CHAPTER XXXV.
_FOUND_.
Time hung rather heavily on Kenneth's hand. The raw damp autumnoffered little temptation to exercise out of doors. His daily ride toGlen Effick was discontinued, his friends having left; and he smokedcigars in the billiard-room, or wrote letters in his own, thelive-long day. Julia, hitherto so available, was now never to be foundwhen wanted, or if she did appear, her ready sympathy with the whim ofthe moment, and her quickness to suggest congenial pastime, seemed tohave forsaken her. She sat mostly in her own room now, or in LadyCaroline's, which, as far as Kenneth's entertainment was concerned,was much the same thing. She, who had formerly taken so much interestin mess-room reminiscences and general gossip, would now look upvacantly when she was addressed, as though her thoughts had been faraway, and were only induced to return for a moment by a sense ofpoliteness. The distribution of the morning letters would rouse her alittle--there appeared always to be letters for her now--but havingsecured her own, she would relapse into abstraction, and seize theearliest opportunity to withdraw.
Kenneth had letters of his own to write now, and knew all about thecoming in and going out of mails for Torquay. But that occupied only aportion of his time, and he felt aggrieved that Julia should be sopre-occupied. 'What is the use of a girl in the house if she is alwaysto be busy?' He expressed his discontent to Lady Caroline, who wasimmensely amused.
'Julia is engaged, Kenneth, or almost; for it is not announced yet.'
'I am very glad to hear it, mother, I am sure. If the girl had stayedhere much longer without marrying, she might have felt herself badlyused if I did not marry her myself. And I do not know that I am equalto marrying for politeness. But why should that prevent her beingjolly at home? unless, indeed, the man is Bluebeard, and she expects abad time? _I_ am engaged myself, but I think I could be jolly on thataccount, if only there was opportunity.'
Lady Caroline said nothing; but she was amused, as often before, atthe single-minded egotism of his lordly sex, which knows no law butits own pleasure, and imagines that must be equally delightful toevery one else. The male baby graciously believes that it pleases hisnurse to sing herself hoarse in coaxing him to sleep, and he ispleased that she should make herself happy, shaking his rattle tillher arm aches, in endeavouring to amuse him; and all subsequent femaleministrations to his solacement are accepted in the like simple goodfaith that it must be joy to the girl to be merry in his company, andthat mirth is its own reward.
Lady Caroline liked her son better for his unreasonableness, and feltproud of herself, in being the mother of such a rajah. Wherever theidolatrous instinct exists, there must be a love of the unreasonable.Who could worship a being capable of being argued with, persuaded,coaxed, or bullied? It is the utter passiveness of Juggernaut thatattracts his devotees. No matter how ugly he may be, he sits thereserene among his gilded carved work, while the crashing wheels of hiscar grind on their course regardless of the blood and groans ofmangled victims--force unpitying and inflexible.
It was some weeks before Major Steele would come to Inchbracken, not,indeed, till the last shred of autumn had been withered up by foot orswept away by wintry storms. He lingered on by the sea shore,wandering for hours by the hungry waves which swallowed up his love,accompanied by his old mother, in whose unspoken sympathy alone heseemed to find comfort. He seldom spoke to her, but he shunned everyone else. When, however, winter became established, her healthcompelled them to return to town. There the closer contact with hisfellows inseparable from city life became intolerable, and he was gladto avail himself of Kenneth's invitation, reminding him at the sametime of the freedom and privacy he had promised.
Lady Caroline agreed that they should see as few visitors as possibleduring the poor man's stay; 'but, indeed,' she added, 'we have allgrown so unsociable since we became engaged, that the excluded willhave nothing to regret.'
'Indeed I am not engaged, dear Lady Caroline!' remonstrated Julia in asubdued voice.
'And indeed, mother, I am not unsociable,' added Kenneth, who wasgoing on to 'define his position,' as precisely as an American senatordoes, but his voice was drowned in the uproarious guffaw with whichhis uncle greeted his opening words.
'Poor man!' moralized Julia, 'the quiet of the country will soothehim. His was indeed a fearful calamity.'
'Ah yes!' sighed Lady Caroline, 'and I declare I like him the betterfor being inconsolable! They are not all so tender-hearted andfaithful, Julia, by any means. Now, my General! Do you think _I_ cancount on leaving so much desolation behind me? The idea would almostconsole one for having to go.'
'You forget, my dearest lady,' said the General finishing his egg (itwas at breakfast), Major Steele had been less than two years married.Providence has been far kinder to us than that, and I doubt not, whenthe time of our separation shall arrive at last, that you will wearyour weeds admirably, and continue to justify the opinion I havealways held of you as the best dressed woman of my acquaintance.'
It was December when Major Steele arrived at Inchbracken. The groundwas powdered with early snow, and the higher hilltops looked solidlywhite and alpine. The sharp air and the movement had stirred historpid blood into some appearance of animation, but as the excitementof arrival wore off, he relapsed into wan despondency, and was indeeda melancholy object.
