Part 125 (1/2)
Was there any prevision of what the night would bring forth in the mind of Thomas G.o.dolphin? It might be. He entwined in his the hands held out to him.
”G.o.d bless you, George! G.o.d bless you, and keep you always!” And a lump, not at all familiar to George G.o.dolphin's throat, rose in it as he went out from the presence of his brother.
It was one of those charmingly clear evenings that bring a sensation of tranquillity to the senses. Daylight could not be said to have quite faded, but the moon was up, its rays s.h.i.+ning brighter and brighter with every departing moment of day. As George pa.s.sed Lady G.o.dolphin's Folly, Janet was coming from it.
He could not avoid her. I do not say that he wished to do so, but he could not if he had wished it. They stood talking together for some time; of Thomas's state; of this Calcutta prospect of George's, for Janet had heard something of it from Lord Averil; and she questioned him closely on other subjects. It was growing quite night when Janet made a movement homewards, and George could do no less than attend her.
”I thought Bessy was with you,” he remarked, as they walked along.
”She is remaining an hour or two longer with Lady G.o.dolphin; but it was time I came home to Thomas. When do you say you must sail, George?”
”The beginning of the year. My salary will commence with the first of January, and I ought to be off that day. I don't know whether that will give Maria sufficient time for preparation.”
”Sufficient time!” repeated Miss G.o.dolphin. ”Will she want to take out a s.h.i.+p's cargo? I should think she might be ready in a t.i.the of it. Shall you take the child?”
”Oh yes,” he hastily answered; ”I could not go without Meta. And I am sure Maria would not consent to be separated from her. I hope Maria will not object to going on her own score.”
”Nonsense!” returned Janet. ”She will have the sense to see that it is a remarkable piece of good fortune, far better than you had any right to expect. Let me recommend you to put by half your salary, George. It is a very handsome one, and you may do it if you will. Take a lesson from the past.”
”Yes,” replied George, with a twitch of conscience. ”I wonder if the climate will try Maria?”
”I trust that the change will be good for her in all ways,” said Janet emphatically. ”Depend upon it she will be only too thankful to turn her back on Prior's Ash. She will not get strong as long as she stops in it, or so long as your prospects are uncertain, doing nothing, as you are now. _I_ can't make out, for my part, how you live.”
”You might easily guess that I have been helped a little, Janet.”
”By one that _I_ would not be helped by if I were starving,” severely rejoined Janet. ”You allude, I presume, to Mr. Verrall?”
George did allude to Mr. Verrall; but he avoided a direct answer. ”All that I borrow I shall return,” he said, ”as soon as it is in my power to do so. It is not much: and it is given and received as a loan only. What do you think of Thomas?” he asked, willing to change the subject.
”I think----” Janet stopped. Her voice died away to a whisper, and finally ceased. They had taken the path home round by the ash-trees. The Dark Plain lay stretched before them in the moonlight. In the brightest night the gorse-bushes gave the place a shadowy, weird-like appearance, but never had the moonlight on the plain been clearer, whiter, brighter than it was now. And the Shadow?
The ominous Shadow of Ashlydyat lay there: the Shadow which had clung to the fortunes of the G.o.dolphins, as tradition said, in past ages; which had certainly followed the present race. But the blackness that had characterized it was absent from it now: the Shadow was undoubtedly there, but had eyes been looking on it less accustomed to its form than were Miss G.o.dolphin's, they might have failed to make out distinctly its outlines. It was of a light, faint hue; more as the reflection of the Shadow, if it may be so expressed.
”George! do you notice?” she breathed.
”I see it,” he answered.
”But do you notice its peculiarity--its faint appearance? I should say--I should say that it is indeed going from us; that it must be about the last time it will follow the G.o.dolphins. With the wresting from them of Ashlydyat the curse was to die out.”
She sat down on the bench under the ash-trees, and was speaking in low, dreamy tones: but George heard every word, and the topic was not particularly palatable to him. He could only remember that it was he and no other who had caused them to lose Ashlydyat.
”Your brother will not be here long,” murmured Janet. ”That warning is for the last chief of the G.o.dolphins.”
”Oh, Janet! I wish you were not so superst.i.tious! Of course we know--it is patent to us all--that Thomas cannot last long: a few days, a few hours even, may close his life. Why should you connect with him that wretched Shadow?”
”I know what I know, and I have seen what I have seen,” was the reply of Janet, spoken slowly; nay, solemnly. ”It is no wonder that _you_ wish to ignore it, to affect to disbelieve in it; but you can do neither the one nor the other, George G.o.dolphin.”
George gave no answering argument. It may be that he had felt he had forfeited the right to argue with Janet. She again broke the silence.
”I have watched and watched; but never once, since the day that those horrible misfortunes fell, has that Shadow appeared. I thought it had gone for good; I thought that our ruin, the pa.s.sing of Ashlydyat into the possession of strangers, was the working out of the curse. But it seems it has come again; for the last time, as I believe. And it is only in accordance with the past, that the type of the curse should come to shadow forth the death of the last G.o.dolphin.”
”You are complimentary to me, Janet,” cried George good-humouredly.