CAPTAIN THORN AT WEST LYNNE.
“Barbara, how fine the day seems!”
“It is a beautiful day mamma.”
“I do think I should be all the better for going out.”
“I am sure you would, mamma,” was Barbara’s answer. “If you went out
more, you would find the benefit. Every fine day you ought to do so. I
will go and ask papa if he can spare Benjamin and the carriage.” She
waltzed gaily out of the room, but returned in a moment.
“Mamma, it is all right. Benjamin is gone to get the carriage ready. You
would like a bit of luncheon before you go--I will order the tray.”
“Anything you please, dear,” said the sweet-tempered gentlewoman. “I
don’t know why, but I feel glad to go out to-day; perhaps because it is
lovely.”
Benjamin made ready his carriage and himself, and drove out of the yard
at the back, and brought the carriage round to the front gate.
The carriage--or phaeton as it was often called--was a somewhat old
fashioned concern, as many country things are apt to be. A small box in
front for the driver, and a wide seat with a head behind, accommodating
Barbara well between them when Mr. and Mrs. Hare both sat in.
Benjamin drew the rug carefully over his mistress’s knees--the servants
did not like Mr. Hare, but would have laid down their lives for her--
ascended to his box, and drove them to their destination, the linen
draper’s. It was an excellent shop, situated a little beyond the office
of Mr. Carlyle, and Mrs. Hare and Barbara were soon engaged in that
occupation said to possess for all women a fascination. They had been in
about an hour, when Mrs. Hare discovered that her bag was missing.
“I must have left it in the carriage, Barbara. Go and bring it, will
you, my dear? The pattern of that silk is in it.”
Barbara went out. The carriage and Benjamin and the sleek old horse were
all waiting drowsily together. Barbara could not see the bag, and she
appealed to the servant.
“Find mamma’s bag, Benjamin. It must be somewhere in the carriage.”
Benjamin got off his box and began to search. Barbara waited, gazing
listlessly down the street. The sun was shining brilliantly, and its
rays fell upon the large cable chain of a gentleman who was sauntering
idly up the pavement, making its gold links and its drooping seal and
key glitter, as they crossed his waistcoat. It shone also upon the
enameled gold studs of his shirt front, making them glitter; and as he
suddenly raised his ungloved hand to stroke his moustache--by which
action you know a vain man--a diamond ring he wore gleamed with a light
that was positively dazzling. Involuntarily Barbara thought of the
description her brother Richard had given of certain dazzling jewels
worn by another.
She watched him advance! He was a handsome man of, perhaps, seven or
eight and twenty, tall, slender and well made, his eyes and hair black.
A very pleasant expression sat upon his countenance; and on the left
hand he wore a light buff kid glove, and was swinging its fellow by the
fingers. But for the light cast at that moment by the sun, Barbara might
not have noticed the jewellery, or connected it in her mind with the
other jewellery in that unhappy secret.
“Hallo, Thorn, is that you? Just step over here.”
The speaker was Otway Bethel, who was on the opposite side of the
street; the spoken to, the gentleman with the jewellery. But the latter
was in a brown study, and did not hear. Bethel called out again, louder.
“Captain Thorn!”
That was heard. Captain Thorn nodded, and turned short off across the
street. Barbara stood like one in a dream, her brain, her mind, her
fancy all in a confused mass together.
“Here’s the bag, Miss Barbara. It had got among the folds of the rug.”
Benjamin held it out to her, but she took no notice; she was unconscious
of all external things save one. That she beheld the real murderer of
Hallijohn, she entertained no manner of doubt. In every particular he
tallied with the description given by Richard; tall, dark, vain,
handsome, delicate hands, jewellery, and--Captain Thorn! Barbara’s
cheeks grew white and her heart turned sick.
“The bag, Miss Barbara.”
Away tore Barbara, leaving Benjamin and the bag in wonder. She had
caught sight of Mr. Wainwright, the surgeon, at a little distance, and
sped toward him.
