MRS. VANSITTART GOES HOME
Stephen Brand and the two girls passed silently down the broad stairs of
the hotel unaccompanied by any of the others. There was nothing
incomprehensible in this, nor any savor of discourtesy.
In the first place, Mr. Traill was so profoundly shocked by the
lighthouse-keeper's revelation that he collapsed into a chair and
remained there, bowed and wordless, for many minutes. Both Pyne and
Stanhope did move towards the door, but Enid, watchful,
self-sacrificing, eager to save those she loved from further pain,
telegraphed an emphatic order to Stanhope to remain where he was, and
Pyne murmured to him:
"Guess she's right, anyhow. We'll all feel a heap better in the
morning."
The person who exhibited the clearest signs of distress was Lady
Margaret. Her position was one of extraordinary difficulty. Three of the
actors in the breathless scene which had been sprung on her with the
suddenness of an explosion were absolute strangers in her life before
that evening.
Brand she knew, indeed, but only by sight. She had met Constance and
Enid occasionally, at arm's length, so to speak, regarding them truly as
dangerous young persons where marriageable sons were concerned. Enid had
justified her suspicions, and her ladyship had yielded so far as to give
her approval to an engagement she could not prevent.
Circumstances had conspired to force her hand. Stanhope, being an
outspoken young man, had made no secret of his desperate resolve to
rescue Enid, so the newspapers supplied the remainder of the romance,
and even Lady Margaret herself had contributed to it under the magnetic
influence of the hour.
It was one thing, however, to be thrilled with the adventures of the
rock-bound people, but quite another to figure prominently in connection
with a social scandal of the first magnitude. She knew Penzance too well
to hope that the incident would sink into oblivion. Obviously, the
matter could not rest in its present stage. She must expect disagreeable
disclosures, significant head-shakings of those who knew little and
wanted to know more. All the tea-table artillery of a small town would
be focused on her defensive position were she loyal to the girl whom her
son had chosen as his helpmate.
This same son, too, after he had recovered from the amazement of Mrs.
Vansittart's dramatic departure and Brand's admission, betrayed a
composure that was distinctly irritating.
"You won't mind if we smoke, mother," he said. "The situation requires
tobacco. Don't you feel like that, Pyne?"
"If Lady Margaret doesn't object, I admit that different sorts of poison
might act as tonics," answered Pyne. "Here, uncle, try a brandy and
soda. Lady Margaret, a glass of champagne. I've been expecting a
disturbance, but didn't look for it tonight."
"Why do you say that, Charlie?" asked Mr. Traill, rising and stretching
his limbs as a man who tests his bones after a heavy fall.
"It was hanging around, just as one prophesies a storm after an
electrical feeling in the air. Mrs. Vansittart recognized Brand, and
made her calculations accordingly. Let us give her the credit due to
her. As soon as she discovered him, the marriage project was off."
"I had that kind of impression myself. Glad I mentioned it to you, now."
"Of course you are. I'll bet any reasonable sum that Mrs. Vansittart
intended to leave Penzance tomorrow as soon as she had made you
understand that she could not, under any circumstances, become my aunt."
A ghost of a smile flitted across Mr. Traill's face. His nephew's way of
putting things was delightfully unequivocal.
"What we are apt to lose sight of," continued Pyne, "is the manner in
which Brand received what must have been a staggering blow. He met his
wife tonight after a separation of more than twenty years. And how he
took it! When he spoke, it was really in her behalf. The thing is too
amazing. Of course, now that the thunder and lightning have started, the
sky will clear all the sooner."
"Unhappily such affairs do not arrange themselves so readily," snapped
Lady Margaret. She was becoming more angry with each wave of reflection.
"Young men like you do not realize the effect of such--such unpleasant
exposures on family life. How will the early history of her parents
affect the future of Constance Brand? As for the other girl--"
Her ladyship threw up her hands in helpless abandonment. To her mind,
the adoption of poor Enid, the sea-waif, assumed a darker appearance now
that Brand's matrimonial adventures revealed sinister features.
