“thomas, my son, i must go home. i don’t want to die away from ashlydyat!”
a dull pain shot across thomas godolphin’s heart at the words. did he think of the old superstitious tradition—that evil was to fall upon the godolphins when their chief should die, and not at ashlydyat? at ashlydyat his father could not die; he had put that out of his power when he let it to strangers: in its neighbourhood, he might.
“the better plan, sir, will be for you to return to the folly, as you seem to wish it,” said thomas. “you will soon be strong enough to undertake the journey.”
the decaying knight was sitting on a sofa in his bedroom. his second fainting-fit had lasted some hours—if that, indeed, was the right name to give to it—and he had recovered, only to be more and more weak. he had grown pretty well after the first attack—when margery had found him in his chamber on the floor, the day lady godolphin had gone to pay her visit to selina. the next time, he was on the lawn before the house, talking to charlotte pain, when he suddenly fell to the ground. he did not recover his consciousness until evening; and nearly the first wish he expressed was a desire to see his son thomas. “telegraph for him,” he said to lady godolphin.
“but you are not seriously ill, sir george,” she had answered.
“no; but i should like him here. telegraph to him to start by first train.”
and lady godolphin did so, accordingly, sending the message that angered miss godolphin. but, in this case, lady godolphin did not deserve so much blame as janet cast on her: for she did debate the[81] point with herself whether she should say sir george was ill, or not. believing that these two fainting-fits had proceeded from want of strength only, that they were but the effect of his long previous illness, and would lead to no bad result, she determined not to speak of it. hence the imperfect message.
neither did thomas godolphin see much cause for fear when he arrived at broomhead. sir george did not look better than when he had left prior’s ash, but neither did he look much worse. on this, the second day, he had been well enough to converse with thomas upon business affairs: and, that over, he suddenly broke out with the above wish. thomas mentioned it when he joined lady godolphin afterwards. it did not meet with her approbation.
“you should have opposed it,” said she to him in a firm, hard tone.
“but why so, madam?” asked thomas. “if my father’s wish is to return to prior’s ash, he should return.”
“not while the fever lingers there. were he to take it—and die—you would never forgive yourself.”
thomas had no fear of the fever on his own score, and did not fear it for his father. he intimated as much. “it is not the fever that will hurt him, lady godolphin.”
“you have no right to say that. lady sarah grame, a month ago, might have said she did not fear it for sarah anne. and now sarah anne is dying!”
“or dead,” put in charlotte pain, who was leaning listlessly against the window frame devoured with ennui.
“shall you be afraid to go back to prior’s ash?” he asked of maria hastings.
“not at all,” replied maria. “i should not mind if i were going to-day, as far as the fever is concerned.”
“that is well,” he said. “because i have orders to convey you back with me.”
charlotte pain lifted her head with a start. the news aroused her. maria, on the contrary, thought he was speaking in jest.
“no, indeed i am not,” said thomas godolphin. “mr. hastings made a request to me, madam, that i should take charge of his daughter when i returned,” continued he to lady godolphin. “he wants her at home, he says.”
“mr. hastings is very polite!” ironically replied my lady. “maria will go back when i choose to spare her.”
“i hope you will allow her to return with me—unless you shall soon be returning yourself,” said thomas godolphin.
“it is not i that shall be returning to prior’s ash yet,” said my lady. “the sickly old place must give proof of renewed health first. you will not see either me or sir george there on this side christmas.”
“then i think, lady godolphin, you must offer no objection to my taking charge of maria,” said thomas courteously, but firmly, leaving the discussion of sir george’s return to another opportunity. “i passed my word to mr. hastings.”
charlotte pain, all animation now, approached lady godolphin. she was thoroughly sick and tired of broomhead: since george godol[82] phin’s departure, she had been projecting how she could get away from it. here was a solution to her difficulty.
“dear lady godolphin, you must allow me to depart with mr. godolphin—whatever you may do with maria hastings,” she exclaimed. “i said nothing to you—for i really did not see how i was to get back, knowing you would not permit me to travel so far alone—but mrs. verrall is very urgent for my return. and now that she is suffering from this burn, as mr. godolphin has brought us news, it is the more incumbent upon me to be at home.”
which was a nice little fib of miss charlotte’s. her sister had never once hinted that she wished her home again; but a fib or two more or less was nothing to charlotte.
