The Mating of Lydia

brought a couple more logs to replenish a f

statement irritated the per

not get here at all! The watter'll be over t' road by Grier's mill. And yo' know varra well, it may b

goa back to Pengarth-

" The speaker stood peering discontentedly into the gloom w

tongues of light through the wide spaces and shadows of the hall. Otherwise the deepening gloom of the October evening was lightened only by the rays of one feebly burning lamp standing apparently in a corridor or gallery just visible beyond a ri

hich some modern owner had brought it. It was not a house apparently, so far as its present use went, but a warehouse. There was properly speaking no furniture in it; only a multitude of packing-cases, boxes of all shapes and sizes, piled upon or leaning against each other. The hall was choked with them, so that only a gangway a couple of yards wide was left, connecting the entrance door with the gallery and s

s. Dixon as she turned back fro

d round h

aursay yo' have too. But it's not a place

re. Then, having at last made the logs burn, as he hoped, with some brightness,

on a chair near the fire. "Tammas, yo' know it's a queer

s two year sen he came into 't; an' he's done nowt but tak' t' rents, an' turn off men, an' clutter u

mbria type commonly held to be of Scandinavian origin. His eye was a little wandering and absent, and the ragged gray whiskers which surrounded his countenance emphasized the slight incoherence of its expression. Quiet he was and looked. But his wife knew him for one of the most incurably obsti

r me say what I'd go

ye

stress was a

other-an' pop

ixon s

be to t' chapel a

be for takkin' much not

thin

be juist a yoong thing? An'

irl's laugh, and a rush of feet. Thomas started slightly, an

voice peremptorily. "Wh

the lamp-light, threading her way through the packing-cases,

re to do as I know on.

on one of the larger packing-cases

and had only just been evicted in preparation for the return of the owner of the property with his foreign wife. If Thyrza were too much scolded she would take her ways home, and, as her parents spoilt her, she would not be coerced into return

le stifled by the sweets she had just transferred from her poc

se, as though trying its strength against the doors

es that day that such a greed for sweet things as she displayed would ruin her digestion and her teeth; and i

ut it's a creepy old place howivver. I'd not live here if I was paid. What does Muster Melrose want wi' coomin' here? He's

packing-case swinging her feet, her straw-coloured hair and pink cotton dress making a spot of

where-juist two three rooms colour-washed, as yo' med do 'em at t' workhouse. An' that big hole in t' dinin'-room ceilin', juist as

arply through t

Thyrza leapt to the ground, Mrs. Dixon picked up her br

hed his way rapidly through the cases, lookin

that much of a

it, sir, for

mp wood. What about

on the right. The o

onest pattern, emitting a strong smell of paraffin, threw its light upon furniture, quite new, that most seaside lodgings would have disdained; viz., a cheap carpet of a sickly brown, leaving edges of bare boards between itself and the

had done his best with the ridiculous su

nscoting of the drawing-room. The others again

o the fire and stirred it up. Then a dining-table spread for supper was seen, and a few chairs. Every

nted to th

might ha' had it mended up a bit, Mr. Tys

playing the servant "to oblige." The agent looked irritably a

, Miss Thyrza!" And he walked q

followed the agent into the next room, Mrs. Dixon throwing behind her an

one from some matches in his pocket, and Mrs. Dixon hastily brought

ly empty. Moreover, the bookcases did not hold a single book, and the writing-table was bare. But for any person of taste, looking round him in the light of the candle which Mrs. Dixon held, the room

took it di

. Dixon-"you mind what you're doing with

r-furnishings, and tiny figures, and little bits of china "let in," which might easily catch a duster, thought Mrs. Dixon, and "mak' trooble." That it had belonged to a French dramatist under Lo

n, in the tone of one m

ie us orders to unpack

e pointed to the table

awin'-

egard to that gentleman would not be made any easier. If you happened by mischance to have accepted an appointment to serve and represent a lunatic, and you discovered that you had done so, there were only two things to do, either to hold on, or "to chuck it." But George Tyson, whose father and grandfather h

und the ground-floor, heaping on coals everywhere with a generous hand. On this point alone-the point of warmth-had Mr. Melrose's letters shown a disposition to part with money, in ordinary domestic way. "The odiousness of your English climate is only matched by the abs

igh ground, not a passage in the house could be got above forty-s

, which included the modest supper now cooking according to Mr. Melrose's orders-Mrs. Melrose had had nothing to do with it-in the vast and distant kitchen, the young ma

ower and his wife and child were being driven through the endless and intricat

lrose, their infant daughter aged sixteen m

e driving scuds of rain which drenched the carriage windows, as though in their mad charges from the trailing clouds in front, they disputed every inch of the miry way with the newcomers. Fr

ugh the words burst from her-"If the water by that mill they t

t remember, my dear, that swimming is one of your accompli

uld be simply wicked to take such a small child into danger." But there was a

were not worth while to dispute the matter; and the c

ter an interval. "It's horrible-just horrible! All the way from Pengarth we've hardly seen a house, or a lig

, eh? This is my property, my dear, worse luck! I regret it-but here w

!-you know you could-if you cared

think it will suit me

ain indulgent, had suddenly, harshly, changed. The wife dropped into

l building, of which the high irregular outline was just visible through the growing darkne

rose, and Mr. Melros

d of a stout man in a whitish coat and cap w

do it. The water fro' the mill-race is over t' road, but it's nobbut

"Edmund!-let me out-let me out at once-I

took no noti

-in case there is any danger of the coachman

' bank with the lanterns.

