“the spiritual life is not an elaborate system, but a divine life—not a book of leviticus, but a gospel of st. john.” —bishop walsuam how.
when gabriel had watched the last glimpse of the pale puco gown as hilary turned the north-west corner of the cathedral, he went despondently enough into the building itself to see whether any mischief had been done by waghorn and his adherents.
at first he could see no slightest trace of damage, but in the north-east transept he encountered major locke, pacifying one of the vergers who seemed much concerned at the prospect of “such a mort o’ clearin’ up,” as he expressed it.
“it shall be reported to sir william waller,” said the major; “but in truth ’tis very hard to prevent the men from being stirred up and led into mischief by these fanatic preachers.”
“what on earth induced them to attack bishop swinfield’s monument?” exclaimed gabriel, genuinely vexed to see that the old bishop’s effigy had been literally hacked to pieces.
“well, it seems that waghorn, this crazy carpenter fellow, lured them on with tales of a crucifix, and it proved to be a bas-relief just above this tomb. the men have scarce left a trace of it, but you can see the outline on the wall. then, quite against the parliamentary order for respecting the monuments of the dead, they must needs go and hew in pieces this effigy. hearing that mischief was afoot, i was fortunately in time to order them out of the building before they grew more unruly.”
“i see they have hewn off the head without harming it,” said gabriel, stooping to pick it up from the corner into which it had been tossed. “with your permission, sir, i will bear it to the palace. bishop coke will value it, and here it would but be cast away as rubbish.”
“ay, sir, do,” said the verger. “the bishop, god bless’un, he do set great store by all old statutes, and so do his son, dr. william coke; and mistress hilary unett she takes after ’m; seems to run in the family like. for my part, i be glad waghorn set the soldiers on useless stocks and stones and spared the glass windows, for the cathedral do be mortal cold on windy days at service time.”
this, then, explained in part hilary’s angry mood. perhaps had they met under less trying circumstances, she might have been less cruel. very sore at heart, gabriel went out again, encountering joscelyn heyworth not far from the palace.
“what plunder are you carrying away, you sacrilegious man?” exclaimed the young captain, with his genial laugh. “when an honest man turns thief he always betrays himself. what are you hiding under your scarf ends?”
“a bishop’s head,” said gabriel, grimly.
“oh! so this explains some of the lady’s wrath.”
“yes, no wonder she was angry. i am taking this to her grandfather—bishop coke.”
“you would do much better to throw it down on the green, and give up the whole connection. what have you to do now with bishops, either in stone or in the flesh? and as to their granddaughters—may heaven preserve me from ever again escorting home an episcopal lady. like benedick, ‘i cannot endure my lady tongue.’”
“you don’t know her,” said gabriel. “to-day she was very naturally incensed.”
“now be a sensible man, gabriel, and cast that head into the kennel, for i assure you its stony curls are not more stony than the heart of mistress hilary.”
“be silent!” said gabriel, hotly. “i tell you that you do not know her. tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner, as the proverb hath it.”
“then let us hope the lady will apply that sentiment to the cure of her pride. for truly she knows much more of you than she did before i crossed her path.”
“what do you mean?” said gabriel, aware that joscelyn was often daringly outspoken and unconventional, and fearing that he might only have angered hilary the more.
“i told her of the night at kineton, when, in your delirium the name of hilary was eternally on your lips.”
“so you have known all this time?”
“to be sure; and now she knows one or two eminently wholesome truths.”
“i fear you but annoyed her yet more. what did she say?”
“well, she turned whiter than this old prelate’s head, and i could have sworn she was going to soften. but nothing of the sort; she remained as stony as this effigy, and so we parted with freezing politeness and ceremony. give her up, gabriel; why let her make your life a misery?”
“you don’t understand her,” said, gabriel, in a choked voice. “you have not yet really seen her true self. as to giving her up—why, how should i do that? i have loved her since we were children, and we harfords do not change.”
“so it seems,” said joscelyn, ruefully. “well, i’m hanged if anybody should trouble my peace who had treated me with the consummate cruelty she showed you to-day.”
gabriel, without reply, turned in at the gateway of the palace, feeling that even his best friend somehow failed to help him, and quite prepared to be refused an interview with the bishop.
strangely enough, however, it was the saintly old man who differed from him on so many points in politics and theology who best understood him at that time. he received him as if nothing had happened since their last meeting, bidding him welcome with the same warmth and the same perfect courtesy he had always shown him.
