A FREE PARDON.
St. James' Hall was packed from end to end one summer afternoon by an
eager mob of music lovers--or, at least, of those who counted themselves
as such. The last Philharmonic Concert of the season had been announced;
and as one of its items was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the crowd was,
as usual on such an occasion, a great and enthusiastic one.
Even the dark little gallery near the roof, fronting the orchestra, was
well filled, for there are music lovers (mostly those whose purse is
lean) who declare that, though the shilling gallery is hot, and close,
and dark, there is in all the room no better place for hearing the great
waves of sound rolled out by the orchestra from the Master's mighty
scores. And it was for this reason that Lettice Campion came up the
narrow stairs that afternoon at ten minutes to three, and found, as she
might have expected, that only a few seats against the wall remained
empty. Into the nearest of these she dropped, rather exhausted by her
climb and the haste that she had made; and then she noticed, as her eyes
became accustomed to the dim light, that some one beside her had half
turned round, and was looking earnestly into her face.
"Alan!"
The color sprang into Lettice's face: the roll of music that she carried
dropped from her lap as she held out her hand. Alan returned her
greeting, and then dived for her music, thus giving her a moment in
which to recover her self-possession. When he came up again, she was
still a little flushed, but she was smiling tranquilly.
"I am so glad to see you," she said simply.
"I don't know what impelled me to come this afternoon. I never thought
that I should have this happiness." Then in a lower tone, "You don't
mind my being here? You don't want me to go away?"
"No, no, why should I? It does not matter--here."
They had not seen each other at all for weeks, and had met only two or
three times, and then for a few minutes only, since Alan left Bute Lodge
in December. They corresponded freely and frankly, but Lettice had
decreed, in spite of some murmurs from Alan, that they should not meet.
Scandal had been busy with her name, and, until Alan obtained his
divorce, it seemed better to her to live a very retired life, seeing
almost nobody, and especially guarding herself against accusations of
any close association with Alan Walcott.
"I had just posted a letter to you before I came out," he said. They
were at the end of the last row of seats and could talk, before the
music began, without any fear of being overheard. "It is as I expected,
Lettice. There are great difficulties in our way."
She looked an interrogation.
"The length of time that has elapsed is an obstacle. We cannot find any
proof of worse things than drunkenness and brawling during the last year
or two. And of the events before that time, when I know that she was
untrue to me, we scarcely see how to obtain absolute proof. You must
forgive me for mentioning these things to you, but I am obliged."
"Yes, and there is no reason why you should not tell me everything," she
said, turning her quiet eyes upon him with a look of such perfect trust
that the tumult in Alan's mind was suddenly stilled. "But you knew that
there would be difficulties. Is there anything else?"
"I hardly know how to tell you. She has done what I half expected her to
do--she has brought a counter charge against me--against----"
"Ah, I understand. All the more, reason, Alan, why we should fight it
out."
"My love," he said, in the lowest possible tone that could reach her
ears, "if you knew how it grieves me that you should suffer!"
"But I am suffering with you," she answered tenderly; "and don't you
think that I would rather do that than see you bear your suffering
alone?"
Here the first notes of the orchestra fell upon their ear, and the
conversation had to cease. For the next hour or so they had scarcely
time to do more than interchange a word or two, but they sat side by
side rapt in a strange content. The music filled their veins with
intoxicating delight; it was of a kind that Lettice rejoiced in
exceedingly, and that Alan loved without quite knowing why. The
Tannhauser Overture, the Walküren-Ritt, two of Schubert's loveliest
songs, and the less exciting but more easily comprehensible productions
of an earlier classical composer, were the chief items of the first part
of the concert. Then came an interval, after which the rest of the
afternoon would be devoted to the Choral Symphony. But during this
interval Alan hastened to make the most of his opportunity.
"We shall have a bitter time," he murmured in her ear, feeling,
nevertheless, that nothing was bitter which would bring him eventually
to her side.
She smiled a little. "Leave it alone then," she said, half mockingly.
"Go your own way and be at peace."
"Lettice! I can never be at peace now without you."
"Is not that very unreasonable of you?" she asked, speaking lightly
because she felt so deeply. The joy of his presence was almost
oppressive. She had longed for it so often, and it had come to her for
these two short hours so unexpectedly, that it nearly overwhelmed her.
"No, dearest, it is most natural. I have nobody to love, to trust, but
you. Tell me that you feel as I do, that you want to be mine--mine
wholly, and then I shall fight with a better heart, and be as brave as
you have always been."
"Be brave, then," she said with a shadowy smile. "Yes, Alan, if it is
any help to you to know it, I shall be glad when we need never part."
