CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE OPENING OF THE GATE.
It was a quarter to two on the Thursday and Joan, dressed in the black silk gown that she used to wear when on duty at Messrs. Black & Parker’s, awaited the arrival of her intended husband in the little sitting-room, where presently Mrs. Bird joined her, attired in a lilac dress and a bonnet with white flowers and long tulle strings.
“What, my dear, are you going to be married in black? Pray don’t: it is so unlucky.”
“It is the best dress that I have,” answered Joan.
“There is the pretty grey one.”
“No,” she replied hastily, “I will not wear that. Besides, the black one is more suitable.”
“Joan, Joan,” cried Mrs. Bird, “is everything right? You don’t look as you ought to not a bit happy.”
“Quite right, thank you,” she answered, with an unmoved countenance. “I have been shut up for so long that the idea of going out upsets me a little, that is all.”
Then Mrs. Bird collapsed and sat silent, but Joan, moving to the window, looked down the street. The sight was not an inspiriting one, for it was a wet and miserable afternoon even for London in November, and the rain trickled ceaselessly down the dirty window-panes. Presently through the mist Joan saw a four-wheeled cab advancing towards the house.
“Come,” she said, “here it is.” And she put on a heavy cloak over her other wrappings.
At the door she paused for a moment, as though her resolution failed her; then passed downstairs with a steady step. Mr. Rock was already in the passage inquiring for her from Maria.
“Here I am,” she said; “let us go at once. I am afraid of catching cold if I stand about.”
Apparently Samuel was too much taken aback to make any answer, and in another minute they were all three in the cab driving towards the nearest registry.
“I managed it all right, Joan,” he said, bending forward and raising his voice to make himself heard above the rattling of the crazy cab. “I was only just in time, though, for I had to give forty-eight hours’ clear notice at the registry, and to make all sorts of affidavits about your age, and as to your having been resident in the parish for more than fifteen days.”
Joan received this information in silence, and nothing more was said until they arrived at the office.
From that moment till the end of the ceremony, so far as her immediate surroundings were concerned, Joan’s mind was very much of a blank. She remembered, indeed, standing before a pleasant-looking gentleman with gold spectacles and a bald head, who asked her certain questions which she answered. She remembered also that Samuel put a ring upon her finger, for she noticed how his long white hands shook as he did so, and their hateful touch for a few instants stirred her from her lethargy. Then there arose in her mind a vision of herself standing on a golden summer afternoon by the ruins of an ancient church, and of one who spoke to her, and whom she must never see again. The vision passed, and she signed something. While her pen was yet upon the paper, she heard Mrs. Bird exclaim, in a shrill, excited voice,—
“I forbid it. There’s fraud here, as I believed all along. I thought that he used the wrong name, and now he’s gone and signed it.”
“What do you mean, madam?” asked the registrar. “Pray explain yourself.”
“I mean that he is deceiving this poor girl into a false marriage. His name is Sir Henry Graves, Bart., and he has signed himself there Samuel Rock.”
“The good lady is under a mistake,” explained Samuel, clasping his hands and writhing uncomfortably: “my name is Rock, and I am a farmer, not a baronet.”
“Well, I must say, sir,” answered the registrar, “that you look as little like the one as the other. But this is a serious matter, so perhaps your wife will clear it up. She ought to know who and what you are, if anybody does.”
“He is Mr. Samuel Rock, of the Moor Farm, Bradmouth,” Joan answered, in an impassive voice. “My friend here is mistaken. Sir Henry Graves is quite a different person.”
Mrs. Bird heard, and sank into a chair speechless, nor did she utter another syllable until she found herself at home again. Then the business went on, and presently the necessary certificates, of which Samuel was careful to obtain certified copies, were filled in and signed, and the party left the office.
“There’s something odd about that affair,” said the registrar to his assistant as he entered the amount of the fee received in a ledger, “and I shouldn’t wonder if Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Rock make their appearance in the Courts before they are much older. However, all the papers are in order, so they can’t blame me. What a pretty woman she is! but she looked very sad and ill.”
In the waiting-room of the office Joan held out her hand to Samuel, and said, “Good-bye.”
