St. Cuthbert's Tower - free ebook by Florence Warden

St. Cuthbert’s Tower

BY FLORENCE WARDEN Author of “The House on the Marsh,” “Scheherazade,” “A Witch of the Hills,” Etc., Etc. NEW YORK FRANK F. LOVELL &amp; COMPANY 142 and 144 Worth Street Copyright , 1889, BY JOHN W. LOVELL....

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I.

Rishton Hall Farm was let at last. Lord Stannington had had it on his hands a long time, and had offered it at a lower and ever lower rent. It was an open secret that John Oldshaw, who had a long lease of Lower Rishton Farm at the other end of the village, had expected the Rishton Hall lease to drop into his hands at last for a very trifling rent indeed. He was a careful man; the property under his hands throve; and he was fond of saying that his lordship would make a better bargain by letting h

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II.

Old Sarah Wall, the key-bearer, who now came ambling up at a very slow pace, holding her hand to her side, and muttering feebly as she moved, was a poor exchange, Olivia thought, for the masculine friend who had ended his kindly services so abruptly. He had not even waited, as he had intimated an intention of doing, to see the luggage safely moved into the house. Mrs. Wall looked very cross and not too clean. Scarcely deigning to glance at the strangers, she muttered, “This way!” and then fell t

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III.

The estimable Sarah Wall was, as she herself would have said, “not in the best of tempers” at being intercepted in her proposed flight. “Ah thowt ye’d got all ye wanted,” she grumbled, as Olivia Denison followed her out on to the doorstep and asked her where she was going. “Ah wur goin’ whoam to get a coop o’ tea, for Ah’m fair clemmed.” “You thought we’d got all we wanted!” said Olivia, ironically. “Why, we’ve got nothing at all—not even a chair to sit on. I think, if you have tea going at your

18 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV.

Olivia’s momentary embarrassment was at once removed by the kindness of Mr. Brander’s greeting. “Yes, Mr. Brander is a clergyman. I hope you have no prejudice against the cloth,” he said, holding out his hand with a welcoming smile. “It’s not a proper clerical garment, I confess,” he went on, as Olivia’s glance fell instinctively upon the old shooting coat he now wore; “but I flatter myself the collar saves it.” And he pointed to his orthodox round collar. “I am not sure of that,” said the young

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V.

To be able to inflict a severe physical defeat upon an obtrusive admirer may be a highly convenient accomplishment, but the necessity for its exercise cannot but be a humiliating experience. Olivia Denison felt the hot tears rise to her eyes as she walked up through the farmyard to the Hall. If only one of her own stalwart brothers, Edward or Ernest, were here to give this insolent cad the thrashing he deserved! But Edward was in India with his regiment, and Ernest was tied to a desk in a solici

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI.

In spite of all her philosophy, of all her fortitude, Olivia Denison could not deny, even to herself, that the one terrible word “murderer,” applied to the man who had proved himself such a kind friend, gave a shock such as no newly formed friendship could stand unshaken. If he had only denied the charge by so much as a look! But, on the contrary, his downcast head and hurrying step when Lucy’s indiscreet remark fell on his ears seemed like a tacit admission of the justice of it. The little maid

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII.

There was no denying that the arrival of these two spirited young women had caused a great flutter among the bachelors of Rishton and its neighborhood. For it is to be noted that if, on the one hand, the remarkable beauty of the mistress attracted the attentions of the elite of the male population, the rosy cheeks and saucy independence of the maid began very soon to make havoc in humbler masculine hearts, so that by the time Sunday came round, and with it the great weekly gathering time, the wh

18 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII.

There was a long pause after the tramp had addressed Mr. Brander. In spite of herself, Olivia found herself at last holding her breath with impatience to hear the clergyman’s answer. She would not look at him, although through the gaps in the rough stonework she might easily have done so; but her hands, with which she had at first tried to stop her ears, fell down at her sides. When at last he spoke, Mr. Brander’s voice was low and husky, affected by some strong feeling. “Yes, Abel, it’s a long

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IX.

