evening was beginning to close in--the evening of the day following that of the interview between barney dale and hermia--when the latter, accompanied by aunt charlotte and clement, alighted from a fly at the gates by the ruined lodge, and walked through the park to broome, where they were admitted by barney at the side entrance. it had been deemed best by the old man that hermia should be introduced to miss pengarvon when he took in the lighted candles, which of itself made a little interruption, sufficing to break the current of his mistress's sombre meditations and bringing her back, if only for a few minutes, to a sense of time and place.
since the fit, or seizure, of which barney had made mention to clement, although to all seeming she was now as well bodily as she had previously been, her nervous system had become even more acutely irritable than before her attack. she seemed to live almost entirely in the past, and to talk more and more with the shadows that kept her company in the green parlor--sir jasper, lady pengarvon, miss letitia, and isabel, with others whom barney was unable to identify with anyone whom he had known.
barney trembled inwardly for the result of the experiment he was about to venture upon, but having once given his promise, he was determined to abide by it, come what might.
so, when the proper moment had come, barney, carrying the stately silver candlesticks, opened the door of the green parlor and went in, followed by hermia, who was bareheaded and dressed with quaker-like simplicity, in a gown of some softly-clinging grey material. even the two candles scarcely sufficed to dissipate the shadows which seemed to have their natural gathering-place in the gloomy old room; but when miss pengarvon proceeded to extinguish one of them, which she did at once, a number of the shadows came trooping back on the instant, as though they had known beforehand what she would do, and were only waiting for it. hermia could readily have fancied that the intervening years were nothing but a dream, and that she was standing there again, a three-year-old mite, with her hands behind her, only she had then been confronted by two stern-faced ladies, whereas now there was only one. but there, close to the table, in the place where it had stood when she was alive, was the empty chair of the dead and gone miss pengarvon--she who had crept into hermy's room at midnight and had kissed her in her sleep.
despite the changes which eighteen years had brought about, hermia knew miss pengarvon at once. the chilly, unsympathetic, blue-grey eyes, and the heavy brows were there as of old, but the once dark locks were now nearly snow white, and although her face had always been long and thin, the bones now stood out with startling prominence, with the shrunken, yellow-ivory skin stretched tightly over them. but in the steel-cold eyes there now shone something which caused hermia's heart to beat faster even than it had beat on entering the room. it was the gleam of incipient insanity which she saw there, although she knew it not.
notwithstanding the warmth of the weather, a few embers were burning in the grate, and it was not till barney moved aside and proceeded to rake them together that miss pengarvon's eyes fell on hermia. not even by as much as the flicker of an eyelid did she evince the slightest surprise at sight of the girl.
"so you have come at last," she said, speaking in the hard, measured tones of an icy displeasure. "how many times have i had to tell you of late that i will not have you wandering in the park at this late hour of the afternoon? you see, letitia, how utterly unbiddable the girl is." here she was evidently addressing the unseen occupant of the vacant chair. "you choose to plead for her, and to urge this and that in her favor, although i have told you over and over again that isabel's is one of those disobedient and ungrateful dispositions on which kindness is absolutely thrown away." then, turning to hermia, she added, frowningly, "i have nothing more to say to you. go to your room, and stay there till i give you permission to leave it."
who was the isabel for whom miss pengarvon evidently mistook her? hermia could not help asking herself; could it be her mother?
but it was not a time to ask questions. advancing a step or two she said, "my name is not isabel, miss pengarvon. i am hermia rivers. do you not remember seeing me here when i was a little girl?"
"hermia rivers!" echoed miss pengarvon, in a whisper loud enough for the others to hear, as a person at the moment of waking might repeat with a kind of frightened surprise some name which, spoken in his ear, had been enough to break his sleep. "and who, pray, may hermia rivers be?" she demanded next moment, as she rose slowly and not without difficulty from her chair and drew herself up to her full height. "no such person is known to me." then, turning abruptly on the trembling barney, she said, "how many times have i given you my orders that, on no pretence whatever, should you introduce any one into my presence without having first obtained my permission to do so? take this young woman away at once--at once, i say--and never let me see her face again! she is an intruder. i know her not!" with an imperious gesture she pointed to the door. the old man beckoned sorrowfully to hermia, and the two left the room without a word more.
barney's experiment had resulted in failure; but for that the old man was in no way to blame. he had done his best to bring about an explanation between miss pengarvon and her niece, and that he had not succeeded was no fault of his. saddened and disheartened, our trio went back to stavering.
not knowing at what hour they should be back, they had left the question of dinner till their return, and they now separated, pending its preparation. as hermia passed up the staircase on her way to her room, she encountered a middle-aged, military-looking man, with a grey mustache, who happened to be coming down at the same moment. the lamp at the head of the staircase shone full on hermia, and as they passed each other the stranger, whose eyes had been fixed on her face, gave a palpable start, and at the same instant made a clutch at the balusters as if to keep himself from falling. then he turned and gazed after hermia's retreating figure; and then, instead of keeping on his way down stairs, he re-ascended them and went back to his room with the air of a man who was at once puzzled and disturbed in his mind. he was none other than major strickland. he who, but a month or two before, had met with such a decided rebuff at the hands of miss pengarvon. he had come down to stavering again in the hope that miss pengarvon, who in the meantime would have had ample time to think over and review certain particulars which he had then laid before her, might now see fit to accord him the information she had then refused him, which, so far as he could judge, it would be hopeless for him to seek elsewhere.
