In a dream, a vision, or perchance in truth--which they never knew--they were drawn to the world that they had left, and the reek of its sins and miseries pierced them like a spear.
They stood in the streets of London near to a certain fantastic gateway that was familiar to them, the gateway of "The Gardens." From within came sounds of music and revelling, for the season was that of summer.
A woman descended from a carriage. She was finely dressed, dark and handsome. Barbara knew her at once for the girl Bess Catton, who alone could control her son in his rages and whom she had dismissed for her bad conduct. She entered the place and they entered with her, although she saw them not. Bess sat down, and presently a man whom she seemed to know drew out of the throng and spoke to her. He was a tall man of middle age, with heavy eyes. Looking into his heart, they saw that it was stained with evil. The soul within him lay asleep, wrapped round with the webs of sin. This man said:
"We are going to have a merry supper, Bess. Come and join us."
"I"d like to well enough," she answered, "for I"m tired of my grand life; it"s too respectable. But suppose that Anthony came along. He"s my lawful spouse, you know. We had words and I told him where I was going."
"Oh, we"ll risk your Anthony! Forget your marriage ring and have a taste of the good old times."
"All right. I"m not afraid of Anthony, never was, but others are. Well, it"s your look-out."
She went with the man to a pavilion where food was served, and accompanied him to a room separated by curtains from the main hall. It had open windows which looked out on to the illuminated garden and the dancing. In this room, seated round a table, was a company of women gaudily dressed and painted, and with them were men. One of these was a mere boy now being drawn into evil for the first time, and Barbara grieved for him.
These welcomed the woman Bess and her companion noisily, and made room for them in seats near to the window. Then the meal began, a costly meal at which not much was eaten but a great deal was drunk. The revellers grew excited with wine; they made jests and told doubtful stories.
Barbara"s son Anthony entered un.o.bserved and stood with his back against the curtains. He was a man now, tall, powerful, and in his way handsome, with hair of a chestnut red. Just then he who had brought Bess to the supper threw his arm about her and kissed her, whereat she laughed and the others laughed also.
Anthony sprang forward. The table was overthrown. He seized the man and shook him. Then he struck him in the face and hurled him through the open window to the path below. For a few seconds the man lay there, then rose and ran till presently he vanished beneath the shadow of some trees. There was tumult and confusion in the room; servants rushed in, and one of the men, he who seemed to be the host, talked with them and offered them money. The woman Bess began to revile her husband.
He took her by the arm and said:
"Will you follow that fellow through the window, or will you come with me?"
Glancing at him, she saw something in his face that made her silent.
Then they went away together.
The scene changed. Barbara knew that now she saw her Aunt Thompson"s London house. In that drawing-room where she had parted from Mr.
Russell, her son and his wife stood face to face.
"How dare you?" she gasped through her set lips, glaring at him with fierce eyes.
"How dare _you?_" he answered. "Did I marry you for this? I have given you everything, my name, the wealth my old aunt left to me; you, you the peasant"s child, the evil woman whom I tried to lift up because I loved you from the first."
"Then you were a fool for your pains, for such as I can"t be lifted up."
"And you," he went on, unheeding, "go back to your mire and the herd of your fellow-swine. You ask me how I dare. Go on with these ways, and I tell you I"ll dare a good deal more before I"ve done. I"ll be rid of you if I must break your neck and hang for it."
"You can"t be rid of me. I"m your lawful wife, and you can prove nothing against me since I married. Do you think I want to be such a one as that mother of yours, to have children and mope myself to the grave----"
"You"d best leave my mother out of it, or by the devil that made you I"ll send you after her. Keep her name off your vile lips."
"Why should I? What good did she ever do you? She pretended to be such a saint, but she hated you, and small wonder, seeing what you were. Why she even died to be rid of you. Oh, I know all about it, and you told me as much yourself. If my child is ever born I hope for your sake it will be such another as you are, or as I am. You can take your choice," and with a glare of hate she rushed from the room.
On a table near the fireplace stood spirits. The maddened husband went to them, filled a tumbler half full with brandy, added a little water and drank it off.
