THE TWO CONSPIRATORS.
"'Now look you!' said my brother, 'you may talk
Till weary of the talk.' I answer, 'Ay,
There's reason in your words; and you may talk
Till I go on to say, This should be so.'"
_Jean Ingelow._
"Thank heaven, I have five thousand a-year," repeated Queenie, as she
drew the rocking-chair to the hearth and sat down by her solitary
fireside. "For the first time I am really glad in my heart to be
rich."
Any unseen spectator would have marvelled what thoughts possessed
this girl. Queenie's brow was knitted as though with perplexity, and
yet a radiant smile hovered round her lips.
"It is difficult, far more difficult than I thought it at first," she
soliloquized. "There is a complication that prevents me seeing my
way clear, but if I sit here until morning I will find out what is
the right thing to be done.
"I wonder what Langley must have thought of me," she went on. "I
must have seemed so cold and unsympathizing. How could they know
what kept me so silent? Why, it needed all my strength of mind to
refrain from crying out, 'I am rich; I can give you all, and more
than you want, if you love me; let me share some of my good things
with you.' I wanted to fall on her neck and say some such words as
these; but second thoughts are the best, and I knew I must be prudent.
"And then when he talked to me my secret seemed to choke me then.
Oh, how my cheeks burnt in the darkness! how I longed to say to him,
'Do not be unhappy; there is no cause for despair. I have more than
I know how to spend; let me be your creditor and advance you the sum
you need. What are a few hundreds to me who have five thousand
a-year? Let me prove my friendship for you and yours by rendering
you this trifling service.' That is what I should have liked to have
done, but I knew him too well. Would he have taken it from me?
Alas, no! He would have turned round with that high manner of his
and upbraided me for my foolish mystery. In spite of his
wretchedness he would have taken me to task, and put things in such a
light that he would have made me ashamed of myself, and then he would
quietly refuse my offer. Would he accept this thing from the girl
who a few months back was a stranger to him? No; a thousand times,
no; but his embarrassment and discomfort would make him suspicious.
He would be vexed with me for my silence, mortified by my
importunity, and in his trouble I should be less to him than I am
now."
Queenie's secret predilection for Garth Clayton was making her timid.
It had come to this, that nothing on earth could have induced her to
offer him this money; she would have been as shame-faced and
tongue-tied in his presence as a child just discovered in a fault.
The silent understanding that was between them was too vague and
unsatisfactory a basis for her to presume on; the word that was to
give her the right and privilege of spoken sympathy had not yet been
uttered, might never be. Mahomet's bridge is not more slender than
this vague connection between two hearts that beat in sympathy and
yet are asunder. Over the sacred abyss of silence hangs the
invisible chain; it is strong enough to bear myriads of heavenly
visitants, but only the eye of the faithful may discern it. To how
many remain only the void and the mystery!
When a sensible person makes a mistake they are almost sure to repent
it at some time or other. Queenie, who was as healthy-minded and
straightforward as any pious, well-conducted young person could be,
had yet fallen into the error of supposing that she might deviate
into a by-path of romance and unreality without causing any great
disturbance in her little world, while, in point of fact, she was
only raising difficulties for herself. If she had gone to Garth
Clayton and acknowledged the truth with all the eloquence of which
she had been capable he would have been charmed with her _naïveté_
and frankness, and treated the whole matter as a girlish whim. Her
perfect honesty would in time have reconciled him to her
heiress-ship. True, it was highly probable that he might have
rejected the loan, and given her plenty of trouble on that score.
She might have had to experience the grief of seeing him refuse her
aid and struggle on alone and single-handed: but such men as Garth
Clayton rarely get their heads under water for long. He would have
moved heaven and earth rather than this girl to help him, and in the
end would have attained to some fair measure of success; and, while
things were at this low ebb with him, he would have vexed himself and
her by imposing a barrier of reserve and coldness on himself.
