At this offence there fell a dead silence. Wilfrid gazed on them all indifferently, waiting for the moment to strike a final blow.
When she had grasped the fact that Pity did not sit in the a.s.sembly, Mrs. Chump rose.
"Oh! if I haven"t been sitting among three owls and a raven," she exclaimed. Then she fussed at her gown. "I wish ye good day, young ladus, and mayhap ye"d like to be interduced to No. 2 yourselves, some fine mornin"? Prov"dence can wait. There"s a patient hen on the eggs of all of ye! I wouldn"t marry Pole now--not if he was to fall flat and howl for me. Mr. Wilfrud, I wish ye good-bye. Ye"ve done your work. I"ll be out of this house in half-an-hour."
This was not quite what Wilfrid had meant to effect. He proposed to her that she should come to the yacht, and indeed leave Brookfield to go on board. But Mrs. Chump was in that frame of mind when, shamefully wounded by others, we find our comfort in wilfully wounding ourselves. "No," she said (betraying a meagre mollification at every offer), "I"ll not stop.
I won"t go to the yacht--unless I think better of ut. But I won"t stop. Ye"ve hurrt me, and I"ll say good-bye. I hope ye"ll none of ye be widows. It"s a crool thing. And when ye"ve got no children of your own, and feel, all your inside risin" to another person"s, and they hate ye--hate ye! Oh! Oh!--There, Mr. Wilfrud, ye needn"t touch me elbow. Oh, dear! look at me in the gla.s.s! and my hair! Annybody"d swear I"d been drinkin". I won"t let Pole look at me. That"d cure "m. And he must let me have money, because I don"t care for "c.u.mulations. Not now, when there"s no young--no garls and a precious boy, who"d say, when I"m gone, "Bless her" Oh! "Poor thing! Bless--" Oh! Augh!" A note of Sorrow"s own was fetched; and the next instant, with a figure of dignity, the afflicted woman observed: "There"s seven bottles of my Porrt, and there"s eleven of champagne, and some comut clar"t I shall write where ut"s to be sent. And, if you please, look to the packing; for bits o"
gla.s.s and a red stain"s not like your precious hope when you"re undoin a hamper. And that"s just myself now, and I"m a broken woman; but naver mind, n.o.body!"
A very formal and stiff "Good-bye," succeeding a wheezy lamentation, concluded the speech. Casting a look at the gla.s.s, Mrs. Chump retired, with her fingers on the ornamental piece of hair.
The door having closed on her, Wilfrid said to his sisters: "I want one of you to come with me to town immediately. Decide which will go."
His eyes questioned Cornelia. Hers were dropped.
"I have work to do," pleaded Adela.
"An appointment? You will break it."
"No, dear, not--"
"Not exactly an appointment. Then there"s nothing to break. Put on your bonnet."
Adela slipped from the room in a spirit of miserable obedience.
"I could not possibly leave papa," said Arabella, and Wilfrid nodded his head. His sisters knew quite well what was his business in town, but they felt that they were at his mercy, and dared not remonstrate.
Cornelia ventured to say, "I think she should not come back to us till papa is in a better state."
"Perhaps not," replied Wilfrid, careless how much he betrayed by his apprehension of the person indicated.
The two returned late that night, and were met by Arabella at the gate.
"Papa has been--don"t be alarmed," she began. "He is better now. But when he heard that she was not in the house, the blood left his hands and feet. I have had to use a falsehood. I said, "She left word that she was coming back to-night or to-morrow." Then he became simply angry. Who could have believed that the sight of him so would ever have rejoiced me!"
Adela, worn with fatigue, sobbed, "Oh! Oh!"
"By the way, Sir Twickenham called, and wished to see you," said Arabella curiously.
"Oh! so weary!" the fair girl e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, half-dreaming that she saw herself as she threw back her head and gazed at stars and clouds. "We met Captain Gambier in town." Here she pinched Arabella"s arm.
The latter said, "Where?"
"In a miserable street, where he looked like a peac.o.c.k in a quagmire."
Arabella entreated Wilfrid to be careful in his management of their father. "Pray, do not thwart him. He has been anxious to know where you have gone. He--he thinks you have conducted Mrs. Chump, and will bring her back. I did not say it--I merely let him think so."
She added presently, "He has spoken of money."
"Yes?" went Adela, in a low breath.
"Cornelia imagines that--that we--he is perhaps in--in want of it.
Merchants are, sometimes."
"Did Sir Twickenham say he would call to-morrow?" asked Adela.
"He said that most probably he would."
Wilfrid had been silent. As he entered the house, Mr. Pole"s bedroom-bell rang, and word came that he was to go to his father. As soon as the sisters were alone, Adela groaned: "We have been hunting that girl all day in vile neighbourhoods. Wilfrid has not spoken more than a dozen sentences. I have had to dine on buns and hideous soup. I am half-dead with the smell of cabs. Oh! if ever I am poor it will kill me. That damp hay and close musty life are too intolerable! Yes! You see I care for what I eat. I seem to be growing an animal. And Wilfrid is going to drag me over the same course to-morrow, if you don"t prevent him. I would not mind, only it is absolutely necessary that I should see Sir Twickenham."
