CHAPTER II. AN ASTONISHMENT.
Now comes the strange part of my story.
One evening the housemaid opened the door to Mr. Dempster on hisreturn from the city; and perhaps the fact that it was the maid, andnot the page as usual, roused his observation, which, except inbusiness matters, was not remarkably operative. He glanced at theyoung woman, when an eye far less keen than his could not have failedto remark a strangely excited expression on her countenance.
"Where is the boy?" he asked.
"Just run to the doctor's, sir," she answered.
Then first he remembered that when he left in the morning his wife hadnot been feeling altogether well, but he had never thought of hersince.
"How is your mistress?" he said.
"She's rather poorly, sir, but--but--she's as well as could beexpected."
"What does the fool mean?" said Dempster to himself, and very nearlysaid it aloud, for he was not over polite to any in his service. Buthe did not say it aloud. He advanced into the hall with deliberation,and made for the stair.
"Oh, please sir," the maid cried in a tone of perturbation, when,turning from shutting the door, she saw his intention, "you can't goup to mis'ess's room just at this minute, sir. Please go in thedining-room, sir."
"What do you mean?" he asked, turning angrily upon the girl, for ofall things he hated mystery.
Like every one else in the house, and office both, she stood in awe ofhim, and his look frightened her.
"Please go in the dining-room," she gasped entreatingly.
"What!" he said and did turn towards the dining-room, "is yourmistress so ill she can't see me?"
"Oh, no, sir!--at least I don't know exactly. Cook's with her, sir.She's over the worst, anyhow."
"What on earth do you mean, girl? Speak out, will you? What is thematter with your mistress?"
As he spoke he stepped into the room, the maid following him. The samemoment he spied a whitish bundle of something on the rug in front ofthe fire.
"What do you mean by leaving things like that in the dining-room?" hewent on more angrily still.
"Please, sir," answered the girl, going and lifting the bundlecarefully, "it's the baby!"
"The baby!" shouted Mr. Dempster, and looked at her from head to foot."What baby?" Then bethinking himself that it must belong to somevisitor in the drawing-room with his wife, he moderated his tone."Make haste; take it away!" he said. "I don't want babies here!There's a time and a place for everything!--What _are_ you about?"
For, instead of obeying her master and taking it away, the maid wascarefully looking in the blanket for the baby. Having found it andturned aside the covering from its face, she came nearer, and holdingup the little vision, about the size and colour of a roll of red waxtaper, said:--
"Look at it, sir! It's your own, and worth looking at."
Never before had she dared speak to him so!
I will not venture to assert that Mr. Dempster turned white, but hiscountenance changed, and he dropped into the chair behind him, feelingless of a business man than had been his consciousness for the lasttwenty years. He was hit hard. The absolutely Incredible had hit him.Babies might be born in a day, but surely not without previouspreparation on the part of nature at least, if not on that of themother; and in this case if the mother had prepared herself, certainlyshe had not prepared him for the event. It was as if the treasure ofNature's germens were tumbling all together. His head swam. He couldnot speak a word.
"Yes, sir," the maid went on, relieved of her trepidation inperceiving that her master too was mortal, and that her word had suchpower over him--proud also of knowing more of his concerns than he didhimself, "she was took about an hour and a half ago. We've kep'sendin' an' sendin' after the doctor, but he ain't never been yet;only cook, she knows a deal an' she says she's been very bad, sir. Butthe young gentleman come at last, bless him! and now she's doin' aswell as could be expected, sir--cook says."
"God bless me!" said the astonished father, and relapsed into thesilence of bewilderment.
Eight years married with never a glimmer of offspring--and now, all atonce, and without a whisper of warning, the father of a "younggentleman!" How could it be other than perplexing--discomposing,indeed!--yet it was right pleasant too. Only it would have been morepleasant if experience could have justified the affair! Nature--no,not Nature--or, if Nature, then Nature sure in some unnatural mood,had stolen a march upon him, had gone contrary to all that had everbeen revealed of her doings before! and why had she pitched onhim--just him, Duncan Dempster, to exercise one of her more grotesqueand wayward moods upon?--to play at hide-and-seek with after thisfashion? She had not treated him with exactly proper respect, hethought, or, rather vaguely felt.
"Business is business," he remarked, under his breath, "and thiscannot be called proper business behaviour. What is there about me tomake game of? Really, my wife ought--"
What his wife ought or ought not to have done, however, had not yetmade itself clear to him, and his endeavour to excogitate being inthat direction broken off, gave way to the pleasure of knowing himselfa father, or perhaps more truly of having an heir. In the strength ofit he rose, went to the cellaret, and poured himself out a glass ofhis favourite port, which he sat down to drink in silence andmeditation. He was rather a picture just then and there, though not avery lovely one, seated, with his hat still on his head, in the middleof the room, upon a chair half-way between the dining-table and thesideboard, with his glass of wine in his hand. He was pondering partlythe pleasure, but still mainly the peculiarity of his position. Abishop once told me that, shortly after he had been raised to theepiscopal dignity, a friend's horses, whose driver had tumbled off thebox drunk, ran away with him, and upset the carriage. He crept out ofthe window over his head, and the first thought that came to him as hesat perched on the side of the carriage, while it was jumbled along bythe maddened horses, was, "What do bishops do in such circumstances?"Equally perplexing was the question Dempster had to ask himself: howhusbands who, after being married eight years, suddenly andunexpectedly received the gift of a first-born, were in the habit ofcomporting themselves! He poured himself out another glass, and withit came the reflection, both amusing and consoling, that his brother,who was confidently expecting his tidy five figures to crown theearthly bliss of one or more of his large family some day, would beequally but less agreeably surprised. "Serve him right!" he said tohimself. "What business have they to be looking out for my death?" Andfor a moment the heavens appeared a little more just than he wasordinarily in the habit of regarding them. He said to himself he wouldwork harder than ever now. There would now be some good in makingmoney! He had never given his mind to it yet, he said: now the worldshould see what he could do when he did give his mind to it!
