 Chapter 18 of Aurora Floyd. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading done by Jules Harlock of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Chapter 18, Out in the Rain. The second dinner bell rang five minutes after the softy had left Aurora and Mr. John Mellish came out upon the lawn to look for his wife. He came whistling across the grass and whisking the roses with his pocket handkerchief in very gaiety of heart. He had quite forgotten the anguish of that miserable morning after the receipt of Mr. Pasturn's letter. He had forgotten all but that his Aurora was the loveliest and the dearest of women and that he trusted her with the boundless faith of his big honest heart. Why should I doubt such a noble, impetuous creature, he thought, doesn't every feeling and every sentiment write itself upon? Her lovely expressive face in characters the various fool could read. If I please her, what bright smiles light up in her black eyes. If I vex her, as I do, poor awkward idiot that I am, a hundred times a day how the two black arches contract over her pretty impertinent nose while the red lips pout defiance and disdain. Shall I doubt her because she keeps one secret from me and freely tells me I must forever remain ignorant of it? When an artful woman would try to set my mind at rest with some shallow fiction invented to deceive me, heaven bless her. No doubt of her shall ever darken my life again. Come what may. It was easy for Mr. Mellish to make this mental vow believing fully that the storm was past and that the lasting fair weather had set in. Lolly darling, he said, winding his great arm around his wife's waist. I thought I had lost you. She looked up at him with a sad smile. Would it grieve you much, John? She said in a low voice, if you were really to lose me. He started as if he had been struck and looked anxiously at her pale face. Would it grieve me? Lolly, he repeated, not for long, for the people who came to your funeral would come to mind. But my darling, my darling, what can I have made you ask this question? Are you ill, dearest? You have been looking pale and tired for the last few days and I have thought nothing of it. What a careless wretch I am. No, no, John, she said. I don't mean that. I know you would grieve, dear, if I were to die. But suppose something were to happen which would separate us forever. Something which would compel me to leave this place never to return to it. What then? What then, Lolly? Answered her husband gravely. I would rather see your coffin laid in the empty niche beside my mother's in the vault yonder. He pointed in the direction of the parish church, which was close to the gates of the park. Then I would part with you thus. I would rather know you to be dead and happy than I would endure any doubt about your fate. Oh, my darling, why do you speak of these things? I couldn't part with you. I couldn't. I would rather take you in my arms and plunge with you into the pond in the wood. I would rather send a bullet into your heart and see you lying murdered at my feet. John, John, my dearest and truest, she said. Her face lighting up with a new brightness, like a sudden breaking of the sun through a leaden cloud. Not another word, dear. We will never part. Why should we? There is very little upon this wide earth that money cannot buy, and it shall help to buy our happiness. We will never part, darling, never. She broke into a joyous laugh as she watched his anxious, half-wondering face. Why you foolish John? How frightened you look, she said. Haven't you discovered yet that I like to torment you now and then with such questions as these? Just to see your big blue eyes open to their widest extent? Come, dear. Mrs. Powell will look white thunder at us when we go in and make some meek, conventional reply to our apologies for this delay to the effect that she doesn't care in the least how long she waits for dinner. And that, on the whole, she would rather never have any dinner at all. Isn't it strange, John, how that woman hates me? Hates you, dear, when you're so kind to her? But she hates me for being kind to her, John. If I were to give her my diamond necklace, she'd hate me for having it to give. She hates us because we're rich and young, and handsome, said Aurora, laughing. And the very opposite of her manby, pamby, pale-faced self. It was strange that from this moment Aurora seemed to regain her natural gaiety of spirits and to be what she had been before the receipt of Mr. Pasturn's letter. Whatever dark clouds had hovered over her head since the day upon which that simple epistle had caused such a terrible effect that threatening shadows seemed to have been suddenly removed. Mrs. Walter Powell was not slow to perceive this change. The eyes of love, clear-sighted, though they may be, are dull indeed beside the eyes of hate. Those are never deceived. Aurora had wandered out of the drawing room listless and dispirited to stroll wearily upon the lawn. Mrs. Powell, seated in one of the windows, had watched her every movement and had seen her in the distance speaking to someone. She had been unable to distinguish the softy from her post of observation. And this same Aurora returned to the house almost another creature. There was a look of determination about the beautiful mouth which female critics called too wide. A look not usual to the rosy lips and a resolute brightness in the eyes which had some significance surely. Mrs. Powell thought if she could only have found the key to the hidden meaning. Ever since Aurora's brief illness the poor woman had been groping for this key. Groping in mazy darkness which baffled her utmost powers of penetration. Who and what was this groom that Aurora should write to him as she most decidedly had written? Why was he to express no surprise and what cause could there be for his expressing any surprise in the simple economy of Mellish Park? The mazy darknesses were more impenetrable than the blackest night. And Mrs. Powell well now gave up all hopes of ever finding any clue to the mystery. And now behold a new complication had arisen in Aurora's altered spirits. John Mellish was delighted with this alteration. He talked and laughed until the glasses near him vibrated with his noisy mirth. He drank so much sparkling mozelle that his butler Jarvis who had grown gray in the service of the old squire and had poured out Master John's first glass of champagne refused at last to furnish him with any more of that beverage offering him in its stead some very expensive hawk the name of which was in 14 unpronounceable syllables and which John tried to like but didn't. We'll fill the house with visitors for the shooting season lolly darling said Mr. Mellish. If they come on the first of September they'll all be comfortably settled for the ledger. The dear old dad will come of course and trot about on his white pony like the best of men and bankers in Christendom. Captain and Mrs. Bollstrode will come too and we shall see how our little Lucy looks and whether solemn Talbot beats her in the silence of the matrimonial chamber. Then there's Hunter and a host of fellows and you must write me a list of any nice people you'd like to ask down here and we'll have a glorious autumn won't we lolly. I hope so dear said Mrs. Mellish after a little pause and a repetition of John's eager question. She had not been listening very attentively to John's plans for the future and she startled him rather by asking him a question very wide from the subject upon which he had been speaking. How long do the fastest vessels take going to Australia John? She asked quietly. Mr. Mellish stopped with his glass in his hand to stare at his wife as she asked this question. How long do the fastest vessels take to go to Australia? He repeated. Good gracious me lolly how should I know? Three weeks or a month? No I mean three months but in Mercy's name Aurora why do you want to know? The average length of the voyage is I believe about three months but some fast sailing packets do it in 70 or even in 68 days. Interposed Mrs. Powell looking sharply at Aurora's abstracted face from under cover of her white eyelashes. But why in goodness name do you want to know lolly? Repeated John Mellish. You don't want to go to Australia and you don't know anybody who's going to Australia. Perhaps Mrs. Mellish's interest within the female immigration movement suggested Mrs. Powell. It is a most delightful work. Aurora replied neither to the direct nor the indirect question. The cloth had been removed for no modern customs that ever disturbed the conservative economy of Mellish Park and Mrs. Mellish sat with a cluster of pale cherries in her hand looking at the reflection of her own face in the depths of the shiny mahogany. Lollie exclaimed John Mellish after watching his wife for some minutes. You are as grave as a judge. What can you be thinking of? She looked up at him with a bright smile and rose to leave the dining room. I'll tell you one of these days John she said are you coming with us or are you going out upon the lawn to smoke? If you'll come with me dear he answered returning her smile with a frank glance of unchangeable affection which always beamed in his eyes when they rested on his wife. I'll go out and smoke a cigar if you'll come with me Lollie. You foolish old Yorkshire man said Mrs. Mellish laughing. I verily believe you'd like me to smoke one of your choice manillas by way of