by Ellen Wood
This gothic novel was originally published in 1863 and tells the story of the Godolphin family, who are brought low by the unfortunate actions of the younger son, George, when he finds himself in the clutches of an unscrupulous moneylender. A thrilling subplot (which also gives the novel its title) involves the mysterious shadow that haunts the grounds of the eponymous house – apparently an omen foreshadowing the death of one of the family. The house and its environs were modelled on the small hamlet of Lydiate Ash, near Birmingham – now, alas, dominated by a junction of the M5 motorway. The novel was Wood’s favourite of her many works.
The first edition
Title page of the first edition
CONTENTS
PART THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I. THE MEET OF THE HOUNDS.
CHAPTER II. LADY GODOLPHIN’S FOLLY.
CHAPTER III. THE DARK PLAIN IN THE MOONLIGHT.
CHAPTER IV. ALL SOULS’ RECTORY.
CHAPTER V. THOMAS GODOLPHIN’S LOVE.
CHAPTER VI. CHARLOTTE PAIN.
CHAPTER VII. BROOMHEAD.
CHAPTER VIII. A SNAKE IN THE GRASS.
CHAPTER IX. MR. SANDY’S “TRADE.”
CHAPTER X. THE SHADOW.
CHAPTER XI. A TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH.
CHAPTER XII. DEAD.
CHAPTER XIII. UNAVAILING REGRETS.
CHAPTER XIV. GONE ON BEFORE.
CHAPTER XV. A MIDNIGHT WALK.
CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST JOURNEY.
CHAPTER XVII. A ROW ON THE WATER.
CHAPTER XVIII. STRAW IN THE STREETS.
CHAPTER XIX. ONE STICK DISCARDED.
CHAPTER XX. A REVELATION TO ALL SOULS’ RECTOR.
CHAPTER XXI. CHARLOTTE’S BARGAIN.
CHAPTER XXII. DANGEROUS AMUSEMENT.
PART THE SECOND.
CHAPTER I. SIXTY POUNDS TO OLD JEKYL.
CHAPTER II. WHY DID IT ANGER HIM?
CHAPTER III. CECIL’S ROMANCE.
CHAPTER IV. CHARLOTTE PAIN’S “TURN-OUT.”
CHAPTER V. A REVELATION.
CHAPTER VI. MR. VERRALL’S CHAMBERS.
CHAPTER VII. BEYOND RECALL.
CHAPTER VIII. THE TRADITION OF THE DARK PLAIN.
CHAPTER IX. THE DEAD ALIVE AGAIN.
CHAPTER X. NINE THOUSAND AND FORTY-FIVE POUNDS.
CHAPTER XI. THOSE BONDS AGAIN!
CHAPTER XII. “I SEE IT: BUT I CANNOT EXPLAIN IT.”
CHAPTER XIII. A RED-LETTER DAY FOR MRS. BOND.
CHAPTER XIV. ISAAC HASTINGS TURNS TO THINKING.
CHAPTER XV. A NIGHTMARE FOR THE RECTOR OF ALL SOULS’.
CHAPTER XVI. MR. LAYTON “LOOKED UP.”
CHAPTER XVII. GONE!
CHAPTER XVIII. MURMURS; AND CURIOUS DOUBTS.
CHAPTER XIX. BOBBING JOAN.
CHAPTER XX. MRS. BOND’S VISIT.
CHAPTER XXI. A DREAD FEAR.
CHAPTER XXII. BEARING THE BRUNT.
CHAPTER XXIII. “AS FINE AS A QUEEN!”
CHAPTER XXIV. A VISIT TO LORD AVERIL.
CHAPTER XXV. IN THE STREETS OF PRIOR’S ASH.
CHAPTER XXVI. MY LADY WASHES HER HANDS.
CHAPTER XXVII. A BROKEN IDOL.
PART THE THIRD.
CHAPTER I. A MORNING CALL.
CHAPTER II. NEARER AND NEARER.
CHAPTER III. FOR THE LAST TIME.
CHAPTER IV. GATHERED TO HIS FATHERS.
CHAPTER V. COMMOTION AT ASHLYDYAT.
CHAPTER VI. A CROWD OF MEMORIES.
CHAPTER VII. AT REST.
CHAPTER VIII. A SAD PARTING.
