________________________________________________
_ After a night spent in making resolutions, I set out for Arlington
Street, my heart beating a march, as it had when I went thither on my
arrival in London. Such was my excitement that I was near to being run
over in Piccadilly like many another country gentleman, and roundly
cursed by a wagoner for my stupidity. I had a hollow bigness within me,
half of joy, half of pain, that sent me onward with ever increasing steps
and a whirling storm of contradictions in my head. Now it was: Dolly
loved me in spite of all the great men in England. Why, otherwise, had
she come to the sponging-house? Berating myself: had her affection been
other than that of a life-long friendship she would not have come an
inch. But why had she made me stay in London? Why had she spoken so to
Comyn? What interpretation might be put upon a score of little acts of
hers that came a-flooding to mind, each a sacred treasure of memory? A
lover's interpretation, forsooth. Fie, Richard! what presumption to
think that you, a raw lad, should have a chance in such a field! You
have yet, by dint of hard knocks and buffets, to learn the world.
By this I had come in sight of her house, and suddenly I trembled like a
green horse before a cannon. My courage ran out so fast that I was soon
left without any, and my legs had carried me as far as St. James's Church
before I could bring them up. Then I was sure, for the first time, that
she did not love me. In front of the church I halted, reflecting that I
had not remained in England with any hope of it, but rather to discover
the truth about Chartersea's actions, and to save her, if it were
possible. I turned back once more, and now got as far as the knocker,
and lifted it as a belfry was striking the hour of noon. I think I would
have fled again had not the door been immediately opened.
Once more I found myself in the room looking out over the Park, the
French windows open to the balcony, the sunlight flowing in with the
spring-scented air. On the table was lying a little leather book,
stamped with gold,--her prayerbook. Well I remembered it! I opened it,
to read: "Dorothy, from her Mother. Annapolis, Christmas, 1768." The
sweet vista of the past stretched before my eyes. I saw her, on such a,
Mayday as this, walking to St. Anne's under the grand old trees, their
budding leaves casting a delicate tracery at her feet. I followed her up
the aisle until she disappeared in the high pew, and then I sat beside my
grandfather and thought of her, nor listened to a word of Mr. Allen's
sermon. Why had they ever taken her to London?
When she came in I sought her face anxiously. She was still pale; and I
thought, despite her smile, that a trace of sadness lingered in her eyes.
"At last, sir, you have come," she said severely. "Sit down and give an
account of yourself at once. You have been behaving very badly."
"Dorothy--"
"Pray don't 'Dorothy' me, sir. But explain where you have been for this
week past."
"But, Dolly--"
"You pretend to have some affection for your old playmate, but you do not
trouble yourself to come to see her."
"Indeed, you do me wrong."
"Do you wrong! You prefer to gallivant about town with Comyn and Charles
Fox, and with all those wild gentlemen who go to Brooks's. Nay, I have
heard of your goings-on. I shall write to Mr. Carvel to-day, and advise
him to send for you. And tell him that you won a thousand pounds in one
night--"
"It was only seven hundred," I interrupted sheepishly. I thought she
smiled faintly.
And will probably lose twenty thousand before you have done. And I shall
say to him that you have dared to make bold rebel speeches to a Lord of
the Admiralty and to some of the King's supporters. I shall tell your
grandfather you are disgracing him."
"Rebel speeches!" I cried.
"Yes, rebel speeches at Almack's. Who ever heard of such a thing! No
doubt I shall hear next of your going to a drawing-room and instructing
his Majesty how to subdue the colonies. And then, sir, you will be sent
to the Tower, and I shan't move a finger to get you out."
"Who told you of this, Dolly?" I demanded.
"Mr. Fox, himself, for one. He thought it so good,--or so bad,--that he
took me aside last night at Lady Tankerville's, asked me why I had let
you out of Castle Yard, and told me I must manage to curb your tongue.
I replied that I had about as much influence with you as I have with Dr.
Franklin."
I laughed.
"I saw Fox lead you off," I said.
