“Elizabeth sent for me--Elizabeth only showed me that kindness. Oh, it
was very cruel of you all--you should have told me my father was dying.”
It must have been a hard heart that could have closed itself altogether
against Frederick Harper now.
He leant against the doorway, the miserable ghost of his gay self. Born
only for summer weather, on him any real blast of remorse or misfortune
fell suddenly, entirely, overthrowing the whole man.
“Elizabeth says it happened yesterday; and must have been
because--because Grimes--Oh, God forgive me! it is I that have killed my
father!”
Every one shrank back. None of his sisters understood what he meant; but
the mere expression seemed to draw a line of demarcation between them
and the self-convicted man. Agatha only approached him--she felt so very
sorry for her old friend.
“You must not talk in this way, Major Harper. If you did vex him in any
way, it is very sad; but he will forgive you now. You cannot have done
any real harm to your father.”
Her kind voice, her perfectly guileless manner, struck each of the
brothers with various emotion. The eyes of both met on her face:
Frederick dropped his, and groaned; Nathanael's brightened. For the
first time he addressed his brother:
“Frederick, she is right; you must not talk thus. Compose yourself.”
It was in vain; his easy temperament was plunged into depths of childish
weakness. “Oh, what have I done? You said truly, it would kill him to
hear _that_. And my heedlessness drove Grimes to go and tell him. Yes,
your prophecy was true: I have been the disgrace of our house--the
destruction of my father. What shall I do, Nathanael?”
And he held out his hands to his younger brother in the helplessness of
despair.
“The first thing, Frederick, is for you to be silent Anne, take my
sisters away; my brother and I have something to say to one another.
What? no one will go? Then, brother, come with me.”
The other rose mechanically; Agatha likewise. She began to put
circumstances together, and guess darkly at what was amiss. Probably she
herself had to do with it. She remembered in what strict honour the
old Squire held the duty of a guardian, as he had shown in what he said
about his own relation to Anne Valery. Perhaps some carelessness of his
son's had caused her own loss of fortune. Yet that was not a thing to
break his father's heart, or harden his brother's against him. Mere
chance it must have been; ill-luck, or at the worst carelessness. There
could not be any real dishonour in Major Harper. And after all what was
money, when they could be so much happier without it? She determined to
go to her husband and openly say so, telling all that had come to her
knowledge of their secrets. They should no longer be angry with one
another--if it were on her account.
So she followed after them, with her soft, noiseless step; and when the
two brothers stood together in their father's deserted study, there she
was between them.
“Agatha!” They both uttered her name--the elder in much confusion. He
had seemed all along as though he could scarcely bear the sight of her
innocent face.
“Don't send me away,” she said, laying a hand on either. “I know I am
a young ignorant thing, and you are wise men; but perhaps a
straightforward girl may be as wise as you. Why are you angry with one
another?”
Both looked uncomfortable. Major Harper tried to throw the question off.
“Are we angry with one another? Nay, I am sure”--
“Don't deceive me--this is no time for making pretences of any kind.
What is this quarrel between you two?” And she turned from one to the
other her fearless eyes.
Major Harper could not meet them; Nathanael did, calmly, but
sorrowfully.
“Agatha, I cannot tell you.”
“But I can tell _you_; and I will, for it is right. Major Harper, do not
be unhappy. Believe me, I care not one jot for all the money I ever
had. If you have lost it, I am sure it was accidentally. You would not
wilfully wrong me of a straw.”
Again Major Harper groaned. Nathanael stood speechless with amazement.
At length he said, very gently:
“How did you find this out, Agatha?”
“Mr. Grimes told me.”
“Was that all he told?”
“Yes.”
Major Harper looked relieved. Nathanael watched him sternly. After a
while he said:
“Frederick, this is the right time to explain all. Do not start; you
need not fear _me_; in any case I shall hold to my promise. But if you
would explain--for my sake, for others' sake”--
The other shrank away. “No, not now,” he whispered; “oh! brother, not
now. Give me a little time. Don't disgrace me before her--before them
all.”
