Dolly didn"t ask why not, or say a word, indeed, but stooped her head down very low to tie his sash.
"I never wear this dress," said honest Gabriel, "but I think of poor Joe Willet. I loved Joe; he was always a favourite of mine. Poor Joe!--Dear heart, my girl, don"t tie me in so tight."
Dolly laughed--not like herself at all--the strangest little laugh that could be--and held her head down lower still.
"Poor Joe!" resumed the locksmith, muttering to himself; "I always wish he had come to me. I might have made it up between them, if he had. Ah! old John made a great mistake in his way of acting by that lad--a great mistake.--Have you nearly tied that sash, my dear?"
What an ill-made sash it was! There it was, loose again and trailing on the ground. Dolly was obliged to kneel down, and recommence at the beginning.
"Never mind young Willet, Varden," said his wife frowning; "you might find some one more deserving to talk about, I think."
Miss Miggs gave a great sniff to the same effect.
"Nay, Martha," cried the locksmith, "don"t let us bear too hard upon him. If the lad is dead indeed, we"ll deal kindly by his memory."
"A runaway and a vagabond!" said Mrs Varden.
Miss Miggs expressed her concurrence as before.
"A runaway, my dear, but not a vagabond," returned the locksmith in a gentle tone. "He behaved himself well, did Joe--always--and was a handsome, manly fellow. Don"t call him a vagabond, Martha."
Mrs Varden coughed--and so did Miggs.
"He tried hard to gain your good opinion, Martha, I can tell you," said the locksmith smiling, and stroking his chin. "Ah! that he did. It seems but yesterday that he followed me out to the Maypole door one night, and begged me not to say how like a boy they used him--say here, at home, he meant, though at the time, I recollect, I didn"t understand. "And how"s Miss Dolly, sir?" says Joe," pursued the locksmith, musing sorrowfully, "Ah! Poor Joe!"
"Well, I declare," cried Miggs. "Oh! Goodness gracious me!"
"What"s the matter now?" said Gabriel, turning sharply to her, "Why, if here an"t Miss Dolly," said the handmaid, stooping down to look into her face, "a-giving way to floods of tears. Oh mim! oh sir. Raly it"s give me such a turn," cried the susceptible damsel, pressing her hand upon her side to quell the palpitation of her heart, "that you might knock me down with a feather."
The locksmith, after glancing at Miss Miggs as if he could have wished to have a feather brought straightway, looked on with a broad stare while Dolly hurried away, followed by that sympathising young woman: then turning to his wife, stammered out, "Is Dolly ill? Have I done anything? Is it my fault?"
"Your fault!" cried Mrs V. reproachfully. "There--you had better make haste out."
"What have I done?" said poor Gabriel. "It was agreed that Mr Edward"s name was never to be mentioned, and I have not spoken of him, have I?"
Mrs Varden merely replied that she had no patience with him, and bounced off after the other two. The unfortunate locksmith wound his sash about him, girded on his sword, put on his cap, and walked out.
"I am not much of a dab at my exercise," he said under his breath, "but I shall get into fewer sc.r.a.pes at that work than at this. Every man came into the world for something; my department seems to be to make every woman cry without meaning it. It"s rather hard!"
But he forgot it before he reached the end of the street, and went on with a shining face, nodding to the neighbours, and showering about his friendly greetings like mild spring rain.
Chapter 42.
The Royal East London Volunteers made a brilliant sight that day: formed into lines, squares, circles, triangles, and what not, to the beating of drums, and the streaming of flags; and performed a vast number of complex evolutions, in all of which Serjeant Varden bore a conspicuous share. Having displayed their military prowess to the utmost in these warlike shows, they marched in glittering order to the Chelsea Bun House, and regaled in the adjacent taverns until dark. Then at sound of drum they fell in again, and returned amidst the shouting of His Majesty"s lieges to the place from whence they came.
The homeward march being somewhat tardy,--owing to the un- soldierlike behaviour of certain corporals, who, being gentlemen of sedentary pursuits in private life and excitable out of doors, broke several windows with their bayonets, and rendered it imperative on the commanding officer to deliver them over to a strong guard, with whom they fought at intervals as they came along,--it was nine o"clock when the locksmith reached home. A hackney-coach was waiting near his door; and as he pa.s.sed it, Mr Haredale looked from the window and called him by his name.
