THE VELVET WALK.
"Are you going out so late, dear?" said Mrs. Power, as she crossed the
hall, where Gwladys was reaching a wrap from some hooks on the wall.
"Yes, auntie, such a lovely evening--quite like spring; I can't resist
it. I will put on the cloak Valmai left, and I shall be quite warm."
"Yes, and the very image of her," said Mrs. Power, looking after her
through the glass of the front door.
It was one of those tender evenings that visit us sometimes at the
beginning of the year to remind us that spring is not far distant, and
to make us forget that the cold March winds are yet in store for us.
Gwladys drew the red hood over her head and walked briskly in the
direction of the lake, which lay buried in the fir wood behind the
house.
The path which led towards it was called "The Velvet Walk," being
overgrown with a carpet of moss. The sun had just set, and the pale
blue sky was cloudless and serene as on a summer evening; but here, in
the shadow of the trees, the darkness was falling fast.
Over the fir tree tops one golden star hung like a jewel in the sky.
Gwladys walked with face upturned and eyes fixed upon its sparkling
brilliancy, and so lost was she in admiration of its beauty, that she
was quite unconscious of a hurrying figure who followed close upon her
steps.
It was Cardo, who, as he walked along the drive towards the house, had
caught sight of a gleam of scarlet between the fir trees.
"Valmai!" he said, with a bound of the heart, and a flood of love and
happiness taking the place of the anxious doubts which had filled him
since his return home.
He hastened past the front of the house and entered "The Velvet Walk"
to find the scarlet cloak but a little way in front of him, and Valmai,
as he thought, walking with gaze upturned to the brilliant evening star.
"At last, my darling!" he said, but softly, for he would surprise her.
He would approach nearer and call her name, and then she would turn,
and he would see the love-light in those starry eyes, of which he had
dreamed at night and longed for by day. He was close upon her, but his
footsteps made no sound on the velvet carpet.
"Valmai!" he said at last, and stood with wide-open arms and a
rapturous smile on his lips.
But at the sound of his voice the girl darted forward a few steps
before she turned round and faced the stranger. Her first look was of
astonishment and fright, immediately followed by one of indignation.
"Valmai, my darling, I have frightened you," he said, but dropping his
arms and the smile dying out of his face; for before the girl had
opened her lips to speak, he saw the flush of indignation and the
haughty look which passed over her face.
"Back!" she said, holding up her hand as if to keep him away; "not a
step nearer. And what if I am Valmai? What is she to you after all
these months of cruel neglect?"
Cardo stood still. Was this the meeting he had pictured to himself a
thousand times? Had her troubles unhinged her mind? Was she
distraught?
"What is it, Valmai, my darling, that has changed you so? What is that
cold, haughty look on your face? I am Cardo, dearest--your own Cardo!
come back to explain everything to you, and to clasp you in his loving
arms," and again he approached as if to embrace her.
"Stand back," said Gwladys once more. "If you come a step nearer, I
will call for help from the house."
"No, no," said Cardo, "do not do that. I will obey you, dearest; but
tell me what is the meaning of this change in you? Oh, Valmai! has
your love indeed perished? Have you forgotten the happy past, the
walks by the Berwen, the fortnight at Fordsea? I have been ill,
dearest--have lain unconscious for months in a hospital; but I swear
that, from the moment I left you until now, every conscious thought,
every fibre of my being, every chord of memory has been faithful to
you, and to you alone! Come and sit on this bench. Five minutes will
explain all to you, and I will not believe that my Valmai can have
become the cold and heartless girl you seem to be."
But Gwladys continued standing, and looking at him with eyes in which
scorn and contempt were but too plainly visible.
"Good heavens, Valmai!" said Cardo, with clenched hands, the cold sweat
breaking out on his face; "do you remember it is a man's very soul you
are trifling with? Do you know what a man's heart is? what his love
means--such love as mine?"
"Such love as yours!" said Gwladys coldly. "Such love, indeed! that
could lead an innocent girl into the path of deceit and dishonour; that
could leave her then to bear desertion and the cold scorn of the world,
alone and friendless; and now to return, and expect to find her
unchanged and still blinded to the truth!"
"Valmai!" said Cardo, his hot Welsh blood suffusing his dark face with
passion, "you could never have loved me. Do the strong bonds that
united us count for nothing? Does that little green mound in the
churchyard count for nothing? No! you never could have loved me; and
yet--you did!"
