Desperate Remedies
and grove which flanked it abruptly terminated a few yards ahead, where
the ground began to rise, and on the remote edge of the greensward thus
laid open, stood all that remained of the original manor-house, to which
the dark margin-line of the trees in the avenue formed an adequate
and well-fitting frame. It was the picture thus presented that was
now interesting Miss Aldclyffe--not artistically or historically,
but practically--as regarded its fitness for adaptation to modern
requirements.
In front, detached from everything else, rose the most ancient portion
of the structure--an old arched gateway, flanked by the bases of two
small towers, and nearly covered with creepers, which had clambered
over the eaves of the sinking roof, and up the gable to the crest of the
Aldclyffe family perched on the apex. Behind this, at a distance of ten
or twenty yards, came the only portion of the main building that still
existed--an Elizabethan fragment, consisting of as much as could be
contained under three gables and a cross roof behind. Against the wall
could be seen ragged lines indicating the form of other destroyed gables
which had once joined it there. The mullioned and transomed windows,
containing five or six lights, were mostly bricked up to the extent
of two or three, and the remaining portion fitted with cottage
window-frames carelessly inserted, to suit the purpose to which the
old place was now applied, it being partitioned out into small rooms
downstairs to form cottages for two labourers and their families; the
upper portion was arranged as a storehouse for divers kinds of roots and
fruit.
The owner of the picturesque spot, after her survey from this
point, went up to the walls and walked into the old court, where the
paving-stones were pushed sideways and upwards by the thrust of the
grasses between them. Two or three little children, with their fingers
in their mouths, came out to look at her, and then ran in to tell their
mothers in loud tones of secrecy that Miss Aldclyffe was coming. Miss
Aldclyffe, however, did not come in. She concluded her survey of the
exterior by making a complete circuit of the building; then turned into
a nook a short distance off where round and square timber, a saw-pit,
planks, grindstones, heaps of building stone and brick, explained that
the spot was the centre of operations for the building work done on the
estate.
She paused, and looked around. A man who had seen her from the window of
the workshops behind, came out and respectfully lifted his hat to her.
It was the first time she had been seen walking outside the house since
her father’s death.
‘Strooden, could the Old House be made a decent residence of, without
much trouble?’ she inquired.
The mechanic considered, and spoke as each consideration completed
itself.
‘You don’t forget, ma’am, that two-thirds of the place is already pulled
down, or gone to ruin?’
‘Yes; I know.’
‘And that what’s left may almost as well be, ma’am.’
‘Why may it?’
‘’Twas so cut up inside when they made it into cottages, that the whole
carcase is full of cracks.’
‘Still by pulling down the inserted partitions, and adding a little
outside, it could be made to answer the purpose of an ordinary six or
eight-roomed house?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘About what would it cost?’ was the question which had invariably come
next in every communication of this kind to which the superintending
workman had been a party during his whole experience. To his surprise,
Miss Aldclyffe did not put it. The man thought her object in altering an
old house must have been an unusually absorbing one not to prompt what
was so instinctive in owners as hardly to require any prompting at all.
‘Thank you: that’s sufficient, Strooden,’ she said. ‘You will understand
that it is not unlikely some alteration may be made here in a short
time, with reference to the management of the affairs.’
Strooden said ‘Yes,’ in a complex voice, and looked uneasy.
‘During the life of Captain Aldclyffe, with you as the foreman of works,
and he himself as his own steward, everything worked well. But now
it may be necessary to have a steward, whose management will encroach
further upon things which have hitherto been left in your hands than did
your late master’s. What I mean is, that he will directly and in detail
superintend all.’
‘Then--I shall not be wanted, ma’am?’ he faltered.
‘O yes; if you like to stay on as foreman in the yard and workshops
only. I should be sorry to lose you. However, you had better consider. I
will send for you in a few days.’
Leaving him to suspense, and all the ills that came in its
train--distracted application to his duties, and an undefined number
of sleepless nights and untasted dinners, Miss Aldclyffe looked at her
watch and returned to the House. She was about to keep an appointment
with her solicitor, Mr. Nyttleton, who had been to Budmouth, and was
coming to Knapwater on his way back to London.
2. AUGUST THE TWENTIETH
On the Saturday subsequent to Mr. Nyttleton’s visit to Knapwater House,
the subjoined advertisement appeared in the Field and the Builder
newspapers:--
‘LAND STEWARD.
‘A gentleman of integrity and professional skill is required immediately
for the MANAGEMENT of an ESTATE, containing about 1000 acres, upon
which agricultural improvements and the erection of buildings are
contemplated. He must be a man of superior education, unmarried, and not
more than thirty years of age. Considerable preference will be shown
for one who possesses an artistic as well as a practical knowledge of
planning and laying out. The remuneration will consist of a salary of
220 pounds, with the old manor-house as a residence--Address Messrs.
Nyttleton and Tayling, solicitors, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.’
A copy of each paper was sent to Miss Aldclyffe on the day of
publication. The same evening she told Cytherea that she was advertising
for a steward, who would live at the old manor-house, showing her the
papers containing the announcement.
