on an april day, sunny and charming, a gentleman with a lady on his arm was strolling down one of the narrowest and dirtiest streets of homburg. a tall man was he, tall and handsome, with a fair saxon face, and fair. saxon curls that shimmered like gold in the sunlight. could it be george godolphin—who had gone away from prior’s ash six months before, nothing but a shadowy wreck. it was george safe enough; restored to full strength, to perfect health. maria, on the contrary, looked thin and delicate, and her face had lost a good deal of its colour. they had wintered chiefly at pau, but had left it a month past. since then they had travelled about from place to place, by short stages, taking it easy, as george called it: staying a day or two in one town, a day or two in another, turning to the right or left, as inclination led them, going forward, or backward. so that they were home by the middle of april, it would be time enough. george had received carte blanche from thomas godolphin to remain out as long as he thought it necessary; and george was not one to decline the privilege. play before work had always been george’s motto.
on the previous evening they had arrived at homburg from wiesbaden, and were now taking their survey of the place. neither liked its appearance so much as they had done many other places, and they were mutually agreeing to leave it again that evening, when a turning in the street brought them in view of another lady and gentleman, arm in arm as they were.
“english, i am sure,” remarked maria, in a low tone.
“i should think so!” replied george, laughing. “don’t you recognize them?”
she had recognized them ere george finished speaking. mr. and mrs. verrall! it took about ten minutes to ask and answer questions. “how strange that we should not have met before!” mrs. verrall cried. “we have been here a fortnight. but perhaps you have only just come?”
“only last night,” said george.
“my wife turned ill for a foreign tour, so i indulged her,” explained mr. verrall. “we have been away a month now.”
“and a fortnight of it at homburg!” exclaimed george in surprise.[157] “what attraction can you find here? maria and i were just saying that we would leave it to-night.”
“it’s as good as any other of these german places, for all i see,” carelessly remarked mr. verrall. “how well you are looking!” he added to george.
“i cannot pay you the same compliment,” mrs. verrall said to maria. “what have you done with your roses?”
maria’s “roses” came vividly into her cheeks at the question. “i am not in strong health just now,” was all she answered.
george smiled. “there’s nothing seriously the matter, mrs. verrall,” said he. “maria will find her roses again after a while. charlotte has—i was going to say, changed her name,” broke off george; “but in her case that would be a wrong figure of speech. she is married, we hear.”
“long ago,” said mrs. verrall. “charlotte’s quite an old married woman by this time. it took place—let me see!—last november. they live in london.”
“mr. pain is her cousin, is he not?”
“yes. it was an old engagement,” continued mrs. verrall, looking at george. “many a time, when she and you were flirting together, i had to call her to account, and remind her of mr. pain.”
george could not remember that mrs. verrall had ever done such a thing in his presence: and she had been rather remarkable for not interfering: for leaving him and charlotte to go their own way. but he did not say so.
they turned and continued their walk together. george—he had lost none of his gallantry—taking his place by the side of mrs. verrall.
in passing a spot where there was a partial obstruction, some confusion occurred. a house was under repair, and earth and stones lay half-way across the street, barely giving room for any vehicle to pass. just as they were opposite this, a lumbering coach, containing a gay party with white bows in their caps—probably a christening—came rattling up at a sharp pace. george godolphin, taking mrs. verrall’s hand, piloted her to safety. maria was not so fortunate. mr. verrall was a little behind her or before her: at any rate, he was not adroit enough to assist her at the right moment; and maria, seeing no escape between the coach and the débris, jumped upon the latter. the stones moved under her feet, and she slipped off again to the other side. it did not hurt her much, but it shook her greatly. george, who was looking back at the time, had sprung back and caught her before mr. verrall well saw what had occurred.
“my darling, how did it happen? are you hurt? verrall, could you not have taken better care?” he reiterated, his face flushed with emotion and alarm.
maria leaned heavily upon him, and drew a long breath before she could speak. “i am not hurt, george.”
