Bride of Pendorric

Chapter III

I went straight up to my room, and as I opened the door I gasped, for a woman was sitting in an armchair with her back to the light. After my experience in the courtyard I must really have been unnerved, because it seemed several seconds before I recognised Morwenna. ” I’m afraid I startled you,” she said. ” I’m so sorry. I came up to look for you … and sat down for a moment.”

” It was silly of me, but I didn’t expect to see anyone here.”

” I came up because Deborah has arrived. I want you to meet her. “

” Who, did you say?”

” Deborah Hyson. She’s my mother’s sister. She spends a lot of time here. She has been away and only got back this afternoon. I think she’s come back on your account. She can’t bear things to be happening in the family and not take part in them.”

” Could I have seen her at one of the windows not long ago?”

” Very likely. Was it the west side?”

” Yes. I think it was.”

” Then I expect it was Deborah. She has her rooms there.”

“She was looking down on the quadrangle and Hyson waved to her, then ran off without explaining.”

” Hyson’s very fond of her, and she of Hyson. I’m glad, because Lowella is usually so much more popular. Are you coming down now?

We’re having tea in the winter parlour, and Deborah’s very anxious to meet you. “

” Let’s go, then.”

We went down to the little room on the first floor of the north wing, where a tall woman rose to greet me; I was almost certain that she was the one I had seen at the window.

She was not wearing the hat now, but her abundant white hair was in a style which might have been fashionable thirty years or so ago; and I noticed too that there was an old fashioned look about her clothes.

Her eyes were very blue and her frilly crepe de Chine blouse matched them perfectly. She was very tall and slender in her black tailored suit.

She took both my hands and looked earnestly into my face. ” My dear,” she said, ” how glad I am that you have come!” I was astonished by the fervour of her greeting; and I could only conjecture that, like most of the family, she was delighted to see Roc married, and therefore was prepared to accept me as a blessing.

“As soon as I heard the news I came.”

” That’s very kind of you.”

She smiled almost wistfully while her eyes remained on me. ” Come and sit beside me,” she said. ” We’ll have lots to talk about. Morwenna dear, is that tea coming soon?”

” Almost at once,” Morwenna replied.

We sat side by side and she went on: “You must call me Deborah, dear.

The children do. Oh, by the children I mean Petroc and Morwenna. The twins call me Granny. They always have. I don’t mind in the least.”

” You don’t look like a granny!”

She smiled. ” I expect I do to the twins. They think anyone of twenty somewhat aged, and after that of course quite ancient. I’m rather glad they do, though. They hadn’t a granny. I supplied the need.” Mrs. Penhalligan brought in the tea and Morwenna poured it. ” Charles and Roc won’t be in for an hour or so,” she told Deborah.

” I’ll see them at dinner. Oh, here are the twins.” The door burst open and Lowella rushed in, followed sedately by Hyson. “

“Lo, Granny,” said Lowella, and walking to Deborah’s chair was embraced and kissed. Hyson followed; and I noticed that the hug she received was even more affectionate. There was no doubt that these two were very fond of each other.

Lowella went to the tea-trolly to see what there was for tea, while Hyson stood leaning against Deborah’s chair.

” I must say it is pleasant to be back,” said Deborah, ” though I miss the moor.” She explained to me: “I have a house on Dartmoor. I was brought up there and now that my parents are dead it belongs to me.

You must come out and see it one day. “

” I’ll come with you,” said Lowella.

” Dear Lowella!” murmured Deborah. ” She never likes to be left out of anything. And you’ll come too, Hyson, won’t you?”

” Yes, Granny.”

” That’s a good girl. I hope you’re looking after your Aunt Favel, and making her feel at home.”

” We don’t call her Aunt. She’s just Favel and of course we’ve been looking after her,” said Lowella. ” Uncle Roc told us we had to.”

“And Hyson?”

” Yes, Granny, I’ve been showing her what she ought to see and telling her what she ought to know.”

Deborah smiled and began gently pulling Hyson’s ponytail in a caressing way.

She smiled at me: ” I must show you pictures of the children. I have lots of them in my rooms.”

” On the walls,” cried Lowella, ” and in albums with writing underneath. It says Petroc aged six.” Morwenna in the Quadrangle aged eight. ” And there are lots of Granny Barbarina and Granny Deborah when they were little girls—only they’re in Devon.” Deborah leaned towards me.

“There’s usually a person like myself in all families: the one who did not marry but could be called in to look after the children. She keeps all < the pictures and knows the dates of birthdays.” i ” Granny Deborah never forgets,” Lowella told me.

“Did I see you when I was in the quadrangle?” I could not prevent myself asking, for foolish as it was, I had to satisfy myself on this point.

” Yes. I had only just arrived. I hadn’t told Morwenna or Roc that I was coming to-day. I peeped out and saw you and Hyson. I didn’t know you’d seen me or I should have opened the window and spoken to you.”

” Hyson waved and I looked up and saw you. I was astonished when she said you were her granny.”

” And didn’t she explain? Oh Hyson, my dear child!” She went on caressing the ponytail.

” I told her it was my granny, and it was,” Hyson defended herself.

“You’re eating very little,” Morwenna scolded Deborah and me. ” Do try these splits. Maria will be hurt if we send too many back.”

” I always say this Cornish cream isn’t as good as ours in Devonshire,” said Deborah.

Morwenna laughed.

“That’s sheer prejudice. It’s exactly the same.”

Deborah asked me about my life in Capri and how Roc and I had met.

“How delightful!” she cried when I had answered her questions. ” A lightning romance! I think it’s charming, don’t you, Morwenna?”

” We’re all very pleased, of course … particularly now that we know Favel.”

” And we were longing for the new Bride of Pendorric,” said Hyson quietly.

Everyone laughed and conversation was general while we finished tea.

When the meal was over, Hyson asked if she could help her granny unpack. Deborah was very pleased and said of course she could. She added: ” And I don’t suppose Favel has seen my rooms, has she? Well invite her to come with us, shall we. Hyson?”

I thought Hyson rather grudgingly agreed, but I accepted quickly because I was anxious to know more of this new member of the household.

The three of us went off together and soon were in the west corridor passing that very window at which Deborah had appeared and so startled me.

She opened the door of a room which had windows very like those in Roc’s and my bedroom and which gave a superb view of the coastline stretching out towards the west and Land’s End. My eyes went immediately to the bed—a fourposter like ours—because on the rose-coloured counterpane lay the black hat with the blue band. It was not really like the one in the picture but the colouring was similar.

I felt rather foolish as well as relieved, because it was comforting to solve the mystery of the apparition so quickly, but at the same time it was disconcerting to remember how shaken I had been at the sight of it. i I saw then that a part of one of the walls was covered with photographs of all sizes and types, some being studio portraits, others snapshots.

Deborah laughed and followed my gaze. ” I have always hoarded pictures of the family. It’s the same in Devonshire, isn’t it. Hyson?”

” Yes, but they’re all pictures of you before … these are after.”

“Yes, of course. Time seems rather divided like that-before Barby*s marriage … and after.”

” Barbarina,” I murmured involuntarily.

“Yes, Barbarina. She was Barby to me, and I was Deb. No one else ever called us by those versions of our names. Barbarina was the name of an ancestress of ours. It’s unusual, isn’t it? Until Barbarina’s marriage she and I were always together.” The blue eyes clouded momentarily and I guessed that there had been great devotion between the sisters. ” Oh well,” she went on, ” it’s all so long ago. Some times I find it hard to believe that she is dead … and in her grave….”

” But…” began Hyson.

Deborah laid her hand on the child’s head and went on: ” When she … died, I came to live here and I brought up Petroc and Morwenna. I tried to take her place, but can anyone take the place of a mother?”

” They’re very fond of you, I’m sure.”

” I think they are. Do let me show you the photographs. I think some of them are very charming. You’ll want to see your husband in the various stages of his development, I expect. It’s always rather fun, don’t you think, to see people as they were years and years ago. “

I smiled at the mischievous-eyed boy in the open shirt and cricket flannels; and the picture of him standing side by side with Morwenna—Morwenna smiling coyly at the camera. Roc scowling at it.

There was a picture of them as babies; they lay side by side and a beautiful woman was bending over them.

” Barbarina and her twins,” murmured Deborah.

” How beautiful she is !” “Yes.” There was a note of infinite sadness in her voice. So she still mourns her sister, I thought; and there came into my mind the memory of the family vault with the laurel hanging on the spike. I guessed who had put that there.

I turned my attention to a picture of a man and a woman; I had no difficulty in recognising Barbarina, and the man who was with her was so like Roc that I guessed he was Barbarina’s husband. There it was, the almost challenging smile, the face of a man who knew how to get the best out of life, the reckless gambler, the indefinable charm. I noticed that the ears of the man in the picture were Roc’s ears, that the eyes were slightly tilted at the corners. It was a handsome face, made even more attractive by that streak of mischief . wickedness . or whatever it was that I had sensed in Roc. ” Roc’s parents,” I said.

” Taken a year before the tragedy,” Deborah told me. ” It is very sad. He looks so fond of her. He must have been heartbroken.”

Deborah smiled grimly, but she did not speak.

“Aren’t you going to show Favel the albums?” Hyson asked. ” Not now, dear. I’ve my settling in to do, and stories of the past can be a little boring, I’m afraid, to those who haven’t lived them.”

” I’m certainly not bored. I’m very eager to learn all I can about the family.”

“Of course … now that you are with us. And I shall enjoy showing you the albums at another, time.”

It was a kind of dismissal, and I said I too had things to do and would see her later. She came towards me and, taking my hands, smiled at me affectionately.

” I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you are here,” she told me earnestly; and there could be no doubting her sincerity.

“Everyone has been so charming to me at Pendorric,” I told her. ” No bride could have been more enthusiastically welcomed, and considering how sudden our marriage had been and that my coming must have been rather a shock to the family, I’m very grateful to everybody.”

” Of course we welcome you, my dear.”

Hyson said earnestly: ” We’ve been waiting for her for years … haven’t we. Granny?”

Deborah laughed, and gently pulled Hyson’s ear.

“You take in everything, child,” she said. And to me: ” We’re delighted that Roc’s married. The Pendorrics usually marry young.”

The door opened and a little woman came into the room. She was dressed in black, which was not becoming to her sallow skin; her hair was what is known as iron grey and must have been almost black once; her dark bushy brows met over small worried eyes; she had a long thin nose and thin lips.

She was about to speak, but seeing me hesitated. Deborah said: ” This is my dear Carrie, who was our nurse and has never left me. Now she looks after me … completely, and I just don’t know what I should do without her. Carrie, this is the new Mrs. Pendorric.” The worried-looking eyes were fixed on me. ” Oh,” she murmured, ” the new Mrs. Pendorric, eh.”

Deborah smiled at me.

“You’ll get to know Carrie very quickly. She’ll do anything for you, I’m sure. She’s a wonder with her needle. She makes most of my things as she always did.”

” I made for the two of them,” said Carrie with pride. ” And I used to say there was no one better dressed in the whole of Devonshire than Miss Barbarina and Miss Deborah.”

I noticed then the slight burr in her speech and the tenderness in her voice when she spoke of those two.

“Carrie, there’s some unpacking to do.”

Carrie’s expression changed and she looked almost disgruntled.

“Carrie hates leaving her beloved moor!” said Deborah with a laugh. ” It takes her quite a time to settle down on this side of the Tamar.”

” I wish we’d never crossed the Tamar,” Carrie muttered. Deborah smiled at me and, putting her arm through mine, walked into the corridor with me.

” We have to humour Carrie,” she whispered. ” She’s a privileged servant. She’s getting on now and her mind wanders a little.” She withdrew her arm. ” It’ll be fun showing you the pictures some time, Favel,” she went on. ” I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you’re here.”

I left her, feeling grateful for several reasons; not only was she affectionate and eager to be friends, but she had made me feel myself again now I was sure that it was a person of living flesh and blood who had looked down on me from the window.

The mail at Pendorric was brought up to our bedrooms with earlymorning tea; and it was a few days later when Roc, looking through his, came to a letter which made him laugh aloud.

” It’s come,” he called to me in the bathroom, ” I knew it would.”

