 CHAPTER 18 A midnight visitor. The frightful warnings of Lady Nollis haunted me, too. Was there no escape from the dreadful companion whom fate had assigned me? I made up my mind again and again to speak to my father and urge her removal. In other things he indulged me. Here, however, he met me dryly and sternly, and it was plain that he fancied I was under my cousin Monica's influence, and also that he had secret reasons for persisting in an opposite course. Just then I had a gay, odd letter from Lady Nollis, from some country-house in Shropshire, not a word about Captain Oakley. My eye skimmed its pages in search of that charmed name. With a peevish feeling I tossed the sheet upon the table. Inwardly I thought how ill-natured and unwomanly it was. After a time, however, I read it, and found the letter very good-natured. She had received a note from Papa. He had had the impudence to forgive her for his impertinence. But for my sake she meant notwithstanding this aggravation, really to pardon him, and whenever she had a disengaged week to accept his invitation to Noll, from when she was resolved to whisk me off to London, where, though I was too young to be presented at court and come out, I might yet, besides having the best manners and a good excuse for getting rid of Medusa, see a great deal that would amuse and surprise me. Great news, I suppose, from Lady Nollis, said Madame, who always knew who in the house received letters by the post, and by an intuition, from whom they came. Two letters, you and your papa. She is quite well, I hope. Quite well, thank you, Madame. Some fishing questions dropped from time to time, fared no better, and as usual, when she was foiled even in a trifle, she became sullen and malignant. That night, when my father and I were alone, he suddenly closed the book he had been reading and said, I heard from Monica Nollis today, I always liked poor money, and though she's no witch and very wrong-headed at times, yet now and then she does say a thing that's worth weighing. Did she ever talk to you of a time, Maude, when you are to be your own mistress? No, I answered, a little puzzled, and looking straight in his rugged, kindly face. Well, I thought she might, she's a rattle, you know, always was a rattle, and that sort of people say whatever comes uppermost, but that's a subject for me, and more than once, Maude, it has puzzled me. He sighed, Come with me to the study, little Maude. So he, carrying a candle, we crossed the lobby and marched together through the passage, which at night always seemed a little awesome, darkly wainscotted, un-cheered by the cross-light from the hall, which was lost at the turn, leading us away from the frequented parts of the house to that misshapen and lowly room about which the traditions of the nursery and the servants' hall had had so many fearful stories to recount. I think my father had intended making some disclosure to me on reaching this room. If so, he changed his mind, or at least postponed his intention. He had paused before the cabinet, respecting the key of which he had given me so strict a charge, and I think he was going to explain himself more fully than he had done. But he went on instead to the table, where his desk, always jealously locked, was placed, and having lighted the candles which stood by it, he glanced at me and said, You must wait a little, Maude. I shall have something to say to you. Take this candle and amuse yourself with a book, meanwhile. I was accustomed to obey in silence. I chose a volume of engravings, and ensconced myself in a favourite nook in which I had often passed a half-hour similarly. This was a deep recess by the fireplace, fenced on the other side by a great old esgrottoir. Into this I drew a stool, and, with a candle and book, I placed myself snugly in the narrow chamber. Every now and then I raised my eyes and saw my father either writing or ruminating, as it seemed to me, very anxiously at his desk. Time wore on, a longer time than he had intended, and still he continued absorbed at his desk. Gradually I grew sleepy, and as I nodded, the book and room faded away, and pleasant little dreams began to gather round me. And so I went off into deep slumber. It must have lasted long, for when I wakened my candle had burnt out. My father, having quite forgotten me, was gone, and the room was dark and deserted. I felt cold and a little stiff, and for some seconds did not know where I was. I had been wakened, I suppose, by a sound which I now distinctly heard, to my terror approaching. There was a rustling, there was a breathing. I heard a creaking upon the plank that always creaked when walked upon in the passage. I held my breath and listened, and coiled myself up in the innermost recess of my little chamber. Sudden and sharp a light shone in from the nearly closed study door. It shone angularly on the ceiling like a letter L reversed. There was a pause, then someone knocked softly at the door, which, after another pause, was slowly pushed open. I expected, I think, to see the dreaded figure of the Link Man. I was scarcely less frightened to see that of Madame de la Rougière. She was dressed in a sort of grey silk, which she called her Chinese silk, precisely as she had been in the daytime. In fact, I do not think she had undressed. She had no shoes on, otherwise her toilet was deficient in nothing. Her wide mouth was grimly closed and she stood scowling into the room with a searching and pallid scrutiny. The candle held high above her head at the full stretch of her arm. Placed as I was in a deep recess and in a seat hardly raised above the level of the floor, I escaped her, although it seemed to me for some seconds as I gazed on this spectre that our eyes actually met. I sat without breathing or winking, staring upon the formidable image which with upstretched arm and the sharp lights and hard shadows thrown upon her corrugated features looked like a sorceress watching for the effect of a spell. She was plainly listening, intensely. Unconsciously she had drawn her lower lip together between her teeth, and I well remember what a deathlike and idiotic look the contortion gave her. My terrorless she should discover me amounted to positive agony. She rolled her eyes stealthily from corner to corner of the room and listened with her neck awry at the door. Then to my father's death she went. To my great relief her back was towards me. She stooped over it with the candle close by. I saw her try a key, it could be nothing else, and I heard her blow through the wards to clear them. Then again she listened at the door, candle in hand, and then with long tiptoe steps came back, and papa's desk in another moment was open, and madame cautiously turning over the papers it contained. Twice or thrice she paused, glided to the door and listened again intently with her head near the ground, and then returned and continued her search, peeping into papers one after another, tolerably methodically, and reading some quite through. While this felonious business was going on I was freezing with fear, lest she should accidentally look round and her eyes light on me, for I could not say what she might not do rather than have her crime discovered. Sometimes she would read a paper twice over, sometimes a whisper no louder than the ticking of a watch, sometimes a brief chuckle under her breath, bespoke the interests with which here and there a letter or a memorandum was read. For about half an hour I think this went on, but at the time it seemed to me orbit interminable. On a sudden she raised her head and listened for a moment, replaced their papers deftly, closed the desk without noise except for the tiny click of the lock, extinguished the candle, and rustled stealthily out of the room, leaving in the darkness the malign and hag-like face on which the candle had just shone, still floating filmy in the dark. Why did I remain silent and motionless while such an outrage was being committed? If instead of being a very nervous girl, preoccupied with an undefinable terror of that wicked woman, I had possessed courage and presence of mind, I dare say I might have given an alarm and escaped from the room without the slightest risk, but so it was I could no more stir than the bird who, cowering under its ivy, sees the white owl sailing back and forward under its predatory cruise. Not only during her presence, but for more than an hour after I remained cowering in my hiding-place and afraid to stir, lest she might either be lurking in the neighbourhood or return and surprise me. You will not be astonished that after a night so past I was ill and feverish in the morning. To my horror Madame de la Rougière came to visit me at my bedside, not a trace of guilty consciousness of what had passed during the night was legible in her face. She had no sign of late watching, and her toilet was exemplary. As she sat smiling by me, full of anxious and affectionate inquiry, and smoothed the coverlet with her great felonious hand, I could quite comprehend the dreadful feeling with which the deceived husband in the Arabian nights met his ghoul wife after his nocturnal discovery. Ill as I was, I got up and found my father in that room which adjoined his bedchamber. He perceived, I am sure, by my looks, that something unusual had happened. I shut the door and came close beside his chair. Oh, papa, I have such a thing to tell you. I forgot to call him sir. A secret, and you won't say who told you, will you come down to the study? He looked hard at me, got up, and kissing my forehead said, Don't be frightened, Maude. I venture to say it is a mares-nest. At all events my child, we will take care that no danger reaches you. Come, child. And by the hand he led me to the study. When the door was shut, and we had reached the far end of the room next to the window, I said, but in a low tone, and holding his arm fast, Oh, sir, you don't know what a dreadful person we have living with us. Madame de la Rougière, I mean. Don't let her in if she comes. She would guess what I am telling you, and one way or another I am sure she will kill me. Tap, tap, child, you must