"I sometimes wonder," he murmured, "whether that day will ever come!"
"Oh, yes, it will come," she answered gently. "I think that after our
long days of darkness there is sunshine for us--somewhere--by and by."
And then the music began, and as the two listened to the mighty
harmonies, their hands met and clasped each other under cover of the
book which Lettice held, and their hearts seemed to beat in unison as
the joyous choral music pealed out across the hall--
"Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligthum,
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng getheilt;
Alle Menschen werden Bruder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt."
"I feel," said Alan, as they lingered for a moment in the dimness of the
gallery when the symphony was over, and the crowd was slowly filing out
into Regent Street and Piccadilly, "I feel as if that hymn of joy were
the prelude to some new and happier life."
And Lettice smiled in answer, but a little sadly, for she saw no happier
life before them but one, which must be reached through tortuous courses
of perplexity and pain.
The dream of joy had culminated in that brief, impulsive, unconscious
transmigration of soul and soul; but with the cessation of the music it
dissolved again. The realities of their condition began to crowd upon
them as they left the hall. But the disillusion came gradually. They
still knew and felt that they were supremely happy; and as they waited
for the cab, into which Alan insisted on putting her, she looked at him
with a bright and grateful smile.
"I am so glad I saw you. It has been perfect," she said.
He had made her take his arm--more for the sake of closer contact than
for any necessity of the crowd--and he pressed it as she spoke.
"It is not quite over yet," he said. "Let me take you home."
"Thank you, no. Not to-day, Alan. See, there is an empty hansom."
He did not gainsay her, but helped her carefully into the cab, and, when
she was seated, leaned forward to clasp her hand and speak a parting
word. But it was not yet spoken when, with a sharp cry, Lettice started
and cast herself in front of him, as though to protect him from a danger
which he could not see.
In the confused press of men and women, horses and carriages, which
filled the street at this hour from side to side, she had suddenly
caught sight of a never-forgotten face--a hungry face, full of malice,
full of a wicked exultation, keen for revenge.
Cora Walcott, crossing the road, and halting for a moment at the central
landing-place, was gazing at the people as they poured out of St. James'
Hall. As Alan helped Lettice into the hansom and bent forward to speak
to her, she recognized him at once.
Without a pause she plunged madly into the labyrinth of moving carriages
and cabs; and it was then that Lettice saw her, less than three yards
away, and apparently in the act of hurling a missile from her uplifted
hand.
It was all the work of an instant. The woman shrieked with impotent
rage; the drivers shouted and stormed at her; men and women, seeing her
danger, cried out in their excitement; and, just as she came within
reach of her husband's cab, she was struck by the shaft of a passing
brougham, and fell beneath the horse's hoofs.
It was Lettice's hands that raised the insensible body from the mire. It
was Alan who lifted her into an empty cab, and took her to the nearest
hospital--whence she never emerged again until her last narrow home had
been made ready to receive her.
Cora did not regain consciousness before she died. There was no
death-bed confession, no clearing of her husband's name from the
dishonor which she had brought upon it, no reawakening of any kind. Alan
would have to go through the world unabsolved by any justification that
she was capable of giving. But with Lettice at his side, he was strong
enough, brave enough, to hear Society's verdict on his character with a
smile, and to confront the world steadily, knowing what a coward thing
its censure not unfrequently is; and how conscious courage and purity
can cause it to slink, away abashed.
* * * * *
On a certain evening, early in the session of 1885, some half-dozen men
were gathered together in a quiet angle of the members' smoking-room at
the Oligarchy Club.
During the past day or two there had been unwonted jubilation in every
corner of the Oligarchy, and with reason, as the Oligarchs naturally
thought; for Mr. Gladstone's second Administration had suddenly come to
an end. It had puzzled many good Conservatives to understand how that
Administration, burdened by an accumulation of blunders and disasters,
was able to endure so long; but at any rate the hour of doom had struck
at last, and jubilation was natural enough amongst those who were
likely, or thought they were likely, to profit by the change.
Sir John Pynsent and his friends had been discussing with much animation
the probable distribution of the patronage which the see-saw of party
government had now placed in the hands of the Conservative leader. Sir
John, whose opinion on this subject was specially valued by his
political associates, had already nominated the Cabinet and filled up
most of the subordinate offices; and he had not omitted to bestow a
place of honor and emolument upon his ambitious relative, Sydney
Campion.
