thomas godolphin sat in his place at the bank, opening the morning letters. it was some little time after the interment of ethel grame, and the second week in december was already on the wane. in two days more it was his intention to start for broomhead: for no tidings arrived of the return of sir george. the very last of the letters he came upon, was one bearing the scotch post-mark. a poor little note with a scrawled address: no wonder the sorting-clerk had placed it last of all! it looked singularly obscure, in comparison with those large blue letters and their business hands.
thomas godolphin knew the writing. it was margery’s. and we may as well read the contents with him, verbatim:
“mr. thomas sir,
“i imbrace this favurible oportunaty of adresing you for i considur it my duty to take up my pen and inform you about my master, he’s not long for this world, mr. thomas i know it by good tokens which i don’t write not being an easy writer but they are none the less true, the master’s fretting his life away because he is not at home and she is keeping him because she’s timorus of the fever. but you saw how it was sir when you were here and it’s the same story still. there’d have been a fight for it with my lady but if i’d been you mr. thomas i’d have took him also when me and the young ladies went with you to prior’s ash. when i got back here, sir i saw an awful change in him and mr. george he saw it but my lady didn’t. i pen these lines sir to say you had better come off at once and not wait for it to be nearer christmas, the poor master is always saying thomas is coming for me, thomas is coming for me but i’d not answer for it now that he will ever get back alive, sir it was the worst day’s work he ever did to go away at all from ashlydyat if my lady was dying to live at the new folly place she might have gone to it but not him, when we do a foolish wrong thing we don’t think of the consekences at the time at least not much of em but we think all the more after and fret our hearts out with blame and it have been slowly killing him ever since, i am vexed to disturb you mr. thomas with this epistle for i know you must be in enough grief of your own just now.
“your humble servant,
“margery.”
[100]thomas godolphin read it over twice, and then crossed to the opposite side of the private room, where sat a gentleman at another desk. a tall, portly man, with a fresh colour, large, keen dark eyes, and hair white as snow. it was mr. crosse.
“anything particular, thomas?” he asked, as thomas godolphin put the letter into his hand.
“not in business. read it, will you?”
mr. crosse read the letter through. “is it my advice you wish for?” asked he, when he came to the last word.
“not exactly,” replied thomas godolphin. “i have made up my mind, i believe.”
“to go immediately?”
“yes. within an hour.”
“right. it is what i should have recommended you to do, had you been undecided. when it comes to letter-writing with margery, the thing is serious, rely upon it.”
and within the hour thomas godolphin had started.
the railway station nearest to broomhead, was three miles distant from it, by the road: but there was a shorter cut across some fields—bearing past the house of that mr. sandy bray, if you are curious to know—which reduced it to less than two. it was one of those rural stations so little frequented that travellers are tempted to ask why they were built at all. such a thing as a fly, or an omnibus, had never yet been seen at it, at midday: you may therefore judge what chance thomas godolphin had of either, getting there, as he did, at midnight. he was the only passenger to alight, and the train went puffing on. the man, who lived in the one-roomed cottage close by, and was called the station-master, appeared to be the only official to receive him. a man who had been drafted thither from one of the english lines.
“for broomhead, sir?” he questioned, recognizing the traveller.
“yes. do you happen to know how sir george godolphin is?”
“he looks rare and poorly, sir. he was past here in his carriage to-day. huddled up in a corner of it, as if he was cold; or else hadn’t the strength to sit up. her ladyship was inside with him.”
“there’s no porter about, i suppose?”
“he has been gone this two hours, sir. i’d offer to carry your luggage myself, but i shall have the up-express by in half an hour. i shut up for the night then.”
“i would not trouble you for so trifling a matter, at this hour, were you at liberty,” replied thomas godolphin.
he took up his portmanteau himself: a thing not much larger than what the french would call a petit sac-de-nuit, containing little besides a clean shirt and his shaving-tackle: and started, bending his steps not along the road, but across it to the stile.
“i wouldn’t take the field way to-night, sir, if i were you,” said the man from the station door. “the road is safest.”
“why is it?” asked thomas godolphin.
“there’s a nasty bit by the field way, a quarter of a mile before you come to bray’s. anybody, not knowing it well, might take the wrong turning, and go, head first, into the dam.”
