Beechcroft at Rockstone

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Only, however, in the morning, when she had ascertained the hour of
the inquest, did she write a note to Mrs. Edgar to explain Fergus's
absence from school, or inform the boy of what she intended. On the
whole he was rather elated at being so important as to be able to
defend Alexis White, and he was quite above believing that scientific
research could be reckoned by any one as mischief.

Just as Miss Mohun had gone up to get ready, Mysie ran in to say that
Cousin Rotherwood would be at the door in a moment to take Fergus
down.

'Lady Rotherwood can't bear his going,' said Mysie, 'and Mr. White
and Mr. Stebbing say that he need not; but he is quite determined,
though he has got his arm in a sling, for he says it was all his
fault for going where he ought not. And he won't have the carriage,
for he says it would shake his bones ever so much more than Shank's
mare.'

'Just like him,' said Aunt Jane. 'Has Dr. Dagger given him leave?'

'Yes; he said it wouldn't hurt him; but Lady Rotherwood told Miss
Elbury she was sure he persuaded him.'

Mysie's confused pronouns were cut short by Lord Rotherwood's own
appearance.

'You need not go, Jane,' he said. 'I can take care of this little
chap. They'll not chop off his head in the presence of one of the
Legislature.'

'Nice care to begin by chaffing him out of his wits,' she retorted.
'The question is, whether you ought to go.'

'Yes, Jenny, I must go. It can't damage me; and besides, to tell the
truth, it strikes me that things will go hard with that unlucky young
fellow if some one is not there to stand up for him and elicit
Fergus's evidence.'

'Alexis White!'

'White---ay, a cousin or something of the exemplary boss. He's been
dining with his partners---the old White, I mean---and they've been
cramming him---I imagine with a view to scapegoat treatment---jealousy,
and all the rest of it. If there is not a dismissal, there's a
hovering on the verge.'

'Exactly what I was afraid of,' said Jane. 'Oh, Rotherwood, I could
tell you volumes. But may I not come down with you? Could not I do
something?'

'Well, on the whole, you are better away, Jenny. Consider William's
feelings. Womankind, even Brownies, are better out of it. Prejudice
against proteges, whether of petticoats or cassocks---begging your
pardon. I can fight battles better as an unsophisticated stranger
coming down fresh, though I don't expect any one from the barony of
Beechcroft to believe it, and maybe the less I know of your volumes
the better till after---

'Oh, Rotherwood, as if I wasn't too thankful to have you to send for
me!'

'There! I've kept the firm out there waiting an unconscionable time.
They'll think you are poisoning my mind. Come along, you imp of
science. Trust me, I'll not bully him, though it's highly tempting
to make the chien chasser de race.'

'Oh, Aunt Jane, won't you go?' exclaimed Gillian in despair, as her
cousin waved a farewell at the gate.

'No, my dear; it is not for want of wishing, but he is quite right.
He can do much better than I could.'

'But is he in earnest, aunt?'

'Oh yes, most entirely, and I quite see that he is right---indeed I
do, Gillian. People pretend to defer to a lady, but they really
don't like her poking her nose in, and, after all, I could have no
right to say anything. My only excuse for going was to take care of
Fergus.'

A further token of Lord Rotherwood's earnestness in the cause was the
arrival of his servant, who was to bring down the large stone which
Master Merrifield had moved, and who conveyed it in a cab, being much
too grand to carry it through the streets.

Gillian was very unhappy and restless, unable to settle to anything,
and linking cause and effect together disconsolately in a manner
Mysie, whom she admitted to her confidence, failed to understand.

'It was a great pity Fergus did not show Alexis where the stone came
from, but I don't see what your not giving him his lessons had to do
with it. Made him unhappy? Oh! Gilly dear, you don't mean any one
would be too unhappy to mind his business for such nonsense as that!
I am sure none of us would be so stupid if Mr. Pollock forgot our
Greek lessons.'

'Certainly not,' said Gillian, almost laughing; 'but you don't
understand, Mysie. It was the taking him up and letting him down,
and I could not explain it, and it looked so nasty and capricious.'

'Well, I suppose you ought to have asked Aunt Jane's leave; but I do
think he must be a ridiculous young man if he could not attend to his
proper work because you did not go after him when you were only just
come home.'

'Ah, Mysie, you don't understand!'

