Mrs. Henry Wood

“ Major Carlen sat in his usual place at the foot of the table, facing his wife. An imposing-looking man, tall, thin and angular, who must formerly have been handsome. He had a large nose with a curious twist in it; white teeth, which he showed very much; light gray eyes that stared at you, and hair and whiskers of so brilliant a black that a suspicious person might have said they were dyed.
"I thought of taking you boys out myself this afternoon," spoke the Major. "To see that horsemanship which is exhibiting. I hear it's very good. Would you like to go?"
"Oh, and me too!" struck in Blanche. ”

“ Passing through it, she found herself in a narrow passage that she had not before seen. Deborah, the good-natured housemaid, suddenly came out of one of the rooms opening from it, carrying a brush and dustpan. Deborah was the only servant kept in the house, so far as Lady Level saw, apart from the cook, who was fat and experienced.
"What a curious old house!" exclaimed Lady Level. "Nothing but dark passages that turn and wind about until you don't know where you are."
"It is that, my lady," answered Deborah. "In the late lord's time the servants took to calling it the maze, it puzzled them so. ”

“ Catching Blanche's hand, she drew her forcibly away, and when they had gained the highroad, burst into a long, low laugh.
"Don't think about it, dear," she said to Blanche. "It's nothing. The best of husbands like to amuse themselves behind our backs."
"Perhaps he was—was—inquiring the way—or something," hazarded Blanche, whose breath was coming rather faster than usual.
Mrs. Page Reid nearly choked. "Oh, to be sure!" she cried, when she could speak.
"You don't think so? You think it was—something else?"
"You are only a little goose, my dear, in the ways of the world," rejoined Mrs. Page Reid. ”

“ On the morning of our departure from the inn, Lady Level told my wife and myself that she should take the opportunity to travel with us. She and her servants were even then dressed for the journey, and her travelling-carriage stood ready packed in the yard. If she did this against your wish, I am in no way responsible for it. It was not my place to dictate to her; to say she should go, or should remain. Be assured, my lord, I am the last man in the world unduly to interfere with other people; and my coming down now was entirely brought about by Major Carlen. ”

“ Mr. Ravensworth drew in his stern lips. He had suspected that of the dreadful fate of Tom Heriot she must still be ignorant. The suspicion was now confirmed.
At that moment the steward, Mr. Drewitt, appeared; and Lady Level introduced him by name. Mr. Ravensworth saw a pale, venerable man of sixty years, still strong and upright, looking like a gentleman of the old, old school, in his plum-coloured suit and white silk stockings, his silver knee-buckles, his low shoes, and his voluminous cambric shirt-frill. ”

“ All went."
"But—someone must have paid for Charles all this time—two whole years!" she reiterated, in vexed surprise.
"Yes! it has been managed," he gently said.
"I think you must have paid for him yourself," spoke Mrs. Carlen with impulse. "I think it is you who are intending to pay the premium to Mr. Brightman, and to provide for his future expenses? You are a good man, Mr. Serjeant Stillingfar!"
His face broke into a smile: the rare sweet smile which so seldom crossed it. "I am only lending it to him. Charley will repay me when he is a rich man. ”

“ Lady Level threw back her head, the haughty crimson dyeing her cheeks. "I went there expecting to find my husband; was that an inexperienced or a childish action?"
"Yes, it was," roared the Major, completely losing his temper, and showing his fierce teeth. "When men are away from their wives, they fall back into bachelor habits. If they please to turn their sanctums into smoking dens, or boxing dens, or what not, are you to come hunting them up, as I say, with a spyglass that magnifies at both ends?"
"Good men have no need to keep their wives away from them." ”

“ A man does not die of love nowadays; or rush into an action for breach of promise, and become a laughing-stock at his club. Blanche marries Lord Level."
"Lord Level!" Mr. Ravensworth repeated in a curious accent.
"You look as though you doubted the information."
"I do not relish it, for your daughter's sake," replied Mr. Ravensworth. "She never can—can—like Lord Level."
"What's the matter with Lord Level? He may be approaching forty, but——"
Mr. Ravensworth laughed. "Not just yet, Major Carlen." ”

