“And what do you want of me, little woman?” asked William.
“You come out and sow my lupins for me.”
“Why, foolish little woman, it isn’t the season; they would not grow.”
“Yes, they would though — you say that just because you don’t like; you story!”
“Violet!” exclaimed Aunt Dinah, tapping the table with the seal end of her silver pencil-case. “Well, but he is, grannie, very disobliging. You do nothing now but read your tiresome old books, and never do anything I bid you.’’
“Really! Well, that’s very bad; I really must do better,” said William, getting up with a smile; “I will sow the lupins.”
“What folly!” murmured Aunt Dinah, grimly.
“We’ll get the hoe and trowel. But what’s to be done? I forgot I’m to play for the town to-day; and I don’t think I have time — no, certainly — no time to-day for the lupins;” and William shook his head, smiling disconsolately.
“Then I’ll never ask you to do anything for me again as long as I live — never — never — never!” she vowed with a tiny stamp.
“Yes you shall — you shall, indeed, and I’ll do ever so much; and may she come and look at the cricket?”
So, leave granted, she did, under old Winnie’s care; and when she returned, and for days after, she boasted of Willie’s long score, and how he caught the ball.
When he returned at the end of next “half” he found old Miss Dinah Perfect with her spectacles on, in her comfortable old drawingroom, in the cheer of a Christmas fire, with her head full of the fancies and terrors of a certain American tome, now laid with its face downwards upon the table — as she jumped up full of glee and affection, to greet him at the threshold.
It was about this period, as we all remember, that hats began to turn and heads with them, and tables approved themselves the most intelligent of quadrupeds; chests of drawers and other grave pieces of furniture babbled of family secrets, and houses resounded with those creaks and cracks with which Bacon, Shakespeare, and Lord Byron communicated their several inspirations in detest able grammar, to all who pleased to consult them.
Aunt Dinah was charmed. Her rapid genius loved a short-cut, and here was, by something better than a postoffice, a direct gossiping intimacy opened between her and the people on t’other side of the Styx.
She ran into this as into her other whimsies might and main, with all her heart and soul. She spent money very wildly, for her, upon the gospels of the new religion, with which the transatlantic press was teeming; and in her little green-papered dressing-room was accumulating a library upon her favourite craze, which might have grown to the dimensions of Don Quixote’s.
She had been practising for a year, however, and all the minor tables in her house had repeatedly prophesied before she disclosed her conversion to her nephew, or to anyone else except old Winnie.
It was no particular business of his if his aunt chose to converse with ghosts and angels by the mediation of her furniture. So, except that he now and then assisted at a séance, the phenomena of which were not very clear to him, though perfectly so to his aunt, and acquiesced in dimly and submissively by good old Winnie, things went on in their old course; and so, for some three or four years more, during which William Maubray read a great deal of all sorts of lore, and acquired an erudite smattering of old English authors, dramatists, divines, poets, and essayists, and time was tracing fine wrinkles about Aunt Dinah’s kind eyes and candid forehead, and adding graceful inches to the lithe figure of Violet Darkwell; and the great law of decay and renewal was asserting itself everywhere, and snows shrouding the dead world in winter, and summer fragrance, and glow of many hues in the gardens and fields succeeding, and births and deaths in all the newspapers every morning.
CHAPTER II.
A LETTER.
THE following letter, posted at Saxton, reached a rather solitary student in St. John’s College. Cambridge.
