it was a lovely place, that homestead of chavasse grange, as seen in the freshness of the summer’s morning: and my lady chavasse, looking from her window as she dressed, might be thinking so. the green lawn, its dew-drops sparkling in the sun, was dotted with beds of many coloured flowers; the thrush and blackbird were singing in the surrounding trees; the far-off landscape, stretched around in the distance, was beautiful for the eye to rest upon.
nearly hidden by great clusters of roses, some of which he was plucking, and talking at the same time to the head-gardener who stood by, was a good-looking gentleman of some five-and-twenty years. his light morning coat was flung back from the snowy white waistcoat, across which a gold chain passed, its seal drooping; a blue necktie, just as blue as his blue eyes, was carelessly tied round his neck. he might have been known for a chavasse by those self-same eyes, for they had been his father’s — sir peter’s — before him.
“about those geraniums that you have put out, markham,” he was saying. “how came you to do it? lady chavasse is very angry; she wanted them kept in the pots.”
“well, sir geoffry, i only obeyed orders,” replied the gardener — who was new to the place. “lady rachel told me to do it.”
“lady rachel did? oh, very well. lady chavasse did not understand that, i suppose.”
up went lady chavasse’s window at this juncture. “geoffry.”
sir geoffry stepped out from the roses, and smiled as he answered her.
“ask markham about the geraniums, geoffry — how he could dare to do such a thing without orders.”
“mother, rachel bade him do it. of course she did not know that you wished it not done.”
“oh,” curtly replied lady chavasse. and she shut down the window again.
by this it will be seen that the wishes of the two ladies at chavasse grange sometimes clashed. lady rachel, though perhaps regarded as second in authority, was fond of having her own way, and took it when she could. lady chavasse made a show of deferring to her generally; but she had reigned queen so long that she found it irksome, not to say humiliating, to yield the smallest point to her son’s wife.
they were sitting down to breakfast when sir geoffry went in, in the room that had once been the garden-parlour. it had been reembellished since those days, and made the breakfast-room. lady chavasse was but in her forty-fourth year; a young woman, so to say, beautiful still, and excellently-well preserved. she wore a handsome dress of green muslin, with a dainty little cap of lace on her rich brown hair. sir geoffry’s wife was in white; she looked just the same as when she was rachel derreston; her perfect features pale, and cold, and faultless.
geoffry chavasse laid a rose by the side of each as he sat down. he was the only one changed; changed since the light-hearted days before that episode of sin and care came to the grange. it had soon passed away again; but somehow it had left its mark on him. his face seemed to have acquired a weary sort of look; and the fair bright hair was getting somewhat thin upon the temples. sir geoffry was in parliament; but he had now paired off for the short remainder of the session. sometimes they were all in london: sometimes sir geoffry would be there alone; or only with his wife: the grange was their chief and usual home.
they began talking of their plans for the day. sir geoffry had to ride over some portion of the estate; lady rachel thought she must write some letters; lady chavasse, who said her head ached, intended to go out in her new carriage.
it was ordered to the door in the course of the morning: this pretty toy carriage, which had been a recent present from geoffry to his mother. low and lightly built, it was something like a basket-chaise, but much more elegant, and the boy-groom, in his natty postillion’s dress, sat the horse. lady chavasse, a light shawl thrown over her green muslin, and a white bonnet on, stood admiring the turn-out, her maid, who had come out with the parasol, by her side.
“wilkins,” said her ladyship, suddenly, “run and ask lady rachel whether she is sure she would not like to go with me?”
the woman went and returned. “lady rachel’s love and thanks, my lady, but she would prefer to get her letters done.”
so lady chavasse went alone, taking the road to church dykely. the hedges were blooming with wild roses and woodbine, the sweet scent of the hay filled the air, the sky was blue and cloudless. but the headache was making itself sensibly felt; and my lady, remembering that she had often had these headaches lately, began wondering whether duffham the surgeon could give her anything to cure them.
“giles,” she cried, leaning forward. and the groom turned and touched his cap.
“my lady?”
“to mr. duffham’s.”
so in the middle of the village, at mr. duffham’s door, giles pulled up. the surgeon, seeing who it was, came out, and handed his visitor indoors.
lady chavasse had not enjoyed a gossip with mr. duffham since before her last absence from home. she rather liked one in her coldly condescending way. and she stayed with him in the surgery while he made up some medicine for her, and told her all the village news. then she began talking about her daughter-in-law.
“lady rachel seems well, but there is a little fractiousness perceptible now and then; and i fancy that, with some people, it denotes a state of not perfect health. there are no children, mr. duffham, you see. there have been no signs of any.”
“time enough for that, my lady.”
“well — they have been married for — let me recollect — nearly fourteen months. i do hope there will be children! i am anxious that there should be.”
the surgeon happened to meet her eyes as she spoke, and read the anxiety seated in them.
“you see — if there were none, and anything happened to sir geoffry, it would be the case of the old days — my case over again. had my child proved to be a girl, the grange would have gone from us. you do not remember that; you were not here; but your predecessor, mr. layne, knew all about it.”
perhaps it was the first time for some three or more years past that lady chavasse had voluntarily mentioned the name of layne to the surgeon. it might have been a slip of the tongue now.
“but nothing is likely to happen to sir geoffry, lady chavasse,” observed duffham, after an imperceptible pause. “he is young and healthy.”
“i know all that. only it would be pleasant to feel we were on the safe side — that there was a son to succeed. if anything did happen to him, and he left no son, the grange would pass away from us. i cannot help looking to contingencies: it has been my way to do so all my life.”
