Уилки Коллинз
Мертвая комната. Уровень 2 / The Dead Secret

© С. А. Матвеев, адаптация текста, коммент. и словарь, 2023

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2023

Chapter I

“Will she last out the night[1], I wonder?”

“Look at the clock, Mathew.”

“Ten minutes past twelve! She has lived, Robert, to see ten minutes of the new day.”

The speakers were in the kitchen of a large country-house situated on the west coast of Cornwall. They were the servants of Captain Treverton, an officer in the navy[2], and the eldest male representative of an old Cornish family. Both the servants talked in whispers.

“It's awful,” said Robert, the elder of the men, “we are alone here, at this dark time, and we are counting out the minutes of our mistress!”

“Robert,” said the other, “did you ever hear that our mistress was an actress when our master married her?”

A bell rang in the passage outside.

“That bell is for Sarah Leeson,” exclaimed Robert. “Go out into the passage and look.”

Mathew, the younger servant, took a candle and obeyed. When he opened the kitchen-door, a long row of bells met his eye on the wall opposite. Above each of them was painted the title of the servant whom it was specially intended to summon.

Mathew passed quickly along the passage, and knocked at an oak door at the end of it. No answer. He opened the door and looked into the room. It was dark and empty.

“Sarah is not in the housekeeper's room[3],” said Mathew to his fellow-servant in the kitchen.

“She is in her own room, then,” rejoined the other. “Go up and tell her that she is wanted[4] by her mistress.”

The bell rang again as Mathew went out.

“Quick! Quick!” cried Robert.

Mathew knocked at another oak door. A low, clear, sweet voice, inside the room answered him. In a few hasty words Mathew told his errand. The door was quietly and quickly opened, and Sarah Leeson confronted him, with a candle in her hand.

She was not tall, not handsome, shy and irresolute in manner. Her cheeks lost their roundness and their natural color. Her lips faded to an unhealthy paleness. But her hair was thick and soft, it grew as gracefully, as the hair of a young girl; but it was as gray as the hair of an old woman.

She stood for an instant speechless. Her hand was trembling while she held the candlestick. She shook her head, and thanked Mathew, then passed before him quickly.

The room in which Mrs. Treverton lay was on the floor beneath. Sarah knocked at the door. It was opened by Captain Treverton.

“Go in,” he said. “She does not wish the nurse; she only wishes for you. Call me if the doctor-” His voice faltered, and he hurried away.

Sarah Leeson looked after her master attentively – with an eager terror in her eyes. She listened for a moment outside the door of the room and whispered affrightedly to herself,

“Did she tell him?”

Then she opened the door, with a visible effort; and went in.

Mrs. Treverton's chamber was a large, lofty room in the western front of the house.

“Mistress,” said Sarah Leeson, “my master has left the room, and has sent me here in his place.”

“Light! Give me more light.”

The feebleness of mortal sickness was in the voice; but the accent of the speaker sounded resolute. The strong nature of the mistress and the weak nature of the maid came out, even in that short interchange of words.

Sarah lit two candles and placed them hesitatingly on a table by the bedside. She waited for a moment and then undrew the curtains.

The disease of Mrs. Treverton was one of the most terrible of all the maladies that afflict humanity. The hand of Death was signing to her already from the Gates of the Grave.

Mrs. Treverton held up her hand.

“Bolt the door,” she said, with the accent of resolution. “Bolt the door. Let no one in.”

“No one?” repeated Sarah, faintly. “Not the doctor? Not even my master?”

“Not the doctor – not even your master,” said Mrs. Treverton, and pointed to the door.

The hand was weak; but it was the gesture of command.

Sarah bolted the door, returned irresolutely to the bedside, and said in a whisper:

“Have you told my master?”

“No,” was the answer. “I sent for him, to tell him. I love him so dearly! And I wanted to tell him, but he talked of the child. Sarah! He did nothing but talk of the child. That silenced me.”

Sarah clasped her hands over her face, and groaned to herself,

“Oh, what will happen! What will happen now!”

Mrs. Treverton's eyes softened and moistened when she spoke of her love for her husband. She lay silent for a few minutes. Then she turned her head uneasily toward the chair in which her attendant was sitting, and spoke again.

“Look for my medicine,” said she; “I want it.”

Sarah stood up.

“The doctor,” she said. “Let me call the doctor.”

“No! The medicine – look for the medicine.”

“Which bottle? The opiate – ”

“No. Not the opiate. The other.”

Sarah took a bottle from the table. She looked attentively at the direction on the label, and said that it was not yet time to take that medicine again.

“Give me the bottle.”

“Oh, don't ask me! The doctor said it was as bad as poison, if you took too much.”

Mrs. Treverton's clear gray eyes began to flash. The rosy flush deepened on her cheeks. The commanding hand was raised again.

“Take the cork out of the bottle,” she said, “and give it to me. I want strength. No matter whether I die in an hour's time or a week's. Give me the bottle.”

“No, no – not the bottle!” said Sarah. “There are two doses left. Wait, wait till I get a glass.”

She turned again toward the table. At the same instant Mrs. Treverton raised the bottle to her lips, and drained it of its contents.

“She has killed herself!” cried Sarah.

She ran in terror to the door.

“Stop!” said the voice from the bed, more resolute than ever, already. “Stop! Come back and help me.”

Sarah came back; and added one more to the many pillows which supported the dying woman's head and shoulders.

“Did you unbolt the door?” Mrs. Treverton asked.

“No.”

“I forbid you to go near it again. Get my writing-case, and the pen and ink, from the cabinet near the window.”

Sarah went to the cabinet and opened it. The writing-case, with a sheet of note-paper on it, was placed upon Mrs. Treverton's knees. Mrs. Treverton paused, closed her eyes for a minute, and sighed heavily. Then she began to write: To my Husband.

“Oh, no! no! For God's sake, don't write it!” Sarah cried. “Don't write it to him if you can't tell it to him. Let the Secret die with you and die with me!”

“The Secret must be told,” answered Mrs. Treverton. “My husband must know it. I tried to tell him, and my courage failed me. I can not trust you to tell him. It must be written. Take the pen, and write what I tell you.”

Sarah wept bitterly.

“You have been with me ever since my marriage,” Mrs. Treverton went on. “You have been my friend more than my servant. Do you refuse my last request? Fool! Listen to me. Write, or I shall not rest in my grave. Write, or I will come to you from the other world!”

Sarah cried. At the same instant, the overdose of the medicine began to affect Mrs. Treverton's brain. She rolled her head restlessly from side to side of the pillow.

“Write!” Mrs. Treverton cried, with an awful mimicry of her old stage voice. “Write!”

Sarah waited for the next command. Some minutes elapsed before Mrs. Treverton spoke again. She began to dictate in quiet, deliberate, determined tones. Sarah's tears fell fast; her lips murmured fragments of sentences, expressions of penitence, and exclamations of fear. She nearly filled the first two sides of the paper. Then Mrs. Treverton paused, and signed her name at the end of it

“Sign!” she cried. “Sign 'Sarah Leeson, witness.' No! Write 'Accomplice.' Sign, I insist on it! Sign as I tell you.”

Sarah obeyed. Mrs. Treverton took the paper from her and pointed to it solemnly.

“You will give this to your master,” she said, “when I am dead. You will answer any questions he puts to you. Promise me that you will give the paper to your master. Oh no! I won't trust your promise. I'll have your oath. Get the Bible. Get it, or I shall not rest in my grave. Get it, or I will come to you from the other world. Yes, yes – the Bible the clergyman used. The clergyman – a poor weak man. I frightened him, Sarah. He said, 'Are you at peace with all the world?' and I said, 'All but one[5].' You know who.”