“DEAR WILLIAM,
“You will be sorry — I know you will — to hear that poor old auntie is not long for this world; I don’t know exactly what is wrong, but something I am certain very bad. As for Doctor Drake, I have no faith in him, or, indeed, in medicine, and don’t mean to trouble him except as a friend. I am quite happy in the expectation of the coming change, and have had within the last week, with the assistance of good old Winnie Dobbs, some very delightful communications, you know, I dare say, what I mean. Bring with you — for you must come immediately, if you care to see poor Aunt Dinah before she departs — a basket-bottle of eau de Cologne, like the former, you know the kind I mean, and buy it at the same place. You need not get the cameo ring for Doctor Drake; I shan’t make him a present — in fact, we are not now on terms. I had heard from many people of his incivility and want of temper; God forgive him his ingratitude however, as I do. The basket-bottle holds about a pint, remember. I want to tell you exactly what I can do for you by my will; I always told you, dear William, it was very small; still, as the people used to say, ‘every little makes a muckle,’ and though little, it will be a help. I cannot rest till you come; I know and am sure you love poor old auntie, and would like to close her eyes when the hour comes; therefore, dear Willie, come without delay. Also bring with you half a pound of the snuff, the same mixture as before; they make it up at Figgs’s — get it there — not in paper, observe; in a canister, and rolled in lead, as will be poor auntie before long! Old Dobbs will have your room and bed comfortable, as usual; come by the cross coach, at eight o’clock. Tea, and anything else you like, will await you.
“Ever your fond old
“AUNTIE.
“P.S. — I send you, to guard against mistakes, the exact proportions of the mixture — the snuff I mean, of course. I quite forgot a new collar for Psyche, plated. Make them engrave ‘Mrs. Perfect, Gilroyd Hall,’ upon it. Heaven bless you. We are all progressing upward. Amen! says your poor old Aunt Dinah, who loves you.”
It was in his quiet college room by candlelight that William Maubray read this letter from his kind, wild, preposterous old aunt, who had been to him as a mother from his early days.
Aunt Dinah! was it possible that he was about to lose that familiar friend and face, the only person on earth who cared about him?
He read the letter over again. A person who did not know Aunt Dinah so well as he, would have argued from the commissions about scents, dog-collars, and snuff, that the old lady had no honest intention of dying. But he knew that incongruous and volatile soul too well to infer reliable consolation from those levities.
“Yes, yes — I shall lose her — she’s gone,” said the young man in great distress, laying the letter, with the gentleness of despair, upon the table, and looking down upon it in pain and rumination.
It would certainly make a change — possibly a fatal one — in his prospects. A sudden change. He read the letter through again, and then, with a sinking heart, he opened the window and looked out upon the moonlight prospect. There are times when in her sweetest moods nature seems unkind. Why all this smiling light — this cheer and serenity of sky and earth — when he was stricken only five minutes since, perhaps undone, by the message of that letter — that sorrow-laden burlesque?
This sort of suggestion, in such a moment, comes despairingly. The vastness of creation — the inflexibility of its laws, and “What is man, and what am I among men, that the great Projector of all this should look after ephemeral me and my concerns? The human sympathy that I could rely upon, and human power — frail and fleeting — but still enough — is gone, and in this solitary hour, as in the coming one of death, experience fails me, and I must rest all upon that which, according to my light, is faith, or theory, or chance!”
With a great sigh, and a heavy heart, William Maubray turned away from the window, and a gush of very true affection flooded his heart as he thought of kind old Aunt Dinah. He read the letter once more, to make out what gleams of comfort he could.
A handsome fellow was William Ma
ubray — nearly three-and-twenty by this time — good at cricket — great at football: three years ago, in the school days, now, so old, tall, and lithe. A studious man in his own way — a little pale, with a broad forehead, good blue eyes, and delicately formed, but somewhat sad features.
He looked round his room. He had grown very fond of that homely apartment His eyes wandered over his few shelves of beloved old books, in all manner of dingy and decayed bindings — some of them two centuries and a half old, very few of later birth than a hundred years ago. Delightful companions — ready at a moment’s call — ready to open their minds, and say their best sayings on any subject he might choose — resenting no neglect, obtruding no counsel, always the same serene, cheerful inalienable friends.
The idea of parting with them was insupportable, nearly. But if the break-up came, they must part company, and the world be a new one for him. The young man spent much of that night in dismal reveries and speculations over his future schemes and chances, all of which I spare the reader.
Good Dr. Sprague, whom he saw next day, heard the news with much concern. He had known Miss Perfect long ago, and was decorously sorry on her account. But his real regrets were for the young man.
