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diff --git a/3049.txt b/3049.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30bd0c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/3049.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7708 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Group of Noble Dames, by Thomas Hardy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Group of Noble Dames + + +Author: Thomas Hardy + + + +Release Date: May 17, 2007 [eBook #3049] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GROUP OF NOBLE DAMES*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1920 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +A GROUP OF NOBLE DAMES + + +THAT IS TO SAY + +THE FIRST COUNTESS OF WESSEX +BARBARA OF THE HOSE OF GREBE +THE MARCHIONESS OF STONEHENGE, +LADY MOTTIFONT SQUIRE PETRICK'S LADY +THE LADY ICENWAY ANNA, LADY BAXBY +THE LADY PENELOPE +THE DUCHESS OF HAMPTONSHIRE; AND +THE HONOURABLE LAURA + +BY +THOMAS HARDY + + '. . . Store of Ladies, whose bright eyes + Rain influence.'--L'ALLEGRO. + +WITH A MAP OF WESSEX + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON +1920 + +COPYRIGHT + +_First Collected Edition_ 1891 +_New Edition and reprints_ 1896-1900 +_First published by Macmillan & Co._, _Crown_ 8vo, 1903 +_Pocket Edition_ 1907 _Reprinted_ 1911, 1914, 1917, 1919, 1920 + +Contents: + +Preface +Part I--Before Dinner + The First Countess of Wessex + Barbara of the House of Grebe + The Marchioness of Stonehenge + Lady Mottisfont +Part II--After Dinner + The Lady Icenway + Squire Petrick's Lady + Anna, Lady Baxby + The Lady Penelope + The Duchess Of Hamptonshire + The Honourable Laura + + + + +PREFACE + + +The pedigrees of our county families, arranged in diagrams on the pages +of county histories, mostly appear at first sight to be as barren of any +touch of nature as a table of logarithms. But given a clue--the faintest +tradition of what went on behind the scenes, and this dryness as of dust +may be transformed into a palpitating drama. More, the careful +comparison of dates alone--that of birth with marriage, of marriage with +death, of one marriage, birth, or death with a kindred marriage, birth, +or death--will often effect the same transformation, and anybody +practised in raising images from such genealogies finds himself +unconsciously filling into the framework the motives, passions, and +personal qualities which would appear to be the single explanation +possible of some extraordinary conjunction in times, events, and +personages that occasionally marks these reticent family records. + +Out of such pedigrees and supplementary material most of the following +stories have arisen and taken shape. + +I would make this preface an opportunity of expressing my sense of the +courtesy and kindness of several bright-eyed Noble Dames yet in the +flesh, who, since the first publication of these tales in periodicals, +six or seven years ago, have given me interesting comments and +conjectures on such of the narratives as they have recognized to be +connected with their own families, residences, or traditions; in which +they have shown a truly philosophic absence of prejudice in their regard +of those incidents whose relation has tended more distinctly to dramatize +than to eulogize their ancestors. The outlines they have also given of +other singular events in their family histories for use in a second +"Group of Noble Dames," will, I fear, never reach the printing-press +through me; but I shall store them up in memory of my informants' good +nature. + +T. H. + +_June_ 1896. + + + + +DAME THE FIRST--THE FIRST COUNTESS OF WESSEX +By the Local Historian + + +King's-Hintock Court (said the narrator, turning over his memoranda for +reference)--King's-Hintock Court is, as we know, one of the most imposing +of the mansions that overlook our beautiful Blackmoor or Blakemore Vale. +On the particular occasion of which I have to speak this building stood, +as it had often stood before, in the perfect silence of a calm clear +night, lighted only by the cold shine of the stars. The season was +winter, in days long ago, the last century having run but little more +than a third of its length. North, south, and west, not a casement was +unfastened, not a curtain undrawn; eastward, one window on the upper +floor was open, and a girl of twelve or thirteen was leaning over the +sill. That she had not taken up the position for purposes of observation +was apparent at a glance, for she kept her eyes covered with her hands. + +The room occupied by the girl was an inner one of a suite, to be reached +only by passing through a large bedchamber adjoining. From this +apartment voices in altercation were audible, everything else in the +building being so still. It was to avoid listening to these voices that +the girl had left her little cot, thrown a cloak round her head and +shoulders, and stretched into the night air. + +But she could not escape the conversation, try as she would. The words +reached her in all their painfulness, one sentence in masculine tones, +those of her father, being repeated many times. + +'I tell 'ee there shall be no such betrothal! I tell 'ee there sha'n't! +A child like her!' + +She knew the subject of dispute to be herself. A cool feminine voice, +her mother's, replied: + +'Have done with you, and be wise. He is willing to wait a good five or +six years before the marriage takes place, and there's not a man in the +county to compare with him.' + +'It shall not be! He is over thirty. It is wickedness.' + +'He is just thirty, and the best and finest man alive--a perfect match +for her.' + +'He is poor!' + +'But his father and elder brothers are made much of at Court--none so +constantly at the palace as they; and with her fortune, who knows? He +may be able to get a barony.' + +'I believe you are in love with en yourself!' + +'How can you insult me so, Thomas! And is it not monstrous for you to +talk of my wickedness when you have a like scheme in your own head? You +know you have. Some bumpkin of your own choosing--some petty gentleman +who lives down at that outlandish place of yours, Falls-Park--one of your +pot-companions' sons--' + +There was an outburst of imprecation on the part of her husband in lieu +of further argument. As soon as he could utter a connected sentence he +said: 'You crow and you domineer, mistress, because you are +heiress-general here. You are in your own house; you are on your own +land. But let me tell 'ee that if I did come here to you instead of +taking you to me, it was done at the dictates of convenience merely. H---! +I'm no beggar! Ha'n't I a place of my own? Ha'n't I an avenue as +long as thine? Ha'n't I beeches that will more than match thy oaks? I +should have lived in my own quiet house and land, contented, if you had +not called me off with your airs and graces. Faith, I'll go back there; +I'll not stay with thee longer! If it had not been for our Betty I +should have gone long ago!' + +After this there were no more words; but presently, hearing the sound of +a door opening and shutting below, the girl again looked from the window. +Footsteps crunched on the gravel-walk, and a shape in a drab greatcoat, +easily distinguishable as her father, withdrew from the house. He moved +to the left, and she watched him diminish down the long east front till +he had turned the corner and vanished. He must have gone round to the +stables. + +She closed the window and shrank into bed, where she cried herself to +sleep. This child, their only one, Betty, beloved ambitiously by her +mother, and with uncalculating passionateness by her father, was +frequently made wretched by such episodes as this; though she was too +young to care very deeply, for her own sake, whether her mother betrothed +her to the gentleman discussed or not. + +The Squire had often gone out of the house in this manner, declaring that +he would never return, but he had always reappeared in the morning. The +present occasion, however, was different in the issue: next day she was +told that her father had ridden to his estate at Falls-Park early in the +morning on business with his agent, and might not come back for some +days. + +* * * * * + +Falls-Park was over twenty miles from King's-Hintock Court, and was +altogether a more modest centre-piece to a more modest possession than +the latter. But as Squire Dornell came in view of it that February +morning, he thought that he had been a fool ever to leave it, though it +was for the sake of the greatest heiress in Wessex. Its classic front, +of the period of the second Charles, derived from its regular features a +dignity which the great, battlemented, heterogeneous mansion of his wife +could not eclipse. Altogether he was sick at heart, and the gloom which +the densely-timbered park threw over the scene did not tend to remove the +depression of this rubicund man of eight-and-forty, who sat so heavily +upon his gelding. The child, his darling Betty: there lay the root of +his trouble. He was unhappy when near his wife, he was unhappy when away +from his little girl; and from this dilemma there was no practicable +escape. As a consequence he indulged rather freely in the pleasures of +the table, became what was called a three bottle man, and, in his wife's +estimation, less and less presentable to her polite friends from town. + +He was received by the two or three old servants who were in charge of +the lonely place, where a few rooms only were kept habitable for his use +or that of his friends when hunting; and during the morning he was made +more comfortable by the arrival of his faithful servant Tupcombe from +King's-Hintock. But after a day or two spent here in solitude he began +to feel that he had made a mistake in coming. By leaving King's-Hintock +in his anger he had thrown away his best opportunity of counteracting his +wife's preposterous notion of promising his poor little Betty's hand to a +man she had hardly seen. To protect her from such a repugnant bargain he +should have remained on the spot. He felt it almost as a misfortune that +the child would inherit so much wealth. She would be a mark for all the +adventurers in the kingdom. Had she been only the heiress to his own +unassuming little place at Falls, how much better would have been her +chances of happiness! + +His wife had divined truly when she insinuated that he himself had a +lover in view for this pet child. The son of a dear deceased friend of +his, who lived not two miles from where the Squire now was, a lad a +couple of years his daughter's senior, seemed in her father's opinion the +one person in the world likely to make her happy. But as to breathing +such a scheme to either of the young people with the indecent haste that +his wife had shown, he would not dream of it; years hence would be soon +enough for that. They had already seen each other, and the Squire +fancied that he noticed a tenderness on the youth's part which promised +well. He was strongly tempted to profit by his wife's example, and +forestall her match-making by throwing the two young people together +there at Falls. The girl, though marriageable in the views of those +days, was too young to be in love, but the lad was fifteen, and already +felt an interest in her. + +Still better than keeping watch over her at King's Hintock, where she was +necessarily much under her mother's influence, would it be to get the +child to stay with him at Falls for a time, under his exclusive control. +But how accomplish this without using main force? The only possible +chance was that his wife might, for appearance' sake, as she had done +before, consent to Betty paying him a day's visit, when he might find +means of detaining her till Reynard, the suitor whom his wife favoured, +had gone abroad, which he was expected to do the following week. Squire +Dornell determined to return to King's-Hintock and attempt the +enterprise. If he were refused, it was almost in him to pick up Betty +bodily and carry her off. + +The journey back, vague and Quixotic as were his intentions, was +performed with a far lighter heart than his setting forth. He would see +Betty, and talk to her, come what might of his plan. + +So he rode along the dead level which stretches between the hills +skirting Falls-Park and those bounding the town of Ivell, trotted through +that borough, and out by the King's-Hintock highway, till, passing the +villages he entered the mile-long drive through the park to the Court. +The drive being open, without an avenue, the Squire could discern the +north front and door of the Court a long way off, and was himself visible +from the windows on that side; for which reason he hoped that Betty might +perceive him coming, as she sometimes did on his return from an outing, +and run to the door or wave her handkerchief. + +But there was no sign. He inquired for his wife as soon as he set foot +to earth. + +'Mistress is away. She was called to London, sir.' + +'And Mistress Betty?' said the Squire blankly. + +'Gone likewise, sir, for a little change. Mistress has left a letter for +you.' + +The note explained nothing, merely stating that she had posted to London +on her own affairs, and had taken the child to give her a holiday. On +the fly-leaf were some words from Betty herself to the same effect, +evidently written in a state of high jubilation at the idea of her jaunt. +Squire Dornell murmured a few expletives, and submitted to his +disappointment. How long his wife meant to stay in town she did not say; +but on investigation he found that the carriage had been packed with +sufficient luggage for a sojourn of two or three weeks. + +King's-Hintock Court was in consequence as gloomy as Falls-Park had been. +He had lost all zest for hunting of late, and had hardly attended a meet +that season. Dornell read and re-read Betty's scrawl, and hunted up some +other such notes of hers to look over, this seeming to be the only +pleasure there was left for him. That they were really in London he +learnt in a few days by another letter from Mrs. Dornell, in which she +explained that they hoped to be home in about a week, and that she had +had no idea he was coming back to King's-Hintock so soon, or she would +not have gone away without telling him. + +Squire Dornell wondered if, in going or returning, it had been her plan +to call at the Reynards' place near Melchester, through which city their +journey lay. It was possible that she might do this in furtherance of +her project, and the sense that his own might become the losing game was +harassing. + +He did not know how to dispose of himself, till it occurred to him that, +to get rid of his intolerable heaviness, he would invite some friends to +dinner and drown his cares in grog and wine. No sooner was the carouse +decided upon than he put it in hand; those invited being mostly +neighbouring landholders, all smaller men than himself, members of the +hunt; also the doctor from Evershead, and the like--some of them +rollicking blades whose presence his wife would not have countenanced had +she been at home. 'When the cat's away--!' said the Squire. + +They arrived, and there were indications in their manner that they meant +to make a night of it. Baxby of Sherton Castle was late, and they waited +a quarter of an hour for him, he being one of the liveliest of Dornell's +friends; without whose presence no such dinner as this would be +considered complete, and, it may be added, with whose presence no dinner +which included both sexes could be conducted with strict propriety. He +had just returned from London, and the Squire was anxious to talk to +him--for no definite reason; but he had lately breathed the atmosphere in +which Betty was. + +At length they heard Baxby driving up to the door, whereupon the host and +the rest of his guests crossed over to the dining-room. In a moment +Baxby came hastily in at their heels, apologizing for his lateness. + +'I only came back last night, you know,' he said; 'and the truth o't is, +I had as much as I could carry.' He turned to the Squire. 'Well, +Dornell--so cunning Reynard has stolen your little ewe lamb? Ha, ha!' + +'What?' said Squire Dornell vacantly, across the dining-table, round +which they were all standing, the cold March sunlight streaming in upon +his full-clean shaven face. + +'Surely th'st know what all the town knows?--you've had a letter by this +time?--that Stephen Reynard has married your Betty? Yes, as I'm a living +man. It was a carefully-arranged thing: they parted at once, and are not +to meet for five or six years. But, Lord, you must know!' + +A thud on the floor was the only reply of the Squire. They quickly +turned. He had fallen down like a log behind the table, and lay +motionless on the oak boards. + +Those at hand hastily bent over him, and the whole group were in +confusion. They found him to be quite unconscious, though puffing and +panting like a blacksmith's bellows. His face was livid, his veins +swollen, and beads of perspiration stood upon his brow. + +'What's happened to him?' said several. + +'An apoplectic fit,' said the doctor from Evershead, gravely. + +He was only called in at the Court for small ailments, as a rule, and +felt the importance of the situation. He lifted the Squire's head, +loosened his cravat and clothing, and rang for the servants, who took the +Squire upstairs. + +There he lay as if in a drugged sleep. The surgeon drew a basin-full of +blood from him, but it was nearly six o'clock before he came to himself. +The dinner was completely disorganized, and some had gone home long ago; +but two or three remained. + +'Bless my soul,' Baxby kept repeating, 'I didn't know things had come to +this pass between Dornell and his lady! I thought the feast he was +spreading to-day was in honour of the event, though privately kept for +the present! His little maid married without his knowledge!' + +As soon as the Squire recovered consciousness he gasped: ''Tis abduction! +'Tis a capital felony! He can be hung! Where is Baxby? I am very well +now. What items have ye heard, Baxby?' + +The bearer of the untoward news was extremely unwilling to agitate +Dornell further, and would say little more at first. But an hour after, +when the Squire had partially recovered and was sitting up, Baxby told as +much as he knew, the most important particular being that Betty's mother +was present at the marriage, and showed every mark of approval. +'Everything appeared to have been done so regularly that I, of course, +thought you knew all about it,' he said. + +'I knew no more than the underground dead that such a step was in the +wind! A child not yet thirteen! How Sue hath outwitted me! Did Reynard +go up to Lon'on with 'em, d'ye know?' + +'I can't say. All I know is that your lady and daughter were walking +along the street, with the footman behind 'em; that they entered a +jeweller's shop, where Reynard was standing; and that there, in the +presence o' the shopkeeper and your man, who was called in on purpose, +your Betty said to Reynard--so the story goes: 'pon my soul I don't vouch +for the truth of it--she said, "Will you marry me?" or, "I want to marry +you: will you have me--now or never?" she said.' + +'What she said means nothing,' murmured the Squire, with wet eyes. 'Her +mother put the words into her mouth to avoid the serious consequences +that would attach to any suspicion of force. The words be not the +child's: she didn't dream of marriage--how should she, poor little maid! +Go on.' + +'Well, be that as it will, they were all agreed apparently. They bought +the ring on the spot, and the marriage took place at the nearest church +within half-an-hour.' + +* * * * * + +A day or two later there came a letter from Mrs. Dornell to her husband, +written before she knew of his stroke. She related the circumstances of +the marriage in the gentlest manner, and gave cogent reasons and excuses +for consenting to the premature union, which was now an accomplished fact +indeed. She had no idea, till sudden pressure was put upon her, that the +contract was expected to be carried out so soon, but being taken half +unawares, she had consented, having learned that Stephen Reynard, now +their son-in-law, was becoming a great favourite at Court, and that he +would in all likelihood have a title granted him before long. No harm +could come to their dear daughter by this early marriage-contract, seeing +that her life would be continued under their own eyes, exactly as before, +for some years. In fine, she had felt that no other such fair +opportunity for a good marriage with a shrewd courtier and wise man of +the world, who was at the same time noted for his excellent personal +qualities, was within the range of probability, owing to the rusticated +lives they led at King's-Hintock. Hence she had yielded to Stephen's +solicitation, and hoped her husband would forgive her. She wrote, in +short, like a woman who, having had her way as to the deed, is prepared +to make any concession as to words and subsequent behaviour. + +All this Dornell took at its true value, or rather, perhaps, at less than +its true value. As his life depended upon his not getting into a +passion, he controlled his perturbed emotions as well as he was able, +going about the house sadly and utterly unlike his former self. He took +every precaution to prevent his wife knowing of the incidents of his +sudden illness, from a sense of shame at having a heart so tender; a +ridiculous quality, no doubt, in her eyes, now that she had become so +imbued with town ideas. But rumours of his seizure somehow reached her, +and she let him know that she was about to return to nurse him. He +thereupon packed up and went off to his own place at Falls-Park. + +Here he lived the life of a recluse for some time. He was still too +unwell to entertain company, or to ride to hounds or elsewhither; but +more than this, his aversion to the faces of strangers and acquaintances, +who knew by that time of the trick his wife had played him, operated to +hold him aloof. + +Nothing could influence him to censure Betty for her share in the +exploit. He never once believed that she had acted voluntarily. Anxious +to know how she was getting on, he despatched the trusty servant Tupcombe +to Evershead village, close to King's-Hintock, timing his journey so that +he should reach the place under cover of dark. The emissary arrived +without notice, being out of livery, and took a seat in the +chimney-corner of the Sow-and-Acorn. + +The conversation of the droppers-in was always of the nine days' +wonder--the recent marriage. The smoking listener learnt that Mrs. +Dornell and the girl had returned to King's-Hintock for a day or two, +that Reynard had set out for the Continent, and that Betty had since been +packed off to school. She did not realize her position as Reynard's +child-wife--so the story went--and though somewhat awe-stricken at first +by the ceremony, she had soon recovered her spirits on finding that her +freedom was in no way to be interfered with. + +After that, formal messages began to pass between Dornell and his wife, +the latter being now as persistently conciliating as she was formerly +masterful. But her rustic, simple, blustering husband still held +personally aloof. Her wish to be reconciled--to win his forgiveness for +her stratagem--moreover, a genuine tenderness and desire to soothe his +sorrow, which welled up in her at times, brought her at last to his door +at Falls-Park one day. + +They had not met since that night of altercation, before her departure +for London and his subsequent illness. She was shocked at the change in +him. His face had become expressionless, as blank as that of a puppet, +and what troubled her still more was that she found him living in one +room, and indulging freely in stimulants, in absolute disobedience to the +physician's order. The fact was obvious that he could no longer be +allowed to live thus uncouthly. + +So she sympathized, and begged his pardon, and coaxed. But though after +this date there was no longer such a complete estrangement as before, +they only occasionally saw each other, Dornell for the most part making +Falls his headquarters still. + +Three or four years passed thus. Then she came one day, with more +animation in her manner, and at once moved him by the simple statement +that Betty's schooling had ended; she had returned, and was grieved +because he was away. She had sent a message to him in these words: 'Ask +father to come home to his dear Betty.' + +'Ah! Then she is very unhappy!' said Squire Dornell. + +His wife was silent. + +''Tis that accursed marriage!' continued the Squire. + +Still his wife would not dispute with him. 'She is outside in the +carriage,' said Mrs. Dornell gently. + +'What--Betty?' + +'Yes.' + +'Why didn't you tell me?' Dornell rushed out, and there was the girl +awaiting his forgiveness, for she supposed herself, no less than her +mother, to be under his displeasure. + +Yes, Betty had left school, and had returned to King's-Hintock. She was +nearly seventeen, and had developed to quite a young woman. She looked +not less a member of the household for her early marriage-contract, which +she seemed, indeed, to have almost forgotten. It was like a dream to +her; that clear cold March day, the London church, with its gorgeous +pews, and green-baize linings, and the great organ in the west gallery--so +different from their own little church in the shrubbery of King's-Hintock +Court--the man of thirty, to whose face she had looked up with so much +awe, and with a sense that he was rather ugly and formidable; the man +whom, though they corresponded politely, she had never seen since; one to +whose existence she was now so indifferent that if informed of his death, +and that she would never see him more, she would merely have replied, +'Indeed!' Betty's passions as yet still slept. + +'Hast heard from thy husband lately?' said Squire Dornell, when they were +indoors, with an ironical laugh of fondness which demanded no answer. + +The girl winced, and he noticed that his wife looked appealingly at him. +As the conversation went on, and there were signs that Dornell would +express sentiments that might do harm to a position which they could not +alter, Mrs. Dornell suggested that Betty should leave the room till her +father and herself had finished their private conversation; and this +Betty obediently did. + +Dornell renewed his animadversions freely. 'Did you see how the sound of +his name frightened her?' he presently added. 'If you didn't, I did. +Zounds! what a future is in store for that poor little unfortunate wench +o' mine! I tell 'ee, Sue, 'twas not a marriage at all, in morality, and +if I were a woman in such a position, I shouldn't feel it as one. She +might, without a sign of sin, love a man of her choice as well now as if +she were chained up to no other at all. There, that's my mind, and I +can't help it. Ah, Sue, my man was best! He'd ha' suited her.' + +'I don't believe it,' she replied incredulously. + +'You should see him; then you would. He's growing up a fine fellow, I +can tell 'ee.' + +'Hush! not so loud!' she answered, rising from her seat and going to the +door of the next room, whither her daughter had betaken herself. To Mrs. +Dornell's alarm, there sat Betty in a reverie, her round eyes fixed on +vacancy, musing so deeply that she did not perceive her mother's +entrance. She had heard every word, and was digesting the new knowledge. + +Her mother felt that Falls-Park was dangerous ground for a young girl of +the susceptible age, and in Betty's peculiar position, while Dornell +talked and reasoned thus. She called Betty to her, and they took leave. +The Squire would not clearly promise to return and make King's-Hintock +Court his permanent abode; but Betty's presence there, as at former +times, was sufficient to make him agree to pay them a visit soon. + +All the way home Betty remained preoccupied and silent. It was too plain +to her anxious mother that Squire Dornell's free views had been a sort of +awakening to the girl. + +The interval before Dornell redeemed his pledge to come and see them was +unexpectedly short. He arrived one morning about twelve o'clock, driving +his own pair of black-bays in the curricle-phaeton with yellow panels and +red wheels, just as he had used to do, and his faithful old Tupcombe on +horseback behind. A young man sat beside the Squire in the carriage, and +Mrs. Dornell's consternation could scarcely be concealed when, abruptly +entering with his companion, the Squire announced him as his friend +Phelipson of Elm-Cranlynch. + +Dornell passed on to Betty in the background and tenderly kissed her. +'Sting your mother's conscience, my maid!' he whispered. 'Sting her +conscience by pretending you are struck with Phelipson, and would ha' +loved him, as your old father's choice, much more than him she has forced +upon 'ee.' + +The simple-souled speaker fondly imagined that it as entirely in +obedience to this direction that Betty's eyes stole interested glances at +the frank and impulsive Phelipson that day at dinner, and he laughed +grimly within himself to see how this joke of his, as he imagined it to +be, was disturbing the peace of mind of the lady of the house. 'Now Sue +sees what a mistake she has made!' said he. + +Mrs. Dornell was verily greatly alarmed, and as soon as she could speak a +word with him alone she upbraided him. 'You ought not to have brought +him here. Oh Thomas, how could you be so thoughtless! Lord, don't you +see, dear, that what is done cannot be undone, and how all this foolery +jeopardizes her happiness with her husband? Until you interfered, and +spoke in her hearing about this Phelipson, she was as patient and as +willing as a lamb, and looked forward to Mr. Reynard's return with real +pleasure. Since her visit to Falls-Park she has been monstrous close- +mouthed and busy with her own thoughts. What mischief will you do? How +will it end?' + +'Own, then, that my man was best suited to her. I only brought him to +convince you.' + +'Yes, yes; I do admit it. But oh! do take him back again at once! Don't +keep him here! I fear she is even attracted by him already.' + +'Nonsense, Sue. 'Tis only a little trick to tease 'ee!' + +Nevertheless her motherly eye was not so likely to be deceived as his, +and if Betty were really only playing at being love-struck that day, she +played at it with the perfection of a Rosalind, and would have deceived +the best professors into a belief that it was no counterfeit. The +Squire, having obtained his victory, was quite ready to take back the too +attractive youth, and early in the afternoon they set out on their return +journey. + +A silent figure who rode behind them was as interested as Dornell in that +day's experiment. It was the staunch Tupcombe, who, with his eyes on the +Squire's and young Phelipson's backs, thought how well the latter would +have suited Betty, and how greatly the former had changed for the worse +during these last two or three years. He cursed his mistress as the +cause of the change. + +After this memorable visit to prove his point, the lives of the Dornell +couple flowed on quietly enough for the space of a twelvemonth, the +Squire for the most part remaining at Falls, and Betty passing and +repassing between them now and then, once or twice alarming her mother by +not driving home from her father's house till midnight. + +* * * * * + +The repose of King's-Hintock was broken by the arrival of a special +messenger. Squire Dornell had had an access of gout so violent as to be +serious. He wished to see Betty again: why had she not come for so long? + +Mrs. Dornell was extremely reluctant to take Betty in that direction too +frequently; but the girl was so anxious to go, her interests latterly +seeming to be so entirely bound up in Falls-Park and its neighbourhood, +that there was nothing to be done but to let her set out and accompany +her. + +Squire Dornell had been impatiently awaiting her arrival. They found him +very ill and irritable. It had been his habit to take powerful medicines +to drive away his enemy, and they had failed in their effect on this +occasion. + +The presence of his daughter, as usual, calmed him much, even while, as +usual too, it saddened him; for he could never forget that she had +disposed of herself for life in opposition to his wishes, though she had +secretly assured him that she would never have consented had she been as +old as she was now. + +As on a former occasion, his wife wished to speak to him alone about the +girl's future, the time now drawing nigh at which Reynard was expected to +come and claim her. He would have done so already, but he had been put +off by the earnest request of the young woman herself, which accorded +with that of her parents, on the score of her youth. Reynard had +deferentially submitted to their wishes in this respect, the +understanding between them having been that he would not visit her before +she was eighteen, except by the mutual consent of all parties. But this +could not go on much longer, and there was no doubt, from the tenor of +his last letter, that he would soon take possession of her whether or no. + +To be out of the sound of this delicate discussion Betty was accordingly +sent downstairs, and they soon saw her walking away into the shrubberies, +looking very pretty in her sweeping green gown, and flapping +broad-brimmed hat overhung with a feather. + +On returning to the subject, Mrs. Dornell found her husband's reluctance +to reply in the affirmative to Reynard's letter to be as great as ever. + +'She is three months short of eighteen!' he exclaimed. ''Tis too soon. I +won't hear of it! If I have to keep him off sword in hand, he shall not +have her yet.' + +'But, my dear Thomas,' she expostulated, 'consider if anything should +happen to you or to me, how much better it would be that she should be +settled in her home with him!' + +'I say it is too soon!' he argued, the veins of his forehead beginning to +swell. 'If he gets her this side o' Candlemas I'll challenge en--I'll +take my oath on't! I'll be back to King's-Hintock in two or three days, +and I'll not lose sight of her day or night!' + +She feared to agitate him further, and gave way, assuring him, in +obedience to his demand, that if Reynard should write again before he got +back, to fix a time for joining Betty, she would put the letter in her +husband's hands, and he should do as he chose. This was all that +required discussion privately, and Mrs. Dornell went to call in Betty, +hoping that she had not heard her father's loud tones. + +She had certainly not done so this time. Mrs. Dornell followed the path +along which she had seen Betty wandering, but went a considerable +distance without perceiving anything of her. The Squire's wife then +turned round to proceed to the other side of the house by a short cut +across the grass, when, to her surprise and consternation, she beheld the +object of her search sitting on the horizontal bough of a cedar, beside +her being a young man, whose arm was round her waist. He moved a little, +and she recognized him as young Phelipson. + +Alas, then, she was right. The so-called counterfeit love was real. What +Mrs. Dornell called her husband at that moment, for his folly in +originally throwing the young people together, it is not necessary to +mention. She decided in a moment not to let the lovers know that she had +seen them. She accordingly retreated, reached the front of the house by +another route, and called at the top of her voice from a window, 'Betty!' + +For the first time since her strategic marriage of the child, Susan +Dornell doubted the wisdom of that step. + +Her husband had, as it were, been assisted by destiny to make his +objection, originally trivial, a valid one. She saw the outlines of +trouble in the future. Why had Dornell interfered? Why had he insisted +upon producing his man? This, then, accounted for Betty's pleading for +postponement whenever the subject of her husband's return was broached; +this accounted for her attachment to Falls-Park. Possibly this very +meeting that she had witnessed had been arranged by letter. + +Perhaps the girl's thoughts would never have strayed for a moment if her +father had not filled her head with ideas of repugnance to her early +union, on the ground that she had been coerced into it before she knew +her own mind; and she might have rushed to meet her husband with open +arms on the appointed day. + +Betty at length appeared in the distance in answer to the call, and came +up pale, but looking innocent of having seen a living soul. Mrs. Dornell +groaned in spirit at such duplicity in the child of her bosom. This was +the simple creature for whose development into womanhood they had all +been so tenderly waiting--a forward minx, old enough not only to have a +lover, but to conceal his existence as adroitly as any woman of the +world! Bitterly did the Squire's lady regret that Stephen Reynard had +not been allowed to come to claim her at the time he first proposed. + +The two sat beside each other almost in silence on their journey back to +King's-Hintock. Such words as were spoken came mainly from Betty, and +their formality indicated how much her mind and heart were occupied with +other things. + +Mrs. Dornell was far too astute a mother to openly attack Betty on the +matter. That would be only fanning flame. The indispensable course +seemed to her to be that of keeping the treacherous girl under lock and +key till her husband came to take her off her mother's hands. That he +would disregard Dornell's opposition, and come soon, was her devout wish. + +It seemed, therefore, a fortunate coincidence that on her arrival at +King's-Hintock a letter from Reynard was put into Mrs. Dornell's hands. +It was addressed to both her and her husband, and courteously informed +them that the writer had landed at Bristol, and proposed to come on to +King's-Hintock in a few days, at last to meet and carry off his darling +Betty, if she and her parents saw no objection. + +Betty had also received a letter of the same tenor. Her mother had only +to look at her face to see how the girl received the information. She +was as pale as a sheet. + +'You must do your best to welcome him this time, my dear Betty,' her +mother said gently. + +'But--but--I--' + +'You are a woman now,' added her mother severely, 'and these +postponements must come to an end.' + +'But my father--oh, I am sure he will not allow this! I am not ready. If +he could only wait a year longer--if he could only wait a few months +longer! Oh, I wish--I wish my dear father were here! I will send to him +instantly.' She broke off abruptly, and falling upon her mother's neck, +burst into tears, saying, 'O my mother, have mercy upon me--I do not love +this man, my husband!' + +The agonized appeal went too straight to Mrs. Dornell's heart for her to +hear it unmoved. Yet, things having come to this pass, what could she +do? She was distracted, and for a moment was on Betty's side. Her +original thought had been to write an affirmative reply to Reynard, allow +him to come on to King's-Hintock, and keep her husband in ignorance of +the whole proceeding till he should arrive from Falls on some fine day +after his recovery, and find everything settled, and Reynard and Betty +living together in harmony. But the events of the day, and her +daughter's sudden outburst of feeling, had overthrown this intention. +Betty was sure to do as she had threatened, and communicate instantly +with her father, possibly attempt to fly to him. Moreover, Reynard's +letter was addressed to Mr. Dornell and herself conjointly, and she could +not in conscience keep it from her husband. + +'I will send the letter on to your father instantly,' she replied +soothingly. 'He shall act entirely as he chooses, and you know that will +not be in opposition to your wishes. He would ruin you rather than +thwart you. I only hope he may be well enough to bear the agitation of +this news. Do you agree to this?' + +Poor Betty agreed, on condition that she should actually witness the +despatch of the letter. Her mother had no objection to offer to this; +but as soon as the horseman had cantered down the drive toward the +highway, Mrs. Dornell's sympathy with Betty's recalcitration began to die +out. The girl's secret affection for young Phelipson could not possibly +be condoned. Betty might communicate with him, might even try to reach +him. Ruin lay that way. Stephen Reynard must be speedily installed in +his proper place by Betty's side. + +She sat down and penned a private letter to Reynard, which threw light +upon her plan. + +* * * * * + +'It is Necessary that I should now tell you,' she said, 'what I have +never Mentioned before--indeed I may have signified the Contrary--that +her Father's Objection to your joining her has not as yet been overcome. +As I personally Wish to delay you no longer--am indeed as anxious for +your Arrival as you can be yourself, having the good of my Daughter at +Heart--no course is left open to me but to assist your Cause without my +Husband's Knowledge. He, I am sorry to say, is at present ill at Falls- +Park, but I felt it my Duty to forward him your Letter. He will +therefore be like to reply with a peremptory Command to you to go back +again, for some Months, whence you came, till the Time he originally +stipulated has expir'd. My Advice is, if you get such a Letter, to take +no Notice of it, but to come on hither as you had proposed, letting me +know the Day and Hour (after dark, if possible) at which we may expect +you. Dear Betty is with me, and I warrant ye that she shall be in the +House when you arrive.' + +* * * * * + +Mrs. Dornell, having sent away this epistle unsuspected of anybody, next +took steps to prevent her daughter leaving the Court, avoiding if +possible to excite the girl's suspicions that she was under restraint. +But, as if by divination, Betty had seemed to read the husband's approach +in the aspect of her mother's face. + +'He is coming!' exclaimed the maiden. + +'Not for a week,' her mother assured her. + +'He is then--for certain?' + +'Well, yes.' + +Betty hastily retired to her room, and would not be seen. + +To lock her up, and hand over the key to Reynard when he should appear in +the hall, was a plan charming in its simplicity, till her mother found, +on trying the door of the girl's chamber softly, that Betty had already +locked and bolted it on the inside, and had given directions to have her +meals served where she was, by leaving them on a dumb-waiter outside the +door. + +Thereupon Mrs. Dornell noiselessly sat down in her boudoir, which, as +well as her bed-chamber, was a passage-room to the girl's apartment, and +she resolved not to vacate her post night or day till her daughter's +husband should appear, to which end she too arranged to breakfast, dine, +and sup on the spot. It was impossible now that Betty should escape +without her knowledge, even if she had wished, there being no other door +to the chamber, except one admitting to a small inner dressing-room +inaccessible by any second way. + +But it was plain that the young girl had no thought of escape. Her ideas +ran rather in the direction of intrenchment: she was prepared to stand a +siege, but scorned flight. This, at any rate, rendered her secure. As +to how Reynard would contrive a meeting with her coy daughter while in +such a defensive humour, that, thought her mother, must be left to his +own ingenuity to discover. + +Betty had looked so wild and pale at the announcement of her husband's +approaching visit, that Mrs. Dornell, somewhat uneasy, could not leave +her to herself. She peeped through the keyhole an hour later. Betty lay +on the sofa, staring listlessly at the ceiling. + +'You are looking ill, child,' cried her mother. 'You've not taken the +air lately. Come with me for a drive.' + +Betty made no objection. Soon they drove through the park towards the +village, the daughter still in the strained, strung-up silence that had +fallen upon her. They left the park to return by another route, and on +the open road passed a cottage. + +Betty's eye fell upon the cottage-window. Within it she saw a young girl +about her own age, whom she knew by sight, sitting in a chair and propped +by a pillow. The girl's face was covered with scales, which glistened in +the sun. She was a convalescent from smallpox--a disease whose +prevalence at that period was a terror of which we at present can hardly +form a conception. + +An idea suddenly energized Betty's apathetic features. She glanced at +her mother; Mrs. Dornell had been looking in the opposite direction. +Betty said that she wished to go back to the cottage for a moment to +speak to a girl in whom she took an interest. Mrs. Dornell appeared +suspicious, but observing that the cottage had no back-door, and that +Betty could not escape without being seen, she allowed the carriage to be +stopped. Betty ran back and entered the cottage, emerging again in about +a minute, and resuming her seat in the carriage. As they drove on she +fixed her eyes upon her mother and said, 'There, I have done it now!' Her +pale face was stormy, and her eyes full of waiting tears. + +'What have you done?' said Mrs. Dornell. + +'Nanny Priddle is sick of the smallpox, and I saw her at the window, and +I went in and kissed her, so that I might take it; and now I shall have +it, and he won't be able to come near me!' + +'Wicked girl!' cries her mother. 'Oh, what am I to do! What--bring a +distemper on yourself, and usurp the sacred prerogative of God, because +you can't palate the man you've wedded!' + +The alarmed woman gave orders to drive home as rapidly as possible, and +on arriving, Betty, who was by this time also somewhat frightened at her +own enormity, was put into a bath, and fumigated, and treated in every +way that could be thought of to ward off the dreadful malady that in a +rash moment she had tried to acquire. + +There was now a double reason for isolating the rebellious daughter and +wife in her own chamber, and there she accordingly remained for the rest +of the day and the days that followed; till no ill results seemed likely +to arise from her wilfulness. + +* * * * * + +Meanwhile the first letter from Reynard, announcing to Mrs. Dornell and +her husband jointly that he was coming in a few days, had sped on its way +to Falls-Park. It was directed under cover to Tupcombe, the confidential +servant, with instructions not to put it into his master's hands till he +had been refreshed by a good long sleep. Tupcombe much regretted his +commission, letters sent in this way always disturbing the Squire; but +guessing that it would be infinitely worse in the end to withhold the +news than to reveal it, he chose his time, which was early the next +morning, and delivered the missive. + +The utmost effect that Mrs. Dornell had anticipated from the message was +a peremptory order from her husband to Reynard to hold aloof a few months +longer. What the Squire really did was to declare that he would go +himself and confront Reynard at Bristol, and have it out with him there +by word of mouth. + +'But, master,' said Tupcombe, 'you can't. You cannot get out of bed.' + +'You leave the room, Tupcombe, and don't say "can't" before me! Have +Jerry saddled in an hour.' + +The long-tried Tupcombe thought his employer demented, so utterly +helpless was his appearance just then, and he went out reluctantly. No +sooner was he gone than the Squire, with great difficulty, stretched +himself over to a cabinet by the bedside, unlocked it, and took out a +small bottle. It contained a gout specific, against whose use he had +been repeatedly warned by his regular physician, but whose warning he now +cast to the winds. + +He took a double dose, and waited half an hour. It seemed to produce no +effect. He then poured out a treble dose, swallowed it, leant back upon +his pillow, and waited. The miracle he anticipated had been worked at +last. It seemed as though the second draught had not only operated with +its own strength, but had kindled into power the latent forces of the +first. He put away the bottle, and rang up Tupcombe. + +Less than an hour later one of the housemaids, who of course was quite +aware that the Squire's illness was serious, was surprised to hear a bold +and decided step descending the stairs from the direction of Mr. +Dornell's room, accompanied by the humming of a tune. She knew that the +doctor had not paid a visit that morning, and that it was too heavy to be +the valet or any other man-servant. Looking up, she saw Squire Dornell +fully dressed, descending toward her in his drab caped riding-coat and +boots, with the swinging easy movement of his prime. Her face expressed +her amazement. + +'What the devil beest looking at?' said the Squire. 