SHOWING HOW MRS. ORME COULD BE VERY WEAK MINDED

I venture to think, I may almost say to hope, that Lady Mason’s confession at the end of the last chapter will not have taken anybody by surprise.  If such surprise be felt I must have told my tale badly.  I do not like such révulsions of feeling with regard to my characters as surprises of this nature must generate.  That Lady Mason had committed the terrible deed for which she was about to be tried, that Mr. Furnival’s suspicion of her guilt was only too well founded, that Mr. Dockwrath with his wicked ingenuity had discovered no more than the truth, will, in its open revelation, have caused no surprise to the reader; ­but it did cause terrible surprise to Sir Peregrine Orme.

And now we must go back a little and endeavour to explain how it was that Lady Mason had made this avowal of her guilt.  That she had not intended to do so when she entered Sir Peregrine’s library is very certain.  Had such been her purpose she would not have asked Mrs. Orme to visit her at Orley Farm.  Had such a course of events been in her mind she would not have spoken of her departure from The Cleeve as doubtful.  No.  She had intended still to keep her terrible secret to herself; still to have leaned upon Sir Peregrine’s arm as on the arm of a trusting friend.  But he had overcome her by his generosity; and in her fixed resolve that he should not be dragged down into this abyss of misery the sudden determination to tell the truth at least to him had come upon her.  She did tell him all; and then, as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the strength which had enabled her to do so deserted her, and she fell at his feet overcome by weakness of body as well as spirit.

But the words which she spoke did not at first convey to his mind their full meaning.  Though she had twice repeated the assertion that she was guilty, the fact of her guilt did not come home to his understanding as a thing that he could credit.  There was something, he doubted not, to surprise and harass him, ­something which when revealed and made clear might, or might not, affect his purpose of marrying, ­something which it behoved this woman to tell before she could honestly become his wife, something which was destined to give his heart a blow.  But he was very far as yet from understanding the whole truth.  Let us think of those we love best, and ask ourselves how much it would take to convince us of their guilt in such a matter.  That thrusting of the lie down the throat of Joseph Mason had become to him so earnest a duty, that the task of believing the lie to be on the other side was no easy one.  The blow which he had to suffer was a cruel blow.  Lady Mason, however, was merciful, for she might have enhanced the cruelty tenfold.

He stood there wondering and bewildered for some minutes of time, while she, with her face hidden, still clung round his knees.  “What is it?” at last he said.  “I do not understand.”  But she had no answer to make to him.  Her great resolve had been quickly made and quickly carried out, but now the reaction left her powerless.  He stooped down to raise her; but when he moved she fell prone upon the ground; he could hear her sobs as though her bosom would burst with them.

And then by degrees the meaning of her words began to break upon him.  “I am guilty of all this with which they charge me.”  Could that be possible?  Could it be that she had forged that will; that with base, premeditated contrivance she had stolen that property; stolen it and kept it from that day to this; ­through all these long years?  And then he thought of her pure life, of her womanly, dignified repose, of her devotion to her son, ­such devotion indeed! ­of her sweet pale face and soft voice!  He thought of all this, and of his own love and friendship for her, ­of Edith’s love for her!  He thought of it all, and he could not believe that she was guilty.  There was some other fault, some much lesser fault than that, with which she charged herself.  But there she lay at his feet, and it was necessary that he should do something towards lifting her to a seat.

He stooped and took her by the hand, but his feeble strength was not sufficient to raise her.  “Lady Mason,” he said, “speak to me.  I do not understand you.  Will you not let me seat you on the sofa?”

But she, at least, had realised the full force of the revelation she had made, and lay there covered with shame, broken-hearted, and unable to raise her eyes from the ground.  With what inward struggles she had played her part during the last few months, no one might ever know!  But those struggles had been kept to herself.  The world, her world, that world for which she had cared, in which she had lived, had treated her with honour and respect, and had looked upon her as an ill-used innocent woman.  But now all that would be over.  Every one now must know what she was.  And then, as she lay there, that thought came to her.  Must every one know it?  Was there no longer any hope for her?  Must Lucius be told?  She could bear all the rest, if only he might be ignorant of his mother’s disgrace; ­he, for whom all had been done!  But no.  He, and every one must know it.  Oh! if the beneficent Spirit that sees all and pities all would but take her that moment from the world!

