PENHALA: A WAYSIDE WIZARD,

Southern Cross, Volume 7, Issue 34, 18 November 1899, Page 13

PENHALA: A WAYSIDE WIZARD,

By CLARA LEMORE, Author of “ A Harvest of Weeds,” “ A Covenant With the Dead,” “ Gwen Dale’s Ordeal,” “At War With Destiny,” Ac., &c.

(COPYRIGHT.)

CHAPTER XIX. THE LINES CONVERGE. When Ellaliue’s messenger came back with the basket from Tregarron Head, he brought a tiny note, from Mary. ‘I am so glad you did not come near this poor fellow. ’it ran; lam afraid he is for a touch of fever ; aud, though I have no fear for myself, I think it is better and safer, for many reasons, that I should hold no further communication with any of you, until the question of infection is put beyond all doubt.’

She wound up with a request that Ellaline would have a bag packed for ter —j as fc a pair of steppers and some brushes, and so forth; she had already ordered up from the town a few household necessaries.

Bllaline’s face was very long when she took this note to her father and Lady GHenhaggart pooh-poohed her fears —Lady GHenhaggart, with acilm indifference which suggested that she found it impossible to get up any real interest in the whims and fancies of a person so far her social inferior ; Mr Penhala with a good-natured assurance that Mrs. Smith was a lady who might be trusted to do the right thing, under any and every circumstance whatever. ‘ She’ll come home none the worse for her kindness, and a couple of days’ rest will set her up as fresh as a daisy again, my dear,’ he said, cheerily; ( and if those poor souls really need her so badly, we must make up our minds to get along the best way we can without her, that’s all. But we shall miss her terribly all the same.’ A sentiment which Ellaline echoed heartily. If Penhala’s mind had not been so much taken up with other matters just then, he would certainly have inquired more particularly into this whim of Mrs. Smith’s; but with a large party of guests on his hands, and his head busy with plans for Ellaline’s future happiness, it is not surprising that he had very little thought to spare for other matters. And when his mind was not occupied with either of these subjects, it always went back to one other —his son John.

When he consented to this visit to Cam Ruth he had hoped that all that old misery was left too far behind in the long ago to trouble him to any great extent ; but he found it was not so. The place was clogged with saddest, bitterest memories of the boy he had so idolised ; and he found himself wishing a dozen times a day that he had not allowed himself to be persuaded into revisiting a spot so pregnant to him of death and disappointment.

It was under the influence of this feeling that be formed the idea of handing the estate over to Ellaline on her marriage. Pinto must be persuaded into taking the name of Penhala, and Penhala’s House, and the park surrounding it, should be Penhala’s wedding-present to bis adopted daughter. After all, it would only be anticipating matters by a few years, and since he' could not enjoy the beautiful place himself, w hy should not they ? In settling things thus, he was taking it for granted that Lady Glenhaggart would not back out of the engagement when she heard that Ellaline was not really his daughter. But upon that point he did not worry himself much. Nobody hut Lady Glenhaggart herself need know the

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real facts concerning Ellaline’s birth —even Fitz himself might be kept in ignorance of the truth, if her ladyship desired it. And her ladyship did desire it, for the present at all events. ‘ Of course, they must both know ultimately,’ she said, when Penhala put the point to her. The discovery that Ellaline was not a Penhala was a ghastly blow to her, aud it needed all the counteracting influences of her present surroundings to reconcile her to the discovery. Perhaps if Penhala had made his announcement before she had seen this beautiful house of his, she would have drawn back in spite of the money She bad always set her heart on Fitzwarrene marrying for station. But then the possession of such a place as this must of itself confer a certain amount of distinction on the owner, and, for the rest, who among those whose opinion she cared about was ever likely to hear this hole-and-corner mystery about Ellaline’s birth ? She had always been accepted as Lancelot Penhala’s daughter by his second wife, what was to start people off on the- track of the truth now ? Aud right down at the bottom of her mean, shabby mind there may have been another argument at work, reconciling her to Ellaline’s lack of birth and breeding —this disadvantage of birth, might it not give her a little power over the girl if such a thing were needed at any time P For her ladyship had already found out that the pretty child could be remarkably self-willed upon occasion, and it was quite pos sible to imagine a state of affairs in which a lever of this kind might enable the mother-in-law to maintain her supremacy. So her ladyship swallowed her consternation as gracefully as she could, and diplomatised skilfully for her own ends. ‘Of course, they must know ultimately,’ she said, but I don’t think that just now would be the best time to tell them. They would be sure to talk it over between themselves, and secrets of that kind are dangerous things to discuss in a house full of visitors. We will choose an opportunity later on.’

