Grotesque as were the arrangements of the room, there was, nevertheless, about its occupant an air of aristocratic superiority and ease which at once dispelled any tendency to ridicule.
“Mr. Audley, I presume,” said the invalid.
Mr. Audley bowed.
“Pray, sir, take a chair. M’Guinness, place a chair for Mr. Audley, beside the table here. I am, as you see, sir,” continued he, “a confirmed valetudinarian; I suffer abominably from gout, and have not been able to remove to my easy chair by the fire for more than a week. I understand that you have some matters of importance to communicate to me; but before doing so, let me request of you to take a little wine, you can have whatever you like best — there’s some Madeira at your elbow there, which I can safely recommend, as I have just tasted it myself — o-oh! d —— the gout — you’ll excuse me, sir — a cursed twinge.”
“Very sorry to see you suffering,” responded Mr. Audley— “very, indeed, sir.”
“It sha’n’t, however, prevent my doing you reason, sir,” replied he, with alacrity. “M’Guinness, two glasses. I drink, sir, to our better acquaintance. Now, M’Guinness, you may leave the room.”
Accordingly Mr. M’Guinness withdrew, and the gentlemen were left tête-à-tête.
“And now, sir,” continued Oliver French, “be so good as to open the subject of your visit.”
Mr. Audley cleared his voice twice or thrice, in the hope of clearing his head at the same time, and then, with some force and embarrassment, observed, —
“I am necessarily obliged, Mr. French, to allude to matters which may possibly revive unpleasant recollections. I trust, indeed, my dear sir, — I’m sure that you will not suffer yourself to be distressed or unduly excited, when I tell you that I must recall to your memory a name which I believe does not sound gratefully to your ear — the name of Ashwoode.”
“Curse them,” was the energetic commentary of the invalid.
“Well, sir, I dare venture to say that you and I are not very much at variance in our estimate of the character of the Ashwoodes generally,” said Mr. Audley. “You are aware, I presume, that Sir Richard has been some time dead.”
“Ha! actually gone to hell? — no, sir, I was not aware of this. Pray, proceed, sir,” responded Oliver French.
“I am aware, sir, that he treated his lady harshly,” resumed Audley.
“Harshly, harshly, sir,” cried the old man, with an energy that well nigh made his companion bounce from his seat— “why, sir, beginning with neglect and ending with blows — through every stage of savage insult and injury, his wretched wife, my sister — the most gentle, trusting, lovely creature that ever yet was born to misery, was dragged by that inhuman monster, her husband, Sir Richard Ashwoode; he broke her heart — he killed her, sir — killed her. She was my sister — my only sister; I was justly proud of her — loved her most dearly, and the inhuman villain broke her heart.”
Through his clenched teeth he uttered a malediction, and with a vehemence of hatred which plainly showed that his feelings toward the family had undergone no favourable change.
“Well, sir,” resumed Mr. Audley, after a considerable interval, “I cannot wonder at the strength of your feelings in this matter, more especially at this moment. I myself burn with indignation scarce one degree less intense than yours against the worthy son of that most execrable man, and upon grounds, too, very nearly similar.”
He then proceeded to recount to his auditor, waxing warm as he went on, all the circumstances of Mary Ashwoode’s sufferings, and every particular of the grievous persecution which she had endured at the hands of her brother, Sir Henry. Oliver French ground his teeth and clutched the bedclothes as he listened, and when the narrative was ended, he whisked the velvet cap from his head, and flung it with all his force upon the floor.
“Oh, God Almighty! that I had but the use of my limbs,” exclaimed he, with desperation— “I would give the whole world a lesson in the person of that despicable scoundrel. I would — but,” he added bitterly, “I am powerless — I am a cripple.”
“You are not powerless, sir, for purposes nobler than revenge,” exclaimed Audley, with eagerness; “you may shelter and protect the helpless, friendless child of calamity, the story of whose wrongs has so justly fired you with indignation.”
“Where is she — where?” cried Oliver French, eagerly— “I ought to have asked you long ago.”
“She is not far away — she even now awaits your decision in the little village hard by,” responded Mr. Audley.
