A moment then the volume spread,
And one short spell therein he read.
Scott.
The reality of John’s intention to devote himself to medicine made
Caroline anxious to look again at the terms of the trust on which she
held the Magnum Bonum secret.
Moreover, she wanted some papers and accounts, and therefore on Monday
morning, while getting up, she glanced towards the place where her
davenport usually stood, and to her great surprise missed it. She asked
Emma, who was dressing her, whether it had been moved, and found that
her maid had been as much surprised as herself at its absence, and that
the housekeeper had denied all knowledge of it.
“Other things is missing, ma’am,” said Emma; “there’s the key of the
closet where your dresses hangs. I’ve hunted high and low for it, and
nobody hasn’t seen it.”
“Keys are easily lost,” said Caroline, “but my davenport is very
important. Perhaps in some cleaning it has been moved into one of the
other rooms and forgotten there. I wish you would look. You know I had
it before I came here.”
Not only did Emma look, but as soon as her mistress was ready to leave
the room she went herself on a voyage of discovery, peeping first into
the little dressing-room, where seeing Babie at her morning prayers, she
said nothing to disturb her, and then going on to look into some spare
rooms beyond, where she thought it might have been disposed of, as being
not smart enough for my lady’s chamber. Coming back to her room she
found, to her extreme amazement, the closet open, and Babie pushing the
davenport out of it, with her cheeks crimson and a look of consternation
at being detected.
“My dear child! The davenport there! Did you know it? How did it get
there?”
“I put it,” said Barbara, evidently only forced to reply by sheer
sincerity.
“You! And why?”
“I thought it safer,” mumbled Babie.
“And you knew where the key of the closet was?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In my doll’s bed, locked up in the baby-house.”
“This is most extraordinary. When did you do this?”
“Just before we came out to you at Leukerbad,” said Babie, each reply
pumped out with great difficulty.
“Four years ago! It is a very odd thing. I suppose you had a panic, for
you were too old then for playing monkey tricks.”
To which Babie made no answer, and the next minute her mother, who had
become intent on the davenport, exclaimed, “I suppose you haven’t got
the key of this in your doll’s bed?”
“Don’t you remember, mother,” said Barbara, “you sent it home to Janet,
and it was lost in her bag on the crossing?”
“Oh, yes, I remember! And it is a Bramah lock, more’s the pity. We must
have the locksmith over from Kenminster to open it.”
The man was sent for, the davenport was opened, desk, drawers, and all.
Caroline was once more in possession of her papers. She turned them over
in haste, and saw no book of Magnum Bonum. Again, more carefully she
looked. The white slate, where those precious last words had been
written, was there, proving to her that her memory had not deceived her,
but that she had really kept her treasure in that davenport.
Then, in her distress, she thought of Barbara’s strange behaviour, went
in quest of her, and calling her aside, asked her to tell her the real
reason why she had thought fit to secure the davenport in the closet.
“Why,” asked Babie, her eyes growing large and shining, “is anything
missing?”
“Tell me first,” said Caroline, trembling.
Then Babie told how she had wakened and seen Janet with the desk
part raised up, reading something, and how, when she lay watching and
wondering, Janet had shut it up and gone away. “And I did not feel
comfortable about it, mother,” said Babie, “so I thought I would lock up
the davenport, so that nobody could get at it.”
“You did not see her take anything away?”
“No, I can’t at all tell,” said Babie. “Is anything gone?”
“A book I valued very much. Some memoranda of your father were in that
desk, and I cannot find them now. You cannot tell, I suppose, whether
she was reading letters or a book?”
“It was not letters,” said Babie, “but I could not see whether it was
print or manuscript. Mother, I think she must have taken it to read and
could not put it back again because I had hidden the davenport. Oh!
I wish I hadn’t, but I couldn’t ask any one, it seemed such a wicked,
dreadful fancy that she could meddle with your papers.”
“You acted to the best of your judgment, my dear,” said Caroline. “I
ought never to have let it out of my own keeping.”
