John took his hat and stepped out once more upon the drive, and there
met Dr. Blundell, who had left his dog-cart at the stables, and was
walking up to the house.
He did not pause to analyze the sentiment of slight annoyance which
clouded his usual good humour; but Dr. Blundell divined it, with the
quickness of an ultra-sensitive nature. He showed no signs that he had
done so.
"It was you I came to see," he said, shaking hands with John. "I
heard--you know how quickly news spreads here--that you had arrived. I
hoped you might spare me a few moments for a little conversation."
"Certainly," said John. "Will you come in, or shall we take a turn?"
"You will be glad of a breath of fresh air after your journey,"
said the doctor, and he led the way across the south terrace, to a
sheltered corner of the level plateau upon which the house was built,
which was known as the fountain garden.
It was rather a deserted garden, thickly surrounded and overgrown
by shrubs. Through the immense spreading Portuguese laurels which
sheltered it from the east, little or no sunshine found its way to the
grey, moss-grown basin and the stone figures supporting it; over which
a thin stream of water continually flowed with a melancholy rhythm, in
perpetual twilight.
A giant ivy grew rankly and thickly about the stone buttresses of this
eastern corner of the house, and around a great mullioned window which
overlooked the fountain garden, and which was the window of Lady
Mary's bedroom.
"These shrubberies want thinning," said John, looking round him rather
disgustedly. "This place is reeking with damp. I should like to cut
down some of these poisonous laurels, and let in the air and the
sunshine, and open out the view of the Brawnton hills."
"And why don't you?" said the doctor, with such energy in his tone
that John stopped short in his pacing of the gravel walk, and looked
at him.
The two men were almost as unlike in appearance as in character.
The doctor was nervous, irritable, and intense in manner; with
deep-set, piercing eyes that glowed like hot coal when he was moved
or excited. A tall, gaunt man, lined and wrinkled beyond his years;
careless of appearance, so far as his shabby clothes were concerned,
yet careful of detail, as was proven by spotless linen and
well-preserved, delicate hands.
He was indifferent utterly to the opinion of others, to his own
worldly advancement, or to any outer consideration, when in pursuit of
the profession he loved; and he knew no other interest in life, save
one. He had the face of a fanatic or an enthusiast; but also of a man
whose understanding had been so cultivated as to temper enthusiasm
with judgment.
He had missed success, and was neither resigned to his disappointment,
nor embittered by it.
The gaze of those dark eyes was seldom introspective; rather, as it
seemed, did they look out eagerly, sadly, pitifully at the pain and
sorrow of the world; a pain he toiled manfully to lessen, so far as
his own infinitesimal corner of the universe was concerned.
John Crewys, on the other hand, was, to the most casual observer, a
successful man; a man whose personality would never be overlooked.
There was a more telling force in his composure than in the doctor's
nervous energy. His clear eyes, his bright, yet steady glance,
inspired confidence.
The doctor might have been taken for a poet, but John looked like a
philosopher.
He was also, as obviously, in appearance, a man of the world, and a
Londoner, as the doctor was evidently a countryman, and a hermit. His
advantages over the doctor included his voice, which was as deep and
musical as the tones of his companion were harsh.
The manner, no less than the matter of John's speech, had early
brought him distinction.
Nature, rather than cultivation, had bestowed on him the faculty of
conveying the impression he wished to convey, in tones that charm; and
held his auditors, and penetrated ears dulled and fatigued by monotony
and indistinctness.
The more impassioned his pleading, the more utterly he held his own
emotion in check; the more biting his subtly chosen words, the more
courteous his manner; now deadly earnest, now humorously scornful,
now graciously argumentative, but always skilfully and designedly
convincing.
The doctor, save in the presence of a patient, had no such control
over himself as John Crewys carried from the law-courts, into his life
of every day.
"Why don't you," he said, in fiery tones, "let in air and life, and a
view of the outside world, and as much sunshine as possible into this
musty old house? You have the power, if you had only the will."
"You speak figuratively, I notice," said John. "I should be much
obliged if you would tell me exactly what you mean."
He would have answered in warmer and more kindly tones had Sarah's
words not rung upon his ear.
Was the doctor going to fight Lady Mary's battles now, and with him,
of all people in the world? As though there were any one in the world
to whom her interests could be dearer than--
John stopped short in his thoughts, and looked attentively at the
doctor. His heart smote him. How pallid was that tired face; and the
hollow eyes, how sad and tired too! The doctor had been up all night,
in a wretched isolated cottage, watching a man die--but John did not
know that.
He perceived that this was no meddler, but a man speaking of something
very near his heart; no presuming and interfering outsider who
deserved a snub, but a man suffering from some deep and hidden cause.
The doctor's secret was known to John long before he had finished what
he had to say; but he listened attentively, and gave no sign that this
was so.
