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diff --git a/41228-0.txt b/41228-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed75f99 --- /dev/null +++ b/41228-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9229 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41228 *** + + COLLECTION OF BRITISH AUTHORS. + + VOL. 803. + + + GUY DEVERELL BY J. S. LE FANU. + + IN TWO VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + * * * * * + + GUY DEVERELL. + + BY J. S. LE FANU, + + AUTHOR OF "UNCLE SILAS," ETC. + + + _COPYRIGHT EDITION._ + + IN TWO VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + LEIPZIG BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ + + 1865. + + _The Right of Translation is reserved._ + + * * * * * + + TO THAT WRITER, + SO GENIAL, SO BRILLIANT, SO PHILOSOPHIC, + WHOM ALL THE WORLD READS AS + HARRY LORREQUER AND AS CORNELIUS O'DOWD, + AND TO THAT FRIEND + HOW LOVED AND HONOURED! + KNOWN TO THE PRIVILEGED AS + CHARLES LEVER, + THIS STORY, + HOW UNWORTHY AN OFFERING ALL BUT HE WILL PERCEIVE, + IS DEDICATED + BY + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. + + + I. Sir Jekyl Marlowe at the Plough Inn 1 + + II. The Baronet visits Wardlock Manor 12 + + III. Concerning two Remarkable Persons who appeared + in Wardlock Church 25 + + IV. The Green Chamber at Marlowe 35 + + V. Sir Jekyl bethinks him of Pelter and Crowe 46 + + VI. Sir Jekyl's Room is visited 56 + + VII. The Baronet pursues 63 + + VIII. The House begins to fill 71 + + IX. Dinner 79 + + X. Inquiries have been made by Messrs. Pelter and + Crowe 88 + + XI. Old Gryston Bridge 97 + + XII. The Strangers appear again 106 + + XIII. In the Drawing-room 114 + + XIV. Music 122 + + XV. M. Varbarriere converses with his Nephew 131 + + XVI. Containing a Variety of Things 141 + + XVII. The Magician draws a Diagram 150 + + XVIII. Another Guest prepares to come 159 + + XIX. Lady Alice takes Possession 167 + + XX. An Altercation 174 + + XXI. Lady Alice in Bed 182 + + XXII. How Everything went on 191 + + XXIII. The Divan 200 + + XXIV. Guy Strangways and M. Varbarriere converse 208 + + XXV. Lady Alice talks with Guy Strangways 215 + + XXVI. Some talk of a Survey of the Green Chamber 223 + + XXVII. M. Varbarriere talks a little more freely 230 + + XXVIII. Some private Talk of Varbarriere and Lady Alice + at the Dinner-table 238 + + XXIX. The Ladies and Gentlemen resume Conversation + in the Drawing-room 243 + + XXX. Varbarriere picks up Something about Donica Gwynn 250 + + XXXI. Lady Jane puts on her Brilliants 259 + + XXXII. Conciliation 266 + + XXXIII. Lady Jane and Beatrix play at Croquet 274 + + XXXIV. General Lennox receives a Letter 281 + + XXXV. The Bishop at Marlowe 290 + + XXXVI. Old Scenes recalled 296 + + XXXVII. In which Lady Alice pumps the Bishop 304 + + + + +GUY DEVERELL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Sir Jekyl Marlowe at the Plough Inn. + + +The pretty little posting station, known as the Plough Inn, on the Old +London Road, where the Sterndale Road crosses it, was in a state of fuss +and awe, at about five o'clock on a fine sharp October evening, for Sir +Jekyl Marlowe, a man of many thousand acres, and M.P. for the county, +was standing with his back to the fire, in the parlour, whose bow-window +looks out on the ancient thoroughfare I have mentioned, over the row of +scarlet geraniums which beautify the window-stone. + +"Hollo!" cried the Baronet, as the bell-rope came down in answer to an +energetic but not angry pull, and he received Mrs. Jones, his hostess, +who entered at the moment, with the dismantled bell-handle still in his +hand. "At my old tricks, you see. I've been doing you a mischief, hey? +but we'll set it right in the bill, you know. How devilish well you +look! wonderful girl, by Jove! Come in, my dear, and shut the door. Not +afraid of me. I want to talk of ducks and mutton-chops. I've had no +luncheon, and I'm awfully hungry," said the comely Baronet in a +continued chuckle. + +The Baronet was, by that awful red-bound volume of dates, which is one +of the melancholy drawbacks of aristocracy, set down just then, and by +all whom it might concern, ascertainable to be precisely forty-nine +years and three months old; but so well had he worn, and so cleverly was +he got up, that he might have passed for little more than forty. + +He was smiling, with very white teeth, and a gay leer on pretty Mrs. +Jones, an old friend, with black eyes and tresses, and pink cheeks, who +bore her five-and-thirty years as well almost as he did his own burthen. +The slanting autumnal sun became her, and she simpered and courtesied +and blushed the best she could. + +"Well, you pretty little devil, what can you do for me--hey? You know +we're old friends--hey? What have you got for a hungry fellow? and don't +stand at the door there, hang it--come in, can't you? and let me hear +what you say." + +So Mrs. Jones, with a simpering bashfulness, delivered her bill of fare +off book. + +The Baronet was a gallant English gentleman, and came of a healthy race, +though there were a 'beau' and an archbishop in the family; he could +rough it good-humouredly on beefsteak and port, and had an accommodating +appetite as to hours. + +"That will do very nicely, my dear, thank you. You're just the same dear +hospitable little rogue I remember you--how long is it, by Jove, since I +stopped here that day, and the awful thunderstorm at night, don't you +recollect? and the whole house in such a devil of a row, egad!" And the +Baronet chuckled and leered, with his hands in his pockets. + +"Three years, by Jove, I think--eh?" + +"Four years in August last, Sir Jekyl," she answered, with a little toss +of her head and a courtesy. + +"Four years, my dear--four devils! Is it possible? why upon my life it +has positively improved you." And he tapped her cheek playfully with his +finger. "And what o'clock is it?" he continued, looking at his watch, +"just five. Well, I suppose you'll be ready in half-an-hour--eh, my +dear?" + +"Sooner, if you wish, Sir Jekyl." + +"No, thank you, dear, that will do very nicely; and stay," he added, +with a pluck at her pink ribbon, as she retreated: "you've some devilish +good port here, unless it's all out--old Lord Hogwood's stock--eh?" + +"More than two dozen left, Sir Jekyl; would you please some?" + +"You've hit it, you wicked little conjurer--a bottle; and you must give +me a few minutes after dinner, and a cup of coffee, and tell me all the +news--eh?" + +The Baronet, standing on the threadbare hearthrug, looked waggishly, as +it were, through the panels of the shut door, after the fluttering cap +of his pretty landlady. Then he turned about and reviewed himself in the +sea-green mirror over the chimneypiece, adjusted his curls and whiskers +with a touch or two of his fingers' ends, and plucked a little at his +ample silk necktie, and shook out his tresses, with his chin a little +up, and a saucy simper. + +But a man tires even of that prospect; and he turned on his heel, and +whistled at the smoky mezzotint of George III. on the opposite wall. +Then he turned his head, and looked out through the bow-window, and his +whistling stopped in the middle of a bar, at sight of a young man whom +he espied, only a yard or two before the covered porch of the little +inn. + +This young gentleman was, it seemed, giving a parting direction to some +one in the doorway. He was tall, slender, rather dark, and decidedly +handsome. There were, indeed, in his air, face, and costume, that +indescribable elegance and superiority which constitute a man +"distinguished looking." + +When Sir Jekyl beheld this particularly handsome young man, it was with +a disagreeable shock, like the tap on a big drum, upon his diaphragm. If +anyone had been there he would have witnessed an odd and grizzly change +in the pleasant Baronet's countenance. For a few seconds he did not +move. Then he drew back a pace or two, and stood at the further side of +the fire, with the mantelpiece partially between him and the young +gentleman who spoke his parting directions, all unconscious of the +haggard stare which made Sir Jekyl look a great deal less young and +good-natured than was his wont. + +This handsome young stranger, smiling, signalled with his cane, as it +seemed, to a companion, who had preceded him, and ran in pursuit. + +For a time Sir Jekyl did not move a muscle, and then, with a sudden +pound on the chimneypiece, and a great oath, he exclaimed-- + +"I could not have believed it! What the devil can it mean?" + +Then the Baronet bethought him--"What confounded stuff one does talk and +think, sometimes! Half the matter dropt out of my mind. Twenty years +ago, by Jove, too. _More_ than that, egad! How could I be such an ass?" + +And he countermarched, and twirled on his heel into his old place, with +his back to the fire, and chuckled and asked again-- + +"How the plague _could_ I be such a fool?" + +And after some more of this sort of catechism he began to ruminate oddly +once more, and, said he-- + +"It's plaguy _odd_, for all that." + +And he walked to the window, and, with his face close to the glass, +tried in vain to see the stranger again. The bow-window did not command +the road far enough to enable him to see any distance; and he stuck his +hat on his head, and marched by the bar, through the porch, and, +standing upon the road itself, looked shrewdly in the same direction. + +But the road makes a bend about there, and between the hedgerows of that +wooded country the vista was not far. + +With a cheerful air of carelessness, Sir Jekyl returned and tapped on +the bar window. + +"I say, Mrs. Jones, who's that good-looking young fellow that went out +just now?" + +"The gentleman in the low-crowned hat, sir, with the gold-headed cane, +please?" + +"Yes, a tall young fellow, with large dark eyes, and brown hair." + +"That will be Mr. Strangers, Sir Jekyl." + +"Does he sleep here to-night?" + +"Yes, sir, please." + +"And what's his business?" + +"Oh, dear! No business, Sir Jekyl, please. He's a real gentleman, and no +end of money." + +"I mean, how does he amuse himself?" + +"A looking after prospects, and old places, and such like, Sir Jekyl. +Sometimes riding and sometimes a fly. Every day some place or other." + +"Oh! pencils and paint-boxes--eh?" + +"I aven't seen none, sir. I can't say how that will be." + +"Well, and what is he about; where is he gone; where is he now?" +demanded the Baronet. + +"What way did Mr. Strangers go, Bill, just now?" the lady demanded of +boots, who appeared at the moment. + +"The Abbey, ma'am." + +"The Abbey, please, Sir Jekyl." + +"The Abbey--that's Wail Abbey--eh? How far is it?" + +"How far will it be, Bill?" + +"'Taint a mile all out, ma'am." + +"Not quite a mile, Sir Jekyl." + +"A good ruin--isn't it?" asked the Baronet. + +"Well, they do say it's _very_ much out of repair; but I never saw it +myself, Sir Jekyl." + +"Neither did I," said Sir Jekyl. "I say, my good fellow, you can point +it out, I dare say, from the steps here?" + +"Ay, please, Sir Jekyl." + +"You'll have dinner put back, Sir--please, Sir Jekyl?" asked Mrs. Jones. + +"Back or forward, _any_ way, my dear child. Only I'll have my walk +first." + +And kissing and waving the tips of his fingers, with a smile to Mrs. +Jones, who courtesied and simpered, though her heart was perplexed with +culinary solicitudes "how to keep the water from getting into the trout, +and prevent the ducks of overroasting," the worthy Baronet, followed by +Bill, stept through the porch, and on the ridge of the old high-road, +his own heart being oddly disturbed with certain cares which had given +him a long respite; there he received Bill's directions as to the route +to the Abbey. + +It was a clear frosty evening. The red round sun by this time, near the +horizon, looked as if a tall man on the summit of the western hill might +have touched its edge with his finger. The Baronet looked on the +declining luminary as he buttoned his loose coat across his throat, till +his eyes were almost dazzled, thinking all the time of nothing but that +handsome young man; and as he walked on briskly toward the Abbey, he saw +little pale green suns dancing along the road and wherever else his +eyes were turned. + +"I'll see this fellow face to face, and talk a bit with him. I dare say +if one were near he's not at all so like. It _is_ devilish odd though; +twenty-five years and not a relation on earth--and dead--hang him! Egad, +its like the Wandering Jew, and the what do you call 'em, _vitæ_. Ay, +here it is." + +He paused for a moment, looking at the pretty stile which led a little +pathway across the fields to the wooded hollow by the river, where the +ruin stands. Two old white stone, fluted piers, once a doorway, now +tufted with grass, and stained and worn by time, and the stile built up +between. + +"I know, of course, there's nothing in it; but it's so odd--it _is_ so +_devilish_ odd. I'd like to know all about it," said the Baronet, +picking the dust from the fluting with the point of his walking-cane. +"Where has he got, I wonder, by this time?" So he mounted the stile, and +paused near the summit to obtain a commanding view. + +"Well, I suppose he's got among the old walls and rubbish by this time. +I'll make him out; he'll break cover." + +And he skipped down the stile on the other side, and whistled a little, +cutting gaily in the air with his cane as he went. + +But for all he could do the same intensely uncomfortable curiosity +pressed upon him as he advanced. The sun sank behind the distant hills, +leaving the heavens flooded with a discoloured crimson, and the faint +silver of the moon in the eastern sky glimmered coldly over the fading +landscape, as he suddenly emerged from the hedged pathway on the rich +meadow level by the slow river's brink, on which, surrounded by lofty +timber, the ruined Abbey stands. + +The birds had come home. Their vesper song had sunk with the setting +sun, and in the sad solitude of twilight the grey ruins rose dimly +before him. + +"A devilish good spot for a picnic!" said he, making an effort to +recover his usual agreeable vein of thought and spirits. + +So he looked up and about him, and jauntily marched over the sward, and +walked along the line of the grey walls until he found a doorway, and +began his explorations. + +Through dark passages, up broken stairs, over grass-grown piles of +rubbish, he peeped into all sorts of roofless chambers. Everything was +silent and settling down into night. At last, by that narrow doorway, +which in such buildings so oddly gives entrance here and there into vast +apartments, he turned into that grand chamber, whose stone floor rests +on the vaults beneath; and there the Baronet paused for a moment with a +little start, for at the far end, looking towards him, but a little +upward, with the faint reflected glow that entered through the tall row +of windows, on the side of his face and figure, stood the handsome young +man of whom he was in pursuit. + +The Baronet being himself only a step or two from the screw stairs, and +still under the shadow of the overhanging arch in the corner, the +stranger saw nothing of him, and to announce his approach, though not +much of a musician, he hummed a bar or two briskly as he entered, and +marched across and about as if thinking of nothing but architecture or +the picturesque. + +"Charming ruin this, sir," exclaimed he, raising his hat, so soon as he +had approached the stranger sufficiently near to make the address +natural. "Although I'm a resident of this part of the world, I'm ashamed +to say I never saw it before." + +The young man raised his hat too, and bowed with a ceremonious grace, +which, as well as his accent, had something foreign in it. + +"While I, though a stranger, have been unable to resist its fascination, +and have already visited it three times. You have reason to be proud of +your county, sir, it is full of beauties." + +The stranger's sweet, but peculiar, voice thrilled the Baronet with a +recollection as vivid and detested. In fact this well-seasoned man of +the world was so much shocked that he answered only with a bow, and +cleared his voice, and chuckled after his fashion, but all the time felt +a chill creeping over his back. + +There was a broad bar of a foggy red light falling through the ivy-girt +window, but the young man happened to stand at that moment in the shadow +beside it, and when the Baronet's quick glance, instead of detecting +some reassuring distinction of feature or expression, encountered only +the ambiguous and obscure, he recoiled inwardly as from something +abominable. + +"Beautiful effect--beautiful sky!" exclaimed Sir Jekyl, not knowing very +well what he was saying, and waving his cane upwards towards the fading +tints of the sky. + +The stranger emerged from his shadow and stood beside him, and such +light as there was fell full upon his features, and as the Baronet +beheld he felt as if he were in a dream. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Baronet Visits Wardlock Manor. + + +In fact Sir Jekyl would have been puzzled to know exactly what to say +next, so odd were his sensations, and his mind so pre-occupied with a +chain of extremely uncomfortable conjecture, had not the handsome young +gentleman who stood beside him at the gaping window with its melancholy +folds of ivy, said-- + +"I have often tried to analyse the peculiar interest of ruins like +these--the mixture of melancholy and curiosity. I have seen very many +monasteries abroad--perhaps as old as this, even older--still peopled +with their monks, with very little interest indeed, and no sympathy; and +yet here I feel a yearning after the bygone age of English monasticism, +an anxiety to learn all about their ways and doings, and a sort of +reverence and sadness I can't account for, unless it be an expression of +that profound sympathy which mortals feel with every expression of decay +and dissolution." + +The Baronet fancied that he saw a lurking smile in the young man's face, +and recoiled from psychologic talk about mortality. + +"I dare say you're right, sir, but I am the worst metaphysician in the +world." He thought the young man smiled again. "In your liking for the +picturesque, however, I quite go with you. Do you intend extending your +tour to Wales and Scotland?" + +"I can hardly call this little excursion a tour. The fact is, my +curiosity is pretty much limited to this county; there are old reasons +which make me feel a very particular interest in it," said the young +man, with a very pointed carelessness and a smile, which caused the +Baronet inwardly to wince. + +"I should be very happy," said Sir Jekyl, "if you would take Marlowe in +your way: there are some pictures there, as well as some views you might +like to see. I am Sir Jekyl Marlowe, and own two or three places in this +county, which are thought pretty--and, may I give you my card?" + +The snowy parallelogram was here presented and accepted with a mutual +bow. The stranger was smiling oddly as Sir Jekyl introduced himself, +with an expression which he fancied he could read in spite of the dark, +as implying "rather old news you tell me." + +"And--and--what was I going to say?--oh!--yes--if I can be of any use to +you in procuring access to any house or place you wish to see, I shall +be very happy. You are at present staying at my occasional quarters, the +'Plough.' I'm afraid you'll think me very impertinent and intrusive; but +I should like to be able to mention your name to some of my friends, who +don't usually allow strangers to see their places." + +This was more like American than English politeness; but the Baronet was +determined to know all about the stranger, commencing with his name, +and the laws of good breeding, though he knew them very well, were not +likely to stand long in his way when he had made up his mind to +accomplish an object. + +"My name is Guy Strangways," said the stranger. + +"O--ho--it's very odd!" exclaimed the Baronet, in a sharp snarl, quite +unlike his previous talk. I think the distance between them was a little +increased, and he was looking askance upon the young gentleman, who made +him a very low foreign bow. + +There was a silence, and just then a deep metallic voice from below +called, "Guy--hollo!" + +"Excuse me--just a moment," and the young man was gone. The Baronet +waited. + +"He'll be back," muttered Sir Jekyl, "in a minute." + +But the Baronet was mistaken. He waited at that open window, whistling +out upon the deepening twilight, till the edges of the ivy began to +glitter in the moonbeams, and the bats to trace their zigzags in the +air; and at last he gave over expecting. + +He looked back into the gloomy void of that great chamber, and listened, +and felt rather angry at his queer sensations. He had not turned about +when the stranger withdrew, and did not know the process of his +vanishing, and for the first time it struck him, "who the plague could +the fellow who _called_ him be?" + +On the whole he wished himself away, and he lighted a cigar for the sake +of its vulgar associations, and made his way out of the ruins, and +swiftly through darkened fields toward the Old London Road; and was +more comfortable than he cared to say, when he stepped through the porch +into the open hall of the "Plough," and stopped before the light at the +bar, to ask his hostess once more, quite in his old way, whether Mr. +Strangways had returned. + +"No, not yet; always uncertain; his dinner mostly overdone." + +"Has he a friend with him?" + +"Yes, sir, sure." + +"And what is he like?" + +"Older man, Sir Jekyl, a long way than young Mr. Guy Strangways; some +relation I do think." + +"When do they leave you?" + +"To-morrow evening, with a chaise and pair for Aukworth." + +"Aukworth? why, that's another of my properties!--ha, ha, ha, by Jove! +Does he know the Abbey here is mine?" + +"I rayther think not, Sir Jekyl. Would you please to wish dinner?" + +"To be sure, you dear little quiz, dinner by all means; and let them get +my horses to in half-an-hour; and if Mr. Strangways should return before +I go, I'd like to see him, and don't fail to let me know--do ye see?" + +Dinner came and went, but Mr. Strangways did not return, which rather +vexed Sir Jekyl, who, however, left his card for that gentleman, +together with an extremely polite note, which he wrote at the bar with +his hat on, inviting him and his companion to Marlowe, where he would be +at home any time for the next two months, and trusted they would give +him a week before they left the country. + +It was now dark, and Sir Jekyl loitered under the lamplight of his +chaise for a while, in the hope that Mr. Strangways would turn up. But +he did not; and the Baronet jumped into the vehicle, which was forthwith +in motion. + +He sat in the corner, with one foot on the cushion, and lighted a cigar. +His chuckling was all over, and his quizzing, for the present. Mrs. +Jones had not a notion that he was in the least uneasy, or on any but +hospitable thoughts intent. But anyone who now looked in his face would +have seen at a glance how suddenly it had become overcast with black +care. + +"Guy Strangways!" he thought; "those two names, and his wonderful +likeness! Prowling about this county! Why this more than another? He +seemed to take a triumphant pleasure in telling me of his special fancy +for this county. And his voice--a tenor they call it--I hate that sweet +sort of voice. Those d---- singing fellows. I dare say he sings. They +never do a bit of good. It's very odd. It's the same voice. I forgot +that odd silvery sound. The _same_, by Jove! I'll come to the bottom of +the whole thing. D---- me, I will!" + +Then the Baronet puffed away fast and earnestly at his cigar, and then +lighted another, and after that a third. They steadied him, I dare say, +and helped to oil the mechanism of thought. But he had not recovered his +wonted cheer of mind when the chaise drew up at a pair of time-worn +fluted piers, with the gable of an old-fashioned dwelling-house +overlooking the road at one side. An iron gate admitted to a courtyard, +and the hall door of the house was opened by an old-fashioned footman, +with some flour on the top of his head. + +Sir Jekyl jumped down. + +"Your mistress quite well, hey? My daughter ready?" inquired the +Baronet. "Where are they? No, I'll not go up, thank you; I'll stay +here," and he entered the parlour. "And, do you see, you just go up and +ask your mistress if she wishes to see me." + +By this time Sir Jekyl was poking up the fire and frowning down on the +bars, with the flickering glare shooting over his face. + +"Can the old woman have anything to do with it? Pooh! no. I'd like to +see her. But who knows what sort of a temper she's in?" + +As he thus ruminated, the domestic with the old-fashioned livery and +floured head returned to say that his mistress would be happy to see +him. + +The servant conducted him up a broad stair with a great oak banister, +and opening a drawing-room door, announced-- + +"Sir Jekyl Marlowe." + +He was instantly in the room, and a tall, thin old lady, with a sad and +stately mien, rose up to greet him. + +"How is little mamma?" cried the Baronet, with his old chuckle. "An age +since we met, hey? How well you look!" + +The old lady gave her thin mittened hand to her son-in-law, and looked +a grim and dubious sort of welcome upon him. + +"Yes, Jekyl, an age; and only that Beatrix is here, I suppose another +age would have passed without my seeing you. And an old woman at my +years has not many ages between her and the grave." + +The old lady spoke not playfully, but sternly, like one who had suffered +long and horribly, and who associated her sufferings with her visitor; +and in her oblique glance was something of deep-seated antipathy. + +"Egad! you're younger than I, though you count more years. You live by +clock and rule, and you show it. You're as fresh as that bunch of +flowers there; while I am literally knocking myself to pieces--and I +know it--by late hours, and all sorts of nonsense. So you must not be +coming the old woman over me, you know, unless you want to frighten me. +And how is Beatrix? How do, Beatrix? All ready, I see. Good child." + +Beatrix at this moment was entering. She was tall and slightly formed, +with large dark eyes, hair of soft shadowy black, and those tints of +pure white and rich clear blush, scarlet lips, and pearly teeth, and +long eyelashes, which are so beautiful in contrast and in harmony. She +had the prettiest little white nose, and her face was formed in that +decided oval which so heightens the charm of the features. She was not a +tragic heroine. Her smile was girlish and natural--and the little ring +of pearls between her lips laughed beautifully--and her dimples played +on chin and cheek as she smiled. + +Her father kissed her, and looked at her with a look of gratification, +as he might on a good picture that belonged to him; and turning her +smiling face, with his finger and thumb upon her little dimpled chin, +toward Lady Alice, he said-- + +"Pretty well, this girl, hey?" + +"I dare say, Jekyl, she'll do very well; she's not formed yet, you +know,"--was stately Lady Alice's qualified assent. She was one of that +school who are more afraid of spoiling people than desirous of pleasing +them by admiration. "She promises to be like her darling mother; and +that is a melancholy satisfaction to me, and, of course, to you. You'll +have some tea, Jekyl?" + +The Baronet was standing, hat in hand, with his outside coat on, and his +back to the fire, and a cashmere muffler loosely about his throat. + +"Well, as it is here, I don't mind." + +"May I run down, grandmamma, and say good-bye to Ellen and old Mrs. +Mason?" + +"Surely--you mean, of course to the parlour? You may have them there." + +"And you must not be all night about it, Beatrix. We'll be going in a +few minutes. D'ye mind?" + +"I'm quite ready, papa," said she; and as she glided from the room she +stole a glance at her bright reflection in the mirror. + +"You are always in a hurry, Jekyl, to leave me when you chance to come +here. I should be sorry, however, to interfere with the pleasanter +disposition of your time." + +"Now, little mother, you mustn't be huffed with me. I have a hundred +and fifty things to look after at Marlowe when I get there. I have not +had a great deal of time, you know--first the session, then three months +knocking about the world." + +"You never wrote to me since you left Paris," said the old lady, grimly. + +"Didn't I? That was very wrong! But you knew those were my holidays, and +I detest writing, and you knew I could take care of myself; and it is so +much better to tell one's adventures than to put them into letters, +don't you think?" + +"If one could tell them all in five minutes," replied the old lady, +drily. + +"Well, but you'll come over to Marlowe--you really must--and I'll tell +you everything there--the truth, the whole truth, and as much more as +you like." + +This invitation was repeated every year, but like Don Juan's to the +statue, was not expected to lead to a literal visit. + +"You have haunted rooms there, Jekyl," she said, with an unpleasant +smile and a nod. "You have not kept house in Marlowe for ten years, I +think. Why do you go there now?" + +"Caprice, whim, what you will," said the Baronet, combing out his +favourite whisker with the tips of his fingers, while he smiled on +himself in the glass upon the chimneypiece, "I wish _you'd_ tell me, for +_I_ really don't know, except that I'm tired of Warton and Dartbroke, as +I am of all monotony. I like change, you know." + +"Yes; you _like change_," said the old lady, with a dignified sarcasm. + +"I'm afraid it's a true bill," admitted Sir Jekyl, with a chuckle, "So +you'll come to Marlowe and see us there--won't you?" + +"No, Jekyl--certainly _not_," said the old lady, with intense emphasis. + +A little pause ensued, during which the Baronet twiddled at his whisker, +and continued to smile amusedly at himself in the glass. + +"I wonder you could think of asking me to Marlowe, considering all that +has happened there. I sometimes wonder at myself that I can endure to +see you at all, Jekyl Marlowe; and I don't think, if it were not for +that dear girl, who is so like her sainted mother, I should ever set +eyes on you again." + +"I'm glad we have that link. You make me love Beatrix better," he +replied. He was now arranging the elaborate breast-pin with its tiny +chain, which was at that date in vogue. + +"And so you are going to keep house at Marlowe?" resumed the lady, +stiffly, not heeding the sentiment of his little speech. + +"Well, so I purpose." + +"I don't like that house," said the old lady, with a subdued fierceness. + +"Sorry it does not please you, little mother," replied Sir Jekyl. + +"You know I don't like it," she repeated. + +"In that case you need not have told me," he said. + +"I choose to tell you. I'll say so as often as I see you--as often as I +like." + +It was an odd conference--back to back--the old lady stiff and +high--staring pale and grimly at the opposite wall. The Baronet looking +with a quizzical smile on his handsome face in the mirror--now plucking +at a whisker--now poking at a curl with his finger-tip--and now in the +same light way arranging the silken fall of his necktie. + +"There's nothing my dear little mamma can say, I'll not listen to with +pleasure." + +"There is much I might say you could not listen to with pleasure." The +cold was growing more intense, and bitter in tone and emphasis, as she +addressed the Italian picture of Adonis and his two dogs hanging on the +distant wall. + +"Well, with _respect_, _not_ with pleasure--no," said he, and tapped his +white upper teeth with the nail of his middle finger. + +"Assuming, then, that you speak truth, it is high time, Jekyl Marlowe, +that you should alter your courses--here's your daughter, just come out. +It is ridiculous, your affecting the vices of youth. Make up as you +will--you're past the middle age--you're an elderly man now." + +"You can't vex me that way, you dear old mamma," he said, with a +chuckle, which looked for the first time a little vicious in the glass. +"We baronets, you know, are all booked, and all the world can read our +ages; but you women manage better--you and your two dear sisters, +Winifred and Georgiana." + +"They are _dead_," interrupted Lady Alice, with more asperity than +pathos. + +"Yes, I know, poor old souls--to be sure, peers' daughters die like +other people, I'm afraid." + +"And when they do, are mentioned, if not with sorrow, at least with +decent respect, by persons, that is, who know how to behave themselves." + +There was a slight quiver in Lady Alice's lofty tone that pleased Sir +Jekyl, as you might have remarked had you looked over his shoulder into +the glass. + +"Well, you know, I was speaking not of deaths but births, and only going +to say if you look in the peerage you'll find all the men, poor devils, +pinned to their birthdays, and the women left at large, to exercise +their veracity on the point; but you need not care--you have not +pretended to youth for the last ten years I think." + +"You are excessively impertinent, sir." + +"I _know_ it," answered Sir Jekyl, with a jubilant chuckle. + +A very little more, the Baronet knew, and Lady Alice Redcliffe would +have risen gray and grim, and sailed out of the room. Their partings +were often after this sort. + +But he did not wish matters to go quite that length at present. So he +said, in a sprightly way, as if a sudden thought had struck him-- + +"By Jove, I believe I _am devilish_ impertinent, without knowing it +though--and you have forgiven me so often, I'm sure you _will_ once +more, and I am really so much obliged for your kindness to Beatrix. I +am, indeed." + +So he took her hand, and kissed it. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Concerning two Remarkable Persons who appeared in Wardlock Church. + + +Lady Alice carried her thin Roman nose some degrees higher; but she +said-- + +"If I say anything disagreeable, it is not for the pleasure of giving +you pain, Jekyl Marlowe; but I understand that you mean to have old +General Lennox and his artful wife to stay at your house, and if so, I +think it an arrangement that had better be dispensed with. I don't think +her an eligible acquaintance for Beatrix, and you know very well she's +_not_--and it is not a respectable or creditable kind of thing." + +"Now, what d--d fool, I beg pardon--but who the plague has been filling +your mind with those ridiculous stories--my dear little mamma? You know +how ready I am to confess; you _might_ at least; I tell you everything; +and I do assure you I _never_ admired her. She's good looking, I know; +but so are fifty pictures and statues I've seen, that don't please me." + +"Then it's true, the General and his wife are going on a visit to +Marlowe?" insisted Lady Alice, drily. + +"No, they are not. D---- me, I'm not thinking of the General and his +wife, nor of any such d--d trumpery. I'd give something to know who the +devil's taking these cursed liberties with my name." + +"Pray, Jekyl Marlowe, command your language. It can't the least signify +who tells me; but you see I do sometimes get a letter." + +"Yes, and a precious letter too. Such a pack of lies did any human being +ever hear fired off in a sentence before? I'm _épris_ of Mrs. General +Lennox. Thumper number one! She's a lady of--I beg pardon--easy virtue. +Thumper number two! and I invite her and her husband down to Marlowe, to +make love of course to her, and to fight the old General. Thumper number +three!" + +And the Baronet chuckled over the three "thumpers" merrily. + +"Don't talk slang, if you please--gentlemen don't, at least in +addressing ladies." + +"Well, then, I won't; I'll speak just as you like, only you must not +blow me up any more; for really there is no cause, and we here only two +or three minutes together, you know; and I want to tell you something, +or rather to ask you--do you ever hear anything of those _Deverells_, +you know?" + +Lady Alice looked quite startled, and turned quickly half round in her +chair, with her eyes on Sir Jekyl's face. The Baronet's smile subsided, +and he looked with a dark curiosity in hers. A short but dismal silence +followed. + +"You've heard from them?" + +"No!" said the lady, with little change in the expression of her face. + +"Well, _of_ them?" + +"No," she repeated; "but _why_ do you ask? It's _very_ strange!" + +"_What's_ strange? Come, now, you _have_ something to say; tell me what +it is." + +"I wonder, Jekyl, you ask for them, in the first place." + +"Well--well, of course; but what next?" murmured the Baronet, eagerly: +"why is it so strange?" + +"Only because I've been thinking of them--a great deal--for the last few +days; and it seemed very odd your asking; and in fact I fancy the same +thing has happened to us both." + +"Well, may be; but what _is_ it?" demanded the Baronet, with a sinister +smile. + +"I have been startled; most painfully and powerfully affected; I have +seen the most extraordinary resemblance to my beautiful, _murdered_ +Guy." + +She rose, and wept passionately, standing with her face buried in her +handkerchief. + +Sir Jekyl frowned with closed eyes and upturned face, waiting like a +patient man bored to death, for the subsidence of the storm which he had +conjured up. Very pale, too, was that countenance, and contracted for a +few moments with intense annoyance. + +"I saw the same fellow," said the Baronet, in a subdued tone, so soon as +there was a subsidence, "this evening; he's at that little inn on the +Sterndale Road. Guy Strangways he calls himself; I talked with him for a +few minutes; a gentlemanly young man; and I don't know what to make of +it. So I thought I'd ask you whether _you_ could help me to a guess; +and that's all." + +The old lady shook her head. + +"And I don't think you need employ quite such hard terms," he said. + +"I don't want to speak of it at all," said she; "but if I do I can't say +less; nor I won't--no, never!" + +"You see it's very odd, those two names," said Sir Jekyl, not minding; +"and as you say, the likeness so astonishing--I--I--what do _you_ think +of it?" + +"Of course it's an accident," said the old lady. + +"I'm glad you think so," said he, abruptly. + +"Why, what could it be? you don't believe in apparitions?" she replied, +with an odd sort of dryness. + +"I rather think not," said he; "I meant he left no very near relation, +and I fancied those Deverell people might have contrived some trick, or +intended some personation, or something, and I thought that you, +perhaps, had heard something of their movements." + +"Nothing--what could they have done, or why should they have sought to +make any such impression? I don't understand it. It is very +extraordinary. But the likeness in church amazed and shocked me, and +made me ill." + +"In church, you say?" repeated Sir Jekyl. + +"Yes, in church," and she told him in her own way, what I shall tell in +mine, as follows:-- + +Last Sunday she had driven, in her accustomed state, with Beatrix, to +Wardlock church. The church was hardly five hundred yards away, and the +day bright and dry. But Lady Alice always arrived and departed in the +coach, and sat in the Redcliffe seat, in the centre of the gallery. She +and Beatrix sat face to face at opposite sides of the pew. + +As Lady Alice looked with her cold and steady glance over the +congregation in the aisle, during the interval of silence that precedes +the commencement of the service, a tall and graceful young man, with an +air of semi-foreign fashion, entered the church, accompanied by an +elderly gentleman, of whom she took comparatively little note. + +The young man and his friend were ushered into a seat confronting the +gallery. Lady Alice gazed and gazed transfixed with astonishment and +horror. The enamelled miniature on her bosom was like; but there, in +that clear, melancholy face, with its large eyes and wavy hair, was a +resurrection. In that animated sculpture were delicate tracings and +touches of nature's chisel, which the artist had failed to represent, +which even memory had neglected to fix, but which all now returned with +the startling sense of identity in a moment. + +She had put on her gold spectacles, as she always did on taking her +seat, and opened her "Morning Service," bound in purple Russia, with its +golden clasp and long ribbons fringed with the same precious metal, with +the intent to mark the proper psalms and lessons at her haughty leisure. +She therefore saw the moving image of her dead son before her, with an +agonizing distinctness that told like a blight of palsy on her face. + +She saw his elderly companion also distinctly. A round-shouldered man, +with his short caped cloak still on. A grave man, with a large, high, +bald forehead, a heavy, hooked nose, and great hanging moustache and +beard. A dead and ominous face enough, except for the piercing glance of +his full eyes, under very thick brows, and just the one you would have +chosen out of a thousand portraits, for a plotting high-priest or an old +magician. + +This magus fixed his gaze on Lady Alice, not with an ostentation of +staring, but sternly from behind the dark embrasure of his brows; and +leaning a little sideways, whispered something in the ear of his young +companion, whose glance at the same moment was turned with a dark and +fixed interest upon the old lady. + +It was a very determined stare on both sides, and of course ill-bred, +but mellowed by distance. The congregation were otherwise like other +country congregations, awaiting the offices of their pastor, decent, +listless, while this great stare was going on, so little becoming the +higher associations and solemn aspect of the place. It was, with all its +conventional screening, a fierce, desperate scrutiny, cutting the dim +air with a steady congreve fire that crossed and glared unintermittent +by the ears of deceased gentlemen in ruffs and grimy doublets, at their +posthumous devotions, and brazen knights praying on their backs, and +under the eyes of all the gorgeous saints, with glories round their +foreheads, in attitudes of benediction or meekness, who edified +believers from the eastern window. + +Lady Alice drew back in her pew. Beatrix was in a young-lady reverie, +and did not observe what was going on. There was nothing indeed to make +it very conspicuous. But when she looked at Lady Alice, she was shocked +at her appearance, and instantly crossed, and said-- + +"I am afraid you are ill, grandmamma; shall we come away?" + +The old lady made no answer, but got up and took the girl's arm, and +left the seat very quietly. She got down the gallery stairs, and halted +at the old window on the landing, and sate there a little, ghastly and +still mute. + +The cold air circulating upward from the porch revived her. + +"I am better, child," said she, faintly. + +"Thank Heaven," said the girl, whose terror at her state proved how +intensely agitated the old lady must have been. + +Mrs. Wrattles, the sextoness, emerging at that moment with repeated +courtesies, and whispered condolence and inquiries, Lady Alice, with a +stiff condescension, prayed her to call her woman, Mason, to her. + +So Lady Alice, leaning slenderly on Mason's stout arm, insisted that +Beatrix should return and sit out the service; and she herself, for the +first time within the memory of man, returned from Wardlock church on +foot, instead of in her coach. Beatrix waited until the congregation had +nearly disgorged itself and dispersed, before making her solitary +descent. + +When she came down, without a chaperon, at the close of the rector's +discourse, the floured footman in livery, with his gold-headed cane, +stood as usual at the coach door only to receive her, and convey the +order to the coachman, "home." + +The churchyard gate, as is usual, I believe, in old places of that kind, +opens at the south side, and the road to Wardlock manor leads along the +churchyard wall and round the corner of it at a sharp angle just at the +point where the clumsy old stone mausoleum or vault of the Deverell +family overlooks the road, with its worn pilasters and beetle-browed +cornice. + +Now that was a Sunday of wonders. It had witnessed Lady Alice's +pedestrian return from church, an act of humiliation, almost of penance, +such as the memory of Wardlock could furnish no parallel to; and now it +was to see another portent, for her ladyship's own gray horses, fat and +tranquil beasts, who had pulled her to and from church for I know not +how many years, under the ministration of the careful coachman, with +exemplary sedateness, on this abnormal Sabbath took fright at a musical +performance of two boys, one playing the Jew's harp and the other +drumming tambourine-wise on his hat, and _suadente diabolo_ and so +forth, set off at a gallop, to the terror of all concerned, toward home. +Making the sharp turn of the road, where the tomb of the Deverells +overhangs it from the churchyard, the near-gray came down, and his +off-neighbour reared and plunged frightfully. + +The young lady did not scream, but, very much terrified, she made +voluble inquiries of the air and hedges from the window, while the +purple coachman pulled hard from the box, and spoke comfortably to his +horses, and the footman, standing out of reach of danger, talked also in +his own vein. + +Simultaneously with all this, as if emerging from the old mausoleum, +there sprang over the churchyard fence, exactly under its shadow, that +young man who had excited emotions so various in the Baronet and in Lady +Alice, and seized the horse by the head with both hands, and so +cooperated that in less than a minute the two horses were removed from +the carriage, and he standing, hat in hand, before the window, to assure +the young lady that all was quite safe now. + +So she descended, and the grave footman, with the Bible and Prayer-book, +followed her steps with his gold-headed rod of office, while the lithe +and handsome youth, his hat still in air which stirred his rich curls, +walked beside her with something of that romantic deference which in one +so elegant and handsome has an inexpressible sentiment of the tender in +it. + +He walked to the door of Wardlock Manor, and I purposely omit all he +said, because I doubt whether it would look as well in this +unexceptionable type as it sounded from his lips in Beatrix Marlowe's +pretty ear. + +If the speaker succeed with his audience, what more can oratory do for +him? Well! he was gone. There remained in Beatrix's ear a music; in her +fancy a heaven-like image--a combination of tint, and outline, and +elegance, which made every room and scene without it lifeless, and every +other object homely. These little untold impressions are of course +liable to fade and vanish pretty quickly in absence, and to be +superseded even sooner. Therefore it would be unwarranted to say that +she was in love, although I can't deny that she was haunted by that +slightly foreign young gentleman. + +This latter portion of the adventure was not divulged by old Lady Alice, +because Beatrix, I suppose, forgot to tell her, and she really knew +nothing about it. All the rest, her own observation and experience, she +related with a grim and candid particularity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The Green Chamber at Marlowe. + + +So the Baronet, with a rather dreary chuckle, said:-- + +"I don't think, to say truth, there is anything in it. I really can't +see why the plague I should bore myself about it. You know your pew in +the middle of the gallery, with that painted hatchment thing, you +know...." + +"Respect the dead," said Lady Alice, looking down with a dry severity on +the table. + +"Well, yes; I mean, you know, it is so confoundedly conspicuous, I can't +wonder at the two fellows, the old and young, staring a bit at it, and, +perhaps, at _you_, you know," said Sir Jekyl, in his impertinent vein. +"But I agree with you they are no ghosts, and I really shan't trouble my +head about them any more. I wonder I was such a fool--hey? But, as you +say, you know, it is unpleasant to be reminded of--of those things; it +can't be helped now, though." + +"Now, nor ever," said Lady Alice, grimly. + +"Exactly; neither now, nor ever," repeated Sir Jekyl; "and we both know +it can't possibly be poor--I mean anyone concerned in that transaction; +so the likeness must be accidental, and therefore of no earthly +significance--eh?" + +Lady Alice, with elevated brows, fiddled in silence with some crumbs on +the table with the tip of her thin finger. + +"I suppose Beatrix is ready; may I ring the bell?" + +"Oh! here she is. Now, bid grandmamma good-night," said the Baronet. + +So slim and pretty Beatrix, in her cloak, stooped down and placed her +arms about the neck of the old lady, over whose face came a faint flush +of tender sunset, and her old grey eyes looked very kindly on the +beautiful young face that stooped over her, as she said, in a tone that, +however, was stately-- + +"Good-bye, my dear child; you are warm enough--you are certain?" + +"Oh! yes, dear grandmamma--my cloak, and this Cashmere thing." + +"Well, darling, good-night. You'll not forget to write--you'll not fail? +Good-night, Beatrix, dear--good-bye." + +"Good-night," said the Baronet, taking the tips of her cold fingers +together, and addressing himself to kiss her cheek, but she drew back in +one of her whims, and said, stiffly, "There, not to-night. Good-bye, +Jekyl." + +"Well," chuckled he, after his wont, "another time; but mind, you're to +come to Marlowe." + +He did not care to listen to what she replied, but he called from the +stairs, as he ran down after his daughter-- + +"Now, mind, I won't let you off this time; you really must come. +Good-night, _au revoir_--good-night." + +I really think that exemplary old lady hated the Baronet, who called her +"little mamma," and invited her every year, without meaning it, most +good-naturedly, to join his party under the ancestral roof-tree. He took +a perverse sort of pleasure in these affectionate interviews, in +fretting her not very placid temper--in patting her, as it were, +wherever there was a raw, and in fondling her against the grain; so that +his caresses were cruel, and their harmony, such as it was, amounted to +no more than a flimsy deference to the scandalous world. + +But Sir Jekyl knew that there was nothing in this quarter to be gained +in love by a different tactique; there was a dreadful remembrance, which +no poor lady has ostrich power to digest, in the way; it lay there, +hard, cold, and irreducible; and the morbid sensation it produced was +hatred. He knew that "little mamma," humanly speaking, ought to hate +him. His mother indeed she was not; but only the step-mother of his +deceased wife. Mother-in-law is not always a very sweet relation, but +with the prefix "step" the chances are, perhaps, worse. + +There was, however, as you will by-and-by see, a terrible accident, or +something, always remembered, gliding in and out of Wardlock Manor like +the Baronet's double, walking