"If I ever did," said Gwladys, "the love is dead. I feel no more
interest in you now than I do in yonder ploughman."
"Girl, you are my wife," said Cardo, who was trembling with a mixture
of anger and wounded love. "You are mine by every law of God and man,
and I will not let you go." Then suddenly changing into a tone of
excited entreaty, he said, "Come, darling, trust me once more, and I
will bring back the light of love into those frozen eyes, and I will
kiss back warmth into those haughty lips."
"Away!" said Gwladys.
"Do you wish, then, never to see me again?"
"Never!" she said. "My greatest wish is never to see you or hear of
you again!"
Cardo sank on the garden seat, feeling himself more perfectly unmanned
than he had ever been before. He had built such fair castles of hope,
the ruin was so great; he had dreamt such dreams of happiness--and the
awakening was so bitter!
Gwladys saw the storm of feeling which had overwhelmed him, and for a
moment her voice softened.
"I am sorry for you," she said; "but I have given you my answer."
The slight tone of tenderness in her voice seemed to restore Cardo to
life. He crossed the velvet path, and, laying hold of her hands, which
she in vain tried to wrest from his grasp.
"You are mine!" he said, "and I challenge heaven and earth to take you
from me!"
"It is base and dishonourable," said Gwladys, still struggling in his
grasp, "to frighten a friendless girl and force your presence upon her."
But Cardo's grasp was suddenly relaxed. Dropping his arms at his
sides, and going back a step or two, he stood aside to let her pass.
His long-tried temper had over-mastered him, as with a scornful voice
he spoke for the last time.
"One word before you go--dishonourable! not even _you_ shall call me
that twice. Some strange cloud is over you--you are not the same
Valmai that walked with me beside the Berwen. You cannot kill my love,
but you have turned it to-night into gall and bitterness. I will
_never_ intrude my presence upon you again. Go through life if you
can, forgetting the past; I will never disturb the even tenor of your
way. And if, in the course of time, we may cross each other's paths,
do not fear that I, by word or sing, will ever show that we have met
before."
"I hold you to that promise," said Gwladys haughtily. And she passed
on in the deepening twilight, under the fir trees, Cardo looking after
her with an aching heart.
She met Mrs. Power on the stairs.
"You have been a long time, dear; I hope you haven't taken cold."
"Oh! no, I will be down directly; it must be near dinner-time."
She walked steadily up the broad staircase, and into her own room; but
once there, she threw herself on the couch, and buried her face in the
cushions.
"Oh! Valmai, my sister!" she sobbed, "what have I not borne for you
to-night! I have kept to my determination; but oh! I did not know it
would be so hard! You shall never more be troubled with this man; you
are beginning to find peace and joy in life, and you shall never again
be exposed to his cruel wiles. But oh! Valmai, having seen him I
forgive you; he can pretend to be passionately and truly in love with
you! but he is false, like every other man! He left you in despair and
disgrace; or what did he mean by 'the little mound in the churchyard'?
Oh! Valmai, what have you suffered? But now I have saved you, darling,
from further temptation from him. God grant my cruel deception may
bear good fruit for you, my sister!"
It was late on the evening of the next day when Cardo reached Caer
Madoc, and, hiring a carriage from there, was driven over the old
familiar road to Abersethin. The wind blue keenly over the brown, bare
hills, the grey clouds hurried from the north over the pale evening
sky, one brilliant star shone out like a golden gem before him. Once
he would have admired its beauty, now the sight of it only awoke more
poignantly the memory of his meeting with Valmai in the "Velvet Walk,"
and with a frown he withdrew his gaze from it. Here was the spot where
he had first seen her! here was the bridge upon which they had shared
their ginger-bread! and oh! cruellest of all sounds, there was the
Berwen gurgling and lisping below, as though there were no breaking
hearts in the world!
On the brow of the hill they saw the lights of Brynderyn.
"I will get out here," he said; "you need not drive down these rough
roads; I shall enjoy the walk." And as he paid his fare, the driver
wondered "what had come to Mr. Cardo Wynne, who was used to be such a
jolly young man! That voyage to Owstrallia done him no good whatever!"
And as he turned his carriage round, he muttered to himself, with a
shake of his head, "I heard some odd story about him and that purty
young niece of Essec Powell's the preacher."
