SELF-SACRIFICE.
[Illustration]
Trevelyan, when his wife had left him, sat for hours in silence
pondering over his own position and hers. He had taken his child to
an upper room, in which was his own bed and the boy's cot, and before
he seated himself, he spread out various toys which he had been at
pains to purchase for the unhappy little fellow,--a regiment of
Garibaldian soldiers, all with red shirts, and a drum to give the
regiment martial spirit, and a soft fluffy Italian ball, and a
battledore and a shuttlecock,--instruments enough for juvenile joy,
if only there had been a companion with whom the child could use
them. But the toys remained where the father had placed them, almost
unheeded, and the child sat looking out of the window, melancholy,
silent, and repressed. Even the drum did not tempt him to be noisy.
Doubtless he did not know why he was wretched, but he was fully
conscious of his wretchedness. In the meantime the father sat
motionless, in an old worn-out but once handsome leathern arm-chair,
with his eyes fixed against the opposite wall, thinking of the wreck
of his life.
Thought deep, correct, continued, and energetic is quite compatible
with madness. At this time Trevelyan's mind was so far unhinged, his
ordinary faculties were so greatly impaired, that they who declared
him to be mad were justified in their declaration. His condition was
such that the happiness and welfare of no human being,--not even his
own,--could safely be entrusted to his keeping. He considered himself
to have been so injured by the world, to have been the victim of so
cruel a conspiracy among those who ought to have been his friends,
that there remained nothing for him but to flee away from them and
remain in solitude. But yet, through it all, there was something
approaching to a conviction that he had brought his misery upon
himself by being unlike to other men; and he declared to himself
over and over again that it was better that he should suffer than
that others should be punished. When he was alone his reflections
respecting his wife were much juster than were his words when he
spoke either with her, or to others, of her conduct. He would declare
to himself not only that he did not believe her to have been false to
him, but that he had never accused her of such crime. He had demanded
from her obedience, and she had been disobedient. It had been
incumbent upon him,--so ran his own ideas, as expressed to himself
in these long unspoken soliloquies,--to exact obedience, or at least
compliance, let the consequences be what they might. She had refused
to obey or even to comply, and the consequences were very grievous.
But, though he pitied himself with a pity that was feminine, yet he
acknowledged to himself that her conduct had been the result of his
own moody temperament. Every friend had parted from him. All those to
whose counsels he had listened, had counselled him that he was wrong.
The whole world was against him. Had he remained in England, the
doctors and lawyers among them would doubtless have declared him to
be mad. He knew all this, and yet he could not yield. He could not
say that he had been wrong. He could not even think that he had been
wrong as to the cause of the great quarrel. He was one so miserable
and so unfortunate,--so he thought,--that even in doing right he had
fallen into perdition!
He had had two enemies, and between them they had worked his ruin.
These were Colonel Osborne and Bozzle. It may be doubted whether he
did not hate the latter the more strongly of the two. He knew now
that Bozzle had been untrue to him, but his disgust did not spring
from that so much as from the feeling that he had defiled himself by
dealing with the man. Though he was quite assured that he had been
right in his first cause of offence, he knew that he had fallen from
bad to worse in every step that he had taken since. Colonel Osborne
had marred his happiness by vanity, by wicked intrigue, by a devilish
delight in doing mischief; but he, he himself, had consummated the
evil by his own folly. Why had he not taken Colonel Osborne by the
throat, instead of going to a low-born, vile, mercenary spy for
assistance? He hated himself for what he had done;--and yet it was
impossible that he should yield.
It was impossible that he should yield;--but it was yet open to him
to sacrifice himself. He could not go back to his wife and say that
he was wrong; but he could determine that the destruction should
fall upon him and not upon her. If he gave up his child and then
died,--died, alone, without any friend near him, with no word of love
in his ears, in that solitary and miserable abode which he had found
for himself,--then it would at least be acknowledged that he had
expiated the injury that he had done. She would have his wealth, his
name, his child to comfort her,--and would be troubled no longer by
demands for that obedience which she had sworn at the altar to give
him, and which she had since declined to render to him. Perhaps there
was some feeling that the coals of fire would be hot upon her head
when she should think how much she had received from him and how
little she had done for him. And yet he loved her, with all his
heart, and would even yet dream of bliss that might be possible with
her,--had not the terrible hand of irresistible Fate come between
them and marred it all. It was only a dream now. It could be no more
than a dream. He put out his thin wasted hands and looked at them,
and touched the hollowness of his own cheeks, and coughed that he
might hear the hacking sound of his own infirmity, and almost took
glory in his weakness. It could not be long before the coals of fire
would be heaped upon her head.
"Louey," he said at last, addressing the child who had sat for an
hour gazing through the window without stirring a limb or uttering a
sound; "Louey, my boy, would you like to go back to mamma?" The child
turned round on the floor, and fixed his eyes on his father's face,
but made no immediate reply. "Louey, dear, come to papa and tell him.
Would it be nice to go back to mamma?" And he stretched out his hand
to the boy. Louey got up, and approached slowly and stood between his
father's knees. "Tell me, darling;--you understand what papa says?"