in behind him when he visited her, like +his evil genius, and when they met affectionately, standing by his +shoulder, black and scowling, with clenched fist. + +Now pretty Beatrix sat in the right corner of the chariot, and Sir +Jekyl, her father, in the left. The lamps were lighted, and though there +was moonlight, for they had a long stretch of road always dark, because +densely embowered in the forest of Penlake. Tier over tier, file behind +file, nodding together, the great trees bent over like plumed warriors, +and made a solemn shadow always between their ranks. + +Marlowe was quite new to Beatrix; but still too distant, twelve miles +away, to tempt her to look out and make observations as she would on a +nearer approach. + +"You don't object to my smoking a cigar, Beatrix? The smoke goes out of +the window, you know," said the Baronet, after they had driven about a +mile in silence. + +What young lady, so appealed to by a parent, ever did object? The fact +is, Sir Jekyl did not give himself the trouble to listen to her answer, +but was manifestly thinking of something quite different, as he lighted +his match. + +When he threw his last stump out of the window they were driving through +Penlake Forest, and the lamplight gleamed on broken rows of wrinkled +trunks and ivy. + +"I suppose she told you all about it?" said he, suddenly pursuing his +own train of thought. + +"Who?" inquired Beatrix. + +"I never was a particular favourite of her's, you know--grandmamma's, I +mean. She does not love me, poor old woman! And she has a knack of +making herself precious disagreeable, in which I try to imitate her, +for peace' sake, you know; for, by George, if I was not uncivil now and +then, we could never get on at all." + +Sir Jekyl chuckled after his wont, as it were, between the bars of this +recitative, and he asked-- + +"What were the particulars--the adventure on Sunday--that young fellow, +you know?" + +Miss Beatrix had heard no such interrogatory from her grandmamma, whose +observations in the church-aisle were quite as unknown to her; and thus +far the question of Sir Jekyl was a shock. + +"Did not grandmamma tell you about it?" he pursued. + +"About what, papa?" asked Beatrix, who was glad that it was dark. + +"About her illness--a young fellow in a pew down in the aisle staring at +her. By Jove! one would have fancied that sort of thing pretty well +over. Tell me all about it." + +The fact was that this was the first she had heard of it. + +"Grandmamma told me nothing of it," said she. + +"And did not you see what occurred? Did not you see him staring?" asked +he. + +Beatrix truly denied. + +"You young ladies are always thinking of yourselves. So you saw nothing, +and have nothing to tell? That will do," said Sir Jekyl, drily; and +silence returned. + +Beatrix was relieved on discovering that her little adventure was +unsuspected. Very little was there in it, and nothing to reflect blame +upon her. From her exaggeration of its importance, and her quailing as +she fancied her father was approaching it, I conclude that the young +gentleman had interested her a little. + +And now, as Sir Jekyl in one corner of the rolling chariot brooded in +the dark over his disappointed conjectures, so did pretty Beatrix in the +other speculate on the sentences which had just fallen from his lips, +and long to inquire some further particulars, but somehow dared not. + +Could that tall and handsome young man, who had come to her rescue so +unaccountably--the gentleman with those large, soft, dark eyes, which +properly belong to heroes--have been the individual whose gaze had so +mysteriously affected her grandmamma? What could the associations have +been that were painful enough so to overcome that grim, white woman? Was +he a relation? Was he an outcast member of that proud family? Or, was he +that heir-at-law, or embodied Nemesis, that the yawning sea or grave +will sometimes yield up to plague the guilty or the usurper? + +For all or any of these parts he seemed too young. Yet Beatrix fancied +instinctively that he could be no other than the basilisk who had +exercised so strange a spell over her grim, but withal kind old +kinswoman. + +Was there not, she thought, something peculiar in the look he threw +across the windows of old stone-fronted Wardlock manor--reserved, +curious, half-smiling--as if he looked on an object which he had often +heard described, and had somehow, from personal associations or +otherwise, an interest in? It was but a momentary glance just as he took +his leave; but there was, she thought, that odd character in it. + +By this time the lamps were flashing on the village windows and +shop-fronts; and at the end of the old gabled street, under a canopy of +dark trees, stood the great iron gate of Marlowe. + +Sir Jekyl rubbed the glass and looked out when they halted at the gate. +The structures of his fancy had amused him, rather fearfully indeed, and +he was surprised to find that they were entering the grounds of Marlowe +so soon. + +He did not mind looking out, or speaking to the old gamekeeper, who +pulled open the great barriers, but lay back in his corner sullenly, in +the attitude of a gentleman taking a nap. + +Beatrix, however, looked out inquisitively, and saw by the misty +moonlight a broad level studded with majestic timber--singly, in clumps, +and here and there in solemn masses; and soon rose the broad-fronted +gabled house before them, with its steep roofs and its hospitable clumps +of twisted chimneys showing black against the dim sky. + +Miss Marlowe's maid, to whom the scene was quite as new as to her +mistress, descended from the back seat, in cloaks and mufflers, and +stood by the hall-door steps, that shone white in the moonlight, before +their summons had been answered. + +Committing his daughter to her care, the Baronet--who was of a bustling +temperament, and never drank tea except from motives of +gallantry--called for Mrs. Gwynn, the housekeeper, who presently +appeared. + +She was an odd-looking woman--some years turned of fifty, thin, with a +longish face and a fine, white, glazed skin. There was something queer +about her eyes: you soon discovered it to arise from their light colour +and something that did not quite match in their pupils. + +On entering the hall, where the Baronet had lighted a candle, having +thrown his hat on the table, and merely loosed his muffler and one or +two buttons of his outside coat, she smiled a chill gleam of welcome +with her pale lips, and dropped two sharp little courtesies. + +"Well, old Donica, and how do ye do?" said the Baronet, smiling, with a +hand on each thin grey silk shoulder. "Long time since I saw you. But, +egad! you grow younger and younger, you pretty old rogue;" and he gave +her pale, thin cheek a playful tap with his fingers. + +"Pretty well, please, Sir Jekyl, thank ye," she replied, receding a +little with dry dignity. "Very welcome, sir, to Marlowe. Miss Beatrix +looks very well, I am happy to see; and you, sir, also." + +"And you're glad to see us, I know?" + +"Certainly, sir, glad to see you," said Mrs. Gwynn, with another short +courtesy. + +"The servants not all come? No, nor Ridley with the plate. He'll arrive +to-morrow; and--and we shall have the house full in little more than a +week. Let us go up and look at the rooms; I forget them almost, by +Jove--I really do--it's so long since. Light you another, and we'll do +very well." + +"You'll see them better by daylight, sir. I kept everything well aired +and clean. The house looks wonderful--it do," replied Mrs. Gwynn, +accompanying the Baronet up the broad oak stairs. + +"If it looks as fresh as you, Donica, it's a miracle of a house--egad! +you're a wonder. How you skip by my side, with your little taper, like a +sylph in a ballet, egad!" + +"You wear pretty well yourself, Sir Jekyl," drily remarked the +white-faced sylph, who had a sharp perpendicular line between her +eyebrows, indicative of temper. + +"So they tell me, by Jove. We're pretty well on though, Donnie--eh? +Everyone knows my age--printed, you know, in the red book. You've the +advantage of me there--eh, Don?" + +"I'm just fifty-six, sir, and I don't care if all the world knewd it." + +"All the world's curious, I dare say, on the point; but I shan't tell +them, old Gwynn," said Sir Jekyl. + +"Curious or no, sir, it's just the truth, and I don't care to hide it. +Past that folly now, sir, and I don't care if I wor seventy, and a +steppin' like a--" + +"A sylph," supplied he. + +"Yes--a sylph--into my grave. It's a bad world, and them that's suffered +in it soon tires on it, sir." + +"_You_ have not had a great deal to trouble you. Neither chick, nor +child, nor husband, egad! So here we are." + +They were now standing on the gallery, at the head of the great +staircase. + +"These are the rooms your letter says are not furnished--eh? Let us come +to the front gallery." + +So, first walking down the gallery in which they were, to the right, and +then entering a passage by a turn on the left, they reached the front +gallery which runs parallel to that at the head of the stairs. + +"Where have you put Beatrix?" + +"She wished the room next mine, please, sir, up-stairs," answered the +housekeeper. + +"Near the front--eh?" + +"The left side, please, sir, as you look from the front," replied she. + +"_From_ the front?" he repeated. + +"From the front," she reiterated. + +"Over there, then?" he said, pointing upward to the left. + +"That will be about it, sir," she answered. + +"How many rooms have we here in a row?" he asked, facing down the +gallery, with its file of doors at each side. + +"Four bed-rooms and three dressing-rooms at each side." + +"Ay, well now, I'll tell you who's coming, and how to dispose of them." + +So Sir Jekyl quartered his friends, as he listed, and then said he-- + +"And the large room at the other end, here to the right--come along." + +And Sir Jekyl marched briskly in the direction indicated. + +"Please, sir," said the slim, pale housekeeper, with the odd leer in her +eye, overtaking him quietly. + +"Ay, here it is," said he, not minding her, and pushing open the door of +a dressing-room at the end of the gallery. "Inside this, I remember." + +"But that's the green chamber, sir," continued Mrs. Gwynn, gliding +beside him as he traversed the floor. + +"The room we call Sir Harry's room, I know--capital room--eh?" + +"I don't suppose," began the pale lady, with a sinister sharpness. + +"Well?" he demanded, looking down in her face a little grimly. + +"It's the green chamber, sir," she said, with a hard emphasis. + +"You said so before, eh?" he replied. + +"And I did not suppose, sir, you'd think of putting anyone there," she +continued. + +"Then you're just as green as the chamber," said Sir Jekyl, with a +chuckle. + +And he entered the room, holding the candle high in air, and looking +about him a little curiously, the light tread and sharp pallid face of +Donica Gwynn following him. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Sir Jekyl bethinks him of Pelter and Crowe. + + +The Baronet held his candle high in air, as I have said, as he gazed +round him inquisitively. The thin housekeeper, with her pale lips +closed, and her odd eyes dropped slantingly toward the floor, at the +corner of the room, held hers demurely in her right finger and thumb, +her arms being crossed. + +The room was large, and the light insufficient. Still you could not help +seeing at a glance that it must be, in daylight, a tolerably cheerful +one. It was roomy and airy, with a great bow-window looking to the front +of the building, of which it occupied the extreme left, reaching about +ten feet from the level of the more ancient frontage of the house. The +walls were covered with stamped leather, chiefly green and gold, and the +whole air of the room, even in its unarranged state, though somewhat +quaint and faded, was wonderfully gay and cozy. + +"This is the green chamber, sir," she repeated, with her brows raised +and her eyes still lowered askance, and some queer wrinkles on her +forehead as she nodded a sharp bitter emphasis. + +"To be sure it is, damme!--why not?" he said, testily, and then burst +into a short laugh. + +"You're not a going, I suppose, Sir Jekyl, to put anyone into it?" said +she. + +"I don't see, for the life of me, why I should not--eh? a devilish +comfortable room." + +"Hem! I can't but suppose you are a joking me, Sir Jekyl," persisted the +gray silk phantom. + +"Egad! you forget how old we're growing; why the plague should I quiz +you! I want the room for old General Lennox, that's all--though I'm not +bound to tell you for whom I want it--am I?" + +"There's a plenty o' rooms without this one, Sir Jekyl," persevered the +lady, sternly. + +"Plenty, of course; but none so good," said he, carelessly. + +"No one ever had luck that slept in it," answered the oracle, lifting +her odd eyes and fixing them on Sir Jekyl. + +"I don't put them here for luck. We want to make them comfortable," +answered Sir Jekyl, poking at the furniture as he spoke. + +"You know what was your father's wish about it, sir?" she insisted. + +"My father's wish--egad, he did not leave many of his wishes +unsatisfied--eh?" he answered, with another chuckle. + +"And your poor lady's wish," she said, a good deal more sharply. + +"I don't know why the devil I'm talking to you, old Gwynn," said the +Baronet, turning a little fiercely about. + +"_Dying_ wishes," emphasised she. + +"It is time, Heaven knows, all that stuff should stop. You slept in it +yourself, in my father's time. I remember you, here, Donica, and I don't +think I ever heard that you saw a ghost--did I?" he said, with a +sarcastic chuckle. + +She darted a ghastly look to the far end of the chamber, and then, with +a strange, half-frozen fury, she said-- + +"I wish you good-night, Sir Jekyl," and glided like a shadow out of the +room. + +"Saucy as ever, by Jupiter," he ejaculated, following her with his +glance, and trying to smile; and as the door shut, he looked again down +the long apartment as she had just done, raising the candle again. + +The light was not improved of course by the disappearance of Mrs. +Gwynn's candle, and the end of the room was dim and unsatisfactory. The +great four-poster, with dark curtains, and a plume at each corner, threw +a vague shadow on the back wall and up to the ceiling, as he moved his +candle, which at the distance gave him an uncomfortable sensation, and +he stood for a few seconds sternly there, and then turned on his heel +and quitted the room, saying aloud, as he did so-- + +"What a d--d fool that old woman is--always _was_!" + +If there was a ghost there, the Baronet plainly did not wish it to make +its exit from the green chamber by the door, for he locked it on the +outside, and put the key in his pocket. Then, crossing the dressing-room +I have mentioned, he entered the passage which crosses the gallery in +which he and Mrs. Gwynn, a few minutes before, had planned their +dispositions. The dressing-room door is placed close to the window +which opens at the end of the corridor in the front of the house. +Standing with his back to this, he looked down the long passage, and +smiled. + +For a man so little given to the melodramatic, it was a very well +expressed smile of mystery--the smile of a man who knows something which +others don't suspect, and would be surprised to learn. + +It was the Baronet's fancy, as it had been his father's and his +grandfather's before him, to occupy very remote quarters in this old +house. Solitary birds, their roost was alone. + +Candle in hand, Sir Jekyl descended the stairs, marched down the long +gaunt passage, which strikes rearward so inflexibly, and at last reaches +the foot of a back staircase, after a march of a hundred and forty feet, +which I have measured. + +At top of this was a door at his left, which he opened, and found +himself in his own bed-room. + +You would have said on looking about you that it was the bed-room of an +old campaigner or of a natty gamekeeper--a fellow who rather liked +roughing it, and had formed tastes in the matter like the great Duke of +Wellington. The furniture was slight and plain, and looked like +varnished deal; a French bed, narrow, with chintz curtains, and a plain +white coverlet, like what one might expect in a barrack dormitory or an +hospital; a little strip of carpet lying by the bed, and a small square +of Turkey carpet under the table by the fire, hardly broke the shining +uniformity of the dark oak floor; a pair of sporting prints decorated +the sides of the chimneypiece, and an oil-portrait of a grey hunter +hung in the middle. There were fishing-rods and gun-cases, I dare say +the keys were lost of many, they looked so old and dingy. + +The Baronet's luggage, relieved of its black japanned casings, lay on +the floor, with his hat-case and travelling-desk. A pleasant fire burnt +in the grate, and a curious abundance of wax-lights, without which Sir +Jekyl, such was his peculiarity, could not exist, enlivened the chamber. + +As he made his toilet at his homely little dressing-table, he bethought +him suddenly, and rang the bell in his shirt-sleeves. + +"My letters." + +"Yes, sir." + +And up came a salver well laden with letters, pamphlets, and newspapers, +of all shapes and sizes. + +"And tell Miss Beatrix I shan't have any tea, and get some brandy from +Mrs. Gwynn, and cold water and a tumbler, and let them leave me +alone--d'ye see?--and give me that." + +It was a dressing-gown which Tomlinson's care had already liberated from +its valise, and expanded before the fire. + +The Baronet's tastes, as we might see, were simple. He could dine on a +bit of roast mutton, and a few glasses of sherry. But his mutton was +eight years old, and came all the way from Dartbroke, and his sherry +cost more than other men's Madeira, and he now lighted one of those +priceless cigars, which so many fellows envied, and inhaled the +disembodied aroma of a tobacco which, perhaps, Jove smokes in his easy +chair on Olympus, but which I have never smelt on earth, except when Sir +Jekyl dispensed the inestimable treasures of his cigar-case. + +Now, the Baronet stood over his table, with a weed between his lips, +tall in his flowered silk dressing-gown, his open hands shoving apart +the pile of letters, as a conjurer at an exhibition spreads his pack of +cards. + +"Ha! poor little thing!" he murmured, with a sly simper, in a petting +tone, as he plucked an envelope, addressed in a lady's hand, between two +fingers, caressingly, from the miscellaneous assortment. + +He looked at it, but reserved it as a _bon-bouche_ in his waistcoat +pocket, and pursued his examination. + +There were several from invited guests, who were either coming or not, +with the customary expressions, and were tossed together in a little +isolated litter for conference with Mrs. Gwynn in the morning. + +"Not a line from Pelter and Crowe! the d--d fellows don't waste their +ink upon me, except when they furnish their costs. It's a farce paying +fellows to look after one's business--no one ever does it but yourself. +If those fellows were worth their bread and butter, they'd have known +all about this thing, whatever it is, and I'd have had it all _here_, +d---- it, to-night." + +Sir Jekyl, it must be confessed, was not quite consistent about this +affair of the mysterious young gentleman; for, as we have seen, he +himself had a dozen times protested against the possibility of there +being anything in it, and now he was seriously censuring his respectable +London attorneys for not furnishing him with the solid contents of this +"windbag." + +But it was only his talk that was contradictory. Almost from the moment +of his first seeing that young gentleman, on the open way under the sign +of the "Plough," there lowered a fantastic and cyclopean picture, drawn +in smoke or vapour, volcanic and thunderous, all over his horizon, like +those prophetic and retrospective pageants with which Doree loves to +paint his mystic skies. It was wonderful, and presaged unknown evil; and +only cowed him the more that it baffled analysis and seemed to mock at +reason. + +"Pretty fellows to keep a look-out! It's well I can do it for +myself--who knows where we're driving to, or what's coming? Signs +enough--whatever they mean--he that runs may read, egad! Not that +there's anything in it _necessarily_. But it's not about drawing and +ruins and that stuff--those fellows have come down here. Bosh! looking +after my property. I'd take my oath they are advised by some lawyer; and +if Pelter and Crowe were sharp, they'd know by whom, and all about it, +by Jove!" + +Sir Jekyl jerked the stump of his cigar over his shoulder into the grate +as he muttered this, looking surlily down on the unprofitable papers +that strewed the table. + +He stood thinking, with his back to the fire, and looking rather cross +and perplexed, and so he sat down and wrote a short letter. It was to +Pelter and Crowe, but he began, as he did not care which got it, in his +usual way-- + + "MY DEAR SIR,--I have reason to suspect that those ill-disposed + people, who have often threatened annoyance, are at last seriously + intent on mischief. You will be good enough, therefore, immediately + to set on foot inquiries, here and at the other side of the water, + respecting the movements of the D---- family, who, I fancy, are at + the bottom of an absurd, though possibly troublesome, + demonstration. I don't fear them, of course. But I think you will + find that some members of that family are at present in this + country, and disposed to be troublesome. You will see, therefore, + the urgency of the affair, and will better know than I where and + how to prosecute the necessary inquiries. I do not, of course, + apprehend the least _danger_ from their machinations; but you have + always thought _annoyance_ possible; and if any be in store for me, + I should rather not have to charge it upon our supineness. You + will, therefore, exert your vigilance and activity on my behalf, + and be so good as to let me know, at the earliest possible + day--which, I think, need not be later than Wednesday next--the + result of your inquiries through the old channels. I am a little + disappointed, in fact, at not having heard from you before now on + the subject. + + "Yours, my dear sir, very sincerely, + + "JEKYL M. MARLOWE." + +Sir Jekyl never swore on paper, and, as a rule, commanded his temper +very creditably in that vehicle. But all people who had dealings with +him knew very well that the rich Baronet was not to be trifled with. So, +understanding that it was strong enough, he sealed it up for the +post-office in the morning, and dropped it into the post-bag, and with +it the unpleasant subject for the present. + +And now, a little brandy and water, and the envelope in the well-known +female hand; and he laughed a little over it, and looked at himself in +the glass with a vaunting complacency, and shook his head playfully at +the envelope. It just crossed his sunshine like the shadow of a flying +vapour--"that cross-grained old Gwynn would not venture to meddle?" But +the envelope was honestly closed, and showed no signs of having been +fiddled with. + +He made a luxury of this little letter, and read it in his easy chair, +with his left leg over the arm, with the fragrant accompaniment of a +weed. + +"Jealous, by Jove!" he ejaculated, in high glee; "little fool, what's +put that in your head?" + +"Poor, little, fluttering, foolish thing!" sang the Baronet, and then +laughed, not cynically, but indulgently rather. + +"How audacious the little fools are upon paper! Egad, it's a wonder +there is not twice as much mischief in the world as actually happens. We +must positively burn this little extravagance." + +But before doing so he read it over again; then smiling still, he +gallantly touched it to his lips, and re-perused it, as he drew another +cigar from the treasury of incense which he carried about him. He +lighted the note, but did not apply it to his cigar, I am bound to +say--partly from a fine feeling, and partly, I am afraid, because he +thought that paper spoiled the flavour of his tobacco. So, with a +sentimental smile, a gentle shrug, and a sigh of the Laurence Sterne +pattern, he converted that dangerous little scrawl into ashes--and he +thought, as he inhaled his weed-- + +"It is well for you, poor little fanatics, that we men take better care +of you than you do of yourselves, sometimes!" + +No doubt; and Sir Jekyl supposed he was thinking only of his imprudent +little correspondent, although there was another person in whom he was +nearly interested, who might have been unpleasantly compromised also, if +that document had fallen into other hands. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Sir Jekyl's Room is Visited. + + +It was near one o'clock. Sir Jekyl yawned and wound his watch, and +looked at his bed as if he would like to be in it without the trouble of +getting there; and at that moment there came a sharp knock at his door, +which startled him, for he thought all his people were asleep by that +time. + +"Who's there?" he demanded in a loud key. + +"It's me, sir, please," said Donica Gwynn's voice. + +"Come in, will you?" cried he; and she entered. + +"Are you sick?" he asked. + +"No, sir, thank you," she replied, with a sharp courtesy. + +"You look so plaguy pale. Well, I'm glad you're not. But what the deuce +can you want of me at this hour of night? Eh?" + +"It's only about that room, sir." + +"Oh, curse the room! Talk about it in the morning. You ought to have +been in your bed an hour ago." + +"So I was, sir; but I could not sleep, sir, for thinking of it." + +"Well, go back and think of it, if you must. How can I stop you? Don't +be a fool, old Gwynn." + +"No more I will, sir, please, if I can help, for fools we are, the most +on us; but I could not sleep, as I said, for thinking o't; and so I +thought I'd jist put on my things again, and come and try if you, sir, +might be still up." + +"Well, you see I'm up; but I want to get to bed, Gwynn, and not to talk +here about solemn bosh; and you must not bore me about that green +chamber--do you see?--to-night, like a good old girl; it will do in the +morning--won't it?" + +"So it will, sir; only I could not rest in my bed, until I said, seeing +as you mean to sleep in this room, it would never do. It won't. I can't +stand it." + +"Stand what? Egad! it seems to me you're demented, my good old Donica." + +"No, Sir Jekyl," she persisted, with a grim resolution to say out her +say. "You know very well, sir, what's running in my head. You know it's +for no good anyone sleeps there. General Lennox, ye say; well an' good. +You know well what a loss Mr. Deverell met with in that room in Sir +Harry, your father's time." + +"And you slept in it, did not you, and saw something? Eh?" + +"Yes, I _did_" she said, in a sudden fury, with a little stamp on the +floor, and a pale, staring frown. + +After a breathless pause of a second or two she resumed. + +"And you know what your poor lady saw there, and never held up her head +again. And well you know, sir, how your father, Sir Harry, on his +death-bed, desired it should be walled up, when you were no more than a +boy; and your good lady did the same many a year after, when _she_ was a +dying. And I tell ye, Sir Jekyl, ye'll sup sorrow yourself yet if you +don't. And take a fool's counsel, and shut up that door, and never let +no one, friend or foe, sleep there; for well I know it's not for +nothing, with your dead father's dying command, and your poor dear +lady's dying entreaty against it, that you put anyone to sleep there. I +don't know who this General Lennox may be--a good gentleman or a bad; +but I'm sure it's for no righteous reason he's to lie there. You would +not do it for nothing." + +This harangue was uttered with a volubility, which, as the phrase is, +took Sir Jekyl aback. He was angry, but he was also perplexed and a +little stunned by the unexpected vehemence of his old housekeeper's +assault, and he stared at her with a rather bewildered countenance. + +"You're devilish impertinent," at last he said, with an effort. "You +rant there like a madwoman, just because I like you, and you've been in +our family, I believe, since before I was born; you think you may say +what you like. The house is mine, I believe, and I rather think I'll do +what I think best in it while I'm here." + +"And you going to sleep in this room!" she broke in. "What else can it +be?" + +"You mean--what the devil do you mean?" stammered the Baronet again, +unconsciously assuming the defensive. + +"I mean you know very well _what_, Sir Jekyl," she replied. + +"It was my father's room, hey?--when I was a boy, as you say. It's good +enough for his son, I suppose; and I don't ask _you_ to lie in the green +chamber." + +"_I'll_ be no party, sir, if you please, to any one lying there," she +observed, with a stiff courtesy, and a sudden hectic in her cheek. + +"Perhaps you mean because my door's a hundred and fifty feet away from +the front of the house, if any mischief should happen, I'm too far +away--as others were before me--to prevent it, eh?" said he, with a +flurried sneer. + +"What I mean, I mean, sir--you ought not; that's all. You won't take it +amiss, Sir Jekyl--I'm an old servant--I'm sorry, sir; but I'a made up my +mind what to do." + +"You're not thinking of any folly, surely? You seemed to me always too +much afraid, or whatever you call it, of the remembrance, you know, of +what you _saw_ there--eh?--_I_ don't know, of course, _what_--to speak +of it to me. I never pressed you, because you seemed--you know you +did--to have a horror; and surely you're not going now to talk among the +servants or other people. You can't be far from five-and-thirty years in +the family." + +"Four-and-thirty, Sir Jekyl, next April. It's a good while; but I won't +see no more o' that; and unless the green chamber be locked up, at the +least, and used no more for a bed-room, I'd rather go, sir. Nothing may +happen, of course, Sir Jekyl--it's a hundred to one nothing _would_ +happen; but ye see, sir, I've a feeling about it, sir; and there has +been these things ordered by your father that was, and by your poor +lady, as makes me feel queer. Nothing being done accordingly, and I +could not rest upon it, for sooner or later it would come to this, and +stay I could not. I judge no one--Heaven forbid,--Sir Jekyl--oh, no! my +own conscience is as much as I can look to; so sir, if you please, so +soon as you can suit yourself I'll leave, sir." + +"Stuff! old Gwynn; don't mind talking to-night," said the Baronet, more +kindly than he had spoken before; "we'll see about it in the morning. +Good-night. We must not quarrel about nothing. I was only a school-boy +when you came to us, you know." + +But in the morning "old Gwynn" was resolute. She was actually going, so +soon as the master could suit himself. She was not in a passion, nor in +a panic, but in a state of gloomy and ominous obstinacy. + +"Well, you'll give me a little time, won't you, to look about me?" said +the Baronet, peevishly. + +"Such is my intention, sir." + +"And see, Gwynn, not a word about that--that green chamber, you know, to +Miss Beatrix." + +"As you please, sir." + +"Because if you begin to talk, they'll all think we are haunted." + +"Whatever you please to order, sir." + +"And it was not--it was my grandfather, you know, who built it." + +"Ah, so it was, sir;" and Gwynn looked astonished and shook her head, as +though cowed by the presence of a master-spirit of evil. + +"One would fancy you saw his ghost, Gwynn; but he was not such a devil +as your looks would make him, only a bit wild, and a favourite with the +women, Gwynn--always the best judge of merit--hey? Beau Marlowe they +called him--the best dressed man of his day. How the devil could such a +fellow have any harm in him?" + +There is a fine picture, full length, of Beau Marlowe, over the +chimneypiece of the great hall of Marlowe. He has remarkably +gentlemanlike hands and legs; the gloss is on his silk stockings still. +His features are handsome, of that type which we conventionally term +aristocratic; high, and smiling with a Louis-Quatorze insolence. He +wears a very fine coat of cut velvet, of a rich, dusky red, the +technical name of which I forget. He was of the gilded and powdered +youth of his day. + +He certainly was a handsome fellow, this builder of the "green chamber," +and he has not placed his candle under a bushel. He shines in many parts +of the old house, and has repeated himself in all manner of becoming +suits. You see him, three-quarters, in the parlour, in blue and silver; +you meet him in crayon, and again in small oil, oval; and you have him +in half a dozen miniatures. + +We mention this ancestor chiefly because when his aunt, Lady Mary, left +him a legacy, he added the green chamber to the house. + +It seems odd that Sir Jekyl, not fifty yet, should have had a +grandfather who was a fashionable and wicked notoriety of mature years, +and who had built an addition to the family mansion so long as a +hundred and thirty years ago. But this gentleman had married late, as +rakes sometimes do, and his son, Sir Harry, married still +later--somewhere about seventy; having been roused to this uncomfortable +exertion by the proprietorial airs of a nephew who was next in +succession. To this matrimonial explosion Sir Jekyl owed his entrance +and agreeable sojourn upon the earth. + +"I won't ask you to stay now; you're in a state. I'll write to town for +Sinnott, as you insist on it, but you won't leave us in confusion, and +you'll make her _au fait_--won't you? Give her any hints she may +require; and I know I shall have you back again when you cool a little, +or at all events when we go back to Dartbroke; for I don't think I shall +like this place." + +So Donica Gwynn declared herself willing to remain till Mrs. Sinnott +should arrive from London; and preparations for the reception of guests +proceeded with energy. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Baronet Pursues. + + +Sir Jekyl Marlowe was vexed when the letters came, and none from Pelter +and Crowe. There are people who expect miracles from their doctors and +lawyers, and, in proportion to their accustomed health and prosperity, +are unreasonable when anything goes wrong. The Baronet's notion was that +the legal firm in question ought to think and even dream of nothing else +than his business. It was an impertinence their expecting _him_ to think +about it. What were _they_ there for? He knew that London was a pretty +large place, and England still larger; and that it was not always easy +to know what everybody was about in either, and still less what each man +was doing on the Continent. Pelter and Crowe had some other clients too +on their hands, and had hitherto done very satisfactorily. But here was +a serious-looking thing--the first really uncomfortable occurrence which +had taken place under his reign--the first opportunity for exhibiting +common vigilance--and he ventured to say those fellows did not know +these Strangways people were in these kingdoms at all! + +Sir Jekyl, though an idle fellow, was a man of action, so he ordered his +horse, and rode nine miles to the "Plough Inn," where he hoped to see +Mr. Strangways again, improve his intimacy, and prevail with the +gentlemen to return with him to Marlowe, and spend a fortnight there, +when, or the devil was in it, he should contrive to get at the bottom of +their plans. + +He looked shrewdly in at the open door as he rode up, and halloed for +some one to take his horse. The little porch smiled pleasantly, and the +two gables and weather-cock, in the sunlight; and the farmer on the +broad and dingy panel, in his shirt-sleeves, low-crowned, broad-leafed +hat, crimson waistcoat, canary-coloured shorts, and blue stockings, and +flaxen wig, was driving his plump horses, and guilding his plough +undiscouraged, as when last he saw him. + +Boots and Mrs. Jones came out. Sir Jekyl was too eager to wait to get +down; so from the saddle he accosted his buxom hostess, in his usual +affable style. The Baronet was not accustomed to be crossed and thwarted +as much as, I have been told, men with less money sometimes are; and he +showed his mortification in his face when he learned that the two +gentlemen had left very early that morning. + +"This morning! Why you said yesterday they would not go till _evening_. +Hang it, I wish you could tell it right; and what the d--l do you mean +by Strangers? Call him Strangways, can't you. It's odd people can't say +names." + +He must have been very much vexed to speak so sharply; and he saw, +perhaps, how much he had forgotten himself in the frightened look which +good Mrs. Jones turned upon him. + +"I don't mean you, my good little soul. It's _their_ fault; and where +are they gone to? I wanted to ask them both over to Marlowe. Have you a +notion?" + +"They took our horses as far as the 'Bell and Horns,' at Slowton." She +called shrilly to Boots, "They're not stoppin' at the 'Bell and Horns,' +sure. Come here, and tell Sir Jekyl Marlowe about Mr. Strangers." + +"You said last night they were going to Awkworth;" and Sir Jekyl +chuckled scornfully, for he was vexed. + +"They changed their minds, sir." + +"Well, we'll say so. You're a wonderful fascinating sex. Egad! if you +could only carry anything right in your heads for ten minutes, you'd be +too charming." And at this point Boots emerged, and Sir Jekyl continued, +addressing him-- + +"Well, where are the gentlemen who left this morning?" asked he. + +"They'll be at the 'Bell and Horns,' sir." + +"Where's that?" + +"Slowton, sir." + +"I know. What hour did they go?" + +"Eight o'clock, sir." + +"Just seven miles. The Sterndale Road, isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +And that was all Boots had to tell. + +"Will ye please to come in, sir?" inquired Mrs. Jones. + +"No, my good creature. I haven't time. The old gentleman--what's his +name?" + +"I don't know, Sir, please. He calls the young gentleman Guy, and the +young gentleman calls him _sir_." + +"And both the same name?" + +"We calls 'em both Strangers, please, sir." + +"I know. Servants, had they?" + +"Yes, sir, please. But they sent 'em on." + +"Rich--don't want for money, I suppose. Eh?" + +"Oh! plenty money, sir." + +"And the servants called the men Strangways, I suppose, eh?" + +"Yes, Sir Jekyl, please; and so the letters came." + +"You never happened to hear any other name?" + +"No, Sir Jekyl." + +"_Think._" + +Mrs. Jones did think, but could recall nothing. + +"Nothing with a D?" + +"D, sir! What, sir?" + +"No matter what," said the Baronet. "No name beginning with D--eh?" + +"No, sir. You don't think they're going by a false name?" inquired the +lady, curiously. + +"What the devil puts that in your head? Take care of the law; you must +not talk that way, you foolish little rogue." + +"I did not know, sir," timidly answered Mrs. Jones, who saw in Sir +Jekyl, the Parliament-man, Deputy-Lieutenant, and Grand Juror, a great +oracle of the law. + +"I only wanted to know whether you had happened to hear the name of the +elder of the two gentlemen, and could recollect what letter it begins +with." + +"No, sir, please." + +"So you've no more to tell me?" + +"Nothing, sir." + +"If they come back tell them I rode over to offer them some shooting, +and to beg they'd remember to come to Marlowe. You won't forget?" + +"No sir." + +"Do they return here?" + +"I think not, sir." + +"Well, I believe there's nothing else," and the Baronet looked up +reflectively, as if he expected to find a memorandum scribbled on the +blue sky, leaning with his hand on the back of his horse. "No, nothing. +You won't forget my message, that's all. Good-bye, my dear." + +And touching the tips of his gloves to his lips, with a smile and a nod +he cantered down the Sterndale Road. + +He pulled up at the "Bell and Horns," in the little town of Slowton, but +was disappointed. The entire party, servants and all, had taken the +train two hours before, at the station three miles away. + +Now Sir Jekyl was blooded, and the spirit of the chase stirred within +him. So he rode down in his jack-boots, and pulled up his steaming horse +by the station, and he went in and made inquiry. + +A man like him is received even at one of these cosmopolitan +rallying-points within his own county with becoming awe. The +station-master was awfully courteous, and the subaltern officials +awfully active and obliging, and the resources of the establishment +were at once placed at his sublime disposal. Unhappily, two branch lines +converge at this point, causing the usual bustle, and there was +consequently a conflict and confusion in the evidence; so that Sir +Jekyl, who laughed and chatted agreeably amidst all the reverential zeal +that surrounded him, could arrive at nothing conclusive, but leaned to +the view that the party had actually gone to Awkworth, only by rail, +instead of by road. + +Sir Jekyl got on his horse and walked him through the town, uncertain +what to do next. This check had cooled him; his horse had his long trot +home still. It would not do to follow to Awkworth; to come in, after a +four-and-twenty miles' ride, bespattered like a courier, merely to +invite these gentlemen, _vivâ voce_, who had hardly had his note of +invitation a score hours. It would be making too much of them with a +vengeance. + +As he found himself once more riding under the boughs of Marlowe, the +early autumnal evening already closing in, Sir Jekyl experienced one of +those qualms and sinkings of the heart, which overcome us with a vague +anticipation of evil. + +The point of the road which he had now gained, commands a view of the +old hall of Marlowe, with that projecting addition, and its wide +bow-window, every pane of which was now flaming in the sunset light, +which indicated the green chamber. + +The green chamber! Just at that moment the glare of its broad window +flashed with a melancholy and vengeful light upon his brain, busied +with painful retrospects and harassing conjecture. + +Old Gwynn going away! It was an omen. Marlowe without old Gwynn. Troy +without its palladium. Old Gwynn going with something like a +denunciation on her lips! That stupid old woman at Wardlock, too, who +really knew nothing about it, undertaking also to prophesy! Out of the +mouths of babes and sucklings! There was no sense in it--scarcely +articulation. Still it was the croak of the raven--the screech of the +owl. + +He looked across the gentle slope at the angle of the inauspicious room. +Why should old General Lennox be placed within the unhallowed precincts +of that chamber? The image of old Gwynn as she gabbled her grim protest +on the preceding night, rose before him like a ghost. What business was +it of hers, and how could she divine his motives? Still, if there was +anything wrong, did not this vehement warning make the matter worse. + +An old man he felt himself on a sudden that evening, and for the first +time. There was some failure of the electric fire, and a subsidence of +the system. His enterprise was gone. Why should he take guilt, if such +it were, on his soul for vanity and vexation of spirit? If guilt it +were, was it not of a kind inexcusably cold-blooded and long-headed. Old +Gwynn, he did not like to lose you on those terms--just, too, as those +unknown actors were hovering at the wing, and about to step upon the +stage, this old man and young, who, instinctively he felt, were +meditating mischief against him. Mischief--_what_? Such, perhaps, as +might shatter the structure of his greatness, and strew its pinnacles in +the dust. Perhaps all this gloom was but the depression of a long ride, +and still longer fast. But he was accustomed to such occasional strains +upon his strength without any such results. Ah, no! He had come within +the edge of the shadow of judgment, and its darkness was stealing over +him, and its chill touched his heart. + +These were the dreamy surmisings with which he rode slowly toward the +house, and a few good resolutions in a nebulous state hovered +uncomfortably about him. + +No letter of any interest had come by the early post, and Sir Jekyl sat +down _tête-à-tête_ with his pretty daughter, in very dismal spirits, to +dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The House begins to Fill. + + +Beatrix was fond of her father, who was really a good-natured man, in +the common acceptance of the term, that is to say, he had high animal +spirits, and liked to see people pleasant about him, and was probably as +kind as a tolerably selfish and vicious man can be, and had a liking, +moreover, for old faces, which was one reason why he hated the idea of +his housekeeper's leaving him. But Beatrix was also a little in awe of +him, as girls often are of men of whom they see but little, especially +if they have something of the masculine decision of temper. + +"You may all go away now," said the Baronet suddenly to the servants, +who had waited at dinner; and when the liveried phantoms had withdrawn, +and the door had closed on the handsome calves of tall and solemn +Jenkins, he said-- + +"Nothing all day--no adventure, or visitor, Trixie--not a word of news +or fun, I dare say?" + +"Nothing--not a creature, papa; only the birds and dogs, and some new +music." + +"Well, it is not much worse than Wardlock, I suppose; but we shall have +a gay house soon--at all events plenty of people. Old General Lennox is +coming. His nephew, Captain Drayton, is very rich; he will be Lord +Tewkesbury--that is, if old Tewkesbury doesn't marry; and, at all +events, he has a very nice property, and does not owe a guinea. You need +not look modest, Trixie. You may do just as you please, only I'd be +devilish glad you liked one another--there, don't be distressed, I say; +I'll mention it no more if you don't like; but he'll be here in a few +days, and you mayn't think him so bad." + +After this the Baronet drank two glasses of sherry in silence, slowly, +and with a gloomy countenance, and then, said he-- + +"I think, Trixie, if you were happily placed, I should give the whole +thing up. I'm tired of that cursed House of Commons. You can't imagine +what a bore it is, when a fellow does not want anything from them, going +down there for their d----d divisions. I'm not fit for the hounds +either. I can't ride as I used--egad! I'm as stiff as a rusty hinge when +I get up in the morning. And I don't much like this place, and I'm tired +to death of the other two. When you marry I'll let them, or, at all +events, let them alone. I'm tired of all those servants. I know they're +robbing me, egad! You would not believe what my gardens cost me last +year, and, by Jove, I don't believe all that came to my table was worth +two hundred pounds. I'll have quite a different sort of life. I haven't +any time to myself, looking after all those confounded people one must +keep about them. Keepers, and gardeners, and devil knows who beside. I +don't like London half as well as the Continent. I hate dinner-parties, +and the season, and all the racket. It doesn't pay, and I'm growing +old--you'll not mind if I smoke it?" (he held a cigar between his +fingers)--"a complaint that doesn't mend by time, you know. Oh! yes, I +_am_ old, you little rogue. Everybody knows I'm just fifty; and the fact +is I'm tired of the whole thing, stock, lock, and barrel; and I believe +what little is to be got of life is best had--that is, if you know how +to look for it--abroad. A fellow like me who has got places and +properties--egad! they expect him to live _pro bono publico_, and not to +care or think twopence about himself--at least it comes to that. How is +old Gwynn?" + +"Very well, I think." + +"And what has she to say for herself; what about things in general?" + +"She's not very chatty, poor old Gwynn, and I think she seems a +little--just ever so little--cross." + +"So she does--damnably cross. She was always a bit of a vixen, and she +isn't improving, poor old thing; but don't be afraid, I like old Donnie +for all that, though I don't think I ever quite understood her, and I +don't expect either." These observations concluded the conversation +subsided, and a long silence supervened. + +"I wonder who the devil he is," said the Baronet abruptly, as he threw +the stump of his cigar into the fire. "If it's a fluke, it's as like a +miracle as anything I ever saw." + +He recollected that he was talking without an interlocutor, and looked +for a moment hesitatingly at his daughter. + +"And your grandmamma told you nothing of her adventure in church?" + +"No, papa--not a word." + +"It seems to me, women can hold their tongues sometimes, but always in +the wrong places." + +Here he shook the ashes of his cigar into the grate. + +"Old Granny's a fool--isn't she, Trixie, and a little bit vicious--eh?" + +Sir Jekyl put his question dreamily, in a reverie, and it plainly needed +no answer. So Beatrix was spared the pain of making one; which she was +glad of, for Lady Alice was good to her after her way, and she was fond +of her. + +"We must ask her to come, you know. You write. Say I thought _you_ would +have a better chance of prevailing. She won't, you know; and so much the +better." + +So as the Baronet rose, and stood gloomily with his back to the fire; +the young lady rose also, and ran away to the drawing-room and her desk; +and almost at the same moment a servant entered the room, with a letter, +which had come by the late post. + +Oddly enough, it had the Slowton postmark. + +"Devilish odd!" exclaimed Sir Jekyl, scowling eagerly on it; and seating +himself hastily on the side of a chair, he broke it open and read at the +foot the autograph, "Guy Strangways." + +It was with the Napoleonic thrill, "I have them, then, these English!" +that Sir Jekyl read, in a gentlemanlike, rather foreign hand, a +ceremonious and complimentary acceptance of his invitation to Marlowe, +on behalf both of the young man and of his elder companion. His +correspondent could not say exactly, as their tour was a little +desultory, where a note would find them; but as Sir Jekyl Marlowe had +been so good as to permit them to name a day for their visit, they would +say so and so. + +"Let me see--what day's this--why, that will be"--he was counting with +the tips of his fingers, pianowise, on the table--"Wednesday week, eh?" +and he tried it over again with nature's "Babbage's machine" and of +course with an inflexible result. "Wednesday week--Wednesday," and he +heaved a great sigh, like a man with a load taken off him. + +"Well, I'm devilish glad. I hope nothing will happen to stop them now. +It can't be a _ruse_ to get quietly off the ground? No--that would be +doing it too fine." He rang the bell. + +"I want Mrs. Gwynn." + +The Baronet's spirit revived within him, and he stood erect, with his +back to the fire, and his hands behind him, and when the housekeeper +entered, he received her with his accustomed smile. + +"Glad to see you, Donnie. Glass of sherry? No--well, sit down--won't +take a chair!