A Double Knot

Volume Three – Chapter Seventeen.

The Family Doctor

Being a matter-of-fact man, Dr Stonor had communicated with the police, and many hours had not elapsed before he learned from them that a gentleman, such as he described, with a letter bearing his name, had been found, seriously injured, on one of the Surrey commons in the neighbourhood of Ripley.

On running down, he found John Huish lying at a cottage, bandaged up, and very weak, but quite sensible, and ready to smile in welcome of his old friend.

“Why, my dear boy, how could you be so foolish as to leave me like this?” exclaimed the doctor, who had heard of the condition in which his patient had been found. “You might have known that all I did was for your good.”

“Yes, doctor, yes,” he whispered; and his visitor noticed how calm and sane were his looks and words; “but I could bear it no longer. I had that dreadful idea in my head that I was going mad.”

“And you know now that it was only a fancy?”

“I do,” said Huish. “Can you find my wife? Use every plan you can to rescue her from – ”

“You had better not talk, my boy,” said the doctor, laying his cool hand upon the patient’s head, to find it, however, as cool. “She is quite safe – at her uncle’s.”

“Is – is this true?” said Huish eagerly. “You are not deceiving me?”

“My dear boy, I would not deceive you; but now be calm and quiet, or I will not answer for the consequences. You see, I do not even ask you about your encounter with the man that did this, although I am full of curiosity; for I have heard a strangely confused account.”

“Tell me one thing, doctor, and then I will ask no more,” said Huish faintly. “You knew my father before I was born. Had I ever a brother?”

The doctor’s brow knit, and then he nodded.

“Yes, I believe so; but it is a sad story. Don’t ask any more. He died in infancy: at birth, I believe.”

“No,” said Huish calmly; “he lived.”

Dr Stonor sat watching the injured man, to see him sink into a calm, easy slumber, and on repeating his visit next day found him very weak, but refreshed and perfectly calm, and ready to converse upon the subject of his brother, when, feeling bound, under the circumstances, he told the wounded man what he knew of the past – of the encounter between Robert Millet and the elder Huish, and the latter’s marriage to Mary Riversley, while Captain Millet, who was terribly injured by his fall, had taken to his peculiar life, and held to it ever since.

“But I was always given to understand that this child died,” said the doctor, musing. “Your father and mother always believed it dead. It’s a strange story, my dear boy, and it seems impossible that there could be such a resemblance.”

“Seems impossible, doctor, perhaps,” said Huish, smiling; “but I have looked him in the face. Thank God,” he said fervently; “the knowledge of his existence sweeps away the strange horror that has troubled me, and accounts for all the past. Doctor, it must have been he who applied to you that day while I was abroad.”

Dr Stonor’s answer was to lay his hand upon his patient’s forehead again, and John Huish smiled.

“My dear boy, it is absurd,” he exclaimed pettishly. “I could not have made such a mistake. There; I must get back to town.”

“Come and see me to-morrow,” said Huish earnestly, “and bring me back some news of – ”

The doctor nodded and left; and by that time next day he had come to the conclusion that there were strange lives in this world, for he had had such information as took him to an old house in a City lane, where he had gazed upon the face of the dead semblance of the man he knew to be lying ill in the Surrey cottage. Moreover, he had found with the dead a thin, harsh-spoken woman, red-eyed and passionate with weeping, and ready on the slightest encouragement to burst into a torrent of grief and adulation of “her boy,” as she called him.

“So handsome and so brave as he was, and such a gent as he could make himself, and live with swells,” she sobbed, “though he wouldn’t know me sometimes in the street.”

“Did you know his father and mother?” said the doctor, hazarding a shot.

“I am his mother,” said the woman sharply. “Poor, brave, handsome boy! The times I’ve found him in money, and warned him about danger, and watched for him when he wanted it done. I am his mother.”

“Nonsense!” said the doctor. “You don’t know me. I attended Captain Millet after his fall in the gravel-pit near the Dingle.”

“He was the gent that come to see Miss Ruth two years before, wasn’t he?”

