In plain figures Molly"s fortune could not be less than 20,000 a year if that paper did not exist, and would be under 80 a year if it were valid.
Molly next seized on one of the old packets of letters in trembling hope of some further light being thrown on the situation, but in them was evidence impossible to deny that her mother had invented the whole story of the marriage. Why Madame Danterre had not destroyed these letters was a further mystery, except that, time after time, it has been proved that people have carefully preserved evidence of their own crimes. Fighting against it, almost crying out in agonised protest, Molly was forced to realise the slow persevering cunning and unflinching cruelty with which her mother had pursued her victim. It was an ugly story for any girl to read if the woman had had no connection with her. It seemed to cut away from Molly all shreds of self-respect as she read it. She felt that the daughter of such a woman must have a heritage of evil in her nature.
The packet of old letters finished, there was yet something more to find. Next came a packet of prescriptions and some receipts from shops.
Under these were the faded photographs of several men and women of whom she knew nothing. Lastly, there was half a letter written to Molly dated in August and left unfinished and without a signature:
"CARISSIMA:
"I am far from well, but I believe Dr. Larrone has found out the cause and will soon put things right again. If you ever hear anything about me from Dr. Larrone you can put entire confidence in him. I have found out now why Sir Edmund Grosse has tried to see me. He is possessed with the absurd idea that I have no right to Sir David Bright"s fortune, although he does not venture to call in question the validity of the will which left that fortune to me.
Dr. Larrone has certain proof that Grosse employs a detective here to watch this house. I have also heard that he is in love with poor David"s widow, and hence I suppose this _trop de zele_ on her behalf. As he cannot get at me he is likely to try to become intimate with you, so I warn you to avoid him now and in future."
That was all.
Molly sat staring vacantly in front of her, almost unconscious of her surroundings from the intensity of pain. Each item in the horror of the situation told on her separately, but in no sequence--with no coherence.
Shame, "hopes early blighted, love scorned," kindness proved treason, the prospect of complete and dishonourable poverty, a poverty which would enrich her foes. And all this was mixed in her mind with the dreadful words from the old letters that seemed to be shouted at her.
Miss Carew, coming in at dinner-time, was horror-struck by what she saw.
Molly was sitting on the floor surrounded by letters and papers, moaning and biting her hand. The gong sounded, the parlourmaid announced dinner, and Molly gathered up her papers, locked them in the box, fastened the key on to her chain--all in complete silence--and got up from the floor.
She then walked straight into the dining-room in her large hat and outdoor clothes without speaking.
And without a word the terrified Miss Carew went with her, and tried to eat her dinner.
Molly ate a very little of each thing that was offered to her, taking a few mouthfuls voraciously, and then quite suddenly, as she was offered a dish of forced asparagus, she went into peal after peal of ringing, resounding laughter. "I should like you to have asparagus at every meal," she said, and then again came peal after peal--each a quite distinct sound. It was dreadful to hear, and Miss Carew and the servant were terrified. It was the laughter, not of a maniac, not of pure unreasoning hysteria, not quite of a lost soul. It suggested these elements, perhaps, but it was chiefly a nervous convulsion at an overpowering perception of the irony in the heart of things.
The hysterical fit lasted long enough for Miss Carew to insist on a doctor, and Molly did not resist. When he came she implored him to give her a strong sleeping-draught. She kept Miss Carew and the maid fussing about her, in a terror of being alone, until the draught was at last sent in by a dilatory chemist. She then hurried them away, drank the medicine, and set herself to go to sleep. The draught acted soon, as Miss Carew learnt by listening at the door and hearing the deep, regular breathing. But the effects pa.s.sed off, and Molly sat up absolutely awake at one o"clock in the morning. She lay down again and tried to force herself to sleep by sheer will power, but she soon realised the awful impotence of desire in forcing sleep.
At last, horror of her own intensely alert faculties, blinded by darkness, made her turn up the light. Instantly the sight of the familiar room seemed unbearable, and she turned it down again. But again the darkness was quite intolerable, and seemed to have a hideous life of its own which held in it presences of evil. At one moment she breathed in the air of the winter"s night, shivering with cold; at the next she was stifled for want of breath. So the light by the bed was turned on again, and to get a little further from it Molly got up and slowly and carefully put on her stockings and fur slippers, then opened a cupboard and took out a magnificent fur cloak and wrapped herself in it. Then suddenly one aspect of the position became concrete to her imagination.
She knew that the cloak was bought with ill-gotten money. Her enormous allowance after she came of age, even the expenses of her education--Miss Carew"s salary among other things--had been won by fraud. And now, oh! why, why had not her miserable mother spoken the truth when she got the will, or why had she not destroyed it? Why had she left it to Molly to put right all this long, long imposture, and to reveal to the world the story of her mother"s crime? It seemed to Molly as if she were looking on at some other girl"s life, and as if she were considering it from an external point of view. The sleeping-draught had, no doubt, excited still further the terrible agitation of her nerves, and ideas came to her as if they had no connection with her own personality.
Wicked old woman, dying in Florence! How cruel those words were: "Let it be her own affair"! Her last act to send those papers to the poor girl she had deserted as a baby, and refused even to see as a woman. "Let it be her own affair." Her own affair to choose actual poverty and a terrible publicity as to the past instead of a great fortune and silence as to her mother"s guilt. "Let it be her own affair" to enrich her enemies, to give a fortune to the woman who would scorn her! Would the man who had pretended to be her friend, and who had been pursuing her mother with detectives all the time, would he some day talk pityingly of her with his wife, and say she "had really behaved very well, poor thing"?
