A GHOST FOR OLD CANHAM
Trevlyn Hold was a fine place, the cynosure and envy of the
neighbourhood around; and yet it would perhaps be impossible in all that
neighbourhood to find any family so completely miserable as that which
inhabited the house. The familiar saying is a very true one: "All is not
gold that glitters."
Enough has been said of the trials and discomforts of Mrs. Chattaway;
they had been many and varied, but never had trouble accumulated upon
her head as now. The terrible secret that Rupert was within hail,
wasting unto death, was torturing her brain night and day. It seemed
that the whole weight of it lay upon her; that she was responsible for
his weal and woe: if he died would reproach not lie at her door, remorse
be her portion for ever? It might be that she should have disclosed the
secret, and not have left him there to die.
But how disclose it? Since the second letter received from Connell,
Connell, and Ray, Mr. Chattaway had been doubly bitter against
Rupert--if that were possible; and to disclose Rupert's hiding-place
would only be to consign him to prison. Mr. Chattaway was another who
was miserable in his home. Suspense is far worse than reality; and the
present master would never realise in his own heart the evils attendant
on being turned from the Hold as he was realising them now. His days
were one prolonged scene of torture. Miss Diana Trevlyn partook of the
general discomfort: for the first time in her life a sense of ill
oppressed her. She knew nothing of the secret regarding Rupert; somewhat
scornfully threw away the vague ideas imparted by the letters from
Connell and Connell; and yet Miss Diana was conscious of being oppressed
with a sense of ill, which weighed her down, and made life a burden.
The evil had come at last. Retribution, which they too surely invoked
when they diverted God's laws of right and justice from their direct
course years ago, was working itself just now. Retribution is a thing
that _must_ come; though tardy, as it had been in this case, it is sure.
Look around you, you who have had much of life's experience, who may be
drawing into its "sear and yellow leaf." It is impossible but that you
have gathered up in the garner of your mind instances you have noted in
your career. In little things and in great, the working of evil
inevitably brings forth its reward. Years, and years, and years may
elapse; so many, that the hour of vengeance seems to have rolled away
under the glass of time; but we need never hope that, for it cannot be.
In your day, ill-doer, or in your children's, it will surely come.
The agony of mind, endured now by the inmates of Trevlyn Hold, seemed
sufficient punishment for a whole lifetime and its misdoings. Should
they indeed be turned from it, as these mysterious letters appeared to
indicate, that open, tangible punishment would be as nothing to what
they were mentally enduring now. And they could not speak of their
griefs one to another, and so lessen them in ever so slight a degree.
Mr.
Chattaway would not speak of the dread tugging at his heart-strings--for
it seemed to him that only to speak of the _possibility_ of being driven
forth, might bring it the nearer; and his unhappy wife dared not so much
as breathe the name of Rupert, and the fatal secret she held.
She, Mrs. Chattaway, was puzzled more than all by these letters from
Connell and Connell. Mr. Chattaway could trace their source (at least he
strove to do so) to the malicious mind and pen of Rupert; but Mrs.
Chattaway knew that Rupert it could not well be. Nevertheless, she had
been staggered on the arrival of the second to find it explicitly stated
that Rupert Trevlyn had written to announce his speedy intention of
taking possession of the Hold. "Rupert had written to them!" What was
she to think? If it was not Rupert, someone else must have written in
his name; but who would be likely to trouble themselves now for the lost
Rupert?--regarded as dead by three parts of the world. Had Rupert
written? Mrs. Chattaway determined again to ask him, and to set the
question so far at rest.
But she did not do this for two days after the arrival of the letter.
She waited the answer which Mr. Flood wrote up to Connell and Connell,
spoken of in the last chapter. As soon as that came, and she found that
it explained nothing, then she resolved to question Rupert at her next
stolen visit. That same afternoon, as she returned on foot from
Barmester, she contrived to slip unseen into the lodge.
Rupert was sitting up. Mr. King had given it as his opinion that to lie
constantly in bed, as he was doing, was worse than anything else; and in
truth Rupert need not have been entirely confined to it had there been
any other place for him. Old Canham's chamber opposite was still more
stifling, inasmuch as the builder had forgotten to make the small window
to open. Look at Rupert now, as Mrs. Chattaway enters! He has managed to
struggle into his clothes, which hang upon him like sacks, and he sits
uncomfortably on a small rush-bottomed chair. Rupert's back looks as if
it were broken; he is bent nearly double with weakness; his lips are
white, his cheeks hollow, and his poor, weak hands tremble with joy as
they are feebly raised to greet Mrs. Chattaway. Think what it was for
him! lying for long hours, for days, in that stifling room, a prey to
his fears, sometimes seeing no one for two whole days--for it was not
every evening that an opportunity could be found of entering the lodge.
