the light of the setting sun streamed upon the fair hair of cecil godolphin. she had strolled out from the dining-room to enjoy the beauty of the late spring evening, or to indulge her own thoughts, as might be. to the confines of the grounds strayed she, as far as those surrounding lady godolphin’s folly; and there she sat down on a garden bench.
not to remain long alone. she was interrupted by the very man upon whom—if the disclosure must be made—her evening thoughts had centred. he was coming up with a quick step on the road from prior’s ash. seeing cecil, he turned off to accost her, his heart beating.
beating with the slight ascent, or with the sight of cecil? he best knew. many a man’s heart has beaten at a less lovely vision. she wore her favourite attire, white, set off with blue ribbons, and her golden hair gleamed in the sunlight. she almost exclaimed with surprise. she had been thinking of him, it is true, but as one who was miles and miles away. in spite of his stormy and not long-past rejection, lord averil went straight up to her and held out his hand. did he notice that her blue eyes dropped beneath his, as she rose to answer his greeting; that the soft colour on her cheeks changed to a glowing damask?
“i fear i have surprised you,” said lord averil.
“a little,” acknowledged cecil. “i did not know you were at prior’s ash. thomas will be glad to see you.”
she turned to walk with him to the house, as in courtesy bound. lord averil offered her his arm, and cecil condescended to put the tips of her fingers within it. neither broke the silence; perhaps neither could break it; and they reached the large porch of ashlydyat. cecil spoke then.
“are you going to make a long stay in the country?”
“a very short one. a party of friends are departing for canada, and they wish me to make one of them. i think i shall do so.”
“to canada!” echoed cecil. “so far away!”
lord averil smiled. “it sounds farther than it really is. i am an old traveller, you know.”
cecil opened the dining-room door. thomas was alone. he had left the table, and was seated in his armchair at the window. a glad smile illumined his face when he saw lord averil. lord averil was one of the very few of whom thomas godolphin could make a close friend. these close friends! not above one, or two, can we meet with in a lifetime. acquaintances many; but friends—those to whom the heart can speak out its inmost thoughts, who may be as our own soul—how few!
cecil left them alone. she ran off to tell janet that lord averil[245] had come, and would perhaps take tea with them, were he invited to do so. thomas, with more hospitable ideas, was pressing dinner upon him. it could be brought back at once.
“i have dined at the bell,” replied lord averil. “not any, thank you,” he added, as thomas was turning to the wine. “i have taken all i require.”
“have you come to make a long stay?” inquired thomas—as cecil had done.
“i shall go back to town to-morrow. having nothing to do with myself this evening, i thought i could not spend it better than with you. i am pleased to see that you are looking yourself.”
“the warm weather seems to be doing me good,” was thomas godolphin’s reply, a consciousness within him how little better he really was. “why are you making so short a stay?”
“well, as it turns out, my journey has been a superfluous one. those bonds that you hold of mine brought me down,” continued lord averil, little thinking that he was doing mischief by mentioning the subject to mr. godolphin. “i am going to sell out, and came down to get them.”
“why did you not write?” said thomas. “we could have sent them to you.”
“i did write, a week or ten days ago, and your brother wrote me word in answer that the bonds should be sent—or something to that effect. but they never came. having nothing much to do, i thought i would run down for them. i also wanted to see max. but he is away.”
“i believe he is,” replied thomas. “have you got the bonds?”
“it has proved a useless journey, i say,” replied lord averil. “the bonds, i find, are in town, at your agents’.”
thomas godolphin looked up with surprise. “they are not in town,” he said. “what should bring them in town? who told you that?”
“your brother george.”
“george told you the bonds were in town?” repeated thomas, as if he could not believe his ears.
“he did indeed: not three hours ago. why? are they not in town?”
“most certainly not. the bonds are in our strong-room, where they were first deposited. they have never been moved from it. what could george have been thinking of?”
“to tell you the truth, i did not fancy he appeared over-certain himself, where they were, whether here or in town,” said lord averil. “at length he remembered that they were in town: he said they had gone up with other deeds.”