Jack Stanhope caught her by the shoulder.
"Mother," he cried, "before you say another word let me tell you
something you ought to know. Enid is Mr. Traill's daughter!"
Now this good woman loved her son dearly. All her thoughts were of him
and for him. Her look of blank incredulity yielded to the confirmation
she saw writ on all three faces.
She burst into tears.
"Apparently I am the last person to be taken into anybody's confidence,"
she sobbed.
"Madam," said Mr. Traill, bending over her, "in this instance, at least,
you have no cause to feel aggrieved. Neither the girl herself, nor her
sister by adoption, nor Mrs. Vansittart, to whom, until the past
half-hour, I considered myself to be engaged, is aware of the undoubted
fact which your son has just told you. Let me say that I, as her father,
am proud to think she has won the affections of such a man as Stanhope.
There is no reason why you, his mother, should not be equally satisfied
with the pedigree and prospects of my daughter."
His calm assumption of a rank equal if not superior to her own was
convincing to a woman of her temperament. Assuredly that evening was a
memorable one to her ladyship. The repose of Vere de Vere was rudely
shocked for once. Nevertheless, the knowledge that her lifelong ambition
had been realized in a way little dreamed of by any of those most
concerned was in itself consoling. Mr. Traill, quite unconsciously,
loomed large in the social eye of Penzance, and the widowed lady had not
been so long withdrawn from the wealth-worshiping world of London as to
be wholly unleavened with the worship of the golden calf.
So it was with quickened interest that she set herself to listen to the
story of Enid's parentage, and, if her fear of local gossip-mongers
shrank as her perception of Enid's real social position increased, much
may be forgiven to the motherly sentiment that no wife can be too good
for an excellent son.
Meanwhile Brand and the sorrow-laden girls, ushered by obsequious
servants to the entrance hall, were constrained to comfort themselves
with true British phlegm in view of the interest caused by their
appearance.
The hour was not late, about half past nine. Even whilst the hall porter
was summoning a cab the news spread, within and without, that the
lighthouse-keeper and his daughters, whose exploits filled the minds of
all men, were standing near the door.
Several people, complete strangers, came to them and offered warm
congratulations. A smart journalist pressed forward and wove his own
complimentary utterances into an interview. A crowd gathered quickly on
the pavement. Policemen, those marshals of every English demonstration,
cleared a path for them through the throng. So, with smiling words on
their lips and anguish in their hearts, they made a triumphal exit. How
little could the friendly enthusiasts who cheered them realize that
these three had been atrophied by the deadly malevolence of fate in the
very hour when a great achievement had ended happily.
Enid suffered almost as keenly as Brand and his daughter. Their joys and
sorrows were hers. The startling nature of Brand's avowal rendered it
difficult for either Enid or Constance to piece together certain
fragmentary memories of Mrs. Vansittart's odd behavior during her
enforced sojourn on the rock. So thoroughly had she shattered those
dimly outlined impressions by the quietly vivacious charm of her manner
at dinner that they both experienced a jumble of sensations. A terrified
woman, in wet and torn clothing, cowering in the gaunt interior of a
storm-girt lighthouse, is a very different being when attired in
expensive garments and surrounded by the luxuries of a first-class
hotel.
It was a relief to drive to their cottage in silence, yet, so easily
moulded is our human clay, it was a greater relief when the tension of
the noisy rattle of the cab was relaxed. It cost some effort to assure
Mrs. Sheppard, a buxom, motherly soul of sixty or thereabouts, that they
could not possibly eat any supper. The effort was forthcoming. They
pleaded weariness, and at last they were alone.
Constance knelt by her father's side when he dropped listlessly into the
armchair placed in his accustomed corner.
"Now, dad," she said, bravely unemotional, "there will be no more tears.
Tell me all that I ought to know."
Enid drew a hassock to his feet and seated herself there, clasping her
hands about her knees.
"Whatever she did I am sorry for her," said the girl decisively. "And
she cannot have been a really bad woman, dad, or _you_ would not have
loved her once."