The two older men from the first gave up the case in reverent despair.What had there ever been in their most comfortable but burdensomelives, to entitle them to intrude their ignorant sympathy on theunparalleled tragedy of this man's sore bereavement? Like Job's threefriends, they would have sat by him without speaking for three daysand three nights, with eyes fixed sorrowfully on the carpet, had humanlife been still as of old, a majestic but monotonous sequenceextending over centuries; but in its modern abbreviated form, with somany things to attend to in the brief threescore and ten, that wasimpossible. They sighed and looked gloomy when they found themselvesnear him, and then escaped to some other quarter of the house with alldecent speed.
It was on Kenneth, as old friend and special host, that the full dutyof condolence devolved. He led his friend to the smoking-room wherethey could sit together by the hour in silent amity, watching the bluesmokerings widen and disappear, companionable to each other's sight,yet leaving the mind at rest from disturbing talk. Fearing to touchunwisely on the open wound, Kenneth did not venture on any allusion tohis friend's bereavement. Mary's commission was ever present in hismind, but he dared not approach the subject to raise a hope that mightonly be quenched again in deeper gloom. He dared not question himeven, that he might judge of the probability for himself; he simplywaited, hoping that in time the other would give the opening which hedesired.
Julia was perhaps the most successful sympathizer in the household.Her fine dramatic instinct enabled her to throw herself into theartificial mood, and play the part with an abandon relieved and variedby graceful little touches which she could never have displayed in hernatural character. She was a woman with a head rather than a heart,and it was when feeling was presented to her through the imaginationrather than her own emotions, that she was able to realize, seize andclothe it in expression. Her performance in the new role of 'Woman theConsoler,' was delicate, but beautiful and touching in the extreme,and more than once brought the handkerchief to honest Lady Caroline'seyes, who declared in confidence to her General that Julia was a 'finecreature,' and far too good for that vulgar Cr[oe]sus in Manchester.Perhaps the same idea may have struck Julia, or it may have been thatthe artist in her was engrossed by the new delineation of character,and revelled, for the time, in the artificial emotions of her owncreation. It is certain that the Manchester correspondence lost muchof its interest. The morning letter was slipped into her pocket asusual, at breakfast, but she no longer seized the first opportunity toescape with it to her own room, and by the end of the week she foundthree of them still in her pocket unopened. They were all opened atonce, glanced over, and locked up in the drawer with
those that hadgone before them, and some sort of an answer was scrawled to 'DearAugustus.' It was scarcely so charming a letter as some that hadpreceded it, and Augustus thought so, with his first twinge of love,pain, and jealousy; for hitherto his path had been one of rose-strewntriumph. But the letter did not take long to knock off--that was themain point at the moment--and she descended the stairs, gloved andbonneted, for a stroll by the lake, before Major Steele had begun tothink of growing impatient.
When the bereaved widower first arrived at Inchbracken, Julia was verysilent. Young innocence and awakening womanhood stood appalled beforethe revelation of grief and mystery in human life. Her eyes and voicedrooped plaintively, but it was not till the following morning thatshe and the sufferer exchanged a word. Even then it was but littlethat was said, some civil words of routine, but the gentle pensivedroop in word and look, distilled like heavenly dew over some acridwaste. Even so the Angel of Pity may look down on the vanquished andsore wounded in the battle of life; and the poor woe-begone Major feltgrateful and consoled at the gentle tribute to his grief. She wouldlinger in the breakfast-room with needle work or a book, and the Majorgot into a way of hovering round, as some frost-benumbed toad mightcreep from under his cold stone, to stretch his stiffened limbs, andthaw them in the watery sunshine of a February afternoon. When thisarrangement seemed growing into a habit, Julia betook herself to themorning-room, which she could count on having to herself at that hour,for pursuing her work or studies. Presently the door would open andthe widower would appear, asking her permission to sit awhile, andapologizing for his intrusion. There must have been companionship ineach other's presence, for there was not much conversation, and whatthere was was vapid enough; but the divine pity in Julia's pensivedroop transfused itself through each syllable, and the desolate onefelt soothed and refreshed.
What Julia felt, it is difficult to say, and one cannot but wonderthat, after the first three days, she did not find the whole businessa lackadaisical bore. We can only suppose that life in the propercharacter and circumstance of Julia Finlayson had become intolerablydull, and that she had adopted those of the Angel of Pity by way of achange. She could not have seriously contemplated capturing thebroken-hearted widower, especially since Lady Caroline had justsecured Mr. MacSiccar's report as to the fortune and standing ofAugustus Wallowby, Esquire. The report had been most satisfactory, infact had so far exceeded expectation, that good Lady Caroline had beenseduced into a momentary irreverence at the ways of Providence, ingiving vulgar people so much money. She was sorry for it immediatelyafter, however, for she was a good Tory, and honoured the powers thatbe, among which Providence admittedly takes the first place. As to thevulgarity even, Lady Caroline might have been brought to admit thatshe had seen examples of it in circles bordering very closely on theCourt, and she would not have been at all reluctant to acknowledgethat it existed in the army, and when found there was quite asoffensive as any thing that the proverbial Manchester of her day couldproduce.
