Dracula's Guest
“Are ye afraid of the hazard?”
“Not me!” said Abel, boldly. Mrs. Trefusis, seeing that her idea was
beginning to work, followed up the advantage.
“It is settled that ye put yer money together to make a home for her,
whether ye toss for her or leave it for her to choose?”
“Yes,” said Eric quickly, and Abel agreed with equal sturdiness. Mrs.
Trefusis’ little cunning eyes twinkled. She heard Sarah’s step in the
yard, and said:
“Well! here she comes, and I leave it to her.” And she went out.
During her brief walk on the hillside Sarah had been trying to make up
her mind. She was feeling almost angry with both men for being the
cause of her difficulty, and as she came into the room said shortly:
“I want to have a word with you both—come to the Flagstaff Rock, where
we can be alone.” She took her hat and went out of the house up the
winding path to the steep rock crowned with a high flagstaff, where
once the wreckers’ fire basket used to burn. This was the rock which
formed the northern jaw of the little harbour. There was only room on
the path for two abreast, and it marked the state of things pretty well
when, by a sort of implied arrangement, Sarah went first, and the two
men followed, walking abreast and keeping step. By this time, each
man’s heart was boiling with jealousy. When they came to the top of the
rock, Sarah stood against the flagstaff, and the two young men stood
opposite her. She had chosen her position with knowledge and intention,
for there was no room for anyone to stand beside her. They were all
silent for a while; then Sarah began to laugh and said:—
“I promised the both of you to give you an answer to-day. I’ve been
thinking and thinking and thinking, till I began to get angry with you
both for plaguing me so; and even now I don’t seem any nearer than ever
I was to making up my mind.” Eric said suddenly:
“Let us toss for it, lass!” Sarah showed no indignation whatever at the
proposition; her mother’s eternal suggestion had schooled her to the
acceptance of something of the kind, and her weak nature made it easy
to her to grasp at any way out of the difficulty. She stood with
downcast eyes idly picking at the sleeve of her dress, seeming to have
tacitly acquiesced in the proposal. Both men instinctively realising
this pulled each a coin from his pocket, spun it in the air, and
dropped his other hand over the palm on which it lay. For a few seconds
they remained thus, all silent; then Abel, who was the more thoughtful
of the men, spoke:
“Sarah! is this good?” As he spoke he removed the upper hand from the
coin and placed the latter back in his pocket. Sarah was nettled.
“Good or bad, it’s good enough for me! Take it or leave it as you
like,” she said, to which he replied quickly:
“Nay lass! Aught that concerns you is good enow for me. I did but think
of you lest you might have pain or disappointment hereafter. If you
love Eric better nor me, in God’s name say so, and I think I’m man enow
to stand aside. Likewise, if I’m the one, don’t make us both miserable
for life!” Face to face with a difficulty, Sarah’s weak nature
proclaimed itself; she put her hands before her face and began to cry,
saying—
“It was my mother. She keeps telling me!” The silence which followed
was broken by Eric, who said hotly to Abel:
“Let the lass alone, can’t you? If she wants to choose this way, let
her. It’s good enough for me—and for you, too! She’s said it now, and
must abide by it!” Hereupon Sarah turned upon him in sudden fury, and
cried:
“Hold your tongue! what is it to you, at any rate?” and she resumed her
crying. Eric was so flabbergasted that he had not a word to say, but
stood looking particularly foolish, with his mouth open and his hands
held out with the coin still between them. All were silent till Sarah,
taking her hands from her face laughed hysterically and said:
“As you two can’t make up your minds, I’m going home!” and she turned
to go.
“Stop,” said Abel, in an authoritative voice. “Eric, you hold the coin,
and I’ll cry. Now, before we settle it, let us clearly understand: the
man who wins takes all the money that we both have got, brings it to
Bristol and ships on a voyage and trades with it. Then he comes back
and marries Sarah, and they two keep all, whatever there may be, as the
result of the trading. Is this what we understand?”
“Yes,” said Eric.
“I’ll marry him on my next birthday,” said Sarah. Having said it the
intolerably mercenary spirit of her action seemed to strike her, and
impulsively she turned away with a bright blush. Fire seemed to sparkle
in the eyes of both men. Said Eric: “A year so be! The man that wins is
to have one year.”
“Toss!” cried Abel, and the coin spun in the air. Eric caught it, and
again held it between his outstretched hands.
“Heads!” cried Abel, a pallor sweeping over his face as he spoke. As he
leaned forward to look Sarah leaned forward too, and their heads almost
touched. He could feel her hair blowing on his cheek, and it thrilled
through him like fire. Eric lifted his upper hand; the coin lay with
its head up. Abel stepped forward and took Sarah in his arms. With a
curse Eric hurled the coin far into the sea. Then he leaned against the
flagstaff and scowled at the others with his hands thrust deep into his
pockets. Abel whispered wild words of passion and delight into Sarah’s
ears, and as she listened she began to believe that fortune had rightly
interpreted the wishes of her secret heart, and that she loved Abel
best.
