PALLIDA MORS.
It was the second of September. Reginald Haggard's usual invitations had
been accepted by a select party of his intimates. They had had a great
slaughter in the well-stocked Walls End preserves on the day before.
General Pepper, Lord Spunyarn, Colonel Spurbox, the host and the two
young men sat down to breakfast, and Georgie Haggard presided at the
meal, looking to Spunyarn's mind handsomer than ever in the deep
mourning which she still wore for her cousin Lucy. But Mrs. Haggard was
not the only lady who graced the breakfast-table at the Castle, for Mrs.
Dodd had arrived to pay a long-promised visit the day before, of course
accompanied by her husband. As some men never travel without a hat box,
so Mrs. Dodd never left King's Warren without the Rev. John.
"I am so glad to have met you once more, Lord Spunyarn," said the
vicar's wife; "isolated as I am at King's Warren, it is so seldom my
privilege to meet any man having a purpose in life, and the men with a
purpose, you know, are after all the only men worth knowing." Here she
gave a benignant and comprehensive glance round the table, and every one
felt that he at least was not worth Mrs. Dodd's notice, which was
exactly the sensation the vicar's wife intended to produce.
"Awfully good of you, dear Mrs. Dodd, I'm sure, but I'm afraid I can
hardly claim the credit of being a man with a purpose. I went to the
East End first, you know, merely from curiosity and because the people
were excessively amusing, but nowadays 'slumming' is the fashion and a
great many smart people I know do as I do, merely for a new sensation."
"Ah, you do good by stealth and blush to find it fame," said the lady.
"I don't know if you can call it doing good. I give very little of my
money away, though I certainly do spend a good deal of my time among the
abjectly poor. I became a sort of confidential adviser to a good many of
them, a kind of honorary amateur solicitor. I drifted into it somehow or
other. I acted as a sort of buffer between the East End Lazarus and his
landlord. I was instrumental in obtaining for Lazarus certain rights
which had been long in abeyance in the East End; either my client didn't
know his rights, or he found them difficult to enforce; the landlords
would screw the uttermost farthing out of the poor wretches in the shape
of rent, and if they didn't pay they were sold up. The _quid pro quo_
they got for their rent was simply a place to rot and die in--no water,
no drains, no ventilation, no anything. Then there was the sweating
system; women working fifteen or sixteen hours a day for a pittance of
ninepence: women doing men's work and getting next to nothing for it;
and the attempted redress of a thousand and one nameless grievances and
horrors."
"Oh, Lord Spunyarn," cried Mrs. Dodd, "would that I could walk hand in
hand with you through those dreadful places, sharing in such work."
"I have no doubt Dodd could exchange and become one of the wise men of
the East, if he tried," said Haggard maliciously.
"Ah, dear Mr. Haggard, my husband was never formed for missionary work.
Ever since my girlhood I have tried to rouse his enthusiasm, but in
vain. I don't believe he has any enthusiasm," and here the voice of the
Reverend John Dodd was heard in an unctuous whisper addressing Colonel
Spurbox in commendation of the dish in front of him, to which he helped
himself copiously for the second time.
"I'm quite certain, my dear sir, that there is no more successful way of
accommodating the freshly-killed partridge than in a _salmi_. I say
this advisedly, and after many years' experience. I speak feelingly,
colonel. Till the fourth you can't do better than stick to _salmi_; I
always do."
"There's no want of enthusiasm in that, anyhow, Dodd," said Spunyarn
with a smile, while the two young men laughed aloud.
"Ah," sighed the vicaress in a stage whisper, "forgive his little
weakness; he _will_ hanker after the flesh-pots--the flesh-pots of
Egypt."
"Be exact, my dear, be exact," cried the vicar; "it was quail, probably
roast quail, though that is a succulent dish, that is referred to;
certainly not _salmi_ of partridges."
"Don't trifle, John," cried Mrs. Dodd.
"I don't, my dear; I assure you that I am seriously, profitably and
pleasantly employed. Good gracious me, is there anything one need be
ashamed of in the admiration of art? And what art can be higher than
the culinary art, which must have been necessarily one of the earliest,
if not the very earliest of all? Some people are born without an ear for
music; I am one of those unfortunates myself, but to make up for it I
have been blessed by heaven with an appreciative palate. Would you have
me neglect my advantage, would you wish me to bury my one talent in a
napkin? Certainly not, Mrs. Dodd. Art I appreciate, especially high art,
and I'll trouble you for a little more of the _salmi_, Dr. Wolff."
"And how are things going on in the parish, Mr. Dodd?" said Georgie.
