When Hubert Lepel quitted Beechfield, a sudden calm, almost a stagnation
of interest, seemed to fall upon the place. Mrs. Vane was said to be
"less strong" than usual; the spring weather tried her; she must be kept
quiet, the doctor said, and, if possible, tranquil in mind.
"God bless my soul, isn't she tranquil in mind?" the General had almost
shouted, when Mr. Ingledew gave this opinion. "What else can she be? She
hasn't a single thing to worry her; or, if she has, she has only to
mention it and it will be set right at once."
The village doctor smiled amiably. He was a pale, thin, dark little man,
with insight rather in advance of his actual knowledge. He would have
been puzzled to say why he had jumped to the conclusion that Mrs. Vane's
mind was not quite tranquil; but he was sure that it was not. Possibly,
he was influenced by the conviction that it ought not to be tranquil;
for, in the course of his visits among the villagers, he had heard some
of the ugly rumors about Flossy's past, which were more prevalent than
Mrs. Vane herself suspected and than the General ever had it in his
power to conceive.
"Well, sir," he said--for Mr. Ingledew was always very deferential to
the Squire of the parish--"what I meant was more perhaps that Mrs. Vane
requires perfect freedom from all anxiety for the future than that she
is suffering from uneasiness of mind at present. Possibly Mrs. Vane is a
little anxious from time to time about Master Dick, who is not of a
particularly robust constitution, or perhaps about Miss Vane, who does
not strike me as looking exactly what I should call 'the thing.'"
"No--does she, Ingledew?" said the General, diverted at once from the
consideration of his wife's health to that of his niece. "She's pale and
peaky, is she not? Have you seen her to-day?"
"H'm--not professionally," replied Mr. Ingledew, rubbing his chin. "In
point of fact, Mrs. Vane intimated to me that Miss Vane refused to see
me--to see a doctor at all. I am sorry, for Miss Vane's own sake, as I
think that she is not looking well at present--not at all well."
"There she goes!" cried the General. "We'll have her in, and hear what
all this is about. Enid, Enid--come here!"
He had seen her in the conservatory, which ran along one side of the
house. He and Mr. Ingledew were sitting in the library, and through its
half-open glass door he had caught sight of the girl's white gown
amongst the flowers. She turned instantly at his call.
"Did you want me, uncle?"
"Yes, dear. You are not looking well, Enid; we are concerned about you,"
said the General, going up to her and taking her by the hand. "Why do
you refuse to see a doctor, my dear child?"
"But I have not refused, uncle."
"Oh--er--Mr. Ingledew----"
"I understood from Mrs. Vane," said the doctor, "that you did not wish
for medical advice, Miss Vane."
Enid colored a little, and was silent for a moment; then she answered,
in her usual gentle way--
"I had some disinclination a few days ago to consult a doctor, and
perhaps Mrs. Vane has accidentally laid more stress upon my saying so
than I intended. But I am quite willing--now--to consult Mr. Ingledew a
little."
She sank into a chair as if she were very tired, and for a moment closed
her eyes. Her face was almost colorless, and there were violet tints on
her eyelids and her lips. Mr. Ingledew looked at her gravely and knit
his brows. He knew well that her explanation of Mrs. Vane's words was
quite insufficient. Mrs. Vane had sweetly and solemnly assured him that
she had begged "dear Enid" to see a doctor--Mr. Ingledew or another--and
that she had firmly refused to do so, saying that she felt quite well.
Enid's words did not tally with Mrs. Vane's report at all. The doctor
knew which of the two women he would rather believe.
The General walked away, leaving the patient and the medical man
together. At the close of the interview, which did not last more than a
few minutes, Enid rose with a weary little smile and left the room. The
General came back to Ingledew.
"Well, Ingledew?"--Mr. Ingledew looked grave.
"I should not say that there was anything very serious," he said; "but
Miss Vane certainly requires care. She suffers from palpitation of the
heart and faintness; her pulse is intermittent; she complains of nausea
and dizziness. Without stethoscopic examination I cannot of course be
sure whether there is anything organically wrong; but I should
conclude--judging as well as I can without the aid of auscultation--that
there was some disturbance--functional disturbance--of the heart."
"Heart! Dear, dear--that's very serious, is it not?"
"Oh, not necessarily so! It may be a mere passing derangement produced
by indigestion," said the doctor prosaically. "I will come in again
to-morrow and sound her. I hope it is nothing more than a temporary
indisposition." And so Mr. Ingledew took his leave.
"Mrs. Vane didn't want me to see her!" he said, as he left the house. "I
wonder why?"
