THE CONFLICT.
The day which had intervened between Phoebe's morning walk, and this
darkling flight along the same road, had been full of agitation at the
house of the Tozers. Phoebe, who would willingly have spared her lover
anything more than the brief intercourse which was inevitable with her
relations, could find no means of sending him away without breakfast.
She had escaped from him accordingly, weary as she was, to make
arrangements for such a meal as she knew him, even in his most
sentimental mood, to love--a thing which required some time and
supervision, though the house was always plentifully provided. When she
had hastily bathed her face and changed her dress she came back to the
room where she had left him, to find him in careless conversation with
Tozer, who only half-recovered from the excitement of last night, but
much overawed by a visit from so great a personage, had managed to put
aside the matter which occupied his own thoughts, in order to carry on a
kind of worship of Clarence, who was the son of the richest man he had
ever heard of, and consequently appeared to the retired butterman a very
demigod. Clarence was yawning loudly, his arms raised over his head in
total indifference to Tozer, when Phoebe came into the room; and the old
man seized upon the occasion of her entrance to perform another act of
worship.
"Ah, here's Phoebe at last. Mr. Copperhead's come in from the country, my
dear, and he's going to make us proud, he is, by accepting of a bit of
breakfast. I tell him it's a wretched poor place for him as has palaces
at his command; but what we can give him is the best quality, that I
answers for--and you're one as knows how things should be, even if we
ain't grand ourselves."
"Have you palaces at your command, Clarence?" she said, with a smile.
Notwithstanding the fatigue of the night, the fresh air and her
ablutions, and the agitation and commotion of her mind, made Phoebe
almost more animated and brilliant than usual. Her eyes shone with the
anxiety and excitement of the crisis, and a little, too, with the glory
and delight of success; for though Clarence Copperhead was not very much
to brag of in his own person, he still had been the object before her
for some time back, and she had got him. And yet Phoebe was not
mercenary, though she was not "in love" with her heavy lover in the
ordinary sense of the word. She went towards him now, and stood near
him, looking at him with a smile. He was a big, strong fellow, which is
a thing most women esteem, and he was not without good looks; and he
would be rich, and might be thrust into a position which would produce
both honour and advantage; and lastly, he was her own, which gives even
the most indifferent article a certain value in some people's eyes.
"Palaces? I don't know, but nice enough houses; and you know you like a
nice house, Miss Phoebe. Here, I haven't said a word to the old
gentleman. Tell him; I ain't come all this way for nothing. You've
always got the right words at your fingers' end. Tell him, and let's get
it over. I think I could eat some breakfast, I can tell you, after that
drive."
"Grandpapa," said Phoebe, slightly tremulous, "Mr. Copperhead wishes me
to tell you that--Mr. Copperhead wishes you to know why----"
"Bless us!" cried Clarence with a laugh. "Here is a beating about the
bush! She has got her master, old gentleman, and that is what she never
had before. Look here, I'm going to marry Phoebe. That's plain English
without any phrases, and I don't know what you could say to better it.
Is breakfast ready? I've earned it for my part."
"Going to marry Phoebe!" Tozer gasped. He had heard from his wife that
such a glory was possible; but now, when it burst upon him, the dazzling
delight seemed too good to be true. It thrust the forgery and everything
out of his head, and took even the power of speech from him. He got up
and gazed at the young people, one after the other, rubbing his hands,
with a broad grin upon his face; then he burst forth all at once in
congratulation.
"God bless you, sir! God bless you both! It's an honour as I never
looked for. Rising in the world was never no thought of mine; doing your
duty and trusting to the Lord is what I've always stood by; and it's
been rewarded. But she's a good girl, Mr. Copperhead; you'll never
regret it, sir. She's that good and that sensible, as I don't know how
to do without her. She'll do you credit, however grand you may make her;
and if it's any comfort to you, as she's connected with them as knows
how to appreciate a gentleman--" said Tozer, breaking down in his
enthusiasm, his voice sinking into a whisper in the fulness of his
heart.
"Grandpapa!" said Phoebe, feeling sharply pricked in her pride, with a
momentary humiliation, "there are other things to be thought of," and
she gave him a look of reproach which Tozer did not understand, but
which Clarence did vaguely. Clarence, for his part, liked the homage,
and was by no means unwilling that everybody should perceive his
condescension and what great luck it was for Phoebe to have secured him.
