On the evening of the day after the election, Richard Ross, in Florence,
received two telegrams,--one from his father, announcing the result of
the election, sent off from the nearest telegraphic station, in Lord
Eskside’s own name, and with full official pomp. The other was from
Edinburgh, from “Catherine Ross,” asking “Is the boy with you? He has
left us, and we don’t know where he has gone. Write at once, or come.”
These two announcements threw the clearest light upon each other to
Richard. He said to himself that what he had predicted had
happened--that his son had been assailed by the story of his birth, and
that in shame and rage he had fled as _she_ did. Valentine had not paid
his father that long visit for nothing. The _dilettante_ had found out
that he was a man after all, with some remnants in him of human feeling.
A man’s child brings back this consciousness more easily than his
parents do, by some strange law of nature which is very hard upon the
old. Probably had Richard gone back to Eskside, he would have been
impatient of the old house and its unchangeable order before he had been
two days there, and as glad as ever to get away. But Valentine had
interfered with none of his habits; he had amused him, he had aroused a
spark of paternal pride in his mind, which was so little affected by
such emotions; and when the boy went away he missed him, and wondered at
himself for doing so. And he had taken an interest of a much stronger
character than he could have believed possible in the election. He said
to himself now, that he knew and had always predicted what would happen,
and a pang of anxiety sprang up within him, the strangest feeling to
make itself felt within the polished bosom of a man of the world. Tut!
he said to himself; what was he anxious about? a boy who was not a
simple rustic from the country, but a man of Eton and Oxford, “up” to
everything. He laughed at his own weakness. That very night he was
dining out at a brilliant party, the most brilliant that could be
collected in the highest circle of Florence at the time of her last
revived and temporary magnificence. He was astonished at himself to
think how dull he found it. The ladies were less fair, the talk less
witty, the diamonds less bright, than he had ever known them. What was
the matter with Richard? “You look depressed and out of sorts,” some one
said to him next morning. “Oh no, not I; it is a bad dinner I had
yesterday.” A bad dinner! He trembled after he had said it, wondering if
perhaps his questioner would take the trouble to inquire where he dined.
But it was not the dinner which was in fault. He felt himself asking
himself in the midst of it--where was the boy? what had become of him?
What might Valentine have done if he had been assailed by something
specially hard to bear? He was uneasy and restless all night, slept
badly, and again asked himself, as soon as he woke, where was the boy?
“Confound the boy! he can take care of himself better than I could,”
Richard said to himself under his breath; but all his reasoning did
nothing for him. He was anxious, uneasy, as parents so often are; his
imagination in spite of him strayed into a thousand wonderings; he had
to call himself back, even when in the middle of a despatch, from those
ridiculous questionings about Val; and at last the commotion in his mind
became more than he could comfortably bear.
Nor was it only Valentine who had roused the life which had half
congealed within his father’s veins. The photograph which chance had
thrown into his hands had not been without its effect in rousing him.
When he murmured _maladetta!_ between his closed teeth, he was as much
in earnest as a man can be when he looks, disenchanted, and with all the
glamour gone out of his middle-aged eyes, upon the fair face, no longer
so fair, which had made havoc with his youth. But somehow the knowledge
that he had that scrap of paper in his desk affected Richard in a way
which no one who knew him could have believed possible. He had no
portrait of her--nothing by which he could recall her face; and this
glimpse of her--so unexpected, so changed, and yet so unmistakable--the
face of the woman who was her, yet not her--the same creature whom he
had married, yet another being of whom he knew absolutely nothing--had
moved him as I suppose nothing else connected with her could have done.
He would have been as intolerant now of any attempt to recall his
affections to her as when Lady Eskside tried, and failed, to rouse him
to interest in his wife. Even had any other creature been aware of the
existence of the portrait--had any one known that he had kept and
secured it, and would take it out now and then, with a half sneer on his
face, to look at it, when he was certain no one could disturb
him--Richard would have been as hard, as unyielding, as defiant as ever.
