Uncle Silas Part 23

Again I a.s.sented.

'You are worthy of your blood, Maud Ruthyn. It will come soon, and it won't last long. But you must not let people like Monica Knollys frighten you.'

I was lost in wonder.

'If you allow them to possess you with their follies, you had better recede in time--they may make the ordeal as terrible as h.e.l.l itself. You have zeal--have you nerve?' I thought in such a cause I had nerve for anything.

'Well, Maud, in the course of a few months--and it may be sooner--there must be a change. I have had a letter from London this morning that a.s.sures me of that. I must then leave you for a time; in my absence be faithful to the duties that will arise. To whom much is committed, of him will much be required. You shall promise me not to mention this conversation to Monica Knollys. If you are a talking girl, and cannot trust yourself, say so, and we will not ask her to come. Also, don't invite her to talk about your uncle Silas--I have reasons. Do you quite understand my conditions?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Your uncle Silas,' he said, speaking suddenly in loud and fierce tones that sounded from so old a man almost terrible, 'lies under an intolerable slander. I don't correspond with him; I don't sympathise with him; I never quite did. He has grown religious, and that's well; but there are things in which even religion should not bring a man to acquiesce; and from what I can learn, he, the person primarily affected--the cause, though the innocent cause--of this great calamity--bears it with an easy apathy which is mistaken, and liable easily to be mistaken, and such as no Ruthyn, under the circ.u.mstances, ought to exhibit. I told him what he ought to do, and offered to open my purse for the purpose; but he would not, or _did_ not; indeed, he _never_ took my advice; he followed his own, and a foul and dismal shoal he has drifted on. It is not for his sake--why should I?-that I have longed and laboured to remove the disgraceful slur under which his ill-fortune has thrown us. He troubles himself little about it, I believe--he's meek, meeker than I. He cares less about his children than I about you, Maud; he is selfishly sunk in futurity--a feeble visionary. I am not so. I believe it to be a duty to take care of others beside myself. The character and influence of an ancient family is a peculiar heritage--sacred but destructible; and woe to him who either destroys or suffers it to peris.h.!.+'

This was the longest speech I ever heard my father speak before or after.

He abruptly resumed--

'Yes, we will, Maud--you and I--we'll leave one proof on record, which, fairly read, will go far to convince the world.'

He looked round, but we were alone. The garden was nearly always solitary, and few visitors ever approached the house from that side.

'I have talked too long, I believe; we are children to the last. Leave me, Maud. I think I know you better than I did, and I am pleased with you. Go, child--I'll sit here.'

If he had acquired new ideas of me, so had I of him from that interview. I had no idea till then how much pa.s.sion still burned in that aged frame, nor how full of energy and fire that face, generally so stern and ashen, could appear. As I left him seated on the rustic chair, by the steps, the traces of that storm were still discernible on his features. His gathered brows, glowing eyes, and strangely hectic face, and the grim compression of his mouth, still showed the agitation which, somehow, in grey old age, shocks and alarms the young.

CHAPTER XX

_AUSTIN RUTHYN SETS OUT ON HIS JOURNEY_

The Rev. William Fairfield, Doctor Clay's somewhat bald curate, a mild, thin man, with a high and thin nose, who was preparing me for confirmation, came next day; and when our catechetical conference was ended, and before lunch was announced, my father sent for him to the study, where he remained until the bell rang out its summons.

'We have had some interesting--I may say _very_ interesting--conversation, your papa and I, Miss Ruthyn,' said my reverend _vis-a-vis_, so soon as nature was refreshed, smiling and s.h.i.+ning, as he leaned back in his chair, his hand upon the table, and his finger curled gently upon the stem of his wine-gla.s.s. 'It never was your privilege, I believe, to see your uncle, Mr.

Silas Ruthyn, of Bartram-Haugh?'

'No--never; he leads so retired--so _very_ retired a life.'

'Oh, no,--of course, no; but I was going to remark a likeness--I mean, of course, a _family_ likeness--only _that_ sort of thing--you understand--between him and the profile of Lady Margaret in the drawing-room--is not it Lady Margaret?--which you were so good as to show me on Wednesday last. There certainly _is_ a likeness. I _think_ you would agree with me, if you had the pleasure of seeing your uncle.'

'You know him, then? I have never seen him.'

'Oh dear, yes--I am happy to say, I know him very well. I have that privilege. I was for three years curate of Feltram, and I had the honour of being a pretty constant visitor at Bartram-Haugh during that, I may say, protracted period; and I think it really never has been my privilege and happiness, I may say, to enjoy the acquaintance and society of so very experienced a Christian, as my admirable friend, I may call him, Mr.

Ruthyn, of Bartram-Haugh. I look upon him, I do a.s.sure you, quite in the light of a saint; not, of course, in the Popish sense, but in the very highest, you will understand me, which _our_ Church allows,--a man built up in faith--full of faith--faith and grace--altogether exemplary; and I often ventured to regret, Miss Ruthyn, that Providence in its mysterious dispensations should have placed him so far apart from his brother, your respected father. His influence and opportunities would, no doubt, we may venture to hope, at least have been blessed; and, perhaps, we--my valued rector and I--might possibly have seen more of him at church, than, I deeply regret, we _have_ done.' He shook his head a little, as he smiled with a sad complacency on me through his blue steel spectacles, and then sipped a little meditative sherry.

'And you saw a good deal of my uncle?'

'Well, a _good_ deal, Miss Ruthyn--I may say a _good_ deal--princ.i.p.ally at his own house. His health is wretched--miserable health--a sadly afflicted man he has been, as, no doubt, you are aware. But afflictions, my dear Miss Ruthyn, as you remember Doctor Clay so well remarked on Sunday last, though birds of ill omen, yet spiritually resemble the ravens who supplied the prophet; and when they visit the faithful, come charged with nourishment for the soul.