“are you sure?” he anxiously cried.
maria smiled reassuringly. “it is nothing indeed. it has only shaken me. see! i am quite free from the stones. i must have been careless, i think.”
george turned to look at the stones. quite a heap of them, two or[158] three feet from the ground. she had alighted on her feet; not quite falling; but slipping with the lower part of her back against the stones. mrs. verrall shook the dust from her dress, and mr. verrall apologized for his inattention.
george took her upon his arm, with an air that seemed to intimate he should not trust her to any one again, and they went back to their hotel, mrs. verrall saying she should call upon them in half an hour’s time.
maria was looking pale; quite white. george, in much concern, untied her bonnet-strings. “maria, i fear you are hurt!”
“indeed i am not—as i believe,” she answered. “why do you think so?”
“because you are not looking well.”
“i was startled at the time; frightened. i shall get over it directly, george.”
“i think you had better see a doctor. i suppose there’s a decent one to be found in the town.”
“oh no!” returned maria, with much emphasis, in her surprise. “see a doctor because i slipped down a little? why, george, that would be foolish! i have often jumped from a higher height than that. do you remember the old wall at the rectory? we children were for ever jumping from it.”
“that was one time, and this is another, mrs. george godolphin,” said he, significantly.
maria laughed. “only fancy the absurdity, george! were a doctor called in, his first question would be, ‘where are you hurt, madame?’ ‘not anywhere, monsieur,’ would be my reply. ‘then what do you want with me?’ he would say, and how foolish i should look!”
george laughed too, and resigned the point. “you are the better judge, of course, maria. margery,” he continued—for margery, at that moment, entered the room—“your mistress has had a fall.”
“a fall!” uttered margery, in her abrupt way, as she turned to regard maria.
“it could not be called a fall, margery,” said maria, slightingly. “i slipped off some earth and stones. i did not quite fall.”
“are you hurt, ma’am?”
“it did not hurt me at all. it only shook me.”
“nasty things, those slips are sometimes!” resumed margery. “i have known pretty good illnesses grow out of ’em.”
george did not like the remark. he deemed it thoughtless of margery to make it in the presence of his wife, under the circumstances. “you must croak, or it would not be you, margery,” said he, in a vexed tone.
it a little put up margery. “i can tell you what, master george,” cried she; “your own mother was in her bed for eight weeks, through nothing on earth but slipping down two stairs. i say those shakes are ticklish things—when one is not in a condition to bear them. ma’am, you must just take my advice, and lie down on that sofa, and not get off it for the rest of the day. there’s not a doctor in the land as knows anything, but would say the same.”
[159]margery was peremptory; george joined her in being peremptory also; and maria, with much laughter and protestation, was fain to let them place her on the sofa. “just as if i were ill, or delicate!” she grumbled.
“and pray, ma’am, what do you call yourself but delicate? you are not one of the strong ones,” cried margery, as she left the room for a shawl.
george drew his wife’s face to his in an impulse of affection, and kissed it. “don’t pay any attention to margery’s croaking, my dearest,” he fondly said. “but she is quite right in recommending you to lie still. it will rest you.”
“i am afraid i shall go to sleep, if i am condemned to lie here,” said maria.
“the best thing you can do,” returned george. “catch me trusting you to any one’s care again!”
in a short time mrs. verrall came in, and told george that her husband was waiting for him outside. george went out, and mrs. verrall sat down by maria.
“it is margery’s doings, margery’s and george’s,” said maria, as if she would apologize for being found on the sofa, covered up like an invalid. “they made me lie down.”
“are you happy?” mrs. verrall somewhat abruptly asked.
“happy?” repeated maria, at a loss to understand the exact meaning of the words.
“happy with george godolphin. are you and he happy with each other?”
a soft blush overspread maria’s face; a light of love shone in her eyes. “oh, so happy!” she murmured. “mrs. verrall, i wonder sometimes whether any one in the world is as happy as i am!”
