Chapter XLIII
"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee."
SHAKESPEARE.
It was past two o'clock when Mr John Forster returned from his chambers,and let himself in with a pass-key. Having secured the street-door, the oldgentleman lighted his candle from the lamp, which he then blew out, and hadhis foot upon the first step of the stairs, when he was startled by a loudsnore from Nicholas in the dining-room; he immediately proceeded there, andfound his brother, with his head still lying on the table.
"Humph!" ejaculated the lawyer. "Why, brother Nicholas! brother Nicholas!"
Nicholas, who had nearly slept off the effects of the wine, answered withan unintelligible sort of growling.
"Brother Nicholas, I say,--brother Nicholas,--will you get up, or lie hereall night?"
"They shall be cleaned and ready by to-morrow morning," replied Nicholas,dreaming.
"Humph! that's more than you will be, apparently,--I say, brotherNicholas."
"Yes, brother," replied Nicholas, raising his head and staring at thecandle. "Why, what's the matter?"
"The matter is, that I wish to go to bed, and wish to see you in bed beforeI go myself."
"Yes, brother John, if you please, certainly. Where's my bed? I do believeI have been asleep."
"Humph! I have no doubt upon the subject," replied John Forster, lightinganother candle. "Come this way, brother Nicholas," and they both ascendedthe stairs.
When Mr John Forster arrived at the door of his own room, on the firststorey, he stopped. "Now, brother Nicholas, are you quite awake? Do youthink that I may trust you with the candle?"
"I should hope so," replied Nicholas; "I see that it is silver, but I hopeI'm honest, brother John."
"Humph! I mean, can I trust you to put it out?"
"Yes, I think that you may. Pray, which is my room?"
"The first door on the left, when you are at the top of the stairs."
"The first door."
"Yes, the first on the left; do you understand?"
"Yes, brother, I do; the first door on the left."
"Very well; then I wish you a good-night."
"Good-night, brother," replied Nicholas, ascending the stairs as JohnForster entered his room.
Nicholas arrived at the head of the stairs; but his brain was not veryclear. He muttered to himself "I think I'm right--yes, I'm right--the firstdoor--to the right--yes--that's it;" and instead of the room to the left,where Newton was, he walked into the one to the right, which appertained tothe housekeeper, Mrs Smith.
The old lady was fast asleep. Nicholas threw off his clothes, put out hiscandle, and stepped into bed without waking the old lady, whom he supposedto be his son, and in a few minutes they snored in concert.
The morning dawned. The watchmen (London nightingales) ceased their notesand retired to their beds. The chimney-sweeps (larks of the metropolis)raised their shrill cry as they paced along with chattering teeth.Housemaids and kitchen-maids presented their back views to the earlypassengers as they washed off the accumulation of the previous day from thesteps of the front-door.
"Milk below" (certainly much below "proof") was answered by the ascent ofthe busy cooks, when a knock at the door of Mrs Smith's room from the redknuckles of the housemaid, awoke her to a sense of her equivocal situation.
At her first discovery that a man was in her bed, she uttered a scream ofhorror, throwing herself upon her knees, and extending her hands before herin her amazement. The scream awoke Nicholas, who, astonished at the sight,and his modesty equally outraged, also threw himself in the same posture,facing her, and recoiling. Each looked aghast at each: each considered theother as the lawless invader; but before a word of explanation could passbetween them, their countenances changed from horror to surprise, fromsurprise to anxiety and doubt.
"Why!" screamed the housekeeper, losing her breath with astonishment.
"It is!" cried Nicholas, retreating further.
"Yes--yes--it is--my _dear_ Nicholas!"
"No--it can't be," replied Nicholas, hearing the fond appellation.
"It is--oh! yes--it is your poor unhappy wife, who begs your pardon,Nicholas," cried the housekeeper, bursting into tears, and falling into hisarms.
"My dear--dear wife!" exclaimed Nicholas, as he threw his arms around her,and each sobbed upon the other's shoulder.
