"Yes, yes."
"But if a crime can be forgiven,--can be excused on account of its motives--"
"It cannot, my dear. Nothing can be forgiven on that ground."
"No; we know that; we all feel sure of that. But yet how can one help loving her? For myself, I shall love her always."
"And I also love her." And then the old man made his confession.
"I loved her well;--better than I had ever thought to love any one again, but you and Perry. I loved her very dearly, and felt that I should have been proud to have called her my wife. How beautiful she was in her sorrow, when we thought that her life had been pure and good!"
"And it had been good,--for many years past."
"No; for the stolen property was still there. But yet how graceful she was, and how well her sorrows sat upon her! What might she not have done had the world used her more kindly, and not sent in her way that sore temptation! She was a woman for a man to have loved to madness."
"And yet how little can she have known of love!"
"I loved her." And as the old man said so he rose to his feet with some show of his old energy. "I loved her,--with all my heart! It is foolish for an old man so to say; but I did love her; nay, I love her still. But that I knew that it would be wrong,--for your sake, and for Perry"s--" And then he stopped himself, as though he would fain hear what she might say to him.
"Yes; it is all over now," she said in the softest, sweetest, lowest voice. She knew that she was breaking down a last hope, but she knew also that that hope was vain. And then there was silence in the room for some ten minutes" s.p.a.ce.
"It is all over," he then said, repeating her last words.
"But you have us still,--Perry and me. Can any one love you better than we do?" And she got up and went over to him and stood by him, and leaned upon him.
"Edith, my love, since you came to my house there has been an angel in it watching over me. I shall know that always; and when I turn my face to the wall, as I soon shall, that shall be my last earthly thought." And so in tears they parted for that night. But the sorrow that was bringing him to his grave came from the love of which he had spoken. It is seldom that a young man may die from a broken heart; but if an old man have a heart still left to him, it is more fragile.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
JOHN KENNEBY"S DOOM.
On the evening but one after the trial was over Mr. Moulder entertained a few friends to supper at his apartments in Great St.
Helen"s, and it was generally understood that in doing so he intended to celebrate the triumph of Lady Mason. Through the whole affair he had been a strong partisan on her side, had expressed a very loud opinion in favour of Mr. Furnival, and had hoped that that scoundrel Dockwrath would get all that he deserved from the hands of Mr.
Chaffanbra.s.s. When the hour of Mr. Dockwrath"s punishment had come he had been hardly contented, but the inadequacy of Kenneby"s testimony had restored him to good humour, and the verdict had made him triumphant.
"Didn"t I know it, old fellow?" he had said, slapping his friend Snengkeld on the back. "When such a low scoundrel as Dockwrath is pitted against a handsome woman like Lady Mason he"ll not find a jury in England to give a verdict in his favour." Then he asked Snengkeld to come to his little supper; and Kantwise also he invited, though Kantwise had shown Dockwrath tendencies throughout the whole affair;--but Moulder was fond of Kantwise as a b.u.t.t for his own sarcasm. Mrs. Smiley, too, was asked, as was natural, seeing that she was the betrothed bride of one of the heroes of the day; and Moulder, in the kindness of his heart, swore that he never was proud, and told Bridget Bolster that she would be welcome to take a share of what was going.
"Laws, M.," said Mrs. Moulder, when she was told of this. "A chambermaid from an inn! What will Mrs. Smiley say?"
"I ain"t going to trouble myself with what Mother Smiley may say or think about my friends. If she don"t like it, she may do the other thing. What was she herself when you first knew her?"
"Yes, Moulder; but then money do make a difference, you know."
Bridget Bolster, however, was invited, and she came in spite of the grandeur of Mrs. Smiley. Kenneby also of course was there, but he was not in a happy frame of mind. Since that wretched hour in which he had heard himself described by the judge as too stupid to be held of any account by the jury he had become a melancholy, misanthropic man. The treatment which he received from Mr. Furnival had been very grievous to him, but he had borne with that, hoping that some word of eulogy from the judge would set him right in the public mind. But no such word had come, and poor John Kenneby felt that the cruel hard world was too much for him. He had been with his sister that morning, and words had dropped from him which made her fear that he would wish to postpone his marriage for another s.p.a.ce of ten years or so.
