Margaret found the days pass on with a monotony which was very terrible
to her. At times her husband joined her at dinner, but she never knew
when to expect him. Sometimes he came into the nursery, when he would
sit watching her and the child, in whom her love (starved in every other
direction) centred so completely.
She learned to be horribly afraid of him. She could not understand how
the doctor could reconcile it to his conscience to speak of him as sane;
there was such a wildness in his eyes, and a vagueness in his laughter,
which made her shiver with fright.
She forgot the great cunning that forms so great a feature in some kind
of insanity, and, always viewing him with nervous eyes, she heard him
speak rationally at times without noticing it, because her mind was
always on the stretch, and mental anxiety is apt to distort everything.
He had generally, however, fits of silence when she was only conscious
of his eyes gleaming at her from under the shaggy eyebrows, and these
prolonged periods of silence were far, far more acceptable to her than
his terrible laugh. Each day she prayed with all her soul for health and
strength--she tried, poor child, to do her duty, and, sometimes full of
pity for his evident supreme unhappiness, she tried to talk to him and
to interest him in their child. He watched her unceasingly. In the
garden, where now spring flowers were coming out, where the birds began
to chirp and twitter, and where the trees showed green, and another
spring had come to gladden the earth.
It brought no rejoicing to her heart, because there must be a responsive
chord somewhere, and to enter into the fair happiness of spring the
pulses must be able to beat a little quickly, and some sympathy between
the great new birth of the year and the soul must be possible. The
cheerfulness of outside nature seemed almost a mockery to her--just as
the overflowing mirth of a casual acquaintance jars upon one in sorrow.
Her writing began to be noticed, and at times her nurse, who had been
unsympathetic and suspicious at first, but who had grown to love her,
managed to bring her carefully-written letters from Grace, and news from
the outside world, though Margaret seldom dared to ask her to make the
attempt, she was so afraid that this one human being in whom she had
begun to have trust might be taken from her. She dreaded night because,
though locked in with her child, the nurse sleeping in an adjoining
room, she would often wake in a paroxysm of terror, thinking that in
some way her husband had gained an entrance to her room, and that he was
threatening her and her child.
She was walking in the garden with her sorrowful thoughts, watching her
little darling, when the front doorbell rang loudly, a sound so seldom
heard as to be startling to her.
Mr. Drayton, who used to sit in a room off the front hall, of which the
window commanded the garden, went as usual into the hall to see that no
one went out or came in, and heard his own name mentioned by a
peremptory and loud-voiced man, who demanded instant admission, to see
him on urgent business.
"Tell him I have done with business, I refuse to see him."
"But you will be extremely sorry if you do not see me," said the
stranger in a still louder tone. "You thought you had made a mess of
those chemical work shares, but you have been a far, far cleverer man
than we gave you credit for. Those shares Mr. Sandford laughed at...."
"Come in here, come in here," said Mr. Drayton, rubbing his hands with
glee. "So I was right, and that old fool was wrong, hah! hah! hah!" and
he laughed uproariously.
The stranger walked into the small room; he could hardly believe, he
said, that Mr. Drayton's acute intelligence had been laughed at. What
shares had he had in those works; what papers had he to show? Perhaps
that was a matter of no moment. If the shares had been sold ... why it
was a misfortune, unless he could buy them back before the discovery,
the great discovery, was made known.
"What discovery?" asked Mr. Drayton, in a moment suspicious.
"That you were right and every one else wrong."
"How has that discovery been made?"
"By experiment."
"Yes; but who made the experiment?"
The stranger leaned forward and said in a low voice, "You remember your
manager, the man who left you?"
"Remember him! You do not mean to say he is in the thick of this--the
scoundrel, the--the rascal." Then suspicion came to him again.
"What interest in all this have you?" he asked, very angrily, and
glaring at the stranger fiercely.
"Interest? you do not suppose I have come to you for nothing; that would
be rather a good joke," and he laughed heartily.
"Of course not, of course not. But from what motive? No one does
anything for nothing," and Mr. Drayton put on an air of wisdom, in which
cunning was very visible.
"I should think not, indeed; and I am not working for nothing, I can
tell you. In the first place, a friend of mine has been most abominably
treated--shockingly, shamefully treated!"
"By whom?"
"By some one connected with these works," (and I am sure that is true,
said Paul Lyons to himself, since he, this man, has been connected with
them).
