ON THE WING.
Clarissa hung over her baby with all manner of fond endearments.
"My darling! my darling!" she sobbed; "is it a hard thing to resist
temptation for your sake?"
She had shed many bitter tears since that interview with George Fairfax,
alone in the dreary room, while Lovel slept the after-dinner sleep of
infancy, and while Mrs. Lovel and Jane Target gossipped sociably in the
general sitting-room. Austin was out playing dominoes at the cafe of a
Thousand Columns, with some Bohemianishly-disposed Bruxellois.
She had wept for the life that might have been, but which never could be.
On that point she was decided. Not under the shadow of dishonour could she
spend her days. She had her son. If she had been alone, utterly desolate,
standing on some isolated rock, with nothing but the barren sea around her,
she might perhaps have listened to that voice which was so very sweet to
her, and yielded. But to take this dreadful leap which she was asked to
take, alone, was one thing; to take it with her child in her arms, another.
Her fancy, which was very vivid, made pictures of what her boy's future
might be, if she were to do this thing. She thought of him stung by the
mention of his mother's name, as if it were the foulest insult. She thought
of his agony when he heard other men talk of their mothers, and remembered
the blackness of darkness that shrouded his. She thought of the boyish
intellect opening little by little, first with vague wonder, then fearful
curiosity, to receive this fatal knowledge; and then the shame for that
young innocent soul!
"O, not for worlds!" she cried, "O, not for worlds! God keep me from any
more temptation!"
Not with mere idle prayers did she content herself. She knew her danger;
that man was resolute, unscrupulous, revengeful even: and she loved him.
She determined to leave Brussels. She would go and lose herself in the wide
world of London; and then, after a little while, when all possibility of
her movements being traced was over, she would take her child to some
secluded country place, where there were woods and meadows, and where the
little dimpled hands could gather bright spring flowers. She announced her
intention to her brother that evening, when he came home at a latish hour
from the Thousand Columns, elated by having won three francs and a half at
dominoes--an amount which he had expended on cognac and syphons for himself
and his antagonist.
He was surprised, vexed even, by Clarissa's decision. Why had she come to
him, if she meant to run away directly? What supreme folly to make such a
journey for nothing! Why did she not go from Paris to London at once?
"I did not think of that, Austin; I was almost out of my senses that day, I
think, after Daniel told me he was going to separate me from my boy; and it
seemed natural to me to fly to you for protection."
"Then why run away from me? Heaven knows, you are welcome to such a home
as I can give. The quarters are rough, I know; but we shall improve that,
by-and-by."
"No, no, Austin, it is not that. I should be quite happy with you,
only--only--I have a particular reason for going to London."
"Clarissa!" cried her brother sternly, "has that man anything to do with
this? Has he tried to lure you away from here, to your destruction?"
"No, no, no! you ought to know me better than that. Do you think I would
bring dishonour upon my boy?"
Her face told him that she was speaking the truth.
"Very well, Clary," he said with a sigh of resignation; "you must do as you
please. I suppose your reason is a good one, though you don't choose to
trust me."
So, by an early train next morning, Clarissa, with her nurse and child,
left Brussels for Ostend--a somewhat dreary place wherein to arrive in
early spring-time, with March winds blowing bleak across the sandy dunes.
They had to spend a night here, at a second-rate hotel on the Quay.
"We must go to humble-looking places, you know, Jane, to make our money
last," Clarissa said on the journey. They had travelled second-class; but
she had given a five-pound note to her brother, by way of recompense for
the brief accommodation he had given her, not telling him how low her stock
was. Faithful Jane's five-and-twenty pounds were vanishing. Clarissa looked
at the two glittering circlets on her wedding finger.
"We cannot starve while we have these," she thought; and once in London,
she could sell her drawings. Natural belief of the school-girl mind, that
water-coloured sketches are a marketable commodity!
Again in the dismal early morning--that sunrise of which poets write so
sweetly, but which to the unromantic traveller is wont to seem a dreary
thing--mother and nurse and child went their way in a great black steamer,
redolent of oil and boiled mutton; and at nine o'clock at night--a starless
March night--Clarissa and her belongings were deposited on St. Katharine's
Wharf, amidst a clamour and bustle that almost confused her senses.
She had meditated and debated and puzzled herself all through the day's
voyage, sitting alone on the windy deck, brooding over her troubles, while
Jane kept young Lovel amused and happy below. Inexperienced in the ways of
every-day life as a child--knowing no more now than she had known in her
school-girl days at Belforet--she had made her poor little plan, such as it
was.
Two or three times during her London season she had driven through
Soho--those weird dreary streets between Soho Square and Regent Street--and
had contemplated the gloomy old houses, with a bill of lodgings to let
here and there in a parlour-window; anon a working jeweller's humble shop
breaking out of a private house; here a cheap restaurant, there a French
laundress; everywhere the air of a life which is rather a struggle to
live than actual living. In this neighbourhood, which was the only humble
quarter of the great city whereof she had any knowledge, Clarissa fancied
they might find a temporary lodging--only a temporary shelter, for all her
hopes and dreams pointed to some fair rustic retreat, where she might live
happily with her treasure. Once lodged safely and obscurely, where it would
be impossible for either her husband or George Fairfax to track her, she
would spend a few shillings in drawing-materials, and set to work to
produce a set of attractive sketches, which she might sell to a dealer. She
knew her brother's plan of action, and fancied she could easily carry it
out upon a small scale.
"So little would enable us to live happily, Jane," she said, when she
revealed her ideas to her faithful follower.
"But O, mum, to think of you living like that, with such a rich husband as
Mr. Granger, and him worshipping the ground you walk upon, as he did up to
the very last; and as to his anger, I'm sure it was only tempory, and he's
sorry enough he drove you away by this time, I'll lay."
"He wanted to take away my child, Jane."
They took a cab, and drove from Thames-street to Soho. Clarissa had never
been through the City at night before, and she thought the streets would
never end. They came at last into that quieter and dingier region; but it
was past ten o'clock, and hard work to find a respectable lodging at such
an hour. Happily the cabman was a kindly and compassionate spirit, and
did his uttermost to help them, moving heaven and earth, in the way of
policemen and small shopkeepers, until, by dint of much inquiry, he found
a decent-looking house in a _cul-de-sac_ out of Dean-street--a little
out-of-the-way quadrangle, where the houses were large and stately, and had
been habitations of sweetness and light in the days when Soho was young,
and Monmouth the young man of the period.
To one of these houses the cabman had been directed by a good-natured
cheesemonger, at a corner not far off; and here Clarissa found a
second-floor--a gaunt-looking sitting-room, with three windows and
oaken window-seats, sparsely furnished, but inexorably clean; a bedroom
adjoining--at a rent which seemed moderate to this inexperienced
wayfarer. The landlady was a widow--is it not the normal state of
landladies?--cleanly and conciliating, somewhat surprised to see travellers
with so little luggage, but reassured by that air of distinction which was
inseparable from Mrs. Granger, and by the presence of the maid.
The cabman was dismissed, with many thanks and a princely payment; and so
Clarissa began life alone in London.
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