What with the Chattaways' passing and repassing the lodge, and Ann
Canham's grumbling visitors, an entrance for those who might not be seen
to enter it was not always possible. Look at poor Rupert; the lighting
up of his eye, the kindling hectic of his cheek!
Mrs. Chattaway contrived to squeeze herself between Rupert and the door,
and sat down on the edge of the bed as she took his hand in hers. "I am
so glad to see you have made an effort to get up, Rupert!" she
whispered.
"I don't think I shall make it again, Aunt Edith. You have no conception
how it has tired me. I was a good half-hour getting into my coat and
waistcoat."
"But you will be all the better for it."
"I don't know," said Rupert, in a spiritless tone. "I feel as if there
would never be any 'better' for me again."
She began telling him of what she had been purchasing for him at
Barmester--a dressed tongue, a box of sardines, potted meats, and
similar things found in the provision shops. They were not precisely the
dishes suited to Rupert's weakly state; but since the accident to
Rebecca he had been fain to put up with what could be thus procured. And
then Mrs. Chattaway opened gently upon the subject of the letters.
"It seems so strange, Rupert, quite inexplicable, but Mr. Chattaway has
had another of those curious letters from Connell and Connell."
"Has he?" answered Rupert, with apathy.
Mrs. Chattaway looked at him with all the fancied penetration she
possessed--in point of fact she was one of those persons who possess
none--but she could not detect the faintest sign of consciousness. "Was
there anything about me in it?" he asked wearily.
"It was all about you. It said you had written to Connell and Connell
stating your intention of taking immediate possession of the Hold."
This a little aroused him. "Connell and Connell have written that to Mr.
Chattaway! Why, what queer people they must be!"
"Rupert! You have _not_ written to them, have you?"
He looked at Mrs. Chattaway in surprise; for she had evidently asked the
question seriously. "You know I have not. I am not strong enough to play
jokes, Aunt Edith. And if I were, I should not be so senseless as to
play _that_ joke. What end would it answer?"
"I thought not," she murmured; "I was sure not. Setting everything else
aside, Rupert, you are not well enough to write."
"No, I don't think I am. I could hardly scrawl those lines to George
Ryle some time ago--when the fever was upon me. No, Aunt Edith: the only
letter I have written since I became a prisoner was the one I wrote to
Mr. Daw, the night I first took shelter here, just after the encounter
with Mr. Chattaway, and Ann Canham posted it at Barmester the next day.
What on earth can possess Connell and Connell?"
"Diana argues that Connell and Connell must be receiving these letters,
or they would not write to Mr. Chattaway in the manner they are doing.
For my part, I can't make it out."
"What does Mr. Chattaway say?" asked Rupert, when a fit of coughing was
over. "Is he angry?"
"He is worse than angry," she seriously answered; "he is troubled. He
thinks you are writing them."
"No! Why, he might know that I shouldn't dare do it: he might know that
I am not well enough to write them."
"Nay, Rupert, you forget that Mr. Chattaway does not know you are ill."
"To be sure; I forgot that. But I can't believe Mr. Chattaway is
_troubled_. How could a poor, weak, friendless chap, such as I, contend
for the possession of Trevlyn Hold? Aunt Edith, I'll tell you what it
must be. If Connells are not playing this joke themselves, to annoy Mr.
Chattaway, somebody must be playing it on them."
Mrs. Chattaway acquiesced: it was the only conclusion she could come to.
"Oh, Aunt Edith, if he would only forgive me!" sighed Rupert. "When I
get well--and I should get well, if I could go back to the Hold and get
this fear out of me--I would work night and day to repay him the cost of
the ricks. If he would only forgive me!"
Ah! none knew better than Mrs. Chattaway how vain was the wish; how
worse than vain any hope of forgiveness. She could have told him, had
she chosen, of an unhappy scene of the past night, when she, Edith
Chattaway, urged by the miserable state of existing things and her
tribulation for Rupert, had so far forgotten prudence as to all but
kneel to her husband and beg him to forgive that poor culprit; and Mr.
