Mary was lying as usual in bed, much shrunken from the Mary we knew, her
mild countenance clouded with that haze of trouble which seems to come
with any disturbance of the mind. There was no reason that she should
lie in bed except that prostration of will and feeling which came from a
disordered brain. It troubled her to move at all, to raise her head, to
use her hand, except in moments of spasmodic energy, when she would
spring up in bed, and a stream of wild and terrified life would seem to
flow in her veins. Terror was always a chief part of her energy, a
desire to fly, to hide herself, to avoid some terrible, ever-menacing
danger. On this morning she had been very quiet. For about an hour her
sister had been seated by the bedside holding her hand, talking to her
about common things; and Mary, when she had replied at all, had replied,
Agnes thought, with so much sense and calmness that her heart was quite
light. “She is a great deal better, nurse. Don’t you think she is a
great deal better this morning?” Miss Hill had said. The nurse shook her
head, standing on the other side of the bed, but made with her lips a
reassuring reply. And peace was in the room where perhaps, the anxious
watchers thought, excitement and danger were passing over, and all might
be beginning to be well.
Suddenly there were voices heard coming up the stairs, approaching the
room, a faint little wail from the baby, a soothing hush-sh from the
nurse who carried him. And then another voice--not loud, not ungentle,
the voice of a woman trying to ingratiate herself with someone who
accompanied her. Mary had started at the sound of the infant’s cry, but
when she heard the other voice she rose up in her bed and put out a
terrified hand on each side to her nurse and to Agnes. An anguished look
of listening came into her face. She clutched their hands, drawing them
in close to her, her eyes staring like those of a hunted creature
straight before her, as if prepared to rise and flee. Then Letitia’s
voice became audible again, “I will just go in. It will rouse her to
see me.” Both the watchers heard these words distinctly, though they
would have sworn that the wild shriek which ran through the house burst
from Mary’s lips before they were half said. Mary flung herself first on
one then on the other with cries that succeeded each other wildly, then
she threw herself back into her bed, pulling the coverings over head.
“Save me! save me!” she cried, “Oh, save me, save me!” The force of her
hold was such that the women on either side were forced upon the bed,
their heads meeting across her concealed and covered head, from which
shrieks muffled but terrible still continued to come. “For God’s sake,
don’t bring her in, don’t bring her in,” cried Agnes, almost as wildly.
The group outside paused terrified; Letitia was livid with fear. She
turned back hastily, as if the mad creature who feared her was at her
heels, and without saying a word ran downstairs. She had courage enough
on ordinary occasions, but to be within reach of a madwoman, which was
the unmitigated phrase she used to herself, was not one of the dangers
which she could face. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her down
the long staircase. No plea for Mary did Mrs. Parke make. Through the
ringing of those shrieks, which became more and more hoarse as the
unfortunate patient wore herself out, all the bystanders heard the
patter of quick little steps running downstairs. She darted out at the
open door, and ran along the terrace outside, a self-condemned fugitive:
or was she only a nervous woman, terrified, as some people are, of
anything that sounds like insanity? The unhappy family heard in their
imaginations Letitia’s steps running through everything all the dreadful
hours that followed. But the fact was that she ran in her panic to where
she had left her cab, never drawing her breath, and got into it and
drove quickly away. For one thing she had found out all she wanted to
know.
What followed on that dreadful day no one ever knew clearly. Poor Mary,
out of her brooding and miserable madness, which yet everybody hoped
might in time have dispersed, as the shock and horror that produced it
died away from her brain, became for a time acutely, terribly mad,
striving to hide herself from the light of day, haunted by a horror of
her enemy, who was forever pursuing her, ready to clutch at her at the
door. Her confused brain caught this one point of reality and never
relinquished it. Letitia was always at the door to Mary’s terrified and
distorted fancy. Her voice was always there, saying, “I will go in.”
Every time the door opened there was a fresh access of the wildest
terror, which lasted through days and nights, so dreadful to the
watchers, that they could not tell how long it lasted or how often the
long day ended in a night full of alarm and terror. Poor old Lord
Frogmore--such a picture of an old gentleman; so active, so brisk, so
well, doing everything that younger men could do--fell into pathetic
ruin, lost his color, his strength, his spirits, and became an old man
in that week of misery. The old vicar from Grocombe and his wife, who
came hurrying to the Park, with the idea that the near relations should
always be collected on such an emergency, added to the trouble by their
unnecessary presence; for Mrs. Hill, who was not to be kept out of her
daughter’s room, had to be removed from it periodically in a state of
utter prostration, from which it required all the care of Agnes to
restore her; and the vicar himself stood about in the hall or the
library staring at everybody who went and came; asking in a hoarse
whisper, “Is she any better?” and always in the way.
