fkr^M^ Hume CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library PR 4809.H87D9 The dwarf's chamber. 3 1924 013 486 158 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013486158 THE DWAEF'S CHAMBER * Clasped her in his arms." — p. 151. FrontJsjnrce. THE DWAEFS CHAMBER sr FERGUS HUME AUTHOR OF 'THK KYSTSBT OF A HAMSOM CAB," " THK CKIMK OF IHB "UZA JANE,"' ETC. WITS ILLUSTRATIONS Bt Percy F. S. Spbnoe, James Gkeig and oihebs LONDON WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED NEW TOKK AND MELBOURNE Jr CONTENTS Ths Dwarf's Chamber : i. the fiddleb n. A FAMILY LEGENXI III. ADVENTUEBS ABE TO THE ADVENTUKOUS rv. IN LILLIPUT V. THE NEW GUIiLIVEE VI. MADAM TOT AND HER FRIENDS ... VII. A STEANQB STORY VIII. THE HEAD OP THE FAMILY IX. THE TALE OP A NAMELESS MAN ... X. OELIA XI. ALEHOUSE GOSSIP XII. CONSULTING THE WISE WOMAN XIII. DE. PEYCE IS MYSTERIOUS XIV. THE HEIR ... XV. BOTTOM AND TITANIA XVI. love's YOUWG DEEAM IVn. AUTOLYGUS ... XVIII. EENUNCIATION XIX. FAERY MUSIC XX. ALGERNON. 24 DECEMBEE, 1857 ... XXI. AN IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION ... 3 12 20 27 35 43 52 61 69 79 87 94 103 110 116 124 131 140 146 152 160 Tl CONTEKTS II, Miss Jonathan III. The Dead Man's Diamonds IV. 'The Tale of the Turquoise Skull' V. The Geeen-stone God and the Stock- broker ... VI. The Jesuit and the Mexican Coin VII. The Eainbow Camellia Vm. The Ivory Leo and the Twenty-foue Diamonds IX. My Cousin from France PAOC 165 193 219 249 281 311 335 363 THE DWARF'S CHAMBER Oh, twice I met with faery folk, All in the cold moonshine. With them I skipped beneath the oak, And quaffed theii faery wine. But I have dreed my weird lang syne, Because I sinned a deadly sin, They laid a cmse on me and mine, And gifted me with dwarfish kin. CHAPTER I THE FIDDLER THE railway is responsible for the transmutation of sleepy villages into noisy manufacturing towns j of picturesque inns into gaudy hotels. Wheresoever that iron road runs, hamlets, as vitalized by its touch, begin to throw out lines of suburban villas, to gather into clumps of roaring factories ; while the rustic alehouse, of yore the parliament of rural politicians, swells into a bloated, three-storey barrack, all glass, and glitter, and bare discomfort. The portly host doffs his apron for the smart vulgarities of a publican, and trim PhyUis, changing sex and attractiveness, shrinks to a lean, black-coated, white-cravated scarecrow, avaricious of " tips," and servile in demeanour. This may be progress, but it is neither beauty nor comfort ; and in 4 , THE dwarf's chamber stirring up mediaeval sloth to modern activity, laudable though the task may be, the utilitarian spirit of the age is apt to overlook the claims of eye and soul to lovely sights and artistic suggestiveness. Yet, as on the verge of the maddest whirlpool lie broad still pools whereia collect flotsam and jetsam thrown off from the central gyration, so beyond the radius of railroad and mushroom town He somnolent parishes untouched by the restless spirit of the nineteenth centiiry. Here may be found the pleasant hamlets of old time, huddled in a confu- sion of picturesque houses round the square-towered church, grey and solemn. Here the market-place with cross and inn, yonder the dwelling of the Lord of the Manor, showing red roofs and lean chimneys above the park tree-tops. At the end of the crooked street a narrow bridge bestrides a swift stream, and beyond, the dusty high-road, leaving behind its rusticity, runs straightly towards the smoky towns which skirt the maelstrom of modern existence. Such a village is Dalesf ord. Artists, pioneers of the great tourist tribe as they are, knew it well, and often had its quaint houses, its ivy-clad church, its gorse-besprinkled common figured on the walls of the Academy. So sleepy, so peaceful, so idle it was, that here, if anywhere, Thomson Boight have built his pleasant Castle of Indolence. Buried in fertile pasture lands thirty miles from the nearest railway, Dalesford was lamentably lethargic, and heard as in a dream the tumult of the century roaring far away. Notwithstanding its proximity to the high-road, it did not seem to recognize that it was its bounden duty to increase its houses, to multiply its population. Not a single dwelling had been eriBcted there for the last half -century, and its rural popula- tion was limited still to three hundred souls (inclusive of the surrouhding farms), as in the Middle Ages. No battles had been fought in its vicinity, no great man had sprung f rdm its inhabitatits, no industry of lace, or cloth, or straw- TECE DWARF S CHAMBER 5 weaving was peculiar to the place. In a word, Dalesford was, to all useful purposes, dead, and no artist in love with its somnolent beauty ever wished it to be aUve. Against the high-road near the bridge stood the " Lelanro Arms,'' a quaint little hostel dating from the days of the Stewarts, and now presided over by Mistress Sally Ballard. She, a comfortable old spinster, round and rosy as an apple, was dubbed Mistress out of courtesy to her age and respect- ability. A famous housewife was Mistress Sally, learned in pickling, and baking, and brewing ; and her inn was scrupulously clean and eminently comfortable. Here one slept in low-ceilinged rooms, with diamond-paned casements, wherein were set pots of mignonette and balsam ; here the sheets smelt of lavender, and the breakfast-table was set forth with freshly-caught trout, rich cream, and the sweetest of home-made bread. Three maid-servants and an ostler formed the staff of this unpretentious hostel, and these Mistress Sally governed with a rod of iron. But she was a kindly creature, and her rule was beneficent. Hither in the evening came labourer and farmer to taste the ale for which the " Lelanro Arms " was famous. They sat in high-backed settles, with their tankards before them, and discussed such scraps of news as came from the outside world until it struck ten, when Mistress Sally, with many a laugh and jest, bundled them out, so that they might not infringe the respectability of her house by keeping mid- night hours. The parish clerk, the verger, the steward from Lelanro Manor, even the parson himself, knew that mellow taproom and the smack of the home-brew. Painters in search of the picturesque stayed at the hostel of Mistress Sally, and sketched its white-washed front, its high red roof, the twisted stack of chimneys, and those rustic case- ments opening on to the village green. Once a lean and hungry poet came, who abode a week in the best bedroom, and then decamped without paying his bill, save in the following jingle : 6 THE dwarf's chamber Oh, Mistress Sally, ask me not In kingly gold to pay my shot, For I have fallen on evil times : But lest you should be harsh and wild With one who is the Muses' child, I pay my debt in lordly rhymes. Over which sufficiently bad verses Mistress Sally laughed till the tears bestreaked her ruddy cheeks ; and framing the " lordly rhymes," she had them hung up in the bar-parlour. Had the lean poet appeared again, he would no doubt have been permitted to pay a second bill in the like coin. " I'm sorry for the poor creature and his bits of verse," said Mistress Sally, with a large-hearted geniality. At the sunset hour she stood under the porch, looking across the green, to where the bridge spanned the stream. Already in twos and threes, with uncouth salutations, the customers of the "Lelanro Arms" were passing within; and from the windows of the taproom glimmered the flame of the early-lighted lamps. Shrill-voiced children played round the old stone cross, but Mistress Sally, heedless of their noisy pranks, stared at the gables of the distant Manor House as they loomed menacingly against the clear evening sky. She had been a still-room maid in the service of the Lelanros, and, as was natural, took a deep interest in the family. What she was thinking of it is impossible to say, but she pursed up her lips and wrinkled her brow in a manner which, to those who knew her, betokened unpleasant thoughts. " Better if you were biu'nt down," murmured the land- lady, apostrophizing the distant mansion ; " the fairy curse is on you and yours, though none know it but me. I " This somewhat recondite speech, which hinted at family secrets, was interrupted by a merry whistle. Across the bridge stepped a tall stripling with the tune of " Garryowen " on his lips ; and straightly he bore down on Mistress Sally, who had already smoothed her brow to a hospitable smile. ** Across the bridge stepped a tall stripling." THE dwarf's chamber 9 That amiable greeting took a yet more approving twist as she saw before her as handsome a young man as ever had crossed the threshold of her inn. Mistress Sally was no acidulated spinster to scorn the male sex on the sour grape principle, and, in her own heart, she secretly admired a strapping lad with a well-looking face. She had no fault to find on this score with tie new-comer. He was over the middle height, with a well-knit figure, an aristocratic and rather haughty countenance ; but there lurked a twinkle in his dark eyes which did away with the reserve impressed on lip and brow. Well worn as was his dress, a shabby shooting-suit of brown cordm:oy. Mistress Sally saw that he was, as she expressed it, " every inch a gentleman." And notwithstanding the bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and the fiddle under his arm, she acted on her first impression and addressed him accordingly. " Good-even, sir," said she, with a curtsey, " it is bed and board you want, I'll be bound." " You're right there, ma'am," replied the wayfarer, taking his seat on a bench, and placing bundle and fiddle beside him, " but I'll have board before bed, as my hunger is greater than my weariness." " Would you like a broiled trout, sir, or a chicken nicely roasted t And there's a cold round of beef in the larder fit for a lord." The stranger flushed a trifle through the tan of his skin, and laughed in a somewhat embarrassed fashion. " No, thank you, ma'am," he said, with a half sigh, " my purse will not permit of such dainties. A pot of beer and some bread and cheese out here are aU I require. After that a bed for the night." " Are you a poet, sir ? " demanded the landlady, astonished at this moderation, and mindful of the rhymes in the bar- parlour. " Why, no, ma'am," answered the other, with an amused smile. " I have scribbled verses in my time, but I do not 10 THE DWAEF'S chamber claim to be a rhymer. As you see," he added, touching the violin, " I fiddle for my living." Mistress SaUy looked at his handsoine face, considered his gently bred air, and smilingly denied the truth of this remark. What is more, she supplied a reason for his making it. " I understand, sir," she said, with a broad smile. " You are a young gentleman who is doing this for a wager." "A charitable supposition, but incorrect. I am really and truly a simple fiddler, tramping my way up to London. Look at my bundle, my clothes, my violin, and " " And at yoiir face, sir," replied Mistress Sally, laughing. " It isn't dress makes the gentry. Oh, I've lived with them in my time, sir. But as it pleases you to be merry it is not my place to say anything, though I wish," added she, stepping back into the doorway, " that you would stay your stomach with something more substantial than ale and bread." The young man laughed as she disappeared, but the laugh gave place to a sad look when he examined his lean purse. Therein were two half-crowns and a piece of gold. " Fifteen shillings," the owner of this wealth said to him- self, "and I am still over a hundred miles from London. Unless I earn more money with my fiddle I am afraid it is many a meal I shall have to go without, and many a night I shall be forced to sleep undet the stars. Well, who cares ? I am young and healthy, and after all there is something pleasant in this Bohemianism." He spoke in a refined manner, and his speech and accent betrayed education. That so apparently gently niirtured a young gentleman should be tramping the country had puzzled more heads than Mistress Sally's. In spite of his denials the rustics persisted in attributing his ragged attire and fiddling propensities to eccentricity, and they firmly be- lieved that he had plenty of gold on his person, wherewith to ride in a coach and dress in gay raiment were he so minded. THE dwarf's chamber 11 At every turn this greatness was thrust upon him till he grew weary of insisting upon his poverty and hiunble birth. " That old lady is as sceptical as the rest," said he, reclining full length on the bench to rest his weary limbs. " She thinks also that I am a lord in disguise. Well, who knows ■? It may be so, though I am ignorant of birth and title and wealth. Humph ! " he added, catching sight of the sign, " that is a queer picture." One of the numerous artists who visited the inn had painted the sign, discharging his bill, as had the poet, by means of his art. The scene depicted was a stormy sea, whereon tossed a cockle-shell boat. This held three figures, a lady with outstretched arms standing up in the stern, a dead man lying in the bows, and midway a rower toiling at the oars. In the distance a lurid sunset flamed behind the gaunt towers of a castle. Beneath this mysterious picture was written " The Lelanro Ai:ms " and four lines of verse, which could not be deciphered by the fiddler owing to the gathering darkness. It was an odd pictiire to swing before a village inn, and required explanation. His attention was drawn from the sign by the reappear- ance of the landlady with his supper, to which she had added a small meat-pie. Seeing him colour at the sight of this addition, Mistress Sally hastily disclaimed any wish to offend. "But sure," said she in a kindly tone^ "a lad Kke you needs good food after a long walk. You must eat well for health's sake, sir." " Very good, ma'am. But if I can't pay for my appetite 1 " " Why, then you can give us a tune on your fiddle. I dearly love a country dance, Mr. — Mr. " " Warwick, ma'am. Algernon Warwick," said the stranger, smiling at her simple craft, " and I'll give you a tune with pleasure when I finish my supper." This he did, greatly to the delight of the taproom topers and the children on the green. Ko great hand at holding 12 THE dwarf's chamber her tongue, Mistress Sally had already hinted her impres- sion that the fiddler was a gentleman on the tramp out of sheer love for adventure ; and every one was agog with excitement to hear what tunes this lord in disguise — for some foolishly imagined as much — could draw from the strings. Warwick proved to be a veritable magician of the bow, a strolling Orpheus, and moved their heartstrings by the magic of his melodies. How that fiddle talked, and cried, and laughed, and trilled, only those who were present could tell. Mistress Sally nodded benignly in the porch, and tapped her foot to the air of " Chloe, come kiss me," or sighed when she heard the sad melody, " Jenny flouted Jessamy." Then again he played brisk country dances, to which the delighted children footed it merrily ; anon he changed to a minor key, so mournful, that the wine-bibbers within shook their grizzled heads over their cups ; and finished with a wild Hungarian dance which stung slow, bucolic brains to unaccustomed excitement. " A brave fiddler," said Mistress Sally, when he laid by bow and instrument, " and, mind ye, a gentleman born, or I'm no true woman." CHAPTER n A FAMILY LEGEND T IHE Dalesford folk had a reputation for credulity, and X certainly deserved it in this instance. Pleased with the fiddling, and looks, and pleasant manner of Warwick, they were disposed to believe implicitly in any tale he chose to tell them. He, knowing the value of silence, held his peace, and let Mistress Sally say what she would ; and, as the foolish woman was firmly convinced in her own mind of his gentility, she soon promulgated this belief THE dwarf's chamber 13 amongst the rustics. By dawn a fine crop of stories had sprung up round the personality of the tramp, and the gossips told one another that he assuredly must be an eccentric young nobleman in disguise. For the nonce the Golden Age was come again, and the Olympians walked familiarly amongst mortals. Mistress SaUy, whose naturally shrewd wits had been sharpened by contact with town-bred servants, did not go so far as to dub her guest a lord ; nevertheless she saw in him a man of birth. That he fiddled round the country- side was no bar to this belief, as she well knew that gentle- folk were eccentric, and, not unnaturally, wearying of their grandeur, condescended at times to mix; with the common herd. Hence, hopeful that Warwick would confess his freak before he left the " Lelanro Arms," she gave him a bedroom far beyond his purse, and the next morning set before him as excellent a meal as could be cooked. Warwick, who had descended in the expectation of a repetition of the bread and ale supper, expostulated vainly against this hospitality being thrust upon him. " I can't pay for these dainties, ma'am," said he, when the landlady pressed him to take a seat at the well-spread table. " I have only fifteen shillings and a fiddle in the world." " No doubt, sir," replied Mistress Sally, nodding mean- ingly, " but if you wanted a score of pounds at a pinch, I dare say your friends in London " " I have no friends in London — I have no friends in the world. WTiy will you persist in ascribing to me a greatness which I do not possess t If I eat your goodies and don't pay for them, you'll have me put in the stocks for a vagabond." " Lord forbid, Mr. Warwick ! " said the startled Sally. " Sit down and eat, sir. If you can't pay, it won't ruin me ; and, after all, you're too young a lad to go tramping on an empty stomach. Eat well, sir, and pay your bill 14 THE dwarf's chamber with a tune on your fiddle. I've had worse payments in my time," finished she, thinking of the poet's rhymes, which were certainly less congenial to her than the heart- stirring strains of the violin. " Well, ma'am," said Warwick, taking his seat, " I accept your offer. But never did I expect to meet with such kindness in the world. I might starve in London before any one would give me a crust of bread." " Dear heart," cried Mistress Sally, patting her breast, " what wicked people ! Why not stay here a week, sir, and fiddle to the lads and lasses 1 They'd give you a trifle for your work, I'll be bound ; and the bill at the ' Lelanro Arms ' won't drain your purse, I promise you." " It's very kind of you, dame, but I must push on at once. There is somebody waiting for me in London who may do me a good turn ; although," added he sadly, " I am by no means sure of his goodwill." " Your father, no doubt, sir ? " " I have no father, no mother ! I am an orphan," re- sponded the young man, with a sigh ; " but there, there ! " he added hastily, " let us talk of other things. My story is too common to be worth the telling." Thus baulked of her curiosity. Mistress Sally swallowed her disappointment as best she could, and proceeded to retaU the local news. Of this she was well informed, as the irin was a rural Ear of Dionysius, into which was breathed all the scandal of the neighbourhood. " Lord Lelanro and Mistress CeHa are up in London," said she. " He is the owner of the land hereabouts, and she is his grand-daughter — a fair and kindly young lady." " Heiress to the estates, no doubt ? " " No ! " replied the landlady, pursing up her lips ; " the estates go with the title to a distant cousin of the family. With Lord Lelanro the direct line ceases, unless " "Unless what, ma'am?" asked Warwick, noting the abrupt pause. THE DWAEF'S chamber 15 "Never mind, sir. Every family has its skeleton, and it is not for me to show that of the Lelanros. It is a fine house, is it not ? " she added, evidently desirous of turning the conversation. " What I saw of it," answered Algernon, falling in with her humour ; " a steep wall rising from the banks of the stream; turrets and gables beyond, encircled by a park. Why is the house defended in that fashion. Mistress SaUy 1 Is the owner misanthropic, or is he merely doubtful of the world's horiesty ? " "He is not partial to strangers," muttered the other reluctantly ; " at least, not at the Manor. In London my lord keeps open house." From the way in which she spoke Warwick saw that the subject was distasteful, and wondered what could be the reason of her obvious embarrassment. Evidently there was some secret connected with house or inmates ; and being a loyal servant of the family, sbe was bent on saying as little as possible. Nevertheless, as Warwick had kept his own counsel, he could not very well question her further on her private affairs, therefore went on with his breakfast in silence. In a few miautes Mistress SaUy left the room, and returned speedily with a portrait in a silver frame, which she placed proudly before her guest. " This is a picture of Miss Celia, sir," replied she, " given to me by herself. Isn't she a beauty, Mr. Warwick ? " "A very charming young lady," answered Warwick, examining the photograph, " but her expression is rather sad." "Aha!" coughed Mistress Sally awkwardly, "she has reason to look sad. All the Lelanros are sad — after twenty." " Why after twenty ? " "I'm not the one to tell tales," said Mistress Sally, hastily siiatoiiing up the picture. "If my dear pretty 16 THE dwarf's chamber Miss Celia is sad, that has nothing to do with you or me, sir. Let sleeping dogs lie. That is what I always say." After which significant remark she left the room for a second time, nor did she re-enter it again, and Warwick guessed thereby that she was afraid of saying too much. Indeed, her hints had already roused his curiosity, and he burned to know the meaning of this ambiguous talk. The sadness which came to the Lelanros when they reached the age of twenty years ; the steep wall overhanging the swift stream; the remark anent the failure of the direct line with the unspoken reservation ; all these things stimulated the desire of the young man to know more of the Manor House, and of the family who dwelt therein. However, his own immediate affairs soon withdrew his attention from such unnecessary matters. He weighed his lean purse, counted and re-counted the three coins, and sighed to think that he must part with one of them for the discharge of his night's entertain- ment. Still, with twelve and sixpence he would do very well for the next few days, and he trusted when this was spent to replenish his exchequer by music and song. Having come to this conclusion he pulled out a clay pipe, and loading it with a morsel of tobacco from his scanty store, he proceeded to indulge in the luxury of a smoke. Then he picked up his bundle, tucked the fiddle under his arm, and repaired in search of Mistress Sally, to say good-bye. She was blocking the porch with her portly form, and turned to greet him with a smile. In the bright sunlight, with her be-ribboned cap, rosy face, and buxom figure, she resembled one of those delightful landladies who enliven the optimistic pages of Fielding and Dickens. And why should she not resemble them ? she who was their lineal descendant and worthy representative. "I must go now. Mistress Sally," said Warwick, tender- iujg his poor coin, " and here is aU J can pay for board and THE DWAKF'S CHAMBEE 17 lodging. A miserable return for so capital a bed and supper." " Put it up, sir," said the good-hearted landlady, waving it away. " Heaven forbid that Sarah Ballard should take from those who need." And in spite of his half-laughing, half-earnest expostu- lations, she absolutely refused to take the money. Nay more, she handed him a small parcel of provisions, for his midday meal, with a rubicund smile of goodwill and kindly hospitality. " You'll be hungry at noon," said she, forcing this into his hand. " And there's a meat-pie and bread and cheese and ale in there. And maybe, sir, you'll find a trifle of tobacco," she added, with a shy smile. " I see you spoil those white teeth of yours by smoking." Warwick had never before experienced such kindness, and was so deeply moved that he hardly knew how to thank the hostess. However, he managed to stammer out a few words, and shook her heartily by the hand, a saluta- tion hardly relished by the buxom landlady, who would have turned her rosy cheek willingly to the lips of so handsome a traveller. " If ever I become that which you take me to be," said he earnestly, " you may be sure I shall return to thank you in other ways than mere words.'' " Come when you will, and you'll ever be welcome," responded Mistress Sally, and patted him on the back as he stepped out into the sunshine. The fiddler would have moved away at once, for it was already late in the morning, when, looking up to note the weather tokens of the cloud-dappled sky, he again caught sight of the queerly-pictured sign creaking over- head. Curious to know the meaning of the representa- tion, he asked Mistress Sally to afford him an explanation. Which she did, nothing loth tq retain him longer by hey pide. 18 THE dwarf's chamber " That picture, sir," replied Mistress Sally, -with uncon- cealed pride, "was painted by a gentleman who is now great. I have been offered no end of money for it, Mr. Warwick, as his name is signed to it, and that makes it valuable." " But the meaning of the picture ? " " Bead the words, sir, and see what you make of them." Warwick mounted on the bench, and held no difficulty in deciphering the following quatrain : To those false lords my ciown I gave, Now they would have my head I ween ; Be Leal Andrew for aye, my knave, Be leal and row to save your queen. " Those words describe the picttlre," said Mistress Sally, when he stepped down, " it is the beginning of the Lelanro family. On the other side of the sign, Mr. Warwick, you will see their arms ; a boat on a sea with the motto ' Be Leal and Bow.' " " What is the story, ma'am ? " asked Algernon, sitting down on the bench. " When the Queen of Scots fled from her enemies," said Mistress Sally, with the air of one repeating a lesson, " she came to the banks of a river hard pressed by her false lords. One seirving-man had she with her, and urged a ferryman called Andrew, who dwelt on the banks, to put her and her serving-man across to where her friends were gathered. The ferryman, hearing she was the Queen, told her on his knees that he was known as Leal Andrew for his devotion to the House of Stewart, and gladly took her in his boat. Half-way across the stream, the false lords came to the bank and shouted to Leal Andrew that he should give up the fugitive Queen. Her friends on the further side implored him to be no traitor to his lawful sovereign. Leal Andrew rowed hard to save the Queen ■ but the serving-man, a traitorous knave, tried to upset the ferry-boat so that the Queen might fall into the power of THE dwarf's chamber 19 her enemies. But Leal Andrew killed him and agaLa took to the oars, whereat Mary of Scotland cried, pvumirtg on his name, ' Be Leal Andrew still — be leal and row to save your Queen.' She was landed safely and was saved, so the Lelanros took her words for their motto and their name." " How di4 they rise from ferrymen to lords ?" "The son of the Queen, James of England, rewarded Leal Andrew for his devotion, and gave to him and his descendants the estates of Dalesford, which they have held ever since." "I don't quite understand the punning motto," said Warwick, in a perplexed tone. " The Queen said ' Leal and row,' which was a pun on his name, ' Leal Andrew,' made by altering ' e ' into ' o ' in the last syllable. The family now spell the name Lelanro as you see it there." " A very interesting legend," observed Warwick, once more rising to his feet. " I suppose you tell it to every one. Mistress Sally ? The Lelanros are a fortunate family." " Ah ! " sighed the landlady, " they have had bad luck to balance the good. If Leal Andrew brought a blessing, his son brought a curse, which still endures." " What is the curse, ma'am i " "It's too long a story," said Mistress Sally hastily.; "you had better go, sir, for the sun is high> and see, the children are out from school. They'll be asking you for a tiiue, I'm thinking." At this hint Warwick again thanked the good-hearted landlady, and took his leave. HaJf-way across the green he struck up a lively measure, whereat the school-children followed dancing in his wake as he marched along. It was a repetition of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. 