heaven knows whither mr. audley's thoughts might have wandered had he not been startled by a sudden movement of the sick man, who raised himself up in his bed, and called to his mother.
the old woman woke up with a jerk, and turned sleepily enough to look at her son.
"what is it, luke, deary?" she asked soothingly. "it ain't time for the doctor's stuff yet. mr. dawson said as you weren't to have it till two hours after he went away, and he ain't been gone an hour yet."
"who said it was the doctor's stuff i wanted?" cried mr. marks, impatiently. "i want to ask you something, mother. do you remember the seventh of last september?"
robert started, and looked eagerly at the sick man. why did he harp upon this forbidden subject? why did he insist upon recalling the date of george's murder? the old woman shook her head in feeble confusion of mind.
"lord, luke," she said, "how can'ee ask me such questions? my memory's been a failin' me this eight or nine year; and i never was one to remember the days of the month, or aught o' that sort. how should a poor workin' woman remember such things."
luke marks shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
"you're a good un to do what's asked you, mother," he said, peevishly. "didn't i tell you to rememer that day? didn't i tell you as the time might come when you'd be called upon to bear witness about it, and put upon your bible oath about it? didn't i tell you that, mother?"
the old woman shook her head hopelessly.
"if you say so, i make no doubt you did, luke," she said, with a conciliatory smile; "but i can't call it to mind, lovey. my memory's been failin' me this nine yaer, sir," she added, turning to robert audley, "and i'm but a poor crittur."
mr. audley laid his hand upon the sick man's arm.
"marks," he said, "i tell you again, you have no cause to worry yourself about this matter. i ask you no questions, i have no wish to hear anything."
"but, suppose i want to tell something," cried luke, with feverish energy, "suppose i feel i can't die with a secret on my mind, and have asked to see you on purpose that i might tell you; suppose that, and you'll suppose nothing but the truth. i'd have been burnt alive before i'd have told her." he spoke these words between his set teeth, and scowled savagely as he uttered them. "i'd have been burnt alive first. i made her pay for her pretty insolent ways; i made her pay for her airs and graces; i'd never have told her—never, never! i had my power over her, and i kept it; i had my secret and was paid for it; and there wasn't a petty slight as she ever put upon me or mine that i didn't pay her out for twenty times over!"
"marks, marks, for heaven's sake be calm," said robert, earnestly. "what are you talking of? what is it that you could have told?"
"i'm a-goin to tell you," answered luke, wiping his lips. "give us a drink, mother."
the old woman poured out some cooling drink into a mug, and carried it to her son.
he drank it in an eager hurry, as if he felt that the brief remainder of his life must be a race with the pitiless pedestrian, time.
"stop where you are," he said to his mother, pointing to a chair at the foot of the bed.
the old woman obeyed, and seated herself meekly opposite to mr. audley.
"i'll ask you another question, mother," said luke, "and i think it'll be strange if you can't answer it. do you remember when i was at work upon atkinson's farm; before i was married you know, and when i was livin' down here along of you?"
"yes, yes," mrs. marks answered, nodding triumphantly, "i remember that, my dear. it were last fall, just about as the apples was bein' gathered in the orchard across our lane, and about the time as you had your new sprigged wesket. i remember, luke, i remember."
mr. audley wondered where all this was to lead to, and how long he would have to sit by the sick man's bed, hearing a conversation that had no meaning to him.
"if you remember that much, maybe you'll remember more, mother," said luke. "can you call to mind my bringing some one home here one night, while atkinsons was stackin' the last o' their corn?"
once more mr. audley started violently, and this time he looked up earnestly at the face of the speaker, and listened, with a strange, breathless interest, that he scarcely understood himself, to what luke marks was saying.
"i rek'lect your bringing home phoebe," the old woman answered, with great animation. "i rek'lect your bringin' phoebe home to take a cup o' tea, or a little snack o' supper, a mort o' times."