“well, lady chavasse, i sincerely hope the son will come. sir geoffry is anxious on the point, i dare say.”
“he makes no sign of being so. sir geoffry seems to me to have grown a little indifferent in manner of late, as to general interests. yesterday afternoon we were talking about making some improvements at the grange, he and i; lady rachel was indoors at the piano. i remarked that it would cost a good deal of money, and the question was, whether it would be worth while to do it. ‘my successor would think it so, no doubt,’ cried sir geoffry. ‘i hope that will never be parker chavasse; i should not like him to reign here,’ i said hastily. ‘if it is, mother, i shall not be alive to witness it,’ was his unemotional answer.”
“lady chavasse, considering the difference between the admiral’s age and sir geoffry’s, i should say there are thirty chances against it,” was duffham’s reply, as he began to roll up the bottle of mixture in white paper.
while he was doing this, a clapping of tiny hands attracted lady chavasse’s attention to the window, which stood open. a little boy had run out of mrs. layne’s door opposite, and stood on the pavement in admiration of the carriage, which the groom was driving slowly about. it was a pretty child of some three years old, or thereabouts, in a brown holland pinafore strapped round the waist, his little arms and legs and neck bare, and his light hair curling.
“oh, g’andma, look! g’andma, come and look!” he cried — and the words were wafted distinctly to lady chavasse.
“who is that child, mr. duffham? i have seen him sometimes before. stay, though, i remember — i think i have heard. he belongs to that daughter of mr. layne’s who married a soldier of the same name. a lieutenant, or some grade of that kind, was he not?”
“lieutenant layne then: captain layne now,” carelessly replied mr. duffham. “hopes to get his majority in time, no doubt.”
“oh, indeed. i sometimes wonder how people devoid of family connections manage to obtain rapid promotion. the grandmother takes care of the child, i suppose. quite a charge for her.”
mr. duffham, standing now by her side, glanced at lady chavasse. her countenance was open, unembarrassed: there was no sign of ulterior thought upon it. evidently a certain event of the past was not just then in her remembrance.
“how is the old lady?” she asked.
“middling. she breaks fast. i doubt, though, if one of her daughters will not go before her.”
lady chavasse turned quickly at the words.
“i speak of the one who is with her — miss elizabeth layne,” continued mr. duffham, busily rolling up the bottle. “her health is failing: i think seriously; though she may linger for some time yet.”
there was a pause. lady chavasse looked hard at the white knobs on the drug-drawers. but that she began to speak, old duffham might have thought she was counting how many there were of them.
“the other one — miss mary layne — is she still in that situation in india? a governess, or something of the kind, we heard she went out to be.”
“governess to captain layne’s children. oh yes, she’s there. and likely to be, the people over the way seem to say. captain and mrs. layne consider that they have a treasure in her.”
“oh, i make no doubt she would do her duty. thank you; never mind sealing it. i will be sure to attend to your directions, mr. duffham.”
she swept out to the carriage, which had now drawn up, and stepped over the low step into it. the surgeon put the bottle by her side, and saluted her as she drove away. across the road trotted the little fellow in the pinafore.
“did oo see dat booful tarriage, mis’er duffham? i’d like to ‘ide in it.”
“you would, would you, master arthur,” returned the surgeon, hoisting the child for a moment on his shoulder, and then setting him on his feet again, as miss layne appeared at the door. “be off back: there’s aunt elizabeth looking angry. it’s against the law, you know, sir, to run out beyond the house.”
and the little lad ran over at once, obediently.
nearly three years back — not quite so much by two or three months — church dykely was gratified by the intelligence that captain layne’s wife — then sojourning in europe — was coming on a short visit to her mother with her three or four weeks’ old baby. church dykely welcomed the news, for it was a sort of break to the monotonous, jog-trot village life, and warmly received mrs. richard layne and the child on their arrival. the infant was born in france, where mrs. richard layne had been staying with one of her sisters — mary — and whence she had now come direct to her mother’s; mary having gone on to liverpool to join mrs. richard layne’s other children. the baby — made much of by the neighbours — was to remain with old mrs. layne: mrs. richard layne did not deem it well to take so young a child to india, as he seemed rather delicate. church dykely said how generous it was of her to sacrifice her motherly feelings for the baby’s good — but the laynes had always been unselfish. she departed, leaving the child. and baby arthur, as all the place called him, lived and thrived, and was now grown as fine a little fellow for his age as might be, with a generous spirit and open heart. my lady chavasse (having temporarily forgotten it when speaking with mr. duffham) had heard all about the child’s parentage just as the village had — that he was the son of captain richard layne and his wife susan. chavasse grange generally understood the same, including sir geoffry. there was no intercourse whatever between the layne family and the grange; there had not been any since miss mary layne quitted it. my lady chavasse was in the habit of turning away her eyes when she passed mrs. layne’s house: and in good truth, though perhaps her conscience reminded her of it at these moments, she had three-parts forgotten the unpleasant episode of the past.
and the little boy grew and thrived: and became as much a feature in church dykely as other features were — say the bridge over the mill-stream, or the butcher’s wife — and was no more thought of, in the matter of speculation, than they were.
miss elizabeth layne caught hold of the young truant’s hand with a jerk and a reprimand, telling him he would be run over some day. she had occasion to tell it him rather often, for he was of a fearless nature. mr. duffham nodded across the road to miss elizabeth.