“they may abolish bishops,” thought gabriel, “yet somehow the best description of bishop coke will always be the title, ‘right reverend father in god?’”
the head of bishop swinfield, half-concealed by the ends of the broad orange scarf which girded gabriel’s buff coat, quickly attracted the old prelate’s attention.
“i had heard of the mischief done just now,” he said. “i see you bring me an unharmed fragment; i am glad you rescued that.”
“i thought, my lord, you would value it, and perhaps have it in safe hiding till quieter times.”
“i will give it to my son, ’twill be safer in his care; and to tell the truth, mr. harford, i cannot expect to live till quieter times. these troubles are breaking my heart.”
“my lord, indeed ’twas scarce the fault of the soldiers that harm was wrought in the cathedral; they were led on by a poor fanatic fellow whose father was grievously misused by dr. laud.”
“and therein lies my worst sorrow,” said the bishop, with a long sigh. “our system seemed to us right and good, yet it hath alienated the people, and wholly failed. believe me, mr. harford, i am not thinking of the misguided zeal of your soldiers, but of my own mistaken zeal in the past. yet we meant well—god knows we meant well.”
gabriel was silent. before a humility and sorrow such as this words seemed a profanation.
he glanced round the room, the very one in which he had offered his services to the parliament during the earl of stamford’s occupation six months before. again his eyes turned to the picture of hilary as a child, and the bishop, noting this, asked if he had seen her, and by his kindly sympathy gradually drew from him the whole story.
“’tis no ill cure to set two sad folks to talk with each other,” he said, a faint smile playing about his lips. “i am breaking my heart over the direful strife betwixt christian men, and you are breaking your heart over a difference of opinion with the maiden you love. we must both remember the apostle’s words, ‘love never faileth.’ it seems to us to have wholly failed now, and for the night of this life it may seem so, but the day will dawn. for you, if god will, it may perchance, after all, dawn here on this earth, though scarce for me.”
he crossed the room to a beautifully carved cabinet, and opening one of the inner compartments, took out a miniature of hilary.
“this,” he said, showing it to gabriel, “was painted for me the autumn you first went to london, and i always intended that at my death it should be yours. i think you were right when that day in the cloisters you said to me that the harfords do not change, and in these troubled times i shall like to know that you already have it in your keeping, for i have a feeling that we shall not again meet in this world.” gabriel, with tears in his eyes, could only falteringly speak his thanks.
“nay,” said the bishop, cheerfully. “’tis a pleasure to me to think it will be some slight comfort to you, my son. and,” he added, with a quiet laugh, “you were the first to make a presentation to me of good bishop swinfield’s head, knowing my special feeling for the past dignitaries of our church. ’tis but meet that i should acknowledge your courtesy by the gift of my granddaughter’s head—a wilful maid, yet methinks one that will some day ripen into a right noble woman. believe me, my son, she is worth waiting for.”
“i will wait a lifetime, if need be,” said gabriel, looking at the sweet face in the miniature—the hilary that had been before the war. and then, remembering past times, he made an enquiry as to the treatise on the epistle to the colossians. the old bishop shook his head, sadly.
“the war hath been the ruin of all books,” he said, ruefully. “they tell me people will read naught nowadays but the war pamphlets which are poured forth in shoals from the press. or else they read the news books, which, so far as i can learn, vie with each other in lying, and are crammed with envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness. from the curse of such weapons of the evil one, good lord deliver us!”
the words came with all the more force because spoken by one so habitually gentle, and gabriel, watching the folded hands and the white head bent in this heartfelt ejaculation, felt more than ever drawn to the bishop.
never once had bishop coke repulsed him by the illogical arguments about the divine right of the king to govern wrongfully, which were hurled at the heads of the parliamentarians by most royalists. he kept altogether on a higher plane where meeting was quite possible, and gabriel was glad enough to kneel for the old man’s blessing when they parted.
the citizens of hereford had compounded with sir william waller for 拢3,000, and when the fines had been collected in money or plate nothing remained to detain the soldiers in the place.
on the evening of the seventeenth of may, therefore, waller, hearing that he was needed elsewhere, and unable to spare men to garrison hereford permanently for the parliament, gave orders that the troops should be ready to march back to gloucester early the next morning. by the time gabriel was free from his duties it was already late, but seeing that lights still burned in mrs. unett’s house, he ventured to inquire at the door if she were worse.
“in truth, she is very ill, sir,” said durdle, anxiously.
at the head of the stairs, in a nook where she could hear what passed, but could neither see nor be seen, hilary waited with a beating heart. she was in grievous trouble, and the sound of her lover’s voice tempted her sorely to run down and speak to him.
