John shook his head. "It all depends upon the view the man takes of it,"
he said.
Now this was very cold comfort to Mrs. Dennistoun, who had by this time become very secure in her position, feeling herself entirely justified in all that she had done. "The man," she said, "the man is not the sufferer: and surely the woman has some claim to be heard."
"Every claim," said John. "That is not what I was thinking of. It is this: if the man has a leg to stand upon, he will show fight. If he hasn"t--why that will make the whole difference, and probably Elinor"s position will be quite safe. But you yourself say----"
"John, don"t throw back upon me what I myself said. I said that perhaps things were not so bad as she believed. In my experience I have found that folly, and playing with everything that is right is more common than absolute wrong--and men like Philip Compton are made up of levity and disregard of everything that is serious."
"In that case," said John, "if you are right, he will not let her go."
"Oh, John! oh, John! don"t make me wish that he may be a worse man than I think. He could not force her to go back to him, feeling as she does."
"n.o.body can force a woman to do that; but he could perhaps make her position untenable; he would, perhaps, take away the child."
"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in alarm, "if you tell her that, she will fly off with him to the end of the world. She will die before she will part with the child."
"I suppose that"s how women are made," said John, not yet cured of his personal offence.
"Yes," she said, "that"s how women are made."
"I beg your pardon," he said, coming to himself; "but you know, aunt, a man may be pardoned for not understanding that supreme fascination of the baby who cares no more for one than another, poor little animal, so long as it gets its food and is warm enough. We must await and see what the man will do."
"Is that the best?--is there nothing we can do to defend ourselves in the meantime--to make any sort of barricade against him?"
"We must wait and see what he is going to do," said John; and they went over and over the question, again and again, as they climbed the hills.
It grew quite dark as they drove along, and when they came out upon the open part of the road, from which the Cottage was visible, they both looked out across the combe to the lights in the windows with an involuntary movement. The Cottage was transformed; instead of the one lonely lighted window which had indicated to John in former visits where Mrs. Dennistoun sat alone, there was now a twinkle from various points, a glow of firelight, a sensation of warmth, and company. Mrs. Dennistoun looked out upon it and her face shone. It was not a happy thing that Elinor should have made shipwreck of her life, should have left her husband and sought refuge in her mother"s house. But how could it be otherwise than happy that Elinor was there--Elinor and the other little creature who was something more than Elinor, herself and yet another?
As for John, he looked at it too, with an interest which stopped all arguments on the cause of it. She was there--wrong, perhaps, impatient; too quick to fly as she had been too quick to go--but still Elinor all the same, whether she was right or wrong.
The cab arrived soberly at the door, where Pearson with the pony carriage, coming by the shorter way with the luggage, had just arrived also. Mrs. Dennistoun said, hurriedly, "You will find Elinor in the drawing-room, John," and herself went hastily through the house and up the stairs. She was going to the baby! John guessed this with a smile of astonishment and half contempt. How strange it was! There could not be a more sad position than that in which, in their rashness, these two women had placed themselves; and yet the mother, a woman of experience, who ought to have known better, got out of the carriage like a girl, without waiting to be helped or attended to, and went up-stairs like the wind, forgetting everything else for that child--that child, the inheritor of Phil Compton"s name and very likely of his qualities--fated from his birth (most likely) to bring trouble to everybody connected with him! And yet Elinor was of less interest to her mother. What strange caprices of nature! what extraordinary freaks of womankind!
The Cottage down-stairs was warm and bright with firelight and lamplight, and in the great chair by the fire was reclining, lying back with her book laid on her lap and her face full of eager attention to the sounds outside, a pale young woman, surrounded by cushions and warm wraps and everything an invalid could require, who raised to him eyes more large and shining than he had ever seen before, suffused with a dew of pain and pleasure and eager welcome. Elinor, was it Elinor? He had never seen her in any way like an invalid before--never knew her to be ill, or weak, or unable to walk out to the door and meet him or anyone she cared for. The sight of her ailing, weak, with those large glistening eyes, enlarged by feebleness, went to his very heart.
Fortunately he did not in any way connect this enfeebled state with the phenomenon up-stairs, which was best for all parties. He hurried up to her, taking her thin hands into his own.
"Elinor! my poor little Nelly--can this be you!"
The water that was in her eyes rolled over in two great tears; a brief convulsion went over her face. "Yes, John," she said, almost in a whisper. "Strange as it may seem, this is all that is left of me."
He sat down beside her and for a moment neither of them spoke. Pity, tenderness, wrath, surged up together in John"s breast; pity, tender compa.s.sion, most strong of all. Poor little thing; this was how she had come back to her home; her heart broken, her wings broken, as it were; all her soaring and swiftness and energy gone. He could scarcely look upon her for the pity that overflowed his heart. But underneath lay wrath, not only against the man who had brought her to such a pa.s.s, but against herself too.