Brand sighed deeply. His strong will had deserted him for a little
while. He shrank from the ordeal before him. Why should he be called on
to sully the mirror of his daughter's innocence by revealing to her the
disgrace of her mother?
Constance caught something of the dread in his soul.
"Don't tell me if it hurts you, dad. I am content to bear more than I
have borne tonight if it lessens your sufferings," she whispered.
He placed an arm around each of them.
"It is God's will," he said, "that I should have to face many trials at
a period when I expected nothing but some few years of quiet happiness."
"Nothing in this world can part us from you," said Constance.
"Oh, nothing," agreed Enid solemnly, nestling closer. Her earnestness
was helpful. He smiled wistfully.
"You forget, Enid, that there is a grave chance of you, at any rate,
leaving me for another," he said.
She blushed.
"That is the worst of girls getting married," she protested. "They are
supposed to be delighted because they are going to live with strange
people. Girls who are of that mind cannot be happy at home. If I thought
that being married to Jack implied separation from you and Constance--"
"You would give him up, and weep your eyes out." He pressed her pouting
lips together as he went on: "Now, my dear ones, I wish both of you to
be prepared for very unexpected changes. Two most important events in
your lives have taken place within a few hours. Constance, if you saw
your mother tonight, Enid also saw her father. I have known for two days
that Enid's father is Mr. Traill."
For an instant, it must be confessed, Constance and Enid alike feared
that the mental and physical strain he had undergone had temporarily
deranged him. It was not sheer incredulity but real terror he saw in
their eyes. Somehow, their self-effacement in his behalf touched him
more keenly than anything else had done during this troubled period.
He bowed his head. A strong man in agony cannot endure the scrutiny of
loving eyes.
"Enid," he said brokenly, "my words to you must be few. Good fortune
needs but slight explanation. The proofs of my statement I do not
possess, but Mr. Traill's letter to me could not have been written by
such a man if he were not sure of his facts. Here it is. Read it aloud."
He handed her her father's plain-spoken communication. Constance,
incapable of deeper depths of amazement than those now probed, looked
over her sister's shoulder. Together they deciphered the somewhat
difficult handwriting of a man whose chief task for years had been to
sign his name.
This drawback was good in its result. They persevered steadily to the
end. Then Enid, the comforter, broke down herself.
"It cannot be true, dad," she cried. "I have been one of your daughters
all my life. Why should I be taken from you now?"
"I believe it is quite true," said Brand quietly, and the need there was
to console her was beneficial to himself. "Mr. Traill speaks of proofs.
You have met him. I exchanged barely a word, a glance, with him, but it
is not believable that he would make these solemn statements without the
most undeniable testimony."
"Indeed, Enid," murmured Constance, "it sounds like the truth, else he
would never have spoken so definitely of my father's first claim on your
affections."
Brand stroked the weeping girl's hair.
"One does not cry, little one, when one is suddenly endowed with a
wealthy and distinguished relative. Now, I did not spring this
revelation on you without a motive. If a cleavage has to come let us, at
least, face every consideration. Providence, by inscrutable decree,
ordained that my wife and I should meet after twenty-one years. That
cannot have been a purposeless meeting. In my careless youth, when I
assigned all things their scientific place, I have scoffed at
presentiments and vague portents of coming evils. I retract the immature
judgment then formed. During the height of the hurricane, when I feared
the very lantern would be hurled into the sea, I was vouchsafed a
spiritual warning. I could not read its import. These things baffle a
man, especially one whose mind leans towards materialism. Nevertheless,
I knew, though not in ordered comprehension, that my life was tending
towards a supreme crisis. As the storm died, so I became normal, and I
attributed a glimpse of the unseen to mere physical facts. I was wrong.
The coming of that ill-fated vessel was heralded to me. I lacked the key
of the hidden message. Now I possess it. On board that ship, Constance,
was your mother. How strange that her advent should be bound up also
with the mystery of Enid's parentage!"
"Father, dear, if you can bear it, tell me of my mother. She knew me,
and that is why she asked me to kiss her."
"She asked you to kiss her?" Each word was a crescendo of surprise.
