第 二十五 章 · THE LAST BATTLE

. THE LAST BATTLE

Lady Arabella had instructed her solicitors to hurry on with the

conveyance of Diana's Grove, so no time was lost in letting Adam Salton

have formal possession of the estate. After his interview with Sir

Nathaniel, he had taken steps to begin putting his plan into action. In

order to accumulate the necessary amount of fine sea-sand, he ordered the

steward to prepare for an elaborate system of top-dressing all the

grounds. A great heap of the sand, brought from bays on the Welsh coast,

began to grow at the back of the Grove. No one seemed to suspect that it

was there for any purpose other than what had been given out.

Lady Arabella, who alone could have guessed, was now so absorbed in her

matrimonial pursuit of Edgar Caswall, that she had neither time nor

inclination for thought extraneous to this. She had not yet moved from

the house, though she had formally handed over the estate.

Adam put up a rough corrugated-iron shed behind the Grove, in which he

stored his explosives. All being ready for his great attempt whenever

the time should come, he was now content to wait, and, in order to pass

the time, interested himself in other things--even in Caswall's great

kite, which still flew from the high tower of Castra Regis.

The mound of fine sand grew to proportions so vast as to puzzle the

bailiffs and farmers round the Brow. The hour of the intended cataclysm

was approaching apace. Adam wished--but in vain--for an opportunity,

which would appear to be natural, of visiting Caswall in the turret of

Castra Regis. At last, one morning, he met Lady Arabella moving towards

the Castle, so he took his courage _a deux mains_ and asked to be allowed

to accompany her. She was glad, for her own purposes, to comply with his

wishes. So together they entered, and found their way to the

turret-room. Caswall was much surprised to see Adam come to his house,

but lent himself to the task of seeming to be pleased. He played the

host so well as to deceive even Adam. They all went out on the turret

roof, where he explained to his guests the mechanism for raising and

lowering the kite, taking also the opportunity of testing the movements

of the multitudes of birds, how they answered almost instantaneously to

the lowering or raising of the kite.

As Lady Arabella walked home with Adam from Castra Regis, she asked him

if she might make a request. Permission having been accorded, she

explained that before she finally left Diana's Grove, where she had lived

so long, she had a desire to know the depth of the well-hole. Adam was

really happy to meet her wishes, not from any sentiment, but because he

wished to give some valid and ostensible reason for examining the passage

of the Worm, which would obviate any suspicion resulting from his being

on the premises. He brought from London a Kelvin sounding apparatus,

with a sufficient length of piano-wire for testing any probable depth.

The wire passed easily over the running wheel, and when this was once

fixed over the hole, he was satisfied to wait till the most advantageous

time for his final experiment.

* * * * *

In the meantime, affairs had been going quietly at Mercy Farm. Lilla, of

course, felt lonely in the absence of her cousin, but the even tenor of

life went on for her as for others. After the first shock of parting was

over, things went back to their accustomed routine. In one respect,

however, there was a marked difference. So long as home conditions had

remained unchanged, Lilla was content to put ambition far from her, and

to settle down to the life which had been hers as long as she could

remember. But Mimi's marriage set her thinking; naturally, she came to

the conclusion that she too might have a mate. There was not for her

much choice--there was little movement in the matrimonial direction at

the farmhouse. She did not approve of the personality of Edgar Caswall,

and his struggle with Mimi had frightened her; but he was unmistakably an

excellent _parti_, much better than she could have any right to expect.

This weighs much with a woman, and more particularly one of her class.

So, on the whole, she was content to let things take their course, and to

abide by the issue.

As time went on, she had reason to believe that things did not point to

happiness. She could not shut her eyes to certain disturbing facts,

amongst which were the existence of Lady Arabella and her growing

intimacy with Edgar Caswall; as well as his own cold and haughty nature,

so little in accord with the ardour which is the foundation of a young

maid's dreams of happiness. How things would, of necessity, alter if she

were to marry, she was afraid to think. All told, the prospect was not

happy for her, and she had a secret longing that something might occur to

upset the order of things as at present arranged.

When Lilla received a note from Edgar Caswall asking if he might come to

tea on the following afternoon, her heart sank within her. If it was

only for her father's sake, she must not refuse him or show any

disinclination which he might construe into incivility. She missed Mimi

more than she could say or even dared to think. Hitherto, she had always

looked to her cousin for sympathy, for understanding, for loyal support.

Now she and all these things, and a thousand others--gentle, assuring,

supporting--were gone. And instead there was a horrible aching void.

For the whole afternoon and evening, and for the following forenoon, poor

Lilla's loneliness grew to be a positive agony. For the first time she

began to realise the sense of her loss, as though all the previous

suffering had been merely a preparation. Everything she looked at,

everything she remembered or thought of, became laden with poignant

memory. Then on the top of all was a new sense of dread. The reaction

from the sense of security, which had surrounded her all her life, to a

never-quieted apprehension, was at times almost more than she could bear.

It so filled her with fear that she had a haunting feeling that she would

as soon die as live. However, whatever might be her own feelings, duty

had to be done, and as she had been brought up to consider duty first,

she braced herself to go through, to the very best of her ability, what

was before her.

