The hall at Rosscraig was large and long: there was a great fireplace in
it, from which came a feeble gleam of firelight. A large lamp, swinging
from the raftered roof, threw but a moderate light into its great height
and space; but upon a side-table a candle was flaring, its long waving
flame blown about by the movement in the air, which had not yet subsided
after the opening of the door. A group of servants who had been crowding
round some unseen object in the corner dispersed hastily as Lady Eskside
was seen descending the stair, but only to hang about behind-backs
waiting the interpretation of the mystery. One person only, an old and
confidential servant, kept her place near the door, round which there
was a wide stain of wet made by the rain, which had burst in when it was
opened. Lady Eskside went forward bewildered, not perceiving what it was
she had been called to see; and it was not till a sick disappointment
had begun to creep over her that the old lady found out the central
object on which all eyes were turned. On the great skin mat which lay
between the door and the wall stood something so small and dark as to be
almost undistinguishable, till the light caught a glimmer and sparkle
from a pair of eyes low down, gleaming out of a little pale and scared
face. Lady Eskside went slowly forward, bracing herself for something,
she knew not what. When she caught the gleam of those eyes, she stood
still and uttered a sudden cry.
A child stood there, with its feet buried in the long skin of the mat,
backing closely into the corner for support, half frightened, half
defiant. Tears were standing in those great eyes, and hanging on the
pale little cheek--the lip was ready to quiver at a moment’s notice; but
still he confronted the novel world in which he found himself with a
certain defiance. The old lady, who felt all her dreams and hopes
suddenly realised at the first glance, went nearer to him, with
tremulous excitement, and stooped down over the child. Her whole frame
was trembling--a mist obscured her eyes. “Who are you?--who are you?”
she cried. “Oh, who are you?” then stopping short as the frightened look
got the mastery on the child’s face, and his lip began to quiver, she
changed her tone with a wonderful effort, and dropped down upon her
knees on the mat to bring herself on a level with him. Lady Eskside saw
in the little face more than any one else could see, and knew him, as
she said afterwards, at once. “My bonny man!” she cried, “my poor little
man, nobody will hurt you. What is your name, and who brought you here?
You are safe--quite safe--and nobody will harm you. Who are you, and who
brought you here?”
The child made a pause--he was struggling proudly against his
inclination to cry; and there was breathless silence in the hall as if
some great revelation had been about to be made. Then a small whimpering
voice, with tears in it, made itself audible, “I am--Val,” it said.
Lady Eskside rose up as if by some force which she could not resist. She
turned upon Mary Percival, and the group of servants beyond, with
uplifted hands, calling their attention imperatively, though for the
moment she could not speak. Then her voice broke forth, choked and
hoarse, “Val! Mary, you hear, you hear! Did not I know it? Val! Oh, at
last, at last!”
Then in a moment she stilled herself, and knelt down trembling upon the
mat. “My bonnie little man!” she said, her voice trembling, “tell me
again. Val--Val what? And, oh, who brought you here?”
“Nobody don’t call me nothing but Val,” said the child. “Mammy brought
me. Not for no harm. She’s gone back for Dick.”
“Ah!” Lady Eskside’s breath seemed to stop. She put out one hand behind
her, and plucked blindly at Mary Percival’s dress, to call her close
attention. “Your mammy has gone back--for--Dick?”
“He’s down at the village,” said the child, keeping his eyes fixed upon
her with the watchfulness of terror. “He’s asleep. I’ve got to wait for
mammy. She put me in out of the rain. I’ll be good till mammy comes. Oh,
don’t let him touch me! I ain’t come for no harm.”
Harding the butler had approached nearer, anxious to bring his superior
cleverness to his mistress’s aid; and it was this movement which made
the little fellow back further into his corner, holding up one small arm
before his face as if to ward off a blow. A precocious knowledge of
danger and a precocious desperation of baby courage glimmered in his
frightened but excited eyes. “I won’t touch nobody if you’ll let me
alone!” he cried.
“Stand back, Harding,” said Lady Eskside; and then she laid her soft old
hand upon the child’s raised arm, which yielded to her touch. “Nobody
will harm you here, my poor little bonnie man. Oh, look at him! look at
him, Mary! Is it my old een that deceive me? Is it from having always
one idea in my head? But you are not half-crazy like me. Mary, try to
forget the name and everything else. Look at his face!”
Mary Percival stood close behind, as much moved in her way, though with
feelings very different from those of her old friend. Instead of the
love and yearning in Lady Eskside’s heart, there was something which
felt like half-hatred--a repugnance for which she detested herself--in
the intense interest with which she had watched every look and movement
of the little alien creature. Her voice was low and choked as she
replied, as if the words were extracted from her, “I am looking at him.