Nathanael's stature rose. Without again speaking, he shook his brother's
hand from off his shoulder with a gesture, slight yet full of meaning,
and turned towards Agatha. He seemed to yearn over her, though he
checked every expression of feeling except the softness of his voice.
“I am glad you have found out we are poor--that in some things my wife
may see I have not been so cruel to her as she thought.”
Agatha's cheeks crimsoned with emotion. Why--why were they not alone
that she need not have smothered it down, and stood so quiet that he
believed she did not feel? He went on, rather more sadly:
“But this is not a time to talk of our own affairs; you shall know all
ere long. Will you be content until then?” And he held out his hand.
She took it, looking eagerly into his face. There was something there
so intrinsically noble and true! Though his conduct yet seemed
strange--unreasonable towards her, harsh towards his brother, still,
in defiance of all, there was that in his countenance which compelled
faith. And there was that in her own heart, a something neither reason
nor conviction, but transcending both, which leaped to him as through
intervening darkness light leaps to light. She felt that she must
believe in her husband.
He seemed partly to understand this, and smiled--a pale, faint smile,
that quickly vanished.
“Now, Agatha,” he said, opening the door for her, “go and see how my
father is, and then you must go to bed. I will sit up with him to-night.
I cannot have my poor wife killing herself with watching.”
His voice sunk tenderly; he even put out his hand, as if to stroke her
hair after his old habit, but drew it back--Major Harper was looking on.
Again the dark fire, lit so fatally on his marriage-day, and since then
sometimes fiercely raging, sometimes smothered down to a mere spark,
yet never wholly extinguished, rose up in the young man's strong,
self-contained, strangely silent heart. Would his pride never let it
burst forth, that, mingling with the common air, it might burn itself to
nothingness! But how many a whole life has been tortured and consumed
by just such a little flame, a mere spark, let fall by some evil tongue
which is set on fire of hell.
While they paused--the wife waiting, she knew not for what, except that
it seemed so easy to follow and so hard to quit her husband--there was a
cry heard on the staircase at the foot of which they stood. Mrs. Dugdale
came running down in terror.
“Nathanael--Agatha--I have told my father that Fred is here. Oh, come to
him, do come!”
No time for pitiful earthly passions, jealousies, and regrets. Nathanael
ran quick as lightning, his wife following. But at the door of the
sick-room even she recoiled.
The old man sat up in bed, raised on pillows; either the paralysis
had not been so entire as was at first supposed, or he had slightly
recovered from it. His right arm moved feebly; his tongue was loosed,
though only in a half-intelligible jabber. But his countenance showed
that, however lay the miserable body, the poor old man was in his right
mind. Alas! that mind was not at peace, not lighted with the holy glow
cast on the dying by the world to come, It was filled with rage and
torment.
Nathanael ran to him, “Father, father, you will destroy yourself. What
is it you want?”
The answer was unintelligible to his son, but Agatha gathered from it
that the chamber-door was to be shut and bolted. She did so; yet even
then the sick man's fury scarce abated. Broken words--curses that the
helpless lips refused to ratify; terrible outbursts of wrath, mingled
with the piteous moan of senility. Last of all came the name, once given
proudly by the young father to his first-born, and now gasped out with
maledictions from the same father's dying lips--“Frederick.”
Nathanael and Agatha looked at one another with horror. They both knew
that the old Squire was bent on driving from his death-bed his own, his
first-born son.
Agatha instinctively held down the palsied hands, which were trying to
lift themselves towards heaven--not in prayers!
“Father, don't say--don't even think such terrible things. Whatever he
has done, forgive him!--for the love of God, forgive him!”
The old man regarded her, and his excitement seemed redoubled. Agatha
fancied it was the father's pride, dreading lest she, a stranger, knew
the cause of his anger.
“No, no!” she cried, “I scarcely understand anything; my husband would
not tell me. Whatever has happened can all be hushed up. We would
forgive anything to a brother--oh, would we not?” And she appealed to
Nathanael, who stood motionless, great drops lying on his forehead,
though his features were so still.