When this terrible state of affairs had lasted for a week, and everyone
was worn out, the doctors--for they were now many, Lord Frogmore having
summoned everyone who could be supposed to be of any help--requested an
interview with him; and then announced their opinion that Lady Frogmore
should be removed from home. Having thus to renounce the hopes he had
still been cherishing against hope that her illness might still prove
only temporary, the old lord struggled for some time against the
dreadful necessity. He declared that he was ready to fill the house with
attendants; to undergo any expense; to give up his house entirely to his
wife and go away himself if they considered it necessary. But by and by
calmer counsels prevailed. Mary’s family were more reasonable than her
husband. They pointed out to him with much practical sense that he was
risking his own health, destroying his own life, without any advantage
to her, and that his life was more than ever valuable, for his child’s
sake, and even for her sake, poor forlorn lady, who had no protector but
he. It was hard for him in his weakened state to stand out against the
doctors, against the dull persistency of the vicar, who besides could
not be got rid of till poor Mary was removed, and against what was more
than all, the dreadful sight of Mary convulsed with frenzy, or lying in
her calm intervals like a dead thing, her mild face grown into a tragic
mask of misery. On the whole it was better not to see that, to have the
knowledge of it without having one’s heart rent every day by the
dreadful, dreadful sight. Lord Frogmore at last consented to this
miserable yet inevitable step, which he felt to be a public proclamation
of the wretchedness which had so soon closed over the late and tranquil
happiness of his old age. He went away for a few days with Rogers, as
sad an old man as any under the stars, and gave himself up meekly into
his faithful servant’s hands, to be brought back to life as far as was
possible. “Yes,” he said, “Rogers, do what you can for me: for I have my
little boy to look after, my poor little baby that ought to have been my
grandchild, Rogers.”
“Don’t say so, my lord. Oh, don’t say so. He’ll grow up to be a comfort
to you.”
The old lord shook his head with a melancholy smile. “He’s cost me dear,
he’s cost me very dear, and he’s a delicate little mite with no stamina,
an old man’s child. Poor little beggar that has cost his mother her
reason! it would be the best thing for him, Rogers, to die comfortably
and be buried with her when I go.”
“Oh, my lord! please God you’ll live to see him come of age, and my lady
as bright as ever, and all well.”
Lord Frogmore gave a deep sigh, and then a little laugh, which was
perhaps the saddest of the two. “Well,” he said, “let’s hope so, Rogers,
since nobody can tell how it may be.”
He could not help wondering sometimes what he had done that this should
have fallen upon him in his old age, or if he had done anything, or if
God worked no miracles now save in sustaining and supporting the human
spirit to bear, but let the laws of nature take their course. It was
Mary’s nature, he felt, to be thus driven frantic by the thought of
having wronged another for her own happiness, and in his sad musings he
followed all the course of the story which he himself, without perhaps
sufficient motive, had set in motion. He said to himself that perhaps
after permitting John to believe himself to be the heir for so long, it
was wrong on his part to have put himself in the position of supplanting
John. He thought of his first visit to Greenpark, and wondered whether
he had been so petty as to be nettled by little Duke’s baby swagger. He
had been nettled by it. “When you are dead, papa, and when papa is dead,
me----.” The child had cleared both John and himself out of his little
path with such ease as if it did not matter! He had been vexed--he a man
who ought to have known better--by what the child had said: and was it
possible that a little prick of offence like this should have originated
all that followed? And then he thought of Mary, his Mary, so patient and
sweet, putting up with everything, and with the insolence of the
servants, from which he had delivered her. No, no, he could not think he
had been anything but right in interfering to save Mary, to raise her
above all her tormentors. He had been certainly right to do
that--certainly right! But had it been better for her that he did so?
Would not even Letitia’s dependent, simply loving and serving Letitia’s
children, humble enough and poor enough, but reaping the fruits of
patience in a gentle life, which was all sacrifice--would not she have
been happier like that without rising to triumph (which was out of
accordance with her nature) for a time, to be plunged afterwards into
such horrible depths. Poor Lord Frogmore, when he had sounded all these
depths, was obliged at the end to come back, and to acknowledge that he
knew nothing--nothing! Perhaps he had not even done all round what he
hoped would be for the best, being moved by wrath against little Duke
and pity for Mary beyond what was reasonable, and so having set all
those dreadful agencies in motion which could not be balked, which must
proceed to their natural end. He lost himself in the metaphysics of this
question which was so difficult to fathom. For his brother John and his
brother’s family had a perfect right to think themselves the heirs, and
it was hard, very hard upon them to be displaced. And at the same time
he himself had a perfect right to marry, and have an heir of his own.
Who can decide such questions? and yet one way or another there must
have been a harvest of trouble and pain.