Arrived at Brynderyn, Cardo found his father and uncle and aunt seated
round a blazing fire in the old parlour, which had not looked so
cheerful for years. They had been recalling old memories and events of
the past, and when Cardo's footsteps were heard in the passage, they
turned with expectant eyes towards the door. When he entered the room,
pushing his fingers through his hair as was his habit, he was silent
and grave.
"Well, well!" said the whole party at once, "have you found Valmai?"
"Yes, father, I have found my wife," he answered, in measured and
serious tones; "but she is unforgiving, and refuses to have anything
more to say to me. In fact, I have heard from her own lips that she no
longer loves me! There is nothing more to be said. I have come back
to my old home, to work again on the farm, to try to pick up the
threads of my past life, and to make your life happier for my presence."
"Cardo, my dear boy," said the old man, rising as if in reverence for
his son's grief, "is this possible? I do indeed feel for you."
"Oh, nonsense," said Lewis Wynne, "it is only a lover's quarrel; you
will make it up before long. I will go to the girl, and make it all
right for you."
"If you wish to do me a kindness, uncle, and you, too, dear aunt, you
will never mention the subject to me or to anyone else. It is a thing
of the past; let us bury it out of sight and hearing."
"We will do what you wish, my dear boy; but I am afraid, amongst these
gossiping villagers, you will often hear the subject alluded to in joke
or in earnest."
"Oh! I quite expect that," said Cardo, with an attempt at a laugh, but
it was a sorry attempt. "I am not going to play the _rôle_ of a
love-sick swain, my grief will be buried too deep for a careless touch
to reach it, and I hope I shall not forget I am a man. I have also the
comfort of knowing that my sorrow is the consequence of my misfortunes
and not of my faults."
Soon things seemed to fall into the old groove at Brynderyn, as far as
Cardo and his father were concerned, except that that which had been
wanting before, namely, a warm and loving understanding between them,
now reigned in both their hearts, and sweetened their daily
intercourse. The west parlour and all the rooms on that side of the
house, which had been unused for so many years, were opened up again,
and delivered over to the care of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Wynne, who kept
their own establishment there, thus avoiding the necessity of
interfering with Meurig Wynne's eccentric habits, and still enabling
them to meet round the cheerful hearth in the evening, or whenever they
chose.
As for Cardo, he threw all his energies into the busy work of the
farm--the earliest in the field in the morning, the latest to leave it
at night, nothing was too small for his supervision, no work was too
hard for him to undertake; and though he declared he was well, quite
well, still, it was evident to those around him that he was overtaxing
his strength. The flashing light had gone out of those black eyes, the
spring from his gait, the softness from his voice. He paid frequent
visits to Nance's cottage, always returning across the corner of the
churchyard. The stone-cutter had kept his promise, and had added the
surname of "Wynne" on the little cross, and Cardo read it over and over
again, with a sort of pleasurable sorrow. The banks of the Berwen he
avoided entirely, the thought of wandering there alone was intolerable
to him. Every bird which sang, every flower that nodded at him, the
whispering river, everything would ask him, "Where is Valmai?" And
what answer could he give to his own aching heart which echoed the
question, "Where is Valmai? Gone--worse than gone! changed, she whom I
thought was the counterpart of my own unchangeable nature. No, no,
anywhere but by the banks of the Berwen!" And he plodded on at his
work, doing his best to regain the placid calmness, though not the
bright joyousness of his life, before he met Valmai. But in vain; the
summer found him languid and depressed in spirits. It was Shoni who
first suggested to him the idea of a change of scene and companionship.
A strange friendship had grown up between these two men. Shoni had
been kind and tender to Valmai in her sorrow, and seemed to belong to
the bright, happy past which was gone for ever.
"Where that Mr. Gwynne Ellis wass ussed to be with you at Brynderyn?
Very good sort, indeed! Why you not go and stop with him a bit, and
bring him back here with you?"
Cardo thought the matter over silently, while Shoni whittled a stake
for a hay band.
"I think I will, Shoni; I feel I must go away from here for a time."
"Yes, you so rich there's no need for you to work like you do."
"No--that's the worst of it," said Cardo; "I feel my hard work is
benefiting nobody."
"Iss, benefit you, cos it help to fill your mind."
"Yes, but I am tired of myself," and Cardo heaved a deep sigh. "Well,
it's no use grumbling and grunting, Shoni, and if you don't see me
about next week you will know where I am gone to."
