AN EXPLANATION.
Oh! purblind race of miserable men,
How many among us at this very hour
Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves,
By taking true for false, and false for true.
Here, thro' the feeble twilight of this world,
Groping, how many, until we pass and reach
That other, where we see as we are seen.'
--Alfred Tennyson.
Lady Sarah had left much more than anybody expected. She had invested
her savings in houses. Some had sold lately at very high prices. A
builder had offered a large sum for Church House itself and the garden.
It was, as Mr. Tapeall said: the chief difficulty lay in the proof of
George's death. Alas for human nature! after an enterprising visit from
Rhoda to Gray's Inn (she had been there before with Mrs. Palmer), after
a not very long interview, in which Rhoda opened her heart and her
beautiful eyes, and in the usual formula expressed her helpless
confidence in Mr. Tapeall's manly protection, the old lawyer was
suddenly far more convinced than he had been before of the justice of
Miss Parnell's claims. Her friend and benefactor had died on the 21st.
He was Lady Sarah's heir, he had _wished_ her to have this last token of
his love, but she would give everything up, she said, rather than go to
law with those whom she must ever revere, as belonging to him.
Mr. Tapeall was very much touched by her generosity.
'Really, you young ladies are outvieing each other,' said he. 'When you
know a little more of the world and money's use----'
Rhoda started to go.
'I must not stay now; but then I shall trust to you _entirely_, Mr.
Tapeall,' she said. 'You will always tell me what to do? Promise me that
you will.'
'Perhaps, under the circumstances,' said Mr. Tapeall, hesitating, 'it
might be better if you were to take some other opinion.'
'No, no,' said the girl, 'there is no division between us. All I wish is
to do what is _right_, and to carry out dear George's wishes.'
It is not the place here to enter into details which Mr. Tapeall alone
could properly explain. It was after an interview with him that Dolly
wrote to Rhoda:--'Mr. Tapeall tells me of your generous offer, dear
Rhoda, and that you are ready to give everything up sooner than go to
law. Do not think that I am not glad that you should have what would
have been yours if you had married my brother. I must always wish what
he wished, and I write this to tell you that you must not think of me:
my best happiness now is doing what he would have liked.'
To Dolly it seemed, in her present morbid and over-wrought state, as if
this was a sort of expiation for her hardness to Rhoda, whom George had
loved, and indeed money seemed to her at that time but a very small
thing, and the thought of Church House so sad that she could never wish
to go back to it. And Robert's letters seemed to grow colder and colder,
and everything was sad together.
Frank came to see her one day before she left London; he had been and
come back, and was going again with fresh supplies to the East; he
brought her a handful of dried grass from the slope where George had
fallen. Corporal Smith had shown him the place where he had found the
poor young fellow lying. Frank had also seen Colonel Fane, who had made
all inquiries at the time. The date of the boy's death seemed
established without doubt.
When Frank said something of business, and of disputing the will, Dolly
said,--'Please, please let it be. There seems to be only one pain left
for me now--that of not doing as he wished.' People blamed Raban very
much afterwards for having so easily agreed to give up Miss Vanborough's
rights.
The storm of indignation, consternation, is over. The shower of lawyers'
letters is dribbling and dropping more slowly. Mrs. Palmer had done all
in her power, sat up all night, retired for several days to bed, risen
by daybreak, gone on her knees to Sir Thomas, apostrophised Julie,
written letter after letter, and finally come up to town, leaving Dolly
at Henley Court. Dolly was in disgrace, direst disgrace. It was all her
fault, her strange and perverted obstinacy, that led her to prefer
others to her own mother. The Admiral, too, how glad he would have been
of a home in London. How explain her own child's conduct? Dear George
had never for one instant intended to leave anything but his own fortune
to Rhoda. How could Dolly deny this? How could she? Poor Dolly never
attempted to deny it. Sir Thomas had tried in vain to explain to his
sister that Dolly had nothing whatever to do with the present state of
the law. It was true that she steadily refused to put the whole thing
into Chancery, as many people suggested; but Rhoda, too, refused to
plead, and steadily kept to her resolution of opposing everything first.
