Delphi Works of M. E. Braddon

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

  He watched the dilapidated five–barred gate swing to after the departure of Mrs. Brown and her attendant, and then went to look at his horse. The patient animal had been standing in a shed all this time, and had had neither food nor water. Paul searched amongst the empty barns and outhouses, and found a few handfuls of fodder. He took this to the animal, and then went back again to the garden,––to that quiet garden, where the bees were buzzing about in the sunshine with a drowsy, booming sound, and where a great tabby–cat was sleeping stretched flat upon its side, on one of the flower–beds.

  Paul Marchmont waited here very impatiently till the boy came back.

  “I must see Lavinia,” he thought. “I dare not leave this place till I have seen Lavinia. I don’t know what may be happening at Hillingsworth or Kemberling. These things are taken up sometimes by the populace. They may make a party against me; they may––”

  He stood still, gnawing the edges of his nails, and staring down at the gravel–walk.

  He was thinking of things that he had read in the newspapers,––cases in which some cruel mother who had ill-used her child, or some suspected assassin who, in all human probability, had poisoned his wife, had been well–nigh torn piecemeal by an infuriated mob, and had been glad to cling for protection to the officers of justice, or to beg leave to stay in prison after acquittal, for safe shelter from honest men and women’s indignation.

  He remembered one special case in which the populace, unable to get at a man’s person, tore down his house, and vented their fury upon unsentient bricks and mortar.

  Mr. Marchmont took out a little memorandum book, and scrawled a few lines in pencil:

  “I am here, at Stony–Stringford Farmhouse,” he wrote. “For God’s sake, come to me, Lavinia, and at once; you can drive here yourself. I want to know what has happened at Kemberling and at Hillingsworth. Find out everything for me, and come. P. M.”

  It was nearly twelve o’clock when the boy returned. Paul gave him this letter, and told the lad to get on his own horse, and ride to Kemberling as fast as he could go. He was to leave the horse at Kemberling, in Mr. Weston’s stable, and was to come back to Stony–Stringford with Mrs. Weston. This order Paul particularly impressed upon the boy, lest he should stop in Kemberling, and reveal the secret of Paul’s hiding–place.

  Mr. Paul Marchmont was afraid. A terrible sickening dread had taken possession of him, and what little manliness there had ever been in his nature seemed to have deserted him to–day.

  Oh, the long dreary hours of that miserable day! the hideous sunshine, that scorched Mr. Marchmont’s bare head, as he loitered about the garden!––he had left his hat in the house; but he did not even know that he was bareheaded. Oh, the misery of that long day of suspense and anguish! The sick consciousness of utter defeat, the thought of the things that he might have done, the purse that he might have made with the money that he had lavished on pictures, and decorations, and improvements, and the profligate extravagance of splendid entertainments. This is what he thought of, and these were the thoughts that tortured him. But in all that miserable day he never felt one pang of remorse for the agonies that he had inflicted upon his innocent victim; on the contrary, he hated her because of this discovery, and gnashed his teeth as he thought how she and her young husband would enjoy all the grandeur of Marchmont Towers,––all that noble revenue which he had hoped to hold till his dying day.

  It was growing dusk when Mr. Marchmont heard the sound of wheels in the dusty lane outside the garden–wall. He went through the house, and into the farmyard, in time to receive his sister Lavinia at the gate. It was the wheels of her pony–carriage he had heard. She drove a pair of ponies, which Paul had given her. He was angry with himself as he remembered that this was another piece of extravagance,––another sum of money recklessly squandered, when it might have gone towards the making of a rich provision for this evil day.

  Mrs. Weston was very pale; and her brother could see by her face that she brought him no good news. She left her ponies to the care of the boy, and went into the garden with her brother.

  “Well, Lavinia?”

  “Well, Paul, it is a dreadful business,” Mrs. Weston said, in a low voice.

  “It’s all George’s doing! It’s all the work of that infernal scoundrel!” cried Paul, passionately. “But he shall pay bitterly for––––”

  “Don’t let us talk of him, Paul; no good can come of that. What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I sent for you because I wanted your help and advice. What’s the good of your coming if you bring me no help?”