He laughed, pleased to wave his banner of triumph over her,
notwithstanding that he loved her. He _was_ very fond of her, that was
true; but still her good fortune in catching him was, for the moment,
the thing most in his thoughts.
"Well, old gentleman," he said, "you ain't far wrong there. She _is_ a
clever one. We shall have a bad time of it with the governor at first;
for, of course, when there's no money and no connections, a man like the
governor, that has made himself, ain't likely to be too well pleased."
"As for money, Mr. Copperhead, sir," said Tozer with modest pride, "I
don't see as there's anything to be said against Phoebe on that point.
Her mother before her had a pretty bit of money, though I say it, as
shouldn't--"
"Ah, yes--yes," said Clarence. "To be sure; but a little bit of coin
like that don't count with us. The governor deals in hundreds of
thousands; he don't think much of your little bits of fortunes. But I
don't mind. She suits me down to the ground, does Phoebe; and I don't
give that for the governor!" cried the young man valiantly. As for Phoebe
herself, it is impossible to imagine any one more entirely put out of
her place, and out of all the comfort and satisfaction in her own
initiative which she generally possessed, than this young woman was,
while these two men talked over her so calmly. It is doubtful whether
she had ever been so set aside out of her proper position in her life,
and her nerves were overstrained and her bodily strength worn out, which
added to the sense of downfall. With almost a touch of anger in her tone
she, who was never out of temper, interrupted this talk.
"I think breakfast is ready, grandpapa. Mr. Clarence Copperhead wants
some refreshment after his exertions, and in preparation for the
exertions to come. For I suppose your papa is very likely to follow you
to Carlingford," she added, with a low laugh, turning to her lover. "I
know Mr. Copperhead very well, and I should not like my first meeting
with him after I had thwarted all his views."
"Phoebe! you don't mean to desert me? By Jove! I'll face him and twenty
like him if you'll only stand by me," he cried; which was a speech that
made amends.
She suffered him to lead her into breakfast less formally than is the
ordinary fashion, and his hand on her trim waist did not displease the
girl. No; she understood him, knew that he was no great things; but yet
he was hers, and she had always meant him to be hers, and Phoebe was
ready to maintain his cause in the face of all the world.
The breakfast was to Clarence's taste, and so was the company--even old
Tozer, who sat with his mouth agape in admiration of the young
potentate, while he recounted his many grandeurs. Clarence gave a great
deal of information as to prices he had paid for various things, and the
expenses of his living at Oxford and elsewhere, as he ate the kidneys,
eggs, and sausages with which Phoebe's care had heaped the table. They
had no _pâté de foie gras_, it is true, but the simple fare was of the
best quality, as Tozer had boasted. Mrs. Tozer did not come downstairs
to breakfast, and thus Phoebe was alone with the two men, who suited each
other so much better than she could have hoped. The girl sat by them
languidly, though with a beating heart, wondering, as girls will wonder
sometimes, if all men were like these, braggards and believers in brag,
worshippers of money and price. No doubt, young men too marvel when they
hear the women about them talking across them of _chiffons_, or of
little quarrels and little vanities. Phoebe had more brains than both of
her interlocutors put together, and half-a-dozen more added on; but she
was put down and silenced by the talk. Her lover for the moment had
escaped from her. She could generally keep him from exposing himself in
this way, and turn the better side of him to the light; but the presence
of a believer in him turned the head of Clarence. She could not control
him any more.
"A good horse is a deuced expensive thing," he said; "the governor gave
a cool hundred and fifty for that mare that brought me over this
morning. He bought her from Sir Robert; but he didn't know, Phoebe, the
use I was going to put her to. If he'd known, he'd have put that hundred
and fifty in the sea rather than have his beast rattled over the country
on such an errand." Here he stopped in the midst of his breakfast, and
looked at her admiringly. "But I don't repent," he added. "I'd do it
again to-morrow if it wasn't done already. If you stand by me, I'll face
him, and twenty like him, by Jove!"
"You don't say nothing," said her grandfather. "I wouldn't be so
ungrateful. Gentlemen like Mr. Copperhead ain't picked up at every
roadside."
