ANOTHER MEETING.
Lord Ascot had been moved into South Audley Street, his town house, and
Lady Ascot was there nursing him. General Mainwaring was off for Varna.
But Lord Saltire had been a constant visitor, bringing with him very
often Marston, who was, you will remember, an old friend of Lady Ascot.
It was not at all an unpleasant house to be in. Lord Ascot was
crippled--he had been seized with paralysis at Epsom; and he was ruined.
But every one knew the worst, and felt relieved by thinking that things
could get no worse than worst, and so must get better.
In fact, every one admitted to the family party about that time
remembered it as a very happy and quiet time indeed. Lord Ascot was
their first object, of course; and a more gentle and biddable invalid
than the poor fellow made can hardly be conceived. He was passionately
fond of reading novels (a most reprehensible practice), and so was
easily amused. Lord Saltire and he would play picquet: and every evening
there would be three hours of whist, until the doctor looked in the
last thing, and Lord Ascot was helped to bed.
Marston was always set to play with Lord Ascot, because Lord Saltire and
Lady Ascot would not play against one another. Lord Saltire, was, of
course, one of the best players in Europe; and I really believe that
Lady Ascot was not the worst by any means. I can see the party now. I
can see Lady Ascot laying down a card, and looking at the same time at
her partner, to call his attention to her lead. And I can see Lord
Saltire take out his snuff-box threat, as if he were puzzled, but not
alarmed. William would come sometimes and sit quietly behind Marston, or
Lord Saltire, watching the game. In short, they were a very quiet
pleasant party indeed.
One night--it was the very night on which Adelaide had lost her hat in
the Park--there was no whist. Marston had gone down to Oxford suddenly,
and William came in to tell them so. Lady Ascot was rather glad, she
said, for she had a friend coming to tea, who did not play whist; so
Lord Saltire and Lord Ascot sat down to picquet, and William talked to
his aunt.
"Who is your friend, Maria?" asked Lord Saltire.
"A Mr. Bidder, a minister. He has written a book on the Revelations,
which you really ought to read, James; it would suit you."
They both laughed.
"About the seven seals, hey?" said Lord Saltire; "'_septem phocæ_,' as I
remember Machynleth translated it at Eton once. We called him 'Vitulina'
ever after. The name stuck to him through life with some of us. A
capital name for him, too! His fussy blundering in this war-business is
just like his old headlong way of looking out words in his dictionary.
He is an ass, Maria; and I will bet fifty pounds that your friend, the
minister, is another."
"How can you know? at all events, the man he brings with him is none."
"Another minister?"
"Yes, a Moravian missionary from Australia."
"Then certainly another ass, or he would have gone as missionary to a
less abominably detestable hole. They were all burnt into the sea there
the other day. Immediately after which the river rose seventy feet, and
drowned the rest of them."
Soon after were announced Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith. Mr. Bidder was an
entirely unremarkable man; but Mr. Smith was one of the most remarkable
men I have ever seen, or rather heard--for externally there was nothing
remarkable about him, except a fine forehead, and a large expressive
grey eye, which, when he spoke to you, seemed to come back from a long
distance, and fix itself upon yours. In manners he was perfect. He was
rather taciturn, though always delighted to communicate information
about his travels, in a perfectly natural way. If one man wanted
information on botany, or what not, he was there to give it. If another
wanted to hear about missionary work, he was ready for him. He never
spoke or acted untruthfully for one instant. He never acted the free and
easy man of the world as some religious gentlemen of all sects feel it
necessary to do sometimes, imitating the real thing as well as Paul
Bedford would imitate Fanny Ellsler. What made him remarkable was his
terrible earnestness, and the feeling you had, that his curious language
was natural, and meant something; something very important indeed.
He has something to do with the story. The straws in the gutter have to
do with the history of a man like Charles, a man who leaves all things
to chance. And this man Smith is very worthy of notice, and so I have
said thus much about him, and am going to say more.
