LADY AUDLEY 'SSECRET  By Mary Elizabeth Braddon  CHAPTER I .  LUCY .  It lay down in a hollow , rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures ; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes , bordered on either side by meadows , over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed , wondering , perhaps , what you wanted ; for there was no thorough-fare , and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all .  At the end of this avenue there was an old arch and a clock tower , with a stupid , bewildering clock , which had only one hand — and which jumped straight from one hour to the next — and was therefore always in extremes .  Through this arch you walked straight into the gardens of Audley Court .  A smooth lawn lay before you , dotted with groups of rhododendrons , which grew in more perfection here than anywhere else in the county .  To the right there were the kitchen gardens , the fish-pond , and an orchard bordered by a dry moat , and a broken ruin of a wall , in some places thicker than it was high , and everywhere overgrown with trailing ivy , yellow stonecrop , and dark moss .  To the left there was a broad graveled walk , down which , years ago , when the place had been a convent , the quiet nuns had walked hand in hand ; a wall bordered with espaliers , and shadowed on one side by goodly oaks , which shut out the flat landscape , and circled in the house and gardens with a darkening shelter .  The house faced the arch , and occupied three sides of a quadrangle .  It was very old , and very irregular and rambling .  The windows were uneven ; some small , some large , some with heavy stone mullions and rich stained glass ; others with frail lattices that rattled in every breeze ; others so modern that they might have been added only yesterday .  Great piles of chimneys rose up here and there behind the pointed gables , and seemed as if they were so broken down by age and long service that they must have fallen but for the straggling ivy which , crawling up the walls and trailing even over the roof , wound itself about them and supported them .  The principal door was squeezed into a corner of a turret at one angle of the building , as if it were in hiding from dangerous visitors , and wished to keep itself a secret — a noble door for all that — old oak , and studded with great square-headed iron nails , and so thick that the sharp iron knocker struck upon it with a muffled sound , and the visitor rung a clanging bell that dangled in a corner among the ivy , lest the noise of the knocking should never penetrate the stronghold .  A glorious old place .  A place that visitors fell in raptures with ; feeling a yearning wish to have done with life , and to stay there forever , staring into the cool fish-ponds and counting the bubbles as the roach and carp rose to the surface of the water .  A spot in which peace seemed to have taken up her abode , setting her soothing hand on every tree and flower , on the still ponds and quiet alleys , the shady corners of the old-fashioned rooms , the deep window-seats behind the painted glass , the low meadows and the stately avenues — ay , even upon the stagnant well , which , cool and sheltered as all else in the old place , hid itself away in a shrubbery behind the gardens , with an idle handle that was never turned and a lazy rope so rotten that the pail had broken away from it , and had fallen into the water .  A noble place ; inside as well as out , a noble place — a house in which you incontinently lost yourself if ever you were so rash as to attempt to penetrate its mysteries alone ; a house in which no one room had any sympathy with another , every chamber running off at a tangent into an inner chamber , and through that down some narrow staircase leading to a door which , in its turn , led back into that very part of the house from which you thought yourself the furthest ; a house that could never have been planned by any mortal architect , but must have been the handiwork of that good old builder , Time , who , adding a room one year , and knocking down a room another year , toppling down a chimney coeval with the Plantagenets , and setting up one in the style of the Tudors ; shaking down a bit of Saxon wall , allowing a Norman arch to stand here ; throwing in a row of high narrow windows in the reign of Queen Anne , and joining on a dining-room after the fashion of the time of Hanoverian George I , to a refectory that had been standing since the Conquest , had contrived , in some eleven centuries , to run up such a mansion as was not elsewhere to be met with throughout the county of Essex .  Of course , in such a house there were secret chambers ; the little daughter of the present owner , Sir Michael Audley , had fallen by accident upon the discovery of one .  A board had rattled under her feet in the great nursery where she played , and on attention being drawn to it , it was found to be loose , and so removed , revealed a ladder , leading to a hiding-place between the floor of the nursery and the ceiling of the room below — a hiding-place so small that he who had hid there must have crouched on his hands and knees or lain at full length , and yet large enough to contain a quaint old carved oak chest , half filled with priests 'vestments , which had been hidden away , no doubt , in those cruel days when the life of a man was in danger if he was discovered to have harbored a Roman Catholic priest , or to have mass said in his house .  The broad outer moat was dry and grass-grown , and the laden trees of the orchard hung over it with gnarled , straggling branches that drew fantastical shadows upon the green slope .  Within this moat there was , as I have said , the fish-pond — a sheet of water that extended the whole length of the garden and bordering which there was an avenue called the lime-tree walk ; an avenue so shaded from the sun and sky , so screened from observation by the thick shelter of the over-arching trees that it seemed a chosen place for secret meetings or for stolen interviews ; a place in which a conspiracy might have been planned , or a lover 'svow registered with equal safety ; and yet it was scarcely twenty paces from the house .  At the end of this dark arcade there was the shrubbery , where , half buried among the tangled branches and the neglected weeds , stood the rusty wheel of that old well of which I have spoken .  It had been of good service in its time , no doubt ; and busy nuns have perhaps drawn the cool water with their own fair hands ; but it had fallen into disuse now , and scarcely any one at Audley Court knew whether the spring had dried up or not .  But sheltered as was the solitude of this lime-tree walk , I doubt very much if it was ever put to any romantic uses .  Often in the cool of the evening Sir Michael Audley would stroll up and down smoking his cigar , with his dogs at his heels , and his pretty young wife dawdling by his side ; but in about ten minutes the baronet and his companion would grow tired of the rustling limes and the still water , hidden under the spreading leaves of the water-lilies , and the long green vista with the broken well at the end , and would stroll back to the drawing-room , where my lady played dreamy melodies by Beethoven and Mendelssohn till her husband fell asleep in his easy-chair .  Sir Michael Audley was fifty-six years of age , and he had married a second wife three months after his fifty-fifth birthday .  He was a big man , tall and stout , with a deep , sonorous voice , handsome black eyes , and a white beard — a white beard which made him look venerable against his will , for he was as active as a boy , and one of the hardest riders in the country .  For seventeen years he had been a widower with an only child , a daughter , Alicia Audley , now eighteen , and by no means too well pleased at having a step-mother brought home to the Court ; for Miss Alicia had reigned supreme in her father 'shouse since her earliest childhood , and had carried the keys , and jingled them in the pockets of her silk aprons , and lost them in the shrubbery , and dropped them into the pond , and given all manner of trouble about them from the hour in which she entered her teens , and had , on that account , deluded herself into the sincere belief , that for the whole of that period , she had been keeping the house .  But Miss Alicia 'sday was over ; and now , when she asked anything of the housekeeper , the housekeeper would tell her that she would speak to my lady , or she would consult my lady , and if my lady pleased it should be done .  So the baronet 'sdaughter , who was an excellent horsewoman and a very clever artist , spent most of her time out of doors , riding about the green lanes , and sketching the cottage children , and the plow-boys , and the cattle , and all manner of animal life that came in her way .  She set her face with a sulky determination against any intimacy between herself and the baronet 'syoung wife ; and amiable as that lady was , she found it quite impossible to overcome Miss Alicia 'sprejudices and dislike ; or to convince the spoilt girl that she had not done her a cruel injury by marrying Sir Michael Audley .  The truth was that Lady Audley had , in becoming the wife of Sir Michael , made one of those apparently advantageous matches which are apt to draw upon a woman the envy and hatred of her sex .  She had come into the neighborhood as a governess in the family of a surgeon in the village near Audley Court .  No one knew anything of her , except that she came in answer to an advertisement which Mr. Dawson , the surgeon , had inserted in The Times .  She came from London ; and the only reference she gave was to a lady at a school at Brompton , where she had once been a teacher .  But this reference was so satisfactory that none other was needed , and Miss Lucy Graham was received by the surgeon as the instructress of his daughters .  Her accomplishments were so brilliant and numerous , that it seemed strange that she should have answered an advertisement offering such very moderate terms of remuneration as those named by Mr. Dawson ; but Miss Graham seemed perfectly well satisfied with her situation , and she taught the girls to play sonatas by Beethoven , and to paint from nature after Creswick , and walked through a dull , out-of-the-way village to the humble little church , three times every Sunday , as contentedly as if she had no higher aspiration in the world than to do so all the rest of her life .  People who observed this , accounted for it by saying that it was a part of her amiable and gentle nature always to be light-hearted , happy and contented under any circumstances .  Wherever she went she seemed to take joy and brightness with her .  In the cottages of the poor her fair face shone like a sunbeam .  She would sit for a quarter of an hour talking to some old woman , and apparently as pleased with the admiration of a toothless crone as if she had been listening to the compliments of a marquis ; and when she tripped away , leaving nothing behind her ( for her poor salary gave no scope to her benevolence ) , the old woman would burst out into senile raptures with her grace , beauty , and her kindliness , such as she never bestowed upon the vicar 'swife , who half fed and clothed her .  For you see , Miss Lucy Graham was blessed with that magic power of fascination , by which a woman can charm with a word or intoxicate with a smile .  Every one loved , admired , and praised her .  The boy who opened the five-barred gate that stood in her pathway , ran home to his mother to tell of her pretty looks , and the sweet voice in which she thanked him for the little service .  The verger at the church , who ushered her into the surgeon 'spew ; the vicar , who saw the soft blue eyes uplifted to his face as he preached his simple sermon ; the porter from the railway station , who brought her sometimes a letter or a parcel , and who never looked for reward from her ; her employer ; his visitors ; her pupils ; the servants ; everybody , high and low , united in declaring that Lucy Graham was the sweetest girl that ever lived .  Perhaps it was the rumor of this which penetrated into the quiet chamber of Audley Court ; or , perhaps , it was the sight of her pretty face , looking over the surgeon 'shigh pew every Sunday morning ; however it was , it was certain that Sir Michael Audley suddenly experienced a strong desire to be better acquainted with Mr. Dawson 'sgoverness .  He had only to hint his wish to the worthy doctor for a little party to be got up , to which the vicar and his wife , and the baronet and his daughter , were invited .  That one quiet evening sealed Sir Michael 'sfate .  He could no more resist the tender fascination of those soft and melting blue eyes ; the graceful beauty of that slender throat and drooping head , with its wealth of showering flaxen curls ; the low music of that gentle voice ; the perfect harmony which pervaded every charm , and made all doubly charming in this woman ; than he could resist his destiny !  Destiny !  Why , she was his destiny !  He had never loved before .  What had been his marriage with Alicia 'smother but a dull , jog-trot bargain made to keep some estate in the family that would have been just as well out of it ?  What had been his love for his first wife but a poor , pitiful , smoldering spark , too dull to be extinguished , too feeble to burn ?  