"Are the Dissenters as active as ever?"
"No, my dear madam; just now the Church is far more popular."
"Thanks to organization, thanks to organization," burst in the vicar's
wife impetuously. "Our curates' wives are admirable organizers. You
remember the Misses Sleek, Mr. Haggard?"
"That I do; uncommonly good-looking girls they were too."
"Well, Mr. Haggard, it was the last thing that I should have expected,
but they both went into the Church."
"You mean that they married my curates, my dear," interrupted the vicar.
"No, Mr. Dodd, I said it advisedly, they went into the Church. I suppose
that in the old days when high-born ladies became nuns that they went
into the Church, and in doing so vowed themselves to a life of
self-denial. And in this present time any lady who marries a clergyman,
Mr. Dodd, vows herself to a life of self-denial and penance, and
certainly enters the Church. I did," she added with a sigh, "and I glory
in it. The humble curate may rise to rank and title, but in the highly
unlikely event of your becoming a bishop, John, I should remain plain
Mrs. Dodd still."
"Not plain, my dear--not plain."
But Mrs. Dodd did not condescend to reprove him; she forgave the
flippancy of the remark for the sake of the compliment.
"The fact is," said the vicar, "that since that fellow Smiter left
King's Warren a great many of the better-disposed of his people have
come over to us. The services are more ornate than they were, and
consequently more attractive. So are the sermons, I suppose. At all
events, they are shorter. Then we've got a Sisterhood and a Young Men's
Christian Association, who play cricket in summer and football in
winter. Then again we use collecting bags, while at Gilgal they still
stick to the plates. Of course the collections have dropped off to a
mere nothing, but the congregations have increased wonderfully.
Certainly the plates produced a healthy rivalry, but the bags, I take
it, are less of a tax, and the congregation assuredly prefers them. It's
a mystery to me where they get all the threepenny-pieces, and I am sorry
to say that farthings, and even buttons, are not uncommon. Still, your
father and Justice Sleek--everybody calls him Justice Sleek now--let us
have all we want in the shape of money, so I suppose there's nothing to
complain of."
"Whatever my husband may say, dear Mrs. Haggard, there has been a great
awakening, and though he may not see it, for none are so proverbially
blind as those who won't see, I look upon it as principally due, at all
events in my own parish, to the exertions of my own sex. My curates are
both highly popular."
"My dear, curates always are highly popular when they are married to
wealthy good-looking young women, and their pockets consequently
bursting, literally bursting, with half-crowns; I may add that, in my
experience, these are the only circumstances under which married curates
_are_ popular."
"You have much to be grateful for, John."
"I know it, my dear--I know it," said the vicar as he finished his
coffee. And then the party broke up to commence the real business of the
day.
No one would have recognized in the well-appointed and terribly
respectable head keeper who touched his hat to the party of gentlemen as
they emerged upon the lawn, the former village reprobate--Blogg, the
whilom King's Warren poacher. But so it was. By some strange fatality or
other your poacher either becomes a confirmed reprobate or blossoms into
the very best kind of gamekeeper. Perhaps it's on the principle of set a
thief to catch a thief that those estates are best preserved where the
head keeper has been poacher in his youth. Just as the man who has risen
from the ranks makes the sternest martinet and the strictest
disciplinarian, so the reformed poacher is invariably the prince of
gamekeepers, when honest.
The vicar of King's Warren was a High Churchman. I believe he would have
ridden to hounds with pleasure but for the fact that he found it
impossible to find anything up to his weight. But he sternly drew the
line at carrying a gun. Though the vicar denied himself this pleasure,
he joined the shooting party, for his intense appreciation of the
culinary art made violent exercise a necessity of his existence.
As Mrs. Haggard and the vicar's wife sat and chatted over the little
details of life at the village of King's Warren, the happy home of the
former's girlhood, Mrs. Haggard remarked to her companion that it was
strange that they had not heard a shot for at least half an hour. As she
uttered the words Lord Spunyarn entered the room, pale and out of
breath, and evidently hardly able to control his emotion.
"What! back so soon, Lord Spunyarn? Is anything the matter?" said Mrs.
Dodd.
"Something dreadful has happened."
"Has there been an accident? Has anything happened to George?" cried the
mother, and the colour left her lips as she rose excitedly.
At that moment the old lord entered the room.
"George is safe, dear madam," said her husband's old friend, "but I have
hurried here as the bearer of bad news, and I must bid you prepare for
the worst."
"Gad, sir, don't keep us in suspense," cried old Lord Pit Town, with the
irritability of age. "Is Lucius the victim?"
