Part 29 (2/2)
”I'et hold of some facts on Cornish history,” I said evasively
I hadn't the faintest notion as to what I expected to learn from him, but the ht flashed to ive me some clue to the ht help me to shape my plans
I would, of course, have to tell him the reason for my inquiries, and convince him that they were not prompted by mere curiosity I was filled with a queer sense of suppressed exciteh the churchyard,--ghostly looking in the e, a picturesque old house that Mary and I had already viewed froed to be Jacobean in period As I was shown into a low-ceiled room, panelled and furnished with black oak, where the vicar sat beside a log fire, blazing cheerily in the great open fireplace, I felt as if I'd been transported back to the seventeenth century The only anachronisars on the table beside hi a decanter of wine and a couple of tall, slender glasses that would have rejoiced a connoisseur's heart
Mr Treherne welcoenially
”You won't find the fire too hts in our West Country, here by the sea at any rate, when a fire isn't a comfort after sunset; a coood of you to coht, Mr Wynn I have very few visitors, as you ine And so you have met my old friend, Anthony Pendennis?”
I was thankful of the opening he afforded me, and answered promptly
”Yes; but only once, and in an extraordinary way I'll tell you all about it, Mr Treherne; and in return I ask you to give me every bit of information you may possess about him I shall respect your confidence, as, I am sure, you will respect mine”
”Most certainly I shall do that, Mr Wynn,” he said with quiet e only from any allusion to Anne's connection with Cassavetti's murder That, I was deter soul; deterest it to me
He listened with absorbed interest, and without any co a question now and then
”It is astounding!” he said gravely at last ”And so that poor child has been drawn into the whirlpool of Russian politics, as her mother was before her,--to perish as she did!”
”Her mother?” I asked
”Yes, did she--Anne Pendennis--never tell you, or your cousin, her mother's history?”
”Never I doubt if she knew it herself She cannot remember her o Do you know her mother's history, sir?”
”Partly; I'll tell you all I do know, Mr Wynn,--confidence for confidence, as you said just now She was a Polish lady,--the Countess Anna Vassilitzi; I think that was the nae she dropped her title, and was known here in England merely as Mrs
Anthony Pendennis Her father and brother were Polish noblemen, who, like so many others of their race and rank, had been ruined by Russian aggression; but I believe that, at the ti before the assassination of the Tzar Alexander the Second,--the brother and sister at least were in considerable favor at the Russian Court; though whether they used their position there for the purpose of furthering the political intrigues in which, as transpired later, they were both involved, I really cannot say I fear it is very probable
”I remember well the distress of Mr and Mrs Pendennis,--Anthony's parents,--when he wrote and announced his engage countess He was their only child, and they had all the old-fashi+oned English prejudice against 'foreigners' of every description Still they did not withhold their consent; it would have been useless to do so, for Anthony was of age, and had a his wife hoe; they remained in Russia for nearly a year, but at last, soon after the land,--to Pencarrow
”They did not stay ood deal of theh he was several years my junior, and ere of entirely different temperaments; his was, and is, I have no doubt, a restless, roht to havehientleman!
While as for his wife--”
He paused and stared hard at the ruddy glow of the firelight, as if he could see soe wistfulness to his fine old face
”She was the loveliest andwoman I've ever seen!” he resuracious wit,--not the wit that wounds, no, no! 'A perfect woman nobly planned'--that was Anna Pendennis; to see her, to know her, was to love her! Did I say just now that she misused her influence at the Russian Court in the atteht and holy cause--the cause of freedoive me if I did! At least she had no share in the diabolical plot that succeeded all too well,--the assassination of the only broad-minded and humane autocrat Russia has ever known I'm a man of peace, sir, but I'd horsewhip any man who dared to say to my face that Anna Pendennis was a woman who lent herself to that devilry, or any other of the kind--yes, I'd do that even now, after the lapse of twenty-five years!”
”I know,” I said huskily ”That's just how I feel about Anne She must be very like her mother!”
CHAPTER xxx