The Laughing Mill and Other Stories Part 16

"'Nonsense, my darling! There's no one within half a mile of us; and if there were, they would only see a lovely girl looking her loveliest.'

"'How nicely you talk to me! Well then--you put them on me. I won't touch them myself.'

"The parure consisted of a necklace and a pair of earrings. I lifted them, flas.h.i.+ng, from the case; clasped the necklace round her throat, she sitting motionless, and hung the earrings in her ears. A light, that matched their marvellous gleam, seemed to enter into her eyes as I did so.

"'You and these diamonds were made for each other!' I said; and bending forwards, I kissed her on the lips.

"For more than a minute she sat there quite still, I kneeling in front of her; we were looking straight into one another's eyes. Then, all at once, a troubled anxious look came into her face. She rose with a startled gesture to her feet.

"'Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+ did you hear?'

"'What's the matter?' cried I, jumping up in surprise.

"'Hus.h.!.+ someone calling--calling me!'

"Again that strange fancy! What did it mean? I could not repress a certain thrill at the heart as I gazed at her. It was very weird and strange.

"As I gazed, a singular change crept over her. Her face was now quite colourless, and its pallor was intensified by the blackness of her mystical eyes. Those eyes slowly grew fixed--immovable, as if frozen.

The lids trembled for a moment, then drooped, then lifted again to their widest extent, and so remained. Her lips, slightly parted, showed the white teeth set edge to edge behind them. The rigidity descended through her whole body; she was like a marble statue. She breathed low and deeply, as one who is in profound slumber.

"'Kate, what has happened to you?' I cried in alarm, putting my hand on her shoulder. Her arm was fixed like iron; she seemed to hear nothing, feel nothing. She was as much beyond any power of mine to influence her as if she had been dead. The diamonds that glittered on her bosom were not more insensible than she.

"I must confess that I was somewhat unnerved by the situation. Kate was evidently in some sort of trance; but what had put her into that state, and how was she to be got out of it? For aught I knew, it might be the prelude to a fit or other seizure of that nature, involving consequences dangerous if not fatal. In the bewilderment of the moment the only remedy that I could think of was cold water; to dash her with water might be of use, and could scarcely make matters worse. About thirty paces from where we were standing a small rill meandered amongst the roots of the trees, and trickled at last in a tiny cascade down the rocky side of the gorge. Towards this I ran, and stooping down, attempted to scoop up some of the refres.h.i.+ng element in the crown of my straw hat.

"Rising with the dripping hat in my hands, I turned to go back; but the sight that then met my eyes caused me to drop everything and spring forward with a gasp of horror.

"Moving as if in obedience to some power external or at least foreign to herself, as a mechanical figure might move, steadily, deliberately, and yet blindly, Kate had advanced directly towards the narrow chasm, and when I first beheld her she already seemed balancing on the brink.

Before I could cover half the distance that separated us, she had set foot on the long beam which spanned the abyss, and had begun to walk along it. By the time I reached the hither end, she was halfway over, stepping as unconsciously as if she were on an ordinary sidewalk, though the slightest deflection from a straight course would have sent her down a hundred feet to the jagged boulders below.

"Standing on the hither verge, every nerve so tensely strung that I seemed to hear the blood humming through my brain, I watched the pa.s.sage of those small feet, which I had admired that morning as they peeped coquettishly from beneath her dress in the railway carriage--I watched them pa.s.s, step after step, along that awful beam. I suppose the transit must have been accomplished in less than a minute, but it seemed to me that I was watching it for hours. I uttered no sound, lest it might rouse her from her trance and insure the catastrophe that else she might escape; I did not attempt to overtake her, fearful lest the beam should fail to support our united weight. I saw her pa.s.s on, rigid, unbending, but sure of foot as a rope-dancer; and at last I saw her reach the opposite side, and stand once more on solid earth, preserved from death as it seemed by a miracle. I have no distinct recollection of how I followed; I only know that a few seconds afterwards I was standing beside her, with my arm round her waist.

"I led her forwards a few paces out of sight of the ravine, the mere thought of which now turned me sick, and brought her to a plot of soft turf, beneath a tree with low spreading branches. The trance was evidently pa.s.sing away; her limbs no longer had that unnatural rigidity; her eyelids drooped heavily, and her jaw relaxed. A violent trembling seized upon her; she sank down on the turf as if all power of self-support had gone out of her. At that moment I fancied I heard a slight crackle among the shrubbery not far off; I looked quickly up, and saw--or thought I saw--a short ungainly figure obscurely stealing away through the underbush. Almost immediately he vanished amidst the trees, leaving me in doubt whether my eyesight had not after all played me false.

"As I turned again to Kate, she was sitting up against the trunk of the tree, the diamonds flas.h.i.+ng at her throat and ears, and a puzzled questioning expression on her face.

"'What makes you look so strange?' she murmured. 'Where is your hat! How did we come here, Tom? I thought----'

"She stopped abruptly, and rose slowly to her feet. Her eyes were cast down shamefacedly, and she bit her lip. She lifted her hand to her throat, and felt the diamonds there. Then, with an apprehensive, almost a cowering glance, she peered stealthily round through the trees, as though expecting to see something that she dreaded. Finally she turned again, appealingly, to me, but said nothing.

"I thought I partly understood the significance of this dumb-show. She was subject to these somnambulistic trances, and was ashamed of them.

She knew not, on this occasion, what extravagance she might have committed in the presence of me, her lover. She feared the construction I might put upon it, yet was too timid--or, it might be, too proud--to speak. But her misgiving did me injustice. Shocked and grieved though I was, I loved her more than ever.

