J. S. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas (1864) - Chaps. XXVI-XXX

Chapter XXVI: "The Story of Uncle Silas
And so it was like the yelling of phantom hounds and hunters, and the thunder of their coursers in the air - a furious, grand and supernatural music, which in my fancy made a suitable accompaniment to the discussion of that enigmatical person - martyr - angel - demon - Uncle Silas - with whom my fate was now so strangely linked, and whom I had begun to fear.
 ‘The storm blows from that point,’ I said, indicating it with my hand and eye, although the window shutters and curtains were closed. ‘I saw all the trees bend that way this evening. That way stands the great lonely wood, where my darling father and mother lie. Oh, how dreadful on nights like this, to think of them - a vault! - damp, and dark, and solitary - under the storm.’
 Cousin Monica looked wistfully in the same direction, and with a short sigh she said -
 ‘We think too much of the poor remains, and too little of the spirit which lives for ever. I am sure they are happy.’ And she sighed again. ‘I wish I dare hope as confidently for myself. Yes, Maud, it is sad. We are such materialists, we can’t help feeling so. We forget how well it is for us that our present bodies are not to last always. They are constructed for a time and place of trouble - plainly mere temporary machines that wear out, constantly exhibiting failure and decay, and with such tremendous capacity for pain. The body lies alone, and so it ought, for it is plainly its good Creator’s will; it is only the tabernacle, not the person, who is clothed upon after death, Saint Paul says, with a house which is from heaven. So Maud, darling, although the thought will trouble us again and again, there is nothing in it; and the poor mortal body is only the cold ruin of a habitation which "they have forsaken before we do. So this great wind, you say, is blowing toward us from the wood there. If so, Maud, it is blowing from Bartram-Haugh, too, over the trees and chimneys of that old place, and the mysterious old man, who is quite right in thinking I don’t like him; and I can fancy him an old enchanter in his castle, waving his familiar spirits on the wind to fetch and carry tidings of our occupations here.’
 I lifted my head and listened to the storm, dying away in the distance sometimes - sometimes swelling and pealing around and above us - and through the dark and solitude my thoughts sped away to Bartram-Haugh and Uncle Silas.
 ‘This letter,’ I said at last, ‘makes me feel differently. I think he is a stern old man - is he?’
 ‘It is twenty years, now, since I saw him,’ answered Lady Knollys. ‘I did not choose to visit at his house.’
 ‘Was that before the dreadful occurrence at Bartram-Haugh?’
 ‘Yes - before, dear. He was not a reformed rake, but only a ruined one then. Austin was very good to him. Mr. Danvers says it is quite unaccountable how Silas can have made away with the immense sums he got from his brother from time to time without benefiting himself in the least. But, my dear, he played; and trying to help a man who plays, and is unlucky - and some men are, I believe, habitually unlucky - is like trying to fill a vessel that has no bottom. I think, by-the-by, my hopeful nephew, Charles Oakley, plays. Then Silas went most unjustifiably into all manner of speculations, and your poor father had to pay everything. He lost something quite astounding in that bank that ruined so many country gentlemen - poor Sir Harry Shackleton, in Yorkshire, had to sell half his estate. But your kind father went on helping him, up to his marriage - I mean in that extravagant way which was really totally useless.’
 ‘Has my aunt been long dead?’
 ‘Twelve or fifteen years - more, indeed - she died before your poor mamma. She was very unhappy, and I am sure would have given her right hand she had never married Silas.’
 ‘Did you like her?’
 ‘No, dear; she was a coarse, vulgar woman.’
 ‘Coarse and vulgar, and Uncle Silas’s wife!’ I echoed in extreme surprise, for Uncle Silas was a man of fashion - a beau in his day - and might have married women of good birth and fortune, I had no doubt, and so I expressed myself. ‘Yes, dear; so he might, and poor dear Austin was very anxious he should, and would have helped him with a handsome settlement, I dare say, but he chose to marry the daughter of a Denbigh innkeeper.’
 ‘How utterly incredible!’ I exclaimed.
 ‘Not the least incredible, dear - a kind of thing not at all so uncommon as you fancy.’
 ‘What! - a gentleman of fashion and refinement marry a person - ‘
 ‘A barmaid! - just so,’ said Lady Knollys. ‘I think I could count half a dozen men of fashion who, to my knowledge, have ruined themselves just in a similar way.’
 ‘Well, at all events, it must be allowed that in this he proved himself altogether unworldly.’
 ‘Not a bit unworldly, but very vicious,’ replied Cousin Monica, with a careless little laugh. ‘She was very beautiful, curiously beautiful, for a person in her station. She was very like that Lady Hamilton who was Nelson’s sorceress - elegantly beautiful, but perfectly low and stupid. I believe, to do him justice, he only intended to ruin her; but she was cunning enough to insist upon marriage. Men who have never in all their lives denied themselves the indulgence of a single fancy, cost what it may, will not be baulked even by that condition if the "penchant be only violent enough.’
 I did not half understand this piece of worldly psychology, at which Lady Knollys seemed to laugh.
 ‘Poor Silas, certainly he struggled honestly against the consequences, for he tried after the honeymoon to prove the marriage bad. But the Welsh parson and the innkeeper papa were too strong for him, and the young lady was able to hold her struggling swain fast in that respectable noose - and a pretty prize he proved!’
 ‘And she died, poor thing, broken-hearted, I heard.’
 ‘She died, at all events, about ten years after her marriage; but I really can’t say about her heart. She certainly had enough ill-usage, I believe, to kill her; but I don’t know that she had feeling enough to die of it, if it had not been that she drank: I am told that Welsh women often do. There was jealousy, of course, and brutal quarrelling, and all sorts of horrid stories. I visited at Bartram-Haugh for a year or two, though no one else would. But when that sort of thing began, of course I gave it up; it was out of the question. I don’t think poor Austin ever knew how bad it was. And then came that odious business about wretched Mr. Charke. You know he - he committed suicide at Bartram.’
 ‘I never heard about that,’ I said; and we both paused, and she looked sternly at the fire, and the storm roared and ha-ha-ed till the old house shook again.
 ‘But Uncle Silas could not help that,’ I said at last.
 ‘No, he could not help it,’ she acquiesced unpleasantly.
 ‘And Uncle Silas was’ - I paused in a sort of fear.
 ‘He was suspected by some people of having killed him’ - she completed the sentence.
 There was another long pause here, during which the storm outside bellowed and hooted like an angry mob roaring at the windows for a victim. An intolerable and sickening sensation overpowered me.
 ‘But "you did not suspect him, Cousin Knollys?’ I said, trembling very much.
 ‘No,’ she answered very sharply. ‘I told you so before. Of course I did not.’
 There was another silence.
 ‘I wish, Cousin Monica,’ I said, drawing close to her, ‘you had not said "that about Uncle Silas being like a wizard, and sending his spirits on the wind to listen. But I’m very glad you never suspected him.’ I insinuated my cold hand into hers, and looked into her face I know not with what expression. She looked down into mine with a hard, haughty stare, I thought.
 ‘Of "course I never suspected him; and "never ask me "that question again, Maud Ruthyn.’
 Was it family pride, or what was it, that gleamed so fiercely from her eyes as she said this? I was frightened - I was wounded - I burst into tears.
 ‘What is my darling crying for? I did not mean to be cross. "Was I cross?’ said this momentary phantom of a grim Lady Knollys, in an instant translated again into kind, pleasant Cousin Monica, with her arms about my neck.
 ‘No, no, indeed - only I thought I had vexed you; and, I believe, thinking of Uncle Silas makes me nervous, and I can’t help thinking of him nearly always.’ ‘Nor can I, although we might both easily find something better to think of. Suppose we try?’ said Lady Knollys.
 ‘But, first, I must know a little more about that Mr. Charke, and what circumstances enabled Uncle Silas’s enemies to found on his death that wicked slander, which has done no one any good, and caused some persons so much misery. There is Uncle Silas, I may say, ruined by it; and we all know how it darkened the life of my dear father.’
 ‘People will talk, my dear. Your uncle Silas had injured himself before that in the opinion of the people of his county. He was a black sheep, in fact. Very bad stories were told and believed of him. His marriage certainly was a disadvantage, you know, and the miserable scenes that went on in his disreputable house - all that predisposed people to believe ill of him.’