“give her my kind regards, and i trust she will soon be recovered,” said gabriel. “’tis late to knock you up, but i leave hereford at dawn to-morrow.”
hilary’s heart sank.
“shall i tell mistress hilary?” inquired durdle. “belike she would come down.”
the girl waited in an agony of suspense for his reply.
“no, she hath thrice refused to speak with me,” he said, with a note of pain in his voice that brought a lump into her throat. “i will trouble her no further; good-bye, mrs. durdle.”
like one struggling for life hilary wrestled with her pride. “go down and speak to him,” urged one voice within her. “i can’t before durdle,” retorted another. “go, go before it is too late!” “nay, what could i say if i did go?”
and then she learnt that he who hesitates is lost, for the door was closed, and durdle walked heavily back to the kitchen, and silence reigned again in the house.
hilary sat down on the top stair, and burying her face in her hands, cried much after the fashion of a naughty child, who is half repentant and altogether weary and miserable. again and again she had refused to see gabriel, and had taken pleasure in the process; but now he had declined to see her, and she felt that she was indeed hoist with her own petard.
after this, with the kindest intentions in the world, joscelyn heyworth set about the dangerous process of match-making on his friend’s behalf. supremely happy in the love of pretty mistress clemency coriton, he no sooner found himself talking alone with her at mr. bennett’s house in the close at gloucester, than the remembrance of gabriel harford’s story came to trouble his peace.
“faith, and i have seen much of little mistress helena locke,” said clemency. “she hath a dull time at alderman pury’s, and is ever glad to come here and chat about her gallant rescuers.”
“she had no liking, then, for colonel norton, and did not resent being carried off in that summary fashion?”
“oh, she feared and detested squire norton, and to tell the truth—but be sure you breathe no word of this—i have a fancy that she lost her heart to your friend.”
“ho! that is good hearing,” said joscelyn, with a smile. “there is nothing that would please me more than to see them mated, for in truth he stands in need of just such a sweet-tempered gentle little woman, being over-reserved and apt to grow melancholy over the desperate plight the country is in.”
“let us get my sister to invite the major and his daughter and you and your friend to supper to-morrow,” said clemency. “even should the notion fail to come to anything, it can do them no harm to meet.”
so it came about that little mistress nell donned her prettiest white gown the next evening, arranged her fair curls with anxious care, and, with her blue eyes looking unusually bright, went with her father to the gabled house in the close.
her rescuers had already arrived, but helena had hardly a glance to spare for joscelyn heyworth who, for all his six feet and his lion-like mane of golden hair, was, for her, quite eclipsed by a shorter, slighter man, with something in his sunburnt face and liquid hazel eyes which appealed to her.
gabriel greeted her with the easy cordiality of one whose deeper feelings are not in the least touched.
“you suffered no ill-effects, i hope, from all your fatigues on the ride to gloucester,” he said.
“oh! no,” said helena, eagerly. “when once we were out of pistol range it was enjoyable enough; but i hope i may never have to run again as we did that night. had you not both dragged me on i must have given up.”
gabriel laughed.
“we were cruel only to be kind, but i grant you that the feeling of being pursued is unpleasant. i had a longing to stay and fight it out with that dastardly colonel. but it would have been over great a risk for you, and your safety was the main object. however, i have an instinct that i shall meet the fellow again, and then maybe shall have a chance of fighting him.”
at supper, in the panelled room below, gabriel found himself between mistress nell and his hostess, and vis-脿-vis with major locke, who kept them all merry with his inexhaustible fund of stories.
“who would think, to hear our laughter, that we were in the midst of a deadly civil war?” said faith bennett. “we owe you a debt of gratitude, sir. i have not made so merry for many a day.”
“tell mistress bennett the story of the fisher-boy,” said helena. “that mightily tickled my fancy.”
“oh, that is but a simple tale,” said the major. “we were crossing some wild country in herefordshire, and, the day being foggy, had lost our bearings, so i sent one of the men to ask the way of a lad that was fishing in the wye. he came back to say that he couldn’t understand the boy’s language, and knowing something of dialect, i went to him myself and said, ‘which is the nearest way to horn lacy?’
“an unintelligible jabber was the response, so that i thought the lad an innocent until i chanced to notice that he was munching a mouthful of something.
“‘what have you got in your mouth?’ i asked, finding that he made no haste to swallow his meal.
“‘wumsh for bait,’ he muttered, trying to indicate by signs the nearest road to horn lacy.”
there was a general laugh.