Queenie would have been made to suffer for those riches of hers. He
would have pointedly assigned to her the place she must hold in the
future--a friendship not too close or intimate. If the girl's
faithfulness could have served this rough apprenticeship, and she
could have meekly acceded to these hard conditions, his man's heart
must have spoken at last, and broken down all barriers between them.
After all, there is nothing like truth, pure, straightforward truth,
especially to men of Garth's calibre, who was a foe to all mystery,
and disposed to treat such things somewhat harshly. But Queenie's
foolish whim had ensnared her, and there was no freeing her feet from
the meshes. One thing was clear to her, Garth must have the money at
once.
And so the young intriguer set her brains to work. How was she to
put this sum in his hands? how could she negotiate the loan so that
it could not fail of acceptance? At first she proposed starting off
to Carlisle and seeking Caleb Runciman's aid; she could twist Caleb
round her little finger and make him do as she wanted. Should she
concoct a letter and get the old man to copy it in his shaky
handwriting? Only Emmie knew those crabbed, feeble characters, and
she was never likely to see the letter. What could she say? and here
Queenie got a pencil and paper and scrawled a rough draft.
"Dear sir," it began, "I have long taken a great interest in your
work. The reforms you have introduced among the quarrymen are not
only known at Hepshaw, they have reached further; and I have long
wished to express to you the respect and sympathy I entertain for
your labor.
"It is a good work, a noble work, and it would be grievous if
anything were to hinder or frustrate it. I have heard with much
regret of the failure of the A---- Bank, and the difficulties in
which it has involved you. Such difficulties, of course, are only
temporary, but still it is at such times that one requires a helping
hand. I have more wealth than I need for my own use, and at present
there are a few hundreds for which I am wanting a safe investment;
permit me to take the liberty of an old friend and well-wisher, and
to place these hundreds to your account, to be repaid in quarterly or
half-yearly instalments, as you think best. The sum is between eight
and nine hundred; and you will be doing me an immense service if you
will make use of this money instead of letting it lie by idly.
"I remain, sir, with profoundest respect and sympathy,
"AN UNKNOWN FRIEND AND WELL-WISHER."
"P.S. The instalments to be paid to Messrs. Withern & Smithers,
Carlisle."
"Will it do, I wonder?" asked Queenie with an anxious frown, as she
laid down the document. "I hope Caleb will think it sounds
business-like. That part about the quarterly or half-yearly
instalments was a very happy hit, I don't think Caleb could have done
it better. I named Messrs. Withern and Smithers because Mr. Calcott
had no dealings with them. The only thing I am afraid of is, that
Caleb is getting so old and dazed that he may make a mess of the
whole business; and then, on the other hand, will Mr. Clayton accept
anonymous aid? will he not ferret it out somehow? Messrs. Withern
and Smithers know Caleb by sight, all the leading firms in Carlisle
do, and then it will be somehow traced to him. Mr. Clayton will
leave no stone unturned; he always hunts mysteries to death, as he
says. He will go over to Carlisle and set all manner of enquiries on
foot, and he will work it round to Caleb, and then there will be an
end to the whole business."
"No; I am afraid I must adopt the other course, much as I dislike it.
I must take Mr. Logan into my confidence, and make him my cat's-paw.
I should not wonder if we both get terribly burnt in the end; but
never mind, I must transpose Louis XIV.'s sayings for my own benefit,
_après nous le déluge_. Once get the money in his hands, and the
quarry in working order, and I must bear the brunt of the rest; he
will not be so very angry with me when he knows--" But Queenie left
the rest of the sentence unfinished.
And so it was that Mr. Logan got the following little missive the
next morning:
"Dear Mr. Logan,
"I have something very important to say to you. Will you come round
to me at five, if it will not greatly inconvenience you? Emmie will
be out, and I shall take care to be alone; please say nothing about
this to Miss Cosie.
"Yours sincerely,
"QUEENIE MARRIOTT."
