THE DAY AFTER.
The last red ray of the sunset had faded, the silver stars were out,
the yellow moon shone serenely over land and sea, before Edith
awoke--awoke with a smile on her lips from a dream of Charley.
"Do go away--don't tease," she was murmuring half smilingly, half
petulantly--the words she had spoken to him a hundred times. She was
back in Sandypoint, he beside her, living over the old days, gone
forever. She awoke to see the tawny moonshine streaming in, to hear
the soft whispers of the night wind, the soft, sleepy lap of the sea
on the sands, and to realize, with a thrill and a shock, she was Sir
Victor Catheron's wife.
His wife! This was her wedding-day. Even in dreams Charley must come
to her no more.
She rose up, slightly chilled from sleeping in the evening air, and
shivering, partly with that chill, partly with a feeling she did not
care to define. The dream of her life's ambition was realized in its
fullest; she, Edith Darrell, was "my lady--a baronet's bride;" the
vista of her life spread before her in glittering splendor; and yet
her heart lay like lead in her bosom. In this hour she was afraid of
herself, afraid of him.
But where was he?
She looked round the room, half in shadow, half in brilliant moonlight.
No, he was not there. Had he returned from his stroll? She took out
her watch. A quarter of seven--of course he had. He was awaiting her,
no doubt, impatient for his dinner, in the dining-room. She would make
some change in her dress and join him there. She went up to her
dressing room and lit the candles herself. She smoothed her ruffled
hair, added a ribbon and a jewel or two, and then went back to the
drawing-room. All unnoticed, in the shadows, the letter for her lay on
the table. She sat down and rang the bell. Jamison, the confidential
servant, appeared.
"Has Sir Victor returned from his walk, Jamison? Is he in the
dining-room?"
Mr. Jamison's well-bred eyes looked in astonishment at the speaker,
then around the room. Mr. Jamison's wooden countenance looked stolid
surprise.
"Sir Victor, my lady--I--thought Sir Victor was _here_, my lady."
"Sir Victor has not been here since half an hour after our arrival. He
went out for a walk, as you very well know. I ask you if he has
returned."
"Sir Victor returned more than an hour ago, my lady. I saw him myself.
You were asleep, my lady, by the window as he came up. He went into
the dining-room and wrote a letter; I saw it in his hand. And then, my
lady, he came in here."
The man paused, and again peered around the room. Edith listened in
growing surprise.
"I thought he was here still, my lady, so did Hemily, or we would have
taken the liberty of hentering and closing the window. We was sure he
was here. He suttingly hentered with the letter in his 'and. It's
_very_ hodd."
Again there was a pause. Again Mr. Jamison--
"If your ladyship will hallow, I will light the candles here, and then
go and hascertain whether Sir Victor is in hany of the hother rooms."
She made an affirmative gesture, and returned to the window. The man
lit the candles; a second after an exclamation startled her.
"The note, my lady! Here it is."
It lay upon the table; she walked over and took it up. In Sir Victor's
hand, and addressed to herself! What did this mean? She stood looking
at it a moment--then she turned to Jamison.
"That will do," she said briefly; "if I want you I will ring."
The man bowed and left the room. She stood still, holding the unopened
note, strangely reluctant to break the seal. What did Sir Victor mean
by absenting himself and writing her a note? With an effort she
aroused herself at last, and tore it open. It was strangely scrawled,
the writing half illegible; slowly and with difficulty she made it out
This was what she read:
* * * * *
"For Heaven's sake, pity me--for Heaven's sake, pardon me. We shall
never meet more! O beloved! believe that I love you, believe that I
never loved you half so well as now, when I leave you forever. If I
loved you less I might dare to stay. But I dare not. I can tell you
no more--a promise to the living and the dead binds me. A dreadful
secret of sin, and shame, and guilt, is involved. Go to Lady Helena.
My love--my bride--my heart is breaking as I write the word--the cruel
word that must be written--farewell. I have but one prayer in my
heart--but one wish in my soul--that my life may be a short one.
"VICTOR."
* * * * *
No more. So, in short, incoherent, disconnected sentences, this
incomprehensible letter began and ended. She stood stunned,
bewildered, dazed, holding it, gazing at it blankly. Was she asleep?
Was this a dream? Was Sir Victor playing some ghastly kind of
practical joke, or--had Sir Victor all of a sudden gone wholly and
entirely mad?
She shrank from the last thought--but the dim possibility that it
might be true calmed her. She sat down, hardly knowing what she was
doing, and read the letter again. Yes, surely, surely she was right.