keeping you company. No darling I never wish to see you do anything that didn't square. That wasn't compatible and opposed Mr. Mellish gravely with the manners of the noblest lady and the duties of the truest wife in England. If I love to see you ride across country with the red feather in your hat it is because I think that the good old sport of English gentlemen was meant to be shared by their wives rather than by people whom I would not like to name and because there is a fair chance that the sight of your Spanish hat and scarlet plume at the meet may go some way toward keeping Miss Wilhelmina de Lancy who was born plain Scroggins and christened Sarah out of the field. I think our British wives and mothers might have the battle in their own hands and win the victory for themselves and their daughters if they were a little braver in standing to their ground. If they were not quite so tenderly indulgent to the sins of eligible young noblemen and in their estimate of man's qualification for the marriage state and were not so entirely guided by the figures in his banker's book it's a sad world lolly but John Mellish of Mellish Park was never meant to set it right. Mr. Mellish stood on the threshold of a glass door which opened to the flight of steps leading to the lawn as he delivered himself of this homily the gravity of which was quite at variance with the usual tenor of his discourse. He had a cigar in his hand and was going to light it when Aurora stopped him. John Deere, she said, my most unbusinesslike of darlings have you forgotten that poor Langley is so anxious to see you that he may give up your old accounts before the new trainer takes the stable business into his hands? He was here half an hour before dinner and begged that you would see him tonight. Mr. Mellish shrugged his shoulders Langley's as honest the fellow has ever breathed, he said. I don't want to look into his accounts. I know what this table cost me yearly on an average and that's enough. But for his satisfaction, dear, well well lolly, tomorrow morning then. No, dear, I want you to ride out with me tomorrow. Tomorrow evening you meet the captains at the citadel, said Aurora, laughing. That is to say you dine at Homebush with Colonel Povincey. Come, darling, I insist on your being businesslike for once in a way. Come to your sanctum sanctorium and we'll send for Langley and look into the accounts. The pretty tyrant linked her arm in his and led him to the other end of the house and into the very room in which she had swooned away at the hearing of Mr. Pastern's letter. She looked thoughtfully out at the dull evening sky as she closed the windows. The storm had yet come but the ominous cloud still brooded low over the earth and the sultry atmosphere was heavy and airless. Mrs. Mellish made a wonderful show of her business habits and appeared to be very much interested in the massive corn chandeliers, veterinary surgeons, saddlers and harness makers, accounts with which the old trainer respectfully bewildered his master. But about 10 minutes after John had settled himself to his weary labor, Aurora threw down the pencil with which she had been working a calculation by a process so wildly original and nature as to utterly revolutionize cocker and annihilate the hackneyed notion that twice two are four and floated lightly out of the room with some vague promise of coming back presently leaving Mr. Mellish to arithmetic and despair. Mrs. Walter Powell was seated in the drawing room reading when Aurora entered the apartment with a large black lace shell wrapped about her head and shoulders. Mrs. Mellish had evidently expected to find the room empty for she started and drew back at the site of the pale faced widow who was seated in the distant window making the most of the last faint rays of summer twilight. Aurora paused for a moment a few paces within the door and then walked deliberately across the room toward the farthest window from that at which Mrs. Powell was seated. Are you going out in the garden this dull evening Mrs. Mellish asked the insides widow? Aurora stopped halfway between the window and the door to answer her. Yes she said coldly. Allow me to advise you not to go too far. We are going to have a storm. I don't think so. What my dear Mrs. Mellish? Not with that thunder cloud yonder. I will take my chance of being caught in it then. The weather has been threatening all the afternoon. The house is insupportable tonight but you will not surely go far. Mrs. Mellish did not appear to overhear this remonstrance. She hurried through the open window and out upon the lawn striking northward toward that little iron gate across which she had talked to the softy. The arch of the leaden sky seemed to contract above the treetops in the park shutting in the earth as if with a roof of a hot iron after the fashion of those cunningly contrived metal torture chambers which we read of. But the rain had not yet come. What can take her into the garden on such an evening as this thought Mrs. Powell as she watched the white dress receding in the dusky twilight. It will be dark in 10 minutes and she is not usually so fond of going out alone. The insign's widow laid down the book in which she had appeared so deeply interested and went to her own room where she selected a comfortable gray cloak from a heap of primly folded garments in her capacious wardrobe. She muffled herself in this cloak hurried downstairs with a soft but rapid step and went out into the garden through a little lobby near John Melish's room. The blinds in the little sanctum were not drawn down and Mrs. Powell could see the master of the house bending over his paper under the light of a reading lamp with the romantic trainer sitting by his side. It was by this time quite dark but Aurora's white dress was faintly visible upon the other side of the lawn. Mrs. Melish was standing beside the little iron gate when the insign's widow emerged from the house. The white dress was motionless for some time and the pale watcher lurking under the shade of the long veranda began to think that her trouble was wasted and that perhaps after all Aurora had no special purpose in this evening's ramble Mrs. Walter Powell felt cruelly disappointed always on the watch for some clue to the secret whose existence she had discovered. She had fondly hoped that even this unseasonable ramble might be some link in the mysterious change she was so anxious to fit together. But it appeared that she was mistaken. The unseasonable ramble was very likely nothing more than one of Aurora's caprices. A womanly foolishness signifying nothing. No, the white dress was no longer motionless and in the unnatural stillness of the hot night Mrs. Powell heard the distant scruping noise of a hinge revolving slowly as if guided by a cautious hand. Mrs. Melish had opened the iron gate and had passed to the other side of the invisible barrier which separated the gardens from the park. In another moment she had disappeared under the shadow of the trees which made a belt about the long. Mrs. Powell paused almost terrified by her unlooked for discovery. What in the name of all that was starkly mysterious could Mrs. Melish have to do between 9 and 10 o'clock on the north side of the park. The widely kept deserted north side in which from year's end to year's end no one but the keepers ever walked. The blood rushed hotly up to Mrs. Powell's pale face as she suddenly remembered that the disused dilapidated lodge upon this north side had been given to the new trainer as a residence. Remembering this was nothing but remembering this in connection with that mysterious letter signed a was enough to send a thrill of savage horrible joy through the dull veins of the dependent. What should she do follow Mrs. Melish and discover where she was going? How far would this be a safe thing to attempt? She turned back and looked once more through the windows of John's room. He was still bending over the paper, still in a apparently hopeless confusion of mind. There seemed little chance of his business being finished very quickly. The starless night and her dark dress alike sheltered the spy from observation. If I were close behind her she would never see me she thought. She struck across the lawn to the iron gate and passed into the park. The brambles and the tangled undergrowth caught at her dress as she paused for a moment looking about her in the summer night. There was no trace of Aurora's white figure among the leafy alleys stretching in wild disorder before her. I'll not attempt to find the path she took thought Mrs. Powell. I know where to find her. She groped her way into the narrow foot path leading to the lodge. She was not sufficiently familiar with the place to take the shortcut which the softie had made for himself through the grass that afternoon. And she was sometime walking from the iron gate to the lodge. The front windows of this rustic lodge faced the road and the disused north gates. The back of the building looked toward the path down which Mrs. Powell went and the two small windows in this back wall were both dark. The ensign's widow crept softly to the front looked about her cautiously and listened. There was no sound but the occasional rustle of the leaf tremulous even in the still atmosphere as if by some internal prescience of the coming storm. With a slow careful footsteps she stole toward the little rustic window and looked into the