The Queen of Hearts

r Owen

of the Bla

ath, when my only brother had gone to sea, when my sister was out at service, an

d’s father, began. The farm-lands stretched down gently into a beautiful rich valley, lying nicely sheltered by the high platform of the moor. When the ground began to rise again, miles and miles away, it led up to a country house called Holme Manor, belonging to a gentleman named Knifton. Mr. Knifton had lately married a you

, by shaping which my father gained his livelihood, lay all about him at his very door, so that he thought his position, solitary as it was, quite an enviable one. I can hardly say that I agreed with him, though I never complained. I was very fond of my father, and managed to make the best of my loneliness with the thought of bei

uld have been superfluous in a sheltered position, was absolutely necessary, in our exposed situation, to keep out the cold winds which, excepting just the summer months, swept over us continually all the year round. The outside boards, covering our roughly-built st

t is desirable that you should know, and may proceed a

half a day’s journey off, and it invited my father to come to him and give his judgment about an estimate for some stonework on a very large scale. My father’s expenses for loss of time were to be paid, and he wa

he milkmaids who would give me a share of her bed. I by no means liked the notion of sleeping with a girl whom I did not know, and I saw no reason to feel afraid of being left alone for only one night; so I declined. No thieves had ever come near us; our poverty was sufficient protection against them; and of other dangers there were none tha

ung lady’s kindness never to neglect an opportunity of coming to pay me a friendly visit, and her husband was generally willing to accompany her for his wife’s sake. I made my best courtesy, therefore, with a great deal of pleasure, but with no particular surprise at seeing them. They

inveterate extravagance, and of never being able to go out with money in his pocket without spending it all, if he possibly could, before he got home again. Mr. Knifton had laugh

every pretty thing in every one of the Cliverton shop-windows; I shall hand you the purse, and you will go in and buy. When we have reached home again, and you have h ad time to get tired of your purchases, you wi

nity. Bessie, my dear” (turning to me), “you shall judge how far I deserve the character which that unscrupulous man has just gi

took some gold and silver

ry expenses. Is that all the money you have about you? What do I feel here?” a

drew out some bank-notes, put them back again immediately, and, closing the pocketbook, stepped across the

o there?” asked Mr. Knif

the pocketbook in a vacant place on one of the lower shel

ay say, on no account let him have it until we call again on our way back. No, sir, I won’t trust you with that money in your pocket in the town of Cliverton. I will make sure of your taking it all home

t she easily carried her point, for he was far too fond of her to have a will of his own in any trifling matter betw

yours,” cried Mrs. Knifton, gayly, at the door. Her husband lifted her into the saddle, mount

e deposit placed in my hands, but it was one of the odd points in my character then (and I think it is still) to feel an unreasonably strong objection to charging myself with money responsibilities of any kind, even to suit the convenience of my dearest friends. As soon as I was left alone,

rom Mrs. Knifton, which I always kept out of harm’s way in my own bedroom. Most unluckily — as it afterward turned out — instead of taking the pocketbook to the tea-caddy, I went into my room first to take the tea-

e of Shifty Dick. He bore a very bad character for everything but wrestling, a sport for which the working men of our parts were famous all through the county. Shifty Dick was champion, and he had got his name from some tricks of wrestling, for which he was celebrated. He was a tall, heavy man, with a lowering, scarred face, and huge hairy hands — the last visitor in the whole world that I should have been glad to see under any circumstances. Hi

y to get rid of my unwelcome visitors had made me incautious enough to

se I knew that plenty of men were at work within hail, in a neighboring quarry. The two looked at each other again when I denied having any cider to give them; and Jerry (as I am obliged to call him, knowing no other name by which to distinguish the fellow) took off his cap to

or. They trudged off in the direction of Moor Farm; and, a

fterward I loo

nder any actual alarm, for I felt next to certain that neither Shifty Dick nor Jerry had got a chance of setting eyes on so small a thing as the pocketbook while they were in the kitchen; but there was a kind of vague distrust troubling me — a suspicion of the night — a dislike of being left by myself, which I never remember having experienced before.

acters I had was by no means sufficient to warrant me in admitting them into my confidence in the matter of the pocketbook. I had seen enough of poverty and poor men to know what a terrible temptation a large sum of money is to those whose whole lives are passed in scraping up s

efore the people at the farm. Timidity is thought rather a graceful attraction among ladies, but among poor women it is something to be laughed at. A woman with less spirit of her own than I had, and always shall have, would have considered twice in my situation before she made up her mind to encounter the jokes of plowmen and the jeers

ing I did was to lock and bolt the back and front doors

in the room, and the sense of security inspired by the closed doors and shutters, that I had ever felt even the slightest apprehension earlier in the day. I sang as

ily into the blaze, with my knitting on my lap — sat till the splashing of the rain outside and the fitful, sullen sobbing of the wind grew fainter and fainter on my ear. The last sounds I heard before I fairly dozed off to sleep were t

of my hair — I started up breathless, cold and motionless, waiting in the silence I hardly knew for what, doubt

second bang, louder than the fi

’s t

which I recognised immediatel

and there’s nobody near to hear you. Listen to reason, my love, and let us in. We don’t want cider this time — we only want a very neat-looking pocketbook which you happen to have, and your late excellent mother’s four silver teaspoons, which you keep so nice and clean

in Shifty Dick,

beauty. But you won’t drive us to doi

of the two villains would have terrified some women out of their senses, but the only result they produced on me was violent indi

only a poor girl left alone in the house. You ragamuffin thieves, I defy you both! Our bolts are strong, o