know that's nonsense, he said, looking pale and stern. Oh, no, papa, I am horribly frightened, and Lady Nollis thinks so too. Ha! I dare say, one fool makes many, we all know what Monica thinks, but I saw it, papa. She stole your key last night, and opened your desk, and read all your papers. Stole my key, said my father, staring at me, perplexed, but at the same instant producing it. Stole it? Why? Here it is. Open your desk. She read your papers for ever so long. Open it now, and see whether they have not been stirred. He looked at me this time in silence with a puzzled air, but he did unlock the desk, and lifted the papers curiously and suspiciously. As he did so, he uttered a few of those inarticulate interjections which are made with closed lips, and not always intelligible, but he made no remark. Then he placed me on a chair beside him, and sitting down himself, told me to recollect myself and tell him distinctly all I had seen. This I accordingly did, he listening with deep attention. Did she remove any paper, asked my father, at the same time making a little search, I suppose, for that which he fancied might have been stolen? No, I did not see her take anything. Well, you are a good girl, Maud, act discreetly, say nothing to anyone, not even to your cousin Monica. Directions which, coming from another person, would have had no great weight, were spoken by my father with an earnest look and a weight of emphasis that made them irresistibly impressive, and I went away with the seal of silence upon my lips. Sit down, Maud, there. You have not been very happy with Madame de la Rougière. It is time you were relieved. This occurrence decides it. He rang the bell. Tell Madame de la Rougière that I request the honour of seeing her for a few minutes here. My father's communications to her were always equally ceremonious. In a few minutes there was a knock at the door, and the same figure, smiling, curtsying, but had scared me on the threshold last night, like the spirit of evil, presented itself. My father rose, and Madame, having at his request taken a chair opposite, looking as usual in his presence all amiability, he proceeded at once to the point, Madame de la Rougière, I have to request you that you will give me the key now in your possession, which unlocks this desk of mine. With which termination he tapped his gold pencil case suddenly on it. Madame, who had expected something very different, became instantly so pale, with a dull, purplish hue upon her forehead, that, especially when she had twice assayed with her white lips in vain, to answer, I expected to see her fall in a fit. She was not looking in his face. Her eyes were fixed lower, and her mouth and cheek sucked in, with a strange distortion at one side. She stood up suddenly, and staring straight in his face, she succeeded in saying after twice clearing her throat, I cannot comprehend Monsieur Rathin unless you intend to insult me. It won't do, Madame, I must have that false key, I give you the opportunity of surrendering it quietly here and now. I too dares to say I possessed such thing, demanded Madame, who, having rallied from her momentary paralysis, was now fierce and voluble as I had often seen her before. You know, Madame, that you can rely on what I say, and I tell you, that you were seen last night visiting this room, and with a key in your possession, opening this desk and reading my letters and papers contained in it. Unless you forthwith give me that key, and any other false keys in your possession, in which case I shall rest content with dismissing you summarily, I will take a different course. You know I am a magistrate, and I shall have you, your boxes and places upstairs, searched forthwith, and I will prosecute you criminally. The thing is clear, you aggravate by denying. You must give me that key, if you please, instantly, otherwise I ring this bell, and you shall see that I mean what I say. There was a little pause. He rose and extended his hand towards the bell-rope. Madame glided round the table, extended her hand to arrest his. I will do everything, Monsieur Arthin, whatever you wish. And with these words Madame de la Rougière broke down altogether. She sobbed, she wept, she gabbled piteously, all manner of incomprehensible roulades of lamentation and entreaty. Coily, penitently, in a most interesting agitation, she produced the very key from her breast, with a string tied to it. My father was little moved by this piteous tempest. He coolly took the key and tried it in the desk, which it locked and unlocked quite freely, though the wards were complicated. He shook his head and looked her in the face. Say who made this key? It is a new one, and made expressly to pick this lock. But Madame was not going to tell any more than she had expressly bargained for, so she only fell once more into her old paroxysms of sorrow, self-reproach, extenuation, and entreaty. Well, said my father, I promise that on surrendering the key you should go. It is enough, I keep my word, you shall have an hour and a half to prepare in. You must then be ready to depart. I will send your money to you by Mrs. Rusk. And if you look for another situation, you have better not refer to me. Now be so good as to leave me. Madame seemed to be in a strange perplexity. She bridled up, dried her eyes fiercely, and dropped a great curtsy, and then sailed away towards the door. Before reaching it, she stopped on the way, turning half-round, with a peaked, hallowed glance at my father, and she bit her lip viciously as she eyed him. At the door the same repulsive pantomime was repeated, as she stood for a moment with her hand upon the handle. But she changed her bearing again with a sniff, and with a look of scorn almost heightened to a sneer. She made another very low curtsy, and a disdainful toss of her head. And so disappeared, shutting the door rather sharply behind her. CHAPTER XIX OREVOIR Mrs. Rusk was fond of assuring me that Madame did not like a bone in my skin. Instinctively I knew that she bore me no good at will, although I really believed it was her wish to make me think quite the reverse. At all events I had no desire to see Madame again before her departure, especially as she had thrown upon me one momentary glance in the study, which seemed to me charged with very peculiar feelings. You may be very sure, therefore, that I had no desire for a formal leave-taking at her departure. I took my hat and cloak, therefore, and stole out quietly. My ramble was a sequestered one, and well screened, even at this late season, with foliage. The pathway devious among the stems of old trees, and its flooring interlaced and groined with their knotted roots. Though near the house it was a silvan solitude, a little brook ran darkling and glimmering through it, while strawberries and other woodland plants drewed the ground, and the sweet notes and flutter of small birds made the shadow of the boughs cheery. I had been fully an hour in this picturesque solitude, when I heard in a distance the ring of carriage-wheels announcing to me that Madame de la Rougière had fairly set out upon her travels. I thanked heaven, I could have danced and sung with delight. I heaved a great sigh and looked up through the branches to the clear blue sky. But things are oddly timed, just at this moment I heard Madame's voice close at my ear, and her large bony hand was laid on my shoulder. We were instantly face to face, eye recoiling, and for a moment speechless with fright. In very early youth we do not appreciate the restraints which act upon malignity, or know how effectually fear protects us where conscience is wanting. Right alone, in the solitary spot, detected and overtaken with an awful instinct by my enemy, what might not be about to happen to me at that moment? Frightened, as usual, maud, she said quietly, and eyeing me with a sinister smile. And with cause you think no doubt, what have you done to injure poor Madame? Well, I think I know, little girl, and I have quite discovered the cleverness of my sweet little maud, is it not so? Petit Caron, ah-ha-ha! I was too much confounded to answer. You see, my dear child, she said, shaking her uplifted finger with a hideous arch-ness at me, you could not hide what you have done from poor Madame. You cannot look so innocent, but I can see your pretty little villainy quite plain, you dear little diabolus. What I have done, I have no reproach of myself for it, if I could explain your papa would say I have done right, and you should thank me on your knees, but I cannot explain yet. She was speaking, as it were, in little paragraphs, with a momentary pause between each, to allow its meaning to impress itself. If I were to choose to explain your papa, he would implore me to remain. But no, I would not, notwithstanding your so cheerful-house, your charming servants, your papa's amusing society, and your affectionate and sincere art, my sweet little maud. I am to go to London first, where I have all so good friends. Next I will go abroad for some time, but be sure my sweetest maud, wherever I may happen to be, I will remember you. Yes, most certainly, I will remember you. And although I shall not be always near, yet I shall know everything about my charming little maud, you will not know how, but I shall indeed, everything. And be sure my dearest child, I will sometime be able to give you the sensible proofs of my gratitude and affection, you understand? The courage is waiting at the utri style, and I must go on. You did not expect to see me here. I will appear perhaps as suddenly another time. It is great pleasure to us both, this opportunity to make our adieu. Farewell, my dearest little maud. I will never cease to think of you, and of some way to recompense the kindness you have shown for Poulme Madame. My hand hung by my side, and she took, not it, but my thumb, and shook it, folded in her broad palm, and looking on me as she held it, as if meditating mischief. Then suddenly she said, You will always remember Madame, I think, and I will remind you of me this side, and for the present, farewell, and I hope you may be as happy as you