'They, f.e.c.kless things, that left were better than none, though they should hae been skelped for their idleness.'

'You have written to Slivers?' said Madame, raising her eyes.

'That wudden-legged body,' retorted McIntosh. 'Deed and I have, but the auld tyke hasna done onything to getting me what I want. Weel, weel,' in a resigned sort of a manner, 'we micht be waur off than we are, an' wha kens but what Providence will send us men by-and-bye?'

Selina looked up at this, saw her opportunity, and let slip an appropriate proverb.

'If we go by by-and-bye lane,' she said sharply, 'we come to the gate of never.'

This being undeniable, no one gave her the pleasure of contradicting her, for Archie knew it was impossible to argue with Selina, so handy was she with her proverbial wisdom--a kind of domestic Tupper, whose philosophy was of the most irritating and unanswerable kind. He did the wisest thing he could under the circ.u.mstances, and started a new subject.

'I say yon the day.'

'Yon' in this case meant Mr Villiers, whose name was tabooed in the house, and was always spoken of in a half-hinting kind of way. As both her servants knew all about her unhappy life, Madame did not scruple to talk to them.

'How was he looking?' she asked, smoothing the crumbs off her dress.

'Brawly,' replied Archie, rising; 'he lost money on that Moscow mine, but he made a fine haul owre the Queen o' Hearts claim.'

'The wicked,' observed Selina, 'flourish like a green bay tree.'

'Ou, ay,' retorted McIntosh, drily; 'we ken a' aboot that, Selina--auld Hornie looks after his ain.'

'I think he leads a very hand-to-mouth existence,' said Madame, calmly; 'however rich he may become, he will always be poor, because he never was a provident man.'

'He's comin' tae see ye, mem,' said Archie, grimly, lighting his pipe.

Madame rose to her feet and walked to the window.

'He's done that before,' she said, complacently; 'the result was not satisfactory.'

'Continual dropping wears away a stone,' said Selina, who was now clearing away.

'But not iron,' replied Madame, placidly; 'I don't think his persistence will gain anything.'

Archie smiled grimly, and then went outside to smoke his pipe, while Madame sat down by the open window and looked out at the fast-fading landscape.

Her thoughts were not pleasant. She had hoped to cut herself off from all the bitterness and sorrow of her past life, but this husband of hers, like an unquiet spirit, came to trouble her and remind her of a time she would willingly have forgotten. She looked calm and quiet enough sitting there with her placid face and smooth brow; but this woman was like a slumbering volcano, and her pa.s.sions were all the more dangerous from being kept in check.

A bat flew high up in the air across the clear glow of the sky, disappearing into the adjacent bush, and Madame, stretching out her hand, idly plucked a fresh, dewy rose off the tree which grew round the window.

'If I could only get rid of him,' she thought, toying with the flower; 'but it is impossible. I can't do that without money, and money I never will have till I find that lead. I must bribe him, I suppose. Oh, why can't he leave me alone now? Surely he has ruined my life sufficiently in the past to let me have a few years, if not of pleasure, at least of forgetfulness.' And with a petulant gesture she hurled the rose out of the window, where it struck Archie a soft and fragrant blow on the cheek.

'Yes,' said Madame to herself, as she pulled down the window, 'I must get rid of him, and if bribery won't do--there are other means.'

CHAPTER IV

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

Is there anyone nowadays who reads Cowper--that charming, domestic poet who wrote 'The Task', and invested even furniture with the glamour of poesy? Alas! to many people Cowper is merely a name, or is known only as the author of the delightfully quaint ballad of John Gilpin. Yet he was undoubtedly the Poet Laureate of domesticity, and every householder should possess a bust or picture of him--placed, not amid the frigid splendours of the drawing room, but occupying the place of honour in his own particular den, where everything is old-fashioned, cheery, and sanctified by long usage. No one wrote so pleasantly about the pleasures of a comfortable room as Cowper. And was he not right to do so? After all, every hearth is the altar of the family, whereon the sacred fire should be kept constantly burning, waxing and waning with the seasons, but never be permitted to die out altogether. Miss Sprotts, as before mentioned, was much in favour of a constant fire, because of the alleged dampness of the house, and Madame Midas did not by any means object, as she was a perfect salamander for heat. Hence, when the outward door was closed, the faded red curtains of the window drawn, and the newly replenished fire blazed brightly in the wide fireplace, the room was one which even Cowper--sybarite in home comforts as he was--would have contemplated with delight.