“Do you think it was lost in the bag, mother?”
“I hope not. That would be worst of all!” said Caroline. “I must ask
Janet. Don’t say anything about it, my dear. Let me think it over.”
When Caroline recollected Janet’s attempt, as related by Robert, to
break open her bureau, she had very little doubt that the book was
there. It could not have been lost in the bag, for, as she remembered,
reference had been made to it when Janet had extorted permission to go
to Zurich, and she had warned her that even these studies would not be
a qualification for the possession of the secret. Janet had then smiled
triumphantly, and said she would make her change her mind yet;
had looked, in fact, very much as Bobus did when he put aside her
remonstrances. It was not the air of a person who had lost the records
of the secret and was afraid to confess, though it was possible she
might have them in her own keeping. Caroline longed to search the
bureau, but however dishonourably Janet might have acted towards
herself, she could not break into her private receptacles without
warning. So after some consideration, she made Barbara drive her to the
station, and send the following telegraphic message to Janet’s address
at Edinburgh:--
“Come home at once. Father’s memorandum book missing. Must be searched
for.”
All that day and the next the sons wondered what was amiss with their
mother, she was so pensive, with starts of flightiness. Allen thought
she was going to have an illness, and Bobus that it was a very strange
and foolish way of taking his resistance, but all the time Armine was
going about quite unperceiving, in a blissful state. The vicar’s
sister, a spirited, active, and very winning woman of thirty-five,
had captivated him, as she did all the lads of the parish. He had been
walking about with her, being introduced to all the needs of the parish,
and his enthusiastic nature throwing itself into the cause of religion
and beneficence, which was in truth his congenial element; he was ready
to undertake for himself and his mother whatever was wanted, without a
word of solicitation, nay rather, the vicar, who thought it all far too
good to be true, held him back.
And when he came in and poured out his narrative, he was, for the first
time in his life, even petulant that his mother was too much preoccupied
to confirm his promises, and angry when Allen laughed at his vehemence,
and said he should beware of model parishes.
By dinner-time the next day Janet had actually arrived. She looked
thin and sharp, her keen black eyes roamed about uneasily, and some
indescribable change had passed over her. Her brothers told her study
had not agreed with her, and she did not, as of old, answer tartly,
but gave a stiff, mechanical smile, and all the evening talked in a
woman-of-the-world manner, cleverly, agreeably, not putting out her
prickles, but like a stranger, and as if on her guard.
Of course there was no speaking to her till bedtime, and Caroline at
first felt as if she ought to let one night pass in peace under the home
roof; but she soon felt that to sleep would be impossible to herself,
and she thought it would be equally so to her daughter without coming
to an understanding. She yearned for some interchange of tenderness
from that first-born child from whom she had been so long separated, and
watched and listened for a step approaching her door; till at last, when
the maid was gone and no one came, she yielded to her impulse; and in
her white dressing-gown, with softly-slippered feet, she glided along
the passage with a strange mixed feeling of maternal gladness that Janet
was at home again, and of painful impatience to have the interview over.
She knocked at the door. There was no answer. She opened it. There
was no one there, but the light on the terrace below, thrown from
the windows of the lower room, was proof to her that Janet was in her
sitting-room, and she began to descend the private stairs that led down
to it. She was as light in figure and in step as ever, and her soft
slippers made no noise as she went down. The door in the wainscot was
open, and from the foot of the stairs she had a strange view. Janet’s
candle was on the chair behind her, in front of it lay half-a-dozen
different keys, and she herself was kneeling before the bureau, trying
one of the keys into the lock. It would not fit, and in turning to try
another, she first saw the white figure, and started violently at the
first moment, then, as the trembling, pleading voice said, “Janet,” she
started to her feet, and cried out angrily--
“Am I to be always spied and dogged?”
“Hush, Janet,” said her mother, in a voice of grave reproof, “I simply
came to speak to you about the distressing loss of what your father put
in my charge.”
“And why should I know anything about it?” demanded Janet.
“You were the last person who had access to the davenport,” said her
mother.