“Poor child — poor child!” ejaculated Oliver, much agitated. “And did she — could she doubt my willingness to befriend her — good God — could she doubt it? — bring her — bring her here at once — I long to see her — poor bird — poor bird — the world’s winter has closed over thee too soon. Alas! poor child — tell her — tell her, Mr. Audley, that I long to see her — that she is most welcome — that all which I command is heartily and entirely at her service. Plead my apology for not going myself to meet her — as God knows I would fain do; you see I am a poor cripple — a very worthless, helpless, good-for-nothing old man. Tell her all better than I can do it now. God bless you, sir — God bless you, for believing that such an ill-conditioned old fellow as I am had yet heart enough to feel rightly sometimes. I had rather die a thousand deaths than that you had not brought the poor outcast child to my roof. Tell her how glad — how very, very happy — how proud it makes me that she should come to her old uncle Oliver — tell her this. God bless you, sir!”
With a cordial pressure, he gripped Audley’s hand, and the old gentleman, with a heart overflowing with exultation and delight, retraced his steps to the little village, absolutely bursting with impatience to communicate the triumphant result of his visit.
CHAPTER LXVI.
THE BEDCHAMBER.
Black M’Guinness and Mistress Martha had listened in vain to catch the purport of Mr. Audley’s communication. Unfortunately for them, their master’s chamber was guarded by a double door, and his companion had taken especial pains to close both of them before detailing the subject of his visit. They were, however a good deal astonished by Mr. French’s insisting upon rising forthwith, and having himself clothed and shaved. This huge, goodnatured lump of gout was, accordingly, arrayed in full suit — one of the handsomest which his wardrobe commanded — his velvet cap replaced by a flowing peruke — his gouty feet smothered in endless flannels, and himself deposited in his great easy chair by the fire, and his lower extremities propped up upon stools and pillows. These preparations, along with a complete rearrangement of the furniture, and other contents of the room, effectually perplexed and somewhat alarmed his disinterested dependents.
Mr. Audley returned ere the preparations were well completed, and handed Mary Ashwoode and her attendant from the chaise. It needs not to say how the old bachelor of Ardgillagh received her — with, perhaps, the more warmth and tenderness that, as he protested, with tears in his eyes, she was so like her poor mother, that he felt as if old times had come again, and that she stood once more before him, clothed in the melancholy beauty of her early and illfated youth. It were idle to describe the overflowing kindness of the old man’s greeting, and the depth of gratitude with which his affectionate and hearty welcome was accepted by the poor grieved girl. He would scarcely, for the whole evening, allow her to leave him for one moment; and every now and again renewed his pressing invitation to her and to Mr. Audley to take some more wine or some new delicacy; he himself enforcing his solicitations by eating and drinking in almost unbroken continuity during the whole time. All his habits were those of the most unlimited self-indulgence; and his chief, if not his sole recreation for years, had consisted in compounding, during the whole day long, those astounding gastronomic combinations, which embraced every possible variety of wine and liqueur, of vegetable, meat, and confection; so that the fact of his existing at all, under the extraordinary regimen which he had adopted, was a triumph of the genius of
digestion over the demon of dyspepsia, such as this miserable world has seldom witnessed. Nevertheless, that he did exist, and that too, apparently, in robust though unwieldy health, with the exception of his one malady, his constitutional gout, was a fact which nobody could look upon and dispute. With an imperiousness which brooked no contradiction, he compelled Mr. Audley to eat and drink very greatly more than he could conveniently contain — browbeating the poor little gentleman into submission, and swearing, in the most impressive manner, that he had not eaten one ounce weight of food of any kind since his entrance into the house; although the unhappy little gentleman felt at that moment like a boa constrictor who has just bolted a buffalo, and pleaded in stifled accents for quarter; but it would not do. Oliver French, Esq., had not had his humour crossed, nor one of his fancies contradicted, for the last forty years, and he was not now to be thwarted or put down by a little “hop-o’-my-thumb,” who, though ravenously hungry, pretended, through mere perverseness, to be bursting with repletion. Mr. Audley’s labours were every now and again pleasingly relieved by such applications as these from his merciless entertainer.