When Lord Frogmore returned to the park, Mary was gone. She was gone and
all trace of her, except the poor little delicate baby, the puny thing
which had no stamina and which everybody thought would die. Poor little
thing, people said, it would be a comfort if it was to die, for it never
could have any health to make life pleasant, and madness in the mother’s
family and the father so old, so that it was not possible he could live
to see it grow up. Everybody allowed that it was a most pathetic thing
to see the old lord walking in the avenue through all the winter
mornings up and down, up and down in the sunshine, beside the bundle of
white cashmere which contained this little weakly bud of humanity, the
little thing who had not even the honors of his sex, but was called “it”
by all who spoke of him. It was a very still little thing, rarely cried,
but often when the veil was drawn aside from its face was seen to be
gazing up at the heavens with two solemn brown eyes. Kind women cried
when they saw this forlorn little creature, worse than motherless,
looking up “to where it had come from,” some said--“to where it was
going fast,” said the others. According as they were of hopeful
dispositions or not people took these different views; but all thought
it was a most pathetic thing to see old Lord Frogmore taking these
silent walks along with his heir.
After a time, when it was seen that difficulties were apt to arise with
the child’s attendants, some of whom were too kind to him, and some not
kind enough, Agnes Hill left Grocombe and came to live at the Park. It
was not concealed that she came chiefly to act as head nurse to the boy.
But Agnes did not interfere with the father’s supervision of his child,
nor with their walks, for if she were not so emotional or so interesting
as her sister Mary, she was very sensible and capable of letting well
alone, which is a thing that few persons can do in a masterly way, and
women especially are often deficient in. And thus life went on for five
or six years. Five or six years! A frightful time, if you will think of
it, for a poor woman to be shut up in an asylum, and to know nothing of
the fate of her nearest and dearest. To be sure she was visited
periodically, and sometimes knew her friends, and would ask them
questions which showed she remembered. But, however long the years may
be they come only day by day, and this makes them so much more easy to
get through--and human nature is the strangest thing, falling into any
routine, adapting itself to all circumstances.
Life at the Park fell into this channel and went on quite peaceful, even
not unhappily, strange as it may seem. Lord Frogmore recovered his
health under the constant ministrations of Rogers. He had an excellent
constitution: his cheeks got back their rosy hue and became firm and
round again; his step recovered its elasticity. He was again pointed out
to everybody as the most wonderful old gentleman of his age in the whole
county. He still walked in the avenue daily with his little boy, who,
though later than ordinary, learned to walk, and trotted by his old
father’s side in a way which was not quite so pathetic, making the woods
ring with a little voice, which, though it was perhaps not so loud as
others little boys’ voices, was still full of “flichterin’ noise and
glee.” The child was always with his Aunt Agnes when he was indoors, and
therefore he acquired something of that undue development which falls to
the share of those children brought up exclusively among elder people.
Lord Frogmore kept up the habit which his wife and he had established at
the beginning of their married life, of having Duke very often at the
Park. Duke was now a big boy and at school, but he was exceedingly
tenderly good to the baby, as boys sometimes are. Little Marmaduke
preferred his namesake and cousin (whom he had supplanted) to any one in
the world. It was the prettiest relationship--to see the big boy so
tender to the small one did the heart good. Duke seemed to know that he
had something to make up and was in some special manner appealed to by
the delicacy of the little cousin, though indeed it was quite the
opposite point of view that commended itself to most people. But Lord
Frogmore had thought of that also. He had thought it his duty to provide
specially for Duke, which was always something, though it did not by any
means subdue the grudge in Letitia’s heart.
Thus, however, things went on in a subdued composure and calm of life
that was not unhappy. It may be said that the thought of Mary, his wife
whom he loved, was never long absent from Lord Frogmore’s mind, and gave
him many a pang; but still every day, taking off a legitimate time for
sleep, is at the least, let us say, fifteen or sixteen hours long, and
there were many intervals in which he did not think of Mary, or at least
not exclusively. And little Marmaduke (who was called Mar to
distinguish from his cousin) became very amusing as he grew older, and
his father doted upon him. In the evening before it was time to prepare
for dinner, and especially in the winter evenings when Mar sat upon his
stool before the fire, with the warm light reflected in his eyes, and
chattered about everything, the old lord had many happy hours; as happy
almost as if it had been Mary and not Agnes who sat on the other side of
the fire.
But when a man comes to be seventy-four it is better for him that he
should hold these pleasures with a light hand. There seems no reason in
particular, in these days when the pressure of age is so much less than
it used to be, why a man who has attained that age should not go on till
he is eighty-four or more, as is so often the case. But still there are
accidents which occur from time to time and prove that humanity is still
weak, and that the three-score and ten is a fair limit of life. There
was very cold weather in the early winter of the year in which Lord
Frogmore completed his seventy-fourth and Marmaduke his fifth year. They
both took bad colds, belonging as they did respectively to the most
susceptible classes, but little Mar got soon better, whereas Lord
Frogmore got worse. It was December, and everything was dark and dreary.
The news from the asylum was agitating, for it was reported that Lady
Frogmore was passing through an unexpected crisis of her malady, and
that “a change” might take place at any moment. A change! what did that
mean? When people in an ordinary illness speak of a change it generally
means death. Was this to be the end of everything? The morning after the
disturbing intelligence was received Lord Frogmore was in a high fever,
and the doctors looked very anxious. It seemed as if poor little Mar was
about to lose both parents at once.