A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.
A golden sunbeam was shining through a crevice in the blinds; the birds
were twittering in the ivy outside; oxen were lowing to each other
across the park. Morning, with all her music, was abroad.
I started up in bed and rubbed my eyes. Within the house everything was
as mute as the grave. That horrible tramping overhead had ceased--had
ceased, doubtless, with the return of daylight, which would otherwise
have shifted it from the region of the weird to that of the
commonplace. I smiled to myself as I thought of my terrors of the past
night, and felt brave enough just then to have faced a thousand ghosts.
In another minute I was out of bed, and had drawn up my blind, and flung
open my window, and was drinking in the sweet peaceful scene that
stretched away before me in long level lines to the edge of a far-off
horizon.
My window was high up and looked out at the front of the hall.
Immediately below me was a semicircular lawn, shut in from the park by
an invisible fence, close shaven, and clumped with baskets of flowers
glowing just now with all the brilliance of late autumn. The main
entrance--a flight of shallow steps, and an Ionic portico, as I
afterwards found--was at one end of the building, and was reached by a
long straight carriage drive, the route of which could be traced across
the park by the thicker growth of trees with which it was fringed. This
park stretched to right and left for a mile either way. In front, it was
bounded, a short half-mile away, by the high road, beyond which were
level wide-stretching meadows, through which the river Adair washed slow
and clear.
But chief of all this morning I wanted to be down among the flowers. I
made haste to wash and dress, taking an occasional peep through the
window as I did so, and trying to entice the birds from their
hiding-places in the ivy. Then I opened my bed-room door, and then, in
view of the great landing outside, I paused. Several doors, all except
mine now closed, gave admittance from this landing to different rooms.
Both landing and stairs were made of oak, black and polished with age.
One broad flight of stairs, with heavy carved banisters, pointed the way
below; a second and narrower flight led to the regions above. As a
matter of course I chose the former, but not till after a minute's
hesitation as to whether I should venture to leave my room at all before
I should be called. But my desire to see the baskets of flowers
prevailed over everything else. I closed my door gently and hurried
down.
I found myself in the entrance-hall of Deepley Walls, into which I had
been ushered on my arrival. There were the two curtained doorways
through which Lady Chillington had come and gone. For the rest, it was a
gloomy place enough, with its flagged floor, and its diamond-paned
windows high up in the semicircular roof. A few rusty full-lengths
graced the walls; the stairs were guarded by two effigies in armour; a
marble bust of one of the Cæsars stood on a high pedestal in the middle
of the floor; and that was all.
I was glad to get away from this dismal spot and to find myself in the
passage which led to the housekeeper's room. I opened the door and
looked in, but the room was vacant. Farther along the same passage I
found the kitchen and other domestic offices. The kitchen clock was just
on the point of six as I went in. One servant alone had come down. From
her I inquired my way into the garden, and next minute I was on the
lawn. The close-cropped grass was wet with the heavy dew; but my boots
were thick and I heeded it not, for the flowers were there within my
very grasp.
Oh, those flowers! can I ever forget them? I have seen none so beautiful
since. There can be none so beautiful out of Paradise.
One spray of scarlet geranium was all that I ventured to pluck. But the
odours and the colours were there for all comers, and were as much mine
for the time being as if the flowers themselves had belonged to me.
Suddenly I turned and glanced up at the many-windowed house with a sort
of guilty consciousness that I might possibly be doing wrong. But the
house was still asleep--closed shutters or down-drawn blind at every
window. I saw before me a substantial-looking red-brick mansion, with a
high slanting roof, of not undignified appearance now that it was
mellowed by age, but with no pretensions to architectural beauty. The
sole attempt at outside ornamentation consisted of a few flutings of
white stone, reaching from the ground to the second floor, and
terminating in oval shields of the same material, on which had
originally been carved the initials of the builder and the date of
erection; but the summer's sun and the winter's rain of many a long year
had rubbed both letters and figures carefully out. Long afterwards I
knew that Deepley Walls had been built in the reign of the Third William
by a certain Squire Chillington of that date, "out of my own head," as
he himself put it in a quaint document still preserved among the family
archives; and rather a muddled head it must have been in matters
architectural.
After this, I ventured round by the main entrance, with its gravelled
carriage sweep, to the other side of the house, where I found a long
flagged terrace bordered with large evergreens in tubs placed at
frequent intervals. On to this terrace several French windows
opened--the windows, as I found later in the day, of Lady Chillington's
private rooms. To the left of this terrace stood a plantation of young
trees, through which a winding path that opened by a wicket into the
private grounds invited me to penetrate. Through the green gloom I
advanced bravely, my heart beating with all the pleasure of one who was
exploring some unknown land. I saw no living thing by the way, save two
grey rabbits that scuttered across my path and vanished in the
undergrowth on the other side. Pretty frisky creatures! how I should
like to have caught them, and fed them, and made pets of them as long as
they lived!
Two or three hundred yards farther on the path ended with another
wicket, now locked, which opened into the high road. About a mile away I
could discern the roofs and chimneys of a little town. When I got back
to the hall I found dear old Dance getting rather anxious at my long
absence, but she brightened into smiles when I kissed her and told her
where I had been.
"You must have slept well, or you would hardly look so rosy this
morning," she said as we sat down to breakfast.
"I should have slept very well if I had not been troubled by the
ghosts."
"Ghosts! my dear Miss Janet? You do not mean to say--" and the old
lady's cheek paled suddenly, and her cup rattled in her saucer as she
held it.
