_THE CRASH._
"Where has he gone, Odeyne? Where has he gone? He could not have
left you without a word, as Algernon has left me. They have gone
together--and surely you know where they are!"
It was Beatrice who spoke these words; but such a white, wild-eyed
Beatrice, that Odeyne hardly knew her.
She broke in upon her at dusk, on that strange day of confusion and
bewilderment, and her haggard face bespoke the mental suffering
through which she had passed during the past four-and-twenty hours.
Odeyne turned upon her quickly, and took her by the hands.
"Of whom are you speaking, Beatrice? Has Algernon gone too? What
does it mean? Oh, what does it mean?"
"It means that we are ruined, ruined, ruined!" cried Beatrice,
sinking into a chair and covering her face with her hands. "But,
Odeyne, speak, tell me--where is Desmond? You must at least know
that!"
"I do not know," answered Odeyne in a very low voice. "He went
away--I think he has gone abroad--on business. He will no doubt
write soon. Is Algernon gone too?"
"They went together. So much we know, but nothing else. It is
terrible, terrible, terrible! Odeyne, I went back home to Rotherham
Park to-day to see if there was any trace of Algy there. Do you know
what I found there? Bailiffs in possession--the place and all its
contents up for sale...." She paused and uttered a strange
hysterical laugh. "Will that be the fate of the Chase next? Has
Desmond, too, absconded, leaving a mountain of debt behind? Are we
both to be left to the mercy of our own relations, whilst our
husbands have to flee the country for safety?"
"Beatrice, what do you mean?" asked Odeyne almost sharply, conscious
of a pang at her heart that she could not understand or subdue. "Why
do you speak such terrible words? Tell me what has happened. I do
not understand."
With a great effort Beatrice commanded herself, and made Odeyne sit
down beside her.
"How much do you know of this wretched business?" she asked.
"I do not understand anything. Desmond never spoke to me of his
affairs. I know that something is terribly wrong; but I think he has
gone away to try and set it right."
"He has gone away because it can never be set right," said Beatrice,
"and because he is involved in a fraudulent scheme, which has
involved a number of persons in ruin. I can't tell how far he and
Algernon have been dupes, or how far they have duped others. I
believe that man Garth has been at the bottom of a great deal of the
villainy of this last bubble. They got to trust him more and more.
Sometimes I told Algy they left too much to him. It began by merely
dabbling in stocks and shares--speculating on the Stock Exchange
people call it; and Desmond was very quick, and made great sums, and
Algy too, by his advice. But men never know where to stop, and one
thing led to another. I don't understand details, but it is some
great mining scheme that has ruined us all. It has broken now like a
bubble--and what will be the end no one knows. Meantime Desmond and
Algy and Garth have all disappeared. That gives it a very ugly look.
Oh, if I were a man I would stay and face things out! I would never
run away like a coward, and let all the misery and shame fall upon
the defenceless women at home!" And Beatrice's eyes flashed as she
wrung her hands together half in angry scorn, half in despair.
"And your house, Beatrice, what did you say about that?"
"Algy's creditors have taken possession of it, my dear. I am a
homeless outcast. My mother will give me an asylum for the present;
and I believe there is a small pittance settled upon me which will
just keep me and the boy from starvation! You may thank your stars,
Odeyne, that the Chase is entailed, and that Desmond made a handsome
settlement upon you. His creditors will not be able to fleece you
and the boy. You will live in clover, whoever else loses."
Odeyne drew her brows together in perplexity.
"But if Desmond has debts--I don't think he has--but if he has, of
course I shall pay them. I would not touch the money till every
claim was satisfied."
Beatrice uttered a mirthless little laugh.
"My dear, I fancy that before Desmond's claims were all
satisfied--claims upon him, I should say, from those whom he has
involved in his ruin, there would be nothing left at all! It is
generally the way when men lose their heads over some scheme of
fabulous wealth and it topples about their ears. Be thankful that
you are placed above want, and stick to everything you can. That is
my advice; and if you can't help me to any news of our husbands I
will go back to mother again. One mercy is that she gauged the
characters of both Desmond and Algy pretty correctly. She is not
crushed with horror at this catastrophe as Maud is. She has been
preparing herself for it all along."
