‘I never contradict a lady, ma’am,’ rejoined the incorrigible captain. ‘If it is your pleasure, when we next meet, to think my niece quite well, I shall bow resignedly to the expression of your opinion.’ With those words he followed the housekeeper into the passage, and politely opened the door for her. ‘I mark the trick, ma’am!’ he said to himself, as he closed it again. ‘The trump-card in your hand is a sight of my niece; and I’ll take care you don’t play it!’
He returned to the parlour, and composedly awaited the next event which was likely to happen – a visit from Mrs Lecount’s master. In less than an hour, results justified Captain Wragge’s anticipations; and Noel Vanstone walked in.
‘My dear sir!’ cried the captain, cordially seizing his visitor’s reluctant hand, ‘I know what you have come for. Mrs Lecount has told you of her visit here, and has no doubt declared that my niece’s illness is a mere subterfuge. You feel surprised, you feel hurt – you suspect me of trifling with your kind sympathies – in short, you require an explanation. That explanation you shall have. Take a seat, Mr Vanstone. I am about to throw myself on your sense and judgment as a man of the world. I acknowledge that we are in a false position, sir; and I tell you plainly at the outset – your housekeeper is the cause of it.’
For once in his life, Noel Vanstone opened his eyes. ‘Lecount!’ he exclaimed, in the utmost bewilderment.
‘The same, sir,’ replied Captain Wragge. ‘I am afraid I offended Mrs Lecount, when she came here this morning, by a want of cordiality in my manner. I am a’plain man; and I can’t assume what I don’t feel. Far be it from me to breathe a word against your housekeeper’s character. She is, no doubt, a most excellent and trustworthy woman; but she has one serious failing common to persons at her time of life who occupy her situation – she is jealous of her influence over her master, although you may not have observed it.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ interposed Noel Vanstone; ‘my observation is remarkably quick. Nothing escapes me.’
‘In that case, sir,’ resumed the captain, ‘you cannot fail to have noticed that Mrs Lecount has allowed her jealousy to affect her conduct towards my niece?’
Noel Vanstone thought of the domestic passage at arms between Mrs Lecount and himself, when his guests of the evening had left Sea-View, and failed to see his way to any direct reply. He expressed the utmost surprise and distress – he thought Lecount had done her best to be agreeable on the drive to Dunwich – he hoped and trusted there was some unfortunate mistake.
‘Do you mean to say, sir,’ pursued the captain, severely, ‘that you have not noticed the circumstances yourself? As a man of honour, and a man of observation, you can’t tell me that! Your housekeeper’s superficial civility has not hidden your housekeeper’s real feeling. My niece has seen it, and so have you, -and so have I. My niece, Mr Vanstone, is a sensitive, high-spirited girl; and she has positively declined to cultivate Mrs Lecount’s society, for the future. Don’t misunderstand me! To my niece, as well as to myself, the attraction of your society, Mr Vanstone, remains the same. Miss Bygrave simply declines to be an apple of discord (if you will permit the classical allusion) cast into your household. I think she is right, so far; and I frankly confess that I have exaggerated a nervous indisposition, from which she is really suffering, into a serious illness – purely and entirely to prevent these two ladies, for the present, from meeting every day on the Parade, and from carrying unpleasant impressions of each other into your domestic establishment and mine.’
‘I allow nothing unpleasant in my establishment,’ remarked Noel Vanstone. ‘I’m master – you must have noticed that already, Mr Bygrave? – I’m master.’
‘No doubt of it, my dear sir. But to live morning, noon and night, in the perpetual exercise of your authority, is more like the life of a governor of a prison than the life of a master of a household. The wear and tear – consider the wear and tear.’
‘It strikes you in that light, does it?’ said Noel Vanstone, soothed by Captain Wragge’s ready recognition of his authority. ‘I don’t know that you’re not right. But I must take some steps directly. I won’t be made ridiculous – I’ll send Lecount away altogether, sooner than be made ridiculous.’ His colour rose; and he folded his little arms fiercely. Captain Wragge’s artfully-irritating explanation had awakened that dormant suspicion of his housekeeper’s influence over him, which habitually lay hidden in his mind; and which Mrs Lecount was now not present to charm back to repose as usual. ‘What must Miss Bygrave think of me!’ he exclaimed, with a sudden outburst of vexation. ‘I’ll send Lecount away. Damme, I’ll send Lecount away on the spot!’
