"Oh! G.o.d bless him!" sobbed Margaret.
Sir James came back immediately, shook his head, went across the room, and sat down in the seat that Ralph had left. A dreadful stillness fell.
Margaret was quiet now. Mary was sitting with her husband on the other side of the hearth. Chris rose presently and sat down by his father, but no one spoke a word.
Then Nicholas got up uneasily, came across the room, and stood with his back to the hearth warming himself. Beatrice saw him glance now and again to the shadowed window-seat where the two men sat; he hummed a note or two to himself softly; then turned round and stared at the fire with outstretched hands.
The bell rang for prayers, and still without a word being spoken they all got up and went out.
In the same silence they came back. Ralph"s servant was standing by the door as they entered.
"If you please, sir, Mr. Ralph is come in. He bade me tell you that all is arranged."
The old man looked at him, swallowed once in his throat; and at last spoke.
"It is arranged, you say? It will not take place?"
"It will not take place, sir."
"Where is Mr. Ralph?"
"He is gone to his room, sir. He bade me tell you he would be leaving early for London."
CHAPTER VI
A CATASTROPHE
Ralph rode away early next morning, yet not so early as to escape an interview with his father. They met in the hall, Sir James in his loose morning gown and Ralph booted and spurred with his short cloak and tight cap. The old man took him by the sleeve, drawing him to the fire that burned day and night in winter.
"Ralph--Ralph, my son," he said, "I must thank you for last night."
"You have to thank yourself only, sir, and my mother. I could do no otherwise."
"It is you--" began his father.
"It is certainly not Nick, sir. The hot fool nearly provoked me."
"But you hate such mummery yourself, my son?"
Ralph hesitated.
"It is not seemly--" began his father again.
"It is certainly not seemly; but neither are the common folk seemly."
"Did you have much business with them, my son?" Ralph smiled in the firelight.
"Why, no, sir. I told them who I was. I charged myself with the burden."
"And you will not be in trouble with my Lord?"
"My Lord has other matters to think of than a parcel of mummers."
Then they separated; and Ralph rode down the drive with his servants behind him. Neither father nor son had said a word of any return.
Neither had Ralph had one private word with Beatrice during his three days" stay. Once he had come into the parlour to find her going out at the other door; and he had wondered whether she had heard his step and gone out on purpose. But he knew very well that under the superficial courtesy between him and her there lay something deeper--some pa.s.sionate emotion vibrated like a beam between them; but he did not know, even on his side and still less on hers, whether that emotion were one of love or loathing. It was partly from the discomfort of the charged atmosphere, partly from a shrinking from thanks and explanations that he had determined to go up to London a day earlier than he had intended; he had a hatred of personal elaborateness.
He found Cromwell, on his arrival in London, a little less moody than he had been in the previous week; for he was busy with preparations for the Parliament that was to meet in April; and to the occupation that this gave him there was added a good deal of business connected with Henry"s negotiations with the Emperor. The dispute, that at present centred round the treatment of Englishmen in Spain, and other similar matters, in reality ran its roots far deeper; and there were a hundred details which occupied the minister. But there was still a hint of storm in the air; Cromwell spoke brusquely once or twice without cause, and Ralph refrained from saying anything about the affair at Overfield, but took up his own work again quietly.
A fortnight later, however, he heard of it once more.
He was sitting at a second table in Cromwell"s own room in the Rolls House, when one of the secretaries came up with a bundle of reports, and laid them as usual before Ralph.
Ralph finished the letter he was engaged on--one to Dr. Barnes who had preached a Protestant sermon at Paul"s Cross, and who now challenged Bishop Gardiner to a public disputation. Ralph was telling him to keep his pugnacity to himself; and when he had done took up the reports and ran his eyes over them.
They were of the usual nature--complaints, informations, protests, appeals from men of every rank of life; agents, farm-labourers, priests, ex-Religious, fanatics--and he read them quickly through, docketing their contents at the head of each that his master might be saved trouble.
At one, however, he stopped, glanced momentarily at Cromwell, and then read on.
It was an illiterate letter, ill-spelt and smudged, and consisted of a complaint from a man who signed himself Robert Benham, against "Mr.
Ralph Torridon, as he named himself," for hindering the performance of a piece ent.i.tled "The Jolly Friar" in the parish of Overfield, on Sunday, February the first. Mr. Torridon, the writer stated, had used my Lord Cromwell"s name and authority in stopping the play; expenses had been incurred in connection with it, for a barn had been hired, and the transport of the properties had cost money; and Mr. Benham desired to know whether these expenses would be made good to him, and if Mr.
Torridon had acted in accordance with my Lord"s wishes.
Ralph bit his pen in some perplexity, when he had finished making out the doc.u.ment. He wondered whether he had better show it to Cromwell; it might irritate him or not, according to his mood. If it was destroyed surely no harm would be done; and yet Ralph had a disinclination to destroy it. He sat a moment or two longer considering; once he took the paper by the corners to tear it; then laid it down again; glanced once more at the heavy intent face a couple of yards away, and then by a sudden impulse took up his pen and wrote a line on the corner explaining the purport of the paper, initialled it, and laid it with the rest.
Cromwell was so busy during the rest of the day that there was no opportunity to explain the circ.u.mstances to him; indeed he was hardly in the room again, so great was the crowd that waited on him continually for interviews, and Ralph went away, leaving the reports for his chief to examine at his leisure.
The next morning there was a storm.
Cromwell burst out on him as soon as he came in.
"Shut the door, Mr. Torridon," he snapped. "I must have a word with you."
Ralph closed the door and came across to Cromwell"s table and stood there, apparently imperturbable, but with a certain quickening of his pulse.
"What is this, sir?" snarled the other, taking up the letter that was laid at his hand. "Is it true?"
Ralph looked at him coolly.
"What is it, my Lord? Mr. Robert Benham?"
"Yes, Mr. Robert Benham. Is it true? I wish an answer."