"They ain't, by Jove!" said Clarence; "but she's shy, that's all about
it," he added, tenderly; "when we're by ourselves, I don't complain."
Poor Phoebe! She smiled a dismal smile, and was very glad when breakfast
was over. After that she took him into the garden, into the bright
morning air, which kept her up, and where she could keep her Clarence in
hand and amuse him, without allowing this revelation of the worst side
of him. While they were there, Martha admitted the visitor of yesterday,
Mr. Simpson from the Bank, bringing back to Phoebe's mind all the other
matter of which it had been full.
"Don't you think you ought to go and see about the horse and the
dog-cart?" she said suddenly, turning to her lover with one of those
sudden changes which kept the dull young man amused. "You don't know
what they may be about."
"They can't be up to much," said Clarence. "Thank you, Miss Phoebe, I
like you better than the mare."
"But you can't be here all day, and I can't be here all day," she said.
"I must look after grandmamma, and you ought to go down and inquire
after poor Mr. May--he is so ill. I have been there all night, helping
Ursula. You ought to go and ask for him. People don't forget all the
duties of life because--because a thing of this sort has happened--"
"Because they've popped and been accepted," said graceful Clarence. "By
Jove! I'll go. I'll tell young May. I'd like to see his face when I tell
him the news. You may look as demure as you like, but you know what
spoons he has been upon you, and the old fellow too--made me as jealous
as King Lear sometimes," cried the happy lover, with a laugh. He meant
Othello, let us suppose.
"Nonsense, Clarence! But go, please go. I must run to grandmamma."
Mr. Simpson had gone in, and Phoebe's heart had begun to beat loudly in
her throat; but it was not so easy to get rid of this ardent lover, and
when at last he did go, he was slightly sulky, which was not a state of
mind to be encouraged. She rushed upstairs to her grandmother's room,
which was over the little room where Tozer sat, and from which she could
already hear sounds of conversation rapidly rising in tone, and the
noise of opening and shutting drawers, and a general rummage. Phoebe
never knew what she said to the kind old woman, who kissed and wept over
her, exulting in the news.
"I ain't been so pleased since my Phoebe told me as she was to marry a
minister," said Mrs. Tozer, "and this is a rise in life a deal grander
than the best of ministers. But, bless your heart, what shall I do
without you?" cried the old woman, sobbing.
Presently Tozer came in, with an air of angry abstraction, and began to
search through drawers and boxes.
"I've lost something," he answered, with sombre looks, to his wife's
inquiry. Phoebe busied herself with her grandmother, and did not ask what
it was. It was only when he had searched everywhere that some chance
movement directed his eyes to her. She was trembling in spite of
herself. He came up to her, and seized her suddenly by the arm. "By
George!" he cried, "I'm in a dozen minds to search you!"
"Tozer! let my child alone. How dare you touch her--her as is as good
as Mr. Copperhead's lady? What's she got to do with your dirty papers?
Do you think Phoebe would touch them--with a pair of tongs?" cried the
angry grandmother.
Phoebe shrank with all the cowardice of guilt. Her nerves were unstrung
by weariness and excitement. And Tozer, with his little red eyes blazing
upon her, was very different in this fury of personal injury, from the
grandfather of the morning, who had been ready to see every virtue in
her.
"I believe as you've got it!" he cried, giving her a shake. It was a
shot at a venture, said without the least idea of its truth; but before
the words had crossed his lips, he felt with a wild passion of rage and
wonder that it was true. "Give it up, you hussy!" he shrieked, with a
yell of fury, his face convulsed with sudden rage, thickly and with
sputtering lips.
"Tozer!" cried his wife, flinging herself between them, "take your hands
off the child. Run, run to your room, my darling; he's out of his
senses. Lord bless us all, Sam, are you gone stark staring mad?"
"Grandpapa," said Phoebe, trembling, "if I had it, you may be sure it
would be safe out of your way. I told you I knew something about it, but
you would not hear me. Will you hear me now? I'll make it up to
you--double it, if you like. Grandmamma, it is a poor man he would drive
to death if he is not stopped. Oh!" cried Phoebe, clasping her hands,
"after what has happened this morning, will you not yield to me? and
after all the love you have shown me? I will never ask anything, not
another penny. I will make it up; only give in to me, give in to me--for
once in my life! Grandpapa! I never asked anything from you before."