"'You were faint, my dear, that's all,' I said, cheerfully and affectionately. 'I brought you under this tree, and now you're all right.'

"She shook her head, with a piteous smile. 'I know what has been the matter with me, Mr. Gainsborough,' she said, with an attempt at reserve and coldness in her tone. 'I had hoped I might have parted from you before you knew, but--it was not to be so! It is very good of you to pretend to ignore it, and I thank you--I thank you. Here,' she added, nervously unclasping the necklace and removing the earrings, 'I have worn these too long. Take them, please.'

"'Kate, you shall wear them forever!' cried I, pa.s.sionately.

"'I must not begin yet, at all events,' she returned more firmly. 'Take them, please, or you will make me feel more humiliated than I do now.'

She put them in my unwilling hands. 'And now we'll get our hats and go back to the hotel,' she continued, with a smile which was pathetic in its effort to seem indifferent and unconstrained. 'Where are they? Ah!'

"She had just caught sight of her white hat lying beside the stump on the farther side of the gorge. The suppressed scream and the start indicated that she now for the first time realised by what a perilous path she had come hither. She remained for a moment gazing at the beam with a sort of fascination; then, moving forward to the brink, looked down the sheer precipice to the rocks below.

"'I wish I had fallen!' she said, almost below her breath; 'or,' she added, after a short pause, in a tone still lower, but of intense emphasis, 'I wish he had!'

"'You wish I had?'

"'I did not know you were so near,' she answered, drawing back from the verge. 'No, no--not you! Come, we must walk round this place. Tell me,'

she said, facing me suddenly, 'did you see anyone?'

"'I think not. I fancied I heard----'

"'We must get back to the hotel,' she interrupted excitedly; 'at least, I must get back. I don't like to be here. I wish you would leave me. I would rather say good-bye to you here than there.'

"'I never mean to say good-bye to you at all, Kate. If this is the trouble you hinted at, you overrate it entirely. Why, two people out of every seven are somnambulists. It is as common as to have black hair.

Besides, you will outgrow it in a few years; it is only a nervous affection, which any doctor can cure.'

"'It is not that; you don't understand,' she said, with a sigh.

"'Whatever it is, I'm determined not to lose you. I shall tell your father, when I see him, that I love you, and that wherever he takes you I shall follow. No one can or shall keep us apart.'

"The resolution with which I spoke seemed to impress her somewhat. 'You can speak to him if you will. But, oh! it is no use. It cannot be; you don't understand. Let me go; good-bye. No, do not come with me; please do not! I have a reason for asking it. I will see you once more--to-morrow, before we leave. But let me go alone now, if you love me.'

"She went, walking quickly away through the wood. I watched her for a few moments, and then returned to the gra.s.s plot beneath the tree, and threw myself down there in a very dissatisfied frame of mind. The sun had set before I returned to the hotel.

V.

"I saw nothing more of Kate that day; but I came across Slurk several times, and there was a peculiar look on the fellow's countenance which made me renew my longing to chastise him. I was anxious to know whether Mr. Birchmore had returned; but, as I could not bring myself to make any inquiries of his valet, and did not care to let him see me asking anyone else, I was obliged to remain in ignorance. However, as I sat out under the trees at dusk, a tall figure, with a lighted cigar in his mouth, appeared in the doorway of the hotel, and, on my saluting him, he sauntered up to my table, and complied with my invitation to sit down.

"The waiter brought us coffee; and under its stimulus I ventured to introduce the subject which lay nearest my heart to Mr. Birchmore's notice. No doubt I put my best foot foremost, and spoke as eloquently as was consistent with my downright earnestness and sincerity. Mr.

Birchmore heard me almost in silence, only giving evidence by an occasional word or interjection that he was giving me his attention.

Once or twice, too, I was aware of his having given me one of those sharp icy glances for which he was remarkable. When I had spoken, he fingered the pointed beard on his chin meditatively, and puffed his cigar.

"'This is a very fair and honourable offer that you make, Gainsborough,'

he said at length. 'I liked you before; I like you better now. You take it for granted, I suppose, that I'm pretty well off. There, you needn't say anything; I've no doubt of your disinterestedness; but these matters would have to be mentioned, sooner or later, if the affair went on. I say "if," because--I may as well tell you at once; it will save us all pain--because it can't go on: it must stop right here; and I can only regret, for both your sakes, that it has gone so far.'

"'Mr. Birchmore, I cannot take this for an answer. You have given me no reasons. If you want confirmation of my account of myself, I can----'

"'I want nothing of the sort; on the contrary, I feel complimented that you should accept _us_, not only without confirmation, but without question. But you can't marry my daughter, Gainsborough, much as I like you, and much as I daresay she does. When you are older, you will understand that men cannot always follow that course in the world which appears to them most desirable.'

"'However young or old I may be, Mr. Birchmore, I am old enough to know my own mind, and to require good reasons for changing it. If you have any such reasons, I wish you'd show your liking for me by telling me what they are.'

"'Do you remember a talk we once had in Paris, when you hinted that I should accompany you on your jaunt? I told you then that the past life of a man sometimes had a hold over his present, constraining his freedom, whether he would or no. And can't you imagine that those circ.u.mstances, however cogent they may be, or, very likely, just because they are so cogent, might be very inconvenient to talk about? To speak plainly, Gainsborough, I don't see how your loving my daughter obliges me to tell you all the secrets of my life.'

"'I don't want to know your secrets, sir; I wish to marry Miss Birchmore.'

"Mr. Birchmore laughed.