THE FRUITS OF A LIE.
When she told old Mrs. Brand what she had done, she was amazed to mark
the change which came over that sad and troubled countenance. Mrs.
Brand's face flushed violently, her eyes gleamed with a look as near
akin to wrath as any which Janetta had ever seen upon it.
"You have promised to write to Wyvis?" she cried. "Why? What is it to
you? Why should you write?"
"Why should I not?" asked Janetta, in surprise.
"He will never come back to her--never. And it is better so. She spoiled
his life with her violence, her extravagance, her flirtations. He could
not bear it; and why should he be brought back to suffer all again?"
"She is his wife still," said the girl, in a low tone.
"They are separated. She tried to get a divorce, even if she did not
succeed. I do not call her his wife."
Janetta shook her head. "I cannot think of it as you do, then," she
said, quietly. "She and Wyvis are married; and as they separated only
for faults of temper, not for unfaithfulness, I do not believe that they
have any right to divorce each other. Some people may think
differently--I cannot see it in that way."
"You mean," said Mrs. Brand, with curious agitation of manner; "you mean
that even if she had divorced him in America, you would not think him
free--free to marry again?"
"No," Janetta answered, "I would not."
She felt a singular reluctance to answering the question, and she hoped
that Mrs. Brand would ask her nothing more. She was relieved when Wyvis'
mother moved away, after standing perfectly still for a moment, with her
hands clasped before her, a strange ashen shade of color disfiguring her
handsome old face. Janetta thought the face had grown wonderfully tragic
of late; but she hoped that when Juliet had left the house the poor
mother would again recover the serenity of mind which she had gained
during the past few months of Janetta's gentle companionship.
She wrote her letter to Wyvis, making it as brief and business-like as
possible. She dwelt a good deal on Juliet's weakness, on her love for
the boy, and her desire to see him once again. At the same time she
added her own conviction that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was on the high road to
recovery, and would soon be fairly strong and well. She dared not give
any hint as to a possible reconciliation, but she felt, even as she
penned her letter, that it was to this end that she was working. "And it
is right," she said steadily to herself; "there is nothing to gain in
disunion: everything to lose by unfaithfulness. It will be better for
Julian--for all three--that father and mother should no longer be
divided."
But although she argued thus, she had a somewhat different and entirely
instinctive feeling in her heart. To begin with, she could not imagine
persons more utterly unsuited to one another than Wyvis and his wife.
Juliet had no principles, no judgment, to guide her: she was impulsive
and passionate; she did not speak the truth, and she seemed in her
wilder moments to care little what she did. Wyvis had faults--who knew
them better than Janetta, who had studied his character with great and
loving care?--but they were nor of the same kind. His mood was
habitually sombre; Juliet loved pleasure and variety: his nature was a
loving one, strong and deep, although undisciplined; but Juliet's light
and fickle temperament made her shrink from and almost dislike
characteristics so different from her own. And Janetta soon saw that in
spite of her open defiance of her husband she was a little afraid of
him; and she could well imagine that when Wyvis was angry he was a man
of whom a woman might very easily be afraid.
Yet, when the letter was despatched, Janetta felt a sense of relief. She
had at least done her duty, as she conceived of it. She did not know
what the upshot might be; but at any rate, she had done her best to put
matters in train towards the solving of the problem of Wyvis' married
life.
She was puzzled during the next few days by some curious, indefinable
change in Mrs. Brand's demeanor. The poor woman had of late seemed
almost distraught; she had lost all care, apparently, for appearances,
and went along the corridors moaning Wyvis' name sadly to herself, and
wringing her hands as if in bitter woe. Her dress was neglected, and her
hair unbrushed: indeed, when Janetta was too busy to give her a
daughter's loving care, as it was her custom and her pleasure to do,
poor Mrs. Brand roamed about the house looking like a madwoman. Her
madness was, however, of a gentle kind: it took the form of melancholia,
and manifested itself chiefly by continual restlessness and occasional
bursts of weeping and lament.
In one of these outbreaks Janetta found her shortly after she had sent
her letter to Wyvis, and tried by all means in her power to soothe and
pacify her.
"Dear grandmother," she began--for she had caught the word from Julian,
and Mrs. Brand liked her to use it--"why should you be so sad? Wyvis is
coming home, Juliet is better, little Julian is well, and we are all
happy."