“he makes a mistake,” said thomas. “he must be confounding your bonds with some that we sent up the other day of lord cavemore’s. and yet, i wonder that he should do so! lord cavemore’s went up for a particular purpose, and george himself took the instructions. lord cavemore consulted him upon the business altogether.”
“then—if my bonds are here—can i have them at once?” asked lord averil.
[246]“you can have them the instant the bank opens to-morrow morning. in fact, you might have them to-night if george should happen to be at home. i am sorry you should have had any trouble about it.”
lord averil smiled. “speaking frankly, i do not fancy george is so much a man of business as you are. when i first asked for the bonds, nearly a month ago, he appeared to be quite at sea about them; not to know what i meant, or to remember that you held bonds of mine.”
“did you ask for the bonds a month ago?” exclaimed thomas.
“about that time. it was when you were in london. george at last remembered.”
“did he not give them to you?”
“no. he said—— i almost forget what he said. that he did not know where to put his hands upon them, i think, in your absence.”
thomas felt vexed. he wondered what could have possessed george to behave in so unbusiness-like a way: or how it was possible for him to have blundered so about the bonds. but he would not blame his brother to lord averil. “you shall have the bonds the first thing in the morning,” he said. “i will drop a note to george, reminding him where they are, in case i am not at the bank early enough for you.”
unusually well felt thomas godolphin that evening. he proceeded with lord averil to the drawing-room to his sisters; and a very pleasant hour or two they all spent together. bessy laughed at lord averil a great deal about his proposed canadian expedition, telling him she did not believe he seriously entertained it.
it was a genial night, soft, warm, and lovely, the moon bright again. the church clocks at prior’s ash were striking ten when lord averil rose to leave ashlydyat. “if you will wait two minutes for me, i will go a little way with you,” said thomas godolphin.
he withdrew to another room, penned a line, and despatched it by a servant to the bank. then he rejoined lord averil, passed his arm within his lordship’s, and went out with him.
“is this canada project a joke?” asked he.
“indeed, no. i have not quite made up my mind to go. i think i shall do so. if so, i shall be away in a week from this. why should i not go? i have no settled home, no ties.”
“should you not—i beg your pardon, averil—be the happier for a settled home? you might form ties. i think a roving life must be the least desirable one of all.”
“it is one i was never fitted for. my inclination would lead me to home, to domestic happiness. but, as you know, i put that out of my power.”
“for a time. but that is over. you might marry again.”
“i do not suppose i ever shall,” returned lord averil, feeling half prompted to tell his unsuspicious friend that his own sister was the barrier to his doing so. “you have never married,” he resumed, allowing the impulse to die away.
thomas godolphin shook his head. “the cases are different,” he said. “in your wife you lost one whom you could not regret——”
“don’t call her by that name, godolphin!” burst forth lord averil.
[247]“and in ethel i lost one who was all the world to me; who could never be replaced,” thomas went on, after a pause. “the cases are widely different.”
“ay, widely different,” assented lord averil.
they walked on in silence, each buried in his own thoughts. at the commencement of the road, lord averil stopped and took thomas godolphin’s hand in his.
“you shall not come any farther with me.”
thomas stopped also. he had not intended to go farther. “you will really start for canada?”
“i believe i shall.”
“take my blessing with you then, averil. we may never meet again in this world.”
“what?” exclaimed lord averil.
“the medical men entertain hopes that my life may not be terminated so speedily: i believe that a few months will end it. i may not live to welcome you home.”
it was the first intimation lord averil had received of thomas godolphin’s fatal malady. thomas explained it to him. he was overwhelmed.
“oh, my friend! my friend! cannot death be defied, or coaxed to spare you?” he called out in his pain. how many have vainly echoed the same cry!
a few more words, a long grasp of the lingering hands, and they parted. thomas with a god-speed; lord averil with a different prayer—a god-save—upon his lips. the peer turned to prior’s ash; thomas godolphin towards home.
not by the path he had come. he had brought lord averil down the broad entrance to ashlydyat: he turned to go round the path by the ash-trees in front of the dark plain. possibly he had a mind to see whether the shadow was abroad to-night.
before he had well turned the corner of the trees, or had given more than a glance to the black shadow—for there it was—he heard hasty footsteps behind him. looking round, he beheld lord averil. softened by the parting, by the tidings he had heard, an impulse had taken lord averil that he would speak of cecil: and he turned back to do so.
