The Channings Part 25

"I cannot explain," she sobbed. "There is nothing for us but to part."

"We will not part. Why should we, when you say Arthur is innocent, and I believe him to be so? Constance, my darling, what is this grief?"

What were the words but a tacit admission that, if Arthur were not innocent, they should part? Constance so interpreted them. Had any additional weight been needed to strengthen her resolution, this would have supplied it.

"Farewell! farewell, William! To remain with you is only prolonging the pain of parting."

That her resolution to part was firm, he saw. It was his turn to be angry now. A slight touch of the haughty Yorke temper was in him, and there were times when it peeped out. He folded his arms, and the flush left his countenance.

"I cannot understand you, Constance. I cannot fathom your motive, or why you are doing this; unless it be that you never cared for me."

"I have cared for you as I never cared for any one; as I shall never care for another. To part with you will be like parting with life."

"Then why speak of it? Be my wife, Constance; be my wife!"

"No, it might bring you disgrace," she hysterically answered; "and, that, you shall never encounter through me. Do not keep me, William; my resolution is irrevocable."

Sobbing as though her heart would break, she turned from him. Mr. Yorke followed her indoors. In the hall stood Mrs. Channing. Constance turned aside, anywhere, to hide her face from her mother's eye. Mrs. Channing did not particularly observe her, and turned to accost Mr. Yorke. An angry frown was on his brow, an angry weight on his spirit. Constance's words and course of action had now fully impressed him with the belief that Arthur was guilty; that she knew him to be so; and the proud Yorke blood within him whispered that it was well so to part. But he had loved her with a deep and enduring love, and his heart ached bitterly.

"Will you come in and lend us your help in the discussion?" Mrs. Channing said to him, with a smile. "We are carving out the plan for our journey."

He bowed, and followed her into the sitting-room. He did not speak of what had just occurred, leaving that to Constance, if she should choose to give an explanation. It was not Mr. Yorke's place to say, "Constance has given me up. She has impressed me with the conviction that Arthur is guilty, and she says she will not bring disgrace upon me." No, certainly; he could not tell them that.

Mr. Channing lay as usual on his sofa, Hamish near him. Gay Hamish, who was looking as light-faced as ever; undoubtedly, he seemed as light-hearted. Hamish had a book before him, a map, and a pencil. He was tracing out the route for his father and mother, joking always.

After much anxious consideration, Mr. Channing had determined to proceed at once to Germany. It is true that he could not well afford to do so; and, before he heard from Dr. Lamb the very insignificant cost it would prove, he had always put it from him, as wholly impracticable at present. But the information given him by the doctor altered his views, and he began to think it not only practicable, but feasible. His children were giving much help now to meet home expenses--Constance, in going to Lady Augusta's; Arthur, to the Cathedral. Dr. Lamb strongly urged his going, and Mr. Channing himself knew that, if he could only come home restored to health and to activity, the journey instead of being an expense, would, in point of fact, prove an economy. With much deliberation, with much prayer to be helped to a right decision, Mr. Channing at length decided to go.

It was necessary to start at once, for the season was already advanced; indeed, as Dr. Lamb observed, he ought to have been away a month ago. Then all became bustle and preparation. Two or three days were wasted in the unhappy business concerning Arthur. But all the grieving over that, all the staying at home for it, could do no good; Mr. Channing was fain to see this, and the preparations were hastened. Hamish was most active in all--in urging the departure, in helping to pack, in carving out their route: but always joking.

"Now, mind, mother, as you are to be commander in chief, it is the Antwerp packet you are to take," he was saying, in a serio-comic, dictatorial manner. "Don't get seduced on to any indiscriminate steamer, or you may find yourselves carried off to some unknown regions inhabited by cannibals, and never be heard of again. The Antwerp steamer; and it starts from St. Katherine's Docks--if you have the pleasure of knowing that enchanting part of London. I made acquaintance with it in a fog, in that sight-seeing visit I paid to town; and its beauty, I must confess, did not impress me. From St. Katherine's Docks you will reach Antwerp in about eighteen hours--always provided the ship does not go to pieces."

