Helbeck of Bannisdale, vol 1 | Page 5

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In a few minutes Helbeck came downstairs again, and stood absently
before the fire on the hearth. After a while, he sat down beside it in his
accustomed chair--a carved chair of black Westmoreland oak--and
began to read from the book which he had been carrying in his pocket
out of doors. He read with his head bent closely over the pages, because
of short sight; and, as a rule, reading absorbed him so completely that
he was conscious of nothing external while it lasted. To-night, however,
he several times looked up to listen to the sounds overhead, unwonted
sounds in this house, over which, as it often seemed to him, a quiet of
centuries had settled down, like a fine dust or deposit, muffling all its
steps and voices. But there was nothing muffled in the voice overhead
which he caught every now and then, through an open door, escaping,
eager and alive, into the silence; or in the occasional sharp bark of the
dog.

"Horrid little wretch!" thought Helbeck. "Denton will loathe it.
Augustina should really have warned me. What shall we do if she and
Denton don't get on? It will never answer if she tries meddling in the
kitchen--I must tell her."
Presently, however, his inner anxieties grew upon him so much that his
book fell on his knee, and he lost himself in a multitude of small
scruples and torments, such as beset all persons who live alone. Were
all his days now to be made difficult, because he had followed his
conscience, and asked his widowed sister to come and live with him?
"Augustina and I could have done well enough. But this girl--well, we
must put up with it--we must, Bruno!"
He laid his hand as he spoke on the neck of a collie that had just
lounged into the hall, and come to lay its nose upon his master's knee.
Suddenly a bark from overhead made the dog start back and prick its
ears.
"Come here, Bruno--be quiet. You're to treat that little brute with
proper contempt--do you hear? Listen to all that scuffling and talking
upstairs--that's the new young woman getting her way with old Denton.
Well, it won't do Denton any harm. We're put upon sometimes, too,
aren't we?"
And he caressed the dog, his haughty face alive with something half
bitter, half humorous.
At that moment the old clock in the hall struck a quarter past seven.
Helbeck sprang up.
"Am I to dress?" he said to himself in some perplexity.
He considered for a moment or two, looking at his shabby serge suit,
then sat down again resolutely.
"No! She'll have to live our life. Besides, I don't know what Denton
would think."

And he lay back in his chair, recalling with some amusement the
criticisms of his housekeeper upon a young Catholic friend of his
who--rare event--had spent a fishing week with him in the autumn, and
had startled the old house and its inmates with his frequent changes of
raiment. "It's yan set o' cloas for breakfast, an anudther for fishin, an
anudther for ridin, an yan for when he cooms in, an a fine suit for
dinner--an anudther fer smoakin--A should think he mut be oftener
naked nor donned!" Denton had said in her grim Westmoreland, and
Helbeck had often chuckled over the remark.
An hour later, half an hour after the usual time, Helbeck, all the traces
of his muddy walk removed, and garbed with scrupulous neatness in
the old black coat and black tie he always wore of an evening, was
sitting opposite to Miss Fountain at supper.
"You got everything you wanted for Augustina, I hope?" he said to her
shyly as they sat down. He had awaited her in the dining-room itself, so
as to avoid the awkwardness of taking her in. It was some years since a
woman had stayed under his roof, or since he had been a guest in the
same house with women.
"Oh yes!" said Miss Fountain. But she threw a sly swift glance towards
Mrs. Denton, who was just coming into the room with some coffee,
then compressed her lips and studied her plate. Helbeck detected the
glance, and saw too that Mrs. Denton's pink face was flushed, and her
manner discomposed.
"The coffee's noa good," she said abruptly, as she put it down; "I
couldn't keep to 't."
"No, I'm afraid we disturbed Mrs. Denton dreadfully," said Miss
Fountain, shrugging her shoulders. "We got her to bring up all sorts of
things for Augustina. She was dreadfully tired--I thought she would
faint. The doctor scolded me before we left, about letting her go
without food. Shall I give you some fish, Mr. Helbeck?"
For, to her astonishment, the fish even--a