THE PEERAGE CASE.
The end came suddenly at last, when we were thinking my dear father
more tranquil. He passed away in sleep late one evening, just ten days
after Hester's arrival. She had gone back to her lodgings, and we did
not send to tell her till the morning; but by nine o'clock she was in
the house.
We had crept down to breakfast, Jaquetta and I, feeling very dreary in
the half-light, and as if desolation had suddenly come on us; and when
we heard her fly drive up to the door, Jaquetta cried out almost
angrily, "Torwood, how could you!" and we would have run away, but he
said, "Stay, dear girls; it is better to have it over."
As she came in he rang the bell as if for family prayers, and she had
only asked one or two questions, which he answered shortly, when all
the servants came in, some crying sadly. Fulk read a very few
prayers--as much as he had voice for, and then, as all stood up, he had
to clear his voice, but he spoke firmly enough.
"It is right that you all should know that a grave doubt has arisen as
to my position here. Lord Trevorsham had every reason to believe his
first wife had perished by the hands of the Red Indians long before he
married my mother. What he did was done in entire ignorance--no breath
of blame must light on him. This lady alleges that she can produce
proofs that she is his daughter, and that her mother only died in
February, '36. If these proofs be considered satisfactory by a
committee of the House of Lords, then she and Alured Torwood Trevor
will be shown to be his only legitimate children. I shall place the
matter in the right hands as soon as possible--that is" (for she was
glaring at him), "as soon as the funeral is over. Until that decision
is made I request that no one will call me by the title of him who is
gone; but I shall remain here to take care of my little brother, whose
guardian my father wished me to be; and for the present, at least, I
shall make no change in the establishment."
I think everyone held their breath: there was a great stillness over
all--a sort of hush of awe--and then some of the maids began sobbing,
and the butler tried to say something, but he quite broke down; and
just then a troubled voice cried out--
"Torwood, Torwood, what is this?"
And there we saw Bertram in the midst of us, with the haggard look of a
man who had travelled all night, and a dismayed air that I can never
forget.
He had been quartered at Belfast, and we had written to him the day
after my father's illness, to summon him home, but there were no
telegraphs nor railways; and there had been some hindrance about his
leave, so that it had taken all that length of time to bring him. Fulk
had left all to be told on his arrival. He had come by the mail-coach,
and walked up from the Trevorsham Arms, where he had been told of our
father's death; and so had let himself in noiselessly, and was standing
in the dining-room door, hearing all that Fulk said!
Poor fellow! Jaquetta flung herself on him, hiding her face against
him, while the servants went, and before any one else could speak,
Hester stood forth, and said, to our amazement--
"Captain Trevor! You know me. You can and must bear me witness, and
do me justice--"
"You! I have seen you before--but--where? I beg your pardon," he
said, bewildered.
"You remember Sault St. Pierre farm?" she said.
"Sault St. Pierre! What? You are Mrs. Lea! Good heavens! Where is
your mother?"
"My mother is dead, sir. You were the first person who made known to
her that her husband, my father, was not dead, but had taken--or
pretended to take--an English woman for his wife."
"Wait!" thundered Fulk, "whatever my father did was ignorantly and
honourably done!"
Bertram was as pale as death, and looked from one of us to the other,
and at last, he gasped out--
"And that--was what she meant?"
"There, sir," said Hester, turning to Torwood, "You see your brother
cannot deny it! You will not refuse justice to me, and my son."
I fancy she expected that the house was to be given up to her, and that
we were only to remain there on her sufferance, perhaps till after the
funeral.
My brother spoke, "Justice will no doubt be done; but the question does
not lie between you and me, but between me and Alured. It is, as I
said, a peerage question--and will be decided by the peers.
Incidentally, that enquiry will prove what is your position and rank,
as well as what may or may not be ours. Any further points depend upon
my father's will, and that will be in the hands of Mr. Eagles. I think
you can see that it would be impossible, as well as unfeeling, to take
any steps until after the funeral."
