Mrs. Trevor

“ Alas! she knew not the nature of the being with whom she had to cope; it was but as the falcon-hunted dove, fluttering within the fowler's snare, or beneath the vulture's claw, the cords are but the tighter drawn—the grasp more crushingly extended, till the victim feeling his impotence to resist, resigns itself powerless to its fate. Mrs. Trevor struggled no more. All thought of influence was at an end, except indeed that which her gentle virtues, her submissive tears, like the droppings of water upon a stone, might in time be permitted to effect. ”

“ Trevor’s foreign missions drew her upon the Continent, where she has remained mostly for these last eighteen years. The first thing she did was to live apart from him, and keep up a love correspondence with him; hence to the world they appeared enamoured of one another. She is a little mad, and parsimony is her chief turn. She is good-natured, and a little clever. Trevor has no judgment and slender talents. His foibles are very harmless, and his whole life has been insipidly good. His ridicules are a love of dress coats, volantes, and always speaking French. ”

“ Mrs Trevor only smiled feebly, while the other girls expatiated upon even more alarming symptoms.
“My heart is going like a sledge-hammer,” sighed Jill. “I feel every moment as if it might burst!—I can’t see you. The air is full of spots—”
“I’m as dizzy as dizzy,” declared Pam eloquently. “I feel exactly as I did that Wednesday Nellie and I ate chocolates all the afternoon in a hot room. If he doesn’t come soon we’d better all lie down. We could get up again when we heard the bell.” ”

“ CHAPTER XLV. "ALL THE ROSES ARE DEAD."
When she awoke she heard someone moving in the room. There was the rustling of a paper and the creak of a chair.
"Oh, Mrs. Trevor, have I told you everything?" she said, and she sprang to her feet, the color suffusing her cheeks and her eyes growing bright. "And are you going to send me out into the cold? Are you never going to speak to me again? Are you going to forsake me?"
"No, no; sit down," said a voice, and then Florence did indeed color painfully, for Mrs. Trevor was not in the room, but Maurice Trevor stood before the excited girl. ”

“ Suzanne never saw the hat-pin again. She remembers it distinctly because of the curious design of the gold about the cat’s-eye in the top.”
[Pg 261]
“See here, Hardy, that’s not much to go on. You haven’t found the weapon remember, and therefore cannot prove it belonged to Miss Beatrice. Secondly, Mrs. Trevor was found locked in the safe, not on the floor.”
“Quite true, sir. But you must recollect that Mrs. Trevor was a small, slender woman. I don’t believe she weighed over one hundred and twenty-five pounds.”
“I know; but a relaxed body is a mighty heavy, unwieldy thing to lift.” ”

“ Brinkley—Mrs. Trevor's lovely house would inspire me to it.”
“Two birds with one stone—thank you, Mrs. Pasmer, for my part of the compliment. Pick yourself up, Mr. Trevor.”
“Oh, thank you, I'm all right,” said Trevor, panting after the ladies' meanings, as a man must. “I suppose thinking and talking in the dark is a good deal like smoking in the dark.”
“No; thinking and talking are not at all like smoking under any conditions. ”

“ Trevor has been murdered!”
“Mrs. Trevor—murdered!” Peggy nearly dropped her teacup on the floor.
“I really wish, Peggy, you would stop your habit of repeating my words. It’s very uncomfortable living with an echo under one’s nose.”
“Oh, Granny, please tell me all about it right away.”
“Well, according to the Evening Star— What is it, Hurley?” as that solemn individual entered the room.
“Mr. Tillinghast, to see you and Miss Margaret, ma’am.”
“Show him in. Now, Peggy, we will probably get the news at first hand. Good evening, Dick.” ”

“ I've heard such a lot about it from Aunt Philippa already. And why shouldn't I talk to my pals? You wouldn't like it if I didn't talk to you sometimes."
"Is he that sort of pal?" asked Jack.
She nodded. "Just that sort. And Trevor knows all about it and understands. I've just had a line from him to tell me so."
"Have you, though?" said Jack. "Then all I can say is Trevor is a brick—a very special kind of brick—and I hope you realize it."
"He's just the sweetest man in the world," said Chris with enthusiasm.
"He is never horrid about things, and he never thinks what isn't." ”

