The Solitary House (With Bonus Novels Bleak House and the Woman in White)

by Lynn Shepherd

  It was impossible, for a person in my situation, to meet any proposal, made in these terms, with a positive objection.

  I could only venture to represent the serious inconvenience of my leaving Blackwater Park, in the extraordinary absence of all the in-door servants, with the one exception of Margaret Porcher. But Sir Percival and his lordship declared that they were both willing to put up with inconvenience for the sake of the invalids. I next respectfully suggested writing to an agent at Torquay; but I was met here by being reminded of the imprudence of taking lodgings without first seeing them. I was also informed that the Countess (who would otherwise have gone to Devonshire herself) could not, in Lady Glyde’s present condition, leave her niece; and that Sir Percival and the Count had business to transact together, which would oblige them to remain at Blackwater Park. In short, it was clearly shown me, that if I did not undertake the errand, no one else could be trusted with it. Under these circumstances, I could only inform Sir Percival that my services were at the disposal of Miss Halcombe and Lady Glyde.

  It was thereupon arranged that I should leave the next morning; that I should occupy two or three days in examining all the most convenient houses in Torquay; and that I should return, with my report, as soon as I conveniently could. A memorandum was written for me by his lordship, stating the various requisites which the place I was sent to take must be found to possess; and a note of the pecuniary limit assigned to me, was added by Sir Percival.

  My own idea, on reading over these instructions, was, that no such residence as I saw described could be found at any watering-place in England; and that, even if it could by chance be discovered, it would certainly not be parted with for any period, on such terms as I was permitted to offer. I hinted at these difficulties to both the gentlemen; but Sir Percival (who undertook to answer me) did not appear to feel them. It was not for me to dispute the question. I said no more; but I felt a very strong conviction that the business on which I was sent away was so beset by difficulties that my errand was almost hopeless at starting.

  Before I left, I took care to satisfy myself that Miss Halcombe was going on favourably.

  There was a painful expression of anxiety in her face, which made me fear that her mind, on first recovering itself, was not at ease. But she was certainly strengthening more rapidly than I could have ventured to anticipate; and she was able to send kind messages to Lady Glyde, saying that she was fast getting well, and entreating her ladyship not to exert herself again too soon. I left her in charge of Mrs. Rubelle, who was still as quietly independent of every one else in the house as ever. When I knocked at Lady Glyde’s door, before going away, I was told that she was still sadly weak and depressed; my informant being the Countess, who was then keeping her company in her room. Sir Percival and the Count were walking on the road to the lodge, as I was driven by in the chaise. I bowed to them, and quitted the house, with not a living soul left in the servants’ offices but Margaret Porcher.

  Every one must feel, what I have felt myself since that time, that these circumstances were more than unusual—they were almost suspicious. Let me, however, say again, that it was impossible for me, in my dependent position, to act otherwise than I did.

  The result of my errand at Torquay was exactly what I had foreseen. No such lodgings as I was instructed to take could be found in the whole place; and the terms I was permitted to give were much too low for the purpose, even if I had been able to discover what I wanted. I accordingly returned to Blackwater Park; and informed Sir Percival, who met me at the door, that my journey had been taken in vain. He seemed too much occupied with some other subject to care about the failure of my errand, and his first words informed me that even in the short time of my absence, another remarkable change had taken place in the house.

  The Count and Countess Fosco had left Blackwater Park for their new residence in St. John’s Wood.

  I was not made aware of the motive for this sudden departure—I was only told that the Count had been very particular in leaving his kind compliments for me. When I ventured on asking Sir Percival whether Lady Glyde had any one to attend to her comforts in the absence of the Countess, he replied that she had Margaret Porcher to wait on her; and he added that a woman from the village had been sent for to do the work down stairs.

