Thereby Hangs a Tale. Volume One

“Oh, my!” ejaculated Polly, dropping her work, and starting farther from the window. “What will aunt say?”

Now, her instructions had been stringent; and knowing that it would be like high treason to speak to Humphrey, she determined that she would not, just as an industrious young needle, which had been warned not to get rusty by associating with common bits of steel, might have gone on busily through its work like the one Polly held in her hand.

But supposing that, instead of a common piece of steel, a magnet that had been rubbed with the loadstone of love should come in its way, what could the poor needle do?

Even as did little Polly – vow that aunt would be so cross; and then feel herself drawn, drawn closer and closer to the iron-barred window, till her little hands were caught in two strong, muscular fists, which pressed them so hard that they almost hurt.

“Oh! you mustn’t, mustn’t come!” sobbed Polly. “If aunt found it out she would almost kill me!”

“No, no, little one,” said Humphrey; “why should she?”

“You – you don’t know aunt,” whispered Polly. “She’s ordered me not to speak to you.”

“Not to speak to me!”

“Yes; nor to any one else. She would be so angry if she knew. You don’t want to get me scolded.”

“No, no,” he whispered – “not for worlds.”

“Pray, pray, go then; and you must not speak to me any more.”

“But Polly, dear Polly,” whispered Humphrey, “tell me one thing, and then I’ll go and wait years and years, if you like, only tell me that.”

Humphrey stopped short, for a singular phenomenon occurred. Polly’s fingers seemed to suddenly change from within his hands to his wrists, and to become bony and firm, a sharp voice at the same moment exclaiming —

“Who’s this?”

Humphrey Lloyd was a man, every inch of him, and he spoke out boldly —

“Well, if you must know, it’s me – Humphrey.”

“Go round to the side door, and come to my room,” said Mrs Lloyd, in a low, angry voice.

Humphrey was heard to go rustling through the laurels, as Mrs Lloyd exclaimed —

“Go up to your room, Miss, this instant; and don’t you stir till I call you down.”

Shivering with fear and shame, Polly made her escape to run up to her room, throw herself on the bed, and cry as if her heart would break, just missing Humphrey, who came round without loss of time.

“Now,” said Mrs Lloyd, as soon as the door was closed, “what have you to say to this?”

“Only that it was my fault,” said Humphrey – “all my fault; so don’t blame the poor little girl. It was all my doing.”

“Now, look here, Humphrey Lloyd,” exclaimed the housekeeper, speaking in a low, angry voice, “you like your place here?”

“Yes, if you and he could treat me a little better.”

“Never mind about that,” said Mrs Lloyd.

“It’s no use to mind,” said Humphrey, bitterly. “If I had been a dog instead of your own flesh and blood, you couldn’t have treated me worse.”

“Treated you badly!” exclaimed Mrs Lloyd; “haven’t you been well fed, educated, and placed in a good situation?”

“Yes – all that,” said Humphrey. “And for reward you fly in my face. Now, look here, Humphrey. If you so much as look at that girl again, let alone speak to her, off you go. You shall not stay on the premises another day.”

“Well,” said Humphrey, “that’s pleasant; but all the same I don’t see what power you have in the matter, so long as I satisfy the young master.”

“Then just content yourself with satisfying your young master, sir, and mind, that girl’s not for you, so let’s have no more of it. Now go.”

“But look here,” said Humphrey. “I told you to go,” said Mrs Lloyd, pointing. “Your place is at the keeper’s lodge. Go and stay there, and don’t go thinking you can influence Master Dick – Mr Trevor – to keep you, because even if you could, the girl should go away, and you should see her no more. Now go.”

“Poor little lassie,” muttered Humphrey, as, in obedience to Mrs Lloyd’s pointing finger, he slowly left the room, walked heavily along the passage, and out into the dark evening, to pass round the house, and cross the lawn, where he could see through the open windows into the dining-room.

“Nice for me,” he muttered. “Forbidden to go near her – girl in my own station. What does the old woman mean?”

He stood gazing in at the merry, laughing party of young, well-dressed men.

“Nice to be you,” he thought; “plenty of money to spend; people to do all you tell them to; nobody to thwart you. But I wonder what the old lady means.”

He laughed to himself directly after, in a low, bitter fashion.

“No, not so bad as that,” he said, half aloud. “She’s ambitious, and scheming, but that would be going too far.”

