"What harm? You are a spy. Your very existence is a torment and a danger. Would to G.o.d that you were married. Yes, married to a chimney-sweep, even--and out of my way."
"If that is your only difficulty," said Mary, haughtily, "I dare say Mr.
Hammond would be kind enough to marry me to-morrow, and take me out of your ladyship"s way."
Lady Maulevrier"s head sank back upon her pillows, those velvet and satin pillows, rich with delicate point lace and crewel-work adornment, the labour of Mary and Fraulein, pillows which could not bring peace to the weary head, or deaden the tortures of memory. The pale face recovered its wonted calm, the heavy lips drooped over the weary eyes, and for a few moments there was silence in the room.
Then Lady Maulevrier raised her eyelids, and looked at her granddaughter imploringly, pathetically.
"Forgive me, Mary," she said. "I don"t know what I was saying just now; but whatever it was, forgive and forget it. I am a wretched old woman, heart sick, heart sore, worn out by pain and weariness. There are times when I am beside myself; moments when I am not much saner than Steadman"s lunatic uncle. This is one of my worst days, and you came bouncing in upon me, and tortured my nerves by your breathless torrent of words. Pray forgive me, if I said anything rude."
"If," thought Mary: but she tried to be charitable, and to believe that Lady Maulevrier"s attack upon her was a new phase of hysteria, so she murmured meekly, "There is nothing for me to forgive, grandmother, and I am very sorry I disturbed you."
She was going to leave the room, thinking that her absence would be a relief to the invalid, when Lady Maulevrier called her back.
"You were asking me something--something about that old man of Steadman"s," she said with a weary air, half indifference, half the la.s.situde natural to an invalid who sinks under the burden of monotonous days. "What was it all about? I forget."
Mary repeated her request, but this time in measured tones.
"My dear, I am sure that Steadman was only properly prudent." answered Lady Maulevrier, "and that it would never do for me to interfere in this matter. It stands to reason that he must know his old kinsman"s temperament much better than you can, after your half-hour interviews with him in the garden. Pray how long have these garden scenes been going on, by-the-by?" asked her ladyship, with a searching look at Mary"s downcast face.
The girl had not altogether recovered from the rude shock of her grandmother"s late attack.
"About three weeks," faltered Mary. "But it is more than a week now since I was in the garden. It was quite by accident that I first went there. Perhaps I ought to explain."
And Mary, not being gainsayed, went on to describe that first afternoon when she had seen the old man brooding in the sun. She drew quite a pathetic picture of his joyless solitude, whilst all nature around and about him was looking so glad in the spring sunshine. There was a long silence, a silence of some minutes, when she had done; and Lady Maulevrier lay with lowered eyelids, deep in thought. Mary began to hope that she had touched her grandmother"s heart, and that her request would be granted: but she was soon undeceived.
"I am sorry to be obliged to refuse you a favour, Mary, but I must stand by Steadman," said her ladyship. "When I gave Steadman permission to shelter his aged kinsman in my house, I made it a condition that the old man should be kept in the strictest care by himself and his wife, and that n.o.body in this establishment should be troubled by him. This condition has been so scrupulously adhered to that the old man"s existence is known to no one in this house except you and me; and you have discovered the fact only by accident. I must beg you to keep this secret to yourself. Steadman has particular reasons for wishing to conceal the fact of his uncle"s residence here. The old man is not actually a lunatic. If he were we should be violating the law by keeping him here. He is only imbecile from extreme old age; the body has outlived the mind, that is all. But should any officious functionary come down upon Fellside, this imbecility might be called madness, and the poor old creature whom you regard so compa.s.sionately, and whose case you think so pitiable here, would be carried off to a pauper lunatic asylum, which I can a.s.sure you would be a much worse imprisonment than Fellside Manor."
"Yes, indeed, grandmother," exclaimed Mary, whose vivid imagination conjured up a vision of padded cells, strait-waist-coats, murderously-inclined keepers, chains, handcuffs, and bread and water diet, "now I understand why the poor old soul has been kept so close--why n.o.body knows of his existence. I beg Steadman"s pardon with all my heart. He is a much better fellow than I thought him."