“Mr. Wainwright,” began she, forgetting ceremony in her agitation, “you
see that gentleman talking to Otway Bethel--who is he?”
Mr. Wainwright had to put his glasses across the bridge of his nose
before he could answer, for he was short-sighted. “That? Oh, it is a
Captain Thorn. He is visiting the Herberts, I believe.”
“Where does he come from? Where does he live?” reiterated Barbara in her
eagerness.
“I don’t know anything about him. I saw him this morning with young
Smith, and he told me he was a friend of the Herberts. You are not
looking well, Miss Barbara.”
She made no answer. Captain Thorn and Mr. Bethel came walking down the
street, and the latter saluted her, but she was too much confused to
respond to it. Mr. Wainwright then wished her good day, and Barbara
walked slowly back. Mrs. Hare was appearing at the shop door.
“My dear, how long you are! Cannot the bag be found?”
“I went to speak to Mr. Wainwright,” answered Barbara, mechanically
taking the bag from Benjamin and giving it to her mother, her whole
heart and eyes still absorbed with that one object moving away in the
distance.
“You look pale, child. Are you well?”
“Oh, yes, quite. Let us get our shopping over, mamma.”
She moved on to their places at the counter as she spoke, eager to “get
it over” and be at home, that she might have time for thought. Mrs. Hare
wondered what had come to her; the pleased interest displayed in their
purchases previously was now gone, and she sat inattentive and absorbed.
“Now, my dear, it is only waiting for you to choose. Which of the two
silks will you have?”
“Either--any. Take which you like, mamma.”
“Barbara, what has come to you?”
“I believe I am tired,” said Barbara, with a forced laugh, as she
compelled herself to pay some sort of attention. “I don’t like the
green; I will take the other.”
They arrived at home. Barbara got just five minutes alone in her chamber
before the dinner was on the table. All the conclusion she could come to
was, she could do nothing save tell the facts to Archibald Carlyle.
How could she contrive to see him? The business might admit of no delay.
She supposed she must go to East Lynne that evening; but where would be
her excuse for it at home? Puzzling over it, she went down to dinner.
During the meal, Mrs. Hare began talking of some silk she had purchased
for a mantle. She should have it made like Miss Carlyle’s new one. When
Miss Carlyle was at the grove, the other day, about Wilson’s character,
she offered her the pattern, and she, Mrs. Hare, would send one of the
servants up for it after dinner.
“Oh, mamma, let me go!” burst forth Barbara, and so vehemently spoke
she, that the justice paused in carving, and demanded what ailed her.
Barbara made some timid excuse.
“Her eagerness is natural, Richard,” smiled Mrs. Hare. “Barbara thinks
she shall get a peep at the baby, I expect. All young folks are fond of
babies.”
Barbara’s face flushed crimson, but she did not contradict the opinion.
She could not eat her dinner--she was too full of poor Richard; she
played with it, and then sent away her plate nearly untouched.
“That’s through the finery she’s been buying,” pronounced Justice Hare.
“Her head is stuffed up with it.”
No opposition was offered to Barbara’s going to East Lynne. She reached
it just as their dinner was over. It was for Miss Carlyle she asked.
“Miss Carlyle is not at home, miss. She is spending the day out; and my
lady does not receive visitors yet.”
It was a sort of checkmate. Barbara was compelled to say she would see
Mr. Carlyle. Peter ushered her into the drawing-room, and Mr. Carlyle
came to her.
“I am so very sorry to disturb you--to have asked for you,” began
Barbara, with a burning face, for, somehow, a certain evening interview
of hers with him, twelve months before, was disagreeably present to her.
Never, since that evening of agitation, had Barbara suffered herself to
betray emotion to Mr. Carlyle; her manner to him had been calm,
courteous, and indifferent. And she now more frequently called him “Mr.
Carlyle” than “Archibald.”
