Shrinking from all further contemplation of her next step in advance – shrinking from the fast darkening future, with which Noel Vanstone was now associated in her inmost thoughts – she looked impatiently about the room for some homely occupation which might take her out of herself. The disguise which she had flung down between the wall and the bed recurred to her memory. It was impossible to leave it there. Mrs Wragge (now occupied in sorting her parcels) might weary of her employment, might come in again at a moment’s notice, might pass near the bed and see the grey cloak. What was to be done?
Her first thought was to put the disguise back in her trunk. But, after what had happened, there was danger in trusting it so near to herself, while she and Mrs Wragge were together under the same roof. She resolved to be rid of it that evening, and boldly determined on sending it back to Birmingham. Her bonnet-box fitted into her trunk. She took the box out, thrust in the wig and cloak; and remorselessly flattened down the bonnet at the top. The gown (which she had not yet taken off) was her own; Mrs Wragge had been accustomed to see her in it -there was no need to send the gown back. Before closing the box, she hastily traced these lines on a sheet of paper: ‘I took the enclosed things away by mistake. Please keep them for me with the rest of my luggage in your possession, until you hear from me again.’ Putting the paper on the top of the bonnet, she directed the box to Captain Wragge, at Birmingham; took it downstairs immediately; and sent the landlady’s daughter away with it to the nearest Receiving House. ‘That difficulty is disposed of,’ she thought, as she went back to her own room again.
Mrs Wragge was still occupied in sorting her parcels, on her narrow little bed. She turned round with a faint scream, when Magdalen looked in at her. ‘I thought it was the ghost again,’ said Mrs Wragge. ‘I’m trying to take warning, my dear, by what’s happened to me. I’ve put all my parcels straight, just as the captain would like to see ‘em. I’m up at heel with both shoes. If I close my eyes to-night – which I don’t think I shall – I’ll go to sleep as straight as my legs will let me. And I’ll never have another holiday as long as I live. I hope I shall be forgiven,’ said Mrs Wragge, mournfully shaking her head. ‘I humbly hope I shall be forgiven.’
‘Forgiven!’ repeated Magdalen. ‘If other women wanted as little forgiving as you do – Well! well! Suppose you open some of these parcels. Come! I want to see what you have been buying to-day.’
Mrs Wragge hesitated, sighed penitently, considered a little, stretched out her hand timidly towards one of the parcels, thought of the supernatural warning, and shrank back from her own purchases with a desperate exertion of self-control.
‘Open this one,’ said Magdalen, to encourage her: ‘What is it?’
Mrs Wragge’s faded blue eyes began to brighten dimly, in spite of her remorse; but she self-denyingly shook her head. The master passion of shopping might claim his own again – but the ghost was not laid yet.
‘Did you get it a bargain?’ asked Magdalen, confidentially.
‘Dirt cheap!’ cried poor Mrs Wragge, falling headlong into the snare, and darting at the parcel as eagerly as if nothing had happened.
Magdalen kept her gossiping over her purchases, for an hour or more; and then wisely determined to distract her attention from all ghostly recollections, in another way, by taking her out for a walk.
As they left the lodgings, the door of Noel Vanstone’s house opened, and the woman-servant appeared, bent on another errand. She was apparently charged with a letter on this occasion, which she carried carefully in her hand. Conscious of having formed no plan yet, either for attack or defence, Magdalen wondered, with a momentary dread, whether Mrs Lecount had decided already on opening fresh communications, and whether the letter was directed to ‘Miss Garth’.
The letter bore no such address. Noel Vanstone had solved his pecuniary problem at last. The blank space in the advertisement was filled up; and Mrs Lecount’s acknowledgement of the captain’s anonymous warning, was now on its way to insertion in The Times.
THE END OF THE THIRD SCENE
BETWEEN THE SCENES
PROGRESS OF THE STORY THROUGH THE POST
One
Extract From the Advertising Columns of The Times
‘An Unknown Friend is requested to mention (by advertisement) an address at which a letter can reach him. The receipt of the information which he offers, will be acknowledged by a reward of Five Pounds.’
