mention has been made of a certain mr. hodgson, as being the intermediary through whom john brancker and his sister received into their charge and keeping the little three-years-old child, hermia rivers. it has also been told how the said mr. hodgson was in the habit of calling upon john once a year, apparently with the object of satisfying himself that hermia was alive and well, and that everything, as far as she was concerned, was progressing satisfactorily.
mr. hodgson's annual visit, the date of which he made a point of communicating to john beforehand, had nearly always taken place during the month of april, but this year he wrote some weeks earlier than usual to announce that he might be looked for at nairn cottage on the following day. the letter came to hand about a week after john's departure for london; but miss brancker, feeling sure who it was from, made no scruple about opening it.
the notice given was so short that there was no time to communicate with john previously to mr. hodgson's arrival, so miss brancker, who had met the lawyer several times already, made up her mind to "tackle" him single-handed; indeed, she was rather glad than otherwise that on this occasion her brother happened to be out of the way. more than once since a certain discussion john had avowed his intention of turning over the twelve hundred pounds to mr. hodgson when next he saw him, and after explaining to him of what it consisted, telling him in plain terms that he would have nothing more to do with it. miss brancker, however, had other views in her mind as to the ultimate destination of the money of which she said nothing to anyone, and she was determined not to touch on the question with mr. hodgson.
there was one point as to which she decided that it might be advisable to enlighten her visitor. she would make no secret of hermia's engagement to clement hazeldine. if the girl had any parents or near relatives living, it seemed no more than right--their having discarded her when a child, notwithstanding--that such an important event in her life should be made known to them, although whether it would receive their sanction, supposing them to interest themselves in the matter at all, and what would be the result if it did not, were questions which the future alone could determine.
"in any case," said the spinster to herself, "if my telling mr. hodgson results in nothing else, it may, perhaps, have the effect of bringing to light some facts connected with hermia's parentage and the history of her early years. if the knowledge that she is engaged to be married fails to do so, we may give up all hope of ever learning more than we know at present."
mr. hodgson presented himself at the cottage in due course. he was a thin, dried-up atomy of a man, apparently close on seventy years of age, with a very remarkably developed aquiline nose--a nose which not infrequently caused irreverent boys to make rude remarks as he passed them in the street. miss brancker had told hermia that she was expecting him, and although the girl's color changed for the moment, she received the news with a sort of proud indifference, and as though it were a matter which could be of no possible concern to her.
"as it happens, mr. hodgson, my brother is away in london just now on important business," said aunt charlotte, "and, consequently, will be unable to see you."
"aye, aye; is that so? well, he could not have left me a more charming substitute," replied the lawyer, with a touch of old-fashioned gallantry. "and how is missy?"--it was the term he had always applied to hermia when she was a schoolgirl--"quite well and hearty, i trust."
"quite well, sir, i am happy to say. but probably you would like to see her."
"for a couple of minutes, if you have no objection, dear madam. i will not detain her long."
it had been the practice for mr. hodgson to dine at nairn cottage on each recurring annual visit, but john being away, it seemed to miss brancker out of the question that he should do so in the present instance. she had not, however, forgotten her visitor's fondness for old port, and a decanter of it, together with a plate of biscuits, was now brought in; whereupon, in obedience to his hostess's request, the old gentleman, nothing loth, proceeded to pour out for himself a glass of wine.
then miss brancker rang the bell again, and a few seconds later hermia, who had been expecting the summons, entered the room. a faint flush suffused her cheeks, but her manner was perfectly cool and composed.
mr. hodgson stood up and extended a withered hand, and peered at her through his gold-rimmed spectacles. "well, my dear, i trust that i see you in perfect health," he began; "but, indeed, you cannot be otherwise, if eyes and cheeks may be believed, and i am not aware that they are in the habit of telling untruths. upon my word, you are vastly improved--you may allow an old man to say so without offence--vastly improved since i saw you last."
hermia murmured something, withdrew her hand, and sat down a little distance away.
then there followed a little conversation, chiefly about the weather and such-like indifferent topics, in which hermia took no part, while mr. hodgson indulged in occasional appreciative sips at his wine. now that hermia had been told the object of his yearly visits, she could not help regarding him with a certain amount of curiosity and interest. in the brain behind that withered mask of a face lay hidden the secret of her birth and parentage; those pinched lips, had they but so willed, could doubtless have told her something about the mother of whom she retained no faintest recollection, if it were only her name and whether she was living or dead. but no question on the subject should ever escape her; the knowledge must come to her unsought if it were ever to come at all.
presently a timid ring at the front door made itself heard. "it is mrs. nokes," said aunt charlotte to hermia. "will you attend to her, dear?"
mrs. nokes was one of miss brancker's weekly pensioners. hermia was glad of an excuse for escaping from the room.
"there is one circumstance," mr. hodgson, "which it may, perhaps, be as well to mention to you," said miss brancker, as soon as they were alone. "hermia is engaged to be married."
the old gentleman fairly jumped in his chair. "bless my heart! engaged to be married? you surprise me, madam--you surprise me greatly! why was i not communicated with before now? why was i not consulted? why----?"
