THE EXPECTED BLOW
That evening the blow, feared and expected, fell, for then, and not
till then, I felt that we had lost, or thought we had lost, our maid.
I found the captain sitting in the summerhouse alone, without the
usual solace of his tobacco and his October. "Jack," he said, with a
gloomy sigh, "I am now the happiest of men, because my Molly is the
most fortunate of women. I have attained the utmost I could hope or
ask. The most virtuous of men--I should say of noble-men--has asked
the hand of our girl. Molly will be a countess! Rejoice with me!"
I stood outside on the grass, having no words to say.
"She will marry him immediately. Nothing could be more happy or more
fortunate. Such rank--such a position as places her on a level with
the highest ladies of the land, though the daughter of plain folk,
with a shipowner for a father and a sailor's daughter for a mother.
There is promotion for you, Jack!"
"She will go away, then, and leave us!"
"Aye; she will leave us, Jack. She will leave us. His lordship--you do
not ask who it is."
"Who can it be, captain, but Lord Fylingdale?"
"The best of men. He will carry her off to his country house, where
they will live retired for a while, yet in such state as belongs to
her rank. We shall lose her, of course. That, however, we always
expected. The country house is in Gloucester, on the other side of
England. Perhaps she may get to see us, but I am seventy-five, or
perhaps more, and Jennifer, her mother, is not far from fifty. I
cannot look to set eyes on her again. What matter." He hemmed bravely
and sat upright. "What matter, I say, so that the girl is happy. Her
mother may, perhaps, set eyes on her once more; but she will be
changed, because, you see, our Molly must now become a fine lady."
"Yes," I groaned, "she must become a fine lady."
"Jack, sometimes I am sorry that she has so much money. Yet, what was
I to do? Could I waste and dissipate her money? Could I give away her
ships? Could I give her, with the fortune of a princess, to a plain
and simple skipper? No; Providence--Providence, Jack, hath so ordered
things. I could not help myself."
"No, captain; you could not help things. Yet...." I broke off.
"Well, Jack, why don't you rejoice with me? Why the devil don't you
laugh and sing? All you want is to see her happy, yet there you stand
as glum and dumb as a mute at a funeral."
"I wish her happiness, sir, with all my heart."
"Sam Semple came here this afternoon, by order of my lord. Sam gives
himself airs now that he is a secretary and companion. He came and
demanded a private conversation with me. It was quite private, he
said, and of the utmost importance. So we sat in the parlour, and,
with a bottle of wine between us, we talked over the business. First,
he told me that his patron, as he calls him, meaning his master, had
been greatly taken with the innocence and the beauty of Molly. I
replied that unless he was a stock, or a stone, or an iceberg, I
expected nothing less. He went on to say, that although a noble earl
with a long pedigree and a great estate, his patron was willing to
contract marriage with a girl who was not even of gentle birth, and
had nothing but her beauty and her innocence. I told him that she had,
in addition, a very large fortune. He said that his patron scorned the
thought of money, being already much more wealthy than most noblemen
of his exalted rank; that he was willing, also, to pass over any
defects in manners, conversation, and carriage, which would be
remedied by a little acquaintance with the polite world. In a word,
his lordship offered his hand, his name, his title, his rank, and
himself--to my ward."
"His condescension," I said, "is beyond all praise."
"I think so, too. Beyond all praise. I asked his advice touching a
husband for my girl. He promises his assistance in the matter, and he
then offers himself. Jack, could anything be more fortunate?"
"I hope it may turn out so. What does Molly say?"
"You may go in and ask her yourself. She will tell you more than she
will tell anybody else. The matter is to be kept, for the present, a
profound secret between his lordship and ourselves. But since Sam
Semple knows it, and Jennifer knows it, and you are one of ourselves,
therefore, you may as well know it, too. But don't talk about it."
"Why should it be kept a secret? Why should it not be proclaimed
everywhere?"
"My lord says that the place is a hot-bed of scandal; that he would
not have Molly's name passed about in the pump room to be the object
of common gossip and inventions, made up of envy and malice. He would
spare Molly this. When she is once married and taken away from the
place they may say what they please. Whatever they say, they cannot do
her any harm. Why, some of them even declared that she was one of the
company of strolling actresses. There is nothing that they will not
say."
I made no reply, because it certainly did seem as if in asking for
secrecy his lordship had acted in Molly's interests.
"Well, captain, we must make the best of it. You must find your own
happiness in thinking of Molly's."
"What aggravates me, Jack, is the ridiculous behaviour of my cousin
Jennifer. She is in the kitchen crying, and the black woman with her.
Go and comfort her before you see Molly."
I looked into the kitchen. Molly's mother sat in the great wooden
chair beside the fireplace. She held her apron in her hands as if she
had just pulled it off her face, and the tears were on her cheeks.
When she saw me they began to flow again. "Jack," she said, "have you
heard the news? Has the captain told you? The worst has happened. I
have lost my girl. She is to be married; she will go away; she will
marry a man who scorns her guardian and despises her mother. A bad
beginning, Jack. No good can come of such a marriage. A bad beginning.
Oh! I foresee unhappiness. How can Molly become a fine lady? She is
but a simple girl--my own daughter. I have made her a good housewife,
and all her knowledge will be thrown away and lost. It is a bad
business, Jack. Nigra has been telling her fortune. There is nothing
hopeful. All the cards are threatening. And the magpies--and the
screech owl----"
She fell to weeping again. After which she broke out anew. "The
captain says he is the most virtuous man in the world. It isn't true.