  “Don’t be cruel, Paul. Heaven knows, I’ll do my best. But I can’t see what’s to be done––except for you to get away, Paul. Everything’s known. Olivia stopped the marriage publicly in Hillingsworth Church; and all the Hillingsworth people followed Edward Arundel’s carriage to Kemberling. The report spread like wildfire; and, oh Paul, the Kemberling people have taken it up, and our windows have been broken, and there’s been a crowd all day upon the terrace before the Towers, and they’ve tried to get into the house, declaring that they know you’re hiding somewhere. Paul, Paul, what are we to do? The people hooted after me as I drove away from the High Street, and the boys threw stones at the ponies. Almost all the servants have left the Towers. The constables have been up there trying to get the crowd off the terrace. But what are we to do, Paul? what are we to do?”

  “Kill ourselves,” answered the artist savagely. “What else should we do? What have we to live for? You have a little money, I suppose; I have none. Do you think I can go back to the old life? Do you think I can go back, and live in that shabby house in Charlotte Street, and paint the same rocks and boulders, the same long stretch of sea, the same low lurid streaks of light,––all the old subjects over again,––for the same starvation prices? Do you think I can ever tolerate shabby clothes again, or miserable make–shift dinners,––hashed mutton, with ill–cut hunks of lukewarm meat floating about in greasy slop called gravy, and washed down with flat porter fetched half an hour too soon from a public–house,––do you think I can go back to that? No; I have tasted the wine of life: I have lived; and I’ll never go back to the living death called poverty. Do you think I can stand in that passage in Charlotte Street again, Lavinia, to be bullied by an illiterate tax–gatherer, or insulted by an infuriated baker? No, Lavinia; I have made my venture, and I have failed.”

  “But what will you do, Paul?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered, moodily.

  This was a lie. He knew well enough what he meant to do: he would kill himself.

  That resolution inspired him with a desperate kind of courage. He would escape from the mob; he would get away somewhere or other quietly and there kill himself. He didn’t know how, as yet; but he would deliberate upon that point at his leisure, and choose the death that was supposed to be least painful.

  “Where are my mother and Clarissa?” he asked presently.

  “They are at our house; they came to me directly they heard the rumour of what had happened. I don’t know how they heard it; but every one heard of it, simultaneously, as it seemed. My mother is in a dreadful state. I dared not tell her that I had known it all along.”

  “Oh, of course not,” answered Paul, with a sneer; “let me bear the burden of my guilt alone. What did my mother say?”

  “She kept saying again and again, ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that he could do anything cruel; he has been such a good son.’”

  “I was not cruel,” Paul cried vehemently; “the girl had every comfort. I never grudged money for her comfort. She was a miserable, apathetic creature, to whom fortune was almost a burden rather than an advantage. If I separated her from her husband––bah!––was that such a cruelty? She was no worse off than if Edward Arundel had been killed in that railway accident; and it might have been so.”

  He didn’t waste much time by reasoning on this point. He thought of his mother and sisters. From fi
rst to last he had been a good son and a good brother.

  “What money have you, Lavinia?”

  “A good deal; you have been very generous to me, Paul; and you shall have it all back again, if you want it. I have got upwards of two thousand pounds altogether; for I have been very careful of the money you have given me.”

  “You have been wise. Now listen to me, Lavinia. I have been a good son, and I have borne my burdens uncomplainingly. It is your turn now to bear yours. I must get back to Marchmont Towers, if I can, and gather together whatever personal property I have there. It isn’t much––only a few trinkets, and suchlike. You must send me some one you can trust to fetch those to–night; for I shall not stay an hour in the place. I may not even be admitted into it; for Edward Arundel may have already taken possession in his wife’s name. Then you will have to decide where you are to go. You can’t stay in this part of the country. Weston must be liable to some penalty or other for his share in the business, unless he’s bought over as a witness to testify to the identity of Mary’s child. I haven’t time to think of all this. I want you to promise me that you will take care of your mother and your invalid sister.”

  “I will, Paul; I will indeed. But tell me what you are going to do yourself, and where you are going?”

