And so the trial was over. Alaric was taken off
in custody; the policeman in mufti was released from
his attendance; and Charley, with a heavy heart, carried
the news to Gertrude and Mrs. Woodward.
‘And as for me,’ said Gertrude, when she
had so far recovered from the first shock as to be
able to talk to her mother—’as for
me, I will have lodgings at Millbank.’
A PARTING INTERVIEW
Mrs. Woodward remained with her eldest daughter for
two days after the trial, and then she was forced
to return to Hampton. She had earnestly entreated
Gertrude to accompany her, with her child; but Mrs.
Tudor was inflexible. She had, she said, very
much to do; so much, that she could not possibly leave
London; the house and furniture were on her hands,
and must be disposed of; their future plans must be
arranged; and then nothing, she said, should induce
her to sleep out of sight of her husband’s prison,
or to omit any opportunity of seeing him which the
prison rules would allow her.
Mrs. Woodward would not have left one child in such
extremity, had not the state of another child made
her presence at the Cottage indispensable. Katie’s
anxiety about the trial had of course been intense,
so intense as to give her a false strength, and somewhat
to deceive Linda as to her real state. Tidings
of course passed daily between London and the Cottage,
but for three days they told nothing. On the
morning of the fourth day, however, Norman brought
the heavy news, and Katie sank completely under it.
When she first heard the result of the trial she swooned
away, and remained for some time nearly unconscious.
But returning consciousness brought with it no relief,
and she lay sobbing on her pillow, till she became
so weak, that Linda in her fright wrote up to her
mother begging her to return at once. Then, wretched
as it made her to leave Gertrude in her trouble, Mrs.
Woodward did return.
For a fortnight after this there was an unhappy household
at Surbiton Cottage. Linda’s marriage was
put off till the period of Alaric’s sentence
should be over, and till something should be settled
as to his and Gertrude’s future career.
It was now August, and they spoke of the event as
one which perhaps might occur in the course of the
following spring. At this time, also, they were
deprived for a while of the comfort of Norman’s
visits by his enforced absence at Normansgrove.
Harry’s eldest brother was again ill, and at
last the news of his death was received at Hampton.
Under other circumstances such tidings as those might,
to a certain extent, have brought their own consolation
with them. Harry would now be Mr. Norman of Normansgrove,
and Linda would become Mrs. Norman of Normansgrove;
Harry’s mother had long been dead, and his father
was an infirm old man, who would be too glad to give
up to his son the full management of the estate, now
that the eldest son was a man to whom that estate could