“godolphin, i—— what’s that?”
the great black shadow, stretching out there in the distance, had attracted the attention of lord averil. he stood with his forefinger extended, pointed towards it.
“that is what they call the shadow of ashlydyat,” quietly replied thomas godolphin.
lord averil had never before seen it. he had heard enough of it. attentively regarding it, he did not for some time speak.
“do you believe in it?” he asked at length.
“believe in it?” repeated thomas godolphin. “i believe that a shadow does appear there on occasions. i cannot believe otherwise, with that ocular demonstration before me.”
“and how do you account for it?” asked lord averil.
“i have been all my life trying to do so. and have come to the conclusion that it is not to be accounted for.”
[248]“but i have always treated the report as the most perfect folly,” rejoined lord averil.
“ay. no doubt. as i should do but for that”—and thomas godolphin nodded towards the shadow, on which the peer’s eyes were fixed with an intense gaze. “you and i are rational beings, averil, not likely to be led away by superstitious folly; we live in an enlightened age, little tolerant of such things. and yet, here we stand, gazing with dispassionate eyes on that shadow, in full possession of our sober judgment. it is there; we see it: and that is all we can tell about it. the shadow of ashlydyat is ridiculed from one end of the county to the other: spoken of—when spoken of at all—as an absurd superstition of the godolphins. but there the shadow is: and not all the ridicule extant can do away with the plain fact. i see it: but i cannot explain it.”
“what do you do about it?”
lord averil asked the question in his bewilderment. a smile crossed thomas godolphin’s lips as he answered.
“we do nothing. we can do nothing. we cannot prevent its coming; we cannot send it away when it comes; we cannot bring it if it does not come of its own accord. if i reason about it for a month, averil, i could give you no better explanation than this.”
lord averil drew a deep breath, as one awaking from a reverie. as thomas godolphin said: there was the shadow, visible to his eyes, his senses: but of explanation as to its cause, there was none. the little episode had driven away the impulse to speak of cecil: and, after another hand pressure, he finally turned away, and pursued his walk to prior’s ash.
another was also pursuing his walk to prior’s ash; indeed, had nearly gained it; and that was thomas godolphin’s messenger. approaching the bank residence, he distinguished some one standing at the entrance, and found that it was mr. george godolphin.
“what’s this?” asked george. “a letter?”
“my master sent me down with it, sir.”
george turned it about in his hand. “does it require an answer, do you know, andrew?”
“no, sir. my master said i need not wait.”
the man departed, and george carried the note into the dining-room. maria sat there reading, underneath the chandelier. she looked pleased to see her husband, and closed the book. george had been out all the evening. he stood opposite to maria, and tore the note open.
“dear george,
“lord averil’s bonds are in his case in the strong-room. how could you make so great a mistake as to tell him they had gone up to town? i send you word, lest he should call for them in the morning before i reach the bank.
“ever yours,
“thomas godolphin.”
then the disclosure must come! with a word, that was very[249] like a groan, george crushed the paper in his hand. maria heard the sound.
“what is it, george?”
“nothing. what? this? only a note from thomas.”
he began whistling lightly, to cover his real feelings, and took up the book maria had closed. “is it entertaining?” asked he, turning over its pages.
“very. it is a charming book. but that i had it to read, i should have been lying on the sofa. i have a very bad headache to-night.”
“go to bed,” responded george.
“i think i must. perhaps you will not care to come so early?”
“never mind me. i have an hour or two’s work to do in the bank to-night.”
“oh, george!”
“my dear, it need not keep you up.”
“george, i cannot think how it is that you have night-work to do!” she impulsively exclaimed, after a pause. “i am sure thomas would not wish you to do it. i think i shall ask him.”
george turned round and grasped her shoulder, quite sharply. “maria!”
his grasp, i say, was sharp, his look and voice were imperatively stern. maria felt frightened: she scarcely knew why. “what have i done?” she asked, timidly.
“understand me, please, once for all. what i choose to do, does not regard my brother thomas. i will have no tales carried to him.”
