Armadale (80 page)

… I really have no patience with such absurdities as you have written to me. You say I am driving you on to do what is beyond a woman's courage. Am I? I might refer you to any collection of Trials, English or foreign, to show that you were utterly wrong. But such collections may be beyond your reach; and I will only refer you to a case in yesterday's newspaper. The circumstances are totally different from
our
circumstances; but the example of resolution in a woman is an example worth your notice.

You will find, among the law reports, a married woman charged with fraudulently representing herself to be the missing widow of an officer in the merchant service, who was supposed to have been drowned.
¹¹
The name of the prisoner's husband (living), and the name of the officer (a very common one, both as to Christian and surname), happened to be identically the same. There was money to be got by it (sorely wanted by the prisoner's husband, to whom she was devotedly attached), if the fraud had succeeded. The woman took it all on herself. Her husband was helpless and ill, and the bailiffs were after him. The circumstances, as you may read for yourself, were all in her favour, and were so well managed by her that the lawyers themselves acknowledged she might have succeeded, if the supposed drowned man had not turned up alive and well in the nick of time to confront her. The scene took place at the lawyers' office, and came out in the evidence at the police-court. The woman was handsome, and the sailor was a good-natured man. He wanted, at first, if the lawyers would have allowed him, to let her off. He said to her, among other things, ‘You didn't count on the drowned man coming back, alive and hearty, did you, ma'am?' ‘It's lucky for you,' she said, ‘I didn't count on it. You have escaped the sea, but you wouldn't have escaped
me
.' ‘Why, what would you have done, if you
had
known I was coming back?' says the sailor. She looked him steadily in the face, and answered: ‘I would have killed you.' There! Do you think such a woman as that would have written to tell me I was pressing her farther than she had courage to go? A handsome woman, too, like yourself! You would drive some men in my position to wish they had her now in your place.
¹²

I read no farther. When I had got on, line by line, to those words, it burst on me like a flash of lightning. In an instant I saw it as plainly as I see it now. It is horrible, it is unheard-of, it out-dares all daring; but, if I can only nerve myself to face one terrible necessity, it is to be done.
I may personate the richly-provided widow of Allan Armadale of Thorpe-Ambrose, if I can count on Allan Armadale's death in a given time
.

There, in plain words, is the frightful temptation under which I now feel myself sinking. It is frightful in more ways than one – for it has come straight out of that other temptation to which I yielded in the bygone time.

Yes; there the letter has been waiting for me in my box, to serve a
purpose never thought of by the villain who wrote it. There is the Case, as he calls it – only quoted to taunt me; utterly unlike my own case at the time – there it has been, waiting and lurking for me through all the changes in my life, till it has come to be like
my
case at last.

It might startle any woman to see this, and even this is not the worst. The whole thing has been in my Diary, for days past, without my knowing it! Every idle fancy that escaped me, has been tending secretly that one way! And I never saw, never suspected it, till the reading of the letter put my own thoughts before me in a new light – till I saw the shadow of my own circumstances suddenly reflected in one special circumstance of that other woman's case!

It is to be done, if I can but look the necessity in the face. It is to be done,
if I can count on Allan Armadale's death in a given time
.

All but his death is easy. The whole series of events under which I have been blindly chafing and fretting for more than a week past, have been one and all – though I was too stupid to see it – events in my favour; events paving the way smoothly and more smoothly straight to the end.

In three bold steps – only three! – that end might be reached. Let Midwinter marry me privately, under his real name – step the first! Let Armadale leave Thorpe-Ambrose a single man, and die in some distant place among strangers – step the second!

Why am I hesitating? Why not go on to step the third, and last?

I
will
go on. Step the third, and last, is my appearance, after the announcement of Armadale's death has reached this neighbourhood, in the character of Armadale's widow, with my marriage certificate in my hand to prove my claim. It is as clear as the sun at noonday. Thanks to the exact similarity between the two names, and thanks to the careful manner in which the secret of that similarity has been kept, I may be the wife of the dark Allan Armadale, known as such to nobody but my husband and myself; and I may, out of that very position, claim the character of widow of the light Allan Armadale, with proof to support me (in the shape of my marriage certificate) which would be proof in the estimation of the most incredulous person living.

To think of my having put all this in my Diary! To think of my having actually contemplated this very situation, and having seen nothing more in it, at the time, than a reason (if I married Midwinter) for consenting to appear in the world under my husband's assumed name!

What is it daunts me? The dread of obstacles? The fear of discovery?

Where are the obstacles? where is the fear of discovery?

I am actually suspected all over the neighbourhood, of intriguing to be mistress of Thorpe-Ambrose. I am the only person who knows the real turn that Armadale's inclinations have taken. Not a creature but myself is as yet aware of his early morning meetings with Miss Milroy. If it is necessary to part them, I can do it at any moment, by an anonymous line to the major. If it is necessary to remove Armadale from Thorpe-Ambrose, I can get him away at three days' notice. His own lips informed me, when I last spoke to him, that he would go to the ends of the earth to be friends again with Midwinter, if Midwinter would let him. I have only to tell Midwinter to write from London, and ask to be reconciled; and Midwinter would obey me – and to London Armadale would go. Every difficulty, at starting, is smoothed over ready to my hand. Every after-difficulty I could manage for myself. In the whole venture – desperate as it looks to pass myself off for the widow of one man, while I am all the while the wife of the other – there is absolutely no necessity that wants twice considering, but the one terrible necessity of Armadale's death.

His death! it might be a terrible necessity to any other woman – but is it, ought it to be terrible to Me?

I hate him for his mother's sake. I hate him for his own sake. I hate him for going to London behind my back, and making inquiries about me. I hate him for forcing me out of my situation before I wanted to go. I hate him for destroying all my hopes of marrying him, and throwing me back helpless on my own miserable life. But, oh, after what I have done already in the past time, how can I? how can I?