'Did you never see a +man walk out of his house before, wench?' + +Resuming his humming--which was of a defiant sort--he proceeded to the +library, rang the bell, asked if the horses were ready, and directed them +to be brought round. Ten minutes later he rode away in the direction of +Bristol, Tupcombe behind him, trembling at what these movements might +portend. + +They rode on through the pleasant woodlands and the monotonous straight +lanes at an equal pace. The distance traversed might have been about +fifteen miles when Tupcombe could perceive that the Squire was getting +tired--as weary as he would have been after riding three times the +distance ten years before. However, they reached Bristol without any +mishap, and put up at the Squire's accustomed inn. Dornell almost +immediately proceeded on foot to the inn which Reynard had given as his +address, it being now about four o'clock. + +Reynard had already dined--for people dined early then--and he was +staying indoors. He had already received Mrs. Dornell's reply to his +letter; but before acting upon her advice and starting for King's-Hintock +he made up his mind to wait another day, that Betty's father might at +least have time to write to him if so minded. The returned traveller +much desired to obtain the Squire's assent, as well as his wife's, to the +proposed visit to his bride, that nothing might seem harsh or forced in +his method of taking his position as one of the family. But though he +anticipated some sort of objection from his father-in-law, in consequence +of Mrs. Dornell's warning, he was surprised at the announcement of the +Squire in person. + +Stephen Reynard formed the completest of possible contrasts to Dornell as +they stood confronting each other in the best parlour of the Bristol +tavern. The Squire, hot-tempered, gouty, impulsive, generous, reckless; +the younger man, pale, tall, sedate, self-possessed--a man of the world, +fully bearing out at least one couplet in his epitaph, still extant in +King's-Hintock church, which places in the inventory of his good +qualities + + 'Engaging Manners, cultivated Mind, + Adorn'd by Letters, and in Courts refin'd.' + +He was at this time about five-and-thirty, though careful living and an +even, unemotional temperament caused him to look much younger than his +years. + +Squire Dornell plunged into his errand without much ceremony or preface. + +'I am your humble servant, sir,' he said. 'I have read your letter writ +to my wife and myself, and considered that the best way to answer it +would be to do so in person.' + +'I am vastly honoured by your visit, sir,' said Mr. Stephen Reynard, +bowing. + +'Well, what's done can't be undone,' said Dornell, 'though it was mighty +early, and was no doing of mine. She's your wife; and there's an end +on't. But in brief, sir, she's too young for you to claim yet; we +mustn't reckon by years; we must reckon by nature. She's still a girl; +'tis onpolite of 'ee to come yet; next year will be full soon enough for +you to take her to you.' + +Now, courteous as Reynard could be, he was a little obstinate when his +resolution had once been formed. She had been promised him by her +eighteenth birthday at latest--sooner if she were in robust health. Her +mother had fixed the time on her own judgment, without a word of +interference on his part. He had been hanging about foreign courts till +he was weary. Betty was now as woman, if she would ever be one, and +there was not, in his mind, the shadow of an excuse for putting him off +longer. Therefore, fortified as he was by the support of her mother, he +blandly but firmly told the Squire that he had been willing to waive his +rights, out of deference to her parents, to any reasonable extent, but +must now, in justice to himself and her insist on maintaining them. He +therefore, since she had not come to meet him, should proceed to King's- +Hintock in a few days to fetch her. + +This announcement, in spite of the urbanity with which it was delivered, +set Dornell in a passion. + +'Oh dammy, sir; you talk about rights, you do, after stealing her away, a +mere child, against my will and knowledge! If we'd begged and prayed 'ee +to take her, you could say no more.' + +'Upon my honour, your charge is quite baseless, sir,' said his son-in- +law. 'You must know by this time--or if you do not, it has been a +monstrous cruel injustice to me that I should have been allowed to remain +in your mind with such a stain upon my character--you must know that I +used no seductiveness or temptation of any kind. Her mother assented; +she assented. I took them at their word. That you was really opposed to +the marriage was not known to me till afterwards.' + +Dornell professed to believe not a word of it. 'You sha'n't have her +till she's dree sixes full--no maid ought to be married till she's dree +sixes!--and my daughter sha'n't be treated out of nater!' So he stormed +on till Tupcombe, who had been alarmedly listening in the next room, +entered suddenly, declaring to Reynard that his master's life was in +danger if the interview were prolonged, he being subject to apoplectic +strokes at these crises. Reynard immediately said that he would be the +last to wish to injure Squire Dornell, and left the room, and as soon as +the Squire had recovered breath and equanimity, he went out of the inn, +leaning on the arm of Tupcombe. + +Tupcombe was for sleeping in Bristol that night, but Dornell, whose +energy seemed as invincible as it was sudden, insisted upon mounting and +getting back as far as Falls-Park, to continue the journey to +King's-Hintock on the following day. At five they started, and took the +southern road toward the Mendip Hills. The evening was dry and windy, +and, excepting that the sun did not shine, strongly reminded Tupcombe of +the evening of that March month, nearly five years earlier, when news had +been brought to King's-Hintock Court of the child Betty's marriage in +London--news which had produced upon Dornell such a marked effect for the +worse ever since, and indirectly upon the household of which he was the +head. Before that time the winters were lively at Falls-Park, as well as +at King's-Hintock, although the Squire had ceased to make it his regular +residence. Hunting-guests and shooting-guests came and went, and open +house was kept. Tupcombe disliked the clever courtier who had put a stop +to this by taking away from the Squire the only treasure he valued. + +It grew darker with their progress along the lanes, and Tupcombe +discovered from Mr. Dornell's manner of riding that his strength was +giving way; and spurring his own horse close alongside, he asked him how +he felt. + +'Oh, bad; damn bad, Tupcombe! I can hardly keep my seat. I shall never +be any better, I fear! Have we passed Three-Man-Gibbet yet?' + +'Not yet by a long ways, sir.' + +'I wish we had. I can hardly hold on.' The Squire could not repress a +groan now and then, and Tupcombe knew he was in great pain. 'I wish I +was underground--that's the place for such fools as I! I'd gladly be +there if it were not for Mistress Betty. He's coming on to +King's-Hintock to-morrow--he won't put it off any longer; he'll set out +and reach there to-morrow night, without stopping at Falls; and he'll +take her unawares, and I want to be there before him.' + +'I hope you may be well enough to do it, sir. But really--' + +'I _must_, Tupcombe! You don't know what my trouble is; it is not so +much that she is married to this man without my agreeing--for, after all, +there's nothing to say against him, so far as I know; but that she don't +take to him at all, seems to fear him--in fact, cares nothing about him; +and if he comes forcing himself into the house upon her, why, 'twill be +rank cruelty. Would to the Lord something would happen to prevent him!' + +How they reached home that night Tupcombe hardly knew. The Squire was in +such pain that he was obliged to recline upon his horse, and Tupcombe was +afraid every moment lest he would fall into the road. But they did reach +home at last, and Mr. Dornell was instantly assisted to bed. + +* * * * * + +Next morning it was obvious that he could not possibly go to +King's-Hintock for several days at least, and there on the bed he lay, +cursing his inability to proceed on an errand so personal and so delicate +that no emissary could perform it. What he wished to do was to ascertain +from Betty's own lips if her aversion to Reynard was so strong that his +presence would be positively distasteful to her. Were that the case, he +would have borne her away bodily on the saddle behind him. + +But all that was hindered now, and he repeated a hundred times in +Tupcombe's hearing, and in that of the nurse and other servants, 'I wish +to God something would happen to him!' + +This sentiment, reiterated by the Squire as he tossed in the agony +induced by the powerful drugs of the day before, entered sharply into the +soul of Tupcombe and of all who were attached to the house of Dornell, as +distinct from the house of his wife at King's-Hintock. Tupcombe, who was +an excitable man, was hardly less disquieted by the thought of Reynard's +return than the Squire himself was. As the week drew on, and the +afternoon advanced at which Reynard would in all probability be passing +near Falls on his way to the Court, the Squire's feelings became acuter, +and the responsive Tupcombe could hardly bear to come near him. Having +left him in the hands of the doctor, the former went out upon the lawn, +for he could hardly breathe in the contagion of excitement caught from +the employer who had virtually made him his confidant. He had lived with +the Dornells from his boyhood, had been born under the shadow of their +walls; his whole life was annexed and welded to the life of the family in +a degree which has no counterpart in these latter days. + +He was summoned indoors, and learnt that it had been decided to send for +Mrs. Dornell: her husband was in great danger. There were two or three +who could have acted as messenger, but Dornell wished Tupcombe to go, the +reason showing itself when, Tupcombe being ready to start, Squire Dornell +summoned him to his chamber and leaned down so that he could whisper in +his ear: + +'Put Peggy along smart, Tupcombe, and get there before him, you +know--before him. This is the day he fixed. He has not passed Falls +cross-roads yet. If you can do that you will be able to get Betty to +come--d'ye see?--after her mother has started; she'll have a reason for +not waiting for him. Bring her by the lower road--he'll go by the upper. +Your business is to make 'em miss each other--d'ye see?--but that's a +thing I couldn't write down.' + +Five minutes after, Tupcombe was astride the horse and on his way--the +way he had followed so many times since his master, a florid young +countryman, had first gone wooing to King's-Hintock Court. As soon as he +had crossed the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of the manor, the +road lay over a plain, where it ran in long straight stretches for +several miles. In the best of times, when all had been gay in the united +houses, that part of the road had seemed tedious. It was gloomy in the +extreme now that he pursued it, at night and alone, on such an errand. + +He rode and brooded. If the Squire were to die, he, Tupcombe, would be +alone in the world and friendless, for he was no favourite with Mrs. +Dornell; and to find himself baffled, after all, in what he had set his +mind on, would probably kill the Squire. Thinking thus, Tupcombe stopped +his horse every now and then, and listened for the coming husband. The +time was drawing on to the moment when Reynard might be expected to pass +along this very route. He had watched the road well during the +afternoon, and had inquired of the tavern-keepers as he came up to each, +and he was convinced that the premature descent of the stranger-husband +upon his young mistress had not been made by this highway as yet. + +Besides the girl's mother, Tupcombe was the only member of the household +who suspected Betty's tender feelings towards young Phelipson, so +unhappily generated on her return from school; and he could therefore +imagine, even better than her fond father, what would be her emotions on +the sudden announcement of Reynard's advent that evening at +King's-Hintock Court. + +So he rode and rode, desponding and hopeful by turns. He felt assured +that, unless in the unfortunate event of the almost immediate arrival of +her son-in law at his own heels, Mrs. Dornell would not be able to hinder +Betty's departure for her father's bedside. + +It was about nine o'clock that, having put twenty miles of country behind +him, he turned in at the lodge-gate nearest to Ivell and King's-Hintock +village, and pursued the long north drive--itself much like a turnpike +road--which led thence through the park to the Court. Though there were +so many trees in King's-Hintock park, few bordered the carriage roadway; +he could see it stretching ahead in the pale night light like an unrolled +deal shaving. Presently the irregular frontage of the house came in +view, of great extent, but low, except where it rose into the outlines of +a broad square tower. + +As Tupcombe approached he rode aside upon the grass, to make sure, if +possible, that he was the first comer, before letting his presence be +known. The Court was dark and sleepy, in no respect as if a bridegroom +were about to arrive. + +While pausing he distinctly heard the tread of a horse upon the track +behind him, and for a moment despaired of arriving in time: here, surely, +was Reynard! Pulling up closer to the densest tree at hand he waited, +and found he had retreated nothing too soon, for the second rider avoided +the gravel also, and passed quite close to him. In the profile he +recognized young Phelipson. + +Before Tupcombe could think what to do, Phelipson had gone on; but not to +the door of the house. Swerving to the left, he passed round to the east +angle, where, as Tupcombe knew, were situated Betty's apartments. +Dismounting, he left the horse tethered to a hanging bough, and walked on +to the house. + +Suddenly his eye caught sight of an object which explained the position +immediately. It was a ladder stretching from beneath the trees, which +there came pretty close to the house, up to a first-floor window--one +which lighted Miss Betty's rooms. Yes, it was Betty's chamber; he knew +every room in the house well. + +The young horseman who had passed him, having evidently left his steed +somewhere under the trees also, was perceptible at the top of the ladder, +immediately outside Betty's window. While Tupcombe watched, a cloaked +female figure stepped timidly over the sill, and the two cautiously +descended, one before the other, the young man's arms enclosing the young +woman between his grasp of the ladder, so that she could not fall. As +soon as they reached the bottom, young Phelipson quickly removed the +ladder and hid it under the bushes. The pair disappeared; till, in a few +minutes, Tupcombe could discern a horse emerging from a remoter part of +the umbrage. The horse carried double, the girl being on a pillion +behind her lover. + +Tupcombe hardly knew what to do or think; yet, though this was not +exactly the kind of flight that had been intended, she had certainly +escaped. He went back to his own animal, and rode round to the servants' +door, where he delivered the letter for Mrs. Dornell. To leave a verbal +message for Betty was now impossible. + +The Court servants desired him to stay over the night, but he would not +do so, desiring to get back to the Squire as soon as possible and tell +what he had seen. Whether he ought not to have intercepted the young +people, and carried off Betty himself to her father, he did not know. +However, it was too late to think of that now, and without wetting his +lips or swallowing a crumb, Tupcombe turned his back upon King's-Hintock +Court. + +It was not till he had advanced a considerable distance on his way +homeward that, halting under the lantern of a roadside-inn while the +horse was watered, there came a traveller from the opposite direction in +a hired coach; the lantern lit the stranger's face as he passed along and +dropped into the shade. Tupcombe exulted for the moment, though he could +hardly have justified his exultation. The belated traveller was Reynard; +and another had stepped in before him. + +You may now be willing to know of the fortunes of Miss Betty. Left much +to herself through the intervening days, she had ample time to brood over +her desperate attempt at the stratagem of infection--thwarted, +apparently, by her mother's promptitude. In what other way to gain time +she could not think. Thus drew on the day and the hour of the evening on +which her husband was expected to announce himself. + +At some period after dark, when she could not tell, a tap at the window, +twice and thrice repeated, became audible. It caused her to start up, +for the only visitant in her mind was the one whose advances she had so +feared as to risk health and life to repel them. She crept to the +window, and heard a whisper without. + +'It is I--Charley,' said the voice. + +Betty's face fired with excitement. She had latterly begun to doubt her +admirer's staunchness, fancying his love to be going off in mere +attentions which neither committed him nor herself very deeply. She +opened the window, saying in a joyous whisper, 'Oh Charley; I thought you +had deserted me quite!' + +He assured her he had not done that, and that he had a horse in waiting, +if she would ride off with him. 'You must come quickly,' he said; 'for +Reynard's on the way!' + +To throw a cloak round herself was the work of a moment, and assuring +herself that her door was locked against a surprise, she climbed over the +window-sill and descended with him as we have seen. + +Her mother meanwhile, having received Tupcombe's note, found the news of +her husband's illness so serious, as to displace her thoughts of the +coming son-in-law, and she hastened to tell her daughter of the Squire's +dangerous condition, thinking it might be desirable to take her to her +father's bedside. On trying the door of the girl's room, she found it +still locked. Mrs. Dornell called, but there was no answer. Full of +misgivings, she privately fetched the old house-steward and bade him +burst open the door--an order by no means easy to execute, the joinery of +the Court being massively constructed. However, the lock sprang open at +last, and she entered Betty's chamber only to find the window unfastened +and the bird flown. + +For a moment Mrs. Dornell was staggered. Then it occurred to her that +Betty might have privately obtained from Tupcombe the news of her +father's serious illness, and, fearing she might be kept back to meet her +husband, have gone off with that obstinate and biassed servitor to Falls- +Park. The more she thought it over the more probable did the supposition +appear; and binding her own head-man to secrecy as to Betty's movements, +whether as she conjectured, or otherwise, Mrs. Dornell herself prepared +to set out. + +She had no suspicion how seriously her husband's malady had been +aggravated by his ride to Bristol, and thought more of Betty's affairs +than of her own. That Betty's husband should arrive by some other road +to-night, and find neither wife nor mother-in-law to receive him, and no +explanation of their absence, was possible; but never forgetting chances, +Mrs. Dornell as she journeyed kept her eyes fixed upon the highway on the +off-side, where, before she had reached the town of Ivell, the hired +coach containing Stephen Reynard flashed into the lamplight of her own +carriage. + +Mrs. Dornell's coachman pulled up, in obedience to a direction she had +given him at starting; the other coach was hailed, a few words passed, +and Reynard alighted and came to Mrs. Dornell's carriage-window. + +'Come inside,' says she. 'I want to speak privately to you. Why are you +so late?' + +'One hindrance and another,' says he. 'I meant to be at the Court by +eight at latest. My gratitude for your letter. I hope--' + +'You must not try to see Betty yet,' said she. 'There be far other and +newer reasons against your seeing her now than there were when I wrote.' + +The circumstances were such that Mrs. Dornell could not possibly conceal +them entirely; nothing short of knowing some of the facts would prevent +his blindly acting in a manner which might be fatal to the future. +Moreover, there are times when deeper intriguers than Mrs. Dornell feel +that they must let out a few truths, if only in self-indulgence. So she +told so much of recent surprises as that Betty's heart had been attracted +by another image than his, and that his insisting on visiting her now +might drive the girl to desperation. 'Betty has, in fact, rushed off to +her father to avoid you,' she said. 'But if you wait she will soon +forget this young man, and you will have nothing to fear.' + +As a woman and a mother she could go no further, and Betty's desperate +attempt to infect herself the week before as a means of repelling him, +together with the alarming possibility that, after all, she had not gone +to her father but to her lover, was not revealed. + +'Well,' sighed the diplomatist, in a tone unexpectedly quiet, 'such +things have been known before. After all, she may prefer me to him some +day, when she reflects how very differently I might have acted than I am +going to act towards her. But I'll say no more about that now. I can +have a bed at your house for to-night?' + +'To-night, certainly. And you leave to-morrow morning early?' She spoke +anxiously, for on no account did she wish him to make further +discoveries. 'My husband is so seriously ill,' she continued, 'that my +absence and Betty's on your arrival is naturally accounted for.' + +He promised to leave early, and to write to her soon. 'And when I think +the time is ripe,' he said, 'I'll write to her. I may have something to +tell her that will bring her to graciousness.' + +It was about one o'clock in the morning when Mrs. Dornell reached Falls- +Park. A double blow awaited her there. Betty had not arrived; her +flight had been elsewhither; and her stricken mother divined with whom. +She ascended to the bedside of her husband, where to her concern she +found that the physician had given up all hope. The Squire was sinking, +and his extreme weakness had almost changed his character, except in the +particular that his old obstinacy sustained him in a refusal to see a +clergyman. He shed tears at the least word, and sobbed at the sight of +his wife. He asked for Betty, and it was with a heavy heart that Mrs. +Dornell told him that the girl had not accompanied her. + +'He is not keeping her away?' + +'No, no. He is going back--he is not coming to her for some time.' + +'Then what is detaining her--cruel, neglectful maid!' + +'No, no, Thomas; she is-- She could not come.' + +'How's that?' + +Somehow the solemnity of these last moments of his gave him inquisitorial +power, and the too cold wife could not conceal from him the flight which +had taken place from King's-Hintock that night. + +To her amazement, the effect upon him was electrical. + +'What--Betty--a trump after all? Hurrah! She's her father's own maid! +She's game! She knew he was her father's own choice! She vowed that my +man should win! Well done, Bet!--haw! haw! Hurrah!' + +He had raised himself in bed by starts as he spoke, and now fell back +exhausted. He never uttered another word, and died before the dawn. +People said there had not been such an ungenteel death in a good county +family for years. + +* * * * * + +Now I will go back to the time of Betty's riding off on the pillion +behind her lover. They left the park by an obscure gate to the east, and +presently found themselves in the lonely and solitary length of the old +Roman road now called Long-Ash Lane. + +By this time they were rather alarmed at their own performance, for they +were both young and inexperienced. Hence they proceeded almost in +silence till they came to a mean roadside inn which was not yet closed; +when Betty, who had held on to him with much misgiving all this while, +felt dreadfully unwell, and said she thought she would like to get down. + +They accordingly dismounted from the jaded animal that had brought them, +and were shown into a small dark parlour, where they stood side by side +awkwardly, like the fugitives they were. A light was brought, and when +they were left alone Betty threw off the cloak which had enveloped her. +No sooner did young Phelipson see her face than he uttered an alarmed +exclamation. + +'Why, Lord, Lord, you are sickening for the small-pox!' he cried. + +'Oh--I forgot!' faltered Betty. And then she informed him that, on +hearing of her husband's approach the week before, in a desperate attempt +to keep him from her side, she had tried to imbibe the infection--an act +which till this moment she had supposed to have been ineffectual, +imagining her feverishness to be the result of her excitement. + +The effect of this discovery upon young Phelipson was overwhelming. +Better-seasoned men than he would not have been proof against it, and he +was only a little over her own age. 'And you've been holding on to me!' +he said. 'And suppose you get worse, and we both have it, what shall we +do? Won't you be a fright in a month or two, poor, poor Betty!' + +In his horror he attempted to laugh, but the laugh ended in a weakly +giggle. She was more woman than girl by this time, and realized his +feeling. + +'What--in trying to keep off him, I keep off you?' she said miserably. +'Do you hate me because I am going to be ugly and ill?' + +'Oh--no, no!' he said soothingly. 'But I--I am thinking if it is quite +right for us to do this. You see, dear Betty, if you was not married it +would be different. You are not in honour married to him we've often +said; still you are his by law, and you can't be mine whilst he's alive. +And with this terrible sickness coming on, perhaps you had better let me +take you back, and--climb in at the window again.' + +'Is _this_ your love?' said Betty reproachfully. 'Oh, if you was +sickening for the plague itself, and going to be as ugly as the Ooser in +the church-vestry, I wouldn't--' + +'No, no, you mistake, upon my soul!' + +But Betty with a swollen heart had rewrapped herself and gone out of the +door. The horse was still standing there. She mounted by the help of +the upping-stock, and when he had followed her she said, 'Do not come +near me, Charley; but please lead the horse, so that if you've not caught +anything already you'll not catch it going back. After all, what keeps +off you may keep off him. Now onward.' + +He did not resist her command, and back they went by the way they had +come, Betty shedding bitter tears at the retribution she had already +brought upon herself; for though she had reproached Phelipson, she was +staunch enough not to blame him in her secret heart for showing that his +love was only skin-deep. The horse was stopped in the plantation, and +they walked silently to the lawn, reaching the bushes wherein the ladder +still lay. + +'Will you put it up for me?' she asked mournfully. + +He re-erected the ladder without a word; but when she approached to +ascend he said, 'Good-bye, Betty!' + +'Good-bye!' said she; and involuntarily turned her face towards his. He +hung back from imprinting the expected kiss: at which Betty started as if +she had received a poignant wound. She moved away so suddenly that he +hardly had time to follow her up the ladder to prevent her falling. + +'Tell your mother to get the doctor at once!' he said anxiously. + +She stepped in without looking behind; he descended, withdrew the ladder, +and went away. + +Alone in her chamber, Betty flung herself upon her face on the bed, and +burst into shaking sobs. Yet she would not admit to herself that her +lover's conduct was unreasonable; only that her rash act of the previous +week had been wrong. No one had heard her enter, and she was too worn +out, in body and mind, to think or care about medical aid. In an hour or +so she felt yet more unwell, positively ill; and nobody coming to her at +the usual bedtime, she looked towards the door. Marks of the lock having +been forced were visible, and this made her chary of summoning a servant. +She opened the door cautiously and sallied forth downstairs. + +In the dining-parlour, as it was called, the now sick and sorry Betty was +startled to see at that late hour not her mother, but a man sitting, +calmly finishing his supper. There was no servant in the room. He +turned, and she recognized her husband. + +'Where's my mamma?' she demanded without preface. + +'Gone to your father's. Is that--' He stopped, aghast. + +'Yes, sir. This spotted object is your wife! I've done it because I +don't want you to come near me!' + +He was sixteen years her senior; old enough to be compassionate. 'My +poor child, you must get to bed directly! Don't be afraid of me--I'll +carry you upstairs, and send for a doctor instantly.' + +'Ah, you don't know what I am!' she cried. 'I had a lover once; but now +he's gone! 'Twasn't I who deserted him. He has deserted me; because I +am ill he wouldn't kiss me, though I wanted him to!' + +'Wouldn't he? Then he was a very poor slack-twisted sort of fellow. +Betty, _I've_ never kissed you since you stood beside me as my little +wife, twelve years and a half old! May I kiss you now?' + +Though Betty by no means desired his kisses, she had enough of the spirit +of Cunigonde in Schiller's ballad to test his daring. 'If you have +courage to venture, yes sir!' said she. 'But you may die for it, mind!' + +He came up to her and imprinted a deliberate kiss full upon her mouth, +saying, 'May many others follow!' + +She shook her head, and hastily withdrew, though secretly pleased at his +hardihood. The excitement had supported her for the few minutes she had +passed in his presence, and she could hardly drag herself back to her +room. Her husband summoned the servants, and, sending them to her +assistance, went off himself for a doctor. + +The next morning Reynard waited at the Court till he had learnt from the +medical man that Betty's attack promised to be a very light one--or, as +it was expressed, 'very fine'; and in taking his leave sent up a note to +her: + +'Now I must be Gone. I promised your Mother I would not see You yet, and +she may be anger'd if she finds me here. Promise to see me as Soon as +you are well?' + +He was of all men then living one of the best able to cope with such an +untimely situation as this. A contriving, sagacious, gentle-mannered +man, a philosopher who saw that the only constant attribute of life is +change, he held that, as long as she lives, there is nothing finite in +the most impassioned attitude a woman may take up. In twelve months his +girl-wife's recent infatuation might be as distasteful to her mind as it +was now to his own. In a few years her very flesh would change--so said +the scientific;--her spirit, so much more ephemeral, was capable of +changing in one. Betty was his, and it became a mere question of means +how to effect that change. + +During the day Mrs. Dornell, having closed her husband's eyes, returned +to the Court. She was truly relieved to find Betty there, even though on +a bed of sickness. The disease ran its course, and in due time Betty +became convalescent, without having suffered deeply for her rashness, one +little speck beneath her ear, and one beneath her chin, being all the +marks she retained. + +The Squire's body was not brought back to King's-Hintock. Where he was +born, and where he had lived before wedding his Sue, there he had wished +to be buried. No sooner had she lost him than Mrs. Dornell, like certain +other wives, though she had never shown any great affection for him while +he lived, awoke suddenly to his many virtues, and zealously embraced his +opinion about delaying Betty's union with her husband, which she had +formerly combated strenuously. 'Poor man! how right he was, and how +wrong was I!' Eighteen was certainly the lowest age at which Mr. Reynard +should claim her child--nay, it was too low! Far too low! + +So desirous was she of honouring her lamented husband's sentiments in +this respect, that she wrote to her son-in-law suggesting that, partly on +account of Betty's sorrow for her father's loss, and out of consideration +for his known wishes for delay, Betty should not be taken from her till +her nineteenth birthday. + +However much or little Stephen Reynard might have been to blame in his +marriage, the patient man now almost deserved to be pitied. First +Betty's skittishness; now her mother's remorseful _volte-face_: it was +enough to exasperate anybody; and he wrote to the widow in a tone which +led to a little coolness between those hitherto firm friends. However, +knowing that he had a wife not to claim but to win, and that young +Phelipson had been packed off to sea by his parents, Stephen was +complaisant to a degree, returning to London, and holding quite aloof +from Betty and her mother, who remained for the present in the country. +In town he had a mild visitation of the distemper he had taken from +Betty, and in writing to her he took care not to dwell upon its mildness. +It was now that Betty began to pity him for what she had inflicted upon +him by the kiss, and her correspondence acquired a distinct flavour of +kindness thenceforward. + +Owing to his rebuffs, Reynard had grown to be truly in love with Betty in +his mild, placid, durable way--in that way which perhaps, upon the whole, +tends most generally to the woman's comfort under the institution of +marriage, if not particularly to her ecstasy. Mrs. Dornell's +exaggeration of her husband's wish for delay in their living together was +inconvenient, but he would not openly infringe it. He wrote tenderly to +Betty, and soon announced that he had a little surprise in store for her. +The secret was that the King had been graciously pleased to inform him +privately, through a relation, that His Majesty was about to offer him a +Barony. Would she like the title to be Ivell? Moreover, he had reason +for knowing that in a few years the dignity would be raised to that of an +Earl, for which creation he thought the title of Wessex would be +eminently suitable, considering the position of much of their property. +As Lady Ivell, therefore, and future Countess of Wessex, he should beg +leave to offer her his heart a third time. + +He did not add, as he might have added, how greatly the consideration of +the enormous estates at King's-Hintock and elsewhere which Betty would +inherit, and her children after her, had conduced to this desirable +honour. + +Whether the impending titles had really any effect upon Betty's regard +for him I cannot state, for she was one of those close characters who +never let their minds be known upon anything. That such honour was +absolutely unexpected by her from such a quarter is, however, certain; +and she could not deny that Stephen had shown her kindness, forbearance, +even magnanimity; had forgiven her for an errant passion which he might +with some reason have denounced, notwithstanding her cruel position as a +child entrapped into marriage ere able to understand its bearings. + +Her mother, in her grief and remorse for the loveless life she had led +with her rough, though open-hearted, husband, made now a creed of his +merest whim; and continued to insist that, out of respect to his known +desire, her son-in-law should not reside with Betty till the girl's +father had been dead a year at least, at which time the girl would still +be under nineteen. Letters must suffice for Stephen till then. + +'It is rather long for him to wait,' Betty hesitatingly said one day. + +'What!' said her mother. 'From _you_? not to respect your dear father--' + +'Of course it is quite proper,' said Betty hastily. 'I don't gainsay it. +I was but thinking that--that--' + +In the long slow months of the stipulated interval her mother tended and +trained Betty carefully for her duties. Fully awake now to the many +virtues of her dear departed one, she, among other acts of pious devotion +to his memory, rebuilt the church of King's-Hintock village, and +established valuable charities in all the villages of that name, as far +as to Little-Hintock, several miles eastward. + +In superintending these works, particularly that of the church-building, +her daughter Betty was her constant companion, and the incidents of their +execution were doubtless not without a soothing effect upon the young +creature's heart. She had sprung from girl to woman by a sudden bound, +and few would have recognized in the thoughtful face of Betty now the +same person who, the year before, had seemed to have absolutely no idea +whatever of responsibility, moral or other. Time passed thus till the +Squire had been nearly a year in his vault; and Mrs. Dornell was duly +asked by letter by the patient Reynard if she were willing for him to +come soon. He did not wish to take Betty away if her mother's sense of +loneliness would be too great, but would willingly live at King's-Hintock +awhile with them. + +Before the widow had replied to this communication, she one day happened +to observe Betty walking on the south terrace in the full sunlight, +without hat or mantle, and was struck by her child's figure. Mrs. +Dornell called her in, and said suddenly: 'Have you seen your husband +since the time of your poor father's death?' + +'Well--yes, mamma,' says Betty, colouring. + +'What--against my wishes and those of your dear father! I am shocked at +your disobedience!' + +'But my father said eighteen, ma'am, and you made it much longer--' + +'Why, of course--out of consideration for you! When have ye seen him?' + +'Well,' stammered Betty, 'in the course of his letters to me he said that +I belonged to him, and if nobody knew that we met it would make no +difference. And that I need not hurt your feelings by telling you.' + +'Well?' + +'So I went to Casterbridge that time you went to London about five months +ago--' + +'And met him there? When did you come back?' + +'Dear mamma, it grew very late, and he said it was safer not to go back +till next day, as the roads were bad; and as you were away from home--' + +'I don't want to hear any more! This is your respect for your father's +memory,' groaned the widow. 'When did you meet him again?' + +'Oh--not for more than a fortnight.' + +'A fortnight! How many times have ye seen him altogether?' + +'I'm sure, mamma, I've not seen him altogether a dozen times.' + +'A dozen! And eighteen and a half years old barely!' + +'Twice we met by accident,' pleaded Betty. 'Once at Abbot's-Cernel, and +another time at the Red Lion, Melchester.' + +'O thou deceitful girl!' cried Mrs. Dornell. 'An accident took you to +the Red Lion whilst I was staying at the White Hart! I remember--you +came in at twelve o'clock at night and said you'd been to see the +cathedral by the light o' the moon!' + +'My ever-honoured mamma, so I had! I only went to the Red Lion with him +afterwards.' + +'Oh Betty, Betty! That my child should have deceived me even in my +widowed days!' + +'But, my dearest mamma, you made me marry him!' says Betty with spirit, +'and of course I've to obey him more than you now!' + +Mrs. Dornell sighed. 'All I have to say is, that you'd better get your +husband to join you as soon as possible,' she remarked. 'To go on +playing the maiden like this--I'm ashamed to see you!' + +She wrote instantly to Stephen Reynard: 'I wash my hands of the whole +matter as between you two; though I should advise you to _openly_ join +each other as soon as you can--if you wish to avoid scandal.' + +He came, though not till the promised title had been granted, and he +could call Betty archly 'My Lady.' + +People said in after years that she and her husband were very happy. +However that may be, they had a numerous family; and she became in due +course first Countess of Wessex, as he had foretold. + +The little white frock in which she had been married to him at the tender +age of twelve was carefully preserved among the relics at King's-Hintock +Court, where it may still be seen by the curious--a yellowing, pathetic +testimony to the small count taken of the happiness of an innocent child +in the social strategy of those days, which might have led, but +providentially did not lead, to great unhappiness. + +When the Earl died Betty wrote him an epitaph, in which she described him +as the best of husbands, fathers, and friends, and called herself his +disconsolate widow. + +Such is woman; or rather (not to give offence by so sweeping an +assertion), such was Betty Dornell. + +* * * * * + +It was at a meeting of one of the Wessex Field and Antiquarian Clubs that +the foregoing story, partly told, partly read from a manuscript, was made +to do duty for the regulation papers on deformed butterflies, fossil ox- +horns, prehistoric dung-mixens, and such like, that usually occupied the +more serious attention of the members. + +This Club was of an inclusive and intersocial character; to a degree, +indeed, remarkable for the part of England in which it had its +being--dear, delightful Wessex, whose statuesque dynasties are even now +only just beginning to feel the shaking of the new and strange spirit +without, like that which entered the lonely valley of Ezekiel's vision +and made the dry bones move: where the honest squires, tradesmen, +parsons, clerks, and people still praise the Lord with one voice for His +best of all possible worlds. + +The present meeting, which was to extend over two days, had opened its +proceedings at the museum of the town whose buildings and environs were +to be visited by the members. Lunch had ended, and the afternoon +excursion had been about to be undertaken, when the rain came down in an +obstinate spatter, which revealed no sign of cessation. As the members +waited they grew chilly, although it was only autumn, and a fire was +lighted, which threw a cheerful shine upon the varnished skulls, urns, +penates, tesserae, costumes, coats of mail, weapons, and missals, +animated the fossilized ichthyosaurus and iguanodon; while the dead eyes +of the stuffed birds--those never-absent familiars in such collections, +though murdered to extinction out of doors--flashed as they had flashed +to the rising sun above the neighbouring moors on the fatal morning when +the trigger was pulled which ended their little flight. It was then that +the historian produced his manuscript, which he had prepared, he said, +with a view to publication. His delivery of the story having concluded +as aforesaid, the speaker expressed his hope that the constraint of the +weather, and the paucity of more scientific papers, would excuse any +inappropriateness in his subject. + +Several members observed that a storm-bound club could not presume to be +selective, and they were all very much obliged to him for such a curious +chapter from the domestic histories of the county. + +The President looked gloomily from the window at the descending rain, and +broke a short silence by saying that though the Club had met, there +seemed little probability of its being able to visit the objects of +interest set down among the _agenda_. + +The Treasurer observed that they had at least a roof over their heads; +and they had also a second day before them. + +A sentimental member, leaning back in his chair, declared that he was in +no hurry to go out, and that nothing would please him so much as another +county story, with or without manuscript. + +The Colonel added that the subject should be a lady, like the former, to +which a gentleman known as the Spark said 'Hear, hear!' + +Though these had spoken in jest, a rural dean who was present observed +blandly that there was no lack of materials. Many, indeed, were the +legends and traditions of gentle and noble dames, renowned in times past +in that part of England, whose actions and passions were now, but for +men's memories, buried under the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry +of dates in a dry pedigree. + +Another member, an old surgeon, a somewhat grim though sociable +personage, was quite of the speaker's opinion, and felt quite sure that +the memory of the reverend gentleman must abound with such curious tales +of fair dames, of their loves and hates, their joys and their +misfortunes, their beauty and their fate. + +The parson, a trifle confused, retorted that their friend the surgeon, +the son of a surgeon, seemed to him, as a man who had seen much and heard +more during the long course of his own and his father's practice, the +member of all others most likely to be acquainted with such lore. + +The bookworm, the Colonel, the historian, the Vice-president, the +churchwarden, the two curates, the gentleman-tradesman, the sentimental +member, the crimson maltster, the quiet gentleman, the man of family, the +Spark, and several others, quite agreed, and begged that he would recall +something of the kind. The old surgeon said that, though a meeting of +the Mid-Wessex Field and Antiquarian Club was the last place at which he +should have expected to be called upon in this way, he had no objection; +and the parson said he would come next. The surgeon then reflected, and +decided to relate the history of a lady named Barbara, who lived towards +the end of the last century, apologizing for his tale as being perhaps a +little too professional. The crimson maltster winked to the Spark at +hearing the nature of the apology, and the surgeon began. + + + + +DAME THE SECOND--BARBARA OF THE HOUSE OF GREBE +By the Old Surgeon + + +It was apparently an idea, rather than a passion, that inspired Lord +Uplandtowers' resolve to win her. Nobody ever knew when he formed it, or +whence he got his assurance of success in the face of her manifest +dislike of him. Possibly not until after that first important act of her +life which I shall presently mention. His matured and cynical doggedness +at the age of nineteen, when impulse mostly rules calculation, was +remarkable, and might have owed its existence as much to his succession +to the earldom and its accompanying local honours in childhood, as to the +family character; an elevation which jerked him into maturity, so to +speak, without his having known adolescence. He had only reached his +twelfth year when his father, the fourth Earl, died, after a course of +the Bath waters. + +Nevertheless, the family character had a great deal to do with it. +Determination was hereditary in the bearers of that escutcheon; sometimes +for good, sometimes for evil. + +The seats of the two families were about ten miles apart, the way between +them lying along the now old, then new, turnpike-road connecting +Havenpool and Warborne with the city of Melchester: a road which, though +only a branch from what was known as the Great Western Highway, is +probably, even at present, as it has been for the last hundred years, one +of the finest examples of a macadamized turnpike-track that can be found +in England. + +The mansion of the Earl, as well as that of his neighbour, Barbara's +father, stood back about a mile from the highway, with which each was +connected by an ordinary drive and lodge. It was along this particular +highway that the young Earl drove on a certain evening at Christmastide +some twenty years before the end of the last century, to attend a ball at +Chene Manor, the home of Barbara, and her parents Sir John and Lady +Grebe. Sir John's was a baronetcy created a few years before the +breaking out of the Civil War, and his lands were even more extensive +than those of Lord Uplandtowers himself; comprising this Manor of Chene, +another on the coast near, half the Hundred of Cockdene, and +well-enclosed lands in several other parishes, notably Warborne and those +contiguous. At this time Barbara was barely seventeen, and the ball is +the first occasion on which we have any tradition of Lord Uplandtowers +attempting tender relations with her; it was early enough, God knows. + +An intimate friend--one of the Drenkhards--is said to have dined with him +that day, and Lord Uplandtowers had, for a wonder, communicated to his +guest the secret design of his heart. + +'You'll never get her--sure; you'll never get her!' this friend had said +at parting. 