THE LAST SCENE.
"She does not know you," Dr. Burroughs said, when, a few hours later,
Wyvis bent over his mother's pillow and looked into her quiet,
care-lined face.
"Will she never know me?" asked the young man in a tone of deep
distress. "My poor mother! I must tell her how sorry I am for the pain
that I have often given her."
"She may be conscious for a few minutes by-and-bye," the doctor said.
"But consciousness will only show that the end is near."
There was a silence in the room. Mrs. Brand had now lain in a stupor for
many hours. Wyvis had been greeted on his arrival with sad news indeed:
his mother and wife were seriously ill, and the doctor acknowledged
that he did not think Mrs. Brand likely to live for many hours.
Wyvis had not been allowed to enter his wife's room, Juliet had to be
kept very quiet, lest the hæmorrhage should return. He was almost glad
of the respite; he dreaded the meeting, and he was anxious to bestow all
his time upon his mother. Janetta had told him something about what had
passed; he had heard an outline, but only an outline, of the sad story,
and it must be confessed that as yet he could not understand it. It was
perhaps difficult for a man to fathom the depths of a woman's morbid
misery, or of a doating mother's passionate and unreasonable love. He
grieved, however, over what was somewhat incomprehensible to him, and he
thought once or twice with a sudden sense of comfort that Janetta would
explain, Janetta would make him understand. He looked round for her when
this idea occurred to him; but she was not in the room. She did not like
to intrude upon what might be the last interview between mother and son,
for she was firmly persuaded that Mrs. Brand would recover
consciousness, and would tell Wyvis in her own way something of what she
had thought and felt; but she was not far off, and when Wyvis sent her a
peremptory message to the effect that she was wanted, she came at once
and took up her position with him as watcher beside his mother's bed.
Janetta was right. Mrs. Brand's eyes opened at last, and rested on
Wyvis' face with a look of recognition. She smiled a little, and seemed
pleased that he was there. It was plain that for the moment she had
quite forgotten the events of the last few hours, and the first words
that she spoke proved that the immediate past had completely faded from
her mind.
"Wyvis!" she faltered. "Are you back again, dear? And is--is your father
with you?"
"I am here, mother," Wyvis answered. He could say nothing more.
"But your father----"
Then something--a gleam of reawakening memory--seemed to trouble her;
she looked round the room, knitted her brows anxiously, and murmured a
few words that Wyvis could not hear.
"I remember now," she said, in a stronger voice. "I wanted something--I
thought it was your father, but it was something quite different--I
wanted your forgiveness, Wyvis."
"Mother, mother, don't speak in that way," cried her son. "Have you not
suffered enough to expiate _any_ mistake?"
"Any mistake, perhaps, not any sin," said his mother feebly. "Now that I
am old and dying, I call things by their right names. I did you a wrong,
and I did Cuthbert a wrong, and I am sorry now."
"It is all past," said Wyvis softly. "It does not matter now."
"You forgive me for my part in it? You do not hate me?"
"Mother! Have I been cold to you then? I have loved you all the time,
and never blamed you in my heart."
"You said that I was to blame."
"But I did not mean it. I never thought that you would take an idle word
of mine so seriously, mother. Forgive me, and believe me that I would
not have given you pain for the world if I had thought, if I had only
thought that it would hurt you so much!"
His mother smiled faintly, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if the
exertion of speaking had been too much for her; but, after a short
pause, she started suddenly, and opened her eyes with a look of extreme
terror.
"What is it," she said. "What have I done? Where is she?"
"Who, mother?"
"Your wife, Juliet. What did I do? Is she dead? The fire--the fire----"
Wyvis looked helplessly round for Janetta. He could not answer: he did
not know how to calm his mother's rapidly increasing excitement. Janetta
came forward and bent over the pillow.
"No, Juliet is not dead. She is in her room; you must not trouble
yourself about her," she said.
Mrs. Brand's eyes were fixed apprehensively on Janetta's face.
"Tell me what I did," she said in a loud whisper.
It was difficult to answer. Wyvis hid his face in a sort of desperation.
He wondered what Janetta was going to say, and listened in amazement to
her first words.
