A place generally shunned, and only to be sought or chosen as a sanctuary by one who was pursued. But circumstances alter cases, and matters happen strangely and influence our lives in unexpected ways.
Dinah Gurdon, Major Gurdon’s only child, paying no heed to her follower’s words, kept hurrying on, for she had nearly reached the ragged entrance to the mine gap, feeling that at last she would be free, and then the insolent, self-satisfied ruffian would not dare to pursue her farther, for he had said that this was the place he had in charge. But if he did, another quarter of a mile would take her round the great limestone buttress formed by the mine spoil; and then she would be on the south slope of the Tor, in full view of the narrow valley, up out of which her father would probably be coming, and he would see her, as he came to meet her, a mile away.
She had kept to her steady, quick walk as long as she could; but now the exultation produced by the sight of freedom reassured her, and unable to control herself, she started off running past the natural gateway in the rocky wall on her right.
But Michael Sturgess was too quick for her.
“No, you don’t, my pretty one,” he cried, as he dashed in pursuit, overtook her in a few yards, and caught her by the dress, which tore loudly in his hand. The next moment he had his arm round her waist, but she struck at him wildly as he now held her and blocked her way. There was a momentary struggle, and she was free once more. She turned as if about to leap down the steep slope at her side; but the attempt was too desperate, and she ran back a few yards, with the man close behind, and then turned again and dashed frantically between the two natural buttresses, down the steep path leading to the mazes and gloomy passages of the ancient mine.
Michael Sturgess stopped short for a moment, burst into a coarse laugh, and gave his leg a slap.
“I knowed it,” he cried. “Oh, these girls, these girls!”
The next minute he was in full pursuit, and ten minutes later, faint, wild, and echoing up the walls of the shadowy solitude, there was a piercing cry.
A great bird rose slowly, circling higher about the dismal gap, and then all was still.
Chapter Four.
Jessop’s Weakness
“I don’t care. I will speak, and if master gets to know, so much the better.”
“Will you hold your silly tongue?”
“No, I won’t. I’ve held it too long. It’s disgraceful, that’s what it is, and I’ll tell Mr Clive of your goings-on with his sweetheart.”
“Look here, Lyddy, do you want me to poison you, or take you out somewhere and push you into a river?”
“Yes,” cried the girl addressed, passionately. “I wish you would, and then there’d be an end of the misery and wretchedness. And as for that Miss Janet Praed – ”
“Hold your tongue, you silly, jealous little fool!”
“Oh yes, I know I’m a fool – fool to believe all your wicked lies. And so would you be jealous. I saw it all last time she was here – a slut engaged to be married to your brother, and all the time making eyes at you, while you are carrying on with her shamefully, and before me, too. It’s cruel and disgraceful. I may be only a servant, but I’ve got my feelings the same as other people, and I’d die sooner than behave as she did, and you did, and – and – I wish I was dead, I do – that I do.”
“Will you be quiet, you silly little goose. Do you want everybody in the house to know of our flirtation?”
“Flirtation!” cried the girl, wiping her streaming eyes. “You regularly proposed and asked me to be your wife.”
“Why, of course. Haven’t I promised that I would marry you some day?”
“Yes – some day,” said the girl bitterly; “but some day never comes. Oh, Jessop, dear Jessop! you made me love you so, and you’re breaking my heart, going on as you do with that Miss Praed.”
She threw her arms about his neck, and clung to him till he roughly forced her to quit her hold.
“Are you mad?” he said angrily.
“Yes, very nearly,” cried the girl, with her pretty, fair, weak face lighted up with rage. “You’ve made me so. I’ll tell Mr Clive as soon as he comes back from Derbyshire – see if I don’t!”
“You’d better,” said Jessop grimly. “You dare say a word to a soul, and I’ll never put a ring on your finger, my lady – there!”
“Yes, you will – you shall!” cried the girl passionately. “You promised me, and the law shall make you!”
“Will you be quiet? You’ll have my father hear you directly.”
“And a good job too.”
“Oh, you think so, do you?”
“Yes, I do. Master’s a dear, good gentleman, and always been nice and kind. I’ll tell him – that I will!”
“Not you. There, wipe those pretty little blue eyes, and don’t make your dear little puggy nose red, nor your cheeks neither. I don’t know, though,” whispered Jessop, passing his arm round the girl and drawing her to him; “it makes you look very sweet and attractive. I say, Lyddy, dear, you are really a beautiful girl, you know.”
“Do adone, Jessop,” she whispered, softening directly, and yielding herself to his touch.
“I couldn’t help loving you, darling, and I love you more and more every day, though you will lead me such a life with your jealousy. I never find fault with you when I see you smiling at Clive.”
“But it is not as I do at you, dear. Mr Clive was always quite the gentleman to me, and it hurts me to see you trying so hard to get Miss Janet away from him.”
“There you go again, little silly. Isn’t she going to be my sister-in-law?”
“It didn’t look like it.”
“Pish! What do you know about such things? In society we are obliged to be a bit polite, and so on.”
“Oh, are we? I know; and if I told Mr Clive, he’d think as I do. I won’t have you make love to her before my very eyes – there!”
“Why, what an unreasonable little pet it is!” he cried, disarming the girl’s resentment with a few caresses.
“And the sooner master knows you are engaged to me the better,” she said, with a sob.
“And then you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that my father has quarrelled with me, and altered his will, so that everything goes to my brother. He may marry you then, for I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have a penny to help myself. Oh yes; go and tell. I believe you want to get hold of him now.”
The girl gave him a piteous look, and tried to catch his hand, but he avoided her touch, and laughed sneeringly.
“I don’t want to be hard and bitter,” he said, “but I’m not blind.”
She looked up at him reproachfully.
“You don’t mean what you are saying,” she whispered
