The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-15 00:00:00

[ALL BIGHTS Bas.RyND.]
NOBLER THAN REVENGE.

BY TIIII
Author of' The Heiress of Atherstone Grange."

CHAPTER XXXV;

RN ROUTE.

'Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand
And the sound of a voice that is still.
—Timsysort.
IT was quite true that the ladies of Ardennes Villa had
returned to England; Mr. Jarvis had recommended
that they should do so. They were so unhappy about
Helen, and so unable to do anything to find her that
the lawyer thought they would be better out of the
gossip and chatter that was going on all around them
over the unwonted occurrence.
A few weeks ago, when Biarritz was full of visitors,
the disappearance of any young lady would not have
been so much talked about; but now that the place
was nearly empty, and every little circumstance com-
mented upon, the story took all sorts of shapes, and
was calculated to draw unpleasant attention to Mrs.
Churchill and her proceedings.
It had spoiled her Christmas. The girls had had
no spirit to have the little merry-making that had
been intended, and the children who had been bidden
to their party had been put off with gifts and kind
words. They knew the kind ladies were in trouble,
and took the disappointment quietly. But the
presents and good things did not atone for the bright
evening they were to have spent with the pretty girls
and their warm hearted mother. To Mr. Jarvis the
news that came to him with the day of glad tidings
was a great shock, and had damped the pleasure of
the evening that he always spent with his family.
Phyllis was not so well as she had been, the day before
she had unaccountably drooped and become listless,
and the effect of the seizure, whatever it was, had not
passed off.
When the last telegram had come, and Mr. Jarvis
bad resolved to go at once to Biarritz, he told his wife
that she should ask Mrs. Churchill and her daughters
for a little while to Campsie House.
Only for two or three days, my dear !' he said, as
Mrs. Jarvis looked a little dismayed at the proposal.
I should like to run down to Hillford and see that
' things are all ready for them before they go into their
own house. I ordered some repairs for Mrs.
Churchill, and I have been very negligentabout them:
for aught I know the house may not be fit for them
to go into, and I cannot stay to see to them now.'
_ 'And if you did, you would get no workpeople at
this time of year,' Mrs. Jarvis replied, with wondeaful
affability for her.
daresay I could manage that, but there is no
time. If you will put them up—'
slf Mrs. Churchill will put up with us; we are so
different, our ways have lain so much apart.'
'Let them lie closer for the future my dear!' was
the quiet reply. Mrs. Churchill is quite the nicest
woman I know, and her girls are thorough ladies,
they will do our husks good. You will soon get
act painted with her, the tie of our common anxiety
will draw you together. I shall send them here as
soon as they can get away. I trust Helen will have
arrived here before I can possible get there.'
There has been time enough for her to have got
here, since she left Mrs.. Churchill's,' said Mrs. Jarvis,
with a troubled look. Do you think—'
Do I think what ?'
That it is possible that she may have been deceiv-
ing you—that there is any gentleman in thesase ? She
did not love Frank Hatherleigh, we know.'
And she did love someone else,' Mr. Jarvis said,
gravely. I speak advisedly when I say did. The
man she loved is drowned; he was coming home in
. the Asphodel. I sometimes wonder whether her mind
can have given way, poor child. Shesuffered deeply,
and the more deeply that she did not let anyone know
it; she hid it till the shock of the news of that terrible
fire betrayed her. She may have gone mad, but she
has not gone away from Biarritz with any living man.
You do not know her, or you would not dream of sus-
pecting such a thing.' •
Mrs. Jarvis sent a ladylike note by her husband en-
dorsing his wishes that Mrs. Churchill and the girls
would come to Campsie House, and promised to wire
to him at once should any tidings come of Helen Ram-
say, and to take her in and treat her with all motherly
kindness, if she came during his absence. She did
not come. Mrs. Churchill and her daughters arrived,
but no Helen, and the New Year began for them
all in anxiety and suspense that was almost unbar-
able.
The matter crept into the English newspapers, and
the news found its way to Hilliard and was duly dis-
cussed. Barney Grubb heard of it and took the
tidings home to his mother, turning it over in his mind
as he walked to the ferry and making his own com-
ments thereon. •
'Lost!' Mrs. Mordaunt said, putting down her
knitting, which she was seldom without, unless she
was actually engaged in her domestic avocations.
'Miss Ramsay missing—impossible.'
That's what they are saying in the town, mother,'
Barney replied; I heard it read out of a paper at the
Flying Pigs She has disappeared from the place where
she went with Mrs. Churchill—where we got the
basket directed to.'
Biarritt—it's in France,' Mrs. Maudant said, rather
