Clara Vaughan, Volume 2 (of 3)

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  Cold and fresh was the morning air, and the open window invited thesounds of country life. Who could think of fever with the bright dewsparkling on the lawn, the lilac buds growing fat enough to claim theirright of shadow, the pleasant ring of the sharpening scythe, and theswishing sweep of the swathe? From the stable-yard, round the corner,came the soothing hiss of the grooms, the short stamp of the livelysteed (I fancied I knew my own favourite "Lilla"), and the gruff "Standstill, mare, wull'e?" Far down the avenue whistled the cowboy,waddle-footed, on his way to the clover leys, or the milkmaid sung withthe pail on her hip, and the deer came trooping and stooping their hornsalong. Was it not one of my own pet robins, who hopped on thewindow-sill, peered bravely at himself in the jug, and tried to rememberthe last of his winter notes?

  But it is cold, Jane, very cold indeed; and we have never been to bed;and now the mowers have descried us, why do they stop their work, andshake their heads together so, and keep outside the ranunculus bed, andagree that the grass beneath our windows does not require cutting? Why,if they were Papists, they would cross themselves, and that saves manyan oath. But the grass does want cutting, Jane. It cannot have beencut for a week. I will call to them. No, it might disturb my uncle.

  There is no sound from the bed-room yet: all deep and deadly silence. Iwill go and see.

  There my patient lies, just as when I saw him first, except that I havearranged the wreck of his hoary locks, and applied a lotion to histemple on the burning side. And yet, now I look closer, the face is notquite so livid; or is it the difference between the candle-light and themorning ray?

  Even while I looked, he started up, as if my eyes revived him. He didnot moan or cry; but opened wide his filmy eyes, and gazed feebly andplacidly at me. For a time he did not know me: then a great changegradually crept through his long faltering gaze. Fearing the effects ofexcitement upon him, I tried to divert his attention by another gooddose of yeast. Three times he took it with resignation like awell-trained child, but his eyes all the time intent on me. Presentlythey began to swim and swerve; the effort of the faint blood-tissuedbrain and the exertion of swallowing had been too much for his shatteredpowers. He fell off again into the comatose state, but with a palpabledifference. The pulse, which had throbbed on the hot side only, couldnow be felt most feebly moving in the other wrist, and the tension ofthe muscles was relaxed: circulation was being restored and balanced,and the breathing could now be traced, short as it was and irregular.

  I have not time to describe all the symptoms of gradual improvement, andI have not the medical knowledge needful to do so clearly. Enough thatthe six-hour interval was shortened that day by half, that the breathingbecame more regular, and a soft perspiration broke through the cloggedand clammy pores. Jane wanted to second this by an additional blanket,but I feared to allow it in a case of so utter prostration. When theperspiration was over, then I prescribed the blanket for fear of a chillreaction.

  At every return of consciousness, our patient made an effort to speak,but I hushed him with my hand on his lips, and he even managed to smile,when he found that I would be obeyed. In the evening he tried to openhis arms to me, and then tried to push me away, in some faintrecollection of the nature of his disorder. To me the interest was sointense, and the delight so deep, that if I had lost him now, it wouldsurely have broken my heart.

  At sunset of that day, as nurse and I sat near the dressing-room window,watching the slant rays flickering on the sward, and the rooks alightingand swinging over their noisy nests, a black cloud hung for a momentjust above the sun, a black cloud with a vivid edge of gold. Ittempered the light in a peculiar manner, and seemed to throw itdownwards. Peering through my fingers at it, for it was very beautiful,I saw a whitish mist or vapour steaming and hovering above the disk ofthe setting sun, between my eyes and that golden marge. I wondered whatthis could be; there was no heat to cause strong evaporation, nor anymist or dewy haze about, nor was the sun "drawing water." But what Isaw was like that trembling twinkle of the air, which we often observeon a meadow footpath in the hot forenoon of July. I drew Jane'sattention to it, not expecting any solution, but just for something tosay.

  "Dear me, Miss, don't you know what that is? I see it every evening; itwill be twice as plain when the sun goes down, and then it will be quitewhite."

  "Well, what is it? Why can't you tell me? Is everything here asecret?"

  I was rather irritable, but vexed with myself for being so. Too muchexcitement and too little sleep were the causes.

