The Weird Sisters, Volume I (of 3)

atering-town, Seacliff, which stands in a little bay at the mouth of the river. Betwe

r name, but is spoken of as "The Island," measures a mile long by half a mile broad. It rises gradually from the shores to the centre, and on the highest point of it stands Island Castle, th

t and the meanest economy. His wife had then been dead twenty years. She had died in giving birth to her only child, Maud, now rapidly approaching her majori

er presence acceptable, but her delicate complexion, her dark sweet eyes, her ple

formed the one exception to the general appearance of approaching dissolution. The outer walls of the pile were seamed and lined, the water had eaten into the stone,

tion, the wide prospect it commanded, the fact that it could not be invested on all sides at once except by a whole army, the facilities it afforded to approach and flight of friends, and the

h failure the historic earldom of Stancroft was lost to the blood for ever. The Midharsts had some of the female Fleurey blood in their veins, but it was of distant origin; an

property accompanying the Island in the year 1866 brought

on or a nephew, or a grand-nephew or some remote cousin. Now matters were worse than ever. Sir Alexander was upwards of seventy years of age, with an only child, a daughter, and

d for Sir Alexander to feel very cordial or friendly towards one so remote from him,

ain. But even then he was ailing, and doctors told him that between asthma and valvular derangement of the heart his chan

ertained the precise nature and import of the diseases from which he suffered, he made up his mind to give up all thought of an heir, and devot

ces by which he disgraced his order, and made himsel

t furnished at two hundred pounds a month during the season, and a manufacturing

two reasons; first, because its preservation and "maintenance" were provided for by his pred

acked of three months. He resigned the membership of his two London clubs, of the three county clubs he belonged to, and intimated to all in

lved upon collecting his own rents

tle. Anyone still might go over the Castle, but an entranc

in meanness, he cut and shaved and clipped here and there and everyw

his own expenses; he was fully as careful to i

oll as to get in all the ready-money he could. He had, he calculated, only a few years, if so long, to live, and the

all the trimming and underwood, which had previously been allowed to go as perq

ht of fishing in his streams and rivers. He sold off a

es he had acquired in his lifetime. When he was young he had

allow-chandler of the city, and was absolutely in treaty with him, whe

lve months he found he had put more money together than he had anticipated. There was no new cause of anxiety with regard to his health, and he made up his mind to continue upon the track he had adopted. He might live a year, ay, two years yet; if he las

usand pounds of his limit; so he resolved to complete the hundred thousan

love the new, and, above all, had become the slave of avarice, that most inflexible and enduring of all the passions. Therefore, he threw all idea of change to the winds, and resolved as l

ransferred all his business to the Daneford Bank, where he had had an account when he c

. He accordingly resolved to consult with Mr. Grey, father of Wat. He explained the whole scheme to the banker, and the purpose for which the money

Three per Cent. Consols, which could be realised readily should any more desir

ate of Island Castle, but that in this case Mr. Grey was to retain the key of the chest containing the valuables and transact all the business connected with the Consols, such as recei

said the baronet, "and y

nt for the future; all communications from the Bank of England, of solicitors, or anyone else, were to be addressed to Sir Alexander Midhars

eath, when the son succeeded to the banking busi

pon Sir Alexander Midharst, and said he would advise that some new pla

ceedingly, told him that his father had managed the business

at, the sum being now more than two hundred tho

ok him by the

o that of my lawyer's or of anybody else. If your father charged too little for the trouble, you may charge more. You know the money is for my little daughter: the estates go to a stranger after my death;

I cannot refuse," a

am alone with my child. Everyone seems against me. That greedy, rapacious young scoundrel who is to follow me is looking with hungry eyes upon Warfinger Island, and nightly praying for my death. All my old friends have given me up. I am not of them now, because I have striven to make provision for my child. They call me a sord

ould have overcome it. So the matter was finally settled: the son

boating; and often in the fine evenings pulled down the river Weeslade to the Island, had a

the city, he pushed off his boat into mid-stream, and rested on his oars, lo

orn about that vast pile, inhabited b

ing down upon him, a lonely round tower at the right of the archway catching the strange

ous feelings of the people. There was a tradition in the neighbourhood that in times gone by the wicked mother of a Lord Stancroft used abominable witchcraft against her daughter-in-law, her son's bride, newly brough

old and loathsome in a year. So that the young lord turned away from her, and cared nothing for her any more. And the poor young lady, gap-toothed and wrinkled and foul-looking as she had been mad

in a strange tongue, the language of Spain, saying how she had stolen up there to die, as she could not win back the love of her husband, the young lord. Ever after that the topmost chamber of the tower was red at sunset. Some thought this red gleam came from the fire where the wicked dowager Lady

a house; and grew to be a frequent visitor at Island Castle. It often struck him as a peculiar coincidence that in the same year he should have be

mpathy with a certain tower. The idea was fresh to him, and seemed to

Each was unpopular, each was weird, strange; there were queer stories about each, each had a tower. The tower of one had an unpleasant history connected with the skeleton of that poor Spanish lad

pile that brooded over the dark waters

ooks like a witch sitting at bay within her magic circle of grove. It wouldn't be ba

kes and mused again,

in the top of that tower. There's the skeleton of that old tank on the top of mine. Towers and skeleto

heard of the new nomenclature smiled, and admired the cleverness; and from that time forth in Da