'She's not drawn to your lordship by love: and as for +thought of a good match, why, there's no more calculation in her than in +a bird.' + +'We'll see,' said Lord Uplandtowers impassively. + +He no doubt thought of his friend's forecast as he travelled along the +highway in his chariot; but the sculptural repose of his profile against +the vanishing daylight on his right hand would have shown his friend that +the Earl's equanimity was undisturbed. He reached the solitary wayside +tavern called Lornton Inn--the rendezvous of many a daring poacher for +operations in the adjoining forest; and he might have observed, if he had +taken the trouble, a strange post-chaise standing in the halting-space +before the inn. He duly sped past it, and half-an-hour after through the +little town of Warborne. Onward, a mile farther, was the house of his +entertainer. + +At this date it was an imposing edifice--or, rather, congeries of +edifices--as extensive as the residence of the Earl himself; though far +less regular. One wing showed extreme antiquity, having huge chimneys, +whose substructures projected from the external walls like towers; and a +kitchen of vast dimensions, in which (it was said) breakfasts had been +cooked for John of Gaunt. Whilst he was yet in the forecourt he could +hear the rhythm of French horns and clarionets, the favourite instruments +of those days at such entertainments. + +Entering the long parlour, in which the dance had just been opened by +Lady Grebe with a minuet--it being now seven o'clock, according to the +tradition--he was received with a welcome befitting his rank, and looked +round for Barbara. She was not dancing, and seemed to be +preoccupied--almost, indeed, as though she had been waiting for him. +Barbara at this time was a good and pretty girl, who never spoke ill of +any one, and hated other pretty women the very least possible. She did +not refuse him for the country-dance which followed, and soon after was +his partner in a second. + +The evening wore on, and the horns and clarionets tootled merrily. +Barbara evinced towards her lover neither distinct preference nor +aversion; but old eyes would have seen that she pondered something. +However, after supper she pleaded a headache, and disappeared. To pass +the time of her absence, Lord Uplandtowers went into a little room +adjoining the long gallery, where some elderly ones were sitting by the +fire--for he had a phlegmatic dislike of dancing for its own sake,--and, +lifting the window-curtains, he looked out of the window into the park +and wood, dark now as a cavern. Some of the guests appeared to be +leaving even so soon as this, two lights showing themselves as turning +away from the door and sinking to nothing in the distance. + +His hostess put her head into the room to look for partners for the +ladies, and Lord Uplandtowers came out. Lady Grebe informed him that +Barbara had not returned to the ball-room: she had gone to bed in sheer +necessity. + +'She has been so excited over the ball all day,' her mother continued, +'that I feared she would be worn out early . . . But sure, Lord +Uplandtowers, you won't be leaving yet?' + +He said that it was near twelve o'clock, and that some had already left. + +'I protest nobody has gone yet,' said Lady Grebe. + +To humour her he stayed till midnight, and then set out. He had made no +progress in his suit; but he had assured himself that Barbara gave no +other guest the preference, and nearly everybody in the neighbourhood was +there. + +''Tis only a matter of time,' said the calm young philosopher. + +The next morning he lay till near ten o'clock, and he had only just come +out upon the head of the staircase when he heard hoofs upon the gravel +without; in a few moments the door had been opened, and Sir John Grebe +met him in the hall, as he set foot on the lowest stair. + +'My lord--where's Barbara--my daughter?' + +Even the Earl of Uplandtowers could not repress amazement. 'What's the +matter, my dear Sir John,' says he. + +The news was startling, indeed. From the Baronet's disjointed +explanation Lord Uplandtowers gathered that after his own and the other +guests' departure Sir John and Lady Grebe had gone to rest without seeing +any more of Barbara; it being understood by them that she had retired to +bed when she sent word to say that she could not join the dancers again. +Before then she had told her maid that she would dispense with her +services for this night; and there was evidence to show that the young +lady had never lain down at all, the bed remaining unpressed. +Circumstances seemed to prove that the deceitful girl had feigned +indisposition to get an excuse for leaving the ball-room, and that she +had left the house within ten minutes, presumably during the first dance +after supper. + +'I saw her go,' said Lord Uplandtowers. + +'The devil you did!' says Sir John. + +'Yes.' And he mentioned the retreating carriage-lights, and how he was +assured by Lady Grebe that no guest had departed. + +'Surely that was it!' said the father. 'But she's not gone alone, d'ye +know!' + +'Ah--who is the young man?' + +'I can on'y guess. My worst fear is my most likely guess. I'll say no +more. I thought--yet I would not believe--it possible that you was the +sinner. Would that you had been! But 'tis t'other, 'tis t'other, by G---! +I must e'en up, and after 'em!' + +'Whom do you suspect?' + +Sir John would not give a name, and, stultified rather than agitated, +Lord Uplandtowers accompanied him back to Chene. He again asked upon +whom were the Baronet's suspicions directed; and the impulsive Sir John +was no match for the insistence of Uplandtowers. + +He said at length, 'I fear 'tis Edmond Willowes.' + +'Who's he?' + +'A young fellow of Shottsford-Forum--a widow-woman's son,' the other told +him, and explained that Willowes's father, or grandfather, was the last +of the old glass-painters in that place, where (as you may know) the art +lingered on when it had died out in every other part of England. + +'By G--- that's bad--mighty bad!' said Lord Uplandtowers, throwing +himself back in the chaise in frigid despair. + +They despatched emissaries in all directions; one by the Melchester Road, +another by Shottsford-Forum, another coastwards. + +But the lovers had a ten-hours' start; and it was apparent that sound +judgment had been exercised in choosing as their time of flight the +particular night when the movements of a strange carriage would not be +noticed, either in the park or on the neighbouring highway, owing to the +general press of vehicles. The chaise which had been seen waiting at +Lornton Inn was, no doubt, the one they had escaped in; and the pair of +heads which had planned so cleverly thus far had probably contrived +marriage ere now. + +The fears of her parents were realized. A letter sent by special +messenger from Barbara, on the evening of that day, briefly informed them +that her lover and herself were on the way to London, and before this +communication reached her home they would be united as husband and wife. +She had taken this extreme step because she loved her dear Edmond as she +could love no other man, and because she had seen closing round her the +doom of marriage with Lord Uplandtowers, unless she put that threatened +fate out of possibility by doing as she had done. She had well +considered the step beforehand, and was prepared to live like any other +country-townsman's wife if her father repudiated her for her action. + +'D--- her!' said Lord Uplandtowers, as he drove homeward that night. 'D--- +her for a fool!'--which shows the kind of love he bore her. + +Well; Sir John had already started in pursuit of them as a matter of +duty, driving like a wild man to Melchester, and thence by the direct +highway to the capital. But he soon saw that he was acting to no +purpose; and by and by, discovering that the marriage had actually taken +place, he forebore all attempts to unearth them in the City, and returned +and sat down with his lady to digest the event as best they could. + +To proceed against this Willowes for the abduction of our heiress was, +possibly, in their power; yet, when they considered the now unalterable +facts, they refrained from violent retribution. Some six weeks passed, +during which time Barbara's parents, though they keenly felt her loss, +held no communication with the truant, either for reproach or +condonation. They continued to think of the disgrace she had brought +upon herself; for, though the young man was an honest fellow, and the son +of an honest father, the latter had died so early, and his widow had had +such struggles to maintain herself; that the son was very imperfectly +educated. Moreover, his blood was, as far as they knew, of no +distinction whatever, whilst hers, through her mother, was compounded of +the best juices of ancient baronial distillation, containing tinctures of +Maundeville, and Mohun, and Syward, and Peverell, and Culliford, and +Talbot, and Plantagenet, and York, and Lancaster, and God knows what +besides, which it was a thousand pities to throw away. + +The father and mother sat by the fireplace that was spanned by the four- +centred arch bearing the family shields on its haunches, and groaned +aloud--the lady more than Sir John. + +'To think this should have come upon us in our old age!' said he. + +'Speak for yourself!' she snapped through her sobs. 'I am only one-and- +forty! . . . Why didn't ye ride faster and overtake 'em!' + +In the meantime the young married lovers, caring no more about their +blood than about ditch-water, were intensely happy--happy, that is, in +the descending scale which, as we all know, Heaven in its wisdom has +ordained for such rash cases; that is to say, the first week they were in +the seventh heaven, the second in the sixth, the third week temperate, +the fourth reflective, and so on; a lover's heart after possession being +comparable to the earth in its geologic stages, as described to us +sometimes by our worthy President; first a hot coal, then a warm one, +then a cooling cinder, then chilly--the simile shall be pursued no +further. The long and the short of it was that one day a letter, sealed +with their daughter's own little seal, came into Sir John and Lady +Grebe's hands; and, on opening it, they found it to contain an appeal +from the young couple to Sir John to forgive them for what they had done, +and they would fall on their naked knees and be most dutiful children for +evermore. + +Then Sir John and his lady sat down again by the fireplace with the four- +centred arch, and consulted, and re-read the letter. Sir John Grebe, if +the truth must be told, loved his daughter's happiness far more, poor +man, than he loved his name and lineage; he recalled to his mind all her +little ways, gave vent to a sigh; and, by this time acclimatized to the +idea of the marriage, said that what was done could not be undone, and +that he supposed they must not be too harsh with her. Perhaps Barbara +and her husband were in actual need; and how could they let their only +child starve? + +A slight consolation had come to them in an unexpected manner. They had +been credibly informed that an ancestor of plebeian Willowes was once +honoured with intermarriage with a scion of the aristocracy who had gone +to the dogs. In short, such is the foolishness of distinguished parents, +and sometimes of others also, that they wrote that very day to the +address Barbara had given them, informing her that she might return home +and bring her husband with her; they would not object to see him, would +not reproach her, and would endeavour to welcome both, and to discuss +with them what could best be arranged for their future. + +In three or four days a rather shabby post-chaise drew up at the door of +Chene Manor-house, at sound of which the tender-hearted baronet and his +wife ran out as if to welcome a prince and princess of the blood. They +were overjoyed to see their spoilt child return safe and sound--though +she was only Mrs. Willowes, wife of Edmond Willowes of nowhere. Barbara +burst into penitential tears, and both husband and wife were contrite +enough, as well they might be, considering that they had not a guinea to +call their own. + +When the four had calmed themselves, and not a word of chiding had been +uttered to the pair, they discussed the position soberly, young Willowes +sitting in the background with great modesty till invited forward by Lady +Grebe in no frigid tone. + +'How handsome he is!' she said to herself. 'I don't wonder at Barbara's +craze for him.' + +He was, indeed, one of the handsomest men who ever set his lips on a +maid's. A blue coat, murrey waistcoat, and breeches of drab set off a +figure that could scarcely be surpassed. He had large dark eyes, anxious +now, as they glanced from Barbara to her parents and tenderly back again +to her; observing whom, even now in her trepidation, one could see why +the _sang froid_ of Lord Uplandtowers had been raised to more than +lukewarmness. Her fair young face (according to the tale handed down by +old women) looked out from under a gray conical hat, trimmed with white +ostrich-feathers, and her little toes peeped from a buff petticoat worn +under a puce gown. Her features were not regular: they were almost +infantine, as you may see from miniatures in possession of the family, +her mouth showing much sensitiveness, and one could be sure that her +faults would not lie on the side of bad temper unless for urgent reasons. + +Well, they discussed their state as became them, and the desire of the +young couple to gain the goodwill of those upon whom they were literally +dependent for everything induced them to agree to any temporizing measure +that was not too irksome. Therefore, having been nearly two months +united, they did not oppose Sir John's proposal that he should furnish +Edmond Willowes with funds sufficient for him to travel a year on the +Continent in the company of a tutor, the young man undertaking to lend +himself with the utmost diligence to the tutor's instructions, till he +became polished outwardly and inwardly to the degree required in the +husband of such a lady as Barbara. He was to apply himself to the study +of languages, manners, history, society, ruins, and everything else that +came under his eyes, till he should return to take his place without +blushing by Barbara's side. + +'And by that time,' said worthy Sir John, 'I'll get my little place out +at Yewsholt ready for you and Barbara to occupy on your return. The +house is small and out of the way; but it will do for a young couple for +a while.' + +'If 'twere no bigger than a summer-house it would do!' says Barbara. + +'If 'twere no bigger than a sedan-chair!' says Willowes. 'And the more +lonely the better.' + +'We can put up with the loneliness,' said Barbara, with less zest. 'Some +friends will come, no doubt.' + +All this being laid down, a travelled tutor was called in--a man of many +gifts and great experience,--and on a fine morning away tutor and pupil +went. A great reason urged against Barbara accompanying her youthful +husband was that his attentions to her would naturally be such as to +prevent his zealously applying every hour of his time to learning and +seeing--an argument of wise prescience, and unanswerable. Regular days +for letter-writing were fixed, Barbara and her Edmond exchanged their +last kisses at the door, and the chaise swept under the archway into the +drive. + +He wrote to her from Le Havre, as soon as he reached that port, which was +not for seven days, on account of adverse winds; he wrote from Rouen, and +from Paris; described to her his sight of the King and Court at +Versailles, and the wonderful marble-work and mirrors in that palace; +wrote next from Lyons; then, after a comparatively long interval, from +Turin, narrating his fearful adventures in crossing Mont Cenis on mules, +and how he was overtaken with a terrific snowstorm, which had well-nigh +been the end of him, and his tutor, and his guides. Then he wrote +glowingly of Italy; and Barbara could see the development of her +husband's mind reflected in his letters month by month; and she much +admired the forethought of her father in suggesting this education for +Edmond. Yet she sighed sometimes--her husband being no longer in +evidence to fortify her in her choice of him--and timidly dreaded what +mortifications might be in store for her by reason of this _mesalliance_. +She went out very little; for on the one or two occasions on which she +had shown herself to former friends she noticed a distinct difference in +their manner, as though they should say, 'Ah, my happy swain's wife; +you're caught!' + +Edmond's letters were as affectionate as ever; even more affectionate, +after a while, than hers were to him. Barbara observed this growing +coolness in herself; and like a good and honest lady was horrified and +grieved, since her only wish was to act faithfully and uprightly. It +troubled her so much that she prayed for a warmer heart, and at last +wrote to her husband to beg him, now that he was in the land of Art, to +send her his portrait, ever so small, that she might look at it all day +and every day, and never for a moment forget his features. + +Willowes was nothing loth, and replied that he would do more than she +wished: he had made friends with a sculptor in Pisa, who was much +interested in him and his history; and he had commissioned this artist to +make a bust of himself in marble, which when finished he would send her. +What Barbara had wanted was something immediate; but she expressed no +objection to the delay; and in his next communication Edmund told her +that the sculptor, of his own choice, had decided to increase the bust to +a full-length statue, so anxious was he to get a specimen of his skill +introduced to the notice of the English aristocracy. It was progressing +well, and rapidly. + +Meanwhile, Barbara's attention began to be occupied at home with Yewsholt +Lodge, the house that her kind-hearted father was preparing for her +residence when her husband returned. It was a small place on the plan of +a large one--a cottage built in the form of a mansion, having a central +hall with a wooden gallery running round it, and rooms no bigger than +closets to follow this introduction. It stood on a slope so solitary, +and surrounded by trees so dense, that the birds who inhabited the boughs +sang at strange hours, as if they hardly could distinguish night from +day. + +During the progress of repairs at this bower Barbara frequently visited +it. Though so secluded by the dense growth, it was near the high road, +and one day while looking over the fence she saw Lord Uplandtowers riding +past. He saluted her courteously, yet with mechanical stiffness, and did +not halt. Barbara went home, and continued to pray that she might never +cease to love her husband. After that she sickened, and did not come out +of doors again for a long time. + +The year of education had extended to fourteen months, and the house was +in order for Edmond's return to take up his abode there with Barbara, +when, instead of the accustomed letter for her, came one to Sir John +Grebe in the handwriting of the said tutor, informing him of a terrible +catastrophe that had occurred to them at Venice. Mr Willowes and himself +had attended the theatre one night during the Carnival of the preceding +week, to witness the Italian comedy, when, owing to the carelessness of +one of the candle-snuffers, the theatre had caught fire, and been burnt +to the ground. Few persons had lost their lives, owing to the superhuman +exertions of some of the audience in getting out the senseless sufferers; +and, among them all, he who had risked his own life the most heroically +was Mr. Willowes. In re-entering for the fifth time to save his fellow- +creatures some fiery beams had fallen upon him, and he had been given up +for lost. He was, however, by the blessing of Providence, recovered, +with the life still in him, though he was fearfully burnt; and by almost +a miracle he seemed likely to survive, his constitution being wondrously +sound. He was, of course, unable to write, but he was receiving the +attention of several skilful surgeons. Further report would be made by +the next mail or by private hand. + +The tutor said nothing in detail of poor Willowes's sufferings, but as +soon as the news was broken to Barbara she realized how intense they must +have been, and her immediate instinct was to rush to his side, though, on +consideration, the journey seemed impossible to her. Her health was by +no means what it had been, and to post across Europe at that season of +the year, or to traverse the Bay of Biscay in a sailing-craft, was an +undertaking that would hardly be justified by the result. But she was +anxious to go till, on reading to the end of the letter, her husband's +tutor was found to hint very strongly against such a step if it should be +contemplated, this being also the opinion of the surgeons. And though +Willowes's comrade refrained from giving his reasons, they disclosed +themselves plainly enough in the sequel. + +The truth was that the worst of the wounds resulting from the fire had +occurred to his head and face--that handsome face which had won her heart +from her,--and both the tutor and the surgeons knew that for a sensitive +young woman to see him before his wounds had healed would cause more +misery to her by the shock than happiness to him by her ministrations. + +Lady Grebe blurted out what Sir John and Barbara had thought, but had had +too much delicacy to express. + +'Sure, 'tis mighty hard for you, poor Barbara, that the one little gift +he had to justify your rash choice of him--his wonderful good +looks--should be taken away like this, to leave 'ee no excuse at all for +your conduct in the world's eyes . . . Well, I wish you'd married +t'other--that do I!' And the lady sighed. + +'He'll soon get right again,' said her father soothingly. + +Such remarks as the above were not often made; but they were frequent +enough to cause Barbara an uneasy sense of self-stultification. She +determined to hear them no longer; and the house at Yewsholt being ready +and furnished, she withdrew thither with her maids, where for the first +time she could feel mistress of a home that would be hers and her +husband's exclusively, when he came. + +After long weeks Willowes had recovered sufficiently to be able to write +himself; and slowly and tenderly he enlightened her upon the full extent +of his injuries. It was a mercy, he said, that he had not lost his sight +entirely; but he was thankful to say that he still retained full vision +in one eye, though the other was dark for ever. The sparing manner in +which he meted out particulars of his condition told Barbara how +appalling had been his experience. He was grateful for her assurance +that nothing could change her; but feared she did not fully realize that +he was so sadly disfigured as to make it doubtful if she would recognize +him. However, in spite of all, his heart was as true to her as it ever +had been. + +Barbara saw from his anxiety how much lay behind. She replied that she +submitted to the decrees of Fate, and would welcome him in any shape as +soon as he could come. She told him of the pretty retreat in which she +had taken up her abode, pending their joint occupation of it, and did not +reveal how much she had sighed over the information that all his good +looks were gone. Still less did she say that she felt a certain +strangeness in awaiting him, the weeks they had lived together having +been so short by comparison with the length of his absence. + +Slowly drew on the time when Willowes found himself well enough to come +home. He landed at Southampton, and posted thence towards Yewsholt. +Barbara arranged to go out to meet him as far as Lornton Inn--the spot +between the Forest and the Chase at which he had waited for night on the +evening of their elopement. Thither she drove at the appointed hour in a +little pony-chaise, presented her by her father on her birthday for her +especial use in her new house; which vehicle she sent back on arriving at +the inn, the plan agreed upon being that she should perform the return +journey with her husband in his hired coach. + +There was not much accommodation for a lady at this wayside tavern; but, +as it was a fine evening in early summer, she did not mind--walking about +outside, and straining her eyes along the highway for the expected one. +But each cloud of dust that enlarged in the distance and drew near was +found to disclose a conveyance other than his post-chaise. Barbara +remained till the appointment was two hours passed, and then began to +fear that owing to some adverse wind in the Channel he was not coming +that night. + +While waiting she was conscious of a curious trepidation that was not +entirely solicitude, and did not amount to dread; her tense state of +incertitude bordered both on disappointment and on relief. She had lived +six or seven weeks with an imperfectly educated yet handsome husband whom +now she had not seen for seventeen months, and who was so changed +physically by an accident that she was assured she would hardly know him. +Can we wonder at her compound state of mind? + +But her immediate difficulty was to get away from Lornton Inn, for her +situation was becoming embarrassing. Like too many of Barbara's actions, +this drive had been undertaken without much reflection. Expecting to +wait no more than a few minutes for her husband in his post-chaise, and +to enter it with him, she had not hesitated to isolate herself by sending +back her own little vehicle. She now found that, being so well known in +this neighbourhood, her excursion to meet her long-absent husband was +exciting great interest. She was conscious that more eyes were watching +her from the inn-windows than met her own gaze. Barbara had decided to +get home by hiring whatever kind of conveyance the tavern afforded, when, +straining her eyes for the last time over the now darkening highway, she +perceived yet another dust-cloud drawing near. She paused; a chariot +ascended to the inn, and would have passed had not its occupant caught +sight of her standing expectantly. The horses were checked on the +instant. + +'You here--and alone, my dear Mrs. Willowes?' said Lord Uplandtowers, +whose carriage it was. + +She explained what had brought her into this lonely situation; and, as he +was going in the direction of her own home, she accepted his offer of a +seat beside him. Their conversation was embarrassed and fragmentary at +first; but when they had driven a mile or two she was surprised to find +herself talking earnestly and warmly to him: her impulsiveness was in +truth but the natural consequence of her late existence--a somewhat +desolate one by reason of the strange marriage she had made; and there is +no more indiscreet mood than that of a woman surprised into talk who has +long been imposing upon herself a policy of reserve. Therefore her +ingenuous heart rose with a bound into her throat when, in response to +his leading questions, or rather hints, she allowed her troubles to leak +out of her. Lord Uplandtowers took her quite to her own door, although +he had driven three miles out of his way to do so; and in handing her +down she heard from him a whisper of stern reproach: 'It need not have +been thus if you had listened to me!' + +She made no reply, and went indoors. There, as the evening wore away, +she regretted more and more that she had been so friendly with Lord +Uplandtowers. But he had launched himself upon her so unexpectedly: if +she had only foreseen the meeting with him, what a careful line of +conduct she would have marked out! Barbara broke into a perspiration of +disquiet when she thought of her unreserve, and, in self-chastisement, +resolved to sit up till midnight on the bare chance of Edmond's return; +directing that supper should be laid for him, improbable as his arrival +till the morrow was. + +The hours went past, and there was dead silence in and round about +Yewsholt Lodge, except for the soughing of the trees; till, when it was +near upon midnight, she heard the noise of hoofs and wheels approaching +the door. Knowing that it could only be her husband, Barbara instantly +went into the hall to meet him. Yet she stood there not without a +sensation of faintness, so many were the changes since their parting! +And, owing to her casual encounter with Lord Uplandtowers, his voice and +image still remained with her, excluding Edmond, her husband, from the +inner circle of her impressions. + +But she went to the door, and the next moment a figure stepped inside, of +which she knew the outline, but little besides. Her husband was attired +in a flapping black cloak and slouched hat, appearing altogether as a +foreigner, and not as the young English burgess who had left her side. +When he came forward into the light of the lamp, she perceived with +surprise, and almost with fright, that he wore a mask. At first she had +not noticed this--there being nothing in its colour which would lead a +casual observer to think he was looking on anything but a real +countenance. + +He must have seen her start of dismay at the unexpectedness of his +appearance, for he said hastily: 'I did not mean to come in to you like +this--I thought you would have been in bed. How good you are, dear +Barbara!' He put his arm round her, but he did not attempt to kiss her. + +'O Edmond--it _is_ you?--it must be?' she said, with clasped hands, for +though his figure and movement were almost enough to prove it, and the +tones were not unlike the old tones, the enunciation was so altered as to +seem that of a stranger. + +'I am covered like this to hide myself from the curious eyes of the inn- +servants and others,' he said, in a low voice. 'I will send back the +carriage and join you in a moment.' + +'You are quite alone?' + +'Quite. My companion stopped at Southampton.' + +The wheels of the post-chaise rolled away as she entered the dining-room, +where the supper was spread; and presently he rejoined her there. He had +removed his cloak and hat, but the mask was still retained; and she could +now see that it was of special make, of some flexible material like silk, +coloured so as to represent flesh; it joined naturally to the front hair, +and was otherwise cleverly executed. + +'Barbara--you look ill,' he said, removing his glove, and taking her +hand. + +'Yes--I have been ill,' said she. + +'Is this pretty little house ours?' + +'O--yes.' She was hardly conscious of her words, for the hand he had +ungloved in order to take hers was contorted, and had one or two of its +fingers missing; while through the mask she discerned the twinkle of one +eye only. + +'I would give anything to kiss you, dearest, now, at this moment!' he +continued, with mournful passionateness. 'But I cannot--in this guise. +The servants are abed, I suppose?' + +'Yes,' said she. 'But I can call them? You will have some supper?' + +He said he would have some, but that it was not necessary to call anybody +at that hour. Thereupon they approached the table, and sat down, facing +each other. + +Despite Barbara's scared state of mind, it was forced upon her notice +that her husband trembled, as if he feared the impression he was +producing, or was about to produce, as much as, or more than, she. He +drew nearer, and took her hand again. + +'I had this mask made at Venice,' he began, in evident embarrassment. 'My +darling Barbara--my dearest wife--do you think you--will mind when I take +it off? You will not dislike me--will you?' + +'O Edmond, of course I shall not mind,' said she. 'What has happened to +you is our misfortune; but I am prepared for it.' + +'Are you sure you are prepared?' + +'O yes! You are my husband.' + +'You really feel quite confident that nothing external can affect you?' +he said again, in a voice rendered uncertain by his agitation. + +'I think I am--quite,' she answered faintly. + +He bent his head. 'I hope, I hope you are,' he whispered. + +In the pause which followed, the ticking of the clock in the hall seemed +to grow loud; and he turned a little aside to remove the mask. She +breathlessly awaited the operation, which was one of some tediousness, +watching him one moment, averting her face the next; and when it was done +she shut her eyes at the hideous spectacle that was revealed. A quick +spasm of horror had passed through her; but though she quailed she forced +herself to regard him anew, repressing the cry that would naturally have +escaped from her ashy lips. Unable to look at him longer, Barbara sank +down on the floor beside her chair, covering her eyes. + +'You cannot look at me!' he groaned in a hopeless way. 'I am too +terrible an object even for you to bear! I knew it; yet I hoped against +it. Oh, this is a bitter fate--curse the skill of those Venetian +surgeons who saved me alive! . . . Look up, Barbara,' he continued +beseechingly; 'view me completely; say you loathe me, if you do loathe +me, and settle the case between us for ever!' + +His unhappy wife pulled herself together for a desperate strain. He was +her Edmond; he had done her no wrong; he had suffered. A momentary +devotion to him helped her, and lifting her eyes as bidden she regarded +this human remnant, this _ecorche_, a second time. But the sight was too +much. She again involuntarily looked aside and shuddered. + +'Do you think you can get used to this?' he said. 'Yes or no! Can you +bear such a thing of the charnel-house near you? Judge for yourself; +Barbara. Your Adonis, your matchless man, has come to this!' + +The poor lady stood beside him motionless, save for the restlessness of +her eyes. All her natural sentiments of affection and pity were driven +clean out of her by a sort of panic; she had just the same sense of +dismay and fearfulness that she would have had in the presence of an +apparition. She could nohow fancy this to be her chosen one--the man she +had loved; he was metamorphosed to a specimen of another species. 'I do +not loathe you,' she said with trembling. 'But I am so horrified--so +overcome! Let me recover myself. Will you sup now? And while you do so +may I go to my room to--regain my old feeling for you? I will try, if I +may leave you awhile? Yes, I will try!' + +Without waiting for an answer from him, and keeping her gaze carefully +averted, the frightened woman crept to the door and out of the room. She +heard him sit down to the table, as if to begin supper though, Heaven +knows, his appetite was slight enough after a reception which had +confirmed his worst surmises. When Barbara had ascended the stairs and +arrived in her chamber she sank down, and buried her face in the coverlet +of the bed. + +Thus she remained for some time. The bed-chamber was over the dining- +room, and presently as she knelt Barbara heard Willowes thrust back his +chair, and rise to go into the hall. In five minutes that figure would +probably come up the stairs and confront her again; it,--this new and +terrible form, that was not her husband's. In the loneliness of this +night, with neither maid nor friend beside her, she lost all +self-control, and at the first sound of his footstep on the stairs, +without so much as flinging a cloak round her, she flew from the room, +ran along the gallery to the back staircase, which she descended, and, +unlocking the back door, let herself out. She scarcely was aware what +she had done till she found herself in the greenhouse, crouching on a +flower-stand. + +Here she remained, her great timid eyes strained through the glass upon +the garden without, and her skirts gathered up, in fear of the field-mice +which sometimes came there. Every moment she dreaded to hear footsteps +which she ought by law to have longed for, and a voice that should have +been as music to her soul. But Edmond Willowes came not that way. The +nights were getting short at this season, and soon the dawn appeared, and +the first rays of the sun. By daylight she had less fear than in the +dark. She thought she could meet him, and accustom herself to the +spectacle. + +So the much-tried young woman unfastened the door of the hot-house, and +went back by the way she had emerged a few hours ago. Her poor husband +was probably in bed and asleep, his journey having been long; and she +made as little noise as possible in her entry. The house was just as she +had left it, and she looked about in the hall for his cloak and hat, but +she could not see them; nor did she perceive the small trunk which had +been all that he brought with him, his heavier baggage having been left +at Southampton for the road-waggon. She summoned courage to mount the +stairs; the bedroom-door was open as she had left it. She fearfully +peeped round; the bed had not been pressed. Perhaps he had lain down on +the dining-room sofa. She descended and entered; he was not there. On +the table beside his unsoiled plate lay a note, hastily written on the +leaf of a pocket-book. It was something like this: + + 'MY EVER-BELOVED WIFE--The effect that my forbidding appearance has + produced upon you was one which I foresaw as quite possible. I hoped + against it, but foolishly so. I was aware that no _human_ love could + survive such a catastrophe. I confess I thought yours _divine_; but, + after so long an absence, there could not be left sufficient warmth to + overcome the too natural first aversion. It was an experiment, and it + has failed. I do not blame you; perhaps, even, it is better so. Good- + bye. I leave England for one year. You will see me again at the + expiration of that time, if I live. Then I will ascertain your true + feeling; and, if it be against me, go away for ever. E. W.' + +On recovering from her surprise, Barbara's remorse was such that she felt +herself absolutely unforgiveable. She should have regarded him as an +afflicted being, and not have been this slave to mere eyesight, like a +child. To follow him and entreat him to return was her first thought. +But on making inquiries she found that nobody had seen him: he had +silently disappeared. + +More than this, to undo the scene of last night was impossible. Her +terror had been too plain, and he was a man unlikely to be coaxed back by +her efforts to do her duty. She went and confessed to her parents all +that had occurred; which, indeed, soon became known to more persons than +those of her own family. + +The year passed, and he did not return; and it was doubted if he were +alive. Barbara's contrition for her unconquerable repugnance was now +such that she longed to build a church-aisle, or erect a monument, and +devote herself to deeds of charity for the remainder of her days. To +that end she made inquiry of the excellent parson under whom she sat on +Sundays, at a vertical distance of twenty feet. But he could only adjust +his wig and tap his snuff-box; for such was the lukewarm state of +religion in those days, that not an aisle, steeple, porch, east window, +Ten-Commandment board, lion-and-unicorn, or brass candlestick, was +required anywhere at all in the neighbourhood as a votive offering from a +distracted soul--the last century contrasting greatly in this respect +with the happy times in which we live, when urgent appeals for +contributions to such objects pour in by every morning's post, and nearly +all churches have been made to look like new pennies. As the poor lady +could not ease her conscience this way, she determined at least to be +charitable, and soon had the satisfaction of finding her porch thronged +every morning by the raggedest, idlest, most drunken, hypocritical, and +worthless tramps in Christendom. + +But human hearts are as prone to change as the leaves of the creeper on +the wall, and in the course of time, hearing nothing of her husband, +Barbara could sit unmoved whilst her mother and friends said in her +hearing, 'Well, what has happened is for the best.' She began to think +so herself; for even now she could not summon up that lopped and +mutilated form without a shiver, though whenever her mind flew back to +her early wedded days, and the man who had stood beside her then, a +thrill of tenderness moved her, which if quickened by his living presence +might have become strong. She was young and inexperienced, and had +hardly on his late return grown out of the capricious fancies of +girlhood. + +But he did not come again, and when she thought of his word that he would +return once more, if living, and how unlikely he was to break his word, +she gave him up for dead. So did her parents; so also did another +person--that man of silence, of irresistible incisiveness, of still +countenance, who was as awake as seven sentinels when he seemed to be as +sound asleep as the figures on his family monument. Lord Uplandtowers, +though not yet thirty, had chuckled like a caustic fogey of threescore +when he heard of Barbara's terror and flight at her husband's return, and +of the latter's prompt departure. He felt pretty sure, however, that +Willowes, despite his hurt feelings, would have reappeared to claim his +bright-eyed property if he had been alive at the end of the twelve +months. + +As there was no husband to live with her, Barbara had relinquished the +house prepared for them by her father, and taken up her abode anew at +Chene Manor, as in the days of her girlhood. By degrees the episode with +Edmond Willowes seemed but a fevered dream, and as the months grew to +years Lord Uplandtowers' friendship with the people at Chene--which had +somewhat cooled after Barbara's elopement--revived considerably, and he +again became a frequent visitor there. He could not make the most +trivial alteration or improvement at Knollingwood Hall, where he lived, +without riding off to consult with his friend Sir John at Chene; and thus +putting himself frequently under her eyes, Barbara grew accustomed to +him, and talked to him as freely as to a brother. She even began to look +up to him as a person of authority, judgment, and prudence; and though +his severity on the bench towards poachers, smugglers, and +turnip-stealers was matter of common notoriety, she trusted that much of +what was said might be misrepresentation. + +Thus they lived on till her husband's absence had stretched to years, and +there could be no longer any doubt of his death. A passionless manner of +renewing his addresses seemed no longer out of place in Lord +Uplandtowers. Barbara did not love him, but hers was essentially one of +those sweet-pea or with-wind natures which require a twig of stouter +fibre than its own to hang upon and bloom. Now, too, she was older, and +admitted to herself that a man whose ancestor had run scores of Saracens +through and through in fighting for the site of the Holy Sepulchre was a +more desirable husband, socially considered, than one who could only +claim with certainty to know that his father and grandfather were +respectable burgesses. + +Sir John took occasion to inform her that she might legally consider +herself a widow; and, in brief; Lord Uplandtowers carried his point with +her, and she married him, though he could never get her to own that she +loved him as she had loved Willowes. In my childhood I knew an old lady +whose mother saw the wedding, and she said that when Lord and Lady +Uplandtowers drove away from her father's house in the evening it was in +a coach-and-four, and that my lady was dressed in green and silver, and +wore the gayest hat and feather that ever were seen; though whether it +was that the green did not suit her complexion, or otherwise, the +Countess looked pale, and the reverse of blooming. After their marriage +her husband took her to London, and she saw the gaieties of a season +there; then they returned to Knollingwood Hall, and thus a year passed +away. + +Before their marriage her husband had seemed to care but little about her +inability to love him passionately. 'Only let me win you,' he had said, +'and I will submit to all that.' But now her lack of warmth seemed to +irritate him, and he conducted himself towards her with a resentfulness +which led to her passing many hours with him in painful silence. The +heir-presumptive to the title was a remote relative, whom Lord +Uplandtowers did not exclude from the dislike he entertained towards many +persons and things besides, and he had set his mind upon a lineal +successor. He blamed her much that there was no promise of this, and +asked her what she was good for. + +On a particular day in her gloomy life a letter, addressed to her as Mrs. +Willowes, reached Lady Uplandtowers from an unexpected quarter. A +sculptor in Pisa, knowing nothing of her second marriage, informed her +that the long-delayed life-size statue of Mr. Willowes, which, when her +husband left that city, he had been directed to retain till it was sent +for, was still in his studio. As his commission had not wholly been +paid, and the statue was taking up room he could ill spare, he should be +glad to have the debt cleared off, and directions where to forward the +figure. Arriving at a time when the Countess was beginning to have +little secrets (of a harmless kind, it is true) from her husband, by +reason of their growing estrangement, she replied to this letter without +saying a word to Lord Uplandtowers, sending off the balance that was +owing to the sculptor, and telling him to despatch the statue to her +without delay. + +It was some weeks before it arrived at Knollingwood Hall, and, by a +singular coincidence, during the interval she received the first +absolutely conclusive tidings of her Edmond's death. It had taken place +years before, in a foreign land, about six months after their parting, +and had been induced by the sufferings he had already undergone, coupled +with much depression of spirit, which had caused him to succumb to a +slight ailment. The news was sent her in a brief and formal letter from +some relative of Willowes's in another part of England. + +Her grief took the form of passionate pity for his misfortunes, and of +reproach to herself for never having been able to conquer her aversion to +his latter image by recollection of what Nature had originally made him. +The sad spectacle that had gone from earth had never been her Edmond at +all to her. O that she could have met him as he was at first! Thus +Barbara thought. It was only a few days later that a waggon with two +horses, containing an immense packing-case, was seen at breakfast-time +both by Barbara and her husband to drive round to the back of the house, +and by-and-by they were informed that a case labelled 'Sculpture' had +arrived for her ladyship. + +'What can that be?' said Lord Uplandtowers. + +'It is the statue of poor Edmond, which belongs to me, but has never been +sent till now,' she answered. + +'Where are you going to put it?' asked he. + +'I have not decided,' said the Countess. 'Anywhere, so that it will not +annoy you.' + +'Oh, it won't annoy me,' says he. + +When it had been unpacked in a back room of the house, they went to +examine it. The statue was a full-length figure, in the purest Carrara +marble, representing Edmond Willowes in all his original beauty, as he +had stood at parting from her when about to set out on his travels; a +specimen of manhood almost perfect in every line and contour. The work +had been carried out with absolute fidelity. + +'Phoebus-Apollo, sure,' said the Earl of Uplandtowers, who had never seen +Willowes, real or represented, till now. + +Barbara did not hear him. She was standing in a sort of trance before +the first husband, as if she had no consciousness of the other husband at +her side. The mutilated features of Willowes had disappeared from her +mind's eye; this perfect being was really the man she had loved, and not +that later pitiable figure; in whom love and truth should have seen this +image always, but had not done so. + +It was not till Lord Uplandtowers said roughly, 'Are you going to stay +here all the morning worshipping him?' that she roused herself. + +Her husband had not till now the least suspicion that Edmond Willowes +originally looked thus, and he thought how deep would have been his +jealousy years ago if Willowes had been known to him. Returning to the +Hall in the afternoon he found his wife in the gallery, whither the +statue had been brought. + +She was lost in reverie before it, just as in the morning. + +'What are you doing?' he asked. + +She started and turned. 'I am looking at my husb--- my statue, to see if +it is well done,' she stammered. 'Why should I not?' + +'There's no reason why,' he said. 'What are you going to do with the +monstrous thing? It can't stand here for ever.' + +'I don't wish it,' she said. 'I'll find a place.' + +In her boudoir there was a deep recess, and while the Earl was absent +from home for a few days in the following week, she hired joiners from +the village, who under her directions enclosed the recess with a panelled +door. Into the tabernacle thus formed she had the statue placed, +fastening the door with a lock, the key of which she kept in her pocket. + +When her husband returned he missed the statue from the gallery, and, +concluding that it had been put away out of deference to his feelings, +made no remark. Yet at moments he noticed something on his lady's face +which he had never noticed there before. He could not construe it; it +was a sort of silent ecstasy, a reserved beatification. What had become +of the statue he could not divine, and growing more and more curious, +looked about here and there for it till, thinking of her private room, he +went towards that spot. After knocking he heard the shutting of a door, +and the click of a key; but when he entered his wife was sitting at work, +on what was in those days called knotting. Lord Uplandtowers' eye fell +upon the newly-painted door where the recess had formerly been. + +'You have been carpentering in my absence then, Barbara,' he said +carelessly. + +'Yes, Uplandtowers.' + +'Why did you go putting up such a tasteless enclosure as that--spoiling +the handsome arch of the alcove?' + +'I wanted more closet-room; and I thought that as this was my own +apartment--' + +'Of course,' he returned. Lord Uplandtowers knew now where the statue of +young Willowes was. + +One night, or rather in the smallest hours of the morning, he missed the +Countess from his side. Not being a man of nervous imaginings he fell +asleep again before he had much considered the matter, and the next +morning had forgotten the incident. But a few nights later the same +circumstances occurred. This time he fully roused himself; but before he +had moved to search for her, she entered the chamber in her +dressing-gown, carrying a candle, which she extinguished as she +approached, deeming him asleep. He could discover from her breathing +that she was strangely moved; but not on this occasion either did he +reveal that he had seen her. Presently, when she had lain down, +affecting to wake, he asked her some trivial questions. 