The proceedings relating to Westwood's trial and Hubert Lepel's
confession naturally excited great interest. The whole matter had to be
investigated once more; and it could not be denied that a howl of
indignation at Hubert's conduct went up through the length and breadth
of the land. Even Flossy's indiscretions--to call them by no harsher
name--were not held to excuse him for suppressing the fact that he had
taken Sydney Vane's life, and then allowed Andrew Westwood to suffer the
penalty of a crime which he had not committed. The details that came out
one after another whetted the public appetite to an incredible extent.
And in such a case it soon became evident that no details could be
suppressed at all. Even the fact of the attachment between Hubert and
Cynthia leaked out, although everybody tried hard to keep it a secret;
and great was the wonder excited by Cynthia's steady refusal to give up
the lover who had nearly caused her father's death.
"She must be a heartless creature indeed!" the busybodies said. "Who
ever heard of such a revolting position? Has her father cast her off?
What a grief it must be to him! It is like a terrible old Greek
tragedy!"
And, when the busybodies heard that Westwood had not objected to his
child's marriage with Hubert Lepel, and had actually appeared to be
friendly with him, they concluded that all parties concerned must be
equally devoid of the finer qualities of human nature, and that a
painful revelation of baseness and secret vice had just been made.
But, in spite of public indignation, it was not possible for Hubert
Lepel to receive very severe punishment from the arm of the law. He had
never been examined at Westwood's trial--and the law does not compel a
man to inculpate himself. He was held to have committed manslaughter,
and he was condemned to two years' imprisonment. And Westwood received a
"free pardon" from the Queen--which Cynthia thought a very inadequate
way of testifying to his innocence; and he walked through London streets
a free man once more, and might have been made into a hero had he
chosen, especially when it became known that he was very well off, and
that he had a daughter so beautiful and gifted as the young lady who had
previously been known to the general public as Cynthia West.
Cynthia was entreated to sing again and again, and was assured that
people would flock to hear her and to see her more than ever. But she
steadily refused to sing in any public place. She could not overcome the
feeling that her audience only came to stare at her as Westwood's
daughter, and not to hear her sing. She withdrew therefore from the
musical profession, and lived a quiet life in London with her father,
who had postponed his departure for a few weeks. He would not return to
America until the close of Hubert Lepel's trial.
The General's sad death, caused chiefly by excitement, was felt, when
the shock was passed, to be almost a relief for his friends. They all
felt that it would have been sad indeed if the old man had lived to see
himself desolate, his name dragged through the mud, his wife branded
with shame, the boy that he had loved not only laid in the grave, but
known to be no kin to him at all. He could not have borne it; his life
would have been a misery to him; and it was perhaps well that he should
die. His will had been unsigned, and the property therefore passed to
Enid, with the usual "half" to his widow.
Flossy found herself better off than she had expected to be. She never
seemed to regret her actions, not even the hysterical outburst which had
caused her to confess her guilt and to hasten the General's end. She
declared herself relieved that she had now nothing to conceal. As for
the execration that she met with from all who knew her story, she cared
very little indeed. She refused to see her old acquaintances, and went
abroad as soon as possible. Her lawyer alone knew her address--for she
did not correspond with her English friends; but she was occasionally
heard of at a foreign watering-place, where she posed as an interesting
widow completely misunderstood by a sadly prejudiced world. In time she
married again, and it was said that her husband, a Russian nobleman,
ill-treated-her; but Flossy was quite capable of holding her own against
any number of Russia noblemen, and it was more likely that he suffered
at her hands than she at his. In the wild Northern lands however she
finally made her home; and she announced to her lawyer her determination
never to set foot in England again. A traveller who afterwards came
across her in Russian reported to her relatives that she was looking
haggard and worn, that she was said to take chloral regularly, and that
she suffered from some obscure disease of the nerves for which no doctor
could find a cure. And thus she passed out of the lives of her English
friends--unloved, unmourned, unhappy, and, in spite of wealth and title,
unsuccessful in all that she tried to attain.