At last a morning came, when, over a sympathetic pipe, the Majorexpressed a wish to go and look at the Effick water, where all hishappiness and love had come to such dismal shipwreck.
'All right,' said Kenneth; 'would you like to drive over to-day? Weshall have plenty of time if we start at once. The dog-cart can be gotout in twenty minutes, and we may be off in half an hour.'
He had now the opportunity he had been waiting for to fulfil Mary'scommission, and already he felt himself writing to her in triumph, anddescribing how judiciously he had fulfilled her wish. He took theproofs she had given him of the poor baby's identity from his desk,and placing them in his pocket, was ready to mount the dogcart when itwas brought round. The brotherhood of so many silent pipes had at lastestablished itself between him and his friend Steele. The poor fellowat last felt able to speak the thoughts that were gnawing at hisheart, and as they drove along that wintry road down to the sea, hespoke freely of his misery and of the shipwreck.
'Were there any passengers by the 'Maid of Cashmere' besides Mrs.Steele?' Kenneth ventured to ask.
'Old Brigadier Currie had engaged the state-room on one side of thecabin for himself and his native servants, and I had taken the other.'
'And had the captain or crew any women and children on board, do youthink?'
'My wife, her maid, and the baby were the only females on board.'
'Then cheer up, old fellow! Perhaps things are not so bad as we havebeen thinking! Do you know that, now, for instance?' he added, pullingout the gold chain from his pocket.
'Know it? That? If I could believe my eyes I would say it belonged tomy wife!' He took the chain and handled it very tenderly, and thenwent on. 'There was an old Begum we had been able to be kind to. Ahill tribe had attacked her town, and she had fled for protection toDourgapore, where we were stationed. My wife was the only lady in thestation, therefore she was put under her care, and when she went backto her principality, after we had driven off the marauders, she mademy wife some presents, and among the rest a bag of gold mohurs. I wasdoubtful how receiving a money present would sound at head-quarters,but our Colonel said it was a matter between the women, I could not beheld to know anything about. However, to prevent misrepresentation, wedetermined to make it into jewellery, so we got a native goldsmith tostring the pieces into a long chain. He sat in our compound andriveted the coins together with bits of gold wire, while we sat underthe verandah looking on. You know these creatures are always watchedwhile they work, to prevent their swallowing the gold, they are suchinveterate thieves. But how came this into your possession? A piece ofit was found clutched in my poor Lydia's hands when she was found.'
'Then I may tell you. I would have written weeks ago, but I was afraidto add disappointment to your other misfortunes, so I asked you tocome here, and when you had come I found I could not speak to youabout it. A man's grief seems such a sacred thing. But now. There wasa friend of mine actually saw that ship caught up by the storm, andcarried in shore and dashed against the rocks. They are rockscompletely surrounded by water and surf at a high tide, and with aneasterly wind. He could not possibly get near, and there was no humandwelling within sight, or for miles around, so he could give no help.But the following morning he was riding along the shore veryearly--earlier than the fisher folk, who, of course, came prowlingalong later in search of plunder and sea wreck. He came on the bodiesof several of the drowned, and at last on a lady with her Indian maid.The lady had a piece of that chain twisted in her fingers, and not faroff he came on a little baby so carefully tied up, and still alive. Hehad his own duties for the day, and he could be of no service to thedead, who, he knew besides, would be cared for by the properauthorities in a very little while, so he left them where they lay.But the baby was alive, and while he was examining it looked up in hisface with such a friendly trustful look that he could not help takingit up and vowing to be a father to it till its own should be found.'
'And so he has been keeping my child hidden away through all thesemonths of desolation!'
'My dear fellow, he had' no intention of that whatever. He wrote tothe Edinburgh newspapers at once; but you must remember that at thetime of the shipwreck your father was not aware that he had agrandchild at all, nor for weeks after. If Roderick Brown had left thechild beside its mother to be found by the coastguards or thefishermen, it would have been handed over to the mercy of parishcharity, which is perhaps not over tender. And who can tell if itwould have survived till you went to claim it? The chain, too, isheavy and valuable, and who knows but that might have been temptationenough to keep the child out of your sight for ever?'
'Let us go to the child at once, then, Kenneth! and not to the shorewith its miserable memories of wrecks and corpses.'
So the horse was put about, and they struck across the moor to GlenEffick.
Inchbracken: The Story of a Fama Clamosa Page 35