Works of Ellen Wood

by Ellen Wood

  “Well, Ebenezer, and how goes the world with you?” cried Mr. Dill by way of salutation.

  “Jogging on. It never gets to a trot.”

  “Didn’t I see you turning into your father’s house yesterday?”

  “I pretty soon turned out of it again. I’m like the monkey when I venture there — get more kicks than halfpence. Hush, old gentleman! We interrupt the eloquence.”

  Of course “the eloquence” applied to Sir Francis Levison, and they set themselves to listen — Mr. Dill with a serious face, Mr. Ebenezer with a grinning one. But soon a jostle and movement carried them to the outside of the crowd, out of sight of the speaker, though not entirely out of hearing. By these means they had a view of the street, and discerned something advancing to them, which they took for a Russian bear on its hind legs.

  “I’ll — be — blest,” uttered Mr. Ebenezer James, after a prolonged pause of staring consternation, “if I don’t believe it’s Bethel!”

  “Bethel!” repeated Mr. Dill, gazing at the approaching figure. “What has he been doing to himself?”

  Mr. Otway Bethel it was, just arrived from foreign parts in his travelling costume — something shaggy, terminating all over with tails. A wild object he looked; and Mr. Dill rather backed as he drew near, as if fearing he was a real animal which might bite him.

  “What’s your name?” cried he.

  “It used to be Bethel,” replied the wild man, holding out his hand to Mr. Dill. “So you are in the world, James, and kicking yet?”

  “And hope to kick in it for some time to come,” replied Mr. James. “Where did you hail from last? A settlement at the North Pole?”

  “Didn’t get quite as far. What’s the row here?”

  “When did you arrive, Mr. Otway?” inquired old Dill.

  “Now. Four o’clock train. I say, what’s up?”

  “An election; that’s all,” said Mr. Ebenezer. “Attley went and kicked the bucket.”

  “I don’t ask about the election; I heard all that at the railway station,” returned Otway Bethel, impatiently. “What’s this?” waving his hand at the crowd.

  “One of the candidates wasting breath and words — Levison.”

  “I say,” repeated Otway Bethel, looking at Mr. Dill, “wasn’t it rather — rather of the ratherest, for him to oppose Carlyle?”

  “Infamous! Contemptible!” was the old gentleman’s excited answer. “But he’ll get his deserts yet, Mr. Otway; they have already begun. He was treated to a ducking yesterday in Justice Hare’s green pond.”

  “And he did look a miserable devil when he came out, trailing through the streets,” added Mr. Ebenezer, while Otway Bethel burst into a laugh. “He was smothered into some hot blankets at the Raven, and a pint of burnt brandy put into him. He seems all right to-day.”

  “Will he go in and win?”

  “Chut! Win against Carlyle! He has not the ghost of a chance; and government — if it is the government who put him on — must be a pack of fools; they can’t know the influence of Carlyle. Bethel, is that style of costume the fashion where you come from?”

  “For slender pockets. I’ll sell ’em to you now, James, at half price. Let’s get a look at this Levison, though. I have never seen the fellow.”

  Another interruption of the crowd, even as he spoke, caused by the railway van bringing up some luggage. They contrived, in the confusion, to push themselves to the front, not far from Sir Francis. Otway Bethel stared at him in unqualified amazement.

  “Why, what brings him here? What is he doing?”

  “Who?”

  He pointed his finger. “The one with the white handkerchief in his hand.”

  “That is Sir Francis.”

  “No!” uttered Bethel, a whole world of astounded meaning in his tone. “By Jove! He Sir Francis Levison?”

  At that moment their eyes met, Francis Levison’s and Otway Bethel’s. Otway Bethel raised his shaggy hat in salutation, and Sir Francis appeared completely scared. Only for an instant did he lose his presence of mind. The next, his eyeglass was stuck in his eye and turned on Mr. Bethel, with a hard, haughty stare; as much as to say, who are you, fellow, that you should take such a liberty? But his cheeks and lips were growing as white as marble.