“why do you mistake me so?” she answered, when she had a little recovered her surprise. “it cannot be well for you, or pleasant for you, to have so much work to do at night, and i thought thomas would have told you not to do it. tales! george, you know i should never tell them of you.”
“no, no; i know you would not, maria. i have been idle of late, and am getting up my work; that’s all: but it would not do to let thomas know it. you—you don’t tell isaac that i sit up at the books?” he cried, almost in an accent of terror.
she looked up at him wonderingly, through her wet eyelashes. “surely, no! should i be likely to speak to isaac of what you do? or to any one?”
george folded her in his arms, kissing the tears from her face. “go to bed at once, darling, and sleep your headache off,” he fondly whispered. “i shall be up soon; as soon as i can.”
he lighted her candle and gave it to her. as maria took it, she remembered something she wished to say to him. “when will it be convenient to you to give me some money, george?”
“what for?”
“oh, you know. for housekeeping. the bills are getting so heavy, and the tradespeople are beginning to ask for their money. the servants want their wages, too. would it not be better to pay regularly, as we used to do, instead of letting things run on so long?”
“ay. i’ll see about it,” replied george.
george had got into the habit of giving the same answer, when asked by his wife for money. she had asked several times lately; but all the[250] satisfaction she received was, “i’ll see about it.” not a suspicion that his means were running short ever crossed her brain.
she went upstairs and retired to rest, soon falling asleep. her head was heavy. the household went to bed; george shut himself into the bank—according to his recent custom; and the house was soon wrapped in quiet—as a sober house should be.
two o’clock was striking from all souls’ clock when maria awoke. why should she have done so?—there was no noise to startle her. all she knew—and it is all that a great many of us know—was, that she did awake.
to her astonishment, george was not in bed. two o’clock!—and he had said that he should soon follow her! a vague feeling of alarm stole over maria.
all sorts of improbable suggestions crowded on her imagination. imaginations, you know, are more fantastic in the dark, still night, than in the busy day. had he been taken ill? had he fallen asleep at his work? could he—could he have set the books and himself on fire? had a crown been offered to maria, she could not have remained tranquil a moment longer.
slightly dressing herself, she threw on a warm dressing-gown, and stole down the stairs. passing through the door that divided the dwelling from the bank, she softly turned the handle of george’s room, and opened it. secure in the house being at rest, he had not locked the doors against interruption.
the tables seemed strewed with books, but george was not then occupied with them. he was sitting in a chair apart, buried, as it appeared—in thought, his hands and his head alike drooping listlessly. he started up at maria’s entrance.
“i grew alarmed, george,” she said, trying to explain her appearance. “i awoke suddenly, and finding you had not come up, i grew frightened, thinking you might be ill. it is two o’clock!”
“what made you come down out of your warm bed?” reiterated george. “you’ll catch your death.”
“i was frightened, i say. will you not come up now?”
“i am coming directly,” replied george. “go back at once. you’ll be sure to take cold.”
maria turned to obey. somehow the dark passages struck on her with a nervous dread. she shrank into the room again.
“i don’t care to go up alone,” she cried. “i have no light.”
“how foolish!” he exclaimed. “i declare meta would be braver!”
some nervous feeling did certainly appear to be upon her, for she burst into tears. george’s tone—a tone of irritation, it had been—was exchanged for one of soothing tenderness, as he bent over her. “what is the matter with you to-night, maria? i’ll light you up.”
“i don’t know what is the matter with me,” she answered, suppressing her sobs. “i have not felt in good spirits of late. george, sometimes i think you are not well. you are a great deal changed in your manner to me. have i—have i displeased you in any way?”
“you displeased me! no, my darling.”
he spoke with impulsive fondness. well had it been for george godolphin had no heavier care been upon him than any little displeasure[251] his wife could give him. the thought occurred to him with strange bitterness.