Suddenly Molly stopped, full of horror at a new thought. Oh! she must make things safe and sure, or--good G.o.d!--what might not her mother"s daughter be tempted to do? A deep blush spread over her face and neck.
She moved hastily to the door, and in a moment she was in Miss Carew"s room.
"I want to speak to you; I want to tell you something," said Molly, turning up the electric light as she spoke.
Miss Carew was startled out of a sweet sleep, and her first thought was the one which haunted her whenever she was awakened at an untimely hour.
Her carefully-curled fringe was lying in the dressing-table drawer, and Molly had never seen her without it!
"Yes, yes; in one moment," she answered fussily. "I will come to your room in one minute."
Molly felt checked, and there had been something strange and unfamiliar in Miss Carew"s face. Suddenly she felt what it would be to tell Miss Carew the truth--Miss Carew, who was now her dependent, receiving from her 100 a year, would be shocked and startled out of her senses, and might not take these horrible revelations at all kindly. It would, anyhow, be such a reversal of their mutual positions as Molly could not face. And by the time the chestnut hair tinged with grey had been pinned a little crooked on Miss Carew"s head, and she had knocked timidly at Molly"s door, she was startled and offended by the impatient, overbearing tone of the voice that asked her to "go back to bed and not to bother; it was nothing that mattered."
The night had got on further than Molly knew by that time, and she was relieved to hear it strike four o"clock. She was astonished at noticing that, while she had been walking up and down, up and down her room, she had never heard the clock strike two or three. The fact of having spoken to Miss Carew had brought her for the moment out of the inferno of the last few hours, and the time from four o"clock to six was less utterly miserable because worse had gone before it.
At six she called the housemaid, and kept her fussing about the room, lighting the fire, and getting tea, so as not to be alone again. At eight o"clock she sent for coffee and eggs, and the coffee had to be made twice before she was satisfied with it. Then she suddenly said she felt much better, and, having dressed much more quickly than usual, she went out.
Molly had determined to confide the position to Father Molyneux. When she got to the church in Kensington it was only to find that Father Molyneux had gone away for some days.
That evening the doctor was again summoned, and told Miss Carew that he had now no doubt that Miss Dexter was suffering from influenza, with acute cerebral excitement, and the case was decidedly anxious.
"He might have found out that it was influenza last night," said Miss Carew indignantly, "and I even told him the housemaid had just had influenza! Molly simply caught it from her, as I always thought she would."
BOOK III
CHAPTER XXI
AN INTERLUDE OF HAPPINESS
An interlude of happiness, six weeks of almost uninterrupted enjoyment, followed for Rose after she went on board Sir Edmund"s yacht.
Edmund Grosse had most distinctly made up his mind that during those weeks he would not betray any ulterior motive whatever. They were all to be amused and to be happy. There is no knowing when an interlude of happiness will come in life; it is not enough to make out perfect plans, the best fail us. But sometimes, quite unforeseen, when all the weather signs are contrary, there come intervals of sunshine in our hearts, in spite of any circ.u.mstances and the most uninteresting surroundings.
Harmony is proclaimed for a little while, and we wonder why things were black before, and have to remember that they will be black again. But when such a truce to pain falls in the happiest setting, and the most glorious scenery, then rejoice and be glad, it is a real truce of G.o.d.
So did Rose night by night rejoice without trembling. It wanted much skill on Edmund"s part to ward off any scruples, any moments of consciousness. He showed great self-command, surprising self-discipline in carrying out his tactics. There were moments when their talk had slid into great intimacy, when they were close together in heart and in mind, and he slipped back into the commonplace only just in time. There were moments, especially on the return journey, when he could hardly hide his sense of how gracious and delicious was her presence, how acute her instincts, how quaintly and attractively simple her mind, how big her spiritual outlook. But before she could have more than a suspicion of his thoughts Edmund would make any consciousness seem absurd by a comment on the doings of the very young people on board.
"The child does look happy," he said in his laziest voice one evening when he knew his look had been bent for a rashly long moment on Rose.
"Happy and pretty," he murmured to himself, and he watched his youngest guest with earnestness. Then he sat down near Rose on a low deck-chair, and put away the gla.s.ses he held in his pocket. "I"m not sure I don"t get as much pleasure out of the hazy world I see about me as you long-sighted people do; the colours are marvellous." Rose looked at him in surprise.
"But Edmund, don"t you see more than haze?"
"Oh, yes, I can see a foreground, and then the rest melts away. I don"t know what is meant by a middle distance--that"s why I can"t shoot."
Rose sat up with an eager look on her face. "I never knew that; I only thought you did not care for shooting."
There was a silence of several minutes, and neither looked at the other.
At last Edmund rose and went to the side of the boat and looked over at the water, and then, turning half-way towards her, said: "Why does it startle you so much?"
"Oh, I don"t know."
"But you do know perfectly well."
"Indeed, Edmund." Her face was flushed and her voice a little tremulous.
"You shall tell me." He spoke more imperiously than he knew.
"I can"t, indeed I can"t."
"No," he said; "it would be a difficult thing to say, I admit."
"Couldn"t we read something?" said Rose.
"No, no use at all. I am going to tell you why you are so glad I am short-sighted."