Innocent : her fancy and his fact Part 20

But Innocent seemed not to hear. Her face was very pale, and her eyes had a strained wistful expression.

"Dad looks very ill," she said, slowly--"Priscilla, surely you noticed--"

"Now, child, don't you worry--'tain't no use"--and Priscilla lit two bedroom candles, giving Innocent one--"You just go up to bed and think of nothing till the morning. Mister Jocelyn is dead beat and put out about something--precious 'ungry too, for he ate his food as though he hadn't 'ad any all day. You couldn't expect him to be pleasant if he was wore out."

Innocent said nothing more. She gave a parting glance round the room to a.s.sure herself that everything was tidy, windows bolted and all safe for the night, and for a fleeting moment the impression came over her that she would never see it look quite the same again. A faint cold tremor ran through her delicate little body--she felt lonely and afraid. Silently she followed Priscilla up the beautiful Tudor staircase to the first landing, where, moved by a tender, clinging impulse, she kissed her.

"Good-night, you dear, kind Priscilla!" she said--"You've always been good to me!"

"Bless you, my lovey!" answered Priscilla, with emotion--"Go and sleep with the angels, like the little angel you are yourself! And mind you think twice, and more than twice, before you say 'No' to Mr. Robin!"

With a deprecatory shake of her head, and a faint smile, Innocent turned away, and pa.s.sed through the curious tortuous little corridor that led to her own room. Once safely inside that quiet sanctum where the Sieur Amadis of long ago had "found peace," she set her candle down on the oak table and remained standing by it for some moments, lost in thought. The pale glimmer of the single light was scarcely sufficient to disperse the shadows around her, but the lattice window was open and admitted a shaft of moonlight which shed a pearly radiance on her little figure, clothed in its simple white gown. Had any artist seen her thus, alone and absorbed in sorrowful musing, he might have taken her as a model of Psyche after her G.o.d had flown. She was weary and anxious--life had suddenly a.s.sumed for her a tragic aspect. Old Jocelyn's manner had puzzled her--he was unlike himself, and she instinctively felt that he had some secret trouble on his mind. What could it be? she wondered. Not about herself and Robin--for were he as keen on "putting up the banns" as he had been in the morning he would not have allowed the matter to rest. He would have asked straight questions, and he would have expected plain answers,--and they would, in accordance with the secret understanding they had made with each other, have deceived him. Now there was no deception necessary--he seemed to have forgotten--at least for the present--his own dearest desire. With a sigh, half of pain, half of relief, she seated herself at the table, and opening its one deep drawer with a little key which she always wore round her neck, she began to turn over her beloved pile of ma.n.u.script, and this occupied her for several minutes. Presently she looked up, her eyes growing brilliant with thought, and a smile on her lips.

"I really think it might do!" she said, aloud--"I should not be afraid to try! Who knows what might happen? I can but fail--or succeed. If I fail, I shall have had my lesson--if I succeed--"

She leaned her head on her two hands, ruffling up her pretty hair into soft golden-brown rings.

"If I succeed!--ah!--if I do! Then I'll pay back everything I owe to Dad and Briar Farm!--oh, no! I can never pay back my debt to Briar Farm!--that would be impossible! Why, the very fields and trees and flowers and birds have made me happy!--happier than I shall ever be after I have said good-bye to them all!--good-bye even to the Sieur Amadis!"

Quick tears sprang to her eyes--and the tapering light of the candle looked blurred and dim.

"Yes, after all," she went on, still talking to the air, "it's better and braver to try to do something in the world, rather than throw myself upon Robin, and be cowardly enough to take him for a husband when I don't love him. Just for comfort and shelter and Briar Farm! It would be shameful. And I could not marry a man unless I loved him quite desperately!--I could not! I'm not sure that I like the idea of marriage at all,--it fastens a man and woman together for life, and the time might come when they would grow tired of each other. How cruel and wicked it would be to force them to endure each other's company when they perhaps wished the width of the world between them! No--I don't think I should care to be married--certainly not to Robin."