"Oh, you did, did you!" she retorted. "But you never once came near me
yourself, save when I chanced to meet you in the hall, tho' I was there a
full three hours."
"How could I!" I exclaimed. "You were surrounded by prime ministers and
ambassadors, and Heaven knows how many other great people."
"When you wish to do anything, Richard, you usually find a way."
"Nay," I answered, despairing, "I can never explain anything to you,
Dolly. Your tongue is too quick for mine."
"Why didn't you go home with your captain?" she asked mockingly.
"Do you know why I stayed?"
"I suppose because you want to be a gay spark and taste of the pleasures
of London. That is, what you men are pleased to call pleasures. I can
think of no other season."
"There is another," I said desperately.
"Ah," said Dolly. And in her old aggravating way she got up and stood in
the window, looking out over the park. I rose and stood beside her, my
very temples throbbing.
"We have no such springs at home," she said. "But oh, I wish I were at
Wilmot House to-day!"
"There is another reason," I repeated. My voice sounded far away, like
that of another. I saw the colour come into her cheeks again, slowly.
The southwest wind, with a whiff of the channel salt in it, blew the
curtains at our backs.
"You have a conscience, Richard," she said gently, without turning. "So
few of us have."
I was surprised. Nor did I know what to make of that there were so many
meanings.
"You are wild," she continued, "and impulsive, as they say your father
was. But he was a man I should have honoured. He stood firm beside his
friends. He made his enemies fear him. All strong men must have
enemies, I suppose. They must make them."
I looked at her, troubled, puzzled, but burning at her praise of Captain
Jack.
"Dolly," I cried, "you are not well. Why won't you come back to
Maryland?"
She did not reply to that. Then she faced me suddenly.
"Richard, I know now why you insisted upon going back. It was because
you would not desert your sea-captain. Comyn and Mr. Fox have told me,
and they admire you for it as much as I."
What language is worthy to describe her as she was then in that pose,
with her head high, as she was wont to ride over the field after the
hounds. Hers was in truth no beauty of stone, but the beauty of force,
--of life itself.
"Dorothy," I cried; "Dorothy, I stayed because I love you. There, I have
said it again, what has not passed my lips since we were children. What
has been in my heart ever since."
I stopped, awed. For she had stepped back, out on the balcony. She hid
her head in her hands, and I saw her breast shaken as with sobs. I
waited what seemed a day,--a year. Then she raised her face and looked
at me through the tears shining in her eyes.
"Richard," she said sadly, "why, why did you ever tell me? Why can we
not always be playmates?"
The words I tried to say choked me. I could not speak for sorrow, for
very bitterness. And yet I might have known! I dared not look at her
again.
"Dear Richard," I heard her say, "God alone understands how it hurts me
to give you pain. Had I only foreseen--"
"Had you only foreseen," I said quickly.
"I should never have let you speak."
Her words came steadily, but painfully. And when I raised my eyes she
met them bravely.
"You must have seen," I cried. "These years I have loved you, nor could
I have hidden it if I had wished. But I have little--to offer you," I
went on cruelly, for I knew not what I said; "you who may have English
lands and titles for the consenting. I was a fool."
Her tears started again. And at sight of them I was seized with such
remorse that I could have bitten my tongue in two.
"Forgive me, Dorothy, if you can," I implored. "I did not mean it. Nor
did I presume to think you loved me. I have adored,--I shall be content
to adore from far below. And I stayed,--I stayed that I might save you
if a danger threatened."
"Danger!" she exclaimed, catching her breath.
"I will come to the point," I said. "I stayed to save you from the Duke
of Chartersea."
She grasped the balcony rail, and I think would have fallen but for my
arm. Then she straightened, and only the quiver of her lip marked the
effort.
"To save me from the Duke of Chartersea? "she said, so coldly that my
conviction was shaken. "Explain yourself, sir."
"You cannot love him!" I cried, amazed.
She flashed upon me a glance I shall never forget.
"Richard Carvel," she said, "you have gone too far. Though you have been
my friend all my life, there are some things which even you cannot say to
me."
