case, have said since that 
 for once Judge Daventry's sagacity was at 
 fault. And very injurious to poor Hugh his 
 blunder has been." 
 
 '' Some day I will tell grandpapa — but 
 perhaps he would not be convinced. He 
 would never admit that HuQrh could be 
 justified in doing wrong in retaliation of 
 wronor that he had suffered. And thouLdi
 
 2 54 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 I am his wife, it would not be possible for 
 me to admit it either." Delia spoke with a 
 vivacity and earnestness that laid open in 
 her an abstract love of justice, as distinct 
 from personal loyalty — its commoner form of 
 manifestation in submissive wives. 
 
 Cousin Elizabeth Paul smiled. " But we 
 do not consider that Hugh did do wrong," 
 she said. " But whether he was blame- 
 worthy in that affair or whether he was 
 not, those who have argued from it that he 
 is a grasping and cruel man are people who 
 do not know him. He is masterful, and 
 he has a long memory for offences, though 
 I should not call him oppressive or vindictive. 
 Naturally, as a great landowner, he has much 
 in his power, but he is not possessed by 
 that insane love of money which was like 
 a heritable disease in the elder branch of 
 his family. The Acklam Denyses have never
 
 MR. DENYS PEOPLE. 255 
 
 made haste to be rich, and there seems no 
 reason why their moderation should not be 
 transplanted to Cote with them." 
 
 " Hugh appears to me kind, and I know 
 that he is generous, but we may have much 
 to learn of each other both for better and 
 worse," Delia replied gently, with an air of 
 dismissing the subject. 
 
 She did not care to discuss the humours 
 of her husband, nor the secret springs of 
 his actions, though she was well pleased to 
 hear old stories re-told in a less hurtful aspect 
 than she had heard them first. Anything 
 that was good of him., that was welcome to 
 her : and as for what was not crood, if it was 
 past let it be buried, and if it was a tendency 
 let it wait to be discovered. She was wisely 
 afraid of a suspicious habit, and put away 
 from her resolvedly any thought that might 
 breed it.
 
 256 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Cousin Elizabeth Paul felt that she had 
 said enough, and perhaps more than enough, 
 considerinor that it was to the wife of Huo^h 
 
 o o 
 
 Denys she was speaking, but Delia looked 
 amiably on her, and she was re-assured. Her 
 intentions were pure, and Delia was quick in 
 decidinor that amono-st her new connections 
 
 O o 
 
 whom she must cultivate as friends, Cousin 
 Elizabeth Paul deserved a chief place.
 
 ( 257 ) 
 
 ^"Library y^ 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SIR OLIVER DENYS AN OUTLOOK INTO THE 
 
 FUTURE. 
 
 *' By doing good with his money, a man as it were stamps the image 
 of God upon it, and makes it pass current for the mercliandise of 
 heaven. " — RuTLEDGE. 
 
 The visit of Mr. and Mrs. Denys to Barn 
 
 Oaks was the first stage in a progress that 
 
 they made under hospitable soHcitation from 
 
 house to house until they had gone the round 
 
 of his kinsfolk and dear friends residinor 
 
 in and near London. Delia treated it 
 
 as an agreeable duty. She was in her 
 
 element, feted and flattered, consulted and 
 
 caressed, and her letters to her mother and 
 VOL. I. R
 
 258 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Cricket at Auldcaster told of nothing else but 
 amusement, contentment, and happiness. 
 
 Mr. Denys did not care for so much 
 visiting and fine company, and was perhaps 
 occasionally bored, longing to be elsewhere. 
 The huntin<4 season had beorun down in his 
 county, and that was the season of his delight. 
 But the end of October had come before 
 Delia announced herself as being ready to 
 return home — fores^oine even then an invita- 
 tion to Sayes Court, Sir Oliver Den^^s' house 
 out of town. They went back to Acklam first, 
 Delia with an air of pretty, reluctant sacrifice 
 only half affected. 
 
 '' I perceive that I have married a young- 
 lady who loves the world," Mr. Denys said, 
 rallying her. 
 
 " Yes, Hugh, and to enjoy my life. Now 
 is the time. Cannot you grow young again 
 for me ? " was her answer.
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO TflE FUTURE. 259 
 
 Mr. Denys was not without goodwill. 
 Delia asked when he was Qr-olne to introduce 
 her to the homely people he had talked of. 
 " Are they not homely enough, these rich 
 brewers and bankers and merchants ? They 
 have given you a very warm-hearted wel- 
 come," he said. Delia was more than satis- 
 fied with her welcome. 
 
 "They have, indeed, dear Hugh, and I am 
 glad they like me. Your people have been 
 much better to me than mine have been 
 to you. Mine have not been good to you 
 at all." 
 
 " But vou have been cTOod — let the rest eo ! 
 We are clannish, we Denyses of Kent. I am 
 the head of the family, and you are my wife. 
 It is our custom to like one another and to 
 hold by one another. We have been the 
 bundle of sticks, and here we remain, three 
 generations liviniT: at once. The curse of 
 
 ■0 o
 
 26o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Navestock will have much ado to scatter and 
 peel us." 
 
 " I do not believe in the curse of Nave- 
 stock," Delia said, and shuddered involuntarily, 
 belying her words. 
 
 *' The Acklam Denyses were not at its 
 earning," her husband replied, and ceased 
 from the subject, noticing that she disliked 
 and was perhaps afraid of it. He had 
 never spoken of it to her directly before, 
 and her allusions he had never taken up. 
 There had been a tacit avoidance of it, but 
 by a curious coincidence — or what seemed so 
 — it re-appeared in a later conversation on 
 the same day. 
 