Queenie had a great liking and respect for Mr. Logan. She came
forward to meet him with a very frank blush when he entered the
cottage the following afternoon. She was a trifle nervous at the
task that lay before her, but her determination lent her courage.
She had seen Garth go past that morning looking ill and weary, as
though from a sleepless night; and the memory of his pale, harassed
face was with her as she spoke.
"It is very good of you to come to me, Mr. Logan; I think my note
must have surprised you a little."
"Well, well, perhaps it did," he returned good-humoredly, putting
down his felt hat and placing himself near her. He had laid aside
his spectacles, and his keen, near-sighted eyes beamed on her full of
benevolence and kindness.
"That part, I mean, about not telling Miss Cosie that you were coming
here," she continued in her straightforward way. "The fact is, I am
in a difficulty, and want the advice and assistance"--laying stress
on the latter word--"of a friend."
"Then you were quite right to send for me; a vicar ought always to be
at the beck and call of his flock, and to be ready for any temporal
and spiritual emergency; the highest privilege we possess is the
power of helping others. Now, supposing you tell me all about your
difficulty; I am prepared to listen for any indefinite time," with a
bright, persuasive smile, for, in spite of her assumed courage, the
girl's nervousness was not lost on him; and Queenie, nothing loath,
plunged boldly into her subject.
"Of course I know you will respect my secret; but, all the same, I am
afraid I shall shock you, for I have to acknowledge a little
deception on my part. The fact is, Mr. Logan," continued Queenie
with the utmost frankness, "I am not what I seem."
This statement, to say the least of it, was slightly startling; for
the moment Mr. Logan looked taken aback, but a glance at the bright,
ingenuous face before him seemed to reassure him.
"You have all of you thought me poor," she went on, "and so I was
when I first came among you; but I am a rich woman now--I have five
thousand a-year," opening her eyes wide at the mention of this
surprising sum.
"My dear young lady, do you mean this?"
"Yes, indeed; and of course I knew how greatly I should surprise you.
It is a droll idea, that the school-mistress at Hepshaw should have
five thousand a-year, is it not? I have hardly got used to the fact
myself; and then, you see, even Emmie does not know. It was Emmie's
uncle, Mr. Calcott, who left me all that money. But I know Cathy has
told you all the particulars of that sad story; he could not leave it
to Emmie, you see, and so it has all come to me; but I shall always
feel as though it belongs most to her."
"I must say I am extremely astonished!"
Queenie looked a little mischievous at that.
"I congratulate you most heartily on your good fortune; but, all the
same, I cannot understand your motives for secrecy. Here you have
been for the last three months living in this cottage, and teaching
in our village school, while all the time you might have been
dwelling in ease and luxury." And, with all his knowledge of human
nature, Mr. Logan looked extremely perplexed.
"You must not be too hard on a girl's whim," she replied, looking
down.
"Oh, it was a whim then!" with a dawning perception of the truth.
"Yes, it was just that," rather hastily. "You see I did not want the
money, and it rather vexed me, coming in such quantities, and when
everything was so nicely arranged. I had just been elected your
school-mistress, and the cottage was being furnished for us, and
Emmie was so looking forward to it, and I had grown to like you all
so; and it seemed so hard to give it all up, and go and live in a
grand house in Carlisle, as Caleb wanted us to do. And so I
thought," with a little quiver of the lip she could not hide, "that I
would just put it all away for a little while, and be happy and enjoy
ourselves; and by-and-bye, when I had got tired of teaching, it would
come out, and you would all laugh with me, and think it a good joke
that Emmie and I had been living like disguised princesses."
"Ah, well! it is a pretty piece of girlish romance," smiling in spite
of himself; "but I must say I thought my schoolmistress was a very
different sort of person--far more staid and matter-of-fact."
"And you are disappointed in her?" a little piteously, for Queenie
had lately grown to distrust the wisdom of this freak of hers, and
was sensitive in consequence.
"Nay, it is no such heinous offence; it is very venial and girlish,"
but Queenie blushed hotly at his tone. She was afraid Mr. Logan
thought her very romantic and silly, missish, in fact.
