Marion's walk back from Portobello was of a very different aspect from
her gay outset in the morning, and nature seemed to have suddenly gone
out of tune as she gazed around, with an altered eye on the sombre
massy hills with their giant shadows, throwing into mysterious
obscurity the tall ancient buildings of the doleful Canongate, which
looked like the ghost of a departed city; and the melancholy
magnificence of Holyrood reminded her of greatness in adversity, while
she reflected that the royal houses of Stuart and of Bourbon had there
found a dismal refuge in their utmost destitution. But more
immediately connected with herself, and more interesting still to her
thoughts, though rather a sinking in poetry, was the consideration
that there her own brother had been driven by his folly and
indiscretion, and that her father's family, so long respected in
Scotland, seemed now about to be finally extinguished in penury and
disgrace. It was a misfortune without remedy, for Marion knew the
limit of her influence with Sir Patrick to be less than nothing, and
she believed that not a living being possessed more. She had never
heard a surmise of his attachment to Clara, or deep and unconquerable
as it was, she might have entertained some hope that the love of
virtue and goodness in others, might lead to a respect for it in
himself, though none can doubt the melancholy truth, that, as fevers
are infectious, but health is not, so moral evil is far more
contagious than moral good.
After a hurried walk, Marion reached home in some trepidation, lest
she might be too late to dress for dinner, an offence which Sir
Patrick always visited with his utmost indignation; but on entering
the house, she was alarmed and surprised to hear, from the butler,
that Agnes had been seized with sudden illness very soon after her
return from Lady Towercliffe's ball, and that she was unable to leave
her bed.
Marion flew, rather than walked up stairs, and entered her sister's
room with the most affectionate solicitude, but great was her
astonishment to find Agnes stretched almost insensible on the bed, and
evidently in an agony of suffering, pale, cold, and languid. Her
spirits were evidently in the lowest depression, and, for the first
time in her life, she seemed to consider herself a mere mortal like
other people.
Dixon, in the mean time, watched over the invalid with an air of
excessive, almost exaggerated solicitude, emitting a series of very
ostentatious sighs, while she kept her place close beside the bed, so
as to exclude every one else, and made eager signs to Marion when she
entered, to leave the room without speaking, and not approach her
sister, or agitate her in any way.
Without heeding any such signals, however, Marion approached the
bed-side with noiseless steps, and quietly assuming the place which
had been occupied by Dixon, gently took hold of Agnes' hand, which
felt so cold and clammy, that she started with a degree of alarm,
greatly increased by the sight of the invalid's altered aspect.
"Have you called in a doctor?" said she, anxiously. "Surely Patrick
does not know how very ill you are, Agnes?"
"Dixon says he thought nothing of it, and recommended me to put off my
illness till after the assembly: unfeeling wretch! when I shall
perhaps never recover. Since then he is gone hunting," added Agnes,
with a peevish look at Marion, as if it were her fault, "and he will
not return home before night!"
"Who said Patrick had gone out hunting? It is not the case. I met him
in the passage, and he had been told you complained only of a slight
nervous headache!" said Marion, glancing at Dixon, whose countenance
wore an expression so sinister and peculiar, that Marion felt the
color rush to her face with surprise, but turned away instantly to
conceal how much she had been startled by it, though determined
privately to watch Dixon's face more narrowly than before, while
feeling a vague apprehension of she knew not what.
"Miss Dunbar must be kept quiet," observed Dixon, in a harsh sulky
voice, "she ought not to speak. It only fatigues her, and she should
see no one!"
"Who ordered that?" asked Marion with a scrutinizing look at the
abigail's averted face. "I shall remain here, Dixon, therefore leave
the room yourself at present."
While she angrily and slowly prepared to obey this authoritative
command, Agnes turned her pallid face towards Marion, saying, in a
faint voice, and with a look of extreme lassitude,
"Dixon says I have been in a delirium. She is probably right, for I
could have been certain that when the shutters were closed, I heard a
voice in the farthest corner of my room. It sounded like muttered
curses, and a dark figure crossed the fire-place. Could it be a dream?