Chattaway, excited to the very depths of anger, had demanded of his wife
whether she were mad or sane, that she should dare ask it.
"Yes, Rupert," she meekly said, "I wish it also, for your sake. But, my
dear, it is just an impossibility."
"If I could be got safely out of the country, I might go to Mr. Daw for
a time, and get up my strength there."
"Yes, _if_ you could. But in your weak state discovery would be the
result before you were clear from these walls. You cannot take flight in
the night. Everyone knows you: and the police, we have heard, are
keeping their eyes open."
"I'd bribe Dumps, if I had money----"
Rupert's voice dropped. A commotion had suddenly arisen downstairs, and,
his fears ever on the alert touching the police and Mr. Chattaway, he
put up his hand to enjoin caution, and bent his head to listen. But no
strange voice could be distinguished: only those of old Canham and his
daughter. A short time, and Ann came up the stairs, looking strange.
"What's the matter?" panted Rupert, who was the first to catch sight of
her face.
"I can't think what's come to father, sir," she returned. "I was in the
back place, washing up, and heard a sort o' cry, as one may say, so I
ran in. There he was standing with his hair all on end, and afore I
could speak he began saying he'd seen a ghost go past. He's staring out
o' window still. I hope his senses are not leaving him!"
To hear this assertion from sober-minded, matter-of-fact old Canham,
certainly did impart a suspicion that his senses were departing. Mrs.
Chattaway rose to descend, for she had already lingered longer than was
prudent. She found old Canham as Ann had described him, with that
peculiarly scared look on the face some people deem equivalent to "the
hair standing on end." He was gazing with a fixed expression towards the
Hold.
"Has anything happened to alarm you, Mark?"
Mrs. Chattaway's gentle question recalled him to himself. He turned
towards her, leaning heavily on his stick, his eyes full of vague
terror.
"It happened, Madam, as I had got out o' my seat, and was standing to
look out o' window, thinking how fine the a'ternoon was, when he come in
at the gate with a fine silver-headed stick in his hand, turning his
head about from side to side as if he was taking note of the old place
to see what changes there might be in it. I was struck all of a heap
when I saw his figure; 'twas just the figure it used to be, only maybe a
bit younger; but when he moved his head and looked full at me, I felt
turned to stone. It was his face, ma'am, if I ever saw it."
"But whose?" asked Mrs. Chattaway, smiling at his incoherence.
Old Canham glanced round before he spoke; glanced at Mrs. Chattaway,
with a half-compassionate, half-inquiring look, as if not liking to
speak. "Madam, it was the old Squire, my late master."
"It was--who?" demanded Mrs. Chattaway, less gentle than usual in her
great surprise.
"It was Squire Trevlyn; Madam's father."
Mrs. Chattaway could do nothing but stare. She thought old Canham's
senses were decidedly gone.
"There never was a face like his. Miss Maude--that is, Mrs. Ryle
now--have his features exact; but she's not as tall and portly, being a
woman. Ah, Madam, you may smile at me, but it was Squire Trevlyn."
"But, Mark, you know it is impossible."
"Madam, 'twas him. He must ha' come out of his grave for some purpose,
and is visiting his own again. I never was a believer in them things
afore, or thought as the dead come back to life."
Ghosts have gone out of fashion; therefore the enlightened reader will
not be likely to endorse old Canham's belief. But when Mrs. Chattaway,
turning quickly up the avenue on her way to the Hold, saw, at no great
distance from her, a gentleman standing to talk to some one whom he had
encountered, she stopped, as one in sudden terror, and seemed about to
fall or faint. Mrs. Chattaway did not believe in "the dead coming back"
any more than old Canham had believed in it; but in that moment's
startled surprise she did think she saw her father.
She gazed at the figure, her lips apart, her bright complexion fading to
ashy paleness. Never had she seen so extraordinary a likeness. The tall,
fine form, somewhat less full perhaps than of yore, the
distinctly-marked features with their firm and haughty expression, the
fresh clear skin, the very manner of handling that silver-headed stick,
spoke in unmistakable terms of Squire Trevlyn.
Not until they parted, the two who were talking, did Mrs. Chattaway
observe that the other was Nora Dickson. Nora came down the avenue
towards her; the stranger went on with his firm step and his
firmly-grasped stick. Mrs. Chattaway was advancing then.