[101]“but i do know it well,” said thomas godolphin. “and the night is light enough to distinguish the turnings.”
the station-master looked up at the skies—figuratively speaking, for he could see nothing but fog. a light, hazy mist; not a dark one; which seemed likely to turn to rain. he said no more, except a “good night, sir:” and thomas godolphin walked on, hesitating for a moment between the two roads, and then turning decisively to that of the fields, as if some hidden impulse impelled him. perhaps it did so.
it was not a pleasant night, a pleasant time, or a pleasant way; and thomas godolphin began to think he should have done well to have telegraphed his intended journey from prior’s ash to broomhead, that they might have sent a conveyance to await him at the station. regrets were of no use now, and he trudged along, taking two steps forward, and one backward, for the ground in places was wet and slippery. it was a peculiar night. there was no moon; there were no stars; no skies in fact to be seen at all, as you have heard; and yet the night was light.
what were thomas godolphin’s thoughts bent upon? need you ask? for some time to come, days and weeks and months, they must run chiefly upon her who had left him. he remembered his last arrival at broomhead: he remembered his thoughts as he had walked from the station as he was doing now; though then it had been by daylight. his musings had been of ethel, and his coming marriage; of that farewell kiss which she had pressed upon his lips. now—now he must only think of her as one of heaven’s angels.
he lifted his hat to wipe his brow, and then changed his load to the other hand. he was coming to the dam now. he could hear its waters. go carefully, thomas godolphin! a few steps down that dark turning, and you might never be heard of more. but he knew his way, and the night was light, and he bore on his course, and the dangerous turn was passed.
a little way farther on, and he could discern the outline of bray’s cottage in the distance. a light burnt in one of the windows, and he wondered who was ill. probably margery’s sister. it diverted his own sad reflections. next he became absorbed in thoughts of his father. how should he find him? ideas, we all know, assume the colouring of surrounding associations, and thomas godolphin, in that solitary midnight hour, grew to take a more sombre view of the news contained in margery’s letter than he had hitherto done. it is wonderful how circumstances affect us! in the broad light of day, walking, for instance, as he had done previously to broomhead, apprehensions would not have come over him. now he pictured his father (by no will of his own: the scenes rose up unbidden) as lying ill; perhaps dying. perhaps even then a telegraphic message to him might be on its road to prior’s ash! perhaps——
a cry right over his head! and thomas godolphin positively started. it proceeded from some night-bird that had dived down upon him, and now flew onwards, flapping its wings. superstitious margery would have called it an omen.
thomas godolphin followed it with his eyes, speculating upon what[102] bird it could be. it looked like a sea-gull; had screamed like one; but the sea was far off, and, if it was one, it must have come a long distance.
back it came again, and dived down as before. thomas godolphin did not like it, and he wished the portmanteau in his hand had been a gun. “i wonder what good these restless night-birds do,” he ejaculated, “except to disturb from sleep any worn-out mortal who may be within hearing?”
scenes of the recent past rose up before him: the sombre scenes in which he had been an actor. the ominous shadow of ashlydyat, striking on his sight as he turned the ash-trees, the night of his previous summons to broomhead: the dead face of ethel lying on her bed; the reminiscence of the funeral scene; of his walking away from it with the dull sound of the earth falling on her coffin smiting his ears! none of them pleasant things to recall at that particular hour. why should they have come to him?
“what business had they there at such a time?”
drive them away he could not. but neither did he try to do so. they served to make doubly sad, doubly ominous, his new fears for his father. he knew how precarious was sir george’s life. what if he were then dying! nay, what if it were the very moment of his departure?—if he were dead? having called upon his children; upon him, thomas, in vain?
that odious bird once more! it flew over his head with a shriller cry than the last. thomas godolphin was at that moment within a few paces of a stile which lay in his path. he turned his head round to look after the bird, without slackening his pace, putting out his hand before him to feel for the stile. the hand came into contact with it, and thomas let it rest momentarily. his head was turned, still watching the bird, which was then flying round and round, making fierce circlets in the air.
but he could not stop there all night, staring at the bird, and he turned sharply round to cross the stile. placing one foot on its lower rail, he——
what made thomas godolphin start as if he had been shot? who and what was that standing on the other side of the stile fixedly gazing at him? a tall, shadowy, upright form, bearing the unmistakable features of sir george godolphin.
will you—strong, practical, unimaginative men of the world—forgive thomas godolphin if in that one brief moment the wild superstitions, instilled into his mind in childhood, were allowed their play? forgive him, or not, it was the fact. in imagination, only the instant before, he had seen his father lying upon his bed, the soul parting from the body: and thomas godolphin as much believed what he now saw before him was his father’s spirit, as that he, himself, was in existence. the spirit, appearing to him at the moment of its departure. his flesh turned cold, and dew gathered on his brow.
“my son, can it be you?”
thomas godolphin came out of his folly, and grasped his father. that it was real flesh and blood which yielded to his arms, he knew now: but perhaps the surprise that it should be so, was even greater[103] than the other emotion. sir george godolphin there! at that midnight hour! nearly a mile from home! and bareheaded! was it really sir george? thomas godolphin rubbed his eyes, and thought he, himself, must have taken leave of his senses.
“my father! my dear father! what are you doing here?”
“i thought i’d go to the station, thomas, and see about a special train. i must go back to ashlydyat to die.”
thomas climbed over the stile. the tone, the manner, the words, altogether had betrayed to him an unhappy fact—that his father’s mind was not in a state of perfect sanity. he trembled for his health, too. it was a cold raw night, and here was sir george in evening dress, without so much as an overcoat thrown on! he, who had only been out since the last fainting-fit in a close carriage: and then well wrapped up.
