Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (Illustrated), page 639
I was soon fast asleep. I think the occurrences of the earlier part of the day had made me nervous. I awoke with a start, and a vague consciousness of having been in the midst of an unpleasant dream. I thought I heard mamma call me. I jumped out of bed, threw my dressing-gown about me, and, with bare feet, walked along the lobby, now quite dark, towards mamma’s door. When I got almost to it I suddenly recollected that I could not have heard mamma’s voice in my room from hers. In total darkness, solitude, and silence, I experienced the sort of chill which accompanies the discovery of such an illusion. I was just turning about, to make a hasty retreat to my own room, when I did hear mamma’s voice. I heard her call papa’s name, and then there was a silence. I changed my mind. I went on, and tapped at her door. Rather nervously she asked, “Who’s there?” and on hearing me answer, told me to come in. There was only the night-light she usually had burning in her room. She was sitting up in her bed, and told me she had been startled by seeing papa looking in at the door (she nodded toward the one that opened to his bedroom). The night-light was placed on a little table close beside it.
“And oh! my dear Ethel, he looked so horribly ill I was frightened; I hardly knew him, and I called to him, but he only said, ‘That’s enough,’ and drew back, and shut the door. He looked so ill, that I should have followed him in, but I found the door locked, and I heard him shut the door of his dressing-room. Do you think he is ill?”
“Oh! no, mamma; if he had been ill he’d have told you so; I’m sure it was the miserable light in this room — everything looks so strange in it.” And so with a few words more we bid goodnight once again; and, having seen her reclining with her head on her pillow, I made my way back again to my own room.
I felt very uncomfortable; the few words mamma had said presented an image that somehow was mysterious and ill-omened. I held my door open, and listened with my head stretched into the dark. Papa’s dressing-room door was nearly opposite. I was reassured by hearing his step on the floor; then I heard something move; I closed my door once more, and got into bed.
The laws of acoustics are, I believe, well ascertained; and, of course, they never vary. But their action, I confess, has often puzzled me.
In the house where I now write, there are two rooms separated only by a narrow passage, in one of which, under a surgical operation, three dreadful shrieks were uttered, not one of which was, even faintly, heard in the other room, where two near and loving relations awaited the result in the silence and agony of suspense. In the same way, but not so strikingly, because the interposing space is considerably greater, no sound was ever heard in mamma’s room, from papa’s dressing-room, when the doors were shut. But from my door, when the rest of the house was silent, you could very distinctly hear a heavy step, or any other noise, in that room.
My visit to mamma’s room had, as nurses say, “put my sleep astray,” and I lay awake until I began to despair of going to sleep again till morning. From my meditations in the dead silence, I was suddenly startled by a sound like the clapping of the dressing-room door with one violent clang. I jumped up again; I thought I should hear papa’s step running down the stairs, and all my wild misgivings returned. I put my head out of the door, and listened. I heard no step — nothing stirring. Once more in my dressing-gown I stole out; his candle was still burning, for I saw a ray of light slanting towards the lobby floor from the keyhole of his room, with the motes quivering in it. It pointed like a wand to something white that lay upon the ground. I remembered that this was the open leaf of the old Bible — too much neglected book, alas! in our house — that had fallen from its little shelf on the lobby, and which I had been specially moved to replace as I passed it an hour or two before, seeing, in my superstitious mood, omens in all things. Hurried on, however, by mamma’s voice calling me, I had not carried out my intention.
“Dislodged from your place, you may be,” I now thought, as I stooped to take the book in my hand; “but never to be trampled on!”
I was interrupted by a voice, a groan, I thought from inside the dressing-room.
I was not quite certain; staring breathlessly at the door, I listened; no sound followed. I stepped to the door and knocked. No answer came. With my lips close to the door, and my hand upon the handle, I called, “Papa, papa, papa!” I was frightened; I pushed open the door, and hesitated. I called again, “Papa — answer, answer! Are you there, papa?” I was calling upon silence. With a little effort I stepped in.
