The Vicar's People Part 45

"Mutual admiration," laughed Geoffrey. "I like you, old gentleman, because you do fly out. It's quite refreshing after a lot of disappointments to have some one to quarrel with."

There was another pause.

"I say, Trethick," said the old man, "then Penwynn and Tregenna are hand-and-glove in this job, eh?"

Geoffrey looked at the old man wonderingly, for he was evidently beating about the bush.

"I don't know. There, don't ask me questions, old gentleman," was the reply. "I'm not at liberty to chatter."

There was another silence.

"Madge isn't a bad sort of girl, Trethick," said the old man at last.

"No," said Geoffrey; "she's pretty and amiable, and I believe, poor la.s.sie, she is very good-hearted. I often think you are too hard upon her."

"Hard be hanged, sir! I've been her's and her mother's support these ten years."

"Very likely," said Geoffrey, dryly; "but a dog doesn't like his crusts and bones any the better for having them thrown at him."

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old man, thoughtfully. "Well, perhaps I am a little hard upon her sometimes; but she aggravates me. Trethick, you are quite conceited puppy enough, I know, but that girl is fretting about you."

"Ignorance is bliss, sir. I was not aware of it."

"Ignorance is a blister, sir," cried the old man, sharply. "But," he added, more gently, "she is, I tell you. Trethick, she is a nice girl, and you might do worse."

"Stuff, stuff, my dear sir!" cried Geoffrey, laughing. "You are mistaken, and I am not a marrying man. There, I must be off;" and, starting up, he swung off along the path, and away down towards the mine buildings, where steam was now puffing, water falling, and several busy hands were at work.

Uncle Paul watched him thoughtfully as he strode away, and then sat back thinking, as he gazed out to sea.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

BESS PRAWLE'S SECRET.

Time goes by rapidly with the busy. To Geoffrey it went like lightning; to Madge Mullion it hung heavy as lead. When they met, which was seldom now, and he spoke a few kindly, cheery words to her, she looked at him rather piteously, but said little in return.

Once or twice there was a twinge of pain in Geoffrey Trethick's conscience, but he said nothing, only went on with his work busily and well. The water was all out of the mine, and he had carefully examined and reported upon it--a carefully worded report, promising nothing more than a moderate return upon a small capital; and, not satisfied, he persuaded Mr Penwynn to have down an experienced mineralogist to give his opinion.

"Whom would you recommend?" said Mr Penwynn, and Rhoda watched Geoffrey anxiously for his reply.

"No one, Mr Penwynn," said the young man. "Get somebody I don't know-- a reliable man whom you can trust, and don't let me see him."

He happened to turn his eyes upon Rhoda as he spoke, and there was such a bright, eager look in the glance that met his that it made him thoughtful.

"Quite right," said Mr Penwynn, "it would be better;" and the next day Mr Chynoweth was set to write to a mining engineer in town.

That night there was a game of whist at Dr Rumsey's, and Chynoweth and Tregenna were there. Tregenna lost heavily for such play as they had.

Chynoweth was in high delight, and Tregenna and he walked home together.

The next day Mr Tregenna had business in London, and the day following the mining engineer and mineralogist came down, inspected Wheal Carnac, and made his report afterwards to Mr Penwynn, with the result that the banker said nothing to Geoffrey Trethick, only bade him go on, feeling satisfied that his venture was to be a great financial success.

A month later it was known that a new company had bought the mine, and that shares were to be had.

The matter was chatted over at An Morlock, and, as sometimes happened, Geoffrey and Rhoda were left together for a time; their talk being generally of the mine; and when he was gone, Rhoda got into the habit of sitting silent and thoughtful, in judgment upon Geoffrey Trethick's character.

Her line of argument took somewhat this form--she did not know why she should argue out his cause--but somehow she felt compelled to do so.

Scandal had made pretty free with his name, and, in spite of her efforts, Rhoda seemed obliged to hear, through Miss Pavey, all that was said.

And the sayings were these--that Geoffrey Trethick was young and gay; that he had gone so much to Gwennas Cove that old Prawle had threatened his life if he went there again, and that upon one occasion the old man had lain in wait for him with a hammer at Wheal Carnac, only Pengelly was with Trethick and had saved him; then Trethick had promised that he would go to Gwennas no more, and the matter at once ended.