"Give it up, you piece of impudence! you jade! you d--d deceitful----"
He was holding her by the arm, emphasizing every new word by a violent
shake, while poor old Mrs. Tozer dropped into a chair, weeping and
trembling.
"Oh! it ain't often as he's like this; but when he is, I can't do
nothing with him, I can't do nothing with him!" she cried.
But Phoebe's nerves strung themselves up again in face of the crisis. She
shook him off suddenly with unexpected strength, and moving to a little
distance, stood confronting him, pale but determined.
"If you think you will get the better of me in this way, you are
mistaken," she said. "I am not your daughter; how dare you treat me so?
Grandmamma, forgive me. I have been up all night. I am going to lie
down," said Phoebe. "If grandpapa has anything more to say against me, he
can say it to Clarence. I leave myself in his hands."
Saying this, she turned round majestically, but with an anxious heart,
and walked away to her room, every nerve in her trembling. When she got
there, Phoebe locked the door hastily, in genuine terror; and then she
laughed, and then she cried a little. "And to think it was here all the
time!" she said to herself, taking out the little Russia leather purse
out of her pocket. She went into the closet adjoining her room, and
buried it deep in her travelling trunk which was there, relieving
herself and her mind of a danger. Then--Phoebe did what was possibly the
most sensible thing in the world, in every point of view. She went to
bed; undressed herself quietly, rolled up her hair, and lay down with a
grateful sense of ease and comfort. "When Clarence comes back he will be
disappointed; but even for Clarence a little disappointment will be no
harm," said the sensible young woman to herself. And what comfort it was
to lie down, and feel all the throbs and pulses gradually subsiding, the
fright going off, the satisfaction of success coming back, and gradually
a slumberous, delicious ease stealing over her. Of all the clever things
Phoebe had done in her life, it must be allowed that there was not one so
masterly as the fact that she, then and there, went to sleep.
All this had taken up a good deal of time. It was twelve when Mr.
Simpson of the bank disturbed the lovers in the garden, and it was one
o'clock before Phoebe put a stop to all Tozer's vindictive plans by going
to bed. What he said to Mr. Simpson, when he went back to him, is not on
record. That excellent man of business was much put out by the long
waiting, and intimated plainly enough that he could not allow his time
to be thus wasted. Mr. Simpson began to think that there was something
very strange in the whole business. Tozer's house was turned upside down
by it, as he could hear by the passionate voices and the sound of crying
and storming in the room above; but Cotsdean was secure in his shop,
apparently fearing no evil, as he had seen as he passed, peering in with
curious eyes. What it meant he could not tell; but it was queer, and did
not look as if the business was straight-forward.
"When you find the bill, or make up your mind what to do, you can send
for me," he said, and went away, suspicious and half-angry, leaving
Tozer to his own devices. And the afternoon passed in the most
uncomfortable lull imaginable. Though he believed his granddaughter to
have it, he looked again over all his papers, his drawers, his
waste-basket, every corner he had in which such a small matter might
have been hid; but naturally his search was all in vain. Clarence
returned in the afternoon, and was received by poor old Mrs. Tozer, very
tremulous and ready to cry, who did not know whether she ought to
distrust Phoebe or not, and hesitated and stumbled over her words till
the young man thought his father had come in his absence, and that Phoebe
had changed her mind. This had the effect of making him extremely eager
and anxious, and of subduing the bragging and magnificent mood which the
triumphant lover had displayed in the morning. He felt himself "taken
down a peg or two," in his own fine language. He went to the Parsonage
and tried very hard to see Ursula, to secure her help in case anything
had gone wrong, and then to Reginald, whose vexation at the news he felt
sure of, and hoped to enjoy a sight of. But he could see no one in the
absorbed and anxious house. What was he to do? He wandered about,
growing more and more unhappy, wondering if he had been made to fling
himself into the face of fate for no reason, and sure that he could not
meet his father without Phoebe's support. He could not even face her
relations. It was very different from the day of triumph he had looked
for; but, as Phoebe had wisely divined, this disappointment, and all the
attending circumstances, did not do him any harm.
