robert audley sat alone in the library with the physician's letter upon the table before him, thinking of the work which was still to be done.
the young barrister had constituted himself the denouncer of this wretched woman. he had been her judge; and he was now her jailer. not until he had delivered the letter which lay before him to its proper address, not until he had given up his charge into the safe-keeping of the foreign mad-house doctor, not until then would the dreadful burden be removed from him and his duty done.
he wrote a few lines to my lady, telling her that he was going to carry her away from audley court to a place from which she was not likely to return, and requesting her to lose no time in preparing for the journey. he wished to start that evening, if possible, he told her.
miss susan martin, the lady's maid, thought it a very hard thing to have to pack her mistress' trunks in such a hurry, but my lady assisted in the task. she toiled resolutely in directing and assisting her servant, who scented bankruptcy and ruin in all this packing up and hurrying away, and was therefore rather languid and indifferent in the discharge of her duties; and at six o'clock in the evening she sent her attendant to tell mr. audley that she was ready to depart as soon as he pleased.
robert had consulted a volume of bradshaw, and had discovered that villebrumeuse lay out of the track of all railway traffic, and was only approachable by diligence from brussels. the mail for dover left london bridge at nine o'clock, and could be easily caught by robert and his charge, as the seven o'clock up-train from audley reached shoreditch at a quarter past eight. traveling by the dover and calais route, they would reach villebrumeuse by the following afternoon or evening.
it was late in the afternoon of the next day when the diligence bumped and rattled over the uneven paving of the principal street in villebrumeuse.
robert audley and my lady had had the coupé of the diligence to themselves for the whole of the journey, for there were not many travelers between brussels and villebrumeuse, and the public conveyance was supported by the force of tradition rather than any great profit attaching to it as a speculation.
my lady had not spoken during the journey, except to decline some refreshments which robert had offered her at a halting place upon the road. her heart sunk when they left brussels behind, for she had hoped that city might have been the end of her journey, and she had turned with a feeling of sickness and despair from the dull belgian landscape.
she looked up at last as the vehicle jolted into a great stony quadrangle, which had been the approach to a monastery once, but which was now the court yard of a dismal hotel, in whose cellars legions of rats skirmished and squeaked even while the broad sunshine was bright in the chambers above.
lady audley shuddered as she alighted from the diligence, and found herself in that dreary court yard. robert was surrounded by chattering porters, who clamored for his "baggages," and disputed among themselves as to the hotel at which he was to rest. one of these men ran away to fetch a hackney-coach at mr. audley's behest, and reappeared presently, urging on a pair of horses—which were so small as to suggest the idea that they had been made out of one ordinary-sized animal—with wild shrieks and whoops that had a demoniac sound in the darkness.
mr. audley left my lady in a dreary coffee-room in the care of a drowsy attendant while he drove away to some distant part of the quiet city. there was official business to be gone through before sir michael's wife could be quietly put away in the place suggested by dr. mosgrave. robert had to see all manner of important personages; and to take numerous oaths; and to exhibit the english physician's letter; and to go through much ceremony of signing and countersigning before he could take his lost friend's cruel wife to the home which was to be her last upon earth. upward of two hours elapsed before all this was arranged, and the young man was free to return to the hotel, where he found his charge staring absently at a pair of wax-candles, with a cup of untasted coffee standing cold and stagnant before her.
robert handed my lady into the hired vehicle, and took his seat opposite to her once more.
"where are you going to take me?" she asked, at last. "i am tired of being treated like some naughty child, who is put into a dark cellar as a punishment for its offenses. where are you taking me?"
"to a place in which you will have ample leisure to repent the past, mrs. talboys," robert answered, gravely.
they had left the paved streets behind them, and had emerged out of a great gaunt square, in which there appeared to be about half a dozen cathedrals, into a small boulevard, a broad lamp-lit road, on which the shadows of the leafless branches went and came tremblingly, like the shadows of a paralytic skeleton. there were houses here and there upon this boulevard; stately houses, entre cour et jardin, and with plaster vases of geraniums on the stone pillars of the ponderous gateways. the rumbling hackney-carriage drove upward of three-quarters of a mile along this smooth roadway before it drew up against a gateway, older and more ponderous than any of those they had passed.
my lady gave a little scream as she looked out of the coach-window. the gaunt gateway was lighted by an enormous lamp; a great structure of iron and glass, in which one poor little shivering flame struggled with the march wind.
the coachman rang the bell, and a little wooden door at the side of the gate was opened by a gray-haired man, who looked out at the carriage, and then retired. he reappeared three minutes afterward behind the folding iron gates, which he unlocked and threw back to their full extent, revealing a dreary desert of stone-paved courtyard.