When Sir Peregrine asked her whether he should seat her on the sofa, she slowly picked herself up, and with her head still crouching towards the ground, placed herself where she before had been sitting.  He had been afraid that she would have fainted, but she was not one of those women whose nature easily admits of such relief as that.  Though she was always pale in colour and frail looking, there was within her a great power of self-sustenance.  She was a woman who with a good cause might have dared anything.  With the worst cause that a woman could well have, she had dared and endured very much.  She did not faint, nor gasp as though she were choking, nor become hysteric in her agony; but she lay there, huddled up in the corner of the sofa, with her face hidden, and all those feminine graces forgotten which had long stood her in truth so royally.  The inner, true, living woman was there at last, ­that and nothing else.

But he, ­what was he to do?  It went against his heart to harass her at that moment; but then it was essential that he should know the truth.  The truth, or a suspicion of the truth was now breaking upon him; and if that suspicion should be confirmed, what was he to do?  It was at any rate necessary that everything should be put beyond a doubt.

“Lady Mason,” he said, “if you are able to speak to me ­”

“Yes,” she said, gradually straightening herself, and raising her head though she did not look at him.  “Yes.  I am able.”  But there was something terrible in the sound of her voice.  It was such a sound of agony that he felt himself unable to persist.

“If you wish it I will leave you, and come back, ­say in an hour.”

“No, no; do not leave me.”  And her whole body was shaken with a tremour, as though of an ague fit.  “Do not go away, and I will tell you everything.  I did it.”

“Did what?”

“I ­forged the will.  I did it all. ­I am guilty.”

There was the whole truth now, declared openly and in the most simple words, and there was no longer any possibility that he should doubt.  It was very terrible, ­a terrible tragedy.  But to him at this present moment the part most frightful was his and her present position.  What should he do for her?  How should he counsel her?  In what way so act that he might best assist her without compromising that high sense of right and wrong which in him was a second nature.  He felt at the moment that he would still give his last shilling to rescue her, ­only that there was the property!  Let the heavens fall, justice must be done there.  Even a wretch such as Joseph Mason must have that which was clearly his own.

As she spoke those last words, she had risen from the sofa, and was now standing before him resting with her hands upon the table, like a prisoner in the dock.

“What!” he said; “with your own hands?”

“Yes; with my own hands.  When he would not do justice to my baby, when he talked of that other being the head of his house, I did it, with my own hands, ­during the night.”

“And you wrote the names, ­yourself?”

“Yes; I wrote them all.”  And then there was again silence in the room; but she still stood, leaning on the table, waiting for him to speak her doom.

He turned away from the spot in which he had confronted her and walked to the window.  What was he to do?  How was he to help her?  And how was he to be rid of her?  How was he to save his daughter from further contact with a woman such as this?  And how was he to bid his daughter behave to this woman as one woman should behave to another in her misery?  Then too he had learned to love her himself, ­had yearned to call her his own; and though this in truth was a minor sorrow, it was one which at the moment added bitterness to the others.  But there she stood, still waiting her doom, and it was necessary that that doom should be spoken by him.

“If this can really be true ­”

“It is true.  You do not think that a woman would falsely tell such a tale as that against herself!”

“Then I fear ­that this must be over between you and me.”

There was a relief to her, a sort of relief, in those words.  The doom as so far spoken was so much a matter of course that it conveyed no penalty.  Her story had been told in order that that result might be attained with certainty.  There was almost a tone of scorn in her voice as she said, “Oh yes; all that must be over.”

“And what next would you have me do?” he asked.

“I have nothing to request,” she said.  “If you must tell it to all the world, do so.”

“Tell it; no.  It will not be my business to be an informer.”

“But you must tell it.  There is Mrs. Orme.”

“Yes:  to Edith!”

“And I must leave the house.  Oh, where shall I go when he knows it?  And where will he go?” Wretched miserable woman, but yet so worthy of pity!  What a terrible retribution for that night’s work was now coming on her!

