CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.
CHANGES
“Arthur!”
“Aha! my lady! you did not expect that, did you? Now look here!”
Arthur, who was sitting up in an arm-chair – a thing Monica had never seen him do since that terrible fall from the cliffs years ago – now pulled himself slowly into a standing position, and by the help of a stout stick, shuffled a few paces to his couch, upon which he sank breathless, yet triumphant, though his drawn brow betrayed that the achievement was made at the cost of some physical pain.
“Arthur, don’t! You will kill yourself!”
“On the contrary, I am going to cure myself – or rather, Tom and his scientific friends are going to cure me,” answered Arthur, panting a little with the exertion, but very gay and confident. “Do you know, Monica, that for the last three months I have been at Tom’s tender mercies, and you see what I can do at the end of that time? Randolph paid no end of money, I believe, to send down two big swells from London to overhaul me; and now – now what do you think is going to happen?”
“What?”
“The day after to-morrow I am going to start for Germany – for a place where there are mineral springs and things; and I am going to stay there for a year, with a doctor who has cured people worse than me. Randolph is going to pay – isn’t he just awfully good? And in a year, Monica, I shall come back to you well – cured! What do you think of that? Haven’t we kept our secret well? Why, Monica, don’t look like that! Aren’t you pleased to think that I shall not be always a cripple?”
But Monica was too utterly astounded to be able to realise all at once what this meant.
“Arthur, I don’t understand,” she said at length. “You seeing doctors – you going to Germany! Whose doing is it all?”
“Whose? Randolph’s practically, I suppose, since he finds the money for it.”
“Why was not I told?”
“That was my doing. I felt that if you knew you would dissuade me. But you can’t now, for in two days I shall be gone!”
“Was Randolph willing to keep a secret from me – about you?” asked Monica, slowly.
“No, he didn’t like it. He wanted you to be told; but I wouldn’t have it, and he gave in. I wanted to tell you myself when everything was fixed. Can you believe I am really going?”
“No, I can’t. Do you want to go, Arthur – to leave Trevlyn?”
“I want to get well,” he answered, eagerly. “If you had been lying on your back for years, Monica, you would understand.”
“I do understand,” answered Monica, clasping her hands. “Only – only – ”
“Oh! yes, I know all that. It won’t be pleasant. But I’d do more for a good chance of getting well. So now it’s all settled, and I’m off the day after to-morrow!”
“You’ve not given me much time for my preparations.”
Arthur laughed outright.
“Oh, you’re not going – did you think you were? Why, you’re Lady Trevlyn now – a full-blown countess. It would be too absurd, your tying yourself to me. Besides” – with a touch of manly gravity and purpose – “I wouldn’t have you, Monica, not at any price. I can stand things myself, but I can’t stand the look in your eyes. Besides, you know, it would be absurd now – quite absurd. You’re married, you know, and that changes everything.”
Monica’s face was hard to read.
“I should have thought that, even married, I might have been allowed to see you placed safely in the hands of this new doctor, after having been almost your only nurse all these years.”
He stretched out his hand and drew her towards him, making her kneel down beside him, so that he could gaze right into her face.
“You must not look like that, you sweet, sensitive, silly sister,” said Arthur, caressingly. “You must not think I have changed, because I wish to go away, and because I will not have you with me. I love you the same as ever. I know that you love me, and if you want a proof of this you shall have it, for I am going to ask a favour of you – a very great favour.”
Monica smoothed his hair with her hand.
“A favour, Arthur? – Something that I can grant? You know you have only to ask.”
“I want you to lend me Randolph,” he said, with a little laugh, as if amused at the form of words he had chosen. “I want to know if you can spare him for the journey. Tom is going to take me, but somehow, Tom – well, he is very clever and kind, but he does hurt me, there’s no denying, and I don’t feel quite resigned to be entirely at his mercy. But Randolph is different. He is so very strong, he moves me twice as easily, and he is so awfully kind and gentle: he stops in a moment if he thinks it hurts. He has been here a good bit with Tom since he got back, and you can’t think how different his handling is. I don’t like to take him away from you. You must miss him so awfully: he is such a splendid fellow!”