“It is true, father,” he whispered. “No one knows anything but me, and I
have kept your honour safe that he might redeem it some time. Perhaps he
may. And remember, he is your son--the first-born of his mother. Hush,
Agatha!” Nathanael continued, as he saw a sudden change come over
the old man's face. “Don't say any more now. Leave me to talk with my
father.”
With the grave tenderness that he always showed her, he took his wife by
the hand, led her to the door, and closed it. Greatly moved, yet
feeling satisfied he would do what was right, Agatha obeyed and went
down-stairs.
The sisters and brother were assembled in the study. Marmaduke was there
too, but took little part in the family lamentation, except in keeping a
perpetual tender watch over the grief of his own Harrie. Anne Valery was
absent.
Frederick Harper sat apart. A sullen gloom had succeeded to his
misery--with him no feeling ever lasted long, at least in the same form.
Harriet and Eulalie were inspecting with great curiosity their elder
brother, whose presence among his long-estranged household seemed
accompanied with such a mysterious discomfort. They eyed him doubtfully,
as if he had done something very wrong that nobody knew of. Mary only,
who was next eldest to himself, ventured to address some kind words, and
bestir herself about his comfort.
Thus the family sat, Agatha among them, for more than an hour. No one
thought of going to bed. All remained together, in a strangely quiet,
subdued state, Major Harper being with them all the time, though he
hardly spoke, or they to him. He seemed a stranger in his father's
house.
Once when he had gone for a few minutes to Elizabeth's room--he had been
with Elizabeth long before his coming was known to any of the rest, it
was believed--Mary began in her lengthy wandering way to tell anecdotes
of his boyish doings; how handsome he was, and how naughty too; and
how, when he got into disgrace, she, by the scheming of Elizabeth, used
secretly to carry bread-and-honey and apples to his bedroom. And she
wiped her eyes, the good, plain-looking sister Mary, saying over and
over again,
“Poor Fred!” She never thought of him, like the world, as “Major
Frederick Harper,” but only as “Poor Fred!”
Several times Agatha stole up-stairs to the door of the room which
enclosed the sorrow-mystery of the house. It was always shut, but she
could hear Nathanael's voice within--his soft, kind voice, talking
quietly by the bedside.
“I never see anything like 'un,” said the coachman's wife, who sat
without the door. “He do manage th' Squire just as the poor dear
Missus did. He do talk just like his mother.” And that was evidently the
perfection of everything in the old woman's eyes.
Agatha sat down beside her on the staircase, listening to the wind
without, that swept fiercely over the hollow in which Kingcombe Holm
lay, as if ready to bear away on its pinions a departing soul. It was
an awful night to die in. Agatha listened, sensitive to every one of its
terrors. But above them all--above the shadow of coming death, fear of
the future, anxiety in the present--rose one thought--the thought of her
husband.
It gave her no pain--it gave her no joy--yet there it was, a visible
image sitting strong and calm in the half-lighted chamber of her heart,
every feeling of which crept to its feet and lay there, like priestesses
in the twilight before a veiled god.
Nathanael at last opened the door. He looked like one who has struggled
and conquered not only with things without, but things within. His face
had all the pallor, but likewise all the peace of victory. Agatha rose
to meet him.
“Have you been waiting for me this long while? Good child!” And he
smiled, but solemnly, as with an inward sense of the Presence which
makes all things equal--softens all asperities and calms all passions.
“Do you know where my brother is?” asked Nathanael.
“Down-stairs, with the rest.”
“Will you go and fetch him?”
Agatha looked up at her husband half incredulously. “Have you then
succeeded? Is all made right?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, how good--how good you are!” She grasped his hands and kissed them,
her eyes floating in tears; then, lest he should be displeased, ran
quickly away.
Miss Valery met her at the stairhead, coming from the gallery where were
Elizabeth's rooms. They exchanged the usual question, “How is he now?”
and then Agatha said:
“Be glad with me! I am sent to fetch Major Harper.”
