Part 11 (1/2)

She stared at me like one dazzled. ”Good G.o.d!” she said once, in a kind of bursting exclamation; and then a second time in a whisper to herself: ”Great G.o.d!-In the name of mercy, Mackellar, what is wrong?” she cried. ”I am made up; I can hear all.”

”You are not fit to hear,” said I. ”Whatever it was, you shall say first it was your fault.”

”Oh!” she cried, with a gesture of wringing her hands, ”this man will drive me mad! Can you not put me out of your thoughts?”

”I think not once of you,” I cried. ”I think of none but my dear unhappy master.”

”Ah!” she cried, with her hand to her heart, ”is Henry dead?”

”Lower your voice,” said I. ”The other.”

I saw her sway like something stricken by the wind; and I know not whether in cowardice or misery, turned aside and looked upon the floor. ”These are dreadful tidings,” said I at length, when her silence began to put me in some fear; ”and you and I behove to be the more bold if the house is to be saved.” Still she answered nothing. ”There is Miss Katharine, besides,” I added: ”unless we bring this matter through, her inheritance is like to be of shame.”

I do not know if it was the thought of her child or the naked word shame, that gave her deliverance; at least, I had no sooner spoken than a sound pa.s.sed her lips, the like of it I never heard; it was as though she had lain buried under a hill and sought to move that burthen. And the next moment she had found a sort of voice.

”It was a fight,” she whispered. ”It was not-” and she paused upon the word.

”It was a fair fight on my dear master's part,” said I. ”As for the other, he was slain in the very act of a foul stroke.”

”Not now!” she cried.

”Madam,” said I, ”hatred of that man glows in my bosom like a burning fire; ay, even now he is dead. G.o.d knows, I would have stopped the fighting, had I dared. It is my shame I did not. But when I saw him fall, if I could have spared one thought from pitying of my master, it had been to exult in that deliverance.”

I do not know if she marked; but her next words were, ”My lord?”

”That shall be my part,” said I.

”You will not speak to him as you have to me?” she asked.

”Madam,” said I, ”have you not some one else to think of? Leave my lord to me.”

”Some one else?” she repeated.

”Your husband,” said I. She looked at me with a countenance illegible. ”Are you going to turn your back on him?” I asked.

Still she looked at me; then her hand went to her heart again. ”No,” said she.

”G.o.d bless you for that word!” I said. ”Go to him now, where he sits in the hall; speak to him-it matters not what you say; give him your hand; say, 'I know all;'-if G.o.d gives you grace enough, say, 'Forgive me.'”

”G.o.d strengthen you, and make you merciful,” said she. ”I will go to my husband.”

”Let me light you there,” said I, taking up the candle.

”I will find my way in the dark,” she said, with a shudder, and I think the shudder was at me.

So we separated-she down stairs to where a little light glimmered in the hall-door, I along the pa.s.sage to my lord's room. It seems hard to say why, but I could not burst in on the old man as I could on the young woman; with whatever reluctance, I must knock. But his old slumbers were light, or perhaps he slept not; and at the first summons I was bidden enter.

He, too, sat up in bed; very aged and bloodless he looked; and whereas he had a certain largeness of appearance when dressed for daylight, he now seemed frail and little, and his face (the wig being laid aside) not bigger than a child's. This daunted me; nor less, the haggard surmise of misfortune in his eye. Yet his voice was even peaceful as he inquired my errand. I set my candle down upon a chair, leaned on the bed-foot, and looked at him.

”Lord Durrisdeer,” said I, ”it is very well known to you that I am a partisan in your family.”