“What?” I asked, coming out wrapped in a bath towel. ” Lord Polhorgan requests the pleasure of Mr. and Mrs. Pendorric’s company on Wednesday at three-thirty.”

“Wednesday. That’s tomorrow. Are we going?”

” Of course. I’m so eager for you to see the Folly.” I thought very little more about Lord Polhorgan’s invitation because I was far more interested in Pendorric; and I could not feel the almost malicious delight the family seemed to take in deriding the Folly and its master. As I said to Roc, if the man from Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham wanted to build a house on the cliffs, why shouldn’t he?

And if he wanted it to look like a medieval castle, again why shouldn’t he? The Pendorrics had apparently been glad to sell him the land. It was not for them to tell him how he must use it. As Roc and I set out that Wednesday afternoon he seemed to be enjoying some secret joke.

” I can’t wait to see what you think of the set-up,” he told me. To my unpractised eye the house looked as old as Pendorric.

” Do you know,” I said to Roc, as we approached the stone unicorns which did the same service as our battered lions, ” I shouldn’t know that this wasn’t a genuine antique if you hadn’t told me.”

” Ah, you wait till you’ve had a chance to examine it.” We pulled the bell in the great portico and heard it clanging through the hall.

A dignified manservant opened the door and, bowing his head, said solemnly: ” Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, madam. His lordship is waiting for you, so I’ll take you up immediately.” It took quite a long time to reach the room where our host was waiting for us; and I noticed that although the furniture was antique the carpets and curtains were expensively modern.

We were finally led to a large room with windows overlooking the beautifully laid-out cliff garden which ran down to the sea; and resting on a chaise-longue was the old man.

” My lord,” the manservant announced, ” Mr. and Mrs. Pendorric.”

” Ah! Bring them in, Dawson. Bring them in.”

He turned his head, and the intentness of those grey eyes was rather disturbing, particularly as they were directed towards me. ” Good of you to come,” he said rather brusquely, as though he didn’t mean this. “You’ll have to forgive my not rising.”

“Please don’t,” I said quickly, and I went to his chaise-longue and took his hand.

He had a high colour with a faint purplish tinge, and I noticed how the veins stood out on his long thin hands.

” Sit down, Mrs. Pendorric,” he said, still in the same brusque manner. ” Give your wife a chair, Pendorric. And put it near me … that’s right, facing the light.”

I had to suppress a slight resentment that I was being put under a shrewd scrutiny, and I experienced a certain nervousness which I hadn’t expected I should.

“Tell me, how do you like Cornwall, Mrs. Pendorric?” He spoke sharply, jerkily, as though he were barking orders on a barrack square ‘| ” I’m enchanted,” I said.

” And it compares favourably with that island place of ‘yours?”

” Oh yes.”

” All I see of it now is this view.” He nodded towards the window. ” I can’t imagine you’d find a more beautiful one anywhere.” He looked from me to Roc; and I was aware that my husband’s expression had become rather sardonic. He didn’t like the old roan, that much was clear; and I felt annoyed with him because I was afraid he made it obvious.

Our host was frowning towards the door. ” Late with tea,” he said. He must give his servants a difficult time, I thought, for even if he had asked for tea to be served immediately we arrived it was not very late; we had not been in the room more than three or four minutes.

Then me door opened and a tea wagon was wheeled in. It was overladen with cakes of all descriptions besides bread and butter and splits with bowls of clotted cream and jam.

“Ah,” Lord Polhorgan grunted, “at last! Where’s Nurse Grey?”

” Here I am.” A woman came into the room. She was so beautiful that for a moment I was startled. The blue in her striped dress matched her eyes, her starched apron was snowy white, and her cap, set almost jauntily on her masses of golden hair, called attention to its beauty.

I had never seen a nurse’s uniform worn so becomingly; then I realised that this woman would look dazzling whatever she wore, simply because she was so very beautiful.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Pendorric,” she said.

Roc had risen to his feet as she entered and I could not see his face as he looked at her. He said: “Good afternoon, Nurse.” Then he turned.

” Favel, this is Nurse Grey, who looks after Lord Polhorgan.”

“I’m so glad to meet you.” She had a wide’ mouth and perfectly shaped teeth.

“What about giving Mrs. Pendorric some tea?” growled Lord Polhorgan.

” Of course,” said Nurse Grey. ” It’s all here, I see. Now, Mrs. Pendorric, you’d like to sit near Lord Polhorgan. I’ll put this little table here for you. “

I thanked her and she went to the tea wagon and began to pour out while Roc brought over a plate of splits and cream and jam which he set on the table.

” I don’t need a nurse all the time,” Lord Polhorgan told me. ” But I may need one at any moment. That’s why she’s here. Quite an efficient woman.”

” I am sure she is.”

” Easy job. Gets a lot of free time. Beautiful surroundings.”

“Ideal,” I murmured, wondering how Nurse Grey liked being referred to in the third person. I glanced at her. She was smiling at Roc. I handed Lord Polhorgan the splits, and I noticed that he moved slowly and was rather breathless as he took one.

” Shall I spread the jam and cream for you?” I asked.

“H’m!” he barked, which meant assent.

“Thanks!” he added when I had done it. ” Good of you. Now help yourself.”

Nurse Grey asked if I preferred China or Indian, and I was given delicious Mandarin Pekoe with lemon.

She then sat down near Roc. I very much wanted to hear what they were saying, but Lord Polhorgan demanded my attention by firing questions at me. He appeared to be very interested in the way we had lived on the island, and I promised to show him some of my father’s work which had been sent to Pendorric.

” Good,” he said. He made me talk about my childhood and in a short time I was living it all again.

” You’re not happy,” said Lord Polhorgan suddenly, and I blurted out the story of my father’s death, to which he listened gravely and then said: ” You were very fond of him. Was your mother fond of him too?”

I told him something of their life together then, how they had lived for each other, how ill she had become and how they had made me aware that they wanted to live every hour to the full because they knew that the time would come when they could not be together; and as I did so I marvelled that I could talk so intimately to such a gruff old man on such short acquaintance.

He laid his veined hand on my arm. ” Is that how it is with you?” he said sharply, and he looked towards Roc, who was laughing with Nurse Grey.

I hesitated just a second too long.

” Marry in haste …” he added. ” Seem to have heard that said somewhere.”

I flushed. ” I’m very happy at Pendorric,” I retorted. ” You rush into things,” he said. ” Bad habit. I never rushed. Made decisions, yes … and sometimes quick ones, but always gave them adequate thought. You coming to see me again?”

” If you ask me.”

” Then you are asked now.”

” Thank you.”

” You won’t want to, though.”

” Yes, I shall.”

He shook his head. ” You’ll make excuses. Too busy. Another engagement. What would a young woman like you want with visiting a sick old man?”

” But I’d love to come.”

” You’ve got a kind heart. But kindness doesn’t always go very deep.

Don’t want to hurt the old man . go now and then. But a bore. What a nuisance! “

” It will be nothing of the sort. You’re so interested in things. And I’m attracted by this house.”

” Pretty vulgar, eh? The old man of the people who wanted to build up a bit of background. Doesn’t go down well with the aristocrats, I can tell you.”

” Why shouldn’t people build backgrounds if they want them?”

” Listen, young woman. There’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t build anything. You get your just deserts in this world. I wanted to make money and I made it. I wanted to have a family mansion … well, I’ve got it. In this world you say, I want this and I want that. And if you’ve got any guts you go and get it. You get what you pay for, and if it doesn’t turn out as you planned, well then you have to look for where you went wrong because, you can depend on it, you’ve gone wrong somewhere.”

” I expect you’re right.”

” I’d like you to come again even if you are bored. Perhaps you’d be less bored after a while … when we got to know each other.”

” I haven’t started to be bored yet. “

He clenched and unclenched his hand, frowning at it. ” I’m an old man incapacitated by illness … brought on, they tell me, by the life I’ve led.” He patted his chest. ” I’ve put a big strain on this, it seems, and now I’ve got to pay for it. All right, I say, life’s a matter of settling bills and drawing dividends. I’m ready.”

” I can see you have a philosophy.”

“Play chess?”

” My mother taught me.”

“Your mother, eh?”

” She also taught me reading, writing and arithmetic, before I came to school in England.”

” I reckon you were the apple of her eye.”

” I was her only child.”

” Yes,” he said soberly. ” Well, if you played a game of chess with me now and then, you wouldn’t be so bored with the old man’s efforts at conversation. When will you come?”

I considered. ” The day after tomorrow,” I said.

“Good. Teatime?”

” Yes, but I mustn’t eat so many of these splits or I shall put on too much weight.”

He looked at me and his eyes were suddenly soft. ” You’re as slight as a sylph,” he said.

Nurse Grey came over with plates of cakes, but we did not seem in the mood for eating any more.

I noticed that Nurse Grey’s eyes had grown more luminous and that there was a faint pink colour in her cheeks. I wondered uneasily whether Roc had had anything to do with that, and I was reminded of Rachel Bective and Dinah Bond, the young blacksmith’s wife. The conversation became general, and after an hour we left. Roc was clearly amused as we walked home.

“Another conquest for you,” he commented.

“The old fellow certainly took to you. I’ve never known him so gracious before.”

“Poor old man, I don’t think people try to understand him.”

” They don’t need to,” retorted Roc. ” He’s as easy to read as an A.B.C. He’s the typical self-made man—a character off the shelf. There are some people who mould themselves on old cliches.

They decide the sort of person they’re going to be and start playing the part; after a while they’re so good at it that it becomes second nature. That’s why there are so many stock characters in the world.”

He grinned at me.

“You don’t believe me, do you? Well, look at Lord P. Started selling newspapers … perhaps not newspapers, but some such job.

It’s the pattern that matters, not the detail. Never goes in for any fun, piles up the little capital to start with, and by the time he’s thirty, industry and skill have turned it into a big capital and he’s on the way to becoming a millionaire. That’s all very well, but he can’t be himself . he has to be one of the band of self-made men. He clings to his rough manners.

“I came up from nothing and I’m proud of it!” Doesn’t go in for the ordinary graces of conventional living. Why should I change myself? I’m perfect as I am. ” Oh, I don’t have to try to understand Lord P. If he were made of glass I shouldn’t be able to see through him more clearly.”

” You don’t forgive him for building his house.”

Roc shrugged his shoulders. ” Perhaps not. It’s a fake and I hate fakes. Suppose all the self-made men made up their minds to build along our coast? What a sight! No, I’m against these pseudo-antiques; and to have put one on our doorstep is an imposition. Polhorgan’s Folly is an outsider here on our coast with houses like Pendorric, Mount Mellyn, Mount Widden, Cotehele and the like . just as its master is . with his Midland manners calling himself Lord Polhorgan.

As though Tre, Pol and Pen did not belong to Cornishmen. “

“How vehement you are!” I said, and trying to speak lightly added: ” And if I made a conquest, what of you?”

He was smiling as he turned to me. ” Thea, you mean? “

” You call her that?”

“That’s her name, my dear. Althea Grey—Thea to her friends.”

” Of whom you are one.”

” Of course, and so will you be. As for my conquest,” he went on, “that’s one of long standing. She has been here eighteen months, you know.”

Then he put his arm about me and began to sing:

” Wherever you hear Tre, Pol and Pen You’ll know that you’re with Cornishmen.”

He smiled at me and continued:

” Alas, I have to add a rider. One can’t ignore the rich outsider.”

” I think,” I said, ” that you prefer the nurse to the invalid.” I saw the teasing light in his eyes.

” With you it’s exactly the reverse,” he commented. ” That’s why it was such a successful visit. I took care of the nurse while you devoted yourself to your host.”

Two days later, as we had arranged I went to play chess with Lord Polhorgan. I came back and told Roc rather defiantly that I liked the old man even more than on the first occasion; which seemed to amuse him very much. Nurse Grey was not present, and I poured out the tea.

The old man was delighted when he beat me, then he looked at me shrewdly and said:

” Sure you’re not humouring the old man—letting him win, eh?” I replied that I had done my best to beat him, and that satisfied him.

Before I left I had promised to call again in a day or so in order to give him a return match.