Sir Victor had gone mad! Madness was hereditary in his family--had it
come to him on his wedding-day of all days? On his wedding-day the
last remnant of reason had deserted him, and he had deserted _her_.
She sat quite still,--the light of the candles falling upon her, upon
the fatal letter,--trying to steady herself, trying to think. She read
it again and again; surely no sane man ever wrote such a letter as
this. "A dreadful secret of sin, and shame, and guilt, is involved."
Did that dreadful secret mean the secret of his mother's death? But
why should that cause him to leave her? She knew all about it already.
What frightful revelation had been made to him on his father's dying
bed? He had never been the same man since. An idea flashed across her
brain--dreadful and unnatural enough in all conscience--but why should
even _that_, supposing her suspicions to be true, cause him to leave
her? "If I loved you less, I might dare to stay with you." What
rhodomontade was this? Men prove their love by living with the women
they marry, not by deserting them. Oh, he was mad, mad, mad--not a
doubt of that could remain.
Her thoughts went back over the past two weeks--to the change in him
ever since his father's death. There had been times when he had
visibly shrunk from her, when he had seemed absolutely afraid of her.
She had doubted it then--she knew it now. It was the dawning of his
insanity--the family taint breaking forth. His father's delusion had
been to shut himself up, to give out that he was dead--the son's was
to desert his bride on their bridal day forever. Forever! the letter
said so. Again, and still again, she read it. Very strangely she
looked, the waxlights flickering on her pale, rigid young face, her
compressed lips set in one tight line--on her soft pearl gray silk,
with its point lace collar and diamond star. A bride, alone, forsaken,
on her wedding-day!
How strange it all was! The thought came to her: was it retributive
justice pursuing her for having bartered herself for rank? And yet
girls as good and better than she, did it every day. She rose and
began pacing up and down the floor. What should she do? "Go back to
Lady Helena," said the letter. Go back! cast off, deserted--she, who
only at noon to-day had left them a radiant bride! As she thought it,
a feeling of absolute hatred for the man she had married came into her
heart. Sane or mad she would hate him now, all the rest of her life.
The hours were creeping on--two had passed since she had sent Jamison
out of her room. What were they thinking of her, these keen-sighted,
gossiping servants? what would they think and say when she told them
Sir Victor would return no more?--that she was going back to Cheshire
alone to-morrow morning? There was no help for it. There was resolute
blood in the girl's veins; she walked over to the bell, rang it, her
head erect, her eyes bright, only her lips still set in that tight,
unpleasant line.
Mr. Jamison, grave and respectful, his burning curiosity diplomatically
hidden, answered.
"Jamison," the young lady said, her tones clear and calm, looking the
man straight in the eyes, "your master has been obliged to leave Wales
suddenly, and will not return. You may spend the night in packing up.
To-morrow, by the earliest train, I return to Cheshire."
"Yes, me lady."
Not a muscle of Jamison's face moved--not a vestige of surprise or any
other earthly emotion was visible in his smooth-shaven face. If she
had said, "To-morrow by the earliest train I shall take a trip to the
moon," Mr. Jamison would have bowed and said, "Yes, me lady," in
precisely the same tone.
"Is dinner served?" his young mistress asked, looking at her watch.
"If not, serve immediately. I shall be there in two minutes."
She kept her word. With that light in her eyes, that pale composure on
her face, she swept into the dining-room, and took her place at the
glittering table. Jamison waited upon her--watching her, of course, as
a cat a mouse.
"She took her soup and fish, her slice of pheasant and her jelly, I do
assure you, just the same as hever, Hemily," he related afterward to
the lady's maid; "but her face was whiter than the tablecloth, and her
eyes had a look in them I'd rather master would face than me. She's
one of the 'igh-stepping sort, depend upon it, and quiet as she takes
it now, there'll be the deuce and all to pay one of these days."
She rose at last and went back to the drawing-room. How brilliantly
the moon shone on the sleeping sea; how fantastic the town and castle
looked in the romantic light. She stood by the window long, looking
out. No thought of sympathy for him--of trying to find him out on the
morrow--entered her mind. He had deserted her; sane or mad, that was
enough for the present to know.
She took out a purse, that fairies and gold dollars alone might have
entered, and looked at its contents. By sheer good luck and chance, it
contained three or four sovereigns--more than sufficient for the
return journey. To-morrow morning she would go back to Powyss Place
and tell Lady Helena; after that--
Her thoughts broke--to-night she could not look beyond. The misery,
the shame, the horrible scandal, the loneliness, the whole wreck of
life that was to come, she could not feel as yet. She knew what she
would do to-morrow--after that all was a blank.
