COMPLICATIONS.
Crossing by the night boat from Calais, the travellers reached Dover
at a very early hours of the morning. Lady Level, with her servants,
proceeded at once to London; but Mrs. Ravensworth, who had been
exceedingly ill on the passage, required some repose, and she and her
husband waited for a later train.
"Make use of our house, Lady Level," said Mr. Ravensworth--speaking of
his new abode in Portland Place. "The servants are expecting me and
their mistress, and will have all things in readiness, and make you
comfortable."
"Thank you all the same, Arnold," said Lady Level; "but I shall drive
straight to my husband's rooms in Holles Street."
"I would not--if I were you," he dissented. "You are not expected, and
may not find anything ready in lodgings, so early in the morning.
Drive first to my house and have some breakfast. You can go on to
Holles Street afterwards."
Sensible advice. And Lady Level took it.
In the evening of that same day, Arnold Ravensworth and his wife
reached Portland Place from the London terminus. To Mr. Ravensworth's
surprise, who should be swinging from the door as the cab stopped but
Major Carlen in his favourite purple and scarlet cloak, his gray hair
disordered and his eyes exceeding fierce.
"Here's a pretty kettle-of-fish!" cried he, scarcely giving Arnold
time to hand out his wife, and following him into the hall. "_You_
have done a nice thing!"
"What is amiss?" asked Mr. Ravensworth, as he took the Major into a
sitting-room.
"Amiss!" returned the excited Major. "I would advise you not to fall
into Level's way just now. How the mischief came you to bring Blanche
over?"
"We accompanied Lady Level to England at her request: I took no part
in influencing her decision. Lady Level is her own mistress."
"Is she, though! She'll find she's not, if she begins to act in
opposition to her husband. Before she was married, she had not a wish
of her own, let alone a will--and there's where Level was caught, I
fancy," added the Major, in a parenthesis, nodding his head knowingly.
"He thought he had picked up a docile child, who would never be in his
way. What with that and her beauty--anyway, he could not think she
would be setting up a will, and an obstinate one, as she's doing now,
rely upon that."
Major Carlen was striding from one end of the room to the other, his
cloak catching in the furniture as he swayed about. Arnold thought he
had been drinking: but he was a man who could take a great deal, and
show it very little.
"The case is this," said he, unfastening the troublesome cloak, and
flinging it on to a chair. "Level has been in England a week or two;
amusing himself, I take it. He didn't want his wife, I suppose; well
and good: men like a little society, and as long as they keep their
wives in the dark, there's no reason why they shouldn't have it----"
"Major Carlen!" burst forth Mr. Ravensworth. "Lord Level's wife is
your daughter. Have you forgotten it?"
"My step-daughter. What if she is? Does that render her different from
others? Are you going to climb a pole and cry Morality? You are a
young married man, Arnold Ravensworth, and must be on your good
behaviour just now; it's etiquette."
Mr. Ravensworth was not easily excited, but the red flush of anger
darkened his cheek. He could have thrust the old rascal from the
house.
"Level leaves his wife in France, and tells her to remain there.
Germany? Well, say Germany, then. My lady chooses to disobey, and
comes to England, under your wing: and I wish old Harry had driven you
to any place rather than the one she was stopping at. She reaches town
to-day, and drives to Lord Level's rooms in Holles Street, whence he
had dated his letters to her--and a model of incaution he was for
doing it; why couldn't he have dated from his club? My lady finds or
hears of something there she does not like. Well, what could she
expect? They were his rooms; taken for himself, not for her; and if
she had not been a greater simpleton than ever broke loose from
keeping, she would have come away, then and there. Not she. She must
persist in putting questions as to this and that; so at last she
learned the truth, I suppose, or something near it. Then she thought
it time to leave the house and come to mine: which is what she ought
to have done at first: and there she has been waiting until now to see
me, for I have been out all day."
"I thought your house was let?"
"It was let for the season; the people have left it now. I came home
only yesterday from Jersey. My sister is lying ill there."
"And may I ask, Major Carlen, how you know that Lord Level has been
'amusing himself' if you have not been here to see?" questioned Mr.
Ravensworth sarcastically.
"How do I know it?--why, common sense tells me," stormed the Major. "I
have not heard a word about Level, except what Blanche says."
"Is he in Holles Street?"