"Hamish!"

"Well, I won't antic.i.p.ate: I dare say it is well caulked. At any rate, take an insurance ticket against accident, and then you'll be all right. An Irishman slept at the top of a very high hotel. 'Are you not afraid to sleep up there, in case of fire?' a friend asked him. 'By the powers, no!' said he; 'they tell me the house is insured.' Now, mother mine--"

"Shall we have to stay in Antwerp, Hamish?" interrupted Mr. Channing.

"Yes, as you return, sir; an answer that you will think emanated from our Irish friend. No one ever yet went to Antwerp without giving the fine old town a few hours' inspection. I only wish the chance were offered me! Now, on your way there, you will not be able to get about; but, as you return, you will--if all the good has been done you that I antic.i.p.ate."

"Do not be too sanguine, Hamish."

"My dear father," and Hamish's tone a.s.sumed a deeper feeling, "to be sanguine was implanted in my nature, at my birth: but in this case I am more than sanguine. You will be cured, depend upon it. When you return, in three months' time, I shall not have a fly waiting for you at the station here, or if I do, it will be for the mother's exclusive use and benefit; I shall parade you through the town on my arm, showing your renewed strength of leg and limb to the delighted eyes of Helstonleigh."

"Why are you so silent?" Mrs. Channing inquired of William Yorke. She had suddenly noticed that he had scarcely said a word; had sat in a fit of abstraction since his entrance.

"Silent? Oh! Hamish is talking for all of us," he answered, starting from his reverie.

"The ingrat.i.tude of some people!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Hamish. "Is he saying that in a spirit of complaint, now? Mr. Yorke, I am astonished at you."

At this moment Tom was heard to enter the house. That it could be no one but Tom was certain, by the noise and commotion that arose; the others were quieter, except Annabel, and she was a girl. Tom came in, tongue, hands, and feet all going together.

"What luck, is it not, Mr. Yorke? I am so glad it has been given to you!"

Mr. Channing looked up in surprise. "Tom, you will never learn manners! What has been given?"

"Has he not told you?" exclaimed Tom, ignoring the reproof to his manners. "He is appointed to Hazeldon Chapel. Where's Constance? I'll be bound he has told _her_!"

Saucy Tom! They received his news in silence, looking to Mr. Yorke for explanation. He rose from his chair, and his cheek slightly flushed as he confirmed the tidings.

"Does Constance know it?" inquired Mrs. Channing, speaking in the moment's impulse.

"Yes," was Mr. Yorke's short answer. And then he said something, not very coherently, about having an engagement, and took his leave, wishing Mr. Channing every benefit from his journey.

"But, we do not go until the day after to-morrow," objected Mr. Channing. "We shall see you before that."

Another unsatisfactory sentence from Mr. Yorke, that he "was not sure." In shaking hands with Mrs. Channing he bent down with a whisper: "I think Constance has something to say to you."

Mrs. Channing found her in her room, in a sad state of distress. "Child! what is this?" she uttered.

"Oh! mother, mother, it is all at an end, and we have parted for ever!" was poor Constance's wailing answer. And Mrs. Channing, feeling quite sick with the various troubles that seemed to be coming upon her, inquired why it was at an end.

"He feels that the disgrace which has fallen upon us would be reflected upon him, were he to make me his wife. Mother, there is no help for it: it would disgrace him."

"But where there is no real guilt there can be no real disgrace," objected Mrs. Channing. "I am firmly persuaded, however mysterious and unsatisfactory things may appear, that Arthur is not guilty, and that time will prove him so."

Constance could only shiver and sob. Knowing what she knew, she could entertain no hope.

"Poor child! poor child!" murmured Mrs. Channing, her own tears dropping upon the fair young face, as she gathered it to her sheltering bosom. "What have you done that this blight should extend to you?"

