TANGLED THREADS
God has furnished us with constant occasions of bearing
one another's burdens. For there is no man living
without his failings, no man that is so happy as never
to give offence, no man without his load of trouble.
A loving heart is the great requirement.
--Teaching of Buddha.
Cedric had spent the Easter vacation with Malcolm at Cheyne Walk.
Malcolm had previously sounded Dinah before he gave the invitation, and
found that she fully appreciated the thoughtfulness that prompted it.
"It is so like your usual kindness, dear friend," she wrote. "You felt,
as we do, that the Wood House would be too quiet and dull just now for
Cedric. It is so much better for him to be with you. Indeed, I shall
not mind being alone; and when Cedric goes back to Oxford you will run
down to see me as you promised."
Malcolm was relieved to find a great improvement in Cedric. Though his
love-affair had ended so disastrously, he had achieved his pet
ambition, and had been in the winning boat in the Oxford and Cambridge
boat-race. The excitement and months of training had done him good
morally and physically, and though he was still depressed and
melancholy, and had by no means forgotten Leah, he showed greater
manliness and self-control, and Malcolm's influence was again in the
ascendant.
Malcolm took him to Queen's Gate and introduced him to his mother and
Anna. He had previously acquainted his mother with the story of his
unfortunate infatuation for Leah Jacobi. To his surprise she was deeply
interested, and begged to be allowed to tell Anna.
"Anna cares so much more for unhappy people," she said. "You will see
how kind she will be to the poor fellow."
In her way Mrs. Herrick was kind too. Malcolm, who knew young men were
seldom welcome at 27 Queen's Gate, was secretly amazed at the
graciousness with which Cedric was received.
Mrs. Herrick's stoicism was not proof against the lad's handsome face
and deep melancholy. Her manner softened and grew quite motherly; and
as for Anna, Malcolm took her to task at last, when he found that
Cedric was in the habit of going over to Queen's Gate at all hours in
the day.
Anna thought Malcolm was serious, and flushed up in quite a distressed
manner at his bantering tone.
"Mother asked him," she said, defending herself quite anxiously. "It is
so dull for him at Cheyne Walk while you are in town, and so mother
said he could come here to luncheon whenever he liked."
"That was kind of her," returned Malcolm; "but as for dulness, there is
not a more jovial old fellow than Goliath of Gath. He and Verity would
look after him right enough during my absence. Cedric used to be quite
chummy with them when he was with me before."
"Yes, I know, dear, but Mr. Templeton says things are so different this
time. He likes the Kestons tremendously, but somehow he says he does
not feel up to the studio life. I know what he means, Malcolm," rather
shyly--"when one is unhappy one must choose one's own companions."
"And so Cedric prefers being here, and talking to you about his
troubles." Perhaps Malcolm's tone was slightly mischievous, for Anna
blushed violently.
"Oh, Malcolm, surely you understand," she returned nervously. "Don't
you see, Mr. Templeton knows we are sorry for him, and he is grateful
for our sympathy, and he likes to come and talk to us. He made me feel
quite bad yesterday. I could hardly sleep for thinking of all he went
through, and thinking of the death of that poor Mr. Carlyon. He does
seem so sorry for his sister, though he declares that he never thought
him good enough for her. That is how people talk," went on Anna,
frowning thoughtfully over her words; "they will judge by outward
appearance, as though anything matters when two people love each other.
Mr. Templeton has been talking so much about his sister Elizabeth that
he quite makes me long to see her, but all the same he seems to care
most for his elder sister."
"I believe he does," returned Malcolm; "but then she has taken the
place of a mother to him. Anna, dear, I was only in jest. I am really
very grateful to you and my mother for making Cedric so happy and at
home. I do quite understand, and I believe the society of two such good
women will do much for him. Like the rest of us, he has found out that
you are a friend born for adversity--a veritable daughter of
consolation," and Malcolm's words made Anna very happy.
When Cedric returned to Oxford for his last term, Malcolm paid his
promised visit to the Wood House; but he only stayed two nights. The
place was too full of painful associations. Elizabeth's presence
haunted every room, the emptiness and desolation of the house oppressed
him like a nightmare, and though Dinah's gentleness and tact made
things more bearable during the day, at night he found himself unable
to sleep; and Dinah, who read his weary look aright, forbore to press
him to remain. "It is not good for him to be here," she said to
herself; "he is so kind and unselfish that he will not spare himself,
but I will not ask him to come again," and Dinah kept her word.
But they had much to discuss during those two days. There was now no
longer any talk of the Civil Service Examination for Cedric. At the end
of June he was to go abroad for six or eight months. A friend of
Malcolm's, a young barrister, who had also been crossed in love--a
sensible, straightforward fellow--was to accompany him. "He is sure to
like Dunlop," Malcolm observed, as he and Dinah paced the terrace
together in the sweet spring sunshine. "Charlie is a good-hearted
fellow, and one of the best companions I know, though he is a bit down
in the mouth just now, poor old chap."