"I wanted to be liked for myself, and in spite of my poverty. It was
not so very foolish," defending herself somewhat plaintively.
"Well, well, perhaps not; we will not say any more about that," he
continued soothingly, for the girl's cheeks were burning under his
implied reproof. "One can carry out these sort of Quixotic schemes
for a little while; but I should think by this time you have had
enough teaching."
"No! oh no!" she cried, greatly alarmed at this. "I must go on for
some time longer pretending to be poor, for months, perhaps a whole
year. Emmie is so happy, and I am quite content. Mr. Logan, you
will promise not to betray me?"
"But, my dear young lady, there can be no possible reason for this!"
"Ah, but there is a very important reason," and now her manner
changed, and became grave and anxious. "Don't you know I must help
Mr. Clayton? and there is no means of doing that unless I go on
pretending to be poor."
"And what good would that do him?"
"Why," she returned, hesitating, "you know him better than I do. If
I were to go to him and tell him that I was rich, as I am telling you
now, and offer to lend him money, he would put on his grand manner,
and talk about independence, and make me feel ashamed of myself in a
moment. Do you think he would take money from a girl, even in the
shape of a loan? no; he would starve himself first, and bring them
all to misery, and he would call his conduct manly and
straightforward, and all sorts of fine names, instead of putting it
down to pride and sheer obstinacy."
"I must say I think you are right," watching her somewhat anxiously,
for a strange excitement seemed upon her. "I think it very probable
that he would refuse the loan."
"Yes; and then Langley and Cathy will suffer, and who would help
them, Mr. Logan? I have been thinking about this nearly all night,
and there is only one way of making him accept the loan--you must
offer it in your own name."
He had been expecting this, for his manner testified no surprise; she
had been leading up to this for the last ten minutes. Queenie's
courage would have utterly failed if she had known how clearly those
mild, near-sighted eyes were reading her. "Why it is the old
story--a girl's first innocent romance," he said to himself.
"I knew what you were going to say," he returned aloud. "This is a
very clever scheme of yours, Miss Marriott; but how is it to be
carried out? Garth Clayton is perfectly aware that I have no surplus
money lying by. All Hepshaw knows that my living is hardly a rich
one."
"Why, I have thought of that too," she went on excitedly. "But we
can easily get over that difficulty. I will place nine hundred
pounds to your account,--that can be done in the next few days; I
have only to write to Caleb Runciman,--and you must go to Mr. Clayton
and tell him that that sum of money has just come into your
possession; that it is lying at the Carlisle Bank. It will be no
falsehood, for I shall have made it over to you, entirely and solely
for their benefit. And then you must insist on his using it as he
requires, and paying you back in half-yearly instalments. You must
be very careful and business-like in what you say to him," she went
on, pointedly, "for he is so proud that he will not touch the money
unless he thinks he can repay it; and you can tell him that he can
pay you interest on the money, or do just as he pleases, so that we
get him to take it."
"My dear child," he returned, much startled, and not a little touched
at her earnestness, and, indeed, the brown glow of Queenie's eyes was
something pleasant to see, "this is a generous project of yours, and
I hardly know what to say about it, except that I foresee many
difficulties."
"But what of that?" she pleaded, "things are not always easy, we
know. Surely you do not see any harm in my innocent little plot?
There is nothing untrue in saying that you have this sum of money
lying by, if I have given it into your own hands."
"Well, perhaps not; but I should be afraid of blundering on my part.
You see, we Hepshaw people are very simple and straightforward. We
know each other's affairs almost to the lining of our purses. We
have never dealt in romance and mystery as you have done, and I am
bound to confess that the piece of diplomacy you have entrusted to me
is far beyond my powers. The ruse is so transparent that Garth would
see through it in a moment."
"Oh no," she returned, clasping her hands; "you must not fail me, Mr.