"John," she said, after a while, "do you remember saying to me that I was not one to bear, to put up with things, to take the consequences if I tried a dangerous experiment and failed?"
"Did I ever say anything so silly and so cruel?"
"Oh, no, no; it was neither silly nor unkind, but quite, quite true. I have thought of it so often. I used to think of it to stir up my pride, to remind myself that I ought to try to be better than my nature, not to allow you to be a true prophet. But it was so, and I couldn"t change it.
You can see you were right, John, for I have not been like a strong woman, able to endure; I have only been able to run away."
"My poor little Nelly!"
"Don"t pity me," she said, the tears running over again. "I am too well off; I am too well taken care of. A prodigal should not be made so much of as I am."
"Don"t call yourself a prodigal, Nelly! Perhaps things may not be as bad as they appear. At least, it is but the first fall--the greatest athlete gets many before he can stand against the world."
"I"ll never be an athlete, John. Besides, I"m a woman, you know, and a fall of any kind is fatal to a woman, especially anything of this kind.
No, I know very well it"s all over; I shall never hold up my head again.
But that"s not the question--the question is, to be safe and as free as can be. Mamma takes me in, you know, just as if nothing had happened.
She is quite willing to take the burden of me on her shoulders--and of baby. She has told you that there are two of me, now, John--my baby, as well as myself."
John could only nod an a.s.sent; he could not speak.
"It"s a wonderful thing to come out of a wreck with a treasure in one"s arms; everything going to pieces behind one; the rafters coming down, the walls falling in and yet one"s treasure in one"s arms. Oh, I had not the heart or the strength to come out of the tumbling house. My mother did it all, dragged me out, wrapped me up in love and kindness, carried me away. I don"t want you to think I was good for anything. I should just have lain there and died. One thing, I did not mind dying at all--I had quite made up my mind. That would not have been so disgraceful as running away."
"There is nothing that is disgraceful," said John, "for heaven"s sake don"t say so, Nelly. It is unfortunate--beyond words--but that is all.
n.o.body can think that you are in any way disgraced. And if you are allowed just to stay quietly here in your natural home, I suppose you desire nothing more."
"What should I desire more, John? You don"t suppose I should like to go and live in the world again, and go into society and all that? I have had about enough of society. Oh, I want nothing but to be quiet and unmolested, and bring up my baby. They could not take my baby from me, John?"
"I do not think so," he said, with a grave face.
"You do not--think so? Then you are not _sure_? My mother says dreadful things, but I cannot believe them. They would never take an infant from its mother to give it to--to give it to--a man--who could do nothing, nothing for it. What could a man do with a young child? a man always on the move, who has no settled home, who has no idea what an infant wants?
John, I know law is inhuman, but surely, surely not so inhuman as that."
"My dear Nelly," he said, "the law, you know, which, as you say, is often inhuman, recognizes the child as belonging to the father. He is responsible for it. For instance, they never could come upon you for its maintenance or education, or anything of that kind, until it had been proved that the father----"
"May I ask," said Elinor, with uplifted head, "of what or of whom you are talking when you say _it_?"
It was all John could do not to burst into a peal of aggrieved and indignant laughter. He who had been brought from town, from his own comforts such as they were, to be consulted about this brat, this child which belonged to the dis-Honourable Phil; and Elinor, _Elinor_, of all people in the world, threw up her head and confronted him with disdain because he called the brat it, and not him or her, whichever it was.
John recollected well enough that sentence at which he had been so indignant in the telegram--"child, a boy "--but he affected to himself not to know what it was for the indulgence of a little contumely: and the reward he had got was contumely upon his own head. But when he looked at Elinor"s pale face, the eyes so much larger than they ought to be, with tears welling out unawares, dried up for a moment by indignation or quick hasty temper, the temper which made her sweeter words all the more sweet he had always thought--then rising again unawares under the heavy lids, the lips so ready to quiver, the pathetic lines about the mouth: when he looked at all these John"s heart smote him. He would have called the child anything, if there had been a s.e.x superior to him the baby should have it. And what was there that man could do that he would not do for the deliverance of the mother and the child?
CHAPTER XXV.
It cannot be said that this evening at the Cottage was an agreeable one.
To think that Elinor should be there, and yet that there should be so little pleasure in the fact that the old party, which had once been so happy together, should be together again, was bewildering. And yet there was one member of it who was happy with a shamefaced unacknowledged joy.