“The Captain's brother? Oh, don't die at enmity with anybody. Don't die at enmity even with him,” pleaded Sarah.

“The clergyman said so too,” murmured Mrs. Treverton. “'You must forgive him,' the clergyman said. And I said, 'No, I forgive all the world, but not my husband's brother.' The clergyman will pray for me and come back. Will he come back?”

“Yes, yes,” answered Sarah. “He is a good man – he will come back – and oh! tell him that you forgive the Captain's brother! Those vile words he spoke of you when you were married will come home to him some day. Forgive him-forgive him before you die!”

Sarah attempted to remove the Bible softly out of her mistress's sight. The action attracted Mrs. Treverton's attention.

“Stop!” she cried.

She caught at Sarah's hand with a great effort, placed it on the Bible, and held it there.

“Ah!” she said, “Sarah; you can't deceive me even yet.”

She stopped again, smiled a little, whispered to herself rapidly,

“Wait, wait, wait!” then added aloud, with the old stage voice and the old stage gesture:

“No! I won't trust you on your promise. I'll have your oath. Kneel down. These are my last words in this world – disobey them if you dare!”

Sarah dropped on her knees by the bed.

“Swear!” said Mrs. Treverton. “Swear that you will not destroy this paper after I am dead.”

Sarah answered faintly,

“I swear it.”

“Swear that you will not take this paper away with you, if you leave the house, after I am dead.”

Again Sarah said,

“I swear it.”

“Swear!” Mrs. Treverton began for the third time.

Her voice failed.

“I haven't done – you must swear – close, close, come close – your master – swear to give it – ”

The last words died away very softly. The lips closed. Sarah sprang to the door, opened it, and called for help. Then she ran back to the bedside, caught up the sheet of the paper, and hid it in her bosom.

The doctor entered the room. He spoke first to the servant who followed him.

“Go to your master,” he said, “and beg him to wait in his own room until I can come and speak to him.”

Then he said to Sarah,

“Let me recommend you to leave us for a little while.”

He touched Sarah on the arm. She went out.

Chapter II

Sarah Leeson turned the key of her bedroom door, and took the sheet of the paper from its place of concealment in her bosom. She placed it on her little dressing-table, and fixed her eyes eagerly on the lines. The characters were clear. There was the address: “To my Husband;” there the first line beneath, in her dead mistress's handwriting; there the lines that followed, with the signature at the end – Mrs. Treverton's first, and then her own. Sarah Leeson read the few lines as a condemned prisoner.

The oath! Sarah pushed away the paper and rose to her feet. Then she began to talk to herself. She repeated incessantly the phrases:

“How can I give him the letter? Such a good master; so kind to us all. Why did she die, and leave it all to me? I can't bear it alone; it's too much for me!”

Then she read aloud the address again,

“To my Husband… Why give it to him at all? Why not let the secret die with her and die with me? Why must he know it? He won't know it!”

She opened the door and glided into the passage. She stopped there for a moment and hesitated a little, then whispered, “I must! I must!”

She descended very slowly. The door of Mrs. Treverton's bedroom was opened, when she knocked at it.

“I want to speak to my master.”

“Look for him somewhere else. He was here half an hour ago,” said the nurse.

“Do you know where he is?”

“No. I mind my own business[6].”

With that discourteous answer, the nurse closed the door. Sarah looked toward the inner end of the passage. The door of the nursery was situated there. It was ajar. She went in immediately, and saw that the candle-light came from an inner room. It was usually occupied by the nursery-maid and by the only child of the house of Treverton – a little girl named Rosamond, aged, at that time, nearly five years.

“Can he be there? In that room!”

Sarah raised the letter to the bosom of her dress, and hid it for the second time. Then she came toward the inner room. The first object that attracted her attention in the child's bedroom was the figure of the nurse-maid. The nurse-maid was asleep, in an easy-chair by the window.

Then Sarah saw her master, by the side of the child's crib. Little Rosamond was awake, and was standing up in bed with her arms round her father's neck. One of her hands held over his shoulder the doll, the other was twined gently in his hair.

The tears stood thick in Sarah's eyes. She lingered by the raised curtain. Then Captain Treverton said soothingly to the child:

“Hush, Rosie, dear! Hush, my love! Don't cry anymore for poor mamma. Think of poor papa, and try to comfort him.”

Sarah Leeson turned and ran into the passage. She descended to the kitchen. There one of the servants, with a face of astonishment and alarm, asked:

“What is the matter?”

“I'm ill – I'm faint – I want air,” she answered. “Open the garden door, and let me out[7].”

The man obeyed doubtfully.

“She is very strange,” he said, when he rejoined his fellow-servant. “Now our mistress is dead, she will have to find another place, I suppose.”

Chapter III

The cool, sweet air in the garden calmed the violence of Sarah's agitation. She overlooked the church of the neighboring village. The old church was clear and bright. Sarah's eyes wandered from the building itself to the cemetery by its side.

“Oh, my heart! my heart!” she said.

She was pondering over the words which Captain Treverton said to the child. They seemed to connect themselves, as everything else now appeared to connect itself in her mind, with the letter. She drew it from her bosom once more, and crushed it up angrily in her fingers. She crossed the terrace, descended some wooden steps, and followed a shrubbery path to the north side of the house.

This part of the building was uninhabited. The mansion was originally built in the form of a square. Of the many defenses of the place, a heavy tower remained (from which the house derived its name of Porthgenna Tower).

The windows were broken in some places, and covered thickly with dirt and dust in others. Here, the shutters were closed – there, they were only half opened. The ivy, the vegetation, the spiders' webs, the rubbish of wood, bricks, plaster, broken glass, rags, and strips of soiled cloth lay beneath the windows.

Sarah Leeson strayed into the deserted northern garden. She stopped on an open patch of ground.

“What binds me to give the letter to my master at all?” she thought to herself. “My mistress died without my oath. Can she visit me from the other world? I can keep the promises[8] I swore to observe, and do no more.”

She paused. Her superstitious fears were influencing her. She paused, and began to recall the terms of the solemn engagement.

What did she actually bind herself to do? Not to destroy the letter, and not to take it away with her if she left the house. Beyond that, Mrs. Treverton's desire was to give the letter to her husband. But did Sarah take an oath? No.

As she arrived at that conclusion, she looked up. A faint flush of color flew into her cheeks, and she hastily advanced closer to the wall of the house.

The panes of the large window were yellow with dust and dirt. Below it was a heap of rubbish. Sarah glanced at the letter in her hand, and said to herself abruptly-

“I'll risk it!”

As the words fell from her lips, she hastened back to the inhabited part of the house. She followed the passage on the kitchen-floor which led to the housekeeper's room. She entered it, and took a bunch of keys. She read “Keys of the North Rooms.”

She placed the keys on a writing-table near her, took up a pen, and rapidly added these lines on the blank side of the letter -

“If somebody finds this paper, I wish to say that I decided to hide it, because I dare not show this to my master, to whom it is addressed. Though I am acting against my mistress's last wishes, I am not breaking the solemn engagement which she obliged me to make before her on her death-bed. That engagement forbids me to destroy this letter, or to take it away with me if I leave the house. I shall do neither – my purpose is to conceal it. Any hardship or misfortune will fall on myself. Others, I believe, will be happy not to know the dreadful Secret which this letter contains.”

She signed those lines with her name, took the note in her hand, and then left the room. She ascended a back staircase, and unlocked a door at the top of it. Then she came upon a row of doors, all leading into rooms on the first floor of the north side of the house.