“Have you said anything to Randolph about it?”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t till I’d asked you. I do feel horrid to suggest such a thing; but you’ve made me selfish, you know, by spoiling me. It will take us three days to go; but he could come back much quicker. Tom is going to stop on for a bit, to study cures with this old fogey; so I shall have somebody with me. I’ll not keep Randolph a day after I get landed there, but I should like him for the journey uncommonly.”
Monica stooped and kissed him. “I will arrange that for you,” she said, quietly, and went away without another word.
She went slowly downstairs to the study, where her husband was generally to be found. She was dazed and confused by the astounding piece of news she had heard: hurt, pleased, hopeful, grieved, anxious, and half indignant all in one. Her indignation was all for Tom Pendrill, whom she had always regarded, where Arthur was concerned, something in the light of a natural foe. For her husband’s quiet generosity and goodness she had nothing but the warmest gratitude. He would not be led away by professional enthusiasm, or wish to inflict suffering upon Arthur just for the sake of scientific inquiry. He would not wish to send him from Trevlyn unless he believed that some great benefit would result from that banishment.
She smiled proudly as she thought of Conrad’s old prediction fulfilling itself so exactly now. Once she would have felt this deed of his as a crushing blow, aimed at the very foundation of her love and happiness; now she only saw in it a new proof of her husband’s single-minded love and strength. He would do even that which he knew would cause present pain, if he felt assured it were best to do so. He had proved his strength like this before, and she knew that he had been in the right. Should she distrust him now? Never again! never again! She had done with distrust now. She loved him too truly to feel a shadow of doubt. Whatever he did must be true and right. She would find him now, and thank him for his goodness towards her boy.
She went straight to the study, full of this idea. Her eyes were shining strangely; her face showed that her feelings had been deeply stirred. But when she opened the door, she paused with a start expressive of slight discomfiture, for her husband was not alone – Tom Pendrill was with him. They had guide-books and a Continental Bradshaw open before them, and were deep in discussions and plans.
They looked up quickly as Monica appeared, and Randolph, seeing by her face that she knew all, nerved himself to meet displeasure and misunderstanding. Monica could not say now what she had rehearsed on the way. Tom was there, and she was not sure that she quite forgave him, although she believed he acted from motives of kindness; but certainly she could not speak out before him. The words she had come prepared to utter died away on her lips, and her silence and whole attitude looked significant of deep-lying distress and displeasure.
“You have heard the news, Monica?” said Tom, easily.
“Yes, I have heard the news,” she answered, very quietly. “Is it true that you take him away the day after to-morrow?”
“Quite true,” answered Tom, looking very steadily at her. “Do you forgive us, Monica?”
She was silent for a moment; sort of quiver passed over her face.
“I am not quite sure if I forgive you,” she answered in a low even tone.
She had not looked at her husband all this time, nor attempted to speak to him. She was labouring visibly under the stress of subdued emotion. Randolph believed he knew only too well the struggle that was going on within her.
“Monica,” he said – and his voice sounded almost cold in his effort to keep it thoroughly under control – “I am afraid this has been a shock to you. I am sure you will feel it very much. Will you try to believe that we are acting as we believe for the best as regards Arthur’s future, and pardon the mystery that has surrounded our proceedings?”
Monica gave him one quick look – so quick and transient that he could not catch the secret it revealed. She spoke very quietly.
“Everything has been settled, and I must accept the judgment of others. Results alone can quite reconcile me to the idea; but at least I have learned to know that I do not always judge best in difficult questions. Arthur wishes to go, and I will not stand in his way. There is only one thing that I want to ask,” and she looked straight at her husband.
“What is that, Monica?”
“I want you to go with him, Randolph.”
“You want me to go with him?”