--why's that? Well, we'll be on pleasanter terms +soon--you'll find it's really no choice of mine. I can't help using that +stupid green room. Here are two more friends coming--not till Wednesday +week though--two gentlemen. You may put them in rooms beside one +another--wherever you like--only not in the garrets, of course. _Good_ +rooms, do ye see." + +"And what's the gentlemen's names, please, Sir Jekyl," inquired Mrs. +Gwynn. + +"Mr. Strangways, the young gentleman; and the older, as well as I can +read it, is Mr. Varbarriere." + +"Thank ye, sir." + +The housekeeper having again declined the kindly distinction of a glass +of sherry, withdrew. + +In less than a week guests began to assemble, and in a few days more old +Marlowe Hall began to wear a hospitable and pleasant countenance. + +The people were not, of course, themselves all marvels of agreeability. +For instance, Sir Paul Blunket, the great agriculturist and eminent +authority on liquid manures, might, as we all know, be a little livelier +with advantage. He is short and stolid; he wears a pale blue muslin +neck-handkerchief with a white stripe, carefully tied. His countenance, +I am bound to say, is what some people would term heavy--it is frosty, +painfully shaven, and shines with a glaze of transparent soap. He has +small, very light blue round eyes, and never smiles. A joke always +strikes him with unaffected amazement and suspicion. Laughter he knows +may imply ridicule, and he may himself possibly be the subject of it. He +waits till it subsides, and then talks on as before on subjects which +interest him. + +Lady Blunket, who accompanies him everywhere, though not tall, is stout. +She is delicate, and requires nursing; and, for so confirmed an +invalid, has a surprising appetite. John Blunket, the future baronet, is +in the Diplomatic Service, I forget exactly where, and by no means +young; and lean Miss Blunket, at Marlowe with her parents, though known +to be older than her brother, is still quite a girl, and giggles with +her partner at dinner, and is very _naïve_ and animated, and sings arch +little chansons discordantly to the guitar, making considerable play +with her eyes, which are black and malignant. + +This family, though neither decorative nor entertaining, being highly +respectable and ancient, make the circuit of all the good houses in the +county every year, and are wonderfully little complained of. Hither also +they had brought in their train pretty little Mrs. Maberly, a cousin, +whose husband, the Major, was in India--a garrulous and good-humoured +siren, who smiled with pearly little teeth, and blushed easily. + +At Marlowe had already assembled several single gentlemen too. There was +little Tom Linnett, with no end of money and spirits, very good-natured, +addicted to sentiment, and with a taste for practical joking too, and a +very popular character notwithstanding. + +Old Dick Doocey was there also, a colonel long retired, and well known +at several crack London clubs; tall, slight, courtly, agreeable, with a +capital elderly wig, a little deaf, and his handsome high nose a little +reddish. Billy Cobb--too, a gentleman who could handle a gun, and knew +lots about horses and dogs--had arrived. + +Captain Drayton had arrived: a swell, handsome, cleverish, and +impertinent, and, as young men with less reason will be, egotistical. He +would not have admitted that he had deigned to make either plan or +exertion with that object, but so it happened that he was placed next to +Miss Beatrix, whom he carelessly entertained with agreeable ironies, and +anecdotes, and sentiments poetic and perhaps a little vapid. On the +whole, a young gentleman of intellect, as well as wealth and +expectations, and who felt, not unnaturally, that he was overpowering. +Miss Beatrix, though not quite twenty, was _not_ overpowered, however, +neither was her heart pre-occupied. There was, indeed, a shadow of +another handsome young gentleman--only a shadow, in a different +style--dark, and this one light; and she heart-whole, perhaps +fancy-free, amused, delighted, the world still new and only begun to be +explored. One London season she had partly seen, and also made her +annual tour twice or thrice of all the best county-houses, and so was +not nervous among her peers. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Dinner. + + +Of the two guests destined for the green chamber, we must be permitted +to make special mention. + +General and Lady Jane Lennox had come. The General, a tall, soldier-like +old gentleman, who held his bald and pink, but not very high forehead, +erect, with great grey projecting moustache, twisted up at the corners, +and bristling grey eyebrows to correspond, over his frank round grey +eyes--a gentleman with a decidedly military bearing, imperious but +kindly of aspect, good-natured, prompt, and perhaps a little stupid. + +Lady Jane--everybody knows Lady Jane--the most admired of London belles +for a whole season. Golden brown hair, and what young Thrumly of the +Guards called, in those exquisite lines of his, "slumbrous eyes of +blue," under very long lashes and exquisitely-traced eyebrows, such +brilliant lips and teeth, and such a sweet oval face, and above all, so +beautiful a figure and wonderful a waist, might have made one marvel how +a lady so well qualified for a title, with noble blood, though but a +small _dot_, should have wrecked herself on an old general, though with +eight thousand a year. But there were stories and reasons why the +simple old officer, just home from India, who knew nothing about London +lies, and was sure of his knighthood, and it was said of a baronetage, +did not come amiss. + +There were people who chose to believe these stories, and people who +chose to discredit them. But General Lennox never had even heard them; +and certainly, it seemed nobody's business to tell him now. It might not +have been quite pleasant to tell the General. He was somewhat muddled of +apprehension, and slow in everything but fighting; and having all the +old-fashioned notions about hair-triggers, and "ten paces," as the +proper ordeal in a misunderstanding, people avoided uncomfortable topics +in his company, and were for the most part disposed to let well alone. + +Lady Jane had a will and a temper; but the General held his ground +firmly. As brave men as he have been henpecked; but somehow he was not +of the temperament which will submit to be bullied even by a lady; and +as he was indulgent and easily managed, that tactique was the line she +had adopted. Lady Jane was not a riant beauty. Luxurious, funeste, +sullen, the mystery and melancholy of her face was a relief among the +smirks and simpers of the ball-room, and the novelty of the style +interested for a time even the _blazé_ men of twenty seasons. + +Several guests of lesser note there were; and the company had sat down +to dinner, when the Reverend Dives Marlowe, rector of the succulent +family living of Queen's Chorleigh, made his appearance in the parlour, +a little to the surprise of his brother the Baronet, who did not expect +him quite so soon. + +The Rector was a tall man and stalwart, who had already acquired that +convex curve which indicates incipient corpulence, and who, though +younger than his brother, looked half a dozen years his senior. With a +broad bald forehead, projecting eyebrows, a large coarse mouth, and with +what I may term the rudiments of a double chin--altogether an ugly and +even repulsive face, but with no lack of energy and decision--one looked +with wonder from this gross, fierce, clerical countenance to the fine +outlines and proportions of the Baronet's face, and wondered how the two +men could really be brothers. + +The cleric shook his brother's hand in passing, and smiled and nodded +briefly here and there, right and left, and across the table his +recognition, and chuckled a harsher chuckle than his brother's, as he +took his place, extemporized with the quiet legerdemain of a consummate +butler by Ridley; and answered in a brisk, abrupt voice the smiling +inquiries of friends. + +"Hope you have picked up an appetite on the way, Dives," said the +Baronet. Dives generally carried a pretty good one about with him. "Good +air on the way, and pretty good mutton here, too--my friends tell me." + +"Capital air--capital mutton--capital fish," replied the ecclesiastic, +in a brisk, business-like tone, while being a man of nerve, he got some +fish, although that esculent had long vanished, and even the entrées had +passed into history, and called over his shoulder for the special +sauces which his soul loved, and talked, and compounded his condiments +with energy and precision. + +The Rector was a shrewd and gentlemanlike, though not a very pretty, +apostle, and had made a sufficient toilet before presenting himself, and +snapped and gobbled his fish, in a glossy, single-breasted coat, with +standing collar; a ribbed silk waistcoat, covering his ample chest, +almost like a cassock, and one of those transparent muslin dog-collars +which High Churchmen affect. + +"Well, Dives," cried Sir Jekyl, "how do the bells ring? I gave them a +chime, poor devils" (this was addressed to Lady Blunket at his elbow), +"by way of compensation, when I sent them Dives." + +"Pretty well; they don't know how to pull 'em, I think, quite," answered +Dives, dabbing a bit of fish in a pool of sauce, and punching it into +shape with his bit of bread. "And how is old Parson Moulders?" continued +the Baronet, pleasantly. + +"I haven't heard," said the Hector, and drank off half his glass of +hock. + +"Can't believe it, Dives. Here's Lady Blunket knows. He's the aged +incumbent of Droughton. A devilish good living in my gift; and of course +you've been asking how the dear old fellow is." + +"I haven't, upon my word; not but I ought, though," said the Rev. Dives +Marlowe, as if he did not see the joke. + +"He's very severe on you," simpered fat Lady Blunket, faintly, across +the table, and subsided with a little cough, as if the exertion hurt +her. + +"Is he? Egad! I never perceived it." The expression was not clerical, +but the speaker did not seem aware he had uttered it. "How dull I must +be! Have you ever been in this part of the world before, Lady Jane?" +continued he, turning towards General Lennox's wife, who sat beside him. + +"I've been to Wardlock, a good many years ago; but that's a long way +from this, and I almost forget it," answered Lady Jane, in her languid, +haughty way. + +"In what direction is Wardlock," she asked of Beatrix, raising her +handsome, unfathomable eyes for a moment. + +"You can see it from the bow-window of your room--I mean that +oddly-shaped hill to the right." + +"That's from the green chamber," said the Rector. "I remember the view. +Isn't it?" + +"Yes. They have put Lady Jane in the haunted room," said Beatrix, +smiling and nodding to Lady Jane. + +"And what fool, pray, told you that," said the Baronet, perhaps just a +little sharply. + +"Old Gwynn seems to think so," answered Beatrix, with the surprised and +frightened look of one who fancies she has made a blunder. "I--of course +we know it is all folly." + +"You must not say that--you shan't disenchant us," said Lady Jane. +"There's nothing I should so like as a haunted room; it's a charming +idea--isn't it, Arthur?" she inquired of the General. + +"We had a haunted room in my quarters at Puttypoor," observed the +General, twiddling the point of one of his moustaches. "It was the +store-room where we kept pickles, and olives, and preserves, and plates, +and jars, and glass bottles. And every night there was a confounded +noise there; jars, and bottles, and things tumbling about, made a devil +of a row, you know. I got Smith--my servant Smith, you know, a very +respectable man--uncommon steady fellow, Smith--to watch, and he did. We +kept the door closed, and Smith outside. I gave him half-a-crown a night +and his supper--very well for Smith, you know. Sometimes he kept a +light, and sometimes I made him sit in the dark with matches ready." + +"Was not he very much frightened?" asked Beatrix, who was deeply +interested in the ghost. + +"I hope you gave him a smelling-bottle?" inquired Tom Linnett, with a +tender concern. + +"Well, I don't suppose he was," said the General, smiling +good-humouredly on pretty Beatrix, while he loftily passed by the +humorous inquiry of the young gentleman. "He was, in fact, on dooty, you +know; and there were occasional noises and damage done in the +store-room--in fact, just the same as if Smith was not there." + +"Oh, possibly Smith himself among the bottles!" suggested Linnett. + +"He always got in as quick as he could," continued the General; "but +could not see anyone. Things were broken--bottles sometimes." + +"How very strange," exclaimed Beatrix, charmed to hear the tale of +wonder. + +"We could not make it out; it was very odd, you know," resumed the +narrator. + +"_You_ weren't frightened, General?" inquired Linnett. + +"_No_, sir," replied the General, who held that a soldier's courage, +like a lady's reputation, was no subject for jesting, and conveyed that +sentiment by a slight pause, and a rather alarming stare from under his +fierce grey eyebrows. "No one was frightened, I suppose; we were all men +in the house, sir." + +"At home, I think, we'd have suspected a rat or a cat," threw in the +Rector. + +"Some did, sir," replied the General; "and we made a sort of a search; +but it wasn't. There was a capital tiled floor, not a hole you could put +a ramrod in; and no cat, neither--high windows, grated; and the door +always close; and every now and then something broken by night." + +"Delightful! That's what Mrs. Crowe, in that charming book, you know, +"The Night Side of Nature," calls, I forget the name; but it's a German +word, I think--the noisy ghost it means. Racket--something, isn't it, +Beet?" (the short for Beatrix). "I do so _devour_ ghosts!" cried sharp +old Miss Blunket, who thought Beatrix's enthusiasm became her; and chose +to exhibit the same pretty fanaticism. + +"I didn't _say_ it was a ghost, mind ye," interposed the General, with a +grave regard for his veracity; "only we were puzzled a bit. There _was_ +something there we all knew; and something that could reach up to the +high shelves, and break things on the floor too, you see. We had been +watching, off and on, I think, some three or four weeks, and I heard one +night, early, a row in the store-room--a devil of a row it was; but +Smith was on dooty, as we used to say, that night, so I left it to him; +and he could have sung out, you know, if he wanted help--poor fellow! +And in the morning my native fellow told me that poor Smith was dead in +the store-room; and, egad! so he was, poor fellow!" + +"How awful!" exclaimed Beatrix. + +And Miss Blunket, in girlish horror, covered her fierce black eyes with +her lank fingers. + +"A bite of a cobra, by Jove! above the knee, and another on the hand. A +fattish fellow, poor Smith, the natives say they go faster--that sort of +man; but no one can stand a fair bite of a cobra--I defy you. We killed +him after." + +"What! _Smith?_" whispered Linnett in his neighbour's ear. + +"He lay in a basket; you never saw such a brute," continued the General; +"he was very near killing another of my people." + +"So _there_ was your ghost?" said Doocey, archly. + +"Worse than a ghost," observed Sir Paul Blunket. + +"A dooced deal," acquiesced the General gravely. + +"You're very much annoyed with vermin out there in India?" remarked Sir +Paul. + +"So we are, sir," agreed the General. + +"It's very hard, you see, to meet with a genuine ghost, Miss Marlowe; +they generally turn out impostors," said Doocey. + +"I should like to think my room was haunted," said Lady Jane. + +"Oh! _dear_ Lady Jane, how _can_ you be so _horribly_ brave?" cried Miss +Blunket. + +"We have no cobras here, at all events," said Sir Paul, nodding to Sir +Jekyl, with the gravity becoming such a discovery. + +"No," said Sir Jekyl, gloomily. I suppose he was thinking of something +else. + +The ladies now floated away like summer clouds, many-tinted, golden, +through the door, which Doocey held gracefully open; and the mere +mortals of the party, the men, stood up in conventional adoration, while +the divinities were translated, as it were, before their eyes, and +hovered out of sight and hearing into the resplendent regions of +candelabra and mirrors, nectar and ambrosia, tea and plum-cake, and +clouds of silken tapestry, and the musical tinkling of their own +celestial small-talk. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Inquiries have been made by Messrs, Pelter and Crowe. + + +Before repairing to bed, such fellows, young or old, as liked a talk and +a cigar, and some sherry--or, by'r lady, brandy and water--were always +invited to accompany Sir Jekyl to what he termed the back settlement, +where he bivouacked among deal chairs and tables, with a little +camp-bed, and plenty of wax candles and a brilliant little fire. + +Here, as the Baronet smoked in his homely little "hut," as he termed it, +after his guests had dispersed to their bed-rooms, the Rev. Dives +Marlowe that night knocked at the door, crying, "May I come in, Jekyl?" + +"Certainly, dear Dives." + +"You really mean it?" + +"Never was parson so welcome." + +"By Jove!" said the Rector, "it's later than I thought--you're sure I +don't bore you." + +"Not sure, but you _may_, Dives," said Sir Jekyl, observing his +countenance, which was not quite pleasant. "Come in, and say your say. +Have a weed, old boy?" + +"Well, well--a--we're alone. I don't mind--I don't generally--not that +there's any harm; but some people, very good people, object--the weaker +brethren, you know." + +"Consummate asses, we call them; but weaker brethren, as you say, does +as well." + +The Rector was choosing and sniffing out a cigar to his heart's content. + +"Milk for babes, you know," said the Rector, making his preparations. +"Strong meats--" + +"And strong cigars; but you'll find these as mild as you please. Here's +a match." + +The Rector sat down, with one foot on the fender, and puffed away +steadily, looking into the fire; and his brother, at the opposite angle +of the fender, employed himself similarly. + +"Fine old soldier, General Lennox," said the cleric, at last. "What stay +does he make with you?" + +"As long as he pleases. Why?" said Sir Jekyl. + +"Only he said something to-night in the drawing-room about having to go +up to town to attend a Board of the East India Directors," answered the +parson. + +"Oh, did he?" + +"And I think he said the day after to-morrow. I thought he told you, +perhaps." + +"Upon my life I can't say--perhaps he did," said Sir Jekyl, carelessly. +"Lennox is a wonderful fine old fellow, as you say, but a little bit +slow, you know; and his going or staying would not make very much +difference to me." + +"I thought he told his story pretty well at dinner--that haunted room +and the cobra, you remember," said the Rector. + +The Baronet grunted an assent, and nodded, without removing his cigar. +The brothers conducted their conversation, not looking on one another, +but each steadily into the grate. + +"And, apropos of haunted rooms, Lady Jane mentioned they are in the +green chamber," continued the Rector. + +"Did she? I forgot--so they are, I think," answered the Baronet. + +Here they puffed away in silence for some time. + +"You know, Jekyl, about that room? Poor Amy, when she was dying, made +you promise--and you did promise, you know--and she got me to promise to +remind you to shut it up; and then, you know, my father wished the +same," said the Rector. + +"Come, Dives, my boy, somebody has been poking you up about this. You +have been hearing from my old mother-in-law, or talking to her, the +goosey old shrew!" + +"Upon my honour!" said the Rector, solemnly resting the wrist of his +cigar-hand upon the black silk vest, and motioning his cheroot +impressively, "you are quite mistaken. One syllable I have not heard +from Lady Alice upon the subject, nor, indeed, upon any other, for two +months or more." + +"Come, come, Dives, old fellow, you'll not come the inspired preacher +over me. Somebody's been at you, and if it was not poor old Lady Alice +it was stupid old Gwynn. You need not deny it--ha! ha! ha! your speaking +countenance proclaims it, my dear boy." + +"I'm not thinking of denying it. Old Donica Gwynn did write to me," said +the pastor. + +"Let me see her note?" said Sir Jekyl. + +"I threw it in the fire; but I assure you there was nothing in it that +would or could have vexed you. Nothing, in fact, but an appeal to me to +urge you to carry out the request of poor Amy, and not particularly well +spelt or written, and certainly not the sort of thing I should have +liked anyone to see but ourselves, so I destroyed it as soon as I had +read it." + +"I'd like to have known what the plague could make you come here two +days--of course I'm glad to see you--two days before you intended, and +what's running in your mind." + +"Nothing in particular--nothing, I assure you, but this. I'm certain it +will be talked about--it will--the women will talk. You'll find there +will be something very unpleasant; take my advice, my dear Jekyl, and +just do as you promised. My poor father wished it, too--in fact, +directed it, and--and it ought to be done--you know it ought." + +"Upon my soul I know no such thing. I'm to pull down my house, I +suppose, for a sentiment? What the plague harm does the room to anybody? +It doesn't hurt me, nor you." + +"It may hurt _you_ very much, Jekyl." + +"I can't see it; but if it does, that's my affair," said Sir Jekyl, +sulkily. + +"But, my dear Jekyl, surely you ought to consider your promise." + +"Come, Dives, no preaching. It's a very good trade, I know, and I'll do +all I can for you in it; but I'm no more to be humbugged by a sermon +than you are. Come! How does the dog I sent you get on? Have you bottled +the pipe of port yet, and how is old Moulders, as I asked you at dinner? +Talk of shooting, eating and drinking, and making merry, and getting up +in your profession--by-the-bye, the Bishop is to be here in a fortnight, +so manage to stay and meet him. Talk of the port, and the old parson's +death, and the tithes small and great, and I'll hear you with respect, +for I shall know you are speaking of things you understand, and take a +real interest in; but pray don't talk any more about that stupid old +room, and the stuff and nonsense these women connect with it; and, once +for all, believe me when I say I have no notion of making a fool of +myself by shutting up or pulling down a room which we want to use--I'll +do no such thing," and Sir Jekyl clenched the declaration with an oath, +and chucking the stump of his cigar into the fire, stood up with his +back to it, and looked down on his clerical Mentor, the very +impersonation of ungodly obstinacy. + +"I had some more to say, Jekyl, but I fancy you don't care to hear it." + +"Not a word of it," replied the Baronet. + +"That's enough for me," said the parson, with a wave of his hand, like a +man who has acquitted himself of a duty. + +"And how soon do you say the Bishop is to be here?" he inquired, after a +pause. + +"About ten days, or _less_--egad! I forget," answered Sir Jekyl, still a +good deal ruffled. + +The Rector stood up also, and hummed something like "Rule Britannia" for +a while. I am afraid he was thinking altogether of himself by this time, +and suddenly recollecting that he was not in his own room, he wished his +brother good-night, and departed. + +Sir Jekyl was vexed. There are few things so annoying, when one has made +up his mind to a certain course, as to have the unavowed misgivings and +evil auguries of one's own soul aggravated by the vain but ominous +dissuasions of others. + +"I wish they'd keep their advice to themselves. What hurry need there +be? Do they want me to blow up the room with old Lennox and his wife in +it? I don't care twopence about it. It's a gloomy place." Sir Jekyl was +charging the accidental state of his own spirits upon the aspect of the +place, which was really handsome and cheerful, though antique. + +"They're all in a story, the fools! What is it to me? I don't care if I +never saw it again. They may pull it down after Christmas, if they like, +for me. And Dives, too, the scamp, talking pulpit. He thinks of nothing +but side-dishes and money. As worldly a dog as there is in England!" + +Jekyl Marlowe could get angry enough on occasion, but he was not prone +to sour tempers and peevish humours. There was, however, just now, +something to render him uncomfortable and irritable, and that was that +his expected guests, Mr. Guy Strangways and M. Varbarriere had not kept +tryste. The day appointed for their visit had come and gone, and no +appearance made. In an ordinary case a hundred and fifty accidents might +account for such a miscarriage; but there was in this the unavowed +specialty which excited and sickened his mind, and haunted his steps and +his bed with suspicions; and he fancied he could understand a little how +Herod felt when he was mocked of the wise men. + +Next morning's post-bag brought Sir Jekyl two letters, one of which +relieved, and the other rather vexed him, though not very profoundly. +This latter was from his mother-in-law, Lady Alice, in reply to his +civil note, and much to his surprise, accepting his invitation to +Marlowe. + +"Cross-grained old woman! She's coming, for no reason on earth but to +vex me. It shan't though. I'll make her most damnably welcome. We'll +amuse her till she has not a leg to stand on; we'll take her an +excursion every second day, and bivouac on the side of a mountain, or in +the bottom of a wet valley. We'll put the young ponies to the phaeton, +and Dutton shall run them away with her. I'll get up theatricals, and +balls, and concerts; and I'll have breakfast at nine instead of ten. +I'll entertain her with a vengeance, egad! We'll see who'll stand it +longest." + +A glance at the foot of the next letter, which was a large document, on +a bluish sheet of letter-paper, showed him what he expected, the +official autograph of Messrs. Pelter and Crowe; it was thus expressed-- + + "MY DEAR SIR JEKYL MARLOWE,-- + + "Pursuant to yours of the --th, and in accordance with the + instructions therein contained, we have made inquiries, as therein + directed, in all available quarters, and have received answers to + our letters, and trust that the copies thereof, and the general + summary of the correspondence, which we hope to forward by this + evening's post, will prove satisfactory to you. The result seems to + us clearly to indicate that your information has not been well + founded, and that there has been no movement in the quarter to + which your favour refers, and that no member--at all events no + prominent member--of that family is at present in England. In + further execution of your instructions, as conveyed in your favour + as above, we have, through a reliable channel, learned that Messrs. + Smith, Rumsey, and Snagg, have nothing in the matter of Deverell at + present in their office. Nor has there been, we are assured, any + correspondence from or on the part of any of those clients for the + last five terms or more. Notwithstanding, therefore, the + coincidence of the date of your letter with the period to which, on + a former occasion, we invited your attention, as indicated by the + deed of 1809--" + +"What the plague is that?" interpolated Sir Jekyl. "They want me to +write and ask, and pop it down in the costs;" and after a vain endeavour +to recall it, he read the passage over again with deliberate emphasis. + + "Notwithstanding, therefore, the coincidence of the date of your + letter with the period to which, on a former occasion, we invited + your attention, as indicated by the deed of 1809, we are clear upon + the evidence of the letters, copies of which will be before you as + above by next post, that there is no ground for supposing any + unusual activity on the part or behalf of the party or parties to + whom you have referred. + + "Awaiting your further directions, + + "I have the honour to remain, + + "My dear Sir Jekyl Marlowe, + + "Your obedient servant, + + "N. CROWE. + + "For PELTER and CROWE. + + "Sir Jekyl Marlowe, Bart. + + "Marlowe, Old Swayton." + +When Sir Jekyl read this he felt all on a sudden a dozen years younger. +He snapped his fingers, and smiled, in spite of himself. He could +hardly bring himself to acknowledge, even in soliloquy, how immensely +he was relieved. The sun shone delightfully: and his spirits returned +quite brightly. He would have liked to cricket, to ride a +steeple-chase--anything that would have breathed and worked him well, +and given him a fair occasion for shouting and cheering. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Old Gryston Bridge. + + +Very merry was the Baronet at the social breakfast-table, and the whole +party very gay, except those few whose natures were sedate or +melancholic. + +"A tremendous agreeable man, Sir Jekyl--don't you think so, Jennie?" +said General Lennox to his wife, as he walked her slowly along the +terrace at the side of the house. + +"I think him intolerably noisy, and sometimes absolutely vulgar," +answered Lady Jane, with a languid disdain, which conveyed alike her +estimate of her husband's discernment and of Sir Jekyl's merits. + +"Well, I thought he was agreeable. Some of his jokes I think, indeed, +had not much sense in them. But sometimes I don't see a witty thing as +quick as cleverer fellows do, and they were all laughing, except you; +and I don't think you like him, Jennie." + +"I don't dislike him. I dare say he's a very worthy soul; but he gives +me a headache." + +"He _is_ a little bit noisy, maybe. Yes, he certainly _is_," acquiesced +the honest General, who in questions of taste and nice criticism, was +diffident of his own judgment, and leaned to his wife's. "But I thought +he was rather a pleasant fellow. I'm no great judge; but I like to see +fellows laughing, and that sort of thing. It looks good-humoured, don't +you think?" + +"I hate good-humour," said Lady Jane. + +The General, not knowing exactly what to say next, marched by her side +in silence, till Lady Jane let go his arm, and sat down on the rustic +seat which commands so fine a view, and, leaning back, eyed the +landscape with a dreamy indolence, as if she was going to "cut" it. + +The General scanned it with a military eye, and his reconnoitering +glance discerned, coming up the broad walk at his right, their host, +with pretty Mrs. Maberly on his arm, doing the honours plainly very +agreeably. + +On seeing the General and Lady Jane, he smiled, quickened his pace, and +raised his hat. + +"So glad we have found you," said he. "Charming weather, isn't it? _You_ +must determine, Lady Jane, what's to be done to-day. There are two +things you really ought to see--Gryston Bridge and Hazelden Castle. I +assure you the great London artists visit both for studies. We'll take +our luncheon there, it's such a warm, bright day--that is, if you like +the plan--and, which do you say?" + +"My husband always votes for me. What does Mrs. Maberly say?" and Lady +Jane looked in her face with one of her winning smiles. + +"Yes, what does Mrs. Maberly say?" echoed the General, gallantly. + +"So you won't advise?" said the Baronet, leaning toward Lady Jane, a +little reproachfully. + +"I won't advise," she echoed, in her indolent way. + +"Which is the best?" inquired Mrs. Maberly, gleefully. "What a charming +idea!" + +"For my part, I have a headache, you know, Arthur--I told you, dear; and +I shall hardly venture a long excursion, I think. What do you advise +to-day?" + +"Well, I think it might do you good--hey? What do _you_ say, Sir Jekyl?" + +"So very sorry to hear Lady Jane is suffering; but I really think your +advice, General Lennox--it's so very fine and mild--and I think it might +amuse Lady Jane;" and he glanced at the lady, who, however, wearing her +bewitching smile, was conversing with Mrs. Maberly about a sweet little +white dog, with long ears and a blue ribbon, which had accompanied her +walk from the house. + +"Well, dear, Sir Jekyl wants to know. What do you say?" inquired the +General. + +"Oh, pray arrange as you please. I dare say I can go. It's all the +same," answered Lady Jane, without raising her eyes from silvery little +Bijou, on whom she bestowed her unwonted smiles and caresses. + +"You belong to Beatrix, you charming little fairy--I'm sure you do; and +is not it very wicked to go out with other people without leave, you +naughty little truant?" + +"You must not attack her so. She really loves Beatrix; and though she +has come out just to take the air with me, I don't think she cares +twopence about me; and I know I don't about her." + +"What a cruel speech!" cried pretty Mrs. Maberly, with a laugh that +showed her exquisite little teeth. + +"The _fact_ is cruel--if you will--not the speech--for she can't hear +it," said Sir Jekyl, patting Bijou. + +"So they _act_ love to your face, poor little dog, and say what they +please of you behind your back," murmured Lady Jane, soothingly, to +little Bijou, who wagged his tail and wriggled to her feet. "Yes, they +do, poor little dog!" + +"Well, I shall venture--may I? I'll order the carriages at one. And +we'll say Gryston Bridge," said Sir Jekyl, hesitating notwithstanding, +inquiry plainly in his countenance. + +"Sir Jekyl's waiting, dear," said General Lennox, a little imperiously. + +"I really don't care. _Yes_, then," she said, and, getting up, she took +the General's arm and walked away, leaving Mrs. Maberly and her host to +their _tête-à-tête_. + +Gryston Bridge is one of the prettiest scenes in that picturesque part +of the country. A river slowly winds its silvery way through the level +base of a beautifully irregular valley. No enclosure breaks the dimpling +and undulating sward--for it is the common of Gryston--which rises in +soft pastoral slopes at either side, forming the gentle barriers of the +valley, which is closed in at the further end by a bold and Alpine hill, +with a base rising purple and domelike from the plain; and in this +perspective the vale of Gryston diverges, and the two streams, which at +its head unite to form the slow-flowing current of the Greet, are lost +to sight. Trees of nature's planting here and there overhang its stream, +and others, solitarily or in groups, stud the hill-sides and the soft +green plain. A strange row of tall, gray stones, Druidic or monumental, +of a bygone Cyclopean age, stand up, time-worn and mysterious, on a +gentle slope, with a few bending thorn and birch trees beside them, in +the near distance; and in the foreground, the steep, Gothic bridge of +Gretford, or Gryston, spans the river, with five tall arches, and a +loop-holed gate-house, which once guarded the pass, now roofless and +ruined. + +In this beautiful and sequestered scene the party from Marlowe had +loitered away that charming afternoon. The early sunset had been rapidly +succeeded by twilight, and the moon had surprised them. The servants +were packing up hampers of plates and knives and forks, and getting the +horses to for the return to Marlowe; while, in the early moonlight a +group stood upon the bridge, overlooking from the battlement the sweet +landscape in its changing light. + +Sir Jekyl could see that Captain Drayton was by Beatrix's side, and +concluded, rightly, I have no doubt, that his conversation was tinted by +the tender lights of that romantic scenery. + +"The look back on this old bridge from those Druidic stones there by +moonlight is considered very fine. It is no distance--hardly four +hundred steps from this--although it looks so misty," said the Baronet +to Lady Jane, who leaned on his arm. "Suppose we make a little party, +will you venture?" + +I suppose the lady acquiesced, for Sir Jekyl ordered that the carriages +should proceed round by the road, and take them up at the point where +these Druidic remains stand. + +The party who ventured this little romantic walk over the grass, were +General Lennox, in charge of the mature Miss Blunket, who loved a frolic +with all her girlish heart; Sir Jekyl, with Lady Jane upon his arm; and +Captain Drayton, who escorted Beatrix. Marching gaily, in open column, +as the General would have said, they crossed the intervening hollow, and +reached the hillock, on which stand these ungainly relics of a bygone +race; and up the steep bank they got, each couple as best they could. +Sir Jekyl and Lady Jane, for he knew the ground, by an easy path, were +first to reach the upper platform. + +Sir Jekyl, I dare say, was not very learned about the Druids, and I +can't say exactly what he was talking about, when on a sudden he +arrested both his step and his sentence, for on one of these great +prostrate stones which strew that summit, he saw standing, not a dozen +steps away, well illuminated by the moon, the figure of that very Guy +Strangways, whom he so wished and hated to see--whom he had never beheld +without such strange sensations, and had not expected to see again. + +The young man took no note of them apparently. He certainly did not +recognise Sir Jekyl, whose position placed his face in the shade, while +that of Mr. Strangways was full in the white light of the moon. + +They had found him almost in the act of descending from his pedestal; +and he was gone in a few moments, before the Baronet had recovered from +his surprise. + +The vivid likeness which he bore to a person whom the Baronet never +wished to think of, and the suddenness of his appearance and his +vanishing, had reimpressed him with just the same secret alarms and +misgivings as when first he saw him; and the serene confidence induced +by the letter of Messrs. Pelter and Crowe was for a moment demolished. +He dropped Lady Jane's arm, and forgetting his chivalry, strode to the +brow of the hillock, over which the mysterious young man had +disappeared. He had lost sight of him, but he emerged in a few seconds, +about fifty yards away, from behind a screen of thorn, walking swiftly +toward the road close by, on which stood a chaise, sharp in the misty +moonlight. + +Just in time to prevent his shouting after the figure, now on the point +of re-entering the vehicle, he recollected and checked himself. Confound +the fellows, if they did not appreciate his hospitality, should he run +after them; or who were they that he should care a pin about them? Had +he not Pelter and Crowe's letter? And suppose he did overtake and engage +the young rogue in talk, what could he expect but a parcel of polite +lies. Certainly, under the circumstances, pursuit would have been +specially undignified; and the Baronet drew himself up on the edge of +the eminence, and cast a haughty half-angry look after the young +gentleman, who was now stepping into the carriage; and suddenly he +recollected how very ill he had treated Lady Jane, and he hastened to +rejoin her. + +But Sir Jekyl, in that very short interval, had lost something of his +spirits. The sight of that young man had gone far to undo the +tranquillising effect of his attorneys' letter. He would not have cared +had this unchanged phantom of the past and his hoary mentor been still +in England, provided it were at a distance. But here they were, on the +confines of his property, within a short drive of Marlowe, yet affecting +to forget his invitation, his house, and himself, and detected prowling +in its vicinity like spies or poachers by moonlight. Was there not +something insidious in this? It was not for nothing that so well-bred a +person as that young man thus trampled on all the rules of courtesy for +the sake of maintaining his incognito, and avoiding the obligations of +hospitality. + +So reasoned Sir Jekyl Marlowe, and felt himself rapidly relapsing into +that dreamy and intense uneasiness, from which for a few hours he had +been relieved. + +"A thousand apologies, Lady Jane," cried he, as he ran back and +proffered his arm again. "I was afraid that fellow might be one of a +gang--a very dangerous lot of rogues--poachers, I believe. There were +people robbed here about a year ago, and I quite forgot when I asked you +to come. I should never have forgiven myself--so selfishly +forgetful--never, had you been frightened." + +Sir Jekyl could, of course, tell fibs, especially by way of apology, as +plausibly as other men of the world. He had here turned a negligence +skilfully into a gallantry, and I suppose the lady forgave him. + +The carriages had now arrived at the bend of this pretty road; and our +Marlowe friends got in, and the whole cortège swept away merrily towards +that old mansion. Sir Jekyl had been, with an effort, very lively all +the way home, and assisted Lady Jane to the ground, smiling, and had a +joke for General Lennox as he followed; and a very merry party mustered +in the hall, prattling, laughing, and lighting their candles, to run +up-stairs and dress for a late dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The Strangers appear again. + + +Sir Jekyl was the last of the party in the hall; and the last joke and +laugh had died away on the lobby above him, and away fled his smiles +like the liveries and brilliants of Cinderella to the region of +illusions, and black care laid her hand on his shoulder and stood by +him. + +The bland butler, with a grave bow, accosted him in mild accents-- + +"The two gentlemen, sir, as you spoke of to Mrs. Sinnott, has arrived +about five minutes before you, sir; and she has, please sir, followed +your directions, and had them put in the rooms in the front, as you +ordered, sir, should be kept for them, before Mrs. Gwynn left." + +"_What_ two gentlemen?" demanded Sir Jekyl, with a thrill. "Mr. +Strangways and M. Varbarriere?" + +"Them, sir, I think, is the names--Strangways, leastways, I am sure on, +'aving lived, when young, with a branch of the Earl of Dilbury's family, +if you please, sir--which Strangways is the name." + +"A good-looking young gentleman, tall and slight, eh?" + +"Yes, sir; and a heavy gentleman haccompanies him--something in years--a +furriner, as I suppose, and speaking French or Jarmin; leastways, it is +not English." + +"Dinner in twenty minutes," said Sir Jekyl, with the decision of the +Duke of Wellington in action; and away he strode to his dressing-room in +the back settlements, with a quick step and a thoughtful face. + +"I shan't want you, Tomlinson, you need not stay," said he to his man; +but before he let him go, he asked carelessly a word or two about the +new guests, and learned, in addition to what he already knew, nothing +but that they had brought a servant with them. + +"So much the worse," thought Sir Jekyl; "those confounded fellows hear +everything, and poke their noses everywhere. I sometimes think that +rascal, Tomlinson, pries about here." + +And the Baronet, half-dressed, opened the door of his study, as he +called it, at the further end of his homely bedchamber, and looked +round. + +It is or might be a comfortable room, of some five-and-twenty feet +square, surrounded by bookshelves, as homely as the style of the +bed-room, stored with volumes of the "Annual Register," "Gentleman's +Magazine," and "Universal History" sort--long rows in dingy +gilding--moved up here when the old library of Marlowe was broken up. +The room had a dusty air of repose about it. A few faded pieces of +old-fashioned furniture, which had probably been quartered here in +genteel retirement, long ago, when the principal sitting-rooms were +undergoing a more modern decoration. + +Here Sir Jekyl stood with a sudden look of dejection, and stared +listlessly round on the compact wall of books that surrounded him, +except for the one door-case, that through which he had entered, and the +two windows, on all sides. Sir Jekyl was in a sort of collapse of +spirits. He stepped dreamily to the far shelf and took down a volume of +Old Bailey Reports, and read the back of it several times, then looked +round once more dejectedly, and blew the top of the volume, and wondered +at the quantity of dust there, and replacing it, heaved a deep sigh. +Dust and death are old associations, and his thoughts were running in a +gloomy channel. + +"Is it worth all this?" he thought. "I'm growing tired of it--utterly. +I'm half sorry I came here; perhaps they are right. It might be a +devilish good thing for me if this rubbishy old house were burnt to the +ground--and I in it, by Jove! 'Out, out, brief candle!' What's that +Shakspeare speech?--'A tale told by an idiot--a play played by an +idiot'--egad! I don't know why I do half the things I do." + +When he looked in the glass he did not like the reflection. + +"Down in the mouth--hang it! this will never do," and he shook his +curls, and smirked, and thought of the ladies, and bustled away over his +toilet; and when it was completed, as he fixed in his jewelled +wrist-buttons, the cold air and shadow of his good or evil angel's wing +crossed him again, and he sighed. Capricious were his moods. Our wisdom +is so frivolous, and our frivolities so sad. Is there time here to +think out anything completely? Is it possible to hold by our +conclusions, or even to remember them long? And this trifling and +suffering are the woof and the warp of an eternal robe--wedding garment, +let us hope--maybe winding-sheet, or--toga molesta. + +Sir Jekyl, notwithstanding his somewhat interrupted toilet, was in the +drawing-room before many of his guests had assembled. He hesitated for a +moment at the door, and turned about with a sickening thrill, and walked +to the table in the outer hall, or vestibule, where the post-bag lay. He +had no object in this countermarch, but to postpone for a second or two +the meeting with the gentlemen whom, with, as he sometimes fancied, very +questionable prudence, he had invited under his roof. + +And now he entered, frank, gay, smiling. His eyes did not search, they +were, as it were, smitten instantaneously with a sense of pain, by the +image of the young man, so handsome, so peculiar, sad, and noble, the +sight of whom had so moved him. He was conversing with old Colonel +Doocey, at the further side of the fireplace. In another moment Sir +Jekyl was before him, his hand very kindly locked in his. + +"Very happy to see you here, Mr. Strangways." + +"I am very much honoured, Sir Jekyl Marlowe," returned the young +gentleman, in that low sweet tone which he also hated. "I have many +apologies to make. We have arrived two days later than your note +appointed; but an accident--" + +"Pray, not a word--your appearance here is the best compensation you +can make me. Your friend, Monsieur Varbarriere, I hope--" + +"My uncle--yes; he, too, has the honour. Will you permit me to present +him? Monsieur Varbarriere," said the young man, presenting his relative. + +A gentleman at this summons turned suddenly from General Lennox, with +whom he had been talking; a high-shouldered, portly man, taller a good +deal when you approached him than he looked at first; his hair, "all +silvered," brushed up like Louis Philippe's, conically from his +forehead; grey, heavily projecting eyebrows, long untrimmed moustache +and beard; altogether a head and face which seemed to indicate that +combination of strong sense and sensuality which we see in some of the +medals of Roman Emperors; a forehead projecting at the brows, and keen +dark eyes in shadow, observing all things from under their grizzled +pent-house; these points, and a hooked nose, and a certain weight and +solemnity of countenance, gave to the large and rather pallid aspect, +presented suddenly to the Baronet, something, as we have said, of the +character of an old magician. Voluminous plaited black trousers, +slanting in to the foot, foreshadowed the peg-top of more recent date; a +loose and long black velvet waistcoat, with more gold chain and +jewellery generally than Englishmen are accustomed to wear, and a wide +and clumsy black coat, added to the broad and thick-set character of his +figure. + +As Sir Jekyl made his complimentary speech to this gentleman, he saw +that his steady and shrewd gaze was attentively considering him in a +way that a little tried his patience; and when the stranger spoke it was +in French, and in that peculiar metallic diapason which we sometimes +hear among the Hebrew community, and which brings the nasals of that +tongue into sonorous and rather ugly relief. + +"England is, I dare say, quite new to you, Monsieur Varbarriere?" +inquired Sir Jekyl. + +"I have seen it a very long time ago, and admire your so fine country +very much," replied the pallid and bearded sage, speaking in French +still, and in those bell-like tones which rang and buzzed unpleasantly +in the ear. + +"You find us the same foggy and tasteless islanders as before," said the +host. "In art, indeed, we have made an advance; _there_, I think, we +have capabilities, but we are as a people totally deficient in that fine +decorative sense which expresses itself so gracefully and universally in +your charming part of the world." + +When Sir Jekyl talked of France, he was generally thinking of Paris. + +"We have our barbarous regions, as you have; our vineyards are a dull +sight after all, and our forest trees you, with your grand timber, would +use for broom-sticks." + +"But your capital; why every time one looks out at the window it is a +fillip to one's spirits. To me, preferring France so infinitely, as I +do," said Sir Jekyl, replying in his guest's language, "it appears a +mystery why any Frenchman, who can help it, ever visits our dismal +region." + +The enchanter here shrugged slowly, with a solemn smile. + +"No wonder our actions are mysterious to others, since they are so often +so to ourselves." + +"You are best acquainted with the south of France?" said Sir Jekyl, +without any data for such an assumption, and saying the reverse of what +he suspected. + +"Very well with the south; pretty well, indeed, with most parts." + +Just at this moment Mr. Ridley's bland and awful tones informed the +company that dinner was on the table, and Sir Jekyl hastened to afford +to Lady Blunket the support of his vigorous arm into the parlour. + +It ought to have been given to Lady Jane; but the Blunket was a huffy +old woman, and, on the score of a very decided seniority, was indulged. + +Lady Blunket was not very interesting, and was of the Alderman's +opinion, that conversation prevents one's tasting the green fat; Sir +Jekyl had, therefore, time, with light and careless glances, to see +pretty well, from time to time, what was going on among his guests. +Monsieur Varbarriere had begun to interest him more than Mr. Guy +Strangways, and his eye oftener reviewed that ponderous and solemn face +and form than any other at the table. It seemed that he liked his +dinner, and attended to his occupation. But though taciturn, his shrewd +eyes glanced from time to time on the host and his guests with an air of +reserved observation that showed his mind was anything but sluggish +during the process. He looked wonderfully like some of those enchanters +whom we have seen in illustrations of Don Quixote. + +"A deep fellow," he thought, "an influential fellow. That gentleman +knows what he's about; that young fellow is in his hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +In the Drawing-Room. + + +Sir Jekyl heard snatches of conversation, sometimes here, sometimes +there. + +Guy Strangways was talking to Beatrix, and the Baronet heard him say, +smiling-- + +"But you don't, I'm sure, believe in the elixir of life; you only mean +to mystify us." He was looking more than ever--identical with that other +person, whom it was not pleasant to Sir Jekyl to be reminded +of--horribly like, in this white waxlight splendour. + +"But there's another process, my uncle, Monsieur Varbarriere, says, by +slow refrigeration: you are first put to sleep, and in that state +frozen; and once frozen, without having suffered death, you may be kept +in a state of suspended life for twenty or thirty years, neither +conscious, nor growing old; arrested precisely at the point of your +existence at which the process was applied, and at the same point +restored again whenever for any purpose it may be expedient to recall +you to consciousness and activity." + +One of those restless, searching glances which the solemn, portly old +gentleman in black directed, from time to time, as he indulged his +taciturn gulosity, lighted on the Baronet at this moment, and Sir Jekyl +felt that they exchanged an unintentional glance of significance. Each +averted his quickly; and Sir Jekyl, with one of his chuckles, for the +sake merely of saying something, remarked-- + +"I don't see how you can restore people to life by freezing them." + +"He did not speak, I think, of restoring life--did you, Guy?" said the +bell-toned diapason of the old gentleman, speaking his nasal French. + +"Oh, no--suspending merely," answered the young man. + +"To restore life, you must have recourse, I fancy, to a higher process," +continued the sage, with an ironical gravity, and his eye this time +fixed steadily on Sir Jekyl's; "and I could conceive none more +embarrassing to the human race, _under certain circumstances_," and he +shrugged slowly and shook his head. + +"How delightful!