He poured more brandy into the gla.s.s and began to think. To Barbara his mind was as an open book and she read what was pa.s.sing there. What she saw were such thoughts as these: "My only comfort, and yet till within two years ago, whatever else I did, I never touched drink. I swore to my mother that I never would, and had she been alive to-day----. But Bess always liked her gla.s.s, and drinking alone is no company. Ah! if my mother had lived everything would have been different, for I outgrew the bad fit and might have become quite a decent fellow. But then I met Bess again by chance, and she had the old hold on me, and there was none to keep me back, and she knew how to play her fish until I married her. The old aunt never found it out. If she had I shouldn"t have 8,000 pounds a year to-day. I lied to her about that, and I wonder what she thinks of me now, if she can think where she is gone. I wonder what my mother thinks also, and my father, who was a good man by all accounts, though n.o.body seems to remember much about him. Supposing that they could see me now, supposing that they could have been at that supper party and witnessed the conjugal interview between me and the female creature who is my legal wife, what would they think? Well, they are dead and can"t, for the dead don"t come back. The dead are just a few double handfuls of dirt, no more, and since no doubt I shall join them before very long, I thank G.o.d for it, or rather I would if there were a G.o.d to thank. Here"s to the company of the Dead who will never hear or see or feel anything more from everlasting to everlasting. Amen."
Then he drank off the second half tumbler of brandy, hid his face in his hands and began to sob, muttering:
"Mother, why did you leave me? Oh, mother, come back to me, mother, and save my soul from h.e.l.l!"
Barbara and Anthony awoke from their dream of the dreadful earth and looked into each other"s hearts.
"It is true," said their hearts, which could not lie, and with those words all the glory of their state faded to a grey nothingness.
"You have seen and heard," said Barbara. "It was my sin which has brought this misery on our son, who, had I lived on, might have been saved. Now through me he is lost, who step by step of his own will must travel downwards to the last depth, and thence, perhaps, never be raised again. This is the thing that I have done, yes, I whom blind judges in the world held to be good."
"I have seen and heard," he answered, "and joy has departed from me. Yet what wrong have you worked, who did not know?"
"Come, my father," called Barbara to that spirit who in the flesh had been named Septimus Walrond, "come, you who are holy, and pray that light may be given to us."
So he came and prayed and from the Heavens above fell a vision in answer to his prayer. The vision was that of the fate of the soul of the son of Anthony and Barbara through a thousand, thousand ages that were to come, and it was a dreadful fate.
"Pray again, my father," said Barbara, "and ask if it may be changed."
So the spirit of Septimus Walrond prayed, and the spirits of his daughters and of the daughter of Anthony and Barbara prayed with him.
Together they kneeled and prayed to the Glory that shone above.
There came another vision, that of a little child leading a man by the hand, and the child was Barbara and the man was he who had been her son.
By a long and difficult path--upwards, ever upwards--she led him, and the end of that path was not seen.
Then these spirits prayed that the meaning of this vision might be made more clear. But to that prayer there came no answer.
Barbara went apart into a wilderness where thorns grew and there endured the agony of temptation. On the one hand lay the pure life of joy which, like the difficult path that had been shown to her, led upwards, ever upwards to yet greater joy, shared with those she loved. On the other hand lay the seething h.e.l.l of Earth, to be once more endured through many mortal years and--a soul to save alive. None might counsel her, none might direct her. She must choose and choose alone. Not in fear of punishment, for this was not possible to her. Not in hope of glory, for that she must inherit, but only for the hope"s sake that she might--save a soul alive.
Out of her deep heart"s infinite love and charity thus she chose in atonement of her mortal sin. And as she chose the great arc of Heaven above her, that had been grey and silent, burst to splendour and to song.
So Barbara for a while bade farewell to those who loved her, bade farewell to Anthony her heart"s heart. Once more, alone, utterly alone, she laid her on the couch in the great chamber with the translucent dome and thence her spirit was whirled back through nothingness to the h.e.l.l of Earth, there to be born again in the child of the evil woman, that it might save a soul alive.
Thus did the sweet and holy Barbara--Barbara who came back--in atonement of her sin.
For her reward, as she fights on in hope, she has memory and such visions as are written here.
THE END