At this calm, but powerful intervention of Fabian"s, the old head in the doorway (bowed with fear and anxiety) raises itself abruptly, as though unable to believe the words that have just fallen upon his ears. He has crept here to listen with a morbid longing to contemptuous words uttered of him by the lips that have just spoken; and lo! these very lips have been opened in his behalf, and naught but kindly words have issued from them.
As the truth breaks in upon his dulled brain that Fabian has actually been defending his--_his_ case, a ghastly pallor overspreads his face, and it is with difficulty he suppresses a groan. He controls himself, however, and listens eagerly for what may follow.
"Do you mean to tell me I am bound to keep a depraved drunkard beneath my roof?" demands Sir Christopher, vehemently. "A fellow who insults my guests, who--"
"The fact that he has contracted this miserable habit of which you speak is only another reason why you should think _well_ before you discard him now, in his old age," says Fabian, with increasing earnestness. "He will starve--die in a garret or by the wayside, if you fling him off. He is not in a fit state to seek another livelihood. Who would employ him?
And you he has served faithfully for years--twenty years, I think; and of all the twenty only three or four have been untrustworthy. You should think of that, Christopher. He was your right hand fur a long time, and--and he has done neither you nor yours a real injury."
Here the unhappy figure in the doorway raises his hand and beats his clenched fist in a half-frantic, though silent, manner against his forehead.
"You are bound, I think," says Fabian, in the same calm way, "to look after him, to bear with him a little."
"_You_ defend him!" exclaims Sir Christopher, irritably, "yet I believe that in his soul he hates you--would do you a harm if he could. It is his treatment of _you_ at times," says Sir Christopher, coming at last to the real germ of the danger he is cherishing against Slyme, "that--that-- Remember what he said only last week about you."
"Tut!" says Fabian, "I remember nothing. He was drunk, no doubt, and said what he did not mean."
"I believe he did mean it. _In vino veritas._"
"Well, even so; if he does believe in the story that has blasted my life, why"--with a sigh--"so do many others. I don"t think the poor old fellow would really work me any mischief, but I doubt I have been harsh to him at times, have accused him somewhat roughly, I dare say, of his unfortunate failing; and for that, it may be, he owes me a grudge.
Nothing more. His bark is worse than his bite. It is my opinion, Christopher, that underneath his sullen exterior there lurks a great deal of good."
The trembling figure in the doorway is growing more and more bowed. It seems now as if it would gladly sink into the earth through very shame.
His hand has left the curtain and is now clinging to the lintel of the door, as though anxious of more support than the soft velvet of the portiere could afford.
"Well, as you seem bent on supporting a most unworthy object," says Sir Christopher, "I shall pension Slyme, and send him adrift to drink himself to death as soon as suits him."
"Why do that?" says Fabian, as quietly as ever, but with all the determination that characterizes his every word and action. "This house is large, and can hide him somewhere. Besides, he is accustomed to it, and would probably feel lost elsewhere. He has been here for the third of a lifetime--a long, _long_ time." (He sighs again. Is he bringing to mind the terrible length of the days that have made up the sum of the last five years of his life?) "Give him two rooms in the West wing, it is seldom used, and give him to understand he must remain there; but do not cast him out now that he is old and helpless."
At this last gentle mark of thoughtfulness on Fabian"s part the figure in the doorway loses all self-control. With a stifled cry he flings his arms above his head, and staggers away down the corridor outside to his own den.
"What was that?" asks Sir Christopher, quickly; the smothered cry had reached his ears.
"What? I heard nothing," says Fabian, looking up.
"The storm, perhaps," says his uncle, absently. Then, after a pause, "Why do you so strongly espouse this man"s cause, Fabian?"
"Because from my soul I pity him. He has had many things of late to try him. The death of his son a year ago, upon whom every thought of his heart was centered, was a terrible blow, and then this wretched pa.s.sion for strong drink having first degraded, has, of course, finished by embittering his nature. I do not blame him. He has known much misfortune."
Sir Christopher, going up to him, places his hands upon the young man"s shoulder and gazes earnestly, with love unutterable, in his eyes. His own are full of tears.
"No misfortune, however heavy, can embitter a _n.o.ble_ nature," he says, gently. "One knows that when one knows _you_. For your sake, Fabian--because you ask it--Slyme shall remain."
It grows towards evening, and still the rain descends in torrents. Small rivers are running on the gravel-walks outside, the snow-drops and crocuses are all dead or dying, crushed and broken by the cruel wind.
Down below in the bay the sea has risen, and with a roaring sound rushes inland to dash itself against the rocks. Now and then a flash of lightning illumines its turbulent breast and lets one see how the "ambitious ocean" can "swell, and rage, and foam, to be exalted with the threatening clouds." The sailors and boatmen generally, in the small village, are going anxiously to and fro, as though fearful of what such a night as this may produce.
Now a loud peal of thunder rattles overhead, rendering insignificant the wild howling of the wind that only a moment since had almost been deafening. And then the thunder dies away for a while, and the storm shrieks again, and the windows rattle, and the gaunt trees groan and sway, and the huge drops upon the window panes beating incessantly, make once more a "mournful music for the mind."
