george dallas felt that his fortunes were in the ascendant, when he arose on the morning following the dinner with deane, and found himself possessed of ten pounds, which he had been sufficiently sober to win at billiards the previous night, and consequently in a position to pay off his landlady, and turn his back upon the wretched lodging, which her temper, tyranny, and meanness had made more wretched. he lost no time in packing up the few articles he possessed--mainly consisting of books and drawing-materials--and these, together with his scanty wardrobe, he threw into a couple of trunks, which he himself carried down the steep dark staircase and deposited in a cab. the landlady stood at the door, in the gray morning, and watched her late lodger, as he strode down the shabby little street, followed by the luggage-laden cab. she watched him, wondering. she wondered where he had got the money he had just paid her. she wondered where he had got the money to pay an extra week's rent, in default of a week's notice. when she had dunned him yesterday, as rudely and mercilessly as usual, he had said nothing indicative of an expectation of an immediate supply of money. he had only said that he hoped to pay her soon. "where did he get the money?" the old woman thought, as she watched him. "i hope he come by it honest. i wonder where he's going to. he did not tell the cabman, leastways so as i could hear him. ah! it ain't no business of mine; i'll just turn the rooms out a bit, and put up the bill."
so mrs. gunther (for that was the lady's name) re-entered the shabby house, and a great activity accompanied by perpetual scolding pervaded it for some hours, during which the late tenant was journeying down to amherst.
george dallas strictly observed the directions contained in his mother's letter, and having started by an early train, reached amherst at noon. rightly supposing that at such an hour it would be useless to look for his mother in the little town, he crossed the railroad in a direction leading away from amherst, struck into some fields, and wandered on by a rough footpath which led through a copse of beech-trees to a round bare hill. he sat down when he had reached this spot, from whence he could see the road to and from poynings. a turnpike was at a little distance, and he saw a carriage stopped beside the gate, and a footman at the door receiving an order from a lady, whose bonnet he could just discern in the distance. he stood up and waited. the carriage approached, and he saw that the liveries were those of mr. carruthers. then he struck away down the side of the little declivity, and crossing the railway at another point, attained the main street of the little town. it was market-day. he avoided the inn, and took up a position whence he could watch his mother's approach. there were so many strangers and what mr. deane would have called "loafers" about, some buying, some selling, and many honestly and unfeignedly doing nothing, that an idler more or less was certain to pass without any comment, and it was not even necessary to keep very wide of the inn. he stood with his hands in his pockets, looking into the window of the one shop in amherst devoted to the interests of literature, which was profusely decorated with out-of-date valentines, much criticised by flies, and with feebly embossed cards, setting forth the merits of local governesses. at that time prophetic representations of the international exhibition of '62 were beginning to appeal to the patriotic soul in light blue drawings, with flags innumerable displayed wheresoever they could be put "handy." george dallas calmly and gravely surveyed the stock-in-trade, rather distracted by the process of watching the inn door, between which and his position intervened a group of farmers, who were to a man chewing bits of whipcord, and examining samples of corn, which they extracted in a stealthy manner from their breeches-pocket, and displayed grudgingly on their broad palms. on the steps of the inn door were one or two busy groups, and not a man or woman of the number took any notice of mrs. carruthers's son. they took very considerable notice of mrs. carruthers herself, however, when her carriage stopped; and mr. page, the landlord, actually came out, quite in the old fashioned style, to open the lady's carriage, and escort her into the house. george watched his mother's tall and elegant figure, as long as she was in sight, with mingled feelings of pleasure, affection, something like real gratitude, and very real bitterness; then he turned, strolled past the inn where the carriage was being put up, and took his way down the main street, to the principal draper's shop, he went in, asked for some gloves, and turned over the packets set before him with slowness and indecision. presently his mother entered, and took the seat which the shopman, a mild person in spectacles, handed her. she, too, asked for gloves, and, as the shopman turned his back to the counter, rapidly passed a slip of paper to her son. she had written on it, in pencil:
"at davis's the dentist's, opposite, in ten minutes."
"these will do, thank you. i think you said three and sixpence?" said george to the shopman, who, having placed a number of gloves before mrs. carruthers for her selection, had now leisure to attend to his less important customer.
"yes, sir, three and sixpence, sir. one pair, sir? you'll find them very good wear, sir."
"one pair will do, thank you," said george. he looked steadily at his mother, as he passed her on his way to the door, and once more anger arose, fierce and keen, in his heart--anger, not directed against her, but against his stepfather. "curse him!" he muttered, as he crossed the street, "what right has he to treat me like a dog, and her like a slave? nothing that i have done justifies--no, by heaven, and nothing that i could do, would justify--such treatment."
mr. davis's house had the snug, cleanly, inflexible look peculiarly noticeable even amid the general snugness, cleanliness, and inflexibility of a country town, as attributes of the residences of surgeons and dentists, and gentlemen who combine both those fine arts. the clean servant who opened the door looked perfectly cheerful and content. it is rather aggravating, when one is going to be tortured, even for one's ultimate good, to be assured in a tone almost of glee:
"no, sir, master's not in, sir; but he'll be in directly, sir. in the waiting-room, sir." george dallas not having come to be tortured, and not wishing to see mr. davis, bore the announcement with good humour equal to that of the servant, and sat down very contentedly on a high, hard, horsehair chair, to await events. fortune again favoured him; the room had no other occupant; and in about five minutes he again heard the cheerful voice of the beaming girl at the door say,
"no, m'm, master's not in; but he'll be in d'rectly, m'm. in the waiting-room, m'm. there's one gentleman a-waitin', m'm, but master will attend on you first, of course, m'm."
the next moment his mother was in the room, her face shining on him, her arms round him, and the kind words of the truest friend any human being can be to another, poured into his ears.