“ Miss Trevor exclaimed.
"Yes, he has left us and gone to Mohair," I said, "bag and baggage. That is the flat truth of it."
I suppose there is some general rule for calculating beforehand how a young woman is going to act when news of this sort is broken. I had no notion of what Miss Trevor would do. I believe Farrar thought she would faint, for he laid his napkin on the table. She did nothing of the kind, but said simply:
"How unreliable men are!" ”

“ I’m getting old—sixty-four next birthday, precious near the allotted span of life, but she is twenty years younger—she may have a long life before her still. It would break my heart to let her go on working, but she’d be too proud to take money from me, unless— unless— Mrs Trevor, you are a sensible woman! ”

“ I have just returned from the Trevors, and left your card and mine with messages.”
“Did you see Beatrice, Granny?”
“No, only that odious Alfred Clark. I cannot bear the man, he is so—so specious—” hunting about for a word. “He told me that Beatrice and the Attorney General would see no one.”
“Beatrice must be terribly upset, poor darling.”
“I didn’t know there was much love lost between them?”
“There wasn’t,” confessed Peggy. “Mrs. Trevor was perfectly horrid to her.”
“That’s news to me,” said Dick, helping himself to another sandwich. ”

“ On her way back to the hotel Miss Trevor remembered the foolscap book.
"I must get him to show it to me," she mused, smiling. "Why, the boy is a born genius—and to think he should be a shore boy! I can't understand it. And here I am loving him already. Well, a woman has to love something—and you don't have to know people for years before you can love them."
Paul was waiting on the Noel's Cove rocks for Miss Trevor the next afternoon. He was not alone; a tall man, with a lined, strong-featured face and a grey beard, was with him. ”

“ From Vivian Dangerfield to Roy Montaine,
“Dear Sir, and Friend”—in letters bold and plain,
Written on cream-white paper, so it ran:
“It is the will and pleasure of Miss Trevor,
And therefore doubly so a wish of mine,
That you shall honour me next New Year Eve,
My wedding hour, by standing as best man.
Miss Trevor has six bridesmaids I believe.
Being myself a novice in the art—
If I should fail in acting well my part,
I’ll need protection ’gainst the regiment
Of outraged ladies. ”

“ Trevor, like a man. And so, madam, finding as you have been told a parcel of trumpery tales, I hope in God you will be kind enough not to believe one of them; now that you see they are all false. For if there be a gentleman on the face of the earth that loves a lady to desperation, why, Mr. Trevor is he; as you would have been satisfied, if you had set by his bedside when as he was down in the fever ”

“ Trevor was at home receiving callers, for Wednesday is Cabinet Day, you know, sir. Mrs. Trevor never served refreshments except at private teas, so I spent the [Pg 249] afternoon in the hall with the footman helping her guests with their coats and wraps. Miss Beatrice went out directly after luncheon and didn’t return until about five o’clock, sir. ”

“ Trevor had no idea of his wife's talents being put to no better purpose than the solace and amusement of her own lonely, joyless existence; and the poor lady was too willing to enter on a task, which promised a means of drawing her children towards her in closer intercourse than was otherwise permitted. Such was the cruel jealousy, which dared to prevent the mother from acquiring too great an influence and ascendancy over the children's affections. ”

“ Even your presence, once the sun of my existence, is painful to me now; and when you come straight from another woman to kiss me, it is agony. I cannot bear it.
"You thought I did not know all the kisses and caresses you have given Veronica. Dear Trevor, a woman always knows—perhaps a man does, too. Certainly I knew. One does not have to see or hear; there is a sense, not yet discovered, that is above all the others, that tells us these things. ”

“ Now that the technical course is finished, you are going to be put through a vivâ voce examination. Sit down in front of the work-basket, and answer without any shuffling or trying to escape. Now then! Distinguish between a darning-needle and a bodkin.” She nipped up Mrs Trevor’s spectacles from a side-table, as she spoke, perched them on the end of her nose, and stared over them with an assumption of great severity. Miles grinned complacently.
“Easy enough. One pricks and the other doesn’t.” ”