"Yes. One night she came to me. Oh, I remember. She wished Mr. Pyne to
telegraph to his uncle. When he quitted us to take the message she,
too--how weird it all seems now--admitted that she experienced something
of the intuitive knowledge of the future you have just spoken of."
"I am not surprised. Poor Nanette! She was always a dreamer, in a sense.
Never content, she longed for higher flights. She was a woman in
ambition 'ere she ceased to be a child. When I married her, she was only
eighteen. I was ten years older. My thought was to educate her to a
somewhat higher ideal of life than the frivolities of a fashionable
world. It was a mistake. If a girl harbors delusions before marriage the
experience of married life is not a cure but an incentive. A less
tolerant man would have made her a safer husband."
Constance would listen to nothing which would disparage him.
"I hate to be unjust to her even in my thoughts, but where could she
have found a better husband than you, dad?"
"Millionaire indeed!" protested Enid, breaking in with her own
tumultuous thoughts. "I would not exchange you for twenty millionaires."
"My methods cannot have been so ill-considered if they have brought me
two such daughters," he said, with a mournful smile. "But there! I am
only deluding myself into a postponement of a painful duty. My secret
must out--to you, at any rate. When I married your mother, Constance, I
was an attaché at the British Embassy in Paris. Her maiden name was
Madeleine Nanette de Courtray. Her family, notwithstanding the French
sound of her name, was almost wholly English. They were Jersey people,
recruited from British stock, but two generations of English husbands
were compelled to assume the style de Courtray owing to entailed estates
on the island. There is something quaint in the idea, as it worked out.
The place was only a small farm. When we were married the stipulation
lapsed, because it was more advisable for me to retain my own name. I
was then the heir to a title I can now claim. I am legally and lawfully
Sir Stephen Brand, ninth baronet, of Lesser Hambledon, in
Northumberland."
"And you became a lighthouse-keeper!"
It was Enid who found breath for the exclamation. Constance braced
herself for that which was to come. That Stephen Brand was a well-born
man was not a new thing in their intelligence.
"Yes, a cleaner of lamps and transmitter of ship's signals. Have we been
less happy?" A most vehement "No!" was the answer.
"Don't run away with the idea that I was, therefore, endowed with ample
means. There are baronets poorer than some crossing-sweepers. The estate
was encumbered. During my father's life, during my own until five years
ago, it yielded only a thousand a year. Even now, after fifteen years of
retrenchment--you both forget that whilst I was stationed at
Flamborough Head I was absent for a few days to attend my father's
funeral--it produces only a little over three thousand. Enough for us,
eh, to enjoy life on? Enough to satisfy Lady Margaret's scruples, Enid,
as to her son's absurd notion of matrimony? Enough, too, Constance, to
mate you to the man of your choice, whatever his position?"
"Dad," murmured Constance, "is there no hope of the old days coming back
again?"
"Who can tell? These things are not in mortal ken. I need hardly say
that my allowance of one third of the family revenues was barely
sufficient to maintain a junior in the diplomatic service. Yet I
married, Heaven help me, in the pursuance of an ideal, only to find my
ideal realized, after much suffering, on lonely rocks and bleak
headlands. With strict economy, we existed happily until you were born.
My wife, at first, was sufficiently delighted to exchange Jersey society
for Paris and the distinguished circle in which we moved there. But you
were not many months old until a change came. A Frenchman, a rich fop,
began to pay her attentions which turned her head. I do not think she
meant any harm. People never do mean harm who accomplish it most
fatally. I did that which a man who respects himself loathes to do--I
protested. There was a scene, tears, and wild reproaches. Next day the
crash came. She endeavored to mislead me as to an appointment. God knows
I only wished to save her, but it was too much to ask me to pass over in
silence the schemes of a libertine, though he, too, was infatuated by
her beauty. I discovered them in a clandestine meeting, and--and--my
blood was hot and the country was France. We fought next morning, and I
killed him."
Constance bent her head and kissed his right hand. Here, at least, was a
lineal descendant of nine generations of border raiders, who held their
swords of greater worth than musty laws.