‘No, no, no!’ said the captain, whose interest it was to avoid driving Mrs Lecount to any desperate extremities. ‘Why take strong measures, when mild measures will do? Mrs Lecount is an old servant; Mrs Lecount is attached and useful. She has this little drawback of jealousy – jealousy of her domestic position with her bachelor master. She sees you paying courteous attention to a handsome young lady; she sees that young lady properly sensible of your politeness – and, poor soul, she loses her temper! What is the obvious remedy? Humour her – make a manly concession to the weaker sex. If Mrs Lecount is with you, the next time we meet on the Parade, walk the other way. If Mrs Lecount is not with you, give us the pleasure of your company by all means. In short, my dear sir, try the suaviter in modo (as we classical men say), before you commit yourself to the fortiter in re!’1
There was one excellent reason why Noel Vanstone should take Captain Wragge’s conciliatory advice. An open rupture with Mrs Lecount – even if he could have summoned the courage to face it – would imply the recognition of her claims to a provision, in acknowledgment of the services she had rendered to his father and to himself. His sordid nature quailed within him at the bare prospect of expressing the emotion of gratitude in a pecuniary form; and, after first consulting appearances by a show of hesitation, he consented to adopt the captain’s suggestion, and to humour Mrs Lecount.
‘But I must be considered in this matter,’ proceeded Noel Vanstone. ‘My concession to Lecount’s weakness must not be misunderstood. Miss Bygrave must not be allowed to suppose I am afraid of my housekeeper.’
The captain declared that no such idea ever had entered, or ever could enter, Miss Bygrave’s mind. Noel Vanstone returned to the subject nevertheless, again and again, with his customary pertinacity.
Would it be indiscreet if he asked leave to set himself right personally with Miss Bygrave? Was there any hope that he might have the happiness of seeing her on that day? or, if not, on the next day? or, if not, on the day after? Captain Wragge answered cautiously: he felt the importance of not rousing Noel Vanstone’s distrust by too great an alacrity in complying with his wishes.
‘An interview to-day, my dear sir, is out of the question,’ he said. ‘She is not well enough; she wants repose. To-morrow I propose taking her out, before the heat of the day begins – not merely to avoid embarrassment, after what has happened with Mrs Lecount — but because the morning air, and the morning quiet, are essential in these nervous cases. We are early people here – we shall start at seven o’clock. If you are early too, and if you would like to join us, I need hardly say that we can feel no objection to your company on our morning walk. The hour, I am aware, is an unusual one – but, later in the day, my niece may be resting on the sofa, and may not be able to see visitors.’
Having made this proposal, purely for the purpose of enabling Noel Vanstone to escape to North Shingles at an hour in the morning when his housekeeper would be probably in bed, Captain Wragge left him to take the hint, if he could, as indirectly as it had been given. He proved sharp enough (the case being one in which his own interests were concerned) to close with the proposal on the spot. Politely declaring that he was always an early man when the morning presented any special attraction to him, he accepted the appointment for seven o’clock; and rose soon afterwards to take his leave.
‘One word at parting,’
said Captain Wragge. ‘This conversation is entirely between ourselves. Mrs Lecount must know nothing of the impression she has produced on my niece. I have only mentioned it to you, to account for my apparently churlish conduct, and to satisfy your own mind. In confidence, Mr Vanstone – strictly in confidence. Good morning!’
With these parting words, the captain bowed his visitor out. Unless some unexpected disaster occurred, he now saw his way safely to the end of the enterprise. He had gained two important steps in advance, that morning. He had sown the seeds of variance between the housekeeper and her master; and he had given Noel Vanstone a common interest with Magdalen and himself, in keeping a secret from Mrs Lecount. ‘We have caught our man,’ thought Captain Wragge, cheerfully rubbing his hands – ‘We have caught our man at last!’