“are you better today?” he called out. people don’t stand on ceremony in these rural places.
“not much, thank you,” came the answer.
for miss elizabeth layne had been anything but strong lately: her symptoms being very like those that herald consumption.
the time rolled on, bringing its changes. you have already seen it rolling on in calcutta, for in this, the third part, we have had to go back a year or two.
elizabeth layne died. mrs. layne grew very feeble, and it was thought and said by every one that one of her daughters ought to be residing with her. there was only one left unmarried — mary. mary received news in india of this state of things at home, together with a summons from her mother. not at all a peremptory summons. mrs. layne wrote a few shaky lines, praying her to come “if she would not mind returning to the place:” if she did mind it, why, she, the mother, must die alone as she best could. there was a short struggle in mary layne’s heart; a quick, sharp battle, and she gave in. her duty to her mother lay before aught else in god’s sight; and she would yield to it. as soon as preparations for her voyage could be made, she embarked for england.
it was autumn when she got home, and church dykely received her gladly. mary layne had always been a favourite in the place, from the time her father, the good-hearted, hard-working surgeon, had fondly shown her, his youngest and fairest child, to the public, a baby of a few days old. but church dykely found her greatly changed. they remembered her as a blooming girl; she came back to them a grave woman, looking older than her years, and with a pale sweet countenance that seemed never to have a smile on it. she was only six-and-twenty yet.
miss layne took up her post at once by the side of her ailing mother. what with attending her and attending to baby arthur — whom she took into training at once, just as she had taken the children in india — she found her time fully occupied. the boy, when she returned, was turned five. she went out very rarely; never — except to church, or at dusk — when the family were at the grange, for she seemed to have a dread of meeting them. church dykely wondered that miss layne did not call at the grange, considering that she had been humble companion there before she went out, or that my lady did not come to see her; but supposed the lapse of time had caused the acquaintanceship to fall through.
mary had brought good news from india. her sister eleanor, mrs. allan mcalpin, had a little girl, to the great delight of all concerned. just when they had given it up as hopeless, the capricious infant arrived. major layne told his wife confidentially that allan mcalpin was prouder of that baby than any dog with two tails.
and henceforth this was to be mary layne’s home, and this her occupation — caring for her mother, so long as the old lady should be spared, and gently leading to good the child, arthur. mrs. layne, lapsing into her dotage, would sit in her favourite place, the parlour window, open when the weather allowed it, watching people as they passed. mary’s smooth and bright brown hair might be seen in the background, her head drooping over the book she was reading to mrs. layne, or over her work when the old lady grew tired of listening, or over master arthur’s lessons at the table. not only lessons to fit him for this world did mary teach him; but such as would stand him in good aid when striving onwards for the next. twice a day, morning and evening, would she take the child alone, and talk to him of heaven, and things pertaining to it. aunt elizabeth’s lessons had been chiefly on the score of behaviour: the other sort of instruction had been all routine, at the best. mary remedied this, and she had an apt little scholar. seated on her knee, his bright blue eyes turned up to her face, the child would listen and talk, and say he would be a good boy always, always. the tears wet his eyelashes at her bible stories: he would put his little face down on her bosom, and whisper out a sobbing wish that jesus would love him as he had loved the little children on earth. there is no safeguard like this seed sown in childhood: if withheld, nothing can replace it in after-life.
they grew the best and greatest friends, these two. whether mary loved him, or not, she did not say; she was ever patient and thoughtful with him, with a kind of grave tenderness. but the child grew to love her more than he had ever loved any one in his young life. one day, when he did something wrong and saw how it grieved her, his repentant sobs nearly choked him. it was very certain that mary had found the way to his heart, and might mould him for good or for ill.
the child was a chatterbox. aunt elizabeth used to say he ought to have the tip of his tongue cut off. he seemed never tired of asking about papa and mamma in india, and allan and bobby and the rest, and the elephants and camels — and dick the eldest, who was in london, at the school attached to king’s college.
“when will they come over to see us, aunt mary?” he questioned one day, when he was on mary’s knee.
“if grandmamma’s pretty well we, will have dick down at christmas.”
“is dick to be a soldier like papa?”
“i think so.”
“i shall be a soldier too.”
there was an involuntary tightening of her hands round him — as if she would guard him from that.
“i hope not, arthur. one soldier in a family’s enough: and that is to be richard.”
“is papa a very big, big brave man, with a flashing sword?”
“major layne is tall and very brave. he wears his sword sometimes.”
“oh, aunt mary, i should like to be a soldier and have a sword! when i can write well enough i’ll write a letter to papa to ask him. i’d like to ride on the elephants.”
“they are not as good to ride as horses.”
“is mamma as pretty as you?” demanded master arthur, after a pause.
“prettier. i am pale and —” sad, she was going to say, but put another word —“quiet.”
“when you go back to india, aunt mary, shall you take me? i should like to sail in the great ship.”