 Sir Oliver Denys drove over from Sayes 
 Court with Cousin Elizabeth Paul — a thinof 
 that he had not done for years. They were 
 not expected, they were a great surprise, 
 but a pleasant one, and Mrs. Denys showed
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 26 1 
 
 them her briQ^htest face. Sir OHver had 
 avowed a lively admiration for her, which 
 Cousin Elizabeth Paul did not scruple to 
 communicate. 
 
 " He loves goodness from his very heart, 
 and when it is matched with beauty and 
 brains, he cannot find words to express his 
 sentiments without borrowing from the poets. 
 He has been quoting Milton all the way 
 here — ' Grace in her step, heaven in her 
 eye, in all her accents dignity and love.' " 
 Cousin Elizabeth paused, not very sure of her 
 quotation. 
 
 Delia laughed and blushed, and was 
 pleased of course. What tender woman but 
 is pleased with kind opinions, especially when 
 they are repeated with a frank endorse- 
 ment ? 
 
 " Hugh is in a hurry to be off to his
 
 262 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 hunting — we know of old what Hus^h's chief 
 joys are," Sir OHver said in reference to his 
 invitation, which had been dechned. " You 
 have kept him here a month too long, Mrs. 
 Denys." 
 
 " Wait a little. He will have his revenge," 
 said Cousin Elizabeth Paul. 
 
 When they were sitting at luncheon Sir 
 Oliver be^run to tell them of a short autumn 
 tour that they had m.ade, Cousin Elizabeth 
 and he, into Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 " We returned through Beauminster, and saw 
 Navestock," said he, and sighed as if he had 
 seen somethino- discourao'ins^. 
 
 " And what thought you of Navestock ? " 
 Mr. Denys inquired rather sarcastically. 
 
 '' I should like to restore the church and 
 the parsonage-house." 
 
 *' Pray, do what you would like then — I
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 263 
 
 shall not hinder you. I wish you could 
 restore the parson as well," Mr. Denys said 
 again, and now he laughed. 
 
 " I should prefer to transport him," Slr 
 Ollver rejoined. " I think he deserves it." 
 
 " Did you ever see such dismal neglect 
 and poverty as round that church ? " ]\Irs. 
 Denys remarked. 
 
 Sir Oliver answered that he had seen as 
 bad or worse in many parts of England, but 
 then his life extended a long way back — 
 into the dark ao^es before the era of revivals in 
 reliction. Cousin Elizabeth Paul aii^reed with 
 Delia — she had seen nothing worse, and 
 could imaoflne nothincr worse — she called it a 
 sin and a shame in a Christian country. 
 
 " I am reputed very rich, and Navestock 
 is in a state of beggary," Mr. Denys inter- 
 posed, as if put upon his defence. "It was 
 deeply indebted when poor Ralpli and I
 
 264 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 beo^an fchtinor for it, and before the fio^ht 
 ended it was quite stripped and bare. I 
 have done a Httle planting — a very Httle. 
 But I shall do more. We have consented 
 together, Delia and I, to draw nothing from 
 Navestock, but to hold it in trust for the 
 next generation, redeeming it as we are able. 
 It will be a wearisome work. I have more 
 land than one man can feel an interest in 
 strong enough to make doing his duty by it 
 the pleasure it ought to be. And I cannot 
 sell an acre." Mr. Denys spoke hardly, as 
 if in his own mind resenting incompetent 
 criticism, or warding it off. He got up from 
 his chair, and walked about with an air of 
 losing patience, and an angry spark in his 
 blue eyes. 
 
 Sir Oliver was silent, but Delia reached 
 out a kind hand to her husband, and said 
 prettily : " Never mind, Hugh dear. The
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 265 
 
 work will be llorhtened with me for chief 
 bailiff." 
 
 " Bailiffs are all rogues," said Mr. Denys, 
 but he was pacified, and his gust of ill-humour 
 blew off with a laugh. 
 
 Sir Oliver would talk of Cote next, but he 
 reverted to Navestock again presently as if 
 the place were much in his thoughts. He 
 wanted to be informed respecting the succes- 
 sive mortgages that had been raised upon 
 it, and who held them ; and then he wanted 
 to be informed of the expense of draining 
 and reducinor to cultivation land that had 
 never been broken up, and of getting into 
 condition land that had suffered from neglect. 
 His tone was that of a shrewd man of busi- 
 ness aware that he is ignorant of certain 
 matters, and anxious to be instructed. Mr. 
 Denys was but too well qualified to instruct 
 him.
 
 2 66 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 The talk seemed to Delia very dry and 
 tedious ; but Cousin Elizabeth Paul, though 
 she did not join in it, listened as if she was 
 vitally concerned in remembering each parti- 
 cular ; and once, when the younger lady 
 would have engaged her on some feminine 
 topic, she intim.ated that she had no atten- 
 tion to spare from that which occupied the 
 gentlemen. 
 
 Suddenly Sir Oliver recurred to the church 
 and the parish, left at such a cruel disadvan- 
 tacre bv its defaultinof rector. 
 
 "What is the bishop about that he does 
 not disestablish the reverend rascal, who can- 
 not live at home for fear of the constable, 
 and give his benefice to somebody else ? " he 
 asked — obviously as little learned in ecclesi- 
 astical law as in agricultural processes, though 
 his notions of pastoral discipline showed the 
 true touch.
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 267 
 
 " The bishop is powerless to disestablish 
 him, and the benefice is not in the bishop's 
 elft, but in mine," Mr. Denys answered. 
 
 " Then why don't you disestablish him ?" 
 
 " I am as powerless as the bishop, Sir 
 Oliver. He ^Yas an agreeable, hospitable 
 fellow, able to borrow some thousands of 
 pounds from his wealthy neighbours, and those 
 debts saved him. He had not confined his 
 experiments to simple borrowing, and there 
 was just a chance that he might be prosecuted 
 for felony. But his conviction \vould have 
 resulted in his deprivation, and he owed a 
 lot of money. So he was let go, and the 
 living was sequestrated." 
 