CHAPTER IX. A SAFE VOYAGE TO HIM!
The original three-volume edition – such novels were often sold without covers, so that they could be bound in a uniform style by collectors or librarians, as is the case with this example
“Over him rushed, like a wind that is keen and cold and relentless,
Thoughts of what might have been, and the weight and woe of his errand,
All the dreams that had faded, and all the hopes that had vanished,
All his life henceforth a dreary and tenantless mansion,
Haunted by vain regrets, and pallid, sorrowful faces.”
Longfellow.
PART THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I. THE MEET OF THE HOUNDS.
It was a bright day in autumn: the scene one of those fair ones rarely witnessed except in England. The sun, warm and glowing, almost as that of a summer’s day, shone on the stubble of the cornfields, whence the golden grain had recently been gathered; gilded the tops of the trees — so soon to pass into the “sere and yellow leaf;” illumined the blue hills in the distance, and brought out the nearer features of the landscape in all their light and shade. A fine landscape, comprising hill and dale, water and green pastures, woods and open plains. Amidst them rose the signs of busy life; mansions, cottages, hamlets, railways, and churches, whose steeples ascended high, pointing the way to a better Land.
The town of Prior’s Ash, lying in a valley, was alive that gay morning with excitement. It was the day appointed for the first meet of the hounds; the P. A. hounds, of some importance in the county; and people from far and near were flocking to see them throw off. Old and young, gentle and simple, lords of the soil and tradesmen, all were wending their way to the meet. The master, Colonel Max, was wont on this, the first morning of the season, to assemble at his house for breakfast as many as his large dining-room could by any species of crowding contain; and it was a fine sight, drawing forth its numerous spectators to watch them come out in procession, to the meet. As many carriages-and-four, with their fair occupants, would come to that first meet, as you could have seen in the old days on a country race-course. This show was an old-fashioned local custom; Colonel Max was pleased to keep it up, and he lacked not supporters. The opening this year was unusually early.
The gay crowd was arriving, some from the breakfast, some from their homes. The rendezvous was a wide, open common, with no space wanting. The restrained hounds snarled away at a short distance, and their attendants, attired for the hunt, clacked their whips among them.
Riding a noble horse, and advancing from the opposite direction to that of Colonel Max and his guests, came a tall, stately man, getting in years now. His features were regular as though they had been chiselled from marble: his fine blue eyes could sparkle yet; and his snow-white hair, wavy as of yore, was worn rather long behind, giving him somewhat the appearance of a patriarch. But the healthy bloom, once characteristic of his face, had left it now: the paleness of ill-health sat there, and he bent his body, as if too weak to bear up on his horse. His approach was discerned; and many started forward, as with one impulse, to greet him. None stood higher in the estimation of his fellow-men than did Sir George Godolphin; no other name was more respected in the county.
“This is good indeed, Sir George! To see you out again!”
“I thought I might venture,” said Sir George, essaying to meet a dozen hands at once. “It has been a long confinement; a tedious illness. Six months, and never out of the house; and, for the last fortnight, out only in a garden-chair. My lady wanted to box me up in the carriage this morning; if I must come, she said. But I would not have it: had I been unable to sit my horse, I would have remained at home.”
“You feel weak still?” remarked one, after most of the greeters had had their say, and were moving away.
“Ay. Strength, for me, has finally departed, I fear.”
“You must not think that, Sir George. Now that you have so far recovered as to go out, you will improve daily.”
“And get well all one way, Godolphin,” joined in the hearty voice of Colonel Max. “Never lose heart, man.”
Sir George turned his eyes upon Colonel Max with a cheerful glance. “Who told you I was losing heart?”
“Yourself. When a man begins to talk of his strength having finally departed, what’s that, but a proof of his losing heart? Low spirits never cured any one yet: but they have killed thousands.”
“I shall be sixty-six years old to-morr
ow, colonel: and if, at that age, I can ‘lose heart’ at the prospect of the great change, my life has served me to little purpose. The young may faint at the near approach of death; the old should not.”
“Sixty-six, old!” ejaculated Colonel Max. “I have never kept count of my own age, but I know I am that if I am a day; and I am young yet. I may live these thirty years to come: and shall try for it, too.”
“I hope you will, colonel,” was the warm answer of Sir George Godolphin. “Prior’s Ash could ill spare you.”