 ‘How long is it since it happened?’
 ‘Oh, a long time; I think before you were born,’ answered she.
 ‘And the injustice still lives - they have not forgotten it yet?’ said I, for such a period appeared to me long enough to have consigned anything in its nature perishable to oblivion.
 Lady Knollys smiled.
 ‘Tell me, like a darling cousin, the whole story as well as you can recollect it. Who was Mr. Charke?’
 ‘Mr. Charke, my dear, was a gentleman on the turf - that is the phrase, I think - one of those London men, without birth or breeding, who merely in right of their vices and their money are admitted to associate with young dandies who like hounds and horses, and all that sort of thing. That set knew him very well, but of course no one else. He was at the Matlock races, and your uncle asked him to Bartram-Haugh; and the creature, Jew or Gentile, whatever he was, fancied there was more honour than, perhaps, there really was in a visit to Bartram-Haugh.’
 ‘For the kind of person you describe, it was, I think, a rather unusual honour to be invited to stay in the house of a man of Uncle Ruthyn’s birth.’
 ‘Well, so it was perhaps; for though they knew him very well on the course, and would ask him to their tavern dinners, they would not, of course, admit him to the houses where ladies were. But Silas’s wife was not much regarded at Bartram-Haugh. Indeed, she was very little seen, for she was every evening tipsy in her bedroom, poor woman!’
 ‘How miserable!’ I exclaimed.
 ‘I don’t think it troubled Silas very much, for she drank gin, they said, poor thing, and the expense was not much; and, on the whole, I really think he was glad she drank, for it kept her out of his way, and was likely to kill her. At this time your poor father, who was thoroughly disgusted at his marriage, had stopped the supplies, you know, and Silas was very poor, and as hungry as a hawk, and they said he pounced upon this rich London gamester, intending to win his money. I am telling you now all that was said afterwards. The races lasted I forget how many days, and Mr. Charke stayed at Bartram-Haugh all this time and for some days after. It was thought that poor Austin would pay all Silas’s gambling debts, and so this wretched Mr. Charke made heavy wagers with him on the races, and they played very deep, besides, at Bartram. He and Silas used to sit up at night at cards. All these particulars, as I told you, came out afterwards, for there was an inquest, you know, and then Silas published what he called his statement, and there was a great deal of most distressing correspondence in the newspapers.’
 ‘And why did Mr. Charke kill himself?’ I asked.
 ‘Well, I will tell you first what all are agreed about. The second night after the races, your uncle and Mr. Charke sat up till between two and three o’clock in the morning, quite by themselves, in the parlour. Mr. Charke’s servant was at the Stag’s Head Inn at Feltram, and therefore could throw no light upon what occurred at night at Bartram-Haugh; but he was there at six o’clock in the morning, and very early at his master’s door by his direction. He had locked it, as was his habit, upon the inside, and the key was in the lock, which turned out afterwards a very important point. On knocking he found that he could not awaken his master, because, as it appeared when the door was forced open, his master was lying dead at his bedside, not in a pool, but a perfect pond of blood, as they described it, with his throat cut.’
 ‘How horrible!’ cried I.
 ‘So it was. Your uncle Silas was called up, and greatly shocked of course, and he did what I believe was best. He had everything left as nearly as possible in the exact state in which it had been found, and he sent his own servant forthwith for the coroner, and, being himself a justice of the peace, he took the depositions of Mr. Charke’s servant while all the incidents were still fresh in his memory.’
 ‘Could anything be more straightforward, more right and wise?’ I said.
 ‘Oh, nothing of course,’ answered Lady Knollys, I thought a little drily.

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Chapter XXVII: "More about Tom Charke’s Suicide
 So the inquest was held, and Mr. Manwaring, of Wail Forest, was the only juryman who seemed to entertain the idea during the inquiry that Mr. Charke had died by any hand but his own.
 ‘And how "could he fancy such a thing?’ I exclaimed indignantly.
 ‘Well, you will see the result was quite enough to justify them in saying as they did, that he died by his own hand. The window was found fastened with a screw on the inside, as it had been when the chambermaid had arranged it at nine o’-clock; no one could have entered through it. Besides, it was on the third story, and the rooms are lofty, so it stood at a great height from the ground, and there was no ladder long enough to reach it. The house is built in the form of a hollow square, and Mr. Charke’s room looked into the narrow court-yard within. There is but one door leading into this, and it did not show any sign of having been open for years. The door was locked upon the inside, and the key in the lock, so that nobody could have made an entrance that way either, for it was impossible, you see, to unlock the door from the outside.’ ‘And how could they affect to question anything so clear?’ I asked.
 ‘There did come, nevertheless, a kind of mist over the subject, which gave those who chose to talk unpleasantly an opportunity of insinuating suspicions, though they could not themselves find the clue of the mystery. In the first place, it appeared that he had gone to bed very tipsy, and that he was heard sing ing and noisy in his room while getting to bed - not the mood in which men make away with themselves. Then, although his own razor was found in that dreadful blood (it is shocking to have to hear all this) near his right hand, the fingers of his left were cut to the bone. Then the memorandum book in which his bets were noted was nowhere to be found. That, you know, was very odd. His keys were there attached to a chain. He wore a great deal of gold and trinkets. I saw him, wretched man, on the course. They had got off their horses. He and your uncle were walking on the course.’
 ‘Did he look like a gentleman?’ I inquired, as I dare say, other young ladies would.
 ‘He looked like a Jew, my dear. He had a horrid brown coat with a velvet cape, curling black hair over his collar, and great whiskers, very high shoulders, and he was puffing a cigar straight up into the air. I was shocked to see Silas in such company.’
 ‘And did his keys discover anything?’ I asked.
 ‘On opening his travelling desk and a small japanned box within it a vast deal less money was found than was expected - in fact, very little. Your uncle said that he had won some of it the night before at play, and that Charke complained to him when tipsy of having had severe losses to counterbalance his gains on the races. Besides, he had been paid but a small part of those gains. About his book it appeared that there were little notes of bets on the backs of letters, and it was said that he sometimes made no other memorandum of his wagers - but this was disputed - and among those notes there was not one referring to Silas. But, then, there was an omission of all allusion to his transactions with two other well-known gentlemen. So that was not singular.’
 ‘No, certainly; that was quite accounted for,’ said I.
 ‘And then came the question,’ continued she, ‘what motive could Mr. Charke possibly have had for making away with himself.’
 ‘But is not that very difficult to make out in many cases?’ I interposed.
 ‘It was said that he had some mysterious troubles in London, at which he used to hint. Some people said that he really was in a scrape, but others that there was no such thing, and that when he talked so he was only jesting. There was no suspicion during the inquest that your uncle Silas was involved, except those questions of Mr. Manwaring’s.’
 ‘What were they?’ I asked.
 ‘I really forget; but they greatly offended your uncle, and there was a little scene in the room. Mr. Manwaring seemed to think that some one had somehow got into the room. Through the door it could not be, nor down the chimney, for they found an iron bar across the flue, near the top in the masonry. The window looked into a court-yard no bigger than a ball-room. They went down and examined it, but, though the ground beneath was moist, they could not discover the slightest trace of a footprint. So far as they could make out, Mr. Charke had hermetically sealed himself into his room, and then cut his throat with his own razor.’
 ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘for it was all secured - that is, the window and the door - upon the inside, and no sign of any attempt to get in.’
 ‘Just so; and when the walls were searched, and, as your uncle Silas directed, the wainscoting removed, some months afterwards, when the scandal grew loudest, then it was evident that there was no concealed access to the room.’
 ‘So the answer to all those calumnies was simply that the crime was impossible,’ said I. ‘How dreadful that such a slander should have required an answer at all!’
 ‘It was an unpleasant affair even then, although I cannot say that anyone supposed Silas guilty; but you know the whole thing was disreputable, that Mr. Charke was a discreditable inmate, the occurrence was horrible, and there was a glare of publicity which brought into relief the scandals of Bartram-Haugh. But in a little time it became, all on a sudden, a great deal worse.’
 My cousin paused to recollect exactly.
