MISS CATHERINE.
Poor Mr. Rule rushed out into the night in a state of despair. It was a
summer night, and the streets of Redborough were still full of the
murmur of life and movement. He came down from the slope on which Mr.
John Vernon's grand new house was situated, into the town, turning over
everything that it was possible to do. Should he go to the Old Bank, the
life-long rival of Vernon's, and ask their help to pull through? Even
such a humiliation he would have endured had there been any chance of
success. Should he go to the agent of the Bank of England? He could not
but feel that it was quite doubtful whether between them they could make
up enough to meet the rush he expected; and were they likely to do it?
Would not the first question be, "Where is Mr. Vernon?" And where was
Mr. Vernon? Perhaps gone to Bath; perhaps to France, his wife said. Why
should he go to France without letting any one at the bank know, saying
he was only to be absent for a day? There was no telegraph in those
days, and if he confided Mr. Vernon's story to the other banks, what
would they think of him? They would say that Vernon was mad, or that he
had--gone away. There could be no doubt of what they would say. Rule was
faithful to his old service, and to the honour of the house which had
trained him. He would say nothing about France or Bath. He would allow
it to be understood that Mr. Vernon had gone to London to get the
assistance necessary, and would come back in a post-chaise before the
offices were open in the morning. And perhaps, he said to himself,
perhaps it was so. God grant it might be so! Very likely he had not
thought it necessary to enter into the matter to a lady. Poor thing,
with her twenty pounds! that showed how much she knew of business; but
it was very high-minded and innocent of her to offer all she had. It
showed there was at least no harm in her thoughts. It gave a momentary
ease to the clerk's mind to think that perhaps this was what Mr. Vernon
must mean. He must have known for some time how badly things were going,
and who could tell that the sudden expedition of which he had made so
little, only saying when he left the bank the day before "I shall not be
here to-morrow," who could tell that it was not to help to surmount the
crisis, that he had gone away? Rule turned towards his own house under
the solace of this thought, feeling that anyhow it was better to get a
night's rest, and be strong for whatever was to happen to-morrow. It
would be a miserable to-morrow if Mr. Vernon did not bring help. Not
only the bank that would go, but so many men with families that would be
thrown upon the world. God help them! and that money which stood to his
own credit, that balance of which two or three days before he had been
so proud, to see it standing in his name on those well-kept beautiful
books! All this hanging upon the chance that Mr. Vernon might have gone
to town to get money! No, he could not go in, and sit down at the
peaceful table where Mrs. Rule perhaps would be hemming a cambric ruffle
for his shirt, or plaiting it delicately with her own fingers, a thing
no laundress could do to please her--and the children learning their
lessons. He felt sure that he could not rest; he would only make her
anxious, and why should she be made anxious as long as he could keep it
from her. It is difficult to say how it was that the first suggestion of
a new possibility took hold of Mr. Rule's mind. He turned away when he
was within a stone's throw of his own house, saying to himself that he
could not go in, that it was impossible, and walked in the opposite
direction, where he had not gone far until he came in sight of the bank,
that centre of so many years' hard work, that pride of Redborough, and
of everybody connected with it. Vernon's! To think that Ruin should be
possible, that so dark a shadow could hover over that sacred place. What
would old Mr. Vernon have said, he who received it from his father and
handed it down always flourishing, always prosperous to--not to his son.
If his son had lived, the eldest one, not he who had gone wrong, but the
eldest, who was John too, called after his grandfather, he who was the
father of ---- It was at this point that Mr. Rule came to a dead stop,
and then after a pause wheeled right round, and without saying another
word to himself walked straight up Wilton Street, which as everybody
knows was quite out of his way.