"Altro!" said the boy, who had been long enough among Italian
servants to pick up the common words of the language. Of course he
would like to go back. How indeed could it be otherwise?
"Then you shall go to her, Louey."
"To-day, papa?"
"Not to-day, nor to-morrow."
"But the day after?"
"That is sufficient. You shall go. It is not so bad with you that one
day more need be a sorrow to you. You shall go,--and then you will
never see your father again!" Trevelyan as he said this drew his
hands away so as not to touch the child. The little fellow had put
out his arm, but seeing his father's angry gesture had made no
further attempt at a caress. He feared his father from the bottom of
his little heart, and yet was aware that it was his duty to try to
love papa. He did not understand the meaning of that last threat,
but slunk back, passing his untouched toys, to the window, and there
seated himself again, filling his mind with the thought that when two
more long long days should have crept by, he should once more go to
his mother.
Trevelyan had tried his best to be soft and gentle to his child.
All that he had said to his wife of his treatment of the boy had
been true to the letter. He had spared no personal trouble, he had
done all that he had known how to do, he had exercised all his
intelligence to procure amusement for the boy;--but Louey had hardly
smiled since he had been taken from his mother. And now that he was
told that he was to go and never see his father again, the tidings
were to him simply tidings of joy. "There is a curse upon me," said
Trevelyan; "it is written down in the book of my destiny that nothing
shall ever love me!"
He went out from the house, and made his way down by the narrow path
through the olives and vines to the bottom of the hill in front of
the villa. It was evening now, but the evening was very hot, and
though the olive trees stood in long rows, there was no shade. Quite
at the bottom of the hill there was a little sluggish muddy brook,
along the sides of which the reeds grew thickly and the dragon-flies
were playing on the water. There was nothing attractive in the spot,
but he was weary, and sat himself down on the dry hard bank which had
been made by repeated clearing of mud from the bottom of the little
rivulet. He sat watching the dragon-flies as they made their short
flights in the warm air, and told himself that of all God's creatures
there was not one to whom less power of disporting itself in God's
sun was given than to him. Surely it would be better for him that he
should die, than live as he was now living without any of the joys of
life. The solitude of Casalunga was intolerable to him, and yet there
was no whither that he could go and find society. He could travel if
he pleased. He had money at command, and, at any rate as yet, there
was no embargo on his personal liberty. But how could he travel
alone,--even if his strength might suffice for the work? There had
been moments in which he had thought that he would be happy in the
love of his child,--that the companionship of an infant would suffice
for him if only the infant would love him. But all such dreams as
that were over. To repay him for his tenderness his boy was always
dumb before him. Louey would not prattle as he had used to do. He
would not even smile, or give back the kisses with which his father
had attempted to win him. In mercy to the boy he would send him back
to his mother;--in mercy to the boy if not to the mother also. It was
in vain that he should look for any joy in any quarter. Were he to
return to England, they would say that he was mad!
[Illustration: Trevelyan at Casalunga.]
He lay there by the brook-side till the evening was far advanced,
and then he arose and slowly returned to the house. The labour of
ascending the hill was so great to him that he was forced to pause
and hold by the olive trees as he slowly performed his task. The
perspiration came in profusion from his pores, and he found himself
to be so weak that he must in future regard the brook as being beyond
the tether of his daily exercise. Eighteen months ago he had been a
strong walker, and the snow-bound paths of Swiss mountains had been
a joy to him. He paused as he was slowly dragging himself on, and
looked up at the wretched, desolate, comfortless abode which he
called his home. Its dreariness was so odious to him that he was
half-minded to lay himself down where he was, and let the night air
come upon him and do its worst. In such case, however, some Italian
doctor would be sent down who would say that he was mad. Above
all the things, and to the last, he must save himself from that
degradation.
When he had crawled up to the house, he went to his child, and found
that the woman had put the boy to bed. Then he was angry with himself
in that he himself had not seen to this, and kept up his practice
of attending the child to the last. He would, at least, be true to
his resolution, and prepare for the boy's return to his mother. Not
knowing how otherwise to manage it, he wrote that night the following
note to Mr. Glascock;--
Casalunga, Thursday night.
MY DEAR SIR,
Since you last were considerate enough to call upon me I
have resolved to take a step in my affairs which, though
it will rob me of my only remaining gratification, will
tend to lessen the troubles under which Mrs. Trevelyan is
labouring. If she desires it, as no doubt she does, I will
consent to place our boy again in her custody,--trusting
to her sense of honour to restore him to me should I
demand it. In my present unfortunate position I cannot
suggest that she should come for the boy. I am unable to
support the excitement occasioned by her presence. I will,
however, deliver up my darling either to you, or to any
messenger sent by you whom I can trust. I beg heartily
to apologise for the trouble I am giving you, and to
subscribe myself yours very faithfully,
LOUIS TREVELYAN.
The Hon. C. Glascock.
P.S.--It is as well, perhaps, that I should explain that
I must decline to receive any visit from Sir Marmaduke
Rowley. Sir Marmaduke has insulted me grossly on each
occasion on which I have seen him since his return home.