“wasn’t it horrible?” said mistress nell. “think of a mouthful of live worms!”
“is not horn lacy one of my lord scudamore’s estates?” asked mr. bennett.
“ay; he was taken prisoner in hereford, but allowed to go to london on parole. horn lacy was taxed 拢10 15s. by the bye, captain heyworth, is there any truth in this report i hear, that sir william waller is sending you to london shortly concerning lord scudamore’s affairs?”
“yes, sir,” said joscelyn; “i am to bear a letter for sir william waller, who is in some fear that, spite of his assurances, parliament is not treating lord scudamore as well as he deserves. i had private business that needed looking into, and am granted three weeks’ leave from monday se’nnight.”
“i wish you would make an inquiry for me while you are in london,” said the major, as the ladies left the room.
“the truth is, though i would not say it before mistress bennett, that gloucester is not an over-safe place in which to leave my little maid, for like enough, they say, the king will lay siege to it. now, i want to find out whether helena’s godmother is still living. she is a very aged lady named madam harford, but ’tis years since we heard of her.”
“why, sir,” said gabriel, laughing, “they say in the regiment that you know well-nigh every family in england—perchance this lady is my grand-dame who lives at notting hill manor, some two miles from tyburn by the oxford road.”
“upon my soul, that’s a strange coincidence,” said the major. “but i had no notion she was of a herefordshire family. she was a very kind friend to my late wife in london before our marriage, and stood sponsor for helena. i thought of writing to ask her to advise some safe lodging in the city where my daughter may be sent in charge of mistress malvina.”
“if you will trust me with your letter, i will bear it to madam harford and bring you back her reply, sir,” said joscelyn heyworth; and he smiled to himself, thinking that fate was about to help his match making.
however, it was not his doing, but the major’s own arrangement which, during the course of the next few days, threw gabriel and little mistress nell into frequent intercourse. the girl lived through a midsummer dream of happiness, but gabriel, though liking very much to talk to one who was both pretty and winsome, never said a word to her that might not have been proclaimed from the housetops, and never felt his pulses beat the faster when the innocent blue eyes were lifted to his.
marriage arrangements were most matter-of-fact in those days and the major, before leaving gloucester, thought it as well to broach the subject with his daughter.
“child,” he said one evening, when they were alone together in a gloomy little parlour at alderman pury’s house, “it may be long ere i see you again, for, as you know, we march into the west to-morrow. i have had no proposal for your hand save that from squire norton, which i was bound to decline. but if at any time it should chance that i might arrange a marriage for you with lieutenant harford, would he meet with your approval?”
“yes, sir,” said little mistress nell, blushing.
“he is a man i would very gladly entrust you to” said the major. “yet think not over much of it, nell, for the notion may come to nothing. i merely wished to know that such a plan would not be uncongenial to you.”
“oh, no, sir,” faltered helena, “not uncongenial.”
and then she fell awondering whether it must ever be a choice between the fierce passion which terrified her in squire norton’s eyes, and the easy friendliness which somehow scarcely satisfied her in gabriel’s expression. was there, perchance, some happy mean betwixt these two, a love which had not yet come her way? if only her gallant rescuer would give her the supreme happiness of requiting in some way his service to her! she half wished herself a man that she might serve under him, and perhaps do for him on the battlefield what captain heyworth had done at edgehill. and so she dreamt her innocent dreams, never knowing of the miniature that hung about gabriel’s neck, or imagining that at hereford a pair of dark grey eyes were shedding tears more bitter than any that could ever be shed by her.
for in hilary’s home there was great sorrow; the physician’s skill could no longer keep at bay the mortal illness which was steadily sapping mrs. unett’s strength.
“if it were possible to induce dr. wright to come to hereford i should like to consult with him,” said dr. harford one morning when he felt that hilary must be prepared for the worst. “he and his wife are still residing at brampton bryan for the sake of being some protection to lady brilliana harley, and i scarce know whether he would leave, for they stand in great danger of being besieged in the castle.”
hilary could not help reflecting that it was strange they should be forced to turn to parliamentarians in their need, but dr. harford and dr. wright were by far the most eminent physicians in the neighbourhood, and she found that politics made no sort of difference when one was face to face with a grief and danger like this.
“lady brilliana is kindhearted and generous,” she said. “i am sure she would spare dr. wright, and he need not be away more than four-and-twenty hours.”
so the plan was proposed, and the two physicians held a consultation, and for a while hilary hoped against hope. but at length the day came when she could no longer refuse to recognise the terrible truth—her mother was dying.
there was no great suffering; indeed, mrs. unett would have passed away in absolute peace had it not been for the thought of her child left behind in sorrow and loneliness, fortunately dr. william coke, her favourite brother, was able to ride over to hereford on the day this was most troubling her.