"You were ill," said Janetta clearly. "You did not know what you were
doing, and you set fire to the curtains in her room. Nobody was hurt,
and we all understand that you would have been very sorry to harm
anybody. It is all right, dear grandmother, and you must remember that
you were not responsible for what you were doing then."
The boldness of her answer filed Wyvis with admiration. He knew that
he--manlike--would have temporized and tried in vain to deny the truth,
it was far wiser for Janetta to acknowledge and explain the facts. Mrs.
Brand pressed the girl's hand and looked fearfully in her face.
"She--she was not burned?"
"Not at all."
"Stoop down," said Mrs. Brand. "Lower. Close to my face. There--listen
to me. I meant to kill her. Do you understand? I meant to set the place
on fire and let her burn. I thought she deserved it for making my boy
miserable."
Wyvis started up, and turned his back to the bed. It was impossible for
him to hear the confession with equanimity. But Janetta still hung over
the pillow, caressing the dying woman, and looking tenderly into her
face.
"Yes, you thought so then--I understand," she said. "But that was
because of your illness. You do not think so now."
"Yes," said Mrs. Brand, in the same loud, hoarse whisper. "I think so
now."
Then Janetta was silent for a minute or two. The black, ghastly look in
Mrs. Brand's wide-open eyes disconcerted her. She scarcely knew what to
say.
"I have always hated her. I hate her now," said Wyvis' mother. "She has
done me no harm; no. But she has injured my boy; she made his life
miserable, and I cannot forgive her for that."
"If Wyvis forgives her," said Janetta gently, "can you not forgive her
too?"
"Wyvis does not forgive her for making him unhappy," said Mrs. Brand.
"Wyvis,"--Janetta looked round at him. She could not see his face. He
was standing with his face to the window and his back to the bed.
"Wyvis, you have come back to your wife: does not that show that you are
willing to forget the past and to make a fresh beginning. Tell your
mother so, Cousin Wyvis."
He turned round slowly, and looked at her, not at his mother, as he
replied:
"Yes, I am willing to begin again," he said. "I never wished her any
harm."
"Then, you will forgive her--for Wyvis' sake? For Julian's sake?" said
Janetta.
A strange contraction of the features altered Mrs. Brand's face for a
moment: her breath came with difficulty and her lips turned white.
"I forgive," she said at last, in broken tones. "I cannot quite forget.
But I do not want--now--to harm her. It was but for a time--when my head
was bad."
"We know, we know," said Janetta eagerly. "We understand. Wyvis, tell
her that _you_ understand too."
She looked at him insistently, and he returned the look. Their eyes said
a good deal to each other in a second's space of time. In hers there was
tenderness, expostulation, entreaty; in his some shade of mingled horror
and regret. But he yielded his will to hers, thinking it nobler than his
own; and, turning to his mother, he stooped and kissed her on the
forehead.
"I understand, mother. Janetta has made me understand."
"Janetta--it is always Janetta we have to thank," his mother murmured
feebly. "It was for Janetta as well as for you that I did it. Wyvis--but
it is no use now. And, God forgive me, I did not know what I did."
She sank into silence and spoke no more for the next few hours. Her life
was quietly ebbing away. Towards midnight, she opened her eyes and spoke
again.
"Janetta--Wyvis," she said softly, and then the last moment came. Her
eyelids drooped, her head fell aside upon the pillow. There was no more
for her to say or do. Poor Mary Brand's long trial had come to an end at
last.
Juliet was not told of Mrs. Brand's death until after the funeral, as it
was feared that the news might unduly excite her. As it was, she gave a
hoarse little scream when she heard it, and asked, with every appearance
of horror, whether there was really "a body" in the house. On being
informed by Janetta that "the body" had been removed, she became
immediately tranquil, and remarked confidentially that she was "not
sorry, after all, for the old lady's death: it was such a bore to have
one's husband's mother in the house." Then she became silent and
thoughtful, and Janetta wondered whether some kindlier feeling were not
mixing itself with her self-gratulation. But presently Mrs. Wyvis Brand
broke forth:
"Look here, I must say this, if I die for it. You know the night when my
room was on fire. Well, now tell me true: wasn't my mother-in-law to
blame for it?"
