At length we were alone, but it was dark there; we could scarcely see
each other's faces.
"Get a light, Peter," I said.
He hobbled away, and soon returned with a candle, revealing the
furniture of the room just as I left it years before.
"No one has slept here since Mr. Roger left," said Peter tremulously.
"I don't think that anyone dare that knew him, and certainly no one
should with my consent."
"No one but me, Peter," I said.
"What do you mean? Who are you, and--and when did you see Mr. Roger?
Tell me quickly."
"Peter," I said, "does nothing tell you? Hold the light to my face and
then think. Have you never seen me before?"
The old man held the candle as I had desired him, and looked steadily
at me, but there was no flash of recognition, no look of joyful
surprise.
"I doan't remember; I never seed 'ee before."
He said this dreamily, and in so doing relapsed into the old Cornish
vernacular.
"Look again, Peter. Remember how Wilfred and I used to wrestle on the
headland. Remember how I frightened you by telling you that Deborah
Teague had ill-wished you. Think of an awful storm, and that wreck on
the 'Devil's Tooth,' and of the young lady I saved. Can't you
recognise me now?"
Then old Peter knew me, and tears rolled down his wrinkled cheeks.
"Oh, Master Roger," he said, "thank God you've come home; but to come
like this, to come home as a----" But he could say no more, he sobbed
like a child.
He had heard then. Somehow it must have been rumoured abroad that I
had killed my brother, and so my presence was painful to him. Perhaps
Bill Tregargus had told that he had seen me, and heard me vow
vengeance. Perhaps Ruth had in a moment of madness revealed the
terrible truth!
"Do you think my mother will see me, Peter?" I said to the faithful old
servant as gently as I could.
"Oh, Mr. Roger," he sobbed, "you was so young, so beautiful, so happy
in the old days, and I always looked forward to you becoming master,
and servin' you till I died, and now to see you come home like this, a
ringin' at the door, when you should have walked straight in, and to be
asked questions by me when----when----"
"Never mind, Peter," I said, "it cannot be undone now, but still you
won't mind doing something for me now, for the sake of old days."
"Do! I'll do anything," he cried.
"I'm going down to the library," I said; "will you go and tell my
mother to come there? but don't tell her it is I who want to see her.
Simply say that a stranger is asking for her."
I found my way into the library. Candles which cast a flickering light
were placed on the table, making the room ghostly enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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