But this was love — this fever , this longing , this restless , uncertain , miserable hesitation ; these cruel fears that his age was an insurmountable barrier to his happiness ; this sick hatred of his white beard ; this frenzied wish to be young again , with glistening raven hair , and a slim waist , such as he had twenty years before ; these , wakeful nights and melancholy days , so gloriously brightened if he chanced to catch a glimpse of her sweet face behind the window curtains , as he drove past the surgeon 'shouse ; all these signs gave token of the truth , and told only too plainly that , at the sober age of fifty-five , Sir Michael Audley had fallen ill of the terrible fever called love .  I do not think that , throughout his courtship , the baronet once calculated upon his wealth or his position as reasons for his success .  If he ever remembered these things , he dismissed the thought of them with a shudder .  It pained him too much to believe for a moment that any one so lovely and innocent could value herself against a splendid house or a good old title .  No ; his hope was that , as her life had been most likely one of toil and dependence , and as she was very young nobody exactly knew her age , but she looked little more than twenty , she might never have formed any attachment , and that he , being the first to woo her , might , by tender attentions , by generous watchfulness , by a love which should recall to her the father she had lost , and by a protecting care that should make him necessary to her , win her young heart , and obtain from her fresh and earliest love , the promise of her hand .  It was a very romantic day-dream , no doubt ; but , for all that , it seemed in a very fair way to be realized .  Lucy Graham appeared by no means to dislike the baronet 'sattentions .  There was nothing whatever in her manner that betrayed the shallow artifices employed by a woman who wishes to captivate a rich man .  She was so accustomed to admiration from every one , high and low , that Sir Michael 'sconduct made very little impression upon her .  Again , he had been so many years a widower that people had given up the idea of his ever marrying again .  At last , however , Mrs. Dawson spoke to the governess on the subject .  The surgeon 'swife was sitting in the school-room busy at work , while Lucy was putting the finishing touches on some water-color sketches done by her pupils .  " Do you know , my dear Miss Graham , " said Mrs. Dawson , " I think you ought to consider yourself a remarkably lucky girl ?  "  The governess lifted her head from its stooping attitude , and stared wonderingly at her employer , shaking back a shower of curls .  They were the most wonderful curls in the world — soft and feathery , always floating away from her face , and making a pale halo round her head when the sunlight shone through them .  " What do you mean , my dear Mrs. Dawson ?  " she asked , dipping her camel's-hair brush into the wet aquamarine upon the palette , and poising it carefully before putting in the delicate streak of purple which was to brighten the horizon in her pupil 'ssketch .  " Why , I mean , my dear , that it only rests with yourself to become Lady Audley , and the mistress of Audley Court .  "  Lucy Graham dropped the brush upon the picture , and flushed scarlet to the roots of her fair hair ; and then grew pale again , far paler than Mrs. Dawson had ever seen her before .  " My dear , do n't agitate yourself , " said the surgeon 'swife , soothingly ; " you know that nobody asks you to marry Sir Michael unless you wish .  Of course it would be a magnificent match ; he has a splendid income , and is one of the most generous of men .  Your position would be very high , and you would be enabled to do a great deal of good ; but , as I said before , you must be entirely guided by your own feelings .  Only one thing I must say , and that is that if Sir Michael 'sattentions are not agreeable to you , it is really scarcely honorable to encourage him .  "  " His attentions — encourage him !  " muttered Lucy , as if the words bewildered her .  " Pray , pray do n't talk to me , Mrs. Dawson .  I had no idea of this .  It is the last thing that would have occurred to me .  " She leaned her elbows on the drawing-board before her , and clasping her hands over her face , seemed for some minutes to be thinking deeply .  She wore a narrow black ribbon round her neck , with a locket , or a cross , or a miniature , perhaps , attached to it ; but whatever the trinket was , she always kept it hidden under her dress .  Once or twice , while she sat silently thinking , she removed one of her hands from before her face , and fidgeted nervously with the ribbon , clutching at it with a half-angry gesture , and twisting it backward and forward between her fingers .  " I think some people are born to be unlucky , Mrs. Dawson , " she said , by-and-by ; " it would be a great deal too much good fortune for me to become Lady Audley .  "  She said this with so much bitterness in her tone , that the surgeon 'swife looked up at her with surprise .  " You unlucky , my dear !  " she exclaimed .  " I think you are the last person who ought to talk like that — you , such a bright , happy creature , that it does every one good to see you .  I 'msure I do n't know what we shall do if Sir Michael robs us of you .  "  After this conversation they often spoke upon the subject , and Lucy never again showed any emotion whatever when the baronet 'sadmiration for her was canvassed .  It was a tacitly understood thing in the surgeon 'sfamily that whenever Sir Michael proposed , the governess would quietly accept him ; and , indeed , the simple Dawsons would have thought it something more than madness in a penniless girl to reject such an offer .  So , one misty August evening , Sir Michael , sitting opposite to Lucy Graham , at a window in the surgeon 'slittle drawing-room , took an opportunity while the family happened by some accident to be absent from the room , of speaking upon the subject nearest to his heart .  He made the governess , in a few but solemn words , an offer of his hand .  There was something almost touching in the manner and tone in which he spoke to her — half in deprecation , knowing that he could hardly expect to be the choice of a beautiful young girl , and praying rather that she would reject him , even though she broke his heart by doing so , than that she should accept his offer if she did not love him .  " I scarcely think there is a greater sin , Lucy , " he said , solemnly , " than that of a woman who marries a man she does not love .  You are so precious to me , my beloved , that deeply as my heart is set on this , and bitter as the mere thought of disappointment is to me , I would not have you commit such a sin for any happiness of mine .  If my happiness could be achieved by such an act , which it could not — which it never could , " he repeated , earnestly — " nothing but misery can result from a marriage dictated by any motive but truth and love .  "  Lucy Graham was not looking at Sir Michael , but straight out into the misty twilight and dim landscape far away beyond the little garden .  The baronet tried to see her face , but her profile was turned to him , and he could not discover the expression of her eyes .  If he could have done so , he would have seen a yearning gaze which seemed as if it would have pierced the far obscurity and looked away — away into another world .  " Lucy , you heard me ?  "  " Yes , " she said , gravely ; not coldly , or in any way as if she were offended at his words .  " And your answer ?  "  She did not remove her gaze from the darkening country side , but for some moments was quite silent ; then turning to him , with a sudden passion in her manner , that lighted up her face with a new and wonderful beauty which the baronet perceived even in the growing twilight , she fell on her knees at his feet .  " No , Lucy ; no , no !  " he cried , vehemently , " not here , not here !  "  " Yes , here , here , " she said , the strange passion which agitated her making her voice sound shrill and piercing — not loud , but preternaturally distinct ; " here and nowhere else .  How good you are — how noble and how generous !  Love you !  Why , there are women a hundred times my superiors in beauty and in goodness who might love you dearly ; but you ask too much of me !  Remember what my life has been ; only remember that !  From my very babyhood I have never seen anything but poverty .  My father was a gentleman : clever , accomplished , handsome — but poor — and what a pitiful wretch poverty made of him !  My mother — But do not let me speak of her .  Poverty — poverty , trials , vexations , humiliations , deprivations .  You cannot tell ; you , who are among those for whom life is so smooth and easy , you can never guess what is endured by such as we .  Do not ask too much of me , then .  I cannot be disinterested ; I cannot be blind to the advantages of such an alliance .  I cannot , I cannot !  "  Beyond her agitation and her passionate vehemence , there is an undefined something in her manner which fills the baronet with a vague alarm .  She is still on the ground at his feet , crouching rather than kneeling , her thin white dress clinging about her , her pale hair streaming over her shoulders , her great blue eyes glittering in the dusk , and her hands clutching at the black ribbon about her throat , as if it had been strangling her .  " Do n't ask too much of me , " she kept repeating ; " I have been selfish from my babyhood .  "  " Lucy — Lucy , speak plainly .  Do you dislike me ?  "  " Dislike you ?  No — no !  "  " But is there any one else whom you love ?  "  She laughed aloud at his question .  " I do not love any one in the world , " she answered .  He was glad of her reply ; and yet that and the strange laugh jarred upon his feelings .  He was silent for some moments , and then said , with a kind of effort :  " Well , Lucy , I will not ask too much of you .  I dare say I am a romantic old fool ; but if you do not dislike me , and if you do not love any one else , I see no reason why we should not make a very happy couple .  Is it a bargain , Lucy ?  "  " Yes .  "  The baronet lifted her in his arms and kissed her once upon the forehead , then quietly bidding her good-night , he walked straight out of the house .  He walked straight out of the house , this foolish old man , because there was some strong emotion at work in his breast — neither joy nor triumph , but something almost akin to disappointment — some stifled and unsatisfied longing which lay heavy and dull at his heart , as if he had carried a corpse in his bosom .  He carried the corpse of that hope which had died at the sound of Lucy 'swords .  All the doubts and fears and timid aspirations were ended now .  He must be contented , like other men of his age , to be married for his fortune and his position .  Lucy Graham went slowly up the stairs to her little room at the top of the house .  She placed her dim candle on the chest of drawers , and seated herself on the edge of the white bed , still and white as the draperies hanging around her .  " No more dependence , no more drudgery , no more humiliations , " she said ; " every trace of the old life melted away — every clew to identity buried and forgotten — except these , except these .  "  She had never taken her left hand from the black ribbon at her throat .  She drew it from her bosom , as she spoke , and looked at the object attached to it .  It was neither a locket , a miniature , nor a cross ; it was a ring wrapped in an oblong piece of paper — the paper partly written , partly printed , yellow with age , and crumpled with much folding .  CHAPTER II .  ON BOARD THE ARGUS .  He threw the end of his cigar into the water , and leaning his elbows upon the bulwarks , stared meditatively at the waves .  " How wearisome they are , " he said ; " blue and green , and opal ; opal , and blue , and green ; all very well in their way , of course , but three months of them are rather too much , especially — "  He did not attempt to finish his sentence ; his thoughts seemed to wander in the very midst of it , and carry him a thousand miles or so away .  " Poor little girl , how pleased she 'llbe !  " he muttered , opening his cigar-case , lazily surveying its contents ; " how pleased and how surprised ?  Poor little girl .  After three years and a half , too ; she will be surprised .  "  He was a young man of about five-and-twenty , with dark face bronzed by exposure to the sun ; he had handsome brown eyes , with a lazy smile in them that sparkled through the black lashes , and a bushy beard and mustache that covered the whole lower part of his face .  He was tall and powerfully built ; he wore a loose gray suit and a felt hat , thrown carelessly upon his black hair .  His name was George Talboys , and he was aft-cabin passenger on board the good ship Argus , laden with Australian wool and sailing from Sydney to Liverpool .  There were very few passengers in the aft-cabin of the Argus .  An elderly wool-stapler returning to his native country with his wife and daughters , after having made a fortune in the colonies ; a governess of three-and-thirty years of age , going home to marry a man to whom she had been engaged fifteen years ; the sentimental daughter of a wealthy Australian wine-merchant , invoiced to England to finish her education , and George Talboys , were the only first-class passengers on board .  This George Talboys was the life and soul of the vessel ; nobody knew who or what he was , or where he came from , but everybody liked him .  He sat at the bottom of the dinner-table , and assisted the captain in doing the honors of the friendly meal .  He opened the champagne bottles , and took wine with every one present ; he told funny stories , and led the life himself with such a joyous peal that the man must have been a churl who could not have laughed for pure sympathy .  