accordingly, on the morning of the day when we meet him for the second time, the major had again walked over to broome and had sent in his card by the hand of barney dale, whom he now saw for the first time. it had been brought back to him two minutes later, torn in half by miss pengarvon, who refused absolutely to see him, and ordered barney to shut the door in his face--an order, however, which the latter chose to interpret in his own way. then had the major returned to stavering, disheartened and sad at heart, even as, a few hours later, three other persons had come back from broome.
on returning to his room after being so startled by the vision he had encountered on the stairs, major strickland opened his portmanteau and took from it a miniature painted on ivory, in an oval case. opening it, he gazed long and earnestly at the likeness inside, which was that of a very beautiful young woman, apparently not more than about twenty years of age.
"the resemblance is certainly most extraordinary," he soliloquized aloud. "but for the changed fashion of dress and the different arrangement of the hair, it seems to me that each of them might sit for the other's portrait. who can she be? gruding may be able to tell me something about her. i will seek him at once."
"the name of the young lady is miss hermia rivers--at least, that's the name entered in the register," said the landlord, when found and questioned by the major ten minutes later. "but you are ill, sir. what can i get you? what can i do for you?"
"it is nothing--nothing at all. i shall be better in a minute or two." then to himself he added: "it is she--it must be she! the name alone is enough to prove it. how strange and unaccountable are the ways of providence!" he seemed lost in thought for a few moments, then rousing himself, he said: "from the fact that miss rivers is staying under your roof, i presume that, like myself, she is only a visitor here?"
"that is all, sir. they arrived yesterday--the three of them--though the young gentleman was here before, about a fortnight since."
"i have no wish to be thought inquisitive," resumed the major, "but i must confess that i am extremely desirous of ascertaining the nature of the business which has brought miss rivers to stavering. my motive is a very different one from idle curiosity."
"well, sir, as far as i can make out," answered gruding, "the business of the party seems to be much of a muchness with that of yourself, if you'll excuse my saying so."
"as how?" demanded the major, quickly.
"why, sir, they only arrived yesterday afternoon, and yet they have been twice to broome already, and when the young gentleman--doctor hazeldine is his name--was here before, he had no end of questions to ask me about miss pengarvon; just like yourself, sir."
"a proof the more, had any been needed," said the major, under his breath. then, after a minute's thought, he added aloud: "i must see miss rivers this evening. find out, if you can, when the best time will be for me to ask for an interview."
"they were rather late in getting back from broome and have not yet dined," said gruding. "suppose i send you word, sir, when dinner is over and the things cleared away."
"do so," replied the major; and with that he rose and went back to his room.
the major had not been gone more than three or four minutes when gruding was buttonholed by doctor hazeldine.
hermia, while on their way back from broome, had not failed to recount to aunt charlotte and clem how miss pengarvon had addressed her by the name of isabel, evidently mistaking her for someone else. this fact had greatly impressed clem. who was the unknown isabel to whom hermia bore a likeness so striking as to cause miss pengarvon to mistake one for the other? it was with a view of solving this question that he now sought the landlord.
"mr. gruding," he began, "when i was here last you were able to tell me a great deal about broome and the pengarvon family. do you happen to know, or have you ever heard, of any member of the family in question whose name was isabel?"
"why, to be sure, sir. miss isabel was the present miss pengarvon's youngest sister by the late sir jasper's second wife. she ran away from broome some twenty-one or two years ago, with a young gentleman as had been staying at this house for a couple of months or more, fishing and sketching, and such like. it was in everybody's mouth at the time, i can tell you, sir."
"and what became of miss isabel afterwards?"
"that's more than anybody seems to know, sir, unless it's miss pengarvon herself. anyhow, she was never heard of in these parts again, as far as i know."
"and what was the name of the young gentleman?"
"ah, now you puzzle me, sir. i've been trying of late to bring it to mind, but, for the life of me, i can't. you see, sir, it's such a long time ago; and one's memory, as one gets on in life, ain't as ready as it used to be."
here was food for thought! dinner was announced a few minutes later, and clement decided that, for the present, he would keep what gruding had just told him to himself.
it was a balmy evening in early summer. the room in which dinner had been served overlooked a bowling-green at the back of the hotel, set round with borders of old-fashioned flowers. a faint shimmer of moonlight lay over everything. clem was smoking on the balcony; miss brancker and hermia were seated by the window. a shaded lamp stood on a centre table. there was a tap at the door, and in came the waiter carrying a card on a salver, which he presented to miss rivers with one of his most deferential bows. hermia took it with a little surprise, and crossing to the lamp, read the name on it aloud:
"major strickland."
"the gentleman desires to see miss rivers on very particular business," said the man.
a slight sound caused them to turn their heads, and there stood major strickland, hat in hand, in the doorway. as he came forward the waiter went out and shut the door.
"pardon this intrusion," said the major, his eyes fixed intently on the startled girl; "have i the pleasure of addressing miss hermia rivers?"
"that is my name, sir."
"mine is on the card you are now holding. but from this hour i hope you will know me by another and a very different name. my dear young lady, in me you see your grandfather; in you i behold the daughter of my only son!"