"The sight of you is good for sore eyes, sir," said the locksmith, stepping up to him. "I wish you had walked in though, rather than waited here."
"There is n.o.body at home, I find," Mr Haredale answered; "besides, I desired to be as private as I could."
"Humph!" muttered the locksmith, looking round at his house. "Gone with Simon Tappert.i.t to that precious Branch, no doubt."
Mr Haredale invited him to come into the coach, and, if he were not tired or anxious to go home, to ride with him a little way that they might have some talk together. Gabriel cheerfully complied, and the coachman mounting his box drove off.
"Varden," said Mr Haredale, after a minute"s pause, "you will be amazed to hear what errand I am on; it will seem a very strange one."
"I have no doubt it"s a reasonable one, sir, and has a meaning in it," replied the locksmith; "or it would not be yours at all. Have you just come back to town, sir?"
"But half an hour ago."
"Bringing no news of Barnaby, or his mother?" said the locksmith dubiously. "Ah! you needn"t shake your head, sir. It was a wild- goose chase. I feared that, from the first. You exhausted all reasonable means of discovery when they went away. To begin again after so long a time has pa.s.sed is hopeless, sir--quite hopeless."
"Why, where are they?" he returned impatiently. "Where can they be? Above ground?"
"G.o.d knows," rejoined the locksmith, "many that I knew above it five years ago, have their beds under the gra.s.s now. And the world is a wide place. It"s a hopeless attempt, sir, believe me. We must leave the discovery of this mystery, like all others, to time, and accident, and Heaven"s pleasure."
"Varden, my good fellow," said Mr Haredale, "I have a deeper meaning in my present anxiety to find them out, than you can fathom. It is not a mere whim; it is not the casual revival of my old wishes and desires; but an earnest, solemn purpose. My thoughts and dreams all tend to it, and fix it in my mind. I have no rest by day or night; I have no peace or quiet; I am haunted."
His voice was so altered from its usual tones, and his manner bespoke so much emotion, that Gabriel, in his wonder, could only sit and look towards him in the darkness, and fancy the expression of his face.
"Do not ask me," continued Mr Haredale, "to explain myself. If I were to do so, you would think me the victim of some hideous fancy. It is enough that this is so, and that I cannot--no, I can not--lie quietly in my bed, without doing what will seem to you incomprehensible."
"Since when, sir," said the locksmith after a pause, "has this uneasy feeling been upon you?"
Mr Haredale hesitated for some moments, and then replied: "Since the night of the storm. In short, since the last nineteenth of March."
As though he feared that Varden might express surprise, or reason with him, he hastily went on: "You will think, I know, I labour under some delusion. Perhaps I do. But it is not a morbid one; it is a wholesome action of the mind, reasoning on actual occurrences. You know the furniture remains in Mrs Rudge"s house, and that it has been shut up, by my orders, since she went away, save once a-week or so, when an old neighbour visits it to scare away the rats. I am on my way there now."
"For what purpose?" asked the locksmith.
"To pa.s.s the night there," he replied; "and not to-night alone, but many nights. This is a secret which I trust to you in case of any unexpected emergency. You will not come, unless in case of strong necessity, to me; from dusk to broad day I shall be there. Emma, your daughter, and the rest, suppose me out of London, as I have been until within this hour. Do not undeceive them. This is the errand I am bound upon. I know I may confide it to you, and I rely upon your questioning me no more at this time."
With that, as if to change the theme, he led the astounded locksmith back to the night of the Maypole highwayman, to the robbery of Edward Chester, to the reappearance of the man at Mrs Rudge"s house, and to all the strange circ.u.mstances which afterwards occurred. He even asked him carelessly about the man"s height, his face, his figure, whether he was like any one he had ever seen--like Hugh, for instance, or any man he had known at any time--and put many questions of that sort, which the locksmith, considering them as mere devices to engage his attention and prevent his expressing the astonishment he felt, answered pretty much at random.
