A MORNING'S WORK.
"Go and lie down for an hour," whispered Phoebe. "I am not sleepy at all.
I have sat up before, and never felt it, you never did, I can see it in
your poor little white face; and besides, I am steadier, because I am
not so anxious. Now go, Ursula, if you are really fond of me, as you
say--"
"Oh, Phoebe! if you think he is a little better. Oh, how horrible it is
to be sleepy, as if you were all body, and had no heart at all!"
"You have plenty of heart, but you have never been used to this nursing.
Leave your door open, so that I may call you in a moment. I have sat up
often. Now go, to please me," said Phoebe. She had another object than
mere rest to her friend, who at last, very much ashamed and crying
softly, yet so weary that nothing on this earth seemed so desirable to
her as sleep, crept to her room, and lay down there as the pale morning
began to dawn. Betsy slept heavily in an easy-chair outside the door of
the sick-room. She was there at hand in case anything was wanted, but
she was happily unconscious where she was, sleeping the sleep of hard
work and a mind undisturbed. Phoebe had seen that the patient was
stirring out of the dull doze in which his faculties had been entirely
stilled and stupefied. He was rousing to uneasiness, if not to full
consciousness. Two or three times he made a convulsive movement, as if
to raise himself; once his eyes, which were half open, seemed to turn
upon her with a vague glimmer of meaning. How strangely she felt towards
him, as she sat there in the grey of the morning, sole guardian, sole
confidant of this erring and miserable man! The thought ran through her
with a strange thrill. He was nothing to her, and yet he was absolutely
in her power, and in all heaven and earth there seemed no one who was
capable of protecting him, or cared to do so, except herself only. She
sat looking at him with a great pity in her mind, determined to be his
true protector, to deliver him from what he himself had done. She had
not realized at first what it was he had done, and indeed it was only
now that its full enormity, or rather its full consequences (which were
the things that affected her most urgently), made themselves apparent
to her. Generalizations are unsafe things; and whether it was because
she was a woman that Phoebe, passing over the crime, fixed her thoughts
upon the punishment, I do not venture to say; but she did so. After all
a few lines of writing on a bit of paper is not a crime which affects
the imagination of the inexperienced. Had it been a malicious slander
Phoebe would have realized the sin of it much more clearly; but the copy
of her grandfather's signature did not wound her moral sense in the same
way, though it was a much more serious offence. That Mr. May could have
intended to rob him of the money appeared impossible to her; and no
doubt the borrowing of the signature was wrong--very wrong. Yes, of
course it was horribly, fatally wrong; but still it did not set her
imagination aglow with indignant horror, as smaller affairs might have
done. But the consequences--disgrace, ruin, the loss of his position,
the shame of his profession, moral death indeed, almost as frightful as
if he had been hanged for murder. She shivered as she sat by him, veiled
by the curtain, and thought of her grandfather's vindictive fierceness;
only she stood between him and destruction, and Phoebe felt that it was
by no legitimate means that she was doing so, not by her influence over
her grandfather as she had hoped, but only by an unjustifiable expedient
which in itself was a kind of crime. This, however, brought a slight
smile on her face. She took out her little purse from her pocket, and
looked at the bit of paper carefully folded in it. The faint perfume of
the Russia leather had already communicated itself to the document,
which had not been so pleasant in Tozer's hands. As she looked at it
lying peacefully on her lap, her attention was suddenly called by the
patient, who sat upright and looked furtively about him, with his hand
upon the coverings ready to throw them off. His ghastly white face
peered at her from behind the curtain with wild eagerness--then relaxed,
when he met her eye, into a kind of idiot smile, a painful attempt to
divert suspicion, and he fell back again with a groan. The trance that
had stupefied him was over; he had recovered some kind of consciousness,
how much or how little she could not tell. His mind now seemed to be set
upon hiding himself, drawing his coverings over him, and concealing
himself with the curtain, at which he grasped with an excess of force
which neutralized itself.