20 THE dwarf's chamber CHAPTER III ADVENTURES ARE TO THE ADVENTUEOUS ON leaving that hospitable inn, it was Warwick's inten- tion to push on towards London ; but so stimulated was his curiosity by the landlady's chatter about the Le- lanro family, that he determined to look again on that tantalizing wall, which apparently concealed some strange secret. With this intent he retraced his way across the bridge, still drawing onward by his fiddling the dancing children, and strolled over the meadows in the direction of the Manor. Here, anxious to rid himself of his innocent company, he sat down under a tree, and played to their restless feet until they were fairly wearied out. Then he nodded a kind farewell, and leaving them to pick butter- cups till the school-bell rang, he betook himself along the banks of the stream. This rustic river, of no great width, parted two land- scapes markedly dissimilar in character. On the further side a forest of oak, and sycamore, and ash, and birch covered a round swelling hill ; and at its foot, numerous large rocks thrust themselves from amid the green foliage into the turbid waters. Overshore the stream fretted and whitened round the Titanic stones, but swept smoothly onward, deep and silent, under the shadow of the bank whereon Warwick stood. Thence spread fat meadow lands dotted with ancient trees, and divided by flowering hedge- rows, the rigid intersecting lines of which assimilated the plain to a chess-board. Through this fertility the high- road meandered white and dusty to where the vision was stayed by low-lying hills undulating against the blue June sky. As a finishing touch to the contrast, the peaked roofs of the Manor House showed themselves in the dip of the laud, between forest slope and low-lying meadow, linking, THE dwarf's chamber 21 as it were, the mountain with the vale, past savagery with present domesticity, being at once a feudal castle and a modem mansion. After a careless glance at this scene, which would have longer enchained the eye of an artist, Warwick passed into the path which wound tortuously along the flowery banks. Here the green arcade overhead was vocal with the song of bird and hum of insect, while the murmur of the fretting water added a deeper note. Through the boles of the trees which fringed the meadows in a single line he now and then caught a glimpse of slowly-moving cattle, of scamper- ing foals and playful lambs, from such a pastoral land- scape his attention was distracted by the trout leaping after May-flies, and in the green twilight of the woods beyond he saw the brown flash of a squirrel springing from one tree-trunk to another. Across the stream flitted glittering dragon-flies and droning bumble-bees, while aloft swallows whirled hither and thither ; and from the arching blue rained down the music of an invisible lark. The peaceful beauty of the whole stole imperceptibly into the heart of the wayfarer, and for the moment he questioned whether it would not be wiser to accept the offer of Mistress Sally and make music for the villagers, than to tempt the blows of Fate in far-off toiling, moiling London. " Here I could be happy," thought he, leisurely strolling onward. "No care, no trouble, no dread, only rest and comfort, and infinite peace. Merely with a violin and an ambition to be a musician, it is madness to go to London, where I would be but a drop in the ocean. That man of whom my father spoke may not be disposed to help me, and then what should I do 1 — I, with no friends, no money, with not even a name ; a waif, a tramp, a bastard for aught I know. Yet it would be ignoble to rest in my present ignorance of birth and position." At this stage of his musings the path rounded a curve of the river, and began to slope gently upward. The gables 22 THE dwarf's chamber of the Manor House were now close at band, and Warwick, mounting the declivity, found hijnself able to command a fine view of the whole building. Surro\inded on three sides by the woods, its mass lay directly on the verge of the stream, which here flowed ominously swift under a Cyclopean waU. From the waters, sullen in their gloom, these grey stones, looking massive enough to resist cannon, rose abruptly for close on twenty feet. Not a loophole, not a window, not even a chink was to be seen in its stern front, and the whole length was draped with dark-green ivy, which accentuated its forbiddiug appearance. Above this shot the red-tiled roofs, peaked and steep, round turrets, pierced with narrow windows, and lines of machi- colated battlements grey with agej the whole jumbled together in picturesque confusion. With the stream moat- like at its foot, and the wild woods on either side, this curious building resembled a feudal castle, such as Dor6 drew for the tales of Eabelais. Here a robber chief might have dwelt ; here a magician might have kept in durance some enchanted princess ; yet the building was set in the heart of England, and promised no more extraordinary adventure than the commonplace kind, incident to our prosaic and law-protected existence. Civilization kills the romance of road, and river, and lonely country house. Much struck with the sight of this wood-encircled castle dominating the swift stream, Warwick looked at it long and earnestly, and finally he sat under a shady oak to make his midday meal. After this he purposed to return to the bridge, and so pursue his way to London along the high-road. Despite the romance of the place, which en- gendered dreams and set strange melodies floating through his brain, Warwick was too young and healthy to neglect the food provided by Mistress Sally. He finished the meat- pie and the bottle of ale, reserving the bread and cheese for his supper ; then throwing himseK full length on the soft grass, he smoked luxuriously, and eyed wall and turret and THE dwarf's chambee 23 gable through the blue clouds which rolled from his pipe. Seen through so misty a veil, the mansion became enchanted j and in the glamour of his dreaming brain it was less a common country house than a castle of faery. " I ipight be heir to a mansion like that," thought the romantic "Warwick. " Every one seems to take me for a gentleman ; so why should I not be one 1 I was bom in the humble booth of a fair, it is true ; but my father could never discover his place of birth. And how can he expect me tolearn it from this ?" The reference was to a slip of paper which he took out of his pocket-book. Thereon was written a name and a date — the name, " Algernon " ; the date, " December 24, 1857." "My father said the secret could be solved by this," murmured the youth ; " but though I have pored over it for hours, never have I been able to gain a hint of its meaning. It may be a cryptogram, a rebus, a cipher, a Chinese puzzle, for all I know. But a name and a date are poor material for a man to trace his progenitors." He replaced thp precious paper, which contained his future, in the pocket-book, and leaning his elbow on the grass, he cont^inued to soliloquize aloud : "Mj father's friend in London may reveal the truth; but it is hs-rdly likely. If he would not tell my father, he certainly will not tell me. Perhaps he cannot; but at all events I'll see this Eallard as soon as I set foot in London. Ballard," he added, starting up ; " why, that is the name of the kind landlady. I wonder if she is any connection of my town friend ? What a fool I was not to inquire ! However, it's not too late. I'U return for the night to the ' Lelanro Arms,' and question her closely." This suggestion of the "Lelanro Arms" turned his thoughts towards the family of that name, and to the hints given by Mistress Sally concerning a mystery connected with their mansion. A thousand fancies haunted the 24 THE dwarf's chamber imaginative brain of Warwick as he stared at the menacing wall, and he wondered greatly what mystery could be con- cealed behind it. Stories occurred to him of great families cursed with secrets engendered by the evil doings of former generations, secrets so terrible that they drove all cheerful- ness from the heart, and banished all smiles from the face. No one knew what these secrets might be, yet they tortured the heart of many a proud noble and long-descended squire. From what he had heard and seen, it would appear that the Lelanros concealed some such indefinable horror in house and heart, which blighted the existence of all who bore their name. Mistress Sally hinted as much, and the mighty wall, so out of keeping with the law-protected security of an English home, confirmed the hint. Dominated by the thought, Warwick no longer beheld in the mansion a castle of faery, but a blood-stained house, groaning under a curse. From the past came forth a power to render it infamous and desolate. No smile was on the lips of its lord ; no stranger was admitted within its gates, and it loomed across the stream deadly and sullen ; accursed, to the inflamed fancy of this lad, as ever was the dwelling of Atreus. Blue was the sky above it, green were the woods around it, and limpid the stream that sparkled under the lichened wall ; yet to Warwick it scowled an abode of evil, a haunted mansion of crime and desolation. In the bright sunshine he shivered at the thought of what tales those hoary walls could tell, were they gifted with speech. To dispel so gloomy a mood, he hastily seized his violin and improvised a merry air, which was more in keeping with the glory of that summer day. The notes chased one another in airy flight, and thrilled and trilled like a choir of birds. Into the musician's soul Nature poured the suggestion of her fecund beauty, and under flying bow and lithe fingers the strains echoed through the warm air like the melodies of light tripping fairies. It was no passionate THE dwarf's chamber 25 love-song, no melody begotten by the thought of human pain and grief, but an elfish carol, heartless and beautiful as Nature herself. She was the inspirer, and passing from the soul of her interpreter to the instrument, she rendered herself audible in silver cascades of hurrying notes. The voice of the stream, the triU of the lark, sigh of wind, and rustle of leaves were all blent in the magic strain, which rose and fell fitfully with joyous gladness. In the interval of a brilUant passage, Warwick paused with a look of wonderment on his mobile face, for in the distance sounded a sweet voice mocking the cadences of his instrument. Pure and silvery as the note of a bird, it rippled from over stream, and he became aware that some one was singing in emulation behind the ivy-clad wall. To test the truth of the echo he hastily improvised a sparkling run, and paused. The unseen singer took it up, and executed the whole passage with faultless precision, in clear-sounding notes. He again swept the bow across the strings; and again the human echo mocked his fantasy. Then ensued a delicate duet, in which the notes of the violin trilled across the stream, to be met midway by similar strains. Note for note the hidden voice replied to the violin's melody. Then Warwick paused, and the voice sang alone ; he re-executed the melody, and so instrument and singer fluted together like mocking-birds. " This is an adventure of faery," cried Warwick, when he could no longer provoke a reply. " I would give any- thing to see this caged bird." He pictured to himself a delicate maiden prisoned behind those grim stones, and laying down his