The father of---- Yes, indeed, indeed, and that was true! The
recollection which called forth this fervour of affirmation was a
pleasant one. All the youth of Redborough at one time had been in love
with Catherine Vernon. The bank clerks to a man adored her. When she
used to come and go with her grandfather--and she did so constantly,
bringing him down in the morning in her pony carriage, calling for him
in the afternoon, running in in the middle of the day to see that the
old gentleman had taken his biscuits and his wine--she walked over their
hearts as she crossed the outer office, but so lightly, so smoothly,
that the hearts were only thrilled, not crushed by her footfall, so firm
and swift, but so airy as it was. She knew them all in the office, and
would give her hand to the head clerk, and send a friendly glance all
round, unaware of the harm she was doing to the hapless young men. But
after all it was not harm. It was a generous love they felt for her,
like the love of chivalry for a lady unapproachable. That young princess
was not for them. None of them grew mad with foolish hopes, but they
thought of her as they never thought of any one else. Mr. Rule was at
the end of Wilton Street, just where it meanders out towards the edge of
the common, before he took breath, and began to ask himself what Miss
Vernon could do for him. Was not one lady enough to appeal to? She whom
he had already seen had nothing for him--no help, no advice, not a
suggestion even. And yet she was more closely connected with the bank
than Catherine Vernon, who had disappeared from all visible connection
with it at her grandfather's death, notwithstanding that a great deal of
her money was in it, and that she had in fact a right to be consulted as
a partner. So it had been settled, it was said, by the old man in his
will. But she had never, so far as anybody knew, taken up this
privilege. She had never come to the bank, never given a sign of having
any active interest in it. What then could she be expected to do? What
could she do even if she wished to help them? Mr. Rule was aware that
there was no very cordial feeling between her cousin's house and hers.
They were friends, perfectly good friends, but they were not cordial.
While he turned over these thoughts in his mind, however, he walked on
steadily and quickly without the least hesitation in his step. There was
even a sort of exhilarated excitement in him, a sentiment quite
different from that with which he had been disconsolately straying
about, and painfully turning over possibilities, or rather
impossibilities. Perhaps it was a half romantic pleasure in the idea of
speaking to Miss Vernon again, but really there was something besides
that, a sense of satisfaction in finding a new and capable mind to
consult with at least, if no more.
Miss Vernon lived in the house which her grandfather had lived in and
his father before him. To reach it you had to make your way through the
delta of little streets into which Wilton Street ran, and across a
corner of the common. The Grange was an old house with dark red gables
appearing out of the midst of a clump of trees. In winter you saw the
whole mass of it, chiefly old bricks, though these were thrown up and
made picturesque by the fact that the oldest part was in grey stone.
Broad large Elizabethan windows glimmered, lighted up, through the thick
foliage this evening; for by this time the summer night was beginning to
get dark, and a good deal too late for a visit. Mr. Rule thought as he
knocked at the door that it was very likely she would not see him. But
this was not the case. When he sent in his name as the head clerk at the
bank he was received immediately, and shown into the room with the
Elizabethan windows where she was sitting. By this time she was of
mature years, and naturally much changed from the young girl he had
known. He had been one of the young clerks in the outer office, whom she
would recognise with a friendly smiling look, and a nod of her head all
round. Now, however, Miss Vernon came up to him, and held out her hand
to Mr. Rule. "You need not have sent me word who you were," she said
with a smile. "I knew quite well who you were. I never forget faces nor
names. You have not come to me at this time of night on a mere visit of
civility. Don't be afraid to tell me at once whatever there may be to
say."
"From the way you speak, ma'am," said Mr. Rule, "I conclude that you
have heard some of the wicked reports that are flying about?"
"That is exactly what I want to know," she said, with all her old
vivacity. "Are they wicked reports?"
"A report is always wicked," said Mr. Rule sententiously, "which is
likely to bring about the evil it imagines."
"Ah!" she cried. "Then it is no further gone than that; and yet it is as
far gone as that?" she added, looking anxiously in his face.
"Miss Vernon," said Rule solemnly, "I expect a run upon the bank
to-morrow."
"Good God!" she said, clasping her hands; which was not a profane
exclamation, but the kind of half-conscious appeal which nature makes
instinctively. "But you have made all preparations? Surely you can meet
that."
He shook his head solemnly. The credit of the bank was so much to him
that when thus face to face with the event he dreaded, poor Rule could
not articulate anything, and the water stood in his eyes.
"Good God!" she said again: but her face was not awe-stricken; it was
that of a soldier springing instantly to the alert, rallying all his
resources at the first word of danger; "but you don't mean to say that
my cousin--does not John know this? They say everybody knows these
things before the person concerned. Why, why did you not warn him, Mr.
Rule?"
Rule shook his head.
"It isn't possible that he could have been ignorant. How could he be
ignorant, ma'am? God knows I have not a word to say against Mr.
Vernon--but to think he should forsake us in our moment of trial!"
"Forsake you!" A sudden flush flew over Miss Vernon's face--a spark shot
out of her eyes. Indignation and yet doubt was in her face. "That is not
possible," she cried, holding her head high; and then she said
anxiously, "Mr. Rule, tell me what you mean?"
"I dare say it is the falsity of appearances," said poor Rule. "I am
sure I hope so. I hope Mr. Vernon has gone away to get help, personally:
you can do that so much better than writing: and that he may be back in
time to-morrow."