But the fact that no one knew opened his heart so far. Sometimes he
would say to himself with a curious subdued laugh, “Looks as if she had
been a lady!” The thought filled him with a strange amusement, a
satirical sense of the incongruities of life. She whom it had been
impossible to tame into any semblance of quiet, vagrant-born and
vagrant-bred, a wild creature of the woods as long as she was in the
atmosphere where a lady’s demeanour was necessary; and now, in a sphere
where it was not necessary--where it brought remark upon her--facing him
with that still look, which (he could not deny) was full of a wild
gravity and dignity;--he laughed at the strange thought, but the
sentiment his laugh expressed was not mirthful: it was the only way in
which he could embody the grotesque sense of confusion and bewilderment
that rose in his mind. Would she bear that same aspect of dignity, he
wondered, if he saw her? Would she know him at a glance, as he had
recognised her? Did she know Val? The little picture was like a romance
to him. It worked upon him as nothing in his life had done for years.
Did she know Val?--how curious was the inquiry!--had she any intentions,
any hopes, about the other boy--he whose figure, stooping on the little
pier to push off somebody’s boat, was all his father knew of him? His
father! Can you imagine, dear reader, the strange thrill that went
through the man of the world, in spite of himself, when he thought of
this “other boy”? The elegant calm of the accomplished diplomatist, who
had lived for nothing but the State and society, fine talk and fine
people, and pictures and china, for years, was completely disturbed and
broken up by this invasion of unusual thought, and something which he
tried to persuade himself was simply curiosity and not feeling. He had
written at once, as I have said, to his confidential solicitor, bidding
him to inquire into all the particulars he had learned from Val, and to
ascertain the facts in strictest secrecy, without doing anything to
awaken the woman’s suspicions, and to keep an eye upon the mother and
son, taking care that they did not escape him again, but were always
within reach if wanted. When he had done this, he thought that he had
done all it was his duty to do. They did not require anything from
him--neither help nor supervision. They had sufficed to themselves for
so many years, and doubtless could do so still; and all that _he_ wanted
(he said to himself) was to know where to lay his hand upon them for
Val’s sake--to be able to prove his complete identity at any moment. For
this purpose it was enough to know where the mother was, and to take
care that she never again stole out of their ken, either by her
wandering tastes or by the final way of death. This was all that was
necessary in Val’s interest. And yet, after a while, it did not content
Richard. He felt an uneasiness take possession of him; not that he
wanted anything to say to the woman who had worked him so much harm, or
wished to acknowledge and bind to himself the uncultured young
tradesman, who was his son also as well as Val. No instinct of
paternity moved him here. “The other boy” could, he was sure, be nothing
but a bore to him--a creature whom he must be ashamed of. A girl might
have been different,--might have been capable of training; but a boy who
had spent all his youth as, at best, a working man, earning his bread
day by day--no, he could not suppose himself to be moved by any
inclination towards these unknown persons. He was only anxious to know
where they were, to be able to lay his hand upon them when necessary,
nothing more. All that he desired was that they should remain unknown in
the condition they had chosen, neither troubled by him nor troubling
him, only ready to be produced on Val’s behalf, should that be needful.
What other feeling could he be expected to entertain.
