A TAINT IN THE BLOOD

CHAPTER I

The curate was walking on the cliffs with his lady-love.  All the sky was grey, and all the sea was grey.  The soft March wind blew over the rocky shore; it could not rustle the bright green weed that hung wet from the boulders, but it set all the tufts of grass upon the cliffs nodding to the song of the ebbing tide.  The lady was the vicar’s daughter; her name was Violetta.

‘Let us stand still here,’ said the curate, ’for there is something I must say to you to-day.’  So they stood still and looked at the sea.

‘Violetta,’ said the curate, ’you cannot be ignorant that I have long loved you.  Last night I took courage and told your father of my hope and desire that you should become my wife.  He told me what I did not know, that you have already tasted the joy of love and the sorrow of its disappointment.  I can only ask you now if this former love has made it impossible that you should love again.’

‘No,’ she answered; ’for although I loved and sorrowed then with all the strength of a child’s heart, still it was only as a child, and that is past.’

‘Will you be my wife?’ said the curate.

‘I cannot choose but say “yes,” I love you so much.’

Then they turned and went back along the cliffs, and the curate was very happy.  ‘But tell me,’ he said, ‘about this other man that loved you.’

’His name was Herbert.  He was the squire’s son.  He loved me and I loved him, but afterwards we found that his mother had been mad——­’ Violetta paused and turned her sweet blue eyes upon the sea.

‘So you could not marry?’ said the curate.

‘No,’ said Violetta, casting her eyes downward, ’because the taint of madness is a terrible thing.’  She shuddered and blushed.

‘And you loved him?’

‘Dearly, dearly,’ said Violetta, clasping her hands.  ’But madness in the blood is too terrible; it is like the inheritance of a curse.’

‘He went away?’ said the curate.

’Yes, Herbert went away; and he died.  He loved me so much that he died.’

‘I do not wonder at that,’ said the curate, ’for you are very lovely, Violetta.’

They walked home hand in hand, and when they had said good-bye under the beech trees that grew by the vicarage gate, the curate went down the street of the little town.  The shop-keepers were at their doors breathing the mild spring air.  The fishermen had hung their nets to dry in the market-place near the quay.  The western cloud was turning crimson, and the steep roofs and grey church-tower absorbed in sombre colours the tender light.  The curate was going home to his lodgings, but he bethought him of his tea, and turned into the pastry-cook’s by the way.

‘Have you any muffins, Mrs. Yeander?’ he asked.

‘No, sir,’ said the portly wife of the baker, in a sad tone, ’they’re all over.’