"I think you said the lady jilted him?" asked Dinah sympathetically.
"Yes, and he is well rid of her, if we could only get him to believe
that. She was a handsome girl--I saw her once--but she came across an
American millionaire, and sent Charlie about his business. Oh, he will
get over it fast enough," as Dinah looked quite sorrowful; "when a
woman does that sort of thing, she just kills a man's love. Of course
he must suffer a bit--his pride is hurt as well as his heart--but in
two or three years he will fall in love again, and will live happy ever
after."
"Oh, how I hope Cedric will care for some nice girl by-and-bye,"
exclaimed Dinah earnestly; but Malcolm only smiled.
"You need have no doubt of that, my dear lady," he returned; "but you
must give him time to be off with the old love. That is why I am so
anxious that he and Miss Jacobi should not meet. You tell me that she
and Mrs. Richardson return to Sandy Hollow early in June?"
"Yes; Mrs. Godfrey told us that."
"Then the sooner he is out of England the better. In London one is
never sure of not coming across people." And then he rapidly sketched
out the details of the proposed trip, which was to include Germany,
Switzerland, the Austrian Tyrol, the Italian Lakes, and probably Greece
and Constantinople. Cedric had a great desire to visit the Crimea and
the shores of the Bosphorus, and to see something of Eastern life. In
all probability Christmas and the New Year would be spent in Cairo. "We
had better leave Dunlop to work out details," continued Malcolm, "as
money or time seem no object. You may as well give them a long tether.
Change of scene will do Cedric a world of good, and when he is tired of
wandering he will settle down more happily. Very likely by that time he
will have some idea of what he wants to do;" and Malcolm's sound
common-sense carried the day.
Dinah spoke very little of her sister. She was well, she said in answer
to Malcolm's inquiries--Elizabeth was so strong that her health rarely
suffered; but she was grieving sorely for David. "Mr. Carlyon is
better," she continued. "Elizabeth is the greatest comfort to him. She
goes with him when he visits the sick, and sits beside him when he
writes his sermons. Indeed, Theo says they are never apart. Theo is
very much softened and subdued by her brother's death," went on Dinah.
"I think Elizabeth's influence and example will do good there. I
believe that, with all her faults, Theo Carlyon is really a
good-hearted woman."
Malcolm paid a flying visit to Oxford soon after he got back to
town--somehow movement seemed necessary to him in those weary, restless
days--and he took Mr. Dunlop with him, and had the satisfaction of
seeing that Cedric appeared to like him at once.
"He does not seem to stand on tiptoe and look over a fellow's head,
don't you know," observed Cedric. "He meets one on equal terms, though
he is ten years older. He is a chip of your block, Herrick, and I
expect he is a good fellow too"--and all this speech did Malcolm retail
to Dinah in his next letter.
Cedric spent three or four days at Cheyne Walk before he started for
the Continent, and again most of his time was devoted to his friends at
27 Queen's Gate.
Malcolm was secretly glad that he was in such safe hands, for, as the
time of Cedric's departure drew near, he could not divest himself of an
uneasy fear that all their precautions might be unavailing, and that,
when they least expected it, he and Leah Jacobi would come face to
face. He knew that she and her new friend Mrs. Richardson were now
settled at Sandy Hollow for the summer, and that Mrs. Richardson came
frequently to town for sight-seeing or shopping expeditions.
Malcolm little knew what good reason he had for his fears.
On Cedric's last day in Cheyne Walk, Mrs. Herrick proposed that he
should drive with her and Anna to Pall Mall to see some pictures that
were being exhibited. She would leave them at the gallery for an hour,
and call for them when she had done her shopping. Malcolm had promised
to be there at the same time, and they would all go back together to
Queen's Gate for the remainder of the day. It so happened that Mrs.
Richardson had planned one of her favourite shopping expeditions for
the same day, and in the course of the afternoon the hansom she had
chartered drew up at a shop exactly opposite the gallery, where at that
very moment Anna, Cedric, and Malcolm were coming down the staircase to
join Mrs. Herrick, who was waiting for them in her carriage.
Leah, who had not recovered her normal strength since her attack of
influenza, was excessively tried by all the noise and bustle of the
West End, and begged to remain in the hansom while Mrs. Richardson
finished her purchases. When Mrs. Richardson came out of the shop a
quarter of an hour later, the handsome carriage with its pair of bay
horses had driven off, and Leah was leaning back in the hansom looking
white as death, with a pained, startled expression in her beautiful
eyes.
Mrs. Richardson told the man to drive to the station. Then she took the
girl's hand kindly. "What is it, my dear?" she said in a motherly
voice. "Are you ill, or has something frightened you?" but it was long
before Leah could gasp out her explanation.
"She had seen him, and he looked quite bright and happy, and he was
talking to a fair haired-girl with a sweet face, and Mr. Herrick was
with them;" but poor Leah could say no more, for the jealous pain
seemed to choke her. That was the way he had smiled at her, and now she
was forgotten, and this other girl had taken her place!
