it is the province of little demoiselles to be naughty: it is their delight to make promises and then break them, all false and fearless—as they may do over other affairs in later life. miss meta godolphin was no exception to the rule. she had gravely promised her uncle thomas to be a good girl, and not run away to be lost in unfrequented passages; yet no sooner had the young lady arrived at ashlydyat that morning, and been released of her out-door things by margery, than with a joyously defiant laugh that would have rejoiced the heart of charlotte pain, she flew off to that forbidden spot—the unused passages. had the little lady’s motive been laid bare, it might have been found to[217] consist simply in the enjoyment of a thing forbidden. truth to say, miss meta was very prone to be disobedient to all persons, excepting one. that one was her mother. maria had never spoken a sharp word to the child in her life, or used a sharp tone: but she had contrived to train the little one to obey, as well as to love. george, margery, mrs. hastings, miss meta would openly disobey, and laugh in their faces while she did it: her mother, never. meta remembered a scolding she received on the last visit she had paid to ashlydyat, touching the remote passages—she had never found them out until then—and apparently the reminiscence of the scolding was so agreeable that she was longing to have it repeated.
“now,” said margery, as she concluded the young lady’s toilette, “you’ll not go up to those old rooms and passages to-day, mind, miss meta!”
for answer, miss meta shook out her golden curls, laughed triumphantly, and started off to the passages then and there. maria had never said to her, “you must not go near those passages;” and the commands of the rest of the world went for nothing. margery remained in blissful ignorance of the disobedience. she supposed the child had run to her mother and the miss godolphins. the objection to meta’s being in the passages alone had no mysterious element in it. it proceeded solely from a regard to her personal safety. the staircase leading to the turret was unprotected; the loopholes in the turret were open, and a fall from either might cost the young lady her life. these places, the unfrequented passages at the back of the second storey, and the staircase leading to the square turret above them, were shut in by a door, which separated them from the inhabited part of the house. this door miss meta had learned to open; and away she went, as fancy led her.
maria was in miss godolphin’s room, talking to that lady and to bessy, when a sound overhead caused them to pause.
“where’s meta?” cried janet, hastening from the room. “she cannot have gone upstairs again! margery! where’s the child?”
margery at that moment happened to be putting the finishing touches to her own toilette. she came flying without her cap out of one of the many narrow passages and windings which intersected each other on that floor. “the child went off to you, ma’am, as soon as i had put on her pinafore.”
“then, margery, she has gone up into the turret. she never came to us.”
up to the turret hastened janet; up to the turret followed margery. bessy and maria traversed the passage leading to the turret-stairs, and stood there, looking upwards. maria, had she been alone, could not have told which of the passages would lead her to the turret-stairs; and she could not understand why so much commotion need be made, although meta had run up there. strange as it may seem, maria godolphin, though so many years george’s wife, and the presumptive mistress of ashlydyat, had never passed beyond that separating door. miss godolphin had never offered to take her to the unused rooms and the turret; and maria was of too sensitively refined a nature to ask it of her own accord.
[218]janet appeared, leading the rebel; margery, behind, was scolding volubly. “now,” said janet, when they reached the foot, “tell me, meta, how it was that you could behave so disobediently, and go where you had been expressly told not to go?”
meta shook back her golden curls with a laugh, sprang to maria, and took refuge in her skirts. “mamma did not tell me not to go,” said she.
janet looked at maria: almost as if she would say, can it be true that you have not done so?
“it is true,” said maria, answering the look. “i heard something about her running into the turret the last time she was here: i did not know it was of any consequence.”
“she might fall through the loopholes,” replied janet. “nothing could save her from being dashed to pieces.”
maria caught the child to her with an involuntary movement. “meta, darling, do you hear? you must never go again.”
meta looked up fondly, serious now. maria bent her face down on the little upturned one.
