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_ CHAPTER XXXII - MISCHANCES
'What! remain to be
Denounced--dragged, it may be, in chains.'
WERNER.
All the next day they sate together--they three. Mr. Hale hardly
ever spoke but when his children asked him questions, and forced
him, as it were, into the present. Frederick's grief was no more
to be seen or heard; the first paroxysm had passed over, and now
he was ashamed of having been so battered down by emotion; and
though his sorrow for the loss of his mother was a deep real
feeling, and would last out his life, it was never to be spoken
of again. Margaret, not so passionate at first, was more
suffering now. At times she cried a good deal; and her manner,
even when speaking on indifferent things, had a mournful
tenderness about it, which was deepened whenever her looks fell
on Frederick, and she thought of his rapidly approaching
departure. She was glad he was going, on her father's account,
however much she might grieve over it on her own. The anxious
terror in which Mr. Hale lived lest his son should be detected
and captured, far out-weighed the pleasure he derived from his
presence. The nervousness had increased since Mrs. Hale's death,
probably because he dwelt upon it more exclusively. He started at
every unusual sound; and was never comfortable unless Frederick
sate out of the immediate view of any one entering the room.
Towards evening he said:
'You will go with Frederick to the station, Margaret? I shall
want to know he is safely off. You will bring me word that he is
clear of Milton, at any rate?'
'Certainly,' said Margaret. 'I shall like it, if you won't be
lonely without me, papa.'
'No, no! I should always be fancying some one had known him, and
that he had been stopped, unless you could tell me you had seen
him off. And go to the Outwood station. It is quite as near, and
not so many people about. Take a cab there. There is less risk of
his being seen. What time is your train, Fred?'
'Ten minutes past six; very nearly dark. So what will you do,
Margaret?'
'Oh, I can manage. I am getting very brave and very hard. it is a
well-lighted road all the way home, if it should be dark. But I
was out last week much later.'
Margaret was thankful when the parting was over--the parting from
the dead mother and the living father. She hurried Frederick into
the cab, in order to shorten a scene which she saw was so
bitterly painful to her father, who would accompany his son as he
took his last look at his mother. Partly in consequence of this,
and partly owing to one of the very common mistakes in the
'Railway Guide' as to the times when trains arrive at the smaller
stations, they found, on reaching Outwood, that they had nearly
twenty minutes to spare. The booking-office was not open, so they
could not even take the ticket. They accordingly went down the
flight of steps that led to the level of the ground below the
railway. There was a broad cinder-path diagonally crossing a
field which lay along-side of the carriage-road, and they went
there to walk backwards and forwards for the few minutes they had
to spare.
Margaret's hand lay in Frederick's arm. He took hold of it
affectionately.
'Margaret! I am going to consult Mr. Lennox as to the chance of
exculpating myself, so that I may return to England whenever I
choose, more for your sake than for the sake of any one else. I
can't bear to think of your lonely position if anything should
happen to my father. He looks sadly changed--terribly shaken. I
wish you could get him to think of the Cadiz plan, for
manyreasons. What could you do if he were taken away? You have
nofriend near. We are curiously bare of relations.'
Margaret could hardly keep from crying at the tender anxiety with
which Frederick was bringing before her an event which she
herself felt was not very improbable, so severely had the cares
of the last few months told upon Mr. Hale. But she tried to rally
as she said:
'There have been such strange unexpected changes in my life
during these last two years, that I feel more than ever that it
is not worth while to calculate too closely what I should do if
any future event took place. I try to think only upon the
present.' She paused; they were standing still for a moment,
close on the field side of the stile leading into the road; the
setting sun fell on their faces. Frederick held her hand in his,
and looked with wistful anxiety into her face, reading there more
care and trouble than she would betray by words. She went on:
'We shall write often to one another, and I will promise--for I
see it will set your mind at ease--to tell you every worry I
have. Papa is'--she started a little, a hardly visible start--but
Frederick felt the sudden motion of the hand he held, and turned
his full face to the road, along which a horseman was slowly
riding, just passing the very stile where they stood. Margaret
bowed; her bow was stiffly returned.
'Who is that?' said Frederick, almost before he was out of
hearing. Margaret was a little drooping, a little flushed, as she
replied:
'Mr. Thornton; you saw him before, you know.'
'Only his back. He is an unprepossessing-looking fellow. What a
scowl he has!'
'Something has happened to vex him,' said Margaret,
apologetically. 'You would not have thought him unprepossessing
if you had seen him with mamma.'