Logan; everything depends on you. Why," she continued, with one of
her quick bursts of eloquence, "could you bear to see them leave
Church-Stile House, with Langley and Cathy breaking their hearts for
their old home, and Mr. Clayton looking ill and harassed and working
himself to death, and all for the sake of a few miserable hundreds,
for which I have no possible use, which, probably, I shall not need
at all? What would it matter if he did find us out," she went on
boldly, but her words concealed a secret tremor, "so that he gets out
of his difficulties first? One of these days, not now, but a long
time hence, when he has paid some of it back, you shall go to him and
tell him the truth, and, though he will pretend to be angry, I know
he will forgive us at last, and thank us for having saved him in
spite of himself."
Mr. Logan shook his head. "I am not quite so sure about that. I
think our deception would annoy him terribly."
"Perhaps so; but after a time he will forget his annoyance. What
does it matter if he be angry if we only do him good in spite of
himself? It is the end for which we are working. We want to save
him and Langley and Cathy from being ruined. It does not matter so
much for Ted, who is young and a man, and must work for himself. It
is Langley and Cathy one must help," continued the girl, a little
artfully. "I, for one, love them so dearly that I cannot bear to see
them turned out of their old home, and made to feel how hard and
bitter and cruel the world is, as Emmie and I have done."
That moved him, as she knew it would, for he got up and paced
restlessly about the room. The muscles of his face twitched under
the influence of his emotion. Queenie watched him anxiously, but did
not venture to disturb his reverie. After a silence of some minutes
he came and stood before her.
"Well, Mr. Logan?"
"Well," he returned, but very gravely, "I suppose I must do as you
wish; I can't find it in my heart to resist your eloquence, or to see
such dear friends on the brink of ruin without stretching out a
helping hand. As far as Charlotte and I am concerned, we would share
our last crust with them, but what was the use of flinging our mite
into the pit? I am not without hopes that I may be able to refund
your money very soon, and to constitute myself their creditor, for,
by all accounts, our poor old Aunt Prue is failing rapidly, and her
death will make a tolerably rich man of me, that is to say, in a
Hepshaw point of view."
Queenie did not like this, but what could she do; she would be
ashamed to hint at her reluctance. It pleased her to feel that the
secret bounty was from her hand, that she was repaying in this way a
little of her debt of gratitude and affection; but, after all, might
it not be well that Aunt Prue's money and not hers should be used.
"It is this that makes me less reluctant to undertake the business,"
he went on. "In a few weeks or months I might myself be in
possession of ample means, though one never knows how long an aged
invalid may linger. Still, as Garth's needs are so pressing, I will
try my best to induce him to accept the loan. I am only afraid of
Charlotte or myself making some stupid blunder."
"Miss Cosie!" exclaimed Queenie, very much startled. "Oh, Mr. Logan,
you do not think we need tell her?" for Miss Cosie's absence of mind
and mistakes were even more proverbial in Hepshaw than her brother's;
the extent of amiable blunders she had committed during the course of
her blameless existence were simply innumerable.
"Why, of course we must tell Charlotte," with a smile at her evident
discomfiture. "Garth is sure to say something to her about the loan,
or else Miss Clayton or Miss Catherine will do so, and she must not
be left in ignorance. Charlotte manages all the business at the
Vicarage, you know, and her first words would be sure to be, 'Dear
me, Christopher, we have not more than a hundred and fifty in the
Bank, how can you lend Garth eight or nine hundred pounds?'"
"Yes, I see; it was very stupid of me not to think of that," returned
Queenie, but her heart sank within her. If Miss Cosie were admitted
to their council she could not long rely on secrecy.
"All, well, you have promised to carry this through for me," she
continued with a sigh; "but do pray urge upon Miss Cosie to be very
silent and discreet, a hint may spoil everything; at any rate you
must not speak to her until the money has been offered to Mr.
Clayton."
"Oh no, I will guarantee as much as that. I am almost as anxious as
you are in this matter." And then, after a few more words, he got up
and took his leave.