Part 43 (1/2)
”She is in bed;--she has been in tears all day; I made her go to bed.
But, oh, Charles! my mother!--she has left the house.”
”Gracious Heaven! what do you mean? Did she leave the house in anger?
Did she ask for me?”
”No, Charles: nor for me either!”
”And where on earth is she gone?”
”No one in the house has the remotest idea: it is impossible even to guess. But she has taken f.a.n.n.y and Curtis with her.”
”When did she set out?”
”While Rosalind and I were eating our miserable melancholy dinner. Mr.
Cartwright, I find, called after you went, and was shown, as usual, to her dressing-room; but he did not stay, Thomas says, above half an hour, for he both let him in and out. Soon after he went away, f.a.n.n.y was sent for; and she and Curtis remained with her till a few minutes before dinner-time. Curtis then went into the kitchen, it seems, and ordered a tray to be taken for my mother and f.a.n.n.y into the dressing-room, and the only message sent to Rosalind and me was, that mamma was not well, and begged not to be disturbed. Curtis must have seen the coachman and settled every thing with him very secretly; for not one of the servants, except the new stable-boy, knew that the carriage was ordered.”
”How are we to interpret this, Helen?--Such a night too!--as dark as pitch. Had I not known the way blindfold, I should never have got home.
I left Sir Gilbert in a rage because I would not sleep there;--but my heart was heavy; I felt restless and anxious at the idea of remaining from you during the night: I think it was a presentiment of this dreadful news.--Oh! what a day has this been to me! So gay, so happy in the morning! so supremely wretched before night!--I can remember nothing that I said which could possibly have driven her to leave her home. What can it mean, Helen?”
”Alas! Charles, I have no power to answer you. If asking questions could avail, might I not ask what I have done? And yet, at the moment of her leaving home for the night, she sent me word that I was _not to disturb her_!”
”The roads too are so bad! Had she lamps, Helen?”
”Oh yes. Some of the maids, while shutting up the rooms upstairs, saw the lights moving very rapidly towards the lodges.”
”It is an inexplicable and very painful mystery. But go to bed, my dearest Helen! you look most wretchedly ill and miserable.”
”Ill?--No, I am not ill, Charles, but miserable; yes, more miserable than I have ever felt since my poor father's death was first made known to me.”
The following morning brought no relief to the anxiety which this strange absence occasioned. Rosalind joined the brother and sister at breakfast, and her jaded looks more than confirmed Helen's report of the preceding night. Charles, however, hardly saw her sufficiently to know how she looked, for he carefully avoided her eyes; but if the gentlest and most soothing tone of voice, and the expression of her almost tender sympathy in the uneasiness he was enduring, could have consoled the young man for all he had suffered and was suffering, he would have been consoled.
The day pa.s.sed heavily; but Helen looked so very ill and so very unhappy, that Charles could not bear to leave her; and though a mutual feeling of embarra.s.sment between himself and Rosalind made his remaining with them a very doubtful advantage, he never quitted them.
But it was quite in vain that he attempted to renew the occupations which had made the last six weeks pa.s.s so delightfully. He began to read; but Helen stopped him before the end of the page, by saying, ”I cannot think what is the reason of it, Charles, but I cannot comprehend a single syllable of what you are reading.”
Rosalind, blus.h.i.+ng to the ears, and actually trembling from head to foot, invited him to play at chess with her. Without replying a word, he brought the table and set up the men before her; but the result of the game was, that Charles gave Rosalind checkmate, and it was Helen only who discovered it.
At an early hour they separated for the night; for the idea of waiting for Mrs. Mowbray seemed equally painful to them all, and the morrow's sun rose upon them only to bring a repet.i.tion of the sad and restless hours of the day that was past. Truly might they have said they were weary of conjecture; for so completely had they exhausted every supposition to which the imagination of either of the party could reach, without finding one on which common sense would permit them to repose, that, by what seemed common consent, they ceased to hazard a single ”may be” more.
They were sitting with their coffee-cups before them, and Rosalind was once more trying to fix the attention of Charles, as well as her own, to the chess-board, when a l.u.s.ty pull at the door-bell produced an alarm which caused all the servants in the house to jump from their seats, and one half of the chessmen to be overturned by the violent start of Rosalind.
A few moments of breathless expectation followed. The house door was opened, and the steps of several persons were heard in the hall, but no voice accompanied them. Helen rose, but trembled so violently, that her brother threw his arms round her and almost carried her to a sofa.
Rosalind stood beside her, looking very nearly as pale as herself; while Charles made three steps forward and one back again, and then stood with his hands clasped and his eyes fixed on the door in a manner which showed that, in spite of his manhood, he was very nearly as much agitated as his companions.
The next sound they heard was the voice of the lady of the mansion, and she spoke loud and clear, as she laid her hand on the lock, and partly opening the door, said addressing the butler, who with half a dozen other servingmen had hurried to answer the bell, ”Chivers! order all the servants to meet me in this room immediately; and fail not to come yourself.”
Mowbray had again stepped forward upon hearing his mother's voice, but stopped short to listen to her words; and having heard them, he turned back again, and placing himself behind the sofa on which Helen sat, leaned over it to whisper in her ear--”Let me not see you overcome, Helen! and then I shall be able to bear any thing.”
As he spoke, the door was thrown widely open, and a lady entered dressed entirely in white and very deeply veiled, followed by f.a.n.n.y Mowbray and Mr. Cartwright.