Kinks in the Line

Matters were not so pleasant, though, with the four occupants of the dining-room as Humphrey Lloyd believed. Vanleigh had his skeleton in the cupboard and was very impecunious; Sir Felix had wealth, but he was constantly feeling that his friend Vanleigh was an incubus whom he would give the world to shake off, but wanted the moral courage; Pratt suffered from poverty, and now told himself that he must be bored by his friend’s affairs; lastly, Trevor had come down to his old home thinking it would be a bower of roses, and it was as full of thorns, as it could possibly be.

The dinner had been a failure. At every turn the influence of Mrs Lloyd was perceptible, and proof given that so far she had been sole mistress of the house.

“By the way, Vanleigh, try that claret,” said Trevor, in the course of the dinner. “Lloyd, the claret to Captain Vanleigh.”

The Captain tasted it, and set down his glass.

Pratt took a glass, and made a point of drinking it.

Trevor saw there was something wrong.

“Bring me that claret,” he said.

The butler poured him out a glass of very thin, poor wine.

Lloyd was then proceeding to fill Sir Felix’s glass, but he declined.

“I thought we had some good old claret,” said Trevor, fuming.

“Yes, sir,” said the butler.

“Fetch a bottle directly,” exclaimed Trevor. “Really, gentlemen, I am very sorry,” he continued, as the butler went out of the room. “It’s a mistake. Here, Robert, what champagne’s that?”

The footman brought a bottle from the ice-pail.

“Why, confound it all!” cried Trevor, “I said the dry Clicquot was to be brought – such fools!”

“Mr Lloyd did get out the Clicker, sir; but Mrs Lloyd said the second best would do, sir,” replied the footman, glad of an opportunity to change the responsibility.

“Then all the wine is of the ordinary kind?” said Trevor.

“Yes, sir,” said the footman.

“Look here, Lloyd,” said Trevor, as the butler came into the room, “you made a mistake about that claret. See that the other wine is right; and if not, change it.”

The butler looked aghast and hurried out, to return in a few minutes with a basket of bottles, which he changed for those already in the room.

Trevor said no more, but he was evidently making up his mind to suppress the mutiny with a high hand on the morrow; for, as the dinner went on, he became aware that in many little things his orders had been departed from. There was a paucity of plate, when an abundance lay in the chests; the dinner was good, by stretching a point, but not such as would please men accustomed to the chefs of Pall Mall; and when at last the coffee was brought in it was of the most economical quality.

“There,” said Trevor, “I’ll set all right to-morrow, I’m very sorry, Vanleigh; but things are all sixes and sevens here. Pratt, pass the claret. Landells, try that port.”

“Never drink port, dear boy,” said the Baronet.

“Then let’s go into the billiard-room; or what do you say, Van – would you prefer my room and a rubber?”

“Don’t much care for billiards to-night,” said Vanleigh. “By the way, though,” he said, “will your estimable housekeeper permit smoking in the dining-room.”

“Oh, come, Van,” said Sir Felix, “don’t be hard on your host.”

“Shall I ring for cigars, Dick?” said Pratt, reaching out his hand.

“Do, please,” was the reply. “Smoke where you like, gentlemen, and make yourselves at home. I don’t want to be hard on the old people. You see, it’s a particular case. I’ve been away for years. I left a boy, and they have had it all their own way. Oh, Lloyd, bring in the cigar boxes, and brandy and soda.”

“Here, sir?” said the butler, hesitating.

“Here? Yes, here directly,” said Trevor; and he looked annoyed as he caught a glance passing from Vanleigh to Sir Felix.

“It’s all right, Dick,” said Pratt. “It’s a nice estate, but weedy. Pull ’em up, one at a time.”

“By the way, Van,” said Sir Felix, “didn’t tell Trevor of our ’venture.”

“No,” said Vanleigh, kicking at his friend beneath the table; “been so taken up with other things. Brought home some neighbours of yours – without leave – in the waggonette.”

“Neighbours – without leave?” said Trevor, passing the claret. “We are all ears.”

“Some of us,” muttered Pratt, glancing at Sir Felix, and then looking perfectly innocent.

“Neighbours of yours – a Sir Hampton Court.”

“No, no – Weir or Here, or name of that sort,” said Sir Felix.

“Carriage broke down – two daughters – deuced fine girls, too.”

“Vewy,” said Sir Felix, arranging his gummy moustache.

“Good heavens!” exclaimed Trevor. “No one hurt?”

“Calm yourself, my friend,” said Vanleigh, proceeding in a most unruffled way. “The ladies were uninjured, and we – ”

“Brought back – home,” said Sir Felix, feebly.

