Kate gave way most unwillingly, but felt obliged to yield to what she
felt was a common-sense view of the question.
"If you write now we shall be having endless trouble," said Garstang.
"Your uncle will come here, and I shall be compelled to give you up."
"But I would refuse to go," said Kate, with spirit.
Garstang smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.
"Will you give me credit, as an old lawyer, my dear child, for knowing a
little of the law?"
"Of course," she cried.
"Well, let me tell you that if James Wilton finds out where you are, I
foresee endless troubles. You know his projects?"
Kate nodded quickly.
"To compass those plans, he will stop at nothing, even force. But
supposing I defeat him in that, for I tell you frankly I should make
every effort, he would set the law to work. If I get the best counsel I
can, we shall have a long, wearisome lawsuit, and probably your late
father's estate will be thrown into Chancery. You will become a ward of
the Lord Chancellor, and the inroads made upon your fortune will be
frightful."
"I don't think I should care," said Kate, looking at him wistfully, "so
long as I could be at peace."
"Have you thought out any relative or friend whom you feel that you can
trust, and to whom you would like to go?"
"No; not yet," said Kate, wearily; "and I have tried very hard."
"Then don't try, my child," he said, with a smile, "and then perhaps the
idea will come. I ought to say, though," he added, playfully, "do try
hard, so as not to succeed, for I do not want you to go. It is as if a
change had come over my life, and like the man in one of the old plays,
I had discovered a long-lost child."
"Pray don't treat it lightly, Mr Garstang," said Kate. "All this
troubles me terribly. I feel so helpless."
"Believe me that if I talk lightly, I think very, very seriously of your
position," said Garstang, quickly. "I know how painful it must be for
you to neglect your friends, those to whom you would write, but really I
am obliged to advocate reticence for the present. I will have your
letters posted if you desire me to, but I am bound to show you the
consequences which must follow."
Kate sighed, and looked more and more troubled.
"To put it more plainly," continued Garstang, "my position is that I
have an extensive practice, with many clients to see, and consequently I
must be a great deal away. Now suppose one morning, when I am out,
James Wilton and his son present themselves. What will you do?"
Kate shivered, and gazed at him helplessly.
"I shall not feel best pleased to come back home to dinner, and find you
gone."
"My position is terrible," said Kate. "I almost wish I were penniless."
"Come, come, not so terrible; it is only that of a prisoner who has her
cell door barred inside, so that she can open it when she pleases. May
I try and advise you a little?"
"Yes, pray, pray do, Mr Garstang."
"Well, my advice is this--even if it causes your poor old nurse great
anxiety. She will be content later on, when she learns that it was for
your benefit. My advice is for you to try and settle down here for a
while, so as to see how matters shape themselves, or till you have
decided where it would be better for you to go."
She looked at him wistfully.
"Could I not take apartments somewhere, and have Eliza up to keep house
for me?"
"Well--yes," he said, thoughtfully. "It would be risky, for every
movement of your old servant will be jealously watched just now. It
would be better later on. What do you think?"
"That I do not wish to seem ungrateful for your kindness, neither do I
feel justified in putting you to great trouble and expense."
"Pooh, pooh," he said, merrily, "I am not so poor that I can not afford
myself a few pleasures. But proper pride is a fine thing. There, you
shall be independent, and pay me back everything when you come of age."
He glanced at his watch, for breakfast had been over some time, and they
had sat talking.
"I am keeping you, Mr Garstang," she said.
"Well, I like to be kept, but I have several appointments to-day. Have
a good quiet think while I am gone, and we will talk it over again
to-night."
"No," said Kate, quietly, "you will be tired then. I will take your
advice, Mr Garstang."
"Yes?" he said, raising his eyebrows a little.
"I will stay here for a time, where, as you say, I can be at rest and
safe from intrusion. We will see what time brings forth."
"Spoken like a thoughtful, wise little woman," said Garstang, without
the slightest display of elation. "By the way, you find plenty of books
to read?"
"Oh, yes, and I have been studying the old china."
"A very interesting subject; but music--you are fond of music. We must
see about that."
He nodded and smiled, and then she saw that he became very calm and
thoughtful, as if immersed in his business affairs.
Once more she was quite alone, thinking that she had been a whole week
in the solemn old house, and a few minutes later the housekeeper entered
to clear away the breakfast things.
"Is there anything I can do for you, ma'am?" said the woman sadly, when
she had finished her task, Kate noticing the while that there was an
occasional whisper outside the door, as the various articles were handed
out.
"No, I think not, this morning, Sarah," said Kate, with a smile which
proved infectious, for the woman stood staring at her for a few moments
as if in wonder, and then her own countenance relaxed stiffly, as if she
had not smiled in years, till her face looked nearly cheerful.
"You are handsome, ma'am," she said; "I haven't seen you look like that
before since you've been here."
"Why does not Becky come in to help you to clear away?" said Kate, to
change the conversation, and Sarah Plant's face grew stern and withered
again, as she shook her head.
"She's such a sight, ma'am, with that handkercher round her head."
"I should not mind that; I have not fairly seen her since I came."
"No, ma'am, and you won't if she can help it. You mayn't mind, but she
do. She always hides herself when anybody's about. Poor girl, she's
been in trouble almost ever since she was born. There's sure to be
something in this life. Not as I complains of master. It was just the
same with old master, and when he died it made Becky ever so much worse.