exulting in her superior knowledge. Barney was no
scholar, as he very often said, though he had been a
smart soldier enough, and was clever with his hands.
$ Well, wherever it is, she is gone—walked away in
broad daylight, with a bag and a cloak, and has never
been seen or heard of since. She had our basket,
'though, before she went.'
• Lor ! Had she? How do you know?' the mother
asked.
Why, it was all in the paper.'
Our basket was all in the paper? Whatever do
you mean?'
'Not our basket special.' Butlhe paper said how the
young lady seemed so well and so pleased, and she
had received many presents laam.Fngland only that
day, and had left her room full of them; it was to
show that there no reason for her running away,
don't you see?'
'No, I don't see,' Mrs. Mordaunt said. 'Do you
think she has eloped with anyene. It was all over
' about that poor young fellow that was killed, wasn't
It?' •
You do not know ;Miss Ramsay, mother, or you
could not ask such a question as Whether she eloped,'
said Barney. She hasn't eloped. If she couldn't get
at a thing by the lawful high road, she'd never go
round by a back way to it. If she did go in the
fashion that the paper said, she has been enticed away
by some cock-and-bull story, and some harm has come
to her.'
'But what harm would anyone do to her, a pretty
dear!' said the old woman. ' She hadn't an enemy
in all the wide world, I should think.'
$ Yes she had,' her son replied; a man that would
stick at nothing to gain his ends, mother. As lam a
living man; the parson has had some hand in this
- - 6 Meaning Mr. Gayford?'
'Yes; meaning him. Wherever Miss Ramsay is
found—whenever she is found—my words- w 11 be
found true. I believe he's the devil, and he loves
her.'
'Then he won't hurt her, surely,' his mother said,
simply. Her idea of love was gentle and sympathethic ;
she could not comprehend a love that bites and blasts
the thing it, loves with the fire of its own passion. '
6, He would hurt anything. I know what he can
do, curse him ! If witches and wizards were burnt
now-a-dayS, there should be a bonny fire lighted for
him. I think it would do me good to fell the wood
for it! _
Eh, lid, but that is horrible talk.'
I know it is; but sometimes, when I think of that
man, I feel as if I should like to kill him. He has a
power—l don't know what it is. I believe be can
read one's thoughts about him. One day when I was
rowing a arty of them across the river here, and he
and I had a word or two (we never could meet
without; I never could be civil to him, anyway) ;
all of a sudden a feeling came over me that I must
do what he told me, no matter what it was. I thought
he was calling me and I asked him across the boat if
he spoke. He said he didn't, with such a wieked look
on his face as I've not often seen on any man's. But
the feeling didn't leave me. I wanted to throw down
• my oars aucl go and ask him what he wanted. I was
all of a cold sweat trying to resist t, and all at once
it went off, and I saw him laugh, as the Devil might
have laughed, when he had conquered anyone.
What did you do?'
'What could I do? He was taking to all the rest
• of the folks by the time I had recovered my wits, and
'• making himself agreeable to poor Miss Ramsay, and
trying with all his might to make the young fellow
• that was supposed to be her lover look foolish and
_ small iz her eyes. I made up my mind that I never
would never row him across the river again, if I lost
s •
•' the ferry through it.'
, • And did you ?'
No, never. It was not many days after that that
the lying letter came for me, and all the rest of it
happened. Mr. Gayford will give me a wide ber.h,
now, I fancy.'
'Why?'
Because I have sworn to find out who did that
deed, I don't think he wants me to. That's all,
mother.'
Milford was stirred out of its usual stagnation by
the newe ab,ut Helen. She had not been very widely
known, but-her story was public property, and where'
ever she was known she was liked. air. Stone, stranger
though he was in the place, wai wonderfully curious,
-*
and made his factotum, Ragged Jack, go hither and
thither for intelligence, in a fashion that might have
considerably astonished that young gentleman had not
he been thoroughly acquainted with his master's ea-
contricities Jack as to go to sshool as soon as the
new year holidays were over. His master was quite
well again nova and could do without personal atten-
dance; th mgh Jack was to be considered his bo3
still, and to rc turn to him, nothing preventing, when
lie had been taught something. • Jack did not affect
his family mu h, though he gave them of his abund-
ance, and lightened his mother's burden very con-
siderably by his aid. Ile rover wavered in his story
of how he came to be Mr. Stone's body guard. as it
were; and his father told him he was the luckiest
young dog on'tho face of the earth.
That gentreman would have had him worry his
master for help and means for him, that he might drag
on an idle life to his heart's content. But on that
peint Jack was aNmant. He would give, and did
freely, what was his own—his wages and clot-off
garments of his master and so forth—but he would
ask for nothing more.