She put her ma.n.u.script by, and shut and locked the drawer containing it. Then she went to the open lattice window and looked out--and thought of the previous night, when Robin had swung himself up on the sill to talk to her, and they had been all unaware that Ned Landon was listening down below. A flush of anger heated her cheeks as she recalled this and all that Robin had told her of the unprepared attack Landon had made upon him and the ensuing fight between them. But now?

Was it not very strange that Landon should apparently be in such high favour with Hugo Jocelyn that he had actually been allowed to stay in the market-town and enjoy a holiday, which for him only meant a bout of drunkenness? She could not understand it, and her perplexity increased the more she thought of it. Leaning far out over the window-sill, she gazed long and lovingly across the quiet stretches of meadowland, shining white in the showered splendour of the moon--the tall trees--the infinite and harmonious peace of the whole scene,--then, shutting the lattice, she pulled the curtains across it, and taking her lit candle, went to her secluded inner sleeping-chamber, where, in the small, quaintly carved four-poster bed, furnished with ancient tapestry and lavendered linen, and covered up under a quilt embroidered three centuries back by the useful fingers of the wife of Sieur Amadis de Jocelin, she soon fell into a sound and dreamless slumber.

The hours moved on, bearing with them different destinies to millions of different human lives, and the tall old clock in the great hall of Briar Farm told them off with a sonorous chime and clangour worthy of Westminster itself. It was a quiet night; there was not a breath of wind to whistle through crack or key-hole, or swing open an unbolted door,--and Hero, the huge mastiff that always slept "on guard" just within the hall entrance, had surely no cause to sit up suddenly on his great haunches and listen with uplifted ears to sounds which were to any other creature inaudible. Yet listen he did--sharply and intently.

Raising his ma.s.sive head he snuffed the air--then suddenly began to tremble as with cold, and gave vent to a long, low, dismal moan. It was a weird noise--worse than positive howling, and the dog himself seemed distressfully conscious that he was expressing something strange and unnatural. Two or three times he repeated this eerie m.u.f.fled cry--then, lying down again, he put his nose between his great paws, and, with a deep shivering sigh, appeared to resign himself to the inevitable.

There followed several moments of tense silence. Then came a sudden dull thud overhead, as of a heavy load falling or being thrown down, and a curious inexplicable murmur like smothered choking or groaning.

Instantly the great dog sprang erect and raced up the staircase like a mad creature, barking furiously. The house was aroused--doors were flung open--Priscilla rushed from her room half dressed--and Innocent ran along the corridor in her little white nightgown, her feet bare, and her hair falling dishevelled over her shoulders.

"What is it?" she cried piteously--"Oh, do tell me! What is it?"

Robin Clifford, hearing the dog's persistent barking, had hastily donned coat and trousers and now appeared on the scene.

"Hero, Hero!" he called--"Quiet, Hero!"

But Hero had bounded to his master Jocelyn's door and was pounding against it with all the force of his big muscular body, apparently seeking to push or break it open. Robin laid one hand on the animal's collar and pulled him back--then tried the door himself--it was locked.

"Uncle Hugo!"

There was no answer.

He turned to one of the frightened servants who were standing near. His face was very pale.

"Fetch me a hammer," he said--"Something--anything that will force the lock. Innocent!"--and with deep tenderness he took her little cold hands in his own--"I wish you would go away!"

"Why?" and she looked at him with eyes full of terror. "Oh no, no! Let me be with you--let me call him!"--and she knelt outside the closed door--"Dad! Dear Dad! I want to speak to you! Mayn't I come in? I'm so frightened--do let me come in. Dad!"

But the silence remained unbroken.

"Priscilla!"--and Robin beckoned to her--"keep Innocent beside you--I'm afraid--"

Priscilla nodded, turning her head aside a moment to wipe away the tears that were gathering in her eyes,--then she put an arm round Innocent's waist.