I was settling into life at Pendorric. I did a little gardening with Morwenna, and it was pleasant to chat with her while we worked. ” It’s a useful hobby,” she said, ” because we haven’t the gardeners we once had. In my father’s day there were four of them; now it’s Bill Pascoe from the cottages three afternoons a week, with Toms working when he gets a chance. Both Roc and I were always fond of growing things.”

” Roc doesn’t do much in the gardens now,” I put in.

” Well, there’s the farm to take up his time. He and Charles work hard on that.” She sat back on her heels and smiled at the fork in her hands. ” I’m so pleased they get on well together—but then of course they’re two wonderful people. I’ve often thought how lucky I am.”

” I know what you mean,” I answered soberly. ” We’re both lucky. ” Charles was very friendly to me in a quiet and unassuming way, and I liked his chubby charm. When Roc took me round the farm for the first time I was immediately aware of the respect Charles had for Roc’s judgment, and that made me like him all the. more.

I even liked Rachel Bective a little better than I had in the beginning and reproached myself for a too-hasty judgment because I had fancied I detected something rather sly in her sandy looks. On one occasion we went for a walk together and she volunteered a little information about herself, telling me how she had met Morwenna when they had been at school together and had come to spend a summer holiday at Pendorric. From then she had been there often. She had to earn her living and had decided to take up teaching, so she had agreed to come here for a year to supervise the twins’ education because she knew what a trial they were to their mother.

The twins themselves had a habit of coming upon me at unexpected moments, and seemed to take a special pleasure in leaping out on me and startling me.

Lowella addressed me as Bride, which at first I thought amusing but later was not so sure; Hyson had a habit of fixing her silent gaze on me whenever she was in my company, which I also found disconcerting.

Deborah was as determined as the others to make me feel at home; she told me that she felt like a mother towards me because Roc had been like her own son. I was sitting in the quadrangle one afternoon when I suddenly had the eerie feeling that I was being watched. I shook off this feeling which was always ready to worry me when I was in the quadrangle, but it persisted, and when I looked up at the window on the west side where I had seen Deborah on the day she arrived I almost expected to see her there.

I stared for a few seconds at those curtained windows ; then I turned and looked at the east side. I was certain then that I saw a movement.

I waved and continued to look, but there was no response. Ten minutes later Deborah joined me in the quadrangle. ” How you love this spot!” she said, and she pulled up one of the white and gilded chairs to sit close to me.

” My feelings for the place are a little mixed,” I told her frankly.

“I am immensely attracted, and yet I never feel exactly comfortable here.”

“Why ever not?”

I looked over my shoulder. ” It’s the windows, I think.”

” I often say it’s a pity that it is only corridor windows which look down on the quadrangle. It would make such a lovely view and a change from the great vistas of sea from south, west and east, and country from the north.”

” It’s the windows themselves. They take away privacy.” She laughed.

” I believe you’re rather a fanciful person after all.”

” Oh no, I’m not really. Were you on the east side a little while ago?”

She shook her head.

” I’m sure someone was looking down.”

” I shouldn’t think so, dear, not from the east side. Those rooms are rarely used now. The furniture’s covered in dustsheets … except in her rooms.”

“Her rooms?”

” Barbarina’s. She always liked the east side. She didn’t mind Polhorgan in the least, like the others did. They couldn’t bear to look at it. She had her music room there. She said it was ideal because she could practise there to her heart’s content without disturbing anyone.”

“Perhaps it was one of the twins I saw up there.”

” That may be so. The servants don’t go there very much. Carrie looks after Barbarina’s room. She gets rather angry if anyone else attempts to. But you should see them. You ought to see all over the house. You are after all its new mistress.”

” I would love to see Barbarina’s rooms.”

” We could go now.”

I rose eagerly and she took my arm as we walked across the quadrangle to the east door. She seemed excited at the prospect of taking me on a tour of that part of the house.

The door closed behind us and as we walked along a short corridor which led into the hall I was conscious of silence. I told myself that it had something to do with my mood, for naturally if there was no one in this wing why should the silence surprise me?

“The servants say this is now the haunted part of the house,” Deborah told me.

” And Barbarina is the ghost?” I asked.

“You know the story then? Lowella Pendorric was supposed to have haunted the house until Barbarina took her place. A typical Cornish situation, my dear. I’m glad I was born on the other side of the Tamar. I shouldn’t want to be perpetually ingratiating myself with pi skies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night.” I looked about the hall, which was an exact replica of the others in its proportions. There were the steel weapons on the walls, the pewter utensils on the refectory table, fee suits of armour at the foot of the staircases. The pictures in the gallery were different, of course, and I gazed casually at them as we mounted the stairs. We reached the corridor and I glanced through the windows at the quadrangle, wondering at which one I had seen a movement. ” Barby’s rooms were on the second floor,” Deborah told me. ” I used to come and stay when she married. You see we had scarcely been separated all our lives and Barby didn’t see why we ever should be.

This became a second home to me. I was here as much as I was in Devonshire. “

We had mounted to the second floor and Deborah opened several of the doors to show me rooms shrouded in dustsheets. They looked ghostly, as all such rooms do in large and silent houses.

Deborah smiled at me and I guessed she was reading my thoughts and perhaps trying to prove to me that I was not as immune from Cornish superstition as I should have liked her to believe.

” Now,” she said, and threw open a door. ” This is the music room.”

There were no dustsheets here. The huge windows gave me a view of the coast, with Polhorgan rising majestically on the cliff top; but it was not the view I looked at this time, but the room, and I think what struck me most was that it had the look of a room which was being lived in. There was a dais at one end of it and on this was a stand with a piece of music opened on it. Beside the stand, on a chair, was a violin, looking as though it had just been placed there; the case lay open on a nearby table.

Deborah was watching me gravely, and I said slowly:

” This is how it was on the day she died?”

Deborah nodded. ” A silly habit. But some people find comfort from it.

At first none of us could bear to move anything. Carrie dusts and puts things down exactly where they were. Carrie feels really fierce about it and it’s more for her sake than anything else that we leave it as it is. I can’t tell you how devoted she was to Barbarina. “

” And to you too.”

Deborah smiled.

“To me too. But Barbarina was her favourite.”

” You were identical twins?”

” Yes. Like Lowella and Hyson. When we were young some people found difficulty in telling us apart, but as we grew older all that passed.

She was gay and amusing; I was rather stolid and slow-witted. There’s more to looks than features, isn’t there? It’s beginning to show in Hyson and Lowella. It’s only when they’re asleep that they seem so much alike. As I was saying, Barby was everybody’s favourite, and because she was as she was. I seemed more dull and less interesting than I should if she had not always been with me. “

“Did you resent it?”

” Resent it! I adored Barbarina with the rest. In fact she hadn’t a more devoted admirer. When she was praised I was happy because in a way it seemed as though I was being praised. It’s sometimes like that with twins; they can share each other’s triumphs and disasters more fully than ordinary people do.”

“And did she feel the same about you?”

” Absolutely. I wish you could have known Barbarina. She was a wonderful person. She was all that I should have liked to be myself; and because she looked so like me and was my twin sister, when we were little I was quite happy that it should be so. “

” It must have been a blow to you when she married.”

” We didn’t let that part us more than we could help. I had to be in Devonshire for a good part of the time because our father needed me to look after him. Our mother had died when we were fifteen and he had never really got over the shock. But whenever I could I would be at Pendorric. She was very glad to see me. In fact, I don’t know what she would have done …” She hesitated and I had the impression that she was on the verge of confiding in me. Then she shrugged her shoulders and seemed to change her mind.

But here in Barbarina’s music room I was conscious of a great desire to learn more about her. I was—although I wouldn’t admit it at this stage—becoming more and more absorbed in the story of this woman who had been my immediate predecessor as a Pendorric Bride.

“Was it a happy marriage?” I asked.

Deborah turned away from me and went to the window; I was embarrassed, realising that I had asked an awkward question, so I went to her and, laying my hand gently on her arm, said: ” I’m sorry. I’m being too inquisitive.”

She turned to me and I noticed how brilliant her eyes had become. She shook her head and smiled. ” Of course not, and naturally you’re interested. After all, you’re one of us now, aren't you? There’s no reason why we should try to keep family secrets from you. Come and sit down and I will tell you about it.”

We sat in the window looking along the coast towards Rame Head and Plymouth. The headland jutted out darkly in the grey water and one could imagine it was a supine giantess who lay there. The tide was out and the tops of the jagged rocks were visible. I gazed at Polhorgan whose grey walls were the colour of the sea today.

” There’s a distant family connection between the Hysons and the Pendorrics,” said Deborah.

“Cousins, many times removed. So from our childhood we knew Petroc and his family. I don’t mean your Roc, of course, but his father who was Barbarina’s Petroc. When he was a boy he used to stay with us. He was a year older than we were.”

“He was like Roc, wasn’t he?”

” So like him that sometimes when I see Roc now I get a little shock and for the moment I think he’s Petroc come back.”

“In looks, you mean?”

” Oh … in many ways. The voice … the gestures … his ways … everything. There’s a very strong resemblance that runs through most of the Pendorric men. I used to hear stories of Petroc’s father—another Petroc—and all that I heard could have applied to his son. Barbarina fell in love with him when she was about seven. She remained in that state until she died.”

” She must have been happy when she married him.”

“A feverish sort of ecstasy. It used to frighten me. She cared for him so much.”

“And he for her?”

Deborah smiled a little wistfully. ” Petroc liked women in general too much to care very deeply for one in particular. That’s what I always felt, and so I saw how it would be. I warned Barbarina, but she wouldn’t listen of course.”

There was silence, and after a while she went on: “We used to ride on Dartmoor. Our place is on the moor, you know. You must come and see it. The view is wonderful—if you like that kind of view. You can step from our garden right on to the moor. Once we all went riding together and they lost me. The mist came up as it does on the moor, and however well you think you know the place you can easily be hopelessly lost.

You are apt to wander round and round in circles. It was really rather frightening. I found my way back but they didn’t come home until next day. They’d sheltered in some hut they’d discovered, and Petroc had had the fore sight to load up with chocolate. Sometimes I think he arranged the whole thing. “

” Why? I mean, if she was in love with him, couldn’t he have been with her … more comfortably?”

Again that silence. Then she sighed and said: “He was in love with some local girl whom he’d promised to marry. She was a farmer’s daughter. But the family wanted this marriage with the Hysons because our father was well off and money was badly needed at Pendorric.

Barbarina was very unhappy. She’d heard that Petroc was going to marry this girl, and she knew he must be very much in love with her because Pendorrie meant a great deal to him, and it was possible that if he couldn’t bring some money into the family something would have to be done about it. So she knew he must have been deeply in love with the girl to contemplate marrying someone who couldn’t bring a penny into the place. He was fond of Barbarina. It wouldn’t have been any hardship to marry her . if he hadn’t been so besottedly in love with this other woman. Petroc was the sort of man who would get along with any woman . like . Well, you know the type. ” I nodded uneasily.

“Were the Pendorrics very poor then?”

” Not exactly, but the great change had set in. Things weren’t what they had been for their sort of people. The house needed expensive renovations. And Petroc had gambled rather rashly in the hope of recuperating the family fortunes.”

” So he was a gambler.”

She nodded. ” As his father was.”

” And what happened after that night on the moor?”

” I think Petroc had made up his mind that he would have to marry Barbarina. Pendorric was important, so he would fall in with the wishes of his family and Barbarina’s. But he couldn’t tell Barbarina that … bluntly. So they got lost on the moors and Barbarina was seduced and … that made it all easy.”

” She told you this?”

” My dear Favel, Barbarina didn’t have to tell me things. We were as close as two people can be. Don’t forget that during the months of our gestation we had been as one. I knew exactly what had happened and why.”

” And after that she married him and she was happy.”

“What do you expect? Petroc couldn’t be faithful. It wasn’t in his nature to be, any more than it had been in his father’s. He took up with the farmer’s daughter again. It was a notorious scandal. But she wasn’t the only one. Like his father he couldn’t resist a woman nor a chance to gamble. Women couldn’t resist them either. I thought that when Roc and Morwenna were born she would cease to fret for him, and for a while she did. I hoped that she would have more children and make them her life.”

“And you were disappointed?”

” Barbarina was a good mother, don’t mistake me; but she wasn’t one of those women who can ignore her husband’s infidelities and become completely absorbed in her children. Petroc meant too much to her for that.”