“Now, my good friend — my worthy friend — will you think it too great a liberty, sir, if I ask you to move the pillow a leetle under this foot?”
“None in the world, sir — quite the contrary — I shall have the very greatest possible pleasure,” would poor Mr. Audley reply, preparing for the task.
“You are very good, sir, very kind, sir. Just draw it quietly to the right — a little, a very little — you are very good, indeed, sir. Oh — oh, O — oh, you — you booby — you’ll excuse me, sir — gently — there, there — gently, gently. O — oh, you d —— d handless idiot — pray pardon me, sir; that will do.”
Such passages as these were of frequent occurrence; but though Mr. Audley was as choleric as most men at his time of life, yet the incongruous terms of abuse were so obviously the result of inveterate and almost unconscious habit, stimulated by the momentary twinges of acute pain, that he did not suffer this for an instant to disturb the serenity and goodwill with which he regarded his host, spite of all his oddities and self-indulgence.
In the course of the evening Oliver French ordered Mistress Martha to have beds prepared for the party, and that lady, with rather a vicious look, withdrew. She soon returned, and asked in her usual low, dulcet tone, whether the young lady could spare her maid to assist in arranging the room, and forthwith Flora Guy consigned herself to the guidance of the sinister-looking Abigail.
“This is a fine country, isn’t it?” inquired Mistress Martha, softly, when they were quite alone.
“A very fine country, indeed, ma’am,” rejoined Flora, who had heard enough to inspire her with a certain awe of her conductress, which inclined her as much as possible to assent to whatever proposition she might be inclined to advance, without herself hazarding much original matter.
“It’s a pity you can’t see it in the summer time; this is a very fine place indeed when all the leaves are on the trees,” repeated Mistress Martha.
“Indeed, so I’d take it to be, ma’am,” rejoined the maid.
“Just passing through this way — hurried like, you can’t notice much about it though,” remarked the elderly lady, carelessly.
“No, ma’am,” replied Flora, becoming more reserved, as she detected in her companion a wish to draw from her all she knew of her mistress’s plans.
“There are some views that are greatly admired in the neighbourhood — the glen and the falls of Glashangower. If she could stay a week she might see everything.”
“Oh! indeed, it’s a lovely place,” observed Flora, evasively.
“That old gentleman, that Mr. Audley, your young mistress’s father, or — or uncle, or whatever he is” — Mistress Martha here made a considerable pause, but Flora did not enlighten her, and she continued— “whatever he is to her, it’s no matter, he seems a very goodhumoured nice old gentleman — he’s in a great hurry back to Dublin, where he came from, I suppose.”
“Well, I really don’t know,” replied the girl.
“He looks very comfortable, and everything handsome and nice about him,” observed Mistress Martha again. “I suppose he’s well off — plenty of money — not in want at all.”
“Indeed he seems all that,” rejoined the maid.
“He’s cousin, or something or another, to the master, Mr. French; didn’t you tell me so?” asked the painted Abigail.
“No, ma’am; I didn’t tell you; I don’t know,” replied she.
“This is a very damp old house, and full of rats; I wish I had known a week ago that beds would be wanting; but I suppose it was a sudden thing,” said the housekeeper.
“Indeed, I suppose it just was, ma’am,” responded the attendant.
“Are you going to stay here long?” asked the old lady, more briskly than she had yet spoken.
“Raly, ma’am, I don’t know,” replied Flora.
The old painted termagant shot a glance at her of no pleasant meaning; but for the present checked the impulse in which it had its birth, and repeated softly— “You don’t know; why, you are a very innocent, simple little girl.”
“Pray, ma’am, if it’s not making too bold, which is the room, ma’am?” asked Flora.
“What’s your young lady’s name?” asked the matron, directly, and disregarding the question of the girl.
Flora Guy hesitated.
“Do you hear me — what’s your young lady’s name?” repeated the woman, softly, but deliberately.
“Her name, to be sure; her name is Miss Mary,” replied she.
“Mary what?” asked Martha.