"Teach me to bear it, mother. It must be G.o.d's will." And Constance Channing lay in her resting-place, and there sobbed out her heart's grief, as she had done in her early girlhood.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AN APPEAL TO THE DEAN.

The first sharpness of the edge worn off, Arthur Channing partially recovered his cheerfulness. The French have a proverb, which is familiar to us all: "_Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute_." There is a great deal of truth in it, as experience teaches us, and as Arthur found. "Of what use my dependence upon G.o.d," Arthur also reasoned with himself ten times a day, "if it does not serve to bear me up in this, my first trouble? As well have been brought up next door to a heathen. Let me do the best I can under it, and go my way as if it had not happened, trusting all to G.o.d."

A good resolution, and one that none could have made, and kept, unless he had learnt that trust, which is the surest beacon-light we can possess in the world. Hour after hour, day after day, did that trust grow in Arthur Channing's heart. He felt a sure conviction that G.o.d would bring his innocence to light in His own good time: and that time he was content to wait for. Not at the expense of Hamish. In his brotherly love for Hamish, which this transaction had been unable to dispel, he would have shielded his reputation at any sacrifice to himself. He had grown to excuse Hamish, far more than he could ever have excused himself, had he been guilty of it. He constantly hoped that the sin might never be brought home to Hamish, even by the remotest suspicion. He hoped that he would never fall again. Hamish was now so kind to Arthur--gentle in manner, thoughtfully considerate, anxious to spare him. He had taken to profess his full belief in Arthur's innocence; not as loudly perhaps, but quite as urgently, as did Roland Yorke. "He would prove my innocence, and take the guilt to himself, but that it would bring ruin to my father," fondly soliloquised Arthur.

Arthur Channing's most earnest desire, for the present, was to obtain some employment. His weekly salary at Mr. Galloway's had been very trifling; but still it was so much loss. He had gone to Mr. Galloway's not so much to be of help to that gentleman, who really did not require a third clerk, as to get his hand into the routine of the office, preparatory to being articled. Hence his weekly pay had been almost a nominal sum. Small though it was, he was anxious to replace it; and he sought to hear of something in the town. As yet, without success. Persons were not willing to engage one on whom a doubt rested; and a very great doubt, in the opinion of the town, did rest upon Arthur. The manner in which the case had terminated--by Mr. Galloway's refusing to swear he put the bank-note into the envelope, when it was known that Mr. Galloway had put it in, and that Mr. Galloway himself knew that he had done so--told more against Arthur than the actual charge had done. It was not, you see, establishing Arthur's innocence; on the contrary, it rather tended to imply his guilt. "If I go on with this, he will be convicted, therefore I will withdraw it for his father's sake," was the motive the town imputed to Mr. Galloway. His summary dismissal, also, from the office, was urged against him. Altogether, Arthur did not stand well with Helstonleigh; and fresh employment did not readily show itself. This was of little moment, comparatively speaking, while his post in the Cathedral was not endangered. But that was to come.

On the day before the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Channing, Arthur was seated at the organ at afternoon service, playing the anthem, when Mr. Williams came up. Arthur saw him with surprise. It was not the day for practising the choristers; therefore, what could he want? A feeling of dread that it might mean ill to him, came over Arthur.

A feeling all too surely borne out. "Channing," Mr. Williams began, scarcely giving himself time to wait until service was over and the congregation were leaving, "the dean has been talking to me about this bother. What is to be done?"

The life-blood at his heart seemed to stand still, and then go on again. His place there was about to be taken from him; he knew it. Must he become an idle, useless burden upon them at home?

"He met me this morning in High Street, and stopped me," continued Mr. Williams. "He considers that if you were guilty of the theft, you ought not to be allowed to retain your place here. I told him you were not guilty--that I felt thoroughly convinced of it; but he listened coldly. The dean is a stern man, and I have always said it."

