"It is a power I never heard of before, sir. We have a parson, down our way, who tells us every Sunday the world"s coming to an end. I think it must be. I know it"s getting too clever for me to understand. If a man has the misfortune (perhaps after years of struggling that n.o.body knows anything about but himself) to break up at last, he goes into the country"s _Gazette_ in a straightforward manner, and the public read it over their breakfast-tables, and there"s nothing underhand about it. But as to this other thing--if I comprehend the matter rightly--Blair did not as much as know of its existence, or that his name was going into it."
"I am sure he did not; or I, either," said Mr. Lockett.
"I should like its meaning explained, then," cried the Squire, getting hotter and angrier. "Is it a fair, upright, honest thing; or is it a sort of Spanish Inquisition?"
"I cannot tell you," answered the parson, as they both stood still.
"Mr. Blair was informed by the father of one of his pupils that he believed the sheet was first of all set up as a speculation, and was found to answer so well that it became quite an inst.i.tution. I do not know whether this is true."
"I have heard of an inst.i.tution for idiots, but I never heard of one for selling up men"s chairs and tables," stormed the Squire. "No, sir, and I don"t believe it now. I might take up my standing to-morrow on the top of the Monument, and say to the public, "Here I am, and I"ll ferret out what I can about you, and whisper it to one another of you;" and so bring a serpent"s trail on the unsuspecting heads, and altogether play Old Gooseberry with the crowds below me. Do you suppose, sir, the Lord Chancellor would wink his eye at me, stuck aloft there at my work, and would tolerate such a spectacle?"
"I fear the Lord Chancellor has not much to do with it," said Mr.
Lockett, smiling at the Squire"s random logic.
"Then suppose we say good men--public opinion--commercial justice and honour? Come!"
He shook the frail railings, on which his hand was resting, until they nearly came to grief. Mr. Lockett related the particulars of the transaction from the beginning; the original debt, which Blair was suddenly called upon to pay off, and the contraction of the one to Gavity. He said that he himself had had as much to do with it as Blair, in the capacity of friend and adviser, and felt almost as though he were responsible for the turn affairs had taken; which had caused him scarcely to enjoy an easy moment since. The Squire began to abuse Gavity, but Mr. Lockett said the man did not appear to have had any ill intention. As to his having sold off the goods--if he had not sold them, the landlord would have done so.
"And what"s Blair doing now?" asked Mr. Todhetley.
"Battling with illness for his life," said the clergyman. "I have just been praying with him."
The Squire retreated towards the lamp-post, as if some one had given him a blow. Mr. Lockett explained further.
It was in September that they had left their home. His own lodging and the church of which he was curate were in Paddington, and he found rooms for Blair and his wife in the same neighbourhood--two parlours in Difford"s Buildings. Blair (who had lost heart so terribly as to be good for little) spared no time or exertion in seeking for something to do.
He tried to get into King"s College; they liked his appearance and testimonials, but at present had no vacancy: he tried private schools for an ushership, but did did not get one: nothing seemed to be vacant just then. Then he tried for a clerk"s place. Day after day, ill or well, rain or fine, feasting or fasting, he went tramping about London streets. At last, one of those who had had sons at his school, gave him some out-door employment--that of making known a new invention and soliciting customers for it from shop to shop: Blair to be paid on commission. Naturally, he did not let weather hinder him, and would come home to Difford"s Buildings at night, wet through. There had been a great deal of rain in November and December. But he got wet once too often, and was attacked with rheumatic fever. The fever was better now; but the weakness it had left was dangerous.
"She did not say anything about this in her letter," interrupted the Squire resentfully, when Mr. Lockett had explained so far.
"Blair told her not to do so. He thought if their position were revealed to the friends who had once shown themselves so kind, it might look almost like begging for help again."
"Blair"s a fool!" roared the Squire.
"Mrs. Blair has not made the worst of it to her family in Wales. It would only distress them, she says, for they could not help her. Mr.
Sanker has been ill again for some time past, has not been allowed, I believe, to draw his full salary, and there"s no doubt they want every penny of their means for themselves; and more too."
"How have they lived here?" asked the Squire, as we went slowly back to the gate.
"Blair earned a little while he could get about; and his wife has been enabled to procure some kind of wool-work from a warehouse in the city, which pays her very well," said the clergyman, dropping his voice to a whisper, as if he feared to be overheard. "Unfortunately there"s the baby to take up much of her time. It was born in October, soon after they came there."
"And I should like to know what business there has to be a baby?" cried the Squire, who was like a man off his head. "Couldn"t the baby have waited for a more convenient season?"
"It might have been better; it is certainly a troublesome, crying little thing," said the parson. "Yes, you can go straight in: the parlour door is on the right. I have a service this evening at seven, and shall be late for it. This is your son, I presume, sir?"
"My son! law bless you! My son is a strapping young fellow, six feet two in his stockings. This is Johnny Ludlow."
He shook hands pleasantly, and was good enough to say he had heard of me. The Squire went on, and I with him. There was no lamp in the pa.s.sage, and we had to feel on the right for the parlour door.
"Come in," called out Mary, in answer to the knock. I knew her voice again.