"Can't you tell his name?"
"No, I can't, it would spoil all my plans if I did," (and so it would,
he thought).
"I do not believe in disinterested friendships."
"Nor do I; but I intend having a reward."
"From me, I suppose," and Mr. Drayton laughed again.
"From you--and from some one else. If my ideas are correct--you would
not grudge me a good percentage, eh?"
"What do you call a good percentage?"
"Well, I want half; I want fifty per cent."
"Fifty per cent.! nonsense, absolute nonsense."
"You have no right to say 'nonsense'; and I think I am wasting my time,"
(which is also true, it is quite wonderful how I have been able to speak
the truth to-day), and Paul Lyons felt a glow of satisfaction at this
reflection.
"I don't know what you're driving at;" and Mr. Drayton looked so
furiously at him that Paul Lyons thought if he ever favoured Margaret
with such a glance it was enough to give her a fit.
"I am driving at nothing," he said, with a very good show of anger. "I
don't pretend that I shan't be abominably annoyed if you do not go into
this matter, because I see my way to making some money, but it seems to
me that you have no papers to show me, and that you do not understand
this matter very much; I believe I had better go--time, as far as I am
concerned, is too precious to waste."
He rose and made a movement towards the door. Mr. Drayton put his hand to
his forehead; he felt confused; he never now could follow a thought for
any time, but his cunning made him anxious to conceal this.
"You can stop," he said, speaking a little thickly, and more slowly. "I
have some papers upstairs."
"Let your servant fetch them."
"No; certainly not. I will go myself."
He left the room, and Paul threw up the window, flung out a packet, and
closed it again.
Margaret saw the packet fall, but she also saw her husband at the
upstairs window; therefore, to the young man's disappointment, she
continued walking along, holding her little one's hand, and took no
notice.
Mr. Drayton returned, holding some papers in his hands.
"What did you open the window for?" he asked, and Paul saw that his
suspicions were again aroused.
"Open the window!" he answered, with great presence of mind. "My dear
Mr. Drayton, if you said that to any one else you would be accused of
having delusions!"
Mr. Drayton glared at him, and said no more. Paul took the papers and
glanced them over; they were lists in Mr. Drayton's own handwriting; and
lists no sane man would have written. Here and there a number put down,
and a long rambling note about some one supposed to have injured him;
remarks about a man who took various shapes, and who made fiendish faces
at him; and things of that sort.
Paul Lyons was not experienced in cases of the kind; this man, whom he
felt to be insane (though evidently having lucid intervals), was a new
revelation to him; but his heart beat violently. He had seen poor
Margaret's face, and had recognised that she was pining under the
influence of confinement, and probably terrors; and he felt sure that in
his hand he held proofs that must be listened to--that he had that now
in his possession which must ensure her freedom.
He affected to hunt for papers in his own pockets, and said carelessly,
as he crammed the papers into the breast-pocket of his coat, "I will
look these over and compare them with what I have at home. Shall I find
you at home to-morrow, Mr. Drayton?"
There was no answer, and looking up at him he saw that he was looking
out of the window with a face full of malignancy--there was something
horrible in his expression as he watched poor Margaret, who had seen the
packet, and who had not dared to lift it yet. She had passed close to it
once or twice, and had pushed it under a bush with a careless kick.
Taken aback by this sign of animosity towards Margaret, Paul Lyons did
not know what to do.
He was afraid of making things worse for her, and yet he could not bear
going without giving and receiving a sign from her.
"Is that not your wife?" he asked suddenly. "Will you not introduce me
to her?"
"Quite impossible, sir--quite impossible. My wife is not all there; she
is mad, poor thing, very mad."
"Is she indeed? Well, all the same I should like to speak to her, I
should like to make sure that this is not another of your...." He
stopped short.
"Another of my----! Finish, pray finish, my dear sir;" and Mr. Drayton
spoke in a tone of suppressed fury.
"Delusions," said the young man, calmly, trying to remember all the
various theories about subduing a madman by the expression of the eye,
and staring at him hard, conscious all the time of failure.
With sudden fury Mr. Drayton turned upon him, "I believe you to be an
impostor, an impostor, sir, do you hear? and you have come here to do me
an injury;" he moved towards him threateningly.