Still, the severe and prolonged struggle for self-control told upon

Lilla. She looked, as she felt, ill and weak. She was really in a

nerveless and prostrate condition, with black circles round her eyes,

pale even to her lips, and with an instinctive trembling which she was

quite unable to repress. It was for her a sad mischance that Mimi was

away, for her love would have seen through all obscuring causes, and have

brought to light the girl's unhappy condition of health. Lilla was

utterly unable to do anything to escape from the ordeal before her; but

her cousin, with the experience of her former struggles with Mr. Caswall

and of the condition in which these left her, would have taken steps--even

peremptory ones, if necessary--to prevent a repetition.

Edgar arrived punctually to the time appointed by herself. When Lilla,

through the great window, saw him approaching the house, her condition of

nervous upset was pitiable. She braced herself up, however, and managed

to get through the interview in its preliminary stages without any

perceptible change in her normal appearance and bearing. It had been to

her an added terror that the black shadow of Oolanga, whom she dreaded,

would follow hard on his master. A load was lifted from her mind when he

did not make his usual stealthy approach. She had also feared, though in

lesser degree, lest Lady Arabella should be present to make trouble for

her as before.

With a woman's natural forethought in a difficult position, she had

provided the furnishing of the tea-table as a subtle indication of the

social difference between her and her guest. She had chosen the

implements of service, as well as all the provender set forth, of the

humblest kind. Instead of arranging the silver teapot and china cups,

she had set out an earthen teapot, such as was in common use in the farm

kitchen. The same idea was carried out in the cups and saucers of thick

homely delft, and in the cream-jug of similar kind. The bread was of

simple whole-meal, home-baked. The butter was good, since she had made

it herself, while the preserves and honey came from her own garden. Her

face beamed with satisfaction when the guest eyed the appointments with a

supercilious glance. It was a shock to the poor girl herself, for she

enjoyed offering to a guest the little hospitalities possible to her; but

that had to be sacrificed with other pleasures.

Caswall's face was more set and iron-clad than ever--his piercing eyes

seemed from the very beginning to look her through and through. Her

heart quailed when she thought of what would follow--of what would be the

end, when this was only the beginning. As some protection, though it

could be only of a sentimental kind, she brought from her own room the

photographs of Mimi, of her grandfather, and of Adam Salton, whom by now

she had grown to look on with reliance, as a brother whom she could

trust. She kept the pictures near her heart, to which her hand naturally

strayed when her feelings of constraint, distrust, or fear became so

poignant as to interfere with the calm which she felt was necessary to

help her through her ordeal.

At first Edgar Caswall was courteous and polite, even thoughtful; but

after a little while, when he found her resistance to his domination

grow, he abandoned all forms of self-control and appeared in the same

dominance as he had previously shown. She was prepared, however, for

this, both by her former experience and the natural fighting instinct

within her. By this means, as the minutes went on, both developed the

power and preserved the equality in which they had begun.

Without warning, the psychic battle between the two individualities began

afresh. This time both the positive and negative causes were all in

favour of the man. The woman was alone and in bad spirits, unsupported;

nothing at all was in her favour except the memory of the two victorious

contests; whereas the man, though unaided, as before, by either Lady

Arabella or Oolanga, was in full strength, well rested, and in

flourishing circumstances. It was not, therefore, to be wondered at that

his native dominance of character had full opportunity of asserting

itself. He began his preliminary stare with a conscious sense of power,

and, as it appeared to have immediate effect on the girl, he felt an ever-

growing conviction of ultimate victory.

After a little Lilla's resolution began to flag. She felt that the

contest was unequal--that she was unable to put forth her best efforts.

As she was an unselfish person, she could not fight so well in her own

battle as in that of someone whom she loved and to whom she was devoted.

Edgar saw the relaxing of the muscles of face and brow, and the almost

collapse of the heavy eyelids which seemed tumbling downward in sleep.

Lilla made gallant efforts to brace her dwindling powers, but for a time

unsuccessfully. At length there came an interruption, which seemed like

a powerful stimulant. Through the wide window she saw Lady Arabella

enter the plain gateway of the farm, and advance towards the hall door.

She was clad as usual in tight-fitting white, which accentuated her thin,

sinuous figure.

The sight did for Lilla what no voluntary effort could have done. Her

eyes flashed, and in an instant she felt as though a new life had

suddenly developed within her. Lady Arabella's entry, in her usual

unconcerned, haughty, supercilious way, heightened the effect, so that

when the two stood close to each other battle was joined. Mr. Caswall,

too, took new courage from her coming, and all his masterfulness and

power came back to him. His looks, intensified, had more obvious effect

than had been noticeable that day. Lilla seemed at last overcome by his

dominance. Her face became red and pale--violently red and ghastly

pale--by rapid turns. Her strength seemed gone. Her knees collapsed,

and she was actually sinking on the floor, when to her surprise and joy

Mimi came into the room, running hurriedly and breathing heavily.

Lilla rushed to her, and the two clasped hands. With that, a new sense

of power, greater than Lilla had ever seen in her, seemed to quicken her

cousin. Her hand swept the air in front of Edgar Caswall, seeming to

drive him backward more and more by each movement, till at last he seemed

to be actually hurled through the door which Mimi's entrance had left

open, and fell at full length on the gravel path without.

Then came the final and complete collapse of Lilla, who, without a sound,

sank down on the floor.