Beatrice was too restless and excited and unnerved to remain long
anywhere, and Odeyne did not seek to detain her. The day had been
one long series of shocks, and she wanted time for thought. She had
sent Guy and Cissy back to their home an hour ago, wishing to be
quiet that evening; and they had left her, hoping she would not fully
realise all that had come upon her. Perhaps she had not done so till
the arrival of Beatrice; but now she felt that her eyes had been
opened, and that she could not close them any more. She must think
out the thing that had befallen, and decide upon her own line of
action.
She went up to the nursery, to find the child sleeping the sound,
dreamless sleep of healthy childhood. He had responded at once to
removal into the pure air of his home. All the feverish fretfulness
had left him since his midday nap; he now looked as well as even his
mother could desire.
Thankful that one threatened source of anxiety was removed, Odeyne
dismissed the nurse to her supper, and sat down beside the open
window, in a position where she could command a view of the sleeping
child, to review the situation, and put together the different items
of news dropped by one and another, so as to get a clear idea of the
exact position of affairs.
But she had hardly composed herself to the task before the door
opened softly, and a wan, white face peered in, and Odeyne, after
looking at it a moment as if hardly recognising it, suddenly held out
her hand, exclaiming--
"My poor Alice, come here to me. We are both suffering the same
trouble. I fear, my poor child, it was a bad day for you when you
elected to follow me out into the world."
Alice's face quivered, but her tears had all been shed. She was calm
now, though she looked like a ghost. She came forward and stood
before Odeyne, her eyes upon the ground.
"I wanted to see you, ma'am; I wanted to tell you everything. The
fault is mine. I was deceived. I let myself be made a tool of. It
was vanity that did it--I wanted to be finer than my right station.
I see it all now; but that will not bring back the jewels--and it is
my husband who robbed you!"
She covered her face with her hands and trembled. Odeyne had begun
to suspect this before, so Alice's statement did not take her by
surprise. Beatrice had plainly spoken her opinion of Garth; and the
disappearance of the confidential clerk at such a moment looked ugly.
Yet all that Odeyne said was--
"My poor Alice, I feel for you from the bottom of my heart. We are
both in great trouble and perplexity. Sit down, my poor child, and
let us talk together. There is so much I want to know. We are both
ignorant and inexperienced; but perhaps, if we compare notes, we
shall come to a clearer understanding of what has happened. Tell me,
Alice, do you know the nature of the work in which my husband and
yours have been engaged of late? It has nothing to do with the
business house where Mr. St. Claire has been connected. It is
something altogether independent of that."
Alice did not know much, nor was she very clear; but bit by bit
Odeyne seemed to see the thing piecing itself together before her
eyes. Desmond had begun by small speculations, and had been very
fortunate. He had employed Garth a good deal in these transactions,
and the quickness of the subordinate had been very useful. Their
ventures had turned out well time after time. Algernon Vanborough,
to whom gambling in some form or another was as the salt of life, had
been drawn in--good nature prompting Desmond to try and share any
good thing with his luckless brother-in-law. Algernon had been
terribly unlucky of late upon the turf; but for a considerable time
he was very fortunate in this new sort of speculation.
Then came a repetition of a state of affairs between the two men with
which Odeyne had never been conversant, but which was well known to
the rest of the family.
Desmond had once before posed as Algernon's reformer, and the
experiment had led to his being drawn into the losses of that
extravagant young man, which might have led both of them to ruin, had
it not been for Desmond's sudden successes on the Stock Exchange. He
believed himself stronger than Vanborough and his associates. In
reality he was far weaker, as those who understood his real
disposition were well aware.
