"You had better read it, perhaps, as I have heard your name mentioned, I know not how properly, with that of the young lord."
Then the Quaker, bringing his spectacles down from his forehead over his eyes, slowly read the paragraph. As he did so Mr. Pogson looked at him carefully. But the Quaker showed very little emotion by his face. "Does it concern you, Zachary?"
"I know the young man, Mr. Pogson. Though he be much out of my own rank, circ.u.mstances have brought him to my notice. I shall be grieved if this be true. With thy permission, Mr. Pogson, I will lock up my desk and return home at once." To this Mr. Pogson of course a.s.sented, recommending the Quaker to put the newspaper into his pocket.
Zachary Fay, as he walked to the spot where he was wont to find the omnibus, considered much as to what he might best do when he reached home. Should he tell the sad tidings to his girl, or should he leave her to hear it when further time should have confirmed the truth.
To Zachary himself it seemed too probable that it should be true.
Hunting to him, in his absolute ignorance of what hunting meant, seemed to be an occupation so full of danger that the wonder was that the hunting world had not already been exterminated. And then there was present to him a feeling, as there is to so many of us, that the grand thing which Fortune seemed to offer him was too good to be true. It could hardly be that he should live to see his daughter the mother of a future British peer! He had tried to school himself not to wish it, telling himself that such wishes were vain, and such longings wicked; he had said much to himself as to the dangers of rank and t.i.tles and wealth for those who were not born to them. He had said something also of that family tragedy which had robbed his own life of most of its joys, and which seemed to have laid so heavy a burden on his girl"s spirit. Going backwards and forwards morning and evening to his work, he had endeavoured to make his own heart acknowledge that the marriage was not desirable; but he had failed;--and had endeavoured to reconcile the failure to his conscience by telling himself falsely that he as a father had been anxious only for the welfare of his child. Now he felt the blow terribly on her account, feeling sure that his girl"s heart had been given to the young man; but he felt it also on his own. It might be, nevertheless, that the report would prove untrue. Had the matter been one in which he was not himself so deeply interested, he would certainly have believed it to be untrue, he being a man by his nature not p.r.o.ne to easy belief. It would, however, be wiser, he said to himself as he left the omnibus at the "d.u.c.h.ess of Edinburgh," to say nothing as yet to Marion. Then he put the paper carefully into his breast coat pocket, and considered how he might best hide his feelings as to the sad news. But all this was in vain. The story had already found its way down to Paradise Row. Mrs. Demijohn was as greedy of news as her neighbours, and would generally send round the corner for a halfpenny evening journal. On this occasion she did so, and within two minutes of the time in which the paper had been put into her hands exclaimed to her niece almost with ecstasy, "Clara, what do you think? That young lord who comes here to see Marion Fay has gone and got himself killed out hunting."
"Lord Hampstead!" shouted Clara. "Got himself killed! Laws, aunt, I can"t believe it!" In her tone, also, there was something almost of exultation. The glory that had been supposed to be awaiting Marion Fay was almost too much for the endurance of any neighbour. Since it had become an ascertained fact that Lord Hampstead had admired the girl, Marion"s popularity in the Row had certainly decreased.
Mrs. Duffer believed her no longer to be handsome; Clara had always thought her to be pert; Mrs. Demijohn had expressed her opinion that the man was an idiot; and the landlady at the "d.u.c.h.ess of Edinburgh"
had wittily a.s.serted that "young marquises were not to be caught with chaff." There was no doubt a sense of relief in Clara Demijohn"s mind when she heard that this special young marquis had been trampled to death in the hunting field, and carried home a corpse.
"I must go and tell the poor girl," said Clara, immediately.
"Leave it alone," said the old woman. "There will be plenty to tell her, let alone you." But such occasions occur so rarely that it does not do not to take advantage of them. In ordinary life events are so unfrequent, and when they do arrive they give such a flavour of salt to hours which are generally tedious, that sudden misfortunes come as G.o.dsends,--almost even when they happen to ourselves. Even a funeral gives a tasteful break to the monotony of our usual occupations, and small-pox in the next street is a gratifying excitement. Clara soon got possession of the newspaper, and with it in her hand ran across the street to No. 17. Miss Fay was at Home, and in a minute or two came down to Miss Demijohn in the parlour.
It was only during the minute or two that Clara began to think how she should break the tidings to her friend, or in any way to realize the fact that the "tidings" would require breaking. She had rushed across the street with the important paper in her hand, proud of the fact that she had something great to tell. But during that minute or two it did occur to her that a choice of words was needed for such an occasion. "Oh, Miss Fay," she said, "have you heard?"
"Heard what?" asked Marion.
"I do not know how to tell you, it is so terrible! I have only just seen it in the newspaper, and have thought it best to run over and let you know."
"Has anything happened to my father?" asked the girl.
"It isn"t your father. This is almost more dreadful, because he is so young." Then that bright pink hue spread itself over Marion"s face; but she stood speechless with her features almost hardened by the resolution which she had already formed within her not to betray the feelings of her heart before this other girl. The news, let it be what it might, must be of him! There was no one else "so young," of whom it was probable that this young woman would speak to her after this fashion. She stood silent, motionless, conveying nothing of her feelings by her face,--unless one might have read something from the deep flush of her complexion. "I don"t know how to say it," said Clara Demijohn. "There; you had better take the paper and read for yourself. It"s in the last column but one near the bottom. "Fatal Accident in the Field!" You"ll see it."
