"No, not indifference--"twas enforced silence. My father lived."
He took her hand, and held it gently.
"Now listen," he said, more quietly and humanly, when she had become calmer: "Springrove must marry the woman he"s engaged to. You may make him, but only in one way."
"Well: but don"t speak sternly, AEneas!"
"Do you know that his father has not been particularly thriving for the last two or three years?"
"I have heard something of it, once or twice, though his rents have been promptly paid, haven"t they?"
"O yes; and do you know the terms of the leases of the houses which are burnt?" he said, explaining to her that by those terms she might compel him even to rebuild every house. "The case is the clearest case of fire by negligence that I have ever known, in addition to that," he continued.
"I don"t want them rebuilt; you know it was intended by my father, directly they fell in, to clear the site for a new entrance to the park?"
"Yes, but that doesn"t affect the position, which is that Farmer Springrove is in your power to an extent which is very serious for him."
"I won"t do it--"tis a conspiracy."
"Won"t you for me?" he said eagerly.
Miss Aldclyffe changed colour.
"I don"t threaten now, I implore," he said.
"Because you might threaten if you chose," she mournfully answered. "But why be so--when your marriage with her was my own pet idea long before it was yours? What must I do?"
"Scarcely anything: simply this. When I have seen old Mr. Springrove, which I shall do in a day or two, and told him that he will be expected to rebuild the houses, do you see the young man. See him yourself, in order that the proposals made may not appear to be anything more than an impulse of your own. You or he will bring up the subject of the houses.
To rebuild them would be a matter of at least six hundred pounds, and he will almost surely say that we are hard in insisting upon the extreme letter of the leases. Then tell him that scarcely can you yourself think of compelling an old tenant like his father to any such painful extreme--there shall be no compulsion to build, simply a surrender of the leases. Then speak feelingly of his cousin, as a woman whom you respect and love, and whose secret you have learnt to be that she is heart-sick with hope deferred. Beg him to marry her, his betrothed and your friend, as some return for your consideration towards his father.
Don"t suggest too early a day for their marriage, or he will suspect you of some motive beyond womanly sympathy. Coax him to make a promise to her that she shall be his wife at the end of a twelvemonth, and get him, on a.s.senting to this, to write to Cytherea, entirely renouncing her."
"She has already asked him to do that."
"So much the better--and telling her, too, that he is about to fulfil his long-standing promise to marry his cousin. If you think it worth while, you may say Cytherea was not indisposed to think of me before she knew I was married. I have at home a note she wrote me the first evening I saw her, which looks rather warm, and which I could show you. Trust me, he will give her up. When he is married to Adelaide Hinton, Cytherea will be induced to marry me--perhaps before; a woman"s pride is soon wounded."
"And hadn"t I better write to Mr. Nyttleton, and inquire more particularly what"s the law upon the houses?"
"O no, there"s no hurry for that. We know well enough how the case stands--quite well enough to talk in general terms about it. And I want the pressure to be put upon young Springrove before he goes away from home again."
She looked at him furtively, long, and sadly, as after speaking he became lost in thought, his eyes listlessly tracing the pattern of the carpet. "Yes, yes, she will be mine," he whispered, careless of Cytherea Aldclyffe"s presence. At last he raised his eyes inquiringly.
"I will do my best, AEneas," she answered.
Talibus incusat. Manston then left the house, and again went towards the blackened ruins, where men were still raking and probing.
2. FROM NOVEMBER THE TWENTY-NINTH TO DECEMBER THE SECOND
The smouldering remnants of the Three Tranters Inn seemed to promise that, even when the searchers should light upon the remains of the unfortunate Mrs. Manston, very little would be discoverable.
Consisting so largely of the charcoal and ashes of hard dry oak and chestnut, intermingled with thatch, the interior of the heap was one glowing ma.s.s of embers, which, on being stirred about, emitted sparks and flame long after it was dead and black on the outside. It was persistently hoped, however, that some traces of the body would survive the effect of the hot coals, and after a search pursued uninterruptedly for thirty hours, under the direction of Manston himself, enough was found to set at rest any doubts of her fate.
The melancholy gleanings consisted of her watch, bunch of keys, a few coins, and two charred and blackened bones.
Two days later the official inquiry into the cause of her death was held at the Rising Sun Inn, before Mr. Floy, the coroner, and a jury of the chief inhabitants of the district. The little tavern--the only remaining one in the village--was crowded to excess by the neighbouring peasantry as well as their richer employers: all who could by any possibility obtain an hour"s release from their duties being present as listeners.
