when the twilight had again settled down. There was just daylight enough to see his face when I went to him; and what a change in a fortnight! He was paler and more worn, I thought, than even in those dreadful days in the plains before we left India. His hair seemed to me to have grown long and lank; his eyes were like blazing lights projecting out of his white face. He got hold of my hand in a cold and tremulous clutch, and waved to everybody to go away. "Go away even mother," he said, "go away." This went to her heart, for she did not like that even I should have more of the boy's confidence than herself; but my wife has never been a woman to think of herself, and she left us alone. "Are they all gone?" he said eagerly. "They would not let me speak. The doctor treated me as if I was a fool. You know I am not a fool, papa." Yes, yes, my boy, I know; but you are ill, and quiet is so necessary. You are not only not a fool, Roland, but you are reasonable and understand. When you are ill you must deny yourself; you must not do everything that you might do being well." He waved his thin hand with a sort of indignation. "Then, father, I am not ill," he cried. "Oh, I thought when you came you would not stop me, you would see the sense of it! What do you think is the matter with me, all of you? Simson is well enough, but he is only a doctor. What do you think is the matter with me? I am no more ill than you are. A doctor, of course, he thinks you are ill the moment he looks at you- that's what he's there for and claps you into bed." "Which is the best place for you at present, my dear boy." "I made up my mind," cried the little fellow, "that I would stand it till you came home. I said to myself, I won't frighten mother and the girls. But now, father," he cried, half jumping out of bed, "it's not illness, it's a secret." His eyes shone so wildly, his face was so swept with strong feeling, that my heart sank within me. It could be nothing but fever that did it, and fever had been so fatal. I got him into my arms to put him back into bed. "Roland," I said, humoring the poor child, which I knew was the only way, "if you are going to tell me this secret to do any good, you know you must be quite quiet, and not excite yourself. If you excite yourself, I must not let you speak." LIVING AGE. VOL. XXXVII. 1890 "Yes, father," said the boy. He was quiet Jirectly, like a man, as if he quite understood. When I had laid him back on his pillow, he looked up at me with that grateful, sweet look with which children, when they are ill, break one's heart, the water coming into his eyes in his weakness. "I was sure as soon as you were here you would know what to do," he said. "To be sure, my boy. Now keep quiet, and tell it all out like a man." To think I was telling lies to my own child! for I did it only to humor him, thinking, poor little fellow, his brain was wrong. "Yes, father. Father, there is some one in the park, -some one that has been badly used." "Hush, my dear; you remember, there is to be no excitement. Well, who is this somebody, and who has been ill-using him? We will soon put a stop to that." "Ah," cried Roland, "but it is not so easy as you think. I don't know who it is. It is just a cry. Oh, if you could hear it! It gets into my head in my sleep. I heard it as clear- as clear; and they think that I am dreaming or raving perhaps," the boy said, with a sort of disdainful smile. This look of his perplexed me; it was less like fever than I thought. "Are you quite sure you have not dreamt it, Roland?" I said. "Dreamt? that!" He was springing up again when he suddenly bethought himself, and lay down flat with the same sort of smile on his face. "The pony heard it too," he said. "She jumped as if she had been shot. If I had not grasped at the reins, for I was frightened, father "No shame to you, my boy," said I, though I scarcely knew why. "If I hadn't held to her like a leech, she'd have pitched me over her head, and never drew breath till we were at the door. Did the pony dream it?" he said, with a soft disdain, yet indulgence for my foolishness. Then he added slowly: "It was only a cry the first time, and all the time before you went away. I wouldn't tell you, for it was so wretched to be frightened. I thought it might be a hare or a rabbit snared, and I went in the morning and looked, but there was nothing. It was after you went I heard it really first, and this is what it says." He raised himself on his elbow close to me, and looked me in the face. "Oh, mother, let me in! oh, mother, let me in!"" As he said the words a mist came over 7 his face, the mouth quivered, the soft features all melted and changed, and when he had ended these pitiful words, dissolved in a shower of heavy tears. Was it a hallucination? Was it the fever of the brain? Was it the disordered fancy caused by great bodily weakness? How could I tell? I thought it wisest to accept it as if it were all true. 66 said. This is very touching, Roland," I "Oh, if you had just heard it, father! I said to myself, if father heard it he would do something; but mamma, you know, she's given over to Simson, and that fellow's a doctor, and never thinks of anything but clapping you into bed." "We must not blame Simson for being a doctor, Roland." by itself in the ruin, and nobody to help it. I can't bear it, I can't bear it!" cried my generous boy. And in his weakness he burst out, after many attempts to restrain it, into a great childish fit of sobbing and tears. I do not know that I ever was in a greater perplexity in my life; and afterwards, when I