At length, they arrived at the corner of the street in which the house stood, where Mr Haredale, alighting, dismissed the coach. "If you desire to see me safely lodged," he said, turning to the locksmith with a gloomy smile, "you can."
Gabriel, to whom all former marvels had been nothing in comparison with this, followed him along the narrow pavement in silence. When they reached the door, Mr Haredale softly opened it with a key he had about him, and closing it when Varden entered, they were left in thorough darkness.
They groped their way into the ground-floor room. Here Mr Haredale struck a light, and kindled a pocket taper he had brought with him for the purpose. It was then, when the flame was full upon him, that the locksmith saw for the first time how haggard, pale, and changed he looked; how worn and thin he was; how perfectly his whole appearance coincided with all that he had said so strangely as they rode along. It was not an unnatural impulse in Gabriel, after what he had heard, to note curiously the expression of his eyes. It was perfectly collected and rational;-- so much so, indeed, that he felt ashamed of his momentary suspicion, and drooped his own when Mr Haredale looked towards him, as if he feared they would betray his thoughts.
"Will you walk through the house?" said Mr Haredale, with a glance towards the window, the crazy shutters of which were closed and fastened. "Speak low."
There was a kind of awe about the place, which would have rendered it difficult to speak in any other manner. Gabriel whispered "Yes," and followed him upstairs.
Everything was just as they had seen it last. There was a sense of closeness from the exclusion of fresh air, and a gloom and heaviness around, as though long imprisonment had made the very silence sad. The homely hangings of the beds and windows had begun to droop; the dust lay thick upon their dwindling folds; and damps had made their way through ceiling, wall, and floor. The boards creaked beneath their tread, as if resenting the unaccustomed intrusion; nimble spiders, paralysed by the taper"s glare, checked the motion of their hundred legs upon the wall, or dropped like lifeless things upon the ground; the death-watch ticked; and the scampering feet of rats and mice rattled behind the wainscot.
As they looked about them on the decaying furniture, it was strange to find how vividly it presented those to whom it had belonged, and with whom it was once familiar. Grip seemed to perch again upon his high-backed chair; Barnaby to crouch in his old favourite corner by the fire; the mother to resume her usual seat, and watch him as of old. Even when they could separate these objects from the phantoms of the mind which they invoked, the latter only glided out of sight, but lingered near them still; for then they seemed to lurk in closets and behind the doors, ready to start out and suddenly accost them in well-remembered tones.
They went downstairs, and again into the room they had just now left. Mr Haredale unbuckled his sword and laid it on the table, with a pair of pocket pistols; then told the locksmith he would light him to the door.
"But this is a dull place, sir," said Gabriel lingering; "may no one share your watch?"
He shook his head, and so plainly evinced his wish to be alone, that Gabriel could say no more. In another moment the locksmith was standing in the street, whence he could see that the light once more travelled upstairs, and soon returning to the room below, shone brightly through the c.h.i.n.ks of the shutters.
If ever man were sorely puzzled and perplexed, the locksmith was, that night. Even when snugly seated by his own fireside, with Mrs Varden opposite in a nightcap and night-jacket, and Dolly beside him (in a most distracting dishabille) curling her hair, and smiling as if she had never cried in all her life and never could-- even then, with Toby at his elbow and his pipe in his mouth, and Miggs (but that perhaps was not much) falling asleep in the background, he could not quite discard his wonder and uneasiness. So in his dreams--still there was Mr Haredale, haggard and careworn, listening in the solitary house to every sound that stirred, with the taper shining through the c.h.i.n.ks until the day should turn it pale and end his lonely watching.
Chapter 43.
Next morning brought no satisfaction to the locksmith"s thoughts, nor next day, nor the next, nor many others. Often after nightfall he entered the street, and turned his eyes towards the well-known house; and as surely as he did so, there was the solitary light, still gleaming through the crevices of the window-shutter, while all within was motionless, noiseless, cheerless, as a grave. Unwilling to hazard Mr Haredale"s favour by disobeying his strict injunction, he never ventured to knock at the door or to make his presence known in any way. But whenever strong interest and curiosity attracted him to the spot--which was not seldom--the light was always there.