Mr. Bidder was very strong on the Russian war, which he illustrated by
the Revelations. He was a good fellow, and well-bred enough to see that
his friend Smith was an object of greater interest to Lady Ascot than
himself; so he "retired into" a book of prints, and left the field
clear.
Mr. Smith sat by Lady Ascot, and William drew close up. Lady Ascot began
by a commonplace, of course.
"You have suffered great hardships among those savages, Mr. Smith, have
you not?"
"Hardships! Oh, dear no, my dear lady. Our station was one of the
pleasantest places in the whole earth I believe; and we had a peaceful
time. When the old man is strong in me I wish I was back there."
"You did not make much progress with them, I believe?"
"None whatever. We found out after a year or two that it was hopeless to
make them understand the existence of a God; and after that we stayed on
to see if we could bring them to some knowledge of agriculture, and save
them from their inevitable extermination, as the New Zealanders have
been saved."
"And to no purpose?"
"None. For instance, we taught them to plant our potatoes for us. They
did it beautifully, but in the night they dug them up and ate them. And
in due season we waited that our potatoes should grow, and they grew
not. Then they came to Brother Hillyar, my coadjutor, an old man, now
ruling ten cities for his Master, and promised for rewards of flour to
tell him why the potatoes did not grow. And he, loving them, gave them
what they desired. And they told him that they dug them up while we
slept. And for two days I went about my business, laughing in secret
places, for which he tried to rebuke me, but could not, laughing
himself. The Lord kept him waiting long, for he was seventy-four; but,
doubtless, his reward is the greater."
William said, "You brought home a collection of zoological specimens, I
think. They are in the Museum."
"Yes. But what I could not bring over were my live pets. I and my wife
had a menagerie of our own--a great number of beasts----"
Mr. Bidder looking up from his book, catching the last sentence only,
said the number of the beast was 666; and, then turning round, held
himself ready to strike into the conversation, thinking that the time
was come when he should hide his light no longer.
"The natives are very low savages, are they not, Mr. Smith?" said
William. "I have heard that they cannot count above ten."
"Not so far as that," said Mr. Smith. "The tribe we were most among used
to express all large unknown quantities by 'eighty-four;'[4] it was as
_x_ and _y_ to them. That seems curious at first, does it not?"
William said it did seem curious, their choosing that particular number.
But Mr. Bidder, dying to mount his hobby-horse, and not caring how, said
it was not at all curious. If you multiplied the twelve tribes of Israel
into the seven cities of refuge, there you were at once.
Mr. Smith said he thought he had made a little mistake. The number, he
fancied, was ninety-four.
Lord Saltire, from the card-table, said that that made the matter
clearer than before, For if you placed the Ten Commandments to the
previous result you arrived at ninety-four, which was the number wanted.
And his lordship, who had lost, and was consequently possibly cross,
added that, if you divided the whole by the five foolish virgins, and
pitched Tobit's dog, neck and heels into the result, you would find
yourself much about where you started.
Mr. Bidder, who, as I said, was a good fellow, laughed, and Mr. Smith
resumed the conversation once more; Lord Saltire seemed interested in
what he said, and did not interfere with him.
"You buried poor Mrs. Smith out there," said Lady Ascot. "I remember her
well. She was very beautiful as a girl."
"Very beautiful," said the missionary. "Yes; she never lost her beauty,
do you know. That climate is very deadly to those who go there with the
seeds of consumption in them. She had done a hard day's work before she
went to sleep, though she was young. Don't you think so, Lady Ascot?"
"A hard day's work; a good day's work, indeed. Who knows better than I?"
said Lady Ascot. "What an awakening it must be from such a sleep as
hers!"
"Beyond the power of human tongue to tell," said the missionary, looking
dreamily as at something far away. "Show me the poet that can describe
in his finest language the joy of one's soul when one wakes on a
summer's morning. Who, then, can conceive or tell the unutterable
happiness of the purified soul, waking face to face with the King of
Glory?"