room within. She had not been mistaken when she had said that she knew where to find Aurora. Mrs. Melish was standing with her back to the window exactly opposite to her sat James Conyers, the trainer. In an easy attitude and with his pipe in his mouth the little table was between them and the one candle which lighted the room was drawn close to Mr. Conyers elbow and had evidently been used by him for the lighting of his pipe. Aurora was speaking. The eager listener could hear her voice but not her words and she could see by the trainer's face that he was listening intently. He was listening intently but a dark frown contracted his handsome eyebrows and it was very evident that he was not too well satisfied with the bent of the conversation. He looked up when Aurora ceased speaking shrugged his shoulders and took his pipe out of his mouth. Mrs. Powell with her pale face close against the window pane watched him intently. He pointed with a careless gesture to an empty chair near Aurora but she shook her head contemptuously and suddenly turned toward the window so suddenly that Mrs. Powell had scarcely time to recoil into the darkness before Aurora had unfastened the iron latch and flung the narrow casement open. I cannot endure this intolerable heat she exclaimed impatiently. I have said all I have to say and need only wait for your answer. You don't give me much time for consideration he said with an insolent coolness which was in strange contrast to the restless vehemence of her manner. What sort of answer do you want? Yes or no? Nothing more? No, nothing more. You know my conditions they are all written here she added putting her hand upon an open paper which lay upon the table. They are all written clearly enough for a child to understand. Will you accept them? Yes or no? That depends upon circumstances he answered filling his pipe and looking admiringly at the nail of his little finger as he pressed the tobacco into the bowl. Upon what circumstances? Upon the inducement which you offer my dear Mrs. Mellish. You mean the price? That's a low expression he said laughing but I suppose we both mean the same thing. The inducement must be a strong one which will make me do all that. He pointed to the written paper and it must take the form of solid cash. How much is it to be? That is for you to say remember what I have told you. Decline tonight and I telegraph to my father tomorrow morning telling him to alter his will. Suppose the old gentleman should be carried off in the interim and leave that pleasant sheet of parchment standing as it is. I hear that he's old and feeble. It might be worthwhile calculating the odds upon such an event. I've risked my money on a worse chance before tonight. She turned upon him with so dark a frown as he said this that the insolently heartless words died upon his lips and left him looking at her gravely. He gad he said you're as great a devil as you ever were. I doubt if that isn't a good offer after all give me ten thousand down and I'll take it. Ten thousand pounds I have to have said 20 but I've always stood in my own light. Mrs. Powell crouching down beneath the open casement had heard every word of this brief dialogue but at this juncture half forgetful of all the danger in her eagerness to listen she raised her head until it was nearly on a level with the windowsill. As she did so she recoiled with the sudden thrill of terror she felt a puff of hot breath upon her cheek and the garments of a man rustling against her own. She was not the only listener. The second spy was Stephen Hargraves, the softie. Hush! he whispered grasping Mrs. Powell by the wrist and pinning her in her crouching attitude by the muscular force of his horny hand. It's only me Steve, the softie, you know the stable helper that she he hissed out the personal pronoun with such a furious impetus that it seemed to whistle sharply through the stillness the fondly that she horse whipped. I know you and I know you're here to listen. He sent me into Don Caster to fetch this. He pointed to a bottle under his arm. He thought it would take me four or five hours to go and get back but I ran all the way for I knew there was zoom at up. He wiped his steaming face with the ends of his coarse neckerchief as he finished speaking. His breath came in panting gasps and Mrs. Powell could hear the laborious beating of his heart in the stillness. I won't tell you he said and you won't tell me. I've got the stripes upon my shoulders where she cut me with the whip to this day. I look at him sometimes and they help to keep me in mind. She's a fine madam ain't she and a great lady too. I sure she is but she comes to meet her husband's servant on the sly after dark for all that. Maybe the day isn't far off when she'll be turned away from these gates and warned off this ground and the merciful Lord send that I live to see it. Hush! With her wrist still pinioned in his strong grasp he motioned her to be silent and bent his pale face forward. Every feature rigid in the listening expectancy of his hungry gaze. Listen! he whispered. Listen! Every fresh word damns her deeper than they last. The trainer was the first to speak after this pause in the dialogue within the cottage. He had quietly smoked out his pipe and had emptied the ashes of his tobacco upon the table before he took up the thread of the conversation at the point at which he had dropped it. Ten thousand pounds he said that is the offer and I think it ought to be taken freely. Ten thousand down in Bank of England notes fives and tens hires figures might be awkward or sterling coin of the realm. You understand? Ten thousand down that's my alternative or I leave this place tomorrow morning with all belonging to me. By which course you would get nothing said Mrs. John Melish quietly. Shouldn't I? What does the chap in the play get for his trouble when the blackamore smothers his wife? I should get nothing but my revenge upon a tiger cat whose claws have left a mark upon me that I shall carry to my grave. He lifted his hair with the careless gesture of his hand and pointed to a scar upon his forehead a white mark barely visible in the dim light of the tallow candle. I'm a good-natured easygoing fellow Mrs. John Melish but I don't forget it is to be the ten thousand pounds or a war to the knife. Mrs. Powell waited eagerly for Aurora's answer but before it came a round heavy raindrop pattered upon the light hair of the ensign's widow. The hood of her cloak had fallen back leaving her head uncovered. This one large drop was the warning of the coming storm. The signal peel of thunder rumbled slowly and hoarsely in the distance and the pale flash of lightning trembled upon the white faces of the two listeners. Let me go whispered Mrs. Powell. Let me go I must get back to the house before the rain begins. The softie slowly relaxed his iron grip upon her wrist. He had held it unconsciously in his other abstraction to all things except the two speakers in the cottage. Mrs. Powell rolls from her knees and crept noiselessly away from the lodge. She remembered the vital necessity of getting back to the house before Aurora and of avoiding the shower. Her wet garments would betray her if she did not succeed in escaping the coming storm. She was of spare wisen figure encumbered with no superfluous flesh and she ran rapidly along the narrow sheltered pathway leading to the iron gate through which she had followed Aurora. The heavy raindrops fell at long intervals upon the leaves. A second and a third peel of thunder rattled along the earth like a horrible roar of some hungry animal creeping nearer and nearer to its prey. Blue flashes of faint lightning lit up the tangled intricacies of the wood but the fullest fury of the storm had not yet burst forth. The raindrops came at shorter intervals as Mrs. Powell passed out of the wood through the little iron gate faster still as she hurried across the lawn faster yet as she reached the lobby door which she had left a jar an hour before and sat down panting upon the little bench within to recover her breath before she went any farther. She was still sitting on this bench when the fourth peel of thunder shook the low roof above her head and the rain dropped from the starless sky with such a rushing impetus that it seemed as if the huge trap door had been opened in the heavens and a celestial ocean led down to flood the earth. I think my lady will be nicely caught muttered Mrs. Walter Powell. She threw her cloak aside upon the lobby bench and went through the passage leading to the hall. One of the servants was shutting the hall door. Have you shut the drawing room windows Wilson? She asked. No ma'am. I'm afraid Mrs. Melisch is out in the rain. Jarvis is getting ready to go and look for her with the lantern and the gig umbrella. Then Jarvis can stop where he is. Mrs. Melisch came in half an hour ago. You may shut all the windows and close the house for the night. Yes ma'am. By the by what o'clock is it Wilson? My watch is slow. A quarter past ten ma'am by the dining room clock. The man locked the hall door and put up an immense iron bar which worked with some rather complicated machinery and had a bell hanging at one end of it for the frustration of all burglarists and designing ruffians. From the hall the man went to the drawing room where he carefully fastened the long range of windows from the drawing room to the lobby and from the lobby to the dining room where