XVII
In her days of prosperity Lady Constantine had often gone to the city ofBath, either frivolously, for shopping purposes, or musico-religiously,to attend choir festivals in the abbey; so there was nothing surprisingin her reverting to an old practice. That the journey might appear to beof a somewhat similar nature she took with her the servant who had beenaccustomed to accompany her on former occasions, though the woman, havingnow left her service, and settled in the village as the wife of AnthonyGreen, with a young child on her hands, could with some difficulty leavehome. Lady Constantine overcame the anxious mother's scruples byproviding that young Green should be well cared for; and knowing that shecould count upon this woman's fidelity, if upon anybody's, in case of anaccident (for it was chiefly Lady Constantine's exertions that had madean honest wife of Mrs. Green), she departed for a fortnight's absence.
The next day found mistress and maid settled in lodgings in an old plum-coloured brick street, which a hundred years ago could boast of rank andfashion among its residents, though now the broad fan-light over eachbroad door admitted the sun to the halls of a lodging-house keeper only.The lamp-posts were still those that had done duty with oil lights; andrheumatic old coachmen and postilions, that once had driven and riddengloriously from London to Land's End, ornamented with their bent personsand bow legs the pavement in front of the chief inn, in the sorry hope ofearning sixpence to keep body and soul together.
'We are kept well informed on the time o' day, my lady,' said Mrs. Green,as she pulled down the blinds in Lady Constantine's room on the eveningof their arrival. 'There's a church exactly at the back of us, and Ihear every hour strike.'
Lady Constantine said she had noticed that there was a church quite near.
'Well, it is better to have that at the back than other folks' winders.And if your ladyship wants to go there it won't be far to walk.'
'That's what occurred to me,' said Lady Constantine, '_if_ I should wantto go.'
During the ensuing days she felt to the utmost the tediousness of waitingmerely that time might pass. Not a soul knew her there, and she knew nota soul, a circumstance which, while it added to her sense of secrecy,intensified her solitude. Occasionally she went to a shop, with Green asher companion. Though there were purchases to be made, they were by nomeans of a pressing nature, and but poorly filled up the vacancies ofthose strange, speculative days,--days surrounded by a shade of fear, yetpoetized by sweet expectation.
On the thirteenth day she told Green that she was going to take a walk,and leaving the house she passed by the obscurest streets to the Abbey.After wandering about beneath the aisles till her courage was screwed toits highest, she went out at the other side, and, looking timidly roundto see if anybody followed, walked on till she came to a certain door,which she reached just at the moment when her heart began to sink to itsvery lowest, rendering all the screwing up in vain.
Whether it was because the month was October, or from any other reason,the deserted aspect of the quarter in general sat especially on thisbuilding. Moreover the pavement was up, and heaps of stone and gravelobstructed the footway. Nobody was coming, nobody was going, in thatthoroughfare; she appeared to be the single one of the human race bentupon marriage business, which seemed to have been unanimously abandonedby all the rest of the world as proven folly. But she thought ofSwithin, his blonde hair, ardent eyes, and eloquent lips, and was carriedonward by the very reflection.
Entering the surrogate's room Lady Constantine managed, at the lastjuncture, to state her errand in tones so collected as to startle evenherself to which her listener replied also as if the whole thing were themost natural in the world. When it came to the affirmation that she hadlived fifteen days in the parish, she said with dismay--
'O no! I thought the fifteen days meant the interval of residence beforethe marriage takes place. I have lived here only thirteen days and ahalf. Now I must come again!'
'Ah--well--I think you need not be so particular,' said the surrogate.'As a matter of fact, though the letter of the law requires fifteen days'residence, many people make five sufficient. The provision is inserted,as you doubtless are aware, to hinder runaway marriages as much aspossible, and secret unions, and other such objectionable practices. Youneed not come again.'
That evening Lady Constantine wrote to Swithin St. Cleeve the last letterof the fortnight:--
'MY DEAREST,--Do come to me as soon as you can. By a sort of favouring blunder I have been able to shorten the time of waiting by a day. Come at once, for I am almost broken down with apprehension. It seems rather rash at moments, all this, and I wish you were here to reassure me. I did not know I should feel so alarmed. I am frightened at every footstep, and dread lest anybody who knows me should accost me, and find out why I am here. I sometimes wonder how I could have agreed to come and enact your part, but I did not realize how trying it would be. You ought not to have asked me, Swithin; upon my word, it was too cruel of you, and I will punish you for it when you come! But I won't upbraid. I hope the homestead is repaired that has cost me all this sacrifice of modesty. If it were anybody in the world but _you_ in question I would rush home, without waiting here for the end of it,--I really think I would! But, dearest, no. I must show my strength now, or let it be for ever hid. The barriers of ceremony are broken down between us, and it is for the best that I am here.'
And yet, at no point of this trying prelude need Lady Constantine havefeared for her strength. Deeds in this connexion demand the particularkind of courage that such perfervid women are endowed with, the courageof their emotions, in which young men are often lamentably deficient. Herfear was, in truth, the fear of being discovered in an unwonted positionnot of the act itself. And though her letter was in its way a trueexposition of her feeling, had it been necessary to go through the wholelegal process over again she would have been found equal to theemergency.
It had been for some days a point of anxiety with her what to do withGreen during the morning of the wedding. Chance unexpectedly helped herin this difficulty. The day before the purchase of the license Greencame to Lady Constantine with a letter in her hand from her husbandAnthony, her face as long as a fiddle.
'I hope there's nothing the matter?' said Lady Constantine.
'The child's took bad, my lady!' said Mrs. Green, with suspended floodsof water in her eyes. 'I love the child better than I shall love allthem that's coming put together; for he's been a good boy to his motherever since twelve weeks afore he was born! 'Twas he, a tender deary,that made Anthony marry me, and thereby turned hisself from a littlecalamity to a little blessing! For, as you know, the man were a backwardman in the church part o' matrimony, my lady; though he'll do anythingwhen he's forced a bit by his manly feelings. And now to lose thechild--hoo-hoo-hoo! What shall I doo!'
'Well, you want to go home at once, I suppose?'
Mrs. Green explained, between her sobs, that such was her desire; andthough this was a day or two sooner than her mistress had wished to beleft alone she consented to Green's departure. So during the afternoonher woman went off, with directions to prepare for Lady Constantine'sreturn in two or three days. But as the exact day of her return wasuncertain no carriage was to be sent to the station to meet her, herintention being to hire one from the hotel.
Lady Constantine was now left in utter solitude to await her lover'sarrival.