'Yes, _Edmond_,' +she replied absently. + +Lord Uplandtowers became convinced that she was in the habit of leaving +the chamber in this queer way more frequently than he had observed, and +he determined to watch. The next midnight he feigned deep sleep, and +shortly after perceived her stealthily rise and let herself out of the +room in the dark. He slipped on some clothing and followed. At the +farther end of the corridor, where the clash of flint and steel would be +out of the hearing of one in the bed-chamber, she struck a light. He +stepped aside into an empty room till she had lit a taper and had passed +on to her boudoir. In a minute or two he followed. Arrived at the door +of the boudoir, he beheld the door of the private recess open, and +Barbara within it, standing with her arms clasped tightly round the neck +of her Edmond, and her mouth on his. The shawl which she had thrown +round her nightclothes had slipped from her shoulders, and her long white +robe and pale face lent her the blanched appearance of a second statue +embracing the first. Between her kisses, she apostrophized it in a low +murmur of infantine tenderness: + +'My only love--how could I be so cruel to you, my perfect one--so good +and true--I am ever faithful to you, despite my seeming infidelity! I +always think of you--dream of you--during the long hours of the day, and +in the night-watches! O Edmond, I am always yours!' Such words as +these, intermingled with sobs, and streaming tears, and dishevelled hair, +testified to an intensity of feeling in his wife which Lord Uplandtowers +had not dreamed of her possessing. + +'Ha, ha!' says he to himself. 'This is where we evaporate--this is where +my hopes of a successor in the title dissolve--ha, ha! This must be seen +to, verily!' + +Lord Uplandtowers was a subtle man when once he set himself to strategy; +though in the present instance he never thought of the simple stratagem +of constant tenderness. Nor did he enter the room and surprise his wife +as a blunderer would have done, but went back to his chamber as silently +as he had left it. When the Countess returned thither, shaken by spent +sobs and sighs, he appeared to be soundly sleeping as usual. The next +day he began his countermoves by making inquiries as to the whereabouts +of the tutor who had travelled with his wife's first husband; this +gentleman, he found, was now master of a grammar-school at no great +distance from Knollingwood. At the first convenient moment Lord +Uplandtowers went thither and obtained an interview with the said +gentleman. The schoolmaster was much gratified by a visit from such an +influential neighbour, and was ready to communicate anything that his +lordship desired to know. + +After some general conversation on the school and its progress, the +visitor observed that he believed the schoolmaster had once travelled a +good deal with the unfortunate Mr. Willowes, and had been with him on the +occasion of his accident. He, Lord Uplandtowers, was interested in +knowing what had really happened at that time, and had often thought of +inquiring. And then the Earl not only heard by word of mouth as much as +he wished to know, but, their chat becoming more intimate, the +schoolmaster drew upon paper a sketch of the disfigured head, explaining +with bated breath various details in the representation. + +'It was very strange and terrible!' said Lord Uplandtowers, taking the +sketch in his hand. 'Neither nose nor ears!' + +A poor man in the town nearest to Knollingwood Hall, who combined the art +of sign-painting with ingenious mechanical occupations, was sent for by +Lord Uplandtowers to come to the Hall on a day in that week when the +Countess had gone on a short visit to her parents. His employer made the +man understand that the business in which his assistance was demanded was +to be considered private, and money insured the observance of this +request. The lock of the cupboard was picked, and the ingenious mechanic +and painter, assisted by the schoolmaster's sketch, which Lord +Uplandtowers had put in his pocket, set to work upon the god-like +countenance of the statue under my lord's direction. What the fire had +maimed in the original the chisel maimed in the copy. It was a fiendish +disfigurement, ruthlessly carried out, and was rendered still more +shocking by being tinted to the hues of life, as life had been after the +wreck. + +Six hours after, when the workman was gone, Lord Uplandtowers looked upon +the result, and smiled grimly, and said: + +'A statue should represent a man as he appeared in life, and that's as he +appeared. Ha! ha! But 'tis done to good purpose, and not idly.' + +He locked the door of the closet with a skeleton key, and went his way to +fetch the Countess home. + +That night she slept, but he kept awake. According to the tale, she +murmured soft words in her dream; and he knew that the tender converse of +her imaginings was held with one whom he had supplanted but in name. At +the end of her dream the Countess of Uplandtowers awoke and arose, and +then the enactment of former nights was repeated. Her husband remained +still and listened. Two strokes sounded from the clock in the pediment +without, when, leaving the chamber-door ajar, she passed along the +corridor to the other end, where, as usual, she obtained a light. So +deep was the silence that he could even from his bed hear her softly +blowing the tinder to a glow after striking the steel. She moved on into +the boudoir, and he heard, or fancied he heard, the turning of the key in +the closet-door. The next moment there came from that direction a loud +and prolonged shriek, which resounded to the farthest corners of the +house. It was repeated, and there was the noise of a heavy fall. + +Lord Uplandtowers sprang out of bed. He hastened along the dark corridor +to the door of the boudoir, which stood ajar, and, by the light of the +candle within, saw his poor young Countess lying in a heap in her +nightdress on the floor of the closet. When he reached her side he found +that she had fainted, much to the relief of his fears that matters were +worse. He quickly shut up and locked in the hated image which had done +the mischief; and lifted his wife in his arms, where in a few instants +she opened her eyes. Pressing her face to his without saying a word, he +carried her back to her room, endeavouring as he went to disperse her +terrors by a laugh in her ear, oddly compounded of causticity, +predilection, and brutality. + +'Ho--ho--ho!' says he. 'Frightened, dear one, hey? What a baby 'tis! +Only a joke, sure, Barbara--a splendid joke! But a baby should not go to +closets at midnight to look for the ghost of the dear departed! If it do +it must expect to be terrified at his aspect--ho--ho--ho!' + +When she was in her bed-chamber, and had quite come to herself; though +her nerves were still much shaken, he spoke to her more sternly. 'Now, +my lady, answer me: do you love him--eh?' + +'No--no!' she faltered, shuddering, with her expanded eyes fixed on her +husband. 'He is too terrible--no, no!' + +'You are sure?' + +'Quite sure!' replied the poor broken-spirited Countess. But her natural +elasticity asserted itself. Next morning he again inquired of her: 'Do +you love him now?' + +She quailed under his gaze, but did not reply. + +'That means that you do still, by G---!' he continued. + +'It means that I will not tell an untruth, and do not wish to incense my +lord,' she answered, with dignity. + +'Then suppose we go and have another look at him?' As he spoke, he +suddenly took her by the wrist, and turned as if to lead her towards the +ghastly closet. + +'No--no! Oh--no!' she cried, and her desperate wriggle out of his hand +revealed that the fright of the night had left more impression upon her +delicate soul than superficially appeared. + +'Another dose or two, and she will be cured,' he said to himself. + +It was now so generally known that the Earl and Countess were not in +accord, that he took no great trouble to disguise his deeds in relation +to this matter. During the day he ordered four men with ropes and +rollers to attend him in the boudoir. When they arrived, the closet was +open, and the upper part of the statue tied up in canvas. He had it +taken to the sleeping-chamber. What followed is more or less matter of +conjecture. The story, as told to me, goes on to say that, when Lady +Uplandtowers retired with him that night, she saw near the foot of the +heavy oak four-poster, a tall dark wardrobe, which had not stood there +before; but she did not ask what its presence meant. + +'I have had a little whim,' he explained when they were in the dark. + +'Have you?' says she. + +'To erect a little shrine, as it may be called.' + +'A little shrine?' + +'Yes; to one whom we both equally adore--eh? I'll show you what it +contains.' + +He pulled a cord which hung covered by the bed-curtains, and the doors of +the wardrobe slowly opened, disclosing that the shelves within had been +removed throughout, and the interior adapted to receive the ghastly +figure, which stood there as it had stood in the boudoir, but with a wax- +candle burning on each side of it to throw the cropped and distorted +features into relief. She clutched him, uttered a low scream, and buried +her head in the bedclothes. 'Oh, take it away--please take it away!' she +implored. + +'All in good time namely, when you love me best,' he returned calmly. +'You don't quite yet--eh?' + +'I don't know--I think--O Uplandtowers, have mercy--I cannot bear it--O, +in pity, take it away!' + +'Nonsense; one gets accustomed to anything. Take another gaze.' + +In short, he allowed the doors to remain unclosed at the foot of the bed, +and the wax-tapers burning; and such was the strange fascination of the +grisly exhibition that a morbid curiosity took possession of the Countess +as she lay, and, at his repeated request, she did again look out from the +coverlet, shuddered, hid her eyes, and looked again, all the while +begging him to take it away, or it would drive her out of her senses. But +he would not do so as yet, and the wardrobe was not locked till dawn. + +The scene was repeated the next night. Firm in enforcing his ferocious +correctives, he continued the treatment till the nerves of the poor lady +were quivering in agony under the virtuous tortures inflicted by her +lord, to bring her truant heart back to faithfulness. + +The third night, when the scene had opened as usual, and she lay staring +with immense wild eyes at the horrid fascination, on a sudden she gave an +unnatural laugh; she laughed more and more, staring at the image, till +she literally shrieked with laughter: then there was silence, and he +found her to have become insensible. He thought she had fainted, but +soon saw that the event was worse: she was in an epileptic fit. He +started up, dismayed by the sense that, like many other subtle +personages, he had been too exacting for his own interests. Such love as +he was capable of, though rather a selfish gloating than a cherishing +solicitude, was fanned into life on the instant. He closed the wardrobe +with the pulley, clasped her in his arms, took her gently to the window, +and did all he could to restore her. + +It was a long time before the Countess came to herself, and when she did +so, a considerable change seemed to have taken place in her emotions. She +flung her arms around him, and with gasps of fear abjectly kissed him +many times, at last bursting into tears. She had never wept in this +scene before. + +'You'll take it away, dearest--you will!' she begged plaintively. + +'If you love me.' + +'I do--oh, I do!' + +'And hate him, and his memory?' + +'Yes--yes!' + +'Thoroughly?' + +'I cannot endure recollection of him!' cried the poor Countess slavishly. +'It fills me with shame--how could I ever be so depraved! I'll never +behave badly again, Uplandtowers; and you will never put the hated statue +again before my eyes?' + +He felt that he could promise with perfect safety. 'Never,' said he. + +'And then I'll love you,' she returned eagerly, as if dreading lest the +scourge should be applied anew. 'And I'll never, never dream of thinking +a single thought that seems like faithlessness to my marriage vow.' + +The strange thing now was that this fictitious love wrung from her by +terror took on, through mere habit of enactment, a certain quality of +reality. A servile mood of attachment to the Earl became distinctly +visible in her contemporaneously with an actual dislike for her late +husband's memory. The mood of attachment grew and continued when the +statue was removed. A permanent revulsion was operant in her, which +intensified as time wore on. How fright could have effected such a +change of idiosyncrasy learned physicians alone can say; but I believe +such cases of reactionary instinct are not unknown. + +The upshot was that the cure became so permanent as to be itself a new +disease. She clung to him so tightly, that she would not willingly be +out of his sight for a moment. She would have no sitting-room apart from +his, though she could not help starting when he entered suddenly to her. +Her eyes were well-nigh always fixed upon him. If he drove out, she +wished to go with him; his slightest civilities to other women made her +frantically jealous; till at length her very fidelity became a burden to +him, absorbing his time, and curtailing his liberty, and causing him to +curse and swear. If he ever spoke sharply to her now, she did not +revenge herself by flying off to a mental world of her own; all that +affection for another, which had provided her with a resource, was now a +cold black cinder. + +From that time the life of this scared and enervated lady--whose +existence might have been developed to so much higher purpose but for the +ignoble ambition of her parents and the conventions of the time--was one +of obsequious amativeness towards a perverse and cruel man. Little +personal events came to her in quick succession--half a dozen, eight, +nine, ten such events,--in brief; she bore him no less than eleven +children in the eight following years, but half of them came prematurely +into the world, or died a few days old; only one, a girl, attained to +maturity; she in after years became the wife of the Honourable Mr. +Beltonleigh, who was created Lord D'Almaine, as may be remembered. + +There was no living son and heir. At length, completely worn out in mind +and body, Lady Uplandtowers was taken abroad by her husband, to try the +effect of a more genial climate upon her wasted frame. But nothing +availed to strengthen her, and she died at Florence, a few months after +her arrival in Italy. + +Contrary to expectation, the Earl of Uplandtowers did not marry again. +Such affection as existed in him--strange, hard, brutal as it was--seemed +untransferable, and the title, as is known, passed at his death to his +nephew. Perhaps it may not be so generally known that, during the +enlargement of the Hall for the sixth Earl, while digging in the grounds +for the new foundations, the broken fragments of a marble statue were +unearthed. They were submitted to various antiquaries, who said that, so +far as the damaged pieces would allow them to form an opinion, the statue +seemed to be that of a mutilated Roman satyr; or if not, an allegorical +figure of Death. Only one or two old inhabitants guessed whose statue +those fragments had composed. + +I should have added that, shortly after the death of the Countess, an +excellent sermon was preached by the Dean of Melchester, the subject of +which, though names were not mentioned, was unquestionably suggested by +the aforesaid events. He dwelt upon the folly of indulgence in sensuous +love for a handsome form merely; and showed that the only rational and +virtuous growths of that affection were those based upon intrinsic worth. +In the case of the tender but somewhat shallow lady whose life I have +related, there is no doubt that an infatuation for the person of young +Willowes was the chief feeling that induced her to marry him; which was +the more deplorable in that his beauty, by all tradition, was the least +of his recommendations, every report bearing out the inference that he +must have been a man of steadfast nature, bright intelligence, and +promising life. + +* * * * * + +The company thanked the old surgeon for his story, which the rural dean +declared to be a far more striking one than anything he could hope to +tell. An elderly member of the Club, who was mostly called the Bookworm, +said that a woman's natural instinct of fidelity would, indeed, send back +her heart to a man after his death in a truly wonderful manner +sometimes--if anything occurred to put before her forcibly the original +affection between them, and his original aspect in her eyes,--whatever +his inferiority may have been, social or otherwise; and then a general +conversation ensued upon the power that a woman has of seeing the actual +in the representation, the reality in the dream--a power which (according +to the sentimental member) men have no faculty of equalling. + +The rural dean thought that such cases as that related by the surgeon +were rather an illustration of passion electrified back to life than of a +latent, true affection. The story had suggested that he should try to +recount to them one which he had used to hear in his youth, and which +afforded an instance of the latter and better kind of feeling, his +heroine being also a lady who had married beneath her, though he feared +his narrative would be of a much slighter kind than the surgeon's. The +Club begged him to proceed, and the parson began. + + + + +DAME THE THIRD--THE MARCHIONESS OF STONEHENGE +By the Rural Dean + + +I would have you know, then, that a great many years ago there lived in a +classical mansion with which I used to be familiar, standing not a +hundred miles from the city of Melchester, a lady whose personal charms +were so rare and unparalleled that she was courted, flattered, and spoilt +by almost all the young noblemen and gentlemen in that part of Wessex. +For a time these attentions pleased her well. But as, in the words of +good Robert South (whose sermons might be read much more than they are), +the most passionate lover of sport, if tied to follow his hawks and +hounds every day of his life, would find the pursuit the greatest torment +and calamity, and would fly to the mines and galleys for his recreation, +so did this lofty and beautiful lady after a while become satiated with +the constant iteration of what she had in its novelty enjoyed; and by an +almost natural revulsion turned her regards absolutely netherward, +socially speaking. She perversely and passionately centred her affection +on quite a plain-looking young man of humble birth and no position at +all; though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature, of good +address, and guileless heart. In short, he was the parish-clerk's son, +acting as assistant to the land-steward of her father, the Earl of Avon, +with the hope of becoming some day a land-steward himself. It should be +said that perhaps the Lady Caroline (as she was called) was a little +stimulated in this passion by the discovery that a young girl of the +village already loved the young man fondly, and that he had paid some +attentions to her, though merely of a casual and good-natured kind. + +Since his occupation brought him frequently to the manor-house and its +environs, Lady Caroline could make ample opportunities of seeing and +speaking to him. She had, in Chaucer's phrase, 'all the craft of fine +loving' at her fingers' ends, and the young man, being of a +readily-kindling heart, was quick to notice the tenderness in her eyes +and voice. He could not at first believe in his good fortune, having no +understanding of her weariness of more artificial men; but a time comes +when the stupidest sees in an eye the glance of his other half; and it +came to him, who was quite the reverse of dull. As he gained confidence +accidental encounters led to encounters by design; till at length when +they were alone together there was no reserve on the matter. They +whispered tender words as other lovers do, and were as devoted a pair as +ever was seen. But not a ray or symptom of this attachment was allowed +to show itself to the outer world. + +Now, as she became less and less scrupulous towards him under the +influence of her affection, and he became more and more reverential under +the influence of his, and they looked the situation in the face together, +their condition seemed intolerable in its hopelessness. That she could +ever ask to be allowed to marry him, or could hold her tongue and quietly +renounce him, was equally beyond conception. They resolved upon a third +course, possessing neither of the disadvantages of these two: to wed +secretly, and live on in outward appearance the same as before. In this +they differed from the lovers of my friend's story. + +Not a soul in the parental mansion guessed, when Lady Caroline came +coolly into the hall one day after a visit to her aunt, that, during that +visit, her lover and herself had found an opportunity of uniting +themselves till death should part them. Yet such was the fact; the young +woman who rode fine horses, and drove in pony-chaises, and was saluted +deferentially by every one, and the young man who trudged about, and +directed the tree-felling, and the laying out of fish-ponds in the park, +were husband and wife. + +As they had planned, so they acted to the letter for the space of a month +and more, clandestinely meeting when and where they best could do so; +both being supremely happy and content. To be sure, towards the latter +part of that month, when the first wild warmth of her love had gone off, +the Lady Caroline sometimes wondered within herself how she, who might +have chosen a peer of the realm, baronet, knight; or, if serious-minded, +a bishop or judge of the more gallant sort who prefer young wives, could +have brought herself to do a thing so rash as to make this marriage; +particularly when, in their private meetings, she perceived that though +her young husband was full of ideas, and fairly well read, they had not a +single social experience in common. It was his custom to visit her after +nightfall, in her own house, when he could find no opportunity for an +interview elsewhere; and to further this course she would contrive to +leave unfastened a window on the ground-floor overlooking the lawn, by +entering which a back stair-case was accessible; so that he could climb +up to her apartments, and gain audience of his lady when the house was +still. + +One dark midnight, when he had not been able to see her during the day, +he made use of this secret method, as he had done many times before; and +when they had remained in company about an hour he declared that it was +time for him to descend. + +He would have stayed longer, but that the interview had been a somewhat +painful one. What she had said to him that night had much excited and +angered him, for it had revealed a change in her; cold reason had come to +his lofty wife; she was beginning to have more anxiety about her own +position and prospects than ardour for him. Whether from the agitation +of this perception or not, he was seized with a spasm; he gasped, rose, +and in moving towards the window for air he uttered in a short thick +whisper, 'Oh, my heart!' + +With his hand upon his chest he sank down to the floor before he had gone +another step. By the time that she had relighted the candle, which had +been extinguished in case any eye in the opposite grounds should witness +his egress, she found that his poor heart had ceased to beat; and there +rushed upon her mind what his cottage-friends had once told her, that he +was liable to attacks of heart-disease, one of which, the doctor had +informed them, might some day carry him off. + +Accustomed as she was to doctoring the other parishioners, nothing that +she could effect upon him in that kind made any difference whatever; and +his stillness, and the increasing coldness of his feet and hands, +disclosed too surely to the affrighted young woman that her husband was +dead indeed. For more than an hour, however, she did not abandon her +efforts to restore him; when she fully realized the fact that he was a +corpse she bent over his body, distracted and bewildered as to what step +she next should take. + +Her first feelings had undoubtedly been those of passionate grief at the +loss of him; her second thoughts were concern at her own position as the +daughter of an earl. 'Oh, why, why, my unfortunate husband, did you die +in my chamber at this hour!' she said piteously to the corpse. 'Why not +have died in your own cottage if you would die! Then nobody would ever +have known of our imprudent union, and no syllable would have been +breathed of how I mismated myself for love of you!' + +The clock in the courtyard striking the hour of one aroused Lady Caroline +from the stupor into which she had fallen, and she stood up, and went +towards the door. To awaken and tell her mother seemed her only way out +of this terrible situation; yet when she put her hand on the key to +unlock it she withdrew herself again. It would be impossible to call +even her mother's assistance without risking a revelation to all the +world through the servants; while if she could remove the body unassisted +to a distance she might avert suspicion of their union even now. This +thought of immunity from the social consequences of her rash act, of +renewed freedom, was indubitably a relief to her, for, as has been said, +the constraint and riskiness of her position had begun to tell upon the +Lady Caroline's nerves. + +She braced herself for the effort, and hastily dressed herself; and then +dressed him. Tying his dead hands together with a handkerchief; she laid +his arms round her shoulders, and bore him to the landing and down the +narrow stairs. Reaching the bottom by the window, she let his body slide +slowly over the sill till it lay on the ground without. She then climbed +over the window-sill herself, and, leaving the sash open, dragged him on +to the lawn with a rustle not louder than the rustle of a broom. There +she took a securer hold, and plunged with him under the trees. + +Away from the precincts of the house she could apply herself more +vigorously to her task, which was a heavy one enough for her, robust as +she was; and the exertion and fright she had already undergone began to +tell upon her by the time she reached the corner of a beech-plantation +which intervened between the manor-house and the village. Here she was +so nearly exhausted that she feared she might have to leave him on the +spot. But she plodded on after a while, and keeping upon the grass at +every opportunity she stood at last opposite the poor young man's garden- +gate, where he lived with his father, the parish-clerk. How she +accomplished the end of her task Lady Caroline never quite knew; but, to +avoid leaving traces in the road, she carried him bodily across the +gravel, and laid him down at the door. Perfectly aware of his ways of +coming and going, she searched behind the shutter for the cottage door- +key, which she placed in his cold hand. Then she kissed his face for the +last time, and with silent little sobs bade him farewell. + +Lady Caroline retraced her steps, and reached the mansion without +hindrance; and to her great relief found the window open just as she had +left it. When she had climbed in she listened attentively, fastened the +window behind her, and ascending the stairs noiselessly to her room, set +everything in order, and returned to bed. + +The next morning it was speedily echoed around that the amiable and +gentle young villager had been found dead outside his father's door, +which he had apparently been in the act of unlocking when he fell. The +circumstances were sufficiently exceptional to justify an inquest, at +which syncope from heart-disease was ascertained to be beyond doubt the +explanation of his death, and no more was said about the matter then. +But, after the funeral, it was rumoured that some man who had been +returning late from a distant horse-fair had seen in the gloom of night a +person, apparently a woman, dragging a heavy body of some sort towards +the cottage-gate, which, by the light of after events, would seem to have +been the corpse of the young fellow. His clothes were thereupon examined +more particularly than at first, with the result that marks of friction +were visible upon them here and there, precisely resembling such as would +be left by dragging on the ground. + +Our beautiful and ingenious Lady Caroline was now in great consternation; +and began to think that, after all, it might have been better to honestly +confess the truth. But having reached this stage without discovery or +suspicion, she determined to make another effort towards concealment; and +a bright idea struck her as a means of securing it. I think I mentioned +that, before she cast eyes on the unfortunate steward's clerk, he had +been the beloved of a certain village damsel, the woodman's daughter, his +neighbour, to whom he had paid some attentions; and possibly he was +beloved of her still. At any rate, the Lady Caroline's influence on the +estates of her father being considerable, she resolved to seek an +interview with the young girl in furtherance of her plan to save her +reputation, about which she was now exceedingly anxious; for by this +time, the fit being over, she began to be ashamed of her mad passion for +her late husband, and almost wished she had never seen him. + +In the course of her parish-visiting she lighted on the young girl +without much difficulty, and found her looking pale and sad, and wearing +a simple black gown, which she had put on out of respect for the young +man's memory, whom she had tenderly loved, though he had not loved her. + +'Ah, you have lost your lover, Milly,' said Lady Caroline. + +The young woman could not repress her tears. 'My lady, he was not quite +my lover,' she said. 'But I was his--and now he is dead I don't care to +live any more!' + +'Can you keep a secret about him?' asks the lady; 'one in which his +honour is involved--which is known to me alone, but should be known to +you?' + +The girl readily promised, and, indeed, could be safely trusted on such a +subject, so deep was her affection for the youth she mourned. + +'Then meet me at his grave to-night, half-an-hour after sunset, and I +will tell it to you,' says the other. + +In the dusk of that spring evening the two shadowy figures of the young +women converged upon the assistant-steward's newly-turfed mound; and at +that solemn place and hour, the one of birth and beauty unfolded her +tale: how she had loved him and married him secretly; how he had died in +her chamber; and how, to keep her secret, she had dragged him to his own +door. + +'Married him, my lady!' said the rustic maiden, starting back. + +'I have said so,' replied Lady Caroline. 'But it was a mad thing, and a +mistaken course. He ought to have married you. You, Milly, were +peculiarly his. But you lost him.' + +'Yes,' said the poor girl; 'and for that they laughed at me. "Ha--ha, +you mid love him, Milly," they said; "but he will not love you!"' + +'Victory over such unkind jeerers would be sweet,' said Lady Caroline. +'You lost him in life; but you may have him in death _as if_ you had had +him in life; and so turn the tables upon them.' + +'How?' said the breathless girl. + +The young lady then unfolded her plan, which was that Milly should go +forward and declare that the young man had contracted a secret marriage +(as he truly had done); that it was with her, Milly, his sweetheart; that +he had been visiting her in her cottage on the evening of his death; +when, on finding he was a corpse, she had carried him to his house to +prevent discovery by her parents, and that she had meant to keep the +whole matter a secret till the rumours afloat had forced it from her. + +'And how shall I prove this?' said the woodman's daughter, amazed at the +boldness of the proposal. + +'Quite sufficiently. You can say, if necessary, that you were married to +him at the church of St. Michael, in Bath City, in my name, as the first +that occurred to you, to escape detection. That was where he married me. +I will support you in this.' + +'Oh--I don't quite like--' + +'If you will do so,' said the lady peremptorily, 'I will always be your +father's friend and yours; if not, it will be otherwise. And I will give +you my wedding-ring, which you shall wear as yours.' + +'Have you worn it, my lady?' + +'Only at night.' + +There was not much choice in the matter, and Milly consented. Then this +noble lady took from her bosom the ring she had never been able openly to +exhibit, and, grasping the young girl's hand, slipped it upon her finger +as she stood upon her lover's grave. + +Milly shivered, and bowed her head, saying, 'I feel as if I had become a +corpse's bride!' + +But from that moment the maiden was heart and soul in the substitution. A +blissful repose came over her spirit. It seemed to her that she had +secured in death him whom in life she had vainly idolized; and she was +almost content. After that the lady handed over to the young man's new +wife all the little mementoes and trinkets he had given herself; even to +a locket containing his hair. + +The next day the girl made her so-called confession, which the simple +mourning she had already worn, without stating for whom, seemed to bear +out; and soon the story of the little romance spread through the village +and country-side, almost as far as Melchester. It was a curious +psychological fact that, having once made the avowal, Milly seemed +possessed with a spirit of ecstasy at her position. With the liberal sum +of money supplied to her by Lady Caroline she now purchased the garb of a +widow, and duly appeared at church in her weeds, her simple face looking +so sweet against its margin of crape that she was almost envied her state +by the other village-girls of her age. And when a woman's sorrow for her +beloved can maim her young life so obviously as it had done Milly's there +was, in truth, little subterfuge in the case. Her explanation tallied so +well with the details of her lover's latter movements--those strange +absences and sudden returnings, which had occasionally puzzled his +friends--that nobody supposed for a moment that the second actor in these +secret nuptials was other than she. The actual and whole truth would +indeed have seemed a preposterous assertion beside this plausible one, by +reason of the lofty demeanour of the Lady Caroline and the unassuming +habits of the late villager. There being no inheritance in question, not +a soul took the trouble to go to the city church, forty miles off, and +search the registers for marriage signatures bearing out so humble a +romance. + +In a short time Milly caused a decent tombstone to be erected over her +nominal husband's grave, whereon appeared the statement that it was +placed there by his heartbroken widow, which, considering that the +payment for it came from Lady Caroline and the grief from Milly, was as +truthful as such inscriptions usually are, and only required pluralizing +to render it yet more nearly so. + +The impressionable and complaisant Milly, in her character of widow, took +delight in going to his grave every day, and indulging in sorrow which +was a positive luxury to her. She placed fresh flowers on his grave, and +so keen was her emotional imaginativeness that she almost believed +herself to have been his wife indeed as she walked to and fro in her garb +of woe. One afternoon, Milly being busily engaged in this labour of love +at the grave, Lady Caroline passed outside the churchyard wall with some +of her visiting friends, who, seeing Milly there, watched her actions +with interest, remarked upon the pathos of the scene, and upon the +intense affection the young man must have felt for such a tender creature +as Milly. A strange light, as of pain, shot from the Lady Caroline's +eye, as if for the first time she begrudged to the young girl the +position she had been at such pains to transfer to her; it showed that a +slumbering affection for her husband still had life in Lady Caroline, +obscured and stifled as it was by social considerations. + +An end was put to this smooth arrangement by the sudden appearance in the +churchyard one day of the Lady Caroline, when Milly had come there on her +usual errand of laying flowers. Lady Caroline had been anxiously +awaiting her behind the chancel, and her countenance was pale and +agitated. + +'Milly!' she said, 'come here! I don't know how to say to you what I am +going to say. I am half dead!' + +'I am sorry for your ladyship,' says Milly, wondering. + +'Give me that ring!' says the lady, snatching at the girl's left hand. + +Milly drew it quickly away. + +'I tell you give it to me!' repeated Caroline, almost fiercely. 'Oh--but +you don't know why? I am in a grief and a trouble I did not expect!' And +Lady Caroline whispered a few words to the girl. + +'O my lady!' said the thunderstruck Milly. 'What _will_ you do?' + +'You must say that your statement was a wicked lie, an invention, a +scandal, a deadly sin--that I told you to make it to screen me! That it +was I whom he married at Bath. In short, we must tell the truth, or I am +ruined--body, mind, and reputation--for ever!' + +But there is a limit to the flexibility of gentle-souled women. Milly by +this time had so grown to the idea of being one flesh with this young +man, of having the right to bear his name as she bore it; had so +thoroughly come to regard him as her husband, to dream of him as her +husband, to speak of him as her husband, that she could not relinquish +him at a moment's peremptory notice. + +'No, no,' she said desperately, 'I cannot, I will not give him up! Your +ladyship took him away from me alive, and gave him back to me only when +he was dead. Now I will keep him! I am truly his widow. More truly +than you, my lady! for I love him and mourn for him, and call myself by +his dear name, and your ladyship does neither!' + +'I _do_ love him!' cries Lady Caroline with flashing eyes, 'and I cling +to him, and won't let him go to such as you! How can I, when he is the +father of this poor babe that's coming to me? I must have him back +again! Milly, Milly, can't you pity and understand me, perverse girl +that you are, and the miserable plight that I am in? Oh, this +precipitancy--it is the ruin of women! Why did I not consider, and wait! +Come, give me back all that I have given you, and assure me you will +support me in confessing the truth!' + +'Never, never!' persisted Milly, with woe-begone passionateness. 'Look +at this headstone! Look at my gown and bonnet of crape--this ring: +listen to the name they call me by! My character is worth as much to me +as yours is to you! After declaring my Love mine, myself his, taking his +name, making his death my own particular sorrow, how can I say it was not +so? No such dishonour for me! I will outswear you, my lady; and I shall +be believed. My story is so much the more likely that yours will be +thought false. But, O please, my lady, do not drive me to this! In pity +let me keep him!' + +The poor nominal widow exhibited such anguish at a proposal which would +have been truly a bitter humiliation to her, that Lady Caroline was +warmed to pity in spite of her own condition. + +'Yes, I see your position,' she answered. 'But think of mine! What can +I do? Without your support it would seem an invention to save me from +disgrace; even if I produced the register, the love of scandal in the +world is such that the multitude would slur over the fact, say it was a +fabrication, and believe your story. I do not know who were the +witnesses, or anything!' + +In a few minutes these two poor young women felt, as so many in a strait +have felt before, that union was their greatest strength, even now; and +they consulted calmly together. The result of their deliberations was +that Milly went home as usual, and Lady Caroline also, the latter +confessing that very night to the Countess her mother of the marriage, +and to nobody else in the world. And, some time after, Lady Caroline and +her mother went away to London, where a little while later still they +were joined by Milly, who was supposed to have left the village to +proceed to a watering-place in the North for the benefit of her health, +at the expense of the ladies of the Manor, who had been much interested +in her state of lonely and defenceless widowhood. + +Early the next year the widow Milly came home with an infant in her arms, +the family at the Manor House having meanwhile gone abroad. They did not +return from their tour till the autumn ensuing, by which time Milly and +the child had again departed from the cottage of her father the woodman, +Milly having attained to the dignity of dwelling in a cottage of her own, +many miles to the eastward of her native village; a comfortable little +allowance had moreover been settled on her and the child for life, +through the instrumentality of Lady Caroline and her mother. + +Two or three years passed away, and the Lady Caroline married a +nobleman--the Marquis of Stonehenge--considerably her senior, who had +wooed her long and phlegmatically. He was not rich, but she led a placid +life with him for many years, though there was no child of the marriage. +Meanwhile Milly's boy, as the youngster was called, and as Milly herself +considered him, grew up, and throve wonderfully, and loved her as she +deserved to be loved for her devotion to him, in whom she every day +traced more distinctly the lineaments of the man who had won her girlish +heart, and kept it even in the tomb. + +She educated him as well as she could with the limited means at her +disposal, for the allowance had never been increased, Lady Caroline, or +the Marchioness of Stonehenge as she now was, seeming by degrees to care +little what had become of them. Milly became extremely ambitious on the +boy's account; she pinched herself almost of necessaries to send him to +the Grammar School in the town to which they retired, and at twenty he +enlisted in a cavalry regiment, joining it with a deliberate intent of +making the Army his profession, and not in a freak of idleness. His +exceptional attainments, his manly bearing, his steady conduct, speedily +won him promotion, which was furthered by the serious war in which this +country was at that time engaged. On his return to England after the +peace he had risen to the rank of riding-master, and was soon after +advanced another stage, and made quartermaster, though still a young man. + +His mother--his corporeal mother, that is, the Marchioness of +Stonehenge--heard tidings of this unaided progress; it reawakened her +maternal instincts, and filled her with pride. She became keenly +interested in her successful soldier-son; and as she grew older much +wished to see him again, particularly when, the Marquis dying, she was +left a solitary and childless widow. Whether or not she would have gone +to him of her own impulse I cannot say; but one day, when she was driving +in an open carriage in the outskirts of a neighbouring town, the troops +lying at the barracks hard by passed her in marching order. She eyed +them narrowly, and in the finest of the horsemen recognized her son from +his likeness to her first husband. + +This sight of him doubly intensified the motherly emotions which had lain +dormant in her for so many years, and she wildly asked herself how she +could so have neglected him? Had she possessed the true courage of +affection she would have owned to her first marriage, and have reared him +as her son! What would it have mattered if she had never obtained this +precious coronet of pearls and gold leaves, by comparison with the gain +of having the love and protection of such a noble and worthy son? These +and other sad reflections cut the gloomy and solitary lady to the heart; +and she repented of her pride in disclaiming her first husband more +bitterly than she had ever repented of her infatuation in marrying him. + +Her yearning was so strong, that at length it seemed to her that she +could not live without announcing herself to him as his mother. Come +what might, she would do it: late as it was, she would have him away from +that woman whom she began to hate with the fierceness of a deserted +heart, for having taken her place as the mother of her only child. She +felt confidently enough that her son would only too gladly exchange a +cottage-mother for one who was a peeress of the realm. Being now, in her +widowhood, free to come and go as she chose, without question from +anybody, Lady Stonehenge started next day for the little town where Milly +yet lived, still in her robes of sable for the lost lover of her youth. + +'He is _my_ son,' said the Marchioness, as soon as she was alone in the +cottage with Milly. 'You must give him back to me, now that I am in a +position in which I can defy the world's opinion. I suppose he comes to +see you continually?' + +'Every month since he returned from the war, my lady. And sometimes he +stays two or three days, and takes me about seeing sights everywhere!' +She spoke with quiet triumph. + +'Well, you will have to give him up,' said the Marchioness calmly. 'It +shall not be the worse for you--you may see him when you choose. I am +going to avow my first marriage, and have him with me.' + +'You forget that there are two to be reckoned with, my lady. Not only +me, but himself.' + +'That can be arranged. You don't suppose that he wouldn't--' But not +wishing to insult Milly by comparing their positions, she said, 'He is my +own flesh and blood, not yours.' + +'Flesh and blood's nothing!' said Milly, flashing with as much scorn as a +cottager could show to a peeress, which, in this case, was not so little +as may be supposed. 'But I will agree to put it to him, and let him +settle it for himself.' + +'That's all I require,' said Lady Stonehenge. 'You must ask him to come, +and I will meet him here.' + +The soldier was written to, and the meeting took place. He was not so +much astonished at the disclosure of his parentage as Lady Stonehenge had +been led to expect, having known for years that there was a little +mystery about his birth. His manner towards the Marchioness, though +respectful, was less warm than she could have hoped. The alternatives as +to his choice of a mother were put before him. His answer amazed and +stupefied her. + +'No, my lady,' he said. 'Thank you much, but I prefer to let things be +as they have been. My father's name is mine in any case. You see, my +lady, you cared little for me when I was weak and helpless; why should I +come to you now I am strong? She, dear devoted soul [pointing to Milly], +tended me from my birth, watched over me, nursed me when I was ill, and +deprived herself of many a little comfort to push me on. I cannot love +another mother as I love her. She _is_ my mother, and I will always be +her son!' As he spoke he put his manly arm round Milly's neck, and +kissed her with the tenderest affection. + +The agony of the poor Marchioness was pitiable. 'You kill me!' she said, +between her shaking sobs. 