And Penhala felt‘bound to leave the matter in her hands, though be would have preferred that Fitz at least should know the whole truth without delay. And yet, when all was said and done, it seemed cruel to let such worldly considerations dim the glory of their love-dream, on the very first day of its accomplishment; time enough for practical discussions when the first rapture of knowing that they belonged to one another was over ; they would never, in this world at all events, get so near to the attainment of perfect happiness again ; let them enjoy it as long as they could; prudence and the rest of the precious sisterhood could want. And to do Fitz justice he showed every disposition to avail himself of the privileges of his position. He even went the length, on that first evening of his engagement, of leaving the dining-room five minutes after the exodus of the ladies, and went strolling along the terrace past the open drawing-room windows. But as long as he was within view from the windows, he was careful to carry himself as if he had come that

way quite by accident. A disinterested observer would have sworn he was intent upon admiring the sunset over the sea; but it happened that there were no disinterested observers at hand at the time : everybody in the house knew the exact state of affairs between their

host’s daughter and Fitz Pinto, and an intelligent smile passed from lip to lip as the young man strolled by with that magnificent air of unconsciousness.

The Baronne de Vieuxbas, a gay, amiable little Frenchwoman, one of Lady Glenhaggart’s friends, was talking with Ellaline at the time, but when she saw Fitz pass the window, she too, was seized with a sudden desire to watch the sunset from the terrace; and nothing would please her but that Ellaline should accompany her, Fitz came strolling back and found them there ; and then he reminded them that there were chairs a little farther along. La Baronne got up ‘just to pluck a rose ’ from the wall behind her—-they were not to move, and then suddenly there was no Baronne nor any other creature in the wide world but their two selves, and the terrace overhanging the little fishing harbour was a garden of Eden, tenanted by another Adam and Eve before the fall. The Baronne looked a little unlike herself when she got back to the drawingroom, andthelampsand thefashionable ladies; for she had glanced behind her at those foolish young people as she stepped in through the open window, and the sight of those two heads, bent so close to one another, had reminded her of an incident in her own girlhood, and of the ‘ esclandre ’ that followed upon it ; the knowledge came upon her with a shock of pain that she would have been a far better woman than she was if that little incident had been allowed to work itself out to its own natural completion’ in the fashion that held, good here, among these English people. The afterglow was quite gone, and the evening star was already scintillating against a background of steelblue sky, when Ellaline remembred she had duties to perform to her father’s guests. She would not let Fitz enter the room with her—she would go in alone, she said, and he could find his way in by some other entrance.

So he stood and watched her ran up the terrace in the direction of the lighted windows, and then just before she reached them, he saw her stop and turn towards him so suddenly,that he guessed something w as wrong, and ran to meet her.

‘ There is a man there,’ she gasped, breathless with her run and sudden scare. ‘He is crouching down between the buttress and the atone vase, looking in the drawing-room window.’

‘All right! said Fitz, squeezing her hands reassuringly. ‘ Don’t get frightened—we’ll soon have him out, and find out his business. Where did you say ?’

But the'e was no need for further explanation from her, for the cause of her fright, perhaps knowing himself discovered, stepped out from the recess that had concealed him and faced them, waiting their approach. As they came they saw him clearly outlined against the luminous twilight of the June night —a tall, broad-built fellow, with a mass of wavy hair falling from under his limp felt hat to his shoulders, and a thick beard reaching halfdown to his vest. What the dickens are you up to, sir?’ began Fitz the impetuous, as they drew near one another, ‘ larking about the place after dark, and frightening people out of their lives in this fashion ? vV hat’s your business ? Do you know you’re trespassing p’ The trespasser uncovered, and bent his head in Ellaline’s direction.

‘ I am sorry if I startled the lady,’ he said, in a low, still voice, which had a curious stir of emotion in its tone for all its quietness. ‘lam a stranger in this part of the world, and I’ve lost my way.. I came up the steps over the cliff from the beach below, and missed my path back to the high road. Seeing the lighted windows I made for them, meaning to ask my way. But you will understand why I hesitated when I saw the style of company inside there. Perhaps you will be kind enough to direct me to the servants’ entrance.’

