XVI
After this there only remained to be settled between them the practicaldetails of the project.
These were that he should leave home in a couple of days, and takelodgings either in the distant city of Bath or in a convenient suburb ofLondon, till a sufficient time should have elapsed to satisfy legalrequirements; that on a fine morning at the end of this time she shouldhie away to the same place, and be met at the station by St. Cleeve,armed with the marriage license; whence they should at once proceed tothe church fixed upon for the ceremony; returning home independently inthe course of the next two or three days.
While these tactics were under discussion the two-and-thirty winds ofheaven continued, as before, to beat about the tower, though their onsetsappeared to be somewhat lessening in force. Himself now calmed andsatisfied, Swithin, as is the wont of humanity, took serener views ofNature's crushing mechanics without, and said, 'The wind doesn't seemdisposed to put the tragic period to our hopes and fears that I spoke ofin my momentary despair.'
'The disposition of the wind is as vicious as ever,' she answered,looking into his face with pausing thoughts on, perhaps, other subjectsthan that discussed. 'It is your mood of viewing it that has changed."There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."'
And, as if flatly to stultify Swithin's assumption, a circular hurricane,exceeding in violence any that had preceded it, seized hold upon Rings-Hill Speer at that moment with the determination of a conscious agent.The first sensation of a resulting catastrophe was conveyed to theirintelligence by the flapping of the candle-flame against thelantern-glass; then the wind, which hitherto they had heard rather thanfelt, rubbed past them like a fugitive. Swithin beheld around and abovehim, in place of the concavity of the dome, the open heaven, with itsracing clouds, remote horizon, and intermittent gleam of stars. The domethat had covered the tower had been whirled off bodily; and they heard itdescend crashing upon the trees.
Finding himself untouched Swithin stretched out his arms towards LadyConstantine, whose apparel had been seized by the spinning air, nearlylifting her off her legs. She, too, was as yet unharmed. Each held theother for a moment, when, fearing that something further would happen,they took shelter in the staircase.
'Dearest, what an escape!' he said, still holding her.
'What is the accident?' she asked. 'Has the whole top really gone?'
'The dome has been blown off the roof.'
As soon as it was practicable he relit the extinguished lantern, and theyemerged again upon the leads, where the extent of the disaster became atonce apparent. Saving the absence of the enclosing hemisphere allremained the same. The dome, being constructed of wood, was light bycomparison with the rest of the structure, and the wheels which allowedit horizontal, or, as Swithin expressed it, azimuth motion, denied it afirm hold upon the walls; so that it had been lifted off them like acover from a pot. The equatorial stood in the midst as it had stoodbefore.
Having executed its grotesque purpose the wind sank to comparativemildness. Swithin took advantage of this lull by covering up theinstruments with cloths, after which the betrothed couple prepared to godownstairs.
But the events of the night had not yet fully disclosed themselves. Atthis moment there was a sound of footsteps and a knocking at the doorbelow.
'It can't be for me!' said Lady Constantine. 'I retired to my roombefore leaving the house, and told them on no account to disturb me.'
She remained at the top while Swithin went down the spiral. In the gloomhe beheld Hannah.
'O Master Swithin, can ye come home! The wind have blowed down thechimley that don't smoke, and the pinning-end with it; and the oldancient house, that have been in your family so long as the memory ofman, is naked to the world! It is a mercy that your grammer were notkilled, sitting by the hearth, poor old soul, and soon to walk wi'God,--for 'a 's getting wambling on her pins, Mr. Swithin, as aged folksdo. As I say, 'a was all but murdered by the elements, and doing no moreharm than the babes in the wood, nor speaking one harmful word. And thefire and smoke were blowed all across house like a chapter in Revelationand your poor reverent father's features scorched to flakes, looking likethe vilest ruffian, and the gilt frame spoiled! Every flitch, every eye-piece, and every chine is buried under the walling; and I fed them pigswith my own hands, Master Swithin, little thinking they would come tothis end. Do ye collect yourself, Mr. Swithin, and come at once!'