I was too weak to move--my hand trembled, so that I could not reach
the bell, but surely I heard a low, strange, unearthly laugh. It was
horrible! but a moment afterwards Dixon appeared, and she says I was
in a deep sleep, evidently dreaming some horrible dream!"
"It is impossible sometimes to distinguish between a dream and a
reality, especially when we are ill," said Marion soothingly, for she
was alarmed at the look of terror and perplexity with which Agnes
mentioned these circumstances, and privately determined, as soon as
possible, to communicate on the subject with Sir Patrick. "I must be
allowed, Agnes, to sleep in your room to-night."
"Dixon maintains that this is all mere fatigue, after the excitement
of Lady Towercliffe's, but I was never yet wearied with being
flattered and admired! This morning, however, strange to say, my
spirits are dreadfully depressed. Nothing gives me pleasure. I can
scarcely imagine any earthly thing that could interest me. Though the
ball turned out pleasanter than any ball ever was before, and Captain
De Crespigny seemed, as usual, the most lover-like of men, yet this
morning, if he proposed to you, or even to Dixon, I should scarcely
care. Everything seems a blank. I feel a sort of depression and horror
not to be described or imagined."
"I desired you, Dixon, to leave the room," exclaimed Marion,
astonished to perceive her still lurking about the bed. "Go
instantly," added Marion in a more peremptory tone, for there was
something that terrified her in the woman's look. "What do you think,
my dear Agnes, can be the cause of this very sudden illness? Did you
eat any supper?"
"Nothing; I Jephsonized completely; tasted not a morsel, and drank
still less! That good creature, Dixon, brought me a cup of tea from her
own breakfast, on my return home, merely to lay the dust in my throat,
but, _entre nous_, I tossed the greater part out of that window
clandestinely, as it had an odd, disagreeable taste, like
stuff-petticoats! Poor Dixon would be mortified if she knew what I
thought of her 'delicious mixture' at, probably, 3s. 6d. the pound. It
is a pleasure to see any human being so attached as she is to me."
Marion's color deepened at the tone of reproach in which these last
words were spoken. It was impossible, she thought, that they could be
seriously considered applicable to her, and yet both the look and
accent seemed to say so, and the ready color flushed her cheek when
she felt that no attachment could have equalled her own, had she dared
to express it either in word or deed.
As Agnes declined sending for a doctor, and seemed already better,
though unable for more exertion, Marion took up a book, and remained
silently by her side, watching, with anxious solicitude, every
variation of her countenance, and, with affectionate ingenuity,
anticipating all her many wants, the most troublesome of which
appeared to be a craving and intolerable thirst.
After some time the door opened, and Dixon was about to enter with a
tray containing Agnes' dinner, but on seeing Marion still there, she
started and seemed about hastily to withdraw.
"Come in," said Marion, looking with astonishment at the abigail's
countenance, which was flushed and inflamed, as if she had been
intoxicated. "Come in."
"When Miss Dunbar is ill, she always likes her dinner alone," said
Dixon, pertly. "This is only a plain pudding, so I shall keep it warm
below."
"My sister will not like it the less for my helping her," said Marion,
affectionately turning to Agnes. "You may leave it with me, Dixon."
Marion was surprised to see the woman visibly change color when she
said this. The abigail instantly compressed her lips as if to prevent
their quivering, fixed her wild glaring eyes on Agnes, and then gave
an anxious glance at the dinner tray.
"This pudding seems excellent," continued Marion, helping Agnes; "but
surely there is rather too much sugar scattered on the top! Sugar!"
added Marion in accents of astonishment, when she had put it to her
lips; "this is not sugar! stop, Agnes! stop! I charge you not to taste
it!" exclaimed Marion, hastily dashing the spoon out of her sister's
hand, as she was raising it to her mouth. "What can this mean? There
is something here I do not understand. It must be explained!"