It was late in the afternoon when Northcote called. He too had acted on
the information given by Betsy, and had gone to Cotsdean, who made him
vaguely aware that Tozer had some share in the business in which Mr. May
was involved, and who, on being asked whether it could be set right by
money, grew radiant and declared that nothing could be easier. But when
Northcote saw Tozer, there ensued a puzzling game at cross purposes, for
Tozer had no notion that Mr. May had anything to do with the business,
and declined to understand.
"I ain't got nothing to do with parsons, and if you'll take my advice,
sir, it 'ud be a deal better for you to give 'em up too. You're
a-aggravating the connection for no good, you are," said Tozer, surely
by right of his own troubles and perplexities, and glad to think he
could make some one else uncomfortable too.
"I shall do in that respect as I think proper," said Northcote, who was
not disposed to submit to dictation.
"Fact is, he's a deal too well off for a minister," Tozer said to his
wife when the young man disappeared, "they're too independent that sort;
and I don't know what he means by his Mays and his fine folks. What have
we got to do with Mr. May?"
"Except that he's been good to the child, Tozer; we can't forget as he's
been very good to the child."
"Oh, dash the child!" cried the old man, infuriated; "if you say much
more I'll be sorry I ever let you see her face. What has she done with
my bill?"
"Bill? if it's only a bill what are you so put out about!" cried Mrs.
Tozer. "You'll have dozens again at Christmas, if that is all you want."
But the laugh was unsuccessful, and the old man went back to his room to
nurse his wrath and to wonder what had come to him. Why had his
granddaughter interfered in his business, and what had he to do with Mr.
May?
Phoebe got up refreshed and comfortable when it was time for the family
tea, and came down to her lover, who had come back, and was sitting very
dejected by old Mrs. Tozer's side. She was fresh and fair, and in one of
her prettiest dresses, having taken pains for him; and notwithstanding
Tozer's lowering aspect, and his refusal to speak to her, the meal
passed over very cheerfully for the rest of the party, and the two young
people once more withdrew to the garden when it was over. The presence
of Clarence Copperhead protected Phoebe from all attack. Her grandfather
dared not fly out upon her as before, or summon her to give up what she
had taken from him. Whatever happened, this wonderful rise in life, this
grand match could not be interfered with. He withdrew bitter and
exasperated to his own den, leaving his poor wife crying and wretched in
the family sitting-room. Mrs. Tozer knew that her husband was not to be
trifled with, and that, though the circumstances of Phoebe's betrothal
subdued him for the moment, this effect in all probability would not
last; and she sat in terror, watching the moments as they passed, and
trembling to think what might happen when the young pair came in again,
or when Clarence at last went away, leaving Phoebe with no protection but
herself. Phoebe, too, while she kept her dull companion happy, kept
thinking all the while of the same thing with a great tremor of
suppressed agitation in her mind; and she did not know what was the next
step to take--a reflection which took away her strength. She had taken
the bill from her trunk again and replaced it in her pocket. It was
safest carried on her person, she felt; but what she was to do next,
even Phoebe, so fruitful in resources, could not say. When Northcote came
back in the evening she felt that her game was becoming more and more
difficult to play. After a brief consultation with herself, she decided
that it was most expedient to go in with him, taking her big body-guard
along with her, and confiding in his stupidity not to find out more than
was indispensable. She took Northcote to her grandfather's room,
whispering to him on the way to make himself the representative of
Cotsdean only, and to say nothing of Mr. May.
"Then you know about it?" said Northcote amazed.
"Oh, hush, hush!" cried Phoebe; "offer to pay it on Cotsdean's part, and
say nothing about Mr. May."
The young man looked at her bewildered; but nodded his head in assent,
and then her own young man pulled her back almost roughly, and demanded
to know what she meant by talking to that fellow so. Thus poor Phoebe was
between two fires. She went in with a fainting yet courageous heart.
"Pay the money!" said Tozer, who by dint of brooding over it all the day
had come to a white heat, and was no longer to be controlled. "Mr.
Northcote, sir, you're a minister, and you don't understand business no
more nor women do. Money's money--but there's more than money here.
There's my name, sir, as has been made use of in a way!--me go signing
of accommodation bills! I'd have cut off my hand sooner. There's that
girl there, she's got it. She's been and stolen it from me, Mr.
Northcote. Tell her to give it up. You may have some influence, you as
is a minister. Tell her to give it up, or, by George, she shall never
have a penny from me! I'll cut her off without even a shilling. I'll put
her out o' my will--out o' my house."