Presently Abel looked up and caught sight of Eric’s face as the last
ray of sunset struck it. The red light intensified the natural
ruddiness of his complexion, and he looked as though he were steeped in
blood. Abel did not mind his scowl, for now that his own heart was at
rest he could feel unalloyed pity for his friend. He stepped over
meaning to comfort him, and held out his hand, saying:
“It was my chance, old lad. Don’t grudge it me. I’ll try to make Sarah
a happy woman, and you shall be a brother to us both!”
“Brother be damned!” was all the answer Eric made, as he turned away.
When he had gone a few steps down the rocky path he turned and came
back. Standing before Abel and Sarah, who had their arms round each
other, he said:
“You have a year. Make the most of it! And be sure you’re in time to
claim your wife! Be back to have your banns up in time to be married on
the 11th April. If you’re not, I tell you I shall have my banns up, and
you may get back too late.”
“What do you mean, Eric? You are mad!”
“No more mad than you are, Abel Behenna. You go, that’s your chance! I
stay, that’s mine! I don’t mean to let the grass grow under my feet.
Sarah cared no more for you than for me five minutes ago, and she may
come back to that five minutes after you’re gone! You won by a point
only—the game may change.”
“The game won’t change!” said Abel shortly. “Sarah, you’ll be true to
me? You won’t marry till I return?”
“For a year!” added Eric, quickly, “that’s the bargain.”
“I promise for the year,” said Sarah. A dark look came over Abel’s
face, and he was about to speak, but he mastered himself and smiled.
“I mustn’t be too hard or get angry tonight! Come, Eric! we played and
fought together. I won fairly. I played fairly all the game of our
wooing! You know that as well as I do; and now when I am going away, I
shall look to my old and true comrade to help me when I am gone!”
“I’ll help you none,” said Eric, “so help me God!”
“It was God helped me,” said Abel simply.
“Then let Him go on helping you,” said Eric angrily. “The Devil is good
enough for me!” and without another word he rushed down the steep path
and disappeared behind the rocks.
When he had gone Abel hoped for some tender passage with Sarah, but the
first remark she made chilled him.
“How lonely it all seems without Eric!” and this note sounded till he
had left her at home—and after.
Early on the next morning Abel heard a noise at his door, and on going
out saw Eric walking rapidly away: a small canvas bag full of gold and
silver lay on the threshold; on a small slip of paper pinned to it was
written:
“Take the money and go. I stay. God for you! The Devil for me! Remember
the 11th of April.—ERIC SANSON.” That afternoon Abel went off to
Bristol, and a week later sailed on the _Star of the Sea_ bound for
Pahang. His money—including that which had been Eric’s—was on board in
the shape of a venture of cheap toys. He had been advised by a shrewd
old mariner of Bristol whom he knew, and who knew the ways of the
Chersonese, who predicted that every penny invested would be returned
with a shilling to boot.
As the year wore on Sarah became more and more disturbed in her mind.
Eric was always at hand to make love to her in his own persistent,
masterful manner, and to this she did not object. Only one letter came
from Abel, to say that his venture had proved successful, and that he
had sent some two hundred pounds to the bank at Bristol, and was
trading with fifty pounds still remaining in goods for China, whither
the _Star of the Sea_ was bound and whence she would return to Bristol.
He suggested that Eric’s share of the venture should be returned to him
with his share of the profits. This proposition was treated with anger
by Eric, and as simply childish by Sarah’s mother.
More than six months had since then elapsed, but no other letter had
come, and Eric’s hopes which had been dashed down by the letter from
Pahang, began to rise again. He perpetually assailed Sarah with an
“if!” If Abel did not return, would she then marry him? If the 11th
April went by without Abel being in the port, would she give him over?
If Abel had taken his fortune, and married another girl on the head of
it, would she marry him, Eric, as soon as the truth were known? And so
on in an endless variety of possibilities. The power of the strong will
and the determined purpose over the woman’s weaker nature became in
time manifest. Sarah began to lose her faith in Abel and to regard Eric
as a possible husband; and a possible husband is in a woman’s eye
different to all other men. A new affection for him began to arise in
her breast, and the daily familiarities of permitted courtship
furthered the growing affection. Sarah began to regard Abel as rather a
rock in the road of her life, and had it not been for her mother’s
constantly reminding her of the good fortune already laid by in the
Bristol Bank she would have tried to have shut her eyes altogether to
the fact of Abel’s existence.
The 11th April was Saturday, so that in order to have the marriage on
that day it would be necessary that the banns should be called on
Sunday, 22nd March. From the beginning of that month Eric kept
perpetually on the subject of Abel’s absence, and his outspoken opinion
that the latter was either dead or married began to become a reality to
the woman’s mind. As the first half of the month wore on Eric became
more jubilant, and after church on the 15th he took Sarah for a walk to
the Flagstaff Rock. There he asserted himself strongly:
“I told Abel, and you too, that if he was not here to put up his banns
in time for the eleventh, I would put up mine for the twelfth. Now the
time has come when I mean to do it. He hasn’t kept his word”—here Sarah
struck in out of her weakness and indecision:
“He hasn’t broken it yet!” Eric ground his teeth with anger.
“If you mean to stick up for him,” he said, as he smote his hands
savagely on the flagstaff, which sent forth a shivering murmur, “well
and good. I’ll keep my part of the bargain. On Sunday I shall give
notice of the banns, and you can deny them in the church if you will.
If Abel is in Pencastle on the eleventh, he can have them cancelled,