Mysie opened a round pair of brown eyes, and said, 'Oh! I did think
people were never so silly out of poetry. There was Wilfrid in
Hokeby, to be sure. He was stupid enough about Matilda; but do you
mean that he is like that!'

'Don't, don't, you dreadful child; I wish I had never spoken to you,'
cried Gillian, overwhelmed with confusion. 'You must never say a
word to any living creature.'

'I am sure I shan't,' said Mysie composedly; 'for, as far as I can
see, it is all stuff. This Alexis never found out what Fergus was
about with the stone, and so the mark was gone, and Cousin Rotherwood
trod on it, and the poor little boy was killed; but as to the rest,
Nurse Halfpenny would say it was all conceited maggots; and how you
can make so much more fuss about that than about the poor child being
crushed, I can't make out.'

'But if I think it all my fault?'

'That's maggots,' returned Mysie with uncompromising common-sense.
'You aren't old enough, nor pretty enough, for any of that kind of
stuff, Gill!'

And Gillian found that either she must go without comprehension, or
have a great deal more implied, if she turned for sympathy to any one
save Aunt Jane, who seemed to know exactly how the land lay.

CHAPTER XVI. VANISHED

It seemed to be a very long time before the inquest was over, and
Aunt Jane had almost yielded to her niece's impatience and her own,
and consented to walk down to meet the intelligence, when Fergus came
tearing in, 'I've seen the rock, and there is a flaw of crystal-
lisation in it! And the coroner-man called me an incipient
geologist.'

'But the verdict?'

'They said it was accidental death, and something about more care
being taken and valuable lives endangered.'

'And Alexis White---'

'Oh! there was a great bother about his not being there. They said
it looked very bad; but they could not find him.'

'Not find him! Oh! Where is Cousin Rotherwood?'

'He is coming home, and he said I might run on, and tell you that if
you had time to come in to the hotel he would tell you about it.'

With which invitation Miss Mohun hastened to comply; Gillian was
ardent to come too, and it seemed cruel to prevent her; but, besides
that Jane thought that her cousin might be tired enough to make his
wife wish him to see as few people as possible, she was not sure that
Gillian might not show suspicious agitation, and speech and action
would not be free in her presence. So the poor girl was left to
extract what she could from her little brother, which did not amount
to much.

It was a propitious moment, for Jane met Lord Rotherwood at the door
of the hotel, parting with Mr. White; she entered with him, and his
wife, after satisfying herself that he was not the worse for his
exertions, was not sorry that he should have his cousin to keep him
quiet in his easy-chair while she went off to answer a pile of
letters which had just been forwarded from home.

'Well, Jenny,' he said, 'I am afraid your protege does not come out
of it very well; that is, if he is your protege. He must be an
uncommonly foolish young man.'

'I reserve myself on that point. But is it true that he never
appeared?'

'Quite true.'

'Didn't they send for him?'

'Yes; but he could not be found, either at the works or at home.
However, the first might be so far accounted for, since he met at his
desk a notice of dismissal from White and Stebbing.'

'No! Really. Concocted at that unlucky dinner yesterday! But, of
course, it was not immediate.'

'Of course not, and perhaps something might have been done for him;
but a man who disappears condemns himself.'

'But what for? I hope Fergus explained that the stone was not near
the spot when he showed it.'

'Yes; Fergus spoke up like a little man, and got more credit than he
deserved. If they had known that of all varieties of boys the
scientific is the worst imp of mischief! It all went in order due---
surgeon explained injuries to poor little being---men how the stone
came down and they dug him out---poor little baby-sister made out her
sad little story. That was the worst part of all. Something must be
done for that child---orphanage or something---only unluckily there's
the father and mother. Poor father! he is the one to be pitied. I
mean to get at him without the woman. Well, then came my turn, and
how I am afflicted with the habit of going where I ought not, and,
only by a wonderful mercy, was saved from being part of the general
average below. Then we got to the inquiry, Were not dangerous places
railed off? Yes, Stebbing explained that it was the rule of the firm
to have the rocks regularly inspected once a month, and once a
fortnight in winter and spring, when the danger is greater. If they
were ticklish, the place was marked at the moment with big stones,
reported, and railed off. An old foreman-sort of fellow swore to
having detected the danger, and put stones. He had reported it. To
whom? To Mr. Frank. Yes, he thought it was Mr. Frank, just before
he went away. It was this fellow's business to report it and send
the order, it seems, and in his absence Alexander White, or whatever
they call him, took his work. Well, the old man doesn't seem to know
whether he mentioned the thing to young White or not, which made his
absence more unlucky; but, anyway, the presence of the stones was
supposed to be a sufficient indication of the need of the rail, or to
any passenger to avoid the place. In fact, if Master White had been
energetic, he would have seen to the thing. I fancy that is the long
and short of it. But when the question came how the stones came to
be removed, I put Fergus forward. The foreman luckily could identify
his stone by the precious crack of spar; and the boy explained how he
had lugged it down, and showed it to his friend far away from its
place---had, in fact, turned over and displaced all the lot.'