"Not now. He gave up the rooms a week ago, and went down to Marshdale,
his place in Surrey. He is laid up there, having managed to jam his
knee against a gatepost; his horse swerved in going through it. A man
I met to day, a friend of Level's, told me so. To go back to Blanche.
She opened out an indignant tale to me, when I got home just now and
found her there, of what she had heard in Holles Street. 'Serve you
right, my dear,' I said to her: 'a wife has no business to be looking
at her husband through a telescope. If a man chose to fill his rooms
with wild tigers, it would not be his wife's province to complain,
provided he kept her out of reach of their claws.' 'But what am I to
do?' cried Blanche. 'You must return to France, or wherever else you
came from,' I answered. 'That I never will: I shall go down to
Marshdale, to Lord Level,' asserted Blanche, looking as I had never
seen her look before. 'You can't go there,' I said: 'you must not
attempt it.' 'I tell you, papa, I will go,' she cried, her eyes
flashing. I never knew she had so much passion in her, Ravensworth:
Level must have changed her nature. 'I will have an explanation from
Lord Level,' she continued. 'Rather than live on as I am living now, I
will demand a separation.'--Now, did you put that into her head?"
broke off the Major, looking at Mr. Ravensworth.
"I do not think you know what you are saying, Major Carlen. Should I
be likely to advise Lady Level to separate from her husband?"
"Someone has; such an idea would never enter Blanche's head unless put
there. 'You must lend me the means to go down,' she went on. 'I am
quite without money, through paying the bill at the hotel: Mr.
Ravensworth had partly to supply my travelling expenses.' 'Then more
fool Ravensworth for doing it,' said I; and more fool you were,"
repeated the Major.
"Anything more, Major?"
"The idea of my lending her money to take her down to Marshdale! And
she'd be cunning to get money from me, just now, for I am out at all
pockets. The last supplies I had came from Level; I wrote to him when
he was abroad. By Jove! I would not cross him now for the universe."
"The selfish old sinner!" thought Mr. Ravensworth--and nearly said so
aloud.
"Let me finish; she'll be here in a minute; she said she should come
and apply to you. 'Does your husband beat you, or ill-treat you?' I
asked her. 'No,' said she, shaking her head in a proud fury; 'even I
would not submit to that. Will you lend me some money, papa?' she
asked again. 'No, I won't,' I said. 'Then I'll borrow it from Mr.
Ravensworth,' she cried, and ran upstairs to put her bonnet on. So
then I thought it was time to come too, and explain. Mind you don't
supply her with any, Ravensworth."
"What pretext can I have for refusing?"
"Pretext be shot!" irritably returned the Major. "Tell her you won't,
as I do. I forbid you to lend her any. There she is! What a passionate
knock! Been blundering up wrong turnings, I dare say."
Lady Level came in, looking tired, heated, frightened. Mr. Ravensworth
took her hand.
"You have been walking here!" he said. "It is not right that Lady
Level should be abroad in London streets at night, and alone."
"What else am I to do without money?" she returned hysterically.
"I sent the servants and the luggage to an hotel this morning, and
gave them the few shillings I had left."
"Do sit down and calm yourself. All this is truly distressing."
Calm herself! The emotion, so long pent up, broke forth into sobs.
"Yes, it is distressing. I come to England and I find no home; I am
driven about from pillar to post, insulted everywhere; I have to walk
through the streets, like any poor, helpless girl. Is it right that it
should be so?"
"You have brought it all upon yourself, my lady," cried Major Carlen,
coming forward from a dark corner.
She turned with a start. "So you are here, papa! Then I hope you have
entered into sufficient explanation to spare it to me."
"I have told Ravensworth of your fine exploit, in going to Lord
Level's rooms: and he agrees with me that no one except an
inexperienced child would have done it."
"The truth, if you please, Major Carlen," struck in Mr. Ravensworth.
"And that what you heard or met with--though as to what it was I'm
sure I'm all in a fog about--served you right for going," continued
the unabashed Major.
Lady Level threw back her head, the haughty crimson dyeing her cheeks.
"I went there expecting to find my husband; was that an inexperienced
or a childish action?"
"Yes, it was," roared the Major, completely losing his temper, and
showing his fierce teeth. "When men are away from their wives, they
fall back into bachelor habits. If they please to turn their sanctums
into smoking dens, or boxing dens, or what not, are you to come
hunting them up, as I say, with a spyglass that magnifies at both
ends?"