"He is a good man, and only stern in the cause of injustice," replied Arthur, who was himself too just to allow blame to rest where it was not due, even though it were to defend himself. "Did he give orders for my dismissal?"

"He has not done so yet. I said, that when a man was wrongly accused, it ought not to be a plea for all the world's trampling him down. He answered pretty warmly, that of course it ought not; but that, if appearances might be trusted, you were not wrongly accused."

Arthur sat, scoring some music with his pencil. Never had he felt that appearances were against him more plainly than he felt it then.

"I thought I would step down and tell you this, Channing," Mr. Williams observed. "I shall not dismiss you, you may be sure of that; but, if the dean puts forth his veto, I cannot help myself. He is master of the Cathedral, not I. I cannot think what possesses the people to doubt you! They never would, if they had ten grains of sense."

The organist concluded his words as he hurried down the stairs--he was always much pressed for time. Arthur, a cold weight lying at his heart, put the music together, and departed.

He traversed the nave, crossed the body, and descended the steps to the cloisters. As he was pa.s.sing the Chapter House

, the doors opened, and Dr. Gardner came out, in his surplice and trencher. He closed the doors after him, but not before Arthur had seen the dean seated alone at the table--a large folio before him. Both of them had just left the Cathedral.

Arthur raised his hat to the canon, who acknowledged it, but--Arthur thought--very coldly. To a sore mind, fancy is ever active. A thought flashed over Arthur that he would go, there and then, and speak to the dean.

Acting upon the moment's impulse, without premeditation as to what he should say, he turned back and laid his hand upon the door handle. A pa.s.sing tremor, as to the result, arose within him; but he had learned where help in need is ever to be obtained, and an earnestly breathed word went up then. The dean looked round, saw that it was Arthur Channing, rose from his seat, and awaited his approach.

"Will you pardon my intruding upon you here, Mr. Dean?" he began, in his gentle, courteous manner; and with the urgency of the occasion, all his energy seemed to come to him. Timidity and tremor vanished, and he stood before the dean, a true gentleman and a fearless one. The dean still wore his surplice, and his trencher lay on the table near him. Arthur placed his own hat by its side. "Mr. Williams has just informed me that you cast a doubt as to the propriety of my still taking the organ," he added.

"True," said the dean. "It is not fitting that one, upon whom so heavy an imputation lies, should be allowed to continue his duty in this Cathedral."

"But, sir--if that imputation be a mistaken one?"

"How are we to know that it is a mistaken one?" demanded the dean.

Arthur paused. Sir, will you take my word for it? I am incapable of telling a lie. I have come to you to defend my own cause; and yet I can only do it by my bare word of a.s.sertion. You are not a stranger to the circ.u.mstances of my family, Mr. Dean; and I honestly avow that if this post is taken from me, it will be felt as a serious loss. I have lost what little I had from Mr. Galloway; I trust I shall not lose this."

"You know, Channing, that I should be the last to do an unjust thing; you also may be aware that I respect your family very much," was the dean's reply. "But this crime which has been laid to your charge is a heavy one. If you were guilty of it, it cannot be overlooked."

"I was not guilty of it," Arthur impressively said, his tone full of emotion. "Mr. Dean! believe me. When I shall come to answer to my Maker for my actions upon earth, I cannot then speak with more earnest truth than I now speak to you. I am entirely innocent of the charge. I did not touch the money; I did not know that the money was lost, until Mr. Galloway announced it to me some days afterwards."

The dean gazed at Arthur as he stood before him; at his tall form--n.o.ble even in its youthfulness--his fine, ingenuous countenance, his earnest eye; it was impossible to a.s.sociate such with the brand of guilt, and the dean's suspicious doubts melted away. If ever uprightness was depicted unmistakably in a human countenance, it shone out then from Arthur Channing's.

"But there appears, then, to be some mystery attaching to the loss, to the proceedings altogether," debated the dean.

"No doubt there may be; no doubt there is," was the reply of Arthur. "Sir," he impulsively added, "will you stand my friend, so far as to grant me a favour?"