“i’ll light you up, maria,” he repeated. “i shall not be long after you.”
and, taking the heavy lamp from the table, he carried it to the outer passage, and held it while she went up the stairs. then he returned to the room and to his work—whatever that work might be.
vain work! vain, delusive, useless work! as you will soon find, mr. george godolphin.
morning came. whether gnawing care or hopeful joy may lie in the heart’s inner dwelling-place, people generally meet at their breakfast-tables as usual.
george godolphin sat at breakfast with his wife. maria was in high spirits: her indisposition of the previous evening had passed away. she was telling george an anecdote of meta, as she poured out the coffee, some little ruse the young lady had exercised, to come over margery; and maria laughed heartily as she told it. george laughed in echo: as merrily as his wife. there must have been two george godolphins surely at that moment! the outer, presented to the world, gay, smiling, and careless; the inner, kept for his own private and especial delectation, grim, dark, and ghastly.
breakfast was nearly over, when there was heard a clattering of little feet, the door burst open, and miss meta appeared in a triumphant shout of laughter. she had eluded margery’s vigilance, and eloped from the nursery. margery speedily followed, scolding loudly, her hands stretched forth to seize the runaway. but meta had bounded to her papa, and found a refuge.
george caught her up on his knee: his hair—the same shade once, but somewhat darker now—mixing with the light golden locks of the child, as he took from her kiss after kiss. to say that george godolphin was passionately fond of his child would not be speaking too strongly: few fathers can love a child more ardently than george loved meta. a pretty little lovable thing she was! look at her on george’s knee! her dainty white frock, its sleeves tied up with blue, her pretty socks and shoes, her sunny face, surrounded by its shower of curls. margery scolded in the doorway, but miss meta, little heeding, was casting her inquisitive eyes on the breakfast-table, to see what there might be especially nice upon it.
“if you’d just please to punish her once for it, sir, she wouldn’t do it, maybe, in future!” grumbled margery. “naughty girl!”
“i think i must,” said george. “shall i whip you, meta?”
meta shouted out a joyous little laugh in answer, turned her face round, and clung to him lovingly. she knew what his “whippings” meant.
“but if margery says so?”
“margery nobody,” responded meta, bustling her face round to the table again. “mamma, may i have some of that?”
maria hesitated. “that” was some tempting-looking breakfast-dish, very good, no doubt, for george, but very rich for meta. george, however, drew it towards him, and cut her a little, claiming for his reward as many kisses as meta’s impatience would accord him. margery went off in a temper.
[252]“no wonder the child despises her bread and milk in the morning! if i had fed you upon those spiced things, mr. george, when you were a child, i wonder whether you’d have grown into the strong man you are!”
“into a stronger,” called out george. he as much liked to give a word of teasing now and then to margery as he had in the old days she referred to. margery retorted with some answer, which he did not hear, and george laughed. laughed loud and merrily, and again bent his face to meta’s.
but he could not remain all day long in that scene of peace. oh, if we only could! those who have to go out to battle with the daily world. if there were only a means of closing the door on the woes that turn a man’s hair white before its time!
george took meta a triumphal ride round the room on his shoulder, and then, having extorted his payment, put her down by maria. going into the bank to his day’s work. his day’s work! rather an embarrassing one, that day, mr. george godolphin!
taking the keys of the strong-room from the cupboard, also certain other keys, as he had done once before within the knowledge of the reader, he proceeded to the strong-room, opened a certain safe in it, and took out the box inscribed “lord averil.” this he also opened, and examined its contents. mr. george godolphin was searching for certain bonds: or, making believe to search for them. having satisfied himself that they were not there, he returned the box to its place, made all safe again, went back, and sat down to open the morning letters. presently he called to a clerk.
“has mr. hurde come?”
“yes, sir.”
“desire him to step here.”
the old clerk came, in obedience to the summons, taking off his spectacles as he entered to rub one of their glasses, which had got misty. george leaned his elbow on the table, and, resting his chin upon his hand, looked him full in the face.
“hurde,” said he, plunging midway into his communication, which he made in a lone tone, “those bonds of lord averil’s are missing.”
the clerk paused, as if scarcely understanding. “how do you mean, sir? missing in what way?”
“i can’t find them,” replied george.
“they are in lord averil’s box in the strong-room, sir, with his other papers.”
“but they are not there,” replied george. “i have searched the papers through this morning. hurde, we have had some roguery at work.”
another pause, devoted by mr. hurde to revolving the communication. “roguery!” he slowly repeated. “have you missed anything else, mr. george?”