You see, ma'am, old master's wife was ill for a long time, and that
made the house dull and quiet; and then she died, and old master was
never the same again. He spent scores o' thousands o' pounds on
furniture, and books, and china, and did everything he could to make the
place nice, but he never held up his head again. And then somehow his
money went wrong, and new master used to come to help him out of his
troubles, but it was no use; old master never had the blinds pulled up
again; and that made Becky and me different to most folk, for it used to
be like being shut up in a cupboard, and we never hardly went out.
Becky ain't been out of the house for years, and years, and years."
"We must make the house more cheerful now, Sarah."
The woman looked at her in astonishment, and then shook her head.
"Well, ma'am, I will say that it has seemed different since you came;
but no--it's beautifully furnished, and I never see a better kitchen in
my life--but make it cheerful? No, ma'am, it ain't to be done."
"We shall see," said Kate, smiling, and the woman's face relaxed once
more as she gazed at the fair, intellectual countenance before her as if
it were some beautiful object which gave her real pleasure; but as
Kate's smile died away her own features looked cloudy, and she shook her
head.
"No, ma'am, it's my belief as this was meant to be a dull house before
the big trouble came. Me and Becky used to say to one another it was
just as if the sun had gone out, but we never expected what came at
last, or I believe we should have run away."
The moment before Kate had been thinking of dismissing the housekeeper
to her work, but this hint at something which had happened enchained her
attention, and the woman went on.
"You see, old master kept on getting from bad to worse, spite of Mr
Garstang's coming and seeing to his affairs; and one day the doctor says
to me: `It's of no use, Mrs Plant, I can do nothing for a man who shuts
himself up and sets all the laws of nature at defiance.' Those were his
very words, ma'am; I recollected them because I never quite knew what
they meant; but the doctor evidently thought master had done something
wrong, though I don't think he ever did, for he was such a good man.
Then came that morning, ma'am. I may as well tell you now. Becky used
to sleep with me then, same as she does now, but that was before she had
face-ache and fits. I remember it as well as can be. It was just at
daylight in autumn time, when the men brings round the ropes of onions,
and I nudged her, and I says, `Time to get up, Becky,' and she yawned
and got up and went down, for she always dressed quicker than I could.
And there I was, dressing, and thinking that master had told me that Mr
Garstang was coming at ten o'clock, and I was to send him into the
library at once, and breakfast was to be ready there.
"I'd just put on my cap, ma'am, and was going down, when I heard the
horridest shriek as ever was, and sank down in a chair trembling, for I
felt as sure as sure that burglars were in the house, and they were
murdering my poor Becky. I was that frightened I got up and tottered to
the door, and locked and bolted it, for I said they shouldn't murder me.
But, oh, dear; what I did suffer! `Pretty sort of a mother you are,' I
says to myself, `taking care of yourself, and letting poor Becky be cut
to pieces p'raps to hide their crime.'
"That went to my heart like a knife, ma'am, and I unfastened the door
again and went out and listened, and all was still as still. You know
how quiet it can be in this house, ma'am, don't you?"
Kate nodded.
"So I stood trembling there at the very top of the house, for we used to
sleep up there, then, before Becky took to wanting to be downstairs,
where she wasn't so likely to be seen; and though I listened and I
listened, there wasn't a sound, and I give it to myself again. `Why,' I
says, `a cat would scratch if you tried to take away its kitten to drown
it'--as well I know, ma'am, for I've tried--`and you stand there doing
nothing about your own poor girl.' That roused me, ma'am, and I went
down, with the staircase all gloomy, with the light coming only from the
sooty skylight in the roof; and there were the china cupboards and the
statues in the dark corners all seeming to look down at something on the
first floor. I was ready to drop a dozen times over, but I felt that I
must go, even if I died for it; and down I went, step by step, peeping
before me, and ready to shriek for help directly I saw what it was.
"But there was nothing that I could see, and I stopped on the first
floor, looking over the banisters and trying to make out whether the
hall door was open; but no, I couldn't see anything, and I went along
sideways, looking down still, till I saw that the dining-room door was
open, and it seemed to me that the shrieking must have come from there.
I was just opposite to the door leading into the two little lib'ries--
you know, ma'am, where the big curtain is--and I was taking another step
sideways, meaning to look a little more over and then go and call up
master, who didn't seem to have heard, when I caught my foot on
something, and cried out and fell. And then I found it was poor Becky,
who had just crawled out of the doorway on her hands and knees.
"For just a minute I couldn't say a word, but when I did, and asked her
what was the matter, she only knelt there, clinging to my gownd, and
staring up at me with a face that was horrible to behold.
"`What is it--what is it?' I kept on saying, but she couldn't speak,
only kneel there, staring at me till I took her by the shoulders and
shook her well. `Why don't you speak?' I says. `What is it?'
"She only said `Oh'--a regular groan it was, and she turned her head
slowly round to look back at the little lib'ry passage, and then she
turned back and hid her face in my petticoats.
"`Tell me what it is, Becky,' I says, more gently, for it didn't seem
that any harm was coming to us, but she couldn't speak, only point
behind her toward the little lib'ry door, and this made me shiver, for I
knew there must be something dreadful there. At last, though, for fear
she should think I was a coward, I tried to get away from her, but she
clung to me that tight that I couldn't get my gownd clear for ever so
long. But at last I did, and I went into the little lobby through the
door; but there was nothing there, and the lib'ry door was shut close;
and I was coming back when I felt Becky seize me by the arm and point
again, and then I saw what I hadn't seen before; there were footmarks on
the carpet fresh made, and I saw that Becky must have made 'em when she
had gone to the lib'ry door; and there was the reason for it, just seen
by the light which came from the little skylight--there it was, stealing
slowly under the bottom of the mat."