HOW BESSY PRYOR WAS TO BE BANISHED.
When a man is asked by his friend if he knows of a horse to be sold he
does not like immediately to suggest a transfer of the animal which he
has in his own stable, though he may at the moment be in want of money
and anxious to sell his steed. So it was with Mr. Gregory. His sister
would be delighted to take as a boarder a young lady for whom liberal
payment would be made; but at the first moment he had hesitated to make
an offer by which his own sister would be benefited. On the next
morning, however, he wrote as follows:--
“DEAR MRS. MILES,--My sister Amelia is living at Avranches, where
she has a pleasant little house on the outskirts of the town, with
a garden. An old friend was living with her, but she died last
year, and my sister is now alone. If you think that Bessy would
like to sojourn for awhile in Normandy, I will write to Amelia and
make the proposition. Bessy will find my sister good-tempered and
kind-hearted.--Faithfully yours, JOSHUA GREGORY.”
Mrs. Miles did not care much for the good temper and the kind heart. Had
she asked herself whether she wished Bessy to be happy she would no
doubt have answered herself in the affirmative. She would probably have
done so in regard to any human being or animal in the world. Of course,
she wanted them all to be happy. But happiness was to her thinking of
much less importance than duty; and at the present moment her duty and
Bessy’s duty and Philip’s duty were so momentous that no idea of
happiness ought to be considered in the matter at all. Had Mr. Gregory
written to say that his sister was a woman of severe morals, of stern
aspect, prone to repress all youthful ebullitions, and supposed to be
disagreeable because of her temper, all that would have been no
obstacle. In the present condition of things suffering would be better
than happiness; more in accord with the feelings and position of the
person concerned. It was quite intelligible to Mrs. Miles that Bessy
should really love Philip almost to the breaking of her heart, quite
intelligible that Philip should have set his mind upon the untoward
marriage with all the obstinacy of a proud man. When young men and young
women neglect their duty, hearts have to be broken. But it is not a soft
and silken operation, which can be made pleasant by good temper and
social kindness. It was necessary, for certain quite adequate reasons,
that Bessy should be put on the wheel, and be racked and tormented. To
talk to her of the good temper of the old woman who would have to turn
the wheel would be to lie to her. Mrs. Miles did not want her to think
that things could be made pleasant for her.
Soon after the receipt of Mr. Gregory’s letter she sent for Bessy, who
was then brought into the room under the guard, as it were, of Mrs.
Knowl. Mrs. Knowl accompanied her along the corridor, which was surely
unnecessary, as Bessy’s door had not been locked upon her. Her
imprisonment had only come from obedience. But Mrs. Knowl felt that a
great trust had been confided to her, and was anxious to omit none of
her duties. She opened the door so that the invalid on the bed could see
that this duty had been done, and then Bessy crept into the room. She
crept in, but very quickly, and in a moment had her arms round the old
woman’s back and her lips pressed to the old woman’s forehead. “Why may
not I come and be with you?” she said.
“Because you are disobedient.”
“No, no; I do all that you tell me. I have not stirred from my room,
though it was hard to think you were ill so near me, and that I could do
nothing. I did not try to say a word to him, or even to look at him; and
now that he has gone, why should I not be with you?”
“It cannot be.”
“But why not, aunt? Even though you would not speak to me I could be
with you. Who is there to read to you?”
“There is no one. Of course it is dreary. But there are worse things
than dreariness.”
“Why should not I come back, now that he has gone?” She still had her
arm round the old woman’s back, and had now succeeded in dragging
herself on to the bed and in crouching down by her aunt’s side. It was
her perseverance in this fashion that had so often forced Mrs. Miles out
of her own ordained method of life, and compelled her to leave for a
moment the strictness which was congenial to her. It was this that had
made her declare to Mr. Gregory, in the midst of her severity, that
Bessy had been like a gleam of sunshine in the house. Even now she knew
not how to escape from the softness of an embrace which was in truth so
grateful to her. It was a consciousness of this,--of the potency of
Bessy’s charm even over herself,--which had made her hasten to send her
away from her. Bessy would read to her all the day, would hold her hand
when she was half dozing, would assist in every movement with all the
patience and much more than the tenderness of a waiting-maid. There was
no voice so sweet, no hand so cool, no memory so mindful, no step so
soft as Bessy’s. And now Bessy was there, lying on her bed, caressing
her, more closely bound to her than had ever been any other being in the
world, and yet Bessy was an enemy from whom it was imperatively
necessary that she should be divided.