he locked the half glass door opening into the garden. This being done all communication between the house and the garden was securely cut off. He shall know of her goings on at any rate thought Mrs. Powell as she dogged the footsteps of the servant to see that he did his work. The malish household did not take very kindly to this deputy mistress and when the footman went back to the servant's hall he informed his colleagues that she was prying and poking about sharper than ever and watching of a feller like a old house cat. Mr. Wilson was a cockney and had been newly imported into the establishment. When the ensign's widow had seen the last bolt driven home to its socket and the last key turned in its lock she went back to the drawing room and seated herself at the lamp lit table with some delicate morsel of old made-ish fancy work which seemed to be the converse of Penelope's embroidery as it appeared to advance at night and retrograde by day. She had hastily smoothed her hair and rearranged her dress and she looked as uncomfortably neat as when she came down to breakfast in the fresh primness of her matutinal toilette. She had been sitting at her work for about 10 minutes when John Malish entered the room emerging weary but triumphant from his struggles with the simple rules of multiplication and subtraction. Mr. Malish had evidently suffered severely in the contest. His thick brown hair was tumbled into the rough mass that stood nearly upright upon his head. His cravat was untied and his shirt collar was thrown open for the relief of the capacious throat and these and many other marks of the struggle he bore upon him when he entered the the drawing room. I've broken loose from school at last Mrs. Powell he said flinging his big frame upon one of the sofas to the eminent peril of the German spring cushions. I've broken away before the flag dropped for Langley would have liked to keep me there till midnight. He followed me to the door of this room with 14 bushels of oats that was down in the corn chandler's account and was not down in the book he keeps to check the corn chandler. Why the deuce don't he put it down in his book and make it right then I asked instead of bothering me what's the good of his keeping an account to check the corn chandler if he don't make his account the same as the corn chandlers but it's all over he added with a great sigh of relief it's all over and all I can say is I hope the new trainer isn't honest. Do you know much of the new trainer Mr. Melish asked Mrs. Powell blandly rather as if she wished to amuse her employer by the exertion of her conversational powers than for the gratification of any mundane curiosity. Deuce little answered John indifferently. I haven't even seen the fellow yet but John Pastern recommended him and he's sure to be all right. Besides Aurora knows the man he was in her father's service once. Oh indeed said Mrs. Powell giving the two insignificant words a significant little jerk. Oh indeed Mrs. Melish knows him does she then of course he is a trustworthy person he's a remarkably handsome young man remarkably handsome easy said Mr. Melish with a careless laugh then I suppose all the maids will be falling in love with him and neglecting their work to look out of the windows that open on to the stable yard. Hey that's the sort of thing when a man has a handsome groom aint it Susan and Sarah and all the rest of them take to cleaning the windows and wearing new ribbons in their caps. I don't know anything about that Mr. Melish answered the ensigns widow simpering over her work as if the question they were discussing was so very far away that it was impossible for her to be serious about it but my experience has thrown me into a very large number of families. She said this with perfect truth as she had occupied so many situations that her enemies had come to declare she was unable to remain in any one household above a 12 month by reason of her employer's discovery of her real nature. I have occupied positions of trust and confidence continued Mrs. Powell and I regret to say that I've seen much domestic misery arise from the employment of handsome servants whose appearance and manners are superior to their station. Mr. Conyers is not at all the sort of person I should like to see in the household in which I had the charge of young ladies. A sick half shattering faintness crept through John's herculean frame as Mrs. Powell's expressed herself thus so vague a feeling that he scarcely knew whether it was mental or physical any better than he knew what it was that he disliked in this speech of the ensigns widow the feeling was as transient as it was vague John's honest blue eyes looked wanderingly round the room where's Aurora he said gone to bed I believe Mrs. Melish has retired to rest Mrs. Powell answered then I shall go to the places as dull as a dungeon without her said Mr. Melish with agreeable candor perhaps you'll be good enough to make me a glass of brandy and water before I go Mrs. Powell for I've got the cold shivers after those accounts he rose to ring the bell but before he had gone three paces from the sofa and impatiently knocking at the closed outer shutters of one of the windows arrested his footsteps who in the mercy's name is that he exclaimed staring at the direction from which the noise came but not attempting to respond to the summons Mrs. Powell looked up to listen with a face expressive of nothing but innocent wonder the knocking was repeated more loudly and impatiently than before it must be one of the servants mother John but why doesn't he go round to the back of the house I can't keep the poor devil out upon such a night as this though he added good naturedly and fastening the window as he spoke the sash is open inward the Venetian shutters outward he pushed these shutters open and looked out into the darkness and the rain Aurora shivering in her drenched garments stood a few paces from him with the rain beating down straight and heavily upon her head even in that obscurity her husband recognized her my darling he cried is it you you out at such a time and on such a night come in for mercy's sake you must be drenched to the skin she came into the room the wet hanging in her muslin dress streamed out upon the carpet on which she trod and the folds of her lace shawl clung tightly about her figure why did you let them shut the windows she said turning to mrs. Powell who had risen and was looking the picture of a lady like uneasiness and sympathy you knew that I was in the garden yes but I thought you had returned my dear mrs. melish said the ensign's widow busying herself with Aurora's wet shawl which she attempted to remove but which mrs. melish plucked impatiently away from her I saw you go out certainly and I saw you leave the lawn in the direction of the north lodge but I thought you had returned sometime since the color faded out of John melish's face the north lodge he said have you been to the north lodge I have been in the direction of the north lodge Aurora answered with a sneering emphasis upon the words your information is perfectly correct mrs. Powell though I did not know you had done me the honor of watching my actions mr. melish did not appear to hear this he looked from his wife to his wife's companion with a half bewildered expression an expression of newly awakened doubt of dim struggling perplexity which was very painful to see the north lodge he repeated what were you doing at the north lodge Aurora do you wish me to stand here in my wet clothes while I tell you ask mrs. melish her great black eyes blazing up with indignant pride if you want an explanation for mrs. Powell's satisfaction I can give it here if only for your own it will do as well upstairs she swept toward the door trailing her wet shawl after her but not less cleanly even in her dripping garments simmer amity and clear patra may have been out in wet weather but at the door she paused and looked back at him I shall want you to take me to London tomorrow mr. melish she said then with one haughty toss of her beautiful head and one bright flash of her glorious eyes which seemed to say slave obey and tremble she disappeared leaving mr. melish to follow her meekly wanderingly fearfully with terrible doubts and anxieties creeping like venomous living creatures stealthily into his heart end of chapter 18 out in the rain chapter 19 of aurora floyd this is a Libra box recording all Libra box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libra box.org reading done by jules hurlick of mississauga ontario canada aurora floyd by mary elizabeth bradden chapter 19 money matters archibald floyd was very lonely at felden woods without his daughter he took no pleasure in the long drawing room or the billard room and library or the pleasant galleries in which there were all manner of easy corners with a budding bay windows the mass cushioned oak and benches china vases as high as tables all enlivened by the alternately sternly masculine and semperingly feminine faces of those ancestors whose painted representations the banker had bought in wardoff street indeed i fear those scottish warriors those bewigged worthies of northern circuit those tapered wasted ladies with pointed stomachers tucked up petticoats panier hoops and and blue ribbon to be desend crooks had been painted to order and that there were such items in the account of warder street rococo merchants as two one