Wife and cousin exchanged glances of consternation, and perhaps each knew she might be thankful that he did not come himself instead of sending, and yet feared that the abstinence was a proof more of incapacity than of submission.
Lying there in a dressing-gown over a strapped shoulder, he showed his agitation by being more than usually unable to finish a sentence.
'Jenny, Jenny-you are-are you all safe? not frightened?'
'Oh no, no, I was a great way off; I only heard the noise, and I did not know you were there.'
'Ah! there must be-something must be meant for me to do. Heaven must mean-thank Him! But is it true-a poor child? Can't one ever be foolish without hurting more than one's self?'
Jane told him the truth calmly and quietly, explaining that the survivor was entirely unhurt, and the poor little victim could not have suffered; adding with all her heart, 'The whole thing was full of mercy, and I do not think you need blame yourself for heedlessness, for it was an accident that the place was not marked.'
'Shameful neglect' said Lady Rotherwood.
'The partner-what's-his-name-Stebbing-said something about his son being away. An untrustworthy substitute, wasn't there?' said Lord Rotherwood.
'The son was the proficient in Leopardine Italian we heard of last night,' said Jane. 'I don't know what he may be as an overlooker here. He certainly fell furiously on the substitute, a poor cousin of Mr. White's own, but I am much afraid the origin of the mischief was nearer home-Master Fergus's geological researches.'
'Fergus! Why, he is a mite.'
'Yes, but Maurice encore. However, I must find out from him whether this is only a foreboding of my prophetic soul!'
'Curious cattle,' observed Lord Rotherwood.
'Well,' put in his wife, 'I do not think Ivinghoe has ever given us cause for anxiety.'
'Exactly the reason that I am always expecting him to break out in some unexpected place! No, Victoria,' he added, seeing that she did not like this, 'I am quite ready to allow that we have a model son, and I only pity him for not having a model father.'
'Well, I am not going to stay and incite you to talk nonsense,' said Jane, rising to depart; 'I will let you know my discoveries.'
She found Fergus watching for her at the gate, with the appeal, 'Aunt Jane, there's been a great downfall of cliff, and I want to see what formations it has brought to light, but they won't let me through to look at it, though I told them White always did.'
'I do not suppose that they will allow any one to meddle with it at present,' said Aunt Jane; then, as Fergus made an impatient exclamation, she added, 'Do you know that a poor little boy was killed, and Cousin Rotherwood a good deal hurt?'
'Yes,' said Fergus, 'Big Blake said so.'
'And now, Fergus, I want to know where you took that large stone from that you showed me with the crack of spar.'
'With the micaceous crystals,' corrected Fergus. 'It was off the top of that very cliff that fell down, so I am sure there must be more in it; and some one else will get them if they won't let me go and see for them.'
'And Alexis White gave you leave to take it?'
'Oh yes, I always ask him.'
'Were you at the place when you asked him, Fergus?'
'At the place on the cliff? No. For I couldn't find him for a long time, and I carried it all the way down the steps.'
'And you did not tell him where it came from?'
'He didn't ask. Indeed, Aunt Jane, I always did show him what I took, and he would have let me in now, only he was not at the office; and the man at the gate, Big Blake, was as savage as a bear, and slammed the door on me, and said they wouldn't have no idle boys loafing about there. And when I said I wasn't an idle boy but a scientific mineralogist, and that Mr. Alexis White always let me in, he laughed in my face, and said Mr. Alexis had better look out for himself. I shall tell Stebbing how cheeky he was.'
'My dear Fergus, there was good reason for keeping you out. You did not know it, nor Alexis; but those stones were put to show that the cliff was getting dangerous, and to mark where to put an iron fence; and it was the greatest of mercies that Rotherwood's life was saved.'
The boy looked a little sobered, but his aunt had rather that his next question had not been: 'Do you think they will let me go there again!'
However, she knew very well that conviction must slowly soak in, and that nothing would be gained by frightening him, so that all she did that night was to send a note by Mysie to her cousin, explaining her discovery; and she made up her mind to take Fergus to the inquest the next day, since his evidence would exonerate Alexis from the most culpable form of carelessness.
