Lady Audley shuddered, and clung with convulsive fingers to the strong hand that had rested caressingly upon her shoulder.
"What did he say, Lucy?"
"Oh, my dear love, how can I tell you?" cried my lady. "I know that I shall distress you--or you will laugh at me, and then--"
"Laugh at you? no, Lucy."
Lady Audley was silent for a moment. She sat looking straight before her into the fire, with her fingers still locked about her husband"s hand.
"My dear," she said, slowly, hesitating now and then between her words, as if she almost shrunk from uttering them, "have you ever--I am so afraid of vexing you--have you ever thought Mr. Audley a little--a little--"
"A little what, my darling?"
"A little out of his mind?" faltered Lady Audley.
"Out of his mind!" cried Sir Michael. "My dear girl, what are you thinking of?"
"You said just now, dear, that you thought he was half mad."
"Did I, my love?" said the baronet, laughing. "I don"t remember saying it, and it was a mere _facon de parler_, that meant nothing whatever.
Robert may be a little eccentric--a little stupid, perhaps--he mayn"t be overburdened with wits, but I don"t think he has brains enough for madness. I believe it"s generally your great intellects that get out of order."
"But madness is sometimes hereditary," said my lady. "Mr. Audley may have inherited--"
"He has inherited no madness from his father"s family," interrupted Sir Michael. "The Audleys have never peopled private lunatic asylums or feed mad doctors."
"Nor from his mother"s family?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"People generally keep these things a secret," said my lady, gravely.
"There may have been madness in your sister-in-law"s family."
"I don"t think so, my dear," replied Sir Michael. "But, Lucy, tell me what, in Heaven"s name, has put this idea into your head."
"I have been trying to account for your nephew"s conduct. I can account for it in no other manner. If you had heard the things he said to me to-night, Sir Michael, you too might have thought him mad."
"But what did he say, Lucy?"
"I can scarcely tell you. You can see how much he has stupefied and bewildered me. I believe he has lived too long alone in those solitary Temple chambers. Perhaps he reads too much, or smokes too much. You know that some physicians declare madness to be a mere illness of the brain--an illness to which any one is subject, and which may be produced by given causes, and cured by given means."
Lady Audley"s eyes were still fixed upon the burning coals in the wide grate. She spoke as if she had been discussing a subject that she had often heard discussed before. She spoke as if her mind had almost wandered away from the thought of her husband"s nephew to the wider question of madness in the abstract.
"Why should he not be mad?" resumed my lady. "People are insane for years and years before their insanity is found out. _They_ know that they are mad, but they know how to keep their secret; and, perhaps, they may sometimes keep it till they die. Sometimes a paroxysm seizes them, and in an evil hour they betray themselves. They commit a crime, perhaps. The horrible temptation of opportunity a.s.sails them; the knife is in their hand, and the unconscious victim by their side. They may conquer the restless demon and go away and die innocent of any violent deed; but they _may_ yield to the horrible temptation--the frightful, pa.s.sionate, hungry craving for violence and horror. They sometimes yield and are lost."
Lady Audley"s voice rose as she argued this dreadful question, The hysterical excitement from which she had only just recovered had left its effects upon her, but she controlled herself, and her tone grew calmer as she resumed:
"Robert Audley is mad," she said, decisively. "What is one of the strangest diagnostics of madness--what is the first appalling sign of mental aberration? The mind becomes stationary; the brain stagnates; the even current of reflection is interrupted; the thinking power of the brain resolves itself into a monotone. As the waters of a tideless pool putrefy by reason of their stagnation, the mind becomes turbid and corrupt through lack of action; and the perpetual reflection upon one subject resolves itself into monomania. Robert Audley is a monomaniac.
The disappearance of his friend, George Talboys, grieved and bewildered him. He dwelt upon this one idea until he lost the power of thinking of anything else. The one idea looked at perpetually became distorted to his mental vision. Repeat the commonest word in the English language twenty times, and before the twentieth repet.i.tion you will have begun to wonder whether the word which you repeat is really the word you mean to utter. Robert Audley has thought of his friend"s disappearance until the one idea has done its fatal and unhealthy work. He looks at a common event with a vision that is diseased, and he distorts it into a gloomy horror engendered of his own monomania. If you do not want to make me as mad as he is, you must never let me see him again. He declared to-night that George Talboys was murdered in this place, and that he will root up every tree in the garden, and pull down every brick in the house in search for--"
My lady paused. The words died away upon her lips. She had exhausted herself by the strange energy with which she had spoken. She had been transformed from a frivolous, childish beauty into a woman, strong to argue her own cause and plead her own defense.
"Pull down this house?" cried the baronet. "George Talboys murdered at Audley Court! Did Robert say this, Lucy?"
"He said something of that kind--something that frightened me very much."
"Then he must be mad," said Sir Michael, gravely. "I"m bewildered by what you tell me. Did he really say this, Lucy, or did you misunderstand him?"
"I--I--don"t think I did," faltered my lady. "You saw how frightened I was when I first came in. I should not have been so much agitated if he hadn"t said something horrible."
Lady Audley had availed herself of the very strongest arguments by which she could help her cause.
"To be sure, my darling, to be sure," answered the baronet. "What could have put such a horrible fancy into the unhappy boy"s head. This Mr.
Talboys--a perfect stranger to all of us--murdered at Audley Court!
I"ll go to Mount Stanning to-night, and see Robert. I have known him ever since he was a baby, and I cannot be deceived in him. If there is really anything wrong, he will not be able to conceal it from me."
My lady shrugged her shoulders.
"That is rather an open question," she said. "It is generally a stranger who is the first to observe any psychological peculiarity."
The big words sounded strange from my lady"s rosy lips; but her newly-adopted wisdom had a certain quaint prettiness about it, which charmed and bewildered her husband.
"But you must not go to Mount Stanning, my dear darling," she said, tenderly. "Remember that you are under strict orders to stay in doors until the weather is milder, and the sun shines upon this cruel ice-bound country."
Sir Michael Audley sank back in his capacious chair with a sigh of resignation.
"That"s true, Lucy," he said; "we must obey Mr. Dawson. I suppose Robert will come to see me to-morrow."
"Yes, dear. I think he said he would."
"Then we must wait till to-morrow, my darling. I can"t believe that there really is anything wrong with the poor boy--I can"t believe it, Lucy."
"Then how do you account for this extraordinary delusion about this Mr.
Talboys?" asked my lady.
Sir Michael shook his head.
"I don"t know, Lucy--I don"t know," he answered. "It is always so difficult to believe that any one of the calamities that continually befall our fellow-men will ever happen to us. I can"t believe that my nephew"s mind is impaired--I can"t believe it. I--I"ll get him to stop here, Lucy, and I"ll watch him closely. I tell you, my love, if there is anything wrong I am sure to find it out. I can"t be mistaken in a young man who has always been the same to me as my own son. But, my darling, why were you so frightened by Robert"s wild talk? It could not affect you."
My lady sighed piteously.
"You must think me very strong-minded, Sir Michael," she said, with rather an injured air, "if you imagine I can hear of these sort of things indifferently. I know I shall never be able to see Mr. Audley again."
"And you shall not, my dear--you shall not."
"You said just now you would have him here," murmured Lady Audley.
"But I will not, my darling girl, if his presence annoys you. Good Heaven! Lucy, can you imagine for a moment that I have any higher wish than to promote your happiness? I will consult some London physician about Robert, and let him discover if there is really anything the matter with my poor brother"s only son. _You_ shall not be annoyed, Lucy."