Tried for Her Life Part 62

Lyon Berners tore a page from his tablets, wrote the name in pencil, and handed it to her.

Then he kissed his infant daughter, breathed a silent blessing over her, and took his leave.

He returned to Black Hall, well satisfied with the woman in whose care he had left his child.

That afternoon he dined with his friends for the last time for many years. That evening, with their a.s.sistance, he concluded the very last business he had to transact, before leaving his home and country.

Beatrix Pendleton had been busy all day, looking up and packing up Sybil's costly jewels, laces, and shawls. Valuable as they all were, they filled but a small trunk, which Miss Pendleton a.s.sured Mr. Berners he could easily put inside his great sea-chest without crowding out other things.

Beatrix Pendleton and Minnie Sheridan volunteered to remain at Black Hall for a few days after the departure of the proprietor, to see that all things were properly set in order.

Among the last arrangements made was that by which honest Robert Munson, the young soldier who had befriended Sybil Berners, was appointed a.s.sistant overseer of the plantation, with the use of a cottage and garden, and with a considerable salary.

All the arrangements for the voyage of Mr. Berners, and the management of the manor during his absence, were completed that evening.

The next morning Mr. Berners accompanied by his friends, Captain Pendleton and lawyer Sheridan, set out for Blackville, to meet the stage-coach for Baltimore.

There, at the stage-office, Mr. Berners took leave of lawyer Sheridan, but not of Captain Pendleton, who made up his mind, at the last moment, to accompany him as far as the seaport, and to see him off on his voyage.

After two days' journey, the friends arrived safely in Baltimore.

On consulting the s.h.i.+pping list, they found the fast sailing clipper Dispatch, Captain Fleet, advertised to sail for Liverpool the same afternoon.

Lyon Berners, with his friend, hastened to the agent to secure his pa.s.sage, which he was so fortunate as to get.

He had barely time to hurry his luggage on board before the clipper set sail.

The very last words addressed to Mr. Berners by his friend Captain Pendleton were these:

"Give our love to Mrs. Berners, and tell her that Beatrix and myself will follow you soon. Heaven bless you with good luck!"

CHAPTER XXIX.

AFTER THE EXPATRIATION.

And years went by; and the tale at last Was told as a sorrowful one long past.--MISTLETOE BOUGH.

A week after Lyon Berners went away Captain Pendleton resigned his commission in the army, placed the management of his estate in the hands of lawyer Sheridan, and, accompanied by Miss Pendleton, left the neighborhood for Baltimore, whence he sailed for Liverpool.

After this departure the secret of Sybil's escape was known but to two persons in the valley--to Mr. Sheridan, whose very profession made him reticent, and to Miss Tabby, who would have died rather than have divulged it.

Mr. Sheridan managed the manor, Miss Tabby kept the house, and both guarded the secret.

But great was the wonder and wild were the conjectures among the people of the valley on the subjects of Sybil's mysterious disappearance, Lyon's sudden voyage, and Clement and Beatrix Pendleton's eccentric conduct in following him.

Opinions were as various as characters.

Some came near the truth in expressing their belief that Sybil had been rescued on the night of the flood, secreted for awhile in the neighborhood, and then "spirited" away by her friends; that she was safe in some foreign country, and that her husband and her two friends had gone to join her.

Others whispered that Sybil had been drowned in the flood; that Lyon Berners, finding himself a widower, had proposed for Beatrix Pendleton, with whom he had always been in love, and that he had been accepted by her; that they had been anxious to marry immediately; but ashamed to do so, so soon after the tragic death of Sybil, and in her own neighborhood; and so they had gone abroad to be united, and to spend the first year of their wedded lives.

These and many other speculations were rife among the neighbors, and the "Hallow Eve Mystery," deepened by recent events, formed the subject of conversation of never-flagging interest, at every country fireside that winter.

In the midst of all this, Miss Tabby Winterose lived her quiet, dull, whimpering life at Black Hall, carefully keeping the house, waited on by Aunt Mopsa, guarded by Joe, and solaced by little Cromartie, who had been left in her care.

Dilly, Sybil's own maid, had been taken abroad by Miss Pendleton, which fact gave additional scandal to the gossips.

"The impudence of her!" they said, "to take the late Mrs. Berners' very maid, before even she had fairly married the widower."

All this, when it came to Miss Tabby's ears, made that faithful but desponding soul whimper all the more.

Miss Tabby had but few recreations at Black Hall. Going to church every Sunday in the old carryall, with little Cro' by her side and Joe on the box, was her "most chiefest."

Then once a month or so, she went to take tea with her parents and sister; or she walked over to spend an afternoon at the cottage occupied by Robert Munson, who had married Rachel, the pretty daughter of that Norfolk inn-keeper, who had been Lyon's and Sybil's host at the time of their first flight.

And sometimes Miss Tabby had both these families up at Black Hall, to pa.s.s a day with her.

But wherever Miss Tabby went, she always took little Cro'; and whoever came to the house had to make much of the child, or get little favor from his "aunty."

As for Joe, Robert Munson, and other of Sybil's devoted friends, they felt, in their secret hearts, that Sybil was safe in foreign parts, and that her husband and friends had gone to join her; but as no one had actually imparted this intelligence to them, they never talked over the subject except among themselves.

Thus pa.s.sed the winter; but with the opening of the spring, an event occurred that for a while even superseded the "Hallow Eve Mystery," in the fever of curiosity and interest it excited in the valley.

The great Dubarry manor, so long held in abeyance, was claimed!--claimed by a gentleman in right of his wife--claimed by no less a person than Mr. Horace Blondelle, once the husband and afterwards the widower of that beautiful Rosa Blondelle who had been so mysteriously murdered at Black Hall, and now the bridegroom of Gentiliska, the great-granddaughter and only lineal descendant and heiress of Philip Dubarry and Gentiliska his wife.

During the investigation of this claim, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Blondelle occupied a handsome suite of apartments at the Blackville Hotel, and made themselves very popular by the elegant little dinners and suppers they gave, and the like of which had never before been seen in that plain village.

When their case came on for a hearing, there was but little opposition to the claimants, whose legal right to the manor was soon proved by the doc.u.ments they held in their possession, and firmly established.

When the case was decided in their favor, Mr. Horace Blondelle rented Pendleton Park, which had been to let ever since the departure of its owner.

And in that well-furnished mansion on that well-cultivated plantation he settled down with his pretty young bride to the respectable life of a country gentleman.

His residence in the neighborhood gave quite an impetus to the local business.

The very first thing that he did, after his settlement at Pendleton Park, was to advertise, through the columns of the "Blackville Banner,"

that he intended to rebuild the Dubarry mansion, and was ready to employ the necessary artisans at liberal wages.

This gave great satisfaction to the laboring cla.s.ses, who were half their time pining in idleness, and the other half working at famine prices.

But such a "reconstruction" was a gigantic undertaking. There was a wilderness to be cleared, a desert to be reclaimed, a mansion to be rebuilt, and a chapel to be restored.

All the carpenters, stone-cutters, bricklayers, plasterers, painters and glaziers, upholsterers and decorators, as well as ornamental gardeners and agricultural laborers that could be found, were at once employed at generous wages.