"I mean to say that Deepley Walls is haunted by two ghosts, one of which
came and kissed me last night when I was asleep; while the other one was
walking nearly all night in the room over mine."
Dance's face brightened, but still wore a puzzled expression. "You must
have dreamed that someone kissed you, dear," she said. "If you were
asleep you could not know anything about it."
"But I was awakened by it, and I am positive that it was no dream." Then
I told her what few particulars there were to tell.
"For the future we must lock your bed-room door," she said.
"Then I should be more frightened than ever. Besides, a real ghost would
not be kept out by locking the door."
"Well, dear, tell me if you are disturbed in the same way again. But as
for the tramping you heard in the room overhead, that is easily
explained. It was no ghost that you heard walking, but Lady
Chillington." Then, seeing my look of astonishment, she went on to
explain. "You see, my dear Miss Janet, her ladyship is a very peculiar
person, and does many things that to commonplace people like you and me
may seem rather strange. One of these little peculiarities is her
fondness for walking about the room over yours at night. Now, if she
likes to do this, I know of no reason why she should not do it. It is a
little whim that does no harm to anybody; and as the house and
everything in it are her own, she may surely please herself in such a
trifle."
"But what is there in the room that she should prefer it to any other in
the house for walking in by night?"
"What--is--there--in the room?" said the old lady, staring at me across
the table with a strange, frightened look in her eyes. "What a curious
question! The room is a common room, of course, with nothing in it out
of the ordinary way; only, as I said before, it happens to be Lady
Chillington's whim to walk there. So, if you hear the noise again, you
will know how to account for it, and will have too much good sense to
feel in the least afraid."
I had a half consciousness that Dance was prevaricating with me in this
matter, or hiding something from me; but I was obliged to accept her
version as the correct one, especially as I saw that any further
questioning would be of no avail.
I did not see Lady Chillington that day. She was reported to be unwell,
and kept her own rooms.
About noon a message came from Sister Agnes that she would like to see
me in her room. When I entered she was standing by a square oak table,
resting one hand on it while the other was pressed to her heart. Her
face was very pale, but her dark eyes beamed on me with a veiled
tenderness that I could not misinterpret.
"Good-morrow, Miss Hope," she said, offering her white slender hand for
my acceptance. "I fear that you will find Deepley Walls even duller than
Park Hill Seminary."
Her tone was cold and constrained. I looked up earnestly into her face.
Her lips began to quiver painfully. "Child! child! you must not look at
me in that way," she cried.
Instinct whispered something in my ear. "You are the lady who came and
kissed me when I was asleep!" I exclaimed.
Her brow contracted for a moment as if she were in pain. A hectic spot
came out suddenly on either cheek, and vanished almost as swiftly. "Yes,
it was I who came to your room last night," she said. "You are not vexed
with me for doing so?"
"On the contrary, I love you for it."
Her smile, the sweetest I ever saw, beamed out at this. Gently she
stroked my hair. "You looked so forlorn and weary last night," she said,
"that after I got to bed I could not help thinking about you. I was
afraid you would not be able to sleep in a strange place, so I could not
rest till I had visited you: but I never intended to awake you."
"I do not mind how often I am awakened in the same way," I said. "No one
has ever seemed to love me but you, and I cannot help loving you back."
"My poor child!" was all she said. We had sat down by this time close to
the window, and Sister Agnes was holding one of my hands in hers and
caressing it gently as she gazed dreamily across the park. My eyes,
child-like, wandered from her to the room and then back again. The
picture still lives in my memory as fresh as though it had been limned
but yesterday.
A square whitewashed room, fitted up with furniture of unpolished oak.
On the walls a few proof engravings of subjects taken from Sacred
History. A small bookcase in one corner, and a _prie-dieu_ in another.
The floor uncarpeted, but polished after the French fashion. A
writing-table; a large workbox; a heap of clothing for the poor; and
lastly, a stand for flowers.
The features of Sister Agnes were as delicate and clearly cut as those
of some antique statue, but their habitual expression was one of intense
melancholy. Her voice was low and gracious: the voice of a refined and
educated gentlewoman. Her hair was black, with here and there a faint
silver streak; but the peculiar head-dress of white linen which she wore
left very little of it visible. Disfiguring as this head-dress might
have been to many people, in her case it served merely to enhance the
marble whiteness and transparent purity of her complexion. Her eyebrows
were black and well-defined; but as for the eyes themselves, I can only
repeat what I said before--that their dark depths were full of
tenderness and a sort of veiled enthusiasm difficult to describe in
words. Her dress was black, soft and coarse, relieved by deep cuffs of
white linen. Her solitary ornament, if ornament it could be called, was
a rosary of black beads. Not without reason have I been thus particular
in describing Sister Agnes and her surroundings, as they who read will
discover for themselves by-and-by.
Sister Agnes woke up from her reverie with a sigh, and began talking to
me about my schooldays and my mode of life at Park Hill Seminary. It was
a pleasure to me to talk, because I felt it was a pleasure to her to
listen to me. And she let me talk on and on for I can't tell how long,
only putting in a question now and again, till she knew almost as much
about Miss Chinfeather and Park Hill as I knew myself. But she never
seemed to grow weary. We were sitting close together, and after a time I
felt her arm steal gently round my waist, pressing me closer still; and
so, with my head nestling against her shoulder, I talked on, heedless of
the time. O happy afternoon!
It was broken by a summons for Sister Agnes from Lady Chillington.
"To-morrow, if the weather hold fine, we will go to Charke Forest and
gather blackberries," said Sister Agnes as she gave me a parting kiss.
That night I went early to bed, and never woke till daybreak.