He was a capital hand at speculation and vingt-et-un , and all the merry games , which kept the little circle round the cabin-lamp so deep in innocent amusement , that a hurricane might have howled overhead without their hearing it ; but he freely owned that he had no talent for whist , and that he did n't know a knight from a castle upon the chess-board .  Indeed , Mr. Talboys was by no means too learned a gentleman .  The pale governess had tried to talk to him about fashionable literature , but George had only pulled his beard and stared very hard at her , saying occasionally , " Ah , yes , by Jove !  " and " To be sure , ah !  "  The sentimental young lady , going home to finish her education , had tried him with Shelby and Byron , and he had fairly laughed in her face , as if poetry were a joke .  The woolstapler sounded him on politics , but he did not seem very deeply versed in them ; so they let him go his own way , smoke his cigars and talk to the sailors , lounge over the bulwarks and stare at the water , and make himself agreeable to everybody in his own fashion .  But when the Argus came to be within about a fortnight 'ssail of England everybody noticed a change in George Talboys .  He grew restless and fidgety ; sometimes so merry that the cabin rung with his laughter ; sometimes moody and thoughtful .  Favorite as he was among the sailors , they were tired at last of answering his perpetual questions about the probable time of touching land .  Would it be in ten days , in eleven , in twelve , in thirteen ?  Was the wind favorable ?  How many knots an hour was the vessel doing ?  Then a sudden passion would seize him , and he would stamp upon the deck , crying out that she was a rickety old craft , and that her owners were swindlers to advertise her as the fast-sailing Argus .  She was not fit for passenger traffic ; she was not fit to carry impatient living creatures , with hearts and souls ; she was fit for nothing but to be laden with bales of stupid wool , that might rot on the sea and be none the worse for it .  The sun was drooping down behind the waves as George Talboys lighted his cigar upon this August evening .  Only ten days more , the sailors had told him that afternoon , and they would see the English coast .  " I will go ashore in the first boat that hails us , " he cried ; " I will go ashore in a cockle-shell .  By Jove , if it comes to that , I will swim to land .  "  His friends in the aft-cabin , with the exception of the pale governess , laughed at his impatience ; she sighed as she watched the young man , chafing at the slow hours , pushing away his untasted wine , flinging himself restlessly about upon the cabin sofa , rushing up and down the companion ladder , and staring at the waves .  As the red rim of the sun dropped into the water , the governess ascended the cabin stairs for a stroll on deck , while the passengers sat over their wine below .  She stopped when she came up to George , and , standing by his side , watched the fading crimson in the western sky .  The lady was very quiet and reserved , seldom sharing in the after-cabin amusements , never laughing , and speaking very little ; but she and George Talboys had been excellent friends throughout the passage .  " Does my cigar annoy you , Miss Morley ?  " he said , taking it out of his mouth .  " Not at all ; pray do not leave off smoking .  I only came up to look at the sunset .  What a lovely evening !  "  " Yes , yes , I dare say , " he answered , impatiently ; " yet so long , so long !  Ten more interminable days and ten more weary nights before we land .  "  " Yes , " said Miss Morley , sighing .  " Do you wish the time shorter ?  "  " Do I ?  " cried George .  " Indeed I do .  Do n't you ?  "  " Scarcely .  "  " But is there no one you love in England ?  Is there no one you love looking out for your arrival ?  "  " I hope so , " she said gravely .  They were silent for some time , he smoking his cigar with a furious impatience , as if he could hasten the course of the vessel by his own restlessness ; she looking out at the waning light with melancholy blue eyes — eyes that seemed to have faded with poring over closely-printed books and difficult needlework ; eyes that had faded a little , perhaps , by reason of tears secretly shed in the lonely night .  " See !  " said George , suddenly , pointing in another direction from that toward which Miss Morley was looking , " there 'sthe new moon !  "  She looked up at the pale crescent , her own face almost as pale and wan .  " This is the first time we have seen it .  "  " We must wish !  " said George .  " I know what I wish .  "  " What ?  "  " That we may get home quickly .  "  " My wish is that we may find no disappointment when we get there , " said the governess , sadly .  " Disappointment !  "  He started as if he had been struck , and asked what she meant by talking of disappointment .  " I mean this , " she said , speaking rapidly , and with a restless motion of her thin hands ; " I mean that as the end of the voyage draws near , hope sinks in my heart ; and a sick fear comes over me that at the last all may not be well .  The person I go to meet may be changed in his feelings toward me ; or he may retain all the old feeling until the moment of seeing me , and then lose it in a breath at sight of my poor wan face , for I was called a pretty girl , Mr. Talboys , when I sailed for Sydney , fifteen years ago ; or he may be so changed by the world as to have grown selfish and mercenary , and he may welcome me for the sake of my fifteen years 'savings .  Again , he may be dead .  He may have been well , perhaps , up to within a week of our landing , and in that last week may have taken a fever , and died an hour before our vessel anchors in the Mersey .  I think of all these things , Mr. Talboys , and act the scenes over in my mind , and feel the anguish of them twenty times a day .  Twenty times a day , " she repeated ; " why I do it a thousand times a day .  "  George Talboys had stood motionless , with his cigar in his hand , listening to her so intently that , as she said the last words , his hold relaxed , and the cigar dropped in the water .  " I wonder , " she continued , more to herself than to him , " I wonder , looking back , to think how hopeful I was when the vessel sailed ; I never thought then of disappointment , but I pictured the joy of meeting , imagining the very words that would be said , the very tones , the very looks ; but for this last month of the voyage , day by day , and hour by hour my heart sinks and my hopeful fancies fade away , and I dread the end as much as if I knew that I was going to England to attend a funeral .  "  The young man suddenly changed his attitude , and turned his face full upon his companion , with a look of alarm .  She saw in the pale light that the color had faded from his cheek .  " What a fool !  " he cried , striking his clenched fist upon the side of the vessel , " what a fool I am to be frightened at this ?  Why do you come and say these things to me ?  Why do you come and terrify me out of my senses , when I am going straight home to the woman I love ; to a girl whose heart is as true as the light of Heaven ; and in whom I no more expect to find any change than I do to see another sun rise in to-morrow 'ssky ?  Why do you come and try to put such fancies in my head when I am going home to my darling wife ?  "  " Your wife , " she said ; " that is different .  There is no reason that my terrors should terrify you .  I am going to England to rejoin a man to whom I was engaged to be married fifteen years ago .  He was too poor to marry then , and when I was offered a situation as governess in a rich Australian family , I persuaded him to let me accept it , so that I might leave him free and unfettered to win his way in the world , while I saved a little money to help us when we began life together .  I never meant to stay away so long , but things have gone badly with him in England .  That is my story , and you can understand my fears .  They need not influence you .  Mine is an exceptional case .  "  " So is mine , " said George , impatiently .  " I tell you that mine is an exceptional case : although I swear to you that until this moment , I have never known a fear as to the result of my voyage home .  But you are right ; your terrors have nothing to do with me .  You have been away fifteen years ; all kinds of things may happen in fifteen years .  Now it is only three years and a half this very month since I left England .  What can have happened in such a short time as that ?  "  Miss Morley looked at him with a mournful smile , but did not speak .  His feverish ardor , the freshness and impatience of his nature were so strange and new to her , that she looked at him half in admiration , half in pity .  " My pretty little wife !  My gentle , innocent , loving little wife !  Do you know , Miss Morley , " he said , with all his old hopefulness of manner , " that I left my little girl asleep , with her baby in her arms , and with nothing but a few blotted lines to tell her why her faithful husband had deserted her ?  "  " Deserted her !  " exclaimed the governess .  " Yes .  I was an ensign in a cavalry regiment when I first met my little darling .  We were quartered at a stupid seaport town , where my pet lived with her shabby old father , a half-pay naval officer ; a regular old humbug , as poor as Job , and with an eye for nothing but the main chance .  I saw through all his shallow tricks to catch one of us for his pretty daughter .  I saw all the pitiable , contemptible , palpable traps he set for us big dragoons to walk into .  I saw through his shabby-genteel dinners and public-house port ; his fine talk of the grandeur of his family ; his sham pride and independence , and the sham tears of his bleared old eyes when he talked of his only child .  He was a drunken old hypocrite , and he was ready to sell my poor , little girl to the highest bidder .  Luckily for me , I happened just then to be the highest bidder ; for my father , is a rich man , Miss Morley , and as it was love at first sight on both sides , my darling and I made a match of it .  No sooner , however , did my father hear that I had married a penniless little girl , the daughter of a tipsy old half-pay lieutenant , than he wrote me a furious letter , telling me he would never again hold any communication with me , and that my yearly allowance would stop from my wedding-day .  " As there was no remaining in such a regiment as mine , with nothing but my pay to live on , and my pretty little wife to keep , I sold out , thinking that before the money was exhausted , I should be sure to drop into something .  I took my darling to Italy , and we lived there in splendid style as long as my two thousand pounds lasted ; but when that began to dwindle down to a couple of hundred or so , we came back to England , and as my darling had a fancy for being near that tiresome old father of hers , we settled at the watering-place where he lived .  Well , as soon as the old man heard that I had a couple of hundred pounds left , he expressed a wonderful degree of affection for us , and insisted on our boarding in his house .  We consented , still to please my darling , who had just then a peculiar right to have every whim and fancy of her innocent heart indulged .  We did board with him , and finally he fleeced us ; but when I spoke of it to my little wife , she only shrugged her shoulders , and said she did not like to be unkind to her ' poor papa .  ' So poor papa made away with our little stock of money in no time ; and as I felt that it was now becoming necessary to look about for something , I ran up to London , and tried to get a situation as a clerk in a merchant 'soffice , or as accountant , or book-keeper , or something of that kind .  But I suppose there was the stamp of a heavy dragoon about me , for do what I would I could n't get anybody to believe in my capacity ; and tired out , and down-hearted , I returned to my darling , to find her nursing a son and heir to his father 'spoverty .  Poor little girl , she was very low-spirited ; and when I told her that my London expedition had failed , she fairly broke down , and burst in to a storm of sobs and lamentations , telling me that I ought not to have married her if I could give her nothing but poverty and misery ; and that I had done her a cruel wrong in making her my wife .  By heaven !  Miss Morley , her tears and reproaches drove me almost mad ; and I flew into a rage with her , myself , her father , the world , and everybody in it , and then ran out of the house .  I walked about the streets all that day , half out of my mind , and with a strong inclination to throw myself into the sea , so as to leave my poor girl free to make a better match .  ' If I drown myself , her father must support her , ' I thought ; ' the old hypocrite could never refuse her a shelter ; but while I live she has no claim on him .  ' I went down to a rickety old wooden pier , meaning to wait there till it was dark , and then drop quietly over the end of it into the water ; but while I sat there smoking my pipe , and staring vacantly at the sea-gulls , two men came down , and one of them began to talk of the Australian gold-diggings , and the great things that were to be done there .  It appeared that he was going to sail in a day or two , and he was trying to persuade his companion to join him in the expedition .  " I listened to these men for upward of an hour , following them up and down the pier , with my pipe in my mouth , and hearing all their talk .  After this I fell into conversation with them myself , and ascertained that there was a vessel going to leave Liverpool in three days , by which vessel one of the men was going out .  