Innocent : her fancy and his fact Part 27

"Yes, sir--that's me," said Priscilla, briefly.

"Mr. Jocelyn thought very highly of you, Miss Friday," he said--"he mentions you in the following paragraph of his will--'I give and bequeath to my faithful housekeeper and good friend, Priscilla Priday, the sum of Two Hundred Pounds for her own personal use, and I desire that she shall remain at Briar Farm for the rest of her life. And that, if she shall find it necessary to resign her duties in the farm house, she shall possess that cottage on my estate known as Rose Cottage, free of all charges, and be allowed to live there and be suitably and comfortably maintained till the end of her days. And,--er--pray don't distress yourself, Miss Priday!"

For Priscilla was crying, and making no effort to hide her emotion.

"Bless 'is old 'art!" she sobbed--"He thort of everybody, 'e did! An'

what shall I ever want o' Rose Cottage, as is the sweetest o' little places, when I've got the kitchen o' Briar Farm!--an' there I'll 'ope to do my work plain an' true till I drops!--so there!--an' I'm much obliged to ye, Mr. Bayliss, an' mebbe ye'll tell me where to put the two 'underd pounds so as I don't lose it, for I never 'ad so much money in my life, an' if any one gets to 'ear of it I'll 'ave all the 'alt an' lame an' blind round me in a jiffy. An' as for keepin' money, I never could--an' p'raps it 'ud be best for Mr. Robin to look arter it---" Here she stopped, out of breath with talk and tears.

"It will be all right," said Mr. Bayliss, soothingly, "quite all right, I a.s.sure you! Mr. Clifford will no doubt see to any little business matter for you with great pleasure--"

"Dear Priscilla!"--and Innocent went to her side and put an arm round her neck--"Don't cry!--you will be so happy, living always in this dear old place!--and Robin will be so glad to have you with him."

Priscilla took the little hand that caressed her, and kissed it.

"Ah, my lovey!" she half whispered--"I should be 'appy enough if I thought you was a-goin' to be 'appy too!--but you're flyin' in the face o' fortune, lovey!--that's what you're a-doin'!"

Innocent silenced her with a gesture, and stood beside her, patiently listening till Mr. Bayliss had concluded his business.

"I think, Mr. Clifford," he then said, at last--"there is no occasion to trouble you further. Everything is in perfect order--you are the inheritor of Briar Farm and all its contents, with all its adjoining lands--and the only condition attached to your inheritance is that you keep it maintained on the same working methods by which it has always been maintained. You will find no difficulty in doing this--and you have plenty of money to do it on. There are a few minor details respecting farm stock, etc., which we can go over together at any time.

You are sole executor, of course--and--and--er--yes!--I think that is all."

"May I go now?" asked Innocent, lifting her serious blue-grey eyes to his face--"Do you want me any more?"

Mr. Bayliss surveyed her curiously.

"No--I--er--I think not," he replied--"Of course the pearls should be in your possession--"

"I have given them away," she said, quickly--"to Robin."

"But I have not accepted them," he answered--"I will keep them if you like--for YOU."

She gave a slight, scarcely perceptible movement of vexation, and then, taking up the sealed packet which was addressed to her personally, she left the room.

The lawyer looked after her in a little perplexity.

"I'm afraid she takes her loss rather badly," he said--"or--perhaps--is she a little absent-minded?"

Robin Clifford smiled, sadly.

"I think not," he answered. "Of course she feels the death of my uncle deeply--she adored him--and then-I-suppose you know--my uncle may have told you--"

"That he hoped and expected you to marry her?" said Mr. Bayliss, nodding his head, sagaciously--"Yes--I am aware that such was his dearest wish. In fact he led me to believe that the matter was as good as settled."

"She will not have me," said Clifford, gently--"and I cannot compel her to marry me against her will--indeed I would not if I could."

The lawyer was so surprised that he was obliged to take off his gla.s.ses and polish them.

"She will not have you!" he exclaimed. "Dear me! That is indeed most unexpected and distressing! There is--there is nothing against you, surely?--you are quite a personable young man--"

Robin shrugged his shoulders, disdainfully.

"Whatever I am does not matter to her," he said--"Let us talk no more about it."

Priscilla looked from one to the other.

"Eh well!" she said--"If any one knows 'er at all 'tis I as 'ave 'ad 'er with me night an' day when she was a baby--and 'as watched 'er grow into the little beauty she is,--an' 'er 'ed's just fair full o' strange fancies that she's got out o' the books she found in the old knight's chest years ago--we must give 'er time to think a bit an' settle. 'Tis an awful blow to 'er to lose 'er Dad, as she allus called Farmer Jocelyn--she's like a little bird fallen out o' the nest with no strength to use 'er wings an' not knowin' where to go. Let 'er settle a bit!--that's what I sez--an' you'll see I'm right. You leave 'er alone, Mister Robin, an' all'll come right, never fear! She's got the queerest notions about love--she picked 'em out o' they old books--an' she'll 'ave to find out they's more lies than truth. Love's a poor 'oldin' for most folks--it don't last long enough."

Mr. Bayliss permitted himself to smile, as he took his hat, and prepared to go.

"I'm sure you're quite right, Miss Priday!" he said--"you speak--er--most sensibly! I'm sure I hope, for the young lady's sake, that she will 'settle down'--if she does not--"

"Ay, if she does not!" echoed Clifford.

