SUSPENSE.
'Where shall the traitor rest
He, the deceiver?'--SCOTT.
Poor Miss Headworth's peace of mind was utterly destroyed. That the
niece whom she had nursed back to life and happiness, and brought to
love her as a mother, should be at the mercy of a man whom she looked
on as a heartless profligate, was dreadful to her beyond measure. And
it involved Ursula's young life likewise? Could it be a duty, after
these eighteen years, to return to him? What legal rights had he to
enforce the resumption of the wife he had deserted. 'I will consult
Mr. Dutton,' said the old lady to herself; 'Mr. Dutton is the only
person who knows the particulars. He will give me the best advice.'
And while Miss Headworth, over her evening toilette, was coming to this
resolution in one bedroom, Nuttie, in another, was standing aghast at
her mother's agitation, and receiving a confession which filled her
with astonishment.
'I can't think why that gentleman should go and be so affectionate all
on a sudden, 'quoth Nuttie;' if he is my cousin, and so fond of you,
why couldn't he have come to see us before?'
'Oh, Nuttie, dear, you don't understand why it is so good of him! My
dear, now this has come, I must tell you--you must hear--the sad thing
your mother did. Yes, my dear, I was their governess--and--and I did
not--In short, my dear, I eloped.'
'You, mother! Oh what fun!' cried the girl in the utter extremity of
wonder.
'Nuttie!' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, in a tone of horror and
indignation--nay, of apprehension.
'O mother--I didn't mean that! But I can't get to believe it. You,
little mother mine, you that are so timid and bashful and quiet. That
you--you should have done such a thing.'
'Nuttie, my dear, can't you understand that such a thing would make me
quiet? I am always feeling when I see people, or they bring their
daughters here. "If they only knew--"'
'No, no, no! They would still see you were the sweetest dear. But
tell me all about it. How very much in love you must have been!' said
Nuttie, a magnificent vision of a young sailor with curly hair and open
throat rising before her.
'I think I was more frightened than in love,' faintly said Mrs.
Egremont. 'At least I didn't know it was love, I thought he was only
kind to me.'
'But you liked it?' said Ursula magisterially.
'I liked it, oh, I liked it! It gave me a feeling such as nothing else
ever did, but I never thought of its being love, he was so much older.'
'Older!' exclaimed Nuttie, much taken aback. 'Oh! as old as Mr.
Dutton?'
'Mr. Dutton is thirty-six, I think. Yes, he was older than that.'
'Mother, how could you?' For to be older than Mr. Dutton seemed to the
youthful fancy to be near decrepitude; but she added, 'I suppose he was
very noble, and had done great things.'
'He was the grandest gentleman I ever saw, and had such, a manner,'
said the mother, passing over the latter suggestion. 'Anyway, I never
thought what it all meant--all alone with the children as I was--till I
found people looking at me, and laughing at me, and then I heard Lady
de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont were coming down, very angry, to send me
away. I ought, I know it now, to have waited, for they would have
written to my aunt. But I was horribly frightened, and I couldn't bear
to think of never seeing him again, and he came and comforted me, and
said he would take me to Mrs. Houghton, the kind lady who was staying
in the Ninon, and they would make it all square for me--and then--oh!
it was very sweet--but I never knew that we were sailing away to Jersey
to be married! I knew it was very dreadful without any one's leave,
but it was so noble of him to take the poor little governess and defend
her, and it wasn't as if my mother had been alive. I didn't know Aunt
Ursel then as I did afterwards. And Mrs. Houghton said there was
nothing else to be done.'
'O don't leave off, mother. Do tell me. How long did you have him?'
'Six weeks then--and afterwards one fortnight at Dieppe. He was not
free. He had an old uncle, General Egremont, who was sick and
hot-tempered, and he was obliged to keep everything secret from him,
and therefore from everybody else. And so I was to live at Dieppe,
while he went out to take care of his uncle, and you know--you know--'
'Yes, I know, dear mother. But I am sure he was saving somebody else,
and it was a noble death! And I know how Aunt Ursel came to Dieppe,
and how I--your own little Frenchwoman--came to take care of you. And
haven't we been jolly without any of these fine relations that never
looked after you all this time? Besides, you know he is very likely to
be on a lonely coral island, and will come home yet. I often think he
is.'
'My dear child, I have been happier than I deserved,' said Alice
Egremont, drying her eyes. 'But oh! Nuttie, I hope you will be a wiser
woman than your mother.'
