Part 6 (1/2)
”'Nonsense! how timid you are! Go back to the house, and re-light the candle.'
”'I dare not go alone.'
”'Then let me go?'
”'And leave me with him? Oh, not for worlds. Mother, mother! I hear him moving in the grave. He is going to rise and drag me down into it.
Look--look! I see his eyes glaring in the dark hole. There, mother--there!'
”'Curse you for a weak fool! You make even my flesh creep.'
”'Cover it up--cover it up!' cried Alice, pus.h.i.+ng with her hands and feet some of the loose earth into the grave. 'That ghastly face will rise and condemn us at the Last Day. It will haunt me as long as I live. Oh, 'tis terrible, terrible, to feel the stain of blood on your soul, and to know that all the waters of the great ocean could never wash it out.'
”'I will go home with you, Alice, and return and close the grave myself,' said Dinah, in a determined tone. 'If you stay here much longer, you will make me as great a coward as yourself.'
”I heard the sound of their retreating steps, and leaving my place of concealment, slowly pursued my way to the next village. Entering a small tavern, I asked for a supper and a bed. The innkeeper and his wife were both known to me, but I was so much altered by sickness that they did not recognize me. After taking a cup of tea, I retired to rest, and was so overcome by mental and bodily fatigue, that I slept soundly until noon the next day, when I breakfasted, and took a seat in the mail coach for London.
”During my journey I calmly pondered over my situation, and formed a plan for the future, future, which I lost no time in putting into practice.
”From what had fallen from the lips of Alice, I was convinced that some mystery was connected with my birth, and the only means which I could devise to fathom it, was to gain more insight into the character and private history of Robert Moncton.
”At times the thought would present itself to my mind that this man might be my father. My mother was a strange creature--a woman whose moral principles could not have ranked very high. I scarcely knew, from my own experience, whether she possessed any--at all events I determined to get a place in his office, if possible, and wait patiently until something should turn up, which might satisfy my doubts, and expose the tissue of villainy which an untoward destiny had woven around me. While at college, I had gained an extensive knowledge in the jurisprudence of my country--in which I took great delight, and which I had intended to follow as a profession; when, unfortunately, the death of Mr. Mornington rendered me an independent man. At school I had learned to write all sorts of hands, and could engross with great beauty and accuracy.
”As a man, I was personally unknown to Robert Moncton, whom I never beheld but once, and for a few minutes only, when a boy, and time and sickness had so altered me, that it was not very likely that he would recognize me again.
”Two years previous to the time of which I am now speaking, I had saved the eldest son of Mr. Moncton's head clerk from drowning, at the risk of my own life. Mr. Ba.s.sett was overwhelming in his expressions of grat.i.tude, and as to his poor little wife, she never mentioned the circ.u.mstance with dry eyes. The boy, who was about ten years of age, was a very n.o.ble, handsome little fellow, and I often walked to their humble lodgings to see him and his good parents, who always received me with the most lively demonstrations of joy.
”To these good people I determined to apply for advice and a.s.sistance.
Fortunately my application was made in a lucky moment. Mr. Ba.s.sett was about to leave your uncle's office, and he strongly recommended me to his old master, as a person well known to him; of excellent character, and who was every way competent to fill his place.
”I was accepted. You know the rest.”
”Our friends.h.i.+p, dear Geoffrey,” said Harrison, concluding the narrative of his life, ”rendered my situation far from irksome, while it enabled me to earn a respectable living. At present, I have learned little which can throw any additional light upon my sad history. Alice Mornington still lives, and is about to become a mother. Theophilus, the dastardly author of her wrongs, is playing the lover to the beautiful Catherine Lee, who is a ward of his father's.
”From the conversation which pa.s.sed between Dinah North and Mr.
Moncton in your chamber, I suspect that my poor Alice is less guilty than she appears. Dinah has some deeper motive than merely obliging Robert Moncton, in wis.h.i.+ng to make you illegitimate. I feel confident that this story has been recently got up, and is an infamous falsehood. If true, you would have heard of it before, and I advise you to leave no stone unturned to frustrate their wicked conspiracy.”
”But what can I do?” said I. ”I have neither money nor friends; and my uncle will take precious good care that no one in this city shall give me employment.”
”Go to Sir Alexander. He expressed an interest in your situation. Tell him the story of your wrongs, and, depend upon it, he will not turn a deaf ear to your complaint. I know that he hates both father and son, and will befriend you to oppose and thwart them.”
My heart instantly caught at this proposal.
”I will go!” I cried. ”But I want the means.”
”I can supply you with the necessary funds,” said George Harrison--for I must still call him by his old name. ”And my offer is not wholly disinterested. Perhaps, Geoffrey, you may be the means of reconciling your friend to his old benefactor. But this must be done cautiously.