Kate Wilton needed all her strength of mind to bear up against the
depression consequent upon her self-inflicted position. As she sat back
in a corner of the carriage, dimly lit by a lamp in which a quantity of
thick oil was floating to and fro, she could see that Garstang in the
corner diagonal to hers was either asleep or assuming to be so, and for
the moment this relieved her, for she felt that it was from kindness and
consideration on his part.
But the next minute she was in agony, reproaching herself bitterly for
what now presented the aspect of a rashly foolish action on her part.
Then, with her mental suffering increasing, she tried to combat this
idea, telling herself that she had acted wisely, for it would have been
madness to have stayed at Northwood and exposed herself to the risk of
further insult from her cousin, now that she knew for certain what were
her uncle's designs. For she knew that appeal to her aunt would be
useless, that lady being a slave to the caprices of her son and the
stern wishes of her husband, and quite ready to believe that everything
they said or did was right.
And so on during the slow night journey toward London, her brain growing
more and more confused by the strangeness of her position, and the
absence of her natural rest, till the swaying to and fro of her thoughts
seemed to be somewhat bound up with that of the thick oil in the great
glass bubble of a lamp and with the stopping of the train and the roll
and clang of the great milk tins taken up at various stations.
At last her fevered waking dream, as it seemed to her, was brought to an
end by Garstang suddenly starting up as if from sleep to rub his
condensed breath off the window-pane and look out.
"London lights," he said.--"Asleep, my dear?"
"No, Mr Garstang. I have been awake thinking all the while."
"Of course you would be. What an absurd, malapropos question. There,
you see what it is to be a middle-aged, unfeeling man. I'm afraid we do
get very selfish. Instead of trying to comfort you, and chatting
pleasantly, I curl up like a great black cat and go to sleep."
She made no reply. The words would not come.
"Cold, my dear?"
"No. I feel hot and feverish."
"Nervous anxiety, of course. But try and master it. We shall soon be
home, and you can have a good cup of tea and go to bed. A good long
sleep will set you right, and you will not be thinking of what a
terrible deed you have committed in coming away in this nocturnal
clandestine manner. That sounds grand, doesn't it, for a very calm,
sensible move on life's chess-board--one which effectually checks James
Wilton and that pleasant young pawn his son. There, there, don't fidget
about it, pray. I have been thinking, too, and asking myself whether I
have done my duty by Robert Wilton's child in bringing you away, and I
can find but one answer--yes; while conscience says that I should have
been an utter brute to you if I had left you to be exposed to such a
scandalous persecution."
"Thank you, Mr Garstang," said Kate, frankly, as she held out her hand
to him. "I could not help feeling terribly agitated and ready to
reproach myself for taking such a step. You do assure me that I have
done right?"
"What, in coming with me, my dear?" he said, after just pressing her
hand and dropping it again. "Of course I do. I was a little in doubt
about it at first, but my head feels clearer after my nap, and I tell
you, as an experienced man, that you have done the only thing you could
do under the circumstances. This night journey excites and upsets you a
bit, but I'm very much afraid that some of them at Northwood will be far
worse, and serve them right."
"Poor 'Liza will be horror-stricken," said Kate. "I wish I had begged
harder for you to bring her too."
"Ah, poor woman! I am sorry for her," said Garstang, thoughtfully;
"servants of that devoted nature are very rare. It is an insult to call
them servants; they are very dear and valuable friends. But just think
a moment, my dear. To have roused her from sleep and told her to dress
and come with you--to join you in your flight would have seemed to her
then so mad a proceeding that it would have resulted in her alarming the
house, or at least in upsetting our project. She would never have let
you come."
"I am afraid you are right," said Kate, with a sigh.
"I am sure of it, my child; but you must communicate with her at once.
She must not be kept in suspense an hour longer than we can help. Let
me see, I must contrive some way of getting a letter to her.--Ah, here
we are."
For the train had slowed while they were talking, and was now gliding
gently along by the platform of the great dimly lighted station.
A porter sprang on to the footboard as he let down the window.
"Luggage, sir?"
"No. Is the refreshment room open?"
"Yes, sir."
"That will do, then," said Garstang, and he slipped a coin into the
man's hand. "Now, then, my dear, we'll go and have a hot cup of tea at
once."
"I really could not touch any now, Mr Garstang," said Kate.
"That's what I daresay you said about your medicine when you were a
little girl; but I must be doctor, and tell you that it is necessary to
take away that nervous shivering and agitation; and besides, have a
little pity on me."
She smiled faintly as he handed her out of the carriage, and suffered
herself to be led to where the cheerless refreshment room was in charge
of a couple of girls, who looked particularly sleepy and irritable, but
who had been comforting themselves with that very rare railway beverage,
a cup of freshly made tea.
