The Red Window

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Hume Fergus. The Red Window

CHAPTER I. COMRADES

CHAPTER II. SIR SIMON GORE

CHAPTER III. THE WILL

CHAPTER IV. A STRANGE ADVENTURE

CHAPTER V. LOST IN THE DARKNESS

CHAPTER VI. A MAIDEN GENTLEWOMAN

CHAPTER VII. BERNARD'S FRIENDS

CHAPTER VIII. BERNARD'S ENEMIES

CHAPTER IX. AT COVE CASTLE

CHAPTER X. A STATEMENT OF THE CASE

CHAPTER XI. MRS. GILROY'S PAST

CHAPTER XII. THE NEW PAGE

CHAPTER XIII. A CONSULTATION

CHAPTER XIV. LOVE IN EXILE

CHAPTER XV. THE PAST OF ALICE

CHAPTER XVI. THE UNEXPECTED

CHAPTER XVII. THE DIARY

CHAPTER XVIII. TOLOMEO'S STORY

CHAPTER XIX. PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS

CHAPTER XX. A CONFESSION

CHAPTER XXI. YOUNG JUDAS

CHAPTER XXII. THE TRUTH

CHAPTER XXIII. A YEAR LATER

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Avarice, according to Byron, is a gentlemanly vice appertaining to old age. It certainly acted like Aaron's rod with Sir Simon, as it swallowed up all his more youthful sins. During the early part of the Victorian epoch, the old man had been a spendthrift and a rake. Now, he never looked agreeably upon a woman, and the prettier they were the more he frowned upon them. As he was close upon eighty, it was not to be wondered at that his blood ran thin and cold; still, he might have retained the courtesy for which he was famous in his hot youth. But he eschewed female society in the main, and was barely civil to his pretty, fascinating niece, who attended to him and bore with his ill-humors. Only Mrs. Gilroy succeeded in extorting civil words from him, but then Mrs. Gilroy was necessary to his comfort, being a capital nurse and as quiet as a cat about the house. Where his own pleasure was concerned Sir Simon could be artful.

It was rarely that this agreeable old gentleman came to town. He lived at the Hall in Essex in savage seclusion, and there ruled over a diminished household with a rod of iron. Mrs. Gilroy, who had been with him for many years, was – outwardly – as penurious as her master, so he trusted her as much as he trusted anyone. What between the grim old man and the silent housekeeper, poor Lucy Randolph, who was only a connection, had a dreary time. But then, as the daughter of Sir Simon's niece, she was regarded as an interloper, and the old man grumbled at having to support poor relations. Bernard he had tolerated as his heir, Lucy he frankly disliked as a caterpillar. Often would he call her this name.

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"What does that matter? She is good-tempered. However, it doesn't matter. I won't be friends with Bernard unless he does what I tell him. He must give up Alice and marry Miss Perry. Try the Red Window scheme when you go back to the Hall, Lucy. It will bring Bernard to see me, as you say."

"It will," said Lucy, but by no means willingly. "Bernard comes down at times to the Hall to watch for the light. But I can make a Red Window here."

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