SOMETHING "TURNED UP" AT LAST.
You might have taken a picture of the group in Mark Cray's room today,
if only by way of contrast to that of yesterday. The living figures
were the same: Mark, his wife, and Sara Davenal; but the contrast lay
in the expression, in the tone of feeling. Yesterday it had been
nothing but gloom, depression, almost despair; today it was all hope
and hilarity. The cloud had gone from the faces of Mark and his wife,
to give place to almost triumphal gaiety. On Sara's there was a look
of pleasure, mingled with perplexity, as if she would rejoice with
them, but as yet scarcely understood what there was to rejoice at.
Poor Mark Cray! The very slightest straw of expectancy was sufficient
to send his sanguine spirit into the clouds. All this change had been
wrought by a letter from Barker, which the eleven o'clock post had
brought. Barker, who was another of Mark's stamp, had suddenly
discovered, or thought he had discovered, that an English doctor was
wanted in Honfleur. He wrote over to Mark, strongly recommending him
to come and establish himself, and to lose no time, lest the opening
should be snapped up. "There's a goodish many English here," said the
letter, "and not the ghost of an English doctor. If an English fellow
gets ill he must die, unless he chooses to call in a French surgeon,
and the chances are _he'll_ bleed him to death. If you'll believe me,
they bled a young English lady this week for measles! She seemed ill,
and her friends called in a Monsieur Somebody, with a name as
unpronounceable as that mine of ours, and he looked at her, and asked
a few questions, said he thought she was sickening for some disorder
or other, and therefore he'd bleed her. Well, he did bleed her, and
ordered her some drink, called _tissan_, or some such name--I always
shirked my French at school--which it's my belief is made of nothing
but sugar and water. Bleeding for measles! The English say to me:
'What a boon it would be if we had a countryman established here as
doctor!' So Mark, old fellow, I've thought of you; and my advice to
you is, come and try it until something better turns up. I'm off to
Paris shortly, but I'll stop here and welcome you first, if you decide
to come. I know you hate your profession, and so do I, or I might try
the opening myself; but if you don't mind taking it up as a temporary
thing, I think you may manage to find enough practice to get along
with. Living's cheap over here, and the scenery's lovely, though the
town isn't much. Havre is only twenty minutes' distance by steamer;
it's over the water--the _manche_, as they call it; and Harfleur lies
by its side, nearer to us still. We have got an English church, you
can tell Mrs. Cray, if she's particular upon the point; we had a
splendid sermon last Sunday, preached by a stranger. Altogether, it
seems to me to be worth your thinking of _under present
circumstances_, and when the horizon has cleared a little, you can
leave the place as readily as you come to it."
And this was the golden bait that had laid tempting hold on Mark.
Perhaps to a man "under his present circumstances," as Mr. Barker put
it, it did look favourable. Estimating things by comparison, it looked
more than well. That one present room he was in, the dinnerless days,
the blue spectacles, and all the rest of the little disagreeables you
have heard hints of, were things to be flown from with the fleetest
wings, if they could be exchanged for the position of a flourishing
doctor in Honfleur. Mark was on his exalted ropes again, and his wife
seemed to have thrown off her sorrow and her ailments.
The first consideration was money. This desirable place could not be
reached without some. Even sanguine Mark allowed that. Just a little,
to allow of their getting there, and a pound or so to pay for
lodgings, and carry them on until his patients came in. He and his
wife were deep in the difficulties of the matter when Sara interrupted
them. She had come to tell Caroline of her ill-success with Oswald
Cray.
But Caroline was in no mood to listen to aught that savoured of
non-success, and Sara's news was overwhelmed with the other. Barker's
letter was read to her, and Mark enlarged upon it in his sanguine
strain.
"I knew something would turn up," said he. "Barker's a right good
fellow not to keep it himself. Those continental towns are charming,
if you can put up with the sameness: of course they get a little
_same_ after a time. Not all of them, though. We stopped three months
in Boulogne once, before my father's death, and were sorry to come
away from it. Only think how this will set Carine up, after all the
late bother."
