by Ellen Wood
But the gentleman did not wait to hear the conclusion. He had escaped through the open door. Those left stared at one another.
“Come along,” said Lizzie, with unruffled composure; “don’t let the dinner get colder than it is. I dare say I’m well rid of him. Where’s our glasses of champagne? A drop will do us all good. Oh dear, Mrs. Dundyke! Pray don’t suffer it to trouble you!”
She had sat down in a far corner, poor woman, with her face hidden, drowned in a storm of silent tears.
The event, quickly though it had transpired — over, as it were, in a moment — exercised a powerful influence on the spirits of Mrs. Dundyke. It brought the old trouble so vividly before her, that she could not rally again as the days went on; and she told Mildred that she should go back to London, but would come to her again at a future time. The resolution was a sudden one. Mrs. Arkell happened to call the same day, and was told of it.
“Going back to London to-morrow!” repeated Mrs. Arkell in consternation; and she hastened to her sister’s room.
Mrs. Dundyke had her drawers all out, and her travelling trunk open, beginning to put things together. Mrs. Arkell went in, and closed the door.
“Betsey, you are going back, I hear; therefore I must at once ask the question that I have been intending to ask before your departure. It may sound to you somewhat premature: I don’t know. Will you forget and forgive?”
“Forget and forgive what?”
“My coldness during the past years.”
“I am willing to forgive it, Charlotte, if that will do you any good. To forget it is an impossibility.”
Mrs. Dundyke spoke with civil indifference. She was wrapping different toilet articles in paper, and she continued her occupation. Mrs. Arkell, in a state of bitter vexation at the turn things had taken, terribly self-repentant that she should have pursued a line of conduct so inimical to her own interests, sat down on a low chair, and fairly burst into tears.
“Why, what’s the matter, Charlotte?”
“You are a rich woman now, and therefore you despise us. We are growing poor.”
“How can you talk such nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Dundyke, screwing down the silver stopper of a scent-bottle. “If I became as rich and as grand as a duke, it could never cause me to make the slightest difference in my conduct to anybody, high or low.”
“Our intercourse has been so cold, so estranged, during this visit!”
“And, but that you find I am a little better off than you thought for, would you have allowed it to be otherwise than cold and estranged?” returned Mrs. Dundyke, putting down the scent-bottle, and facing her sister.
There was no reply. What, indeed, could there be?
“Charlotte,” said Mrs. Dundyke, dropping her voice to earnestness, as she went close to her sister, “the past wore me out. Ask yourself what your treatment of me was — for years, and years, and years. You know how I loved you — how I tried to conciliate you by every means in my power — to be to you a sister; and you would not. You threw my affection back upon myself; you prevented Mr. Arkell and your children coming to me; you heaped unnecessary scorn upon my husband. I bore it; I strove against it; but my patience and my love gave way at last, and I am sorry to say resentment grew in its place. Those feelings of affection, worn out by slow degrees, can never grow again.”
“It is as much as to say that you hate me!”
“Not so. We can be civil when we meet; and that can be as often as circumstances bring us into the same locality. But I do not think there can ever be cordiality between us again.”
“I had thought you were of a forgiving disposition, Betsey.”
“So I am.”
“I had thought — —” Mrs. Arkell paused a moment, as if half ashamed of what she was about to say— “I had thought to enlist your sisterly feelings for me; that is, for my daughters. You are rich now; you have plenty of money to spare; and their patrimony has dwindled down to nothing — nothing compared to what it ought to have been. They — —”
“Stay, Charlotte. We may as well come to an understanding on this point at once; it will serve for always. Your daughters have never condescended to recognise me in their lives; it was perhaps your fault, perhaps theirs: I don’t know. But the effect upon me has not been a pleasant one. I shall decline to help them.”
Mrs. Arkell’s proud spirit was rising. What it had cost thus to bend herself to her life-despised sister, she alone knew. She beat her foot upon the hearth-rug.
“I don’t know how they’ll get along. But for Mr. Arkell’s having kept on the business for Travice, we should be rich still. He has always been a fool in some things.”
