PUZZLED.
The old Australian Alexander Wilson, had left his niece, Charlotte Home,
after his first interview with her, in a very disturbed state of mind.
More disturbed indeed was he than by the news of his sister's death. He
was a rich man now, having been successful in the land of his
banishment, and having returned to his native land the possessor of a
moderate fortune. He had never married, and he meant to live with Daisy
and share his wealth with her. But in these day-dreams he had only
thought of his money as giving some added comforts to his rich little
sister, enabling her to have a house in London for the season, and,
while living in the country, to add more horses to her establishment and
more conservatories to build and tend. His money should add to her
luxuries and, consequently, to her comforts. He had never heard of this
unforgotten sister for three and twenty years, the strange dislike to
write home having grown upon him as time went on but though he knew
nothing about her, he many a time in his own wild and solitary life
pictured her as he saw her last. Daisy never grew old to him. Death and
Daisy were not connected. Daisy in his imagination was always young,
always girlish always fresh and beautiful. He saw her as he saw her last
in her beautiful country home standing by her rich husband's side,
looking more like his daughter than his wife. No, Sandy never dreamed
that Daisy would or could die, but in thinking of her he believed her to
be a widow. That husband, so old, when he went away, must be dead.
On his arrival in England, Sandy went down into Hertfortshire. He
visited the place where he had last seen his sister. It was in the hands
of strangers--sold long ago. No one even remembered the name of Harman.
Then he met little Daisy Home, and learned quite by accident that his
Daisy was dead, and that the pretty child who reminded him of her was
her grandchild. He went to visit Charlotte Home, and there made a fresh
discovery. Had his Daisy been alive she would have wanted far more from
his well-filled purse than horses and carriages. She would have needed
not the luxuries of life, but the necessities. He had imagined her rich,
while she had died in poverty. She had died poor, and her child, her
only child, bore evident marks of having met face to face with the
sorest of all want, that which attacks the gently born. Her face, still
young, but sadly thin and worn, the very look in her eyes told this fact
to Sandy.
Yes; his pretty Daisy, whom he had imagined so rich, so bountifully
provided for, had died a very poor and struggling woman. Doubtless this
sad and dreadful fact had shortened her days. Doubtless but for this
monstrous injustice she would be alive now, ready to welcome her
long-lost brother back to his native land.
All that night Sandy Wilson lay awake. He was a hale and hearty man, and
seldom knew what it was to toss for any time on his pillow; but so
shocked was he, that this night no repose would visit him. An injustice
had been done, a fraud committed, and it remained for him to find out
the evil thing, to drag it to the light, to set the wronged right once
more. Charlotte Home was not at all the character he could best
understand. She was not in the least like her mother. She told the tale
of her wrongs with a strange and manifest reluctance. She believed that
a fraud had been committed. She was fully persuaded that not her
long-dead father but her living half-brothers were the guilty parties.
In this belief Sandy most absolutely shared. He longed to drag these
villains into the glaring light of justice, to expose them and their
disgraceful secret to the shameful light of day. But in this longing he
saw plainly that Charlotte did not share. He was puzzled, scarcely
pleased that this was so. How differently little Daisy would have acted
had she been alive. Dear little innocent Daisy, who all alone could do
nothing, would in his strong presence have grown so brave and fearless.
She would have put the case absolutely and once for all into his hands.
Now this her daughter did not seem disposed to do. She said to him, with
most manifest anxiety, "You will do nothing without me. You will do
nothing until we meet again."
This he had promised readily enough, for what _could_ he do in the short
hours which must elapse between now and their next meeting? As he was
dressing, however, on the following morning, a sudden idea did occur to
him, and on this idea he resolved to act before he saw Charlotte at six
o'clock in the evening. He would go to Somerset House and see Mr.
Harman's will. What Daisy first, and now Charlotte, had never thought of
doing during all these years he would do that very day. Thus he would
gain certain and definite information. With this information it would be
comparatively easy to know best how to act.
He went to Somerset House. He saw the will; he saw the greatness of the
robbery committed so many years ago; he saw and he felt a wild kind of
almost savage delight in the fact that he could quickly and easily set
the wrong right, for he was one of the trustees. He saw all this, and
yet--and yet--he went away a very unhappy and perplexed man, for he had
seen something else--he had seen a woman's agony and despair. Sandy
Wilson possessed the very softest soul that had ever been put into a big
body. He never could bear to see even a dog in pain. How then could he
look at the face of this girl which, all in a moment, under his very
eyes, had been blanched with agony? He could not bear it. He forgot his
fierce longing for revenge, he forgot his niece Charlotte's wrongs, in
this sudden and passionate desire to succor the other Charlotte, the
daughter of the bad man who had robbed his own sister, his own niece; he
became positively anxious that Miss Harman should not commit herself;
he felt a nervous fear as each word dropped from her lips; he saw that
she spoke in the extremity of despair. How could he stop the words which
told too much? He was relieved when the thought occurred to him to ask
her to meet him again--again when they both were calmer. She had
consented, and he found himself advising her, as he would have advised
his own dear daughter had he been lucky enough to have possessed one. He
promised her that nothing, nothing should be done until they met again,
and so afraid was he that in his interview that evening with his niece,
Mrs. Home, he might be tempted to drop some word which might betray ever
so little that other Charlotte, that instead of going to Tremin's Road
as he had intended, he wrote a note excusing himself and putting off his
promised visit until the following evening.