Quincunx

  I managed to say that what I had said was that I had no objection to recieving a proposal from one of his sons. The old gentleman cried: What is the differance? I could not speak, but Mr Daniel Clothier said: Ah, now I percieve. It is “one son” rather than “either” that the young lady is stippulating for, and evidently I have not the honour to be the favoured Brother. Papa cried: I believe that is right! I believe it is young Peter that she has in mind. Very well then, we shall have a wedding after all. But old Mr Clothier cried: No we shall not! My Father said: Why, what odds does it make whether she takes one or the other? Mr Clothier shouted: Daniel is my heir, not Peter. Why, Peter is … He broke off and exchanged a look with his son who said: We’ve tried to keep it from you, Miss Huffam, but the truth is that my Brother has always been pecculier. In short, he is insane. I cried out that this was a wicked lie and the old gentleman said: Oh so you know all about it, do you? Then you’ll know that for the last few weeks we’ve had to confine him to a safe room with a man-servant watching him night and day to make sure he don’t injure himself. And as for you, Huffam, you undertook that your daughter should marry my heir, and now I find that isn’t so. Papa said: I acted in good faith. Mr Clothier said: You’ve cheated me, Huffam. I would never have agreed to the Loan if I had not had your assurance on this point. So Martin had been right to suspect that my Father had agreed that I must marry as a condition of the Loan! Papa cried: Did you say “cheated”? How dare you, a Clothier, accuse a Huffam thus? Then he seized my arm and gripped it so hard that it hurt. He said: This is all your fault. Your girlish finicking has brought me into this embarassment. I won’t be accused of acting dishonourably, do you hear me? You must stop mooning after Peter and make up your mind to have Daniel. At this I burst into tears and Papa had to release me. Seizing my oportunity, I ran from the room. On the other side of the door I turned the lock then crossed in the darkness to the other door and turned that also. Now I was safe! I leant with my back against the door still sobbing, my heart near to breaking at the thought of what Peter was undergoing. Then, to my horror, I became aware of someone breathing in the darkness a few feet from me and my heart began to pound. Then a voice spoke: Is that you, Miss Mary? It was Mr Escreet. Now that my eyes were accustomed to the darkness I could see that he was sitting in his usual chair before the empty grate. He said: I wasn’t missed at the dinner-table, was I? It was true. No-one had thought to send for him. He said: Your Father needs me no longer, Miss Mary. He has the Codacil now and has forgotten all about me, though he wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for me. He laughed and I wondered if he too had been drinking. Then he said: And has he forgotten that the last thing the Clothiers desire is that you should have an heir, for any legitamate child of yours will stand between the entail and old Clothier? I hurried out of the room and up to my own appartments.

  FIFTH RELATION:

  The 5th. of July.

  I shall write to them and tell them what has happened. I am certain they will help us once they know the whole Story. After all, they are cousins of ours. And it is in their interests that you and I remain safe. But I’m not telling you about this because I don’t want you to know. I shall go and see them without your knowledge.

  The night after I was told about Peter I hardly slept a wink. It was true that I had seen him very dispirited and silent, but I could not believe what his cruel Brother had said. The next day and the next I kept to my appartments as much as possible and, on the only occasions on which we did meet which were at dinner, Papa kept up an angry silence towards me. Mr Escreet took his meals on a tray in his own chambers, and I would have done the same if my Father had permitted me. The next day at dinner he said: After you left the room so uncerimoniously that night, Mr Clothier and his son told me some things about young Peter that I think you should know. His Family have long been aware of his severe predisposition to mellancoly. However, in recent years and particularly in the last months, he has developed a number of extrordinary delusions that suggested the onset of a more marked mental derangement, and this is why they have had to impose a degree of restraint upon him. They fear not only for his own safety, but for that of others as well. He has begun to make the most extrordinary accusations against his Father and Brother. And they warned me that we should be on our guard if he succeeds in comunnicating with either of us, which they assure me is most unlikely. And they tell me that his condition has worsened recently as a consequence … as a consequence of what has happened in this house. I asked him what he meant and he said: I am afraid that he manyfests an obsession about you, my dear. He insists that he loves you and wishes to see you. He cleared his throat and said with some embarassment: The fact is, my dear, they tell me he speaks of you in terms of quite disrespectful familarity. I was very affected by this, but not in the way that he intended. He went on to say that he and old Mr Clothier believed that the best course was for the marriage between myself and his elder son to go ahead as soon as possible, for only by seeing me as his Brother’s wife would Peter accept that I was beyond his reach. But then something very extrordinary happened.

