Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

death," | straightforward. He only asked you to meet him and a few others, to discuss the Thrift Union affairs."

"Worse then the worse echoed the clear young voice. "And if I am in the dark, remember!-if any one had made a—a— mistake about those things, it would be better, even at the last moment, to go back. Better all round! there is no place for false unselfishness."

"There's a woman all over! Do you mean to say you didn't see through that? A nice trap for me to walk into! Every word would be in the papers, and then a fine hue and cry! Look here, Joan, just be reasonable. The bank is in a little temporary difficulty, and this Rudd is making the Imost of it, to hound me on. I have

"One of those things, to me, is a broken promise," said Lady Joan. "Do you care to hear the little Chiarti ?" Then, coldly, with Vere de Vere thoughts of throwing up the whole earnestness, she led the way through concern; the 'new manager would take flower-decked corridors to the concert-it, neck and crop, as a private speculation."

room.

VI.

ONE morning, close upon Easterthe fourth Easter following his marriage the member for the Castle Hamlets was concluding an ample breakfast - pausing now and again to toy absently with his teaspoon and the edge of his cup; then, still absent, leaning forward and chewing ruminatively, his eyes fixed upon the centre bowl of yellow Lent lilies.

"Tom!" said his wife, looking up from an open letter. He did not answer. She refolded the letter, and sat motionless. The three years and more had not externally altered Lady Joan; she was still in appearance a white, slender, dignified child. But her eyes, superficially calm, revealed, on nearer inspection, a depth of something baffled, something which gnawed and moaned.

"Tom!" she repeated presently. Mr. Holcroft crossed to the fireplace, and glanced at her, opening his newspaper with furtive irritation.

"Well? The confounded populace, as usual?"

"I thought-the lodgings are empty; those clean rooms at Bow. Shan't we go, just for ten days, and judge for ourselves? They can't be all unreasonable and discontented."

"I see no can't' in the matter. Rudd has the gift of the gab, and the rest follow him, like the sheepified fools they are."

"But Mr. Rudd's note was quite

[ocr errors]

"Mr. Issachar! with that cold, cruel face? Tom, what does he care for the poor? I never liked your sending Mr. Bostock away. If I had known "You would not have let me invest your money in it, you mean. I suspected as much. It was not to help your husband; that was nothing, in comparison with dirty Demos, who thinks only of himself, after all! I am sick of what you call the poor.' It is I who am poor. Issachar would pay me a lump sum." "And afterwards - what would you do?"

6

"Throw up my hat and dance a hornpipe, first; then apply for the Chiltern Hundreds, let the Castle Hamlets go to anywhere you please; and look out for Richby. Your father owned nearly the whole town; his name is a household word there. You must show yourself with me at the hustings, and the votes will flow in by shoals. That's my card. All they'll look for will be two or three cheap promises in a printed circular. The fact that I am your father's son-in-law will do the rest."

"And then?" repeated Lady Joan.

"Then we can live like other people, and be jolly.. I've had enough of the altruistic boom. As for you, Issachar will treble your fortune, and with that and your swell relations, you can help me to the top of the tree. Well? what have you to say?" he asked roughly, tossing away the paper.

“I—I think I am stunned. Do you

really wish to give up all the who have trusted in us ?"

"Bother the people who have trusted in us! Sentimental humbug! See if Issachar's catering for them, mind and body, don't beat ours hollow !”

people | ties; then aiding her subordinates in their preparations, laboring more con amore than they all. Her soul-hunger was appeased for a little while. This burdened multitude had temporarily forgotten their burdens. She sat ab"And then will it all be over?" said sorbed in contemplation of the vaLady Joan. Her face was strangely ried manifestations of delight; viewing wan. "The first year there was Italy each seared and sharpened counte- and then the Engadine - and then nance not as it was, but as it might the endless dinner-parties and country- be; inwardly scheming to make that house visits just what I had before" might be "real. and Scotland and Norway. I have The smudged baby uttered sounds tried to be patient-you have said always that we would settle down to our lifework.”