"Good men have no need to keep their wives away from them."
The Major gave his nose a twist. "Good men?--bad men?--where's the
difference? The good have their wives under their thumb, and the bad
haven't, that's all."
"For shame, papa!"
"Tie Lord Level to your apron-string, and keep him there as long as
you can," fired the Major; "but don't ferret him up when he is out for
a holiday."
"Did I want to ferret up Lord Level?" she retorted. "I went there
because I thought it was his temporary home and would be mine. Why did
he date his letters thence?"
"There it all lies," cried the Major, changing his tone to one of
wrath against the peer. "Better he had dated from the top of the
Monument. It is surprising what mistakes men make sometimes. But how
was he to think you would come over against his expressed will? You
say he had bade you stop there until he could fetch you."
Lady Level would not reply: the respect due to Major Carlen as her
step-father was not in the ascendant just then. Turning to Mr.
Ravensworth, she requested the loan of sufficient funds to take her
down to Marshdale.
"I tell you, Blanche, you must not go there," interrupted the Major.
"Better not. Lord Level does not receive strangers at Marshdale."
"Strangers!" emphatically repeated Lady Level.
"Or wives either. They are the same as strangers in a case such as
this. I assure you Level told me, long before he married you, that
Marshdale was a little secluded place, no establishment kept up in it,
except an old servant or two; that he never received company down
there, and should never take you to it. Remain at the hotel with your
servants, if you will not come to my house, Blanche--there's only a
charwoman in it at present, as you know. Then write to Level and let
him know that you are there."
"Lady Level had better stay here tonight, at all events," put in
Arnold Ravensworth. "My wife is expecting her to do so."
"Ay," acquiesced the old Major: "and write to Marshdale tomorrow,
Blanche."
"I go down to Marshdale tomorrow," she replied in tones of
determination. "It is too late to go tonight. The old servants that
wait upon Lord Level can wait upon me: and if there are none, I will
wait upon him myself. Go there I will, and have an understanding. And,
unless Lord Level can explain away the aspect that things have taken,
I--I--I----"
"Of all the imbeciles that ever gave utterance to folly, you are the
worst," was the Major's complimentary retort, when she broke down.
"Madam, do you know that you are a peeress of the realm?" he added
pompously.
"I do not forget it."
"And you would stand in your own light! You have carriages and finery;
you are to be presented next season; you will then have a house in
town: what does the earth contain more that you _can_ want?"
"Happiness," said Lady Level.
"Happiness!" repeated the Major, in genuine astonishment. "A pity but
you had married a country curate and found it, then. Arnold
Ravensworth, you must not lend Lady Level the money she desires; you
shall not speed her on this insane journey."
Mr. Ravensworth approached him, and spoke in low tones. "Do you know
of any existing reason that may render it inexpedient for her to go
there?"
"I know nothing about it," replied the Major, too angry to lower his
voice; "absolutely nothing. The Queen and all the princesses might pay
it a visit, for aught I know of any reason to the contrary. But it is
not Lady Level's place to follow her husband about in this clandestine
manner. If he wants her there, he will send for her, once he knows
that she is in London. The place is not much more than a farm, I
believe, and used to be a hunting-box in the late Lord Level's time."
"Papa, I hope you will forgive me for running counter to your
advice--but I shall certainly go down into Surrey tomorrow."
"I wash my hands of it altogether," said the angry Major.
"And you must lend me the money, Arnold."
"I will not refuse you," was his answer: "and I cannot dictate to you;
but I think it would be better for you to remain here, and let Lord
Level know that you are coming."
Lady Level shook her head. "Good advice, Arnold, no doubt, and I thank
you; all the same, I shall go down as I have said."
"You will be very much to blame, sir, if you help on this mad scheme
by so much as a sixpence," spoke the Major.
"Papa, listen to a word of common sense," she interposed. "I could go
to a dozen places tomorrow, and get any amount of money. I could go to
Lord Level's agents, and say I am Lady Level, and they would supply
me. I could go to Mr. Brightman, and he would supply me--Charles
Strange is in Paris again. I could go to other places. But I prefer to
have it from Mr. Ravensworth, and save myself trouble and annoyance.
It is not a pleasant thing for a peeress of the realm--as you just now
put it--to go about borrowing a five-pound note," she concluded with a
faint smile.