'I will,--I will. I'll follow you in a moment. Do you hasten back againand assist.'
When Hannah had departed the young man ran up to Lady Constantine, towhom he explained the accident. After sympathizing with old Mrs. MartinLady Constantine added, 'I thought something would occur to mar ourscheme!'
'I am not quite sure of that yet.'
On a short consideration with him, she agreed to wait at the top of thetower till he could come back and inform her if the accident were reallyso serious as to interfere with his plan for departure. He then lefther, and there she sat in the dark, alone, looking over the parapet, andstraining her eyes in the direction of the homestead.
At first all was obscurity; but when he had been gone about ten minuteslights began to move to and fro in the hollow where the house stood, andshouts occasionally mingled with the wind, which retained some violenceyet, playing over the trees beneath her as on the strings of a lyre. Butnot a bough of them was visible, a cloak of blackness covering everythingnetherward; while overhead the windy sky looked down with a strange anddisguised face, the three or four stars that alone were visible being sodissociated by clouds that she knew not which they were. Under any othercircumstances Lady Constantine might have felt a nameless fear in thussitting aloft on a lonely column, with a forest groaning under her feet,and palaeolithic dead men feeding its roots; but the recent passionatedecision stirred her pulses to an intensity beside which the ordinarytremors of feminine existence asserted themselves in vain. Theapocalyptic effect of the scene surrounding her was, indeed, notinharmonious, and afforded an appropriate background to her intentions.
After what seemed to her an interminable space of time, quick steps inthe staircase became audible above the roar of the firs, and in a fewinstants St. Cleeve again stood beside her.
The case of the homestead was serious. Hannah's account had not beenexaggerated in substance: the gable end of the house was open to thegarden; the joists, left without support, had dropped, and with them theupper floor. By the help of some labourers, who lived near, and LadyConstantine's man Anthony, who was passing at the time, the homestead hadbeen propped up, and protected for the night by some rickcloths; butSwithin felt that it would be selfish in the highest degree to leave twolonely old women to themselves at this juncture. 'In short,' heconcluded despondently, 'I cannot go to stay in Bath or London just now;perhaps not for another fortnight!'
'Never mind,' she said. 'A fortnight hence will do as well.'
'And I have these for you,' he continued. 'Your man Green was passing mygrandmother's on his way back from Warborne, where he had been, he says,for any letters that had come for you by the evening post. As he stayedto assist the other men I told him I would go on to your house with theletters he had brought. Of course I did not tell him I should see youhere.'
'Thank you. Of course not. Now I'll return at once.'
In descending the column her eye fell upon the superscription of one ofthe letters, and she opened and glanced over it by the lantern light. Sheseemed startled, and, musing, said, 'The postponement of our--intentionmust be, I fear, for a long time. I find that after the end of thismonth I cannot leave home safely, even for a day.' Perceiving that hewas about to ask why, she added, 'I will not trouble you with the reasonnow; it would only harass you. It is only a family business, and cannotbe helped.'
'Then we cannot be married till--God knows when!' said Swithin blankly.'I cannot leave home till after the next week or two; you cannot leavehome unless within that time. So what are we to do?'
/> 'I do not know.'
'My dear, dear one, don't let us be beaten like this! Don't let a well-considered plan be overthrown by a mere accident! Here's a remedy. Do_you_ go and stay the requisite time in the parish we are to be marriedin, instead of me. When my grandmother is again well housed I can cometo you, instead of you to me, as we first said. Then it can be donewithin the time.'
Reluctantly, shyly, and yet with a certain gladness of heart, she gaveway to his proposal that they should change places in the programme.There was much that she did not like in it, she said. It seemed to heras if she were taking the initiative by going and attending to thepreliminaries. It was the man's part to do that, in her opinion, and wasusually undertaken by him.
