Nature took sides against Love on that evening, and made Mrs. Damerel’s
warning unnecessary, and all the anticipations of the young persons of
no avail. Instead of the evening stroll about the darkling garden which
Wodehouse at least had proposed to himself, the party were shut up in
the drawing-room by the sudden outbreak of that expected thunderstorm on
which Mrs. Wodehouse and Mrs. Damerel had discussed so earnestly. The
ladies had both felt that it must come, and the young sailor, I suppose,
ought to have been more clearly aware of what was impending; but there
are, no doubt, states of the mind which make a man totally indifferent
to, and unobservant of, the changes of the atmosphere. Anyhow, though he
arrived in the sweet beginning of the twilight, when all was still, poor
Edward had not only to stay in-doors, but to take a seat next to Mrs.
Damerel in the drawing-room; while Rose, who was somewhat nervous about
the thunder, retired into a dark corner to which he dared not follow her
boldly under the very eyes of her father and her mother. He did what he
could, poor fellow: he tried very hard to persuade her to come to the
other end of the room and watch the storm which was raging gloriously on
the plain below, lighting up the whole landscape in sudden, brilliant
gleams; for one of the windows had been left uncurtained and Mr. Damerel
himself placed his chair within reach of it to enjoy the wonderful
spectacle. Rose at one time longed so much to venture that her desire
overmastered her fears; but the rector, who was somewhat fretful that
evening, presumably on account of the storm, which affected his fine
sensibilities, sent her away hurriedly. “No, no, Rose--what have you to
do with storms?” he said; “go back to your mother.” When she obeyed,
there was silence in the room; and though the elders did not care very
much for it, I think the sharp disappointment of these two--a pang,
perhaps, more keen and delicate than anything we can feel when the first
freshness of youth is over--made itself spiritually felt somehow in the
atmosphere of the place.
“Roses have nothing to do out of the rose garden,” said Mr. Damerel,
with an attempt to overcome his own fretfulness, and perhaps a
compunction over the suffering he caused. He was not in a humor for
talking, and when this was the case he seldom gave himself the trouble
to talk; but some covert feeling or other made him willing to attempt a
diversion, for the moment at least. “I wish people had a more general
conception of the fitness of things. Your namesakes out-of-doors take no
pleasure in the storm. Poor roses, how it will batter and beat them
down, and strew their poor helpless petals about!”
“I do not find fault with Rose for being timid,” said her mother; “but
your craze about her name is fantastic, Herbert. She will have a good
many storms to brave which she cannot escape from if she is to do her
duty in life.”
“Then I hope she will not do her duty,” said the rector; “don’t, my Rose
in June. I had rather see you sweet and fresh, with your rose heart
unruffled, than draggled and battered with the rain. I’ll take the moral
risk upon my own head.”
Mrs. Damerel uttered an impatient little exclamation under her breath.
She turned to Wodehouse with an arbitrary and sudden change of the
subject. “Do you expect to be long away?” she said.
“Two years at the very least,” said the young man, piteously, looking at
her with such imploring eyes that she felt his look, though her own eyes
were fixed upon her work, and neither could nor would see. She felt it;
and as she was but a woman, though stern in purpose, she winced a little
and was sorry for him, though she would not help him. Her voice softened
as she replied,--
“I am very sorry for your poor mother. How she will miss you! We must
do our best to keep her cheerful while you are away.”
“The storm is going off,” said the rector; “did you ever remark,
Wodehouse, how seldom we have a complete thunderstorm to ourselves here?
There have been three going on to-night: one towards London, one
northwards, the other east. We never have more than the tail of a storm,
which is somewhat humbling when you come to think of it. I suppose it
has something to do with the _lie_ of the ground as you call it--eh?”
Edward answered something, he did not know what, while his opponent
regarded him with amused observation. Now that the matter was tolerably
safe in his own hands, Mr. Damerel was not without a certain enjoyment
in the study of character thus afforded him. It was to him like what I
suppose vivisection is to an enterprising physiologist. He had just
enough realization of the pain he was inflicting to give interest to the
throbbing nerves upon which he experimented. He was not old enough to
have quite forgotten some few pangs of a similar kind which he had
experienced in his day; but he was old enough to regard the recollection
with some degree of amusement and a sense of the absolute folly of the
whole which neutralized that sense of pain. He liked, rather, to hold
the young man in talk about scientific facts, while he knew that the
young man was longing to escape, and watching, with dismay and despair,
every hope disappearing of another kind of conversation which seemed
like the balance of life and death to the foolish youth. Mr. Damerel saw
all these symptoms of torture, and his sense of humor was tickled. He
was almost sorry when at length, the rain still continuing to fall in
torrents and the storm roaring and groaning in the distance, young
Wodehouse rose to go away. “I will not give you my blessing again,” he
said, smiling, “as I was rash enough to do before; for I dare say we
shall meet again, one way or another, before you go away.”