violin, he descended the green slope to the banks of the river, as though then and there intending to swim across and storm the prison. This fantastic adventvire appealed greatly to his fancy, and, parted from all knowledge of the singer by wall and stream, he sat meditating on the flowery marge. Nevertheless, despite his ardent curiosity, he had no intention of swim- 26 THE dwaef's chamber ming stream or of scaling wall, as it was not his h^jsiness, or right, to thrust himself into the affairs of the Lelanro family. All he decided to do was to return to the inn, and, if possible, to learn from Mistress Sally what bird was caged in that woodland castle. Such was his intent, but Fate took the matter into her own hands, and thrust him forward on a path whence there was no retreat. Wrapped in his dreams of the hidden singer, he did not note how insecure was the bank on which he reclined. The water had eaten away the under-part, and though Warwick was ignorant of his danger, he was seated on a mere shell of matted grass and earth, beneath which swirled the current. Unexpectedly his seat collapsed, and before he could collect his scattered thoughts he found himself swept into mid-stream, swimming for dear life. Notwithstanding the heat of the day, the water was bit- terly cold, and the youth, chilled and numbed by the sudden immersion, was almost helpless in the grip of the current. Fortunately Warwick was a good swimmer, but encum- bered by his clothes, and cramped by the cold wave, he could not regain the shelving bank whence he had fallen. The main strength of the current rushed directly past the wall, and thither, in spite of all his efforts, the youth was borne. Dreading lest his strength should give way, he seized the roots of the ivy which, huge and gnarled, dipped in the stream, and with a powerful effort drew himself upward from the water which threatened to suck bim down. Half bewildered by the shock, and the position in which he found himself, he saw that he was fully com- mitted to the adventure ; and, as there was no other means by which he could hope to save his life, he clambered with difficulty up the natural ladder formed by the roots and sprays of the ivy. Emerging at the top of the wall from shadow to sunshine, the change was too sudden ; and smitten by the fierce beams, he was seized with vertigo. TSE dwarf's chamber 27 But a moment he balanced himself on the wall, and saw, as in a dream, the stream on one side, a garden on the other, when, losing senses and hold, he reeled dizzily and fell downward into what seemed to be a gulf of roaring gloom. CHAPTER rv IN lilliLIPUT WHEN Warwick came to himself, he was conscious of a dull pain on the top of his head, and of a wet cloth lying across his forehead. StiU confused, he did not at once open his eyes, but lay silent and inert, endeavouring to pick up the threads of life where recollection failed him. His soul, lately on an excursion into the unknown, whence it had brought back no report, reunited itself to the body with a sudden shock which thrUled his frame with pain and dread. Then memory awoke, and he recalled his fall into the stream, his scaling of the wall, and finally the utter blank which had whelmed him on the other side of the parapet. Between that and this he could recall nothing. At some indefinite period he had bestridden an ivied wall in the hot sunshine ; but he could not even guess at his present situation. So bewildered was his brain, that for the moment he neither opened his eyes nor attempted to comprehend his position. While thus lying, dead and buried, as it seemed to him, for he had no feeling of contact with the actual world, a sweet voice began piping a song in low tones. It was the same singing he had evoked with his violin; but now shrilled delicately, as though the vocalist were afraid of rousing him from slumber. As in a dream he heard the voice shape itself into song : 28 THE dwarf's chamber Sir James, tae gnard his soul fra ill, Hae plucked the rowan berry, And walked him, in the moonUcht chill. Where faery folk dance merry. Oh, lay ye doon the rowan twig. An' taste oor wine o' broom. Or mickle dole, on hairt an' soul, We'll gie ye for a doom. Here the ballad abruptly ended, as a deep voice jarred on the silvery sweetness of the strain. " Pray be silent, Madam Tot," said the voice, " you wiU wake our patient." " Not so, doctor," replied the singer lightly, " his soul is not there, but in the kingdom of faery with my kinsfolk." " We must try and bring it back to his body then," said the doctor. "The lad has been severely shaken by his fall ; but as no bones are broken I trust he will soon be all right. You stay beside him, Madam Tot, while I go for some wine." " Send Blunderbore to me," cried the lady, as the other departed. "I wish him to see after my summer-house, broken by the fall of this giant." The idea that he was a giant so tickled Warwick, that, notwithstanding his aching head, he could not forbear a quiet laugh, and opened his eyes to see into what odd quarter of the world he had wandered. The sight of the room in which he lay made him doubtful of his sanity, and he began to think that he had been thrust into a doll's house ; everything was on so small a scale that he indeed felt as though he were a giant in the land of Lilliput. He was lying on the floor with his head resting on a tiny sofa, and on looking upward he saw that the ceiling was so low that he could almost touch it by simply stretch- ing up his arm. Tables and chairs on the same miniature scale were scattered about the apartment, and the doors and windows were commensurate to the size of the chamber. The hangings wpre of green, ag also was the ^arpet, apd THE DWARF S CHAMBER 29 everything betrayed daintiness and refinement, as though the room were inhabited by a luxurious doll. It was little wonder that these dwarfish surroundings confused the young man who so unexpectedly found himself amongst them. To lose consciousness in the actual world, and recover sensibility in the land of pigmies, is a rare, almost an inconceivable experience for the average human being. " ' Am r in LUIipnt? ' asked he faintly." The doll herself, who was seated on a little chair, started up when she heard his laugh, and hastened lightly towards him. This lady was a dwarf, not more than three feet in height, but so beautifully proportioned that for the moment she did not strike Warwick as anything out of the ordinary. But for her white hair and wrinkled face he would have taken her for a child. She was dressed in a green robe, with q, fHyer belt, ^nd wore a hat of ^he sanie hue, 30 THE dwarf's chamber adorned with white feathers. Leaning on an ebony cane, she nodded and smiled at Warwick ; while he could hardly forbear an exclamation of wonder at this perfect repro- duction of a human being on a smaller scale. Head, body, hands, feet, all matched one another, and beyond the fact that she was three feet high instead of five or six, there was nothing incongruous or repellent in her looks. Evi- dently the chamber had been proportioned and furnished in accordance with her stature ; and so strong was the impres- sion created by this congruity, that Warwick looked upon himself, rather than on her, as an abnormal creature, and felt that he had no right to intrude his clumsy bulk into the miniature world presided over by this diminutive beauty. " Am I in Lilliput 1 " asked he faintly, with an amazed glance at the green-clad faery. "You are in my chamber," replied the dwarf in a sweet, low voice, quite in keeping with her tiny personality. " You fell off the wall on to my stimmer-house ; but that its thatched roof btbke your fall, you would have been kiUed ; for you tumbled," addbd the little lady solemnly, "from an enormous height." Warwick laughed, as he quite conceived how infinitely high the wall would appear in the eyes of this little creature ; seeing that he, a full-grown man, found it suffi- ciently lofty. He looked down at his limbs, which seemed unnatiuraUy large in this chamber, where everything was reduced to suit the physical requirements of its dwarfish inmate, and wondered how he got in at the narrow and low door. Madam Tot, as the doctor had called her, guessed his thoughts, and smiled again. She had a very pretty smile, and revealed a row of pretty teeth as she anticipated his speech by a ready explanation. " Blunderbore found you, sir, and it was Blunderbore who put you into my room, at my request." "Who is Blunderbore?" demanded Warwick, with a vague recollection of some nurse's story. THE dwarf's chamber 31 " He is my guardian here," replied the lady in a dignified tone, " and I call him Blunderhore because he is so tall and strong. But his real name is Simon." " Is he coming in here 1 I heard you tell the doctor to send him." Madam Tot threw up her tiny hands, and shrieked in a horrified manner — " My dear young man, Simon couldn't get inside that door. He's much over six feet in height. It was as much as we could do to get you in." " Why didn't you leave me in the garden then 1 " " Because I wanted you in here," replied the dwarf in a peremptory tone; "you have surprised a secret, sir, and you shall not leave this place until the will of my brother is known." " But, Madam Tot," expostulated Warwick, remembering that she had been so addressed, " I " " Madam Tot, you rude person," shrieked the lady, stamping a tiny foot, "how dare you call me by that odious name ! I am Miss Selina Lelanro." " And your brother ? " " Is James, Lord Lelanro ! You must call me Miss Lelanro ! And now, sir, what were you doing on my wall 1 No evasions, no lies, no fictions," cried she sternly, " or I will order Blunderhore to throw you into the river again." Thus warned, Warwick was about to attempt an explan- ation, when the door opened, and a large head framed in red hair and red whiskers filled up the opening. The owner was evidently kneeling in the passage outside, and, unable by reason of his bulk to enter, adopted this mode of learning the commands of his dwarfish mistress. This apparition of a head belonged, as Warwick rightly guessed, to the redoubtable Simon, alias Blunderhore. " Oh, Blunderhore," said Miss Lelanro, tripping forward, " go and see after the roof of my summer-house at once." c 32 THE dwarf's chamber " Yes, Madam Tot " " Miss Lelanro, you oaf ! " "Yes, Miss Lelanro," replied the head submissively; "and what about the gentleman? Am I to throw him into the river again?" " You've been listening, I see, Blunderbore," said the dwarf disdainfully. " No, you are not to touch him. I shall attend to him with Dr. Pryce. But get the Blue Koom ready, as he will stay here till Lord Lelanro returns." By this time Warwick guessed that he had surprised the secret of the Lelanros. Some hereditary taint in the blood produced at intervals a dwarf in the family, similar to the little being who now stood beside him. On account of their deformity, these poor creatures, suffering through no fault of their own, were shut up within the high wall; and the outside world was ignorant of their existence. Warwick recalled the hints of Mistress Sally, and he no longer wondered that a cloud rested on the faces of the Lelanro family. To have such abnormal creatures prisoned in their country house was quite sufficient to weigh on their spirits, and Warwick thought how many dwarfs, born to solitude and disgrace, had inhabited this tiny chamber. He expected that, alarmed at the secret being known to a stranger, the servants who attended on the dwarf would not let him depart without the sanction of Lord Lelanro ; and foresaw that until the owner of the house returned from London, he would be obliged to regard himself as a prisoner. The gigantic Simon, evidently chosen to prevent such invasions of the dwarf's chamber, was quite powerful enough to keep him there by force, and moreover there was the doctor to be reckoned with. Warwick wondered what manner of a man he would prove to be, and mentally considered how his story would be received. At this moment the head of Blimderbore vanished in a magical manner, and Miss Lelanro tripped back to the side THE dwarf's chamber S3 of her unexpected guest -with a resolute look on her elfish face. " Now, sir," said she, with an imperious tap of her ehony cane, " what is your name ? " " Algernon Warwick." "What are you, Mr. Warwick?" " A wandering fiddler ! " " Oh ! " cried the lady, " it was you, then, who played this morning ! " " Yes, Miss Lelanro ; and it was yoti who sang ? " " It was I. Your music pleased me very much, but I hardly expected the honour of a visit." " I assure you it was quite tinintentional on my part," urged Warwick, anxious not to offend this dainty lady. " I fell into the river by accident, and was carried away by the current. It swept me under your wall, and to save myself from being sucked under, I gripped the roots of the ivy which overhangs the stream. Had I not done so I should have been drowned. As it was I could not hang there indefinitely, so I clambered up the wall, with no intention of invading your privacy, but only intent on saving myself. The Sun beating on my bare head turned me giddy, and I fell into your garden ; but I assure you, Miss Lelanro, I might just as easily have tumbled out as in, and so into the stream again." The dwarf listened gravely