“Everything. Providence has permitted me
to save you from the most lifelong of all sorrows.
For—think! Can any sorrow be more lasting
than had been yours if you had attained your wish;
if you had forced or frightened a woman to be your
partner till death do part,—you loving
her, she loathing you; you conscious, night and day,
that your very love had insured her misery, and that
misery haunting you like a ghost!—that
sorrow I have saved you. May Providence permit
me to complete my work, and save you also from the
most irredeemable of all crimes! Look into your
soul, then recall the thoughts which all day long,
and not least at the moment I crossed this threshold,
were rising up, making reason dumb and conscience
blind, and then lay your hand on your heart and say,
‘I am guiltless of a dream of murder.’”
The wretched man sprang up erect, menacing, and, meeting
Kenelm’s calm, steadfast, pitying gaze, dropped
no less suddenly,—dropped on the floor,
covered his face with his hands, and a great cry came
forth between sob and howl.
“Brother,” said Kenelm, kneeling beside
him, and twining his arm round the man’s heaving
breast, “it is over now; with that cry the demon
that maddened you has fled forever.”
CHAPTER XX.
WHEN, some time after, Kenelm quitted the room and
joined Mrs. Bowles below, he said cheerily, “All
right; Tom and I are sworn friends. We are going
together to Luscombe the day after to-morrow,—Sunday;
just write a line to his uncle to prepare him for
Tom’s visit, and send thither his clothes, as
we shall walk, and steal forth unobserved betimes
in the morning. Now go up and talk to him; he
wants a mother’s soothing and petting.
He is a noble fellow at heart, and we shall be all
proud of him some day or other.”
As he walked towards the farmhouse, Kenelm encountered
Mr. Lethbridge, who said, “I have come from
Mr. Saunderson’s, where I went in search of
you. There is an unexpected hitch in the negotiation
for Mrs. Bawtrey’s shop. After seeing you
this morning I fell in with Mr. Travers’s bailiff,
and he tells me that her lease does not give her the
power to sublet without the Squire’s consent;
and that as the premises were originally let on very
low terms to a favoured and responsible tenant, Mr.
Travers cannot be expected to sanction the transfer
of the lease to a poor basket-marker: in fact,
though he will accept Mrs. Bawtrey’s resignation,
it must be in favour of an applicant whom he desires
to oblige. On hearing this, I rode over to the
Park and saw Mr. Travers himself. But he was obdurate
to my pleadings. All I could get him to say was,
’Let the stranger who interests himself in the
matter come and talk to me. I should like to
see the man who thrashed that brute Tom Bowles:
if he got the better of him perhaps he may get the
better of me. Bring him with you to my harvest-supper
to-morrow evening.’ Now, will you come?”
Copyrights
Kenelm Chillingly — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