Mrs. Richardson, with all her eccentricities, had a warm, true heart,
and she was very patient and tender with the poor girl.
But late that night, as she sat in her dressing-room, there was a timid
knock at her door, and Leah entered in her white wrapper, with all her
glorious dark hair streaming over her shoulders; but her eyes were
swollen with weeping.
"I felt I must come and speak to you or I could not sleep!" she
exclaimed in her deep voice; and kneeling down by her friend--"Oh, I
have been so wicked! but I will try to be good now."
"Tell me all about it, dearie," returned Mrs. Richardson in her kind,
comforting voice; and she drew the dark head to her shoulder, and a
sort of wonder filled her eyes as she saw the glossy lengths of hair
that swept the floor.
To an onlooker Mrs. Richardson might have seemed a somewhat grotesque
figure in her quilted magenta silk dressing-gown, with her gray fringe
pinned up by her maid in little twists and rolls, but her honest eyes
beamed with kindness and sympathy.
"Oh, I have been so wicked!" repeated Leah. "All these months I have
been praying that he might not suffer as I have been suffering, and
that in time he might forget me and be happy; and yet, because my
prayer has been answered, and that girl is helping him to forget, I
felt as though I hated her;" and then she hid her face in the folds of
the gaudy dressing-gown and shed tears of bitter shame and
self-loathing.
"My dear, if you cry so you will make yourself ill," observed Mrs.
Richardson soothingly. "You have been sorely tried, you poor child, but
you are not wicked; on the contrary, I think few girls have behaved so
well. Do not call yourself names, dearie; Mrs. Godfrey and I both think
you good, and we mean to do our best to make you happy."
"Yes, and I am so grateful to you both, you dear, dear friends," and
Leah raised her tear-stained face and kissed her with all the warmth of
her loving nature. What was it to her that Mrs. Richardson was an
odd-looking, eccentric old lady, whose curled gray fringe and gay
attire scarcely harmonised with her homely, weather-beaten features; to
Leah her face was transfigured by the loveliness of a kind and tender
nature. "I think I saw her as the angels did," she said long years
afterwards to one who had served for her as Jacob did for his beloved
Rachel; "for I loved every line of her dear homely face. Oh, how she
mothered me, who had never known mother love, and how good and patient
she was with me in my bad times! If God had not taken her, I could
never have left her--never!" For when Mrs. Richardson died some years
later, her hand was locked in that of her adopted daughter.
Leah drooped for some time after this encounter. Then, as the summer
went on, she recovered her spirits gradually; new duties and interests
demanded her attention, and in the wholesome and active life led by the
mistress of Sandy Hollow she found plenty to distract her sad thoughts.
Mrs. Richardson was a great gardener, and on warm days she spent most
of her time in the open air; they breakfasted under a spreading
chestnut, and often dined in foreign fashion on the terrace facing the
sunset.
When Malcolm went down to the Manor House in August before he started
for Norway, he walked across to Sandy Hollow with Mrs. Godfrey. They
found Mrs. Richardson sitting in a shady retreat, with all her various
pets round her. Leah was gathering flowers in the lower garden, she
said. She received Malcolm very kindly, for he was one of her
favourites, and talked to him a great deal about the girl--of her sweet
temper, her docility, and her patience.
"She has heard nothing of that wretched brother of hers," she
continued. Then Malcolm shrugged his shoulders; he could give her
information on that subject, he said drily--at least a score of begging
letters had reached him and Cedric from New York, and had been
consigned to the flames. Saul Jacobi was evidently playing his old
tricks and living on his wits; he was utterly irredeemable. Hugh
Rossiter always prophesied that he would never die in his bed; and this
prediction was unfortunately verified some three years later, when, in
a drunken brawl, a tipsy sailor lurched up against him one dark night
and pushed him over the quay. No one heard his cry for help for the
oaths and curses that were filling the air; neither was his body found
until the next day. Strange to say, it was Hugh Rossiter who identified
it; and it was he who later on brought Leah a pathetic little proof
that Saul had not wholly forgotten his sister.
In the pocket of his shabby old coat--how shabby and how ragged it was
Hugh never ventured to tell her--there was a cheap little photo of
Leah, taken when she was eighteen, and in the first bloom of her young
beauty; and on the soiled envelope was written, "My little sister
Leah," and the date of her birth. For no nature is wholly evil and
irreclaimable, and perhaps, in spite of his tyranny and cruel tempers,
there was a spark of affection in the man's heart for the young sister
dependent on him. Leah always believed this, and she wept the saddest,
tenderest tears over the little photo. "My poor Saul," she said, "his
nature was strangely warped, and he did not know how to speak the
truth, and he could be hard and cruel--as I know to my cost--but there
were times when he was very good to me;" and so even Saul Jacobi had
one human being to mourn for him.