Meanwhile Enid, passing out into the hall, had been obliged to stand
still once or twice by reason of the dizziness that threatened to
overcome her. She leaned against the wall until the feeling had gone
off, and then dragged herself slowly up the stairs. She had suffered in
this way only for the last week or two--since Hubert went away. At first
she had thought that the warm spring weather was making her feel weak
and ill; but she did not remember that it had ever done so before. She
had generally revived with the spring, and been stronger and better in
the warmth and sunshine of summer. She could not understand why this
spring should make her feel so ill. She went into her own room and lay
down flat on the bed. She had the sensation of wishing to sink deeper
and deeper down, as if she could not sink too low. Her heart seemed to
beat more and more slowly; each breath that she drew was an effort to
her. She wondered a little if she was going to die.
Presently she heard somebody enter the room. She was not strong enough
to turn her head; but she opened her eyes and saw her maid Parker
standing beside her bed and regarding her with alarm.
"Law, miss, you do look bad!" she said.
Enid's white lips moved and tears trembled on her eyelashes; but she did
not speak. Parker, seriously alarmed, hastened to procure
smelling-salts, brandy, and eau-de-Cologne, and, with a few minutes'
care, these applications produced the desired result. Enid looked a
little less death-like; she smiled as she took a dose of brandy and
sal-volatile, and moved her fingers towards the woman at her side.
Parker did not at first know what she wanted, but discovered at last
that the girl wanted to hold her hand. Contact with something human
seemed to help to bring her back from the shadowy borderland where she
had been wandering. Parker, astonished and confused, wanted to draw away
her hand; but the small cold fingers closed over it resistlessly. Then
the woman stood motionless, holding a vinaigrette in her free hand, and
looking at the pale face on the pillow, at the pathetic blue eyes which
sought her own from time to time as if in want of pity. Something made
Parker's heart beat fast and the hot tears came into her hard, dark
eyes. She had never felt any particular fondness for Miss Enid before;
but somehow that mute appeal, that silent claiming of sympathy and help,
made the woman who had spent the last few weeks in dogging her footsteps
and spying out her secrets bitterly regret the bondage in which her past
life had placed her.
"Do you feel better now, miss?" she asked, in an unusually soft tone,
presently.
"Yes, thank you, Parker; but don't go just yet."
Parker stood immovable. Secretly she began to long to get away. She was
afraid that she should cry if she stayed there much longer holding
Enid's soft little white hand in hers.
"Parker," said Enid presently, "were you in your room last night soon
after I went to bed?" The maid slept in the next room to that of her
young mistress.
"Yes, miss--at least, I don't know what time it was."
"It was between nine and ten o'clock when I went to bed. Did you see
anybody--any one all in white--come into my room after I was in bed? If
your door was open, you might have seen any one pass."
"Good gracious, miss, one would think that you was speaking of a ghost!
No, I didn't see anybody pass."
"I thought, perhaps," said Enid rather faintly, "that it might be Mrs.
Vane coming to see how I was, you know. She has a loose white wrapper,
and she often throws a white lace shawl over her head when she goes down
the passages."
"You must have been dreaming, miss," said Parker. She found it easier to
withdraw her hand now that the conversation had taken this turn.
"I suppose I must," said Enid, in a scarcely audible tone. Then she
turned away her face and said, "You can go now, Parker; I feel better. I
think that I shall go to sleep."
But she did not sleep even when Parker had departed. She lay thinking,
with the tears gathering and falling one by one, until they made a great
wet spot on the pillow beneath her head. The shadow that hung over her
young life was growing very dark.
Parker had hurried into her own room, where she first shut and locked
the door, as if afraid to think even while it was open, and then wrung
her hands in a sort of agony.
"To think of it--to think of it!" she said, bursting into sudden sobs.
"And Miss Enid so sweet and innocent and gentle! What has she done? What
has she got to be put out of the way for? Just for the sake of the
money, I suppose, that it may all go to that wretched little Master
Dick! Oh, she's a wicked woman--a wicked woman; and I'd give my life
never to have set eyes upon her, for she'll be the ruin of me body and
soul!"
But "she" in this case did not mean Enid Vane.
Parker was aroused from her meditations by the sharp tinkle of a bell,
which she knew that Mrs. Vane must have rung. She started when she heard
it, and a look of disgust crossed her face; but, as she hesitated, the
bell rang again, more imperiously than ever. Parker dashed the tears
from her eyes, and sped down the long corridor to Mrs. Vane's
dressing-room. Her hands were trembling still.
"Why do you keep me in this way when I ring for you, Parker?" said Mrs.
Vane, in her coldest tone. "I rang twice."
"Miss Vane wanted me, ma'am. I have been with her."
There was an odd tremor in the woman's voice. Mrs. Vane surveyed her
critically.
"You look very strange, Parker. What is the matter with you? Are you
ill?"
"No, ma'am; but Miss Vane is."
Flossy grew a shade paler and looked up. She was still in her
dressing-gown--white, edged everywhere with costly lace--and her fair
hair was hanging loose over her shoulders.
"Ill? What is the matter with her?"
"I--I thought perhaps you would know, ma'am," said Parker desperately.