 " The mammon of unriorhteousness stood 
 his friend indeed ! And who were the honour- 
 able men that sold justice for a small annual 
 dividend ? " 
 
 Mr. Denys did not say who they were,
 
 268 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 though neither did he seem to view the 
 transaction in the same severe Heht as Sir 
 OHver. Deha knew, and glanced from the 
 one to the other, not perplexed, but troubled 
 and annoyed. 
 
 " I wish orentlemen would not do such 
 
 o 
 
 things," she said with a flush on her face. 
 '' How can they endure to sit as magistrates 
 after, and send poor souls to prison and hard 
 labour who have robbed, perhaps, for a 
 shilling's worth ? " 
 
 Sir Oliver's approval of Mrs. Denys was 
 evident to her husband, who came over to 
 her, and whispered that she was too good 
 for this wicked world. Delia took no notice 
 of the private communication, which was 
 audible through the room, and the moment- 
 ary silence was broken by a cheerful note 
 of variety in the voice of Cousin Elizabeth 
 Paul, asking Mr. Denys whether he was
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 269 
 
 cognisant of the fact there were in existence 
 several lineal descendants of the ancient 
 family that had been dispossessed of Nave- 
 stock by Giles Denys of Cote. 
 
 " Of the Meades ? Yes, it is very well 
 known," he replied. " They have stuck 
 to the county — Updeane Is their place — and 
 though they are much Impoverished, they 
 have never sunk below the rank of gentry. 
 There have been men of hlorh distinction 
 amoncrst the Meades." 
 
 ''Then, Hugh dear, wouldn't It be a fine 
 thincr to 2:1 ve them Navestock back ? From 
 what I see and hear, it Is not likely to bring 
 us either honour or profit," Delia cried out 
 •rather excitedly. 
 
 *' That is a bright Idea, my wife ; but you 
 forget the entail," said Mr. Denys ; and Delia 
 said, ''Ah, yes, tlicre was the entail." 
 
 Sir Oliver had inquiries to make next
 
 270 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 respecting the law of entail, and in excuse of 
 his imperfect knowledge of all such matters, 
 he said that his experience had been earned 
 far and wide in the world of merchants. 
 
 " The curse of Navestock is an old story 
 that has got into books," he Avent on when 
 Mr. Denys had sufficiently enlightened him. 
 " I remember reading it on board ship when 
 I was a lad, making my first voyage to 
 China. We sailed round the Cape then, and 
 I was rather proud of belonging to a family 
 who inherited such a remarkable misfortune. 
 I feel with Mrs. Denys now. I would be 
 rid of Navestock to be rid of the curse." 
 
 Delia had not breathed a word of the 
 curse, thouo^h the secret dread of it was 
 what had impelled her to speak. 
 
 " You need not pinch off my little finger, 
 Delia — zue are not under the curse," said 
 her husband, one of whose hands she had
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 271 
 
 laid hold of in her nervous agitation. '' Ralph 
 Denys at the Warren House is the last in 
 that black entail — the final scapegoat of the 
 sins of his fathers — the only male remaining 
 of Giles Denys' seed, breed, and generation." 
 
 ''You must never let poor Ralph want," 
 Cousin Elizabeth Paul said at Mr. Denys' 
 ear. 
 
 He gave her no answer, and Sir Oliver 
 began to speak of the Meades, explaining 
 how he had come to know of them. 
 
 '' It was in the regular course of business," 
 he said. '' A young fellow presented himself 
 at our office on the wharf, well recommended 
 as a junior clerk. He was a bold, hand- 
 some stripling, and when he was asked 
 what he could do, he answered gaily that 
 he could ride, swim, and shoot at a mark. 
 These accomplishments were of no use to 
 us ; and being told what the duties really
 
 272 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 were, he just said : ' I would rather take 
 the Oueen's shillinor.' ' Then q-q and take 
 it/ said my partner ; and the next news we 
 heard of him was that he had enhsted in a 
 cavalry regiment, and was off to India. 
 Now, that was a lad of spirit." 
 
 '' Yes — Guy Francis, the third son. These 
 are rough times in India, and he has just 
 been gazetted for a commission," Mr. Denys 
 said. '' The eldest has been to Australia 
 and back — he has turned his mind to prac- 
 tical farming, after hanging about for a year 
 or two at a loose end. There is another 
 brother who has gone into the Church. 
 Their father died some five or six years 
 ago ; their mother still lives at Updeane. 
 They have had a struggle to keep their 
 footing, but they have kept it." 
 
 " I admire that tenacity — much like our 
 own at Acklam," said Sir Oliver.
 
 AN OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 273 
 
 It was inevitable that Sir Oliver Denys' 
 much questioning about Navestock should 
 suggest to its over-weighted proprietor the 
 likelihood that a portion of his unemployed 
 wealth might be devoted to its relief, but 
 no pledge to that effect was either given or 
 implied beyond what had been said of the 
 ruinous church and parsonage-house. 
 
 On their road home to Sayes Court Sir 
 Oliver again praised Mrs. Denys — her grace, 
 her dignity, her sweet, wise ways with her 
 husband ; and Cousin Elizabeth Paul by her 
 responses deepened his favourable impression. 
 
 Good purposes do not arrive at maturity 
 
 of a sudden, but that Sir Oliver had that 
 
 day determined on a great and good purpose, 
 
 Cousin Elizabeth Paul felt sure. And she 
 
 felt equally sure that her happiness and 
 
 pleasure would consist in promoting it ; for 
 
 selfish objects she had none. 
 
 VOL. L S
 
 BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 COTE UNDER THE OLD 
 ORDER.
 