Bewildered and amazed, Marion looked round, and beheld a dark scowl of
rage and fear, like insanity itself, never afterwards to be forgotten,
which disturbed the countenance of Dixon for a moment, and then she
became of a livid, unnatural whiteness, when, in a low, subdued voice,
she uttered,
"I know nothing about it; the cook seasons Miss Dunbar's dinner; if
this is not to her taste, I can take it away."
"Marion, what is the matter? I hate all this fuss. Pray do not make a
scene when I am so ill. Dixon manages for me without half this
trouble. The pudding seems good enough."
Marion trembled visibly as she got up, but without saying another word
she rang three times for the cook, who expressed the greatest
astonishment when the pudding was shown to her, saying, in a tone of
pique, as she supposed her skill was in question,
"I put none of that there powdering on; sure it be something very
queer; neither sugar, salt, nor mustard! It would be of little use in
a kitchen, with no taste? I declare," added she, suddenly changing
color, "to my thinking, it be nothing better nor worse than arsenic!"
A stifled cry of astonishment and consternation escaped from Marion
at these words, while she hurriedly exclaimed, "Stop Dixon; do not
let Dixon leave the house! Send for an apothecary. Where is Patrick?"
The powder, on being analyzed, proved, indeed, to be arsenic, which
Dixon bought on the previous evening, on the usual pretext of
poisoning rats; but while Marion was raising an alarm, the culprit
herself absconded, carrying off all Agnes' trinkets and money, which
she must previously have secreted; and notice of the robbery was
immediately sent to the police. Among her valuable collection of
jewelry, Agnes bestowed the most audible lamentations on a splendid
locket set in diamonds with her brother's hair; but her secret regrets
were the deepest for a crystal scent-bottle, with a gold top set in
turquoises, which Captain De Crespigny had presented on the previous
evening, pretending he had lost it to her in a bet.
"One would fancy," said Agnes, in her usual rallying tone, the first
time she saw Captain De Crespigny after her recovery, "that Dixon had
been some old admirer of yours. Not a vestige is left of anything I
ever received from you! The last year's annual which you gave me, the
music which you copied for me, even my withered bouquet of the night
before, all gone at one fell swoop, leaving not a wreck behind!"
Captain De Crespigny colored violently, and strode to the window in
evident confusion, which Marion could not but remark with astonishment
and perplexity; but Agnes, quite unconscious of his agitation, rattled
on with increasing animation.
"I always now put my money and everything valuable in the most
conspicuous part of my room, to save anybody the trouble of murdering
me for them. I have a perfect horror of being murdered! It never
occurred to me, however, that the treasures which for certain reasons
I value most, were in any danger, being of no intrinsic value to other
people. I really would have died in defence of my little
scent-bottle."
Captain De Crespigny had recourse now to the poker, an inestimable
refuge in all cases where the concealment of emotion is an object, as
his heightened color could excite no reasonable surprise after the
exertion of lifting it, and the noise he made afterwards seemed
equivalent to a reply.
"It was, after all, a most terrifying escape!" continued Agnes, rather
delighted than otherwise by the importance she had acquired by this
adventure, and holding it up continually in every light that she
could. "That horrid Dixon! she always had a half-crazed look! You must
remember my telling you so, Marion?"
"I remember it perfectly it was I who said so to you!" replied her
sister, laughing,
"Ah! that is exactly the same thing!"
"Not in the least," persisted Marion, good-humoredly smiling. "All
great discoveries occasion disputes about the originators. Watt and
Bell about steam, and you and I about this poisoning affair!"
"Well, it was clever of you, Marion! I shall do as much for you
another time. That ungrateful creature! The arsenic would probably, at
the very least, have spoiled my teeth, and perhaps made my hair grow
grey! That I never could have survived!"
