AFTERWARDS.
Hester woke next morning in an unfamiliar room with a consciousness of
something strange and terrible that had happened, she could not tell
what, that first sensation before memory awakens which is one of the
most bitter indications of having entered upon the world of evil. So the
guilty pair in Paradise, in the morning of the world, must have woke out
of their sleep, and felt, before remembrance came, the sense of ill. She
scarcely remembered how she had been transported to that bed. She had
slept for sorrow, calamity crushing all her unused faculties, and her
first waking sensation was one of trouble and wonder what it was. She
had not long to wait before the whole came rushing back upon her mind.
She gave a low cry, and all her wounds began to bleed anew--nay, she
felt them as for the first time, for last night's terror and commotion
and misery were like a dream to her. When she uttered that cry, there
was a soft stir in the room, and a little, noiseless figure, and anxious
face appeared at her bedside.
"Mother!" Hester cried, with a voice of dismay.
"Yes, my darling, I am here. Catherine was so good as to send for me.
She said you had received a great shock. She went out herself very
early, so that you need not be afraid of being disturbed, Hester. And
what is it, my dear? She would not give me any satisfaction. She said
you had behaved very well, and had been the means of giving her valuable
information. I am very glad of that anyhow, Hester. I always told you
she was kind in the main. If you and she should be better friends after
this it would be a great pleasure to me."
There was anxiety in Mrs. John's plaintive face, but it was confined to
the fear lest her daughter's health should be affected, and to a little
uncertainty whether the relations with Catherine might be improved or
injured by this mysterious event, whatever it was.
"She has been very kind, mamma."
"I was sure of it, my dear. Catherine has a way with her that is not
very--_nice_--sometimes. But then we all have some fault. I was to ring
for tea as soon as you were awake. That maid, after all, though I have
always had a prejudice against her, is kind too, in her way. She has
made me most comfortable. I have always observed in my life, Hester,
that when you get to know people you so often think better of them than
when-- That has been my experience. Do you feel able to take some
breakfast, dear? or will you get up first? You are to do exactly as you
please."
Hester lay still with a little moan, and made no reply. She would have
liked to turn her face to the wall, to beg that the light of day might
be shut out, that she might be left to make acquaintance with her
trouble. But none of these things were possible. Her mother's gentle
face shining upon her with so much easy anxiety, and so little
conception of anything under the surface, brought her to herself as
nothing else could have done. Why should she be troubled with these
anguishes that were beyond her? The girl raised herself with that
heroism of necessity which is more effectual than mere will. Mrs. John
would weep with her, and make up to her with a thousand caresses for the
loss of her lover, when she came to understand it; but she would never
understand the burden that was on Hester's soul. The girl said to
herself that it must be borne silently, that there must be no further
betrayal. She begged her mother to leave her a little, while she got up.
"I have had a long sleep. I am quite myself again," she said.
"You look pale," said Mrs. John, kissing her. "You have had a shock, and
you have never told me yet what it was. But perhaps, on the whole, the
best thing you can do is to get up; breakfast in bed is not very
comfortable. I will go and have a good look at Catherine's pretty things
in the drawing-room--she has some nice china--and come back in half an
hour or so. Don't hurry, my darling, but it is such a lovely morning; it
will do you good to have some fresh air."
When Hester was left alone she tried to think, but could not. Scenes
came back to her as in a theatre--the meeting at the gate, and all that
passed there; Catherine's appearance, and the force with which Edward
flung her away from him, and set out into the dark, into the unknown.
Why--why had he done it? Was it in a sudden fit of passion, which he had
repented of? Was it in the terror of being discovered--and out of that
suspicion and opposition, and gloomy distrust which had always been in
his mind towards Catherine? And then the railway would rise before her
mind--the crowd and noise, and wild unnaturalness of everything, the
disappointment which to her at heart was a relief. Had he not gone after
all? What if a better thought had struck him? What if, when they all
went to the bank, thinking him a traitor, they should find him there,
throwing light on everything, putting the wrong right? Hester raised her
head again when this thought came into her mind. Was it not after all
the most likely, the most natural thought? A man does wrong by
temptation, by evil companions, by the leading on of one wrong thing
after another; but when he is brought to a pause, when there is a
distinct call upon him, when he is made to see beyond dispute what his
duty is, is it not natural, certain, that he must do it? So she said to
herself. For a moment all the clouds flew away, a warm exhilaration took
possession of her. Then there floated up before her eyes another
scene--the table round which they had sat in the dead of night; Harry
with his troubled face opposite to her; Catherine paramount in her
energy and rapidity; she herself putting down upon paper, so quickly
that her fingers alone moved and her mind had no share but the most
broken and imperfect one, what she was told to write. If he had come
back, if he was working now at the re-establishment of everything, could
Edward ever forgive them? What matter, what matter, she cried, so long
as he set himself right, so long as Vernon's stood by his help and did
not fall? From all this it will be seen that nothing of the despair
which in reality and in reflection had overwhelmed all the other chief
actors in the drama, had touched Hester. To her everything was still
possible, and Edward's vindication, Edward's repentance, the chief, the
most natural event of all.