“arthur dear, i do not think i shall go back.”
and so miss mary layne — she was miss layne now — stayed on. church dykely would see a slender, grave young lady, dressed generally in black silk, whose sweet face seemed to have too careworn an expression for her years. but if her countenance was worn and weary, her heart was not. that seemed full of love and charity for all; of gentle compassion for any wrong-doer, of sympathy for the sick and suffering. she grew to be revered, and valued, and respected as few had ever been in church dykely: certainly as none had, so young as she was. baby arthur, clacking his whip as he went through the streets on his walks by the nurse betsy’s side, his chattering tongue never still; now running into the blacksmith’s shed to watch the sparks; now perching himself on the top of the village stocks; and now frightening betsy out of her senses by attempting to leap the brook — in spite of these outdoor attractions, baby arthur was ever ready to run home to aunt mary, as though she were his best treasure.
when miss layne had been about six months at her mother’s, a piece of munificent good fortune befel her — as conveyed to her in official and unofficial communications from india. andrew mcalpin — the head of the great mcalpin house in calcutta, who had respected mary layne above all women, and had wished to marry her, as may be remembered — andrew mcalpin was dead, and had left some of his accumulated wealth to mary. it would amount to six hundred a-year, and was bequeathed to her absolutely: at her own disposal to will away when she in turn should die. in addition to this, he directed that the sum of one thousand pounds should be paid to her at once. he also left a thousand pounds to mrs. richard layne — but that does not concern us. this good man’s death brought great grief to mary. it had been the result of an accident: he lay ill only a few weeks. as to the fortune — well, of course that was welcome, for mary had been casting many an anxious thought to the future on sundry scores, and what little money she had been able to put by, out of the salary as governess at major layne’s, was now nearly exhausted. she thought she knew why mr. mcalpin had thus generously remembered her: and it was an additional proof of the thoughtful goodness which had ever characterized his life. oh, if she could only have thanked him! if she had only known it before he died! he had been in the habit of corresponding with her since her return to europe, for she and he had remained firm friends, but the thought of ever benefiting by him in this way had never entered her head. as how should it? — seeing that he was a strong man, and only in the prime of life. she mourned his loss: she thought she could best have spared any other friend; but all the regrets in the world would not bring him back to life. he was gone. and allan mcalpin was now sole head of that wealthy house, besides inheriting a vast private fortune from his brother. eleanor mcalpin, once eleanor layne, might well wish for more children amidst all her riches.
the first thing that mary layne did with some of this thousand pounds — which had been conveyed to her simultaneously with the tidings of the death — was to convey her mother to the seaside for a change, together with baby arthur and the nurse, betsy. before quitting home she held one or two interviews with james spriggings, the house agent, builder, and decorator, and left certain orders with him. on their return, old mrs. layne did not know her house. it had been put into substantial repair inside and out, and was now one of the prettiest, not to say handsomest, in the village. all the old carpets were replaced by handsome new ones, and a great deal of the furniture was new. pillars had been added to the rather small door, giving it an imposing appearance, iron outside railings had taken the place of the old ones. mrs. layne, i say, did not know her house again.
“my dear, why have you done it?” cried the old lady, looking about her in amazement. “is it not a waste of money?”
“i think not, mother,” was the answer. “most likely this will be my home for life. perhaps arthur’s home after me. at least it will be his until he shall be of an age to go out in the world.”
mrs. layne said no more. she had grown of late very indifferent to outward things. aged people do get so, and mr. duffham said her system was breaking up. the seaside air had done her good; they had gone to it in may, and came back in august. mary added a third servant to the household, and things went on as before in their quiet routine.
one afternoon in september, when they had been at home about a month, mary went out, and took arthur. she was going to see a poor cottager who had nursed herself, mary, when she was a child, and who had recently lost her husband. when they came to the gates of chavasse grange, past which their road lay, master arthur made a dead standstill, and wholly declined to proceed. the child was in a black velvet tunic, the tips of his white drawers just discernible beneath it, and his legs bare, down to the white socks: boys of his age were dressed so then. as bonny a lad for his six years as could be seen anywhere, with a noble, fearless bearing. mary wore her usual black silk, a rich one too, with a little crape on it; the mourning for mr. mcalpin. arthur was staring over the way through the open gates of the grange.
“i want to go in and see the peacock.”
“go in and see the peacock!” exclaimed miss layne, rather taken aback by the demand. “what can you mean, arthur? the peacock is up by the house.”
“i know it is. we can go up there and see it, aunt mary.”
“indeed we cannot, arthur. i never heard of such a thing.”
“betsy lets me go.”
the confession involved all sorts of thoughts, and a flush crossed miss layne’s delicate face. the family were not at the grange, as she knew: they had gone up to london in january, when parliament met, and had never returned since: nevertheless she did not like to hear of this intrusion into the grounds of the nurse and child. the peacock had been a recent acquisition; or, as arthur expressed it, had just “come to live there.” when he had talked of it at home, mary supposed he had seen it on the slopes in passing. these green slopes, dotted here and there with shrubs and flowers, came down to the boundary wall that skirted the highway. the avenue through the gates wound round abruptly, hiding itself beyond the lodge.
“come, my dear. it is already late.”
“but, aunt mary, you must see the peacock. he has got the most splendid tail. sometimes he drags it behind him on the grass, and sometimes it’s all spread out in a beautiful circle, like that fan you brought home from india. do come.”
miss layne did not reply for the moment. she was inwardly debating upon what plea she could forbid the child’s ever going in again to see the peacock: the interdiction would sound most arbitrary if she gave none. all at once, as if by magic, the peacock appeared in view, strutting down the slopes, its proud tail, in all its glory, spread out in the rays of the declining sun.
it was too much for arthur. with a shout of delight he leaped off the low foot-path, flew across the road, and in at the gates. in vain mary called: in his glad excitement he did not so much as hear her.
there ensued a noise as of the fleet foot of a horse, and then a crash, a man’s shout, and a child’s cry. what harm had been done? in dire fear mary layne ran to see, her legs trembling beneath her.
just at the sharp turn beyond the lodge, a group stood: sir geoffry chavasse had arthur in his arms; his horse, from which he had flung himself, being held and soothed by a mounted groom. the lodge children also had come running out to look. she understood it in a moment: sir geoffry must have been riding quickly down from the house, his groom behind him, when the unfortunate little intruder encountered him just at the turn, and there was no possibility of pulling up in time. in fact, the boy had run absolutely on to the horse’s legs.
she stood, white, and faint, and sick against the wall of the lodge: not daring to look into the accident — for mary layne was but a true woman, timid and sensitive; as little daring to encounter sir geoffry chavasse, whom she had not been close to but for a few months short of seven years. that it should have occurred! — that this untoward thing should have occurred!