'Depend upon it, Alexis has gone out of the way to avoid accusing
Fergus!'

'Don't make me start, it hurts; but do you really believe that, Jane-
--you, the common-sense female of the family?'

'Indeed I do, he is a romantic, sensitive sort of fellow, who would
not defend himself at the boy's expense.'

'Whew! He might have stood still and let Fergus defend him, then,
instead of giving up his own cause.'

'And how did it end?'

'Accidental death, of course; couldn't be otherwise; but censure on
the delay and neglect of precaution, which the common opinion of the
Court naturally concentrated on the absent; though, no doubt, the
first omission was young Stebbing's; but owing to the hurry of his
start for Italy, that was easily excused. And even granting that
Fergus did the last bit of mischief, your friend may be romantically
generous, if you please; but he must have been very slack in his
work.'

'Poor fellow---yes. Now before I tell you what I know about him, I
should like to hear how Mr. Stebbing represents him. You know his
father was a lieutenant in the Royal Wardours.'

'Risen from the ranks, a runaway cousin of White's. Yes, and there's
a son in a lawyer's office always writing to White for money.'

'Oh! I never had much notion of that eldest---'

'They have no particular claim on White; but when the father died he
wrote to Stebbing to give those that were old enough occupation at
the works, and see that the young ones got educated.'

'So he lets the little boys go to the National School, though there's
no great harm in that as yet.'

'He meant to come and see after them himself, and find out what they
are made of. But meantime this youth, who did well at first, is
always running after music and nonsense of all kinds, thinking
himself above his business, neglecting right and left; while as to
the sister, she is said to be very clever at designing---both ways in
fact---so determined to draw young Stebbing in, that, having got proof
of it at last, they have dismissed her too. And, Jane, I hardly like
to tell you, but somehow they mix Gillian up in the business. They
ate it up again when I cut them short by saying she was my cousin,
her mother and you like my sisters. I am certain it is all nonsense,
but had you any notion of any such thing? It is insulting you,
though, to suppose you had not,' he added, as he saw her air of
acquiescence; 'so, of course, it is all right.'

'It is not all right, but not so wrong as all that. Oh no! and I
know all about it from poor Gill herself and the girl. Happily they
are both too good girls to need prying. Well, the case is this.
There was a quarrel about a love story between the two original
Whites, who must both have had a good deal of stuff in them. Dick
ran away, enlisted, rose, and was respected by Jasper, etc., but was
married to a Greco-Hibernian wife, traditionally very beautiful, poor
woman, though rather the reverse at present. Lily and her girls did
their best for the young people with good effect on the eldest girl,
who really in looks and ways is worthy of her Muse's name, Kalliope.
Father had to retire with rank of captain, and died shortly after.
Letters failed to reach the Merrifields, who were on the move. This
Quarry cousin was written to, and gave the help he described to you.
Perhaps it was just, but it disappointed them, and while the father
lived, Alexis had been encouraged to look to getting to the
University and Holy Orders. He has a good voice, and the young
curate at the Kennel patronised him, perhaps a little capriciously,
but I am not quite sure. All this was unknown to me till the
Merrifield children came, and Gillian, discovering these Whites, flew
upon them in the true enthusiastic Lily-fashion, added to the
independence of the modern maiden mistrustful of old cats of aunts.
Like a little goose, she held trystes with Kalliope, through the
rails at the top of the garden on Sunday afternoons.'

'Only Kalliope!'

'Cela va sans dire. The brother was walking the young ones on the
cliffs whence she had been driven by the attentions of Master Frank
Stebbing. Poor thing, she is really beautiful enough to be a
misfortune to her, and so is the youth---Maid of Athens, Irish eyes,
plus intellect. Gill lent books, and by and by volunteered to help
the lad with his Greek.'

