Mr. Carlton

“ Carlton say ‘Who’s there?’ but I sped down-stairs quietly in my list shoes, for I did not like them to think they had been overheard. As I went by the kitchen Mrs. Gould spoke to me, telling me, I remember, of an accident that had happened to Mr. Carlton that evening in coming from Great Wennock. I ran in home, and went to bed; but what with the pain in my face, and the words I had overheard next door, I could get no rest. It seemed a mystery to me and nothing less, that the young lady should be so intimate with Mr. Carlton, when she had asked about him and spoken of him as a stranger. ”

“ Mr. Carlton gave a start of anger. “Very well, my lady; if you think it well to dodge my footsteps amongst my patients, you must do so. I don’t know how I can prevent it. But if you hear nothing worse than that woman can tell you, you won’t hurt.”
“Mr. Carlton! keep within the bounds of truth, if you please. When did I ever dodge your footsteps?”
“It seems like it, at any rate.”
“No; my passing that cottage was accidental. I was out with Jane to-day, and she had to go down Blister Laue.”
“What has given rise to this suspicion?” demanded Mr. Carlton, feeling completely in the dark. ”

“ Carlton and Lady Laura alone, and was nothing to anybody. Certainly there was a wide contrast between the quiet style of living of John Grey and his partner Mr. Lycett, and the costly one of Mr. Carlton. The partners were prudent men, putting by for their children: Mr. Carlton was not a prudent man as regarded pecuniary matters, and he had no children to put by for. Carriages and horses and servants and entertainments -made his house somewhat unlike a medical man’s. But the public, I say, are led away by all this, and Mr. Carlton was just now the most popular resident in all South Wennock. ”

“ Carlton?”
“Yes,” responded the surgeon. “Anything wanted?”
“That child at Tupper’s cottage is taken worse; dying, they think.”
“And the sooner it dies the better,” was Mr. Carlton’s rejoinder to himself, in a voice of pity. “I can’t do it any good, poor little fellow, or ease its pain.—Who has come?” he called aloud.
“Only a neighbour,” replied Mr. Jefferson. “Perhaps you would like to hear what she says.”
“Coming,” said Mr. Carlton. He put down the cylinder, left the safe door open, and went up-stairs, intending, no doubt, to be back in a twinkling. ”

“ When folks get into mischief, you know, they are nearly sure to be caught. There was a brisk knock at the door, and Mr. Carlton stood before them. A far brighter blush rose then, and she would have shrunk in maidenly timidity from the arms that encircled her. But Frederick Grey altogether declined to let her so shrink. He kept her where she was, held to him, and raised his head with calm self-possession.
“What do you do here, Mr. Carlton?”
“Do!” returned Mr. Carlton. “It is my own house.”
“Your own house, of course. But this is Lady Lucy’s room in it.” ”

“ The nurse did as she was bid, and not long afterwards Mr. Carlton said good-night to Mrs. Crane, and passed through the sitting room to take his departure. As he went out on the landing to descend the stairs he saw what he thought was a face, leaning against the wall by the bed-room door and staring at him; a man’s face, with thick black whiskers; a strange face, looking stern, white, and cold in the moonlight. Mr. Carlton was of remarkably strong nerve—a bold, fearless man ”

“ Carlton would sully himself by anything so cruel and disgraceful?” flashed Laura. “He has his own faults; but he would not lend himself to a business of that sort.”
“Men think a poor friendless governess legitimate game sometimes,” spoke Jane in a low tone. “And she was only known as the unprotected girl, Clarice Beauchamp. Rely upon it, Tom West worked ill to Clarice in some shape or other; I fear Mr. Carlton knew of it, and is trying to screen him. It was so shadowed forth in that dreadful dream: Mr. Carlton was mixed up with it.” ”

“ When she came downstairs, fifteen minutes later, arrayed in pink chiffon, he longed so to take her in his arms that it actually hurt to restrain himself. It was so good to see her again—alive and unharmed—more beautiful than ever! He wished she were not so capable, so bent upon having a career. A girl who looked so adorable had no right to possess the keen mind of a man.
But both Mr. Carlton and his sister were in the room, and Ralph had to content himself with shaking hands with Linda. ”