On leaving North Shingles, Noel Vanstone walked straight home; fully restored to his place in his own estimation, and sternly determined to carry matters with a high hand, if he found himself in collision with Mrs Lecount.
The housekeeper received her master at the door with her mildest manner, and her gentlest smile. She addressed him with downcast eyes; she opposed to his contemplated assertion of independence a barrier of impenetrable respect.
‘May I venture to ask, sir,’ she began, ‘if your visit to North Shingles has led you to form the same conclusion as mine on the subject of Miss Bygrave’s illness?’
‘Certainly not, Lecount. I consider your conclusion to have been both hasty and prejudiced.’
‘I am sorry to hear it, sir. I felt hurt by Mr Bygrave’s rude reception of me – but I was not aware that my judgment was prejudiced by it. Perhaps he received you, sir, with a warmer welcome?’
‘He received me like a gentleman – that is all I think it necessary to say, Lecount — he received me like a gentleman.’
This answer satisfied Mrs Lecount on the one doubtful point that had perplexed her. Whatever Mr Bygrave’s sudden coolness towards herself might mean, his polite reception of her master implied that the risk of detection had not daunted him, and that the plot was still in full progress. The housekeeper’s eyes brightened: she had expressly calculated on this result. After a moment’s thinking, she addressed her master with another question:
‘You will probably visit Mr Bygrave again, sir?’
‘Of course I shall visit him – if I please.’
‘And perhaps see Miss Bygrave, if she gets better?’
‘Why not? I should be glad to know why not? Is it necessary to ask your leave first, Lecount?’
‘By no means, sir. As you have often said (and as I have often agreed with you), you are master. It may surprise you to hear it, Mr Noel -but I have a private reason for wishing that you should see Miss Bygrave again.’
Mr Noel started a little, and looked at his housekeeper with some curiosity.
‘I have a strange fancy of my own sir, about that young lady,’ proceeded Mrs Lecount. ‘If you will excuse my fancy, and indulge it, you will do me a favour for which I shall be very grateful.’
‘A fancy?’ repeated her master, in growing surprise. ‘What fancy?’
‘Only this, sir,’ said Mrs Lecount.
She took from one of the neat little pockets of her apron a morsel of note-paper, carefully folded into the smallest possible compass; and respectfully placed it in Noel Vanstone’s hands.
‘If you are willing to oblige an old and faithful servant, Mr Noel,’ she said, in a very quiet and very impressive manner, ‘you will kindly put that morsel of paper into your waistcoat-pocket; you will open and read it, for the first time, when you are next in Miss Bygrave’s company; and you will say nothing of what has now passed between us to any living creature, from this time to that. I promise to explain my strange request, sir, when you have done what I ask, and when your next interview with Miss Bygrave has come to an end.’
She curtseyed with her best grace and quietly left the room.
Noel Vanstone looked from the folded paper to the door, and from the door back to the folded paper, in unutterable astonishment. A mystery in his own house! under his own nose! What did it mean?
It meant that Mrs Lecount had not wasted her time that morning. While the captain was casting the net over his visitor at North Shingles, the housekeeper was steadily mining the ground under his feet. The folded paper contained nothing less than a carefully-written extract from the personal description of Magdalen in Miss Garth’s letter. With a daring ingenuity which even Captain Wragge might have envied, Mrs Lecount had found her instrument for exposing the conspiracy, in the unsuspecting person of the victim himself!
Chapter Seven
Late that evening, when Magdalen and Mrs Wragge came back from their walk in the dark, the captain stopped Magdalen on her way upstairs, to inform her of the proceedings of the day. He added the expression of his opinion that the time had come for bringing Noel Vanstone, with the least possible delay, to the point of making a proposal. She merely answered that she understood him, and that she would do what was required of her. Captain Wragge requested her, in that case, to oblige him by joining a walking excursion in Mr Noel Vanstone’s company, at seven o’clock the next morning. ‘I will be ready,’ she replied. ‘Is there anything more?’ There was nothing more. Magdalen bade him good night, and returned to her own room.