‘ Oh, Fitz,’ said Ellaline, under heir breath, with her clear, bright eyes fixed steadily on the intruder’s face, ‘ It is the man we saw at Epsom, last week—T am sure of it! The man who did the tricks with the cards.’ ‘By Jove, so it is!’ cried Fitz, mightily astonished, though he could hardly have told why. ‘ What brings you down to this out-of-the way corner of the world, Sir Wizard ?’ ‘The young lady has keen eyes,’ said the wizard, with a slight smile at Ellaline, a smile which seemed to say that he was gratified by her recollection of him. And instinctively Ellaline smiled back at him, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to find herself chatting easily gentlemen of his social standing —she had quite forgotten her fright of a moment ago in this recognition of an old acquaintance. ‘ I certainly was at Epsom last week, and I am as certainly in Cornwall this. As for what brings me here I might with equal reason put the same question to you, sir, only—l do not.’ Fitz laughed in frankest selfaccusation. ‘ I offer you my best apologies,’ he said, with a little bow, ironical but wholly good-humoured. ‘lt certainly is no business of mine. I’ll take you round to the front of the house and set you on your right road again. Come on !’ ‘ I wonder,’ said Ellaline, and at the first sound of her voice both the men stopped and turned to her; Fitz handsome and happy, and the personification of masculine elegance, in the absolute faultlessness of his dress and the easy, indifference of his bearing ; the other shabby to the verge of destitution, and with a curious blending of caution and recklessness showing itself in the lines of his face and the cones of his voice; a vagabond all over. And yet, as they both turned, t to Ellaline’s voice to listen to what she had to say, a curious fancy smote her that this shabby dusty wayfarer was as truly a gentleman as the perfectlyappointed youth at his side. It was one of those little touches of instinctive knowledge which come at times to all of us ; come so clearly and unmistakably, in spite of their apparent lack of all foundation, as to make the more thoughtful ask if we'have not after all left out of the accepted list of the senses this —the most I’eliablo and the least open to deception of them all—the sense of Instinct.

‘ I wonder',’ said Ellaline, and then, meeting their glances of courteous attention, stopped, afraid she was going to take a liberty. ‘I was going to say,’she went on, with a charming little touch of timidity in her manner, ‘ that I wondered if you would perform some of your tricks for us, now in the drawing-room. It would pass balf-an-hour most delightfully, and if you are not in a hurry— ’ He laughed a little as she paused, one of the strangest laughs you ever heard ; there was amusement in it certainly, but there was suffering too, and, behind both these, a touch of dare-devilment.

‘ No,’ he said, grave and courteous again in an instant, ‘ no, I am in no hurry. I shall be very proud to give ray exhibition of magic before such a select audience, and glad to earn the wherewithal to pay for a supper into the bargain.’ Ellaline shrank back a little at that, but with surprised pity only, ‘ Does the fact of my being hungry astonish you ?’ he said, with a smile that matched the laugh of a moment ago. ‘ Well, I confess that things don’t often get played so low down as that with me. But I have had to spend a lot of money this last day or two, and there is not much of a fortune to be picked up, in the way of chance coppers, in the little town under the cliff there. So I admit that your offer of a pitch in the drawing-room of Penhala’s House is a boon to me, little lady.’ Her heart was yearning to give him into Parsons’ charge with orders to supply him with a good sapper before he began his performance; but that instinct stepped in again and checked

the impulse. She did not like to suggest tbafc he should sup in the servant’s hall, and she did not like to offer him payment before he had earned it. But when he stood revealed in the lamplight of the drawing-room, taking up his post in the recess of the big bay, with the double windows wide open behind him, his face and figure thrown into vivid relief against the purple back-ground of the summer night, she almost repented of her overstrained delicacy. He must surely be almost fainting with hunger, she thought, to give his face such a white, strained, rigid look as it wore alb through his performance. As for the entertainment, like most unstudied effects, it was a huge success.

Just as the ladies had grouped themselves in a compact cluster halfway down the room, the gentlemen came in from the dining-room ; and after a volley of surprised enquiry, they, in turn, grouped themselves to the rear of the ladies, and left Monsieur le Prestidigitateur, as la Baronne called him, a fair field in which to work his wonders.

