Dare was down early the following morning, much too early for the
convenience of the house-maids, who were dusting the drawing-room when
he appeared there. He was usually as late as any of the young and gilded
unemployed who feel it incumbent on themselves to show by these public
demonstrations their superiority to the rules and fixed hours of the
working and thinking world, with whom, however, their fear of being
identified is a groundless apprehension. But to-day Dare experienced a
mournful satisfaction in being down so early. He felt the underlying
pathos of such a marked departure from his usual habits. It was obvious
that nothing but deep affliction or cub-hunting could have been the
cause, and the cub-hunting was over. The inference was not one that
could be missed by the meanest capacity.
He took up the newspaper with a sigh, and settled himself in front of
the blazing fire, which was still young and leaping, with the enthusiasm
of dry sticks not quite gone out of it.
Charles heard Dare go down just as he finished dressing, for he too was
early that morning. There was more than half an hour before
breakfast-time. He considered a moment, and then went down-stairs. Some
resolutions once made cannot be carried out too quickly.
As he passed through the hall he looked out. The mist of the night
before had sought out every twig and leaflet, and had silvered it to
meet the sun. The rime on the grass looked cool and tempting. Charles's
head ached, and he went out for a moment and stood in the crisp still
air. The rooks were cawing high up. The face of the earth had not
altered during the night. It shimmered and was glad, and smiled at his
grave, care-worn face.
"Hallo!" called a voice; and Ralph's head, with his hair sticking
straight out on every side, was thrust out of a window. "I say, Charles,
early bird you are!"
"Yes," said Charles, looking up and leisurely going in-doors again; "you
are the first worm I have seen."
He found Dare, as he expected, in the drawing-room, and proceeded at
once to the business he had in hand.
"I am glad you are down early," he said. "You are the very man I want."
"Ah!" replied Dare, shaking his head, "when the heart is troubled there
is no sleep, none. All the clocks are heard."
"Possibly. I should not wonder if you heard another in the course of
half an hour, which will mean breakfast. In the mean time----"
"I want no breakfast. A sole cup of----"
"In the mean time," continued Charles, "I have some news for you." And,
disregarding another interruption, he related as shortly as he could the
story of Stephens's recognition of him in the door-way, and the
subsequent revelations in the prison concerning Dare's marriage.
"Where is this man, this Stephens?" said Dare, jumping up. "I will go to
him. I will hear from his own mouth. Where is he?"
"I don't know," replied Charles, curtly. "It is a matter of opinion. He
is dead!"
Dare looked bewildered, and then sank back with a gasp of disappointment
into his chair.
Charles, whose temper was singularly irritable this morning, repeated
with suppressed annoyance the greater part of what he had just said, and
proved to Dare that the fact that Stephens was dead would in no way
prevent the illegality of his marriage being proved.
When Dare had grasped the full significance of that fact he was quite
overcome.
"Am I, then," he gasped--"is it true?--am I free--to marry?"
"Quite free."
Dare burst into tears, and, partially veiling with one hand the manly
emotion that had overtaken him, he extended the other to Charles, who
did not know what to do with it when he had got it, and dropped it as
soon as he could. But Dare, like many people whose feelings are all on
the surface, and who are rather proud of displaying them, was slow to
notice what was passing in the minds of others.
He sprang to his feet, and began to pace rapidly up and down.
"I will go after breakfast--at once--immediately after breakfast, to
Slumberleigh Rectory."
"I suppose, in that case, Miss Deyncourt is the person whose name you
would not mention the other day?"
"She is," said Dare. "You are right. It is she. We are betrothed. I will
fly to her after breakfast."
"You know your own affairs best," said Charles, whose temper had not
been improved by the free display of Dare's finer feelings; "but I am
not sure you would not do well to fly to Vandon first. It is best to be
off with the old love, I believe, before you are on with the new."
"She must at once go away from Vandon," said Dare, stopping short. "She
is a scandal, the--the old one. But how to make her go away?"
It was in vain for Charles to repeat that Dare must turn her out. Dare
had premonitory feelings that he was quite unequal to the task.
"I may tell her to go," he said, raising his eyebrows. "I may be firm as
the rock, but I know her well; she is more obstinate than me. She will
not go."
"She must," said Charles, with anger. "Her presence compromises Miss
Deyncourt. Can't you see that?"
Dare raised his eyebrows. A light seemed to break in on him.
"Any fool can see that," said Charles, losing his temper.
Dare saw a great deal--many things besides that. He saw that if a
friend, a trusted friend, were to manage her dismissal, it would be more
easy for that friend than for one whose feelings at the moment might
carry him away. In short, Charles was the friend who was evidently
pointed out by Providence for that mission.
