Chapter 2 Village Politics

ONLY a signature! Nothing more, and only occupying two or three moments, but, nevertheless, it roused the scattered population of a certain quiet district in an island thousands of miles away, and caused more eyes to open in amazement, and more heads to be scratched in perplexity, than had been known within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.

The loyalty of England's people, and the stability of her government presented a happy contrast to the restless experiments which agitated all classes in a neighbouring country; the law of primogeniture still upheld the dignity of rank, while constitutional rights secured the liberty of all. Landowners and tenants mutually sympathised for the common welfare, and this exception on one side excited general surprise and indignation.

For there suddenly sprang up, at all points of the doomed estate that skirted a thoroughfare, huge boards, either hung to trees or mounted on poles, bearing large printed advertisements, which also placarded barn doors and wayside gateposts for miles in every direction, while newspapers echoed the eloquent praises of,—

   "All that valuable, desirable, and fertile estate known as the Falcon Range, comprising every charm, indulgence, and delight that human taste, desire, or imagination could conceive or covet. Game for the sportsman, fish for the angler, views for the artist, and traditions for the poet; relics for the antiquary, and specimens for the naturalist."

In fact, an Eden of bliss for the happy purchaser, were he either of these accomplished amateurs, or all in one.

Even the dull wits of the villagers could not avoid connecting these strange advertisements with the appearance of a gentleman in a gig, with his clerk and a blue bag, who drove through the village street without stopping at the Falconer's Arms (as all respectable travellers invariably did), and up the avenue to the Moat House without favouring anyone with an idea of his business there.

It was a dismal day; the wind in the east, and provoking in the extreme that gentlemen with blue bags should presume to excite curiosity without satisfying it, especially when people felt out of sorts and had nothing particular to do.

So when towards evening the great placards began to appear, the cat had jumped out of the blue bag, and an endless theme of wonder and remark was provided.

"TO BE SOLD"

First caught the eyes of Mr. Spadeley, the village clerk and sexton, as he came past the gates of the principal entrance to the park.

He stopped, stared, put on his spectacles, and read carefully again, "To be Sold." Yes, there it was and no mistake.

"Why sure the old master must be mad, and Mr. Geoffry, too," said he to himself. "To be sold, indeed! How can they? How dare they?" And the very spade in his hand seemed to share his indignation as it bounced down upon the road with a cutting remark upon the hardness of the world and its ways.

Still more disgusted was he, as he approached his own peculiar province, to find one of the obnoxious placards stuck upon the churchyard gate without his leave asked or cared for! And an assembly of village urchins spelling out the whole particulars and slowly apprehending their meaning.

"Well," said Mr. Spadeley, clerk and sexton of Falcon Range, before whom the rising generation were not wont to play pranks, but on whose countenance there was something they construed sympathetically just now.—"Well, what do you think about it?" he asked.

"Do it mean selling her house over her head?" asked a sharp-looking lad at his elbow, and pointing towards the Moat.

"Yes, that's what it means, seemingly."

"Then here goes! I say, stand out of my way, will ye?"

And, with sudden inspiration in his legs, the boy clambered up the gate-post, balanced one foot on an iron spike, and tore down the great placard in shreds. The little rabble shouted and jumped about with energy and triumph, and dared some other presumptuous feats before Mr. Spadeley's eyes, while instead of clutching the hero by the hair, as had happened more than once, the sexton only patted him on the shoulder, quietly dropped a halfpenny into his dirty cap, and edged himself out of the noisy demonstration.

The errand of the gentleman in the gig to the lady at the Moat House was not a pleasant one. He knew that he must look very like a deputy tyrant, and she like an innocent victim, and it required a wonderful amount of coolness and self-possession to face the gaze of pained inquiry which met the first unfolding of his mission.

"How lovely she is still," thought Mr. Penacre; "I wish my client had written direct, instead of thrusting his ugly errand upon me."

But, to his credit, he executed it with as much courtesy as it permitted, trying to veil the abominations of pride, malice, and covetousness, beneath professional technicalities, providential circumstances, and naturalization in a foreign land.

But threading her way through the maze and gloss of an eloquent peroration, Mrs. Falconer traced at last the real core of its meaning.

"Then I am to understand," said she calmly, "that the Moat House is to pass into other hands, and is no longer my home, or that of my children?"

"I regret to say that your view of the matter is correct, madam," replied the attorney bowing.

"But my son is presumptive heir, unless Mr. Geoffry Falconer were to have a son," said she thoughtfully.

"Not now, madam. I thought I had explained that the entail is cut off by a deed legally executed by the owner and his heir, old Mr. Falconer and his son Mr. Geoffry. This enables them to sell the estate."

"And is there no charge upon it on my late husband's behalf, sir?" asked the lady. "His father had appropriated a large sum due to him, and now of course due to his widow and children."

"I am instructed to say, madam,—hem!—a—it is difficult to explain these things to ladies unused to business; but my client's idea is this: that having had the benefit of a home at the Moat so long—somewhere about ten years, I think—any debt on the proprietor's part is cancelled by that tenancy, for which no rent has ever been paid. Moreover, the house is greatly dilapidated, and must be sold at a loss in consideration of repairs, which would have been exacted from any other occupant."

The lady seemed to comprehend at last, and her pale face became paler still, as some of the consequences of this cruel act began to loom into view.

"One thing more I have to add," said Mr. Penacre; "that you are at liberty to remove any articles of the family plate which bear Mr. Guy Falconer's initials. The rest will be sold with anything else that the purchaser of the estate may wish to dispense with, and a valuation is to be made immediately—that is, at your convenience, madam."

"Whenever you please," said the widow; "we shall not waste any time in opposition to this unexpected change, for armed with the authority you represent, it would be useless to remonstrate. I had thought, however, that during the life of my father-in-law—"

"Pardon me, madam, for interrupting you, but though the fact was not positively announced by the mail which brought my instructions, I have reason to believe that Mr. Falconer died even before the ship sailed. So that you perceive there is no redress—no hope, I mean, of any alteration of purpose."

"I will give orders that every attention is paid to you here, in the execution of your business, Mr. Penacre. Of course you will remain at the Moat until you have settled everything."

"If it is no intrusion, it would certainly convenience me much, and I shall be grateful for the hospitality."

"And in the meantime you will, I am sure, kindly excuse me."

Whereupon Mr. Penacre rose, and bowed solemnly.

The lady rose also, curtsied, and left the room, no more to re-enter it as the mistress of Moat House. The last item in the information conveyed that day was for a time first in her thoughts. Her husband's father was, probably, no more on earth, and what that fact might involve to him was a matter of trembling apprehension. Probably she would never know more until "the day should declare it." And now, in her worldly circumstances, she seemed at the mercy of one who knew little of sympathy or liberality, who disliked her with the mortified vanity of a selfish unforgiving spirit, because a younger brother had many years before been preferred to himself.