night bannaret killed at bosward 25 pounds five shillings the old banker i say grew sadly weary of his gorgeous mansion which was of little avail to him without aurora people are not so very much happier for living in handsome houses though it is generally considered such a delightful thing to occupy a mansion which would be large enough for a hospital and take your simple meal at the end of a table long enough to accommodate a board of railway directors archibald floyd could not sit beside both the fireplaces in his long drawing room and he felt strangely lonely looking from the easy chair on the hearth rug through a vista of velvet pile and satin damask walnut wood buule malachite china perian crystal and ormaloo at that solitary second hearth rug and those empty easy chairs he shivered in his dreary grandeur his five and forty by thirty feet of velvet pile might have been a patch of yellow sand in the great sahara for any pleasure he derived from its occupation the billiard room perhaps was worse for the cues and balls where everyone made precious by aurora's touch and there was a great fine drawn seam upon the green cloth which marked the spot where miss floyd had ripped it open what time she made her first juvenile essay at billiards the banker locked the doors of both these splendid apartments and gave the keys to his housekeeper keep the rooms in order mrs richardson he said and keep them thoroughly aired but i shall only use them when mr and mrs melish come to me and having shut up these haunted chambers mr floyd retired to that snug little study in which he kept his few relics of this sorrowful past it may be said that the scottish banker was a very stupid old man and that he might have invited the county families to his gorgeous mansion that he might have summoned his nephews and their wives with all grand nephews and nieces appertaining and might have thus have made the place merry with the sound of fresh young voices and the long corridors noisy with the patter of restless little feet he might have lured literary and artistic celebrities to his lonely hearth rug and paraded the lines of the london season upon his velvet pile he might have entered the political arena and have had himself nominated at beckingham croydon or west wickham he might have done almost anything for he had very nearly as much money as a laden and could have carried dishes of uncut diamonds to the father of any princess whom he might take it to his head to marry he might have done almost anything this ridiculous old banker yet he did nothing but sit brooding over his lonely hearth for he was old and feeble and he sat by the fire even in the bright summer weather thinking of the daughter who was far away he thanked god for her happy home for her devoted husband for her secure and honorable position and he would have given the last drop of his blood to obtain for her these advantages but he was after all only mortal and he would rather have had her by his side why did he not surround himself with society as brisk mrs alexander urged when he she found him looking pale and careworn why because society was not a rora because all the brightest bonmots of all the literary celebrities who have ever walked this earth seemed dull to him when compared with his daughter's idle babble literary lines political notabilities out upon them when sir edward bull lighten and mr charles dickens should call in mr make peace thackery and mr wilkie collins to assist them in writing a work in 15 volumes or so about a rora the banker would be ready to offer them a handsome sum for the copyright until then he cared very little for the best book in mr moody's collection when the members of the legislature should bring their political knowledge to bear upon a rora mr archibald floyd would be happy to listen to them in the interim he would have yawned in lord palmerston's face or turned his back upon url russell the banker had been a kind uncle a good master a warm friend and a generous patron but he had never loved any creature except his wife aliza and the daughter she had left to his care life is not long enough to hold many such attachments as these and the people who love very intensely are apt to concentrate the full force of their affection upon one object for 20 years this black eyed girl had been the idol before which the old man had knelt and now that the divinity is taken away from him he falls prostrate and desolate before the empty shrine heaven knows how bitterly this beloved child had made him suffer how deeply she had plunged the reckless dagger to the very core of his loving heart and how freely gladly tearfully and hopefully he had forgiven her but she had never atoned for the past it is poor consolation which lady mcbeth gives to her remorseful husband when she tells him that what's done cannot be undone but it is painfully and terribly true a rora could not restore the year which she had taken out of her father's life and which his anguish and despair had multiplied by 10 she could not restore the equal balance of the mind which had once experienced a shock so dreadful as to shatter its serenity as we shatter the mechanism of a watch when we let it fall violently to the ground the watchmaker patches up the damage and gives us a new wheel here and a spring there and sets the hands going again but they never go so smoothly as when the watch was fresh from the hands of the maker and they are apt to stop suddenly with no shadow of warning a rora could not atone whatever the nature of that girlish error which made the mystery of her life it was not to be undone she could more easily have bailed the ocean dry with a soup ladle and i dare say she would gladly have gone to work to spoon out the salt water if by so doing she could have undone that bygone mischief but she could not she could not her tears her penitence her affection her respect her devotion could do much but they could not do this the old banker invited talbot bolstrowed and his young wife to make themselves at home at felden and drive down to the woods as freely as if the place had been some country mansion of their own they came sometimes and talbot entertained his great uncle-in-law with the troubles of the cornish miners while luci sat listening to her husband's talk with unmitigated reverence and delight archibald floyd made his guests very welcome upon these occasions and gave orders that the oldest and the costliest wines in the cellar should be brought out for the captain's entertainment but sometimes in the very middle of talbot's discourse upon political economy the old man would sigh wearily and look with a dimly yearning gaze far away over the treetops in a northward direction toward that distant yorkshire household in which his daughter was the queen perhaps mr. floyd had never quite forgiven talbot bolstrowed for the breaking off of the match between him and aurora the banker had certainly of the two suitors preferred john melish but he would have considered it only correct if captain bolstrowed had retired from the world upon the occasion of aurora's marriage and broken his heart in foreign exile rather than advertising his indifference by a union with poor little luci archibald looked wanderingly at his fair-haired niece as she sat before him in the deep bay window with the sunshine upon her amber tresses and the crisp folds of her peach colored silk dress looking for all the world like one of the painted heroines so dear to the pre-ravelite brotherhood and marveled how it was that talbot could have come to admire her she was very pretty certainly with pink cheeks a white nose and rose colored nostrils and a species of beauty which consists in very careful finishing off and picking out of the features but oh how tame how cold how weak beside the egyptian goddess that is syrian queen with the flashing eyes and the serpentine coils of purple black hair talbot bolstrowed was very calm very quiet but apparently sufficiently happy i use that word sufficiently advisedly it is a dangerous thing to be too happy your high pressure happiness your 60 miles an hour enjoyment is apt to burst up and come to a hard end better the quietest parliamentary train which starts very early in the morning and carries its passengers safe into the terminus when the shades of night come down then that rabbit rushing express which does the journey in a quarter of the time but occasionally topples over the aid bank or rides piggyback upon a luggage train in its fiery impetuosity talbot bolstrowed was sufficiently happier with lucy than he ever could have been with aurora his very young wife's undemonstrative worship of him soothed and flattered him her gentle obedience her entire concurrence in his every thought and whim set his pride at rest she was not eccentric she was not impetuous if he had left her alone all day in the snug little house in half moon street which he had furnished before his marriage he had no fear of her calling for her horse and scampering away into rotten roll with not so much as a groom to attend upon her she was not strong-minded she could be happy without the society of newfound land since sky terriers she did not prefer land seers dog pictures above all other examples of modern art she might have walked down regent street a hundred times without being once tempted to loiter upon the curved stone and bargain with the suspicious-looking merchants for a nice little dog she was