“This is that child Barbara’s foolish nonsense,” muttered Janet to
herself.
“Barbara has nothing to do with the fact that I sent you the key of the
davenport where the book was. It is now missing. Janet, it is bitterly
painful to me to say so, but your endeavours to open that bureau
privately have brought suspicion upon you, and I must have it opened in
my presence.”
“I have a full right to my own bureau.”
“Of course you have; but I had these notes left in my trust. It is my
duty towards your father to use every means for their recovery.”
“You call it a duty to my father to shut up his discovery and keep it
useless for the sake of a lot of boys who will never turn it to profit.”
“Of that I am judge. My present duty is to recover it. Your conduct is
such as to excite suspicion, and I therefore cannot allow you to take
anything out of that bureau except in my presence, till I have satisfied
myself that his memoranda are not there. I would not search your drawers
in your absence, and therefore telegraphed for you.”
“Thank you. Since you like to treat your daughter like a maidservant,
you may go on and search my boxes,” said Janet, sulkily.
“I beg your pardon, my poor child, if I am unjustly causing you this
humiliation,” said Caroline humbly, as Janet sullenly flumped down into
a chair without answering. She took up the keys that Janet had brought
with her, and tried them one by one, where Janet had been using them.
The fourth turned in the lock, and the drawer was open!
“I will disarrange nothing unnecessarily,” said Caroline. “Look for
yourself.”
Janet would not, however, move hand, foot, or eye, while her mother put
in her hand and took out what lay on the top. It was the Magnum Bonum.
She held it to the light and was sure of it; but she had taken up an
envelope at the same time, and her eye fell on the address as she was
laying it down. It was to--“James Barnes, Esq.” And as her eye caught
the pencilled words “My Will,” a strange electric thrill went through
her, as she exclaimed, “What is this, Janet? How came it here?”
“Oh! take it if you like,” said Janet. “I put it there to spare you
worry; but if you will pursue your researches, you must take the
consequences.”
Caroline, thus defied, still instinctively holding Magnum Bonum close
to her, drew out the contents of the envelope, and caught in the broken
handwriting of the old man, the words--“Will and Testament--George
Gould--Wakefield--Elvira de Menella--whole estate.” Then she saw
signature, seal, witnesses--date, “April 24th, 1862.”
“What is this? Where did it come from?” she asked.
“I found it--in his table drawer; I saw it was not valid, so I kept it
out of the way from consideration for you,” said Janet.
“How do you know it was not valid?”
“Oh--why--I didn’t look much, or know much about it either,” said Janet,
in an alarmed voice. “I was a mere child then, you know. I saw it was
only scrawled on letter-paper, and I thought it was only a rough draft,
which would just make you uncomfortable.”
“I hope you did, Janet. I hope you did not know what you were doing!”
“You don’t mean that it has been executed?”
“Here are witnesses,” said Caroline--her eyes swam too much to see their
names. “It must be for better heads than ours to decide whether this is
of force; but, oh, Janet! if we have been robbing the orphan all these
years!”
“The orphan has been quite as well off as if it had been all hers,” said
Janet. “Mother, just listen! Give me the keeping of my father’s secret,
and--even if we lose this place--it shall make up for all--”
“You do not know what you are talking of, Janet,” said Caroline, pushing
back those ripples of white hair that crowned her brow, “nor indeed I
either! I only know you have spoken more kindly to me, and that you are
under my own roof again. Kiss me, my child, and forgive me if I have
pained you. You did not know what you did about the will, and as to this
book, I know you meant to put it back again.”
“I did--I did, mother--if Barbara had not hidden the desk,” cried Janet.
And as her mother kissed her, she laid her head on her shoulder, and
wept and sobbed in an hysterical manner, such as Caroline had never seen
in her before. Of course she was tired out by the long journey, and the
subsequent agitation; and Caroline soothed and caressed her, with the
sole effect of making her cry more piteously; but she would not hear of
her mother staying to undress and put her to bed, gathered herself up
again as soon as she could, and when another kiss had been exchanged at
her bedroom door, Caroline heard it locked after her.
