CHAPTER XXXIII.
I beg Captain Moreton's pardon, I left him running across a field innot the brightest possible night that ever shone. I should, at least,have taken him safely home before now wherever that home might be,which would be indeed difficult to say, for the home of CaptainMoreton was what people who pore over long lines of figures call a_variable quantity_. However, there was once, at least there isreported to have been once, for I do not take upon myself to answerfor the fact, a certain young person called Galanthis. She was a maidof-all-work in a very reputable Greek family, and was called as awitness in the famous crim. con. case of Amphitryon _versus_ Jupiter.She proved herself very skilful in puzzling an examining counsel, andthere is an old nonsensical story of her having been changed into aweasel to commemorate the various turnings and windings of herprevarications. Nevertheless, not this convenient Abigail, nor any ofher pliant race, ever took more turnings and windings than did CaptainMoreton on the night after his escape from his prison in the vestry.Every step of the country round he knew well, and up one narrow lane,through this small field, along that wood path, by another short cut,he went, sometimes walking and sometimes running, till at length hecame to a common of no very great extent, lying half-way, or nearlyso, between the town of Tarningham and the house called Burton's Inn.The common was called Chandleigh Heath; and on the side next to theinn was the village of Chandleigh, while between the heath andTarningham lay about two miles of well-cultivated but not verypopulous fields and meadows. At an angle of the common a retiredhosier of Chandleigh had built himself a cottage--a cottage suited tohimself and his state--consisting of six rooms, all of minute size,and he had, moreover, planted himself a garden, in which roses strovewith apple-trees and cherries. The hosier--as retired hosiers willvery often do--died one day, and left the cottage to his nephew, aminor. The guardians strove to let the cottage furnished, but forupwards of a year they strove in vain; its extremely retired situationwas against it, till one day it was suddenly tenanted, and right gladwere they to get a guinea a week and ask no questions. It was to thisretired cottage, then of the retired hosier, that Captain Moreton'ssteps were ultimately bent, and as it had windows down to the groundon the garden side, he chose that side, and went in at the window,where, I forgot to remark, there were lights shining.
At a table in the room, with her foot upon a footstool, and a pillowbehind her back, sat a lady whom we have before described; andcertainly, to look at her face, handsome as it was, no one would havefancied there was a fierce and fiery spirit beneath, so weak and, Imar venture to call it, lackadaisical was the expression.
"Heaven, Moreton, how you startled me!" cried the lady: "where haveyou been such a long time? You know I want society at night. It isonly at night I am half alive."
"Well," said Captain Moreton, with a laugh, "I have been half dead andhalf buried; for I have been down into a vault and shut up in a vestryas a close prisoner. I only got out by wrenching off the bars. Nobodycould see my face, however, so that is lucky; for they can but say Iwas looking at a register by candlelight, and the old sexton will notpeach for his own sake."
"Still at those rash tricks, Moreton," said the lady, "it will end inyour getting hanged, depend upon it. I have been writing a poem called'The Rash Man,' and I was just hanging him when you came in andstartled me."
"My rash tricks, as you call them, got you a thousand a year once,"answered Moreton, sharply, "so, in pity, leave your stupid poetry,Charlotte, and listen to what I have to say."
"Stupid poetry!" exclaimed the lady, angrily. "There was a time whenyou did not call it so; and as for the thousand a year, it was more tosave yourself than to serve me that you fancied that scheme. You knowthat I hated the pedantic boy, as virtuous as a young kid, and aspious as his grandmother's prayer-book. Nothing would have induced meto marry him if you had not represented--"
"Well, never mind all that," answered Captain Moreton, interruptingher. "We have something else to think of now, Charlotte. I don't knowthat it would not be better for me to be off, after all."
"Well, I am ready to go whenever you like," replied the lady. "I amsure it is not very pleasant to stay in this place, seeing nobody andhearing nothing; without opera, or concert, or coffee-house, or anything. I shall be very glad to go."