“To be sure,” said the doctor. “You see, I am an old friend. Stop a moment,” said the doctor, referring to some notes he had made that morning in Wimpole Street. “Why, let me see, you must be Jane Glyne.”

“Which I ain’t ashamed to own it,” said the woman, pushing back her thin grey hair.

“Of course not,” said the doctor. “You were Mrs Riversley’s servant. You heard, of course, of the struggle between the two young men?”

“I heard of it after,” said the woman sharply; “and what’s more, I heard one of them shriek out at the time. It was when I was going away to where I had left the child.”

“To be sure,” said the doctor quietly; “but Miss Riversley thought it was dead.”

“Yes,” said the woman, “that was missus’s doings. She said no one must know it was alive. That’s why I took pity on the poor little thing, and brought him up.”

“That, and the allowance,” said the doctor significantly.

“Well, thirty pounds a year wasn’t such a deal,” said the woman; “but I somehow got fond of him, because he grew so clever. My! how he used to hate everybody of the name after he got to know who he was. I’ve known him to curse everybody who belonged to him, saying the bite of the dog I saved him from had given him a dog’s nature. It was his going down to the Dingle when he was fifteen and threatening an exposure that gave Mrs Riversley the illness she died of; but I’d made her settle my money on me,” chuckled the hag; “and it’s safe enough as long as I live. He’ll never want now what I saved for him, poor dear! nor me neither. My poor boy – dead!”

The doctor drove back to Wimpole Street, where he had a long talk at the panel with Robert Millet, and the result was that they were both satisfied as to the identity of the elder natural brother of John Huish, whose aim through life seemed to have been to take advantage of his extraordinary resemblance, and to improve it by copying Huish’s dress, carriage, very habits in fact, and using them to the injury of the younger brother, whom he bitterly hated for occupying the position that should have been his.

Miles away in the pleasant Surrey lane John Huish lay in happy ignorance of the fate of the man who had been his bitterest foe. He was very weak; but an awful load had been taken from his brain – the dread of insanity – and beside his bed knelt Gertrude, holding his hand with both of hers, and humbly asking his forgiveness for the doubts she had had.

“My darling!” he whispered, as he laid his other hand upon her soft, fair hair. “I am so happy, and life seems so bright before me that I cannot bear for you to lay one cloud upon its sunshine. Why, Gertrude, you might easily be deceived, when his presence, and the knowledge of such an existence, nearly drove me mad. There, little one, try and nurse me back to strength, for I have the hope now that nothing can take away. But if I die – ” he said sadly, as he gazed out of the window.

“John – husband!”

“Yes, sweet,” he sighed, “if I die, remember I have been yours, and yours alone. Let no other hand touch me after death.”

“Husband!” cried Gertrude, in an agonised voice. “But no; you shall not die. John, darling, live for my sake – for the sake of our little child.”

Volume Three – Chapter Eighteen.

The Events of Two Years

Two years slipped rapidly away, and society rolled on as usual. Many events had taken place, some of which had had their special interest to the characters in this story.

Ruth was thinner than of old, but she looked bright and happy, for the past two years had been very peaceful. She had paid occasional visits to Hampton Court, but Lord Henry’s house seemed to be definitely her home, and the old man always treated her as if she were his child.

In the course of time various matrimonial speculations were set on foot at Hampton Court to provide Ruth with a rich husband; but as in each case the proposition of her joining a dinner-party where either a wealthy plebeian or an elderly titled roué was to be the honoured guest, was crushed emphatically by Lady Henry Moorpark, who was firm in the extreme, the ladies by degrees gave Ruth’s over as a hopeless case, leaving her to the tender mercies of her cousin.

In fact, as she was off the honourable sisters’ hands, and their expenses were lessened, Ruth’s name was not often mentioned except during Mr Paul Montaigne’s periodical calls, when, after walking across from Teddington, that gentleman would sip their tea and sigh, as he blandly alluded to the ingratitude of the world, and the fact that the servants at Lord Henry’s had been instructed to say “not at home” whenever he called.

