The Golden Magnet Part 52

My heart seemed to stand still, and I hesitated no longer. My father must be ill, I thought, or the garden in which he took so much pride would never have been allowed to run wild like that.

"Tom," I said, "there's something wrong."

"Lor', no, Mas'r Harry, not there. Nothing's wrong, only that Sally's left, and that's all right, ain't it?"

I did not answer, but, going to the yard gate, pushed it open, and the hinges gave a dismal creak.

"Bit o' soap would not hurt them," said Tom sententiously, and he followed me through the yard.

I peeped in at the old, familiar boiling-house, but though work had lately been in progress there was no one there; so I went on to the back door and was about to enter, but Tom laid his hand on my arm.

"Would you mind my going in first, Mas'r Harry?" he said softly. "I know it ain't right, but I should like to go in just once--first."

I drew back and Tom stepped forward to go in, but as he raised his hand to the latch he dropped it again and turned back to me.

"'Twouldn't be right, sir, for me to go afore you; and don't you think, Mas'r Harry, now that you're a great, rich gentleman just come over from foreign abroad, that it would be more genteel-like to go round to the front and give a big knock afore you went in?"

"Well, let's go round to the front, Tom. Perhaps it isn't right to come round here. We might startle them."

"Wouldn't startle Sally, even if she were here, Mas'r Harry. Nothing never did startle she, though she ain't here now."

The fact was that I felt as nervous and tremulous about going in as poor Tom, and accordingly we went round to the front, and after a moment's hesitation I gave a rap at the door.

No answer.

I rapped again, and then, finding the door unfastened, I pushed against it with trembling hand to find it yield, and, walking straight in, I turned to the right and entered the little parlour.

As I went in some one who had been sitting back asleep in the easy-chair started up and took a great red handkerchief from his face.

As he did this I was advancing with open hands, but only to stop short, for it was not my father.

"Hillo!" said the stranger, a dirty-looking man with an inflamed nose.

"Hallo!" I said; "who are you?"

"Who am I?" said the stranger, staring at me as if I were asking a most absurd question. "Why, persession--that's about what I am. Are you come to pay me out?"

"Pay you out!--possession!" I faltered. "Why, what does it mean?"

"Sold by hocks.h.i.+n without reserve by one of the morkygees," said the man, "soon as the inwintory's took."

"Where are my father and mother?" I said, with my heart sinking at the idea of the distress they must have been in.

"Now, then!" said a sharp voice, and a young woman came to the inner door; "who do you want?"

"Sally!" whispered Tom excitedly.

"Why, Sally!" I exclaimed, "don't you know me again?"

"It isn't Master Harry, is it?" she said wonderingly.

"Yes, Sally," I said. "Why, how you have altered and improved!"

"Get along, Master Harry; it's you that's improved. Who's that big, stoopid-looking young man with you?"

"Oh, I say!" groaned Tom.

"Oh, I see!" she said carelessly, "it's the boy!"

"Ain't she hard on a fellow, Mas'r Harry?" whispered Tom; but I did not reply, for I was questioning Sally.

"What! haven't you heard?" she said.

"No, I've heard nothing," I exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"'Bout master's having failed, and a set o' wretches,"--here she glanced at the dirty-looking man--"coming and robbing him of his business, and his house, and his furniture, and everything a'most he's got."

"No, no, Sally, I have heard nothing. But are they well?"

"Oh, yes, as well as folks can be as is being robbed by folks who come sitting in all the chairs with hankychers over their heads, and going to sleep all over the place."

"But where are they?" I cried; "upstairs?"

"Upstairs? No," cried Sally. "They're down at the little cottage in Back Lane, where old Mrs Wigley used to live."

"I'll run down at once," I cried. "Come along, Tom!" I did not look back, for I was intent upon my task; and if I had I should have had no satisfaction, for Tom had stayed behind, as he afterwards said, to look after old master's property; but I never believed that tale for several reasons, one being that Tom looked shamefaced and awkward as he said it, and circ.u.mstances afterwards tended to show that he had some other reason.

The old cottage named was one that I well remembered, and my spirit seemed to sink lower and lower as I neared the place; for it was terrible to think of those whom I had left, if not in affluence, at least in a comfortable position in life, brought down to so sad and impecunious a state, suffering real poverty, and with the home of so many years now in the broker's hands.

Then I felt a wave of high spirits come over me, as it were, to hurl me down and then lift me and carry me on and on, till I literally set off and ran down turning after turning, till I came to the little whitewashed cottage where my father and mother had their abode.

I half-paused for a moment, and then tapping lightly, raised the latch and entered.

My father was seated at a common uncovered deal table, poring over an old account-book, as if in hopes of finding a way out of his difficulties. My mother, looking very care-worn and grey, was seated by a back window mending some old garments, and now and then stopping to wipe her eyes. At least that is what I presumed, for she was in the act of wiping them as I dashed in.

"Mother! father!" I exclaimed, and the next moment the poor old lady was sobbing in my arms, kissing me again and again, and amidst her sobbing telling my father that she knew how it would be--that it had been foolish of him to despair, for she was certain that her boy would come back and help them as soon as he knew that they were in trouble.

"When did you get the letter, my darling?" she said as she clung closer to me.

"Letter!" I said; "I've had no letter."

My mother looked up at me wonderingly.

"Had no letter, Harry?"

"No, my dear mother; I have not had a line since I have been gone."

My mother loosened her hold of me and turned to my father as he stood looking on.