 ‘There were very disagreeable whispers among the sporting people in London. This person, Charke, had written two letters, Yes - two. They were published about two months after, by the villain to whom they were written; he wanted to extort money. They were first talked of a great deal among that set in town; but the moment they were published they produced a sensation in the country, and a storm of newspaper commentary. The first of these was of no great consequence, but the second was very startling, embarrassing, and even alarming.’
 ‘What was it, Cousin Monica?’ I whispered.
 ‘I can only tell you in a general way, it is so very long since I read it; but both were written in the same kind of slang, and parts as hard to understand as a prize fight. I hope you never read those things.’
 I satisfied this sudden educational alarm, and Lady Knollys proceeded.
 ‘I am afraid you hardly hear me, the wind makes such an uproar. Well, listen. The letter said distinctly, that he, Mr. Charke, had made a very profitable visit to Bartram-Haugh, and mentioned in exact figures for how much he held your uncle Silas’s I.O.U.’s, for he could not pay him. I can’t say what the sum was. I only remember that it was quite frightful. It took away my breath when I read it.’
 ‘Uncle Silas had lost it?’ I asked.
 ‘Yes, and owed it; and had given him those papers called I.O.U.’s promising to pay, which, of course, Mr. Charke had locked up with his money; and the insinuation was that Silas had made away with him, to get rid of this debt, and that he had also taken a great deal of his money.
 ‘I just recollect these points which were exactly what made the impression,’ continued Lady Knollys, after a short pause; ‘the letter was written in the evening of the last day of the wretched man’s life, so that there had not been much time for your uncle Silas to win back his money; and he stoutly alleged that he did not owe Mr. Charke a guinea. It mentioned an enormous sum as being actually owed by Silas; and it cautioned the man, an agent, to whom he wrote, not to mention the circumstance, as Silas could only pay by getting the money from his wealthy brother, who would have the management; and he distinctly said that he had kept the matter very close at Silas’s request. That, you know, was a very awkward letter, and all the worse that it was written in brutally high spirits, and not at all like a man meditating an exit from the world. You can’t imagine what a sensation the publication of these letters produced. In a moment the storm was up, and certainly Silas did meet it bravely - yes, with great courage and ability. What a pity he did not early enter upon some career of ambition! Well, well, it is idle regretting. He suggested that the letters were forgeries. He alleged that Charke was in the habit of boasting, and telling enormous falsehoods about his gambling transactions, especially in his letters. He reminded the world how often men affect high animal spirits at the very moment of meditating suicide. He alluded, in a manly and graceful way, to his family and their character. He took a high and menacing tone with his adversaries, and he insisted that what they dared to insinuate against him was physically impossible.’
 I asked in what form this vindication appeared.
 ‘It was a letter, printed as a pamphlet; everybody admired its ability, ingenuity, and force, and it was written with immense rapidity.’
 ‘Was it at all in the style of his letters?’ I innocently asked.
 My cousin laughed.
 ‘Oh, dear, no! Ever since he avowed himself a religious character, he had written nothing but the most vapid and nerveless twaddle. Your poor dear father used to send his letters to me to read, and I sometimes really thought that Silas was losing his faculties; but I believe he was only trying to write in character.’
 ‘I suppose the general feeling was in his favour?’ I said.
 ‘I don’t think it was, anywhere; but in his own county it was certainly unanimously against him. There is no use in asking why; but so it was, and I think it would have been easier for him with his unaided strength to uproot the Peak than to change the convictions of the Derbyshire gentlemen. They were all against him. Of course there were predisposing causes. Your uncle published a very bitter attack upon them, describing himself as the victim of a political conspiracy: and I recollect he mentioned that from the hour of the shocking catastrophe in his house, he had forsworn the turf and all pursuits and amusements connected with it. People sneered, and said he might as well go as wait to be kicked out.’
 ‘Were there law-suits about all this?’ I asked.
 ‘Everybody expected that there would, for there were very savage things printed on both sides, and I think, too, that the persons who thought worst of him expected that evidence would yet turn up to convict Silas of the crime they chose to impute; and so years have glided away, and many of the people who remembered the tragedy of Bartram-Haugh, and took the strongest part in the denunciation, and ostracism that followed, are dead, and no new light had been thrown upon the occurrence, and your uncle Silas remains an outcast. At first he was quite wild with rage, and would have fought the whole county, man by man, if they would have met him. But he had since changed his habits and, as he says, his aspirations altogether.’
 ‘He has become religious.’
 ‘The only occupation remaining to him. He owes money; he is poor; he is isolated; and he says, sick and religious. Your poor father, who was very decided and inflexible, never helped him beyond the limit he had prescribed, after Silas’s "mésalliance. He wanted to get him into Parliament, and would have paid his expenses, and made him an allowance; but either Silas had grown lazy, or he understood his position better than poor Austin, or he distrusted his powers, or possibly he really is in ill-health; but he objected his religious scruples. Your poor papa thought self-assertion possible, where an injured man has right to rely upon, but he had been very long out of the world, and the theory won’t do. Nothing is harder than to get a person who has once been effectually slurred, received again. Silas, I think, was right. I don’t think it was practicable.
 ‘Dear child, how late it is!’ exclaimed Lady Knollys suddenly, looking at the Louis Quatorze clock, that crowned the mantelpiece.
 It was near one o’clock. The storm had a little subsided, and I took a less agitated and more confident view of Uncle Silas than I had at an earlier hour of that evening.
 ‘And what do you think of him?’ I asked.
 Lady Knollys drummed on the table with her finger points as she looked into the fire.
 ‘I don’t understand metaphysics, my dear, nor witchcraft. I sometimes believe in the supernatural, and sometimes I don’t. Silas Ruthyn is himself alone, and I can’t define him, because I don’t understand him. Perhaps other souls than human are sometimes born into the world, and clothed in flesh. It is not only about that dreadful occurrence, but nearly always throughout his life; early and late he has puzzled me. I have tried in vain to understand him. But at one time of his life I am sure he was awfully wicked - eccentric indeed in his wickedness - gay, frivolous, secret, and dangerous. At one time I think he could have made poor Austin do almost anything; but his influence vanished with his marriage, never to return again. No; I don’t understand him. He always bewildered me, like a shifting face, sometimes smiling, but always sinister, in an unpleasant dream.’

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Chapter XXVIII: "I am Persuaded
 So now at last I had heard the story of Uncle Silas’s mysterious disgrace. We sat silent for a while, and I, gazing into vacancy, sent him in a chariot of triumph, chapletted, ringed, and robed through the city of imagination, crying after him, ‘Innocent! innocent! martyr and crowned!’ All the virtues and honesties, reason and conscience, in myriad shapes - tier above tier of human faces - from the crowded pavement, crowded windows, crowded roofs, joined in the jubilant acclamation, and trumpeters trumpeted, and drums rolled, and great organs and choirs through open cathedral gates, rolled anthems of praise and thanksgiving, and the bells rang out, and cannons sounded, and the air trembled with the roaring harmony; and Silas Ruthyn, the full-length portrait, stood in the burnished chariot, with a proud, sad, clouded face, that rejoiced not with the rejoicers, and behind him the slave, thin as a ghost, white-faced, and sneering something in his ear: while I and all the city went on crying ‘Innocent! innocent! martyr and crowned!’ And now the reverie was ended; and there were only Lady Knollys’ stern, thoughtful face, with the pale light of sarcasm on it, and the storm outside thundering and lamenting desolately.
 It was very good of Cousin Monica to stay with me so long. It must have been unspeakably tiresome. And now she began to talk of business at home, and plainly to prepare for immediate flight, and my heart sank.
 I know that I could not then have defined my feelings and agitations. I am not sure that I even now could. Any misgiving about Uncle Silas was, in my mind, a questioning the foundations of my faith, and in itself an impiety. And yet I am not sure that some such misgiving, faint, perhaps, and intermittent, may not have been at the bottom of my tribulation.