When Olivia had come as near as she could to the porch without being seen from thence, she stopped, in the hope that Mrs. Denison, who was still grumbling at her step-daughter’s non-appearance, would go indoors, and give her a chance of enveloping her father in a warm hug, and of snatching a stolen interview with him unknown to the ruling powers. In a few moments, to the girl’s great delight, Mrs. Denison said, impatiently, “Well, I can’t stand here in the snow, just because your daughter choose

18 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X.

Any one who could have seen into the workings of Olivia Denison’s heart and mind when she was left to herself would probably have pronounced her to be “in love” with the Reverend Vernon Brander. This was not quite true. She did indeed feel a very strong interest in the hermit vicar and his mysterious history; and such interest in a young girl’s mind cannot exist quite apart from sentiment. But, then, the sentiments awakened by the overheard interview in the churchyard and by Miss Williams’ sugge

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XI.

Not for some minutes after the little carriage containing the Reverend Meredith Brander and his wife had driven on did either of the young people they had left break silence. Olivia watched the disappearing vehicle with much interest, and Vernon Brander, though with less openness, watched Olivia. At last she turned sharply, and met his eyes fixed upon her with a half-fierce, half-mournful intentness, which struck her with painful surprise. He at once turned away his head, and asked abruptly— “We

20 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XII.

Vernon Brander left his brother’s house that evening in a frenzy of doubt and uncertainty, such as his passionate, self-torturing nature was liable to. He had so long been bound in a dutiful and chivalrous vassalage to his sister-in-law, seeing her faults without being repelled by them, and in all things doing her reverent homage as to his early ideal, that it came upon him with a shock to discover suddenly, as he had done this evening, that she had fallen from that high place in her imagination

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIII.

The second Mrs. Denison was, unfortunately for her husband’s household, one of those ladies who unite in themselves most of woman’s typical frailties. One of the most marked of these was a great jealousy of any member of her own sex who was younger, better looking, or in any way considered more generally attractive than herself. This jealousy rose to such a pitch in the case of her handsome step-daughter that she was more pleased at the discovery of the ineligibility of Olivia’s new admirer than

20 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIV.

Olivia Denison was by no means a nervous or weak-minded girl. On learning that the man who stood before her was the brother of Nellie Mitchell, she did not scream or stagger back, or give any outward sign of the shock she felt, except to bite her lips, which had begun to tremble and twitch, as she bowed her head in acknowledgment of the information. But, none the less, she was instantly possessed by a much greater terror than if this unexpected avenger had been a fierce-looking personage with fl

20 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XV.

Olivia’s first thought, as the door closed on Mrs. Warmington, was to follow her out and make a dash for freedom. But as she started up with this impulse, a sliding movement on the part of the garments she wore reminded her that she was not in walking trim; and a glance at the gilt-framed but mildewy glass which adorned the housekeeper’s mantelpiece showed her such a comical figure that the instincts of maidenly coquetry would never have allowed her to risk a meeting with Vernon Brander in that

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVI.

Olivia Denison’s outburst against the Vicarage folk and their treatment of Vernon Brander seemed to overwhelm the latter with consternation. He stood before the impulsive girl as if benumbed by her vehemence; and it was not until her restless movements and bending head showed that she felt uncomfortable and ashamed of herself that he tried to speak and to reassure her. For it was evident that she thought her boldness had deeply offended him. “You do them injustice, Miss Denison. Though I know it

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVII.

When once the secret concerning the identity of the stranger at the cottage had been let out, it spread mysteriously throughout the length of the straggling village with astonishing rapidity. Ned Mitchell had come back; and, remembering the character for pigheaded obstinacy he had borne at home when he was a boy, it was safe to prophecy that there would shortly be a “shindy” somewhere. Two or three old people now declared that they had recognized him from the first, though they had been too disc

22 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVIII.