"_You_ are not happy," said Mrs. Brand, throwing up her hands with a
curiously tragic gesture. "You are miserable--miserable; and I am the
most unhappy woman living!"
"No," I said Janetta, gently. "I am not miserable at all. And there are
many women more unhappy than you are. You have a home, sons who love
you, a grandson, friends--see how many things you have that other people
want! Is it right to speak of yourself as unhappy?"
"Child," said the older woman, impressively, "you are young, and do not
know what you say. Does happiness consist in houses and clothes, or even
in children and friends? I have been happier in a cottage than in the
grandest house. As for friends--what friends have I? None; my husband
would never let me make friends lest I should expose my ignorance, and
disgrace him by my low birth and bringing up. I have never had a woman
friend."
"But your children," said Janetta, putting her arms tenderly round the
desolate woman's neck.
"Ah, my children! When they were babies, they were a pleasure to me. But
they have never been a pleasure since. They have been a toil and a pain
and a bondage. That began when Wyvis was a little child, and Mr. Brand
took a fancy to him and wanted to make every one believe that he was
_his_ child, not John's. I foresaw that there would be trouble, but he
would never listen to me. It was just a whim of the moment at first, and
then, when he saw that the deceit troubled me, it became a craze with
him. And whatever he said, I had to seem to agree with. I dared not
contradict him. I hated the deceit, and the more I hated it, the more he
loved it and practiced it in my hearing, until I used to be sick with
misery. Oh, my dear, it is the worst of miseries to be forced into
wrong-doing against your will."
"But why did you give way?" said Janetta, who could not fancy herself in
similar circumstances being forced into anything at all.
"My dear, he made me, I dared not cross him. He made me suffer, and he
made the children suffer if ever I opposed him. What could I do?" said
the poor woman, twisting and untwisting her thin hands, and looking
piteously into Janetta's face. "I was obliged to obey him--he was my
husband, and so much above me, so much more of a gentleman than I ever
was a lady. You know that I never could say him nay. He ruled me, as he
used to say, with a rod of iron--for he made a boast of it, my dear--and
he was never so happy, I think, as when he was torturing me and making
me wince with pain."
"He must have been----" when Janetta stopped short: she could not say
exactly what she thought of Mrs. Brand's second husband.
"He was cruel, my dear: cruel, that is, to women. Not cruel amongst his
own set--among his equals, as he would have said--not cruel to boys. But
always cruel to women. Some woman must have done him a grievous wrong
one day--I never knew who she was; but I am certain that it was so; and
that soured and embittered him. He was revenging himself on that other
woman, I used to think, when he was cruel to me."
Janetta dared not speak.
"I did not mind his cruelty when it meant nothing but bodily pain, you
know, my dear," Mrs. Brand continued patiently. "But it was harder for
me to bear when it came to what might be called moral things. You see I
loved him, and I could not say him nay. If he told me to lie, I had to
do it. I never forgave myself for the lies I told at his bidding. And if
he were here to tell me to do the same things I should do them still. If
he had turned Mohammedan, and told me to trample on the Bible or the
Cross, as I have read in missionary books that Christians have sometimes
been bribed to do, I should have obeyed him. I was his body and soul,
and all my misery has come out of that."
"How?" Janetta asked.
"I brought Wyvis up on a lie," the mother answered, her face growing
woefully stern and rigid as she mentioned his name, "and it has been my
punishment that he has always hated lies. I have trembled to hear him
speak against falsehood--to catch his look of scorn when he began to see
that his father did not speak truth. Very early he made me understand
that he would never be likely to forgive us for the deception we
practiced on him. For his good, you will say; but ah, my dear, deception
is never for anybody's good. I never forgave myself, and Wyvis will
never forgive me. And yet he is my child. Now you see the happiness that
lies in having children."
Janetta tried to dissipate the morbid terror of the past, the morbid
dread of Wyvis' condemnation, which hung like a shadow over the poor
woman's mind, but she was far from being successful.
"You do not know," was all that Mrs. Brand would say. "You do not
understand." And then she broke out more passionately--
"I have done him harm all his life. His misery has been my fault. You
heard him tell me so. It is true: there is no use denying it. And he
knows it."
"He spoke in a moment of anger: he did not know what he said."
