_A WALK IN THE WOOD_
Two little pieces of by-play in which I detected her confirmed my
unpleasant suspicion. From the corner of the gallery I one day saw her,
when she thought I was out and all quiet, with her ear at the keyhole of
papa's study, as we used to call the sitting-room next his bed-room. Her
eyes were turned in the direction of the stairs, from which only she
apprehended surprise. Her great mouth was open, and her eyes absolutely
goggled with eagerness. She was devouring all that was passing there.
I drew back into the shadow with a kind of disgust and horror. She was
transformed into a great gaping reptile. I felt that I could have thrown
something at her; but a kind of fear made me recede again toward my room.
Indignation, however, quickly returned, and I came back, treading briskly
as I did so. When I reached the angle of the gallery again. Madame, I
suppose, had heard me, for she was half-way down the stairs.
'Ah, my dear Cheaile, I am so glad to find you, and you are dress to come
out. We shall have so pleasant walk.'
At that moment the door of my father's study opened, and Mrs. Rusk, with
her dark energetic face very much flushed, stepped out in high excitement.
'The Master says you may have the brandy-bottle, Madame and I'm glad to be
rid of it--_I_ am.'
Madame courtesied with a great smirk, that was full of intangible hate and
insult.
'Better your own brandy, if drink you must!' exclaimed Mrs. Rusk. 'You may
come to the store-room now, or the butler can take it.'
And off whisked Mrs. Rusk for the back staircase.
There had been no common skirmish on this occasion, but a pitched battle.
Madame had made a sort of pet of Anne Wixted, an under-chambermaid, and
attached her to her interest economically by persuading me to make her
presents of some old dresses and other things. Anne was such an angel!
But Mrs. Rusk, whose eyes were about her, detected Anne, with a
brandy-bottle under her apron, stealing up-stairs. Anne, in a panic,
declared the truth. Madame had commissioned her to buy it in the town, and
convey it to her bed-room. Upon this, Mrs. Rusk impounded the flask; and,
with Anne beside her, rather precipitately appeared before 'the Master.' He
heard and summoned Madame. Madame was cool, frank, and fluent. The brandy
was purely medicinal. She produced a document in the form of a note. Doctor
Somebody presented his compliments to Madame de la Rougierre, and ordered
her a table-spoonful of brandy and some drops of laudanum whenever the pain
of stomach returned. The flask would last a whole year, perhaps two. She
claimed her medicine.
Man's estimate of woman is higher than woman's own. Perhaps in their
relations to men they are generally more trustworthy--perhaps woman's is
the juster, and the other an appointed illusion. I don't know; but so it is
ordained.
Mrs. Rusk was recalled, and I saw, as you are aware, Madame's procedure
during the interview.
It was a great battle--a great victory. Madame was in high spirits. The air
was sweet--the landscape charming--I, so good--everything so beautiful!
Where should we go? _this_ way?
I had made a resolution to speak as little as possible to Madame, I was so
incensed at the treachery I had witnessed; but such resolutions do not last
long with very young people, and by the time we had reached the skirts of
the wood we were talking pretty much as usual.
'I don't wish to go into the wood, Madame.'
'And for what?'
'Poor mamma is buried there.'
'Is _there_ the vault?' demanded Madame eagerly.
I assented.
'My faith, curious reason; you say because poor mamma is buried there you
will not approach! Why, cheaile, what would good Monsieur Ruthyn say if
he heard such thing? You are surely not so unkain', and I am with you.
_Allons_. Let us come--even a little part of the way.'
And so I yielded, though still reluctant.
There was a grass-grown road, which we easily reached, leading to the
sombre building, and we soon arrived before it.
Madame de la Rougierre seemed rather curious. She sat down on the little
bank opposite, in her most languid pose--her head leaned upon the tips of
her fingers.
'How very sad--how solemn!' murmured Madame. 'What noble tomb! How triste,
my dear cheaile, your visit 'ere must it be, remembering a so sweet maman.
There is new inscription--is it not new?' And so, indeed, it seemed.
'I am fatigue--maybe you will read it aloud to me slowly and solemnly, my
dearest Maud?'
As I approached, I happened to look, I can't tell why, suddenly, over my
shoulder; I was startled, for Madame was grimacing after me with a vile
derisive distortion. She pretended to be seized with a fit of coughing. But
it would not do: she saw that I had detected her, and she laughed aloud.
'Come here, dear cheaile. I was just reflecting how foolish is all this
thing--the tomb--the epitaph. I think I would 'av none--no, no epitaph. We
regard them first for the oracle of the dead, and find them after only the
folly of the living. So I despise. Do you think your house of Knowl down
there is what you call haunt, my dear?'