 ( 277 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ROCJND THE MANOR HOUSE. 
 
 " Who is my neighbour ? " 
 " He that showed kindness." 
 
 Mrs. Denys' imao^Inatlon, which had flaQ^cred 
 for a while under the frosty bHght of dis- 
 approval among-st friends, re-bloomed in the 
 sunshine of her bridal triumphs amongst 
 strangers, and she went home to Cote 
 indulging sanguine expectations of their 
 renewal and continuance. But the expecta- 
 tions of a young, energetic, ambitious lady 
 married to a gentleman of twice her age, 
 who is not popular in his county, are apt 
 to resemble the prelude to a rondo — a sweet.
 
 278 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 clear melody, a promise of music in a 
 sonorous chord or two, and then a whirl of 
 tamely varied sounds, where the tune reels 
 and falls and sighs, but never sings out 
 as:ain in the briorht notes it sanor at first, 
 lifting up the heart with joyous, hopeful 
 aspirations. 
 
 At the House with Golden Gables Lady 
 Daventry, commenting on her grand-daugh- 
 ter's lively recitals of the gay doings in her 
 honour amongst the wealthy citizens affili- 
 ated to Mr. Denys, remarked that if Delia 
 could not have the best society in London, 
 she seemed prudently inclined towards the 
 second best, which was, perhaps, a good 
 thing, and she feared that she might not 
 find her way more easy to make in the 
 country. 
 
 " That will be in part our fault," Delia's 
 mother said. " But there is choice in the
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 2/9 
 
 country too," she added with a sigh. ''If 
 we do not hear of her at Knowle, we shall 
 hear of her at Linoffield." 
 
 *' Yes, and that will not be to her advan- 
 tage. But Delia will never be satisfied to 
 keep at home. 'Want of company, wel- 
 come trumpery ' — that is what she will say." 
 
 Lady Daventry's prophecy might or 
 might not come true, but Mrs. Denys was 
 far from the temper ascribed to her yet. 
 She had a great spirit and great patience, 
 as she had proved already, when the end 
 was one that her heart was set on compass- 
 ing. She understood her position as giving 
 her social duties to do, of which not the 
 least important belonged to her visiting-list. 
 The people who called and left cards 
 at tl^ Manor House had their civilities 
 returned according to the canons of the 
 politest society. Invitations were accepted,
 
 2 8o MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 and in due time invitations were issued and 
 hospitalities dispensed which gave perfect 
 satisfaction to the recipients. Mrs. Denys 
 seemed not to be aware that her guests were 
 derived less from the families of long stand- 
 ing in the county than from the floating popu- 
 lation of immigrants for reasons of climate 
 and economy, who lived in modest retire- 
 ment, enjoying chiefly the pleasures of life 
 that cost nothinor. But when she came to 
 compare the roll of her visitors with Cricket's 
 roll of the neio^hbours to Cote of their own 
 rank, she found some conspicuous omissions. 
 Mrs. Denys made no sign that she knew 
 of their existence. It was not in the power 
 of persons she had never seen to wound 
 her mind — only old friends could do that. 
 
 Sir John Herrick had spoken at Auld- 
 caster of holdinor out a hand to Mr. 
 Denys for his young wife's sake, and Delia's
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 28 1 
 
 mother had apprised her in a letter of his 
 neighbourly intentions. He had intimated 
 them to Delia herself also, when they met 
 by chance in the woods at Navestock, and 
 Delia looked for him with confident expecta- 
 tion until one day Lady Herri ck called alone, 
 walking up to the Manor House from Croft 
 Cottage, where she was staying for a week 
 with her married daughter, Mrs. Wilton. She 
 told Delia that Danesmore was about to be 
 closed for the winter : Sir John had been pre- 
 scribed a eood chancre for his health's sake, 
 and they were going to seek it in Italy — in 
 re-visitinof old scenes. Then she laid down 
 Sir John's card, and hoped that Mr. Denys 
 and he would meet on their return. 
 
 " I wish we were ordered to Italy too," 
 Delia, cried out with the momentary petu- 
 lance of a shame-faced vexation. 
 
 Lady Herrick looked away from her, and
 
 282 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 round the beautiful drawings-room, touched 
 to the heart by that cry which had a 
 meaning for her deeper than the words. 
 " What a charmingly comfortable old house 
 this is ! '' she said, still avoiding Delia's 
 face. "Mr. Denys has vastly improved it. 
 You have seen my dear Jenny ? I am 
 sorry to be going abroad for her sake. 
 Her husband is a confirmed invalid, and 
 her days drag sometimes. I want you to 
 be good to her while we are away." 
 
 Delia's brow cleared. To have this charge 
 pleased her. " I will do what I can," she 
 said. '* Hugh is devoted to his hunting, and 
 twice a week I have many hours to spare. 
 Is she fond of a lone walk ? Cote is a 
 lovely place for walks." 
 
 *' I fear Jenny's long walks are over; she 
 is not strong," her mother said. " Charlie 
 Wilton anticipates that Cote will grow into
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 283 
 
 a town before many years. You must get 
 him to show you his plans — I beHeve they 
 are admirable. He is a civil engineer by 
 profession ; quite a genius in his way, but 
 thrown out of work, and entirely laid aside 
 now. He never had health, but Jenny loved 
 him, and what could we do ? " 
 
 " What could you do ? you made the best 
 of it," Delia said, with a piercing sense of 
 regret that her own people had not done 
 likewise. 
 
 When Mr. Denys heard of Lady Herrick's 
 visit to his wife, and what she had said in 
 leaving Sir John's card for himself, he 
 paused on the news with a downward look 
 of grave reflection. 
 