Janetta looked at her in speechless dismay. She had no trust in Juliet's
disposition: she did not know whether she might revile Mrs. Brand
bitterly, or be touched by an account of her mental suffering. Wyvis,
however, had recommended her to tell his wife as much of the truth as
seemed necessary; "because, if you don't," he said, "she is quite sharp
enough to find it out for herself. So if she has any suspicion, tell her
something. Anything is better than nothing in such a case."
And Janetta, taking her courage in both hands, so to speak, answered
courageously:
"May I speak frankly to you, Juliet?" For Mrs. Wyvis Brand had insisted
that Janetta should always call her by her Christian name.
"Of course you may. What is it?"
"It is about Mrs. Brand. You must have known that for some time she had
been very weak and feeble. Her mind was giving way. Indeed, she was far
worse than we ever imagined, and she was not sufficiently watched. On
that night, it was she whom you saw, and it was she who set fire to the
curtains; but you must remember, Juliet, that she was not in her right
mind."
"Why, I might have been burned alive in my bed," cried Juliet--an
exclamation so thoroughly characteristic that Janetta could hardly
forbear to smile. Mrs. Wyvis Brand looked terribly shocked and
disconcerted, and it was after a pause that she collected herself
sufficiently to say in her usual rapid manner:
"You may say what you like about her being mad; but Mrs. Brand knew very
well what she was doing. She always hated me, and she wanted to get me
out of the way."
"Oh, Juliet, don't say so," entreated Janetta.
"But I do say so, and I will say so, and I have reason on my side. She
hated me like poison, and she loved you dearly. Don't you see what she
wanted? She would have liked you to take my place."
"If you say such things, Juliet----"
"You'll go out of the room, won't you, my dear? Why," said Juliet, with
a hard laugh in which there was very little mirth, "you don't suppose I
mind? I have known long enough that she thought bad things of me. Don't
you remember the name you called me when you thought I wanted Julian?
You had learnt every one of them from her, you know you had. Oh, you
needn't apologize. I understand the matter perfectly. I bear no malice
either against her or you, though I don't know that I am quite the black
sheep that you both took me to be."
"I am sorry if I was unjust," said Janetta slowly. "But all that I meant
amounts to one thing--that you did not make my Cousin Wyvis very happy."
"Ah, and that's the chief thing, isn't it?" said Juliet, with a keen
look. "Well, don't be frightened, I'm going to change my ways. I've had
a warning if anybody ever had; and I'm not going to get myself turned
out of house and home. If Wyvis will stick to me, I'll stick to him; and
I can't say more than that. I should like to see him now."
"Now, Juliet?" said Janetta, rather aghast at the idea. The meeting
between husband and wife had not yet taken place, and Janetta shrank
sensitively from the notion that Juliet might inflict fresh pain on
Wyvis on the very day of his mother's funeral. But Mrs. Wyvis Brand
insisted, and her husband was summoned to the room.
"You needn't go away, Janetta," said Juliet imperatively. "I want you as
a witness. Well, Wyvis, here I am, and I hope you are glad to see me."
She lifted herself a little from the couch on which she lay, and looked
at him defiantly. Janetta could see that he was shocked at the sight of
her wasted outlines, her hectic color, the unhealthy brilliance of her
eyes; and it was this sight, perhaps, that caused him to say gently:
"I am sorry not to see you looking better."
"The politest speech he has made me for years," she said, laughing.
"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread. We didn't hit it off exactly
the last time we saw each other, did we? Suppose we try again: should we
get on any better, do you think?"
"We might try," said Wyvis slowly.
He was pale and grave, but, as she saw, not unwilling to make peace.
"All right," she said, holding out her hand to him with easy, audacious
grace, "let us try then. I own I was aggravating--own in your turn that
you were tyrannical now and then! You witness that he owns up,
Janetta--why, the girl's gone! Never mind: give me a kiss now we are
alone, Wyvis, and take me to the Riviera to-morrow if you want to save
my life."
Wyvis kissed his wife and promised to do what she asked him, but he did
not look as if he expected to have an easy task.