The good-natured baronet was due that evening at the house of Lord
Montagu Plumley, and he hurried away to keep his appointment. When he
had gone the conversation became less general and more unrestrained, and
there were even a few notes of scepticism in regard to some of Sir
John's nominations.
"Plumley is safe enough," said Mr. Charles Milton. "He has worked hard
to bring about this result, and it would be impossible for the new
Premier to pass him over. But it is quite another matter when you come
to talk about Plumley's friends, or his friends' friends. I for one
shall be very much surprised if Campion gets the solicitorship."
"He's not half a bad sort," said Tom Willoughby, "and his name is being
put forward in the papers as though some people thought he had a very
good chance."
"Ah, yes, we know how that kind of thing is worked. The point most in
his favor is that there are not half-a-dozen men in Parliament good
enough for the post."
"What is the objection to him?"
"I don't say there is any objection. He is not a man who makes many
friends: and I fancy some of his best cases have been won more by luck
than by judgment. Then he has made one or two decidedly big mistakes. He
will never be quite forgiven for taking up that prosecution of Walcott
for a purely personal object. I know the late Attorney was much put out
when he found how he had been utilized in that affair."
"Pynsent seems to think him pretty sure of the offer."
"Just so; and if anyone can help him to it, Pynsent is the man. That
marriage was the best thing Campion ever did for himself, in more ways
than one. He wants holding in and keeping straight; and his wife has him
well in hand, as everybody can see."
"They seem a very happy couple."
"He is devoted to her, that is plain enough; and I never thought he had
it in him to care for anybody but himself. I met them last Easter at
Dalton's place. They seemed to hit off extremely well."
"Oh, she has improved him; there is no doubt about that. She is a very
charming woman. What on earth does Dalton do with himself at Angleford?"
"He has become an orchard man on a grand scale," said Willoughby. "Three
years ago he planted nearly a hundred acres with the best young stocks
he could find, and he says he has every apple in the _Pomona_ worth
eating or cooking."
"He has got over that affair with Campion's sister, I suppose?"
"I don't know that he has. Brooke Dalton's one of the finest fellows in
existence: there's a heart in him somewhere, and he does not easily
forget. I came upon him and Campion one day in the garden, and though
they knew I was close to them they went on talking about her and her
husband. 'You were always too hard on her, Sydney,' Brooke was saying,
'and now you have admitted as much.' 'I don't wish to be hard on _her_,
but I can't bear that man,' Campion said--meaning Walcott, of course.
'Well,' Dalton said,' I am perfectly sure that she would not have stuck
to him through thick and thin, so bravely and so purely, unless she had
been convinced of his innocence. As I believe in her, I am bound to
believe in him. Don't you think so?' he said, turning to me. 'I hope
every one who knows her will show her the respect and reverence that she
deserves. Now that they have come back to England, Edith is going to
call on her at once.' Edith is his sister, you know: and she tells my
mother that she called immediately."
"How did Campion take it?"
"Very well, indeed. He said, 'You were always a good fellow, Brooke, and
I may have been mistaken.' New thing to hear Campion owning up, isn't
it?"
"So the Walcotts have come back?" said Milton, with some excitement. "By
Jove, I shall leave my card to-morrow. Of course, he was innocent. I
knew all about it, for I defended him at the Old Bailey.--No wonder
Campion is uncomfortable about it."
The idea seemed to divert Milton very much, and he chuckled over it for
two or three minutes.
"From what my mother says," Willoughby continued, "people seem disposed
to take them up. Her books, you know, are awfully popular--and didn't
you see how well the papers spoke of his last poems? You mark my
words--there will be a run upon the Walcotts by and by."
"Just the way of the world!" said Charles Milton. "Three or four years
ago they would have lynched him. Poor devil! I remember when I was about
the only man in London who refused to believe him guilty."
"One thing is plain enough," said Tom Willoughby. "He would have gone to
the dogs long ago if it had not been for her. I have not come across
many heroines in my time, though I have heard of plenty from other
people; but I am bound to confess that I never heard of one who deserved
the name better than Mrs. Walcott."
* * * * *
The world bestowed its free pardon upon Alan Walcott, and for the sake
of her who had taught him to fight against despair and death he accepted
graciously a gift which otherwise would have been useless to him.
Inspired by her, he had built a new life upon the ruins of his past; and
if, henceforth, he lived and labored for the world, it was only with the
new motives and the new energy which she had implanted in him.
The house at Chiswick is now their own. There Alan and Lettice crown the
joys of a peaceful existence by remembering the sorrows of other days;
and there, in the years to come, they will teach their children the
faith of human sympathy, the hope of human effort, and the charity of
service and sacrifice.
THE END.