to this explanation, with her head cocked on one side like that of a pert sparrow. When he paused she nodded approvingly, and supplied him with the sequel to his adventure. " I was in my garden, Mr. Warwick, and I saw you fall. It was fortunate I had left my summer-house, else I might have been crushed under its ruins. My cry of alarm Brought Blunderbore to my assistance, and seeing that you were stunned he carried you in here by my order. Then I sent for Dr. Pryce, who is now attending to you." " Am I to consider myself your prisoner. Miss Lelanro ? " 34 THE dwarf's chamber "You are to consider yourself my guest," replied the little creature, with great dignity. "I have given orders that a chamber is to be prepared for you. Not one like this," added she, looking round the doll's house -with ludi- crous complacency, " but a grown-up apartment furnished to suit your size. Dr. Pryce will be here shortly to conduct you there, and in the meantime, Mr. Warwick, I shall take my leave, to see Blunder bore repairing my summer-house." "I apologize for my misfortune in having crushed it," said Warwick gravely, though secretly amused by the dwarf's self-importance. " Not at all ! not at all ! " replied Madam Tot, pausing at the door of her chamber to wave a gracious pardon, " it was not your fault. I exonerate you from all blame, and I shall make your stay at the Manor as pleasant as I possibly can." When she disappeared, Warwick fell to thinking of the strange situation in which he had been placed by Fate. Certainly, in leaving the inn but a few hours previously, he had not expected to find himself in such straits. Here he was, in the secret portion of the Lelanros' house, in posses- sion of a knowledge which they jealously concealed from the world ; and he wondered how the head of the family would deal with one who innocently had unmasked the curse which was their hereditary burden. From these considerations, which were somewhat unsatisfactory, War- wick's thoughts reverted to his violin Ijdng under the oak tree beyond the stream, and he resolved to ask Miss Lelanro to have it brought hither by Blunderbore. It would at least solace his captivity, and moreover, as the dwarf was fond of music, he could hope to entertain her on occasions. At this point of his reflections Dr. Pryce entered the room. Though not a dwarf, he was considerably under the stature of the average human being, and had no difficulty in penetrating into the chamber. A mild, benign face he THE dwarf's chambee 35 owned, with kindly eyes and a white beard ; yet he was so lacking in ordinary comeliness that he resembled gome gnome king, the father of the dwarfish faery in green. With slow steps he advanced towards Warwick, and presented a glass of wine. " Drink this, Mr. Warwick," he said, placing it to the young man's lips, "and then come with me to your room." "You know my name, doctor." "Madam Tot has just told me your name and story," replied Pryce, stroking his beard. " Your entry here was purely accidental, yet none the less regrettable on that account. But we will talk of these things later on. Mean- while, leave the chamber of Miss Lelanro, and come to your own quarters. Your head still aches 1 " " Very badly, and I feel rather sick." " Ay, ay ! A sleep will do you good. Eend your head, Mr. Warwick, and your shoulders also. Remember," added the doctor, smiling, as he assisted the young man to leave the room, " you are in the kingdom of Lilliput." Whether it was a recurrence of his former vertigo, or that Pryce had put an opiate in the wine, Warwick did not clearly know; but at the door of the chamber his senses again left him, and his last recollection was of being picked up like a child by the gigantic Blunderbore. CHAPTER V THE NEW GULLIVEE WISEACRES, who are merely simpletons in disguise, are fond of declaring that romance is a thing of the past ; although by so foolish an assertion they unwittingly nullify their claim to wisdom. Unable, by reason of their 36 THE dwarf's chamber shallow understandings, to take in other than external evidence, they deem romance to appertain exclusively to courts of kings and picarooning expeditions; to require doublets, and swords, and masks; to necessitate haunted chamber, lonely castle, and picturesque inn ; as though romance, which may be termed the miracle of circumstance, were not independent of wardrobe, scene, and conjunction of planets. Komance is as much with us to-day as ever it was with our forefathers ; but less apparent to the eye, less insistent in thrusting itself athwart the current of daily life, it conceals itseK under the mask of the commonplace. To him who seeks shall it be given. In the present instance Algernon "Warwick, by no means heroic in circumstance or requirement, found himself placed, almost against his will, in as romantic a situation as was ever conceived by poet or novelist. To say that a hand- some youth, apparently a disguised noble, took shelter in a village inn, penetrated through a wild forest, and scaled the walls of a feudal castle to rescue an enchanted princess, is to treat the subject in the romance vein. To relate that a fiddling tramp slept in a wayside hotel, trespassed on private property, and feloniously gained admission into a country house, where he saw an undersized lady, is to tell the same story in plain words. Yet the one description is fitted for a faery tale, while the other, similar in all respects, smacks of everyday life. In this way, when a story is related in plain prose, does your wiseacre refuse to credit it with the elements of romance. Nevertheless, romance it may be called. Warwick considered his adventure by the light of an imaginative brain, and far from scorning it as common- place and prosaic, he adorned it with all the hues of fantasy. Miss Lelanro was not an undersized lady, but a dwarf who doubtless had elfish blood in her veins ; the country house was an enchanted castle. Dr. Pryce a fair representative of a kindly magician, and Blunderbore a giant, dull and THE dwarf's chamber 37 spiteful. In such wise can the alchemy of a youthful and poetic imagination transmute the prosaic into the romantic. Yet he had some excuse for so poetizing, for the strange- ness of his surroundings lifted his Ufe out of the ordinary commonplace of existence. The dwaifish lady was full of fancies concerning the reason of her tiny stature; and although Dr. Pryce, hardened man of science as he was, professed to explain the matter on physiological grounds, Warwick infinitely preferred the fantastic legend related by Madam Tot. " "Sou must &10W," said she, several days after his unexpected arrival, " that one of my ancestors, Sir James Lelanro, went to visit the old ferry-house of his father. Leal Andrew. The hut was ruined and the boat gone, so, unable to cross the river or to retrace his steps, Sir James wrapped himself in his mantle and lay down on the bare ground to sleep till morning. By chance he had gathered a twig of the rowan tree, which protects mortals from faery power, and also gives them faery vision. With the rowan twig in his hand. Sir James woke at midnight when the moon was full, and he saw the little people arrayed in green, holding their revels. They danced and sang, and drank their wine o' broom from goblets of gold fashioned by the gnomes. Not knowing that Sir James by the magic of the rowan twig could espy their solemnity, they paid no atten- tion to his presence, but skipped merrily in the moonshine. Remembering the story of the Musgraves, one of whom thieved a crystal cup from the faeries, since called the Luck of Edenhall, which brought fortune to the family, Sir James thought he would steal a goblet also, so as to ensure a fair future to his race. With this idea he stretched out his hand and picked up a faery cup lying on the grass. Then the little people knew that he saw them, and with furious gestures demanded back their golden goblet. Sir James refused to restore it, and as they were unable 38 THE dwarf's chamber to harm him because of the rowan twig, the chief faery pronounced a doom on him and his. " ' you have stolen our cup,' said the faery, ' and for that we will steal a child from every generation of your family. It will be taken to faeryland, and we will leave in its place a changeling who will work woe to you and yours.' "With this speech the faeries vanished and Sir James fell asleep. He awoke to find himself on the wet grass, amid the ruins of Leal Andrew's hut, with the golden goblet firmly clutched in his right hand, and so took his departure from the spot. Since then," said Madam Tot solemnly, " the little people have stolen a child from every generation of the Lelanros, and left in place of it a change- ling. I am no Lelanro, Mr. Warwick, though I call myself one, for the real mortal is in faeryland, and I am the changeling." "You are then a faery," said Warwick, smiling at the belief of the little creature. " A faery without the power of one," gravely replied the dwarf in all good faith. "I am of faery stature, I wear the livery of the little people, but my power is taken from me, and I shall work no spells till I return at the end of my mortal life to faeryland." " And what of the goblet which caused all this trouble ? Does it still exist ? " "No. A grandson of Sir James Lelanro sold it to supply the necessities of Charles Stewart when he was in need of money. No one knows where the faery cup now is," she added, " but the changeling remains. Every generation of Lelanros has had one of the little people placed in the cradle." Hardly had Madam Tot ceased speaking when, feather- headed and inconsequent as a child, she ran off in chase of a white butterfly, and left Warwick in the company of Pryce. They were in the garden under the shadow of the THE dwarf's chamber 39 great wall, and at the conclusion of the legend the young man turned towards the doctor with a smile. " So much for the ideal," said he inquiringly ; " now for the real. What is the reason of this dwarfish strain in the Lelanro family 1 " " I am afraid science cannot answer that question," replied Pryce, shaking his head ; "it is one of the mysteries of Nature. The Lelanros are usually tall and well-formed j but every now and then a dwarf is born." " To every generation 1 " "No. Sometimes a generation is free, and all the children attain ordinary stature. But the strain is sure to come out again, even after the lapse of years. There is physical as well as mental heredity, you know, Mr. Warwick.'' "I believe so," replied Warwick mechanically, for his thoughts were otherwhere. "I suppose these Lelanro dwarfs never marry." "Assuredly not," said Dr. Pryce emphatically. "Who would marry an abnormal creature like that 1 It would be cruel and unwise. When a dwarf is born to the family it is placed here, and its life is made as pleasant as possible. That little being is far happier here than she would be were she allowed to be seen by all, and mocked at for her deformity." "But she is not deformed." "Not in the usual sense of the word," assented the doctor thoughtfully; "but her stature is against Nature. Were she fully grown she might be as hideous as Caliban, and yet be able to mix with her fellow-creatures. As it is, the very beauty of her diminutive person would attract attention, and curiosity ; and as the Lelanros are a proud family, they naturally do not care to have one of their members so regarded by the world." " Nobody knows of the existence of Madam Tot ? " " No one, save myself, Simon, and Mrs. Vard, the female 40 THE dwarf's chamber attendant. Our little friend is kindly treated, and, as you see, she lias every comfort. Do you not think yourseK that she is better here than exposed to the jeers of the world ] " "I must say that I do. She seems a childish beiag." "She is shrewd in some things, Mr. Warwick; but having no experience of life she is still in the stage of childhood, although close on sixty years of age." " Sixty years of age," sighed "Warwick sympathetically ; "a long time to pass in captivity." "I beg of you not to use that word, sir," said the doctor reprovingly, " it is not captivity to her ; and you must not put such ideas into her head. Though, perhaps," added the doctor, divining the reason of the sigh, " you object to your detention here." "Not at all, doctor. I am willing to remain till Lord Lelanro arrives." "He is coming here next week, Mr. "Warwick, and he will then see you on the subject of your unfortunate intrusion here. I hope you do not blame me for detaining you, sir, as, all things being taken into consideration, I could act in no other way." " I am not at all angry with you," said "Warwick, taking the hand of the elder man, " and I have no objection to pass a few weeks in the company of so accomplished a scholar. But neither you nor Lord Lelanro need mistrust me, as my lips are sealed by honour on all points regarding this place. I will breathe no word of it to a soul." " I quite beUeve you, Mr. Warwick. From the moment you came I saw that you were a gentleman." " I'm afraid you saw wrong, doctor," replied the young man, flushing. " I am not a born gentleman." "Of that I know nothing, Mr. Warwick; but you certainly give me a strong impression that your birth is not so lowly as you would imply." " Some day I shall tell you my story, doctor, and then