  The answer really shocked me—there was such a glaring inpropriety in permitting an under-housemaid to fill the place of confidential attendant on Lady Glyde. I went up-stairs at once, and met Margaret on the bedroom landing. Her services had not been required (naturally enough); her mistress having sufficiently recovered, that morning, to be able to leave her bed. I asked, next, after Miss Halcombe; but I was answered in a slouching, sulky way, which left me no wiser than I was before. I did not choose to repeat the question, and perhaps provoke an impertinent reply. It was in every respect more becoming, to a person in my position, to present myself immediately in Lady Glyde’s room.

  I found that her ladyship had certainly gained in health during the last few days. Although still sadly weak and nervous, she was able to get up without assistance, and to walk slowly about her room, feeling no worse effect from the exertion than a slight sensation of fatigue. She had been made a little anxious that morning about Miss Halcombe, through having received no news of her from any one. I thought this seemed to imply a blamable want of attention on the part of Mrs. Rubelle; but I said nothing, and remained with Lady Glyde, to assist her to dress. When she was ready, we both left the room together to go to Miss Halcombe.

  We were stopped in the passage by the appearance of Sir Percival. He looked as if he had been purposely waiting there to see us.

  “Where are you going?” he said to Lady Glyde.

  “To Marian’s room,” she answered.

  “It may spare you a disappointment,” remarked Sir Percival, “if I tell you at once that you will not find her there.”

  “Not find her there!”

  “No. She left the house yesterday morning with Fosco and his wife.”

  Lady Glyde was not strong enough to bear the surprise of this extraordinary statement. She turned fearfully pale; and leaned back against the wall, looking at her husband in dead silence.

  I was so astonished myself, that I hardly knew what to say. I asked Sir Percival if he really meant that Miss Halcombe had left Blackwater Park.

  “I certainly mean it,” he answered.

  “In her state, Sir Percival! Without mentioning her intentions to Lady Glyde!”

  Before he could reply, her ladyship recovered herself a little, and spoke.

  “Impossible!” she cried out, in a loud, frightened manner; taking a step or two forward from the wall. “Where was the doctor? where was Mr. Dawson when Marian went away?”

  “Mr. Dawson wasn’t wanted, and wasn’t here,” said Sir Percival. “He left of his own accord, which is enough of itself to show that she was strong enough to travel. How you stare! If you don’t believe she has gone, look for yourself. Open her room door, and all the other room doors, if you like.”

  She took him at his word, and I followed her. There was no one in Miss Halcombe’s room but Margaret Porcher, who was busy setting it to rights. There was no one in the spare-rooms, or the dressing-rooms, when we looked into them afterwards. Sir Percival still waited for us in the passage. As we were leaving the last room that we had examined, Lady Glyde whispered, “Don’t go, Mrs. Michelson! don’t leave me, for God’s sake!” Before I could say anything in return, she was out again in the passage, speaking to her husband.

  “What does it mean, Sir Percival? I insist—I beg and pray you will tell me what it means!”

  “It means,” he answered, “that Miss Halcombe was strong enough yesterday morning to sit up, and be dressed; and that she insisted on taking advantage of Fosco’s going to London, to go there too.”

  “To London!”

  “Yes—on her way to Limmeridge.”

  Lady Glyde turned, and appealed to me.

  “You saw Miss Halcomb
e last,” she said. “Tell me, plainly, Mrs. Michelson, did you think she looked fit to travel?”

  “Not in my opinion, your ladyship.”

  Sir Percival, on his side, instantly turned, and appealed to me also.

  “Before you went away,” he said, “did you, or did you not, tell the nurse that Miss Halcombe looked much stronger and better?”

  “I certainly made the remark, Sir Percival.”

  He addressed her ladyship again, the moment I offered that reply.

  “Set one of Mrs. Michelson’s opinions fairly against the other,” he said, “and try to be reasonable about a perfectly plain matter. If she had not been well enough to be moved, do you think we should any of us have risked letting her go? She has got three competent people to look after her—Fosco and your aunt, and Mrs. Rubelle, who went away with them expressly for that purpose. They took a whole carriage yesterday, and made a bed for her on the seat, in case she felt tired. To-day, Fosco and Mrs. Rubelle go on with her themselves to Cumberland——”

  “Why does Marian go to Limmeridge, and leave me here by myself?” said her ladyship, interrupting Sir Percival.