She knelt down opposite the key-hole of the fourth door, peered in distrustfully for an instant, then began to try the different keys till she found one that fitted the lock. Her hands trembled. At length she opened the door. Then she entered the room.

She did not remain in it more than two or three minutes. When she came out again her face was white with fear. Her hand held nothing now but a small rusty key.

She examined the large bunch of keys. The particular key which she used had a label “The Myrtle Room.”

She took the scissors and cut the label from the key. Was it enough? She cut off the other labels, too. Then she retraced her steps to the housekeeper's room, entered it, and hung up the bunch of keys again on the nail in the wall.

After that Sarah hastened back to her bedroom. The candle was still burning feebly in the fresh daylight. She opened the window.

Whether for good or for evil, the fatal Secret was hidden now. She will think more composedly, after that, of herself, and of the uncertain future that lay before her.

The connection between herself and her mistress was severed by death. She knew that Mrs. Treverton, in the last days of her illness, earnestly recommended her maid to Captain Treverton's kindness and protection. But will she accept protection and kindness at the hand of the master whom she was deceiving? The bare idea of such baseness was so revolting, that she decided to leave the house immediately.

And how to leave it? Can she face her master again? His first inquiries will refer to her mistress. Sarah listened at her door in sudden suspicion and fear. Did she hear footsteps? Was it her master?

No; all was silent outside. A few tears rolled over her cheeks as she put on her bonnet. She must leave Porthgenna Tower, and leave it secretly.

Secretly – as a thief? Without a word to her master? Without a letter to thank him for his kindness and to ask his pardon? “Shall I write?” she asked herself, “and leave the letter here?”

Yes. She wrote a few lines addressed to Captain Treverton, in which she wrote that she was hiding a secret from his knowledge. She honestly believes no harm will come to him, or to anyone in whom he is interested. She is asking his pardon for leaving the house secretly. Then she sealed this short note, and left it on her table. She listened again at the door; and began to descend the stairs at Porthgenna Tower for the last time.

At the entrance of the nursery she stopped. The tears began to flow again. She ran to the stairs, reached the kitchen-floor in safety, and left the house.

She diverged to the church; but stopped before she came to it, at the public well. She dropped into the well the little rusty key, the key from the Myrtle Room. Then she hurried on, and entered the church-yard. She came to one of the graves, situated a little apart from the rest. On the head-stone were inscribed these words:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF HUGH POLWHEAL, AGED 26 YEARS. HE MET WITH HIS DEATH THROUGH THE FALL OF A ROCK IN PORTHGENNA MINE, DECEMBER 17TH, 1823.

Sarah gathered a few leaves of grass from the grave. Then she said,

“God help and forgive me – it is all done and over now![9]”

With those words she turned her back on the old house, and followed the moorland path.

Four hours afterward Captain Treverton desired one of the servants at Porthgenna Tower to inform Sarah Leeson that he wished to hear everything about the dying moments of her mistress. The messenger returned with the letter in his hand.

Captain Treverton read the letter, and ordered an immediate search after the missing woman. She was so easy to describe and to recognize, by the premature grayness of her hair, by the odd, scared look in her eyes, that she was traced as far as Truro. In that large town the track of her was lost, and never recovered again.

Nothing explained the nature of the secret at which she hinted in her letter. Her master never saw her again, never heard of her again, after the morning of the twenty-third of August, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.

Chapter IV

The church of Long Beckley is not very remarkable. The large open space around the church can be approached in three different directions. There is a road from the village, there is a broad gravel walk, which begins at the vicarage gates, and there is a footpath over the fields.

One day three conspirators were advancing along the footpath. The leader of this party was an elderly gentleman, with a weather-beaten[10] face and a bluff, hearty manner. His two followers were a young gentleman and a young lady. They were talking together in whispers. They were dressed in the morning costume. The faces of both were rather pale.

The young man was blind. Soon the blind man and the young lady were standing together before the altar rails. They were ready to marry.

Soon the ceremony was concluded. Doctor Chennery went to the vicarage breakfast-table. The persons assembled at the breakfast were, first, Mr. Phippen, a guest; secondly, Miss Sturch, a governess; thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly, Miss Louisa Chennery (aged eleven years), Miss Amelia Chennery (aged nine years), and Master Robert Chennery (aged eight years). There was no mother; Doctor Chennery was a widower.

The guest was an old college acquaintance of the vicar's. He was staying at Long Beckley for the benefit of his health. He was not a handsome man. His eyes were watery, large, and light gray. They were always rolling from side to side in a state of moist admiration of something or somebody. His nose was long and drooping. His lips had a lachrymose twist; his stature was small; his head large, bald, and loosely set on his shoulders. Such was Mr. Phippen, the Martyr to Dyspepsia, and the guest of the vicar of Long Beckley.

Miss Sturch, the governess, was a young lady. She was a little, plump, quiet, white-skinned, smiling, neatly dressed girl. Miss Sturch never laughed, and never cried, but she was smiling perpetually.

Miss Sturch's pupils were not remarkable at all. Miss Louisa's habitual weakness was an inveterate tendency to catch cold[11]. Miss Amelia's principal defect was a disposition to eat supplementary dinners and breakfasts. Master Robert was famous for his obtuseness in learning the Multiplication Table. The virtues of all three were of much the same nature – they were genuine children, and they loved Miss Sturch.

Let us describe the vicar himself. Doctor Chennery was the best bowler in the Long Beckley cricket-club. He was a strictly orthodox man in the matter of wine and mutton. He never started disagreeable theories about people's future destinies in the pulpit. He never quarreled with anybody out of the pulpit. In short, he was the most unclerical of clergymen.

As soon as the vicar entered the parlor, the children assailed him with a chorus of shouts.

“I'm sorry. I'm late, Miss Sturch,” said the vicar; “but I have a good excuse.”

“Pray don't mention it, Sir,” said Miss Sturch. “A beautiful morning. I fear we shall have another warm day. Robert, my love, your elbow is on the table. A beautiful morning, indeed!”

“Guess why I am late this morning,” said the vicar.

“You were lying in bed, papa,” cried the three children.

“What do you say, Miss Sturch?” asked Doctor Chennery.

Miss Sturch smiled as usual, rubbed her hands as usual, cleared her throat softly as usual, and excused.

“Phippen,” said the vicar. “Come, guess!”

“My dear friend,” said Mr. Phippen, “don't ask me to guess – I know! I saw what you were eating at dinner yesterday. I saw what you drank after dinner. Pooh! I know. You dear, good soul, you were taking medicine!”

“No!” said Doctor Chennery, with a look of devout gratitude. “No, no; you're all wrong. The fact is, I have been to church. Why? Listen, Miss Sturch – listen, girls, with all your ears. Poor blind young Frankland is a happy man at last – I have married him to our dear Rosamond Treverton this very morning!”

“Without telling us, papa!” cried the two girls together. “We wanted to see it!”

“That was the very reason why I did not tell you, my dears,” answered the vicar. “Young Frankland doesn't like it. He doesn't like to be a blind bridegroom. So we settled to have the wedding at an hour in the morning when no idlers were nearby. I was bound over to the secrecy about the day, and so was my clerk Thomas. Excepting us two, and the bride and bridegroom, and the bride's father, Captain Treverton, nobody knew – ”

“Treverton!” exclaimed Mr. Phippen. “Treverton! (No more tea, dear Miss Sturch). How remarkable! I know the name. (Fill up with water, if you please.) Tell me, my dear doctor (please no sugar), is this Miss Treverton (many thanks; no milk, either) one of the Cornish Trevertons?”