'He is a good deal embarra.s.sed pecuniarily, I should say,' continued the curate, who was rather a good man than a very well-bred one. 'He found a difficulty--in fact it was not in his power--to subscribe generally to our little funds, and--and objects, and I used to say to him, and I really felt it, that it was more gratifying, such were his feeling and his power of expression, to be refused by him than a.s.sisted by others.'

'Did papa wish you to speak to me about my uncle?' I enquired, as a sudden thought struck me; and then I felt half ashamed of my question.

He looked surprised.

'No, Miss Ruthyn, certainly not. Oh dear, no. It was merely a conversation between Mr. Ruthyn and me. He never suggested my opening that, or indeed any other point in my interview with you, Miss Ruthyn--not the least.'

'I was not aware before that Uncle Silas was so religious.'

He smiled tranquilly, not quite up to the ceiling, but gently upward, and shook his head in pity for my previous ignorance, as he lowered his eyes--

'I don't say that there may not be some little matters in a few points of doctrine which we could, perhaps, wish otherwise. But these, you know, are speculative, and in all essentials he is Church--not in the perverted modern sense; far from it--unexceptionably Church, strictly so. Would there were more among us of the same mind that is in him! Ay, Miss Ruthyn, even in the highest places of the Church herself.'

The Rev. William Fairfield, while fighting against the Dissenters with his right hand, was, with his left, hotly engaged with the Tractarians. A good man I am sure he was, and I dare say sound in doctrine, though naturally, I think, not very wise. This conversation with him gave me new ideas about my uncle Silas. It quite agreed with what my father had said. These principles and his increasing years would necessarily quiet the turbulence of his resistance to injustice, and teach him to acquiesce in his fate.

You would have fancied that one so young as I, born to wealth so vast, and living a life of such entire seclusion, would have been exempt from care.

But you have seen how troubled my life was with fear and anxiety during the residence of Madame de la Rougierre, and now there rested upon my mind a vague and awful antic.i.p.ation of the trial which my father had announced, without defining it.

An 'ordeal' he called it, requiring not only zeal but nerve, which might possibly, were my courage to fail, become frightful, and even intolerable.

What, and of what nature, could it be? Not designed to vindicate the fair fame of the meek and submissive old man--who, it seemed, had ceased to care for his bygone wrongs, and was looking to futurity--but the reputation of our ancient family.

Sometimes I repented my temerity in having undertaken it. I distrusted my courage. Had I not better retreat, while it was yet time? But there was shame and even difficulty in the thought. How should I appear before my father? Was it not important--had I not deliberately undertaken it--and was I not bound in conscience? Perhaps he had already taken steps in the matter which committed _him_. Besides, was I sure that, even were I free again, I would not once more devote myself to the trial, be it what it might?

You perceive I had more spirit than courage. I think I had the mental attributes of courage; but then I was but a hysterical girl, and in so far neither more nor less than a coward.

No wonder I distrusted myself; no wonder also my will stood out against my timidity. It was a struggle, then; a proud, wild resolve against const.i.tutional cowardice.

Those who have ever had cast upon them more than their strength seemed framed to bear--the weak, the aspiring, the adventurous and self-sacrificing in will, and the faltering in nerve--will understand the kind of agony which I sometimes endured.

But, again, consolation would come, and it seemed to me that I must be exaggerating my risk in the coming crisis; and certain at least, if my father believed it attended with real peril, he would never have wished to see me involved in it. But the silence under which I was bound was terrifying--double so when the danger was so shapeless and undivulged.

I was soon to understand it all--soon, too, to know all about my father's impending journey, whither, with what visitor, and why guarded from me with so awful a mystery.

That day there came a lively and goodnatured letter from Lady Knollys. She was to arrive at Knowl in two or three days' time. I thought my father would have been pleased, but he seemed apathetic and dejected.

'One does not always feel quite equal to Monica. But for you--yes, thank G.o.d. I wish she could only stay, Maud, for a month or two; I may be going then, and would be glad--provided she talks about suitable things--very glad, Maud, to leave her with you for a week or so.'

There was something, I thought, agitating my father secretly that day. He had the strange hectic flush I had observed when he grew excited in our interview in the garden about Uncle Silas. There was something painful, perhaps even terrible, in the circ.u.mstances of the journey he was about to make, and from my heart I wished the suspense were over, the annoyance past, and he returned.

That night my father bid me good-night early and went upstairs. After I had been in bed some little time, I heard his hand-bell ring. This was not usual. Shortly after I heard his man, Ridley, talking with Mrs. Rusk in the gallery. I could not be mistaken in their voices. I knew not why I was startled and excited, and had raised myself to listen on my elbow. But they were talking quietly, like persons giving or taking an ordinary direction, and not in the haste of an unusual emergency.

Then I heard the man bid Mrs. Rusk good-night and walk down the gallery to the stairs, so that I concluded he was wanted no more, and all must therefore be well. So I laid myself down again, though with a throbbing at my heart, and an ominous feeling of expectation, listening and fancying footsteps.

I was going to sleep when I heard the bell ring again; and, in a few minutes, Mrs. Rusk's energetic step pa.s.sed along the gallery; and, listening intently, I heard, or fancied, my father's voice and hers in dialogue. All this was very unusual, and again I was, with a beating heart, leaning with my elbow on my pillow.

Mrs. Rusk came along the gallery in a minute or so after, and stopping at my door, began to open it gently. I was startled, and challenged my visitor with--

'Who's there?'