скачать книгу бесплатно
Just as the daylight was struggling into the room, the doctor came in silently, and dropped with a little sigh into an easy-chair.
"Well?" Sir John questioned, looking at him with stony eyes.
"She is a little easier for the moment," was the quiet, unemotional answer.
"You think she will pull through?"
"I hope so, but I shall be able to speak with more confidence later."
"The wound in her head is a bad one?"
The doctor smiled. "If that were all, we would soon have her on her feet again."
"But what other injuries has she sustained?"
"It is impossible to say just at present. She evidently fell under the horse. The wonder is she's alive at all."
"I suppose nobody knows how it happened?" Sir John questioned after a pause.
"Well, I believe nobody saw the accident, though young Ralph Penlogan was near the spot at the time – and a fortunate thing too, or she might have remained where she fell till midnight."
"You have seen the young man?"
"He had carried her in his arms from Treliskey Plantation to the junction of the high road."
"Without assistance?"
"Without assistance. What else could he do? There was not a soul near the spot. Since you closed the road through the plantation, it is never used now, except by the few people to whom you have granted the right of way."
"So young Penlogan was in the plantation, was he?"
"I really don't know. He may have been on the common."
Sir John frowned. "Do you know," he said, after a pause, "that I dislike that young man exceedingly."
"Indeed?"
"He is altogether above his station. I believe he is clever, mind you, and all that, but what does a working-man's son want to bother himself with mechanics and chemistry for?"
"Why not?" the doctor asked, with slightly raised eyebrows.
"Why? Because this higher education, as it is called, is bringing the country to the dogs. Get an educated proletariat, and the reign of the nobility and gentry is at an end. You see the thin end of the wedge already. Your Board-school boys and girls are all cursed with notions; they are too big for their jackets, too high for their station; they have no respect for squire or parson, and they are too high and mighty to do honest work."
"I cannot say that has been my experience," the doctor said quietly; and he rose from his chair and began to pull on his gloves.
"You are not going?" Sir John questioned anxiously.
"For an hour or two. I should like, with your permission, to telegraph to Dr. Roscommon. You know he is regarded now as the most famous surgeon in the county."
"But surely, doctor – " Sir John began, with a look of consternation in his eyes.
"I should like to have his opinion," the doctor said quietly.
"Of course – of course! Get the best advice you can. No expense must be spared. My child must be saved at all costs."
"Rest assured we shall do our best," the doctor answered, and quietly left the room.
For the best part of another hour Sir John paced restlessly up and down the room, then he dropped into an easy-chair and fell fast asleep.
He was aroused at length by a timid knock at the door.
"Come in!" he answered sleepily, fancying for a moment that he was in bed, and that his servant had brought him his shaving-water.
The next moment he was on his feet, with an agitated look in his eyes.
A servant entered, followed by Ralph Penlogan, who looked as if he had not slept for the night.
Instead of waiting to know if Sir John would see him, Ralph had stalked into the room on the servant's heels. He was too anxious to stand on ceremony, too eager to unburden his mind. He had never had a moment's peace since his meeting with Dorothy Hamblyn the previous afternoon. He felt like a criminal, and would have given all he possessed if he could have lived over the previous afternoon again.
Sir John recognised him in a moment, and drew himself up stiffly. He never felt altogether at ease in the presence of the Penlogans. He knew that he had "done" the father, driven a most unfair bargain with him, and it is said a man never forgives a fellow-creature he has wronged.
"I have come to speak to you about the accident to your daughter," Ralph said, plunging at once into the subject that filled his mind.
"Yes, yes; I am glad you have called," Sir John said, walking to the mantelpiece and leaning his elbow on it.
"I hope she is better?" Ralph went on. "You think she will recover?"
"I am sorry to say she is very seriously injured," Sir John answered slowly; "but, naturally, we hope for the best."
Ralph dropped his eyes to the floor, and for a moment was silent.
"Dr. Barrow tells me that you were near the spot at the time of the accident," Sir John went on; "for that reason I am glad you have called."
"There isn't much to tell," Ralph answered, without raising his eyes, "but I am anxious to tell what there is."
"Ah!" Sir John gasped, glancing across at his visitor suspiciously.
"After what has happened, you can't blame me more than I blame myself," Ralph went on; "though, of course, I never imagined for a moment that she would attempt to leap the gate."
"I don't quite understand," Sir John said stiffly.
