Of High Descent

“No,” he said firmly, just as the wind had hurled itself with redoubled fury against the house; “no, she does not give me a second thought. But I take heart of grace, for I can feel that she has never had that gentle little heart troubled by such thoughts. The Frenchman has not won her, and he never shall if I can help it. It’s a fair race for both of us, and only one can win.”

“My word! What a night!”

He walked to the window and looked out at the sombre sky, and listened to the roar of the rumbling billows before closing his casement and ringing.

“Is all fastened?” he said to the servant. “You need not sit up. – I don’t believe a dog would be out to-night, let alone a human being.”

He was wrong; for just as he spoke a dark figure encased in oilskins was sturdily making its way down the cliff-path to the town. It was hard work, and in places on the exposed cliff-side even dangerous, for the wind seemed to pounce upon the figure and try to tear it off; but after a few moments’ pause the walk was continued, the town reached, and the wind-swept streets traversed without a soul being passed.

The figure passed on by the wharves and warehouses, and sheltered now from the wind made good way till, some distance ahead, a door was opened, a broad patch of light shone out on the wet cobble stones, Crampton’s voice said, “Good-night,” and the figure drew back into a deep doorway, and waited.

The old clerk had been to the principal inn, where, once a week, he visited his club, and drank one glass of Hollands and water, and smoked one pipe, talking mostly to one friend, to whom if urged he would relate one old story.

This was his one dissipation; and afterwards he performed one regular duty which took him close up to the watching figure which remained there almost breathless till Crampton had performed his regular duty and gone home.

It was ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before he passed that watching figure, which seemed to have sunk away in the darkness that grew more dense as the gale increased.

Morning at last, a slowly breaking dawn, and with it the various sea-going men slowly leaving their homes, to direct their steps in a long procession towards one point where the high cliff face formed a shelter from the southwest wind, and the great billows which rolled heavily in beneath the leaden sky. These came on with the regularity of machinery, to charge the cliffs at which they leaped with a hiss and a roar, and a boom like thunder, followed by a peculiar rattling, grumbling sound, as if the peal of thunder had been broken up into heavy pieces which were rolling over each other back toward the sea.

They were not pieces of thunder but huge boulders, which had been rolled over and over for generations to batter the cliffs, and then fall back down an inclined plane.

Quite a crowd had gathered on the broad, glistening patch of rugged granite, as soon as the day broke, and this crowd was ever augmenting, till quite a phalanx of oilskin coats and tarpaulin hats presented its face to the thundering sea, while men shouted to each other, and swept the lead-coloured horizon with heavy glasses, or the naked hand-shaded eye, in search of some vessel trying to make the harbour, or in distress.

“She bites, this morning,” said one old fisherman, shaking the spray from his dripping face after looking round the corner of a mass of sheltering rock.

“Ay, mate, and it aren’t in me to tell you how glad I am my boat’s up the harbour with her nose fast to a buoy,” said another.

“There’ll be widders and orphans in some ports ’fore nightfall.”

“And thank the Lord that won’t be in Hakemouth.”

“I dunno so much about that,” growled a heavy-looking man, with a fringe of white hair round his face. “Every boat that sails out of this harbour arn’t in port.”

“That it is. Why, what’s yer thinking about?”

“’Bout Van Heldre’s brig, my lad.”

“Ah,” chorused half-a-dozen voices, “we didn’t think o’ she.”

“Been doo days and days,” said the white-fringed old fisherman; “and if she’s out yonder, I say, Lord ha’ mercy on ’em all, Amen.”

“Not had such a storm this time o’ year since the Cape mail were wrecked off the Long Chain.”

“Ah, and that warn’t so bad as this. Bound to say the brig has put into Mount’s Bay.”

“And not a nice place either with the wind this how. Well, my lads, I say there’s blessings and blessings, and we ought all to be werry thankful as we arn’t ship-owners with wessels out yonder.”

This was from the first man who had spoken; but his words were not received with much favour, and as in a lull of the wind one of the men had to use a glass, he growled out,

“Well, I dunno ’bout sending one’s ship to sea in such a storm, but I don’t see as it’s such a very great blessing not to have one of your own, speshly if she happened to be a brig like Mast’ Van Heldre’s!”

“Hold your row,” said a man beside him, as he drove his elbow into his ribs, and gave a side jerk of his head.

The man thus adjured turned sharply, and saw close to him a sturdy-looking figure clothed from head to foot in black mackintosh, which glistened as it dripped with the showery spray.