“I don’t know about that,” laughed the colonel. “But I do know that I could ill spare life. I wish you could take the run with us this morning!”
“I wish I could. But that you might accuse me of — what was it? — losing heart, I would say that my last run with the hounds has been taken. It has cost me an effort to come so far as this, walking my horse at a snail’s pace. Do you see Lady Godolphin? She ought to be here.”
Colonel Max, who was a short man, raised himself in his stirrups, and gazed from point to point of the gradually increasing crowd. “In her carriage, I suppose?”
“In her carriage, of course,” answered Sir George. “She is no amazon.” But he did not avow his reason for inquiring after his wife’s carriage — that he felt a giddiness stealing over him, and thought he might be glad of its support. Neither did he explain that he was unable to look round for it himself just then, under fear of falling from his horse.
“I don’t think she has come yet,” said Colonel Max. “I do not see the livery. As to the ladies, they all look so like one another now, with their furbelows and feathers, that I’ll be shot if I should know my own wife — if I had one — at a dozen paces’ distance. Here is some one else, however.”
Riding up quietly, and reining in at the side of Sir George, was a gentleman of middle height, with dark hair, dark grey eyes, and a quiet, pale countenance. In age he may have wanted some three or four years of forty, and a casual observer might have pronounced him “insignificant,” and never have cast on him a second glance. But there was a certain attraction in his face which won its way to hearts; and his voice sounded wonderfully sweet and kind as he grasped the hand of Sir George.
“My dear father! I am so glad to see you here!”
“And surprised too, I conclude, Thomas,” returned Sir George, smiling on his son. “Come closer to me, will you, and let me rest my arm upon your shoulder for a minute. I feel somewhat giddy.”
“Should you have ventured out on horseback?” inquired Thomas Godolphin, as he hastened to place himself in proximity with his father.
“The air will do me good; and the exertion also. It is nothing to feel a little weak after a confinement such as mine has been. You don’t follow the hounds to-day, I see, Thomas,” continued Sir George, noting his son’s plain costume.
A smile crossed Thomas Godolphin’s lips. “No, sir. I rarely do follow them. I leave amusement to George.”
“Is he here, that graceless George?” demanded the knight, searching into the crowd with fond and admiring eyes. But the admiring eyes did not see the object they thought to rest on.
“He is sure to be here, sir. I have not seen him.”
“And your sisters? Are they here?”
“No. They did not care to come.”
“Speak for Janet and Cecil, if you please, Thomas,” interrupted a young lady’s voice at this juncture. The knight looked down; his son looked down also: there stood the second daughter of the family, Bessy Godolphin. She was a dark, quick, active little woman of thirty, with an ever-ready tongue, and deep grey eyes.
“Bessy!” uttered Sir George, in astonishment. “Have you come here on foot?”
“Yes, papa. Thomas asked us whether we wished to attend the meet; and Janet — who must always be master and mistress, you know — answered that we did not. Cecil dutifully agreed with her. I did care to attend it; so I came alone.”
“But, Bessy, why did you not say so?” remonstrated Mr. Godolphin. “You should have ordered the carriage; you should not have come on foot. What will people think?”
“Think!” she echoed, holding up her pleasant face to her brother, in its saucy independence. “They can think anything they please; I am Bessy Godolphin. I wonder how many scores have come on foot?”
“None, Bessy, of your degree, who have carriages to sit in or horses to ride,” said Sir George.
“Papa, I like to use my legs better than to have them cramped under a habit or in a carriage; and you know I never could bend to form and fashion,” she said, laughing. “Dear papa, I am delighted to see you! I was so thankful when I heard you were here! Janet will be ready to eat her own head now, for not coming.”
“Who told you I was here, Bessy?”
“Old Jekyl. He was leaning on his palings as I came by, and called out the information to me almost before I could hear him. ‘The master’s gone to it, Miss Bessy! he is out once again! But he had not on his scarlet,’ the old fellow added; and his face lost its gladness. Papa, the whole world is delighted that you should have recovered, and be once more amongst them.”
“Not quite recovered yet, Bessy. Getting better, though; getting better. Thank you, Thomas; the faintness has passed.”
“Is not Lady Godolphin here, papa?”
“She must be here by this time. I wish I could see her carriage: you must get into it.”