 Delia, who was watching his countenance, 
 said : " What are you thinking of, dear 
 Hugh ? " 
 
 *' Never mind," was his answer, and with
 
 284 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 a eentle touch on her shoulder he went 
 out. 
 
 Delia sat hushed, the tears flooding her 
 eyes, but not overflowing. She knew that 
 he was hurt, and wondered a little that Sir 
 John had not made an effort to come, then 
 checked herself with a sigh at the futility of 
 wondering. Mr. Denys was as much galled 
 as she was grieved. Some hopes that he 
 had built on his marriage with her were 
 not fulfilling themselves, and he referred the 
 fault to her family. Mr. Luttrell, a gentle- 
 man of Beauminster of the same political 
 colour as himself, had suggested in the 
 proper quarter that having such extensive 
 landed interests in the county, Mr. Denys 
 ought to be in the commission ; but some 
 other gentleman of the rival political colour — 
 Judge Daventry's colour — had answered that 
 Colonel Hayman, who was chairman at the
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 285 
 
 sessions, would not sit on the bench with 
 
 him : adding that unless they wanted to 
 
 bring the law into contempt with the vulgar, 
 
 it would be wise not to make men of his 
 
 notorious character justices of the peace. 
 
 This imputed worse than the truth, but it 
 
 had the effect of silencing Mr. Luttrell, and 
 
 making Sir John Herrick cautious. The early 
 
 and long prejudice against Mr. Denys was like 
 
 the mark of the plague on his door-post. 
 
 Mrs. Denys let her mother know how 
 
 deeply injured she felt by Sir John Herrick's 
 
 failing her — what Delia wrote to her mother 
 
 was between themselves. She told her that 
 
 Mr. Denys resented it, and that she feared 
 
 it miMit tend to throw him back on his 
 «_> 
 
 familiar associates before their marriage ; for 
 which she should be very sorry. To this 
 her mother could say nothing but that she 
 should be sorry too.
 
 2 86 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Mrs. Denys' fear proved to be well 
 founded. 
 
 Speculative builders with a far sight to 
 the future prosperity of Cote had repeatedly 
 endeavoured to set on foot with Old Crump 
 treaties for land at a low figure, but the 
 agent had no disposition to deal with men 
 of this class. What he wanted was the 
 solid and permanent lessee, gentlemen like 
 Mr. Essex-Brough who had come over to 
 Cote with his wife while Mr. and Mrs. 
 Denys were at Acklam, and had made a 
 proposal for the purchase of the Glen 
 House. Mrs. Essex-Brough coveted the 
 house for its lovely site, and her husband 
 was willing to pay at once the prodigious 
 ofround-rent that the Glen mio^ht be worth 
 in half a lifetime. Mr. Denys had held off, 
 not yet persuaded to let strangers into the 
 house sacred to his beloved dead, and Mrs.
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 2S7 
 
 Denys had offered no word any way. She 
 wished for neighbours at the Glen House, 
 but not for these neio^hbours. 
 
 Crump was anxious for the acceptance of 
 Mr. Essex- Brough's proposal as a good 
 beginning of the sound material progress 
 that his mind was bent on. It was not in 
 the squire's power to prevent the owners of 
 the small houses on the helehts from selllno- 
 their life-leases ; he had only the pull over 
 them in this, that he could refuse to extend 
 the original term, which would make it less 
 worth the while of new-comers to buy out 
 the native proprietors. Two or three of 
 them had lately received advantageous 
 offers, and had come to Crump to hear 
 what was to be done. Crump had first to 
 be conciliated, and then he talked to his 
 master, who was never to be approached 
 on business.
 
 2 88 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 This was the matter of their discourse walk- 
 ing together towards the villao;e one morninor 
 at the end of November. The leaves were 
 nearly all fallen, but Cote was famous for 
 evergreens, and looking down upon it was 
 like looking into a vast garden with the 
 wide plain of the sea beyond. At a turn 
 of the road where it came full into view the 
 owner of it all paused and surveyed it. He 
 was in a heavy humour — an unpropitious, dull 
 humour. 
 
 " Let the reign of peace last our time, 
 Crump," he said, and thrust his hands deep 
 into his pockets as he gazed about. " We 
 have done enough for posterity here. We 
 have paid off the mortgages, and freed the 
 estate." 
 
 *' We have done something, sir. Four 
 hundred a year — that was all you pouched 
 at your coming to Cote. You might make
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 289 
 
 it four thousand, and more than four thousand, 
 if you would hear advice, and look forward 
 instead of backward. I wish you could be 
 persuaded to see Mr. Wilton's plans." 
 
 '' You must talk to my wife. She wants 
 to hurry nothing. She is not in favour of 
 chancres." 
 
 " And about the Glen House, sir ? " 
 " Cannot you let the Glen House alone ? " 
 Crump glanced askant at his master, and 
 muttered some crabbed incoherencies, to which 
 Mr. Denys did not attend. It was only a 
 question of time ; the Glen House could not 
 remain empty, and if it must have a tenant, 
 he would have been crlad now to brine Mr. 
 and Mrs. Essex- Brough to Cote for the sake 
 of their company, but he was aware that Delia 
 did not like the lady. Crump also had found 
 that out, and was careful how he moved con- 
 trary to Mrs. Denys' influence. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 290 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Mr. Essex - Brough had travelled when 
 he was a bachelor. There was scarcely a 
 famous city or accessible site in the civilised 
 world that he had not visited. Mr. Denys 
 had travelled too, and things to talk about 
 are very desirable in the country where 
 events are not happening every day. Then 
 Mrs. Essex - Brough had connections at 
 Cambourne, and was personally urgent in the 
 neo-otiation because she wanted to chans^e 
 her locality for that neighbourhood. When 
 Crump sent her presently a temporising letter, 
 she got impatient, and wrote to Mr. Denys 
 himself. Mr. Denys carried the letter to 
 his wife— not altogether displeased to have 
 that opening. 
 