If he could have known what pa.s.sed within, the knowledge would have yielded him no clue to this mysterious vigil. At twilight, Mr Haredale shut himself up, and at daybreak he came forth. He never missed a night, always came and went alone, and never varied his proceedings in the least degree.
The manner of his watch was this. At dusk, he entered the house in the same way as when the locksmith bore him company, kindled a light, went through the rooms, and narrowly examined them. That done, he returned to the chamber on the ground-floor, and laying his sword and pistols on the table, sat by it until morning.
He usually had a book with him, and often tried to read, but never fixed his eyes or thoughts upon it for five minutes together. The slightest noise without doors, caught his ear; a step upon the pavement seemed to make his heart leap.
He was not without some refreshment during the long lonely hours; generally carrying in his pocket a sandwich of bread and meat, and a small flask of wine. The latter diluted with large quant.i.ties of water, he drank in a heated, feverish way, as though his throat were dried; but he scarcely ever broke his fast, by so much as a crumb of bread.
If this voluntary sacrifice of sleep and comfort had its origin, as the locksmith on consideration was disposed to think, in any superst.i.tious expectation of the fulfilment of a dream or vision connected with the event on which he had brooded for so many years, and if he waited for some ghostly visitor who walked abroad when men lay sleeping in their beds, he showed no trace of fear or wavering. His stern features expressed inflexible resolution; his brows were puckered, and his lips compressed, with deep and settled purpose; and when he started at a noise and listened, it was not with the start of fear but hope, and catching up his sword as though the hour had come at last, he would clutch it in his tight- clenched hand, and listen with sparkling eyes and eager looks, until it died away.
These disappointments were numerous, for they ensued on almost every sound, but his constancy was not shaken. Still, every night he was at his post, the same stern, sleepless, sentinel; and still night pa.s.sed, and morning dawned, and he must watch again.
This went on for weeks; he had taken a lodging at Vauxhall in which to pa.s.s the day and rest himself; and from this place, when the tide served, he usually came to London Bridge from Westminster by water, in order that he might avoid the busy streets.
One evening, shortly before twilight, he came his accustomed road upon the river"s bank, intending to pa.s.s through Westminster Hall into Palace Yard, and there take boat to London Bridge as usual. There was a pretty large concourse of people a.s.sembled round the Houses of Parliament, looking at the members as they entered and departed, and giving vent to rather noisy demonstrations of approval or dislike, according to their known opinions. As he made his way among the throng, he heard once or twice the No-Popery cry, which was then becoming pretty familiar to the ears of most men; but holding it in very slight regard, and observing that the idlers were of the lowest grade, he neither thought nor cared about it, but made his way along, with perfect indifference.
There were many little knots and groups of persons in Westminster Hall: some few looking upward at its n.o.ble ceiling, and at the rays of evening light, tinted by the setting sun, which streamed in aslant through its small windows, and growing dimmer by degrees, were quenched in the gathering gloom below; some, noisy pa.s.sengers, mechanics going home from work, and otherwise, who hurried quickly through, waking the echoes with their voices, and soon darkening the small door in the distance, as they pa.s.sed into the street beyond; some, in busy conference together on political or private matters, pacing slowly up and down with eyes that sought the ground, and seeming, by their att.i.tudes, to listen earnestly from head to foot. Here, a dozen squabbling urchins made a very Babel in the air; there, a solitary man, half clerk, half mendicant, paced up and down with hungry dejection in his look and gait; at his elbow pa.s.sed an errand-lad, swinging his basket round and round, and with his shrill whistle riving the very timbers of the roof; while a more observant schoolboy, half-way through, pocketed his ball, and eyed the distant beadle as he came looming on. It was that time of evening when, if you shut your eyes and open them again, the darkness of an hour appears to have gathered in a second. The smooth-worn pavement, dusty with footsteps, still called upon the lofty walls to reiterate the shuffle and the tread of feet unceasingly, save when the closing of some heavy door resounded through the building like a clap of thunder, and drowned all other noises in its rolling sound.