“ Meal-times with father must be devoted to pleasant subjects alone.” Such were Mrs Trevor’s instructions, instilled into her children’s minds with such persistent firmness that they were never disobeyed, with the result that the tired doctor came home with the happy certainty of enjoying a cheery, harmonious hour, and the young people themselves learnt a lesson in self-restraint which was of infinite value in after life.
Betty might grumble and tirade outside the schoolroom door, but as she approached the dining-room she mechanically smoothed her brow and adopted a cheerful expression. ”

“ When Madam Trevor, with the three girls, arrived at the pier, all aristocratic damedom seemed to be about the silks and damasks. Now, while carrying on a lively conversation with Mistresses King, Paca, Cradock, and Chase, Madam Trevor busily priced tabby silk petticoats and India muslins, of which she selected very pretty pieces for her daughters and Deborah. Mrs. Chase was casting longing glances at a satin bodice that Mistress Harwood held in her hands. ”

“ Trevor, and Senator Phillips says he is heartbroken by her tragic death.”
“That is no excuse for neglecting the living. Mr. Trevor owes much to his daughter’s affection.” Peggy did not see the quickly suppressed sneer that distorted Clark’s handsome features. “Miss Trevor acts as if she had something preying on her mind, don’t you think so?” ”

“ Trevor's chief Eton friend, young Maitland, a good, high-principled, clever boy, a little older, who had valued him for what he was, while passing Alured by as a foolish, idle little swell, took pity upon him in the grief and dejection of his loss—did for him all and more than Trevor could do, and has been the friend and blessing of his life, aiding the depth and earnestness that seemed to pass into our dear child as he hung over the dying lad. Yes, Trevor Lea and John Maitland did for our Trevorsham what all our love and care had never been able to do. ”

“ I mustn't spoil Hilda's wedding by being silly, must I? You haven't brought Bertie, I suppose?"
He smiled a little. "He didn't get an invitation."
"Of course not. Trevor, you didn't think I was—flirting with him that night?"
"My dear child—no!"
"Because I never flirt," said Chris very earnestly. "It's a horrid thing to do. You'll never think that of me, will you? Or that I have ever trifled with you—or anyone?"
Trevor's eyes rested upon her with grave kindness. "My dear, why should I think these things of you?" he said.
She shook her head. "I don't know. Lots of people do. ”

“ And though the next moment he was gone, and she left with a beating heart to taste the luscious offering—nay, though he was scarcely many minutes by her side again that afternoon—for dancing quickly succeeded the repast, and Trevor did not dance, while Mary's hand was in great request—yet a feeling of such perfect happiness had suddenly taken possession of her soul, that she was fully contented to feel that, as he stood apart amongst those not joining in the dance, Trevor's eye was constantly following her every movement with earnest, never-diverted attention. ”

“ As it turned out it was just as well that I did so, for that afternoon, not altogether unexpectedly I must confess, was destined to prove the truth of the old saying that the course of true love never runs smooth. Miss Trevor, with the Duke on one side and my wife on the other, was slowly passing across the great square, when a man suddenly appeared before us from one of the shops on our right. This individual was none other than the Don Josè de Martinos, who raised his hat politely to the ladies and expressed his delight at seeing Miss Trevor abroad once more. ”

“ Trevor's dark eye glanced alternately the one from the other, with the wary suspicious glare of an angry animal—Eugene entered, prepared for the worst, with a dogged indifference of countenance and threw himself upon a chair behind his father.
"Well, Sir, and what is this I hear of you?" Mr. Trevor commenced. "Lost a thousand pounds! a pretty story truly; and want me to give you the money. Really one would think you were heir to twenty thousand a-year, instead of a younger son," with a significant glance towards the window, "totally and entirely dependent on my bounty." ”

“ Something bumped softly against the door; the woman glanced suspiciously from Trevor to the closet. Trevor looked carelessly out the window and began to whistle. A low whine issued from the prison. Trevor heard it, but apparently the “goody” didn’t; he whistled louder. The whining increased. Trevor began to sing.
Then began a most appalling series of bumps, growls, knocks, whines, jars, gnawings, and similar disturbing [110] noises from the closet. With loudly thumping heart Trevor sang on, rapidly, loudly, unceasingly. The woman turned and viewed him in astonishment not unmixed with alarm. ”