THE OLD TROUBLE AGAIN
From ten days to a fortnight went by, and affairs were resuming their
ordinary routine. All outward indications of the accident were over; the
bodies of the poor sufferers were buried; the widows, mothers, orphans,
had begun to realise their destitution. It was not all quite done with,
however. The inquest, adjourned from time to time, was not yet
concluded; and popular feeling ran high against Mr. Chattaway. Certain
precautions, having reference to the miners' safety, which ought to have
been observed in the pit, had not been observed; hence the calamity.
Other mine owners in the vicinity had taken these precautions long ago;
but Mr. Chattaway, whether from inertness, or regard to expense, had not
done so. People spoke out freely now, not only in asserting that these
safeguards must no longer be delayed--and of that Mr. Chattaway was
himself sensible, in a sullen sort of way--but also that it was
incumbent on him to do something for the widows and orphans. A most
distasteful hint to a man of so near a disposition. Miss Diana Trevlyn
had gone down to the desolate homes and rendered them glad with her
bounty; but to make anything like a permanent provision for them was Mr.
Chattaway's business, and not hers. The sufferers believed Mr. Chattaway
was not likely to make even the smallest for them; and they were not far
wrong. His own hurt, the sprained ankle, had speedily recovered, and he
was now well again.
And the officious stranger, and his interference for the welfare of
Rupert? That also was falling to the ground, and he, Mr. Daw, was now on
the eve of departure. However well meant these efforts had been, they
could only be impotent in the face of Squire Trevlyn's will. Mr. Daw
himself was at length convinced of the fact, and began to doubt whether
his zeal had not outrun his discretion. Messrs. Peterby and Jones
angrily told him that it had, when he acknowledged, in answer to their
imperative question, that he had had no grounds whatever to go upon,
save goodwill to Rupert. Somewhat of this changed feeling may have
prompted him to call at Trevlyn Hold to pay a farewell visit of
civility; which he did, and got into hot water.
He asked for Miss Diana Trevlyn. But Miss Diana happened to be out, and
Octave, who was seated at the piano when he was shown in, whirled round
upon the stool in anger. She had taken the most intense dislike to this
officious man: possibly a shadow of the same dread which filled her
father's heart had penetrated to hers.
"Miss Trevlyn! If Miss Trevlyn were at home, she would not receive you,"
was her haughty salutation, as she rose from her stool. "It is
impossible that you can be received at the Hold. Unless I am mistaken,
sir, you had an intimation of this from Squire Chattaway."
"My visit, young lady, was not to Mr. Chattaway, but to Miss Trevlyn. So
long as the Hold is Miss Trevlyn's residence, her friends must call
there--although it may happen to be also that of Mr. Chattaway. I am
sorry she is out: I wish to say a word to her before my departure. I
leave to-night for good."
"And a good thing too," said angry Octave, forgetting her manners. But
this answer had not conciliated her, especially the very pointed tone
with which he had called her father _Mr._ Chattaway.
She rang the bell loudly to recall the servant. She did not ask him to
sit down, but stood pointing to the door; and Mr. Daw had no resource
but to obey the movement and go out--somewhat ignominously it must be
confessed.
In the avenue he met Miss Trevlyn, and she was more civil than Octave
had been. "I leave to-night," he said to her. "I go back to my residence
abroad, never in all probability to quit it again. I should have been
glad to serve poor Rupert by helping him to his rights--Miss Trevlyn, I
cannot avoid calling them so--but I find the law and Mr. Chattaway
stronger than my wishes. It was, perhaps, foolish ever to take up the
notion, and I feel half inclined to apologise to Mr. Chattaway."
"Of all visionary notions, that was about the wildest I ever heard of,"
said Miss Diana.
"Yes, utterly vain and useless. I see it now. I do not the less feel
Rupert Trevlyn's position, you must understand; the injustice dealt out
to him lies on my mind with as keen a sense as ever: but I do see how
hopeless, and on my part how foolish, was any attempt at remedy. I
should be willing to say this to Mr. Chattaway if I saw him, and to tell
him I had done with it. Mr. Freeman hints that I was not justified in
thus attempting to disturb the peace of a family, and he may be right.
But, Miss Trevlyn, may I ask you to be kind to Rupert?"
Miss Trevlyn threw back her head. "I have yet to learn that I am not
kind to him, sir."
"I mean with a tender kindness. I fancy I see in him indications of the
disease that was so fatal to his father. It has been on my mind to
invite him to go back home with me, and try what the warmer climate may
do for him; but the feeling (amounting almost to a prevision) that the
result in his case would be the same as his father's, withholds me. I
should not like to take him out to die: neither would I charge myself
with the task of nursing one in a fatal malady."
"You are very good," said Miss Diana, somewhat stiffly. "Rupert will do
well where he is, I have no doubt: and for myself, I do not anticipate
any such illness for him. I wish you a pleasant journey, Mr. Daw."