  “I don’t know,” Paul Marchmont answered, in the same tone as before; “but whatever I do, I want you to give me your solemn promise that you will be good to my mother and sister.”

  “I will, Paul; I promise you to do as you have done.”

  “You had better leave Kemberling by the first train to–morrow morning; take my mother and Clarissa with you; take everything that is worth taking, and leave Weston behind you to bear the brunt of this business. You can get a lodging in the old neighbourhood, and no one will molest you when you once get away from this place. But remember one thing, Lavinia: if Mary Arundel’s child should die, and Mary herself should die childless, Clarissa will inherit Marchmont Towers. Don’t forget that. There’s a chance yet for you: it’s far away, and unlikely enough; but it is a chance.”

  “But you are more likely to outlive Mary and her child than Clarissa is,” Mrs. Weston answered, with a feeble attempt at hopefulness; “try and think of that, Paul, and let the hope cheer you.”

  “Hope!” cried Mr. Marchmont, with a discordant laugh. “Yes; I’m forty years old, and for five–and–thirty of those years I’ve hoped and waited for Marchmont Towers. I can’t hope any longer, or wait any longer. I give it up; I’ve fought hard, but I’m beaten.”

  It was nearly dark by this time, the shadowy darkness of a midsummer’s evening; and there were stars shining faintly out of the sky.

  “You can drive me back to the Towers,” Paul Marchmont said. “I don’t want to lose any time in getting there; I may be locked out by Mr. Edward Arundel if I don’t take care.”

  Mrs. Weston and her brother went back to the farmyard. It was sixteen miles from Kemberling to Stony Stringford; and the ponies were steaming, for Lavinia had come at a good rate. But it was no time for the consideration of horseflesh. Paul took a rug from the empty seat, and wrapped himself in it. He would not be likely to be recognised in the darkness, sitting back in the low seat, and made bulky by the ponderous covering in which he had enveloped himself. Mrs. Weston took the whip from the boy, gathered up the reins, and drove off. Paul had left no orders about the custody of the old farmhouse. The boy went home to his master, at the other end of the farm; and the night–winds wandered wherever they listed through the deserted habitation.

  CHAPTER XIV. THERE IS CONFUSION WORSE THAN DEATH.

  The brother and sister exchanged very few words during the drive between Stony Stringford and Marchmont Towers. It was arranged between them that Mrs. Weston should drive by a back–way leading to a lane that skirted the edge of the river, and that Paul should get out at a gate opening into the wood, and by that means make his way, unobserved, to the house which had so lately been to all intents and purposes his own.

  He dared not attempt to enter the Towers by any other way; for the indignant populace might still be lurking about the front of the house, eager to inflict summary vengeance upon the persecutor of a helpless girl.

  It was between nine and ten o’clock when Mr. Marchmont got out at the little gate. All here was very still; and Paul heard the croaking of the frogs upon the margin of a little pool in the wood, and the sound of horses’ hoofs a mile away upon the loose gravel by the water–side.

  “Good night, Lavinia,” he said. “Send for the things as soon as you go back; and be sure you send a safe person for them.”

  “O yes, dear; but hadn’t you better take any thing of value yourself?” Mrs. Weston asked anxiously. “You say you have no money. Perhaps it would be best for you to send me the jewellery, though, and I can send you what money you want by my messenger.”

  “I shan’t want any money––at least I have enough for what I want. What have you done with your savings?”

  “They are in a London bank. But I have plenty of ready money in the house. You must want money, Paul?”

  “I tell you, no; I have as much as I want.”

  “But tell me your plans, Paul; I must know your plans before I leave Lincolnshire myself. Are you going away?”

  “Yes.”

  “Immediately?”

  “Immediately.”

  “Shall you go to London?”

  “Perhaps. I don’t know yet.”

  “But when shall we see you again, Paul? or how shall we hear of you?”

  “I’ll write to you.”

  “Where?”

  “At the Post–office in Rathbone Place. Don’t bother me with a lot of questions to–night Lavinia; I’m not in the humour to answer them.”