Very little did Caroline sleep that night. If she lost consciousness
at all, it was only to know that something strange and wonderful was
hanging over her. Sometimes she had a sense that her trust and mission
as a rich woman had been ill-fulfilled, and therefore the opportunity
was to be taken away; but more often there was a strange sense of relief
from what she was unfit for. She remembered that strange dream of
her children turning into statues of gold, and the Magnum Bonum
disenchanting them, and a fancy came over her that this might yet be
realised, a fancy to whose lulling effect she was indebted for the sleep
she enjoyed in the morning, which made her unusually late, but prevented
her from looking as haggard as Janet did, with eyelids swollen, as if
she had cried a good deal longer last night.
The postbag was lying on the table, and directly after family prayers
(which she had for some years begun when at home), Mrs. Brownlow
beguiled her nervousness by opening it, and distributing the letters.
The first she opened was such a startling one, that her head seemed to
reel, and she doubted whether the shock of last night was confusing her
senses.
“MY DEAR MRS. BROWNLOW,--What will you think of us now that the full
truth has burst on you? Of me especially, to whom you entrusted your
dear daughter. I never could have thought that Nita would have lent
herself to the transaction, and alas! I let the two girls take care of
themselves more than was right. However, I can at least give you the
comfort of knowing that it was a perfectly legal marriage, for Nita was
one of the witnesses, and looked to all that--”
Here Caroline could read no more. Sick and stunned, she began to
dispense her teacups, and even helped herself to some of the food that
was handed round, but her hand trembled so, and she looked so white and
bewildered, that Allen exclaimed--
“Mother, you are really ill. You should not have come down.”
She could not bear the crowd and buzz of voices and all the anxious eyes
any longer. She pushed back her chair, and as sons came hurrying round
with offered arms, she took the nearest, which was Jock’s, let him take
her to the morning-room, and there assured him she was not ill, only she
had had a letter. She wanted nothing, only that he should go back, and
send her Janet. She tried once more to master the contents of Miss Ray’s
letter, but she was too dizzy; and when Janet came in, she could only
hold it out to her.
“Oh!” said Janet, “poor old Maria has forestalled me. Yes, mother, it
is what I meant to tell you, only I thought you could not bear a fresh
shock last night.”
“Married! Oh, Janet; why thus?”
“Because we wished to avoid the gossip and conventionality. My uncle and
aunt were to be avoided.”
“Let me hear at once who it is,” said Caroline, with the sharpness of
misery.
“It is Professor Demetrius Hermann, a most able lecturer, whose course
we have been following. I met him a year ago, at the table d’hote, at
Zurich, where he delivered a series of lectures on physiology on a new
and original system. He is now going on with them in Scotland, where his
wonderful acuteness and originality have produced an immense sensation,
and I have no doubt that in his hands this discovery of my father’s will
receive its full development.”
There was no apology in her tone; it was rather that of one who was
defying censure; and her mother could only gasp out--
“How long?”
“Three weeks. When we heard you were returning, we thought it would save
much trouble and difficulty to secure ourselves against contingencies,
and profit by Scottish facilities.” Wherewith Janet handed her mother
a certificate of her marriage, at Glasgow, before Jane Ray and another
witness, and taking her wedding-ring from her purse, put it on, adding,
“When you see him, mother, you will be more than satisfied.”
“Where is he?” interrupted Caroline.
“At the Railway Hotel, waiting till you are prepared to see him. He
brought me down, but he is to give a lecture at Glasgow the day after
tomorrow, so we can only remain one night.”
“Oh, Janet--Janet, this is very fearful!”
At that moment, Johnny strolled up to the window from the outside, and,
as he greeted Janet with some surprise, he observed--
“There’s a most extraordinary looking foreign fellow loitering about out
here. I warned him he was on private ground, and he made me a bow, as if
I, not he, were the trespasser.”
On this Janet darted out at the window without another word, and John
exclaiming, in dismay--
“Mother Carey! what is the matter?”