'Whew---'

'Just as she would teach a night-school class. She used to give him
lessons at his sister's office. I find that as soon as Kalliope
found it was unknown to me she protested, and did all in her power to
prevent it, but Gillian had written all to her mother, and thought
that sufficient.'

'And Lily---? Victoria would have gone crazy---supposing such a thing
possible,' he added, sotto voce.

'Lily was probably crazy already between her sick husband and her
bridal daughters, for she answered nothing intelligible. However,
absence gave time for reflection, and Gillian came home after her
visits convinced by her own good sense and principle that she had not
acted fairly towards us, so that, of her own accord, the first thing
she did was to tell me the whole, and how much the sister had always
objected. She was quite willing that I should talk it over with
Kalliope before she went near them again, but I have never been able
really to do so.'

'Then it was all Greek and---"Lilyism!" Lily's grammar over again,
eh!'

'On her side, purely so---but I am afraid she did upset the boy's
mind. He seems to have been bitterly disappointed at what must have
appeared like neglect and offence---and oh! you know how silly youths
can be---and he had Southern blood too, poor fellow, and he went
mooning and moping about, I am afraid really not attending to his
business; and instead of taking advantage of the opening young
Stebbing's absence gave him of showing his abilities, absolutely gave
them the advantage against him, by letting them show him up as an
idle fellow.'

'Or worse. Stebbing talked of examining the accounts, to see if
there were any deficiency.'

'That can be only for the sake of prejudicing Mr. White---they cannot
really suspect him.'

'If not, it was very good acting, and Stebbing appears to me just the
man to suspect a parson's pet, and a lady's---as he called this
unlucky fellow.'

'Ask any of the workmen---ask Mr. Flight.'

'Well, I wish he had come to the front. It looks bad for him, and
your plea, Jenny, is more like Lily than yourself.'

'Thank you; I had rather be like Lily than myself.'

'And you are equally sure that the sister is maligned?'

'Quite sure---on good evidence---the thing is how to lay it all before
Mr. White, for you see these Stebbings evidently want to prevent him
from taking to his own kindred---you must help me, Rotherwood.'

'When I am convinced,' he said. 'My dear Jenny, I beg your pardon---I
have an infinite respect for your sagacity, but allow me to observe,
though your theory holds together, still it has rather an ancient and
fish-like smell.'

'I only ask you to investigate, and make him do so. Listen to any
one who knows, to any one but the Stebbings, and you will find what
an admirable girl the sister is, and that the poor boy is perfectly
blameless of anything but being forced into a position for which he
was never intended, and of all his instincts rebelling.'

They were interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, whom Lady
Rotherwood had bound over to come and see whether her husband was the
worse for his exertions. He came in apologising most unnecessarily
for his tardiness. And in the midst of Miss Mohun's mingled greeting
and farewell, she stood still to hear him say that he had been
delayed by being called in to that poor woman, Mrs. White, who had
had a fit on hearing the policeman inquiring for that young scamp,
her son.

'The policeman!' ejaculated Jane in consternation.

'It was only to summon him to attend the inquest,' explained Dr.
Dagger, 'but there was no one in the house with her but a little
maid, and the shock was dreadful. If he has really absconded, it
looks exceedingly ill for him.'

'I believe he has only been inattentive,' said Jane firmly, knowing
that she ought to go, and yet feeling constrained to wait long enough
to ask what was the state of the poor mother, and if her daughter
were with her.

'The daughter was sent for, and seems to be an effective person---
uncommonly handsome, by the bye. The attack was hysteria, but there
is evidently serious disease about her, which may be accelerated.'

'I thought so. I am afraid she has had no advice.'

'No; I promised the daughter to come and examine her to-morrow when
she is calmer, and if that son is good for anything, he may have
returned.'

And therewith Jane was forced to go away, to carry this wretched news
to poor Gillian.