Before the first day of his return to Rishton was over, Ned Mitchell had to submit to the threatened interrogatory of the vicar. Ned had strolled into the churchyard, and was examining with a rather cynical expression a beautiful marble monument, one of the chief ornaments of the enclosure, on which were set forth, at great length, in gilt letters, the many virtues of his late brother, “Samuel Robert Mitchell, of Rishton Hall Farm, who departed this life February the eighteenth, eighteen hundred

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIX.

The Reverend Meredith Brander had not been Vicar of Rishton and compulsory student of the wiles of frail humanity for fourteen years for nothing. When from his study window he saw Ned Mitchell—after many yawns, several sleepy stretchings out of his arms, and an occasional nod of the head—retire from his back door and shut himself in, it seemed to the vicar by no means certain that his neighbor had gone to bed. So he withdrew a little way into the shelter of his window curtains, and remained on t

22 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XX.

The stolid calmness of Ned Mitchell’s every-day demeanor, which was but a mask for strong passions and still stronger resolutions, broke down entirely under his disappointment. If the mouldy old graveyard of St. Cuthbert’s had been a paradise of sweet sights and sounds and scents, he could not have been more maddened by the impossibility of entering it. Even the innocent child herself, whose presence among the ruined graves had prevented him from letting his hounds loose, shared his anger. “They

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXI.

Ned Mitchell was not the sort of man to waste much time in the indulgence of an outbreak of passion. After a few minutes’ contemplation of the dead bodies of his hounds, he pulled himself together and prepared for action. There had flashed into his mind the recollection of the evening on which his illness began. He had forgotten until that moment all the details of his arrival home, his groping about for a light, the sounds he had heard as of a person moving in one of the rooms, and the glimpse

22 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXII.

The haymaking in the glebe field of Rishton Vicarage was an annual affair, an institution of Meredith Brander’s own, dating from the young days of his reign. It had been at its origin a thoroughly Radical institution, a freak of the then very youthful vicar, who had not yet quite dropped all the wild ideas for the reconstruction of society of his university days. Rich and poor, gentle and simple, an invitation had been extended to all; the glebe field was to be the scene of such an harmonious co

22 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXIII.

Olivia Denison’s thoughts on the morning after the haymaking, were entirely occupied with Vernon Brander, his illness, the possibility of his innocence, and the chances of his escape if guilty; so that when, on entering the poultry yard with her basket on her arm, she found Fred Williams, amusing himself by setting two cocks to fight each other, she uttered a cry of unmistakable annoyance and astonishment. “You look as if you hadn’t expected to see me, and as if, by Jove, you hadn’t wanted to!”

22 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXIV.

Like all persons of strong nature, Olivia Denison grew bolder as danger came nearer. When she recognized the man in the garden, underneath the corridor window, it did not occur to her to call for help; but all her energies were instantly concentrated on learning the meaning of this intrusion. She was sure that she had not been seen. As noiselessly as she could she shut the window, and retreated into the private passage which led to her own apartments. There she waited, peeping cautiously out und

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXV.

Olivia hurried back towards the farm with the little packet in her hand which was to release her father from his hateful indebtedness to Fred Williams. It was true it rendered her herself indebted to somebody else; but, with a woman’s perversity, she preferred the greater evil to the less. It was rather an awkward matter, however, to acquaint her father with what she had done, especially as she found him in the lowest depths of despondency. “Don’t speak to me, my dear; don’t speak to me,” was hi

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXVI.

Ned Mitchell , although he had let Meredith Brander off easily at the moment of the discovery of the body, had no intention of letting his sister’s murderer escape the just punishment of his crime. The discovery of the vicar’s ring inside the poor girl’s remains had not been altogether unexpected by Ned and by the doctor, whom he had taken into his confidence. He had had the wit to connect the vicar’s loss of his ring, which the girl must have stolen and secreted unnoticed by him in the course o

22 minute read

Read Chapter