“Take a seat--take a seat, Barbara.”
“I asked for Miss Carlyle,” she continued, “for mamma is in want of a
pattern that she promised to lend her. You remember the Lieutenant Thorn
whom Richard spoke of as being the real criminal?”
“Yes.”
“I think he is at West Lynne.”
Mr. Carlyle was aroused to eager interest.
“He! The same Thorn?”
“It can be no other. Mamma and I were shopping to-day, and I went out
for her bag, which she left in the carriage. While Benjamin was getting
it, I saw a stranger coming up the street--a tall, good-looking, dark-
haired man, with a conspicuous gold chain and studs. The sun was full
upon him, causing the ornaments to shine, especially a diamond ring
which he wore, for he had one hand raised to his face. The thought
flashed over me, ‘That is just like the description Richard gave of the
man Thorn.’ Why the idea should have occurred to me in that strange
manner, I do not know, but it most assuredly did occur, though I did not
really suppose him to be the same. Just then I heard him spoken to by
some one on the other side of the street; it was Otway Bethel, and he
called him Captain Thorn.”
“This is curious, indeed, Barbara. I did not know any stranger was at
West Lynne.”
“I saw Mr. Wainwright, and asked him who it was. He said a Captain
Thorn, a friend of the Herberts. A Lieutenant Thorn four or five years
ago would probably be Captain Thorn now.”
Mr. Carlyle nodded, and there was a pause.
“What can be done?” asked Barbara.
Mr. Carlyle was passing one hand over his brow; it was a habit of his
when in deep thought.
“It is hard to say what is to be done, Barbara. The description you gave
of this man certainly tallies with that given by Richard. Did he look
like a gentleman?”
“Very much so. A remarkably aristocratic looking man, as it struck me.”
Mr. Carlyle again nodded assentingly. He remembered Richard’s words,
when describing the other: “an out-and-out aristocrat.” “Of course,
Barbara, the first thing must be to try and ascertain whether it is the
same,” he observed. “If we find it is, then we must deliberate upon
future measures. I will see what I can pick up and let you know.”
Barbara rose. Mr. Carlyle escorted her across the hall, and then
strolled down the park by her side, deep in the subject, and quite
unconscious that Lady Isabel’s jealous eyes were watching them from her
dressing-room window.
“You say he seemed intimate with Otway Bethel?”
“As to being intimate, I cannot say. Otway Bethel spoke as though he
knew him.”
“This must have caused excitement to Mrs. Hare.”
“You forget, Archibald, that mamma was not told anything about Thorn,”
was the answer of Barbara. “The uncertainty would have worried her to
death. All Richard said to her was, that he was innocent, that it was a
stranger who did the deed, and she asked for no particulars; she had
implicit faith in Richard’s truth.”
“True; I did forget,” replied Mr. Carlyle. “I wish we could find out
some one who knew the other Thorn; to ascertain that they were the same
would be a great point gained.”
He went as far as the park gates with Barbara, shook hands and wished
her good evening. Scarcely had she departed when Mr. Carlyle saw two
gentlemen advancing from the opposite direction, in one of whom he
recognized Tom Herbert, and the other--instinct told him--was Captain
Thorn. He waited till they came up.
“If this isn’t lucky, seeing you,” cried Mr. Tom Herbert, who was a
free-and-easy sort of a gentleman, the second son of a brother justice
of Mr. Hare. “I wish to goodness you’d give us a draught of your cider,
Carlyle. We went up to Beauchamp’s for a stroll, but found them all out,
and I’m awful thirsty. Captain Thorn, Carlyle.”
Mr. Carlyle invited them to his house and ordered in refreshments. Young
Herbert coolly threw himself into an arm-chair and lit a cigar. “Come,
Thorn,” cried he, “here’s a weed for you.”
Captain Thorn glanced toward Mr. Carlyle; he appeared of a far more
gentlemanly nature than Tom Herbert.
