‘And now,’ cried Ellen Fordyce, ’the
feud is so beautifully ended; the doom must be appeased,
now that the head of one hostile line has come to
the rescue of the other, and saved all our lives.’
My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed,
even without our interposition, fell very flat, for
romance must have its swing. Ellen told us
how, on the news of our kinsman’s death and
our inheritance, the ancestral story had been discussed,
and her grandfather had said he believed there were
letters about it in the iron deed-box, and how he
hoped to be on better terms with the new heir.
The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family,
especially since the duel, and we all knew the resemblance
of the picture would be scouted by our elders; but
perhaps this gave us the more pleasure in dwelling
upon it, while we agreed that poor Margaret ought to
be appeased by Griffith’s prowess on behalf
of the Fordyces.
The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion
chamber, which they found so crammed with Hillside
furniture that they could scarcely enter, and returned
disappointed, except for having inspected and admired
all Griff’s weapons, especially what Miss Fordyce
called the sword of her rescue.
She had been learning German—rather an
unusual study in those days, and she narrated to
us most effectively the story of Die Weisse Frau,
working herself up to such a pitch that she would have
actually volunteered to spend a night in the room,
to see whether Margaret would hold any communication
with a descendant, after the example of the White
Woman and Lady Bertha, if there had been either fire
or accommodation, and if the only entrance had not
been through Griff’s private sitting-room.
‘The white doe’s milk is not out of his
mouth.’
Scott.
Clarence had come home free from all blots.
His summer holiday had been prevented by the illness
of one of the other clerks, whose place, Mr. Castleford
wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long he would
be sure to earn his promotion. That kind friend
had several times taken him to spend a Sunday in
the country, and, as we afterwards had reason to
think, would have taken more notice of him but for
the rooted belief of Mr. Frith that it was a case of
favouritism, and that piety and strictness were assumed
to throw dust in the eyes of his patron.
Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved
than ever, and it was quite by the accident of finding
him studying one of Mrs. Trimmer’s Manuals
that I discovered that, at the request of his good
Rector, he had become a Sunday-school teacher, and
was as much interested as the enthusiastic girls;
but I was immediately forbidden to utter a word on
the subject, even to Emily, lest she should tell
any one.
Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural
timidity. He had to bear a certain amount of
scorn and derision among some of his fellow-clerks
for the stricter habits and observances that could
not be concealed, and he dreaded any fresh revelation
of them, partly because of the cruel imputation of
hypocrisy, partly because he feared the bringing
a scandal on religion by his weakness and failures.