“Mayn’t I see you home?” he asked piteously.
She shook her head and answered, “On this day year, if I am alive, you may see as much of me as you like, but till then we are strangers,” and she moved towards the door.
He stretched out his arms as though to embrace her; but, followed by the bewildered Mrs. Bird, she swept past him, and soon they were driving back to Kent Street, leaving Samuel standing bare-headed upon the pavement in the rain, and gazing after her.
In the passage of No. 8, Sally was waiting to present Joan with a bouquet of white flowers, that she had found no opportunity to give her as she went out. Joan took the flowers and, bending down, kissed the dumb child; and that kiss was the only touch of nature in all the nefarious and unnatural business of her marriage. Mrs. Bird followed her upstairs, and so soon as the door was closed, said,—
“For pity’s sake, Joan, tell me what all this means. Am I mad, or are you?”
“I am, Mrs. Bird,” she answered. “If you want to know, I have married this man, who has been in love with me a long while, but whom I hate, in order to prevent Sir Henry Graves from making me his wife.”
“But why, Joan? but why?” Mrs. Bird gasped.
“Because if I had married Sir Henry I should have ruined him, and also because I promised Lady Graves that I would not do so. Had I once seen him I should have broken my promise, so I have taken this means to put myself out of temptation, having first told Mr. Rock the whole truth, and bargained that I should not go to live with him for another year.”
“Oh! this is terrible, terrible!” said Mrs. Bird, wringing her hands; “and what a reptile the man must be to marry you on such terms, and knowing that you loathe the sight of him!”
“Do not abuse him, Mrs. Bird, for on the whole I think that he is as much wronged as anybody; at least he is my husband, whom I have taken with my eyes open, as he has taken me.”
“He may be your husband, but he is a liar for all that; for he told me that he was Sir Henry Graves, and that is why I let him come up to see you, although I thought, from the look of him, that he couldn’t be a baronet. Well, Joan, you have done it now, and as you’ve sown so you will have to reap. The wages of sin is death, that’s the truth of it. You’ve gone wrong, and, like many another, you have got to suffer. I don’t believe in your arguments that have made you marry this crawling creature. They are a kind of lie, and, like all lies, they will bring misery. You have a good heart, but you’ve never disciplined it, and a heart without discipline is the most false of guides. It isn’t for me to reproach you, Joan, who am, I dare say, ten times worse than you are, but I can’t hold with your methods. However, you are married to this man now, so if you’re wise you’ll try to make the best of him and forget the other.”
“Yes,” she answered, “I shall if I am wise, or if I can find wisdom.”
Then Mrs. Bird began to cry and went away. When she had gone, Joan sat down and wrote this letter to catch the post:—
“DEAR SIR,
“I have received your kind letter, and write to tell you that it is of no use your coming to London to see me to-morrow, as I was married this afternoon to Mr. Samuel Rock; and so good-bye! With all good wishes,
“Believe me, dear sir,
“Ever yours,
“JOAN.”
Joan was married on a Thursday; and upon the following morning Henry, who had slept but ill, rose early and went out before breakfast. As it chanced, the weather was mild, and the Rosham fields and woods looked soft and beautiful in the hazy November light. Henry walked to and fro about them, stopping here to admire the view, and there to speak a few kindly words to some labourer going to his daily toil, or to watch the pheasants drawing back to covert after filling their crops upon the stubble. Thus he lingered till long past the hour for breakfast, for he was sad at heart and loath to quit the lands that, as he thought, he would see no more, since he had determined not to revisit Rosham when once he had made Joan his wife.
He felt that he was doing right in marrying her, but it was idle to deny that she was costing him dear. For three centuries his forefathers had owned these wide, familiar lands; there was no house upon them that they had not built; with the exception of a few ancient pollards there was scarcely a tree that they had not planted; and now he must send them to the hammer because he had been unlucky enough to fall in love with the wrong woman. Well, such was his fortune, and he must make the best of it. Still he may be pardoned if it wrung his heart to think that, in all human probability, he would never again see those fields and friendly faces, and that in his person the race of Graves were looking their last upon the soil that for hundreds of years had fed them while alive and covered them when dead.
