MADAM,--I write to tell you of the condition of the poor young woman--[here came a long pause of deliberation]--who accompanied your son on his arrival here, and who was left behind on your departure yesterday.
She is lying (as it appears to me) in a very dangerous state at my lodgings; and, if I may suggest, it would be kind to allow your maid to return and attend upon her until she is sufficiently recovered to be restored to her friends, if, indeed, they could not come to take charge of her themselves.
I remain, madam, Your obedient servant,
THURSTAN BENSON.
The note was very unsatisfactory after all his consideration, but it was the best he could do. He made inquiry of a pa.s.sing servant as to the lady"s name, directed the note, and placed it on the indicated shelf. He then returned to his lodgings, to await the doctor"s coming and the post-boy"s return. There was no alteration in Ruth; she was as one stunned into unconsciousness; she did not move her posture, she hardly breathed. From time to time Mrs Hughes wetted her mouth with some liquid, and there was a little mechanical motion of the lips; that was the only sign of life she gave. The doctor came and shook his head,--"a thorough prostration of strength, occasioned by some great shock on the nerves,"--and prescribed care and quiet, and mysterious medicines, but acknowledged that the result was doubtful, very doubtful. After his departure, Mr Benson took his Welsh grammar and tried again to master the ever-puzzling rules for the mutations of letters; but it was of no use, for his thoughts were absorbed by the life-in-death condition of the young creature, who was lately bounding and joyous.
The maid and the luggage, the car and the driver, had arrived before noon at their journey"s end, and the note had been delivered. It annoyed Mrs Bellingham exceedingly. It was the worst of these kind of connexions, there was no calculating the consequences; they were never-ending. All sorts of claims seemed to be established, and all sorts of people to step in to their settlement. The idea of sending her maid! Why, Simpson would not go if she asked her. She soliloquised thus while reading the letter; and then, suddenly turning round to the favourite attendant, who had been listening to her mistress"s remarks with no inattentive ear, she asked:
"Simpson, would you go and nurse this creature, as this--" she looked at the signature--"Mr Benson, whoever he is, proposes?"
"Me! no, indeed, ma"am," said the maid, drawing herself up, stiff in her virtue. "I"m sure, ma"am, you would not expect it of me; I could never have the face to dress a lady of character again."
"Well, well! don"t be alarmed; I cannot spare you; by the way, just attend to the strings on my dress; the chambermaid here pulled them into knots, and broke them terribly, last night. It is awkward though, very," said she, relapsing into a musing fit over the condition of Ruth.
"If you"ll allow me, ma"am, I think I might say something that would alter the case. I believe, ma"am, you put a bank-note into the letter to the young woman yesterday?"
Mrs Bellingham bowed acquiescence, and the maid went on:
"Because, ma"am, when the little deformed man wrote that note (he"s Mr Benson, ma"am), I have reason to believe neither he nor Mrs Morgan knew of any provision being made for the young woman. Me and the chambermaid found your letter and the bank-note lying quite promiscuous, like waste paper, on the floor of her room; for I believe she rushed out like mad after you left."
"That, as you say, alters the case. This letter, then, is princ.i.p.ally a sort of delicate hint that some provision ought to have been made, which is true enough, only it has been attended to already; what became of the money?"
"Law, ma"am! do you ask? Of course, as soon as I saw it, I picked it up and took it to Mrs Morgan, in trust for the young person."
"Oh, that"s right. What friends has she? Did you ever hear from Mason?--perhaps they ought to know where she is."
"Mrs Mason did tell me, ma"am, she was an orphan; with a guardian who was no-ways akin, and who washed his hands of her when she ran off; but Mrs Mason was sadly put out, and went into hysterics, for fear you would think she had not seen after her enough, and that she might lose your custom; she said it was no fault of hers, for the girl was always a forward creature, boasting of her beauty, and saying how pretty she was, and striving to get where her good looks could be seen and admired,--one night in particular, ma"am, at a county ball; and how Mrs Mason had found out she used to meet Mr Bellingham at an old woman"s house, who was a regular old witch, ma"am, and lives in the lowest part of the town, where all the bad characters haunt."
"There! that"s enough," said Mrs Bellingham, sharply, for the maid"s chattering had outrun her tact; and in her anxiety to vindicate the character of her friend Mrs Mason by blackening that of Ruth, she had forgotten that she a little implicated her mistress"s son, whom his proud mother did not like to imagine as ever pa.s.sing through a low and degraded part of the town.
"If she has no friends, and is the creature you describe (which is confirmed by my own observation), the best place for her is, as I said before, the Penitentiary. Her fifty pounds will keep her for a week or so, if she is really unable to travel, and pay for her journey; and if on her return to Fordham she will let me know, I will undertake to obtain her admission immediately."
"I"m sure it"s well for her she has to do with a lady who will take any interest in her, after what has happened."
Mrs Bellingham called for her writing-desk, and wrote a few hasty lines to be sent back by the post-boy, who was on the point of starting:
Mrs Bellingham presents her compliments to her unknown correspondent, Mr Benson, and begs to inform him of a circ.u.mstance of which she believes he was ignorant when he wrote the letter with which she has been favoured; namely, that provision to the amount of 50 was left for the unfortunate young person who is the subject of Mr Benson"s letter. This sum is in the hands of Mrs Morgan, as well as a note from Mrs Bellingham to the miserable girl, in which she proposes to procure her admission into the Fordham Penitentiary, the best place for such a character, as by this profligate action she has forfeited the only friend remaining to her in the world. This proposition, Mrs Bellingham repeats; and they are the young woman"s best friends who most urge her to comply with the course now pointed out.