“Ugly day, my lads.”

“Ay, ay, sir; much snugger in port than out yonder.”

Boom! came a heavy blow from a wave, and the offing seemed to be obscured now by the drifting spray.

Van Heldre focussed a heavy binocular, and gazed out to sea long and carefully.

“Any one been up to the look-out?” he said, as he lowered his glass.

“Two on us tried it, sir,” said one of the men, “but the wind’s offle up yonder, and you can’t see nothing.”

“Going to try it, sir?” said another of the group.

Van Heldre nodded; and he was on his way to a roughly-formed flight of granite steps which led up to the ruins of the old castle which had once defended the mouth of the harbour, when another mackintosh-clothed figure came up.

“Ah, Mr Leslie,” said Van Heldre, looking at the new-comer searchingly.

“Good morning,” was the reply, “or I should say bad morning. There’ll be some mischief after this.”

Van Heldre nodded, for conversation was painful, and passed on.

“Going up yonder?” shouted Leslie.

There was another nod, and under the circumstances, not pausing to ask permission, Leslie followed the old merchant, climbing the rough stone steps, and holding on tightly by the rail.

“Best look out, master,” shouted one of the group. “Soon as you get atop roosh acrost and kneel down behind the old parry-putt.”

It was a difficult climb and full of risk, for as they went higher they were more exposed, till as they reached the rough top which formed a platform, the wind seemed to rush at them as interlopers which it strove to sweep off and out to sea.

Van Heldre stood, glass in hand, holding on by a block of granite, his mackintosh tightly pressed to his figure in front, and filling out behind till it had a balloon-like aspect that seemed grotesque.

“I dare say I look as bad,” Leslie muttered, as, taking the rough fisherman’s advice, he bent down and crept under the shelter of the ancient parapet, a dwarf breastwork, with traces of the old crude bastions just visible, and here, to some extent, he was screened from the violence of the wind, and signed to Van Heldre to join him.

Leslie placed his hands to his mouth, and shouted through them,

“Hadn’t you better come here, sir?” For the position seemed terribly insecure. They were on the summit of the rocky headland, with the sides going on three sides sheer down to the shore, on two of which sides the sea kept hurling huge waves of water, which seemed to make the rock quiver to its foundations. One side of the platform was protected by the old breastwork; on the opposite the stones had crumbled away or fallen, and here there was a swift slope of about thirty feet to the cliff edge.

It was at the top of this slope that Van Heldre stood gazing out to sea.

Leslie, as he watched him, felt a curious premonition of danger, and gathered himself together involuntarily, ready for a spring.

The danger he anticipated was not long in making its demand upon him, for all at once there was a tremendous gust, as if an atmospheric wave had risen up to spring at the man standing on high as if daring the fury of the tempest; and in spite of Van Heldre’s sturdy frame he completely lost his balance. He staggered for a moment, and, but for his presence of mind in throwing himself down, he would have been swept headlong down the swift slope to destruction.

As it was he managed to cling to the rocks, as the wind swept furiously over, and checked his downward progress for the moment. This would have been of little avail, for, buffeted by the wind, he was gliding slowly down, and but for Leslie’s quickly rendered aid, it would only have been a matter of moments before he had been hurled down upon the rocks below.

Even as he staggered, Leslie mastered the peculiar feeling of inertia which attacked him, and, creeping rapidly over the intervening space, made a dash at the fluttering overcoat, caught it, twisted it rapidly, and held on.

Then for a space neither moved, for it was as if the storm was raging with redoubled fury at the chance of its victim being snatched away.

The lull seemed as if it would never come; and when it did Leslie felt afraid to stir lest the fragile material by which he supported his companion should give way. In a few moments, however, he was himself, and shouting so as to make his voice plainly heard – for, close as he was, his words seemed to be swept away as uttered – he uttered a few short clear orders, which were not obeyed.

“Do you hear?” he cried again, “Mr Van Heldre – quick!”

Still there was no reply by voice or action, and it seemed as if the weight upon Leslie’s wrists was growing heavier moment by moment. He yelled to him now, to act; and what seemed to be a terrible time elapsed before Van Heldre said hoarsely —

“One moment: better now. I felt paralysed.”

There was another terrible pause, during which the storm beat upon them, the waves thundered at the base of the rock, and even at that height there came a rain of spray which had run up the face of the rock and swept over to where they lay.

