AN ORDEAL.
Oscar arose very early, before his wife was awake. He went to his
study, and, after long fervent prayer, took out the large sealed
letter and carried it himself to the post. The postmaster was making
up the bag for the Calcutta mail, whistling a light air as he did so.
Oscar gave in the letter with a hand that did not tremble, and turned
away with the thought, “I _have_ plucked out the right eye.” (‡ See
Illustration.)
Coldstream did not at once direct his steps homewards. He went
first to a kind of warehouse with a deep veranda half filled up
with advertisements on placards, pieces of second-hand furniture too
large to be stowed inside, empty packing-cases, and other articles
of a heterogeneous nature. This was the establishment of Hersey the
agent, who monopolized most of the custom of the European residents in
Moulmein. The proprietor, seated in the veranda, was taking his morning
cup of coffee before business hours should commence.
Mr. Coldstream was well known to Hersey, who had procured for that
gentleman most of the furniture of his house. Hersey rose, put down his
cup, raised his hat, and wished Mr. Coldstream good-morning. He offered
Oscar a seat, but his offer was declined. Mr. Coldstream preferred
standing.
Much astonished was Hersey when he found on what business his early
visitor had come, when Coldstream informed the agent that he wished to
put his dwelling, with all its fittings, into his hands for sale in the
following month.
Hersey expressed his surprise. He could hardly believe that Mr.
Coldstream could really intend to dispose of the house prepared at the
cost of much labour and expense, which was generally acknowledged to be
the one best fitted up in the station.
“It is my wish to sell it furnished,” said Mr. Coldstream. “My wife and
I are about to quit Moulmein.”
“I am sure, sir, we shall be very sorry to lose you,” said Hersey.
After settling this affair, Coldstream, with a quick step――for he
wished to get over painful business as rapidly as he might――proceeded
to his own office, which opened on the wharf. Coldstream, as he
expected, found Smith overlooking labourers at work in the extensive
yard which adjoined the premises. There were some repairs going on, and
the sound of hammer and saw rose in the morning air. Smith respectfully
greeted his chief, and made a remark on the work on which the labourers
were employed.
“A fine bit of timber that, Mr. Coldstream; one does not see such every
day,” he observed.
“No; the tree must have been a grand one before it fell beneath the
axe,” said Oscar.――“Smith, come with me to the office; I have some
matters which I wish to talk over with you there.”
The two men were soon seated in the office. Smith, a shrewd,
intelligent man of business, thoroughly master of his work, listened
with unfeigned surprise to a proposal made by his employer by which
his own position in life would be entirely changed. The reader need
not be troubled by details. Coldstream’s plan, matured during his
long pedestrian journey, was to make over his whole business to a man
who had twice managed it satisfactorily during his own absence. An
agreement would have to be drawn up by a lawyer by which Smith would
engage to pay a certain yearly sum to Mrs. Coldstream as interest on
the capital which his former employer had sunk in the business. The
offer was a liberal one, and its acceptance would at once place Smith
in a position to which he had never hoped to attain.
“But, my dear sir, Mr. Coldstream, why should you give up the
business?” cried Smith. “You are in the prime of life; thoroughly
master of the work. I have served you, and your respected father before
you, for more than twenty years. I never looked even to partnership;
and now you would place everything in my hands! I hope that your health
is not failing――nothing the matter with your heart.” The honest man
looked with affectionate anxiety at the pale, worn face of his chief,
that anxiety mitigating but not destroying the pleasure which he
naturally felt at the prospect of his own advancement.
“It is not want of health that takes me from Moulmein,” replied Oscar.
“But you will return, my dear sir――you will certainly return and take
up the business again? I will act under your orders and in your name,
as I have twice done when you were absent in England.”
Mr. Coldstream shook his head gravely. “No, Smith; I wish to make
an arrangement definite――final. I shall never return to Moulmein.”
Then, after a pause, he went on: “I have one other stipulation to make,
though it cannot be put into legal form like the arrangement in favour
of Mrs. Coldstream. I must add the condition that you give employment
at a moderate salary to her brother, young Thorn, who has come to
Moulmein in the hope of finding some means of earning his living.”
Smith raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders a little.
Something like a smile came to his lips.
“I willingly agree to take the young master into the business,” said
he, “and give him a sufficient salary, with prospect of increase; but
I cannot engage to keep him on unless he shows himself willing to work.
Master Thorn is so desirous to instruct, that I find it uncommonly hard
to get him to learn; and we can’t get into any profession by jumping
over the wall――we must take the trouble of opening the gate.”
“Do you think the lad deficient in intellect?” inquired Mr. Coldstream.
“Oh dear, no, sir! he has as much brain as most other boys; only he
thinks that he has a thousand times more,” replied Smith with a grin.
“Master Thorn is lazy too, he is; he ought to have been at his work
here more than an hour ago.”