"Well, my dear, are you ready?" said Mrs. John. "There is quite a nice
breakfast waiting for you down stairs. Catherine's maid (whom I really
was unjust to, Hester, for she is a very nice woman when you come to
know her) insisted upon making you some chocolate instead of tea: for it
would be more sustaining, she said, in case you should not be disposed
to eat. I don't know why she should think you would not be disposed to
eat. I told her you always liked your breakfast. But come, my dear,
come, I am sure you must want something. Did you find the clean things I
brought you? Oh I thought you would be better in a nice clean print,
instead of that dark thing; but you have put on the old one all the
same."
"It is best for me to-day," Hester said.
She thought to herself if it all turned out as she hoped, with what joy
she would return to her summer garments in the evening, even if it might
be that Edward had broken with her for ever. She thought this almost
certain, for had she not turned against him? but this was not the
question paramount in her mind. There was but one thing all important,
that he should have returned to his post. Mrs. John was greatly
surprised at the wisdom of that prevision on the part of Catherine's
maid. How could she have foreseen that Hester, a healthy girl, with
generally a healthy appetite, would turn away almost with loathing from
the dainty food, the pretty tray, the careful provision made for her?
She swallowed the chocolate hastily at her mother's entreaty: the very
air of the house, those stairs and passages, all flooded with light,
which had painted themselves on her recollection in the darkness, filled
Hester with a sense of the intolerable. She made haste to get out, to
get away, to take her mother home.
"Don't you think it will only be polite to wait till Catherine comes
back?" Mrs. John said. "You must remember, dear, that she has been very
kind to you; and nothing could be kinder than her note, and sending the
carriage for me this morning, and all. I think we ought to wait and
thank her for her kindness. She will think it strange that we should go
away without a word. Well, if you think it really will be better to come
back in the afternoon, Hester--Has Catherine gone out to spend the day?
That is quite unusual, surely for her--but however, of course it is not
our business. Lean on my arm, my dear. I am sure, as you say, the air
will do you good."
The air did not do Hester good: the shade of the holly-tree lying
motionless upon the road, the half open gate at which Catherine had
appeared in the darkness, the strange intelligence that seemed to be in
every bush, as if these inanimate things knew and remembered what had
been done and said in secret, seemed to bring conviction, and force back
upon her all the scenes she had gone through of which her innocent
mother knew nothing. And every inch of the way recalled her own proud,
eager thoughts of the night before, the desperation with which she had
gone to that meeting, determined upon her protest and refusal, yet never
sure that she would ever retrace these steps again. To retrace them now
as she was doing, with her mother's gentle talk in her ears, the
occasional mild question which it was so easy to elude, the praises of
Catherine which her supposed kindness called forth so easily, seemed an
incredible thing. Mrs. John enjoyed the walk. It was seldom she went out
in the morning, and the excitement of her daughter's absence all night,
of Catherine's explanations, of the drawing together of some new and
closer bond between Hester and the head of the Vernon society--the most
important person of all the kindred--gave her a secret exhilaration.
There had not been such a sensation in the Vernonry for months as that
which had been caused that morning by the sight of Catherine's
well-known brougham, sent for Mrs. John! It might be that in future this
would be no rare sight: it might be--but the poor lady scarcely knew how
to contain the satisfaction with which she saw the vista opening up
before her of Hester's promotion and favour with Catherine. Valuable
information! She was proud of what seemed to her like the highest
praise. She always knew that her Hester, so much superior as she was to
other girls----if Catherine but knew her as she deserved to be known.