“because it struck me that you were changed; you look ill.”
“oh, that!” returned maria, with a rosier blush still. “can’t you guess the cause of that, mrs. verrall? as george told you, i shall, i hope, look well again, after a time.”
mrs. verrall shrugged her shoulders with indifference. she had never lost her bloom from any such cause.
maria found—or margery did for her—that the fall had shaken her more than was expedient. after all, a medical man had to be called in. illness supervened. it was not a very serious illness, and not at all dangerous; but it had the effect of detaining them at homburg. maria lay in bed, and george spent most of his time with the verralls.
with mr. verrall chiefly. especially in an evening. george would go out, sometimes before dinner, sometimes after it, and come home so late that he did not venture into maria’s room to say good night to her. since her illness he had occupied an adjoining chamber. it did maria no good: she would grow flushed, excited, heated: and when george did come in, he would look flushed and excited also.
“but, george, where do you stay so late?”
“only with verrall.”
“you look so hot. i am sure you are feverish.”
“the rooms were very hot. we have been watching them play. good night, darling. i wish you were well!”
[160]watching them play! it is your first deceit to your wife, george godolphin; and, rely upon it, no good will come of it. mr. verrall had introduced george to the dangerous gaming-tables; had contrived to imbue him with a liking for the insidious vice. did he do so with—as our law terms express it—malice aforethought? let the response lie with mr. verrall.
on the very first evening that they were together, the day of the slight accident to maria, mr. verrall asked george to dine with him; and he afterwards took him to the tables. george did not play that evening; but he grew excited, watching others play. heavy stakes were lost and won; evil passions were called forth; avarice, hatred, despair. mr. verrall played for a small sum; and won. “it whiles away an hour or two,” he carelessly remarked to george, as they were leaving. “and one can take care of one’s self.”
“all can’t take care of themselves, apparently,” answered george godolphin. “did you observe that haggard-looking englishman, leaning against the wall and biting his nails when his money had gone? the expression of that man’s face will haunt me for a week to come. those are the men who commit suicide.”
mr. verrall smiled, half-mockingly. “suicide! not they,” he answered. “the man will be there to-morrow evening, refeathered.”
“i never felt more pity for any one in my life,” continued george. “there was despair in his face, if i ever saw despair. i could have found in my heart to go up and offer him my purse; only i knew it would be staked the next moment at the table.”
“you did not know him, then?”
“no.”
mr. verrall mentioned the man’s name, and george felt momentarily surprised. he was a noted baronet’s eldest son.
the next evening came round. maria was confined to her bed then, and george was a gentleman at large. a gentleman at large to be pounced upon by mr. verrall. he came—verrall—and carried george off again to dinner.
“let us take a stroll,” he said, later in the evening.
their stroll took them towards the scene of the night before, mr. verrall’s being the moving will. “shall we see who’s there?” he said, with great apparent indifference.
george answered as indifferently: but there was an undercurrent of meaning in his tone, wonderful for careless george godolphin. “better keep out of temptation.”
mr. verrall laughed till the tears came into his eyes: he said george made him laugh. “come along,” cried he, mockingly. “i’ll take care of you.”
that night george played. a little. “as well put a gold piece down,” mr. verrall whispered to him; “i shall.” george staked more than one gold piece; and won. a fortnight had gone over since then, and george godolphin had become imbued with the fearful passion of gambling. at any rate, imbued with it temporarily: it is to be hoped that he will leave it behind him when he leaves homburg.
just look at him, as he stands over that green cloth, with a flushed face and eager eyes! he is of finer form, of loftier stature than most[161] of those who are crowding round the tables; his features betray higher intellect, greater refinement; but the same passions are just now distorting them. mr. verrall is by his side, cool, calm, impassive: somehow, that man, verrall, always wins. if he did not, he would not lose his coolness: he would only leave the tables.