“never again, darling; do not forget,” she murmured. “does meta know that if harm came to her, mamma would never look up again? she would cry always.”
meta bustled out of her mamma’s arms, and stood before miss godolphin, earnest decision on her little face. “aunt janet, meta won’t run away again.”
and when the child voluntarily made a promise, they knew that she would keep it. margery whirled her away, telling her in high tones of a young lady of her own age who would do something that she was bade not to do: the consequence of which act was, that the next time she went out for a walk, she was run at by a bull with brass tips on his horns.
“is the turret really dangerous?” inquired maria.
“it is dangerous for a random child like meta, who ventures into every hole and corner without reference to dust or danger,” was miss godolphin’s answer. “would you like to go up, maria?”
“yes, i should. i have heard george speak of the view from it.”
“mind, maria, the stairs are narrow and winding,” interposed bessy.
nevertheless, they went up, passing the open loopholes which might be dangerous to meta. the first thing that maria’s eyes encountered when they had reached the top was a small bow of violet-coloured ribbon. she stooped to pick it up.
“it is a bow off janet’s evening dress,” exclaimed bessy. “janet”—turning to her sister—“what can have brought it here?”
“i was up here last night,” was the answer of janet godolphin, spoken with composure.
“that’s just like you, janet!” retorted bessy. “to watch for that foolish shadow, i suppose.”
“not to watch for it. to see it.”
bessy was afflicted with a taint of heresy. they had never been able to imbue her with the superstition pertaining to the godolphins. bessy had seen the shadow more than once with her own eyes; but[219] they were practical eyes and not imaginative, and could not be made to see anything mysterious in it. “the shadow is thrown by some tree or other,” bessy would say. and, in spite of its being pointed out to her that there was no tree, which could cast a shadow on the spot, bessy obstinately held to her own opinion.
maria gazed from two sides of the turret. the view from both was magnificent. the one side overlooked the charming open country; the other, prior’s ash. on the third side rose lady godolphin’s folly, standing out like a white foreground to the lovely expanse of scenery behind it; the fourth side looked upon the dark plain.
“there’s charlotte pain,” said bessy.
charlotte had returned home, it appeared, since maria met her, and changed her attire. she was pacing the terrace of the folly in her riding-habit, a whip in hand, and some dogs surrounding her. maria turned towards the dark plain, and gazed upon it.
“is it true,” she timidly asked, “that the shadow has been there for the last night or two?”
janet answered the question by asking another. “who told you it was there, maria?”
“i heard margery say so.”
“margery?” repeated janet. “that woman appears to know by instinct when the shadow comes. she dreams it, i think. it is true, maria, that it has appeared again,” she continued, in a tone of unnatural composure. “i never saw it so black as it was last night.”
“do you believe that there can be anything in it—that it foretells ill?” asked maria.
“i know that it is the tradition handed down with our house: i know that, in my own experience, the shadow never came but it brought ill,” was the reply of miss godolphin.
“what caused the superstition to arise in the first instance?” asked maria.
“has george never told you the tale?” replied janet.
“never. he says he does not remember it clearly enough. will you not tell it me, janet?”
janet hesitated. “one of the early godolphins brought a curse upon the house,” she at length began, in a low tone. “it was that evil ancestor whose memory we would bury, were it possible; he who earned for himself the title of the wicked godolphin. he killed his wife by a course of gradual and long-continued ill-treatment. he wanted her out of the way that another might fill her place. he pretended to have discovered that she was not worthy: than which assertion nothing could be more false and shameless, for she was one of the best ladies ever created. she was a de commins, daughter of the warrior richard de commins, and was brave as she was good. she died; and the wicked godolphin turned her coffin out of the house on to the dark plain; there”—pointing to the open space before the archway—“to remain until the day of interment. but he did not wait for that day of interment to bring home his second wife.”
“not wait!” exclaimed maria, her eager ears drinking in the story.