altogether gentle and womanly and talbot had no fear to trust her in her own sweet will and no need to impress upon her the necessity of lending her feeble little hands to the mighty task of sustaining the dignity of the raleigh bolsteroids she would cling to him sometimes half lovingly half timidly and looking up with a pretty deprecating smile into his coldly handsome face ask him falteringly if he was really really happy yes my darling girl the cornish captain would answer being very well accustomed to the question decidedly very happy his calm business like tone would rather disappoint poor lucy and she would vaguely wish that her husband had been a little more like the heroes in the high church novels and a little less devoted to Adam Smith McCulloch and the Cornish minds but you don't love me as you loved aurora talbot there were profane people who corrupted the captain's christian name into tal but mrs bolsteroid was not more likely to avail herself of that disrespectful abbreviation than she was to address her gracious sovereign as vik but you don't love me as you loved aurora talbot dear the pleasing voice would urge so tenderly anxious to be contradicted not as i loved aurora perhaps darling not as much as much and better my pet with a more enduring and a wiser love if this was a little bit of a fib when the captain first said it is he to be utterly condemned for the falsehood how could he resist the loving blue eyes so ready to fill with tears if he had answered coldly the softly pensive voice tremulous with emotion the earnest face the caressing hand laid so lightly upon his coat collar he must have been more than moral had he given any but loving answers to those loving questions the day soon came when his answers were no longer tinged with so much as a shadow of falsehood his little wife crept stealthily almost imperceptibly into his heart and if he remembered the fever dream of the past it was only to rejoice in the tranquil security of the present talbot bolsteroid and his wife were staying at felden woods for a few days during the burning july weather and sat down to dinner with mr floyd upon the day succeeding the night of the storm they were disturbed in the very midst of that dinner by the unexpected arrival of mr and mrs melish who rattled up to the door in a hired vehicle just as the second course was being placed upon the table archibald floyd recognized the first murmurs of his daughter's voice and ran out into the hall to welcome her she showed no eagerness to throw herself into her father's arms but stood looking at john melish with a weary absent expression while the stalwart yarkshire man allowed himself to be gradually disencumbered of a chaotic load of traveling bags sun umbrellas shawls magazines newspapers and overcoats my darling my darling exclaimed the banker what a happy surprise what an unexpected pleasure she did not answer him but with her arms about his neck looked mournfully into his face she would come said mr john melish addressing himself generally she would come the deuce knows why but she said she must come and what could i do but bring her if she asked me to take her to the moon what could i do but take her but she wouldn't bring any luggage to speak of because we're going back tomorrow going back tomorrow repeated mr. floyd impossible bless your heart cried john what's impossible to loli if she wanted to go to the moon she'd go don't i tell you she'd have a special engine or a special balloon or a special something or other and she'd go when we were in paris she wanted to see the big fountain's play and she told me to write to the emperor and ask him to have them set going for her she did by jove lucy bolsteroed came forward to bid her cousin welcome but i fear that a sharp jealous pang thrilled through the innocent heart at the thought that those fatal black eyes were again brought to bear upon talbot's life mrs melish put her arms about her cousin as tenderly as if she had been embracing a child you hear dearest lucy she said i'm so very glad he loves me whispered little mrs bolsteroed and i never never can tell you how good he is of course not my darling answered her or drawing her cousin aside while mr melish shook hands with his father-in-law and talbot bolsteroed he is the most glorious of princess the most perfect of saints is he not and you worship him all day you sing silent hymns in his praise and perform high mass in his honor and go about telling his virtues upon a imaginary rosary ah lucy how many kinds of love there are and who shall say which is the best or highest i see plain blundering john melish yonder with unprejudiced eyes i know his every fault i laugh at his every awkwardness yes i laugh now for he is dropping those things faster than the servants can pick them up she stopped to point to poor john's chaotic burden i see all this as plainly as i see the deficiencies of the servant who stands behind my chair and yet i love him with all my heart and soul and i would not have one fault corrected or one virtue exaggerated for fear it should make him different to what he is lucy bolsteroed gave a little half resigned sigh what a blessing that my poor cousin is happy she thought and yet how can she be otherwise than miserable with that absurd john melish what lucy meant perhaps was this how could aurora be otherwise than wretched in the companionship of a gentleman who had neither a straight nose nor dark hair some women never outlived that schoolgirl infatuation for straight noses and dark hair some girls would have rejected napoleon the great because he wasn't tall or would have turned up their noses at the author of chilledy herald if they had happened to see him in a stand-up collar if lord byron had never turned down his callers would his poetry have been as popular as it was if mr alfred tenison were to cut his hair would that operation modify our opinion of the queen of the may where does that marvelous power of association begin and end perhaps there may have been a reason for aurora's contentment with her commonplace prosaic husband perhaps she had learned at a very early period of her life that there are qualities even more valuable than exclusively modeled features or clout string locks perhaps having begun to be foolish very early she had outstripped her contemporaries in the race and had early learned to be wise archibald floyd led his daughter and her husband into the dining room and the dinner party sat down against with the two unexpected guests and the second course was served and the lukewarm salmon brought in again for mr and mrs melish aurora sat in her old place on her father's right hand in the old girlish days miss floyd had never occupied the bottom of the table but had loved best to sit close to that foolishly doting parent pouring out his wine for him in defiance of the servants and doing other loving offices which were deliciously inconvenient to the old man today aurora seemed especially affectionate that fondly clinging matter had all its ancient charms to the banker he put down his glass with a tremulous hand to gaze at his darling child and was dazzled with her beauty and drunkened with the happiness of having her near him but my darling he said bye and bye what do you mean by talking about going back to yorkshire tomorrow nothing pappa except that i must go answered mrs melish determinately but why come dear if you could only stop one night because i wanted to see you dear's father and to talk to you about about money matters that's it exclaimed john melish with his mouth half full of salmon and lobster sauce that's it money matters that's all i can get out of her she goes out late last night and roams about the garden and comes in wet through and through and says that she must come to london about money matters what should she want with money matters if she wants money she can have as much as she wants she shall write the figures and i'll sign the check or she shall have a dozen blank checks to fill in just as she pleases what is there upon this earth that i'd refuse her if she dipped a little too deep and put more money than she could afford upon the bay filly why doesn't she come to me instead of bothering you about money matters you know i said so in the train aurora ever so many times why bother your poor papa about it the poor papa looked wanderingly from his daughter to his daughter's husband what did it all mean trouble vexation weariness of spirit humiliation disgrace ah heaven helped that enfeebled mind whose strength has been shattered by one great shock archibald floyd dreaded the token of a coming storm in every chance cloud on the summer sky perhaps i may prefer to spend my own money mr john melish answered aurora and pay any foolish bets i have chosen to make out of my own purse without being under an obligation to anyone mr melish returned to his salmon in silence there is no occasion for a great mystery papa resumed aurora i want some money for a particular purpose and i have come to consult with you about my affairs there is nothing very extraordinary in that i suppose mrs john melish tossed her head and flung her sentence at the assembly as if it had been a challenge her manner was so defiant that even talbot and lucy felt called upon to respond with a gentle descending murmur no no of course not nothing more natural muttered the captain but he was thinking all the time thank god i married the other one after