第98章 Chapter 15 (4)

‘Did you not hear from the housekeeper that there was a report of Anne Catherick having been seen in this neighbourhood? Don't you think he may have gone away to look for her?'

‘I would rather compose myself, Laura, by not thinking about it at all, and after what has happened, you had better follow my example. Come into my room, and rest and quiet yourself a little.'

We sat down together close to the window, and let the fragrant summer air breathe over our faces.

‘I am ashamed to look at you, Marian,' she said, ‘after what you submitted to downstairs, for my sake. Oh, my own love, I am almost heartbroken when I think of it! But I will try to make it up to you -- I will indeed!'

‘Hush! hush!' I replied; ‘don't talk so. What is the trifling mortification of my pride compared to the dreadful sacrifice of your happiness?'

‘You heard what he said to me?' she went on quickly and vehemently.

‘You heard the words -- but you don't know what they meant -- you don't know why I threw down the pen and turned my back on him.' She rose in sudden agitation, and walked about the room. ‘I have kept many things from your knowledge, Marian, for fear of distressing you, and making you unhappy at the outset of our new lives. You don't know how he has used me. And yet you ought to know, for you saw how he used me today. You heard him sneer at my presuming to be scrupulous -- you heard him say I had made a virtue of necessity in marrying him.' She sat down again, her face flushed deeply, and her hands twisted and twined together in her lap. ‘I can't tell you about it now,' she said; ‘I shall burst out crying if I tell you now -- later, Marian, when I am more sure of myself. My poor head aches, darling -- aches, aches, aches. Where is your smelling-bottle? Let me talk to you about yourself. I wish I had given him my signature, for your sake.

Shall I give it to him tomorrow? I would rather compromise myself than compromise you. After your taking my part against him, he will lay all the blame on you if I refuse again. What shall we do? Oh, for a friend to help us and advise us! -- a friend we could really trust!'

She sighed bitterly. I saw in her face that she was thinking of Hartright -- saw it the more plainly because her last words set me thinking of him too. In six months only from her marriage we wanted the faithful service he had offered to us in his farewell words. How little I once thought that we should ever want it at all!

‘We must do what we can to help ourselves,' I said. ‘Let us try to talk it over calmly, Laura -- let us do all in our power to decide for the best.'

Putting what she knew of her husband's embarrassments and what I had heard of his conversation with the lawyer together, we arrived necessarily at the conclusion that the parchment in the library had been drawn up for the purpose of borrowing money, and that Laura's signature was absolutely necessary to fit it for the attainment of Sir Percival's object.

The second question, concerning the nature of the legal contract by which the money was to be obtained, and the degree of personal responsibility to which Laura might subject herself if she signed it in the dark, involved considerations which lay far beyond any knowledge and experience that either of us possessed. My own convictions led me to believe that the hidden contents of the parchment concealed a transaction of the meanest and the most fraudulent kind.

I had not formed this conclusion in consequence of Sir Percival's refusal to show the writing or to explain it, for that refusal might well have proceeded from his obstinate disposition and his domineering temper alone.

My sole motive for distrusting his honesty sprang from the change which I had observed in his language and his manners at Blackwater park, a change which convinced me that he had been acting a part throughout the whole period of his probation at Limmeridge House. His elaborate delicacy, his ceremonious politeness, which harmonised so agreeably with Mr Gilmore's old-fashioned notions, his modesty with Laura, his candour with me, his moderation with Mr Fairlie -- all these were the artifices of a mean, cunning, and brutal man, who had dropped his disguise when his practised duplicity had gained its end, and had openly shown himself in the library on that very day. I say nothing of the grief which this discovery caused me on Laura's account, for it is not to be expressed by any words of mine. I only refer to it at all, because it decided me to oppose her signing the parchment, whatever the consequences might be, unless she was first made acquainted with the contents.

Under these circumstances, the one chance for us when tomorrow came was to be provided with an objection to giving the signature, which might rest on sufficiently firm commercial or legal grounds to shake Sir Percival's resolution, and to make him suspect that we two women understood the laws and obligations of business as well as himself.

After some pondering, I determined to write to the only honest man within reach whom we could trust to help us discreetly in our forlorn situation.

That man was Mr Gilmore's partner, Mr Kyrle, who conducted the business now that our old friend had been obliged to withdraw from it, and to leave London on account of his health. I explained to Laura that I had Mr Gilmore's own authority for placing implicit confidence in his partner's integrity, discretion, and accurate knowledge of all her affairs, and with her full approval I sat down at once to write the letter.

I began by stating our position to Mr Kyrle exactly as it was, and then asked for his advice in return, expressed in plain, downright terms which we could comprehend without any danger of misinterpretations and mistakes.

My letter was as short as I could possibly make it, and was, I hope, unencumbered by needless apologies and needless details.

Just as I was about to put the address on the envelope an obstacle was discovered by Laura, which in the effort and preoccupation of writing had escaped my mind altogether.