'Painful, indeed, very painful,' said Mr. Stock, 'but absolutely
necessary under the circumstances; otherwise I should say' (with a
glance at poor pale Dolly), 'let it go, let it go, worm and moth, dross,
dross, dross.'
'Mr. Stock, you are talking nonsense,' said Mrs. Palmer, quite testily.
Then Mrs. Palmer came to London with Sir Thomas, and all day long the
faded fly--it has already appeared in these pages--travelled from Gray's
Inn to Lincoln's Inn, to the Temple, and back to Mr. Tapeall's again.
Mrs. Palmer left a card at the Lord Chancellor's private residence, then
picked up her brother at his Club, went off to the City to meet Rhoda
face to face, and to insist upon her giving up her ill-gotten wealth.
She might have spared herself the journey. Rhoda had left the Rectory.
John Morgan received Mrs. Palmer and her companion with a very grave
face. Cassie and Zoe left the room. Mrs. Morgan came down in an old cap
looking quite crushed and subdued. The poor old lady began to cry.
John was greatly troubled: he said, 'I don't know how to speak of this
wretched business. What can you think of us, Mrs. Palmer?'
'You had better not ask me, Mr. Morgan,' said Mrs. Palmer. 'I have come
to speak to your niece.'
'I am sorry to say that Rhoda has left our house,' John said; 'she no
longer cares for our opinion: she has sent for one of her own father's
relations.'
'Perhaps you can tell me where to find her?' said Mrs. Palmer, in her
most sarcastic tone. She thought Rhoda was upstairs and ashamed to come
down.
'Oh! Mrs. Palmer, she is at Church House,' burst in Mrs. Morgan; 'we
entreated her not to go. John forbade her. Mr. Tapeall gave her leave.
If only Frank Raban were back.
Mrs. Palmer gave a little shriek. 'At Church House already! It is
disgraceful, utterly disgraceful, _that_ is what I think. Dolly and all
of you are behaving in the most scandalous----'
'Poor Dolly has done no harm,' said Morgan, turning very red. 'She has
not unjustly and ungratefully grasped at a quibble, taken what does not
belong to her, paid back all your kindness with ingratitude....'
Good-natured Sir Thomas was touched by the curate's earnestness. He held
out his hand.
'You, of course, Morgan, have nothing to do with the circumstances,'
said he. 'Something must be done; some arrangement must be made.
Anything is better than going to law.'
'If Mrs. Palmer would only see her,' said Mrs. Morgan, earnestly. 'I
know Rhoda would think it most kind.'
'I refuse to see Miss Parnell,' said Mrs. Palmer, with dignity. 'As for
Tapeall, Thomas, let us go to him.'
'They certainly do not seem to have profited by Rhoda's increase of
fortune, living on in that horrible dingy place,' Sir Thomas said, as
the fly rolled away towards Gray's Inn once more. On the road Mrs.
Palmer suddenly changed her mind, and desired the coachman to drive to
Kensington.
'Do you really propose to go there?' said Sir Thomas, rather doubtfully.
'You are like the Admiral, Thomas, for making difficulties,' said Mrs.
Palmer, excitedly, and calling to the coachman to go quicker.
It was late in the afternoon when they reached the door of Church House.
A strange servant opens to them; a strange stream of light comes from
the hall, where a bright chandelier had been suspended. The whole place
seemed different already. A broad crimson carpet had been put down; some
flowers had been brought in and set out on great china jars. Mrs. Palmer
was rather taken aback as she asked, with her head far out of the
carriage-window, whether Miss Parnell was at home.
The drawing-room door opens a little bit, Rhoda listens, hesitates
whether or not to go out, but Mrs. Palmer is coming in, and Rhoda
retreats, only to give herself room to advance once more as the two
visitors are ushered in. The girl comes flying from the other end of the
room, bursts out crying, and clings kneeling to Philippa's dress.