'Come, don't go on in that way! Why, I've such advantages! I've Miss
Mary, and Aunt Ursel, and Mr. Spyers, and Mr. Dutton, and you, you poor
little thing, had nobody! One good thing is, we shall get the
water-soldier. Mr. Dutton needn't come, for he's like a cat, and won't
soil his boots, but Gerard is dying to get another look at the old
ruin. He can't make up his mind about the cross on one of the
stone-coffin lids, so he'll be delighted to come, and he'll get it out
of the pond for us. I wonder when we can go. To-night is choir
practice, and to-morrow is cutting-out day.'
Miss Headworth was not sorry that the small sociabilities of the
friends did not leave her alone with her niece all that evening, or the
next day, when there was a grand cutting-out for the working party,--an
operation always performed in the holidays. Miss Headworth had of late
years been excused from it, and it gave her the opportunity she wanted
of a consultation with Mr. Dutton. He was her prime adviser in
everything, from her investments (such as they were) to the
eccentricities of her timepieces; and as the cuckoo-clock had that
night cuckooed all the hours round in succession, no one thought it
wonderful that she should send a twisted note entreating him to call as
early as he could in the afternoon. Of course Nuttie's chatter had
proclaimed the extraordinary visitors, and it needed not the old lady's
dash under "on an anxious affair" to bring him to her little
drawing-room as soon as he could quit his desk. Perhaps he hastened
his work with a hope in his heart which he durst not express, but the
agitation on the usually placid face forbade him to entertain it for an
instant, and he only said, 'So our expedition has led to unforeseen
consequences, Miss Headworth.' And then she answered under her breath,
as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr. Dutton, my poor child does not
know it yet, but the man is alive!'
Mr. Dutton compressed his lips. It was the greater shock, for he had
actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct. There is reason to
be thankful.'
Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes for
thankfulness. She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and from
Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's duty to
return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept anything from
him. There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at the bottom of the
old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she had led for so many
years, and she hardly brooked the measured considerate manner in which
her adviser declared that all depended on circumstances, and the manner
in which Captain Egremont made the first move. At present no one was
acting but young Mark, and, as Mr. Dutton observed, it was not a matter
in which a man was very likely to submit to a nephew's dictation.
There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
on him. But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her child's
there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that this
should be proved by their maintenance.
'I imagine that Ursula may probably be a considerable heiress, and her
lights must not be sacrificed.'
'Poor little girl! Will it be for her happiness? I doubt it greatly!'
'Of that I suppose we have no right to judge,' said Mr. Dutton,
somewhat tremulously. 'Justice is what we have to look to, and to allow
Nuttie to be passed over would be permitting a slur to be cast on her
and her mother.'
'I see that,' said Miss Headworth, with an effort. 'I suppose I am
after all a selfish, faithless old woman, and it is not in my hands
after all. But I must prepare my poor Alice for what may be coming.'
'If any terms are offered to her, she had better put the matter into a
lawyer's hands. Dobson would be a safe man to deal with.'
Miss Headworth was amazed that he--who had helped her in many a little
question bordering on law--should not proffer his aid now in this
greatest stress. He was a resolute, self-controlled man, and she never
guessed at the feeling that made him judge himself to be no fitting
champion for Alice Egremont against her husband. Ever since, ten years
ago, he had learnt that his beautiful neighbour did not regard herself
so certainly a widow as to venture to open her heart to any other love,
he had lived patiently on, content to serve her as a trustworthy
friend, and never betraying the secret hope so long cherished and now
entirely crushed.
He was relieved to escape from the interview, and the poor old lady
remained a little more certain as to her duty perhaps, but with a
certainty that only made her more unhappy, and she was so restless and
nervous that, in the middle of the evening's reading of Archbishop
Trench's Lectures on History, Alice suddenly broke off in the very
middle of a sentence and exclaimed, 'Aunt Ursel! you are keeping
something from me.'
Miss Headworth made a faint attempt by saying something about
presently, and glancing with her eyes to indicate that it was to be
reserved till after Nuttie's bedtime, but the young lady comprehended
the signs and exclaimed, 'Never mind me, Aunt Ursel,--I know all about
mother; she told me last night.'
'It is!' broke in Mrs. Egremont, who had been watching her aunt's face.
'You have heard of _him_.'