Brand's eyes kindled. His voice became more vehement. The girl's
impulsive action seemed to sanctify the deed.
"I did not regret, I have never regretted, the outcome of the duel. He
was mortally wounded, and was carried to his house to die. I fled from
Paris to escape arrest, but the woman in whose defence I encountered him
behaved most cruelly. She deserted me, and went to him. Ask Mrs.
Sheppard. She was your English nurse at the time, Constance. It was she
who brought you to England. I never met my wife again. I believe, on my
soul, that she was innocent of the greater offence. I think she rebelled
against the thought that I had slain one who said he worshiped her.
Anyhow, she had her price. She remained with him, in sheer defiance of
me, until his death, and her reward was his wealth. Were it not for this
we might have come together again and striven to forget the past in
mutual toleration. The knowledge that she was enriched with that man's
gold maddened me. I could not forget that. I loathed all that money
could give, the diamonds, the dresses, the insane devices of society to
pour out treasure on the vanities of the hour. By idle chance I was
drawn to the lighthouse service. It was the mere whim of a friend into
whose sympathetic ears I gave my sorrows. It is true I did not intend to
devote my life to my present occupation. But its vast silences, its
isolation, its seclusion from the petty, sordid, money-grabbing life
ashore, attracted me. I found quiet joys, peaceful days, and dreamless
nights in its comparative dangers and privations. Excepting my loyal
servant and friend, Mrs. Sheppard, and the agent and solicitors of my
estate, none knew of my whereabouts. I was a lost man, and, as I
imagined, a fortunate one. Now, in the last week of my service--for I
would have retired in a few days and it was my intention to tell you
something, not all, of my history, largely on account of your
love-making, Enid--the debacle has come, and with it my wife."
"Father," asked Constance, "is my mother still your wife by law?"
"She cannot be otherwise."
"I wonder if you are right. I am too young to judge these things, but
she spoke of her approaching marriage with Mr. Traill in a way that
suggested she would not do him a grievous wrong. She does not love him,
as I understand love. She regards him as a man admirable in many ways,
but she impressed me with the idea that she believed she was doing that
which was right, though she feared some unforeseen difficulty."
Brand looked at her with troubled eyes. It is always amazing to a parent
to find unexpected powers of divination in a child. Constance was still
a little girl in his heart. What had conferred this insight into a
complex nature like her mother's?
"There is something to be said for that view," he admitted. "I recollect
now that Pyne told me she had lived some years in the Western States.
But he said, too, that her husband, the man whose name she bears, died
there. My poor girls, I do, indeed, pity you if all this story of
miserable intrigue, this squalid romance of the law-courts, is to be
dragged into the light in a town where you are honored. Enid, you see
now how doubly fortunate you are in being restored to a father's arms--"
"Oh, no, no!" wailed Enid. "Do not say that. It seems to cut us apart.
What have you done that you should dread the worst than can be said? And
why should there be any scandal at all? I cannot bear you to say such
things."
"I think I understand you, dad," said Constance, her burning glance
striving to read his hidden thought. "Matters cannot rest where they
are. You will not allow--my mother--to go away--a second time--without a
clear statement as to the future and an equally honest explanation of
the past."
This was precisely the question he dreaded. It had forced its unwelcome
presence upon him in the first moment of the meeting with his wife. But
he was a man of order, of discipline. The habits of years might not be
flung aside so readily. It was absurd, he held, to inflict the
self-torture of useless imaginings on the first night of their
home-coming after the severe trials of their precarious life on the
rock.
Above all else it was necessary to reassure Constance, whose strength
only concealed the raging fire beneath, and Enid, whose highly strung
temperament was on the borderland of hysteria.
He was still the arbiter of their lives, the one to whom they looked for
guidance. He rebelled against the prospect of a night of sleepless
misery for these two, and it needed his emphatic dominance to direct
their thoughts into a more peaceful channel.
So he assumed the settled purpose he was far from feeling and summoned a
kindly smile to his aid.