'I fancy it must be time to go and take my ticket. If I had known
how dark it would be, we wouldn't have sent back the cab,
Margaret.'
'Oh, don't fidget about that. I can take a cab here, if I like;
or go back by the rail-road, when I should have shops and people
and lamps all the way from the Milton station-house. Don't think
of me; take care of yourself. I am sick with the thought that
Leonards may be in the same train with you. Look well into the
carriage before you get in.'
They went back to the station. Margaret insisted upon going into
the full light of the flaring gas inside to take the ticket. Some
idle-looking young men were lounging about with the
stationmaster. Margaret thought she had seen the face of one of
them before, and returned him a proud look of offended dignity
for his somewhat impertinent stare of undisguised admiration. She
went hastily to her brother, who was standing outside, and took
hold of his arm. 'Have you got your bag? Let us walk about here
on the platform,' said she, a little flurried at the idea of so
soon being left alone, and her bravery oozing out rather faster
than she liked to acknowledge even to herself. She heard a step
following them along the flags; it stopped when they stopped,
looking out along the line and hearing the whizz of the coming
train. They did not speak; their hearts were too full. Another
moment, and the train would be here; a minute more, and he would
be gone. Margaret almost repented the urgency with which she had
entreated him to go to London; it was throwing more chances of
detection in his way. If he had sailed for Spain by Liverpool, he
might have been off in two or three hours.
Frederick turned round, right facing the lamp, where the gas
darted up in vivid anticipation of the train. A man in the dress
of a railway porter started forward; a bad-looking man, who
seemed to have drunk himself into a state of brutality, although
his senses were in perfect order.
'By your leave, miss!' said he, pushing Margaret rudely on one
side, and seizing Frederick by the collar.
'Your name is Hale, I believe?'
In an instant--how, Margaret did not see, for everything danced
before her eyes--but by some sleight of wrestling, Frederick had
tripped him up, and he fell from the height of three or four
feet, which the platform was elevated above the space of soft
ground, by the side of the railroad. There he lay.
'Run, run!' gasped Margaret. 'The train is here. It was Leonards,
was it? oh, run! I will carry your bag.' And she took him by the
arm to push him along with all her feeble force. A door was
opened in a carriage--he jumped in; and as he leant out t say,
'God bless you, Margaret!' the train rushed past her; an she was
left standing alone. She was so terribly sick and faint that she
was thankful to be able to turn into the ladies' waiting-room,
and sit down for an instant. At first she could do nothing but
gasp for breath. It was such a hurry; such a sickening alarm;
such a near chance. If the train had not been there at the
moment, the man would have jumped up again and called for
assistance to arrest him. She wondered if the man had got up: she
tried to remember if she had seen him move; she wondered if he
could have been seriously hurt. She ventured out; the platform
was all alight, but still quite deserted; she went to the end,
and looked over, somewhat fearfully. No one was there; and then
she was glad she had made herself go, and inspect, for otherwise
terrible thoughts would have haunted her dreams. And even as it
was, she was so trembling and affrighted that she felt she could
not walk home along the road, which did indeed seem lonely and
dark, as she gazed down upon it from the blaze of the station.
She would wait till the down train passed and take her seat in
it. But what if Leonards recognised her as Frederick's companion!
She peered about, before venturing into the booking-office to
take her ticket. There were only some railway officials standing
about; and talking loud to one another.
'So Leonards has been drinking again!' said one, seemingly in
authority. 'He'll need all his boasted influence to keep his
place this time.'
'Where is he?' asked another, while Margaret, her back towards
them, was counting her change with trembling fingers, not daring
to turn round until she heard the answer to this question.
'I don't know. He came in not five minutes ago, with some long
story or other about a fall he'd had, swearing awfully; and
wanted to borrow some money from me to go to London by the next
up-train. He made all sorts of tipsy promises, but I'd something
else to do than listen to him; I told him to go about his
business; and he went off at the front door.'
'He's at the nearest vaults, I'll be bound,' said the first
speaker. 'Your money would have gone there too, if you'd been
such a fool as to lend it.'
'Catch me! I knew better what his London meant. Why, he has never
paid me off that five shillings'--and so they went on.
And now all Margaret's anxiety was for the train to come. She hid
herself once more in the ladies' waiting-room, and fancied every
noise was Leonards' step--every loud and boisterous voice was
his. But no one came near her until the train drew up; when she
was civilly helped into a carriage by a porter, into whose face
she durst not look till they were in motion, and then she saw
that it was not Leonards'. _
Read next: CHAPTER XXXIII - PEACE
Read previous: CHAPTER XXXI - 'SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?'
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