Marion took the paper, and read the words through without faltering or moving a limb. Why would not the cruel young woman go and leave her to her sorrow? Why did she stand there looking at her, as though desirous to probe to the bottom the sad secret of her bosom? She kept her eyes still fixed upon the paper, not knowing where else to turn them,--for she would not look into her tormentor"s face for pity.
"Ain"t it sad?" said Clara Demijohn.
Then there came a deep sigh. "Sad," she said, repeating the word; "sad! Yes, it"s sad. I think, if you don"t mind, I"ll ask you to leave me now. Oh, yes; there"s the newspaper."
"Perhaps you"d like to keep it for your father." Here Marion shook her head. "Then I"ll take it back to aunt. She"s hardly looked at it yet. When she came to the paragraph, of course, she read it out; and I wouldn"t let her have any peace till she gave it me to bring over."
"I wish you"d leave me," said Marion Fay.
Then with a look of mingled surprise and anger she left the room, and returned across the street to No. 10. "She doesn"t seem to me to care a straw about it," said the niece to her aunt; "but she got up just as highty tighty as usual and asked me to go away."
When the Quaker came to the door, and opened it with his latch-key, Marion was in the pa.s.sage ready to receive him. Till she had heard the sound of the lock she had not moved from the room, hardly from the position, in which the other girl had left her. She had sunk into a chair which had been ready for her, and there she had remained thinking over it. "Father," she said, laying her hand upon his arm as she went to meet him, and looking up into his face;--"father?"
"My child!"
"Have you heard any tidings in the City?"
"Have you heard any, Marion?"
"Is it true then?" she said, seizing both his arms as though to support her.
"Who knows? Who can say that it be true till further tidings shall come? Come in, Marion. It is not well that we should discuss it here."
"Is it true? Oh, father;--oh, father; it will kill me."
"Nay, Marion, not that. After all, the lad was little more than a stranger to thee."
"A stranger?"
"How many weeks is it since first thou saw"st him? And how often?
But two or three times. I am sorry for him;--if it be true; if it be true! I liked him well."
"But I have loved him."
"Nay, Marion, nay; thou shouldst moderate thyself."
"I will not moderate myself." Then she disengaged herself from his arm. "I loved him,--with all my heart, and all my strength; nay, with my whole soul. If it be so as that paper says, then I must die too.
Oh, father, is it true, think you?"
He paused a while before he answered, examining himself what it might be best that he should say as to her welfare. As for himself, he hardly knew what he believed. These papers were always in search of paragraphs, and would put in the false and true alike,--the false perhaps the sooner, so as to please the taste of their readers. But if it were true, then how bad would it be to give her false hopes!
"There need be no ground to despair," he said, "till we shall hear again in the morning."
"I know he is dead."
"Not so, Marion. Thou canst know nothing. If thou wilt bear thyself like a strong-hearted girl, as thou art, I will do this for thee.
I will go across to the young lord"s house at Hendon at once, and inquire there as to his safety. They will surely know if aught of ill has happened to their master."
So it was done. The poor old man, after his long day"s labour, without waiting for his evening meal, taking only a crust with him in his pocket, got into a cab on that cold November evening, and had himself driven by suburban streets and lanes to Hendon Hall. Here the servants were much surprised and startled by the inquiries made. They had heard nothing. Lord Hampstead and his sister were expected home on the following day. Dinner was to be prepared for them, and fires had already been lighted in the rooms. "Dead!" "Killed out hunting!"
"Trodden to death in the field!" Not a word of it had reached Hendon Hall. Nevertheless the housekeeper, when the paragraph was shown to her, believed every word of it. And the servants believed it. Thus the poor Quaker returned home with but very little comfort.
Marion"s condition during that night was very sad, though she struggled to bear up against her sorrow in compliance with her father"s instructions. There was almost nothing said as she sat by him while he ate his supper. On the next morning, too, she rose to give him his breakfast, having fallen asleep through weariness a hundred times during the night, to wake again within a minute or two to the full sense of her sorrow. "Shall I know soon?" she said as he left the house.
"Surely some one will know," he said; "and I will send thee word."
But as he left the house the real facts had already been made known at the "d.u.c.h.ess of Edinburgh." One of the morning papers had a full, circ.u.mstantial, and fairly true account of the whole matter. "It was not his lordship at all," said the good-natured landlady, coming out to him as he pa.s.sed the door.
"Not Lord Hampstead?"
"Not at all."
"He was not killed?"
"It wasn"t him as was hurt, Mr. Fay. It was another of them young men--one Mr. Walker; only son of Watson, Walker, and Warren. And whether he be dead or alive n.o.body knows; but they do say there wasn"t a whole bone left in his body. It"s all here, and I was a-going to bring it you. I suppose Miss Fay did take it badly?"
"I knew the young man," said the Quaker, hurrying back to his own house with the paper,--anxious if possible not to declare to the neighbourhood that the young lord was in truth a suitor for his daughter"s hand. "And I thank thee, Mrs. Grimley, for thy care. The suddenness of it all frightened my poor girl."
"That"ll comfort her up," said Mrs. Grimley cheerily. "From all we hear, Mr. Fay, she do have reason to be anxious for this young lord.
I hope he"ll be spared to her, Mr. Fay, and show himself a true man."
Then the Quaker returned with his news,--which was accepted by him and by them all as trustworthy. "Now my girl will be happy again?"
"Yes, father."