“ Carlton took them from her.
“And now can you go to the Red Lion at South Wennock, and tell them to send the necessary aid?”
“I’m willing, sir. My husband won’t take no harm at being left: though it’s mighty ill he is.”
“Who attends him?”
“I’ve had nobody to him as yet. We poor folks can’t afford a doctor till things come to the very worst with us, and life’s almost on the ebb.”
“Which is unwise policy of you,” remarked Mr. Carlton. “Well, my good woman, you do this little service for me, and I’ll step in us soon as you bring assistance, and see what I can do for your husband.” ”

“ Filling the chair—as the newspapers had it the next day—was Lewis Carlton, Esquire; a great man now amidst his fellow townsmen. People are taken with show; people are taken with grandeur; and Mr. Carlton displayed both. He was successful as a medical man, he was rather liked as a social one; and his wife’s rank brought him always a certain consideration. The money he had inherited from his father, together with the proceeds of his own practice, enabled him to live in a style attempted by few in South Wennock. ”

“ Carlton almost as little. He had taken off his overcoat and wrapped it about her; but the rain was drenching them, and both were wet through when they reached the station at Lichford.
When within a few yards of it, the whistle and the noise of an advancing train sounded in their ears. Laura shrieked, and flew onward.
“We shall be too late! Lewis, we shall be too late!”
Instinct, more than the lights, guided her through a waiting-room to the platform. Mr. Carlton, in little less commotion than herself, looked about for the place where tickets were issued, and found it closed. ”

“ And the current against the surgeon went flowing on until it became as a rushing torrent, threatening to engulf him in its angry might.
Another indisputable fact was, that a great inciter to this feeling was Mr. Carlton. It was he who did the most towards fanning the flame. This was not generally known, for Mr. Carlton’s work was partially effected in secret; but still it did in a measure ooze out, especially to the Greys. That Mr. Carlton’s motive must be that of increasing his own practice, was universally assumed ”

“ Mr. Carlton was anxious and attentive, but he knew from the first there would be no danger, and he told Laura so. The result was that she called him “unfeeling.” An unmerited reproach; if ever man was anxious for the well-doing of his wife, that man was Mr. Carlton.
Frederick Grey went in once with his uncle to Lucy’s chamber, after the danger supervened. She did not know him; and he had only the pain of seeing her turn her head from side to side in the delirium of fever. If Lady Jane did not despair, he did; the sight nearly unmanned him. ”

“ Carlton would have been in their hands, at their cruel mercy, but Sir Stephen Grey rose up to the rescue. He stood on the seat of the carriage and bared his head while he addressed the excited mob; the flaring gas light from a butcher’s shop shining full on his face.
“If you touch Mr. Carlton by so much as a finger, you are not my fellow townsmen, my own dear old neighbours of South Wennock, and I will never again meet you as such. I thought you were Englishmen! If Mr. Carlton be accused of crime, is there not the law of his country to judge him? You are not the law; you are not his accusers ”

“ Carlton’s, sobbed forth some confused words, and took him up the stairs.
The nurse was standing at the foot of the bed, her eyes round with alarm; and Mr. Carlton had thrown down the bed-clothes and placed his ear close to the heart that lay there. He felt the damp forehead, he touched one of the hands.
“This is awful!” he exclaimed, turning round his pale face. “I left her well little more than an hour ago.”
“Is she dead?” asked Mr. Lycett.
“She is dead,” replied the surgeon. “What had you been giving her?” he demanded of Mrs. Pepperfly, his tone becoming stern and sharp. ”

“ Carlton. “I suppose you are so rich now, we poor commoners must scarcely dare to touch you with a long pole.”
Laura had been sitting before the fire, her feet on the fender, Mr. Carlton leaning careasingly over her. She suddenly sprang up and turned her back upon him, apparently busying herself with some trifles that lay on a side table; she had an inward conviction that her news would not be palatable.
“Laura, I say, I suppose you inherit ten or twenty thousand pounds? The countess dowager was good to you for ten, I should think.” ”