“You’ll have one too, Carlyle,” said Herbert, holding out his cigar-
case. “Oh, I forgot--you are a muff; don’t smoke one twice a year. I say
how’s Lady Isabel?”
“Very ill still.”
“By Jove! Is she, though? Tell her I am sorry to hear it, will you,
Carlyle? But--I say! Will she smell the smoke?” asked he, with a mixture
of alarm and concern in his face.
Mr. Carlyle reassured him upon the point, and turned to Captain Thorn.
“Are you acquainted with this neighborhood?”
Captain Thorn smiled. “I only reached West Lynne yesterday.”
“You were never here before then?” continued Mr. Carlyle, setting down
the last as a probably evasive answer.
“No.”
“He and my brother Jack, you know, are in the same regiment,” put in
Tom, with scanty ceremony. “Jack had invited him down for some fishing
and that, and Thorn arrives. But he never sent word he was coming, you
see; Jack had given him up, and is off on some Irish expedition, the
deuce knows where. Precious unlucky that it should have happened so.
Thorn says he shall cut short his stay, and go again.”
The conversation turned upon fishing, and in the heat of the argument,
the stranger mentioned a certain pond and its famous eels--the “Low
Pond.” Mr. Carlyle looked at him, speaking, however in a careless
manner.
“Which do you mean? We have two ponds not far apart, each called the
‘Low Pond’.”
“I mean the one on an estate about three miles from here--Squire
Thorpe’s, unless I am mistaken.”
Mr. Carlyle smiled. “I think you must have been in the neighborhood
before, Captain Thorn. Squire Thorpe is dead and the property has passed
to his daughter’s husband, and that Low Pond was filled up three years
ago.”
“I have heard a friend mention it,” was Captain Thorn’s reply, spoken in
an indifferent tone, though he evidently wished not to pursue the
subject.
Mr. Carlyle, by easy degrees, turned the conversation upon Swainson, the
place where Richard Hare’s Captain Thorn was suspected to have come. The
present Captain Thorn said he knew it “a little,” he had once been
“staying there a short time.” Mr. Carlyle became nearly convinced that
Barbara’s suspicions were correct. The description certainly agreed, so
far as he could judge, in the most minute particulars. The man before
him wore two rings, a diamond--and a very beautiful diamond too--on the
one hand; a seal ring on the other; his hands were delicate to a degree,
and his handkerchief, a cambric one of unusually fine texture, was not
entirely guiltless of scent. Mr. Carlyle quitted the room for a moment
and summoned Joyce to him.
“My lady has been asking for you,” said Joyce.
“Tell her I will be up the moment these gentlemen leave, Joyce,” he
added, “find an excuse to come into the room presently; you can bring
something or other in; I want you to look at this stranger who is with
young Mr. Herbert. Notice him well; I fancy you may have seen him
before.”
Mr. Carlyle returned to the room, leaving Joyce surprised. However, she
presently followed, taking in some water, and lingered a few minutes,
apparently placing the things on the table in better order.
When the two departed Mr. Carlyle called Joyce, before proceeding to his
wife’s room. “Well,” he questioned, “did you recognize him?”
“Not at all, sir. He seemed quite strange to me.”
“Cast your thoughts back, Joyce. Did you never see him in days gone by?”
Joyce looked puzzled, and she replied in the negative.
“Is he the man, think you, who used to ride from Swainson to see Afy?”
Joyce’s face flushed crimson. “Oh, sir!” was all she uttered.
“The name is the same--Thorn; I thought it possible the men might be,”
observed Mr. Carlyle.
“Sir, I cannot say. I never saw that Captain Thorn but once, and I don’t
know, I don’t know--” Joyce spoke slowly and with consideration--“that I
should at all know him again. I did not think of him when I looked at
this gentleman; but, at any rate, no appearance in this one struck upon
my memory as being familiar.”
