At this point John Heron's ring and knock were heard at the door; with
a cry of terror, the unfortunate mother succeeded in dragging the
feebly struggling Joseph out of the room, and with Isabel's assistance,
hustled and pushed him up the stairs before his father was let in.
After a time Mrs. Heron came down again, and Ida heard her and her
husband talking together--you couldn't whisper in one room of Laburnum
Villa without being heard in another one--and presently the
drawing-room door opened and John Heron entered; Ida had waited, for
she had expected him. He was red and swollen with pomposity and
resentment, though he assumed a "more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger" air, and
threw a deeply grieved tone into his harsh, raucous voice.
"I am deeply grieved and shocked, Ida," he began, "to hear from your
cousin so deplorable an account of your conduct. I am not so unwise as
to look for gratitude in this world, but I did not think you would
repay our kindness and consideration by attempting to wreck the
happiness of a quiet and godly home. Of course, I make all allowances
for your bringing-up; I am aware that in the state of life from which
we rescued you, the spiritual and the religious were entirely absent;
but I had hopes that our precept and, I may say, example, the influence
of a deeply religious family--" by this time his voice had slid into
the nasal whine and growl which it assumed in the pulpit; and Ida,
notwithstanding her wretchedness, again felt an almost irresistible
desire to laugh.
"Please tell me, Cousin John, what it is I have done, what it is you
complain of?" she broke in.
Angered by the interruption, for there is nothing a man like John Heron
hates worse, he snapped out:
"You have been trying to snare the affections of my son; you have even
cast lascivious eyes at the stranger within our gates."
The blood rushed to Ida's face; then she laughed outright, the laugh of
desperation; for indeed, she despaired of convincing these stupid
people of her innocence. The laugh naturally exasperated John Heron,
and his gaunt face grew pallid for an instant.
"I understand!" he said. "You treat our remonstrances with scorn, you
scoff at our rebuke."
"Yes; I am afraid I can't help it, Cousin John," said Ida. "I am sorry
that you should think me so wicked and so--dangerous, and I quite agree
with Isabel and her mother that if I am as bad as you say, I am not fit
to live in a respectable house and with--decent people. It would be
useless for me to assure you that you are all ridiculously mistaken."
"My wife and daughter saw with their own eyes. I am informed that my
son is at this very moment in bed, prostrated by your heartless
conduct; you have trifled with that most delicate and sacred of things,
a human heart. Go to your chamber, Ida, and there I trust you will seek
repentance on your knees."
There was silence for a moment, then Ida said, very quietly:
"Have you anything more to say to me?"
"Not to-night," said John, sternly. "I am wearied with well-doing. I
have been preaching, calling sinners, like yourself, to a better life.
To-morrow I will speak with you again, I will endeavour to snatch a
brand from the burning."
"Good-night," said Ida. She paused with her hand on the door. "Cousin
John, you came to me when I was in great trouble; you offered me a home
when I was homeless; I think you have been as kind as you knew how to
be, and I want to thank you. I daresay it is my fault that I have not
got on better with you all. I am not so bad as you think--but we will
say no more about that. I do not want you to consider me ungrateful;
for indeed, I am grateful for the shelter you have given me, and I
shall always remember that you came to my aid when I was in sore need.
Will you please ask my cousin and Isabel to forgive me--for having
unwittingly caused them so much trouble? Good-night."
"Good-night," said John Heron, grimly. "I should be comforted if I
could think that you were speaking from your heart; but I fear that you
are not--I fear that you are not! Oh, may that heart be melted! may you
be brought to see the peril of your evil ways!" Followed by this devout
prayer, Ida went up to her room. As she paced up and down she tried to
tell herself that the whole thing was too ridiculous, was too much like
a farce to make her wretched; but she felt unutterably miserable, and
she knew that she could no longer endure Laburnum Villa and the petty
tyranny and vindictiveness of these relations.
Poverty, hardship, she could have borne patiently and without
complaining; but there are some things more intolerable to a
high-spirited girl, such as Ida, than poverty or physical
hardship--there are some things which hurt more than actual blows. She
felt stifling, choking; she knew that, happen what might, she could not
remain under her cousin's roof, eat the bread of his charity, for
another day. She shuddered as she pictured herself meeting them at the
breakfast-table, facing Mrs. Heron's spiteful face, Isabel's
tear-swollen eyes, and her cousin John's sanctimonious sermon.
She would have to go.
She thrust a few things into a bag and took out her purse and counted
the contents. They amounted to six pounds and a few shillings; but
small though the sum was, she thought that it would maintain her until
she could find some way of earning a livelihood, though at the moment
she had not the least idea what she could find to do. Without
undressing, she threw herself on the bed and tried to sleep; but her
heart ached too acutely and her brain was too active to permit of
sleep; and, try as she would, her mind would travel back to those brief
days of happiness at Herondale, and she was haunted by the remembrance
of Stafford and the love which she had lost; and at times that past was
almost effaced by the vision of Stafford seated beside Maude Falconer
at the concert.