thought of it, there was something comic in it too. It is bad enough to find your child's mind possessed with the conviction that he has seen - or heard a ghost. But that he should require you to go instantly and help that ghost, was the most bewildering experience that had ever come my way. am a sober man myself, and not superstitious at least any more than everybody is superstitious. Of course I do not believe in ghosts; but I don't deny, any more than other people, that there are stories which I cannot pretend to understand. My blood got a sort of chill in my veins at the idea that Roland should be a ghost-seer; for that generally means a hysterical temperament and weak health, Surely," I said. "No doubt it is and all that men most hate and fear for some little lost child." No, no," said my boy, with delightful toleration and indulgence; "oh no; that's the good of him that's what he's for; I know that. But you you are different; you are just father, and you'll do something, directly, papa, directly, this very night." 66 " "But, my boy," I said I was at my wits' end- "if it was a child that was lost, or any poor human creature-but, Roland, what do you want me to do?" "I should know if I was you," said the child eagerly. "That is what I always said to myself, 'Father will know.' Oh, papa, papa, to have to face it night after night, in such terrible, terrible trouble! and never to be able to do it any good. I don't want to cry; it's like a baby, I know; but I can't help it; out there all their children. But that I should take up With sobs "It will be there now it will be there all the night. Oh think, papa, think, if it was me! I can't rest for thinking of it. Don't!" he cried, putting away my hand "don't! You go and help it, and mother can take care of me." "But, Roland, what can I do?" I My boy opened his eyes, which were large with weakness and fever, and gave me a smile such, I think, as sick children only know the secret of. "I was sure you would know as soon as you came. always said, 'Father will know; ' and mother," he cried, with a softening of repose upon his face, his limbs relaxing, his form sinking with a luxurious repose in his bed "mother can come and take care of me." I called her, and saw him turn to her with the complete dependence of a child, and then I went away and left them, as perplexed a man as any in Scotland. must say, however, I had this consolation, that my mind was greatly eased about I Roland. He might be under a hallucina- body was there. It is a sensation which tion, but his head was clear enough, and most people have felt. I have seen when I did not think him so ill as everybody it has been strong enough to awake you else did. The girls were astonished even out of sleep, the sense of some one lookat the ease with which I took his illness. ing at you. I suppose my imagination had "How do you think he is ?" they said in a been affected by Roland's story; and the breath, coming round me, laying hold of mystery of the darkness is always full of me. "Not half so ill as I expected," I suggestions. I stamped my feet violently said; "not very bad at all." "Oh, papa, on the gravel to rouse myself, and called you are a darling!" cried Agatha, kissing out sharply, "Who's there?" Nobody me, and crying upon my shoulder; while answered, nor did I expect any one to anlittle Jeanie, who was as pale as Roland, swer, but the impression had been made. clasped both her arms round mine, and I was so foolish that I did not like to look could not speak at all. I knew nothing back, but went sideways, keeping an eye about it, not half so much as Simson, but on the gloom behind. It was with great they believed in me; they had a feeling relief that I spied the light in the stables, that all would go right now. God is very making a sort of oasis in the darkness. I good to you when your children look to walked very quickly into the midst of that you like that. It makes one humble, not lighted and cheerful place, and thought proud. I was not worthy of it; and then the clank of the groom's pail one of the I recollected that I had to act the part of pleasantest sounds I had ever heard. The a father to. Roland's ghost, which made coachman was the head of this little colme almost laugh, though I might just as ony, and it was to his house I went to well have cried. It was the strangest pursue my investigations. He was a namission that ever was intrusted to mortal tive of the district, and had taken care of the place in the absence of the family for years; it was impossible but that he must know everything that was going on, and all the traditions of the place. The men, I could see, eyed me anxiously when I thus appeared at such an hour among them, and followed me with their eyes to Jarvis's house, where he lived alone with his old wife, their children being all married and out in the world. Mrs. Jarvis met me with anxious questions. How was the poor young gentleman? but the others knew, I could see by their faces, that not even this was the foremost thing in my mind. man. It It was then I remembered suddenly the looks of the men when they turned to take the brougham to the stables in the dark that morning: they had not liked it, and the horses had not liked it. I remembered that even in my anxiety about Roland I had heard them tearing along the avenue back to the stables, and had made a memorandum mentally that I must speak of it. It seemed to me that the best thing I could do was to go to the stables now and make a few inquiries. It is impossible to fathom the minds of rustics; there might be some