Lord Saltire looked at him curiously, and said to himself, "This fellow
is in earnest. I have seen this sort of thing before. But seldom! Yes,
but seldom!"
"I should not have alluded to my wife's death," continued the
missionary, in a low voice, "but that her ladyship introduced the
subject. And no one has a better right to hear of her than her kind old
friend. She fell asleep on the Sabbath evening after prayers. We moved
her bed into the verandah, Lady Ascot, that she might see the sunlight
fade out on the tops of the highest trees--a sight she always loved. And
from the verandah we could see through the tree stems Mount Joorma, laid
out in endless folds of woodland, all purple and gold. And I thought she
was looking at the mountain, but she was looking far beyond that, for
she said, 'I shall have to wait thirty years for you, James, but I shall
be very happy and very busy. The time will go quick enough for me, but
it will be a slow, weary time for you, my darling. Go home from here, my
love, into the great towns, and see what is to be done there.' And so
she went to sleep.
"I rebelled for three days. I went away into the bush, with Satan at my
elbow all the time, through dry places, through the forest, down by
lonely creeksides, up among bald volcanic downs, where there are slopes
of slippery turf, leading down to treacherous precipices of slag; and
then through the quartz ranges, and the reedy swamps, where the black
swans float, and the spur-winged plover hovers and cackles; all about I
went among the beasts and the birds. But on the third day the Lord
wearied of me, and took me back, and I lay on His bosom again like a
child. He will always take you home, my lord, if you come. After three
days, after thrice twenty years, my lord. Time is nothing to Him."
Lord Saltire was looking on him with kindly admiration.
"There is something in it, my lord. Depend upon it that it is not all a
dream. Would not you give all your amazing wealth, all your honours,
everything, to change places with me?"
"I certainly would," said Lord Saltire. "I have always been of opinion
that there was something in it. I remember," he continued, turning to
William, "expressing the same opinion to your father in the Fleet Prison
once, when he had quarrelled with the priests for expressing some
opinions which he had got from me. But you must take up with that sort
of thing very early in life if you mean it to have any reality at all. I
am too old now!"[5]
Lord Saltire said this in a different tone from his usual one. In a tone
that we have never heard him use before. There was something about the
man Smith which, in spite of his quaint language, softened every one who
heard him speak. Lady Ascot says it was the grace of God. I entirely
agree with her ladyship.
"I came home," concluded the missionary, "to try some city work. My
wife's nephew, John Marston, whom I expected to see here to-night, is
going to assist me in this work. There seems plenty to do. We are at
work in Southwark, at present."
Possibly it was well that the company, more particularly Lady Ascot,
were in a softened and forgiving mood. For, before any one had resumed
the conversation, Lord Ascot's valet stood in the door, and, looking at
Lady Ascot with a face which said as plain as words, "It is a terrible
business, my lady, but I am innocent," announced--
"Lady Welter."
Lord Saltire put his snuff-box into his right-hand trousers' pocket, and
his pocket handkerchief into his left, and kept his hands there, leaning
back in his chair, with his legs stretched out, and a smile of infinite
wicked amusement on his face. Lord Ascot and William stared like a
couple of gabies. Lady Ascot had no time to make the slightest change,
either in feature or position, before Adelaide, dressed for the evening
in a cloud of white and pink, with her bare arms loaded with bracelets,
a swansdown fan hanging from her left wrist, sailed swiftly into the
room, with outstretched hands, bore down on Lady Ascot, and began
kissing her, as though the old lady were a fruit of some sort, and she
were a dove pecking at it.
"Dearest grandma!"--peck. "So glad to see you!"--peck. "Couldn't help
calling in on you as I went to Lady Brittlejug's--and how well you are
looking!"--peck, peck. "I can spare ten minutes--do tell me all the
news, since I saw you. My dear Lord Ascot, I was so sorry to hear of
your illness, but you look better than I expected. And how do _you_ do,
my dear Lord Saltire?"
