Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall by Charles Major

C >> Charles Major >> Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26

"But where do you go, Sir Malcolm? You remember that of which we talked?
In England no place but Haddon Hall will be safe for you, and the ports
are so closely guarded that you will certainly be arrested if you try to
sail for France."

"I know all that only too well, Will. But I must go, and I will try to
escape to France. If you wish to communicate with me, I may be found by
addressing a letter in care of the Duc de Guise."

"If I can ever be of help to you," said Will, "personally, or in that
other matter, Queen Mary, you understand,--you have only to call on me."

"I thank you, Will," I returned, "I shall probably accept your kind offer
sooner than you anticipate. Do you know Jennie Faxton, the ferrier's
daughter?"

"I do," he responded.

"I believe she may be trusted," I said.

"Indeed, I believe she is true as any steel in her father's shop," Will
responded.

"Good-by, Will, you may hear from me soon."

I mounted and rode back of the terrace, taking my way along the Wye toward
Rowsley. When I turned and looked back, I saw Dorothy standing upon the
terrace. By her side, dressed in white, stood Madge. Her hand was covering
her eyes. A step or two below them on the terrace staircase stood Will
Dawson. They were three stanch friends, although one of them had brought
my troubles upon me. After all, I was leaving Haddon Hall well garrisoned.
My heart also was well garrisoned with a faithful troop of pain. But I
shall write no more of that time. It was too full of bitterness.

CHAPTER V

MINE ENEMY'S ROOF-TREE

I rode down the Wye to Rowsley, and by the will of my horse rather than by
any intention of my own took the road up through Lathkil Dale. I had
determined if possible to reach the city of Chester, and thence to ride
down into Wales, hoping to find on the rough Welsh coast a fishing boat or
a smuggler's craft that would carry me to France. In truth, I cared little
whether I went to the Tower or to France, since in either case I felt that
I had looked my last upon Haddon Hall, and had spoken farewell to the only
person in all the world for whom I really cared. My ride from Haddon gave
me time for deliberate thought, and I fully agreed with myself upon two
propositions. First, I became thoroughly conscious of my real feeling
toward Madge, and secondly, I was convinced that her kindness and her
peculiar attitude toward me when I parted from her were but the promptings
of a tender heart stirred by pity for my unfortunate situation, rather
than what I thought when I said farewell to her. The sweet Wye and the
beautiful Lathkil whispered to me as I rode beside their banks, but in
their murmurings I heard only the music of her voice. The sun shone
brightly, but its blessed light only served to remind me of the beautiful
girl whom I had left in darkness. The light were worthless to me if I
could not share it with her. What a mooning lout was I!

All my life I had been a philosopher, and as I rode from Haddon, beneath
all my gloominess there ran a current of amusement which brought to my
lips an ill-formed, half-born laugh when I thought of the plight and
condition in which I, by candid self-communion, found myself. Five years
before that time I had left France, and had cast behind me all the fair
possibilities for noble achievement which were offered to me in that land,
that I might follow the fortunes of a woman whom I thought I loved. Before
my exile from her side I had begun to fear that my idol was but a thing of
stone; and now that I had learned to know myself, and to see her as she
really was, I realized that I had been worshipping naught but clay for lo,
these many years. There was only this consolation in the thought for me:
every man at some time in his life is a fool--made such by a woman. It is
given to but few men to have for their fool-maker the rightful queen of
three kingdoms. All that was left to me of my life of devotion was a
shame-faced pride in the quality of my fool-maker. "Then," thought I, "I
have at last turned to be my own fool-maker." But I suppose it had been
written in the book of fate that I should ride from Haddon a lovelorn
youth of thirty-five, and I certainly was fulfilling my destiny to the
letter.

I continued to ride up the Lathkil until I came to a fork in the road. One
branch led to the northwest, the other toward the southwest. I was at a
loss which direction to take, and I left the choice to my horse, in whose
wisdom and judgement I had more confidence than in my own. My horse,
refusing the responsibility, stopped. So there we stood like an equestrian
statue arguing with itself until I saw a horseman riding toward me from
the direction of Overhaddon. When he approached I recognized Sir John
Manners. He looked as woebegone as I felt, and I could not help laughing
at the pair of us, for I knew that his trouble was akin to mine. The pain
of love is ludicrous to all save those who feel it. Even to them it is
laughable in others. A love-full heart has no room for that sort of
charity which pities for kinship's sake.