“rouge,” called george.
it was noir. george flung his last money on the board, and moved away.
mr. verrall followed him. “tired already?”
mr. george let slip a furious word. “the luck has been against me all along; almost from the first night i played here. i am cleaned out again.”
“i can let you have——”
“thank you!” hastily interrupted george. “you are very accommodating, verrall, but it seems we may go on at the same thing for ever: i losing, and you finding me money. how much is it that i owe you altogether?”
“a bagatelle. never mind that.”
“a bagatelle!” repeated george. “it’s well money is so valueless to you: i don’t call it one. and i have never been a man given to looking at money before spending it.”
“you can pay me when and how you like. this year, next year, the year after: i shan’t sue you for it,” laughed mr. verrall. “there! go and redeem your luck.”
he held out a heavy roll of notes to george. the latter’s eager fingers clutched them: but, even as they were within his grasp, better thoughts came to him. he pushed them back again.
“i am too deeply in your debt already, verrall.”
“as you please,” returned mr. verrall, with indifference. “there the notes are, lying idle. as to what you have had, if it’s so dreadful a burden on your conscience, you can give me interest for it. you can let the principal lie, i say, though it be for ten years to come. one half-hour’s play with these notes may redeem all you have lost.”
he left the notes lying by george godolphin—by hesitating george—with the fierce passion to use them that was burning within him. mr. verrall could not have taken a more efficient way of inducing him to play again, than to affect this easy indifference, and to leave the money under his eyes, touching his fingers, fevering his brain. george took up the notes.
“you are sure you will let me pay you interest, verrall?”
“of course i will.”
and george walked off to the gaming-table.
he went home later that night than he had gone at all, wiping the perspiration from his brow, lifting his face to the quiet stars, and gasping to catch a breath of air. mr. verrall found it rather cool, than not; shrugged his shoulders, and said he could do with an overcoat; but george felt stifled. the roll had gone; and more to it had gone; and george godolphin was mr. verrall’s debtor to a heavy amount.
“thank goodness the day has already dawned!” involuntarily broke from george.
[162]mr. verrall looked at him for an explanation. he did not understand what particular cause for thankfulness there should be in that.
“we shall get away from the place to-day,” said george. “if i stopped in it i should come to the dogs.”
“nothing of the sort,” cried mr. verrall. “luck is safe to turn some time. it’s like the tide, it has its time for flowing in, and its time for flowing out; once let it turn, and it comes rushing in all one way. but, what do you mean about going? your wife is not well enough to travel yet.”
“yes she is,” was george’s answer. “quite well enough.”
“of course you know best. i think you should consider——”
“verrall, i should consider my wife’s health and safety before any earthly thing,” interrupted george. “we might have started to-day, had we liked: i speak of the day that has gone: the doctor said yesterday that she was well enough to travel.”
“i was not aware of that. i shall remain here a week longer.”
“and i shall be away before to-morrow night.”
“not you,” cried mr. verrall.
“i shall: if i keep in the mind i am in now.”
mr. verrall smiled. he knew george was not famous for keeping his resolutions. in the morning, when his smarting should be over, he would stay on, fast enough. they wished each other good night, and george turned into his hotel.
to his great surprise, margery met him on the stairs. “are you walking the house as the ghosts do?” cried he, with a renewal of his good-humour. nothing pleased george better than to give old margery a joking or a teasing word. “why are you not in bed?”
“there’s enough ghosts in the world, it’s my belief, without my personating them, sir,” was margery’s answer. “i’m not in bed yet, because my mistress is not in bed.”
“your mistress not in bed!” repeated george. “but that is very wrong.”
“so it is,” said margery. “but it has been of no use my telling her so. she took it into her head to sit up for you; and sit up she has. not there, sir”—for he was turning to their sitting-room—“she is lying back in the big chair in her bedroom.”
george entered. maria, white and wan and tired, was lying back, as margery expressed it, in the large easy-chair. she was too fatigued, too exhausted to get up: she only held out her hand to her husband.