“Yes, she is!” rejoined the vicar. “Her father, Captain Treverton, is the head of the family. The Captain, and Rosamond, and that whimsical old brute of an uncle of hers, Andrew Treverton, are the last members of this rich family.”

“Ah! The bride – the interesting bride! And so she is one of the Cornish Trevertons? I knew something of Andrew years ago. He was a bachelor, like myself, Miss Sturch. Not at all like his brother, the Captain, I suppose? And so she is married? A charming girl, I have no doubt. A charming girl!”

“No better, truer, prettier girl in the world,” said the vicar.

“A very lively, energetic person,” remarked Miss Sturch.

“How I shall miss her!” cried Miss Louisa. “Nobody else amused me as Rosamond did, when I was ill.”

“She was the only girl who played with boys,” said Master Robert. “She caught a ball, Mr. Phippen, Sir, with one hand.”

“Bless me!” said Mr. Phippen. “What an extraordinary wife for a blind man! You said he was blind from his birth, my dear doctor, did you not? Let me see, what was his name? Mr. Frank Something, was it not?”

“No, no – Frankland,” answered the vicar, “Leonard Frankland. And not blind from his birth. It is not much more than a year ago since he could see almost as well as any of us.”

“An accident, I suppose!” said Mr. Phippen. “So an accident happened to his eyes?”

“Not exactly,” said Doctor Chennery. “Leonard Frankland was a difficult child: great constitutional weakness, you know, at first. Well, he liked mechanics, and soon he began to make watches. Curious amusement for a boy. His last work, poor fellow, was the repairing of my watch – here it is. He said he was getting a bad pain at the back of his head, and he saw spots before his eyes. They sent for doctors from London, and blistered him behind the ears and between the shoulders, and drenched the lad with mercury. No use. The sight got worse and worse, flickered and flickered, and went out at last like the flame of a candle. His mother died – luckily for her, poor soul – before that happened. His father took him to oculists in London and oculists in Paris. Some said it was the result of the long weaknesses. Some said it was an apoplectic effusion in his brain. So he is blind now; and blind he will remain, poor dear fellow.”

“You shock me; my dear Chennery, you shock me dreadfully,” said Mr. Phippen. “Especially when you say about weakness after illness. Why, I have had long weaknesses – I have got them now. And I see spots, black spots, dancing black bilious spots. I feel this story in every nerve of my body; I do, indeed!”

“You will hardly know that Leonard is blind,” said Miss Louisa. “Except that his eyes look quieter than other people's.”

“Poor young Frankland!” said the vicar, warmly. “That good, tender, noble creature is a consolation to him in his affliction. Rosamond Treverton is the girl to do it.”

“She has made a sacrifice,” said Mr. Phippen; “but I like her for that. I made a sacrifice, too. Did she cry much, Chennery, when you were marrying her?”

“Cry!” exclaimed the vicar, contemptuously. “Rosamond Treverton is a fine, buxom, warm-hearted, quick-tempered girl. She might marry anybody she pleased. But she married him! They were engaged long before this cruel affliction befell young Frankland – their fathers, on both sides, were neighbors. Well, when the blindness came, Leonard offered to release Rosamond from her engagement. And she wrote to him a letter. Phippen, I blubbered like a baby over it when they showed it to me. I wanted to marry them immediately. But old Frankland was a fidgety, punctilious man, and he insisted on a six months' probation. He died soon, and the marriage was put off again. But no delays altered Rosamond – six years, instead of six months, did not change her. We'll drink her health after dinner, Miss Sturch – we'll drink both their healths, Phippen!”

“But, my dear Chennery,” said Mr. Phippen, mournfully, “when you were talking of the fathers of these two interesting young people, you mentioned they were neighbors here, at Long Beckley. I thought Captain Treverton was the eldest of the two brothers, and that he always lived, when he was on shore, at the family place in Cornwall?”

“So he did,” returned the vicar, “in his wife's lifetime. But since her death, which happened – let me see-”

The vicar stopped for an instant to calculate, and looked at Miss Sturch.

“Fifteen years ago, Sir,” said Miss Sturch, with her smile.

“Of course,” continued Doctor Chennery. “Well, since Mrs. Treverton died, fifteen years ago, Captain Treverton has never been near Porthgenna Tower. And at the first opportunity he sold the place – sold it, mine, fisheries, and all – for forty thousand pounds.”

“You don't say so![12]” exclaimed Mr. Phippen. “Did he find the air unhealthy? Who bought the place?”

“Leonard Frankland's father,” said the vicar. “It is rather a long story, that sale of Porthgenna Tower, with some curious circumstances involved in it. Suppose we take a turn in the garden, Phippen? I'll tell you all about it later. Miss Sturch, I shall be on the lawn somewhere. Come, Phippen!”

“My dear fellow, I will say yes. Just lend me an umbrella, and allow me to carry my camp-stool in my hand,” said Mr. Phippen. “I am too weak to encounter the sun. And I can't go far. The moment I feel fatigued, Miss Sturch, I open my camp-stool, and sit down anywhere. I am ready, Chennery, my good friend, for the garden and the story about the sale of Porthgenna Tower. You said it was a curious story, did you not?”

“I said about some curious circumstances connected with it,” replied the vicar. “And when you hear about them, I think you will say so too. Come along! You will find your camp-stool, and a choice of all the umbrellas in the house, in the hall.”

With those words, Doctor Chennery led the way out of the breakfast-parlor.

Chapter V

“How charming! How pastoral! How exquisitely soothing!” said Mr. Phippen at the back of the vicarage-house, under the shadow of the umbrella. “Three years have passed, Chennery, since I last stood on this lawn. There is the window of your old study, where I had my attack of heart-burn[13] last time – in the strawberry season; don't you remember? Ah! And there is the school-room! Shall I ever forget dear Miss Sturch? She was coming to me out of that room – an angel with soda and ginger – so comforting, so sweetly anxious, so unaffectedly grieved that there was no medicine in the house! I enjoy these pleasant recollections, Chennery. Can you walk on the other side, my dear fellow? I like the smell, but the smoke is a little too much for me. Thank you. And now about the story? What was the name of the old place – I am so interested in it – it began with a P, surely?”

“Porthgenna Tower,” said the vicar.

“Exactly,” rejoined Mr. Phippen. “And what made Captain Treverton sell Porthgenna Tower?”

“I believe the reason was that he did not endure the place after the death of his wife,” answered Doctor Chennery. “So the Captain found a purchaser.”

“Why not his brother?” asked Mr. Phippen. “Why not our eccentric friend, Andrew Treverton?”

“Don't call him my friend,” said the vicar. “A mean, groveling, cynical, selfish old wretch! I know Andrew Treverton's history as well as you do. I know that he was treated with the basest ingratitude by a college friend, who took all, and swindled him at last in the grossest manner. I know all about that. But one instance of ingratitude does not justify him. The old brute says that the greatest benefactor to our generation will be a second Herod. Can he be the friend of any human being?”

“My friend!” said Mr. Phippen. He caught the vicar by the arm, and mysteriously lowered his voice. “My dear and reverend friend! I admire your honest indignation against the utterer of that misanthropical sentiment; but – I confide this to you, Chennery, in the strictest secrecy – there are moments when my digestion is in such a state that I have actually agreed with that person, Andrew Treverton! I wake up with my tongue like a cinder. I crawl to the glass and look at it – and I say to myself, 'Let there be an end of the human race rather than a continuance of this!'”