“Well, you go, of course, and see your aunt, and I do trust it mayn’t be quite so bad. Stay, you know, as long as she wants you, and don’t despond. I could wish your reading had been in a more available direction but rely on it, you’ll find a way to make a start and get into a profession, and with your abilities, I’ve no doubt you’ll make your way in the world.”
And the doctor, who was a shrewd as well as a kindly little gentleman, having buttoned the last button of his gaiter, stood, cap in hand, erect, and smiling confidently, he shook his hand with a “God bless you, Maubray,” and a few minutes later William Maubray, with all his commissions slowed away in his portmanteau, had commenced his journey to Gilroyd Hall.
The moon was up, and the little town of Saxton very quiet, as Her Majesty’s mail, dropping a bag at the post office, whirled through it, and pulled up at the further end, at the gate of Gilroyd Hall, there to drop our friend, an outside passenger.
The tall, florid iron gate was already locked. William tugged at the bell, and drew back a little to reconnoitre the premises. One of the old brick gables overhangs the road, with only a couple of windows high up, and he saw that his summons had put a light in motion within them. So he rejoined his hat-case, and his portmanteau, awaiting him on its end, in front of the white iron gate that looked like lacework in the moonlight.
“Ha! Tom; glad to see you.”
“Welcome, Mr. William, Sir; she a wearyin’ to see ye, and scarce thought you’d a come tonight.”
The wicket beside the great gate was now open, and William shook hands with the old retainer, and glancing anxiously up at the stone-faced windows, as it were to read the countenance of the old house, he asked, “And how is she, Tom, tonight?”
“Complainin’ an’ downhearted a bit for her, that is now and again. She cried a good bout to-day wi’ old Winnie, in the little parlour.”
“She’s up, then?”
“Ooh, ay; she’s not a body to lay down while she’s a leg to stan’ on. But I do think she’s nigh her endin’. Gie’t to me,” this referred to the portmanteau. “I do, poor old girl; and we’s all be sorry, Master Willie.” William’s heart sank.
“Where is she?” he inquired.
“In the drawingroom, I think.”
By this time they were standing in the oak-panelled hall, and some one looked over the banister from the lobby, upon them. It was old Winnie; the light of her candle was shining pleasantly on her ruddy and kindly face.
“Oh! Master Willie. Thank God, you’re come at last Glad she’ll be to see you.”
Old Winnie ambled down the stairs with the corner of her apron to her eye, and shook him by both hands, and greeted him again very kindly, and ever Kissed him according to the tradition of a score of years.
“Is she very ill, Dobbs?” whispered he, looking pale. “Well, not to say very to look at, you’d say, but she’s had a warnin’, her and me sittin’ in the bedroom, an’ she’s bin an’ made a new will; the lawyer’s bin up from Saxton. Don’t ye say I said nothing, mind; ‘twould only fret her, maybe.”
CHAPTER III.
MISS DINAH PERFECT AND HER GUESTS.
“Is she alone?” he asked, postponing the trying moment of seeing her.
“No, the doctor’s with her still — Dr. Drake, and Miss Letty, his sister, you remember; they’re drinkin’ a cup o’ tea, and some crumpets, and they’ll all be right glad you’re come.”
“They ought to go away, don’t you think?” mildly suggested William Maubray, a good deal shocked. “However, let me get to my room for two or three minutes, and I shall be ready then.”
They passed the drawingroom door, and Miss Letty Drake’s deliberate tones were audible from within. When he had got to his room he asked Dobbs —
“What was the warning you spoke of?”
“Well, dear me! It was the table; she and me, she makes me sit before her, poor thing, and we — well, there is cracks, sure, on and off! And she puts this an’ that together; and so one way or other — it puzzles my poor head, how — she does make out a deal.”
William Maubray was an odd, rather solitary young man, and more given to reading and thinking than is usual at his years, and he detested these incantations to which his aunt, Miss Perfect, had addicted herself, of late years, with her usual capricious impetuosity; and he was very uncomfortable on hearing that she was occupying her last days with these questionable divinations.
