"Come in," he calls out, impatiently; and Simon Gale, opening the door, comes slowly in.
He is a very old man, and has been butler in the family for more years than he himself can count. His head is quite white, his form a little bent; there is, at this moment, a touch of deep distress upon his face that makes him look even older than he is.
"Are you busy, my lord?" asks he, in a somewhat nervous tone.
"Yes; I am very much engaged. I can see no one, Gale. Say I am starting for town immediately."
"It isn"t that, my lord. It is something I myself have to say to you.
If you could spare me a few minutes----." He comes a little nearer, and speaks even more earnestly. "It is about Ruth Annersley."
Lord Sartoris, laying down his pen, looks at him intently.
"Close the door, Simon," he says, hurriedly, something in the old servant"s manner impressing him. "I will hear you. Speak, man: what is it?"
"A story I heard this morning, my lord, which I feel it my duty to repeat to you. Not that I believe one word of it. You will remember that, my lord,--_not one word_." The grief in his tone belies the truth of his avowal. His head is bent. His old withered hands clasp and unclasp each other nervously.
"You are trembling," says Lord Sartoris. "Sit down. This news, whatever it is, has unstrung you."
"It has," cries Simon, with vehemence. "I _am_ trembling; I _am_ unstrung. How can I be otherwise when I hear such a slander put upon the boy I have watched from his cradle?"
"You are speaking of----?" demands Sartoris, with an effort.
"Mr. Dorian." He says this in a very low tone; and tears, that always come so painfully and so slowly to the old, shine in his eyes. "His sad complexion wears grief"s mourning livery." He covers his face with his hands.
Sartoris, rising from his seat, goes over to the window, and so stands that his face cannot be seen.
"What have you got to say about Mr. Brans...o...b..?" he asks, in a harsh, discordant tone.
"My lord, it is an impertinence my speaking at all," says Gale.
"Go on. Let me know the worst. I can hardly be more miserable than I am," returns Sartoris.
"It was Andrews, the under-gardener, was telling me," begins Simon, without any further attempt at hesitation. "This morning, early, I met him near the Ash Grove. "Simon," he says, "I want to speak wi"ye. I have a secret on my mind."
""If you have, my man, keep it," says I. "I want none o" your secrets." For in truth he is often very troublesome, my lord, though a well-meaning youth at bottom.
""But it is on my conscience," says he, "and if I don"t tell it to you I shall tell it to some one else, because tell it I must, or bust!"
"So when he went that far, my lord, I saw as how he was real uneasy, and I made up my mind to listen. And then he says,--
""Night before last feyther was coming through the copse wood that runs t"other side o" the fence from Master Annersley"s, and there, in the thickest part o" it, he saw Miss Ruth a standing, and wi" her was Mr. Brans...o...b..."
""Which Mr. Brans...o...b..?" says I.
""Mr. Dorian," he says, "He seen him as plain as life, though it was dusk, standing wi" his back half turned towards him, but not so turned but what he could see his ear and part o" his face. He had a hold o"
Miss Ruth"s hands; and was speaking very earnest to her, as though he were persuading her to something she were dead against. And she were crying very bitter, and trying to draw her hands away; but presently she got quiet like; and then they went away together, slowly at first, but quicker afterwards, in the direction of the wood that leads to Langham. He did not stir a peg until they was out o" sight, he was so afeard o" being seen. And now it is on his conscience that he did not speak sooner, ever since he saw old Mr. Annersley yesterday, like a mad creature, looking for his girl."
"That was his story, my lord. And he told it as though he meant it. I said to him as how Mr. Dorian was in Lonnun, and that I didn"t believe one word of it; and then he said,--
""Lonnun or no Lonnun, there is no mistake about it. If, as you say, he did go up to Lonnun, he must ha" come down again by the Langham train, for he see him wi" his two eyes."
""Mr. Horace is very like Mr. Dorian," I said. (Forgive me, my lord, but there was a moment when I would gladly have believed the blame might fall on Mr. Horace.) "There are times when one can hardly know them asunder;" but he scouted this notion.
""Feyther seen him," he said. "He had one o" them light overcoats on he is so fond o" wearing. It was him, and no other. He noticed the coat most perticler. And a d.a.m.n"d shame it is for him! If you don"t believe me, I can"t help you. I believe it: that is enough for me.""
Gale ceases speaking. And silence follows that lasts for several minutes. Then he speaks again:
"I ask your pardon, my lord, for having so spoken about any member of the family. But I thought it was only right you should know."
"You have acted very kindly." Even to himself his tone is strained and cold. "This Andrews must be silenced," he says, after a little pause, full of bitterness.
"I have seen to that, my lord. After what I said to him, he will hardly speak again to any one on the subject."
"See to it, Simon. Let him fully understand that dismissal will be the result of further talk."
"I will, my lord." Then, very wistfully, "Not that any one would distrust Mr. Dorian in this matter. I feel--I know, he is innocent."
Lord Sartoris looks at him strangely; his lips quiver; he seems old and worn, and as a man might who has just seen his last hope perish.
"I envy you your faith," he says, wearily; "I would give half--nay, all I possess, if I could say that honestly."
Just at this moment there comes an interruption.
"A telegram, my lord," says one of the men, handing in a yellow envelope.
Sartoris, tearing it open, reads hurriedly.
"I shall not go to town, Gale," he says, after a minute or two of thought. "Counter-order the carriage. Mr. Brans...o...b.. comes home to-night."
CHAPTER XXII.
"When there is a great deal of smoke, and no clear flame, it argues much moisture in the matter, yet it witnesseth, certainly, that there is fire there."--LEIGHTON.
Long before the night has set in he comes; and, as he enters the room where his uncle sits awaiting him, Lord Sartoris tells himself that never before has he seen him so handsome, so tall, so good to look at.
"Your telegram made me uneasy," he says, abruptly, "so I came back sooner than I had intended. Had you mine?"
"Yes; some hours ago."
"Did you want me, Arthur?"
"Yes; but not your return here. I sent my telegram princ.i.p.ally to learn your address, as I had made up my mind to go up to town. You have frustrated that plan."
There is a meaning in his tone that puzzles Dorian.