Two
From Captain Wragge to Magdalen
‘Birmingham, July 2nd, 1847
‘MY D>EAR GIRL,
‘The box containing the articles of costume which you took away by mistake, has come safely to hand. Consider it under my special protection, until I hear from you again.
‘I embrace this opportunity to assure you, once more, of my unalterable fidelity to your interests. Without attempting to intrude myself into your confidence, may I inquire whether Mr Noel Vanstone has consented to do you justice? I greatly fear he has declined – in which case, I can lay my hand on my heart, and solemnly declare that his meanness revolts me. Why do I feel a foreboding that you have appealed to him in vain? Why do I find myself viewing this fellow in the light of a noxious insect? We are total strangers to each other; I have no sort of knowledge of him, except the knowledge I picked up in making your inquiries. Has my intense sympathy with your interests made my perceptions prophetic? or, to put it fancifully, is there really such a thing as a former state of existence? and has Mr Noel Vanstone mortally insulted me – say, in some other planet?
‘I write, my dear Magdalen, as you see, with my customary dash of humour. But I am serious in placing my services at your disposal. Don’t let the question of terms cause you an instant’s hesitation. I accept, beforehand, any terms you like to mention. If your present plans point that way – I am ready to squeeze Mr Noel Vanstone, in your interests, till the gold oozes out of him at every pore. Pardon the coarseness of this metaphor. My anxiety to be of service to you rushes into words; lays my meaning, in the rough, at your feet; and leaves your taste to polish it with the choicest ornaments of the English language.
‘How is my unfortunate wife? I am afraid you find it quite impossible to keep her up at heel, or to mould her personal appearance into harmony with the external laws of symmetry and order. Does she attempt to be too familiar with you? I have always been accustomed to check her, in this respect. She has never been permitted to call me anything but Captain; and on the rare occasions, since our union, when circumstances may have obliged her to address me by letter, her opening from of salutation has been rigidly restricted to ‘Dear Sir’. Accept these trifling domestic particulars as suggesting hints which may be useful to you in managing Mrs Wragge; and believe me, in anxious expectation of hearing from you again,
‘Devotedly yours,
‘HORATIO WRAGGE’
Three
From Norah to Magdalen
Forwarded, with the Two Letters that follow it, from the Post-Office,
Birmingham.
‘Westmoreland House, Kensington,
‘July 1ST
‘MY DEAREST MAGDALEN,
‘When you write next (and pray write soon!) address your letter to me at Miss Garth’s. I have left my situation; and some little time may elapse before I find another.
‘Now it is all over, I may acknowledge to you, my darling, that I was not happy. I tried hard to win the affection of the two little girls I had to teach; but they seemed, I am sure I can’t tell why, to dislike me from the first. Their mother I have no reason to complain of. But their grandmother, who was really the ruling power in the house, made my life very hard to me. My inexperience in teaching was a constant subject of remark with her; and my difficulties with the children were always visited on me as if they had been entirely of my own making. I tell you this, so that you may not suppose I regret having left my situation. Far from it, my love – I am glad to be out of the house.
‘I have saved a little money, Magdalen; and I should so li
ke to spend it in staying a few days with you. My heart aches for a sight of my sister; my ears are weary for the sound of her voice. A word from you, telling me where we can meet, is all I want. Think of it – pray think of it.
‘Don’t suppose I am discouraged by this first check. There are many kind people in the world; and some of them may employ me next time. The way to happiness is often very hard to find; harder, I almost think, for women than for men. But, if we only try patiently, and try long enough, we reach it at last – in Heaven, if not on earth. I think my way now, is the way which leads to seeing you again. Don’t forget that, my love, the next time you think of
‘NORAH’
Four
From Miss Garth to Magdalen
‘Westmoreland House, July 1st
‘MY DEAR MAGDALEN,
‘You have no useless remonstrances to apprehend, at the sight of my handwriting. My only object in this letter is to tell you something, which I know your sister will not tell you of her own accord. She is entirely ignorant that I am writing to you. Keep her in ignorance, if you wish to spare her unnecessary anxiety – and me unnecessary distress.