To think that that which made her child miserable should make her happy was a dreadful thought to Mrs. Dennistoun, and yet how could she help it? Elinor was there, and the baby was there, the new unthought-of creature which had brought with it a new anxiety, a rush of new thoughts and wishes. Already everything else in the mind of Elinor"s mother began to yield to the desire to retain these two--the new mother and the child. But she did not avow this desire. She was mostly silent, taking little part in the discussion, which was indeed a very curious discussion, since Elinor, debating the question how she was to abandon her husband and defend herself against him, never mentioned his name.
She did not come in to dinner, which Mrs. Dennistoun and John Tatham ate solemnly alone, saying but little, trying to talk upon indifferent topics, with that very wretched result which is usual when people at one of the great crises of life have to make conversation for each other while servants are about and the restraints of common life are around them. Whether it is the terrible flood of grief which has to be barred and kept within bounds so that the functions of life may not altogether be swept away, or the sharper but warmer pang of anxiety, that which cuts like a serpent"s tooth, yet is not altogether beyond the reach of hope, what poor pretences these are at interest in ordinary subjects; what miserable gropings after something that can furnish a thread of conversation just enough to keep the intercourse of life going! These two were not more successful than others in this dismal pursuit. Mrs.
Dennistoun found a moment when the meal was over before she left John, poor pretence! to his wine. "Remember that she will not mention his name; nothing must be said about him," she said. "How can we discuss him and what he is likely to do without speaking of him?" said John, with a little scorn. "I don"t know," replied the poor lady. "But you will find that she will not have his name mentioned. You must try and humour her.
Poor Elinor! For I know that you are sorry for her, John."
Sorry for her! He sat over his gla.s.s of mild claret in the little dining-room that had once been so bright; even now it was the cosiest little room, the curtains all drawn, shutting out the cold wind, which in January searches out every crevice, the firelight blazing fitfully, bringing out all the pretty warm decorations, the gleam of silver on the side-board, the pictures on the wall, the mirror over the mantelpiece.
There was nothing wanted under that roof to make it the very home of domestic warmth and comfort. And yet--sorry for Elinor! That was not the word. His heart was sore for her, torn away from all her moorings, drifting back a wreck to the little youthful home, where all had been so tranquil and so sweet. John had nothing in him of that petty sentiment which derives satisfaction from a calamity it has foreseen, nor had he even an old lover"s thrill of almost pleasure in the downfall of the clay idol that has been preferred to his gold. His pain for Elinor, the constriction in his heart at thought of her position, were unmixed with any baser feeling. Sorry for her! He would have given all he possessed to restore her happiness--not in his way, but in the way she had chosen, even, last abnegation of all, to make the man worthy of her who had never been worthy. Even his own indignation and wrath against that man were subservient in John"s honest breast to the desire of somehow finding that it might be possible to whitewash him, nay to reform him, to make him as near as possible something which she could tolerate for life. I doubt if a woman, notwithstanding the much more ready power of sacrifice which women possess, could have so fully desired this renewal and amendment as John did. It was scarcely too much to say that he hated Phil Compton: yet he would have given the half of his substance at this moment to make Phil Compton a good man; nay, even to make him a pa.s.sable man--to rehabilitate him in his wife"s eyes.
John stayed a long time over "his wine," the mild gla.s.s of claret (or perhaps it was Burgundy) which was all that was offered him--partly to think the matter over, but also partly perhaps because he heard certain faint gurglings, and the pa.s.sage of certain steps, active and full of energy, past the door of the room within which he sat, going now to the drawing-room, now up-stairs, from which he divined that the new inmate of the house was at present in possession of the drawing-room, and of all attention there. He smiled at himself for his hostility to the child, which, of course, was entirely innocent of all blame. Here the man was inferior to the woman in comprehension and sympathy; for he not only could not understand how they could possibly obtain solace in their trouble from this unconscious little creature, but he was angry and scornful of them for doing so. Phil Compton"s brat, no doubt the germ of a thousand troubles to come, but besides that a nothing, a being without love or thought, or even consciousness, a mere little animal feeding and sleeping--and yet the idol and object of all the thoughts of two intelligent women, capable of so much better things! This irritated John and disgusted him in the midst of all his anxious thoughts, and his profound compa.s.sion and deliberations how best to help: and it was not till the pa.s.sage of certain feeble sounds outside his door, which proceeded audibly up-stairs, little bleatings in which, if they had come from a lamb, or even a puppy, John would have been interested, a.s.sured him that the small enemy had disappeared--that he finally rose and proceeded to "join the ladies," as if he had been holding a little private debauch all by himself.
There was a little fragrance and air of the visitor still in the room, a little disturbance of the usual arrangements, a surrept.i.tious, quite unjustifiable look as of pleasure in Elinor"s eyes, which were less expanded, and if as liquid as ever, more softly bright than before.