Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (1410 page)

“How can you doubt it!”

“My dear, this is a delicate subject for me to enter on.”

“And a shameful subject for me!” Iris broke out bitterly. “Hugh! you are an angel, by comparison with that man — how debased I must be to love him — how unworthy of your good opinion! Ask me anything you like; have no mercy on me. Oh,” she cried, with reckless contempt for herself, “why don’t you beat me? I deserve it!”

Mountjoy was well enough acquainted with the natures of women to pass over that passionate outbreak, instead of fanning the flame in her by reasoning and remonstrance.

“Your father will not listen to the expression of feeling,” he continued; “but it is possible to rouse his sense of justice by the expression of facts. Help me to speak to him more plainly of Lord Harry than you could speak in your letters. I want to know what has happened, from the time when events at Ardoon brought you and the young lord together again, to the time when you left him in Ireland after my brother’s death. If I seem to expect too much of you, Iris, pray remember that I am speaking with a true regard for your interests.”

In those words, he made his generous appeal to her. She proved herself to be worthy of it.

Stated briefly, the retrospect began with the mysterious anonymous letters which had been addressed to Sir Giles.

Lord Harry’s explanation had been offered to Iris gratefully, but with some reserve, after she had told him who the stranger at the milestone really was. “I entreat you to pardon me, if I shrink from entering into particulars,” he had said. “Circumstances, at the time, amply justified me in the attempt to use the banker’s political influence as a means of securing Arthur’s safety. I knew enough of Sir Giles’s mean nature to be careful in trusting him; but I did hope to try what my personal influence might do. If he had possessed a tenth part of your courage, Arthur might have been alive, and safe in England, at this moment. I can’t say any more; I daren’t say any more; it maddens me when I think of it!” He abruptly changed the subject, and interested Iris by speaking of other and later events. His association with the Invincibles — inexcusably rash and wicked as he himself confessed it to be — had enabled him to penetrate, and for a time to defeat secretly, the murderous designs of the brotherhood. His appearances, first at the farmhouse and afterwards at the ruin in the wood were referable to changes in the plans of the assassins which had come to his knowledge. When Iris had met with him he was on the watch, believing that his friend would take the short way back through the wood, and well aware that his own life might pay the penalty if he succeeded in warning Arthur. After the terrible discovery of the murder (committed on the high road), and the escape of the miscreant who had been guilty of the crime, the parting of Lord Harry and Miss Henley had been the next event. She had left him, on her return to England, and had refused to consent to any of the future meetings between them which he besought her to grant.

At this stage in the narrative, Mountjoy felt compelled to ask questions more searching than he had put to Iris yet. It was possible that she might be trusting her own impressions of Lord Harry, with the ill-placed confidence of a woman innocently self-deceived.

“Did he submit willingly to your leaving him?” Mountjoy said.

“Not at first,” she replied.

“Has he released you from that rash engagement, of some years since, which pledged you to marry him?”

“No.”

“Did he allude to the engagement, on this occasion?”

“He said he held to it as the one hope of his life.”

“And what did you say?”

“I implored him not to distress me.”

“Did you say nothing more positive than that?”

“I couldn’t help thinking, Hugh, of all that he had tried to do to save Arthur. But I insisted on leaving him — and I have left him.”

“Do you remember what he said at parting?”

“He said, ‘While I live, I love you.’“

As she repeated the words, there was an involuntary change to tenderness in her voice which was not lost on Mountjoy.

“I must be sure,” he said to her gravely, “of what I tell your father when I go back to him. Can I declare, with a safe conscience, that you will never see Lord Harry again?”

“My mind is made up never to see him again.” She had answered firmly so far. Her next words were spoken with hesitation, in tones that faltered. “But I am sometimes afraid,” she said, “that the decision may not rest with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I would rather not tell you.”

“That is a strange answer, Iris.”

“I value your good opinion, Hugh, and I am afraid of losing it.”

“Nothing has ever altered my opinion of you,” he replied, “and nothing ever will.”

She looked at him anxiously, with the closest attention. Little by little, the expression of doubt in her face disappeared; she knew how he loved her — she resolved to trust him.

“My friend,” she began abruptly, “education has done nothing for me. Since I left Ireland, I have sunk (I don’t know how or why) into a state of superstitious fear. Yes! I believe in a fatality which is leading me back to Lord Harry, in spite of myself. Twice already, since I left home, I have met with him; and each time I have been the means of saving him — once at the milestone, and once at the ruin in the wood. If my father still accuses me of being in love with an adventurer, you can say with perfect truth that I am afraid of him. I
am
afraid of the third meeting. I have done my best to escape from that man; and, step by step, as I think I am getting away, Destiny is taking me back to him. I may be on my way to him here, hidden in this wretched little town. Oh, don’t despise me! Don’t be ashamed of me!”

“My dear, I am interested — deeply interested in you. That there may be some such influence as Destiny in our poor mortal lives, I dare not deny. But I don’t agree with your conclusion. What Destiny has to do with you and with me, neither you nor I can pretend to know beforehand. In the presence of that great mystery, humanity must submit to be ignorant. Wait, Iris — wait!”

She answered him with the simplicity of a docile child: “I will do anything you tell me.”

Mountjoy was too fond of her to say more of Lord Harry, for that day. He was careful to lead the talk to a topic which might be trusted to provoke no agitating thoughts. Finding Iris to all appearance established in the doctor’s house, he was naturally anxious to know something of the person who must have invited her — the doctor’s wife.