Lord Saltire was pretty well, and was delighted to see Lady Welter
apparently in the enjoyment of such health and spirits, and so on,
aloud. But, secretly, Lord Saltire was wondering what on earth could
have brought her here. Perhaps she only wanted to take Lady Ascot by
surprise, and force her into a recognition of her as Lady Welter. No. My
lord saw there was something more than that. She was restless and absent
with Lady Ascot. Her eye kept wandering in the middle of all her
rattling talk; but, wherever it wandered, it always came back to
William, of whom she had hitherto taken no notice whatever.
"She has come after him. For what?" thought my lord. "I wonder if the
jade knows anything of Charles."
Lady Ascot had steeled herself against this meeting. She had determined,
firstly, that no mortal power should ever induce her to set eyes on
Adelaide again; and, secondly, that she, Lady Ascot, would give her,
Adelaide, a piece of her mind, which she should never forget to her
dying day. The first of these rather contradictory determinations had
been disposed of by Adelaide's audacity; and as for the second--why, the
piece of Lady Ascot's mind which was to be given to Adelaide was somehow
not ready; but, instead of it, only silent tears, and withered,
trembling fingers, which wandered lovingly over the beautiful young
hand, and made the gaudy bracelets on the wrist click one against the
other.
"What could I say, Brooks? what could I do?" said Lady Ascot to her maid
that night, "when I saw her own self come back, with her own old way? I
love the girl more than ever, Brooks, I believe. She beat me. She took
me by surprise. I could not resist her. If she had proposed to put me in
a wheelbarrow, and wheel me into the middle of that disgraceful, that
detestable woman Brittlejug's drawing-room, there and then, I should
have let her do it, I believe. I might have begged for time to put on my
bonnet; but I should have gone."
She sat there ten minutes or more, talking. Then she said that it was
time to go, but that she should come and see Lady Ascot on the morrow.
Then she turned to William, to whom she had not been introduced, and
asked, would he see her to her carriage? Lord Saltire was next the bell,
and looking her steadily in the face, raised his hand slowly to pull it.
Adelaide begged him eagerly not to trouble himself; he, with a smile,
promptly dropped his hand, and out she sailed on William's arm, Lord
Saltire holding the door open, and shutting it after her, with somewhat
singular rapidity.
"I hope none of those fools of servants will come blundering upstairs
before she has said her say," he remarked, aloud. "Give us some of your
South African experiences, Mr. Smith. Did you ever see a woman beautiful
enough to go clip a lion's claws singlehanded, eh?"
William, convoying Adelaide downstairs, had got no farther than the
first step, when he felt her hand drawn from his arm; he had got one
foot on the step below, when he turned to see the cause of this.
Adelaide was standing on the step above him, with her glorious face bent
sternly, almost fiercely, down on his, and the hand from which the fan
hung pointed towards him. It was as beautiful a sight as he had ever
seen, and he calmly wondered what it meant. The perfect mouth was curved
in scorn, and from it came sharp ringing words, decisive, hard, clear,
like the sound of a hammer on an anvil.
"Are you a party to this shameful business, sir? you, who have taken his
name, and his place, and his prospects in society. You, who professed,
as I hear, to love him like another life, dearer than your own. You, who
lay on the same breast with him--tell me, in God's name, that you are
sinning in ignorance."
William, as I have remarked before, had a certain amount of shrewdness.
He determined to let her go on. He only said, "You are speaking of
Charles Ravenshoe."