"False on the face of it!" said Rhoda, with spirit. "Geoffrey--Mr Trethick," she said quickly, "told me that he had been twice to see old Mrs Prawle this week, and begged me to go soon."

The next indictment was that Geoffrey had become so intimate with Madge Mullion that old Mr Paul had ordered him to leave the house, and that he was going at once.

This was Miss Pavey's news, and she added that Mr Trethick would have to leave the town unless Mr Penwynn took compa.s.sion upon him.

"Of course, my dear," she had said, maliciously, as she blew her nose in a gentlemanly way as if it were a triumphant note of defiance, "after what we are hearing you have quite cast him off?"

Rhoda looked at the speaker steadily, but made no reply.

But of this charge?

"Well," Rhoda argued, "Madge Mullion is pretty and attractive, and she would probably throw herself open to the attentions of such a man as Geoffrey Trethick. But, if this were true, would Geoffrey behave as he had behaved at An Morlock of late? He seemed to be the soul of honour, and his words always had the ring of truth in them. No: it was one of the Carnac petty scandals; Geoffrey Trethick was no trifler."

There was another long, dreamy time after this, and there were moments when Rhoda felt angry with herself for thinking so much about the man who now came to lay bare his plans, to consult her, so it seemed, when he was asking counsel of her father. And all at once she seemed to awaken to the fact that, by some means, the life of Geoffrey Trethick had become interwoven strangely with her own--that his success was her success, his failures hers; and yet he had spoken no word, given her no look. He was different to any man that she had ever met, and he even annoyed her sometimes by his quiet a.s.sumption of authority as the stronger in thought. For he would ask her advice, and often enough show the fallacy of what she had said.

Then she would think that they were becoming too intimate, and blame her father for encouraging the presence of this stranger; but Mr Penwynn seemed, after a life of immunity, to have taken the mine fever badly, and the thought of Geoffrey Trethick pretending to his daughter's hand never occurred to him.

"No," thought Rhoda, "papa thinks of nothing now but this speculation; and why should he? Geoffrey Trethick has never behaved otherwise than as a visitor working in my father's interest;" and as she said this to herself, a curious feeling of pique arose, but only to be crushed at once.

Finally, Rhoda Penwynn's verdict on Geoffrey Trethick was that he was a gentleman--a man of unstained honour, whom fate had placed in a town full of petty scandal.

The next day Rhoda endorsed her verdict, and it was in this wise.

She granted, as she started, that it was due to Geoffrey's request, for otherwise she might not have gone. As it was, she started in the afternoon to walk over to Gwennas Cove, pa.s.sing along the cliff, and looking somewhat eagerly down towards Wheal Carnac, where figures were moving and shaft smoking, while the great beam of the pumping-engine went steadily on with its toil.

She was half-startled to see how the wreck had been transformed into a busy scene of industry, and, in spite of herself, she felt a glow of pride as she recalled whose hand had brought about the change.

Her face turned hard directly after, as she thought of her father, and of how he had seemed to become inoculated with Geoffrey Trethick's enthusiasm. He did not want for money, and yet he had entered upon this mining speculation--he of all men, who had laughed at the follies of those who embarked upon such ventures. What was to be the end?

She walked on, and soon after reached the spot where Bess Prawle had been driven to bay by the superst.i.tious crowd; and, as the whole scene came back, with Geoffrey's gallant behaviour, and the girl's display of grat.i.tude, Rhoda stopped short, with her eyes contracting, her brow ruffled with emotion, and her lips half parted. For she was startled at the pang of misery that shot through her. The contemptible scandal she had heard forced itself upon her, and she seemed obliged to couple with it the weak wanderings of poor old Mrs Prawle about Geoffrey and her child.

It was horrible! What had she been doing? How had her fancies been straying, she asked herself, as she awakened to the fact that imperceptibly her interest in Geoffrey had grown so warm that the thought of his caring for another caused her misery of the most acute kind.

She shook off the feeling, calling herself weak and childish, and, gathering mental strength with the walk, she at last reached Gwennas Cove.

Old Prawle was busy overhauling a long line, and binding on fresh hooks, a task from which he condescended to raise his eyes, and give the visitor a surly nod as she spoke.