“Don’t disparage your husband before me, Charlotte; I shall not listen calmly; you were never worthy of him. I love Mr. Arkell for his goodness, and I love your son. If you asked me for help for Travice, you should have it; never for your daughters.”
“Very kind, I’m sure! when you know he does not want it,” was the provoking and angry answer. “Travice is placed above requiring your help, by marriage with Miss Fauntleroy.”
And Mrs. Arkell gave her head a scornful toss as she went out, and banged the chamber-door after her.
CHAPTER XV.
MILDRED’S RECOMPENSE.
The consent of Travice once obtained, the necessary word spoken to Miss Fauntleroy, Mrs. Arkell hurried the marriage on in earnest. So long as Travice had only made the offer, and given no signs of wishing for the ceremony to take place, not much could be done; but he had now said to Barbara, “Fix your own day.”
There was no trouble needed in regard to a house; at least, there had not hitherto been. The house that the Miss Fauntleroys lived in was their own, and Barbara wished to continue in it. It was supposed that her sister would be moving to a farm in the parish of Eckford. That was now frustrated. “Never mind,” said Barbara, in her easy way, “Lizzie can stop on with us; Travice won’t mind it, and I shall like it. If we find afterwards that it does not answer, different arrangements can be made.”
The Miss Fauntleroys were generous in the matter of Benjamin Carr. Those others who had been present were generous, even Mrs. Dundyke. The identification of the gentleman with the Mr. Hardcastle, of Geneva memory, was not allowed to transpire: they all had regard to the feelings of the squire and his family. It was fortunate that the only servant in the room had gone from it with Benjamin Carr’s over-coat, and Barbara had had the presence of mind to slip the bolt of the door. Mr. Ben Carr, however, thought it well to take a tour just at this time, and he did not show his face in Westerbury previous to his departure.
Lucy Arkell was solicited to be one of the bridesmaids; but Lucy declined. Mildred remembered a wedding which she had declined to attend as bridesmaid. How little, how little did she think that the same cruel pain was swaying the motives of Lucy!
Lucy and her aunt saw but little now of the Arkells. Travice never called; Mr. Arkell, full of trouble, confined himself to his home; and Mrs. Arkell had not entered the house since the rebuff given her by Mrs. Dundyke. Lucy held aloof from them; and Mildred certainly did not go there of her own accord. It therefore came to pass that they heard little news of the doings there, except what might be dropped by chance callers-in.
And now, as if Mildred had really been gifted with prevision, Tom Palmer made an offer of his hand and heart to Lucy. Lucy’s response was by no means a dignified one — she burst out crying. Mildred, in surprise, asked what was the matter, and Lucy said she had not thought her old friend Tom could have been so unkind. Unkind! But the result was, that Lucy refused him in the most positive manner, then and for always. Mildred began to think that she could not understand Lucy.
There was a grand party given one night at Mrs. Arkell’s, and they went to that. Mildred accepted the invitation without consulting Lucy. The Palmers were there; and Travice treated Tom very cavalierly. In fact, that word is an appropriate one to characterise his general behaviour to everybody throughout the evening. And, so far as anybody
saw, he never once went near Miss Fauntleroy, with the exception that he took her into the supper room. Mr. Arkell did not appear until quite late in the evening. It was said he had an engagement. So he had, with men of business; while the revelry was going on in doors, he was in his counting-house, endeavouring to negotiate for a loan of money, in which he was not successful. Little heart had he at ten o’clock to go in and dress himself and enter upon that scene of gaiety. Mildred exchanged but a few sentences with him, but she thought he was in remarkably low spirits.
“Are you not well, William?” she asked.
“I have a headache, Mildred.”
It was a day or two after this, and but a few days previous to the completion of the wedding, when unpleasant rumours, touching the solvency of the good old house of George Arkell and Son, reached the ears of Miss Arkell. They were whispered to her by Mr. Palmer, the old friend of the family.
“It is said their names will be in the Gazette the day after to-morrow, unless some foreign help can come to them.”
Miss Arkell sat, deeply shocked; and poor Lucy’s colour went and came, showing the effect the news had upon her.
“I had no idea that they were in embarrassment,” said Mildred.
