Fergus Hume

by A Woman's Burden (html)

  "Come, come; dinner, dinner," said Barton, cutting short Mrs. Darrow's small beer chronicles. "Julia, take my arm. Gerald, Miss Marsh is waiting. Miss Crane, I am sure Major Dundas will be delighted."

  "Charmed," murmured the Major with all gravity.

  He could not but admire this tall and beautiful woman, and was impressed, as Dicky had been, by the music of her voice. Miriam, in a plain black silk dress, showing her beautiful neck and shoulders and her shapely arms, looked as regal as a queen. Her red hair twisted in smooth shining coils crowned her as with a diadem, and Hilda's girlish prettiness paled before her graver splendour. As for Mrs. Darrow, art had done its utmost, but it could not make her either fresh or young. When she looked at Miriam she seemed to be conscious of this, and her feelings may be left to the imagination, but she promised herself a full revenge before the evening was over.

  "Doesn't Miss Crane look charming to-night?" she whispered to her uncle.

  "Charming," assented that genial gentleman. "Like Semiramis or Cleopatra; and she doesn't owe anything to art either."

  Mrs. Darrow grew red beneath her rouge.

  "Oh, I dare say she has painted in her time!"

  "What do you mean?" asked Barton sharply.

  "Well, if you don't know, of course I don't," was Mrs. Darrow's ambiguous reply; and as the occasion was unpropitious, Barton did not press for an explanation. Still, he guessed that her remark had something more behind it, and the look he gave her in consequence caused Mrs. Darrow to devote herself exclusively to the soup for the next few minutes. In that glance of disapproval she saw the final disappearance of the cheque.

  "I hope you like Thorpe, Miss Crane," said the Major in his ponderous way.

  "Very much indeed. I like the quiet and peace."

  "Really! Have you then had so stormy a life?"

  "Oh no," Miriam laughed, and her merriment extracted a glare from Mrs. Darrow. "But I have lived a great deal in London, and the country is so restful after the roar of the city. Of course you prefer town?"

  "No indeed; I was cut out by nature I believe for a country squire. I'm fond of soldiering of course," added the Major quickly, "but when I retire it will be to a place like this. I am more of a country bumpkin than my uncle. He's always running up to town."

  "Is he?" murmured Miriam, thinking of Mrs. Perks and the hotel in Craven Street. "Why is that?"

  "Oh, I don't know; he hunts after books and that sort of thing. My uncle is quite a student, you know."

  Miriam did not think from what she knew of Mr. Barton that book hunting took up a very considerable portion of his time when in London; but evidently the simple Major believed the fiction in all good faith. But his next remark startled her.

  "His taste in books is so peculiar," resumed Dundas, "and rather morbid; he collects all books dealing with crime."

  Miss Crane paled, and hastily sipped her wine.

  "With crime?"

  "Yes, memoirs of Vidocq—Stories of Robbery and Murder, The Newgate Chronicle, and Jonathan Wilde; his library is filled with gruesome volumes of that kind. Did you ever hear of Selwyn the wit, the friend of Horace Walpole, Miss Crane?"

  "No," murmured Miriam, self-possessed but colourless to the lips.

  "His great delight was to see men hanged. My uncle seems to have the same queer taste. If public executions were in vogue I believe he would attend every one."

  "John," called out the Squire, "what are you saying to Miss Crane? You're making her nervous, surely; she has lost all her colour."

  "No, no," cried Miriam; "I am quite well."

  "What a brute I am," said Dundas aloud; "but the fact is I was talking of your penchant for crime."

  "Oh yes," said Mrs. Darrow vivaciously; "it's really horrid of Uncle Barton to be so fond of these things."

  "Crime!" chuckled the Squire; "and what do you call crime? I'm a student of human nature in the depths, if that's what you mean. I like to search out the springs of action—to learn what moves man, the machine."

  "In short, you are a realist, uncle," said Gerald.

  "Oh, I don't know. I find the lower orders vastly more amusing than the higher, if you call that realism. I like to explore the slums and the thieves' kitchens, and talk to the detectives; and I like to hear of crimes that are impenetrable." And here his eyes rested on Miriam. She drank more wine.

