POSTSCRIPT.
Time flies in the midst of great events; and yet it is long to look back
upon, doubling and redoubling the moments which have been great with
feeling--filling the spectator with wonder that in so short a time a
human creature could live so long or undergo so much. But after a great
crisis of life, time becomes blank, the days are endless as they pass,
and count for nothing when they have gone. Flatly they fall upon the
memory that keeps no record of them--so much blank routine, so many
months; in ordinary parlance, the fallow season, in which brain and
heart have to recover, as the earth has, under her veil of rain and
snow--chill days and weeks without a record; or bright days and weeks
which are almost as blank--for even happiness keeps no daybook--until
the time of exhaustion is over, and life moves again, most often under
the touch of pain.
The episode of personal history, which we have just concluded, was
fully known to the world only after it was over. Then the county, and
almost the country--for the report of such a “romance of real life”
naturally afforded food for all the newspaper readers in the
kingdom--was electrified by the Arden case. It was rumoured at first
that a great lawsuit was to be brought, with an exciting trial and all
the delightful exposure of family secrets and human meanness which
generally attends a law plea between near relations. Then, Mr. Fazakerly
published a solemn statement of the facts. Then somebody in Arthur
Arden’s interest attempted to prove that Edgar had been in the secret
all along; then this imputation was indignantly contradicted by the
solicitor of Arthur Arden, Esq. of Arden, but left a sting
notwithstanding, and made many people shake their heads, and doubt the
romantic tale of generosity, which they held to be contrary to human
nature. Then the clever newspapers--those which are great in leading
articles--took the matter up, and gave each a little treatise on the
subject; and then the story was suddenly suffered to drop, and was heard
of no more. At least it was not heard of for a month, when it was all
revived by the marriage of Clare Arden to her cousin--a marriage which
rent the county asunder, making two parties for and against. “How she
could ever do it!” and “it was the very best thing she could do.” These
two events had a great effect upon Arden parish and village. They aged
Mr. Fielding, so that he was scarcely ever able for duty again, and had
to devolve almost the whole service on Mr. Denbigh, feebly uttering the
absolution only, or a benediction from the altar. They brought upon Miss
Somers that bad illness which brought her almost to death’s door; and it
is said the poor lady cried so much that she never could see very well
after, and never was seen abroad more. And they utterly crushed the
Pimpernels. Mrs. Pimpernel’s face of horror, when she found that she had
actually turned out from her house the rightful owner of Arden, was a
thing talked of all over the county; and the family never recovered the
shock. They left the Red House that summer, and removed to the other
side of the county, at least twenty miles away, and conveniently close
to a railway station. “After that accident, when my Alice was so nearly
killed, I could not bear it,” Mrs. Pimpernel said, though people
maliciously misunderstood which accident it was.
And Jeanie, the real victim of the accident, after a long illness,
recovered sufficiently to be taken home. Dr. Somers believed, with
professional pride and a little human sympathy, that he had effected a
cure on Jeanie mentally as well as physically; but whether her gentle
mind was quite restored was, of course, a matter which time alone could
prove. Edgar, who had been absent since the day after he received
intelligence of Clare’s engagement, returned to take his relations home.
But it was not till a month after Clare’s marriage that he reappeared
finally in Arden to say good-bye to all his friends. The bride and
bridegroom had not yet returned, which was a relief to him; and his
company was a great solace and consolation to the feeble Rector, with
whom he lived. “Ah, Edgar, if you would but stay with me and be my son,”
the old man would say wistfully, as he leaned upon his vigorous arm. “I
have no one now whom I can lean upon, who will close my eyes and see me
laid in my grave. Edgar, if it were God’s will, before you go away I
should be glad to be there.”
“Don’t say so,” said Edgar. “Everybody loves you; and my--I mean Mrs.
Arden--you must not withdraw your love from her.”
Mr. Fielding shook his head. “She will not want my love,” he said.
“Never could I give up Clare, however I might disapprove of her; but she
will not want me. Nobody wants me; and the last fag-end of work is
dreary, just before the holiday comes; but I am grumbling, Edgar. Only
I’ll be sadly dull when you go, that’s all.”
“And I cannot stay, you know,” said Edgar, with a sigh.
“No,” said the old man, echoing it. That was the only thing that was
impossible. He could not stay. The Thornleighs were at Thorne, and Lady
Augusta had written him an anxious, affectionate note, bidding God bless
him, but begging him, by all he held dear, not to show himself to Gussy,
who was ill and nervous, and could not bear any shock. Poor Edgar put
the letter in his pocket and tried to smile. “She might have trusted
me,” he said. He was not to go near Thorne; he could not approach Arden;
but he went to the poor folk in the village, and received many tearful
adieus. Old Miss Somers threw her arms round him and cried. “Oh, Edgar,
my dear, my dear!----” she said, “how shall I ever----; and I who
thought you would be always----, and meant to leave you what little I
have. It is all left to you, Edgar, all the same. Oh, if you would not
go! I daresay now they will never return. Though she is your sister, my
dear, I must say---- If I were Clare I would never more come back to the
Hall----”
“But I trust she will, and be very happy there, and that you will be all
to her you have ever been,” said Edgar, kissing the wrinkled old hand.