“ It might have been so, for Clarice had a world of romance within her. Again, there was that oath she took, in a moment of wildness, not to tell her name; was it possible that she deemed it binding upon her for ever? Mr. Carlton’s motive for concealing his marriage will have been gathered from certain passages at the commencement of the history: he stood in awe of his father. Mr. Carlton the elder had set his face entirely against his son’s marrying, and Lewis Was dependent upon him. Men do not in general—at least, educated men, like Mr. Carlton—plunge into crime all at once. ”

“ Carlton?”
“I came to bring these powders, Lucy,” was his reply, as he laid two small white papers on the table by her tide. “You complained of heartburn this morning: take one in a wine-glass of water now, and the second later in the day; they will relieve you.”
“Thank you,” she replied; “I will take it presently.”
Judith was in the room then, having entered it in time to hear what passed. Mr. Carlton left, not choosing probably to make further demur to the presence of the intruding guest, lest it might disturb Lucy, and Frederick Grey took up the powders and examined them. ”

“ She had learned the secret that many grown people have yet to discover; that good times are sweeter after hard work, just as a delicious dinner tastes far better to the athlete than to the [Pg 75] afternoon bridge player.
To add to it all, Mr. Carlton arrived from New York on Thanksgiving day, in plenty of time for dinner. Linda could hardly contain her joy.
"Daddy, are you as happy in your new work as I am in mine?" ”

“ Carlton the night of her arrival,” interrupted one of the magistrates, alluding to the unfortunate letter found by Lady Laura, and which had brought on the trouble.
“Not at all, your worship,” undauntedly returned the lawyer. “There’s no proof that that letter was addressed to Mr. Carlton—was ever in his possession. The woman Smith’s story of its having been handed to her by the Lady Jane Chesney, and that Lady Jane received it from Mr. Carlton’s wife, goes for nothing. ”

“ Carlton, some weeks after they had been acting on the new system, and offered 2,000 dollars for the head workman, Jim. The offer was, of course, refused. A few days after the same gentleman called again, and made an offer of double the sum that he had on the former occasion. Mr. Parker, finding that no money would purchase either of the Negroes, said, "Now, Mr. Carlton, pray tell me what it is that makes your Negroes work so? What kind of people are they?" "I suppose," observed Carlton, "that they are like other people, flesh and blood." ”

“ The Sultan, so the equerry informed him, had, with Oriental unexpectedness, invited the Duke to dine that night at the Palace, and the Duke, much to his expressed regret, had been forced to accept what was in the nature of a command. He sent word by his equerry, however, that the dinner to Mr. Carlton was only a pleasure deferred, and that at Athens, where he understood Carlton was also going, he hoped to have the pleasure of entertaining him and making him known to his sisters.
"He is a selfish young egoist," said Carlton to Mrs. Downs. ”

“ Carlton.”
The lady looked surprised in her turn. “Why should it not be to Mr. Carlton?” she demanded.
“But the Greys are sure and safe, ma'am. Such a thing has never been known as for them to lose one of their lady patients.”
Mrs. Crane paused, apparently in indecision. “Has Mr. Carlton lost them?”
“Well—no; I can’t remember that he has. But, ma'am, he attends one where the Greys attend ten.”
“When you were speaking this evening of the doctors, I nearly made up my mind to engage Mr. Carlton,” observed Mrs. Crane. “I think men of skill struggling into practice should be encouraged. ”

“ Optional surroundings afford a fair clue to the superficial man, but no real key to character; thus Mr. Carlton's furniture suggested a soul devoid of the æsthetic sense. He had the sense in all its fineness, but it found expression in another place. Like many ritualists, Carlton was a religious æsthete; none more fastidious in the service of the sanctuary ”

“ Sufficient light came from the candle to enable him to discern a second door on that side. He drew it open: it was pushed to, but not latched, and the moonlight streamed full upon the lending from the staircaise window. But Mr. Carlton could neither see nor hear any one, and he came to the conclusion that he had been mistaken.
“I thought I heard some one in the room,” he said, in a tone of apology, as he returned to the chamber.
“Indeed there is no one here,” said the sick lady. “The nurse went down to her supper. ”