A thought struck Holcroft.

"See here, Joan! I can't come with you I'm over head and ears! but if you like to go for two or three days with some crony mind!"

of peevish weariness. Lady Joan wrapped its neglected head in her own scarf, and hushed it on her breast. Presently its eyes closed; and, looking up from a pitiful study of its squalidness, she saw that a tall man, in a distant doorway, was steadfastly regarding no mischief-maker, her. Had he any trouble? She could not reach him; every cranny was blocked, and the poor baby slept. A moment later, and the doorway was empty. He was gone, unobserved, as he came.

"Marshall would do. There will be entertainments on Easter Monday; you said I might plan some."

"Very well. Go down and manage, then. Make yourself charming. You can forget my nonsense about Issachar."

A sudden glow illumined the pathetic young face.

"Tom! was it only nonsense, after all ? "

His expression haunted Lady Joan. At her solitary lodging, his gaze revived in dreams, and pierced her through.

"He was searching my face to find out if I would help him," she thought. How to trace him was her first ques"Forget it, I say. Take the lodg- tion, next day. This, after breakfast, ings, and let the future look after she was pondering, when, abruptly, itself. You'll take a bit of wind out of" Mr. Rudd" was announced, and the Rudd's sails! There will be one point subject of the problem stood before scored!"

VII.

UPON the platform, decked with wreaths and ribbons, of the Thrift Union Entertainment Hall, a concert had just been ended and a conjuror was beginning. Lady Joan, nursing a flushed baby, smeared with cake, sat on a side bench, among the populace.

What had happened to make her face like a rose, her eyes stars of light? She had arrived that morning, with her middle-aged maid, Marshall, at Bow, and ever since had been steadily occupied; first taking and despatching presents to obscure friends too sick or too aged for these festivi

her.

"Excuse me, your ladyship. In five minutes I must catch a bus. But last night I was watching you

[ocr errors]

"At the entertainment. Surely you are not the Mr. Rudd who writes to my husband?"

"I think I am.” His peculiar smile perplexed Lady Joan. "I watched your way with that baby, a long time, when you were not aware. Your ladyship has a heart." Lady Joan's face kindled as it had kindled the evening before.

"Can I help you in any way? Don't think me impertinent." And again her eyes brightened like stars.

"Thank you, it is rather your lady

ship." He paused and looked down upon her. Lady Joan was very stately in West-end drawing-rooms; but she was not stately now. She still imagined that here was some one who had need of her. She looked back at him, wondering, like a child.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ing it aside, he looked, as if considering, at Lady Joan.

"It was a rather mysterious message! But you don't like questions. I had better go back now; I am so busy," she said.

"Questions! Hasn't every man a right to his own affairs? It's lucky you came just now, Joan, though Rudd's a fool. I've a fancy for a little excursion to-day, and I want you with me. I should have telegraphed if you had not turned up."

Lady Joan looked suddenly blank. "Marshall will expect me, and I promised the poor cripple

"I fancied that he had sent you to throw dust in our eyes. I pushed things on the faster. But now I'm of opinion that, if we've been bamboozled, your ladyship is bamboozled with us. I can't keep it back more than two days; but that I'll do. I beg you to go straight back to Holcroft - wherever he is and tell him, with your own mouth, Rudd'll give you till Thursday "Cripple be hanged! As for Marmorning.' That's the outside. Get shall, let her expect. You've plenty of away quick, for I shall have hard work pity for the great unwashed, but not to contrive; and I don't know that I'm an atom for me. I'm worn out, I tell justified, either but it's for your you. I require a holiday; and I won't ladyship's sake. Nothing in the world have it brought against me that I sent else. Rudd'll give you till Thursday you to do my business while I was off morning.' Never mind about under- on the jaunt. You can finish your standing. Just the plain words. Good-nonsense afterwards." day to your ladyship." "Where do you want to go?"