When, in a few minutes, William ran down to the drawingroom, and with a chill of anticipation opened the door of that comfortable rather than imposing chamber, the tall slim figure of his aunt rose up from her armchair beside the fire, for though it was early autumn, the fire was pleasant, and the night-air was frosty, and with light and wiry tread, stepped across the carpet to meet him. Her kind, energetic face was pale, and the smile she used to greet him with was nowhere, and she was arrayed from head to foot in deep mourning, in which, particularly as she abhorred the modern embellishment of crinoline, she looked more slim and tall even than she was.
The presence of her guests in nowise affected the greeting of the aunt and nephew, which was very affectionate, and even agitated, though silent.
“Good Willie, to come so quickly — I knew you would.” Miss Perfect never wept, but she was very near tears at that moment, and there was a little silence, during which she held his hands, and then recollecting herself, dropt them, and continued more like herself.
“You did not expect to see me up and here; everything happens oddly with me. Here I am, you see, apparently, I dare say, much as usual. By halfpast twelve o’clock tomorrow night I shall be dead! There, don’t mind now — I’ll tell you all by-and-bye. This is my friend, Miss Drake, you know her.”
They shook hands, Miss Drake smiling as brisk a smile as in a scene so awful she could hazard.
“And this, my kind friend Dr. Drake.”
William had occasionally seen Dr. Drake in the streets of Saxton, and on the surrounding high roads at a distance, but he had never before had the honour of an interview.
The doctor was short and fat a little bald, and rather dusty, and somehow, William thought, resembled a jolly old sexton a good deal more than a physician. He rose up, with his hands in his trowsers pockets, and some snuff in the wrinkles of his black cloth waistcoat, and bowed, with raised eyebrows and pursed mouth, gravely to his plate of crumpet.
William Maubray looked again on his aunt, who was adjusting her black draperies in her chair, and then once more at the doctor, whose little eye he caught for a second, with a curious and even cunning expression in it; but it was averted with a sudden accession of melancholy once more — and William asked —
“I hope, Sir, there is nothing very imminent?”
The doctor cleared his voice, uneasily, and Aunt
Dinah interposed with a nod, a little dryly —
“It is not quite in his department.”
And whose department is it in? the student thought.
“I dare say Doctor Drake would tell you I’m very well — so, perhaps, in a sense, I am; but Doctor Drake has kindly come here as a friend.”
Doctor Drake bowed, looking steadfastly into his cup.
“As a friend, dear Willie, just as you have come — an old friend.” Miss Perfect spoke low, with a little tremor. in her voice, and was, I believe, near crying, but braced her resolution. William drew near gently and sat down beside her, and placing her hand upon his, she proceeded.
“My dear friend Miss Drake, there, does not agree with me, I’m aware; but Doctor Drake who has read more, and perhaps, thought more, thinks otherwise — at least, so I’m led to suppose.”
The doctor coughed a little; Miss Drake raised her long chin, and with raised eyebrows, looked down on her finger tips which were drumming on the table, and my Cousin William glanced from one to the other, not quite understanding her drift “But,” she continued, “I’ve apprised them already, and I tell you of course; it is — you’ll remember the name — an intimation from Henbane.”
“Poison!” said William, under his breath, with a look of pale inquiry at Doctor Drake, who at the moment was swallowing his tea very fast, and was seized on a sudden with an explosion of coughing, sneezing, and strangling, which compelled him to jump to his feet, and stagger about the room with his face in his pockethandkerchief and his back to the tea-table.
“When Dr. Henbane,” said my aunt with severity, “I mean a — Doctor Drake — has quite done coughing, I’ll go on.”
There was a little pause.
“Confound it,” thought William, who was half beside himself, “it’s a very odd dying scene!”
The doctor, blowing his nose, returned very red and solemn, and explained, still coughing at intervals, that it was a little tea in the trachea; it invariably occurred to him when he drank tea in the evening; he must give it up; “you know, Letty.” —
Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (Illustrated) Page 308