"I loved my wife fondly. I loved her-her name was Lucy. She was English; but, after we were married, we lived long abroad-in Italy. She liked the country, and I liked what she liked. She liked to draw, too, and I got her a master. He was an Italian. I will not give his name.
We always called him "the Master." A treacherous insidious man this was, and, under cover of his profession, took advantage of his opportunities, and taught my wife to love him-to love him.
"I am short of breath. I need not enter into details as to how I found them out; but I did find them out. We were away on a sketching expedition when I made my discovery. My rage maddened me, and there was one at hand who fomented my madness. My wife had a maid, who, it seemed, had also loved this man-the Master-and had been ill treated and deserted by him. She told me all. She had played the part of go-between-had carried letters. When she told me these things, it was night, in a solitary Italian town, among the mountains. "He is in his room now," she said, "writing to her."
"A frenzy took possession of me as I listened to those words. I am naturally vindictive-remember that-and now my longing for revenge was like a thirst. Travelling in those lonely regions, I was armed, and when the woman said, "He is writing to your wife," I laid hold of my pistols, as by an instinct. It has been some comfort to me since, that I took them both. Perhaps, at that moment, I may have meant fairly by him-meant that we should fight. I don"t know what I meant, quite. The woman"s words, "He is in his own room now, writing to her," rung in my ears."
The sick man stopped to take breath. It seemed an hour, though it was probably not more than two minutes, before he spoke again.
"I managed to get into his room un.o.bserved. Indeed, he was altogether absorbed in what he was doing. He was sitting at the only table in the room, writing at a travelling-desk, by the light of a single candle. It was a rude dressing-table, and-and before him-exactly before him-there was-there was a looking-gla.s.s.
"I stole up behind him as he sat and wrote by the light of the candle. I looked over his shoulder at the letter, and I read, "Dearest Lucy, my love, my darling." As I read the words, I pulled the trigger of the pistol I held in my right hand, and killed him-killed him-but, before he died, he looked up once-not at me, but at my image before him in the gla.s.s, and his face-such a face-has been there-ever since, and mine-my face-is gone!"
He fell back exhausted, and we all pressed forward thinking that he must be dead, he lay so still.
But he had not yet pa.s.sed away. He revived under the influence of stimulants. He tried to speak, and muttered indistinctly from time to time words of which we could sometimes make no sense. We understood, however, that he had been tried by an Italian tribunal, and had been found guilty; but with such extenuating circ.u.mstances that his sentence was commuted to imprisonment, during, we thought we made out, two years.
But we could not understand what he said about his wife, though we gathered that she was still alive, from something he whispered to the doctor of there being provision made for her in his will.
He lay in a doze for something more than an hour after he had told his tale, and then he woke up quite suddenly, as he had done when we had first entered the room. He looked round uneasily in all directions, until his eye fell on the looking-gla.s.s.
"I want it," he said, hastily; but I noticed that he did not shudder now, as it was brought near. When old Masey approached, holding it in his hand, and crying like a child, Dr. Garden came forward and stood between him and his master, taking the hand of poor Strange in his.
"Is this wise?" he asked. "Is it good, do you think, to revive this misery of your life now, when it is so near its close? The chastis.e.m.e.nt of your crime," he added, solemnly, "has been a terrible one. Let us hope in G.o.d"s mercy that your punishment is over."
The dying man raised himself with a last great effort, and looked up at the doctor with such an expression on his face as none of us had seen on any face, before.
"I do hope so," he said, faintly, "but you must let me have my way in this-for if, now, when I look, I see aright-once more-I shall then hope yet more strongly-for I shall take it as a sign."
The doctor stood aside without another word, when he heard the dying man speak thus, and the old servant drew near, and, stooping over softly, held the looking-gla.s.s before his master. Presently afterwards, we, who stood around looking breathlessly at him, saw such a rapture upon his face, as left no doubt upon our minds that the face which had haunted him so long, had, in his last hour, disappeared.
NO. 4 BRANCH LINE THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE
Many years ago, and before this Line was so much as projected, I was engaged as a clerk in a Travelling Post-office running along the Line of railway from London to a town in the Midland Counties, which we will call Fazeley. My duties were to accompany the mail-train which left Fazeley at 8.15 P.M., and arrived in London about midnight, and to return by the day mail leaving London at 10.30 the following morning, after which I had an unbroken night at Fazeley, while another clerk discharged the same round of work; and in this way each alternative evening I was on duty in the railway post-office van. At first I suffered a little from a hurry and tremor of nerve in pursuing my occupation while the train was crashing along under bridges and through tunnels at a speed which was then thought marvellous and perilous; but it was not long before my hands and eyes became accustomed to the motion of the carriage, and I could go through my business with the same despatch and ease as in the post-office of the country town where I had learned it, and from which I had been promoted by the influence of the surveyor of the district, Mr.
Huntingdon. In fact, the work soon fell into a monotonous routine, which, night after night, was pursued in an unbroken course by myself and the junior clerk, who was my only a.s.sistant: the railway post-office work not having then attained the importance and magnitude it now possesses.
