i have as yet said nothing about my own feelings during these three months, nor told how i bore the loss. at first i felt it very, very much. i made sure the will was gone for ever; and although i had concerted with harry our plan to find the secret chamber, and pretended to believe in it, i did so with the same feeling with which, as a child, one pretends a chair is a ship, and makes voyages upon it; shouting as lustily as if on board a real vessel, apparently quite as anxious if an imaginary wind arises and threatens to wreck our bark, and making our escape on to the sofa, which represents a desert island, with as much joy as if our rescue had been all real.
we elders smile at these pretences, and wonder at the lively interest, the loud joy, and the terrible panics with which children enter into these imaginary games of theirs; but i am sure we often play at ships too. we make believe that our barks are going safe to port, and sing p?ans of joy, while in our heart of hearts we know it is quite otherwise, and that a disastrous shipwreck is inevitable; we ignore the threatening black cloud on the horizon, and congratulate ourselves that the sun is shining so brightly. some of us, indeed, do this through long, long years—play it till the curtain falls, and all play is over.
i do not think that men thus wilfully shut their eyes as we women do: they have not the same happy faculty for self-deceit. but do we not all know many women who are for ever playing this game of ships? do they not cling confidently all their lives to the idea that the bark to which they have entrusted themselves and their fortunes is indeed a gallant vessel, built of true heart of oak, marked a 1, fit to contend against any tempest and storm whatever, and certain to make a delightful and prosperous voyage to the end—cling to it even when the rotten timbers show through as soon as the fresh paint wears off, even when the water pours in through the leaky sides, and she tosses about without helm or rudder, a mere sport to every breeze? happy are the women who are adepts at playing at this game—happy those who can go through life persisting in it; driving back with angry self-reproach any thought which may intrude itself that their dolls are not princesses—that the idol which they worship is not a god after all, but a mere image, made of very common clay indeed.
so i played at ships with myself, and made believe that we were certain to find the secret chamber. after a time, indeed, i did come to believe in it—that is, after we had put the plan together, and found out whereabouts it lay,—but even then an incredulous doubt would occasionally occur, which, however, i never allowed to stop there long. all this wore me very much—this constant anxiety, this endeavour to be cheerful, this trying to believe that all would be right yet.
when the news of mr. harmer's death came to us at ramsgate, i had written to lady desborough, and had received in reply from her a letter of condolence, which indeed, from the tone it was written in, resembled rather one of congratulation. it was evident that lady desborough considered that ￡25,000 at once was a very much more comfortable thing than ￡10,000 on my marriage, and the remaining ￡15,000 at some uncertain, and perhaps distant, period. ada and percy both wrote, really sympathizing with me in the loss of so very dear and kind a friend.
when, however, i had to write, ten days after, and say that the will was missing, i confess that i did so almost with the feelings of a man signing his own death-warrant. i wrote to ada this time, and related the whole history to her. i told her—what i tried to believe myself—that we might find it yet; indeed, that we did not by any means give up all hope. i said that we felt quite sure that it was concealed in a secret chamber, and that until we found that chamber we should never give up the search. in truth, i was a coward—i dreaded what might happen if i said that all hope was gone, and that i had no idea of ever finding it; for that i knew would bring on a crisis from which, although i felt sure it must some day come, i shrank with a terrible fear. i believe now that if i had allowed to myself that it was hopeless, i should, whatever came of it, have written and said so; but i was playing at ships, and i really persuaded myself that i believed as i wrote.
ada's answer came in a day or two; it was, as i knew it would be, everything which was kind and affectionate. she "was sorry, so, so sorry for us all," and she was indignant and furious against "those dreadful old hags," as she irreverently termed the misses harmer, "and she should only like—" and ada's wishes and intentions towards them were terrible. nothing indeed could be kinder or more satisfactory than the first part of ada's letter; but when she came to write about her mamma, her pen evidently went slower, and her words were cautiously chosen. mamma, she said, was very sorry indeed to hear of the will being missing, and indeed was made quite ill by the news. she begged her to say how much she condoled with me upon it, and what a dreadful affair it was. "in short," ada finally scribbled, evidently puzzled how to put it—"in short, you know exactly what mamma would say under the circumstances."
