Braddon_Lady_Audleys_Secret.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
he does love him, . ; even you must
have seen lately that he does love him. cannot think how he can so
quietly submit to his absence. were a man, would go to ,
and find him, and bring him back; if he was still to be found among the
living," she added, in a lower voice.
turned her face away from , and looked out at the darkening
sky. laid his hand upon her arm. trembled in spite of him, and his
voice trembled, too, as he spoke to her.
" __ go to look for your brother?" he said.
"_!_" turned her head, and looked at him earnestly through her
tears. ", . ! you think that could ask you to make such
a sacrifice for me, or for those love?"
" do you think, , that should think any sacrifice too great a
one if it were made for you? you think there is any voyage would
refuse to take, if knew that you would welcome me when came home,
and thank me for having served you faithfully? will go from one end of
the continent of to the other to look for your brother, if you
please, ; and will never return alive unless bring him with me,
and will take my chance of what reward you shall give me for my labor."
head was bent, and it was some moments before she answered him.
" are very good and generous, . ," she said, at last, "and
feel this offer too much to be able to thank you for it. what you
speak of could never be. what right could accept such a sacrifice?"
" the right which makes me your bounden slave forever and ever,
whether you will or no. right of the love bear you, ," cried
. , dropping on his knees--rather awkwardly, it must be
confessed--and covering a soft little hand, that he had found half
hidden among the folds of a silken dress, with passionate kisses.
" love you, ," he said, " love you. may call for your father,
and have me turned out of the house this moment, if you like; but
shall go on loving you all the same; and shall love you forever and
ever, whether you will or no."
little hand was drawn away from his, but not with a sudden or angry
gesture, and it rested for one moment lightly and tremulously upon his
dark hair.
", !" he murmured, in a low, pleading voice, "shall go to
to look for your brother?"
was no answer. don't know how it is, but there is scarcely
anything more delicious than silence in such cases. moment of
hesitation is a tacit avowal; every pause is a tender confession.
" we both go, dearest? we go as man and wife? we go
together, my dear love, and bring our brother back between us?"
. , coming into the lamplit room a quarter of an hour
afterward, found alone, and had to listen to a revelation
which very much surprised him. all self-sufficient people, he was
tolerably blind to everything that happened under his nose, and he had
fully believed that his own society, and the regularity of his
household, had been the attractions which had made
delightful to his guest.
was rather disappointed, therefore; but he bore his disappointment
pretty well, and expressed a placid and rather stoical satisfaction at
the turn which affairs had taken.
went back to , to surrender his chambers in
, and to make all due inquiries about such ships as sailed
from for in the month of .
had lingered until after luncheon at , and it was in the
dusky twilight that he entered the shady courts and found his way
to his chambers. found . scrubbing the stairs, as was her
wont upon a evening, and he had to make his way upward amidst
an atmosphere of soapy steam, that made the balusters greasy under his
touch.
"'s lots of letters, yer honor," the laundress said, as she rose
from her knees and flattened herself against the wall to enable
to pass her, "and there's some parcels, and there's a gentleman which
has called ever so many times, and is waitin' to-night, for towld him
you'd written to me to say your rooms were to be aired."
opened the door of his sitting-room, and walked in. canaries were
singing their farewell to the setting sun, and the faint, yellow light
was flickering upon the geranium leaves. visitor, whoever he was,
sat with his back to the window and his head bent upon his breast.
he started up as entered the room, and the young man
uttered a great cry of delight and surprise, and opened his arms to his
lost friend, .
know how much had to tell. touched lightly and tenderly
upon that subject which he knew was cruelly painful to his friends; he
said very little of the wretched woman who was wearing out the remnant
of her wicked life in the quiet suburb of the forgotten city.
spoke very briefly of that sunny seventh of ,
upon which he had left his friend sleeping by the trout stream while he
went to accuse his false wife of that conspiracy which had well nigh
broken his heart.