“the habits in those early days will scarcely admit of allusion to them in these,” continued janet: “they savour of what is worse than[220] barbarism—sin. the father, richard de commins, heard of his child’s death, and hastened to ashlydyat, arriving by moonlight. the first sounds he encountered were the revels of the celebration of the second marriage; the first sight he saw was the coffin of his daughter on the open plain, covered by a pall, two of her faithful women bending, the one at the head, the other at the foot, mourning the dead. while he halted there, kneeling in prayer, it was told to the wicked godolphin that de commins had arrived. he—that wicked godolphin—rushed madly out, and drew his sword upon him as he knelt. de commins was wounded, but not mortally, and he rose to defend himself. a combat ensued, de commins having no resource but to fight, and he was killed; murdered. weary with his journey, enfeebled by age, weakened by grief, his foot slipped, and the wicked godolphin, stung to fury by the few words of reproach de commins had had time to speak, deliberately ran him through as he lay. in the moment of death, de commins cursed the godolphins, and prophesied that the shadow of his daughter’s bier, as it appeared then, should remain as a curse upon the godolphins’ house for ever.”
“but do you believe the story?” cried maria, breathlessly.
“how much of it may be true, how much of it addition, i cannot decide,” said janet. “one fact is indisputable: that a shadow, bearing the exact resemblance of a bier, with a mourner at its head and another at its foot, does appear capriciously on that dark plain; and that it never yet showed itself, but some grievous ill followed for the godolphins. it is possible that the shadow may have partially given rise to the story.”
“janet!” cried maria, leaning forward, her own tones hushed, “is it possible that one, in dying, can curse a whole generation, so that the curse shall take effect in the future?”
“hush, child!” rebuked janet. “it does not become us to inquire into these things. controversy about them is utterly useless, worse than profitless; for there will be believers and unbelievers to the end of time. you wished me to tell you the story, maria, and i have done so. i do no more. i do not tell you it is to be believed, or it is not to be believed. let every one decide for himself, according as his reason, his instinct, or his judgment shall prompt him. people accuse me of being foolishly superstitious touching this shadow and these old traditions. i can only say the superstition has been forced upon me by experience. when the shadow appears, i cannot close my eyes to it and say, ‘it is not there.’ it is there: and all i do is to look at it, and speculate. when the evil, which invariably follows the appearance of the shadow, falls, i cannot close my heart to it, and say, in the teeth of facts, ‘no evil has happened.’ the shadow never appeared, maria, but it brought ill in its wake. it is appearing again now: and i am as certain that some great ill is in store for us, as that i am talking to you at this moment. on this point i am superstitious.”
“it is a long time, is it not, since the shadow last appeared?”
“it is years. but i have not quite finished the story,” resumed janet. “the wicked godolphin killed richard de commins, and buried him that night on the dark plain. in his fury and passion he called his servants around him, ordered a grave to be dug, and assisted[221] with his own hands. de commins was put into it without the rites of burial. tradition runs that so long as the bones remain unfound, the place will retain the appearance of a graveyard. they have been often searched for. that tragedy, no doubt, gave its name to the place—‘the dark plain.’ it cannot be denied that the place does wear much the appearance of a graveyard: especially by moonlight.”
“it is only the effect of the low gorse bushes,” said bessy. “they grow in a peculiar form. i know i would have those bushes rooted up, were i master of ashlydyat!”
“your father had it done, bessy, and they sprang up again,” replied janet. “you must remember it.”
“it could not have been done effectually,” was bessy’s answer. “papa must have had lazy men at work, who left the roots in. i would dig it all up and make a ploughed field of it.”
“did he do any other harm—that wicked godolphin?” asked maria.
“he! other harm!” reiterated janet, something like indignation at maria’s question mingling with surprise in her tone. “don’t you know that it was he who gambled away ashlydyat? after that second marriage of his, he took to worse and worse courses. it was said that his second wife proved a match for him, and they lived together like two evil demons. all things considered, it was perhaps a natural sequence that they should so live,” added janet, severely. “and in the end he cut off the entail and gambled away the estate. many years elapsed before the godolphins could recover it.”
maria was longing to put a question. she had heard that there were other superstitious marvels attaching to ashlydyat, but she scarcely liked to mention them to the miss godolphins. george never would explain anything: he always turned it off, with laughing raillery.