She gasped out, “Oh, Johnny! she’s married to him! And the children
don’t know it. Send them in--Allen and Bobus I mean--make haste; I must
prepare them. Take that letter, and let the others know.”
John saw the truest kindness was implicit obedience; and Allen and Bobus
instantly joined her, the latter asking what new tomfoolery Janet had
brought home, Allen following with a cup of coffee.
Caroline’s lips felt too dry to speak, and she held out the certificate.
It was received by Allen, with the exclamation--
“By Jove!”
And by Bobus, with an odd, harsh laugh--“I thought she would do
something monstrous one of these days.”
“Did you ever hear of him, Bobus?” she found voice to say, after
swallowing a mouthful of coffee.
“I fancy I have. Yes, I remember now; he was lecturing and vapouring
about at Zurich; he is half Greek, I believe, and all charlatan. Well,
Janet _has_ been and gone and done for herself now, and no mistake.”
“But he is a professor,” pleaded Caroline. “He must be of some
university.”
“Don’t make too sure,” said Allen, “A professor may mean a writing
master. Good heavens! what a connection.”
“It can’t be so bad as that,” said Caroline. “Remember, your sister is
not foolish.”
“Flatter an ugly woman,” said Bobus, “and it’s a regular case of fox and
crow.”
“Mercy! here they come!” cried Allen.
“Mother, do you go away! This is not work for you. Leave us to settle
the rascal,” said Bobus.
“No, Bobus,” she said; “this ought to be settled by me. Remember that,
whatever the man may be, he is Janet’s husband, and she is your sister.”
“Worse luck!” sighed Allen.
“And,” she added, “he has to go away to-morrow, at latest,” a sentence
which she knew would serve to pacify Allen.
They had crossed the parterre by this time, and were almost at the
window.
It was Bobus who took the initiative, bowing formally as he spoke, in
German--
“Good morning, Herr Professor. You seem to have a turn for entering
houses by irregular methods.”
The new-comer bowed with suavity, saying, in excellent English--
“It is to your sister that in both senses I owe my entrance, and to the
lady, your mother, that I owe my apology.”
And before Caroline well knew what was going on, he had one knee to the
ground, and was kissing her hand.
“The tableau is incomplete, Janet,” said Bobus, whom Caroline heartily
wished away. “You ought to be on your knees beside him.”
“I have settled it with my mother already,” said Janet.
Both Caroline and her eldest son were relieved by the first glance at
the man. He was small, and had much more of the Greek than of the
German in his aspect, with neat little features, keen dark eyes, and
no vulgarity in tone or appearance. His hands were delicate; there
was nothing of the “greasy foreigner” about him, but rather an air of
finesse, especially in his exquisitely trimmed little moustache and
pointed beard, and his voice and language were persuasive and fluent. It
might have been worse, was the prominent feeling, as she hastily said--
“Stand up, Mr. Hermann; I am not used to be spoken to in that manner.”
“Nor is it an ordinary occasion on which I address madame,” said her new
son-in-law, rising. “I am aware that I have transgressed many codes, but
my anxiety to secure my treasure must plead for me; and she assured me
that she might trust to the goodness of the best of mothers.”
“There is such a thing as abusing such goodness,” said Bobus.
“Sir,” said Hermann, “I understand that you have rights as eldest son,
but I await my sentence from the lips of madame herself.”
“No, he is not the eldest,” interrupted Janet. “This is Allen--Allen,
you were always good-natured. Cannot you say one friendly word?”
Something in the more childish, eager tone of Janet’s address softened
Allen, and he answered--
“It is for mother to decide on what terms we are to stand, Janet, and
strange as all this has been, I have no desire to be at enmity.”
Caroline had by this time been able to recover herself and spoke.
“Mr. Hermann can hardly expect a welcome in the family into which he
has entered so unexpectedly, and--and without any knowledge of his
antecedents. But what is done cannot be undone; I don’t want to be harsh
and unforgiving. I should like to understand all about everything, and
of course to be friends; as to the rest, it must depend on how they go
on, and a great deal besides.”