"Oh, yes, he did, and he meant it too. I have heard him say a similar
thing before. You see it was I that brought about this wretched marriage
of his--because I pitied this woman, and thought her case was like my
own--that she loved Wyvis as I loved Mark Brand. I brought that
marriage about, and Wyvis has cursed me ever since."
"No, no," said Janetta, kissing her troubled face, "Wyvis would never
curse his mother for doing what she thought right. Wyvis loves you.
Surely you know that--you believe that? Wyvis is not a bad son."
"No, my dear, not a bad son, but a cruelly injured one," said Mrs.
Brand. "And he blames me. I cannot blame him: it was all my fault for
not opposing Mark when he wanted me to help him to carry out his wicked
scheme."
"I think," said Janetta, tentatively, "that Cuthbert has more right to
feel himself injured than Wyvis."
"Cuthbert?" Mrs. Brand repeated, in an indifferent tone. "Oh, Cuthbert
is of no consequence: his father always said so. A lame, sickly,
cowardly child! If we had had a strong, healthy lad of our own, Mark
would not have put Wyvis in Cuthbert's place, but with a boy like
Cuthbert, what would you expect him to do?"
It seemed to Janetta almost as if her mind were beginning to wander: the
references to Cuthbert's boyish days appeared to be so extraordinarily
clear and defined--almost as though she were living again through the
time when Cuthbert was supplanted by her boy Wyvis. But when she spoke
again, Mrs. Brand's words were perfectly clear, and apparently
reasonable in tone.
"I often think that if I could do my poor boy some great service, he
would forgive me in heart as well as in deed. I would do anything in the
world for him, Janetta, if only I could give him back the happiness of
which I robbed him."
Janetta could not exactly see that the poor mother's sins had been so
great against Wyvis as against Cuthbert, but it was evident that Mrs.
Brand could never be brought to look at matters in this light. The
thought that she had injured her first-born son had taken possession of
her completely, and seriously disturbed the balance of her faculties.
The desire to make amends to Wyvis for her wrong-doing had already
reached almost a maniacal point: how much further it might be carried
Janetta never thought of guessing.
She was anxious about Mrs. Brand, but more so for her physical than for
her mental strength. For her powers were evidently failing in every
direction, and the doctor spoke warningly to Janetta of the weakness of
her heart's action, and the desirability of shielding her from every
kind of agitation. It was impossible to provide against every kind of
shock, but Janetta promised to do her best.
The winter was approaching before Janetta's letter to Wyvis received an
answer. She was beginning to feel very anxious about it, for his silence
alarmed and also surprised her. She could hardly imagine a man of Wyvis'
disposition remaining unmoved when he read the letter that she had sent
him. His wife's health was, moreover, giving her serious concern. She
had caught cold on one of the foggy autumnal days, and the doctor
assured her that her life would be endangered if she did not at once
seek a warmer climate. But she steadily refused to leave the Red House.
"I won't go," she said to Janetta, with a red spot of anger on either
cheek, "until I know whether he means to do the proper thing by me or
not."
"He is sure to do that; you need have no fear," said Janetta, bluntly.
An angry gleam shot from the sick woman's eyes. "You defend him through
thick and thin, don't you? Wyvis has a knack of getting women to stick
up for him. They say the worst men are often the most beloved."
Janetta left the room, feeling both sick and sorry, and wondering how
much longer she could bear this kind of life. It was telling upon her
nerves and on her strength in every possible way. And yet she could not
abandon her post--unless, indeed, Wyvis himself relieved her. And from
him for many weary days there came no word.
But at last a telegram arrived--dated from Liverpool. "I shall be with
you to-morrow. Your letter was delayed, and reached me only by
accident," Wyvis said. And then his silence was explained.
Janetta carried the news of his approaching arrival to wife and mother
in turn. Mrs. Wyvis took it calmly. "I told you so," she said, with a
triumphant little nod. But Mrs. Brand was terribly agitated, and even,
as it seemed to Janetta, amazed. "I never thought that he would come,"
she said, in a loud whisper, with a troubled face and various nervous
movements of her hands. "I never thought that he would come back to her.
I must be quick. I must be quick, indeed." And when Janetta tried to
soothe her, and said that she must now make haste to be well and strong
when Wyvis was returning, she answered only in about the self-same
words--"never thought it, my dear, indeed, I never did. But if he is
coming back, so soon, I must be quick--I must be very quick."
And Janetta could not persuade her to say why.