“It is so. You see, this wedding of young Travice Arkell’s, that is to bring so much money into the family, has been delayed too long,” observed Mr. Palmer. “It is said now that Travice, poor fellow, has an unconquerable antipathy to his bride, and though he consented to the alliance to save his family, he has been unable to bring his mind to conclude it. While the grass grows, the steed starves, you know.”
“Miss Fauntleroy was willing that her money should be sacrificed.”
“It would not have been sacrificed, not a penny of it; but the use of it would have enabled the house to redeem its own money, and bring its affairs to a satisfactory close. Had there been any risk to the money, William Arkell would not have agreed to touch it: you know his honourable nature. However, through the protracted delay — which Travice will no doubt reflect sharply upon himself for — the marriage and the money will come too late to save them.”
Mr. Palmer departed, and Lucy sat like one in a dream. Her aunt glanced at her, and mused, and glanced again. “What are you thinking of, Lucy?” she asked.
Lucy burst into tears. “Aunt, I was thinking what a blight it is to be poor! If I had thousands, I would willingly devote them all to save Mr. Arkell. Papa told me, when he lay dying, how his cousin William had helped him from time to time; had saved his home more than once; and had never been paid back again.”
“And suppose you had money — attend to me, Lucy, for I wish a serious answer — suppose you were in possession of money, would you be really willing to sacrifice a portion of it, to save this good friend, William Arkell?”
“All, aunt, all!” she answered, eagerly, “and think it no sacrifice.”
“Then put on your bonnet, Lucy, child,” returned Miss Arkell, “and come with me.”
They went forth to the house of Mr. Arkell; and as it turned out, the visit was opportune, for Mrs. Arkell was away, dining from home. Mr. Arkell was in a little back parlour, looking over accounts and papers, with his son. The old man — and he was looking an old man that evening, with trouble, not with years — rose in surprise when he saw who were his visitors, and Travice’s hectic colour went and came. Mildred had never been in the room since she was a young woman, and it called up painful recollections. It was the twilight hour of the evening: that best hour, of all the twenty-four, for any embarrassing communication.
“William,” began Miss Arkell, seating herself by her cousin, and speaking in a low tone, “we have heard it whispered that your affairs are temporarily involved. Is it so?”
“The world will soon know it, Mildred, above a whisper.”
“It is even so then! What has led to it?”
“Oh, Mildred! can you ask what has led to it, when you look at the misery and distress everywhere around us? Search the Gazette for the past years, and see how many names you will find in it, who once stood as high as ours! The only wonder is, that we have not yet gone with the stream. It is a hard case, Mildred, when we have toiled all our lives, that the labour should come to nothing at last,” he continued; “that our closing years, which ought to be given to thoughts of another world, must be distracted with the anxious cares of this.”
“Is your difficulty serious, or only temporary?” resumed Miss Arkell.
“It ought to be only temporary,” he replied; “but the worst is, I cannot, at the present moment, command my resources. We have kept on manufacturing, hoping for better times; and, to tell you the truth, Mildred, I could not reconcile it to my conscience to turn off my old workmen to beggary. There was Travice, too. I have a heavy stock of goods on hand; to the amount of some thousands; and this locks up my diminished capital. I am still worth what would cover my business liabilities twice over — and I have no others — but I cannot avail myself of it for present emergencies. I have turned every stone, Mildred, to keep my head above water: and I believe I can struggle no longer.”
“What amount of money would effectually relieve you?” asked Miss Arkell.
“About three thousand pounds,” he replied, answering the question without any apparent interest.
“Then to-morrow morning vouchers for that sum shall be placed in the Westerbury bank at your disposal. And for double that sum, if you require it.”
Mr. Arkell looked up in astonishment; and finally addressed to her the very words which he had once before done, in early life, upon a far different subject.
“You are dreaming, Mildred!”
She remembered them; had she ever forgotten one word said to her on that eventful night? and sighed as she replied:
“This money is mine. I enjoyed, as you know, a most liberal salary for seven or eight-and-twenty years; and the money, as it came in, was placed out from the first to good interest; later, a part of it to good use. Lady Dewsbury also bequeathed me a munificent sum by her will; so that altogether I am worth — —”
His excessive surprise could not let her continue. That Mildred had saved just sufficient to live upon, he had deemed probable; but not more. She had been always assisting Peter. He interrupted her with words to this effect.