“Oh, I shall call when the last moment, the absolute good-by, comes!”
said poor Edward, trying to smile.
Rose put out a timid little hand to him, rising from her chair when he
came up to her. She had grown bewildered again, and disconcerted, and
had fallen far from the light and illumination which had flashed over
her in the afternoon. The storm had frightened her: something malign
seemed in the air; and she was disappointed and mortified, she scarcely
could have told why. Was this to be the end of the evening to which they
had both looked forward? Alas! such clouds will drop over even the
brightest skies. I think both of the young people could have wept with
sheer misery, disappointment, and despite, when they realized that it
was over, and could not now be mended, whatever might happen. He went
home, and she stole up to her room, enveloped by the mists of a
suppressed excitement which seemed to wrap them round and round, and
afforded no way of escape.
That, however, was the last bright day known in the rectory for a very
long time. The rector had not been quite himself that night. His very
pleasure in the torture of the poor young lovers was perhaps a sign that
the fine organization upon which he prided himself was somehow out of
gear. I do not believe, though many people were of that opinion, that
his hurried visit to the poor woman who was dying of fever was the
reason why Mr. Damerel took the fever, and of all that followed. He
could not have fallen ill so immediately if poor Susan Aikin’s
death-chamber had been the cause of his malady. Next day he was ill,
feverish, and wretched, and was reported to have a bad cold. The next
after that the village and all the houses on the Green were struck dumb
by the information that the rector had caught the same fever of which
Susan Aikin died. The news caused such a sensation as few warnings of
mortality produce. The whole neighborhood was hushed and held its
breath, and felt a shiver of dismay run through it. It was not because
Mr. Damerel was deeply beloved. Mr. Nolan, for example, was infinitely
more friendly and dear to the population generally; yet had he
encountered the same fate people would have grieved, but would not have
been surprised. But the rector! that he should fall under such a
disease--that the plague which is born of squalor, and dirt, and ill
nourishment, and bad air should seize upon him, the very impersonation
of everything that was opposite and antagonistic to those causes which
brought it forth!--this confused everybody, great and small. Comfortable
people shuddered, asking themselves who was safe? and began to think of
the drainage of their houses, and to ask whether any one knew if the
rectory was quite right in that respect. There was an anxious little
pause of fright in the place, every one wondering whether it was likely
to prove an epidemic, and neighbor inquiring of neighbor each time they
met whether “more cases” had occurred; but this phase passed over, and
the general security came back. The disease must “take its course,” the
doctor said, and nothing could be prognosticated at so early a stage.
The patient was still in middle age, of unbroken constitution, and had
everything in his favor--good air, good nursing, good means--so that
nothing need be spared. With such words as these the anxieties of the
neighborhood were relieved--something unwillingly it must be allowed,
for the world is very _exigeant_ in this as in many other respects, and,
when it is interested in an illness, likes it to run a rapid course, and
come to an issue one way or other without delay. It was therefore with
reluctance that the Green permitted itself to be convinced that no
“change” could be looked for in the rector’s illness for some time to
come. Weeks even might be consumed ere the climax, the crisis, the real
dramatic point at which the patient’s fate would be concluded, should
come. This chilling fact composed the mind of the neighborhood, and
stilled it back into the calm of indifference after a while. I am not
sure now that there was not a little adverse feeling towards the rector,
in that he left everybody in suspense, and having, as it were, invited
the world to behold the always interesting spectacle of a dangerous
illness, put off from week to week the _dénouement_. Such a barbarous
suggestion would have been repulsed with scorn and horror had it been
put into words, but that was the feeling in most people’s hearts.
In-doors, however, Mr. Damerel’s illness was a very terrible matter, and
affected every member of the household. Mrs. Damerel gave up everything
to nurse him. There was no hesitation with her as to whether she should
or should not postpone her family and cares to her husband. From the
moment that the dreadful word “fever” crossed the doctor’s lips she put
aside the house and the school-room and every other interest, and took
her place by the sick-bed. I do not know if any foreboding was in her
mind from the first, but she never paused to think. She went to the
children and spoke to them, appealing to their honor and affection. She
gave Dick and Patty permission to roam as they liked, and to enjoy
perfect immunity from lessons and routine, so long as they would be
quiet in-doors, and respect the stillness that was necessary in the
house; and to Agatha she gave the charge of the infants, exacting quiet
only, nothing but quiet. “The house must be kept quiet,” she said to
them all imperatively. “The child who makes a noise I shall think no
child of mine. Your papa’s life may depend upon it. It will be Rose’s
part to see that you all do what I tell you. No noise! that is the chief
thing. There must be no noise!”