Lance Penhala lent by the framework of the open door, so that there was the whole length of the large room between him end the conjurer. It seemed te him all of a piece with his return home, and the vivid memories of the past which that return had brought to the surface again, that this man should turn up in this haphazard manner, and give a show of legerdemain in that very room where, in the dead and gone past, John had so often done the same thing. He caught Paul watching him once during the entertainment, and knew he must be thinking the same thing ; although after that one glance the young man’s face became as self-contained and inscrutable as ever. But they were the only two people in the room who knew of any reason why this exhibition of the wayside wizard’s art should be unpalatable in that place ; everybody else was, or pretended to be, enchanted with the little diversion.

‘ And the man himself is really not the worst part of the display,’ said Lady Gflenhaggart, fanning herself slowly, and speaking without caring in the least whether the subject of her remarks heard them or not. ‘ A thoroughly picturesque vagabond from top to toe, and a good looking face into the bargain.’ ‘ I think his face is more than good-looking,’ returned the lady she was speaking to — £ it is interesting — striking almost distinguished. I wonder what his history is—something out of the way, I know. I should like to see the shape of bis chin and jaw. A beard flatters some men so tremendously. I expect there’s a falling off in the lower half of the face; if it were as good all through as the part we can see, he wouldn’t be here to-night, amusing »s with card tricks, on the chance of picking up a few shillings for his trouble.’

‘ Lucy is off on her hobby,’ said Fitz, who, with Ellaline, was just behind. * She is never so happy as

when she is reckoning somebody up. If we don’t keep an eye on our Professor of Magic, Ella, she will get hold of him and shave him, to find out the shape of his jaw.’ ‘ Imbecile !’ murmured Lucy, with a good-humoured glance over her shoulder. ‘ Here is a little piece of information for you, Mr Scatterbrain When you are married, don’t impose too far on your wife’s good nature, or ’

But Fitz gagged her skilfully with his handkerchief, and threatened her with untold horrors if she dared to venture another word on that subject. And Ellaline laughingly ran away, and took up her stand next to Paul, as usual, by the mantel-piece, and began to tell him how she had found the wizard hiding on the terrace, and peeping in at the open window.

And his manner as he listened astonished her very much indeed. If she had not known that the idea was perfectly preposterous, she might have thought he was frightened. But, then, how or why should Paul be flightened of this poor, hungry wandering wizard P she asked herself, and laughed at her own fancifnlness by way of answer. And the terror, or surprise, or whatever it was that had flashed into his uplifted eyes, was gone again before she had time to analyse it, so that she was altogether a little mystified for the moment.

And she waa to be a very much older woman, in many ways, before she found out the meaning of Paul Petrovsky’s terror that night. ‘ Hungry, do you say he is P’ he asked, when she had finished her pitiful little account. ‘ I’m inclined to think it is a got-up affair from beginning to end. Pinto should have persuaded you out of inviting the fellow in. How do we know what his purpose is ? Perhaps,, at this very moment he is reckoning up the value of the jewellery in the room, and wondering how be can find out which is Lady Gflenhaggart’s dressingroom, and how much he could get for the diamonds in her ears. My dear little Ella, don't look at me in such unspeakable indignation; I won’t breathe another word against your protege. I’ll even carry my friendship for the gentleman farther than that —When he has finished his hocus-pocus business, I’ll take him round to some quiet corner in the offices and see that he has a good supper. And you must not be angry with me, if I say that I’ll see him off the premises afterwards.’ But Ellaline was too grateful to be angry, for by this time she was certain the handsome strolling conjuror was faint for want of food, and she had been puzzling her tender heart how to procure him a supper in the house, without submitting him to the ordeal of receiving charity at the hands of the servants.

When the performance was over, Fitz took the man in hand, and disappeared with him through the window. But they had not reached the end of the terrace before Petrovsky overtook them, and offered to become responsible for the safe conduct of the stranger; and Fitz,