"bother phoebe," cried mr. marks, "who's a talkin' of phoebe? what's phoebe, that anybody should go to put theirselves out about her? do you remember my bringin' home a gentleman after ten o'clock, one september night; a gentleman as was wet through to the skin, and was covered with mud and slush, and green slime and black muck, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, and had his arm broke, and his shoulder swelled up awful; and was such a objeck that nobody would ha' knowed him; a gentleman as had to have his clothes cut off him in some places, and as sat by the kitchen fire, starin' at the coals as if he had gone mad or stupid-like, and didn't know where he was, or who he was; and as had to be cared for like a baby, and dressed, and dried, and washed, and fed with spoonfuls of brandy, that had to be forced between his locked teeth, before any life could be got into him? do you remember that, mother?"
the old woman nodded, and muttered something to the effect that she remembered all these circumstances most vividly, now that luke happened to mention them.
robert audley uttered a wild cry, and fell down upon his knees by the side of the sick man's bed.
"my god!" he ejaculated, "i think thee for thy wondrous mercies. george talboys is alive!"
"wait a bit," said mr. marks, "don't you be too fast. mother, give us down that tin box on the shelf over against the chest of drawers, will you?"
the old woman obeyed, and after fumbling among broken teacups and milk-jugs, lidless wooden cotton-boxes, and a miscellaneous litter of rags and crockery, produced a tin snuff-box with a sliding lid; a shabby, dirty-looking box enough.
robert audley still knelt by the bedside with his face hidden by his clasped hands. luke marks opened the tin box.
"there ain't no money in it, more's the pity," he said, "or if there had been it wouldn't have been let stop very long. but there's summat in it that perhaps you'll think quite as valliable as money, and that's what i'm goin' to give you as a proof that a drunken brute can feel thankful to them as is kind to him."
he took out two folded papers, which he gave into robert audley's hands.
they were two leaves torn out of a pocket-book, and they were written upon in pencil, and in a handwriting that was quite strange to mr. audley—a cramped, stiff, and yet scrawling hand, such as some plowman might have written.
"i don't know this writing," robert said, as he eagerly unfolded the first of the two papers. "what has this to do with my friend? why do you show me these?"
"suppose you read 'em first," said mr. marks, "and ask me questions about them afterwards."
the first paper which robert audley had unfolded contained the following lines, written in that cramped, yet scrawling hand which was so strange to him:
"my dear friend—i write to you in such utter confusion of mind as perhaps no man ever before suffered. i cannot tell you what has happened to me, i can only tell you that something has happened which will drive me from england a broken-hearted man, to seek some corner of the earth in which i may live and die unknown and forgotten. i can only ask you to forget me. if your friendship could have done me any good, i would have appealed to it. if your counsel could have been any help to me, i would have confided in you. but neither friendship nor counsel can help me; and all i can say to you is this, god bless you for the past, and teach you to forget me in the future. g.t."
the second paper was addressed to another person, and its contents were briefer than those of the first.
"helen—may god pity and forgive you for that which you have done to-day, as truly as i do. rest in peace. you shall never hear of me again; to you and to the world i shall henceforth be that which you wished me to be to-day. you need fear no molestation from me. i leave england never to return.
"g.t."
robert audley sat staring at these lines in hopeless bewilderment. they were not in his friend's familiar hand, and yet they purported to be written by him and were signed with his initials.
he looked scrutinizingly at the face of luke marks, thinking that perhaps some trick was being played upon him.
"this was not written by george talboys," he said.
"it was," answered luke marks, "it was written by mr. talboys, every line of it. he wrote it with his own hand; but it was his left hand, for he couldn't use his right because of his broken arm."
robert audley looked up suddenly, and the shadow of suspicion passed away from his face.
"i understand," he said, "i understand. tell me all; tell me how it was that my poor friend was saved."
"i was at work up at atkinson's farm, last september," said luke marks, "helping to stack the last of the corn, and as the nighest way from the farm to mother's cottage was through the meadows at the back of the court, i used to come that way, and phoebe used to stand in the garden wall beyond the lime-walk sometimes, to have a chat with me, knowin' my time o' comin' home.
