"Three or four days after it happened, sir, Mr. Carstairs stopped my waiting on him again. I think it was through Mr. Richardson. Mr.
Carstairs had refused to go out with him the evening it occurred."
"You knew Mr. Carstairs before he came to Oxford. Where was it?"
"It was----" he hesitated, and then went on. "It was at the school he was at in London, sir. I was a junior master there."
Letting a plate fall--for I was helping to pack them, wanting the table--I stared at the fellow. "A master there and----" and a servant here, I all but said, but I stopped the words.
"Only one of the outer masters, attending daily," he went on quietly.
"I taught writing and arithmetic, and English to the juniors."
"But how comes it that you are here in this post, Charley?"
"I had reasons for wishing to come to live at Oxford, sir."
"But why not have sought out something better than this?"
"I did seek, sir. But nothing of the kind was to be had, and this place offered. There"s many a one, sir, falls into the wrong post in life, and can never afterwards get into the right one."
"But--do you--like this?"
"_Like_ it, sir; no! But I make a living at it. One thing I shall be always grateful to Mr. Carstairs for: that he did not mention where he had known me. I should not like it to be talked of in the college, especially by Mr. Richardson."
He disappeared with his tray as he spoke. It sounded quite mysterious.
But I took the hint, and said nothing.
The matter pa.s.sed. Charley did not put on any mentorship to us, and the more we saw of him the more we liked him. But an impression gradually dawned upon us that he was not strong enough for his place. Carrying a heavy tray upstairs would set him panting like an old man, and he could not run far or fast.
One day I was hard at work, Tod and Whitney being off somewhere, driving tandem, when a queer, ugly-sounding cough kept annoying me from outside: but whether it came from dog or man I could not tell. Opening the door at last, there sat Charley on the stairs, his head resting against the wall, and his cheeks brighter than a red leaf in autumn.
"What, is it you, Charley? Where did you pick up that cough?"
"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, starting up. "I thought your rooms were empty."
"Come in till the fit"s over. You are in a regular draught there. Come along," for he hesitated--"I want to shut the door."
He came in, coughing finely, and I gave him the chair by the fire. It was nothing, he said, and would soon be gone. He had caught it a day or two back in the bleak east wind: the college was draughty, and he had to be on the run out-of-doors in all sorts of weather.
"Well, you know, Charley, putting east winds and draughts aside, you don"t seem to be quite up to your work here in point of strength."
"I was up to it, sir, when I took it. It"s a failing in some of our family, sir, to have weak lungs. I shall be all right again, soon."
The coughing was over, and he got up to go away, evidently not liking to intrude. There was a degree of sensitiveness about him that, of itself, might have shown he was superior to his position.
"Take a good jorum of treacle-posset, Charley, at bed-time."
Spring weather came in with February. The biting cold and snow of January disappeared, and genial sunshine warmed the earth again. The first Sunday in this same February month, from my place at morning service, looking out on the townsfolk who had come in with orders, I saw a lady, very little and pretty, staring fixedly at me from afar. The face--where had I seen her face? It seemed familiar, but I could not tell how or where I had known it. A small slight face of almost an ivory white, and wide-open light blue eyes that had plenty of confidence in them.
Sophie Chalk! I should have recognized her at the first moment but for the different mode in which her hair was dressed. Wonderful hair! A vast amount of it, and made the most of. She wore it its natural colour to-day, brown, and the red tinge on it shone like burnished gold. She knew me; that was certain; and I could not help watching her. Her eyes went roving away presently, possibly in search of Tod. I stole a glance at him; but he did not appear to see her. What brought her to Oxford?
We got out of church. I took care to hold my tongue. Tod had cared for Sophie Chalk--there could be little doubt of it--as one never cares for anybody again in life: and it might be just as well--in spite of the expose of mademoiselle"s false ways and misdoings--that they did not meet. Syrens are syrens all the world over.
The day went on to a bright moonlight night. Tod and I, out for a stroll, were standing within the shade of the fine old Magdalen Tower, talking to a fellow of Trinity, when there came up a lady of delicate presence, the flowers in her bonnet exhaling a faint odour of perfume.