“Yes, to settle him in his new quarters, and to come and tell me all about it, and how he has borne the journey. Tom will not be back for weeks – and I don’t know if I quite trust Tom’s truthfulness. Will you go too, Randolph? I shall be happier if I know he is in your keeping as well.”
He looked at her earnestly. Did she wish to get rid of him for a time? Was his presence distasteful to her after this last act of his? He could not tell, but his heart was heavy as he gave the required assent.
“I will do as you wish, Monica. If you do not mind being a few days alone at Trevlyn, I will go with Arthur. It is the least I can do, I suppose, after taking him away from you.”
“Thank you, Randolph,” she said, with one more of those inexplicable glances. “I need not be alone at Trevlyn. Aunt Elizabeth will come, I am sure, and stay with me;” and she went quietly away without another word.
“I say, Trevlyn, you have tamed my lady pretty considerably,” remarked Tom, when the men were alone together. “I expected no end of a shine when she found out, and she yields the point like a lamb. Seems to me you’ve cast a pretty good spell over her during the short time you’ve had her in hand.”
Randolph pulled thoughtfully at his moustache as he turned again to the papers on the table. He did not reply directly to Tom’s remark, but presently observed, rather as if it were the outcome of his own thoughts:
“All the same, I would give a good deal if one of my first acts after coming into the property were not to banish Arthur from Trevlyn for a considerable and indeterminate time.”
“Oh, bosh!” ejaculated Tom, taking up Bradshaw again. “Why, even Monica would never put a construction like that upon this business.”
This day and the next flew by as if on wings. There was so much to think of, so much to do, and Monica had Arthur so much upon her mind, that she found no opportunity to say to Randolph what she had purposed doing in the heat of the moment. Speech was still an effort to her; her reserve was too deep to be easily overcome. She was busy and he was pre-occupied. When he returned she would tell him all, and thank him for his generous goodness towards her boy.
“Monica,” said Arthur, as she came to bid him good-night upon the eve of his journey – he had had a soothing draught administered, and was no longer excited, but quiet and drowsy – “Monica, you will be quite happy, will you not, with only Randolph now? You love him very much, don’t you?”
She bent her head and kissed him.
“Yes, Arthur,” she answered, softly. “I love him with all my heart.”
“Just as he loves you,” murmured Arthur. “I can see it in his face, in every tone of his voice, especially when he talks of you – which is pretty nearly always – we both like it so much. I am so glad you feel just the same. I thought you did. I shall like to think about you so – how happy you will be!”
The next day after Arthur had been placed in the carriage that was to take him away from Trevlyn, and Monica had said her last adieu to him, and had turned away with pale face and quivering lips, she felt her hands taken in her husband’s strong warm clasp.
“Monica,” he said tenderly, “good-bye. I will take every care of him. You shall hear everything, and shall not regret, if I can help it, trusting him to me.”
Monica looked up suddenly into his face, and put her arms about his neck. She did not care at that moment for the presence of Tom or of the servants. Her husband was leaving her – she had only thoughts for him.
“Take care of yourself, Randolph,” she said, her voice quivering, and almost breaking. “Take care of yourself, and come back to me as quickly as you can. I shall miss you, oh! so much, till I have you safe home again. Good-bye, dear husband, good-bye!”
He held her for a moment in his arms. His heart beat tumultuously; for an instant everything seemed to recede, and leave him and his wife alone in the world together; but it was no time now to indulge in raptures. He kissed her brow and lips, and gently unloosed her clasp.
“Good-bye, my wife,” he said gently. “God bless and keep you always.”
The next moment the carriage was rolling rapidly away along the road, Monica gazing after it, her soul in her eyes.
“Ah; my darling,” said Mrs. Pendrill, coming and taking her by the hand, “it is very hard to part with him; but it was kind to Arthur to spare him, and it is only for a few days.”