"I fear Honfleur is a small place to support a medical man," observed
Sara, who could look at the proposal more dispassionately than the
other two.
"It's a lovely place," fired Mark. "Barker says so. It's renowned in
history. If the places he mentions are not of note, I'd like to know
what are. History tells us that! Why, it was from Harfleur that the
children of one of the kings set sail and were overtaken by a storm
and drowned, and the poor old father never was seen to smile again.
I'm sure I remember having to learn that in my history. Honfleur a
small place! Not support a doctor! You must be saying it for the
purpose, Sara!"
"Well, Mark, I don't think it is large; but what I meant was, support
an English doctor. Are there enough English living there to do that?"
"Of course there are," returned Mark, whose sanguine mood resented
nothing more than a check. "Would Barker say there was an opening if
there wasn't?"
She could have retorted that Barker had no more judgment than Mark;
but it was utterly useless, and she held her tongue. Besides, she did
hope that Mark might pick up some practice, and any change seemed an
improvement upon the present state of things.
It seemed that there was only Oswald to apply to in the difficulty,
and Sara was asked to do it. She declined. Upon which Caroline, in a
defiant spirit--for she was angry with her--said she would go to him
herself.
She kept her resolution. At the dusk of evening, not before, Caroline
Cray took her way to Parliament Street, her step quick, her mood
defiant still; not defiant against anybody in particular, but against
the whole world save herself and Mark.
But when she came in view of the house she slackened her pace, going
on slowly and cautiously, as one who wishes to reconnoitre the ground
beforehand. What was she afraid of? Of meeting any of the wrathful
shareholders of the Great Wheal Bang? If so, it was surely a singular
coincidence that one of them should at that very moment be at Oswald
Cray's door.
He was being shown out by a lady in an inverted bonnet, if the term
may be held applicable--brim downwards, crown upwards. Caroline
recognised him at once as a Major Pratt, rather an extensive
shareholder. Some acquaintanceship had sprung up between him and Mark,
and the Major had dined twice in Grosvenor Place. Mrs. Cray shrank
into the shade, and drew her veil tighter over her face. He passed
without seeing her, and Mrs. Benn, after taking a look out up and down
the street, gave the door a bang after him.
Suffering a few moments to elapse, Caroline went to the door and
knocked at it. Mrs. Benn had just reached her kitchen, and it went
very much against the grain of that amiable lady's temper to have to
go up again. Flinging open the door, she confronted the applicant,
opposition written in every line of her face, in every movement of her
working arms, bared to the elbow.
"I want to see Mr. Oswald Cray."
"You want to see Mr. Oswald Cray!" repeated Mrs. Benn, the tight and
disguising veil completing her ire. "Well, that's modest! When folks
come here they ask if they _can_ see him--and that's pretty bold for
young women. What might you want, pray?"
"I want _him_," angrily returned Caroline. "Is he at home? If so, show
me into his presence."
Something in the refinement of the voice, in its tone of command,
struck on the ear of Mrs. Benn. But she was at warfare with the world
that evening, and her prejudices were unconquerable.
"I don't know about that. The other night a lady walked herself here,
as bold as could be, and said _she_ wanted to see Mr. Oswald Cray; and
when I let her go in, it turned out that she had got some smuggled
cambric handkechers to sell, and she kept worriting of him to buy for
five-and-twenty minutes. 'Mrs. Benn,' says he to me afterwards in his
quiet way, 'I don't want them sort of people showed in to me.' But how
be I to know one sort from----Oh, so it _is_ you, is it, Joe Benn? I
wonder you come home at all, I do! You have been two mortal half-hours
gone, and nothing but visitors a-tramping in and out. Perhaps you'll
attend to 'em."
Caroline turned instinctively to the respectable-looking man who
approached the door. "I wish to see Mr. Oswald Cray. My business is of
importance."
"Certainly, ma'am. Is Mr. Oswald Cray alone?" he asked of his wife.
"Yes, he is alone. And I should think he'd like to remain alone, if
only for a moment's peace and quiet. He can't get no rest at his work,
any more than I can at mine."
