Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 17

Tales and Sketches.

THE WINNING HAZARD. (From Chambers’s Journal.) CHAPTER VIII. * Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.’ ‘ So you’re Jack’s sweetheart, are you ?’■» said Sarah Lowther to Valeria Waldron. They were sitting together on a fauteuil in Valeria’s dressing room, before the fire —for the early summer was as severe as usual, and the nights were cold. ‘ Nothing of the kind,’ said Valeria, fixing her great luminous eyes on Miss Lowther. ‘ How absurd ! I’ve only known your cousin a few days.’ ‘ That don’t matter,’ said Sarah : ‘ I hadn’t known poor Tom for an hour before I felt that he was my fate. My dear child, I’ve had some experience of the world, and you may believe me when I tell you that you’re jack’s sweetheart.’ Somehow the idea didn’t seem to be unpleasant to Valeria. She sat leaning forward, looking into the fire, her fair cheek ruddied by the blaze, or by the thought which had been suggested to her. Sarah employed the interval of silence in trimming her nails ; they were beautiful, filbert shaped nails, and she was justly proud of them. ‘ Then you have a sweetheart too ?’ said Valeria, at length. ‘ Yes, I have a sweetheart too,’cried Sarah with a merry laugh, putting her arm round Valeria’s waist. * Oh, you hypocrite ! But mine’s a very old affair—will never come to anything now, dear. I tell you this because I consider you one of the family, and it’s well to have these matters cleared up. But what you and Jack are to do, I don’t know. He’s ruined, I’m afraid, poor fellow ; at least his father is, which is pretty much the same thing.’ ‘Poor fellow, what can we do for him? Papa will help him ! papa is rich, and has always money at command.’ ‘ Let him fight it out, dear; let him worry it out. They’re a lazy lot are the Lowthers till you get them into a corner, and then-look out! It’ll do Jack good.’ ‘ How did it happen ? Is it a sudden thing ?’ ‘My dear, when poor uncle went down to Lufffcown —we live at Guisethorpe as I daresay you know, dear, which is about six miles from Lufffcown—when he went down to a meeting at the bank this very morning, I’d no idea of anything wrong. But at luncheon time Sir John Bunce came in—he’s a great Triend of uncle’s—and he told me about the crash ; and he said I ought to make Uncle Sep go abroad for a while, for they were sure to be down on him for a lot of money, and he would be able to negotiate with them much better if they couldn’t get hold of him. Then I had a note from Uncle Sep, to say he had gone to town to see Jack; and I packed his portmanteau and my own, and came up after him, intending to take him to Paris or somewhere abroad. So fortunate, too,. that I had money laid by, for uncle has never more than a shilling or two in his pocket; and Jack is just like him. And when I got to Jack’s chambers, I saw Uncle Sep, as I thought, just getting into a cab, and I called to him, and he came and jumped into my cab, and told the man to drive to St Katherine’s Docks ; and I didn’t find out that it was Jack till he kissed me — for, you know, dear Jack’s kisses are quite different from Uncle Sep’s.’ ‘ And where is your uncle ?’ ‘Jack has sent him home. It seems there’s some other bother besides this bank affair, and Jack says he must face it out.’

‘ Then you’ll stay with us for awhile, I hope?’

‘ I must get back to-morrow ; poor dear Uncle Sep would be lost without me. Come, darling, let us go down; 1 want so much to have a long talk with your papa about Biogenesis.’ When jack went out to order in his cousin’s luggage, he found the three cabs still standing at the door. The first two he settled with, and dismissed. The third cabman came up and touched his hat. * Beg your pardon, sir ; you took my cab off the stand.’

‘ I know I did; here’s a shilling for you.’ * Which five-and-six is the fare, sir.’ ‘You must look to your passengers for that. Tell ’em to put it down to Good,’ said Jack in a loud voice. ‘Well, I was never rounded like that afore,’ said a gruff voice from the cab. ‘Now for your aunt’s coffin,’ said the doctor, as Jack took his seat in the little sanctum —half study, half smoke room. * I’m going down to the Plas to-morrow/ said Jack.

* Going down to Plas Dinorwich, are you ?’ said the doctor; ‘ would you—mind —taking charge of—Lady Lavinia’s coffin? I’m very anxious it should get safe down : our connection with New Jerusalem is so valuable!’

‘They wouldn’t carry it as personal luggage,’ said Jack. ‘ I don’t mean that,’ said the doctor ; ‘only, as we shall send it by passenger train to-morrow morning—the old lady baa sent a telegram to hasten us—you

might look after it when they change it from one van to another; it would be so awkward if they broke the glass plate.’ ‘ Oh, there s a glass plate, is there ?’ ‘ Yes ; so that you could see the face inside —if there was one.