"I _think_ I am not mistaken--I am sure--yes, I _am_ sure it is Mr.
Ludlow. And--surely that cannot be Mr. Todhetley?"
Tod wheeled round at the soft, false voice. The daintily gloved hand was held out to him; the fair, false face was bent close: and his own face turned red and white with emotion. I saw it even in the shade of the moonlight. Had she been strolling about to look for us? Most likely. A few moments more, and we were all three walking onwards together.
"Only fancy my position!" she gaily said. "Here am I, all forlorn, set down alone in this great town, and must take care of myself as I best can. The formidable gowns and caps frighten me."
"The gowns and caps will do you no harm--Miss Chalk," cried Tod--and he only just saved himself from saying "Sophie."
"Do you think not," she returned, touching the sleeve of her velvet jacket, as if to brush off a fly. "But I beg you will accord me my due style and t.i.tle, Mr. Todhetley, and honour me accordingly. I am no longer Miss Chalk. I am Mrs. Everty."
So she had married Mr. Everty after all! She minced along between us in her silk gown, her hands in her ermine m.u.f.f that looked made for a doll.
At the private door of a shop in High Street she halted, rang the bell, and threw the door open.
"You will walk up and take a cup of tea with me. Nay, but you must--or I shall think you want to hold yourselves above poor little me, now you are grand Oxford men."
She went along the pa.s.sage and up the stairs: there seemed no resource but to follow. In the sitting-room, which was very well furnished and looked out upon the street, a fire burned brightly; and a lamp and tea-things stood on the table.
"Where have you been?--keeping me waiting for my tea in this way! You never think of any one but yourself: never."
The querulous complaint, and thin, shrill voice came from a small dark girl who sat at the window, peering out into the lighted street. I had not forgotten the sharp-featured sallow face and the deep-set eyes. It was Mabel Smith, the poor little lame and deformed girl I had seen in Torriana Square. She really did not look much older or bigger, and she spoke as abruptly as ever.
"I remember you, Johnny Ludlow."
Mrs. Everty made the tea. Her dress, white one way, green the other, gleamed like silver in the lamplight. It had a quant.i.ty of white lace upon it: light green ribbons were twisted in her hair. "I should think it would be better to have those curtains drawn, Mabel. Your tea"s ready: if you will come to it."
"But I choose to have the curtains open and I"ll take my tea here,"
answered Mabel. "You may be going out again for hours, and what company should I have but the street? I don"t like to be shut up in a strange room: I might see ghosts. Johnny Ludlow, that"s a little coffee-table by the wall: if you"ll put it here it will hold my cup and saucer."
I put it near her with her tea and plate of bread-and-b.u.t.ter.
"Won"t you sit by me? I am very lonely. Those other two can talk to one another."
So I carried my cup and sat down by Mabel. The "other two," as Mabel put it, were talking and laughing. Tod was taking a lesson in tea-making from her, and she called him awkward.
"Are you living here?" I asked of Mabel under cover of the noise.
"Living here! no," she replied in her old abrupt fashion. "Do you think papa would let me be living over a shop in Oxford? My grandmamma lives near the town, and she invited me down on a visit to her. There was no one to bring me, and she said _she_ would"--indicating Sophie--"and we came yesterday. Well, would you believe it? Grandmamma had meant _next_ Sat.u.r.day, and she could not take us in, having visitors already. I wanted to go back home; but she said she liked the look of Oxford, and she took these rooms for a week. Two guineas without fires and other extras: I call it dear. How came she to find you out, Johnny?"
"We met just now. She tells us she is Mrs. Everty now."
"Oh yes, they are married. And a nice bargain Mr. Everty has in her! Her dresses must cost twenty pounds apiece. Some of them _thirty_ pounds!
Look at the lace on that one. Mrs. Smith, papa"s wife, gives her a good talking-to sometimes, telling her Mr. Everty"s income won"t stand it.