What was the drift of that remark? thought the maiden; or was it merely
made to her in confidential intercourse, as other arrangements were
told her daily. Yet it seemed to have more meaning than common. She
remembered the conversation about architects and surveyors, and her
brother Owen. Miss Aldclyffe knew that his situation was precarious,
that he was well educated and practical, and was applying himself heart
and soul to the details of the profession and all connected with
it. Miss Aldclyffe might be ready to take him if he could compete
successfully with others who would reply. She hazarded a question:
‘Would it be desirable for Owen to answer it?’
‘Not at all,’ said Miss Aldclyffe peremptorily.
A flat answer of this kind had ceased to alarm Cytherea. Miss
Aldclyffe’s blunt mood was not her worst. Cytherea thought of another
man, whose name, in spite of resolves, tears, renunciations and injured
pride, lingered in her ears like an old familiar strain. That man was
qualified for a stewardship under a king.
‘Would it be of any use if Edward Springrove were to answer it?’ she
said, resolutely enunciating the name.
‘None whatever,’ replied Miss Aldclyffe, again in the same decided tone.
‘You are very unkind to speak in that way.’
‘Now don’t pout like a goosie, as you are. I don’t want men like either
of them, for, of course, I must look to the good of the estate rather
than to that of any individual. The man I want must have been more
specially educated. I have told you that we are going to London next
week; it is mostly on this account.’
Cytherea found that she had mistaken the drift of Miss Aldclyffe’s
peculiar explicitness on the subject of advertising, and wrote to tell
her brother that if he saw the notice it would be useless to reply.
3. AUGUST THE TWENTY-FIFTH
Five days after the above-mentioned dialogue took place they went to
London, and, with scarcely a minute’s pause, to the solicitors’ offices
in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
They alighted opposite one of the characteristic entrances about the
place--a gate which was never, and could never be, closed, flanked by
lamp-standards carrying no lamp. Rust was the only active agent to be
seen there at this time of the day and year. The palings along the
front were rusted away at their base to the thinness of wires, and the
successive coats of paint, with which they were overlaid in bygone
days, had been completely undermined by the same insidious canker, which
lifted off the paint in flakes, leaving the raw surface of the iron on
palings, standards, and gate hinges, of a staring blood-red.
But once inside the railings the picture changed. The court and offices
were a complete contrast to the grand ruin of the outwork which enclosed
them. Well-painted respectability extended over, within, and around the
doorstep; and in the carefully swept yard not a particle of dust was
visible.
Mr. Nyttleton, who had just come up from Margate, where he was staying
with his family, was standing at the top of his own staircase as the
pair ascended. He politely took them inside.
‘Is there a comfortable room in which this young lady can sit during our
interview?’ said Miss Aldclyffe.
It was rather a favourite habit of hers to make much of Cytherea when
they were out, and snub her for it afterwards when they got home.
‘Certainly--Mr. Tayling’s.’ Cytherea was shown into an inner room.
Social definitions are all made relatively: an absolute datum is only
imagined. The small gentry about Knapwater seemed unpractised to Miss
Aldclyffe, Miss Aldclyffe herself seemed unpractised to Mr. Nyttleton’s
experienced old eyes.
‘Now then,’ the lady said, when she was alone with the lawyer; ‘what is
the result of our advertisement?’
It was late summer; the estate-agency, building, engineering, and
surveying worlds were dull. There were forty-five replies to the
advertisement.
Mr. Nyttleton spread them one by one before Miss Aldclyffe. ‘You will
probably like to read some of them yourself, madam?’ he said.
‘Yes, certainly,’ said she.
‘I will not trouble you with those which are from persons manifestly
unfit at first sight,’ he continued; and began selecting from the heap
twos and threes which he had marked, collecting others into his hand.
‘The man we want lies among these, if my judgment doesn’t deceive me,
and from them it would be advisable to select a certain number to be
communicated with.’
‘I should like to see every one--only just to glance them over--exactly
as they came,’ she said suasively.
He looked as if he thought this a waste of his time, but dismissing his
sentiment unfolded each singly and laid it before her. As he laid them
out, it struck him that she studied them quite as rapidly as he could
spread them. He slyly glanced up from the outer corner of his eye to
hers, and noticed that all she did was look at the name at the bottom of
the letter, and then put the enclosure aside without further ceremony.
He thought this an odd way of inquiring into the merits of forty-five
men who at considerable trouble gave in detail reasons why they believed
themselves well qualified for a certain post. She came to the final one,
and put it down with the rest.
Then the lady said that in her opinion it would be best to get as many
replies as they possibly could before selecting--‘to give us a wider
choice. What do you think, Mr. Nyttleton?’
It seemed to him, he said, that a greater number than those they already
had would scarcely be necessary, and if they waited for more, there
would be this disadvantage attending it, that some of those they now
could command would possibly not be available.
‘Never mind, we will run that risk,’ said Miss Aldclyffe. ‘Let the