"She will die," said Blundell, "if this goes on;" and he neither
mentioned any name, nor did John Crewys require him to do so.
The doctor's words came hurrying out incoherently from the depths of
his anxiety and earnestness.
"She will die if this goes on. There were few hopes and little enough
pleasure in her life before; but what is left to her now? _De mortuis
nil nisi bonum._ But just picture to yourself for a moment, man, what
her life has been."
He stopped and drew breath, and strove to speak calmly and
dispassionately.
"I was born in the valley of the Youle," he said. "My people live in
a cottage--they call it a house, but it's just a farm--on the
river,--Cullacott. I was a raw medical student when _she_ came here as
a child. Her father was killed in the Afghan War. He had quarrelled
with his uncle, they said, who afterwards succeeded to the earldom;
so she was left to the guardianship of Sir Timothy, a distant cousin.
Every one was sorry for her, because Sir Timothy was her guardian, and
because she was a little young thing to be left to the tender mercies
of the two old ladies, who were old even then. If you will excuse my
speaking frankly about the family"--John nodded--"they bullied their
brother always; what with their superiority of birth, and his being so
much younger, and so on. Their bringing-up made him what he was, I am
sure. He went nowhere; he always fancied people were laughing at him.
His feeling about his--his mother's lowly origin seemed to pervade
his whole life. He exaggerated the importance of birth till it became
almost a mania. If you hadn't known the man, you couldn't have
believed a human being--one of the million crawling units on the
earth--could be so absurdly inflated with self-importance. It was
pitiful. He went nowhere, and saw no one. I believe he thought that
Providence had sent a wife of high rank to his very door to enable him
partially to wipe out his reproach. She looked like a child when she
came, but she shot up very suddenly into womanhood. If you ask me if
she was unhappy, I declare I don't think so. She had never realized,
I should think, what it was to be snubbed or found fault with in
her life. She was a motherless child, and had lived with her old
grandfather and her young father, and had been very much spoilt. And
they were both snatched away from her, as it were, in a breath; and
she alone in the world, with an uncle who was only glad to get rid of
her to her stranger guardian. Well,--she was too young and too bright
and too gay to be much downcast for all the old women could do. She
laughed at their scolding, and when they tried severity she appealed
to Sir Timothy. The old doctor who was my predecessor here told me at
the time that he thought she had bewitched Sir Timothy; but afterwards
he said that he believed it was only that Sir Timothy had made up his
mind even then to quarter the Setoun arms with his own. Anyway, he
went against his sisters for the first and only time in his life, and
they learnt that Lady Mary was not to be interfered with. Whether it
was gratitude or just the childish satisfaction of triumphing over her
two enemies, I can't tell, but she married him in less than two years
after she came to live at Barracombe. The old ladies didn't know
whether to be angry or pleased. They wanted him to marry, and they
wanted his wife to be well-born, no doubt; but to have a mere child
set over them! Well, the marriage took place in London."
"I was present," said John.
"The people here said things about it that may have got round to Sir
Timothy; but I don't know. He never came down to the village, except
to church, where he sat away from everybody, in the gallery curtained
off. Anyway, he wouldn't have the wedding down here. He invited all
her relatives, and none of them had a word to say. It wasn't as if she
were an heiress. I believe she had next to nothing. She was just like
a child, laughing, and pleased at getting married, and with all her
finery, perhaps,--or at getting rid of her lessons with the old women
may be,--and the thought of babies of her own. Who knows what a girl
thinks of?" said the doctor, harshly. "I didn't see her again for a
long time after. But then I came down; the Brawnton doctor was getting
old, and it was a question whether I should succeed him or go on in
London, where I was doing well enough. And--and I came here," said the
doctor, abruptly.
John nodded again. He filled in the gaps of the doctor's narrative for
himself, and understood.
"She had changed very much. All the gaiety and laughter gone. But she
was wrapt up in the child as I never saw any woman wrapt up in a brat
before or since; and I've known some that were pretty ridiculous in
that way," said the doctor, and his voice shook more than ever. "It
was--touching, for she was but a child herself; and Peter, between you
and me, was an unpromising doll for a child to play with. He was ugly
and ill-tempered, and he wouldn't be caressed, or dressed up, or made
much of, from the first minute he had a will of his own. As he grew
bigger he was for ever having rows with his father, and his mother
was for ever interceding for him. He was idle at school; but he was a
manly boy enough over games and sport, and a capital shot. Anyway, she
managed to be proud of him, God knows how. I shouldn't wonder if this
war was the making of him, though, poor chap, if he's spared to see
the end of it all."
"I have no doubt the discipline will do him a great deal of good,"
said John, dryly.
It cannot be said that his brief interview at Southampton had
impressed John with a favourable opinion of the sulky and irresponsive
youth, who had there listened to his mother's messages with lowering
brow and downcast eye. Peter had betrayed no sign of emotion, and
almost none of gratitude for John's hurried and uncomfortable journey
to convey that message.