Our route lay through an agricultural district containing many small towns, which made up two or three bags only; one for London; another perhaps for the county town; a third for the railway post-office, to be opened by us, and the enclosures to be distributed according to their various addresses. The clerks in many of these small offices were women, as is very generally the case still, being the daughters and female relatives of the nominal postmaster, who transact most of the business of the office, and whose names are most frequently signed upon the bills accompanying the bags. I was a young man, and somewhat more curious in feminine handwriting than I am now. There was one family in particular, whom I had never seen, but with whose signatures I was perfectly familiar-clear, delicate, and educated, very unlike the miserable scrawl upon other letter-bills. One New Year"s-eve, in a moment of sentiment, I tied a slip of paper among a bundle of letters for their office, upon which I had written, "A happy New Year to you all." The next evening brought me a return of my good wishes, signed, as I guessed, by three sisters of the name of Clifton. From that day, every now and then, a sentence or two as brief as the one above pa.s.sed between us, and the feeling of acquaintance and friendship grew upon me, though I had never yet had an opportunity of seeing my fair unknown friends.
It was towards the close of the following October that it came under my notice that the then Premier of the ministry was paying an autumn visit to a n.o.bleman, whose country seat was situated near a small village on our line of rail. The Premier"s despatch-box, containing, of course, all the despatches which it was necessary to send down to him, pa.s.sed between him and the Secretary of State, and was, as usual, entrusted to the care of the post-office. The Continent was just then in a more than ordinarily critical state; we were thought to be upon the verge of an European war; and there were murmurs floating about, at the dispersion of the ministry up and down the country. These circ.u.mstances made the charge of the despatch-box the more interesting to me. It was very similar in size and shape to the old-fashioned workboxes used by ladies before boxes of polished and ornamental wood came into vogue, and, like them, it was covered with red morocco leather, and it fastened with a lock and key. The first time it came into my hands I took such special notice of it as might be expected. Upon one corner of the lid I detected a peculiar device scratched slightly upon it, most probably with the sharp point of a steel pen, in such a moment of preoccupation of mind as causes most of us to draw odd lines and caricatured faces upon any piece of paper which may lie under our hand. It was the old revolutionary device of a heart with a dagger piercing it; and I wondered whether it could be the Premier, or one of his secretaries, who had traced it upon the morocco.
This box had been travelling up and down for about ten days, and, as the village did not make up a bag for London, there being very few letters excepting those from the great house, the letter-bag from the house, and the despatch-box, were handed direct into our travelling post-office.
But in compliment to the presence of the Premier in the neighbourhood, the train, instead of slackening speed only, stopped altogether, in order that the Premier"s trusty and confidential messenger might deliver the important box into my own hands, that its perfect safety might be ensured. I had an undefined suspicion that some person was also employed to accompany the train up to London, for three or four times I had met with a foreign-looking gentleman at Euston-square, standing at the door of the carriage nearest the post-office van, and eyeing the heavy bags as they were transferred from my care to the custody of the officials from the General Post-office. But though I felt amused and somewhat nettled at this needless precaution, I took no further notice of the man, except to observe that he had the swarthy aspect of a foreigner, and that he kept his face well away from the light of the lamps. Except for these things, and after the first time or two, the Premier"s despatch-box interested me no more than any other part of my charge. My work had been doubly monotonous for some time past, and I began to think it time to get up some little entertainment with my unknown friends, the Cliftons. I was just thinking of it as the train stopped at the station about a mile from the town where they lived, and their postman, a gruff matter-of-fact fellow-you could see it in every line of his face-put in the letter-bags, and with them a letter addressed to me. It was in an official envelope, "On Her Majesty"s Service," and the seal was an official seal. On the folded paper inside it (folded officially also) I read the following order: "Mr. Wilc.o.x is requested to permit the bearer, the daughter of the postmaster at Eaton, to see the working of the railway post-office during the up-journey." The writing I knew well as being that of one of the surveyor"s clerks, and the signature was Mr. Huntingdon"s. The bearer of the order presented herself at the door, the snorting of the engine gave notice of the instant departure of the train, I held out my hand, the young lady sprang lightly and deftly into the van, and we were off again on our midnight journey.
She was a small slight creature, one of those slender little girls one never thinks of as being a woman, dressed neatly and plainly in a dark dress, with a veil hanging a little over her face and tied under her chin: the most noticeable thing about her appearance being a great ma.s.s of light hair, almost yellow, which had got loose in some way, and fell down her neck in thick wavy tresses. She had a free pleasant way about her, not in the least bold or forward, which in a minute or two made her presence seem the most natural thing in the world. As she stood beside me before the row of boxes into which I was sorting my letters, she asked questions and I answered as if it were quite an every-day occurrence for us to be travelling up together in the night mail to Euston-square station. I blamed myself for an idiot that I had not sooner made an opportunity for visiting my unknown friends at Eaton.
"Then," I said, putting down the letter-bill from their own office before her, "may I ask which of the signatures I know so well, is yours? Is it A. Clifton, or M. Clifton, or S. Clifton?" She hesitated a little, and blushed, and lifted up her frank childlike eyes to mine.
"I am A. Clifton," she answered.
