Born in Exile (65 page)
'For an hour or two.'
'Oh, confound it! When a friend comes back from the ends of the
earth!—Yes, yes; I understand. You are a busy man; forgive my
hastiness. Well now, I was going to say that I shall probably call
upon Mrs. Jacox.' He paused, and gave the listener a stern look,
forbidding misconstruction. 'Yes, I shall probably go down to
Wrotham. I wish to put my relations with that family on a proper
footing. Our correspondence has been very satisfactory, especially
of late. The poor woman laments more sincerely her—well, let us
say, her folly of two years and a half ago. She has outlived it;
she regards me as a friend. Bella and Lily seem to be getting on
very well indeed. That governess of theirs—we won't have any more
mystery; it was I who undertook the trifling expense. A really
excellent teacher, I have every reason to believe. I am told that
Bella promises to be a remarkable pianist, and Lily is uncommonly
strong in languages. But my interest in them is merely that of a
friend; let it be understood.'
'Precisely. You didn't say whether the girls have been writing
to you?'
'No, no, no! Not a line. I have exchanged letters only with
their mother. Anything else would have been indiscreet. I shall be
glad to see them, but my old schemes are things of the past. There
is not the faintest probability that Bella has retained any
recollection of me at all.'
'I daresay not,' assented Earwaker.
'You think so? Very well; I have acted wisely. Bella is still a
child, you know—compared with a man of my age. She is seventeen and
a few months; quite a child! Miss Maccabe is just one-and-twenty;
the proper age. When we are married, I think I shall bring her to
Europe for a year or two. Her education needs that; she will be
delighted to see the old countries.'
'Have you her portrait?'
'Oh no! Things haven't got so far as that. What a hasty fellow
you are, Earwaker! I told you distinctly'——
He talked till after midnight, and at leave-taking apologised
profusely for wasting his friend's valuable time.
Earwaker awaited with some apprehension the result of Malkin's
visit to Wrotham. But the report of what took place on that
occasion was surprisingly commonplace. Weeks passed, and Malkin
seldom showed himself at Staple Inn; when he did so, his talk was
exclusively of Miss Maccabe; all he could be got to say of the
young ladies at Wrotham was, 'Nice girls; very nice girls. I hope
they'll marry well.' Two months had gone by, and already the
journalist had heard by letter of his friend's intention to return
to New Zealand, when, on coming home late one night, he found
Malkin sitting on the steps.
'Earwaker, I have something very serious to tell you. Give me
just a quarter of an hour.'
What calamity did this tone portend? The eccentric man seated
himself with slow movement. Seen by a good light, his face was not
gloomy, but very grave.
'Listen to me, old friend,' he began, sliding forward to the
edge of his chair. 'You remember I told you that my relations with
the Maccabe family had been marked throughout with extreme
discretion.'
'You impressed that upon me.'
'Good! I have never made love to Miss Maccabe, and I doubt
whether she has ever thought of me as a possible husband.'
'Well?'
'Don't be impatient. I want you to grasp the fact. It is
important, because—I am going to marry Bella Jacox.'
'You don't say so?'
'Why not?' cried Malkin, suddenly passing to a state of
excitement. 'What objection can you make? I tell you that I am
absolutely free to choose'——
The journalist calmed him, and thereupon had to hear a glowing
account of Bella's perfections. All the feeling that Malkin had
suppressed during these two months rushed forth in a flood of
turbid eloquence.
'And now,' he concluded, 'you will come down with me to Wrotham.
I don't mean to-night; let us say the day after tomorrow, Sunday.
You remember our last joint visit! Ha, ha!'
'Mrs. Jacox is reconciled?'
'My dear fellow, she rejoices! A wonderful nobility in that poor
little woman! She wept upon my shoulder! But you must see Bella! I
shan't take her to New Zealand, at all events not just yet. We
shall travel about Europe, completing her education. Don't you
approve of that?'
