"It is cruel, monstrous!" exclaimed Sir Philip, after a long pause.
"But, O my boy, what have I done? I thought to make you honoured and
loved of all. My sole desire was to make you happy and content. But,
my boy, you will forgive me. I humble myself to you. I was wrong."
"Hush, hush, father!" cried Charley sternly, as he raised one arm, and
laid it upon his father's shoulder. "What have I to forgive in you?"
He turned again, gazing with a despairing, stunned expression upon
Ella's face.
"But," cried Sir Philip hastily, "what has been done?--Mrs Brandon,
what medical advice have you had?"
"The best that money can procure," said Mrs Brandon, in a choking
voice. "We have done all that is possible."
There was a dead silence now reigning in that chamber, broken at last by
Sir Philip, as, forgetful of all else but the fearful wrong that had
been done the suffering girl before him, he bent over Ella to kiss her
tenderly.
"O my child, my child!" he moaned, "my poor child! I came here angry
and bitter to upbraid; but has it come to this? that you, so young, so
pure, must leave us to go where all is love, to bear witness to my
selfish pride and ambition? Heaven forgive me!" he sobbed, as his tears
fell fast upon the little hand he held, "heaven forgive me! for, in my
blindness, I have broken two loving hearts--sacrificed them to my
insensate pride! Blind--blind--blind that I was, not to remember that
the love of a pure true-hearted woman was a gem beyond price. Has it
indeed come to this, that there is nothing to be done but for a poor,
weak, blind old man to ask forgiveness for your wrongs?--Charley," he
sobbed, turning to his son, "my boy--my pride, the hope of my old age,
forgive me, for I can never forgive myself!"
"Father, for heaven's sake, hush!" cried Charley in his blank despair.
"This is too much. I cannot bear it. I have nothing to forgive. It
was our fate; but, O!" he said huskily, as he drew Ella nearer to his
breast, "it is hard--hard--hard to bear!"
Here Mrs Brandon interposed; it was too much for the sufferer to
encounter; and gently drawing the young man away, she bent over to
whisper to Ella, but, in obedience to a whispered wish, she drew back,
as Charley, weak now and trembling, gazed in his father's quivering face
for a few moments, and then, as did the patriarch of old, he fell upon
the loving old man's neck and kissed him, and wept sore.
The silence then in that sad chamber was painful; but at last, trembling
in every limb, Sir Philip crept to the bedside, to take the place lately
occupied by his son--to pass one arm beneath Ella's neck, and then, with
all a father's gentle love, to raise her more and more, till her head,
with all that glory of bright fair hair, rested upon his breast, and his
old and wrinkled cheek touched the vein-mapped, transparent forehead.
"If I could die for you, my child," he murmured; "if my few poor useless
days could be given, that you might live, I should be content. Heaven
hear my prayer!" he cried piteously. "Poor sufferer! Has she not borne
enough? Have we not all tried our best to make her way thorny and
harsh? O my child, I loved you from the first, though my pride would
not let me acknowledge it, and I left you that day moved almost beyond
human power to bear; while, on my return, even the eyes of my wife's
poor semblance seemed, from the canvas, almost to look--to look down
upon me with reproach. But you must not leave us--surely our prayers
must be heard--you, so young, so gentle! My poor blighted flower! But
you will live to bless us both--to be my stay and comfort--to help a
weak old man tenderly along his path to the grave--to be the hope and
stay of my boy--to be my pride! I ask you--I ask you this--I, his
father, ask you to live for us, to bless us both with your pure and
gentle love! Charley my boy, here--quick--quick--My God, she is dying!"
A faint shudder had passed through Ella's frame as Sir Philip uttered
that exclamation, and her pinched pale face looked more strange and
unearthly than ever; but she had heard every word uttered by the old
man; words which, feeble as she was, had made her heart leap with a
strange joy, sending life and energy once more through every vein and
nerve, but only with the effect of a few drops of oil upon an expiring
flame: the light sprang up for a few moments, and then seemed to sink
lower and lower, till, with a shiver of dread, Mrs Brandon softly
approached.