deserve. The large sinister face looked on me for a second with its latent sneer, and then with a sharp nod and a spasmodic shake of my imprisoned thumb, she turned, and holding her dress together and showing her great bony ankles, she strode rapidly away over the gnarled roots into the perspective of the trees, and I did not awake as it were until she had quite disappeared in the distance. Events of this kind made no difference with my father, but every other facing knoll was gladdened by the removal. My energies had returned, my spirits were come again, the sunlight was happy, the flowers innocent, the songs and flutter of the birds once more gay, and all nature delightful and rejoicing. After the first elation of relief, now and then a filmish shadow of Madame de la Rougière would glide across the sunlight, and the remembrance of her menace returned with an unexpected pang of fear. Well, if there isn't impotence, cried Mrs Rusk, but never you trouble your head about it, miss, them sorts all alike. You never saw a rogue yet that was found out and didn't threaten the honest focus he was leaving behind with all sorts. It was Martin the Gamekeeper and Jervis the Footman, I mind well how hard they swore all they would not do when they was a going, and whoever heard of them since, they always threatened that way, them sort always does and none ever the worse. Not but she would if she could mind you, but there it is, she can't do nothing but bite her nails and cuss us, not she. So I was comforted, but Madame's evil smile nevertheless from time to time would sail across my vision with a silent menace, and my spirit sank, and a fate draped in black, whose face I could not see, took me by the hand and led me away, in the spirit silently on an awful exploration from which I would rouse myself with a start, and Madame was gone for a while. She had, however, judged her little parting well, she contrived to leave her glamour over me, and in my dreams she troubled me. I was, however, indescribably relieved. I wrote in high spirits to cousin Monica, and wondered what plans my father might have formed about me, and whether we were to stay at home, or go to London, or go abroad. Of the last, the pleasantest arrangement in some respects, I had nevertheless an occult horror. A secret conviction haunted me, that were we to go abroad, we should there meet Madame, which to me was like meeting my evil genius. I have said more than once that my father was an odd man, and the reader-will by this time have seen that there was much about him not easily understood. I often wonder whether, if he had been Franca, I should have found him less odd than I suppose, or more odd still. Things that moved me profoundly did not apparently affect him at all. The departure of Madame, under the circumstances which attended it, appeared to my childish mind an event of the vastest importance. No one was indifferent to the occurrence in the house, but its master. He never alluded again to Madame de la Rougière, but whether connected with her exposure and dismissal, I could not say, there did appear to be some new care or trouble now at work in my father's mind. I have been thinking a great deal about you, Maud. I am anxious. I have not been so troubled for years. Why has not Monica knowledge a little more sense? This irraculous sentence he spoke, having stopped me in the hall, and then saying, we shall see, he left me as abruptly as he appeared. Did he apprehend any danger to me from the vindictiveness of Madame? A day or two afterwards, as I was in the Dutch garden, I saw him on the terrace steps. He beckoned to me and came to meet me as I approached. You must be very solitary, little Maud. It is not good. I have written to Monica. In a matter of detail, she is competent to advise. Perhaps she will come here for a short visit. I was very glad to hear this. You are more interested than for my time I can be in vindicating his character. Whose character, sir? I ventured to inquire during the pause that followed. One trick which my father had acquired from his habits of solitude and silence was this of assuming that the context of his thoughts was legible to others, forgetting that they had not been spoken. Whose? Your uncle Silas's. In the course of nature he must survive me. He will then represent the family name. Would you make some sacrifice to clear that name, Maud? I answered briefly, but my face, I believe, showed my enthusiasm. He turned on me such an approving smile as you might fancy lighting up the rugged features of a pale old Rembrandt. I could tell you, Maud, if my life could have done it, it should not have been undone. Ubi lapsus quid fecchi. But I had almost made up my mind to change my plan and leave all to time. Idax rarum, to illuminate or to consume. But I think little Maud would like to contribute to the restitution of her family name. It may cost you something. Are you willing to buy it as a sacrifice? Is there—I don't speak of fortune, that is not involved—but is there any other honourable sacrifice you would shrink from to dispel the disgrace under which our most ancient and honourable name must otherwise continue to languish? Oh, none! And indeed, sir, I am delighted! Again I saw the Rembrandt smile. Well, Maud, I am sure there is no risk. But you are to suppose there is. Are you still willing to accept it? Again I assented. You are worthy of your blood, Maud Ruffin. It will come soon, and it won't last long. But you must not let people like Monica Nollis frighten you. I was lost in wonder. If you allow them to possess you with their follies, you have better recede in time. They will make the ordeal as terrible as hell itself. You have zeal, you have nerve. I thought in such a cause I had nerve for anything. Well, Maud, in the course of a few months, and it may be sooner, there must be change. I have had a letter from London this morning that assures me of that. I must then leave you for a time. In my absence be faithful to the duties that will arise. To whom much is committed, of him will much be required. You shall promise me not to mention his conversation to Monica Nollis. If you are a talking girl and cannot trust yourself, say so, and we will not ask her to come. Also, don't invite her to talk about your uncle Silas. I have reasons. Do you quite understand my conditions? Yes, sir. Your uncle Silas, he said, speaking suddenly in loud and fierce tones that sounded from so old a man, almost terrible, lies under an intolerable slander. I don't correspond with him. I don't sympathise with him. I never quite did. He has grown religious, and that's well, but there are things in which even religion should not bring a man to acquiesce, and from what I can learn, he, the person primarily effected, the cause, though the innocent cause, of this great calamity, bears it with an easy apathy which is mistaken and liable easily to be mistaken, and such as no roughing under the circumstances ought to exhibit. I told him what he ought to do, and offered to open my purse for the purpose, but he would not, or did not. Indeed he never took my advice. He followed his own, and a foul and dismal shawl he has drifted on. It is not for his sake, why should I, that I have longed and laboured to remove this disgraceful slur under which his ill fortune has thrown us. He troubles himself little about it, I believe. He's meek, meeker than I am. He cared less about his children than I about you, Maud. He has selfishly sunk in futurity, a feeble visionary. I am not so. I believe it to be a duty to take care of others beside myself. The character and influence of an ancient family is a peculiar heritage, sacred but destructible, and woe to him who either destroys or suffers it to perish. This was the longest speech I had ever heard my father speak before or after. He abruptly resumed, Yes, we will, Maud, you and I, we will leave one proof on record which, fairly read, will go far to convince the world. He looked round, but we were alone. The garden was nearly always solitary, and few visitors ever approached the house from that side. I have talked too long, I believe. We are children to the last. Leave me, Maud. I think I know you better than I did, and I am pleased with you. Go, child. I'll sit here. If he had acquired new ideas of me, so had I of him from that interview. I had no idea till then how much passion still burned in that aged frame, nor how full of energy and fire that face, generally so stern and ashen, could appear. As I left him seated on the rustic chair by the steps, the traces of that storm were still discernible on his features. His gathered brows, glowing eyes, and strangely hectic face, and the grim compression of his mouth, still showed the agitation which somehow, in his grey old age, shocks and alarms the young. CHAPTER XXXI Austin Ruffin sets out on his journey. The reverent William Fairfield, Dr. Clay's somewhat bold curate, a mild, thin man, with a high and thin nose, who was preparing me for confirmation, came next day, and when our catechetical conference was ended, and before lunch was announced, my father sent for him to the study, where he remained, until the bell rang out for its summons. We've had some interesting, may I say very interesting, conversation, your papa and I, Miss Ruffin, said my reverend, vis-à-vis, so soon as nature was refreshed, smiling and shining, as he leaned back in his chair, his hand upon the table, and his finger curled gently upon the stem of his wine-glass. It never was your privilege, I believe, to see your uncle, Mr. Silas Ruffin, of Bartome Howell. No, never. He leaned so retired, so very retired, alive. Oh, no, of course, no. But I was going to remark a likeness. I mean, of course, a family likeness, only that sort of thing, you understand? Between him and the profile of Lady Margaret in the drawing-room. Is not it, Lady Margaret, which you were so good as to show me on Wednesday last? There certainly is a likeness. I think you would agree with me, if you had the pleasure of seeing your uncle. You know him, then? I have never seen him. Oh, yes, dear, I am happy to say I know him very well. I