“You talk to me of my sin. Who was it who first sinned? Who was it who drove Mary Marchmont from this house,––not once only, but twice, by her cruelty? Who was it who persecuted her and tortured her day by day and hour by hour, not openly, not with an uplifted hand or blows that could be warded off, but by cruel hints and inuendoes, by unwomanly sneers and hellish taunts? Look into your heart, Olivia Marchmont; and when you make atonement for your sin, I will make restitution for mine. In the meantime, if this business is painful to you, the way lies open before you: go and take Edward Arundel to the pavilion yonder, and give him back his wife; give the lie to all your past life, and restore these devoted young lovers to each other’s arms.”
This weapon never failed in its effect. Olivia Marchmont might loathe herself, and her sin, and her life, which was made hideous to her because of her sin; but she could not bring herself to restore Mary to her lover–husband; she could not tolerate the idea of their happiness. Every night she grovelled on her knees, and swore to her offended God that she would do this thing, she would render this sacrifice of atonement; but every morning, when her weary eyes opened on the hateful sunlight, she cried, “Not to–day––not to–day.”
Again and again, during Edward Arundel’s residence at Kemberling Retreat, she had set out from Marchmont Towers with the intention of revealing to him the place where his young wife was hidden; but, again and again, she had turned back and left her work undone. She could not––she could not. In the dead of the night, under pouring rain, with the bleak winds of winter blowing in her face, she had set out upon that unfinished journey, only to stop midway, and cry out, “No, no, no––not to–night; I cannot endure it yet!”
It was only when another and a fiercer jealousy was awakened in this woman’s breast, that she arose all at once, strong, resolute, and undaunted, to do the work she had so miserably deferred. As one poison is said to neutralise the evil power of another, so Olivia Marchmont’s jealousy of Belinda seemed to blot out and extinguish her hatred of Mary. Better anything than that Edward Arundel should have a new, and perhaps a fairer, bride. The jealous woman had always looked upon Mary Marchmont as a despicable rival. Better that Edward should be tied to this girl, than that he should rejoice in the smiles of a lovelier woman, worthier of his affection. This was the feeling paramount in Olivia’s breast, although she was herself half unconscious how entirely this was the motive power which had given her new strength and resolution. She tried to think that it was the awakening of her conscience that had made her strong enough to do this one good work; but in the semi–darkness of her own mind there was still a feeble glimmer of the light of truth, and it was this that had prompted her to cry out on her knees before the altar in Hillingsworth church, and declare the sinfulness of her nature.
* * * * *
Paul Marchmont stopped several times before the ragged, untrimmed fruit–trees in his purposeless wanderings in the neglected garden at Stony Stringford, before the vaporous confusion cleared away from his brain, and he was able to understand what had happened to him.
His first reasonable action was to take out his watch; but even then he stood for some moments staring at the dial before he remembered why he had taken the watch from his pocket, or what it was that he wanted to know. By Mr. Marchmont’s chronometer it was ten minutes past seven o’clock; but the watch had been unwound upon the previous night, and had run down. Paul put it back in his waistcoat–pocket, and then walked slowly along the weedy pathway to that low latticed window in which he had often seen Mary Arundel standing with her child in her arms. He went to this window and looked in, with his face against the glass. The room was neat and orderly now; for the woman whom Mr. Marchmont had hired had gone about her work as usual, and was in the act of filling a little brown earthenware teapot from a kettle on the hob when Paul stared in at her.
She looked up as Mr. Marchmont’s figure came between her and the light, and nearly dropped the little brown teapot in her terror of her offended employer.
But Paul pulled open the window, and spoke to her very quietly. “Stop where you are,” he said; “I want to speak to you. I’ll come in.”
He went into the house by a door, that had once been the front and principal entrance, which opened into a low wainscoted hall. From this room he went into the parlour, which had been Mary Arundel’s apartment, and in which the hired nurse was now preparing her breakfast. “I thought I might as well get a cup of tea, sir, whiles I waited for your orders,” the woman murmured, apologetically; “for bein’ knocked up so early this morning, you see, sir, has made my head that bad, I could scarcely bear myself; and––––”
Paul lifted his hand to stop the woman’s talk, as he had done before. He had no consciousness of what she was saying, but the sound of her voice pained him. His eyebrows contracted with a spasmodic action, as if something had hurt his head.
There was a Dutch clock in the corner of the room, with a long pendulum swinging against the wall. By this clock it was half–past eight.
“Is your clock right?” Paul asked.
“Yes, sir. Leastways, it may be five minutes too slow, but not more.”
Mr. Marchmont took out his watch, wound it up, and regulated it by the Dutch clock.
“Now,” he said, “perhaps you can tell me clearly what happened. I want no excuses, remember; I only want to know what occurred, and what was said––word for word, remember.”
He sat down but got up again directly, and walked to the window; then he paced up and down the room two or three times, and then went back to the fireplace and sat down again. He was like a man who, in the racking torture of some physical pain, finds a miserable relief in his own restlessness.