  “Do you know Levison, Mr. Otway?” inquired old Dill.

  “A little. Once.”

  “When he was not Levison, but somebody else,” laughed Mr. Ebenezer James. “Eh, Bethel?”

  Bethel turned as reproving a stare on Mr. Ebenezer as the baronet had just turned on him. “What do you mean, pray? Mind your own business.”

  A nod to old Dill, and he turned off and disappeared, taking no further notice of James. The old gentleman questioned the latter.

  “What was that little bit of by-play, Mr. Ebenezer?”

  “Nothing much,” laughed Mr. Ebenezer. “Only he,” nodding towards Sir Francis, “was not always the great man he is now.”

  “Ah!”

  “I have held my tongue about it, for it’s no affair of mine, but I don’t mind letting you into the secret. Would you believe that that grand baronet there, would-be member for West Lynne, used, years ago, to dodge about Abbey Wood, mad after Afy Hallijohn? He didn’t call himself Levison then.”

  Mr. Dill felt as if a hundred pins and needles were pricking at his memory, for there rose up in it certain doubts and troubles touching Richard Hare and one Thorn. He laid his eager hand upon the other’s arm. “Ebenezer James, what did he call himself?”

  “Thorn. A dandy, then, as he is now. He used to come galloping down the Swainson road at dusk, tie his horse in the woods, and monopolize Miss Afy.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Because I’ve seen it a dozen times. I was spooney after Afy myself in those days, and went down there a good deal in an evening. If it hadn’t been for him, and — perhaps that murdering villain, Dick Hare, Afy would have listened to me. Not that she cared for Dick; but, you see, they were gentlemen. I am thankful to the stars, now, for my luck in escaping her. With her for a wife, I should have been in a pickle always; as it is, I do get out of it once in a while.”

  “Did you know then that he was Francis Levison?”

  “Not I. He called himself Thorn, I tell you. When he came down to offer himself for member, and oppose Carlyle, I was thunderstruck — like Bethel was a minute ago. Ho ho, said I, so Thorn’s defunct, and Levison has risen.”

  “What had Otway Bethel to do with him?”

  “Nothing — that I know of. Only Bethel was fond of the woods also — after other game than Afy, though — and may have seen Thorn often. You saw that he recognized him.”

  “Thorn — Levison, I mean — did not appear to like the recognition,” said Mr. Dill.

  “Who would, in his position?” laughed Ebenezer James. “I don’t like to be reminded of many a wild scrape of my past life, in my poor station; and what would it be for Levison, were it to come out that he once called himself Thorn, and came running after Miss Afy Hallijohn?”

  “Why did he call himself Thorn? Why disguise his own name?”

  “Not knowing, can’t say. Is his name Levison, or is it Thorn?”

  “Nonsense, Mr. Ebenezer!”

  Mr. Dill, bursting with the strange news he had heard, endeavored to force his way through the crowd, that he might communicate it to Mr. Carlyle. The crowd was, however, too dense for him, and he had to wait the opportunity of escaping with what patience he might. When it came he made his way to the office, and entered Mr. Carlyle’s private room. That gentleman was seated at his desk, signing letters.

  “Why, Dill, you are out of breath!”

  “Well I may be! Mr. Archibald, I have been listening to the most extraordinary statement. I have found out about Thorn. Who do you think he is?”

  Mr. Carlyle put down his pen and looked full in the old man’s face; he had never seen him so excited.

  “It’s that man, Levison.”

  “I do not understand you,” sai
d Mr. Carlyle. He did not. It was as good as Hebrew to him. “The Levison of to-day, your opponent, is the Thorn who went after Afy Hallijohn. It is so, Mr. Archibald.”

  “It cannot be!” slowly uttered Mr. Carlyle, thought upon thought working havoc with his brain. “Where did you hear this?”