“Pooh!” cried the vicar and laughed. “Take a glass of cool beer next time your tongue is in that state. But let us go back to Porthgenna Tower. So Captain decided to sell the place. He could offer it to his brother, of course. Andrew was rich enough to buy it. But… It is a shocking thing to say, but the worst quarrel I ever heard of is the quarrel between those two brothers.”

“Pardon me, my dear friend,” said Mr. Phippen. He opened his camp-stool. “May I sit down? I am a little excited about this part of the story, and I dare not fatigue myself.”

“You know,” pursued the vicar, “that Captain Treverton married an actress – rather a violent temper, I believe; but a person of spotless character. According to my view of it, a very good wife for him to marry. However, the Captain's friends, of course, made the usual senseless outcry, and the Captain's brother, as the only near relation, wanted to break off the marriage. He failed in that, and left his brother's house. But he said one infamous thing about the bride, which, Phippen, I am ashamed to repeat. Whatever the words were, they were unluckily carried to Mrs. Treverton's ears. No woman forgives that. An interview followed between the two brothers – and it led, as you may easily imagine, to very unhappy results. They parted in the most deplorable manner. So they separated. Twice afterward the Captain made overtures of reconciliation. The first time when his daughter Rosamond was born; the second time when Mrs. Treverton died. On each occasion the elder brother wrote to him. No answer was received from Andrew; and the estrangement between the two brothers has continued to the present time. Well, the house, the estate, the mine, and the fisheries of Porthgenna were all for sale a few months after Mrs. Treverton's death. But the ruinous state of the house, the bad cultivation of the land, legal difficulties in connection with the mine… So Captain Treverton failed to sell the place. The death of his wife almost broke his heart. He removed, with his little girl and a relative of Mrs. Treverton, who was her governess, to our neighborhood, and rented a pretty little cottage across the church fields. The house nearest to it was inhabited at that time by Leonard Frankland's father and mother. The new neighbors soon became intimate; and thus it happened that the couple whom I have been marrying this morning, fell in love with each other. – What is it now? Do you want to get up again?”

Yes, Mr. Phippen wanted to get up again.

“I told you,” the vicar said, “that the elder Mr. Frankland and Captain Treverton were neighbors here. So old Frankland decided to buy Porthgenna Tower. But the antiquity of his family made no impression upon his neighbors. It was be an old family, but it was not a Cornish family, and, therefore, it was of no importance in their eyes. One day old Frankland, the new owner of Porthgenna, met Captain Treverton on shore. The first thing he did was to abuse Porthgenna and all the people about it a little too vehemently in the Captain's presence. This led to a coolness between the two neighbors. But the children on either side put an end to the estrangement between the fathers. Here, in my opinion, lies the most curious part of the story. The estate that was entailed on Leonard, Captain Treverton's daughter now goes back, in the capacity of mistress, to the house and lands which her father sold. Rosamond was the only child, and the purchase-money of Porthgenna, will now, when the Captain dies, be the marriage-portion of young Frankland's wife!”

Chapter VI

Miss Mowlem lived humbly at St. Swithin's-on-Sea. In 1844, Miss Mowlem's widowed mother got a small legacy. The discreet old lady finally decided to buy furniture, and hang a card in the parlor window to inform the public that she had furnished apartments[14] to let. By the summer the apartments were ready. Soon a personage in black applied to look at the rooms, was satisfied, and engaged them for a newly married lady and gentleman. The personage in black was Captain Treverton's servant, and the lady and gentleman were Mr. and Mrs. Frankland.

From the moment when Mr. and Mrs. Frankland entered the house, Miss Mowlem began to study them with all the ardor of an industrious scholar.

The longer we live the more information there is to acquire. On the morning of the eighth day, Miss Mowlem was, as usual, near the key-hole of the drawing-room door. Then she descended to the kitchen, breathless with excitement, to announce a fresh discovery to her venerable mother.

“What do you think she's doing now?” cried Miss Mowlem.

“Nothing that's useful,” answered Mrs. Mowlem, with sarcastic readiness.

“She's sitting on his knee! Mother, did you ever sit on father's knee when you were married?”

“Certainly not, my dear. When me and your poor father married, we were not flighty young people.”

“She's got her head on his shoulder,” proceeded Miss Mowlem, more and more agitatedly, “and her arms round his neck – both her arms, mother!”

“I won't believe it,” exclaimed Mrs. Mowlem, indignantly. “A lady like her, with riches, and accomplishments! Don't tell me, I won't believe it!”

It was true though. Mrs. Frankland was sitting on her husband's knee. She sat for some time, then drew back a little, raised her head, and looked earnestly into the quiet, meditative face of the blind man.

“Lenny, you are very silent this morning,” she said. “What are you thinking about? If you tell me all your thoughts, I will tell you all mine.”

“Do you really want to hear all my thoughts?” asked Leonard.

“Yes; all. Tell me what you were thinking of just now! Me?”

“Not exactly of you.”

“Oh! Are you tired of me in eight days? Ah! You laugh. Oh, Lenny, I love you so; how can I think of anybody but you? No! I shan't kiss you. I want to know what you were thinking about first.”

“Of a dream, Rosamond, that I had last night.”

“What dream was it, Lenny?”

“A dream of the place where I first met you when we were both children. I saw the glen, and the blackberry bushes. I saw the mud on the walk in the middle of the glen. I saw the muddy water; and I saw you, Rosamond, a naughty girl, all covered with clay and wet. But, strangely enough, I did not see myself as the boy I then was. You were a little girl, and yet, though I was all in the past so far, I was in the present as regarded myself. Throughout the whole dream I was a grown man. And I was not blind.”

“What a memory you have, love, to be able to recall all those little circumstances after the years that have passed since that wet day in the glen! How well you recollect what I was as a child! Oh, Lenny, it almost breaks my heart to think of it! – when you saw me for the last time?”

“Do I remember, Rosamond! My last look at your face has painted your portrait in my memory in colors that can never change. I have many pictures in my mind, but your picture is the clearest and brightest of all.”

“And there is some consolation in that thought. When years have passed over us both, Lenny, you will not say to yourself, 'My Rosamond is beginning to fade.' I shall never grow old, love, for you! The bright young picture in your mind will still be my picture when my cheeks are wrinkled and my hair is gray. Suppose I ask you what I am like now, can you tell me without a mistake?”

“Try.”

“May I? Well, in the first place, how tall am I when we both stand up side by side?”

“You just reach to my ear.”

“Quite right. And the next question. What does my hair look like in your portrait?”

“It is dark brown – and it grows rather too low on your forehead.”

“Oh, Lenny, how well you remember me! And my eyes?”

“Brown eyes, large eyes, wakeful eyes, that are always looking about them. Eyes that can be very soft at one time, and very bright at another.”

“Lenny, I am so glad, so proud, so happy to find that you can keep the image of me clearly in your mind! You deserve a hundred thousand kisses – and there they are!”

Suddenly they heard the sound of a faint, small, courteously significant cough in a corner of the room. Mrs. Frankland turned round – and, to her horror and indignation, confronted Miss Mowlem, with a letter in her hand.

“You wretch! How dare you come in without knocking at the door?” cried Rosamond.

Miss Mowlem was very pale. She held out the letter apologetically, and said that she was very sorry.

“Sorry!” exclaimed Rosamond; “who cares whether you are sorry? I don't want your sorrow – I won't have it. I never was so insulted in my life – never, you mean, prying, inquisitive creature!”

“Rosamond! Rosamond!” interposed the quiet voice of Mr. Frankland.