Charles considered a moment. He began to see that it would not be done
without further delays and scandal unless he did it.
"She must and shall go at once, even if I have to do it," he said at
last, looking at Dare with unconcealed contempt. "It is not my affair,
but I will go, and you will be so good as to put off the flying over to
Slumberleigh till I come back. I shall not return until she has left the
house." And Charles marched out of the room, too indignant to trust
himself a moment longer with the profusely grateful Dare.
"That man must go to-day," said Evelyn, after breakfast, to her husband,
in the presence of Lady Mary and Charles. "While he was ill I overlooked
his being in the house; but I will not suffer him to remain now he is
well."
"You remove him from all chance of improvement," said Charles, "if you
take him away from Aunt Mary, who can snatch brands from the burning, as
we all know; but I am going over to Vandon this morning, and if you wish
it I will ask him if he would like me to order his dog-cart to come for
him. I don't suppose he is very happy here, without so much as a
tooth-brush that he can call his own."
"You are going to Vandon?" asked both ladies in one voice.
"Yes. I am going on purpose to dislodge an impostor who has arrived
there, who is actually believed by some people (who are not such
exemplary Christians as ourselves, and ready to suppose the worst) to be
his wife."
Lady Mary and Evelyn looked at each other in consternation, and Charles
went off to see how Othello was after his night's work, and to order the
dog-cart, Ralph calling after him, in perfect good-humor, that "a
fellow's brother got more out of a fellow's horses than a fellow did
himself."
Dare waylaid Charles on his return from the stables, and linked his arm
in his. He felt the most enthusiastic admiration for the tall reserved
Englishman who had done him such signal service. He longed for an
opportunity of showing his gratitude to him. It was perhaps just as well
that he was not aware how very differently Charles regarded himself.
"You are just going?" Dare asked.
"In five minutes."
Charles let his arm hang straight down, but Dare kept it.
"Tell me, my friend, one thing." Dare had evidently been turning over
something in his mind. "This poor unfortunate, this Stephens, why did he
not tell you all this the _first_ time you went to see him in the
afternoon?"
"He did."
"What?" said Dare, looking hard at him. "He _did_, and you only tell me
this morning! You let me go all through the night first. Why was this?"
Charles did not answer.
"I ask one thing more," continued Dare. "Did you divine two nights ago,
from what I said in a moment of confidence, that Miss Deyncourt was
the--the--"
"Of course I did," said Charles, sharply. "You made it sufficiently
obvious."
"Ah!" said Dare. "Ah!" and he shut his eyes and nodded his head several
times.
"Anything more you would like to know?" asked Charles, inattentive and
impatient, mainly occupied in trying to hide the nameless exasperation
which invariably seized him when he looked at Dare, and to stifle the
contemptuous voice which always whispered as he did so, "And you have
given up Ruth to him--to _him_!"
"No, no, no!" said Dare, shaking his head gently, and regarding him the
while with infinite interest through his half-closed eyelids.
The dog-cart was coming round, and Charles hastily turned from him, and,
getting in, drove quickly away. Whatever Dare said or did seemed to set
his teeth on edge, and he lashed up the horse till he was out of sight
of the house.
Dare, with arms picturesquely folded, stood looking after him with mixed
feelings of emotion and admiration.
"One sees it well," he said to himself. "One sees now the reason of many
things. He kept silent at first, but he was too good, too noble. In the
night he considered; in the morning he told all. I wondered that he went
to Vandon; but he did it not for me. It was for her sake."
Dare's feelings were touched to the quick.
How beautiful! how pathetic was this _dénouement_! His former admiration
for Charles was increased a thousand-fold. _He also loved!_ Ah! (Dare
felt he was becoming agitated.) How sublime, how touching was his
self-sacrifice in the cause of honor! He had been gradually working
himself up to the highest pitch of pleasurable excitement and emotion;
and now, seeing Ralph the prosaic approaching, he fled precipitately
into the house, caught up his hat and stick, hardly glancing at himself
in the hall-glass, and, entirely forgetting his promise to Charles to
remain at Atherstone till the latter returned from Vandon, followed the
impulse of the moment, and struck across the fields in the direction of
Slumberleigh.
Charles, meanwhile, drove on to Vandon. The stable clock, still
partially paralyzed from long disuse, was laboriously striking eleven as
he drew up before the door. His resounding peal at the bell startled the
household, and put the servants into a flutter of anxious expectation,
while the sound made some one else, breakfasting late in the
dining-room, pause with her cup midway to her lips and listen.