  "But I thought no crime was impenetrable nowadays," said Hilda.

  "Indeed, my dear Miss Marsh, a great number are. Those crimes which are reported in the newspapers, those murderers who are hanged, constitute the minority. The clever crimes, the really interesting criminals, are never discovered."

  Mrs. Darrow here entered a protest. She would not sleep she said if Uncle Barton thus rode his gruesome hobby, which was really a skeleton horse, or something horrid. She did think such things should not be spoken about in the presence of ladies; Miss Crane was quite pale with horror, so she would leave the gentlemen to discuss their wine and crime together, and carry the ladies off to the drawing-room—a determination which she at once put into execution. When the door closed on them, Mr. Barton became moody and silent. He left Gerald and Dundas to pass the bottle and do the talking; and knowing his sombre humours they left him to himself.

  Shortly there entered a plethoric butler, purple of hue, as though all the blood in him had turned to port wine. He bent over his master and whispered.

  "Eh? What do you say?" said Barton, rousing himself from a brown study.

  "A gentleman to see you, sir!" whispered the man in a husky voice.

  "Who is it?"

  "The gentleman who was here before, sir."

  "Confound you—how can I recognise anyone from that description? What's his name?"

  "I don't rightly know, sir. He told me to mention the name Jabez."

  "Jabez!" Barton jumped up with the alacrity of a man half his age. "Gerald! John! go into the drawing-room and entertain the ladies. I shall be engaged for the next half-hour in the library." And he vanished with the plethoric butler.

  "Hullo! What's up with Uncle B.?" said Gerald.

  Dundas shrugged his shoulders.

  "One of his mysterious interviews, I suppose. He is a mystery in himself is Uncle Barton."

  * * *

  CHAPTER V.

  BEHIND THE SCENES.

  In the drawing-room, Mrs. Darrow, feeling it incumbent upon her to provide entertainment for those assembled, decided she could not do better than relate to them the history of her married life—how good and devoted she had been to a brutal husband, how she had been unable to buy a rag of clothing for quite six months at a time, and consequently had been obliged to go unfashionably clothed. How she could have married at least a dozen men who were dying for her. But how foolishly she had chosen the only one who never appreciated her, and much more to the same effect. Such a theme she held, more especially when adequately set forth and expatiated upon, must be all absorbing.

  Hilda, it was true, had heard a vastly different version of her friend's connubial existence. She knew, in fact, that the late Mr. Darrow had been something more than glad to leave this sphere. But for the present that mattered not at all.

  Mrs. Darrow told her tale, and told it very well, and although neither of her audience was in the least degree convinced by it, undoubtedly many people would have been. Right in the midst of a sentimental outburst, in which she was declaring how now she lived solely for the sake of her darling child, being otherwise quite prepared to join the late Mr. Darrow in Heaven, the two young men entered.

  "Already!"—the good lady was in no wise disconcerted at having thus abruptly to strike another note.—"Ah! our company is more attractive then than your wine and cigars?"

  "Can you doubt it?" said Gerald, making his way over towards Hilda.

  Thus deserted, Mrs. Darrow captured the Major, who, too polite to evade her, forthwith buckled to, and did his best to fall in with her very obvious desire for conversation, if not for controversy. Miriam, without a caval
ier was thus left to her own devices. She scanned a photograph album which was at her hand.

  "Where is Uncle Barton?" asked Mrs. Darrow. "He should be here, if only to entertain dear Miss Crane."

  "I don't wish to be entertained, thank you," said Miriam, noting the petty spite. "I think if you don't mind I'll take a walk in the fresh air, it is so close here," she said, and, without waiting for approval or otherwise from Mrs. Darrow, she stepped through the French window which opened on to the terrace.

  "Well, I'm sure!" ejaculated the widow. "What coolness! Don't go, John, I have so much to say to you."

  "But doesn't it seem rather unkind to leave Miss Crane alone?" said the Major, who was already somewhat under the spell of Miriam's beauty.

  "Oh, she likes being alone," smiled Mrs. Darrow—"she has the most mysterious love for solitude. What she thinks about I don't know!"

