Up the narrow stair they hurried laughing, then down a passage, at the
further end of which was a door.
"G_w_ay forgot this," laughed the conductor; "this leads to the
g_w_allery."
Apparently Gray had not forgotten it; for, for some unexplained purpose,
it was fastened.
"Confound it!" exclaimed the speaker; "what can he have locked up all
these doors for? Try that one on your left; that leads to his own
apa_w_tments."
"Locked, too," said Tremenhere, after trying it.
"I won't be b_w_eaten!" cried Vellumy; "st_w_op a moment. I'll run down
the p_w_assage, and g_w_et the keys out of the other doors; they'll most
likely op_w_en this;" and back he ran. Tremenhere stood looking after
him.
"Here," he called out, though under his breath, from the end of the
passage; "here's a key--t_w_y it;" and he flung it down the carpeted
corridor. "I'll go look for m_w_ore."
Tremenhere raised the key and applied it to the lock, which yielded at
once; he entered unhesitatingly, with that freedom natural to a
bachelor-house, and found himself in a small antechamber leading to Lord
Randolph's own rooms; for an instant he stood irresolute. Which way
turn? the picture-gallery was the object of his search. There were two
doors in this room--one opposite the one by which he had entered;
towards this he moved, and, gently turning the handle, found himself at
the entrance of a small, but elegantly-furnished sitting-room. There
were no lights, except from the fire, which threw a wide, cheerful blaze
over all. A sofa was drawn close to it, and on this sat a lady, leaning
half over the arm of it; her back was turned to the door, which had
opened noiselessly. The light was not uncertain, and it threw its
fullest blaze on that fair form--and that fair form was Minnie's!
Tremenhere stood still--a statue-like stillness. Life seemed fading away
in horror. He felt drunk for a moment with suffering; then vision,
thought--all cleared away into perfect sobriety, and he strode silently
towards her. She started, and, dropping her book, uttered a cry of
surprise, and, by an involuntary feeling of sudden alarm, shrunk back;
then, seeing who it was, exclaimed in joy, if he could so have read
it,--
"Oh, Miles, is that you? but you startled me, indeed, standing like a
ghost, there. You look as if you did not expect me!"
"You here--you here!" he muttered with cold lips. "In these rooms! and
why here at all?" And he held his hands before him to keep her back.
"Miles," she cried, still advancing; and though the face grew pale with
some sudden fear of untimely birth, for it was so unexpected, yet the
brow was clear and pure to all but a jealous man. "You know wherefore I
am here; think--you must be mad!"
"Mad!" he echoed, staring wildly; "I must be mad, or dreaming!--you were
locked in, and in _these_ rooms."
"Where am I?" she cried, looking hurriedly round.
"Do you not know," he articulated beneath his breath, "or are you
deceiving me? These are Lord Randolph Gray's private apartments."
"His!" she whispered, dropping on a seat; "I thought they were yours."
Poor girl! her limbs tottered beneath her weight.
"You will drive me mad," he cried, seizing her trembling hands; "tell
me, in Heaven's name--tell me how you came here, and why?"
"I came," she ejaculated half in surprise and half in fear, "because you
sent for me; but why am I in these rooms, why not in yours?" She did not
yet understand his suspicions; her fears arose from his strange
excitement; she began to fear for his reason, thinking that he had sent
for her.
"Woman!" he cried in agony, wringing her cold hands, "I never called you
hither, and this you must know." She could not speak, but sat silently
staring at him, her eyes distended with terror. "Speak--speak truth, if
you _dare_--and tell me why you are here? and how? for I am nearly mad;
do you not see it, woman? I conjure you, speak."
"Speak you!" she whispered, "and tell me your hidden meaning; you
affright me with these spirit thoughts. Embody them, Miles; for I dare
not believe my heart's fear."
"Speak them!" he exclaimed, "do they need speech? No! your guilty soul
has uttered them to your terror-stricken frame; you have done, and now
you shudder at your own act. Woman, I am doubly deceived, deceived when
this day I took you to my loving heart, deceived when I was lured from
my home that you might come hither in secret, but I will have revenge,
where revenge may be taken." And casting her hands from him, which he
had held grasped in his, he sprung towards the door, but like lightning
she was before him, and placing her slight form, now nerved by
resolution against it, she said, "Miles, I bore much this day patiently,
for I had been guilty of concealment, though done for a worthy purpose;
but now, that my soul is clear of any wilful sin against you, in the
sight of Heaven, I _demand_ that you should hear me."