The candle was burning on the table; there was a film of blue smoke hovering in the air — a faint smell of burning. I saw papa lying on the floor; he appeared to have dropped from the armchair, and to have fallen over on his back; a pistol lay by his halfopen hand; the side of his face looked black and torn, as if a thunderbolt had scorched him, and a stream of blood seemed throbbing from his ear.
The smell of powder, the smoke, the pistol on the ground, told what had happened. Freezing with terror, I screamed the words, “Papa, papa! O God! speak! He’s killed!” I was on my knees beside him; he was not quite dead. His eyes were fixed in the earnest stare of the last look, and there was a faint movement of the mouth, as if he were trying to speak. It was only for a few seconds. Then all motion ceased — his jaw fell — he was dead.
I staggered back against the wall, uttering a frightful scream.
Under excitement so tremendous as mine, people, I think, are more than half spiritualized. We seem to find ourselves translated from place to place by thought rather than effort.
It seemed to me only a second after I had left that frightful room, that I stood beside Miss Pounden’s bed upstairs. She slept with not only her shutters, but the window open. It was so perfectly silent, the street as well as the house, that through the wall from the nursery next door I could faintly hear a little baby crying. The moonlight shone dazzlingly on the white curtains of Miss Pounden’s bed. I shook her by the shoulder, and called her. She started up, and I remember the odd effect of her wide open eyes, lighted by the white reflection, and staring from the shadow at me with a horror that she caught from my looks.
“Merciful Heaven! Miss Ware — my dear child — why are you here? — what is it?”
“Come with me; we must get help. Papa is dreadfully hurt in the dressing-room. Mamma knows nothing of it; don’t say a word as you pass her door.”
Together we went down, steadily drawing towards the awful room, from which we saw, at the end of the dark passage, the faint flush of the candle fall on the carpet.
When I told Miss Pounden what had happened, nothing would induce her to come with me beyond the lobby. I had to go into the room alone; I had to look in to be sure that he was actually dead. Oh! it was appalling, incredible. I, Ethel Ware, looking at my handsome, gay, goodnatured father, killed by his own hands, the smoke of the fatal shot not yet quite cleared away! Why was there no pitying angel near to call me but a minute earlier? My tap at the door would have arrested his hand, and the moment of temptation would have passed harmlessly by. All too late — for time and eternity all is irretrievable now. One glance was sufficient. I could not breathe; I could not, for some dreadful moments, withdraw my eyes. With a faint cry, I stepped backward. I was trembling violently as I asked Miss Pounden to send any one of the servants for Sir Jacob Lake, and to tell whoever was going not to leave his house without him.
I waited in the drawingroom while she went down, and I heard her call to the servants over the stairs. The message was soon arranged, and the messenger gone. I had not cried all this time; I continued walking quickly about the drawingroom, with my hands clenched together, talking wildly to myself and to God. When Miss Pounden returned, I implored of her not to leave me.
“Come up to my room; we’ll wait there till Sir Jacob Lake comes. Mamma must not know it, except as he advises. If she learned it too suddenly, she would lose her mind.”
CHAPTER XXXIX.
FAREWELL, MISS WARE.
I do not mean to describe the terrible scenes that followed. When death comes attended with a scandal like this, every recollection connected with it is torture. The gross and ghastly publicity, the merciless prying into details, and over all the gloom of the maddest and most mysterious of crimes! You look in vain in the shadow for the consoling image of hope and repose; a medium is spread around that discolours and horrifies, and the Tempter seems to haunt the house.
Then, the outrage of a public tribunal canvassing the agitations and depressions of “the deceased” in the house which within a few days was his own, handling the fatal pistol, discussing the wounds, the silent records of a mental agony that happy men cannot even imagine, and that will for life darken the secret reveries of those who loved the dead!
But as one of our proverbs, old as the days of Glastonbury, says:
“Be the day never so long,
At length cometh the even song.”