He again walked to the window to think how he might answer these questions.  Must he tell his daughter?  Must he banish this criminal at once from his house?  Every one now had been told of his intended marriage; every one had been told through Lord Alston, Mr. Furnival, and such as they.  That at any rate must now be untold.  And would it be possible that she should remain there, living with them at The Cleeve, while all this was being done?  In truth he did not know how to speak.  He had not hardness of heart to pronounce her doom.

“Of course I shall leave the house,” she said, with something almost of pride in her voice.  “If there be no place open to me but a gaol I will do that.  Perhaps I had better go now and get my things removed at once.  Say a word of love for me to her; ­a word of respectful love.”  And she moved as though she were going to the door.

But he would not permit her to leave him thus.  He could not let the poor, crushed, broken creature wander forth in her agony to bruise herself at every turn, and to be alone in her despair.  She was still the woman whom he had loved; and, over and beyond that, was she not the woman who had saved him from a terrible downfall by rushing herself into utter ruin for his sake?  He must take some steps in her behalf ­if he could only resolve what those steps should be.  She was moving to the door, but stopping her, he took her by the hand.  “You did it,” he said, “and he, your husband, knew nothing of it?” The fact itself was so wonderful, that he had hardly as yet made even that all his own.

“I did it, and he knew nothing of it.  I will go now, Sir Peregrine; I am strong enough.”

“But where will you go?”

“Ah me, where shall I go?” And she put the hand which was at liberty up to her temple, brushing back her hair as though she might thus collect her thoughts.  “Where shall I go?  But he does not know it yet.  I will go now to Orley Farm.  When must he be told?  Tell me that.  When must he know it?”

“No, Lady Mason; you cannot go there to-day.  It’s very hard to say what you had better do.”

“Very hard,” she echoed, shaking her head.

“But you must remain here at present; ­at The Cleeve I mean; at any rate for to-day.  I will think about it.  I will endeavour to think what may be the best.”

“But ­we cannot meet now.  She and I; ­Mrs. Orme?” And then again he was silent; for in truth the difficulties were too many for him.  Might it not be best that she should counterfeit illness and be confined to her own room?  But then he was averse to recommend any counterfeit; and if Mrs. Orme did not go to her in her assumed illness, the counterfeit would utterly fail of effect in the household.  And then, should he tell Mrs. Orme?  The weight of these tidings would be too much for him, if he did not share them with some one.  So he made up his mind that he must tell them to her ­though to no other one.

“I must tell her,” he said.

“Oh yes,” she replied; and he felt her hand tremble in his, and dropped it.  He had forgotten that he thus held her as all these thoughts pressed upon his brain.

“I will tell it to her, but to no one else.  If I might advise you, I would say that it will be well for you now to take some rest.  You are agitated, and ­”

“Agitated! yes.  But you are right, Sir Peregrine.  I will go at once to my room.  And then ­”

“Then, perhaps, ­in the course of the morning, you will see me again.”

“Where? ­will you come to me there?”

“I will see you in her room, in her dressing-room.  She will be down stairs, you know.”  From which last words the tidings were conveyed to Lady Mason that she was not to see Mrs. Orme again.

And then she went, and as she slowly made her way across the hall she felt that all of evil, all of punishment that she had ever anticipated, had now fallen upon her.  There are periods in the lives of some of us ­I trust but of few ­when, with the silent inner voice of suffering, we call on the mountains to fall and crush us, and on the earth to gape open and take us in.  When, with an agony of intensity, we wish that our mothers had been barren.  In those moments the poorest and most desolate are objects to us of envy, for their sufferings can be as nothing to our own.  Lady Mason, as she crept silently across the hall, saw a servant girl pass down towards the entrance to the kitchen, and would have given all, all that she had in the world, to have changed places with that girl.  But no change was possible for her.  Neither would the mountains crush her, nor would the earth take her in.  There was her burden, and she must bear it to the end.  There was the bed which she had made for herself, and she must lie upon it.  No escape was possible to her.  She had herself mixed the cup, and she must now drink of it to the dregs.