“no. i have not looked.”
“oh, sir, there’s no fear of anything being wrong,” resumed the old clerk, his good sense repudiating the notion. “mr. godolphin must have moved them.”
“that’s just what i thought until last night,” said george. “the[253] fact is, lord averil asked me for these bonds some little time ago, while my brother was in london. i opened the box, and, not seeing them there, came to the conclusion that mr. godolphin had moved them. lord averil said it was of no consequence then, and departed for london: and the thing slipped from my memory. when you spoke to me about it last evening, of course i felt vexed to have forgotten it, and i put off lord averil with the best excuse i could.”
“and has mr. godolphin not moved them, sir?” demanded the clerk.
“it appears not. he dropped me a line last night, saying i should find the bonds in their place in the box. i suppose lord averil was up at ashlydyat and mentioned it. but i can’t find them in the box.”
“sir, you know you are not a very good searcher,” observed mr. hurde, after some consideration. “once or twice that you have searched for deeds, mr. godolphin has found them afterwards, overlooked by you. shall i go carefully over the box, sir? i think they must be in it.”
“i tell you, hurde, they are not.”
he spoke somewhat fractiously. fully aware that he had occasionally overlooked deeds, in his haste or carelessness, perhaps the contrast between those times and these, gave a sting to his manner. then, whether the deeds had been found or not, he was innocent: now——
“but, if they are not in the box, where can they be?” resumed mr. hurde.
“there it is,” said george. “where can they be? i say, hurde, that some light fingers must have been at work.”
mr. hurde considered the point in his mind. it seemed that he could not adopt the conclusion readily. “i should think not, sir. if nothing else is missing, i should say certainly not.”
“they are missing, at any rate,” returned george. “it will put mr. godolphin out terribly. i wish there had been any means of keeping it from him: but, now that lord averil has mentioned the bonds to him, there are none. i shall get the blame. he will think i have not kept the keys securely.”
“but you have, sir, have you not?”
“for all i know i have,” replied george, assuming a carelessness as to the point, of which he had not been guilty. “allowing that i had not, for argument’s sake, what dishonest person can we have about us, hurde, who would use the advantage to his own profit?”
mr. hurde began calling over the list of clerks, preparatory to considering whether any one of them could be considered in the least degree doubtful. he was engaged in this mental process, when a clerk interrupted them, to say that a gentleman was asking to see mr. george godolphin.
george looked up sharply. the applicant, however, was not lord averil, and any one else would be more tolerable to him on that day than his lordship; mr. godolphin, perhaps, excepted. as the old clerk was withdrawing to give place to the visitor, george caught sight, through the open door, of mr. godolphin entering the office. an im[254] pulse to throw the disclosure off his own shoulders, prompted him to hasten after mr. hurde.
“hurde,” he whispered, catching his arm, “you may as well make the communication to mr. godolphin. he ought to know it at once, and i may be engaged some time.”
so george remained shut up, and the old clerk followed thomas godolphin to his private room. mr. godolphin felt well that morning, and had come unusually early: possibly lest there should be any further blundering over lord averil’s bonds. he looked somewhat surprised to see the old clerk approaching him with a long face and mysterious look.
“do you want me, hurde?”
“mr. george has desired me to speak to you, sir, about those bonds of lord averil’s. to make an unpleasant communication, in fact. he is engaged himself, just now. he says he can’t find them.”
“they are in the strong-room, in lord averil’s case,” replied mr. godolphin.
“he says they are not there, sir: that he can’t find them.”
“but they are there,” returned thomas. “they have not been moved out of the box since they were first placed in it.”
he spoke quietly as he ever did, but very firmly, almost as if he were disputing the point, or had been prepared to dispute it. mr. hurde resumed after some deliberation: he was a deliberate man always, both in temperament and in speech.
“what mr. george says, is this, sir: that when you were in london lord averil asked for his bonds. mr. george looked for them, and found they were not in the box; and he came to the conclusion that you had moved them. the affair escaped his memory, he says, until last night, when he was asked for them again. he has been searching the box this morning, but cannot find the bonds in it.”
“they must be there,” observed thomas godolphin. “if george has not moved them, i have not. he has a knack of overlooking things.”