  “Because your uncle won’t receive you till he has seen your sister first,” he replied. “Have you forgotten the letter he wrote to her, at the beginning of her illness. It was shown to you; you read it yourself; and you ought to remember it.”

  “I do remember it.”

  “If you do, why should you be surprised at her leaving you? You want to be back at Limmeridge; and she has gone there to get your uncle’s leave for you, on his own terms.”

  Poor Lady Glyde’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Marian never left me before,” she said, “without bidding me good-by.”

  “She would have bid you good-by this time,” returned Sir Percival, “if she had not been afraid of herself and of you. She knew you would try to stop her; she knew you would distress her by crying. Do you want to make any more objections? If you do, you must come down stairs and ask questions in the dining-room. These worries upset me. I want a glass of wine.”

  He left us suddenly.

  His manner all through this strange conversation had been very unlike what it usually was. He seemed to be almost as nervous and fluttered, every now and then, as his lady herself. I should never have supposed that his health had been so delicate, or his composure so easy to upset.

  I tried to prevail on Lady Glyde to go back to her room; but it was useless. She stopped in the passage, with the look of a woman whose mind was panic-stricken:

  “Something has happened to my sister!” she said.

  “Remember, my lady, what surprising energy there is in Miss Halcombe,” I replied. “She might well make an effort which other ladies, in her situation, would be unfit for. I hope and believe there is nothing wrong—I do indeed.”

  “I must follow Marian!” said her ladyship, with the same panic-stricken look. “I must go where she has gone; I must see that she is alive and well with my own eyes. Come! come down with me to Sir Percival.”

  I hesitated; fearing that my presence might be considered an intrusion; I attempted to represent this to her ladyship; but she was deaf to me. She held my arm fast enough to force me to go down stairs with her; and she still clung to me with all the little strength she had, at the moment when I opened the dining-room door.

  Sir Percival was sitting at the table with a decanter of wine before him. He raised the glass to his lips, as we went in, and drained it at a draught. Seeing that he looked at me angrily when he put it down again, I attempted to make some apology for my accidental presence in the room.

  “Do you suppose there are any secrets going on here?” he broke out, suddenly; “there are none—there is nothing underhand; nothing kept from you or from any one.” After speaking those strange words, loudly and sternly, he filled himself another glass of wine, and asked Lady Glyde what she wanted of him.

  “If my sister is fit to travel, I am fit to travel,” said her ladyship, with more firmness than she had yet shown. “I come to beg you will make allowances for my anxiety about Marian, and let me follow her at once, by the afternoon train.”

  “You must wait till to-morrow,” replied Sir Percival; “and then, if you don’t hear to the contrary, you can go. I don’t suppose you are at all likely to hear to the contrary—so I shall write to Fosco by to-night’s post.”

  He said those last words, holding his glass up to the light, and looking at the wine in it, instead of at Lady Glyde. Indeed, he never once looked at her throughout the conversation. Such a singular want of good breeding in a gentleman of his rank impressed me, I own, very painfully.

  “Why should you write to Count Fosco?” she asked, in extreme surprise.

  “To tell him to expect you by the mid-day train,” said Sir Percival. “He will meet you at the station, when you get to London, and take you on to sleep at your aunt’s, in St. John’s Wood.”

  Lady Glyde’s hand began to tremble violently round my arm—why, I could not imagine.

  “There is no necessity for Count Fosco to meet me,” she said. “I would rather not stay in London to sleep.”

  “You must. You can’t take the whole journey to Cumberland in one day. You must rest a night in London—and I don’t choose you to go by yourself to an hotel. Fosco made the offer to your uncle to give you house-room on the way down; and your uncle has accepted it. Here! here is a letter from him, addressed to yourself. I ought to have sent it up this morning; but I forgot. Read it, and see what Mr. Fairlie himself says to you.”

  Lady Glyde looked at the letter for a moment; and then placed it in my hands.