Then, afraid of what she had said, she turned to a drawer, pulled it
open, and began ransacking it diligently. From the momentary silence in
the room she felt as if her shaft had gone home; but she dared not look
round to see.
"What on earth do you mean, Parker?" said Mrs. Vane, after that one dead
pause, which said so much to her maid's suspicious ears; the chill
disdain in her voice was inimitable. "How can I tell you what is the
matter with Miss Vane when I have not seen her since dinner-time
yesterday? She was well enough then--at least, as well as she has been
since this trying weather began."
"Didn't you see her last night, ma'am, when you went to her room about
eleven o'clock?" said Parker, trying to assume a bolder tone, but
failing to hide her nervousness.
Again a short but unmistakable pause.
"No, I did not," said Mrs. Vane drily. "I listened at the door to see if
she was asleep, but I did not go in."
"She seems to have been dreaming that you did, ma'am."
"What nonsense!" said Mrs. Vane, a little hurriedly. "You should not
attend to all her fancies, Parker. You know that she has very odd
fancies indeed sometimes. The shock of her father's death when she was a
child had a very injurious effect upon her nerves, and I should never be
surprised at anything that she chose to do or say. Pray don't get into
the way of repeating her words, or of imagining that they must
necessarily be true!"
"No, ma'am," said Parker submissively.
Evidently there was nothing more for her to say. Well, perhaps she had
put her mistress on her guard.
"Oh, by-the-bye, Parker! There are two dresses of mine in the
wardrobe--the brown one and the silk--that you can do what you like
with. And I was thinking of sending a little present to your mother. You
may take this purse--there are seven pounds in it; send it to her from
me, if you like, as a little acknowledgment of your faithful service.
And, if--if there is anything else that I can do for her, you need only
mention it."
"Thank you, ma'am," said Parker, but without enthusiasm. "I don't know
as there's anything that she wants at present."
"Take the purse," said Flossy impatiently; "and then go away and come
back when I ring. I won't have my hair brushed just now. Is Miss Vane
better?"
"Yes, ma'am--she's better now." And Parker went away, knowing very well
that she had been bribed to hold her tongue.
But after that interview she noticed that Enid seemed to recover tone
and strength, that for a few succeeding days she was more like herself
than she had been of late, and that the symptoms of faintness and
palpitation which she had mentioned to Mr. Ingledew disappeared. Parker
nodded mysteriously as she remarked on these facts to herself, and
thought that for once her interference had had a good effect.
She had lately found less to report concerning Miss Vane's movements
than before Mr. Lepel's visit; for Enid's ministrations amongst the poor
had been almost entirely brought to a close, on the ground that close
cottages and the sight of suffering must necessarily be bad for her
health. Accordingly she had gone less and less to the village, and had
seen almost nothing of Mr. Evandale. Parker, being thus less often "on
duty," found more time than usual for her own various scraps of
business, and took occasion one evening to run out to the post-office
when all the family were at dinner; and while at the post-office she
noticed a stranger in the village street--a highly respectable,
venerable-looking old man with picturesque white hair and beard.
"That's Mr. Dare, who's a-stayin' at the inn," said the postmistress to
Parker, who was a person of considerable importance in village eyes.
"Such a nice old gentleman! He comes from America, where they say he's
made a fortune, and he's very liberal with his money."
So good a character interested Parker at once in Mr. Dare. She felt
quite flattered when, in passing down the lane, she was accosted by the
gentleman in question, who pulled off his hat to her politely, and asked
her whether she could tell him if Mr. Lepel was likely to visit
Beechfield Hall in the course of a week or two.
"Let me see," said Parker. "Why, yes, sir--I heard yesterday that he was
coming down next Saturday, just for a day or two, you know."
"I used to know a Mr. Lepel once," said the stranger, "and he did me a
kindness. If this is the same, I'd like to thank him before I go. I
heard him mentioned up at the 'Crown' yonder and wondered whether I
could find out."
"I dare say it's the same--he's always a very kind gentleman," quoth
Parker, remembering the half-crowns that Hubert had many a time bestowed
on her.
"Fair, isn't he?" said Mr. Dare. "That was my Mr. Lepel--fair and short
and stout and a nice little wife and family----"
"Oh, dear, no--that isn't our Mr. Lepel!" said Parker, with disdain.
"He's tall and very dark and thin; and, as to being married, he's
engaged to Miss Vane of Beechfield Hall, or as good as engaged, I know;
and they're to be married when she's out of her teens, because the
General, her uncle, won't consent to it before."
"Ah," said the stranger, "you're right; that's not the gentleman I know.
Engaged, is he? And very fond of the young lady, I suppose?"
"Worships the very ground she treads upon!" said Parker. She would have
thought it _infra dig._ to allow for one moment that Miss Enid did not
meet with her deserts in the way of adoration. "He's always coming down
here to see her. And she the same! I don't think they could be happy
apart. He's just devoted!"
"And that," said Reuben Dare to himself, "is the man who makes my girl
believe that he is fond of her!"