In a healthy man, however, even sentiment is not proof against hunger, so it came about that at last Henry limped home to breakfast with a heavy heart, and, having ordered the dog that trotted at his heels back to its kennel, he entered the house by the side door and went to the dining-room. On his plate were several letters. He opened the first, which he noticed had an official frank in the left-hand corner. It was from his friend the under-secretary, informing him that, as it chanced, there was a billet open in Africa, and that he had obtained a promise from a colleague, in whose hands lay the patronage of the appointment, that if he proved suitable in some particulars, he, Henry, should have the offer of it. The letter added that, although the post was worth only six hundred a year, it was in a good climate, and would certainly lead to better things; and that the writer would be glad if he would come to town to see about the matter as soon as might be convenient to him, since, when it became known that the place was vacant, there were sure to be crowds of people after it who had claims upon the Government.
“Here’s a bit of good news at last, anyway,” thought Henry, as he put down the letter: “whatever happens to us, Joan and I won’t starve, and I dare say that we can be jolly enough out there. By Jove! if it wasn’t for my mother and the thought that some of my father’s debts must remain unpaid, I should almost be happy,” and for a moment or two he gave himself over to a reverie in which the thought of Joan and of her tender love and beauty played the largest part (for he tried to forget the jarring tone of that second letter) Joan, whom, after so long an absence, he should see again that day.
Then, remembering that the rest of his correspondence was unread, he took up an envelope and opened it without looking at the address. In five seconds it was on the floor beside him, and he was murmuring, with pale lips, “I was married this afternoon to Samuel Rock.” Impossible! it must be a hoax! Stooping down, he found the letter and examined it carefully. Either it was in Joan’s writing, or the forgery was perfect. Then he thought of the former letter, of which the tenor had disgusted him; and it occurred to him that it was an epistle which a woman contemplating some such treachery might very well have written. Had he, then, been deceived all along in this girl’s character? It would seem so. And yet—and yet! She had sworn that she loved him, and that she hated the man Rock. What could have been her object in doing this thing? One only that he could see,—money. Rock was a rich man, and he was a penniless baronet.
If this letter were genuine, it became clear that she thought him good enough for a lover but not for a husband; that she had amused herself with him, and now threw him over in favour of the solid advantages of a prosperous marriage with a man in her own class of life. Well, he had heard of women playing such tricks, and the hypothesis explained the attitude which Joan had all along adopted upon the question of becoming his wife. He remembered that from the first she disclaimed any wish to marry him. Oh! if this were so, what a blind fool he had been, and how unnecessarily had he tormented himself with doubts and searchings for the true path of duty! But as yet he could not believe that it was true. There must be some mistake. At least he would go to London and ascertain the facts before he passed judgment on the faith of such evidence. Why had he not gone before, in defiance of the doctor and Mrs. Bird?
Half an hour later he was driving to the station. As he drew near to Bradmouth he perceived a man walking along the road, in whom he recognised Samuel Rock.
“There’s an end of that lie,” he thought to himself, with a sigh of relief; “for if she married him yesterday afternoon he would be in London with her, since he could scarcely have returned here to spend his honeymoon.”
At any rate he would settle the question. Giving the reins to the coachman, he jumped down from the cart, and, bidding him drive on a few yards, waited by the roadside.
Presently Samuel caught sight of him, and stopped as though he meant to turn back. If so, he changed his mind almost instantly and walked forward at a quick pace.
“Good day, Mr. Rock,” said Henry: “I wish to have a word with you. I have heard some strange news this morning, which you may be able to explain.”
“What news?” asked Samuel, looking at him insolently.
“That you were married to Joan Haste yesterday.”
“Well, what about that, Sir Henry Graves?”
“Nothing in particular, Mr. Rock, except that I do not believe it.”
“Don’t you?” answered Samuel with a sneer. “Then perhaps you will throw your eye over this.” And he produced from his pocket a copy of the marriage certificate.
Henry read it, and turned very white; then he handed it back without a word.