'Cannot you--love--me--too?' + +'No, my lady. If I must say it, you were ashamed of my poor father, who +was a sincere and honest man; therefore, I am ashamed of you.' + +Nothing would move him; and the suffering woman at last gasped, +'Cannot--oh, cannot you give one kiss to me--as you did to her? It is +not much--it is all I ask--all!' + +'Certainly,' he replied. + +He kissed her coldly, and the painful scene came to an end. That day was +the beginning of death to the unfortunate Marchioness of Stonehenge. It +was in the perverseness of her human heart that his denial of her should +add fuel to the fire of her craving for his love. How long afterwards +she lived I do not know with any exactness, but it was no great length of +time. That anguish that is sharper than a serpent's tooth wore her out +soon. Utterly reckless of the world, its ways, and its opinions, she +allowed her story to become known; and when the welcome end supervened +(which, I grieve to say, she refused to lighten by the consolations of +religion), a broken heart was the truest phrase in which to sum up its +cause. + +* * * * * + +The rural dean having concluded, some observations upon his tale were +made in due course. The sentimental member said that Lady Caroline's +history afforded a sad instance of how an honest human affection will +become shamefaced and mean under the frost of class-division and social +prejudices. She probably deserved some pity; though her offspring, +before he grew up to man's estate, had deserved more. There was no +pathos like the pathos of childhood, when a child found itself in a world +where it was not wanted, and could not understand the reason why. A tale +by the speaker, further illustrating the same subject, though with +different results from the last, naturally followed. + + + + +DAME THE FOURTH--LADY MOTTISFONT +By the Sentimental Member + + +Of all the romantic towns in Wessex, Wintoncester is probably the most +convenient for meditative people to live in; since there you have a +cathedral with a nave so long that it affords space in which to walk and +summon your remoter moods without continually turning on your heel, or +seeming to do more than take an afternoon stroll under cover from the +rain or sun. In an uninterrupted course of nearly three hundred steps +eastward, and again nearly three hundred steps westward amid those +magnificent tombs, you can, for instance, compare in the most leisurely +way the dry dustiness which ultimately pervades the persons of kings and +bishops with the damper dustiness that is usually the final shape of +commoners, curates, and others who take their last rest out of doors. +Then, if you are in love, you can, by sauntering in the chapels and +behind the episcopal chantries with the bright-eyed one, so steep and +mellow your ecstasy in the solemnities around, that it will assume a +rarer and finer tincture, even more grateful to the understanding, if not +to the senses, than that form of the emotion which arises from such +companionship in spots where all is life, and growth, and fecundity. + +It was in this solemn place, whither they had withdrawn from the sight of +relatives on one cold day in March, that Sir Ashley Mottisfont asked in +marriage, as his second wife, Philippa, the gentle daughter of plain +Squire Okehall. Her life had been an obscure one thus far; while Sir +Ashley, though not a rich man, had a certain distinction about him; so +that everybody thought what a convenient, elevating, and, in a word, +blessed match it would be for such a supernumerary as she. Nobody +thought so more than the amiable girl herself. She had been smitten with +such affection for him that, when she walked the cathedral aisles at his +side on the before-mentioned day, she did not know that her feet touched +hard pavement; it seemed to her rather that she was floating in space. +Philippa was an ecstatic, heart-thumping maiden, and could not understand +how she had deserved to have sent to her such an illustrious lover, such +a travelled personage, such a handsome man. + +When he put the question, it was in no clumsy language, such as the +ordinary bucolic county landlords were wont to use on like quivering +occasions, but as elegantly as if he had been taught it in Enfield's +_Speaker_. Yet he hesitated a little--for he had something to add. + +'My pretty Philippa,' he said (she was not very pretty by the way), 'I +have, you must know, a little girl dependent upon me: a little waif I +found one day in a patch of wild oats [such was this worthy baronet's +humour] when I was riding home: a little nameless creature, whom I wish +to take care of till she is old enough to take care of herself; and to +educate in a plain way. She is only fifteen months old, and is at +present in the hands of a kind villager's wife in my parish. Will you +object to give some attention to the little thing in her helplessness?' + +It need hardly be said that our innocent young lady, loving him so deeply +and joyfully as she did, replied that she would do all she could for the +nameless child; and, shortly afterwards, the pair were married in the +same cathedral that had echoed the whispers of his declaration, the +officiating minister being the Bishop himself; a venerable and +experienced man, so well accomplished in uniting people who had a mind +for that sort of experiment, that the couple, with some sense of +surprise, found themselves one while they were still vaguely gazing at +each other as two independent beings. + +After this operation they went home to Deansleigh Park, and made a +beginning of living happily ever after. Lady Mottisfont, true to her +promise, was always running down to the village during the following +weeks to see the baby whom her husband had so mysteriously lighted on +during his ride home--concerning which interesting discovery she had her +own opinion; but being so extremely amiable and affectionate that she +could have loved stocks and stones if there had been no living creatures +to love, she uttered none of her thoughts. The little thing, who had +been christened Dorothy, took to Lady Mottisfont as if the baronet's +young wife had been her mother; and at length Philippa grew so fond of +the child that she ventured to ask her husband if she might have Dorothy +in her own home, and bring her up carefully, just as if she were her own. +To this he answered that, though remarks might be made thereon, he had no +objection; a fact which was obvious, Sir Ashley seeming rather pleased +than otherwise with the proposal. + +After this they lived quietly and uneventfully for two or three years at +Sir Ashley Mottisfont's residence in that part of England, with as near +an approach to bliss as the climate of this country allows. The child +had been a godsend to Philippa, for there seemed no great probability of +her having one of her own: and she wisely regarded the possession of +Dorothy as a special kindness of Providence, and did not worry her mind +at all as to Dorothy's possible origin. Being a tender and impulsive +creature, she loved her husband without criticism, exhaustively and +religiously, and the child not much otherwise. She watched the little +foundling as if she had been her own by nature, and Dorothy became a +great solace to her when her husband was absent on pleasure or business; +and when he came home he looked pleased to see how the two had won each +other's hearts. Sir Ashley would kiss his wife, and his wife would kiss +little Dorothy, and little Dorothy would kiss Sir Ashley, and after this +triangular burst of affection Lady Mottisfont would say, 'Dear me--I +forget she is not mine!' + +'What does it matter?' her husband would reply. 'Providence is +fore-knowing. He has sent us this one because he is not intending to +send us one by any other channel.' + +Their life was of the simplest. Since his travels the baronet had taken +to sporting and farming; while Philippa was a pattern of domesticity. +Their pleasures were all local. They retired early to rest, and rose +with the cart-horses and whistling waggoners. They knew the names of +every bird and tree not exceptionally uncommon, and could foretell the +weather almost as well as anxious farmers and old people with corns. + +One day Sir Ashley Mottisfont received a letter, which he read, and +musingly laid down on the table without remark. + +'What is it, dearest?' asked his wife, glancing at the sheet. + +'Oh, it is from an old lawyer at Bath whom I used to know. He reminds me +of something I said to him four or five years ago--some little time +before we were married--about Dorothy.' + +'What about her?' + +'It was a casual remark I made to him, when I thought you might not take +kindly to her, that if he knew a lady who was anxious to adopt a child, +and could insure a good home to Dorothy, he was to let me know.' + +'But that was when you had nobody to take care of her,' she said quickly. +'How absurd of him to write now! Does he know you are married? He must, +surely.' + +'Oh yes!' + +He handed her the letter. The solicitor stated that a widow-lady of +position, who did not at present wish her name to be disclosed, had +lately become a client of his while taking the waters, and had mentioned +to him that she would like a little girl to bring up as her own, if she +could be certain of finding one of good and pleasing disposition; and, +the better to insure this, she would not wish the child to be too young +for judging her qualities. He had remembered Sir Ashley's observation to +him a long while ago, and therefore brought the matter before him. It +would be an excellent home for the little girl--of that he was +positive--if she had not already found such a home. + +'But it is absurd of the man to write so long after!' said Lady +Mottisfont, with a lumpiness about the back of her throat as she thought +how much Dorothy had become to her. 'I suppose it was when you +first--found her--that you told him this?' + +'Exactly--it was then.' + +He fell into thought, and neither Sir Ashley nor Lady Mottisfont took the +trouble to answer the lawyer's letter; and so the matter ended for the +time. + +One day at dinner, on their return from a short absence in town, whither +they had gone to see what the world was doing, hear what it was saying, +and to make themselves generally fashionable after rusticating for so +long--on this occasion, I say, they learnt from some friend who had +joined them at dinner that Fernell Hall--the manorial house of the estate +next their own, which had been offered on lease by reason of the +impecuniosity of its owner--had been taken for a term by a widow lady, an +Italian Contessa, whose name I will not mention for certain reasons which +may by and by appear. Lady Mottisfont expressed her surprise and +interest at the probability of having such a neighbour. 'Though, if I +had been born in Italy, I think I should have liked to remain there,' she +said. + +'She is not Italian, though her husband was,' said Sir Ashley. + +'Oh, you have heard about her before now?' + +'Yes; they were talking of her at Grey's the other evening. She is +English.' And then, as her husband said no more about the lady, the +friend who was dining with them told Lady Mottisfont that the Countess's +father had speculated largely in East-India Stock, in which immense +fortunes were being made at that time; through this his daughter had +found herself enormously wealthy at his death, which had occurred only a +few weeks after the death of her husband. It was supposed that the +marriage of an enterprising English speculator's daughter to a poor +foreign nobleman had been matter of arrangement merely. As soon as the +Countess's widowhood was a little further advanced she would, no doubt, +be the mark of all the schemers who came near her, for she was still +quite young. But at present she seemed to desire quiet, and avoided +society and town. + +Some weeks after this time Sir Ashley Mottisfont sat looking fixedly at +his lady for many moments. He said: + +'It might have been better for Dorothy if the Countess had taken her. She +is so wealthy in comparison with ourselves, and could have ushered the +girl into the great world more effectually than we ever shall be able to +do.' + +'The Contessa take Dorothy?' said Lady Mottisfont with a start. 'What--was +she the lady who wished to adopt her?' + +'Yes; she was staying at Bath when Lawyer Gayton wrote to me.' + +'But how do you know all this, Ashley?' + +He showed a little hesitation. 'Oh, I've seen her,' he says. 'You know, +she drives to the meet sometimes, though she does not ride; and she has +informed me that she was the lady who inquired of Gayton.' + +'You have talked to her as well as seen her, then?' + +'Oh yes, several times; everybody has.' + +'Why didn't you tell me?' says his lady. 'I had quite forgotten to call +upon her. I'll go to-morrow, or soon . . . But I can't think, Ashley, +how you can say that it might have been better for Dorothy to have gone +to her; she is so much our own now that I cannot admit any such +conjectures as those, even in jest.' Her eyes reproached him so +eloquently that Sir Ashley Mottisfont did not answer. + +Lady Mottisfont did not hunt any more than the Anglo-Italian Countess +did; indeed, she had become so absorbed in household matters and in +Dorothy's wellbeing that she had no mind to waste a minute on mere +enjoyments. As she had said, to talk coolly of what might have been the +best destination in days past for a child to whom they had become so +attached seemed quite barbarous, and she could not understand how her +husband should consider the point so abstractedly; for, as will probably +have been guessed, Lady Mottisfont long before this time, if she had not +done so at the very beginning, divined Sir Ashley's true relation to +Dorothy. But the baronet's wife was so discreetly meek and mild that she +never told him of her surmise, and took what Heaven had sent her without +cavil, her generosity in this respect having been bountifully rewarded by +the new life she found in her love for the little girl. + +Her husband recurred to the same uncomfortable subject when, a few days +later, they were speaking of travelling abroad. He said that it was +almost a pity, if they thought of going, that they had not fallen in with +the Countess's wish. That lady had told him that she had met Dorothy +walking with her nurse, and that she had never seen a child she liked so +well. + +'What--she covets her still? How impertinent of the woman!' said Lady +Mottisfont. + +'She seems to do so . . . You see, dearest Philippa, the advantage to +Dorothy would have been that the Countess would have adopted her legally, +and have made her as her own daughter; while we have not done that--we +are only bringing up and educating a poor child in charity.' + +'But I'll adopt her fully--make her mine legally!' cried his wife in an +anxious voice. 'How is it to be done?' + +'H'm.' He did not inform her, but fell into thought; and, for reasons of +her own, his lady was restless and uneasy. + +The very next day Lady Mottisfont drove to Fernell Hall to pay the +neglected call upon her neighbour. The Countess was at home, and +received her graciously. But poor Lady Mottisfont's heart died within +her as soon as she set eyes on her new acquaintance. Such wonderful +beauty, of the fully-developed kind, had never confronted her before +inside the lines of a human face. She seemed to shine with every light +and grace that woman can possess. Her finished Continental manners, her +expanded mind, her ready wit, composed a study that made the other poor +lady sick; for she, and latterly Sir Ashley himself, were rather rural in +manners, and she felt abashed by new sounds and ideas from without. She +hardly knew three words in any language but her own, while this divine +creature, though truly English, had, apparently, whatever she wanted in +the Italian and French tongues to suit every impression; which was +considered a great improvement to speech in those days, and, indeed, is +by many considered as such in these. + +'How very strange it was about the little girl!' the Contessa said to +Lady Mottisfont, in her gay tones. 'I mean, that the child the lawyer +recommended should, just before then, have been adopted by you, who are +now my neighbour. How is she getting on? I must come and see her.' + +'Do you still want her?' asks Lady Mottisfont suspiciously. + +'Oh, I should like to have her!' + +'But you can't! She's mine!' said the other greedily. + +A drooping manner appeared in the Countess from that moment. + +Lady Mottisfont, too, was in a wretched mood all the way home that day. +The Countess was so charming in every way that she had charmed her gentle +ladyship; how should it be possible that she had failed to charm Sir +Ashley? Moreover, she had awakened a strange thought in Philippa's mind. +As soon as she reached home she rushed to the nursery, and there, seizing +Dorothy, frantically kissed her; then, holding her at arm's length, she +gazed with a piercing inquisitiveness into the girl's lineaments. She +sighed deeply, abandoned the wondering Dorothy, and hastened away. + +She had seen there not only her husband's traits, which she had often +beheld before, but others, of the shade, shape, and expression which +characterized those of her new neighbour. + +Then this poor lady perceived the whole perturbing sequence of things, +and asked herself how she could have been such a walking piece of +simplicity as not to have thought of this before. But she did not stay +long upbraiding herself for her shortsightedness, so overwhelmed was she +with misery at the spectacle of herself as an intruder between these. To +be sure she could not have foreseen such a conjuncture; but that did not +lessen her grief. The woman who had been both her husband's bliss and +his backsliding had reappeared free when he was no longer so, and she +evidently was dying to claim her own in the person of Dorothy, who had +meanwhile grown to be, to Lady Mottisfont, almost the only source of each +day's happiness, supplying her with something to watch over, inspiring +her with the sense of maternity, and so largely reflecting her husband's +nature as almost to deceive her into the pleasant belief that she +reflected her own also. + +If there was a single direction in which this devoted and virtuous lady +erred, it was in the direction of over-submissiveness. When all is said +and done, and the truth told, men seldom show much self-sacrifice in +their conduct as lords and masters to helpless women bound to them for +life, and perhaps (though I say it with all uncertainty) if she had +blazed up in his face like a furze-faggot, directly he came home, she +might have helped herself a little. But God knows whether this is a true +supposition; at any rate she did no such thing; and waited and prayed +that she might never do despite to him who, she was bound to admit, had +always been tender and courteous towards her; and hoped that little +Dorothy might never be taken away. + +By degrees the two households became friendly, and very seldom did a week +pass without their seeing something of each other. Try as she might, and +dangerous as she assumed the acquaintanceship to be, Lady Mottisfont +could detect no fault or flaw in her new friend. It was obvious that +Dorothy had been the magnet which had drawn the Contessa hither, and not +Sir Ashley. + +Such beauty, united with such understanding and brightness, Philippa had +never before known in one of her own sex, and she tried to think (whether +she succeeded I do not know) that she did not mind the propinquity; since +a woman so rich, so fair, and with such a command of suitors, could not +desire to wreck the happiness of so inoffensive a person as herself. + +The season drew on when it was the custom for families of distinction to +go off to The Bath, and Sir Ashley Mottisfont persuaded his wife to +accompany him thither with Dorothy. Everybody of any note was there this +year. From their own part of England came many that they knew; among the +rest, Lord and Lady Purbeck, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Sir John +Grebe, the Drenkhards, Lady Stourvale, the old Duke of Hamptonshire, the +Bishop of Melchester, the Dean of Exonbury, and other lesser lights of +Court, pulpit, and field. Thither also came the fair Contessa, whom, as +soon as Philippa saw how much she was sought after by younger men, she +could not conscientiously suspect of renewed designs upon Sir Ashley. + +But the Countess had finer opportunities than ever with Dorothy; for Lady +Mottisfont was often indisposed, and even at other times could not +honestly hinder an intercourse which gave bright ideas to the child. +Dorothy welcomed her new acquaintance with a strange and instinctive +readiness that intimated the wonderful subtlety of the threads which bind +flesh and flesh together. + +At last the crisis came: it was precipitated by an accident. Dorothy and +her nurse had gone out one day for an airing, leaving Lady Mottisfont +alone indoors. While she sat gloomily thinking that in all likelihood +the Countess would contrive to meet the child somewhere, and exchange a +few tender words with her, Sir Ashley Mottisfont rushed in and informed +her that Dorothy had just had the narrowest possible escape from death. +Some workmen were undermining a house to pull it down for rebuilding, +when, without warning, the front wall inclined slowly outwards for its +fall, the nurse and child passing beneath it at the same moment. The +fall was temporarily arrested by the scaffolding, while in the meantime +the Countess had witnessed their imminent danger from the other side of +the street. Springing across, she snatched Dorothy from under the wall, +and pulled the nurse after her, the middle of the way being barely +reached before they were enveloped in the dense dust of the descending +mass, though not a stone touched them. + +'Where is Dorothy?' says the excited Lady Mottisfont. + +'She has her--she won't let her go for a time--' + +'Has her? But she's _mine_--she's mine!' cries Lady Mottisfont. + +Then her quick and tender eyes perceived that her husband had almost +forgotten her intrusive existence in contemplating the oneness of +Dorothy's, the Countess's, and his own: he was in a dream of exaltation +which recognized nothing necessary to his well-being outside that welded +circle of three lives. + +Dorothy was at length brought home; she was much fascinated by the +Countess, and saw nothing tragic, but rather all that was truly +delightful, in what had happened. In the evening, when the excitement +was over, and Dorothy was put to bed, Sir Ashley said, 'She has saved +Dorothy; and I have been asking myself what I can do for her as a slight +acknowledgment of her heroism. Surely we ought to let her have Dorothy +to bring up, since she still desires to do it? It would be so much to +Dorothy's advantage. We ought to look at it in that light, and not +selfishly.' + +Philippa seized his hand. 'Ashley, Ashley! You don't mean it--that I +must lose my pretty darling--the only one I have?' She met his gaze with +her piteous mouth and wet eyes so painfully strained, that he turned away +his face. + +The next morning, before Dorothy was awake, Lady Mottisfont stole to the +girl's bedside, and sat regarding her. When Dorothy opened her eyes, she +fixed them for a long time upon Philippa's features. + +'Mamma--you are not so pretty as the Contessa, are you?' she said at +length. + +'I am not, Dorothy.' + +'Why are you not, mamma?' + +'Dorothy--where would you rather live, always; with me, or with her?' + +The little girl looked troubled. 'I am sorry, mamma; I don't mean to be +unkind; but I would rather live with her; I mean, if I might without +trouble, and you did not mind, and it could be just the same to us all, +you know.' + +'Has she ever asked you the same question?' + +'Never, mamma.' + +There lay the sting of it: the Countess seemed the soul of honour and +fairness in this matter, test her as she might. That afternoon Lady +Mottisfont went to her husband with singular firmness upon her gentle +face. + +'Ashley, we have been married nearly five years, and I have never +challenged you with what I know perfectly well--the parentage of +Dorothy.' + +'Never have you, Philippa dear. Though I have seen that you knew from +the first.' + +'From the first as to her father, not as to her mother. Her I did not +know for some time; but I know now.' + +'Ah! you have discovered that too?' says he, without much surprise. + +'Could I help it? Very well, that being so, I have thought it over; and +I have spoken to Dorothy. I agree to her going. I can do no less than +grant to the Countess her wish, after her kindness to my--your--her--child.' + +Then this self-sacrificing woman went hastily away that he might not see +that her heart was bursting; and thereupon, before they left the city, +Dorothy changed her mother and her home. After this, the Countess went +away to London for a while, taking Dorothy with her; and the baronet and +his wife returned to their lonely place at Deansleigh Park without her. + +To renounce Dorothy in the bustle of Bath was a different thing from +living without her in this quiet home. One evening Sir Ashley missed his +wife from the supper-table; her manner had been so pensive and woeful of +late that he immediately became alarmed. He said nothing, but looked +about outside the house narrowly, and discerned her form in the park, +where recently she had been accustomed to walk alone. In its lower +levels there was a pool fed by a trickling brook, and he reached this +spot in time to hear a splash. Running forward, he dimly perceived her +light gown floating in the water. To pull her out was the work of a few +instants, and bearing her indoors to her room, he undressed her, nobody +in the house knowing of the incident but himself. She had not been +immersed long enough to lose her senses, and soon recovered. She owned +that she had done it because the Contessa had taken away her child, as +she persisted in calling Dorothy. Her husband spoke sternly to her, and +impressed upon her the weakness of giving way thus, when all that had +happened was for the best. She took his reproof meekly, and admitted her +fault. + +After that she became more resigned, but he often caught her in tears +over some doll, shoe, or ribbon of Dorothy's, and decided to take her to +the North of England for change of air and scene. This was not without +its beneficial effect, corporeally no less than mentally, as later events +showed, but she still evinced a preternatural sharpness of ear at the +most casual mention of the child. When they reached home, the Countess +and Dorothy were still absent from the neighbouring Fernell Hall, but in +a month or two they returned, and a little later Sir Ashley Mottisfont +came into his wife's room full of news. + +'Well--would you think it, Philippa! After being so desperate, too, +about getting Dorothy to be with her!' + +'Ah--what?' + +'Our neighbour, the Countess, is going to be married again! It is to +somebody she has met in London.' + +Lady Mottisfont was much surprised; she had never dreamt of such an +event. The conflict for the possession of Dorothy's person had obscured +the possibility of it; yet what more likely, the Countess being still +under thirty, and so good-looking? + +'What is of still more interest to us, or to you,' continued her husband, +'is a kind offer she has made. She is willing that you should have +Dorothy back again. Seeing what a grief the loss of her has been to you, +she will try to do without her.' + +'It is not for that; it is not to oblige me,' said Lady Mottisfont +quickly. 'One can see well enough what it is for!' + +'Well, never mind; beggars mustn't be choosers. The reason or motive is +nothing to us, so that you obtain your desire.' + +'I am not a beggar any longer,' said Lady Mottisfont, with proud mystery. + +'What do you mean by that?' + +Lady Mottisfont hesitated. However, it was only too plain that she did +not now jump at a restitution of one for whom some months before she had +been breaking her heart. + +The explanation of this change of mood became apparent some little time +farther on. Lady Mottisfont, after five years of wedded life, was +expecting to become a mother, and the aspect of many things was greatly +altered in her view. Among the more important changes was that of no +longer feeling Dorothy to be absolutely indispensable to her existence. + +Meanwhile, in view of her coming marriage, the Countess decided to +abandon the remainder of her term at Fernell Hall, and return to her +pretty little house in town. But she could not do this quite so quickly +as she had expected, and half a year or more elapsed before she finally +quitted the neighbourhood, the interval being passed in alternations +between the country and London. Prior to her last departure she had an +interview with Sir Ashley Mottisfont, and it occurred three days after +his wife had presented him with a son and heir. + +'I wanted to speak to you,' said the Countess, looking him luminously in +the face, 'about the dear foundling I have adopted temporarily, and +thought to have adopted permanently. But my marriage makes it too +risky!' + +'I thought it might be that,' he answered, regarding her steadfastly back +again, and observing two tears come slowly into her eyes as she heard her +own voice describe Dorothy in those words. + +'Don't criticize me,' she said hastily; and recovering herself, went on. +'If Lady Mottisfont could take her back again, as I suggested, it would +be better for me, and certainly no worse for Dorothy. To every one but +ourselves she is but a child I have taken a fancy to, and Lady Mottisfont +coveted her so much, and was very reluctant to let her go . . . I am sure +she will adopt her again?' she added anxiously. + +'I will sound her afresh,' said the baronet. 'You leave Dorothy behind +for the present?' + +'Yes; although I go away, I do not give up the house for another month.' + +He did not speak to his wife about the proposal till some few days after, +when Lady Mottisfont had nearly recovered, and news of the Countess's +marriage in London had just reached them. He had no sooner mentioned +Dorothy's name than Lady Mottisfont showed symptoms of disquietude. + +'I have not acquired any dislike of Dorothy,' she said, 'but I feel that +there is one nearer to me now. Dorothy chose the alternative of going to +the Countess, you must remember, when I put it to her as between the +Countess and myself.' + +'But, my dear Philippa, how can you argue thus about a child, and that +child our Dorothy?' + +'Not _ours_,' said his wife, pointing to the cot. 'Ours is here.' + +'What, then, Philippa,' he said, surprised, 'you won't have her back, +after nearly dying of grief at the loss of her?' + +'I cannot argue, dear Ashley. I should prefer not to have the +responsibility of Dorothy again. Her place is filled now.' + +Her husband sighed, and went out of the chamber. There had been a +previous arrangement that Dorothy should be brought to the house on a +visit that day, but instead of taking her up to his wife, he did not +inform Lady Mottisfont of the child's presence. He entertained her +himself as well as he could, and accompanied her into the park, where +they had a ramble together. Presently he sat down on the root of an elm +and took her upon his knee. + +'Between this husband and this baby, little Dorothy, you who had two +homes are left out in the cold,' he said. + +'Can't I go to London with my pretty mamma?' said Dorothy, perceiving +from his manner that there was a hitch somewhere. + +'I am afraid not, my child. She only took you to live with her because +she was lonely, you know.' + +'Then can't I stay at Deansleigh Park with my other mamma and you?' + +'I am afraid that cannot be done either,' said he sadly. 'We have a baby +in the house now.' He closed the reply by stooping down and kissing her, +there being a tear in his eye. + +'Then nobody wants me!' said Dorothy pathetically. + +'Oh yes, somebody wants you,' he assured her. 'Where would you like to +live besides?' + +Dorothy's experiences being rather limited, she mentioned the only other +place in the world that she was acquainted with, the cottage of the +villager who had taken care of her before Lady Mottisfont had removed her +to the Manor House. + +'Yes; that's where you'll be best off and most independent,' he answered. +'And I'll come to see you, my dear girl, and bring you pretty things; and +perhaps you'll be just as happy there.' + +Nevertheless, when the change came, and Dorothy was handed over to the +kind cottage-woman, the poor child missed the luxurious roominess of +Fernell Hall and Deansleigh; and for a long time her little feet, which +had been accustomed to carpets and oak floors, suffered from the cold of +the stone flags on which it was now her lot to live and to play; while +chilblains came upon her fingers with washing at the pump. But thicker +shoes with nails in them somewhat remedied the cold feet, and her +complaints and tears on this and other scores diminished to silence as +she became inured anew to the hardships of the farm-cottage, and she grew +up robust if not handsome. She was never altogether lost sight of by Sir +Ashley, though she was deprived of the systematic education which had +been devised and begun for her by Lady Mottisfont, as well as by her +other mamma, the enthusiastic Countess. The latter soon had other +Dorothys to think of, who occupied her time and affection as fully as +Lady Mottisfont's were occupied by her precious boy. In the course of +time the doubly-desired and doubly-rejected Dorothy married, I believe, a +respectable road-contractor--the same, if I mistake not, who repaired and +improved the old highway running from Wintoncester south-westerly through +the New Forest--and in the heart of this worthy man of business the poor +girl found the nest which had been denied her by her own flesh and blood +of higher degree. + +* * * * * + +Several of the listeners wished to hear another story from the +sentimental member after this, but he said that he could recall nothing +else at the moment, and that it seemed to him as if his friend on the +other side of the fireplace had something to say from the look of his +face. + +The member alluded to was a respectable churchwarden, with a sly chink to +one eyelid--possibly the result of an accident--and a regular attendant +at the Club meetings. He replied that his looks had been mainly caused +by his interest in the two ladies of the last story, apparently women of +strong motherly instincts, even though they were not genuinely staunch in +their tenderness. The tale had brought to his mind an instance of a +firmer affection of that sort on the paternal side, in a nature otherwise +culpable. As for telling the story, his manner was much against him, he +feared; but he would do his best, if they wished. + +Here the President interposed with a suggestion that as it was getting +late in the afternoon it would be as well to adjourn to their respective +inns and lodgings for dinner, after which those who cared to do so could +return and resume these curious domestic traditions for the remainder of +the evening, which might otherwise prove irksome enough. The curator had +told him that the room was at their service. The churchwarden, who was +beginning to feel hungry himself, readily acquiesced, and the Club +separated for an hour and a half. Then the faithful ones began to drop +in again--among whom were not the President; neither came the rural dean, +nor the two curates, though the Colonel, and the man of family, cigars in +mouth, were good enough to return, having found their hotel dreary. The +museum had no regular means of illumination, and a solitary candle, less +powerful than the rays of the fire, was placed on the table; also bottles +and glasses, provided by some thoughtful member. The chink-eyed +churchwarden, now thoroughly primed, proceeded to relate in his own terms +what was in substance as follows, while many of his listeners smoked. + + + + +DAME THE FIFTH--THE LADY ICENWAY +By the Churchwarden + + +In the reign of His Most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, +Defender of the Faith and of the American Colonies, there lived in 'a +faire maner-place' (so Leland called it in his day, as I have been told), +in one o' the greenest bits of woodland between Bristol and the city of +Exonbury, a young lady who resembled some aforesaid ones in having many +talents and exceeding great beauty. With these gifts she combined a +somewhat imperious temper and arbitrary mind, though her experience of +the world was not actually so large as her conclusive manner would have +led the stranger to suppose. Being an orphan, she resided with her +uncle, who, though he was fairly considerate as to her welfare, left her +pretty much to herself. + +Now it chanced that when this lovely young lady was about nineteen, she +(being a fearless horsewoman) was riding, with only a young lad as an +attendant, in one o' the woods near her uncle's house, and, in trotting +along, her horse stumbled over the root of a felled tree. She slipped to +the ground, not seriously hurt, and was assisted home by a gentleman who +came in view at the moment of her mishap. It turned out that this +gentleman, a total stranger to her, was on a visit at the house of a +neighbouring landowner. He was of Dutch extraction, and occasionally +came to England on business or pleasure from his plantations in Guiana, +on the north coast of South America, where he usually resided. + +On this account he was naturally but little known in Wessex, and was but +a slight acquaintance of the gentleman at whose mansion he was a guest. +However, the friendship between him and the Heymeres--as the uncle and +niece were named--warmed and warmed by degrees, there being but few folk +o' note in the vicinity at that time, which made a newcomer, if he were +at all sociable and of good credit, always sure of a welcome. A tender +feeling (as it is called by the romantic) sprang up between the two young +people, which ripened into intimacy. Anderling, the foreign gentleman, +was of an amorous temperament; and, though he endeavoured to conceal his +feeling, it could be seen that Miss Maria Heymere had impressed him +rather more deeply than would be represented by a scratch upon a stone. +He seemed absolutely unable to free himself from her fascination; and his +inability to do so, much as he tried--evidently thinking he had not the +ghost of a chance with her--gave her the pleasure of power; though she +more than sympathized when she overheard him heaving his deep drawn +sighs--privately to himself, as he supposed. + +After prolonging his visit by every conceivable excuse in his power, he +summoned courage, and offered her his hand and his heart. Being in no +way disinclined to him, though not so fervid as he, and her uncle making +no objection to the match, she consented to share his fate, for better or +otherwise, in the distant colony where, as he assured her, his rice, and +coffee, and maize, and timber, produced him ample means--a statement +which was borne out by his friend, her uncle's neighbour. In short, a +day for their marriage was fixed, earlier in the engagement than is usual +or desirable between comparative strangers, by reason of the necessity he +was under of returning to look after his properties. + +The wedding took place, and Maria left her uncle's mansion with her +husband, going in the first place to London, and about a fortnight after +sailing with him across the great ocean for their distant home--which, +however, he assured her, should not be her home for long, it being his +intention to dispose of his interests in this part of the world as soon +as the war was over, and he could do so advantageously; when they could +come to Europe, and reside in some favourite capital. + +As they advanced on the voyage she observed that he grew more and more +constrained; and, by the time they had crossed the Line, he was quite +depressed, just as he had been before proposing to her. A day or two +before landing at Paramaribo, he embraced her in a very tearful and +passionate manner, and said he wished to make a confession. It had been +his misfortune, he said, to marry at Quebec in early life a woman whose +reputation proved to be in every way bad and scandalous. The discovery +had nearly killed him; but he had ultimately separated from her, and had +never seen her since. He had hoped and prayed she might be dead; but +recently in London, when they were starting on this journey, he had +discovered that she was still alive. At first he had decided to keep +this dark intelligence from her beloved ears; but he had felt that he +could not do it. All he hoped was that such a condition of things would +make no difference in her feelings for him, as it need make no difference +in the course of their lives. + +Thereupon the spirit of this proud and masterful lady showed itself in +violent turmoil, like the raging of a nor'-west thunderstorm--as well it +might, God knows. But she was of too stout a nature to be broken down by +his revelation, as many ladies of my acquaintance would have been--so far +from home, and right under the Line in the blaze o' the sun. Of the two, +indeed, he was the more wretched and shattered in spirit, for he loved +her deeply, and (there being a foreign twist in his make) had been +tempted to this crime by her exceeding beauty, against which he had +struggled day and night, till he had no further resistance left in him. +It was she who came first to a decision as to what should be done--whether +a wise one I do not attempt to judge. + +'I put it to you,' says she, when many useless self-reproaches and +protestations on his part had been uttered--'I put it to you whether, if +any manliness is left in you, you ought not to do exactly what I consider +the best thing for me in this strait to which you have reduced me?' + +He promised to do anything in the whole world. She then requested him to +allow her to return, and announce him as having died of malignant ague +immediately on their arrival at Paramaribo; that she should consequently +appear in weeds as his widow in her native place; and that he would never +molest her, or come again to that part of the world during the whole +course of his life--a good reason for which would be that the legal +consequences might be serious. + +He readily acquiesced in this, as he would have acquiesced in anything +for the restitution of one he adored so deeply--even to the yielding of +life itself. To put her in an immediate state of independence he gave +her, in bonds and jewels, a considerable sum (for his worldly means had +been in no way exaggerated); and by the next ship she sailed again for +England, having travelled no farther than to Paramaribo. At parting he +declared it to be his intention to turn all his landed possessions into +personal property, and to be a wanderer on the face of the earth in +remorse for his conduct towards her. + +Maria duly arrived in England, and immediately on landing apprised her +uncle of her return, duly appearing at his house in the garb of a widow. +She was commiserated by all the neighbours as soon as her story was told; +but only to her uncle did she reveal the real state of affairs, and her +reason for concealing it. For, though she had been innocent of wrong, +Maria's pride was of that grain which could not brook the least +appearance of having been fooled, or deluded, or nonplussed in her +worldly aims. + +For some time she led a quiet life with her relative, and in due course a +son was born to her. She was much respected for her dignity and reserve, +and the portable wealth which her temporary husband had made over to her +enabled her to live in comfort in a wing of the mansion, without +assistance from her uncle at all. But, knowing that she was not what she +seemed to be, her life was an uneasy one, and she often said to herself: +'Suppose his continued existence should become known here, and people +should discern the pride of my motive in hiding my humiliation? It would +be worse than if I had been frank at first, which I should have been but +for the credit of this child.' + +Such grave reflections as these occupied her with increasing force; and +during their continuance she encountered a worthy man of noble birth and +title--Lord Icenway his name--whose seat was beyond Wintoncester, quite +at t'other end of Wessex. He being anxious to pay his addresses to her, +Maria willingly accepted them, though he was a plain man, older than +herself; for she discerned in a re-marriage a method of fortifying her +position against mortifying discoveries. In a few months their union +took place, and Maria lifted her head as Lady Icenway, and left with her +husband and child for his home as aforesaid, where she was quite unknown. + +A justification, or a condemnation, of her step (according as you view +it) was seen when, not long after, she received a note from her former +husband Anderling. It was a hasty and tender epistle, and perhaps it was +fortunate that it arrived during the temporary absence of Lord Icenway. +His worthless wife, said Anderling, had just died in Quebec; he had gone +there to ascertain particulars, and had seen the unfortunate woman +buried. He now was hastening to England to repair the wrong he had done +his Maria. He asked her to meet him at Southampton, his port of arrival; +which she need be in no fear of doing, as he had changed his name, and +was almost absolutely unknown in Europe. He would remarry her +immediately, and live with her in any part of the Continent, as they had +originally intended, where, for the great love he still bore her, he +would devote himself to her service for the rest of his days. + +Lady Icenway, self-possessed as it was her nature to be, was yet much +disturbed at this news, and set off to meet him, unattended, as soon as +she heard that the ship was in sight. As soon as they stood face to face +she found that she still possessed all her old influence over him, though +his power to fascinate her had quite departed. In his sorrow for his +offence against her, he had become a man of strict religious habits, self- +denying as a lenten saint, though formerly he had been a free and joyous +liver. Having first got him to swear to make her any amends she should +choose (which he was imagining must be by a true marriage), she informed +him that she had already wedded another husband, an excellent man of +ancient family and possessions, who had given her a title, in which she +much rejoiced. + +At this the countenance of the poor foreign gentleman became cold as +clay, and his heart withered within him; for as it had been her beauty +and bearing which had led him to sin to obtain her, so, now that her +beauty was in fuller bloom, and her manner more haughty by her success, +did he feel her fascination to be almost more than he could bear. +Nevertheless, having sworn his word, he undertook to obey her commands, +which were simply a renewal of her old request--that he would depart for +some foreign country, and never reveal his existence to her friends, or +husband, or any person in England; never trouble her more, seeing how +great a harm it would do her in the high position which she at present +occupied. + +He bowed his head. 'And the child--our child?' he said. + +'He is well,' says she. 'Quite well.' + +With this the unhappy gentleman departed, much sadder in his heart than +on his voyage to England; for it had never occurred to him that a woman +who rated her honour so highly as Maria had done, and who was the mother +of a child of his, would have adopted such means as this for the +restoration of that honour, and at so surprisingly early a date. He had +fully calculated on making her his wife in law and truth, and of living +in cheerful unity with her and his offspring, for whom he felt a deep and +growing tenderness, though he had never once seen the child. + +The lady returned to her mansion beyond Wintoncester, and told nothing of +the interview to her noble husband, who had fortunately gone that day to +do a little cocking and ratting out by Weydon Priors, and knew nothing of +her movements. She had dismissed her poor Anderling peremptorily enough; +yet she would often after this look in the face of the child of her so- +called widowhood, to discover what and how many traits of his father were +to be seen in his lineaments. For this she had ample opportunity during +the following autumn and winter months, her husband being a matter-of- +fact nobleman, who spent the greater part of his time in field-sports and +agriculture. + +One winter day, when he had started for a meet of the hounds a long way +from the house--it being his custom to hunt three or four times a week at +this season of the year--she had walked into the sunshine upon the +terrace before the windows, where there fell at her feet some little +white object that had come over a boundary wall hard by. It proved to be +a tiny note wrapped round a stone. Lady Icenway opened it and read it, +and immediately (no doubt, with a stern fixture of her queenly +countenance) walked hastily along the terrace, and through the door into +the shrubbery, whence the note had come. The man who had first married +her stood under the bushes before her. It was plain from his appearance +that something had gone wrong with him. + +'You notice a change in me, my best-beloved,' he said. 'Yes, Maria--I +have lost all the wealth I once possessed--mainly by reckless gambling in +the Continental hells to which you banished me. But one thing in the +world remains to me--the child--and it is for him that I have intruded +here. Don't fear me, darling! I shall not inconvenience you long; I +love you too well! But I think of the boy day and night--I cannot help +it--I cannot keep my feeling for him down; and I long to see him, and +speak a word to him once in my lifetime!' + +'But your oath?' says she. 