Mildred smiled. “I could place at your disposal twelve thousand pounds, if needs must,” she said. “I had a friend who helped me to lay out my money to advantage. It was Mr. Dundyke. William, how can I better use part of this money than by serving you?”
William Arkell shook his head in deprecation. Not all at once, in the suddenness of the surprise, could he accept the idea of being assisted by Mildred. Peter had taken enough from her.
“Peter did not take enough from me,” she firmly said. “It is only since Peter’s death that I have learnt how straitened he always was — he kept it from me. I have been taking great blame to myself, for it seems to me that I ought to have guessed it — and I did not. But Peter is gone, and you are left. Oh, William, let me help you!”
“Mildred, I have no right to it from you.”
She laid her hand upon his arm in her eagerness. She bent her gentle face, with its still sweet expression, near to him, and spoke in a whisper.
“Let me help you. It will be a recompense for the past pain of my lonely life.”
His eyes looked straight into hers for the moment. “I have had my pain, too, Mildred.”
“But this loan? you will take it. Lucy, speak up,” added Miss Arkell, turning to her niece. “This money is willed to you, and will be yours sometime. Is it not at your wish that I come this evening, as well as at my own?”
“Oh, sir,” sobbed Lucy to Mr. Arkell, “take it all. Let my aunt retain what will be sufficient for her life, but keep none for me; I am young and healthy, and can go out and work for my living, as she has done. Take all the rest, and save the credit of the family.”
William Arkell turned to Lucy, the tears trickling down his cheeks. She had ta
ken off her bonnet on entering, and he laid his hand fondly on her head.
“Lucy, child, were this money exclusively your aunt’s, I would not hesitate to make use of sufficient of it now to save my good name. In that ease, I should wind up my affairs as soon as would be conveniently possible, retire from business, and see how far what is left to me would go towards a living. It would be enough; and my wife would have to bring her mind to think it so. But this sum that your aunt offers me — that you second — may be the very money she has been intending to hand over with you as a marriage portion. And what would your husband say at its being thus temporarily appropriated?”
“My husband!” exclaimed Lucy, in amazement; “a marriage portion for me! When I take the one, it will be time enough to think of the other.” Miss Arkell, too, looked up with a questioning gaze, for she had quite forgotten the little romance — her romance — concerning young Mr. Palmer.
“I shall never marry,” continued Lucy, in answer to Mr. Arkell’s puzzled look. “I think I am better as I am.”
“But, Lucy, you are going to marry. You are going to marry Tom Palmer.”
Lucy laughed. She could not help it, she said, apologetically. She had laughed ever since he asked her, except just at the time, at the very idea of her marrying Tom Palmer, the little friend of her girlhood. Tom laughed at it himself now; and they were as good friends as before. “But how did you hear of it?” she exclaimed.
Travice came forward, his cheek pale, his lip quivering. He laid his fevered hand on Lucy’s shoulder.
“Is this true, Lucy?” he whispered. “Is it true that you do not love Tom Palmer?”
“Love him!” cried Lucy, indignantly, sad reproach in her eye, as she turned it on Travice. “You have seen us together hundreds of times; did you ever detect anything in my manner to induce you to think I ‘loved’ him?”
“I loved you,” murmured Travice, for he read that reproach aright, and the scales which had obscured his eyes fell from them, as by magic. “I have long loved you — deeply, passionately. My brightest hopes were fixed on you; the heyday visions of all my future existence represented you by my side, my wife. But these misfortunes and losses came thick and fast upon my father. They told me at home here, he told me, that I was poor and that you were poor, and that it would be madness in us to think of marrying then, as it would have been. So I said to myself that I would be patient, and wait — would be content with loving you in secret, as I had done — with seeing you daily as a relative. And then the news burst upon me that you were to marry Tom Palmer; and I thought what a fool I had been to fancy you cared for me; for I knew that you were not one to marry where you did not love.”