dinner the little party strolled out of the drawing room windows onto the lawn and away towards that iron bridge upon which aurora had stood with her dog by her side less than two years ago on the occasion of talbot bolsteroids second visit to felden woods lingering upon that bridge on this tranquil summer's evening what could the captain do but think of that september day barely two years ago barely two years not two years and how much had been done and thought and suffered since how contemptible was the narrow space of time yet what terrible eternities of anguish what centuries of heartbreak had been compressed into that pitiful sum of days and weeks when the fraudulent partner in some house of business puts the money which is not his own upon a derby favorite and goes home at night a loser it is strangely difficult for that wretched defaulter to believe that it is not 12 hours since he traveled the road to epson confident of success and calculating how he should invest his winnings talbot bolsteroid was very silent thinking of the influence which this family of felden woods had had upon his destiny his little loose he saw that silence and thoughtfulness and stealing softly to her husband linked her arm in his she had a right to do it now yes to pass her little soft white hand under his coat sleeve and even look up almost boldly in his face do you remember when you first came to felden and we stood upon this very bridge she asked for she too had been thinking of that far away time in the bright summer of 57 do you remember talbot dear she had drawn him away from the banker and his children in order to ask this all important question yes perfectly darling as well as i remember your graceful figure seated at the piano in the long drawing room with that sunshine on your hair you remember that you remember me exclaimed lucy rapturously very well indeed but i thought that is i know that you were in love with aurora then i think not you only think not how can i tell cry talbot i freely confess that my first recollection connected with this place is of a gorgeous black eyed creature with scarlet in her hair and i can no more disassociate her image from felden woods than i can with my bare right hand pluck up the trees which give the place its name but if you entertain one distrustful thought of that pale shadow of the past you do yourself and me a grievous wrong i made a mistake lucy but thank heaven i saw it in time it is to be observed that captain bolsteroid was always particularly demonstrative in his gratitude to providence for his escape from the bonds which were to have united him to aurora he also made a great point of the benign compassion in which he held john melish but in despite of this he was apt to be rather capcious and coral somely disposed toward the orc shaman and i doubt if john's little stupidities and weaknesses were on the whole very displeasing to him there are some wounds which never heal the jagged flesh may reunite cooling medicines may subdue the inflammation even the scar left by the dagger thrust may wear away until it disappears in that gradual transformation which every atom of us is supposed by physiologists to undergo but the wound has been and to the last hour of our lives there are unfavorable winds which can make us wince with the old pain aurora treated her cousin's husband with the calm cordiality which she might have felt for her brother she bore no grudge against him for the old desertion for she was happy with her husband happy with the man who loved and believed in her surviving every trial of his simple faith mrs melish and lucy wandered among the flower beds by the water side leaving the gentleman on the bridge so you are very very happy my lucy said aurora oh yes yes dear how could i be otherwise talbot is so good to me i know of course that he loved you first and that he doesn't love me quite in the same way you know perhaps in fact not as much lucy bolsteroid was never tired of harping on this unfortunate minor string but i am very happy you must come and see us aurora dear our house is so pretty mrs bolsteroid hereupon entered into a detailed description of the furniture and decorations of half moon street which is perhaps scarcely worthy of record aurora listened rather absently to the long catalog of upholstery and yawned several times before her cousin had finished it is a very pretty house i dare say lucy she said at last and john and i will be very glad to come and see you someday i wonder lucy if i were to come in any trouble or disgrace to your door whether you would turn me away trouble disgrace repeated lucy looking frightened you wouldn't turn me away lucy would you no i know you better than that you'd let me in secretly and hide me away in one of the servants bedrooms and bring me food by stealth for fear the captain should discover the forbidden guest beneath his roof you'd serve two masters lucy in fear and trembling before mrs bolsteroid could make any answer to this extraordinary speech the approach of the gentleman interrupted the feminine conference it was scarcely a lively evening this july sunset at felden woods archibald floyd's gladness in his daughter's presence was something damped by the peculiarity of her visit john melish had some shadowy remnants of the previous night's disquietude hanging about him talbot bolsteroid was thoughtful and moody and poor little lucy was tortured by vague fears of her brilliant cousin's influence i don't suppose that any member of that attenuated assembly felt very much regret when the great clock in the stable yard struck 11 and the jingling bedroom candlesticks were brought into the room talbot and his wife were the first to say goodnight aurora lingered at her father's side and john melish looked doubtfully at his dashing white sergeant waiting to receive the word of command you may go john she said i want to speak to papa but i can wait lolly on no account answered mrs melish sharply i am going into papa's study to have a quiet confabulation with him what end would be gained by your waiting you've been yawning in our faces all evening you're tired to death i know john so go at once my precious pet and leave papa and me to discuss our money matters she pouted her rosy lips and stood upon tiptoe while the big yorkshire man kissed her how you hand pecked me lolly he said rather sheepishly goodnight sir god bless you take care of my darling he shook hands with mr floyd parting from him with that half affectionate half reverent manner which he always displayed to aurora's father mrs melish stood for some moments silent and motionless looking after her husband while her father watching her looks tried to read their meaning how quiet are the tragedies of real life that dreadful scene between the moor and his ancient takes place in the open streets of cyprus according to modern usage i can only fancy a fellow and iago debating about poor disamanda's honesty in st paul's churchyard or even in the marketplace of a country town but perhaps the cyprus street was a dull one a cul-de-sac it may be or at least a deserted thoroughfare something like that in which mr melnaught falls upon the shoulder of general demas and sobs out his lamentations but our modern tragedies seem to occur indoors and in places where we should least look for scenes of horror even while i write this the london flannery ursuri staring all agape at the shop window in a crowded street as if every pitiful feather every poor shred of ribbon in that millner's window had a mystical association with the terrors of a room upstairs but to the ignorant passerby how commonplace the spot must seem how remote in its everyday associations from the terrors of life's tragedy any chance traveler driving from beckon ham to west wickem would have looked perhaps enviously at the felden mansion and sighed to be the lord of that fair expansive park and garden yet i doubt if in the country of kent there was any creature more disturbed in mind than archibald floyd the banker those few moments during which aurora stood in thoughtful silence were as so many hours to his anxious mind at last she spoke when you come to the study papa she said this room is so big and so dimly lighted i always fancy there are listeners in the corners she did not wait for an answer but led the way to a room upon the other side of the hall the room in which she and her father had been so long closeted together upon the night before her departure for paris the crayon portrait of elisa floyd looked down upon archibald and his daughter the face wore so bright and genial a smile that it was difficult to believe it was the face of the dead the banker was the first to speak my darling girl he said what is it you want of me money papa two thousand pounds she checked his gesture of surprise and resumed before he could interrupt her the money you settled upon me on my marriage with john melis is invested in our own bank i know i know too that i can draw upon my account when and how i please but i thought that if i wrote a check for two thousand pounds the usual amount might attract attention and it might possibly fall into your hands had this occurred you would perhaps have been alarmed at any rate astonished i thought it best therefore to come to you myself and ask you for the money especially as i must have it in notes archibald floyd grew very pale he had been standing while elora spoke but as she finished he