“I see him coming; I will go and meet him. I will tell him of our
arrangement, and say that you agree to give him a trial.”
“Yes, sir, a trial. I’ll do what I can, for your sake and the lady’s;
but Master Thorn should know that the result must depend on his own
behaviour.”
“Young Thorn needs the spur of necessity,” observed Mr. Coldstream;
“he may do better when we are away.” Then, bidding Smith good-morning,
Oscar quitted the office, and went with quick step to meet Thud, who
was approaching with a slow one.
“Why――I say――you back already! I did not expect you for a fortnight!”
exclaimed Thud. The lad’s heavy face showed signs of the effect of the
festival of the last evening; his cheeks were more puffed and his eyes
a little more blinking than usual.
“We met with an adventure,” replied Oscar, “and both Io and I decided
to return at once. Besides, I have many arrangements to make. We are
going to leave Moulmein.”
“Oh, I am glad of that!” cried Thud. “It’s the most stupid place under
the sun; it has not so much as a club-room or a museum. When shall we
start?”
“It is not a case of _we_,” replied Mr. Coldstream; “I am compelled to
leave you behind in Moulmein.”
“I won’t stay behind when you go,” said Thud bluntly.
“I am afraid that you will hardly have a choice,” replied his
brother-in-law; and Oscar explained to Thud the arrangement which
he had made for his benefit, and tried to show him how much to his
advantage it was to be received at once as a paid assistant, instead
of being simply apprenticed.
“_I_――an assistant to that low fellow Smith, the son of a London
tailor!” exclaimed Thud, with intense disgust.
“No matter whose son he may be; he is a good, honest, sensible man, who
has worked his own way up in the world. Mr. Smith is the only person
whom I know willing to give you such a chance.”
“I’ll go with you. Where are you going?” asked Thud.
“Where we go is not the question; I have told you already that you
cannot go with us.”
Thud ground his teeth in anger. “I’ll return to England at once,”
growled he.
“Who will pay for your passage? I certainly shall not,” said Oscar.
“Listen, my boy,” he continued, laying his hand in a kindly way on the
shoulder of Thud. “I believe that the separation will be for your good.
Thrown on your own resources, you will show what mettle is in you; you
will learn to work so as to be a help to a widowed mother, and not a
burden. You have an opportunity of redeeming the time; the ball is at
your foot――”
Thud showed what he was likely to do with the symbolical ball by
violently kicking a large stone which lay in the way, to the detriment
of his boot and the bruising of the foot which it covered.
“Think over the matter,” said Oscar. “I tell you again that I have
done for you the best that I possibly can. Now go to your work; I have
business elsewhere.”
Thud did not go to his work; he was in a violent passion, partially
restrained before Oscar, but about to burst in full fury on Io.
Hurrying home, Thud found his sister buried in painful thought; for she
felt certain that the letter of terrible import had been sent――that her
husband had done what was right, facing results that might be fearful.
Thud never noticed his sister’s distressed looks, never greeted her
after her absence, but burst like a tornado upon her.
“I say, Oscar has behaved shamefully――disgracefully――brutally!”
exclaimed the lad, his short hair appearing to bristle up with anger.
Io started to her feet in alarm. Was it possible that Thud knew the
fatal secret――that he was speaking of Walter’s death by her husband’s
hand? The next sentence sputtered forth reassured her on this point at
least.
“He has lured me here to this detestable place by promising to find
me occupation, as a rat is lured into a trap by cheese; and so he
has caught me, and I cannot get out. Oscar has treated me abominably!
_I_――Thucydides Thorn――_I_ an assistant to the son of a tailor! I’d
sooner be sewn up in a sack and thrown into the sea!”
Io tried her utmost to soothe her brother. She appealed to his love for
his mother, his love for herself; she tried to touch on motives higher
still. But even her winning gentleness had little or no effect. Thud
was indignant at Io’s refusing to promise to use all her influence to
induce Oscar to change his mind. He called her conduct unnatural and
unkind. The interview was to the half broken-hearted Io like vinegar
on a fresh wound. She was almost relieved to see Mrs. Cottle’s short,
thick figure coming bustling up the path, for she knew that Thud would
avoid meeting one who laughed at him more mercilessly than did Dr.
Pinfold himself. Mrs. Cottle had never before ventured to call before
breakfast, and her company was far from congenial to Io; but it was
something that her approach closed the conversation which was becoming
painful almost beyond endurance. Thud went off in high dudgeon to pour
out the tale of his wrongs to Pogson. The poor dog was indeed being
thrown into the water to teach him to swim, and great was the splash
and the struggle.
Mrs. Cottle had been too full of eager curiosity to wait for the
visiting-hour. She was glad to catch Io in the veranda, giving the poor
lady no time to retreat into the house.
“My dear, dear Mrs. Coldstream,” cried the visitor, taking both of Io’s
hands and shaking them with unusual warmth of manner. “Goodness me,
how ill you look! and one cannot wonder at it. What is it that I hear?