'But,' argued Swithin, 'there are cases in which the woman does give thenotices, and so on that is to say, when the man is absolutely hinderedfrom doing so; and ours is such a case. The seeming is nothing; I knowthe truth, and what does it matter? You do not refuse--retract your wordto be my wife, because, to avoid a sickening delay, the formalitiesrequire you to attend to them in place of me?'
She did not refuse, she said. In short she agreed to his entreaty. Theyhad, in truth, gone so far in their dream of union that there was nodrawing back now. Whichever of them was forced by circumstances to bethe protagonist in the enterprise, the thing must be done. Theirintention to become husband and wife, at first halting and timorous, hadaccumulated momentum with the lapse of hours, till it now bore down everyobstacle in its course.
'Since you beg me to,--since there is no alternative between my going anda long postponement,' she said, as they stood in the dark porch ofWelland House before parting,--'since I am to go first, and seem to bethe pioneer in this adventure, promise me, Swithin, promise yourViviette, that in years to come, when perhaps you may not love me sowarmly as you do now--'
'That will never be.'
'Well, hoping it will not, but supposing it should, promise me that youwill never reproach me as the one who took the initiative when it shouldhave been yourself, forgetting that it was at your request; promise thatyou will never say I showed immodest readiness to do so, or anythingwhich may imply your obliviousness of the fact that I act in obedience tonecessity and your earnest prayer.'
Need it be said that he promised never to reproach her with that or anyother thing as long as they should live? The few details of the reversedarrangement were soon settled, Bath being the place finally decided on.Then, with a warm audacity which events had encouraged, he pressed her tohis breast, and she silently entered the house. He returned to thehomestead, there to attend to the unexpected duties of repairing thehavoc wrought by the gale.
* * * * *
That night, in the solitude of her chamber, Lady Constantine reopened andread the subjoined letter--one of those handed to her by St. Cleeve:--
"--- STREET, PICCADILLY, October 15, 18--.
'DEAR VIVIETTE,--You will be surprised to learn that I am in England, and that I am again out of harness--unless you should have seen the latter in the papers. Rio Janeiro may do for monkeys, but it won't do for me. Having resigned the appointment I have returned here, as a preliminary step to finding another vent for my energies; in other words, another milch cow for my sustenance. I knew nothing whatever of your husband's death till two days ago; so that any letter from you on the subject, at the time it became known, must have miscarried. Hypocrisy at such a moment is worse than useless, and I therefore do not condole with you, particularly as the event, though new to a banished man like me, occurred so long since. You are better without him, Viviette, and are now just the limb for doing something for yourself, notwithstanding the threadbare state in which you seem to have been cast upon the world. You are still young, and, as I imagine (unless you have vastly altered since I beheld you), good-looking: therefore make up your mind to retrieve your position by a match with one of the local celebrities; and you would do well to begin drawing neighbouring covers at once. A genial squire, with more weight than wit, more realty than weight, and more personalty than realty (considering the circumstances), would be best for you. You might make a position for us both by some such alliance; for, to tell the truth, I have had but in-and-out luck so far. I shall be with you in little more than a fortnight, when we will talk over the matter seriously, if you don't object.--Your affectionate brother,
LOUIS.'
It was this allusion to her brother's coming visit which had caught hereye in the tower staircase, and led to a modification in the weddingarrangement.
Having read the letter through once Lady Constantine flung it aside withan impatient little stamp that shook the decaying old floor and casement.Its contents produced perturbation, misgiving, but not retreat. The deepglow of enchantment shed by the idea of a private union with herbeautiful young lover killed the pale light of cold reasoning from anindifferently good relative.
'Oh, no,' she murmured, as she sat, covering her face with her hand. 'Notfor wealth untold could I give him up now!'
No argument, short of Apollo in person from the clouds, would haveinfluenced her. She made her preparations for departure as if nothinghad intervened.