Mamma is now in her crape and widow’s cap; I in my deep mourning also, laden with crape. A great many people have called to inquire, and have left cards. A few notes, which could not be withheld, of embarrassed condolence, have come from the more intimate, who thought themselves obliged to make that sacrifice and exertion. Two or three were very kind indeed. Sore does one feel at the desertions that attend a great and sudden change of fortune. But I do not, on fairly thinking it over, believe that there is more selfishness or less goodnature in the world in which we were living than in that wider world which lies at a lower social level. We are too ready to take the intimacies of pleasure or mere convenience as meaning a great deal more than they ever fairly can mean. They are not contracted to involve the liabilities of friendship. If they did, they would be inconveniently few. You must not expect people to sacrifice themselves for you merely because they think you good company or have similar tastes. When you begin the facilis deccensus, people won’t walk with you very far on the way. The most you can expect is a graceful, and sometimes a compassionate, farewell.
It was about a fortnight after poor papa’s death that some law-papers came, which, understanding as little about such matters as most young ladies do, I sent, with mamma’s approval, to Mr. Forrester, who, I mentioned, had been poor papa’s man of business in town.
Next day he called. I was with mamma in her room at the time, and the servant came up with a little pencilled note. It said, “The papers are important, and the matter must be looked after immediately, to prevent unpleasantness.” Mamma and I were both startled. “Business,” which we had never heard of before, now met us sternly face to face, and demanded instant attention. The servant said that Mr. Forrester was waiting in the drawingroom, to know whether mamma wished to see him. She asked me to go down instead, which accordingly I did.
As I entered, he was standing looking from the window with a thoughtful and rather disgusted countenance, as if he had something disagreeable to tell. He came forward and spoke very kindly, and then told me that the papers were notices to the effect that unless certain mortgages were paid off upon a certain early day, which was named, the house and furniture would be sold. He saw how startled I was. He looked very kindly, and as if he pitied me.
“Has your mamma any relation, who understands business, to advise with under her present circumstances?” he asked.
“Chellwood, I think, ought,” I began.
“I know. But this will be very troublesome; and they say Lord Chellwood is not a man of business. He’ll never undertake it, I’m sure. We can try, if you like; but I think it is merely losing time and a sheet of paper, and he’s abroad, I know, at Vichy; for I wrote to him to try to induce him to take an assignment of this very mortgage, and he would not, or said he could not, which means the same thing. I don’t think he’ll put himself out of his way for anybody. Can you think of no one else?”
“We have very few kinsmen,” I answered; “they are too remote, and we know too little about them, to have any chance of their taking any trouble for us.”
“But there was a family named Rokestone connected with you at Golden Friars?”
“There is only Sir Harry Rokestone, and he is not friendly. We have reason to know he is very much the reverse,” I answered.
“I hope, Miss Ware, you won’t think me impertinent, but it is right you should ascertain, without further loss of time, how you stand. There are expenses going on. And all I positively know is that poor Mr. Ware’s affairs are left in a very entangled state. Does your mamma know what balance there is in the bank?”
“How much money in the bank?” I repeated. “Papa said there was fifty pounds.”
“Fifty pounds! Oh, there must be more than that,” he replied, and looked down, with a frown, upon the floor, and, with his hands in his pockets, meditated for a minute or two.
“I don’t like acting alone, if it can be helped,” he began again; “but if Mrs. Ware, your mamma, wishes it, I’ll write to the different professional men, Mr. Jarlcot at Golden Friars, and Mr. Williams at Cardyllion, and the two solicitors in the south of England, and I’ll ascertain for her, as nearly as we can, what is left, and how everything stands, and we must learn at the bank what balance stands to your credit. But I think your mamma should know that she can’t possibly afford to live in the way she has been accustomed to, and it would only be prudent and right that she should give all the servants, except two or three whom she can’t do without, notice of discharge. Is there a will?”
“I don’t know. I think not — mamma thinks not,” I said.