 I was not very well. Lady Knollys had gone out for a walk. She was not easily tired, and sometimes made a long excursion. The sun was setting now, when Mary Quince brought me a letter which had just arrived by the post. My heart throbbed violently. I was afraid to break the broad black seal. It was from Uncle Silas. I ran over in my mind all the unpleasant mandates which it might contain, to try and prepare myself for a shock. At last I opened the letter. It directed me to hold myself in readiness for the journey to Bartram-Haugh. It stated that I might bring two maids with me if I wished so many, and that his next letter would give me the details of my route, and the day of my departure for Derbyshire; and he said that I ought to make arrangements about Knowl during my absence, but that he was hardly the person properly to be consulted on that matter. Then came a prayer that he might be enabled to acquit himself of his trust to the full satisfaction of his conscience, and that I might enter upon my new relations in a spirit of prayer.
 I looked round my room, so long familiar, and now so endeared by the idea of parting and change. The old house - dear, dear Knowl, how could I leave you and all your affectionate associations, and kind looks and voices, for a strange land!
 With a great sigh I took Uncle Silas’s letter, and went down stairs to the drawing-room. From the lobby window, where I loitered for a few moments, I looked out upon the well-known forest-trees. The sun was down. It was already twilight, and the white vapours of coming night were already filming their thinned and yellow foliage. Everything looked melancholy. How little did those who envied the young inheritrex of a princely fortune suspect the load that lay at her heart, or, bating the fear of death, how gladly at that moment she would have parted with her life!
 Lady Knollys had not yet returned, and it was darkening rapidly; a mass of black clouds stood piled in the west, through the chasms of which was still reflected a pale metallic lustre.
 The drawing-room was already very dark; but some streaks of this cold light fell upon a black figure, which would otherwise have been unseen, leaning beside the curtains against the window frame.
 It advanced abruptly, with creaking shoes; it was Doctor Bryerly.
 I was startled and surprised, not knowing how he had got there. I stood staring at him in the dusk rather awkwardly, I am afraid.
 ‘How do you do, Miss Ruthyn?’ said he, extending his hand, long, hard, and brown as a mummy’s, and stooping a little so as to approach more nearly, for it was not easy to see in the imperfect light. ‘You’re surprised, I dare say, to see me here so soon again?’
 ‘I did not know you had arrived. I am glad to see you, Doctor Bryerly. Nothing unpleasant, I hope, has happened?’
 ‘No, nothing unpleasant, Miss. The will has been lodged, and we shall have probate in due course; but there has been something on my mind, and I’m come to ask you two or three questions which you had better answer very considerately. Is Miss Knollys still here?’
 ‘Yes, but she is not returned from her walk.’
 ‘I am glad she is here. I think she takes a sound view, and women understand one another better. As for me, it is plainly my duty to put it before you as it strikes me, and to offer all I can do in accomplishing, should you wish it, a different arrangement. You don’t know your uncle, you said the other day?’
 ‘No, I’ve never seen him.’
 ‘You understand your late father’s intention in making you his ward?’
 ‘I suppose he wished to show his high opinion of my uncle’s fitness for such a trust.’
 ‘That’s quite true; but the nature of the trust in this instance is extraordinary.’
 ‘I don’t understand.’
 ‘Why, if you die before you come to the age of twenty-one, the entire of the property will go to him - do you see? - and he has the custody of your person in the meantime; you are to live in his house, under his care and authority. You see now, I think, how it is; and I did not like it when your father read the will to me, and I said so. Do you?’
 I hesitated to speak, not sure that I quite comprehended him.
 ‘And the more I think of it, the less I like it, Miss,’ said Doctor Bryerly, in a calm, stern tone.
 ‘Merciful Heaven! Doctor Bryerly, you can’t suppose that I should not be as safe in my uncle’s house as in the Lord Chancellor’s?’ I ejaculated, looking full in his face.
 ‘But don’t you see, Miss, it is not a fair position to put your uncle in,’ replied he, after a little hesitation.
 ‘But suppose "he does not think so. You know, if he does, he may decline it.’
 ‘Well that’s true - but he won’t. Here is his letter’ - and he produced it - ‘announcing officially that he means to accept the office; but I think he ought to be told it is not delicate, under all circumstances. You know, Miss, that your uncle, Mr. Silas Ruthyn, was talked about unpleasantly once.’
 ‘You mean’ - I began.
 ‘I mean about the death of Mr. Charke, at Bartram-Haugh.’
 ‘Yes, I have heard that,’ I said; he was speaking with a shocking "aplomb.
 ‘We assume, of course, unjustly; but there are many who think quite differently.’
 ‘And possibly, Doctor Bryerly, it was for that very reason that my dear papa made him my guardian.’
 ‘There can be no doubt of that, Miss; it was to purge him of that scandal.’
 ‘And when he has acquitted himself honourably of that trust, don’t you think such a proof of confidence so honourably fulfilled must go far to silence his traducers?’
 ‘Why, if all goes well, it may do a little; but a great deal less than you fancy. But take it that you happen to die, Miss, during your minority. We are all mortal, and there are three years and some months to go; how will it be then? Don’t you see? Just fancy how people will talk.’
 ‘I think you know that my uncle is a religious man?’ said I.
 ‘Well, Miss, what of that?’ he asked again.
 ‘He is - he has suffered intensely,’ I continued. ‘He has long retired from the world; he is very religious. Ask our curate, Mr. Fairfield, if you doubt it.’
 ‘But I am not disputing it, Miss; I’m only supposing what may happen - an accident, we’ll call it small-pox, diphtheria, "that’s going very much. Three years and three months, you know, is a long time. You proceed to Bartram-Haugh, thinking you have much goods laid up for many years; but your Creator, you know, may say, Thou fool, this day is thy soul required of thee. You go - and what pray is thought of your uncle, Mr. Silas Ruthyn, who walks in for the entire inheritance, and who has long been abused like a pickpocket, or worse, in his own county, I’m told?’
 ‘You are a religious man, Doctor Bryerly, according to your lights?’ I said.
 The Swedenborgian smiled.
 ‘Well, knowing that he is so too, and having yourself experienced the power of religion, do not you think him deserving of every confidence? Don’t you think it well that he should have this opportunity of exhibiting both his own character and the reliance which my dear papa reposed on it, and that we should leave all consequences and contingencies in the hands of Heaven?’
 ‘It appears to have been the will of Heaven hitherto,’ said Doctor Bryerly - I could not see with what expression of face, but he was looking down, and drawing little diagrams with his stick on the dark carpet, and spoke in a very low tone - ‘that your uncle should suffer under this ill report. In countervailing the appointment of Providence, we must employ our reason, with conscientious diligence, as to the means, and if we find that they are as likely to do mischief as good, we have no right to expect a special interposition to turn our experiment into an ordeal. I think you ought to weigh it well - I am sure there are reasons against it. If you make up your mind that you would rather be placed under the care, say of Lady Knollys, I will endeavour all I can to effect it.’
 ‘That could not be done without his consent, could it?’ said I.
 ‘No, but I don’t despair of getting that - on terms, of course,’ remarked he.
 ‘I don’t quite understand,’ I said.
 ‘I mean, for instance, if he were allowed to keep the allowance for your maintenance - eh?’
 ‘I mistake my uncle Silas very much,’ I said, ‘if that allowance is any object whatever to him compared with the moral value of the position. If he were deprived of that, I am sure he would decline the other.’
 ‘We might try him at all events,’ said Doctor Bryerly, on whose dark sinewy features, even in this imperfect light, I thought I detected a smile.
 ‘Perhaps,’ said I, ‘I appear very foolish in supposing him actuated by any but sordid motives; but he is my near relation, and I can’t help it, sir.’
 ‘That is a very serious thing, Miss Ruthyn,’ he replied. ‘You are very young, and cannot see it at present, as you will hereafter. He is very religious, you say, and all that, but his house is not a proper place for you. It is a solitude - its master an outcast, and it has been the repeated scene of all sorts of scandals, and of one great crime; and Lady Knollys thinks your having been domesticated there will be an injury to you all the days of your life.’
 ‘So I do, Maud,’ said Lady Knollys, who had just entered the room unperceived, - ‘How do you do, Doctor Bryerly? - a serious injury. You have no idea how entirely that house is condemned and avoided, and the very name of its inmates tabooed.’
 ‘How monstrous - how cruel!’ I exclaimed.