“Get down, Bessy,” she said; “go off from me.”
“No, no, no,” said Bessy, still clinging to her and kissing her.
“I have that to say to you which must be said calmly.”
“I am calm,--quite calm. I will do whatever you tell me; only pray,
pray, do not send me away from you.”
“You say that you will obey me.”
“I will; I have. I always have obeyed you.”
“Will you give up your love for Philip?”
“Could I give up my love for you, if anybody told me? How can I do it?
Love comes of itself. I did not try to love him. Oh, if you could know
how I tried not to love him! If somebody came and said I was not to love
you, would it be possible?”
“I am speaking of another love.”
“Yes; I know. One is a kind of love that is always welcome. The other
comes first as a shock, and one struggles to avoid it. But when it has
come, how can it be helped? I do love him, better than all the world.”
As she said this she raised herself upon the bed, so as to look round
upon her aunt’s face; but still she kept her arm upon the old woman’s
shoulder. “Is it not natural? How could I have helped it?”
“You must have known that it was wrong.”
“No!”
“You did not know that it would displease me?”
“I knew that it was unfortunate,--not wrong. What did I do that was
wrong? When he asked me, could I tell him anything but the truth?”
“You should have told him nothing.” At this reply Bessy shook her head.
“It cannot be that you should think that in such a matter there should
be no restraint. Did you expect that I should give my consent to such a
marriage? I want to hear from yourself what you thought of my feelings.”
“I knew you would be angry.”
“Well?”
“I knew you must think me unfit to be Philip’s wife.”
“Well?”
“I knew that you wanted something else for him, and something else also
for me.”
“And did such knowledge go for nothing?”
“It made me feel that my love was unfortunate,--but not that it was
wrong. I could not help it. He had come to me, and I loved him. The
other man came, and I could not love him. Why should I be shut up for
this in my own room? Why should I be sent away from you, to be miserable
because I know that you want things done? He is not here. If he were
here and you bade me not to go near him, I would not go. Though he were
in the next room I would not see him. I would obey you altogether, but I
must love him. And as I love him I cannot love another. You would not
wish me to marry a man when my heart has been given to another.”
The old woman had not at all intended that there should be such
arguments as these. It had been her purpose simply to communicate her
plan, to tell Bessy that she would have to live probably for a few years
at Avranches, and then to send her back to her prison. But Bessy had
again got the best of her, and then had come caressing, talking, and
excuses. Bessy had been nearly an hour in her room before Mrs. Miles had
disclosed her purpose, and had hovered round her aunt, doing as had been
her wont when she was recognised as having all the powers of head nurse
in her hands. Then at last, in a manner very different from that which
had been planned, Mrs. Miles proposed the Normandy scheme. She had been,
involuntarily, so much softened that she condescended even to repeat
what Mr. Gregory had said as to the good temper and general kindness of
his maiden sister. “But why should I go?” asked Bessy, almost sobbing.
“I wonder that you should ask.”
“He is not here.”
“But he may come.”
“If he came ever so I would not see him if you bade me not. I think you
hardly understand me, aunt. I will obey you in everything. I am sure you
will not now ask me to marry Mr. Morrison.”
She could not say that Philip would be more likely to become amenable
and marry the Cornish heiress if Bessy were away at Avranches than if
she still remained shut up at Launay. But that was her feeling. Philip,
she knew, would be less obedient than Bessy. But then, too, Philip might
be less obstinate of purpose. “You cannot live here, Bessy, unless you
will say that you will never become the wife of my son.”
“Never?”
“Never!”
“I cannot say that.” There was a long pause before she found the courage
to pronounce these words, but she did pronounce them at last.
“Then you must go.”
“I may stay and nurse you till you are well. Let me do that. I will go
whenever you may bid me.”
“No. There shall be no terms between us. We must be friends, Bessy, or
we must be enemies. We cannot be friends as long as you hold yourself to
be engaged to Philip Launay. While that is so I will not take a cup of
water from your hands. No, no,” for the girl was again trying to embrace
her. “I will not have your love, nor shall you have mine.”
“My heart would break were I to say it.”
“Then let it break! Is my heart not broken? What is it though our hearts
do break,--what is it though we die,--if we do our duty? You owe this
for what I have done for you.”
“I owe you everything.”
“Then say that you will give him up.”
“I owe you everything, except this. I will not speak to him, I will not
write to him, I will not even look at him, but I will not give him up.
When one loves, one cannot give it up.” Then she was ordered to go back
to her room, and back to her room she went.