the coachman led his wretched horses into the courtyard, and piloted the vehicle to the principal doorway of the house, a great mansion of gray stone, with several long ranges of windows, many of which were dimly lighted, and looked out like the pale eyes of weary watchers upon the darkness of the night.
my lady, watchful and quiet as the cold stars in the wintry sky, looked up at these casements with an earnest and scrutinizing gaze. one of the windows was shrouded by a scanty curtain of faded red; and upon this curtain there went and came a dark shadow, the shadow of a woman with a fantastic head dress, the shadow of a restless creature, who paced perpetually backward and forward before the window.
sir michael audley's wicked wife laid her hand suddenly upon robert's arm, and pointed with the other hand to this curtained window.
"i know where you have brought me," she said. "this is a mad-house."
mr. audley did not answer her. he had been standing at the door of the coach when she addressed him, and he quietly assisted her to alight, and led her up a couple of shallow stone steps, and into the entrance-hall of the mansion. he handed dr. mosgrave's letter to a neatly-dressed, cheerful-looking, middle-aged woman, who came tripping out of a little chamber which opened out of the hall, and was very much like the bureau of an hotel. this person smilingly welcome robert and his charge: and after dispatching a servant with the letter, invited them into her pleasant little apartment, which was gayly furnished with bright amber curtains and heated by a tiny stove.
"madam finds herself very much fatigued?" the frenchwoman said, interrogatively, with a look of intense sympathy, as she placed an arm-chair for my lady.
"madam" shrugged her shoulders wearily, and looked round the little chamber with a sharp glance of scrutiny that betokened no very great favor.
"what is this place, robert audley?" she cried fiercely. "do you think i am a baby, that you may juggle with and deceive me—what is it? it is what i said just now, is it not?"
"it is a maison de santé, my lady," the young man answered, gravely. "i have no wish to juggle with or to deceive you."
my lady paused for a few moments, looking reflectively at robert.
"a maison de santé," she repeated. "yes, they manage these things better in france. in england we should call it a madhouse. this a house for mad people, this, is it not, madam?" she said in french, turning upon the woman, and tapping the polished floor with her foot.
"ah, but no, madam," the woman answered with a shrill scream of protest. "it is an establishment of the most agreeable, where one amuses one's self—"
she was interrupted by the entrance of the principal of this agreeable establishment, who came beaming into the room with a radiant smile illuminating his countenance, and with dr. mosgrave's letter open in his hand.
it was impossible to say how enchanted he was to make the acquaintance of m'sieu. there was nothing upon earth which he was not ready to do for m'sieu in his own person, and nothing under heaven which he would not strive to accomplish for him, as the friend of his acquaintance, so very much distinguished, the english doctor. dr. mosgrave's letter had given him a brief synopsis of the case, he informed robert, in an undertone, and he was quite prepared to undertake the care of the charming and very interesting "madam—madam—"
he rubbed his hands politely, and looked at robert. mr. audley remembered, for the first time, that he had been recommended to introduce his wretched charge under a feigned name.
he affected not to hear the proprietor's question. it might seem a very easy matter to have hit upon a heap of names, any one of which would have answered his purpose; but mr. audley appeared suddenly to have forgotten that he had ever heard any mortal appellation except that of himself and of his lost friend.
perhaps the proprietor perceived and understood his embarrassment. he at any rate relieved it by turning to the woman who had received them, and muttering something about no. 14, bis. the woman took a key from a long range of others, that hung over the mantel-piece, and a wax candle from a bracket in a corner of the room, and having lighted the candle, led the way across the stone-paved hall, and up a broad, slippery staircase of polished wood.
the english physician had informed his belgian colleague that money would be of minor consequence in any arrangements made for the comfort of the english lady who was to be committed to his care. acting upon this hint, monsieur val opened the outer door of a stately suite of apartments, which included a lobby, paved with alternate diamonds of black and white marble, but of a dismal and cellar-like darkness; a saloon furnished with gloomy velvet draperies, and with a certain funereal splendor which is not peculiarly conducive to the elevation of the spirits; and a bed-chamber, containing a bed so wondrously made, as to appear to have no opening whatever in its coverings, unless the counterpane had been split asunder with a pen-knife.
my lady stared dismally round at the range of rooms, which looked dreary enough in the wan light of a single wax-candle. this solitary flame, pale and ghost-like in itself, was multiplied by paler phantoms of its ghostliness, which glimmered everywhere about the rooms; in the shadowy depths of the polished floors and wainscot, or the window-panes, in the looking-glasses, or in those great expanses of glimmering something which adorned the rooms, and which my lady mistook for costly mirrors, but which were in reality wretched mockeries of burnished tin.