"Well, it was this way. I was leaning on the stile leading down into Dingley Bottom, when someone rode up and ordered me to open the gate leading into Treliskey Plantation. If the lady had asked me to open the gate I should have done it in a minute."
"So you refused to do a neighbourly act, did you?"
"I told her I was not her servant, at which she got very indignant, and ordered me to do as I was told."
"And you refused a second time?"
"I did. In fact, I felt very bitter. People in our class suffer so many indignities from the rich that we are apt to be soured."
"Soured, indeed! Your accursed Board-school pride not only makes cads of you, but criminals!" And Sir John's eyes blazed with passion.
"I am not going to defend myself any further," Ralph said, raising his eyes and looking him full in the face. "I am sorry now that I did not open the gate – awfully sorry. I would give anything if I could live over yesterday afternoon again!"
"I should think so, indeed!" Sir John said, in his most biting tones. "And understand this, young man, if my daughter dies I shall hold you responsible for her death!"
Ralph's face grew very white, but he did not reply.
Sir John, however, was in no mood to be silent. He had a good many things bottled up in his mind, and Ralph's visit gave him an excuse for pulling the cork out.
"I want to say this also to you," he said, "now that you have given me an opportunity of opening my mind – that I consider young men of your stamp a danger and a menace to the neighbourhood!"
Ralph looked at him without flinching, but he did not speak.
"There was a time," Sir John went on, "when people knew how to respect their betters, when the working classes kept their place and did not presume, and when such as you would never have ventured into this house by the front door!"
"I came by the nearest way," Ralph answered, "and did not trouble to inquire which door it was."
"Your father no doubt thinks he has been doing a wise thing in keeping himself on short commons to give you what he foolishly imagines is an education."
"Excuse me, but we are all kept on short commons because you took advantage of my father's ignorance. If he had had a little better education he would not have allowed himself to be duped by you!" And he turned and made for the door.
But Sir John intercepted him, with flashing eyes and passion-lined face.
"Have you come here to insult me?" he thundered. "By Heaven, I've a good mind to call my servants in and give you a good horsewhipping!"
Ralph stood still and scowled angrily.
"I neither came here to insult you nor to be insulted by you! I came here to express my regret that I did not pocket my pride and open the gate for your daughter. I have made the best amends in my power, and now, if you will let me, I will go home."
"I am not sure that I will let you!" Sir John said angrily. "It seems to me the proper thing would be to send for the police and get you locked up. How do I know that you did not put something in the way to prevent my daughter's horse clearing the gate? I know that you hate your betters – like most of your class, alas! in these times – "
"We should not hate you if you dealt justly by us!" Ralph retorted.
"Dealt justly, indeed!" Sir John sneered. "It makes me ill to hear such as you talking about justice! You ought to be thankful that you are allowed to live in the parish at all!"
"We are. We are grateful for the smallest mercies – grateful for room to walk about."
"That's more than some of you deserve," Sir John retorted angrily. "Now go home and help your father on the farm. And, by Jove, tell him if he's behind with his ground rent this year I'll make him sit up."
Ralph's eyes blazed in a moment. That ground rent was to him the sum of all iniquity. It represented to him the climax of greed and injustice. The bitterness of it had eaten out all the joy of his father's life and robbed his mother of all the fruits of her thrift and economy.
Ralph's face was toward the door; but he turned in a moment, white with passion.
"I wonder you are not ashamed to speak of that ground rent," he said slowly, and with biting emphasis. "You, who took advantage of my father's love for his native place, and of his ignorance of legal phraseology – you, who robbed a poor man of his savings, and cheated his children out of their due. Ground rent, indeed! I wonder the word does not stick in your throat and choke you." And before Sir John could reply he had pulled open the door and passed out into the hall.
He walked home by the forbidden path through the plantation, feeling more reckless and defiant than he had ever felt before. He was in the mood to run his head against any brick wall that might stand in his way; he almost hoped that a keeper would cross his path and arrest him. He wanted to have another tilt with Sir John, and show him how lightly he regarded his authority.
No keeper, however, showed his face. He was left in undisturbed possession of field and fell. He whistled loudly and defiantly, as he strutted through the dim aisles of the plantation, and tried to persuade himself that he was not a bit sorry that Sir John at that moment was suffering all the tortures of suspense. He would have persuaded himself, if he could, that he did not care whether Dorothy Hamblyn lived or died; but that was altogether beyond his powers. He did care. Every fibre of his being seemed to plead for her recovery.