“Now, quick!” said Van Heldre, as he lay face downward, spread-eagled, as a sailor would term it, against the face of the sloping granite.

What followed seemed to be a struggling scramble, a tremendous effort, and then with the wind shrieking round them, Van Heldre reached the level, and crept slowly to the shelter of the parapet.

“Great heavens!” panted Leslie, as he lay there exhausted, and gazed wildly at his companion. “What an escape!”

There was no reply. Leslie thought that Van Heldre had fainted, for his eyes were nearly closed, and his face seemed to be drawn. Then he realised that his lips were moving slowly, as if in prayer.

“Hah!” the rescued man said at last, his words faintly heard in the tempest’s din. “Thank God! For their sake – for their sake.”

Then, holding out his hand, he pressed Leslie’s in a firm strong grip.

“Leslie,” he said, with his lips close to his companion’s ear, “you have saved my life.”

Neither spoke much after that, but they crouched there – in turn using the glass.

Once Van Heldre grasped his companion’s arm, and pointed out to sea.

“A ship?” cried Leslie.

“No. Come down now.”

Waiting till the wind had dropped for the moment, they reached the rough flight of steps, and on returning to the level found that the crowd had greatly increased; and among them Leslie saw Harry Vine and his companion.

“Can’t see un, sir, can you?” shouted one of the men.

Van Heldre shook his head.

“I thought you wouldn’t, sir,” shouted another. “Capt’n Muskerry’s too good a sailor to try and make this port in such a storm.”

“Ay,” shouted another. “She’s safe behind the harbour wall at Penzaunce.”

“I pray she may be,” said Van Heldre. “Come up to my place and have some breakfast, Leslie, but not a word, mind, about the slip. I’ll tell that my way.”

“Then I decline to come,” said Leslie, and after a hearty grip of the hand they parted.

“I thought he meant Vine’s girl,” said Van Heldre, as he walked along the wharves street, “but there is no accounting for these things.”

“I ought to explain to him how it was I came to be walking with Miss Van Heldre,” said Leslie to himself. “Good morning.”

He had suddenly found himself face to face with Harry, who walked by, arm in arm with Pradelle, frowning and without a word, when just as they passed a corner the wind came with a tremendous burst, and but for Leslie’s hand Harry Vine must have gone over into the harbour.

It was but the business of a moment, and Harry seemed to shake off the hand which held him with a tremendous grip and passed on.

“Might have said thank you,” said Leslie, smiling. “I seem to be doing quite a business in saving people this morning, only they are of the wrong sex – there is no heroism. Hallo, Mr Luke Vine. Come down to look at the storm?”

“Couldn’t I have seen it better up at home?” shouted the old man. “Ugh! what a wind. Thought I was going to be blown off the cliff. I see your chimney still stands, worse luck. Going home?”

“No, no. One feels so much unsettled at such a time.”

“Don’t go home then. Stop with me.”

Leslie looked at the quaint old man in rather an amused way, and then stopped with him to watch the tumbling billows off the point where his companion so often fished.

Volume One – Chapter Seventeen.

The News

The day wore on with the storm now lulling slightly, now increasing in violence till it seemed as if the great rolling banks of green water must end by conquering in their attack, and sweeping away first the rough pier, and then the little twin towns on either side of the estuary. Nothing was visible seawards, but in a maritime place the attention of all is centred upon the expected, and in the full belief that sooner or later there would be a wreck, all masculine Hakemouth gathered in sheltered places to be on the watch.

Van Heldre and Leslie came into contact again that afternoon, and after a long look seaward, the merchant took the young man’s arm.

“Come on to my place,” he said quietly. “You’ll come too, Luke Vine?”

“I? No, no,” said the old fellow, shaking his head. “I want to stop and watch the sea go down.”

His refusal was loud and demonstrative, but somehow there was a suggestion in it of a request to be asked again.

“Nonsense!” said Van Heldre. “You may as well come and take shelter for a while. You will not refuse, Leslie?”

“Thanks all the same, but I hope you will excuse me too,” replied Leslie with his lips, but with an intense desire to go, for there was a possibility of Louise being at the house with Madelaine.

“I shall feel vexed if you refuse,” said Van Heldre quietly. “Come along, Luke, and dine with us. I’m depressed and worried to-day; be a bit neighbourly if you can.”

“Oh, I’ll come,” said the old man; “but it serves you right. Why can’t you be content as I am, instead of venturing hundreds and hundreds of pounds in ships on the sea? Here, come along, Leslie, and let’s eat and drink all we can to help him, the extravagant spendthrift.”