"Well! if she does not, life may be difficult for her"--and the lawyer shook his head forebodingly--"A girl alone in the world--with no relatives!--ah, dear, dear me! A sad look-out!--a very sad look-out!

But we must trust to her good sense that she will be wise in time!"

CHAPTER X

Upstairs, shut in her own little room with the door locked, Innocent opened the sealed packet. She found within it a letter and some bank-notes. With a sensitive pain which thrilled every nerve in her body she unfolded the letter, written in Hugo Jocelyn's firm clear writing--a writing she knew so well, and which bore no trace of weakness or failing in the hand that guided the pen. How strange it was, she thought, that the written words should look so living and distinct when the writer was dead! Her head swam.--her eyes were dim--for a moment she could scarcely see--then the mist before her slowly dispersed and she read the first words, which made her heart swell and the tears rise in her aching throat.

"MY LITTLE WILDING!--When you read this I shall be gone to that wonderful world which all the clergymen tell us about, but which none of them are in any great hurry to see for themselves. I hope--and I sometimes believe--such a world exists--and that perhaps it is a place where a man may sow seed and raise crops as well and as prosperously as on Briar Farm--however, I'm praying I may not be taken till I've seen you safely wed to Robin--and yet, something tells me this will not be; and that's the something that makes me write this letter and put it with the pearls that are, by my will, destined for you on your marriage-morning. I'm writing it, remember, on the same night I've told you all about yourself--the night of the day the doctor gave me my death-warrant. I may live a year,--I may live but a week,--it will be hard if I may not live to see you married!--but G.o.d's will must be done. The bank-notes folded in this letter make up four hundred pounds--and this money you can spend as you like--on your clothes for the bridal, or on anything you fancy--I place no restriction on you as to its use. When a maid weds there are many pretties she needs to buy, and the prettier they are for you the better shall I be pleased.

Whether I live or whether I die, you need say nothing of this money to Robin, or to anyone. It is your own absolutely--to do as you like with.

I am thankful to feel that you will be safe in Robin's loving care--for the world is hard on a woman left alone as you would be, were it not for him. I give you my word that if I had any clue, however small, to your real parentage, I would write down here for you all I know--but I know nothing more than I have told you. I have loved you as my own child and you have been the joy of my old days. May G.o.d bless you and give you joy and peace in Briar Farm!--you and your children, and your children's children! Amen!

"Your 'Dad'

"HUGO JOCELYN."

She read this to the end, and then some tension in her brain seemed to relax, and she wept long and bitterly, her head bent down on the letter and her bright hair falling over it. Presently, checking her sobs, she rose, and looked about her in a kind of dream--the familiar little room seemed to have suddenly become strange to her, and she thought she saw standing in one corner a figure clad in armour,--its vizor was up, showing a sad pale face and melancholy eyes--the lips moved--and a sighing murmur floated past her ears--"Mon coeur me soutien!" A cold terror seized her, and she trembled from head to foot--then the vision or hallucination vanished as swiftly and mysteriously as it had appeared. Rallying her forces, she gradually mastered the overpowering fear which for a moment had possessed her,--and folding up Hugo Jocelyn's last letter, she kissed it, and placed it in her bosom. The bank-notes were four in number--each for one hundred pounds;--these she put in an envelope, and shut them in the drawer containing her secret ma.n.u.script.

"Now the way is clear!" she said--"I can do what I like--I have my wings, and I can fly away! Oh Dad, dear Dad!--you would be so unhappy if you knew what I mean to do!--it would break your heart, Dad!--but you have no heart to break now, poor Dad!--it is cold as stone!--it will never beat any more! Mine is the heart that beats!--the heart that burns, and aches, and hurts me!--ah!--how it hurts! And no one can understand--no one will ever care to understand!"

She locked her ma.n.u.script-drawer--then went and bathed her eyes, which smarted with the tears she had shed. Looking at herself in the mirror she saw a pale plaintive little creature, without any freshness of beauty--all the vitality seemed gone out of her. Smoothing her ruffled hair, she twisted it up in a loose coil at the back of her head, and studied with melancholy dislike and pain the heavy effect of her dense black draperies against her delicate skin.

"I shall do for anything now," she said--"No one will look at me, and I shall pa.s.s quite unnoticed in a crowd. I'm glad I'm not a pretty girl--it might be more difficult to get on. And Robin called me 'lovely' the other day!--poor, foolish Robin!"

She went downstairs then to see if she could help Priscilla--but Priscilla would not allow her to do anything in the way of what she called "ch.o.r.es."

"No, lovey," she said--"you just keep quiet, an' by-an'-bye you an'

me'll 'ave a quiet tea together, for Mister Robin he's gone off for the rest o' the day an' night with Mr. Bayliss, as there's lots o' things to see to, an' 'e left you this little note"--here Priscilla produced a small neatly folded paper from her ap.r.o.n pocke-t-"an' sez 'e--'Give this to Miss Innocent'' 'e sez, 'an' she won't mind my bein' out o' the way--it'll be better for 'er to be quiet a bit with you'--an' so it will, lovey, for sometimes a man about the 'ouse is a worrit an' a burden, say what we will, an' good though 'e be."

Innocent took the note and read--

"I have made up my mind to go with Bayliss into the town and stay at his house for the night--there are many business matters we have to go into together, and it is important for me to thoroughly understand the position of my uncle's affairs. If I cannot manage to get back to-morrow, I will let you know. Robin."