"Speak," he said coldly folding his arms, "my revenge can wait."
"When," she articulated faintly, for the nerve of a moment had passed
away--"when you left me to-day, an hour elapsed in thoughts of you, all
you Miles, and joy--that deep joy which reconciliation brings. I was
aroused from this dream of peace and rest, after my recent sorrow, by a
messenger who came, he said, with a letter from you, which you had given
him on starting, and this letter bade me at once come to Uplands to
rejoin you, placing myself under the care of this messenger; you had a
project in view for our mutual happiness, and my presence was necessary;
so, dear Miles, I did not delay a moment,"--here the long restrained
tears overflowed her eyes at the calling of that gentle word on her
lip--"but fearlessly quitted home, knowing your judgment must be best in
all things for my benefit, I could not err in following your guidance,"
her full eye looked all its love on him as she spoke.
"The letter," he said hoarsely, holding out a hand; he durst not take
her, as he longed to do, to his heart, without this proof.
"Are _you_ mad, or am _I_?" exclaimed the affrighted girl--his calmness
awed her. "I have burned that letter, you know you bade me do so."
"By heavens!" he laughed wildly, "your cold-hearted assurance proves you
the most consummate deceiver in the world. Girl--woman--demon! I _never_
bade you come--I never wrote to you; and you _know_ I did not, but your
paramour knew me safe here; and in safety lodged you here also. By
heaven it was a bold, daring game, worthy a better cause!" How often, in
our bitterest or most serious moments, some passage either ludicrous, or
irreverent, will cross our minds; through his flitted the words of
Iago,--
"She did deceive her father, marrying you!"
"Yes," he continued, following the thought, "she deceived them all,
cleverly and calmly; and what wonder I should follow?"
"Oh!" cried Minnie, dropping on her knees and looking upwards; "if
spirits in pain may summon their kindred from heaven, oh! my own dear
mother, look on your orphan, and pity her; pray for her, mother
dear--pray for her!" and, covering her face with her hands, she wept
bitterly. There is not in the regions of darkness a blacker demon than
jealousy; it brands all--perverts all. There was a time when a tear from
Minnie would have torn his soul. Now he looked on, almost exultingly; he
thought she was sorrowing for another.
"Tremenhere, Tremenhere, open the door!" exclaimed Lord Randolph
without, agitatedly--he heard a woman in tears. "For heaven's sake open
the door, I will explain all!"
"Oh!" ejaculated Miles in a deep tone of satisfaction, yet it seemed as
a groan, "here is something tangible to deal with." And without casting
a look on his sobbing wife, who was bowed to earth, he hastily
unfastened the door, which she had locked to prevent Miles's egress.
"Come in, my lord," he said, perfectly calm, "and witness your day's
worthy occupation! Look up, woman; here is one for whom you have cast me
off! You, my lord, to-day, reign master of that fickle heart; and
another--and another--and another, to-morrow!" and he strode
contemptuously to the fireplace; but the hands were clenched in agony,
which he would let no one witness.
"Come in, Vellumy!" cried Lord Randolph, whose voice trembled. He had
created a storm which was mastering him.
"Let no one else in!" shouted Miles, turning round, all his forced calm
giving way to intense passion. "Or, yes," he added, springing to the
door and forcing it wide open from Vellumy's grasp, who strove to close
it. "Come in, one, all--all--Burton too--come, glory, triumph over the
proud man biting the bitter dust of betrayed trust."
"Are you mad?" exclaimed his host, pale with agitation. "Hear me,
Tremenhere; I will explain all. Vellumy knows all--we will explain."
As they entered Minnie crept to her feet, and silently dropping on the
sofa, sat watching all with a bewildered look of extreme terror; her
shaken mind could not comprehend it.
"I am ready to hear all you may have to say, gentlemen," Miles said
coldly, and sarcastically; "you will, however, permit me to hold my own
opinions, and act upon them, as a man so much injured should."
"Tell him, my lord," whispered Minnie, who had silently crept to Lord
Randolph's side, and grasped his arm--"tell him; for _you_ must know how
I came here, if, indeed, he is not mad, as I feared, but truly in
ignorance."