“i wonder whose child it is?” she heard sir geoffry say — and the well-remembered tones came home to her with a heart-thrill. “poor little fellow! could it have been my fault, or his? dovey”— to the groom —“ride on at once and get mr. duffham here. never mind my horse; he’s all right now. you can lead him up to the house, bill, my lad!”
the groom touched his hat, and rode past mary on his errand. sir geoffry was already carrying the child to the grange; bill, the eldest of the lodge children, following with the horse. all in a minute, a wailing cry burst from arthur.
“aunt mary! aunt mary! oh, please let her come! i want aunt mary.”
and then it struck sir geoffry chavasse that a gentleman’s child, such as this one by his appearance evidently was, would not have been out without an attendant. he turned round, and saw a lady in black standing by the lodge. the wailing cry began again.
“aunt mary! i want aunt mary.”
there was no help for it. she came on with her agitated face, from which every drop of blood had faded. sir geoffry, occupied with the child, did not notice her much.
“i am so grieved,” he began; “i trust the injury will be found not to be very serious. my horse ——”
he had lifted his eyes then, and knew her instantly. his own face turned crimson; the words he had been about to say died unspoken on his lips. for a moment they looked in each other’s faces, and might have seen, had the time been one of less agitation, how markedly sorrow had left its traces there. the next, they remembered the present time, and what was due from them.
“i beg your pardon: miss layne, i think?” said sir geoffry, contriving to release one hand and raise his hat.
“yes, sir,” she answered, and bowed in return.
he sat down on the bank for a moment to obtain a better hold of the child. blood was dripping from one of the little velvet sleeves. sir geoffry, carrying him as gently as was possible, made all haste to the house. the window of what had been the garden-parlour stood open, and he took him into it at once. ah, how they both remembered it. it had been refurnished and embellished now: but the room was the room still. sir geoffry had returned home that morning. his wife and lady chavasse were not expected for a day or two. scarcely any servants were as yet in the house; but the woman who had been left in charge, hester picker, came in with warm water. she curtsied to miss layne.
“dear little fellow!” she exclaimed, her tongue ready as of old. “how did it happen, sir?”
“my horse knocked him down,” replied sir geoffry. “get me some linen, picker.”
the boy lay on the sofa where he had been put, his hat off, and his pretty light brown hair falling from his face, pale now. apparently there was no injury except to the arm. sir geoffry looked at mary.
“i am a bit of a surgeon,” he said. “will you allow me to examine his hurt as a surgeon would? duffham cannot be here just yet.”
“oh yes, certainly,” she answered.
“i must cut his velvet sleeve up.”
and she bowed in acquiescence to that.
hester picker came in with the linen. before commencing to cut the sleeve, sir geoffry touched the arm here and there, as if testing where the damage might lie. arthur cried out.
“that hurts you,” said sir geoffry.
“not much,” answered the little fellow, trying to be brave. “papa’s a soldier, and i want to be a soldier, so i won’t mind a little hurt.”
“your papa’s a soldier? ah, yes, i think i remember,” said sir geoffry, turning to mary. “it is the little son of captain layne.”
“my papa is major layne now,” spoke up arthur, before she could make any answer. “he and mamma live in india.”
“and so you want to be a soldier, the same as papa?” said sir geoffry, testing the basin of water with his finger, which picker was holding, and which had been brought in very hot.
“yes, i do. aunt mary there says no, and grandmamma says no; but — oh, what’s that?”
he had caught sight of the blood for the first time, and broke off with a shuddering cry. sir geoffry was ready now, and had the scissors in his hand. but before using them he spoke to miss layne.
“will you sit here whilst i look at it?” he asked, putting a chair with its face to the open window, and its back to the sofa. and she understood the motive and thanked him: and said she would walk about outside.
by-and-by, when she was tired of waiting, and all seemed very quiet, she looked in. arthur had fainted. sir geoffry was bathing his forehead with eau-decologne; picker had run for something in a tumbler and wine stood on the table.
“was it the pain? — did it hurt him very badly?” asked mary, supposing that the arm had been bathed and perhaps dressed.
“i have not done anything to it; i preferred to leave it for duffham,” said sir geoffry — and at the same moment she caught sight of the velvet sleeve laid open, and something lying on it that looked like a mass of linen. mary turned even whiter than the child.
“do not be alarmed,” said sir geoffry. “your little nephew is only faint from the loss of blood. drink this,” he added, bringing her a glass of wine.
but she would not take it. as sir geoffry was putting it on the table, arthur began to revive. young children are elastic — ill one minute, well the next; and he began to talk again.
“aunt mary, are you there?”
she moved to the sofa, and took his uninjured hand.
“we must not tell grandmamma, aunt mary. it would frighten her.”