 ‘Very unpleasant, my dear, but perfectly natural. You are to recollect that quite independently of the story of Mr. Charke, the house was talked about, and the county people had cut your uncle Silas long before that adventure was dreamed of; and as to the circumstance of your being placed in his charge by his brother, who took, from strong family feeling, a totally one-sided view of the affair from the first, having the slightest effect in restoring his position in the county, you must quite give that up. Except me, if he will allow me, and the clergyman, not a soul in the country will visit at Bartram-Haugh. They may pity you, and think the whole thing the climax of folly and cruelty; but they won’t visit at Bartram, or know Silas, or have anything to do with his household.’
 ‘They will see, at all events, what my dear papa’s opinion was.’
 ‘They know that already,’ answered she, ‘and it has not, and ought not to have, the slightest weight with them. There are people there who think themselves just as great as the Ruthyns, or greater; and your poor father’s idea of carrying it by a demonstration was simply the dream of a man who had forgotten the world, and learned to exaggerate himself in his long seclusion. I know he was beginning himself to hesitate; and I think if he had been spared another year that provision of his will would have been struck out.’
 Doctor Bryerly nodded, and he said -
 ‘And if he had the power to dictate ", would he insist on that direction? It is a mistake every way, injurious to you, his child; and should you happen to die during your sojourn under your uncle’s care, it would woefully defeat the testator’s object, and raise such a storm of surmise and inquiry as would awaken all England, and send the old scandal on the wing through the world again.’
 ‘Doctor Bryerly will, I have no doubt, arrange it all. In fact, I do not think it would be very difficult to bring Silas to terms; and if you do not consent to his trying, Maud, mark my words, you will live to repent it.’
 Here were two persons viewing the question from totally different points; both perfectly disinterested; both in their different ways, I believe, shrewd and even wise; and both honourable, urging me against it, and in a way that undefinably alarmed my imagination, as well as moved my reason. I looked from one to the other - there was a silence. By this time the candles had come, and we could see one another.
 ‘I only wait your decision, Miss Ruthyn,’ said the trustee, ‘to see your uncle. If his advantage was the chief object contemplated in this arrangement, he will be the best judge whether his interest is really best consulted by it or no; and I think he will clearly see that it is "not so, and will answer accordingly.’
 ‘I cannot answer now - you must allow me to think it over - I will do my best. I am very much obliged, my dear Cousin Monica, you are so very good, and you too, Doctor Bryerly.’
 Doctor Bryerly by this time was looking into his pocket-book, and did not acknowledge my thanks even by a nod.
 ‘I must be in London the day after to-morrow. Bartram-Haugh is nearly sixty miles from here, and only twenty of that by rail, I find. Forty miles of posting over those Derbyshire mountains is slow work; but if you say try, I’ll see him to-morrow morning.’
 ‘You must say try - you must, my dear Maud.’
 ‘But how can I decide in a moment? Oh, dear Cousin Monica, I am so distracted!’
 ‘But "you need not decide at all; the decision rests with "him. Come; he is more competent than you. You "must say yes.’
 Again I looked from her to Doctor Bryerly, and from him to her again. I threw my arms about her neck, and hugging her closely to me, I cried -
 ‘Oh, Cousin Monica, dear Cousin Monica, advise me. I am a wretched creature. You must advise me.’
 I did not know till now how irresolute a character was mine.
 I knew somehow by the tone of her voice that she was smiling as she answered -
 ‘Why, dear, I have advised you; I "do advise you;’ and then she added, impetuously, ‘I entreat and implore, if you really think I love you, that you will "follow my advice. It is your duty to leave your uncle Silas, whom you believe to be more competent than you are, to decide, after full conference with Doctor Bryerly, who knows more of your poor father’s views and intentions in making that appointment than either you or I.’
 ‘Shall I say, yes?’ I cried, drawing her close, and kissing her helplessly.’ Oh, tell me - tell me to say, yes.’
 ‘Yes, of course, "yes. She agrees, Doctor Bryerly, to your kind proposal.’
 ‘I am to understand so?’ he asked.
 ‘Very well - yes, Doctor Bryerly,’ I replied.
 ‘You have resolved wisely and well,’ said he, briskly, like a man who has got a care off his mind.
 ‘I forgot to say, Doctor Bryerly - it was very rude - that you must stay here to-night.’
 ‘He can’t, my dear,’ interposed Lady Knolly’s; ‘it is a long way.’
 ‘He will dine. Won’t you, Doctor Bryerly?’
 ‘No; he can’t. You know you can’t, sir,’ said my cousin, peremptorily. ‘You must not worry him, my dear, with civilities he can’t accept. He’ll bid us good-bye this moment. Good-bye, Doctor Bryerly. You’ll write immediately; don’t wait till you reach town. Bid him good-bye, Maud. I’ll say a word to you in the hall.’
 And thus she literally hurried him out of the room, leaving me in a state of amazement and confusion, not able to review my decision - unsatisfied, but still unable to recall it.
 I stood where they had left me, looking after them, I suppose, like a fool.
 Lady Knollys returned in a few minutes. If I had been a little cooler I was shrewd enough to perceive that she had sent poor Doctor Bryerly away upon his travels, to find board and lodging half-way to Bartram, to remove him forthwith from my presence, and thus to make my decision - if mine it was - irrevocable.
 ‘I applaud you, my dear,’ said Cousin Knollys, in her turn embracing me heartily. ‘You are a sensible little darling, and have done exactly what you ought to have done.’
 ‘I hope I have,’ I faltered.
 ‘Hope? fiddle! stuff! the thing’s as plain as a pikestaff.’
 And in came Branston to say that dinner was served.

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Chapter XXIX: "How the Ambassador Fared
 Lady Knollys, I could plainly see, when we got into the brighter lights at the dinner table, was herself a good deal excited; she was relieved and glad, and was garrulous during our meal, and told me all her early recollections of dear papa. Most of them I had heard before; but they could not be told too often.
 Notwithstanding my mind sometimes wandered, "often indeed, to the conference so unexpected, so suddenly decisive, possibly so momentous; and with a dismayed uncertainly, the question - had I done right? - was always before me.
 I dare say my cousin understood my character better, perhaps, after all my honest self-study, then I do even now. Irresolute, suddenly reversing my own decisions, impetuous in action as she knew me, she feared, I am sure, a revocation of my commission to Doctor Bryerly, and thought of the countermand I might send galloping after him.
 So, kind creature, she laboured to occupy my thoughts, and when one theme was exhausted found another, and had always her parry prepared as often as I directed a reflection or an enquiry to the re-opening of the question which she had taken so much pains to close.
 That night I was troubled. I was already upbraiding myself. I could not sleep, and at last sat up in bed, and cried. I lamented my weakness in having assented to Doctor Bryerly’s and my cousin’s advice. Was I not departing from my engagement to my dear papa? Was I not consenting that my Uncle Silas should be induced to second my breach of faith by a corresponding perfidy?
 Lady Knollys had done wisely in despatching Doctor Bryerly so promptly; for, most assuredly, had he been at Knowl next morning when I came down I should have recalled my commission.
 That day in the study I found four papers which increased my perturbation. They were in dear papa’s handwriting, and had an indorsement in these words - ‘Copy of my letter addressed to - - , one of the trustees named in my will.’ Here, then, were the contents of those four sealed letters which had excited mine and Lady Knollys’ curiosity on the agitating day on which the will was read.
 It contained these words: -
 ‘I name my oppressed and unhappy brother, Silas Ruthyn, residing at my house of Bartram-Haugh, as guardian of the person of my beloved child, to convince the world if possible, and failing that, to satisfy at least all future generations of our family, that his brother, who knew him best, had implicit confidence in him, and that he deserved it. A cowardly and preposterous slander, originating in political malice, and which never have been whispered had he not been poor and imprudent, is best silenced by this ordeal of purification. All I possess goes to him if my child dies under age; and the custody of her person I commit meanwhile to him alone, knowing that she is as safe in his as she could have been under my own care. I rely upon your remembrance of our early friendship to make this known wherever an opportunity occurs, and also to say what your sense of justice may warrant.’
 The other letters were in the same spirit. My heart sank like lead as I read them. I quaked with fear. What had I done? My father’s wise and noble vindication of our dishonoured name I had presumed to frustrate. I had, like a coward, receded from my easy share in the task; and, merciful Heaven, I had broken my faith with the dead!