” So she was very unhappy?”

” You can imagine it, can’t you. A sensitive woman … in a place like this … and an unfaithful husband who didn’t make a secret of his infidelities; there was nothing secret about Petroc. He never tried to pretend he was other than he was—a reckless gambler and a philanderer. He seemed to take up the attitude: It’s a family characteristic, so there’s nothing can do about it.”p>

” Poor Barbarina,” I murmured.

” I used to come down as often as I could, and then when my father died I almost lived here. It was through me that she became interested in her music again. I believe that in other circumstances she might have been a concert violinist. She was really very good. But she had never practised enough. However, she found great pleasure in it, particularly towards the end. In fact she was very gifted. I remember when we were at school … we must have been about fourteen then … she was in the school play. It was Hamlet and she was Ophelia, a part which suited her absolutely. I was the ghost. That was about the limit of my capabilities. I believe I was a very poor one. But Barbarina was the hit of the show.”

” I can imagine that—from her picture, I mean. Particularly the one in the gallery.”

” Oh, that’s Barbarina as she really was. Sometimes when I look at it I almost imagine she will step out of the frame and speak to me. “

“Yes, there’s a touch of reality about it. The artist must have been a very good one.”

” It was painted about a year before her death. She took great pleasure in riding. In fact I sometimes felt it was a feverish sort of pleasure she was taking in things … her music … riding, and so on. She was lovely in that particular ensemble, and that was why she was painted in it. It was sad that she-like Ophelia—should have died before her time. I wish you could have heard her sing that song from the play. She had a strange voice … a little off-key, which suited the song and Ophelia. I remember at the school show how silent the audience was when she came on the stage in a flowering gown of white and flowers in her hair and in her hands. I can’t sing; but it’s that one that goes something like this:

"How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone."

She quoted the words in a low monotone; then she flashed her smile at me. ” I wish I could make you hear it as she sang it. There was something about it that made one shiver. Afterwards it became one of her favourite songs and there was a verse which she didn’t sing at the school play but she used to sing that later.

"Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,

And duped the chamber door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

| Never departed more. “

” There would be an odd little smile about her lips as she sang that, and I always felt it had something to do with that night on the moor.”

” Poor Barbarina! I’m afraid she wasn’t very happy.” Deborah clenched her fists as though in sudden anger.

” And she was meant to be happy. I never knew anyone so capable of being happy. If Petroc had been all that she hoped he would be … if But what is the good? When is life ever what you hope it will be; and in any case it is all so long ago. “

” I heard about it; the balustrade was faulty and she fell to the hall.”

” It was unfortunate that it happened in the gallery where Lowella Pendorric hung. That really gave rise to all the talk.”

” It must have revived the legend.”

” Oh, it didn’t take all that reviving. The people round about had always said that Pendorric was haunted by Lowella Pendorric, the Bride of long ago.”

” And now they say that Barbarina has taken her place.” Deborah laughed; then she looked over her shoulder. ” Although I’ve always laughed at such talk, sometimes when I’m in this house I feel a little more inclined to accept it.”

” It’s the atmosphere of old houses. The furniture is often standing in exactly the same place it was in hundreds of years ago. You cant help thinking that this house looked almost exactly the same to that Lowella whom they call the First Bride.”

” I only wish that Barbarina would come back!” said Deborah vehemently. ” I can’t tell you what I’d give to see her again.” She stood up. ” Let’s go for a wa’k. We’re getting morbid sitting here in Barbarina’s room. We’ll have to get mackintoshes. Look at those clouds. The wind’s in the southwest and that means rain’s not far off.”

I said I should enjoy that, and we left the east wing together She came with me to my room while I put on my outdoor things; then I went with her to hers; and when we were ready she led me round to the north wing and we paused on the gallery before the picture of Lowella ” This is where she fell,” explained Deborah. ” Look, you can see where the balustrade has been mended. It was wood worm, I believe. It should have been noticed long before. Actually the place is riddled with worm. It’s inevitable and it’ll cost a fortune to put it right.”

I looked up into Lowella Pendorric’s painted face and I thought exultantly: But Roc is not really like his father and his grandfather, and the gambling, philandering Pendorrics. If he had been in his father’s place he would have married the farmer’s daughter, as he married me—for what had I to bring him? In ten minutes we were strolling along the cliff path, the warm sea-scented wind caressing our faces.

I had no wish to lead an idle life. On the island there had always been so much to do. I had been my father’s housekeeper as well as his saleswoman. I pointed out to Roc that I wanted to do something. ” You might go down to the kitchens and have a little chat with Mrs. Penhalligan. She’d appreciate it. After all, you’re the mistress of the house. “

” I will,” I agreed, ” because Morwenna wont mind in the least if I do make suggestions.”

He put his arm round me and hugged me. ” Aren’t you the mistress of the house, anyway?”

” Roc,” I told him, ” I’m so happy. I wouldn’t have thought it possible so soon after …”

Roc’s kiss prevented me from going on with that. ” Didn’t I tell you?

And talking of having something to do . as Mrs. Pendorric you should take an interest in village activities, you know. It’s expected, as I guess you’ve gathered from the Darks. I tell you, Favel, in a few weeks’ time you’ll not be complaining of having too little to do, but too much. “

” I think I’ll begin by getting to know more of Mrs. Penhalligan and perhaps I’ll call on the Darks. This afternoon, by the way, I’ve promised to have tea with Lord Polhorgan.”

” What, again? You really do like that old man.”

” Yes,” I said almost defiantly, I do. “

“Then enjoy yourself.”

” I believe I shall.”

Roc studied me, smiling as he did so. ” You certainly seem to hit it off.”

” I feel that he’s really rather a lonely old man, and he seems sort of paternal.”

R Roc’s smile faded and he nodded slowly.

“You’re still grieving,” he said.

“It’s so hard to forget. Roc. Oh, I’m so happy here. I love it all; the family are so kind to me, and you . “

He was laughing. ” And I’m kind to you too? What did you expect? A wife-beater?”

Then he put his arms about me and held me close to him. ” Listen, Favel,” he said. ” I want you to be happy. Dt’s what I want more than anything. I understand what you feel about the old man. He’s paternal. That’s what you said; and in a way he makes up for something you miss. He’s lonely. You can bet your life he’s missed a lot. So you like each other. It’s understandable. “

” I wish you liked him more. Roc.”

” Don’t take any notice of what I’ve said. It was mostly said jokingly. When you get to know me better you’ll understand what a joker I am.”

” Don’t you think I know you well then?”

” Not as well as you will twenty years hence, darling. We’ll go on learning. about each other; that’s what makes it all so exciting. It’s like a voyage of discovery.”

He spoke lightly, but I went on thinking of what he had said, and I was still remembering those words when I passed under the great archway on my way out that afternoon, until I heard footsteps behind me and turning saw Rachel Bective, a twin walking sedately on either side of her.

” Hallo,” called Rachel, ” going for a walk?”

” I’m going to tea at Polhorgan.”

They caught up with me and we walked along together. ” Hope you’re prepared,” warned Rachel. ” It’s going to rain.”

” I’ve brought my mac.”

” The wind’s blowing in from the southwest, and once it starts to rain here you begin to wonder whether it’s ever going to stop.” Hyson came to the other side of me so that I was in between her and Rachel; Lowella skipped on ahead.

” Do you go round by the cliff path to Polhorgan?” asked Rachel. ” It’s at least five minutes shorter.”

“I’ve always kept to this road.”

“We’ll show you the short cut if you like.”

” Don’t let me take you out of your way.”

” But we’re only going for a walk.”

” Well, thanks—if it really won’t” ” Lowella,” Rachel called. ” We’re going down Smugglers’ Lane to show your Aunt Favel the short cut to Polhorgan.” Lowella wheeled sharply round. ” Good. It’ll be lovely and squelchy down Smugglers’ Lane.”

” It won’t. There hasn’t been that much rain.” ‘”” e turned aside from the road and took a steep narrow path j on either side of which the hedges had run so wild (hat some-Hi times we had to go in single file. ^| Lowella found a broken-off branch and went ahead of ug^l beating the overgrown hedges and shouting: ‘“Beware their awful avalanche. Beware the pine-tree’s withered branch, t’ Excelsior!” ” ” Oh Lowella, do be quiet,” begged Rachel.

” Of course if you don’t want me to lead you to safety, say , so. ”

” Hyson reads to her when they’re in bed at night,” Rachel : told me,” and she goes on repeating what appeals to her. ” ^ ” You like reading, don’t you? ” I said to Hyson. ‘( She merely nodded. Then she said: ” Lowella’s such a;: child. As if this is anything like the awful avalanche! ” ; The path ended abruptly and we stepped’ on to what looked ] Eke a ledge. Beneath us—a long way beneath us—was the f sea, and beside us towering above rose the shaley face of the ?

cliff with here and there a bush of gorse or bracken clinging ; to the brown earth. ] “It’s perfectly safe,” said Rachel Bective . “Unless of! course you have a phobia about heights.”

I told her I hadn't and added that we were several feet j lower than we had been on the coast road.

” Yes, but that’s a proper road. This is just a path, and a j little farther on its gets even narrower. There’s a notice saying j use it at your own risk, but that’s for visitors. Local people ; all use it.”

Lowella went on ahead, pretending to pick her way. i ” Wouldn’t it be super if we had a rope attaching us all,” she cried. ” Then if the Bride fell over the cliff, we’d haul her up.” , ” That’s kind of you, but I don’t intend to fall.”

“’ She’s still the youth who bore ‘mid snow and ice the banner with the strange device,” ” murmured Hyson. | ” Excelsior! ” cried Lowella.

“Isn't it a smashing word!” She ran on, shouting it. Rachel looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.

In a few seconds I saw what they meant about the path’s narrowing; for some two yards it was little more than a shelf; we walked rather gingerly in single file; then we rounded a part of the cliff which projected over the water, and as we did so I saw that we were almost at Polhorgan.

” It’s certainly a short cut,” I said. ” Thanks for showing me.”

” Shall we go back the same way?” Rachel asked the twins. Lowella turned and was already on her way back. I heard her shouting ” Excelsior ” as I went on to Polhorgan.

Lord Polhorgan was delighted to see me. I fancied the manservant treated me with rather special deference, and it occurred to me that it must be rare for his master to become so friendly in such a short space of time.

When I went into his room Nurse Grey was with him, reading to him from The Financial Times.

” Please don’t let me interrupt,” I said. ” I must be early. I’ll go and have a walk in the garden. I’ve always wanted to explore it.”

Lord Polhorgan looked at his watch.

“You are punctual,” he said, and waved a hand at Nurse Grey, who promptly folded the paper and rose. ” Never could abide people who have no respect for time. Unpunctuality is a vice. Glad to see you, Mrs. Pendorric. And I’d like to show you the garden, but I can’t manage it these days. Too steep for me to walk; too steep for me to be wheeled.”

” I’ll enjoy it from the window to-day,” I answered. ” Nurse Grey must show you, one day.”

” I’d be delighted to,” said Althea Grey.

“Tell them to bring in the tea. And Nurse, there’s no need for you to stay. Mrs. Pendorric will do the honours, I’m sure.” Nurse Grey bowed her head and murmured: ” I’ll hurry on the tea then.” Lord Polhorgan nodded and the nurse went out, leaving us together. ” Tea first,” he said, ” and we’ll have our chess after. Sit down and talk to me for a while. You’re settling in here now. Liking it?”

” Very much.”

“All well at Pendorric?” He shot a quick glance at me from under his shaggy brows.

” Yes.” I went on impulsively: ” Did you expect it to be otherwise? ” He evaded the question. ” It’s never easy settling in to a new life.

Must have been very gay—that island of yours. Find it quiet here?”

” I like this quiet.”

” Better than the island?”

“When my mother was alive I was completely happy. I didn’t think there was anything in the world but happiness. I was sad when I went away to school, but after a while I was used to that and being back was more fun than ever.”

He gave me a look of approval. ‘ You’re a sensible young woman. I’m glad. Cant stand the other sort. “

” Nurse Grey seems a sensible young woman.”

” H’m. Too sensible perhaps.”

” Can one be too sensible?”