“bless his dear little thoughtful heart!” interjected hester picker. “here comes something.”
the something proved to be a fly, and it brought mr. duffham. before the groom had reached the village, he overtook this said fly and the surgeon in it, who was then returning home from another accident. turning round at the groom’s news —“some little child had run against sir geoffry’s horse, and was hurt”— he came up to the grange.
when mr. duffham saw that it was this child, he felt curiously taken aback. up the room and down the room looked he; then at sir geoffry, then at miss layne, then at hester picker, saying nothing. last of all he walked up to the sofa and gazed at the white face lying there.
“well,” said he, “and what’s this? and how did it happen?”
“it was the peacock,” arthur answered. “i ran away from aunt mary to look at it, and the horse came.”
“the dear innocent!” cried hester picker. “no wonder he ran. it’s a love of a peacock.”
“don’t you think it was very naughty, young sir, to run from your aunt?” returned mr. duffham.
“yes, very; because she had told me not to. aunt mary, i’ll never do it again.”
the two gentlemen and hester picker remained in the room; mary again left it. the arm was crushed rather badly; and mr. duffham knew it would require care and skill to cure it.
“you must send to worcester for its best surgeon to help you,” said the baronet, when the dressing was over. “i feel that i am responsible to major layne.”
old duffham nearly closed his eyelids as he glanced at the speaker. “i don’t think it necessary,” he said; “no surgeon can do more than i can. however, it may be satisfactory to major layne that we should be on the safe side, so i’ll send.”
when the child was ready, mary got into the fly, which had waited, and mr. duffham put him to lie on her lap.
“i hope, miss layne, i may be allowed to call tomorrow and see how he gets on,” said sir geoffry, at the same time. and she did not feel that it was possible for her to say no. mr. duffham mounted beside the driver; to get a sniff, he said, of the evening air.
“how he is changed! he has suffered as i have,” murmured mary layne to herself, as her tears fell on baby arthur, asleep now. “i am very thankful that he has no suspicion.”
the child had said, “don’t tell grandmamma;” but to keep it from mrs. layne was simply impossible. with the first stopping of the fly at the door, out came the old lady; she had been marvelling what had become of them, and was wanting her tea. mr. duffham took her in again, and said a few words, making light of it, before he lifted out baby arthur.
a skilful surgeon was at the house the next day, in conjunction with mr. duffham. the arm and its full use would be saved, he said; its cure effected; but the child and those about him must have patience, for it might be rather a long job. arthur said he should like to write to his papa in india, and tell him that it was his own fault for running away from aunt mary; he could write letters in big text hand. the surgeon smiled, and told him he must wait until he could use both arms again.
the doctors had not left the house many minutes when sir geoffry chavasse called, having walked over from the grange. miss layne sent her mother to receive him, and disappeared herself. the old lady, her perceptions a little dulled with time and age, and perhaps also her memory, felt somewhat impressed and flattered at the visit. to her it almost seemed the honour that it used to be: that one painful episode of the past seemed to be as much forgotten at the moment as though it had never had place. she took sir geoffry upstairs.
arthur was lying close to the window, in the strong light of the fine morning. it was the first clear view sir geoffry had obtained of him. the garden-parlour at the grange faced the east, so that the room on the previous evening, being turned from the setting sun, had been shady at the best, and the sofa was at the far end of it. as sir geoffry gazed at the child now, the face struck him as being like somebody’s; he could not tell whose. the dark blue eyes especially, turned up in all their eager brightness to his, seemed quite familiar.
“he says i must not write to papa until i get well,” said arthur, who had begun to look on sir geoffry as an old acquaintance.
“who does?” asked the baronet.
“the gentleman who came with mr. duffham.”
“he means the doctor from worcester, sir geoffry,” put in old mrs. layne. she was sitting in her easy-chair near, as she had been previously; her spectacles keeping the place between the leaves of the closed bible, which she had again taken on her lap; her withered hands, in their black lace mittens and frilled white ruffles, were crossed upon the book. every now and then she nodded with incipient sleep.
“i am so very sorry this should have happened,” sir geoffry said, turning to mrs. layne. “the little fellow was running up to get a look at the peacock, it seems; and i was riding rather fast. i shall never ride fast round that corner again.”
“but, sir geoffry, they tell me that the child ran right against you at the corner: that it was no fault of yours at all, sir.”
“it was my fault, grandmamma,” said arthur. “and, sir geoffry, that’s why i wanted to write to papa; i want to tell him so.”
“i think i had better write for you,” said sir geoffry, looking down at the boy with a smile.
“will you? shall you tell him it was my fault?”
“no. i shall tell him it was mine.”
“but it was not yours. you must not write what is not true. if aunt mary thought i could tell a story, or write one, oh, i don’t know what she’d do. god hears all we say, you know.”
sir geoffry smiled — a sad smile — at the earnest words, at the eager look in the bright eyes. involuntarily the wish came into his mind that he had a brave, fearless-hearted, right-principled son, such as this boy evidently was.
“then i think i had better describe how it happened, and let major layne judge for himself whether it was my fast riding or your fast running that caused the mischief.”
“you’ll tell about the peacock? it had its tail out.”
“of course i’ll tell about the peacock. i shall say to major layne that his little boy — i don’t think i have heard your name,” broke off sir geoffry. “what is it?”
“it’s arthur. papa’s is richard. my big brother’s is richard too; he is at king’s college. which name do you like best?”
“i think i like arthur best. it is my own name also.”
“yours is sir geoffry.”