"Has he gone away?" she said in a low tone.
"Unfortunately, Miss Vernon--I can't help saying unfortunately, for it
paralyses everybody else. We can do nothing at the bank. But I cling to
the hope that he will be back before the bank is opened. Oh, yes, I
cling to the hope. Without that----"
"Everything will be lost?"
"Everything!" cried he, who was so proud of being the head clerk at
Vernon's, with tears in his eyes.
And then there was a pause. For a minute or two not a word was said. The
daughter of the house was as much overcome by the thought as was its
faithful servant. At last she said faintly, but firmly--
"Mr. Rule, I cannot believe but that you will see John to-morrow when
the bank is opened, with means to meet every demand."
"Yes, Miss Vernon, that is my conviction too."
But in what a faltering voice was this conviction stated! The room was
not very light, and they did not distinguish very clearly each other's
faces.
"But in case of any failure--" she said, "for of course one never can
tell, the most tiresome nothings may detain you just when speed is most
important; or he might not have succeeded as he hoped. In case of
any--delay--I shall be there, Mr. Rule; you may calculate upon me, with
every penny I can muster----"
"You, Miss Vernon!" the clerk said, with a cry of relief and joy.
"Certainly; who else, when the credit of the bank is at stake? I have
been living very quietly, you know. I spend next to nothing; my mother's
money has accumulated till it is quite a little fortune, I believe. What
had I best do? send to Mr. Sellon and ask him to help us on that
security? I don't think he will refuse."
"If you do that we are saved," said Rule, half crying. "That is the
thing to do. What a head for business you have!"
She smiled, and gave him a little nod, like one of those happy nods she
used to give to the young clerks in her fine youthful days, in which
there was a kind acknowledgment of their admiration, a friendly good
fellowship with themselves.
"I hope I am not old Edward Vernon's grand-daughter for nothing," she
said, beginning to walk up and down the room with a buoyant impatience,
as though longing for the moment of exertion to come. "I had better
write to Mr. Sellon at once; there is no time to lose."
"And if you will let me I will take the note directly, and bring you an
answer."
"Bravo! that is promptitude," cried Miss Vernon; and she went up to him
and held out her hand. "Between us we will keep the old place going,"
she said, "whoever may give in."
If Mr. Rule had not been the steady, bashful Englishman he was, he would
have kissed that hand. He felt that there was in it enough to save
everything--the bank first, and then his own little bit of money, and
his situation, and his children's bread. He had not allowed himself to
think of these things in the greatness of his anxiety in respect to
Vernon's; but he did think of them now, and was ready to cry in the
relief of his soul.
Never was an evening more full of occupation. Mr. Sellon, who was the
agent of the Bank of England in Redborough, was fortunately at home, and
responded at once to Miss Vernon's appeal. Mr. Rule had the
gratification of walking back with him to the Grange, whither he
hastened to reply in person, and of assisting at the interview
afterwards with a sense of pride and personal advancement which
heightened the satisfaction of his soul. Miss Vernon insisted strongly
on the point that all these preparations were by way of precaution
merely.
"My cousin will no doubt be back in time, fully provided; but of course
you never can be perfectly certain. Horses may break down, shafts be
broken; the least little accident may spoil everything. Of course John
put off such a step till the last moment, and thought it better to keep
it entirely to himself."
"Of course," cried Rule, speaking out of his corner; and "Of course,"
but much more faintly, Mr. Sellon said.
"That is so evident that it requires no repetition: but just as
naturally Mr. Rule was alarmed, and had the good sense to come to me."
All this was by way of convincing Mr. Sellon that the whole matter was
perfectly simple, and that probably his resources would not be called
upon at all. To be sure, as in every case of a similar kind, Miss Vernon
might have saved herself the trouble, the circumstances being far more
clearly known to Mr. Sellon than to herself. He was very sure that John
Vernon would not return, and that his intention was to get himself out
of it. Everybody had known it was coming. It was just as well to humour
a lady, and accept her version as the right one; but he was not for a
moment deceived.
"Of course the bank," he said, "will make it up to you afterwards."
"Of course," she said; "and if not, I don't know who is to stop me from
doing what I like with my own."
He asked a few questions further, in which there was a good deal of
significance, as for instance something about Mrs. John Vernon's
marriage settlements, which neither of the others for the moment
understood. Rule saw Mr. Sellon to the door, by Miss Vernon's request,
with great pride, and went back to her afterwards, "as if he were one of
the family," he described to his wife afterwards.