” Sometimes I wonder why she stays here. I don’t think it’s out of love for her patient. I’m what’s known as an old curmudgeon, Mrs. Pendorric. “

I laughed. ” You cant be such a bad one, since you admit it.”

” Can’t I? You forget, when a man’s made money, he’s invariably surrounded by people who are anxious to relieve him of it—or some of it.”

” And you think Nurse Grey…?”

He looked at me shrewdly. ” Handsome young woman .. fond of gaiety.

Not so much to be had here. “

” But she seems contented.”

“Ay, she does and all.” He nodded shrewdly.

“Often wonder why. Perhaps she thinks she won’t be forgotten … when the great day comes.” I must have shown my embarrassment, for he said quickly; “A fine host I am. Why, you’ll be making excuses not to come and see me if I don’t watch out. Shouldn’t like that… shouldn’t like it at all.”

” I wouldn’t make excuses to you. You’re forthright and say what you mean, so I would try to do Hie same.”

” We’re alike in that,” he said, and chuckled. The tea arrived and I poured. This had become a habit which was a further indication of the rate at which our friendship had developed. He seemed to take pleasure in watching me. While I was serving tea I saw Althea Grey walking through the gardens down to the beach. She had changed her uniform for brown jeans and a blouse the colour of delphiniums, which was a perfect foil for her fair hair, and I guessed her eyes matched the blouse. She looked back suddenly and, seeing me, waved; I waved back.

” It’s Nurse Grey,” I explained to my host. ” She’s off duty for a few hours I suppose.”

He nodded. ” Was she on her way down to the beach?”

” Yes.”

” Polhorgan Cove belongs to me by rights but I was soon led to understand that the natives wouldn’t think very kindly of me if I made it a private beach. There’s a gate and hedges shutting off the garden; but you go through the gate right on to the beach. “

” It’s rather like Pendorric.”

” The same arrangement. Pendorrics own their beach and I own mine, but I don’t think half the people who scramble over the rocks at low tide know that.”

” If the beaches were fenced off it would mean people couldn’t walk along for very far; they’d have to keep coming up and making a detour.”

” Always believed that what was mine was mine and I had a right to say what was to be done with it. I was very unpopular when I first came, I can tell you. I’ve grown mellow. You learn as you get older. Sometimes if you stand out for your rights you lose what might mean more to you.”

He was momentarily sad, and I fancied that he looked a little more tired than when I had last seen him.

” Yes, I think there’s a lot in that,” I said.

” There you were, with your mother and father on that island … perfectly happy, and I don’t suppose you owned the house you lived in, let alone the ground all round and a private beach.”

” It’s true. We were very poor and very happy.”

He frowned, and I wondered if I had been tactless. He went on rather brusquely: ” Nurse Grey goes down to the beach a great deal. Do you use yours much?”

” Not so far. But I shall, of course. I’ve hardly settled in yet.”

” I’m taking up too much of your time.”

” But I like coming and I enjoy playing chess.”

He was silent for a while, and then again he led me back to the subject of my life on the island.

I was surprised that he could be such a good listener, but while I talked he remained attentive and fired so many questions at me in his rather brusque manner that I went on talking about myself.

When the tea had been cleared away I drew up the exquisite little table on which we played; it was a dainty piece of French origin with inlaid ivory and tortoise-shell squares; I put out the ivory chessmen, which were as beautiful as the table, and the game began. When we had been playing for about fifteen minutes, to my surprise I had him at a disadvantage. I was delightedly pursuing my strategy when, looking up, I saw that he was in considerable discomfort. ” Sorry,” he muttered. ” Please forgive me.” He was groping in his pocket.

“You’ve lost something?”

” A little silver box. I always keep it near me.”

I stood up and looking about me saw a small silver box on the floor at his feet. I picked it up and gave it to him. His relief was apparent as he quickly opened it and took a small white tablet from it. This he placed under his tongue. For some seconds he sat back gripping his chair.

I was alarmed because I knew that he was ill, and I got up, going to the bell to call the manservant, but seeing what I was about to do.

Lord Polhorgan shook his head. I stood uncertainly. ” Better in a minute,” he muttered.

“But you’re ill. Shouldn’t I …?” He continued to shake his head while I stood helplessly by. In about five minutes he began to look a little better and it was as though a tension had been eased.

He drew a deep breath and murmured: ” Better now. I’m sorry.”

” Please don’t be so sorry. Just tell me what I can do.”

” Just sit down … quietly. In a few minutes I’ll be all right.” I obeyed, watching him anxiously. The gilded French clock over the ornate fireplace ticked loudly, and apart from that there was silence in the room. From far away I could hear the gentle swishing of the waves against the rocks.

A few more minutes passed and he gave a deep sigh. Then he smiled at me.

“I’m sorry that happened while you were here. Mislaid my tablets.

Don’t usually stir without them. They must have dropped out of my pocket. “

“Please don’t apologise. I’m the one wfao is sorry. I’m afraid I didn’t know what to do.”

” There’s nothing much anyone can do. If I’d had my box I’d have slipped a tablet into my mouth while you were busy over the game and you wouldn’t have noticed anything. As it was … I delayed a little too long.”

” I’m glad I found them.”

” You look sad. Shouldn’t, you know. I’m an old man. And one of the disadvantages of being old is that one is too old to deal with the disadvantages. But I’ve had my day. Besides, there’s a lot of life in me yet. Don’t like mislaying my tablets though. Could be dangerous.”

” What wonderful tablets they must be!”

” Not always effective. They are, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, though. TNT. Expand the veins and arteries.”

” And if they’re not?”

” Then it’s a dose of morphia.”

” I’m terribly sorry.”

He patted my hand. ” The old engine’s creaking,” he said. ” I need decarbonising. Pity I can’t ask you to run me into old Jim Bond’s and have it done, eh?”

” Shouldn’t you rest now?”

” Don’t you worry. I’ll phone my doctor and ask him to come in and see me. Haven’t been feeling so well this last day or so.”

“Shouldn’t we phone at once?”

” Nurse Grey will do it when she comes in. Can’t imagine how those tablets came to be on the floor.”

” Perhaps there’s a hole in your pocket.”

He felt, and shook his head.

” You know, I think you ought to rest. Shall I go now? Or better still, telephone the doctor?”

“All right, then. His number’s in the little book by the telephone.

Dr. Clement. “

I went at once to the book and dialled the number. I was fortunate, for Dr. Clement happened to be in. I told him that I was speaking from Polhorgan and that Lord Polhorgan wanted him to look in soon. ” Right,” said Dr. Clement. ” I’ll be along.”

I replaced the receiver and went back to the table. ” Can I do anything for you? ” I asked.

” Yes, sit down and finish the game. I’m afraid I let you get the better of me. I was thinking about my silver box. Just to show you how quickly I can recover we’ll continue the game and I’ll beat you yet.”

I kept taking uneasy glances at him as we played, which made him chuckle, and before we had finished the game Dr. Clement arrived. I rose to go, but Lord Polhorgan wouldn’t hear of it.

” I’m all right now,” he said. ” I only let Mrs. Pendorric call you because she was anxious about me. Tell her there’s nothing to be done for me. The trouble was. Doctor, I’d mislaid my TNT.s and it was some minutes before Mrs. Pendorric found them.”

” You should always keep them within reach,” said Dr. Clement. ” I know. I know. Can’t think what happened. Must have pulled (hem out of my pocket. Have some tea. Perhaps Mrs. Pendorric Would ring for Dawson. That’s cold by now.”

The doctor declined the tea and I said I really should go. I was certain that he would want to be alone with his patient. ” The game’s unfinished,” protested Lord Polhorgan.

” We can finish it next time.”

” I’ve frightened you away,” said Dr. Clement almost wistfully. I was determined to go, and I left. As I came through the portico I glanced at my watch and saw that “I was half an hour earlier than I had intended to be, so instead of making my way to the road, or the path which led to the short cut Rachel and the twins had shown me that afternoon, I thought I would like to go down to the beach by Way of the cliff garden and scramble over the rocks to Pendorric Cove, and through our own garden up to the house.

The tide was out, so it would be possible. I walked round to the side of the house and saw one of the Polhorgan gardeners emerging from a greenhouse. I asked him how I could get to the beach from the garden and he offered to show me the way.

He led me along a path bounded on each side by a box hedge; at the end of this path was a small gate, and passing through it I came on the cliff garden. It was a wonderful sight, for in this semitropical climate plants grew in profusion. There was a palm tree in a sheltered alcove which’re minded me of those in the quadrangle; and the hydrangea blooms were even bigger than those at Pendorric; they flaunted their brilliant blues and pinks, whites and multi colours There seemed to be hundreds of fuchsias with larger flowers than I had seen before; and great white arum lilies which filled the air with their slightly funereal scent.

The path I had taken wound in zigzag fashion towards the sea to eliminate the strain of walking down such a steep slope; first I faced east, then west, then turned again as I went past borders of flowers whose names I did not know, past seats which had been set under arches and in alcoves the trelliswork of which was ablaze with Paul Scarlett, American Pillar and Golden Dawn roses. I thought that if the sun were shining and the sea blue it would be almost too dazzling. But to-day was a grey day and the cry of the gulls seemed melancholy as they swooped and soared.

I came at length to the little gate which opened on to the beach, and as I stood in Polhorgan Cove I looked back at that wonderful garden set out on the cliff-side to the stone walls of Polhorgan’s Folly looming above.

Not such a Folly, I thought. A lovely house in a lovely spot. The tide was well out. I knew that at high tide it came up almost as far as the gates of Pendorric garden, and, I imagined, those of Polhorgan too. It was only when the tide was really out that one could walk along the beach. Even as far as I could see, the place was deserted.

Ahead of me the rocks jutted out almost to the water, shutting me in the little bay which was known as -Polhorgan’s Cove. I guessed it would take me longer to reach Pendorric this way than by the road, so I started westwards immediately. It was not easy rounding the jagged rocks; there were so many to be climbed, and interesting little pools to be leaped over. I came to a large rock which actually did jut into the sea. It was rather difficult getting over that one, but I managed it; and then I saw our own beach, our garden, far less grand than that of Polhorgan, but perhaps as beautiful in its wild state.

I leaped on to the soft sand, and as I did so I heard the sound of laughter.

Then I saw them. She was half lying on the sand, her face propped up by her hands, and he was stretched out beside her leaning on one elbow. He looked as dark as he had when I had first seen him sitting in the studio with my father.

They were talking animatedly, and I thought uneasily: They wouldn’t have expected to see me here suddenly. I wanted them to know quickly that I was close by. Perhaps I was afraid that if I did not make my presence known I might hear or see something which I did not want to.

I called out: “Hallo.” Roc sprang to his feet and for a few seconds stared at me; then he came running towards me, taking both my hands in his. ” Look who’s here! I thought you were still at the Folly.”

” I hope I didn’t startle you.”

He put his arm round me and laughed.

“In the most pleasant way,” he said.

We walked over to Althea Grey, who remained where she was on the sand.

Her blue eyes, fixed on me, seemed shrewd and alert.

“Is everything all right at Polhorgan?” she asked. I told her what had happened, and she got up.

“I’d better get back,” she said.

“Come up to Pendorric,” said Roc, “and I’ll drive you there.” She looked up at the steep garden, to the grey walls of Pen dorric and shook her head.

“I don’t think it would be any quicker, I’ll go over the rocks.” She turned to me.

“I’ve done it so often, I’m becoming like a mountain goat. See you later,” she added, and started to hurry across the sand.

” You look shaken,” said Roc. ” I believe the old man often has those attacks. He’s been having them for years. Pity it happened when you were alone with him.”

We opened the gate and started the climb through the garden to the house.

” What made you come the beach way?” asked Roc.

“I don’t know. Perhaps because it was a way I hadn’t been before and as I was leaving a little early I thought I’d try it. Is Althea Grey a great friend of … tile family?”

” Not of the family.”

“Only of you?”

” You know what a friendly type I am!”

He caught me to him and hugged me. Questions were on my lips but I hesitated. I didn’t want him to think I was going to be foolishly jealous every time he spoke to another woman. I had to remember I had married a Pendorric and they were noted for their gallantries.

” Do you often meet on the beach?”