"Very well, Blanche. If ill comes of this wild step of yours, remember
you were warned against it. I can say no more."
Gathering up his cloak as he spoke, Major Carlen threw it over his
shoulders, and went forth, muttering, into the night.
Mr. Ravensworth called his wife, and she took Lady Level upstairs to a
hastily-prepared chamber. Sitting down in a low chair, and throwing
off her bonnet, Lady Level, worn out with all the excitement she had
gone through, burst into a flood of hysterical tears.
"Tell me all about it," said Mary Ravensworth soothingly, drawing the
poor wearied head to rest on her shoulder.
"They meant to stop me from going down to my husband, and I _will_
go," sobbed Blanche half defiantly. "If he has met with an accident,
and is ill, I ought to be there."
"Of course you ought," said Mary warmly. "But what is all the trouble
about?--And what was it that you heard, and did not like, in Holles
Street?"
"Oh, never mind that," said Blanche, colouring furiously. "That is
what I am going to ask my husband to explain."
Upon Lady Level's arrival in London that morning, she sent her
servants and luggage to an hotel, and drove straight to Portland Place
herself: where Mr. and Mrs. Ravensworth's servants supplied her with
breakfast. Afterwards, she went to Holles Street, arriving there about
ten o'clock; walked into the passage, for the house door was open, was
met by a young person in green, and inquired for Lord Level.
"Lord Level's not here now, ma'am," was the answer, as she showed
Blanche into a parlour. "He has been gone about a week."
"Gone about a week!" repeated Blanche, completely taken back; for she
had pictured him as lying at the place disabled.
"About that time, ma'am. He and the lady left together."
Blanche stared, and collected her scattered senses. "What lady?" she
asked.
The young person in green considered. "Well, ma'am, I forget the name
just now; those foreign names are hard to remember. His lordship
called her Nina. A very handsome lady, she was--Italian, I think--with
long gold earrings."
Lady Level's heart began to beat loudly. "May I ask if you are Mrs.
Pratt?" she inquired, knowing that to be the name of the landlady.
"Dear me, no, ma'am; Mrs. Pratt's my aunt; I'm up here on a visit to
her from the country. She is gone out to do her marketings. Lord Level
was going down to his seat in Surrey, we understood, when he left
here."
"Was the Italian lady going with him?"
The country girl--who was no doubt an inexperienced, simple country
maiden, or she might not have talked so freely--shook her head. "We
don't know anything about that, ma'am: she might have been. She was
related to my lord--his sister-in-law, I think he called her to Mrs.
Pratt--or some relation of that sort."
Blanche walked to the window and stood still for a moment, looking
into the street, getting up her breath. "Did the lady stay with Lord
Level all the time he was here?" she questioned, presently.
"Oh no, ma'am; she came only the day before he went away. Or,
stay--the day but one before, I think it was. Yes; for I know they
were out together nearly all the intervening day. Mrs. Pratt thought
at his lordship's solicitor's. It was about six o'clock in the evening
when she first arrived. My lord had spoken to Mrs. Pratt that day in
his drawing-room, saying he was expecting a relative from Italy for a
day or two, and could we let her have a bedroom, and any other
accommodation she might need; and Mrs. Pratt said she would, for we
were not full. A very nice lady she seemed to be, ma'am, and spoke
English in a very pretty manner."
Lady Level drew in her contemptuous lips. "Did Lord Level meet with
any accident while he was here?"
"Accident, ma'am! Not that we heard of. He was quite well when he
left."
"Thank you," said Blanche, turning away and drawing her mantle up with
a shiver. "As Lord Level is not here, I will not intrude upon you
further."
Wishing the young person in green good-morning, she went away to
Gloucester Place, feeling that she must scream or cry or fight the
air. Blanche knew Major Carlen was about due in London, as his house
was vacant again. Yes, the old charwoman said, the Major had got home
the previous day, but he had just gone out. Would my lady (for she
knew Blanche) like to walk in and wait until he returned?
My lady did so, and had to wait until evening. Then she partly
explained to Major Carlen, and partly confused him; causing that
gentleman to take up all kinds of free and easy ideas, as to the
morals and manners of my Lord Level.
On the following morning Lady Level, pursuing her own sweet will, took
train for Marshdale, leaving her servants behind her.