“you are tired of broomhead,” said lady godolphin.
charlotte’s colour never varied, her eye never drooped, as she protested that she should not tire of broomhead were she its inmate for a twelvemonth; that it was quite a paradise upon earth. maria kept her head bent while charlotte said it, half afraid lest unscrupulous charlotte should call upon her to bear testimony to her truth. only that very morning she had protested to maria that the ennui of the place was killing her.
“i don’t know,” said lady godolphin shrewdly. “unless i am wrong, charlotte, you have been anxious to leave. what was it that mr. george hinted at—about escorting you young ladies home—and i stopped him ere it was half spoken? prior’s ash would talk if i sent you home under his convoy.”
“mr. godolphin is not george,” rejoined charlotte.
“no, he is not,” replied my lady significantly.
the subject of departure was settled amicably; both the young ladies were to return to prior’s ash under the charge of mr. godolphin. there are some men, single men though they be, and not men in years, whom society is content to recognize as entirely fit escorts. thomas godolphin was one of them. had my lady despatched the young ladies home under mr. george’s wing, she might never have heard the last of it from prior’s ash: but the most inveterate scandalmonger in it would not have questioned the trustworthiness of his elder brother. my lady was also brought to give her consent to her own departure for it by christmas, provided mr. snow would assure her that the place was “safe.”
in a day or two thomas godolphin spoke to his father of his marriage arrangements. he had received a letter from janet, written the morning after his departure, in which she agreed to the proposal that ethel should be her temporary guest. this removed all barrier to the immediate union.
“then you marry directly, if sarah anne lives?”
“directly. in january, at the latest.”
“god bless you both!” cried the old knight. “she’ll be a wife in a thousand, thomas.”
thomas thought she would. he did not say it.
“it’s the best plan; it’s the best plan,” continued sir george in a dreamy tone, gazing into the fire. “no use to turn the girls out of their home. it will not be for long; not for long. thomas”—turning[83] his haggard, but still fine blue eye upon his son—“i wish i had never left ashlydyat!”
thomas was silent. none had more bitterly regretted the departure from it than he.
“i wish i could go back to it to die!”
“my dear father, i hope that you will yet live many years to bless us. if you can get through this winter—and i see no reason whatever why you should not, with care—you may regain your strength and be as well again as any of us.”
sir george shook his head. “it will not be, thomas; i shall not long keep you out of ashlydyat. mind!” he added, turning upon thomas with surprising energy, “i will go back before christmas to prior’s ash. the last christmas that i see shall be spent with my children.”
“yes, indeed, i think you should come back to us,” warmly acquiesced thomas.
“therefore, if you find, when christmas is close upon us, that i am not amongst you, that you hear no tidings of my coming amongst you, you come off at once and fetch me. do you hear, thomas? i enjoin it upon you now with a father’s authority; do not forget it, or disobey it. my lady fears the fever, and would keep me here: but i must be at prior’s ash.”
“i will certainly obey you, my father,” replied thomas godolphin.
telegraphic despatches seemed to be the order of the day with thomas godolphin. they were all sitting together that evening, sir george having come downstairs, when a servant called thomas out of the room. a telegraphic message had arrived for him at the station, and a man had brought it over. a conviction of what it contained flashed over thomas godolphin’s heart as he opened it—the death of sarah anne grame.
from lady sarah it proved to be. not a much more satisfactory message than had been lady godolphin’s; for if hers had not been explanatory, this was incoherent.
“the breath has just gone out of my dear child’s body. i will write by next post. she died at four o’clock. how shall we all bear it?”
thomas returned to the room; his mind full. in the midst of his sorrow and regret for sarah anne, his compassion for lady sarah—and he did feel all that with true sympathy—intruded the thought of his own marriage. it must be postponed now.
“what did andrew want with you?” asked sir george, when he entered.
“a telegraphic message had come for me from prior’s ash.”