Tremenhere stood as one doubtful whether to drag her from the arm she
energetically grasped, or else kill her as she stood there; assuredly
there was murder in the thought of that ungoverned, erring, but most
devoted heart. He passed his hand over his brow, and dashed aside the
cold drops of suspense and doubt.
"Pray, calm yourself, madam," said Lord Randolph, gently laying his hand
on her trembling one; "I will explain all. Indeed, I never expected
matters to take so biased a turn as this." She shrunk back from the
touch of his hand. Her terror assumed so many forms, she scarcely knew
where to find the end of that tangled web to unravel it. Vellumy looked
even more alarmed than Lord Randolph; besides which, for the first time,
he looked upon Minnie, and perhaps she never had appeared more beautiful
than in that moment of anxiety and suffering. Instinctively he drew near
to the girl, who sat like one awakened from a fearful dream, gazing
wildly from one to the other, and incapable of the least exertion; her
very arms hung nerveless, yet essaying to grasp the sofa for support.
Vellumy whispered gently, "Don't c_w_y; we will make it all
_w_ight--G_w_ay has brought you here for that purpose." But she stared
wildly at him, not hearing or understanding his meaning. Meanwhile, Lord
Randolph, who really had done all with a good intention, gained energy
from the uprightness of his conscience, and said calmly--
"Now hear me, Tremenhere; I may possibly offend you by my interference,
but my object in bringing that most unfortunate, most injured girl here,
has been----"
"Stop, my lord!" cried Miles, recovering his dignity, and soothing down
his passion like a smouldering fire, more concentrated and intense in
that apparent calm. "Though lost to all shame--though lost to me and my
love, permit me still to claim a certain respect for the name she still
bears--you forget that _girl_ is my wife--Mrs. Tremenhere!"
"Your _wife_!" exclaimed both the other men in a voice. "Your wife! Good
heavens! can this be?"
"True!" answered Miles, coldly. "I forgot this was unknown to you--that
is, _through me_. I came hither to-day, to leave you no longer in
ignorance of my exact position, as you had done my wife the honour of a
visit."
"Merciful heavens!" cried Lord Randolph, agitatedly. "If this be indeed
the case, I have been led into a grievous, but not irretrievable, error.
Is this lady truly your wife?"
"As truly as a twice-told ceremony can make her," answered the other,
with a cold, doubting smile. "Is your lordship indeed in ignorance of
this fact? and does the responsibility of your crime alarm you? Fear
not--it is not by _law_ I shall seek redress when I demand it. There may
be honour--if you know that thing more than by name--but there will be
no laws to satisfy."
Lord Randolph was pacing the room, uncertain how to explain
himself;--Vellumy looked thunderstruck.
"What!" continued Miles, in the same tone of bitterness; "did you think
that was a frail creature, you were only making frailer still? that you
were only deceiving a deceiver? giving to the giver his own again? I
tell you, no; the creature was to me as the light of heaven--pure,
sunny, gladdening all!--a gift of God to cheer me on my pilgrimage! Do
you think I could look up to heaven, and bless it for its light, when I
had condemned a soul like hers to crime and darkness?--to walk with me
onward to the judgment-seat, and there kneel down and condemn me to
hell, for the wrong I had done her? I tell you no, my lord; she _was_
my own loved, virtuous _wife--once_!" And the stern man's voice
trembled with emotion.
"And, by heavens, Tremenhere! that _still_ for me, or any thought of
mine. Give me your hand: forgive me--I have been led to wrong you
deeply; I rejoice in being able once again to call you friend. I
respect--I pity you; for some, to me unknown, unhappy circumstances,
must have made you condemn a being like that to the shade of a
suspicion. Mrs. Tremenhere," he added, approaching her, as Miles drew
coldly back from the proffered hand, "forgive me the involuntary pain I
have caused you, but plead for me to Tremenhere; he cannot resist you!"
Minnie stared like one idiotic; she was wounded too deeply; her native
delicacy was sullied by these cruel suspicions.
"Tell Miles all," she articulated, in a low tone--"I cannot speak to
him; tell him all--pray, do!" And her voice was choked with tears.
"You _must_ hear me, Tremenhere!" he cried.
"_Must!_" laughed the other incredulously. "May I ask is this an
impromptu, or a part of a well-arranged whole? I ask a simple
question--favour me with a simple reply, my lord. How came Mrs.