Only, however, in the morning, when she had ascertained the hour of the inquest, did she write a note to Mrs. Edgar to explain Fergus's absence from school, or inform the boy of what she intended. On the whole he was rather elated at being so important as to be able to defend Alexis White, and he was quite above believing that scientific research could be reckoned by any one as mischief.
Just as Miss Mohun had gone up to get ready, Mysie ran in to say that Cousin Rotherwood would be at the door in a moment to take Fergus down.
'Lady Rotherwood can't bear his going,' said Mysie, 'and Mr. White and Mr. Stebbing say that he need not; but he is quite determined, though he has got his arm in a sling, for he says it was all his fault for going where he ought not. And he won't have the carriage, for he says it would shake his bones ever so much more than Shank's mare.'
'Just like him,' said Aunt Jane. 'Has Dr. Dagger given him leave?'
'Yes; he said it wouldn't hurt him; but Lady Rotherwood told Miss Elbury she was sure he persuaded him.'
Mysie's confused pronouns were cut short by Lord Rotherwood's own appearance.
'You need not go, Jane,' he said. 'I can take care of this little chap. They'll not chop off his head in the presence of one of the Legislature.'
'Nice care to begin by chaffing him out of his wits,' she retorted. 'The question is, whether you ought to go.'
'Yes, Jenny, I must go. It can't damage me; and besides, to tell the truth, it strikes me that things will go hard with that unlucky young fellow if some one is not there to stand up for him and elicit Fergus's evidence.'
'Alexis White!'
'White-ay, a cousin or something of the exemplary boss. He's been dining with his partners-the old White, I mean-and they've been cramming him-I imagine with a view to scapegoat treatment-jealousy, and all the rest of it. If there is not a dismissal, there's a hovering on the verge.'
'Exactly what I was afraid of,' said Jane. 'Oh, Rotherwood, I could tell you volumes. But may I not come down with you? Could not I do something?'
'Well, on the whole, you are better away, Jenny. Consider William's feelings. Womankind, even Brownies, are better out of it. Prejudice against proteges, whether of petticoats or cassocks-begging your pardon. I can fight battles better as an unsophisticated stranger coming down fresh, though I don't expect any one from the barony of Beechcroft to believe it, and maybe the less I know of your volumes the better till after-
'Oh, Rotherwood, as if I wasn't too thankful to have you to send for me!'
'There! I've kept the firm out there waiting an unconscionable time. They'll think you are poisoning my mind. Come along, you imp of science. Trust me, I'll not bully him, though it's highly tempting to make the chien chasser de race.'
'Oh, Aunt Jane, won't you go?' exclaimed Gillian in despair, as her cousin waved a farewell at the gate.
'No, my dear; it is not for want of wishing, but he is quite right. He can do much better than I could.'
'But is he in earnest, aunt?'
'Oh yes, most entirely, and I quite see that he is right-indeed I do, Gillian. People pretend to defer to a lady, but they really don't like her poking her nose in, and, after all, I could have no right to say anything. My only excuse for going was to take care of Fergus.'
A further token of Lord Rotherwood's earnestness in the cause was the arrival of his servant, who
was to bring down the large stone which Master Merrifield had moved, and who conveyed it in a cab, being much too grand to carry it through the streets.
Gillian was very unhappy and restless, unable to settle to anything, and linking cause and effect together disconsolately in a manner Mysie, whom she admitted to her confidence, failed to understand.
'It was a great pity Fergus did not show Alexis where the stone came from, but I don't see what your not giving him his lessons had to do with it. Made him unhappy? Oh! Gilly dear, you don't mean any one would be too unhappy to mind his business for such nonsense as that! I am sure none of us would be so stupid if Mr. Pollock forgot our Greek lessons.'
'Certainly not,' said Gillian, almost laughing; 'but you don't understand, Mysie. It was the taking him up and letting him down, and I could not explain it, and it looked so nasty and capricious.'
'Well, I suppose you ought to have asked Aunt Jane's leave; but I do think he must be a ridiculous young man if he could not attend to his proper work because you did not go after him when you were only just come home.'