  "No, Miss, there's no secret at all about that. Every one knows whatthat is. It's only the scum that rises through the grass from thearched pool that takes all the drains of the house. Some of the archfell in they say, and the ground shakes when they mow it; they areafraid to roll there."

  "Is it possible? And you knew it, a practised nurse like you! Did myuncle know it?"

  "I am sure, Miss, I can't tell: most likely not, or he would have had itmended, he hates things out of repair. But it can't do any harm, withthe mould and the grass above it."

  "Can't it indeed? And you can see it rise. Shut all the bedroomwindows in a moment, Jane. I'll shut this."

  She thought my wits were wandering, from what I had gone through;nevertheless she obeyed me.

  It happened that I had attended, at Isola's urgent request, one lectureof the many delivered by Dr. Ross. She forgot what the subject was tobe. It proved to be an unsavoury and "unlady-like" one--Mephitis.Isola wanted to run away, but I have none of that nonsense about me,when human life is concerned, and listened with great attention, andeven admiration; for he handled the matter eloquently and well.

  "Now, Jane, throw all the doors open, and the lobby window that looks inthe other direction. When do you think it will be possible to move ourpoor patient from these rooms? The air here is deadly poison."

  "Well I'm sure, Miss! And he couldn't have a nicer nor a more airyroom; and all my things in order too, and so handy, and so manycupboards!"

  "Out of this poison he must go. When can he be moved?"

  "Well, Miss, he might be moved to-morrow, if we could only get plenty ofhands, and do it cleverly."

  "Surely we can have plenty of hands. There used to be twenty-fiveservants here; and I have not heard that my uncle has lessened thenumber."

  "No, Miss; but save and keep us, we shan't get one of them here."

  "Nonsense! I will have them, or they leave the house. Of course Iwon't peril their lives. We shall only want two or three; and they maytake a bath of disinfecting stuff, with all their clothes on, beforethey come; and they may smoke all the while."

  The nurse laughed grimly, and shook her gray head.

  "And we will fumigate, Jane, fumigate tremendously. Surely Englishmenhave more self-respect than to be such babies, and you a woman, and I agirl, shaming them out of face."

  "It doesn't matter, Miss; they won't come. I know them well, the lot Imean that are in the house now."

  "Very well, Jane, we'll have Gamekeeper Hiatt, and his eldest son; theyare men I know. And if that is not enough, we'll send to Gloucester forThomas Henwood. But why don't you open the lobby door, as I told you?"

  "If you please, Miss, I can't. They have fastened it outside."

  "Do you mean to say that they have dared to lock us in?"

  "Indeed I do, Miss; we have been fastened in since the morning."

  "And pray, why did you not tell me?'

  "Because I feared to excite you, Miss. I know your temper when you arewronged, ever since you was that high; and in this fever air, excitementis sure to kill you. Brutes! But I suppose they don't know it."

  "They know it well; at least the master-spirit does. And for that veryreason I will crush my indignation. Since I was that high, Jane, I havepassed through much tribulation, and have dropped my lady-heiress tone.I can now command myself."

  "Then, Miss, I will show you what they sent this
morning, round thehandle of the coffee-jug. I was afraid to let you see it before." Shegave me a twist of paper, on which was written as follows:--

  "For the safety of the household, Mrs. Fletcher orders that the personsin the fever-room be allowed no communication with the other servants.The intercepting door is fastened, because a most sinful un-Christianact was perpetrated last night. Due supplies will be delivered oncea-day, at 10 A.M. No empty vessels and no correspondence received. Anyattempt to break these rules will be punished by suspension of supplies.Servants are forbidden to come beneath the sick-room windows. May theLord have you in His keeping, in His tender mercy, according to His holywill. You are requested to read Philippians i. 8-11 inclusive. Thereare three holy bibles on the drawers and dressing-tables."

  When I had read this, and perceived, by the blasphemy at the end, thatit could proceed from no other than that awful woman, I confess that myspirit was cowed within me. Not from selfish fear, nor yet from thetaming of passion, but from the lowering thought that I belonged to thesame race of being as the author of such Satanity. Presently, I becametoo indignant to speak, or even think. It added, if that were possible,to my indignation, that I had seen her leave the house, about nineo'clock that morning, in our best close carriage. She kept the windowsup until she was past the lawn and the light iron gates, beyond thearcade of roses; then, at the first turn in the avenue, she let down theglass and gracefully kissed her hand to me. I did not believe, however,that she was gone back to Cheltenham. With so much at stake in ourhouse, and depending on her direction, she would surely stop in theneighbourhood, if only to watch the course of events.