"And your name?" I said.
"Anne;" then, as if anxious to give some explanation to me of her present position, she added, "I was going up to London on a visit, and I thought it would be so nice to travel in the post-office to see how the work was done, and Mr. Huntingdon came to survey our office, and he said he would send me an order."
I felt somewhat surprised, for a stricter martinet than Mr. Huntingdon did not breathe; but I glanced down at the small innocent face at my side, and cordially approved of his departure from ordinary rules.
"Did you know you would travel with me?" I asked, in a lower voice; for Tom Morville, my junior, was at my other elbow.
"I knew I should travel with Mr. Wilc.o.x," she answered, with a smile that made all my nerves tingle.
"You have not written me a word for ages," said I, reproachfully.
"You had better not talk, or you"ll be making mistakes," she replied, in an arch tone. It was quite true; for, a sudden confusion coming over me, I was sorting the letters at random.
We were just then approaching the small station where the letter-bag from the great house was taken up. The engine was slackening speed. Miss Clifton manifested some natural and becoming diffidence.
"It would look so odd," she said, "to any one on the platform, to see a girl in the post-office van! And they couldn"t know I was a postmaster"s daughter, and had an order from Mr. Huntingdon. Is there no dark corner to shelter me?"
I must explain to you in a word or two the construction of the van, which was much less efficiently fitted up than the travelling post-offices of the present day. It was a reversible van, with a door at each right-hand corner. At each door the letter-boxes were so arranged as to form a kind of screen about two feet in width, which prevented people from seeing all over the carriage at once. Thus the door at the far end of the van, the one not in use at the time, was thrown into deep shadow, and the screen before it turned it into a small niche, where a slight little person like Miss Clifton was very well concealed from curious eyes. Before the train came within the light from the lamps on the platform, she ensconced herself in this shelter. No one but I could see her laughing face, as she stood there leaning cautiously forward with her finger pressed upon her rosy lips, peeping at the messenger who delivered into my own hands the Premier"s despatch-box, while Tom Morville received the letter-bag of the great house.
"See," I said, when we were again in motion, and she had emerged from her concealment, "this is the Premier"s despatch-box, going back to the Secretary of State. There are some state secrets for you, and ladies are fond of secrets."
"Oh! I know nothing about politics," she answered, indifferently, "and we have had that box through our office a time or two."
"Did you ever notice this mark upon it," I asked-"a heart with a dagger through it?" and bending down my face to hers, I added a certain spooney remark, which I do not care to repeat. Miss Clifton tossed her little head, and pouted her lips; but she took the box out of my hands, and carried it to the lamp nearest the further end of the van, after which she put it down upon the counter close beside the screen, and I thought no more about it. The midnight ride was entertaining in the extreme, for the girl was full of young life and sauciness and merry humour. I can safely aver that I have never been to an evening"s so-called entertainment which, to me, was half so enjoyable. It added also to the zest and keen edge of the enjoyment to see her hasten to hide herself whenever I told her we were going to stop to take up the mails.
"We had pa.s.sed Watford, the last station at which we stopped, before I became alive to the recollection that our work was terribly behindhand.
Miss Clifton also became grave, and sat at the end of the counter very quiet and subdued, as if her frolic were over, and it was possible she might find something to repent of in it. I had told her we should stop no more until we reached Euston-square station, but to my surprise I felt our speed decreasing, and our train coming to a standstill. I looked out and called to the guard in the van behind, who told me he supposed there was something on the line before us, and that we should go on in a minute or two. I turned my head, and gave this information to my fellow-clerk and Miss Clifton.
"Do you know where we are?" she asked, in a frightened tone.
"At Camden-town," I replied. She sprang hastily from her seat, and came towards me.
"I am close to my friend"s house here," she said, "so it is a lucky thing for me. It is not five minutes" walk from the station. I will say good-bye to you now, Mr. Wilc.o.x, and I thank you a thousand times for your kindness."
She seemed flurried, and she held out both her little hands to me in an appealing kind of way, as if she were afraid of my detaining her against her will. I took them both into mine, pressing them with rather more ardour than was quite necessary.
"I do not like you to go alone at this hour," I said, "but there is no help for it. It has been a delightful time to me. Will you allow me to call upon you to-morrow morning early, for I leave London at 10.30; or on Wednesday, when I shall be in town again?"
"O," she answered, hanging her head, "I don"t know. I"ll write and tell mamma how kind you have been, and, and-but I must go, Mr. Wilc.o.x."
"I don"t like your going alone," I repeated.
"O! I know the way perfectly," she said, in the same flurried manner, "perfectly, thank you. And it is close at hand. Goodbye."
She jumped lightly out of the carriage, and the train started on again at the same instant. We were busy enough, as you may suppose. In five minutes more we should be in Euston-square, and there was nearly fifteen minutes work still to be done. Spite of the enjoyment he had afforded me, I mentally anathematised Mr. Huntingdon and his departure from ordinary rules, and, thrusting Miss Clifton forcibly out of my thoughts, I set to work with a will, gathered up the registered letters for London, tied them into a bundle with the paper bill, and then turned to the corner of the counter for the despatch-box.