"Ay," she said, sharply; "of Charles Ravenshoe, sir--ex-stable-boy. I
came here to-night to beard them all; to ask them did they know, and did
they dare to suffer it. If they had not given me an answer, I would have
said such things to them as would have made them stop their ears. Lord
Saltire has a biting tongue, has he? Let him hear what mine is. But when
I saw you among them, I determined to save a scene, and speak to you
alone. Shameful----"
William looked quietly at her. "Will your ladyship remark that I, that
all of us, have been moving heaven and earth to find Charles Ravenshoe,
and that we have been utterly unable to find him? If you have any
information about him, would it not be as well to consider that the
desperation caused by your treatment of him was the principal cause of
his extraordinary resolution of hiding himself? And, instead of scolding
me and others, who are doing all we can, to give us all the information
in your power?"
"Well, well," she said, "perhaps you are right. Consider me rebuked,
will you have the goodness? I saw Charles Ravenshoe to-day."
"To-day!"
"Ay, and talked to him."
"How did he look? was he pale? was he thin? Did he seem to want money?
Did he ask after me? Did he send any message? Can you take me to where
he is? Did he seem much broken down? Does he know we have been seeking
him? Lady Welter, for God's sake, do something to repair the wrong you
did him, and take me to where he is."
"I don't know where he is, I tell you. I saw him for just one moment. He
picked up my hat in the Park. He was dressed like a groom. He came from
I know not where, like a ghost from the grave. He did not speak to me.
He gave me my hat, and was gone. I do not know whose groom he is, but I
think Welter knows. He will tell me to-night. I dared not ask him
to-day, lest he should think I was going to see him. When I tell him
where I have been, and describe what has passed here, he will tell me.
Come to me to-morrow morning, and he shall tell you; that will be
better. You have sense enough to see why."
"I see."
"Another thing. He has seen his sister Ellen. And yet another thing.
When I ran away with Lord Welter, I had no idea of what had happened to
him--of this miserable _esclandre_. But you must have known that before,
if you were inclined to do me justice. Come to-morrow morning. I must go
now."
And so she went to her carriage by herself after all. And William stood
still on the stairs, triumphant. Charles was as good as found.
The two clergymen passed him on their way downstairs, and bade him
good-night. Then he returned to the drawing-room, and said--
"My lord, Lady Welter has seen Charles to-day, and spoken to him. With
God's help, I will have him here with us to-morrow night."
It was half-past eleven. What Charles, in his headlong folly and
stupidity, had contrived to do before this time, must be told in
another chapter--no, I have not patience to wait. My patience is
exhausted. One act of folly following another so fast would exhaust the
patience of Job. If one did not love him so well, one would not be so
angry with him. I will tell it here and have done with it. When he had
left Adelaide, he had gone home with Hornby. He had taken the horses to
the stable; he had written a note to Hornby. Then he had packed up a
bundle of clothes, and walked quietly off.
Round by St. Peter's Church--he had no particular reason for going
there, except, perhaps, that his poor foolish heart yearned that evening
to see some one who cared for him, though it were only a shoeblack.
There was still one pair of eyes which would throw a light for one
instant into the thick darkness which was gathering fast around him.
His little friend was there. Charles and he talked for a while, and at
last he said--
"You will not see me again. I am going to the war. I am going to Windsor
to enlist in the Hussars, to-night."
"They will kill you," said the boy.
"Most likely," said Charles. "So we must say good-bye. Mind, now, you go
to the school at night, and say that prayer I gave you on the paper. We
must say good-bye. We had better be quick about it."
The boy looked at him steadily. Then he began to draw his breath in long
sighs--longer, longer yet, till his chest seemed bursting. Then out it
all came in a furious hurricane of tears, and he leant his head against
the wall, and beat the bricks with his clenched hand.
"And I am never to see you no more! no more! no more!"
"No more," said Charles. But he thought he might soften the poor boy's
grief; and he did think, too, at the moment, that he would go and see
the house where his kind old aunt lived, before he went away for ever;
so he said--
"I shall be in South Audley Street, 167, to-morrow at noon. Now, you
must not cry, my dear. You must say good-bye."
And so he left him, thinking to see him no more. Once more, Charles,
only once more, and then God help you!
He went off that night to Windsor, and enlisted in the 140th Hussars.