Aunt and niece went as soon as the mid-day meal was over to inquire
for poor Mrs. White, and see what could be done. She was sleeping
under an opiate, and Kalliope came down, pale as marble, but
tearless. She knew nothing of her brother since she had given him
his breakfast that morning. He had looked white and haggard, and had
not slept, neither did he eat. She caught at the theory that had
occurred to Miss Mohun, that he did not like to accuse Fergus, for
even to her he had not mentioned who had removed the stone. In that
case he might return at night. Yet it was possible that he did not
know even now whence the stone had come, and it was certain that he
had been at his office that morning, and opened the letter announcing
his dismissal. Kalliope, going later, had found the like notice, but
had had little time to dwell on it before she had been summoned home
to her mother. Poor Mrs. White had been much shaken by the first
reports of yesterday's accident, which had been so told to her as to
alarm her for both her children; and when her little maid rushed in
to say that 'the pelis was come after Mr. Alec,' it was no wonder
that her terror threw her into a most alarming state, which made good
Mrs. Lee despatch her husband to bring home Kalliope; and as the
attack would not yield to the soothing of the women or to their
domestic remedies, but became more and more delirious and convulsive,
the nearest doctor was sent for, and Dr. Dagger, otherwise a higher
flight than would have been attempted, was caught on his way and
brought in to discover how serious her condition already was.

This Kalliope told them with the desperate quietness of one who could
not afford to give way. Her own affairs were entirely swallowed up
in this far greater trouble, and for the present there were no means
of helping her. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were thoroughly kind, and ready to
give her efficient aid in her home cares and her nursing; and it
could only be hoped that Alexis might come back in the evening, and
set the poor patient's mind at rest.

'We will try to make Mr. White come to a better understanding,' said
Miss Mohun kindly.

'Thank you' said Kalliope, pushing back her hair with a half-
bewildered look. 'I remember my poor mother was very anxious about
that. But it seems a little thing now.'

'May God bless and help you, my dear,' said Miss Mohun, with a
parting kiss.

Gillian had not spoken all the time; but outside she said--'Oh, aunt!
is this my doing?'

'Not quite,' said Aunt Jane kindly. 'There were other causes.'

'Oh, if I could do anything!'

'Alas! it is easier to do than to undo.'

Aunt Jane was really kind, and Gillian was grateful, but oh, how she
longed for her mother!

There was no better news the next morning. Nothing had been heard of
Alexis, and nothing would persuade his mother in her half-delirious
and wholly unreasonable state that he had not been sent to prison,
and that they were not keeping it from her. She was exceedingly ill,
and Kalliope had been up all night with her.

Such was the report in a note sent up by Mrs. Lee by one of the
little boys early in the morning, and, as soon as she could
reasonably do so, Miss Mohun carried the report to Lord Rotherwood,
whom she found much better, and anxious to renew the tour of
inspection which had been interrupted.

Before long, Mr. White was shown in, intending to resume the business
discussion, and Miss Mohun was about to retreat with Lady Rotherwood,
when her cousin, taking pity on her anxiety, said---

'If you will excuse me for speaking about your family matters, Mr.
White, my cousin knows these young people well, and I should like you
to hear what she has been telling me.'

'A gentleman has just been calling on me about them,' said Mr. White,
not over-graciously.

'Mr. Flight?' asked Jane anxiously.

'Yes; a young clergyman, just what we used to call Puseyite when I
left England; but that name seems to be gone out now.'

'Anyway,' said Jane, 'I am sure he had nothing but good to say of
Miss White, or indeed of her brother; and I am afraid the poor mother
is very ill.'

'That's true, Miss Mohun; but you see there may be one side to a lady
or a parson, and another to a practical man like my partner. Not but
that I should be willing enough to do anything in reason for poor
Dick's widow and children, but not to keep them in idleness, or
letting them think themselves too good to work.'

'That I am sure these two do not. Their earnings quite keep the
family. I know no one who works harder than Miss White, between her
business, her lodgers, the children, and her helpless mother.'

'I saw her mosaics---very fair, very clever, some of them; but I'm
afraid she is a sad little flirt, Miss Mohun.'

'Mr. White,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'did ever you hear of a poor girl
beset by an importunate youth, but his family thought it was all her
fault?'

'If Mr. White would see her,' said Jane, 'he would understand at a
glance that the attraction is perfectly involuntary; and I know from
other sources how persistently she has avoided young Stebbing; giving
up Sunday walks to prevent meeting him, accepting nothing from him,
always avoiding tete-a-tetes.'

'Hum! But tell me this, madam,' said Mr. White eagerly, 'how is it
that, if these young folks are so steady and diligent as you would
make out, that eldest brother writes to me every few months for help
to support them?'

'Oh!' Jane breathed out, then, rallying, 'I know nothing about that
eldest. Yes, I do though! His sister told my niece that all the
rents of the three houses went to enable Richard to appear as he
ought at the solicitor's office at Leeds.'

'There's a screw loose somewhere plainly,' said Lord Rotherwood.

'The question is, where it is,' said Mr. White.

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