  Paul Marchmont turned away from his sister impatiently, and opened the gate; but before she had driven off, he went back to her.

  “Shake hands, Lavinia,” he said; “shake hands, my dear; it may be a long time before you and I meet again.”

  He bent down and kissed his sister.

  “Drive home as fast as you can, and send the messenger directly. He had better come to the door of the lobby, near Olivia’s room. Where is Olivia, by–the–bye? Is she still with the stepdaughter she loves so dearly?”

  “No; she went to Swampington early in the afternoon. A fly was ordered from the Black Bull, and she went away in it.”

  “So much the better,” answered Mr. Marchmont. “Good night, Lavinia. Don’t let my mother think ill of me. I tried to do the best I could to make her happy. Good–bye.”

  “Good–bye, dear Paul; God bless you!”

  The blessing was invoked with as much sincerity as if Lavinia Weston had been a good woman, and her brother a good man. Perhaps neither of those two was able to realise the extent of the crime which they had assisted each other to commit.

  Mrs. Weston drove away; and Paul went up to the back of the Towers, and under an archway leading into the quadrangle. All about the house was as quiet as if the Sleeping Beauty and her court had been its only occupants.

  The inhabitants of Kemberling and the neighbourhood were an orderly people, who burnt few candles between May and September; and however much they might have desired to avenge Mary Arundel’s wrongs by tearing Paul Marchmont to pieces, their patience had been exhausted by nightfall, and they had been glad to return to their respective abodes, to discuss Paul’s iniquities comfortably over the nine–o’clock beer.

  Paul stood still in the quadrangle for a few moments, and listened. He could hear no human breath or whisper; he only heard the sound of the corn–crake in the fields to the right of the Towers, and the distant rumbling of wagon–wheels on the high–road. There was a glimmer of light in one of the windows belonging to the servants’ offices,––only one dim glimmer, where there had usually been a row of brilliantly–lighted casements. Lavinia was right, then; almost all the servants had left the Towers. Paul tried to open the half–glass door leading into the lobby; but it was lo
cked. He rang a bell; and after about three minutes’ delay, a buxom country–girl appeared in the lobby carrying a candle. She was some kitchenmaid or dairymaid or scullerymaid, whom Paul could not remember to have ever seen until now. She opened the door, and admitted him, dropping a curtsey as he passed her. There was some relief even in this. Mr. Marchmont had scarcely expected to get into the house at all; still less to be received with common civility by any of the servants, who had so lately obeyed him and fawned upon him.

  “Where are all the rest of the servants?” he asked.

  “They’re all gone, sir; except him as you brought down from London,––Mr. Peterson,––and me and mother. Mother’s in the laundry, sir; and I’m scullerymaid.”

  “Why did the other servants leave the place?”

  “Mostly because they was afraid of the mob upon the terrace, I think, sir; for there’s been people all the afternoon throwin’ stones, and breakin’ the windows; and I don’t think as there’s a whole pane of glass in the front of the house, sir; and Mr. Gormby, sir, he come about four o’clock, and he got the people to go away, sir, by tellin’ ’em as it wern’t your property, sir, but the young lady’s, Miss Mary Marchmont,––leastways, Mrs. Airendale,––as they was destroyin’ of; but most of the servants had gone before that, sir, except Mr. Peterson; and Mr. Gormby gave orders as me and mother was to lock all the doors, and let no one in upon no account whatever; and he’s coming to–morrow mornin’ to take possession, he says; and please, sir, you can’t come in; for his special orders to me and mother was, no one, and you in particklar.”

  “Nonsense, girl!” exclaimed Mr. Marchmont, decisively; “who is Mr. Gormby, that he should give orders as to who comes in or stops out? I’m only coming in for half an hour, to pack my portmanteau. Where’s Peterson?”

  “In the dinin’–room, sir; but please, sir, you mustn’t––––”

  The girl made a feeble effort to intercept Mr. Marchmont, in accordance with the steward’s special orders; which were, that Paul should, upon no pretence whatever, be suffered to enter the house. But the artist snatched the candlestick from her hand, and went towards the dining–room, leaving her to stare after him in amazement.