Tom coloured high, and looked very embarra.s.sed. Luckily, the servant here entering with the refreshment-tray allowed him time to recover himself. Kenelm helped him to a liberal slice of cold pigeon-pie, pressed wine on him, and did not renew the subject till he thought his guest"s tongue was likely to be more freely set loose; then he said, laying a friendly hand on Tom"s shoulders, "I have been thinking over what pa.s.sed between me and Miss Travers. I wished to have the new address of Will Somers; she promised to write to his benefactor to ask permission to give it. You are that benefactor?"
"Don"t say benefactor, sir. I will tell how it came about if you will let me. You see, I sold my little place at Graveleigh to the new Squire, and when Mother removed to Lus...o...b.. to be near me, she told me how poor Jessie had been annoyed by Captain Stavers, who seems to think his purchase included the young women on the property along with the standing timber; and I was half afraid that she had given some cause for his persecution, for you know she has a blink of those soft eyes of hers that might charm a wise man out of his skin and put a fool there instead."
"But I hope she has done with those blinks since her marriage."
"Well, and I honestly think she has. It is certain she did not encourage Captain Stavers, for I went over to Graveleigh myself on the sly, and lodged concealed with one of the cottagers who owed me a kindness; and one day, as I was at watch, I saw the Captain peering over the stile which divides Holmwood from the glebe,--you remember Holmwood?"
"I can"t say I do."
"The footway from the village to Squire Travers"s goes through the wood, which is a few hundred yards at the back of Will Somers"s orchard.
Presently the Captain drew himself suddenly back from the stile, and disappeared among the trees, and then I saw Jessie coming from the orchard with a basket over her arm, and walking quick towards the wood.
Then, sir, my heart sank. I felt sure she was going to meet the Captain.
However, I crept along the hedgerow, hiding myself, and got into the wood almost as soon as Jessie got there, by another way. Under the cover of the brushwood I stole on till I saw the Captain come out from the copse on the other side of the path, and plant himself just before Jessie. Then I saw at once I had wronged her. She had not expected to see him, for she hastily turned back, and began to run homeward; but he caught her up, and seized her by the arm. I could not hear what he said, but I heard her voice quite sharp with fright and anger. And then he suddenly seized her round the waist, and she screamed, and I sprang forward--"
"And thrashed the Captain?"
"No, I did not," said Tom; "I had made a vow to myself that I never would be violent again if I could help it. So I took him with one hand by the cuff of the neck, and with the other by the waistband, and just pitched him on a bramble bush,--quite mildly. He soon picked himself up, for he is a dapper little chap, and became very bl.u.s.tering and abusive.
But I kept my temper, and said civilly, "Little gentleman, hard words break no bones; but if ever you molest Mrs. Somers again, I will carry you into her orchard, souse you into the duck-pond there, and call all the villagers to see you scramble out of it again; and I will do it now if you are not off. I dare say you have heard of my name: I am Tom Bowles." Upon that his face, which was before very red, grew very white, and muttering something I did not hear, he walked away.
"Jessie--I mean Mrs. Somers--seemed at first as much frightened at me as she had been at the Captain; and though I offered to walk with her to Miss Travers"s, where she was going with a basket which the young lady had ordered, she refused, and went back home. I felt hurt, and returned to my uncle"s the same evening; and it was not for months that I heard the Captain had been spiteful enough to set up an opposition shop, and that poor Will had been taken ill, and his wife was confined about the same time, and the talk was that they were in distress and might have to be sold up.
"When I heard all this, I thought that after all it was my rough tongue that had so angered the Captain and been the cause of his spite, and so it was my duty to make it up to poor Will and his wife. I did not know how to set about mending matters, but I thought I"d go and talk to Miss Travers; and if ever there was a kind heart in a girl"s breast, hers is one."
"You are right there, I guess. What did Miss Travers say?"
"Nay; I hardly know what she did say, but she set me thinking, and it struck me that Jessie--Mrs. Somers--had better move to a distance, and out of the Captain"s reach, and that Will would do better in a less out-of-the-way place. And then, by good luck, I read in the newspaper that a stationary and a fancywork business, with a circulating library, was to be sold on moderate terms at Moleswich, the other side of London.
So I took the train and went to the place, and thought the shop would just suit these young folks, and not be too much work for either; then I went to Miss Travers, and I had a lot of money lying by me from the sale of the old forge and premises, which I did not know what to do with; and so, to cut short a long story, I bought the business, and Will and his wife are settled at Moleswich, thriving and happy, I hope, sir."