As soon as she heard the servants moving about the house she rose, pale
and weary, and putting on her outdoor things, stole down-stairs with
her bag in her hand. The servants were busy in the kitchen, and she
unfastened the hall door and left the house without attracting any
attention. The fresh, morning air, while it roused her to a sense of
her position, revived and encouraged her. After all, she was young and
strong and--she looked up at the house of bondage which she was
leaving--she was free! Oh, blessed freedom! How often she had read of
it and heard it extolled; but she had never known until this moment how
great, how sweet a thing it was.
She waited at the mean little station until a workmen's train came up,
and, hustled by the crowd of sleepy and weary toilers, got into it.
When she left the terminus, she walked with a portion of the throng
which turned up Bishopsgate Street, though any other direction would
have suited her as well--or as little; for she had no idea where to go,
or what to do, beyond seeking some inexpensive lodging. She knew well
enough that she could not afford to go to a hotel; that she would have
to be content with a small room, perhaps an attic, and the plainest of
food, while she sought for work. It was soon evident to her that she
was not likely to find what she was looking for in the broad
thoroughfare of shops and offices, and, beginning to feel bewildered by
the crowd, which, early as it was, streamed along the pavements, she
turned off into one of the narrower streets.
The long arm of Coincidence which thrusts itself into all our affairs,
led her to the Minories, and to the very quay which Stafford had
reached in his aimless wanderings; and, mechanically she paused and
looked on dreamily at the bustle and confusion which reigned there.
Perhaps the presence of the sheep and cattle attracted her: she felt
drawn to them by sympathy with their hustled and hurried condition,
which so nearly resembled her own.
With one hand resting on a rail, and a bag in the other, she watched
the men as they drove the cattle up the gangways or lowered huge casks
and bales into the hold. A big, fat man, with a slouch hat on the back
of his head and a pipe in the corner of his mouth--which did not
prevent him shouting and bawling at the men and the animals--lurched
here and there like one of the casks, and in the midst of his shouting
and bawling, he every now and then glanced at a watch of the frying-pan
order.
It was evident even to the inexperienced Ida, that the vessel was about
to start; the sailors were rushing about on deck in the haste and
excitement of ordered disorder, chains were clanking, and ropes and
pulleys were shrieking; and a steam whistle shrieked at intervals and
added to the multitudinous noises.
"Poor sheep, poor bulls!" murmured Ida, as the last of the beasts were
driven up the gangway and disappeared. "Perhaps you have come from
another Herondale! Do you remember, do you look back, as I do?"
She drew back, for the big man suddenly lurched in her direction, and,
indeed, almost, against her.
"Beg pardon, miss," he said, touching his slouch hat. "Anything I can
do for you, anybody you're looking for?"
"No, oh, no!" said Ida, blushing and turning away. Mr. Joffler, for it
was that genial Australian, nodded and stretched his moon-like face in
a smile.
"Thought you'd come to say 'good-bye' to someone, p'raps. Wish it was
me! Though, if it was, I've an idea that I should stay on--air or no
air--and I'm blest if there ain't precious little about this morning!
Hi, there! All ready? Bless it all, we'll be too late for the tide if
he don't come," he said to the captain, who stood with one foot on the
taffrail, an expression of impatience on his weather-beaten face.
"Like enough he ain't comin', Mr. Joffler," he said. "Them kind o'
gents is always slippery."
"I dessay. Though I didn't think as this one was one of that kind. Too
much grit about him--ah, and I was not mistaken! Here he is! Get ready
there!"
He turned, and Ida, instinctively turning with him, saw a tall figure
clad in a serge suit making its way quickly through the crowd of busy
dock-men and idly lounging spectators. He came straight to the big, fat
man, who greeted him jovially and loudly, and they passed side by side
on to the vessel.
Ida drew a long breath and passed her hand over her brow. It was
absurd, of course, it was a trick of the imagination, of a wearied and
overstrained brain--but the tall figure in the blue serge--ah, how like
it was to that of Stafford!
It disappeared with that of the big man into the vessel, and, with a
sigh, she was coming away when she saw the two men coming along the
deck and mount to the quarter. The fat man was talking and laughing,
but the man in the blue serge was grave and silent, as if he was lost
in thought and not listening.
Suddenly, as she paused, the younger, slimmer figure turned in her
direction and uttered a cry, a cry almost of terror. Was she demented?
Had her longing, her aching longing for a sight of him called up this
vision of Stafford? Unless she were out of her mind, the victim of a
strange hallucination, it was he himself who stood there, his face,
pale and haggard, turned towards her.