devilry of practical joking, for anything I knew; or they might have some reason in getting up a bad reputation for the Brentwood avenue. was getting dark by the time I went out, and nobody who knows the country will need to be told how black is the darkness of a November night under high laurelbushes and yew-trees. I walked into the beart of the shrubberies two or three times, not seeing a step before me, till I came out upon the broader carriage-road, where the trees opened a little, and there was a faint grey glimmer of sky visible, under which the great limes and elms stood darkling like ghosts; but it grew black again as I approached the corner where the ruins lay. Both eyes and ears were on the alert, as may be supposed; but I could see nothing in the absolute gloom, and, so far as I can recollect, I heard nothing. Nevertheless there came a strong impression upon me that some "NOISES? - ou ay, there'll be noises the wind in the trees, and the water soughing down the glen. As for tramps, cornel, no, there's little o' that kind o' cattle about here; and Merran at the gate's a careful body." Jarvis moved about with some embarrassment from one leg to another as he spoke. He kept in the shade, and did not look at me more than he could help. Evidently his mind was perturbed, and he had reasons for keeping his own counsel. His wife sat by, giving him a quick look now and then, but saying nothing. The kitchen was very snug, and warm, and bright as different as could be from the chill and mystery of the night outside. "I think you are trifling with me, Jarvis," I said." "Triflin', cornel? no me. What would I trifle for? If the deevil himsel was in the auld hoose, I have no interest in't one | moving, Mrs. Jarvis said, with unconway or another 66 Sandy, hold your peace!" cried his wife imperatively. "And what am I to hold my peace for, wi' the cornel standing there asking a' thae questions? I'm saying, if the deevil himsel "And I'm telling ye hold your peace!" cried the woman, in great excitement. "Dark November weather and lang nichts, and us that ken a' we ken. How daur ye name a name that shouldna be spoken?" She threw down her stocking and got up, also in great agitation. "I tell't ye you never could keep it. It's no a thing that will hide; and the haill toun kens as weel as you or me. Tell the cornel straight out, or see, I'll do it. I dinna hold wi' your secrets; and a secret that the haill toun kens!" She snapped her fingers with an air of large disdain. As for Jarvis, ruddy and big as he was, he shrank to nothing before this decided woman. He repeated to her two or three times her own adjuration, "Hold your peace!" then, suddenly changing his tone, cried out, "Tell him then, confound ye! I'll wash my hands o't. If a' the ghosts in Scotland were in the auld hoose, is that ony concern o' mine?" scious poetry. It began when night fell, and continued, at intervals, till day broke. Very often it was only an inarticulate cry and moaning, but sometimes the words which had taken possession of my poor boy's fancy had been distinctly audible Óh, mother, let me in!" The Jarvises were not aware that there had ever been any investigation into it. The estate of Brentwood had lapsed into the hands of a distant branch of the family, who had lived but little there; and of the many people who had taken it, as I had done, few had remained through two Decembers. And nobody had taken the trouble to make a very close examination into the facts. "No, no," Jarvis said, shaking his head, "No, no, cornel. Wha wad set themsels up for a laughin'-stock to a' the country-side, making a wark about a ghost? Naebody believes in ghosts. It bid to be the wind in the trees, the last gentleman said, or some effec' o' the water wrastlin' among the rocks. He said it was a' quite easy explained; but he gave up the hoose. And when you cam, cornel, we were awfu' anxious you should never hear. What for should I have spoiled the bargain and hairmed the property for no-thing?" After this I elicited without much diffi- "Do you call my child's life nothing?' culty the whole story. In the opinion of I said in the trouble of the moment, unthe Jarvises, and of everybody about, the able to restrain myself. "And instead of certainty that the place was haunted was telling this all to me, you have told it to beyond all doubt. As Sandy and his wife him to a delicate boy, a child unable to warmed to the tale, one tripping up an- sift evidence, or judge for himself, a tenother in their eagerness to tell every-der-hearted young creature thing, it gradually developed as distinct a superstition as I ever heard, and not without poetry and pathos. How long it was since the voice had been heard first, nobody could tell with certainty. Jarvis's opinion was that his father, who had been coachman at Brentwood before him, had never heard anything about it, and that the whole thing had arisen within the last ten years, since the complete dismantling of the old house: which was a wonderfully modern date for a tale so well authenticated. According to these witnesses, and to several whom I questioned afterwards, and who were all in perfect agreement, it was only in the months of November and December that "the visitation" occurred. During these months, the darkest of the year, scarcely a night passed without the recurrence of these inexplicable cries. Nothing, it was said, had ever been seen at least nothing that could be identified. Some people, bolder or more imaginative than the others, had seen the darkness I was walking about the room with an anger all the