Enid, the owner of Beechfield Hall, took a dislike to the place, and
would not live in it for many a long day. She remained with Miss Vane
until a year had passed after the General's death, and then she married
Mr. Evandale and took up her abode at the Rectory. She made an ideal
parson's wife. Her health had grown stronger in the quiet atmosphere of
Miss Vane's home; and, curiously enough, she never had another of her
strange "seizures" after her departure from Beechfield Hall. She herself
always believed that she had conquered them by an effort of will; but
Mr. Evandale was disposed to think that she had been occasionally put
under the influence of some drug by Mrs. Vane, and that Mrs. Vane had
either wished to remove her altogether from her path or undermine her
health and intellect completely. At a later date she had grown tired of
this method, and tried to take a quicker way; but in this attempt she
had been foiled. Parker remained in Enid's service, and made a faithful
nurse, devoted to her mistress and her mistress's children, and above
all devoted to her master, who had spoken to her gently of her past, and
given her new hope for the future.
And, when the little Evandales began to overflow the Rectory nurseries,
Enid managed to conquer her distaste for the stately old Hall that had
stood empty for so many years, and came thither with her family to fill
the vacant rooms with merry faces, and to chase away all ghosts of a
tragic past by the sound of eager voices, of laughter, and of pattering
feet. And then a deeper love for the old home, now grown so beautiful
and dear, stirred within her; and in time she even marvelled at herself
that she had stayed away so long from Beechfield Hall.
Sabina Meldreth developed in a curious direction. The Rector "got hold
of her," as he expressed it, and managed to lay his finger on the soft
spot in her heart. It proved to be a remorseful love for delicate
children; and this trait of character became her salvation. She never
talked of the past or said that she repented; but she gave herself
little by little, with strange steadfastness and thoroughness, to the
service of sick children in hospitals. She went through a nurse's
training, and got an engagement as nurse in the Great Ormond Street
Hospital for Children. Here she seemed happy; and the children loved
her--which some people thought odd, because she preserved a good deal of
her roughness of manner and abruptness of speech in ordinary life. But
she was made of finer fibre than one would have imagined, and children
never found her harsh or unkind or unsympathetic. The memory of little
Dick remained with her perhaps, but she never spoke of him.
During the months of Hubert's imprisonment Cynthia did not correspond
with him. He had asked her not to do so. Her letters would of course
have been overlooked. All that she could do until the trial was over was
to send him flowers, which he was permitted to receive; and very dear
those boxes of rare blossoms soon became to him. He spent a great part
of his time in the infirmary; for his strength had been very much tried
during the time of his convalescence, and it often seemed as if his
anticipations were to be realised, and as if his term of punishment
would not last very long. Cynthia had made him promise that she should
be summoned to his side if he were absolutely in danger. For many a week
she used to be half afraid to look at her letters in the morning, lest
the dread summons should be amongst them; but, after a time, her courage
began to revive, and she dared--yes, she actually dared--to hope for a
brighter future. But, when the term of his imprisonment began, she knew
that she must wait patiently for its end before the cloud of darkness
was lifted from her life.
"It's about time we was getting back to the States, I reckon," her
father said to her one day.
"So soon, father?"
"What should we stay in England for?" he asked, without glancing at her.
"I want to get back to my work; and I want to show you the place, and
see about the new house."
For at times he drew glowing pictures of the house that he intended to
build for Cynthia some day. Cynthia used to smile and listen very
sweetly. She never contradicted him; she only grew a little abstracted
now and then when he waxed very eloquent, and drew the needle a little
faster through the work that she now affected. He did not usually seem
to notice her silence; but on this occasion he broke out rather
petulantly.
"One would think you took no interest in it at all! You might sometimes
remember that it's all for you."
"I do remember it, father dear--and I am very grateful."
"Well, then," said Westwood, at once restored to cheerfulness, "just you
look here at these plans. I've been talking to an architect, and this is
the drawing he's made for me. Nice mansion that, isn't it? You see,
there's the ground-floor--a study for me, and a drawing-room and a
morning-room, and all sorts of things for you; and here's a wing which
can be added on or not, as is required. Because," he went on rather
quickly and nervously, "if you was to marry out there, you could set up
house-keeping with him, you know; and, when the family grew too large
for the house, we could just add room after room--here, you see--until
we had enough."
