"Jerry," said Charlotte suddenly, a few days after Claudia's unlucky
attempt, "it's no use. I've tried and I've tried to like that girl, at
least to have no unkind feelings to her, and it's no good. Gueda has
gone now, and we--that girl and I--seem forced to be together in
everything, and I just hate it."
"But not _her_," said Jerry; "it isn't so bad if it's only the--the
thing, the way it's come, that you hate, not the girl herself."
"I don't know. I'm afraid it's much the same, and in a queer way I
think I'd not mind so much if there were anything to hate about her, but
there isn't. Sometimes I could almost fancy myself liking her awfully,
and that makes it worse."
Charlotte stopped writing altogether and gazed out of the window on to
the little deserted garden, looking blacker and drearier than ever in
this grim December afternoon, with a sort of despair in her face.
"In spite of her being so horrid and impertinent to you the other day--
asking if you were going to be a governess--you--papa's daughter, and
with four brothers to work for you, even supposing you hadn't a father,"
said Jerry wrathfully.
"But after all, perhaps, she didn't mean it in any horrid, patronising
way. I suppose very, very rich people really don't understand, as papa
said. Everybody that isn't as rich as they seems all much about the
same to them, I suppose."
Jerry gave a sort of growl.
"Then very rich people must be very vulgar and ill-bred," he said.
"I don't know," said Charlotte. "I try to say things to myself to make
me feel nicer about her, but it seems no good. I don't speak about it
to mamma, because she told me it was better to fight down such feelings
in my own heart, and I could see it really made her unhappy. She is so
dreadfully sympathising, and so gentle herself. I'm afraid there's
something almost fierce in me that she can scarcely understand, Jerry.
But there's one thing that's the worst of all. I think I could stand
everything else if it wasn't for the German prize. But if she gets
that--oh, Jerry, it will break my heart. And next week Herr
Marklestatter will be giving out the notes for the essay. You know the
prize is for the essay."
"Is she sure to try for it?"
"Oh, yes," said Charlotte. "The other girls are already saying that it
lies between her and me. I don't know that _she_ has heard or thought
much about it--she doesn't hear much of the talk that goes on, and I'm
sure I listen to as little as I can: it can't possibly matter to her as
much as to me. It will be the first year I have not had it since Herr
Marklestatter has taught us. Oh, Jerry, _isn't_ it hard?"
Jerry sat silent, as was his way when his feelings were deeply moved.
"It's more than hard, it's unbearable," he said at last. "I don't care
how lovely she is, and all that," he went on after a little pause, "she
must be a horrid, stuck-up, selfish creature."
"I don't know," said Charlotte, for the third time. "I don't think I
_do_ think her so in the bottom of my heart, though sometimes it does
seem like it. But independently of her interfering so with me, I don't
understand her; she never tells any of us a thing. We don't know if she
is an orphan, or if she has any one she cares for, or anything. And yet
there is a look in her eyes--" and Charlotte's own eyes took a softer
expression, "a far-away look, _almost_ sad;--though what can she have to
be sad about?--she that has _everything_! I saw it one day when mamma
was going to call for me, and I had to go half an hour sooner. I like
awfully when mamma calls for me, you know, Jerry, and I suppose I looked
pleased when I jumped up, and she was sitting beside me, and I was
almost sure I heard her give a sort of little sob."
"I thought you said her father and mother had died when she was a baby,
and that she couldn't remember them," Jerry remarked.
"No; I only said very likely they had. It was at the beginning of our
talking about it, when I was saying she had everything, and you tried to
make out perhaps she wasn't clever,--oh, my goodness, she not clever!--
and that she was an orphan, and--and--I am sure there was another thing
you said perhaps she had or hadn't."
"I know," said Jerry: "it was that perhaps she had to sleep in the
haunted room at Silverthorns. I just wish she had, and that the old
ghost, the cruel old Osbert papa told us of, would appear to her and
give her a jolly good fright, and teach her to feel for others a
little."
"She isn't unfeeling in some ways," said Charlotte. "One day one of the
dogs at Silverthorns--it's an old dog that belonged to Mr Osbert, and
was always with him, and now it's taken a great fancy to her, she says--
well, it followed her, running after her pony-carriage all the way to
school, and she never saw it till it panted up to the steps and lay
there as if it was dying. She was in such a state--the tears running
down her face. She ran in with it in her arms, and begged Miss Lloyd to
let it stay; and when she went home again she had it packed up in a
shawl beside her. Oh, she does look so nice when she drives off! The
pony and everything are so perfect. But I must go on with my lessons."