Slowly and very silently she made her way up to her own room, and having closed the door behind her sat herself down upon the bed.  It was as yet early in the morning, and the servant had not been in the chamber.  There was no fire there although it was still mid-winter.  Of such details as these Sir Peregrine had remembered nothing when he recommended her to go to her own room.  Nor did she think of them at first as she placed herself on the bed-side.  But soon the bitter air pierced her through and through, and she shivered with the cold as she sat there.  After a while she got herself a shawl, wrapped it close around her, and then sat down again.  She bethought herself that she might have to remain in this way for hours, so she rose again and locked the door.  It would add greatly to her immediate misery if the servants were to come while she was there, and see her in her wretchedness.  Presently the girls did come, and being unable to obtain entrance were told by Lady Mason that she wanted the chamber for the present.  Whereupon they offered to light the fire, but she declared that she was not cold.  Her teeth were shaking in her head, but any suffering was better than the suffering of being seen.

She did not lie down, or cover herself further than she was covered with that shawl, nor did she move from her place for more than an hour.  By degrees she became used to the cold.  She was numbed, and as it were, half dead in all her limbs, but she had ceased to shake as she sat there, and her mind had gone back to the misery of her position.  There was so much for her behind that was worse!  What should she do when even this retirement should not be allowed to her?  Instead of longing for the time when she should be summoned to meet Sir Peregrine, she dreaded its coming.  It would bring her nearer to that other meeting when she would have to bow her head and crouch before her son.

She had been there above an hour and was in truth ill with the cold when she heard, ­and scarcely heard, ­a light step come quickly along the passage towards her door.  Her woman’s ear instantly told her who owned that step, and her heart once more rose with hope.  Was she coming there to comfort her, to speak to the poor bruised sinner one word of feminine sympathy?  The quick light step stopped at the door, there was a pause, and then a low, low knock was heard.  Lady Mason asked no question, but dropping from the bed hurried to the door and turned the key.  She turned the key, and as the door was opened half hid herself behind it; ­and then Mrs. Orme was in the room.

“What! you have no fire?” she said, feeling that the air struck her with a sudden chill.  “Oh, this is dreadful!  My poor, poor dear!” And then she took hold of both Lady Mason’s hands.  Had she possessed the wisdom of the serpent as well as the innocence of the dove she could not have been wiser in her first mode of addressing the sufferer.  For she knew it all.  During that dreadful hour Sir Peregrine had told her the whole story; and very dreadful that hour had been to her.  He, when he attempted to give counsel in the matter, had utterly failed.  He had not known what to suggest, nor could she say what it might be wisest for them all to do; but on one point her mind had been at once resolved.  The woman who had once been her friend, whom she had learned to love, should not leave the house without some sympathy and womanly care.  The guilt was very bad; yes, it was terrible; she acknowledged that it was a thing to be thought of only with shuddering.  But the guilt of twenty years ago did not strike her senses so vividly as the abject misery of the present day.  There was no pity in her bosom for Mr. Joseph Mason when she heard the story, but she was full of pity for her who had committed the crime.  It was twenty years ago, and had not the sinner repented?  Besides, was she to be the judge?  “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged,” she said, when she thought that Sir Peregrine spoke somewhat harshly in the matter.  So she said, altogether misinterpreting the Scripture in her desire to say something in favour of the poor woman.

But when it was hinted to her that Lady Mason might return to Orley Farm without being again seen by her, her woman’s heart at once rebelled.  “If she has done wrong,” said Mrs. Orme ­

“She has done great wrong ­fearful wrong,” said Sir Peregrine.

“It will not hurt me to see her because she has done wrong.  Not see her while she is in the house!  If she were in the prison, would I not go to see her?” And then Sir Peregrine had said no more, but he loved his daughter-in-law all the better for her unwonted vehemence.

“You will do what is right,” he said ­“as you always do.”  Then he left her; and she, after standing for a few moments while she shaped her thoughts, went straight away to Lady Mason’s room.

She took Lady Mason by both her hands and found that they were icy cold.  “Oh, this is dreadful,” she said.  “Come with me, dear.”  But Lady Mason still stood, up by the bed-head, whither she had retreated from the door.  Her eyes were still cast upon the ground and she leaned back as Mrs. Orme held her, as though by her weight she would hinder her friend from leading her from the room.

“You are frightfully cold,” said Mrs. Orme.

“Has he told you?” said Lady Mason, asking the question in the lowest possible whisper, and still holding back as she spoke.