The children all promised very solemnly, and even closed round her with
great eyes uplifted to ask in hushed tones of awe, as if he had been
dead, how papa was? The house altogether was strangely subdued all at
once, as if the illness had already lasted for weeks. The drawing-room
became a shut-up, uninhabited place, where Rose only entered now and
then to answer the inquiries of some anxious parishioners not too
frightened to come and ask how the rector was. The tide of life, of
interest, of occupation, all flowed towards the sick-room--everything
centred in it. After a few days it would have seemed as unnatural to
Rose to have gone out to the lawn as it was at first to sit in the
little anteroom, into which her father’s room opened, waiting to receive
her mother’s commissions, to do anything she might want of her. A few
days sufficed to make established habits of all these new circumstances
of life. Mr. Damerel was not a bad patient. He was a little angry and
annoyed when he found what his illness was, taking it for granted, as so
many people did, that he had taken it from Susan Aikin. “I wish
Providence had directed me anywhere else than to that cottage door at
that particular moment,” he said, half ruefully, half indignantly, “and
put me in the way of that fanatic Nolan, who can stand everything. I
knew my constitution was very different. Never mind, it was not _your_
fault, Martha; and he is a good fellow. I must try to push him on. I
will write to the bishop about him when I get well.”
These were heavenly dispositions, as the reader will perceive. He was a
very good patient, grateful to his nurses, cheerful in his demeanor,
making the best of the long struggle he had embarked upon--indeed, few
people could have rallied more bravely from the first shock and
discouragement, or composed themselves more courageously to fill the
first position which was forced upon him, and discharge all its duties,
such as they were. His illness came on not violently, but in the
leisurely, quiet way which so often distinguishes a disease which is
meant to last long. He was ill, but not very ill, on the fourth day,
descending into depths of it, but going very quietly, and retaining his
self-command and cheerfulness. This particular day, on which he was a
little worse than he had been before, was mild and rainy and warm, very
unlike the wonderful blaze of summer which had preceded it. Rose sat by
the open window of the little anteroom, which was now her general
position. The rain fell softly outside with a subdued, perpetual sound,
pattering upon the leaves. The whole atmosphere was full of this soft
patter. The door of the sick-room was ajar, and now and then Rose heard
her father move in the restlessness of his illness, or utter a low
little moan of suffering, or speak to Mrs. Damerel, who was with him.
Everything was hushed down-stairs; and the subdued stirring of the rain
outside, and the sounds of the sick-room within, were all that Rose
could hear. She had a book in her hand, and read now and then; but she
had come for the first time to that point in life when one’s own musings
are as interesting as any story, and often the book dropped on her lap,
and she did nothing but think. She thought it was thinking, but I fancy
that dreaming was more like it. Poor Rose! her dreaming was run through
by sombre threads, and there was one shadow of wondering doubt and
suspicion mingled in it. As she sat thus, one of the maids came softly
to the door to say that Mrs. Wodehouse and her son were in the
drawing-room, and would she tell Mrs. Damerel? Rose’s heart gave a
sudden leap; she hesitated a moment whether she should not run down
without saying anything to her mother, as it was she, up to this moment,
who had answered all inquiries; but the habit of dependence prevailed
over this one eager throb of nature. She stole into the sick-room under
shade of the curtains, and gave her message. The answer had invariably
been, “Go you, Rose, and tell them I am very sorry, but I cannot leave
your papa.” She expected to hear the same words again, and stood,
half-turned to the door, ready, when authorized, to rush down-stairs,
with her heart already throbbing, and nature preparing in her for a
crisis.
“What is it?” said the patient, drowsily.
“It is Edward Wodehouse come to say good-by,” answered his wife.
“Herbert, can you do without me for a moment? I ought to go.”
“Yes: go, go; Rose will stay with me instead,” said Mr. Damerel. He put
out his hot hand and drew the girl towards him, who almost resisted, so
stupefied was she. “Do not be long, Martha,” he said to his wife; and
before Rose could realize what had happened she found herself in her
mother’s chair, seated in the shaded stillness near the sick-bed, while
Mrs. Damerel’s step going softly along the passage outside testified to
the bewildering fact that it was she who was to receive the visitors. It
was so sudden, so totally different from her expectations, so cruel a
disappointment to her, that the girl sat motionless, struck dumb,
counting the soft fall of her mother’s steps, in the stupor that fell
upon her. Her father said something, but she had not the heart to
answer. It seemed incredible, impossible. After ten minutes or so, which
seemed to Rose so many hours, during which she continued to sit dumb,
listening to her father’s stirrings in his restless bed and the
pattering of the rain, the same maid came to the door again and handed
in a little scrap of paper folded like a note. She opened it
mechanically. It was from Mrs. Wodehouse. “Dear Rose, dearest Rose, come
and bid my boy good-by, if it is only for a moment,” it said. She put it
down on the table, and rose up and looked at her father. “If only for a
moment,”--he was not so ill that any harm could happen to him if he were
left for a moment. He did not look ill at all, as he lay there with his
eyes closed. Was he asleep?--and surely, surely for that moment she
might go!