I dropped in early at Hersey’s to look at the screen which he has for
sale, and he told me――but I’m sure that it cannot be true――that Mr.
Coldstream is going to carry you off, and sell this beautiful house!”
“Please sit down, Mrs. Cottle,” said poor Io, releasing her hands
from her visitor’s grasp, but unable to avoid the gaze of her peering,
curious eyes.
Mrs. Cottle plumped down on a chair, and made it crack with her weight.
Io also seated herself, for she was hardly able to stand.
“Only tell me, my dear, that this shocking rumour is not true,” cried
Mrs. Cottle.
“It is true that we must quit Moulmein,” said Io sadly; “and of course
Mr. Coldstream will part with the house.”
“Such a beauty! green poplin furniture――curtains to match――pictures,
mirrors!” cried Mrs. Cottle, glancing around, the idea of auction-sale
and cheap bargains flitting through her mind. “My dear, you must make a
stand――you must persuade; and if persuasion won’t do, must resist.”
“I never resist my husband’s will,” replied Io, an indignant flush
giving a brief colour to her pale cheek.
“That’s it,” said Mrs. Cottle; “you’re much too soft. Men love to play
the tyrant and lord it over the meek Griseldas. We all see what you
suffer.”
“Mrs. Cottle, I am not accustomed to such language, and I will not bear
it!” cried Io, rising from her seat. “I have the best, the kindest of
husbands, and would willingly go with him to the end of the world!”
Unable to bear the conversation longer, Io made a hasty apology to her
visitor, and retreated into the house.
“Ah, that’s what always happens,” said Mrs. Cottle to herself, as she
went on her way. “You can’t come between a man and his wife. If he
were beating her to death, and you interfered, she would tell you to go
about your business. But I’m sorry for that poor, silly girl! I always
said that she had made a dreadful mistake in marrying a gloomy tyrant
like Coldstream.”
Mrs. Cottle went to comfort herself for the briefness of her interview
with Io by talking over the miseries of a woman wedded to a Bluebeard
with every gossip in the station.
Even in her home, shut up in her own room to be more safe from
intrusion, Io was not to be left to herself. Presently Dr. Pinfold’s
loud voice resounded through the dwelling.
“Io, my dear, where are you? I’ve come to see you,” cried the doctor,
the visitor who could never be shut out. Even had his god-daughter
been ill in her bed, that would not have excluded the medical man. Io
screwed up her courage as best she might, and came forth to greet her
old friend, heartily wishing herself back in the solitude of the woods.
“Bless me, my child, what’s the matter?” exclaimed Pinfold, with real
concern, when his favourite made her appearance. “You look like a
criminal going to be hanged!” Io winced at the terrible word. “You are
trembling like an aspen, my girl. What on earth has pulled you down
thus?”
Io made a desperate effort to smile and assume a cheerful manner,
as she made her old friend sit down on the sofa beside her. “Dear Dr.
Pinny, shall I relate some of our adventures?” she said. “First, poor
Thud fell from the tat――”
“And lost his teeth and his beauty,” laughed Pinfold. “He wanted me to
put the teeth in again; but I told him that they could only be put into
a museum.”
Io was well pleased at having diverted attention from her own looks.
She then, with a desperate energy which surprised herself, went on to
give a description of the alarming night-adventure――Oscar knocked down,
seized, and bound to a tree; she herself in the hands of the Shans. Her
vivid description elicited many an exclamation from the old doctor.
“I thought that a pleasure-trip would do you good,” cried the
kind-hearted man; “but it seems that I was pouring vitriol down my
patient’s throat to serve as a tonic! I never bargained for savages
and robbers. I hope that Coldstream gave the fellow who saved you a
handsome present. And now you must try to forget your fright――or write
a novel about it; and you must be well nourished up――_àpropos_ to which
the savoury scent from the dining-room tells me that our breakfast is
ready.”
Io was not sorry, under the circumstances, that business had delayed
Oscar’s return, and that he, at least, would not have to eat his
breakfast under the eye of the doctor.
“By-the-by,” said Pinfold, as he poured the hot milk on the _suji_,
“what means this nonsensical report about your and your husband’s
leaving Moulmein?”
How often had the Coldstreams to endure the ordeal of such questions
during the next few days! They almost dreaded the sight of a European
visitor, except that of the chaplain, who had too much consideration to
show curiosity. Had there not been so much business to be settled, so
many arrangements to make, the Coldstreams would have tried to escape
from daily annoyance by making a second excursion.
“One comfort is that to-morrow the English ship comes in,” thought
Io, after a day of peculiar vexation. “I shall have the luxury of a
nice long letter from my darling mother, who knows nothing yet of our
trouble. It will contain some loving token for Christmas, which is now
so near, and interesting particulars of dear Jane’s engagement, only
briefly mentioned in the last letters. In news from my loved English
home I shall find some comfort still.”