"There is a train which leaves Slumberleigh station for London a little
after twelve, is not there?" asked Charles, with great distinctness, of
the butler as he entered the hall. He had observed as he came in that
the dining-room door was ajar.
"There is, Sir Charles. Twelve fifteen," replied the man, who recognized
him instantly, for everybody knew Charles.
"I am here as Mr. Dare's friend, at his wish. Tell Mr. Dare's coachman
to bring round his dog-cart to the door in good time to catch that
train. Will it take luggage?"
"Yes, Sir Charles," with respectful alacrity.
"Good! And when the dog-cart appears you will see that the boxes are
brought down belonging to the person who is staying here, who will leave
by that train."
"Yes, Sir Charles."
"If the policeman from Slumberleigh should arrive while I am here, ask
him to wait."
"I will, Sir Charles."
"I don't suppose," thought Charles, "he will arrive, as I have not sent
for him; but, as the dining-room door happens to be ajar, it is just as
well to add a few artistic touches."
"Is this person in the drawing-room?" he continued aloud.
The man replied that she was in the dining-room, and Charles walked in
unannounced, and closed the door behind him.
He had at times, when any action of importance was on hand, a certain
cool decision of manner that seemed absolutely to ignore the possibility
of opposition, which formed a curious contrast with his usual careless
demeanor.
"Good-morning," he said, advancing to the fire. "I have no doubt that my
appearance at this early hour cannot be a surprise to you. You have, of
course, anticipated some visit of this kind for the last few days. Pray
finish your coffee. I am Sir Charles Danvers. I need hardly add that I
am justice of the peace in this county, and that I am here officially on
behalf of my friend, Mr. Dare."
The little woman, who had risen, and had then sat down again at his
entrance, eyed him steadily. There was a look in her dark bead-like eyes
which showed Charles why Dare had been unable to face her. The look,
determined, cunning, watchful, put him on his guard, and his manner
became a shade more unconcerned.
"Any friend of my husband's is welcome," she said.
"There is no question for the moment about your husband, though no doubt
a subject of peculiar interest to yourself. I was speaking of Mr. Dare."
She rose to her feet, as if unable to sit while he was standing.
"Mr. Dare is my husband," she said, with a little gesture of defiance,
tapping sharply on the table with a teaspoon she held in her hand.
Charles smiled blandly, and looked out of the window.
"There is evidently some misapprehension on that point," he observed,
"which I am here to remove. Mr. Dare is at present unmarried."
"I am his wife," reiterated the woman, her color rising under her rouge.
"I am, and I won't go. He dared not come himself, a poor coward that he
is, to turn his wife out-of-doors. He sent you; but it's no manner of
use, so you may as well know it first as last. I tell you nothing shall
induce me to stir from this house, from my home, and you needn't think
you can come it over me with fine talk. I don't care a red cent what you
say. I'll have my rights."
"I am here," said Charles, "to see that you get them, Mrs.--_Carroll_."
There was a pause. He did not look at her. He was occupied in taking a
white thread off his coat.
"Carroll's dead," she said, sharply.
"He is. And your regret at his loss was no doubt deepened by the unhappy
circumstances in which it took place. He died in jail."
"Well, and if he did--"
"Died," continued Charles, suddenly fixing his keen glance upon her,
"nearly a year after your so-called marriage with Mr. Dare."
"It's a lie," she said, faintly; but she had turned very white.
"No, I _think_ not. My information is on reliable authority. A slight
exertion of memory on your part will no doubt recall the date of your
bereavement."
"You can't prove it."
"Excuse me. You have yourself kindly furnished us with a copy of the
marriage register, with the date attached, without which I must own we
might have been momentarily at a loss. I need now only apply for a copy
of the register of the decease of Jasper Carroll, who, as you do not
deny, died under personal restraint in jail; in Baton Rouge Jail in
Louisiana, I have no doubt you intended to add."
She glared at him in silence.
"Some dates acquire a peculiar interest when compared," continued
Charles, "but I will not detain you any longer with business details of
this kind, as I have no doubt that you will wish to superintend your
packing."
"I won't go."
"On the contrary, you will leave this house in half an hour. The
dog-cart is ordered to take you to the station."
"What if I refuse to go?"
"Extreme measures are always to be regretted, especially with a lady,"
said Charles. "Nothing, in short, would be more repugnant to me; but I
fear, as a magistrate, it would be my duty to--" And he shrugged his
shoulders, wondering what on earth could be done for the moment if she
persisted. "But," he continued, "motives of self-interest suggest the
advisability of withdrawing, even if I were not here to enforce it. When
I take into consideration the trouble and expense you have incurred in
coming here, and the subsequent disappointment of the affections, a
widow's affections, I feel justified in offering, though without my
friend's permission, to pay your journey back to America, an offer which
any further unpleasantness or delay would of course oblige me to
retract."