" knows that from the moment in which sunk into the black pit,
knowing the treacherous hand that had sent me to what might have been my
death, my chief thought was of the safety of the woman who had betrayed
me. fell upon my feet upon a mass of slush and mire, but my shoulder
was bruised, and my arm broken against the side of the well. was
stunned and dazed for a few minutes, but roused myself by an effort,
for felt that the atmosphere breathed was deadly. had my
experiences to help me in my peril; could climb like a cat.
stones of which the well was built were rugged and irregular, and
was able to work my way upward by planting my feet in the interstices of
the stones, and resting my back at times against the opposite side of
the well, helping myself as well as could with my hands, though one
arm was crippled. was hard work, , and it seems strange that a man
who had long professed himself weary of his life, should take so much
trouble to preserve it. think must have been working upward of half
an hour before got to the top; know the time seemed an eternity of
pain and peril. was impossible for me to leave the place until after
dark without being observed, so hid myself behind a clump of
laurel-bushes, and lay down on the grass faint and exhausted to wait for
nightfall. man who found me there told you the rest. ."
", my poor old friend.--yes, he told me all."
had never returned to after all. had gone on board
the _ _, but had afterward changed his berth for one in
another vessel belonging to the same owners, and had gone to ,
where he had stayed as long as he could endure the loneliness of an
existence which separated him from every friend he had ever known.
" was very kind to me, ," he said; " had enough money to
enable me to get on pretty well in my own quiet way and meant to have
started for the gold fields to get more when that was gone.
might have made plenty of friends had pleased, but carried the old
bullet in my breast; and what sympathy could have with men who knew
nothing of my grief? yearned for the strong grasp of your hand, ;
the friendly touch of the hand which had guided me through the darkest
passage of my life."
.
.
years have passed since the twilight in which found his
old friend; and . 's dream of a fairy cottage has been realized
between and , where, amid a little forest
of foliage, there is a fantastical dwelling place of rustic woodwork,
whose latticed windows look out upon the river. , among the lilies
and the rushes on the sloping bank, a brave boy of eight years old plays
with a toddling baby, who peers wonderingly from his nurse's arms at
that other baby in the purple depth of the quiet water.
. is a rising man upon the home circuit by this time, and has
distinguished himself in the great breach of promise case of _v._
, and has convulsed the court by his deliciously comic rendering of
the faithless 's amatory correspondence. handsome dark-eyed boy
is , who declines _musa_ at , and fishes for
tadpoles in the clear water under the spreading umbrage beyond the ivied
walls of the academy. he comes very often to the fairy cottage to
see his father, who lives there with his sister and his sister's
husband; and he is very happy with his , his , and
the pretty baby who has just begun to toddle on the smooth lawn that
slopes down to the water's brink, upon which there is a little
boat-house and landing-stage where and moor their slender
wherries.
people come to the cottage near . bright,
merry-hearted girl, and a gray-bearded gentleman, who has survived he
trouble of his life, and battled with it as a should.
is more than a year since a black-edged letter, written upon foreign
paper, came to , to announce the death of a certain
, who had expired peacefully at , dying after a long
illness, which describes as a _maladie de langueur_.
visitor comes to the cottage in this bright summer of 1861--a
frank, generous hearted young man, who tosses the baby and plays with
, and is especially great in the management of the boats, which
are never idle when is at .
is a pretty rustic smoking-room over the boat-house, in
which the gentlemen sit and smoke in the summer evenings, and whence
they are summoned by and to drink tea, and eat strawberries
and cream upon the lawn.
is shut up, and a grim old housekeeper reigns paramount in
the mansion which my lady's ringing laughter once made musical.
curtain hangs before the pre- portrait; and the blue mold
which artists dread gathers upon the and , the
and . house is often shown to inquisitive visitors,
though the baronet is not informed of that fact, and people admire my
lady's rooms, and ask many questions about the pretty, fair-haired woman
who died abroad.
has no fancy to return to the familiar dwelling-place in
which he once dreamed a brief dream of impossible happiness. remains
in until shall be , when he is to remove to a
house he has lately bought in , on the borders of his
son-in-law's estate. is very happy with his sister and
his old friend. is a young man yet, remember, and it is not quite
impossible that he may, by-and-by, find some one who will console him
for the past. dark story of the past fades little by little every
day, and there may come a time in which the shadow my lady's wickedness
has cast upon the young man's life will utterly vanish away.
meerschaum and the novels have been presented to a young
with whom had been friendly in his bachelor days;
and . has a little pension, paid her quarterly, for her care
of the canaries and geraniums.
hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it
leaves the good people all happy and at peace. my experience of life
has not been very long, it has at least been manifold; and can safely
subscribe to that which a mighty king and a great philosopher declared,
when he said, that neither the experience of his youth nor of his age
had ever shown him "the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their
bread."