In this position they remained a minute, when Mr John Forster, who heardthe scream and subsequent exclamations, and had taken it for granted thathis brother had been guilty of some _contretemps_, first wiped theremaining lather from his half-shaved chin, and then ascended to thehousekeeper's room, from whence the noise had proceeded. When he opened thedoor, he found them in the position we have described, both kneeling in thecentre of the bed embracing and sobbing. They were so wrapt in each other,that they did not perceive his entrance. Mr John Forster stared withamazement for a few seconds, and thus growled out:--
"Why, what are you two old fools about?"
"It's my husband, sir,"--"It's my wife, brother John," cried they, both atonce, as the tears coursed down their cheeks.
"Humph!" ejaculated the lawyer, and he quitted the room.
We must let the reader imagine the various explanations which took placebetween Nicholas and his truly reformed wife, Newton and his uncle, Amber,and everybody in the household, while we narrate the events which hadbrought about this singular _denouement_.
The reader may recollect that we left Mrs Forster in the lunatic asylum,slowly recovering from an attack of brain-fever, which had been attendedwith a relapse. For many weeks she continued in a state of greatfeebleness, and during that time, when in the garden, in company with otherdenizens of this melancholy abode (wishing to be usefully employed), shegreatly assisted the keepers in restraining them, and, in a short time,established that superiority over them which is invariably the result of asane intellect. This was soon perceived by Doctor Beddington, who (aware ofher destitute condition) offered her a situation as nurse in theestablishment, until the inspecting magistrates should make theirappearance, with the promise that she might continue in it afterwards, ifshe thought proper. This proposal was accepted by Mrs Forster, until shemight resolve what course to take, and she soon became a most invaluableperson in the establishment, effecting more by lenient and kind treatmentthan the keepers were able to do by their violence. So completely changedwas Mrs Forster in disposition, that so far from feeling any resentmentagainst those who had been the means of her confinement, she acknowledgedto herself that her own conduct had been the occasion of her misfortune,and that those who had contributed to open her eyes to her former insanity,were her best friends. She was humbled, and unhappy; but she kissed therod. All that she now wished was to find out her husband, and by her futureconduct to make reparation for the past. One of the gaolers, at herrequest, made every inquiry as to the part of England to which Nicholas hadremoved; but it was without success. All trace was lost; and Mrs Forsteraccepted the situation of nurse, until she might be enabled to prosecuteher search, or obtain the intelligence which she desired.
For nine months Mrs Forster remained on the establishment, during whichtime she had saved a sum of money sufficient for her support and travellingexpenses. She then resolved to search after her husband, whose pardon forher previous conduct seemed to be the _sine qua non_ for which shecontinued to exist. She took leave of the doctor; and, strange to say, itwas with feelings of regret that she quitted an abode, once the source ofhorror and disgust: but time reconciles us to everything, and she made ahalf promise to Dr Beddington, that if she could not hear any tidings ofher husband, or should discover that he was no more, she would return tothe situation.
Mrs Forster directed her course to London; why, or wherefore, she hardlyknew; but she had imbibed the idea that the metropolis was the most likelyplace to meet with him. Her first inquiries were about any famili
es of thename of Forster; but the Directory gave such an enormous list of Forsters,of all trades and callings, and in every situation in life, that she closedit with despair. She had a faint recollection that her husband (who wasnever very communicative, and least of all to her) had stated that he had abrother alive somewhere; but this was all that she knew. Nevertheless, sheset about her task in good earnest, and called upon every one of the namein the middling classes of life, to ascertain if they were relations of herhusband. There were many in high life whose names and addresses she hadobtained from the Red-book; but to them she dared not apply. All she coulddo was to question the servants; but every answer was unsatisfactory; andMrs Forster, whose money was nearly expended, had serious thoughts ofreturning to the lunatic establishment, when the advertisement in thenewspapers, of Mr Scratton, for a housekeeper, which Mr John Forster haddesired him to procure, met her eye. Unwilling to leave London, she appliedfor, and obtained the situation, having received an excellent characterfrom Doctor Beddington, to whom she had written and explained her views.