He came at length upon the scene of the previous day's accident. To all appearances no one had visited it. The broken gate had not been touched. On the ground was a dark stain which had been crimson the day before, but no one would notice it unless it were pointed out; for the rest, Nature showed no regard for human pain or grief.
It was a glorious morning in late summer. The woods were at their best; the fields were yellowing in all directions to the harvest. High in the blue heavens the larks were trilling their morning song, while in the banks and hedges the grasshoppers were whirring and chattering with all their might. It was a morning to inspire the heart with confidence and hope, to cleanse the eyes from the dust of doubt, and to uplift the spirit from the fogs of pessimism and despair.
And yet Ralph Penlogan heard no song that morning, nor even saw the sunshine. A dull weight was pressing on his heart which he had no power to lift. Anger and regret struggled within him for the mastery, while constantly a new emotion – which he did not understand as yet – ran through his veins like liquid fire.
When he reached the stile he rested for a few moments, and recalled the scene of the previous day. It was not difficult. The face of the fair horsewoman he would never forget; the soft, imperious voice rang through his brain like the sound of evening bells. Her smile was like sunshine on waving corn.
Then in his fancy he saw Jess dart forward, and then came the sickening sound of splintering wood. What happened after that he knew all too well.
It would be a cruel thing for death to blot out a smile so sweet, and the grave to hide a face so fair. While there were so many things in the world that were neither lovely nor useful nor inspiring, it would seem like a sin against Nature to blot out and destroy so sweet a presence. Let the weeds be plucked up, let the thorns be burned; but the flowers should be allowed to remain to brighten the world and gladden the hearts of men.
He sprang over the stile at length, and strode away in the direction of Dingley Bottom with a scowl upon his face.
What right had he to be thinking about the squire's daughter? Did he not despise the class to which she belonged? Did he not hate her father because, having a giant's strength, he used it like a giant? Had not the justice of the strong become a byword and a loathing? Had he not sworn eternal enmity to the oppressor and all who shared his gains?
On the brow of the next low hill he paused again. Before him, in a little hollow, lay the homestead his father had built; and spread out on three sides were the fields he had reclaimed from the wilderness.
It had been a hard and almost heartbreaking task, for when he commenced the enterprise he had but a faint idea what it would cost. It seemed easy enough to root up the furze bushes and plough down the heather, and the soil looked so loamy and rich that he imagined a heavy crop would be yielded the first year.
And yet it was not to make money that David Penlogan had leased a portion of Polskiddy Downs, and built a house thereon. It was rather that he might have a quiet resting-place in the evening of his life, and be able to spend his days in the open air – in the wind and sunshine – and be set free from the perils that beset an underground captain in a Cornish mine.
With what high hopes he embarked upon the enterprise none but David knew. It was his one big investment. All the savings of a lifetime went into it. He took his hoarded sovereigns out of the bank without misgiving, and felt as happy as a king, while he toiled like a slave.
His neighbours stared and shook their heads when it leaked out on what terms he had taken the lease.
"Sir John has been too many for you, David," an old farmer said to him one day. "You might as well empty your purse in his pocket right off. You'll not have money enough to buy a coffin with when he's finished with you."
But David knew better, or fancied he did, which is much the same thing.
He hired horses and ploughs and stubbers and hedgers and ditchers, and masons and carpenters, and for a year that corner of Polskiddy Downs was alive with people.
The house was built from plans David prepared himself. Barn and cowsheds were erected at a convenient distance. Hedges were carried in straight lines across the newly cultivated fields. A small orchard was planted beyond the kitchen garden, and everything, to David's hopeful eyes, looked promising for the future.
That was twelve years ago, and in those years David had grown to be an old man. He had spent his days in the open air, it is true – in the wind and sunshine, and in the rain and snow – and he had contracted rheumatism and bronchitis, and all the heart had gone out of him in the hopeless struggle.
As Ralph looked out over the not too fruitful fields which his father had reclaimed from the waste with such infinite toil, and at the sacrifice of all his savings, he forgot the fair face of Dorothy Hamblyn, which had been haunting him all the way back, and remembered only the iron hand of her father.
CHAPTER V
THE CHANCES OF LIFE
Ralph had started so early that morning that he had had no time to get breakfast. Now he began to feel the pangs of hunger most acutely.
"I expect mother will have kept something for me," he said to himself, as he descended the slope. "I hope she is not worrying about what has become of me."
He looked right and left for his father, expecting to find him at work in the fields, but David was nowhere in evidence.