“Come,” he said; “I am waiting.”
“Yes, sir; which, begging your parding, if you wouldn’t mind sitting still like, while I’m a–telling of you, which it do remind me of the wild beastes in the Zoological, sir, to that degree, that the boil, to which I am subjeck, sir, and have been from a child, might prevent me bein’ as truthful as I should wish. Mrs. Marchmont, sir, she come before it was light, in a cart, sir, which it was a shaycart, and made comfortable with cushions and straw, and suchlike, or I should not have let the young lady go away in it; and she bring with her a respectable, homely–looking young person, which she call Hester Jobling or Gobson, or somethink of that sound like, which my memory is treechrous, and I don’t wish to tell a story on no account; and Mrs. Marchmont she go straight up to my young lady, and she shakes her by the shoulder; and then the young woman called Hester, she wakes up my young lady quite gentle like, and kisses her and cries over her; and a man as drove the cart, which looked a small tradesman well–to–do, brings his trap round to the front–door,––you may see the trax of the wheels upon the gravel now, sir, if you disbelieve me. And Mrs. Marchmont and the young woman called Hester, between ’em they gets my young lady up, and dresses her, and dresses the child; and does it all so quick, and overrides me to such a degree, that I hadn’t no power to prevent ‘em; but I say to Mrs. Marchmont, I say: ‘Is it Mr. Marchmont’s orders as his cousin should be took away this morning?’ and she stare at me hard, and say, ‘Yes;’ and she have allus an abrumpt way, but was abrumpter than ordinary this morning. And, oh sir, bein’ a poor lone woman, what was I to do?”
“Have you nothing more to tell me?”
“Nothing, sir; leastways, except as they lifted my young lady into the cart, and the man got in after ‘em, and drove away as fast as his horse would go; and they had been gone two minutes when I began to feel all in a tremble like, for fear as I might have done wrong in lettin’ of ’em go.”
“You have done wrong,” Paul answered, sternly; “but no matter. If these officious friends of my poor weak–witted cousin choose to take her away, so much the better for me, who have been burdened with her long enough. Since your charge has gone, your services are no longer wanted. I shan’t act illiberally to you, though I am very much annoyed by your folly and stupid
ity. Is there anything due to you?”
Mrs. Brown hesitated for a moment, and then replied, in a very insinuating tone,––
“Not wages, sir; there ain’t no wages doo to me,––which you paid me a quarter in advance last Saturday was a week, and took a receipt, sir, for the amount. But I have done my dooty, sir, and had but little sleep and rest, which my ‘ealth ain’t what it was when I answered your advertisement, requirin’ a respectable motherly person, to take charge of a invalid lady, not objectin’ to the country––which I freely tell you, sir, if I’d known that the country was a rheumatic old place like this, with rats enough to scare away a regyment of soldiers, I would not have undertook the situation; so any present as you might think sootable, considerin’ all things, and––––”
“That will do,” said Paul Marchmont, taking a handful of loose money from his waistcoat pocket; “I suppose a ten–pound note would satisfy you?”
“Indeed it would, sir, and very liberal of you too––––”
“Very well. I’ve got a five–pound note here, and five sovereigns. The best thing you can do is to get back to London at once; there’s a train leaves Milsome Station at eleven o’clock––Milsome’s not more than a mile and a half from here. You can get your things together; there’s a boy about the place who will carry them for you, I suppose?”
“Yes, sir; there’s a boy by the name of William.”
“He can go with you, then; and if you look sharp, you can catch the eleven–o’clock train.”
“Yes, sir; and thank you kindly, sir.”
“I don’t want any thanks. See that you don’t miss the train; that’s all you have to take care of.”
Mr. Marchmont went out into the garden again. He had done something, at any rate; he had arranged for getting this woman out of the way.
If––if by any remote chance there might be yet a possibility of keeping the secret of Mary’s existence, here was one witness already got rid of.
But was there any chance? Mr. Marchmont sat down on a rickety old garden–seat, and tried to think––tried to take a deliberate survey of his position.
No; there was no hope for him. Look which way he could, there was not one ray of light. With George Weston and Olivia, Betsy Murrel the servant–girl, and Hester Jobson to bear witness against him, what could he hope?
The surgeon would be able to declare that the child was Mary’s son, her legitimate son, sole heir to that estate of which Paul had taken possession.
There was no hope. There was no possibility that Olivia should waver in her purpose; for had she not brought with her two witnesses––Hester Jobson and her husband?
From that moment the case was taken out of her hands. The honest carpenter and his wife would see that Mary had her rights.
“It will be a glorious speculation for them,” thought Paul Marchmont, who naturally measured other people’s characters by a standard derived from an accurate knowledge of his own.
Yes, his ruin was complete. Destruction had come upon him, swift and sudden as the caprice of a madwoman––or––the thunderbolt of an offended Providence. What should he do? Run away, sneak away by back–lanes and narrow footpaths to the nearest railway–station, hide himself in a third–class carriage going Londonwards, and from London get away to Liverpool, to creep on board some emigrant vessel bound for New York?