"Surely we have discussed our difficulties sufficiently tonight," he
said. "In the morning, Constance, I will meet Mr. Traill. He is a
gentleman and a man of the world. I think, too, that his nephew will be
resourceful and wise in counsel beyond his years. Now we are all going
to obtain some much-needed rest. Neither you nor I will yield to
sleepless hours of brooding. Neither of you knows that, not forty-eight
hours ago, I made myself a thief in the determination to save your lives
and mine. It was a needless burglary. I persuaded myself that it was
necessary in the interests of the Trinity Brethren, those grave
gentlemen in velvet cloaks, Enid, who would be horrified by the mere
suggestion. I refuse to place myself on the moral rack another time. In
the old days, when I was a boy, the drama was wont to be followed by a
more lively scene. I forbid further discussion. Come, kiss me, both of
you. I think that a stiff glass of hot punch will not do me any harm,
nor you, unless you imbibed freely of that champagne I saw nestling in
the ice-pail."
They rose obediently. Although they knew he was acting a part on their
account they were sensible that he was adopting a sane course.
Enid tried to contribute to the new note. She bobbed in the approved
style of the country domestic.
"Please, Sir Stephen," she said, "would you like some lemon in the
toddy?"
Constance placed a little copper kettle on the fire. Their gloom had
given way to a not wholly forced cheerfulness--for in that pleasant
cottage sorrow was an unwelcome guest--when they were surprised to hear
a sharp knock on the outer door.
At another time the incident, though unusual at a late hour, would not
have disturbed them. But the emotions of the night were too recent,
their subsidence too artificially achieved, that they should not dread
the possibilities which lay beyond that imperative summons.
Mrs. Sheppard and the servant had retired to rest, worn out with the
anxious uncertainties of events reported from the lighthouse.
So Brand went to the door, and the girls listened in nervous foreboding.
They heard their father say:
"Hello, Jenkins, what is the matter now?"
Jenkins was a sergeant of police whom they knew.
"Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Brand, but an odd thing has happened. A lady,
a stranger, met me ten minutes ago, and asked me to direct her to your
house. I did so. She appeared to be in great trouble, so I strolled
slowly after her. I was surprised to see her looking in through the
window of your sitting-room. As far as I could make out, she was crying
fit to break her heart, and I imagined she meant to knock at the door,
but was afraid."
"Where is she? What has become of her?"
Brand stepped out into the moonlight. The girls, white and trembling,
followed.
"Well, she ran off down the garden path and tumbled in a dead faint near
the gate. I was too late to save her. I picked her up and placed her on
a seat. She is there now. I thought it best, before carrying her
here--to tell you you--"
Before Brand moved, Constance ran out, followed by Enid. In a whirl of
pain, the lighthouse-keeper strode after them. He saw Constance stooping
over a motionless figure lying prone on the garden seat. To those strong
young arms the slight, graceful form offered an easy task.
Brand heard Enid's whisper:
"Oh, Connie, it is she!"
But the daughter, clasping her mother to her breast, said quietly:
"Dad, she has come home, and she may be dying. We must take her in."
He made no direct answer. What could he say? The girl's fearless words
admitted of neither "Yes" nor "No."
He turned to the policeman.
"I am much obliged to you, Jenkins," he said; "we know the lady.
Unless--unless there are serious consequences, will you oblige me by
saying nothing about her? But stay. When you pass the Mount's Bay Hotel,
please call and say that Mrs. Vansittart has been seized with sudden
illness and is being cared for at my house."
"Yes, sir," said the sergeant, saluting.
As he walked away down the garden path he wondered who Mrs. Vansittart
could be, and why Miss Brand said she had "come home."
Then he glanced back at the house, into which the others had vanished.
He laughed.
"Just fancy it," he said; "I treated him as if he was a bloomin' lord.
And I suppose my position is a better one than his. Anyhow he is a
splendid chap. I'm glad now I did it, for his sake and the sake of those
two girls. How nicely they were dressed. It has always been a puzzle to
me how they can afford to live in that style on the pay of a
lighthouse-keeper. Well, it's none of my business."