I heard Jerry laugh and Shifty Dick swear a whole mouthful of oaths. Then there wa

light. Strange and improbable as it may appear, the next thing that attracted my attention was my poor pussy, crouched up, panic-stricken, in a corner. I was so fond of the little creature that I

th heavy stones picked up from the ground outside. Jerry sang at his wicked work, and Shifty Dick swore. A

t it in the bosom of my dress. I was determined to defend the property confided to my care with my life. Just as I had secured

ugly-looking knobs on it, pushed into the passage thro

ain you on the spot!” I screeched

ad out again much fas

th all my might, and the blow must have jarred the hand of Shifty Dick up to his very shoulder, for I heard him give a roar of rage and pain. Before

uspected they had gone to get bigger stones, a

father’s big tool chest, three chairs, and a scuttleful of coals; and last, I dragged out the kitchen table and rammed it as hard as I could against the whole barricade. They heard

y it the

t I heard their footsteps

to besiege the

d this advantage in the way of strength — it was made of two solid oak boards joined lengthwise, and strengthened inside by heavy cross pieces. It ha

they soon found out as much for themselves. After five minutes of banging at the back door they gave up

e bruises I had inflicted on my hands in making the barricade against the front door. I had not lost a particle of my resolution, but I was beginning to lose strength. There was a bottle of rum in the cupboard, wh

eat drying my face, when I suddenly

evidently reckoned on frightening me easily into letting them in, and had come unprovided with house-breaking tools of any kind. A fresh burst of oaths informed me that they had recognized the obstacle of the iron bars. I listened breathlessly for som

ried my courage even more severely than the

against which I was not provided. The ticking of the clock annoyed me; the crackling of the fire startled me. I looked out twenty times in a minute into the dark corners of the passage, straining my eyes, holding my breath, anticipati

down the kitchen chimney. It was so unexpected and so horrible in the stillness that I screamed for the first time sinc

devil!” roared a voi

t that moment, had evidently obliged the man to take his face from the mouth of the chimney. I counted the secon

l burn the place do

the roof; and that had been well soaked by the heavy rain which had now f

n up by high winds came thundering down the chimney. It scattered the live embers on the hearth all over the room. A richly-furnished place, with knickknacks and fine muslin abo

ger I was now in recalled me to my senses immediately. There was a large canful of water in my bedroom, and I ran in at once to fetch it

he man on the roof must have heard the hissing of the fire as I put it out, and have felt the change produced in the air at the mouth of the chimney, for after the third stone had descended no more followed it. As for either of the ruffia

wly and wickedly the knife wriggled its way through the dry inside thatch between the rafters. It stopped for a while, and there came a sound of tearing. That, in its turn, stopped too; there was a great fall of dry thatch on the floor; and I saw the heavy, hairy hand of Shifty Di

ry, coming from the neighborhood of my father’s stone-shed in the back yard. The hand and

w, which was far too heavy and unwieldy to be used on the roof of the cottage. I was still puzzling my brains, and making my head swim to no purpose, when I heard the men dragging something out of the shed. At the same instant that the noise c

ch d

We’ve cracked it already; we’l

am as a battering-ram against the door. When that conviction overcame me, I lost courage at last. I felt that the door must come dow

king together, and the tears at last beginning to wet my cheeks. “I must trust to the n

om the bedroom reminded me of the existence of poor Pussy. I ran in, and huddled the creature up i

barricade, were hurled, rattling, on to the floor, but the lower hinge of t

ains cry —“one more run with

my bosom, the silver spoons in my pocket, and the cat in my arms. I threaded my way easily enough through the familiar obstacles in the backyar

n the distance as if they were running out to pursue me. I kept on at the top of my speed, and the noise s

me half crazed by what I had gone through. If it had so happened that the wind had changed after I had observed its direction early in the evening, I should have gone astray, and have probably perished of fatigue and exposure on the moor. Providentially, it still blew steadily as it had blown for hours past, and I reached the farmhouse with my clothes

nd myself in one of the farmhouse beds — my father, Mrs. Knifton, and the doctor were all in the ro

e to buy furniture with, in place of the things that the thieves had broken. These pleasant tidings assisted so greatly in promoting my recovery, that I was soon able to relate to my friends at the farmhouse the particulars that I have written here. They were all surprised and interested, but no one, as I thought, listened to me with such breathless attention as the farmer’s eldest son. Mrs. Knifton noticed this too, and began to make jokes about it, in her light-hearted way, as soon as we were alone. I thought little of he

s own notions, and to please himself,” he used to say. “My notion is, that when I take a wife I am placing my character and my happiness — the most precious things I have to trust — in one woman’s care. The woman I mean to marry had a small charge confided to her care, and showed herself worthy of it

s now told. Whatever interest my perilous adventure may excite, ends, I am well aware, with my escape to the farmhouse. I have only ventured on writing these few additional sentences becau