This man gave me all the information I required , and told me , moreover , that a stalwart young fellow , such as I was , could hardly fail to do well in the diggings .  The thought flashed upon me so suddenly , that I grew hot and red in the face , and trembled in every limb with excitement .  This was better than the water , at any rate .  Suppose I stole away from my darling , leaving her safe under her father 'sroof , and went and made a fortune in the new world , and came back in a twelvemonth to throw it into her lap ; for I was so sanguine in those days that I counted on making my fortune in a year or so .  I thanked the man for his information , and late at night strolled homeward .  It was bitter winter weather , but I had been too full of passion to feel cold , and I walked through the quiet streets , with the snow drifting in my face , and a desperate hopefulness in my heart .  The old man was sitting drinking brandy-and-water in the little dining-room ; and my wife was up-stairs , sleeping peacefully , with the baby on her breast .  I sat down and wrote a few brief lines , which told her that I never had loved her better than now , when I seemed to desert her ; that I was going to try my fortune in the new world , and that if I succeeded I should come back to bring her plenty and happiness ; but that if I failed I should never look upon her face again .  I divided the remainder of our money — something over forty pounds — into two equal portions , leaving one for her , and putting the other in my pocket .  I knelt down and prayed for my wife and child , with my head upon the white counterpane that covered them .  I was n't much of a praying man at ordinary times , but God knows that was a heartfelt prayer .  I kissed her once , and the baby once , and then crept out of the room .  The dining-room door was open , and the old man was nodding over his paper .  He looked up as he heard my step in the passage , and asked me where I was going .  ' To have a smoke in the street , ' I answered ; and as this was a common habit of mine he believed me .  Three nights after I was out at sea , bound for Melbourne — a steerage passenger , with a digger 'stools for my baggage , and about seven shillings in my pocket .  "  " And you succeeded ?  " asked Miss Morley .  " Not till I had long despaired of success ; not until poverty and I had become such old companions and bed-fellows , that looking back at my past life , I wondered whether that dashing , reckless , extravagant , luxurious , champagne-drinking dragoon could have really been the same man who sat on the damp ground gnawing a moldy crust in the wilds of the new world .  I clung to the memory of my darling , and the trust that I had in her love and truth was the one keystone that kept the fabric of my past life together — the one star that lit the thick black darkness of the future .  I was hail-fellow-well-met with bad men ; I was in the center of riot , drunkenness , and debauchery ; but the purifying influence of my love kept me safe from all .  Thin and gaunt , the half-starved shadow of what I once had been , I saw myself one day in a broken bit of looking-glass , and was frightened by my own face .  But I toiled on through all ; through disappointment and despair , rheumatism , fever , starvation ; at the very gates of death , I toiled on steadily to the end ; and in the end I conquered .  "  He was so brave in his energy and determination , in his proud triumph of success , and in the knowledge of the difficulties he had vanquished , that the pale governess could only look at him in wondering admiration .  " How brave you were !  " she said .  " Brave !  " he cried , with a joyous peal of laughter ; " was n't I working for my darling ?  Through all the dreary time of that probation , her pretty white hand seemed beckoning me onward to a happy future !  Why , I have seen her under my wretched canvas tent sitting by my side , with her boy in her arms , as plainly as I had ever seen her in the one happy year of our wedded life .  At last , one dreary foggy morning , just three months ago , with a drizzling rain wetting me to the skin , up to my neck in clay and mire , half-starved , enfeebled by fever , stiff with rheumatism , a monster nugget turned up under my spade , and I was in one minute the richest man in Australia .  I fell down on the wet clay , with my lump of gold in the bosom of my shirt , and , for the first time in my life , cried like a child .  I traveled post-haste to Sydney , realized my price , which was worth upward of £ 20 , 000 , and a fortnight afterward took my passage for England in this vessel ; and in ten days — in ten days I shall see my darling .  "  " But in all that time did you never write to your wife ?  "  " Never , till the night before I left Sydney .  I could not write when everything looked so black .  I could not write and tell her that I was fighting hard with despair and death .  I waited for better fortune , and when that came I wrote telling her that I should be in England almost as soon as my letter , and giving her an address at a coffee-house in London where she could write to me , telling me where to find her , though she is hardly likely to have left her father 'shouse .  "  He fell into a reverie after this , and puffed meditatively at his cigar .  His companion did not disturb him .  The last ray of summer daylight had died out , and the pale light of the crescent moon only remained .  Presently George Talboys flung away his cigar , and turning to the governess , cried abruptly , " Miss Morley , if , when I get to England , I hear that anything has happened to my wife , I shall fall down dead .  "  " My dear Mr. Talboys , why do you think of these things ?  God is very good to us ; He will not afflict us beyond our power of endurance .  I see all things , perhaps , in a melancholy light ; for the long monotony of my life has given me too much time to think over my troubles .  "  " And my life has been all action , privation , toil , alternate hope and despair ; I have had no time to think upon the chances of anything happening to my darling .  What a blind , reckless fool I have been !  Three years and a half and not one line — one word from her , or from any mortal creature who knows her .  Heaven above !  what may not have happened ?  "  In the agitation of his mind he began to walk rapidly up and down the lonely deck , the governess following , and trying to soothe him .  " I swear to you , Miss Morley , " he said , " that till you spoke to me to-night , I never felt one shadow of fear , and now I have that sick , sinking dread at my heart which you talked of an hour ago .  Let me alone , please , to get over it my own way .  "  She drew silently away from him , and seated herself by the side of the vessel , looking over into the water .  George Talboys walked backward and forward for some time , with his head bent upon his breast , looking neither to the right nor the left , but in about a quarter of an hour he returned to the spot where the governess was seated .  " I have been praying , " he said — " praying for my darling .  "  He spoke in a voice little above a whisper , and she saw his face ineffably calm in the moonlight .  CHAPTER III .  HIDDEN RELICS .  The same August sun which had gone down behind the waste of waters glimmered redly upon the broad face of the old clock over that ivy-covered archway which leads into the gardens of Audley Court .  A fierce and crimson sunset .  The mullioned windows and twinkling lattices are all ablaze with the red glory ; the fading light flickers upon the leaves of the limes in the long avenue , and changes the still fish-pond into a sheet of burnished copper ; even into those dim recesses of brier and brushwood , amidst which the old well is hidden , the crimson brightness penetrates in fitful flashes till the dank weeds and the rusty iron wheel and broken woodwork seem as if they were flecked with blood .  The lowing of a cow in the quiet meadows , the splash of a trout in the fish-pond , the last notes of a tired bird , the creaking of wagon-wheels upon the distant road , every now and then breaking the evening silence , only made the stillness of the place seem more intense .  It was almost oppressive , this twilight stillness .  The very repose of the place grew painful from its intensity , and you felt as if a corpse must be lying somewhere within that gray and ivy-covered pile of building — so deathlike was the tranquillity of all around .  As the clock over the archway struck eight , a door at the back of the house was softly opened , and a girl came out into the gardens .  But even the presence of a human being scarcely broke the silence ; for the girl crept slowly over the thick grass , and gliding into the avenue by the side of the fish-pond , disappeared in the rich shelter of the limes .  She was not , perhaps , positively a pretty girl ; but her appearance was of that order which is commonly called interesting .  Interesting , it may be , because in the pale face and the light gray eyes , the small features and compressed lips , there was something which hinted at a power of repression and self-control not common in a woman of nineteen or twenty .  She might have been pretty , I think , but for the one fault in her small oval face .  This fault was an absence of color .  Not one tinge of crimson flushed the waxen whiteness of her cheeks ; not one shadow of brown redeemed the pale insipidity of her eyebrows and eyelashes ; not one glimmer of gold or auburn relieved the dull flaxen of her hair .  Even her dress was spoiled by this same deficiency .  The pale lavender muslin faded into a sickly gray , and the ribbon knotted round her throat melted into the same neutral hue .  Her figure was slim and fragile , and in spite of her humble dress , she had something of the grace and carriage of a gentlewoman , but she was only a simple country girl , called Phoebe Marks , who had been nursemaid in Mr. Dawson 'sfamily , and whom Lady Audley had chosen for her maid after her marriage with Sir Michael .  Of course , this was a wonderful piece of good fortune for Phoebe , who found her wages trebled and her work lightened in the well-ordered household at the Court ; and who was therefore quite as much the object of envy among her particular friends as my lady herself to higher circles .  A man , who was sitting on the broken wood-work of the well , started as the lady's-maid came out of the dim shade of the limes and stood before him among the weeds and brushwood .  I have said before that this was a neglected spot ; it lay in the midst of a low shrubbery , hidden away from the rest of the gardens , and only visible from the garret windows at the back of the west wing .  " Why , Phoebe , " said the man , shutting a clasp-knife with which he had been stripping the bark from a blackthorn stake , " you came upon me so still and sudden , that I thought you was an evil spirit .  I 'vecome across through the fields , and come in here at the gate agen the moat , and I was taking a rest before I came up to the house to ask if you was come back .  "  " I can see the well from my bedroom window , Luke , " Phoebe answered , pointing to an open lattice in one of the gables .  " I saw you sitting here , and came down to have a chat ; it 'sbetter talking out here than in the house , where there 'salways somebody listening .  "  The man was a big , broad-shouldered , stupid-looking clod-hopper of about twenty-three years of age .  His dark red hair grew low upon his forehead , and his bushy brows met over a pair of greenish gray eyes ; his nose was large and well-shaped , but the mouth was coarse in form and animal in expression .  Rosy-cheeked , red-haired , and bull-necked , he was not unlike one of the stout oxen grazing in the meadows round about the Court .  The girl seated herself lightly upon the wood-work at his side , and put one of her hands , which had grown white in her new and easy service , about his thick neck .  " Are you glad to see me , Luke ?  " she asked .  " Of course I 'mglad , lass , " he answered , boorishly , opening his knife again , and scraping away at the hedge-stake .  They were first cousins , and had been play fellows in childhood , and sweethearts in early youth .  " You do n't seem much as if you were glad , " said the girl ; " you might look at me , Luke , and tell me if you think my journey has improved me .  "  " It ai n't put any color into your cheeks , my girl , " he said , glancing up at her from under his lowering eyebrows ; " you 'reevery bit as white as you was when you went away .  "  " But they say traveling makes people genteel , Luke .  I 'vebeen on the Continent with my lady , through all manner of curious places ; and you know , when I was a child , Squire Horton 'sdaughters taught me to speak a little French , and I found it so nice to be able to talk to the people abroad .  "  " Genteel !  " cried Luke Marks , with a hoarse laugh ; " who wants you to be genteel , I wonder ?  Not me , for one ; when you 'remy wife you wo n't have overmuch time for gentility , my girl .  French , too !  Dang me , Phoebe , I suppose when we 'vesaved money enough between us to buy a bit of a farm , you 'llbe parleyvooing to the cows ?  "  She bit her lip as her lover spoke , and looked away .  He went on cutting and chopping at a rude handle he was fashioning to the stake , whistling softly to himself all the while , and not once looking at his cousin .  For some time they were silent , but by-and-by she said , with her face still turned away from her companion :  " What a fine thing it is for Miss Graham that was , to travel with her maid and her courier , and her chariot and four , and a husband that thinks there is n't one spot upon all the earth that 'sgood enough for her to set her foot upon !  "  " Ay , it is a fine thing , Phoebe , to have lots of money , " answered Luke , " and I hope you 'llbe warned by that , my lass , to save up your wages agin we get married .  "  " Why , what was she in Mr. Dawson 'shouse only three months ago ?  " continued the girl , as if she had not heard her cousin 'sspeech .  " What was she but a servant like me ?  Taking wages and working for them as hard , or harder , than I did .  You should have seen her shabby clothes , Luke — worn and patched , and darned and turned and twisted , yet always looking nice upon her , somehow .  She gives me more as lady's-maid here than ever she got from Mr. Dawson then .  Why , I 'veseen her come out of the parlor with a few sovereigns and a little silver in her hand , that master had just given her for her quarter 'ssalary ; and now look at her !  "  " Never you mind her , " said Luke ; " take care of yourself , Phoebe ; that 'sall you 'vegot to do .  What should you say to a public-house for you and me , by-and-by , my girl ?  There 'sa deal of money to be made out of a public-house .  "  The girl still sat with her face averted from her lover , her hands hanging listlessly in her lap , and her pale gray eyes fixed upon the last low streak of crimson dying out behind the trunks of the trees .  " You should see the inside of the house , Luke , " she said ; " it 'sa tumbledown looking place enough outside ; but you should see my lady 'srooms — all pictures and gilding , and great looking-glasses that stretch from the ceiling to the floor .  Painted ceilings , too , that cost hundreds of pounds , the housekeeper told her , and all done for her .  "  " She 'sa lucky one , " muttered Luke , with lazy indifference .  " You should have seen her while we were abroad , with a crowd of gentlemen hanging about her ; Sir Michael not jealous of them , only proud to see her so much admired .  You should have heard her laugh and talk with them ; throwing all their compliments and fine speeches back at them , as it were , as if they had been pelting her with roses .  She set everybody mad about her , wherever she went .  Her singing , her playing , her painting , her dancing , her beautiful smile , and sunshiny ringlets !  She was always the talk of a place , as long as we stayed in it .  "  " Is she at home to-night ?  "  " No ; she has gone out with Sir Michael to a dinner party at the Beeches .  They 'veseven or eight miles to drive , and they wo n't be back till after eleven .  "  " Then I 'lltell you what , Phoebe , if the inside of the house is so mighty fine , I should like to have a look at it .  "  " You shall , then .  Mrs. Barton , the housekeeper , knows you by sight , and she ca n't object to my showing you some of the best rooms .  "  It was almost dark when the cousins left the shrubbery and walked slowly to the house .  The door by which they entered led into the servants 'hall , on one side of which was the housekeeper 'sroom .  Phoebe Marks stopped for a moment to ask the housekeeper if she might take her cousin through some of the rooms , and having received permission to do so , lighted a candle at the lamp in the hall , and beckoned to Luke to follow her into the other part of the house .  The long , black oak corridors were dim in the ghostly twilight — the light carried by Phoebe looking only a poor speck in the broad passages through which the girl led her cousin .  Luke looked suspiciously over his shoulder now and then , half-frightened by the creaking of his own hob-nailed boots .  " It 'sa mortal dull place , Phoebe , " he said , as they emerged from a passage into the principal hall , which was not yet lighted ; " I 'veheard tell of a murder that was done here in old times .  "  " There are murders enough in these times , as to that , Luke , " answered the girl , ascending the staircase , followed by the young man .  She led the way through a great drawing-room , rich in satin and ormolu , buhl and inlaid cabinets , bronzes , cameos , statuettes , and trinkets , that glistened in the dusky light ; then through a morning room , hung with proof engravings of valuable pictures ; through this into an ante-chamber , where she stopped , holding the light above her head .  The young man stared about him , open-mouthed and open-eyed .  " It 'sa rare fine place , " he said , " and must have cost a heap of money .  "  " Look at the pictures on the walls , " said Phoebe , glancing at the panels of the octagonal chamber , which were hung with Claudes and Poussins , Wouvermans and Cuyps .  " I 'veheard that those alone are worth a fortune .  This is the entrance to my lady 'sapartments , Miss Graham that was .  " She lifted a heavy green cloth curtain which hung across a doorway , and led the astonished countryman into a fairy-like boudoir , and thence to a dressing-room , in which the open doors of a wardrobe and a heap of dresses flung about a sofa showed that it still remained exactly as its occupants had left it .  " I 'vegot all these things to put away before my lady comes home , Luke ; you might sit down here while I do it , I sha n't be long .  "  Her cousin looked around in gawky embarrassment , bewildered by the splendor of the room ; and after some deliberation selected the most substantial of the chairs , on the extreme edge of which he carefully seated himself .  " I wish I could show you the jewels , Luke , " said the girl ; " but I ca n't , for she always keeps the keys herself ; that 'sthe case on the dressing-table there .  "  " What , that ? " cried Luke , staring at the massive walnut-wood and brass inlaid casket .  " Why , that 'sbig enough to hold every bit of clothes I 'vegot !  "  " And it 'sas full as it can be of diamonds , rubies , pearls and emeralds , " answered Phoebe , busy as she spoke in folding the rustling silk dresses , and laying them one by one upon the shelves of the wardrobe .  As she was shaking out the flounces of the last , a jingling sound caught her ear , and she put her hand into the pocket .  " I declare !  " she exclaimed , " my lady has left her keys in her pocket for once in a way ; I can show you the jewelry , if you like , Luke .  "  " Well , I may as well have a look at it , my girl , " he said , rising from his chair and holding the light while his cousin unlocked the casket .  He uttered a cry of wonder when he saw the ornaments glittering on white satin cushions .  He wanted to handle the delicate jewels ; to pull them about , and find out their mercantile value .  Perhaps a pang of longing and envy shot through his heart as he thought how he would have liked to have taken one of them .  " Why , one of those diamond things would set us up in life , Phoebe , he said , turning a bracelet over and over in his big red hands .  " Put it down , Luke !  Put it down directly !  " cried the girl , with a look of terror ; " how can you speak about such things ?  "  He laid the bracelet in its place with a reluctant sigh , and then continued his examination of the casket .  " What 'sthis ?  " he asked presently , pointing to a brass knob in the frame-work of the box .  He pushed it as he spoke , and a secret drawer , lined with purple velvet , flew out of the casket .  " Look ye here !  " cried Luke , pleased at his discovery .  Phoebe Marks threw down the dress she had been folding , and went over to the toilette table .  " Why , I never saw this before , " she said ; " I wonder what there is in it ?  "  There was not much in it ; neither gold nor gems ; only a baby 'slittle worsted shoe rolled up in a piece of paper , and a tiny lock of pale and silky yellow hair , evidently taken from a baby 'shead .  Phoebe 'seyes dilated as she examined the little packet .  " So this is what my lady hides in the secret drawer , " she muttered .  " It 'squeer rubbish to keep in such a place , " said Luke , carelessly .  The girl 'sthin lip curved into a curious smile .  " You will bear me witness where I found this , " she said , putting the little parcel into her pocket .  " Why , Phoebe , you 'renot going to be such a fool as to take that , " cried the young man .  " I 'drather have this than the diamond bracelet you would have liked to take , " she answered ; " you shall have the public house , Luke .  "  CHAPTER IV .  IN THE FIRST PAGE OF " THE TIMES .  "  Robert Audley was supposed to be a barrister .  As a barrister was his name inscribed in the law-list ; as a barrister he had chambers in Figtree Court , Temple ; as a barrister he had eaten the allotted number of dinners , which form the sublime ordeal through which the forensic aspirant wades on to fame and fortune .  If these things can make a man a barrister , Robert Audley decidedly was one .  But he had never either had a brief , or tried to get a brief , or even wished to have a brief in all those five years , during which his name had been painted upon one of the doors in Figtree Court .  He was a handsome , lazy , care-for-nothing fellow , of about seven-and-twenty ; the only son of a younger brother of Sir Michael Audley .  His father had left him £ 400 a year , which his friends had advised him to increase by being called to the bar ; and as he found it , after due consideration , more trouble to oppose the wishes of these friends than to eat so many dinners , and to take a set of chambers in the Temple , he adopted the latter course , and unblushingly called himself a barrister .  Sometimes , when the weather was very hot , and he had exhausted himself with the exertion of smoking his German pipe , and reading French novels , he would stroll into the Temple Gardens , and lying in some shady spot , pale and cool , with his shirt collar turned down and a blue silk handkerchief tied loosely about his neck , would tell grave benchers that he had knocked himself up with over work .  The sly old benchers laughed at the pleasant fiction ; but they all agreed that Robert Audley was a good fellow ; a generous-hearted fellow ; rather a curious fellow , too , with a fund of sly wit and quiet humor , under his listless , dawdling , indifferent , irresolute manner .  A man who would never get on in the world ; but who would not hurt a worm .  Indeed , his chambers were converted into a perfect dog-kennel , by his habit of bringing home stray and benighted curs , who were attracted by his looks in the street , and followed him with abject fondness .  Robert always spent the hunting season at Audley Court ; not that he was distinguished as a Nimrod , for he would quietly trot to covert upon a mild-tempered , stout-limbed bay hack , and keep at a very respectful distance from the hard riders ; his horse knowing quite as well as he did , that nothing was further from his thoughts than any desire to be in at the death .  The young man was a great favorite with his uncle , and by no means despised by his pretty , gipsy-faced , light-hearted , hoydenish cousin , Miss Alicia Audley .  It might have seemed to other men , that the partiality of a young lady who was sole heiress to a very fine estate , was rather well worth cultivating , but it did not so occur to Robert Audley .  Alicia was a very nice girl , he said , a jolly girl , with no nonsense about her — a girl of a thousand ; but this was the highest point to which enthusiasm could carry him .  The idea of turning his cousin 'sgirlish liking for him to some good account never entered his idle brain .  I doubt if he even had any correct notion of the amount of his uncle 'sfortune , and I am certain that he never for one moment calculated upon the chances of any part of that fortune ultimately coming to himself .  So that when , one fine spring morning , about three months before the time of which I am writing , the postman brought him the wedding cards of Sir Michael and Lady Audley , together with a very indignant letter from his cousin , setting forth how her father had just married a wax-dollish young person , no older than Alicia herself , with flaxen ringlets , and a perpetual giggle ; for I am sorry to say that Miss Audley 'sanimus caused her thus to describe that pretty musical laugh which had been so much admired in the late Miss Lucy Graham — when , I say , these documents reached Robert Audley — they elicited neither vexation nor astonishment in the lymphatic nature of that gentleman .  He read Alicia 'sangry crossed and recrossed letter without so much as removing the amber mouth-piece of his German pipe from his mustached lips .  When he had finished the perusal of the epistle , which he read with his dark eyebrows elevated to the center of his forehead ( his only manner of expressing surprise , by the way ) he deliberately threw that and the wedding cards into the waste-paper basket , and putting down his pipe , prepared himself for the exertion of thinking out the subject .  " I always said the old buffer would marry , " he muttered , after about half an hour 'srevery .  Alicia and my lady , the stepmother , will go at it hammer and tongs .  I hope they wo n't quarrel in the hunting season , or say unpleasant things to each other at the dinner-table ; rows always upset a man 'sdigestion .  At about twelve o'clock on the morning following that night upon which the events recorded in my last chapter had taken place , the baronet 'snephew strolled out of the Temple , Blackfriarsward , on his way to the city .  He had in an evil hour obliged some necessitous friend by putting the ancient name of Audley across a bill of accommodation , which bill not having been provided for by the drawer , Robert was called upon to pay .  For this purpose he sauntered up Ludgate Hill , with his blue necktie fluttering in the hot August air , and thence to a refreshingly cool banking-house in a shady court out of St. Paul 'schurchyard , where he made arrangements for selling out a couple of hundred pounds 'worth of consols .  