He is dark--not fair--like--his father. He has different eyes. Oh, Lady
Eskside, what can I say? Everything else is Richard--everything; and I
don’t wish to think so like you.”
I do not believe that Lady Eskside heard these last words, which were
foreign to the passionate tenderness and joy in her own mind. She heard
only so much as chimed in with her own thoughts. “Mary sees it too,” she
said, with a low outcry of such emotion as cannot be put into words. She
was still on her knees in the attitude of prayer. With one hand she held
the child fast, and with the other she covered her face. Some low
sounds, but they were not audible words, came from her as she
knelt--sounds which no one around heard distinctly, yet all understood
by the strange sentiment of mingled anguish and rapture there was in
them. Then she rose up, shaken and agitated, yet all her vigorous self.
“Harding,” she said, “you’ll stay here and watch--till--she comes back.
For God’s sake take care what you do. You must not scare her, or send
her away; or go out yourself down the avenue, and let your wife stay
here. It’s a matter of life and death. Marg’ret, you hear all I say.”
This was to the housekeeper, Harding’s wife. “Keep the house quiet; no
noise, no excitement; but watch and be ready. Let one of the women
prepare the green room, and light fires; and Joseph can bring me wine,
and some milk for the children. Oh, thank God that I can say such a
word! You’ll show--_her_--every respect. Marg’ret, Marg’ret, you know
what I mean?”
“Oh, yes, my lady--yes! I see it a’,” cried the housekeeper; “but it
will be too much for you.”
“Joy’s never hard to bear,” said Lady Eskside, with a smile. “My bonnie
boy! come with me--you are not afraid of me?”
The child looked at her with his great eyes, which fright and novelty
and the paleness of his little face made twice their usual size.
“Richard never had eyes like these,” Miss Percival said to herself; but
it would have been cruel, indeed, to have said this aloud. He paused a
moment irresolute, and then gave a wild glance at the door, as if the
impulse of flight was the strongest; then he put his little cold hand,
half-reluctantly, into the soft white hand held out for it. The old lady
looked round upon them all with a glow of triumph indescribable; how her
hand closed upon those little tremulous fingers! She marched to the door
of the dining-room, which was nearest, her whole figure expanding like
some Roman woman in a victor’s procession. What battle had she won? what
enemy had she conquered? Mary, full of strange agitation, followed her,
wondering, tremulous, excited, but always with a certain repugnance,
into the warm room, all ruddy and cheerful with light from the fire.
And then a sudden change, strange to be seen, came upon this old
Volumnia, this heroic matron in her triumph. She sat down by the fire,
in the great chair where her old lord had been sitting over his wine
half an hour before, and gathered up the child into her lap, and turned
at once as by the touch of a wand into the old mother, the mere woman,
all whose instincts culminated in simple maternity. Perhaps her delicate
old hands had never touched anything so muddy and rough before; but she
was totally unconscious of this as she set the shivering wet little
figure upon her satin lap, and began to unlace and draw off his wet
boots. Lady Eskside was a proud woman, fastidious in everything she
approached or handled; but she undid the muddy leather laces, and pulled
off the dirty little boots, and stained her worn and fine old hands, so
delicately white and dainty, without hesitation, even without a thought.
She held the child close to her, murmuring over him unconscious sounds
of endearment, like a dove in her nest. “My little man! my bonnie little
man!--put out your poor wee feetie to the fire--how cold they are, the
poor wee pilgrim feet--and how far they’ve wandered! but this is home,
my darling, this is home!--And so they call you Val!--Oh, my bonnie
boy, to be out in such a night,--they call you Val? and your brother is
Dick--oh, may God keep my heart that I may not die of joy!”
The child sat on her knee with all the gravity of his age, and heard
everything, but made no response. I think the weariness and the unusual
comfort began alike to tell upon him; the cheerful light dazzled his
eyes, the warmth crept into his baby limbs, and even the excitement and
strange novelty of his position were not enough at seven years old to
counteract these subduing influences. By-and-by his little eyes began to
wink as he gazed into the fire and felt the drowsy spell of the genial
warmth. When Joseph brought the tray, he took the piece of cake which
was put into his hand, and ate it slowly, gazing and winking at the
fire. Then his head began to droop against Lady Eskside’s breast. With
an effort he opened his eyes at intervals, fixing them severely as if
they could never close again, upon the fire, then gradually subdued by
the warmth shut them altogether, and half turning towards her, nestled
his head upon the old lady’s shoulder. As his curls fell finally into
this resting place, Lady Eskside turned to Mary with an unspeakable
look: “He knows them that belong to him,” she said in a whisper. Her
arms encircled him with that delight of protecting maternity which goes
through all the levels of creation. It was but the hen gathering her
chickens under her wing--yet God himself can find no tenderer simile.