"Aye, aye, but that is a different matter," said Captain Moreton,considerately. "I said it would be perhaps better for me to be off;but I am quite sure it would be better for you to stay."
The lady looked at him for a moment or two with the eyes of a tiger.If she had had a striped or spotted skin upon her back one would haveexpected her to spring at his throat the next minute, but she hadacquired a habit of commanding her passions to a certain point, beyondwhich, they indeed became totally ungovernable, but which was not yetattained; and she contented herself with giving Captain Moreton one ofthose _coups de patte_ with which she sometimes treated him. "So,Moreton," she said, "you think that you can go away and leave me totake care of myself, as you did some time ago; but you are mistaken,my good friend. I have become wiser now, and I certainly shall notsuffer you."
"How will you stop me?" asked her companion, turning sharply upon her.
"As to stopping you," she replied, with a sneer, "I do not know that Ican. You are a strong man and I am a weak woman, and in a tussle youwould get the better; but I could bring you back, Moreton, you know,if I did not stop you."
"How?" demanded he again, looking fiercely at her.
"By a magistrate's warrant, and half a dozen constables," answered thelady. "You do not think I have had so much experience of your amiableways for nothing, or that I have not taken care to have proofs of agood many little things that would make you very secure in any countrybut America--that dear land of liberty, where fraud and felony findrefuge and protection."
"Do you mean to say that you would destroy me, woman?" exclaimedCaptain Moreton.
"Not exactly destroy you," replied his fair companion, "though youwould make a fine criminal under the beam. I have not seen anexecution for I do not know how long, and it is a fine sight, afterall--better than all the tragedies that ever were written. It is nofun seeing men kill each other in jest: one knows that they come tolife again as soon as the curtain falls; but once hanging over thedrop, or lying on the guillotine, there's no coming to life any more.I should like to see you hanged, Moreton, when you are hanged. Youwould hang very well, I dare say."
She spoke in the quietest, most sugary tone possible, with a slightsmile upon her lip, and amused herself while she did so in sketchingwith the pen and ink a man under a beam with a noose round his neck.Captain Moreton gazed at her meanwhile with his teeth hard shut, andnot the most placable countenance in the world, as she brought vividlyup before his imagination all those things which crime is too muchaccustomed and too willing to forget.
"And you, Charlotte, you would do this!" he exclaimed, at length: "butit is all nonsense; and how you ever can talk of such things I cannotimagine, when I merely spoke of going myself and leaving you for ashort time, for your own good."
"For my own good! Oh, yes; I have heard all that before, more thantwelve years ago," replied the lady. "I yielded to your notions of myown good, then, and much good has come of it, to me, at least. So donot talk of ever separating your fate from mine again, Moreton; forwere you to attempt it, I would do as I have said, depend upon it."
"It was your own good I thought about," replied Captain Moreton,bitterly, "and that you will soon see when you hear the whole. Do younot think if Lenham were to find out that you are living here with me,there would soon be suits in the ecclesiastical courts for divorce andall the rest?"
"Oh, you know, we talked about all that before," replied the lady,"and took our precautions. You are here as my earliest friend,assisting me to regain my rights, nothing more. All that was settledlong ago, and I see no reason for beginning it all over again."
"But there is a reason," answered Captain Moreton, "as you would haveheard before now if you would have let me sp
eak; but you are sodiabolically hasty and violent. I brought you the best news you couldhave, if you would but listen."
"Indeed!" said the lady, looking up from the pleasant sketch she wasfinishing with an expression of greater interest, "what may that be?"
"Why, simply, that Lenham has proposed to Miss Slingsby," repliedCaptain Moreton, "and they are to be married directly--as soon as thatfellow, Wittingham, is out of all danger."
Her eyes flashed at the intelligence, and her lip curled with atriumphant smile as she inquired, "Where did you hear it? Who toldyou? Are you sure?"