Often and often bland Mr Paul Montaigne would gnash his teeth when alone, and vow vengeance, but somehow Marcus Glen’s threat had had so great an influence upon him that the thought thereof would make him pale and nervous for twenty-four hours after, and quite spoil his night’s repose. But he heard merely with a grim smile that Captain Glen had become a constant visitor at Lord Henry Moorpark’s, and that his lordship gave Ruth Allerton away upon a certain happy day, for it is a world of change, and the time had come when Ruth’s cousin could think quite calmly of the past.

The calm was not without its disturbance, though, for as Lord Henry sat one evening sipping his port and wondering whether he might not now go up and join the ladies, he heard a carriage stop at the door; there was a thunderous knock, a terrific peal at the bell, and directly after the old butler entered.

“Mr Elbraham, my lord. I have shown him into the library.”

“Hang Mr Elbraham!” said his lordship to himself; but feeling that the visit must be one of importance, seeing how little intercourse they had, he followed the butler into the library, where the financier was walking hastily up and down. “Ha, Elbraham!” he said, “come into the dining-room. I was having my port.”

“Port, eh? Ah, yes! my throat’s like a limekiln;” and, following Lord Henry into the dining-room, the butler placed fresh glasses, and the financier gulped down a couple as quickly as he could.

“Why, it’s an age since we met,” said Lord Henry.

“Good job for you,” said Elbraham, mopping his red face and bald head. “Clo’s a regular devil. Is she here?”

“Here!” said Lord Henry. “Oh no! she has not been here for a long time.”

“Then she has bolted!”

“Has what?” cried Lord Henry.

“Bolted, Moorpark – bolted, damn her! Left a note for me saying she was going to dine with her sister, and I took the bait, till, thinking it a good opportunity to go and look over her jewels, hang me if they weren’t all gone!”

“Her jewels gone?”

“Yes; and that made me suspicious. I went down directly and was going to ring, when I ran up against our buttons.”

“Ran up against your buttons?” said Lord Henry wonderingly.

“Yes: the page-boy – with the large travelling-case in his hand. ‘Hullo, you sir,’ says I, ‘what have you got there?’

“‘A case missus said I was to take to Cannon Street Station, sir, and meet her there; and I’ve been waiting about for ever so long and couldn’t see her, sir, so I thought I’d better bring it back!’

“‘Quite right, my boy,’ I says. ‘Give it to me. There, be off down!’

“Well, sir, as soon as I was alone, I ripped up the bag, for it was locked; and hang me if it hadn’t got in all her jewels – every blessed thing: diamonds and sapphires and rubies and emeralds and pearls; thousands and thousands of pounds’ worth, for she would go it in jewels; and when I offended her I used to have to make it up by giving her something new. That woman cost me a pot of money, Moorpark, ’pon my soul she did, for I never shilly-shallied. If she was upset I always bought her something new.”

“But, really, I don’t understand all this!” said Lord Henry feebly.

“Wait a bit. She had meant to take her jewels with her, and the idiot of a boy blundered the thing, somehow, and instead of her having them I have the whole blessed lot. For I pitched the cases in the iron safe where I keep my papers, locked ’em up, came on here to see after her, and there’s the keys!”

He slapped his pocket, and looked at Lord Henry as he spoke.

“I never expected it,” said Elbraham coolly; “it was her dodge.”

“Then where do you expect she is?”

“Why, bolted, man; gone to the devil – or with the devil, that black-looking rascal Malpas; and a deuced good job too!”

“But this is very dreadful!” said Lord Henry.

“It would have been if she had got away with all those stones,” said Elbraham, helping himself to more wine. “But she was done there. By Jingo! what a cat-and-dog life we have led!”

“But, my dear sir!” cried Lord Henry, hardly able to conceal his disgust; “what steps are you going to take to save her?”

“Save her? save her?” said Elbraham. “She don’t want any saving.”

“Oh yes, from such a terrible fall. It may not yet be too late!”