“It is all in order, I think?” said Samuel, still sneering.
“Apparently,” Henry answered. “May I ask if—Mrs. Rock—is with you?”
“No, she isn’t. Do you think that I am fool enough to bring her here at present, for you to be sneaking about after her? I know what your game was, ’cause she told me all about it. You were going up to town to-day to get hold of her, weren’t you. Well, you’re an hour behind the fair this time. Joan may have been a bit flighty, but she’s a sensible woman at bottom, and she knew better than to trust herself to a scamp without a sixpence, like you, when she might have an honest man and a good home. I told you I meant to marry her, and you see I have kept my word. And now look you here, Sir Henry Graves: just you keep clear of her in future, for if I catch you so much as speaking to her, it will be the worse both for yourself and Joan, not that she cares a rotten herring about you, although she did fool you so prettily.”
‘And now ... get out of my way before I forget myself.’
“You need not fear that I shall attempt to disturb your domestic happiness, Mr. Rock. And now for Heaven’s sake get out of my way before I forget myself.”
Samuel obeyed, still grinning and sneering with hate and jealousy; and Henry walked on to where the dog-cart was waiting for him. Taking the reins, he turned the horse’s head and drove back to Rosham.
“Thomson,” he said to the butler, who came to open the door, “I have changed my mind about going to town to-day; you can unpack my things. Stop a minute, though: I remember I am due at Monk’s Lodge, so you needn’t meddle with the big portmanteau. When does my mother come back?”
“To-morrow, her ladyship wrote me this morning, Sir Henry.”
“Oh! very well. Then I sha’n’t see her till Tuesday; but it doesn’t matter. Send down to the keeper and tell him that I want to speak to him, will you? I think that I will change my clothes and shoot some rabbits after lunch. Stop, order the dog-cart to be ready to drive me to Monk’s Lodge in time to dress for dinner.”
To analyse Henry’s feelings during the remainder of that day would be difficult, if not impossible; but those of shame and bitter anger were uppermost in his mind shame that he had laid himself open to such words as Rock used to him, and anger that his vanity and blind faith in a woman’s soft speeches and feigned love should have led him into so ignominious a position. Mingled with these emotions were his natural pangs of jealousy and disappointed affection, though pride would not suffer him to give way to them. Again and again he reviewed every detail of the strange and, to his sense, appalling story; and at times, overpowering as was the evidence, his mind refused to accept its obvious moral namely, that he had been tricked and made a tool of yes, used as a foil to bring this man to the point of marriage. How was it possible to reconcile Joan’s conduct in the past and that wild letter of hers with her subsequent letters and action? Thus only: that as regards the first she had been playing on his feelings and inexperience of the arts of women; and that, as in sleep men who are no poets can sometimes compose verse which is full of beauty, so in her delirium Joan had been able to set on paper words and thoughts that were foreign to her nature and above its level. Or perhaps that letter was a forgery written by Mrs. Bird, who was “so romantic.” The circumstances under which it reached him were peculiar, and Joan herself expressly repudiated all knowledge of it. Notwithstanding his doubts, perplexities and suffering, as might have been expected, the matter in the end resolved itself into two very simple issues: first, that, whatever may have been her exact reasons, Joan Haste had broken with him once and for all by marrying another man; and second, that, as a corollary to her act, many dangers and difficulties which beset him had disappeared, and he was free, if he wished it, to marry another woman.
Henry was no fool, and when the first bitterness was past, and he could consider the matter, if not without passion as yet, at least more calmly, he saw, the girl being what she had proved herself to be, that all things were working together for his good and the advantage of his family. Supposing, for instance, that he had found her out after marriage instead of before it, and supposing that the story which she told him in her first letter had been true, instead of what it clearly was a lie? Surely in these and in many other ways his escape had been what an impartial person might call fortunate. At the least, of her own act she had put an end to an imbroglio that had many painful aspects, and there remained no stain upon his honour, for which he was most truly thankful.
And now, having learnt his lesson in the hard school of experience, he would write to his friend the under-secretary, saying he could not be in town till Wednesday. Meanwhile he would pay his visit at Monk’s Lodge.