"I say, Phoebe," said Clarence, "look here, that's serious, that is; not
that I mind a little pot of money like what the poor old fellow's got;
but what's the good of throwing anything away?"
"Make her give it up," cried Tozer hoarsely, "or out of this house she
goes this very night. I ain't the sort of man to be made a fool of. I
ain't the sort of man--Who's this a-coming? some more of your d--d
intercessors to spoil justice," cried the old man, "but I won't have
'em. I'll have nothing to say to them. What, who? Mr. Copperhead's
father? I ain't ashamed to meet Mr. Copperhead's father; but one thing
at a time. Them as comes into my house must wait my time," cried the
butterman, seeing vaguely the group come in, whom we left at his doors.
"I'm master here. Give up that bill, you brazen young hussy, and go out
of my sight. How dare you set up your face among so many men? Give it
up!" he cried, seizing her by the elbow in renewed fury. The strangers,
though he saw them enter, received no salutation from him. There was one
small lamp on the table, dimly lighted, which threw a faint glow upon
the circle of countenances round, into which came wondering the burly
big Copperhead, holding fast by the shoulder of Mr. May, whose ghastly
face, contorted with wild anxiety, glanced at Tozer over the lamp. But
the old man was so much absorbed at first that he scarcely saw who the
new-comers were.
"What's all this about?" said Mr. Copperhead. "Seems we've come into the
midst of another commotion. So you're here, Clar! it is you I want, my
boy. Look here, Northcote, take hold, will you? there's a screw loose,
and we've got to get him home. Take hold, till I have had a word with
Clarence. That's a thing that won't take long."
Clarence cast a glance at Phoebe, who even in her own agitation turned
and gave him a tremulous smile of encouragement. The crisis was so great
on all sides of her that Phoebe became heroic.
"I am here," she said, with all the steadiness of strong emotion, and
when he had received this assurance of support, he feared his father no
more.
"All right, sir," he said almost with alacrity. He was afraid of nothing
with Phoebe standing by.
"Make her give me up my bill," said Tozer; "I'll hear nothing else till
this is settled. My bill! It's forgery; that's what it is. Don't speak
to me about money! I'll have him punished. I'll have him rot in prison
for it. I'll not cheat the law--You people as has influence with that
girl, make her give it me. I can't touch him without the bill."
Mr. May had been placed in a chair by the two young men who watched over
him; but as Tozer spoke he got up, struggling wildly, almost tearing
himself out of the coat by which they held him. "Let me go!" he said.
"Do you hear him? Rot in prison! with hard labour; it would kill me! And
it used to be hanging! My God--my God! Won't you let me go?"
Tozer stopped short, stopped by this passion which was greater than his
own. He looked wonderingly at the livid face, the struggling figure,
impressed in spite of himself. "He's gone mad," he said. "Good Lord! But
he's got nothing to do with it. Can't you take him away?"
"Grandpapa," said Phoebe in his ear, "here it is, your bill; it was _he_
who did it--and it has driven him mad. Look! I give it up to you; and
there he is--that is your work. Now do what you please--"
Trembling, the old man took the paper out of her hand. He gazed
wondering at the other, who somehow moved in his excitement by a sense
that the decisive moment had come, stood still too, his arm half-pulled
out of his coat, his face wild with dread and horror. For a moment they
looked at each other in a common agony, neither the one nor the other
clear enough to understand, but both feeling that some tremendous crisis
had come upon them. "He--done it!" said Tozer appalled and almost
speechless. "_He_ done it!" They all crowded round, a circle of scared
faces. Phoebe alone stood calm. She was the only one who knew the whole,
except the culprit, who understood nothing with that mad confusion in
his eyes. But he was overawed too, and in his very madness recognized
the crisis. He stood still, struggling no longer, with his eyes fixed
upon the homely figure of the old butterman, who stood trembling,
thunderstruck, with that fatal piece of paper in his hand.
