They being well away from my house and from the place after our simple breakfast, the time was come when I must do what I had pledged myself to them that I would do, - break the intelligence to my lady.
I went up to the house, and found my lady in her ordinary business- room. She happened to have an unusual amount of commissions to intrust to me that day; and she had filled my hands with papers before I could originate a word.
"My lady," I then began, as I stood beside her table.
"Why, what"s the matter?" she said quickly, looking up.
"Not much, I would fain hope, after you shall have prepared yourself, and considered a little."
"Prepared myself; and considered a little! You appear to have prepared YOURSELF but indifferently, anyhow, Mr. Silverman." This mighty scornfully, as I experienced my usual embarra.s.sment under her stare.
Said I, in self-extenuation once for all, "Lady Fareway, I have but to say for myself that I have tried to do my duty."
"For yourself?" repeated my lady. "Then there are others concerned, I see. Who are they?"
I was about to answer, when she made towards the bell with a dart that stopped me, and said, "Why, where is Adelina?"
"Forbear! be calm, my lady. I married her this morning to Mr.
Granville Wharton."
She set her lips, looked more intently at me than ever, raised her right hand, and smote me hard upon the cheek.
"Give me back those papers! give me back those papers!" She tore them out of my hands, and tossed them on her table. Then seating herself defiantly in her great chair, and folding her arms, she stabbed me to the heart with the unlooked-for reproach, "You worldly wretch!"
"Worldly?" I cried. "Worldly?"
"This, if you please," - she went on with supreme scorn, pointing me out as if there were some one there to see, - "this, if you please, is the disinterested scholar, with not a design beyond his books! This, if you please, is the simple creature whom any one could overreach in a bargain! This, if you please, is Mr.
Silverman! Not of this world; not he! He has too much simplicity for this world"s cunning. He has too much singleness of purpose to be a match for this world"s double-dealing. What did he give you for it?"
"For what? And who?"
"How much," she asked, bending forward in her great chair, and insultingly tapping the fingers of her right hand on the palm of her left, - "how much does Mr. Granville Wharton pay you for getting him Adelina"s money? What is the amount of your percentage upon Adelina"s fortune? What were the terms of the agreement that you proposed to this boy when you, the Rev. George Silverman, licensed to marry, engaged to put him in possession of this girl?
You made good terms for yourself, whatever they were. He would stand a poor chance against your keenness."
Bewildered, horrified, stunned by this cruel perversion, I could not speak. But I trust that I looked innocent, being so.
"Listen to me, shrewd hypocrite," said my lady, whose anger increased as she gave it utterance; "attend to my words, you cunning schemer, who have carried this plot through with such a practised double face that I have never suspected you. I had my projects for my daughter; projects for family connection; projects for fortune. You have thwarted them, and overreached me; but I am not one to be thwarted and overreached without retaliation. Do you mean to hold this living another month?"
"Do you deem it possible, Lady Fareway, that I can hold it another hour, under your injurious words?"
"Is it resigned, then?"
"It was mentally resigned, my lady, some minutes ago."
Don"t equivocate, sir. IS it resigned?"
"Unconditionally and entirely; and I would that I had never, never come near it!"
"A cordial response from me to THAT wish, Mr. Silverman! But take this with you, sir. If you had not resigned it, I would have had you deprived of it. And though you have resigned it, you will not get quit of me as easily as you think for. I will pursue you with this story. I will make this nefarious conspiracy of yours, for money, known. You have made money by it, but you have at the same time made an enemy by it. YOU will take good care that the money sticks to you; I will take good care that the enemy sticks to you."
Then said I finally, "Lady Fareway, I think my heart is broken.
Until I came into this room just now, the possibility of such mean wickedness as you have imputed to me never dawned upon my thoughts.
Your suspicions - "
"Suspicions! Pah!" said she indignantly. "Certainties."
"Your certainties, my lady, as you call them, your suspicions as I call them, are cruel, unjust, wholly devoid of foundation in fact.
I can declare no more; except that I have not acted for my own profit or my own pleasure. I have not in this proceeding considered myself. Once again, I think my heart is broken. If I have unwittingly done any wrong with a righteous motive, that is some penalty to pay."
She received this with another and more indignant "Pah!" and I made my way out of her room (I think I felt my way out with my hands, although my eyes were open), almost suspecting that my voice had a repulsive sound, and that I was a repulsive object.
There was a great stir made, the bishop was appealed to, I received a severe reprimand, and narrowly escaped suspension. For years a cloud hung over me, and my name was tarnished.
But my heart did not break, if a broken heart involves death; for I lived through it.
They stood by me, Adelina and her husband, through it all. Those who had known me at college, and even most of those who had only known me there by reputation, stood by me too. Little by little, the belief widened that I was not capable of what was laid to my charge. At length I was presented to a college-living in a sequestered place, and there I now pen my explanation. I pen it at my open window in the summer-time, before me, lying in the churchyard, equal resting-place for sound hearts, wounded hearts, and broken hearts. I pen it for the relief of my own mind, not foreseeing whether or no it will ever have a reader.