“Lenny, dear, I can't help it![15] She has been prying after us ever since we have been here – you have, you ill-bred, indelicate woman! I suspected it before – I am certain of it now! Must we lock our doors? No. Fetch the bill! We give you warning. Mr. Frankland gives you warning – don't you, Lenny? I'll pack up all your things, dear. Go down stairs and make out your bill, and give your mother warning. Put that letter down on the table, you audacious woman, and fetch the bill, and tell your mother we are going to leave the house directly!”

At this dreadful threat, Miss Mowlem, who was soft and timid, as well as curious, wrung her hands in despair, and overflowed meekly in a shower of tears.

“Oh! Good gracious!” cried Miss Mowlem, “what will mother say! Whatever will become of me now! Oh, ma'am! I thought I knocked – I did, indeed! Oh, ma'am! I humbly beg pardon, and I'll never intrude again. Oh, ma'am! Mother's a widow, and the furniture's swallowed up all our money, and oh, ma'am! ma'am! What will we do?!”

“Rosamond!” said Mr. Frankland.

Rosamond put her lips caressingly close to his ear.

“Lenny,” she whispered, “have I made you angry with me?”

“I can't be angry with you, Rosamond,” was the quiet answer. “But please control yourself.”

“I am so sorry – so very, very sorry!” The soft lips came closer still to his ear as they whispered these penitent words. “So sorry, and so ashamed of myself! But it was enough to make almost anybody angry – wasn't it, dear? And you will forgive me – won't you, Lenny? – if I promise never to behave so badly again?” said Rosamond.

“A polite word or two – nothing more than a polite word or two,” said Mr. Frankland, rather coldly and constrainedly.

“Don't cry anymore!” said Rosamond to Miss Mowlem, and pulled the handkerchief away from her face without the ceremony. “I am very sorry I was in a passion. I never meant to distress you. I'll never say a hard word to you again, if you knock at the door. We are not going away. We don't want your mother, or the bill, or anything. Here's a present for you. Here's my neck-ribbon. I'm not angry about that. Take the ribbon. And now, shake hands and be friends, and go up stairs and see how it looks in the glass.”

With these words, Mrs. Frankland opened the door and embarrassed Miss Mowlem, closed the door again, and resumed her place on her husband's knee.

“Dear, I've sent her away with my bright green ribbon. It makes her as ugly as – ” Rosamond stopped, and looked anxiously into Mr. Frankland's face. “Lenny!” she said, sadly, “are you angry with me still?”

“My love, I was never angry with you. I never can be.”

“My dear, dear love, you said more than enough to Miss Mowlem. In your generosity and good-nature you forgot yourself with the young woman. Consider the difference between your station in society and Miss Mowlem's.”

“I will try and consider it. But I like people who are kind to me. I don't think whether they are above my rank or below it. I will try to think as you do, Lenny. But I am afraid that I am a Radical.”

“My dear Rosamond! Don't talk of yourself in that way, even in joke. Don't confuse those distinctions in rank on which the whole well-being of society depends.”

“Does it really? But we all have got the same number of arms and legs. We are all hungry and thirsty, and hot in the summer and cold in the winter. We all laugh when we are pleased, and cry when we are distressed. I won't love you better, Lenny, than I do now if I am a duchess, or less than I do now if I am a servant-girl.”

“My love, you are not a servant-girl. Your father's family, Rosamond, is one of the oldest in England. It is really almost laughably absurd to talk of yourself as a Radical.”

“I won't talk of myself so again, Lenny – only don't look so serious. I will be a Tory, dear, if you give me a kiss, and let me sit on your knee a little longer.”

“And,” Mr. Frankland said, “what about the letter on the table?”

“Ah! I forgot about the letter,” said Rosamond. “It is for you, Lenny – and here's the Porthgenna postmark on it.”

Rosamond opened the letter, drew a stool to her husband's feet, and read as follows:

“To Leonard Frankland, Esq.:

“Sir,

Agreeably to the instructions with which you favored me, I have proceeded to survey Porthgenna Tower.

A little cleaning and new pointing is all that the building wants. I can say two hundred pounds will cover the expense of all repairs. This sum will not include the restoration of the western staircase. From twenty-five to thirty pounds will suffice to set this all right.

The state of dilapidation, from top to bottom, is as bad as can be. Nobody volunteered to accompany me in my survey, and nobody told me which keys fitted which room doors in any part of the north side.

I will send you the estimate in a few days,

I remain, Sir,

Your humble servant,

Thomas Horlock.”

“A very honest, straightforward letter,” said Mr. Frankland.

“Do you mean to dispatch a friend to Porthgenna to go over the house with Mr. Horlock? If you do, I know who.”

“Who?”

“Me, if you please – under your escort, of course. I know exactly what to do.”

“Yes. I suppose I have no choice now but to give you an opportunity. And the west rooms are still habitable.”

“Oh, how kind of you! How pleased I shall be! How I shall enjoy the old place! I was only five years old, Lenny, when we left Porthgenna, and I am so anxious to see what I can remember of it, after such a long, long absence as mine. I never saw that ruinous north side of the house. I prophesy that we shall see ghosts, and find treasures, and hear mysterious noises!”

“Rosamond, let us be serious for one moment. It is clear to me that these repairs of the north rooms will cost a large sum of money. But what to do? If it procures you pleasure… I am with you heart and soul.”

He paused.

“Go on, Lenny.”

“Rosamond,” he whispered, “Your father will pass his days happily with us at Porthgenna. We may all live in the north rooms for the future. Is the loss of your mother the only sad association he has with the place?”

“Not quite. There is another association, which has never been mentioned, but which I may tell you, because there are no secrets between us. My mother had a favorite maid who lived with her from the time of her marriage. She was the only person present in her room when she died. Well, on the morning of my mother's death, she disappeared from the house. She left a mysterious letter to my father. She wrote about a Secret which she was charged to divulge to her master when her mistress was no more. And she added that she was afraid to mention this secret. Our neighbors and servants all thought that the woman was mad; but my father never agreed with them. I know that he has neither destroyed nor forgotten the letter.”

“A strange event, Rosamond.”

“Oh, Lenny, the servants and the neighbors were right – the woman was mad. Anyway, however, it was certainly a singular event in our family. All old houses have their romance – and that is the romance of our house. But years and years have passed since then. I have no fear that my dear, good father will spoil our plans. Just give him a new garden at Porthgenna, where he can walk, and give him new north rooms to live in! But all this is in the future; let us get back to the present time. When shall we go to Porthgenna, Lenny?”

“We have three weeks more to stay here, Rosamond.”

“Yes; and then we must go back to Long Beckley.”

“So, Rosamond, write to Mr. Horlock then – and appoint a meeting in two months' time at the old house.”

Rosamond sat down at the table, and dipped her pen in the ink with a little flourish of triumph.

“In two months,” she exclaimed joyfully, “I shall see the dear old place again!”

Chapter VII

Andrew Treverton's misanthropy was genuine. He was an incorrigible hater of mankind. He was a phenomenon in the nursery, a butt at school, and a victim at college.

At school, Andrew became fond of one among his school-fellows. Nobody could discover the smallest reason for it, but it was nevertheless a notorious fact that Andrew's pocket-money was always at this boy's service. But when his purse grew light in his friend's hand, the hero of his simple admiration abandoned him to embarrassment, to ridicule, and to solitude, without a word of farewell.

Andrew left home to travel. The life he led, the company he kept, during his long residence abroad, did him permanent and fatal harm. When he at last returned to England, he believed in nothing. At this period of his life, his only chance for the future lay in the good results which his brother's influence over him produced. But the quarrel occasioned by Captain Treverton's marriage broke it off forever. From that time, for all social interests and purposes, Andrew was a lost man.