'Why?' said I, flushing and growing pale again. I felt quite afraid of
Madame, and confounded at the suddenness of all this.
'Because Anne Wixted she says there is ghost. How dark is this place! and
so many of the Ruthyn family they are buried here--is not so? How high and
thick are the trees all round! and nobody comes near.'
And Madame rolled her eyes awfully, as if she expected to see something
unearthly, and, indeed, looked very like it herself.
'Come away, Madame,' I said, growing frightened, and feeling that if I were
once, by any accident, to give way to the panic that was gathering round
me, I should instantaneously lose all control of myself. 'Oh, come away!
do, Madame--I'm frightened.'
'No, on the contrary, sit here by me. It is very odd, you will think, ma
chêre--un goût bizarre, vraiment!--but I love very much to be near to the
dead people--in solitary place like this. I am not afraid of the dead
people, nor of the ghosts. 'Av you ever see a ghost, my dear?'
'Do, Madame, _pray_ speak of something else.'
'Wat little fool! But no, you are not afraid. I 'av seen the ghosts myself.
I saw one, for example, last night, shape like a monkey, sitting in the
corner, with his arms round his knees; very wicked, old, old man his face
was like, and white eyes so large.'
'Come away, Madame! you are trying to frighten me,' I said, in the childish
anger which accompanies fear. Madame laughed an ugly laugh, and said--
'Eh bien! little fool!--I will not tell the rest if you are really
frightened; let us change to something else.'
'Yes, yes! oh, do--pray do.'
'Wat good man is your father!'
'Very--the kindest darling. I don't know why it is, Madame, I am so afraid
of him, and never could tell him how much I love him.'
This confidential talking with Madame, strange to say, implied no
confidence; it resulted from fear--it was deprecatory. I treated her as if
she had human sympathies, in the hope that they might be generated somehow.
'Was there not a doctor from London with him a few months ago? Dr. Bryerly,
I think they call him.'
'Yes, a Doctor Bryerly, who remained a few days. Shall we begin to walk
towards home, Madame? Do, pray.'
'Immediately, cheaile; and does your father suffer much?'
'No--I think not.'
'And what then is his disease?'
'Disease! he has _no_ disease. Have you heard anything about his health,
Madame?' I said, anxiously.
'Oh no, ma foi--I have heard nothing; but if the doctor came, it was not
because he was quite well.'
'But that doctor is a doctor in theology, I fancy. I know he is a
Swedenborgian; and papa is so well he _could_ not have come as a
physician.'
'I am very glad, ma chère, to hear; but still you know your father is
old man to have so young cheaile as you. Oh, yes--he is old man, and so
uncertain life is. 'As he made his will, my dear? Every man so rich as he,
especially so old, aught to 'av made his will.'
'There is no need of haste, Madame; it is quite time enough when his health
begins to fail.'
'But has he really compose no will?'
'I really don't know, Madame.'
'Ah, little rogue! you will not tell--but you are not such fool as you
feign yourself. No, no; you know everything. Come, tell me all about--it is
for your advantage, you know. What is in his will, and when he wrote?'
'But, Madame, I really know nothing of it. I can't say whether there is a
will or not. Let us talk of something else.'
'But, cheaile, it will not kill Monsieur Ruthyn to make his will; he will
not come to lie here a day sooner by cause of that; but if he make no will,
you may lose a great deal of the property. Would not that be pity?'
'I really don't know anything of his will. If papa has made one, he has
never spoken of it to me. I know he loves me--that is enough.'
'Ah! you are not such little goose--you do know everything, of course. Come
tell me, little obstinate, otherwise I will break your little finger. Tell
me everything.'
'I know nothing of papa's will. You don't know, Madame, how you hurt me.
Let us speak of something else.'
'You do know, and you must tell, petite dure-tête, or I will break a your
little finger.'
With which words she seized that joint, and laughing spitefully, she
twisted it suddenly back. I screamed while she continued to laugh.
'Will you tell?'
'Yes, yes! let me go,' I shrieked.
She did not release it immediately however, but continued her torture and
discordant laughter. At last she finally released my finger.
'So she is going to be good cheaile, and tell everything to her
affectionate gouvernante. What do you cry for, little fool?'
'You've hurt me very much--you have broken my finger,' I sobbed.
'Rub it and blow it and give it a kiss, little fool! What cross girl! I
will never play with you again--never. Let us go home.'
Madame was silent and morose all the way home. She would not answer my
questions, and affected to be very lofty and offended.
This did not last very long, however, and she soon resumed her wonted ways.
And she returned to the question of the will, but not so directly, and with
more art.
Why should this dreadful woman's thoughts be running so continually upon my
father's will? How could it concern her?