“i said so to him, sir, just now. he——”
“do you say he is engaged?” interrupted thomas godolphin.
“the secretary of the railway company is with him, sir. i suppose he has come about that loan. i think the bonds can’t be anywhere but in the box, sir. i told mr. george so.”
“let me know when he is disengaged,” said thomas godolphin. and mr. hurde went out.
george godolphin was disengaged then. mr. hurde saw the gentleman, whom he had called the railway company’s secretary, departing. the next minute george godolphin came out of his room.
“have you mentioned that to my brother?” he asked of hurde.
“i have, sir. mr. godolphin thinks that you must be mistaken.”
george went in to his brother, shook hands, and said he was glad to see him so early. “it is a strange thing about these bonds,” he continued, without giving thomas time to speak.
“you have overlooked them,” said thomas. “bring me the keys, and i will go and get them.”
“i assure you they are not there.”
[255]“they must be there, george. bring me the keys.”
george godolphin produced the key of the strong-room, and of the safe, and lord averil’s box was examined by thomas godolphin. the bonds in question were not in it: and thomas, had he missed himself, could scarcely have been more completely astonished.
“george, you must have moved them,” were the first words he spoke.
“not i,” said george, lightly. “where should i move them to?”
“but no one has power to get into that room, or to penetrate to the safe and the box after it, except you and myself,” urged mr. godolphin. “unless, indeed, you have allowed the keys to stray from your keeping.”
“i have not done that,” answered george. “this seems to be perfectly unaccountable.”
“how came you to tell averil last night that the bonds had gone to london?”
“well, the fact is, i did not know what to tell him,” replied george. “when i first missed the bonds, when you were in london——”
“why did you not let me know then that they were missing?” was the interruption.
“i forgot it when you returned home.”
“but you should not have allowed yourself the possibility of forgetting a thing like that,” remonstrated thomas. “upon missing deeds of that value, or in fact of any value however slight, you should have communicated with me the very same hour. george,” he added, after a pause, which george did not break: “i cannot understand how it was that you did not see the necessity of it yourself.”
george godolphin was running his hand through his hair—in an absent manner, lost in thought; in—as might be conjectured—contemplation of the past time referred to. “how was i to think anything but that you had moved the deeds?” he said.
“at all events, you should have ascertained. why, george, were i to miss deeds that i believed to be in a given place, i could not rest a night without inquiring after them. i might assume—and there might be every probability for it—that you had moved them; but my sleep would be ruined until i ascertained the fact.”
george made no reply. i wonder where he was wishing himself? mr. godolphin resumed.
“in this instance, i do not see how you could have come to the conclusion that i had touched the bonds. where did you think i was likely to move them to?”
george could not tell—and said so. it was not impossible, but thomas might have sent them to town—or have handed them back to lord averil, he continued to murmur, in a somewhat confused manner. thomas looked at him: he could scarcely make him out, but supposed the loss had affected his equanimity.
“had you regarded it dispassionately, george, i think you would have seen it in a more serious light. i should not be likely to move the bonds to a different place of keeping, without your cognizance: and as to returning them to lord averil, the transaction would have appeared in the books.”
“i am sorry i forgot to mention it to you,” said george.
[256]“that you could have forgotten it, and continued to forget it until now, passes all belief. has there never been a moment at any time, george, in this last month that it has recurred to your memory?”
“well, perhaps there may have been; just a casual thought,” acknowledged george. “i can’t be sure.”
“and yet you did not speak to me?”
“in your present state of health, i was willing to spare you unnecessary anxiety——”
“stay, george. if you really assumed that i had moved the deeds, asking me the question could not have been productive of anxiety. if any fear, such as that the deeds were missing without my agency, only crossed your mind as a suggestion, it was your bounden duty to acquaint me with it.”
“i wish i could have dealt with the matter now without acquainting you,” returned george. “did not the london doctors warn you that repose of mind was essential to you?”
