'Sacrilegious man!' said Shady, turning whiter with indignation, as the lad repeated some expressions dropped by Bloodworth in the courtyard. 'Had you spoken of this sooner,' he continued, 'we might have hastened.'
'You see, Mr. Higgs, sir, it's impossible to do unpossibilities, and I can't hasten with all these things,' said the lad, whose head came out of his parcels like that of a tortoise from its shell; ''sides, he's gone now, and Sir Valary's better, and miss was in the garden quite comfortable when I came away.'
Shady nevertheless pressed on, in agitated expectation, until they reached the place. It was a large, dark, irregular pile, on a thickly-wooded eminence—a landmark conspicuous for many miles round. All that remained of the original castle was one tower, which was called Sir Mark's Tower, in honour of the founder of the family; the remainder had been raised by several of his descendants, to repair the decay of accident and time; and each seemed to have built according to his own age, without reference to what had been before him. Sir Mark's Tower, with a part of one side of the quadrangle, formed the dwelling of the present possessor; part of the remainder was an ivy-covered ruin; while a long and dreary-looking portion, containing the state rooms, portrait gallery, armoury, and library, was given up to darkness and silence, being carefully boarded, barred, and bolted. The great entrance had not been approached for many years; the stately avenue of limes had interwoven their branches and formed an extended archway. To Sir Valary and his daughter was reserved a private doorway in the tower, while the retainers (as Shady was pleased to style himself, Mrs. Gillies, the steward, and Robinson), together with all comers, had ingress and egress by the outer courtyards and kitchen entrance. It was not, however, to the kitchen of former days that Shady now hastened; a small servitors' hall attached to it better answered the purposes of their economy.
Mrs. Gillies scarcely waited for his entrance to pour out a medley of abuse and lamentation concerning her master, her young lady, and the steward, finishing up with an angry avowal that Shady was never in the way when he was wanted. Shady, exhausted with his day of fasting and fatigue, pained by the occurrences in his absence, and somewhat discomfited by the undeserved castigation he was receiving, seated himself in the corner to wait until the high wind should have passed.
Nothing tires a passionate temper like letting it have its way; Shady had often tried the force of non-resistance, and depended on it now, for staying the torrent before Robinson's appearance. As at other times, he was right. Mrs. Gillies, subsiding, passed from a scolding to a declarative tone, and from that to one of ordinary talk, which finally warmed into kindness, as she saw the inoffensive librarian sit silently fanning himself, with an air of patient dejection.
'Why, you look as if Bloodworth had blew at you, and had the best of it too,' she said.
'I have not broken fast since I left, and am weary and hungry,' replied Shady.
'Then it is high time to eat,' said the housekeeper; and, quickly unloading Robinson, who had just appeared, and despatching him with his evening meal to the ancient kitchen, she hastened to spread the table, recounting in cooler temper the events of the day.
There was nothing new in substance, for Robinson had told as much; but of course each fact was given with particularity.
'It's a strange thing to me, Shady,' she said, 'that Sir Valary, so high as he is, can bear with Bloodworth. It's easy to say he's used to him; but if he forgives the things that man said to-day there's more than use that he depends on. He was daring to-day beyond what I ever saw him; if Sir Valary had not fainted when he did, I believe he would not have left; but he saw staying was of no use, and he was afraid, too, of Miss Marjory. She said but a word or two, but he couldn't stand her looks.'