"you are looking much better, george," she said, holding him back from her, and gazing fondly into his face. "you are looking brighter, my darling, and softer, and as if you were trying to keep your word to me."
"pretty well, mother, and i am very thankful to you. but your letter puzzled me. what does it mean? have you really got the money, and how did you manage to get it?"
"i have not got it, dear," she said quickly, and holding up her hand to keep him silent; "but it is only a short delay, not a disappointment. i shall have it in two or three days."
george's countenance had fallen at her first words, but the remainder of the sentence reassured him, and he listened eagerly as she continued:
"i am quite sure of getting it, george. if it does but set you free, i shall not regret the price i have paid for it."
"tell me what it is mother," george asked eagerly. "stay, you must not sit so close to me."
"i'm not sure that your voice ought to be heard either, speaking so familiarly, tête-à-tête with the important mrs. carruthers of poynings--a personage whose sayings and doings are things of note at amherst," said mrs. carruthers with a smile, as he took a seat at a little distance, and placed one of the samples of periodical literature strewn about the table, after the fashion of dentists' and surgeons' waiting-rooms, ready to her hand, in case of interruption. then she laid her clasped hands on the table, and leaned against them, with her clear dark eyes fixed upon her son's face, and her steady voice, still sweet and pure in its tones as in her youth, as she told him what she had done.
"do you remember, george, that on that wretched night you spoke of my diamonds, and seemed to reproach me that i should wear jewels, while you wanted so urgently but a small portion of their price?"
"i remember, mother," returned george, frowning, "and a beast i was to hint such a thing to you, who gave me all that ever was your own! i hoped you had forgiven and forgotten it. can it be possible that you have sold--but no; you said they were family jewels."
"i will tell you. when you had gone away that night, and i was in the ball-room, and later, when i was in my dressing-room alone, and could think of it all again, the remembrance of what you had said tormented me. the jewels you had seen me wearing were, indeed, as i had told you, not my own; nevertheless, the remembrance of all i had ever read about converting jewels into money occupied my mind that night, and occupied it after that night for days and days. one day mr. tatham came to poynings, and in the evening being, as he always is, very entertaining, he related an extraordinary story of a client of his. the tale, as he told it, had many particulars, but one caught my attention. the client was a woman of large fortune, who married for love a man much younger than herself, a dissipated fellow who broke her fortune, and might have broken her heart, but for his getting killed in riding a steeple-chase. after his timely death it was discovered, among a variety of dishonourable transactions, that he had stolen his wife's diamonds, with the connivance of her maid; had had them imitated in mock stones by a famous french dealer in false jewelry; and had substituted the false for the real. no suspicion of the fact had ever crossed his wife's mind. the discovery was made by the jeweller's bill for the imitation being found among the papers. this led to inquiry of the dealer, who gave the required information. the moment i heard the story, i conceived the idea of getting you the money you wanted by a similar expedient."
"oh, mother!"
she lifted one hand with a gesture of caution, and continued, in a voice still lower than before:
"my jewels--at least those i have sold--were my own, george. those i wore that night were, as i told you, family diamonds; but mr. carruthers gave me, when we were married, a diamond bracelet, and i understood then that it was very valuable. i shrank from such a deception. but it was for you, and i caught at it."
george dallas sat with his hands over his face and no more interrupted her by a single word.
"by one or two questions i stimulated mr. carruthers's curiosity in the strange story, so that he asked mr. tatham several questions as to where the mock jewels were made, whether they cost much, and, in fact, procured for me all the information i required. that bracelet was the only thing i had of sufficient value for the purpose, because it is expensive to get an imitation of any ornament made of very fine stones, as my bracelet is, and richly set. if the act were still to do, i should do it, george--for you--and still i should feel, as i do most bitterly feel, that in doing it i shamefully deceive my husband!"
still george dallas did not speak. he felt keenly the degradation to which he had reduced his mother; but so great and pervading was his bitterness of feeling towards his mother's husband, that when the wrong to him presented itself to his consideration, he would not entertain it. he turned away, rose, and paced the room. his mother sighed heavily as she went on.
"george, you know this is not the first time i have suffered through and for you, and that this is the first time i have ever done an act which i dare not avow. i will say no more."
he was passing behind her chair as she spoke, and he paused in his restless walk to kneel down by her, clasp her in his arms, and kiss her. as he rose from his knees, she looked at him with a face made radiant with hope, and with a mother's love.