"Nora, who is that?" she gasped.
"I am trying to collect my wits, if they are not scared away for good,"
was Nora's response. "Madam Chattaway, you might just have knocked me
down with a feather. I was walking along, thinking of nothing, except my
vexation that you were not at home--for Mr. George charged me to bring
this note to you, and to deliver it instantly into your own hands, and
nobody else's--when I met him. I didn't know whether to face him, or
scream, or turn and run; one doesn't like to meet the dead; and I
declare to you, Madam Chattaway, I believed, in my confused brain, that
it was the dead. I believed it was Squire Trevlyn."
"Nora, I never saw two persons so strangely alike," she breathed,
mechanically taking the note from Nora's hand. "Who is he?"
"My brain's at work to discover," returned Nora, dreamily. "I am trying
to put two and two together, and can't do it; unless the dead have come
to life--or those we believed dead."
"Nora! you cannot mean my father!" exclaimed Mrs. Chattaway, gazing at
her with a strangely perplexed face. "You know he lies buried in
Barbrook churchyard. What did he say to you?"
"Not much. He saw me staring at him, I suppose, and stopped and asked me
if I belonged to the Hold. I answered, no; I did not belong to it; I was
Miss Dickson, of Trevlyn Farm. And then it was his turn to stare at me.
'I think I should have known you,' he said. 'At least, I do now that I
have the clue. You are not much altered. Should you have known me?' 'I
don't know you now,' I answered: 'unless you are old Squire Trevlyn come
out of his grave. I never saw such a likeness.'"
"And what did he say?" eagerly asked Mrs. Chattaway.
"Nothing more. He laughed a little at my speech, and went on. Madam
Chattaway, will you open the note, please, and see if there's any
answer. Mr. George said it was important."
She opened the note, which had lain unheeded in her hand, and read as
follows:
"Do not attempt further visits. Suspicions are abroad.
"G. B. R."
She had just attempted one, and paid it. Had it been watched? A rush of
fear bounded within her for Rupert's sake.
"There's no answer, Nora," said Mrs. Chattaway: and she turned
homewards, as one in a dream. Who _was_ that man before her? What was
his name? where did he come from? Why should he bear this strange
likeness to her dead father? Ah, why, indeed! The truth never for one
moment entered the mind of Mrs. Chattaway.
He went on: he, the stranger. When he came to the lawn before the house,
he stepped on to it and halted. He looked to this side, he looked to
that; he gazed up at the house; just as one loves to look on returning
to a beloved home after an absence of years. He stood with his head
thrown back; his right hand stretched out, the stick it grasped planted
firm and upright on the ground. How many times had old Squire Trevlyn
stood in the selfsame attitude on that same lawn!
There appeared to be no one about; no one saw him, save Mrs. Chattaway,
who hid herself amidst the trees, and furtively watched him. She would
not have passed him for the world, and she waited until he should be
gone. She was unable to divest her mind of a sensation akin to the
supernatural, as she shrank from this man who bore so wonderful a
resemblance to her father. He, the stranger, did not detect her behind
him, and presently he walked across the lawn, ascended the steps, and
tried the door.
But the door was fastened. The servants would sometimes slip the bolt as
a protection against tramps, and they had probably done so to-day.
Seizing the bell-handle, the visitor rang such a peal that Sam Atkins,
Cris Chattaway's groom, who happened to be in the house and near the
door, flew with all speed to open it. Sam had never known Squire
Trevlyn; but in this stranger now before him, he could not fail to
remark a great general resemblance to the Trevlyn family.
"Is James Chattaway at home?"
To hear the master of the Hold inquired for in that unceremonious
manner, rather took Sam back; but he answered that he was at home. He
had no need to invite the visitor to walk in, for the visitor had walked
in of his own accord. "What name, sir?" demanded Sam, preparing to usher
the stranger across the hall.
"Squire Trevlyn."
This concluded Sam Atkins's astonishment. "_What_ name, sir, did you
say?"
"Squire Trevlyn. Are you deaf, man? Squire Trevlyn, of Trevlyn Hold."
And the haughty motion of the head, the firm pressure of the lips, might
have put a spectator all too unpleasantly in mind of the veritable old
Squire Trevlyn, had one who had known him been there to see.