So it had proved in this case. Vanborough had been bitten by a
hundred dreams of wealth, and had plunged into speculations of the
wildest nature. Desmond was only too easily induced to follow; and
their trusted tool, Garth, was plainly nothing better than an
unscrupulous sharper. How far any one of the three had become
criminally involved could not at this moment be decided. The fact
that all three had fled in one night looked ugly, and aroused
Odeyne's keenest anxiety. But not even to Alice would she speak of
her most terrible fear. That must be locked away in the recesses of
her own heart.
"But, ma'am, you are safe, and the Chase is safe," Alice said eagerly
at the end. "Walter always told me that nothing could hurt you,
because of the settlements and the entail. The master's creditors
can't touch that. He always said that it was such a pity Mrs.
Vanborough's money had not been tied up fast too."
Odeyne looked round her, and then out of the window, at the expanse
of dewy park and gardens. She had come to love her beautiful home
very dearly; yet she spoke with great composure.
"That may be the law, Alice; but there are moral obligations to think
of as well as mere legal ones. If I find that others are suffering
loss through any action of my husband's I shall make every
restitution in my power. Master Guy is too young as yet to
understand or feel any change in position. The Chase will some day
be his, but it will not hurt him to leave it for a time. Unless
things turn out very differently from what I fear, I shall try to
find a tenant for it, and let it furnished, and live somewhere myself
on as little as possible, till all the claims that are just and right
have been settled."
Alice looked at her in mute admiration and amaze. It was some while
before she ventured upon the next question.
"But where could you go, ma'am? Back home again?"
"I think not," answered Odeyne quietly; "I do not think that would
quite answer. And I should like to be in some place where the master
could easily find me if he wanted me. I have been thinking about it
a good deal. I think I shall remove, with baby and nurse, to those
rooms in your lodge, Alice, which were built on before you married.
Hannah would come with me, and you would not leave me, Alice. There
we could hide ourselves in obscurity, and wait till our husbands
return to us!"
Alice sank down upon her knees beside Odeyne, bursting once more into
bitter weeping.
"Yours will come back to you some day, ma'am; for he loves you, he
loves you. But I shall never see Walter again. He has gone for
ever. I do not think he ever cared for me. I was useful to him; but
that was all. He left me without a word or a sign. He will never
come back!"
"Oh, Alice, do not say that! I thought he was always an affectionate
husband, and that you were so happy together."
"At first I was happy, because he promised me all sorts of fine
things, and dressed me up and made a fool of me. But I never got any
hold upon him, ma'am. I was always afraid to say a word. If I
thought him wrong, I dared not say so. I wasn't true to my better
self, nor to the things I'd been brought up to. I let him coax me to
do what I knew was wrong; and though he praised me for obeying him, I
see now that he despised me in his heart. I lost his respect, and I
think when that goes, love soon follows. If I'd been a truer woman,
maybe I'd have been a happier one, and have held him back from that
great last wrong."
Odeyne was silent, casting her mind back over the past years, and
wondering whether she, perhaps, had erred in like manner. Had she
been always true to her better judgment? Could she have done more
than she had attempted to withhold her husband from his perilous
courses? Humbly she admitted her shortcomings and failings, humbly
she took upon herself freely and fully her share in the punishment;
but one ray of comfort gilded the retrospect. She had never lost her
husband's love, her husband's confidence and respect. He had always
called her his "good angel," his "guiding star." Often she had told
him that he must not thus speak and regard her--that she was no
angel, no safe guide; but his answer had always been one so full of
love that she could not chide him over-much.
Yes, he had loved her all through; nothing had changed that; and he
had always been looking forward to a time when this feverish race
after wealth should be over, and they could enjoy a quiet life
together as of old.
Ah, how happy they could have been in some humble little home, with
each other and the child, if he had only been able to see it! But
the thirst for gold was upon him, and he could heed nothing else
whilst it lasted; and when once the tide of fortune seemed to have
turned against him he lost his head, as too many men of his calibre
do in like case; then things had gone desperately wrong, and he had
become involved in all manner of ways before he realised his own
position, or the peril looming over him.