‘ How very horrible !’ said Jack, shuddering.

‘ Horrible ?—not at all. Physical phenomenon here, Mr Lowther: bodily shrinking from the indignities of death.’ ‘ I can’t understand it at all,’ said Jack, ‘ especially in my aunt; such a sensible woman ; a little mad about tracts, but would have her full penn’orth of these too for her penny.’

‘ But what I wanted to say to you,’ resumed the doctor, ‘ about your aunt’s coffin was this. It’s a beautiful piece of work, and as all the parts are made by patent machinery, we can guarantee the exact execution of any further orders; but you see this machine work necessitates, our making them all of the same size, and as it is better to have them too long than too short, your aunt’s coffin will be adapted for a man of six-feet-two. Do you think she’ll object to that ?’ ‘ I should think not, doctor ; it will give her room to stretch a bit.’ ‘ Lowther, don’t be irreverent,’ said the doctor, ‘ Much as I disapprove of the hushed and gloomy tone we assume in talking of our latter end, yet it isn’t a thing to be joked about. Well, let that pass. I want you to explain to your aunt the secret spring by which the coffin opens. You see there’s a handle inside.’ ?

‘A handle inside!’ said Jack; ‘what the deuce is that for ?’

‘For your aunt to let herself out by/ said the doctor.

‘ Ah ! I didn’t think of that,’ said Jack. * There’s a handle inside, which works a secret spring: it is on the combination principle. There are three little indices, each of which contains an alphabet; and unless you know the catch word, there is no chance of your getting out of your coffin.’

‘ That’ll just suit the religious world,’ said Jack; ‘just their principle.’ ‘ Yes, I think it’ll please your aunt, that idea,’ said the doctor ; but I’m sorry to say that our foreman arranged the combination for the word CAT, and I’m afraid your aunt might think it personal. It’s too late to alter it now, as it is all packed ; but would you mind breaking the matter to Lady Lavinia, and explaining to her that it can be altered to any combination of letters she may choose ?’ ‘ All right,’ said Jack, throwing the end of his cigar into the grate.— ‘ 1 think we might have some music now, eh ?’ The doctor and Miss Lowther got into a desperately deep discussion as to Exogenesis and Biogenesis ; and as it appeared that the doctor was himself trying experiments with the body of a dead cat, the two went down to the laboratory to look into the matter. Meanwhile, Jack enjoyed a delicious half-hour at the piano. After that, he made a progress among his friends’ chambers, and reached Euston just in time to have a cup of coffee before he started by the Irish mail. CHAPTER IX. ‘Jack sucked his pipe, and often broke A sigh in suffocating smoke.’ If you have a long day’s journey before you, it really is not a bad plan to sit up all the night before : it insures you a few hours’ insensibility on your weary way. Long before they passed Tring, Jack had fallen into a deep sleep, and only awoke at Chester lo turn drowsily out of one train into another. Still blinking and winking, half an hour more found him on a roadside station platform.

He had yet some forty miles to travel; these by car—horrible crab-like conveyance—and in the sultry noon of this June day, the pleasant rattle of a river hard by, and the drowsy sounds of summer in his ears, he sank into a peaceful slumber, ensconced in the bottom of the car. By and by, after some hours, he woke.. The sun was verging westwards, and there was a flutter and cool breath of evening breeze. They had passed the wilderness, had come to the pleasant road which led to Plas Dinorwich. The car was descending rapidly into a valley—a valley all the sweeter that rugged crags and terraced hills of slaty rock overhung it on either side. One could from this hill top catch the flash of the sea in the horizon : mountain, and rock, and greenery were all reflected in the bosom of what seemed to be an inland lake—really a reach of an estuary winding in and out among rocky promontories. In the very greenest and brightest spot in this valley, built on a jutting hill which dominated the river, were the grey walls and slate covered roof of Plas Dinorwich. And all this fair spot, and the wealth of the slaty mountains above, from which sounds, in the still evening air, the roar of the blasts the quarrymen are ever firing: all this is owned by the lady of Plas Dinorwich—all this might be Jack Lowther’s, were fate propitious, and the New Jerusalem not imminent.

Of all the fair sights in that happy valley, the smoke wreaths ascending from the many chimneys of the Plas were the fairest sight to Master John j for surely

there was dinner preparing for him, hungry and weary. Whatever might be the result of his mission—of honorable entertainment and generous welcome he made no doubt. Wasn’t his aunt a Lowther?