 With these letters in my hand, white with fear, I flew like a shadow to the drawing-room where Cousin Monica was, and told her to read them. I saw by her countenance how much alarmed she was by my looks, but she said nothing, only read the letters hurriedly, and then exclaimed -
 ‘Is this all, my dear child? I really fancied you had found a second will, and had lost everything. Why, my dearest Maud, we knew all this before. We quite understood poor dear Austin’s motive. Why are you so easily disturbed?’
 ‘Oh, Cousin Monica, I think he was right; it all seems quite reasonable now; and I - oh, what a crime! - it must be stopped.’
 ‘My dear Maud, listen to reason. Doctor Bryerly has seen your uncle at Bartram at least two hours ago. You "can’t stop it, and why on earth should you if you could? Don’t you think your uncle should be consulted?’ said she.
 ‘But he has "decided. I have his letter speaking of it as settled; and Doctor Bryerly - oh, Cousin Monica, he’s gone "to tempt him.’
 ‘Nonsense, girl! Doctor Bryerly is a good and just man, I do believe, and has, beside, no imaginable motive to pervert either his conscience or his judgment. He’s not gone to tempt him - stuff! - but to unfold the facts and invite his consideration; and I say, considering how thoughtlessly such duties are often undertaken, and how long Silas has been living in lazy solitude, shut out from the world, and unused to discuss anything, I do think it only conscientious and honourable that he should have a fair and distinct view of the matter in all its bearings submitted to him before he indolently incurs what may prove the worst danger he was ever involved in.’
 So Lady Knollys argued, with feminine energy, and I must confess, with a good deal of the repetition which I have sometimes observed in logicians of my own sex, and she puzzled without satisfying me.
 ‘I don’t know why I went to that room,’ I said, quite frightened; ‘or why I went to that press; how it happened that these papers, which we never saw there before, were the first things to strike my eye to-day.’
 ‘What do you mean, dear?’ said Lady Knollys.
 ‘I mean this - I think I was "brought there, and that "there is poor papa’s appeal to me, as plain as if his hand came and wrote it upon the wall.’ I nearly screamed the conclusion of this wild confession.
 ‘You are nervous, my darling; your bad nights have worn you out. Let us go out; the air will do you good; and I do assure you that you will very soon see that we are quite right, and rejoice conscientiously that you have acted as you did.’
 But I was not to be satisfied, although my first vehemence was quieted. In my prayers that night my conscience upbraided me. When I lay down in bed my nervousness returned fourfold. Everybody at all nervously excitable has suffered some time or another by the appearance of ghastly features presenting themselves in every variety of contortion, one after another, the moment the eyes are closed. This night my dear father’s face troubled me - sometimes white and sharp as ivory, sometimes strangely transparent like glass, sometimes all hanging in cadaverous folds, always with the same unnatural expression of diabolical fury.
 From this dreadful vision I could only escape by sitting up and staring at the light. At length, worn out, I dropped asleep, and in a dream I distinctly heard papa’s voice say sharply outside the bed-curtain: - ‘Maud, we shall be late at Bartram-Haugh.’
 And I awoke in a horror, the wall, as it seemed, still ringing with the summons, and the speaker, I fancied, standing at the other side of the curtain.
 A miserable night I passed. In the morning, looking myself like a ghost, I stood in my night-dress by Lady Knollys’ bed.
 ‘I have had my warning,’ I said. ‘Oh, Cousin Monica, papa has been with me, and ordered me to Bartram-Haugh; and go I will.’
 She stared in my face uncomfortably, and then tried to laugh the matter off; but I know she was troubled at the strange state to which agitation and suspense had reduced me.
 ‘You’re taking too much for granted, Maud,’ said she; ‘Silas Ruthyn, most likely, will refuse his consent, and insist on your going to Bartram-Haugh.’
 ‘Heaven grant!’ I exclaimed; ‘but if he doesn’t, it is all the same to me, go I will. He may turn me out, but I’ll go, and try to expiate the breach of faith that I fear is so horribly wicked.’
 We had several hours still to wait for the arrival of the post. For both of us the delay was a suspense; for me an almost agonising one. At length, at an unlooked-for moment, Branston did enter the room with the post-bag. There was a large letter, with the Feltram post-mark, addressed to Lady Knollys - it was Doctor Bryerly’s despatch; we read it together. It was dated on the day before, and its purport was thus: -
 ‘RESPECTED MADAM, - I this day saw Mr. Silas Ruthyn at Bartram-Haugh, and he peremptorily refuses, on any terms, to vacate the guardianship, or to consent to Miss Ruthyn’s residing anywhere but under his own immediate care. As he bases his refusal, first upon a conscientious difficulty, declaring that he has no right, through fear of personal contingencies, to abdicate an office imposed in so solemn a way, and so naturally devolving on him as only brother to the deceased; and secondly upon the effect such a withdrawal, at the instance of the acting trustee, would have upon his own character, amounting to a public self-condemnation; and as he refused to discuss these positions with me, I could make no way whatsoever with him. Finding, therefore, that his mind was quite made up, after a short time I took my leave. He mentioned that preparations for his niece’s reception are being completed, and that he will send for her in a few days; so that I think it will be advisable that I should go down to Knowl, to assist Miss Ruthyn with any advice she may require before her departure, to discharge servants, get inventories made, and provide for the care of the place and grounds during her minority.
 ‘I am, respected Madam, yours truly,
 HANS E. BRYERLY.’
 I can’t describe to you how chapfallen and angry my cousin looked. She sniffed once or twice, and then said, rather bitterly, in a subdued tone: -
 ‘Well, now; I hope you are pleased?’
 ‘No, no, no; you "know I’m not - grieved to the heart, my only friend, my dear Cousin Monica; but my conscience is at rest; you don’t know what a sacrifice it is; I am a most unhappy creature. I feel an indescribable foreboding. I am frightened; but you won’t forsake me, Cousin Monica.’
 ‘No, darling, never,’ she said, sadly.
 ‘And you’ll come and see me, won’t you, as often as you can?’
 ‘Yes, dear; that is if Silas allows me; and I’m sure he will,’ she added hastily, seeing, I suppose, my terror in my face. ‘All I can do, you may be sure I will, and perhaps he will allow you to come to me, now and then, for a short visit. You know I am only six miles away - little more than half an hour’s drive, and though I hate Bartram, and detest Silas - Yes, I detest Silas,’ she repeated in reply to my surprised gaze - ‘I will call at Bartram - that is, I say, if he allows me; for, you know, I haven’t been there for a quarter of a century; and though I never understood Silas, I fancy he forgives no sins, whether of omission or commission.’
 I wondered what old grudge could make my cousin judge Uncle Silas always so hardly - I could not suppose it was justice. I had seen my hero indeed lately so disrespectfully handled before my eyes, that he had, as idols will, lost something of his sacredness. But as an article of faith, I still cultivated my trust in his divinity, and dismissed every intruding doubt with an exorcism, as a suggestion of the evil one. But I wronged Lady Knollys in suspecting her of pique, or malice, or anything more than that tendency to take strong views which some persons attribute to my sex.
 So, then, the little project of Cousin Monica’s guardianship, which, had it been poor papa’s wish, would have made me so very happy, was quite knocked on the head, to revive no more. I comforted myself, however, with her promise to re-open communications with Bartram-Haugh, and we grew resigned.
 I remember, next morning, as we sat at a very late breakfast, Lady Knollys, reading a letter, suddenly made an exclamation and a little laugh, and read on with increased interest for a few minutes, and then, with another little laugh, she looked up, placing her hand, with the open letter in it, beside her tea-cup.
 ‘You’ll not guess whom I’ve been reading about,’ said she, with her head the least thing on one side, and an arch smile.
 I felt myself blushing - cheeks, forehead, even down to the tips of my fingers. I anticipated the name I was to hear. She looked very much amused. Was it possible that Captain Oakley was married?
 ‘I really have not the least idea,’ I replied, with that kind of overdone carelessness which betrays us.
 ‘No, I see quite plainly you have not; but you can’t think how prettily you blush,’ answered she, very much diverted.