Van Heldre smiled, and they went along to the house together.

“The boy in yonder at work?” said Uncle Luke, giving a wag of his head toward the office.

“Yes,” said Van Heldre, and ushered his visitors in, the closed door seeming directly after to shut out the din and confusion of the wind-swept street.

“There, throw your mackintoshes on that chair,” said Van Heldre; and hardly had Leslie got rid of his than Mrs Van Heldre was in the hall, her short plump arms were round Leslie’s neck, and she kissed him heartily.

“God bless you!” she whispered with a sob; and before Leslie had well recovered from his surprise and confusion, Madelaine was holding one of his hands in both of hers, and looking tearfully in his face in a way which spoke volumes.

“Ah, it’s nice to be young and good-looking, and well off,” said Uncle Luke. “Nobody gives me such a welcome.”

“How can you say that!” said Madelaine, with a laugh. “Come, Uncle Luke, and we’re very glad to see you.”

As she spoke she put her hands on his shoulders, and kissed his wrinkled cheek.

“Hah! that’s like old times, Maddy,” said the grim-looking visitor, softening a little.

“Why didn’t you keep a nice plump little girl, same as you used to be?”

Madelaine gave him a smile and nod but left the old man with her father, and followed her mother and Leslie into the dining-room.

“So that’s to be it, is it, Van, eh?”

“I don’t know,” was the reply. “It’s all very sudden and a surprise to me.”

“Angled for it, haven’t you?”

“Angled? No.”

“She has then. My dear boy, son of my heart, the very man for my darling, eh?” chuckled Uncle Luke.

“Be quiet, you sham cynic,” said Van Heldre dreamily. “Don’t banter me, Luke, I’m sorely ill at ease.”

“About money, eh?” cried Uncle Luke eagerly.

“Money? No! I was thinking about those poor fellows out at sea.”

“In your brig, eh? Ah, ’tis sad. But that money – quite safe, eh?”

“Oh yes, safe enough.”

“Oh, do come, papa dear,” said Madelaine, reappearing at the door. “Dinner is waiting.”

“Yes, yes, we’re coming, my dear,” said Van Heldre, laying his hand affectionately on Uncle Luke’s shoulder, and they were soon after seated round the table, with the elder visitor showing at times quite another side of his character.

No allusion was made to the adventure of the morning, but Leslie felt in the gentle tenderness displayed towards him by mother and daughter that much had been said, and that he had won a very warm place in their regard. In fact, in word and look, Mrs Van Heldre seemed to be giving him a home in her motherly heart, which was rather embarrassing, and would have been more so, but for Madelaine’s frank, pleasant way of meeting his gaze, every action seemed to be sisterly and affectionate but nothing more.

So Leslie read them, but so did not the ciders at the table.

By mutual consent no allusion was made to the missing brig, and it seemed to Leslie that the thoughts of mother and daughter were directed principally to one point, that of diverting Van Heldre from his troublesome thoughts.

“Ah, I was hungry,” said Uncle Luke, when the repast was about half over. “Very pleasant meal, only wanted one thing to make it perfect.”

“Why, my dear Luke Vine, why didn’t you speak? What is it? oh, pray say.”

“Society,” said Uncle Luke, after pausing for a moment to turn towards the window, a gust having given it a tremendous shake. “I say, if I find my place blown away, can you find me a dry shed or a dog kennel or something, Leslie?”

“Don’t talk such stuff, Luke Vine,” cried Mrs Van Heldre. “Don’t take any notice of him, Mr Leslie, he’s a rich old miser and nothing else. Now, Luke Vine, what do you mean?”

“Said what I meant, society. Why didn’t you ask my sister to dinner? She’d have set us all right, eh, Madelaine?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Madelaine, smiling.

“But I do,” cried her mother; “she’d have set us all by the ears with her nonsense. You are a strange pair.”

“We are – we are. Nice sherry this, Van.”

“Glad you like it,” said Van Heldre, with his eyes turned towards the window, as if he expected news.

“How a woman can be so full of pride and so useless puzzles me.”

“Mamma!” whispered Madelaine, with an imploring look.