"my dear sir, you seem to forget that you have never favored us with your address. we know no more today where a letter would find you than we knew seventeen years ago when my brother and you had your first interview."
mr. hodgson stroked his chin and coughed. "to be sure--to be sure. for the moment that little fact had escaped my memory. still, it is most unfortunate. had i dreamed when i was here last that anything of the sort was likely to happen i would certainly have left you an address through which you could have communicated with me. but before discussing the matter further, i should like to be informed who and what the person is on whom miss rivers has seen fit to bestow her affections."
thereupon miss brancker proceeded to enlighten him: and one may be sure that the portrait of clement hazeldine which she drew for her visitor lacked nothing on the score of eulogy. the old lawyer listened in silence; when she had done, he said:
"then, it is your opinion that miss rivers is really in earnest in this affair, and that it is not one of those idle engagements into which--so i have been given to understand--numbers of young women drift for want of something better to do; and from which they emerge, if circumstances run contrary to their wishes, heart-whole and fancy-free, ready and eager to engage in the fray again, only, of course, with a different strephon?"
"hermia has nothing in common with the class of young women to whom you refer. that her affections are very deeply involved i am as certain as that i am now talking to you, nor have i any hesitation in saying that were she compelled to break off her engagement with clement hazeldine it would go far towards wrecking her happiness, if not for life, in any case for a long time to come."
"aye, aye!--is that so? your charming sex, my dear madam, are kittle cattle to deal with. the particular point at issue is, however, one as to which at present i can offer no decided opinion. as you will have surmised long ago, i am not acting in miss rivers' affairs for myself alone. i am merely an instrument, whose function it is to carry out the instructions deputed to me by others. all i can say just now is, that you shall hear from me at the earliest possible moment, and that, till then, matters may as well remain as they are."
after mr. hodgson was gone, miss brancker did not fail to call to mind that he had never once made the slightest allusion to john's imprisonment and trial; and, furthermore, that the name of hazeldine had seemed to awake no echo in his memory of the dread tragedy with which it had been associated so short a time before. was his silence due to the fact that the annals of crime possessed no interest for him, and that he shunned the reading of them; or was it simply the result of a failure of memory? of course, another theory was possible--that he had read and recollected everything bearing on the murder and trial, and that he was silent about them of set purpose. in any case, it was open to miss brancker to adopt which of the three theories might seem most feasible to her.
four days later the afternoon post brought miss brancker a letter from mr. hodgson, in which she was informed that the engagement between miss rivers and mr. clement hazeldine must at once be broken off, the young lady's friends having other views and intentions with regard to her future, which would be made known at the proper time. the writer, it was added, would feel obliged by an immediate reply assuring him that the instructions conveyed in his communication had been duly carried out.
aunt charlotte gave the letter to hermia to read, and she, as a matter of course, passed it on to her lover, when he arrived at the cottage the same evening. then aunt charlotte left them alone for half an hour in order to afford them an opportunity of discussing the letter by themselves. when she re-entered the room, hermia said at once,
"we utterly decline, clement and i, to have our destinies ruled and controlled by an unknown autocrat, who, for anything we know to the contrary, may have no legal or moral right whatever to interpose between us. for my own part--and i want you to tell mr. hodgson so--i altogether refuse to consider the question in any way until i know clearly for whom he is acting, and the relationship which exists between the person or persons in question and myself. until i am enlightened on those points, matters between myself and clement will remain on precisely the same footing that they are on now."
then, after a momentary pause, she added, with a heightened color, and a smile directed at her lover: "not that it will make the slightest difference even if mr. hodgson chooses to tell me all there is to tell. i shall be of age in a few months, and my own mistress. the day has gone by for either mr. hodgson, or those who hide themselves behind him, to interfere with my destiny in any way."
she spoke with the happy confidence of her sex and age. experience had not yet taught her that the threads which unite us to our fellows, although to all seeming as fine as those of a spider's web, may, any one of them, prove strong enough to bind us round and round like so many helpless flies, and with just as little possibility of escape.
"john will be home on saturday," said aunt charlotte. "he will know in what terms to answer the letter far better than i."
the answer was to be addressed to the care of a certain firm of solicitors in bedford row, london.
john brancker's month on trial was at an end, and he had written to his sister to say that she might expect him home in the course of saturday afternoon.
"no doubt he will have to return by the first train on monday morning," said miss brancker to hermia when she had read the note.
as it happened, one of the first people whom john recognized on alighting at ashdown station was edward hazeldine. they had travelled by the same train without either being aware of the other's presence. edward saw john at the same moment. he was a little surprised at seeing him there, but at once went up and shook hands with him.
"glad to see you, mr. brancker," he said, heartily. "hope you are getting on all right in your new berth and that the work is to your liking. i suppose you have come down to spend the week-end with your people."
"i've come down for good, mr. edward. i'm not going back," answered john, gravely.
"not going back!" echoed edward, surprised, and it may be, a little dismayed. "i was certainly under the impression that you were settled with my friend lucas for years to come, if not for life. but how has it come about? what has happened to hinder you from going back?"
it was merely the old story over again that john had to tell. for a week or more all had gone well with him. he liked his work and he liked his fellow clerks, but presently the fact oozed out somehow that john was the man who had so recently stood his trial for what was known as "the ashdown murder," and from that moment his fate was sealed. first one and then another of the staff declined to associate with him, or to have anything to do with him beyond what was absolutely necessitated by the exigencies of business; in point of fact, poor john was completely boycotted.
"i couldn't stand another month of it, mr. edward; it would kill me," he said in conclusion in a quavering voice. "it seems no use trying any more. i must either stay where i am, in the hope of being able to live down the prejudice against me, or else go right away to the other side of the world. there appears to be no other choice left me."