If ever I saw the inside of a man in my life I have seen the inside of
that man. He is corrupt through and through----"
"But--consider. All the world is crying up his noble conduct and his
many virtues."
"They may say what they like. It is false; he is heartless; he is
cold; he is selfish. He marries Molly for her money. Persuade the
captain, if you can. He will not believe me."
"How can I persuade him? I have no knowledge. Are they all in a tale?
Are you the only person who knows the truth? How do you know it?"
"I know it because I love my girl, and so I can read the very soul of
a man. I have read your soul, Jack, over and over again. You are true
and faithful. You would love her and cherish her. But this man? He
knows not what love means, nor fidelity, nor anything. Go, Jack. There
is no help in you or in any other. Because there is none other----"
She spoke the words of the prayer book. "None other that fighteth for
us, but only Thou, O God! Only Thou, O God!" She covered her face
again with her apron and fell to sobbing afresh.
So I went into the parlour where Molly was sitting. "Jack!" she jumped
up. "Oh, Jack, I want you so badly."
"I know all, Molly. Except what you yourself say and think about it."
She had a piece of work in her hands, and she began to pull it and
pick it as she replied. For the first time in my life I found Molly
uncertain and hesitating.
"The captain says that it is the greatest honour that was ever offered
to any woman to be raised from a lowly condition to a high rank--and
all for love."
"All for love?" I asked.
"Why, what else can it be that made him fight for me with that
desperate villain? He risked his life. Whatever happens, Jack, I
cannot forget that."
"No. It was doubtless a great thing to do. Has he told you himself
that it was all for love?"
"He has not spoken about love at all. He has never once been alone
with me. It seems that these great people make love by message. He
sent a message by Sam Semple."
"A very fine messenger of Cupid, truly!"
"Offering marriage. The captain cannot contain his satisfaction and
sits glum. My mother says she will never be able to see me again and
begins to cry."
"Well--but, Molly, to be sure it is a great thing to become a
countess. Most women would jump at the chance, under any conditions.
Do you, however, think that you can love the man?"
"He hasn't asked for love. Oh, Jack, to think that people should marry
each other without a word of love! If he loves me I suppose he thinks
that I am bound to give him love in return."
"There, again, Molly, do you love the man?"
"Jack, nobody knows me better than you. What reply can I make?"
"He is too cold and too proud for you, Molly. How can you love him?
Perhaps," I added, because I was very sure that she would marry him,
"after marriage you will find that his coldness is only a cloak to
hide his natural warmth, and that his pride covers his wife as well as
himself."
"He is a good man. Everybody says so. Lady Anastasia declares that he
is the most honourable and high-principled of men. On that point I am
safe. And think, Jack, what a point it is! Why, to marry a drunkard, a
sot, a profligate, a gambler--one would sooner die at once and so an
end. But I can trust myself with him. I have no fear of such treatment
as drives some wives to distraction. Yet he is cold in his manner and
proud in his speech. I might find it in my heart to love him if I was
not afraid of him." And so she went backwards and forwards. He was so
good and so great; his wife must always respect him. He was of rank so
exalted--it was a great honour to become his wife. He was so
brave--she owed her rescue to his bravery. Yet he had spoken no word
of love; nor had she seen any sign of love. I asked her what sign she
expected, and she was confused. "Of course," she said, "every girl
knows very well when a man is in love with her." "How does she know?"
I asked her. "She knows, because she knows." I suppose she felt the
man was not in love with her just as her mother felt that his
character for virtue and nobility was assumed--"corrupt within," she
said. Women are made so. And in the next breath Molly repeated that
what his lordship had done was done for love. "How do you know?" I
asked again. "Because the captain says so," she replied, with
unconscious inconsistency.
"Is the courtship to be conducted entirely by messenger?" I asked.
"No; he will come to-morrow morning and see me. I am to give him an
answer then. But the captain has already told him what the answer is
to be. Oh, Jack, I am so happy! I am so fortunate that I ought to be
happy. Yet I am so down-hearted about it. Going away is a dreadful
thing. And when shall I see any of you, I wonder, again? Oh, I am so
fortunate! I am so happy." And to show her happiness she dropped a
tear, and more tears followed.
What kind of happiness, what kind of good fortune was that which could
fill the mind of the captain with gloom and could dissolve Molly's
mother in tears, and could herald its approach to the bride by sadness
which weighed her down? And as for me, you may believe that my heart
was like a lump of lead within me, partly because I was losing the
girl I loved, but had never hoped to marry, and partly because from
the outset of the whole affair--yes, from the very evening when the
news of the grand discovery was read to the "Society of Lynn"--I had
looked forward to coming events with foreboding of the most dismal
kind.
"Come to see me to-morrow afternoon, Jack," she said. "I must talk
about it to some one. With the captain I cannot talk, because he is
all for the unequal match, and with my mother I cannot talk because
she foretells trouble, and will acknowledge no good thing at all in
the man or in the match. Do not forget, Jack. Come to-morrow. I don't
know how many days are left to me when I can ask you to come. Oh,
Jack, to leave everybody--all my friends--it is hard! But I am the
most ungrateful of women, because I am the happiest--the happiest. Oh,
Jack, the happiest and most fortunate woman that ever lived."