you can judge for yourself." THE dwarf's chamber 41 With this promise the other was obliged to be content, although he could hardly contain his very natural curiosity concerning this attractive young stranger. Several times he had hinted at the advisability of Warwick making a confidant of him ; but with constant good-humour the youth declined to reveal his past life. . " If necessary I shall relate my history to Lord Lelanro," said he decisively, " and it is very probable that, as I have unwittingly become possessed of his secret, I shall place myself unreservedly in his hands. But till then. Dr. Pryce, I prefer to keep my own counsel." There was so much quiet determination in this reply, that Pryce could not but admire the good sense of the young man. Notwithstanding Warwick's assertion of his humble birth, the doctor could not believe that one so refined in looks and manner could come of other than gentle blood. Moreover, in their frequent conversations, Warwick showed himself to be a well-educated man; and in g, moment of negligence let slip the information that he had been at a prominent public school. As wandering fiddlers do not as a rule attend such high scholastic establishments, the good doctor settled in his own mind that Warwick was a youth of good family who had run away from home, and feared to tell his tale lest he might be reclaimed by his parents. Tet as he confessed to twenty-two years of age, and was therefore beyond tutelage, this was hardly a satis- factory explanation. Nevertheless, in default of a better it was accepted silently by Dr. Pryce. Warwick found his life at the Manor fairly pleasant. The domain of the dwarfs was shut off from the rest of the house, and beyond the barrier so placed he was not per- mitted to go. The high wall along the river completely excluded strangers on that side, and heavy doors, stoutly barred, kept out prying servants from the interior of the mansion. Madam Tot, as she was usually called, had a suite of tiny apartments furnished commensurate to her 42 THE dwarf's chamber size ; but the rest of the wing appertaining to the enclosed dwelling was arranged for the accommodation of grown-up people. To Warwick was assigned a comfortable chamber, and he passed most of his time in the study of Dr. Pryoe, or in the garden, with Madam Tot for company. That garden amused and delighted Warwick. It was three acres in extent, and sloped gently from the house to the huge wall which overhung the river. Everything that art could do, was done to make it a pleasant domain ; but all was on a dwarfish scale, in keeping with the tiny stature of the manikin. There were stunted trees of no great size, many low shrubs, and wide spaces of lawn, interspersed with brilliant flower-beds. Statues of white marble, fashioned like tiny dolls, stood on low pedestals. A miniature Venus smiled beside a shallow pool, a dwarfish Bacchus grasped an infinitesimal bunch of grapes, a pigmy Apollo bent a childish bow, and Hebe, less in stature than Madam Tot herself, proffered a doll's cup from her pedestal. The efforts of the designer of this miniature paradise had been directed towards a complete reduction of everything to a size in keeping with the tiny personality of the dwarf. Flowers, shrubs, trees, statues, summer-house, all were ideally small, and the high walls surrounding this pigmy paradise looked inconceivably high in comparison with the domain they enclosed. So rare a spectacle afforded Warwick no little pleasure. " Decidedly, I am in the kingdom of LiUiput," said he, on the first glimpse of this garden; "it is not given to every one to be a Gulliver of the nineteenth century. Swift's fantasy has come true in my case." THE dwakjf's chamber 43 CHAPTER VI UABAM TOT AND HER FRIENDS WHEN Warwick learned from Dr. Pryce that Lord Lelanro, informed of his unexpected discovery of the family secret, was coming over from Paris for the express purpose of an interview, he received the news with much satisfaction. Pleasant and novel as was his position, he scarcely relished the idea of an indefinite captivity ; and, habituated by custom to constant wandering, to seeing fresh faces and new neighbourhoods, he chafed at the narrow limits of his present dwelling. He trusted that an explanation, and a promise of secrecy to Lord Lelanro, would secure his freedom; and then he could resume his journey to London. In the meantime, being somewhat of a philosopher, he made the best of his anomalous position, and by so doing he gained the goodwill of those into whose company he had been thrown by Fate. In such adaptability lies the true secret of happiness. The dwarfish lady in particular had taken a violent liking to Warwick ; and, in confidence, informed him that he was the handsomest man of her acquaintance. As this was limited to three elderly men, none of whom were remark- able for good looks, the compliment was rather pointless ; for Warwick was more attractive than Simon the guardian, Dr. Pryce the medical attendant, or Lord Lelanro, who was even older than his unfortunate sister. These three with Mrs. Vard, a prim antiquated dame who acted as personal attendant and nurse, formed the little world of Madam Tot. In all her sixty years she had seen no other faces, save those of two people who, having died, had been replaced by Simon and Pryce. It is then scarcely to be wondered at that the handsome looks of an engaging 44 THE dwarf's chamber youth like Warwick awakened the femininity of the little creature. Moreover, her visitor possessed accomplishments which ravished the soul of Madam Tot. He played the violin, which had been sought for and restored to its owner by the redoubtable Blunderbore; he told the most delightful stories, and he could set the poetry — which the dwarf was constantly writing — to beautiful music. Nature, which had denied the ordinary physical advantages of humanity to this being, had gifted her with the soul of a poet, and she had a wonderful facility for stringing verses on such trivial events as varied the monotony of her existence. Sometimes Warwick would suggest a theme, such as " The Faeries," or "The Stream," and accompany her on his violin, while Madam Tot would improvise verses thereon, and, excited by music and inspiration, deliver them with the dramatic fury of a diminutive Rachel. But she required many fatiguing compliments at the conclusion of these displays, for she had a childish vanity sufficient to fit out a dozen full-grown human beings. She took it into her whimsical brain one morning that Warwick had not seen all the glories of her dwelling, and so sought him in Dr. Pryce's library for the purpose of showing him round the house. The young man, who had become very friendly with the old one, was discussing the laws of heredity in relation to the Lelanro dwarfs, a subject on which Pryce was enthusiastic, and being in the full tide of argument, he was unwilling to humour the whim of the little creature. Madam Tot saw this hesitation, and, a common occurrence with her, became fractious. " What, Mr. Warwick ! " she cried, with the shrill voice she affected when angered. " Am I to be disobeyed in my own house, by my own servants — by my own guest ? " « My dear Madam Tot, I " "Not that name, I beg, sir. I am Miss Lelanro at present." THE dwarf's chamber 45 This hinted that "Warwick was out of favour, for only when she stood on her dignity did the little lady insist on her rightful appellation. She paused before them, tapping her ebony crutch on the oaken floor like an enraged faery godmother ; and Dr. Pryce, who was fearful of the effect of such uncontrolled passions on her delicate frame, nodded to Warwick that he should accept the invitation ; a hint which he reluctantly accepted. "Mr. Warwick will go with you. Miss Lelanro," said Pryce in a soothing tone; "we can finish our argument another time." " You shall finish it, sir, when I so choose," replied the angered faery. "I wonder you are not afraid to offend me. Kemember, I am a changeling, and if I would, could punish you very severely. There are certain friends of mine," finished she significantly, "who do what I ask them. It is as well, doctor, not to offend the good neighbours.'' Pryce did not dare to smile at this fantastic speech, but, to soothe her injured dignity, he asked pardon, which was granted after some sulking. Then the doctor returned to his books, and Madam Tot, with great dignity, sailed out of the room, with "Warwick after her, like a mighty three- decker in the wake of a tug-boat. He could not forbear a quiet smile at their contrast of bulk and stature. Delighted at gaining her ends, for she was very human in many ways, the little creatiu'e chatted pleasantly, and made herself thoroughly agreeable, a thing which she did not always choose to do. Her moods were various, and succeeded one another with inconsequent rapidity. Some- times she would be a smiling angel, at others, sulk and pout like a naughty child ; and not unfrequently she gave way to causeless passions of tears. This whimsical nature was condoned by those around as part of her affliction ; and every care was taken to let her have her own way when possible. This constant fostering of her failings frequently 46 THE dwarf's chamber brought out the worst of her traits. So provoking could she be, that Warwick oftentimes wondered if after all she might not be kin to Eobin Goodfellow, for she was as tricksy, as wayward, as inconsequent as Oberon's henchman. Yet withal the human side of her character, which she now displayed, was so engaging that the young man eould not but pet her, as he would an irresponsible child. Poor Madam Tot, so fanciful, so changeable, so lovable. "Dr. Pryce is a good creature," said she in a patronizing tone when they left the library, " but rather odd — rather odd. He holds views of which I by no means approve. You might not think it, Mr. Warwick, but he disbelieves in ghosts, faeries, witches, and goblins. Quite a sceptic, my dear, quite." "Has he been here long. Madam Tofi" " Twenty years, more or less. I had Dr. Gulder for a medieal attendant before him. But Gulder died, and Pryce came. I wasn't sorry, my dear, for Gulder was a dreadful ogre. Oh, yes, I have reason to believe," said the little woman mysteriously, " that Gulder was descended from the giant who figures in the tale of Hop-o'-my-Thumb. H'm ! yes. An ogre, Mr. Warwick." , By this time they had arrived at an ordinary-sized door, terminatiag a narrow passage, and Madam Tot pointed upward to the handle. "Open it, please. I cannot reach so high. You are now about to see my ancestors. Not the grown-up ones, but the little people such as I am. My portrait has lately been added to the collection. Pryce, who is no mean artist, has reproduced my delicate looks in a masterly manner." It was the strangest picture gallery which Warwick had ever beheld. Of no great extent or height, nevertheless large enough for him to walk thereunder at ease, it was roofed with glass, and on either side were five portraits, life-size, of the Lelanro dwarfs. The whole ten representa- THE DWABP'S CHAMBEB 47 tions resembled Madam Tot in a marked degree; and it seemed as though Nature, in transmitting delicate body and diminutive stature, had also impressed on each suc- ceeding generation the features of the former. In trunk hose, in farthingales, in wigs and hoops, powder and patches, brocaded coats, and red-heeled shoes, the dwarfs, male and female, were habited in the costumes of their various epochs, and all smiled weird and uncanny-looking out of their several frames. Yet not one was deformed, not one was ungraceful ; instead of a gallery of dwarfs it might have been a series of the delicate beings feigned to haunt stream, and wood, and hiU. Madam Tot ran her cane along the pictures, and rattled o£E the names and histories of her ancestors with great delight. It was noticeable that she termed none of them dwarfs, but characterized them by the suave term of " little people." "Andrew Lelanro, the son of Sir James who stole the goblet. He was the first of the little people, and here is his sister Margaret, who was quite a beauty. Malcolm, on the left, was a Jacobite, and would have fought for the exiled House of Stewart had he been tall enough. Of course you know," said Madam Tot, breaking off, "that we have always been famous for our devotion to that unfortunate family." "Yes. I have heard how your ancestor obtained his estates and name," replied Warwick gravely. " Be Leal and How," said Madam Tot, with great satis- faction. " Lelanro I I am proud of belonging to so loyal, to so great a house." Warwick looked sympathetically at the little woman, and wondered if she felt the indignity of her dwarfish stature, which was the penalty of her greatness ; but he was soon corrected, on that point. Apparently such an idea had never entered her mind, and she regarded her unique personality as an honour rather than as a misfortune. 