“my darling, you know this is wrong,” he gently said, bending over her. “good heavens, maria! how ill and tired you look!”
“i should not have slept had i gone to bed,” she said. “george, tell me where you have been: where it is that you go in an evening?”
a misgiving crossed george godolphin’s mind—that she already knew where. she looked painfully distressed, and there was a peculiar significance in her tone, but she spoke with timid deprecation. his conscience told him that the amusement he had been recently pursuing would not show out well in the broad light of day. an unmarried man may send himself to ruin if it pleases him to do it; but not one who has assumed the responsibilities of george godolphin. ruin, however, had not yet come to george godolphin, or fear of ruin. the worst[163] that had happened was, that he had contracted a debt to mr. verrall, which he did not at present see his way clear to paying. he could not refund so large a sum out of the bank without the question being put by his partners, where does it go to? mr. verrall had relieved him of the embarrassment by suggesting interest. a very easy settling of the question it appeared to the careless mind of george godolphin: and he felt obliged to mr. verrall.
“maria!” he exclaimed, “what are you thinking of? what is the matter?”
maria changed her position. she let her head glide from the chair on to his sheltering arm. “mrs. verrall frightened me, george. will you be angry with me if i tell you? she came in this evening, and she said you and mr. verrall were losing all your money at the gaming-table.”
george godolphin’s face grew hot and angry, worse than it had been in the gambling-room, and mentally he gave mrs. verrall an exceedingly uncomplimentary word. “what possessed her to say that?” he exclaimed. and in truth he wondered what could have possessed her. verrall, at any rate, was not losing his money. “were you so foolish as to believe it, maria?”
“only a little of it, george. pray forgive me! i am weak just now, you know, and things startle me. i have heard dreadful tales of these foreign gaming-places: and i knew how much you had been out at night since we came here. it is not so, is it, george?”
george made a show of laughing at her anxiety. “i and verrall have strolled into the places and watched the play,” said he. “we have staked a few coins ourselves—not to be looked upon as two churls who put their british noses into everything and then won’t pay for the privilege. i lost what i staked, with a good grace; but as to verrall, i don’t believe he is a halfpenny out of pocket. mrs. verrall must have been quarrelling with her husband, and so thought she’d say something to spite him. and my wife must take it for gospel, and begin to fret herself into a fever!”
maria drew a long, relieved breath. the address was candid, the manner was playful and tender: and she possessed the most implicit faith in her husband. maria had doubted almost the whole world before she could have doubted george godolphin. she drew his face down to hers, once more whispering that he was to forgive her for being so silly.
“my dearest, i have been thinking that we may as well go on to-morrow. to-day, that is: i won’t tell you the time, if you don’t know it; but it’s morning.”
she knew the time quite well. no anxious wife ever sat up for a husband yet, but knew it. in her impatience to be away—for she was most desirous of being at home again—she could take note of the one sentence only. “oh, george, yes! let us go!”
“will you promise to get a good night’s rest first, and not attempt to be out of bed before eleven o’clock to-morrow morning, then?”
“george, i will promise you anything,” she said, with a radiant face. “only say we shall start for home to-morrow.”
[164]“yes, we will.”
and, somewhat to mr. verrall’s surprise, they did start. that gentleman made no attempt to detain them. “but it is shabby of you both to go off like this, and leave us among these foreigners, like babes in the wood,” said he, when maria was already in the carriage, and george was about to step into it.
“there is nothing to prevent you leaving too, is there, mr. verrall?” asked maria, leaning forward. “and what did you and mrs. verrall do before we came? you had been ‘babes in the wood’ a fortnight then.”
“fairly put, young lady,” returned mr. verrall. “i must congratulate you on one thing, mrs. george godolphin: that, in spite of your recent indisposition, you are looking more yourself to-day than i have yet seen you.”