But, reasonable as all this sounded, some disturbance, for which he
could not account, had got into Richard Ross’s soul. He could not tell
what he wanted. Movement he supposed, change, even the bore of giving up
the life he preferred, and visiting home, and seeing with his own eyes
what had happened and what was happening. He would not like it, he knew,
when he was there, but still, perhaps, it would do him good to go. His
digestion (he thought) must have got out of order--a certain monotony
had crept into his life. That which he possessed seemed less desirable
than usual; that which was out of his reach more attractive. The
telegram about Val gave the last touch to his uneasiness. Yes, he
thought it would be better to go. He could bring Val to his senses, no
doubt, better than anybody else could, and it would please the old
people, and the change would be good for his own health. He made up his
mind quite suddenly, and concluded all his arrangements in twenty-four
hours, and set out for England. But in order to do what he intended
quite effectually he made a curious _détour_ on the way. He went to the
little village on the coast where his children had been born. I think it
was the lovely little town of Santa Margherita, on the eastern Riviera,
or some other of the little glimpses of Paradise there. The children had
been baptised by the English chaplain from Genoa, and he turned aside to
get the register of their baptism with a business-like precaution for
which he smiled at himself. He felt that he could do this more quietly,
with less likelihood of attracting curiosity, in his own person, than if
he had done it by letter. He got the copy and attestation properly
drawn out and in full legal form, and carried them away with him,
without even examining the packet, intending to hand it over to his
father, whose orderly soul would be satisfied. And thus prepared and
ready for any emergency, he went home.
He found only his mother at Rosscraig. The old lord had gone, very
unhappy and anxious, to London, hoping for some news of the boy. He had
now been nearly a week absent, and nothing had been heard of him; and
Lady Eskside met her son with worn looks and a miserable excitement,
which already seemed to have worn her strength out more than the
pressure of years had done. Even in the act of welcoming her son, her
eyes and ears were on the alert, watching doors and windows with
feverish eagerness. “I know I am foolish,” she said, with a wan smile;
“for, indeed, Val is well enough able to take care of himself, as you
say. He is not a rustic--no, nor a simpleton, nor one unused to the
world. No, Richard, I know: nothing of all that. Of course, his training
has just been of the kind to make him able to take care of himself; and
for a young man at his age to be away from home a week is nothing so
wonderful. Yes, yes; you are right. I know you are right, and I am
foolish, very foolish; but I cannot help it, my dear--it is my nature.
You can’t reason anxiety down. Oh, I wish I could help it! I know I am
unjust to my poor Val.”
“Well, mother, boys will be boys, and they must have their swing, you
know,” said Richard, despising himself for the words without meaning,
which were no more satisfactory to himself than to her. “Besides, I
suppose he has always been a steady fellow hitherto,” he added, “which
should make you less anxious now.”
“Oh, always, always,” she cried, almost with tears; “no one could be
more trustworthy. My poor old lord is very unhappy, Richard; he is as
foolish as me; because he has always been so good, we think he should
continue the same for ever--never step out of the beaten path for a
moment, or take his own way;” and she tried to laugh at her own
foolishness, but breaking down in that, was so much nearer crying that
she walked to the window instead, and looked out with an eager
wistfulness that had become habitual to her, looking if possibly some
one at that very moment might be arriving with news.
“Does anybody know?” he asked.
“We have taken every precaution,” said Lady Eskside. “We gave it out he
had been called away by you on family business. I drove into Edinburgh
myself, and went to the telegraph office on foot, Richard, and gave them
the family name--no title, as you would see, that the telegraph people
might not know--for how could I tell if they might spread it? I don’t
think anything is suspected out of doors, but I could not say for the
servants. They always find out what is doing. They read it in your face,
in the hour you go to bed, in the way you take your dinner. That
Margaret Harding knows I am unhappy is plain enough; but I am not sure
that she knows what is the cause.”
“Oh, you may take that for granted too,” said Richard; “they find out
all one is thinking. Never mind, mother; everything in this world is
like the dew. It dries up and disappears, so that you could not tell
where it had been. Now tell me what clue you have, and where you think
he is likely to have gone.”
“We have no clue at all,” said the old lady. “Had he gone to see any of
his friends we should have heard of him ere now; and had he gone abroad,
Richard, he would have gone to you. That is one of the hardest things of
all--we don’t know where to look for him. Your father is in London,
wandering about.”
“Did you ever think of Oxford?” said Richard.