Whatever Hester Lea was, she was a high-spirited being, standing there,
a solitary woman, a stranger, with all of us four, and one whole
household, as it must have seemed, against her. I was outraged and
shocked at her defiance at the time, but when, some time after, I
re-read King John, I saw that there was something of Constance in her.
"That may be," she answered, "but when my child's interests are at
stake, I cannot haggle over conventionalities and proprieties. I am
the Earl of Trevorsham's only legitimate daughter, and I claim my right
to remain in his house, and to take charge of my infant brother."
A sign from Fulk stopped me, as I was going to scream at this.
"Remember," he said, "your identity has yet to be proved."
"Your brother there must needs witness. He has done so."
"What do you witness to, Bertram?" asked Fulk.
"I do not know; I cannot understand," said Bertram. "I saw this person
in a farm in Lower Canada, and there was an old lady who seemed to have
known my father, and was very much amazed to find he was not killed in
1814. I did not hear her name, nor know whose mother she was, nor
anything about her, nor what this dreadful business means."
"At any rate," said Fulk to her, "your claim to remain in the house
must depend on the legal proof of the fact. My father's first marriage
is undoubted, but absolute legal certainty that you are the child of
that marriage alone can entitle you to take rank as his daughter; and,
therefore, I am not compelled to admit your claim to remain here,
though if you will refrain from renewing this discussion till after the
funeral, I will not ask you to leave the house."
"I do not recognize your right to ask or not to ask," she said,
undauntedly.
"I am either Lord Trevorsham's rightful heir--and it is not yet shown
that I am not--or else I am the guardian he appointed for his son. I
know this to be so, and Mr. Eagles, who will soon be here, will show it
to you in the will if you wish it. Therefore, until the decision is
made, when, if it goes against me, the child will no doubt be made a
ward in Chancery, I am the person responsible for him and his property."
"I have no doubt you will take advantage of me and of every quibble
against me;" and there at last she began to break down; "but if there
is justice in heaven or earth my child shall have it, though you and
all were leagued against him."
And there she began to sob. And those brothers of mine, they actually
grew compassionate; they ran after wine; they called us to bring salts,
and help her. Emily shuddered, and put her hands behind her; but
Jaquetta actually ran up to the woman, and coaxed her and comforted
her, when I had rather have coaxed a tigress.
But I had to go to the table and pour out tea and give it to her with
all the rest. I don't know how we got through that breakfast. But we
did, and then I made the housekeeper put her into the very best rooms.
Anything if she would only stay there out of the way.
When I came back, I found Fulk explaining why he had spoken at once,
and he said he felt that she would have no scruples about taking the
initiative, and that everyone would be having surmises.
Poor Bertram was even more cut up than we were. It came more suddenly,
and he felt as if it was all his doing. He had no hope, and he took
all ours away. There had been something in the old woman that
impressed him as genuine, and he had no doubt that she had known and
loved our father. Nay, no one could suspect Hester of not believing in
her own story; the only question was whether the links of evidence
could be substantiated.
The next thing that happened--I can't tell which day it was--was Mrs.
Deerhurst's coming, professing to be dreadfully shocked and overcome by
my father's death, to take away Emily. She must be so much in our way.
I, who saw her first, answered only by begging to keep her--our great
comfort and the one thing that cheered and upheld my brother.
Mrs. Deerhurst looked keenly at me; and I began to wonder what she
knew, but just then came Fulk into the room, with his calm, set,
determined face. I knew he would rather speak without me, so I went
away, and only knew what he could bear to tell me afterwards.
Mrs. Deerhurst had been a great deal kinder than he expected. No doubt
she would not break the thing off while there was a shred of hope that
he was an earl; but he could not drive her to allow, in so many words,
that it must depend upon that.
He had quite made up his mind that it was not right to enjoy Emily's
presence and the comfort it gave him, unless he was secure of Mrs.