'Ah, Mysie, you don't understand!'
Mysie opened a round pair of brown eyes, and said, 'Oh! I did think people were never so silly out of poetry. There was Wilfrid in Hokeby, to be sure. He was stupid enough about Matilda; but do you mean that he is like that!'
'Don't, don't, you dreadful child; I wish I had never spoken to you,' cried Gillian, overwhelmed with confusion. 'You must never say a word to any living creature.'
'I am sure I shan't,' said Mysie composedly; 'for, as far as I can see, it is all stuff. This Alexis never found out what Fergus was about with the stone, and so the mark was gone, and Cousin Rotherwood trod on it, and the poor little boy was killed; but as to the rest, Nurse Halfpenny would say it was all conceited maggots; and how you can make so much more fuss about that than about the poor child being crushed, I can't make out.'
'But if I think it all my fault?'
'That's maggots,' returned Mysie with uncompromising common-sense. 'You aren't old enough, nor pretty enough, for any of that kind of stuff, Gill!'
And Gillian found that either she must go without comprehension, or have a great deal more implied, if she turned for sympathy to any one save Aunt Jane, who seemed to know exactly how the land lay.
CHAPTER XVI. VANISHED
It seemed to be a very long time before the inquest was over, and Aunt Jane had almost yielded to her niece's impatience and her own, and consented to walk down to meet the intelligence, when Fergus came tearing in, 'I've seen the rock, and there is a flaw of crystal- lisation in it! And the coroner-man called me an incipient geologist.'
'But the verdict?'
'They said it was accidental death, and something about more care being taken and valuable lives endangered.'
'And Alexis White-'
'Oh! there was a great bother about his not being there. They said it looked very bad; but they could not find him.'
'Not find him! Oh! Where is Cousin Rotherwood?'
'He is coming home, and he said I might run on, and tell you that if you had time to come in to the hotel he would tell you about it.'
With which invitation Miss Mohun hastened to comply; Gillian was ardent to come too, and it seemed cruel to prevent her; but, besides that Jane thought that her cousin might be tired enough to make his wife wish him to see as few people as possible, she was not sure that Gillian might not show suspicious agitation, and speech and action would not be free in her presence. So the poor girl was left to extract what she could from her little brother, which did not amount to much.
It was a propitious moment, for Jane met Lord Rotherwood at the door of the hotel, parting with Mr. White; she entered with him, and his wife, after satisfying herself that he was not the worse for his exertions, was not sorry that he should have his cousin to keep him quiet in his easy-chair while she went off to answer a pile of letters which had just been forwarded from home.
'Well, Jenny,' he said, 'I am afraid your protege does not come out of it very well; that is, if he is your protege. He must be an uncommonly foolish young man.'
'I reserve myself on that point. But is it true that he never appeared?'
'Quite true.'
'Didn't they send for him?'
'Yes; but he could not be found, either at the works or at home. However, the first might be so far accounted for, since he met at his desk a notice of dismissal from White and Stebbing.'
'No! Really. Concocted at that unlucky dinner yesterday! But, of course, it was not immediate.'
'Of course not, and perhaps something might have been done for him; but a man who disappears condemns himself.'
'But what for? I hope Fergus explained that the stone was not near the spot when he showed it.'
'Yes; Fergus spoke up like a little man, and got more credit than he deserved. If they had known that of all varieties of boys the scientific is the worst imp of mischief! It all went in order due- surgeon explained injuries to poor little being-men how the stone came down and they dug him out-poor little baby-sister made out her sad little story. That was the worst part of all. Something must be done for that child-orphanage or something-only unluckily there's the father and mother. Poor father! he is the one to be pitied. I mean to get at him without the woman. Well, then came my turn, and how I am afflicted with the habit of going where I ought not, and, only by a wonderful mercy, was saved from being part of the general average below. Then we got to the inquiry, Were not dangerous places railed off? Yes, Stebbing explained that it was the rule of the firm to have the rocks regularly inspected once a month, and once a fortnight in winter and spring, when the danger is greater. If they were ticklish, the place was marked at the moment with big stones, reported, and railed off. An old foreman-sort of fellow swore to having detected the danger, and put stones. He had reported it. To whom? To Mr. Frank. Yes, he thought it was Mr. Frank, just before he went away. It was this fellow's business to report it and send the order, it seems, and in his absence Alexander White, or whatever they call him, took his work. Well, the old man doesn't seem to know whether he mentioned the thing to young White or not, which made his absence more unlucky; but, anyway, the presence of the stones was supposed to be a sufficient indication of the need of the rail, or to any passenger to avoid the place. In fact, if Master White had been energetic, he would have seen to the thing. I fancy that is the long and short of it. But when the question came how the stones came to be removed, I put Fergus forward. The foreman luckily could identify his stone by the precious crack of spar; and the boy explained how he had lugged it down, and showed it to his friend far away from its place-had, in fact, turned over and displaced all the lot.'