We can"t help our thoughts. Things come into the mind without leave or licence; and it is no use saying they ought not to, or asking why they do. Nearly opposite the door in the small room was the fireplace. Mary Blair sat on a low stool before it, doing some work with coloured wools with a big hooked needle, a baby in white lying flat on her lap, and the little chap, Joe, sitting at her feet. All in a moment it put me in mind of Mrs. Lease, sitting on her stool before the fire that day long ago (though in point of fact, as I discovered afterwards, hers had been a bucket turned upside down) with the sick child on her lap, and the other little ones round her. Why this, to-night, should have reminded me of that other, I cannot say, but it did; and in the light of an omen. You must ridicule me if you choose: it is not my fault; and I am telling nothing but the truth. Lease had died. Would Pyefinch Blair die?
The Squire went in gingerly, as if he had been treading on ploughshares.
The candle stood on the mantel-piece, a table was pushed back under the window. Altogether the room was poor, and a small saucepan simmered on the hob. Mary turned her head, and rose up with a flushed face, letting the work fall on the baby"s white nightgown, as she held out her hand.
Little Joe, a st.u.r.dy fellow in a scarlet frock, with big brown eyes, backed against the wall by the fireplace and stood staring, Lena"s doll held safely under his pinafore.
She lost her presence of mind. The Squire was the veriest old stupid, when he wanted to make-believe, that you"d see in a winter"s day. He began saying something about "happening to be in town, and so called."
But he broke down, and blurted out the truth. "We"ve come to see after you, my dear; and to learn what all this trouble means."
And then _she_ broke down. Perhaps it was the sight of us, recalling the old time at d.y.k.e Manor, when the future looked so fair and happy; perhaps it was the mention of the trouble. She put her hands before her face, and the tears rained through her fingers.
"Shut the door, will you, Johnny," she whispered. "Very softly."
It was the other door she pointed to, one at the end of the room, and I closed it without noise. Except for a sob now and again, that she kept down as well as she could, the grief pa.s.sed away. Young Joe, frightened at matters, suddenly went at her, full b.u.t.t, and hid his eyes in her petticoats with a roar. I took him on my knee and got him round again.
Somehow children are never afraid of me. The Squire rubbed his old red nose, and said he had a cold.
But, was she not altered! Now that the flush had faded, and emotion pa.s.sed, the once sweet, fresh, blooming face stood out in its reality.
Sweet, indeed, it was still; but the bloom and freshness had given place to a haggard look, and to dark circles round the soft brown eyes, weary now.
She had no more to tell of the past calamities than her letter and Mr.
Lockett had told. _Jerry"s Gazette_ was the sore point with the Squire, but she did not seem to understand it better than we did.
"I want to know one thing," said he, quite fiercely. "How did _Jerry"s Gazette_ get at the transaction between your husband and Gavity? Did Gavity go to it, open-mouthed, with the news?"
Mary did not know. She had heard something about a register--that the bill of sale had to be registered somewhere, and thought _Jerry"s Gazette_ might have obtained the information from that source.
"Heaven bless us all!" cried the Squire. "Can"t a man borrow a bit of money but it must become known to his enemies, if he has any, bringing them down upon him like a pack of hounds in full cry? This used to be the freest land on earth."
The baby began to scream. She put down the wool-work, and hushed it to her. I am sure the Squire had half a mind to tell her to give it a gentle shaking. He looked upon screaming babies as natural enemies: the truth is, with all his abuse, he was afraid of them.
"Has it got a name?" he asked gruffly.
"Yes--Mary: he wished it," she said, glancing at the door. "I thought we should have to call it Polly, in contradistinction to mine."
Polly! That was another coincidence. Lease"s eldest girl was Polly. And what made her speak of things in the past tense? She caught me looking at her; caught, I fancy, the fear on my face. I told her hurriedly that little Joe must be a Dutchman, for not a word could I understand of the tale he was whispering about his doll.
What with Mary"s work, and the little earned by Blair while he was about, they had not wanted for necessaries in a plain way. I suppose Lockett took care they should not do so: but he was only a curate.
The baby needed its supper, to judge by the squealing. Mary poured the contents of the saucepan--some thin gruel--into a saucer, and began feeding the little mite by teaspoonfuls, putting each one to her own lips first to test it.
"That"s poor stuff," cried the Squire, in a half-pitying, half-angry tone, his mind divided between resentment against babies in general and sympathy with this one. As the baby was there, of course it had to be fed, but what he wanted to know was, why it need have come just when trouble was about. When put out, he had no reason at all. Mrs. Blair suddenly turned her face towards the end door, listening; and we heard a faint voice calling "Mary."
"Joe, dear, go and tell papa that I will be with him in one minute."
The little chap slid down, giving me his doll to nurse, and went pattering across the carpet, standing on tiptoe to open the door. The Squire said he should like to go in and see Blair. Mary went on first to warn him of our advent.
My goodness! _That_ Pyefinch Blair, who used to flourish his cane, and c.o.c.k it over us boys at Frost"s! I should never have known him for the same.
He lay in bed, too weak to raise his head from the pillow, the white skin drawn tightly over his hollow features; the cheeks slightly flushing as he watched us coming. And again I thought of Lease; for the same look was on this face that had been on his when he was dying.