"Well," she said, "are you satisfied?"
"Oh, more than satisfied, happier than I can tell you," cried the clerk.
"The bank is saved!"
And then she, so triumphant, buoyant, inspired as she was, sank down
upon a chair, and put her head in her hands, and he thought cried; but
Rule was not a man to spy upon a lady in the revulsion of her feelings.
When she looked up again she said to him quickly--
"In any case, Mr. Rule, we are both sure that my cousin is doing all he
can for the bank; if he succeeds or not is in other hands."
"Oh yes, Miss Vernon, quite sure," Rule replied promptly. He understood
that she meant it to be understood so, and determined within himself
that he was ready to go to the stake for the new dogma. And then he
related to her his interview with Mrs. John, and her willingness to give
him up her twenty pounds to save the bank.
Miss Vernon's first flush of indignation soon yielded to amusement and
sympathy. She laughed and she cried.
"That shall always be remembered to her credit," she said. "I did not
think she had any feeling for the bank. Let us always remember it to her
credit. She was ready to give all she had, and who can do any more?"
Mr. Rule was somewhat intoxicated with all these confidences, and with
the way in which Miss Vernon said "we"--his head was a little turned by
it. She was a woman who understood what it was to have a faithful
servant. No doubt, after the sacrifice she was making, she would, in
future, have more to do with the business, and Rule could scarcely keep
his imagination from straying into a consideration of changes that might
be. Instead of merely being head clerk, it was quite possible that a
manager might be required; but he pulled himself up, and would not allow
his thoughts to carry him so far.
Next day everything happened as had been foreseen. There was a run on
the bank, and a moment of great excitement; but when Miss Vernon was
seen at the door of the inner office smiling, with her smile of
triumphant energy and capability, upon the crowd, and when the Bank of
England porters appeared bringing in those heavy boxes, the run and all
the excitement subsided as by magic. The bank was saved; but not by John
Vernon. The outside world never was aware how the matter was settled.
But John did not come back. He would have met nothing but averted looks
and biting words, for there could be no doubt that he had abandoned his
post, and left Vernon's to its fate. Messrs. Pounce and Seeling had a
good deal to do about the matter, and new deeds were drawn, and old
deeds cancelled to a serious extent; but the bank ever after remained in
the hands of Miss Vernon, who, it turned out, had more than her
grandfather's steady power of holding on, and was, indeed, the heir of
her great-grandfather's genius for business. The bank throve in her
hands as it had done in his days, and everything it touched prospered.
She deserved it, to be sure, but everybody who deserves does not get
this fine reward. There is something beyond, which we call good luck or
good fortune, or the favour of Heaven; but as Heaven does not favour
all, or even most of the best people in this way, we have to fall back
upon a less pious phraseology. Is it, perhaps, genius for business, as
distinct as genius in poetry, which makes everything succeed? But this
is more than any man can be expected to understand. Rule attained all
the heights of those hopes which had vaguely dawned on him out of the
mist on that July evening when his good angel suggested to him Catherine
Vernon's name. He was raised to the dignity of manager as he had
foreseen. His salary was doubled, his sons were provided for, and he
grew old in such comfort and general esteem as he had never dreamed of.
"This is the man that saved the bank," Miss Vernon would say. And
though, of course, he deprecated such high praise, and declared that he
was nothing but the humblest instrument, yet there can be no doubt that
he came to believe it in the end, as his wife and all his children did
from the beginning.
Miss Vernon's was a reign of great benevolence, of great liberality, but
of great firmness too. As she got older she became almost the most
important person in Redborough. The people spoke of her, as they
sometimes do of a very popular man, by her Christian name. Catherine
Vernon did this and that, they said. Catherine Vernon was the first
thought when anything was wanted either by the poor who needed help, or
the philanthropist who wanted to give it. The Vernon Almshouses, which
had been established a hundred years before, but had fallen into great
decay till she took them in hand, were always known as Catherine
Vernon's Almshouses. Her name was put to everything. Catherine Street,
Catherine Square, Catherine places without number. The people who built
little houses on the outskirts exhausted their invention in varying the
uses of it. Catherine Villas, Catherine Cottage, Catherine Mansion, were
on all sides; and when it occurred to the High Church rector to dedicate
the new church to St. Catherine of Alexandria, the common people, with
one accord, transferred the invocation to their living patroness. She
was, at least, a saint more easily within reach, and more certain to
lend a favourable ear.