 " You might have a worse neighbour. Mrs. 
 Essex-Brough is not an ill-natured woman," 
 he said. 
 
 Delia was perfectly gentle. *' If you wish
 
 ROUND THE MANOR HOUSE. 29 1 
 
 it, dear Hugh," she repHed, keeping her eyes 
 down on the needlework that occupied her 
 fingers, and trying, not very skilfully, to 
 seem indifferent. 
 
 '' I do not wish to press anything that 
 you are set against. But a man must have 
 somebody to speak to out of his own 
 house." 
 
 " I understand that," Delia said, still in 
 her neutral voice, but she was giving way. 
 
 Mr. Denys took a seat near her. *' Listen, 
 Delia. If Sir John Herrick had shown him- 
 self friendly, there would have been a bright 
 look-out for us ; but Danesmore leads the 
 world in the peninsula, and our prospect 
 is perhaps closed. Essex - Brough is not 
 liked, but his wife has a heart. When Agnes 
 was -nursing my poor children she heard that 
 we could get no ice, and she rode over from 
 Beauminster to bring us some."
 
 292 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Delia was vanquished. " Then God bless 
 her, Hugh ! We will have her for a neigh- 
 bour. Her loud voice and rouo^h manners 
 shall be forgiven her, because she is a merciful 
 woman ! " Down went the needlework to 
 leave eyes and hands free to express a thrill 
 of repentance. That was Delia. The touch 
 of kindness made her kin to that strano^e 
 lady who in all else was her very opposite, 
 and opened her home to her with a willing 
 welcome.
 
 ( 293 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 
 
 " Life lies within the present ; for the past is spent and done with, 
 and the future is uncertain." — Antoninus. 
 
 Mrs. Denys was not without diplomacy. Sir 
 John Herrick's aloofness notwithstanding, she 
 sought the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Wilton at Croft Cottage, and was prepared 
 to be as good to Lady Herrick's "Jenny" 
 as Jenny would allow. Mrs. Wilton was a 
 sprightly, industrious young lady who acknow- 
 ledged no need of anybody else to divert 
 her when her dear '* Charlie " was at her 
 command. But many days he was ill, or 
 out of humour, and then the wheels of life 
 drave heavily.
 
 294 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 These two had married for love, not having- 
 much else, and before the year was out he 
 was invalided, and sent to the south coast 
 to save his life. He thought it scarcely worth 
 saving, but Jenny did not agree with him, 
 and after two or three moves they finally 
 settled down at Cote with a determination 
 to make the best of it. 
 
 Their house and garden were of no pre- 
 tensions, but there was a spacious upper 
 room where Mr. Wilton could sit in the sun, 
 and count the passers-by on the road below. 
 On the table was always spread some plan 
 or series of plans, and on these, and the 
 greater things he had meant to do when he 
 was a student, he would descant to Jenny by 
 the hour together. Jenny listened, and exe- 
 cuted a heap of fine needlework in the course 
 of the twelve months, and was so excellent 
 a wife that she did not consciously tire of
 
 np:w tenants at the glen house. 295 
 
 Charlie's everlasting grievance against the 
 law of nature that had cut short his ambitious 
 fliorht. But soon she felt a boon in the visits 
 of Mrs. Denys beyond all hope and expecta- 
 tion. Mrs. Denys did not want to talk of 
 clothes, company, and frivolities with her, but 
 was ready to indulge Mr. Wilton with talk 
 of his plans, and to follow him with an 
 Interest that refreshed his spirit even when 
 It fevered his frame with overmuch excite- 
 ment. 
 
 One afternoon he had out his grand scheme 
 for the development of Cote, and explained 
 It to her with an eagerness which Jenny could 
 not moderate, though she knew that It would 
 cost him dear. Delia Inquired If Mr. Denys 
 had seen It. Mr. Wilton said that Mr. 
 Denys had not, but Old Crump had, and then 
 he gave Crump a commendatory word for his 
 sagacity.
 
 296 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 "But you don't like his ways, Charlie?" 
 Mrs. Wilton interposed deprecatingly. 
 
 " I don't like some of his ways, Jenny. 
 But if he were owner of Cote instead of aeent, 
 I should not mind serving him as surveyor. 
 The poor lameter has large ideas, and a 
 capital notion of a road." 
 
 Mr. Wilton was too much in earnest to 
 weigh his words, and Mrs. Denys made no 
 sign of noting them. But she did note them, 
 and in speaking to her husband of the plan 
 afterwards she wanted to know what Crump's 
 large ideas were. He told her that the chief 
 of them was probably the adoption of this 
 scheme of Mr. Wilton, for a new town at 
 Cote. Delia said they might adopt it when 
 the time came, but she prayed that it might 
 not be yet. 
 
 " It need be never unless you choose it," 
 Mr. Denys said. "Not a stone can be laid in
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 297 
 
 Cote without the leave of me. But I expect 
 that Wilton will get round you as he has got 
 round Crump." 
 
 The agent always let Mr. Wilton hear 
 when any opening promised, and he did not 
 lose an hour in apprising him that Mr. Essex- 
 Brough's proposal for the purchase of the 
 Glen House was acceded to. Mr. Wilton 
 reported the event to his wife with as little 
 delay. 
 
 '' And our new neighbours are to be the 
 Essex-Broughs, of all the unlikely people in 
 the world!" cried Jenny, and let her fastidious 
 tone and a slight movement of her eyebrows 
 express what more she thought. 
 
 Her husband had his eye on her. '' Now, 
 Jenny, don't make mischief," said he with an 
 air of. serious warning. 
 
