"My own darling, let me find you alive; that is all I ask. I know I shall find you true to me, if you are alive.
"Perhaps it would have been better if my heart had not been so entirely filled by you. G.o.d has tried me hard in some things, but He has blessed me with true friends. It was ungrateful of me not to write to such true friends as Dr. Amboyne and Jael Dence. But, whenever I thought of England, I saw only you.
"By this post I write to Dr. Amboyne, Mr. Bolt, Mr. Bayne, and Jael Dence.
"This will surely baffle the enemy who has stopped all my letters to you, and will stop this one, I dare say.
"I say no more, beloved one. What is the use? You will perhaps never see this letter, and you know more than I can say, for you know how I love you: and that is a great deal more than ever I can put on paper.
"I sail for England in four days. G.o.d help me to get over the interval.
"I forget whether I told you I had made my fortune. Your devoted and most unhappy lover,
"Henry."
Grace managed to read this, in spite of the sobs and moans that shook her, and the film that half blinded her; and, when she had read it, sank heavily down, and sat all crushed together, with hands working like frenzy.
Jael kneeled beside her, and kissed and wept over her, unheeded.
Then Jael prayed aloud beside her, unheeded.
At last she spoke, looking straight before her, as if she was speaking to the wall.
"Bring my G.o.dfather here."
"Won"t you see your father first?" said Jael, timidly.
"I have no father. I want something I can lean on over the gulf--a man of honor. Fetch Mr. Raby to me."
Jael kissed her tenderly, and wept over her once more a minute, then went softly down-stairs and straight into the breakfast-room.
Here, in the meantime, considerable amus.e.m.e.nt had been created by the contest between Lally and Jael Dence, the more so on account of the triumph achieved by the weaker vessel.
When Lally got up, and looked about him ruefully, great was the delight of the younger gentlemen.
When he walked in-doors, they chaffed him through an open window, and none of them noticed that the man was paler than even the rough usage he had received could account for.
This jocund spirit, however, was doomed to be short-lived.
Lally came into the room, looking pale and troubled, and whispered a word in his master"s ear; then retired, but left his master as pale as himself.
Coventry, seated at a distance from the window, had not seen the scrimmage outside, and Lally"s whispered information fell on him like a thunderbolt.
Mr. Beresford saw at once that something was wrong, and hinted as much to his neighbor. It went like magic round the table, and there was an uneasy silence.
In the midst of this silence, mysterious sounds began to be heard in the bride"s chamber: a faint scream; feet rushing across the floor; a sound as of some one sinking heavily on to a chair or couch.
Presently came a swift stamping that told a tale of female pa.s.sion; and after that confused sounds that could not be interpreted through the ceiling, yet somehow the listeners felt they were unusual. One or two attempted conversation, out of politeness; but it died away--curiosity and uneasiness prevailed.
Lally put his head in at the door, and asked if the carriage was to be packed.
"Of course," said Coventry; and soon the servants, male and female, were seen taking boxes out from the hall to the carriage.
Jael Dence walked into the room, and went to Mr. Raby.
"The bride desires to see you immediately, sir."
Raby rose, and followed Jael out.
The next minute a lady"s maid came, with a similar message to Dr.
Amboyne.
He rose with great alacrity, and followed her.
There was nothing remarkable in the bride"s taking private leave of these two valued friends. But somehow the mysterious things that had preceded made the guests look with half-suspicious eyes into every thing; and Coventry"s manifest discomfiture, when Dr. Amboyne was sent for, justified this vague sense that there was something strange going on beneath the surface.
Neither Raby nor Amboyne came down again, and Mr. Beresford remarked aloud that the bride"s room was like the lion"s den in the fable, ""Vestigia nulla retrorsum.""
At last the situation became intolerable to Coventry. He rose, in desperation, and said, with a ghastly attempt at a smile, that he must, nevertheless, face the dangers of the place himself, as the carriage was now packed, and Mrs. Coventry and he, though loath to leave their kind friends, had a longish journey before them. "Do not move, I pray; I shall be back directly."
As soon as he had got out of the room, he held a whispered consultation with Lally, and then, collecting all his courage, and summoning all his presence of mind, he went slowly up the stairs, determined to disown Lally"s acts (Lally himself had suggested this), and pacify Grace"s friends, if he could; but, failing that, to turn round, and stand haughtily on his legal rights, ay, and enforce them too.
But, meantime, what had pa.s.sed in the bride"s chamber?
Raby found Grace Carden, with her head buried on her toilet-table, and her hair all streaming down her back.
The floor was strewn with pearls and broken ornaments, and fragments of the bridal veil. On the table lay Henry Little"s letter.
Jael took it without a word, and gave it to Raby.
He took it, and, after a loud e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of surprise, began to read it.
He had not quite finished it when Dr. Amboyne tapped at the door, and Jael let him in.
The crushed figure with disheveled hair, and Raby"s eye gleaming over the letter in his hand, told him at once what was going on.
He ceased to doubt, or vacillate, directly; he whispered Jael Dence to stand near Grace, and watch her closely.
He had seen a woman start up and throw herself, in one moment, out of a window, for less than this--a woman crushed apparently, and more dead than alive, as Grace Carden was.
Then he took out his own letter, and read it in a low voice to Mr. Raby; but it afterward appeared the bride heard every word.
"MY BEST FRIEND,--Forgive me for neglecting you so long, and writing only to her I love with all my soul. Forgive me, for I smart for it. I have written fifteen letters to my darling Grace, and received no reply.
I wrote her one yesterday, but have now no hope she will ever get it. This is terrible, but there is worse behind. This very day I have learned that my premises were blown up within a few hours of my leaving, and poor, faithful Jael Dence nearly killed; and then a report of my own death was raised, and some remains found in the ruins that fools said were mine. I suppose the letters I left in the box were all destroyed by the fire.
"Now, mark my words, one and the same villain has put that dead man"s hand and arm in the river, and has stopped my letters to Grace; I am sure of it. So what I want you to do is, first of all, to see my darling, and tell her I am alive and well, and then put her on her guard against deceivers.