"i don't know what phoebe was a-doin' upon the evenin' of the seventh o' september—i rek'lect the date because farmer atkinson paid me my wages all of a lump on that day, and i'd had to sign a bit of a receipt for the money he give me—i don't know what she was a-doin', but she warn't at the gate agen the lime-walk, so i went round to the other side o' the gardens and jumped across the dry ditch, for i wanted partic'ler to see her that night, as i was goin' away to work upon a farm beyond chelmsford the next day. audley church clock struck nine as i was crossin' the meadows between atkinson's and the court, and it must have been about a quarter past nine when i got into the kitchen garden.
"i crossed the garden, and went into the lime-walk; the nighest way to the servants' hall took me through the shrubbery and past the dry well. it was a dark night, but i knew my way well enough about the old place, and the light in the window of the servants' hall looked red and comfortable through the darkness. i was close against the mouth of the dry well when i heard a sound that made my blood creep. it was a groan—a groan of a man in pain, as was lyin' somewhere hid among the bushes. i warn't afraid of ghosts and i warn't afraid of anythink in a general way, but there was somethin in hearin' this groan as chilled me to the very heart, and for a minute i was struck all of a heap, and didn't know what to do. but i heard the groan again, and then i began to search among the bushes. i found a man lyin' hidden under a lot o' laurels, and i thought at first he was up to no good, and i was a-goin' to collar him to take him to the house, when he caught me by the wrist without gettin' up from the ground, but lookin' at me very earnest, as i could see by the way his face was turned toward me in the darkness, and asked me who i was, and what i was, and what i had to do with the folks at the court.
"there was somethin' in the way he spoke that told me he was a gentleman, though i didn't know him from adam, and couldn't see his face; and i answered his questions civil.
"'i want to get away from this place,' he said, 'without bein' seen by any livin' creetur, remember that. i've been lyin' here ever since four o'clock to-day, and i'm half dead, but i want to get away without bein' seen, mind that.'
"i told him that was easy enough, but i began to think my first thoughts of him might have been right enough, after all, and that he couldn't have been up to no good to want to sneak away so precious quiet.
"'can you take me to any place where i can get a change of dry clothes,' he says, 'without half a dozen people knowin' it?'
"he'd got up into a sittin' attitude by this time, and i could see that his right arm hung close by his side, and that he was in pain.
"i pointed to his arm, and asked him what was the matter with it; but he only answered, very quiet like: 'broken, my lad, broken. not that that's much,' he says in another tone, speaking to himself like, more than to me. 'there's broken hearts as well as broken limbs, and they're not so easy mended.'
"i told him i could take him to mother's cottage, and that he could dry his clothes there and welcome.
"'can your mother keep a secret?' he asked.
"'well, she could keep one well enough if she could remember it,' i told him; 'but you might tell her all the secrets of the freemasons, and foresters, and buffalers and oddfellers as ever was, to-night: and she'd have forgotten all about 'em to-morrow mornin'.'
"he seemed satisfied with this, and he got himself up by holdin' on to me, for it seemed as if his limbs was cramped, the use of 'em was almost gone. i felt as he came agen me, that his clothes was wet and mucky.
"'you haven't been and fell into the fish-pond, have you, sir?' i asked.
"he made no answer to my question; he didn't seem even to have heard it. i could see now he was standin' upon his feet that he was a tall, fine-made man, a head and shoulders higher than me.
"'take me to your mother's cottage,' he said, 'and get me some dry clothes if you can; i'll pay you well for your trouble.'
"i knew that the key was mostly left in the wooden gate in the garden wall, so i led him that way. he could scarcely walk at first, and it was only by leanin' heavily upon my shoulder that he managed to get along. i got him through the gate, leavin' it unlocked behind me, and trustin' to the chance of that not bein' noticed by the under-gardener, who had the care of the key, and was a careless chap enough. i took him across the meadows, and brought him up here, still keepin' away from the village, and in the fields, where there wasn't a creature to see us at that time o' night; and so i got him into the room down-stairs, where mother was a-sittin' over the fire gettin' my bit o' supper ready for me.