"Yes--but, indeed, I am thinking Essec Powell will miss you. He think
now s'no one like you in the world, 'he help me a lot, Shoni,' he say,
'with his Latin and his Greek,' and the Vicare, he says, 'it wass
wonderful how many books he got on his shelfs!' and indeed I think,"
continued Shoni, "the two old men will live much longer now they got
their noses over the same old book so often!"
"I hope so," said Cardo, "and I am glad to think that the provision we
have made for him has taken the sting out of his brother's 'will.'"
And he went homewards as broad-shouldered and as handsome as ever, but
not whistling or humming as was his wont.
His father, who saw how utterly his son was failing in his endeavour to
regain his peace of mind, fell in with his proposal of a visit to
Gwynne Ellis with great willingness.
"The very thing, Cardo, and bring him back with you if you can; he was
a nice fellow on the whole in spite of his radical ideas."
Once more Cardo took his way from Caer Madoc to the little wayside
station which connected that secluded neighbourhood with the busy,
outside world. He had written to Gwynne Ellis to inform him of his
coming, and had received a warm and welcoming answer to his letter.
"Come, my dear fellow; I shall be delighted to receive you in my
diggings, and bring some of the poetry and charm of your lovely
neighbourhood with you if you can, for this place is flat, and dull,
and gray. But, by the by, I haven't told you I am likely to be removed
very soon to a good, fat living, old boy, near Monmouth--but I will
tell you all about it when we meet."
Gwynne Ellis's present abode was on the borders of Gloucestershire, and
here Cardo found him waiting for him at the station.
"It's only a mile, and I thought you would like a walk, so I have told
the boy to fetch your luggage in the donkey cart."
"A walk will be very acceptable after sitting all day cooped up in a
railway-carriage."
"Well, now, tell me all about your wife. You know I have heard nothing
since that one letter you wrote after you turned up again. What
adventures you have had, my dear fellow! and wasn't Valmai overjoyed to
see you back again?"
"No, Ellis, and that is all I can say to you now. It is a long story,
and I would rather wait until later in the evening."
"All right, old fellow, in the smoking-room to-night."
And in the smoking-room that night they sat late, Cardo opening his
heart to his friend, recounting to him the tale of his unfortunate
illness in Australia, his return home, and the unexpected blow of
Valmai's unrelenting anger and changed feelings towards him,
culminating in her utter rejection of him, and refusal to live with him.
"Astounding!" said Gwynne Ellis, "I will not believe it. It is a moral
impossibility that that loving nature and candid mind, could ever so
change in their characteristics, as to refuse to listen to reason, and
that from the lips of one whom she loved so passionately, as she did
you."
"That is my feeling," said Cardo, "but alas! I have her own words to
assure me of the bitter truth. 'If I ever loved you,' she said, 'I
have ceased to do so, and I feel no more love for you now, than I do
for yonder ploughman.' In fact, Ellis, I could not realise while I was
speaking to her that she was the same girl. It was Valmai's lovely
outward form, indeed, but the spirit within her seemed changed. Are
such things possible?"
Ellis puffed away in silence for some seconds before he replied:
"Anything--everything is possible now-a-days; there is such a thing as
hypnotism, thought transference--obsession--what will you? And any of
these things I will believe sooner, than that Valmai Wynne can have
changed. Cheer up, old fellow! I was born to pilot you through your
love affairs, and now here's a step towards it." And from a drawer in
his escritoire he drew out an ordnance map of the county of Monmouth.
"Now, let me see, where lies this wonderful place, Carne Hall, did you
call it? I thought so; here it is within two miles of my new church.
In a month I shall be installed into that 'living,' and my first duty
when I get there shall be to find out your wife, Cardo, and to set you
right in her estimation."
"Never," said Cardo; "she has encased herself in armour of cold and
haughty reserve, which not even your persuasive and cordial manners
will break through."
"Time will show; I have a firm conviction, that I shall set things
straight for you, so cheer up my friend, and await what the wonderful
Gwynne Ellis can do for you. But you look very tired."
"Yes, I will go to bed," said Cardo.
"And to-morrow we'll have a tramp round the parish, and visit some of
the old fogies in their cottage. A mongrel sort, neither Welsh nor
English; not so interesting as your queer-looking old people down at
Abersethin. Good-night."