She hesitated, and he saw his advantage and kept it.
"You have not much time to lose," he said, laying his watch on the
table, "unless you would prefer the house-keeper to do your packing for
you. No? I agree with you. On a sea voyage especially, one likes to know
where one's things are. If I give you a check for your return journey, I
shall, of course, expect you to sign a paper to the effect that you have
no claim on Mr. Dare, that you never were his legal wife, and that you
will not trouble him in future. You would like a few moments for
reflection? Good! I will write out the form while you consider, as there
is no time to be lost."
He looked about for writing materials, and, finding only an ancient
inkstand and pen, took a note from his pocket-book and tore a blank
half-sheet off it. His quiet deliberate movements awed her as he
intended they should. She glanced first at him writing, then at the gold
watch on the table between them, the hours of which were marked on the
half-hunting face by alternate diamonds and rubies, each stone being the
memorial of a past success in shooting-matches. The watch impressed her;
to her practised eye it meant a very large sum of money, and she knew
the power of money; but the cool, unconcerned manner of this tall,
keen-eyed Englishman impressed her still more. As she looked at him he
ceased writing, got out a check, and began to fill it in.
"What Christian name?" he asked, suddenly.
"Ellen," she replied, taken aback.
"Payable to order or bearer?"
"Bearer," she said, confused by the way he took her decision for
granted.
"Now," he said, authoritatively, "sign your name there;" and he pushed
the form he had drawn up towards her. "I am sorry I cannot offer you a
better pen."
She took the pen mechanically and signed her name--_Ellen Carroll_.
Charles's light eyes gave a flash as she did it.
"Manner is everything," he said to himself. "I believe the mention of
that imaginary policeman may have helped, but a little stage effect did
the business."
"Thank you," he said, taking the paper, and, after glancing at the
signature, putting it in his pocket-book. "Allow me to give you
this"--handing her the check. "And now I will ring for the house-keeper,
for you will barely have time to make the arrangements for your journey.
I can allow you only twenty minutes." He rang the bell as he spoke.
She started up as if unaware how far she had yielded. A rush of angry
color flooded her face.
"I won't have that impertinent woman touching my things."
"That is as you like," said Charles, shrugging his shoulders; "but she
will be in the room when you pack. It is my wish that she should be
present." Then turning to the butler, who had already answered the bell,
"Desire the house-keeper to go to Mrs. Carroll's rooms at once, and to
give Mrs. Carroll any help she may require."
Mrs. Carroll looked from the butler to Charles with baffled hatred in
her eyes. But she knew the game was lost, and she walked out of the room
and up-stairs without another word, but with a bitter consciousness in
her heart that she had not played her cards well, that, though her
downfall was unavoidable, she might have stood out for better terms for
her departure. She hated Dare, as she threw her clothes together into
her trunks, and she hated Mrs. Smith, who watched her do so with folded
hands and with a lofty smile; but most of all she hated Charles, whose
voice came up to the open window as he talked to Dare's coachman,
already at the door, about splints and sore backs.
Charles felt a momentary pity for the little woman when she came down at
last with compressed lips, casting lightning glances at the grinning
servants in the background, whom she had bullied and hectored over in
the manner of people unaccustomed to servants, and who were rejoicing in
the ignominy of her downfall.
Her boxes were put in--not carefully.
Charles came forward and lifted his cap, but she would not look at him.
Grasping a little hand-bag convulsively, she went down the steps, and
got up, unassisted, into the dog-cart.
"You have left nothing behind, I hope?" said Charles, civilly, for the
sake of saying something.
"She have left nothing," said Mrs. Smith, swimming forward with dignity,
"and she have also took nothing. I have seen to that, Sir Charles."
"Good-bye, then," said Charles. "Right, coachman."
Mrs. Carroll's eyes had been wandering upward to the old house rising
above her with its sunny windows and its pointed gables. Perhaps, after
all the sordid shifts and schemes of her previous existence, she had
imagined she might lead an easier and a more respectable life within
those walls. Then she looked towards the long green terraces, the
valley, and the forest beyond. Her lip trembled, and turning suddenly,
she fixed her eyes with burning hatred on the man who had ousted her
from this pleasant place.
Then the coachman whipped up his horse, the dog-cart spun over the
smooth gravel between the lines of stiff, clipped yews, and she was
gone.