“I’m heartily glad of it – I am, indeed,” said Trevor, earnestly. “Frank, old fellow, that will be an excuse for a call; and we can patch up the encounter. We were both horribly hot.”

“Fever heat?” said Pratt.

“Yes, and I daresay the old fellow’s as sorry now as I am. I’ll – Well, Lloyd,” he continued, as the butler came in, looking rather alarmed, and rubbing his hands softly, “where are the cigars?”

“Mustn’t smoke!” said Vanleigh, in a whisper to Sir Felix, but heard by Pratt.

“If you please, sir, Mrs Lloyd thought you would like a fire in the smoking-room, sir, and I’ve taken the cigars in there.”

“Bring – ”

Trevor caught Pratt’s eye, and he checked himself.

“Lloyd,” he said, very quietly. “I don’t think you understand me yet. Go and fetch those cigar boxes.”

The butler directed a pitiful, appealing look at the speaker, and then went out, leaving Trevor tapping the mahogany table excitedly, till Pratt tried to throw himself into the breach, with a remark about Sir Hampton; but no one answered, for Trevor was hard at work keeping down his annoyance, Vanleigh was picking his white teeth with a gold point, and Sir Felix was intent upon the tints in the glass he held up before his eye.

In another minute the butler returned with the cigars, and then departed to fulfil the other part of his orders.

“Now, Vanleigh, since we are favoured,” said Trevor, laughing, “try one of these. I know they are genuine, for I got them myself at the Havanna.”

“Really,” said Vanleigh, with a show of consideration, “I’ll give up my smoke, and I’m sure Flick will.”

“Oh, yes, dear boy; don’t mind me.”

“For goodness’ sake, gentlemen, don’t make bad worse,” said Trevor; “take your cigars and light up. Hallo, Frank! Don’t go out, man.”

“Not going,” said Pratt, who had already lit a tremendous cigar, and was puffing away as he took a chair to the window.

“Then, why have you gone there?”

“To smoke the curtains for the benefit of Mrs Lloyd,” was the reply; and he proceeded to put his intention in force.

After an hour they adjourned to Trevor’s room, where they had refreshments brought in, and were soon deep in a rubber of whist, Pratt being partner with Vanleigh, and playing his very worst; but all the same, luck and his partner’s skill carried them through, so that they won rather heavily. Time glided away, and the cigars were so good that for the first time that evening Trevor felt comfortable.

“Well,” he thought, “we shall have no more of Mrs Lloyd to-night, and to-morrow I’ll set things right. Me to lead? Good that – there’s a trump.”

At that moment the door opened, and Mrs Lloyd appeared, bearing a waiter with four flat candlesticks, and looking the very image of austerity.

“The house is all locked up now, sir,” she said, in a cold, hard voice. “It is half-past ten.”

“Thank you, Mrs Lloyd,” said Trevor, and his face twitched with annoyance.

“Is half-past ten – bedtime – Mrs Lloyd?” said Pratt, laying down his cards.

“Yes, sir, it is,” said Mrs Lloyd, severely.

“And you’ve brought us our candles,” said Frank, taking the waiter. “Thank you, Mrs Lloyd; don’t you sit up. Good night.”

Pratt’s good-humoured, smiling face puzzled the housekeeper. She allowed herself to be backed out, and the door closed behind her.

Two Scenes

Matters had not been very pleasant in the neighbourhood of Mrs Lloyd that night Polly had escaped by being a prisoner; but the butler had been reduced, between fear of his wife and a burst of passion from his master, into a state of semi-idiocy; while the rest of the servants, after one or two encounters, had had a meeting, and declared – being, for the most part, newly engaged in consequence of the young heir’s return – that if that woman was to do as she liked in the house, they’d serve their month and then go.

But it was on retiring for the night that the butler came in for the full torrent of his wife’s anger.

“It sha’n’t go on!” she exclaimed, fiercely, as she banged a chair down in the centre of the room, and seated herself. “Here do I stop till every light’s out. That boy whom we worshipped almost, who’s been our every thought, to come home at last like a prodigal son – backwards, and begin to waste his patrimony in this way.”

“’Sh! ’sh!” said the butler.

“’Sh yourself!” exclaimed Mrs Lloyd, angrily.

“But, my dear, he’s master here,” the butler ventured to say.

“Is he indeed!” exclaimed Mrs Lloyd. “I’ll see about that.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake – for Heaven’s sake – pray don’t do anything rash, Martha,” said the butler, imploringly. “Think – think of the consequences.”

“Consequences – you miserable coward, you; I haven’t patience with you.”