“Let her talk, my clear,” said Uncle Luke, “it doesn’t hurt any one. Don’t talk nonsense, Van’s wife. What use could you make of her? She is like the thistle that grows up behind my place, a good-looking prickly plant, with a ball of down for a head. Let her be; you always get the worst of it. The more you excite her the more that head of hers sends out floating downy seeds to settle here and there and do mischief. She has spoiled my nephew Harry, and nearly spoiled my niece.”

“Don’t you believe it, Mr Leslie,” cried Madelaine, with a long earnest look in her eyes.

“Quite true, Miss Impudence,” continued Uncle Luke. “Always was a war between me and the useless plants.”

“Well, I can’t sit here silent and listen to such heresy,” cried Mrs Van Heldre, shaking her head. “Surely, Luke Vine, you don’t call yourself a useful plant.”

“Bless my soul, ma’am, then I suppose I’m a weed?”

“Not you,” said Van Heldre, forcing a show of interest in the conversation.

“Yes, old fellow, I am,” said Uncle Luke, holding his sherry up to the light, and sipping it as if he found real enjoyment therein. “I suppose I am only a weed, not a thistle, like Margaret up yonder, but a tough-rooted, stringy, matter-of-fact old nettle, who comes up quietly in his own corner, and injures no one so long as people let him alone.”

“No, no, no, no!” said Madelaine emphatically.

“Quite right, Miss Van Heldre,” said Leslie.

“Hear, hear!” cried Van Heldre. “Stir me up, then, and see,” cried the old man grimly. “More than one person has found out before now how I can sting, and – Hallo! what’s wrong? You here?”

There had been a quick step in the long passage, and, without ceremony, the door was thrown open, Harry Vine entering, to stand in the gathering gloom hatless and excited.

He was about to speak, Van Heldre having sprung to his feet, when the young man’s eyes alighted on Leslie and Madelaine seated side by side at the table, and the flash of anger which mounted to his brain drove everything else away.

“What is it?” cried Van Heldre hoarsely. “Do you hear? – speak!”

“There is a brig on the Conger Rock,” said Harry quickly, as if roused to a recollection of that which he had come to say.

“Yes, sir,” cried another voice, as old Crampton suddenly appeared. “And the man has just run up to the office with the news, for – ”

“Well, man, speak out,” said Van Heldre, whose florid face was mottled with patches of ghastly white.

“They think it’s ours.”

“I felt it coming,” groaned Van Heldre, as he rushed into the hall, Leslie following quickly.

As he hurriedly threw on his waterproof a hand caught his, and turning, it was to see Madelaine looking up imploringly in his eyes.

“My father, Mr Leslie. Keep him out of danger, pray!”

“Trust me. I’ll do my best,” said the young man quickly; and then he awoke to the fact that Harry Vine was beside him, white with anger, an anger which seemed to make him dumb.

The next minute the whole party were struggling down the street against the hurricane-like wind, to learn from a dozen voices, eager to tender the bad news, that the mist of spray had been so thick that in the early gloom of evening the vessel had approached quite unseen till she was close in, and directly after she had struck on the dangerous rock, in a wild attempt to reach the harbour, a task next to impossible in such a storm.

Volume One – Chapter Eighteen.

Harry Vine Shows his Bright Side

The wreck of a ship on the threshold of the home where every occupant is known, is a scene of excitement beyond the reach of pen to adequately describe; and as the two young men reached the mouth of the harbour, following closely upon Van Heldre, their own petty animosity was forgotten in the face of the terrible disaster.

The night was coming fast, and a light had been hoisted in the rigging of the vessel, now hard on the dangerous rock – the long arc of a circle described by the dim star showing plainly to those on shore the precarious position of the unfortunate crew.

The sides of the harbour were crowded, in spite of the tremendous storm of wind and spray; and, as Leslie followed the ship-owner, he noted the horror and despair in many a spray-wet face.

As Van Heldre approached and was recognised there was a cheer given by those who seemed to take it for granted that the owner would at once devise a way to save the vessel from her perilous position; and rescue the crew whose lives were clear to many gathered in agony around, to see, as it were, their dear ones die.

Steps had already been taken, however, and as the little party from Van Heldre’s reached the harbour it was to see the life-boat launched, and a crew of sturdy fellows in their places, ready to do battle with the waves.

It seemed to be a terrible task to row right out from the comparatively calm harbour, whose long rocky point acted as a breakwater, to where the great billows came rolling in, each looking as if it would engulf a score of such frail craft as that which, after a little of the hesitation of preparation, and amidst a tremendous burst of cheering, was rowed out into the middle of the estuary, and then straight away for the mouth.