“george,” was the impressive answer, and thomas had his hand upon his brother’s arm as he spoke it, “so long as i pretend to transact business, to come to this bank, and sit here, its master, so long do i desire and request to be considered equal to discharging its duties efficiently. when i can no longer do that, i will withdraw from it. never again suffer my state of health to be a plea for keeping matters from me, however annoying or complicated they may be.”
thomas godolphin spent half that day in looking into other strong boxes, lest perchance the missing deeds should have got into any—though he did not see how that could be. they could not be found; but, neither did any other paper of consequence, so far as could be discovered, appear to have gone. thomas could not account for the loss in any way, or conjecture why it should have occurred, or who had taken the bonds. it was made known in the bank that a packet of deeds was missing; but full particulars were not given.
there was no certain data to go upon, as to the time of the loss. george godolphin stated that he had missed them a month ago; thomas, when visiting lord averil’s box for some purpose about four months ago, had seen the deeds there, secure. they must have disappeared between those periods. the mystery was—how? the clerks could not get to the strong-room and to the safes and cases in it, unless by some strange accident; by some most unaccountable neglect. very great neglect it would have been, to allow them the opportunity of getting to one key; but to obtain three or four, as was necessary before those deeds could have been taken, and to obtain them undiscovered, was next door to an impossibility. the internal arrangements in the house of godolphin, crosse, and godolphin were of a stringent nature; sir george godolphin had been a most particular man in business. conjecture upon conjecture was hazarded: theory after theory discussed. when mr. hurde found the deeds were really gone, his amazement was excessive, his trouble great. george, as soon as he could, stole away from the discussion. he had got over his part, better perhaps than he had expected: all that remained now, was to make the best of the loss—and to institute a search for the deeds.
[257]“i can’t call to mind a single one of them who would do it, or be likely to do it,” remarked mr. hurde to his master.
“of whom?”
“of the clerks in the house, sir. but, one of them, it must have been.”
“a stranger it could not have been,” replied thomas godolphin. “had a midnight plunderer got into the bank, he would not have contented himself with one packet of deeds.”
“whoever took them, sir, took them to make money upon them. there’s not a doubt of that. i wonder—i wonder——”
“what?” asked mr. godolphin.
“i wonder—i have often wondered, sir—whether layton does not live above his income. if so——”
“hurde,” said thomas godolphin gravely, “i believe layton to be as honest as you or i.”
“well—i have always thought him so, or i should pretty soon have spoken. but, sir, the deeds must have gone somehow, by somebody’s hands: and layton is the least unlikely of all. i see him on a sunday driving his new wife out in a gig. she plays the piano, too!”
how these items in the domestic economy of the clerk, layton, could bear upon the loss of the deeds, especially the latter item, mr. hurde did not further explain. he was of the old school, seeing no good in gigs, still less in pianos; and he determined to look a little after mr. layton.
thomas godolphin, straightforward and honourable, imparted to lord averil the fact of the deeds being missing. whether he would have revealed it to a less intimate client at this early stage of the affair, might be a matter of speculation. the house would not yet call them lost, he said to lord averil: it trusted, by some fortunate accident, to put its hands upon them, in some remote pigeon-hole. lord averil received the communication with courteous friendliness: he thought it must prove that they had only been mislaid, and he hoped they would be found. both gentlemen hoped that sincerely. the value of the deeds was about sixteen thousand pounds: too much for either of them to lose with equanimity.
“george must have known of this when i asked him for the deeds a month ago,” observed lord averil.
“i think not,” replied thomas godolphin. “it was your asking for the deeds which caused him to search the box for them, and he then found they were gone.”
“perhaps you are right. but i remember thinking his manner peculiar.”
“how ‘peculiar’?” inquired thomas.
“hesitating: uncertain. he appeared, at first, not to know what i meant in asking for the deeds. since you spoke to me of the loss, it struck me as accounting for george’s manner—that he did not like to tell me of it.”
“he could not have known of it then,” repeated thomas godolphin.
as this concluding part of the conversation took place, they were coming out of the room. isaac hastings was passing along the passage, and heard a portion of it.
[258]“are they deeds of lord averil’s that are missing?” he inquired confidentially of mr. hurde, later in the day.
the old clerk nodded an affirmative. “but you need not proclaim it there,” he added, by way of caution, glancing sideways at the clerks.
“do you suppose i should do so?” returned isaac hastings.