"i put the strange chap in a chair agen the fire, and then for the first time i had a good look at him. i never see anybody in such a state before. he was all over green damp and muck, and his hands was scratched and cut to pieces. i got his clothes off him how i could, for he was like a child in my hands, and sat starin' at the fire as helpless as any baby; only givin' a long heavy sigh now and then, as if his heart was a-goin' to bust. at last he dropped into a kind of a doze, a stupid sort of sleep, and began to nod over the fire, so i ran and got a blanket and wrapped him in it, and got him to lie down on the press bedstead in the room under this. i sent mother to bed, and i sat by the fire and watched him, and kep' the fire up till it was just upon daybreak, when he 'woke up all of a sudden with a start, and said he must go, directly this minute.
"i begged him not to think of such a thing and told him he warn't fit to move for ever so long; but he said he must go, and he got up, and though he staggered like, and at first could hardly stand steady two minutes together, he wouldn't be beat, and he got me to dress him in his clothes as i'd dried and cleaned as well as i could while he laid asleep. i did manage it at last, but the clothes was awful spoiled, and he looked a dreadful objeck, with his pale face and a great cut on his forehead that i'd washed and tied up with a handkercher. he could only get his coat on by buttoning it on round his neck, for he couldn't put a sleeve upon his broken arm. but he held out agen everything, though he groaned every now and then; and what with the scratches and bruises on his hands, and the cut upon his forehead, and his stiff limbs and broken arm, he'd plenty of call to groan; and by the time it was broad daylight he was dressed and ready to go.
"'what's the nearest town to this upon the london road?' he asked me.
"i told him as the nighest town was brentwood.
"'very well, then,' he says, 'if you'll go with me to brentwood, and take me to some surgeon as'll set my arm, i'll give you a five pound note for that and all your other trouble.'
"i told him that i was ready and willin' to do anything as he wanted done; and asked him if i shouldn't go and see if i could borrow a cart from some of the neighbors to drive him over in, for i told him it was a good six miles' walk.
"he shook his head. no, no, no, he said, he didn't want anybody to know anything about him; he'd rather walk it.
"he did walk it; and he walked like a good 'un, too; though i know as every step he took o' them six miles he took in pain; but he held out as he'd held out before; i never see such a chap to hold out in all my blessed life. he had to stop sometimes and lean agen a gateway to get his breath; but he held out still, till at last we got into brentwood, and then he says, 'take me to the nighest surgeon's,' and i waited while he had his arm set in splints, which took a precious long time. the surgeon wanted him to stay in brentwood till he was better, but he said it warn't to be heard on, he must get up to london without a minute's loss of time; so the surgeon made him as comfortable as he could, considering and tied up his arm in a sling."
robert audley started. a circumstance connected with his visit to liverpool dashed suddenly back upon his memory. he remembered the clerk who had called him back to say there was a passenger who took his berth on board the victoria regia within an hour or so of the vessel's sailing; a young man with his arm in a sling, who had called himself by some common name, which robert had forgotten.
"when his arm was dressed," continued luke, "he says to the surgeon, 'can you give me a pencil to write something before i go away?' the surgeon smiles and shakes his head: 'you'll never be able to write with that there hand to-day,' he says, pointin' to the arm as had just been dressed. 'p'raps not,' the young chap answers, quiet enough, 'but i can write with the other,' 'can't i write it for you?' says the surgeon. 'no, thank you,' answers the other; 'what i've got to write is private. if you can give me a couple of envelopes, i'll be obliged to you.'