"Stafford!" she cried, unconsciously, and her hand gripped the iron
rail in front of her.
As if he had heard her--though it was impossible that her voice could
reach him through the shouts of the sailors, the lowing and bleating of
the cattle--he raised his head and looked in her direction. Their eyes
met and were enchained for a moment, which seemed an eternity; then the
blood flew to his face, leaving it the next moment paler than before.
He swung round to the fat man by his side and clutched his arm.
"Wait! Stop the vessel! I want to go ashore!" he said, hoarsely.
Mr. Joffler stared at him, then laughed.
"Hold on, sir!" he said, not unsympathetically. "Hold on! Took queer
like! Lor' bless you, I know how the feelin' is! It catches at you
right in the middle of the waistcoat. It's the thought of the land
going back from you--we're moving, we're well away. Here, take a sip of
this! You'll get over it in a brace o' shakes."
He thrust a flask into Stafford's hand, but Stafford put it away from
him.
"Let me go ashore! I'll join you later," he said, breathlessly.
Mr. Joffler caught his arm as he was about to jump for the quay.
"Steady, steady, sir!" he admonished, soothingly. "We can't stop--and
you'd break your neck trying to jump it! And all for a fancy, too, I'd
stake my life! Hearten up, man, hearten up! You're not the first to
feel sick and sorry at leavin' home and friends."
Stafford bit his lip and tried to pull himself together; but his eyes
were still fixed on the pale face, the girlish, black-clad figure, and
his voice was shaky, as he said:
"You're right, Mr. Joffler. It is too late now. I--I thought I saw
someone on the quay there. But it must have been fancy; it is impossible,
quite impossible!"
"That's it," said Mr. Joffler, with a sympathetic wink. "Lor' love you,
I've had them kind o' fancies myself, especially after a hot night on
shore. If you'd only take a pull at this, you'd be all right directly.
It don't do to come aboard too sober, 'specially when you're leavin'
old England for the first time. Do you see 'em now?"
Ida had moved away, and Stafford drew a long breath and forced a smile.
"No," he said, huskily, and almost to himself. "Yes; it must have been
fancy. She could not have been there. It is impossible!"
Mr. Joffler whistled and winked to himself comprehendingly.
"She!'" he murmured. "Ah, that's it, is it? Ah, well I've been there
myself! Don't you let the fancy upset you, sir! It 'ull pass afore we
gets into the open. Nothing like the sea for teachin' you to forget
gals you've left behind you! Come down below and try and peck a bit.
There's cold beef--_and_ pickles. That'll send them kind o' fancies to
the right about."
Ida turned and walked quickly away. Her head swam, she looked like one
in a dream. It was, of course, impossible that the man she had seen
could be Stafford: Stafford on board a cattle-ship! But the
hallucination had made her feel faint and ill. She remembered that she
had eaten nothing since yesterday at noon, and she ascribed this freak
of her imagination to the weakness caused by want of food.
She left the quay slowly--as if her heart and her strength and all her
life's hope had gone with the dingy vessel--and emerging on the narrow,
crowded street, looked for some shop at which she could buy a roll of
bread. Presently she saw a baker's at the opposite side of the road to
that on which she was walking, and she was crossing, when a huge empty
van came lumbering round the corner. She drew back to let it pass; and,
as she did so, a lighter cart came swiftly upon her. She was so dazed,
so bewildered by the vision she had seen, and the noise of the street,
that she stood, hesitating, uncertain whether to go on or retreat to
the pavement she had left.
The woman--or man--who hesitates in the middle of a busy London street
is lost: the cart was upon her before she had moved, the shaft struck
her on the shoulder and down she went into the muddy road!
The driver jerked the horse aside, and leapt from his seat, the usual
crowd, which seems to spring instantaneously from the very stones,
collected and surged round, the usual policeman forced his way through,
and Ida was picked up and carried to the pavement.
There was a patch of blood on the side of her head--the dear, small
head which had rested on Stafford's breast so often!--and she was
unconscious.
"'Orse struck 'er with 'is 'oof," said the policeman, sententiously.
"'Ere, boy, call a keb. I'll have your name and address, young man."
A cab was brought, and Ida, still unconscious, was carried to the
London Hospital.
And lay there, in the white, painfully clean, carbolic-smelling ward,
attended by the most skillful doctors in England and by the grave and
silent nurses, who, notwithstanding their lives of stress and toil, had
not lost the capacity for pity and sympathy. Indeed, no one with a
heart in her bosom could stand up unmoved and hear the girl moaning and
crying in a whisper for "Stafford."
Day and night the white lips framed the same name--Stafford,
Stafford!--as if her soul were in the cry.