ada and i continued to correspond regularly, and i kept her posted up in the proceedings of our plot to discover the chamber. in answer to the joyous letter i wrote to ada after christmas—saying that we had discovered one of the secret openings which opened the door, and had now every hope of finding the other—lady desborough herself wrote, for the first time since the will had been lost. she said how glad she was that, after all, it seemed by what ada said, we were likely to find the missing will, and regain our fortunes. she stated that she had always expressed herself as certain that the infamous conspiracy against us would be defeated, and she wound up by saying that she sincerely trusted that the document would be discovered before long, both for my sake and percy's, who, she believed, would sail for india in the following autumn.
as i read this letter, it appeared to me that the pith of the whole contents was contained in that last line. to me it said as plainly as if she had so written it—"he goes to india in the autumn, but, of course, unless you find the will before that, he will have to go without you." i was neither hurt nor surprised at this. i knew lady desborough well enough to be perfectly assured that with her consent i should never marry percy unless i regained the lost fortune.
percy's letters to me were always alike; he told me that he did not care whether i had the fortune or not. that for my own sake he should of course have preferred that i should have had money, in order that in our indian home we might be surrounded by more comforts and luxuries, but that for no other reason did he in the least care. that, of course, his pay as a cornet was next to nothing, but he expected that before many months he should get a step. he calculated that his lieutenant's pay in india, with the staff appointment—which he made sure, from his proficiency in the native languages, he should speedily obtain—together with the ￡300 a year his mother allowed him, would enable us to live in tolerable comfort.
he spoke always of the ￡300 a year as if it were a certainty, but i was sure that in case of his marrying me his mother would at once stop it.
lady desborough, although she lived in so fashionable a style, was by no means a very rich woman. her income, with the trifling exception of her pension as a general's widow, was derived entirely from property she possessed previous to her marriage, and which had been settled upon her at that time. of this she had the entire income during her lifetime, and could leave it as she chose between her children.
percy's letters to me were very loving and tender, and he was never tired of drawing happy pictures of our future. my answers to him, since the loss of the will, were not less loving, perhaps, than before; but they were far less confident and hopeful, and i could not trust myself to speak much of a future which i so feared in my heart could never come for me.
altogether, i was very nervous and anxious all this time, and i looked forward to sarah's communications with feverish eagerness. i felt that to me far more depended on the discovery of this will than the mere matter of money. it was not the question of wealth or the reverse, it was—a life of happiness with percy, or one of solitary unhappiness. had it not been for the search sarah was making, which kept hope alive, i should have felt it even more than i did. but when the secret spring was found, i did begin to think that all would come right again.
on new year's day we had a great surprise—a letter came to papa from miss harmer; a messenger brought it, and it was sent in just as we had finished dinner. papa opened it, glanced it through, and gave a long whistle of astonishment. "the man who brought this is not waiting, i suppose?" he asked the servant.
"no, sir, he said that he was told there was no answer."
"you can clear away the dinner things at once, and put the dessert on."