 ‘I really don’t care,’ I replied, with some little dignity, and blushing deeper and deeper.
 ‘Will you make a guess?’ she asked.
 ‘I "can’t guess.’
 ‘Well, shall I tell you?’
 ‘Just as you please.’
 ‘Well, I will - that is, I’ll read a page of my letter, which tells it all. Do you know Georgina Fanshawe?’ she asked.
 ‘Lady Georgina? No.’
 ‘Well, no matter; she’s in Paris now, and this letter is from her, and she says - let me see the place - Yesterday, what do you think? - quite an apparition! - you shall hear.

My brother Craven yesterday insisted on my accompanying him to Le Bas’ shop in that odd little antique street near the Grève; it is a wonderful old curiosity shop. I forget what they call them here. When we went into this place it was very nearly deserted, and there were so many curious things to look at all about, that for a minute or two I did not observe a tall woman, in a grey silk and a black velvet mantle, and quite a nice new Parisian bonnet. You will be charmed, by-the-by, with the new shape - it is only out three weeks, and is quite indescribably elegant, I think, at least. They have them, I am sure, by this time at Molnitz’s, so I need say no more. And now that I am on this subject of dress, I have got your lace; and I think you will be very ungrateful if you are not charmed with it.

Well, I need not read all that - here is the rest;’ and she read -

 ‘But you’ll ask about my mysterious "dame in the new bonnet and velvet mantle; she was sitting on a stool at the counter, not buying, but evidently selling a quantity of stones and trinkets which she had in a card-box, and the man was picking them up one by one, and, I suppose, valuing them. I was near enough to see such a darling little pearl cross, with at least half a dozen really good pearls in it, and had begun to covet them for my set, when the lady glanced over my shoulder, and she knew me - in fact, we knew one another - and who do you think she was? Well - you’ll not guess in a week, and I can’t wait so long; so I may as well tell you at once - she was that horrid old Mademoiselle Blassemare whom you pointed out to me at Elverston; and I never forgot her face since - nor she, it seems, mine, for she turned away very quickly, and when I next saw her, her veil was down.’

 ‘Did not you tell me, Maud, that you had lost your pearl cross while that dreadful Madame de la Rougierre was here?’
 ‘Yes; but - ‘
 ‘I know; but what has she to do with Mademoiselle de Blassemare, you were going to say - they are one and the same person.’
 ‘Oh, I perceive,’ answered I, with that dim sense of danger and dismay with which one hears suddenly of an enemy of whom one has lost sight for a time.
 ‘I’ll write and tell Georgie to buy that cross. I wager my life it is yours,’ said Lady Knollys, firmly.
 The servants, indeed, made no secret of their opinion of Madame de la Rougierre, and frankly charged her with a long list of larcenies. Even Anne Wixted, who had enjoyed her barren favour while the gouvernante was here, hinted privately that she had bartered a missing piece of lace belonging to me with a gipsy pedlar, for French gloves and an Irish poplin.
 ‘And so surely as I find it is yours, I’ll set the police in pursuit.’
 ‘But you must not bring me into court,’ said I, half amused and half alarmed.
 ‘No occasion, my dear; Mary Quince and Mrs. Rusk can prove it perfectly.’
 ‘And why do you dislike her so very much?’ I asked.
 Cousin Monica leaned back in her chair, and searched the cornice from corner to corner with upturned eyes for the reason, and at last laughed a little, amused at herself.
 ‘Well, really, it is not easy to define, and, perhaps, it is not quite charitable; but I know I hate her, and I know, you little hypocrite, you hate her as much as I;’ and we both laughed a little.
 ‘But you must tell me all you know of her history.’
 ‘Her history?’ echoed she. ‘I really know next to nothing about it; only that I used to see her sometimes about the place that Georgina mentions, and there were some unpleasant things said about her; but you know they may be all lies. The worst I know of her is her treatment of you, and her robbing the desk’ - (Cousin Monica always called it her robbery) - ‘and I think that’s enough to hang her. Suppose we go out for a walk?’
 So together we went, and I resumed about Madame; but no more could I extract - perhaps there was not much more to hear.

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Chapter XXX: "On the Road
 All at Knowl was indicative of the break-up that was so near at hand. Doctor Bryerly arrived according to promise. He was in a whirl of business all the time. He and Mr. Danvers conferred about the management of the estate. It was agreed that the grounds and gardens should be let, but not the house, of which Mrs. Rusk was to take the care. The gamekeeper remained in office, and some out-door servants. But the rest were to go, except Mary Quince, who was to accompany me to Bartram-Haugh as my maid.
 ‘Don’t part with Quince,’ said Lady Knollys, peremptorily ‘they’ll want you, but don’t.’
 She kept harping on this point, and recurred to it half a dozen times every day.
 ‘They’ll say, you know, that she is not fit for a lady’s maid, as she certainly is not, if it in the least signified in such a wilderness as Bartram-Haugh; but she is attached, trustworthy, and honest; and those are qualities valuable everywhere, especially in a solitude. Don’t allow them to get you a wicked young French milliner in her stead.’
 Sometimes she said things that jarred unpleasantly on my nerves, and left an undefined sense of danger. Such as: -
 ‘I know she’s true to you, and a good creature; but is she shrewd enough?’
 Or, with an anxious look: -
 ‘I hope Mary Quince is not easily frightened.’
 Or, suddenly: -
 ‘Can Mary Quince write, in case you were ill?’
 Or,
 ‘Can she take a message exactly?’
 Or,
 ‘Is she a person of any enterprise and resource, and cool in an emergency?’
 Now, these questions did not come all in a string, as I write them down here, but at long intervals, and were followed quickly by ordinary talk; but they generally escaped from my companion after silence and gloomy thought; and though I could extract nothing more defined than these questions, yet they seemed to me to point at some possible danger contemplated in my good cousin’s dismal ruminations.
 Another topic that occupied my cousin’s mind a good deal was obviously the larceny of my pearl cross. She made a note of the description furnished by the recollection, respectively, of Mary Quince, Mrs. Rusk, and myself. I had fancied her little vision of the police was no more than the result of a momentary impulse; but really, to judge by her methodical examinations of us, I should have fancied that she had taken it up in downright earnest.
 Having learned that my departure from Knowl was to be so very soon, she resolved not to leave me before the day of my journey to Bartram-Haugh; and as day after day passed by, and the hour of our leave-taking approached, she became more and more kind and affectionate. A feverish and sorrowful interval it was to me.
 Of Doctor Bryerly, though staying in the house, we saw almost nothing, except for an hour or so at tea-time. He breakfasted very early, and dined solitarily, and at uncertain hours, as business permitted.
 The second evening of his visit, Cousin Monica took occasion to introduce the subject of his visit to Bartram-Haugh.
 ‘You saw him, of course?’ said Lady Knollys.
 ‘Yes, he saw me; he was not well. On hearing who I was, he asked me to go to his room, where he sat in a silk dressing-gown and slippers.’
 ‘About business principally,’ said Cousin Monica, laconically.
 ‘That was despatched in very few words; for he was quite resolved, and placed his refusal upon grounds which it was difficult to dispute. But difficult or no, mind you, he intimated that he would hear nothing more on the subject - so that was closed.’
 ‘Well; and what is his religion now?’ inquired she, irreverently.
 ‘We had some interesting conversation on the subject. He leans much to what we call the doctrine of correspondents. He is read rather deeply in the writings of Swedenborg, and seemed anxious to discuss some points with one who professes to be his follower. To say truth, I did not expect to find him either so well read or so deeply interested in the subject.’
 ‘Was he angry when it was proposed that he should vacate the guardianship?’
 ‘Not at all. Contrariwise, he said he had at first been so minded himself. His years, his habits, and something of the unfitness of the situation, the remoteness of Bartram-Haugh from good teachers, and all that, had struck him, and nearly determined him against accepting the office. But then came the views which I stated in my letter, and they governed him; and nothing could shake them, he said, or induce him to re-open the question in his own mind.’
 All the time Doctor Bryerly was relating his conference with the head of the family at Bartram-Haugh my cousin commented on the narrative with a variety of little ‘pishes’ and sneers, which I thought showed more of vexation than contempt.