On Sunday, the two travelled down into Kent. This time they were
received by Lily, now a pretty, pale, half-developed girl of
fifteen. In a few minutes her sister entered. Bella was charming;
nervousness made her words few, and it could be seen that she was
naturally thoughtful, earnest, prone to reverie; her beauty had
still to ripen, and gave much promise for the years between twenty
and thirty. Last of all appeared Mrs. Jacox, who blushed as she
shook hands with Earwaker, and for a time was ill at ease; but her
vocatives were not long restrained, and when all sat down to the
tea-table she chattered away with astonishing vivacity. After tea
the company was joined by a lady of middle age, who, for about two
years, had acted as governess to the girls. Earwaker formed his
conclusions as to the 'trifling expense' which her services
represented; but it was probably a real interest in her pupils
which had induced a person of so much refinement to bear so long
with the proximity of Mrs. Jacox.
'A natural question occurs to me,' remarked Earwaker, as they
were returning. 'Who and what was Mr. Jacox?'
'Ah! Bella was talking to me about him the other day. He must
have been distinctly an interesting man. Bella had a very clear
recollection of him, and she showed me two or three photographs.
Engaged in some kind of commerce. I didn't seek particulars. But a
remarkable man, one can't doubt.'
He resumed presently.
'Now don't suppose that this marriage entirely satisfies me.
Bella has been fairly well taught, but not, you see, under my
supervision. I ought to have been able to watch and direct her
month by month. As it is, I shall have to begin by assailing her
views on all manner of things. Religion, for example. Well, I have
no religion, that's plain. I might call myself this or that for the
sake of seeming respectable, but it all comes to the same thing. I
don't mind Bella going to church if she wishes, but I must teach
her that there's no merit whatever in doing so. It isn't an ideal
marriage, but perhaps as good as this imperfect world allows. If I
have children, I can then put my educational theories to the
test.'
By way of novel experience, Earwaker, not long after this,
converted his study into a drawing-room, and invited the Jacox
family to taste his tea and cake. With Malkin's assistance, the
risky enterprise was made a great success. When Mrs. Jacox would
allow her to be heard, Bella talked intelligently, and showed eager
interest in the details of literary manufacture.
'O Mr. Earwaker!' cried her mother, when it was time to go.
'What a delightful afternoon you have given us! We must think of
you from now as one of our very best friends. Mustn't we,
Lily?'
But troubles were yet in store. Malkin was strongly opposed to a
religious marriage; he wished the wedding to be at a registrar's
office, and had obtained Bella's consent to this, but Mrs. Jacox
would not hear of such a thing. She wept and bewailed herself. 'How
can
you think of being married like a costermonger? O Mr.
Malkin, you will break my heart, indeed you will!' And she wrote an
ejaculatory letter to Earwaker, imploring his intercession. The
journalist took his friend in hand.
'My good fellow, don't make a fool of yourself. Women are born
for one thing only, the Church of England marriage service. How can
you seek to defeat the end of their existence? Give in to the
inevitable. Grin and bear it.'
'I can't! I won't! It shall be a runaway match! I had rather
suffer the rack than go through an ordinary wedding!'
Dire was the conflict. Down at Wrotham there were floods of
tears. In the end, Bella effected a compromise; the marriage was to
be at a church, but in the greatest possible privacy. No carriages,
no gala dresses, no invitations, no wedding feast; the bare
indispensable formalities. And so it came to pass. Earwaker and the
girl's governess were the only strangers present, when, on a
morning of June, Malkin and Bella were declared by the Church to be
henceforth one and indivisible. The bride wore a graceful
travelling costume; the bridegroom was in corresponding attire.
'Heaven be thanked, that's over!' exclaimed Malkin, as he issued
from the portal. 'Bella, we have twenty-three minutes to get to the
railway station. Don't cry!' he whispered to her. 'I can't stand
that!'
'No, no; don't be afraid,' she whispered back. 'We have said
good-bye already.'
'Capital! That was very thoughtful of you.—Goodbye, all! Shall
write from Paris, Earwaker. Nineteen minutes; we shall just manage
it!'
He sprang into the cab, and away it clattered.