"Brick-fields!" he had said. "What can such a one as I have to do with landed property? I am better as I am."
Mrs. Smiley, however, did not at all seem to think so, and welcomed John Kenneby back from Alston very warmly in spite of the disgrace to which he had been subjected. It was nothing to her that the judge had called her future lord a fool; nor indeed was it anything to any one but himself. According to Moulder"s views it was a matter of course that a witness should be abused. For what other purpose was he had into the court? But deep in the mind of poor Kenneby himself the injurious words lay festering. He had struggled hard to tell the truth, and in doing so had simply proved himself to be an a.s.s. "I ain"t fit to live with anybody else but myself," he said to himself, as he walked down Bishopsgate Street.
At this time Mrs. Smiley was not yet there. Bridget had arrived, and had been seated in a chair at one corner of the fire. Mrs. Moulder occupied one end of a sofa opposite, leaving the place of honour at the other end for Mrs. Smiley. Moulder sat immediately in front of the fire in his own easy chair, and Snengkeld and Kantwise were on each side of him. They were of course discussing the trial when Mrs.
Smiley was announced; and it was well that she made a diversion by her arrival, for words were beginning to run high.
"A jury of her countrymen has found her innocent," Moulder had said with much heat; "and any one who says she"s guilty after that is a libeller and a coward, to my way of thinking. If a jury of her countrymen don"t make a woman innocent, what does?"
"Of course she"s innocent," said Snengkeld; "from the very moment the words was spoken by the foreman. If any newspaper was to say she wasn"t she"d have her action."
"That"s all very well," said Kantwise, looking up to the ceiling with his eyes nearly shut. "But you"ll see. What"ll you bet me, Mr.
Moulder, that Joseph Mason don"t get the property?"
"Gammon!" answered Moulder.
"Well, it may be gammon; but you"ll see."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" said Mrs. Smiley, sailing into the room; "upon my word one hears all you say ever so far down the street."
"And I didn"t care if they heard it right away to the Mansion House,"
said Moulder. "We ain"t talking treason, nor yet highway robbery."
Then Mrs. Smiley was welcomed;--her bonnet was taken from her and her umbrella, and she was encouraged to spread herself out over the sofa.
"Oh, Mrs. Bolster; the witness!" she said, when Mrs. Moulder went through some little ceremony of introduction. And from the tone of her voice it appeared that she was not quite satisfied that Mrs.
Bolster should be there as a companion for herself.
"Yes, ma"am. I was the witness as had never signed but once," said Bridget, getting up and curtsying. Then she sat down again, folding her hands one over the other on her lap.
"Oh, indeed!" said Mrs. Smiley. "But where"s the other witness, Mrs.
Moulder? He"s the one who is a deal more interesting to me. Ha, ha, ha! But as you all know it here, what"s the good of not telling the truth? Ha, ha, ha!"
"John"s here," said Mrs. Moulder. "Come, John, why don"t you show yourself?"
"He"s just alive, and that"s about all you can say for him," said Moulder.
"Why, what"s there been to kill him?" said Mrs. Smiley. "Well, John, I must say you"re rather backward in coming forward, considering what there"s been between us. You might have come and taken my shawl, I"m thinking."
"Yes, I might," said Kenneby gloomily. "I hope I see you pretty well, Mrs. Smiley."
"Pretty bobbish, thank you. Only I think it might have been Maria between friends like us."
"He"s sadly put about by this trial," whispered Mrs. Moulder. "You know he is so tender-hearted that he can"t bear to be put upon like another."
"But you didn"t want her to be found guilty; did you, John?"
"That I"m sure he didn"t," said Moulder. "Why it was the way he gave his evidence that brought her off."
"It wasn"t my wish to bring her off," said Kenneby; "nor was it my wish to make her guilty. All I wanted was to tell the truth and do my duty. But it was no use. I believe it never is any use."
"I think you did very well," said Moulder.