Deerhurst's permitting the engagement under his possible circumstances.
I believe he nattered himself she would, and let her deceive him with
thinking so, instead of, as we all did, seeing that what she wanted was
to secure the credit of being constant and disinterested in case he
retained his position. So, although she took Emily home, she left him
cheered and hopeful, admiring her, and believing that she so regarded
her daughter's happiness that, if he had enough to support her, she
would overlook the loss of rank and title. He went on half the evening
talking about what a remarkable woman Mrs. Deerhurst was; and, at any
rate, it cheered him up through those worst days.
Our Lupton uncles came, and were frightfully shocked and incredulous;
at least, Uncle George was. Uncle Lupton himself remembered something
of my father having told him of a former affair in America.
They would not let Jaquetta and me go to the funeral; and they were
wise, for Hester thrust herself in--but it is of no use to think about
that. Indeed, there is not much to tell about that time, and I need
not go into the investigation. It was all taken out of our hands, as
my brother had said. Perrault came over from Canada, and brought his
witnesses, but not Joel Lea. He had nothing to prove, had
conscientious scruples about appearing in an English court of justice,
and still hoped it would all come to nothing.
We stayed on at the London house--the lawyers said we ought, and that
possession was "nine-tenths," &c. Besides, we wanted advice for Baby,
who had been worse of late.
The end of it was that it went against us. Faith's marriage, her
identity, and Hester's, were proved beyond all doubt, and little Alured
was served Earl of Trevorsham. Poor child, how ill he was just then!
It was declared water on the brain! I could hardly think about
anything else; but they all said it seemed like a mockery, and that he
would not bear the title a week. And then Lady Hester would have been,
not Countess of Trevorsham, but Viscountess Torwood, and at any rate
she halved the personal property: all that had been meant for us.
For we already knew that there was nothing in the will that could do us
any good. All depended on my mother's marriage settlements, and as the
marriage was invalid they were so much waste paper.
My uncles, to whom my poor mother's fortune reverted, would not touch
it, and gave every bit back to us; but it was only 10,000 pounds, and
what was that among the four of us?
I was in a sort of maze all the time, thinking of very little beyond
dear little Alured's struggle for life, and living upon his little
faint smiles when he was a shade better.
Jaquetta has told me more of what passed than I heeded at the time.
Our brothers decided not to retain the Trevor name, to which we had no
right; but they had both been christened Torwood; after an old family
custom, and they thought it best to use this still as a surname.
Bertram felt the shame, as he would call it, the most; but Fulk held up
his head more. He said where there was no sin there was no shame; and
that to treat ourselves as under a blot of disgrace was insulting our
parents, who had been mistaken, but not guilty.
Bertram was determined against returning to his regiment, and it would
have been really too expensive. His plan was to keep together, and lay
out our capital upon a piece of ground in New Zealand, which was
beginning to be settled.
Jaquetta was always ready to be delighted. Dear child, her head was
full of log huts and Robinson Crusoe life, and cows to milk herself;
and I really think she would have liked to go ashore in the Swiss
family's eight tubs!
The thorough change, after all the sorrow, seemed delicious to her! I
heard her and Bertram laughing down below, and wondered if they got the
length of settling what dogs they would take out!
And Fulk! He really had almost persuaded himself that Emily would go
with us; or at the very worst, would wait till he had achieved
prosperity and could come home and fetch her.
Mrs. Deerhurst had declared that waiting for the decision was so bad
for her nerves, that she must take her to Paris; and actually our dear
old stupid fellow had not perceived what that meant, for the woman had
let him part tenderly with Emily in London, with promises of writing,
&c., the instant the case was decided. It passed his powers to suppose
she could expose her daughter's heart to such a wreck. So he held up,
cheerful and hopeful, thinking what a treasure of constancy he had!