"Thank you, madam. I leave him to your kindness. It seems to me only a
duty I owe to his dead father to mention to you that he _may_ need extra
care and kindness; and none so fitting to bestow it upon him as you--the
guardian appointed by his mother."
"By the way, I cannot learn anything about that document," resumed Miss
Diana. "Mr. Chattaway says that it never came to hand."
"Madam, it must have come to hand. If the letter in which it was
enclosed reached Trevlyn Hold, it is a pretty good proof that the
document also reached it. Mr. Chattaway must be mistaken."
Miss Diana did not see how, unless he was wilfully, falsely denying the
fact. "A thought struck me the other day, which I wish to mention to
you," she said aloud, quitting the subject for a different one. "The
graves of my brother and his wife--are they kept in order?"
"Quite so," he answered. "I see to that."
"Then you must allow me to repay to you any expense you may have been
put to. I----"
"Not so," he interrupted. "There is no expense--or none to speak of. The
ground was purchased for ever, _a perpetuite_, as we call it over there,
and the shrubs planted on the site require little or no care in the
keeping. Now and then I do a half-day's work there myself, for the love
of my lost friends. Should you ever travel so far--and I should be happy
to welcome you--you will find their last resting-place well attended to,
Miss Trevlyn."
"I thank you much," she said in heartier tones, as she held out her
hand. "And I regret now that circumstances have prevented my extending
hospitality to you."
And so they parted amicably. And the great ogre Mr. Chattaway had feared
would eat him up, had subsided into a very harmless man indeed. Miss
Diana went on to the Hold, deciding that her respected brother-in-law
was a booby for having been so easily frightened into terror.
As Mr. Daw passed the lodge, old Canham was airing himself at the door,
Ann being out at work. The gentleman stopped.
"You were not here when I passed just now," he said. "I looked in at the
window, and opened the door, but could see no one."
"I was in the back part, maybe, sir. When Ann's absent, I has to get my
own meals, and wash up my cups and things."
"I must say farewell to you. I leave to-night."
"Leave the place! What, for good, sir?"
"Yes," replied Mr. Daw. "In a week's time from this, I hope to be
comfortably settled in my own home, some hundreds of miles away."
"And Master Rupert? and the Hold?" returned old Canham, the corners of
his mouth considerably drawn down. "Is he to be rei'stated in it?"
Mr. Daw shook his head. "I did all I could, and it did not succeed: I
can do no more. My will is good enough--as I think I have proved; but I
have no power."
"Then it's all over again, sir--dropped through, as may be said?"
"It has."
Old Canham leaned heavily on his crutch, lost in thought. "It won't drop
for ever, sir," he presently raised his head to say. "There have been
something within me a long, long while, whispering that Master Rupert's
as safe to come to his own before he dies, as that I be to go into my
grave. When this stir took place, following on your arrival here, I
thought the time had come then. It seems it hadn't; but come it _will_,
as sure as I be saying it--as sure as he's the true heir of Squire
Trevlyn."
"I hope it will," was the warm answer. "You will none of you rejoice
more truly than I. My friend Freeman has promised to write occasionally
to me, and----"
Mr. Daw was interrupted. Riding his shaggy pony in at the lodge gate--a
strong, brisk little Welsh animal bought a week ago by Miss Diana, was
Rupert himself. Upon how slender a thread do the great events of life
turn! The reflection is so trite that it seems the most unnecessary
reiteration to record it; but there are times when it is brought to the
mind with an intensity that is positively startling.
Mr. Chattaway, by the merest accident--as it appeared to him--had
forgotten a letter that morning when he went to Blackstone. He had
written it before leaving home, intending to post it on his road, but
left it on his desk. It was drawing towards the close of the afternoon
before he remembered it. He then ordered Rupert to ride home as fast as
possible and post it, so that it might be in time for the evening mail.
And this Rupert had now come to do. All very simple, you will say: but I
can tell you that but for the return of Rupert Trevlyn at that hour, the
most tragical part of this history would in all probability never have
taken place.
"The very man I was wishing to see!" exclaimed Mr. Daw, arresting Rupert
and his pony in their career. "I feared I should have to leave without
wishing you good-bye."
"Are you going to-day?" asked Rupert.
"To-night. You seem in a hurry."
"I am in a hurry," replied Rupert, as he explained about the letter. "If
I don't make haste, I shall lose the post."
"But I want to talk to you a bit. Do you go back to Blackstone?"
"Oh no; not to-day."
"Suppose you come in to the parsonage for an hour or two this evening?"
suggested Mr. Daw. "Come to tea. I am sure they'll be glad to see you."
"All right; I'll come," cried Rupert, cantering off.