dropped into a chair near his little office table and resting his elbow upon an open desk leaned his head on his hand what do you want the money for my dear he asked gravely never mind what papa it is my own money is it not and i may spend it as i please certainly my dear certainly he answered with some slight hesitation you shall spend whatever you please i am rich enough to indulge any whim of yours however foolish however extravagant but your marriage settlement was rather intended for the benefit of your children then then for for anything of this kind and i scarcely know if you are justified in touching it without your husband's permission especially as your pin money is really large enough to enable you to gratify any reasonable wish the old man pushed his gray hair away from his forehead with a weary action and tremulous hand heaven knows that even in that desperate moment arora took notice of the feeble hand and the whitening hair give me the money then papa she said give it me with your own purse you are rich enough to do that rich enough yes if it were 20 times that some answered the banker slowly then with a sudden burst of passion he exclaimed oh arora arora why do you treat me so badly have i been so cruel a father that you can't confide in me arora why do you want this money she clasped her hands tightly together and stood looking at him for a few moments irresolutely i cannot tell you she said with a grave determination if i were to tell you what what what i think of doing you might thwart me in my purpose father father she cried with a sudden change in her voice and manner i am hemmed in on every side by difficulty and danger and there is only one way of escape except death unless i take that one way i must die i am very young too young and happy perhaps to die willingly give me the means of escape you mean this some of money yes you have been pressured by some connection some old associate of his no what then i cannot tell you they were silent for some moments archibald floyd looked imploringly at his child but she did not answer that earnest gaze she stood before him with a proudly downcast look the eyelids drooping over the dark eyes not in shame not in humiliation only in the stern determination to avoid being subdued by the sight of her father's distress arora he said at last why not take the wisest and the safest step why not tell john melis the truth the danger would disappear the difficulty would be overcome if you are persecuted by this low rabble who's so fit as he to act for you tell him arora tell him all no no no she lifted her hands and clasped them upon her pale face no no not for all this wide world she cried arora said archibald floyd with a gathering sternness upon his face which overspread the old man's benevolent countenance like some dark cloud arora god forgive me for saying such words to my own child but i must insist upon your telling me that this is no infatuation no new madness which leads you to he was unable to finish his sentence mrs melis dropped her hands from before her face and looked at him with her eyes flashing fire and her cheeks in a crimson blaze father she cried how dare you ask me such a question new infatuation new madness have i suffered so little do you think from the folly of my youth have i paid so small a price for the mistake of my girlhood that you should have caused to say these words to me tonight do i come of so bad a race she said pointing indignantly to her mother's portrait that you should think so vilely of me do i her tragical appeal was rising to its climax when she dropped suddenly at her father's feet and burst into a tempest of sobs papa papa pity me she cried pity me he raised her in his arms and drew her to him and comforted her as he had comforted her for the loss of a scotch terrier pop 12 years before when she was small enough to sit on his knee and nestle her head in his waistcoat pity you my dear he said what is there i would not do for you to save you one moment's sorrow if my worthless life could help you if you will give me the money papa she asked looking up at him half coaxingly through her tears yes my darling tomorrow morning in banknotes in any manner you please but aurora why see these people why listen to their disgraceful demands why not tell the truth oh why indeed she said thoughtfully ask me no questions dear papa but let me have the money tomorrow and i promise you that this shall be the very last you hear of my old troubles she made this promise with such perfect confidence that her father was inspired with a faint ray of hope come darling papa she said your room is near mine let us go upstairs together she entwined her arms in his and led him up the broad staircase only parting from him at the door of his room mr floyd summoned his daughter into the study early the next morning while talbot bolsteroed was opening his letters and lucy strolling up and down the terrace with john melish i have telegraphed for the money my darling the banker said one of the clerks will be here with it by the time we have finished breakfast mr floyd was right a card inscribed with the name of a mr john martin was brought to him during breakfast mr martin will be good enough to wait in my study he said aurora and her father found the clerks seated at the open window looking admiringly through festoons of foliage which clustered around the frame of the lattice into the richly cultivated garden felden woods was a sacred spot in the eyes of the junior clerks in lombard street and a drive to beckon ham in a handsome cab on a fine summer's morning to say nothing of such chance refreshments as pound cake and old madera or coal fowl and scotch ale was considered no small treat mr george martin who was laboring under the temporary affliction of being only 19 years of age rose in a confused flutter of respect and surprise and blushed very violently at sight of mrs melish aurora responded to his reverential salute with such a pleasant nod as she might have bestowed upon the younger dogs in the stable yard and seated herself opposite to him at the little table by the window it was such an excruciatingly narrow table that aurora's muslin dress rustled against the drab trousers of the junior clerk as mrs melish sat down the young man unlocked a little Morocco pouch which he wore suspended from a strap across his shoulder and produced a roll of crisp notes so crisp so white and new that in their unsullied freshness they look more like notes on the bank of elegance than the circulating medium of this busy money-making nation i have brought the cash for which you telegraphed sir said the clerk very good mr martin answered the banker here is my check ready written for you the notes are 2050s 2520s 5010s the clerk said glibly mr floyd took the little bundle of tissue paper and counted the notes with the professional rapidity which he still retained quite correct he said ringing the bell which was speedily answered by a simpering foot man give this gentleman some lunch you will find the madera very good he added kindly turning to the blushing junior it's a wine that is dying out and by the time you're my age mr martin you won't be able to get such a glass as i can offer you today good morning mr george martin clutched his hat nervously from the empty chair on which he had placed it knocked down a heap of papers with his elbow bowed blushed and stumbled out of the room under convoy of the simpering footman who nourished a profound contempt for the young man from the office now my darling said mr floyd here is the money though mind i protest against no no papa not a word she interrupted i thought that was all settled last night he sighed with the same weary sigh as on the night before and sitting himself at his desk dipped a pen into the ink what are you going to do papa i'm only going to take the numbers of the notes there is no occasion there is always occasion to be business like said the old man firmly as he checked the numbers of the notes one by one upon the sheet of paper with rapid precision aurora paced up and down the room impatiently while this operation was going forward how difficult it has been to me to get this money she exclaimed if i had been the wife and daughter of the two of the poorest men in prison them i could scarcely have had more trouble about this two thousand pounds and now you keep me here while you number the notes not one of which is likely to be exchanged in this country i learned to be business like when i was very young aurora answered mr. floyd and i have never been able to forget my old habits he completed his task in defiance of his daughter's impatience and handed her the packet of notes when he had done i will keep the list of numbers my dear he said if i were to give it to you you would most likely lose it he folded the sheet of paper and put it in a drawer of his desk 20 years hence aurora he said should i live so long i should be able to produce this paper if it were wanted which it never will be you dear methodical papa answered aurora my troubles are ended now yes she added in a graver tone i pray god that my troubles may be ended now she encircled her arms about her father's neck and kissed him tenderly i must leave you dearest today she said you must not ask me why you must not ask me nothing you must only love and trust me as my poor john trusts me faithfully hopefully through everything end of chapter 19 money matters