amid all the faded splendor of shabby velvet, and tarnished gilding, and polished wood, the woman dropped into an arm-chair, and covered her face with her hands. the whiteness of them, and the starry light of diamonds trembling about them, glittered in the dimly-lighted chamber. she sat silent, motionless, despairing, sullen, and angry, while robert and the french doctor retired to an outer chamber, and talked together in undertones. mr. audley had very little to say that had not been already said for him, with a far better grace than he himself could have expressed it, by the english physician. he had, after great trouble of mind, hit upon the name of taylor, as a safe and simple substitute for that other name, to which alone my lady had a right. he told the frenchman that this mrs. taylor was distantly related to him—that she had inherited the seeds of madness from her mother, as indeed dr. mosgrave had informed monsieur val; and that she had shown some fearful tokens of the lurking taint that was latent in her mind; but that she was not to be called "mad." he begged that she might be treated with all tenderness and compassion; that she might receive all reasonable indulgences; but he impressed upon monsieur val, that under no circumstances was she to be permitted to leave the house and grounds without the protection of some reliable person, who should be answerable for her safe-keeping. he had only one other point to urge, and that was, that monsieur val, who, as he had understood, was himself a protestant—the doctor bowed—would make arrangements with some kind and benevolent protestant clergyman, through whom spiritual advice and consolation might be secured for the invalid lady; who had especial need, robert added, gravely, of such advantages.
this—with all necessary arrangements as to pecuniary matters, which were to be settled from time to time between mr. audley and the doctor, unassisted by any agents whatever—was the extent of the conversation between the two men, and occupied about a quarter of an hour.
my lady sat in the same attitude when they re-entered the bedchamber in which they had left her, with her ringed hands still clasped over her face.
robert bent over to whisper in her ear.
"your name is madam taylor here," he said. "i do not think you would wish to be known by your real name."
she only shook her head in answer to him, and did not even remove her hands from over her face.
"madam will have an attendant entirely devoted to her service." said monsieur val. "madam will have all her wishes obeyed; her reasonable wishes, but that goes without saying," monsieur adds, with a quaint shrug. "every effort will be made to render madam's sojourn at villebrumeuse agreeable. the inmates dine together when it is wished. i dine with the inmates sometimes; my subordinate, a clever and a worthy man always. i reside with my wife and children in a little pavilion in the grounds; my subordinate resides in the establishment. madam may rely upon our utmost efforts being exerted to insure her comfort."
monsieur is saying a great deal more to the same effect, rubbing his hands and beaming radiantly upon robert and his charge, when madam rises suddenly, erect and furious, and dropping her jeweled fingers from before her face, tells him to hold his tongue.
"leave me alone with the man who has brought me here." she cried, between her set teeth. "leave me!"
she points to the door with a sharp, imperious gesture; so rapid that the silken drapery about her arm makes a swooping sound as she lifts her hand. the sibilant french syllables hiss through her teeth as she utters them, and seem better fitted to her mood and to herself than the familiar english she has spoken hitherto.
the french doctor shrugs his shoulders as he goes out into the lobby, and mutters something about a "beautiful devil," and a gesture worthy of "the mars." my lady walked with a rapid footstep to the door between the bed-chamber and the saloon; closed it, and with the handle of the door still in her hand, turned and looked at robert audley.
"you have brought me to my grave, mr. audley," she cried; "you have used your power basely and cruelly, and have brought me to a living grave."
"i have done that which i thought just to others and merciful to you," robert answered, quietly. "i should have been a traitor to society had i suffered you to remain at liberty after—the disappearance of george talboys and the fire at castle inn. i have brought you to a place in which you will be kindly treated by people who have no knowledge of your story—no power to taunt or to reproach you. you will lead a quiet and peaceful life, my lady; such a life as many a good and holy woman in this catholic country freely takes upon herself, and happily endures until the end. the solitude of your existence in this place will be no greater than that of a king's daughter, who, flying from the evil of the time, was glad to take shelter in a house as tranquil as this. surely, it is a small atonement which i ask you to render for your sins, a light penance which i call upon you to perform. live here and repent; nobody will assail you, nobody will torment you. i only say to you, repent!"
"i cannot!" cried my lady, pushing her hair fiercely from her white forehead, and fixing her dilated eyes upon robert audley, "i cannot! has my beauty brought me to this? have i plotted and schemed to shield myself and laid awake in the long deadly nights, trembling to think of my dangers, for this? i had better have given up at once, since this was to be the end. i had better have yielded to the curse that was upon me, and given up when george talboys first came back to england."
she plucked at the feathery golden curls as if she would have torn them from her head. it had served her so little after all, that gloriously glittering hair, that beautiful nimbus of yellow light that had contrasted so exquisitely with the melting azure of her eyes. she hated herself and her beauty.