” This is a small place. One is always running up against neighbours.”

” I wonder why she preferred our beach to Polhorgan.”

” Ah, from Pendorric beach you can look up at real antiquity ; from Polhorgan you only get the fake.”

” It’s a very beautiful fake.”

” I believe you’re getting very fond of his lordship.” He regarded me ironically: ” Ought I to be jealous?”

I laughed, but I felt almost as uneasy as I had when I had come into the cove and seen them lying there together. Was he trying to turn the tables, as guilty people often did? Was he saying: You spend your afternoon with Lord Polhorgan, so why shouldn’t I spend mine with his nurse?

It was an incongruous suggestion, but he went on; “I should be very jealous, so you mustn’t provoke me.”

“I hope you will remember to do unto others as you would they should do unto you.”

” But you would never be jealous without reason. You’re far too sensible.”

” Yet I suppose it would be more reasonable to be jealous of a beautiful young woman than a sick old man.”

” Often in these matters there are other factors to be considered besides personal charms.”

“Such as?”

” You don’t find millionaires lurking on every rock and patch of sand.”

” What a hideous suggestion!”

“Isn’t it? And I’m a beast to mention such mundane matters as money; but then, as you once said, I am a satyr, which is a form of beast, I suppose. Actually I fancied you were not very pleased to come upon Thea and me together and I wanted to tell you how ridiculous you were to be . not very pleased. “

” You’re not hinting that you’d rather I didn’t visit Lord Polhorgan?”

“Good heavens, no! I’m delighted that you do. Poor old man, he’s only just beginning to realise that his millions can’t buy him all he wants. He’s getting more pleasure out of having a beautiful young woman to pour his tea and hover over his ivory chessmen than he’s had for years. And all without paying out, a penny! It’s a revelation to him. It reminds me of Little Lord Fauntelroy, the terror of my youth because I was forced to read of his adventures by a well-meaning nurse. I found him particularly nauseating—perhaps because he was the opposite of myself. I could never see myself in plum-coloured velvet with my golden curls falling over my lace collar going to soften the hard heart’ of dear old Lord Somebody, Fauntelroy, I believe … old Fauntelroy. That was one thing I could never do—bring warring relations together by my childish charm.”

” Stop it. Roc. Do you really object to my visits to Polhorgan?” He picked one of the Mrs. Simkins pinks that grew in rather untidy clumps, filling the air with their delicious scent, and ‘gravely put it into the buttonhole of my short linen jacket.

” I’ve been talking a lot of nonsense because I’m garrulous by nature.

Darling, I want you to feel absolutely free. As for visiting Lord Polhorgan, don’t for heaven’s sake stop. I’m glad you’re able to give him so much pleasure. I know he ruined our east view with his monstrosity, but he’s an old man and he’s sick. Go as often as he asks you. “

He leaned forward to smell the pink; then he kissed my lips. He took my hand and we climbed to the house.

As usual he had the power to make me accept what he wanted to; it was only when I was alone that I asked myself:

Does he want me to visit Lord Polhorgan so that Althea Grey is free to be with him?

I went down to the kitchen one morning to find Mrs. Penhalligan at the table kneading dough, and there was the delicious smell of baking bread in the air.

The kitchens at Pendorric were enormous, and in spite of electric cookers, refrigerators and other recently installed modern equipment, looked as though they belonged to another age. There were several rooms—a bake house a buttery, a washhouse and another room called the dairy which had a floor of blue tiles and had once been a storeroom for milk, butter, eggs and such. Across the ceiling were great oak beams supplied with hooks on which joints of meat, hams, sides of bacon and Christmas puddings had once hung.

The kitchen itself, though large, was a cosy room with its red-tiled floor and dressers, its refectory table at which generations of servants had had their meals and the wooden one scrubbed white at which, on this occasion, Mrs. Penhalligan was working. Through an open door I could see Maria preparing vegetables in the wash house Mrs. Penhalligan bridled with pleasure when she saw me. I said: “Good morning, Mrs. Penhalligan. I thought it was about time I paid a visit to the kitchens.”

” It’s good to see you, ma’am,” she answered.

” Is that bread baking? It smells delicious.”

She looked pleased. ” We’ve always baked our own bread at Pendorric.

There’s nothing like the home-baked, I always say. I bake for Father at the same time. It’s always been understood. “

” How is your father?”

” Oh, fair to middling, ma’am. Don’t get no younger but he be wonderful for his age. He’ll be ninety next Candlemas.”

” Ninety!

That’s a great age. “

” And there bain’t much wrong with him … ‘cept of course his great affliction.”

“Oh?”

“You didn’t know, ma’am, and I reckon none as yet thought fit to tell you. Father went blind … oh—it’ll be nigh on thirty years ago.

No. I bain’t telling you the truth. It’ll be twenty-eight years. It started . twenty-eight years come harvest time. “

” I’m very sorry.”

” Oh, don’ tee be. Father bain’t sorry for himself. He’s happy enough with his pipe and all he wants to eat. He likes to sit at the door on sunny days and it ‘ud astonish you, ma’am, how good his hearing is. Sort of makes up for not having his sight, so it seems.”

” I expect I’ll see him some time.”

” He’d be real pleased if you stopped and had a little chat with him.

He’s always asking about Mr. Roc’s new bride. “

” I’ll look for him.”

” You can’t make no mistake. It’s the second of the cottages down Pendorric Village. Lives all alone there. Independent since Mother went. But Maria and me, we’re always in and out. And we pop over with a plate of hot something for his dinner regular as clockwork. He don’t pay no rent, and he’s got his bit of pension. Father’s all right. He’d be wonderful … if he had his sight.”

I was glad Mrs. Penhalligan was the loquacious type, be cause I had been wondering what I should say to her.

” I’ve been hearing about how your family have been at Pendorric for generations.”

“Oh yes … always Pleydells at Pendorric. But then Father and Mother didn’t have no son. I was their only daughter. Then I married Penhalligan, who was gardener here till he died. And we only had one too—my Maria. She’ll be working here till the end … and then that’ll be the end of the Pleydells at Pendorric.”

“What a pity!”

” All things has to come to an end, ma*am. And did you want to give me some orders or something? ” “Not really. I thought I’d like to see how things were worked down here.”

” Right and proper that you should, ma’am. You be the mistress. Miss Morwenna, she was never one to take much interest. Now Miss Bective . ” Mrs. Penhalligan’s face hardened . ” she was up another street.

When she first come here, it was, Mrs. Penhalligan, we’ll have this and we’ll have that. ” But I know my place if some don’t, and I take orders from the mistress of the house and none other.”

I expect she was trying to be helpful. “

“Helpful! I don’t need help in my kitchen, ma’am—no more than I’ve got. My Maria’s been well trained and I’m not doing too bad with Hetty Toms.”

” Everything is very well organised, I’m sure.”

” And so it should be—the years I’ve been at it. I was in the kitchen when the other Mrs. Pendorric first come here.”

I felt excited as I always did at the mention of Barbarina. ‘ Was she interested in the kitchen? “

” She were like yourself, ma’am. Interested, I’d say but not one to want to change things. I remember the day she came into my kitchen, her lovely face all glowing with health; she’d come in from a ride and she was in her riding clothes … breeches and coat like a man’s. But there was nothing of the man about her. There was a little blue flower in her i buttonhole and she had on of them riding hats on with a band of yellow round it. She always wore them—like in the picture in the south hall, only she’s in blue there.”

” Yes, I know the picture well.”

” A lovely lady, and it was a pleasure to serve her. It was terrible when … But my tongue runs away with me. Maria always says so and she’s right.”

” It’s pleasant to have a chat, though. That’s really what I came down for.”

Mrs. Penhalligan’s face shone with pleasure as her nimble fingers went on kneading the dough.

“She was like that too—always ready for a chat, particularly in the beginning. Afterwards she was …”

I waited, and Mrs. Penhalligan frowned down at her dough. ” She was less friendly later?” I prompted.

” Oh, not less friendly. Just sad, I think ; and sometimes she wouldn’t seem to see you. Reckon she was thinking of other things, poor lady.”

” Of her troubles?”

” She had those. She was very fond of him, you see….” She seemed to recall to whom she was talking, and stopped. ” I suppose, ma’am, you have a preference for the whole meal bread. I bake some white—but more whole meal Father, he likes white—done in the old-fashioned co burg style. Father’s one to have what he wants. Though I must say now, though, that his mind wanders a bit. It’s not being able to see, I think. That must make a difference.”

I said I personally preferred whole meal and that I thought the bread she made was the best I had ever tasted.

Nothing could have delighted her more; she was my ally from that moment. She relaxed, too ; she had concluded that although I was the mistress of the house I was fond of a gossip.

” I’ll certainly look out for your father when I next pass the cottages,” I told her.

” I’ll tell him. He’ll be that pleased. You must be prepared though for him to wander a bit. He’s close on ninety and he gets a bit muddled. He’s had it on his mind a bit lately. I reckon it’s because there’s a new bride here at Pendorric.”

“Had what on his mind?” I asked.

” Well, ma’am, you’ll have heard of course how Mr. Roc’s and Miss Morwenna’s mother died.”

” Yes, I have heard.”

” Well, Father was there when it happened. It preyed on his mind a bit for a time. Then he seemed to forget like … but things are likely to bring it back, which is all natural. And when he heard there was a new bride at Pendorric, you see . , .”

” Yes, I see. He was there, you say.”

” He were there. In the hall when she, poor soul, did crash from the gallery. He weren’t completely blind then neither-but almost he were. He couldn’t see clear enough, but he knew her were up there, and it was him that gave the alarm. That’s why it preyed on his mind like.

That’s why he remembers now and then, though it be twenty-five years since it happened. “

“Does he believe … the story about the ghost?”

Mrs. Penhalligan looked surprised. ” Father knows there be such things. I don’t rightly know what he thinks about Mrs. Pendorric’s fall. He don’t talk much. He just sits brooding. Can’t get him to talk much about it. Might be better if we could.”

” I shall certainly look out for him when I pass the cottages, Mrs. Penhalligan. “

” You’ll see him … puffing away at his old pipe. He’ll be that pleased. Maria’ll just be taking the first batch out of the oven. I still use the old cloam oven for bread. Can’t be beat. Would you like to come and see it, ma’am?”

I said I would; and as I went through the kitchens to the bake house and returned the greeting of Maria and Hetty Toms, I was not thinking of them nor the golden-brown loaves fresh from the oven; I kept seeing that beautiful young woman crashing from the gallery, the smiling painted face of Lowella Pendorric behind her; and in the hall, an almost sightless man, peering towards the falling figure, trying so hard to see what was happening.

After my talk with Mrs. Penhalligan I felt that I was truly mistress of the house. The faithful housekeeper, daughter of the Pleydells who had served the family for generations, had accepted me. My sister-in-law had no great desire to manage the house, and I felt delighted to have something to do.

I wanted to know every inch and corner of Pendorric. I was beginning to love it, and to understand that a house which had I’ll stood for hundreds of years must necessarily have a stronger appeal than one which had stood only a few years.

I told Roc how I felt and he was delighted.

” What did I tell you?” he cried. ” The Brides of Pendorric fall fiercely in love with the place.”

” It must be because they’re so happy to have become Pendorrics.”

The remark delighted him. He put his arm about me and I felt suddenly secure . safe.

” There are lots of things I want to ask you about the place,” I told him.

“Is it true that woodworm is slowly destroying parts of it?”

” The little beasts are the enemies of the stately homes of England, darling. They’re almost as destructive as the Inland Revenue.”

“That’s another thing: You did seem rather sorry because you weren’t so rich as Lord Polhorgan. Do you really think it’ll be necessary to hand over Pendorric to the National Trust?”

Roc took my face in his hands and kissed me lightly. ” Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll manage to keep the wolf from the ancestral home.”

” So we aren’t living beyond our means?”

He laughed lightheartediy. ” I always knew I’d married a business woman. Listen, darling; when I’ve talked over this with Charles I’m going to show you how things work here. I’m going to make use of you, you see. I’m going to show you all the inner workings of an estate like ours. Then you’ll see what it’s all about.”

” Oh, Roc dear, I’ll love that.”