"A few hard knocks will do you no harm, my young friend; and I almost
wish you may get them," John had said to himself on his homeward
journey; dreading, yet expecting, the news that awaited him at Peter's
home, and for which he had done his best to prepare the boy.
"Too much consideration hitherto has ruined him," said the doctor,
shortly. "But it's not of Peter I'm thinking, one way or the other.
From the time he went first to school, she's had to depend entirely on
her own resources--and what are they?"
He paused, as though to gather strength and energy for his indictment.
"From the time she was brought here--except for that one outing and a
change to Torquay, I believe, after Peter's birth--she has scarce set
foot outside Barracombe. Sir Timothy would not, so he was resolved she
should not. His sisters, who have as much cultivation as that stone
figure, disapproved of novel-reading--or of any other reading, I
should fancy--and he followed suit. Books are almost unknown in this
house. The library bookcases were locked. Sir Timothy opened them once
in a while, and his sisters dusted the books with their own hands;
it was against tradition to handle such valuable bindings. He hated
music, and the piano was not to be played in his presence. Have you
ever tried it? I'm told you're musical. It belonged to Lady Belstone's
mother, the Honourable Rachel. That is her harp which stands in the
corner of the hall. Her daughter once tinkled a little, I believe; but
the prejudices of the ruling monarch were religiously obeyed. Music
was _taboo_ at Barracombe. Dancing was against their principles, and
theatres they regard with horror, and have never been inside one in
their lives. Nothing took Sir Timothy to London but business; and
if it were possible to have the business brought to Barracombe, his
solicitor, Mr. Crawley, visited him here."
The doctor spoke in lower tones, as he recurred to his first theme.
"I don't think she found out for years, or realized what a prisoner
she was. They caught and pinned her down so young. There are no very
near neighbours--I mean, not the sort of people they would recognize
as neighbours--except the Hewels. Youlestone is such an out-of-the-way
place, and Sir Timothy was never on intimate terms with any one. Mrs.
Hewel is a fool--there was only little Sarah whom Lady Mary made a pet
of--but she had no friends. Sir Timothy and his sisters made visiting
such a stiff and formal business, that it was no wonder she hated
paying calls; the more especially as it could lead to nothing. He
would not entertain; he grudged the expense. I was present at a scene
he once made because a large party drove over from a distant house and
stayed to tea. He said he could not entertain the county. She dared
ask no one to her house--she, who was so formed and fitted by nature
to charm and attract, and enjoy social intercourse." His voice
faltered. "They stole her youth," he said.
"What do you want me to do?" said John, though he was vaguely
conscious that he understood for what the doctor was pleading.
He sat down by the fountain; and the doctor, resting a mended boot
on the end of the bench, leant on his bony knee, and looked down
wistfully at John's thoughtful face, broad brow, and bright, intent
eyes.
"You are a very clever man, Mr. Crewys," he said humbly. "A man of the
world, successful, accomplished, and, I believe, honest"--he spoke
with a simplicity that disarmed offence--"or I should not have
ventured as I have ventured. Somehow you inspire me with confidence. I
believe you can save her. I believe you could find a way to bring back
her peace of mind; the interest in life--the gaiety of heart--that is
natural to her. If I were in your place, not the two old women--not
Sir Timothy's ghost--not that poor conceited slip of a lad who may be
shot to-morrow--would stand in my way. I would bring back the colour
to her cheek, and the light to her eye, and the music to her voice--"
"Whilst her boy is in danger?" John asked, almost scornfully. He
thought he knew Lady Mary better than the doctor did, after all.
"I tell you _nothing_ would stop me," said Blundell, vehemently.
"Before I would let her fret herself to death--afraid to break the
spells that have been woven round her, bound as she is, hand and foot,
with the prejudices of the dead--I would--I would--take her to South
Africa myself," he said brilliantly. "The voyage would bring her back
to life."
John got up. "That is an idea," he said. He paused and looked at the
doctor. "You have known her longer than I. Have you said nothing to
her of all this?"
The doctor smiled grimly. "Mr. Crewys," he said, "some time since I
spoke my mind--a thing I am over-apt to do--_of_ Peter, and _to_ him.
The lad has forgiven me; he is a man, you see, with all his faults.
But Lady Mary, though she has all the virtues of a woman, is also a
mother. A woman often forgives; a mother, never. Don't forget."
"I will not," said John.
"And you'll do it--"
"Use the unlimited authority that has been placed in my hands, by
improving this tumble-down, overgrown place?" said John, slowly. "Let
in light, air, and sunshine to Barracombe, and do my best to brighten
Lady Mary's life, without reference to any one's prejudices, past or
present?"
"You've got the idea," said the doctor, joyfully. "Will you carry it
out?"
"Yes," said John.