nothing loth, yielded up his charge and returned to the drawing-room. The other two held on their way, silently. Just here, on the southwestern front of the bouse, it was as dark as it was likely to be all night; but as they reached the corner of the house they came into the light of the moon, just rising over the plantations. The terrace ended here, and in pointing out the steps to his companion Petrovsky faced round to him, in a way that had some little touch of peculiarity in it, and flashed both his hands upwards through the air, very much in the manner of one warding off an unexpected blow. The conjuror did not appear to notice either movement, and Paul turned again and walked on, with a touch of perplexed doubt on his brow. ‘My cousin,’ he said, ‘ the young lady whom you startled so unpardonable on the terrace, asked me to do the hospitalities of the house to you. She said business tad not been good with you down here, and she thought, it I asked you to have some supper, you would very likely accept the invitation .’ ‘The young lady is just an angel,’ answered the other, jauntily. Now that he was along with a man, it was curious to mark the change in manner. The instinct of the gentleman, so quickly aroused in the presence of Ellaiine’s fresh sweetness and beauty, had slipped into its usual place in the background, and except for a certain refinement of speech, there was nothing in his present manner to differentiate him from any other member of the vagabond class. ‘Just an angel!’ he repeated ; ‘ and her eyes are almost as good to see with as they are to look at.’ ‘ Which meafis that she was right about the supper ?’ ‘You’ve hit it, governor.’ ‘ Come along then ! We’ll go round to the steward’s office and get them to send us up some beef and pickles.’ The conjuror burst out laughing, A loud, boisterous burst of laughter, it was, so- sudden and so apropos of nothing, that Petrovsky’s hand went instinctively to the opening of his vest, and closed round something that lay bidden there ; as if he recognised a danger signal in that unnatural burst of laughter, and would be on his guard. ‘ I beg your pardon, governor,’ said the conjuror, stopping his laugh dead in the middle, as abruptly as he had started it. ‘ It’s not the best manners in the world to burst out laughing without explaining why ; but I was tickled at something in my own thoughts. The beef and pickles, by all means, sir, and in the steward’s parlour —as you suggested. And if the butler would add a pint of his famous brown October why, so much the better.’ Petrovs answered nothing. The touch of reckless audacity in his companion’s manner strengthened his previous suspicion of the man’s mission at Cam Euth. As they moved along side by side, he kept a close watch from under his lowered lids on the other’s every movement, and carried his hand in his vest till they

were in the steward’s parlour, with the lamp lit and the table between them.

Tbe conjuror’s little burst of audacious mirth was all over and done with by then ; he was looking as utterly fagged and worn out as he had looked awhile ago, standing in the big window recess at the end of the drawing room, with the purple of the night sky behind him. But presently, when the butler addressed the Russian by name, his weary apathy broke up for a moment, and in its place there came a flash of surprise—of enlightenment rather — which Paul saw, and thought he understood. The glance was almost one of recognition. Petrovsky met it without flinching. Thinking what he thought of the man’s mission at Cam gßuth, bis next observation showed the possession of considerable nerve. ‘ Tes,’ he said, when the door had closed behind the butler again, ‘ Petrovsky is my name ; what’s yours P’ ‘ Tom Jones,’ returned the other, promptly. * Well, then—Tom Jones, we will say —what object had you in view when yon were peeping and prying outside there on the terrace just now?’ ‘ What do you think ?’ ‘ Never mind what I think, I want you to tell me.’ ‘ Seems to me,’ said Tom Jones, getting up from his chair by the table to bring himself nearer to the level of the man on the hearth rug, as it seemed, or perhaps it was to get his own face away from the strong light of the lamp— ‘ seems to me, governor, that you’ve got some queer notion in your head, concerning my unfortunate little act of trespass on that terrace this evening. It was a ffiimple case of a chap in strange country going astray, I do assure you. I’m neither a professional burglar taking notes of the plan of the house, nor an outcast relation of any of the upper-crust yonder, come to threaten ’em with a show-up unless they pay me to clear out, and hold my tongue. I’m just what you see me —a poor devil whose been down on his luck this many long year past, and means harm to nobody as long as nobody harms him.’ On the surface of it there was nothing in this speech of an agitating nature, and yet it did agitate Pant Petrovsky to a curious extent. The entrance of the man with the suppertray drew off Tom Jones’s attention at the moment, or he would certainly have wondered to see the sudden illumination that lit up the Russian’s still face, and the sudden tremor that seized on him.

A stupendous plan had leapt, fully matured, into his brain. If this man’s account of himself were true, why should he not serve Paul’s end as well as another P

.But just then Tom Jones’s attention was centred on the food ; whatever else about him was false or assumed, his hunger was genuine enough. During the next ten minutes he scarcely glanced at the white

still face in the big arm-chair by the fireplace, and in turn, the white, still face never ceased to watch him. But now there was a new purpose in this silent watchfulness ; it wore an air of keenest investigation ; as if the watcher sought to discover the innermost nature of this hungry fellow ; to find out on which side of him lay his weakest point, in which direction he was most vulnerable to an attack from without. So one watched and the other ate, each equally silent, each equally busy. (To be continued.)