Tozer had been mad for revenge two moments before--almost as wild as the
guilty man before him--with a fierce desire to punish and make an
example of the man who had wronged him. But this semi-madness was
arrested by the sight of the other madman before him, and by the
extraordinary shock of this revelation. It took all the strength out of
him. He had not looked up to the clergyman as Cotsdean did, but he had
looked up to the gentleman, his customer, as being upon an elevation
very different from his own, altogether above and beyond him; and the
sight of this superior being, thus humbled, maddened, gazing at him with
wild terror and agony, more eloquent than any supplication, struck poor
old Tozer to the very soul. "God help us all!" he cried out with a
broken, sobbing voice. He was but a vulgar old fellow, mean, it might
be, worldly in his way; but the terrible mystery of human wickedness and
guilt prostrated his common soul with as sharp an anguish of pity and
shame as could have befallen the most heroic. It seized upon him so that
he could say or do nothing more, forcing hot and salt tears up into his
old eyes, and shaking him all over with a tremor as of palsy. The scared
faces appeared to come closer to Phoebe, to whom these moments seemed
like years. Had her trust been vain? Softly, but with an excitement
beyond control, she touched him on the arm.
"That's true," said Tozer, half-crying. "Something's got to be done. We
can't all stand here for ever, Phoebe; it's him as has to be thought of.
Show it to him, poor gentleman, if he ain't past knowing; and burn it,
and let us hear of it no more."
Solemnly, in the midst of them all, Phoebe held up the paper before the
eyes of the guilty man. If he understood it or not, no one could tell.
He did not move, but stared blankly at her and it. Then she held it over
the lamp and let it blaze and drop into harmless ashes in the midst of
them all. Tozer dropped down into his elbow-chair sniffing and sobbing.
Mr. May stood quite still, with a look of utter dulness and stupidity
coming over the face in which so much terror had been. If he understood
what had passed, it was only in feeling, not in intelligence. He grew
still and dull in the midst of that strange madness which all the time
was only half-madness, a mixture of conscious excitement and anxiety
with that which passes the boundaries of consciousness. For the moment
he was stilled into stupid idiotcy, and looked at them with vacant
eyes. As for the others, Northcote was the only one who divined at
all what this scene meant. To Reginald it was like a scene in a
pantomime--bewildering dumb show, with no sense or meaning in it. It was
he who spoke first, with a certain impatience of the occurrence which he
did not understand.
"Will you come home, sir, now?" he said. "Come home, for Heaven's sake!
Northcote will give you an arm. He's very ill," Reginald added, looking
round him pitifully in his ignorance; "what you are thinking of I can't
tell--but he's ill and--delirious. It was Mr. Copperhead who brought him
here against my will. Excuse me, Miss Beecham--now I must take him
home."
"Yes," said Phoebe. The tears came into her eyes as she looked at him; he
was not thinking of her at the moment, but she knew he had thought of
her, much and tenderly, and she felt that she might never see him again.
Phoebe would have liked him to know what she had done, and to know that
what she had done was for him chiefly--in order to recompense him a
little, poor fellow, for the heart he had given her, which she could not
accept, yet could not be ungrateful for. And yet she was glad, though
there was a pang in it, that he should never know, and remain unaware of
her effort, for his own sake; but the tears came into her eyes as she
looked at him, and he caught the gleam of the moisture which made his
heart beat. Something moved her beyond what he knew of; and his heart
thrilled with tenderness and wonder; but how should he know what it was?
"Give my love to Ursula," she said. "I shall not come to-night as she
has a nurse, and I think he will be better. Make her rest, Mr. May--and
if I don't see her, say good-bye to her for me----"
"Good-bye?"
"Yes, good-bye--things have happened--Tell her I hope she will not
forget me," said Phoebe, the tears dropping down her cheeks. "But oh,
please never mind me, look at him, he is quite quiet, he is worn out.
Take him home."
"There is nothing else to be done," said poor Reginald, whose heart
began to ache with a sense of the unknown which surrounded him on every
side. He took his father by the arm, who had been standing quite silent,
motionless, and apathetic. He had no need for any help, for Mr. May went
with him at a touch, as docile as a child. Northcote followed with grave
looks and very sad. Tozer had been seated in his favourite chair, much
subdued, and giving vent now and then to something like a sob. His
nerves had been terribly shaken. But as he saw the three gentlemen going
away, nature awoke in the old butterman. He put out his hand and plucked
Northcote by the sleeve. "I'll not say no to that money, not now, Mr.
Northcote, sir," he said.