“My dearest friend forsook and cheated me,” he said. “My only brother has quarreled with me for the sake of an actress. What to expect of the rest of mankind after that? I have suffered twice for my belief in others – I will never suffer again. My business in this world is to eat, drink, sleep, and die! “

After his brother's marriage, Andrew lived in the neighborhood of Bayswater. He bought a cottage and he was living like a miser. He had got an old man-servant, named Shrowl, who was even a greater enemy to mankind than himself.

His contempt for his own wealth was quite as hearty as his contempt for the wealth of his neighbors. Andrew Treverton and Shrowl sustained life with the least possible dependence on the race of men who, as they conceived, cheated them infamously.

They ate like primitive men, and they lived in all other respects like primitive men also. They had pots, pans, and pipkins, two deal tables, two chairs, two old sofas, two short pipes, and two long cloaks. They had no carpets and bedsteads, no cabinets, book-cases, or ornamental knickknacks of any kind, no laundress. When either of the two wanted to eat and drink, he cut off his crust of bread, cooked his bit of meat, drew his drop of beer, without the slightest reference to the other. When either of the two needed a clean shirt, which was very seldom, he went and washed one for himself. And when either of the two wanted to go to sleep, he wrapped himself up in his cloak, lay down on one of the sofas, and took what repose he required, early in the evening or late in the morning, just as he pleased.

Sometimes they sat down opposite each other, and smoked for hours, generally without a word. Whenever they did speak, they quarreled.

On a certain morning, Mr. Treverton descended from the upper regions of the cottage to one of the rooms on the ground-floor. Like his elder brother, he was a tall, well-built man. But his bony, haggard, sallow face did not bear the slightest resemblance to the handsome, open, sunburnt face of the Captain. With unbrushed hair and unwashed face, with a tangled gray beard, and an old, patched, dirty flannel dressing-gown this descendant of a wealthy and ancient family looked as if his birthplace was the work-house.

It was breakfast-time. Mr. Treverton took a greasy knife out of the pocket of his dressing-gown, cut off a rasher of bacon, jerked the gridiron onto the fire, and began to cook his breakfast. The door opened, and Shrowl entered the room, with his pipe in his mouth.

Neither master nor servant exchanged a word or took the smallest notice of each other on first meeting. Mr. Treverton finished his cooking, took his bacon to the table, and began to eat his breakfast. Then he looked up at Shrowl, who was at that moment opening his knife and approaching the bacon with greedy eyes.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Mr. Treverton and pointed with indignant surprise at Shrowl's breast. “You ugly brute, you've got a clean shirt on!”

“Thank you, Sir,” said Shrowl. “This is a joyful occasion, it's my master's birthday. Many happy returns, Sir. Perhaps you think I forget that today is your birthday? How old are you today? It's a long time ago, Sir, since you were a plump little boy, with a frill round your neck, and marbles in your pocket, and kisses and presents from Pa and Ma and uncle and aunt, on your birthday. Don't you be afraid of me. I will put this shirt on your next birthday; or your funeral, Sir.”

“Don't waste a clean shirt on my funeral,” retorted Mr. Treverton. “I won't left you any money in my will, Shrowl. You'll be on your way to the work-house when I'm on my way to the grave.”

“Have you really made your will at last, Sir?” inquired Shrowl. “I humbly beg pardon, but I always thought you were afraid to do it.”

Mr. Treverton thumped his crust of bread on the table, and looked up angrily at Shrowl.

“You fool!” said he. “I don't make it, and I won't make it, on principle[16]. Rich men who leave money behind them are the farmers who raise the crop of human wickedness. When a man is bad, if you want to make him worse, leave him a legacy!”

Shrowl chuckled sarcastically.

“Whom will get my money?” cried Mr. Treverton. “My brother, who thinks me a brute now; who thinks me a fool then?! He will spend all my money among crazy people and actors? Or the child of that actress, whom I have never seen. Mr. Shrowl! I laugh when I know I'm not going to leave you a sixpence.”

Shrowl got a little irritated.

“What's the use of talking nonsense about your money?” he said. “You must leave it to somebody.”

“Yes, I will,” said Mr. Treverton. “I will leave it, as I have told you over and over again, to the first Somebody I can find who honestly despises money.”

“That means nobody,” grunted Shrowl.

“I know what to do!” retorted his master.

Before Shrowl uttered a word, there was a ring at the gate-bell of the cottage.

“Go out,” said Mr. Treverton, “and see what that is.”

Mr. Treverton filled and lit his pipe. Soon Shrowl returned, and reported a man visitor.

“I picked up his letter,” said Shrowl. “He poked it under the gate and went away. Here it is.”

As Mr. Treverton opened the envelope, two slips dropped out. One fell on the table before which he was sitting; the other fluttered to the floor. This last slip Shrowl picked up and looked over its contents.

Mr. Treverton began to read the letter. The letter was not long. He read it down to the signature, and went through it again from the beginning.

“Shrowl,” he said, very quietly, “my brother, the Captain, is drowned.”

“I know,” answered Shrowl.

“I wonder what he thought about me when he was dying?” said Mr. Treverton, abstractedly.

“He didn't waste a thought on you or anybody else,” remarked Shrowl.

“Damn that woman!” muttered Mr. Treverton.

He read the letter again:

“Sir,

As the old legal adviser and faithful friend of your family, I acquaint you with the sad news of your brother's death. This deplorable event occurred on board the ship of which he was captain, during a gale of wind. I enclose a detailed account of the shipwreck, extracted from The Times, by which you will see that your brother died nobly. I also send a slip from the local Cornish paper.

I must add that no will has been found, after the most rigorous search, among the papers of the late Captain Treverton. So Porthgenna, his only property, derived from the sale of his estate, will go in due course of law[17] to his daughter.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Alexander Nixon.”

The newspaper-slip contained the paragraph from The Times. The other slip was from the Cornish paper.

“Why don't you read about what a great man your brother was, and what a good life he led?” asked Shrowl. “Why don't you read about what a wonderful handsome daughter he's left, and what a capital marriage she's made along with the man that's owner of your old family estate? The ill wind – that killed her father – brought her forty thousand pounds. Why don't you read about it? She and her husband have got a better house in Cornwall than you have got here. Aren't you glad of that?”

The only words Andrew said were these two -

“Go out! And hold your tongue henceforth and forever about my brother and my brother's daughter. Hold your tongue – leave me alone – go out!”

Shrowl slowly withdrew from the room.

Mr. Treverton pushed aside his chair, and walked up and down. He whispered a few words to himself and threw both the newspaper-slips into the fire.

Chapter VIII

Mr. and Mrs. Frankland started from London on the ninth of May, and stopped at the station of a small town in Somersetshire. A robust boy entered this world a month earlier, and preferred to make his first appearance in a small Somersetshire inn.

Young Mr. Orridge, the new doctor, felt a thrill of pleasurable agitation when he heard that the wife of a blind gentleman of great fortune required all his skill and attention. There were a dozen different reports about Mr. Frankland's blindness, and the cause of it.

So at eight o'clock in the evening the child was born, and Mr. Orridge performed his duties.

On the next day, and the next, and for a week after that, the accounts were favorable. But on the tenth day a catastrophe was reported. The nurse was suddenly ill.

Mr. Frankland telegraphed to a friend in London for a nurse, but the doctor was against that plan, except as a last resource. He wanted to find the right person here. But Mr. Orridge met with no success. He found plenty of volunteers, but they were all loud-voiced, clumsy-handed, heavy-footed countrywomen, kind and willing enough, but sadly awkward.