“that is because i am going home,” said maria.
and home they reached in safety. the land journey, the pleasant sea crossing—for the day and the waters were alike calm—and then the land again, all grew into things of the past, and they were once more at prior’s ash. as they drove to the bank from the railway station, maria looked up at the house when it came into sight, a thrill of joy running through her heart. “what a happy home it will be for me!” was her glad thought.
“what would thomas and old crosse say, if they knew i had dipped into it so deeply at homburg?” was the involuntary thought which flashed across george godolphin.
quite a levee had assembled to meet them. mrs. hastings and grace, bessie and cecil godolphin, thomas godolphin and mr. crosse. maria threw off her bonnet and shawl, and stood amidst them all in her dark silk travelling dress. there was no mistaking that she was intensely happy: her eye was radiant, her colour softly bright, her fair young face without a cloud. and now walked in the rector of all souls’, having escaped (nothing loth) from a stormy vestry meeting, to see maria.
“i have brought her home safely, you see, sir,” george said to mr. hastings, leading maria up to him.
“and yourself also,” was the rector’s reply. “you are worth two of the shaky man who went away.”
“i told you i should be, sir, if you allowed maria to go with me,” cried gallant george. “i do not fancy we are either of us the worse for our sojourn abroad.”
“i don’t think either of you look as though you were,” said the rector. “maria is thin. i suppose you are not sorry to come home, miss maria?”
“so glad!” she said. “i began to think it very, very long, not to see you all. but, papa, i am not miss maria now.”
“you saucy child!” exclaimed mr. hastings. but the rector had the laugh against him. mrs. hastings drew maria aside.
“my dear, you have been ill, george wrote me word. how did it happen? we were sorry to hear it.”
“yes, we were sorry too,” replied maria, her eyelashes resting on her hot cheek. “it could not be helped.”
[165]“but how did it happen?”
“it was my own fault; not intentionally, you know, mamma. it occurred the day after we reached homburg. i and george were out walking and we met the verralls. we turned with them, and then i had not hold of george’s arm. something was amiss in the street, a great heap of stones and earth and rubbish; and, to avoid a carriage that came by, i stepped upon it. and, somehow i slipped off. i did not appear to have hurt myself: but i suppose it shook me.”
“you met the verralls at homburg?” cried mrs. hastings, in surprise.
“yes. did george not mention it when he wrote? they are at homburg still. unless they have now left it.”
“george never puts a superfluous word into his letters,” said mrs. hastings, with a smile. “he says just what he has to say, and no more. he mentioned that you were not well, and therefore some little delay might take place in the return home; but he said nothing of the verralls.”
maria laughed. “george never writes a long letter——”
“who’s that, taking george’s name in vain?” cried george, looking round.
“it is i, george. you never told mamma, when you wrote, that the verralls were with us at homburg.”
“i’m sure i don’t remember whether i did or not,” said george.
“the verralls are in wales,” observed mr. hastings.
“then they have travelled to it pretty quickly,” observed george. “when i and maria quitted homburg we left them in it. they had been there a month.”
not one present but looked up with surprise. “the impression in prior’s ash is, that they are in wales,” observed thomas godolphin. “it is the answer given by the servants to all callers at lady godolphin’s folly.”
“they are certainly at homburg; whatever the servants may say,” persisted george. “the servants are labouring under a mistake.”
“it is a curious mistake for the servants to make, though,” observed the rector, in a dry, caustic tone.
“i think the verralls are curious people altogether,” said bessy godolphin.
“i don’t know but they are,” assented george. “but verrall is a thoroughly good-hearted man, and i shall always speak up for him.”
that evening george and his wife dined alone. george was standing over the fire after dinner, when maria came and stood near him. he put out his arm and drew her to his side.
“it seems so strange, george—being in this house with you, all alone,” she whispered.
“stranger than being my wife, maria?”
“oh, but i have got used to that.” and george godolphin laughed: she spoke so simply and naturally.
“you will get used in time to this being your home, my darling.”