” I thought you would. But first I’ve got to make up for my long absence from home. Then I’ve got to prepare old Charlie. He’s a bit old-fashioned. Keep the women out of business and all that. He doesn’t realise the sort of woman I’ve found for myself. You see, Morwenna’s never been the least bit interested in anything except the gardens.”

” Do persuade him soon.”

” Trust me.” He was serious suddenly. ” I want us to be … together in everything. Understand?”

I nodded. ” No secrets,” I added.

He held me tightly for a moment. ” Quite close … for ever and ever until death us do part.”

” Oh, Roc, don’t talk of death.”

” Only as something in the dim and distant future, my love. But you’re happy now.”

“Wonderfully happy.”

” That’s how I want you to stay. So no worries about the house. Don’t I have you to help me? Then there’s Charles. He’d die rather than see the old place go. Not that it goes completely if you hand over to the National Trust. But you can’t teli me your home’s the same if you’re going to have people wandering round from two till six-thirty every afternoon except Wednesdays.”

I felt completely happy after that talk; never had the tragedy of my father’s death seemed so far behind me. My life was here at Pendorric; it was true I was a newcomer, but everyone accepted me as a member of the family and Roc had given me the comfort that only he could give.

Soon afterwards I decided I would make a tour of all the rooms and see if I could detect anything that was in need of urgent repair. I was sure it was something which should be done, for Charles was interested in the farm, Morwenna in the garden, and Roc had the entire estate to manage.

I would begin with the east wing because that was the one which was unoccupied; and after luncheon one day I came down to the quadrangle, sat by the pond for a few minutes and then entered the house by way of the cast door.

As soon as that door closed behind me I began to think of Barbarina, who had loved this part of the house, and I longed to see her music room again.

I went straight to that floor, and as I mounted the stairs a sudden impulse came to me to turn back, but I quickly thrust this aside, for I was not going to feel afraid every time I came to this part of the house simply because of an old legend.

When I reached the door of the music-room, I quickly turned the handle and went in.

Everything was as it had been when I had last seen it: the violin lying across the chair, the music on the stand. I shut the door behind me, reminding myself that I had come here for a practical purpose. Where, I wondered, would woodworm most likely be found? In the woodwork about the windows? In the oak beams across the ceiling?

In the floor perhaps, or the doors? If it did exist, the sooner it was dealt with the better.

My eyes kept straying to the music stand, and I was picturing her there, her eyes bright with inspiration, faint colour in her cheeks. I knew exactly what she looked like, and I wondered what her thoughts had been the last time she had stood there, her violin in her slim hands with their tapering fingers.

” Barbarina!” The name was spoken in a whisper.

I felt a prickly sensation in my spine. I was not alone in this room.

” Barbarina! Are you there, Barbarina?”

A movement behind me made me spin round hastily. My eyes went to the door and I saw that the handle was slowly being turned. My hands had involuntarily placed themselves across my heart, which was beating painfully as the door was slowly opened.

“Carrie!” I cried reproachfully.

“You startled me.” The little eyes beneath those heavy brows glinted as she looked at me. ” So it’s Mr. Roc’s bride,” she said. ” I thought for the moment …”

“You thought I was someone else?”

She nodded slowly and looked about the room as though she were seeking something.

I went on because I wanted to know what was in her mind: ” You said:

‘ Barbarina. “

” Again she nodded without speaking.

” She’s dead, Carrie.”

” She don’t rest,” was-the low reply.

” So you believe that she haunts the house … haunts these rooms?”

” I know when she’s getting ready to walk. There’s a kind of stirring.” She came close to me and looked in my face. ” I can feel it now.”

” Well, I can’t.” Then I was afraid that I had spoken rather sharply, and I remembered that she had been nurse to Bar barina and Deborah and had loved them dearly. When loved ones died, often those who had lost them made themselves believe that they could come back. I could see the devotion shining in Carrie’s eyes, and I knew that when she had heard me in the music room she had really hoped it was Barbarina.

“You will,” said Carrie.

I smiled disbelievingly.

“I must get on,” I said.

“I’m rather busy.”

I walked out of the music room, but I didn’t want to stay any longer in the east wing. I went back to the quadrangle and sat there; and every now and then I would find myself looking up involuntarily at those windows.

When I next called on Lord Polhorgan, Dr. Clement was there. He had tea with us and I found his company pleasant, as I was sure our host did.

I was very pleased to see that Lord Polhorgan had recovered from his recent attack and I was surprised that he could appear as well as he did.

We talked about the village and I discovered that Dr. Clement, like the Reverend Peter Dark, was very interested in the customs of the place.

He lived on the outskirts of Pendorric village in a house which he had taken over from the doctor who had retired on his arrival. ” It’s called Tremethick—which is apt, because in Cornish it means the doctor’s house. You must come and meet my sister sometime.” I said I should be delighted to; and he talked of his sister Mabell, who was interested in pottery and made quite a number of the little pots and ashtrays which were for sale in some of the shops in the towns along the coast. She was something of an artist, too, and not only supplied pottery but her pictures ” on sale or return ” to the shops.

” It keeps her busy—that and the house.”

She had turned the old stables into a workshop and had her oven there.

” She’ll never make a fortune out of her pottery,” our host commented.

” Too much mass-production against her.”

” Not a fortune, but a lot of pleasure,” retorted the doctor. ” And it pleases her that there’s a small profit in it.”

There was no chess that day, and when I got up to go, the doctor said he had his car outside and would drive me home.

I told him that there was no need, but he insisted that he went past Pendorric, so I accepted.

As we drove along he asked if I always made the journey from Pendorric to Polhorgan by the top road, and I said that there were three ways of getting there: by that road, by Smugglers’ Lane and the short cut, and by way of the beach and the gardens.

” If I’m in a hurry,” I told him, ” I take the short cut.”

” Oh yes,” he said, ” you can save quite five minutes that way. Once there was a road there with houses on either side. I found an old map the other day. It gives you some idea how the sea is gradually encroaching on the land. It couldn’t have been more than a hundred and fifty years old. Why not come along now and meet Mabell? She’d be delighted to see you, and I’d run you back.”

I looked at my watch, and thinking that Roc might already be home, said that I didn’t really think I had time.

He dropped me at Pendorric. I thanked him and he gave me a friendly wave as his car roared away.

I turned to the house. There was no one in sight, and I stood for a while under the arch and looked up at the inscription in Cornish. It was a grey day; there had been no sun lately; nor would there be. Roc had told me, until the wind changed. It was now blowing straight in from the southwest—soft and balmy, the sort of wind that made one’s skin glow.

The gulls seemed even more mournful than usual today, but that may have been because of the greyness of the sea and the leaden sky. I walked round the house to the south side and stood for a moment looking down on the garden, but even the colours of the flowers seemed subdued.

I went into the house, and as soon as I entered the hall my eyes fixed themselves on the portrait of Barbarina. I was afraid they were making a habit of doing that. The eyes in the picture followed me as I passed the suits of armour and started to go up the stairs. I went up to the gallery and stood right beneath the portrait looking up at it, and as Barbarina’s eyes looked straight into mine I could almost imagine the lips curved into a smile—a warm, inviting smile.

I was really being rather silly, I told myself.

The hall was gloomy to-day because it was so grey outside. If the sun were shining through those big mullioned windows it would seem quite different.

Was Roc home, I wondered. There was a great deal to be done on the farm and about the estate, and that work was still very much in arrears, because he had been abroad so long.

I walked along the gallery to the corridor. Several of the windows were open and I could never seem to resist looking down at the quadrangle. And as I stood there I could distinctly hear the music of a violin.

I threw up the window and leaned out. Yes, there was no doubt about it; and one of the windows on the east side was opened. Was the sound coming from the east wing?

It might well be. I was sure it was. My eyes went to the second floor.

If someone were playing in the music room could I hear from across the corridor and the quadrangle?

I was ashamed of feeling so frightened. I was not going to be taken in by my foolish imagination. I reminded myself of the day Carrie had come into the music room while I was there, and how scared I had been because she went creeping around calling Barbarina; as soon as I had seen that it was Carrie I had ceased to be scared; I was not the least bit taken in by her talk of ” stirring.”

I began to walk resolutely round the corridor to the east wing. As I went in I heard the violin again. I hurried up the stairs to the music room.

There was no sound of the violin now. I threw open the door. The violin lay on the chair; the music was on the stand. There was no one in the room and I felt the stillness of the house close about me.

Then suddenly I heard the shriek of a gull outside the window. It seemed to be laughing at me.

Because I was not anxious to stay in the house, I decided to go for a walk in the direction of the home farm, hoping to meet Roc. As I walked I reasoned with myself: Someone in the house plays the violin, and you presumed it came from the east wing because you had seen the violin there. If you really are disturbed about it, the simplest thing is to find out who in the house plays the violin and casually mention that you heard it being played. Out of doors everything seemed so much more rational than it did in the house. As I climbed on to the road and walked across the fields in a northerly direction I was quickly recovering my good spirits. I had not walked this way before and I was delighted to explore fresh ground. The countryside seemed restful after the rugged coast views, and I was charmed by the greenish-gold of the freshly mown fields and the scarlet of the poppies growing here and there. I particularly noticed the occasional tree, slightly bent by the southwest gales, but taller than those stunted and distorted ones which survived along the coast. I could smell the fragrance of meadow-sweet growing on the banks mingling with the harebells and scabious.

And while I was contemplating all this I heard the sound of a car, and to my delight saw it was Roc’s.

He pulled up and put his head out of the window.

” This is a pleasant surprise.”

” I’ve never walked this way. I thought I’d come and meet you.”

” Get in,” he commanded.

When he hugged me I felt secure again and very glad I had come. ” I got back from Polhorgan to find no one around, so I decided I wouldn’t stay in.”

Roc started the car. ” And how was the old man today?”

” He seemed to have quite recovered.”

” I believe that’s how it is with his complaint. Poor old fellow, it must be a trial for him, yet he’s cheerful enough … about his health.”

” I think he’s very brave.”

Roc gave me a quick look. ” Relations still remain friendly?”

” Of course.”

” Not everyone gets along with him so well. I’m glad you do.”

” I’m still surprised that you should be when you so obviously don’t like him.”

” The lady of the manor has always gone round visiting the sick. It’s an old custom. You’ve started well.”

” Surely the custom was to visit the sickly poor and take them soup and blankets.”

Roc burst out laughing. ” Imagine your arriving at Polhorgan with a bowl of soup and a red flannel blanket, and handing them to Dawson for the deserving millionaire!”

” This is quite a different sort of visiting anyway.”

” Is it? He wants company; they wanted comforts.

Same thing, but in a different form. No, really, darling, I’m delighted that you’re able to bring sunshine into the old man’s life.

You’ve brought such lots into mine, I can spare him a little. What do you talk about all the time? Does he tell you about his wicked family who deserted him? “

” He hasn’t mentioned his family.”

” He will. He’s waiting for the opportunity.”

” By the way,” I said, ” I heard someone playing the violin this afternoon. Who would it have been?”

” The violin?” Roc screwed up his eyes as though puzzled.

“Where?”

” I wasn’t sure where. I thought it was in the east wing.”

” Hardly anyone goes there except old Carrie. Can’t believe she’s turned virtuoso. In our youth, Morwenna and I had a few lessons. They soon discovered, in my case at least, that it was no use trying to cultivate stony ground. Morwenna wasn’t bad. But she dropped all that when she married Charles. Charles is tone-deaf—wouldn’t know a Beethoven concerto from God Save the Queen’; and Morwenna is the devoted wife. Everything that Charles thinks, she thinks; you could take her as a model, darling.”

“So you’re the only two who could play the violin?”

” Wait a minute. Rachel gave the twins lessons at one time, I believe. Lowella takes after me and is about as talented in that direction as a bull calf. Hyson, now … she’s different. I think Hyson was quite good at it.”

” It could have been Hyson or Rachel I heard playing.”

” You seem very interested. Not thinking of taking it up yourself? Or are you a secret genius? There’s a lot I don’t know about you, Favel, even though you are my wife.”

” And there’s a lot I don’t know about you.”

” What a good thing we have the rest of our lives in which to discover one another.”

As we came on to the coast road we met Rachel, and Roc slowed down the car for her to get in.