“ To go back to Blanche. She opened out an indignant tale to me, when I got home just now and found her there, of what she had heard in Holles Street. 'Serve you right, my dear,' I said to her: 'a wife has no business to be looking at her husband through a telescope. If a man chose to fill his rooms with wild tigers, it would not be his wife's province to complain, provided he kept her out of reach of their claws.' 'But what am I to do?' cried Blanche. ”

“ I could go to Mr. Brightman, and he would supply me—Charles Strange is in Paris again. I could go to other places. But I prefer to have it from Mr. Ravensworth, and save myself trouble and annoyance. It is not a pleasant thing for a peeress of the realm—as you just now put it—to go about borrowing a five-pound note," she concluded with a faint smile.
"Very well, Blanche. If ill comes of this wild step of yours, remember you were warned against it. I can say no more."
Gathering up his cloak as he spoke, Major Carlen threw it over his shoulders, and went forth, muttering, into the night. ”

“ Mrs. Edwards marshalled her upstairs. Curious, in-and-out, wide and shallow stairs they were, with long passages and short turnings branching from them. She gently threw open the door of a large, handsome room. On the bed lay Lord Level, his eyes closed.
"He is dozing again, my lady," she whispered. "He is sure to fall to sleep whenever the fever leaves him."
"There is no fire in the room!" exclaimed Lady Level.
"The doctor says there's not to be any, my lady. In the room opposite to this, across the passage, you will find a good one. It is my lord's sitting-room when he is well. ”

“ She sank into a reverie—a deep, unpleasant reverie that compressed her lips and contracted her brow. Suddenly she lifted her head.
"He is my husband, after all, Arnold."
"To be sure he is."
"And therefore—and therefore—there had better be no investigation."
"Why?" asked Mr. Ravensworth, scarcely above his breath.
"Because he does not wish it," she answered, bending her face downwards. "He forbade me to call in aid, or to suffer it to be called in; and, as I say, he is my husband. Will you stop those men in their search? will you send them away?" ”

“ Lady Level was as good as her word: she did not stir out of her rooms all day. On the following morning when Mr. Ravensworth came out of his chamber, he saw, from the corridor window, a travelling-carriage in the yard, packed. By the coat-of-arms he knew it for Lord Level's. Timms moved towards him in a flutter of delight.
"Oh, if you please, sir, breakfast is on the table, and my lady is waiting there, ready dressed. We are going to England, sir." ”

“ Ravensworth sternly. "You are as yet not much more than a child, young lady; when you are a little older and wiser, you will see how foolish such ideas are. For your own sake, Blanche, put them away from you." ”

“ Strange went to London, Blanche with her, to take up for the present her abode with her old aunt, who had invited her to do so. She was little, if any, better off in this second widowhood than she had been as the widow of Colonel Heriot. What papa had to leave he left to her; but it was not much. I had my own mother's money. And so we were all separated again; all divided: one here, another there, a third elsewhere. It is the way of the world. Change and chance! chance and change! ”

“ He spoke in English. The next minute the girl returned, cigar-case in hand. She took her place by his side, as before, and they fell to talking again.
Lady Level drew away. She went home with flagging steps and a bitterly rebellious heart.
Not to her husband would she speak; her haughty lips were sealed to him—and should be ever, she resolved in her new pain. But she gave a hint the next day of what she had again seen to Mrs. Page Reid.
That lady only laughed. To her mind it was altogether a rich joke. Not only the affair itself, but Blanche's ideas upon it. ”

“ All the doors and windows had been fastened before we went to bed, and they had not been, so far as we can discover, in the least disturbed."
"Do you suspect anyone in the house?"
"Why—no, sir; there's no one we like to suspect," returned Sanders, coughing dubiously.
"The servants——"
"Oh, none of the servants would do such a thing," interrupted Sanders, very decidedly: and Mr. Ravensworth feared they might be getting upon dangerous ground. He caught Major Carlen's significant glance. It said, as plainly as glance ever yet spoke, "The man suspects his mistress." ”