"The strangest thing of all is, that there seems to have been so much
malice in the whole business," continued Marion. "She might easily
have carried off all the plate, or Patrick's gold dressing-case! What
could ail Dixon at you, Agnes? You were kindness itself to her."
"This is an odd world, and very remarkable things happen in it,"
observed Sir Patrick, with a yawn. "But you may talk till you are both
in your coffins, without making anything new of this business. Your
affair has been the wonder of the house for two entire days, Agnes,
without a single new fact having come out, and there is De Crespigny
strolled into the garden to escape being wearied to death. I really
think two days long enough to discuss any one subject, and the less
you annoy yourselves about it the better. If the culprit is above
ground, the police will ferret her out; and my advice to both of you
is, to eat your puddings for the next month without sugar!"
Agnes assumed a look of majestic ire at this very cavalier allusion to
her adventure, and threw herself back in her arm-chair, with an
exceedingly ill-used aspect, heaving a succession of indignant sighs,
which continued most provokingly unnoticed till they amounted at last
almost to groans of suppressed anger, while Sir Patrick, taking up the
"Times," concluded, by saying, in a tone of absent, careless
indifference,
"One has no leisure now to be happy and sorry about everything that
occurs. I remember once seeing a very impudent, forward-looking
actress perform Juliet at Covent-Garden, when De Crespigny whispered
to me, in his droll way, 'Depend upon it, this is not the first lover
whom that young lady has met on a balcony!' and you may depend upon
it, Agnes, this is not the first poisoning experiment your abigail has
attempted: I hope she will never try her skill on me! What would you
say if she were to administer a dose of zinc some day, and turn you
blue! I often wonder that no jealous woman ever wreaked her vengeance
in that way! It would be a capital joke!"
Agnes had been greatly flattered, and if any attention to herself
could have surprised her, she might have been astonished at the
intense interest almost inadvertently betrayed by Captain De
Crespigny, in the mysterious circumstances of her lately discovered
danger. When the particulars were first mentioned, he turned as pale
as death, and asked with startling eagerness, for a minute description
of the abigail's appearance, to which he listened with almost
breathless attention. From that moment he became indefatigable in his
efforts to trace out the fugitive, in which he seemed most truly and
heartily in earnest, writing advertisements himself for the
newspapers, to offer a reward for her apprehension, and never seeming
to tire of hearing all that could be remembered or related, respecting
the period of her being first engaged by Agnes, her dress, manner,
age, and appearance, while his color varied visibly from red to pale
several times during the narration.
"It is altogether most flattering to me!" observed Agnes next day,
when pointing all this out to Sir Patrick. "Captain De Crespigny has
been sometimes most maliciously accused of insincerity towards young
ladies; but when he is in earnest you see how very much in earnest he
is! It would be impossible for him to be more deeply interested and
agitated on the occasion, if his own life, instead of mine, had been
endangered. I wish everybody else had shown as much feeling!" added
she, glancing angrily at Sir Patrick, who was carelessly whistling a
tune, and beating time with a riding whip on his boot. "Well!"
exclaimed Agnes, getting more and more irritated, "if I did not see
that one person at least cares more for me in the world than you do, I
would be ready yet, without giving Dixon the trouble, to poison
myself! I would spend my last shilling on a dose of arsenic!"
"I am not sure that poisoning in such a case would be the best plan!"
replied Sir Patrick, describing circles on the carpet with his whip,
and speaking in a tone of most provoking _nonchalance_. "In the first
place, if people are so very indifferent, it might be no great
punishment to them; and besides, I do not exactly see how poisoning
would improve your own prospects, either in this world or the next! In
respect to my friend De Crespigny, it is quite a catch for any idle man
like him, when something occurs that he can be interested in, for he
was dying of too much leisure; but as for his ever falling seriously in
love with any young lady in the creation, let me warn you, Agnes, once
for all, that there cannot be a more hopeless hope invented or dreamed
of."