'You promised never to reveal by word or +sign--' + +'I will reveal nothing. Only let me see the child. I know what I have +sworn to you, cruel mistress, and I respect my oath. Otherwise I might +have seen him by some subterfuge. But I preferred the frank course of +asking your permission.' + +She demurred, with the haughty severity which had grown part of her +character, and which her elevation to the rank of a peeress had rather +intensified than diminished. She said that she would consider, and would +give him an answer the day after the next, at the same hour and place, +when her husband would again be absent with his pack of hounds. + +The gentleman waited patiently. Lady Icenway, who had now no conscious +love left for him, well considered the matter, and felt that it would be +advisable not to push to extremes a man of so passionate a heart. On the +day and hour she met him as she had promised to do. + +'You shall see him,' she said, 'of course on the strict condition that +you do not reveal yourself, and hence, though you see him, he must not +see you, or your manner might betray you and me. I will lull him into a +nap in the afternoon, and then I will come to you here, and fetch you +indoors by a private way.' + +The unfortunate father, whose misdemeanour had recoiled upon his own head +in a way he could not have foreseen, promised to adhere to her +instructions, and waited in the shrubberies till the moment when she +should call him. This she duly did about three o'clock that day, leading +him in by a garden door, and upstairs to the nursery where the child lay. +He was in his little cot, breathing calmly, his arm thrown over his head, +and his silken curls crushed into the pillow. His father, now almost to +be pitied, bent over him, and a tear from his eye wetted the coverlet. + +She held up a warning finger as he lowered his mouth to the lips of the +boy. + +'But oh, why not?' implored he. + +'Very well, then,' said she, relenting. 'But as gently as possible.' + +He kissed the child without waking him, turned, gave him a last look, and +followed her out of the chamber, when she conducted him off the premises +by the way he had come. + +But this remedy for his sadness of heart at being a stranger to his own +son, had the effect of intensifying the malady; for while originally, not +knowing or having ever seen the boy, he had loved him vaguely and +imaginatively only, he now became attached to him in flesh and bone, as +any parent might; and the feeling that he could at best only see his +child at the rarest and most cursory moments, if at all, drove him into a +state of distraction which threatened to overthrow his promise to the +boy's mother to keep out of his sight. + +But such was his chivalrous respect for Lady Icenway, and his regret at +having ever deceived her, that he schooled his poor heart into +submission. Owing to his loneliness, all the fervour of which he was +capable--and that was much--flowed now in the channel of parental and +marital love--for a child who did not know him, and a woman who had +ceased to love him. + +At length this singular punishment became such a torture to the poor +foreigner that he resolved to lessen it at all hazards, compatible with +punctilious care for the name of the lady his former wife, to whom his +attachment seemed to increase in proportion to her punitive treatment of +him. At one time of his life he had taken great interest in +tulip-culture, as well as gardening in general; and since the ruin of his +fortunes, and his arrival in England, he had made of his knowledge a +precarious income in the hot-houses of nurserymen and others. With the +new idea in his head he applied himself zealously to the business, till +he acquired in a few months great skill in horticulture. Waiting till +the noble lord, his lady's husband, had room for an under-gardener of a +general sort, he offered himself for the place, and was engaged +immediately by reason of his civility and intelligence, before Lady +Icenway knew anything of the matter. Much therefore did he surprise her +when she found him in the conservatories of her mansion a week or two +after his arrival. The punishment of instant dismissal, with which at +first she haughtily threatened him, my lady thought fit, on reflection, +not to enforce. While he served her thus she knew he would not harm her +by a word, while, if he were expelled, chagrin might induce him to reveal +in a moment of exasperation what kind treatment would assist him to +conceal. + +So he was allowed to remain on the premises, and had for his residence a +little cottage by the garden-wall which had been the domicile of some of +his predecessors in the same occupation. Here he lived absolutely alone, +and spent much of his leisure in reading, but the greater part in +watching the windows and lawns of his lady's house for glimpses of the +form of the child. It was for that child's sake that he abandoned the +tenets of the Roman Catholic Church in which he had been reared, and +became the most regular attendant at the services in the parish place of +worship hard by, where, sitting behind the pew of my lady, my lord, and +his stepson, the gardener could pensively study the traits and movements +of the youngster at only a few feet distance, without suspicion or +hindrance. + +He filled his post for more than two years with a pleasure to himself +which, though mournful, was soothing, his lady never forgiving him, or +allowing him to be anything more than 'the gardener' to her child, though +once or twice the boy said, 'That gardener's eyes are so sad! Why does +he look so sadly at me?' He sunned himself in her scornfulness as if it +were love, and his ears drank in her curt monosyllables as though they +were rhapsodies of endearment. Strangely enough, the coldness with which +she treated her foreigner began to be the conduct of Lord Icenway towards +herself. It was a matter of great anxiety to him that there should be a +lineal successor to the title, yet no sign of that successor appeared. +One day he complained to her quite roughly of his fate. 'All will go to +that dolt of a cousin!' he cried. 'I'd sooner see my name and place at +the bottom of the sea!' + +The lady soothed him and fell into thought, and did not recriminate. But +one day, soon after, she went down to the cottage of the gardener to +inquire how he was getting on, for he had been ailing of late, though, as +was supposed, not seriously. Though she often visited the poor, she had +never entered her under-gardener's home before, and was much +surprised--even grieved and dismayed--to find that he was too ill to rise +from his bed. She went back to her mansion and returned with some +delicate soup, that she might have a reason for seeing him. + +His condition was so feeble and alarming, and his face so thin, that it +quite shocked her softening heart, and gazing upon him she said, 'You +must get well--you must! I have been hard with you--I know it. I will +not be so again.' + +The sick and dying man--for he was dying indeed--took her hand and +pressed it to his lips. 'Too late, my darling, too late!' he murmured. + +'But you _must not_ die! Oh, you must not!' she said. And on an impulse +she bent down and whispered some words to him, blushing as she had +blushed in her maiden days. + +He replied by a faint wan smile. 'Time was! . . . but that's past!' he +said, 'I must die!' + +And die he did, a few days later, as the sun was going down behind the +garden-wall. Her harshness seemed to come trebly home to her then, and +she remorsefully exclaimed against herself in secret and alone. Her one +desire now was to erect some tribute to his memory, without its being +recognized as her handiwork. In the completion of this scheme there +arrived a few months later a handsome stained-glass window for the +church; and when it was unpacked and in course of erection Lord Icenway +strolled into the building with his wife. + +'"_Erected to his memory by his grieving widow_,"' he said, reading the +legend on the glass. 'I didn't know that he had a wife; I've never seen +her.' + +'Oh yes, you must have, Icenway; only you forget,' replied his lady +blandly. 'But she didn't live with him, and was seldom seen visiting +him, because there were differences between them; which, as is usually +the case, makes her all the more sorry now.' + +'And go ruining herself by this expensive ruby-and-azure glass-design.' + +'She is not poor, they say.' + +As Lord Icenway grew older he became crustier and crustier, and whenever +he set eyes on his wife's boy by her other husband he would burst out +morosely, saying, + +''Tis a very odd thing, my lady, that you could oblige your first +husband, and couldn't oblige me.' + +'Ah! if I had only thought of it sooner!' she murmured. + +'What?' said he. + +'Nothing, dearest,' replied Lady Icenway. + +* * * * * + +The Colonel was the first to comment upon the Churchwarden's tale, by +saying that the fate of the poor fellow was rather a hard one. + +The gentleman-tradesman could not see that his fate was at all too hard +for him. He was legally nothing to her, and he had served her +shamefully. If he had been really her husband it would have stood +differently. + +The Bookworm remarked that Lord Icenway seemed to have been a very +unsuspicious man, with which view a fat member with a crimson face +agreed. It was true his wife was a very close-mouthed personage, which +made a difference. If she had spoken out recklessly her lord might have +been suspicious enough, as in the case of that lady who lived at +Stapleford Park in their great-grandfathers' time. Though there, to be +sure, considerations arose which made her husband view matters with much +philosophy. + +A few of the members doubted the possibility of this. + +The crimson man, who was a retired maltster of comfortable means, +_ventru_, and short in stature, cleared his throat, blew off his +superfluous breath, and proceeded to give the instance before alluded to +of such possibility, first apologizing for his heroine's lack of a title, +it never having been his good fortune to know many of the nobility. To +his style of narrative the following is only an approximation. + + + + +DAME THE SIXTH--SQUIRE PETRICK'S LADY +By the Crimson Maltster + + +Folk who are at all acquainted with the traditions of Stapleford Park +will not need to be told that in the middle of the last century it was +owned by that trump of mortgagees, Timothy Petrick, whose skill in +gaining possession of fair estates by granting sums of money on their +title-deeds has seldom if ever been equalled in our part of England. +Timothy was a lawyer by profession, and agent to several noblemen, by +which means his special line of business became opened to him by a sort +of revelation. It is said that a relative of his, a very deep thinker, +who afterwards had the misfortune to be transported for life for mistaken +notions on the signing of a will, taught him considerable legal lore, +which he creditably resolved never to throw away for the benefit of other +people, but to reserve it entirely for his own. + +However, I have nothing in particular to say about his early and active +days, but rather of the time when, an old man, he had become the owner of +vast estates by the means I have signified--among them the great manor of +Stapleford, on which he lived, in the splendid old mansion now pulled +down; likewise estates at Marlott, estates near Sherton Abbas, nearly all +the borough of Millpool, and many properties near Ivell. Indeed, I can't +call to mind half his landed possessions, and I don't know that it +matters much at this time of day, seeing that he's been dead and gone +many years. It is said that when he bought an estate he would not decide +to pay the price till he had walked over every single acre with his own +two feet, and prodded the soil at every point with his own spud, to test +its quality, which, if we regard the extent of his properties, must have +been a stiff business for him. + +At the time I am speaking of he was a man over eighty, and his son was +dead; but he had two grandsons, the eldest of whom, his namesake, was +married, and was shortly expecting issue. Just then the grandfather was +taken ill, for death, as it seemed, considering his age. By his will the +old man had created an entail (as I believe the lawyers call it), +devising the whole of the estates to his elder grandson and his issue +male, failing which, to his younger grandson and his issue male, failing +which, to remoter relatives, who need not be mentioned now. + +While old Timothy Petrick was lying ill, his elder grandson's wife, +Annetta, gave birth to her expected child, who, as fortune would have it, +was a son. Timothy, her husband, through sprung of a scheming family, +was no great schemer himself; he was the single one of the Petricks then +living whose heart had ever been greatly moved by sentiments which did +not run in the groove of ambition; and on this account he had not married +well, as the saying is; his wife having been the daughter of a family of +no better beginnings than his own; that is to say, her father was a +country townsman of the professional class. But she was a very pretty +woman, by all accounts, and her husband had seen, courted, and married +her in a high tide of infatuation, after a very short acquaintance, and +with very little knowledge of her heart's history. He had never found +reason to regret his choice as yet, and his anxiety for her recovery was +great. + +She was supposed to be out of danger, and herself and the child +progressing well, when there was a change for the worse, and she sank so +rapidly that she was soon given over. When she felt that she was about +to leave him, Annetta sent for her husband, and, on his speedy entry and +assurance that they were alone, she made him solemnly vow to give the +child every care in any circumstances that might arise, if it should +please Heaven to take her. This, of course, he readily promised. Then, +after some hesitation, she told him that she could not die with a +falsehood upon her soul, and dire deceit in her life; she must make a +terrible confession to him before her lips were sealed for ever. She +thereupon related an incident concerning the baby's parentage, which was +not as he supposed. + +Timothy Petrick, though a quick-feeling man, was not of a sort to show +nerves outwardly; and he bore himself as heroically as he possibly could +do in this trying moment of his life. That same night his wife died; and +while she lay dead, and before her funeral, he hastened to the bedside of +his sick grandfather, and revealed to him all that had happened: the +baby's birth, his wife's confession, and her death, beseeching the aged +man, as he loved him, to bestir himself now, at the eleventh hour, and +alter his will so as to dish the intruder. Old Timothy, seeing matters +in the same light as his grandson, required no urging against allowing +anything to stand in the way of legitimate inheritance; he executed +another will, limiting the entail to Timothy his grandson, for life, and +his male heirs thereafter to be born; after them to his other grandson +Edward, and Edward's heirs. Thus the newly-born infant, who had been the +centre of so many hopes, was cut off and scorned as none of the elect. + +The old mortgagee lived but a short time after this, the excitement of +the discovery having told upon him considerably, and he was gathered to +his fathers like the most charitable man in his neighbourhood. Both wife +and grandparent being buried, Timothy settled down to his usual life as +well as he was able, mentally satisfied that he had by prompt action +defeated the consequences of such dire domestic treachery as had been +shown towards him, and resolving to marry a second time as soon as he +could satisfy himself in the choice of a wife. + +But men do not always know themselves. The embittered state of Timothy +Petrick's mind bred in him by degrees such a hatred and mistrust of +womankind that, though several specimens of high attractiveness came +under his eyes, he could not bring himself to the point of proposing +marriage. He dreaded to take up the position of husband a second time, +discerning a trap in every petticoat, and a Slough of Despond in possible +heirs. 'What has happened once, when all seemed so fair, may happen +again,' he said to himself. 'I'll risk my name no more.' So he +abstained from marriage, and overcame his wish for a lineal descendant to +follow him in the ownership of Stapleford. + +Timothy had scarcely noticed the unfortunate child that his wife had +borne, after arranging for a meagre fulfilment of his promise to her to +take care of the boy, by having him brought up in his house. +Occasionally, remembering this promise, he went and glanced at the child, +saw that he was doing well, gave a few special directions, and again went +his solitary way. Thus he and the child lived on in the Stapleford +mansion-house till two or three years had passed by. One day he was +walking in the garden, and by some accident left his snuff-box on a +bench. When he came back to find it he saw the little boy standing +there; he had escaped his nurse, and was making a plaything of the box, +in spite of the convulsive sneezings which the game brought in its train. +Then the man with the encrusted heart became interested in the little +fellow's persistence in his play under such discomforts; he looked in the +child's face, saw there his wife's countenance, though he did not see his +own, and fell into thought on the piteousness of childhood--particularly +of despised and rejected childhood, like this before him. + +From that hour, try as he would to counteract the feeling, the human +necessity to love something or other got the better of what he had called +his wisdom, and shaped itself in a tender anxiety for the youngster +Rupert. This name had been given him by his dying mother when, at her +request, the child was baptized in her chamber, lest he should not +survive for public baptism; and her husband had never thought of it as a +name of any significance till, about this time, he learnt by accident +that it was the name of the young Marquis of Christminster, son of the +Duke of Southwesterland, for whom Annetta had cherished warm feelings +before her marriage. Recollecting some wandering phrases in his wife's +last words, which he had not understood at the time, he perceived at last +that this was the person to whom she had alluded when affording him a +clue to little Rupert's history. + +He would sit in silence for hours with the child, being no great speaker +at the best of times; but the boy, on his part, was too ready with his +tongue for any break in discourse to arise because Timothy Petrick had +nothing to say. After idling away his mornings in this manner, Petrick +would go to his own room and swear in long loud whispers, and walk up and +down, calling himself the most ridiculous dolt that ever lived, and +declaring that he would never go near the little fellow again; to which +resolve he would adhere for the space perhaps of a day. Such cases are +happily not new to human nature, but there never was a case in which a +man more completely befocled his former self than in this. + +As the child grew up, Timothy's attachment to him grew deeper, till +Rupert became almost the sole object for which he lived. There had been +enough of the family ambition latent in him for Timothy Petrick to feel a +little envy when, some time before this date, his brother Edward had been +accepted by the Honourable Harriet Mountclere, daughter of the second +Viscount of that name and title; but having discovered, as I have before +stated, the paternity of his boy Rupert to lurk in even a higher stratum +of society, those envious feelings speedily dispersed. Indeed, the more +he reflected thereon, after his brother's aristocratic marriage, the more +content did he become. His late wife took softer outline in his memory, +as he thought of the lofty taste she had displayed, though only a plain +burgher's daughter, and the justification for his weakness in loving the +child--the justification that he had longed for--was afforded now in the +knowledge that the boy was by nature, if not by name, a representative of +one of the noblest houses in England. + +'She was a woman of grand instincts, after all,' he said to himself +proudly. 'To fix her choice upon the immediate successor in that ducal +line--it was finely conceived! Had he been of low blood like myself or +my relations she would scarce have deserved the harsh measure that I have +dealt out to her and her offspring. How much less, then, when such +grovelling tastes were farthest from her soul! The man Annetta loved was +noble, and my boy is noble in spite of me.' + +The afterclap was inevitable, and it soon came. 'So far,' he reasoned, +'from cutting off this child from inheritance of my estates, as I have +done, I should have rejoiced in the possession of him! He is of pure +stock on one side at least, whilst in the ordinary run of affairs he +would have been a commoner to the bone.' + +Being a man, whatever his faults, of good old beliefs in the divinity of +kings and those about 'em, the more he overhauled the case in this light, +the more strongly did his poor wife's conduct in improving the blood and +breed of the Petrick family win his heart. He considered what ugly, +idle, hard-drinking scamps many of his own relations had been; the +miserable scriveners, usurers, and pawnbrokers that he had numbered among +his forefathers, and the probability that some of their bad qualities +would have come out in a merely corporeal child, to give him sorrow in +his old age, turn his black hairs gray, his gray hairs white, cut down +every stick of timber, and Heaven knows what all, had he not, like a +skilful gardener, minded his grafting and changed the sort; till at +length this right-minded man fell down on his knees every night and +morning and thanked God that he was not as other meanly descended fathers +in such matters. + +It was in the peculiar disposition of the Petrick family that the +satisfaction which ultimately settled in Timothy's breast found +nourishment. The Petricks had adored the nobility, and plucked them at +the same time. That excellent man Izaak Walton's feelings about fish +were much akin to those of old Timothy Petrick, and of his descendants in +a lesser degree, concerning the landed aristocracy. To torture and to +love simultaneously is a proceeding strange to reason, but possible to +practice, as these instances show. + +Hence, when Timothy's brother Edward said slightingly one day that +Timothy's son was well enough, but that he had nothing but shops and +offices in his backward perspective, while his own children, should he +have any, would be far different, in possessing such a mother as the +Honourable Harriet, Timothy felt a bound of triumph within him at the +power he possessed of contradicting that statement if he chose. + +So much was he interested in his boy in this new aspect that he now began +to read up chronicles of the illustrious house ennobled as the Dukes of +Southwesterland, from their very beginning in the glories of the +Restoration of the blessed Charles till the year of his own time. He +mentally noted their gifts from royalty, grants of lands, purchases, +intermarriages, plantings and buildings; more particularly their +political and military achievements, which had been great, and their +performances in art and letters, which had been by no means contemptible. +He studied prints of the portraits of that family, and then, like a +chemist watching a crystallization, began to examine young Rupert's face +for the unfolding of those historic curves and shades that the painters +Vandyke and Lely had perpetuated on canvas. + +When the boy reached the most fascinating age of childhood, and his +shouts of laughter ran through Stapleford House from end to end, the +remorse that oppressed Timothy Petrick knew no bounds. Of all people in +the world this Rupert was the one on whom he could have wished the +estates to devolve; yet Rupert, by Timothy's own desperate strategy at +the time of his birth, had been ousted from all inheritance of them; and, +since he did not mean to remarry, the manors would pass to his brother +and his brother's children, who would be nothing to him, whose boasted +pedigree on one side would be nothing to his Rupert's. + +Had he only left the first will of his grandfather alone! + +His mind ran on the wills continually, both of which were in existence, +and the first, the cancelled one, in his own possession. Night after +night, when the servants were all abed, and the click of safety locks +sounded as loud as a crash, he looked at that first will, and wished it +had been the second and not the first. + +The crisis came at last. One night, after having enjoyed the boy's +company for hours, he could no longer bear that his beloved Rupert should +be dispossessed, and he committed the felonious deed of altering the date +of the earlier will to a fortnight later, which made its execution appear +subsequent to the date of the second will already proved. He then boldly +propounded the first will as the second. + +His brother Edward submitted to what appeared to be not only +incontestible fact, but a far more likely disposition of old Timothy's +property; for, like many others, he had been much surprised at the +limitations defined in the other will, having no clue to their cause. He +joined his brother Timothy in setting aside the hitherto accepted +document, and matters went on in their usual course, there being no +dispositions in the substituted will differing from those in the other, +except such as related to a future which had not yet arrived. + +The years moved on. Rupert had not yet revealed the anxiously expected +historic lineaments which should foreshadow the political abilities of +the ducal family aforesaid when it happened on a certain day that Timothy +Petrick made the acquaintance of a well-known physician of Budmouth, who +had been the medical adviser and friend of the late Mrs. Petrick's family +for many years; though after Annetta's marriage, and consequent removal +to Stapleford, he had seen no more of her, the neighbouring practitioner +who attended the Petricks having then become her doctor as a matter of +course. Timothy was impressed by the insight and knowledge disclosed in +the conversation of the Budmouth physician, and the acquaintance ripening +to intimacy, the physician alluded to a form of hallucination to which +Annetta's mother and grandmother had been subject--that of believing in +certain dreams as realities. He delicately inquired if Timothy had ever +noticed anything of the sort in his wife during her lifetime; he, the +physician, had fancied that he discerned germs of the same peculiarity in +Annetta when he attended her in her girlhood. One explanation begat +another, till the dumbfoundered Timothy Petrick was persuaded in his own +mind that Annetta's confession to him had been based on a delusion. + +'You look down in the mouth?' said the doctor, pausing. + +'A bit unmanned. 'Tis unexpected-like,' sighed Timothy. + +But he could hardly believe it possible; and, thinking it best to be +frank with the doctor, told him the whole story which, till now, he had +never related to living man, save his dying grandfather. To his +surprise, the physician informed him that such a form of delusion was +precisely what he would have expected from Annetta's antecedents at such +a physical crisis in her life. + +Petrick prosecuted his inquiries elsewhere; and the upshot of his labours +was, briefly, that a comparison of dates and places showed irrefutably +that his poor wife's assertion could not possibly have foundation in +fact. The young Marquis of her tender passion--a highly moral and bright- +minded nobleman--had gone abroad the year before Annetta's marriage, and +had not returned till after her death. The young girl's love for him had +been a delicate ideal dream--no more. + +Timothy went home, and the boy ran out to meet him; whereupon a strangely +dismal feeling of discontent took possession of his soul. After all, +then, there was nothing but plebeian blood in the veins of the heir to +his name and estates; he was not to be succeeded by a noble-natured line. +To be sure, Rupert was his son; but that glory and halo he believed him +to have inherited from the ages, outshining that of his brother's +children, had departed from Rupert's brow for ever; he could no longer +read history in the boy's face, and centuries of domination in his eyes. + +His manner towards his son grew colder and colder from that day forward; +and it was with bitterness of heart that he discerned the characteristic +features of the Petricks unfolding themselves by degrees. Instead of the +elegant knife-edged nose, so typical of the Dukes of Southwesterland, +there began to appear on his face the broad nostril and hollow bridge of +his grandfather Timothy. No illustrious line of politicians was promised +a continuator in that graying blue eye, for it was acquiring the +expression of the orb of a particularly objectionable cousin of his own; +and, instead of the mouth-curves which had thrilled Parliamentary +audiences in speeches now bound in calf in every well-ordered library, +there was the bull-lip of that very uncle of his who had had the +misfortune with the signature of a gentleman's will, and had been +transported for life in consequence. + +To think how he himself, too, had sinned in this same matter of a will +for this mere fleshly reproduction of a wretched old uncle whose very +name he wished to forget! The boy's Christian name, even, was an +imposture and an irony, for it implied hereditary force and brilliancy to +which he plainly would never attain. The consolation of real sonship was +always left him certainly; but he could not help groaning to himself, +'Why cannot a son be one's own and somebody else's likewise!' + +The Marquis was shortly afterwards in the neighbourhood of Stapleford, +and Timothy Petrick met him, and eyed his noble countenance admiringly. +The next day, when Petrick was in his study, somebody knocked at the +door. + +'Who's there?' + +'Rupert.' + +'I'll Rupert thee, you young impostor! Say, only a poor commonplace +Petrick!' his father grunted. 'Why didn't you have a voice like the +Marquis's I saw yesterday?' he continued, as the lad came in. 'Why +haven't you his looks, and a way of commanding, as if you'd done it for +centuries--hey?' + +'Why? How can you expect it, father, when I'm not related to him?' + +'Ugh! Then you ought to be!' growled his father. + +* * * * * + +As the narrator paused, the surgeon, the Colonel, the historian, the +Spark, and others exclaimed that such subtle and instructive +psychological studies as this (now that psychology was so much in demand) +were precisely the tales they desired, as members of a scientific club, +and begged the master-maltster to tell another curious mental delusion. + +The maltster shook his head, and feared he was not genteel enough to tell +another story with a sufficiently moral tone in it to suit the club; he +would prefer to leave the next to a better man. + +The Colonel had fallen into reflection. True it was, he observed, that +the more dreamy and impulsive nature of woman engendered within her +erratic fancies, which often started her on strange tracks, only to +abandon them in sharp revulsion at the dictates of her common +sense--sometimes with ludicrous effect. Events which had caused a lady's +action to set in a particular direction might continue to enforce the +same line of conduct, while she, like a mangle, would start on a sudden +in a contrary course, and end where she began. + +The Vice-President laughed, and applauded the Colonel, adding that there +surely lurked a story somewhere behind that sentiment, if he were not +much mistaken. + +The Colonel fixed his face to a good narrative pose, and went on without +further preamble. + + + + +DAME THE SEVENTH--ANNA, LADY BAXBY +By the Colonel + + +It was in the time of the great Civil War--if I should not rather, as a +loyal subject, call it, with Clarendon, the Great Rebellion. It was, I +say, at that unhappy period of our history, that towards the autumn of a +particular year, the Parliament forces sat down before Sherton Castle +with over seven thousand foot and four pieces of cannon. The Castle, as +we all know, was in that century owned and occupied by one of the Earls +of Severn, and garrisoned for his assistance by a certain noble Marquis +who commanded the King's troops in these parts. The said Earl, as well +as the young Lord Baxby, his eldest son, were away from home just now, +raising forces for the King elsewhere. But there were present in the +Castle, when the besiegers arrived before it, the son's fair wife Lady +Baxby, and her servants, together with some friends and near relatives of +her husband; and the defence was so good and well-considered that they +anticipated no great danger. + +The Parliamentary forces were also commanded by a noble lord--for the +nobility were by no means, at this stage of the war, all on the King's +side--and it had been observed during his approach in the night-time, and +in the morning when the reconnoitring took place, that he appeared sad +and much depressed. The truth was that, by a strange freak of destiny, +it had come to pass that the stronghold he was set to reduce was the home +of his own sister, whom he had tenderly loved during her maidenhood, and +whom he loved now, in spite of the estrangement which had resulted from +hostilities with her husband's family. He believed, too, that, +notwithstanding this cruel division, she still was sincerely attached to +him. + +His hesitation to point his ordnance at the walls was inexplicable to +those who were strangers to his family history. He remained in the field +on the north side of the Castle (called by his name to this day because +of his encampment there) till it occurred to him to send a messenger to +his sister Anna with a letter, in which he earnestly requested her, as +she valued her life, to steal out of the place by the little gate to the +south, and make away in that direction to the residence of some friends. + +Shortly after he saw, to his great surprise, coming from the front of the +Castle walls a lady on horseback, with a single attendant. She rode +straight forward into the field, and up the slope to where his army and +tents were spread. It was not till she got quite near that he discerned +her to be his sister Anna; and much was he alarmed that she should have +run such risk as to sally out in the face of his forces without knowledge +of their proceedings, when at any moment their first discharge might have +burst forth, to her own destruction in such exposure. She dismounted +before she was quite close to him, and he saw that her familiar face, +though pale, was not at all tearful, as it would have been in their +younger days. Indeed, if the particulars as handed down are to be +believed, he was in a more tearful state than she, in his anxiety about +her. He called her into his tent, out of the gaze of those around; for +though many of the soldiers were honest and serious-minded men, he could +not bear that she who had been his dear companion in childhood should be +exposed to curious observation in this her great grief. + +When they were alone in the tent he clasped her in his arms, for he had +not seen her since those happier days when, at the commencement of the +war, her husband and himself had been of the same mind about the +arbitrary conduct of the King, and had little dreamt that they would not +go to extremes together. She was the calmest of the two, it is said, and +was the first to speak connectedly. + +'William, I have come to you,' said she, 'but not to save myself as you +suppose. Why, oh, why do you persist in supporting this disloyal cause, +and grieving us so?' + +'Say not that,' he replied hastily. 'If truth hides at the bottom of a +well, why should you suppose justice to be in high places? I am for the +right at any price. Anna, leave the Castle; you are my sister; come +away, my dear, and save thy life!' + +'Never!' says she. 'Do you plan to carry out this attack, and level the +Castle indeed?' + +'Most certainly I do,' says he. 'What meaneth this army around us if not +so?' + +'Then you will find the bones of your sister buried in the ruins you +cause!' said she. And without another word she turned and left him. + +'Anna--abide with me!' he entreated. 'Blood is thicker than water, and +what is there in common between you and your husband now?' + +But she shook her head and would not hear him and hastening out, mounted +her horse, and returned towards the Castle as she had come. Ay, many's +the time when I have been riding to hounds across that field that I have +thought of that scene! + +When she had quite gone down the field, and over the intervening ground, +and round the bastion, so that he could no longer even see the tip of her +mare's white tail, he was much more deeply moved by emotions concerning +her and her welfare than he had been while she was before him. He wildly +reproached himself that he had not detained her by force for her own +good, so that, come what might, she would be under his protection and not +under that of her husband, whose impulsive nature rendered him too open +to instantaneous impressions and sudden changes of plan; he was now +acting in this cause and now in that, and lacked the cool judgment +necessary for the protection of a woman in these troubled times. Her +brother thought of her words again and again, and sighed, and even +considered if a sister were not of more value than a principle, and if he +would not have acted more naturally in throwing in his lot with hers. + +The delay of the besiegers in attacking the Castle was said to be +entirely owing to this distraction on the part of their leader, who +remained on the spot attempting some indecisive operations, and parleying +with the Marquis, then in command, with far inferior forces, within the +Castle. It never occurred to him that in the meantime the young Lady +Baxby, his sister, was in much the same mood as himself. Her brother's +familiar voice and eyes, much worn and fatigued by keeping the field, and +by family distractions on account of this unhappy feud, rose upon her +vision all the afternoon, and as day waned she grew more and more +Parliamentarian in her principles, though the only arguments which had +addressed themselves to her were those of family ties. + +Her husband, General Lord Baxby, had been expected to return all the day +from his excursion into the east of the county, a message having been +sent to him informing him of what had happened at home; and in the +evening he arrived with reinforcements in unexpected numbers. Her +brother retreated before these to a hill near Ivell, four or five miles +off, to afford the men and himself some repose. Lord Baxby duly placed +his forces, and there was no longer any immediate danger. By this time +Lady Baxby's feelings were more Parliamentarian than ever, and in her +fancy the fagged countenance of her brother, beaten back by her husband, +seemed to reproach her for heartlessness. When her husband entered her +apartment, ruddy and boisterous, and full of hope, she received him but +sadly; and upon his casually uttering some slighting words about her +brother's withdrawal, which seemed to convey an imputation upon his +courage, she resented them, and retorted that he, Lord Baxby himself, had +been against the Court-party at first, where it would be much more to his +credit if he were at present, and showing her brother's consistency of +opinion, instead of supporting the lying policy of the King (as she +called it) for the sake of a barren principle of loyalty, which was but +an empty expression when a King was not at one with his people. The +dissension grew bitter between them, reaching to little less than a hot +quarrel, both being quick-tempered souls. + +Lord Baxby was weary with his long day's march and other excitements, and +soon retired to bed. His lady followed some time after. Her husband +slept profoundly, but not so she; she sat brooding by the window-slit, +and lifting the curtain looked forth upon the hills without. + +In the silence between the footfalls of the sentinels she could hear +faint sounds of her brother's camp on the distant hills, where the +soldiery had hardly settled as yet into their bivouac since their +evening's retreat. The first frosts of autumn had touched the grass, and +shrivelled the more delicate leaves of the creepers; and she thought of +William sleeping on the chilly ground, under the strain of these +hardships. Tears flooded her eyes as she returned to her husband's +imputations upon his courage, as if there could be any doubt of Lord +William's courage after what he had done in the past days. + +Lord Baxby's long and reposeful breathings in his comfortable bed vexed +her now, and she came to a determination on an impulse. Hastily lighting +a taper, she wrote on a scrap of paper: + +'_Blood is thicker than water_, _dear William--I will come_;' and with +this in her hand, she went to the door of the room, and out upon the +stairs; on second thoughts turning back for a moment, to put on her +husband's hat and cloak--not the one he was daily wearing--that if seen +in the twilight she might at a casual glance appear as some lad or hanger- +on of one of the household women; thus accoutred she descended a flight +of circular stairs, at the bottom of which was a door opening upon the +terrace towards the west, in the direction of her brother's position. Her +object was to slip out without the sentry seeing her, get to the stables, +arouse one of the varlets, and send him ahead of her along the highway +with the note to warn her brother of her approach, to throw in her lot +with his. + +She was still in the shadow of the wall on the west terrace, waiting for +the sentinel to be quite out of the way, when her ears were greeted by a +voice, saying, from the adjoining shade-- + +'Here I be!' + +The tones were the tones of a woman. Lady Baxby made no reply, and stood +close to the wall. + +'My Lord Baxby,' the voice continued; and she could recognize in it the +local accent of some girl from the little town of Sherton, close at hand. +'I be tired of waiting, my dear Lord Baxby! I was afeard you would never +come!' + +Lady Baxby flushed hot to her toes. + +'How the wench loves him!' she said to herself, reasoning from the tones +of the voice, which were plaintive and sweet and tender as a bird's. She +changed from the home-hating truant to the strategic wife in one moment. + +'Hist!' she said. + +'My lord, you told me ten o'clock, and 'tis near twelve now,' continues +the other. 'How could ye keep me waiting so if you love me as you said? +I should have stuck to my lover in the Parliament troops if it had not +been for thee, my dear lord!' + +There was not the least doubt that Lady Baxby had been mistaken for her +husband by this intriguing damsel. Here was a pretty underhand business! +Here were sly manoeuvrings! Here was faithlessness! Here was a precious +assignation surprised in the midst! Her wicked husband, whom till this +very moment she had ever deemed the soul of good faith--how could he! + +Lady Baxby precipitately retreated to the door in the turret, closed it, +locked it, and ascended one round of the staircase, where there was a +loophole. 'I am not coming! I, Lord Baxby, despise ye and all your +wanton tribe!' she hissed through the opening; and then crept upstairs, +as firmly rooted in Royalist principles as any man in the Castle. + +Her husband still slept the sleep of the weary, well-fed, and +well-drunken, if not of the just; and Lady Baxby quickly disrobed herself +without assistance--being, indeed, supposed by her woman to have retired +to rest long ago. Before lying down, she noiselessly locked the door and +placed the key under her pillow. More than that, she got a staylace, +and, creeping up to her lord, in great stealth tied the lace in a tight +knot to one of his long locks of hair, attaching the other end of the +lace to the bedpost; for, being tired herself now, she feared she might +sleep heavily; and, if her husband should wake, this would be a delicate +hint that she had discovered all. + +It is added that, to make assurance trebly sure, her gentle ladyship, +when she had lain down to rest, held her lord's hand in her own during +the whole of the night. But this is old-wives' gossip, and not +corroborated. What Lord Baxby thought and said when he awoke the next +morning, and found himself so strangely tethered, is likewise only matter +of conjecture; though there is no reason to suppose that his rage was +great. The extent of his culpability as regards the intrigue was this +much; that, while halting at a cross-road near Sherton that day, he had +flirted with a pretty young woman, who seemed nothing loth, and had +invited her to the Castle terrace after dark--an invitation which he +quite forgot on his arrival home. + +The subsequent relations of Lord and Lady Baxby were not again greatly +embittered by quarrels, so far as is known; though the husband's conduct +in later life was occasionally eccentric, and the vicissitudes of his +public career culminated in long exile. The siege of the Castle was not +regularly undertaken till two or three years later than the time I have +been describing, when Lady Baxby and all the women therein, except the +wife of the then Governor, had been removed to safe distance. That +memorable siege of fifteen days by Fairfax, and the surrender of the old +place on an August evening, is matter of history, and need not be told by +me. + +* * * * * + +The Man of Family spoke approvingly across to the Colonel when the Club +had done smiling, declaring that the story was an absolutely faithful +page of history, as he had good reason to know, his own people having +been engaged in that well-known scrimmage. He asked if the Colonel had +ever heard the equally well-authenticated, though less martial tale of a +certain Lady Penelope, who lived in the same century, and not a score of +miles from the same place? + +The Colonel had not heard it, nor had anybody except the local historian; +and the inquirer was induced to proceed forthwith. + + + + +DAME THE EIGHTH--THE LADY PENELOPE +By the Man of Family + + +In going out of Casterbridge by the low-lying road which eventually +conducts to the town of Ivell, you see on the right hand an ivied manor- +house, flanked by battlemented towers, and more than usually +distinguished by the size of its many mullioned windows. Though still of +good capacity, the building is much reduced from its original grand +proportions; it has, moreover, been shorn of the fair estate which once +appertained to its lord, with the exception of a few acres of park-land +immediately around the mansion. This was formerly the seat of the +ancient and knightly family of the Drenghards, or Drenkhards, now extinct +in the male line, whose name, according to the local chronicles, was +interpreted to mean _Strenuus Miles_, _vel Potator_, though certain +members of the family were averse to the latter signification, and a duel +was fought by one of them on that account, as is well known. With this, +however, we are not now concerned. + +In the early part of the reign of the first King James, there was +visiting near this place of the Drenghards a lady of noble family and +extraordinary beauty. She was of the purest descent; ah, there's seldom +such blood nowadays as hers! She possessed no great wealth, it was said, +but was sufficiently endowed. Her beauty was so perfect, and her manner +so entrancing, that suitors seemed to spring out of the ground wherever +she went, a sufficient cause of anxiety to the Countess her mother, her +only living parent. Of these there were three in particular, whom +neither her mother's complaints of prematurity, nor the ready raillery of +the maiden herself, could effectually put off. The said gallants were a +certain Sir John Gale, a Sir William Hervy, and the well-known Sir George +Drenghard, one of the Drenghard family before-mentioned. They had, +curiously enough, all been equally honoured with the distinction of +knighthood, and their schemes for seeing her were manifold, each fearing +that one of the others would steal a march over himself. Not content +with calling, on every imaginable excuse, at the house of the relative +with whom she sojourned, they intercepted her in rides and in walks; and +if any one of them chanced to surprise another in the act of paying her +marked attentions, the encounter often ended in an altercation of great +violence. So heated and impassioned, indeed, would they become, that the +lady hardly felt herself safe in their company at such times, +notwithstanding that she was a brave and buxom damsel, not easily put +out, and with a daring spirit of humour in her composition, if not of +coquetry. + +At one of these altercations, which had place in her relative's grounds, +and was unusually bitter, threatening to result in a duel, she found it +necessary to assert herself. Turning haughtily upon the pair of +disputants, she declared that whichever should be the first to break the +peace between them, no matter what the provocation, that man should never +be admitted to her presence again; and thus would she effectually +stultify the aggressor by making the promotion of a quarrel a distinct +bar to its object. + +While the two knights were wearing rather a crest-fallen appearance at +her reprimand, the third, never far off, came upon the scene, and she +repeated her caveat to him also. Seeing, then, how great was the concern +of all at her peremptory mood, the lady's manner softened, and she said +with a roguish smile-- + +'Have patience, have patience, you foolish men! Only bide your time +quietly, and, in faith, I will marry you all in turn!' + +They laughed heartily at this sally, all three together, as though they +were the best of friends; at which she blushed, and showed some +embarrassment, not having realized that her arch jest would have sounded +so strange when uttered. The meeting which resulted thus, however, had +its good effect in checking the bitterness of their rivalry; and they +repeated her speech to their relatives and acquaintance with a hilarious +frequency and publicity that the lady little divined, or she might have +blushed and felt more embarrassment still. + +In the course of time the position resolved itself, and the beauteous +Lady Penelope (as she was called) made up her mind; her choice being the +eldest of the three knights, Sir George Drenghard, owner of the mansion +aforesaid, which thereupon became her home; and her husband being a +pleasant man, and his family, though not so noble, of as good repute as +her own, all things seemed to show that she had reckoned wisely in +honouring him with her preference. + +But what may lie behind the still and silent veil of the future none can +foretell. In the course of a few months the husband of her choice died +of his convivialities (as if, indeed, to bear out his name), and the Lady +Penelope was left alone as mistress of his house. By this time she had +apparently quite forgotten her careless declaration to her lovers +collectively; but the lovers themselves had not forgotten it; and, as she +would now be free to take a second one of them, Sir John Gale appeared at +her door as early in her widowhood as it was proper and seemly to do so. + +She gave him little encouragement; for, of the two remaining, her best +beloved was Sir William, of whom, if the truth must be told, she had +often thought during her short married life. But he had not yet +reappeared. Her heart began to be so much with him now that she +contrived to convey to him, by indirect hints through his friends, that +she would not be displeased by a renewal of his former attentions. Sir +William, however, misapprehended her gentle signalling, and from +excellent, though mistaken motives of delicacy, delayed to intrude +himself upon her for a long time. Meanwhile Sir John, now created a +baronet, was unremitting, and she began to grow somewhat piqued at the +backwardness of him she secretly desired to be forward. + +'Never mind,' her friends said jestingly to her (knowing of her humorous +remark, as everybody did, that she would marry them all three if they +would have patience)--'never mind; why hesitate upon the order of them? +Take 'em as they come.' + +This vexed her still more, and regretting deeply, as she had often done, +that such a careless speech should ever have passed her lips, she fairly +broke down under Sir John's importunity, and accepted his hand. They +were married on a fine spring morning, about the very time at which the +unfortunate Sir William discovered her preference for him, and was +beginning to hasten home from a foreign court to declare his unaltered +devotion to her. On his arrival in England he learnt the sad truth. + +If Sir William suffered at her precipitancy under what she had deemed his +neglect, the Lady Penelope herself suffered more. She had not long been +the wife of Sir John Gale before he showed a disposition to retaliate +upon her for the trouble and delay she had put him to in winning her. +With increasing frequency he would tell her that, as far as he could +perceive, she was an article not worth such labour as he had bestowed in +obtaining it, and such snubbings as he had taken from his rivals on the +same account. These and other cruel things he repeated till he made the +lady weep sorely, and wellnigh broke her spirit, though she had formerly +been such a mettlesome dame. By degrees it became perceptible to all her +friends that her life was a very unhappy one; and the fate of the fair +woman seemed yet the harder in that it was her own stately mansion, left +to her sole use by her first husband, which her second had entered into +and was enjoying, his being but a mean and meagre erection. + +But such is the flippancy of friends that when she met them, and secretly +confided her grief to their ears, they would say cheerily, 'Lord, never +mind, my dear; there's a third to come yet!'