 '' / make mischief, [Charlie .-^ If there is 
 mischief it will not be of uiy making." The
 
 298 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 firm closure of Jenny's lips signified that she 
 had said her say, and had done for that 
 time. 
 
 The news that Mr. Essex-Broucrh had 
 
 o 
 
 bought a place at Cote spread. They heard 
 it at the House with Golden Gables, and 
 thought it of such evil portent that they said 
 very little about it. Mrs. Essex- Brough was 
 one of the two ladies to whom the judge 
 had alluded as having been distinguished by 
 Mr. Denys' attentions, and having sustained 
 subsequently a slip between the cup and 
 the lip. 
 
 Immediately on the signing of the agree- 
 ment the new owners of the Glen House 
 came in and took possession. Mrs. Denys 
 had notice of their arrival one morninof 
 from Phoebe, who wanted to know what 
 was to be done with a quantity of beautiful 
 books and other things that had been sent
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 299 
 
 up to the Manor House by order of 
 Crump. 
 
 The colour rose warmly in Delia's face : 
 " Put them in the library until your master 
 comes home," she said, and tried to <yo on 
 writing the letter to her mother that Phoebe 
 had interrupted. 
 
 But she could not keep her mind fixed. 
 Her thoughts wandered. She heard feet 
 passing backwards and forwards across the 
 hall, and when they ceased, and all was 
 quiet again, she went down to inspect 
 these treasures from the Glen House, 
 which she imagined her husband to have 
 sorted out from the rest to keep. But she 
 was mistaken in this. He had entrusted 
 the task to Mrs. Essex-Brough, who had 
 sent 4 note with them for him. Delia did 
 not touch the note, but she turned over the 
 books, mostly music-books and books of
 
 300 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 sketches that told a long story, and filled 
 some gaps in her knowledge of her husband's 
 former life. 
 
 She had seated herself in his chair, and 
 was reading the autograph notes in one 
 of these volumes — a visit to Sicily recorded 
 in a series of drawings by two hands — when 
 he came into the room unheard. He saw 
 how much she was absorbed, and felt for 
 the moment disconcerted and half displeased ; 
 but Delia had no thought of offending-, 
 and though she blushed, she said quite 
 naturally that some of the drawings were 
 lovely. 
 
 '' Yes. Those were by Agnes. George 
 has her genius," he answered, and, restored 
 to himself, drew up a chair to look over 
 the book with her. 
 
 She turned a leaf. On the next page was 
 a sketch of a beautiful cloister, mouldering and
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 3OI 
 
 weed- grown with an inscription below im- 
 porting that there they had been on a 
 certain memorable, sad anniversary. Delia 
 continued to turn the leaves, and to make her 
 own remarks, but Mr. Denys did not speak 
 again until they came to the end of the 
 volume, when he said that the colours were 
 faded, and some of the notes illegible. But 
 he took the book into his own possession. 
 Delia reached out her hand for another — a 
 book of songs bound in scarlet morocco, 
 one of many. 
 
 '' The boys will be pleased to see their 
 mother's books again, Hugh. Shall we carry 
 the music-books Into the drawlnor-room ? " 
 she said, putting a constraint on herself to 
 do what she believed right. 
 
 '* Yes. They used to carol like the lark — 
 they will make us a merry Christmas. Agnes 
 had a most sweet voice too. You do not
 
 302 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 sing-, Delia — why don't you sing ? " Mr. 
 Denys' interest was not in his question — 
 he was reading^ throuQ^h one of the son^s — 
 a favourite sonor — and hearino^ the echoes of 
 Aofnes' " most sweet voice " in the well- 
 remembered melody which he whistled softly 
 as he read. 
 
 Delia answered in her literal way that 
 she had never learnt to sing, that she had 
 never learnt to draw. 
 
 " It needs a gift to sing as Agnes sang," 
 he muttered when he had whistled his tune 
 through — half absently, but showing that he 
 had understood • what she said. 
 
 Delia felt a pang that made her face 
 glow, but her husband was not observing 
 her, nor thinking of her. He took up Mrs. 
 Essex- Brough's note, remarked that it re- 
 quired no reply, and the next moment sat 
 down and beg^an to write.
 
 NEW TENANTS AT .THE GLEN HOUSE. 303 
 
 '' We will have some music to-night, Delia," 
 he said with a sudden animation. " They can 
 have nothing comfortable at the Glen House 
 yet — we will send the carriage, and they 
 can come and dine with us. This is to 
 bid her bring her music. Will you ring 
 the bell ? She has a glorious contralto. If 
 you care for music at all, she will find the 
 way to your heart." 
 
 Delia rang the bell. She was so liberal 
 a housewife that no two or three impromptu 
 guests could put her or her servants out of 
 their way ; and as Mr. and Mrs. Essex- 
 Brough were to be their neighbours, she 
 was willinor to be^in at once to be neiorh- 
 hourly — and the more because her husband 
 was alive to her prejudice. 
 
 ''Shall we invite the Wiltons to meet 
 them ? They don't care for long notice," 
 she said, chimino^ in with his humour.
 
 304 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 " No — I don't suppose they would have 
 much to say to Wilton. They are going 
 to pull the Glen House about, and to 
 spend a lot of money, but they will 
 employ Barry or Wyatt. They might 
 make Wilton clerk of the works, perhaps," 
 Mr. Denys answered, looking up consider- 
 ingly. 
 
 Delia said no more. She did not think 
 that Mr. Wilton would choose to be clerk 
 of the works at the Glen House, but she 
 would have liked Mrs. Wilton to inter- 
 pose between her and the other lady, of 
 whom she had a certain fear, which was 
 not jealousy but leaned towards jealousy. 
 