And then she asked with pleasant expectation--
"What was the information, Hester, that you gave Catherine? I am so glad
that you were able to tell her something she didn't know. I was quite in
a flutter when I got her note last night; but of course it was perfectly
right for you to stay when she wished it. I shall tell her I am so much
obliged to her for having taken such good care of you. It gave me quite
a fright for the moment, but I soon got over it. And Emma, you know,
went away at last by the night train."
Thus Mrs. John diverted her own attention and never pressed a question.
But it is impossible to tell how deserted, how silent, how far out of
the world and life the little rooms at the Vernonry looked after the
agitation of the night. Hester could not rest in them: the summer
forenoon seemed a twelve-month long. She could not take up any of her
usual occupations. She was afraid to meet any one, to be questioned
perhaps more closely than her mother had questioned her. Her heart was
away, it was not in this place. In the pauses of Mrs. John's gentle talk
she felt her own thoughts thronging upon her almost audibly. It seemed
impossible that other people, that even her mother, unsuspicious as she
was, should not find her out. And how slow, how slow were those sunshiny
minutes, sixty of them in an hour! The time of the early dinner came,
and again Hester turned from the food. Mrs. John began to be alarmed.
"If it goes on like this I shall have to send for the doctor," she said.
Hester hastened out as soon as the meal was over to escape from her
mother's comments. It seemed to her that she recognised some new
knowledge in the keen glances of the sisters, and in Mr. Mildmay
Vernon's grin as he sat over his newspaper in the summer-house. And she
was afraid of the old Morgans, who had more insight. The surroundings of
the house altogether were odious to her--unnecessary things that had
nothing to do with those real affairs and mysteries of living which were
being solved elsewhere. She asked herself wistfully, whether it was not
time for her to go back: though if Catherine had not returned, what
could she do but cause suspicion if she went to the empty house? To be
even in the empty house would be something--it would be so much nearer
the scene in which everything was going on. While she stood with her
hand curved over her forehead looking out upon the road, with her eyes
"busy in the distance shaping things that made her heart beat quick,"
the old captain came up to her. She thought he was paler than usual, and
his eyes were troubled. He had laid his hand on her shoulder before she
heard his approach, so absorbed was she in her own thoughts. He took her
by the arm in his fatherly way--
"Come with me, Hester, and talk to my old woman," he said.
It was with a great start that she turned to him, trembling with
nervousness all unknown to the Hester of yesterday.
"Is she ill?" she cried, scarcely knowing what she said; and then with a
vague smile, "I forgot. Emma is gone, and she is missing--"
"It is not Emma we are thinking of. Hester, tell me," said the old man,
leading her away with her arm in his, "what is this about Catherine?
What has happened? Your mother told us you were there all night, and now
to-day----"
"What do they say has happened?" cried Hester with a gasp of suspense.
"I cannot make head nor tail of it. I hear that one of the young men has
gone wrong; that Catherine is at the bank; that there are great
defalcations; that he went off last night----I can testify," cried
Captain Morgan, querulously, "that he did not go away last night, for I
was there."
Hester looked up at him with a face from which all colour had fled.
"Is it known who it is? are you sure he has not come back? Oh, I have a
feeling," she cried, "a feeling in my heart that he has come back!"
"My child," said the old captain, "you may trust her and me. Whatever it
is, it is safe with her and me."
Mrs. Morgan was sitting at the window in her summer place; her placid
brow had a cloud upon it, but was not agitated like her husband's.
"Have you come back to us, Hester?" she said. "We thought we had lost
you. If you can satisfy his mind with anything you can say, do it, my
dear."
"What can I say?" Hester cried. "We are all in great trouble. I don't
know which is the greatest, but I cannot tell you secrets that are not
mine. Dear Mrs. Morgan, tell the captain so. Whatever I know it is by
accident. I think I shall die with anxiety and suspense, but there is
nothing I can say."
"My dear, you will not die, you will live to be anxious many another
day. Rowley, my old man, you hear the child. We must not ask her another
question. Wait, as you have waited many a time before. It is all in the
Lord's hands."
The old man was wiping the moisture from his forehead: he had seated
himself as soon as he came in, his old limbs were shaking under him. His
large, colourless hands shook, holding his handkerchief.
"Mary," he said, "if it is my flesh and blood that has brought this
disturbance into the place, that has seduced her boy, and brought down
ruin on her house, how am I ever to lift my head again?"