  At that moment the maid-servant brought in a letter which, she said, had just been brought to the door by a porter. Papa looked at it in surprize and said: Why, it bears the Mompesson seal. I recognised the crest, four crabs in a square with another in the centre, and the motto Chancerata Periat Rosa. He broke open the seal and began to read. I saw the colour come into his face and asked if it were bad news. At first he did not understand me and then he said: Bad news? To the contrairy. The best news I have ever recieved. The best news concievable. He refused to answer any more of my questions but went to the Library and remained there until I withdrew for the night. When I went down to breakfast next morning I found him already there and in excellent spirits, except that he looked as if he had been awake all night. When he made no preparations for going to Court I asked him why. He told me he would not be going to his solicitor that morning after all to lay the Codacil before the Court for there need be no haste over it. I was astonished that he should speak in that way of the document which he had persued for so long, and which he had just plunged himself deeply into debt to pay for. Then he called me Molly — which he only said when he was being very affectionate. And he said: You need not marry Mr Daniel Clothier if you don’t wish it. You can do better than a Clothier. I dared not say that I had no wish to do better than a Clothier, so long as I could choose him for myself. Old Mr Clothier came that evening to learn how he had fared in Court. Papa told me afterwards how furious he was to hear that he had done nothing about it. And to learn that Papa no longer supported the idea of my marriage to his elder son.

  CHAPTER 62

  Melthorpe. The 23rd. of July.

  Oh Johnnie, I’m so alarmed! It was the same man! I’m sure it was he. Tall — horibly tall! — and with a lock of black hair. And a pale face. It must be. Then I was right that they have found us. Mr Barbelion must be working for them as I feared. We are undone. We must flee from here. I don’t know what will become of us. Especially now that Sir Perceval has refused to help us as I believed he would. They were so unkind. To threaten to tell you about your Father like that! So cruel!

  But you won’t understand yet: For about three weeks old Mr Clothier grew more and more impatient with Papa. He came to the house almost daily and at last Papa gave instructions that he should not be admited and he went away in a fury. Then one morning while I was working in the front parlour, the maid-servant came in and announced that Mr Peter Clothier wished to see me. At first I thought she must have mistaken the name, but she insisted that she was right. It was indeed Peter who entered and I was terribly shocked by his appearance. He was very pale, his face thin and his cheeks unshaven, and his eyes seemed large and unnaturally bright. His cloathes were dirty and disordered. I asked him to be seated on a chair opposite mine. He made several attempts to speak and then said: Miss Huffam, I must apologise for coming before you in this condition. I hardly have time to explain, for I must
not stay here long if I am to make my escape. I exclaimed at this word and he said: I have been kept a prisoner in my Father’s house. But I managed to bribe the man-servant to let me get away. My Father is trying to have me declared insane. At this my mind was in a whirl. I had never doubted his sanity when his Father had tried to make me believe him mad, but now that I saw him like this. Then he said: I have no time to speak of that. I have come to warn you and your Father of a plot against you. They tell me you are to marry my Brother. I warn you that if you do so, he and my Father intend to murder you. I turned away so that he would not see the tears start in my eyes. Then what his Father had said was true! He was mad. He stood up and said: I must go now if I am to get free. I believe I may have been recognised in the street by an Agent of my Father and followed here. I asked him where he would go and who would help him and he said: London is a big enough place to hide, even from my Family and their frends. I longed to tell him to stay there, but what could I do? If Papa saw him now and heard what he was saying, he would surely have him returned to his Father. And perhaps that might be safest for him. And then on the way to the door he paused and said: I had almost forgotten! One thing more. Do not reveal to any of my Family the name of the parish where your Father’s parents were married. I concieled my surprize and dismay at this remark and solemly assured him that I would do no such thing and we shook hands. I begged him to come back if ever he needed help and he thanked me and left the house. I watched him go. As he passed out of sight a very tall man emerged from an archway opposite and went quickly towards the street after him. Johnnie, this was the man you described today! The one who tried to abduct you! I am sure of it!

