Deadham Hard

Deadham Hard

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Title: Deadham Hard
Author: Lucas Malet
Release Date: June 4, 2004 [eBook #12520]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEADHAM HARD***
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DEADHAM HARD
A Romance
BY LUCAS MALET
(MARY ST. LEGER HARRISON)
Author of "Sir Richard Calmady," "The Wages of Sin," etc.
1919

"Youth has no boundaries, age has the grave."--BULGARIAN PROVERB

TO MY DEAR FRIEND ACROSS THE OCEAN C. E. O. VEVEY 1899 LONDON 1919

CONTENTS
BOOK I THE HOUSE OF THE TAMARISKS

CHAPTER
I. TELLING HOW, UNDER STRESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES, A HUMANIST TURNED HERMIT
II. ENTER A YOUNG SCHOLAR AND GENTLEMAN OF A HAPPY DISPOSITION AND GOOD PROSPECTS
III. THE DOUBTFULLY HARMONIOUS PARTS OF A WHOLE
IV. WATCHERS THROUGH THE SMALL HOURS
V. BETWEEN RIVER AND SEA
VI. IN WHICH THE PAST LAYS AN OMINOUS HAND ON THE PRESENT
VII. A CRITIC IN CORDUROY
BOOK II THE HARD SCHOOL OF THINGS AS THEY ARE
I. IN MAIDEN MEDITATION
II. WHICH CANTERS ROUND A PARISH PUMP
III. A SAMPLING OF FREEDOM
IV. OUT ON THE BAR
V. WHEREIN DAMARIS MAKES SOME ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE HIDDEN WAYS OF MEN
VI. RECOUNTING AN ASTONISHING DEPOSITION
VII. A SOUL AT WAR WITH FACT
VIII. TELLING HOW TWO PERSONS, OF VERY DIFFERENT MORAL CALIBRE, WERE COMPELLED TO WEAR THE FLOWER OF HUMILIATION IN THEIR RESPECTIVE BUTTONHOLES
IX. AN EXPERIMENT IN BRIDGE-BUILDING OF WHICH TIME ALONE CAN FIX THE VALUES
X. TELLING HOW MISS FELICIA VERITY UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTED A RESCUE
XI. IN WHICH DAMARIS RECEIVES INFORMATION OF THE LOST SHOES AND STOCKINGS--ASSUMPTION OF THE GOD-HEAD
XII. CONCERNING A SERMON WHICH NEVER WAS PREACHED AND OTHER MATTERS OF LOCAL INTEREST
BOOK III THE WORLD BEYOND THE FOREST
I. AN EPISODE IN THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES
II. TELLING HOW DAMARIS RENEWED HER ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BELOVED LADY OF HER INFANCY
III. WHICH CONCERNS ITSELF, INCIDENTALLY, WITH THE GRIEF OF A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE AND THE RECEPTION OF A BELATED CHRISTMAS GREETING
IV. BLOWING ONE'S OWN TRUMPET PRACTISED AS A FINE ART
V. IN WHICH HENRIETTA PULLS THE STRINGS
VI. CARNIVAL--AND AFTER
VII. TELLING HOW DAMARIS DISCOVERED THE TRUE NATURE OF A CERTAIN SECRET TO THE DEAR MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES
VIII. FIDUS ACHATES
IX. WHICH FEATURES VARIOUS PERSONS WITH WHOM THE READER IS ALREADY ACQUAINTED
X. WHICH IT IS TO BE FEARED SMELLS SOMEWHAT POWERFULLY OF BILGE WATER
XI. WHEREIN DAMARIS MEETS HERSELF UNDER A NOVEL ASPECT
XII. CONCERNING ITSELF WITH A GATHERING UP OF FRAGMENTS
XIII. WHICH RECOUNTS A TAKING OF SANCTUARY
BOOK IV THROUGH SHADOWS TOWARDS THE DAWN
I. WHICH CARRIES OVER A TALE OF YEARS, AND CARRIES ON
II. RECALLING, IN SOME PARTICULARS, THE EASIEST RECORDED THEFT IN HUMAN HISTORY
III. BROTHER AND SISTER
IV. WHEREIN MISS FELICIA VERITY CONCLUSIVELY SHOWS WHAT SPIRIT SHE IS OF
V. DEALING WITH EMBLEMS, OMENS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
VI. SHOWING HOW SIR CHARLES VERITY WAS JUSTIFIED OF HIS LABOURS
VII. TELLING HOW CHARLES VERITY LOOKED ON THE MOTHER OF HIS SON

CHAPTER THE
EIGHTH WHICH IS ALSO
CHAPTER THE
LAST

BOOK I
THE HOUSE OF THE TAMARISKS

CHAPTER I
TELLING HOW, UNDER STRESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE, A HUMANIST TURNED HERMIT
A peculiar magic resides in running water, as every student of earth-lore knows. There is high magic, too, in the marriage of rivers, so that the spot where two mingle their streams is sacred, endowed with strange properties of evocation and of purification. Such spots go to the making of history and ruling of individual lives; but whether their influence is not more often malign than beneficent may be, perhaps, open to doubt.
Certain it is, however, that no doubts of this description troubled the mind of Thomas Clarkson Verity, when, in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, he purchased the house at Deadham Hard, known as Tandy's Castle, overlooking the deep and comparatively narrow channel by which the Rivers Arne and Wilner, after crossing the tide-flats and salt-marsh of Marychurch Haven, make their swift united exit into Marychurch Bay. Neither was he troubled by the fact that Tandy's Castle--or more briefly and familiarly Tandy's--for all its commonplace outward decency of aspect did not enjoy an unblemished moral or social reputation. The house--a whitewashed, featureless erection--was planted at right angles to the deep sandy lane leading up from the shore, through the scattered village of Deadham, to the three-mile distant market town of Marychurch.
Standing on a piece of rough land--bare, save for a few stunted Weymouth pines, and a fringe of tamarisk along the broken sea-wall--Tandy's, at the date in question, boasted a couple of bowed sash-windows on either side the front and back doors; and a range of five other windows set flat in the wall on the first floor. There was no second storey. The slate roofs were mean, low-pitched, without