He could not even do this, for he was without the means of getting so much as the railway–ticket that should carry him on the first stage of his flight. After having given ten pounds to Mrs. Brown, he had only a few shillings in his waistcoat–pocket. He had only one article of any great value about him, and that was his watch, which had cost fifty pounds. But the Marchmont arms were emblazoned on the outside of the case; and Paul’s name in full, and the address of Marchmont Towers, were ostentatiously engraved inside, so that any attempt to dispose of the watch must inevitably lead to the identification of the owner.
Paul Marchmont had made no provision for this evil day. Supreme in the consciousness of his own talents, he had never imagined discovery and destruction. His plans had been so well arranged. On the very day after Edward’s second marriage, Mary and her child would have been conveyed away to the remotest district in Wales; and the artist would have laughed at the idea of danger. The shallowest schemer might have been able to manage this poor broken–hearted girl, whose many sorrows had brought her to look upon life as a thing which was never meant to be joyful, and which was only to be endured patiently, like some slow disease that would be surely cured in the grave. It had been so easy to deal with this ignorant and gentle victim that Paul had grown bold and confident, and had ignored the possibility of such ruin as had now come down upon him.
What was he to do? What was the nature of his crime, and what penalty had he incurred? He tried to answer these questions; but as his offence was of no common kind, he knew of no common law which could apply to it. Was it a felony, this appropriation of another person’s property, this concealment of another person’s existence; or was it only a conspiracy, amenable to no criminal law; and would he be called upon merely to make restitution of that which he had spent and wasted? What did it matter? Either way, there was nothing for him but ruin––irretrievable ruin.
There are some men who can survive discovery and defeat, and begin a new life in a new world, and succeed in a new career. But Paul Marchmont was not one of these. He could not stick a hunting–knife and a brace of revolvers in his leathern belt, sling a game–bag across his shoulders, take up his breech–loading rifle, and go out into the backwoods of an uncivilised country, to turn sheep–breeder, and hold his own against a race of agricultural savages. He was a Cockney, and for him there was only one world––a world in which men wore varnished boots and enamelled shirt–studs with portraits of La Montespan or La Dubarry, and lived in chambers in the Albany, and treated each other to little dinners at Greenwich and Richmond, or cut a grand figure at a country–house, and collected a gallery of art and a museum of bric à brac. This was the world upon the outer edge of which Paul Marchmont had lived so long, looking in at the brilliant inhabitants with hungry, yearning eyes through all the days of his poverty and obscurity. This was the world into which he had pushed himself at last by means of a crime.
He was forty years of age; and in all his life he had never had but one ambition,––and that was to be master of Marchmont Towers. The remote chance of that inheritance had hung before him ever since his boyhood, a glittering prize, far away in the distance, but so brilliant as to blind him to the brightness of all nearer chances. Why should he slave at his easel, and toil to become a great painter? When would art earn him eleven thousand a year? The greatest painter of Mr. Marchmont’s time lived in a miserable lodging at Chelsea. It was before the days of the “Railway Station” and the “Derby Day;” or perhaps Paul might have made an effort to become that which Heaven never meant him to be––a great painter. No; art was only a means of living with this man. He painted, and sold his pictures to his few patrons, who beat him down unmercifully, giving him a small profit upon his canvas and colours, for the encouragement of native art; but he only painted to live.
He was waiting. From the time when he could scarcely speak plain, Marchmont Towers had been a familiar word in his ears and on his lips. He knew the number of lives that stood between his father and the estate, and had learned to say, naïvely enough then,––
“O pa, don’t you wish that Uncle Philip and Uncle Marmaduke and Cousin John would die soon?”
He was two–and–twenty years of age when his father died; and he felt a faint thrill of satisfaction, even in the midst of his sorrow, at the thought that there was one life the less between him and the end of his hopes. But other lives had sprung up in the interim. There was young Arthur, and little Mary; and Marchmont Towers was like a caravanserai in the desert, which seems to be farther and farther away as the weary traveller strives to reach it.
Still Paul hoped, and watched, and waite
d. He had all the instincts of a sybarite, and he fancied, therefore, that he was destined to be a rich man. He watched, and waited, and hoped, and cheered his mother and sister when they were downcast with the hope of better days. When the chance came, he seized upon it, and plotted, and succeeded, and revelled in his brief success.
But now ruin had come to him, what was he to do? He tried to make some plan for his own conduct; but he could not. His brain reeled with the effort which he made to realise his own position.
He walked up and down one of the pathways in the garden until a quarter to ten o’clock; then he went into the house, and waited till Mrs. Brown had departed from Stony–Stringford Farm, attended by the boy, who carried two bundles, a bandbox, and a carpet–bag.
“Come back here when you have taken those things to the station,” Paul said; “I shall want you.”
Delphi Works of M. E. Braddon Page 225