And she left me abruptly and went into the house, her head flung back.
And I followed in a tumult of mortification and wounded pride, in such a
state of dejection that I wished I had never been born. But hers was a
nature of surprises, and impulsive, like my own. Beside the cabinet she
turned, calm again, all trace of anger vanished from her face. Drawing a
hawthorn sprig from a porcelain vase I had given her, she put it in my
hand.
"Let us forget this, Richard," said she; "we have both been very
foolish."
Forget, indeed! Unless Heaven had robbed me of reason, had torn the past
from me at a single stroke. I could not have forgotten. When I reached
my lodgings I sent the anxious Banks about his business and threw myself
in a great chair before the window, the chair she had chosen. Strange to
say, I had no sensation save numbness. The time must have been about two
of the clock: I took no account of it. I recall Banks coming timidly
back with the news that two gentlemen had called. I bade him send them
away. Would my honour not have Mrs. Marble cook my dinner, and be
dressed for Lady Pembroke's ball? I sent him off again, harshly.
After a long while the slamming of a coach door roused me, and I was
straightway seized with such an agony of mind that I could have cried
aloud. 'Twas like the pain of blood flowing back into a frozen limb.
Darkness was fast gathering as I reached the street and began to walk
madly. Word by word I rehearsed the scene in the drawing-room over the
Park, but I could not think calmly, for the pain of it. Little by little
I probed, writhing, until far back in my boyhood I was tearing at the
dead roots of that cherished plant, which was the Hope of Her Love. It
had grown with my own life, and now with its death to-day I felt that I
had lost all that was dear to me. Then, in the midst of this abject
self-pity, I was stricken with shame. I thought of Comyn, who had borne
the same misfortune as a man should. Had his pain been the less because
he had not loved her from childhood? Like Comyn, I resolved to labour
for her happiness.
What hour of the night it was I know not when a man touched me on the
shoulder, and I came to myself with a start. I was in a narrow street
lined by hideous houses, their windows glaring with light. Each seemed a
skull, with rays darting from its grinning eye-holes. Within I caught
glimpses of debauchery that turned me sick. Ten paces away three women
and a man were brawling, the low angry tones of his voice mingling with
the screeches of their Billingsgate. Muffled figures were passing and
repassing unconcernedly, some entering the houses, others coming out, and
a handsome coach, without arms and with a footman in plain livery,
lumbered along and stopped farther on. All this I remarked before I took
notice of him who had intercepted me, and demanded what he wanted.
"Hey, Bill!" he cried with an oath to a man who stood on the steps
opposite; "'ere's a soft un as has put 'is gill in."
The man responded, and behind him came two more of the same feather, and
suddenly I found myself surrounded by an ill-smelling crowd of flashy men
and tawdry women. They jostled me, and I reached for my sword, to make
the discovery that I had forgotten it. Regaining my full senses, I
struck the man nearest me a blow that sent him sprawling in the dirt. A
blade gleamed under the sickly light of the fish-oil lamp overhead, but a
man crashed through from behind and caught the ruffian's sword-arm and
flung him back in the kennel.
"The watch!" he cried, "the watch!"
They vanished like rats into their holes at the shout, leaving me
standing alone with him. The affair had come and gone so quickly that I
scarce caught my breath.
"Pardon, sir," he said, knuckling, "but I followed you."
It was Banks. For a second time he had given me an affecting example of
his faithfulness. I forgot that he was my servant, and I caught his hand
and pressed it.
"You have saved my life at the risk of your own," I said; "I shall not
forget it."
But Banks had been too well trained to lose sight of his position. He
merely tipped his hat again and said imperturbably:
"Best get out of here, your honour. They'll be coming again directly."
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Drury Lane, sir," he replied, giving me just the corner of a glance;
"shall I fetch a coach, sir?" No, I preferred to walk. Before we had
turned into Long Acre I had seen all of this Sodom of London that it
should be given a man to see, if indeed we must behold some of the
bestiality of this world. Here alone, in the great city, high and low
were met equal. Sin levels rank. The devil makes no choice between my
lord and his kitchen wench who has gone astray. Here, in Sodom, painted
vice had lain for an hundred years and bred half the crime of a century.