  "Who is she, Julia?"

  "Ah! that's just it"—she wagged her head solemnly—"nobody knows. There is something very queer about her. She is a protégée of Uncle Barton's of course, and I shouldn't be the least surprised to hear that he had picked her up on one of those excursions amongst the criminals in London, he's so fond of!"

  "Julia, you shouldn't say that. Miss Crane is, I consider, a most charming young lady."

  "Red hair—I'm glad you think that charming, John!"

  "Are you speaking of Miss Crane?" said Gerald, rising from his seat by Hilda. "She's a plucky woman that—did you hear how she saved Dicky's life?"

  "Dicky told me what happened," replied Mrs. Darrow sharply. "I rather think it was you, Gerald, who saved both her and my darling child."

  "Oh, nonsense—I came in at the tag end," and Gerald related the whole adventure, glorifying Miriam's bravery in a manner which made Hilda long to box his ears. But the only outward and visible indication of these turbulent sensations within her breast was as usual the sweetest of sweet smiles.

  Mrs. Darrow, having nothing to lose, was less careful.

  "Bravery!—fudge!" she said politely. "I believe the whole thing was acting."

  "I don't agree with you," said Gerald drily. "The bull certainly was acting, though hardly in the sense you mean."

  "Then if it wasn't, she certainly isn't fit to be entrusted with Dicky's life. If I had lost my boy!—just think of it! I should have died. He is my life, my sole comfort on this earth—the image of my darling departed," &c., &c.——

  To all of which both Gerald and the Major, acting upon that wisdom born of experience, agreed, though, needless to say, they retained their own opinions of the young lady under discussion.

  In the meantime, Miss Crane, not ill-pleased to be out of the society of her enemies, paced meditatively on the terrace. The night was warm, cloudless, and silent—save for the wild singing of the nightingales in the woods. The gush of melody so piercingly sorrowful threw Miriam into a melancholy mood. In truth she had much to mourn for—much to regret, and the future was so full of doubt, its path so crowded with pitfalls and snares, that she could foresee nothing to cheer her there. Walking up and down, a black solitary figure in the white light of the moon, she was in herself the true embodiment of her sad and lonely life. From her earliest childhood she had known sorrow, and, on her of late had fallen too, the shadow of disgrace, yet she was as pure as the unsullied moonlight. For this beautiful, sad woman was a bearer in more than an ordinary degree of other people's burdens. She had many foes, but no friend—unless Barton could be called one—and he, as she knew only too well had befriended her only to use her as a tool. From her present environment there seemed to be no escape, unless she faced her benefactor boldly, and refused to obey turn. But for more reasons than one, she was unwilling to take the extreme course.

  Her walk to the end of the terrace brought her abreast of the lighted windows of the library. Just as she was near them—about ten minutes after she had left the drawing-room—one of them opened. She shrank back in the shadow, and saw Barton step forth with a tall lean man, the very man she had seen on the previous day. The pair talked in low whispers for a moment or so—then the man fluttered down the terrace steps like a huge bat, and disappeared in the shade of the trees overhanging the avenue. Barton looked after him, and shook his fist, an action at which Miriam wondered in so hard and seemingly impervious a man. His back was towards her, and not wishing to be found eavesdropping—although truly she had heard no word—she stepped out again into the moonlight.

  At the sound of her light tread Barton spun round like a beast at bay; but when he saw who it was he smiled and saluted her. He was too sure of his power over her to fear anything she might have overheard. But Miriam had heard nothing, and said as much in reply to his sharp question.

  "I was just taking a walk in the cool air," she explained. "The others are enjoying themselves very well without me. I am only the governess, you know—and a great thing in a governess is to know when her room is preferable to her company, isn't it?"

  "Oh, I know; but I wonder what they would say if they knew something else. A governess! Oh, Lord!"

  And Barton chuckled as he looked at the beautiful woman whose face was so pale in the moonlight.

  Perfectly calm, since she felt able now to resist Barton's mesmeric power, Miriam stepped into the library.

  "Come in here, Mr. Barton," said she imperiously, "I must speak to you."