rose shut the window abruptly, and

t, Edmund!-I w

hand of iron down

's begun!"-for the poor babe, awakened, had set up a wail. "Dam

a mile or so-a roar on the right hand. Mrs. Melrose screamed again, only to be once more savagely silenced by her husband. It was the roar of the mill-race approaching the weir, over which it was rushing in sheets of foam. The swollen river, a thunderous whiteness beside the road, seemed every moment as if it must break through the raised bank, and sweep carriage and horses into its own abyss of fury. Mrs. Melrose was now too terrified

flood were left behind, and a bit of ascending

ers who had guided them approached t

es. "You've nobbut to do but keep straight on,

Here's a drink for you," said M

coin and held it to the lantern

nce! Two men-and two lanterns-fur t' best part of a mile! We're goin' chea

river. Then standing still, with their hands on their hips, the light from the lanterns on the ground breaking over their ruddy rain-washed f

isappeared from view. "What did we want with them

ers had said; and in her belief over the peril escaped, and her utter fatigue, she gave the child to Anastasia, lay back, and closed her ey

ing round the child, Anastasia. We have to walk through th

came hurrying down a flagged path, through an untidy kitchen garden, to

m, and spoke in wailing Italian, as

place! It looks like a prison!

house rising dark and grim against the storm, and

was seized by the strong

lf carried, her into the

on did the same for

*

place, built by some man

it will hold my col

ack to the fire, alternately looking about him with an eager curiosity, and

k hair. He looked what he was-a man of wealth and family, spoilt by long years of wandering and irresponsible living, during which an inherited eccentricity and impatience of restraint had developed into traits and manners which

so far as Tyson had observed her arrival, had cast hasty and shivering looks round the comfortlessness of the hall and drawing-room; had demanded loudly that some of the cases encumbering the hall and passages should be removed or unpacked at once, and had then bade Mrs. Dixon ta

n," said Melrose, presently, with a patronizing smile,

ng man

ot a big one, and I had

trying the ex

about that sofa?" The speaker tried it-"Hm-not exactly Sybari

will find this place a bit l

has her child is provided for. How can she be dull? I ask you"-he repea

udible, adding to it-"And yo

no doubt seem to you extraordinary-but I really never want to kill anything-except sometimes, perhaps

range your c

ng to do, I may begin unpacking. But I shall b

rniture you have

hile, Tyson-economy!"-he lifted a monitory finger. "All my income is required-let me inform you at once-for what is my hobby-my passion-my mania, if you like-the collecting of works o

s are in a very bad

mong, in Italy. Don't encourage people to complain; that's the great point. En

is eyebrows imperceptibly, and let the subject drop, inquiring instead whether his e

wide semicircle in the dim light, as though to indicate the largeness of the speaker's thoughts. "But in March or April, I take flight from here-I ret

im with a quiet antagonism. "I suppose yo

ir best things for me. And I prefer to hunt in summer-even in the hot countries. Heat has

d a moment, then said:

goes w

ly necessary. Mrs. Melrose will make her home here, and will no doubt become very

ally non

church-and I s

rgyman from Gimmers Wi

day

why I was asked to cont

of keeping the p

They have been hoping, now that you and Mrs. Melrose have come to live here, t

laughe

as well tell you that they don't run at all in the direction of parsons. And Mrs. Melrose-why I told you she was a Catholic-a Roman Catholic. What does she

t, sir-the daughter o

elrose shall make

oth Pengarth and Keswi

id Melrose, easily. "We

case you will find it very difficult getting about

possibly. And of course there's the light cart I told you to get. We can't trust

n constantly at work. B

" Tyson smile

expenses are the deuce. There never was a coachman yet that didn't rob his employer. Well, thank you; I'm

er buttoned the heavy fur coat he had ne

m Carlisle-and the furna

d not get him here earlier. I fe

, I cannot risk incessan

e, and done well. Goo

sing hand. "We shall resum

te of an ancient border fortess, toward the middle of the eighteenth century, by the chief of a great family, from whose latest representative, his mother's first cousin, Edmund Melrose had now inherited it. Nothing could be more curious than its subsequent history. For it was no sooner finished, in a pure Georgian style, and lavishly incrusted in all its principal rooms with graceful decoration, than the man who b

ul gusts that seemed at intervals to invade the shadowy spaces of the corridor, driving before them the wisps of straw and paper that had been left here and there by the unpacking of the great writing-table. There could be no

idor below, where doors in deep recesses, each with its classical architrave, and its carved lintels, opened from either side. The farthest door on the right he had been shown as that of his wife

truck cold, and, by a candle in a basin, he saw that it was littered from end to end with the contents of two or three trunks that were standing open. The

But his will silenced it. "She will get used to it," he said to himself again, with dry determination. Then he turned on his heel. The untidiness of his wife's room, h

ld her breath, "willing" him to go away again; possessed by a silent passion of rage and repulsion. When he closed the door

ips. She sat up, her teeth chattering. It was awful; but she must get up and shut it. Shivering, she crept out of bed, threw a shawl round her, and made

For there, close upon her, as it seemed, like one of her own Apennines risen and stalking through the night, towered a great mountain, cloud-wreathed, and gashed with vast ravines. The

lt so desolate, so cut off from all that once made her poor little life worth living. Yet, th