How many souls had gone hence in that time to meet their Maker! Some
of these brazen creatures who leered at me had known how long ago!--
a peaceful home and a mother's love; had been lured in their innocence to
this place of horrors, never to leave it until death mercifully overtakes
them. Others, having fallen, had been driven hither by a cruel world
that shelters all save the helpless, that forgives all save the truly
penitent. I shuddered as I thought of Mr. Hogarth's prints, which, in
the library in Marlboro' Street at home, had had so little meaning for
me. Verily he had painted no worse than the reality. As I strode
homeward, my own sorrow subdued by the greater sorrow I had looked upon,
the craving I had had to be alone was gone, and I would have locked arms
with a turnspit. I called to Banks, who was behind at a respectful
distance, and bade him come talk to me. His presence of mind in calling
on the watch had made even a greater impression upon me than his bravery.
I told him that he should have ten pounds, and an increase of wages. And
I asked him where I had gone after leaving Dover Street, and why he had
followed me. He answered this latter question first. He had seen
gentlemen in the same state, or something like it, before: his Lordship,
his late master, after he had fought with Mr. Onslow, of the Guards, and
Sir Edward Minturn, when he had lost an inheritance and a reversion at
Brooks's, and was forced to give over his engagement to marry the
Honourable Miss Swift. "Lord, sir," he said, "but that was a sad case,
as set all London agog. And Sir Edward shot hisself at Portsmouth not a
se'nnight after."
And he relapsed into silence, no doubt longing to ask the cause of my own
affliction. Presently he surprised me by saying:
"And I might make so bold, Mr. Carvel, I would like to tell your honour
something."
I nodded. And he hawed awhile and then burst out:
"Your honour must know then that I belongs to the footman's club in
Berkeley Square, where I meets all the servants o' quality--"
"Yes," I said, wondering what footman's tale he had to tell.
"And Whipple, he's a hintimate o' mine, sir." He stopped again.
"And who may Whipple be?"
"With submission, sir. Whipple's his Grace o' Chartersea's man--and,
you'll forgive me, sir--Whipple owns his Grace is prodigious ugly, an'
killed young Mr. Atwater unfair, some think. Whipple says he would give
notice had he not promised the old duke--"
"Drat Whipple!" I cried.
"Yes, sir. To be sure, sir. His Grace was in a bloody rage when he
found hisself in a fruit bin at Covent Carding. An' two redbreasts had
carried him to the round house, sir, afore they discovered his title.
An' since his Grace ha' said time an' time afore Whipple, that he'll ha'
Mr. Carvel's heart for that, and has called you most disgustin' bad
names, sir. An' Whipple he says to me: 'Banks, drop your marster a word,
an' you get the chance. His Grace'll speak him fair to's face, but let
him look behind him.'"
"I thank you again, Banks. I shall bear in mind your devotion,"
I replied. "But I had nothing to do with sending the duke to Covent
Garden."
"Ay, sir, so I tells Whipple."
"Pray, how did you know?" I demanded curiously.
"Lord, sir! All the servants at Almack's is friends o' mine," says he.
"But Whipple declares his Grace will be sworn you did it, sir, tho' the
Lord Mayor hisself made deposition 'twas not."
"Then mark me, Banks, you are not to talk of this."
"Oh, Lord, no, your honour," he said, as he fell back. But I was not so
sure of his discretion as of his loyalty.
And so I was led to perceive that I was not to be the only aggressor in
the struggle that was to come. That his Grace did me the honour to look
upon me as an obstacle. And that he intended to seize the first
opportunity to make way with me, by fair means or foul.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Affections warm despite absence, and years, and interest
Sight of happiness is often a pleasure for those who are sad _
Read next: VOLUME 6: CHAPTER XXXIV. His Grace makes Advances
Read previous: VOLUME 5: CHAPTER XXXII. Lady Tankerville's Drum-major
Table of content of Richard Carvel
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