we were all quiet while this was being done, wondering what it could be about—and papa was evidently waiting only till the servant left the room to read the letter to us. when she had finished, and had gone out, without any preface he opened the letter and read it aloud:—
"dear dr. ashleigh,
"the will of our late brother herbert not having been found, and it therefore being now extremely improbable that it ever will be so, my sister and myself have naturally, as his only relatives, come into possession of his property. at our death that property will go, as originally intended by our elder brothers, to the destination from which it was only diverted by one of those extraordinary combinations of events by which providence sometimes upsets our best-laid plans. my brother herbert had, however, some property of his own, which he acquired in india, in addition to that which he inherited from his brothers. the amount of this property was, our man of business informs us, about ￡30,000. this sum we propose to devote to carrying out a portion of his expressed wishes. we are willing therefore to pay over at once the sum of ￡10,000 to each of your children—on the one condition that not one single penny shall they ever directly or indirectly bestow to or for the benefit of the person formerly known as sophy needham, and now as sophy gregory, she having by her conduct caused our brother's death. and that they all bind themselves to this condition under an oath solemnly taken on the bible, and under penalty of forfeiture of the amount should this condition not be strictly observed.
"awaiting your reply,
"&c., &c.,
"cecilia and angela harmer."
what an astonishment that was to us, and in what silent amazement we looked at each other when papa had finished reading the letter.
no one spoke for some time.
at last papa said, "this is a very serious question, my dears; and the offer ought to be thoroughly discussed before being either accepted or refused. ￡10,000 each is a handsome provision for you. it will start harry in a good business, and it will enable you girls to marry well and yet to feel that you bring your share to the expenses of the household." and here papa glanced at me, and i saw at once that although he had never spoken to me on the subject, he had yet thought a good deal about my engagement with percy. he then went on: "all this is the bright side of the picture—now for the reverse;—you are unquestionably entitled to a much larger amount, and those who make this offer are the very people who are keeping you out of it. then, too, the condition about sophy is most repugnant; as you would naturally have wished in the event of your accepting this sum, to make her at any rate an equal participator in it with each of yourselves. the matter is one which must be thought over very seriously, and no conclusion should be hastily arrived at. talk it over quietly together: it is a question on which i would rather give no opinion whatever, but leave you to decide it entirely by yourselves."
"there is one thing, papa, you have not mentioned," polly said, "and that is, that if we take this money we must give up all search for the will; we cannot accept the misses harmer's money, and then get their servants to work against them."
"certainly, my dear; that must of course be quite understood. if you accept this money, you must give up all further search for the will, and dismiss all idea of ever hearing of it again. there, don't say any more about it now. let us have a glass of wine and some nuts, and after that i shall go into my study, and you can talk it over among yourselves."
when papa left us, we drew round the fire, and harry said the first thing to be done was to smoke the calumet of council; accordingly in a minute or two he was puffing clouds of smoke from an immense meerschaum, of which he was very proud.
"now," he said, "the council is begun; let my sisters speak."
neither of us took advantage of the invitation, but sat looking steadily into the fire.
polly—who was now sixteen, and who had grown up a very dear, loveable girl—was seated between us, in a high-backed, old-fashioned chair, with her feet on a low stool. i have not hitherto described her, and i could not choose a moment to do so in which she would look prettier than she did as she sat there; with the light on the table behind her shining on the gold of her hair, and her face lit only by the dancing light of the fire. she was a blonde, her hair looked almost brown in shadow; but when the light fell on it, it had still the bright golden tinge that every one had admired when she was a child. her eyes were a pure blue, her complexion was bright and clear, she had a particularly lithe lissom figure, and her small head was very gracefully set on her neck and shoulders. she was very lively and full of fun; indeed i sometimes had to call her to order. she was a little positive and wilful sometimes, but she was a very loving and loveable girl. she was at present hardly as tall as i was, but as she had another year to grow, it was very probable she would be the taller in time. she had very long eyelashes, nearly the longest i ever saw, and these added greatly to the effect of her great blue eyes. the mouth and nose might both have been better, but for all that she had grown into a very pretty girl.