Hitherto gathering had been his main pleasure, but with the thought ofhis money would now not seldom be mingled the thought of the littlething in the blanket! He began to find himself strangely happy. I usethe wrong phrase--for the fact is, he had never yet found himself atall; he knew nothing of the person except a self-painted and immenselyflattered portrait that hung in the innermost chamber of his heart--Imean the innermost chamber he knew anything of: there were manychambers there of which he did not even know the doors. Yet a fewminutes as he sat there, and he was actually cherishing a little pridein the wife who had done so much better for him than he had at lengthcome to expect. If not a good accountant, she was at least a goodwife, and a very fair housekeeper: he had no doubt she would prove agood mother. He would gladly have gone to her at once, to let her knowhow much he was pleased with her behaviour. As for that little bit ofred clay--"terra cotta," he called it to himself, as he looked roundwith a smile at the blanket, which the housemaid had replaced on therug before the fire--who could imagine him a potentate upon'Change--perhaps in time a director of European affairs! He was not inthe way of joking--of all things about money; the very thought, ofbusiness filled him from top to toe with seriousness; but he did makethat small joke,
and accompany it with a grim smile.
He was startled from his musing by the entrance of the doctor, who hadin the meantime arrived and seen the lady, and now came to look at thebaby. He congratulated Mr. Dempster on having at length a son andheir, but warned him that his wife was far from being beyond dangeryet. The whole thing was entirely out of the common, he said, and shemust be taken the greatest possible care of. The words woke a gentlepity in the heart of the man, for by nature all men have sometenderness for women in such circumstances, but they did not troublehim greatly--for such dangers belonged to their calling, their_business_ in life, and, doubtless, if she had attended to thatbusiness earlier she would have found it easier.
"Did you ever know such a thing before, doctor?" he asked, with theimportance of one honoured by a personal visit from the Marvellous.
"Never in my own practice," answered the doctor, whom the cook hadinstructed in the wonders of the case, "but I have read of such athing." And Mr. Dempster swelled like a turkey-cock.
It was several days before he was allowed to see the mother. Perhapshad she expressed a strong desire to see him, it might have beenrisked sooner, but she had neither expressed nor manifested any. Hekissed her, spoke a few stupid words in a kind tone, asking her howshe did, but paying no heed to her answer, and turned aside to look,at the baby.
Mrs. Dempster recovered but slowly, and not very satisfactorily. Shedid not seem to care much about the child. She tried to nurse him, butwas not very successful. She took him when the nurse brought him, andyielded him again with the same indifference, showing neither pleasureto receive nor unwillingness to part with him. The nurse did not failto observe it and remark upon it: _she_ had never seen a mother careso little for her child! there was little of the mother in _her_ anyway! it was no wonder she was so long about it. It troubled the fathera little that she should not care for his child: some slightfermentation had commenced in the seemingly dead mass of humanaffection that had lain so long neglected in his being, and it seemedstrange to him that, while he was living for the child in the City,she should be so indifferent to him at home. For already he had begunto keep his vow, already his greater keenness in business was remarkedin the City. But it boded little good for either that the gift of Godshould stir up in him the worship of Mammon. More sons are damned bytheir fathers' money than by anything else whatever outside ofthemselves.
There was the excuse to be made for Mrs. Dempster that she continuedfar from strong--and her husband made it: he would have made it moreheartily if he had himself ever in his life known what it was to beill. By degrees she grew stronger, however, until, to persons who hadnot known her before, she would have seemed in tolerable health. For aweek or two after she was again going about the house, she continuedto nurse the baby, but after that she became unable to do so, andtherewith began to neglect him entirely. She never asked to see him,and when the nurse brought him would turn her head aside, and tell herto take it away. So far from his being a pleasure to her, the verysight of the child brought the hot dew upon her forehead. Her husbandfrowned and wondered, but, unaccustomed to open his mind either to heror to any one else, not unwisely sought to understand the thing beforespeaking of it, and in the meantime commenced a genuine attempt tomake up to the baby for his mother's neglect. Almost without a notionhow even to take him in his arms, he would now send for him the momenthe had had his tea, and after a fashion, ludicrous in the eyes of thenurse, would dandle and caress him, and strut about with him beforehis wife, glancing up at her every now and then, to point the lessonthat such was the manner in which a parent ought to behave to a child.In his presence she never made any active show of her dislike, but herlook seemed all the time fixed on something far away, as if she hadnothing to do with the affair.