"About the Grayes and Manston?"
"Yes. That woman is not Mrs. Manston."
"Prove it."
"I can prove that she is somebody else--that her name is Anne Seaway."
"And are their suspicions true indeed!"
"And I can do what"s more to the purpose at present."
"Suggest Manston"s motive?"
"Only suggest it, remember. But my a.s.sumption fits so perfectly with the facts that have been secretly unearthed and conveyed to me, that I can hardly conceive of another."
There was in Edward"s bearing that entire unconsciousness of himself which, natural to wild animals, only prevails in a sensitive man at moments of extreme intentness. The rector saw that he had no trivial story to communicate, whatever the story was.
"Sit down," said Mr. Raunham. "My mind has been on the stretch all the evening to form the slightest guess at such an object, and all to no purpose--entirely to no purpose. Have you said anything to Owen Graye?"
"Nothing--nor to anybody. I could not trust to the effect a letter might have upon yourself, either; the intricacy of the case brings me to this interview."
Whilst Springrove had been speaking the two had sat down together. The conversation, hitherto distinct to every corner of the room, was carried on now in tones so low as to be scarcely audible to the interlocutors, and in phrases which hesitated to complete themselves. Three-quarters of an hour pa.s.sed. Then Edward arose, came out of the rector"s study and again flung his cloak around him. Instead of going thence homeward, he went first to the Carriford Road Station with a telegram, having despatched which he proceeded to his father"s house for the first time since his arrival in the village.
3. FROM NINE TO TEN O"CLOCK P.M.
The next presentation is the interior of the Old House on the evening of the preceding section. The steward was sitting by his parlour fire, and had been reading the letter arrived from the rectory. Opposite to him sat the woman known to the village and neighbourhood as Mrs. Manston.
"Things are looking desperate with us," he said gloomily. His gloom was not that of the hypochondriac, but the legitimate gloom which has its origin in a syllogism. As he uttered the words he handed the letter to her.
"I almost expected some such news as this," she replied, in a tone of much greater indifference. "I knew suspicion lurked in the eyes of that young man who stared at me so in the church path: I could have sworn it."
Manston did not answer for some time. His face was worn and haggard; latterly his head had not been carried so uprightly as of old. "If they prove you to be--who you are.... Yes, if they do," he murmured.
"They must not find that out," she said, in a positive voice, and looking at him. "But supposing they do, the trick does not seem to me to be so serious as to justify that wretched, miserable, horrible look of yours. It makes my flesh creep; it is perfectly deathlike."
He did not reply, and she continued, "If they say and prove that Eunice is indeed living--and dear, you know she is--she is sure to come back."
This remark seemed to awaken and irritate him to speech. Again, as he had done a hundred times during their residence together, he categorized the events connected with the fire at the Three Tranters. He dwelt on every incident of that night"s history, and endeavoured, with an anxiety which was extraordinary in the apparent circ.u.mstances, to prove that his wife must, by the very nature of things, have perished in the flames.
She arose from her seat, crossed the hearthrug, and set herself to soothe him; then she whispered that she was still as unbelieving as ever. "Come, supposing she escaped--just supposing she escaped--where is she?" coaxed the lady.
"Why are you so curious continually?" said Manston.
"Because I am a woman and want to know. Now where is she?"
"In the Flying Isle of San Borandan."
"Witty cruelty is the cruellest of any. Ah, well--if she is in England, she will come back."
"She is not in England."
"But she will come back?"
"No, she won"t.... Come, madam," he said, arousing himself, "I shall not answer any more questions."
"Ah--ah--ah--she is not dead," the woman murmured again poutingly.
"She is, I tell you."
"I don"t think so, love."
"She was burnt, I tell you!" he exclaimed.
"Now to please me, admit the bare possibility of her being alive--just the possibility."
"O yes--to please you I will admit that," he said quickly. "Yes, I admit the possibility of her being alive, to please you."
She looked at him in utter perplexity. The words could only have been said in jest, and yet they seemed to savour of a tone the furthest remove from jesting. There was his face plain to her eyes, but no information of any kind was to be read there.
"It is only natural that I should be curious," she murmured pettishly, "if I resemble her as much as you say I do."
"You are handsomer," he said, "though you are about her own height and size. But don"t worry yourself. You must know that you are body and soul united with me, though you are but my housekeeper."
She bridled a little at the remark. "Wife," she said, "most certainly wife, since you cannot dismiss me without losing your character and position, and incurring heavy penalties."
"I own it--it was well said, though mistakenly--very mistakenly."
"Don"t riddle to me about mistakenly and such dark things. Now what was your motive, dearest, in running the risk of having me here?"
"Your beauty," he said.
"She thanks you much for the compliment, but will not take it. Come, what was your motive?"
"Your wit."
"No, no; not my wit. Wit would have made a wife of me by this time instead of what I am."
"Your virtue."
"Or virtue either."
"I tell you it was your beauty--really."
"But I cannot help seeing and hearing, and if what people say is true, I am not nearly so good-looking as Cytherea, and several years older."
The aspect of Manston"s face at these words from her was so confirmatory of her hint, that his forced reply of "O no," tended to develop her chagrin.
"Mere liking or love for me," she resumed, "would not have sprung up all of a sudden, as your pretended pa.s.sion did. You had been to London several times between the time of the fire and your marriage with Cytherea--you had never visited me or thought of my existence or cared that I was out of a situation and poor. But the week after you married her and were separated from her, off you rush to make love to me--not first to me either, for you went to several places--"
"No, not several places."