"well, girls, what do you think about this offer of ours?" harry repeated, finding that neither of us answered him.
my own mind was pretty well made up on the subject, but i wished to hear what the others thought, so i said, "what do you think yourself about it, harry?"
harry did not seem more inclined to give an opinion than we had been, for he sat and puffed out such huge volumes of smoke, that polly threatened to take his pipe away if he did not smoke more quietly. at last he took it from between his lips, and began: "the fact is, girls, i am loath to give my opinion, not because i have not one, but because i do not wish to influence you. your cases are so very different from mine, that there is no comparison at all between us. i am now just twenty-one; i am in a position to keep myself, and consequently the advantage this sum of money would be to me, is not sufficient to counterbalance the repugnance i feel—as far as i am concerned—to taking the money from these women who have robbed us. still understand, i am not so much against it as to decide to refuse it, should you both agree to accept it. this is rather a suggestion of mine, as it were, than a positive and final opinion. i mean to say that for my own sake i certainly would not accept of the offer, but you are so differently placed that if you give your vote for accepting it, i shall be quite ready to agree with you."
harry made this unusually long speech, for him, with some difficulty. i could see that personally he was very strongly opposed to taking any favour from the misses harmer, after the way in which they had treated us. being quite of the same opinion myself, i thought the matter was settled, as i made sure polly would refuse. when harry had done, he took another puff or two at his pipe, and then turning to polly, who was next to him, said,—
"now, polly, you have heard what i have to say, let us have your opinion."
for some time sister polly did not answer, but sat gazing into the fire, with the long lashes nearly shading her eyes, and looking more womanly and thoughtful than i had ever seen her before. at last, without moving, or lifting her eyes, she said,—
"i think we had better accept."
harry, evidently surprised, gave one or two short puffs at his pipe. i was myself astonished. i had made sure that polly would of all the three be the most indignant and determined to reject the offer; for she had been most bitter in her invectives at the misses harmer, and money had at present no particular value in her eyes. however, i made no remark expressive of my surprise, but only said,—
"let us have your reasons, polly."
"yes," harry repeated, "let us have your reasons."
polly was again silent a little, and sat thoughtfully twining her long taper fingers one over the other; then without looking up she asked,—
"is it understood and agreed between us that two votes carry the day?"
"certainly," i said, knowing that my vote would be on harry's side.
"quite so," harry agreed, "if you two girls make up your minds that it is best to accept this offer, i, as i said before, shall offer no objection."
"well then, harry, i say—accept, and i will tell you why;" and now, although polly had not changed her attitude, she spoke clearly and firmly, and her eyes were fixed on the fire with a steady resolute look. "but you must both agree not to interrupt me till i have done."
"i promise," harry said, looking rather puzzled at polly's very unusual demeanour.
"i promise," i repeated, amused and rather surprised, too.
"very well," polly said, "please remember that. now, harry, you are a great big strong fellow, but you know you are hardly fit to entrust any delicate business to, and that in any affair of that sort you would know no more than a child."
"well, miss polly," harry said in astonishment, taking his pipe out of his mouth, "you are a pretty cool hand to talk to your elders; what next, i wonder!"
"you promised not to interrupt, harry. as i said, you are very good and kind, and all that, but you know you are not—not so to say sharp."
i could hardly help laughing, harry's eyes opened so very wide in amazement at the girl's remarks, and polly herself was looking so very serious and earnest.
"now we women——"
"we women, indeed!" harry repeated.
"yes, we women," polly continued unmoved,—"i have left school now, and i am more of a woman as far as these things go than you are of a man—we women look very deeply into these matters. now there is only one of us three, who, as we stand at present, will be greatly affected by this gift. i do not say that ￡10,000 is not a nice sum to have, or that it might not some day assist me to get a husband, but at present i can manage very well without one——"
"i should think so," put in harry.
"and you can get on without it, and keep yourself comfortably. therefore to us the money has no peculiar charms at present, and we might both be rather disposed to refuse it, than to accept it as a gift from people who have robbed us of a large sum. there is a good deal in that, harry, is there not?"
harry nodded; he had not yet sufficiently recovered from the astonishment into which the position of superiority taken up by polly had thrown him, while i on my part could not fancy what was coming next.