"Take care Mr Bellingham hears nothing of this Mr Benson"s note,"
said Mrs Bellingham, as she delivered the answer to her maid; "he is so sensitive just now that it would annoy him sadly, I am sure."
CHAPTER XI
Thurstan and Faith Benson
You have now seen the note which was delivered into Mr Benson"s hands, as the cool shades of evening stole over the glowing summer sky. When he had read it, he again prepared to write a few hasty lines before the post went out. The post-boy was even now sounding his horn through the village as a signal for letters to be ready; and it was well that Mr Benson, in his long morning"s meditation, had decided upon the course to be pursued, in case of such an answer as that which he had received from Mrs Bellingham. His present note was as follows:
DEAR FAITH,--You must come to this place directly, where I earnestly desire you and your advice. I am well myself, so do not be alarmed. I have no time for explanation, but I am sure you will not refuse me; let me trust that I shall see you on Sat.u.r.day at the latest. You know the mode by which I came; it is the best for expedition and cheapness.
Dear Faith, do not fail me.
Your affectionate brother,
THURSTAN BENSON.
P.S.--I am afraid the money I left may be running short.
Do not let this stop you. Take my Facciolati to Johnson"s, he will advance upon it; it is the third row, bottom shelf. Only come.
When this letter was despatched he had done all he could; and the next two days pa.s.sed like a long monotonous dream of watching, thought, and care, undisturbed by any event, hardly by the change from day to night, which, now the harvest moon was at her full, was scarcely perceptible. On Sat.u.r.day morning the answer came.
DEAREST THURSTAN,--Your incomprehensible summons has just reached me, and I obey, thereby proving my right to my name of Faith. I shall be with you almost as soon as this letter. I cannot help feeling anxious, as well as curious.
I have money enough, and it is well I have; for Sally, who guards your room like a dragon, would rather see me walk the whole way, than have any of your things disturbed.
Your affectionate sister,
FAITH BENSON.
It was a great relief to Mr Benson to think that his sister would so soon be with him. He had been accustomed from childhood to rely on her prompt judgment and excellent sense; and to her care he felt that Ruth ought to be consigned, as it was too much to go on taxing good Mrs Hughes with night watching and sick nursing, with all her other claims on her time. He asked her once more to sit by Ruth, while he went to meet his sister.
The coach pa.s.sed by the foot of the steep ascent which led up to Llan-dhu. He took a boy to carry his sister"s luggage when she arrived; they were too soon at the bottom of the hill, and the boy began to make ducks and drakes in the shallowest part of the stream, which there flowed gla.s.sy and smooth, while Mr Benson sat down on a great stone, under the shadow of an alder bush which grew where the green, flat meadow skirted the water. It was delightful to be once more in the open air, and away from the scenes and thoughts which had been pressing on him for the last three days. There was new beauty in everything: from the blue mountains which glimmered in the distant sunlight, down to the flat, rich, peaceful vale, with its calm round shadows, where he sat. The very margin of white pebbles which lay on the banks of the stream had a sort of cleanly beauty about it. He felt calmer and more at ease than he had done for some days; and yet, when he began to think, it was rather a strange story which he had to tell his sister, in order to account for his urgent summons. Here was he, sole friend and guardian of a poor sick girl, whose very name he did not know; about whom all that he did know was, that she had been the mistress of a man who had deserted her, and that he feared--he believed--she had contemplated suicide. The offence, too, was one for which his sister, good and kind as she was, had little compa.s.sion.
Well, he must appeal to her love for him, which was a very unsatisfactory mode of proceeding, as he would far rather have had her interest in the girl founded on reason, or some less personal basis than showing it merely because her brother wished it.
The coach came slowly rumbling over the stony road. His sister was outside, but got down in a brisk active way, and greeted her brother heartily and affectionately. She was considerably taller than he was, and must have been very handsome; her black hair was parted plainly over her forehead, and her dark, expressive eyes and straight nose still retained the beauty of her youth. I do not know whether she was older than her brother, but, probably owing to his infirmity requiring her care, she had something of a mother"s manner towards him.
"Thurstan, you are looking pale! I do not believe you are well, whatever you may say. Have you had the old pain in your back?"
"No--a little--never mind that, dearest Faith. Sit down here, while I send the boy up with your box." And then, with some little desire to show his sister how well he was acquainted with the language, he blundered out his directions in very grammatical Welsh; so grammatical, in fact, and so badly p.r.o.nounced, that the boy, scratching his head, made answer,
"Dim Saesoneg."
So he had to repeat it in English.
"Well now, Thurstan, here I sit as you bid me. But don"t try me too long; tell me why you sent for me."
Now came the difficulty, and oh! for a seraph"s tongue, and a seraph"s powers of representation! but there was no seraph at hand, only the soft running waters singing a quiet tune, and predisposing Miss Benson to listen with a soothed spirit to any tale, not immediately involving her brother"s welfare, which had been the cause of her seeing that lovely vale.
"It is an awkward story to tell, Faith, but there is a young woman lying ill at my lodgings whom I wanted you to nurse."