DILEMMAS
About ten days elapsed, and Rupert Trevlyn, lying in concealment at the
lodge, was both better and worse. The prompt remedies applied by Mr.
King had effected their object in abating the fever; it had not
developed into brain-fever or typhus, and the tendency to delirium was
arrested; so far he was better. But these symptoms had been replaced by
others that might prove not less dangerous in the end: great
prostration, alarming weakness, and what appeared to be a settled cough.
The old tendency to consumption was showing itself more plainly than it
had ever shown itself before.
He had had a cough often enough, which had come and gone again, as
coughs come to a great many of us; but the experienced ear of Mr. King
detected a difference in this one. "It has a nasty sound in it," the
doctor privately remarked to George Ryle. Poor Ann Canham, faint at
heart lest this cough should betray his presence, pasted up all the
chinks, and kept the door hermetically closed when any one was
downstairs. Things usually go by contrary, you know; and it seemed that
the lodge had never been so inundated with callers.
Two great cares were upon those in the secret: to keep Rupert's presence
in the lodge from the knowledge of the outside world, and to supply him
with proper food. Upon none did the first press so painfully as upon
Rupert himself. His dread lest his place of concealment should be
discovered by Mr. Chattaway was never ceasing. When he lay awake, his
ears were on the strain for what might be happening downstairs, who
might be coming in; if he dozed--as he did several times in the course
of the day--his dreams were haunted by pursuers, and he would start up
wildly in bed, fancying he saw Mr. Chattaway entering with the police at
his heels. For twenty minutes afterwards he would lie bathed in
perspiration, unable to get the fright or the vision out of his mind.
There was no doubt that this contributed to increase his weakness and
keep him back. Let Rupert Trevlyn's future be what it might; let the
result be the very worst; one thing was certain--any actual punishment
in store for him could not be worse than this anticipation. Imagination
is more vivid than reality. He would lie and go through the whole ordeal
of his future trial: would see himself in the dock, not before the
magistrates of Barmester, but before a scarlet-robed judge; would listen
to the evidence of Mr. Chattaway and Jim Sanders, bringing home the
crime to him; would hear the irrevocable sentence from those grave
lips--that of penal servitude. Nothing could be worse for him than these
visions. And there was no help for them. Had Rupert been in strong
health, he might have shaken off some of these haunting fears; lying as
he did in his weakness, they took the form of morbid disease, adding
greatly to his bodily sickness.
His ear strained, he would start up whenever a footstep was heard to
enter the downstairs room, breathing softly to Ann Canham, or whoever
might be sitting with him, the question: "Is it Chattaway?" And Ann
would cautiously peep down the staircase, or bend her ear to listen, and
tell him who it really was. But sometimes several minutes would elapse
before she could find out; sometimes she would be obliged to go down
upon some plausible errand, and then come back and tell him. The state
that Rupert would fall into during these moments of suspense no pen
could describe. It was little wonder that Rupert grew weaker.
And the fears of discovery were not misplaced. Every hour brought its
own danger. It was absolutely necessary that Mr. King should visit him
at least once a day, and each time he ran the risk of being seen by
Chattaway, or by some one equally dangerous. Old Canham could not feign
to be on the sick list for ever; especially, sufficiently sick to
require daily medical attendance. George Ryle ran the risk of being seen
entering the lodge; as well as Mrs. Chattaway and Maude, who _could not_
abandon their stolen interviews with the poor sufferer. "It is my only
happy hour in the four-and-twenty; you must not fail me!" he would say
to them, imploringly holding out his fevered hands. Some evenings Mrs.
Chattaway would steal there, sometimes Maude, now and then both
together.
Underlying it all in Rupert's mind was the sense of guilt for having
committed so desperate a crime. Apart from those moments of madness,
which the neighbourhood had been content for years to designate as the
Trevlyn temper, few living men were so little likely to commit the act
as Rupert. Rupert was of a mild, kindly temperament, a very sweet
disposition; one of those inoffensive people of whom we are apt to say
they would not hurt a fly. Of Rupert it was literally true. Only in
these rare fits was he transformed; and never had the fit been upon him
as on that unhappy night. It was not so much repentance for the actual
crime that overwhelmed him, as surprise that he had perpetrated it. "I
was not conscious of the act," he would groan aloud; "I was mad when I
did it." Perhaps so; but the consequences remained. Poor Rupert! Remorse
was his portion, and he was in truth repenting in sackcloth and ashes.