Mr Haredale, glancing only at such of these groups as he pa.s.sed nearest to, and then in a manner betokening that his thoughts were elsewhere, had nearly traversed the Hall, when two persons before him caught his attention. One of these, a gentleman in elegant attire, carried in his hand a cane, which he twirled in a jaunty manner as he loitered on; the other, an obsequious, crouching, fawning figure, listened to what he said--at times throwing in a humble word himself--and, with his shoulders shrugged up to his ears, rubbed his hands submissively, or answered at intervals by an inclination of the head, half-way between a nod of acquiescence, and a bow of most profound respect.
In the abstract there was nothing very remarkable in this pair, for servility waiting on a handsome suit of clothes and a cane--not to speak of gold and silver sticks, or wands of office--is common enough. But there was that about the well-dressed man, yes, and about the other likewise, which struck Mr Haredale with no pleasant feeling. He hesitated, stopped, and would have stepped aside and turned out of his path, but at the moment, the other two faced about quickly, and stumbled upon him before he could avoid them.
The gentleman with the cane lifted his hat and had begun to tender an apology, which Mr Haredale had begun as hastily to acknowledge and walk away, when he stopped short and cried, "Haredale! Gad bless me, this is strange indeed!"
"It is," he returned impatiently; "yes--a--"
"My dear friend," cried the other, detaining him, "why such great speed? One minute, Haredale, for the sake of old acquaintance."
"I am in haste," he said. "Neither of us has sought this meeting. Let it be a brief one. Good night!"
"Fie, fie!" replied Sir John (for it was he), "how very churlish! We were speaking of you. Your name was on my lips--perhaps you heard me mention it? No? I am sorry for that. I am really sorry.--You know our friend here, Haredale? This is really a most remarkable meeting!"
The friend, plainly very ill at ease, had made bold to press Sir John"s arm, and to give him other significant hints that he was desirous of avoiding this introduction. As it did not suit Sir John"s purpose, however, that it should be evaded, he appeared quite unconscious of these silent remonstrances, and inclined his hand towards him, as he spoke, to call attention to him more particularly.
The friend, therefore, had nothing for it, but to muster up the pleasantest smile he could, and to make a conciliatory bow, as Mr Haredale turned his eyes upon him. Seeing that he was recognised, he put out his hand in an awkward and embarra.s.sed manner, which was not mended by its contemptuous rejection.
"Mr Gashford!" said Haredale, coldly. "It is as I have heard then. You have left the darkness for the light, sir, and hate those whose opinions you formerly held, with all the bitterness of a renegade. You are an honour, sir, to any cause. I wish the one you espouse at present, much joy of the acquisition it has made."
The secretary rubbed his hands and bowed, as though he would disarm his adversary by humbling himself before him. Sir John Chester again exclaimed, with an air of great gaiety, "Now, really, this is a most remarkable meeting!" and took a pinch of snuff with his usual self-possession.
"Mr Haredale," said Gashford, stealthily raising his eyes, and letting them drop again when they met the other"s steady gaze, is too conscientious, too honourable, too manly, I am sure, to attach unworthy motives to an honest change of opinions, even though it implies a doubt of those he holds himself. Mr Haredale is too just, too generous, too clear-sighted in his moral vision, to--"
"Yes, sir?" he rejoined with a sarcastic smile, finding the secretary stopped. "You were saying"-- Gashford meekly shrugged his shoulders, and looking on the ground again, was silent.
"No, but let us really," interposed Sir John at this juncture, "let us really, for a moment, contemplate the very remarkable character of this meeting. Haredale, my dear friend, pardon me if I think you are not sufficiently impressed with its singularity. Here we stand, by no previous appointment or arrangement, three old schoolfellows, in Westminster Hall; three old boarders in a remarkably dull and shady seminary at Saint Omer"s, where you, being Catholics and of necessity educated out of England, were brought up; and where I, being a promising young Protestant at that time, was sent to learn the French tongue from a native of Paris!"