“you—think—that ashlydyat will pass away from the godolphins, janet?”
janet shook her head. “we have been reared in the belief,” she answered. “that the estate is to pass finally away from them, the godolphins have been taught to fear ever since that unhappy time. each generation, as they have come into possession, have accepted it as an uncertain tenure: as a thing that might last them for their time, or might pass away from them ere their earthly sojourn was completed. the belief was; nay, the tradition was; that so long as a reigning godolphin held by ashlydyat, ashlydyat would hold by him and his. my father was the first to break it.”
janet had taken up her dress, and sat down on a dusty, faded bench, the only article of furniture of any description that the square room contained. that strangely speculative look—it was scarcely an earthly one—had come into her eyes: and though she answered when spoken to, she appeared to be lost in sad, inward thought. maria, somewhat awed with the turn the conversation had taken, with the words altogether, stood against the opposite window, her delicate hands clasped before her, her face slightly bent forward, pale and grave.
“then, do you fear that the end for the godolphins is at hand?”
“i seem to see that it is,” replied janet. “i have looked for it ever[222] since my father left ashlydyat. i might say—but that i should be laughed at more than i am for an idealist—that the strangers to whom he resigned it in his place, would have some bearing upon our fall, would in some way conduce to it. i think of these things ever,” continued janet, almost as if she would apologize for the wildness of the confession. “they seem to unfold themselves to me, to become clear and more clear: to be no longer fanciful fears darting across the brain, but realities of life.”
maria’s lips slightly parted as she listened. “but the verralls have left ashlydyat a long while?” she presently said.
“i know they have. but they were usurpers here for the time. better—as i believe—that my father had shut it up: better, far better, that he had never left it! he knew it also: and it preyed upon him on his death-bed.”
“oh, janet! the ill may not come in our time!”
“it may not. i am anxious to believe it may not, in defiance of the unalterable conviction that has seated itself within me. let it pass, maria; talking of it will not avert it: indeed, i do not know how i came to be betrayed into speaking of it openly.”
“but you have not told me about the sounds in the passages?” urged maria, as janet rose from her dusty seat.
“there is nothing more to tell. peculiar sounds, as if caused by the wind, are heard. moaning, sighing, rushing—the passages at times seem alive with them. it is said to come as a reminder to the godolphins of a worse sound that will sometime be heard, when ashlydyat shall be passing away from them.”
“but you don’t believe that?” uttered maria.
“child, i can scarcely tell you what i believe,” was janet’s answer. “i can only pray that the one-half of what my heart prompts me to fear, may never take place in reality. that the noise does come, and without any apparent cause, is not a matter of belief, or disbelief: it is a fact, patent to all who have inhabited ashlydyat. the verralls can tell you so: they have had their rest broken by it.”
“and it is not caused by the wind?”
janet shook her head in dissent. “it has come on the calmest and stillest night, when there has not been a breath of air to move the leaves of the ash-trees.”
bessy turned from her pastime of watching charlotte pain: she had taken little part in the conversation.
“i wonder at you, janet. you will be setting maria against ashlydyat. she will be frightened to come into it, should it lapse to george.”
maria looked at her with a smile. “i should have no fear with him, superstitious or otherwise. if george took me to live in the catacombs, i could be brave with him.”
ever the same blind faith; the unchanged love for her husband. better, far better, that it should be so!
“for my part, i am content to take life and its good as i find it, and not waste my time in unprofitable dreams,” was the practical remark of bessy. “if any ill is to come, it must come; but there’s no need to look out for it beforehand.”
[223]“there must be dreamers and there must be workers,” answered janet, picking her way down the winding stairs. “we were not all born into the world with minds similarly constituted, or to fulfil the same parts in life.”
the day passed on. thomas godolphin came home in the evening to dinner, and said george had not returned. maria wondered. it grew later. margery went home with meta: who thought she was very hardly used at having to go home before her mamma.