 Mrs. Essex-Brough was a woman who 
 surveyed her sex with a shrewd but not 
 unkindly discernment. She was well aware 
 that Mr. Denys liked her society, and con- 
 jectured that when it was near of access
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 305 
 
 he might seek It oftener than his young wife 
 would approve — they had been a long while 
 acquainted, and had many tastes and pursuits 
 in common. That Mrs. Denys had put on 
 her war-paint was her amused, silent remark 
 to herself, on the instant of their meetinof. 
 Her own manner was effusive, and she bent 
 her face at that angle which invites another 
 woman's kiss, if kissing her female friends be 
 her practice. It was not Mrs. Denys' practice. 
 The pressure of her hand was warm and 
 cordial enough, but she reserved her lips for 
 the few whom she truly loved. As for what 
 Mrs. Essex- Brough called her war-paint, that 
 was not worn by way of defiance, and was only 
 soft, natural blushes and the white dress in 
 which she was married — a simple and inex- 
 pensive dress as comparison had taught her 
 since — but she would have looked as lovely in 
 
 calico. Mr. Denys was very proud of her, as 
 VOL. I. u
 
 306 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 Delia knew, and her pretty, conscious graces 
 were all for him. 
 
 Clever women are sometimes tempted to 
 undervalue one another, and Mrs. Essex- 
 Brough's weakness lay in this direction. The 
 beauty of Mrs. Denys only envy could dis- 
 parage, but this evening she was so quiet and 
 slow to speak that her guests were confirmed 
 in their first impression, that there was nothing 
 in her. Delia was merely on her guard with 
 persons whose measure she was not yet quali- 
 fied to take. 
 
 Mrs. Essex- Brough sang, not so well as she 
 had sung once, but still like an artist who has 
 a good method and the name and fame of a 
 singer. Delia had been more moved by less 
 scientific music. She turned down the lamp in 
 the recess of her window where she was sit- 
 ting, and let the moonlight in. Mr. Denys 
 looked round, and made her a si^n to come to
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 307 
 
 him, but she shook her head, intimating that 
 she preferred to be farther away from the 
 piano. 
 
 Mr. Essex-Brouoh had cast himself into a 
 
 o 
 
 lounging-chair, and lay prone, his head back 
 and his eyes closed, lost, not in a paradise of 
 sweet sounds as an incurious spectator might 
 have imagined, but in a purgatory of physical 
 pain. Delia knew the expression of pain, and 
 pitied the grey face. If it had been a good 
 face she w^ould have said a word, but perhaps 
 silence was better ; for presently, when his wife 
 came near, and whispered that she was sure 
 he was very ill, he snarled, moved his foot 
 impatiently, and bade her let him alone. It 
 was a moment of revelations not easily to be 
 forgotten. Delia motioned to the poor lady 
 to tal^e the other corner of her sofa, and for an 
 instant their hands touched — they were at one 
 just then.
 
 308 MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 The next minute Mrs. Essex- Brough broke 
 Into conversation, loud and fast In her habitual 
 strain. It was about the Beaumlnster society, 
 which had made her less than welcome. Delia 
 knew a little of the Beaumlnster society, and 
 her visitor was sensible soon of being held In, 
 and her familiarity checked by Mr. Denys. 
 She was not easily checked. When her spirits 
 rose her audacity was alarming, and taking next 
 the society of Cambourne, Cote, and all this 
 her new neighbourhood, in hand, she drove 
 through every conventional bar, paying no toll 
 at all to propriety. She meant to show her 
 wit, but Mrs. Denys could not or would not 
 see it. Her aggressive sallies against the 
 clergy especially astonished and hurt Delia, to 
 whom her irreverent tone was strange and very 
 repugnant. Once she rose, and walked away 
 to the farther end of the room to avoid hear- 
 ing what she could not reply to. Before she
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 309 
 
 walked back again Mr. Denys primed his old 
 acquaintance with the information that his 
 wife's ideas were of the orthodox pattern in 
 morals and religion, including respect for the 
 Church, and that he was satisfied to have them 
 continue what they were. 
 
 Then their c^uests said ofood-niorht, and 
 went home. Mr. and Mrs. Denys stood 
 discussinof them for a few minutes as enter- 
 tainers do discuss retirinor oruests. 
 
 Delia said : *' Mrs. Essex-Brouoh makes 
 herself appear worse than she is, but she 
 will never be a reproach to us by her 
 delicate feeling or her high principle. And 
 I am afraid that she can be a plague of 
 a woman, Hugh." 
 
 " A plague of a woman ? Interpret. I 
 don't , catch your meaning," Mr Denys said 
 musingly. 
 
 " I am not sure that I can make it
 
 3IO MRS. DENYS OF COTE. 
 
 clear to you, and perhaps It is not worth 
 while." 
 
 " You don't like her, Delia ; that is your 
 meaning," he rejoined. " It is not neces- 
 sary that you should see much of her, 
 and you can neutralise her with other 
 company when she comes — only remember 
 that I owe her a debt of charity." 
 " I will never forget that, Hugh." 
 '' The boys are fond of her. Lingfield 
 has been a second home to them during 
 their holidays at Navestock. She has a 
 vast amount of energy and indomitable 
 courage — I don't know how she would 
 endure her life else. Essex- Brough makes 
 it awful for her with the fits of moodiness 
 that follow his paroxysms of pain. He 
 suffers tortures — but she knew what was 
 before her when she committed herself to 
 that marriage."
 
 NEW TENANTS AT THE GLEN HOUSE. 3II 
 
 " I felt she was not happy while I 
 listened to her," Delia said in a hushed 
 voice. She was very sorry for a woman 
 who was married, and was not happy. 
 She judged that not being happy, she must 
 be most miserable. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 PRINTED nV nALLANYTNF, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINlifKCM AND LONDON
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 060919732