48 THE dwarf's chamber The inefEable pride with which she talked of this dwarf and the other would have been amusing, had it not been, to Warwick's mind, so pitiful. It reminded him of the fable of the fox who lost his taU, for Madam Tot, not being as tall and bulky as the rest of the human race, affected to despise such as overgrown monsters, and lauded her own deUcaoy and diminutiveness. In the most conscientious manner she repeated the history of each portrait, and finally came to her own, before which she smirked and smiled with overweening pride. " You see I am painted in my favourite green colour," said she, simpering ; " it is the livery of the good neighbours. You must notice, Mr. Warwick, that I stand in the centre of a faery ring on a mushroom-spotted sward, in allusion to my kinship with faery powers. By the way, there is a Ring of Elves in the garden, Mr. Warwick," she added, following her last thought with noticeable fligbtiness. " Come and let us seek it. Often have I seen them dance there in the cold moonshine." It was characteristic of the dwarf that she rarely followed a train of thought for many moments, but let her actions be guided by the last idea which entered her capricious mind. The suggestion of the faery ring delineated in the picture withdrew her thoughts from further leading War- wick through the house ; therefore, in pursuance of her last whim, he found himself in the garden. Here he looked down from his five feet odd on a miniature forest of shrubs and low bushes, amid which moved the little lady, chattering shrilly as was her custom when excited. " Yonder," said she, pointing with her staff, " is the ring of the good neighbours. Pryce — a sceptic, my dear — says it is but a discoloration of the grass ; but I know better. He has no rowan-tree twig by which to see things as they are ; but I, akin to the people of peace, have a clearer vision, and I can see that here my kinsfolk hold their solemnities," ' Skipped round it iu emulation of the faei-i< THE dwarf's chamber 51 With this speech, made in all good faith, she showed Warwick a circular patch at the side of the lawn ; and skipped round it in emulation of the faeries till she was out of breath. "I am old now, my dear," she said pathetically, "and cannot dance as I used to. But a little time and the little people will carry me back to faeryland, where I shall see a great deal of company. I should like to take you with me, Mr. Warwick." " What, Madam Tot, would you lead me captive thither like a second True Thomas t " But the dwarf's attention was already distracted by the sight of the gardener, who advanced towards them, tower- ing over Warwick as much as the youth did over Madam Tot. Simon was a good-natured, stupid sort of creature, greatly given to grumbling, as, despite the high wage he received, he did not care about being penned up in the Manor House. His mistress saluted him with much vivacity, complimented him on his restoration of her summer-house, and then related his history to Warwick, ■with as much impertinence as though he were not present. " Simon is a good creature," she said, digging at the legs of the huge man with her cane, " but very stupid, very dull, like all giants. My brother saw him at a fair, where he earned his living in a caravan, and thinking he was tall enough to protect me, hired him as a guardian to my domain. I call him Blunderbore because he is so great an oaf. Here he gets good food, a good bed, he has a kind mistress, and his beer, yet he wants to go out into the wide world." " There's ne'er a lass here,'' growled the giant sulkily. " There, you see," snapped Madam Tot, prodding him with fresh vigour, " this Polyphemus is in love ; he wants a wife. Indeed, no, Blunderbore. I'm not going to let you marry, and people my garden with mountains of flesh ; noisy children who would crush my flowers. Get along 62 THK dwarf's chamber with you. If you want to talk to some one, there's Mrs. Yard." Blunderbore growled out something to the effect that Mrs. Vard was an old hag, then moved away to attend to his work ; while Madam Tot, seizing her last idea, was all on the alert to see Mrs. Vard, and, followed by Warwick, she skipped up the path like a restless doU. At the door of the house they were met by the nurse, a motherly old creature, with a kind, withered face, and white hair. Immediately the dwarf rambled into a history of this last of the beings who populated her world. " My nurse, Mrs. Vard, is eighty years of age, Mr. War- wick. She was with me when I was bom, and has been by my side ever since. I am only sixty, quite a child beside her. I'm afraid she'll die soon," cried the dwarf, bursting into tears, " and then I shall be all alone." " Don't cry, my dear little one," said Mrs. Vard, picking her up as she would a child, " I'll last a long time yet." " TiU I go back to faeryland, then," sobbed Madam Tot, who always spoke of her death in this ambiguous fashion, " but not before — ^not before. Who would put me to bed, and sing me songs, and teU. me stories, but you. Moggy Vard ? I want no one but you. I am extremely attached to you, dear. Send that person away." This allusion was to Warwick, who, thus ungratefully dismissed, returned to the library, and left the dwarf to recover her smiles in the arms of the faithful Moggy. CHAPTER Vn A STEANGB STOET IT was with a certain feeling of uneasiness that Warwick looked forward to the arrival of Lord Lelanro, for he was well aware that his presence at the Manor House laid THE dwarf's chamber 53 him open to disagreeable suspicion and weighty reproof. Though It was true that the immediate cause of his intrusion was , accidental, yet it was difficult to explain how he had come to be in the vicinity of wall and stream, without con- fessing to an undignified curiosity. The path by the river led to no destination, and was far from the high-road, so Warwick could not account for his presence in the Lelanro lands on the pretest that he was pursuing his journey to London. If, therefore, as he expected, although on no reasonable grounds. Lord Lelanro proved to be a severe man, he would be likely to read this trespasser a sharp lecture, such as his pride could ill brook. Fortunately Warwick was now fairly intimate with the good doctor, and, as this latter was likely to know the idio- syncrasies of his master, the young man resolved to consult him as to the best course to adopt. Hitherto he had not made a confidant of Pryce, owing to a certain amount of inherent reserve ; but in this instance he broke through his natural distaste for talking of himself to a stranger, and related as much of his past as he thought fit ; reserving the pith of the matter for the ear of Lelanro. As usual, Pryce was in his study, an apartment of no very great extent, lined on all four sides with well-bound books. The roof was domed, and divided by narrow win- dows of stained glass, so that the daylight filtering through created a dim twilight, fitted for the monastic quiet of the place. An oriel window, emblazoned with family escut- cheons, overlooked the domain of Madam Tot ; and where the bookshelves ceased, the walls were draped with antique tapestry, woven with the loves of gods and goddesses. This apartment was luxuriously furnished, yet the tints of draperies and carpets and cushions were so subdued, and the atmosphere was so tenebrous, that the tone of the whole was such as to chill a stranger at the outset. A magician's cave, an anchorite's cell could not have inspired a greater spirit of discomfort. 54 THE dwarf's chamber To Warwick the study was not without a quiet charm of its own, for his imagination found food for dreams and fancies in the sober brown atmosphere. And oftentimes when disposed to reflection, he would ensconce himself in the oriel depths with a tome of ancient learning at his elbow. But again a revulsion of feeling, a longing for wet wind and breezy down, and the memory of warm sunlight asleep on purple uplands, would send him out . into the garden, there to fret at the narrow confines of his prison house. Then he would betake himself to his violin, and express this nostalgia of the wilds in capricious strains; passionate with longing and impatient desire. The passing of these fits of Nature-worship always sent him back to books and dreams. "I hear," said he, lajdng down his violin on the oriel seat, " that Miss Lelanro expects her brother to-morrow." " He win be here at noon," replied Dr. Pryce, raising his eyes ; " and, I have no doubt, he will at once listen to your explanation." " Is he a severe man, doctor ? " " He looks so, Mr. "Warwick, but at heart he is exceed- ingly kind. I had not been here else." " You are a protige of his % " "Ay, lad," responded the student with a sad smile j " born to a life of strife and temptation, with a nature that could ill withstand such things, I was fast being sucked into the vortex of destruction when Lelanro stretched out his hand and drew me to this safe refuge." "It was good of him to do so. You have been here many years i " " Over twenty, sir. When Dr. Gulder died it was neces- sary that another medical attendant should be obtained for the unfortunate little creature, and I was chosen. Here I have been since, and here I hope to die." " Do you not find it dull ? " " Ah, youth ! youth ! youth ! " sighed Pryce, shaking his THE DWAEP'S CHAMBER 55 grey head, " how well I know what you feel. To your two- and-twenty years, Mr. Warwick, this quiet seems dull, this house appears a prison. I never thought so myself. The iron of the world had entered deeply into my heart before I sought refuge here, and I was willing to give up riches, ambition, love, friends, everything for the sake of peace. Some day you will feel as L" "I trust not," replied Warwick, with a flush. " Move- ment and freedom are to me the breath of life. I Kke this quiet on occasions, but there are other times when I long for my former wandering life ; to tramp across limitless moors, to listen to the waves breaking on rocky shores, to sleep in the moonlight to the lullaby of the nightingale. That is life — here existence is akin to death." " You have travelled much 1 " " For the last few years, yes," answered the youth care- lessly ; " and as poverty has made me acquainted with the rough side of the world, I have profited by its teaching." "You are indeed older than your years, Warwick. I have met with no lad at once so judicious and thoughtfuL" " Yet I was neither, to plant myself on the hither side of the stream, and meddle with matters which concerned me not." " The natural curiosity of youth," responded Pryce com- posedly ; " tell my lord the truth, and I do not think you will find him over severe." "He is old, is he not 1" " Ay ! He bears the weight of eighty years. A wise and renowned gentleman, sir, one who has lived in cities and courts ; who has borne his part in the councils of kings and in the wars of the nations. Such a one, Mr. Warwick, is not likely to judge hastily of your youthful folly." " I hope not," said Warwick, slightly reddening ; " and when he hears my story I trust he will find even more excuse. You know," added he after a reflective pause, " that I came advisedly to Dalesford." 56 THE dwarf's chamber " Indeed. It is an out-of-the-way village, certainly." " I seek in London a man called Ballard," resumed War- wick, paying no attention to the remark, "and as I have reason to believe he comes from this hamlet, I thought it advisable to see the place for myself on my way to town. By taking a slight detour I managed to strike it, and, to my surprise, I slept at an inn kept by a landlady of the same name." " That win be Mistress Sally. Did you remark oti the coincidence 1 " said the doctor, a trifle embarrassed. " No. To tell you the truth, I did not think of it until I had left the inn, and was fiddling under the Manor wall. I intended to have returned and questioned Mistress Sally, but that Fate interposed and placed me within these walls." " Would it be an impertinence on my part to ask your reason for seeking Ballard i " Warwick hesitated, and drummed fretfully on the table with his fingers, an anxious look clouding his brow. At length he made up his mind to answer in the afimnative. " I seek him as one who knows my birth and " "And parentage," finished Pryce, seeing him hesitate " No. I am aware of my parentage. There is no need to mention that now. When I tell all to Lord Lelanro I will include you as a listener. My father did not know whence he sprang, but he believed firmly that this man Ballard was possessed of such knowledge. Therefore I wish to find him, and if possible to learn the truth." " You have no clue to your birth ? " " Only this." Warwick placed before the student the paper inscribed with his name and the date of his father's birth. " Ton see, doctor, that bears the name ' Algernon ' and the date ' 24 December, 1857.' The name is that of my father, and the date presumably that of his birth — though. THE dwarf's chamber 57 indeed, I have my doubts as to the latter being correct. Herein, said my father before he died, is concealed the mystery of our race and station." " A name, a date," said Pryce, examining this scanty clue. " I can make nothing of it. Wherever did your father obtain it t " " I cannot tell you that, for I don't know." " H'm ! It is a slight guide for so great a matter. You have tried to unravel it i " " Hundreds of times ; but always without success." " You should give it to Madam Tot," said Pryce, smiling, " she is passionately devoted to charades, and riddles, and cryptograms. She, if any one, will discover the solution of this. To my mind the junction of letters, and figures, hints at a cryptogram ; that is," added the student pedantically, " a secret writing wherein the letters are purposely thrown into confusion in order to conceal a secret." " I have thought so myself," replied Warwick, restoring the paper to his pocket-book ; " but it cannot be so, for, as you can see for yourself, there is no confusion. Date and name are both intelligible enough, I think." " Very true, Mr. Warwick," answered Pryce, drawing his brows together. "Nevertheless in anagrams, for in- stance, a readable and intelligent sentence can be composed by transposing the letters of a name. In this case it is not impossible that, by placing the letters of the name Algernon in a certain order, another name may be evolved — possibly that of the family to which you belong. However, I am no adept in such literary mysteries. Madam Tot is more likely to unriddle the puzzle than I." " Good ! I shall put Madam Tot's capabilities to the test. Native often puts great wits in little heads. And now. Dr. Pryce,'' added Warwick hurriedly, " I have told you so much of my story as suf&ces for the present. In return let me hear of the Lelanro family, and especially of the head of the house, so that I may know how I stand. 