At two o'clock Mr. Orridge went to a country-house where he had a child-patient to see. “Perhaps I may remember somebody who may be the right person,” thought Mr. Orridge, as he got into his gig. “I have some hours at my disposal still, before the time comes for my evening visit at the inn.”

He thought about Mrs. Norbury. She was frank, good-humored, middle-aged woman. Her husband was a country squire. Mr. Orridge asked Mrs. Norbury to help him to find a good nurse, as she was an old resident in the West Winston neighborhood.

“You mean,” answered Mrs. Norbury, “have I heard about that poor unfortunate lady who had a child born at the inn? How is the lady? Who is she? Is the child well? Is she comfortable? Can I send her anything, or do anything for her?”

“You can do a great thing for her, and render a great assistance to me,” said Mr. Orridge, “if you tell me of any respectable woman in this neighborhood – a proper nurse for her.”

“You don't mean to say that the poor creature has not got a nurse!” exclaimed Mrs. Norbury.

“She has had the best nurse in West Winston,” replied Mr. Orridge. “But, most unfortunately, the woman was taken ill this morning, and went home.”

“Frankland, did you say her name was?” inquired Mrs. Norbury.

“Yes. She is, I understand, a daughter of that Captain Treverton who was lost with his ship a year ago in the West Indies. Perhaps you may remember the account of the disaster in the newspapers?”

“Of course I do! And I remember the Captain too. I was acquainted with him when he was a young man, at Portsmouth. But who is with Mrs. Frankland now?”

“Her maid; but she is a very young woman, and doesn't understand nursing duties. The landlady of the inn is ready to help when she can. I suppose we shall telegraph to London and get somebody by railway.”

“And that will take time, of course. And the new nurse may be a drunkard or a thief, or both,” said the Mrs. Norbury. “I am ready, I am sure, to take any trouble, or make any sacrifice, if I can be of use to Mrs. Frankland. Mr. Orridge, I think we will consult my housekeeper, Mrs. Jazeph. She is an odd woman, with an odd name; but she has lived with me in this house more than five years. She may know somebody in our neighborhood who can suit you, though I don't.”

With those words, Mrs. Norbury rang the bell. The housekeeper entered the room.

Mr. Orridge looked at her, with an interest and curiosity. She was woman of about fifty years of age. His medical eye detected that some of the intricate machinery of the nervous system went wrong with Mrs. Jazeph. He noted the painful working of the muscles of her face, and the hectic flush that flew into her cheeks when she entered the room and found a visitor there. He observed a strangely scared look in her eyes.

“This is Mr. Orridge, the medical gentleman who has lately settled at West Winston,” said Mrs. Norbury to the housekeeper. “He is in attendance on a lady[18] who stopped, on her journey westward, at our station, and who is now staying at the Tiger's Head Inn. You have heard something about it, have you not, Mrs. Jazeph?”

“Yes, ma'am,” said Mrs. Jazeph.

“Well,” continued Mrs. Norbury, “this poor lady needs a nurse for her child. Mr. Orridge can find nobody, and I can tell him of nobody. Can you help us, Mrs. Jazeph? Are there any women down in the village, or among Mr. Norbury's tenants, who understand nursing?”

Mrs. Jazeph reflected for a little while, and then said, very respectfully, but very briefly also, that she knew of no one whom she could recommend.

“Mr. Orridge told me just before you came in,” said Mrs. Norbury, “that she is the daughter of Captain Treverton, whose shipwreck – ”

Mrs. Jazeph looked at the doctor. She moved right hand so suddenly that it struck against a bronze statuette of a dog. The statuette fell to the ground.

“Oh!” exclaimed Mrs. Norbury. “The dog is not hurt – put it back again! Well, as I was saying, this lady is the daughter of Captain Treverton, whose dreadful shipwreck we all read about in the papers. I knew her father in my early days, and I am doubly anxious to be of service to her now. Think again. Is there anybody to nurse her? I am so anxious to help this poor lady through her difficulty, if I can.”

“I am very sorry,” said Mrs. Jazeph, “very sorry that I can think of no one who is fit; but – ”

She stopped.

“But what?” asked Mrs. Norbury.

“Ma'am,” answered Mrs. Jazeph, “I can nurse her if you allow.”

“What, nurse her yourself!” exclaimed Mrs. Norbury. “I see your kindness of heart and your readiness to make yourself useful. Of course I am not so selfish, under the circumstances, as to think twice of the inconvenience of losing my housekeeper. But have you ever had any practice in nursing?”

“Yes, ma'am,” answered Mrs. Jazeph. “Shortly after my marriage” (the flush disappeared, and her face turned pale again as she said those words), “I had some practice in nursing, and continued it at intervals until the time of my husband's death.”

“What do you say, Mr. Orridge?” asked Mrs. Norbury.

“I gratefully accept your kindness and your housekeeper's offer,” he said.

“Mr. Orridge accepts your offer with thanks,” said Mrs. Norbury.

A gleam of joyful surprise broke over the housekeeper's face.

“When will my attendance be required, Sir?” she asked.

“As soon as possible,” replied Mr. Orridge. “I suppose you have some preparations to make?” The doctor took his hat and bowed to Mrs. Norbury.

“Come to the Tiger's Head, and ask for me. I shall be there between seven and eight. Many thanks again, Mrs. Norbury.”

“My best wishes and compliments to your patient, doctor.”

“At the Tiger's Head, between seven and eight this evening,” reiterated Mr. Orridge, as the housekeeper opened the door for him.

“Between seven and eight, Sir,” repeated the soft, sweet voice.

Chapter IX

At seven o'clock Mr. Orridge put on his hat to go to the Tiger's Head. He opened his own door, when a messenger summoned him immediately to a case of sudden illness in the poor quarter of the town. So he delayed his attendance for a little while at the inn. The performance of his professional duty occupied some time. It was a quarter to eight before he left his house, for the second time, on his way to the Tiger's Head.

The new nurse was waiting for him. Mrs. Jazeph was sitting alone in the corner far from the window. He was rather surprised to see that she drew her veil down.

What feeling was she anxious to conceal?

“Please follow me,” said Mr. Orridge, “I will take you to Mrs. Frankland immediately.”

Mrs. Jazeph rose slowly.

“You seem tired,” Mr. Orridge said.

“No, Sir.”

There was some restraint in her voice as she made that answer; and still she never attempted to lift her veil.

The room which Mrs. Frankland occupied was situated at the back of the house. It had one window, the bed stood in the middle of the room.

“How do you find yourself[19] tonight, Mrs. Frankland?” asked Mr. Orridge. He undrew the curtains. “Do you think you will be any the worse for a little circulation of air?”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Примечания

1

Will she last out the night? – Переживёт ли она эту ночь?

Back

2

an officer in the navy – флотский офицер

Back

3

housekeeper's room – кастелянская

Back

4

she is wanted – её зовут

Back

5

All but one. – Со всеми, кроме одного.

Back

6

I mind my own business. – Я занимаюсь своими делами.

Back

7

let me out – выпустите меня

Back

8

keep the promises – сдержать обещания

Back

9

it is all done and over now! – теперь всему конец!

Back

10

weather-beaten – обветренный

Back

11

to catch cold – простужаться

Back

12

You don't say so! – Не может быть!

Back

13

attack of heart-burn – приступ изжоги

Back

14

furnished apartments – меблированные комнаты

Back

15

I can't help it! – Это невыносимо!

Back

16

on principle – из принципа, по убеждению

Back

17

in due course of law – согласно закону

Back

18

he is in attendance on a lady – он лечит леди

Back

19

How do you find yourself? – Как вы себя чувствуете?

Back