She stood before Oswald with her veil thrown back, her face working
with emotion, her hands clasped. The table was between them. Benn had
closed the door after showing her in, and Oswald, who was busy over
some tracings, rose and stared in very astonishment. She gave a
summary of her business in a rapid, breathless manner, as if fearing
there would be no time left to tell it in. Mark had at length an
opening of escape from the present misery, if he could only be helped
to embrace it. A surgeon was wanted at Honfleur, and the place was
offered to him.
Oswald pressed her to a chair, sat down, and questioned her.
"Why does not Mark come forward and show himself?" he presently asked.
"Come forward and show himself?" she repeated. "What, and get put into
prison?"
"He must come, sooner or later. He cannot remain a proscribed man all
his life. What end has he in view by remaining concealed? What does he
promise himself by it?"
"I don't know."
"But Mark ought to know. He must be aware that there's an imperative
necessity for his coming forward; that it is a thing there is no
escaping. What does he wait for?"
"He says he wants the storm to blow over first."
"The storm will not blow over. Were Mark to hide himself for ten
years, and then appear, it would only raise itself again. The very
best thing that he can do is to appear and face it."
"Then he never will--at least, not yet awhile. And, Oswald, I don't
think you are a brother if you can wish him to do it. But I did not
come here to discuss _that_," she added. "I came to ask if you would
lend _me_--me, not Mark--the trifle necessary to take us over the
water. I will pay you back again if I have to save it up by
sixpences."
She betrayed more restlessness of manner than Oswald had ever
observed. Since her entrance she had been incessantly taking off and
putting on the left-hand glove. He thought her changed. Her face
looked worn, her eyes anxious.
"It would be doing you no kindness, Mrs. Cray. Believe me, the only
plan open to Mark is to come forward and meet the company. His
stopping away makes things worse. Major Pratt was here just before you
came in, asking if I could give him news of Mark. I am tempted to wish
often that I had no connection with him. _Tell_ him to face this."
"I will not tell him," she answered, her cheeks crimson, her
violet-blue eyes shining with a purple light. "If you will not advance
me these poor few pounds that I plead to you for there'll be nothing
for us but to lie down and die. I have not"--she paused, struggling
with her emotion--"I have not had a proper meal these three months; I
feel often sick with want. Sometimes I wish I was with Uncle Richard."
Oswald hesitated, whether to ring at once for refreshment or to wait
until her emotion had spent itself. He compassionated _her_ with his
whole heart.
"What would ten or twenty pounds be to you?" she resumed. "Ten might
take us there; twenty would seem like a fortune. _Won't_ you give us a
chance of life?"
"It is not the money I think of; it is not indeed, Mrs. Cray. But Mark
ought not to go to Honfleur while these clouds are hanging over him."
"_Let_ me have the money," she pleaded; "let me have it. I don't want
you to give it me tonight, only to promise it to me. Uncle Richard
would have done as much for you."
What was he to do? What would you have done, my reader? Upright,
honourable just though he was, he did not resist those tearful eyes,
those pleading hands, and he promised her the money that would carry
Mark Cray farther and farther away from his creditors.
"And now what will you take?" he asked, ringing the bell.
"Nothing. I don't think I am as strong as I was; and in moments of
excitement I feel unable to touch bit or drop. Wine? no, I am not
strong, I say; I am not used to wine now; only half a glass of it, and
I should hardly walk home." He did not intend that she should walk, he
told her; and he induced her to take a very little wine, but she could
not eat. Then he gave her his arm downstairs.
Mrs. Benn met them in the hall. Caroline hastily drew her veil over
her face, but not before the woman had caught a glimpse of her
features. Oswald let himself out at the door, and shut it after him,
and Mrs. Benn backed against the wall to recover her amazement.
"Mrs. Cray!--his brother's wife! them that are in hiding! And the last
time she was here it was in a coach and four, as may be said, with her
feathers in her bonnet and her satins on her back! What a world this
is for change--and work! Yes she _have_ just gone out, that there
lady, Joe Benn, and the master with her. And you not up to open the
door!"