"Mr. May," said Phoebe, softly. "Mr. May! do you know me?"
She could not tell what answer he made, or if he made any answer. He
crouched down under the bed-clothes, pulling them over his face, trying
to hide himself from her; from which she divined that he did recognize
her, confused though his faculties were. Then a hoarse murmuring sound
seemed to come out of the pillow. It was some time before she could make
out what it was.
"Where am I?" he said.
With the lightning speed of sympathy and pity, Phoebe divined what his
terror was. She said, almost whispering,
"At home, in your own bed--at home! and safe. Oh, don't you know me--I
am Phoebe." Then after a pause, "Tozer's granddaughter; do you know me
now?"
The strange, scared, white-faced spectre shrank under his covering, till
she could see no more of him except two wild eyes full of terror which
was almost madness.
"Listen!" she said eagerly, "try to understand! Oh, Mr. May, try to
understand! I know about it--I know everything, and you are safe--quite
safe; you need not have any fear!"
He did not follow what she said, Phoebe perceived with pain and terror.
Even the impression made by the first sight of her seemed to fade from
his mind. His grasp relaxed upon the curtains and coverlet; and then the
hoarse murmuring was resumed. Straining all her ears, she made out that
he was not speaking to her or any one, but moaned to himself, saying the
same words over and over again. It took her a long time to make out even
what these words were. When at last she did make them out they filled
the girl with an alarm beyond words.
"It used to be hanging," he said. "Hard labour; can I bear hard labour?
And the children--the children! Hard labour--for life. Hanging--was soon
over. The children! I cannot bear it. I never was put to--hard
labour--in all my life."
Phoebe was too sick at heart to listen to more. She drew a little apart,
but near enough to be seen by him. If he chose to spring up, to fling
himself from the window, as she had heard of men doing in delirium, who
could restrain him? Not she, a slight girl, nor Betsy, even if Betsy
could be roused to the danger. She did not know how long the vigil which
followed lasted, but it seemed like years to her; and when at last she
was relieved by the joyful sound of Reginald's voice and footstep coming
up the stairs, she felt disposed to run to the glass at once, and look
if her hair had grown white, or her countenance permanently changed with
the terror. Reginald, for his part, thought of his father in the second
place only, as children are apt to do; he came up to her first, and
with a thrill in his voice of surprise and emotion, addressed her
hastily by her name.
"Phoebe! is it _you_ who are watching--you, darling?"
"Hush! I sent Ursula to bed; she was so tired. Don't leave him. I am
frightened," cried Phoebe. "He is wandering in his mind. Oh, don't leave
him, Mr. May!"
"I will do exactly as you tell me," said Reginald, in a confused
transport of feeling, the very anxiety in his mind helping to destroy
his self-control. He stooped down and kissed her hands before she could
divine what he was about to do. "Only you or an angel would have done
it," he cried, with a tremulous voice.
Was it not natural that he should think that some thought of him had
made Phoebe so careful of his father? His heart was swelling, too full to
hold, with a sudden joy, which expanded the pain, and made that greater
too.
"Oh, what does it matter about me? Mr. May, think what I am saying.
Don't leave him for a moment. He might throw himself out of the window,
he might do some harm to himself. Ah! again!" said Phoebe, trembling.
But this time it was only a convulsive start, nothing more. The patient
dropped down again softly upon his pillows, and relapsed into his doze,
if doze it could be called, in which his faculties were but
half-dormant, and his open eyes contradicted all the appearances of
natural sleep.