have that privilege. I was for three years curate of Feltrum. And I had the honour of being a pretty constant visitor at Bartome Howell during that, I may say, protective period. And I think it really never has been my privilege and happiness, I may say, to enjoy the acquaintance and society of so very experienced a Christian, as my admirable friend, I may call him, Mr. Ruffin, of Bartome Howell. I look upon him, I do assure you, quite in the light of a saint. Not of course in the Popish sense, but in the very highest, you will understand me, which our church allows, a man built up in faith, full of faith, faith and grace, altogether exemplary. And I often venture to regret, Mr. Ruffin, that providence in its mysterious dispensation should have placed him so far apart from his brother, your respected father. His influence and opportunities would, no doubt, we may venture to hope, at least have been blessed, and perhaps we, my valued rector and I, might possibly have seen more of him at church than I deeply regret we have done. He shook his head a little, as he smiled with a sad complacency on me, through his blue steel spectacles, and then slipped a little meditative sherry. And you saw a good deal of my uncle? Well, a good deal, Mr. Ruffin, I may say a good deal, principally at his own house. His health is wretched, miserable health, a sadly afflicted man he has been, as no doubt you are aware. But afflictions, my dear Mr. Ruffin, as you remember Dr. Clay so well remarked on Sunday last, though birds of ill omen, yet spiritually resemble the ravens who supplied the prophet. And when they visit the faithful, come charged with nourishment for the soul. He is a good deal embarrassed, peculiarly, I should say, continued to curate, who was rather a good man, than a well-bred one. He found a difficulty, in fact it was not in his power, to subscribe generally to our little funds and objects, and I used to say to him, and I really felt it, that it was more gratifying, such were his feeling, and his power of expression, to be refused by him than assisted by others. Did Papa wish you to speak to me about my uncle, I inquired, as a sudden thought struck me, and then I felt half ashamed of my question. He looked surprised. No, Miss Ruffin, certainly not, oh dear no, it was merely a conversation between Mr. Ruffin and me, he never suggested my opening that, or indeed any other point of my interview with you, Miss Ruffin, not the least. I was not aware before that Uncle Silas was so religious. He smiled, tranquilly, not quite up to the ceiling, but generally upward, and shook his head in pity for my previous ignorance, as he lowered his eyes. I don't say that there may not be some little matters in a few points of doctrine which we could perhaps wish otherwise, but these, you know, are speculative, and in all essentials he is church, not in the perverted modern sense, far from it, unexceptionally church, strictly so. Would there were more among us of the same mind that is in him, I, Miss Ruffin, even in the highest places of the church herself? The Reverend William Fairfield, while fighting against the dissenters with his right hand, was, with his left, hotly engaged with the Traptarians. A good man, I am sure he was, and I dare say, sound in doctrine, though naturally I think not very wise. This conversation with him gave me new ideas about my Uncle Silas. He quite agreed with what my father had said. These principles, and his increasing years, would necessarily quiet the turbulence of his resistance to injustice, and teach him to acquiesce in his fate. You would have fancied that one so young as I, born to wealth so vast, and living a life of such an entire seclusion, would have been exempt from care. But you have seen how troubled my life was with fear and anxiety during the residence of Madame de la Rougière, and now there rested upon my mind a vague and awful anticipation of the trial which my father had announced, without defining it. An ordeal, he called it, requiring not only zeal, but nerve, which might possibly, were my courage to fail, become frightful, and even intolerable. What and of what nature could it be? Not designed to vindicate the fair frame of the meek and submissive old man, who, it seemed, had ceased to care for his bygone wrongs, and was looking to futurity, but the reputation of our ancient family. And I repented my temerity in having undertaken it. I distrusted my courage. Had I not better retreat, while it was yet time? But there was shame and even difficulty in the thought, how should I appear before my father? Was it not important? Had I not deliberately undertaken it? And was I not bound in conscience? Perhaps he had already taken steps in the matter which committed him. Besides, was I sure that, even were I free again, I would not once more devote myself to the trial, be it what it might? You perceive I have more spirit than courage. I think I had the mental attributes of courage, but then I was but a hysterical girl, and in so far neither more nor less than a coward. No wonder I distrusted myself. No wonder also my will stood out against my temerity. It was a struggle, then, a proud, wild resolve against constitutional cowardice. Those who have ever had cast upon them more than their strength seemed framed to bear. The weak, the aspiring, the adventurous and self-sacrificing in will, and the faltering in nerve, will understand the kind of agony which I sometimes endured. But again consolation will come, and it seemed to me that I must be exaggerating my risk in the coming crisis. And certain at last, if my father believed it attended with great peril, he would never have wished to see me involved in it. But the silence under which I was bound was terrifying, double so when the danger was so shapeless and undivulged. I was soon to understand it all, soon too, to know all about my father's impending journey, wither and what visitor, and why guarded from me with so awful a mystery. That day there came a lively and good-natured letter from Lady Nollis. She was to arrive at Knoll in two or three days' time. I thought my father would have been pleased, but he seemed apathetic and dejected. One does not always feel quite equal to Monica. But for you, yes, thank God, I wish she could only stay, Maud, for a month or two. I may be going, then, and would be glad, provided she talks about suitable things. Very glad, Maud, to leave her with you for a week or so. There was something, I thought, agitating my father secretly that day. He had the strange hectic flush I had observed when he grew excited in our interview in the garden about Uncle Silas. There was something painful, perhaps even terrible, in the circumstances of the journey he was about to make, and from my heart I wished the suspense were over, the annoyance passed, and he returned. That night my father bid me good night early and went upstairs. After I had been in bed some little time I heard his hand-bow ring. This was not usual. Shortly after I heard his man, Ridley, talking with Mrs. Rusk in the gallery. I could not be mistaken in their voices. I knew not why I was startled and excited, and had raised myself to listen on my elbow. But they were talking quietly, like persons giving or taking an ordinary direction, and not in the haste of an unusual emergency. Then I heard the man bid Mrs. Rusk good night and walked down the gallery to the stairs, so that I concluded he was wanted no more, and all must therefore be well. So I laid myself down again, though with a throbbing at my heart, and an ominous feeling of expectation, listening and fancying footsteps. I was going to sleep when I heard the bell ring again. And in a few minutes Mrs. Rusk's energetic step passed along the gallery, and listening intently I heard, or fancied, my father's voice and hers in dialogue. All this was very unusual, and again I was, with a beating heart, leaning with my elbow on my pillow. Mrs. Rusk came along the gallery in a minute or so after, and stopping at my door began to open it gently. I was startled and challenged my visitor with, Who's there? It's only Rusk, Miss, dearie me, and are you awake still? Is Papa ill? Ill? Not a bit ill, thank God, only there's a little black book as I took for your prayer book and brought in here. I hear it is, sure enough, and he wants it. And then I must go down to the study and look out this one, C15, but I can't read the name, no ways. And I was afraid to ask him again. If you be so kind to read it, Miss, I suspect my eyes is a-going. I read the name, and Mrs. Rusk was tolerably expert at finding out books, as she had often been employed in that way before. So she departed. I suppose that this particular volume was hard to find, for she must have been a long time away, and I had actually fallen into a dose when I was roused in an instant by a dreadful crash and a piercing scream from Mrs. Rusk. Scream followed scream, wilder and more terrastrican. I shrieked to Mary Quintz, who was sleeping in the room with me. Mary, do you hear? What is it? It is something dreadful. The crash was so tremendous that the solid flooring, even of my room, trembled under it, and to me it seemed as if some heavy man had burst through the top of the window, and shook the whole house with his dissent. I found myself standing at my own door, crying, Help! Help! Murder! Murder! And Mary Quintz frightened half out of her wits by my side. I could not think what was going on. It was plainly something most horrible. The Mrs. Rusk's screams peeled out one after the other unabated, though with a muffled sound, as if the door was shut upon her, and by this time the bells of my father's room were ringing madly. They are trying to murder him, I cried, and I ran along the gallery to his door, followed by Mary Quintz, whose white face I shall never forget, though her entreaties only sounded like unmeaning noises in my ears. Here! Help! Help! Help! I cried, trying to force her open the door. Shove it! Shove it! For God's sake! He's across it! cried Mrs. Rusk's voice from within. Drive it in! I can't move him! I strained all I could at the door, but