The jury viewed the sad and infinitesimal remains, which were folded in a white cambric cloth, and laid in the middle of a well-finished coffin lined with white silk (by Manston"s order), which stood in an adjoining room, the bulk of the coffin being completely filled in with carefully arranged flowers and evergreens--also the steward"s own doing.
Abraham Brown, of Hoxton, London--an old white-headed man, without the ruddiness which makes white hairs so pleasing--was sworn, and deposed that he kept a lodging-house at an address he named. On a Sat.u.r.day evening less than a month before the fire, a lady came to him, with very little luggage, and took the front room on the second floor. He did not inquire where she came from, as she paid a week in advance, but she gave her name as Mrs. Manston, referring him, if he wished for any guarantee of her respectability, to Mr. Manston, Knapwater Park. Here she lived for three weeks, rarely going out. She slept away from her lodgings one night during the time. At the end of that time, on the twenty-eighth of November, she left his house in a four-wheeled cab, about twelve o"clock in the day, telling the driver to take her to the Waterloo Station. She paid all her lodging expenses, and not having given notice the full week previous to her going away, offered to pay for the next, but he only took half. She wore a thick black veil, and grey waterproof cloak, when she left him, and her luggage was two boxes, one of plain deal, with black j.a.panned clamps, the other sewn up in canvas.
Joseph Chinney, porter at the Carriford Road Station, deposed that he saw Mrs. Manston, dressed as the last witness had described, get out of a second-cla.s.s carriage on the night of the twenty-eighth. She stood beside him whilst her luggage was taken from the van. The luggage, consisting of the clamped deal box and another covered with canvas, was placed in the cloak-room. She seemed at a loss at finding n.o.body there to meet her. She asked him for some person to accompany her, and carry her bag to Mr. Manston"s house, Knapwater Park. He was just off duty at that time, and offered to go himself. The witness here repeated the conversation he had had with Mrs. Manston during their walk, and testified to having left her at the door of the Three Tranters Inn, Mr.
Manston"s house being closed.
Next, Farmer Springrove was called. A murmur of surprise and commiseration pa.s.sed round the crowded room when he stepped forward.
The events of the few preceding days had so worked upon his nervously thoughtful nature that the blue orbits of his eyes, and the mere spot of scarlet to which the ruddiness of his cheeks had contracted, seemed the result of a heavy sickness. A perfect silence pervaded the a.s.sembly when he spoke.
His statement was that he received Mrs. Manston at the threshold, and asked her to enter the parlour. She would not do so, and stood in the pa.s.sage whilst the maid went upstairs to see that the room was in order.
The maid came down to the middle landing of the staircase, when Mrs.
Manston followed her up to the room. He did not speak ten words with her altogether.
Afterwards, whilst he was standing at the door listening for his son Edward"s return, he saw her light extinguished, having first caught sight of her shadow moving about the room.
THE CORONER: "Did her shadow appear to be that of a woman undressing?"
SPRINGROVE: "I cannot say, as I didn"t take particular notice. It moved backwards and forwards; she might have been undressing or merely pacing up and down the room."
Mrs. Fitler, the ostler"s wife and chambermaid, said that she preceded Mrs. Manston into the room, put down the candle, and went out. Mrs.
Manston scarcely spoke to her, except to ask her to bring a little brandy. Witness went and fetched it from the bar, brought it up, and put it on the dressing-table.
THE CORONER: "Had Mrs. Manston begun to undress, when you came back?"
"No, sir; she was sitting on the bed, with everything on, as when she came in."
"Did she begin to undress before you left?"
"Not exactly before I had left; but when I had closed the door, and was on the landing I heard her boot drop on the floor, as it does sometimes when pulled off?"
"Had her face appeared worn and sleepy?"
"I cannot say as her bonnet and veil were still on when I left, for she seemed rather shy and ashamed to be seen at the Three Tranters at all."
"And did you hear or see any more of her?"
"No more, sir."
Mrs. Crickett, temporary servant to Mr. Manston, said that in accordance with Mr. Manston"s orders, everything had been made comfortable in the house for Mrs. Manston"s expected return on Monday night. Mr. Manston told her that himself and Mrs. Manston would be home late, not till between eleven and twelve o"clock, and that supper was to be ready. Not expecting Mrs. Manston so early, she had gone out on a very important errand to Mrs. Leat the postmistress.