"At the same time that I learned about you, I heard of some other things
which have caused me much anxiety. You will help to put me at ease,
won't you?"
"Anything you like I shall do. I am all yours now!"
"Thank you, my darling, thank you!" was all I could say; her sweet
surrender of herself overwhelmed me. "But I shall tell you later; in the
meantime tell me all about yourself, for that is a part of what I wait
for." So she spoke:
"We are living, Mrs. Jack and I, in an old Castle some miles back in the
country from here. First I must tell you that Mrs. Jack is my old nurse.
Her husband had been a workman of my father's in his pioneer days. When
Dad made his own pile he took care of Jack--Jack Dempsey his name was,
but we never called him anything but Jack. His wife was Mrs. Jack then,
and has been so ever since to me. When mother died, Mrs. Jack, who had
lost her husband a little while before, came to take care of me. Then
when father died she took care of everything; and has been like a mother
to me ever since. As I dare say you have noticed, she has never got over
the deferential manner which she used to have in her poorer days. But
Mrs. Jack is a rich woman as women go; if some of my proposers had an
idea of how much money she has they would never let her alone till she
married some one. I think she got a little frightened at the way I was
treated; and there was a secret conviction that she might be the next to
suffer. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt if she would ever, even to
please me, have fallen in with my mad scheme of running away under false
names. When we came to London we saw the people at Morgan's; and the
gentleman who had charge of our affairs undertook to keep silence as to
us. He was a nice old man, and I told him enough of the state of affairs
for him to understand that I had a good reason for lying dark. I thought
that Scotland might be a good place to hide in for a time; so we looked
about amongst the land agents for a house where we would not be likely
to be found. They offered us a lot; but at last they told us of one
between Ellon and Peterhead, way back from the road. We found it in a
dip between a lot of hills where you would never suspect there was a
house at all, especially as it was closely surrounded with a wood. It is
in reality an old castle, built about two or three hundred years ago.
The people who own it--Barnard by name, are away, the agent told us, and
the place was to let year after year but no one has ever taken it. He
didn't seem to know much about the owners as he had only seen their
solicitor; but he said they might come some time and ask to visit the
house. It is an interesting old place, but awfully gloomy. There are
steel trellis gates, and great oak doors bound with steel, that rumble
like thunder when you shut them. There are vaulted roofs; and windows in
the thickness of the wall, which though they are big enough to sit in,
are only slits at the outside. Oh! it is a perfect daisy of an old
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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