"with that the surgeon goes to fetch the envelopes, and the young chap takes a pocket-book out of his coat pocket with his left hand; the cover was wet and dirty, but the inside was clean enough, and he tears out a couple of leaves and begins to write upon 'em as you see; and he writes dreadful awk'ard with his left hand, and he writes slow, but he contrives to finish what you see, and then he puts the two bits o' writin' into the envelopes as the surgeon brings him, and he seals 'em up, and he puts a pencil cross upon one of 'em, and nothing on the other: and then he pays the surgeon for his trouble, and the surgeon says, ain't there nothin' more he can do for him, and can't he persuade him to stay in brentwood till his arm's better; but he says no, no, it ain't possible; and then he says to me, 'come along o' me to the railway station, and i'll give you what i've promised.'
"so i went to the station with him. we was in time to catch the train as stops at brentwood at half after eight, and we had five minutes to spare. so he takes me into a corner of the platform, and he says, 'i wants you to deliver these here letters for me,' which i told him i was willin'. 'very well, then,' he says; 'look here; you know audley court?' 'yes,' i says, 'i ought to, for my sweetheart lives lady's maid there.' 'whose lady's maid?' he says. so i tells him, 'my lady's, the new lady what was governess at mr. dawson's.' 'very well, then,' he says; 'this here letter with the cross upon the envelope is for lady audley, but you're to be sure to give it into her own hands; and remember to take care as nobody sees you give it.' i promises to do this, and he hands me the first letter. and then he says, 'do you know mr. audley, as is nevy to sir michael?' and i said, 'yes, i've heerd tell on him, and i've heerd as he was a reg'lar swell, but affable and free-spoken' (for i heerd 'em tell on you, you know)," luke added, parenthetically. "'now look here,' the young chap says, 'you're to give this other letter to mr. robert audley, whose a-stayin' at the sun inn, in the village;' and i tells him it's all right, as i've know'd the sun ever since i was a baby. so then he gives me the second letter, what's got nothing wrote upon the envelope, and he gives me a five-pound note, accordin' to promise; and then he says, 'good-day, and thank you for all your trouble,'and he gets into a second-class carriage; and the last i sees of him is a face as white as a sheet of writin' paper, and a great patch of stickin'-plaster criss-crossed upon his forehead."
"poor george! poor george!"
"i went back to audley, and i went straight to the sun inn, and asked for you, meanin' to deliver both letters faithful, so help me god! then; but the landlord told me as you'd started off that mornin' for london, and he didn't know when you'd come back, and he didn't know the name o' the place where you lived in london, though he said he thought it was in one o' them law courts, such as westminster hall or doctors' commons, or somethin' like that. so what was i to do? i couldn't send a letter by post, not knowin' where to direct to, and i couldn't give it into your own hands, and i'd been told partickler not to let anybody else know of it; so i'd nothing to do but to wait and see if you come back, and bide my time for givin' of it to you.
"i thought i'd go over to the court in the evenin' and see phoebe, and find out from her when there'd be a chance of seein' her lady, for i know'd she could manage it if she liked. so i didn't go to work that day, though i ought to ha' done, and i lounged and idled about until it was nigh upon dusk, and then i goes down to the meadows behind the court, and there i finds phoebe sure enough, waitin' agen the wooden door in the wall, on the lookout for me.
"i hadn't been talkin' to her long before i see there was somethink wrong with her and i told her as much.
"well,' she says, 'i ain't quite myself this evenin', for i had a upset yesterday, and i ain't got over it yet.'
"'a upset,' i says. 'you had a quarrel with your missus, i suppose.'
"she didn't answer me directly, but she smiled the queerest smile as ever i see, and presently she says:
"no, luke, it weren't nothin' o' that kind; and what's more, nobody could be friendlier toward me than my lady. i think she'd do any think for me a'most; and i think, whether it was a bit o' farming stock and furniture or such like, or whether it was the good-will of a public-house, she wouldn't refuse me anythink as i asked her.'
"i couldn't make out this, for it was only a few days before as she'd told me her missus was selfish and extravagant, and we might wait a long time before we could get what we wanted from her.