"Sir," answered Paul, understanding directly that it was no moment for
trifling, "I shall go and I shall tell all the world that Mr. Sandford
is right; you understand nothing of business; you are abusive--and, in
short, no one can make anything of you."
As he spoke Mr. Drayton nearly grasped him, but he had youth and
activity on his side, and he slipped away from him and stood by the
window, having thrown down all the chairs.
"Now, sir," he said, "I intend seeing for myself if Mrs. Drayton is
mad." Before Mr. Drayton could get round the obstructions he had opened
the window, which was not many feet from the ground, and alighted on the
lawn close to where Margaret, with deadly anxiety lest the packet should
never come into her possession, paced to and fro--she had her child
still with her.
"Your husband is mad," said Paul in a hurried whisper, "I hold proofs,
and you will be rescued." He stooped and picked up the child, anxious to
try and pacify Mr. Drayton now he had spoken those few words to poor
Margaret, and forgetting that the child, unaccustomed to any strangers,
might be frightened.
The little one, who had been unusually fretful all the morning, which
was the reason Margaret tried to amuse it in the fresh air for a longer
time than usual, uttered the most piercing shrieks, and just as Mr.
Drayton came up to them almost foaming at the mouth. She struggled, and
kicked, and clutched hold of the wig, which had made Paul Lyons
unrecognisable, even to Margaret, and tore it off, revealing his curly
hair.
A perfect roar burst from Mr. Drayton.
Margaret, soothing her child in her arms, watched with terror-stricken
eyes the terrible struggle that then ensued. The one man, heavier and
stronger with rage, and the other, lithe and pliable, keeping him at
times at bay, and at others closing with his adversary. As they neared
the little side door, Margaret saw it open slowly, and saw the
man-servant there.
In a moment she seized the packet and rushed into the house, and
upstairs, never taking breath till the doors were locked behind her, and
that she was safe in her room with the child, from whence she could see
the road.
The struggle went on and Paul was nearly overpowered, when the servant
interfered, and, catching hold of Mr. Drayton's uplifted arm, told Paul
to go.
"I will go if you will promise to protect Mrs. Drayton from this madman
till help come to her," he gasped, bruised and breathless, but feeling
that it had not all been a failure since he had given her hope.
"She won't hurt," said the man, "but I'm not going to stop. I would not
stay with him," he said, contemptuously, "not for double the money."
"But you will stay till some one comes, will you not?" Paul asked, more
afraid than ever.
"He'll have to look sharp then," said the man. "I've told the doctor my
mind, and that its a case of asylum, but he did not choose, he does not
choose, to believe me, and I am not going to stay here to be murdered, I
can tell you. It's two men's work to look after him, and he's that
cunning he speaks the doctor fair when he comes, and the doctor's a fool
besides."
Paul lost no time--he rushed out of the house and made his way to an
hotel, where he tried to remove all signs of the frightful struggle he
had just had, and to sally forth before his old spruce self.
What ought to be his first step? He must lose no time--leaving Margaret
even for a day in the power of that madman was horrible to him.
Even Grace was not thought of; clutching his papers, he went to the
magistrate who presided over the district court and sent in his card and
asked for an interview. At first he was received with natural suspicion,
his face was swollen and he looked altogether as though he had been
mixed up in a fray, though his dress was so carefully arranged--but the
merit of reality was there, and he sketched in glowing colours poor
Margaret's position and the treatment he had received, and what he
feared for her, in simple language free from exaggeration.
The magistrate consulted his clerk and sundry authorities with a
deliberation truly maddening.
"I am searching for a precedent," he said, looking up at young Lyons,
who was almost stamping with impatience.
He turned over leaves, backwards and forwards, and read and re-read
passages pointed out to him by the clerk. Then he looked up, a bright
idea having dawned upon him, and, keeping his first finger on a
particular line, said:
"Are you the lady's nearest male relation?"
"No, I am not. Her only male relation is very ill in Scotland."
"Are you any relation of hers?"
"No; I am her friend."
"My _dear_ sir," said the magistrate, "why take up my time in this way?
You have no right to interfere--there is no precedent for such a thing,
no precedent at all," and he got up and stood leaning his knuckles on
the table and looking at Paul Lyons as though his ignorance of the law
was almost worthy of compassion.
"Will you advise me, sir? What am I to do? Can you not tell me how I
must set to work? Surely your experience can help me."