Tom"s voice quivered at the last words, and he turned aside quickly, pa.s.sing his hand over his eyes.
Kenelm was greatly moved.
"And they don"t know what you did for them?"
"To be sure not. I don"t think Will would have let him self be beholden to me. Ah! the lad has a spirit of his own, and Jessie--Mrs.
Somers--would have felt pained and humbled that I should even think of such a thing. Miss Travers managed it all. They take the money as a loan which is to be paid by instalments. They have sent Miss Travers more than one instalment already, so I know they are doing well."
"A loan from Miss Travers?"
"No; Miss Travers wanted to have a share in it, but I begged her not. It made me happy to do what I did all myself; and Miss Travers felt for me and did not press. They perhaps think it is Squire Travers (though he is not a man who would like to say it, for fear it should bring applicants on him), or some other gentleman who takes an interest in them."
"I always said you were a grand fellow, Tom. But you are grander still than I thought you."
"If there be any good in me, I owe it to you, sir. Think what a drunken, violent brute I was when I first met you. Those walks with you, and I may say that other gentleman"s talk, and then that long kind letter I had from you, not signed in your name, and written from abroad,--all these changed me, as the child is changed at nurse."
"You have evidently read a good deal since we parted."
"Yes; I belong to our young men"s library and inst.i.tute; and when of an evening I get hold of a book, especially a pleasant story-book, I don"t care for other company."
"Have you never seen any other girl you could care for, and wish to marry?"
"Ah, sir," answered Tom, "a man does not go so mad for a girl as I did for Jessie Wiles, and when it is all over, and he has come to his senses, put his heart into joint again as easily as if it were only a broken leg. I don"t say that I may not live to love and to marry another woman: it is my wish to do so. But I know that I shall love Jessie to my dying day; but not sinfully, sir,--not sinfully. I would not wrong her by a thought."
There was a long pause.
At last Kenelm said, "You promised to be kind to that little girl with the flower-ball; what has become of her?"
"She is quite well, thank you, sir. My aunt has taken a great fancy to her, and so has my mother. She comes to them very often of an evening, and brings her work with her. A quick, intelligent little thing, and full of pretty thoughts. On Sundays, if the weather is fine, we stroll out together in the fields."
"She has been a comfort to you, Tom."
"Oh, yes."
"And loves you?"
"I am sure she does; an affectionate, grateful child."
"She will be a woman soon, Tom, and may love you as a woman then."
Tom looked indignant and rather scornful at that suggestion, and hastened to revert to the subject more immediately at his heart.
"Miss Travers said you would like to call on Will Somers and his wife; will you? Moleswich is not far from London, you know."
"Certainly, I will call."
"I do hope you will find them happy; and if so, perhaps you will kindly let me know; and--and--I wonder whether Jessie"s child is like her? It is a boy; somehow or other I would rather it had been a girl."
"I will write you full particulars. But why not come with me?"
"No, I don"t think I could do that, just at present. It unsettled me sadly when I did again see her sweet face at Graveleigh, and she was still afraid of me too! that was a sharp pang."
"She ought to know what you have done for her, and will."
"On no account, sir; promise me that. I should feel mean if I humbled them,--that way."
"I understand, though I will not as yet make you any positive promise.
Meanwhile, if you are staying in town, lodge with me; my landlady can find you a room."
"Thank you heartily, sir; but I go back by the evening train; and, bless me! how late it is now! I must wish you good-by. I have some commissions to do for my aunt, and I must buy a new doll for Susey."
"Susey is the name of the little girl with the flower-ball?"
"Yes. I must run off now; I feel quite light at heart seeing you again and finding that you receive me still so kindly, as if we were equals."
"Ah, Tom, I wish I was your equal,--nay, half as n.o.ble as Heaven has made you!"
Tom laughed incredulously, and went his way.
"This mischievous pa.s.sion of love," said Kenelm to himself, "has its good side, it seems, after all. If it was nearly making a wild beast of that brave fellow,--nay, worse than wild beast, a homicide doomed to the gibbet,--so, on the other hand, what a refined, delicate, chivalrous nature of gentleman it has developed out of the stormy elements of its first madness! Yes, I will go and look at this new-married couple. I dare say they are already snarling and spitting at each other like cat and dog. Moleswich is within reach of a walk."