  Sooner than I dared to expect, I regained the command of myself; horrorwithin me was stronger than wrath, and stronger than either became theresolve to survive and win. "There can be no God," I exclaimed, in mypresumptuous ignorance, "if this scheme of the devil is permitted totriumph."

  First I tried the door, which severed us from the rest of the house. Myuncle's rooms were in the western wing, very near those which my dearmother had occupied, and not very far from my own. They formed onefloor of the western gable; the three bedroom windows and that of thedressing-room looked to the west, while the great lobby window, fromwhich I had seen Mrs. Daldy's departure, looked southward along theavenue, the curve of which could be seen also from the bedroom windows.An oaken door, at the end of the main passage, cut off the rooms in thisstorey of the gable from all the rest of the house. This door Jane hadleft locked from the inside, fearing lest others should lock her in, asthey had threatened to do. But now we found that a strong iron bolt hadbeen fixed upon the outside, while we were asleep in the morning, andthat we had no chance of forcing it.

  Next I asked Jane, whether she thought that the house, now Mrs. Daldywas gone, would be still in the hands of our enemies. Would not Mrs.Fletcher at once re-assert her authority? Might not Matilda Jenkins beexpected to fly to the rescue? The nurse, knowing all the politics ofthe servants' hall, assured me that there was no hope of either of theseevents. Robert, a drunken Wesleyan, turned out of the sect inCheltenham, was Mrs. Daldy's lieutenant, and would take all care ofMatilda, to whose good graces he had been making overture. As for Mrs.Fletcher, she was probably in the same plight as ourselves. From what Iheard about Robert, I began to believe that he had private orders todisown me at the station, for the double purpose of yielding a tit-bitof insolence, and warning of my arrival.

  However, that mattered very little; but out of those rooms I must get,either by door or by window; and that, too, without delay. Do theyexpect to triumph so easily over Clara Vaughan? And in her father'shouse? The windows were about twenty feet from the ground, as nearly asI could guess, and the rooms beneath were empty. At once I resolved toattempt an escape that way, and to do so before the moon, which wassouthing now, should shine on the western aspect. Good Jane wasterrified at the thought; and then, upon my persisting, implored me tolet her make the attempt, if it must be made at all.

  "Now, Jane, no more, if you please. We can't waste time about that.You have a husband partly dependent upon you, and several children tothink of. For me nobody cares." But I hoped somebody did. "And youknow I am far more active and much lighter than you are. Help me outwith the feather bed."

  The little bed in the dressing-room, which she had to sleep on, wasspeedily brought to the window, and dropped just underneath it. It fellupon the grass with a pleasing and quiet flop. Then the two strongbell-ropes, already cut down and plaited together, were tied round thebars of the double window sashes, the lower sash being thrown up to thefull extent, the glass pressed quietly out with a pair of wet towels,and the splinters removed, so as not to cut the rope. The latter stillfailed to reach more than half-way to the ground, but I would venturethe drop if I could only descend so far. After winding a linen sheetaround my body and dress, with the end tied round one ankle, so as toleave me free use of my limbs, I sat upon the window-sill in the broadshadow, and calculated my chances. Should I begin the descent withface, or with back, to the wall? Face to the wall I resolved on, forthough I should have to drop backward so, yet what I feared most of allwas having the back of my head crushed against the house. Next to thisI dreaded a sprain of the ankle, but all our family are well-knit andstraight in the joint.

  So I launched myself off, beginning as gently as could be, Jane havingfirm hold of one hand, until I was well on the voyage. Though not wellversed in calisthenic arts, I got on famously almost as far as the endof the rope, keeping away from the wall by the over-saling of thewindow-sill, and the rapid use of my feet. Then I rested a moment on aprojecting ledge--called, I believe, a "stringing-course"--and away handbelow hand again. But I struck my knuckles terribly against thatstringing-course, and very nearly lost hold from the pain of the blow;then bending my body forward I gave one good push at the wall, andshutting both eyes, I believe, let go the rope altogether. Backward Ifell, and rolled over upon the feather bed. I was not even stunned, butfeared for a moment to try if my limbs were sound.

