He had such an untiring enjoyment and delight in cruising about at sea, and all his ideas of pleasure seemed to be so closely connected with his remembrance of the sailing trips he had taken on board different yachts belonging to his friends, that I verily believe his chief object in marrying my mistress was to get the command of money enough to keep a vessel for himself.Be that as it may, it is certain that he prevailed on her, some time after their marriage, to make him a present of a fine schooner yacht, which was brought round from Cowes to our coast-town, and kept always waiting ready for him in the harbor.
His wife required some little persuasion before she could make up her mind to let him have the vessel.She suffered so much from sea-sickness that pleasure-sailing was out of the question for her; and, being very fond of her husband, she was naturally unwilling that he should engage in an amusement which took him away from her.However, Mr.James Smith used his influence over her cleverly, promising that he would never go away without first asking her leave, and engaging that his terms of absence at sea should never last for more than a week or ten days at a time.Accordingly, my mistress, who was the kindest and most unselfish woman in the world, put her own feelings aside, and made her husband happy in the possession of a vessel of his own.
While my master was away cruising, my mistress had a dull time of it at the Hall.The few gentlefolks there were in our part of the county lived at a distance, and could only come to Darrock when they were asked to stay there for some days together.As for the village near us, there was but one person living in it whom my mistress could think of asking to the Hall, and that person was the clergyman who did duty at the church.
This gentleman's name was Mr.Meeke.He was a single man, very young, and very lonely in his position.He had a mild, melancholy, pasty-looking face, and was as shy and soft-spoken as a little girl--altogether, what one may call, without being unjust or severe, a poor, weak creature, and, out of all sight, the very worst preacher I ever sat under in my life.The one thing he did, which, as I heard, he could really do well, was playing on the fiddle.He was uncommonly fond of music--so much so that he often took his instrument out with him when he went for a walk.This taste of his was his great recommendation to my mistress, who was a wonderfully fine player on the piano, and who was delighted to get such a performer as Mr.Meeke to play duets with her.Besides liking his society for this reason, she felt for him in his lonely position; naturally enough, I think, considering how often she was left in solitude herself.Mr.
Meeke, on his side, when he got over his first shyness, was only too glad to leave his lonesome little parsonage for the fine music-room at the Hall, and for the company of a handsome, kind-hearted lady, who made much of him, and admired his fiddle-playing with all her heart.Thus it happened that, whenever my master was away at sea, my mistress and Mr.Meeke were always together, playing duets as if they had their living to get by it.A more harmless connection than the connection between those two never existed in this world; and yet, innocent as it was, it turned out to be the first cause of all the misfortunes that afterward happened.
My master's treatment of Mr.Meeke was, from the first, the very opposite of my mistress's.The restless, rackety, bounceable Mr.
James Smith felt a contempt for the weak, womanish, fiddling little parson, and, what was more, did not care to conceal it.
For this reason, Mr.Meeke (who was dreadfully frightened by my master's violent language and rough ways) very seldom visited at the Hall except when my mistress was alone there.Meaning no wrong, and therefore stooping to no concealment, she never thought of taking any measures to keep Mr.Meeke out of the way when he happened to be with her at the time of her husband's coming home, whether it was only from a riding excursion in the neighborhood or from a cruise in the schooner.In this way it so turned out that whenever my master came home, after a long or short absence, in nine cases out of ten he found the parson at the Hall.
At first he used to laugh at this circumstance, and to amuse himself with some coarse jokes at the expense of his wife and her companion.But, after a while, his variable temper changed, as usual.He grew sulky, rude, angry, and, at last, downright jealous of Mr.Meeke.Though too proud to confess it in so many words, he still showed the state of his mind clearly enough to my mistress to excite her indignation.She was a woman who could be led anywhere by any one for whom she had a regard, but there was a firm spirit within her that rose at the slightest show of injustice or oppression, and that resented tyrannical usage of any sort perhaps a little too warmly.The bare suspicion that her husband could feel any distrust of her set her all in a flame, and she took the most unfortunate, and yet, at the same time, the most natural way for a woman, of resenting it.The ruder her husband was to Mr.Meeke the more kindly she behaved to him.This led to serious disputes and dissensions, and thence, in time, to a violent quarrel.I could not avoid hearing the last part of the altercation between them, for it took place in the garden-walk, outside the dining-room window, while I was occupied in laying the table for lunch.