"No, the boys are safe, dear Mrs. Haggard," he continued. "My old friend
is badly hurt. In passing through a hedge----"
But Mrs. Haggard had fainted in the arms of the vicar's wife.
And then Lord Spunyarn told his tale to the old man, while Mrs. Dodd and
the women-servants who, unsummoned, had appeared upon the scene, busied
themselves around the fainting woman.
It appeared that in getting through a hedge to pick up a bird that,
wounded, had managed to struggle through it, Reginald Haggard's gun had
suddenly exploded and lodged a charge of shot in his chest. It was not
from carelessness; but Haggard's foot had caught in a rabbit burrow, and
as he fell the accident happened. Before their eyes the thing had taken
place. There was nothing mysterious about it. It was terribly sudden,
that was all.
Hardly had Spunyarn told his tale when Mrs. Haggard came to herself.
Tearless and wan she rose to her feet, and taking the old earl's arm,
she said simply but in a broken voice, "Let us go to him--let us go to
him at once, Lord Pit Town; there may be hope--there may be hope yet."
The old man looked towards Spunyarn interrogatively, but a shake of the
head was the only response.
Mrs. Haggard hadn't to go far to meet her wounded husband, for as they
passed into the great entrance hall of the Castle a melancholy little
procession came in by the main doorway. Four keepers bore a hurdle, upon
which lay Lord Pit Town's wounded heir. His face was pale, the lips
bloodless, while cold drops stood upon his brow. The four men halted,
uncertain where to deposit their burden. Georgie Haggard, quitting the
old lord's arm, sprang at once to her husband's side, seized his hand,
and attempted to wipe the death drops from his brow.
"Don't touch me, Georgie," he muttered, and the voice sounded unequal
and cavernous. "I've suffered untold tortures in being brought here,"
and his pale fingers, whose nails had become livid, vainly fumbled at
his collar. The faithful wife tenderly loosened the band, which appeared
to almost strangle him. "Georgie," he continued to his wife, "where is
Spunyarn? I must speak with him at once."
He who had been his faithful friend from youth to middle age stepped
forward and bent his head over the mouth of the dying man, for he was
dying. For several seconds Haggard whispered a hurried communication to
his friend, while the bystanders, including the old lord and Haggard's
wife, stood aside, so as not to interrupt the privacy of the
communication. Ever and anon Haggard paused for breath.
"Shirtings," he said at last, "you will remember?"
"I will see to it, be assured of that," replied his friend, Lord
Spunyarn. And then Haggard motioned the old earl to his side, and
addressed him with considerable effort.
They had dragged forward a couple of oaken benches, and had placed them
one under either end of the hurdle upon which Haggard lay. There was a
dead silence in the great entrance hall, only broken by a loud
succession of regular ticks, caused by Haggard's life blood, which in
great drops fell upon the tesselated pavement below with a monotonously
dreadful sound.
"Good-bye, my lord," he said simply, as with an effort he stretched out
his hand, which was affectionately grasped by the trembling fingers of
the old nobleman. "I am going," he continued, "but you have the boys, my
boys."
"Perhaps it's not so bad as you think, Reginald. Assistance will be here
shortly. We will move you out of this at once."
"There won't be time, Lord Pit Town. Take care of Lucius."
The dying man's eyes fell upon his wife, and a smile passed over his
pale face. "Georgie," he gasped out with an effort, "say you forgive me
and I shall die easier."
"Reginald," she whispered, "I have nothing to forgive, but," she added
through her sobs, "there is something I must tell you."
"I know it, Georgie. I have known it all along. Kiss me, dear," he added
with an effort, and with the kiss his spirit passed away.
Reginald Haggard was dead, stricken down ere he could succeed to the
title and estates which would have been his in the ordinary course of
nature; but as the aged earl turned away from the body of the man who
had been his heir, his eye fell upon the two young men, and motioning to
Lucius he said in a broken voice, "Give me your arm, boy; you're all I
have left in the world now."
All sign of grief left Lucius Haggard's face at this public notification
of his change of position. He drew himself up proudly, and deferentially
led the old man away. But young George Haggard didn't hear the words; he
stood staring at his dead father, like a man in a dream.
"Is there no hope?" he said to those who crowded round the hurdle upon
which the body lay. The ominous tick of the falling blood had ceased
now, and as if in answer to the young fellow's question, the dead man's
jaw fell, disclosing the white teeth. Then George Haggard turned to his
mother, and at a sign from Spunyarn he led her from the spot.