She paused though, for at that moment Ella's eyes softly unclosed, to
gaze trustingly at Sir Philip Vining. Then they were turned to Charley;
and as they rested there, her pale lips parted, but no word came. A
faint sad smile of content, though, flitted for an instant over her
face, and those lips spoke in silence their wishes--wishes read by
heartbroken Charley, who, resting one hand upon his father's shoulder,
pressed upon that pale rosebud of a mouth a long, long kiss of love,
one, though, to which there was no response. He did not even feel the
soft fluttering breath, playing and hesitating, as it were, round her
lips as her eyes slowly closed.
Was it in sleep or in death? The question was mentally asked again and
again; but no one spoke, as all stood there watching--hardly daring to
breathe.
Night had come, and still no movement, no trace by which hope could be
for a moment illumined, and still they watched on; Lexville, the Brays,
everything, being forgotten in this great sorrow. But with the night
came again the doctor, with an old friend and physician; then followed a
long consultation in the sick-chamber, and another in the drawing-room,
while friend and lover waited tremblingly for the sentence to be
pronounced.
"My friend thinks with me that there is a change," said Mr Tiddson;
"and really, Mrs Brandon, in the whole course of my practice, nothing
ever gave me greater pleasure."
The next day, and the lamp of life still burning, but the brain-symptoms
had passed away, in spite of the great excitement. There was extreme
weakness, but soon that was all; and until, joyful and exultant, Sir
Philip avowed to himself that the danger was past, he did not return to
Blandfield Court.
"Saved, my boy, saved! our prayers were heard!" he exclaimed then
fervently; and from that day Sir Philip seemed to know no rest when he
was away from the invalid chamber.
Scandal and wonders seldom last above their reputed nine days; and so it
seemed here at Lexville. People talked tremendously, and commented upon
the absence of the Vinings, and their treatment of their old friends,
the Brays. But from the Bray family themselves came not one word of
rebuke or complaint. They started for London the day but one after that
appointed for the wedding, to take up, as it proved, their permanent
residence in Harley-street; and at the end of a month it was announced
that The Elms was for sale; and, at a great price, the local auctioneer
disposed of the whole of "Mr Onesimus Bray's well-known and
carefully-selected live and dead farming stock," in spite of the
old-fashioned farmers' head-shaking and nods and winks.
But, as time wore on, though the past was never again reverted to, pudgy
quiet Mr Bray more than once had a snug _tete-a-tete_ club dinner with
his old friend Sir Philip Vining, and they parted in the best of
fellowship.
And now we must ask our readers to follow us hastily through a few
scenes, whose intent is to fill up voids in our narrative, and to bring
it more quickly to a close.
Any one who knows the neighbourhood of Blandfield and Laneton will
acknowledge that no more pleasant piece of rural undulating country can
be found within a radius of fifty miles round London; and through those
pleasant dales and glades, day after day of the bright spring-time,
might one or other of Sir Philip Vining's carriages be seen with the old
gentleman himself in constant attendance upon his chosen daughter. His
love had long been withheld, but now it was showered down abundantly.
The slightest increase of pallor, a warm flush, anything, was sufficient
to arouse the worthy old man's alarms. And they were not quite
needless; for the struggle back to health was on Ella Bedford's part
long and protracted.
Charley Vining used to declare that he was quite excluded, and that he
did not get anything like a fair share of Ella's heart; but the warm
glow of pleasure which suffused his face, as he saw the pride and
affection Sir Philip had in his son's choice, was, as Mrs Brandon used
to say, "a sight to make any one happy."
Often and often Mrs Brandon used to declare that the Vinings might just
as well come and take up their residence altogether at Copse Hall, for
she should never think of parting with Ella; while, as the summer came
in, and with it strength and brightness of eye to the invalid, Sir
Philip Vining's great pleasure was, just before leaving of an evening,
just as it was growing dusk, to lead Ella to the piano, where, unasked,
she would plaintively sing him the old ballad that had once drawn a tear
from Charley Vining's eye, when he had told the singer that he was glad
Sir Philip was not present.
And on those occasions, seated with his back to the light, and his
forehead down upon his hand, the old man would be carried far back into
the days of the past, when the wife he loved was with him; and as the
sweet low notes rose and fell, now loud and clear, now soft and
tremulous with pathos, Sir Philip's lip would tremble, and more than
once, when he bade her good-night, Ella felt that his cheek was wet.
Volume 3, Chapter XXVI.