"well you see, harry, we have agreed that we neither of us are in a position rightly to estimate the value of this ￡10,000 at present. now agnes, on the contrary, is in a position to appreciate it keenly."
here harry again opened his eyes, and looked at me with such astonishment, that i really thought he must fancy that i wanted the money to pay off a gambling debt or something of that sort.
"agnes appreciate it!" he exclaimed.
"of course," polly said; "and please do not interrupt me so, harry. now this ￡10,000 will, in all probability, be the turning-point in agnes's life, and her future happiness or unhappiness may depend upon it. let us see how she is situated. she is engaged to percy desborough——"
"thank goodness," harry muttered to himself, "she has said something i can understand at last."
"she is engaged to him, and he is a capital fellow; but for all that unless we find the will, or she has this ￡10,000, she knows, and i know it by her face, that it may be years before she marries percy desborough, if she ever does so."
"by george," harry exclaimed, taking his pipe suddenly from his mouth, and jumping up from his chair,—"by george, if i thought for a moment that percy desborough——"
"there, you will interrupt me, harry," polly said, looking for the first time up from the fire with a little glance of amusement into his angry face. "do sit down and hear me out, and you will see that there is no vengeance to be taken upon any one."
harry looked more than half inclined to be very angry; however he resumed his seat, and took short sulky puffs at his pipe.
"the fact is, harry, you have heard of lady desborough, and from what you have heard you must know——"
"my dear polly," i interrupted in my turn, assured at last that she had intuitively arrived at a correct conclusion about the state of my engagement with percy,—"my dear polly——"
"my dear agnes," she said, "you promised to hear me out. but, my darling,"—and she spoke in a very soft tender voice, turning round to me, and laying her hand on mine,—"you know what i am going to say to harry; if it is painful, will you go away till i have done? harry must hear it before he can come to any correct conclusion about this money."
i shook my head silently, but pressed her hand, which, while she went on, still remained resting in mine.
"lady desborough," and now she was looking steadily into the fire again, as if she read there all she was saying, "is a proud woman of the world, very ambitious, and very self-willed. had percy followed her wishes, and remained in the guards, she would have expected him to have made a first-rate match; as it is, she could not hope that any earl's daughter would unite her fortunes to those of a cornet in a cavalry regiment, and troop with him out to india. when percy therefore succeeded in persuading our agnes here, that it was the best thing she could do, lady desborough was delighted at the match, which, with agnes's ￡25,000, was vastly better than she could have expected. but when mr. harmer dies, what happens? agnes has no fortune. all this time that i have been at school since mr. harmer died, and the will was missing, i have wondered and thought over what lady desborough would do. i came to the conclusion that she would wait for a bit, and would take no decided steps until it was clear that the will would never be found, but that unquestionably when it was proved to be gone she would interfere to break off the engagement between percy and agnes. i come back here, and what do i find? i find very little said about the engagement, and agnes looking pale and depressed. percy's letters come regularly; agnes takes them up into her room, and comes down again after a very long time, with flushed cheeks, and a soft look, and yet not perfectly happy—that is not brightly happy. what does this mean? just what i had anticipated. percy is unchanged; the money, in his eyes, makes no difference whatever, but there is an obstacle somewhere; that obstacle being of course lady desborough. probably by the continuance of the correspondence, she has not yet given up hopes of the will being found, and has not therefore taken any decided step, but has, i should imagine, plainly shown what her intentions will be if the fortune is not recovered. in support of this view, i see agnes absorbed in the result of this search for the secret room; i saw her delight when one of the hidden springs was found—and this not because agnes loves money, but because she loves percy desborough, and knows that without the fortune she cannot be married to him."
"why cannot percy marry her in spite of his mother?" harry growled in an unconvinced way. "he is not a boy; why can he not do as he likes?"