58 THE dwarf's chambee You say that Lord Lelanro is eighty years of age, and that he is lenient in his judgments. What more ? " " He has a grand-daughter." " So said Mistress Sally, who showed me her portrait. A very charming young lady, with rather a sad expression." " Ah 1 " sighed Pryce, shaking his head. " Can you wonder that she is sad, knowing what we know of Madam Tot?" " Frankly speaking, I do wonder. There is nothing re- pulsive about the dwarfish lady that should make her relations shudder. And to speak frankly, doctor," con- tinued Warwick decisively, " I see no need to shut up the little creature as though she were a monstrosity." " The Lelanros do not like to own that they have such a freak in their family. They are very proud, Mr. Warwick." " And very cruel ! I think it is foolish to be sad on account of the pigmy, and to imprison her." " Every one has his own way of looking at things," re- sponded the doctor dryly, "and the Lelanros think these monstrous births a great infliction. Each member of the family is told of the secret when he or she reaches the age of twenty, and as Miss Celia was informed of it this year, naturally she thinks a great deal about the matter." " And looks sad on that account. Strange that a sen- sible human being should be so foolish." " You do not seem to feel any repulsion at the sight of a dwarf." " No. Why should 11" answered Warwick frankly. " Madam Tot is beautifully formed, and is a most engaging little creature. Moreover, I have seen But there," he added abruptly, " you will hear my principal reason later on. What more of the Lelanro family ? Mistress Sally tells me that when the present lord dies his estates and title go to a distant relative." "True enough, Mr. Warwick. The direct line ends with my patron. He had a son, si. fine young man, who was THE dwarf's chamber 59 killed in the hunting field many years ago. His widow after- wards gave birth to a posthumous child — to Miss Celia, and died also. Lord Lelanro was much affected at the death of his heir, and he was greatly grieved when the child proved to be a girl, knowing thereby that the title would pass to his distant relation." " "Why did he not marry again ? " " Ah, that I can't tell you ! " answered Pryoe dubiously ; " but no doubt he has a reason for continuing a widower." " Had he no other children but the son who died ? " The doctor looked oddly at Warwick as he asked this question, and did not answer for some few moments. When he did so it was in an evasive manner, which was in direct contrast to his ordinarily straightforward speech. " There may have been others, Mr. Warwick ; but if so they died." " H'm ! I wonder if there were any dwarfs ? " muttered the young man to himself. Pryce rose from his chair with a frown, and swung off sharply towards the window. Seeing that he was unwilling to speak further on the subject, Warwick forbore to make any comment on this silence ; but nevertheless he reflected that here was another secret connected with this strange family. An odd idea had entered his brain, to which he hardly dared to give credence, yet there it stayed, and there it ripened to fruition many weeks later. The germ was planted that day in the study, when Pryce so awkwardly evaded a plain answer to a plain question. " Mr. Warwick," said the doctor, coming towards him with the violin, " now that we have had our talk, play me a tune on this. If all other means fail to propitiate my lord, fiddle yourself into his good graces, for he is as fond of music as is his poor little sister yonder." Warwick mechanically placed the instrument under his chin, and grasped the bow as he moved towards the open window. A breath of scented air, borne over the wall 60 THE dwarf's chamber from the distant country, floated into the room, and carried ■with it that imperative longing for fragrant meadows and dimpling streams which seized him at times. Filled with this nostalgia of the woods, he drew the how across the strings, and forthwith there leaped out a silvery strain telling of his rustic desires. The flutter of butterflies, the piping of birds at dawn, the dew-sprinkled meads, blent themselves in that pure melody. Carried away by the music rippling from the violin, Warwick closed his eyes, and let his soul float in pursuit of homely dreams ; the clink of the milk- pails, the blithe song of the home-coming peasant, swaths lying yellow in the hot harvest sun; again he felt the odour of mown hay in his nostrils, he heard the drowsy hum of the mill-wheel, and listened to the gurgle of the water amid the rustling reeds. Ah ! it was a peaceful and beautiful dream transmuted into sound. A rapid patter of little feet, and Madam Tot, attracted from afar by the music, trotted into the room. In silence she looked up at the musician with a serious face, and in his turn he opened his eyes, to find the little creature at his knee. To please her he tuned a merry country dance fit for blowsy wench and stalwart haymaker; but such rusticity did not please the ethereal soul of the changeling. With a frown she lifted a tiny hand. " No yokel dance for me," she cried impulsively. " I want neither rustic strain nor harvest revelry. Think of the little people in the moonshine, who whirl in wavering circles round and round. The owls hoot, the wind rustles the leaves, and the faeries clad in green hold high solemnity. Play for the elves; no rustic round for the peaceful neighbours.'' Wherewith Warwick drew from his instrument a strain so fantastically beautiful that she uttered a cry of surprise, and as the wild music waxed louder and more elfish under the sweeping bow, she picked up her green skirts and footed it merrily. With bound and whirl she spun in THE DWAKF'S chamber 61 the suiJight, and still the strains echoed through the room. " My dear," cried she, sinking exhausted to the floor, " you must play in the moonshine. Were I queen of the elves you should be my music-maker." CHAPTER VIII THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY RATHER to his surprise "Warwick was not at once ac- corded an interview by Lord Lelanro, as he had anti- cipated. On the contrary a whole day elapsed before they came together; and during that time the old gentleman questioned both his sister and Pryce as to the personality and behaviour of the stranger. From each he received an enthusiastic report, which prepossessed him in Warwick's favour ; and therefore he maintained a difierent attitude during the interview, to that which he would.have assumed had the young man been uncouth and uncultured. In place of regretting this unexpected arrival, Lelanro, who had a use for the youth, rather congratulated himself on the trick of Fate. Moreover, the descriptions severally given by Madam Tot and the doctor interested him in no small degree ; for he found it difficult to reconcile the statement that Warwick was a gentleman, and a public school boy, with the damning fact that he tramped the country as an itinerant musician. On the instant this ex-ambassador espied a mystery ; and it was therefore with no little curiosity that he repaired after dinner to the study of Dr. Pryce for the purpose of conversing with his guest. In reality Warwick regarded himself as a prisoner, which opinion would have consider- ably surprised the courteous old lord had he known of it ; for notwithstanding the abrupt entrance and lowly pro- 62 THE dwarf's chambee fession of the youth, the mere fact that two such excellent judges as Madam Tot and Pryce considered him to be of gentle birth, predisposed Lelanro to regard him in the light of a guest. Warwick, still in his poor clothes — for, with the excep- tion of clean linen, he had been unable to procure other garments — arose from his seat as Lord Lelanro approached. He beheld a slender and stately old gentleman, carefuUy arrayed in evening dress, and from his air of command he instinctively guessed the identity of the new-comer. Not- withstanding the sore biu-den of eighty years, Lelanro's form was not bent, nor was the fire in his blue eyes dimmed to any appreciable extent. Although his crown was bald, yet there was a goodly circle of white locks round his head ; he wore a moustache jauntily pointed on the upper lip, an imperial on the chin ; both of these were snow-white, and in conjunction with his clear skin, seamed with myriad wrinkles, fine as though drawn by a needle, gave him an air of great distinction. Once Warwick remembered to have seen a portrait of Charles Stewart, and here he beheld the semblance of him in the flesh ; nor, to complete the likeness, was wanting the melancholy look that characterized those of that royal and unfortunate House. Scandal hinted at a strain of Stewart blood in the veins of the Lelanros, and certainly the appearance of the present holder of the title went far to confirm the assertion. Ever courteous, and now the more so as his guest was poor and unknown. Lord Lelanro bowed in recognition of Warwick's respectful greeting, and motioned him to resume his seat. A few moments previously Dr. Pryce had left the study, so that the two were absolutely alone, and being seated by the table on which stood a shaded lamp, Lelanro took advantage of the opportunity to read the face of his guest. With a turn of his hand he so placed the shade that while he remained in shadow the countenance of the young man was in the glare. Thus prepared to note if the facial ex- THE DWARF S CHAMBER 63 pression confirmed what the lips uttered, Lelanro proceeded to open the conversation. Hitherto respect had sealed the lips of his younger companion. " Arose from his seat as Lord Lelanro approached.* "Dr. Pryce informs me that your name is Algernon Warwick," said the elder gentleman in a mellow voice, "Yes, my lord." " And you entered my house by accident." 64 THE dwarf's chamber " My lord, it was accidental in one way, but not in another," said Warwick, determined to conceal nothing. " But that my foolish curiosity drew me to view the wall on the river's brink, I had not fallen in; and but for such immersion, which in itself was an accident, I had not scaled the wall, and so surprised your secret." "I am glad to see that you speak frankly," replied Lelanro, favourably impressed by this candid admission. " And may I ask what first roused your curiosity about my house ? " " The wall itself, my lord. I was coming to Dalesford along the high-road, and weary with tramping on the hard stones, I took advantage of a bend in the highway to walk across the fields. By so doing I shortened my journey, and soothed my sore feet. In taking this short cut I passed by your house, and I was much astonished at the massive wall which fronted the river." " You speak excellently, sir," said the old lord approv- ingly, " and I note you recognize the value of our English tongue. Proceed." " I stayed for the night at the ' Lelanro Arms,' my lord, and there I heard some talk of your lordship's family." " Indeed ! Mistress Sally lets her tongue run freely, then." " By no means, my lord," replied Warwick, distressed at the idea of inculpating the friendly landlady ; " she said nothing." " But looked a great deal." " My lord, though young in years, experience has taught me how to read faces. I do not say that she looked in any pointed fashion ; but I noted her embarrassment when I mentioned the wall, and so my curiosity was revived con- cerning the purpose for which it- was built." Lelanro looked vexed, and eyed the young man keenly, for although these frank confessions disarmed his anger, he was nevertheless ill pleased at the perspicuity of the youth. THE dwarf's chamber 65 "I am glad all men are not so gifted," said he after a pause, " else words -would be of no value to hide thought, for oftentimes fac New Library Edition of xb^ Henry Kingsley's Novels. Edited by Clement K. Shorter. Well printed on good paper, from type specially cast. Neatly and handsomely bound. Illustrated by eminent artists. Cloth gilt, 3s. 6d, per volume. Press Opinions. "To Mt. Clement Shorter and to the publishers the unreserved thanks of ths public are warmly due. 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