” I’ve been looking for the twins,” she told us. ” They went shrimping this afternoon, down at Tregallic Cove.”

” I hope you took advantage of your respite,” Roc said. ” I did. I went for a long walk as far as German’s Bay. I had tea there and planned to pick them up on the way back. I expect they’ve already gone home.”

” Favel thought she heard you playing the violin this afternoon.” I turned and looked at Rachel. Her expression seemed faintly scornful, her sandy eyes more sly than usual.

” You’d hardly have heard me on the road from German’s Bay.”

” It must have been Hyson, then.”

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. ” I don’t think Hyson will qualify for the concert platform, and I’d be surprised if she deserted shrimps for music.”

As we were going to the house the twins arrived, with their shrimping nets and a pail in which Lowella carried their catch. Rachel said: ” By the way. Hyson, you didn’t come back and play your violin this afternoon?”

Hyson looked bewildered.

“Whatever for?” she said. ” Your Aunt Favel thought she heard you.”

“Oh,” said Hyson thoughtfully.

“She didn’t hear me playing it.” She turned away abruptly, and I was sure it was because she didn’t want me to see that Rachel’s remark had excited her.

The next day it rained without stopping and continued through the night.

” There’s nothing unusual about that, ” “Roc told me. ” It’s another old Cornish custom. You’ll begin to understand why ours is the greenest grass in this green and pleasant land. “

The soft southwest wind was blowing, and everything one touched seemed damp.

The following day the rain was less constant, though the louring sky promised more to come. The sea was muddy brown about the shore, and farther out it was a dull greyish-green.

Roc was going off to the farm, and as I had decided that I would go along to Polhorgan to complete that unfinished game of chess, he drove me there on his way.

Lord Polhorgan was delighted to see me; we had tea as usual and played our game of chess, which he won.

He liked to have an inquest after it was over, and point out where I had given him the game. It put him in a good humour and I enjoyed it, because, after all, the purpose of my visits was to give him pleasure.

As I was leaving. Dr. Clement called. He was getting out of his car as I came out by the unicorns, and looked disappointed. ” Just leaving? ” he said.

” Yes, I’ve stayed rather longer than I meant to.”

” Mabell is very much looking forward to meeting you.”

” Tell her I’m also looking forward to it.”

” I’ll get her to telephone you.”

” Please do. How ill is Lord Polhorgan?”

Dr. Clement looked serious. ” One can never be sure with a patient in his condition. He can become seriously ill very quickly.”

” I’m glad Nurse Grey is always at hand.”

“It’s rather essential that he should have someone in attendance. Mind you …”

He did not continue, and I guessed he was about to offer a criticism of Althea Grey and changed his mind.

I smiled. ” Well, I’ll have to hurry. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

He went into the house and I made my way towards the coast road. Then I changed my mind and decided to use the short put. I had not gone far when I realised I’d been rather foolish to come, for the path was a mass of reddish-brown mud and I guessed Smugglers’ Lane would be even worse. I stood still wondering whether to turn back, but as I should have to plough through mud to do so I decided it couldn’t be much worse if I went on. My shoes were filthy by now in any case.

I had not quite reached the narrow ledge when I heard Roc’s voice. ” Favel! Stop where you are. Don’t move till I get to you

I turned sharply and saw him coming towards me.

“What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer, but coming close he put out an arm and held me tightly against him for some seconds. Then he said: ” This path is dangerous after a heavy rain. Look! Can you see the cracks in the ‘ground? Part of the cliff has collapsed. It’s unsafe even here.”

He took my arm and drew me back: the way I had come, carefully picking his steps.

When we reached the beginning of the cliff path he stopped and sighed deeply. ” I was thoroughly scared,” he said. ” It suddenly occurred to me. I came hurrying over to Polhorgan and they told me you’d just left. Look back. Can you see where the cliff-side has crumbled? Look at that heap of shale and uprooted bracken half-way down the slope.”

I saw it and shuddered.

” The narrow part is absolutely unsafe,” went on Roc. ” I’m surprised you didn’t see the notice. Come to think of it I didn’t see it myself.”

” It always says This path used at own risk.” But I thought that was for visitors who aren’t used to the cliffs. “

” After heavy rain they take that away and put up another notice: Path unsafe.” Can’t understand why it wasn’t done. ” He was frowning, and then he gave a sudden cry. ” Good lord,” he said, ” I wonder who did this? ” He stooped and picked up a board which was lying face down.

There were two muddy prongs attached to it which clearly had recently been embedded in the ground. ” I don’t see how it could have fallen.

Thank heaven I came. “

” I was going very carefully.”

” You might have managed, but … oh, my God … the risk.” He held me close to him and I was deeply touched because I knew he was anxious that I should not see how frightened he was. He stuck the notice-board into the ground and said gruffly:

” The car’s not far off. Come on! Let’s get home.”

When we drove up to the portico Morwenna was busy forking plantains from the stretch of lawn. Roc slammed the car door and shouted:

“Someone must have uprooted the danger board on the cliff path. I just stopped Favel going along it in time.”

Morwenna stood up looking startled. ” Who on earth …?” she began. ” Some kids, I expect. It ought to be reported. It suddenly occurred to me that she might go that way—and she did.”

” I’ve often been over it when the danger board’s been up.”

” There was a bad landslide,” Roc said shortly. He turned to me.

“The path shouldn’t be used until they’ve done something about it. I’m going to speak to Admiral Weston-the chairman of the local council.” Charles had come round by the side of the house; I noticed that his boots were muddy.

“Anything wrong?”

Roc repeated the story of what he seemed to regard as my narrow escape.

” Visitors,” grumbled Charles. ” I bet it’s visitors.”

” All’s well that ends well,” said Morwenna, drawing off her gardening gloves. ” I’ve had enough for to-day. I could do with a drink. What about you, Favel? I expect Roc could do with one, and Charles never says no.”

We went into the house to a little parlour leading off the hall.

Morwenna took drinks from a cabinet and while she was serving them Rachel Bective came in with Hyson. They were wearing slippers, and Morwenna’s look of approval called my attention to them. I guessed they had changed at the side door where the gum-boots and house shoes were kept ready for occasions like this.

The subject of the notice-board was brought up again, and Rachel Bective did not look at me as she said: ” That could have been dangerous. It was a good thing you remembered, Roc.” Hyson was staring at her slippers, and I fancied I saw a slight smile curve her lips. ” Where’s Lowella?” asked Morwenna.

Neither Rachel nor Hyson had any idea.

It was five or ten minutes later when Lowella joined us, and she was immediately followed by Deborah. Lowella told us that she had been swimming; and Deborah had obviously just got up from her usual afternoon nap, she still looked sleepy; and no one mentioned the notice-board incident after that, but I could sec that several of them hadn’t forgotten it. Roc still looked worried; Rachel Bective almost rueful; and Hyson secretive, as though she knew something which she was determined not to tell. I half wondered whether Hyson had removed the board. She knew where I had gone and that I’d probably come home by the short cut. She might even have watched me. But what reason could she possibly have for doing it? There might be more than a streak of mischief in her nature. But, I decided. Roc had made a great deal out of something not very important, simply because of his love for me.

I felt rather cosily content, until the following day, when the doubts began.

The weather had completely changed by next morning. The sky was a guileless blue, and the sea sparkled so brilliantly that it was almost too dazzling to contemplate. It was like a sheet of silk with scarcely a ripple in it. Roc took me with him to the forge, where one of his horses was being shod that morning. I was offered another glass of cider from the barrel in the corner; and while young Jim shod the horse, Dinah came into the forge to give me the benefit of her bold lustrous stare; I guessed that she was wondering about my relationship with Roc, and that made me suspect that he and she had been on intimate terms at some time and that she was trying to convey this to me.

” Maybe,” she said, ” I’ll tell Mrs. Pendorric’s fortune one day.”

Old Jim murmured that he doubted whether Mrs. Pendorric would be interested in such nonsense.

She ignored him. ” I’m good with the cards but it’s your own hand and me crystal that’s best. I could tell you a fine fortune, Mrs.

She smiled, throwing back her dark head so that the gold-coloured rings in her ears danced.

” One day perhaps …” I murmured.

” Don’t make it too long. Delay’s dangerous.”

When we left the forge and passed the row of cottages I saw an old man sitting at the door of one of them.

“Morning, Jesse,” called Roc.

” Morning sir.”

” We must speak to Jesse Pleydell,” Roc whispered.

The gnarled hands were grasping the bony knees and they were trembling. I wondered why; then I saw how very old he was and thought this was the reason.

” Be that your lady as is with you, sir?” he asked gently. ” It is, Jesse; she’s come to make your acquaintance.”

” How do you do,” I said. ” Your daughter was talking to me about you.”

” She be a good girl, my Bessie … and Maria, she be good too. Don’t know what I’d do without ‘em … now I be so old and infirm like. Tis a pleasure to think of her … up at the House.”

” We wish that you could be there too, Jesse,” said Roc, and the gentleness of his voice delighted me and made me feel as happy as I had before Dinah Bond had put misgivings into my mind. ” Ay, sir, that’s where my place be. But since my eyes was took from me, it’s little use I be to God or man.”

” Nonsense, we’re all proud of you, Jesse. You’ve only got to live another twenty years and you’ll make Pendorric famous.”

” Always one for a joke. Master Roc … like his father. Now he were one for a joke till …” His hands began to plucfc at the cloth of his trousers nervously.

“Like father, like son,” said Roc.

“Well, we must be moving on.” On impulse I stepped closer to the old man and laid a hand on his shoulder. He was very still, and a smile touched his lips. ” I’ll come and see you again,” I said.

He nodded, and his hands began to tremble again as they sought his bony knee-caps and rested there.

” Tis like old times….” he murmured. ” Like old times, with a new bride up to Pendorric. I wish you all the best of luck, m’dear.” When we were out of earshot I said: ” Mrs. Penhalligan told me he was in the hall at the time of your mother’s accident.”

“She told you that, did she?” He was frowning.

“How they do go on about things that are past and over.” He glanced at me, and, perhaps because I looked surprised at his mild annoyance, he went on; “I suppose so little happens in their lives that they remember every little thing that’s out of the ordinary routine.”

” I should certainly hope someone’s untimely death would be very much out of routine.”

He laughed and put his arm through mine.

“Remember that, when you feel tempted to go scrambling over dangerous paths,” he said. Then we came to the Darks’ house and the Reverend Peter invited us in; he was so eager to show us pictures he had taken of the Helston Furry Dancers the preceding May.

That afternoon I went to the quadrangle—not to sit, for, in spite of the warm sun of the morning, the seats had not yet dried out after the rain. Hyson followed me there and gravely walked round at my side. The hydrangeas looked fresher than ever and their colours more brilliant.

Hyson said suddenly: ” Did you feel frightened when Uncle Roc rescued you on the cliff path?”

” No. It didn’t occur to me that there was any danger until he pointed it out,” ” You probably would have got through all right. It was just that there might have been an accident.”

” It was a good thing I was stopped from going on, then, wasn’t it?”

Hyson nodded. ” It was meant,” she said, in a small hollow voice. I looked at her sharply.

” Perhaps,” she went on, ” it was just a warning. Perhaps …” She was staring at one of the windows on the east side as she had before.

I looked up; there was no one there. She saw my glance and smiled faintly.

“Goodbye,” she said, and went into the house through the north door.

I felt irritated. What was the child trying to imply? I had an idea that she wanted to make an impression on me. What was she suggesting?

That certain matters which were obscure to ordinary people were revealed to her? Really it was rather silly of her. But she was only a child. I must remember that; and it was rather sad if she were jealous of her sister. Then quite suddenly I heard the voice, and for a moment I had no idea from where it was coming. It floated down to me, a strange voice singing slightly out of tune. I heard the words distinctly.

” He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his feet a stone. ”

I looked up at the windows on the east side. Several of them were open.

Then I went resolutely through the east door and up the stairs to the gallery.

” Hyson,” I called. ” Are you there. Hyson?” There was no answer; and I realised how very cool it seemed in the house after coming in from the sunshine. I was angry, telling myself that someone was trying to tease me. I was more angry than I should have been; and there, in that silent part of the house, I understood that I was so angry because I was beginning to be a little frightened.