"i would laugh at you and defy you, if i dared," she cried; "i would kill myself and defy you, if i dared. but i am a poor, pitiful coward, and have been so from the first. afraid of my mother's horrible inheritance; afraid of poverty; afraid of george talboys; afraid of you."
she was silent for a little while, but she held her place by the door, as if determined to detain robert as long as it was her pleasure to do so.
"do you know what i am thinking of?" she said, presently. "do you know what i am thinking of, as i look at you in the dim light of this room? i am thinking of the day upon which george talboys disappeared."
robert started as she mentioned the name of his lost friend; his face turned pale in the dusky light, and his breathing grew quicker and louder.
"he was standing opposite me, as you are standing now," continued my lady. "you said that you would raze the old house to the ground; that you would root up every tree in the gardens to find your dead friend. you would have had no need to do so much: the body of george talboys lies at the bottom of the old well, in the shrubbery beyond the lime-walk."
robert audley flung his hands and clasped them above his head, with one loud cry of horror.
"oh, my god!" he said, after a dreadful pause; "have all the ghastly things that i have thought prepared me so little for the ghastly truth, that it should come upon me like this at last?"
"he came to me in the lime-walk," resumed my lady, in the same hard, dogged tone as that in which she had confessed the wicked story of her life. "i knew that he would come, and i had prepared myself, as well as i could, to meet him. i was determined to bribe him, to cajole him, to defy him; to do anything sooner than abandon the wealth and the position i had won, and go back to my old life. he came, and he reproached me for the conspiracy at ventnor. he declared that so long as he lived he would never forgive me for the lie that had broken his heart. he told me that i had plucked his heart out of his breast and trampled upon it; and that he had now no heart in which to feel one sentiment of mercy for me. that he would have forgiven me any wrong upon earth, but that one deliberate and passionless wrong that i had done him. he said this and a great deal more, and he told me that no power on earth should turn him from his purpose, which was to take me to the man i had deceived, and make me tell my wicked story. he did not know the hidden taint that i had sucked in with my mother's milk. he did not know that it was possible to drive me mad. he goaded me as you have goaded me; he was as merciless as you have been merciless. we were in the shrubbery at the end of the lime-walk. i was seated upon the broken masonry at the mouth of the well. george talboys was leaning upon the disused windlass, in which the rusty iron spindle rattled loosely whenever he shifted his position. i rose at last, and turned upon him to defy him, as i had determined to defy him at the worst. i told him that if he denounced me to sir michael, i would declare him to be a madman or a liar, and i defied him to convince the man who loved me—blindly, as i told him—that he had any claim to me. i was going to leave him after having told him this, when he caught me by the wrist and detained me by force. you saw the bruises that his fingers made upon my wrist, and noticed them, and did not believe the account i gave of them. i could see that, mr. robert audley, and i saw that you were a person i should have to fear."
she paused, as if she had expected robert to speak; but he stood silent and motionless, waiting for the end.
"george talboys treated me as you treated me," she said, petulantly. "he swore that if there was but one witness of my identity, and that witness was removed from audley court by the width of the whole earth, he would bring him there to swear to my identity, and to denounce me. it was then that i was mad, it was then that i drew the loose iron spindle from the shrunken wood, and saw my first husband sink with one horrible cry into the black mouth of the well. there is a legend of its enormous depth. i do not know how deep it is. it is dry, i suppose, for i heard no splash, only a dull thud. i looked down and i saw nothing but black emptiness. i knelt down and listened, but the cry was not repeated, though i waited for nearly a quarter of an hour—god knows how long it seemed to me!—by the mouth of the well."
robert audley uttered a word of horror when the story was finished. he moved a little nearer toward the door against which helen talboys stood. had there been any other means of exit from the room, he would gladly have availed himself of it. he shrank from even a momentary contact with this creature.
"let me pass you, if you please," he said, in an icy voice.
"you see i do not fear to make my confession to you," said helen talboys; "for two reasons. the first is, that you dare not use it against me, because you know it would kill your uncle to see me in a criminal dock; the second is, that the law could pronounce no worse sentence than this—a life-long imprisonment in a mad-house. you see i do not thank you for your mercy, mr. robert audley, for i know exactly what it is worth."
she moved away from the door, and robert passed her without a word, without a look.
half an hour afterward he was in one of the principal hotels at villebrumeuse, sitting at a neatly-ordered supper-table, with no power to eat; with no power to distract his mind, even for a moment, from the image of that lost friend who had been treacherously murdered in the thicket at audley court.