“ Arnold Ravensworth laughed good-humouredly. He was not going to give a hint of the state of affairs that he suspected himself.
"You are prejudiced, Cross. Miss Heriot was not to blame for what happened. She was a child: and they did with her as they pleased."
"A child! Old enough to engage herself to one man, and to marry another," retorted Captain Cross, in a burst of angry feeling. "And Level, of all people!"—with sarcastic scorn. "Why does he leave her in Germany whilst he stays gallivanting in England? What do you say? Met with an accident, and can't come for her? ”

“ IT was a gloomy day, not far off the gloomy month of November, and it was growing towards mid-day, when a train on a small line, branching from the direct London line, drew up at the somewhat insignificant station of Upper Marshdale. A young and beautiful lady, without attendants, descended from a first-class carriage. ”

“ Brightman's reply. "I never saw such a child. She is never five minutes together in one place."
Presently she danced in. A graceful, pretty child, apparently about twelve, in a light-blue silk frock. She wore her soft brown hair in curls round her head, and they flew about as she flew, and a bright colour rose to her cheeks with every word she spoke, and her eyes were like her father's—dark, tender, expressive. ”

“ Serjeant Stillingfar was in his own room. He received us very kindly, shaking hands with Mrs. Carlen, whom he had seen occasionally. Mrs. Carlen, sitting opposite to him, entered upon her protest, and was meekly listened to by the Serjeant.
"Better be a successful attorney, madam, than a briefless barrister," he observed, when she finished.
"All barristers are not briefless," said Mrs. Carlen.
"A great many of them are," he answered. "Some of them never make their mark at all; they live and die struggling men." ”

“ Lord Level does not receive strangers at Marshdale."
"Strangers!" emphatically repeated Lady Level.
"Or wives either. They are the same as strangers in a case such as this. I assure you Level told me, long before he married you, that Marshdale was a little secluded place, no establishment kept up in it, except an old servant or two; that he never received company down there, and should never take you to it. Remain at the hotel with your servants, if you will not come to my house, Blanche—there's only a charwoman in it at present, as you know. ”

“ Lady Level's delight at seeing them seemed as unrestrained as a child's. Exiles from their native land can alone tell that to meet with home faces in a remote spot is grateful as the long-denied water to the traveller in the Eastern desert. ”

“ Drewitt has such an appetite; leastways at his supper," answered Deborah.
"I wonder they don't take their meals below; it's a long way to carry them up all them stairs," remarked Mr. Sanders, when Deborah was placing her dish of cutlets on the tray prepared for it.
"Oh, I don't mind it; I'm used to it now," said the good-humoured girl, as she went off with a quick step.
Deborah returned with a quieter step than she had departed. "They are quarrelling like anything!" she exclaimed in a low, frightened voice. "She's gone into my lord's room, and they are having it out over something or other." ”

“ The Major strode up to Arnold, his teeth actually chattering. "I told you what it would be," he muttered. "I warned you of the consequences, if you helped Blanche to go down there. She has attempted his life."
Mr. Ravensworth gazed at him inquiringly.
"By George she has! They had a blowup last night, it seems, and she has stabbed him. It can be no one else who has done it. When these delicate girls are put up; made jealous, and that sort of thing; they are as bad as their more furious sisters. ”

“ You look black as a thunder-cloud, Ravensworth. What right have you to do so, pray?"
"None in the world. I beg pardon. I was thinking of Blanche's happiness."
"You had better think of her good," retorted the Major. "She likes Level. I don't say she is yet in love with him: but she did not like Cross. Level is an attractive man, remember."
"Has been rather too much so," cynically retorted Mr. Ravensworth.
"Here she comes. I am going out; so you may offer your congratulations at leisure."
Major Carlen went away, and Blanche entered. ”