ineffectually. We heard steps approaching. The men were running to the spot and shouting as they did so. Never mind! Hold on a bit! Here we are! All right! And the like. They came back as they came up. We were in no condition to be seen. We listened, however, at my open door. Then came the straining and bumping at the door. Mrs. Rusk's voice subsided to a sort of wailing. The men were talking altogether, and I suppose the door opened, for I heard some of the voices on a sudden, as if in the room, and then came a strange lull, and talking in very low tones, and not much, even of that. What is it, Mary? What can it be? I ejaculated, not knowing what horror to suppose. And now, with a counterpane about my shoulders, I called loudly and imploringly in my horror to know what had happened. But I heard only the subdued and eager talk of men engaged in some absorbing task, and the dull sounds of some heavy body being moved. Mrs. Rusk came towards us, looking half-wild, and pale as a spectre, and putting her thin hands to my shoulders, she said, Now, Miss Maud, darling, you must go back again. There's no place for you. You'll see all my darling time enough. You will. There now, there, like a deer, do get into your room. What was that dreadful sound? Who had entered my father's chamber? It was the visitor whom we had so long expected, with whom he was to make the unknown journey, leaving me alone. The intruder was death. CHAPTER XXI Arrivals My father was dead, as suddenly as if he had been murdered. One of those fearful aneurysms that lie close to the heart, showing no outward sign of giving way in a moment, had been detected a good time since by Dr. Briarley. My father knew what must happen, and that it could not be long deferred. He feared to tell me that he was soon to die. He hinted it only in the allegory of his journey, and left in that sad enigma some words of true consolation that remained with me ever after. Under his rugged ways was hidden a wonderful tenderness. I could not believe that he was actually dead. Most people, for a minute or two, in the wild tumult of such a shock, have experienced the same scepticism. I insisted that the doctor should be instantly sent for from the village. Well, Miss Mord, dear, I will send to please you, but it is all to no use. If only you saw him yourself, you'd know that. Mary Quince, run down and tell Thomas, Miss Mord desires he'll go down this minute to the village, for Dr. Elwys. Every minute of the interval seemed to me like an hour. I don't know what I said, but I fancied that if he were not already dead, he would lose his life by the delay. I suppose I was speaking very wildly, for Mrs. Ruff said, my dear child, you ought to come in and see him. Indeed, but you should, Miss Mord. He's quite dead an hour ago. You'd wonder all the blood that's come from him, you would indeed. It soaked through the bed already. Oh, don't, don't, don't, Mrs. Rusk! Will you come in and see him, just? Oh, no, no, no, no! Well then, my dear, don't, of course, if you don't like, as no need. Would you not like to lie down, Miss Mord? Mary Quince, attend to her. I must go into the room for a minute or two. I was walking up and down the room in distraction. It was a cold night, but I did not feel it. I could only cry, Oh, Mary, Mary, what shall I do? Oh, Mary Quince, what shall I do? It seemed to me it must be near daylight by the time the doctor arrived. I had dressed myself. I dared not go into the room where my beloved father lay. I had gone out of my room to the gallery where I awaited Dr. Elwys. When I saw him walking briskly after the servant, his coat buttoned up to his chin, his hat in his hand, and his bald head shining, I felt myself grow cold as ice, and colder and colder, and with a sudden sten my heart seemed to stand still. I heard him ask the maid who stood at the door in that low, decisive, mysterious tone which doctors cultivate in here, and then with a nod I saw him enter. Would you not like to see the doctor, Miss Maud? asked Mary Quince. The question roused me a little. Thank you, Mary. Yes, I must see him. And so, in a few minutes, I did. He was very respectful, very sad, semi-undertaker-like, in air and countenance, but quite explicit. I heard that my dear father had died palpably from the rupture of some great vessel near the heart. The disease had no doubt been long established, and is in its nature incurable. It is consolatory in these cases that in the act of dissolution which is instantaneous, there can be no suffering. These and a few more remarks were all that he had to offer, and having had his fee from Mrs. Rusk, he, with a respectful melancholy, banished. I returned to my room and broke into paroxysms of grief, and after an hour or more grew more tranquil. From Mrs. Rusk I learned that he had seemed very well, better than usual indeed, that night, and that on her return from the study with the book he required, he was noting down, after his want, some passages which illustrated the text on which he was employing himself. He took the book, detaining her in the room, and then mounting on a chair to take down another book from a shelf, he had fallen, with the dreadful crash I had heard, dead upon the floor. He fell across the door which caused the difficulty in opening it. Mrs. Rusk found she had not strength to force it open. No wonder she had given way to terror. I think I should have almost lost my reason. Everyone knows the reserved aspect and the taciturn mood of the house, one of whose rooms, is tenanted by that mysterious guest. I do not know how those awful days and more awful nights passed over. The remembrance is repulsive. I hate to think of them. I was soon draped in the conventional black, with its heavy folds of crepe. Lady Nullis came, and was very kind. She undertook the direction of all those details which were to me so inexpressibly dreadful. She wrote letters for me beside, and was really most kind and useful, and her society supported me indescribably. She was odd, but her eccentricity was leavened with strong common sense, and I have often thought since, with admiration and gratitude, of the tact with which she managed my grief. There is no dealing with great sorrow as if it were under the control of our wills. It is a terrible phenomenon, whose laws we must study, and to whose conditions we must submit, if we would mitigate it. Cazmonica talked a great deal of my father. This was easy to her, for her early recollections were full of him. One of the terrible dislocations of our habits of mind respecting the dead is that our earthly future is robbed of them, and we thrown exclusively upon retrospect. From the long look forward they are removed, and every plan, imagination and hope henceforth a silence and empty perspective. But in the past they are all they ever were. Now let me advise all who would comfort people in a new bereavement to talk to them very freely, or they can, in this way of the dead. They will engage in it with interest, they will talk of their own recollections of the dead, and listen to yours, though they become sometimes pleasant, sometimes even laughable. I found it so. It robbed the calamity of something of its supernatural and horrible abruptness. It prevented that monotony of object, which is to the mind what it is to the eye, and prepared the faculty for those mesmeric illusions that derange its sense. Cazmonica, I am sure, cheered me wonderfully. I grow to love her more and more, as I think of all her trouble, care and kindness. I had not forgotten my promise to dear papa about the key concerning which he had evinced so great an anxiety. It was found in the pocket where he had desired me to remember he always kept it, except when it was placed while he slept under his pillow. And so, my dear, that wicked woman was actually found picking the lock of your poor papa's desk. I wonder he did not punish her. You know that is burglary. Well, Lady Nullis, you know she is gone, and so I care no more about her. That is, I mean, I need not fear her. No, my dear, but you must call me Monica. Do you mind? I'm your cousin, and you call me Monica unless you wish to vex me. No, of course, you need not be afraid of her, and she's gone. But I'm an old thing, you know, and not so tender-hearted as you, and I confess I should have been very glad to hear that the wicked old witch had been sent to prison and hard labour. I should. And what do you suppose she was looking for? What did she want to steal? I think I can guess. What do you think? To read the papers, maybe to take banknotes? I am not sure, I answered. Well, I think it most likely she wanted to get at your poor papa's will. That's my idea. There is nothing surprising in this opposition, dear, she resumed. Did you not read the curious trial at York the other day? There is nothing so valuable to steal as a will, when a great deal of property is to be disposed of by it? Why, you would have given her ever so much money to get it back again. Suppose you go down, dear, I'll go with you and open the cabinet in the study. I don't think I can, for I promised to give the key to Dr. Briley, and the meaning was that he only should open it. Cousin Monica uttered an inarticulate hum of surprise and disapprobation. Has he been written to? No, I do not know his address. Not know his address? Come, that is curious, said Knowledge, a little testily. I could not. No one now living in the house could furnish even a conjecture. There was even a dispute as to which train he had gone by, north or south. They crossed the station at an interval of five minutes. If Dr. Briley had been an evil spirit evoked by a secret incantation, there would not have been more complete darkness as to the immediate process of his approach. And how long do you mean to wait, my dear? No matter. At all events, you may open the desk. You may find papers to direct you. You may find Dr. Briley's address. You may find, for heaven knows what. So down we went, high ascending, and we opened the desk. How dreadful the desecration seems, all privacy abrogated, the shocking compensation for the silence of death. Henceforward all