the group would have formed a study for a wilkie. the disturbed dinner-table; the consternation of those assembled at it; mr. channing (whose sofa, wheeled to the table, took up the end opposite his wife) gazing around with a puzzled, stern expression; mrs. channing glancing behind her with a sense of undefined dread; the pale, conscious countenances of arthur and constance; tom standing up in haughty impetuosity, defiant of every one; the lively terror of charley’s face, as he clung to arthur; and the wide-opened eyes of annabel expressive of nothing but surprise—for it took a great deal to alarm that careless young lady; while at the door, holding it open for arthur, stood judith in her mob-cap, full of curiosity; and in the background the two policemen. a scene indeed, that wilkie, in the day of his power, would have rejoiced to paint.
arthur, battling fiercely with his outraged pride, and breathing an inward prayer for strength to go through with his task, for patience to endure, put charley from him, and went into the hall. he saw not what was immediately around him—the inquiring looks of his father and mother, the necessity of some explanation to them; he saw not judith and her curious face. a scale was, as it were, before his eyes, blinding them to all outward influences, except one—the officers of justice standing there, and the purpose for which they had come. “what on earth has happened, master arthur?” whispered judith, as he passed her, terrifying the old servant with his pale, agitated face. but he neither heard nor answered; he walked straight up to the men.
“i will go with you quietly,” he said to them, in an undertone. “do not make a disturbance, to alarm my mother.”
we cannot always have our senses about us, as the saying runs. some of us, i fear, enjoy that privilege rarely, and the very best lose them on occasion. but that arthur channing’s senses had deserted him, he would not have pursued a line of conduct, in that critical moment, which was liable to be construed into an admission, or, at least, a consciousness of guilt. in his anxiety to avert suspicion from hamish, he lost sight of the precautions necessary to protect himself, so far as was practicable. and yet he had spent time that morning, thinking over what his manner, his bearing must be if it came to this! had it come upon him unexpectedly he would have met it very differently; with far less outward calmness, but most probably with indignant denial. “i will go with you quietly,” he said to the men.
“all right, sir,” they answered with a nod, and a conviction that he was a cool hand and a guilty one. “it’s always best not to resist the law—it never does no good.”
he need not have resisted, but he ought to have waited until they asked him to go. a dim perception of this had already begun to steal over him. he was taking his hat from its place in the hall, when the voice of mr. channing came ringing on his ear.
“arthur, what is this? give me an explanation.”
arthur turned back to the room, passing through the sea of faces to get there; for all; except his helpless father, had come from their seats to gather round and about that strange mystery in the hall, to try to fathom it. mr. channing gave one long, keen glance at arthur’s face—which was very unlike arthur’s usual face just then; for all its candour seemed to have gone out of it. he did not speak to him; he called in one of the men.
“will you tell me your business here?” he asked courteously.
“don’t you know it, sir?” was the reply.
“no, i do not,” replied mr. channing.
“well, sir, it’s an unpleasant accusation that is brought against this young gentleman. but perhaps he’ll be able to make it clear. i hope he will. it don’t give us no pleasure when folks are convicted, especially young ones, and those we have always known to be respectable; we’d rather see ‘em let off.”
tom interrupted—tom, in his fiery indignation. “is it of stealing that bank-note of galloway’s that you presume to accuse my brother?” he asked, speaking indistinctly in his haste and anger.
“you have said it, sir,” replied the man. “that’s it.”
“then i say whoever accuses him ought to be—”
“silence, thomas,” interrupted mr. channing. “allow me to deal with this. who brings this accusation against my son?”
“we had our orders from mr. butterby, sir. he is acting for mr. galloway. he was called in there early this morning.”
“have you come for my son to go with you to mr. galloway’s?”