She had shown the same disinclination to remain any longer than was necessary in the captain’s company, throughout the three days of her seclusion in the house.
During all that time, instead of appearing to weary of Mrs Wragge’s society, she had patiently, almost eagerly, associated herself with her companion’s one absorbing pursuit. She who had often chafed and fretted in past days, under the monotony of her life in the freedom of Combe-Raven, now accepted without a murmur, the monotony of her life at Mrs Wragge’s work-table. She who had hated the sight of her needle and thread, in old times – who had never yet worn an article of dress of her own making – now toiled as anxiously over the making of Mrs Wragge’s gown, and bore as patiently with Mrs Wragge’s blunders, as if the sole object of her existence had been the successful completion of that one dress. Anything was welcome to her – the trivial difficulties of fitting a gown: the small ceaseless chatter of the poor half-witted creature who was so proud of her assistance, and so happy in her company – anything was welcome that shut her out from the coming future, from the destiny to which she stood self-condemned. That sorely-wounded nature was soothed by such a trifle now as the grasp of her companion’s rough and friendly hand – that desolate heart was cheered, when night parted them, by Mrs Wragge’s kiss.
The captain’s isolated position in the house, produced no depressing effect on the captain’s easy and equal spirits. Instead of resenting Magdalen’s systematic avoidance of his society, he looked to results, and highly approved of it. The more she neglected him for his wife, the more directly useful she became in the character of Mrs Wragge’s self-appointed guardian. He had more than once seriously contemplated revoking the concession which had been extorted from him, and removing his wife at his own sole responsibility, out of harm’s way; and he had only abandoned the idea, on discovering that Magdalen’s resolution to keep Mrs Wragge in her own company was really serious. While the two were together, his main anxiety was set at rest. They kept their door locked by his own desire, while he was out of the house, and, whatever Mrs Wragge might do, Magdalen was to be trusted not to open it until he came back. That night, Captain Wragge enjoyed his cigar with a mind at ease; and sipped his brandy and water in happy ignorance of the pitfall which Mrs Lecount had prepared for him in the morning.
Punctually at seven o’clock, Noel Vanstone made his appearance. The moment he entered the room, Captain Wragge detected a change in his visitor’s look and manner. ‘Something wrong!’ thought the captain. ‘We have not done with Mrs Lecount yet.’
‘How is Miss Bygrave this morning?’ asked Noel Vanstone. ‘Well enough, I hope, for our early walk?’ His half-closed eyes, weak and watery with
the morning light and the morning air, looked about the room furtively, and he shifted his place in a restless manner from one chair to another, as he made those polite inquiries.
‘My niece is better – she is dressing for the walk,’ replied the captain, steadily observing his restless little friend while he spoke. ‘Mr Vanstone!’ he added, on a sudden, ‘I am a plain Englishman – excuse my blunt way of speaking my mind. You don’t meet me this morning as cordially as you met me yesterday. There is something unsettled in your face. I distrust that housekeeper of yours, sir! Has she been presuming on your forbearance? Has she been trying to poison your mind against me or my niece?’
If Noel Vanstone had obeyed Mrs Lecount’s injunctions, and had kept her little morsel of note-paper folded in his pocket until the time came to use it, Captain Wragge’s designedly blunt appeal might not have found him unprepared with an answer. But curiosity had got the better of him – he had opened the note at night, and again in the morning –it had seriously perplexed and startled him – and it had left his mind far too disturbed to allow him the possession of his ordinary resources. He hesitated; and his answer, when he succeeded in making it, began with a prevarication.
Captain Wragge stopped him before he had got beyond his first sentence.
‘Pardon me, sir,’ said the captain in his loftiest manner. ‘If you have secrets to keep, you have only to say so, and I have done. I intrude on no man’s secrets. At the same time, Mr Vanstone, you must allow me to recall to your memory that I met you yesterday without any reserves on my side. I admitted you to my frankest and fullest confidence, sir – and, highly as I prize the advantages of your society, I can’t consent to cultivate your friendship on any other than equal terms.’ He threw open his respectable frock-coat, and surveyed his visitor with a manly and virtuous severity.