"There, I am sure you feel better for that," said Garstang, as he drew
his companion's arm through his and led her out of the station, ignoring
the offers of cabman after cabman. "A nice, little, quick walk will
circulate your blood, and then we'll take a cab and go home."
She acquiesced, and he took her along at a brisk pace through the
gas-lit streets, passing few people but an occasional policeman who
looked at them keenly, and the men busy in gangs sweeping the city
streets; but at the end of a quarter of an hour he raised his hand to
the sleepy looking driver of a four-wheeler, handed his companion in,
gave the man his instructions, and then followed, to sit opposite to
her, and drew up the window, when the wretched vehicle went off with the
glass jangling and jarring so that conversation became difficult.
"There!" said Garstang, merrily; "now, my dear, I am going to confess to
a great deal of artfulness and cunning."
She looked at him nervously.
"This is a miserable cab, and I could have obtained a far better one in
the station, but now you have come away it's to find peace, quiet, and
happiness, eh?"
"I hope so, Mr Garstang."
"Yes, and you shall have those three necessities to a young girl's life,
or John Garstang will know the reason why. So to begin with I was not
going to have James Wilton and his unlicked cub coming up to town some
time this morning, enlisting the services of a clever officer, who would
question the porters at the terminus till he found the man who asked me
about luggage, and then gather from that man that he called cab number
nine millions and something to drive us away. Then, as they keep a
record of the cabs which take up and where they are going, for the
benefit of that stupid class of passengers who are always leaving their
umbrellas and bags on seats, that record would be examined, number nine
millions and something found, questioned, and ready to endorse the entry
as to where we were going; and the next thing would have been Uncle
James and Cousin Claud calling at my house, insisting upon seeing you,
and consequently a desperate row, which would upset you and make me say
things again which would cause me to repent. Now do you see?"
"Yes," she said, gravely; "they will not follow us now."
"I hope not, but it is of no use to be sure. I am taking every
precaution I can; and I shall finish by getting out where I told the
man--Russell Square; and we will walk the rest of the way."
Kate did not speak, for a vague terror was beginning to oppress her,
which her companion's bright cheery way had hard work to disperse.
"It is of no use to be sure about anything, but if they do find out that
you have come with me, these proceedings will throw them off the scent.
Your uncle does not know that I have a house in Great Ormond Street. Of
course he knows of my offices in Bedford Row, and of my place at
Chislehurst, where Harry Dasent lives with me--when he condescends to be
at home. Come, you seem brighter and more cheerful now, but you will
not be right till you have had a good long sleep."
Very little was said for the rest of the journey, the cab drawing up at
the end of the narrow passage close to Southampton Row, where there was
no thoroughfare for horses; and after the man was paid, Garstang led his
companion along the pavement as if about to enter one of the houses,
going slowly till the cab was driven off. Then, increasing his pace, he
led the way into the great square, along one side, making for the east,
and finally stopped suddenly in front of a grim-looking red-brick
mansion in Great Ormond Street--a house which in the gloomy morning,
just before dawn, had a prison-like aspect which made the girl shiver.
"Strange how cold it is just before day," said Garstang, leading the way
up the steps, glancing sharply to right and left the while. The next
moment a latch-key had opened the ponderous door, and they stood in a
great hall dimly seen to be full of shadow, till Garstang struck a
match, applied it beneath a glass globe, and revealed the proportions of
the place, which were ample and set off by rich rugs, and old oak
presses full of blue china, while here and there were pictures which
looked old and good.
"Welcome home, my child," said Garstang, with tender respect. "It looks
gloomy now, but you are tired, faint, and oppressed with trouble. This
way."
He led the girl to a door at the foot of a broad staircase, opened it,
entered the room, and once more struck a match, to apply it to a couple
of great globes held up by bronze figures on the great carved oak
mantelpiece, and as the handsome, old-fashioned room lit up, he stopped
and applied a match to the paper of a well-laid fire, which began to
burn briskly, and added the warmth and glow of its flames and the cheery
crackle of the wood to the light shed by the globes.
"There," he continued, drawing forward a great leather-covered easy
chair to the front of the fire, "take off your hat, but keep your cloak
on till the room gets warmer. It will soon be right."
She obeyed, trying to be firm, but her hands trembled a little as she
glanced at her strange surroundings the while, to see that the room was
heavily but richly furnished, much of the panelled oak wall being taken
up by great carved cabinets, full of curious china, while plates and
vases were ranged abundantly on brackets, or suspended by hooks wherever
space allowed. These relieved the heaviness of the thick hangings about
a stained-glass window and over the doors, lying in folds upon the thick
Persian carpet, while as the fire burned up a thousand little
reflections came from the glaze of china, and wood polished as bright as
hands could make it.