Madame Midas was seated now at the small table in the centre of the room, poring over a bewildering array of figures, and the soft glow of the lamp touched her smooth hair and white dress with a subdued light.

Archie sat by the fire, half asleep, and there was a dead silence in the room, only broken by the rapid scratching of Madame's pen or the click of Selina's needles. At last Mrs Villiers, with a sigh of relief, laid down her pen, put all her papers together, and tied them neatly with a bit of string.

'I'm afraid I'll have to get a clerk, Archie,' she said, as she put the papers away, 'the office work is getting too much for me.'

''Deed, mem, and 'tis that same I was thinkin' o',' returned Mr McIntosh, sitting bolt upright in his chair, lest the imputation of having been asleep should be brought against him. 'It's ill wark seein'

ye spoilin' your bonny eyes owre sic a muckle lot o' figures as ye hae there.'

'Someone must do it,' said Madame, resuming her seat at the table.

'Then why not get a body that can dae it?' retorted Archie; 'not but what ye canna figure yersel', mem, but really ye need a rest, and if I hear of onyone in toun wha we can trust I'll bring him here next week.'

'I don't see why you shouldn't,' said Madame, musingly; 'the mine is fairly under way now, and if things go on as they are doing, I must have someone to a.s.sist me.'

At this moment a knock came to the front door, which caused Selina to drop her work with a sudden start, and rise to her feet.

'Not you, Selina,' said Madame, in a quiet voice; 'let Archie go; it may be some tramp.'

''Deed no, mem,' replied Archie, obstinately, as he arose from his seat; ''tis verra likely a man fra the warks saying he wants to go. There's mair talk nor sense aboot them, I'm thinkin'--the yattering parrots.'

Selina resumed her knitting in a most phlegmatic manner, but Madame listened intently, for she was always haunted by a secret dread of her husband breaking in on her, and it was partly on this account that McIntosh stayed in the house. She heard a murmur of voices, and then Archie returned with two men, who entered the room and stood before Madame in the light of the lamp.

''Tis two men fra that wudden-legged gowk o' a Slivers,' said Archie, respectfully. 'Ain o' them has a wee bit letter for ye'--turning to receive same from the foremost man.

The man, however, did not take notice of Archie's gesture, but walking forward to Madame, laid the letter down before her. As he did so, she caught sight of the delicacy of his hands, and looked up suddenly with a piercing gaze. He bore the scrutiny coolly, and took a chair in silence, his companion doing the same, while Madame opened the letter and read Slivers' bad writing with a dexterity only acquired by long practice.

Having finished her perusal, she looked up slowly.

'A broken-down gentleman,' she said to herself, as she saw the easy bearing and handsome face of the young man; then looking at his companion, she saw by his lumpish aspect and coa.r.s.e hands, that he occupied a much lower rank of life than his friend.

Monsieur Vandeloup--for it was he--caught her eye as she was scrutinising them, and his face broke into a smile--a most charming smile, as Madame observed mentally, though she allowed nothing of her thoughts to appear on her face.

'You want work,' she said, slowly folding up the letter, and placing it in her pocket; 'do you understand anything about gold-mining?'

'Unfortunately, no, Madame,' said Vandeloup, coolly; 'but we are willing to learn.'

Archie grunted in a dissatisfied manner, for he was by no means in favour of teaching people their business, and, besides, he thought Vandeloup too much of a gentleman to do good work.

'You look hardly strong enough for such hard labour,' said Mrs Villiers, doubtfully eyeing the slender figure of the young man. 'Your companion, I think, will do, but you--'

'I, Madame, am like the lilies of the field that neither toil nor spin,'

replied Vandeloup, gaily; 'but, unfortunately, I am now compelled by necessity to work, and though I should prefer to earn my bread in an easier manner, beggars,'--with a characteristic shrug, which did not escape Madame's eye--cannot be choosers.'

'You are French?' she asked quickly, in that language.