Bit by bit Guy and Edmund made all this out. Things were in a
terrible tangle. There were angry creditors to meet, and, what was
harder still, broken-hearted dupes, who had been tempted to follow
Desmond's lead, believing him to be some great financial light, and
then had awoke to find themselves cheated by the veriest
will-o'-the-wisp, and landed in a quagmire of poverty and loss.
The legitimate claims upon Desmond's estate were sufficiently heavy
in all conscience; but these could gradually be met and discharged by
incomings from the business house, the partners in which showed
themselves very well disposed and kindly at this juncture of affairs.
Although of late Desmond's attendance at the office had been
irregular and meagre, he had done some good service by his quickness
and energy, when he had really given his mind to the matter before
him, and they were ready to stand his friend now. They thought he
had made a great mistake in disappearing like a criminal, as though
his affairs could not bear the light of day. True enough, there were
some shady transactions among them, but nothing which could actually
bring him under the ban of the law. Nor were his affairs in such
desperate condition as those of his brother-in-law. There seemed
reason enough why that gentleman had given his country a wide berth
at this juncture; but Desmond would have done better to stay, and
face the thing out to the bitter end.
This was the opinion of those who strove to look into the ugly
business and unravel the many tangled skeins; but Odeyne, hearing bit
by bit how matters stood, understood better than her brothers how
terrible a thing it would be to Desmond to face the situation he had
brought upon himself.
She remembered the strained, anxious face of Mrs. Neil at that
hateful ball. It had haunted her almost ever since. The Neils were
persons who had been tempted to their ruin by Desmond's name as
director of this luckless mining venture. He might have encouraged
them to place their money in it; and there were many others in like
case with them. Oh yes, Odeyne could understand his disappearance
and his silence. Desmond had a tender heart and a sensitive nature.
He could not bear to see sorrow and suffering about him. She had
often reproved him gently for his almost reckless liberality, when
any case of distress came personally beneath his notice. How could
he bear to meet the people whom he had (consciously or unconsciously)
helped to ruin? It was not wonderful to her that he should have
fled. There had always been a vein of moral cowardice in Desmond's
nature. She had not realised it as fully before as she did now; but
this knowledge helped her to understand Desmond's desperate flight at
this juncture better than many persons understood it. They thought
he believed himself more deeply incriminated than he was. Odeyne did
not. She believed he was kept away by the dread of seeing and
hearing of suffering which his blind confidence had occasioned.
"Edmund," said Odeyne, as her brothers laid before her the state of
affairs some three weeks after the first shock, "you say that I have
an income of twelve hundred a year--apart from the business, which is
going to pay off the legal debts in instalments--and this house to
live in. What rental should I get for the Chase if I were to let it
furnished for two or three years?"
"Odeyne! what do you mean?" he asked quickly.
"I mean what I say. I am not going to live here without Desmond.
You say he may come back any day when he sees by the papers (if he
does see them) that there is no danger to himself in doing so; but I
know him better. I do not think he will come. He is gone because he
cannot bear to see and hear of the misery of the people who have been
ruined through following his lead in those wretched mines. Guy, you
have seen some of those people. Tell me, if I were to sell off some
of the expensive things here that Desmond bought for me--the house
has been perfectly crowded with them--and let the house furnished for
three years, and live at the lodge with little Guy and two servants,
on a couple of hundreds a year, how soon would there be something to
give back to these people--enough to save them from ruin? Desmond
has spent hundreds, if not thousands, upon ornaments and curios and
beautiful things that the house does not really want. If I were to
send a lot of them up to Christie's--they are all presents to me that
I am speaking of--and sell them off, would not that go some way
towards starting some of these poor things in life again? And then,
as money came in, it would go towards refunding a part of their lost
capital. Edmund, don't stare at me as though I were out of my
senses. Guy understands. I am not going to do anything very wild
and rash; but I cannot--I cannot live on here alone in every luxury,
whilst people like the Neils, and others, are ruined, and all by
trusting Desmond's advice. With the rest I have nothing to do, only
those who trusted him with their money, and lost it through him."