--no more death!" exclaimed enthusiastic Miss Blunket. + +"Embarrassing, of course, I mean, to certain of the survivors." + +This old gentleman was hitting his tenderest points rather hard and +often. Was it by chance or design? Who was he? + +So thought the Baronet as he smiled and nodded. + +"Do you know who that fat old personage is who dresses like an +undertaker and looks like a Jew?" asked Captain Drayton of Beatrix. + +"I think he is a relative of Mr. Strangways." + +"And who is Mr. Strangways?" + +"He's at my right, next me," answered she in a low tone, not liking the +very clear and distinct key in which the question was put. + +But Captain Drayton was not easily disconcerted, being a young gentleman +of a bold and rather impertinent temperament, and he continued leaning +back in his chair and looking dreamily into his hock-glass. + +"Not a friend of yours, is he?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Really--not a friend. You're _quite_ certain?" + +"Perfectly. We never saw either--that is, papa met them at some posting +place on his way from London, and invited them; but I think he knows +nothing more." + +"Well, I did not like to say till I knew, but I think him--the old +fellow--I have not seen the young man--a most vulgar-looking old person. +He's a wine-jobber, or manager of a factory, or something. You never +saw--I know Paris by heart--you _never saw_ such a thing in gentlemanly +society there." + +And the young lady heard him say, _sotto voce_, "Brute!" haughtily to +himself, as an interjection, while he just raised the finger-tips of the +hand which rested on the table, and let them descend again on the snowy +napery. The subject deserved no more troublesome gesture. + +"And where is the young gentleman?" asked Captain Drayton, after a +little interval. + +Beatrix told him again. + +"Oh! _That's_ he! Isn't his French very bad--did it strike you? Bad +_accent_--I can tell in a moment. That's not an accent one hears +anywhere." + +Oddly enough, Sir Jekyl at the same time, with such slight interruptions +as his agreeable attentions to Lady Blunket imposed, was, in the +indistinct way in which such discussions are mentally pursued, observing +upon the peculiarities of his two new guests, and did not judge them +amiss. + +The elder was odd, take him for what country you pleased. Bearded like a +German, speaking good French, with a good accent, but in the loud full +tones of a Spaniard, and with a quality of voice which resounds in the +synagogue, and a quietude of demeanour much more English than +continental. His dress, such as I have described it, fine in material, +but negligent and easy, though odd. Reserved and silent he was, a little +sinister perhaps, but his bearing unconstrained and gracious when he +spoke. There was, indeed, that odd, watchful glance from under his heavy +eyebrows, which, however, had nothing sly, only observant, in it. Again +he thought, "Who could he be?" On the whole, Sir Jekyl was in nowise +disposed to pronounce upon him as Captain Drayton was doing a little way +down the table; nor yet upon Guy Strangways, whom he thought, on the +contrary, an elegant young man, according to French notions of the +gentlemanly, and he knew the French people a good deal better than the +youthful Captain did. + +The principal drawing-room of Marlowe is a very large apartment, and +people can talk of one another in it without any risk of detection. + +"Well, Lady Jane," said the Baronet, sitting down before that handsome +woman, and her husband the General, so as to interrupt a conjugal +_tête-à-tête_, probably a particularly affectionate one, for he was to +leave for London next day. "I saw you converse with Monsieur +Varbarriere. What do you think of him?" + +"I don't think I conversed with him--did I? He talked to me; but I +really did not take the trouble to think about him." + +The General laughed triumphantly, and glanced over his shoulder at the +Baronet. He liked his wife's contempt for the rest of the sex, and her +occasional--_only_ occasional--enthusiasm for him. + +"Now you are much too clever, Lady Jane, to be let off so. I really want +to know something about him, which I don't at present; and if anyone can +help me to a wise conjecture, you, I am certain, can." + +"And don't you really know who he is?" inquired General Lennox, with a +haughty military surprise. + +"Upon my honour, I have not the faintest idea," answered Sir Jekyl. "He +may be a cook or a rabbi, for anything I can tell." + +The General's white eyebrows went some wrinkles up the slanting ascent +of his pink forehead, and he plainly looked his amazement that Lady Jane +should have been subjected at Marlowe to the risk of being accosted on +equal terms by a cook or a rabbi. His lips screwed themselves +unconsciously into a small o, and his eyes went in search of the +masquerading menial. + +"We had a cook," said the General, still eyeing M. Varbarriere, "at +Futtychur, a French fellow, fat like that, but shorter--a capital cook, +by Jove! and a very gentlemanly man. He wore a white cap, and he had a +very good way of stewing tomatas and turkeys, I think it was, and--yes +it was--and a monstrous gentlemanlike fellow he was; rather too +expensive though; he cost us a great deal," and the General winked +slyly. "I had to speak to him once or twice. But an uncommon +gentlemanlike man." + +"He's not a cook, my dear. He may be a banker, perhaps," said Lady Jane, +languidly. + +"You have exactly hit my idea," said Sir Jekyl. "It was his knowing all +about French banking, General, when you mentioned that trick that was +played you on the Bourse." + +At this moment the massive form and face of M. Varbarriere was seen +approaching with Beatrix by his side. They were conversing, but the +little group we have just been listening to dropped the discussion of M. +Varbarriere, and the Baronet said that he hoped General Lennox would +have a fine day for his journey, and that the moon looked particularly +bright and clear. + +"I want to show Monsieur Varbarriere the drawings of the house, papa; +they are in this cabinet. He admires the architecture very much." + +The large enchanter in black made a solemn bow of acquiescence here, but +said nothing and Beatrix took from its nook a handsome red-leather +portfolio, on the side of which, in tall golden letters, were the +words-- + + VIEWS AND ELEVATIONS + OF + MARLOWE MANOR HOUSE. + PAULO ABRUZZI, + ARCHITECT. + 1711. + +"Capital drawing, I am told. He was a young man of great promise," said +Sir Jekyl, in French. "But the style is quite English, and, I fear, will +hardly interest an eye accustomed to the more graceful contour of +southern continental architecture." + +"Your English style interests me very much. It is singular, and suggests +hospitality, enjoyment, and mystery." + +Monsieur Varbarriere was turning over these tinted drawings carefully. + +"Is not that very true, papa--hospitality, enjoyment, mystery?" repeated +Beatrix. "I think that faint character of mystery is so pleasant. We +have a mysterious room here." She had turned to M. Varbarriere. + +"Oh, a dozen," interrupted Sir Jekyl. "No end of ghosts and devils, you +know. But I really think you excel us in that article. I resided for +five weeks in a haunted house once, near Havre, and the stories were +capital, and there were some very good noises too. We must get Dives to +tell it by-and-by; he was younger than I, and more frightened." + +"And Mademoiselle says you have a haunted apartment here," said the +ponderous foreigner with the high forehead and projecting brows. + +"Yes, of course. We are very much haunted. There is hardly a crooked +passage or a dark room that has not a story," said Sir Jekyl. "Beatrix, +why don't you sing us a song, by-the-bye?" + +"May I beg one other favour first, before the crowning one of the song?" +said M. Varbarriere, with an imposing playfulness. "Mademoiselle, I am +sure, tells a story well. Which, I entreat, is the particular room you +speak of?" + +"We call it the green chamber," said Beatrix. + +"The green chamber--what a romantic title!" exclaimed the large +gentleman in black, graciously; "and where is it situated?" he pursued. + +"We must really put you into it," said Sir Jekyl. + +"Nothing I should like so well," he observed, with a bow. + +"That is, of course, whenever it is deserted. You have not been plagued +with apparitions, General? Even Lady Jane--and there are no ghost-seers +like ladies, I've observed--has failed to report anything horrible." + +His hand lay on the arm of her chair, and, as he spoke, for a moment +pressed hers, which, not choosing to permit such accidents, she, turning +carelessly and haughtily toward the other speakers, slipped away. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Music. + + +"And pray, Mademoiselle Marlowe, in what part of the house is this so +wonderful room situated?" persisted the grave and reverend signor. + +"Quite out of the question to describe to one who does not already know +the house," interposed Sir Jekyl. "It is next the six-sided +dressing-room, which opens from the hatchment gallery--that is its exact +situation; and I'm afraid I have failed to convey it," said Sir Jekyl, +with one of his playful chuckles. + +The Druidic-looking Frenchman shrugged and lifted his fingers with a +piteous expression of perplexity, and shook his head. + +"Is there not among these drawings a view of the side of the house where +this room lies?" he inquired. + +"I was looking it out," said Beatrix. + +"I'll find it, Trixie. Go you and sing us a song," said the Baronet. + +"I've got them both, papa. Now, Monsieur Varbarriere, here they are. +This is the front view--this is the side." + +"I am very much obliged," said Monsieur examining the drawings +curiously. "The room recedes. This large bow-window belongs to it. Is +it not so?--wide room?--how long? You see I want to understand +everything. Ah! yes, here is the side view. It projects from the side of +the older building, I see. How charming! And this is the work of the +Italian artist? The style is quite novel--a mixture partly +Florentine--really very elegant. Did he build anything more here?" + +"Yes, a very fine row of stables, and a temple in the grounds," said Sir +Jekyl. "You shall see them to-morrow." + +"The chamber green. Yes, very clever, very pretty;" and having eyed them +over again carefully, he said, laying them down-- + +"A curious as well as a handsome old house, no doubt. Ah! very curious, +I dare say," said the sage Monsieur Varbarriere. "Are there here the +ground plans?" + +"We have them somewhere, I fancy, among the title-deeds, but none here," +said Sir Jekyl, a little stiffly, as if it struck him that his visitor's +curiosity was a trifle less ceremonious than, all things considered, it +might be. + +Pretty Beatrix was singing now to her own accompaniment; and Captain +Drayton, twisting the end of his light moustache, stood haughtily by her +side. The music in his ear was but a half-heard noise. Indeed, although +he had sat out operas innumerable, like other young gentlemen, who would +sit out as many hours of a knife-grinder's performance, or of a railway +whistle, if it were the fashion, had but an imperfect recollection of +the airs he had paid so handsomely to hear, and was no authority on +music of any sort. + +Now Beatrix was pretty--more than pretty. Some people called her lovely. +She sang in that rich and plaintive contralto--so rare and so +inexplicably moving--the famous "Come Gentil," from Don Pasquale. When +she ceased, the gentleman at her other side, Guy Strangways, sighed--not +a complimentary--a real sigh. + +"That is a wonderful song, the very spirit of a serenade. Such +distance--such gaiety--such sadness. Your Irish poet, Thomas Moore, +compares some spiritual music or kind voice to sunshine spoken. This is +_moonlight_--moonlight _sung_, and _so_ sung that I could dream away +half a life in listening, and yet sigh when it ceases." + +Mr. Guy Strangway's strange, dark eyes looked full on her, as with an +admiring enthusiasm he said these words. + +The young lady smiled, looking up for a moment from the music-stool, and +then with lowered eyes again, and that smile of gratification which is +so beautiful in a lovely girl's face. + +"It is quite charming, really. I'm no musician, you know; but I enjoy +good music extravagantly, especially singing," said Captain Drayton. "I +don't aspire to talk sentiment and that kind of poetry." He was, +perhaps, near using a stronger term--"a mere John Bull; but it _is_, +honestly, charming." + +He had his glass in his eye, and turned back the leaf of the song to the +title-page. + +"Don Pasquale--yes. Sweet opera that. How often I have listened to +Mario in it! But never, Miss Marlowe, with more real pleasure than to +the charming performance I have just heard." + +Captain Drayton was not making his compliment well, and felt it somehow. +It was clumsy--it was dull--it was meant to override the tribute offered +by Guy Strangways, whose presence he chose, in modern phrase, to ignore; +and yet he felt that he had, as he would have expressed it, rather "put +his foot in it;" and, with just a little flush in his cheek and rather +angry eyes, he stooped over the piano and read the Italian words half +aloud. + +"By-the-bye," he said, suddenly recollecting a topic, "what a sweet +scene that is of Gryston Bridge? Have you ever been to see it before?" + +"Once since we came, we rode there, papa and I," answered Miss Marlowe. +"It looked particularly well this evening--quite beautiful in the +moonlight." + +"Is it possible, Miss Marlowe, that _you_ were there this evening? I and +my uncle stopped on our way here to admire the exquisite effect of the +steep old bridge, with a wonderful foreground of Druidic monuments, as +they seemed to me." + +"Does your father preserve that river?" asked Captain Drayton, coolly +pretermitting Mr. Strangways altogether. + +"I really don't know," she replied, in a slight and hurried way that +nettled the Captain; and, turning to Guy Strangways, she said, "Did you +see it _from_ the bridge?" + +"No, Mademoiselle; from the mound in which those curious stones are +raised," answered Mr. Strangways. + +Captain Drayton felt that Miss Marlowe's continuing to talk to Mr. +Strangways, while _he_ was present and willing to converse, was +extremely offensive, choosing to entertain a low opinion in all respects +of that person. He stooped a little forward, and stared at the stranger +with that ill-bred gaze of insolent surprise which is the peculiar +weapon of Englishmen, and which very distinctly expresses, "who the +devil are you?" + +Perhaps it was fortunate for the harmony of the party that just at this +moment, and before Captain Drayton could say anything specially +impertinent, Sir Jekyl touched Drayton on the shoulder, saying-- + +"Are you for whist?" + +"No, thanks--I'm no player." + +"Oh! Mr. Strangways--I did not see--do _you_ play?" + +Mr. Strangways smiled, bowed, and shook his head. + +"Drayton, did I present you to Mr. Strangways?" and the Baronet made the +two young gentlemen technically known to one another--though, of course, +each knew the other already. + +They bowed rather low, and a little haughtily, neither smiling. I +suppose Sir Jekyl saw something a little dangerous in the countenance of +one at least of the gentlemen as he approached, and chose to remind +them, in that agreeable way, that he was present, and wished them +acquainted, and of course friendly. + +He had now secured old Colonel Doocey to make up his party--the sober +old Frenchman and Sir Paul Blunket making the supplementary two; and +before they had taken their chairs round the card-table, Captain Drayton +said, with a kind of inclination rather insolent than polite-- + +"You are of the Dilbury family, of course? I never knew a Strangways +yet--I mean, of course, a Strangways such as one would be likely to +meet, you know--who was not." + +"You know one now, sir; for I am not connected ever so remotely with +that distinguished family. My family are quite another Strangways." + +"No doubt quite as respectable," said Captain Drayton, with a bow, a +look, and a tone that would have passed for deferential with many; but +which, nevertheless, had the subtle flavour of an irony in it. + +"Perhaps more so; my ancestors are the Strangways of Lynton; you are +aware they had a peerage down to the reign of George II." + +Captain Drayton was not as deep as so fashionable and moneyed a man +ought to have been in extinct peerages, and therefore he made a little +short supercilious bow, and no answer. He looked drowsily toward the +ceiling, and then-- + +"The Strangways of Lynton are on the Continent or something--one does +not hear of them," said Captain Drayton, slightly but grandly. "We are +the Draytons of Drayton Forest, in the same county." + +"Oh! then my uncle is misinformed. He thought that family was extinct, +and lamented over it when we saw the house and place at a distance." + +Captain Drayton coloured a little above his light yellow moustache. He +was no Drayton, but a remotely collateral Smithers, with a queen's +letter constituting him a Drayton. + +"Aw--yes--it is a fine old place--quite misinformed. I can show you our +descent if you wish it." + +If Drayton had collected his ideas a little first he would not have made +this condescension. + +"Your descent is high and pure--_very_ high, I assume--mine is only +respectable--presentable, as you say, but by no means so high as to +warrant my inquiring into that of other people." + +"Inquiry! of course. I did not say inquiry," and with an effort Captain +Drayton almost laughed. + +"Nothing more dull," acquiesced Mr. Strangways slightly. + +Both gentlemen paused--each seemed to expect something from the +other--each seemed rather angrily listening for it. The ostensible +attack had all been on the part of the gallant Captain, who certainly +had not been particularly well bred. The Captain, nevertheless, felt +that Mr. Strangways knew perfectly all about Smithers, and that Smithers +really had not one drop of the Drayton blood in his veins; and he felt +in the sore and secret centre of his soul that the polished, handsome +young gentleman, so easy, so graceful, with that suspicion of a foreign +accent and of foreign gesture, had the best of the unavowed battle. He +had never spoken a word or looked a look in the course of this little +dialogue which could have suggested an idea of altercation, or any kind +of mutual unpleasantness, to the beautiful young girl; who, with one +hand on the keys of the piano, touched them so lightly with her fingers +as to call forth a dream of an air rather than the air itself. + +To her Guy Strangways turned, with his peculiar smile--so winning, yet +so deep--an enigmatic smile that had in it a latent sadness and +fierceness, and by its very ambiguousness interested one. + +"I upbraid myself for losing these precious moments while you sit here, +and might, perhaps, be persuaded to charm us with another song." + +So she was persuaded; Captain Drayton still keeping guard, and +applauding, though with no special goodwill toward the unoffending +stranger. + +The party broke up early. The ladies trooped to their bed-room candles +and ascended the great staircase, chatting harmoniously, and bidding +mutual sweet goodnights as in succession they reached their doors. The +gentlemen, having sat for awhile lazily about the fire, or gathered +round the tray whereon stood sherry and seltzer water, repaired also to +the cluster of bedchamber candlesticks without, and helped themselves, +talking together in like sociable manner. + +"Would you like to come to my room and have a cigar, Monsieur +Varbarriere?" asked the Baronet in French. + +Monsieur was much obliged, and bowed very suavely, but declined. + +"And you, Mr. Strangways?" + +He also, with many thanks, a smile and a bow, declined. + +"My quarters are quite out of reach of the inhabited part of the +house--not very far from two hundred feet from this spot, by Jove! right +in the rear. You must really come to me there some night; you'll be +amused at my deal furniture and rustic barbarism; we often make a party +there and smoke for half an hour." + +So, as they were not to be persuaded, the Baronet hospitably accompanied +them to their rooms, at the common dressing-room door of which stood +little Jacque Duval with his thin, bronzed face, candle in hand, bowing, +to receive his master. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +M. Varbarriere converses with his Nephew. + + +Here then Sir Jekyl bid them good-night, and descended the great +staircase, and navigated the long line of passage to the back stairs +leading up to his own homely apartment. + +The elder man nodded to Jacque, and moved the tips of his fingers +towards the door--a silent intimation which the adroit valet perfectly +understood; so, with a cheerful bow, he withdrew. + +There was a gay little spluttering fire in the grate, which the +sharpness of the night made very pleasant. The clumsy door was shut, and +the room had an air of comfortable secrecy which invited a talk. + +It was not to come, however, without preparation. He drew a chair before +the fire, and sat down solemnly, taking a gigantic cigar from his case, +and moistening it diligently between his lips before lighting it. Then +he pointed to a chair beside the hearth, and presented his cigar-case to +his young companion, who being well versed in his elder's ways, helped +himself, and having, like him, foreign notions about smoking, had of +course no remorse about a cigar or two in their present quarters. + +Up the chimney chiefly whisked the narcotic smoke. Over the ponderous +features and knotted forehead of the sage flushed the uncertain light of +the fire, revealing all the crows' feet--all the lines which years, +thought, passion, or suffering had traced on that large, sombre, and +somewhat cadaverous countenance, reversing oddly some of its shadows, +and glittering with a snakelike brightness on the eyes, which now gazed +grimly into the bars under their heavy brows. + +The large and rather flat foot, shining in French leather, of the portly +gentleman in the ample black velvet waistcoat, rested on the fender, and +he spoke not a word until his cigar was fairly smoked out and the stump +of it in the fire. Abruptly he began, without altering his pose or the +direction of his gaze. + +"You need not make yourself more friendly with any person here than is +absolutely necessary." + +He was speaking French, and in a low tone that sounded like the boom of +a distant bell. + +Young Strangways bowed acquiescence. + +"Be on your guard with Sir Jekyl Marlowe. Tell him _nothing_. Don't let +him be kind to you. He will have no kind motive in being so. Fence with +his questions--don't answer them. Remember he is an artful man without +any scruple. I know him and all about him." + +M. Varbarriere spoke each of these little sentences in an isolated way, +as a smoker might, although he was no longer smoking, between his puffs. +"Therefore, not a word to him--no obligations--no intimacy. If he +catches you by the hand, even by your little finger, in the way of +friendship, he'll cling to it, so as so impede your _arm_, should it +become necessary to exert it." + +"I don't understand you, sir," said the young man, in a deferential +tone, but looking very hard at him. + +"You _partly_ don't understand me; the nature of my direction, however, +is clear. Observe it strictly." + +There was a short silence here. + +"I don't understand, sir, what covert hostility can exist between us; +that is, why I should, in your phrase, keep my hand free to exert it +against him." + +"No, I don't suppose you do." + +"And I can't help regretting that, if such are our possible relations, I +should find myself as a guest under his roof," said the young man, with +a pained and almost resentful look. + +"You can't help regretting, and--you can't help the circumstance," +vibrated his Mentor, in a metallic murmur, his cadaverous features +wearing the same odd character of deep thought and apathy. + +"I don't know, with respect to _him_--I know, however, how it has +affected me--that I have felt unhappy, and even guilty since this +journey commenced, as if I were a traitor and an impostor," said the +young man, with a burst of impatience. + +"Don't, sir, use phrases which reflect back upon _me_," said the other, +turning upon him with a sudden sternness. "All you have done is by my +direction." + +The ample black waistcoat heaved and subsided a little faster than +before, and the imposing countenance was turned with pallid fierceness +upon the young man. + +"I am sorry, uncle." + +"So you should--you'll see one day how little it is to me, and how much +to you." + +Here was a pause. The senior turned his face again toward the fire. The +little flush that in wrath always touched his forehead subsided slowly. +He replaced his foot on the fender, and chose another cigar. + +"There's a great deal you don't see now that you will presently. I did +not want to see Sir Jekyl Marlowe any more than you did or do; but I did +want to see this place. You'll know hereafter why. I'd rather not have +met him. I'd rather not be his guest. Had he been as usual at Dartbroke, +I should have seen all I wanted without that annoyance. It is an +accident his being here--another, his having invited me; but no false +ideas and no trifling chance shall regulate, much less stop, the action +of the machine which I am constructing and will soon put in motion." + +And with these words he lighted his cigar, and after smoking for a while +he lowered it, and said-- + +"Did Sir Jekyl put any questions to you, with a view to learn +particulars about you or me?" + +"I don't recollect that he did. I rather think not; but Captain Drayton +did." + +"I know, _Smithers_?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"With an object?" inquired the elder man. + +"I think not--merely impertinence," answered Guy Strangways. + +"You are right--it is nothing to him. I do not know that even Marlowe +has a suspicion. Absolutely impertinence." + +And upon this M. Varbarriere began to smoke again with resolution and +energy. + +"You understand, Guy; you may be as polite as you please--but no +friendship--nowhere--you must remain quite unembarrassed." + +Here followed some more smoke, and after it the question-- + +"What do you think of the young lady, Mademoiselle Marlowe?" + +"She sings charmingly, and for the rest, I believe she is agreeable; but +my opportunities have been very little." + +"What do you think of our fellow Jacque--is he trustworthy?" + +"Perfectly, so far as I know." + +"You never saw him peep into letters, or that kind of thing?" + +"Certainly not." + +"There is a theory which must be investigated, and I should like to +employ him. You know nothing against him, nor do I." + +"Suppose we go to our beds?" resumed the old gentleman, having finished +his cigar. + +A door at either side opened from the dressing-room, by whose fire they +had been sitting. + +"See which room is meant for me--Jacque will have placed my things +there." + +The young man did as he was bid, and made his report. + +"Well, get you to bed, Guy, and remember--no friendships and no +follies." + +And so the old man rose, and shook his companion's hand, not smiling, +but with a solemn and thoughtful countenance, and they separated for the +night. + +Next morning as the Rev. Dives Marlowe stood in his natty and +unexceptionable clerical costume on the hall-door steps, looking with a +pompous and, perhaps, a somewhat forbidding countenance upon the morning +prospect before him, his brother joined him. + +"Early bird, Dives, pick the worm--eh? Healthy and wise already, and +wealthy to be. Slept well, eh?" + +"Always well here," answered the parson. He was less of a parson and +more like himself with Jekyl than with anyone else. His brother was so +uncomfortably amused with his clerical airs, knew him so well, and so +undisguisedly esteemed him of the earth earthy, that the cleric, +although the abler as well as the better read man, always felt +invariably a little sheepish before him, in his silk vest and +single-breasted coat with the standing collar, and the demi-shovel, +which under other eyes he felt to be imposing properties. + +"You look so like that exemplary young man in Watt's hymns, in the +old-fashioned toggery, Dives--the fellow with the handsome round +cheeks, you know, piously saluting the morning sun that's rising with a +lot of spokes stuck out of it, don't you remember?" + +"I look like something that's ugly, I dare say," said the parson, who +had not got up in a good temper. "There never was a Marlowe yet who +hadn't ugly points about him. But a young man, though never so ugly, is +rather a bold comparison--eh? seeing I'm but two years your junior, +Jekyl." + +"Bitterly true--every word--my dear boy. But let us be pleasant. I've +had a line to say that old Moulders is very ill, and really dying this +time. Just read this melancholy little bulletin." + +With an air which seemed to say, "well, to please you," he took the note +and read it. It was from his steward, to mention that the Rev. Abraham +Moulders was extremely ill of his old complaint, and that there was +something even worse the matter, and that Doctor Winters had said that +morning he could not possibly get over this attack. + +"Well, Dives, there is a case of 'sick and weak' for you; you'll have +prayers for him at Queen's Chorleigh, eh?" + +"Poor old man!" said Dives, solemnly, with his head thrown back, and his +thick eyebrows elevated a little, and looking straight before him as he +returned the note, "he's very ill, indeed, unless this reports much too +unfavourably." + +"Too favourably, you mean," suggested the Baronet. + +"But you know, poor old man, it is only wonderful he has lived so long. +The old people about there say he is eighty-seven. Upon my word, old +Jenkins says he told him, two years ago, himself, he was eighty-five; +and Doctor Winters, no chicken--just sixty--says his father was in the +same college with him, at Cambridge, nearly sixty-seven years ago. You +know, my dear Jekyl, when a man comes to that time of life, it's all +idle--a mere pull against wind and tide, and everything. It is appointed +unto all men once to die, you know, and the natural term is threescore +years and ten. All idle--all in vain!" + +And delivering this, the Rev. Dives Marlowe shook his head with a +supercilious melancholy, as if the Rev. Abraham Moulders' holding out in +that way against the inevitable was a piece of melancholy bravado, +against which, on the part of modest mortality, it was his sad duty to +protest. + +Jekyl's cynicism was tickled, although there was care at his heart, and +he chuckled. + +"And how do you know you have any interest in the old fellow's demise?" + +The Rector coughed a little, and flushed, and looked as careless as he +could, while he answered-- + +"I said nothing of the kind; but you have always told me you meant the +living for me. I've no reason, only your goodness, Jekyl." + +"No goodness at all," said Jekyl, kindly. "You shall have it, of course. +I always meant it for you, Dives, and I wish it were better, and I'm +very glad, for I'm fond of you, old fellow." + +Hereupon they both laughed a little, shaking hands very kindly. + +"Come to the stable, Dives," said the Baronet, taking his arm. "You must +choose a horse. You don't hunt now?" + +"I have not been at a cover for _ten_ years," answered the reverend +gentleman, speaking with a consciousness of the demi-shovel. + +"Well, come along," continued the Baronet. "I want to ask you--let's be +serious" (everybody likes to be serious over his own business). "What do +you think of these foreign personages?" + +"The elder, I should say, an able man," answered Dives; "I dare say +could be agreeable. It is not easy to assign his exact rank though, nor +his profession or business. You remarked he seems to know something in +detail and technically of nearly every business one mentions." + +"Yes; and about the young man--that Mr. Guy Strangways, with his foreign +accent and manner--did anything strike you about him?" + +"Yes, certainly, could not fail. The most powerful likeness, I think, I +ever saw in my life." + +They both stopped, and exchanged a steady and anxious look, as if each +expected the other to say more; and after a while the Rev. Dives Marlowe +added, with an awful sort of nod-- + +"Guy Deverell." + +The Baronet nodded in reply. + +"Well, in fact, he appeared to me something _more_ than like--the +same--identical." + +"And old Lady Alice saw him in Wardlock Church, and was made quite +ill," said the Baronet gloomily. "But you know he's gone these thirty +years; and there is no necromancy now-a-days; only I wish you would take +any opportunity, and try and make out all about him, and what they want. +I brought them here to pump them, by Jove; but that old fellow seems +deuced reserved and wary. Only, like a good fellow, if you can find or +make an opportunity, you must get the young fellow on the subject--for I +don't care to tell you, Dives, I have been devilish uneasy about it. +There are things that make me confoundedly uncomfortable; and I have a +sort of foreboding it would have been better for me to have blown up +this house than to have come here; but ten to one--a hundred to +one--there's nothing, and I'm only a fool." + +As they thus talked they entered the gate of the stable-yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Containing a Variety of Things. + + +"Guy Deverell left no issue," said Dives. + +"No; none in the world; neither chick nor child. I need not care a brass +farthing about any that can't inherit, if there were any; but there +isn't one; there's no real danger, you see. In fact, there _can't_ be +_any_--eh? _I_ don't see it. Do _you_? You were a sharp fellow always, +Dives. _Can_ you see anything threatening in it?" + +"_It! What?_" said the Rev. Dives Marlowe. "I see _nothing--nothing +whatever--absolutely_ nothing. Surely you can't fancy that a mere +resemblance, however strong, where there can't possibly be identity, and +the fact that the young man's name is Guy, will make a case for alarm!" + +"Guy _Strangways_, you know," said Sir Jekyl. + +"Well, what of Strangways? I don't see." + +"Why, Strangways, you remember, or _don't_ remember, was the name of the +fellow that was always with--with--that cross-grained muff." + +"With Guy Deverell, you mean?" + +"Ay, with him that night, and constantly, and abroad I think at those +German gaming-places where he played so much." + +"I forgot the name. I remember hearing there _was_ a person in your +company that unlucky night; but you never heard more of him?" + +"No, of course; for he owed me a precious lot of money;" and from habit +he chuckled, but with something of a frown. "He could have given me a +lot of trouble, but so could I him. My lawyers said he could not +seriously affect me, but he might have annoyed me; and I did not care +about the money, so I did not follow him; and, as the lawyers say, we +turned our backs on one another." + +"Strangways," murmured the Rector, musingly. + +"Do you remember him now?" asked Sir Jekyl. + +"No; that is, I'm not sure. I was in orders then though, and could +hardly have met him. I am sure I should recollect him if I had. What was +he like?" + +"A nasty-looking Scotch dog, with freckles--starved and tall--a hungry +hound--large hands and feet--as ugly a looking cur as you ever beheld." + +"But Deverell, poor fellow, was a bit of a dandy--wasn't he? How did he +come to choose such a companion?" + +"Well, maybe he was not quite as bad as he describes, and his family was +good, I believe; but there must have been something more, he hung about +him so. Yes, he _was_ a most objectionable-looking fellow--so awkward, +and not particularly well dressed; but a canny rascal, and knew what he +was about. I could not make out what use Deverell made of him, nor +exactly what advantage he made of Deverell." + +"I can't for the life of me, see, Jekyl, anything in it except a +resemblance, and that is positively nothing, and a Christian name, that +is all, and Guy is no such uncommon one. As for Strangways, he does not +enter into it at all--a mere accidental association. Where is that +Strangways--is he living?" + +"I don't know now; ten years ago he was, and Pelter and Crowe thought he +was going to do me some mischief, a prosecution or something, they +thought, to extort money; but I knew they were wrong. I had a reason--at +least it was unlikely, because I rather think he had repaid me that +money about then. A year or so before a large sum of money was lodged to +my account by Herbert Strangways, that was his name, at the +International Bank in Lombard Street; in fact it was more than I thought +he owed me--interest, I suppose, and that sort of thing. I put Pelter +and Crowe in his track, but they could make out nothing. The bank people +could not help us. Unluckily I was away at the time and the lodgment was +two months old when I heard of it. There were several raw Scotch-looking +rascals, they said, making lodgments about then, and they could not tell +exactly what sort of fellow made this. I wanted to make out about him. +What do you think of it?" + +"I don't see anything suspicious in it. He owed you the money and chose +to pay." + +"He was protected by the Statute of Limitations, my lawyer said, and I +could not have recovered it. Doesn't it look odd?" + +"Those Scotch fellows." + +"He's not Scotch, though." + +"Well, whatever he is, if he has good blood he's proud, perhaps, and +would rather pay what he owes than not." + +"Well, of course, a fellow's glad of the money; but I did not like it; +it looked as if he wanted to get rid of the only pull I had on him, and +was going to take steps to annoy me, you see." + +"That's ten years ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, considering how short life is, I think he'd have moved before now +if he had ever thought of it. It is a quarter of a _century_ since poor +Deverell's time. It's a good while, you know, and the longer you wait in +matters of that kind the less your chance;" and with a brisk decision +the Rector added, "I'll stake, I think, all I'm worth, these people have +no more connection with poor Deverell than Napoleon Bonaparte, and that +Strangways has no more notion of moving any matter connected with that +unhappy business than he has of leading an Irish rebellion." + +"I'm glad you take that view--I know it's the sound one. I knew you +_would_. I think it's just a little flicker of gout. If I had taken +Vichy on my way back I'd never have thought of it. I've no one to talk +to. It's a comfort to see you, Dives. I wish you'd come oftener." And he +placed his hand very kindly on his brother's shoulder. + +"So I will," said Dives, not without kindness in his eyes, though his +mouth was forbidding still. "You must not let chimeras take hold of you. +I'm very glad I was here." + +"Did you remark that fat, mountainous French fellow, in that cursed suit +of black, was very inquisitive about the green chamber?" asked Sir +Jekyl, relapsing a little. + +"No, I did not hear him mention it; what was it?" asked Dives. + +"Well, not a great deal; only he seemed to want to know all about that +particular room and its history, just as if there was already something +in his head about it." + +"Well, I told you, Jekyl," said Dives, in a subdued tone and looking +away a little, "you ought to do something decisive about that room, all +things considered. If it were mine, I can tell you, I should pull it +down--not, of course, in such a way as to make people talk and ask +questions, but as a sort of improvement. I'd make a conservatory, or +something; you _want_ a conservatory, and the building is positively +injured by it. It is not the same architecture. You might put something +there twice as good. At all events I'd get rid of it." + +"So I will--I _intend_--I think you're right--I really do. But it was +brought about by little Beatrix talking about haunted rooms, you know, +and that sort of nonsense," said Sir Jekyl. + +"Oh! then she mentioned it? He only asked questions about what she told +him. Surely you're not going to vex yourself about that?" + +Sir Jekyl looked at him and laughed, but not quite comfortably. + +"Well, I told you, you know, I do believe it's great; and whatever it +is, I know, Dives, you've done me a great deal of good. Come, now, I've +a horse I think you'll like, and you shall have him; try him to-day, and +I'll send him home for you if he suits you." + +While the groom was putting up the horse, Sir Jekyl, who was quick and +accurate of eye, recognised the dark-faced, intelligent little valet, +whom he had seen for a moment, candle in hand, at the dressing-room +door, last night, to receive his guests. + +With a deferential smile, and shrug, and bow, all at once, this little +gentleman lifted his cap with one hand, removing his German pipe with +the other. + +He had been a courier--clever, active, gay--a man who might be trusted +with money, papers, diamonds. Beside his native French, he spoke English +very well, and a little German. He could keep accounts, and write a neat +little foreign hand with florid capitals. He could mend his own clothes, +and even his shoes. He could play the flute a little, and very much the +fiddle. He was curious, and liked to know what was taking place. He +liked a joke and the dance, and was prone to the tender passion, and +liked, in an honest way, a little bit of intrigue, or even espionage. +Such a man he was as I could fancy in a light company of that marvellous +army of Italy, of which Napoleon I. always spoke with respect and +delight. + +In the stable-yard, as I have said, the Baronet found this dark sprite +smoking a German pipe; and salutations having been exchanged, he bid him +try instead two of his famous cigars, which he presented, and then he +questioned him on tobacco, and on his family, the theatres, the +railways, the hotels; and finally Sir Jekyl said, + +"I wish you could recollect a man like yourself--I want one +confoundedly. I shall be going abroad in August next year, and I'd give +him five thousand francs a year, or more even, with pleasure, and keep +him probably as long as he liked to stay with me. Try if you can +remember such a fellow. Turn it over in your mind--do you see? and I +don't care how soon he comes into my service." + +The man lifted his cap again, and bowed even lower, as he undertook to +"turn it over in his mind;" and though he smiled a great deal, it was +plain his thoughts were already seriously employed in turning the +subject over, as requested by the Baronet. + +Next morning M. Varbarriere took a quiet opportunity, in the hall, of +handing to his host two letters of introduction, as they are called--one +from the Baronet's old friend, Charteris, attached to the embassy at +Paris--a shrewd fellow, a man of the world, amphibious, both French and +English, and equally at home on either soil--speaking unmistakably in +high terms of M. Varbarriere as of a gentleman very much respected in +very high quarters. The other was equally handsome. But Charteris was +exactly the man whose letter in such a case was to be relied upon. + +The Baronet glanced over these, and said he was very glad to hear from +his friend Charteris--the date was not a week since--but laughed at the +formality, regretting that he had not a note from Charteris to present +in return, and then gracefully quoted an old French distich, the +sentiment of which is that "chivalry proclaims itself, and the gentleman +is no more to be mistaken than the rose," and proceeded to ask his +guest, "How is Charteris--he had hurt his wrist when I saw him last--and +is there any truth in the report about his possible alliance with that +rich widow?" and so forth. + +When Sir Jekyl got into his sanctum I am afraid he read both letters +with a very microscopic scrutiny, and he resolved inwardly to write a +very sifting note to Charteris, and put it upon him, as an act of +friendship, to make out every detail of the past life and adventures of +M. Varbarriere, and particularly whether he had any young kinsman, +nephew or otherwise, answering a certain description, all the items of +which he had by rote. + +But writing of letters is to some people a very decided bore. The +Baronet detested it, and his anxieties upon these points being +intermittent, the interrogatories were not so soon despatched to his +friend Charteris. + +Old General Lennox was away for London this morning; and his host took a +seat beside him in the brougham that was to convey him to the station, +and was dropped on the way at the keeper's lodge, when he bid a kind and +courteous adieu to his guest, whom he charged to return safe and soon, +and kissed his hand, and waved it after the florid smiling countenance +and bushy white eyebrows that were protruded from the carriage-window as +it glided away. + +"You can manage it all in a day or two, can't you?" said the Baronet, +cordially, as he held the General's wrinkled hand, with its knobby and +pink joints, in his genial grasp. "We positively won't give you more +than three days' leave. Capital shooting when you come back. I'm going +to talk it over with the keeper here--that is, if you come back before +we've shot them all." + +"Oh! yes, hang it, you must leave a bird or two for me," laughed the +General, and he bawled the conclusion of the joke as the vehicle drove +away; but Sir Jekyl lost it. + +Sir Jekyl was all the happier for his morning's talk with his brother. +An anxiety, if only avowed and discussed, is so immensely lightened; but +Dives had scouted the whole thing so peremptorily that the Baronet was +positively grateful. Dives was a wise and clear-headed fellow. It was +delightful his taking so decided a view. And was it not on reflection +manifestly, even to him, the sound view? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The Magician Draws a Diagram. + + +The Baronet approached Marlowe Manor on the side at which the stables +and out-offices lie, leaving which to his left, he took his way by the +path through the wood which leads to the terrace-walk that runs parallel +to the side of the old house on which the green chamber lies. + +On this side the lofty timber approaches the walks closely, and the +green enclosure is but a darkened strip and very solitary. Here, when +Sir Jekyl emerged, he saw M. Varbarriere standing on the grass, and +gazing upward in absorbed contemplation of the building, which on the +previous evening seemed to have excited his curiosity so unaccountably. + +He did not hear the Baronet's approaching step on the grass. Sir Jekyl +felt both alarmed and angry; for although it was but natural that his +guest should have visited the spot and examined the building, it yet +seemed to him, for the moment, like the act of a spy. + +"Disappointed, I'm afraid," said he. "I told you that addition was the +least worth looking at of all the parts of this otherwise ancient +house." + +He spoke with a sort of sharpness that seemed quite uncalled for; but it +was unnoticed. + +M. Varbarriere bowed low and graciously. + +"I am much interested--every front of this curious and handsome house +interests me. This indeed, as you say, is a good deal spoiled by that +Italian incongruity--still it is charming--the contrast is as beautiful +frequently as the harmony--and I am perplexed." + +"Some of my friends tell me it spoils the house so much I ought to pull +it down, and I have a great mind to do so. Have you seen the lake? I +should be happy to show it to you if you will permit me." + +The Baronet, as he spoke, was, from time to time, slyly searching the +solemn and profound face of the stranger; but could find there no clue +to the spirit of his investigation. There was no shrinking--no +embarrassment--no consciousness. He might as well have looked on the +awful surface of the sea, in the expectation of discovering there the +secrets of its depths. + +M. Varbarriere, with a profusion of gratitude, regretted that he could +not just then visit the lake, as he had several letters to write; and so +he and his host parted smiling at the hall-door; and the Baronet, as he +pursued his way, felt some stirrings of that mental dyspepsia which had +troubled him of late. + +"The old fellow had not been in the house two hours," such was his train +of thought, "when he was on the subject of that green chamber, in the +parlour and in the drawing-room--again and again recurring to it; and +here he was just now, alone, absorbed, and gazing up at its windows, as +if he could think of nothing else!" + +Sir Jekyl felt provoked, and almost as if he would like a crisis; and +half regretted that he had not asked him--"Pray can I give you any +information; is there anything you particularly want to know about that +room? question me as you please, you shall see the room--you shall sleep +in it if you like, so soon as it is vacant. Pray declare yourself, and +say what you want." + +But second thoughts are said to be best, if not always wisest; and this +brief rehearing of the case against his repose ended in a "dismiss," as +before. It was so natural, and indeed inevitable, that he should himself +inspect the original of those views which he had examined the night +before with interest, considering that, being a man who cared not for +the gun or the fishing-rod, and plainly without sympathies with either +georgics or bucolics, he had not many other ways of amusing himself in +these country quarters. + +M. Varbarriere, in the meantime, had entered his chamber. I suppose he +was amused, for so soon as he closed the door he smiled with a +meditative sneer. It was not a fiendish one, not even moderately wicked; +but a sneer is in the countenance what irony is in the voice, and never +pleasant. + +If the Baronet had seen the expression of M. Varbarriere's countenance +as he sat down in his easy-chair, he would probably have been much +disquieted--perhaps not without reason. + +M. Varbarriere was known in his own neighbourhood as a dark and +inflexible man, but with these reservations kind; just in his dealings, +bold in enterprise, and charitable, but not on impulse, with a due +economy of resource, and a careful measurement of desert; on the whole, +a man to be respected and a little feared, but a useful citizen. + +Instead of writing letters as, of course, he had intended, M. +Varbarriere amused himself by making a careful little sketch on a leaf +of his pocket-book. It seemed hardly worth all the pains he bestowed +upon it; for, after all, it was but a parallelogram with a projecting +segment of a circle at one end, and a smaller one at the side, and he +noted his diagram with figures, and pondered over it with a thoughtful +countenance, and made, after a while, a little cross at one end of it, +and then fell a-whistling thoughtfully, and nodded once or twice, as a +thought struck him; and then he marked another cross at one of its +sides, and reflected in like manner over this, and as he thought, +fiddling with his pencil at the foot of the page, he scribbled the word +"hypothesis." Then he put up his pocket-book, and stood listlessly with +his hands in the pockets of his vast black trowsers, looking from the +window, and whistled a little more, the air hurrying sometimes, and +sometimes dragging a good deal, so as to come at times to an actual +standstill. + +On turning the corner of the mansion Sir Jekyl found himself on a sudden +in the midst of the ladies of his party, just descending from the +carriages which had driven them round the lake. He was of that gay and +gallant temperament, as the reader is aware, which is fired with an +instantaneous inspiration at sight of this sort of plumage and flutter. + +"What a fortunate fellow am I!" exclaimed Sir Jekyl, forgetting in a +moment everything but the sunshine, the gay voices, and the pretty sight +before him. "I had laid myself out for a solitary walk, and lo! I'm in +the midst of a paradise of graces, nymphs, and what not!" + +"We have had such a charming drive round the lake," said gay little Mrs. +Maberly. + +"The lake never looked so well before, I'm sure. So stocked, at least, +with fresh-water sirens and mermaids. Never did mirror reflect so much +beauty. An instinct, you see, drew me this way. I assure you I was on my +way to the lake; one of those enamoured sprites who sing us tidings in +such tiny voices, we can't distinguish them from our own fancies, +warbled a word in my ear, only a little too late, I suppose." + +The Baronet was reciting his admiring nonsense to pretty Mrs. Maberly, +but his eye from time to time wandered to Lady Jane, and rested for a +moment on that haughty beauty, who, with downcast languid eyes, one +would have thought neither heard nor saw him. + +This gallant Baronet was so well understood that every lady expected to +hear that kind of tender flattery whenever he addressed himself to the +fair sex. It was quite inevitable, and simply organic and constitutional +as blackbird's whistle and kitten's play, and, in ninety-nine cases out +of a hundred, I am sure, meant absolutely nothing. + +"But those sprites always come with a particular message; don't they?" +said old Miss Blunket, smiling archly from the corners of her fierce +eyes. "Don't you think so, Mr. Linnett?" + +"You are getting quite above me," answered that sprightly gentleman, who +was growing just a little tired of Miss Blunket's attentions. "I suppose +it's spiritualism. I know nothing about it. What do you say, Lady Jane?" + +"I think it very heathen," said Lady Jane, tired, I suppose, of the +subject. + +"I like to be heathen, now and then," said Sir Jekyl, in a lower key; he +was by this time beside Lady Jane. "I'd have been a most pious Pagan. As +it is, I can't help worshipping in the Pantheon, and trying sometimes +even to make a proselyte." + +"Oh! you wicked creature!" cried little Mrs. Maberly. "I assure you, +Lady Jane, his conversation is quite frightful." + +Lady Jane glanced a sweet, rather languid, sidelong smile at the little +lady. + +"You'll not get Lady Jane to believe all that mischief of me, Mrs. +Maberly. I appeal for my character to the General." + +"But he's hundreds of miles away, and can't hear you," laughed little +Mrs. Maberly, who really meant nothing satirical. + +"I forgot; but he'll be back to-morrow or next day," replied Sir Jekyl, +with rather a dry chuckle, "and in the meantime I must do without one, I +suppose. Here we are, Mr. Strangways, all talking nonsense, the +pleasantest occupation on earth. Do come and help us." + +This was addressed to Guy Strangways, who with his brother angler, +Captain Doocey, in the picturesque negligence and black wide-awakes of +fishermen, with baskets and rods, approached. + +"Only too glad to be permitted to contribute," said the young man, +smiling, and raising his hat. + +"And pray permit me, also," said courtly old Doocey. "I could talk it, I +assure you, before he was born. I've graduated in the best schools, and +was a doctor of nonsense before _he_ could speak even a word of sense." + +"Not a bad specimen to begin with. Leave your rods and baskets there; +some one will bring them in. Now we are so large a party, you must come +and look at my grapes. I am told my black Hamburgs are the finest in the +world." + +So, chatting and laughing, and some in other moods, toward those +splendid graperies they moved, from which, as Sir Jekyl used to +calculate, he had the privilege of eating black Hamburg and other grapes +at about the rate of one shilling each. + +"A grapery--how delightful!" cried little Mrs. Maberly. + +"I quite agree with you," exclaimed Miss Blunket, who effervesced with a +girlish enthusiasm upon even the most difficult subjects. "It is not the +grapes, though they are so pretty, and a--bacchanalian--no, I don't +mean that--why do you laugh at me so?--but the atmosphere. Don't you +love it? it is so like Lisbon--at least what I fancy it, for I never +was there; but at home, I bring my book there, and enjoy it so. I call +it mock Portugal." + +"It has helped to dry her," whispered Linnett so loud in Doocey's ear as +to make that courteous old dandy very uneasy. + +It was odd that Sir Jekyl showed no sort of discomfort at sight of Guy +Strangways on his sudden appearance; a thrill he felt indeed whenever he +unexpectedly beheld that handsome and rather singular-looking young +man--a most unpleasant sensation--but although he moved about him like a +resurrection of the past, and an omen of his fate, he yet grew in a sort +of way accustomed to this haunting enigma, and could laugh and talk +apparently quite carelessly in his presence. I have been told of men, +the victims of a spectral illusion, who could move about a saloon, and +smile, and talk, and listen, with their awful tormentor gliding always +about them and spying out all their ways. + +Just about this hour the clumsy old carriage of Lady Alice Redcliffe +stood at her hall-door steps, in the small square courtyard of Wardlock +Manor, and the florid iron gates stood wide open, resting on their +piers. The coachman's purple visage looked loweringly round; the +footman, with his staff of office in hand, leaning on the door-post, +gazed with a peevish listlessness through the open gateway across the +road; the near horse had begun to hang his head, and his off-companion +had pawed a considerable hole in Lady Alice's nattily-kept gravel +enclosure. From these signs one might have reasonably conjectured that +these honest retainers, brute and human, had been kept waiting for their +mistress somewhat longer than usual. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Another Guest Prepares to Come. + + +Lady Alice was at that moment in her bonnet and ample black velvet cloak +and ermines, and the rest of her travelling costume, seated in her +stately parlour, which, like most parlours of tolerably old mansions in +that part of the country, is wainscoted in very black oak. In her own +way Lady Alice evinced at least as much impatience as her dependants out +of doors; she tapped with her foot monotonously upon her carpet; she +opened and shut her black shining leather bag, and plucked at and +rearranged its contents; she tattooed with her pale prolix fingers on +the table; sometimes she sniffed a little; sometimes she muttered. As +often as she fancied a sound, she raised her chin imperiously, and with +a supercilious fixity, stared at the door until expectation had again +expired in disappointment, when she would pluck out her watch, and +glancing disdainfully upon it, exclaim-- + +"Upon my life!" or, "Very pretty behaviour!" + +At last, however, the sound of a vehicle--a "fly" it was--unmistakably +made itself heard at the hall-door, and her ladyship, with a preparatory +shake of her head, as a pugnacious animal shakes its ears, and a "hem," +and a severe and pallid countenance, sat up, very high and stiffly, in +her chair. + +The door opened, and the splendid footman inquired whether her ladyship +would please to see Mrs. Gwynn. + +"Show her in," said Lady Alice with a high look and an awful quietude. + +And our old friend, Donica, just as thin, pallid, and, in her own way, +self-possessed, entered the room. + +"Well, Donica Gwynn, you've come at _last_! you have kept my horses +standing at the door--a thing I never do myself--for three-quarters of +an hour and four minutes!" + +Donica Gwynn was sorry; but she could not help it. She explained how the +delay had occurred, and, though respectful, her explanation was curt and +dry in proportion to the sharpness and dryness of her reception. + +"Sit down, Donica," said the lady, relenting loftily. "How do you do?" + +"Pretty well, I thank your ladyship; and I hope I see _you_ well, my +lady." + +"As well as I can ever be, Donica, and that is but poorly. I'm going, +you know, to Marlowe." + +"I'm rayther glad on it, my lady." + +"And I wish to know _why_?" said Lady Alice. + +"I wrote the why and the wherefore, my lady, in my letter," answered the +ex-house-keeper, looking askance on the table, and closing her thin lips +tightly when she had spoken. + +"Your letter, my good Donica, it is next to impossible to read, and +quite impossible to understand. What I want to know distinctly is, why +you have urged me so vehemently to go to Marlowe." + +"Well, my lady, I thought I said pretty plain it was about my Lady Jane, +the pretty creature you had on visits here, and liked so well, poor +thing; an' it seemed to me she's like to be in danger where she is. I +can't explain how exactly; but General Lennox is gone up to London, and +I think, my lady, you ought to get her out of that unlucky room, where +he has put her; and, at all events, to keep as near to her as you can +yourself, at _all_ times." + +"I've listened to you, Donica, and I can't comprehend you. I see you are +hinting at something; but unless you are explicit, I don't see that I +can be of any earthly use." + +"You can, my lady--that is, you _may_, if you only do as I say--I +_can't_ explain it more, nor I _won't_," said Donica, peremptorily, +perhaps bitterly. + +"There can be no good reason, Donica, for reserve upon a point of so +much moment as you describe this to be. Wherever reserve exists there is +mystery, and wherever mystery--_guilt_." + +So said Lady Alice, who was gifted with a spirit of inquiry which was +impatient of disappointment. + +"Guilt, indeed!" repeated Gwynn, in an under-key, with a toss of her +head and a very white face; "there's secrets enough in the world, and no +guilt along of 'em." + +"What room is it you speak of--the green chamber, is not it?" + +"Yes, sure, my lady." + +"I think you are all crazed about ghosts and devils over there," +exclaimed Lady Alice. + +"Not much of ghosts, but devils, maybe," muttered Gwynn, oddly, looking +sidelong over the floor. + +"It is that room, you say," repeated Lady Alice. + +"Yes, my lady, the green chamber." + +"Well, what about it--come, woman, did not you sleep for years in that +room?" + +"Ay, my lady, a good while." + +"And what did you see there?" + +"A deal." + +"_What_, I say?" + +"Well, supposin' I was to say devils," replied Donica. + +Lady Alice sneered. + +"What did poor Lady Marlowe see there?" demanded Donica, looking with +her odd eyes askance at Lady Alice's carpet, and backing her question +with a nod. + +"Well, you know I never heard exactly; but my darling creature was, as +you remember, dying of a consumption at the time, and miserably nervous, +and fancied things, no doubt, as people do." + +"Well, she did; I knew it," said Donica. + +"You may have conjectured--every one can do that; but I rather think my +poor dear Amy would have told _me_, had she cared to divulge it to any +living being. I am persuaded she herself suspected it was an +illusion--fancy; but I know she had a horror of the room, and I am sure +my poor girl's dying request ought to have been respected." + +"So it ought, my lady," said Donica, turning up her eyes, and raising +her lean hands together, while she slowly shook her head. "So I said to +him, and in like manner his own father's dying _orders_, for such they +was, my lady; and they may say what they will of Sir Harry, poor +gentleman! But he was a kind man, and good to many that had not a good +word for him after, though there may a' been many a little thing that +was foolish or the like; but there is mercy above for all, and the +bishop that is now, then he was the master of the great school where our +young gentlemen used to go to, was with him." + +"When he was dying?" said Lady Alice. + +"Ay, my lady, a beautiful summer it was, and the doctor, nor I, thought +it would be nothing to speak of; but he was anxious in his mind from the +first, and he wrote for Doctor Wyndale--it was the holidays then--asking +him to come to him; and he did, but Sir Harry had took an unexpected +turn for the worse, and not much did he ever say, the Lord a' mercy on +us, after that good gentleman, he's the bishop now, came to Marlowe, and +he prayed by his bed, and closed his eyes; and I, in and out, and wanted +there every minute, could not but hear some of what he said, which it +was not much." + +"He said something about that green chamber, as you call it, I always +understood?" said Lady Alice, interrogatively. + +"Yes, my lady, he wished it shut up, or taken down, or summat that way; +but 'man proposes and God disposes,' and there's small affection and +less gratitude to be met with now-a-days." + +"I think, Donica Gwynn, and I always thought, that you knew a good deal +more than you chose to tell me. Some people are reserved and secret, and +I suppose it is your way; but I don't think it could harm you to treat +me more as your friend." + +Donica rose, and courtesied as she said-- + +"You have always treated me friendly, I'm sure, my lady, and I hope I am +thankful; and this I know, I'll be a faithful servant to your ladyship +so long as I continue in your ladyship's service." + +"I know that very well; but I wish you were franker with me, that's +all--here are the keys." + +So Donica, with very little ceremony, assumed the keys of office. + +"And pray what _do_ you mean exactly?" said Lady Alice, rising and +drawing on her glove, and not looking quite straight at the housekeeper +as she spoke; "do you mean to say that Lady Jane is giddy or imprudent? +Come, be distinct." + +"I can't say what she is, my lady, but she may be brought into folly +some way. I only know this much, please my lady, it will be good for her +you should be nigh, and your eye and thoughts about her, at least till +the General returns." + +"Well, Gwynn, I see you don't choose to trust me." + +"I have, my lady, spoke that free to you as I would not to any other, I +think, alive." + +"No, Gwynn, you don't trust me; you have your reasons, I suppose; but I +think you are a shrewd woman--shrewd and mean well. I don't suppose +that you could talk as you do without a reason; and though I can't see +any myself, not believing in apparitions or--or--" + +She nearly lost the thread of her discourse at this point, for as she +spoke the word apparition, the remembrance of the young gentleman whom +she had seen in Wardlock Church rose in her memory--handsome, pale, with +sealed lips, and great eyes--unreadable as night--the resurrection of +another image. The old yearning and horror overpowered the train of her +thoughts, and she floundered into silence, and coughed into her +handkerchief, to hide her momentary confusion. + +"What was I going to say?" she said, briskly, meaning to refer her +break-down to that little fit of coughing, and throwing on Gwynn the +onus of setting her speech in motion again. + +"Oh! yes. I _don't_ believe in those things not a bit. But Jennie, poor +thing, though she has not treated me quite as she might, is a young +wife, and very pretty; and the house is full of wicked young men from +London; and her old fool of a husband chooses to go about his business +and leave her to her devices--_that's_ what you mean, Gwynn, and that's +what I _understand_." + +"I have said all I can, my lady; you can help her, and be near her night +and day," said Donica. + +"Sir Jekyl in his invitation bid me choose my own room--so I shall. I'll +choose that oddly-shaped little room that opens into hers--if I +remember rightly, the room that my poor dear Amy occupied in her last +illness." + +"And, my lady, do you take the key of the door, and keep it in your bag, +please." + +"Of the door of communication between the two rooms?" + +"Yes, my lady." + +"_Why_ should I take it; you would not have me lock her up?" + +"Well, no, to be sure, my lady." + +"Then _why_?" + +"Because there is no bolt to her door, inside or out. You will see what +I mean, my lady, when you are there." + +"Because she can't secure her door without it, I'm to take possession of +her key!" said Lady Alice, with a dignified sneer. + +"Well, my lady, it may seem queer, but you'll see what I mean." + +Lady Alice tossed her stately head. + +"Any commands in particular, please, my lady, before you leave?" +inquired Donica, with one of her dry little courtesies. + +"No; and I must go. Just hand this pillow and bag to the man; and I +suppose you wish your respects to Miss Beatrix?" + +To all which, in her own way, Donica Gwynn assented; and the old lady, +assisted by her footman, got into the carriage, and nodded a pale and +silent farewell to her housekeeper; and away drove the old carriage at a +brisk pace toward Marlowe Manor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Lady Alice takes Possession. + + +What to the young would seem an age; what, even in the arithmetic of the +old, counts for something, about seventeen years had glided into the +eternal past since last Lady Alice had beheld the antique front and +noble timber of Marlowe Manor; and memory was busy with her heart, and +sweet and bitter fancies revisiting her old brain, as her saddened eyes +gazed on that fair picture of the past. Old faces gone, old times +changed, and she, too, but the shadow of her former self, soon, like +those whom she remembered there, to vanish quite, and be missed by no +one. + +"Where is Miss Beatrix?" inquired the old lady, as she set her long slim +foot upon the oak flooring of the hall. "I'll rest a moment here." And +she sat down upon a carved bench, and looked with sad and dreaming eyes +through the open door upon the autumnal landscape flushed with the +setting sun, the season and the hour harmonising regretfully with her +thoughts. + +Her maid came at the summons of the footman. "Tell her that granny has +come," said the old woman gently. "_You_ are quite well, Jones?" + +Jones made her smirk and courtesy, and was quite well; and so tripped +up the great stair to apprise her young mistress. + +"Tell the new housekeeper, please, that Lady Alice Redcliffe wishes very +much to see her for a moment in the hexagon dressing-room at the end of +the hatchment-gallery," said the old lady, names and localities coming +back to her memory quite naturally in the familiar old hall. + +And as she spoke, being an active-minded old lady, she rose, and before +her first message had reached Beatrix, was ascending the well-known +stairs, with its broad shining steps of oak, and her hand on its +ponderous banister, feeling strangely, all in a moment, how much more +she now needed that support, and that the sum of the seventeen years was +something to her as to others. + +On the lobby, just outside this dressing-room door, which stood open, +letting the dusky sunset radiance, so pleasant and so sad, fall upon the +floor and touch the edges of the distant banisters, she was met by +smiling Beatrix. + +"Darling!" cried the girl, softly, as she threw her young arms round the +neck of the stately and thin old lady. "Darling, darling, I'm so glad!" + +She had been living among strangers, and the sight and touch of her true +old friend was reassuring. + +Granny's thin hands held her fondly. It was pretty to see this embrace, +in the glow of the evening sun, and the rich brown tresses of the girl +close to the ashen locks of old Lady Alice, who, with unwonted tears in +her eyes, was smiling on her very tenderly. She was softened that +evening. Perhaps it was her real nature, disclosed for a few genial +moments, generally hidden under films of reserve or pride--the veil of +the flesh. + +"I think she does like her old granny," said Lady Alice, with a gentle +little laugh; one thin hand on her shoulder, the other smoothing back +her thick girlish tresses. + +"I do love you, granny; you were always so good to me, and you are +so--so _fond_ of me. Now, you are tired, darling; you must take a little +wine--here is Mrs. Sinnott coming--Mrs. Sinnott." + +"No, dear, no wine; I'm very well. I wish to see Mrs. Sinnott, though. +She's your new housekeeper, is not she?" + +"Yes; and I'm so glad poor, good old Donnie Gwynn is with you. You know +she would not stay; but our new housekeeper is, I'm told, a very good +creature too. Grandmamma wants to speak to you, Mrs. Sinnott." + +Lady Alice by this time had entered the dressing-room, three sides of +which, projecting like a truncated bastion, formed a great window, which +made it, for its size, the best lighted in the house. In the wall at the +right, close to this entrance, is the door which admits to the green +chamber; in the opposite wall, but nearer the window, a door leading +across the end of the hatchment-gallery, with its large high window, by +a little passage, screened off by a low oak partition, and admitting to +a bed-room on the opposite side of the gallery. + +In the middle of the Window dressing-room stood Lady Alice, and looked +round regretfully, and said to herself, with a little shake of the +head-- + +"Yes, yes, poor thing!" + +She was thinking of poor Lady Marlowe, whom, with her usual perversity, +although a step-daughter, she had loved very tenderly, and who in her +last illness had tenanted these rooms, in which, seventeen years ago, +this old lady had sat beside her and soothed her sickness, and by her +tenderness, no doubt, softened those untold troubles which gathered +about her bed as death drew near. + +"How do you do, Mrs. Sinnott?" said stately Lady Alice, recovering her +dry and lofty manner. + +"Lady Alice Redcliffe, my grandmamma," said Beatrix, in an undertoned +introduction, in the housekeeper's ear. + +Mrs. Sinnott made a fussy little courtesy. + +"Your ladyship's apartments, which is at the other end of the gallery, +please, is quite ready, my lady." + +"I don't mean to have those rooms, though--that's the reason I sent for +you--please read this note, it is from Sir Jekyl Marlowe. By-the-bye, is +your master at home?" + +"No, he was out." + +"Well, be so good as to read this." + +And Lady Alice placed Beatrix's note of invitation in Mrs. Sinnott's +hand, and pointed to a passage in the autograph of Sir Jekyl, which +spoke thus:-- + +"P.S.--Do come, dearest little mamma, and you shall command everything. +Choose your own apartments and hours, and, in short, rule us all. With +all my worldly goods I thee endow, and place Mrs. Sinnott at your +orders." + +"Well, Mrs. Sinnott, I choose _these_ apartments, if you please," said +Lady Alice, sitting down stiffly, and thereby taking possession. + +"Very well, my lady," said Mrs. Sinnott, dropping another courtesy; but +her sharp red nose and little black eyes looked sceptical and uneasy; +"and I suppose, Miss," here she paused, looking at Beatrix. + +"You are to do whatever Lady Alice directs," said the young lady. + +"This here room, you know, Miss, is the dressing-room properly of the +green chamber." + +"Lady Jane does not use it, though?" replied the new visitor. + +"But the General, when he comes back," insinuated Mrs. Sinnott. + +"Of course, he shall have it. I'll remove then; but in the meantime, +liking these rooms, from old remembrances, best of any, I will occupy +them, Beatrix; _this_ as a dressing-room, and the apartment _there_ as +bed-room. I hope I don't give you a great deal of trouble," added Lady +Alice, addressing the housekeeper, with an air that plainly said that +she did not care a pin whether she did or not. + +So this point was settled, and Lady Alice sent for her maid and her +boxes; and rising, she approached the door of the green chamber, and +pointing to it, said to Beatrix-- + +"And so Lady Jane has this room. Do you like her, Beatrix?" + +"I can't say I know her, grandmamma." + +"No, I dare say not. It is a large room--too large for my notion of a +cheerful bed-room." + +The old lady drew near, and knocked. + +"She's not there?" + +"No, she's in the terrace-garden." + +Lady Alice pushed the door open, and looked in. + +"A very long room. That room is longer than my drawing-room at Wardlock, +and that is five and thirty feet long. Dismal, I say--though so much +light, and that portrait--Sir Harry smirking there. What a look of +duplicity in that face! He was an old man when I can remember him; an +old beau; a wicked old man, rouged and whitened; he used to paint under +his eyelashes, and had, they said, nine or ten sets of false teeth, and +always wore a black curled wig that made his contracted countenance more +narrow. There were such lines of cunning and meanness about his eyes, +actually crossing one another. Jekyl hated him, I think. I don't think +anybody but a fool could have really liked him; he was so curiously +selfish, and so contemptible; he was attempting the life of a wicked +young man at seventy!" + +Lady Alice had been speaking as it were in soliloquy, staring drearily +on the clever portrait in gold lace and ruffles, stricken by the spell +of that painted canvas into a dream. + +"Your grandpapa, my dear, was not a good man; and I believe he injured +my poor son irreparably, and your _father_. Well--these things, though +never forgotten, are best not spoken of when people happen to be +connected. For the sake of others we bear our pain in silence; but the +heart knoweth its own bitterness." + +And so saying, the old lady drew back from the threshold of Lady Jane's +apartment, and closed the door with a stern countenance. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +An Altercation. + + +Almost at the same moment Sir Jekyl entered the hexagon, or, as it was +more pleasantly called, the Window dressing-room, from the lobby. He was +quite radiant, and, in that warm evening light, struck Lady Alice as +looking quite marvellously youthful. + +"Well, Jekyl Marlowe, you see you have brought me here at last," said +the old lady, extending her hand stiffly, like a wooden marionette, her +thin elbow making a right angle. + +"So I have; and I shall always think the better of my eloquence for +having prevailed. You're a thousand times welcome, and not tired, I +hope; the journey is not much after all." + +"Thanks; no, the distance is not much, the fatigue nothing," said Lady +Alice, drawing her fingers horizontally back from his hospitable +pressure. "But it is not always distance that separates people, or +fatigue that depresses one." + +"No, of course; fifty things; rheumatism, temper, hatred, affliction: +and I am so delighted to see you! Trixie, dear, would not grandmamma +like to see her room? Send for--" + +"Thank you, I mean to stay here," said Lady Alice. + +"_Here!_" echoed Sir Jekyl, with a rather bewildered smile. + +"I avail myself of the privilege you give me; your postscript to +Beatrix's note, you know. You tell me there to choose what rooms I like +best," said the old lady, drily, at the same time drawing her bag toward +her, that she might be ready to put the documents in evidence, in case +he should dispute it. + +"Oh! did I?" said the Baronet, with the same faint smile. + +Lady Alice nodded, and then threw back her head, challenging +contradiction by a supercilious stare, her hand firmly upon the bag as +before. + +"But this room, you know; it's anything but a comfortable one--don't you +think?" said Sir Jekyl. + +"I like it," said the inflexible old lady, sitting down. + +"And I'm afraid there's a little difficulty," he continued, not minding. +"For this is General Lennox's dressing-room. Don't you think it might be +awkward?" and he chuckled agreeably. + +"General Lennox is absent in London, on business," said Lady Alice, grim +as an old Diana; "and Jane does not use it, and there _can_ be no +_intelligible_ objection to my having it in his absence." + +There was a little smile, that yet was not a smile, and a slight play +about Sir Jekyl's nostrils, as he listened to this speech. They came +when he was vicious; but with a flush, he commanded himself, and only +laughed slightly, and said-- + +"It is really hardly a concern of mine, provided my guests are happy. +You don't mean to have your bed into this room, do you?" + +"I mean to sleep _there_," she replied drily, stabbing with her long +forefinger toward the door on the opposite side of the room. + +"Well, I can only say I'd have fancied, for other reasons, these the +very last rooms in the house you would have chosen--particularly as this +really belongs to the green chamber. However, you and Lady Jane can +arrange that between you. You'd have been very comfortable where we +would have put you, and you'll be very _un_comfortable here, I'm afraid; +but perhaps I'm not making allowance for the affection you have for Lady +Jane, the length of time that has passed since you've seen her, and the +pleasure of being so near her." + +There was an agreeable irony in this; for the Baronet knew that they had +never agreed very well together, and that neither spoke very handsomely +of the other behind her back. At the same time, this was no conclusive +proof of unkindness on Lady Alice's part, for her goodwill sometimes +showed itself under strange and uncomfortable disguises. + +"Beatrix, dear, I hope they are seeing to your grandmamma's room; and +you'll want candles, it is growing dark. Altogether I'm afraid you're +very uncomfortable, little mother; but if _you_ prefer it, you know, of +course I'm silent." + +With these words he kissed the old lady's chilly cheek, and vanished. + +As he ran down the darkening stairs the Baronet was smiling +mischievously; and when, having made his long straight journey to the +foot of the back stairs, he re-ascended, and passing through the two +little ante-rooms, entered his own homely bedchamber, and looked at his +handsome and wonderfully preserved face in the glass, he laughed +outright two or three comfortable explosions at intervals, and was +evidently enjoying some fun in anticipation. + +When, a few minutes later, that proud sad beauty, Lady Jane, followed by +her maid, sailed rustling into the Window dressing-room--I call it so in +preference--and there saw, by the light of a pair of wax candles, a +stately figure seated on the sofa at the further end in grey silk +draperies, with its feet on a boss, she paused in an attitude of sublime +surprise, with just a gleam of defiance in it. + +"How d' y' do, Jenny, my dear?" said a voice, on which, as on the tones +of an old piano, a few years had told a good deal, but which she +recognised with some little surprise, for notwithstanding Lady Alice's +note accepting the Baronet's invitation, he had talked and thought of +her actually coming to Marlowe as a very unlikely occurrence indeed. + +"Oh! oh! Lady Alice Redcliffe!" exclaimed the young wife, setting down +her bed-room candle, and advancing with a transitory smile to her old +kinswoman, who half rose from her throne and kissed her on the cheek as +she stooped to meet her salutation. "You have only arrived a few +minutes; I saw your carriage going round from the door." + +"About forty minutes--hardly an hour. How you have filled up, Jane; +you're quite an imposing figure since I saw you. I don't think it +unbecoming; your _embonpoint_ does very well; and you're quite well?" + +"_Very_ well--and you?" + +"I'm pretty well, dear, a good deal fatigued; and so you're a wife, +Jennie, and very happy, I hope." + +"I can't say I have anything to trouble me. I am quite happy, that is, +as happy as other people, I suppose." + +"I hear nothing but praises of your husband. I shall be so happy to make +his acquaintance," continued Lady Alice. + +"He has had to go up to town about business this morning, but he's to +return very soon." + +"How soon, dear?" + +"In a day or two," answered the young wife. + +"To-morrow?" inquired Lady Alice, drily. + +"Or next day," rejoined Lady Jane, with a little stare. + +"Do you _really_, my dear Jane, expect him here the day after +to-morrow?" + +"He said he should be detained only a day or two in town." + +Old Lady Alice shook her incredulous head, looking straight before her. + +"I don't think he can have said that, Jane, for he wrote to a friend of +mine, the day before yesterday, mentioning that he should be detained by +business at least a week." + +"Oh! did he?" + +"Yes, and Jekyl Marlowe, I dare say, thinks he will be kept there +_longer_." + +"I should fancy _I_ am a better opinion, rather, upon that point, than +Sir Jekyl Marlowe," said Lady Jane, loftily, and perhaps a little +angrily. + +The old lady, with closed lips, at this made a little nod, which might +mean anything. + +"And I can't conceive how it can concern Sir Jekyl, or even you, Lady +Alice, what business my husband may have in town." + +It was odd how sharp they were growing upon this point. + +"Well, Sir Jekyl's another thing; but _me_, of course, it does concern, +because I shall have to give him up his room again when he returns." + +"What room?" inquired Lady Jane, honestly puzzled. + +"_This_ room," answered the old lady, like one conscious that she drops, +with the word, a gage of battle. + +"But this is _my_ room." + +"You don't use it, Lady Jane. _I_ wish to occupy it. I shall, of course, +give it up on your husband's return; in the meantime I deprive you of +nothing by taking it. Do I?" + +"That's not the question, Lady Alice. It is _my_ room--it is _my +dressing_-room--and I don't mean to give it up to _any_ one. You are the +last person on earth who would allow _me_ to take such a liberty with +_you_. I don't _understand_ it." + +"Don't be excited, my dear Jenny," said Lady Alice--an exhortation +sometimes a little inconsistently administered by members of her +admirable sex when they are themselves most exciting. + +"I'm not in the least excited, Lady Alice; but I've had a note from +you," said Lady Jane, in rather a choking key. + +"You have," acquiesced her senior. + +"And I connect your extraordinary intrusion here, with it." + +Lady Alice nodded. + +"I do, and--and I'm right. You mean to insult me. It is a shame--an +_outrage_. What do you mean, madam?" + +"I'd have you to remember, Jane Chetwynd (the altercation obliterated +her newly-acquired name of Lennox), that I am your relation and your +senior." + +"Yes, you're my cousin, and my senior by fifty years; but an old woman +may be very impertinent to a young one." + +"_Compose_ yourself, if you please, _compose_ yourself," said Lady +Alice, in the same philosophic vein, but with colour a little +heightened. + +"I don't know what you mean--you're a disgraceful old woman. I'll +complain to my husband, and I'll tell Sir Jekyl Marlowe. Either you or I +must leave this house to-night," declaimed Lady Jane, with a most +beautiful blush, and eyes flashing lurid lightnings. + +"You forget yourself, my dear," said the old lady, rising grimly and +confronting her. + +"No, I don't, but _you_ do. It's perfectly disgusting and intolerable," +cried Lady Jane, with a stamp. + +"One moment, if you please--you can afford to listen for one moment, I +suppose," said the old lady, in a very low, dry tone, laying two of her +lean fingers upon the snowy arm of the beautiful young lady, who, with a +haughty contraction and an uplifted head, withdrew it fiercely from her +touch. "You forget your maid, I think. You had better tell her to +withdraw, hadn't you?" + +"I don't care; why should I?" said Lady Jane, in a high key. + +"Beatrix, dear, run into my bed-room for a moment," said "Granny" to +that distressed and perplexed young lady, who, accustomed to obey, +instantly withdrew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Lady Alice in Bed. + + +"We may be alone together, if _you_ choose it; if not, _I_ can't help +it," said Lady Alice, in a very low and impressive key. + +"Well, it's nothing to me," said Lady Jane, more calmly and +sullenly--"nothing at all--but as you insist--Cecile, you may go for a +few minutes." + +This permission was communicated sulkily, in French. + +"Now, Jane, you shall hear me," said the old lady, so soon as the maid +had disappeared and the doors were shut; "you must hear me with +patience, if not with respect--_that_ I don't expect--but remember you +have no mother, and I am an old woman and your kinswoman, and it is my +duty to speak--" + +"I'm rather tired standing," interrupted Lady Jane, in a suppressed +passion. "Besides, you say you don't want to be overheard, and you can't +know who may be on the _lobby there_," and she pointed with her jewelled +fingers at the door. "I'll go into my bed-room, if you please; and I +have not the slightest objection to hear everything you can possibly +say. Don't fancy I'm the least afraid of you." + +Saying which Lady Jane, taking up her bed-room candle, rustled out of +the room, without so much as looking over her shoulder to see whether +the prophetess was following. + +She did follow, and I dare say her lecture was not mitigated by Lady +Jane's rudeness. That young lady was lighting her candles on her +dressing-table when her kinswoman entered and shut the door, without an +invitation. She then seated herself serenely, and cleared her voice. + +"I live very much out of the world--in fact, quite to myself; but I +learn occasionally what my relations are doing; and I was grieved, Jane, +to hear a great deal that was very unpleasant, to say the least, about +you." + +Something between a smile and a laugh was her only answer. + +"Yes, extremely foolish. I don't, of course, say there was anything +wicked, but very foolish and reckless. I know perfectly how you were +talked of; and I know also why you married that excellent but old man, +General Lennox." + +"I don't think anyone talked about me. Everybody is talked about. There +has been enough of this rubbish. I burnt your odious letter," broke in +Lady Jane, incoherently. + +"And would, no doubt, burn the writer, if you could." + +As there was no disclaimer, Lady Alice resumed. + +"Now, Jane, you have married a most respectable old gentleman; I dare +say you have nothing on earth to conceal from him--remember I've said +all along I don't suppose there is--but as the young wife of an old +man, you ought to remember how very delicate your position is." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean, _generally_," answered the old lady, oracularly. + +"I do declare this is perfectly insufferable! What's the meaning of this +lecture? I'm as little likely, madam, as _you_ are to disgrace myself. +You'll please to walk out of my room." + +"And how dare you talk to me in that way, young lady; how dare you +attempt to hector me like your maid there?" broke out old Lady Alice, +suddenly losing her self-command. "You know what I mean, and what's +more, _I_ do, too. We _both_ know it--you a young bride--what does Jekyl +Marlowe invite you down here for? Do you think I imagine he cares +twopence about your stupid old husband, and that I don't know he was +once making love to you? Of course I do; and I'll have nothing of the +sort here--and that's the reason I've come, and that's why I'm in that +dressing-room, and that's why I'll write to your husband, so sure as you +give me the slightest uneasiness; and you had better think well what you +do." + +The old lady, in a towering passion, with a fierce lustre in her cheeks, +and eyes flashing lightning over the face of her opponent, vanished from +the room. + +Lady Alice had crossed the disputed territory of the Window +dressing-room, and found herself in her elected bed-room before she had +come to herself. She saw Lady Jane's face still before her, with the +lurid astonishment and fear, white and sharp, on it, as when she had +threatened a letter to General Lennox. + +She sat down a little stunned and confused about the whole thing, +incensed and disgusted with Lady Jane, and confirmed in her suspicion by +a look she did not like in that young lady's face, and which her +peroration had called up. She did not hear the shrilly rejoinder that +pursued her through the shut door. She had given way to a burst of +passion, and felt a little hot and deaf and giddy. + +When the party assembled at dinner Lady Jane exerted herself more than +usual. She was agreeable, and even talkative, and her colour had not +been so brilliant since her arrival. She sat next to Guy Strangways, and +old Lady Alice at the other side of the table did not look triumphant, +but sick and sad; and to look at the two ladies you would have set her +down as the defeated and broken-spirited, and Lady Jane as the victrix +in the late encounter. + +The conversation at this end of the table resembled a dance, in which +sometimes each man sets to his partner and turns her round, so that the +whole company is frisking and spinning together; sometimes two perform; +sometimes a _cavalier seul_. Thus was it with the talk of this section +of the dinner-table, above the salt, at which the chief people were +seated. + +"I've just been asked by Lady Blunket how many miles it is to Wardlock, +and I'm ashamed to say I can't answer her," cried Sir Jekyl diagonally +to Lady Alice, so as to cut off four people at his left hand, whose +conversation being at the moment in a precarious way, forthwith expired, +and the Baronet and his mother-in-law were left in possession of this +part of the stage. + +The old lady, as I have said, looked ill and very tired, and as if she +had grown all at once very old; and instead of answering, she only +nodded once or twice, and signed across the table to Lady Jane. + +"Oh! I forgot," said Sir Jekyl; "you know Wardlock and all our +distances, don't you, Lady Jane--can you tell me?" + +"I don't remember," said Lady Jane, hardly turning toward him; "ten or +twelve miles--is not it? it may be a good deal more. I don't really +recollect;" and this was uttered with an air which plainly said, "I +don't really care." + +"I generally ride my visits, and a mile or two more or less does not +signify; but one ought to know all the distances for thirty miles round; +you don't know otherwise who's your neighbour." + +"Do you think it an advantage to know that any particular person _is_ +your neighbour?" inquired impertinent Drayton, with his light moustache, +leaning back and looking drowsily into his glasses after his wont. + +"Oh! Mr. Drayton, the country without neighbours--how dreadful!" +exclaimed Miss Blunket. "Existence without friends." + +"Friends--bosh!" said Drayton, confidentially, to his wine. + +"There's Drayton scouting friendship, the young cynic!" cried Sir +Jekyl. "Do call him to order, Lady Jane." + +"I rather incline to agree with Mr. Drayton," said Lady Jane, coldly. + +"Do you mean to say you have no friends?" said Sir Jekyl, in well-bred +amazement. + +"Quite the contrary--I have too many." + +"Come--that's a new complaint. Perhaps they are very new friends?" +inquired the Baronet. + +"Some of them very old, indeed; but I've found that an old friend means +only an old person privileged to be impertinent." + +Lady Jane uttered a musical little laugh that was very icy as she spoke, +and her eye flashed a single insolent glance at old Lady Alice. + +At another time perhaps a retort would not have been wanting, but now +the old woman's eye returned but a wandering look, and her face +expressed nothing but apathy and sadness. + +"Grandmamma, dear, I'm afraid you are very much tired," whispered +Beatrix when they reached the drawing-room, sitting beside her after she +had made her comfortable on a sofa, with cushions to her back; "you +would be better lying down, I think." + +"No, dear--no, darling. I think in a few minutes I'll go to my room. I'm +not very well. I'm tired--_very_ tired." + +And poor old granny, who was speaking very gently, and looking very pale +and sunken, sighed deeply--it was almost a moan. + +Beatrix was growing very much alarmed, and accompanied, or rather +assisted, the old lady up to the room, where, aided by her and her maid, +she got to her bed in silence, sighing deeply now and then. + +She had not been long there when she burst into tears; and after a +violent paroxysm she beckoned to Beatrix, and threw her lean old arms +about her neck, saying-- + +"I'm sorry I came, child; I don't know what to think. I'm too old to +bear this agitation--it will kill me." + +Then she wept more quietly, and kissed Beatrix, and whispered--"Send her +out of the room--let her wait in the dressing-room." + +The maid was sitting at the further end of the apartment, and the old +lady was too feeble to raise her voice so as to be heard there. So soon +as her maid had withdrawn Lady Alice said-- + +"Sit by me, Beatrix, darling. I am very nervous, and tell me who is that +young man who sat beside Jane Lennox at dinner." + +As she ended her little speech Lady Alice, who, though I dare say +actually ill enough, yet did not want to lose credit for all the +exhaustion she fancied beside, closed her eyelids, and leaned a little +back on her pillow motionless. This prevented her seeing that if she +were nervous Beatrix was so also, though in another way, for her colour +was heightened very prettily as she answered. + +"You mean the tall, slight young man at Lady Jane's right?" inquired +Beatrix. + +"That beautiful but melancholy-looking young man whom we saw at +Wardlock Church," said Lady Alice, forgetting for the moment that she +had never divulged the result of her observations from the gallery to +any mortal but Sir Jekyl. Beatrix, who forgot nothing, and knew that her +brief walk at Wardlock with that young gentleman had not been confessed +to anyone, was confounded on hearing herself thus, as she imagined, +taxed with her secret. + +She was not more secret than young ladies generally are; but whom could +she have told at Wardlock? which of the old women of that time-honoured +sisterhood was she to have invited to talk romance with her? and now she +felt very guilty, and was blushing in silent confusion at the pearl ring +on her pretty, slender finger, not knowing what to answer, or how to +begin the confession which she fancied her grandmamma was about to +extort. + +Her grandmamma, however, relieved her on a sudden by saying-- + +"I forgot, dear, I told you nothing of that dreadful day at Wardlock +Church, the day I was so ill. I told your papa _only_; but the young man +is here, and I may as well tell you now that he bears a supernatural +likeness to my poor lost darling. Jekyl knew how it affected me, and he +never told me. It was so like Jekyl. I think, dear, I should not have +come here at all had I known that dreadful young man was here." + +"Dreadful! How is he dreadful?" exclaimed Beatrix. + +"From his likeness to my lost darling--my dear boy--my poor, precious, +murdered Guy," answered the old lady, lying back, and looking straight +toward the ceiling with upturned eyes and clasped hands. She +repeated--"Oh! Guy--Guy--Guy--my poor child!" + +She looked like a dying nun praying to her patron saint. + +"His name is Strangways--Mr. Guy Strangways," said Beatrix. + +"Ah, yes, darling! Guy was the name of my dear boy, and Strangways was +the name of his companion--an evil companion, I dare say." + +Beatrix knew that the young man whom her grandmamma mourned had fallen +in a duel, and that, reasonably or unreasonably, her father was blamed +in the matter. More than this she had never heard. Lady Alice had made +her acquainted with thus much; but with preambles so awful that she had +never dared to open the subject herself, or to question her "Granny" +beyond the point at which her disclosure had stopped. + +That somehow it reflected on Sir Jekyl prevented her from inquiring of +any servant, except old Donica, who met her curiosity with a sound +jobation, and told her if ever she plagued her with questions about +family misfortunes like that, she would speak to Sir Jekyl about it. +Thus Beatrix only knew how Guy Deverell had died--that her grandmamma +chose to believe he had been murdered, and insisted beside in blaming +her father, Sir Jekyl, somehow for the catastrophe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +How Everything went on. + + +"Go down, dear, to your company," resumed Lady Alice, sadly; "they will +miss you. And tell your father, when he comes to the drawing-room, I +wish to see him, and won't detain him long." + +So they parted, and a little later Sir Jekyl arrived with a knock at the +old lady's bed-room door. + +"Come in--oh! yes--Jekyl--well, I've only a word to say. Sit down a +moment at the bedside." + +"And how do you feel now, you dear old soul?" inquired the Baronet, +cheerfully. He looked strong and florid, as gentleman do after dinner, +with a genial air of contentment, and a fragrance of his wonderful +sherry about him; all which seemed somehow brutal to the nervous old +lady. + +"Wonderfully, considering the surprise you had prepared for me, and +which might as well have killed me as not," she made answer. + +"I know, to be sure--Strangways, you mean. Egad! I forgot. Trixie ought +to have told you." + +"_You_ ought to have told me. I don't think I should have come here, +Jekyl, had I known it." + +"If I had known _that_," thought Sir Jekyl, with a regretful pang, "I'd +have made a point of telling you." But he said aloud-- + +"Yes. It was a _sottise_; but _I_'ve got over the likeness so completely +that I forgot how it agitated you. But I ought to tell you they have no +connexion with the family--none in the world. Pelter and Crowe, you +know--devilish sharp dogs--my lawyers in town--they are regular +detectives, by Jove! and know everything--and particularly have had for +years a steady eye upon them and their movements; and I have had a most +decided letter from them, assuring me that there has not been the +slightest movement in that quarter, and therefore there is, absolutely, +as I told you from the first, nothing in it." + +"And what Deverells are now living?" inquired the old lady, very pale. + +"Two first cousins, they tell me--old fellows now; and one of them has a +son or two; but not one called Guy, and none answering this description, +you see; and neither have a shadow of a claim, or ever pretended; and as +for that unfortunate accident--" + +"Pray _spare_ me," said the old lady, grimly. + +"Well, they did not care a brass farthing about the poor fellow, so they +would never move to give me trouble in that matter; and, in fact, people +never do stir in law, and put themselves to serious expense, purely for +a sentiment--even a bad one." + +"I remember some years ago you _were_ very _much_ alarmed, Jekyl." + +"No, I was not. Who the plague says that? There's nothing, thank +Heaven, I need fear. One does not like to be worried with +lawsuits--that's all--though there is and can be no real danger in +them." + +"And was it from these cousins you apprehended lawsuits?" inquired Lady +Alice. + +"No, not exactly--no, not at all. I believe that fellow Strangways--that +fellow that used to live on poor Guy--I fancy he was the mover of +it--indeed I know he was." + +"What did they proceed for?" asked the old lady. "You never told me--you +are so secret, Jekyl." + +"They did not proceed at all--how could I? Their attorneys had cases +before counsel affecting me--that's all I ever heard; and they say now +it was all Strangways' doing--that is, Pelter and Crowe say so. I wish I +_were_ secret." + +Old Lady Alice here heaved a deep groan, and said, not with asperity, +but with a fatigued abhorrence-- + +"Go away; I wonder I can bear you near me." + +"Thank you very much," said the Baronet, rising, with one of his +pleasant chuckles. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you here, and +I know you'll be very glad to see me in the morning, when you are a +little rested." + +So he kissed the tips of his fingers and touched them playfully to the +back of her thin hand, which she withdrew with a little frown, as if +they chilled her. And by her direction he called in her maid, whom he +asked very smilingly how she did, and welcomed to Marlowe; and she, +though a little _passé_, having heard the fame of Sir Jekyl, and many +stories of his brilliant adventures, was very modest and fluttered on +the occasion. And with another little petting speech to Lady Alice, the +radiant Baronet withdrew. + +It is not to be supposed that Lady Alice's tremors communicated +themselves to Beatrix. Was it possible to regard that handsome, refined +young man, who spoke in that low, sweet voice, and smiled so +intelligently, and talked so pleasantly, and with that delicate flavour +of romance at times, in the light of a goblin? + +The gentlemen had made their whist-party. The Rev. Dives Marlowe was +chatting to, not with, Lady Jane, who sat listlessly on an ottoman. That +elderly girl, Miss Blunket, with the _naïve_ ways, the animated, +smiling, and rather malevolent countenance, had secured little Linnett, +who bore his imprisonment impatiently and wearily it must be owned. When +Miss Blunket was enthusiastic it was all very well; but her playfulness +was wicked, and her satire gaily vitriolic. + +"Mr. Marlowe is fascinated, don't you think?" she inquired of harmless +little Linnett, glancing with an arch flash of her fierce eyes at the +Rev. Dives. + +"She's awfully handsome," said Linnett, honestly. + +"Oh, dear, you wicked creature, you can't think I meant that. She is +some kind of cousin, I think--is not she? And her husband has that +great living--what's its name?--and no relation in the Church; and Lady +Jane, they say, rules him--and Sir Jekyl, some people say, rules her." + +Linnett returned her arch glance with an honest stare of surprise. + +"I had no idea of that, egad," said he. + +"She thinks him so wise in all worldly matters, you know; and people in +London fancied she would have been the second Lady Marlowe, if she had +not met General Lennox just at a critical time, and fallen in love with +him;" and as she said this she laughed. + +"Really!" exclaimed Linnett; and he surveyed Lady Jane in this new light +wonderingly. + +"I really don't know; I heard it said merely; but very likely, you know, +it is not true," she answered with an artless giggle. + +"I knew you were quizzing--though, by Jove, you did sell me at first; +but I really think Sir Jekyl's a little spoony on that pretty little +Mrs. Maberly. Is she a widow?" + +"Oh, dear, no--at least, not quite; she has a husband in India, but +then, poor man, he's so little in the way she need hardly wish him +dead." + +"I _see_," said Linnett, looking at Mrs. Maberly with a grave interest. + +While Miss Blunket was entertaining and instructing little Linnett with +this sort of girlish chatter, and from the whist-table, between the +deals, arose those critical discussions and reviews, relieved now and +then by a joke from the Baronet, or from his partner, Colonel Doocey, at +the piano, countenanced by old Lady Blunket, who had come to listen and +remained to doze, Beatrix, her fingers still on the keys, was listening +to young Strangways. + +There are times, lights, accidents, under which your handsome young +people become incredibly more handsome, and this Guy Strangways now +shared in that translated glory, as he leaned on the back of a tall +carved chair, sometimes speaking, sometimes listening. + +"It is quite indescribable, Miss Marlowe, how your music interests me--I +should say, haunts me. I thought at first it was because you loved +ballad music, which I also love; but it is not that--it is something +higher and more peculiar." + +"I am sure you were right at first, for I _know_ I am a very indifferent +musician," said Beatrix, looking down under her long lashes on the keys +over which the jewelled fingers of her right hand wandered with hardly a +tinkle, just tracing dreamily one of those sweet melancholy airs which +made in fancy an accompaniment to the music of that young fellow's +words. + +How beautiful she looked, too, with eyes lowered and parted lips, and +that listening smile--not quite a smile--drinking in with a strange +rapture of pride and softness the flatteries which she refused and yet +invited. + +"It _is_ something higher and mysterious, which, perhaps, I shall never +attempt to explain, unless, indeed, I should risk talking very +wildly--too wildly for you to understand, or, if you did, perhaps--to +forgive." + +"You mentioned a Breton ballad you once heard," said Beatrix, +frightened, as girls will sometimes become whenever the hero of their +happy hours begins on a sudden to define. + +"Yes," he said, and the danger of the crisis was over. "I wish so much I +could remember the air, you would so enter into its character, and make +its wild unfathomable melancholy so beautifully touching in your clear +contralto." + +"You must not flatter me; I want to hear more of that ballad." + +"If flattery be to speak more highly than one thinks, who can flatter +Miss Marlowe?" Again the crisis was menacing. "Besides, I did not tell +you we are leaving, I believe, in a day or two, and on the eve of so +near a departure, may I not improve the few happy moments that are left +me, and be permitted the privilege of a leave-taking, to speak more +frankly, and perhaps less wisely than one who is destined to be all his +life a neighbour?" + +"Papa, I am sure, will be very sorry to hear that you and Monsieur +Varbarriere are thinking of going so soon; I must try, however, to +improve the time, and hear all you can tell me of those interesting +people of Brittany." + +"Yes, they are. I will make them another visit--a sadder visit, +Mademoiselle--for me a far more interesting one. You have taught me how +to hear and see them. I never felt the spirit of Villemarque, or the +romance and melancholy of that antique region, till I had the honour of +knowing you." + +"My friends always laughed at me about Brittany. I suppose different +people are interested by different subjects; but I do not think anyone +could read at all about that part of the world and not be fascinated. +You promised to tell all you remember of that Breton ballad." + +"Oh, yes; the haunted lady, the beautiful lady, the heiress of Carlowel, +now such a grand ruin, became enamoured of a mysterious cavalier who +wooed her; but he was something not of flesh and blood, but of the +spirit world." + +"There is exactly such a legend, _so_ far, at least, of a castle on the +Rhine. I must show it to you. Do you read German?" + +"Yes, Mademoiselle." + +"And does the ballad end tragically?" + +"Most tragically. You shall hear." + +"Where are you, Guy?" in French, inquired a deep ringing voice. + +And on the summons, Guy glanced over his shoulder, and replied. + +"Oh," exclaimed the same voice, "I demand pardon. I am disturbing +conversation, I fear; but an old man in want of assistance will be +excused. I want my road book, Guy, and you have got it. Pray, run +up-stairs and fetch it." + +With great pleasure, of course, Guy Strangways ran up-stairs to tumble +over block-books, letters, diaries, and the general residuum of a +half-emptied valise. + +Miss Beatrix played a spirited march, which awoke Lady Blunket, whom she +had forgotten; and that interesting woman, to make up for lost time, +entertained her with a history of the unreasonableness of Smidge, her +maid, and a variety of other minute afflictions, which, she assured +Beatrix seriously, disturbed her sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +The Divan. + + +That night Sir Jekyl led the gentlemen in a body to his outpost +quarters, in the rear of civilisation, where they enjoyed their cigars, +brandy and water, and even "swipes," prodigiously. It is a noble +privilege to be so rich as Sir Jekyl Marlowe. The Jewish price for +frankincense was thrice its own weight in gold. How much did that +aromatic blue canopy that rolled dimly over this Turkish divan cost that +off-handed Sybarite? How many scruples of fine gold were floating in +that cloud? + +Varbarriere was in his way charmed with his excursion. He enjoyed the +jokes and stories of the younkers, and the satiric slang and +imperturbable good-humour of their host. The twinkle of his eye, from +its deep cavern, and the suavity of his solemn features, testified to +his profound enjoyment of a meeting to which he contributed, it must be +owned, for his own share, little but smoke. + +In fact, he was very silent, very observant--observant of more things +than the talk perhaps. + +All sorts of things were talked about. Of course, no end of horse and +dog anecdote--something of wine, something of tobacco, something of the +beauties of the opera and the stage, and those sad visions, the fallen +angelic of the demimonde--something, but only the froth and sparkle, of +politics--light conjecture, and pungent scandal, in the spirit of gay +satire and profligate comedy. + +"He's a bad dog, St. Evermore. Did not you hear that about the duel?" +said Drayton. + +"What?" asked the Baronet, with an unconscious glance at Guy Strangways. + +"He killed that French fool--what's his name?--unfairly, they say. There +has been a letter or something in one of the Paris papers about it. +Fired before his time, I think, and very ill feeling against the English +in consequence." + +"Oh!" said the Baronet. + +"But you know," interposed Doocey, who was an older clubman than +Drayton, and remembering further back, thought that sort of anecdote of +the duel a little maladroit just then and there, "St. Evermore has been +talked about a good deal; there were other things--that horse, you know; +and they say, by Jove! he was licked by Tromboni, at the wings of the +opera, for what he called insulting his wife; and Tromboni says he's a +marquess, and devil knows what beside, at home, and wanted to fight, but +St. Evermore wouldn't, and took his licking." + +"He's not a nice fellow by any means; but he's devilish good +company--lots of good stories and capital cigars," said Drayton. + +At this point M. Varbarriere was seized with a fit of coughing; and Sir +Jekyl glanced sharply at him; but no, he was not laughing. + +The conversation proceeded agreeably, and some charming stories were +told of Sir Paul Blunket, who was not present; and in less than an hour +the party broke up and left Sir Jekyl to his solitary quarters. + +The Baronet bid his last guest good-night at the threshold, and then +shut his door and locked himself in. It was his custom, here, to sleep +with his door locked. + +"What was that fellow laughing at--Varbarriere? I'm certain he was +laughing. I never saw a fellow with so completely the cut of a +charlatan. I'll write to Charteris to-night. I _must_ learn all about +him." + +Then Sir Jekyl yawned, and reflected what a fool Drayton was, what a +fellow to talk, and what asses all fellows were at that age; and, being +sleepy, he postponed his letter to Charteris to the next morning, and +proceeded to undress. + +Next morning was bright and pleasant, and he really did not see much +good in writing the letter; and so he put it off to a more convenient +time. + +Shortly after the ladies had left the drawing-room for their bed-rooms, +Beatrix, having looked in for a moment to her grandmamma's room, and, +with a kiss and a good-night, taken wing again, there entered to Lady +Alice, as the old plays express it, then composing herself for the +night, Lady Jane's maid, with-- + +"Please, my lady, my lady wants to know if your ladyship knows where her +ladyship's key may be?" + +"_What_ key?" + +"The key of her bedchamber, please, my lady." + +"Oh! the key of my dressing-room. Tell Lady Jane that I have got the key +of the Window dressing-room, and mean to keep it," replied the old lady, +firmly. + +The maid executed a courtesy, and departed; and Lady Alice sank back +again upon her pillow, with her eyes and mouth firmly closed, and the +countenance of an old lady who is conscious of having done her duty upon +one of her sex. + +About two minutes later there came a rustle of a dressing-gown and the +patter of a swift-slippered tread through the short passage from the +dressing-room, and, without a knock, Lady Jane, with a brilliant flush +on her face, ruffled into the room, and, with her head very high, and +flashing eyes, demanded-- + +"Will you be so good, Lady Alice Redcliffe, as to give me the key of my +bed-room?" + +To which Lady Alice, without opening her eyes, and with her hands mildly +clasped, in the fashion of a mediæval monument, over her breast, meekly +and firmly made answer-- + +"If you mean the key of the Window dressing-room, Jane, I have already +told your maid that I mean to _keep_ it!" + +"And I'll not leave the room till I get it," cried Lady Jane, standing +fiercely beside the monument. + +"Then you'll not leave the room to-night, Jane," replied the statuesque +sufferer on the bed. + +"We shall _see_ that. Once more, will you give me my key or not?" + +"The key of my dressing-room door is in my possession, and I mean to +keep it," repeated the old lady, with a provoking mildness. + +"You shan't, madam--you'll do no such thing. You shall give up the key +you have stolen. I'll lose my life but I'll make you." + +"Jane, Jane," said the old lady, "you are sadly changed for the worse +since last I saw you." + +"And if _you're_ not, it's only because there was no room for it. Sadly +changed indeed--very true. I don't suffer you to bully me as you used at +Wardlock." + +"May Heaven forgive and pardon you!" ejaculated the old lady, with great +severity, rising perpendicularly and raising both her eyes and hands. + +"Keep your prayers for yourself, madam, and give me my key," demanded +the incensed young lady. + +"I'll do no such thing; I'll do as I said; and I'll pray how I please, +ma'am," retorted the suppliant, fiercely. + +"Your prayers don't signify twopence. You've the temper of a fiend, as +all the world knows; and no one can live in the same house with you," +rejoined Lady Jane. + +"That's a wicked lie: my servants live all their days with me." + +"Because they know no one else would take them. But you've the temper of +a fury. You haven't a friend left, and everyone hates you." + +"Oh! oh! oh!" moaned Lady Alice, sinking back, with her hand pressed to +her heart piteously, and closing her eyes, as she recollected how ill +she was. + +"Ho! dear me!" exclaimed Lady Jane, in high disdain. "Had not you better +restore my key before you die, old lady?" + +"Jane!" exclaimed Lady Alice, recovering in an instant, "have you no +feeling--you know the state I'm in; and you're bent on killing me with +your unfeeling brutality?" + +"You're perfectly well, ma'am, and you look it. I wish I was half as +strong; you oblige me to come all this way, this bitter night, you +odious old woman." + +"I see how it is, and why you want the key. A very little more, and I'll +write to General Lennox." + +"Do; and he'll horsewhip you." + +Lady Jane herself was a little stunned at this speech, when she heard it +from her own lips; and I think would have recalled it. + +"Thank you, Jane; I hope you'll _remember_ that. Horsewhip me! No doubt +you wish it; but General Lennox is a gentleman, I hope, _although_ he +has married you; and I don't suppose he would murder a miserable old +woman to gratify you." + +"You know perfectly what I mean--if you were a _man_ he would horsewhip +you; you have done nothing but insult me ever since you entered this +house." + +"Thank you; it's quite plain. I shan't forget it. I'll ask him, when he +comes, whether he's in the habit of beating women. It is not usual, I +believe, among British officers. It _usen't_ at least; but everything's +getting on--young ladies, and, I suppose, old men--all getting on +famously." + +"Give me my key, if you please; and cease talking like a fool," cried +Lady Jane. + +"And what _do_ you want of that key? Come, now, young lady, what is it?" + +"I don't choose to have my door lie open, and I won't. I've no bolt to +the inside, and I _will_ have my key, madam." + +"If that's your object, set your mind at ease. I'll lock your door +myself when you have got to your bed." + +"So that if the house takes fire I shall be burnt to death!" + +"Pooh! nonsense!" + +"And if I am they'll hang _you_, I hope." + +"Thank you. Flogged and hanged!" And Lady Alice laughed an exceeding +bitter laugh. "But the wicked violence of your language and _menaces_ +shan't deter me from the duty I've prescribed to myself. I'll define my +reasons if you like, and I'll write as soon as you please to General +Lennox." + +"I think you're _mad_--I do, I assure you. I'll endure it for once, but +depend on it I'll complain to Sir Jekyl Marlowe, in my husband's +absence, in the morning; and if this sort of thing is to go on, I had +better leave the house forthwith--that's all." + +And having uttered these dignified sentences with becoming emphasis, she +sailed luridly away. + +"Good-night, Jane," said Lady Alice, with a dry serenity. + +"Don't dare, you insupportable old woman, to wish me good-night," burst +out Lady Jane, whisking round at the threshold. + +With which speech, having paused for a moment in defiance, she +disappeared, leaving the door wide open, which is, perhaps, as annoying +as clapping it, and less vulgar. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +Guy Strangways and M. Varbarriere converse. + + +When M. Varbarriere and his nephew this night sat down in their +dressing-room, the elder man said-- + +"How do you like Sir Jekyl Marlowe?" + +"A most agreeable host--very lively--very hospitable," answered Guy +Strangways. + +"Does it strike you that he is _anxious_ about anything?" + +The young man looked surprised. + +"No; that is, I mean, he appears to me in excellent spirits. Perhaps, +sir, I do not quite apprehend you?" + +"Not unlikely," said the old gentleman. "He does not question you?" + +"No, sir." + +"Yet he suspects me, and I think suspects you," observed M. Varbarriere. + +The young man looked pained, but said nothing. + +"That room where poor Lady Marlowe was--was so shocked--the green +chamber--it is connected with the misfortunes of your family." + +"How, sir?" + +"Those papers you have heard my lawyer mention as having been lost at +Dubois' Hotel in London, by your grandfather, it is my belief were lost +in this house and in that room." + +A gentleman smoking a cigar must be very much interested indeed when he +removes his weed from his lips and rests the hand whose fingers hold it +upon his knee, to the imminent risk of its going out while he pauses and +listens. + +"And how, sir, do you suppose this occurred--by what agency?" inquired +the handsome young gentleman. + +"The ghost," answered M. Varbarriere, with a solemn sneer. + +Guy Strangways knew he could not be serious, although, looking on his +countenance, he could discern there no certain trace of irony as he +proceeded. + +"Many years later, poor Lady Marlowe, entering that room late at +night--her maid slept there, and she being ill, for a change, in the +smaller room adjoining (you don't know those rooms, but I have looked in +at the door)--beheld what we call the ghost, and never smiled or held up +her head after," said the portly old gentleman between the puffs of his +cigar. + +"Beheld the ghost!" + +"So they say, and I believe it--what they _call_ the ghost." + +"Did she make an alarm or call her husband?" + +"Her husband slept in that remote room at the very back of the house, +which, as you see, he still occupies, quite out of hearing. You go +down-stairs first, then up-stairs; and as he slept the greater part of +two hundred feet away from the front of the house, of course he was out +of the question;" and M. Varbarriere sneered again solemnly. + +"A housekeeper named Gwynn, I am told, knows all about it, but I believe +she is gone." + +"And do you really think, sir, that my grandfather lost those deeds +_here_?" + +"I always thought so, and so I told your father, and my information got +him into a bad scrape." + +"You don't, I know, think it occurred supernaturally?" said Guy, more +and more bewildered. + +"Supernaturally; of course it was--how else could it be?" answered the +old gentleman, with a drowsy irony. "That room has been haunted, as I +have heard, by a devil from the time it was built, in the reign of +George II. Can you imagine why General Lennox was put to sleep there?" + +The young man shook his head. The old one resumed his smoking, leaving +his problem unsolved. + +"It shall be my business to evoke and to lay that devil," said the +elderly gentleman, abruptly. + +"Ought not Lady Jane Lennox to be warned if you really think there is +any--any _danger_?" + +"The danger is to _General_ Lennox, as I suppose." + +"I don't understand, sir." + +"No, you don't--better not. I told your poor father my belief once, and +it proved fatal knowledge to him. In the day that he ate thereof he +died. Bah! it is better to keep your mind to yourself until you have +quite made it up--you understand?--and even then till the time for +action has come, and not even then, unless you want help. Who will sum +up the mischief one of those prating fellows does in a lifetime?" + +The gentlemen were silent hereupon for a period which I may measure by +half a cigar. + +"That green chamber--it is a hypocrite," said the solemn old man, +looking drowsily on the smoke that was ascending the chimney, into which +he threw the butt-end of his cigar--"mind you, a hypocrite. I have my +theory. But we will not talk; no--_you_ will be less embarrassed, and +_I_ more useful, with this reserve. For the purpose I have in view I +will do fifty things in which you could and would have no partnership. +Will you peep into that letter, Monsieur?" The ponderous gentleman grew +dramatic here. "Will you place your ear to that door, _s'il vous +plait_--your eye to that keyhole? Will you oblige me by bribing that +domestic with five pounds sterling? Bah! I will be all ear, all +eye--omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent!--by _all_ means for this +END--ay, all means--what _you_ call secret, shabby, blackguard;" and the +sonorous voice of the old man, for the first time since his arrival, +broke into a clangorous burst of laughter, which, subsiding into a sort +of growl, died, at last, quite away. The old gentleman's countenance +looked more thoughtful and a shade darker than he had seen it. Then +rising, he stood with his back to the fire, and fumbled slowly at the +heavy links of his watch-chain, like a ghostly monk telling his beads, +while he gazed, in the abstraction of deep thought, on the face of the +young man. + +Suddenly his face grew vigilant, his eyes lighted up, and some stern +lines gathered about them, as he looked down full upon his nephew. + +"Guy," said he, "you'll keep your promise--your word--your oath--that +not one syllable of what passes between us is divulged to mortal, and +that all those points on which I have enjoined reserve shall be held by +you scrupulously secret." + +Guy bowed his acquiescence. + +"What nonsense was that going on at the piano to-night? Well, you need +not answer, but there must be no more of it. I won't burden you with +painful secrets. You will understand me hereafter; but no more of +_that_--observe me." + +The old gentleman spoke this injunction with a lowering nod, and that +deliberate and peremptory emphasis to which his metallic tones gave +effect. + +Guy heard this, leaning in an unchanged attitude on his elbow over the +chimneypiece, in silence and with downcast eyes. + +"Yes, Guy," said the old man, walking suddenly up to him, and clapping +his broad hand upon his shoulder, "I will complete the work I have begun +for you. Have confidence in me, don't mar it, and you shall know all, +and after I am gone, perhaps admire the zealous affection with which I +laboured in your interest. Good-night, and Heaven bless you, dear Guy;" +and so they parted for the night. + +Guy Strangways had all his life stood in awe of this reserved despotic +uncle--kind, indulgent in matters of pleasure and of money, but +habitually secret, and whenever he imposed a command, tyrannical. Yet +Guy felt that even here there was kindness; and though he could not +understand his plans, of his motives he could have no doubt. + +For M. Varbarriere, indeed, his nephew had a singular sort of respect. +More than one-half of his character was enveloped in total darkness to +his eyes. Of the traits that were revealed some were positively evil. He +knew, by just one or two proofs, that he was proud and vindictive, and +could carry revenge for a long time, like a cold stone, in his sleeve. +He could break out into a devil of a passion, too, on occasion; he could +be as unscrupulous, in certain ways, as Machiavel; and, it was fixed in +Guy's mind, had absolutely no religion whatsoever. What were the +evidences? M. Varbarriere led a respectable life, and showed his solemn +face and person in church with regularity, and was on very courteous +relations with the clergy, and had built the greater part of a church in +Pontaubrique, where prayers are, I believe, still offered up for him. +Ought not all this to have satisfied Guy? And yet he knew quite well +that solemn M. Varbarriere did not believe one fact, record, tradition, +or article of the religion he professed, or of any other. Had he +denounced, ridiculed, or controverted them?--Never. On the contrary, he +kept a civil tongue in his head, or was silent. What, then, were the +proofs which had long quite settled the question in Guy's mind? They +consisted of some half-dozen smiles and shrugs, scattered over some +fifteen years, and delivered impressively at significant moments. + +But with all this he was kindly. The happiness of a great number of +persons depended upon M. Varbarriere, and they were happy. His +wine-estates were well governed. His great silk-factory in the south was +wisely and benevolently administered. He gave handsomely to every +deserving charity. He smiled on children and gave them small coins. He +loved flowers, and no man was more idolised by his dogs. + +Guy was attached by his kindness, and he felt that be his moral system +exactly what it might, he had framed one, and acted under it, and he +instinctively imbibed for him that respect which we always cherish for +the man who has submitted his conduct consistently to a code or +principle self-imposed by intellect--even erring. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Lady Alice talks with Guy Strangways. + + +When Guy had bid this man good-night and entered his chamber, he threw +himself into his easy-chair beside the fire, which had grown low and +grey in the grate. He felt both sad and alarmed. He now felt assured +that M. Varbarriere was fashioning and getting together the parts of a +machine which was to work evil against their host and his family. His +family? His _daughter_ Beatrix. He had no other. + +Already implicated in deception, the reasons for which he knew not, the +direction of which he only suspected--bound as he was to secrecy by +promises the most sacred, to his stern old kinsman and benefactor, he +dared not divulge the truth. Somehow the blow meditated, he was +confident, against this Baronet, was to redound to _his_ advantage. What +a villain should he appear when all was over! Sir Jekyl his host, too, +frank and hospitable--how could he have earned the misfortune, be it +great or small, that threatened? And the image of Beatrix--like an +angel--stood between her father and the unmasked villain, Guy, who had +entered the house in a borrowed shape, ate and drank and slept, talked +and smiled, and, he now feared, _loved_, and in the end--struck! + +When Mr. Guy Strangways came down next morning he looked very pale. His +breakfast was a sham. He talked hardly at all, and smiled but briefly +and seldom. + +M. Varbarriere, on the contrary, was more than usually animated, and +talked in his peculiar vein rather more than was his wont; and after +breakfast, Sir Jekyl placed his hand kindly on Guy Strangways' arm as he +looked dismally from the window. The young man almost started at the +kindly pressure. + +"Very glad to hear that Monsieur Varbarriere has changed his mind," said +Sir Jekyl, with a smile. + +What change was this? thought Guy, whose thoughts were about other plans +of his uncle's, and he looked with a strange surprise in Sir Jekyl's +face. + +"I mean his ill-natured idea of going so soon. I'm so glad. You know you +have seen nothing yet, and we are going to kill a buck to-day, so you +had better postpone the moor to-morrow, and if you like to take your rod +in the afternoon, you will find--Barron tells me--some very fine trout, +about half a mile lower down the stream than you fished yesterday--a +little below the bridge." + +Guy thanked him, I fancy, rather oddly. He heard him in fact as if it +was an effort to follow his meaning, and he really did feel relieved +when his good-natured host was called away, the next moment, to settle a +disputed question between the two sportsmen, Linnett and Doocey. + +"How is grandmamma this morning?" inquired Sir Jekyl of Beatrix, before +she left the room. + +"Better, I think. She says she will take a little turn up and down the +broad walk, by-and-by, and I am to go with her." + +"Very pleasant for you, Trixie," said her papa, with one of his +chuckles. "So you can't go with your ladies to Lonsted to-day?" + +"No--it can't be helped; but I'm glad poor granny can take her little +walk." + +"Not a bit of you, Trixie." + +"Yes, _indeed_, I am. Poor old granny!" + +The incredulous Baronet tapped her cheek with his finger, as he chuckled +again roguishly, and with a smile and a shake of his head, their little +talk ended. + +In the hall he found Guy Strangways in his angling garb, about to start +on a solitary excursion. He preferred it. He was very much obliged. He +did not so much care for the chase, and liked walking even better than +riding. + +The Baronet, like a well-bred host, allowed his guests to choose +absolutely their own methods of being happy, but he could not but +perceive something in the young gentleman's manner that was new and +uncomfortable. Had he offended him--had anything occurred during the +sitting after dinner last night? Well, he could not make it out, but his +manner was a little odd and constrained, and in that slanting light from +above, as he had stood before him in the hall, he certainly did look +confoundedly like that other Guy whose memory was his chief +spoil-sport. But it crossed him only like a neuralgic pang, to be +forgotten a minute later. And so the party dispersed--some mounted, to +the park; others away with the keeper and dogs for the moor; and +Strangways, dejected, on his solitary river-side ramble. + +His rod and fly-book were but pretexts--his object was solitude. It was +a beautiful autumnal day, a low sun gilding the red and yellow foliage +of wood and hedgerow, and the mellow songs of birds were quivering in +the air. The cheer and the melancholy of autumn were there--the sadness +of a pleasant farewell. + +"It is well," thought Strangways, "that I have been so startled into +consciousness, while I yet have power to escape my fate--that beautiful +girl! I did not know till last night how terrible I shall find it to say +farewell. But, cost what it may, the word must be spoken. She will never +know what it costs me. I may call it a dream, but even dreams of +paradise are forgotten; my dream--never! All after-days dark without +her. All my future life a sad reverie--a celestial remembrance--a vain +yearning. These proud English people--and those dark designs, what are +they? No, they shan't hurt her--never. I'll denounce him first. What is +it to me what becomes of me if I have saved her--in so few days grown to +be so much to me--my idol, my darling, though she may never know it?" + +Guy Strangways, just five-and-twenty, had formed, on the situation, many +such tremendous resolutions as young gentlemen at that period of life +are capable of. He would speak to her no more; he would think of her no +more; he would brave his uncle's wrath--shield her from all possibility +of evil--throw up his own stakes, be they what they might--and depart in +silence, and never see Beatrix again. + +The early autumn evening had begun to redden the western clouds, as Guy +Strangways, returning, approached the fine old house, and passing a +thick group of trees and underwoods, he suddenly found himself before +Beatrix and Lady Alice. I dare say they had been talking about him, for +Beatrix blushed, and the old lady stared at him from under her grey +brows, with lurid half-frightened eyes, as she leaned forward, her thin +fingers grasping the arms of the rustic chair, enveloped in her +ermine-lined mantle. + +Lady Alice looked on him as an old lady might upon a caged monster--with +curiosity and fear. She was beginning to endure his presence, though +still with an awe nearly akin to horror--though that horror was fast +disappearing--and there was a strange yearning, too, that drew her +towards him. + +He had seen Beatrix that morning. The apparition had now again risen in +the midst of his wise resolutions, and embarrassed him strangely. The +old lady's stare, too, was, you may suppose, to a man predisposed to be +put out, very disconcerting. The result was that he bowed very low +indeed before the ladies, and remained silent, expecting, like a ghost, +to be spoken to. + +"Come here, sir, if you please," said the old lady, with an odd mixture +of apprehension and command. "How d'ye do, Mr. Strangways? I saw you +yesterday you know, at dinner; and I saw you some weeks since at +Wardlock Church. I have been affected by a resemblance. Merciful Heaven, +it is miraculous! And things of that sort affect me now more than they +once might have done. I'm a sickly old woman, and have lost most of my +dearest ties on earth, and cannot expect to remain much longer behind +them." + +It was odd, but the repulsion was still active, while at the same time +she was already, after a fashion, opening her heart to him. + +It was not easy to frame an answer, on the moment, to this strange +address. He could only say, as again he bowed low-- + +"I do recollect, Lady Alice, having seen you in Wardlock Church. My +uncle, Monsieur Varbarriere--" + +At this point the handsome young gentleman broke down. His uncle had +whispered him, as they sat side by side-- + +"Look at that old lady costumed in mourning, in the seat in the gallery +with the marble tablet and two angels--do you see?--on the wall behind. +That is Lady Alice Redcliffe. I'll tell you more about her by-and-by." + +"By-and-by," as Guy Strangways had come to know, indicated in M. +Varbarriere's vocabulary that period which was the luminous point in his +perspective, at which his unexplained hints and proceedings would all be +cleared up. The sudden rush of these recollections and surmises in such +a presence overcame Guy Strangways, and he changed colour and became +silent. + +The old lady, however, understood nothing of the causes of his sudden +embarrassment, and spoke again. + +"Will you forgive an old woman for speaking with so little +reserve?--your voice, too, sir, so wonderfully resembles +it--wonderfully." + +Old Lady Alice dried her eyes a little here, and Guy, who felt that his +situation might soon become very nearly comical, said very gently-- + +"There are, I believe, such likenesses. I have seen one or two such +myself." And then to Beatrix, aside, "My presence and these +recollections, I fear, agitate Lady Alice." + +But the old lady interposed in a softened tone--"No, sir; pray don't go; +pray remain. You've been walking, fishing. What a sweet day, and +charming scenery near here. I know it all very well. In my poor girl's +lifetime I was a great deal here. She was very accomplished--she drew +beautifully--poor thing; my pretty Beatrix here is very like her. You +can't remember your poor mamma? No, hardly." + +All this time Lady Alice was, with aristocratic ill-breeding, +contemplating the features of Guy Strangways, as she might a picture, +with saddened eyes. She was becoming accustomed to the apparition. It +had almost ceased to frighten her; and she liked it even, as a help to +memory. + +Five minutes later she was walking feebly up and down the plateau, in +the last level beams of the genial sunset, leaning on the arm of the +young man, who could not refuse this courtesy to the garrulous old lady, +although contrary to his prudent resolutions--it retained him so near to +Beatrix. + +"And, Mr. Strangways, it is not every day, you know, I can walk out; and +Trixie here will sometimes bring her work into the boudoir--and if you +would pay me a visit there, and read or talk a little, you can't think +what a kindness you would do me." + +What could he do but hear and smile, and declare how happy it would make +him? Although here, too, he saw danger to his wise resolutions. But have +not the charities of society their claims? + +These were their parting words as they stood on the stone platform, +under the carved armorial bearings of the Marlowes, at the hall-door; +and old Lady Alice, when she reached her room, wept softer and happier +tears than had wet her cheeks for many a year. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +Some Talk of a Survey of the Green Chamber. + + +The red sunset beam that had lighted the group we have just been +following, glanced through the windows of M. Varbarriere's +dressing-room, and lighted up a letter he was at that moment reading. It +said-- + +"The woman to whom you refer is still living. We heard fully about her +last year, and, we are informed, is now in the service of Lady Alice +Redcliffe, of Wardlock, within easy reach of Marlowe. We found her, as +we thought, reliable in her statements, though impracticable and +reserved; but that is eight years since. She was, I think, some way past +fifty then." + +M. Varbarriere looked up here, and placed the letter in his pocket, +beholding his valet entering. + +"Come in, Jacques," exclaimed the ponderous old gentleman, in the +vernacular of the valet. + +He entered gaily bowing and smiling. + +"Well, my friend," he exclaimed good-humouredly, "you look very happy, +and no wonder--you, a lover of beauty, are fortunate in a house where so +much is treasured." + +"Ah! Monsieur mocks himself of me. But there are many beautiful ladies +assembled here, my faith!" + +"What do you think of Lady Jane Lennox?" + +"Oh, heavens! it is an angel!" + +"And only think! she inhabits, all alone, that terrible green chamber!" +exclaimed the old gentleman, with an unwonted smile, "I have just been +wondering about that green chamber, regarding which so many tales of +terror are related, and trying from its outward aspect to form some +conjecture as to its interior, you understand, its construction and +arrangements. It interests me so strangely. Now, I dare say, by this +time so curious a sprite as you--so clever--so potent with that fair sex +who hold the keys of all that is worth visiting, there is hardly a nook +in this house, from the cellar to the garret, worth looking at, into +which you have not contrived a peep during this time?" + +"Ah, my faith! Monsieur does me too much honour. I may have been +possibly, but I do not know to which of the rooms they accord that +name." + +Now upon this M. Varbarriere described to him the exact situation of the +apartment. + +"And who occupies the room at present, Monsieur?" + +"Lady Jane Lennox, I told you." + +"Oh! then I am sure I have not been there. That would be impossible." + +"But there must be no impossibility here," said the old gentleman, with +a grim "half joke and whole earnest" emphasis. "If you satisfy me during +our stay in this house I will make you a present of five thousand +francs--you comprehend?--this day three weeks. I am curious in my way as +you are in yours. Let us see whether your curiosity cannot subserve +mine. In the first place, on the honour of a gentleman--your father was +a Captain of Chasseurs, and his son will not dishonour him--you promise +to observe the strictest silence and secrecy." + +Jacques bowed and smiled deferentially; their eyes met for a moment, and +Monsieur Varbarriere said-- + +"You need not suppose anything so serious--_mon ami_--there is no +tragedy or even _fourberie_ intended. I have heard spiritual marvels +about that apartment; I am inquisitive. Say, I am composing a philosophy +and writing a book on the subject, and I want some few facts about the +proportions of it. See, here is a sketch--oblong square--that is the +room. You will visit it--you take some pieces of cord--you measure +accurately the distance from this wall to that--you see?--the length; +then from this to this--the breadth. If any projection or recess, you +measure its depth or prominence most exactly. If there be any door or +buffet in the room, beside the entrance, you mark where. You also +measure carefully the thickness of the wall at the windows and the door. +I am very curious, and all this you shall do." + +The courier shrugged, and smiled, and pondered. + +"Come, there may be difficulties, but such as melt before the light of +your genius and the glow of this," and he lifted a little column of a +dozen golden coins between his finger and thumb. + +"Do you think that when we, the visitors, are all out walking or +driving, a chamber-maid would hesitate for a couple of these counters +to facilitate your enterprise and enable you to do all this? Bah! I know +them too well." + +"I am flattered of the confidence of Monsieur. I am _ravi_ of the +opportunity to serve him." + +There was something perhaps cynical in the imposing solemnity of +gratitude with which M. Varbarriere accepted these evidences of +devotion. + +"You must so manage that she will suppose nothing of the fact that it is +_I_ who want all these foolish little pieces of twine," said the grave +gentleman; "she would tell everybody. What will you say to her?" + +"Ah, Monsieur, please, it will be Margery. She is a charming rogue, and +as discreet as myself. She will assist, and I will tell her nothing but +fibs; and we shall make some money. She and I together in the servants' +hall--she shall talk of the ghosts and the green chamber, and I will +tell how we used to make wagers who would guess, without having seen it, +the length of such a room in the Chateau Mauville, when we were visiting +there--how many windows--how high the chimneypiece; and then the nearest +guesser won the pool. You see, Monsieur--you understand?--Margery and I, +we will play this little trick. And so she will help me to all the +measurements before, without sharing of my real design, quite simply." + +"Sir, I admire your care of the young lady's simplicity," said M. +Varbarriere, sardonically. "You will procure all this for me as quickly +as you can, and I shan't forget my promise." + +Jacques was again radiantly grateful. + +"Jacques, you have the character of being always true to your chief. I +never doubted your honour, and I show the esteem I hold you in by +undertaking to give you five thousand francs in three weeks' time, +provided you satisfy me while here. It would not cost me much, Jacques, +to make of you as good a gentleman as your father." + +Jacques here threw an awful and indescribable devotion into his +countenance. + +"I don't say, mind you, I'll do it--only that if I pleased I very easily +might. You shall bring me a little plan of that room, including all the +measurements I have mentioned, if possible to-morrow--the sooner the +better; that to begin with. Enough for the present. Stay; have you had +any talk with Sir Jekyl Marlowe--you must be quite frank with me--has he +noticed you?" + +"He has done me that honour." + +"Frequently?" + +"Once only, Monsieur." + +"Come, let us hear what passed." + +M. Varbarriere had traced a slight embarrassment in Jacques' +countenance. + +So with a little effort and as much gaiety as he could command, Jacques +related tolerably truly what had passed in the stable-yard. + +A lurid flush appeared on the old man's forehead for a moment, and he +rang out fiercely-- + +"And why the devil, sir, did you not mention that before?" + +"I was not aware, Monsieur, it was of any importance," he answered +deferentially. + +"Jacques, you must tell me the whole truth--did he make you a present?" + +"No, Monsieur." + +"He gave you nothing then or since?" + +"_Pas un sous, Monsieur_--nothing." + +"Has he _promised_ you anything?" + +"Nothing, Monsieur." + +"But you understand what he means?" + +"Monsieur will explain himself." + +"You understand he has made you an offer in case you consent to transfer +your service." + +"Monsieur commands my allegiance." + +"You have only to say so if you wish it." + +"Monsieur is my generous chief. I will not abandon him for a +stranger--never, while he continues his goodness and his preference for +me." + +"Well, you belong to _me_ for a month, you know, by our agreement. After +that you may consider what you please. In the meantime be true to me; +and not one word, if you please, of me or my concerns to anybody." + +"Certainly, Monsieur. I shall be found a man of honour now as always." + +"I have no doubt, Jacques; as I told you, I know you to be a +gentleman--I rely upon you." + +M. Varbarriere looked rather grimly into his eye as he uttered this +compliment; and when the polite little gentleman had left the room, M. +Varbarriere bethought him how very little he had to betray--how little +he knew about him, his nephew, and his plans; and although he would not +have liked his inquiries to be either baulked or disclosed, he could yet +mentally snap his fingers at Monsieur. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +M. Varbarriere talks a little more freely. + + +After his valet left him, M. Varbarriere did not descend, but remained +in his dressing-room, thinking profoundly; and, after a while, he opened +his pocket-book, and began to con over a number of figures, and a +diagram to which these numbers seemed to refer. + +Sometimes standing at the window, at others pacing the floor, and all +the time engrossed by a calculation, like a man over a problem in +mathematics. + +For two or three minutes he had been thus engaged when Guy Strangways +entered the room. + +"Ho! young gentleman, why don't you read your prayer-book?" said the old +man, with solemn waggery. + +"I don't understand," said the young gentleman. + +"No, you don't. I am the old sphynx, you see, and some of my riddles I +can't make out, even myself. My faith! I have been puzzling my head till +it aches over my notebook; and I saw you walking with that old lady, +Lady Alice Redcliffe, up and down so affectionately. _There_ is another +riddle! My faith! the house itself is an enigma. And Sir Jekyl--what do +you think of _him_; is he going to marry?" + +"To marry!" echoed Guy Strangways. + +"Ay, to marry. I do not know, but he is so sly. We must not let him +marry, you know; it would be so cruel to poor little Mademoiselle +Beatrix--eh?" + +Guy Strangways looked at him doubtingly. + +"He is pretty old, you know, but so am I, and _older_, my faith! But I +think he is making eyes at the _married_ ladies--eh?" + +"I have not observed--perhaps so," answered Guy, carelessly. "He does +walk and talk a great deal with that pretty Madame Maberly." + +"Madame Maberly? Bah!" And M. Varbarriere's "bah" sounded like one of +those long sneering slides played sometimes on a deep chord of a double +bass. "No, no, it is that fine woman, Miladi Jane Lennox." + +"Lady Jane! I fancied she did not like him. I mean that she positively +_dis_liked him; and to say truth, I never saw, on his part, the +slightest disposition to make himself agreeable." + +"I do not judge by words or conduct--in presence of others those are +easily controlled; it is when the eyes meet--you can't mistake. Bah! I +knew the first evening we arrived. Now see, you must have your eyes +about you, Guy. It is _your_ business, not mine. Very important to you, +mon petit garçon; of no sort of imaginable consequence to me, except as +your friend; therefore you shall watch and report to me. You +understand?" + +Guy flushed with a glow of shame and anger, and looked up with gleaming +eyes, expecting to meet the deep-set observation of the old man. Had +their eyes encountered, perhaps a quarrel would have resulted, and the +fates and furies would have had the consequences in their hands; but M. +Varbarriere was at the moment reading his attorney's letter again. Guy +looked out of the window, and thought resolutely. + +"One duplicity I have committed. It is base enough to walk among these +people masked, but to be a spy--_never_." + +And he clenched his hand and pressed his foot upon the floor. + +It was dreadful to know that these moral impossibilities were expected +of him. It was terrible to feel that a rupture with his best, perhaps +his only friend, was drawing slowly but surely on; but he was quite +resolved. Nothing on earth could tempt him to the degradation of which +his kinsman seemed to think so lightly. + +Happily, perhaps, for the immediate continuance of their amicable +relations, the thoughts of M. Varbarriere had taken a new turn, or +rather reverted to the channel from which they had only for a few +minutes diverged. + +"You were walking with that old woman, Lady Alice Redcliffe. She seemed +to talk a great deal. How did she interest you all that time?" + +"To say truth, she did _not_ interest me all that time. She talked +vaguely about family afflictions, and the death of her son; and she +looked at me at first as if I were a brigand, and said I was very like +some one whom she had lost." + +"Then she's a friendly sort of old woman, at least on certain topics, +and garrulous? Who's there? Oh! Jacques; very good, you need not stay." + +The old gentleman was by this time making his toilet. + +"Did she happen to mention a person named Gwynn, a housekeeper in her +service?" + +"No." + +"I'm glad she is an affable old lady; we shall be sure to hear something +useful," said the old gentleman, with an odd smile. "That housekeeper I +must see and sift. They tell me she's impracticable; _they_ found her +so. I shall see. While you live, Guy, do your own business; no one else +will do it, be sure. I did mine, and I've got on." + +The old gentleman, who was declaiming before the looking-glass in his +shirt-sleeves and crimson silk suspenders, brushing up that pyramid of +grizzled hair which added to the solemnity of his effect, now got into +his black silk waistcoat. The dressing-bell had rung, and the candles +had superseded daylight. + +"You'll observe all I told you, Guy. Sir Jekyl shan't marry--he would +grow what they call impracticable, like Madame Gwynn; Miss Beatrix, +_she_ shan't marry either--it would make, perhaps, new difficulties; and +you, I may as well tell you, _can't_ marry her. When you know the +reasons you will see that such an event _could not be contemplated_. You +understand?" + +And he dropped his haircomb, with which he had been bestowing a last +finish on his spire of hair, upon his dressing-table, with a slight +emphasis. + +"Therefore, Guy, you will understand you must not be a fool about that +young lady; there are many others to speak to; and if you allow yourself +to like her, you will be a miserable stripling till you forget her." + +"There is no need, sir, to warn me; I have resolved to avoid any such +feeling. I have sense enough to see that there are obstacles +insurmountable to my ever cherishing that ambition, and that I never +could be regarded as worthy." + +"Bravo! young man, that is what I like; you are as modest as the devil; +and _here_, I can tell you, modesty, which is so often silly, is as wise +as the serpent. You understand?" + +The large-chested gentleman was now getting into his capacious coat, +having buttoned his jewelled wrist-studs in; so he contemplated himself +in the glass, with a touch and a pluck here and there. + +"One word more, about that old woman. Talk to her all you please, and +let _her_ talk--and talk _more_ than you, so much the better; but +observe, she will question you about yourself and your connections, and +one word you shall not answer; observe she learns nothing from you, that +is, in the spirit of your solemn promise to me." + +M. Varbarriere had addressed this peremptory reminder over his shoulder, +and now retouched his perpendicular cone of hair, which waved upwards +like a grey flame. + +"Guy, you will be late," he called over his shoulder. "Come, my boy; we +must not be walking in with the entremets." + +And he plucked out that huge chased repeater, a Genevan masterpiece, +which somehow harmonised, with his air of wealth and massiveness, and +told him he had hut eight minutes left; and with an injunction to haste, +which Guy, with a start, obeyed, this sable and somewhat mountainous +figure swayed solemnly from the room. + +"Who _is_ that Monsieur Varbarriere?" inquired Lady Alice of her host, +as the company began to assemble in the drawing-room, before that +gentleman had made his appearance. + +"I have not a notion." + +"Are you serious? No, you're _not_ serious," served Lady Alice. + +"I'm _always_ serious when I talk to you." + +"Thank you. I'm sure that is meant for a compliment," said the old lady, +curtly. + +"And I assure you I mean what I say," continued Sir Jekyl, not minding +the parenthesis. "I really don't know, except that he comes from +France--rather a large place, you know--_where_ he comes from. I have +not a notion what his business, calling, or trade may be." + +"_Trade!_" replied Lady Alice, with dry dignity. + +"Trade, to be sure. _You're_ a tradesman yourself, you know--a +miner--_I_ bought twenty-two shares in that for you in June last; you're +an iron ship-builder--you have fifteen in that; you're a 'bus-man--you +have ten there; and you were devilish near being a brewer, only it +stopped." + +"Don't talk like a fool--a joint-stock company I hope is one thing, and +a--a--the other sort of thing quite another, I fancy." + +"You fancy, yes; but it is not. It's a firm--Smith, Brown, Jones, +Redcliffe, and Co., omnibus drivers, brewers, and so forth. So if he's +not a rival, and doesn't interfere with _your_ little trade, I really +don't care, my dear little mamma, what sort of shop my friend +Varbarriere may keep; but as I said, I don't know; maybe he's too fine a +fellow to meddle, like us, with vats and 'busses." + +"It appears odd that you should know absolutely nothing about your own +guests," remarked Lady Alice. + +"Well, it would be odd, only I do," answered Sir Jekyl--"all one needs +to know or ask. He presented his papers, and comes duly accredited--a +letter from old Philander the Peer. Do you remember Peery still? I don't +mind him; he was always a noodle, though in a question of respectability +he's not quite nothing; and another from Bob Charteris--you don't know +him--Attaché at Paris; a better or more reliable quarter one could not +hear from. I'll let you read them to-morrow; they speak unequivocally +for his respectability; and I think the inference is even that he has a +soul above 'busses. Here he is." + +M. Varbarriere advanced with the air of a magician about to conduct a +client to his magic mirror, toward Lady Alice before whom he made a low +bow, having been presented the day before, and he inquired with a grave +concern how she now felt herself and expressed with a sonorous suavity +his regrets and his hopes. + +Lady Alice, having had a good account of him, received him on the whole +very graciously; and being herself a good Frenchwoman, the conversation +flowed on agreeably. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +Some private Talk of Varbarriere and Lady Alice at the Dinner-table. + + +At dinner he was placed beside the old lady. He understood good cookery, +and with him to dine was to analyse and contemplate. He was usually +taciturn and absorbed during the process; but on this occasion he made +an effort, and talked a good deal in a grave, but, as the old lady +thought, an agreeable and kindly vein. + +Oddly enough, he led the conversation to his nephew, and found his +companion very ready indeed to listen, as perhaps he had anticipated, +and even to question him on this theme with close but unavowed interest. + +"He bears two names which, united, remind me of some of my bitterest +sorrows--Guy was my dear son's Christian name, and Mr. Strangways was +his most particular friend; and there is a likeness too," she continued, +looking with her dim and clouded eyes upon Guy at the other side, whom +fate had placed beside Miss Blunket--"a likeness so wonderful as to make +me, at times, quite indescribably nervous; at times it is--how handsome! +don't you consider him wonderfully handsome?--at times the likeness is +so exact as to become all but insupportable." + +She glanced suddenly as she spoke, and saw an expression on the +countenance of M. Varbarriere, who looked for no such inspection at that +moment, which she neither liked nor understood. + +No, it was _not_ pleasant, connected with the tone in which she spoke, +the grief and the agitation she recounted, and above all with the sad +and horrible associations connected indissolubly in her mind with those +names and features. It was a face both insincere and mocking--such a +countenance as has perhaps shocked us in childhood, when in some grief +or lamentation, looking up for sympathy, we behold a face in which lurks +a cruel enjoyment, or a sense of an undivulged joke. + +Perhaps he read in the old lady's face something of the shock she +experienced; for he said, to cover his indiscretion, "I was, at the +moment, reminded of a strange mistake which once took place in +consequence of a likeness. Some of the consequences were tragic, but the +rest so ridiculous that I can never call the adventure to mind without +feeling the comedy prevail. I was thinking of relating it, but, on +recollection, it is too vulgar." + +M. Varbarriere, I am certain, was telling fibs; but he did it well. He +did not hasten to change his countenance, but allowed that expression to +possess his features serenely after she had looked, and only shifted it +for a grave and honest one when he added-- + +"You think then, perhaps, that, my nephew had formerly the honour of +being a companion of Mr. Redcliffe, your son?" + +"Oh, dear, no. He was about Jekyl's age. I dare say I had lost him +before that young man was born." + +"Oh! that surprises me very much. Monsieur Redcliffe--your son--is it +possible he should have been so much older?" + +"My son's name was Deverell," said the old lady, sadly. + +"Ah! that's very odd. He, Guy, then, had an uncle who had a friend of +that name--Guy Deverell--long ago, in this country. That is very +interesting." + +"_Is_ not it?" repeated Lady Alice, with a gasp. "I feel, somehow, it +must be he--a tall, slight young man." + +"Alas! madam, he is much changed if it be he. He must have been older +than your son, madam. He must be, I think, near sixty now, and grown +rather stout. I've heard him talk at times of his friend Guy Deverell." + +"And with affection, doubtless." + +"Well, yes, with affection, certainly, and with great indignation of his +death--the mode of it." + +"Ah! yes," said Lady Alice, flushing to the roots of her grey hair, and +looking down on her plate. + +Here there was silence for the space of a minute or more. + +"Yes, Monsieur Varbarriere; but you know, even though we cannot always +forget, we must forgive." + +"Champagne, my lady?" inquired the servant over her shoulder. + +"_No_, thank you," murmured Lady Alice. + +M. Varbarriere took some and sipped it, wondering how Sir Jekyl +contrived to get such wines, and mentally admitting that even in the +champagne countries it would task him--M. Varbarriere--to find its +equal. And he said-- + +"Yes, Lady Alice, divine philosophy, but not easy to practise. I fear it +is as hard to do one as the other." + +"And how _is_ Mr. Strangways?" inquired Lady Alice. + +They were talking very confidentially and in a low tone, as if old +Strangways' health was the subject of conspiracy. + +"Growing old, Lady Alice; he has not spared himself; otherwise well." + +"And this, you say, is his nephew?" continued the old lady. "And you?" + +"I am Guy's uncle--his _mother's_ brother." + +"And his mother, is _she_ living?" + +"No, poor thing! gone long ago." + +Lady Alice looked again unexpectedly into M. Varbarriere's face, and +there detected the same unreliable expression. + +"Monsieur Varbarriere," said old Lady Alice a little sternly in his ear, +"you will pardon me, but it seems to me that you are trifling, and not +quite sincere in all you tell me." + +In a moment the gravity of all the Chief Justices that ever sat in +England was gathered in his massive face. + +"I am shocked, madam, at your thinking me capable of trifling. How have +I showed, I entreat, any evidences of a disposition so contrary to my +feelings?" + +"I tell you frankly--in your countenance, Monsieur Varbarriere; and I +observed it before, Monsieur." + +"Believe me, I entreat, madam, when I assure you, upon the honour of a +gentleman, every word I have said is altogether true. Nor would it be +easy for me to describe how profound is my sympathy with you." + +From this time forth Lady Alice saw no return, of that faint but odious +look of banter that had at first shocked and then irritated her; and +fortified by the solemn assurance he had given, she fell into a habit of +referring it to some association unconnected with herself, and tried to +make up for her attack upon him by an increased measure of courtesy. + +Dwelling on those subjects that most interested Lady Alice, he and she +grew more and more confidential, and she came, before they left the +parlour, to entertain a high opinion of both the wisdom and the +philanthropy of M. Varbarriere. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +The Ladies and Gentlemen resume Conversation in the Drawing-room. + + +"Dives, my boy," said the Baronet, taking his stand beside his brother +on the hearthrug, when the gentlemen had followed the ladies into the +drawing-room, and addressing him comfortably over his shoulder, "the +Bishop's coming to-morrow." + +"Ho!" exclaimed Dives, bringing his right shoulder forward, so as nearly +to confront his brother. They had both been standing side by side, with +their backs, according to the good old graceful English fashion, to the +fire. + +"Here's his note--came to-night. He'll be here to dinner, I suppose, by +the six o'clock fast train to Slowton." + +"Thanks," said Dives, taking the note and devouring it energetically. + +"Just half a dozen lines of three words each--always so, you know. Poor +old Sammy! I always liked old Sammy--a good old cock at school he +was--great fun, you know, but always a gentleman." + +Sir Jekyl delivered these recollections standing with his hands behind +his back, and looking upwards with a smile to the ceiling, as the Rev. +Dives Marlowe read carefully every word of the letter. + +"Sorry to see his hand begins to shake a little," said Dives, returning +the interesting manuscript. + +"Time for it, egad! He's pretty well on, you know. We'll all be shaky a +bit before long, Dives." + +"How long does he stay?" + +"I think only a day or two. I have his first note up-stairs, if I did +not burn it," answered the Baronet. + +"I'm glad I'm to meet him--_very_ glad indeed. I think it's five years +since I met his lordship at the consecration of the new church of +Clopton Friars. I always found him very kind--very. He likes the +school-house fellows." + +"You'd better get up your parochial experiences a little, and your +theology, eh? They say he expects his people to be alive. You used to be +rather good at theology--usen't you?" + +Dives smiled. + +"Pretty well, Jekyl." + +"And what do you want of him, Dives?" + +"Oh! he could be useful to me in fifty ways. I was thinking--you know +there's that archdeaconry of Priors." Dives replied pretty nearly in a +whisper. + +"By Jove! yes--a capital thing--I forgot it;" and Sir Jekyl laughed +heartily. + +"Why do you laugh, Jekyl?" he asked, a little drily. + +"I--I really don't know," said the Baronet, laughing on. + +"I don't see anything absurd or unreasonable in it. That archdeaconry +has always been held by some one connected with the county families. +Whoever holds it must be fit to associate with the people of that +neighbourhood, who won't be intimate, you know, with everybody; and the +thing really is little more than a feather, the house and place are +expensive, and no one that has not something more than the archdeaconry +itself can afford it." + +The conversation was here arrested by a voice which inquired-- + +"Pray, can you tell me what day General Lennox returns?" + +The question was Lady Alice's. She had seemed to be asleep--probably +was--and opening her eyes suddenly, had asked it in a hard, dry tone. + +"_I?_" said Sir Jekyl. "I don't know, I protest--maybe to-night--maybe +to-morrow. Come when he may, he's very welcome." + +"You have not heard?" she persisted. + +"No, I have not," he answered, rather tartly, with a smile. + +Lady Alice nodded, and raised her voice-- + +"Lady Jane Lennox, you've heard, no doubt--pray, when does the General +return?" + +If the scene had not been quite so public, I dare say this innocent +little inquiry would have been the signal for one of those keen +encounters to which these two fiery spirits were prone. + +"He has been detained unexpectedly," drawled Lady Jane. + +"You hear from him constantly?" pursued the old lady. + +"Every day." + +"It's odd he does not say when you may look for him," said Lady Alice. + +"Egad, you want to make her jealous, I think," interposed Sir Jekyl. + +"Jealous? Well, I think a young wife may very reasonably be jealous, +though not exactly in the vulgar sense, when she is left without a clue +to her husband's movements." + +"You said you were going to write to him. I wish you would, Lady Alice," +said the young lady, with an air of some contempt. + +"I can't believe he has not said how soon his return may be looked for," +observed the old lady. + +"I suppose he'll say whenever he can, and in the meantime I don't intend +plaguing him with inquiries he can't answer." And with these words she +leaned back fatigued, and with a fierce glance at Sir Jekyl, who was +close by, she added, so loud that I wonder Lady Alice did not hear +her--"Why don't you stop that odious old woman?" + +"Stop an odious old woman!--why, who ever did? Upon my honour, I know no +way but to kill her," chuckled the Baronet. + +Lady Jane deigned no reply. + +"Come here, Dives, and sit by me," croaked the old lady, beckoning him +with her thin, long finger. "I've hardly seen you since I came." + +"Very happy, indeed--very much obliged to you, Lady Alice, for wishing +it." + +And the natty but somewhat forbidding-looking Churchman sat himself down +in a prie-dieu chair vis-à-vis to the old gentlewoman, and folded his +hands, expecting her exordium. + +"Do you remember, Sir Harry, your father?" + +"Oh, dear, yes. I recollect my poor father very well. We were at Oxford +then or just going. How old was I?--pretty well out of my teens." + +It must be observed that they sat in a confidential proximity--nobody +listened--nobody cared to approach. + +"You remember when he died, poor man?" + +"Yes--poor father!--we were at home--Jekyl and I--for the holidays--I +believe it _was_--a month or so. The Bishop, you know, was with him." + +"I know. He's coming to-morrow." + +"Yes; so my brother here just told me--an excellent, exemplary, pious +prelate, and a true friend to my poor father. He posted fifty +miles--from Doncaster--in four hours and a half, to be with him. And a +great comfort he was. I shall never forget it to him." + +"I don't think you cared for your father, Dives; and Jekyl positively +disliked him," interposed Lady Alice agreeably. + +"I trust there was no feeling so unchristian and monstrous ever +harboured in my brother's breast," replied Dives, loftily, and with a +little flush in his cheeks. + +"You can't believe any such thing, my dear Dives; and you know you did +not care if he was at the bottom of the Red Sea, and I don't wonder." + +"Pray don't, Lady Alice. If you think such things, I should prefer not +hearing them," murmured Dives, with clerical dignity. + +"And what I want to ask you now is this," continued Lady Alice; "you are +of course aware that he told the Bishop that he wanted that green +chamber, for some reason or another, pulled down?" + +Dives coughed, and said-- + +"Well, yes, I _have_ heard." + +"What was his reason, have you any notion?" + +"He expressed none. My father gave, I believe, no reason. I never heard +any," replied the Reverend Dives Marlowe. + +"You may be very sure he had a reason," continued Lady Alice. + +"Yes, very likely." + +"And why is it not done?" persisted Lady Alice. + +"I can no more say why, than you can," replied Dives. + +"But why don't you see to it?" demanded she. + +"See to it! Why, my dear Lady Alice, you must know I have no more power +in the matter than Doocey there, or the man in the moon. The house +belongs to Jekyl. Suppose you speak to him." + +"You've a tongue in your head, Dives, when you've an object of your +own." + +Dives flushed again, and looked, for an apostle, rather forbidding. + +"I have not the faintest notion, Lady Alice, to what you allude." + +"Whatever else he may have been, Dives, he was your father," continued +Lady Alice, not diverted by this collateral issue; "and as his son, it +was and is your business to give Jekyl no rest till he complies with +that dying injunction." + +"Jekyl's his own master; what can I do?" + +"Do as you do where your profit's concerned; tease him as you would for +a good living, if he had it to give." + +"I don't press my interests much upon Jekyl. I've never teased him or +anybody else, for anything," answered Dives, grandly. + +"Come, come, Dives Marlowe; you have duties on earth, and something to +think of besides yourself." + +"I trust I don't need to be reminded of that, Lady Alice," said the +cleric, with a bow and a repulsive meekness. + +"Well, speak to your brother." + +"I _have_ alluded to the subject, and an opportunity _may_ occur again." + +"_Make_ one--make an opportunity, Dives." + +"There are rules, Lady Alice, which we must all observe." + +"Come, come, Dives Marlowe," said the lady, very tartly, "remember +you're a clergyman." + +"I hope I _do_, madam; and I trust _you_ will too." + +And the Rector rose, and with an offended bow, and before she could +reply, made a second as stiff, and turned away to the table, where he +took up a volume and pretended to read the title. + +"Dives," said the old lady, making no account of his huff, "please to +tell Monsieur Varbarriere that I should be very much obliged if he would +afford me a few minutes here, if he is not better engaged; that is, it +seems to me he has nothing to do there." + +M. Varbarriere was leaning back in his chair, his hands folded, and the +points of his thumbs together; his eyes closed, and his bronzed and +heavy features composed, as it seemed, to deep thought; and one of his +large shining shoes beating time slowly to the cadences of his +ruminations. + +The Reverend Dives Marlowe was in no mood just at that moment to be +trotted about on that offensive old lady's messages. But it is not +permitted to gentlemen, even of his sacred calling, to refuse, in this +wise, to make themselves the obedient humble servants of the fair sex, +and to tell them to go on their own errands. + +Silently he made her a slight bow, secretly resolving to avail himself +sparingly of his opportunities of cultivating her society for the +future. + +Perhaps it was owing to some mesmeric reciprocity, but exactly at this +moment M. Varbarriere opened his eyes, arose, and walked towards the +fireplace, as if his object had been to contemplate the ornaments over +the chimneypiece; and arriving at the hearthrug, and beholding Lady +Alice, he courteously drew near, and accosted her with a deferential +gallantry, saving the Reverend Dives Marlowe, who was skirting the other +side of the round table, the remainder of his tour. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +Varbarriere picks up something about Donica Gwynn. + + +Drawing-room conversation seldom opens like an epic in the thick of the +plot, and the introductory portions, however graceful, are seldom worth +much. M. Varbarriere and Lady Alice had been talking some two or three +minutes, when she made this inquiry. + +"When did you last see the elder Mr. Strangways, whom you mentioned at +dinner?" + +"Lately, very lately--within this year." + +"Did he seem pretty well?" + +"Perfectly well." + +"What does he think about it all?" + +"I find a difficulty. If Lady Alice Redcliffe will define her +question----" + +"I mean--well, I should have asked you first, whether he ever talked to +you about the affairs of that family--the Deverell family--I mean as +they were affected by the loss of a deed. I don't understand these +things well; but it involved the loss, they say, of an estate; and then +there was the great misfortune of my life." + +M. Varbarriere here made a low and reverential bow of sympathy; he knew +she meant the death of her son. + +"Upon this latter melancholy subject he entirely sympathises with you. +His grief of course has long abated, but his indignation survives." + +"And well it may, sir. And what does he say of the paper that +disappeared?" + +"He thinks, madam, that it was stolen." + +"Ha! So do I." + +The confidential and secret nature of their talk had drawn their heads +together, and lowered their voices. + +"He thinks it was abstracted by one of the Marlowe family." + +"Which of them? Go on, sir." + +"Well, by old Sir Harry Marlowe, the father of Sir Jekyl." + +"It certainly _was_ he; it could have been no other; it was stolen, that +is, I don't suppose by his hand; I don't know, perhaps it was; he was +capable of a great deal; _I_ say nothing, Monsieur Varbarriere." + +Perhaps that gentleman thought she had said a good deal; but he was as +grave on this matter as she. + +"You seem, madam, very positive. May I be permitted to inquire whether +you think there exists proof of the fact?" + +"I don't speak from proof, sir." + +Lady Alice sat straighter, and looked full in his face for a moment, and +said-- + +"I am talking to you, Monsieur Varbarriere, in a very confidential way. +I have not for ever so many years met a human being who cared, or indeed +knew anything of my poor boy as his friend. I have at length met you, +and I open my mind, my conjectures, my suspicions; but, you will +understand, in the strictest confidence." + +"I have so understood all you have said, and in the same spirit I have +spoken and mean to speak, madam, if you permit me, to you. I do feel an +interest in that Deverell family, of whom I have heard so much. There +was a servant, a rather superior order of person, who lived as +housekeeper--a Mrs. Gwynn--to whom I would gladly have spoken, had +chance thrown her in my way, and from whom it was hoped something +important might be elicited." + +"She is my housekeeper now," said Lady Alice. + +"Oh! and--" + +"I think she's a sensible person; a respectable person, I believe, in +her rank of life, although they chose to talk scandal about her; as what +young woman who lived in the same house with that vile old man, Sir +Harry Marlowe, could escape scandal? But, poor thing! there was no +evidence that ever I could learn; nothing but lies and envy: and she has +been a very faithful servant to the family." + +"And is now in your employment, madam?" + +"My housekeeper at Wardlock," responded Lady Alice. + +"Residing there now?" inquired M. Varbarriere. + +Lady Alice nodded assent. + +I know not by what subtle evidences, hard to define, seldom if ever +remembered, we sometimes come to a knowledge, by what seems an +intuition, of other people's intentions. M. Varbarriere was as silent as +Lady Alice was; his heavy bronzed features were still, and he looking +down on one of those exquisite wreaths of flowers that made the pattern +of the carpet; his brown, fattish hands were folded in his lap. He was +an image of an indolent reverie. + +Perhaps there was something special and sinister in the composure of +those large features. Lady Alice's eye rested on his face, and instantly +a fear smote her. She would have liked to shake him by the arm, and cry, +"In God's name, do you mean us any harm?" But it is not permitted even +to old ladies such as she to explode in adjuration, and shake up old +gentlemen whose countenances may happen to strike them unpleasantly. + +As people like to dispel an omen, old Lady Alice wished to disturb the +unpleasant pose and shadows of those features. So she spoke to him, and +he looked up like his accustomed self. + +"You mentioned Mr. Herbert Strangways just now, Monsieur. I forget what +relation you said he is to the young gentleman who accompanies you, Mr. +Guy Strangways." + +"Uncle, madam." + +"And, pray, does he perceive--did he ever mention a most astonishing +likeness in that young person to my poor son?" + +"He has observed a likeness, madam, but never seemed to think it by any +means so striking as you describe it. Your being so much moved by it has +surprised me." + +Here Lady Alice's old eyes wandered toward the spot where Guy Strangways +stood, resting them but a moment; every time she looked so at him, this +melancholy likeness struck her with a new force. She sighed and +shuddered, and removed her eyes. On looking again at M. Varbarriere, she +saw the same slightly truculent shadow over his features, as again he +looked drowsily upon the carpet. + +She had spent nearly a quarter of a century in impressing her limited +audience with the idea that if there were thunderbolts in heaven they +ought to fall upon Sir Jekyl Marlowe. Yet, now that she saw in that face +something like an evil dream, a promise of judgment coming, a feeling of +compunction and fear agitated her. + +She looked over his stooping shoulders and saw pretty Beatrix leaning on +the back of her father's chair, the young lady pleading gaily for some +concession, Sir Jekyl laughing her off. + +"How pretty she looks to-night--poor Trixie!" said Lady Alice, +unconsciously. + +M. Varbarriere raised his head, and looked, directed by her gaze, toward +father and daughter. But his countenance did not brighten. On the +contrary, it grew rather darker, and he looked another way, as if the +sight offended him. + +"Pretty creature she is--pretty Beatrix!" exclaimed the old lady, +looking sadly and fondly across at her. + +No response was vouchsafed by M. Varbarriere. + +"Don't you think so? Don't you think my granddaughter very lovely?" + +Thus directly appealed to, M. Varbarriere conceded the point, but not +with effusion. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle is charming--she is very charming--but I am not a +critic. I have come to that time of life, Lady Alice, at which our +admiration of mere youth, with its smooth soft skin and fresh tints, +supersedes our appreciation of beauty." + +In making this unsatisfactory compliment, he threw but one careless +glance at Beatrix. + +"That girl, you know, is heiress of all this--nothing but the title goes +to Dives, and the small estate of Grimalston," said Lady Alice. "Of +course I love my grandchild, but it always seems to me wrong to strip a +title of its support, and send down the estates by a different line." + +"Miss Beatrix Marlowe has a great deal too much for her own happiness. +It is a disproportioned fortune, and in a young lady so sensible will +awake suspicions of all her suitors. 'You are at my feet, sir,' she will +think, 'but is your worship inspired by love or by avarice?' She is in +the situation of that prince who turned all he touched into gold; while +it feeds the love of money, it starves nature." + +"I don't think it has troubled her head much as yet. If she had no dot +whatever, she could not be less conscious," said the old lady. + +"Some people might go through life and never feel it; and even of those +who do, I doubt if there is one who would voluntarily surrender the +consequence or the power of exorbitant wealth for the speculative +blessing of friends and lovers more sincere. I could quite fancy, +notwithstanding, a lady, either wise or sensitive, choosing a life of +celibacy in preference to marriage under conditions so suspicious. Miss +Marlowe would be a happier woman with only four or five hundred pounds +a-year." + +"Well, maybe so," said the old lady, dubiously, for she knew something +of the world as well as of the affections. + +"She will not, most likely, give it away; but if it were taken, she +would be happier. Few people have nerve for an operation, and yet many +are the more comfortable when it is performed." + +"Beatrix has only been out one season, and that but interruptedly. She +has been very much admired, though, and I have no doubt will be very +suitably married." + +"There are disadvantages, however." + +"I don't understand," said Lady Alice, a little stiffly. + +"I mean the tragedy in which Sir Jekyl is implicated," said M. +Varbarriere, rising, and looking, without intending it, so sternly at +Lady Alice, that she winced under it. + +"Yes, to be sure, but you know the world does not mind that--the world +does not choose to believe ill of fortune's minions--at least, to +remember it. A few old-fashioned people view it as you and I do; but +Jekyl stands very well. It is a wicked world, Monsieur Varbarriere." + +"It is not for me to say. Every man has profited, more or less, at one +time or another, by its leniency. Perhaps I feel in this particular case +more strongly than others; but, notwithstanding the superior rank, +wealth, and family of Sir Jekyl Marlowe, I should not, were I his +equal, like to be tied to him by a close family connexion." + +Lady Alice did not feel anger, nor was she pleased. She did not look +down abashed at discovering that this stranger seemed to resent on so +much higher ground than she the death of her son. She compressed her +thin lips, looking a little beside the stern gentleman in black, at a +distant point on the wall, and appeared to reflect. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +Lady Jane puts on her Brilliants. + + +That evening, by the late post, had arrived a letter, in old General +Lennox's hand, to his wife. It had come at dinner-time, and it was with +a feeling of _ennui_ she read the address. It was one of those billets +which, in Swift's phrase, would "have kept cool;" but, subsiding on the +ottoman, she opened it--conjugal relations demanded this attention; and +Lady Jane, thinking "what a hand he writes!" ran her eye lazily down +those crabbed pages in search of a date to light her to the passage +where he announced his return; but there was none, so far as she saw. + +"What's all this about? 'Masterson, the silkmercer at Marlowe--a +very'--something--'fellow--_honest_.' Yes, that's the word. So he may +be, but I shan't buy his horrid trash, if that's what you mean," said +she, crumpling up the stupid old letter, and leaning back, not in the +sweetest temper, and with a sidelong glance of lazy defiance through her +half-closed lashes, at the unconscious Lady Alice. + +And now arrived a sleek-voiced servant, who, bowing beside Lady Jane, +informed her gently that Mr. Masterson had arrived with the parcel for +her ladyship. + +"The parcel! what parcel?" + +"I'm not aware, my lady." + +"Tell him to give it to my maid. Ridiculous rubbish!" murmured Lady +Jane, serenely. + +But the man returned. + +"Mr. Masterson's direction from the General, please, my lady, was to +give the parcel into your own hands." + +"Where is he?" inquired Lady Jane, rising with a lofty fierceness. + +"In the small breakfast-parlour, my lady." + +"Show me the way, please." + +When Lady Jane Lennox arrived she found Mr. Masterson cloaked and +muffled, as though off a journey, and he explained, that having met +General Lennox yesterday accidentally in Oxford Street, in London, from +whence he had only just returned, he had asked him to take charge of a +parcel, to be delivered into her ladyship's own hands, where, +accordingly, he now placed it. + +Lady Jane did not thank him; she was rather conscious of herself +conferring a favour by accepting anything at his hands; and when he was +gone she called her maid, and having reached her room and lighted her +candles, she found a very beautiful set of diamonds. + +"Why, these are really superb, beautiful brilliants!" exclaimed the +handsome young lady. The cloud had quite passed away, and a beautiful +light glowed on her features. + +Forthwith to the glass she went, in a charming excitement. + +"Light all the candles you can find!" she exclaimed. + +"Well, my eyes, but them is beautiful, my lady!" ejaculated the maid, +staring with a smirk, and feeling that at such a moment she might talk a +little, without risk, which, indeed, was true. + +So with bed-room and dressing-table candles, and a pair purloined even +from old Lady Alice's room, a tolerably satisfactory illumination was +got up, and the jewels did certainly look dazzling. + +The pendants flashed in her ears--the exquisite collar round her +beautiful throat--the tiara streamed livid fire over her low Venus-like +forehead, and her eager eyes and parted lips expressed her almost +childlike delight. + +There are silver bullets against charmed lives. There are women from +whose snowy breasts the fire-tipped shafts of Cupid fall quenched and +broken; and yet a handful of these brilliant pellets will find their way +through that wintry whiteness, and lie lodged in her bleeding heart. + +After I know not how long a time spent before the glass, it suddenly +struck Lady Jane to inquire of the crumpled letter, in which the name of +Masterson figured, and of whose contents she knew, in fact, nothing, but +that they named no day for the General's return. She had grown curious +as to who the donor might be. Were those jewels a gift from the +General's rich old sister, who had a splendid suit, she had heard, which +she would never put on again? Had they come as a bequest? How was it, +and whose were they? + +And now with these flashing gems still dangling so prettily in her ears, +and spanning her white throat, as she still stood before the glass, she +applied herself to spell out her General's meaning in better temper than +for a long time she had read one of that gallant foozle's kindly and +honest rigmaroles. At first the process was often interrupted by those +glances at the mirror which it is impossible under ordinary +circumstances to withhold; but as her interest deepened she drew the +candle nearer, and read very diligently the stiffly written lines before +her. + +They showed her that the magnificent present was from himself alone. I +should be afraid to guess how many thousand pounds had been lavished +upon those jewels. An uxorious fogey--a wicked old fool--perhaps we, +outside the domestic circle, may pronounce him. Lady Jane within that +magic ring saw differently. + +The brief, blunt, soldier-like affection that accompanied this +magnificent present, and the mention of a little settlement of the +jewels, which made them absolutely hers in case her "old man" should +die, and the little conjecture "I wonder whether you would sometimes +miss him?" smote her heart strangely. + +"What a gentleman--what an old darling!"--and she--how heinously had she +requited his manly but foolish adoration. + +"I'll write to him this moment," she said, quite pale. + +And she took the casket in her hands and laid it on her bed, and sat +down on the side of it, and trembled very much, and suddenly burst into +tears, insomuch that her maid was startled, and yielding forthwith to +her sympathy, largely leavened with curiosity, she came and stood by her +and administered such consolation as people will who know nothing of +your particular grief, and like, perhaps, to discover its causes. + +But after a while her mistress asked her impatiently what she meant, +and, to her indignation and surprise, ordered her out of the room. + +"I wish he had not been so good to me. I wish he had ever been unkind to +me. I wish he would beat me, Good Heaven! is it all a dream?" + +So, quite alone, with one flashing pendant in her ear, with the necklace +still on--incoherently, wildly, and affrighted--raved Lady Jane, with a +face hectic and wet with tears. + +Things appeared to her all on a sudden, quite in a new character, as +persons suddenly called on to leave life, see their own doings as they +never beheld them before; so with a shock, and an awakening, tumbled +about her the whole structure of her illusions, and a dreadful void with +a black perspective for the first time opened round her. + +She did not return to the drawing-room. When Beatrix, fearing she might +be ill, knocked at the door of the green chamber, and heard from the far +extremity Lady Jane's clear voice call "Come in," she entered. She found +her lying in her clothes, with the counterpane thrown partially over +her, upon the funereal-looking old bed, whose dark green curtains +depended nearly from the ceiling. + +"Well!" exclaimed Lady Jane, almost fiercely, rising to her elbow, and +staring at Beatrix. + +"I--you told me to come in. I'm afraid I mistook." + +"Did I? I dare say. I thought it was my maid. I've got such a bad +headache." + +"I'm very sorry. Can I do anything?" + +"No, Beatrix--no, thank you; it will go away of itself." + +"I wish so much, Lady Jane, you would allow me to do anything for you. +I--I sometimes fear I have offended you. You seemed to like me, I +thought, when I saw you this spring in London, and I've been trying to +think how I have displeased you." + +"_Displeased_ me! _you_ displease _me_! Oh! Beatrix, Beatrix, dear, you +don't know, you can never know. I--it is a feeling of disgust and +despair. I hate myself, and I'm frightened and miserable, and I wish I +dare cling to you." + +She looked for a moment as if she would have liked to embrace her, but +she turned away and buried her face in her pillow. + +"Dear Lady Jane, you must not be so agitated. You certainly are not +well," said Beatrix, close to the bedside, and really a good deal +frightened. "Have you heard--I hope you have not--any ill news?" + +If Lady Jane had been dead she could not have seemed to hear her less. + +"I hope General Lennox is not ill?" inquired she timidly. + +"Ill? No--I don't know; he's very well. I hope he's very well. I hope he +is; and--and I know what I wish for myself." + +Beatrix knew what her grandmamma thought of Lady Jane's violence and +temper, and she began to think that something must have happened to +ruffle it that evening. + +"I wish you'd go, dear, you _can_ do nothing for me," said Lady Jane, +ungraciously, with a sudden and sombre change of manner. + +"Well, dear Lady Jane, if you think of anything I can do for you, pray +send for me; by-and-by you might like me to come and read to you; and +would you like me to send your maid?" + +"Oh! no--no, no, _no_--nothing--good-night," repeated Lady Jane, +impatiently. + +So Beatrix departed, and Lady Jane remained alone in the vast chamber, +much more alone than one would be in a smaller one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +Conciliation. + + +That night again, old Lady Alice, just settling, and having actually +swallowed her drops, was disturbed by a visit from Lady Jane, who stood +by her dishevelled, flushed, and with that storm-beaten look which +weeping leaves behind it. She looked eager, even imploring, so that Lady +Alice challenged her with-- + +"What on earth, Jane, brings you to my bedside at this hour of the +night?" + +"I've come to tell you, Lady Alice, that I believe I was wrong the other +night to speak to you as I did." + +"I thought, Jane," replied the old lady with dignity, "you would come to +view your conduct in that light." + +"I thought you were right all the time; that is, I thought you meant +kindly. I wished to tell you so," said Lady Jane. + +"I am glad, Jane, you can now speak with temper." + +"And I think you are the only person alive, except poor Lennox, who +really cares for me." + +"I knew, Jane, that reflection and conscience would bring you to this +form of mind," said Lady Alice. + +"And I think, when I come to say all this to you, you ought not to +receive me so." + +"I meant to receive you kindly, Jane; one can't always in a moment +forget the pain and humiliation which such scenes produce. It will help +me, however, your expressing your regret as you do." + +"Well, I believe I am a fool--I believe I deserve this kind of treatment +for lowering myself as I have done. The idea of my coming in here, half +dressed, to say all this, and being received in this--in this +indescribable way!" + +"If you don't feel it, Jane, I'm sorry you should have expressed any +sorrow for your misconduct," replied Lady Alice, loftily. + +"Sorrow, madam! I never said a word about sorrow. I said I thought you +cared for me, and I don't think so now. I am sure you don't, and I care +just as little for you, not a pin, madam, with your ridiculous airs." + +"Very good, dear--then I suppose you are quite satisfied with your +former conduct?" + +"Perfectly--of _course_ I am, and if I had had a notion what kind of +person you are I should not have come near you, I promise you." + +Lady Alice smiled a patient smile, which somehow rather provoked the +indignant penitent. + +"I'd as soon have put my hand in the fire, madam. I've borne too much +from you--a great deal too much; it is you who should have come to me, +madam, and I don't care a farthing about you." + +"And I'm still under sentence, I presume, when General Lennox, returns +with his horsewhip," suggested Lady Alice, meekly. + +"It would do you nothing but good." + +"You are excessively _impertinent_," said Lady Alice, a little losing +her self-command. + +"So are you, madam." + +"And I desire you'll leave my room," pursued Lady Alice. + +"And don't you address me while we remain in this house," exclaimed Lady +Jane, with flaming cheeks. + +"Quit the room!" cried Lady Alice, sitting up with preternatural +rigidity. + +"Open the door!" exclaimed Lady Jane, fiercely, to the scared maid, "and +carry this candle." + +And the maid heard her mutter forcibly as she marched before her through +the passage--"wicked old frump." + +I am afraid it was one of those cases of incompatibility of temper, or +faults on both sides, in which it is, on the whole, more for the +interests of peace and goodwill that people should live apart, than +attempt that process under the same roof. + +There was a smoking party that night in Sir Jekyl's room. A line had +reached him from General Lennox, regretting his long stay in town, and +fearing that he could hardly hope to rejoin his agreeable party at +Marlowe before a week or possibly ten days. But he hoped that they had +not yet shot all the birds--and so, with that mild joke and its +variations, the letter humorously concluded. + +He had also had a letter from the London legal firm--this time the +corresponding limb of the body was Crowe--who, in reply to some fresh +interrogatories of the Baronet's, wrote to say that his partner, Mr. +Pelter, being called to France by legal business connected with Craddock +and Maddox, it devolved on him to "assure Sir Jekyl that, so far as they +could ascertain, everything in the matter to which he referred was +perfectly quiet, and that no ground existed for apprehending any stir +whatsoever." + +These letters from Pelter and Crowe, who were shrewd and by no means +sanguine men of business, had always a charming effect on his +spirits--not that he quite required them, or that they gave him any new +ideas or information, but they were pleasant little fillips, as +compliments are to a beauty. He was, therefore, this evening, more than +usually lively, and kept the conversation in a very merry amble. + +Guy Strangways was absent; but his uncle, M. Varbarriere, was present, +and in his solemn, sly, porcine way, enjoyed himself with small exertion +and much unction, laughing sometimes sardonically and without noise, at +things which did not seem to amuse the others so much; but, in all he +said, very courteous, and in his demeanour suave and bowing. He was the +last man to take leave of his host, on the threshold, that night. + +"I always lock myself in," said Sir Jekyl, observing his guest's eye +rest for a moment on the key, on which his own finger rested, "and I +can't think why the plague I do," he added, laughing, "except that my +father did so before me." + +"It makes your pleasant room more a hermitage, and you more of a +recluse," said Monsieur Varbarriere. + +"It is very well to be a recluse at pleasure, and take monastic vows of +five hours' duration, and shut yourself up from the world, with the key +of the world, nevertheless, in your pocket," said Sir Jekyl. + +Monsieur Varbarriere laughed, and somehow lingered, as if he expected +more. + +"You don't mean that you assert your liberty at capricious hours, and +affright your guests in the character of a ghost?" said Monsieur +Varbarriere, jocosely. + +Sir Jekyl laughed. + +"No," said he, "on the contrary, I make myself more of a prisoner than +you imagine. My man sleeps in the little room in which you now stand, +and draws his little camp-bed across the door. I can't tell you the +least why I do this, only it was my father's custom also, and I fancy my +throat would be cut if my guard did not lie across the threshold. The +world is a mad tree, and we are branches, says the Italian proverb. +Good-night, Monsieur Varbarriere." + +"Good-night," said the guest, with a bow and a smile; and both, with a +little laugh, shook hands and parted. + +Monsieur Varbarriere was a tolerably early riser, and next morning was +walking in the cheering morning sun, under the leaves of the evergreens, +glittering with dew. A broad walk, wide enough for a pony-carriage, +sweeps along a gentle wooded elevation, commanding a wide prospect of +that rich country. + +He leaned on the low parapet, and with his pocket field-glass lazily +swept the broad landscape beneath. Lowering his telescope, he stood +erect, and looked about him, when, to his surprise, for he did not think +that either was an early riser, he saw Sir Jekyl Marlowe and Lady Jane +Lennox walking side by side, and approaching. + +Monsieur Varbarriere was blessed with very long and clear sight, for his +time of life. There was something in the gait of these two persons, and +in the slight gesture that accompanied their conversation, as they +approached, which struck M. Varbarriere as indicating excitement, though +of different kinds. + +In the pace of the lady, who carried her head high, with a slight wave +sometimes to this