The Lonely Stronghold

by Mrs. Baillie Reynolds

  CHAPTER X

  A QUEER HOUSEHOLD

  Extract from a letter to Miss Grace Holroyd, dated January 12:

  "Since the first scrawl I sent you, telling you of my safe, thoughdelayed, arrival, and trying to describe this extraordinary place, Ihave begun two letters and torn up both in despair. The truth is thatever since I got here my mind has been rushing round and round, mixingand curdling itself more like milk in a churn than anything I can thinkof. This is Friday. I arrived here on Tuesday, and I find myself justas bewildered, just as unable to give such an account of my environmentas may sound sane and well considered, as I was the first day.

  "I was always conscious of living, at Bramforth, in too deep a groove;but little did I guess how far I was sunk therein or how hard would bethe process of re-adjustment.

  "Having written that down, I pause to wonder whether it is true. Was mygroove so deep? or is the eccentricity of the Guyses to blame for mymental confusion? Sometimes I incline to one view, sometimes to theother; but I am beginning to feel quite sure that, strange as thisPele-place is, the trio of persons who dwell therein are far, far moreimprobable.

  "First, there is the Indian ayah, striking so bizarre a note of contrastto begin with, that it makes one quite giddy. She is the only one whotook to me from the first. Judging from what I hear, she is by no meansagreeable to everybody, so I ought to consider myself lucky, I suppose.

  "Her affection takes the form of waiting upon me hand and foot. Onewould fancy she had been languishing in a far country for years, buoyedup solely by the hope of being one day permitted to lace my boots!Picture me, Gracie, after such a youth as you know of, hardly allowed somuch as to wash my own hands! I lie now under a carven canopy, in anest of down so thoroughly warmed for me at night that I sleep a kind ofcharmed slumber from dusk to dawn. When I awake, it is to find myhandmaid at my side with tea--such tea!--and cream--such cream! While Isip in luxury, she re-kindles the fire, which usually has not quite goneout all night, so cunningly does she bank it down.

  "In front of this fire she prepares my bath, and--now I beg of you notto blush--she insists upon bathing me herself, rubbing me from head tofoot with a kind of wondrous massage. She then dresses my hair, and Igo down to breakfast all in a glow, ready for anything, even the Guysemenage!

  "I remember hearing your dear wise mother say that if you give yourhousehold staff thoroughly comfortable quarters and plenty of good foodthey would never grumble at work, however hard. Perhaps that is Sunia'sidea about me. I am, indeed, well fed and lodged.

  "I breakfast alone with the young man of whom I told you--the one whobrought me here. He goes off to work on his farm immediately after. Heworks very hard, I think, for he has only Ezra Baxter, a man named Kay,and one or two farm labourers to help him.

  "At about eleven o'clock, Madam, as Mrs. Guyse is called by everyone inthe house, makes her appearance. When we reach her, we are at thethickest of the mystery. I cannot understand her one bit. She is notmerely in no want of a companion, she even seems, quite unmistakably, tobe bored by my presence, to look upon me as an incubus, for whomoccupation or amusement must somehow be found.

  "Is it not quaint? She wrote to me herself, she offered me unusuallyhigh terms, she was apparently most anxious for me to come at once. Nowthat I am here she does not in the least know what to do with me. Ihave to make work, for her main idea seems to be to contrive how littleof my company she need endure, to plan reasons for keeping me out of hersight.

  "The idea of her having a companion came, I suppose, from her son.Sometimes I think he suggested it merely to give him somebody to tease.One could hardly blame him; a winter here must be an ordeal. There is,however, another possible reason. I have guessed that he fears theisolation here is telling upon Madam's mental faculties, and that shemust be taken out of herself, even if she doesn't like the remedy! Theywere apparently very rich in former days, and the poor lady's fallenfortunes have no doubt preyed upon her mind.

  "I can't flatter myself that I have made much headway yet. So far, Ihave merely made a preliminary examination of the library which, whileanything but up to date, seems valuable, and contains what even myignorance knows to be rare editions.

  "Let me give you an example of my difficulties.

  "The day after my arrival, Mr. Guyse suggested a sleigh drive. Iassented, supposing, of course, that Madam would go too. I found,however, when the time came, that she had not the least intention of sodoing. I therefore excused myself, pointing out to the young man that Icould not go out and leave her alone the whole afternoon. Upon this, tomy surprise, Madam lost her temper, turned to me and asked what use Ishould be if I could not do as I was told? She expected me to take herplace and accompany her son when she could not. She never went out whenthe snow was on the ground. Of course, I felt ashamed of having made afuss, and I went obediently, but neither of us enjoyed it. He and I donot get on a bit. His idea of making himself agreeable is either tochaff or to flirt, and I hate both. This obliges me to be so grim andstony when I am with him that you would think I had never unbent in mylife. I have the uncomfortable feeling that, if I so much as smilefrankly at him, he will take advantage of it to make some personalremark about my dimple or some such folly. Well, to continue, I supposethat he brought some kind of pressure to bear upon his mother after thatdrive, for the following day she said she was coming with us, and comeshe did. Alas! My triumph was short-lived. Nemesis has overtaken me.She promptly took cold, and this morning we decided to send for thedoctor. Young Guyse has some grudge against the doctor, so the matterhas not endeared me in that quarter, as you may imagine. However, as Iprefer him out of temper, that doesn't matter much.