“a business message?”
“no, sir. it is from lady sarah.”
by the tone of his voice, by the falling of his countenance, they could read instinctively what had occurred. but they kept silence, all,—waiting for him to speak further.
“poor sarah anne is gone. she died at four o’clock.”
“this will delay your plans, thomas,” observed sir george, after some minutes had been given to expressions of regret.
“it will, sir.”
[84]the knight leaned over to his son, and spoke in a whisper, meant for his ear alone: “i shall not be very long after her. i feel that i shall not. you may yet take ethel home at once to ashlydyat.”
very early indeed did they start in the morning, long before daybreak. prior’s ash they would reach, all things being well, at nine at night. margery was sent to attend them, a very dragon of a guardian, as particular as miss godolphin herself—had a guardian been necessary.
a somewhat weary day; a long one, at any rate; but at last their train steamed into the station at prior’s ash. it was striking nine. mr. hastings was waiting for maria, and mrs. verrall’s carriage for charlotte pain. a few minutes were spent in collecting the luggage.
“shall i give you a seat as far as the bank, mr. godolphin?” inquired charlotte, who must pass it on her way to ashlydyat.
“thank you, no. i shall just go up for a minute’s call upon lady sarah grame.”
mr. hastings, who had been placing maria in a fly, heard the words. he turned hastily, caught thomas godolphin’s hand, and drew him aside.
“are you aware of what has occurred?”
“alas, yes!” replied thomas. “lady sarah telegraphed to me last night.”
the rector pressed his hand, and returned to his daughter. thomas godolphin struck into a by-path, a short cut from the station, which would take him to grame house.
six days ago, exactly, since he had been there before. the house looked precisely as it had looked then, all in darkness, excepting the faint light that burned from sarah anne’s chamber. it burnt there still. then it was lighting the living; now——
thomas godolphin rang the bell gently.—does any one like to do otherwise at a house in which death is an inmate? elizabeth, as usual, opened the door, and burst into tears when she saw who it was. “i said it would bring you back, sir!” she exclaimed.
“does lady sarah bear it pretty well?” he asked, as she showed him into the drawing-room.
“no, sir, not over well,” sobbed the girl. “i’ll tell my lady that you are here.”
he stood over the fire, as he had done the other night: it was low now, as it had been then. strangely still seemed the house: he could almost have told that one was lying dead in it. he listened, waiting for ethel’s step, hoping she would be the first to come to him.
elizabeth returned. “my lady says would you be so good as to walk up to her, sir?”
thomas godolphin followed her upstairs. she made for the room to which he had been taken the former night—sarah anne’s chamber. in point of fact, the chamber of lady sarah, until it was given up to sarah anne for her illness. elizabeth, with soft and stealthy tread, crossed the corridor to the door, and opened it.
was she going to show him into the presence of the dead? he thought she must have mistaken lady sarah’s orders, and he hesitated on the threshold.
“where is miss ethel?” he whispered.
[85]“who, sir?”
“miss ethel. is she well?”
the girl stared, flung the door full open, and with a great cry flew down the staircase.
he looked after her in amazement. had she gone crazy? then he turned and walked into the room with a hesitating step.
lady sarah was coming forward to meet him. she was convulsed with grief. he took both her hands in his with a soothing gesture, essaying a word of comfort: not of inquiry, as to why she should have brought him to this room. he glanced to the bed, expecting to see the dead upon it. but the bed was empty. and at that moment, his eyes caught something else.
seated by the fire in an invalid chair, surrounded with pillows, covered with shawls, with a wan, attenuated face, and eyes that seemed to have a glaze over them, was—who?
sarah anne? it certainly was sarah anne, and in life still. for she feebly held out her hand in welcome, and the tears suddenly gushed from her eyes. “i am getting better, mr. godolphin.”
thomas godolphin—thomas godolphin—how shall i write it? for one happy minute he was utterly blind to what it could all mean: his whole mind was a chaos of wild perplexity. and then, as the dreadful truth burst upon him, he staggered against the wall, with a wailing cry of agony.
it was ethel who had died.