“Save her?” cried Elbraham, with a hoarse chuckle. “Why, Moorpark, you don’t know her. Keep it dark from your wife, who is a good one. You drew the best lot. There’s no saving Clo; she’s bad to the core, and I’m devilish glad she’s gone, for I shall get a little peace now.”

“But you are going to pursue her?” said Lord Henry.

“Pursue her! What for? To have her scratch my eyes out, and that black scoundrel Malpas punch my head? No, thankye – deuced good port this! She’s gone, and jolly go with her! I wash my hands of her now.”

“But this is terrible, Elbraham.”

“Terrible? Why, it’s bliss to me; she’d have killed me. I used to be a bit jealous at first; but I had to get over that, for she was always flirting with someone.”

“But you must fetch her back, Elbraham!” exclaimed Lord Henry excitedly. “Think of the family credit!”

“Family credit!” cried Elbraham. “Why, they hadn’t got none – poor as Job, and nobody would trust them.”

“The family honour, then, sir,” said Lord Henry sternly.

“Family honour’s best without her. Jolly good riddance of bad rubbish, I say! She’s gone, and she won’t come back; and as for hunting for her, why, it would be disgracing your wife to do so.”

“But really – ” began Lord Henry.

“Bah! Moorpark, you leave that to me; I’m a business man, and know what’s what. But, I say, it’s a lark, isn’t it?”

“I don’t understand you,” said Lord Henry, who could not conceal his disgust for the contemptible little wretch before him.

“Why, about those jewels. My! how fine and mad she’ll be! It’s about the best thing I ever knew. She won’t get ’em now.”

Elbraham laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks, and then he wiped his eyes.

“I say, Moorpark, I ought to be devilishly cut up, you know, about this; but the fact is, I’m devilish glad. I shall look nasty and make a show about being all wrong, you know, for one’s credit’s sake; but it ain’t my fault. I couldn’t help it; she had it all her own way. And the money she has spent – my!”

Elbraham helped himself to some more port, while Lord Henry sat and tapped the table with his carefully cared-for nails.

“I’m not going to cry over spilt milk, Moorpark, I can tell you! She’s gone, and, as I said before, a good riddance!”

It was a good riddance for Lord Henry Moorpark when Elbraham went, which he did at last, after stubbornly refusing either to take or to allow any steps to be taken in pursuit of Clotilde.

“No,” he said, after his sixth glass of port. “I won’t spend the price of a Parl’y ticket on her; and I don’t know as I shall bother myself about divorce proceedings. What’s the good? Malpas hasn’t a penny in the world, so there’d be no costs; and as to being free, that’s what her ladyship would like. But, I say, Moorpark.”

“Yes?”

“What a sell about those jewels!”

He said it again as Lord Henry saw him into his carriage, and the next day he settled himself down in his sanctum with a very big cigar stuck between his lips, giving him the aspect of a very podgy swordfish that had burnt the tip of its weapon. Before him was a huge leather bill-case gorged with slips of bluish paper, every one of which, as he took it carefully out, bore a stamp in one corner, a reference to so many months after date, and was written across and signed. Many of them were endorsed with sign-manuals as well; and these slips of paper he quietly examined as he took them out of one pocket of the great case and then thrust them into another.

By degrees an observer, had he been present, would have noticed that the pockets in which these slips were placed varied according to their dates, and that for the most part they were examined and replaced in the most unemotional manner; but every now and then as Elbraham took one out he laid it on the table, drew violently at his cigar, emitted a tremendous cloud of smoke, and burst into a hoarse series of chuckles. Then he rubbed his hands and laughed again in an unpleasant, silent manner, twisting about in his pivoted library chair.

As he spun round, which, evidently being the result of practice, he did very cleverly, he wrinkled his face up in a way that with him indicated pleasure, the whole performance giving him the aspect of some gigantic grotesque Japanese top.

Then he would stop short, puff at the great cigar, and stare with his prominent lobster eyes at the slip of paper, examining the date and turning it over and over.

“Old cat!” he ejaculated; and the slip of paper was laid aside, and a heavy paperweight banged down upon it.