“I know, I know,” answered Monica passing her hand across her eyes. “I would not have kept him here. Arthur wanted him so much – I can understand so well what he felt – it would have been selfish to hold him back. But it feels so lonely and desolate without him; as if everything were changed and different. I can’t express it; but oh! I do feel it all so keenly.”
Mrs. Pendrill pressed the hand she held.
“You love him, then, so very much?”
“Ah, yes,” she answered; “how could I help it?”
“It makes me very happy to hear you say that. For I was sometimes rather afraid that you were hurried into marriage before you had learned to know your own heart, I thought.”
Monica passed her hand across her brow.
“Was I hurried?” she asked dreamily. “It is so hard to remember all that now. It seems as if I had always loved Randolph – as if he had always been the centre of my life.”
And Mrs. Pendrill was content. She said no more, asked no more questions.
“You know, Randolph,” said Arthur to his kindest of nurses and attendants, as he lay in bed at night, after rather a hard day’s travelling, “I don’t wonder now that you’ve so completely cut me out. I shouldn’t have believed it possible once, but it seems not only possible, but natural enough, now that I know what kind of a fellow you are.”
“What do you mean, my boy?” asked Randolph.
“Mean? Why, what I say to be sure. I understand now why you’ve so completely cut me out with Monica. I only hold quite a subordinate place in her affections now. It is quite right, and I shall never be jealous of you, old fellow; only mind you always let me be her brother. I can’t give up that. You may have all the rest, though. You deserve it, and you’ve got it too, by her own showing.”
Randolph started a little involuntarily.
“What do you mean?”
“Mean? why, that she loves you heart and soul, of course. You must know it as well as I, and I had it from her own lips.”
“My wife, my wife!” said Randolph, as he paced beneath the starry heavens that night. “Then I was not deceived or mistaken – my wife – my Monica – my very own – God bless you, my darling, and bring me safe home to you and to your love!”
CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH.
UNITED
During the days that followed Monica lived as in one long, happy dream. The clouds all seemed to have rolled away, letting in the sunshine to the innermost recesses of her heart.
Why was she so calmly and serenely happy, despite the real sorrow hanging over her in the recent death of a tenderly-loved father? Why did even the loss of the brother, to whom she had vowed such changeless devotion, give her no special pang? She had felt his going much, yet it did not weigh her down with any load of sorrow. She well knew why these changes were. The old love had not changed nor waned, but it had been eclipsed in the light of the deep wonderful happiness that had grown up in her heart, since she had come to know how well and faithfully she loved Randolph, and to believe at last in his love for her.
Yes, she no longer doubted that now. Something in the very perfectness of her own love drove away the haunting doubts and fears that had troubled her for so long. He had her heart, and she had his, and when once she had him home again the last shadow would have vanished away. How her heart beat as she pictured that meeting! How she counted the hours till she had him back!
Only once was she disturbed in her quiet, dreamy time of waiting.
Once, as she was riding through the loneliest part of the lonely pine wood, Conrad Fitzgerald suddenly stood in her path, gazing earnestly at her with a look she could not fathom.
Her face flushed and paled. She regarded him with a glance of haughty displeasure.
“Let me pass, Sir Conrad.”
He did not move; he was still fixedly regarding her.
“I told you how it would be, Monica,” he said. “I told you Arthur would be sent away.”
She smiled a smile he did not understand.
“Let me pass,” she said again.
His eyes began to glow dangerously. Her beauty and her scorn drove him to a sort of fury.
“Is this the way you keep your promise? Is this how you treat a man you have promised to call your friend?”
“My friend!” Monica repeated the words very slowly, with an inflection the meaning of which could not be misunderstood; nor did he affect to misunderstand her.
“Lady Monica,” he said, “you have heard some lying story, I perceive, trumped up by that scoundrel you call your husband.”
He was forced to spring on one side then, for Monica had urged her horse forward, regardless of his presence, and the flash in her eye made him recoil for a moment; but he was wild with rage, and sprang at her horse, catching him by the bridle.