It was a lame and impotent conclusion, but it seemed to satisfy the
gentleman, who clasped her hand and kissed it with fervour, wrung that
of Allen, which was readily yielded, and would have done the same by
that of Bobus, if that youth had done more than accord very stiff cold
tips.
Immediately after, John said at the door--
“Aunt Caroline, my father is here. Will you see him?”
That was something to be got over at once, and she went to the Colonel,
who was very kind and pitiful to her, and spared her the “I told you
so.” He did not even reproach her with being too lenient, in not having
turned the pair at once out of her house; indeed, he was wise enough to
think the extremity of a quarrel ought to be avoided, but he undertook
to make every inquiry into Mr. Demetrius Hermann’s history, and observed
that she should be very cautious in pledging herself as to what she
would do for him, since she had, as he expressed it, the whip-hand of
him, since Janet was totally dependent upon her.
“Oh! but Robert, I forgot; I don’t know if there is anything for
anybody,” she said, putting her hand to her forehead; “there’s that
other will! Ah! I see you think I don’t know what I am saying, and my
head is getting past understanding much, but I really did find the other
will last night.”
“What other will?”
“The one we always knew there must be, in favour of Elvira. This
dreadful business put it out of my head; the children don’t know it yet,
and I don’t seem able to think or care.”
It was true; severe nervous headache had brought her to the state in
which she could do nothing but lie passively on her bed. The Colonel saw
this, and bade her think of nothing for the present, and sent Barbara to
take care of her.
She spent the rest of the day in the sort of aniantissement which that
sort of headache often produces, and in the meantime everybody held
tete-a-tetes. The Colonel held his peace about the will, not half
crediting such a catastrophe, and thinking one matter at a time quite
enough for his brain; but he talked to the Professor, to Janet,
to Allen, and to Bobus, and tried to come to a knowledge of the
bridegroom’s history, and to decide what course ought to be pursued,
feeling as the good man always did and always would do, that he was, or
ought to be, the supreme authority for his brother’s widow and children.
Allen was quite placable, and ready to condone everything. He thought
the Athenian Professor a very superior man, with excellent classical
taste, by which it was plain that his mosaic pavement, his old china,
and his pictures had met with rare appreciation. Moreover, the Professor
knew how to converse, and could be brilliantly entertaining; there
was nothing to find fault with in his appearance; and if Janet was
satisfied, Allen was. He knew his uncle hated foreigners, but for his
own part, he thought nothing so dull as English respectability.
For once the Colonel declared that Bobus had more sense! Bobus had
come to a tolerably clear comprehension of the matter, and his first
impressions were confirmed by subsequent inquiries. Demetrius Hermann
was the son of some lawyer of King Otho’s court who had married a
Greek lady. He had studied partly at Athens, partly at so many other
universities, that Bobus thought it rather suspicious; while his
uncle, who held that a respectable degree must be either of Oxford or
Cambridge, thought this fatal to his reputation. He had studied medicine
at one time, but had broached some theory which the German faculty were
too narrow to appreciate; “Which means,” quoth Bobus, “either that he
could not get a licence to practise, or else had it revoked.”
Then he had taken to lecturing. The professorship was obscure; he said
it was Athenian, and Bobus had no immediate means of finding out
whether it were so or not, nor of analysing the alphabet of letters that
followed his name upon the advertisement of his lectures.
Apparently he was a clever lecturer, fluent and full of illustration,
with an air of original theory that caught people’s attention. He knew
his ground, and where critically scientific men were near to bring him
to book, was cautious to keep within the required bounds, but in the
freer and less regulated places, he discoursed on new theories and
strange systems connected with the mysteries of magnetism, and producing
extraordinary and unexplained effects.
Robert and Jock were inclined to ascribe to some of these arts the
captivation of so clever a person as their sister, by one whom they both
viewed with repulsion as a mere adventurer.