side, sometimes to that, was as much of what we term +swagger as is compatible with feminine grace. Sometimes a sudden halt, +for a moment, and a "left face" movement on her companion. Sir Jekyl, on +the other hand, bore himself, he thought, like a gentleman a good deal +annoyed and irritated. + +All this struck M. Varbarriere in a very few seconds, during which, +uncertain whether he ought to come forward or not, he hesitated where he +stood. + +It was plain, however, that he was quite unobserved standing in a recess +of the evergreens; so he leaned once more upon the parapet, and applied +his glass to his eye. + +Now he was right in his conjecture. This had been a very stormy walk, +though the cool grey light of morning is not the season for exciting +demonstrations. We will take them up in the midst of their conversation, +a little before Monsieur Varbarriere saw them--just as Sir Jekyl said +with a slight sneer-- + +"Oh, of course, it was very kind." + +"More, it's _princely_, sir," cried Lady Jane. + +"Well, princely--very princely--only, pray, dear Jane, do not talk so +very loud; you can't possibly wish the keepers and milkmaids to hear +every word you say." + +"I don't care, Jekyl. I think you have made me mad." + +"You _are_ a bit mad, Jane, but it is not I who made you so." + +"Yes, Jekyl, you've made me mad--you have made me a fiend; but, bad as I +am, I can never face that good man more." + +"Now don't--now don't. What _can_ be the matter with you?" urged Sir +Jekyl in a low tone. + +"This, sir--I'll see him no more--you must. You _shall_ take me away." + +"Now, now, now--_come_! Are you talking like a sane person, Jane? What +the devil can have come over you about these trumpery diamonds?" + +"You shan't talk that way." + +"Come! I venture to say they are nothing like as valuable as you fancy, +and whatever they are, Lennox got them a devilish good bargain, rely on +it. He knows perfectly well what he's about. Everyone knows how rich he +is, and the wife of a fellow like that ought to have jewels; people +would talk--I give you my honour they would, if you had not; and then he +is in town, with nothing to keep him there--no business, I mean--an old +military man, and he wants to keep you in good-humour." + +"It's a lie. I know what you mean." + +"Upon my soul, it's fact," he laughed, looking very pale. "Surely you +don't mistake an old East Indian general for a Joseph!" + +"Talk any way but that, you wretch! I know him. It's no use--he's the +soul of honour. Oh Jekyl, Jekyl! why did not you marry me when you +might, and save me from all this?" + +"Now, Janet, _is_ this reasonable--you know you never thought of it--you +know it would not have done--would you have liked Beatrix? Besides, you +have really done better--a great _deal_ better--he's not so old as he +looks--I dare say not much older than I--and a devilish deal richer, +and--a--what the devil you want, for the life of me, I can't see." + +It was about at this point in their conversation that, on a sudden, they +came upon Monsieur Varbarriere, looking through his field-glass. Lady +Jane moved to turn short about, but Sir Jekyl pressed his arm on hers +impatiently, and kept her straight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +Lady Jane and Beatrix play at Croquet. + + +"Good morning, Monsieur Varbarriere," cried the Baronet, who divined +truly that the fattish elderly gentleman with the bronzed features, and +in the furred surtout, had observed them. + +"Ah!" cried Monsieur Varbarriere, turning toward them genially, his +oddly shaped felt hat in one hand, and his field-glass still extended in +the other. "What a charming morning! I have been availing myself of the +clear sunlight to study this splendid prospect, partly as a picture, +partly as a map." + +Lady Jane with her right hand plucked some wild flowers from the bank, +which at that side rises steeply from the walk, while the gentlemen +exchanged salutations. + +"I've just been pointing out some of our famous places to Lady Jane +Lennox. A little higher up the walk the view is much more commanding. +What do you say to a walk here after breakfast? There's a capital glass +in the hall, much more powerful than that can be. Suppose we come +by-and-by?" + +"You are very good--I am so obliged--my curiosity has been so very much +piqued by all I have seen." + +Monsieur Varbarriere was speaking, as usual, his familiar French, and +pointed with his telescope toward a peculiarly shaped remote hillock. + +"I have just been conjecturing could that be that Gryston which we +passed by on our way to Marlowe." + +"Perfectly right, by Jove! what an eye for locality you must have!" + +"Have I? Well, sometimes, perhaps," said the foreign gentleman, +laughing. + +"The eye of a general. Yes, you are quite right--it is Gryston." + +Now Sir Jekyl was frank and hearty in his talk; but there was an air--a +something which would have excited the observation of Monsieur +Varbarriere, even had he remarked nothing peculiar in the bearing of his +host and his companion as they approached. There was a semi-abstraction, +a covert scrutiny of that gentleman's countenance, and a certain sense +of uneasiness. + +Some more passed--enough to show that there was nothing in the slightest +degree awkward to the two pedestrians in having so unexpectedly fallen +into an ambuscade while on their route--and then Sir Jekyl, with a word +of apology to Lady Jane, resumed his walk with her towards the +pleasure-grounds near the house. + +That day Lady Jane played croquet with Beatrix, while Sir Jekyl +demonstrated half the country, from the high grounds, to Monsieur +Varbarriere. + +The croquet-ground is pretty--flowerbeds lie round it, and a "rockery," +as they called it, covered with clambering flowers and plants, and +backed by a thick grove of shrubs and evergreens, fenced it in to the +north. + +Lady Jane was kind, ill-tempered, capricious; played wildly, lazily, +badly. + +"Do you like people in spite of great faults ever, Beatrix?" she asked, +suddenly. + +"Every one has great faults," said Trixie, sporting a little bit of +philosophy. + +"No, they have not; there are very good people, and I hate them," said +Lady Jane, swinging her mallet slowly like a pendulum, and gazing with +her dark deep eyes full into her companion's face. + +"Hate the good people!" exclaimed Beatrix; "then how do you feel towards +the bad?" + +"There are some whose badness suits me, and I like them; there are +others whose badness does not, and them I hate as much as the good +almost." + +Trixie was puzzled; but she concluded that Lady Jane was in one of her +odd moods, and venting her ill temper in those shocking eruptions of +levity. + +"How old are you, Beatrix?" + +"Nineteen." + +"Ha! and I am five-and-twenty--six years. There is a great deal learned +in those six years. I don't recollect what I was like when I was +nineteen." + +She did not sigh; Lady Jane was not given to sighing, but her face +looked sad and sullen. + +"It all came of my having no friend," she said, abruptly. "Not one. That +stupid old woman might have been one, but she would not. I had no +one--it was fate; and here I am, such as I am, and I don't blame myself +or anything. But I wish I had one true friend." + +"I am sure, Lady Jane, you must have many friends," said Beatrix. + +"Don't be a little hypocrite, Beatrix; why should I more than another? +Friends are not picked up like daisies as we walk along. If you have +neither mother nor sisters, nor kith nor kin to care about you, you will +find it hard to make strangers do so. As for old Lady Alice, I think she +always hated me; she did nothing but pick holes in everything I said or +did; I never heard anything from her but the old story of my faults. And +then I was thrown among women of the world--heartless, headless +creatures. I don't blame them, they knew no better--perhaps there is no +better; but I do blame that egotistical old woman, who, if she had but +controlled her temper, might have been of so much use to me, and _would_ +not. Religion, and good principles, and all that, whether it is true or +false, is the safest plan; and I think if she had been moderately kind +and patient, she might have made me as good as others. Don't look at me +as if I had two heads, dear. I'm not charging myself with any enormity. +I only say it is the happiest way, even if it be the way of fools." + +"Shall we play any more?" inquired Beatrix, after a sufficient pause had +intervened to soften the transition. + +"Yes, certainly. Which is my ball?" + +"The red. You are behind your hoop." + +"Yes; and--and it seems to me, Beatrix, you are a cold little stick, +like your grandmamma, as you call her, though she's no grandmamma of +yours." + +"Think me as stupid as you please, but you must not think me cold; and, +indeed, you wrong poor old granny." + +"We'll talk no more of her. I think her a fool and a savage. Come, it's +your turn, is not it, to play?" + +So the play went on for a while in silence, except for those questions +and comments without which it can hardly proceed. + +"And now you have won, have not you?" said Lady Jane. + +"Should you like another game?" asked Beatrix. + +"Maybe by-and-by; and--I sometimes wish you liked me, Beatrix; but I +don't know you, and you are little better than a child still; +and--no--it could not be--it never could--you'd be sure to hate me in a +little while." + +"But I do like you, Lady Jane. I liked you very much in London, you were +so kind; and I don't know why you were so changed to me when you came +here; you seem to have taken a positive dislike to me." + +"So I had, child--I detested you," said Lady Jane, but in a tone that +had something mocking in it. "Everything has grown--how shall I express +it?--disgusting to me--yes, _disgusting_. You had done nothing to cause +it; you need not look so contrite. I could not help it either. I am +odious--and I can't love or like anybody." + +"I am sure, Lady Jane, you are not at all like what you describe." + +"You think me faultless, do you?" + +Beatrix smiled. + +"Well, I see you don't. What _is_ my fault?" demanded Lady Jane, looking +on her not with a playful, but with a lowering countenance. + +"It is a very conceited office--pointing out other people's faults, even +if one understood them, which I do not." + +"Well, I give you leave; tell me one, to begin with," persisted Lady +Jane Lennox. + +Beatrix laughed. + +"I wish, Lady Jane, if you insist on my telling your faults, that you +would not look so stern." + +"Stern--do I?" said Lady Jane; "I did not intend; it was not with you, +but myself, that I was angry; not angry either, for my faults have been +caused by other people, and to say truth, I don't very much wish to mend +them." + +"No, Lady Jane," said Beatrix, merrily. "I won't say in cold blood +anything disagreeable. I don't say, mind, that I really could tell you +any one fault you may fancy you have--but I won't try." + +"Well, let us walk round this oval; I'll tell you what you think. You +think I am capricious--and so I may appear--but I am not; on the +contrary, my likings or aversions are always on good grounds, and last +very long. I don't say people always know the grounds, but they know it +is not whim; they know--those that have experienced either--that my love +and aversion are both very steady. You think I am ill-tempered, too, but +I am not--I am isolated and unhappy; but my temper is easy to get on +with--and I don't know why I am talking to you," she exclaimed, with a +sudden change in her looks and tone, "as if you and I could ever by any +possibility become friends. Good-bye, Beatrix; I see your grandmamma +beckoning." + +So she was--leaning upon the arm of her maid, a wan lank +figure--motioning her toward her. + +"Coming, grandmamma," cried Beatrix, and smiled, and turning to say a +parting word to Lady Jane, she perceived that she was already moving +some way off toward the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +General Lennox receives a Letter. + + +Monsieur Varbarriere was charmed with his host this morning. Sir Jekyl +spent more than an hour in pointing out and illustrating the principal +objects in the panorama that spread before and beneath them as they +stood with field-glasses scanning the distance, and a very agreeable +showman he made. + +Very cheery and healthful among the breezy copse to make this sort of +rural survey. As they parted in the hall, Monsieur Varbarriere spoke his +eloquent appreciation of the beauties of the surrounding country; and +then, having letters to despatch by the post, he took his leave, and +strode up with pounding steps to his dressing-room. + +Long before he reached it, his smile had quite subsided, and it was with +a solemn and stern countenance that he entered and nodded to his valet, +whom he found awaiting him there. + +"Well, Jacques, any more offers? Does Sir Jekyl still wish to engage +you?" + +"I can assure Monsieur there has not been a word since upon that +affair." + +"_Good!_" said Monsieur Varbarriere, after a second's scrutiny of the +valet's dark, smirking visage. + +The elderly gentleman unlocked his desk, and taking forth a large +envelope, he unfolded the papers enclosed in it. + +"Have we anything to note to-day about that apartment verd? Did you +manage the measurement of the two recesses?" + +"They are three feet and a half wide, two feet and a half deep, and the +pier between them is, counting in the carved case, ten feet and six +inches; and there is from the angle of the room at each side, that next +the window and that opposite, to the angle of the same recesses, +counting in, in like manner, the carved case, two feet and six inches +exactly. Here Monsieur has the threads of measurement," added Jacques, +with a charming bow, handing a little paper, containing certain pieces +of tape cut at proper lengths and noted in pen and ink, to his master. + +"Were you in the room yourself since?" + +"This afternoon I am promised to be again introduced." + +"Try both--particularly that to your right as you stand near the +door--and rap them with your knuckles, and search as narrowly as you +can." + +Monsieur Jacques bowed low and smiled. + +"And now about the other room," said Monsieur Varbarriere; "have you had +an opportunity?" + +"I have enjoyed the permission of visiting it, by the kindness of Sir +Jekyl's man." + +"He does not suppose any object?" inquired Monsieur Varbarriere. + +"None in the world--nothing--merely the curiosity of seeing everything +which is common in persons of my rank." + +Monsieur Varbarriere smiled dimly. + +"Well, there is a room opening at the back of Sir Jekyl's room--what is +it?" + +"His study." + +Varbarriere nodded--"Go on." + +"A room about the same size, surrounded on all sides except the window +with books packed on shelves." + +"Where is the door?" + +"There is no door, visible at least, except that by which one enters +from Sir Jekyl Marlowe's room," answered Monsieur Jacques. + +"Any sign of a door?" + +Monsieur Jacques smiled a little mysteriously. + +"When my friend, Monsieur Tomlinson, Sir Jekyl's gentleman, had left me +alone for a few minutes, to look at some old books of travels with +engravings, for which I had always a liking, I did use my eyes a little, +Monsieur, upon other objects, but could see nothing. Then, with the head +of my stick I took the liberty to knock a little upon the shelves, and +one place I did find where the books are not real, but made of wood." + +"Made of wood?" repeated Monsieur Varbarriere. + +"Yes--bound over to imitate the tomes; and all as old and dingy as the +books themselves." + +"You knew by the sound?" + +"Yes, Monsieur, by the sound. I removed, moreover, a real book at the +side, and I saw there wood." + +"Whereabout is that in the wall?" + +"Next to the corner, Monsieur, which is formed by the wall in which the +windows are set--it is a dark corner, nearly opposite the door by which +you enter." + +"That's a door," said Monsieur Varbarriere, rising deliberately as if he +were about to walk through it. + +"I think Monsieur conjectures sagely." + +"What more did you see, Jacques?" demanded Monsieur Varbarriere, +resuming his seat quietly. + +"Nothing, Monsieur; for my good friend returned just then, and occupied +my attention otherwise." + +"You did not give him a hint of your discovery?" + +"Not a word, sir." + +"Jacques, you must see that room again, quietly. You are very much +interested, you know, in those books of travel. When you have a minute +there to yourself again, you will take down in turn every volume at each +side of that false bookcase, and search closely for hinge or bolt--there +must be something of the kind--or keyhole--do you see? Rely upon me, I +will not fail to consider the service handsomely. Manage that, if +possible, to-day." + +"I will do all my possible, Monsieur." + +"I depend upon you, Jacques. Adieu." + +With a low bow and a smirk, Jacques departed. + +Monsieur Varbarriere bolted his dressing-room door, and sat down musing +mysteriously before his paper. His large, fattish, freckled hand hung +down over the arm of the low chair, nearly to the carpet, with his +heavy gold pencil-case in its fingers. He heaved one deep, unconscious +sigh, as he leaned back. It was not that he quailed before any coming +crisis. He was not a soft-hearted or nervous general, and had quite made +up his mind. But he was not without good nature in ordinary cases, and +the page he was about to open was full of terror and bordered all round +with black. + +Lady Jane Lennox was at that moment seated also before her desk, very +pale, and writing a few very grateful and humble lines of thanks to her +General--vehement thanks--vehement self-abasement--such as surprised him +quite delightfully. He read them over and over, smiling with all his +might, under his stiff white moustache, and with a happy moisture in his +twinkling grey eyes, and many a murmured apostrophe, "Poor little +thing--how pleased she is--poor little Janet!" and resolving how happy +they two should be, and how much sunshine was breaking into their world. + +Monsieur Varbarriere was sitting in deep thought before his desk. + +"Yes, I think I _may_," was the result of his ruminations. + +And in his bold clear hand he indited the following letter, which we +translate:-- + + _Private and Confidential._ + + Marlowe Manor, --th October, 1849. + + General Lennox. + + SIR,--I, in the first place, beg you to excuse the apparent + presumption of my soliciting a private audience of a gentleman to + whom I have the honour to be but so slightly known, and of claiming + the protection of an honourable secrecy. The reason of my so doing + will be obvious when I say that I have certain circumstances to lay + before you which nearly affect your honour. I decline making any + detailed statement by letter, nor will I explain my meaning at + Marlowe Manor; but if, without _fracas_, you will give me a private + meeting, at any place between this and London, I will make it my + business to see you, when I shall satisfy you that I have not made + this request without the gravest reasons. May I entreat that your + reply may be addressed to me, _poste restante_, Slowton. + + Accept the assurance, &c., &c., &c., + + H. VARBARRIERE. + +Thus was the angelic messenger, musical with silvery wings, who visited +honest General Lennox in his lodgings off Piccadilly, accompanied all +the way, in the long flight from Slowton to the London terminus, by a +dark spirit of compensation, to appal him with a doubt. + +Varbarriere's letter had been posted at Wardlock by his own servant +Jacques--a precaution he chose to adopt, as he did not care that anyone +at the little town of Marlowe, far less at the Manor, should guess that +he had anything on earth to say to General Lennox. + +When the two letters reached that old gentleman, he opened Lady Jane's +first; for, as we know, he had arrived at the amorous age, and was +impatient to read what his little Jennie had to say; and when he had +read it once, he had of course to read it all over again; then he kissed +it and laughed tremulously over it, and was nearer to crying than he +would have confessed to anyone--even to her; and he read it again at the +window, where he was seen by seedy Captain Fezzy, who was reading +_Bell's Life_, across, the street, in the three-pair-of-stairs window, +and by Miss Dignum, the proprietress, from the drawing-room, with a +countenance so radiant and moved as to interest both spectators from +their different points of view. + +Thus, with many re-perusals and pleasant castle-buildings, and some airs +gently whistled in his reveries, he had nearly forgotten M. +Varbarriere's letter. + +He was so gratified--he always knew she cared for her old man, little +Jennie--she was not demonstrative, all the better perhaps for that; and +here, in this delightful letter, so grateful, so sad, so humble, it was +all confessed--demonstrated, at last; and old General Lennox thought +infinitely better of himself, and far more adoringly of his wife than +ever, and was indescribably proud and happy. Hitherto his good angel had +had it all his own way; the other spirit was now about to take his +turn--touched him on the elbow and presented Monsieur Varbarriere's +letter, with a dark smile. + +"Near forgetting this, by Jove!" said the old gentleman with the white +moustache and eyebrows, taking the letter in his gnarled pink fingers. + +"What the devil can the fellow mean? I think he's a fool," said the +General, very pale and stern, when he had read the letter twice through. + +If the people at the other side had been studying the transition of +human countenance, they would have had a treat in the General's, now +again presented at his drawing-room window, where he stood leaning +grimly on his knuckles. + +Still oftener, and more microscopically, was this letter spelled over +than the other. + +"It can't possibly refer to Jane. It _can't_. I put that out of my +head--_quite_," said the poor General energetically to himself, with a +short wave of his hand like a little sabre-cut in the air. + +But what could it be? He had no kinsman near enough in blood to "affect +his honour." But these French fellows had such queer phrases. The only +transaction he could think of was the sale of his black charger in +Calcutta for two hundred guineas, to that ill-conditioned fellow, +Colonel Bardell, who, he heard, had been grumbling about that bargain, +as he did about every other. + +"I should not be surprised if he said I cheated him about that horse!" + +And he felt quite obliged to Colonel Bardell for affording this +hypothesis. + +"Yes, Bardell was coming to England--possibly at Marlowe now. He knows +Sir Jekyl. Egad, that's the very thing. He's been talking; and this +officious old French bourgeois thinks he's doing a devilish polite thing +in telling me what a suspected dog I am." + +The General laughed, and breathed a great sigh of relief, and recalled +all the cases he could bring up in which fellows had got into scrapes +unwittingly about horse-flesh, and how savagely fellows sometimes spoke +when they did not like their bargains. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +The Bishop at Marlowe. + + +So he laboured in favour of his hypothesis with an uneasy sort of +success; but, for a few seconds, on one sore point of his heart had +there been a pressure, new, utterly agonising, and there remained the +sense of contusion. + +The General took his hat, and came and walked off briskly into the city +a long way, thinking he had business; but when he reached the office, +preferring another day--wishing to be back at Marlowe--wishing to see +Varbarriere--longing to know the worst. + +At last he turned into a city coffee-house, and wrote a reply on a +quarto sheet of letter-paper to Monsieur Varbarriere. He was minded +first to treat the whole thing with a well-bred contempt, and simply to +mention that as he expected soon to be at Marlowe, he would not give +Monsieur Varbarriere the trouble of making an appointment elsewhere. + +But, seated in his box, he read Monsieur Varbarriere's short letter over +again before committing himself, and it struck him that it was _not_ an +intimation to be trifled with--it had a certain gravity which did not +lose its force by frequent reading. The gentleman himself, +too--reserved, shrewd, with an odd mixture of the unctuous and the +sardonic--his recollection of this person, the writer, came +unpleasantly in aid of the serious impression which his letter was +calculated to make; and he read again-- + +"I have certain circumstances to lay before you which nearly affect your +honour." + +The words smote his heart again with a tremendous augury; somehow they +would not quite fit his hypothesis about the horse, but it might be +something else. Was there any lady who might conceive herself jilted? +Who could guess what it might be? + +Jennie's letter he read then again in his box, with the smell of +beef-steaks, the glitter of pewter pots, and the tread of waiters about +him. + +Yes, it was--he defied the devil himself to question it--an +affectionate, loving, grateful letter. And Lady Alice had gone to +Marlowe, and was staying there--Lady Alice Redcliffe, that stiff, +austere duenna--Jane's kinswoman. He was glad of it, and often thinking +of it. But, no--oh! no--it could not possibly refer to Jane: upon that +point he had perfectly made up his mind. + +Well, with his pen between his fingers, he considered when he could go, +and where he should meet this vulgar Frenchman. He could not leave +London to-morrow, nor next day, and the day following he had to give +evidence on the question of compensation to that native prince, and so +on: so at last he wrote, naming the nearest day he could command, and +requesting, in a postscript which he opened the letter to add, that +Monsieur Varbarriere would be so very good as to let him know a little +more distinctly to what specific subject his letter referred, as he had +in vain taxed his recollection for the slightest clue to his meaning; +and although he was perfectly satisfied that he could not have the +smallest difficulty in clearing up anything that could possibly be +alleged against him as a soldier or a gentleman--having, he thanked +Heaven, accomplished his career with honour--he yet could not feel quite +comfortable until he heard something more explicit. + +As the General, with this letter in his pocket, was hurrying to the +post-office, the party at Marlowe were admiring a glorious sunset, and +Monsieur Varbarriere was describing to Lady Jane Lennox some gorgeous +effects of sunlight which he had witnessed from Lisbon on the horizon of +the Atlantic. + +The Bishop had already arrived, and was in his dressing-room, and Dives +was more silent and thoughtful than usual. + +Yes, the Bishop had arrived. He was venerable, dignified, dapper, with, +for his time of life, a wonderfully shapely leg in his black silk +stocking. There was in his manner and tones that suavity which reminds +one at the same time of heaven and the House of Lords. He did not laugh. +He smiled and bowed sometimes. There was a classical flavour in his +conversation with gentlemen, and he sometimes conversed with ladies, his +leg crossed horizontally, the ankle resting on his knee, while he mildly +stroked the shapely limb I have mentioned, and murmured well-bred +Christianity, to which, as well as to his secular narratives, the ladies +listened respectfully. + +Don't suppose he was a hypocrite or a Pharisee. He was as honest as +most men, and better than many Christians. He was a bachelor, and +wealthy; but if he had amassed a good deal of public money, he had also +displayed a good deal of public spirit, and had done many princely and +even some kind actions. His family were not presentable, making a +livelihood by unmentionable practices, such as shop-keeping and the +like. Still he cut them with moderation, having maintained affable +though clandestine relations with his two maiden aunts, who lived and +died in Thames Street, and having twice assisted a nephew, though he +declined seeing him, who was a skipper of a Russian brig. + +He was a little High-Church. But though a disciplinarian in +ecclesiastical matters, and with notions about self-mortification, his +rule as master of the great school he had once governed had been kindly +and popular as well as firm. I do not know exactly what interest got him +his bishopric. Perhaps it was his reputation only; and that he was +thinking of duty, and his fasts, and waked in his cell one morning with +a mitre on instead of his nightcap. The Trappist, mayhap, in digging his +grave had lighted on a pot of gold. + +"I had no idea," exclaimed Miss Blunket, when the Bishop's apron and +silk stockings had moved with the Rev. Dives Marlowe to the opposite +extremity of the drawing-room, where the attentive Rector was soon deep +in demonstrations, which evidently interested the right reverend prelate +much, drawn from some manuscript notes of an ancestor of Dives's who had +filled that see, which had long known him no more, and where he had +been sharp in his day in looking up obscure rights and neglected +revenues. + +"I had no idea the Bishop was so young; he's by _no means_ an +old-looking man; and so very admirable a prelate--is not he?" + +"He has neglected one of St. Paul's conditions though," said Sir Jekyl; +"but you will not think the worse of him for that. It may be mended, you +know." + +"What's that?" inquired Miss Blunket. + +"Why, he's not the husband of one wife." + +"Nonsense, you wretch!" cried Miss Blunket, with a giggle, jerking a +violet which she was twiddling between her fingers at the Baronet. + +"He has written a great deal, has not he?" continued Miss Blunket. "His +tract on mortification has gone to fifteen thousand copies, I see by the +newspaper." + +"I wonder he has never married," interposed Lady Blunket, drowsily, with +her usual attention to the context. + +"I wonder he never tried it as a species of mortification," suggested +Sir Jekyl. + +"You horrid Vandal! Do you hear him, mamma?" exclaimed Miss Blunket. + +Lady Blunket rather testily--for she neither heard nor understood very +well, and her daughter's voice was shrill--asked-- + +"_What_ is it? You are always making mountains of molehills, my dear, +and _startling_ one." + +Old Lady Alice Redcliffe's entrance at this moment made a diversion. +She entered, tall, grey, and shaky, leaning on the arm of pretty +Beatrix, and was encountered near the door by the right reverend +prelate, who greeted her with a dignified and apostolic gallantry, which +contrasted finely with Sir Jekyl's jaunty and hilarious salutation. + +The Bishop was very much changed since she had seen him last. He, no +doubt, thought the same of her. Neither intimated this little reflection +to the other. Each estimated, with something of wonder and pity, the +other's decay, and neither appropriated the lesson. + +"I dare say you think me very much altered," said Lady Alice, so soon as +she had made herself comfortable on the ottoman. + +"I was about putting the same inquiry of myself, Lady Alice; but, alas! +why should we? 'Never continueth in one stay,' you know; change is the +universal law, and the greatest, last." + +The excellent prelate delivered this _ex cathedrâ_, as an immortal to a +mortal. It was his duty to impress old Lady Alice, and he courteously +included himself, being a modest priest, who talked of sin and death as +if bishops were equally subject to them with other men. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +Old Scenes recalled. + + +At dinner the prelate, who sat beside Lady Alice, conversed in the same +condescending spirit, and with the same dignified humility, upon all +sorts of subjects--upon the new sect, the Huggletonians, whom, with +doubtful originality, but considerable emphasis, he likened to "lost +sheep." + +"Who's lost his sheep, my lord?" inquired Sir Paul Blunket across the +table. + +"I spoke metaphorically, Sir Paul. The Huggletonians, the sheep who +should have been led by the waters of comfort, have been suffered to +stray into the wilderness." + +"Quite so--I see. Shocking name that--the Huggletonians. I should not +like to be a Huggletonian, egad!" said Sir Paul Blunket, and drank some +wine. "Lost sheep, to be sure--yes; but that thing of bringing sheep to +water--you see--it's a mistake. When a wether takes to drinking water, +it's a sign he's got the rot." + +The Bishop gently declined his head, and patiently allowed this little +observation to blow over. + +Sir Paul Blunket, having delivered it, merely added, after a decent +pause, as he ate his dinner-- + +"Dartbroke mutton this--five years old--eh?" + +"Yes. I hope you like it," answered his host. + +Sir Paul Blunket, having a bit in his mouth, grunted politely-- + +"Only for your own table, though?" he added, when he'd swallowed it. + +"That's all," answered Sir Jekyl. + +"Never pay at market, you know," said Sir Paul Blunket. "I consider any +sheep kept beyond two years as lost." + +"A lost sheep, and sell him as a Huggletonian," rejoined Sir Jekyl. + +"It is twenty years," murmured the Bishop in Lady Alice's ear, for he +preferred not hearing that kind of joke, "since I sate in this parlour." + +"Ha!" sighed Lady Alice. + +"Long _before_ that I used, in poor Sir Harry's time, to be here a good +deal--a hospitable, kind man, in the main." + +"I never liked him," croaked Lady Alice, and wiped her mouth. + +They sat so very close to Sir Jekyl that the Bishop merely uttered a +mild ejaculation, and bowed toward his plate. + +"The arrangements of this room--the portraits--are just what I remember +them." + +"Yes, and you were here--let me see--just thirty years since, when Sir +Harry died--weren't you?" + +"So I was, my dear Lady Alice--very true," replied the Bishop in his +most subdued tones, and he threw his head back a little, and nearly +closed his eyes; and she fancied he meant, in a dignified way, to say, +"I should prefer not speaking of those particular recollections while we +sit so near our host." The old lady was much of the same mind, and said +to him quietly-- + +"I'll ask you a few questions by-and-by. You remember Donica Gwynn. +She's living with me now--the housekeeper, you know." + +"Yes, perfectly, a very nice-looking quiet young woman--how is she?" + +"A dried-up old woman now, but very well," said Lady Alice. + +"Yes, to be sure; she must be elderly now," said he, hastily; and the +Bishop mentally made up one of those little sums in addition, the result +of which surprises us sometimes in our elderly days so oddly. + +When the party transferred themselves to the drawing-room, Lady Alice +failed to secure the Bishop, who was seized by the Rev. Dives Marlowe +and carried into a recess--Sir Jekyl having given his clerical brother +the key of a cabinet in which were deposited more of the memoranda, and +a handsome collection of the official and legal correspondence of that +episcopal ancestor whose agreeable MSS. had interested the Bishop so +much before dinner. + +Jekyl, indeed, was a good-natured brother. As a match-making mother will +get the proper persons under the same roof, he had managed this little +meeting at Marlowe. When the ladies went away to the drawing-room, he +had cried-- + +"Dives, I want you here for a moment," and so he placed him on the chair +which Lady Jane Lennox had occupied beside him, and what was more to the +purpose, beside the Bishop; and, as Dives was a good scholar, well made +up on controversies, with a very pretty notion of ecclesiastical law and +a turn for Latin verse, he and the prelate were soon in a state of very +happy and intimate confidence. This cabinet, too, was what the game of +chess is to the lovers--a great opportunity--a seclusion; and Dives +knowing all about the papers, was enabled really to interest the Bishop +very keenly. + +So Lady Alice, who wanted to talk with him, was doomed to a jealous +isolation, until that friend, of whom she was gradually coming to think +very highly indeed, Monsieur Varbarriere, drew near, and they fell into +conversation, first on the recent railway collision, and then on the +fruit and flower show, and next upon the Bishop. + +They both agreed what a charming and venerable person he was, and then +Lady Alice said-- + +"Sir Harry Marlowe, I told you--the father, you know, of Jekyl there," +and she dropped her voice as she named him, "was in possession at the +time when the deed affecting my beloved son's rights was lost." + +"Yes, madame." + +"And it was the Bishop there who attended him on his death-bed." + +"Ho!" exclaimed M. Varbarriere, looking more curiously for a moment at +that dapper little gentleman in the silk apron. + +"They said he heard a great deal from poor wretched Sir Harry. I have +never had an opportunity of asking him in private about it, but I mean +to-morrow, please Heaven." + +"It may be, madame, in the highest degree important," said Monsieur +Varbarriere, emphatically. + +"How can it be? My son is dead." + +"Your son is"----and M. Varbarriere, who was speaking sternly and with a +pallid face, like a man deeply excited, suddenly checked himself, and +said-- + +"Yes, very true, your son is dead. Yes, madame, he is dead." + +Old Lady Alice looked at him with a bewildered and frightened gaze. + +"In Heaven's name, sir, what do you mean?" + +"Mean--mean--why, what have I said?" exclaimed Monsieur Varbarriere, +very tartly, and looking still more uncomfortable. + +"I did not say you had said anything, but you do mean something." + +"No, madame, I _forgot_ something; the tragedy to which you referred is +not to be supposed to be always as present to the mind of another as it +naturally is to your own. We forget in a moment of surprise many things +of which at another time we need not to be reminded, and so it happened +with me." + +Monsieur Varbarriere stood up and fiddled with his gold double +eye-glasses, and seemed for a while disposed to add more on that theme, +but, after a pause, said-- + +"And so it was to the _Bishop_ that Sir Harry Marlowe communicated his +dying wish that the green chamber should be shut up?" + +"Yes, to him; and I have heard that more passed than is suspected, but +of that I know nothing; only I mean to put the question to him directly, +when next I can see him alone." + +Monsieur Varbarriere again looked with a curious scrutiny at the Bishop, +and then he inquired-- + +"He is a prelate, no doubt, who enjoys a high reputation for integrity?" + +"This I know, that he would not for worlds utter an untruth," replied +Lady Alice. + +"What a charming person is Lady Jane Lennox!" exclaimed Monsieur +Varbarriere, suddenly diverging. + +"H'm! do you think so? Well, yes, she is very much admired." + +"It is not often you see a pair so unequal in years so affectionately +attached," said Monsieur Varbarriere. + +"I have never seen her husband, and I can't, therefore, say how they get +on together; but I'm glad to hear you say so. Jane has a temper, you +know, which _every_ one might not get on with; that is," she added, +fearing lest she had gone a little too far, "sometimes it is not quite +pleasant." + +"No doubt she was much admired and much pursued," observed Varbarriere. + +"Yes, I said she was admired," answered Lady Alice, drily. + +"How charming she looks, reading her book at this moment!" exclaimed +Varbarriere. + +She was leaning back on an ottoman, with a book in her hand; her rich +wavy hair, her jewels and splendid dress, her beautiful braceleted arms, +and exquisitely haughty features, and a certain negligence in her +_pose_, recalled some of those voluptuous portraits of the beauties of +the Court of Charles II. + +Sir Jekyl was seated on the other side of the cushioned circle, leaning +a little across, and talking volubly, and, as it seemed, earnestly. It +is one of those groups in which, marking the silence of the lady and the +serious earnestness of her companion, and the flush of both +countenances, one concludes, if there be nothing to forbid, that the +talk is at least romantic. + +Lady Alice was reserved, however; she merely said-- + +"Yes, Jane looks very well; she's always well got up." + +Monsieur Varbarriere saw her glance with a shrewd little frown of +scrutiny at the Baronet and Lady Jane, and he knew what was passing in +her mind; she, too, suspected what was in his, for she glanced at him, +and their eyes met for a moment and were averted. Each knew what the +other was thinking; so Lady Alice said-- + +"For an old gentleman, Jekyl is the most romantic I know; when he has +had his wine, I think he'd flirt with any woman alive. I dare say he's +boring poor Jane to death, if we knew but all. She can't read her book. +I assure you I've seen him, when nobody better was to be had, making +love to old Susan Blunket--Miss Blunket there--after dinner, of course: +and by the time he has played his rubber of whist he's quite a sane man, +and continues so until he comes in after dinner next evening. We all +know Jekyl, and never mind him." Having thus spoken, she asked Monsieur +Varbarriere whether he intended a long stay in England, and a variety of +similar questions. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +In which Lady Alice pumps the Bishop. + + +Lady Jane Lennox, who complained of a headache, departed early for her +room. The Baronet's passion for whist returned, and he played with more +than his usual spirit and hilarity; Monsieur Varbarriere, his partner, +was also in great force, and made some very creditable sallies between +the deals. All went, in fact, merry as a marriage-bell. But in that +marriage-bell booms unmarked the selfsame tone which thrills in the +funeral-knell. There was its somewhat of bitter rising probably in each +merry soul in that gay room. Black care walked silently among those +smiling guests, and on an unseen salver presented to each his sprig of +rue or rosemary. Another figure also, lank, obsequious, smirking +dolorously, arrayed in the Marlowe livery, came in with a bow, and stood +with an hour-glass in his long yellow claw at the back of Sir Jekyl's +chair; you might see the faint lights of his hollow eyes reflected on +the Baronet's cards. + +"A little chilly to-night, is not it?" said Sir Jekyl, and shook his +shoulders. "Have we quite light enough, do you think?" + +In that serene company there were two hearts specially sore, each with a +totally different anguish. + +In Lady Alice's old ears continually beat these words, "Your son +is"----ending, like an interrupted dream, in nothing. Before her eyes +was Varbarriere's disturbed countenance as he dropped the curtain over +his meaning, and affected to have forgotten the death of Guy Deverell. + +"Your son is"----Merciful Heaven! could he have meant living? + +Could that shape she had seen in its coffin, with the small blue mark in +its serene forehead, where the bullet had entered, been a +simulacrum--not her son--a cast--a fraud? + +Her reason told her loudly such a thought was mere insanity; and yet +what could that sudden break in Varbarriere's sentence have been meant +to conceal, and what did that recoiling look imply? + +"Your son is"----It was for ever going on. She knew there was +something to tell, something of which M. Varbarriere was thoroughly +cognisant, and about which nothing could ever induce him to open his +lips. + +If it was not "your son is living," she cared not what else it might be, +and _that_--could it?--no, it could not be. A slight hectic touched each +thin cheek, otherwise she looked as usual. But as she gazed dreamily +over the fender, with clouded eyes, her temples were throbbing, and she +felt sometimes quite wild, and ready to start to her feet and adjure +that awful whist-player to disclose all he knew about her dead boy. + +Beatrix was that evening seated near the fireplace, and Drayton making +himself agreeable, with as small trouble as possible to himself. +Drayton! Well, he was rather amusing--cleverish--well enough up upon +those subjects which are generally supposed to interest young ladies; +and, with an affectation of not caring, really exerting himself to be +entertaining. Did he succeed? If you were to judge by her animated looks +and tones, you would have said very decidedly. Drayton's self-love was +in a state of comfort, even of luxury, that evening. But was there +anything in the triumph? + +A pale face, at the farther end of the room, with a pair of large, dark, +romantic eyes, a face that had grown melancholy of late, she saw every +moment, though she had not once looked in that direction all the +evening. + +As Drayton saw her smile at his sallies, with bright eyes and heightened +colour, leaning back in her cushioned chair, and looking under her long +lashes into the empty palm of her pretty hand, he could not see that +little portrait--painted on air with the colours of memory--that lay +there like a locket;--neither his nor any other eyes, but hers alone. + +Guy Strangways was at the farther end of the room, where were +congregated Lady Blunket and her charming daughter, and that pretty Mrs. +Maberly of whom we have spoken; and little Linnett, mounted straddlewise +on his chair, leaning with his elbows on the back, and his chin on his +knuckles, helped to entertain them with his inexhaustible +agreeabilities. Guy Strangways had indeed very little cast upon him, for +Linnett was garrulous and cheerful, and reinforced beside by help from +other cheery spirits. + +Here was Guy Strangways undergoing the isolation to which he had +condemned himself; and over there, engrossed by Drayton, the lady whose +peer he had never seen. Had she missed him? He saw no sign. Not once +even casually had she looked in his direction; and how often, though she +could not know it, had his eyes wandered toward her! Dull to him was the +hour without her, and she was engrossed by another, who, selfish and +shallow, was merely amusing himself and pleasing his vanity. + +How is it that people in love see so well without eyes? Beatrix saw, +without a glance, exactly where Guy Strangways was. She was piqued and +proud, and chose perhaps to show him how little he was missed. It was +his presence, though he suspected it so little, that sustained that +animation which he resented; and had _he_ left the room, Drayton would +have found, all at once, that she was tired. + +Next day was genial and warm, one of those days that bygone summer +sometimes gives us back from the past to the wintry close of autumn, as +in an old face that we love we sometimes see a look, transitory and how +pathetic, of the youth we remember. Such days, howsoever pleasant, come +touched with the melancholy of a souvenir. And perhaps the slanting +amber light nowhere touched two figures more in harmony with its tone +than those who now sat side by side on the rustic seat, under the two +beech trees at the farther end of the pleasure-ground of Marlowe. + +Old Lady Alice, with her cushions disposed about her, and her cloaks and +shawls, had one arm of the seat; and the Bishop, gaitered and prudently +buttoned up in a surtout of the finest black cloth, and with that +grotesque (bequeathed of course by the Apostles) shovel-hat upon his +silvery head, leaned back upon the other, and, with his dapper leg +crossed, and showing the neat sole of his shoe to Lady Alice, stroked +and patted, after his wont, the side of his calf. + +"Upwards of three-and-thirty years," said the Bishop. + +"Yes, about that--about three-and-thirty years; and what did you think +of him? A very bad man, I'm sure." + +"Madam, _de mortuis_. We have a saying, 'concerning the dead, nothing but +good.'" + +"Nothing but _truth_, say I," answered Lady Alice. "Praise can do them +no good, and falsehood will do us a great deal of harm." + +"You put the point strongly, Lady Alice; but when it is said, 'nothing +but good,' we mean, of course, nothing but the good we may _truly_ speak +of them." + +"And that, as you know, my lord, in his case was not much. You were with +him to the moment of his death--nearly a week, was it not?" + +"Three days precisely." + +"Did he know from the first he was dying?" inquired Lady Alice. + +"He was not aware that his situation was desperate until the end of the +second day. Nor was it; but he knew he was in danger, and was very much +agitated, poor man; very anxious to live and lead a better life." + +"And you prayed with him?" + +"Yes, yes; he was very much agitated, though; and it was not easy to fix +his thoughts, poor Sir Harry! It was very sad. He held my hand in +his--my hand--all the time I sat by the bed, saying, 'Don't you think +I'll get over it?--I feel that I shall--I feel quite safe while I hold +your hand.' I never felt a hand tremble as his did." + +"You prayed for him, and read with him?" said Lady Alice. "And you +acted, beside, as his confessor, did not you, and heard some revelation +he had to make?" + +"You forget, my dear Lady Alice, that the office of confessor is unknown +to the Church. It is not according to our theory to extract a specific +declaration of particular sins." + +"H'm! I remember they told me that you refused at school to read the +Absolution to the boys of your house until they had made confession and +pointed out an offender they were concealing." + +The Bishop hemmed and slightly coloured. It might have amused an +indifferent auditor to see that eminent and ancient divine taken to +task, and made even to look a little foolish, by this old woman, and +pushed into a corner, as a wild young curate might be by him on a +question of Church doctrine. + +"Why, as to that, the fact may be so; but it was under very special +circumstances, Lady Alice. The Church refuses even the Sacrament of the +Lord's Supper to an intending communicant who is known to be living in +wilful sin; and here was a wilful concealment of a grave offence, to +which all had thus made themselves, and were continuing to make +themselves, accessory. It is, I allow, a doubtful question, and I do not +say I should be prepared to adopt that measure now. The great Martin +Luther has spoken well and luminously on the fallacy of taking his +convictions at any one period of his life as the measure of his doctrine +at a later one. The grain of mustard-seed, the law of perpetual +expansion and development, applies to faith as well as to motive and +action, to the Christian as a spiritual individual as well as to the +Church as an aggregate." + +This apology for his faith did the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of +Queen's Copely urge in his citation before old Lady Alice Redcliffe, +whom one would have thought he might have afforded to despise in a +Christian way; but for wise purposes the instincts of self-defence and +self-esteem, and a jealousy of even our smallest neighbour's opinion, is +so deeply implanted, that we are ready to say a good word for ourselves +to anyone who misconceives the perfect wisdom of our words, or the +equally perfect purity of our motives. + + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Guy Deverell, v. 1 of 2, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41228 *** |