--at which maladroit remark +she would show much indignation, and tell them they should know better +than to trifle on so solemn a theme. Yet that the poor lady would have +been only too happy to be the wife of the third, instead of Sir John whom +she had taken, was painfully obvious, and much she was blamed for her +foolish choice by some people. Sir William, however, had returned to +foreign cities on learning the news of her marriage, and had never been +heard of since. + +Two or three years of suffering were passed by Lady Penelope as the +despised and chidden wife of this man Sir John, amid regrets that she had +so greatly mistaken him, and sighs for one whom she thought never to see +again, till it chanced that her husband fell sick of some slight ailment. +One day after this, when she was sitting in his room, looking from the +window upon the expanse in front, she beheld, approaching the house on +foot, a form she seemed to know well. Lady Penelope withdrew silently +from the sickroom, and descended to the hall, whence, through the +doorway, she saw entering between the two round towers, which at that +time flanked the gateway, Sir William Hervy, as she had surmised, but +looking thin and travel-worn. She advanced into the courtyard to meet +him. + +'I was passing through Casterbridge,' he said, with faltering deference, +'and I walked out to ask after your ladyship's health. I felt that I +could do no less; and, of course, to pay my respects to your good +husband, my heretofore acquaintance . . . But oh, Penelope, th'st look +sick and sorry!' + +'I am heartsick, that's all,' said she. + +They could see in each other an emotion which neither wished to express, +and they stood thus a long time with tears in their eyes. + +'He does not treat 'ee well, I hear,' said Sir William in a low voice. +'May God in Heaven forgive him; but it is asking a great deal!' + +'Hush, hush!' said she hastily. + +'Nay, but I will speak what I may honestly say,' he answered. 'I am not +under your roof, and my tongue is free. Why didst not wait for me, +Penelope, or send to me a more overt letter? I would have travelled +night and day to come!' + +'Too late, William; you must not ask it,' said she, endeavouring to quiet +him as in old times. 'My husband just now is unwell. He will grow +better in a day or two, maybe. You must call again and see him before +you leave Casterbridge.' + +As she said this their eyes met. Each was thinking of her lightsome +words about taking the three men in turn; each thought that two-thirds of +that promise had been fulfilled. But, as if it were unpleasant to her +that this recollection should have arisen, she spoke again quickly: 'Come +again in a day or two, when my husband will be well enough to see you.' + +Sir William departed without entering the house, and she returned to Sir +John's chamber. He, rising from his pillow, said, 'To whom hast been +talking, wife, in the courtyard? I heard voices there.' + +She hesitated, and he repeated the question more impatiently. + +'I do not wish to tell you now,' said she. + +'But I wooll know!' said he. + +Then she answered, 'Sir William Hervy.' + +'By G--- I thought as much!' cried Sir John, drops of perspiration +standing on his white face. 'A skulking villain! A sick man's ears are +keen, my lady. I heard that they were lover-like tones, and he called +'ee by your Christian name. These be your intrigues, my lady, when I am +off my legs awhile!' + +'On my honour,' cried she, 'you do me a wrong. I swear I did not know of +his coming!' + +'Swear as you will,' said Sir John, 'I don't believe 'ee.' And with this +he taunted her, and worked himself into a greater passion, which much +increased his illness. His lady sat still, brooding. There was that +upon her face which had seldom been there since her marriage; and she +seemed to think anew of what she had so lightly said in the days of her +freedom, when her three lovers were one and all coveting her hand. 'I +began at the wrong end of them,' she murmured. 'My God--that did I!' + +'What?' said he. + +'A trifle,' said she. 'I spoke to myself only.' + +It was somewhat strange that after this day, while she went about the +house with even a sadder face than usual, her churlish husband grew +worse; and what was more, to the surprise of all, though to the regret of +few, he died a fortnight later. Sir William had not called upon him as +he had promised, having received a private communication from Lady +Penelope, frankly informing him that to do so would be inadvisable, by +reason of her husband's temper. + +Now when Sir John was gone, and his remains carried to his family burying- +place in another part of England, the lady began in due time to wonder +whither Sir William had betaken himself. But she had been cured of +precipitancy (if ever woman were), and was prepared to wait her whole +lifetime a widow if the said Sir William should not reappear. Her life +was now passed mostly within the walls, or in promenading between the +pleasaunce and the bowling-green; and she very seldom went even so far as +the high road which then skirted the grounds on the north, though it has +now, and for many years, been diverted to the south side. Her patience +was rewarded (if love be in any case a reward); for one day, many months +after her second husband's death, a messenger arrived at her gate with +the intelligence that Sir William Hervy was again in Casterbridge, and +would be glad to know if it were her pleasure that he should wait upon +her. + +It need hardly be said that permission was joyfully granted, and within +two hours her lover stood before her, a more thoughtful man than +formerly, but in all essential respects the same man, generous, modest to +diffidence, and sincere. The reserve which womanly decorum threw over +her manner was but too obviously artificial, and when he said 'the ways +of Providence are strange,' and added after a moment, 'and merciful +likewise,' she could not conceal her agitation, and burst into tears upon +his neck. + +'But this is too soon,' she said, starting back. + +'But no,' said he. 'You are eleven months gone in widowhood, and it is +not as if Sir John had been a good husband to you.' + +His visits grew pretty frequent now, as may well be guessed, and in a +month or two he began to urge her to an early union. But she counselled +a little longer delay. + +'Why?' said he. 'Surely I have waited long! Life is short; we are +getting older every day, and I am the last of the three.' + +'Yes,' said the lady frankly. 'And that is why I would not have you +hasten. Our marriage may seem so strange to everybody, after my unlucky +remark on that occasion we know so well, and which so many others know +likewise, thanks to talebearers.' + +On this representation he conceded a little space, for the sake of her +good name. But the destined day of their marriage at last arrived, and +it was a gay time for the villagers and all concerned, and the bells in +the parish church rang from noon till night. Thus at last she was united +to the man who had loved her the most tenderly of them all, who but for +his reticence might perhaps have been the first to win her. Often did he +say to himself; 'How wondrous that her words should have been fulfilled! +Many a truth hath been spoken in jest, but never a more remarkable one!' +The noble lady herself preferred not to dwell on the coincidence, a +certain shyness, if not shame, crossing her fair face at any allusion +thereto. + +But people will have their say, sensitive souls or none, and their +sayings on this third occasion took a singular shape. 'Surely,' they +whispered, 'there is something more than chance in this . . . The death +of the first was possibly natural; but what of the death of the second, +who ill-used her, and whom, loving the third so desperately, she must +have wished out of the way?' + +Then they pieced together sundry trivial incidents of Sir John's illness, +and dwelt upon the indubitable truth that he had grown worse after her +lover's unexpected visit; till a very sinister theory was built up as to +the hand she may have had in Sir John's premature demise. But nothing of +this suspicion was said openly, for she was a lady of noble birth--nobler, +indeed, than either of her husbands--and what people suspected they +feared to express in formal accusation. + +The mansion that she occupied had been left to her for so long a time as +she should choose to reside in it, and, having a regard for the spot, she +had coaxed Sir William to remain there. But in the end it was +unfortunate; for one day, when in the full tide of his happiness, he was +walking among the willows near the gardens, where he overheard a +conversation between some basket-makers who were cutting the osiers for +their use. In this fatal dialogue the suspicions of the neighbouring +townsfolk were revealed to him for the first time. + +'A cupboard close to his bed, and the key in her pocket. Ah!' said one. + +'And a blue phial therein--h'm!' said another. + +'And spurge-laurel leaves among the hearth-ashes. Oh-oh!' said a third. + +On his return home Sir William seemed to have aged years. But he said +nothing; indeed, it was a thing impossible. And from that hour a ghastly +estrangement began. She could not understand it, and simply waited. One +day he said, however, 'I must go abroad.' + +'Why?' said she. 'William, have I offended you?' + +'No,' said he; 'but I must go.' + +She could coax little more out of him, and in itself there was nothing +unnatural in his departure, for he had been a wanderer from his youth. In +a few days he started off, apparently quite another man than he who had +rushed to her side so devotedly a few months before. + +It is not known when, or how, the rumours, which were so thick in the +atmosphere around her, actually reached the Lady Penelope's ears, but +that they did reach her there is no doubt. It was impossible that they +should not; the district teemed with them; they rustled in the air like +night-birds of evil omen. Then a reason for her husband's departure +occurred to her appalled mind, and a loss of health became quickly +apparent. She dwindled thin in the face, and the veins in her temples +could all be distinctly traced. An inner fire seemed to be withering her +away. Her rings fell off her fingers, and her arms hung like the flails +of the threshers, though they had till lately been so round and so +elastic. She wrote to her husband repeatedly, begging him to return to +her; but he, being in extreme and wretched doubt, moreover, knowing +nothing of her ill-health, and never suspecting that the rumours had +reached her also, deemed absence best, and postponed his return awhile, +giving various good reasons for his delay. + +At length, however, when the Lady Penelope had given birth to a still- +born child, her mother, the Countess, addressed a letter to Sir William, +requesting him to come back to her if he wished to see her alive; since +she was wasting away of some mysterious disease, which seemed to be +rather mental than physical. It was evident that his mother-in-law knew +nothing of the secret, for she lived at a distance; but Sir William +promptly hastened home, and stood beside the bed of his now dying wife. + +'Believe me, William,' she said when they were alone, 'I am +innocent--innocent!' + +'Of what?' said he. 'Heaven forbid that I should accuse you of +anything!' + +'But you do accuse me--silently!' she gasped. 'I could not write +thereon--and ask you to hear me. It was too much, too degrading. But +would that I had been less proud! They suspect me of poisoning him, +William! But, oh my dear husband, I am innocent of that wicked crime! He +died naturally. I loved you--too soon; but that was all!' + +Nothing availed to save her. The worm had gnawed too far into her heart +before Sir William's return for anything to be remedial now; and in a few +weeks she breathed her last. After her death the people spoke louder, +and her conduct became a subject of public discussion. A little later +on, the physician, who had attended the late Sir John, heard the rumour, +and came down from the place near London to which he latterly had +retired, with the express purpose of calling upon Sir William Hervy, now +staying in Casterbridge. + +He stated that, at the request of a relative of Sir John's, who wished to +be assured on the matter by reason of its suddenness, he had, with the +assistance of a surgeon, made a private examination of Sir John's body +immediately after his decease, and found that it had resulted from purely +natural causes. Nobody at this time had breathed a suspicion of foul +play, and therefore nothing was said which might afterwards have +established her innocence. + +It being thus placed beyond doubt that this beautiful and noble lady had +been done to death by a vile scandal that was wholly unfounded, her +husband was stung with a dreadful remorse at the share he had taken in +her misfortunes, and left the country anew, this time never to return +alive. He survived her but a few years, and his body was brought home +and buried beside his wife's under the tomb which is still visible in the +parish church. Until lately there was a good portrait of her, in weeds +for her first husband, with a cross in her hand, at the ancestral seat of +her family, where she was much pitied, as she deserved to be. Yet there +were some severe enough to say--and these not unjust persons in other +respects--that though unquestionably innocent of the crime imputed to +her, she had shown an unseemly wantonness in contracting three marriages +in such rapid succession; that the untrue suspicion might have been +ordered by Providence (who often works indirectly) as a punishment for +her self-indulgence. Upon that point I have no opinion to offer. + +* * * * * + +The reverend the Vice-President, however, the tale being ended, offered +as his opinion that her fate ought to be quite clearly recognized as a +punishment. So thought the Churchwarden, and also the quiet gentleman +sitting near. The latter knew many other instances in point, one of +which could be narrated in a few words. + + + + +DAME THE NINTH--THE DUCHESS OF HAMPTONSHIRE +By the Quiet Gentleman + + +Some fifty years ago, the then Duke of Hamptonshire, fifth of that title, +was incontestibly the head man in his county, and particularly in the +neighbourhood of Batton. He came of the ancient and loyal family of +Saxelbye, which, before its ennoblement, had numbered many knightly and +ecclesiastical celebrities in its male line. It would have occupied a +painstaking county historian a whole afternoon to take rubbings of the +numerous effigies and heraldic devices graven to their memory on the +brasses, tablets, and altar-tombs in the aisle of the parish-church. The +Duke himself, however, was a man little attracted by ancient chronicles +in stone and metal, even when they concerned his own beginnings. He +allowed his mind to linger by preference on the many graceless and +unedifying pleasures which his position placed at his command. He could +on occasion close the mouths of his dependents by a good bomb-like oath, +and he argued doggedly with the parson on the virtues of cock-fighting +and baiting the bull. + +This nobleman's personal appearance was somewhat impressive. His +complexion was that of the copper-beech tree. His frame was stalwart, +though slightly stooping. His mouth was large, and he carried an +unpolished sapling as his walking-stick, except when he carried a spud +for cutting up any thistle he encountered on his walks. His castle stood +in the midst of a park, surrounded by dusky elms, except to the +southward; and when the moon shone out, the gleaming stone facade, backed +by heavy boughs, was visible from the distant high road as a white spot +on the surface of darkness. Though called a castle, the building was +little fortified, and had been erected with greater eye to internal +convenience than those crannied places of defence to which the name +strictly appertains. It was a castellated mansion as regular as a +chessboard on its ground-plan, ornamented with make-believe bastions and +machicolations, behind which were stacks of battlemented chimneys. On +still mornings, at the fire-lighting hour, when ghostly house-maids stalk +the corridors, and thin streaks of light through the shutter-chinks lend +startling winks and smiles to ancestors on canvas, twelve or fifteen thin +stems of blue smoke sprouted upwards from these chimney-tops, and spread +into a flat canopy on high. Around the site stretched ten thousand acres +of good, fat, unimpeachable soil, plentiful in glades and lawns wherever +visible from the castle-windows, and merging in homely arable where +screened from the too curious eye by ingeniously-contrived plantations. + +Some way behind the owner of all this came the second man in the parish, +the rector, the Honourable and Reverend Mr. Oldbourne, a widower, over +stiff and stern for a clergyman, whose severe white neckcloth, well-kept +gray hair, and right-lined face betokened none of those sympathetic +traits whereon depends so much of a parson's power to do good among his +fellow-creatures. The last, far-removed man of the series--altogether +the Neptune of these local primaries--was the curate, Mr. Alwyn Hill. He +was a handsome young deacon with curly hair, dreamy eyes--so dreamy that +to look long into them was like ascending and floating among summer +clouds--a complexion as fresh as a flower, and a chin absolutely +beardless. Though his age was about twenty-five, he looked not much over +nineteen. + +The rector had a daughter called Emmeline, of so sweet and simple a +nature that her beauty was discovered, measured, and inventoried by +almost everybody in that part of the country before it was suspected by +herself to exist. She had been bred in comparative solitude; a +rencounter with men troubled and confused her. Whenever a strange +visitor came to her father's house she slipped into the orchard and +remained till he was gone, ridiculing her weakness in apostrophes, but +unable to overcome it. Her virtues lay in no resistant force of +character, but in a natural inappetency for evil things, which to her +were as unmeaning as joints of flesh to a herbivorous creature. Her +charms of person, manner, and mind, had been clear for some time to the +Antinous in orders, and no less so to the Duke, who, though scandalously +ignorant of dainty phrases, ever showing a clumsy manner towards the +gentler sex, and, in short, not at all a lady's man, took fire to a +degree that was wellnigh terrible at sudden sight of Emmeline, a short +time after she was turned seventeen. + +It occurred one afternoon at the corner of a shrubbery between the castle +and the rectory, where the Duke was standing to watch the heaving of a +mole, when the fair girl brushed past at a distance of a few yards, in +the full light of the sun, and without hat or bonnet. The Duke went home +like a man who had seen a spirit. He ascended to the picture-gallery of +his castle, and there passed some time in staring at the bygone beauties +of his line as if he had never before considered what an important part +those specimens of womankind had played in the evolution of the Saxelbye +race. He dined alone, drank rather freely, and declared to himself that +Emmeline Oldbourne must be his. + +Meanwhile there had unfortunately arisen between the curate and this girl +some sweet and secret understanding. Particulars of the attachment +remained unknown then and always, but it was plainly not approved of by +her father. His procedure was cold, hard, and inexorable. Soon the +curate disappeared from the parish, almost suddenly, after bitter and +hard words had been heard to pass between him and the rector one evening +in the garden, intermingled with which, like the cries of the dying in +the din of battle, were the beseeching sobs of a woman. Not long after +this it was announced that a marriage between the Duke and Miss Oldbourne +was to be solemnized at a surprisingly early date. + +The wedding-day came and passed; and she was a Duchess. Nobody seemed to +think of the ousted man during the day, or else those who thought of him +concealed their meditations. Some of the less subservient ones were +disposed to speak in a jocular manner of the august husband and wife, +others to make correct and pretty speeches about them, according as their +sex and nature dictated. But in the evening, the ringers in the belfry, +with whom Alwyn had been a favourite, eased their minds a little +concerning the gentle young man, and the possible regrets of the woman he +had loved. + +'Don't you see something wrong in it all?' said the third bell as he +wiped his face. 'I know well enough where she would have liked to stable +her horses to-night, when they have done their journey.' + +'That is, you would know if you could tell where young Mr. Hill is +living, which is known to none in the parish.' + +'Except to the lady that this ring o' grandsire triples is in honour of.' + +Yet these friendly cottagers were at this time far from suspecting the +real dimensions of Emmeline's misery, nor was it clear even to those who +came into much closer communion with her than they, so well had she +concealed her heart-sickness. But bride and bridegroom had not long been +home at the castle when the young wife's unhappiness became plainly +enough perceptible. Her maids and men said that she was in the habit of +turning to the wainscot and shedding stupid scalding tears at a time when +a right-minded lady would have been overhauling her wardrobe. She prayed +earnestly in the great church-pew, where she sat lonely and insignificant +as a mouse in a cell, instead of counting her rings, falling asleep, or +amusing herself in silent laughter at the queer old people in the +congregation, as previous beauties of the family had done in their time. +She seemed to care no more for eating and drinking out of crystal and +silver than from a service of earthen vessels. Her head was, in truth, +full of something else; and that such was the case was only too obvious +to the Duke, her husband. At first he would only taunt her for her folly +in thinking of that milk-and-water parson; but as time went on his +charges took a more positive shape. He would not believe her assurance +that she had in no way communicated with her former lover, nor he with +her, since their parting in the presence of her father. This led to some +strange scenes between them which need not be detailed; their result was +soon to take a catastrophic shape. + +One dark quiet evening, about two months after the marriage, a man +entered the gate admitting from the highway to the park and avenue which +ran up to the house. He arrived within two hundred yards of the walls, +when he left the gravelled drive and drew near to the castle by a +roundabout path leading into a shrubbery. Here he stood still. In a few +minutes the strokes of the castle-clock resounded, and then a female +figure entered the same secluded nook from an opposite direction. There +the two indistinct persons leapt together like a pair of dewdrops on a +leaf; and then they stood apart, facing each other, the woman looking +down. + +'Emmeline, you begged me to come, and here I am, Heaven forgive me!' said +the man hoarsely. + +'You are going to emigrate, Alwyn,' she said in broken accents. 'I have +heard of it; you sail from Plymouth in three days in the _Western +Glory_?' + +'Yes. I can live in England no longer. Life is as death to me here,' +says he. + +'My life is even worse--worse than death. Death would not have driven me +to this extremity. Listen, Alwyn--I have sent for you to beg to go with +you, or at least to be near you--to do anything so that it be not to stay +here.' + +'To go away with me?' he said in a startled tone. + +'Yes, yes--or under your direction, or by your help in some way! Don't +be horrified at me--you must bear with me whilst I implore it. Nothing +short of cruelty would have driven me to this. I could have borne my +doom in silence had I been left unmolested; but he tortures me, and I +shall soon be in the grave if I cannot escape.' + +To his shocked inquiry how her husband tortured her, the Duchess said +that it was by jealousy. 'He tries to wring admissions from me +concerning you,' she said, 'and will not believe that I have not +communicated with you since my engagement to him was settled by my +father, and I was forced to agree to it.' + +The poor curate said that this was the heaviest news of all. 'He has not +personally ill-used you?' he asked. + +'Yes,' she whispered. + +'What has he done?' + +She looked fearfully around, and said, sobbing: 'In trying to make me +confess to what I have never done, he adopts plans I dare not describe +for terrifying me into a weak state, so that I may own to anything! I +resolved to write to you, as I had no other friend.' She added, with +dreary irony, 'I thought I would give him some ground for his suspicion, +so as not to disgrace his judgment.' + +'Do you really mean, Emmeline,' he tremblingly inquired, 'that you--that +you want to fly with me?' + +'Can you think that I would act otherwise than in earnest at such a time +as this?' + +He was silent for a minute or more. 'You must not go with me,' he said. + +'Why?' + +'It would be sin.' + +'It _cannot_ be sin, for I have never wanted to commit sin in my life; +and it isn't likely I would begin now, when I pray every day to die and +be sent to Heaven out of my misery!' + +'But it is wrong, Emmeline, all the same.' + +'Is it wrong to run away from the fire that scorches you?' + +'It would look wrong, at any rate, in this case.' + +'Alwyn, Alwyn, take me, I beseech you!' she burst out. 'It is not right +in general, I know, but it is such an exceptional instance, this. Why +has such a severe strain been put upon me? I was doing no harm, injuring +no one, helping many people, and expecting happiness; yet trouble came. +Can it be that God holds me in derision? I had no supporter--I gave way; +and now my life is a burden and a shame to me . . . Oh, if you only knew +how much to me this request to you is--how my life is wrapped up in it, +you could not deny me!' + +'This is almost beyond endurance--Heaven support us,' he groaned. 'Emmy, +you are the Duchess of Hamptonshire, the Duke of Hamptonshire's wife; you +must not go with me!' + +'And am I then refused?--Oh, am I refused?' she cried frantically. +'Alwyn, Alwyn, do you say it indeed to me?' + +'Yes, I do, dear, tender heart! I do most sadly say it. You must not +go. Forgive me, for there is no alternative but refusal. Though I die, +though you die, we must not fly together. It is forbidden in God's law. +Good-bye, for always and ever!' + +He tore himself away, hastened from the shrubbery, and vanished among the +trees. + +Three days after this meeting and farewell, Alwyn, his soft, handsome +features stamped with a haggard hardness that ten years of ordinary wear +and tear in the world could scarcely have produced, sailed from Plymouth +on a drizzling morning, in the passenger-ship _Western Glory_. When the +land had faded behind him he mechanically endeavoured to school himself +into a stoical frame of mind. His attempt, backed up by the strong moral +staying power that had enabled him to resist the passionate temptation to +which Emmeline, in her reckless trustfulness, had exposed him, was +rewarded by a certain kind of success, though the murmuring stretch of +waters whereon he gazed day after day too often seemed to be articulating +to him in tones of her well-remembered voice. + +He framed on his journey rules of conduct for reducing to mild +proportions the feverish regrets which would occasionally arise and +agitate him, when he indulged in visions of what might have been had he +not hearkened to the whispers of conscience. He fixed his thoughts for +so many hours a day on philosophical passages in the volumes he had +brought with him, allowing himself now and then a few minutes' thought of +Emmeline, with the strict yet reluctant niggardliness of an ailing +epicure proportioning the rank drinks that cause his malady. The voyage +was marked by the usual incidents of a sailing-passage in those days--a +storm, a calm, a man overboard, a birth, and a funeral--the latter sad +event being one in which he, as the only clergyman on board, officiated, +reading the service ordained for the purpose. The ship duly arrived at +Boston early in the month following, and thence he proceeded to +Providence to seek out a distant relative. + +After a short stay at Providence he returned again to Boston, and by +applying himself to a serious occupation made good progress in shaking +off the dreary melancholy which enveloped him even now. Distracted and +weakened in his beliefs by his recent experiences, he decided that he +could not for a time worthily fill the office of a minister of religion, +and applied for the mastership of a school. Some introductions, given +him before starting, were useful now, and he soon became known as a +respectable scholar and gentleman to the trustees of one of the colleges. +This ultimately led to his retirement from the school and installation in +the college as Professor of rhetoric and oratory. + +Here and thus he lived on, exerting himself solely because of a +conscientious determination to do his duty. He passed his winter +evenings in turning sonnets and elegies, often giving his thoughts voice +in 'Lines to an Unfortunate Lady,' while his summer leisure at the same +hour would be spent in watching the lengthening shadows from his window, +and fancifully comparing them with the shades of his own life. If he +walked, he mentally inquired which was the eastern quarter of the +landscape, and thought of two thousand miles of water that way, and of +what was beyond it. In a word he was at all spare times dreaming of her +who was only a memory to him, and would probably never be more. + +Nine years passed by, and under their wear and tear Alwyn Hill's face +lost a great many of the attractive characteristics which had formerly +distinguished it. He was kind to his pupils and affable to all who came +in contact with him; but the kernel of his life, his secret, was kept as +snugly shut up as though he had been dumb. In talking to his +acquaintances of England and his life there, he omitted the episode of +Batton Castle and Emmeline as if it had no existence in his calendar at +all. Though of towering importance to himself, it had filled but a short +and small fragment of time, an ephemeral season which would have been +wellnigh imperceptible, even to him, at this distance, but for the +incident it enshrined. + +One day, at this date, when cursorily glancing over an old English +newspaper, he observed a paragraph which, short as it was, contained for +him whole tomes of thrilling information--rung with more passion-stirring +rhythm than the collected cantos of all the poets. It was an +announcement of the death of the Duke of Hamptonshire, leaving behind him +a widow, but no children. + +The current of Alwyn's thoughts now completely changed. On looking again +at the newspaper he found it to be one that was sent him long ago, and +had been carelessly thrown aside. But for an accidental overhauling of +the waste journals in his study he might not have known of the event for +years. At this moment of reading the Duke had already been dead seven +months. Alwyn could now no longer bind himself down to machine-made +synecdoche, antithesis, and climax, being full of spontaneous specimens +of all these rhetorical forms, which he dared not utter. Who shall +wonder that his mind luxuriated in dreams of a sweet possibility now laid +open for the first time these many years? for Emmeline was to him now as +ever the one dear thing in all the world. The issue of his silent +romancing was that he resolved to return to her at the very earliest +moment. + +But he could not abandon his professional work on the instant. He did +not get really quite free from engagements till four months later; but, +though suffering throes of impatience continually, he said to himself +every day: 'If she has continued to love me nine years she will love me +ten; she will think the more tenderly of me when her present hours of +solitude shall have done their proper work; old times will revive with +the cessation of her recent experience, and every day will favour my +return.' + +The enforced interval soon passed, and he duly arrived in England, +reaching the village of Batton on a certain winter day between twelve and +thirteen months subsequent to the time of the Duke's death. + +It was evening; yet such was Alwyn's impatience that he could not forbear +taking, this very night, one look at the castle which Emmeline had +entered as unhappy mistress ten years before. He threaded the park +trees, gazed in passing at well-known outlines which rose against the dim +sky, and was soon interested in observing that lively country-people, in +parties of two and three, were walking before and behind him up the +interlaced avenue to the castle gateway. Knowing himself to be safe from +recognition, Alwyn inquired of one of these pedestrians what was going +on. + +'Her Grace gives her tenantry a ball to-night, to keep up the old custom +of the Duke and his father before him, which she does not wish to +change.' + +'Indeed. Has she lived here entirely alone since the Duke's death?' + +'Quite alone. But though she doesn't receive company herself, she likes +the village people to enjoy themselves, and often has 'em here.' + +'Kind-hearted, as always!' thought Alwyn. + +On reaching the castle he found that the great gates at the tradesmen's +entrance were thrown back against the wall as if they were never to be +closed again; that the passages and rooms in that wing were brilliantly +lighted up, some of the numerous candles guttering down over the green +leaves which decorated them, and upon the silk dresses of the happy +farmers' wives as they passed beneath, each on her husband's arm. Alwyn +found no difficulty in marching in along with the rest, the castle being +Liberty Hall to-night. He stood unobserved in a corner of the large +apartment where dancing was about to begin. + +'Her Grace, though hardly out of mourning, will be sure to come down and +lead off the dance with neighbour Bates,' said one. + +'Who is neighbour Bates?' asked Alwyn. + +'An old man she respects much--the oldest of her tenant-farmers. He was +seventy-eight his last birthday.' + +'Ah, to be sure!' said Alwyn, at his ease. 'I remember.' + +The dancers formed in line, and waited. A door opened at the farther end +of the hall, and a lady in black silk came forth. She bowed, smiled, and +proceeded to the top of the dance. + +'Who is that lady?' said Alwyn, in a puzzled tone. 'I thought you told +me that the Duchess of Hamptonshire--' + +'That is the Duchess,' said his informant. + +'But there is another?' + +'No; there is no other.' + +'But she is not the Duchess of Hamptonshire--who used to--' Alwyn's +tongue stuck to his mouth, he could get no farther. + +'What's the matter?' said his acquaintance. Alwyn had retired, and was +supporting himself against the wall. + +The wretched Alwyn murmured something about a stitch in his side from +walking. Then the music struck up, the dance went on, and his neighbour +became so interested in watching the movements of this strange Duchess +through its mazes as to forget Alwyn for a while. + +It gave him an opportunity to brace himself up. He was a man who had +suffered, and he could suffer again. 'How came that person to be your +Duchess?' he asked in a firm, distinct voice, when he had attained +complete self-command. 'Where is her other Grace of Hamptonshire? There +certainly was another. I know it.' + +'Oh, the previous one! Yes, yes. She ran away years and years ago with +the young curate. Mr. Hill was the young man's name, if I recollect.' + +'No! She never did. What do you mean by that?' he said. + +'Yes, she certainly ran away. She met the curate in the shrubbery about +a couple of months after her marriage with the Duke. There were folks +who saw the meeting and heard some words of their talk. They arranged to +go, and she sailed from Plymouth with him a day or two afterward.' + +'That's not true.' + +'Then 'tis the queerest lie ever told by man. Her father believed and +knew to his dying day that she went with him; and so did the Duke, and +everybody about here. Ay, there was a fine upset about it at the time. +The Duke traced her to Plymouth.' + +'Traced her to Plymouth?' + +'He traced her to Plymouth, and set on his spies; and they found that she +went to the shipping-office, and inquired if Mr. Alwyn Hill had entered +his name as passenger by the _Western Glory_; and when she found that he +had, she booked herself for the same ship, but not in her real name. When +the vessel had sailed a letter reached the Duke from her, telling him +what she had done. She never came back here again. His Grace lived by +himself a number of years, and married this lady only twelve months +before he died.' + +Alwyn was in a state of indescribable bewilderment. But, unmanned as he +was, he called the next day on the, to him, spurious Duchess of +Hamptonshire. At first she was alarmed at his statement, then cold, then +she was won over by his condition to give confidence for confidence. She +showed him a letter which had been found among the papers of the late +Duke, corroborating what Alwyn's informant had detailed. It was from +Emmeline, bearing the postmarked date at which the _Western Glory_ +sailed, and briefly stated that she had emigrated by that ship to +America. + +Alwyn applied himself body and mind to unravel the remainder of the +mystery. The story repeated to him was always the same: 'She ran away +with the curate.' A strangely circumstantial piece of intelligence was +added to this when he had pushed his inquiries a little further. There +was given him the name of a waterman at Plymouth, who had come forward at +the time that she was missed and sought for by her husband, and had +stated that he put her on board the _Western Glory_ at dusk one evening +before that vessel sailed. + +After several days of search about the alleys and quays of Plymouth +Barbican, during which these impossible words, 'She ran off with the +curate,' became branded on his brain, Alwyn found this important +waterman. He was positive as to the truth of his story, still +remembering the incident well, and he described in detail the lady's +dress, as he had long ago described it to her husband, which description +corresponded in every particular with the dress worn by Emmeline on the +evening of their parting. + +Before proceeding to the other side of the Atlantic to continue his +inquiries there, the puzzled and distracted Alwyn set himself to +ascertain the address of Captain Wheeler, who had commanded the _Western +Glory_ in the year of Alwyn's voyage out, and immediately wrote a letter +to him on the subject. + +The only circumstances which the sailor could recollect or discover from +his papers in connection with such a story were, that a woman bearing the +name which Alwyn had mentioned as fictitious certainly did come aboard +for a voyage he made about that time; that she took a common berth among +the poorest emigrants; that she died on the voyage out, at about five +days' sail from Plymouth; that she seemed a lady in manners and +education. Why she had not applied for a first-class passage, why she +had no trunks, they could not guess, for though she had little money in +her pocket she had that about her which would have fetched it. 'We +buried her at sea,' continued the captain. 