The hall door was usually wide open—a cool resounding hall, hung round with portraits of the Morgans of the eighteenth, century, bottle-nosed, bloated, bewigged. On the left hand side of this hall, large folding doors opened into the state drawing room, which occupied the whole west side and south-west angle of the house. On the right, a somewhat gloomy dining room, darkened by the hill side ; a room looking into a mossy and dismal garden—the old courtyard of the Plas: nothing but yew, cypress, and box grew within the old garden. The drawing room fronted a noble lawn, its borders blazing with many colored flowers, and communicated with a long row of conservatories, facing to the south, rich with brightest plants and delicate ferns. But when Jack’s car drew up before the hall door, he found it closely fastened, and he rang the bell several times in vain. Jack had paid the driver, who had carried his portmanteau to the door, but was lingering still, expecting the usual mandate to go round to the stables to feed his horse, and taste the ale and cold meat of the Plas.

Presently there appeared a man in a black coat and white necktie, who came to the door, opened it on the chain, and challenged Jack thus: ‘ What do you want ?’

‘ Open the door, you [adjective] idiot!’ cried Jack in a rage. ‘ What do you spik like that for ?’ said the man, throwing open the door, and confronting Jack, white with passion. ‘ What do you take me for ?’ ‘For an infernally impudent flunkey,’ said J ack hotly. ‘l’m a clergyman, sir,’ said the man—‘a clergyman of the Church of Great Britain and Ireland.’

‘Well they oughtn't to ordain such fellows, then,’ said Jack soothingly: ‘I certainly thought you were the butler.’ ‘ I’m the chaplain, sir!’ ‘ln that case, please to send an unordained flunkey here,’ said Lowther. I admit that he oughtn’t to have spoken thus but he was annoyed at the reception he had met with ; and the maD, in his auger, had brought his face near Jack’s, and he smelt horribly of drink. It is impossible to say how much further the altercatiou would have gone had not a woman appeared upon the scene a stout, rosy faced, comfortable looking woman. ‘lf this gentleman wants to see her ladyship— Name o’ dear, it's Mister John?’ The rosy face turned to the color of yellow wax, for an instant she caught hold of the chaplain’s arm, and almost fell; then she recovered herself. Ah, ah! thought the sharp Mr John ; she don’t want me here to interfere with her influence. * Come into the drawing room, Mr John Her ladyship is very unwell, but I’ll tell her you’re here.’ ‘ Yes ; and Roberts, send somebody to take my portmanteau, I’d better have the Bine Room, Roberts, I think.’ * H’m. I’ll take her ladyship’s pleasure about that,’ said Mrs Roberts. Will you take some refreshment, Mr John ?’ ‘lt’s too near dinner time,’ said Jack. ‘ I shall only just have time to dress.' ‘ There won’t be any dinner to-day, sir, except a little mutton broth or some beef tea. Her ladyship never has dinner served now, sir. Her appetite is so delicate, and she’s abjured pomps and vanities.’ ‘Who’s the man in black ?’ said John. ‘ The chaplain, Mr John—one of the blessed amongst men.’ ‘ Well, bustle about, Roberts, and get me something to eat, and a bedroom ready.’ ‘ I’ll take her ladyship’s pleasure,’ said the housekeeper, sailing out of the room. She presently reappeared. ‘ Her ladyship is very sorry she is too ill to receive you. The doctor having ordered perfect quiet and seclusion, she regrets that she will not have the pleasure of entertaining you in her own house. She recommends the Dinorwich Arms, which is very clean, and kept by a tenant of her ladyship’s. Anything you may have to say can be put in writing, and handed to me.’ Jack’s first impulse was to bolt out of the house, upsetting the parson on his way, if he should happily meet him; then he thought how much depended on his seeing his aunt. ‘ For all that, Roberts, I should like to see Lady Lavinia myself.' So saying, he pushed by the housekeeper, ran lightly up the stairs, and passed quickly into the apartment he knew was his aunt’s—a set of threeroomsopening into oneanother. They were all swept and garnished. There was the great bed, there the elaborate toilet table, but all empty —deserted. Lowther looked round amazed, incredulous.