'At last,' she says. 'Oh, Mrs. Palmer, I did not dare to hope, but oh!
how good of you to come!'
'Good, indeed! No, do not thank _me_,' said Mrs. Palmer, drawing herself
up. 'Have you the face, Rhoda, to meet me--to wish to see me after all
the harm you have done to me and to my poor child? I wonder you dare
stay in the same room with me!'
Rhoda did not remark that it was Mrs. Palmer herself who had come to
her. Her eyes filled with big tears.
'What have I done?' she said, appealing to Sir Thomas. 'It is all
theirs, and they know it. It will _always_ be theirs. Oh, Mrs. Palmer,
if you would only take it all, and let me be your--your little
companion, as before!' cried the girl, with a sob, fixing those
wonderful constraining eyes of hers upon Philippa. 'Will you send me
away--I, who owe everything to you?' she said. And she clasped her hands
and almost knelt. The baronet instinctively stepped forward to raise
her.
'Do not kneel, Rhoda. This is all pretence,' cried Mrs. Palmer. 'Sir
Thomas is easily deceived. If the Admiral were here he would see through
your--your ungrateful duplicity.' Rhoda only persisted. How her eyes
spoke! how her hands and voice entreated!
'You would believe me,' she said, 'indeed, you would, if you could see
my heart. My only thought is to do as you wish, and to show you that I
am not ungrateful.'
'Then you will give it all back,' said Mrs. Palmer, coming to the point
instantly, and seizing Rhoda's hand tight in hers.
'Of course I will,' said Rhoda, still looking into Mrs. Palmer's eager
face. 'I have done so already. It is all yours; it always will be yours,
as before. Dear Mrs. Palmer, this is your house; your room is ready: I
have put some flowers there. It is, oh, so sad here all alone! the walls
seem to call for you! If you send me away I don't know what will happen
to me!' and she began to cry. 'My own have sent me away; there is no one
left but you, and the memory of his love for me.'
I don't know how or where Rhoda had studied human nature, nor how she
had learnt the art of suiting herself to others. Mrs. Palmer came in
meaning to speak her mind plainly, to overwhelm the girl with reproach;
before she had been in the room two minutes she had begun to soften.
There was the entreating Rhoda: no longer shabby little Rhoda from the
curate's house, but an elegant lady in a beautiful simple dress, falling
in silken folds; her cloud of dark hair was fashionably frizzed; her
manner had changed--it was appealing and yet dignified, as befitted an
heiress. All this was not without its effect upon Philippa's experienced
eye.
Rhoda had determined from the first to win Mrs. Palmer over, to show the
world that hers was no stolen wealth, on false position. She felt as if
it would make everything comfortable both to her own conscience, which
was not over easy, and to those from whom she was taking her wealth, if
only a reconciliation could be brought about: what need was there for a
quarrel--for going to law, if only all could be reconciled. She would do
anything they wished--serve them in a hundred ways. Uncle John, who had
spoken so unkindly, would see then who was right; Aunt Morgan, too, who
had refused to come with her, would discover her mistake. There was a
certain triumph in the thought of gaining over those who had most right
to be estranged, so thought Rhoda, unconsciously speculating upon
Dolly's generosity, upon Mrs. Palmer's suddenness of character.
'This is all _most_ painful to me,' Philippa cried, more and more
flurried. 'Rhoda, you cannot expect----'
'I expect nothing--nothing, only I ask _everything_,' said Rhoda,
passionately, to Sir Thomas. 'Oh, Mrs. Palmer, you can send me away from
you, if you will; or you can let me be your daughter. I would give up
everything; I would follow you anywhere--anywhere--everywhere!'
Mrs. Palmer sank, still agitated, into the nearest arm-chair. It was a
new one of Gillow's, with shining new cushions and castors. Rhoda came
and knelt beside it, with her lustrous eyes still fixed upon Mrs.
Palmer's face. Sir Thomas cleared his throat; he was quite affected by
the little scene. Mrs. Palmer actually kissed Rhoda at parting.