'Depend upon it, Alexis has gone out of the way to avoid accusing Fergus!'
'Don't make me start, it hurts; but do you really believe that, Jane- -you, the common-sense female of the family?'
'Indeed I do, he is a romantic, sensitive sort of fellow, who would not defend himself at the boy's expense.'
'Whew! He might have stood still and let Fergus defend him, then, instead of giving up his own cause.'
'And how did it end?'
'Accidental death, of course; couldn't be otherwise; but censure on the delay and neglect of precaution, which the common opinion of the Court naturally concentrated on the absent; though, no doubt, the first omission was young Stebbing's; but owing to the hurry of his start for Italy, that was easily excused. And even granting that Fergus did the last bit of mischief, your friend may be romantically generous, if you please; but he must have been very slack in his work.'
'Poor fellow-yes. Now before I tell you what I know about him, I should like to hear how Mr. Stebbing represents him. You know his father was a lieutenant in the Royal Wardours.'
'Risen from the ranks, a runaway cousin of White's. Yes, and there's a son in a lawyer's office always writing to White for money.'
'Oh! I never had much notion of that eldest-'
'They have no particula
r claim on White; but when the father died he wrote to Stebbing to give those that were old enough occupation at the works, and see that the young ones got educated.'
'So he lets the little boys go to the National School, though there's no great harm in that as yet.'
'He meant to come and see after them himself, and find out what they are made of. But meantime this youth, who did well at first, is always running after music and nonsense of all kinds, thinking himself above his business, neglecting right and left; while as to the sister, she is said to be very clever at designing-both ways in fact-so determined to draw young Stebbing in, that, having got proof of it at last, they have dismissed her too. And, Jane, I hardly like to tell you, but somehow they mix Gillian up in the business. They ate it up again when I cut them short by saying she was my cousin, her mother and you like my sisters. I am certain it is all nonsense, but had you any notion of any such thing? It is insulting you, though, to suppose you had not,' he added, as he saw her air of acquiescence; 'so, of course, it is all right.'
'It is not all right, but not so wrong as all that. Oh no! and I know all about it from poor Gill herself and the girl. Happily they are both too good girls to need prying. Well, the case is this. There was a quarrel about a love story between the two original Whites, who must both have had a good deal of stuff in them. Dick ran away, enlisted, rose, and was respected by Jasper, etc., but was married to a Greco-Hibernian wife, traditionally very beautiful, poor woman, though rather the reverse at present. Lily and her girls did their best for the young people with good effect on the eldest girl, who really in looks and ways is worthy of her Muse's name, Kalliope. Father had to retire with rank of captain, and died shortly after. Letters failed to reach the Merrifields, who were on the move. This Quarry cousin was written to, and gave the help he described to you. Perhaps it was just, but it disappointed them, and while the father lived, Alexis had been encouraged to look to getting to the University and Holy Orders. He has a good voice, and the young curate at the Kennel patronised him, perhaps a little capriciously, but I am not quite sure. All this was unknown to me till the Merrifield children came, and Gillian, discovering these Whites, flew upon them in the true enthusiastic Lily-fashion, added to the independence of the modern maiden mistrustful of old cats of aunts. Like a little goose, she held trystes with Kalliope, through the rails at the top of the garden on Sunday afternoons.'
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