‘o’er all there hung a shadow and a fear.’
mr. clissold entered the porch, scattering the affrighted fowls right and left. as they sped cackling away, the house door, which had stood ajar, was opened wider by a middle-aged woman, who looked at the intruder frowningly. ‘we never buy anything of pedlars,’ she said, sharply. ‘it’s no use coming here.’
‘i’m not a pedlar, and i haven’t anything to sell. i am going through cornwall on a walking tour, and want to find a place where i could stop for a week or so, and look about the country. i am prepared to pay a fair price for a clean homely lodging. the housekeeper at penwyn manor told me to try here.’
‘then she sent you on a fool’s errand,’ replied the woman; ‘we don’t take lodgers.’
‘not as a rule perhaps, but you might strain a point in my favour, i dare say.’
maurice clissold had a pleasant voice and a pleasant smile. mrs. trevanard looked at him doubtfully, softened in spite of herself by his manner. and then no trevanard was ever above earning an honest penny. they had not grown rich by refusing chances of small profits.
‘come, mother,’ cried a cheery voice from within, while she was hesitating, ‘you can ask the gentleman to come in and sit down a bit, anyhow. that won’t make us nor break us.’
‘you can walk in and sit down, sir, if you like,’ said mrs. trevanard, with a somewhat unwilling air.
maurice crossed the threshold, and found himself in a large stone-paved room, which had once been the hall, and was now the living room. the staircase, with its clumsy, black-painted balustrades, shaped like gouty legs, occupied one side of the room; on the other yawned the mighty chimney, with a settle on each side of the wide hearth, a cosy retreat on winter’s nights. the glow of the fire had a comfortable look even on this midsummer evening.
a young man—tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking, clad in a suit of velveteen which gave him something the air of a gamekeeper—stood near the hearth cleaning a gun. he it was who had spoken just now—martin trevanard, the only son of the house, and about the only living creature who had any influence with his mother. pride ruled her, religion, or bigotry, had power over her, gold was the strongest influence of all. but of all the mass of humanity there was but one unit she cared for besides herself, and that one was martin.
‘sit down and make yourself at home, sir,’ said the young man, heartily. ‘you’ve walked far, i dare say.’
‘i have,’ answered maurice, ‘but i don’t want to rest anywhere until i am sure that i can get a night’s shelter. there was no room for me at the “bell” at penwyn, but i left my knapsack there, thinking i should be forced to go back to the village anyhow. it was an afterthought coming on here. oh, by the way, there’s a girl outside, the lodge-keeper’s daughter, who has been my guide so far, and wants to know my fate before she goes home. what can you do with me, mrs. trevanard? i’m not particular. give me a truss of clean hay in one of your barns, if you’re afraid to have me in the house.’
‘don’t be ill-natured, old lady,’ said the young man, ‘the gentleman is a gentleman. one can see that with half an eye.’
‘that’s all very well, martin; but what will your father say to our taking in a stranger, without so much as knowing his name?’
‘my name is clissold,’ said the applicant, taking a card out of his pocket-book and throwing it on the polished beechwood table, the only handsome piece of furniture in the room. a massive oblong table, big enough for twelve or fourteen people to sit at. ‘there are my name and address. and so far as payment in advance goes,’—he put a sovereign down beside the card—‘there’s for my night’s accommodation and refreshment.’
‘put your money in your pocket, sir. you’re a friend of mr. penwyn’s, i suppose?’ asked mrs. trevanard, still doubtful.
‘i know the present mr. penwyn, but i cannot call myself his friend. the poor young fellow who was murdered, james penwyn, was my nearest and dearest friend, my adopted brother.’
‘let the gentleman stop, mother. we’ve rooms enough, and to spare, in this gloomy old barrack. a fresh face always brightens us up a little, and it’s nice to hear how the world goes on. father’s always satisfied when you are. you can put the gentleman in that old room at the end of the corridor. you needn’t be frightened, sir, there are no ghosts at borcel end,’ added martin trevanard, laughing.
his mother still hesitated—but after a pause she said, ‘very well, sir. you can stop to-night, and as long as you please afterwards at a fair price—say a guinea a week for eating, drinking, and sleeping, and a trifle for the servant when you go away.’
even in consenting the woman seemed to have a lingering reluctance, as if she were giving assent to something which she felt should have been refused.