And Lady Joan, her gaze of wonder unchanged, found herself in solitude, heard the outer door close with a sharp bang, and saw, from the window, this strange man rapidly running to "catch his bus."

VIII.

"ALL right," said Holcroft.

He was still in his dressing-room, having presided at a bachelors' party over-night. Lady Joan's four-wheeler waited below.

"He was so peremptory that I had to obey," she explained, smiling. She did not often smile; but her spirits were still unwontedly high. She hoped that, indirectly, the brusque agitator's friendliness would retard nogotiations with Issachar. Besides, what plans had she not in embryo for the next two days! She longed to find herself once more in her four-wheeler.

"Shan't say.

I've a notion for giv

ing your white ladyship a little surprise. Come on our train's almost due. We'll take your four-wheeler." Lady Joan was accustomed to her husband's changes of mood. She followed him, feeling like a disappointed child. Yet her conscience told her that there was truth in his reproach; how much truth she had not known until lately. Her husband ought to come first-even before the work she loved.

"Brown, tell Mrs. Jones to have dinner at 8.30 to the minute," said Holcroft, as he drew on his gloves. “If any one calls on business, he can wait or call again, which he likes. You may expect me any time after seven. King's Cross, cabman.”

"Would seven be too late for me to go back alone to Bow?" asked Lady Joan, with anxiety.

"Rudd'll give me till Thursday "We can settle that when the time morning! So that's his little game? comes." He leaned from the window. Impudent beggar! Well! All right."" Drive to Victoria; I've changed my Holcroft sat for a moment in silence; mind.” then took up a time-table, which he studied briefly but attentively. Toss

As they entered a first-class carriage Lady Joan asked again, "Won't you

tell me now, Tom, where we're going ?”

"Can I never give you a treat on the sly?" said Holcroft. "You'll find out the whole business soon enough."

He settled himself well back in his seat, with closed eyes, prepared for slumber. Blanker and blanker beside him grew the face last night so radiant. Presently, in the rush of the express, she sat straight up with clasped hands. "Is it Dover?" she said.

East End, saying, "Some day, some day;" but her name was chiefly prominent in society journals among the upper ten. She had left her poor maid, frightened and deceived with the rest, in the lodgings on Easter Tuesday. A cruel fine lady! Rudd said an оссаsional word in her defence; but Rudd had the best of reasons for saying none too much.

Her noble relations, moreover, condemned her strongly. Why had she

No voice answered, and still the ex- not consulted them, and tried if things press rushed on.

IX.

THREE days later, about London,
newspaper boys were shouting :
GIGANTIC FRAUD AT THE EAST END!
BOGUS COMPANY!
FLIGHT OF CHAIRMAN !

And the night mails carried to the
length and breadth of England this
chairman's name as T. R. Holcroft,
M.P.

could be hushed up? What was she
thinking of to disappear with the man,
dragging her family through the dust?
If, when she found him out, she had
declined further lot in his concerns,
society would have sympathized and
respected her. But now she had made
herself no better than any common
accomplice harboring stolen goods in a
burglar's den. Her money was found
to have been withdrawn some time ago
from English securities.
Joan was
simply infatuated with the man.
'Disgusting!" cried Lady Wilming-

[ocr errors]

ton.

But some one steadily working day by day, without flourish of trumpets, in south London remembered a shadowy room, a look as of heartbreak unawares, a pure and proud young voice holding fast a promise.

The country rang with indignation. Hundreds of poor families had been spurred by paths of toilsome virtue to the spider's chamber and devoured. Holcroft's skill among his various marionettes had been equalled only by its roguery. Having sold his patent and speculated away the proceeds, he had mortgaged the bank with all its appur- Darcy, if none else, understood. He tenances to secret money-lenders. But had grown thinner of late, more carebefore Issachar and his hidden col- worn. He would work himself to leagues could complete their schemes, death, said his friends; but he only Rudd, the demagogue, working warily laughed. and zealous for his brethren, had fired

Meanwhile for Lady Joan the ex

the mine. In short, the Holcroft bub-press train had been followed by the ble, with its prismatic hues, had burst Calais boat. "I will tell you at eight and vanished. The Thrift Union o'clock," Holcroft had said when she buildings were sold by auction, Issachar wisely retiring. The London house was ransacked by creditors, who would receive therefrom some twopence in the pound. Many seaports were watched and rewards were offered at multifarious police-stations; but no faintest trace of Holcroft transpired.