All expression, save that last supreme beatitude which borders upon
vacuity, went out of her face. She forgot everything around her--the
past, the future, her duties of the present. Everything in the world had
become suddenly concentrated to her in this action, which was no more
elevated than that of a bird in her nest, this watch which secured
warmth, slumber, and safety to the child.
Miss Percival sat on the other side of the great dining-table and gazed
at her old friend with that mixture of irritation, wonder, and reluctant
sympathy which provokes and tantalises a friendly soul when watching
some novel exhibition of human weakness. She could not understand Lady
Eskside’s instant adoption into her very heart of the strange little
unknown creature, dropped from the skies or by the winds, unseen and
unknown until this moment, and which might be a little demon in human
form for aught that any one knew. And yet she did understand in a way
which made her irritation rather greater than less. Mary was not very
clever, not very remarkable in any way; but she was herself--thinking
and feeling according to her own nature and principles, and not
according to any conventional model. She did not possess that sugary
sweetness of disposition, or those very etherial Christian sentiments
which put aside all personal consciousness of wrong and seem to prefer
injury. Richard Ross had been, if not her lover, at least so indicated
by every family prepossession, so prepared by training and association
to be her eventual husband, that his sudden and strange marriage had
given a shock to her nerves and moral nature from which she had never
recovered. I cannot tell if she had ever been what people call “in love”
with him. If she had, her love had never taken full shape and form, but
had lingered insidiously about her heart, prepared, by every indication
of her young life, and every probability of the future, to come into
being at a touch. This touch was given in another way when Richard
disappeared into the nameless obscurity and shame that surrounded his
marriage. Her whole being received the shock, and received it without
warning or preparation. It changed the aspect of all mankind to her,
more perhaps than it changed her feeling towards Richard. He it was who
had inflicted the wound, but its effects were not confined to him. She
was the gentlest creature in existence, but her pride was roused against
the whole world, in which outward appearances seem ever to gain the day,
and the still and unpretending are held of no account.
Instead, however, of making the more (after these reflections) of the
simple beauty she possessed, which was of a very attractive kind, though
moderate in degree, or taking the good of her real advantages, Mary had
done what many proud gentlewomen do--she had retired doubly into herself
after the shock she received. She had withdrawn from society, and
society, heedless, had gone on its way and paid little attention to the
withdrawal: so that the penalties fell not at all upon it, but upon
herself. She was still young, between six and seven and twenty; but
something of the aspect which that same mocking and careless world calls
that of an old maid, was stealing imperceptibly upon her. Her pride,
though so natural, thus told doubly against her--for people who were
incapable of understanding the shock she had received, or the revulsion
of her proud and delicate heart, called her, with light laughter, a
disappointed woman, foiled in her attempt to secure a husband. Many of
us who ought to know much better use such words in thoughtless levity
every day. I need not enter into the circumstances which, on this night
of all others, had brought Mary to Rosscraig, and recalled to her mind,
through Lady Eskside’s story, many sharp and painful memories which she
had partially succeeded in banishing from her thoughts. I do not think
that this rush of recollection had the effect of moving her to any
enthusiasm for Richard’s child. The strange bitterness of scorn with
which she learned what kind of woman that was who had been preferred to
herself, moved not the best part of her nature; for Mary, as I have
said, was not sweetness and gentleness personified, but a genuine human
creature, not all good. Perhaps the very strength of her antagonistic
feelings, and the absence of any general maudlin sympathy with
everything pitiful presented to her, made her all the more certain that
the child was Richard’s child, the child of the tramp whom Richard had
admired and loved more than herself; an interest which was half
repugnance attracted her eyes and her thoughts to this little creature,
who was assuredly no stranger, no impostor, but the very flesh and blood
which might have been her own. Yes, he might have been her child--and
the blood ran tingling with shame, anger, pride, and dislike to Mary’s
very finger-tips, as this thought flashed through her mind. She sat and
watched him, falling asleep on Lady Eskside’s knee, with the strangest
aching mixture of irritation and interest. She was half envious, half
impatient of the strange beatitude and absorption with which her old
friend held the boy, throwing her own very being into him--the child who
had been stolen away from all lawful life and protection, who had lived
among outcasts, a beggar, a baby-adventurer, the child of a tramp! How
could that proud old woman take him out of hands so stained, and take
him to her pure and honourable breast? Poor Mary was not quite
responsible for the hot anger, the unjust condemnation of this thought;
these angry feelings surged uppermost, as the worst of us always does,
to the surface of her agitated soul.