"Quite," answered Moreton, "I had it from old Slattery, theapothecary, who knows the secrets of all the houses round. He told itto me as a thing quite certain."
"Then I have him! Then I have him!" exclaimed his companion, joyfully;"Oh, I will make him drink the very dregs of a bitterer cup than everhe has held to my lips."
"But you must be very careful," said Captain Moreton, "not theslightest indiscretion--not the slightest hint, remember, or all islost."
"I will be careful," she replied, "but yet all cannot be lost even ifhe were to discover that I am alive. He has made the proposal to onewoman when he is already married. That would be disgrace enough toblast and wither him like a leaf in the winter. I know him well enoughfor that. For the first time he has given me the power of torturinghim, and I will work that engine till his cold heart cracks, let himdo what he will."
"Well, this was the reason I thought it would be better for me to beoff for a short time," said Captain Moreton, "though you must remainhere."
"I don't see that," cried the lady, "I won't have it."
Her companion had fallen into a fit of thought, however, as soon asshe had uttered the last words, and he did not seem to attend to her.His thoughts, indeed, were busy with a former part of theirconversation. He felt that he was, as she said, in her power, and hesaw very well how sweetly and delicately she was inclined to use powerwhen she did possess it. He therefore asked himself if it might not beas well to put some check upon her violence before it hurried her intoany thing that could not be repaired; for although Captain Moreton wasfond of a little vengeance himself, yet he loved security better, andthought it would be poor consolation for being hanged that he hadspoiled all her fine schemes. He was still debating this point in hisown mind, when finding that he did not answer, she said,
"Do you hear? I say I will not have it, and you had better not talk ofit any more, for if I take it into my head that you are trying to getoff and leave me here, I will take very good care that your first walkshall be into gaol."
"In which case," said Captain Moreton, coldly, "I would, by one word,break the bond between you and Lenham, and send you to prison too. Youthink that I am totally in your power, Madam; but let me tell you thatyou are in mine also. Our confidence, it is true, has not been mutual,but our secrets are so."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed the lady, turning deadly pale.
"I will tell you," replied her companion, "what I mean may be soonhinted so that you can understand. When I first became acquainted withyou, my fair friend, you were twenty years of age. There were eventswhich happened when you were eighteen that you have always thoughtcomfortably hidden in your own bosom and that of one other. Let me nowtell you that they have never been concealed from me. You understandme I see by your face, so no more of this. I shall not go because youdo not wish it, and I proposed it only for your good; but now let ushave some brandy-and-water, for the night is wonderfully cold for theseason."
The lady made no reply, but sat looking down at the table withher cheek still white, and Moreton got up and rang the bell. Awoman-servant appeared, received his orders, and then went away, andthen turning to his companion, he pulled her cheek familiarly, saying,
"Come, Charlotte, let us have no more of all this; we had better geton well together. Have any of the servants been into the room to-nightsince I left you?"
The lady looked up with a sort of bewildered and absent air, saying,
"No, I think not--let me see. No, no. I have been sitting writing andsleeping. I fell asleep for an hour, and then I wrote till you cameback. No one has been in, I am sure."
"While you were asleep they might," said Moreton, thoughtfully.
"No, no," she answered, "I should have heard them instantly; I wake ina moment, you know, with the least sound. Nobody has been in the roomI will swear."
"Then you can swear, too, that I never left it," answered Moreton,laughing, "I mean that I have been here or hereabouts all night, incase it should be needed."
The lady did not seem at all shocked at the proposal, for she had nogreat opinion of the sanctity of oaths, and when the servant returnedwith all that Captain Moreton had demanded, he asked her sharply,
"Where were you, Kitty, when I rang about an hour ago?"
"Lord, Sir," replied the woman, "I had only run across to ask why theyhad not sent my beer."
"Well, I wish you would take some other time for going on sucherrands," replied Captain Moreton, and there the subject dropped.
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