As soon as Mrs. Haggard found herself alone, she gave way to her natural
grief. The hero of her girlish dreams had been snatched from her
suddenly, so suddenly that she could hardly realize that he was actually
gone from her for ever. She had continued to idolize the man and to
remain unaware of his many deficiencies and failings, from the very
moment he had first courted her in the rose garden at King's Warren
until his death. He had been a fairly good husband to her, as husbands
go, and she had never ceased to love him with a trusting affection. But
bewildered as she was by the suddenness of her affliction, she could not
help pondering over the strange communication he had made to her upon
his death-bed.
"_I have known it all along!_" What had he known all along? Had he known
that Lucius, instead of being his own son was but the bastard child of
Lucy Warrender? Surely not. What could he mean, if he had known it all
along, by his solemn adjuration to old Lord Pit Town to take care of
Lucius. There could be but one interpretation to that, surely that he
looked upon the boy as his eldest son, his heir, his first-born child.
Why had her husband asked her to forgive him on his death-bed? Forgive
him what? He had not bade good-bye to either of the young fellows, but
then death had probably come upon him unawares. Could it possibly be
that her dead husband, man of the world as he was, could have
deliberately, for the mere sake of her cousin's honour, sacrificed the
future of his only son designedly, and without that son's consent? That
supposition was beyond even Georgina Haggard's credulity.
There was a mystery in the matter, a mystery she could not fathom. The
more she thought over it, the more difficult she found it to attempt to
arrive at any possible solution. Was it merely that he feared that
George, being really his only child, that at the boy's death without
heirs the Pit Town title and the Pit Town wealth should descend to some
remote branch of the family, and so perhaps he may of a purpose have
placed the second good young life between the old lord and his distant
relatives? But that was hardly likely, for such a contingency could
never happen till George was in his grave; and Haggard himself, be it
remembered, was a wealthy man.
What then was Lucy Warrender's son to him?
Could it be that he had a stronger, a dearer interest in the child? But
she thrust it from her as an unworthy thought; and she strove to banish
the phantom she had unwittingly conjured up, by letting her mind return
once more to its natural grief, in the thought of her awful bereavement,
her sudden widowhood.
Reginald Haggard's death and Reginald Haggard's funeral were a nine
days' wonder in the neighbourhood of Walls End Castle. Hundreds of
people clad in black attended the ceremony. The old lord, the two young
men and Lord Spunyarn were the mourners. The shooting party had been
broken up on the day of the accident. A short obituary notice had
appeared in the _Times_, and the penny papers had made capital of what
they termed "The Shocking Accident in the Shooting Field," while the
leader writers had earned their daily three guineas by more or less
ingenious strings of the usual platitudes.
Lord Spunyarn was Haggard's sole executor. The will was opened, and
commenced with a confirmation of the terms of his marriage settlement;
it then proceeded to give a further legacy to his wife of half his
property for her lifetime, and he made his "dear son, George Haggard,"
his residuary legatee; "my son, Lucius Haggard," the document
continued, "being otherwise provided for as the heir to the entailed
estates of Lord Pit Town."
It was all plain sailing, and the will was a very natural one for a man
in Haggard's position to make.
Lord Spunyarn, who was still staying on at the Castle, waited for
twenty-four hours after the funeral, and then he demanded a private
interview with his friend's widow.
"I am sorry to trouble you, dear Mrs. Haggard, about business matters,"
he said as he entered the little boudoir which years ago had been
devoted by the old lord to young Mrs. Haggard's use, "but I am compelled
to worry you with a long and painful conversation on family matters. My
dear lady," he continued, "I should have been the very last person to
trouble you with the communication which I am about to make, had it not
been my friend's dying wish and command."
"Sit down, Lord Spunyarn, sit down," she said, "nothing you can have to
tell me can be more painful than the suspense, suspicion, and anxiety of
mind which I have endured for the last few days. Tell me the worst at
once. I have nothing to forgive my husband. When on his death-bed he
asked for my forgiveness, I feared that there was something dreadful to
come; but I fully and freely forgave him, Lord Spunyarn, and whatever
you may have to tell, it will not alter my affection for his memory."
"Dear Mrs. Haggard," said the philanthropist, with a little sigh, "the
matter concerns the future, as well as the past; the secret has been
well kept, and my poor friend has done his duty in providing for his son
George, and for you. I must tell you that at one time I had my
suspicions, but the thing seemed in itself so monstrous, so improbable,
that I put it from me as an unworthy thought. When your late husband
whispered those last words to me as he was dying, he informed me that I
was his executor, and told me to examine a little red box that I should
find at his banker's, and then to tell you everything. I obtained the
box; I have examined it, and it is here." As he said the words, he
placed a little red morocco box upon the table.