"Steadman is a thoroughly good fellow, and as true as steel," said her ladyship. "No one can know that so well as the mistress he has served faithfully for nearly half a century. I hope, Mary, you have not been chattering to Fraulein or any one else about your discovery."
"No, grandmother, I have not said a word to a mortal, but----"
"Oh, there is a "but," is there? I understand. You have not been so reticent in your letters to Mr. Hammond."
"I tell him all that happens to me. There is very little to write about at Fellside; yet I contrive to send him volumes. I often wonder what poor girls did in the days of Miss Austen"s novels, when letters cost a shilling or eighteen pence for postage, and had to be paid for by the recipient. It must have been such a terrible check upon affection."
"And upon twaddle," said Lady Maulevrier. "Well you told Mr. Hammond about Steadman"s old uncle. What did he say?"
"He thoroughly approved Steadman"s conduct in forbidding me to go and see him," answered Mary. "I couldn"t help thinking it rather unkind of him; but, of course, I feel that he must be right," concluded Mary, as much as to say that her lover was necessarily infallible.
"I always thought Mr. Hammond a sensible young man, and I am glad to find that his conduct does not belie my good opinion," said Lady Maulevrier. "And now, my dear, you had better go and make yourself decent before dinner. I am very weary this afternoon, and even our little talk has exhausted me."
"Yes, dear grandmother, I am going this instant. But let me ask one question: What is the poor old man"s name?"
"His name!" said her ladyship, looking at Mary with a puzzled air, like a person whose thoughts are far away. "His name--oh, Steadman, I suppose, like his nephew"s; but if I ever heard the name I have forgotten it, and I don"t know whether the kinship is on the father"s or the mother"s side. Steadman asked my permission to give shelter to a helpless old relative, and I gave it. That is really all I remember."
"Only one other question," pleaded Mary, who was brimful of curiosity upon this particular subject. "Has he been at Fellside very long?"
"Oh, I really don"t know; a year, or two, or three, perhaps. Life in this house is all of a piece. I hardly keep count of time."
"There is one thing that puzzles me very much," said Mary, still lingering near her grandmother"s couch, the balmy evening air caressing her as she leaned against the embrasure of the wide Tudor window, the sun drawing nearer to the edge of the hills, an orb of yellow flame, soon to change to a gigantic disk of lurid fire. "I thought from the old man"s talk that he, too, must be an old servant in our family. He talked of Maulevrier Castle, and said that I reminded him of a picture by Lely, a portrait of a Lady Maulevrier.
"It is quite possible that he may have been in service there, though I do not remember to have heard anything about it," answered her ladyship, carelessly. "The Steadmans come from that part of the country, and theirs is a hereditary service. Good-night, Mary, I am utterly weary.
Look at that glorious light yonder, that mighty world of fire and flame, without which our little world would be dark and dreary. I often think of that speech of Macbeth"s, "I "gin to be aweary of the sun." There comes a time, Mary, when even the sun is a burden."
"Only for such a man as Macbeth," said Mary, "a man steeped in crime.
Who can wonder that he wanted to hide himself from the sun? But, dear grandmother, there ought to be plenty of happiness left for you, even if your recovery is slow to come. You are so clever, you have such resources in your own mind and memory, and you have your grandchildren, who love you dearly," added Mary, tenderly.
Her nature was so full of pity that an entirely new affection had grown up in her mind for Lady Maulevrier since that terrible evening of the paralytic stroke.
"Yes, and whose love, as exemplified by Lesbia, is shown in a hurried sc.r.a.p of a letter scrawled once a week--a bone thrown to a hungry dog,"
said her ladyship, bitterly.
"Lesbia is so lovely, and she is so surrounded by flatterers and admirers," murmured Mary, excusingly.
"Oh, my dear, if she had a heart she would not forget me, even in the midst of her flatterers. Good-night again, Mary. Don"t try to console me. For some natures consolations and soothing suggestions are like flowers thrown upon a granite tomb. They do just as much and just as little good to the heart that lies under the stone. Good-night."