  Somewhat surprised at her tone, Barton followed her, and, having made fast the window, looked at her in the yellow lamplight.

  Miriam, with her hands loosely clasped on her black dress, looked, in her turn, without flinching, at this man who considered himself her master. His eyes—wicked as they were—fell before that clear resolute gaze.

  "Well, what is it?" he asked roughly, and threw himself into a chair.

  Still standing, Miriam replied to this question quietly and with curtness.

  "I wish to go away."

  "Indeed! You wish to go away—why?"

  "Because I am not happy here, and I am doing no good."

  "Indeed, I think you are doing a great deal of good," replied Barton, with a gentleness far from common with him. "You are making a man of Dicky. You have rescued him from the influence of his foolish mother. Come, Miriam, let us sit down and talk this over."

  "I am fond of Dicky," said Miriam, taking a seat; "he is a good child and very lovable. If it were only Dicky I should not mind. But his mother is jealous of me. She hates me; so does that Marsh girl. They would do me an injury if they could. Besides," added she, looking very earnestly at Barton, "I do not quite understand you—why did you rescue me in London, and bring me down here?"

  Barton rose, and began to pace to and fro. He prefaced his speech with his customary chuckle.

  "Oh, it was no philanthropy, believe me," he said. "If you had been a plain woman, you might have gone your way. I told you that before. As it was, I saw that you were not—in fact, not only were you a beautiful woman, which was necessary to my plans, but you were a good one into the bargain. I knew that, notwithstanding your somewhat equivocal position when we met on Waterloo Bridge. So I brought you here. You know why."

  "I know what you said—that you wished me to marry some one in whom you were interested, and the other day you pointed out Mr. Arkel as the gentleman. But why do you wish me to marry him?"

  "I'll tell you that later. But, say, have I not been good to you—bad man as you think me to be?"

  "In a manner you have, but I cannot disguise from myself that what you have done has been to your own ends. You have given me money for myself and Jabez, and you have obtained me this situation——"

  "You forget—there is something else. Did I not promise you two hundred pounds if you succeeded in marrying Gerald, and taking him away from that shallow hussy?"

  "Yes, and I accepted your offer, so that Jabez might go to America, and there start afresh—it was for his sake I did it."

  "He is not worthy of it, believe me."

  Miriam made a gesture of despair.
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  "Perhaps not; but knowing what you do you cannot wonder at my anxiety to help him all I can—yes, even if to do it, I have to marry at your bidding."

  "But Gerald is a handsome fellow, Miriam. I can't see what you have to complain of!"

  "This," she replied passionately, "that my feelings threaten to upset your scheme—that is what I complain of. If this marriage were one of cold calculation, if I had but to play my rôle of adventuress, and marry your nephew, perhaps I could do it, and perhaps from a sense of duty I could make him a better wife than Miss Marsh is likely to do. But I——" She paused, and dropped her voice to a lower tone. "But I already have a—a very sincere regard for Mr. Arkel."

  "All the better; it will be so much the easier for you to carry out your part of the bargain."

  "No," Miriam rose grandly. "As an instrument for the sake of Jabez, I was willing to be used, but as a woman—a woman who feels, who, as I tell you, already has a feeling of respect, of regard, of——No, Mr. Barton, I will not consent to marry him, unless—unless, perchance, things should come about differently."

  "What about Jabez then, and his new life in America?"

  Miriam's head sank, and she clasped her hands together with a gesture of pain.

  "I don't know—I must think—I must consider myself as well as Jabez. He has brought me low enough as it is without my sacrificing my last shred of womanly pride for his sake—anything but that. I would do much for him. Yes, I may as well confess it, I love Mr. Arkel; whatever you may think of me, I love him. I suppose it is because you are such a stone—because I hardly look upon you as flesh and blood—that I can bring myself to say this to you. But it is true, true. You cannot understand the birth of such a feeling in a woman's heart. But she knows it, and cannot mistake it. I love Gerald Arkel. But I would not marry him unless he loved me—no, not for thousands! That is why I say I wish to leave, Mr. Barton."

  "But, my good young woman, this is most extraordinary—you have hardly seen the man. I should have thought you had a mind above the fascination of good looks."