"Don't kneel there, lovey," she whispered--"It's no good and you're in the way when they open the door. Come with me!--there's a dear!"--and she drew the trembling little figure tenderly into her arms.

"There!--that'll be a bit warmer!" and she signed to one of the farm maids near her to fetch a cloak which she carefully wrapped round the girl's shoulders. Just then the hammer was brought with other tools, and Robin, to save any needless clamour, took a chisel and inserted it in such a manner as should most easily force the catch of the door--but the lock was an ancient and a strong one, and would not yield for some time. At last, with an extra powerful and dexterous movement of his hand, it suddenly gave way--and he saw what he would have given worlds that Innocent should not have seen--old Hugo lying face forward on the floor, motionless. There was a rush and a wild cry--

"Dad! Dad!"

She was beside him in a moment, trying with all her slight strength to lift his head and turn his face.

"Help me--oh, help me!" she wailed. "He has fainted--we must lift him--get some one to lift him on the bed. It is only a faint--he will recover--get some brandy and send for the doctor. Don't lose time!--for Heaven's sake be quick! Robin, make them hurry!"

Robin had already whispered his orders,--and two of the farm lads, roused from sleep and hastily summoned, were ready to do what he told them. With awed, hushed movements they lifted the heavy fallen body of their master between them and laid it gently down on the bed. As the helpless head dropped back on the pillow they saw that all was over,--the pinched ashen grey of the features and the fast glazing eyes told their own fatal story--there was no hope. But Innocent held the cold hand of the dead man to her warm young bosom, endeavouring to take from it its cureless chill.

"He will be better soon," she said,--"Priscilla, bring me that brandy--just a little will revive him, I'm sure. Why do you stand there crying? You surely don't think he's dead?--No, no, that isn't possible!

It isn't possible, is it, Robin? He'll come to himself in a few minutes--a fainting fit may last quite a long time. I wish he had not locked his door--we could have been with him sooner."

So she spoke, tremblingly nursing the dead hand in her bosom. No one present had the heart to contradict her--and Priscilla, with the tears running down her face, brought the brandy she asked for and held it while she tenderly moistened the lips of the corpse and tried to force a few drops between the clenched teeth--in vain. This futile attempt frightened her, and she looked at Robin Clifford with a wild air.

"I cannot make him swallow it," she said--"Can you, Robin? He looks so grey and cold!--but his lips are quite warm."

Robin, restraining the emotion that half choked him and threatened to overflow in womanish weeping, went up to her and tried to coax her away from the bedside.

"Dear, if you could leave him for a little it would perhaps be better,"

he said. "He might--he might recover sooner. We have sent for the doctor--he will be here directly--"

"I will stay here till he comes," replied the girl, quietly. "How can you think I would leave Dad when he's ill? If we could only rouse him a little--"

Ah, that "if"! If we could only rouse our beloved ones who fall into that eternal sleep, would not all the riches and glories of the world seem tame in comparison with such joy! Innocent had never seen death--she could not realise that this calm irresponsiveness, this cold and stiffening rigidity, meant an end to the love and care she had known all her life--love and care which would never be replaced in quite the same way!

The first peep of a silver dawn began to peer through the lattice window, and as she saw this suggestion of wakening life, a sudden dread clutched at her heart and made it cold.

"It will be morning soon," she said--"Priscilla, when will the doctor come?"

Scarcely had she said the words when the doctor entered. He took a comprehensive glance round the room,--at the still form on the bed--at the little crouching girl--figure beside it--at Priscilla, trembling and tearful--at Robin, deadly pale and self-restrained--at the farm-lads and servants.

"When did this happen?" he said.

Robin told him.

"I see!" he said. "He must have fallen forward on getting out of bed. I rather expected a sudden seizure of this kind." He made his brief examination. The eyes of the dead man were open and gla.s.sily staring upward--he gently closed the lids over them and pressed them down.

"Nothing to be done," he went on, gently--"His end was painless."

Innocent had risen--she had laid the cold hand of the corpse back on its breast--and she stood gazing vacantly before her in utter misery.