his circumstantial evidence, or conjectural, except for the litter ascriptor, and to this evidence every notebook and every scrap of paper and private letter must contribute, ransacked bare in the light of day, what it can. At the top of the desk lay two notes sealed, one to cousin Monica, the other to me. Mine was a gentle and loving little farewell, nothing more, which opened afresh the fountains of my sorrow, and I cried and sobbed over it bitterly and long. The other was for Lady Nollis. I did not see how she received it, for I was already absorbed in mine. But in a while she came into kiss me in her girlish, good-natured way. Her eyes used to fill with tears at sight of my peroxisms of grief. Then she would begin. I remember it was a saying of his, and so she would repeat it. Something may be wise, may be playful, at all events consolatory. And the circumstances in which she had hurt him say it, and then would follow the recollection suggested by these, and so I was stolen away half by him, and half by cousin Monica, from my despair and lamentation. Along with these lay a large envelope inscribed with the words directions to be complied with immediately on my death, one of which was, let the event be forthwith published in the county and principal London papers. This step had been already taken. We found no record of Dr Briley's address. We made search everywhere except in the cabinet, which I would on no account permit to be opened except according to his direction by Dr Briley's hand, and nowhere was a will, or any document resembling one, to be found. I had now therefore no doubt that his will was placed in the cabinet. In the search among my dear father's papers we found two sheafs of letters neatly tied up and labelled. These were from my uncle Silas. My cousin Monica looked down upon these papers with a strange smile. Was it satire? Was it that indescribable smile with which a mystery which covers a long reach of years is sometimes approached? These were odd letters. If here and there occurred passages that were quarrelous and even abject, there were also long passages of manly and altogether noble sentiment, and the strangest rudimentard and maunderings about religion. Here and there a letter would gradually transform itself into a prayer and end with a doxology and no signature, and some of them express such wild and disordered views respecting religion, as I imagine he can never have disclosed to good Mr Fairfield, and which approached more nearly to the Swedenborg visions than to anything in the Church of England. I read these with solemn interest, but my cousin Monica was not similarly moved. She read them with the same smile, faint, serenely contemptuous I thought, with which she had first looked down upon them. It was the countenance of a person who amusedly traces the working of a character that is well understood. Uncle Silas is very religious, I said, not quite liking Lady Nollis's looks. Very, she said, without raising her eyes or abating her old, bitter smile, as she glanced over a passage in one of his letters. You don't think he is, cousin Monica, said I. She raised her head and looked straight at me. Why do you say that, Maud? Because you smile incredulously, I think, over his letters. Do I? said she. I was not thinking. It was quite an accident. The fact is, Maud, your pauper part quite mistook me. I had no prejudice respecting him, no theory. I never knew what to think about him. I do not think Silas a product of nature, but a product of the Sphinx, and I never could understand him. That's all. I always felt so too, but that was because I was left to speculation, and to glean conjectures as I might from his portrait or anywhere. Except what you told me, I never heard more than a few sentences. Pauper part did not like me to ask questions about him, and I think he ordered the servants to be silent. And much the same injunction this little note lays upon me. Not quite, but something like it, and I don't know the meaning of it. And she looked inquiringly at me. You are not to be alarmed about your uncle Silas, because your being afraid would unfit you for an important service which you have undertaken for your family. The nature of which I shall soon understand, and which, although it is quite passive, would be made very sad if illusory fears were allowed to steal into your mind. She was looking into the letter in Pauper part's handwriting, which she had found addressed to her in his desk, and emphasised the words, I suppose, which she quoted from it. Have you any idea, Maud Darling, what this service may be, she inquired, with a grave and anxious curiosity in her countenance? None, cousin Monika, but I have thought long over my undertaking to do it, or submit to it, be it what it may, and I will keep the promise I voluntarily made, although I know what a coward I am, and often distrust my courage. Well, I am not to frighten you. How could you? Why should I be afraid? Is there anything frightful to be disclosed? Do tell me, you must tell me. No, Darling, I did not mean that. I don't mean that. I could, if I would. I don't know exactly what I meant, but your Pauper part knew him better than I. In fact, I did not know him at all, that is, ever quite understood him, which your Pauper part, I see, had ample opportunities of doing. And after a little pause, she added, So you do not know what you are expected to do, or to undergo. Oh, cousin Monika, I know you think he committed that murder. I cried, starting up. I don't know why, and I felt that I grew deadly pale. I don't believe any such thing, you little fool. You must not say such horrible things, Maud. She said, rising also, and looking both pale and angry. Shall we go out for a little walk? Come, lock up these papers, dear, and get your things on. And if that Dr. Briley does not turn up tomorrow, you must send for the rector, good Dr. Clay, and let him make search for the will. There may be directions about many things, you know, and, my dear Maud, you are to remember that Silas is my cousin, as well as your uncle. Come, dear, put on your hat. So we went out together for a little cloistered walk. End of Chapter 21 When we returned, a young gentleman had arrived. We saw him in the parlour as we passed the window. It was simply a glance, but such a one as suffices to make a photograph which we can study afterwards at our leisure. I remember him at this moment, a man of six and thirty, dressed in a grey travelling suit, not over well made, light-haired, fat-faced, and clumsy, and he looked both dull and cunning, and not at all like a gentleman. Branston met us, announced the arrival, and handed me the stranger's credentials. My cousin and I stopped in the passage to read them. That's your uncle Silas's, said Lady Nullis, touching one of the two letters with the tip of her finger. Shall we have lunch, Miss? Certainly. So Branston departed. Read it with me, cousin Monica, I said, and a very curious letter it was. It spoke as follows. How can I thank my beloved niece for remembering her aged and full-on kinsman at such a moment of anguish? I had written a note of a few, I dare say, incoherent words by the next post after my dear father's death. It is, however, in the hour of bereavement that we most value the ties that are broken and yearn for the sympathy of kindred. Here came a little distitch of French verse, of which I could only read, ciel and l'amour. A quiet household here is clouded with a new sorrow. How inscrutable are the ways of providence. I, though a few years younger, how much the more infirm, how shattered in energy and in mind, how mere a burden, how entirely dethroned, I'm spared to my sad place in a world where I can be no longer useful, where I have but one business, prayer, and one hope, the tomb, and he, apparently so robust, the centre of so much good, so necessary to you, so necessary, alas, to me, is taken. He has gone to his rest, for us what remains but to bow our heads and murmur, his will be done. I chased these lines with a trembling hand while tears dim my old eyes. I did not think that any earthly event could have moved me so profoundly. From the world I have long stood aloof. I once led a life of pleasure, alas, of wickedness, as I now do one of austerity, but as I never was rich, so my worst enemy will allow, I never was avaricious. My sins, I thank my maker, have been of a more reducible kind, and have succumbed to the discipline which heaven has provided. To earth and its interests, as well as to its pleasures, I have long been dead. For the few remaining years of my life I ask but quiet, an exemption from the agitations and distractions of struggle and care, and I trust to the giver of all good for my deliverance, while knowing at the same time that whatever befalls will, under his direction, prove best. Happy shall I be, my dearest niece, if in your most interesting and, in some respects, forlorn situation, I can be of any use to you. My present religious advisor, of whom I ventured to ask counsel on your behalf, states that I ought to send someone to represent me at the melancholy ceremony of reading the will, which my beloved and now happy brother has, no doubt, left behind, and the idea that the experience and professional knowledge possessed by the gentleman whom I have selected may possibly be of use to you, my dearest niece, determines me to place him at your disposal. He is the junior partner in the firm of Archer and Slay, who conduct any little business which I may have from time to time. May I entreat your hospitality for him during a brief stay at Knoll? I write, even for a moment, upon these small matters of business, with an effort, a painful one, but necessary. Alas, my brother, the cup of bitterness is now full. Few and evil must the remainder of my old days be. Yet, while they last, I remain always for my beloved niece, that which all her wealth and splendour cannot purchase, a loving and faithful kinsman and friend. Silas Ruffin It's not it's a kind letter, I said, while tears stood in my eyes. Yes, answered Lady Nullis dryly. But don't you think it is so, really? Oh, kind, very