  There I sat and stripped off the winding sheet. Presently, up I got,and, in my triumph, alas! could not help crying "All right, Hurrah!"like a foolish little child. In a moment I saw that my cry had beenheard, where it should not have been. A rapid flitting of lights alongthe lower windows and in the stableyard, and I knew that chase would begiven.

  But after leaving my father's house in such a dignified manner, was itlikely that I would give in and be caught? Now, Clara, you could beatall your nurses in running, off and away like the wind! Away I wentfull speed towards the shade of the avenue, while Jane had the wit toscream out of the window, "Help! Help! Here's the house on fire!"This made some little diversion; I had a capital start, and it was buthalf a mile to the lodge where old Whitehead lived. Once there, Ishould care for nobody. I must have escaped very easily, for my feetseemed as swift as a deer's; but, as my luck would have it, the lightiron gates between the lawn and the park were fastened. What on earthshould I do? I saw men running across the lawn, and, what was worse,they saw me. In vain I pulled at the gates; they rattled, but would notyield. Had I owned true presence of mind, I should have walked boldlyup to the men, and dared them to touch me fresh from the fever-room. Inthe flurry of the moment I never thought of that, but darted into theshrubbery, and crouched among thick laurels. Presently I heard themrush down the main drive and begin the search, with some heavy swearing.Two of them came to the very clump I was hiding in, and pushed apitchfork almost into my side, but the stupid fellows had lanterns,which blinded them to the moonlight. On they went with grumblings andgrowlings, which told me exactly where to shun them. Judging at length,from the silence, that the search had passed to the right, I slippedfrom my tangled lair, and glided away to the left, beyond the shrubberyspring, where a little gate, as I knew, led to a glade in the park. Thedeep ha-ha which I had feared to jump in the dark, because of the loosestones at the bottom, was here succeeded by a high oak paling, andprobably through that gate
had come the murderer of my father.

  With a cold shudder at the remembrance, I stole along through theshadowy places, and had almost reached the little gate, when I saw twoof the searchers coming straight towards me. To the right of me was thepark-paling, on the left a breastwork of sod, which I could not climbwithout being clearly seen; to fly was to meet the enemy; should Iyield, and be baffled after all; insulted too, most likely, for I knewthat the men were tipsy?

  In my hand was the tightly-wound sheet, used as a rope to confine mydress. I had folded it short and carried it, on the chance of itsproving useful. In a moment I was under the palings in deep shadow,with the white sheet thrown around me, falling from my forehead, anddraped artistically over the right arm. Stock still I stood against theblack boards, and two great coils of long black hair flowed down thewinding sheet. The men came up, tired of the chase, and grumbling; andby their voices I knew them for my good friends Jacob and Bob.Suddenly, they espied a tall, white figure, of tremendous aspect. Theystopped short, both tongue and foot, and I distinctly heard their teethchatter. With a slow and spectral motion, I raised my draped white arm,and fetched a low, sepulchral moan. Down fell the lantern, and, with aloud yell, away went the men, as hard as their legs could carry them.

  Laughing heartily, I refolded my sheet, and taking the short cut acrossthe park to the lodge where old Whitehead lived, arrived, without havingmet even my old friend "Tulip."

  The old man, in hot indignation, drew forth his battered musket--for hehad once been in the militia--and swore that he would march upon the---- rogues at once. Instead of that I sent him for the two Hiatts, andthe village constable; and soon, without invitation, half the villageattended. With my torn dress tucked up by good Mrs. Whitehead, and ahat on my head, newly bought for her clean little grandchild, I setforth again in the moonlight, at the head of a faithful army, to recovermy native home.

  Hiatt easily opened the gate, which had defied my flurried efforts, andwe presented ourselves at the main entrance, a force that would frightena castle. It is needless to say that we carried all before us. Thestate of siege was rescinded, Mrs. Fletcher and Tilly set free, all theringleaders turned away neck and crop, and what was far more important,my poor uncle removed, without being conscious of it, to a sweet andwholesome room. The sturdy Gloucestershire yeomen scorned all idea ofdanger.

  Tired with all my adventures, before I slept that night--still near myuncle's bed--two reflections came dreamily over my mind.

  The first was a piece of vanity. "Ah, Mrs. Daldy, you little know ClaraVaughan!"

  The second was, "Dear me, how Conrad would be astonished at this! Andhow strange that his father should thus have saved my uncle's life! Forhe must have died, if left in that noisome room."

  CLARA VAUGHAN

  BOOK IV.