But a few minutes, and he cantered down again, letter in hand. Old
Canham was alone then. Rupert looked towards him, and nodded as he went
past. There was a receiving-house for letters at a solitary general
shop, not far beyond Trevlyn Farm, and to this Rupert went, posted the
letter, and returned to Trevlyn Hold. Sending his pony to the stable, he
began to get ready for his visit to Mr. Freeman's--a most ill-fated
visit, as it was to turn out.
They took tea at the parsonage at six, and he had to hasten to be in
time. He had made his scanty dinner, as usual, at Blackstone. In
descending the stairs from his room he encountered Mrs. Chattaway in the
lower corridor.
"Are you going out, Rupert?"
"I am going to the parsonage, Aunt Edith. Mr. Daw leaves this evening,
and he asked me to go in for an hour or two."
"Very well. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Freeman. And, Rupert--my
dear----"
"What?" he asked, arresting his hasty footsteps and turning to speak.
"You will not be late?"
"No, no," he answered, his careless tone a contrast to her almost solemn
one. "It's all right, Aunt Edith."
But for that encounter with Mrs. Chattaway, the Hold would have been in
ignorance of Rupert's movements that evening. He spent a very pleasant
one. It happened that George Ryle called in also at the parsonage on Mr.
Freeman, and was induced to remain. Mrs. Freeman was hospitable, and
they sat down to a good supper, to which Rupert at least did justice.
The up-train was due at Barbrook at ten o'clock, and George Ryle and
Rupert accompanied Mr. Daw to it. The parson remained at home not caring
to go out at night, unless called forth by duty. They reached the
station five minutes before the hour, and Mr. Daw took his ticket and
waited for the train.
Waited a long time. Ten o'clock struck, and the minutes went on and on.
George, who was pacing the narrow platform with him, drew Rupert aside
and spoke.
"Should you not get back to the Hold? Chattaway may lock you out again."
"Let him," carelessly answered Rupert. "I shall get in somehow, I dare
say."
It was not George's place to control Rupert Trevlyn, and they paced the
platform as before, talking with Mr. Daw. Half-past ten, and no train!
The porters stood about, looking and wondering; the station-master was
fidgety, wanting to get home to bed.
"Will it come at all?" asked Mr. Daw, whose patience appeared exemplary.
"Oh, it'll come, safe enough," replied one of the two porters. "It never
keeps its time, this train don't: but it's not often as late as this."
"Why does it not keep its time?"
"It has got to wait at Layton's Heath for a cross-train; and if that
don't keep its time--and it never do--this one can't."
With which satisfactory explanation, the porter made a dash into a shed,
and appeared to be busy with what looked like a collection of dark
lanthorns.
"I shall begin to wish I had taken my departure this afternoon, as I
intended, if this delay is to be much prolonged," remarked Mr. Daw.
Even as he spoke, there were indications of the arrival of the train. At
twenty minutes to eleven it came up, and the station-master gave some
sharp words to the guard. The guard returned them in kind; its want of
punctuality was not his fault. Mr. Daw took his seat, and George and
Rupert hastened away to their respective homes. But it was nearly eleven
o'clock and Rupert, in spite of his boasted bravery, did fear the wrath
of Mr. Chattaway.
The household had retired to their rooms, but that gentleman was sitting
up, looking over some accounts. The fact of Rupert's absence was known
to him, and he experienced a grim satisfaction in reflecting that he was
locked out for the night. It is impossible for me to explain to you why
this should have gratified the mind of Mr. Chattaway; there are things
in this world not easily accounted for, and you must be contented with
the simple fact that it was so.
But Mrs. Chattaway? She had gone to her chamber sick and trembling,
feeling that the old trouble was about to be renewed to-night. If the
lad was not allowed to come in, where could he go? where find a shelter?
Could _she_ let him in, was the thought that hovered in her mind. She
would, if she could accomplish it without the knowledge of her husband.
And that might be practicable to-night, for he was shut up and absorbed
by those accounts of his.
Gently opening her dressing-room window, she watched for Rupert: watched
until her heart failed her. You know how long the time seems in this
sort of waiting. It appeared to her that he was never coming--as it had
recently appeared to Mr. Daw, with regard to the train. The distant
clocks were beginning to chime eleven when he arrived. He saw his aunt;
saw the signs she made to him, and contrived to hear and understand her
whispered words.
"Creep round to the back-door, and I will let you in."
So Rupert crept softly round; walking on the grass: and Mrs. Chattaway
crept softly down the stairs without a light, undid the bolt silently,
and admitted Rupert.
"Thank you, dear Aunt Edith. I could not well help being late. The
train----"
"Not a word, not a breath!" she interrupted, in a terrified whisper.
"Take off your boots, and go up to bed without noise."
Rupert obeyed in silence. They stole upstairs, one after the other. Mrs.
Chattaway turned into her room, and Rupert went on to his.
And the master of Trevlyn Hold, bending over his account-books, knew
nothing of the disobedience enacted towards him, but sat expecting and
expecting to hear Rupert's ring echoing through the house. Better, far
better that he had heard it!