So from Joyce Mr. Carlyle obtained no clue, one way or the other. The
following day he sought out Otway Bethel.
“Are you intimate with that Captain Thorn who is staying with the
Herberts?” asked he.
“Yes,” answered Bethel, decisively, “if passing a couple of hours in his
company can constitute intimacy. That’s all I have seen of Thorn.”
“Are you sure,” pursued Mr. Carlyle.
“Sure!” returned Bethel; “why, what are you driving at now? I called in
at Herbert’s the night before last, and Tom asked me to stay the
evening. Thorn had just come. A jolly bout we had; cigars and cold
punch.”
“Bethel,” said Mr. Carlyle, dashing to the point, “is it the Thorn who
used to go after Afy Hallijohn? Come, you can tell if you like.”
Bethel remained dumb for a moment, apparently with amazement. “What a
confounded lie!” uttered he at length. “Why it’s no more that than--What
Thorn?” he broke off abruptly.
“You are equivocating, Bethel. The Thorn who is mixed up--or said to be-
-in the Hallijohn affair. Is this the same man?”
“You are a fool, Carlyle, which is what I never took you to be yet,” was
Mr. Bethel’s rejoinder, spoken in a savage tone. “I have told you that I
never knew there was any Thorn mixed up with Afy, and I should like to
know why my word is not to be believed? I never saw Thorn in my life
till I saw him the other night at the Herberts’, and that I would take
my oath to, if put to it.”
Bethel quitted Mr. Carlyle with the last word, and the latter gazed
after him, revolving points in his brain. The mention of Thorn’s name,
the one spoken of by Richard Hare, appeared to excite some feeling in
Bethel’s mind, arousing it to irritation. Mr. Carlyle remembered that it
had done so previously and now it had done so again, and yet Bethel was
an easy-natured man in general, far better tempered than principled.
That there was something hidden, some mystery connected with the affair,
Mr. Carlyle felt sure; but he could not attempt so much as a guess at
what it might be. And this interview with Bethel brought him no nearer
the point he wished to find out--whether this Thorn was the same man. In
walking back to his office he met Mr. Tom Herbert.
“Does Captain Thorn purpose making a long stay with you?” he stopped him
to inquire.
“He’s gone; I have just seen him off by the train,” was the reply of Tom
Herbert. “It seemed rather slow with him without Jack, so he docked his
visit, and says he’ll pay us one when Jack’s to the fore.”
As Mr. Carlyle went home to dinner that evening, he entered the grove,
ostensibly to make a short call on Mrs. Hare. Barbara, on the
tenterhooks of impatience, accompanied him outside when he departed, and
walked down the path.
“What have you learnt?” she eagerly asked.
“Nothing satisfactory,” was the reply of Mr. Carlyle. “And the man has
left again.”
“Left?” uttered Barbara.
Mr. Carlyle explained. He told her how they had come to his house the
previous evening after Barbara’s departure, and his encounter with Tom
Herbert that day; he mentioned, also, his interview with Bethel.
“Can he have gone on purpose, fearing consequences?” wondered Barbara.
“Scarcely; or why should he have come?”
“You did not suffer any word to escape you last night causing him to
suspect for a moment that he was hounded?”
“Not any. You would make a bad lawyer, Barbara.”
“Who or what is he?”
“An officer in her majesty’s service, in John Herbert’s regiment. I
ascertained no more. Tom said he was of good family. But I cannot help
suspecting it is the same man.”
“Can nothing more be done?”
“Nothing in the present stage of the affair,” continued Mr. Carlyle, as
he passed through the gate to continue his way. “We can only wait on
again with what patience we may, hoping that time will bring about its
own elucidation.”
Barbara pressed her forehead down on the cold iron of the gate as his
footsteps died away. “Aye, to wait on,” she murmured, “to wait on in
dreary pain; to wait on, perhaps, for years, perhaps forever! And poor
Richard--wearing out his days in poverty and exile!”