‘your terms are moderation itself, madam, and i thank you. i’ll send away my small guide.’
he went out to the porch where elspeth sat waiting—no doubt a listener to the conversation. maurice rewarded her devotion with an extra sixpence, and dismissed her. away she sped through the gathering gloom, light of foot as a young fawn. maurice felt considerably relieved by the comfortable adjustment of the lodging question. he seated himself in an arm-chair by the hearth, and stretched out his legs in the ruddy glow, with a blissful sense of repose.
‘is there such a thing as a lad about the place who would go to the “bell” at penwyn to fetch my knapsack for a consideration?’ he asked.
there was a cowboy who would perform that service, it seemed. martin went out himself to look for the rustic mercury.
‘he’s a good-natured lad, my son,’ said mrs. trevanard, ‘but full of fancies. that comes of idleness, and too much education, his father says. his grandmother yonder never learned to read or write and ’twas she and her husband made borcel end what it is.’
following the turn of mrs. trevanard’s head, maurice perceived that an object which in the obscurity of the room he had taken for a piece of furniture was in reality a piece of humanity—a very old woman, dressed in dark garments, with only a narrow white border peeping from under a cowl-shaped black silk cap, a dingy red handkerchief pinned across her shoulders, and two bony hands, whose shrivelled fingers moved with a mechanical regularity in the process of stocking knitting.
‘ay,’ said a quivering voice. ‘i can’t read or write—that’s to say i couldn’t even when i had my sight—but between us, michael and i made borcel what it is. young people don’t understand the old ways—they have servants to wait upon ’em, and play the harpsichord—but little good comes of it.’
‘is she blind?’ asked maurice of the younger mrs. trevanard, in a whisper.
the old woman’s quick ear caught the question.
‘stone blind, sir, for the last eighteen years. but the lord has been good to me. i’ve a comfortable home and kind children, and they don’t turn me out of doors, though i’m such a useless creature.’
a gloomy figure in that dark corner beyond the glow of the fire. maurice felt that the room was less comfortable somehow, since he had discovered the presence of this old woman, with her sightless orbs, and never-resting fingers, long and lean, weaving her endless web, gloomy as clotho herself.
a plump, ruddy-cheeked maid-servant came bustling in with preparations for supper, making an agreeable diversion after this sad little episode. she lighted a pair of tall tallow candles in tall brass candlesticks, which feebly illumined the large low room. the wainscoted walls were blackened by smoke and time, and from the cross-beams that sustained the low ceiling hung a grove of hams, while flitches of bacon adorned the corners, where there was less need of headway. every object in the room belonged to the useful rather than the beautiful. yet there was something pleasant to maurice’s unaccustomed eye in the homely old-world comfort of the place.
he took advantage of the light to steal a glance at the face of his hostess, as she helped the servant to lay the cloth and place the viands on the table. bridget trevanard was about fifty years of age, but there were few wrinkles on the square brow, or about the eyes and mouth. she was tall, buxom, and broad-shouldered; a woman who looked as if she had few feminine weaknesses, either moral or physical. the muscular arm and broad open chest betokened an almost virile strength. her skin was bright and clear, her nose broad and thick, but fairly modelled of its kind, her under lip full, and firm as if wrought in iron, the upper lip long, straight, and thin. her eyes were dark brown, bright and hard, with that sharp penetrating look which is popularly supposed to see through deal boards, and even stone walls on occasion. so at least thought the servants at borcel end.
a model farmer’s wife, this mrs. trevanard, a severe mistress, yet not unjust or unkind, a proud woman, and in her own particular creed something of a zealot. a woman who loved money, not so much for its own sake, as because it served the only ambition she had ever cherished, namely, to be more respectable than her neighbours. wealth went a long way towards this superior respectability, therefore did mrs. trevanard toil and spin, and never cease from labour in the pursuit of gain. she was the motive power of borcel end. her superlative energy kept michael trevanard, a somewhat lazy man by nature, a patient slave at the mill. martin was the only creature at borcel who escaped her influence. for him life meant the indulgence of his own fancies, with just so much work as gave him an appetite for his meals. he would drive the waggon to the mill, or superintend the men at hay-making and harvest. he rather liked attending market, and was a good hand at a bargain, but to the patient drudgery of every-day cares young trevanard had a rooted objection. he was good-looking, good-natured, walked well, sang well, whistled better than any other man in the district, and was a general favourite. people said that the good blood of the old trevanards showed in young martin.