What a lovely night it was! What were they doing at home? What was
Trixy about just now? What was--Charley? She had made up her mind
never to think of Charley more. His face rose vividly before her now
in the moonrays, pale, stern, contemptuous. "Oh!" she passionately
thought, "how he must scorn, how he must despise me!" "Whatever comes,"
he had said to her that rainy morning at Sandypoint; "whatever the new
life brings, you are never to blame _me_!" How long ago that rainy
morning seemed now. What an eternity since that other night in the
snow. If she had only died beside him that night--the clear, white,
painless death--unspotted from the world! If she had only died that
night!
Her arms were on the window-sill--her face fell upon them. One hour,
two, three passed; she never moved. She was not crying, she was
suffering, but dully, with a numb, torpid, miserable sense of pain.
All her life since that rainy spring day, when Charley Stuart had come
to Sandypoint with his mother's letter, returned to her. She had
striven and coquetted to bring about the result she wanted--it had
seemed such a dazzling thing to be a baronet's wife, with an income
that would flow in to her like a ceaseless golden river. She had
jilted the man she loved in cold bloody and accepted the man to whom
her heart was as stone. In the hour when fortune was deserting her
best friends, she had deserted them too. And the end was--_this_.
It was close upon twelve when Emily, the maid, sleepy and cross,
tapped at the door. She had to tap many times before her mistress
heard her. When she did hear and open, and the girl came in, she
recoiled from the ghastly pallor of her lady's face.
"I shall not want you to-night," Edith said briefly. "You may go to
bed."
"But you are ill, my lady. If you only saw yourself! Can't I fetch you
something? A glass of wine from the dining-room?"
"Nothing, Emily, thank you. I have sat up too long in the night
air--that is all. Go to bed; I shall do very well."
The girl went, full of pity and worries, shaking her head. "Only this
morning I thought what a fine thing it was to be the bride of so fine
a gentleman, and look at her now."
Left alone, she closed and fastened the window herself. An
unsupportable sense of pain and weariness oppressed her. She did not
undress. She loosened her clothes, wrapped a heavy, soft railway rug
about her, and lay down upon the bed. In five minutes the tired eyes
had closed. There is no surer narcotic than trouble sometimes; hers
was forgotten--deeply, dreamlessly, she slept until morning.
The sun was high in the sky when she awoke. She raised herself upon
her elbow and looked around, bewildered. In a second yesterday flashed
upon her, and her journey of to-day. She arose, made her morning
toilet, and rang for her maid. Breakfast was waiting--it was past nine
o'clock, and she could leave Carnarvon in three quarters of an hour.
She made an effort to eat and drink; but it was little better than an
effort. She gave Jamison his parting instructions--he was to remain
here until to-morrow; by that time orders would come from Powyss Place.
Then, in the dress she had travelled in yesterday, she entered the
railway carriage and started upon her return journey.
How speedily her honeymoon had ended! A curious sort of smile passed
over her face as she thought it. She had not anticipated
Elysium--quite--but she certainly had anticipated something very
different from this.
She kept back thought resolutely--she would _not_ think--she sat
and looked at the genial October landscape flitting by. Sooner or
later the floodgates would open, but not yet.
It was about three in the afternoon when the fly from the railway
drove up to the stately portico entrance of Powyss Place. She paid and
dismissed the man, and knocked unthinkingly. The servant who opened
the door fell back, staring at her, as though she had been a ghost.
"Is Lady Helena at home?"
Lady Helena was at home--and still the man stared blankly as he made
the reply. She swept past him, and made her way, unannounced, to her
ladyship's private rooms. She tapped at the door.
"Come in," said the familiar voice, and she obeyed. Then a startled
cry rang out. Lady Helena arose and stood spellbound, gazing in mute
consternation at the pale girl before her.
"Edith!" she could but just gasp. "What is this? Where is Victor?"
Edith came in, closed the door, and quietly faced her ladyship.
"I have not the faintest idea where Sir Victor Catheron may be at this
present moment. Wherever he is, it is to be hoped he is able to take
care of himself. I know I have not seen him since four o'clock
yesterday afternoon."
The lips of Lady Helena moved, but no sound came from them. Some great
and nameless terror seemed to have fallen upon her.
"It was rather an unusual thing to do," the clear, steady tones of the
bride went on, "but being very tired after the journey, I fell asleep
in the cottage parlor at Carnarvon, half an hour after our arrival.
Sir Victor had left me to take a walk and a smoke, he said. It was
nearly seven when I awoke. I was still alone. Your nephew had come and
gone."
"Gone!"