They had not the clue which their mother had to the history of the
matter, when the next day, though still far from well, she had an
interview with her daughter and the Athenian Professor before their
return to Scotland.
He knew of the Magnum Bonum matter. It seemed that Janet, as her
knowledge increased, had become more sensible of the difficulties in the
pursuit, and being much attracted by his graces and ability, had so
put questions for her own enlightenment as to reveal to him that she
possessed a secret. To cajole it from her, so far as she knew it, had
been no greater difficulty than it was to the fox to get the cheese from
the crow: and while to him she was the errant unprotected young lady of
large and tempting fortune, he could easily make himself appear to her
the missing link in the pursuit. He could do what as a woman she could
not accomplish, and what her brothers were not attempting.
In that conviction, nay, even expecting her mother to be satisfied with
his charms and his qualifications, she claimed that he might at least
read the MS. of the book, assuring her mother that all she had intended
the night before was to copy out the essentials for him.
“To take the spirit and leave me the letter?” said Caroline. “O Janet,
would not that have been worse than carrying off the book?”
“Well, mother, I maintain that I have a right to it,” said Janet, “and
that there is no justice in withholding it.”
“Do you or your husband fulfil these conditions Janet?” and Caroline
read from the white slate those words about the one to whom the pursuit
was intrusted being a sound, religious man, who would not seek it for
his own advancement but for the good of others.
Janet exultantly said that was just what Demetrius would do. As to the
being a sound religious man, her mother might seek in vain for a man of
real ability who held those old-fashioned notions. They were very well
in her father’s time, but what would Bobus say to them?
She evidently thought Demetrius would triumph in his private interview
with her mother, but if Caroline had had any doubt before, that would
have removed it. Janet honestly had a certain enthusiasm for science,
beneficence, and the honour of the family, but the Professor besieged
Mrs. Brownlow with his entreaties and promises just as if--she said to
herself--she had been the widow of some quack doctor for whose secret he
was bidding.
If she would only grant it to him and continue her allowance to Janet
while he was pursuing it, then, there would be no limit to the share
he would give her when the returns came in. It was exceedingly hard to
answer without absolutely insulting him, but she entrenched herself in
the declaration that her husband’s conditions required a full diploma
and degree, and that till all her sons were grown up she had been
forbidden to dispose of it otherwise. Very thankful she was that Armine
was not seventeen, when a whole portfolio of testimonials in all sorts
of languages were unfolded before her! Whatever she had ever said of
Ellen’s insular prejudices, she felt that she herself might deserve, for
she viewed them all as utterly worthless compared with an honest English
or Scottish degree. At any rate, she could not judge of their value, and
they did not fulfil her conditions. She made him understand at last that
she was absolutely impracticable, and that the only distant hope she
would allow to be wrung from her by his coaxing, wheedling tones, soft
as the honey of Hybla, was, that if none of her sons or nephews were
in the way of fulfilling the conditions, and he could bring her
satisfactory English certificates, she might consider the matter, but
she made no promises.
Then he most politely represented the need of a maintenance while he
was thus qualifying himself. Janet had evidently not told him about the
will, and Caroline only said that from a recent discovery she thought
her own tenure of the property very insecure, and she could undertake
nothing for the future. She would let him know. However, she gave him a
cheque for 100 pounds for the present, knowing that she could make it up
from the money of her own which she had been accumulating for Elvira’s
portion.
Then Janet came in to take leave. Mr. Hermann described what the
excellent and gracious lady had granted to him, and he made it sound so
well, and his wife seemed so confident and triumphant, that her mother
feared she had allowed more to be inferred than she intended, and tried
to explain that all depended on the fulfilment of the conditions of
which Janet at least was perfectly aware. She was overwhelmed, however,
with his gratitude and Janet’s assurances, and they went away, leaving
her with a hand much kissed by him, and the fondest, most lingering
embrace she had ever had from Janet. Then she was free to lie still,
abandoned to fears for her daughter’s future and repentance for her own
careless past, and, above all crushed by the ache that would let her
really feel little but pain and oppression.