They are all a.s.sembled in Dulce"s boudoir, being under the impression, perhaps, that while the present incivility of the elements continues, it is cosier to be in a small room than a large one. It may be this, or the fact that both Dulce and Portia have declined to come down stairs or enter any other room, until dinner shall be announced, under any pretext whatever. And so as the mountain won"t come to Mohammed, Mohammed has come to the mountain.
Sir Christopher has just gone through an exaggerated _resume_ of old Slyme"s disgraceful conduct last night, when the door is opened, and they all become aware that the hero of the story is standing before them.
Yes, there stands Gregory Slyme, pale, breathless, and with one hand already uplifted, as though to deprecate censure, and to stay the order to "begone," that he plainly expects from every lip.
"Why, he is here again!" cries Sir Christopher, now incensed beyond measure. "Even my niece"s room is not safe from him."
He points angrily to the secretary, who cowers before his angry look, yet shows no intention of retiring. With all his air of hopeless sottishness, that clings to him like a spotted garment, there is still something strange about the man that attracts the attention of Mark Gore. He has been closely watching him ever since his entrance, and he can see that the head usually buried in the chest is now uplifted, that in the sunken eyes there is a new meaning, a fire freshly kindled, born of acute mental disturbance; and indeed in his whole bearing there is a settled _purpose_ very foreign to it.
"Hear me, hear me!" he entreats, with quivering accents, but pa.s.sionate haste. "Do not send me away _yet_, I _must_ speak now--now, or never!"
The final word sinks almost out of hearing. His hands fall to his sides.
Once again his head sinks to its old place upon his breast. Sir Christopher, believing him to be again under the influence of drink, opens his lips with the evident intention of ordering him from his presence, when Sir Mark interposes.
"He has come to say something. Let him say it," he says, tapping Sir Christopher"s arm persuasively.
"Ay, let me," says Slyme, in a low tone, yet always with the remnant of a wasted pa.s.sion in it. "It has lain heavy on my heart for years. I shall fling it from me now, if the effort to do it kills me."
Turning his bleared eyes right and left, he searches every face slowly until he comes to Fabian. Here his examination comes to an end.
Fastening his eyes on Fabian, he lets them rest there, and never again removes them during the entire interview. He almost seems to forget, or to be unaware, that there is any other soul in the room, save the man at whom he is gazing so steadfastly. It is to him alone he addresses himself.
"I call you to witness," he says, now striking himself upon his breast, "that whatever I have done has not gone unpunished. If my crime has been vile, my sufferings have been terrible. I have endured torments. I want no sympathy--none. I expect only detestation and revenge, but yet I would have you remember that there was a time when I was a man, not the soddened, brutish, contemptible _thing_ I have become. I would ask you to call to mind all you have ever heard about remorse; its stings, its agony, its despair, and I would have you know that I have felt it all; yea, more, a thousand times more!"
All this time he has had his hand pressed against his chest in a rigid fashion. His lips have grown livid, his face pale as any corpse.
"This is mere raving," exclaims Sir Christopher, excitedly; but again Gore restrains him as he would have gone forward to order Slyme to retire.
"To-day," goes on Slyme, always with his heavy eyes on Fabian, "I heard you speak in my defence--_mine_! Sir, if you could only know how those words of yours burned into my heart, how they have burned since, how they are burning _now_," smiting himself, "you would be half avenged. I listened to you till my brain could bear no more. You spoke kindly of _me_, you had pity on my old age--upon _mine_, who had no pity on your youth, who ruthlessly ruined your life, who--"
"Man, if you have anything to confess--to explain--_say it_!" breaks in Sir Mark, vehemently, who is half mad with hope and expectancy.
Portia has risen from her low seat, and forgetful or regardless of comment, is gazing with large, white eyes at the old man. Sir Christopher has grasped Mark Gore"s arm with almost painful force, and is trembling so violently that Gore places his other arm gently round him, and keeps it there as a support. All, more or less, are agitated.
Fabian alone makes no movement; with a face white to the very lips, he stands with his back against the mantelpiece, facing Slyme, so motionless that he might be a figure carved in marble.
Really deaf and blind to all except Fabian, the secretary takes no heed of Sir Mark"s violent outburst. He has paused, indeed, at the interruption, some vague sense telling him he will not be heard while it continues, but now it has subsided he goes on again, addressing himself solely to Fabian, as though it had never occurred.
"It was for _him_ I did it, for _his_ sake," he says, monotonously. He is losing his head a little now, and his mind is wandering back to earlier days. "For my boy, my son--to save him. It was a sore temptation; and he never knew, he never knew." A gleam of something like comfort comes into his eyes as he says this.
"What _did_ you do?" demands d.i.c.ky Browne, in an agony of hope and doubt. "Can"t you say it at once and be done with it? Speak out, man--_do_!"
"Curse me! _Kill_ me if you will!" cries Slyme, with sudden vehemence, stretching out his hands to Fabian, and still deaf to any voice but his.
"You have been deceived, falsely accused, most treacherously dealt with.
It was I forged that check--not you!"
The miserable man, as he makes this confession, falls upon his knees and covers his face with his hands.
A terrible cry bursts from Dulce; she springs to her feet, and would have rushed to Fabian but that Roger, catching her in his arms, prevents her. And indeed, it is no time to approach Fabian. He has wakened at last into life out of his curious calm, and the transition from his extreme quietude of a moment since to the state of ungovernable pa.s.sion in which he now finds himself is as swift as it is dangerous.