‘Norah’s letter, no doubt, tells you that she has left her situation. I feel it my painful duty to add, that she has left it on your account.
‘The matter occurred in this manner. Messrs Wyatt, Pendril and Gwilt are the solicitors of the gentleman in whose family Norah was employed. The life which you have chosen for yourself was known, as long ago as December last, to all the partners. You were discovered performing in public at Derby by the person who had been employed to trace you at York; and that discovery was communicated by Mr Wyatt to Norah’s employer, a few days since, in reply to direct inquiries about you on that gentleman’s part. His wife, and his mother (who lives with him) had expressly desired that he would make those inquiries; their doubts having been aroused by Norah’s evasive answers when they questioned her about her sister. You know Norah too well to blame her for this. Evasion was the only escape your present life had left her from telling a downright falsehood.
‘That same day, the two ladies of the family, the elder and the younger, sent for your sister; and told her they had discovered that you were a public performer, roaming from place in the country, under an assumed name. They were just enough not to blame Norah for this; they were just enough to acknowledge that her conduct had been as irreproachable, as I had guaranteed it should be when I got her the situation. But, at the same time, they made it a positive condition of her continuing in their employment, that she should never permit you to visit her at their house – or to meet her and walk out with her when she was in attendance on the children. Your sister – who has patiently borne all hardships that fell on herself – instantly resented the slur cast on you. She gave her employers warning on the spot. High words followed; and she left the house that evening.
‘I have no wish to distress you by representing the loss of this situation in the light of a disaster. Norah was not so happy in it, as I had hoped and believed she would be. It was impossible for me to know beforehand, that the children were sullen and intractable – or that the husband’s mother was accustomed to make her domineering disposition felt by every one in the house. I will readily admit that Norah is well out of this situation. But the harm does not stop here. For all you and I know to the contrary, the harm may go on. What has happened in this situation, may happen in another. Your way of life, however pure your conduct may be – and I will do you the justice to believe it pure – is a suspicious way of life to all respectable people. I have lived long enough in this world to know, that the Sense of Propriety, in nine Englishwomen out of ten, makes no allowances and feels no pity. Norah’s next employers may discover you; and Norah may throw up a situation next time, which we may never be able to find for her again.
‘I leave you to consider this. My child! don’t think I am hard on you. I am jealous for your sister’s tranquillity. If you will forget the past, Magdalen, and come back – trust to your old governess to forget it too, and to give you the home which your father and mother once gave her.
‘Your friend, my dear, always,
‘HARRIET GARTH’
Five
From Francis Clare, Jun., to Magdalen
‘Shanghai, China,
‘April 23rd, 1847
‘MY DEAR MAGDALEN,
‘I have deferred answering your letter, in consequence of the distracted state of my mind, which made me unfit to write to you. I am still unfit – but I feel I ought to delay no longer. My sense of honour fortifies me; and I undergo the pain of writing this letter.
‘My prospects in China are all at an end. The Firm, to which I was brutally consigned as if I was a bale of merchandise, has worn out my patience by a series of petty insults; and I have felt compelled from motives of self-respect, to withdraw my services, – which were undervalued from the first. My returning to England, under these circumstances, is out of the question. I have been too cruelly used in my own country to wish to go back to it – even if I could. I propose embarking on board a private trading vessel in these seas, in a mercantile capacity, to make my way, if I can, for myself. How it will end, or what will happen to me next, is more than I can say. It matters little what becomes of me. I am a wanderer and an exile, entirely through the fault of others. The unfeeling desire at home to get rid of me, has accomplished its object. I am got rid of for good.