"What is the trouble with you, Sir John, that you look so downcast?" said
I, offering my hand.

"Ah," he answered, forcing a poor look of cheerfulness into his face, "Sir
Malcolm, I am glad to see you. Do I look downcast?"

"As forlorn as a lover who has missed seeing his sweetheart," I responded,
guessing the cause of Sir John's despondency.

"I have no sweetheart, therefore missing her could not have made me
downcast," he replied.

"So you really did miss her?" I queried. "She was detained at Haddon Hall,
Sir John, to bid me farewell."

"I do not understand--" began Sir John, growing cold in his bearing.

"I understand quite well," I answered. "Dorothy told me all to-day. You
need keep nothing from me. The golden heart brought her into trouble, and
made mischief for me of which I cannot see the end. I will tell you the
story while we ride. I am seeking my way to Chester, that I may, if
possible, sail for France. This fork in the road has brought me to a
standstill, and my horse refuses to decide which route we shall take.
Perhaps you will direct us."

"Gladly. The road to the southwest--the one I shall take--is the most
direct route to Chester. But tell me, how comes it that you are leaving
Haddon Hall? I thought you had gone there to marry-" He stopped speaking,
and a smile stole into his eyes.

"Let us ride forward together, and I will tell you about it," said I.

While we travelled I told Sir John the circumstances of my departure from
Haddon Hall, concealing nothing save that which touched Madge Stanley. I
then spoke of my dangerous position in England, and told him of my great
desire to reach my mother's people in France.

"You will find difficulty and danger in escaping to France at this time,"
said Sir John, "the guard at the ports is very strong and strict, and your
greatest risk will be at the moment when you try to embark without a
passport."

"That is true," I responded; "but I know of nothing else that I can do."

"Come with me to Rutland Castle," said Sir John. "You may there find
refuge until such time as you can go to France. I will gladly furnish you
money which you may repay at your pleasure, and I may soon be able to
procure a passport for you."

I thanked him, but said I did not see my way clear to accept his kind
offer.

"You are unknown in the neighborhood of Rutland," he continued, "and you
may easily remain incognito." Although his offer was greatly to my liking,
I suggested several objections, chief among which was the distaste Lord
Rutland might feel toward one of my name. I would not, of course, consent
that my identity should be concealed from him. But to be brief--an almost
impossible achievement for me, it seems--Sir John assured me of his
father's welcome, and it was arranged between us that I should take my
baptismal name, Francois de Lorraine, and passing for a French gentleman
on a visit to England, should go to Rutland with my friend. So it happened
through the strange workings of fate that I found help and refuge under my
enemy's roof-tree.

Kind old Lord Rutland welcomed me, as his son had foretold, and I was
convinced ere I had passed an hour under his roof that the feud between
him and Sir George was of the latter's brewing.

The happenings in Haddon Hall while I lived at Rutland I knew, of course,
only by the mouth of others; but for convenience in telling I shall speak
of them as if I had seen and heard all that took place. I may now say once
for all that I shall take that liberty throughout this entire history.

On the morning of the day after my departure from Haddon, Jennie Faxton
went to visit Dorothy and gave her a piece of information, small in
itself, but large in its effect upon that ardent young lady. Will
Fletcher, the arrow-maker at Overhaddon, had observed Dorothy's movements
in connection with Manners; and although Fletcher did not know who Sir
John was, that fact added to his curiosity and righteous indignation.

"It do be right that some one should tell the King of the Peak as how his
daughter is carrying on with a young man who does come here every day or
two to meet her, and I do intend to tell Sir George if she put not a stop
to it," said Fletcher to some of his gossips in Yulegrave churchyard one
Sunday afternoon.

Dorothy notified John, Jennie being the messenger, of Will's observations,
visual and verbal, and designated another place for meeting,--the gate
east of Bowling Green Hill. This gate was part of a wall on the east side
of the Haddon estates adjoining the lands of the house of Devonshire which
lay to the eastward. It was a secluded spot in the heart of the forest
half a mile distant from Haddon Hall.