"because his present income and his future fortune depend upon her. i heard agnes say so the last time i was at home. she could refuse to allow him one penny, and leave every farthing she possesses to ada. you don't suppose that a subaltern in a cavalry regiment can keep a wife on his pay, even if agnes would marry him under the circumstances, which she would not. is all this true, agnes darling?" she said, turning again to me, and this time i saw the tears were brimming up in her great blue eyes.
"you are certainly a witch, polly," i answered, trying to smile, but the tears were stealing down my cheeks too, as i got up and kissed her flushed face very tenderly and affectionately. to me all this was a perfect revelation. here was my little sister polly, whom i had always looked upon as a mere child, thinking and talking like a woman, and a very sensible, loving woman, too. i felt that in that half hour's conversation my child-sister was gone for ever, and that i had gained in her place a dear friend in whom i could trust and confide every secret of my heart. as for harry, he was completely silenced.
"well, oh most sapient brother," polly asked, turning to him in her old laughing way, "do you confess that all this never entered into your mind; indeed, that you knew no more about it than the man in the moon?"
"by jove!" harry said with a great effort, "i confess you have fairly astonished me, as much by yourself as by your story. i think that you are right, and that in these matters you are more of a woman than i am of a man. how you found this all out i cannot conceive; it certainly never entered into my head. i thought of the effect which the money would have upon myself, and upon you, but agnes i hardly took into consideration. i thought of her marriage with percy as a sort of settled thing, and knowing him to have a handsome allowance, i never gave her case a second thought. but i see you are quite right, and that we must, of course, accept this money."
"indeed, we will not," i said; "with my consent, this money shall never be accepted."
"that is not fair, agnes," polly said. "you know we agreed that two votes should carry the day."
"i did, polly; but i have a right to say what i think about it before it is put to the vote. i acknowledge all that polly has said about my affairs to be true. i allow that i do believe that my marriage with percy depends upon this will being found. but for all that, i say we cannot take this money. these women have robbed us of ￡25,000 each; they have robbed sophy of ￡75,000; robbed us as actually as if they had stolen it from our possession—and now they offer, as a gift, ￡10,000 each to us. if we take it, it is on an understanding that we renounce all further claim, that we receive it as a free gift from these enemies of ours; and by this act not only should we, as it were, pledge ourselves to make no further efforts to find the will, we should not only sell our birthright to our enemies, but we should be bound to desert sophy, and so leave her in hopeless poverty, for without our assistance she has not the slightest chance of ever finding the will. all this would be a miserable degradation—a degradation so deep that nothing could satisfy our own consciences to it; even my marriage to percy could not reconcile it to myself, and he himself would blame me for it. no, no, dears, this would be a shameful action. let us refuse it at once. you, i know, would do it for my sake; but i would not do it for myself, much less allow you to do so. we have really, at present, strong hopes of finding the will; let us trust to that; let us believe that in the end we shall be righted. if not, god's will be done. the evil may seem to prosper at present, but at any rate let us make no terms with it."
polly and harry were both silent. polly was crying fast now—crying, that her little scheme for my happiness had failed; but yet they both felt as i did, and she could urge nothing further.
"there, dears, i know you both agree with me in your hearts, so let us say no more about it."
and so it was settled; and when papa came in soon after, i told him that we were unanimously of opinion that the money could not be accepted. papa then said, that although he had not wished to bias us in our decision, yet that he quite agreed with us, and was very glad we had so decided. so the next day he wrote to miss harmer, acknowledging the receipt of her letter, and stating that, for various reasons into which it was not necessary to enter, we felt ourselves obliged to decline the offer. this affair had one consequence among us, and that was, that polly henceforth occupied a very different position amongst us from what she had heretofore done. harry looked up to her as a prodigy of intellect and acuteness; and i myself felt deeply not only her intelligence, but the thoughtful, loving kindness she had evinced towards me. from that time polly became quite one of ourselves; and, indeed, i think that insensibly she fell into her natural position as the clever one of the family.