“But we are old now, Martha; and what could we do if anything happened to us here? Pray, pray think. After thirty years in this place; and we should never get another. Pray, pray don’t speak.”

“Hold your tongue! Do you think, after bringing him up and rearing him as we did when he was delicate, and nursing him through measles and scarlatina, and making a man of him as we have, taking care of the pence, and saving and scratching together, that I’m going to be trampled under foot by him?”

“But, Martha – ”

“Hold your tongue, I say. Bringing home here his evil companions, for whom nothing’s good enough; and they must have the best wines, and turn my dining-room into a tap-room with their nasty smoke. I won’t have it, I tell you – I won’t have it.”

“But, Martha, dear, you are so rash; come to bed now, and sleep on it all.”

“Not till every light is out in this house will I stir. Sitting smoking, and diceing, and gambling there at this time of night.”

“Were they, my dear?” said the butler, mildly.

“Yes, with gold by their sides, playing for sovereigns; and that black-looking captain had actually got a five-pound note on the table. We shall all come to ruin.”

“Yes, that we shall, if you forget your place,” said the butler, pitifully, as he gave his pillow a punch.

“Forget my place, indeed!” retorted his wife; “have I been plotting and planning all these years for nothing? Have I brought matters to this pitch to be treated in this way, to be turned upon by an ungrateful boy, with his rough, sea-going ways? This isn’t the quarter-deck of a ship – do you hear what I say? – this isn’t the quarter-deck of a ship.”

“No, my dear, of course it isn’t,” said the butler, mildly – “it’s our bedroom,” he added to himself.

“But I’ll bring him to himself in the morning, see if I don’t,” she said, folding her arms, and speaking fiercely. “I’ll soon let him know who I am – an overbearing, obstinate, mad – are you asleep, Lloyd?”

“No, my dear, I’m listening.”

“Now, look here; I have my plans about Polly.”

“Yes, dear.”

“And, mind this, if that fellow Humphrey attempts to approach her again – ”

“Poor Humphrey!” sighed the butler.

“Ah!” exclaimed his wife, “what was I about to marry such a milksop? Did you know that he was making up to her?”

“I thought he cared for the girl, my dear.”

“You fool! you idiot, Lloyd! and not to tell me. Have you no brains at all?”

“I’m afraid not much, my dear,” said the butler, pitifully: “what little I had has been pretty well muddled with trouble, and upset, and dread, and one thing and another.”

“Lloyd!” exclaimed the housekeeper, “if ever I hear you speak again like that – ”

She did not finish her sentence, but her eyes flashed as she looked full in his, holding the candle over him the while.

“Now, look here,” she said, more temperately. “I shall have a talk with my gentleman in the morning.”

“What, poor Humphrey?”

“Poor Humphrey, no. But mind this – he’s not to come near Polly.”

“But you don’t think – ”

“Never mind what I think, you mind what I say, and leave me to bring things round. If she don’t know what’s good for her, I do; and I shall have my way.”

The butler sighed.

“Now, look here, I shall have some words of a sort with my fine gentleman in the morning.”

“No, no, Martha, don’t – pray don’t; let things be now; we can’t alter them.”

“Can’t we?” said Mrs Lloyd, viciously – “I’ll see about that.”

“But, Martha, dear, I’m fifteen years older than you, and if anything happened it would break my heart – there!” he exclaimed, vehemently. “I’d sooner go down to Trevass Rocks, and jump off into the sea, and end it all, than that anything should happen to us now – after all these years.”

Mrs Lloyd did not speak for a few minutes. Then, hearing a voice downstairs, she opened the door gently, and listened, to make out that it was only laughter from the smoking-room, and she closed the door once more.

“If ever there was a coward, Lloyd, you are one,” she said, with a bitter sneer.

“Yes,” said the butler. “I suppose I am, for I can’t bear the idea of anything happening now. Then people say we’re unnatural to poor Humphrey.”

“Poor Humphrey again!” exclaimed Mrs Lloyd, angrily; “let people talk about what they understand. I should like for any one to say anything to me.”

“But Martha,” said Lloyd, after a pause. “Well?”

“You’ll not be rash in the morning – don’t peril our position here out of an angry feeling.”

“You go to sleep,” was the uncompromising response.

And sighing wearily, the butler did go to sleep, his wife sitting listening hour after hour till nearly two, when there was the sound of a door opening, a burst of voices, steps in the hall, “Good nights!” loudly uttered, Pratt going upstairs to his room, whistling number one of the Lancers-quadrilles with all his might. Then came the closing of bedroom doors and silence.