“you see, hilary cannot live on here, as she wishes to do, with no better protection than mrs. durdle,” sighed the mother. “and though my father would gladly have her at the palace, she doth not agree with other members of the household, and such an arrangement would never work well. i would that i could have lived to see her married.”
“too late for mr. geers of garnons,” said dr. coke, with a gleam of merriment in his eyes. “they tell me he is just betrothed to mistress eliza acton. and hilary, i understand, did refuse his suit with great decision. but do not be troubled as to her future. why should she not come and cheer her old bachelor uncle? i should most gladly welcome her, and i’ll warrant mrs. durdle would keep my untidy vicarage in apple-pie order.”
“that she would,” said mrs. unett, with a smile. “you are very good, brother, to suggest such a plan. to leave hilary in your charge would be the greatest comfort to me.”
she longed sorely to tell of the hope she had once cherished of seeing her child wedded to gabriel harford, but she had promised secrecy, and felt that matters were now hopeless; moreover, hilary would probably prefer that her uncle should never know that chapter of her life-story. the silence was the last sacrifice the mother was to make, and it was a very real sacrifice to one who always craved the comfort of a man’s opinion.
even as she lay there musing over the possibilities of the future, dr. coke saw a change in her face which alarmed him. he went to the door and spoke in a low voice to his niece.
“you had better send for dr. harford, my dear,” he said. “i fancy i see a change in your mother.”
hilary would not risk sending, she ran herself without ceremony by the garden way as she would have done in old times, and while the servant went in search of the doctor, waited in the study, looking round with an aching heart at the familiar place.
very quickly she noted the only new thing in the room. it was the miniature by m. jean petitot which gabriel had mentioned in his christmas letter, and crossing to the mantelshelf on which it stood, she looked long and earnestly at the portrait of the man who loved her. the strong, clean-souled face appealed to all that was best in her, and the great artist had succeeded in reproducing that quiet spirituality in the eyes which had somehow dominated her in their last unhappy meeting.
an intolerable longing for his presence came over her. most bitterly she needed him now in this time of her sorrow, and terrible was the shame and misery of realising that her own pride had wrecked his happiness as well as her own.
it was with difficulty that she could control her voice when dr. harford entered, and his all-observant eyes at once perceived that the sight of the miniature had been too much for her.
“my mother,” she faltered.
“i will come at once,” he said, taking her hand much as if she had been a child again.
the action comforted her, and she told him of her uncle’s visit, and of how at first the invalid had revived and had seemed better.
but when they reached the sick-room hilary needed no words to tell her that her mother was at the point of death.
there was a minute’s silence while the doctor felt the failing pulse; a courteous word of thanks for his care; a tender farewell to her child, and a grateful glance at her favourite brother as he knelt at the bedside. then consciousness failed; and after an interval, broken only by the voice of dr. coke as he read the commendatory prayer, she passed quietly away.
hilary, dazed and tearless, let them take her out of the room unresistingly. the whole world seemed a blank to her, and her desolation was the more overwhelming because the one being who could have comforted her was, by her own fault, altogether out of reach. her mother dead, her lover banished and rejected, and she herself crushingly conscious of her own sins and shortcomings, it seemed to her indeed that the burden of life was more than she could endure.
dr. coke went at once to the palace to break the news to the bishop, but dr. harford returned to the withdrawing room for a minute, feeling ill at ease as to hilary. he found her restlessly pacing to and fro, trying not to hear durdle’s heavy footsteps as she moved about in the next room, busy with the last offices to the dead.
“my dear,” he said, in his fatherly way, “you were up all last night and must rest now. come,” and he himself arranged the cushions for her on the couch and insisted that she should lie down.
“i wonder that you can endure the sight of me,” said hilary, “after all the trouble i have caused you.”
he thought that in calmer moments she might regret having spoken so openly, and did not allow himself to refer to gabriel.
“you forget that your father was my best friend, and that to be of service to you must always be a pleasure to me,” he said, kindly. “try, if possible, to sleep, my dear; your uncle and i will make all needful arrangements.”
“what is the use of resting?—all is over; no one needs me,” she said, wildly.
“nay,” he said; “be very sure that there will be need of all your strength in a country as full of sorrow as ours is now. so rest, my child, and wait.”
and then he bade her good-bye, and went his way to comfort and cure others that were ill in body and sad of soul.
