"There is worse. I have forged two notes. Together they make nearly L19,000. The first falls due in three days. I have no hope of redeeming it. I am going to the other end of the world. I am glad to go, for I am sick of every thing here. I"ll do well yet. You will help me, Elizabeth?"
She could not answer him.
"For our father"s sake, for our mother"s sake, you must help me away.
It will be transportation for life. O, sister, give me another chance.
I will put the wrong all right yet."
By this time she had gathered her faculties together.
"Yes, I"ll help you, dear. Lie down and rest. I will go to Martha.
I can trust the Cravens. Is it Liverpool you want to reach?"
"No, no; any port but Liverpool."
"Will Whitehaven do?"
"The best of all places."
"I will return as quickly as possible."
"But it is raining heavily, and the park is so gloomy. Let me go with you."
"I must go alone."
He looked at her with sorrow and tenderness and bitter shame. Her face showed white as marble against the dead black of her dress, but there was also in it a strength and purpose to which he fully trusted.
"I must ring for my maid and dismiss her, and you had better go to your own old room, Antony;" and as he softly trod the corridor, lined with the faces of his forefathers, Elizabeth followed him in thought, and shuddered at the mental picture she evoked.
Then she rang her bell, gave some trivial order, and excused her maid for the night. A quarter of an hour afterward she was hastening through the park, scarcely heeding the soaking rain, or the chill, or darkness, in the pre-occupation of her thoughts. She had flung a thick shawl over her head and shoulders, a fashion so universal as to greatly lessen her chance of being observed, and when she came to the park gates she looked up and down for some circ.u.mstance to guide her further steps. She found it in the lighted windows of the Methodist chapel.
There was evidently a service there, and Martha would be present. If she waited patiently she would pa.s.s the gates, and she could call her.
But it was a wretched hour before Martha came, and Elizabeth was wet and shivering and sick with many a terror. Fortunately Martha was alone, and the moment Elizabeth spoke she understood, without surprise or explanations, that there was trouble in which she could help.
"Martha, where is Ben?"
"He stopp"d to t" leaders" meeting. He"ll be along in a little bit."
"Can he bring a wool-comber"s suit and ap.r.o.n, and be at the gates, here, with-his tax-cart in a couple of hours?"
"Yes; I know he can."
"Martha, can you get me some bread and meat, without any one knowing?"
"Ay; I can. Mary"ll be up stairs wi" t" baby, I"se warrant. I"ll be back wi" it, i" five minutes;" and she left Elizabeth walking restlessly just inside the gates. The five minutes looked an hour to her, but in reality Martha returned very speedily with a small basket of cold meat and bread.
"My brother, Martha, my brother, will be here in two hours. See that Ben is ready. He must be in Whitehaven as soon as possible to-morrow.
Don"t forget the clothes."
"I"ll forget nothing that"s needful. Ben"ll be waiting. G.o.d help, you, Miss Hallam!"
Elizabeth answered with a low cry, and Martha watched her a moment hastening through the rain and darkness, ere she turned back toward the chapel to wait for Ben.
A new terror seized Elizabeth as she returned. What if Jasper had locked the doors? How would it be possible for her to account for her strange absence from the house at that hour? But Antony had also thought of this, and after the main doors had been closed he had softly undone a side entrance, and watched near it for his sister"s return.
His punishment begun when he saw her wretched condition; but there was no time then for either apologies or reproaches.
"Eat," she said, putting the basket before him; "and Ben will be at the gates with his tax-cart. He will take you to Whitehaven."
"Can I trust Ben?"
She looked at him sadly. "You must have been much wronged, Antony, to doubt the Cravens."
"I have."
"G.o.d pity and pardon you."
He ate in silence, glancing furtively at his sister, who sat white and motionless opposite him. There was no light but the fire-light; and the atmosphere of the room had that singular sensitiveness that is apparent enough when the spiritual body is on the alert. It felt full of "presence;" was tremulous, as if stirred by wings; and seemed to press heavily, and to make sighing a relief.
After Antony had eaten he lay down upon a couch and fell into an uneasy sleep, and so continued, until Elizabeth touched him, and said, softly, "It is time, my dear. Ben will be waiting." Then he stood up and looked at her. She took his hands, she threw her arms around his neck, she sobbed great, heavy, quiet sobs against his breast. She felt that it was a last farewell--that she would never see his face again.
And Antony could not restrain himself. He kissed her with despairing grief. He made pa.s.sionate promises of atonement. He came back three times to kiss once more the white cold face so dear to him, and each time he kissed a prayer for his safety and pardon off her lips. At the last moment he said, "Your love is great, Elizabeth. My little boy! I have wronged him shamefully."
"He shall be my child. He shall never know shame. I will take the most loving care of his future. You may trust him to me, Antony."
Then he went away. Elizabeth tried to see him from the window, but the night was dark, and he kept among the shrubbery. At such hours the soul apprehends and has presentiments and feelings which it obeys without a.n.a.lyzing them. She paced the long corridor, feeling no chill and no fear, and seeming to see clearly the pictured faces around her.
She was praying; and among them she did not feel as if she was praying aloud. She remembered in that hour many things that her father had said to her about Antony. She knew then the meaning of that strange cry on her mother"s dying lips--"A far country! Bring my son home!"
For an hour or two it was only Antony"s danger and shame, only Antony"s crime, she could think of. But when the reaction came she perceived that she must work as well as pray. Two questions first suggested themselves for her solution.
Should she go to Whaley for advice, or act entirely on her own responsibility?
Would she be able to influence Page and Thorley, the bankers who held her brother"s forged notes, by a personal visit?
She dismissed all efforts at reasoning, she determined to let herself be guided by those impressions which we call "instinct." She could not reason, but she tried to feel. And she felt most decidedly that she would have no counselor but her own heart. She, would doubtless do what any lawyer would call "foolish things;" but that was a case where "foolishness" might be the highest wisdom. She said to herself, "My intellect is often at fault, but where Antony and Hallam are concerned I am sure that I can trust my heart."
As to Page and Thorley, she knew that they had had frequently business transactions with her father. Mr. Thorley had once been at the hall; he would know thoroughly the value of the proposal she intended making them; and, upon the whole, it appeared to be the wisest plan to see them personally. In fact, she did not feel as if she could endure the delay and the uncertainty of a correspondence on the subject.
The morning of the second day after Antony"s flight she was in London.
In business an Englishman throws over politeness. He says, "How do you do?" very much as if he was saying, "Leave me alone;" and he is not inclined to answer questions, save, by "yes" or "no." Elizabeth perceived at once that tears or weakness would damage her cause, and that the only way to meet Antony"s wrong was to repair it, and to do this in the plainest and simplest manner possible.
"I am Miss Hallam."
"Take a seat, Miss Hallam."
"You hold two notes of my brothers, one purporting to be drawn by Lord Eltham for L9,000; the other by Squire Francis Horton for L9,600."
"Yes; why "purporting?""
"They are forgeries."