  Mr. Dill told his tale. Otway Bethel’s recognition of him; Sir Francis Levison’s scared paleness, for he had noticed that; Mr. Ebenezer’s revelation. The point in it all, that finally settled most upon Mr. Carlyle, was the thought that if Levison were indeed the man, he could not be instrumental in bringing him to justice.

  “Bethel has denied to me more than once that he knew Thorn, or was aware of such a man being in existence,” observed Mr. Carlyle.

  “He must have had a purpose in it, then,” returned Mr. Dill. “They knew each other to-day. Levison recognized him for certain, although he carried it off with a high hand, pretending not.”

  “And it was not as Levison, but as Thorn, that Bethel recognized him?”

  “There’s little doubt of that. He did not mention the name, Thorn; but he was evidently struck with astonishment at hearing that it was Levison. If they have not some secret between them, Mr. Archibald, I’ll never believe my own eyes again.”

  “Mrs. Hare’s opinion is that Bethel had to do with the murder,” said Mr. Carlyle, in a low tone.

  “If that is their secret, Bethel knows the murderer, rely upon it,” was the answer. “Mr. Archibald, it seems to me that now or never is the time to clear up Richard.”

  “Aye; but how set about it?” responded Mr. Carlyle.

  Meanwhile Barbara had proceeded home in her carriage, her brain as busy as Mr. Carlyle’s, perhaps more troubled. Her springing lightly and hastily out the moment it stopped, disdaining the footman’s arm, her compressed lips and absent countenance, proved that her resolution was set upon some plan of action. William and Madame Vine met her in the hall.

  “We have seen Dr. Martin, Mrs. Carlyle.”

  “And he says—”

  “I cannot stay to hear now, William. I will see you later, madame.”

  She ran upstairs to her dressing-room, Madame Vine following her with her reproachful eyes. “Why should she care?” thought madame. “It is not her child.”

  Throwing her parasol on one chair, her gloves on another, down sat Barbara to her writing-table. “I will write to him; I will have him here, if it be but for an hour!” she passionately exclaimed. “This shall be, so far, cleared up. I am as sure as sure can be that it is that man. The very action Richard described! And there was the diamond ring! For better, for worse, I will send for him; but it will not be for worse if God is with us.”

  She dashed off a letter, getting up ere she had well begun it, to order her carriage round again. She would trust none but herself to put it in the post.

  “MY DEAR MR. SMITH — We want you here. Something has arisen that it is necessary to see you upon. You can get here by Saturday. Be in these grounds, near the covered walk, that evening at dusk. Ever yours,

  “B.”

  And the letter was addressed to Mr. Smith, of some street in Liverpool, the address furnished by Richard. Very cautious to see, was Barbara. She even put “Mr. Smith,” inside the letter.

  “Now stop,” cried Barbara to herself, as she was folding it. “I ought to send him a five pound note, for he may not have the means to come; and I don’t think I have one of that amount in the house.”

  She looked in her secretaire. Not a single five-pound note. Out of the room she ran, meeting Joyce, who was coming along the corridor.

  “Do you happen to have a five-pound note, Joyce?”

  “No, ma’am, not by me.”

  “I dare say Madame Vine has. I paid her last week, and there were two five-pound notes amongst it.” And away went Barbara to the gray parlor.

  “Could you lend me a five-pound note, Madame Vine? I have occasion to enclose one in a letter, and find I do not possess one.”

  Madame Vine went to her room to get it. Barbara waited. She asked William what Dr. Martin said.

  “He tried my chest with — oh, I forget what they call it — and he said I must be a brave boy and take my cod-liver oil well, and port wine, and everything I liked that was good. And he said he should be at West Lynne next Wednesday afternoon; and I am to go there, and he would call in and see me.”

  “Where are you to meet him?”

  “He said, either at papa’s office or at Aunt Cornelia’s, as we might decide. Madame fixed it for papa’s office, for she thought he might like to see Dr. Martin. I say, mamma.”

  “What?” asked Barbara.

  “Madame Vine has been crying ever since. Why should she?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know. Crying!”