"Add to the singularity, Sir John," said Mr Haredale, "that some of you Protestants of promise are at this moment leagued in yonder building, to prevent our having the surpa.s.sing and unheard-of privilege of teaching our children to read and write--here--in this land, where thousands of us enter your service every year, and to preserve the freedom of which, we die in b.l.o.o.d.y battles abroad, in heaps: and that others of you, to the number of some thousands as I learn, are led on to look on all men of my creed as wolves and beasts of prey, by this man Gashford. Add to it besides the bare fact that this man lives in society, walks the streets in broad day--I was about to say, holds up his head, but that he does not-- and it will be strange, and very strange, I grant you."
"Oh! you are hard upon our friend," replied Sir John, with an engaging smile. "You are really very hard upon our friend!"
"Let him go on, Sir John," said Gashford, fumbling with his gloves. "Let him go on. I can make allowances, Sir John. I am honoured with your good opinion, and I can dispense with Mr Haredale"s. Mr Haredale is a sufferer from the penal laws, and I can"t expect his favour."
"You have so much of my favour, sir," retorted Mr Haredale, with a bitter glance at the third party in their conversation, "that I am glad to see you in such good company. You are the essence of your great a.s.sociation, in yourselves."
"Now, there you mistake," said Sir John, in his most benignant way. "There--which is a most remarkable circ.u.mstance for a man of your punctuality and exactness, Haredale--you fall into error. I don"t belong to the body; I have an immense respect for its members, but I don"t belong to it; although I am, it is certainly true, the conscientious opponent of your being relieved. I feel it my duty to be so; it is a most unfortunate necessity; and cost me a bitter struggle.--Will you try this box? If you don"t object to a trifling infusion of a very chaste scent, you"ll find its flavour exquisite."
"I ask your pardon, Sir John," said Mr Haredale, declining the proffer with a motion of his hand, "for having ranked you among the humble instruments who are obvious and in all men"s sight. I should have done more justice to your genius. Men of your capacity plot in secrecy and safety, and leave exposed posts to the duller wits."
"Don"t apologise, for the world," replied Sir John sweetly; "old friends like you and I, may be allowed some freedoms, or the deuce is in it."
Gashford, who had been very restless all this time, but had not once looked up, now turned to Sir John, and ventured to mutter something to the effect that he must go, or my lord would perhaps be waiting.
"Don"t distress yourself, good sir," said Mr Haredale, "I"ll take my leave, and put you at your ease--" which he was about to do without ceremony, when he was stayed by a buzz and murmur at the upper end of the hall, and, looking in that direction, saw Lord George Gordon coming in, with a crowd of people round him.
There was a lurking look of triumph, though very differently expressed, in the faces of his two companions, which made it a natural impulse on Mr Haredale"s part not to give way before this leader, but to stand there while he pa.s.sed. He drew himself up and, clasping his hands behind him, looked on with a proud and scornful aspect, while Lord George slowly advanced (for the press was great about him) towards the spot where they were standing.
He had left the House of Commons but that moment, and had come straight down into the Hall, bringing with him, as his custom was, intelligence of what had been said that night in reference to the Papists, and what pet.i.tions had been presented in their favour, and who had supported them, and when the bill was to be brought in, and when it would be advisable to present their own Great Protestant pet.i.tion. All this he told the persons about him in a loud voice, and with great abundance of ungainly gesture. Those who were nearest him made comments to each other, and vented threats and murmurings; those who were outside the crowd cried, "Silence," and Stand back," or closed in upon the rest, endeavouring to make a forcible exchange of places: and so they came driving on in a very disorderly and irregular way, as it is the manner of a crowd to do.
When they were very near to where the secretary, Sir John, and Mr Haredale stood, Lord George turned round and, making a few remarks of a sufliciently violent and incoherent kind, concluded with the usual sentiment, and called for three cheers to back it. While these were in the act of being given with great energy, he extricated himself from the press, and stepped up to Gashford"s side. Both he and Sir John being well known to the populace, they fell back a little, and left the four standing together.
"Mr Haredale, Lord George," said Sir John Chester, seeing that the n.o.bleman regarded him with an inquisitive look. "A Catholic gentleman unfortunately--most unhappily a Catholic--but an esteemed acquaintance of mine, and once of Mr Gashford"s. My dear Haredale, this is Lord George Gordon."