"So must I," said Jerry; and for a few minutes there was silence.
Then Charlotte looked up again.
"Jerry," she said, "I wish you hadn't said that about the ghost at
Silverthorns; it makes me shiver. Supposing, just _supposing_ it did go
to her, and that she was fearfully frightened, it would seem as if it
was our fault somehow."
"Rubbish!" said Jerry. "It wouldn't be our fault; we're not witches.
Besides, it's all nonsense."
"I wonder if she has ever heard of it," said Charlotte. "I wonder if
there is any truth in it."
And that evening, when all the family was together in the drawing-room,
she spoke of it again to her father.
"Papa," she said, "do you remember telling us of a haunted room at
Silverthorns? Is it _really_ true that there is one?"
"Perfectly true, as I told you, that there is a room which is _said_ to
be haunted," replied her father. "But I personally can't vouch for
anything--at least for very little--beyond that."
Five, nay six pairs of ears, for Mrs Waldron was nearly as eager on the
subject as her children, pricked themselves up at this slight though
incautious admission.
"`Very little,' you say, papa?" Charlotte exclaimed. "Oh, do tell us
what the `very little' is. Who told it you? Did you hear it at first
hand, or how? and when? and from whom?"
Mr Waldron looked round him helplessly. He had spoken thoughtlessly,
for even the wisest of us cannot be always on our guard. He had been
half asleep, to tell the truth, when Charlotte first roused him by her
question, for he had had a hard day's work, and had driven some distance
in the cold, and the arm-chair by the fire was very comfortable. He was
wide awake now, however, and very much at a loss what to say. He had
always, for reasons understood by his wife, avoided allusions to
Silverthorns or the Osbert family; but of late, circumstances had seemed
to force the place and its inhabitants upon the young Waldrons' notice;
and if he tried to back out of what he had said, it would probably only
whet the interest and curiosity he deprecated. Better tell simply, and
as it were unconsciously, what there was to tell.
"My dears, indeed there is nothing to interest you," he said. "You know
the legend--I told it to you the other day--that a long-ago Osbert had
behaved very unjustly and cruelly, and that his spirit is supposed to be
unable to rest on that account. Well--"
"But, papa," said Arthur, "excuse me for interrupting you, but I was
thinking over the story. I don't see that it was so very wrong of him
to wish the place to remain in the family--I mean to be owned by
_Osberts_. It is the feeling everybody has."
Mr Waldron smiled. It amused him to see the eldest son sentiment in
Arthur, though he was heir to nothing.
"I quite agree with you," he said. "But you forget--he was really
cruel, for he left his poor daughter utterly penniless, in reality to
gratify the spite he had always had against her. He carried his family
pride a little too far, surely? Besides, he was a hard and unfeeling
landlord."
"Oh, yes," said Arthur, "I forgot. Of course he might have looked after
his daughter without letting the place go out of the family. And what
did you say was the prophecy, papa?--that he should be punished by
Silverthorns going in the female line after all, isn't it? That has
never come to pass yet--there have always been Osberts there?"
"Yes; the legend is, that the unhappy ghost shall never rest till the
descendants of a daughter of the house own the place. It came near it
once many years ago. The then squire had only a sister, and though the
place had always been left in the male line, her grandson--her son was
dead--would have succeeded, failing male Osberts, had not a cousin who
had not been heard of for many years turned up. He was an old man, who
had been most of his life in Australia, and he never came home to enjoy
his inheritance. But he had two sons: one became the squire, and did
very well for himself, by marrying Lady Mildred Meredon, for she is a
clever and capable woman, and he would never have left things in as good
order as he did but for her. The other son is now General Osbert."
"But, papa," said Charlotte, whose quick wits had taken in all he said,
"if the place always goes to Osberts, it must be all nonsense about Lady
Mildred's intending to leave it to this Miss Meredon, as everybody will
say."
"I don't know," said her father. "There have been rumours that Lady
Mildred is perfectly free to do as she likes with it, others that she is
bound by some arrangement to leave it to the Osberts, and that in
reality she only has it for her life. Either may be true. Mr Osbert
and his brother were not very friendly, and General Osbert needed money.
Perhaps he was satisfied with some help from his brother during his
life. And the squire was much attached to his wife, and owed much to
her. She may be able to leave it to her own people. But even if not,
it doesn't matter--General Osbert has sons," he added, as if thinking
aloud.
"Papa!" exclaimed Charlotte almost indignantly, "how can you say it
doesn't matter? I think it would be the most unfair, unnatural thing to
leave an old, old place like that to people who have _nothing_ to do
with it."