Tremenhere in this apartment, where I by accident found her? Words will
not do--I ask proofs!"
"Will not my pledged and sacred honour suffice?"
"Some men deem it a duty, where a lady's reputation is concerned, to
clear her from suspicion at any price."
"By heavens! you are blunt, sir," answered Lord Randolph haughtily;
"and but that a well-meant act of mine, has caused this scene--this
mistake--I should leave you to seek your remedy where and how you would;
but I am resolved to state all, and then leave you to be just, if just
you can be in your present state."
He then proceeded to relate the scheme arranged between Vellumy and
himself, believing Minnie wronged by Tremenhere--a scheme to bring her
down, and call upon Miles's better feelings to do her justice. What she
had told her husband was perfectly true. When Vellumy entered the club,
on their way to the railroad, it was to despatch a trusty person, to
whom the letter had been confided, which lured Minnie unsuspecting from
home. We have seen how Vellumy's cab had been in waiting with its
master, to secure the positive departure of Miles. Vellumy had a great
talent--(for one it is, though dangerous in the extreme)--an
extraordinary power of copying handwriting. He wrote a letter so exactly
like Miles's, that even Minnie was deceived. It ran thus (they were
ignorant of her name, it will be remembered)--
"Dearest Love--I have just received a letter at my club, on my way
to the station, which contains something of so much importance to
our future welfare, that I earnestly desire you should follow me to
Uplands. Place yourself unfearing under the care of the trusty
bearer, and he will bring you safe to your
"MILES.
"Burn this; I will explain all when we meet."
This letter might have misled a more experienced person than poor
Minnie; what could she suspect? Miles's word was law, unquestioned;
without hesitating one moment, she quitted home with the messenger, who
was none other than Lord Randolph's valet, one he could securely confide
in. The plan for Tremenhere to discover her, was all arranged
beforehand; but, most unfortunately, the well-intentioned plotters were
quite ignorant of Miles's jealous disposition, as also of the scene of
that morning on his lordship's account; and, to crown all, there was no
letter forthcoming in proof. Vellumy, by the latter's desire, quitted
the room to keep the guests below in good temper; he was, like his
friend, a well-meaning man, but not a gifted one, by wisdom. Of all the
persons below, he selected Burton for his confident, to whom he might
unburthen his overcharged bosom. Secrets were of leaden weight with him.
This man listened with avidity and delight to the strange tale, but made
no like confidence himself. What he knew about it, remained in his own
breast; but he, who before chid his fate for bringing him in contact
with his cousin, now rejoiced in it: these revelations raised a host of
ideas in his mind, which he promised himself not to lose sight of.
All these circumstances, as we have related them, were laid before
Tremenhere, and though he allowed himself at last to be convinced of
Minnie's truth, yet there was a power within him stronger than his own
will. It was an offspring of nature--wild and ungovernable jealousy: it
ran like a muddy current through every vein, and though he took Minnie
once again in love and reconciliation to his heart, and shook Lord
Randolph's hand in sincerity of gratitude for the manly wish which
prompted this ill-advised act of kindness to Minnie, still the demon
shook his heart when he saw her, in the warmth of her generous,
guileless heart, shake Lord Randolph gratefully by the hand, and,
looking up in his face, bid "Heaven bless him;" for he felt no man could
forget that face, that look, and he dreaded lest what was not, might be
engendered by that beauty and grace of nature, which had driven even his
stern heart almost to madness; and the restless demon whispered, "I
would you had seen the letter," but letter, Vellumy, Burton, Lord
Randolph--all, were forgotten and forgiven, when he held his Minnie once
again to his heart, and their host descended to make some plausible
excuse for his non-appearance again.
Early next morning he and Minnie returned to town, and Burton, too,
quitted Uplands.
"That fool Dalby made a confounded mistake," said Lord Randolph to his
crony, Vellumy, next day; "but it has all turned out most fortunately.
What an exquisite creature Mrs. Tremenhere is! Ten thousand times
handsomer even than her cousin. Lady Dora," (for Miles had related all,
to leave no further doubt or suspicion about Minnie.)
"B_w_ootiful!" responded Vellumy, "and such a sweet l_w_oving woman! I
hope T_w_emenhere will t_w_eat her well, he's so d_w_eucedly jealous!"
And thus terminated a good intention. If it went where such too often
are said to go, it left its germ in earth to bud and blossom.