kind. She answered in the same tone. And perhaps a little cunning. Cunning? How? Well, you know I'm a peevish old tabby, and of course I scratch now and then and see in the dark. My dare say Silas is sorry, but I don't think he is in sackcloth and ashes. He has reason to be sorry and anxious, and I say I think he is both. And you know he pities you very much, and also himself a good deal, and he wants money. And you, his beloved niece, have a great deal, and altogether it is an affectionate and prudent letter, and he has sent his attorney here to make a note of the will, and you are to give the gentleman his meals and lodging. And Silas very thoughtfully invites you to confide your difficulties and troubles to his solicitor. It is very kind, but not imprudent. Oh, cousin Monica, don't you think at such a moment it is hardly natural that he should form such petty schemes, even were he capable at other times of practicing so low? Is it not judging him hardly, and you, you know, so little acquainted with him? I told you, dear, I'm a cross old thing, and there's an end, and I really don't care two pence about him, and of the two I'd much rather he were no relation of ours. Now was not this prejudice, I dare say in part it was, so too was my vehement predisposition in his favour. I am afraid we women are factionists, we always take aside, and nature has formed us for advocates rather than judges, and I think the function, if left signified, is more amiable. I sat alone in the drawing-room window at nightfall awaiting my cousin Monica's entrance. Feverish and frightened I felt that night. It was a sympathy, I fancy, with the weather. The sun had set stormily. Though the air was still, the sky looked wild and storm swept, the crowding clouds slanting in the attitude of flight reflected their own sacred aspect upon my spirits. My grief darkened with a wild presaging of danger, and a sense of the supernatural fell upon me. It was the saddest and most awful evening that had come since my beloved father's death. All kinds of shapeless fears environed me in silence. For the first time, dire misgivings about the form of faith affrighted me. Who were these Swedenborgians who had got about him? No one could tell how, and held him so fast to the close of his life. Who was this billiest, bewigged black-eyed Dr. Brialy, whom none of us quite liked, and all a little feared? Who seemed to rise out of the ground and came and went? No one knew whence or wither, exercising as I imagined a mysterious authority over him. Was it all good and true, or a heresy and a witchcraft? Oh, my beloved father, was it all well with you? When Lady Nollis entered she found me in floods of tears, walking distractedly up and down the room. She kissed me in silence, she walked back and forward with me, and did her best to console me. I think, cousin Monica, I would wish to see him once more. Shall we go up? Unless you really wish it very much, I think, darling, you have better not mind it. It is happier to recollect them, as they were. There's a change you know, darling, and there is seldom any comfort in the sight. But I do wish it very much. Oh, won't you come with me? And so I persuaded her, and up we went hand in hand in the deepening twilight, and we halted at the end of the dark gallery, and I called Mrs. Rusk, growing frightened. Tell her to let us in, cousin Monica, I whispered. She wishes to see him, my lady, does she? Inquired Mrs. Rusk in an undertone, and with a mysterious glance at me, as she softly fitted the key to the lock. Are you quite sure, Maud, dear? Yes, yes. But when Mrs. Rusk entered bearing the candle, whose beam mixed dismally with the expiring twilight, disclosing a great black coffin standing upon trestles, near the foot of which she took her stand, gazing sternly into it, I lost heart again altogether, and drew back. No, Mrs. Rusk, she won't, and I am very glad, dear, she added to me. Come, Mrs. Rusk, come away. Yes, darling, she continued to me. It is much better for you. And she hurried me away, and downstairs again. But the awful outlines of that large black coffin remained upon my imagination, with a new and terrible sense of death. I had no more any wish to see him. I felt a horror even of the room, and for more than an hour after, a kind of despair and terror, such as I have never experienced before or since, at the idea of death. Cousin Monica had had her bed placed in my room, and Mary Quinces moved to the dressing room adjoining it. For the first time the superstitious awe that follows death, but not immediately, visited me. The idea of seeing my father enter the room, or open the door and look in, haunted me. After Lady Nullis and I were in bed, I could not sleep. The wind sounded mournfully outside, and the small sounds, the rattlings, and strainings that responded from within constantly startled me, and stimulated the sounds of steps, of doors opening, of knockings and so forth, rousing me with a palpitating heart as often as I fell into a dose. At length the wind subsided, and these ambiguous noises abated, and I, fatigued, dropped into a quiet sleep. I was awakened by a sound in the gallery, which I could not define. A considerable time had passed, for the wind was now quite lulled. I sat up in my bed, a good deal scared, listening breathlessly, for I knew not what. I heard a step moving stealthily along the gallery. I called my cousin Monica softly, and we both heard the door of the room in which my father's body lay, unlocked. Someone furtively entered, and the door shut. What can it be? Good heavens cousin Monica, do you hear it? Yes, dear, and it is two o'clock. Everyone at Null was in bed at eleven. We knew very well that Mrs. Rusk was rather nervous, and would not, for worlds, go alone, and at such an hour to the room. We called Mary Quince. We all three listened, but we heard no other sound. I set these things down here, because they made so terrible an impression upon me at the time. It ended by our peeping out all three in a body, upon the gallery. Through each window in the perspective came its blue sheet of moonshine. But the door on which our attention was fixed was in the shade, and we thought we could discern the glare of a candle through the keyhole. While in whispers we were debating this point together, the door opened, the dusky light of a candle emerged, the shadow of a figure crossed it within, and in another moment the mysterious Dr. Brialy, angular, ungainly, in the black cloth coat that fitted little better than a coffin, issued from the chamber, candle in hand, murmuring, I suppose, a prayer. It sounded like a farewell. As much frightened as if I had just seen a saucer of stealing, stepped cautiously upon the gallery floor, shutting and locking the door upon the dead, and then, having listened for a second, the satinine figure, casting a gigantic and distorted shadow upon the ceiling, and sidewall from the lowered candle, showed lightly down the long passage away from us. I can only speak for myself, and I can honestly say that I felt as much frightened as if I had just seen a saucer of stealing from his unhallowed business. I think Cousin Monica was also affected in the same way, for she turned the key on the inside of the door when we entered. I do not think one of us believed at the moment that what we had seen was a Dr. Briley of flesh and blood, and yet the first thing we spoke of in the morning was Dr. Briley's arrival. The mind is a different organ by night and by day. End of Chapter 22 Chapter 23 of Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Levanu This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 23 I talk with Dr. Briley Dr. Briley had indeed arrived at half-past twelve o'clock at night. His summons at the hall door was little heard at our remote side of the old house of Knoll, and when the sleepy, half-dressed servant opened the door, the lank doctor in glossy black clothing was standing alone, his portmanteau on its end upon the steps, and his vehicle disappearing in the shadows of the old trees. In he came sterner and sharper of aspect than usual. I've been expected. I'm Dr. Briley, haven't I? So let whoever is in charge of the body be called. I must visit it forthwith. So the doctor sat in the back-drawing-room with a solitary candle, and Mrs. Rusk was called up, and grumbling much and very peevish, dressed and went down, her ill-temper subsiding in a sort of fear, as she approached the visitor. How do you do, madam? A sad visit this. Is anyone watching in the room where the remains of your late master are laid? No. So much the better. It is a foolish custom. Will you please conduct me to the room? I must pray where he lies. No longer he, and be good enough to show me my bedroom, and so no one need wait up, and I shall find my way. Accompanied by the man who carried his felice, Mrs. Rusk showed him to his apartment, but he only looked in and then glanced rapidly about to take his bearings of the door. Thank you, yes. Now we'll proceed here, along here. Let me see. I'll turn to the right, and another to the left. Yes. He has been dead some days. Is he yet in his coffin? Yes, sir, since yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Rusk was growing more and more afraid of this lean figure, sheed in shining black cloth, whose eyes glittered with a horrible sort of cunning, and whose long brown fingers groped before him, as if indicating the way by guess. But, of course, the lid's not on. You've not screwed him down, eh? No, sir. That's well. I must look on the face as I pray. He is in his place, I hear on earth. He in the spirit, I in the flesh. The neutral ground lies there. So are carried the vibrations, and so the light of earth and heaven reflected back and forward. Apogasma, a wonderful though helpless engine, the ladder of Jacob, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Thanks, I'll take the key. Mysteries to those who will live all together in houses of clay. No mystery to such as will use their eyes and read what is revealed. This candle, it is the longer, please. No, no need of a pair. Thanks, just this, to hold in my