When she was relieved from the sick room--and now she had a double
motive in getting away--Phoebe stole softly into the faded little place
where Ursula lay, still fast asleep, though fully dressed, and bathed
her face and strained eyes. "I wonder if my hair is grey underneath,"
she said to herself. "I wonder nothing has happened to me." But a great
deal had happened to her. Such a night is rarely encountered by so young
a creature, or such an alarming charge undertaken. And sudden hot kisses
upon little, cold, agitated hands, worn by fatigue to nervous perception
of every touch, are very exciting and strange to a girl. They had given
her a kind of electric shock. She was not in love with Reginald, and
therefore she felt it all the more, and her heart was still throbbing
with the suddenness and excitement of the incident. And after she had
made an effort to get over this, there remained upon her mind the
disturbing burden of a knowledge which no one shared, and a
responsibility which was very heavy and terrible, and too tremendous for
her slight shoulders. After she had made that hasty toilette, she sat
down for a moment at the foot of the bed on which Ursula lay sleeping,
unconscious of all those mysteries, and tried to think. It is not an
easy process at any time, but after a long night's watching, terror, and
agitation, it seemed more impossible to Phoebe than it had ever done
before. And she had so much occasion for thought, so much need of the
power of judging clearly. What was she to do?--not to-morrow, or next
week, but now. She had taken the responsibility of the whole upon
herself by the sudden step she had taken last night; but, bold as she
had been, Phoebe was ignorant. She did not know whether her theft of the
bill would really stop the whole proceedings, as had seemed so certain
last night; and what if she was found out, and compelled to return it,
and all her labour lost! A panic took possession of her as she sat there
at the foot of Ursula's bed, and tried to think. But what is the use of
trying to think? The more you have need of them, the more all mental
processes fail you. Phoebe could no more think than she could fly. She
sat down very seriously, and she rose up in despair, and, thought being
no longer among her possibilities, resolved to do something at once,
without further delay, which would be a consolation to herself at least.
How wonderful it was to go out in the fresh early morning, and see the
people moving about their work, going up and down with indifferent
faces, quite unconcerned about the day and all it might bring forth! She
went up Grange Lane with a curious uncertainty as to what she should do
next, feeling her own extraordinary independence more than anything
else. Phoebe felt like a man who has been out all night, who has his own
future all in his hands, nobody having any right to explanation or
information about what he may choose to do, or to expect from him
anything beyond what he himself may please to give. Very few people are
in this absolutely free position, but this was how Phoebe represented it
to herself, having, like all other girls, unbounded belief in the
independence and freedom possessed by men. Many times in her life she
had regarded with envy this independence, which, with a sigh, she had
felt to be impossible. But now that she had it, Phoebe did not like it.
What she would have given to have gone to some one, almost any one, and
told her dilemma, and put the burden a little off her shoulders! But she
durst not say a word to any one. Very anxious and pre-occupied, she went
up Grange Lane. Home? She did not know; perhaps she would have thought
of something before she reached the gate of No. 6. And accordingly, when
she had lifted her hand to ring the bell, and made a step aside to
enter, an inspiration came to Phoebe. She turned away from the door and
went on up into the town, cautiously drawing her veil over her face, for
already the apprentices were taking down the shutters from her uncle's
shop, and she might be seen. Cotsdean's shop was late of opening that
morning, and its master was very restless and unhappy. He had heard
nothing more about the bill, but a conviction of something wrong had
crept into his mind. It was an altogether different sensation from the
anxiety he had hitherto felt. This was no anxiety to speak of, but a
dull pain and aching conviction that all was not right. When he saw the
young lady entering the shop, Cotsdean's spirits rose a little, for a
new customer was pleasant, and though he thought he had seen her, he did
not know who she was. She was pleasant to look upon, and it was not
often that any one came so early. He came forward with anxious
politeness; the boy (who was always late, and a useless creature, more
expense than he was worth) had not appeared, and therefore Cotsdean was
alone.
"I wanted to speak to you, please," said Phoebe. "Will you mind if I
speak very plainly, without any ceremony? Mr. Cotsdean, I am Mr. Tozer's
granddaughter, and live with him at No. 6 in the Lane. I dare say you
have often seen me with Miss May."
"Yes--yes, Miss, certainly," he said, with a thrill of alarm and
excitement running through him. He felt his knees knock together under
cover of the counter, and yet he did not know what he feared.