The other care upon him--supplying Rupert with appropriate
nourishment--brought almost as much danger and difficulty in its train
as concealing him. A worse cook than Ann Canham could not be found. It
was her misfortune, rather than her fault. Living in extreme poverty all
her life, no opportunity for learning or improving herself in cooking
had ever been afforded her. The greatest luxury that ever entered old
Canham's lodge was a bit of toasted or boiled bacon.
It was not invalid dishes that Rupert wanted now. As soon as the fever
began to leave him, his appetite returned. Certain cases of incipient
consumption are accompanied by a craving for food difficult to satisfy,
and this unfortunately became the case with Rupert. Had he been at the
Hold, or in a plentiful home, he would have played his full part at the
daily meals, and assisted their digestion with interludes besides.
How was he to get sufficient food at the lodge? Mr. King said he must
have full nourishment, with wine, strong broths, and other things in
addition. It was the only chance, in his opinion, to counteract the
weakness that was growing upon him, and which bid fair soon to attain an
alarming height. Mrs. Chattaway, George Ryle, even the doctor himself
would have been quite willing to supply the cost; but even so, where was
the food to be dressed?--who was to do it?--how was it to be smuggled
in? This may appear a trifling difficulty in theory, but in practice it
was found almost insurmountable.
"Can't you dress a sweetbread?" Mr. King testily asked Ann Canham, when
she was timidly confessing her incapability in the culinary art. "I'd
easily manage to get it up here."
This was the first day Rupert's appetite had come back to him, just
after the turn of the fever. Ann Canham hesitated. "I'm not sure, sir,"
she said meekly. "Could it be put in a pot and boiled?"
"Put in a pot and boiled!" repeated Mr. King, nettled at the question.
"Much goodness there'd be in it when it came out! It's just blanched and
dipped in egg crumbs, and toasted in the Dutch oven. That's the best way
of doing them."
Egg crumbs were as much of a mystery to Ann Canham as sweetbreads
themselves. She shook her head. "And if, by ill-luck, Mr. Chattaway came
in and saw a sweetbread in our Dutch oven before our fire, sir; or smelt
the savour of it as he passed--what then?" she asked. "What excuse could
we make to him?"
This phase of the difficulty had not before presented itself to the
surgeon's mind. It was one that could not well be got over; the more he
dwelt upon it the more he became convinced of this. George Ryle, Mrs.
Chattaway, Maude, all, when appealed to, were of the same opinion. There
was too much at stake to permit the risk of exciting any suspicions on
the part of Mr. Chattaway.
But it was not only Chattaway. Others who possessed noses were in the
habit of passing the lodge: Cris, his sisters, Miss Diana, and many
more: and some of them were in the habit of coming into it. Ann Canham
was giving mortal offence, causing much wonder, in declining her usual
places of work; and many a disappointed housewife, following Nora
Dickson's example, had come up, in consequence, to invade the lodge and
express her sentiments upon the point. Ann Canham was driven to the very
verge of desperation in trying to frame plausible excuses, and had
serious thoughts of making believe to take to her bed herself--had she
possessed just then a bed to take to.
In the dilemma Mrs. Chattaway came to the rescue. "I will contrive it,"
she said: "the food shall be supplied from the Hold. My sister does not
personally interfere, giving her orders in the morning, and I know I can
manage it."
But Mrs. Chattaway found she had undertaken what it would scarcely be
possible to perform. What had flashed across her mind when she spoke
was, "The cook is a faithful, kind-hearted woman, and I know I can trust
her." Mrs. Chattaway did not mean trust her with the secret of Rupert,
but trust her to cook a few extra dishes quietly and say nothing about
them. Yes, she might, she was sure; the woman would be true. But it now
struck Mrs. Chattaway with a sort of horror, to ask herself how she was
to get them away when cooked. She could not go into the kitchen herself,
have meat, fowl, or jelly put into a basin, and carry it off to the
lodge. However, that was an after-care. She spoke to the cook, who was
called Rebecca, told her she wanted some nice things dressed for a poor
pensioner of _her own_, and nothing said about it. The woman was pleased
and willing; all the servants were fond of their mistress; and she
readily undertook the task and promised to be silent.