hand. And remember, all depends upon the willing mind. Why do you look frightened? Where is your faith? Don't you know that spirits are about us at all times? Why should you fear to be near the body? The spirit is everything. The flesh profiteth nothing. Yes, sir, said Mrs. Ruff, making him a great curtsy in the threshold. She was frightened by his eerie talk, which grew, she fancied, more valuable and energetic as they approached the corpse. Remember, then, that when you fancy yourself alone and wrapped in darkness, you stand in fact in the centre of a theatre, as wide as the starry floor of heaven, with an audience whom no man can number, beholding you under a flood of light. Therefore, though your body be in solitude and your mortal sense in darkness, remember to walk as being in the light, surrounded with a cloud of witnesses. Thus walk, and when the hour comes and you pass forth, unprisoned from the tabernacle of the flesh, although it still has its relations and its rights. And saying this, as he held the solitary candler loft in the doorway, he nodded towards the coffin, whose large black form was faintly traceable against the shadows beyond. You will rejoice, and be enclosed upon with your house from on high, you will not be found naked. On the other hand, he that loveth corruption shall have enough thereof. Think upon these things. Good night! And the Swedenborgian doctor stepped into the room, taking the candle with him, and closed the door upon the shadowy still life there, and on his own sharp and swarthy visage, leaving Mrs. Rusk in a sort of panic in the dark alone, to find her way to her room the best way she could. Early in the morning Mrs. Rusk came to my room to tell me that Dr. Briley was in the parlour, and begged to know whether I had not a message for him. I was already dressed, so, though it was dreadful seeing a stranger, in my then mood, taking the key of the cabinet in my hand, I followed Mrs. Rusk downstairs. Opening the parlour door she stepped in, and with a little curtsy said, Please, sir, the young mistress, Ms. Ruskin. Draped in black and very pale, tall and slight the young mistress was, and as I entered I heard a newspaper rustle, and the sound of steps approaching to meet me. Face to face we met, near the door, and without speaking I made him a deep curtsy. He took my hand, without the least indication on my part, in his hard, lean grasp, and shook it kindly, but familiarly, peering with a stern sort of curiosity into my face, as he continued to hold it. His ill-fitting, glossy black cloth, ungainly presence and sharp, dark, vulpine features, had in them, as I said before, the vulgarity of a Glasgow artisan in his sabbath suit. I made an instantaneous motion to withdraw my hand, but he held it firmly. Though there was a grim sort of familiarity, there was also decision, shudness, and, above all, kindness in his dark face, a gleam on the whole of the masterly, and the honest, that along with a certain paleness betraying, I thought, restrained emotion, indicated sympathy and invited confidence. I hope, Miss, you are pretty well. He pronounced pretty as it is spelt. I have come in consequence of a solemn promise exacted more than a year since, by your deceased father, the late Mr. Austin Ruthin of Knoll, for whom I cherished a warm esteem, being knit besides with him in spiritual bonds. It has been a shock to you, Miss. It has indeed, sir. I have a doctor's degree I have, doctor of medicine, Miss, like St. Luke, preacher and doctor. I was in business once, but this is better. As one footing fails, the Lord provides another. The stream of life is black and angry. How so many of us get across without drowning, I often wonder. The best way is not to look too far before, just from one stepping-stone to another, and though you may wet your feet, he won't let you drown. He has not allowed me. And Dr. Briley held up his head and wagged it resolutely. You are born to this world's wealth, in its way a great blessing, though a great trial, Miss, and a great trust, but don't suppose you are destined to exemption from trouble on that account, any more than poor Emmanuel Briley, as the sparks fly upwards, Miss Druffin. Your cushioned carriage may overturn on the high road, as I may stumble and fall upon the footpath. There are other troubles than debt and privation. Who can tell how long health may last, or when an accident may happen the brain? What mortifications may await you in your own high sphere? What unknown enemies may rise up in your path? Or what slanders may espouse your name? It is a wonderful equilibrium, a marvellous dispensation. And he laughed with a shake of his head, I thought a little sarcastically, as if he was not sorry my money could not avail to buy immunity from the general curse. But what money can do, prayer can, bear that in mind, Miss Druffin, we can all pray, and though thorns and snares and stones of fire lie strewn in our way, we need not fear them. He will give his angels charge over us, and in their hands they will bear us up, for he hears and sees everywhere, and his angels are innumerable. He was now speaking gently, and solemnly, and paused, but another vein of thought he had unconsciously opened in my mind, and I said, and have my dear papa, no other medical advisor? He looked at me sharply and flushed a little under his dark tint. His medical skill was, perhaps, the point on which his human vanity vaunted itself, and I daresay there was something very disparaging in my tone. And if he had, no other, he might have done worse. I've had many critical cases in my hands, Miss Druffin. I can't charge myself with any miscarriage through ignorance. My diagnosis in Mr. Druffin's case has been verified by the result. But I was not alone. So Clayton Barrow saw him, and took my view. A note will reach him in London. But this, excuse me, is not to the present's purpose. The late Mr. Druffin told me I was to receive a key from you, which would open a cabinet where he had placed his will. Ha! thanks! in his study. And I think, as there may be directions about the funeral, it had better be read forthwith. Is there any gentleman, a relative, or man of business, near here, whom you would wish sent for? No, none, thank you. I have confidence in you, sir. I think I spoke and looked, frankly, for he smiled very kindly, though with closed lips. And you may be sure, Miss Druffin, your confidence shall not be disappointed. Here was a long pause. But you are very young, and you must have someone by in your interest, who has some experience in business. Let me see. Is not the rector Dr. Clay at hand, in the town? Very good. And Mr. Danvers, who manages the estate, he must come. And to get Grimston. You see, I know all the names. Grimston, the attorney. For though he was not employed about this will, he has been Mr. Ruffin's solicitor a great many years. We must have, Grimston. For, as I suppose you know, though it is a short will, it is a very strange one. I expostulated, but you know, he was very decided when he took a view. He read it to you, eh? No, sir. Oh, but he told you so much as relates to you and your uncle, Mr. Silas Ruffin, of Bartram Howell. No, indeed, sir. Ha! I wish he had. And with these words, Dr. Briley's countenance darkened. Mr. Silas Ruffin is a religious man? Oh, very, said I. You've seen a good deal of him? No, I never saw him, I answered. Hmm, odour and odour. But he's a good man, isn't he? Very good indeed, sir. A very religious man. Dr. Briley was watching my countenance as I spoke with a sharp and anxious eye, and then he looked down and read the pattern of the carpet, like bad news, for a while, and looking again in my face as scants, he said. He was very near joining us on the point. He got into correspondence with Henry Verst, one of our best men. They call us Swedenborgians, you know, but I dare say that won't go much further now. I suppose, Mr. Ruffin, one o'clock would be a good hour, and I am sure under the circumstances the gentleman will make a point of attending. Yes, Dr. Briley. The note shall be sent, and my cousin Lady Nollis would, I am sure, attend with me, while the will is being read. There would be no objection to her presence. None in the world. I can't be quite sure who were joined with me as executors. I am almost sorry I did not decline, but it is too late regretting. One thing you must believe, Ms. Ruffin, in framing the provisions of the will, I was never consulted, although I expostulated against the only very unusual one it contains when I heard it. I did so strenuously, but in vain. There was one other thing against which I protested, having a right to do so, with better effect. In no other way does the will in any respect owe anything to my advice or dissuasion. You will please believe this, also, that I am your friend. Yes, indeed, it is my duty. The latter words he spoke, looking down again, as it were, in soliloquy, and thanking him, I withdrew. When I reached the hall, I regretted that I had not asked him to state distinctly what arrangements the will made so nearly affecting, as it seemed, my relations with my uncle Silas, and for a moment I thought of returning and requesting an explanation. But then, I bethought me, it was not very long to wait till one o'clock. So he, at least, would think. I went upstairs, therefore, to the schoolroom, which we use at present as a sitting-room, and there I found Kazamonika awaiting me. Are you quite well, dear? asked Lady Nollis, as she came to meet and kiss me. Quite well, Kazamonika. No nonsense, Maude, you're as white as that handkerchief. What's the matter? Are you ill? Are you frightened? Yes, you're trembling. You're terrified, child. I believe I am afraid. There is something in Papa's will about Uncle Silas, about me. I don't know. Dr. Briley says, and he seems so uncomfortable and frightened himself. I am sure it is something very bad. I am very much frightened. I am. I am. Oh, Kazamonika, you won't leave me. So I threw my arms about her neck, clasping her very close, and we kissed one another, I crying like a child, and, indeed, in experience of the world I was no more.