He had transacted this business , and was loitering at the corner of the court , waiting for a chance hansom to convey him back to the Temple , when he was almost knocked down by a man of about his own age , who dashed headlong into the narrow opening .  " Be so good as to look where you 'regoing , my friend !  " Robert remonstrated , mildly , to the impetuous passenger ; " you might give a man warning before you throw him down and trample upon him .  "  The stranger stopped suddenly , looked very hard at the speaker , and then gasped for breath .  " Bob !  " he cried , in a tone expressive of the most intense astonishment ; " I only touched British ground after dark last night , and to think that I should meet you this morning .  "  " I 'veseen you somewhere before , my bearded friend , " said Mr. Audley , calmly scrutinizing the animated face of the other , " but I 'llbe hanged if I can remember when or where .  "  " What !  " exclaimed the stranger , reproachfully .  " You do n't mean to say that you 'veforgotten George Talboys ?  "  " No I have not ! " said Robert , with an emphasis by no means usual to him ; and then hooking his arm into that of his friend , he led him into the shady court , saying , with his old indifference , " and now , George tell us all about it .  "  George Talboys did tell him all about it .  He told that very story which he had related ten days before to the pale governess on board the Argus ; and then , hot and breathless , he said that he had twenty thousand pounds or so in his pocket , and that he wanted to bank it at Messrs. — — , who had been his bankers many years before .  " If you 'llbelieve me , I 'veonly just left their counting-house , " said Robert .  " I 'llgo back with you , and we 'llsettle that matter in five minutes .  "  They did contrive to settle it in about a quarter of an hour ; and then Robert Audley was for starting off immediately for the Crown and Scepter , at Greenwich , or the Castle , at Richmond , where they could have a bit of dinner , and talk over those good old times when they were together at Eton .  But George told his friend that before he went anywhere , before he shaved or broke his fast , or in any way refreshed himself after a night journey from Liverpool by express train , he must call at a certain coffee-house in Bridge street , Westminster , where he expected to find a letter from his wife .  As they dashed through Ludgate Hill , Fleet street , and the Strand , in a fast hansom , George Talboys poured into his friend 'sear all those wild hopes and dreams which had usurped such a dominion over his sanguine nature .  " I shall take a villa on the banks of the Thames , Bob , " he said , " for the little wife and myself ; and we 'llhave a yacht , Bob , old boy , and you shall lie on the deck and smoke , while my pretty one plays her guitar and sings songs to us .  She 'sfor all the world like one of those what's-its-names , who got poor old Ulysses into trouble , " added the young man , whose classic lore was not very great .  The waiters at the Westminster coffee-house stared at the hollow-eyed , unshaven stranger , with his clothes of colonial cut , and his boisterous , excited manner ; but he had been an old frequenter of the place in his military days , and when they heard who he was they flew to do his bidding .  He did not want much — only a bottle of soda-water , and to know if there was a letter at the bar directed to George Talboys .  The waiter brought the soda-water before the young men had seated themselves in a shady box near the disused fire-place .  No ; there was no letter for that name .  The waiter said it with consummate indifference , while he mechanically dusted the little mahogany table .  George 'sface blanched to a deadly whiteness .  " Talboys , " he said ; " perhaps you did n't hear the name distinctly — T , A , L , B , O , Y , S. Go and look again , there must be a letter .  "  The waiter shrugged his shoulders as he left the room , and returned in three minutes to say that there was no name at all resembling Talboys in the letter rack .  There was Brown , and Sanderson , and Pinchbeck ; only three letters altogether .  The young man drank his soda-water in silence , and then , leaning his elbows on the table , covered his face with his hands .  There was something in his manner which told Robert Audley that his disappointment , trifling as it may appear , was in reality a very bitter one .  He seated himself opposite to his friend , but did not attempt to address him .  By-and-by George looked up , and mechanically taking a greasy Times newspaper of the day before from a heap of journals on the table , stared vacantly at the first page .  I cannot tell how long he sat blankly staring at one paragraph among the list of deaths , before his dazed brain took in its full meaning ; but after considerable pause he pushed the newspaper over to Robert Audley , and with a face that had changed from its dark bronze to a sickly , chalky grayish white , and with an awful calmness in his manner , he pointed with his finger to a line which ran thus :  " On the 24th inst .  , at Ventnor , Isle of Wight , Helen Talboys , aged 22. "  CHAPTER V.  THE HEADSTONE AT VENTNOR .  Yes , there it was in black and white — " Helen Talboys , aged 22. "  When George told the governess on board the Argus that if he heard any evil tidings of his wife he should drop down dead , he spoke in perfect good faith ; and yet , here were the worst tidings that could come to him , and he sat rigid , white and helpless , staring stupidly at the shocked face of his friend .  The suddenness of the blow had stunned him .  In this strange and bewildered state of mind he began to wonder what had happened , and why it was that one line in the Times newspaper could have so horrible an effect upon him .  Then by degrees even this vague consciousness of his misfortune faded slowly out of his mind , succeeded by a painful consciousness of external things .  The hot August sunshine , the dusty window-panes and shabby-painted blinds , a file of fly-blown play-bills fastened to the wall , the black and empty fire-places , a bald-headed old man nodding over the Morning Advertizer , the slip-shod waiter folding a tumbled table-cloth , and Robert Audley 'shandsome face looking at him full of compassionate alarm — he knew that all these things took gigantic proportions , and then , one by one , melted into dark blots and swam before his eyes , He knew that there was a great noise , as of half a dozen furious steam-engines tearing and grinding in his ears , and he knew nothing more — except that somebody or something fell heavily to the ground .  He opened his eyes upon the dusky evening in a cool and shaded room , the silence only broken by the rumbling of wheels at a distance .  He looked about him wonderingly , but half indifferently .  His old friend , Robert Audley , was seated by his side smoking .  George was lying on a low iron bedstead opposite to an open window , in which there was a stand of flowers and two or three birds in cages .  " You do n't mind the pipe , do you , George ?  " his friend asked , quietly .  " No. "  He lay for some time looking at the flowers and the birds ; one canary was singing a shrill hymn to the setting sun .  " Do the birds annoy you , George ?  Shall I take them out of the room ?  "  " No ; I like to hear them sing .  "  Robert Audley knocked the ashes out of his pipe , laid the precious meerschaum tenderly upon the mantelpiece , and going into the next room , returned presently with a cup of strong tea .  " Take this , George , " he said , as he placed the cup on a little table close to George 'spillow ; " it will do your head good .  "  The young man did not answer , but looked slowly round the room , and then at his friend 'sgrave face .  " Bob , " he said , " where are we ?  "  " In my chambers , dear boy , in the Temple .  You have no lodgings of your own , so you may as well stay with me while you 'rein town .  "  George passed his hand once or twice across his forehead , and then , in a hesitating manner , said , quietly :  " That newspaper this morning , Bob ; what was it ?  "  " Never mind just now , old boy ; drink some tea .  "  " Yes , yes , " cried George , impatiently , raising himself upon the bed , and staring about him with hollow eyes .  " I remember all about it .  Helen !  my Helen !  my wife , my darling , my only love !  Dead , dead !  "  " George , " said Robert Audley , laying his hand gently upon the young man 'sarm , " you must remember that the person whose name you saw in the paper may not be your wife .  There may have been some other Helen Talboys .  "  " No , no !  " he cried ; " the age corresponds with hers , and Talboys is such an uncommon name .  "  " It may be a misprint for Talbot .  "  " No , no , no ; my wife is dead !  "  He shook off Robert 'srestraining hand , and rising from the bed , walked straight to the door .  " Where are you going ?  " exclaimed his friend .  " To Ventnor , to see her grave .  "  " Not to-night , George , not to-night .  I will go with you myself by the first train to-morrow .  "  Robert led him back to the bed , and gently forced him to lie down again .  He then gave him an opiate , which had been left for him by the medical man whom they had called in at the coffee-house in Bridge street , when George fainted .  So George Talboys fell into a heavy slumber , and dreamed that he went to Ventnor , to find his wife alive and happy , but wrinkled , old , and gray , and to find his son grown into a young man .  Early the next morning he was seated opposite to Robert Audley in the first-class carriage of an express , whirling through the pretty open country toward Portsmouth .  They landed at Ventnor under the burning heat of the midday sun .  As the two young men came from the steamer , the people on the pier stared at George 'swhite face and untrimmed beard .  " What are we to do , George ?  " Robert Audley asked .  " We have no clew to finding the people you want to see .  "  The young man looked at him with a pitiful , bewildered expression .  The big dragoon was as helpless as a baby ; and Robert Audley , the most vacillating and unenergetic of men , found himself called upon to act for another .  He rose superior to himself , and equal to the occasion .  " Had we not better ask at one of the hotels about a Mrs. Talboys , George ?  " he said .  " Her father 'sname was Maldon , " George muttered ; " he could never have sent her here to die alone .  "  They said nothing more ; but Robert walked straight to a hotel where he inquired for a Mr. Maldon .  Yes , they told him , there was a gentleman of that name stopping at Ventnor , a Captain Maldon ; his daughter was lately dead .  The waiter would go and inquire for the address .  The hotel was a busy place at this season ; people hurrying in and out , and a great bustle of grooms and waiters about the halls .  George Talboys leaned against the doorpost , with much the same look in his face , as that which had frightened his friend in the Westminister coffee-house .  The worst was confirmed now .  His wife , Captain Maldon 'sdaughter was dead .  The waiter returned in about five minutes to say that Captain Maldon was lodging at Lansdowne Cottage , No. 4.  They easily found the house , a shabby , low-windowed cottage , looking toward the water .  Was Captain Maldon at home ?  No , the landlady said ; he had gone out on the beach with his little grandson .  Would the gentleman walk in and sit down a bit ?  George mechanically followed his friend into the little front parlor — dusty , shabbily furnished , and disorderly , with a child 'sbroken toys scattered on the floor , and the scent of stale tobacco hanging about the muslin window-curtains .  " Look !  " said George , pointing to a picture over the mantelpiece .  It was his own portrait , painted in the old dragooning days .  A pretty good likeness , representing him in uniform , with his charger in the background .  Perhaps the most animated of men would have been scarcely so wise a comforter as Robert Audley .  He did not utter a word to the stricken widower , but quietly seated himself with his back to George , looking out of the open window .  For some time the young man wandered restlessly about the room , looking at and sometimes touching the nick-nacks lying here and there .  Her workbox , with an unfinished piece of work ; her album full of extracts from Byron and Moore , written in his own scrawling hand ; some books which he had given her , and a bunch of withered flowers in a vase they had bought in Italy .  " Her portrait used to hang by the side of mine , " he muttered ; " I wonder what they have done with it .  "  By-and-by he said , after about an hour 'ssilence :  " I should like to see the woman of the house ; I should like to ask her about — "  He broke down , and buried his face in his hands .  Robert summoned the landlady .  She was a good-natured garrulous creature , accustomed to sickness and death , for many of her lodgers came to her to die .  She told all the particulars of Mrs. Talboys 'last hours ; how she had come to Ventnor only ten days before her death , in the last stage of decline ; and how , day by day , she had gradually , but surely , sunk under the fatal malady .  Was the gentleman any relative ?  she asked of Robert Audley , as George sobbed aloud .  " Yes , he is the lady 'shusband .  "  " What !  " the woman cried ; " him as deserted her so cruel , and left her with her pretty boy upon her poor old father 'shands , which Captain Maldon has told me often , with the tears in his poor eyes ?  "  " I did not desert her , " George cried out ; and then he told the history of his three years 'struggle .  " Did she speak of me ?  " he asked ; " did she speak of me — at — at the last ?  "  " No , she went off as quiet as a lamb .  She said very little from the first ; but the last day she knew nobody , not even her little boy , nor her poor old father , who took on awful .  Once she went off wild-like , talking about her mother , and about the cruel shame it was to leave her to die in a strange place , till it was quite pitiful to hear her .  "  " Her mother died when she was quite a child , " said George .  " To think that she should remember her and speak of her , but never once of me .  "  The woman took him into the little bedroom in which his wife had died .  He knelt down by the bed and kissed the pillow tenderly , the landlady crying as he did so .  While he was kneeling , praying , perhaps , with his face buried in this humble , snow-white pillow , the woman took something from a drawer .  She gave it to him when he rose from his knees ; it was a long tress of hair wrapped in silver paper .  " I cut this off when she lay in her coffin , " she said , " poor dear ?  "  He pressed the soft lock to his lips .  " Yes , " he murmured ; " this is the dear hair that I have kissed so often when her head lay upon my shoulder .  But it always had a rippling wave in it then , and now it seems smooth and straight .  "  " It changes in illness , " said the landlady .  " If you 'dlike to see where they have laid her , Mr. Talboys , my little boy shall show you the way to the churchyard .  "  So George Talboys and his faithful friend walked to the quiet spot , where , beneath a mound of earth , to which the patches of fresh turf hardly adhered , lay that wife of whose welcoming smile George had dreamed so often in the far antipodes .  Robert left the young man by the side of this newly-made grave , and returning in about a quarter of an hour , found that he had not once stirred .  He looked up presently , and said that if there was a stone-mason 'sanywhere near he should like to give an order .  They very easily found the stonemason , and sitting down amidst the fragmentary litter of the man 'syard , George Talboys wrote in pencil this brief inscription for the headstone of his dead wife 'sgrave :  Sacred to the Memory of HELEN , THE BELOVED WIFE OF GEORGE TALBOYS , Who departed this life August 24th , 18 — , aged 22 , Deeply regretted by her sorrowing Husband .  CHAPTER VI .  ANYWHERE , ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD .  When they returned to Lansdowne Cottage they found the old man had not yet come in , so they walked down to the beach to look for him .  After a brief search they found him , sitting upon a heap of pebbles , reading a newspaper and eating filberts .  The little boy was at some distance from his grandfather , digging in the sand with a wooden spade .  The crape round the old man 'sshabby hat , and the child 'spoor little black frock , went to George 'sheart .  Go where he would he met fresh confirmation of this great grief of his life .  His wife was dead .  " Mr. Maldon , " he said , as he approached his father-in-law .  The old man looked up , and , dropping his newspaper , rose from the pebbles with a ceremonious bow .  His faded light hair was tinged with gray ; he had a pinched hook nose ; watery blue eyes , and an irresolute-looking mouth ; he wore his shabby dress with an affectation of foppish gentility ; an eye-glass dangled over his closely buttoned-up waistcoat , and he carried a cane in his ungloved hand .  " Great Heaven !  " cried George , " do n't you know me ?  "  Mr. Maldon started and colored violently , with something of a frightened look , as he recognized his son-in-law .  " My dear boy , " he said , " I did not ; for the first moment I did not .  That beard makes such a difference .  You find the beard makes a great difference , do you not , sir ?  " he said , appealing to Robert .  " Great heavens !  " exclaimed George Talboys , " is this the way you welcome me ?  I come to England to find my wife dead within a week of my touching land , and you begin to chatter to me about my beard — you , her father !  "  " True !  true !  " muttered the old man , wiping his bloodshot eyes ; " a sad shock , a sad shock , my dear George .  If you 'donly been here a week earlier .  "  " If I had , " cried George , in an outburst of grief and passion , " I scarcely think that I would have let her die .  I would have disputed for her with death .  I would !  I would !  Oh God !  why did not the Argus go down with every soul on board her before I came to see this day ?  "  He began to walk up and down the beach , his father-in-law looking helplessly at him , rubbing his feeble eyes with a handkerchief .  " I 'vea strong notion that that old man did n't treat his daughter too well , " thought Robert , as he watched the half-pay lieutenant .  " He seems , for some reason or other , to be half afraid of George .  "  While the agitated young man walked up and down in a fever of regret and despair , the child ran to his grandfather , and clung about the tails of his coat .  " Come home , grandpa , come home , " he said .  " I 'mtired .  "  George Talboys turned at the sound of the babyish voice , and looked long and earnestly at the boy .  He had his father 'sbrown eyes and dark hair .  " My darling !  my darling !  " said George , taking the child in his arms , " I am your father , come across the sea to find you .  Will you love me ?  "  The little fellow pushed him away .  " I do n't know you , " he said .  " I love grandpa and Mrs. Monks at Southampton .  "  " Georgey has a temper of his own , sir , " said the old man .  " He has been spoiled .  "  They walked slowly back to the cottage , and once more George Talboys told the history of that desertion which had seemed so cruel .  He told , too , of the twenty thousand pounds banked by him the day before .  He had not the heart to ask any questions about the past , and his father-in-law only told him that a few months after his departure they had gone from the place where George left them to live at Southampton , where Helen got a few pupils for the piano , and where they managed pretty well till her health failed , and she fell into the decline of which she died .  Like most sad stories it was a very brief one .  " The boy seems fond of you , Mr. Maldon , " said George , after a pause .  " Yes , yes , " answered the old man , smoothing the child 'scurling hair ; " yes .  Georgey is very fond of his grandfather .  "  " Then he had better stop with you .  The interest of my money will be about six hundred a year .  You can draw a hundred of that for Georgey 'seducation , leaving the rest to accumulate till he is of age .  My friend here will be trustee , and if he will undertake the charge , I will appoint him guardian to the boy , allowing him for the present to remain under your care .  "  " But why not take care of him yourself , George ?  " asked Robert Audley .  " Because I shall sail in the very next vessel that leaves Liverpool for Australia .  I shall be better in the diggings or the backwoods than ever I could be here .  I 'mbroken for a civilized life from this hour , Bob .  "  The old man 'sweak eyes sparkled as George declared this determination .  " My poor boy , I think you 'reright , " he said , " I really think you 'reright .  The change , the wild life , the — the — " He hesitated and broke down as Robert looked earnestly at him .  " You 'rein a great hurry to get rid of your son-in-law , I think , Mr. Maldon , " he said , gravely .  " Get rid of him , dear boy !  Oh , no , no !  But for his own sake , my dear sir , for his own sake , you know .  "  " I think for his own sake he 'dmuch better stay in England and look after his son , " said Robert .  " But I tell you I ca n't , " cried George ; " every inch of this accursed ground is hateful to me — I want to run out of it as I would out of a graveyard .  I 'llgo back to town to-night , get that business about the money settled early to-morrow morning , and start for Liverpool without a moment 'sdelay .  I shall be better when I 'veput half the world between me and her grave .  "  " Before he left the house he stole out to the landlady , and asked some more questions about his dead wife .  " Were they poor ?  " he asked , " were they pinched for money while she was ill ?  "  " Oh , no !  " the woman answered ; " though the captain dresses shabby , he has always plenty of sovereigns in his purse .  The poor lady wanted for nothing .  "  George was relieved at this , though it puzzled him to know where the drunken half-pay lieutenant could have contrived to find money for all the expenses of his daughter 'sillness .  But he was too thoroughly broken down by the calamity which had befallen him to be able to think much of anything , so he asked no further questions , but walked with his father-in-law and Robert Audley down to the boat by which they were to cross to Portsmouth .  The old man bade Robert a very ceremonious adieu .  " You did not introduce me to your friend , by-the-bye , my dear boy , " he said .  George stared at him , muttered something indistinct , and ran down the ladder to the boat before Mr. Maldon could repeat his request .  The steamer sped away through the sunset , and the outline of the island melted in the horizon as they neared the opposite shore .  " To think , " said George , " that two nights ago , at this time , I was steaming into Liverpool , full of the hope of clasping her to my heart , and to-night I am going away from her grave !  "  The document which appointed Robert Audley as guardian to little George Talboys was drawn up in a solicitor 'soffice the next morning .  " It 'sa great responsibility , " exclaimed Robert ; " I , guardian to anybody or anything !  I , who never in my life could take care of myself !  "  " I trust in your noble heart , Bob , " said George .  " I know you will take care of my poor orphan boy , and see that he is well used by his grandfather .  I shall only draw enough from Georgey 'sfortune to take me back to Sydney , and then begin my old work again .  "  But it seemed as if George was destined to be himself the guardian of his son ; for when he reached Liverpool , he found that a vessel had just sailed , and that there would not be another for a month ; so he returned to London , and once more threw himself upon Robert Audley 'shospitality .  The barrister received him with open arms ; he gave him the room with the birds and flowers , and had a bed put up in his dressing-room for himself .  Grief is so selfish that George did not know the sacrifices his friend made for his comfort .  He only knew that for him the sun was darkened , and the business of life done .  He sat all day long smoking cigars , and staring at the flowers and canaries , chafing for the time to pass that he might be far out at sea .  But just as the hour was drawing near for the sailing of the vessel , Robert Audley came in one day , full of a great scheme .  A friend of his , another of those barristers whose last thought is of a brief , was going to St. Petersburg to spend the winter , and wanted Robert to accompany him .  Robert would only go on condition that George went too .  For a long time the young man resisted ; but when he found that Robert was , in a quiet way , thoroughly determined upon not going without him , he gave in , and consented to join the party .  What did it matter ?  he said .  One place was the same to him as another ; anywhere out of England ; what did he care where ?  This was not a very cheerful way of looking at things , but Robert Audley was quite satisfied with having won his consent .  The three young men started under very favorable circumstances , carrying letters of introduction to the most influential inhabitants of the Russian capital .  Before leaving England , Robert wrote to his cousin Alicia , telling her of his intended departure with his old friend George Talboys , whom he had lately met for the first time after a lapse of years , and who had just lost his wife .  Alicia 'sreply came by return post , and ran thus :  " MY DEAR ROBERT — How cruel of you to run away to that horrid St. Petersburg before the hunting season !  I have heard that people lose their noses in that disagreeable climate , and as yours is rather a long one , I should advise you to return before the very severe weather sets in .  What sort of person is this Mr. Talboys ?  If he is very agreeable you may bring him to the Court as soon as you return from your travels .  Lady Audley tells me to request you to secure her a set of sables .  You are not to consider the price , but to be sure that they are the handsomest that can be obtained .  Papa is perfectly absurd about his new wife , and she and I cannot get on together at all ; not that she is disagreeable to me , for , as far as that goes , she makes herself agreeable to every one ; but she is so irretrievably childish and silly .  " Believe me to be , my dear Robert .  " Your affectionate cousin ,  " ALICIA AUDLEY .  "  CHAPTER VII .  AFTER A YEAR .  The first year of George Talboys 'widowhood passed away , the deep band of crepe about his hat grew brown and dusty , and as the last burning day of another August faded out , he sat smoking cigars in the quiet chambers of Figtree Court , much as he had done the year before , when the horror of his grief was new to him , and every object in life , however trifling or however important , seemed saturated with his one great sorrow .  But the big ex-dragoon had survived his affliction by a twelvemonth , and hard as it may be to have to tell it , he did not look much the worse for it .  Heaven knows what wasted agonies of remorse and self-reproach may not have racked George 'shonest heart , as he lay awake at nights thinking of the wife he had abandoned in the pursuit of a fortune , which she never lived to share .  