“Yes; he has told me; ­but no one else ­no one else.”  And then for a few moments nothing was spoken between them.

“Oh, that I could die!” said the poor wretch, expressing in words that terrible wish that the mountains might fall upon her and crush her.

“You must not say that.  That would be wicked, you know.  He can comfort you.  Do you not know that He will comfort you, if you are sorry for your sins and go to Him?”

But the woman in her intense suffering could not acknowledge to herself any idea of comfort.  “Ah, me!” she exclaimed, with a deep bursting sob which went straight to Mrs. Orme’s heart.  And then a convulsive fit of trembling seized her so strongly that Mrs. Orme could hardly continue to hold her hands.

“You are ill with the cold,” she said.  “Come with me, Lady Mason, you shall not stay here longer.”

Lady Mason then permitted herself to be led out of the room, and the two went quickly down the passage to the head of the front stairs, and from thence to Mrs. Orme’s room.  In crossing the house they had seen no one and been seen by no one; and Lady Mason when she came to the door hurried in, that she might again hide herself in security for the moment.  As soon as the door was closed Mrs. Orme placed her in an arm-chair which she wheeled up to the front of the fire, and seating herself on a stool at the poor sinner’s feet, chafed her hands within her own.  She took away the shawl and made her stretch out her feet towards the fire, and thus seated close to her, she spoke no word for the next half-hour as to the terrible fact that had become known to her.  Then, on a sudden, as though the ice of her heart had thawed from the warmth of the other’s kindness, Lady Mason burst into a flood of tears, and flinging herself upon her friend’s neck and bosom begged with earnest piteousness to be forgiven.

And Mrs. Orme did forgive her.  Many will think that she was wrong to do so, and I fear it must be acknowledged that she was not strong minded.  By forgiving her I do not mean that she pronounced absolution for the sin of past years, or that she endeavoured to make the sinner think that she was no worse for her sin.  Mrs. Orme was a good churchwoman but not strong, individually, in points of doctrine.  All that she left mainly to the woman’s conscience and her own dealings with her Saviour, ­merely saying a word of salutary counsel as to a certain spiritual pastor who might be of aid.  But Mrs. Orme forgave her, ­as regarded herself.  She had already, while all this was unknown, taken this woman to her heart as pure and good.  It now appeared that the woman had not been pure, had not been good! ­And then she took her to her heart again!  Criminal as the woman was, disgraced and debased, subject almost to the heaviest penalties of outraged law and justice, a felon against whom the actual hands of the law’s myrmidons would probably soon prevail, a creature doomed to bear the scorn of the lowest of her fellow-creatures, ­such as she was, this other woman, pure and high, so shielded from the world’s impurity that nothing ignoble might touch her, ­this lady took her to her heart again and promised in her ear with low sweet words of consolation that they should still be friends.  I cannot say that Mrs. Orme was right.  That she was weak minded I feel nearly certain.  But, perhaps, this weakness of mind may never be brought against her to her injury, either in this world or in the next.

I will not pretend to give the words which passed between them at that interview.  After a while Lady Mason allowed herself to be guided all in all by her friend’s advice as though she herself had been a child.  It was decided that for the present, ­that is for the next day or two, ­Lady Mason should keep her room at The Cleeve as an invalid.  Counterfeit in this there would be none certainly, for indeed she was hardly fit for any place but her own bed.  If inclined and able to leave her room, she should be made welcome to the use of Mrs. Orme’s dressing-room.  It would only be necessary to warn Peregrine that for the present he must abstain from coming there.  The servants, Mrs. Orme said, had heard of their master’s intended marriage.  They would now hear that this intention had been abandoned.  On this they would put their own construction, and would account in their own fashion for the fact that Sir Peregrine and his guest no longer saw each other.  But no suspicion of the truth would get abroad when it was seen that Lady Mason was still treated as a guest at The Cleeve.  As to such future steps as might be necessary to be taken, Mrs. Orme would consult with Sir Peregrine, and tell Lady Mason from time to time.  And as for the sad truth, the terrible truth, ­that, at any rate for the present, should be told to no other ears.  And so the whole morning was spent, and Mrs. Orme saw neither Sir Peregrine nor her son till she went down to the library in the first gloom of the winter evening.