And when they had built their castle in New Zealand, they sent up
Jaquey to call me to share it with them. Baby was asleep, and I went
down; but when I heard the plan--it was cross to be so unsympathizing,
but I did feel hurt and angry at their forgetting him; and I said, "I
shall never leave Alured."
"Ursula! you could not stay by yourself," said Jaquey. And Bertram,
who had hardly ever seen him, and could not care for him said it was
nonsense, and even if there were a chance of the child living, I could
not be left behind.
I was wrought up, and broke out that he would and should live, and that
I would come as a stranger, a nursery governess, and watch over him,
and never abandon him to Hester.
"Never fear, Ursula," said Fulk, "if he lives, he will be in safe
hands."
"Safe hands! What are safe hands for a child like that! Hester's, who
only wishes him out of her way?"
"For shame!" the others said, and I answered that, of course, I did not
think Hester meant ill by him, but that, where the doctors had said
only love and care could save him--no care was safe where he was not
loved; and I cried very, very bitterly, more than I had done even for
my father, or for anything else before; and I fell into a storm of
passion, at the cruelty of leaving the poor little thing, whom his
dying mother had trusted to me, and declared I would never, never do it.
I was right in the main, it seems to me, but unjust and naughty in the
way I did it; and when Fulk, with some hesitation, began to talk of my
not being asked to go just yet--not while the child lived--I turned
round in a really violent, naughty fit, with--"You too, Fulk, I thought
you loved your little brother better than that? You only want to be
rid of him, and leave him to Hester, and he will die in her hands."
Fulk began to say that the Court of Chancery never gave the custody to
the next heir. But I rushed away again to the nursery, and sat there,
devising plans of disguising myself in a close cap and blue spectacles,
and coming to offer myself as Lord Trevorsham's governess.
The child had no relations whatever on his mother's side, and though,
if he had been healthy, nurses and tutors might have taken care of this
baby lordship, even that would have been sad enough; and for the feeble
little creature, whose life hung on a thread, how was it to be thought
of? I fully made up my mind to stay, even if they all went. I told
Jaquetta, so--in my vehemence dashed all her bright anticipation, and
sent her again in tears to bed. I wish unhappiness would not make one
so naughty!
The next day poor Fulk was struck down. A letter came from Mrs.
Deerhurst to break off the engagement, and a great parcel containing
all the things he had given Emily. She must have packed them up before
leaving England, while she was still flattering him. Not a word nor a
line was there from Emily herself!--only a supplication from the mother
that he would not rend her child's heart by persisting--just as if she
had not encouraged him to go on all this time!
Nothing would serve him but that he must dash over to Paris, to see her
and Emily.
Railroads were not, and it was a ten days' affair at the shortest; and,
with all our prospects doubtful and Alured still so ill, it was very
trying. How Bertram did rave at the folly and futility of the
expedition! but one comfort was, that Alured was a ward of Chancery,
and, in the vast kindness and commiseration everyone bestowed upon us,
no one tried to hurry us or turn us out.
Hester used to come continually to inquire after her brother, and there
was something in her way that always made me shudder when she asked
after him. I knew she could not wish for his life, and gloated over
all the reports she could collect of his weakness. I felt more and
more horror of her; God forgive me for not having tried not to hate
her. I sometimes doubt whether my dread and distrust were not visible,
and may not have put it into her head.
And then came Mr. Decies, again and again. He was faithful--I see it
now. He cared not if I had neither name nor fortune; he held fast to
his proposals. And I? Oh, I was absorbed--I was universally
defiant--I did not do him justice in the bitterness I did not realise.
I thought he was constant only out of honour and pity, and I did not
choose to open my heart to understand his pleadings or accept them as
earnest--I was harsh. Oh, how little one knows what one is doing! Too
proud to be grateful--that was actually my case. I was enamoured of the
blue-spectacle plan; I had romances of watching Alured day and night,
and pouring away dangerous draughts. The very fancy, I see now, was
playing with edged tools; I feel as if my imagination had put the
possibility into the very air.