  I didn’t know what to hope for Peter. I thought it might be best if he were taken up by Agents of his Family, for I hated to think of him frendless and deranged adrift in the great city. I returned to the parlour. After long reflection, I decided to say nothing to Papa of this visit.

  CHAPTER 63

  London. The 22nd. of September.

  So much has happened since I last wrote anything. I believe you are right about Jemima. She hates me. For I could see how spiteful she was being when she teazed me about your Father. I know I did her wrong. But it was unkind of her to talk about that night and Peter’s mellancoly circumstances and so on. I should not have gone to her but I hoped she might know something for I could not come back to London without wanting to know, but it seems she does not. (I believe there is only one person I can go to. I hate to think of it but I must do it.) And writing about those times has made them live in my mind again. My Papa believed she was in league with old Mr Clothier, but I cannot think such a thing of her. I hated not being able to explain everything to you, but you were — I mean, are — too young to understand. You’ll understand better by the time you read this. I hope you won’t judge your poor Mamma too harshly. Now you understand why she doesn’t like us. You were clever to see it! It was so painful to come back to London. In the coach I saw you looking so exsited and the past came flooding back with all its agonies. For you it was all so new and for me it was so painful. And to find ourselves in Piccadilly at the Golden-cross so near Papa’s old house. And I knew that you knew so little. I decided we had to leave after that attempt to abduct you when I realized that it was the same man that Mr Clothier and his son had employed all those years ago. But when Mr Barbelion came again in August I made up my mind that we should go immediately. We have to escape from their knowledge again. I don’t know how they found us, but I’m sure that man who broke in all that time ago was from them. But London will be very dangerous for us. And yet it’s the safest place to hide.

  Now I must go back to the evening after Peter came, and my Father and I were taking our tea in the front parlour after dinner when the servant-maid announced that old Mr Clothier was at the door. Papa told her he was at home and I decided to stay in the hope of hearing news of Peter. So he came in and sat down and drank tea with us and chatted aimiably about the weather and his walk through the metroppolis that day and the changes he had seen in London since he was a boy and the driving of the great new street through Soho and St. James and the construction of the Strand-bridge. And how he had come to that house when he was quite a young man, to visit my Grandfather (who was his uncle) in the company of his own Father. And then he began to reminnice about my Grandfather whom Papa had not known at all since he had died while he was still in the cradle. Then suddenly he said to Papa: Your Father and mother caused a deal of bother, as you have most probably been told, by the manner of their wedding for they eloped and married in secret. Was it ever discovered where they went to? The very question Peter had warned me against! Then I had been wrong about him! I was silently rejoicing over this when it suddenly came to me that he had said we would be in danger if his Father found out the answer to this question. Papa was saying: Now that’s a strange Story though one that, of course, I only know by hearsay. You must know that my Grandfather strongly disapproved of the match. What could I do? I thought of feigning illness. I was in such distress of mind that I believe the old gentleman saw for I noticed him looking at me and I feared that I might betray that Peter had warned me. Papa went on: My mother’s Family, the Umphravilles, were small landowners whose fortunes had sadly declined, so that my Grandfather believed that they were not worthy of his son. Papa went on with the Story while I listened in agony. At last, however, he concluded by saying that he did not know the answer to the question Mr Clothier had put. And the old gentleman looked extremely disapointed and suspicious at this.