"Will you please tell me frankly, in confidence, about----the bill which
was brought to my grandfather yesterday?" said Phoebe, bringing out the
question with a rush.
Whether she was doing wrong, whether she might bring insult upon
herself, whether it was an interference unwarrantable and unjustifiable,
she could not tell. She was in as great a fright as Cotsdean, and more
anxious still than he was; but fortunately her agitation did not show.
"What am I to tell you about it, Miss?" said the man, terrified. "Is it
Mr. Tozer as has sent you? Lord help me! I know as he can sell me up if
he has a mind; but he knows it ain't me."
"Don't speak so loud," said Phoebe, trembling too. "Nobody must hear; and
remember, you are never, never to talk of this to any one else; but tell
me plainly, that there may be no mistake. Is it--Mr. May?"
"Miss Tozer," said Cotsdean, who was shaking from head to foot, "if
that's your name--I don't want to say a word against my clergyman. He's
stood by me many a day as I wanted him, and wanted him bad; but as I'm a
living man, that money was never for me; and now he's a-gone and left me
in the lurch, and if your grandfather likes he can sell me up, and
that's the truth. I've got seven children," said the poor man, with a
sob breaking his voice, "and a missus; and nothing as isn't in the
business, not a penny, except a pound or two in a savings' bank, as
would never count. And I don't deny as he could sell me up; but oh!
Miss, he knows very well it ain't for me."
"Mr. Cotsdean," said Phoebe, impressively, "you don't know, I suppose,
that Mr. May had a fit when he received your note last night?"
"Lord help us! Oh! God forgive me, I've done him wrong, poor gentleman,
if that's true."
"It is quite true; he is very, very ill; he can't give you any advice,
or assist you in any way, should grandpapa be unkind. He could not even
understand if you told him what has happened."
Once more Cotsdean's knees knocked against each other in the shadow of
the counter. His very lips trembled as he stood regarding his strange
visitor with scared and wondering eyes.
"Now listen, please," said Phoebe, earnestly; "if any one comes to you
about the bill to-day, don't say anything about _him_. Say you got
it--in the way of business--say anything you please, but don't mention
_him_. If you will promise me this, I will see that you don't come to
any harm. Yes, I will; you may say I am not the sort of person to know
about business, and it is quite true. But whoever comes to you remember
this--if you don't mention Mr. May, I will see you safely through it; do
you understand?"
Phoebe leant across the counter in her earnestness. She was not the kind
of person to talk about bills, or to be a satisfactory security for a
man in business; but Cotsdean was a poor man, and he was ready to catch
at a straw in the turbid ocean of debt and poverty which seemed closing
round him. He gave the required promise with his heart in his mouth.
Then Phoebe returned down the street. Her fatigue began to tell upon her,
but she knew that she dared not give in, or allow that she was fatigued.
However heavy with sleep her eyes might be, she must keep awake and
watchful. Nothing, if she could help it, must so much as turn the
attention of the world in Mr. May's direction. By this time she was much
too deeply interested to ask herself why she should do so much for Mr.
May. He was her charge, her burden, as helpless in her hands as a child;
and nobody but herself knew anything about it. It was characteristic of
Phoebe's nature that she had no doubt as to being perfectly right in the
matter, no qualm lest she should be making a mistake. She felt the
weight upon her of the great thing she had undertaken to do, with a
certain half-pleasing sense of the solemnity of the position and of its
difficulties; but she was not afraid that she was going wrong or
suffering her fancy to stray further than the facts justified; neither
was she troubled by any idea of going beyond her sphere by interfering
thus energetically in her friend's affairs. Phoebe did not easily take
any such idea into her head. It seemed natural to her to do whatever
might be wanted, and to act upon her own responsibility. Her
self-confidence reached the heroic point. She knew that she was right,
and she knew moreover that in this whole matter she alone was right.
