IN WHICH THE GHOSTS OF A BY-GONE SIN KEEP TRYST.
Devereux, wrapped in his cloak, strode into the park, through
Parson's-gate, up the steep hill, and turned towards Castleknock and the
furze and hawthorn wood that interposes. The wide plain spread before
him in solitude, with the thin vapours of night, lying over it like a
film in the moonlight.
Two or three thorn trees stood out from the rest, a pale and solitary
group, stooping eastward with the prevailing sweep of a hundred years or
more of westerly winds. To this the gipsy captain glided, in a straight
military line, his eye searching the distance; and, after a while, from
the skirts of the wood, there moved to meet him a lonely female figure,
with her light clothing fluttering in the cold air. At first she came
hurriedly, but as they drew near, she came more slowly.
Devereux was angry, and, like an angry man, he broke out first with--
'So, your servant, Mistress Nan! Pretty lies you've been telling of
me--you and your shrew of a mother. You thought you might go to the
rector and say what you pleased, and I hear nothing.'
Nan Glynn was undefinably aware that he was very angry, and had
hesitated and stood still before he began, and now she said
imploringly--
'Sure, Masther Richard, it wasn't me.'
'Come, my lady, don't tell me. You and your mother--curse her!--went to
the Elms in my absence--_you_ and she--and said I had promised to
_marry_ you! There--yes or no. Didn't you? And could you or could she
have uttered a more utterly damnable lie?'
''Twas _she_, Master Richard--troth an' faith. I never knew she was
going to say the like--no more I didn't.'
'A likely story, truly, Miss Nan!' said the young rake, bitterly.
'Oh! Masther Richard! by this cross!--you won't believe me--'tis as true
as you're standin' there--until she said it to Miss Lily--'
'Hold your tongue!' cried Devereux, so fiercely, that she thought him
half wild; 'do you think 'tis a pin's point to me which of you first
coined or uttered the lie? Listen to me; I'm a desperate man, and I'll
take a course with you both you'll not like, unless you go to-morrow and
see Dr. Walsingham yourself, and tell him the whole truth--yes, the
truth--what the devil do I care?--speak that, and make the most of it.
But tell him plainly that your story about my having promised to marry
you--do you hear--was a lie, from first to last--a lie--a lie--without
so much as a grain of truth mixed up in it. All a cursed--devil's--woman's
invention. Now, mind ye, Miss Nan, if you don't, I'll bring you and your
mother into court, or I'll have the truth out of you.'
'But there's no need to threaten, sure, you know, Masther Richard, I'd
do anything for you--I would. I'd beg, or I'd rob, or I'd die for you,
Masther Richard; and whatever you bid me, your poor wild Nan 'ill do.'
Devereux was touched, the tears were streaming down her pale cheeks, and
she was shivering.
'You're cold, Nan; where's your cloak and riding hood?' he said, gently.
'I had to part them, Masther Richard.'
'You want money, Nan,' he said, and his heart smote him.
'I'm not cold when I'm near you, Masther Richard. I'd wait the whole
night long for a chance of seeing you; but oh! ho--(she was crying as if
her heart would break, looking in his face, and with her hands just a
little stretched towards him), oh, Masther Richard, I'm nothing to you
now--your poor wild Nan!'
Poor thing! Her mother had not given her the best education. I believe
she was a bit of a thief, and she could tell fibs with fluency and
precision. The woman was a sinner; but her wild, strong affections were
true, and her heart was not in pelf.
'Now, don't cry--where's the good of crying--listen to me,' said
Devereux.
'Sure I heerd you were sick, last week, Masther Richard,' she went on,
not heeding, and with her cold fingers just touching his arm
timidly--and the moon glittered on the tears that streamed down her poor
imploring cheeks--'an' I'd like to be caring you; an' I think you look
bad, Masther Richard.'
'No, Nan--I tell you, no--I'm very well, only poor, just now, Nan, or
_you_ should not want.'