'Oh, my father! You really have!' cried Nuttie. 'Then he really was
on the desert island all this time; I was quite sure of it. How
delightful!' She jumped up and looked at the door, as if she expected
to see him appear that instant, clad in skins like Robinson Crusoe, but
her aunt's nervous agitation found vent in a sharp reproof: 'Nuttie,
hold your tongue, and don't be such a foolish child, or I shall send
you out of the room this instant!'
'But aunt?' gasped Alice, unable to bear the suspense.
'Yes, my poor dear child. Captain Egremont with the General got off
with some of the crew in a boat when the Ninon was burnt. He spent a
good many years abroad with the old man, but he has now inherited the
family place, and is living there.' Miss Headworth felt as if she had
fired a cannon and looked to see the effect.
'Ah, if we could have stayed at Dieppe!' said Mrs. Egremont. 'But we
did write back to say where we could be heard of.'
'That was of no use. Mark found no traces of us when he went thither.'
'Did he send Mark?'
'No. My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr.
Mark Egremont's doing. He seems to have been helping his uncle with
his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and,
remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the
captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become of
you and to see justice done to you.'
'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate
little boy.'
'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any advances
on his part.'
'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't! I can't talk now. Please let me go to bed.
Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was
overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving Nuttie
with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and desert island.
'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was--I mean--is my father a good or a
bad man?'
'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'
'Aunt Ursel, I can't help it. I think I ought to know all about it,'
said Nuttie gravely, putting away her childishness and sitting down by
her aunt. 'I did not think so much of it when mother told me they
eloped, because, though I know it was very wrong, people do do odd
things sometimes when they are very much in love (she said it in a
superior patronising tone that would have amused Miss Headworth very
much at any other time); and it has not spoilt mother for being the
dearest, sweetest, best thing in the world, and, besides, they had
neither of them any fathers or mothers to disobey. But, then, when I
found he was so old, and that he kept it a secret, and must have told
stories only for the sake of money (uttered with extreme contempt), I
didn't like it. And if he left her as Theseus left Ariadne, or Sir
Lancelot left Elaine, I--I don't think it is nice. Do you think he
only pretended to be lost in the Ninon to get rid of her, or that he
could not find her?'
'The Ninon was really reported lost with all on board,' said Miss
Headworth. 'That was ascertained. He was saved by a Chilian ship, and
seems to have been a good while making his way back to Europe. I had
taken care that our address should be known at Dieppe, but it is quite
possible that he may not have applied to the right people, or that they
may not have preserved my letter, so that we cannot feel sore that he
was to blame.'
'If he had been worth anything at all, he would have moved heaven and
earth to find her!' cried Nuttie; 'and you said yourself it was all
_that_ Mark's doing!'
'He seems to be a very upright and generous young man, that Mr. Mark
Egremont,' said Miss Headworth, a whole romance as to Nuttie's future
destiny sweeping across her mind in an instant, with a mental
dispensation to first cousins in such a case. 'I think you will find
him a staunch champion even against his own interests.'
Perceptions came across Nuttie. 'Oh, then I am a sort of lost heiress,
like people in a story! I see! But, Aunt Ursel, what do you think
will happen?'
'My dear child, I cannot guess in the least. Perhaps the Egremont
property will not concern you, and only go to male heirs. That would
be the best thing, since in any case you must be sufficiently provided
for. Your father must do that.'
'But about mother?'
'A proper provision must be insisted on for her,' said Miss Headworth.
'It is no use, however, to speculate on the future. We cannot guess
how Mr. Mark Egremont's communication will be received, or whether any
wish will be expressed for your mother's rejoining your father. In
such a case the terms must be distinctly understood, and I have full
trust both in Mr. Mark and in Lady Kirkaldy as her champions to see
that justice is done to you both.'
'I'm sure he doesn't deserve that mother should go to him.'
'Nor do I expect that he will wish it, or that it would be proper; but
he is bound to give her a handsome maintenance, and I think most
probably you will be asked to stay with your uncle and cousins,' said
Miss Headworth, figuring to herself a kind of Newstead Abbey or some
such scene of constant orgies at Bridgefield Egremont.
'I shall accept nothing from the family that does not include mother,'
said Nuttie.
'Dear child, I foresee many trials, but you must be her protector.'
'That I will,' said Nuttie; and in the gallant purpose she went to bed,
to find her mother either asleep or feigning slumber with tears on her
cheek.