A letter from Paris, a letter from Strasburg, from Berlin,
Munich—letters about once a fortnight. From Bella also came an
occasional note, a pretty contrast to the incoherent enthusiasm of
her husband's compositions. Midway in September she announced their
departure from a retreat in Switzerland.
'We are in the utmost excitement, for it is now decided that in
three days we start for Italy! The heat has been terrific, and we
have waited on what seems to me the threshold of Paradise until we
could hope to enjoy the delights beyond. We go first to Milan. My
husband, of course, knows Italy, but he shares my impatience. I am
to entreat you to write to Milan, with as much news as possible.
Especially have you heard anything more of Mr. Peak?'
November the pair spent in Rome, and thence was despatched the
following in Malkin's hand:
'This time I am
not
mistaken! I have seen Peak. He didn't
see me; perhaps wouldn't have known me. It was in Piale's
reading-room. I had sat down to
The Times
, when a voice
behind me sounded in such a curiously reminding way that I couldn't
help looking round. It was Peak; not a doubt of it. I might have
been uncertain about his face, but the voice brought back that
conversation at your rooms too unmistakably—long ago as it was. He
was talking to an American, whom evidently he had met somewhere
else, and had now recognised. "I've had a fever," he said, "and
can't quite shake off the results. Been in Ischia for the last
month. I'm going north to Vienna." Then the two walked away
together. He looked ill, sallow, worn out. Let me know if you
hear.'
On that same day, Earwaker received another letter, with the
Roman post-mark. It was from Peak.
'I have had nothing particular to tell you. A month ago I
thought I should never write to you again; I got malarial fever,
and lay desperately ill at the
Ospedale Internazionale
at
Naples. It came of some monstrous follies there's no need to speak
of. A new and valuable experience. I know what it is to look
steadily into the eyes of Death.
'Even now, I am far from well. This keeps me in low spirits. The
other day I was half decided to start for London. I am miserably
alone, want to see a friend. What a glorious place Staple Inn
seemed to me as I lay in the hospital! Proof how low I had sunk: I
thought longingly of Exeter, of a certain house there—never
mind!
'I write hastily. An invitation from some musical people has
decided me to strike for Vienna. Up there, I shall get my health
back. The people are of no account—boarding-house acquaintances—but
they may lead to better. I never in my life suffered so from
loneliness.'
This was the eighteenth of November. On the twenty-eighth the
postman delivered a letter of an appearance which puzzled Earwaker.
The stamp was Austrian, the mark 'Wien'. From Peak, therefore. But
the writing was unknown, plainly that of a foreigner.
The envelope contained two sheets of paper. The one was covered
with a long communication in German; on the other stood a few words
of English, written, or rather scrawled, in a hand there was no
recognising:
'Ill again, and alone. If I die, act for me. Write to Mrs. Peak,
Twybridge.'
Beneath was added, 'J. E. Earwaker, Staple Inn, London.'
He turned hurriedly to the foreign writing. Earwaker read a
German book as easily as an English, but German manuscript was a
terror to him. And the present correspondent wrote so execrably
that beyond
Geehrter Herr
, scarcely a word yielded sense to
his anxious eyes. Ha! One he had made out—
gestorben
.
Crumpling the papers into his pocket, he hastened out, and
knocked at the door of an acquaintance in another part of the Inn.
This was a man who had probably more skill in German cursive.
Between them, they extracted the essence of the letter.
He who wrote was the landlord of an hotel in Vienna. He reported
that an English gentleman, named Peak, just arrived from Italy, had
taken a bedroom at that house. In the night, the stranger became
very ill, sent for a doctor, and wrote the lines enclosed, the
purport whereof he at the same time explained to his attendants. On
the second day Mr. Peak died. Among his effects were found circular
notes, and a sum of loose money. The body was about to be interred.
Probably Mr. Earwaker would receive official communications, as the
British consul had been informed of the matter. To whom should
bills
be sent?
The man of letters walked slowly back to his own abode.
'Dead, too, in exile!' was his thought. 'Poor old fellow!'
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