The cook interposed: she had not forgiven the housemaid for calling her a simpleton. "No, Amelia, if you _must_ bring me into it--not busy.
Uneasy in my mind on the subject of the soup."
"I don"t know that your mind makes much difference," Amelia resumed.
"What it comes to is this--it was I, and not you, who went into the kitchen-garden for the vegetables."
"Not by _my_ wish, Heaven knows!" persisted the cook.
"Leave the room!" said Mrs. Bowmore. Even her patience had given way at last.
The cook looked as if she declined to believe her own ears. Mrs. Bowmore pointed to the door. The cook said "Oh?"--accenting it as a question.
Mrs. Bowmore"s finger still pointed. The cook, in solemn silence, yielded to circ.u.mstances, and banged the door.
"I was getting the vegetables, ma"am," Amelia proceeded, "when I heard voices on the other side of the paling. The wood is so old that one can see through the cracks easy enough. I saw my master, and Mr. Linwood, and Captain Bervie. The Captain seemed to have stopped the other two on the pathway that leads to the field; he stood, as it might be, between them and the back way to the house--and he spoke severely, that he did!"
"What did Captain Bervie say?"
"He said these words, ma"am: "For the last time, Mr. Bowmore," says he, "will you understand that you are in danger, and that Mr. Linwood is in danger, unless you both leave this neighborhood to-night?" My master made light of it. "For the last time," says he, "will you refer us to a proof of what you say, and allow us to judge for ourselves?" "I have told you already," says the Captain, "I am bound by my duty toward another person to keep what I know a secret." "Very well," says my master, "_I_ am bound by my duty to my country. And I tell you this,"
says he, in his high and mighty way, "neither Government, nor the spies of Government, dare touch a hair of my head: they know it, sir, for the head of the people"s friend!""
"That"s quite true," said Mrs. Bowmore, still believing in her husband as firmly as ever.
Amelia went on:
"Captain Bervie didn"t seem to think so," she said. "He lost his temper.
"What stuff!" says he; "there"s a Government spy in your house at this moment, disguised as your footman." My master looked at Mr. Linwood, and burst out laughing. "You won"t beat that, Captain," says he, "if you talk till doomsday." He turned about without a word more, and went home.
The Captain caught Mr. Linwood by the arm, as soon as they were alone.
"For G.o.d"s sake," says he, "don"t follow that madman"s example!""
Mrs. Bowmore was shocked. "Did he really call my husband a madman?" she asked.
"He did, indeed, ma"am--and he was in earnest about it, too. "If you value your liberty," he says to Mr. Linwood; "if you hope to become Charlotte"s husband, consult your own safety. I can give you a pa.s.sport.
Escape to France and wait till this trouble is over." Mr. Linwood was not in the best of tempers--Mr. Linwood shook him off. "Charlotte"s father will soon be my father," says he, "do you think I will desert him? My friends at the Club have taken up my claim; do you think I will forsake them at the meeting to-morrow? You ask me to be unworthy of Charlotte, and unworthy of my friends--you insult me, if you say more."
He whipped round on his heel, and followed my master."
"And what did the Captain do?"
"Lifted up his hands, ma"am, to the heavens, and looked--I declare it turned my blood to see him. If there"s truth in mortal man, it"s my firm belief--"
What the housemaid"s belief was, remained unexpressed. Before she could get to her next word, a shriek of horror from the hall announced that the cook"s powers of interruption were not exhausted yet.
Mistress and servant both hurried out in terror of they knew not what.
There stood the cook, alone in the hall, confronting the stand on which the overcoats and hats of the men of the family were placed.
"Where"s the master"s traveling coat?" cried the cook, staring wildly at an unoccupied peg. "And where"s his cap to match! Oh Lord, he"s off in the post-chaise! and the footman"s after him!"
Simpleton as she was, the woman had blundered on a very serious discovery.
Coat and cap--both made after a foreign pattern, and both strikingly remarkable in form and color to English eyes--had unquestionably disappeared. It was equally certain that they were well known to the foot man, whom the Captain had declared to be a spy, as the coat and cap which his master used in traveling. Had Mr. Bowmore discovered (since the afternoon) that he was really in danger? Had the necessities of instant flight only allowed him time enough to s.n.a.t.c.h his coat and cap out of the hall? And had the treacherous manservant seen him as he was making his escape to the post-chaise? The cook"s conclusions answered all these questions in the affirmative--and, if Captain Bervie"s words of warning had been correctly reported, the cook"s conclusion for once was not to be despised.