Sir George, for a fortnight or more after my disappearance, enforced his
decree of imprisonment against Dorothy, and she, being unable to leave the
Hall, could not go to Bowling Green Gate to meet Sir John. Before I had
learned of the new trysting-place John had ridden thither several evenings
to meet Dorothy, but had found only Jennie bearing her mistress's excuses.
I supposed his journeyings had been to Overhaddon; but I did not press his
confidence, nor did he give it.

Sir George's treatment of Dorothy had taught her that the citadel of her
father's wrath could be stormed only by gentleness, and an opportunity was
soon presented in which she used that effective engine of feminine warfare
to her great advantage.

As I have told you, Sir George was very rich. No man, either noble or
gentle, in Derbyshire or in any of the adjoining counties, possessed so
great an estate or so beautiful a hall as did he. In France we would have
called Haddon Hall a grand chateau.

Sir George's deceased wife had been a sister to the Earl of Derby, who
lived at the time of which I am now writing. The earl had a son, James,
who was heir to the title and to the estates of his father. The son was a
dissipated, rustic clown--almost a simpleton. He had the vulgarity of a
stable boy and the vices of a courtier. His associates were chosen from
the ranks of gamesters, ruffians, and tavern maids. Still, he was a scion
of one of the greatest families of England's nobility.

After Sir George's trouble with Dorothy, growing out of his desire that I
should wed her, the King of the Peak had begun to feel that in his
beautiful daughter he had upon his hands a commodity that might at any
time cause him trouble. He therefore determined to marry her to some
eligible gentleman as quickly as possible, and to place the heavy
responsibility of managing her in the hands of a husband. The stubborn
violence of Sir George's nature, the rough side of which had never before
been shown to Dorothy, in her became adroit wilfulness of a quality that
no masculine mind may compass. But her life had been so entirely
undisturbed by opposing influences that her father, firm in the belief
that no one in his household would dare to thwart his will, had remained
in dangerous ignorance of the latent trouble which pervaded his daughter
from the soles of her shapely feet to the top of her glory-crowned head.

Sir George, in casting about for a son-in-law, had hit upon the heir to
the house of Derby as a suitable match for his child, and had entered into
an alliance offensive and defensive with the earl against the common
enemy, Dorothy. The two fathers had partly agreed that the heir to Derby
should wed the heiress of Haddon. The heir, although he had never seen his
cousin except when she was a plain, unattractive girl, was entirely
willing for the match, but the heiress--well, she had not been consulted,
and everybody connected with the affair instinctively knew there would be
trouble in that quarter. Sir George, however, had determined that Dorothy
should do her part in case the contract of marriage should be agreed upon
between the heads of the houses. He had fully resolved to assert the
majesty of the law vested in him as a father and to compel Dorothy to do
his bidding, if there were efficacy in force and chastisement. At the time
when Sir George spoke to Dorothy about the Derby marriage, she had been a
prisoner for a fortnight or more, and had learned that her only hope
against her father lay in cunning. So she wept, and begged for time in
which to consider the answer she would give to Lord Derby's request. She
begged for two months, or even one month, in which to bring herself to
accede to her father's commands.

"You have always been so kind and good to me, father, that I shall try to
obey if you and the earl eventually agree upon terms," she said tearfully,
having no intention whatever of trying to do anything but disobey.

"Try!" stormed Sir George. "Try to obey me! By God, girl, I say you shall
obey!"

"Oh, father, I am so young. I have not seen my cousin for years. I do not
want to leave you, and I have never thought twice of any man. Do not drive
me from you."

Sir George, eager to crush in the outset any disposition to oppose his
will, grew violent and threatened his daughter with dire punishment if she
were not docile and obedient.

Then said rare Dorothy:--

"It would indeed be a great match." Greater than ever will happen, she
thought. "I should be a countess." She strutted across the room with head
up and with dilating nostrils. The truth was, she desired to gain her
liberty once more that she might go to John, and was ready to promise
anything to achieve that end. "What sort of a countess would I make,
father?"

"A glorious countess, Doll, a glorious countess," said her father,
laughing. "You are a good girl to obey me so readily."

"Oh, but I have not obeyed you yet," returned Dorothy, fearing that her
father might be suspicious of a too ready acquiescence.

"But you will obey me," answered Sir George, half in command and half in
entreaty.

"There are not many girls who would refuse the coronet of a countess." She
then seated herself upon her father's knee and kissed him, while Sir
George laughed softly over his easy victory.