“i had rather you would stay, maria,” thomas said to her. “i particularly wish to say a word to george to-night, on business-matters: if he finds you are here when he returns, he will come up.”
george did find so—as you already know. and when he left mrs. charlotte pain, her torn dress and her other attractions, he bent his steps towards ashlydyat. but, instead of going, the most direct road to it, he took his way through the thicket where he had had the encounter an hour ago with charlotte. there was a little spice of mystery about it which excited mr. george’s curiosity. that someone had parted from her he felt convinced, in spite of her denial. and that she was in a state of excitement, of agitation, far beyond anything he had ever witnessed in charlotte pain, was indisputable. george’s thoughts went back, naturally, to the previous night: to the figure he had seen, and whom his eyes, his conviction, had told him was charlotte. she had positively denied it, had said she had not quitted the drawing-room: and george had found her there, apparently composed and stationary. nevertheless, though he had then yielded to her word, he began now to suspect that his own conviction had been correct: that the dark and partially disguised figure had been no other than charlotte herself. it is probable that, however powerful was the hold charlotte’s fascinations may have taken upon the senses of mr. george godolphin, his trust in her, in her truth and single-heartedness, was not of the most perfect nature. what mystery was connected with charlotte, or whom she met in the thicket, or whether she met any one or no one, she best knew. george’s curiosity was sufficiently excited upon the point to induce him to walk with a slow step and searching eyes, lest haply he might come upon some one or something which should explain the puzzle.
how runs the old proverb? “a watched-for visitor never comes.” in vain george halted and listened; in vain he peered into every part of the thicket within view. not a step was to be heard, not a creature to be seen: and he emerged from the trees ungratified. crossing the open grass by the turnstile he turned round by the ash-trees, to the dark plain.
turned and started. george godolphin’s thoughts had been on other things than the shadow. the shadow lay there, so pre-eminently dark, so menacing, that george positively started. somehow—fond as he was of ignoring the superstition—george godolphin did not like its look to-night.
upon entering ashlydyat, his first interview was with thomas. they remained for a few minutes alone. thomas had business affairs to speak of: and george—it is more than probable—made some good[224] excuse for his day’s absence. that it would be useless to deny he had been to london, he knew. charlotte had put him on his guard. janet and bessy asked innumerable questions of him when he joined them, on the score of his absence; but he treated it in his usual light manner, contriving to tell them nothing. maria did not say a word then: she left it till they should be alone.
“you will tell me, george, will you not?” she gently said, as they were walking home together.
“tell you what, maria?”
“oh, george, you know what”—and her tone, as mr. george’s ears detected, bore its sound of pain. “if you were going to london when you left me; why did you deceive me by saying you were going elsewhere?”
“you goose! do you suppose i said it to deceive you?”
there was a lightness, an untruthfulness in his words, in his whole air and manner, which struck with the utmost pain upon maria’s heart. “why did you say it?” was all she answered.
“maria, i’ll tell you the truth,” said he, becoming serious and confidential. “i wanted to run up to town on a little pressing matter of business, and i did not care that it should become known in the bank. had i known that i should be away for the day, of course i should have told thomas: but i fully intended to be home in the afternoon: therefore i said nothing about it. i missed the train, or i should have been home in due time.”
“you might have told me,” she sighed. “i would have kept your counsel.”
“so i would, had i thought you deemed it of any consequence,” replied george.
consequence! maria walked on a few minutes in silence, her arm lying very spiritless within her husband’s. “if you did not tell me,” she resumed, in a low tone, “why did you tell mrs. pain?”
“mrs. pain’s a donkey,” was george’s rejoinder. and it is probable mr. george at that moment was thinking her one: for his tone in its vexation, was real enough. “my business was connected with verrall, and i dropped a hint, in the hearing of mrs. pain, that i might probably follow him to town. at any rate, i am safe home again, maria, so no great harm has come of my visit to london,” he concluded, in a gayer tone.
“what time did you get in?” she asked.
“by the seven o’clock train.”
“the seven o’clock train!” she repeated in surprise. “and have only now come up to ashlydyat!”
“i found a good many things to do after i got home,” was the rejoinder.
“did you see meta? margery took her home at eight o’clock.”
mr. george godolphin had not seen meta. mr. george could have answered, had it so pleased him, that before the child reached home, he had departed on his evening visit to lady godolphin’s folly.