"No, sir; I really cannot take the responsibility of doing this--the
lady's nearest relations must take the matter up. You had better not
interfere."
"And if the lady has no relations?"
"That, sir, is a position--hem--the law never contemplated such a
position. I really must beg you to withdraw now, you are taking up the
time of the (he was going to say court but he corrected himself)--you
are taking up my time, sir."
With hidden rage, poor Paul left him, and found himself in the street.
What was the right thing to do? How could he help her?
He went to see Grace to consult with her; she cried and then laughed,
and got quite hysterical.
"Oh! you foolish boy, I am her nearest relation, and I will send for the
doctor; they sent him to me, but I got rid of him, I disliked him so
much. We will have him here, and I will see if I cannot talk him into
helping us."
She wrote a note and sent it off, and Paul, who by this time knew he had
had no food for a long time, went off to his hotel, promising to be back
again to meet the doctor and tell him the state of matters.
The picture he had drawn of Mr. Drayton's violence filled Grace with
anxiety. She moved about restlessly, filling up the time by trying
various occupations and throwing each aside one after another.
Jean, coming to see if she wanted anything, found her in a fever, and
when she heard all was nearly "demented," to use her own expression. She
talked and remonstrated and suggested all in a breath. The police, that
would be a help.
When Mr. Lyons returned, this idea was given to him by Grace, and he was
inclined to think it might help. He went off to find the superintendent,
and was met by fresh difficulties.
The superintendent asked what he was afraid of, and laughed at the idea
of his being called upon to protect a lady who had made no complaint.
Urged by Paul at length he said,
"I will tell the man on that beat to look out, and if he hears
screams----"
"He will of course at once get admittance," said Paul, eagerly,
horrified to hear his own fears put into actual words.
The superintendent smiled--a superior smile,
"No, sir, he must not enter any man's house unless he is _called_ in, it
would be breaking the law."
"Then he must wait till murder is committed before interfering."
"Well, you see, sir, little rows and things cannot be interfered with
unless one of the parties asks for help."
"It seems to me," said Paul, driven nearly to despair, "that the laws all
round want a good deal of amendment."
"Perhaps so, sir, I'm sure I cannot say, but I have to see that my men
do their duty, and that they do not exceed it."
Paul went back to tell Grace that the man on the beat was to be at hand,
and it did not occur to her fortunately to ask what good being at hand
would do for Margaret. But she had found out through the landlady that
if two doctors declared Mr. Drayton to be mad, they could get a
magistrate's order and have him put under restraint.
"After all, you have done a great deal more than I have done; I have
wasted my day, and done nothing," said poor Paul, who was fairly tired
out. Grace did not contradict him; so far from thinking she had done
much she felt as though all the real effort, all the great trial, had
yet to come.
She awaited with impatience the arrival of the doctor, turning over in
her own mind after her usual fashion what she should say and how she
should say it.
On his arrival he was surprised to find her sitting up when he had
imagined her very ill; he stopped short, and gazed at her a little
helplessly--what did she want with him?
As may be remembered, he had not been accustomed to much beauty, and was
always on his guard against being influenced by it in an undue manner.
Grace was not so beautiful as Margaret, but she was not like the
ordinary women he had seen; he had got into a groove of very middle-aged
ladies, and, seeing them in private, saw them bereft of those
adornments which concealed the ravages of time from the outside world.
Grace with her rippling hair tumbling over her shoulders, a heightened
colour and sparkling eyes, prejudiced him directly.
So handsome a young woman must be certainly very wicked. Doctor Jones is
not the only person in the world who imagines that goodness and
plainness walk hand in hand. He prepared from the first therefore to act
on the defensive, and his tone, asking, "You wished to see me, madam,"
was distinctly aggressive, and Grace, sensitive and anxious, recognized
the tone and felt that at the outset she was met with a difficulty.
"Doctor Jones, you have seen and you know my sister, Mrs. Drayton."
"I have seen her; I cannot say that I _know_ her; one cannot know a
person just by seeing them for a moment or two."
"Well," said Grace, a little impatiently, "you know her husband, Mr.
Drayton?"
"Slightly; yes, slightly, I do know him."
"Do you know that he is--mad?"
"No, I know nothing of the kind. Who says so, Miss Rivers?"
"I _know_ it," said Grace, "and something must be done immediately!" She
spoke with rising excitement.
"I cannot understand what you're driving at."