‘ What did you please to want?' said a deep masculine voice behind him. The speaker was a thick set, muscular man, of broad, massive face, and heavy jaw. * I want to see Lady Lavinia.’ ‘ I am her medical attendant. My patient' is too weak to receive visits,-*

Mrs Roberts,’ be said, turning to the housekeeper who had followed John as soon as she could —* Mrs Roberts, did; 1 not order the house to be kept as quiet as the grave ? And what is this young man doing here ? I cannot answer for your mistress’s life , if there is the least disturbance.’* Poor Jack! Circumstances were too strong for him. He sneaked down stairs, escorted by Mrs Roberts and the medical attendant. . , ‘ I’ve had my patient removed into the east wing purposely, that there might be no glare or disturbance. Ho one. can see her,’ said the medical person grimly. Jack was demoralised, there was no doubt about it. Retreat was the only thing possible. With a heavy heart, he ordered his portmanteau to be replaced m the car, and told the driver to take him to the Dinorwicb Arms. The little village of Llandanwg lying by the river side in the very centre of the valley, derives its chief support from the Plas above, and from the tourists who restort to the Dinorwich Arms. Lewis Morgan is the landlord of the inn ; but you must not imagine him as a mere village innkeeper. He is a Power. Except the old lady at the Plas, he is almost the biggest man in this part of the country. He is Lord Stilton’s agent—Stilton family absorbed a female Watkyns or Jones langsyne, and with her a good slice of wild Wales—he can give you a few days wild shooting, grouse and mountain hares, black game and snipe ; and there is oh ! whisper it gently, lest Stilton should hear, a covert on the hill side, where after there has been a little rough weather on the mountains, you shall find no end of woodcock. But to be initiated into this paradise, it is requisite that you should have staid three successive seasons at the Dinorwich Arms, and have made honorable proposals to one of the daughters thereof. But now the sportsmen and adorers have all sheered off and the house is doing its busiest summer traffic. Lancashire supplies the greater contingent of tourists, for the long vacation has not yet commenced, nor have the Londoners been let loose. Lancashire, as a rule, affects heavy teas; goes out all day in a wagonette and pair of horses, a basket of provisions stowed inside, and comes home to its hostel to tea, and chops, and pickled salmon, and cold shoulder of Welsh mutton. , . .. * Jack found the coffee room reeking with the fumes of tea redolent of broiled ham ; and escaped into the little bar parlor, where the daughters of the house were serving out the plate and stimulants, and keeping count of all outgoings. Warmly welcomed by the girls, who were old friends of his, he took up a corner of the room and made a very tolerable dinner in peace ; and then, seating himself on the steps leading down to an old fashioned garden sloping to the west, he smoked the pipe of thoughtfulness. Presently, Morgan came that way ; he looked after the stables only, and his cares for the day were well nigh over. He made a profound salaam to a possible future landlord. ‘ Why Mr John, who’d have thought of seeing you. Hope her ladyship’s no worse?’ , , , T , ‘ Faith,’ said John, ‘I don tknow. I ve been to the house, and they tell me she’s too ill to see anybody.’ i What! they won’t let you see her either, then ?’ said Morgan. ‘ Well, things is come to a pass—her only relation, as you may say. Them Robertses have got her all to themselves. Why, they won’t even have the parson there.’ f 1 1 saw a parson up at the house, said Jack— 4 wild looking chap with grey hair.’ ‘ That’ll be Robert Thomas: Gwen Robert’s brother.’ ‘There was a doctor there too—big powerful fellow.’ ‘That’s Thomas Jones; he a another brother of Gwen’s.’ . ‘ How can they be brothers and sisters, all different surnames ?’ ‘ Oh ! we think nothing of surnames here: the father's name was Thomas Roberts —he was keeper once at the Plas ; and so the eldest boy was called Robert Thomas, and the other Thomas Jones; there’d be confusion else you see—yes, indeed.’ . ~ Jack began to think now. burely it was hard that he should be jostled out of his inheritance by such a crew as this, but what could he do ? * What sort of a man is the parson ? * Well, indeed, the bishop took his gown away a good many years ago ; and he has always been given to drink ; and I like to keep an eye on the silver when he’s about; but he’s a good hearted fellow too—yes, indeed.’ ‘ And the doctor; what of him. t Indeed he has been abroad a great many years, and I don’t rightly know much about him: they say he has been on board a slave ship a good deal, but he is very clever—yes, sure.’ ‘ When did you see my aunt last ? * Well, it was yesterday: she was out for an airing; she seemed very weak, poor thing, and Gwen and the doctor sat on each side of her, to prop her up; and she beat forward as she passed, and I just

caught a look at her face. Diaoul, she was as yellow as wax.’ Jack Lowther put all these facts figuratively into his pipe and smoked them—smoked sadly and carefully, but had yet no further idea than of going to bed presently, and trying once more to see ins aunt in the morning. Of anything wonderful that should mark that night as the one night in his whole life to be ever remembered, he thought no more than does any one of us of the commencement of that particular hour, so careless in its coming, so careful in its going, when Opportunity rushes clamoring in, and we take or leave it as may happen. Yet it thus befell. {To be continued.)