“not there, sir. we have to take him straight to the guildhall. the magistrates are waiting to hear the case.”
a dismayed pause. even mr. channing’s heart, with all its implicit faith in the truth and honour of his children, beat as if it would burst its bounds. tom’s beat too; but it was with a desire to “pitch into” the policemen, as he had pitched into pierce senior in the cloisters.
mr. channing turned to arthur. “you have an answer to this, my son?”
the question was not replied to. mr. channing spoke again, with the same calm emphasis. “arthur, you can vouch for your innocence?”
arthur channing did the very worst thing that he could have done—he hesitated. instead of replying readily and firmly “i can,” which he might have done without giving rise to harm, he stopped to ask himself how far, consistently with safety to hamish, he might defend his own cause. his mind was not collected; he had not, as i have said, his senses about him; and the unbroken silence, waiting for his answer, the expectant faces turned upon him, helped to confuse him and to drive his reason further away. the signs, which certainly did look like signs of guilt, struck a knell on the heart of his father. “arthur!” he wailed out, in a tone of intense agony, “you are innocent?”
“y—es,” replied arthur, gulping down his rising agitation; his rising words—impassioned words of exculpation, of innocence, of truth. they had bubbled up within him—were hovering on the verge of his burning lips. he beat them down again to repression; but he never afterwards knew how he did it.
better that he had been still silent, than speak that dubious, indecisive “y—es.” it told terribly against him. one, conscious of his own innocence, does not proclaim it in indistinct, half-uttered words. tom’s mouth dropped with dismay, and his astonished eyes seemed as if they could not take themselves from arthur’s uncertain face. mrs. channing staggered against the wall, with a faint cry.
the policeman spoke up: he meant to be kindly. in all helstonleigh there was not a family more respected than were the channings; and the man felt a passing sorrow for his task. “i wouldn’t ask no questions, sir, if i was you. sometimes it’s best not; they tell against the accused.”
“time’s up,” called out the one who was in the hall, to his fellow. “we can’t stop here all day.”
the hint was taken at once, both by arthur and the man. constance had kept herself still, throughout, by main force; but mrs. channing could not see him go away like this. she rose and threw her arms round him, in a burst of hysterical feeling, sobbing out, “my boy! my boy!”
“don’t, mother! don’t unnerve me,” he whispered. “it is bad enough as it is.”
“but you cannot be guilty, arthur.”
for answer he looked into her eyes for a single moment. his habitual expression had come back to them again—the earnest of truth, which she had ever known and trusted. it spoke calm to her heart now. “you are innocent,” she murmured. “then go in peace.”
annabel broke into a storm of sobs. “oh, judith! will they hang him? what has he done?”
“i’d hang them two policemen, if i did what i should like to do,” responded judith. “yes, you two, i mean,” she added, without ceremony, as the officials turned round at the words. “if i had my will, i’d hang you both up to two of those elm-trees yonder, right in front of one another. coming to a gentleman’s house on this errand!”
“do not take me publicly through the streets,” said arthur to his keepers. “i give you my word to make no resistance: i will go to the guildhall, or anywhere else that you please, as freely as if i were bound thither on my own pleasure. you need not betray that i am in custody.”
they saw that they might trust him. one of the policemen went to the opposite side of the way, as if pacing his beat; the other continued by the side of arthur; not closely enough to give rise to suspicion in those they met. a few paces from the door tom channing came pelting up, and put his arm within arthur’s.
“guilty, or not guilty, it shall never be said that a channing was deserted by his brothers!” quoth he, “i wish hamish could have been here.”
“tom, you are thinking me guilty?” arthur said, in a quiet, tone, which did not reach the ears of his official escort.
“well—i am in a fix,” avowed tom. “if you are guilty, i shall never believe in anything again. i have always thought that building a cathedral: well and good; but if it turns out to be a myth, i shan’t be surprised, after this. are you guilty?”
“no, lad.”
the denial was simple, and calmly expressed; but there was sufficient in its tone to make tom channing’s heart give a great leap within him.
“thank god! what a fool i was! but, i say, arthur, why did you not deny it, out-and-out? your manner frightened us. i suppose the police scared you?”
tom, all right now, walked along, his head up, escorting arthur with as little shame to public examination, as he would have done to a public crowning. it was not the humiliation of undeserved suspicion that could daunt the channings: the consciousness of guilt could alone effect that. hitherto, neither guilt nor its shadow had fallen upon them.
“tom,” asked arthur, when they had reached the hall, and were about to enter: “will you do me a little service?”
“won’t i, though! what is it?”
“make the best of your way to mr. williams’s, and tell him i am prevented from taking the organ this afternoon.”
“i shan’t tell him the reason,” said tom.
“why not? in an hour’s time it will be known from one end of helstonleigh to the other.”
