diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/nbldm10.txt | 7965 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/nbldm10.zip | bin | 0 -> 158827 bytes |
2 files changed, 7965 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/nbldm10.txt b/old/nbldm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b5c714 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nbldm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7965 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy +#15 in our series by Thomas Hardy + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, +Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states +are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will +begin in the additional states. These donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655 + + +Title: A Group of Noble Dames + +Author: Thomas Hardy + +Release Date: October, 2001 [Etext #3049] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Group of Noble Dames by Hardy +******This file should be named nbldm10.txt or nbldm10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, nbldm11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, nbldm10a.txt + +This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, +from the 1920 Macmillan and Co. edition. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download our Etexts before announcment +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext01 +or +ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext01 + +Or /etext00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +Something is needed to create a future for Project Gutenberg for +the next 100 years. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, +Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states +are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will +begin in the additional states. + +All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and will be tax deductible to the extent +permitted by law. + +Mail to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Avenue +Oxford, MS 38655 [USA] + + +We are working with the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation to build more stable support and ensure the +future of Project Gutenberg. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +You can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp metalab.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext01, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., +GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States +copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses. +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + +A GROUP OF NOBLE DAMES + + + + +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 mariner 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 eText A Group of Noble Dames + diff --git a/old/nbldm10.zip b/old/nbldm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c34dc20 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nbldm10.zip |