Once , while they were abroad , Robert Audley ventured to congratulate him upon his recovered spirits .  He burst into a bitter laugh .  " Do you know , Bob , " he said , " that when some of our fellows were wounded in India , they came home , bringing bullets inside them .  They did not talk of them , and they were stout and hearty , and looked as well , perhaps , as you or I ; but every change in the weather , however slight , every variation of the atmosphere , however trifling , brought back the old agony of their wounds as sharp as ever they had felt it on the battle-field .  I 'vehad my wound , Bob ; I carry the bullet still , and I shall carry it into my coffin .  "  The travelers returned from St. Petersburg in the spring , and George again took up his quarters at his old friend 'schambers , only leaving them now and then to run down to Southampton and take a look at his little boy .  He always went loaded with toys and sweetmeats to give to the child ; but , for all this , Georgey would not become very familiar with his papa , and the young man 'sheart sickened as he began to fancy that even his child was lost to him .  " What can I do ?  " he thought .  " If I take him away from his grandfather , I shall break his heart ; if I let him remain , he will grow up a stranger to me , and care more for that drunken old hypocrite than for his own father .  But then , what could an ignorant , heavy dragoon like me do with such a child ?  What could I teach him , except to smoke cigars and idle around all day with his hands in his pockets ?  "  So the anniversary of that 30th of August , upon which George had seen the advertisement of his wife 'sdeath in the Times newspaper , came round for the first time , and the young man put off his black clothes and the shabby crape from his hat , and laid his mournful garments in a trunk in which he kept a packet of his wife 'sletters , her portrait , and that lock of hair which had been cut from her head after death .  Robert Audley had never seen either the letters , the portrait , or the long tress of silky hair ; nor , indeed , had George ever mentioned the name of his dead wife after that one day at Ventnor , on which he learned the full particulars of her decease .  " I shall write to my cousin Alicia to-day , George , " the young barrister said , upon this very 30th of August .  " Do you know that the day after to-morrow is the 1st of September ?  I shall write and tell her that we will both run down to the Court for a week 'sshooting .  "  " No , no , Bob ; go by yourself ; they do n't want me , and I 'drather — "  " Bury yourself in Figtree Court , with no company but my dogs and canaries !  No , George , you shall do nothing of the kind .  "  " But I do n't care for shooting .  "  " And do you suppose I care for it ?  " cried Robert , with charming naivete .  " Why , man , I do n't know a partridge from a pigeon , and it might be the 1st of April , instead of the 1st of September , for aught I care .  I never hurt a bird in my life , but I have hurt my own shoulder with the weight of my gun .  I only go down to Essex for the change of air , the good dinners , and the sight of my uncle 'shonest , handsome face .  Besides , this time I 'veanother inducement , as I want to see this fair-haired paragon — my new aunt .  You 'llgo with me , George ?  "  " Yes , if you really wish it .  "  The quiet form his grief had taken after its first brief violence , left him as submissive as a child to the will of his friend ; ready to go anywhere or do anything ; never enjoying himself , or originating any enjoyment , but joining in the pleasures of others with a hopeless , uncomplaining , unobtrusive resignation peculiar to his simple nature .  But the return of post brought a letter from Alicia Audley , to say that the two young men could not be received at the Court .  " There are seventeen spare bed-rooms , " wrote the young lady , in an indignant running hand , " but for all that , my dear Robert , you ca n't come ; for my lady has taken it into her silly head that she is too ill to entertain visitors ( there is no more the matter with her than there is with me ) , and she cannot have gentlemen ( great , rough men , she says ) in the house .  Please apologize to your friend Mr. Talboys , and tell him that papa expects to see you both in the hunting season .  "  " My lady 'sairs and graces sha n't keep us out of Essex for all that , " said Robert , as he twisted the letter into a pipe-light for his big meerschaum .  " I 'lltell you what we 'lldo , George : there 'sa glorious inn at Audley , and plenty of fishing in the neighborhood ; we 'llgo there and have a week 'ssport .  Fishing is much better than shooting ; you 'veonly to lie on a bank and stare at your line ; I do n't find that you often catch anything , but it 'svery pleasant .  "  He held the twisted letter to the feeble spark of fire glimmering in the grate , as he spoke , and then changing his mind , deliberately unfolded it , and smoothed the crumpled paper with his hand .  " Poor little Alicia !  " he said , thoughtfully ; " it 'srather hard to treat her letter so cavalierly — I 'llkeep it ; " upon which Mr. Robert Audley put the note back into its envelope , and afterward thrust it into a pigeon-hole in his office desk , marked important .  Heaven knows what wonderful documents there were in this particular pigeon-hole , but I do not think it likely to have contained anything of great judicial value .  If any one could at that moment have told the young barrister that so simple a thing as his cousin 'sbrief letter would one day come to be a link in that terrible chain of evidence afterward to be slowly forged in the only criminal case in which he was ever to be concerned , perhaps Mr. Robert Audley would have lifted his eyebrows a little higher than usual .  So the two young men left London the next day , with one portmanteau and a rod and tackle between them , and reached the straggling , old-fashioned , fast-decaying village of Audley , in time to order a good dinner at the Sun Inn .  Audley Court was about three-quarters of a mile from the village , lying , as I have said , deep down in the hollow , shut in by luxuriant timber .  You could only reach it by a cross-road bordered by trees , and as trimly kept as the avenues in a gentleman 'spark .  It was a lonely place enough , even in all its rustic beauty , for so bright a creature as the late Miss Lucy Graham , but the generous baronet had transformed the interior of the gray old mansion into a little palace for his young wife , and Lady Audley seemed as happy as a child surrounded by new and costly toys .  In her better fortunes , as in her old days of dependence , wherever she went she seemed to take sunshine and gladness with her .  In spite of Miss Alicia 'sundisguised contempt for her step-mother 'schildishness and frivolity , Lucy was better loved and more admired than the baronet 'sdaughter .  That very childishness had a charm which few could resist .  The innocence and candor of an infant beamed in Lady Audley 'sfair face , and shone out of her large and liquid blue eyes .  The rosy lips , the delicate nose , the profusion of fair ringlets , all contributed to preserve to her beauty the character of extreme youth and freshness .  She owned to twenty years of age , but it was hard to believe her more than seventeen .  Her fragile figure , which she loved to dress in heavy velvets , and stiff , rustling silks , till she looked like a child tricked out for a masquerade , was as girlish as if she had just left the nursery .  All her amusements were childish .  She hated reading , or study of any kind , and loved society .  Rather than be alone , she would admit Phoebe Marks into her confidence , and loll on one of the sofas in her luxurious dressing-room , discussing a new costume for some coming dinner-party ; or sit chattering to the girl with her jewel-box beside her , upon the satin cushions , and Sir Michael 'spresents spread out in her lap , while she counted and admired her treasures .  She had appeared at several public balls at Chelmsford and Colchester , and was immediately established as the belle of the county .  Pleased with her high position and her handsome house ; with every caprice gratified , every whim indulged ; admired and caressed wherever she went ; fond of her generous husband ; rich in a noble allowance of pin-money ; with no poor relations to worry her with claims upon her purse or patronage ; it would have been hard to find in the County of Essex a more fortunate creature than Lucy , Lady Audley .  The two young men loitered over the dinner-table in the private sitting-room at the Sun Inn .  The windows were thrown wide open , and the fresh country air blew in upon them as they dined .  The weather was lovely ; the foliage of the woods touched here and there with faint gleams of the earliest tints of autumn ; the yellow corn still standing in some of the fields , in others just falling under the shining sickle ; while in the narrow lanes you met great wagons drawn by broad-chested cart-horses , carrying home the rich golden store .  To any one who has been , during the hot summer months , pent up in London , there is in the first taste of rustic life a kind of sensuous rapture scarcely to be described .  George Talboys felt this , and in this he experienced the nearest approach to enjoyment that he had ever known since his wife 'sdeath .  The clock struck five as they finished dinner .  " Put on your hat , George , " said Robert Audley ; " they do n't dine at the Court till seven ; we shall have time to stroll down and see the old place and its inhabitants .  "  The landlord , who had come into the room with a bottle of wine , looked up as the young man spoke .  " I beg your pardon , Mr. Audley , " he said , " but if you want to see your uncle , you 'lllose your time by going to the Court just now .  Sir Michael and my lady and Miss Alicia have all gone to the races up at Chorley , and they wo n't be back till nigh upon eight o'clock , most likely .  They must pass by here to go home .  "  Under these circumstances of course it was no use going to the Court , so the two young men strolled through the village and looked at the old church , and then went and reconnoitered the streams in which they were to fish the next day , and by such means beguiled the time until after seven o'clock .  At about a quarter past that hour they returned to the inn , and seating themselves in the open window , lit their cigars and looked out at the peaceful prospect .  We hear every day of murders committed in the country .  Brutal and treacherous murders ; slow , protracted agonies from poisons administered by some kindred hand ; sudden and violent deaths by cruel blows , inflicted with a stake cut from some spreading oak , whose every shadow promised — peace .  In the county of which I write , I have been shown a meadow in which , on a quiet summer Sunday evening , a young farmer murdered the girl who had loved and trusted him ; and yet , even now , with the stain of that foul deed upon it , the aspect of the spot is — peace .  No species of crime has ever been committed in the worst rookeries about Seven Dials that has not been also done in the face of that rustic calm which still , in spite of all , we look on with a tender , half-mournful yearning , and associate with — peace .  It was dusk when gigs and chaises , dog-carts and clumsy farmers 'phaetons , began to rattle through the village street , and under the windows of the Sun Inn ; deeper dusk still when an open carriage and four drew suddenly up beneath the rocking sign-post .  It was Sir Michael Audley 'sbarouche which came to so sudden a stop before the little inn .  The harness of one of the leaders had become out of order , and the foremost postillion dismounted to set it right .  " Why , it 'smy uncle , " cried Robert Audley , as the carriage stopped .  " I 'llrun down and speak to him .  "  George lit another cigar , and , sheltered by the window-curtains , looked out at the little party .  Alicia sat with her back to the horses , and he could perceive , even in the dusk , that she was a handsome brunette ; but Lady Audley was seated on the side of the carriage furthest from the inn , and he could see nothing of the fair-haired paragon of whom he had heard so much .  " Why , Robert , " exclaimed Sir Michael , as his nephew emerged from the inn , " this is a surprise !  "  " I have not come to intrude upon you at the Court , my dear uncle , " said the young man , as the baronet shook him by the hand in his own hearty fashion .  " Essex is my native county , you know , and about this time of year I generally have a touch of homesickness ; so George and I have come down to the inn for two or three day 'sfishing .  "  " George — George who ?  "  " George Talboys .  "  " What , has he come ?  " cried Alicia .  " I 'mso glad ; for I 'mdying to see this handsome young widower .  "  " Are you , Alicia ?  " said her cousin , " Then egad , I 'llrun and fetch him , and introduce you to him at once .  "  Now , so complete was the dominion which Lady Audley had , in her own childish , unthinking way , obtained over her devoted husband , that it was very rarely that the baronet 'seyes were long removed from his wife 'spretty face .  When Robert , therefore , was about to re-enter the inn , it needed but the faintest elevation of Lucy 'seyebrows , with a charming expression of weariness and terror , to make her husband aware that she did not want to be bored by an introduction to Mr. George Talboys .  " Never mind to-night , Bob , " he said .  " My wife is a little tired after our long day 'spleasure .