hotter that I felt it to be most likely quite unjust. My heart was full of bitterness against the stolid retainers of a family who were content to risk other people's children and comfort rather than let a house lie empty. If I had been warned I might have taken precautions, or left the place, or sent Roland away, a hundred things which now I could not do; and here I was with my boy in a brainfever, and his life, the most precious life on earth, hanging in the balance, dependent on whether or not I could get to the reason of a banal, commonplace ghoststory! I paced about in high wrath, not seeing what I was to do; for to take Roland away, even if he were able to travel, would not settle his agitated mind; and I feared even that a scientific expla nation of refracted sound, or reverberation, or any other of the easy certainties with which we elder men are silenced, would have very little effect upon the boy. 3 "Come with me, Jarvis," I said hastily, " and we'll make an attempt at least. Say nothing to the men or to anybody. r'íl come back after dinner, and we'll make a serious attempt to see what it is, if it is anything. If I hear it which I doubt -you may be sure I shall never rest till I make it out. Be ready for me about ten o'clock." "Cornel," said Jarvis solemnly, "and | the gentry they just laugh in your face she'll bear me witness the young gen- Inquire into the thing that is not! Na, tleman never heard a word from me no, na, we just let it be nor from either groom or gardener; I'll gie ye my word for that. In the first place, he's no a lad that invites ye to talk. There are some that are, and some that arena. Some will draw ye on, till ye've tellt them a' the clatter of the toun, and a' ye ken, and whiles mair. But Maister Roland, his mind's fu' of his books. He's aye civil and kind, and a fine lad; but no that sort. And ye see it's for a' our interest, cornel, that you should stay at Brentwood. I took it upon me mysel to pass the word, 'No a syllable to Maister Roland, nor to the young leddies - -no a syllable.' The women-servants, that have little reason to be out at night, ken little or nothing about it. And some think it grand to have a ghost so long as they're no in the way of coming across it. If you had been tellt the story to begin with, maybe ye would have thought so yourself." "Me, cornel!" Jarvis said, in a faint voice. I had not been looking at him in my own preoccupation, but when I did so, I found that the greatest change had come over the fat and ruddy coachman. " Me, cornel!" he repeated, wiping the perspiration from his brow. His ruddy face hung in flabby folds, his knees knocked together, his voice seemed half extinguished in his throat. Then he began to rub his hands and smile upon me in a deprecating, imbecile way. "There's no-thing I wouldna do to pleasure ye, cornel," taking a step further back. "I'm sure she kens I've aye said I never had to do with a mair fair, weel-spoken gentleman " Here Jarvis came to a pause, again looking at me, rubbing his hands. "Well?" I said. This was true enough, though it did not throw any light upon my perplexity. If we had heard of it to start with, it is possible that all the family would have considered the possession of a ghost a distinct advantage. It is the fashion of the times. We never think what a risk it "But eh, sir!" he went on, with the is to play with young imaginations, but same imbecile yet insinuating smile, "if cry out, in the fashionable jargon, "Aye'll reflect that I am no used to my feet. ghost!-nothing else was wanted to With a horse atween my legs, or the reins make it perfect.' I should not have been in my hand, I'm maybe nae worse than above this myself. I should have smiled, other men; but on fit, cornelIt's no of course, at the idea of the ghost at all, the-bogles; but I've been cavalry, ye but then to feel that it was mine would see," with a little hoarse laugh, "a' my have pleased my vanity. Oh yes, I claim life. To face a thing ye didna understan' no exemption. The girls would have on your feet, cornel." been delighted. I could fancy their eagerness, their interest, and excitement. No; if we had been told, it would have done no good-we should have made the bargain all the more eagerly, the fools that we are. "And there has been no attempt to investigate it," I said, "to see what it really is?" 66 Eh, cornel," said the coachman's wife, "wha would investigate, as ye call it, a thing that nobody believes in? Ye would be the laughin'-stock of a' the countryside, as my man says." "But you believe in it," I said, turning upon her hastily. The woman was taken by surprise. She made a step backward out of my way. "Lord, cornel, how ye frichten a body! Me! - there's awfu' strange things in this world. An unlearned person doesna ken what to think. But the minister and "Well, sir, if I do it," said I, tartly, "why shouldn't you?" 66 Eh, Cornel, there's an awfu' difference. In the first place, ye tramp about the haill country-side, and think naething of it; but a walk tires me mair than a hunard miles' drive: and then ye're a gentleman, and do your ain pleasure; and you're no so auld as me; and it's for your ain bairn, ye see, cornel; and then "He believes in it, Cornel, and you dinna believe in it," the woman said. "Will you come with me?" I said, turning to her. She jumped back, upsetting her chair in her bewilderment. "Me!" with a scream, and then fell into a sort of hysterical laugh. "I wouldna say but what I would go; but what would the folk say to hear of Cornel Mortimer with an auld silly woman at his heels?" |