  "_Saturday._--If I had dispatched this yesterday it would have endedwith an emphatic declaration that I meant to look out for another postat once. Last night, however, something happened to shake myresolution.

  "As poor Madam was too seedy to come downstairs, I went up to her aftersupper to see if I could do anything to amuse her. She had alreadyinformed me that if there is one thing she dislikes more than another itis having anyone read aloud to her! So I took my little patience cards.You know, a long experience with grandfather has made me quite acompendium of Barnes.

  "I had noticed a green baize writing-board down in the billiard-room,and I succeeded in arranging this across the arms of her chair, so thatshe could handle the cards conveniently. We started with an easy game,and before we had been going ten minutes I knew I had lighted uponsomething that took her fancy.

  "She grew quite interested, displaying a childish eagerness. Then, justas she was beginning to chatter to me more naturally than she has everdone, that hateful young man must needs come pounding on the door toknow if I wasn't coming down to play billiards with him.

  "He marched in--nobody can shout through these oaken doors--and I sawher expression change and a nervous look creep into her face, as it doeswhen she sees him. 'You had better go,' she said uncertainly.

  "It came to me all in a minute that she needed a champion; and I got upand went to him, saying decidedly that I could not go, as he must see,for we were in the middle of a most interesting game.

  "'Oh, tosh!' he said easily, 'come along. I've had the room warmed onpurpose for you.'

  "'I'm sorry you took the trouble,' I replied, 'but surely you understandthat when your mother wants me I must be with her.'

  "She was making little anxious sounds and coughing significantly. 'Gowith him. I can spare you quite well,' she muttered; but my blood wasup. I went to the door, and he, thinking he had gained his point,followed me out into the passage, or rather the tunnel. He had a candlein his hand, so he could see my face.

  "'Mr. Guyse,' I said, 'when you brought me here you told me that yourmother was badly in need of distraction--that she suffered from ennui.Now that I have watched her for several days, I am sure that you did aright and necessary thing in persuading her to have so
mebody to livewith her. She leads too solitary an existence, and it is telling on herhealth and spirits. To-night, for the first time, she has seemed gladof my company, and interested in what we are doing. You couldn't be soselfish as to want me to leave her to herself?"

  "He flushed angrily. 'And what price me? Is it good for me to beeverlastingly alone?' he began; and then quite suddenly he broke off andgrinned at me as if it were a huge joke.

  "'Right as usual, teacher,' he said. 'Yes, it's true. I knew she oughtto have somebody about. You go right on, and never mind me.'

  "I was quite astonished and a little touched. 'I felt you were onlythoughtless,' I said. He remarked that I was evidently born to be themistress of a reformatory, but he evidently bore no malice and clearedoff without further ado. As I went back I thought over the speech I hadmade, and it did sound horribly priggish! I never spoke so to anybodybefore. Isn't it astonishing how different one is with differentpeople? I don't think I ever struck you as a sanctimonious littlehypocrite; did I, Gracie, my beloved?

  "Madam looked so surprised when I came back that I could not helplaughing a little as I sat down by her.

  "'Please, Miss Innes,' said she faintly, 'go down and have a game withpoor Nin; he is so lonely.'

  "'He may be lonely there, but you are lonely here,' said I. 'Was Iengaged to look after him or you?'

  "'He'll be very angry,' she began, but I assured her that he wasnot--that he had said he thought me quite right.

  "'Oh, he may not show it to you, but it is I who will hear of thisagain,' said she.

  "'Nothing of the kind,' I said. 'I'll see to it that he shan't teaseyou.' (Rather cheek on my part!) 'He doesn't mean to be unkind, butmen are inconsiderate. If I explain matters to him he will be morereasonable.'

  "She looked unhappy and undecided, and then said, in a kind of burst, 'Iam so anxious for you and him to get on together. I don't want you togo away.'

  "Well, that was putting things in a new light. Apparently she thinksthat if I don't make myself agreeable to the master of the house he willtell her to give me notice. The thought made me quite angry. Theingenuous speech had also shown me something else. I had not supposedthat Madam liked me, and her unconscious admission bucked me to asurprising extent.

  "'Then you don't want me to go away?' I asked; and she repliedhurriedly, 'No, indeed! I am most anxious, very anxious, that youshould stay.'

  * * * * *

  "So that was settled, and just for the moment I mean to stay and to keepup, if I can, my new role of mistress of a reformatory! I worked itsplendidly at breakfast, and was able to refuse a sleigh drive on theplea that I must not be out when the doctor calls. In spite of his ragethat this said doctor, who is young and good-looking, should be comingat all, Mr. Guyse was fain to admit that this was a just excuse. Helooked at me curiously, as if in wonder that anyone so severely properas I could contrive to exist!

  "So far, so good! The difficulty will be to keep it up if we see muchof each other, for he is madly provoking, and, as you know, I have atongue!

  "Well, I must end this rigmarole, and go and brush my hair inpreparation for receiving Dr. Balmayne, whose impending arrival isexciting me to an extent that I cannot expect you to understand untilyou have lived the best part of a week in a dark tower, cut off from allintercourse with the world outside.

  "You see, we met the doctor on our way up here, and I thought he lookedinteresting. He stared at me as if he thought I was not quite proper,and, seeing what young Guyse is, I can hardly wonder. However, I hopeto persuade him of my moral rectitude, and also (perhaps) of my rarepersonal charm, this afternoon! Best love and farewell--Your chum-girl,OLWEN."