Her heart leapt when she discovered that her master's name was Forster: andwhen she first saw him she could not but persuade herself that there was afamily likeness. The germs of hope were, however, soon withered, whenAmber, in answer to her inquiries, stated that Mr Forster had a brotherlately dead, who had never been married, and that she never heard of hishaving another. Her fellow-servants were all as strange as herself, and MrsForster (who had assumed the name of Smith) was obliged to have recourse tothat patience and resignation which had been so severely inculcated. Thecharge of Amber soon proved a source of delight; the control which she hadover the household a source of gratification (not, as before, for thepleasure of domineering, but for the sake of exercising kindness andforbearance), and Mrs Forster was happy and resigned.
It may be surmised as strange, that during the period which she remained inthis capacity, she had never heard mention of her husband or her son; butit must be remembered that Nicholas had never called upon his brother, andthat Newton was in the East Indies; and, moreover, that Mr John Forster wasjust as little inclined to be communicative as her husband. Indeed, henever came in contact with his housekeeper, except to pay the bills, whichwas regularly once a month, when he called her down after dinner, and afterthe accounts were settled, offered her a glass of wine, as a proof of hisbeing satisfied with her conduct. When Newton and his father arrived at thechambers on the day before the discovery, and were invited to dinner, hisnote of communication was as laconic as usual.
"Mrs Smith,--I have invited two gentlemen to dine with me to-day, sixprecisely.
"John Forster."
"P.S.--Let the spare bed be ready."
Mrs Forster prepared everything as directed; and having done her dutiesbelow, retired to her room, where she usually sat with Amber. She did nottherefore see the parties when they entered; and Amber, who had run down tomeet her protector, heard nothing during her short stay in the room, tosuppose that they were relatives of Mr John Forster. All that she had tocommunicate was, that the parties were an elderly gentleman and a veryhandsome young man.
Yet even this simple communication caused the pulse of Mrs Forster toaccelerate. They might be her husband and her son. It was the first timethat the spare bed had been ordered. Reflection, however, convinced herthat her hopes were strung upon too slight a thread; and, musing on theimprobability of not having ascertained during a year the fact of hermaster having so near a relative--moreover, her son was not inexistence--she sighed, and dismissed the idea as ridiculous. Before thegentlemen had finished their wine, Amber was in bed, and Mrs Forsterinvariably sat at the side of it until her own hour of repose had arrived.A certain indefinable curiosity still remained lurking; yet, as she couldnot gratify it without intrusion (if the strangers were still up), sheretired to bed, with the reflection that all her doubts would be relievedin the morning; and, after lying awake for some hours in a state ofsuspense, she at last fell into that sound sleep which is usually producedby previous excitement. How she was awakened from it, the reader has beenalready informed.
"It's rather awkward, Newton," said Mr John Forster, about ten daysafterwards. "I cannot do without your mother, that's certain; but what am Ito do with your father? Humph! Well, she must take charge of him as well asAmber. She must teach him--"
"Teach him what, sir?" replied Newton, laughing.
"Teach him what? Why, to leave my watch and spectacles alone. I dare notlay them down for a moment."
"I think we may teach him that, sir, if it is all that you require."
"I ask no more: then he may go about the house like a tame rabbit. Whenwill your ship be ready, boy?"
"In about a fortnight, sir. I called upon Captain Oughton the day beforeyesterday, but he was not at home. His steward gave me the information."
"What is the name of the ship?"
"The _Windsor Castle_, sir."
"Why, all the India ships appear to be called Castles. Your last ship wasthe _Bombay Castle_, I think?"
"Yes, sir: there are a great many of them so named--they really arefloating castles."
"And full of ladies. You 'castle your queens,' as they do at chess. Humph!"
A pun from Mr John Forster was a rarity: he never had been known to makeone before: and Newton asserts that he never heard him guilty of itafterwards. It deserves, therefore, bad as it was, to be recorded.