Anne pressed her hand. “Go and tell him. He is with Elizabeth.”
And there Agatha found him overcome with grief--the gay, handsome Major
Harper! steadfast neither in good nor evil. He sat, his head bent, his
hair falling disordered, its greyness showing, oh! so plain. Plainer
still were the wrinkles which a life of smiles had carved only the
deeper round the mouth--token of how near upon him was creeping a
desolate unhonoured age. By his side, talking softly, with his hand
in hers, lay the crippled sister, perhaps the only living creature who
really loved him.
“Major Harper,” Agatha spoke softly, laying her hand upon his shoulder.
The poor broken-down man, dropping into old age! there was no fear of
his thinking she was in love with him now.
“Well, what do you want?”
“I am sent to fetch you to your father.”
He looked incredulous;--Agatha repeated her message.
“My husband sent me. Your father wishes very much to see you. Come.”
“Elizabeth!” He turned to her as if she could make him understand this
incomprehensible news.
Elizabeth clasped his hand and loosed it. She said nothing, but Agatha
saw she was weeping for joy. Her brother rose and went through the long
gallery they passed, his sister-in-law carrying the light, and leading
him. He had quite forgotten his courteous manners now. Agatha thought of
the days in London--when he had escorted her to operas, and murmured
over her in drawing-rooms, making her so happy and honoured in his
notice. Poor Major Harper! How vain were all the shows of his brilliant
life, the men who had courted him, the women who had flattered and
admired him! Agatha forgave him all his follies--ay even all the hearts
he had broken. There was not one of those poor hearts, not one, on which
he could rest his tired head now!
At the door of their father's room Nathanael met him, a new and more
righteous Jacob dealing with a more desolate Esau. And like Esau's was
the cry that broke from Frederick Harper as he went in and flung himself
on his knees by the bed.
“_Bless me--even me also--O' my father._”
There was no answer. The words of forgiveness were denied his hearing.
The old Squire could but look at his son, and move his lips in an
articulate murmur.
Agatha ran to Major Harper's side. It was pitiful to see the shock he
had received, and the frenzied way in which he called upon his father to
speak--if only one word.
“He cannot speak, you know, but he does indeed forgive you. Be sure that
he forgives you!”
Her husband drew her away to the little curtained alcove which had
been Mrs. Harper's dressing-room. There they stood, close together--for
Nathanael did not let her go, and she clung to him in tears--while the
father and son had their reconciliation.
It was silent throughout, for after the first burst, Major Harper was
not heard to speak. Now and then came a sound like the smothered sob of
a boy. No one saw the faces of father and son; they were bent together,
just as when, years upon years ago, the proud father had sometimes
condescended to let his baby son, his first-born and heir, go to sleep
upon his shoulder.
Thus, after many minutes, Nathanael found them lying.
He held the curtain aside to see his father's countenance; it was very
peaceful now, though with a dimness gathering in the open eyes. Agatha
had never before seen that look--the unmistakable shadow of death. She
shrank back, trembling violently. Her husband put his arm round her.
“Do not be afraid, my child,” he whispered, using the old word and tone.
She rested on him, and was quieted.
“I think we had better call them all in now.”
“Shall I fetch them?” said his wife, and went out, flitting once more
through the still, ghostly house. But she thought of her husband, of his
last word and look, and had no fear.
They came in, all that were now living of the old man's children--save
one--the poor Elizabeth. They stood round the bed, a full circle, his
two sons, his three daughters, his son-in-law and daughter-in-law, and
lastly Anne Valery. She was the palest and most serene of all.
Thus for an hour or more they waited--so slow was the last closing
of the long-drawn-out life. There was no pain or struggle; merely the
ebbing away of breath. The palsied hands, white and beautiful to the
last, lay smooth on the counterpane; and when occasionally one or other
of his daughters knelt down and kissed him, the old man feebly smiled.
But whenever he opened his eyes, they travelled no farther than to the
face of his eldest son--rested there, brightened and closed.
And thus, lying quietly in the midst of his children, at daybreak the
old Squire died.