Under this last trial of her fort.i.tude, Mrs. Bowmore"s feeble reserves of endurance completely gave way. The poor lady turned faint and giddy.
Amelia placed her on a chair in the hall, and told the cook to open the front door, and let in the fresh air.
The cook obeyed; and instantly broke out with a second terrific scream; announcing nothing less, this time, than the appearance of Mr. Bowmore himself, alive and hearty, returning with Percy from the meeting at the Club!
The inevitable inquiries and explanations followed.
Fully a.s.sured, as he had declared himself to be, of the sanct.i.ty of his person (politically speaking), Mr. Bowmore turned pale, nevertheless, when he looked at the unoccupied peg on his clothes stand. Had some man unknown personated him? And had a post-chaise been hired to lead an impending pursuit of him in the wrong direction? What did it mean? Who was the friend to whose services he was indebted? As for the proceedings of the man-servant, but one interpretation could now be placed on them.
They distinctly justified what Captain Bervie had said of him. Mr.
Bowmore thought of the Captain"s other a.s.sertion, relating to the urgent necessity for making his escape; and looked at Percy in silent dismay; and turned paler than ever.
Percy"s thoughts, diverted for the moment only from the lady of his love, returned to her with renewed fidelity. "Let us hear what Charlotte thinks of it," he said. "Where is she?"
It was impossible to answer this question plainly and in few words.
Terrified at the effect which her attempt at explanation produced on Percy, helplessly ignorant when she was called upon to account for her daughter"s absence, Mrs. Bowmore could only shed tears and express a devout trust in Providence. Her husband looked at the new misfortune from a political point of view. He sat down and slapped his forehead theatrically with the palm of his hand. "Thus far," said the patriot, "my political a.s.sailants have only struck at me through the newspapers.
_Now_ they strike at me through my child!"
Percy made no speeches. There was a look in his eyes which boded ill for Captain Bervie if the two met. "I am going to fetch her," was all he said, "as fast as a horse can carry me."
He hired his horse at an inn in the town, and set forth for Justice Bervie"s house at a gallop.
During Percy"s absence, Mr. Bowmore secured the front and back entrances to the cottage with his own hands.
These first precautions taken, he ascended to his room and packed his traveling-bag. "Necessaries for my use in prison," he remarked. "The bloodhounds of Government are after me." "Are they after Percy, too?"
his wife ventured to ask. Mr. Bowmore looked up impatiently, and cried "Pooh!"--as if Percy was of no consequence. Mrs. Bowmore thought otherwise: the good woman privately packed a bag for Percy, in the sanctuary of her own room.
For an hour, and more than an hour, no event of any sort occurred.
Mr. Bowmore stalked up and down the parlor, meditating. At intervals, ideas of flight presented themselves attractively to his mind. At intervals, ideas of the speech that he had prepared for the public meeting on the next day took their place. "If I fly to-night," he wisely observed, "what will become of my speech? I will _not_ fly to-night! The people shall hear me."
He sat down and crossed his arms fiercely. As he looked at his wife to see what effect he had produced on her, the sound of heavy carriage-wheels and the trampling of horses penetrated to the parlor from the garden-gate.
Mr. Bowmore started to his feet, with every appearance of having suddenly altered his mind on the question of flight. Just as he reached the hall, Percy"s voice was heard at the front door. "Let me in.
Instantly! Instantly!"
Mrs. Bowmore drew back the bolts before the servants could help her.
"Where is Charlotte?" she cried; seeing Percy alone on the doorstep.
"Gone!" Percy answered furiously. "Eloped to Paris with Captain Bervie!
Read her own confession. They were just sending the messenger with it, when I reached the house."
He handed a note to Mrs. Bowmore, and turned aside to speak to her husband while she read it. Charlotte wrote to her mother very briefly; promising to explain everything on her return. In the meantime, she had left home under careful protection--she had a lady for her companion on the journey--and she would write again from Paris. So the letter, evidently written in great haste, began and ended.
Percy took Mr. Bowmore to the window, and pointed to a carriage and four horses waiting at the garden-gate.
"Do you come with me, and back me with your authority as her father?" he asked, sternly. "Or do you leave me to go alone?"
Mr. Bowmore was famous among his admirers for his "happy replies." He made one now.