Blessed is the man who does not know when he is beaten.

Seeing her father's kindly humor, Dorothy said:--

"Father, do you still wish me to remain a prisoner in my rooms?"

"If you promise to be a good, obedient daughter," returned Sir George,
"you shall have your liberty."

"I have always been that, father, and I am too old to learn otherwise,"
answered this girl, whose father had taught her deception by his violence.
You may drive men, but you cannot drive any woman who is worth possessing.
You may for a time think you drive her, but in the end she will have her
way.

Dorothy's first act of obedience after regaining liberty was to send a
letter to Manners by the hand of Jennie Faxton.

John received the letter in the evening, and all next day he passed the
time whistling, singing, and looking now and again at his horologue. He
walked about the castle like a happy wolf in a pen. He did not tell me
there was a project on foot, with Dorothy as the objective, but I knew it,
and waited with some impatience for the outcome.

Long before the appointed time, which was sunset, John galloped forth for
Bowling Green Gate with joy and anticipation in his heart and pain in his
conscience. As he rode, he resolved again and again that the interview
toward which he was hastening should be the last he would have with
Dorothy. But when he pictured the girl to himself, and thought upon her
marvellous beauty and infinite winsomeness, his conscience was drowned in
his longing, and he resolved that he would postpone resolving until the
morrow.

John hitched his horse near the gate and stood looking between the massive
iron bars toward Haddon Hall, whose turrets could be seen through the
leafless boughs of the trees. The sun was sinking perilously low, thought
John, and with each moment his heart also sank, while his good resolutions
showed the flimsy fibre of their fabric and were rent asunder by the fear
that she might not come. As the moments dragged on and she did not come, a
hundred alarms tormented him. First among these was a dread that she might
have made resolves such as had sprung up so plenteously in him, and that
she might have been strong enough to act upon them and to remain at home.
But he was mistaken in the girl. Such resolutions as he had been making
and breaking had never come to her at all. The difference between the man
and the woman was this: he resolved in his mind not to see her and failed
in keeping to his resolution; while she resolved in her heart to see
him--resolved that nothing in heaven or earth or the other place could
keep her from seeing him, and succeeded in carrying out her resolution.
The intuitive resolve, the one that does not know it is a resolution, is
the sort before which obstacles fall like corn before the sickle.

After John had waited a weary time, the form of the girl appeared above
the crest of the hill. She was holding up the skirt of her gown, and
glided over the earth so rapidly that she appeared to be running. Beat!
beat! oh, heart of John, if there is aught in womanhood to make you throb;
if there is aught in infinite grace and winsomeness; if there is aught in
perfect harmony of color and form and movement; if there is aught of
beauty, in God's power to create that can set you pulsing, beat! for the
fairest creature of His hand is hastening to greet you. The wind had
dishevelled her hair and it was blowing in fluffy curls of golden red
about her face. Her cheeks were slightly flushed with joy and exercise,
her red lips were parted, and her eyes--but I am wasting words. As for
John's heart it almost smothered him with its beating. He had never before
supposed that he could experience such violent throbbing within his breast
and live. But at last she was at the gate, in all her exquisite beauty and
winsomeness, and something must be done to make the heart conform to the
usages of good society. She, too, was in trouble with her breathing, but
John thought that her trouble was owing to exertion. However that may have
been, nothing in heaven or earth was ever so beautiful, so radiant, so
graceful, or so fair as this girl who had come to give herself to John. It
seems that I cannot take myself away from the attractive theme.

"Ah, Sir John, you did come," said the girl, joyously.

"Yes," John succeeded in replying, after an effort, "and you--I thank you,
gracious lady, for coming. I do not deserve--" the heart again asserted
itself, and Dorothy stood by the gate with downcast eyes, waiting to learn
what it was that John did not deserve. She thought he deserved everything
good.

"I fear I have caused you fatigue," said John, again thinking, and with
good reason, that he was a fool.

The English language, which he had always supposed to be his mother
tongue, had deserted him as if it were his step-mother. After all, the
difficulty, as John subsequently said, was that Dorothy's beauty had
deprived him of the power to think. He could only see. He was entirely
disorganized by a girl whom he could have carried away in his arms.

"I feel no fatigue," replied Dorothy.