“Oxford?--what would he do in Oxford? He has no friends he is fond of
there. His friends were lads of his own standing, who left Oxford when
he did. It never occurred to me; but, my dear, if you think it’s a
likely place, we’ll send there at once.”
Lady Eskside put out her hand to ring the bell. If Siberia or Egypt had
been suggested to her, I think she would have rung the bell all the
same, and directed some one at a half-hour’s notice to go.
“What are you going to do, mother? do you mean to send Harding to Oxford
to look for Val?”
She smiled a forlorn smile as she saw the foolishness of her instinctive
movement; and then Richard explained to her that he would go, having
some reasons of his own for thinking it possible that Val might have
gone to Oxford, as well as some business to do there in his own person.
“But you will let no business detain you if you do not find the boy?”
Lady Eskside said, and listened with an impatience she could not
conceal while Richard explained that business must be done whatever
Valentine might do. “Besides, you don’t think that a young man like
Valentine--a newly elected member of Parliament, and your grandson--can
be lost like a child, mother?” he said, half laughing, though he was not
without anxiety too. I am afraid the old lady felt his ease, and gentle
way of taking this tremendous calamity, jar upon her; and she was so
anxious that he should set out at once to look for her lost child, that
Richard was affronted too, and with some reason. He was less annoyed by
her evident preference of Val to himself than he had been fifteen years
ago; but it still struck him half whimsically, half painfully. He
remained all night after his long journey, almost against her will. She
could think of nothing but Val; and when he was ready to start next day,
all that she said and seemed to think was about her darling. “You will
telegraph to me at once, if you hear anything? Oh, my dear, think how
hard it is to be left here in the quiet, hearing nothing, not able to do
anything, but wait!” she said; and was restless all the morning, and
afraid that he would be late for the train. Richard could not help
making a few reflections on the subject as he went away. He was not so
deeply attached to his son as to tremble for his safety as Lady Eskside
did: and he was not so much devoted to his mother as to feel very deeply
her abandonment of himself altogether, and substitution of Valentine in
his stead. But in his comparative calm he noted and made reflections on
the subject more than he could have done had his interest been more
deeply engaged. It was a curious psychological inquiry to him;--and at
the same time he felt it a little. It gave him an odd prick which he had
not expected. “After all,” he said to himself, “the Palazzo Graziani is
the place for me.”
He set out for Oxford about noon. His mother could scarcely forgive him
that, because of mere unwillingness to be disturbed a little earlier
than usual, he had missed the early train. “Oh,” she said to herself,
“when would I have been kept from my boy for the sake of an hour’s
longer lie in the morning!” She was relieved to get him out of the house
at last, bearing a hundred messages for Val if he should be found, and
under solemn charges to telegraph at once to her the result of his
mission--glad, very glad, to get him out of the house, though he was her
only son, whom she had not seen for years. I suppose few things could
make a man feel more small than the fact that his mother was absolutely
indifferent to him,--could scarcely even see him, indeed, except by the
borrowed light of his son. Richard went away smiling to himself over
this curious fact, but slightly wounded at the same time, and set off
for Oxford with many thoughts in his heart. He was letting himself drift
unconsciously to the place in which that woman was. Should he see her?
and if he saw her, should he make himself known to her? or what would
happen? He could not tell. There was no love, not even the ashes of a
dead one, in his heart. What could that love be which Richard Ross once
felt for a tramp-girl, without education of any kind--a fair weed
without any soul? It had dried up and left no remnant behind. But he was
curious, very curious; what had time done, perhaps, for the creature
whom _he_ had been able to do nothing for? “Looks as if she had been a
lady once.” These careless words of Val’s had influenced his father more
than anything more serious. He wanted to know how this strange result
had come about.