“and arthur as well.”
but at this juncture old mrs. layne, having started up from a nod, interposed to put a summary stop to the chatter, telling arthur crossly that mr. duffham and the other doctor had forbid him to talk much. and then she begged pardon of sir geoffry for saying it, but thought the doctors wished the child to be kept quiet and cool. sir geoffry took the opportunity to say adieu to the little patient.
“may i come to see the peacock when i get well, sir geoffry?”
“certainly. you shall come and look at him for a whole day if grandmamma will allow you to.”
grandmamma gave no motion or word of assent, but arthur took it for granted. “betsy can bring me if aunt mary won’t; betsy’s my nurse. i wish i could have him before that window to look at while i lie here to get well. i like peacocks and musical boxes better than anything in the world.”
“musical boxes!” exclaimed sir geoffry. “do you care for them?”
“oh yes; they are beautiful. do you know the little lame boy who can’t walk, down piefinch cut? his father comes to do grandmamma’s garden. do you know him, sir geoffry? his name’s reuben.”
“it’s noah, the gardener’s son, sir,” put in mrs. layne aside to sir geoffry. “he was thrown downstairs when a baby, and has been a cripple ever since.”
but the eager, intelligent eyes were still cast up, waiting for the answer. “where have i seen them?” mentally debated sir geoffry, alluding to the eyes.
“i know the name?” he answered.
“well, reuben has got a musical box, and it plays three tunes. he is older than i am: he’s ten. one of them is ‘the blue bells of scotland.’”
sir geoffry nodded and went away. he crossed straight over to mr. duffham’s, and found him writing a letter in his surgery.
“i hope the child will do well,” said the baronet, when he had shaken hands. “i have just been to see him. what an intelligent, nice little fellow it is.”
“oh, he will be all right again in time, sir geoffry,” was the doctor’s reply, as he began to fold his letter.
“he is a pretty boy, too, very. his eyes are strangely like some one’s i have seen, but for the life of me i cannot tell whose!”
“really?— do you mean it?” cried mr. duffham, speaking, as it seemed, in some surprise.
“mean what?”
“that you cannot tell.”
“indeed i can’t. they puzzled me all the while i was there. do you know? say, if you do.”
“they are like your own, sir geoffry.”
“like my own!”
“they are your own eyes over again. and yours — as poor layne used to say, and as the picture in the grange dining-room shows us also, for the matter of that — are sir peter’s. sir peter’s, yours, and the child’s: they are all the same.”
for a long space of time, as it seemed, the two gentlemen gazed at each other. mr. duffham with a questioning and still surprised look: sir geoffry in a kind of bewildered amazement.
“duffham! you — you —— surely it is not that child!”
“yes, it is.”
he backed to a chair and stumbled into it, rather than sat down; somewhat in the same manner that mrs. layne had backed against the counter nearly seven years before and upset the scales. the old lady seemed to have aged since quicker than she ought to have done: but her face then had not been whiter than was geoffry chavasse’s now.
“good heavens!”
the dead silence was only broken by these murmured words that fell from his lips. mr. duffham finished folding his note, and directed it.
“sir geoffry, i beg your pardon! i beg it a thousand times. if i had had the smallest notion that you were ignorant of this, i should never have spoken.”
sir geoffry took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow. some moisture had gathered there.
“how was i to suspect it?” he asked.
“i never supposed but that you must have known it all along.”
“all along from when, duffham?”
“from — from — well, from the time you first knew that a child was over there.”
sir geoffry cast his thoughts back. he could not remember anything about the child’s coming to church dykely. in point of fact, the grange had been empty at the time.
“i understood that the child was one of captain and mrs. layne’s,” he rejoined. “every one said it; and i never had any other thought. even yesterday at the grange you spoke of him as such, duffham.”
“of course. miss layne was present — and hester picker — and the child himself. i did not speak to deceive you, sir geoffry. when you said what you did to me in coming away, about calling in other advice for the satisfaction of major layne, i thought you were merely keeping up appearances.”
“and it is so, then?”
“oh dear, yes.”
another pause. mr. duffham affixed the stamp to his letter, and put the paper straight in his note-case. sir geoffry suddenly lifted his hand, as one whom some disagreeable reflection overwhelms.
“to think that i was about to write to major layne! to think that i should have stood there, in the old lady’s presence, talking boldly with the child! she must assume that i have the impudence of satan.”
“mrs. layne is past that, sir geoffry. her faculties are dulled: three-parts dead. that need not trouble you.”
the baronet put aside his handkerchief and took up his hat to leave. he began stroking its nap with his coat-sleeve.
“does my mother know of this, do you think?”
“i am sure she neither knows nor suspects it. no one does, sir geoffry: the secret has been entirely kept.”
“the cost of this illness must be mine, you know, duffham.”
“i think not, sir geoffry,” was the surgeon’s answer. “it would not do, i fear. there’s no need, besides: miss layne is rich now.”