  “Yes but she wipes her eyes under her spectacles, and thinks I don’t see her. I know I am very ill, but why should she cry for that?”

  “Nonsense, William. Who told you you were very ill?”

  “Nobody. I suppose I am,” he thoughtfully added. “If Joyce or Lucy cried, now, there’d be some sense in it, for they have known me all my life.”

  “You are so apt to fancy things! You are always doing it. It is not likely that madame would be crying because you are ill.”

  Madame came in with the bank-note. Barbara thanked her, ran upstairs, and in another minute or two was in her carriage.

  She was back again, and dressing when the gentlemen returned to dinner. Mr. Carlyle came upstairs. Barbara, like most persons who do things without reflection, having had time to cool down from her ardor, was doubting whether she had acted wisely in sending so precipitately for Richard. She carried her doubt and care to her husband, her sure refuge in perplexity.

  “Archibald, I fear I have done a foolish thing.”

  He laughed. “I fear we all do that at times, Barbara. What is it?”

  He had seated himself in one of Barbara’s favorite low chairs, and she stood before him, leaning on his shoulder, her face a little behind, so that he could not see it. In her delicacy she would not look at him while she spoke what she was going to speak.

  “It is something that I have had upon my mind for years, and I did not like to tell it to you.”

  “For years?”

  “You remember that night, years ago, when Richard was at the Grove in disguise—”

  “Which night, Barbara? He came more than once.”

  “The night — the night that Lady Isabel quitted East Lynne,” she answered, not knowing how better to bring it to his recollection and she stole her hand lovingly into his, as she said it. “Richard came back after his departure, saying he had met Thorn in Bean lane. He described the peculiar motion of the hand as he threw back his hair from his brow; he spoke of the white hand and the diamond ring — how it glittered in the moonlight. Do you remember?”

  “I do.”

  “The motion appeared perfectly familiar to me, for I had seen it repeatedly used by one then staying at East Lynne. I wondered you did not recognize it. From that night I had little doubt as to the identity of Thorn. I believed that he and Captain Levison were one.”

  A pause. “Why did you not tell me so, Barbara?”

  “How could I speak of that man to you, at that time? Afterwards, when Richard was here, that snowy winter’s day, he asserted that he knew Sir Francis Levison; that he had seen him and Thorn together; and that put me off the scent. But to-day, as I was passing the Raven, in the carriage — going very slow, on account of the crowd — he was perched out there, addressing the people, and I saw the very same action — the old action that I had used to see.”

  Barbara paused. Mr. Carlyle did not interrupt her.

  “I feel a conviction that they are the same — that Richard must have been under some unaccountable mistake in saying that he knew Francis Levison. Besides, who but he, in evening dress, would have been likely to go through Bean lane that night? It leads to no houses, but one wishing to avoid the high road could get into it from thes
e grounds, and so on to West Lynne. He must have gone back directly on foot to West Lynne, to get the post carriage, as was proved, and he would naturally go through Bean lane. Forgive me, Archibald, for recalling these things to you, but I feel so sure that Levison and Thorn are one.”

  “I know they are,” he quietly said.

  Barbara, in her astonishment drew back and stared him in the face — a face of severe dignity it was just then.

  “Oh, Archibald! Did you know it at that time?”

  “I did not know it until this afternoon. I never suspected it.”

  “I wonder you did not. I have wondered often.”

  “So do I now. Dill, Ebenezer James, and Otway Bethel — who came home to-day — were standing before the Raven, listening to his speech, when Bethel recognized him; not as Levison — he was infinitely astonished to find he was Levison. Levison, they say, was scared at the recognition, and changed color. Bethel would give no explanation, and moved away; but James told Dill that Levison was the man Thorn who used to be after Afy Hallijohn.”

  “How did you know?” breathlessly asked Barbara.

  “Because Mr. Ebenezer was after Afy himself, and repeatedly saw Thorn in the wood. Barbara, I believe now that it was Levison who killed Hallijohn, but I should like to know what Bethel had to do with it.”