"Doctor Jones, a friend of ours went there to-day; he saw Mr. Drayton,
and he told me if something was not done immediately he was quite quite
certain that my sister will suffer. I am afraid for her poor child."
"Is she afraid for herself?" he asked, with a disagreeable smile.
"How can I tell?" said Grace, angrily; "he does not allow her to move
without him; she is a very prisoner in that terrible house, she cannot
come and see me; she escaped once and he has taken means to prevent her
ever coming again. He does not allow her to go to church or to see a
single soul. He must be mad, he is mad!"
"If I were Mr. Drayton and had a wife like your sister I would do the
same, Miss Rivers."
"What do you mean?" she cried, passionately.
"Miss Rivers, your sister did not even allow to me that she had been out
once. I saw her; I saw her meet her----I _know_ it was her lover, in a
shop."
Grace stared at him for a moment, and then she laughed wildly and
hysterically.
"Poor Paul!" she said; "imagine, only imagine, being taken for
Margaret's lover!"
Doctor Jones rose; he was exceedingly affronted.
"You and your sister, madam, must find a less honest man to help you
carry out your wicked plans against poor Mr. Drayton's happiness. I am
incorruptible!" and, with his head well in the air and a strong sense of
virtuous resistance to beauty and blandishments, he prepared to go.
"Doctor Jones," said Grace, her burst of laughter over, "you have said
a very wicked and a very ridiculous thing, but you had better go away.
After your fancying anything wrong about Margaret I cannot bear seeing
you. Why, the only excuse for you is, that you are probably as mad as
Mr. Drayton."
"Madam, you may throw off the mask now and be impertinent, but nothing
you say will move me. I am not going to declare a man mad when I believe
him to be sane, to suit you or any one else."
"It does not in the least matter," said Grace, coolly, and speaking from
the inspiration of the moment, "for the man whom I shall probably marry
if I get strong, the man you imagine to be my sister's lover, will be
here soon, and he will most likely bring Sir Augustus Jermyn down with
him. I have great faith in _him_, and Sir Augustus will probably prefer
naming the second medical man himself."
Doctor Jones was very much taken aback. It was hard that being an honest
man should prevent his being thrown with so eminent a man.
"I--I should have no objection to meeting Sir Augustus and giving him my
opinion. I should feel proud to assist him in forming a judgment."
"I have no doubt of it," said Grace, sarcastically, "but nothing will
induce me now to mention your name to Sir Augustus. You have too
completely prejudged and misjudged my dearest sister. You see her meet a
friend, a friend much attached to us both, and jump immediately to
iniquitous conclusions. Leave me! I never will forgive you, and if
anything happens to my sister on you will the whole responsibility
fall."
Doctor Jones retired, endeavouring to comfort himself with the
reflection that he had acted purely from a sense of right. But that
small, still voice--that voice that may be listened to or not but is
always there--convicted him. He knew that because he thought Margaret in
the wrong he had been resolved not to agree with her. He got positively
hot with sudden tremor. What if Sir Augustus came, and found the man
really mad! His opinion would henceforth be valueless, and, just as he
thought this, the remembrance of Mr. Drayton's laugh was most
uncomfortably present to him.
He said nothing to his wife of this; he must not lower himself in her
opinion at any rate.
When he left the room Grace began to try and think if Paul had ever
spoken of meeting Margaret. By degrees then it all came to her. Sir
Albert Gerald must have met her, and that reptile of a doctor had seen
them speak to each other. At the time she had forgotten this.
How difficult life was to her just now, and the fears for Margaret came
to her in fuller force than ever.
Jean came into the room, her big Bible under her arm, her eyes shining
with a look of content and peace. She noticed Grace's troubled
expression, and she stroked her long hair.
"My bairn," she said, "it's a troublous world at times I know."
"It is all sent for the best," said Grace, giving utterance to the
platitude nearest her lips at the moment.
"Oh! do not say that. You must na say that. We make evil to ourselves,
God does _not_ send it."
"He allows it," murmured Grace.
"Bairn, I ask you, and answer from your own conscience: Who brought all
this weary trouble upon us?"
She stood like an inspired sybil, her brown face and homely features
lighted by a Divine truth, and Grace, looking up, conscience-stricken,
could only answer the truth, slowly and solemnly,
"It was I, Jean, I myself."
END OF VOL. II.