Once indeed--when Jaquetta had been telling me she did not understand
my unkindness; and observed that, even for Alured's sake, she could not
see why I did not accept--I did begin to regard him as a possible
protector for the boy. But no; the blue spectacles would be the more
assiduous guardian, said my foolish fancy.
Before I had thought it over into sense or reason, Fulk came back from
Paris. He had not been really crushed till now. He was white, and
silent, and resolute, and very gentle; all excitement of manner gone.
He did not say one word, but we knew it was all over with him, and that
he could not have had one scrap of comfort or hope.
Nor had he, though even to me he told nothing, till we were together in
the dark one evening, much later. He did insist upon seeing Emily; but
her mother would not leave her, or take her eyes off her, and the timid
thing did nothing but sob and cry, in utter helplessness and shame, and
never even gave him a look.
It was not the being neglected and cast off that he felt as such a
wrong, to both himself and Emily, but the being drawn on with false
hopes and promises to expect that she was to belong to him, after all;
and he was cruelly disappointed that Emily had not energy to cling to
him--he had made so sure of her.
Bertram and Jaquetta had expected all along that he would be the more
eager to be off to the Antipodes when everything was swept away from
him here, and he did sit after dinner talking it over in a
business-like way, while Bertram gave him all the information he had
been collecting in his absence.
I would not listen. I was determined against going away from my
charge; I had rather have been his housemaid than have left him to
Hester, and I must have looked like a stone as I got up, and left them
to their talk while I went back to the boy.
I heard Bertram say while I was lighting my candle, "Poor Ursula! she
will not see it. Hart told me to-day that the child is dying--would
hardly get through the night."
Now I had been thinking all the afternoon that he was better, and I had
gone down to dinner cheered. I turned into the doorway, and told Fulk
to come and see.
He did come. There was Alured, lying, as he had lain all day, upon his
nurse's knees, with her arm under his head. He had not moaned for a
long time, and I had left him in a more comfortable sleep. He opened
his eyes as we came in, held out his hands more strongly than we
thought he could have done, quite smiled--such an intelligent
smile--and said, "Tor--Tor--," which was what he had always called his
brother, making his gesture to go to him.
The tears came into Fulk's eyes, though he smiled back and spoke in his
sweet, strong voice, and held out his arms, while we told him he had
better sit down. Poor nurse! she must have been glad enough--she had
held him all that live-long day! And he was quite eager to go to his
brother, and smiled up and cooed out, "Tor--Tor," again, as he felt
himself on the strong arm.
Fulk bade nurse go and lie down, and he would hold him. And so he did.
I fed the child, as I had done at intervals all day; and he sometimes
slept, sometimes woke and murmured or cooed a little, and Fulk scarcely
spoke or stirred, hour after hour. He had been travelling day and
night, but, strange to say, that enforced calm--that tender stillness
and watching, was better for him than rest. He would only have tossed
about awake, if he had gone to bed after a discussion with Bertram.
But in the morning Dr. Hart came, quite surprised to find the child
alive; and when he looked at him and felt his pulse, he said, "You have
saved him for this time, at least."
(Everybody was lavish of pronouns, and chary of proper names. Nobody
knew what to call anybody.)
His little lordship was able to be laid in his cot, and Fulk, almost
blind now with sheer sleep, stumbled off to his room, threw himself on
his bed, and slept for seven hours in his clothes without so much as
moving. He confessed that he had never had such unbroken, dreamless
sleep since he had first seen Hester Lea's face.
That little murmur of "Tor--Tor" had settled all our fates. I don't
think he had realised before how love was the one thing that the
child's life hung upon, and that the boy himself must have that love
and trust. Then, too, when he had waked and dressed and come down, the
first person he met was Hester, with her hard, glittering eyes, trying
to condole, and not able to hide how the exulting look went out of her
face on hearing that the Earl (as she chose to term him) was better.