"this is how it was done, george," she continued. "i wrote to an old friend of mine in paris, a french lady, once my schoolfellow. i told her i wanted my bracelet matched, in the best manner of imitation jewelry, as our english fashions required two, and i could not afford to purchase another made of real diamonds. i urged the strictest secrecy, and i know she will observe it; for she loves mystery only a little less than she loves dress. she undertook the commission with alacrity, and i expected to have had both the bracelets yesterday!"
"what a risk you would have run, mother, supposing an occasion for your wearing the bracelet had arisen!"
"like anne of austria and the studs?" said his mother with a smile. "but there was no help for it. more deceit and falsehood must have followed the first. if the occasion had arisen, mr. carruthers would have questioned me, and i should have said i had sent it to be cleaned, when he would have been angry that i should have done so without consulting him."
"tyrannical old brute!" was george's mental comment.
"all the meanness and all the falsehood was planned and ready, george; but it was needless. mr. carruthers was summoned to york, and is still there. it is much for me that the parcel should arrive during his absence. i heard from my friend the day before i wrote to you, that she was about to send it immediately, and i wrote to you at once. it is to be directed to nurse brookes."
"how did you explain that, mother!" george asked quickly.
"more lies, more lies," she answered sadly, rejoicing in her heart the while to see how he writhed under the words. "i told her what was needful in the way of false explanation, and i made certain of having the bracelets to-day. so i must have done but for a second letter from my friend madame de haulleville, to the effect that, having a sudden opportunity of sending the packet to england by a private hand, she had availed herself of it, at the loss of (at most, she writes) a day or two."
"confound her french parsimony!" said george; "think of the unnecessary risk she makes us run, when i come down here for nothing."
"it is not so much parsimony as precaution, george. and she could know nothing of any risk."
"what is to be done, then?" he asked, in a softer tone.
"can you not remain at amherst?" asked his mother. "have you anything to do which will prevent your remaining here for a day or two? if not you will be as well here as in london, for there is no danger of mr. carruthers seeing you."
"suppose he did?" george burst out. "is he the lord and master of all england, including amherst? perhaps the sunshine belongs to him, and the fresh air? if i keep away from poynings, that's enough for him, surely."
mrs. carruthers had risen, and looked appealingly at him.
"remember, george, your misconduct would justify mr. carruthers in the eyes of the world, for the course he has taken towards you; or," here she moved near to him, and laid her hand on his arm, "if you refuse to consider that, remember that mr. carruthers is my husband, and that i love him."
"i will, mother, i will," said george impetuously. "graceless, ungrateful wretch that i am! i will never say another word against him. i will remain quietly here as you suggest. shall i stay at the inn? not under my own name; under my not very well known but some day of course widely to be famous pen-name--paul ward. don't forget it, mother, write it down; stay, i'll write it for you. p-a-u-l w-a-r-d." he wrote the name slowly on a slip of paper, which mrs. carruthers placed between the leaves of her pocket-book.
"you must go now," she said to him; "it is impossible you can wait here longer. we have been singularly fortunate as it is. when i write, i will tellyou whether i can come to you here--in the town, i mean--or whether you shall come to me. i think you will have to come to me. now go, my darling boy." she embraced him fondly.
"and you, mother?"
"i will remain here a little longer. i have really something to say to mr. davis."
he went. black care went with him, and shame and remorse were busy at his heart. would remorse deepen into repentance, and would repentance bear wholesome fruit of reformation? that was for the future to unravel. the present had acute stinging pain in it, which he longed to stifle, to crush out, to get away from, anyhow. he loved his mother, and her beautiful earnest face went with him along the dusty road; the unshed tears in her clear dark eyes seemed to drop in burning rain upon his heart; the pleading tones of her sorrowful voice filled all the air. how wicked and wretched, how vain, silly, and insipid, how worthless and vulgar, all his pleasures and pursuits seemed now! a new spirit arose in the wayworn, jaded man; a fresh ambition sprang up in his heart. "it's a wretched, low, mean way of getting free, but i have left myself no choice. i must take advantage of what she has done for me, and then i never will wrong her love and generosity again. i will do right, and not wrong; this is my resolution, and i will work it out, so help me god!"
he had unconsciously come to a stop at the noble old oak gates, flung hospitably open, of a wide-spreading park, through one of whose vistas a grand old mansion in the most elaborate manner of the elizabethan style was visible. he looked up, and the beauty of the prospect struck him as if it had been created by an enchanter's wand. he looked back along the road by which he had come, and found that he had completely lost sight of amherst.
he went a pace or two beyond the gate pillars. a hale old man was employed in nailing up a trailing branch of jessamine against the porch of the lodge.
"good afternoon, old gentleman. this is a fine place, i fancy."
"good afternoon, sir. it is a fine place. you'll not see many finer in amherst. would you like to walk through it, sir? you're quite welcome."
"thank you. i should like to walk through it. i have never been down this way before. what is the name of this place, and to whom does it belong?"
"it is called the sycamores, sir, and it belongs to sir thomas boldero."