Mary stooped to kiss her grandmother"s forehead, and found it cold as marble. She murmured a loving good-night, and left the mistress of Fellside in her loneliness.
A footman would come in and light the lamps, and draw the velvet curtains, presently, and shut out the later glories of sunset. And then the butler himself would come and arrange the little dinner table by her ladyship"s couch, and would himself preside over the invalid"s simple dinner, which would be served exquisitely, with all that is daintiest and most costly in Salviati gla.s.s and antique silver. Yet better the dinner of herbs, and love and peace withal, than the choicest fare or the most perfect service.
Before the coming of the servants and the lamps there was a pause of silence and loneliness, an interval during which Lady Maulevrier lay gazing at the declining orb, the lower rim of which now rested on the edge of the hill. It seemed to grow larger and more dazzling as she looked at it.
Suddenly she clasped her left hand across her eyes, and said aloud--
"Oh, what a hateful life! Almost half a century of lies and hypocricies and prevarications and meannesses! For what? For the glory of an empty name; and for a fortune that may slip from my dead hand to become the prey of rogues and adventurers. Who can forecast the future?"
CHAPTER XXV.
CARTE BLANCHE.
Lady Kirkbank"s house in Arlington Street was known to half fashionable London as one of the pleasantest houses in town; and it was known by repute only, to the other half of fashionable London, as a house whose threshold was not to be crossed by persons with any regard for their own dignity and reputation. It was not that Lady Kirkbank had ever actually forfeited her right to be considered an honest woman and a faithful wife. People who talked of the lady and her set with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders and a dubious elevation of the eyebrows were ready, when hard pushed in argument, to admit that they knew of no actual harm in Lady Kirkbank, no overt bad behaviour.
"But--well," said the punctilious half of society, the Pejinks and Pernickitys, the Picksomes and Unco-Goods, "Lady Kirkbank is--Lady Kirkbank; and I would not allow my girls to visit her, don"t you know."
"Lady Kirkbank is received, certainly," said a severe dowager. "She goes to very good houses. She gets tickets for the Royal enclosure. She is always at private views, and privileged shows of all kinds; and she contrives to squeeze herself in at a State ball or a concert about once in two years; but any one who can consider Lady Kirkbank good style must have a very curious idea of what a lady ought to be." "Lady Kirkbank is a warm-hearted, nice creature," said a diplomatist of high rank, and one of her particular friends, "but her manners are decidedly--continental!"
About Sir George, society, adverse or friendly, was without strong opinions. His friends, the men who shot over his Scotch moor, and filled the spare rooms in his villa at Cannes, and loaded his drag for Sandown or Epsom, and sponged upon him all the year round, talked of him as "an inoffensive old party," "a cheery soul," "a genial old boy," and in like terms of approval. That half of society which did not visit in Arlington Street, in whose nostrils the semi-aristocratic, semi-artistic, altogether Bohemian little dinners, the suppers after the play, the small hours devoted to Nap or Poker, had an odour as of sulphur, the reek of Tophet--even this half of the great world was fain to admit that Sir George was harmless. He had never had an idea beyond the realms of sport; he had never had a will of his own outside his stable. To shoot pigeons at Hurlington or Monaco, to keep half a dozen leather-platers, and attend every race from the Craven to the Leger, to hunt four days a week, when he was allowed to spend a winter in England, and to saunter and sleep away all the hours which could not be given to sport, comprised Sir George"s idea of existence. He had never troubled himself to consider whether there might not possibly be a better way of getting rid of one"s life. He was as G.o.d had made him, and was perfectly satisfied with himself and the universe; save at such times as when a favourite horse went lame, or his banker wrote to tell him that his account was overdrawn.
Sir George had no children; he had never had a serious care in his life.
He never thought, he never read. Lady Kirkbank declared that she had never seen him with a book in his hands since their marriage.
"I don"t believe he would know at which end to begin," she said.