“You shall hear me!” he cried. “You shall, I say! You have heard his story, now hear mine. He has brought false reports. I know him of old. He is my enemy. He has poisoned others against me before now. Lady Monica, upon my word of honour – ”
“Your honour!”
That was all. Indeed, there was no more to be said. Even Conrad felt that, and his grasp upon the reins relaxed. Monica was not in the least afraid of him. She looked him steadily over as she moved quietly onward, without the least haste or flurry. Her quiet courage, her lofty scorn of him, stung him to madness.
“Very good, Lady Monica – I beg your pardon – Lady Trevlyn, I should say now. Very good. We understand each other excellently well. You have made a promise, only to break it – I will show you how a vow can be kept. I, too, have made a vow in my time. I make another now. I have vowed to ruin the happiness and prosperity of Randolph Trevlyn’s life; now I will do more. I will destroy your peace and happiness also!”
He was following Monica as he spoke, and there was a deep, steady malevolence in every tone of his voice, and in each word that he uttered, which gave something of sinister significance to threats that might well have been mere idle bravado. Monica paid not the slightest heed. She rode on as if she did not even hear; but she wished she had her husband beside her. She was not afraid for herself, only for him; and in his absence it was easy to be haunted by vague, yet terrible, fears.
But days sped by; news from Germany was good. Randolph’s task was accomplished, and he was on his way home; nay, he would be there almost as soon as the letter which announced him. He did not specify exactly how he would come, but he bid her look for him about dusk that very day.
How her heart throbbed with joy! She could not strenuously combat Mrs. Pendrill’s determination to return home at once, so that husband and wife should be alone on his return. She wanted Randolph all to herself. She hungered for him; she hardly knew how to wait for the slowly crawling hours to pass.
She drove Mrs. Pendrill to St. Maws, and on her return wandered aimlessly about the great lonely house, saying to herself, in a sort of ceaseless cadence:
“He is coming. He is coming. He is coming.”
Dusk was falling in the dim house. The shadows were growing black in the gloomy hall, where Monica was restlessly pacing. The last pale gleam of sunlight flickered and faded as she watched and waited with intense expectancy.
A man’s firm step upon the terrace without – a man’s tall shadow across the threshold. Monica sprang forward with a low cry.
“Randolph!”
“Not exactly that, Lady Trevlyn!”
She stopped short, and threw up her head like some beautiful wild creature at bay.
“Sir Conrad, how dare you! Leave my husband’s house this instant! Do you wish him to find you here? Do you wish a second chastisement at his hands?”
Conrad’s face flushed crimson, darkening with the intensity of his rage, as he heard those last words.
He had been drinking deeply; his usual caution and cowardice were merged in a passionate desire for revenge at all costs. And what better revenge could he enjoy at that moment than to be surprised by the master of the house upon his return in company with his wife? Monica had asked him if he wished Randolph to find him there – it was just that wish which had brought him.
“Monica!” he cried passionately, “you shall hear me. I will be heard! You shall not judge me till I can plead my own cause. The veriest criminal is heard in his defence.”
He advanced a step nearer, but she recoiled before him, and pointed to the door.
“Go, Sir Conrad, unless you wish to be expelled by my servants. I will listen to nothing.”
She moved as if to summon assistance, but he sprang forward and seized her hand, holding her wrist in so fierce a grasp that she could neither free herself nor reach the bell. She was a prisoner at his mercy.
But Monica was a true Trevlyn, and a stranger to mere physical fear. The madness in his gleaming eyes, the ferocity of his whole aspect, were sufficiently alarming. She knew in this vast place that it would be in vain to call for help, no one would hear her voice; but she faced her enemy with cool, inflexible courage, trusting to her own strong will, and the inherent cowardice of a man who could thus insult a woman alone in her husband’s house.
“Loose me, Sir Conrad!” she said.
“Not until you have heard me.”
“I will not hear you. I know as much of your story as there is any need I should. Loose me, I say! Do you know that my husband will be here immediately? Do you wish him to expel you from his house?”
