As Valentine grew excited her father became cool and quiet: he waited until she had done speaking, then dropping his head he continued his narrative in a dreary monotone.
"I waited for news--it was long in coming. At last it arrived on the day my grandson was born. Wyndham had outwitted me. He could not bear the load of a living death. Shame on him. He could take his bliss, but not his punishment. He leaped overboard the _Esperance_--he committed suicide."
"What? No, never. Don"t dare to say such words."
"I must say them, although they are cruel. He committed suicide, and then he came to haunt me; he knew that his blood would rest on my soul; he knew how best to torture me for what I had done to him."
"One question. Was the insurance money paid?"
"Was it? Yes. I believe so. That part seemed all of minor importance afterwards. But I believe it was paid. I think Helps saw to it."
"You believe that my husband committed suicide, and yet you allowed the insurance offices to pay."
"What of that? No one else knew my thoughts."
"As you say, what of that? Is your story finished?"
"Nearly. I lost your love, and for the last three years I have been haunted by Wyndham. I see his shadow everywhere. Once I met him in the street. A few nights ago he came into the library and confronted me; he spoke to me and tried to touch me; he pretended he was not dead."
"What night was that?"
Valentine"s voice had changed; there was a new ring in it. Her father roused himself from his lethargic att.i.tude to look into her face. "What night did my husband come to you?"
"I forget--no, I remember. It was Tuesday night."
"Did he carry a violin? Speak--did he?"
"He carried something. It may have been a violin. Do they use such instruments in the other world? He was a spirit, you know, child. How queer, how very queer you look!"
"I feel queer."
"He wanted me to touch him, child, but I wouldn"t. I was too knowing for that. If you touch a spirit you must go with him. No, no, I knew a thing worth two of that. He went on telling me he was alive. But I knew better, he couldn"t take me in. Valentine, everything seems so far away. Valentine, I am faint, faint. Ah, there he is again by the door.
Look! No, he must not touch me--he must not!"
Valentine glanced round. There was no one present. Then she rang the bell. It was answered by the old housekeeper.
"Mrs. Marsh, my father is ill. Will you give him some restorative at once? And send for the doctor, if necessary. I must go, but I"ll come back if possible to-night."
She left the room without glancing at the sick man, who followed her to the door with his dim eyes. She went downstairs, put on her cloak and left the house.
She had to walk a little distance before she met a hansom, and one or two people stared at the tall, slim figure, which was still young and girlish, but which bore on its proud face such a hard expression, such a burning defiant light in the eyes. Valentine soon reached home.
Everything was in a whirl in her brain. Esther Helps was standing on the steps. She flew to Esther, clasped her hands in a grasp of iron, and said in a husky choked voice:--
"Esther, my husband is alive!"
"He is, dear madam, he is, and I have come to take you to him!"
"Oh, Esther, thank G.o.d!"
"Come indoors, madam, you have not a moment to lose. We will keep that cab, if you please. I have only just come back. I was going to seek you. Stay one moment, Mrs. Wyndham. You are in black; will you put on your white dress--the one you wore on Tuesday night."
"Oh, what does it matter? Let me go to him."
"Little things sometimes matter a great deal; he saw you last in your white dress."
"He was really there on Tuesday night?"
"He was there. Come, I will fly for the dress and put it on you."
She did so. Valentine put her cloak over it, and the two drove away in the hansom. Valentine had no ears for the direction given to the cabman.
"I am in heaven," she said once, under her breath. "He lives. Now I can forgive my father!"
"Madam, your husband is very ill."
Valentine turned her great shining eyes towards Esther.
"All the better. I can nurse him," she said, with a smile, and then she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and did not speak another word.
The cab drew up at one of the entrances to St. Thomas" Hospital.
CHAPTER LI.
"What place is this?" asked the wife.
She was unacquainted with hospitals and sickness.
"This is a place where they cure the sick, and succour the dying, dear Mrs. Wyndham," gently remarked Esther Helps.
"They cure the sick here, do they? But I will cure my husband myself. I know the way." She smiled. "Take me to him, Esther. How slow you are.
Beloved Esther--I don"t thank you--I have no words to say thank you--but my heart is so happy I think it will burst."
The porter came forward, then a nurse. Several ceremonies had to be gone through, several remarks made, several questions asked. Valentine heard and saw nothing. Esther helped Valentine to take off her cloak; and she stood in her simple long plain white dress, with her bright hair like a glory round her happy face.
The nurse who finally conducted them to the ward where Wyndham lay looked at her in a sort of bewilderment. Esther and the nurse went first, and Valentine slowly followed between the long rows of beds; some of the men said afterwards that an angel had gone through the ward on the night that the strolling minstrel, poor fellow, died. The sister who had charge of the ward turned and whispered a word to Esther, then she pushed aside a screen which surrounded one of the beds.
"Your husband is very ill," she said, looking with a world of pity into Valentine"s bright eyes. "You ought to be prepared; he is _very_ ill."
"Thank you, I am quite prepared. I have come to cure him."
Then she went inside the screen, and Esther and the nurse remained without.
Wyndham was lying with his eyes closed; his sunken cheeks, his deathly pallor, his quick and hurried breath might have prepared the young wife for the worst. They did not. She stood for a moment at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped in ecstasy, her eyes shining, a wonderful smile bringing back the beauty to her lips. Then she came forward and lay gently down by the side of the dying man. She slipped her hand under his head and laid her cheek to his.
"At last, Gerald," she said, "at last you have come back! You didn"t die. You are changed, greatly changed; but you didn"t die, Gerald."