She supposed some arrangement would soon be made, and Fulk said he
should see the lawyers at once about it, and arrange for the personal
guardianship of Lord Trevorsham.
"Of course I am the only proper person while he lives, poor child," she
said.
I broke in with, "The next heir is never allowed the custody."
I wish I had not. She hastily and proudly said "What do you mean?" and
Fulk quickly added that "the Lord Chancellor would decide."
The next day he went out, and on returning came up to me in the
nursery, and called me into the study.
"Ursula," he said, "I find that, considering the circumstances, there
will be no objection made to our retaining the personal charge of our
little brother. Everyone is very kind. Ours is not a common case of
illegitimacy, and my father's well-known express wishes will be allowed
to prevail."
"And your character," I could not help saying; and he owned that it did
go for something, that he was known to everybody, and had some standing
of his own, apart from the rank he had lost.
Then he went on to say that this would of course put an end to the
emigration plan, so far as he was concerned. No doubt in the restless
desire of change coming after such a fall and disappointment it was a
great sacrifice; but as he said, "There did not seem anything left for
him in life but just to try to do what seemed most like one's duty."
And then he said it did not seem a worthy thing to do nothing, but just
exist on a confined income, and the only thing he did know anything
about, and was not too old to learn, was farming, and managing an
estate.
Trevorsham would want an agent, for old Hall was so old, that my
brother had really done all his work for a year or two past; and he had
felt his way enough to know he could get appointed to the agency, if he
chose. The house was to be let, but there was a farm to be had about
two miles off, with a good house, and he thought of taking it, and
stocking it, and turning regular farmer on his own account; while
looking after the property, and bringing Alured up among his own people
and interests.
Bertram did not like this at all. "Among all our old friends and
acquaintance? Impossible! unbearable!" he said.
But Fulk's answer, was--"Better so! If we went to a strange place, and
tried to conceal it, it would always be oozing out, and be supposed
disgraceful. If my sisters can bear it, I had rather confront it
straightforwardly--"
"And be _pitied_"--said Bertram, with _such_ a contemptuous tone.
Nobody, however, thought it would be advisable for him to give up the
New Zealand plan, nor did he ever mean it for a moment; indeed, he
declared that he should go and prepare for us; for that we should very
soon get tired of Skimping's Farm, and come out to him; meaning, of
course, that our dear charge would be over.
He even wanted Jaquetta to come with him at once, and the log huts and
fern trees danced before her eyes as the blue spectacles had done
before mine; but she did not like to leave me, and Fulk would not
encourage it, for we both thought her much too young and too tenderly
brought up to be sent out to a wild settler's life alone with Bertram,
and without a friend near.
To be farmers' sisters where we had been the Earl's daughters--well, I
had much rather then that it had been somewhere else; but I saw it was
best for Baby and still more so for Fulk, and clear little Jaquey held
fast to me and to him, and so it was settled!
Our friends and relatives had much rather we had all emigrated. They
did not know what to do with us, and would have been glad to have had
us all out of sight for ever, "damaged goods shipped off to the
colonies." We felt this and it heartened us up to stay out of the
spirit of opposition.
Old Aunt Amelia, who fussed and cried over us, and our two uncles, who
gave us good advice by the yard! Alas! I fear we were equally
ungrateful to them, both cold and impatient. No, we did not bear it
really well, though they said we did. We had plenty of pride and
self-respect, and that carried us on; but there was no submission, no
notion of taking it religiously. I don't mean that we did not go to
church, and in the main try to do right. Any one more upright than my
brother it would have been hard to find; but as to any notion that
religious feeling could help us, and that our reverse might be blessed
to us, that would have seemed a very strange language indeed!
And so we were hard, we would bear no sympathy but from one another,
and even among ourselves we never gave way.
People admired us, I fancy, but were alienated and disappointed, and we
were quite willing _then_ to have it so.