Therefore the necessity of keeping up, of keeping alert and vigilant, of
holding in her hand the threads of all these varied complications was
not disagreeable to her, though she fully felt its importance--nay,
almost exaggerated it in her own mind if that could be. She felt the
dangerous character of the circumstances around her, and her heart was
sore with pity for the culprit, or as she called him to herself the
chief sufferer; and yet all the same Phoebe felt a certain sense of
satisfaction in the great role she herself was playing. She felt equal
to it, though she scarcely knew what was the nest step she ought to
take. She was walking slowly, full of thought, to Tozer's door,
pondering upon this, when the sound of rapid wheels behind roused her
attention, and looking up, surprised, she suddenly saw leaping out of a
dog-cart the imposing figure of Clarence Copperhead, of whom she had not
been thinking at all. He came down with a heavy leap, leaving the light
carriage swinging and quivering behind him with the shock of his
withdrawal.
"Miss Phoebe!" he said, breathless; "here's luck! I came over to see you,
and you are the first person I set eyes on--"
He was rather heavy to make such a jump, and it took away his breath.
"To see me?" she said, laughing, though her heart began to stir. "That
is very odd. I thought you must have come to see poor Mr. May, who is so
ill. You know--"
"May be hanged!" said the young man; "I mean--never mind--I don't mean
him any harm, though, by Jove, if you make such a pet of him, I don't
know what I shall think. Miss Phoebe, I've come over post-haste, as you
may see; chiefly to see you; and to try a horse as well," he added,
"which the governor has just bought. He's a very good 'un to go; and
pleased the governor would be if he knew the use I had put him to," he
concluded, with a half-laugh.
Phoebe knew as well as he did what that use was. He had brought his
father's horse out for the first time, to carry him here to propose to
her, in spite of his father. This was the delicate meaning which it
amused him to think of. She understood it all, and it brought a glow of
colour to her face; but it did not steel her heart against him. She knew
her Clarence, and that his standard of fine feeling and mental elevation
was not high.
"Look here," he said, "I wish I could speak to you, Miss Phoebe,
somewhere better than in the street. Yes, in the garden--that will do.
It ain't much of a place either to make a proposal in, for that's what
I've come to do; but you don't want me to go down on my knees, or make a
fuss, eh? I got up in the middle of the night to be here first thing and
see you. I never had a great deal to say for myself," said Clarence,
"you won't expect me to make you fine speeches; but I _am_ fond of
you--awfully fond of you, Phoebe, that's the truth. You suit me down to
the ground, music and everything. There's no girl I ever met that has
taken such a hold upon me as you."
Phoebe heard him very quietly, but her heart beat loud. She stood on the
gravel between the flower-borders, where the primroses were beginning to
wither, and glanced over her life of the past and that of the future,
which were divided by this moment like the two beds of flowers; one
homely, not very distinguished, simple enough--the other exalted by
wealth to something quite above mediocrity. Her heart swelled, full as
it was with so many emotions of a totally different kind. She had gained
a great prize, though it might not be very much to look at; more or
less, she was conscious this golden apple had been hanging before her
eyes for years, and now it had dropped into her hand. A gentle glow of
contentment diffused itself all over her, not transport, indeed, but
satisfaction, which was better.
"Mr. Copperhead--" she said, softly.
"No, hang it all, call me Clarence, Phoebe, if you're going to have me!"
he cried, putting out his big hands.
"Grandmamma is looking at us from the window," she said, hurriedly,
withdrawing a little from him.
"Well, and what does that matter? The old lady won't say a word, depend
upon it, when she knows. Look here, Phoebe, I'll have an answer. Yes or
no?"
"Have you got your father's consent--Clarence?"
"Ah, it is yes then! I thought it would be yes," he cried, seizing her
in his arms. "As for the governor," added Clarence, after an interval,
snapping his fingers, "I don't care _that_ for the governor. When I've
set my mind on a thing, it ain't the governor, or twenty governors, that
will stop me."