"I feared that in climbing the hill you had lost your breath," answered
disorganized John.

"So I did," she returned. Then she gave a great sigh and said, "Now I am
all right again."

All right? So is the morning sun, so is the arching rainbow, and so are
the flitting lights of the north in midwinter. All are "all right" because
God made them, as He made Dorothy, perfect, each after its kind.

A long, uneasy pause ensued. Dorothy felt the embarrassing silence less
than John, and could have helped him greatly had she wished to do so. But
she had made the advances at their former meetings, and as she had told
me, she "had done a great deal more than her part in going to meet him."
Therefore she determined that he should do his own wooing thenceforward.
She had graciously given him all the opportunity he had any right to ask.

While journeying to Bowling Green Gate, John had formulated many true and
beautiful sentiments of a personal nature which he intended expressing to
Dorothy; but when the opportunity came for him to speak, the weather, his
horse, Dorothy's mare Dolcy, the queens of England and Scotland were the
only subjects on which he could induce his tongue to perform, even
moderately well.

Dorothy listened attentively while John on the opposite side of the gate
discoursed limpingly on the above-named themes; and although in former
interviews she had found those topics quite interesting, upon that
occasion she had come to Bowling Green Gate to listen to something else
and was piqued not to hear it. After ten or fifteen minutes she said
demurely:--

"I may not remain here longer. I shall be missed at the Hall. I regained
my liberty but yesterday, and father will be suspicious of me during the
next few days. I must be watchful and must have a care of my behavior."

John summoned his wits and might have spoken his mind freely had he not
feared to say too much. Despite Dorothy's witchery, honor, conscience, and
prudence still bore weight with him, and they all dictated that he should
cling to the shreds of his resolution and not allow matters to go too far
between him and this fascinating girl. He was much in love with her; but
Dorothy had reached at a bound a height to which he was still climbing.
Soon John, also, was to reach the pinnacle whence honor, conscience, and
prudence were to be banished.

"I fear I must now leave you," said Dorothy, as darkness began to gather.

"I hope I may soon see you again," said John.

"Sometime I will see you if--if I can," she answered with downcast eyes.
"It is seldom I can leave the Hall alone, but I shall try to come here at
sunset some future day." John's silence upon a certain theme had given
offence.

"I cannot tell you how greatly I thank you," cried John.

"I will say adieu," said Dorothy, as she offered him her hand through the
bars of the gate. John raised the hand gallantly to his lips, and when she
had withdrawn it there seemed no reason for her to remain. But she stood
for a moment hesitatingly. Then she stooped to reach into her pocket while
she daintily lifted the skirt of her gown with the other hand and from the
pocket drew forth a great iron key.

"I brought this key, thinking that you might wish to unlock the gate--and
come to--to this side. I had great difficulty in taking it from the
forester's closet, where it has been hanging for a hundred years or more."

She showed John the key, returned it to her pocket, made a courtesy, and
moved slowly away, walking backward.

"Mistress Vernon," cried John, "I beg you to let me have the key."

"It is too late, now," said the girl, with downcast eyes. "Darkness is
rapidly falling, and I must return to the Hall."

John began to climb the gate, but she stopped him. He had thrown away his
opportunity.

"Please do not follow me, Sir John," said she, still moving backward. "I
must not remain longer."

"Only for one moment," pleaded John.

"No," the girl responded, "I--I may, perhaps, bring the key when I come
again. I am glad, Sir John, that you came to meet me this evening." She
courtesied, and then hurried away toward Haddon Hall. Twice she looked
backward and waved her hand, and John stood watching her through the bars
till her form was lost to view beneath the crest of Bowling Green Hill.

"'I brought this key, thinking that you might wish to unlock the gate and
come to this side,'" muttered John, quoting the girl's words. "Compared
with you, John Manners, there is no other fool in this world." Then
meditatively: "I wonder if she feels toward me as I feel toward her?
Surely she does. What other reason could bring her here to meet me unless
she is a brazen, wanton creature who is for every man." Then came a
jealous thought that hurt him like the piercing of a knife. It lasted but
a moment, however, and he continued muttering to himself: "If she loves me
and will be my wife, I will--I will ... In God's name what will I do? If I
were to marry her, old Vernon would kill her, and I--I should kill my
father."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26