Lady Eskside watched the carriage roll over the Lasswade bridge, on its
way to the railway station; and after it had passed, still sat musing at
the high window of the turret, from whence she could see it. She saw
people, too far off to be distinguishable, passing the bridge from time
to time, and watched them with a feverish anxiety till she could see
which way they took--the road to Rosscraig, or away on the other side to
the village, and to Castleton. She thought no longer of her son, her
Richard, who had once been the most important object in the world to
her. Her heart went past him, impatiently thinking of another more
dear--of her boy who was in danger or trouble somewhere, the child of
her heart and her old age. While she still sat thus musing, with a sick
heart and longing eyes, at the window, she heard Harding’s slow steps,
with his creaking boots, come toiling up-stairs to call her. There had
been so many false alarms, that she sat still languidly with her hands
crossed in her lap, and her eyes still fixed on the bridge, till he came
to the door of the turret-room, and it was only when her ear detected
something strange in the sound of his voice that she looked round.
Harding certainly did not look himself; he had a startled half-scared
expression in his eyes, and his rosy cheeks were paled, as with a tint
of blue over the pink. “If you please, my lady,”--he began in a
tremulous voice.
“What is it, Harding?” She rose up very alert and ready, trembling too,
but not showing it, for she had not taken any one into her confidence,
nor permitted it to be seen how anxious she was.
“There is a young--gentleman down-stairs, my lady; wishes to speak to
you--if you please.”
“A young gentleman! who, Harding?”
“I don’t know, my lady; leastways, his face it is familiar to me, I
won’t deny, but I can’t put a name to it. It’s familiar to me, but I
don’t know as I ever saw him before.”
“How can you know him, then?” said my lady, trying to smile; “you have
perhaps seen a picture in these days when everybody is photographed.
And, Harding, what does he want with me?”
“Very likely your ladyship is right,” said Harding; “everybody has their
photograph, it is true. I’d like to know what your ladyship thinks. I’ve
put him in the morning-room to wait.”
“If he is a gentleman, you should have taken him to the library or the
drawing-room,” said Lady Eskside, going calmly down-stairs. I wonder if
it is any news? she said to herself, and did not, I think, give any
further attention to old Harding’s apparent curiosity about the visitor.
What time had she to think about any stranger, except to consider
whether he brought her news or not? and quite likely it was but some
tradesman from Edinburgh--some indifferent person. She turned round as
she went down-stairs to ask if he had given his name.
“He said his name was Brown; but your ladyship wouldn’t know it, as he
was a stranger to your ladyship,” said Harding. This quickened Lady
Eskside’s step. It might then be news after all.
The little morning-room was small and bare, a room in which tradespeople
and visitors on business were received. Over the mantelpiece there hung
a boyish portrait of Val, an indifferent picture, banished here as not
worthy a place elsewhere. When Lady Eskside entered the room, her
visitor had his back to her, looking at this picture. He did not hear
her come in, and she stood a second, silent, waiting till he should
observe her; but getting impatient, said hastily, “You wanted to see
me?”
“I beg your pardon,” said the young man, turning sharply round. Good
God! who was it? The old lady fell back as far as the wall would let
her, with a loud cry. She held out her hands, half holding him off, half
inviting his approach. “Who are you? who are you?” she cried, her heart
leaping to her throat.
“I beg your pardon, ma’am,” said the youth. He did not know whether he
ought to have said “my lady,” and hesitated. “I hope I have not
frightened you. I came to say that Mr Ross----”
Was it possible that Val, her darling, had gone out of her mind in that
moment of wonder? She scarcely heard what he said, though they were
words which would have raised her to the height of excitement had any
one else said them. She came forward to him with the same wild wonder in
her eye, with her hands uplifted. “For God’s sake, boy, who are you? who
are you?” she said.
Richard had gone away from her only an hour before, a middle-aged man
for whom her feelings were scarcely those of a mother’s impassioned
love; yet here Richard stood before her, her true Richard, the boy who
had been her adoration and her pride a quarter of a century ago. Her
head reeled; the light swam in her eyes; life seemed to turn round with
her; and everything became a dream. “For the love of God! who are you?”
she cried.