“I don’t believe there is,” he added. “It’s not likely, and the law makes as good a will for him as he could have made for himself.” He thought for a minute, and then went on. “I felt a great reluctance, Miss Ware, to talk upon these unpleasant subjects: but it would not have been either kind or honest to be silent. You and your mamma will meet your change of circumstances with good sense and good feeling, I am sure. A very great change, I fear, it will be. You are not to consider me as a professional man, tell your mamma. I am acting as a friend. I wish to do all I can to prevent expense, and to put you in possession of the facts as quickly and clearly as I can, and then you will know exactly the case you have to deal with.”
He took his leave, with the same air of care, thought, and suppressed fuss which belongs to the overworked man of business.
When these people make a present of their time, they are giving us something more than gold. I was not half grateful enough to him then. Thought and years have enabled me to estimate his goodnature.
I was standing at the window of a back drawingroom, a rather dark room, pondering on the kind but alarming words, at which, as at the sound of a bell, the curtain seemed to rise for a new act in my life. These worldly terrors were mingling a new poison in my grief. The vulgar troubles, which are the hardest to bear, were near us. At this inopportune moment I heard the servant announce some one, and, looking over my shoulder quickly, I saw Mr. Carmel come in. I felt myself grow pale. I saw his eye wander for a moment in search, I fancied, of mamma. I did not speak or move. The mirror reflected my figure back upon myself as I turned towards him. What did he see? Not quite the same Ethel Ware he had been accustomed to. My mourning-dress made me look taller, thinner, and paler than before. I could not have expected to see him; I looked, I suppose, as I felt, excited, proud, pained, resentful.
He came near; his dark eyes looked at me inquiringly. He extended his hand, hesitated, and said:
“I am afraid I did wrong. I ought not to have asked to see you.”
“We have not seen anyone — mamma or I — except one old friend, who came a little time ago.”
My own voice sounded cold and strange in my ear; I felt angry and contemptuous. Had I not reason? I did not give him my hand, or appear to perceive that he had advanced his. I could see, though I did not look direct at him, that he seemed pained.
“I thought, perhaps, that I had some claim, also, as an old friend,” he began, and paused.
“Oh! I quite forgot that,” I repeated, in the same tones; “an old friend, to be sure.” I felt that I smiled bitterly.
“You look at me as if you hated me, Miss Ware,” he said— “why should you? What have I done?”
“Why do you ask me? Ask yourself. Look into your conscience. I think, Mr. Carmel, you are the last person who should have come here.”
“I won’t affect to misunderstand you; you think I influenced Lady Lorrimer,” he said.
“The whole thing is coarse and odious,” I said. “I hate to speak or think of it; but, shocking as it is, I must. Lady Lorrimer had no near relations but mamma; and she intended — she told her so in my hearing — leaving money to her by her will. It is, I think, natural and right that people should leave their money to those they love — their own kindred — and not to strangers. I would not complain if Lady Lorrimer had acted of her own thought and will in the matter. But it was far otherwise; a lady, nervous and broken in health, was terrified, as death approached, by people, of whom you were one, and thus constrained to give all she possessed into the hands of strangers, to forward theological intrigues, of which she could understand nothing. I say it was unnatural, cruel, and rapacious. That kind lady, if she had done as she wished, would have saved us from all our misery.”
“Will you believe me, Miss Ware?” he said, in the lowest possible tones, grasping the back of the chair, on which his hand rested, very hard, “I never knew, heard, or suspected that Lady Lorrimer had asked or received any advice respecting that will, which I see has been publicly criticised in some of the papers. I never so much as heard that she had made a will. I entreat, Miss Ware, that you will believe me.”
“In matters where your Church is concerned, Mr. Carmel, I have heard that prevarication is a merit. With respect to all that concerns poor Lady Lorrimer, I shall never willingly hear another word from you, nor ever speak to you again.”
I turned to the window, and looked out for a minute or two, with my fingers on the window-sash. Then I turned again rather suddenly. He was standing on the same spot, in the same attitude, his hands clasped together, his head lowered, his eyes fixed in a reverie on the ground, and I thought I saw the trace of tears on his cheek.