She gave a reason why, which appeared to Arabella so cogent that she said at once: "If Cornelia does not take your place I will."
The kiss of thanks given by Adela was accompanied by a request for tea.
Arabella regretted that she had sent the servants to bed.
"To bed!" cried her sister. "But they are the masters, not we! Really, if life were a round of sensual pleasure, I think our servants might congratulate themselves."
Arabella affected to show that they had their troubles; but her statement made it clear that the servants of Brookfield were peculiarly favoured servants, as it was their mistress"s pride to make them.
Eventually Adela consented to drink some sparkling light wine; and being thirsty she drank eagerly, and her tongue was loosed, insomuch that she talked of things as one who had never been a blessed inhabitant of the kingdom of Fine Shades. She spoke of "Cornelia"s chances;" of "Wilfrid"s headstrong infatuation--or worse;" and of "Papa"s position," remarking that she could both laugh and cry.
Arabella, glad to see her refreshed, was pained by her rampant tone; and when Adela, who had fallen into one of her reflective "long-shot" moods, chanced to say, "What a number of different beings there are in the world!" her reply was, "I was just then thinking we are all less unlike than we suppose."
"Oh, my goodness!" cried Adela. "What! am I at all--at all--in the remotest degree--like that creature we have got rid of?"
The negative was not decisively enunciated or immediate; that is, it did not come with the vehemence and volume that could alone have satisfied Adela"s expectation.
The "We are all of one family" was an offensive truism, of which Adela might justly complain.
That night the ladies received their orders from Wilfrid--they were to express no alarm before their father as to the state of his health, or to treat him ostensibly as an invalid; they were to marvel publicly at Mrs. Chump"s continued absence, and a letter requesting her to return was to be written. At the sign of an expostulation, Wilfrid smote them down by saying that the old man"s life hung on a thread, and it was for them to cut it or not.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV
Lady Charlotte was too late for Emilia, when she went forth to her to speak for Wilfrid. She found the youth Braintop resting heavily against a tree, muttering to himself that he had no notion where he was, as an excuse for his stationary posture, while the person he presumed he should have detained was being borne away. Near him a sc.r.a.p of paper lay on the ground, struck out of darkness by long slips of light from the upper windows. Thinking this might be something purposely dropped, she took possession of it; but a glance subsequently showed her that the writing was too fervid for a female hand. "Or does the girl write in that way?" she thought. She soon decided that it was Wilfrid who had undone her work in the line of thirsty love-speech. "How can a little fool read them and not believe any lie that he may tell!" she cried to herself. She chose to say contemptuously: "It"s like a child proclaiming he is hungry." That it was couched in bad taste she positively conceived--taking the paper up again and again to correct her memory.
The termination, "Your lover," appeared to her, if not laughable, revolting. She was uncertain in her sentiments at this point.
Was it amusing? or simply execrable? Some charity for the unhappy doc.u.ment Lady Charlotte found when she could say: "I suppose this is the general run of the kind of again." "Was it?" she reflected; and drank at the words again. "No," she came to think; "men don"t commonly write as he does, whoever wrote this." She had no doubt that it was Wilfrid. By fits her wrath was directed against him. "It"s villany," she said. But more and more frequently a crouching abject longing to call the words her own--to have them poured into her heart and brain--desire for the intoxication of the naked speech of love usurped her spirit of pride, until she read with envious tears, half loathing herself, but fascinated and subdued: "Mine! my angel! You will see me to-morrow.--Your Lover."
Of jealousy she felt very little--her chief thought coming like a wave over her: "Here is a man that can love!"
She was a woman of chaste blood, which spoke to her as shyly as a girl"s, now that it was in tumult: so indeed that, pressing her heart, she thought youth to have come back, and feasted on the exultation we have when, at an odd hour, we fancy we have cheated time. The sensation of youth and strength seemed to set a seal of lawfulness and naturalness, hitherto wanting, on her feeling for Wilfrid. "I can help him," she thought. "I know where he fails, and what he can do. I can give him position, and be worth as much as any woman can be to a man."
Thus she justified the direction taken by the new force in her.
Two days later Wilfrid received a letter from Lady Charlotte, saying that she, with a chaperon, had started to join her brother at the yacht-station, according to appointment. Amazed and utterly discomfited, he looked about for an escape; but his father, whose plea of sickness had kept him from pursuing Emilia, petulantly insisted that he should go down to Lady Charlotte. Adela was ready to go. There were numbers either going or now on the spot, and the net was around him. Cornelia held back, declaring that her place was by her father"s side. Fine Shades were still too dominant at Brookfield for anyone to tell her why she stayed.
With anguish so deep that he could not act indifference, Wilfrid went on his miserable expedition--first setting a watch over Mr. Pericles, the which, in connection with the electric telegraph, was to enable him to join that gentleman speedily, whithersoever he might journey. He was not one to be deceived by the Greek"s mask in running down daily to Brookfield. A manoeuvre like that was poor; and besides, he had seen the sallow eyes give a twinkle more than once.