'Sure I know, Masther Richard: it is not that. I know you'd be good to
me if you had it: and it does not trouble me.'
'But see, Nan, you must speak to your friends, and say--'
'Sorra a friend I have--sorra a friend, Masther Richard; and I did not
spake to the priest this year or more, and I darn't go near him,' said
the poor Palmerstown lass that was once so merry.
'Why won't you listen to me, child? I won't have you this way. You must
have your cloak and hood. 'Tis very cold; and, by Heavens, Nan, you
shall never want while I have a guinea. But you see I'm poor now, curse
it--I'm poor--I'm sorry, Nan, and I have only this one about me.'
'Oh, no, Masther Richard, keep it--maybe you'd want it yourself.'
'No, child, don't vex me--there--I'll have money in a week or two, and
I'll send you some more, Nan--I'll not forget you.' He said this in a
sadder tone; 'and, Nan, I'm a changed man. All's over, you know, and
we'll see one another no more. You'll be happier, Nan, for the parting,
so here, and now, Nan, we'll say good-bye.'
'Oh! no--no--no--not good-bye; you couldn't--couldn't--couldn't--your
poor wild Nan.'
And she clung to his cloak, sobbing in wild supplication.
'Yes, Nan, good-bye, it must be--no other word.'
'An' oh, Masther Richard, is it in airnest? You wouldn't, oh! sure you
wouldn't.'
'Now, Nan, there's a good girl; I must go. Remember your promise, and
I'll not forget you, Nan--on my soul, I won't.'
'Well, well, mayn't I chance to see you, maybe? mayn't I look at you
marching, Masther Richard, at a distance only? I wouldn't care so much,
I think, if I could see you sometimes.'
'Now, there, Nan, you must not cry; you know 'tis all past and gone more
than a year ago. 'Twas all d----d folly--all my fault; I'm sorry,
Nan--I'm sorry; and I'm a changed man, and I'll lead a better life, and
so do you, my poor girl.'
'But mayn't I see you? Not to spake to you, Masther Richard. Only
sometimes to see you, far off, maybe.' Poor Nan was crying all the time
she spoke.--'Well, well, I'll go, I will, indeed, Masther Richard; only
let me kiss your hand--an' oh! no, no, don't say good-bye, an' I'll
go--I'm gone now, an' maybe--just maybe, you might some time chance to
wish to see your poor, wild Nan again--only to see her, an' I'll be
thinking o' that.'
The old feeling--if anything so coarse deserved the name--was gone; but
he pitied her with all his heart; and that heart, such as it was--though
she did not know it--was bleeding for her.
He saw her, poor creature, hurrying away in her light clothing, through
the sharp, moonlight chill, which, even in the wrapping of his thick
cloak, he felt keenly enough. She looked over her shoulder--then
stopped; perhaps, poor thing, she thought he was relenting, and then she
began to hurry back again. They cling so desperately to the last chance.
But that, you know, would never do. Another pleading--another
parting--So he turned sharply and strode into the thickets of the close
brushwood, among which the white mists of night were hanging. He
thought, as he stepped resolutely and quickly on, with a stern face, and
heavy heart, that he heard a wild sobbing cry in the distance, and that
was poor Nan's farewell.
So Devereux glided on like a ghost, through the noiseless thicket, and
scarcely knowing or caring where he went, emerged upon the broad open
plateau, and skirting the Fifteen Acres, came, at last, to a halt upon
the high ground overlooking the river--which ran, partly in long trains
of silver sparkles, and partly in deep shadow beneath him. Here he
stopped; and looked towards the village where he had passed many a
pleasant hour--with a profound and remorseful foreboding that there were
no more such pleasant hours for him; and his eye wandered among the
scattered lights that still twinkled from the distant windows; and he
fancied he knew, among them all, that which gleamed pale and dim through
the distant elms--the star of his destiny; and he looked at it across
the water--a greater gulf severed them--so near, and yet a star in
distance--with a strange mixture of sadness and defiance, tenderness and
fury.