  When he had gone, I told Papa of Peter’s visit and his warning about the marriage of my grandparents. He looked grave and said: This means that the situation is worse than I feared. Old Clothier is plotting to destroy our claim to the Huffam entail so that as soon as the Codacil is accepted by the Court he will immediately inherit the Estate. You see, there has always been some mystery about my parents’ marriage, and therefore those in whose interests it is to make such a claim have alledged that it never took place. It’s not that he wants to find a record of it, but that he wants to destroy any such document if it exists. I imagine he has searched the London parish-registers and those around Hougham without finding it, and since the witnesses must be long dead, it cannot be proved that way. Now that I was reassured that what Peter had said was not insane, I told Papa of his warning that the Clothiers planned to murder me. He took this seriously, too, and told me that Martin had warned him of rumours that old Mr Clothier poisoned his first wife in order to marry a rich widow who had also died. He said: I don’t say I believe this but if people say such things about him then it suggests what is thought of him. And your death would be in his interests, for remember that you and I must die without leaving an heir while old Clothier is still alive. (Just what Mr Escreet had said to me!) Therefore I believe that both you and I are in grave danger of our lives from the Clothiers once I have laid the Codacil before the Court. And that is why I have no intention of doing so. It is safe where it is. As he spoke he touched it where it hung from his watch-chain. Then he said: Besides, I may not need it now. Do you recal the letter I recieved a few weeks ago with the Mompesson seal? It was from someone in the Mompesson household who promised to obtain something in the light of which the Codacil is of no significance whatsoever. Though I questioned him further, he would say no more.

  Late one evening a week later I was reading in the front parlour. Suddenly I became aware of a faint tapping which seemed to be coming from the window, as if the twigs of a tree were being blown against the pane by the wind. But of course there was no tree outside the window. I took up a candle and went to draw the curtains back. I saw a pale face with wild eyes staring in at me. I stifled a cry and was about to ring for assistance when I recognised Peter. Although he looked so wild, I did not hesitate to let him in, remembering how I had earlier misjudged him. I went into the hall and as silently as possible unlocked the vestibble-door whose key (I might say) was always left on the inside, and then the street-door
with its enormous key, and then drew back the heavy bolts which secured it. He came in and quickly explained that when he left the house the last time he had been followed by the very tall man whom I had seen — the one you saw in Melthorpe, Johnnie! This man captured him and took him to his Brother’s house where he was locked up. He said: To ensure that I would not escape again they put a servant to guard my door. Then they sent for the keeper of a private madhouse who is known to my Father, and instructed this man to sue out a Chancery Comision of day inquiring lunattica: a request for me to be examined and if found insane stripped of all my Rights and put in the power of my Family. The Comision examined me earlier this afternoon. I suspect that they have been bribed to return a verdict against me and so I decided to escape without waiting. He had previously prepared a way out by means of a window and so succeeded in getting away. Then he said: But perhaps I am insane. I have begun to wonder. What do you think, Miss Huffam? It is true that he was speaking very fast and exsitedly, but I was quite certain that he was not mad and left him in no doubt of this. I told him that I was delighted that he had come to my Father’s house for help and though he at first insisted that he had come merely to take his leave of me for he intended to flee England, I persuaded him to let me call Papa. For I told him that he was grateful for Peter’s warning and that we had both realized that it had been because he had come to us with this warning on the last occasion that he had been caught. So I rang the bell and had my Father called. To my delight he smiled when he saw Peter and embraced him saying: My dear boy, I am deeply grateful to you. It was honourable and generous of you to warn us about your own Father. He insisted that he remain as our guest. Then he summoned Mr Escreet and took his advice on the legal situation. It was concluded that Peter was safe in the house even if the Comision found against him. Papa assembled the servants and swore them to secresy.