  “Read it,” she said, faintly. “I don’t know what is the matter with me. I can’t read it, myself.”

  It was a note of only three lines—so short and so careless, that it quite struck me. If I remember correctly, it contained no more than these words:

  “Dearest Laura, Please come, whenever you like. Break the journey by sleeping at your aunt’s house. Grieved to hear of dear Marian’s illness. Affectionately yours, Frederick Fairlie.”

  “I would rather not go there—I would rather not stay a night in London,” said her ladyship, breaking out eagerly with those words, before I had quite done reading the note, short as it was. “Don’t write to Count Fosco! Pray, pray don’t write to him!”

  Sir Percival filled another glass from the decanter, so awkwardly that he upset it, and spilt all the wine over the table. “My sight seems to be failing me,” he muttered to himself, in an odd, muffled voice. He slowly set the glass up again, refilled it, and drained it once more at a draught. I began to fear, from his look and manner, that the wine was getting into his head.

  “Pray don’t write to Count Fosco!” persisted Lady Glyde, more earnestly than ever.

  “Why not, I should like to know!” cried Sir Percival, with a sudden burst of anger that startled us both. “Where can you stay more properly in London, than at the place your uncle himself chooses for you—at your aunt’s house? Ask Mrs. Michelson.”

  The arrangement proposed was so unquestionably the right and the proper one, that I could make no possible objection to it. Much as I sympathised with Lady Glyde in other respects, I could not sympathise with her in her unjust prejudices against Count Fosco. I never before met with any lady, of her rank and station, who was so lamentably narrow-minded on the subject of foreigners. Neither her uncle’s note, nor Sir Percival’s increasing impatience, seemed to have the least effect on her. She still objected to staying a night in London; she still implored her husband not to write to the Count.

  “Drop it!” said Sir Percival, rudely turning his back on us. “If you haven’t sense enough to know what is best for yourself, other people must know for you. The arrangement is made; and there is an end of it. You are only wanted to do what Miss Halcombe has done before you——”

  “Marian?” repeated her ladyship, in a bewildered manner; “Marian sleeping in Count Fosco’s house!”

&
nbsp; “Yes, in Count Fosco’s house. She slept there, last night, to break the journey. And you are to follow her example, and do what your uncle tells you. You are to sleep at Fosco’s, tomorrow night, as your sister did, to break the journey. Don’t throw too many obstacles in my way! don’t make me repent of letting you go at all!”

  He started to his feet; and suddenly walked out into the verandah, through the open glass doors.

  “Will your ladyship excuse me,” I whispered, “if I suggest that we had better not wait here till Sir Percival comes back? I am very much afraid he is over-excited with wine.”

  She consented to leave the room, in a weary, absent manner.

  As soon as we were safe up-stairs again, I did all I could to compose her ladyship’s spirits. I reminded her that Mr. Fairlie’s letters to Miss Halcombe and to herself did certainly sanction, and even render necessary, sooner or later, the course that had been taken. She agreed to this, and even admitted, of her own accord, that both letters were strictly in character with her uncle’s peculiar disposition—but her fears about Miss Halcombe, and her unaccountable dread of sleeping at the Count’s house in London, still remained unshaken in spite of every consideration that I could urge. I thought it my duty to protest against Lady Glyde’s unfavourable opinion of his lordship; and I did so, with becoming forbearance and respect.

  “Your ladyship will pardon my freedom,” I remarked, in conclusion; “but it is said, ‘by their fruits ye shall know them.’ I am sure the Count’s constant kindness and constant attention from the very beginning of Miss Halcombe’s illness, merit our best confidence and esteem. Even his lordship’s serious misunderstanding with Mr. Dawson was entirely attributable to his anxiety on Miss Halcombe’s account.”

  “What misunderstanding?” inquired her ladyship, with a look of sudden interest.

  I related the unhappy circumstances under which Mr. Dawson had withdrawn his attendance—mentioning them all the more readily, because I disapproved of Sir Percival’s continuing to conceal what had happened (as he had done in my presence) from the knowledge of Lady Glyde.