While she looked at him, her heart beating wildly, and something singing
and throbbing in her ears, he opened his eyes. “What is it?” he said.
“It is--oh, papa I may I go for one moment--only for a moment--I should
come back directly; to bid--poor--Mr. Wodehouse good-by?”
“What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” said the rector, with
perhaps unintentional profaneness, smiling at her a smile which seemed
to make Rose wild. He put out his hand again and took hers. “Never mind
poor Mr. Wodehouse,” he said; “he will get on very well without you.
Stay with me, my Rose in June; to see you thus does me good.”
“I should only stay one moment.” Her heart beat so that it almost
stifled her voice.
“No, my darling,” he said, coaxingly; “stay with me.”
And he held her hand fast. Rose stood gazing at him with a kind of
desperation till he closed his eyes again, holding her tightly by the
wrist. I think even then she made a little movement to get free--a
movement balked by the closer clasping of his feverish fingers. Then she
sat down suddenly on her mother’s chair. The pulsations were in her ears
like great roars of sound coming and going. “Very well, papa,” she said,
with a stifled voice.
I do not know how long it was before she heard steps below, for her
senses were preternaturally quickened--and then the sound of the hall
door closed, and then the rain again, as if nothing had happened. What
had happened? Nothing, indeed, except that Mrs. Damerel herself had seen
the visitors, which was a great compliment to them, as she never left
her husband’s side. By and by her soft steps came back again,
approaching gradually up the stairs and the long corridor. The sound of
them fell upon Rose’s heart--was it all over then? ended forever? Then
her mother came in, calm and composed, and relieved her. She did not
even look at Rose, as if there were anything out of the ordinary in this
very simple proceeding. She told her husband quietly that she had said
good-by to young Wodehouse; that he was going early next morning; that
she was very sorry for his poor mother. “Yes, my dear; but if mothers
were always to be considered, sons would never do anything. Mayn’t I
have something to drink?” said the patient; and thus the subject was
dismissed at once and forever.
“Go and see if Mary has made some fresh lemonade,” said Mrs. Damerel.
Rose obeyed mechanically. The pulses were still beating so that her
blood seemed like the tide at sea beating upon a broad beach, echoing
hollow and wild in huge rolling waves. She went down-stairs like one in
a dream and got the lemonade and carried it back again, hearing her own
steps as she had heard her mother’s. When this piece of business was
over, and Rose found herself again in the little anteroom, all alone,
with nothing but the sound of the rain to fill up the silence, and the
great waves of sound in her ears beginning to die into moans and dreary
sobbing echoes, what can I say of her feelings? Was it possible that all
was over and ended--that she would never more see him again--that he was
gone without even a good-by? It was not only incredible to her, but it
was intolerable; must she bear it? She could not bear it; yet she must.
She stood at the window and looked out, and the bluish-gray world and
the falling rain looked in at Rose, and no other sound came to console
the aching in her heart. He was gone, and there was no hope that he
would come back; and she could not, dared not, go to him. The evening
went on while she sat in this train of excited feelings, wondering
whether the anguish in her heart would not call for an answer somehow,
and unable to believe that neither God nor man would interfere. When it
was dark she broke forth from all control, and left her post, as she
could not do when leaving it was of any use: but there is a point at
which the intolerable cannot be borne any longer. She put a blue
waterproof cloak on her, and went out into the rain and the dark; but
what was poor Rose to do, even when her pain became past bearing? She
strayed round the dark lawn, and looked, but in vain, for the lights of
the cottage at Ankermead; and then she ventured to the gate, and stood
there looking out, helpless and wistful. But no good angel whispered to
Edward Wodehouse, heart-sore and wounded, what poor little watcher there
was looking helplessly, piteously out upon the little gulf of distance
which separated them as much as continents and oceans could have done.
He was packing for his early journey, and she, poor maiden soul, could
not go to him, nor could the cry of her heart reach him. When she had
waited there a while, she went in again speechless and heart-broken,
feeling indeed that all was over, and that neither light nor happiness
would ever return to her more.
Poor child! I don’t think it occurred to her to blame those who had done
it, or even to ask herself whether they knew what they were doing.
Perhaps she did not believe that they had done it willingly. I do not
think she asked herself any question on the subject. She had to bear it,
and she could not bear it. Her mind was capable of little more.