'A young parson, one of the +cabin-passengers, read the burial-service over her, I remember well.' + +The whole scene and proceedings darted upon Alwyn's recollection in a +moment. It was a fine breezy morning on that long-past voyage out, and +he had been told that they were running at the rate of a hundred and odd +miles a day. The news went round that one of the poor young women in the +other part of the vessel was ill of fever, and delirious. The tidings +caused no little alarm among all the passengers, for the sanitary +conditions of the ship were anything but satisfactory. Shortly after +this the doctor announced that she had died. Then Alwyn had learnt that +she was laid out for burial in great haste, because of the danger that +would have been incurred by delay. And next the funeral scene rose +before him, and the prominent part that he had taken in that solemn +ceremony. The captain had come to him, requesting him to officiate, as +there was no chaplain on board. This he had agreed to do; and as the sun +went down with a blaze in his face he read amidst them all assembled: 'We +therefore commit her body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, +looking for the resurrection of the body when the sea shall give up her +dead.' + +The captain also forwarded the addresses of the ship's matron and of +other persons who had been engaged on board at the date. To these Alwyn +went in the course of time. A categorical description of the clothes of +the dead truant, the colour of her hair, and other things, extinguished +for ever all hope of a mistake in identity. + +At last, then, the course of events had become clear. On that unhappy +evening when he left Emmeline in the shrubbery, forbidding her to follow +him because it would be a sin, she must have disobeyed. She must have +followed at his heels silently through the darkness, like a poor pet +animal that will not be driven back. She could have accumulated nothing +for the journey more than she might have carried in her hand; and thus +poorly provided she must have embarked. Her intention had doubtless been +to make her presence on board known to him as soon as she could muster +courage to do so. + +Thus the ten years' chapter of Alwyn Hill's romance wound itself up under +his eyes. That the poor young woman in the steerage had been the young +Duchess of Hamptonshire was never publicly disclosed. Hill had no longer +any reason for remaining in England, and soon after left its shores with +no intention to return. Previous to his departure he confided his story +to an old friend from his native town--grandfather of the person who now +relates it to you. + +* * * * * + +A few members, including the Bookworm, seemed to be impressed by the +quiet gentleman's tale; but the member we have called the Spark--who, by +the way, was getting somewhat tinged with the light of other days, and +owned to eight-and-thirty--walked daintily about the room instead of +sitting down by the fire with the majority and said that for his part he +preferred something more lively than the last story--something in which +such long-separated lovers were ultimately united. He also liked stories +that were more modern in their date of action than those he had heard to- +day. + +Members immediately requested him to give them a specimen, to which the +Spark replied that he didn't mind, as far as that went. And though the +Vice-President, the Man of Family, the Colonel, and others, looked at +their watches, and said they must soon retire to their respective +quarters in the hotel adjoining, they all decided to sit out the Spark's +story. + + + + +DAME THE TENTH--THE HONOURABLE LAURA +By the Spark + + +It was a cold and gloomy Christmas Eve. The mass of cloud overhead was +almost impervious to such daylight as still lingered on; the snow lay +several inches deep upon the ground, and the slanting downfall which +still went on threatened to considerably increase its thickness before +the morning. The Prospect Hotel, a building standing near the wild north +coast of Lower Wessex, looked so lonely and so useless at such a time as +this that a passing wayfarer would have been led to forget summer +possibilities, and to wonder at the commercial courage which could invest +capital, on the basis of the popular taste for the picturesque, in a +country subject to such dreary phases. That the district was alive with +visitors in August seemed but a dim tradition in weather so totally +opposed to all that tempts mankind from home. However, there the hotel +stood immovable; and the cliffs, creeks, and headlands which were the +primary attractions of the spot, rising in full view on the opposite side +of the valley, were now but stern angular outlines, while the townlet in +front was tinged over with a grimy dirtiness rather than the pearly gray +that in summer lent such beauty to its appearance. + +Within the hotel commanding this outlook the landlord walked idly about +with his hands in his pockets, not in the least expectant of a visitor, +and yet unable to settle down to any occupation which should compensate +in some degree for the losses that winter idleness entailed on his +regular profession. So little, indeed, was anybody expected, that the +coffee-room waiter--a genteel boy, whose plated buttons in summer were as +close together upon the front of his short jacket as peas in a pod--now +appeared in the back yard, metamorphosed into the unrecognizable shape of +a rough country lad in corduroys and hobnailed boots, sweeping the snow +away, and talking the local dialect in all its purity, quite oblivious of +the new polite accent he had learned in the hot weather from the well- +behaved visitors. The front door was closed, and, as if to express still +more fully the sealed and chrysalis state of the establishment, a sand- +bag was placed at the bottom to keep out the insidious snowdrift, the +wind setting in directly from that quarter. + +The landlord, entering his own parlour, walked to the large fire which it +was absolutely necessary to keep up for his comfort, no such blaze +burning in the coffee-room or elsewhere, and after giving it a stir +returned to a table in the lobby, whereon lay the visitors' book--now +closed and pushed back against the wall. He carelessly opened it; not a +name had been entered there since the 19th of the previous November, and +that was only the name of a man who had arrived on a tricycle, who, +indeed, had not been asked to enter at all. + +While he was engaged thus the evening grew darker; but before it was as +yet too dark to distinguish objects upon the road winding round the back +of the cliffs, the landlord perceived a black spot on the distant white, +which speedily enlarged itself and drew near. The probabilities were +that this vehicle--for a vehicle of some sort it seemed to be--would pass +by and pursue its way to the nearest railway-town as others had done. +But, contrary to the landlord's expectation, as he stood conning it +through the yet unshuttered windows, the solitary object, on reaching the +corner, turned into the hotel-front, and drove up to the door. + +It was a conveyance particularly unsuited to such a season and weather, +being nothing more substantial than an open basket-carriage drawn by a +single horse. Within sat two persons, of different sexes, as could soon +be discerned, in spite of their muffled attire. The man held the reins, +and the lady had got some shelter from the storm by clinging close to his +side. The landlord rang the hostler's bell to attract the attention of +the stable-man, for the approach of the visitors had been deadened to +noiselessness by the snow, and when the hostler had come to the horse's +head the gentleman and lady alighted, the landlord meeting them in the +hall. + +The male stranger was a foreign-looking individual of about eight-and- +twenty. He was close-shaven, excepting a moustache, his features being +good, and even handsome. The lady, who stood timidly behind him, seemed +to be much younger--possibly not more than eighteen, though it was +difficult to judge either of her age or appearance in her present +wrappings. + +The gentleman expressed his wish to stay till the morning, explaining +somewhat unnecessarily, considering that the house was an inn, that they +had been unexpectedly benighted on their drive. Such a welcome being +given them as landlords can give in dull times, the latter ordered fires +in the drawing and coffee-rooms, and went to the boy in the yard, who +soon scrubbed himself up, dragged his disused jacket from its box, +polished the buttons with his sleeve, and appeared civilized in the hall. +The lady was shown into a room where she could take off her snow-damped +garments, which she sent down to be dried, her companion, meanwhile, +putting a couple of sovereigns on the table, as if anxious to make +everything smooth and comfortable at starting, and requesting that a +private sitting-room might be got ready. The landlord assured him that +the best upstairs parlour--usually public--should be kept private this +evening, and sent the maid to light the candles. Dinner was prepared for +them, and, at the gentleman's desire, served in the same apartment; +where, the young lady having joined him, they were left to the rest and +refreshment they seemed to need. + +That something was peculiar in the relations of the pair had more than +once struck the landlord, though wherein that peculiarity lay it was hard +to decide. But that his guest was one who paid his way readily had been +proved by his conduct, and dismissing conjectures, he turned to practical +affairs. + +About nine o'clock he re-entered the hall, and, everything being done for +the day, again walked up and down, occasionally gazing through the glass +door at the prospect without, to ascertain how the weather was +progressing. Contrary to prognostication, snow had ceased falling, and, +with the rising of the moon, the sky had partially cleared, light fleeces +of cloud drifting across the silvery disk. There was every sign that a +frost was going to set in later on. For these reasons the distant rising +road was even more distinct now between its high banks than it had been +in the declining daylight. Not a track or rut broke the virgin surface +of the white mantle that lay along it, all marks left by the lately +arrived travellers having been speedily obliterated by the flakes falling +at the time. + +And now the landlord beheld by the light of the moon a sight very similar +to that he had seen by the light of day. Again a black spot was +advancing down the road that margined the coast. He was in a moment or +two enabled to perceive that the present vehicle moved onward at a more +headlong pace than the little carriage which had preceded it; next, that +it was a brougham drawn by two powerful horses; next, that this carriage, +like the former one, was bound for the hotel-door. This desirable +feature of resemblance caused the landlord to once more withdraw the sand- +bag and advance into the porch. + +An old gentleman was the first to alight. He was followed by a young +one, and both unhesitatingly came forward. + +'Has a young lady, less than nineteen years of age, recently arrived here +in the company of a man some years her senior?' asked the old gentleman, +in haste. 'A man cleanly shaven for the most part, having the appearance +of an opera-singer, and calling himself Signor Smithozzi?' + +'We have had arrivals lately,' said the landlord, in the tone of having +had twenty at least--not caring to acknowledge the attenuated state of +business that afflicted Prospect Hotel in winter. + +'And among them can your memory recall two persons such as those I +describe?--the man a sort of baritone?' + +'There certainly is or was a young couple staying in the hotel; but I +could not pronounce on the compass of the gentleman's voice.' + +'No, no; of course not. I am quite bewildered. They arrived in a basket- +carriage, altogether badly provided?' + +'They came in a carriage, I believe, as most of our visitors do.' + +'Yes, yes. I must see them at once. Pardon my want of ceremony, and +show us in to where they are.' + +'But, sir, you forget. Suppose the lady and gentleman I mean are not the +lady and gentleman you mean? It would be awkward to allow you to rush in +upon them just now while they are at dinner, and might cause me to lose +their future patronage.' + +'True, true. They may not be the same persons. My anxiety, I perceive, +makes me rash in my assumptions!' + +'Upon the whole, I think they must be the same, Uncle Quantock,' said the +young man, who had not till now spoken. And turning to the landlord: +'You possibly have not such a large assemblage of visitors here, on this +somewhat forbidding evening, that you quite forget how this couple +arrived, and what the lady wore?' His tone of addressing the landlord +had in it a quiet frigidity that was not without irony. + +'Ah! what she wore; that's it, James. What did she wear?' + +'I don't usually take stock of my guests' clothing,' replied the landlord +drily, for the ready money of the first arrival had decidedly biassed him +in favour of that gentleman's cause. 'You can certainly see some of it +if you want to,' he added carelessly, 'for it is drying by the kitchen +fire.' + +Before the words were half out of his mouth the old gentleman had +exclaimed, 'Ah!' and precipitated himself along what seemed to be the +passage to the kitchen; but as this turned out to be only the entrance to +a dark china-closet, he hastily emerged again, after a collision with the +inn-crockery had told him of his mistake. + +'I beg your pardon, I'm sure; but if you only knew my feelings (which I +cannot at present explain), you would make allowances. Anything I have +broken I will willingly pay for.' + +'Don't mention it, sir,' said the landlord. And showing the way, they +adjourned to the kitchen without further parley. The eldest of the party +instantly seized the lady's cloak, that hung upon a clothes-horse, +exclaiming: 'Ah! yes, James, it is hers. I knew we were on their track.' + +'Yes, it is hers,' answered the nephew quietly, for he was much less +excited than his companion. + +'Show us their room at once,' said the old man. + +'William, have the lady and gentleman in the front sitting-room finished +dining?' + +'Yes, sir, long ago,' said the hundred plated buttons. + +'Then show up these gentlemen to them at once. You stay here to-night, +gentlemen, I presume? Shall the horses be taken out?' + +'Feed the horses and wash their mouths. Whether we stay or not depends +upon circumstances,' said the placid younger man, as he followed his +uncle and the waiter to the staircase. + +'I think, Nephew James,' said the former, as he paused with his foot on +the first step--'I think we had better not be announced, but take them by +surprise. She may go throwing herself out of the window, or do some +equally desperate thing!' + +'Yes, certainly, we'll enter unannounced.' And he called back the lad +who preceded them. + +'I cannot sufficiently thank you, James, for so effectually aiding me in +this pursuit!' exclaimed the old gentleman, taking the other by the hand. +'My increasing infirmities would have hindered my overtaking her +to-night, had it not been for your timely aid.' + +'I am only too happy, uncle, to have been of service to you in this or +any other matter. I only wish I could have accompanied you on a +pleasanter journey. However, it is advisable to go up to them at once, +or they may hear us.' And they softly ascended the stairs. + +* * * * * + +On the door being opened, a room too large to be comfortable, lit by the +best branch-candlesticks of the hotel, was disclosed, before the fire of +which apartment the truant couple were sitting, very innocently looking +over the hotel scrap-book and the album containing views of the +neighbourhood. No sooner had the old man entered than the young lady--who +now showed herself to be quite as young as described, and remarkably +prepossessing as to features--perceptibly turned pale. When the nephew +entered, she turned still paler, as if she were going to faint. The +young man described as an opera-singer rose with grim civility, and +placed chairs for his visitors. + +'Caught you, thank God!' said the old gentleman breathlessly. + +'Yes, worse luck, my lord!' murmured Signor Smithozzi, in native London- +English, that distinguished alien having, in fact, first seen the light +in the vicinity of the City Road. 'She would have been mine to-morrow. +And I think that under the peculiar circumstances it would be +wiser--considering how soon the breath of scandal will tarnish a lady's +fame--to let her be mine to-morrow, just the same.' + +'Never!' said the old man. 'Here is a lady under age, without +experience--child-like in her maiden innocence and virtue--whom you have +plied by your vile arts, till this morning at dawn--' + +'Lord Quantock, were I not bound to respect your gray hairs--' + +'Till this morning at dawn you tempted her away from her father's roof. +What blame can attach to her conduct that will not, on a full explanation +of the matter, be readily passed over in her and thrown entirely on you? +Laura, you return at once with me. I should not have arrived, after all, +early enough to deliver you, if it had not been for the disinterestedness +of your cousin, Captain Northbrook, who, on my discovering your flight +this morning, offered with a promptitude for which I can never +sufficiently thank him, to accompany me on my journey, as the only male +relative I have near me. Come, do you hear? Put on your things; we are +off at once.' + +'I don't want to go!' pouted the young lady. + +'I daresay you don't,' replied her father drily. 'But children never +know what's best for them. So come along, and trust to my opinion.' + +Laura was silent, and did not move, the opera gentleman looking +helplessly into the fire, and the lady's cousin sitting meditatively +calm, as the single one of the four whose position enabled him to survey +the whole escapade with the cool criticism of a comparative outsider. + +'I say to you, Laura, as the father of a daughter under age, that you +instantly come with me. What? Would you compel me to use physical force +to reclaim you?' + +'I don't want to return!' again declared Laura. + +'It is your duty to return nevertheless, and at once, I inform you.' + +'I don't want to!' + +'Now, dear Laura, this is what I say: return with me and your cousin +James quietly, like a good and repentant girl, and nothing will be said. +Nobody knows what has happened as yet, and if we start at once, we shall +be home before it is light to-morrow morning. Come.' + +'I am not obliged to come at your bidding, father, and I would rather +not!' + +Now James, the cousin, during this dialogue might have been observed to +grow somewhat restless, and even impatient. More than once he had parted +his lips to speak, but second thoughts each time held him back. The +moment had come, however, when he could keep silence no longer. + +'Come, madam!' he spoke out, 'this farce with your father has, in my +opinion, gone on long enough. Just make no more ado, and step downstairs +with us.' + +She gave herself an intractable little twist, and did not reply. + +'By the Lord Harry, Laura, I won't stand this!' he said angrily. 'Come, +get on your things before I come and compel you. There is a kind of +compulsion to which this talk is child's play. Come, madam--instantly, I +say!' + +The old nobleman turned to his nephew and said mildly: 'Leave me to +insist, James. It doesn't become you. I can speak to her sharply +enough, if I choose.' + +James, however, did not heed his uncle, and went on to the troublesome +young woman: 'You say you don't want to come, indeed! A pretty story to +tell me, that! Come, march out of the room at once, and leave that +hulking fellow for me to deal with afterward. Get on quickly--come!' and +he advanced toward her as if to pull her by the hand. + +'Nay, nay,' expostulated Laura's father, much surprised at his nephew's +sudden demeanour. 'You take too much upon yourself. Leave her to me.' + +'I won't leave her to you any longer!' + +'You have no right, James, to address either me or her in this way; so +just hold your tongue. Come, my dear.' + +'I have every right!' insisted James. + +'How do you make that out?' + +'I have the right of a husband.' + +'Whose husband?' + +'Hers.' + +'What?' + +'She's my wife.' + +'James!' + +'Well, to cut a long story short, I may say that she secretly married me, +in spite of your lordship's prohibition, about three months ago. And I +must add that, though she cooled down rather quickly, everything went on +smoothly enough between us for some time; in spite of the awkwardness of +meeting only by stealth. We were only waiting for a convenient moment to +break the news to you when this idle Adonis turned up, and after +poisoning her mind against me, brought her into this disgrace.' + +Here the operatic luminary, who had sat in rather an abstracted and +nerveless attitude till the cousin made his declaration, fired up and +cried: 'I declare before Heaven that till this moment I never knew she +was a wife! I found her in her father's house an unhappy girl--unhappy, +as I believe, because of the loneliness and dreariness of that +establishment, and the want of society, and for nothing else whatever. +What this statement about her being your wife means I am quite at a loss +to understand. Are you indeed married to him, Laura?' + +Laura nodded from within her tearful handkerchief. 'It was because of my +anomalous position in being privately married to him,' she sobbed, 'that +I was unhappy at home--and--and I didn't like him so well as I did at +first--and I wished I could get out of the mess I was in! And then I saw +you a few times, and when you said, "We'll run off," I thought I saw a +way out of it all, and then I agreed to come with you--oo-oo!' + +'Well! well! well! And is this true?' murmured the bewildered old +nobleman, staring from James to Laura, and from Laura to James, as if he +fancied they might be figments of the imagination. 'Is this, then, +James, the secret of your kindness to your old uncle in helping him to +find his daughter? Good Heavens! What further depths of duplicity are +there left for a man to learn!' + +'I have married her, Uncle Quantock, as I said,' answered James coolly. +'The deed is done, and can't be undone by talking here.' + +'Where were you married?' + +'At St. Mary's, Toneborough.' + +'When?' + +'On the 29th of September, during the time she was visiting there.' + +'Who married you?' + +'I don't know. One of the curates--we were quite strangers to the place. +So, instead of my assisting you to recover her, you may as well assist +me.' + +'Never! never!' said Lord Quantock. 'Madam, and sir, I beg to tell you +that I wash my hands of the whole affair! If you are man and wife, as it +seems you are, get reconciled as best you may. I have no more to say or +do with either of you. I leave you, Laura, in the hands of your husband, +and much joy may you bring him; though the situation, I own, is not +encouraging.' + +Saying this, the indignant speaker pushed back his chair against the +table with such force that the candlesticks rocked on their bases, and +left the room. + +Laura's wet eyes roved from one of the young men to the other, who now +stood glaring face to face, and, being much frightened at their aspect, +slipped out of the room after her father. Him, however, she could hear +going out of the front door, and, not knowing where to take shelter, she +crept into the darkness of an adjoining bedroom, and there awaited events +with a palpitating heart. + +Meanwhile the two men remaining in the sitting-room drew nearer to each +other, and the opera-singer broke the silence by saying, 'How could you +insult me in the way you did, calling me a fellow, and accusing me of +poisoning her mind toward you, when you knew very well I was as ignorant +of your relation to her as an unborn babe?' + +'Oh yes, you were quite ignorant; I can believe that readily,' sneered +Laura's husband. + +'I here call Heaven to witness that I never knew!' + +'Recitativo--the rhythm excellent, and the tone well sustained. Is it +likely that any man could win the confidence of a young fool her age, and +not get that out of her? Preposterous! Tell it to the most improved new +pit-stalls.' + +'Captain Northbrook, your insinuations are as despicable as your wretched +person!' cried the baritone, losing all patience. And springing forward +he slapped the captain in the face with the palm of his hand. + +Northbrook flinched but slightly, and calmly using his handkerchief to +learn if his nose was bleeding, said, 'I quite expected this insult, so I +came prepared.' And he drew forth from a black valise which he carried +in his hand a small case of pistols. + +The baritone started at the unexpected sight, but recovering from his +surprise said, 'Very well, as you will,' though perhaps his tone showed a +slight want of confidence. + +'Now,' continued the husband, quite confidingly, 'we want no parade, no +nonsense, you know. Therefore we'll dispense with seconds?' + +The signor slightly nodded. + +'Do you know this part of the country well?' Cousin James went on, in the +same cool and still manner. 'If you don't, I do. Quite at the bottom of +the rocks out there, just beyond the stream which falls over them to the +shore, is a smooth sandy space, not so much shut in as to be out of the +moonlight; and the way down to it from this side is over steps cut in the +cliff; and we can find our way down without trouble. We--we two--will +find our way down; but only one of us will find his way up, you +understand?' + +'Quite.' + +'Then suppose we start; the sooner it is over the better. We can order +supper before we go out--supper for two; for though we are three at +present--' + +'Three?' + +'Yes; you and I and she--' + +'Oh yes.' + +'--We shall be only two by and by; so that, as I say, we will order +supper for two; for the lady and a gentleman. Whichever comes back alive +will tap at her door, and call her in to share the repast with him--she's +not off the premises. But we must not alarm her now; and above all +things we must not let the inn-people see us go out; it would look so odd +for two to go out, and only one come in. Ha! ha!' + +'Ha! ha! exactly.' + +'Are you ready?' + +'Oh--quite.' + +'Then I'll lead the way.' + +He went softly to the door and downstairs, ordering supper to be ready in +an hour, as he had said; then making a feint of returning to the room +again, he beckoned to the singer, and together they slipped out of the +house by a side door. + +* * * * * + +The sky was now quite clear, and the wheelmarks of the brougham which had +borne away Laura's father, Lord Quantock, remained distinctly visible. +Soon the verge of the down was reached, the captain leading the way, and +the baritone following silently, casting furtive glances at his +companion, and beyond him at the scene ahead. In due course they arrived +at the chasm in the cliff which formed the waterfall. The outlook here +was wild and picturesque in the extreme, and fully justified the many +praises, paintings, and photographic views to which the spot had given +birth. What in summer was charmingly green and gray, was now rendered +weird and fantastic by the snow. + +From their feet the cascade plunged downward almost vertically to a depth +of eighty or a hundred feet before finally losing itself in the sand, and +though the stream was but small, its impact upon jutting rocks in its +descent divided it into a hundred spirts and splashes that sent up a mist +into the upper air. A few marginal drippings had been frozen into +icicles, but the centre flowed on unimpeded. + +The operatic artist looked down as he halted, but his thoughts were +plainly not of the beauty of the scene. His companion with the pistols +was immediately in front of him, and there was no handrail on the side of +the path toward the chasm. Obeying a quick impulse, he stretched out his +arm, and with a superhuman thrust sent Laura's husband reeling over. A +whirling human shape, diminishing downward in the moon's rays farther and +farther toward invisibility, a smack-smack upon the projecting ledges of +rock--at first louder and heavier than that of the brook, and then +scarcely to be distinguished from it--then a cessation, then the +splashing of the stream as before, and the accompanying murmur of the +sea, were all the incidents that disturbed the customary flow of the +little waterfall. + +The singer waited in a fixed attitude for a few minutes, then turning, he +rapidly retraced his steps over the intervening upland toward the road, +and in less than a quarter of an hour was at the door of the hotel. +Slipping quietly in as the clock struck ten, he said to the landlord, +over the bar hatchway-- + +'The bill as soon as you can let me have it, including charges for the +supper that was ordered, though we cannot stay to eat it, I am sorry to +say.' He added with forced gaiety, 'The lady's father and cousin have +thought better of intercepting the marriage, and after quarrelling with +each other have gone home independently.' + +'Well done, sir!' said the landlord, who still sided with this customer +in preference to those who had given trouble and barely paid for baiting +the horses. '"Love will find out the way!" as the saying is. Wish you +joy, sir!' + +Signor Smithozzi went upstairs, and on entering the sitting-room found +that Laura had crept out from the dark adjoining chamber in his absence. +She looked up at him with eyes red from weeping, and with symptoms of +alarm. + +'What is it?--where is he?' she said apprehensively. + +'Captain Northbrook has gone back. He says he will have no more to do +with you.' + +'And I am quite abandoned by them!--and they'll forget me, and nobody +care about me any more!' She began to cry afresh. + +'But it is the luckiest thing that could have happened. All is just as +it was before they came disturbing us. But, Laura, you ought to have +told me about that private marriage, though it is all the same now; it +will be dissolved, of course. You are a wid--virtually a widow.' + +'It is no use to reproach me for what is past. What am I to do now?' + +'We go at once to Cliff-Martin. The horse has rested thoroughly these +last three hours, and he will have no difficulty in doing an additional +half-dozen miles. We shall be there before twelve, and there are late +taverns in the place, no doubt. There we'll sell both horse and carriage +to-morrow morning; and go by the coach to Downstaple. Once in the train +we are safe.' + +'I agree to anything,' she said listlessly. + +In about ten minutes the horse was put in, the bill paid, the lady's +dried wraps put round her, and the journey resumed. + +When about a mile on their way, they saw a glimmering light in advance of +them. 'I wonder what that is?' said the baritone, whose manner had +latterly become nervous, every sound and sight causing him to turn his +head. + +'It is only a turnpike,' said she. 'That light is the lamp kept burning +over the door.' + +'Of course, of course, dearest. How stupid I am!' + +On reaching the gate they perceived that a man on foot had approached it, +apparently by some more direct path than the roadway they pursued, and +was, at the moment they drew up, standing in conversation with the +gatekeeper. + +'It is quite impossible that he could fall over the cliff by accident or +the will of God on such a light night as this,' the pedestrian was +saying. 'These two children I tell you of saw two men go along the path +toward the waterfall, and ten minutes later only one of 'em came back, +walking fast, like a man who wanted to get out of the way because he had +done something queer. There is no manner of doubt that he pushed the +other man over, and, mark me, it will soon cause a hue and cry for that +man.' + +The candle shone in the face of the Signor and showed that there had +arisen upon it a film of ghastliness. Laura, glancing toward him for a +few moments observed it, till, the gatekeeper having mechanically swung +open the gate, her companion drove through, and they were soon again +enveloped in the white silence. + +Her conductor had said to Laura, just before, that he meant to inquire +the way at this turnpike; but he had certainly not done so. + +As soon as they had gone a little farther the omission, intentional or +not, began to cause them some trouble. Beyond the secluded district +which they now traversed ran the more frequented road, where progress +would be easy, the snow being probably already beaten there to some +extent by traffic; but they had not yet reached it, and having no one to +guide them their journey began to appear less feasible than it had done +before starting. When the little lane which they had entered ascended +another hill, and seemed to wind round in a direction contrary to the +expected route to Cliff-Martin, the question grew serious. Ever since +overhearing the conversation at the turnpike, Laura had maintained a +perfect silence, and had even shrunk somewhat away from the side of her +lover. + +'Why don't you talk, Laura,' he said with forced buoyancy, 'and suggest +the way we should go?' + +'Oh yes, I will,' she responded, a curious fearfulness being audible in +her voice. + +After this she uttered a few occasional sentences which seemed to +persuade him that she suspected nothing. At last he drew rein, and the +weary horse stood still. + +'We are in a fix,' he said. + +She answered eagerly: 'I'll hold the reins while you run forward to the +top of the ridge, and see if the road takes a favourable turn beyond. It +would give the horse a few minutes' rest, and if you find out no change +in the direction, we will retrace this lane, and take the other turning.' + +The expedient seemed a good one in the circumstances, especially when +recommended by the singular eagerness of her voice; and placing the reins +in her hands--a quite unnecessary precaution, considering the state of +their hack--he stepped out and went forward through the snow till she +could see no more of him. + +No sooner was he gone than Laura, with a rapidity which contrasted +strangely with her previous stillness, made fast the reins to the corner +of the phaeton, and slipping out on the opposite side, ran back with all +her might down the hill, till, coming to an opening in the fence, she +scrambled through it, and plunged into the copse which bordered this +portion of the lane. Here she stood in hiding under one of the large +bushes, clinging so closely to its umbrage as to seem but a portion of +its mass, and listening intently for the faintest sound of pursuit. But +nothing disturbed the stillness save the occasional slipping of gathered +snow from the boughs, or the rustle of some wild animal over the crisp +flake-bespattered herbage. At length, apparently convinced that her +former companion was either unable to find her, or not anxious to do so, +in the present strange state of affairs, she crept out from the bushes, +and in less than an hour found herself again approaching the door of the +Prospect Hotel. + +As she drew near, Laura could see that, far from being wrapped in +darkness, as she might have expected, there were ample signs that all the +tenants were on the alert, lights moving about the open space in front. +Satisfaction was expressed in her face when she discerned that no +reappearance of her baritone and his pony-carriage was causing this +sensation; but it speedily gave way to grief and dismay when she saw by +the lights the form of a man borne on a stretcher by two others into the +porch of the hotel. + +'I have caused all this,' she murmured between her quivering lips. 'He +has murdered him!' Running forward to the door, she hastily asked of the +first person she met if the man on the stretcher was dead. + +'No, miss,' said the labourer addressed, eyeing her up and down as an +unexpected apparition. 'He is still alive, they say, but not sensible. +He either fell or was pushed over the waterfall; 'tis thoughted he was +pushed. He is the gentleman who came here just now with the old lord, +and went out afterward (as is thoughted) with a stranger who had come a +little earlier. Anyhow, that's as I had it.' + +Laura entered the house, and acknowledging without the least reserve that +she was the injured man's wife, had soon installed herself as head nurse +by the bed on which he lay. When the two surgeons who had been sent for +arrived, she learned from them that his wounds were so severe as to leave +but a slender hope of recovery, it being little short of miraculous that +he was not killed on the spot, which his enemy had evidently reckoned to +be the case. She knew who that enemy was, and shuddered. + +Laura watched all night, but her husband knew nothing of her presence. +During the next day he slightly recognized her, and in the evening was +able to speak. He informed the surgeons that, as was surmised, he had +been pushed over the cascade by Signor Smithozzi; but he communicated +nothing to her who nursed him, not even replying to her remarks; he +nodded courteously at any act of attention she rendered, and that was +all. + +In a day or two it was declared that everything favoured his recovery, +notwithstanding the severity of his injuries. Full search was made for +Smithozzi, but as yet there was no intelligence of his whereabouts, +though the repentant Laura communicated all she knew. As far as could be +judged, he had come back to the carriage after searching out the way, and +finding the young lady missing, had looked about for her till he was +tired; then had driven on to Cliff-Martin, sold the horse and carriage +next morning, and disappeared, probably by one of the departing coaches +which ran thence to the nearest station, the only difference from his +original programme being that he had gone alone. + +* * * * * + +During the days and weeks of that long and tedious recovery, Laura +watched by her husband's bedside with a zeal and assiduity which would +have considerably extenuated any fault save one of such magnitude as +hers. That her husband did not forgive her was soon obvious. Nothing +that she could do in the way of smoothing pillows, easing his position, +shifting bandages, or administering draughts, could win from him more +than a few measured words of thankfulness, such as he would probably have +uttered to any other woman on earth who had performed these particular +services for him. + +'Dear, dear James,' she said one day, bending her face upon the bed in an +excess of emotion. 'How you have suffered! It has been too cruel. I am +more glad you are getting better than I can say. I have prayed for +it--and I am sorry for what I have done; I am innocent of the worst, +and--I hope you will not think me so very bad, James!' + +'Oh no. On the contrary, I shall think you very good--as a nurse,' he +answered, the caustic severity of his tone being apparent through its +weakness. + +Laura let fall two or three silent tears, and said no more that day. + +Somehow or other Signor Smithozzi seemed to be making good his escape. It +transpired that he had not taken a passage in either of the suspected +coaches, though he had certainly got out of the county; altogether, the +chance of finding him was problematical. + +Not only did Captain Northbrook survive his injuries, but it soon +appeared that in the course of a few weeks he would find himself little +if any the worse for the catastrophe. It could also be seen that Laura, +while secretly hoping for her husband's forgiveness for a piece of folly +of which she saw the enormity more clearly every day, was in great doubt +as to what her future relations with him would be. Moreover, to add to +the complication, whilst she, as a runaway wife, was unforgiven by her +husband, she and her husband, as a runaway couple, were unforgiven by her +father, who had never once communicated with either of them since his +departure from the inn. But her immediate anxiety was to win the pardon +of her husband, who possibly might be bearing in mind, as he lay upon his +couch, the familiar words of Brabantio, 'She has deceived her father, and +may thee.' + +Matters went on thus till Captain Northbrook was able to walk about. He +then removed with his wife to quiet apartments on the south coast, and +here his recovery was rapid. Walking up the cliffs one day, supporting +him by her arm as usual, she said to him, simply, 'James, if I go on as I +am going now, and always attend to your smallest want, and never think of +anything but devotion to you, will you--try to like me a little?' + +'It is a thing I must carefully consider,' he said, with the same gloomy +dryness which characterized all his words to her now. 'When I have +considered, I will tell you.' + +He did not tell her that evening, though she lingered long at her routine +work of making his bedroom comfortable, putting the light so that it +would not shine into his eyes, seeing him fall asleep, and then retiring +noiselessly to her own chamber. When they met in the morning at +breakfast, and she had asked him as usual how he had passed the night, +she added timidly, in the silence which followed his reply, 'Have you +considered?' + +'No, I have not considered sufficiently to give you an answer.' + +Laura sighed, but to no purpose; and the day wore on with intense +heaviness to her, and the customary modicum of strength gained to him. + +The next morning she put the same question, and looked up despairingly in +his face, as though her whole life hung upon his reply. + +'Yes, I have considered,' he said. + +'Ah!' + +'We must part.' + +'O James!' + +'I cannot forgive you; no man would. Enough is settled upon you to keep +you in comfort, whatever your father may do. I shall sell out, and +disappear from this hemisphere.' + +'You have absolutely decided?' she asked miserably. 'I have nobody now +to c-c-care for--' + +'I have absolutely decided,' he shortly returned. 'We had better part +here. You will go back to your father. There is no reason why I should +accompany you, since my presence would only stand in the way of the +forgiveness he will probably grant you if you appear before him alone. We +will say farewell to each other in three days from this time. I have +calculated on being ready to go on that day.' + +Bowed down with trouble, she withdrew to her room, and the three days +were passed by her husband in writing letters and attending to other +business-matters, saying hardly a word to her the while. The morning of +departure came; but before the horses had been put in to take the severed +twain in different directions, out of sight of each other, possibly for +ever, the postman arrived with the morning letters. + +There was one for the captain; none for her--there were never any for +her. However, on this occasion something was enclosed for her in his, +which he handed her. She read it and looked up helpless. + +'My dear father--is dead!' she said. In a few moments she added, in a +whisper, 'I must go to the Manor to bury him . . . Will you go with me, +James?' + +He musingly looked out of the window. 'I suppose it is an awkward and +melancholy undertaking for a woman alone,' he said coldly. 'Well, +well--my poor uncle!--Yes, I'll go with you, and see you through the +business.' + +So they went off together instead of asunder, as planned. It is +unnecessary to record the details of the journey, or of the sad week +which followed it at her father's house. Lord Quantock's seat was a fine +old mansion standing in its own park, and there were plenty of +opportunities for husband and wife either to avoid each other, or to get +reconciled if they were so minded, which one of them was at least. +Captain Northbrook was not present at the reading of the will. She came +to him afterward, and found him packing up his papers, intending to start +next morning, now that he had seen her through the turmoil occasioned by +her father's death. + +'He has left me everything that he could!' she said to her husband. +'James, will you forgive me now, and stay?' + +'I cannot stay.' + +'Why not?' + +'I cannot stay,' he repeated. + +'But why?' + +'I don't like you.' + +He acted up to his word. When she came downstairs the next morning she +was told that he had gone. + +* * * * * + +Laura bore her double bereavement as best she could. The vast mansion in +which she had hitherto lived, with all its historic contents, had gone to +her father's successor in the title; but her own was no unhandsome one. +Around lay the undulating park, studded with trees a dozen times her own +age; beyond it, the wood; beyond the wood, the farms. All this fair and +quiet scene was hers. She nevertheless remained a lonely, repentant, +depressed being, who would have given the greater part of everything she +possessed to ensure the presence and affection of that husband whose very +austerity and phlegm--qualities that had formerly led to the alienation +between them--seemed now to be adorable features in his character. + +She hoped and hoped again, but all to no purpose. Captain Northbrook did +not alter his mind and return. He was quite a different sort of man from +one who altered his mind; that she was at last despairingly forced to +admit. And then she left off hoping, and settled down to a mechanical +routine of existence which in some measure dulled her grief; but at the +expense of all her natural animation and the sprightly wilfulness which +had once charmed those who knew her, though it was perhaps all the while +a factor in the production of her unhappiness. + +To say that her beauty quite departed as the years rolled on would be to +overstate the truth. Time is not a merciful master, as we all know, and +he was not likely to act exceptionally in the case of a woman who had +mental troubles to bear in addition to the ordinary weight of years. Be +this as it may, eleven other winters came and went, and Laura Northbrook +remained the lonely mistress of house and lands without once hearing of +her husband. Every probability seemed to favour the assumption that he +had died in some foreign land; and offers for her hand were not few as +the probability verged on certainty with the long lapse of time. But the +idea of remarriage seemed never to have entered her head for a moment. +Whether she continued to hope even now for his return could not be +distinctly ascertained; at all events she lived a life unmodified in the +slightest degree from that of the first six months of his absence. + +This twelfth year of Laura's loneliness, and the thirtieth of her life +drew on apace, and the season approached that had seen the unhappy +adventure for which she so long had suffered. Christmas promised to be +rather wet than cold, and the trees on the outskirts of Laura's estate +dripped monotonously from day to day upon the turnpike-road which +bordered them. On an afternoon in this week between three and four +o'clock a hired fly might have been seen driving along the highway at +this point, and on reaching the top of the hill it stopped. A gentleman +of middle age alighted from the vehicle. + +'You need drive no farther,' he said to the coachman. 'The rain seems to +have nearly ceased. I'll stroll a little way, and return on foot to the +inn by dinner-time.' + +The flyman touched his hat, turned the horse, and drove back as directed. +When he was out of sight, the gentleman walked on, but he had not gone +far before the rain again came down pitilessly, though of this the +pedestrian took little heed, going leisurely onward till he reached +Laura's park gate, which he passed through. The clouds were thick and +the days were short, so that by the time he stood in front of the mansion +it was dark. In addition to this his appearance, which on alighting from +the carriage had been untarnished, partook now of the character of a +drenched wayfarer not too well blessed with this world's goods. He +halted for no more than a moment at the front entrance, and going round +to the servants' quarter, as if he had a preconceived purpose in so +doing, there rang the bell. When a page came to him he inquired if they +would kindly allow him to dry himself by the kitchen fire. + +The page retired, and after a murmured colloquy returned with the cook, +who informed the wet and muddy man that though it was not her custom to +admit strangers, she should have no particular objection to his drying +himself; the night being so damp and gloomy. Therefore the wayfarer +entered and sat down by the fire. + +'The owner of this house is a very rich gentleman, no doubt?' he asked, +as he watched the meat turning on the spit. + +''Tis not a gentleman, but a lady,' said the cook. + +'A widow, I presume?' + +'A sort of widow. Poor soul, her husband is gone abroad, and has never +been heard of for many years.' + +'She sees plenty of company, no doubt, to make up for his absence?' + +'No, indeed--hardly a soul. Service here is as bad as being in a +nunnery.' + +In short, the wayfarer, who had at first been so coldly received, +contrived by his frank and engaging manner to draw the ladies of the +kitchen into a most confidential conversation, in which Laura's history +was minutely detailed, from the day of her husband's departure to the +present. The salient feature in all their discourse was her unflagging +devotion to his memory. + +Having apparently learned all that he wanted to know--among other things +that she was at this moment, as always, alone--the traveller said he was +quite dry; and thanking the servants for their kindness, departed as he +had come. On emerging into the darkness he did not, however, go down the +avenue by which he had arrived. He simply walked round to the front +door. There he rang, and the door was opened to him by a man-servant +whom he had not seen during his sojourn at the other end of the house. + +In answer to the servant's inquiry for his name, he said ceremoniously, +'Will you tell The Honourable Mrs. Northbrook that the man she nursed +many years ago, after a frightful accident, has called to thank her?' + +The footman retreated, and it was rather a long time before any further +signs of attention were apparent. Then he was shown into the drawing- +room, and the door closed behind him. + +On the couch was Laura, trembling and pale. She parted her lips and held +out her hands to him, but could not speak. But he did not require +speech, and in a moment they were in each other's arms. + +Strange news circulated through that mansion and the neighbouring town on +the next and following days. But the world has a way of getting used to +things, and the intelligence of the return of The Honourable Mrs. +Northbrook's long-absent husband was soon received with comparative calm. + +A few days more brought Christmas, and the forlorn home of Laura +Northbrook blazed from basement to attic with light and cheerfulness. Not +that the house was overcrowded with visitors, but many were present, and +the apathy of a dozen years came at length to an end. The animation +which set in thus at the close of the old year did not diminish on the +arrival of the new; and by the time its twelve months had likewise run +the course of its predecessors, a son had been added to the dwindled line +of the Northbrook family. + +* * * * * + +At the conclusion of this narrative the Spark was thanked, with a manner +of some surprise, for nobody had credited him with a taste for +tale-telling. Though it had been resolved that this story should be the +last, a few of the weather-bound listeners were for sitting on into the +small hours over their pipes and glasses, and raking up yet more episodes +of family history. But the majority murmured reasons for soon getting to +their lodgings. + +It was quite dark without, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the +feeble street-lamps, and before a few shop-windows which had been hardily +kept open in spite of the obvious unlikelihood of any chance customer +traversing the muddy thoroughfares at that hour. + +By one, by two, and by three the benighted members of the Field-Club rose +from their seats, shook hands, made appointments, and dropped away to +their respective quarters, free or hired, hoping for a fair morrow. It +would probably be not until the next summer meeting, months away in the +future, that the easy intercourse which now existed between them all +would repeat itself. The crimson maltster, for instance, knew that on +the following market-day his friends the President, the Rural Dean, and +the bookworm would pass him in the street, if they met him, with the +barest nod of civility, the President and the Colonel for social reasons, +the bookworm for intellectual reasons, and the Rural Dean for moral ones, +the latter being a staunch teetotaller, dead against John Barleycorn. The +sentimental member knew that when, on his rambles, he met his friend the +bookworm with a pocket-copy of something or other under his nose, the +latter would not love his companionship as he had done to-day; and the +President, the aristocrat, and the farmer knew that affairs political, +sporting, domestic, or agricultural would exclude for a long time all +rumination on the characters of dames gone to dust for scores of years, +however beautiful and noble they may have been in their day. + +The last member at length departed, the attendant at the museum lowered +the fire, the curator locked up the rooms, and soon there was only a +single pirouetting flame on the top of a single coal to make the bones of +the ichthyosaurus seem to leap, the stuffed birds to wink, and to draw a +smile from the varnished skulls of Vespasian's soldiery. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GROUP OF NOBLE DAMES*** + + +******* This file should be named 3049.txt or 3049.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/4/3049 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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