Conrad laughed wildly, a sort of demoniac laugh, that made her shudder in spite of herself. Was he mad? Yes, mad with drink and with fury – not irresponsible, yet so blind, so crazed, so possessed with thoughts of vengeance, that he was almost more dangerous than a raving maniac would have been. His eyes glowed with sullen fire. His voice was hoarse and strained.
“Do I wish him to find me here? Yes, I do – I do!” he laughed wildly. “Kiss me, Monica – call me your friend again! There is yet time – show him you are not his slave – show him how you assert yourself in his absence.”
Monica recoiled with a cry of horror; but the strength of madness was upon him. He held her fast by the wrist. It was unspeakably hideous to be alone in that dim place with this terrible madman.
“Monica, I love you – you shall – you must be mine!”
Was that another step without? It was – it was! Thank Heaven he had come!
“Randolph! Randolph! Randolph!”
Monica’s voice rang out with that sudden piercing clearness that bespeaks terror and distress.
The next moment Conrad was hurled backwards, with a force that sent him staggering against the wall, breathless and powerless. Before he could recover himself he was lifted bodily off his feet, shaken like a rat, and literally thrown down the terrace steps, rolling over and over in the descent, till he lay at the foot stunned, bruised and shaken. He picked himself slowly up, muttering curses as he limped away. Little were his curses heeded by the two he had left behind.
Monica, white, trembling, unnerved by all she had gone through during the past minutes, held out her arms to her husband.
“Randolph! Oh, Randolph!”
He clasped her close to his heart, and held her there as if he never meant to let her go. He bent his head over her, and she felt his kisses on her cheek. He did not doubt – he did not distrust her! His strong arms pressed her even closer and closer. She lay against his breast, feeling no wish ever to leave that shelter. Oh, he was so true and noble – her own loving, faithful husband! How she loved him she had never known until that supreme moment.
At last she stirred in his arms and lifted her face to his.
“Randolph, you must never leave me again,” she said. “I cannot bear it – I cannot.”
“I will not, my dear wife,” he answered. “Never again shall aught but death part thee and me.”
She clung to him, half shuddering.
“Ah! do not talk of death, Randolph. I cannot bear it – I cannot listen.”
He pressed a kiss upon her trembling lips.
“Does my wife love me now?” he asked, very gravely and tenderly. “Let me hear it from your own sweet lips, my Monica.”
“Ah, Randolph, I love, I love you;” she lifted her eyes to his as she spoke. There was something almost solemn in their deep, earnest gaze. “Randolph, I do not think any one but your wife could know such a love as mine.”
“Not your husband?” he asked, returning her look with one equally full of meaning. “Monica, you may love as well, but I think you cannot love more than I do.”
She laid her head down again. It was unspeakably sweet to hear him say so, to feel his arms about her, to know that they were united at last, and that nothing could part them now.
“Not even death,” said Monica to herself; “for love like ours is stronger than death.”
“How came that scoundrel here?” asked Randolph, somewhat later as they stood together on the terrace, watching the moonlight on the sea.
“I think he came to frighten me – perhaps to try and hurt us once more by his wicked words and deeds. Randolph, is he mad? He looked so dreadful to-day. He was not the old Conrad I once knew. It was terrible – till you came.”
“I believe at times he is mad,” answered Randolph, “with a sort of madness that is not actual insanity, though somewhat akin to it. It is the madness of ungovernable passion and hatred that rises up in him from time to time against certain individuals, and becomes, as it seems, a sort of monomania with him. It was so with his friend and benefactor Colonel Hamilton, when once he felt himself found out. Ever since the horsewhipping I administered to him, I believe he has felt vindictively towards me. Our paths led us wide apart for several years, but as soon as we met again the old enmity rose up once more. He tried to hurt me through my wife.” Randolph looked down at her with a proud smile upon his handsome face. “I need not say how utterly and miserably he has failed.”