The old lady looked at him with pathetic eyes, in which there was a
suffering as acute as his own, softened and made almost bright by the
patience and calm that were habitual to her.
"Rowley, we are not thinking of Catherine, we are thinking of
ourselves," she said.
And then there was a pause. It seemed to Hester that her own
brokenheartedness was a sort of child's passion in comparison. She said
humbly--
"Will you tell me what you are afraid of? There is nobody blamed but
one. There is not a name spoken of but one. I don't know if that is any
comfort to you, Captain Morgan."
"And the one is her boy, the apple of her eye, the only one that she has
trusted, her choice out of all the world," the old lady said. "Oh be
silent, be silent, my old man! What is your pride to that? I would
rather I had a share of the burden--I would like to be suffering with
her." The tears stood in the deep wells of those old eyes, which had
wept so much. She was past weeping now. "The Lord forgive him and bring
him back," she said.
"You mean punish him, you mean give him over to the powers of darkness
that he belongs to! What does he deserve, a man that has used a woman
like that?"
"I am not asking what he deserves. I will tell you what he would get if
he would come back. Pardon!" said the old woman with a sob,
instinctively putting out her old soft hands.
"I am not for pardon," said the captain vehemently, his head moving in
his agitation, his hands shaking. "I am for every soul bearing its own
burden. Here is a woman that has spread prosperity around her. She has
been kind, even when she has not been merciful. The grateful and the
ungrateful, she has been good to them all. She has been like the sun
shining and the rain raining upon both just and unjust. And here is the
end of her, stung to her heart by the child of her bosom. For it will be
the end of her. She is a grand woman. She won't bear being deceived."
"Do not say that," said Hester; "she is so strong, stronger than any of
us--if you had seen her last night!"
"Where could I have seen her last night?" he said quickly; then, with a
smile, "that is all you know, you children. Yes, stronger than any one
of you, able to do everything. Do you remember the French boy in
Browning's ballad, Hester, that could not bear it when his Emperor asked
if he were wounded? 'I'm killed, sire!' That is like Catherine. She
stands like a tower. I can see her in my mind's eye. She needs no sleep,
no rest: but she is killed for all that."
Hester rose to her feet as he spoke in an excitement she could not
control.
"I must go," she said. "I must go--I might be wanted."
The old man rose and hobbled out after her. He followed her to the gate.
"I will wait while you get your hat. I am coming with you," he said. "We
cannot rest, Hester, neither you nor I."
Mrs. John was dozing in her chair as she generally did in the afternoon.
She opened her eyes and said, "Are you going for a walk, dear?" then
closed them tranquilly again. The very atmosphere in the brown
wainscotted parlour breathed of peace and quiet uncongenial with any
such throbbings as those in Hester's heart. She joined the old man, who
was waiting for her at the door, and they went on together, saying
little. The great window in the Grange where Catherine usually sat
commanding the road was vacant. There was a certain deserted air about
the place. They knew without a word that Catherine was still out of it.
"It is too far for you to go," Hester said.
Though they had not spoken for a long time they understood each other _à
demi-mot_.
"It is too far for me," said he, "but what does that matter? everything
will soon be too far for me. Let me go on while I can."
They walked as far as the bank, where their anxious eyes made out the
people lingering about, the air of curiosity and excitement. Old Captain
Morgan hobbled up to Mr. Merridew, who was making his way out with a
serious face. "You will excuse me for my anxiety, sir," he said, "but
will you tell me if Miss Vernon is there, and what is going on?"
"That is an easy question you are asking me," said Mr. Merridew, eying
him closely; "certainly Miss Vernon is there."
"I am her near relation," said the old man, "and you are connected with
her by marriage."
"I know very well who you are, Captain Morgan: a distinguished officer,
though people have not found it out here. If you can lend Miss Vernon
substantial help I advise you to do it at once."
Captain Morgan drew back a little: he gave Hester a pathetic glance.
They retired slowly with lingering steps from the vicinity of Vernon's.
They understood all without knowing anything.
"There is the bitterness of having nothing," said the old captain, "and
that man knew it, Hester. I would coin myself if I could, for her, and
yet I cannot help her." Neither of them knew about business, nor how men
like Mr. Merridew, who had been listening all day long to Catherine's
explanations and arguments without being moved, could save the bank
still if they would. But they felt in their hearts the dull opposition
of his face, the shake of his head, the nature of his advice to one whom
he knew to be a poor man, to help her now. "Money is a wonderful thing,"
said Captain Morgan; "it can do so much and yet so little. If you or I
were rich as we are poor, we could make Catherine think for half an hour
that she had surmounted everything."