"Gone--and left this for me. Read it, Lady Helena, and you will see
that in returning here, I am only obeying my lord and master's
command."
She took the note from her pocket, and presented it. Her ladyship took
it, read it, her face growing a dreadful ashen gray.
"So soon!" she said, in a sort of whisper; "that it should have fallen
upon him so soon! Oh! I feared it! I feared it! I feared it!"
"You feared it!" Edith repeated, watching her intently. "Does that
mean your ladyship understands this letter?"
"Heaven help me! I am afraid I do."
"It means, then, what I have thought it meant: that when I married Sir
Victor yesterday I married a madman!"
There was a sort of moan from Lady Helena--no other reply.
"Insanity is in the Catheron blood--I knew that from the first. His
father lived and died a maniac. The father's fate is the son's. It has
lain dormant for three-and-twenty years, to break out on his
wedding-day. Lady Helena, am I right?"
But Lady Helena was sobbing convulsively now. Her sobs were her only
reply.
"It is hard on _you_," Edith said, with a dreary sort of pity. "You
loved him."
"And you did not," the elder woman retorted, looking up. "You loved
your cousin, and you married my poor, unhappy boy for his title and
his wealth. It would have been better for him he had died than ever
set eyes on your face."
"Much better," Edith answered steadily. "Better for him--better for me.
You are right, Lady Helena Powyss, I loved my cousin, and I married
your nephew for his title and his wealth. I deserve all you can say of
me. The worst will not be half bad enough."
Her ladyship's face drooped again; her suppressed sobbing was the only
sound to be heard.
"I have come to you," Edith went on, "to tell you the truth. I don't
ask what his secret is he speaks of; I don't wish to know. I think he
should be looked after. If he is insane he should not be allowed to go
at large."
"If he is insane!" Lady Helena cried, looking up again angrily. "You
do well to say _if_. He is no more insane than you are!"
Edith stood still looking at her. The last trace of color faded from
her face.
"_Not_ insane," she whispered, as if to herself; "_not_ insane,
and--he deserts me!"
"Oh, what have I said!" Lady Helena cried; "forgive me, Edith--I don't
know what I am saying--I don't know what to think. Leave me alone, and
let me try to understand it, if I can. Your old rooms are ready for
you. You have come to remain with me, of course."
"For the present--yes. Of the future I have not yet thought. I will
leave you alone, Lady Helena, as you desire. I will not trouble you
again until to-morrow."
She was quitting the room. Lady Helena arose and took her in her arms,
her face all blotted with a rain of tears.
"My child! my child!" she said, "it is hard on you--so young, so
pretty, and only married yesterday! Edith, you frighten me! What are
you made of? You look like a stone!"
The girl sighed--a long, weary, heart-sick sigh.
"I feel like a stone. I can't cry. I think I have no heart, no soul,
no feeling, no conscience--that I am scarcely a human being. I am a
hardened, callous wretch, for whom any fate is too good. Don't pity me,
dear Lady Helena; don't waste one tear on me. I am not worth it."
She touched her lips to the wet cheek, and went slowly on her way. No
heart--no soul! if she had, both felt benumbed, dead. She seemed to
herself a century old, as she toiled on to her familiar rooms. They
met no more that day--each kept to her own apartments.
The afternoon set in wet and wild; the rain fell ceaselessly and
dismally; an evening to depress the happiest closed down.
It was long after dark when there came a ring at the bell, and the
footman, opening the door, saw the figure of a man muffled and
disguised in slouch hat and great-coat. He held an umbrella over his
head, and a scarf was twisted about the lower part of his face. In a
husky voice, stifled in his scarf, he asked for Lady Helena.
"Her ladyship's at home," the footman answered, rather superciliously,
"but she don't see strangers at this hour."
"Give her this," the stranger said; "she will see _me_."
In spite of hat, scarf, and umbrella, there was something familiar in
the air of the visitor, something familiar in his tone. The man took
the note suspiciously and passed it to another, who passed it to her
ladyship's maid. The maid passed it to her ladyship, and her ladyship
read it with a suppressed cry.
"Show him into the library at once. I will go down."
The muffled man was shown in, still wearing hat and scarf. The library
was but dimly lit. He stood like a dark shadow amid the other shadows.
An instant later the door opened and Lady Helena, pale and wild,
appeared on the threshold.
"It is," she faltered. "It is--you!"
She approached slowly, her terrified eyes riveted on the hidden face.
"It is I. Lock the door."
She obeyed, she came nearer. He drew away the scarf, lifted the hat,
and showed her the face of Sir Victor Catheron.