The lamp had been placed in a corner, so as not to disturb the child’s
sleep, and the room formed a dark background to that group, which was
relieved against the dusky glow of the fire. Silence was in the house,
sometimes interrupted by a stealthy suggestive creaking of the great
door, as Mrs Harding from time to time looked out into the night. The
winds still raged without, and the rain swept against the window,
filling the air with a continuous sound. Soon that stealthy noise
outside, which betrayed the watchers who were on the outlook for the
mother’s return with the other child, affected Mary with a sympathetic
suspense. Her imagination rushed out to meet the stranger, to realise
her appearance. Richard’s wife! She could not sit still and think of
this new figure on the scene. If the woman came Mary felt that she must
withdraw; she would not meet her--she could not! and this feeling made
her eagerly anxious for the appearance of the stranger who excited such
wild yet causeless antagonism in her own mind. She went to the window,
and drew aside the curtain and gazed out--that she might see her
approach, she said to herself, and escape out of the way.
Thus time went on; Lady Eskside, worn out with emotion, and hushed by
happiness, dozed too, I think, in the easy-chair with the sleeping child
on her lap, while Miss Percival stood, with every sense awake, watching
the dark avenue through the window. And I do not know how long it was
before, all at once, another conviction took possession of Mary--which
was the true one--that Richard’s wife had no intention of coming back.
This thought came to her in a moment, as if some one had said it in her
ear. Had some one said it? Was it a mysterious communication made to her
somehow, from one soul to another through the darkness of that night
which hid the speaker, which had fallen upon the child’s mother like a
veil? Miss Percival sank, almost fell, down upon the chair, on which she
had been kneeling in her eagerness to look out. She was startled and
shaken, yet calmed, with sensations incomprehensible to her. She sat
still and listened, but without any further expectation. A strange dim
realisation of the unknown creature of whom she had been thinking hard
thoughts came into her mind. Was she too, then, an independent being,
with a heart which could be wrung, and a mind capable of suffering?--not
merely Mary’s rival, Mary’s antagonist, a type of lower nature and
coarser impulse. The wind abated, the rain cleared off, the silent
minutes crept on, but no one came to the house where all except the old
lord were listening and watching. Mary, roused at length, stirred up in
all her own energies by this conviction, felt that doubt was no longer
possible. The unknown mother had given this remorseful tribute to the
house she had despoiled, but had kept her share and would appear no
more.
“Dear Lady Eskside,” she said, laying her hand on her old friend’s
shoulder, “don’t you think it would be better to let Mrs Harding put him
to bed?”
“Eh? Is it you, Mary? What were you saying? I do not feel sure,” said
Lady Eskside, looking up with a smile, “that I was not dozing myself
upon the bairn’s head. Put him to his bed? it would perhaps be the best
thing, as you say; but I cannot give him over to Harding, I will carry
him up-stairs myself.”
“Rather give him to me,” said Mary; “he is too heavy for you. I will
take him to the old nursery----”
“Where his father and you have played many a day,” said Lady Eskside,
with a smile which was weak with happiness. “Oh, my dear, my dear! but
how different our thoughts were then!” Here she saw a contraction upon
Mary’s face which gave her a note of warning. “Call the women, Mary,”
she added, hurriedly. “I have lost count of time. _She_ should have been
here by now with the other one. Oh! but I can never love him like this
one, that has slept on my bosom like a child of my own, and crept into
my heart.”
“She has not come. She does not mean to come,” said Mary; but she spoke
low, and Lady Eskside did not mark what she said. Her own mind was
filled to overflowing with her new possession, and no real anxiety about
the other one or about the mother existed for the moment in her mind.
“Jean, take this darling in your arms--softly, softly,” she said to the
maid. “You are a strong, good girl, and you will carry him kindly. Don’t
waken my bonnie boy. I’ll go with you up-stairs and see him put to bed.”
And, absorbed in this new occupation, she hurried up-stairs after Jean,
giving a hundred warnings--to lay his head comfortably--to hold him
faster--to throw her apron about his little feet--like a foolish old
mother, half beside herself with love and happiness. She could think of
nothing but the lost treasure restored; and I might spend pages on the
description before I could tell you with what renewal of all old and
dead joys she watched the maid’s anxious but vain attempts to prepare
the child for bed without awaking him, and to soothe him when he
stirred and pushed them away with his rosy feet, and murmured whimpering
childish objections to everything that was being done for him. In this
unlooked-for fulness of joy, she forgot everything else in the world.