“where is your hat, father?”
the old knight lifted his hand to his head, as if he had not known that his hat was not there. “i must have come out without it, thomas,” he said. “what was that noise over there?” he continued, pointing above the stile to the way thomas had come, his frame shivering with cold as he spoke.
“i think it was a sea-gull. or some screaming night-bird.”
“i could not get over the stile, thomas. the walk seemed to have taken the strength out of me. how did you come here? i thought you were at prior’s ash.”
thomas godolphin was busy. he had taken off his great coat, and was putting it upon his father, buttoning it up carefully. a smaller man than sir george, it did not fit well: but sir george had shrunk. the hat fitted better.
“but you have no hat yourself!” said sir george, surveying his son’s head, when he had submitted in patient silence to the dressing.
“i don’t want one,” replied thomas. “the night air will not hurt me.” nevertheless, all the way to broomhead, he was looking on either side, if perchance he might come upon sir george’s hat, lying in the road.
thomas drew his father close, to support him on his arm, and they commenced their walk to the house. not until then did thomas know how very weak his father was. stooping, shivering, tripping, with every other step, it appeared impossible that he could walk back again: the wonder was, how he had walked there.
thomas godolphin halted in dismay. how was he to get his father home? carry him, he could not: it was of course beyond his strength. the light in bray’s window suggested a thought to him.
“father, i think you had better go to bray’s and stay there, while i see about your hand-chair. you are not able to walk.”
“i won’t go to bray’s,” returned the knight, with a touch of vehemence. “i don’t like bray, and i will not put my foot inside his threshold. besides, it’s late, and my lady will miss us.”
he pressed on somewhat better towards home, and thomas godolphin saw nothing else that could be done, except to press on with him, and give him all the help in his power. “my dear father, you should have waited until the morning,” he said, “and have gone out then.”
[104]“but i wanted to see about a train, thomas,” remonstrated the knight. “and i can’t do it in the day. she will not let me. when we drive past the railway station, she won’t get out, and won’t let me do so. thomas, i want to go back to ashlydyat.”
“i have come to take you back, my dear father.”
“ay, ay. and mind you are firm when she says i must not go because of the fever. the fever will not hurt me, thomas. i can’t be firm. i have grown feeble, and people take my will from me. you are my first-born son, thomas.”
“yes.”
“then you must be firm for me, i say.”
“i will be, father.”
“this is a rough road, thomas.”
“no, it is smooth; and i am glad that it is so. but you are tired.”
the old knight bent his head, as if choosing his steps. presently he lifted his head:
“thomas, when do they leave ashlydyat?”
“who, sir? the verralls? they have not had notice yet.”
sir george stopped. he drew up his head to its full height, and turned to his son. “not had notice? when, then, do i go back? i won’t go to lady godolphin’s folly. i must go to ashlydyat.”
“yes, sir,” said thomas soothingly. “i will see about it.”
the knight, satisfied, resumed his walk. “of course you will see about it. you are my son and heir, thomas. i depend upon you.”
they pursued their way for some little time in silence, and then sir george spoke again, his tone hushed. “thomas, i have put on mourning for her. i mourn her as much as you do. and you did not get there in time to see her alive!”
“not in time. no,” replied thomas, looking hard into the mist overhead.
“i’d have come to the funeral, thomas, if she had let me. but she was afraid of the fever. george got there in time for it?”
“barely.”
“when he came back to broomhead, and heard of it, he was so cut up, poor fellow. cut up for your sake, thomas. he said he should be in time to follow her to the grave if he started at once, and he went off then and there. thomas”—dropping his voice still lower—“whom shall you take to ashlydyat now?”
“my sisters.”
“nay. but as your wife? you will be replacing ethel sometime.”
“i shall never marry now, father.”
at length broomhead was reached. thomas held open the gate of the shrubbery to his father, and guided him through it.
“shall we have two engines, thomas?”
“two engines, sir! what for?”
“they’d take us quicker, you know. this is not the station!” broke forth sir george in a sharp tone of complaint, as they emerged beyond the shrubbery, and the house stood facing them. “oh, thomas! you said you were taking me to ashlydyat! i cannot die away from it!”
thomas godolphin stood almost confounded. his father’s discourse,[105] the greater part of it, at any rate, had been so rational that he had begun to hope he was mistaken as to his weakness of mind. “my dear father, be at rest,” he said: “we will start if you like with to-morrow’s dawn. but to go now to the station would not forward us: it is by this time closed for the night.”
they found the house in a state of commotion. sir george had been missed, and servants were out searching for him. lady godolphin gazed at thomas with all the eyes she possessed, thunderstruck at his appearance. “what miracle brought you here?” she exclaimed, wonderingly.
“no miracle, lady godolphin. i am thankful that i happened to come. what might have become of sir george without me, i know not. i expect he would have remained at the stile where i found him until morning; and might have caught his death there.”
“he will catch that speedily enough if he is to wander out of the house at midnight in this mad manner,” peevishly rejoined my lady.