 I was glad to hear all that Doctor Bryerly related. It gave me a kind of confidence; and I experienced a momentary reaction. After all, could Bartram-Haugh be more lonely than I had found Knowl? Was I not sure of the society of my Cousin Millicent, who was about my own age? Was it not quite possible that my sojourn in Derbyshire might turn out a happy though very quiet remembrance through all my after-life? Why should it not? What time or place would be happy if we gave ourselves over to dismal imaginations?
 So the summons reached me from Uncle Silas. The hours at Knowl were numbered.
 The evening before I departed I visited the full-length portrait of Uncle Silas, and studied it for the last time carefully, with deep interest, for many minutes; but with results vaguer than ever.
 With a brother so generous and so wealthy, always ready to help him forward; with his talents; with his lithe and gorgeous beauty, the shadow of which hung on that canvas - what might he not have accomplished? whom might he not have captivated? And yet where and what was he? A poor and shunned old man, occupying a lonely house and place that did not belong to him, married to degradation, with a few years of suspected and solitary life before him, and then swift oblivion his best portion.
 I gazed on the picture, to fix it well and vividly in my remembrance. I might still trace some of its outlines and tints in its living original, whom I was next day to see for the first time in my life.
 So the morning came - my last for many a day at Knowl - a day of partings, a day of novelty and regrets. The travelling carriage and post horses were at the door. Cousin Monica’s carriage had just carried her away to the railway. We had embraced with tears; and her kind face was still before me, and her words of comfort and promise in my ears. The early sharpness of morning was still in the air; the frosty dew still glistened on the window-panes. We had made a hasty breakfast, my share of which was a single cup of tea. The aspect of the house how strange! Uncarpeted, uninhabited, doors for the most part locked, all the servants but Mrs. Rusk and Branston departed. The drawing-room door stood open, and a charwoman was washing the bare floor. I was looking my last - for who could say how long? - on the old house, and lingered. The luggage was all up. I made Mary Quince get in first, for every delay was precious; and now the moment was come. I hugged and kissed Mrs. Rusk in the hall.
 ‘God bless you, Miss Maud, darling. You must not fret; mind, the time won’t be long going over - "no time at all; and you’ll be bringing back a fine young gentleman - who knows? as great as the Duke of Wellington, for your husband; and I’ll take the best of care of everything, and the birds and the dogs, till you come back; and I’ll go and see you and Mary, if you’ll allow, in Derbyshire;’ and so forth.
 I got into the carriage, and bid Branston, who shut the door, good-bye, and kissed hands to Mrs. Rusk, who was smiling and drying her eyes and courtesying on the hall-door steps. The dogs, who had started gleefully with the carriage, were called back by Branston, and driven home, wondering and wistful, looking back with ears oddly cocked and tails dejected. My heart thanked them for their kindness, and I felt like a stranger, and very desolate.
 It was a bright, clear morning. It had been settled that it was not worth the trouble changing from the carriage to the railway for sake of five-and-twenty miles, and so the entire journey of sixty miles was to be made by the post road - the pleasantest travelling, if the mind were free. The grander and more distant features of the landscape we may see well enough from the window of the railway-carriage; but it is the foreground that interests and instructs us, like a pleasant gossiping history; and "that we had, in old days, from the post-chaise window. It was more than travelling picquet. Something of all conditions of life - luxury and misery - high spirits and low; - all sorts of costume, livery, rags, millinery; faces buxom, faces wrinkled, faces kind, faces wicked; - no end of interest and suggestion, passing in a procession silent and vivid, and all in their proper scenery. The golden corn-sheafs - the old dark-alleyed orchards, and the high streets of antique towns. There were few dreams brighter, few books so pleasant.
 We drove by the dark wood - it always looked dark to me - where the ‘mausoleum’ stands - where my dear parents both lay now. I gazed on its sombre masses not with a softened feeling, but a peculiar sense of pain, and was glad when it was quite past.
 All the morning I had not shed a tear. Good Mary Quince cried at leaving Knowl; Lady Knollys’ eyes were not dry as she kissed and blessed me, and promised an early visit; and the dark, lean, energetic face of the housekeeper was quivering, and her cheeks wet, as I drove away. But I, whose grief was sorest, never shed a tear. I only looked about from one familiar object to another, pale, excited, not quite apprehending my departure, and wondering at my own composure.
 But when we reached the old bridge, with the tall osiers standing by the buttress, and looked back at poor Knowl - the places we love and are leaving look so fairy-like and so sad in the clear distance, and this is the finest view of the gabled old house, with its slanting meadow-lands and noble timber reposing in solemn groups - I gazed at the receding vision, and the tears came at last, and I wept in silence long after the fair picture was hidden from view by the intervening uplands.
 I was relieved, and when we had made our next change of horses, and got into a country that was unknown to me, the new scenery and the sense of progress worked their accustomed effects on a young traveller who had lived a particularly secluded life, and I began to experience, on the whole, a not unpleasurable excitement.
 Mary Quince and I, with the hopefulness of inexperienced travellers, began already to speculate about our proximity to Bartram-Haugh, and were sorely disappointed when we heard from the nondescript courier - more like a ostler than a servant, who sat behind in charge of us and the luggage, and represented my guardian’s special care - at nearly one o’clock, that we had still forty miles to go, a considerable portion of which was across the high Derbyshire mountains, before we reached Bartram-Haugh.
 The fact was, we had driven at a pace accommodated rather to the convenience of the horses than to our impatience; and finding, at the quaint little inn where we now halted, that we must wait for a nail or two in a loose shoe of one of our relay, we consulted, and being both hungry, agreed to beguile the time with an early dinner, which we enjoyed very sociably in a queer little parlour with a bow window, and commanding, with a litle garden for foreground, a very pretty landscape.
 Good Mary Quince, like myself, had quite dried her tears by this time, and we were both highly interested, and I a little nervous, too, about our arrival and reception at Bartram. Some time, of course, was lost in this pleasant little parlour, before we found ourselves once more pursuing our way.
 The slowest part of our journey was the pull up the long mountain road, ascending zig-zag, as sailors make way against a head-wind, by tacking. I forget the name of the pretty little group of houses - it did not amount to a village - buried in trees, where we got our "four horses and two postilions, for the work was severe. I can only designate it as the place where Mary Quince and I had our tea, very comfortably, and bought some gingerbread, very curious to look upon, but quite uneatable.
 The greater portion of the ascent, when we were fairly upon the mountain, was accomplished at a walk, and at some particularly steep points we had to get out and go on foot. But this to me was quite delightful. I had never scaled a mountain before, and the ferns and heath, the pure boisterous air, and above all the magnificent view of the rich country we were leaving behind, now gorgeous and misty in sunset tints, stretching in gentle undulations far beneath us, quite enchanted me.
 We had just reached the summit when the sun went down. The low grounds at the other side were already lying in cold grey shadow, and I got the man who sat behind to point out as well as he could the site of Bartram-Haugh. But mist was gathering over all by this time. The filmy disk of the moon which was to light us on, so soon as twilight faded into night, hung high in air. I tried to see the sable mass of wood which he described. But it was vain, and to acquire a clear idea of the place, as of its master, I must only wait that nearer view which an hour or two more would afford me.
 And now we rapidly descended the mountain side. The scenery was wilder and bolder than I was accustomed to. Our road skirted the edge of a great heathy moor. The silvery light of the moon began to glimmer, and we passed a gipsy bivouac with fires alight and caldrons hanging over them. It was the first I had seen. Two or three low tents; a couple of dark, withered crones, veritable witches; a graceful girl standing behind, gazing after us; and men in odd-shaped hats, with gaudy waistcoats and bright-coloured neck-handkerchiefs and gaitered legs, stood lazily in front. They had all a wild tawdry display of colour; and a group of alders in the rear made a background of shade for tents, fires, and figures.
 I opened a front window of the chariot, and called to the postboys to stop. The groom from behind came to the window.
 ‘Are not those gipsies?’ I enquired.
 ‘Yes, please’m, them’s gipsies, sure, Miss,’ he answered, glancing with that odd smile, half contemptuous, half superstitious, with which I have since often observed the peasants of Derbyshire eyeing those thievish and uncanny neighbours.