Mrs Lloyd sat for ten minutes more, then, taking her candle, she walked softly downstairs; went round dining- and drawing-rooms and study, examining locks, bolts, and shutters, and then went to the butler’s pantry, gave a drag at the handle of the iron plate-closet, to satisfy herself that all was right there, and lastly made for the smoking-room.

“Like a public-house,” she muttered, as she crossed the hall, turned the handle with a snatch, and threw open the door, to find herself face to face with Trevor, who was sitting at a table writing a letter.

“Mrs Lloyd!”

“Not gone to bed!”

The couple looked angrily at each other for a few moments, and then Trevor said, sternly —

“Why are you downstairs at this time of the night, Mrs Lloyd?”

“The morning you mean, sir,” said the housekeeper. “What am I down for?” she continued, angrily; “to see that the house is safe – that there’s no fire left about – that doors are fastened, so that the house I’ve watched over all these years isn’t destroyed by carelessness, and all going to rack and ruin.”

Trevor jumped up with an angry exclamation on his lips; but he checked it, and then spoke, quite calmly —

“Mrs Lloyd, I should be perfectly justified in speaking to you perhaps in a way in which you have never been spoken to before.”

“Pray do, then, Master – sir,” jerked out Mrs Lloyd, looking white with anger.

“In half a dozen things during the past evening you have wilfully disobeyed my orders. Why was this?”

“To protect your interests and property,” exclaimed the housekeeper.

“Giving me credit for not knowing my own mind, and making me look absurd in the eyes of my friends.”

“I didn’t mean to do anything of the kind, sir,” said Mrs Lloyd, stoutly.

“I’ll grant that; and that you did it through ignorance,” said Trevor.

“I don’t want to see the place I’ve taken care of for years go to ruin,” said Mrs Lloyd.

“I’ll grant that too,” said Trevor, “and that you and your husband have been most faithful servants, and are ready at any time to give an account of your stewardship. I feel your zeal in my interests, but you must learn to see, Mrs Lloyd, that you can carry it too far. I daresay, too, that for all these years you and your husband have felt like mistress and master of the house, and that it seems hard to give up to the new rule, and to render the obedience that I shall exact; but, Mrs Lloyd, you are a woman of sound common sense, and you must see that your conduct to me has been anything but what it should be.”

“I’ve never had a thought but for your benefit!” exclaimed Mrs Lloyd.

“I believe it, Mrs Lloyd – I know it; but tell me frankly that you feel you have erred, and no more shall be said.”

Mrs Lloyd gave a gulp, and stood watching the fine, well-built man before her.

“It grieves me, I assure you, to have to speak as I do, Mrs Lloyd,” continued Trevor; “but you must see that things are altered now.”

“And that you forget all the past, Master Dick,” cried Mrs Lloyd, with a wild sob, “and that those who have done everything for you may now be turned out of the house in their old age and go and beg their bread, while you make merry with your friends.”

“Come – come – come, Mrs Lloyd,” said Trevor, advancing to her, and laying his hand caressingly on her shoulder, “you don’t believe that; you have too much respect for your old master’s son to think he would grow up such an ingrate – so utterly void of common feeling. He has not forgotten who took the place of his mother – who nursed him – who tended him through many an illness, and was always more a friend than a servant. He has come back a man – I hope a generous one – accustomed to command, and be obeyed. He wishes you to keep your position of confidential trust, and the thought of making any change has never entered his mind. All he wishes is that you should make an effort to see the necessity for taking the place necessitated by the relative positions in which we now find ourselves; and he tells you, Mrs Lloyd, that you may rest assured while Penreife stands there is always a home for you and for your husband.”

As he touched her a shiver ran through the woman’s frame; the inimical aspect faded out, and she looked admiringly in his face, her own working the while, as his grave words were uttered, till, sobbing violently, she threw her arms round his neck, kissed him passionately again and again, and then sank upon the floor to cover her face with her hands.

“There – there, nurse,” he said, taking her hand and raising her. “Let this show you I’ve not forgotten old times. This is to be the seal of a compact for the future,” – he kissed her gravely on the forehead. “Now, nurse, you will believe in your master for the future, and you see your way?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, looking appealingly in his face.

“We thoroughly understand each other?”

“Yes, sir; and I’ll try never to thwart you again.”

“You’ll let me be master in my own house?” he said, his handsome face lighting up with a smile.

“Yes, indeed, I will, sir,” sobbed the woman; “and – and – you’re not angry with me – for – for – ”

“For what – about the wine?”

“No, sir, for the liberty I took just now.”