And Lady Joan? Demos thought poorly of her. She had always promised more than she performed. She had appeared by fits and starts at the

questioned him once again in crossing the Channel. Eight o'clock had found them vis-à-vis at a little table in the huge coffee-room of an unfamiliar hotel in the heart of Paris. Holcroft's eyes were imperiously fixed upon her, as if to remind her that he was master.

"I have never yet seen you fail in self-control," he said.

"I shall not fail now," said Lady

[blocks in formation]

she looked white, but of matchless dig- | farmer, having himself to travel furnity. ther, he said.

"Remember we are in a crowd; your face must not change. That impudent message was to warn me. The slumming business has ruined me and itself. They will say that I have robbed the bank."

"And they will be ruined too?" "There you go! Them first, of course! I was unlucky, that's all, as half the fellows in London city have been turn and turn about. But Rudd caught me out before I could right myself. I must hide. Do you take it in ?"

The farmer's old wife asked no questions, glad to obtain a pittance by her empty rooms. At least the tired exile had found a pillow, however coarse, and merciful darkness.

X.

"AND this is the end!" said Lady Joan.

She said the same words often to the trees and clouds as she wandered upon the solitary hillside above the farm.

Still under twenty-five and her life a wreck; her vast fortune-that power

He raised his glass to the light and ment ! eyed the wine.

[ocr errors]

"I am thinking. Would my fortune for good - a vanished dream; her be enough ?" stainless name lent to cover defileAnd those for whom, in a way they little guessed, she had given her all those were wrecked too. Thoughts of herself dwindled as she thought of them; of her personal persuasions and encouragements, of the sufferings which might have been spared them had she never volunteered delusions.

"Your fortune is gone too." "All? How can it have gone?" "Will you side with the bloodhounds? It is lost, I tell you. I would have sent you to the Wilmingtons instead of dragging you here, but for that. They would ask you all manner of questions, and make the case against me ten times blacker. But you can have your choice; go or stay. At the same time" - again he looked at her imperiously "I don't deny that I had rather you stayed."

"Where you are I must be," said Lady Joan. "For better, for worse," she repeated in clear tones.

Holcroft laughed.

"You are the queerest little machine wound up by rule! Well, such things have their uses. Now we must go and buy some necessaries of existence. We move on first thing to-morrow."

Desperate cries rang ever in her ears. The great tide of wretchedness was still rolling. The very means by which she had thought to stem it had quickened its flow. By her own act she was bound, not to them, but to him- their destroyer.

If

She was much alone. Holcroft came and went at long intervals. He was striving, he told her, to retrieve his fortune; in towns, he wore a disguise. his plans which he did not define succeeded, he would go boldly back to England. She listened, answering nothing.

Twenty-eight hours from this time In Paris she had bought materials for Lady Joan's noble young head was art embroidery, in which she was resting beneath the primitive roof of skilled; and during many hours daily a farmhouse buried among hills, of she worked in her great bare room. whose existence Holcroft had learned She hoped, when opportunity came, to by chance in a pedestrian tour years sell her handicrafts; she had not dared before. Lady Joan, who was an- to ask how Holcroft obtained their nounced as "Madame Robert," her present subsistence, and confined herhusband's second name, had arrived self to using it penuriously. No news from the nearest market-town in a covered wagon, among flour-sacks and other commodities. "Monsieur Robert" had thus arranged with the

from the outer world reached her. Thus she waited, in living death.

It was Christmas eve. The tiny church in the valley was lighted, the

« AnteriorContinuar »