“rich! how is she rich?”
and mr. duffham had to explain. a wealthy gentleman in india, some connection of the laynes, had died and left money to mary layne. six or seven hundred a year; and plenty of ready means. sir geoffry chavasse went out, pondering upon the world’s changes.
he did not call to see the invalid again; but he bought a beautiful musical box at worcester, and sent it in to the child by duffham. it played six tunes. the boy had never in his life been so delighted. he returned his love and thanks to sir geoffry; and appended several inquiries touching the welfare of the peacock.
the first news heard by lady chavasse and lady rachel on their coming home, was of the accident caused to major layne’s little son by sir geoffry’s horse. hester picker and the other servants were full of it. it happened to be the day that sir geoffry had gone to worcester after the box, so he could not join in the narrative. a sweet, beautiful boy, said hester to my ladies, and had told them he meant to be a soldier when he grew up, as brave as his papa. lady chavasse, having digested the news, and taken inward counsel with herself, decided to go and see him: it would be right and neighbourly, she thought. it might be that she was wishing to bestow some slight mark of her favour upon the old lady before death should claim her: and she deemed that the honour of a call would effect this. in her heart she acknowledged that the laynes had behaved admirably in regard to the past; never to have troubled her or her son by word or deed or letter; and in her heart she felt grateful for it. some people might have acted differently.
“i think i will go and see him too,” said lady rachel.
“no, pray don’t,” dissented lady chavasse, hastily. “you already feel the fatigue of your journey, rachel: do not attempt to increase it.”
and as lady rachel really was fatigued and did not care much about it, one way or the other, she remained at home.
it was one of mrs. layne’s worst days — one of those when she seemed three-parts childish — when lady chavasse was shown into the drawing-room. mary was there. as she turned to receive her visitor, and heard the maid’s announcement “lady chavasse,” a great astonishment inwardly stirred her, but her manner remained quiet and self-possessed. just a minute’s gaze at each other. lady chavasse was the same good-looking woman as of yore; not changed, not aged by so much as a day. mary was changed: the shy, inexperienced girl had grown into the calm, self-contained woman; the woman who had known sorrow, who had its marks impressed on her face. she had been pretty once, she was gravely beautiful now. perhaps lady chavasse had not bargained for seeing her; mary had certainly never thought thus to meet lady chavasse: but here they were, face to face, and each must make the best of it. as they did; and with easy courtesy, both being gentlewomen. lady chavasse held out her hand, and mary put hers into it.
after shaking hands with mrs. layne — who was too drowsy properly to respond, and shut her eyes again — my lady spoke a few pleasant words of regret for the accident, of her wish to see the little patient, of her hope that major and mrs. layne might not be allowed to think any care on sir geoffry’s part could have averted it. mary went upstairs with her. lady chavasse could only be struck with the improved appearance of the house, quite suited now to be the abode of gentle-people; and with its apparently well-appointed if small household.
the child lay asleep: his nurse, betsy, sat sewing by his side. the girl confessed that she had allowed him sometimes to run in and take a look at the peacock. lady chavasse would not have him awakened: she bent and kissed his cheek lightly: and talked to mary in a whisper. it was just as though there had been no break in their acquaintanceship, just as though no painful episode, in which they were antagonistic actors, had ever occurred between them.
“i hear you have come into a fortune, miss layne,” she said, as she shook hands with mary again in the little hall before departure. for hester picker had told of this.
“into a great deal of money,” replied mary.
“i am glad to hear it: glad,” came the parting response, whispered emphatically in mary’s ear, and it was accompanied by a pressure of the fingers.
mr. duffham was standing at his door, watching my lady’s exit from mrs. layne’s house, his eyes lost in wonder. seeing him, she crossed over, and went in, mr. duffham throwing open the door of his sitting-room. she began speaking of the accident to major layne’s little son — what a pity it was, but that she hoped he would do well. old duffham replied that he hoped so too, and thought he would.
“mrs. layne seems to be growing very old,” went on lady chavasse. “she was as drowsy as she could be this afternoon, and seemed scarcely to know me.”
“old people are apt to be sleepy after dinner,” returned the doctor.
and then there was a pause. lady chavasse (as duffham’s diary expresses it) seemed to be particularly absent in manner, as if she were thinking to herself, instead of talking to him. because he had nothing else to say, he asked after the health of lady rachel. that aroused her at once.
“she is not strong. she is not strong. i am sure of it.”
“she does not seem to ail much, that i can see,” returned duffham, who often had to hear this same thing said of lady rachel. “she never requires medical advice.”
“i don’t care: she is not strong. there are no children,” continued lady chavasse, dropping her voice to a whisper; and a kind of piteous, imploring expression darkened her eyes.
“no.”
“four years married, going on for five, and no signs of any. no signs of children, mr. duffham.”
“i can’t help it, my lady,” returned duffham.
“nobody can help it. but it is an awful misfortune. it is beginning to be a great trouble in my life. as the weeks and months and years pass on — the years, mr. duffham — and bring no hope, my very spirit seems to fail. ‘hope deferred maketh the heart sick.’”
“true.”
“it has been the one great desire of my later years,” continued lady chavasse, too much in earnest to be reticent, “and it does not come. i wonder which is the worst to be borne; some weighty misfortune that falls and crushes, or a longed-for boon that we watch and pray for in vain? the want of it, the eager daily strain of disappointment, has become to me worse than a nightmare.”
little arthur layne, attended by betsy, spent a day at the grange on his recovery, invited to meet the peacock. the ladies were very kind to him: they could but admire his gentle manners, his fearless bearing. sir geoffry played a game at ninepins with him on the lawn — which set of ninepins had been his own when a child, and had been lying by ever since. betsy was told she might carry them home for master layne: sir geoffry gave them to him.
after that, the intercourse dropped again, and they became strangers as before. except that lady chavasse would bow from her carriage if she saw mrs. or miss layne, and sir geoffry raise his hat. the little boy had more notice: when they met him out, and were walking themselves, they would, one and all, stop and speak to him.
so this episode of the accident seemed to fade into the past, as other things had faded: and the time went on.