"What does it matter to us?" said Ted, with a yawn. "How can you excite
yourself so about other people's affairs, Charlotte?"
But Mr Waldron stroked Charlotte's head as she sat near him.
"I think it is very unlikely," he said. "Mr Osbert had plenty of
family feeling."
"What would the poor ghost do if it were so?" said Jerry, so seriously
that they all laughed. "Just fancy his feelings! He'd lose all chance
of ever resting in peace, poor thing--for if it once went away to
another family, it could never go to the descendants of a woman Osbert.
Lady Mildred isn't an Osbert. No, you needn't laugh--I'm very sorry for
the ghost," he persisted with real concern. "It makes me feel quite
fidgety. I'd like to know about how it really is."
"Perhaps Lady Mildred would `count' as a woman Osbert," said Noble. "It
would seem fair, for the ghost would surely be punished enough by its
going quite away from his family."
"Nonsense, Noble," said Jerry irritably. "Those relations of
hers--_that_ girl," with an accent of bitter scorn, "is not even her
descendant, supposing Lady Mildred did count."
Charlotte glanced at him uneasily. It was so unlike Jerry to speak with
such a tone of any one. And she knew whence came the prejudice he
showed.
"We shall have to tell _you_ not to excite yourself next, Jerry, my
boy," said his father. "I shall wish I had not told you anything about
it."
"But you haven't, papa," said Charlotte. "That's to say, we have not
heard a word about the ghost yet, I mean of what you `could personally
vouch for.' Do tell us."
Mr Waldron glanced at his wife. "How am I to get out of it?" his eyes
seemed to ask.
"Yes," said Mrs Waldron calmly, chiming in with Charlotte; "do tell
us."
"I had heard this old story as a child," he began. "You know I lived in
this neighbourhood as a little boy, but I don't think I ever told you
that in the old days I have stayed at Silverthorns."
"At Silverthorns itself!" repeated several voices. "No, indeed, papa,
you never told us. How very funny it seems! Why didn't you ever tell
us?"
"It is more or less painful to me to recall that time," Mr Waldron
replied quietly. "They are all dead, all those I loved and cared for
then. And it is so long ago now! But to go on with my story. I
happened to be at Silverthorns one winter when the old squire was taken
ill. I was there because my guardian who took charge of me was a very
dear and old friend of his, and I was a quiet sort of child that did not
give much trouble. I was left to run about the place as I liked, while
the two old people were together. I slept in a little room in the
oldest part of the house, which was the part the squire liked best, and
he and his guests--unless there happened to be a great many in the
house--inhabited it much more than the modern part. Do you remember,
Charlotte and Jerry, noticing a sort of square tower at the end?"
"With a pointed window high up, and a pointed roof, almost like a kind
of great pigeon-house? Oh, yes, I remember it," said Charlotte.
"Well, that room, the room with that window, is the one that is said to
be haunted. It is quite a small room. I believe the story is that the
ghost frequents it because it was from that window that the unnatural
father watched poor Bridget making her way down the avenue, when his
cruelty had made her at last determine to leave him. I had heard
something of the story, as I told you, but in the vaguest way. I knew
nothing of the particulars; I could scarcely have understood them. I
only knew that a long-ago Osbert, who was said to have been a cruel, bad
man, was supposed to haunt the tower. But I had never heard that he
came more at one time than another; I never knew that his spirit was
supposed to be especially restless when any of the family were going to
die; above all, when the place was going to change hands, I suppose.