The dean wondered what was coming.

"Although I have thus a.s.serted my innocence to you; and it is the solemn truth; there are reasons why I do not wish to speak out so unequivocally to others. Will you kindly regard this interview as a confidential one--not speaking of its purport even to Mr. Galloway?"

"But why?" asked the dean.

"I cannot explain. I can only throw myself upon your kindness, Mr. Dean, to grant the request. Indeed," he added, his face flushing, "my motive is an urgent one."

"The interview was not of my seeking, so you may have your favour," said the dean, kindly. "But I cannot see why you should not publicly a.s.sert it, if, as you say, you are innocent."

"Indeed, I am innocent," repeated Arthur. "Should one ray of light ever be thrown upon the affair, you will see, Mr. Dean, that I have spoken truth."

"I will accept it as truth," said the dean. "You may continue to take the organ."

"I knew G.o.d would be with me in the interview!" thought Arthur, as he thanked the dean and left the Chapter House

He did not go home immediately. He had a commission to execute in the town, and went to do it. It took him about an hour, which brought it to five o'clock. In returning through the Boundaries he encountered Roland Yorke, just released from that bane of his life, the office, for the day. Arthur told him how near he had been to losing the Cathedral.

"By Jove!" uttered Roland, flying into one of his indignant fits. "A nice dean he is! He'd deserve to lose his own place, if he had done it."

"Well, the danger is over for the present. I say, Yorke, does Galloway talk much about it?"

"Not he," answered Roland. "He's as sullen and crabbed as any old bear. I often say to Jenkins that he is in a temper with himself for having sent you away, and I don't care if he hears me. There's an awful amount to do since you went. I and Jenkins are worked to death. And there'll be the busiest time of all the year coming on soon, with the autumn rents and leases. I shan't stop long in it, I know!"

Smiling at Roland's account of being "worked to death," for he knew how much the a.s.sertion was worth, Arthur continued his way. Roland continued his, and, on entering his own house, met Constance Channing leaving it. He exchanged a few words of chatter with her, though it struck him that she looked unusually sad, and then found his way to the presence of his mother.

"What an uncommonly pretty girl that Constance Channing is!" quoth he, in his free, unceremonious fashion. "I wonder she condescends to come here to teach the girls!"

"I think I shall dismiss her, Roland," said Lady Augusta.

"I expect she'll dismiss herself, ma'am, without waiting for you to do it, now William Yorke has found bread and cheese, and a house to live in," returned Roland, throwing himself at full length on a sofa.

"Then you expect wrong," answered Lady Augusta. "If Miss Channing leaves, it will be by my dismissal. And I am not sure but I shall do it," she added, nodding her head.

"What for?" asked Roland, lazily.

"It is not pleasant to retain, as instructress to my children, one whose brother is a thief."

Roland tumbled off the sofa, and rose up with a great cry--a cry of pa.s.sionate anger, of aroused indignation. "What?" he thundered.

"Good gracious! are you going mad?" uttered my lady. "What is Arthur Channing to you, that you should take up his cause in this startling way upon every possible occasion?"

"He is this to me--that he has n.o.body else to stand up for him," stuttered Roland, so excited as to impede his utterance. "We were both in the same office, and the shameful charge might have been cast upon me, as it was cast upon him. It was mere chance. Channing is as innocent of it as you, mother; he is as innocent as that precious dean, who has been wondering whether he shall dismiss him from the Cathedral. A charitable lot you all are!"

"I'm sure I don't want to be uncharitable," cried Lady Augusta, whose heart was kind enough in the main. "And I am sure the dean never was uncharitable in his life: he is too good and enlightened a man to be uncharitable. Half the town says he must be guilty, and what is one to think? Then you would not recommend me to let it make any difference to Miss Channing's coming here?"

"No!" burst forth Roland, in a tone that might have brought down the roof, had it been made of gla.s.s. "I'd scorn such wicked injustice."