"You did not know I was quite a collector of these things, my dear. I
hope you will take an interest in them by-and-by. But to begin with,
let me say this--that I hope you will consider this calm old house your
sanctuary as well as home, that you are its mistress as long as you
please, and give your orders to the servants for anything that seems to
be wanting."
"You are very good to me, Mr Garstang," faltered Kate, who felt that
the vague terror from which she had suffered was dying away.
"Good? Absurd! Now, then, you will not mind being left alone for a few
minutes? I am going to awaken my housekeeper and her daughter. Rather
an early call."
As he spoke a great clock over the mantelpiece began to chime musically,
and was followed by the hour in deep, rich, vibrating tones.
"It's a long time since I was up at five in the morning," said Garstang,
cheerily. "Hah! a capital fire soon. Becky is very clever at laying
fires. You will find her and her mother rather quaint, but they are
devoted to me. Excellent servants. I never see anyone else's house so
clean. There, I shall not be long."
He smiled at her pleasantly, and left the room, while, as the door
closed, and the heavy folds of the portiere dropped down, Kate sank back
in her chair, and the tears which had been gathering for hours fell
fast. Then she drew herself up with a sigh, and hastily wiped her eyes,
as if relieved and prepared to meet this new change of fate.
Garstang's few minutes proved to be nearly a quarter of an hour, during
which, after a glance or two round the room, Kate sat thinking, with her
ideas setting first in one direction, then ebbing in the other, the
feeling that she had done wrong predominating; but her new guardian's
reappearance changed their course again, and she could feel nothing but
gratitude to one whose every thought seemed to be to make her position
bearable.
"I could not be cross with them," he said, as he entered; "but it is an
astonishing thing how people who have neither worry nor trouble in the
world can sleep. Now those two have nothing on their minds but the care
of this house, which came to me through an old client, and in which I
very seldom live! and I believe they pass half their time drowsing
through existence. If the truth were known, they were in bed by nine
o'clock last night, and they were so soundly asleep that the place might
have been burned down without their waking."
"It seems a shame to disturb them," said Kate, with a faint smile.
"What? Not at all, my child. Do them good; they want rousing out of
their lethargy. I have told them to prepare a bedroom for you, and I
should advise you to retire as soon as they say it is ready. There is
no fear of damp, for the rooms are constantly having fires in them, and
Sarah Plant is most trustworthy. Go and have a good long sleep, and
some time in the afternoon we will have a discussion on ways and means.
You will have to go shopping, and I shall have to play guardian and
carry the parcels. By the way, you will want some money. Have you
any?"
"I have a few pounds, Mr Garstang."
"Perhaps that will do for the present; if not, please bear in mind that
you have unlimited credit with your banker. I am that banker till you
can declare yourself independent, so have no compunction whatever about
asking for what you need Is there anything more that I can do for you?"
"No, Mr Garstang; only to contrive a way of getting Eliza here."
"Oh, yes, of course, I will not forget that; but we must be careful. We
don't want any more quarrelling. It is bad for you, and it upsets me.
Ah, they're ready."
For at that moment there was a soft tapping at the door.
"Your bedroom is the one over this, and I hope you will find it
comfortable. No trees to look out upon; no flowers; no bright full
moon; plenty of bricks, mortar, and chimney-pots; but there are rest and
peace for you, my child; so go, and believe that I am ready to fight
your battles and to make you happy here. I can if you will only help."
"I shall try, Mr Garstang," she said, with a faint smile.
"Then _c'est un fait accompli_," he replied, holding out his hand.
"Good-night--I mean, good morning. Sarah is waiting to show you to your
room."
She placed her hand in his for a few moments, and then with heart too
full for words she hurried to the door and passed through into the hall,
to find a strange-looking, dry, elderly woman standing on the skin mat
at the foot of the stairs, holding a massive silver bedroom candlestick
in her hand, and peering at her curiously, but ready to lower her eyes
directly.
"This way, please, miss," she said, in a lachrymose tone of voice; and
she began to ascend the low, wide, thickly-carpeted stairs, holding the
candle before her, and showing her gaunt, angular body against a faint
halo of light.
Kate followed, wondering, and feeling as if she were in a dream, while
Garstang was slowly walking up and down among his cabinets, rubbing his
hands softly, and smiling in a peculiar way.
"Promises well," he said softly; "promises well, but I have my work cut
out, and I have not reckoned with Harry Dasent yet."
He stopped short, thinking, and then involuntarily raised his eyes, to
find that he was exactly opposite a curious old Venetian mirror, which
reflected clearly the upper portion of his form.
He started slightly, and then stood watching the clearly seen image of
his face, ending by smiling at it in a peculiar way.
"Not so very old yet," he said softly; "a woman is a woman, and it only
depends upon how you play your cards."
"But there is Harry. Ah, I must not reckon without him."