“Oh, my dear boy! Oh, Edgar, God will reward---- Kiss me, my dear;
though you are a gentleman, I am so old, and ill; it can’t matter, you
know. Kiss me, Edgar! and God bless----; and if ever there was one in
this world that should have a reward----”
A reward! Edgar smiled mournfully as he went away. The reward he had was
abandonment, banishment, solitude, the love and tears of a few old
people for whom he had done nothing and could do nothing, who loved him
because they had been good to him all his life. As he drove over to the
station in Mr. Fielding’s old gig, with Jack, silent and respectful, by
his side, he passed all the rich woods of Arden, clouds of foliage
almost as rich in colour as were the sunset clouds above them--the woods
which he had once looked at with so much pride and called his own. He
passed the little lodge on the common where he had seen old John lying
dead, and had wondered (he recollected as if it were yesterday) if that
was the end of all life’s struggles and trials? It was not the end; what
a poor joke life would be if it was!--weary days, not few, as the
patriarch complained, but oh, so weary, so endless, so full of pain to
come, as they seemed to the young man--struggles through which the soul
came only half alive. But Edgar felt alive all over as he took farewell
of all the familiar places, and remembered the human creatures, much
more dear, of whom he could not take farewell. Poor, sweet little Gussy,
“ill and nervous”--was it for him? and Clare, who had been silent to him
since her marriage, taking no notice of his existence. He brushed away a
tear from his eyes as he drove on. He was going he knew not where--to
seek his fortune---- But that was no grievance; rather his heart rose to
the necessity with a vigorous impulse, which would have been gay, had it
been less sore. God bless them!--the one who thought of him still, and
the one who had cast him off. They were alike, at least, in this--that
he loved them, and would never see them more.
Jack had been sent away with a good-bye and a sovereign, and a sob in
his throat which almost choked him; and Edgar was alone. The train was a
little late, and he stood on the platform of the small country station
waiting for it, longing to be gone. He saw without noticing a little
brougham drawn up close to the roadside, so as to enable its occupants
to see the train as it passed. While he waited, he was attracted by the
flutter of a white handkerchief from the window. He went as close as he
could reach, and looked over the paling, wondering, yet not thinking
that this signal could be for him. There was no expectation in his
mind, only a certain sad surprise. Then suddenly Lady Augusta’s face
appeared at the window, full of anxiety and distress; and, in the corner
behind her, a little pale face--a worn little figure. “Good-bye,
Edgar!--dear Edgar, good-bye!” cried a faltering voice. “We could not
let you go without one word. God bless you!” said Lady Augusta, pulling
the check in her hand. The coachman turned his horses before Edgar could
approach a step nearer; and at the same moment the train came up like a
roll of thunder behind----
Edgar went back with his heart and his eyes so full that he saw nothing.
He gathered his small possessions together mechanically. His whole being
was moved by the sweetness and the bitterness of this last parting and
blessing. There was an unusual stir and commotion on the platform, but
he took no notice. What was it to him who came or went? She might have
been his bride--that tender creature with her soft voice, which came to
him like a voice from heaven. So faithful, so tender, so sweet! It was
all he could do to keep the tears which blinded him from falling. He
threw his bag into the carriage; he had his foot on the step----
What was that cry? Once more, “Edgar! Edgar!” The party arriving had
stopped and broken up. He turned round; through the mist in his eyes he
saw who it was. They were standing at a distance in their bridal finery:
he with a cloud on his face, with his hand upon her arm holding her
back--yet not arbitrarily nor unkindly. And even in Arthur Arden’s face
there was a certain emotion. They stood looking at each other as if
across an ocean or a continent--more than that--a whole world. Then all
at once she rushed to him, and threw her arms round his neck. “O Edgar,
speak to me, speak to me!--forgive me! I am your sister still--your only
sister; don’t go away without a word to me!”
“God bless you, my dearest sister, my only Clare!” he cried. The tears
rained down on his cheeks. He gave her one convulsive kiss, and put her
into her husband’s arms.
So all was over! The train rushed on, tearing wildly across the familiar
country. And Edgar fell back in the solitude, the silence, the distance,
parted from everything that was his; but not without a little of that
reward Miss Somers had prayed for--enough of it to keep his heart alive.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's Squire Arden; volume 3 of 3, by Margaret Oliphant