And I was not the least afraid of the tower--I often ran in and out of
it in the daytime, though there was nothing particularly interesting in
the little bare, deserted room. But one night, late evening rather,--I
remember it so well, it had been a bitterly cold day, and the ground was
covered with snow,--I was hanging about, rather at a loss what to do
with myself, for my gr--guardian had been all day shut up with the
squire, who was really very ill, when a sudden fancy seized me that I
would like to go up to the tower room, as it is called, and look out on
the moonlight glittering on the frost-covered trees of the avenue,--I
have often, by the bye, had a fancy that the great thorns at the end of
the drive seen in a frost must have given their name to the place,--for,
like most children brought up alone, I was fanciful and dreamy. My own
room, where a nice fire was blazing, was only one flight of steps lower
than the tower room, but it looked out to the other side. I ran
up-stairs and opened the tower room door--it was perfectly flooded with
clear cold moonlight, except in one corner, away from the window, which
struck me, as is always the case in moonlight shadows, as
extraordinarily black and dark. But I did not mind, I had no thought of
fear. I ran to the window and gazed out. It was as I expected--the
trees were glistening like silver and diamonds, it seems to me that I
have never seen anything so beautiful since. I remember saying to
myself, `How I wish I could make some poetry about them to myself,' when
suddenly I was startled by the sound, or _feeling_--feeling as much as
sound perhaps--of something moving in the dark corner, and before I had
time to look round I heard distinctly three deep sighs or groans. Even
had it been the daytime, and had there been nothing eerie about the
place, the sound would have made me shiver--it seemed to tell of such
profound, hopeless misery. Then in half a moment there rushed over me
the remembrance of the story I had heard, and that I was here actually
in the haunted room itself. I dashed through the doorway and
down-stairs, and never stopped till I got to the servants' regions; and
then I was so near fainting and looked so wretched that my guardian had
to be sent for, and all manner of soothing and comforting employed to
bring me round. The whole thing might have been forgotten but for what
followed. The poor old squire died that very night, and I think my
guardian was glad he did not live till the next morning; for it brought
the news of the reappearance of the Osbert cousins whom he had thought
it his duty to try to trace, and so his sister's grandson was cut out of
his inheritance!"
"And the ghost had reason to be miserable then," said Jerry. "Poor
ghost."
"Yes," said Mr Waldron; "his hopes of his long penance ending must have
been dashed to the ground."
"Papa," said Charlotte, in a rather awe-struck tone, "you speak as if
you really believed it. _Do_ you? Do you in the bottom of your heart
believe it was the ghost?"
"No," said Mr Waldron, smiling. "In the bottom of my heart I believe
it was--" He stopped, and dropped his voice mysteriously.
"What?" exclaimed everybody.
"_Owls_!" said Mr Waldron in a thrilling whisper. Charlotte and Jerry,
and one or two others, who afterwards denied it by the way, screamed.
"Oh, papa," said Charlotte, "you did so frighten us."
"Well, my dears, it shows how easily nerves can be worked up to be
frightened at nothing. It was your own imaginations that frightened
you."
"Then do you mean," said Noble, in rather a disappointed tone, "that
there was nothing in it at all?"
Mr Waldron hesitated.
"I can't say," he replied. "I don't know. I think it was a very
curious coincidence that for the first time for long any colour should
have been given to the old story, just when the squire died; and even
more, just when the estates' reverting to the female line was stopped.
Of course this tells two ways--these circumstances following after made
the incident impressive."
"Yes," said Noble; "I see."
"But, papa," said Charlotte, "didn't you say that the poor grand--yes,
grand-nephew, who so nearly had all, came off very badly? That needn't
have been--the squire might have left him something."
"He meant to do so, but--it is a long story, and the legal details would
only confuse you. The squire had left things, as was usual in the
family, all to the male heir, and failing him, to the female line;
indeed, there was not very much he could alienate from the property, and
the new squire had debts when he came into it, though it is in a much
better way now. But the old squire had never really anticipated that
the Australian Osberts would turn up. There was room for a lawsuit
about what he had meant for his sister and her grandson; and they could
not fight it. So all went from them."
"Did you know them--the sister and the boy?" asked Charlotte.
"Yes," said Mr Waldron, and he sighed.
"If you had been grown-up then, couldn't you have helped them now that
you're such a clever lawyer?" asked Jerry.
"Perhaps I might have been able to do something."
"Only `perhaps'!" said Jerry reproachfully. "Papa, I think the law is
horribly unjust. I hate it. I don't want to be a lawyer. Fancy those
poor things! And the poor, _poor_ ghost."
"Jerry's got the ghost on the brain," said Ted, teasingly.
"Mamma," said Jerry plaintively, "do you hear Ted? Should he mock like
that when papa's been telling us the story seriously?"
"He's only in fun; he didn't mean to vex you, Jerry," said Arthur, and
Mrs Waldron looked at the boy somewhat anxiously. She did not like his
half querulous tone. It reminded her of the time when he was suffering
and feeble, and unable to bear ordinary nursery life. "Jerry can't be
well," she said to herself; and she said it aloud to her husband when
they were left alone.
"Do you think I should not have told that old story in his hearing?" he
asked. "He is not usually nervous or excitable. I could not get out of
telling it without seeming to make some mystery."
"And you think it better not to tell them the whole?" asked his wife.
"I see no good purpose that it could serve," he replied. "Not at
present, at least, while they are young and impressionable. When they
are older I have always intended that they should know, though it is
most unlikely that it will ever affect us in any way."