“Miss Mary Ashwoode,” replied Flora, half afraid as she uttered it.
Spite of all her efforts, the woman’s face exhibited disagreeable symptoms of emotion at this announcement; she bit her lips and dropped her eyelids lower than usual, to conceal the expression which gleamed to her eyes, while her colour shifted even through her rouge. At length, with a smile infinitely more unpleasant than any expression which her face had yet worn, she observed, —
“Ashwoode, Ashwoode. Oh! dear, to be sure; some of Sir Richard’s family; well, I did not expect to see them darken these doors again. Dear me! who’d have thought of the Ashwoodes looking after him again? well, well, but they’re a very forgiving family,” and she uttered an ill-omened tittering.
“Which is the room, ma’am, if you please?” repeated Flora.
“That’s the room,” cried the stalwart dame, with astounding vehemence, and at the same time opening a door and exhibiting a large neglected bedchamber, with its bedclothes and other furniture lying about in entire disorder, and no vestige of a fire in the grate; “that’s the room, miss, and make the best of it yourself, for you’ve nothing else to do.”
In this very uncomfortable predicament Flora Guy applied herself energetically to reduce the room to something like order, and although it was very cold and not a little damp, she succeeded, nevertheless, in giving it an air of tolerable comfort by the time her young mistress was prepared to retire to it.
As soon as Mary Ashwoode had entered this chamber her maid proceeded to narrate the occurrences which had just taken place.
“Well, Flora,” said she, smiling, “I hope the old lady will resume her good temper by tomorrow, for one night I can easily contrive to rest with such appliances as we have. I am more sorry, for your sake, my poor girl, than for mine, however, and wherever I lay me down, my rest will be, I fear me, very nearly alike.”
“She’s the darkest, ill-lookingest old woman, God bless us, that ever I set my two good-looking eyes upon, my lady,” said Flora. “I’ll put a table to the door; for, to tell God’s truth, I’m half afeard of her. She has a nasty look in her, my lady — a bad look entirely.”
Flora had hardly spoken when the door opened, and the subject of their conversation entered.
“Good evening to you, Miss Ashwoode,” said she, advancing close to the young lady, and
speaking in her usual low soft tone. “I hope you find everything to your liking. I suppose your own maid has settled everything according to your fancy. Of course, she knows best how to please you. I’m very delighted to see you here in Ardgillagh, as I was telling your innocent maid there — very glad, indeed; because, as I said, it shows how forgiving you are, after all the master has said and done, and the way he has always spit on every one of your family that ever came here looking after his money — though, indeed, I’m sure you’re a great deal too good and too religious to care about money; and I’m sure and certain it’s only for the sake of Christian charity, and out of a forgiving disposition, and to show that there isn’t a bit of pride of any sort, or kind, or description in your carcase — that you’re come here to make yourself at home in this house, that never belonged to you, and that never will, and to beg favours of the gentleman that hates, and despises, and insults everyone that carries your name — so that the very dogs in the streets would not lick their blood. I like that, Miss Ashwoode — I do like it,” she continued, advancing a little nearer; “for it shows you don’t care what bad people may say or think, provided you do your Christian duty. They may say you’re come here to try and get the old gentleman’s money; they may say that you’re eaten up to the very backbone with meanness, and that you’d bear to be kicked and spit upon from one year’s end to the other for the sake of a few pounds — they’ll call you a sycophant and a schemer — but you don’t mind that — and I admire you for it — they’ll say, miss — for they don’t scruple at anything — they’ll say you lost your character and fortune in Dublin, and came down here in the hope of finding them again; but I tell you what it is,” she continued, giving full vent to her fury, and raising her accents to a tone more resembling the scream of a screech-owl than the voice of a human being, “I know what you’re at, and I’ll blow your schemes, Miss Innocence. I’ll make the house too hot to hold you. Do you think I mind the old bedridden cripple, or anyone else within its four walls? Hoo! I’d make no more of them or of you than that old glass there;” and so saying, she hurled the candlestick, with all her force, against the large mirror which depended from the wall, and dashed it to atoms.
Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (Illustrated) Page 44