"so i says to her, 'why, this is rather sudden like, phoebe;' and she says, 'yes, it is sudden;' and she smiles again, just the same sort of smile as before. upon that i turns round upon her sharp, and says:
"i'll tell you what it is, my gal, you're a-keepin' somethink from me; somethink you've been told, or somethink you've found out; and if you think you're a-goin' to try that game on with me, you'll find you're very much mistaken; and so i give you warnin'."
"but she laughed it off like, and says, 'lor' luke, what could have put such fancies into your head?'
"'perhaps other people can keep secrets as well as you,' i said, 'and perhaps other people can make friends as well as you. there was a gentleman came here to see your missus yesterday, warn't there—a tall young gentleman with a brown beard?'
"instead of answering of me like a christian, my cousin phoebe bursts out a-cryin', and wrings her hands, and goes on awful, until i'm dashed if i can make out what she's up to.
"but little by little i got it out of her, for i wouldn't stand no nonsense; find she told me how she'd been sittin' at work at the window of her little room, which was at the top of the house, right up in one of the gables, and overlooked the lime-walk, and the shrubbery and the well, when she see my lady walking with a strange gentleman, and they walked together for a long time, until by-and-by they—"
"stop!" cried robert, "i know the rest."
"well, phoebe told me all about what she see, and she told me she'd met her lady almost directly afterward, and somethin' had passed between 'em, not much, but enough to let her missus know that the servant what she looked down upon had found out that as would put her in that servant's power to the last day of her life.
"'and she is in my power, luke,' says phoebe; 'and she'll do anythin' in the world for us if we keep her secret.'
"so you see both my lady audley and her maid thought as the gentleman as i'd seen safe off by the london train was lying dead at the bottom of the well. if i was to give the letter they'd find out the contrary of this; and if i was to give the letter, phoebe and me would lose the chance of gettin' started in life by her missus.
"so i kep' the letter and kep' my secret, and my lady kep' hern. but i thought if she acted liberal by me, and gave me the money i wanted, free like, i'd tell her everythink, and make her mind easy.
"but she didn't. whatever she give me she throwed me as if i'd been a dog. whenever she spoke to me, she spoke as she might have spoken to a dog; and a dog she couldn't abide the sight of. there was no word in her mouth that was too bad for me; there was no toss as she could give her head that was too proud and scornful for me; and my blood b'iled agen her, and i kep' my secret, and let her keep hern. i opened the two letters, and i read 'em, but i couldn't make much sense out of 'em, and i hid 'em away; and not a creature but me has seen 'em until this night."
luke marks had finished his story, and lay quietly enough, exhausted by having talked so long. he watched robert audley's face, fully expecting some reproof, some grave lecture; for he had a vague consciousness that he had done wrong.
but robert did not lecture him; he had no fancy for an office which he did not think himself fitted to perform.
robert audley sat until long after daybreak with the sick man, who fell into a heavy slumber a short time after he had finished his story. the old woman had dozed comfortably throughout her son's confession. phoebe was asleep upon the press bedstead in the room below; so the young barrister was the only watcher.
he could not sleep; he could only think of the story he had heard. he could only thank god for his friend's preservation, and pray that he might be able to go to clara talboys, and say, "your brother still lives, and has been found."
phoebe came up-stairs at eight o'clock, ready to take her place at the sick-bed, and robert audley went away, to get a bed at the sun inn. it was nearly dusk when he awoke out of a long dreamless slumber, and dressed himself before dining in the little sitting-room, in which he and george had sat together a few months before.
the landlord waited upon him at dinner, and told him that luke marks had died at five o'clock that afternoon. "he went off rather sudden like," the man said, "but very quiet."
robert audley wrote a long letter that evening, addressed to madame taylor, care of monsieur val, villebrumeuse; a long letter in which he told the wretched woman who had borne so many names, and was to bear a false one for the rest of her life, the story that the dying man had told him.
"it may be some comfort to her to hear that her husband did not perish in his youth by her wicked hand," he thought, "if her selfish soul can hold any sentiment of pity or sorrow for others."