"Why for half an hour, Captain Morgan?" said Hester.
"Because, my dear, at the end of that time Vernon's being safe, there
would come back upon her that from which neither heaven nor earth can
deliver her."
"Oh, Captain Morgan, do not say so. Cannot Heaven, cannot God, deliver
from everything?" cried Hester, with a sense of horror.
"Ay, in a way that He uses always at the end--by death. At least we
think death will do that for us; but it is only a guess even then. How
otherwise?" said the old man, raising his dim old eyes beneath their
heavy lids. "What is done cannot be undone. If the boy were to be
touched with compunction too late and come back, even that would not
restore the past."
"Why not?" she said, "why not? We could forgive him." It was the first
acknowledgment she had made of any share in the catastrophe.
"Forgive him! You speak as if that could change anything! What is your
forgiveness? You seem to think it is a thing, not so many words." Then
after they had gone a little while in silence the old man burst forth
again. "You could forgive him! A man wants not forgiveness, but to make
up for his sins. You think it is like giving him a fortune to give him
your pardon, as if he could set up again, and make a new beginning upon
that. Forgiveness may save a man's soul, but it does not save his honour
or his life. You could have him back and let him live upon you, and eat
out your hearts with his baseness trying to make it show like virtue.
But Catherine is too noble a creature for that," cried the old captain.
"Thank God she has never been broken down to that."
This torrent of words overwhelmed Hester; they had turned into the quiet
road again, and the girl fell into a low sobbing and weeping as she
went. She was too much overstrained to be able to control herself. Yet
her heart struggled against this sentence.
"If you love any one is it only while he is good?" she said. "Is it
noble to cast him from you because he has gone wrong? Then what is love
or faithfulness? Are they nothing--nothing?"
She knew now that he had not come back. Honour had not moved him, nor
love, nor any nobler impulse. She could have flung herself upon the
earth in her misery. She felt that a touch now would be too much--that
she could bear nothing further. And her companion saw that she was
beyond the reach of any argument. He was silent, and they moved slowly
along together, he tottering on his aged limbs, scarcely able to get
along.
"Soon everything will be too far for me," he said with a half-pleased,
almost satisfied nodding of his head. It took them a long time to get
home, and the old captain was so worn out that he could not rise from
his chair again that evening. He and his old wife sat sadly, saying
something to each other once in half an hour. They could think of
nothing but Catherine. They kept up their broken musing discussion upon
her and her fate as the slow summer evening again crept silently by.
But Hester could not rest. She satisfied her mother easily that it was
right she should go back to the Grange and find out if she could be of
use.
"It is what I was going to suggest, my dear," said Mrs. John. "If Edward
Vernon is away, as you say, and nobody with her, she must be lonely. And
if there is any trouble besides--though you have never rightly explained
to me what it was. No no, dear, I don't mean to say it is your fault. No
doubt you have told me, and I have not taken it up. To be sure, Hester,
you must go; and though I cannot bear to be without you, yet if
Catherine wants you, and she is in trouble, stay. I am sure she would do
as much for me," said the simple soul, without any cold breathings of
doubt. She went to the gate with Hester, and when she came back could
not help giving her neighbours a little sketch of the state of affairs.
"My Hester has gone back to the Grange," she said, "she will probably
stay there all night. Catherine Vernon wrote me the nicest note to tell
me my child had been of so much use to her; that is always gratifying to
a mother."
"Of use!" cried the ladies both together. "Gracious goodness, what can
be going to happen? Hester of use!" cried one sister. "And to
Catherine!" said the other. "Dear Catherine, she tells you so to please
you--when probably she is thinking you the greatest bore--"
"She likes something new to experiment upon," said Mr. Mildmay Vernon
with a snarl. Mrs. John was much discouraged by this reception of her
news. She said--
"You little know my child if you think she will be experimented upon,"
holding her head high; but when she got indoors she cried a little over
their ill-nature. If it had been one of them who had been chosen how
different would have been their tone. Had the brougham been sent express
for Miss Matilda or Miss Martha, what airs they would have given
themselves! and Mrs. John knew that she had given herself no airs: she
had not said a word. But she could not be silent about the promotion of
her child.