Part 104 (1/2)

Now it happened, on that windy night, that Lady Isabel, her mind disordered, her brow fevered with its weight of care, stole out into the grounds, after the children had left her for the night, courting any discomfort she might meet. As if they could, even for a moment, cool the fire within! To the solitude of this very covered walk bent she her steps; and, not long had she paced it, when she descried some man advancing, in the garb of a sailor. Not caring to be seen, she turned short off amidst the trees, intending to emerge again when he had pa.s.sed. She wondered who he was, and what brought him there.

But he did not pa.s.s. He lingered in the walk, keeping her a prisoner. A minute more and she saw him joined by Mrs. Carlyle. They met with a loving embrace.

Embrace a strange man? Mrs. Carlyle? All the blood in Lady Isabel's body rushed to her brain. Was she, his second wife, false to him--more shamelessly false than even herself had been, inasmuch as she had had the grace to quit him and East Lynne before--as the servant girls say, when they change their sweethearts--”taking up” with another? The positive conviction that such was the case seized firm hold upon her fancy; her thoughts were in a tumult, her mind was a chaos. Was there any small corner of rejoicing in her heart that it was so? And yet, what was it to her? It could not alter by one iota her own position--it could not restore to her the love she had forfeited.

Coupled lovingly together, they were now sauntering up the walk, the sailor's arm thrown round the waist of Mrs. Carlyle. ”Oh! The shameless woman!” Ay; she could be bitter enough upon graceless doings when enacted by another.

But, what was her astonishment when she saw Mr. Carlyle advance, and that his appearance caused not the slightest change in their gracelessness, for the sailor's arm was not withdrawn. Two or three minutes they stood--the three--talking together in a group. Then the good-nights were exchanged, the sailor left them, and Mr. Carlyle, his own arm lovingly pressed where the other's had been, withdrew with his wife. The truth--that it was Barbara's brother--dashed to the mind of Lady Isabel.

”Was I mad?” she cried, with a hollow laugh. ”She false to him? No, no; that fate was reserved for me alone!”

She followed them to the house--she glanced in at the windows of the drawing-room. Lights and fire were in the room, but the curtains and windows were not closed for the night, for it was through those windows that Mr. Carlyle and his wife had pa.s.sed in and out on their visits to the covered walk. There they were, alone in their happiness, and she stopped to glance in upon it. Lord Mount Severn had departed for London, to be down again early in the week. The tea was on the table, but Barbara had not begun to make it. She sat on the sofa, by the fire, her face, with its ever loving gaze upon it, turned up to her husband's. He stood near, was talking with apparent earnestness, and looking down at Barbara. Another moment, and a smile crossed his lips, the same sweet smile so often bent upon her in the bygone days. Yes, they were together in their unclouded happiness, and she--she turned away toward her own lonely sitting-room, sick and faint at heart.

Ball & Treadman, as the bra.s.s plate on their office door intimated, were conveyancers and attorneys at law. Mr. Treadman, who attended chiefly to the conveyancing, lived at the office, with his family. Mr. Ball, a bachelor, lived away; Lawyer Ball, West Lynne styled him. Not a young bachelor; midway, he may have been between forty and fifty. A short stout man, with a keen face and green eyes. He took up any practice that was brought to him--dirty odds and ends that Mr. Carlyle would not have touched with his toe--but, as that gentleman had remarked, he could be honest and true upon occasion, and there was no doubt that he would be so to Richard Hare. To his house, on Monday morning, early, so as to catch him before he went out, proceeded Mr. Carlyle. A high respect for Mr. Carlyle had Lawyer Ball, as he had had for his father before him.

Many a good turn had the Carlyles done him, if only helping him and his partner to clients whom they were too fastidious to take up. But the two, Mr. Carlyle and Lawyer Ball did not rank alike, though their profession was the same; Lawyer Ball knew that they did not, and was content to feel humble. The one was a received gentleman; the other was a country attorney.

Lawyer Ball was at breakfast when Mr. Carlyle was shown in.

”Halloo, Carlyle! You are here betimes.”

”Sit still; don't disturb yourself. Don't ring; I have breakfasted.”

”The most delicious pate de foie,” urged Lawyer Ball, who was a regular gourmand. ”I get 'em direct from Strasbourg.”

Mr. Carlyle resisted the offered dainty with a smile. ”I have come on business,” said he, ”not to feast. Before I enter upon it, you will give me your word, Ball, that my communication shall be held sacred, in the event of your not consenting to pursue it further.”

”Certainly I will. What business is it? Some that offends the delicacy of the Carlyle office?” he added, with a laugh. ”A would-be client whom you turn over to me in your exclusiveness?”

”It is a client for whom I cannot act. But not from the motives you a.s.sume. It concerns that affair of Hallijohn's,” Mr. Carlyle continued, bending forward, and somewhat dropping his voice. ”The murder.”

Lawyer Ball, who had just taken in a delicious bonne bouche of the foie gras, bolted it whole in his surprise. ”Why, that was enacted ages and ages ago; it is past and done with,” he exclaimed.

”Not done with,” said Mr. Carlyle. ”Circ.u.mstances have come to light which tend to indicate that Richard Hare was innocent--that it was another who committed the murder.”

”In conjunction with him?” interrupted the attorney.

”No: alone. Richard Hare had nothing whatever to do with it. He was not even present at the time.”

”Do you believe that?” asked Lawyer Ball.

”I have believed it for years.”

”Then who did do it?”

”Richard accuses one of the name of Thorn. Many years back--ten at least--I had a meeting with Richard Hare, and he disclosed certain facts to me, which if correct, could not fail to prove that he was not guilty.

Since that period this impression has been gradually confirmed by little and by little, trifle upon trifle and I would now stake my life upon his innocence. I should long ago have moved in this matter, hit or miss, could I have lighted upon Thorn, but he was not to be found, neither any clue to him, and we now know that this name, Thorn, was an a.s.sumed one.”

”Is he to be found?”