The girl, too – the girl who has come between us; who has taken him away from me; who has openly insulted me this very day – how the girl whose heart is set on him would feel it, if he died! What a vengeance on
her
, if I did it! And when I was received as Armadale's widow, what a triumph for
me
. Triumph! It is more than triumph – it is the salvation of me. A name that can't be assailed, a station that can't be assailed, to hide myself in from my past life! Comfort, luxury, wealth! An income of twelve hundred a year secured to me – secured by a will which has been looked at by a lawyer; secured independently of anything he can say or do himself! I never had twelve hundred a year. At my luckiest time, I never had half as much, really my own. What have I got now? Just five pounds left in the world – and the prospect next week of a debtors' prison.

But, oh, after what I have done already in the past time, how can I? how can I?

Some women – in my place, and with my recollections to look back
on – would feel it differently. Some women would say – ‘It's easier the second time than the first.' Why can't I? why can't I?

Oh, you Devil tempting me, is there no Angel near, to raise some timely obstacle between this and to-morrow, which might help me to give it up?

I shall sink under it – I shall sink, if I write or think of it any more! I'll shut up these leaves and go out again. I'll get some common person to come with me, and we will talk of common things. I'll take out the woman of the house, and her children. We will go and see something. There is a show of some kind in the town – I'll treat them to it. I'm not such an ill-natured woman when I try; and the landlady has really been kind to me. Surely I might occupy my mind a little, in seeing her and her children enjoying themselves.

A minute since, I shut up these leaves as I said I would; and now I have opened them again, I don't know why. I think my brain is turned. I feel as if something was lost out of my mind; I feel as if I ought to find it here.

I have found it!
Midwinter!!!

Is it possible that I can have been thinking of the reasons For and Against, for an hour past – writing Midwinter's name over and over again – speculating seriously on marrying him – and all the time not once remembering that, even with every other impediment removed,
he
alone, when the time came, would be an insurmountable obstacle in my way? Has the effort to face the consideration of Armadale's death absorbed me to
that
degree? I suppose it has. I can't account for such extraordinary forgetfulness on my part, in any other way.

Shall I stop and think it out, as I have thought out all the rest? Shall I ask myself if the obstacle of Midwinter would after all, when the time came, be the unmanageable obstacle that it looks at present? No! What need is there to think of it? I have made up my mind to get the better of the temptation. I have made up my mind to give my landlady and her children a treat; I have made up my mind to close my Diary. And closed it shall be.

Six o'clock
. – The landlady's gossip is unendurable; the landlady's children distract me. I have left them, to run back here before post-time and write a line to Mrs Oldershaw.

The dread that I shall sink under the temptation has grown stronger and stronger on me. I have determined to put it beyond my power to have my own way and follow my own will. Mother Oldershaw shall be
the salvation of me for the first time since I have known her. If I can't pay my note-of-hand, she threatens me with an arrest. Well, she
shall
arrest me. In the state my mind is in now, the best thing that can happen to me is to be taken away from Thorpe-Ambrose, whether I like it or not. I will write and say that I am to be found here. I will write and tell her, in so many words, that the best service she can render me is to lock me up!

Seven o'clock
. – The letter has gone to the post. I had begun to feel a little easier, when the children came in to thank me for taking them to the show. One of them is a girl, and the girl upset me. She is a forward child, and her hair is nearly the colour of mine. She said, ‘I shall be like you when I have grown bigger, shan't I?' Her idiot of a mother said, ‘Please to excuse her, miss,' and took her out of the room, laughing. Like me! I don't pretend to be fond of the child – but think of her being like Me!

Saturday morning
. – I have done well for once in acting on impulse, and writing as I did to Mrs Oldershaw. The only new circumstance that has happened, is another circumstance in my favour!

Major Milroy has answered Armadale's letter, entreating permission to call at the cottage, and justify himself. His daughter read it in silence, when Armadale handed it to her at their meeting this morning, in the park. But they talked about it afterwards, loud enough for me to hear them. The major persists in the course he has taken. He says his opinion of Armadale's conduct has been formed, not on common report, but on Armadale's own letters; and he sees no reason to alter the conclusion at which he arrived when the correspondence between them was closed.

This little matter had, I confess, slipped out of my memory. It might have ended awkwardly for
me
. If Major Milroy had been less obstinately wedded to his own opinion, Armadale might have justified himself; the marriage engagement might have been acknowledged; and all
my
power of influencing the matter might have been at an end. As it is, they must continue to keep the engagement strictly secret; and Miss Milroy, who has never ventured herself near the great house since the thunderstorm forced her into it for shelter, will be less likely than ever to venture there now. I can part them when I please; with an anonymous line to the major, I can part them when I please!

After having discussed the letter, the talk between them turned on what they were to do next. Major Milroy's severity, as it soon appeared, produced the usual results. Armadale returned to the subject of the elopement – and, this time she listened to him. There is everything to
drive her to it. Her outfit of clothes is nearly ready; and the summer holidays, at the school which has been chosen for her, end at the end of next week. When I left them, they had decided to meet again and settle something on Monday.

The last words I heard him address to her, before I went away, shook me a little. He said: ‘There is one difficulty, Neelie, that needn't trouble us, at any rate. I have got plenty of money.' And then he kissed her. The way to his life began to look an easier way to me when he talked of his money, and kissed her.

Some hours have passed, and the more I think of it, the more I fear the blank interval between this time and the time when Mrs Oldershaw calls in the law, and protects me against myself. It might have been better if I had stopped at home this morning. But how could I? After the insult she offered me yesterday, I tingled all over to go and look at her.