“I did not come for that, papa,” returned Bessy, with a touch of her warm temper.
“My dear, I wish you to join her. I do not like to see you here on foot.”
“I shall set the fashion, papa,” laughed Bessy, again. “At the great meet next year, you will see half the pretenders of the county toiling here on foot. I say I am Bessy Godolphin.”
The knight ranged his eyes over the motley group, but he could not discern his wife. Sturdy, bluff old fox-hunters were there in plenty, and well-got-up young gentlemen, all on horseback, their white cords and scarlet coats gleaming in the sun. Ladies were chiefly in carriages; a few were mounted, who would ride quietly home again when the hounds had thrown off; a very few — they might be counted by units — would follow the field. Prior’s Ash and its neighbourhood was supplied in a very limited degree with what they were pleased to call masculine women: for the term “fast” had not then come in. Many a pretty woman, many a pretty girl was present, and the sportsmen lingered, and were well pleased to linger, in the sunshine of their charms, ere the business, for which they had come out, began, and they should throw themselves, heart and energy, into it.
On the outskirts of the crowd, sitting her horse well, was a handsome girl of right regal features and flashing black eyes. Above the ordinary height of woman, she was finely formed, her waist slender, her shoulders beautifully modelled. She wore a peculiar dress, and, from that cause alone, many eyes were on her. A well-fitting habit of bright grass-green, the corsage ornamented with buttons of silver-gilt; similar buttons were also at the wrists, but they were partially hidden by her white gauntlets. A cap, of the same bright green, rested on the upper part of her forehead, a green-and-gold feather on its left side glittering as the sun’s rays played upon it. It was a style of dress which had not yet been seen at Prior’s Ash, and was regarded with some doubt. But, as you are aware, it is not a dress in itself which is condemned or approved: it depends upon who wears it: and as the young lady wearing this was just now the fashion at Prior’s Ash, feather and habit were taken into favour forthwith. She could have worn none more adapted to her peculiar style of beauty.
Bending to his very saddle-bow, as he talked to her — for, though she was tall, he was taller still — was a gentleman of courtly mien. In his fine upright figure, his fair complexion and wavy hair, his chiselled features and dark blue eyes, might be traced a strong resemblance to Sir George Godolphin. But the lips had a more ready smile upon them than Sir George’s had ever worn, for his had always been somewhat of the sternest; the blue eyes twinkled with a gayer light when gazing into other eyes, than c
ould ever have been charged upon Sir George. But the bright complexion had been Sir George’s once; giving to his face, as it now did to his son’s, a delicate beauty, almost as that of woman. “Graceless George,” old Sir George was fond of calling him; but it was an appellation given in love, in pride, in admiration. He bent to his saddle-bow, and his gay blue eyes flashed with unmistakable admiration into those black ones as he talked to the lady: and the black eyes most certainly flashed admiration back again. Dangerous eyes were those of Charlotte Pain’s! And not altogether lovable.
“Do you always keep your promises as you kept that one yesterday?” she was asking him.
“I did not make a promise yesterday — that I remember. Had I made one to you, I should have kept it.”
“Fickle and faithless,” she cried. “Men’s promises are as words traced upon the sand. When you met me yesterday in the carriage with Mrs. Verrall, and she asked you to take compassion on two forlorn dames, and come to Ashlydyat in the evening and dissipate our ennui, what was your answer?”
“That I would do so, if it were possible.”
“Was nothing more explicit implied?”
George Godolphin laughed. Perhaps his conscience told him that he had implied more, in a certain pressure he remembered giving to that fair hand, which was resting now, gauntleted, upon her reins. Gay George had meant to dissipate Ashlydyat’s ennui, if nothing more tempting offered. But something more tempting did offer: and he had spent the evening in the company of one who was more to him than was Charlotte Pain.
“An unavoidable engagement arose, Miss Pain. Otherwise you may rely upon it I should have been at Ashlydyat.”
“Unavoidable!” she replied, her eyes gleaming with something very like anger into those which smiled on her. “I know what your engagement was. You were at Lady Godolphin’s Folly.”
“Right. Commanded to it by my father.”
“Oh!”
“Solicited, if not absolutely commanded,” he continued. “And a wish from Sir George now bears its weight: we may not have him very long with us.”