CHAPTER III

THE REGISTERED PACKET

MOUNTJOY began by alluding to the second of Miss Henley’s letters to her father, and to a passage in it which mentioned Mrs. Vimpany with expressions of the sincerest gratitude.

“I should like to know more,” he said, “of a lady whose hospitality at home seems to equal her kindness as a fellow-traveller. Did you first meet with her on the railway?”

“She travelled by the same train to Dublin, with me and my maid, but not in the same carriage,” Iris answered; “I was so fortunate as to meet with her on the voyage from Dublin to Holyhead. We had a rough crossing; and Rhoda suffered so dreadfully from sea-sickness that she frightened me. The stewardess was attending to ladies who were calling for her in all directions; I really don’t know what misfortune might not have happened, if Mrs. Vimpany had not come forward in the kindest manner, and offered help. She knew so wonderfully well what was to be done, that she astonished me. ‘I am the wife of a doctor,’ she said; ‘and I am only imitating what I have seen my husband do, when his assistance has been required, at sea, in weather like this.’ In her poor state of health, Rhoda was too much exhausted to go on by the train, when we got to Holyhead. She is the best of good girls, and I am fond of her, as you know. If I had been by myself, I daresay I should have sent for medical help. What do you think dear Mrs. Vimpany offered to do? ‘Your maid is only faint,’ she said. ‘Give her rest and some iced wine, and she will be well enough to go on by the slow train. Don’t be frightened about her; I will wait with you.’ And she did wait. Are there many strangers, Hugh, who are as unselfishly good to others as my chance-acquaintance in the steamboat?”

“Very few, I am afraid.”

Mountjoy made that reply with some little embarrassment; conscious of a doubt of Mrs. Vimpany’s disinterested kindness, which seemed to be unworthy of a just man.

Iris went on.

“Rhoda was sufficiently recovered,” she said, “to travel by the next train, and there seemed to be no reason for feeling any more anxiety. But, after a time, the fatigue of the journey proved to be too much for her. The poor girl turned pale — and fainted. Mrs. Vimpany revived her, but as it turned out, only for a while. She fell into another fainting fit; and my travelling-companion began to look anxious. There was some difficulty in restoring Rhoda to her senses. In dread of another attack, I determined to stop at the next station. It looked such a poor place, when we got to it, that I hesitated. Mrs. Vimpany persuaded me to go on. The next station, she said, was
her
station. ‘Stop there,’ she suggested, ‘and let my husband look at the girl. I ought not perhaps to say it, but you will find no better medical man out of London.’ I took the good creature’s advice gratefully. What else could I do?”

“What would you have done,” Mountjoy inquired, “if Rhoda had been strong enough to get to the end of the journey?”

“I should have gone on to London, and taken refuge in a lodging — you were in town, as I believed, and my father might relent in time. As it was, I felt my lonely position keenly. To meet with kind people, like Mr. Vimpany and his wife, was a real blessing to such a friendless creature as I am — to say nothing of the advantage to Rhoda, who is getting better every day. I should like you to see Mrs. Vimpany, if she is at home. She is a little formal and old fashioned in her manner — but I am sure you will be pleased with her. Ah! you look round the room! They are poor, miserably poor for persons in their position, these worthy friends of mine. I have had the greatest difficulty in persuading them to let me contribute my share towards the household expenses. They only yielded when I threatened to go to the inn. You are looking very serious, Hugh. Is it possible that you see some objection to my staying in this house?”

The drawing-room door was softly opened, at the moment when Iris put that question. A lady appeared on the threshold. Seeing the stranger, she turned to Iris.

“I didn’t know, dear Miss Henley, that you had a visitor. Pray pardon my intrusion.”

The voice was deep; the articulation was clear; the smile presented a certain modest dignity which gave it a value of its own. This was a woman who could make such a commonplace thing as an apology worth listening to. Iris stopped her as she was about to leave the room. “I was just wishing for you,” she said. “Let me introduce my old friend, Mr. Mountjoy. Hugh, this is the lady who has been so kind to me — Mrs. Vimpany.”

Hugh’s impulse, under the circumstances, was to dispense with the formality of a bow, and to shake hands. Mrs. Vimpany met this friendly advance with a suavity of action, not often seen in these days of movement without ceremony. She was a tall slim woman, of a certain age. Art had so cleverly improved her complexion that it almost looked like nature. Her cheeks had lost the plumpness of youth, but her hair (thanks again perhaps to Art) showed no signs of turning grey. The expression of her large dark eyes — placed perhaps a little too near her high aquiline nose — claimed admiration from any person who was so fortunate as to come within their range of view. Her hands, long, yellow, and pitiably thin, were used with a grace which checked to some extent their cruel betrayal of her age. Her dress had seen better days, but it was worn with an air which forbade it to look actually shabby. The faded lace that encircled her neck fell in scanty folds over her bosom. She sank into a chair by Hugh’s side. “It was a great pleasure to me, Mr. Mountjoy, to offer my poor services to Miss Henley; I can’t tell you how happy her presence makes me in our little house.” The compliment was addressed to Iris with every advantage that smiles and tones could offer. Oddly artificial as it undoubtedly was, Mrs. Vimpany’s manner produced nevertheless an agreeable impression. Disposed to doubt her at first, Mountjoy found that she was winning her way to a favourable change in his opinion. She so far interested him, that he began to wonder what her early life might have been, when she was young and handsome. He looked again at the portraits of actresses on the walls, and the plays on the bookshelf — and then (when she was speaking to Iris) he stole a sly glance at the doctor’s wife. Was it possible that this remarkable woman had once been an actress? He attempted to put the value of that guess to the test by means of a complimentary allusion to the prints.