XIV.
A general survey of the few months that followed will suffice. Thereare many small details which it would be pleasant to dwell upon, butthese may be safely left to the imagination. They consist for the mostpart of the episodes which marked the progress of the love affairbetween Mildred and Reginald--who, without any distinct declarationfrom us, conducted themselves toward each other as an engaged couple.We elder people tacitly held back from entering into an expressengagement, Mrs. Carew waiting, as it were, upon my movements andthose of her husband. I am in a position to explain the reasons of myown backwardness in this important matter. Gabriel Carew's reasonsmust, for the present, be left to explain themselves. I need scarcelysay that Reginald and Mildred were perfectly happy, being satisfiedthat they possessed our sanction to their love. No fault was theirs inthis respect. If blame was due anywhere, we, their parents, were thepersons upon whom it justly fell.
The hope of a binding friendship between myself and Mr. and Mrs. Carewwas more than fulfilled. Not only did we become firm friends, but theclosest confidential relations were established between us. So much sothat I became acquainted with the history of the inner and outer livesof Gabriel Carew and his sweet wife. There was little to learn of Mrs.Carew's life which I had not already imagined; it was a record ofinnocence and sweetness. But what I learnt of Gabriel Carew affordedme food for grave reflection. So intimate were our relations, soperfect was the confidence he reposed in me, that he concealed nothingfrom me. His frankness won my admiration and greatly disturbed me. Therecital of his youthful life, of his midnight wanderings, of hissolitary musings, and afterwards of the death of his parents, of hisentrance into Nerac, of his intimacy with the family of Doctor Louis,and of the tragic events that occurred in the peaceful village, madeup the sum of the strangest record which had ever been imparted to me.I confess to being much affected by the fate of Eric and Emilius, andI asked Carew whether he had heard anything of Emilius of late years.His reply was that he had heard nothing, and that the unhappy man wasprobably dead.
"You have no doubt that he was guilty?" I asked.
"Not the slightest doubt," said Carew.
I was not so sure; the story had excited within me a singular sympathyfor Emilius.
Now, in what I am about to say with respect to Gabriel Carew, I had,at that time, I admit, the slightest of grounds; and the powerfuleffect a certain suspicion had upon me was all the more singularbecause of the absence of reliable evidence. The study I had made formany years of the different forms in which insanity presents itselfwas very captivating to me, and in the course of my researches Iunearthed some weird particulars, of which, were I a writer offiction, I could make effective use. Gabriel Carew was an affectionatehusband and father, a faithful mate to his wife, a wise counsellor tohis daughter. He had not a vice which I could discover. He was neithera spendthrift nor a libertine. He drank in moderation, and he nevergambled; indeed, he detested all games of chance. His views of men andmanners were singularly correct, and denoted a well-balanced brain. Itwas only where his affections were concerned that he could be calledin any way extravagant; but this would be accounted rather a virtuethan a vice. His recreations were intellectual, and he sought pleasureand happiness only in his home and in association with books and hiswife and child. What judgment would you, from a distance, pass uponsuch a man? What but that of entire approval? But I was in dailycontact with him, and signs were visible to me which greatly disturbedme. To speak plainly, I doubted Gabriel Carew's perfect sanity!
This was a matter of most serious moment. If Carew were not sane, hisdisease, so far as I could judge, was of a harmless form. The proof ofthis lay in his affection for those of his blood, and--which, inevidence is, in my opinion, quite as strong--in his tenderness toanimals and birds. But I have to a certainty established not only thatinsanity is hereditary, but that what is harmless in the parent maybecome destructive in the child. Mildred was Carew's daughter, and toall appearance as free from any touch of insanity as the mosthealthful of human beings. But the germ must be in her, to betransmitted to her children--to Reginald's children if he married her.
This consideration impelled me to secret action in the way of inquiry.It would have been, useless to appeal to Reginald, and to set beforehim the probable consequences of such an union. My counsel would havefallen upon idle ears. My duty, however, was clear. It was for me toprotect him.
Instead of listening uninterruptedly to the confidences imparted to meby Carew, I prompted, probed and asked questions, and thus learnt muchwhich might otherwise not have come to my knowledge. Considering themotive by which I was impelled, the investigation I was pursuing wasof an exceedingly delicate nature, but to my surprise, Carew met--nay,anticipated--me with a most surprising frankness. He made no attemptto avoid the subject, and the interest he evinced in it seemed toexceed my own. He spoke much of himself--not in direct connection withhereditary insanity, but as though there was that in his life beforethe death of his parents which it would be a relief to him to clearup. He gave me a circumstantial account of all the incidents of thoseearly years, taking pains to recall the most trifling detail bearingupon his youth.
"It is a strange pleasure to me," he said, "to be able to unbosommyself so freely. My wife is acquainted with much I have imparted toyou. There was never any need to distress her by a relation of themorbid fancies which afflicted me when I was a boy, and which,perhaps, were the foundation of the profound melancholy which, aftersunset, has lately crept upon me. Perhaps I am paying the penalty ofold age."
I combated this view, pointing out that he was in the prime of life,with perhaps its most useful years before him. Throughout thesediscussions and confidences the names of Mildred and Reginald were notmentioned--I purposely avoided reference to them, but Carew did notappear to have any thought of them while we conversed. The one personwho seemed to me able to furnish information from which I could weavea rational theory was Mrs. Fortress, the nurse who for a number ofyears attended Gabriel Carew's mother. I asked him if anycorrespondence had passed between them since she left Rosemullion, andhe answered, "No," and that he had not seen or heard of her from thattime. I then asked him if he had any idea where she was to be found,supposing her to be still living.
"In the last interview I had with her," he replied, "she gave me anaddress in Cornwall." He paused here, and I saw that he was weighingsome matter in his mind. "I can find this address for you," he saidpresently, "if you desire it. Have you any curiosity to see her?"
"Yes," I said boldly, "if you have no objection."
Again he paused in thought. "I have no objection," he said. "She mayreveal to you what she declined to reveal to me, and it may assist youin your inquiry."
I looked at him, startled by his last words. They were the first hehad uttered which denoted that he suspected my motive in wooing andencouraging these conversations. The expression on his face was gentleand sad, and I thought it best to make no comment on his remark. Thenext day he gave me an address in Cornwall at which Mrs. Fortress hadtold him she was certain to be found during her lifetime. He gave mealso a short note to her, in which he stated that I was his mostintimate friend and adviser, and that he would be glad if she wouldcommunicate to me any information respecting his parents it was in herpower to impart--intimating, at the same time, that I was prepared topay handsomely for it. At Carew's request, I read this note in hispresence, and at its conclusion he empowered me to pay for theinformation if I could not otherwise obtain it, naming as a limit asum which I considered extravagantly liberal. I had already madepreparations for a temporary absence from home, and before the end ofthe week I was in Cornwall, and face to face with Mrs. Fortress.