Edmund whistled softly to himself. Guy laid his hand upon Odeyne's
hand, and said gently--
"I will help you, _Schwesterling_--I think I know them all; there are
not so very many; but some few have lost their all. It has been very
sad to see them; but it will be new life for them to know that
something will be done. There is no legal obligation upon you, but I
think you will be happier, and there is room in our little house for
you and the boy, till you can return to the Chase again."
There were tears of gratitude in her eyes as she answered--
"Thank you, dear Guy. It will be sweet to have you so near, but I
would rather go to the lodge, and have my own little home there, and
a place for Desmond always ready. I think he will come and seek me
there some day. Till then I shall be happier there than I could be
here. Edmund, dear, you are not vexed with me. Indeed I am trying
to do what is really the most right thing, and to clear my husband's
name and good fame from any shadow that may have fallen across it."
Edmund bent over her and kissed her again and again.
"I think you are the best wife and the best woman in the world.
People may say you are doing a Quixotic thing, but I truly believe
you will be the happier for doing it, and I know that Maud will bless
you for clearing Desmond's name. She is taking it very hard, poor
darling. It has come upon her, and you, as a greater blow than upon
many."
"Thank you, dear Edmund; and you will help me to sell such things as
I can part with at once, and to find a tenant for the house as
quickly as possible?"
"There will be no trouble about that," said Edmund quickly. "General
Mannering was asking me only the other day if there would be any
chance of getting such a house in this neighbourhood. I believe he
would jump at the Chase, and give a good rental as a yearly tenant.
He would not care for any sort of lease, as his movements are rather
uncertain."
Odeyne's face brightened as it had not done for many days.
"Ah, how nice that would be! Dear Edmund, do see about it as quickly
as possible. I cannot be happy here, missing Desmond so terribly,
and feeling that all this display and expense are such a mockery. I
want to get away into a smaller place as soon as possible, and to
feel that I am doing something towards paying off what I can only
call Desmond's 'debts of honour.'"
If Odeyne met no opposition from her brothers, she was not destined
to come off scatheless in other quarters.
Upon the next day, as she stood surrounded by a collection of
articles she was selecting to send up to be sold at the first
possible date, Beatrice suddenly burst in upon her in a state of the
greatest excitement.
"Odeyne! what is this I hear? You must be mad! You must not dream
of such a thing! Let the Chase, indeed! Sell all your valuables!
It is sheer madness! What people like you and I have to do is just
to stick to everything--everything! Defy the world, and throw
sentiment of every kind to the winds! Why, if I had your
opportunities I would add to my establishment, and flaunt about in
grand style, just to show I had nothing to be ashamed of! To go and
hide your head in a hole and give up everything to pay imaginary
debts! Odeyne, you must not do it! It is absurd! it is wicked!"
Odeyne turned round with a sweet smile in her sad eyes.
"I am so sorry you are vexed, Beatrice; but I think you would do the
same if you were in my position."
Beatrice gave a hard laugh. She had changed very much during the
past weeks. She looked older, thinner, less brilliant; as if
something had gone out of her life which could never come back to it.
"I ever give up anything for a sentimental scruple! That shows how
much you know!"
"Not for a sentimental scruple, but for my dear husband's honour,"
answered Odeyne quietly. "If you loved Algernon as I love Desmond
you would do the same for him--I know you would, Beatrice, whatever
you say."
Beatrice was silent, biting her lips, and looking from place to place
in the familiar room with strange, restless glances. Then suddenly
flinging her arms about Odeyne's neck, she cried--
"Oh, we are two miserable, unhappy creatures, Odeyne; but if only I
could be like you!--if only I could be like you! Teach me how, if
you can."