‘There is only one more sacrifice left for me to make – the sacrifice of my heart’s dearest feelings. With no prospects before me, with no chance of coming home, what hope can I feel of performing my engagement to yourself? None! A more selfish man than I am, might hold you to that engagement; a less considerate man than I am, might keep you waiting for years – and to no purpose after all. Cruelly as they have been trampled on, my feelings are too sensitive to allow me to do this. I write it with the tears in my eyes – you shall not link your fate to an outcast. Accept these heart-broken lines as releasing you from your promise. Our engagement is at an end.
‘The one consolation which supports me, in bidding you farewell, is -that neither of us is to blame. You may have acted weakly, under my father’s influence, but I am sure you acted for the best. Nobody knew what the fatal consequences of driving me out of England would be, but myself – and I was not listened to. I yielded to my father, I yielded to you; and this is the end of it!
‘I am suffering too acutely to write more. May you never know what my withdrawal from our engagement has cost me! I beg you will not blame yourself. It is not your fault that I have had all my energies misdirected by others – it is not your fault that I have never had a fair chance of getting on in life. Forget the deserted wretch, who breathes his heartfelt prayers for your happiness, and who will ever remain your friend and well-wisher,
‘FRANCIS CLARE, JUN.’
Six
From Francis Clare, Sen., to Magdalen
Enclosing the preceding Letter
‘I always told your poor father my son was a Fool; but I never knew he was a Scoundrel until the mail came in from China. I have every reason to believe that he has left his employers under the most disgraceful circumstances. Forget him from this time forth, as I do. When you and I last set eyes on each other, you behaved well to me in this business. All I can now say in return, I do say. My girl, I am sorry for you. ‘F.C.’
Seven
From Mrs Wragge to her Husband
‘dear sir for mercy’s sake come here and help us She had a dreadful letter I don’t know what yesterday but she read it in bed and when I went in with her breakfast I found her dead and if the doctor had not been two doors off nobody else could have brought her to life again and she sits and looks dreadful and wont speak a word her eyes frighten me so I shake from head to foot oh please do come I keep things as tidy as I can and I do like her so and she used to be so kind to me and the landlord says he’s afraid she’ll destroy herself I wish I could write straight but I do shake so your dutiful wife m
atilda wragge excuse faults and beg you on my knees come and help us the Doctor good man will put some of his own writing into this for fear you can’t make out mine and remain once more your dutiful wife matilda wragge.’
Added by the Doctor
‘SIR, – I beg to inform you that I was yesterday called into a neighbour’s, in Vauxhall Walk, to attend a young lady who had been suddenly taken ill. I recovered her with great difficulty from one of the most obstinate fainting fits I ever remember to have met with. Since that time she has had no relapse, but there is apparently some heavy distress weighing on her mind, which it has hitherto been found impossible to remove. She sits, as I am informed, perfectly silent, and perfectly unconscious of what goes on about her, for hours together, with a letter in her hand, which she will allow nobody to take from her. If this state of depression continues, very distressing mental consequences may follow; and I only do my duty in suggesting that some relative or friend should interfere who has influence enough to rouse her.
‘Your obedient servant,
‘RICHARD JARVIS, M.R.C.S.’
Eight
From Norah to Magdalen
‘July 5th
‘For God’s sake, write me one line to say if you are still at Birmingham, and where I can find you there! I have just heard from old Mr Clare. Oh, Magdalen, if you have no pity on yourself, have some pity on me! The thought of you alone among strangers, the thought of you heartbroken under this dreadful blow, never leaves me for an instant. No words can tell how I feel for you! My own love, remember the better days at home before that cowardly villain stole his way into your heart; remember the happy time at Combe-Raven, when we were always together. Oh, don’t, don’t treat me like a stranger! We are alone in the world now – let me come and comfort you – let me be more than a sister to you, if I can. One line – only one line to tell me where I can find you!’
No Name Page 36