"Yes, father." And then Cynthia added with simplicity, which was perhaps
a little assumed. "Miss Enid Vane says that Hubert will be ordered to
the Riviera for the winter when--when he is free."
"What has that to do with it?" said Westwood, rolling up his plans and
moving a few steps away from her.
"Only that perhaps we had better not think too much about the house,
father. We might not be able to come to it."
"Oh, that's it, is it?" her father said slowly. "You're still thinking
of Mr. Lepel, Cynthia?"
"Yes, father dear."
"You mean to marry the man that would have seen me hang and never said a
word to save me?"
"He would not have done that, you know, father. He spoke out at last, in
order to save you from being rearrested. And you gave me your consent
before----"
"Ay, before I knew that he had done the deed! I thought that his sister
had done it, and that he was keeping her secret, when I gave my consent,
my girl. It makes a deal of difference."
"Not to me," said Cynthia quietly. "He did wrong; but I learned to love
him before I knew the story; and I can't leave off loving him now."
Westwood sat down and began rapping the table with his roll of plans in
a meditative manner.
"Women are curious folk," he said at last. "When a man's prosperous,
they nag at him and make his life a weariness to him; but, when he's in
trouble, they can't be too faithful nor too fond. It's awkward
sometimes."
"But it's their nature, you see, father," said Cynthia, smiling a little
as she folded up her work.
"I suppose it is. And I suppose--being one of them--it's nothing to you
that this man's name has been cried high and low throughout the British
Empire as a monster of iniquity, a base cowardly villain, so afraid of
being found out that he nearly let another man swing for him--that's
nothing to you, eh?"
Cynthia's cheeks burned.
"It is nothing to me because it is not true," she said. "I know the
world says so; but the world is wrong. He is not cowardly--he is not
base; he has a noble heart. And when he did wrong it was for his
sister's sake and to save her from punishment--not for his own. Oh,
father, you never spoke so hardly of him before!"
"I am only repeating what the world says," replied Westwood stolidly. "I
am not stating my own private opinion. What the world says is a very
important thing, Cynthia."
"I don't care for what it says!" cried Cynthia impatiently.
"But I care--not for myself, but for you. And we've got to pay some
attention to it--you and I and the man you marry, whoever he may be."
"It will be Hubert Lepel or nobody, father."
"It may be Hubert; but it won't be Hubert Lepel with my consent. He has
no call to be very proud of his name that I can see. Look here, Cynthia!
When he comes out, you can tell him this from me--he may marry you if
he'll take the name of 'Westwood' and give up that of 'Lepel'. Many a
man does that, I'm told, when he comes into a fortune. Well, you're a
fortune in yourself, besides what I've got to leave you. If he won't do
that, he won't do much for you."
"I am not ashamed of his name," said Cynthia, with a little tremor in
her voice.
"Well, perhaps not; but I'd rather it was so. I don't think I'm
unreasonable, my dear. 'Lepel' isn't a common name, and it's too well
known. As 'Mrs. Hubert Westwood' you will escape remark much more easily
than as 'Mrs. Hubert Lepel.' I don't think it is too much to ask; and
it's the one condition I make before I give my consent to his marrying
you."
"I will tell him, father. Perhaps he will not mind."
"If he minds, he won't be worthy of you--that's all I've got to say,"
said Westwood, rising to his feet and preparing to leave the room.
But Cynthia intercepted him:
"Father, if he consents, you will forgive him, will you not?" she said
putting her hands on his shoulder and looking anxiously into his eyes.
"Forgive him, my dear? Well, I suppose I have done that, or I shouldn't
say that he might marry you at all."
"And you will forget the past, and love him a little for my sake?"
"I'm bound to love the people you love, Cynthy," said the old man
stooping to kiss the beautiful face, and patting her cheek with his roll
of plans; "and I don't think you've got any call to feel afraid."