CHAPTER VIII

Mr. Camwell was in the ante-room as Chloe passed out behind the two

incensed supporters of Duchess Susan.

'I shall be by the fir-trees on the Mount at eight this evening,' she

said.

'I will be there,' he replied.

'Drive Mr. Beamish into the country, that these gentlemen may have time

to cool.'

He promised her it should be done.

Close on the hour of her appointment, he stood under the fir-trees,

admiring the sunset along the western line of hills, and when Chloe

joined him he spoke of the beauty of the scene.

'Though nothing seems more eloquently to say farewell,' he added, with a

sinking voice.

'We could say it now, and be friends,' she answered.

'Later than now, you think it unlikely that you could forgive me, Chloe.'

'In truth, sir, you are making it hard for me.'

'I have stayed here to keep watch; for no pleasure of my own,' said he.

'Mr. Beamish is an excellent protector of the duchess.'

'Excellent; and he is cleverly taught to suppose she fears him greatly;

and when she offends him, he makes a display of his Jupiter's awfulness,

with the effect on woman of natural spirit which you have seen, and

others had foreseen, that she is exasperated and grows reckless. Tie

another knot in your string, Chloe.'

She looked away, saying, 'Were you not the cause? You were in collusion

with that charlatan of the heath, who told them their fortunes this

morning. I see far, both in the dark and in the light.'

'But not through a curtain. I was present.'

'Hateful, hateful business of the spy! You have worked a great mischief

Mr. Camwell. And how can you reconcile it to, your conscience that you

should play so base a part?'

'I have but performed my duty, dear madam.'

'You pretend that it is your devotion to me! I might be flattered if I

saw not so abject a figure in my service. Now have I but four days of my

month of happiness remaining, and my request to you is, leave me to enjoy

them. I beseech you to go. Very humbly, most earnestly, I beg your

departure. Grant it to me, and do not stay to poison my last days here.

Leave us to-morrow. I will admit your good intentions. I give you my hand

in gratitude. Adieu, Mr. Camwell.'

He took her hand. 'Adieu. I foresee an early separation, and this dear

hand is mine while I have it in mine. Adieu. It is a word to be repeated

at a parting like ours. We do not blow out our light with one breath: we

let it fade gradually, like yonder sunset.'

'Speak so,' said she.

'Ah, Chloe, to give one's life! And it is your happiness I have sought

more than your favor.'

'I believe it; but I have not liked the means. You leave us to-morrow?'

'It seems to me that to-morrow is the term.'

Her face clouded. 'That tells me a very uncertain promise.'

'You looked forth to a month of happiness--meaning a month of delusion.

The delusion expires to-night. You will awaken to see your end of it in

the morning. You have never looked beyond the month since the day of his

arrival.'

'Let him not be named, I supplicate you.'

'Then you consent that another shall be sacrificed for you to enjoy your

state of deception an hour longer?'

'I am not deceived, sir. I wish for peace, and crave it, and that is all

I would have.'

'And you make her your peace-offering, whom you have engaged to serve!

Too surely your eyes have been open as well as mine. Knot by knot--I have

watched you--where is it?--you have marked the points in that silken

string where the confirmation of a just suspicion was too strong for

you.'

'I did it, and still I continued merry?' She subsided from her

scornfulness on an involuntary 'Ah!' that was a shudder.

'You acted Light Heart, madam, and too well to hoodwink me. Meanwhile you

allowed that mischief to proceed, rather than have your crazy lullaby

disturbed.'

'Indeed, Mr. Camwell, you presume.'

'The time, and my knowledge of what it is fraught with, demand it and

excuse it. You and I, my dear and one only love on earth, stand outside

of ordinary rules. We are between life and death.'

'We are so always.'

'Listen further to the preacher: We have them close on us, with the

question, Which it shall be to-morrow. You are for sleeping on, but I say

no; nor shall that iniquity of double treachery be committed because of

your desire to be rocked in a cradle. Hear me out. The drug you have

swallowed to cheat yourself will not bear the shock awaiting you tomorrow

with the first light. Hear these birds! When next they sing, you will be

broad awake, and of me, and the worship and service I would have

dedicated to you, I do not . . . it is a spectral sunset of a day that

was never to be!--awake, and looking on what? Back from a monstrous

villainy to the forlorn wretch who winked at it with knots in a string.

Count them then, and where will be your answer to heaven? I begged it of

you, to save you from those blows of remorse; yes, terrible!'

'Oh, no!'

'Terrible, I say!'

'You are mistaken, Mr. Camwell. It is my soother. I tell my beads on it.'

'See how a persistent residence in this place has made a Pagan of the

purest soul among us! Had you . . . but that day was not to lighten me!

More adorable in your errors that you are than others by their virtues,

you have sinned through excess of the qualities men prize. Oh, you have a

boundless generosity, unhappily enwound with a pride as great. There is

your fault, that is the cause of your misery. Too generous! too proud!

You have trusted, and you will not cease to trust; you have vowed

yourself to love, never to remonstrate, never to seem to doubt; it is too

much your religion, rare verily. But bethink you of that inexperienced

and most silly good creature who is on the rapids to her destruction. Is

she not--you will cry it aloud to-morrow--your victim? You hear it within

you now.'

'Friend, my dear, true friend,' Chloe said in her deeper voice of melody,

'set your mind at ease about to-morrow and her. Her safety is assured. I

stake my life on it. She shall not be a victim. At the worst she will but

have learnt a lesson. So, then, adieu! The West hangs like a garland of

unwatered flowers, neglected by the mistress they adorned. Remember the

scene, and that here we parted, and that Chloe wished you the happiness

it was out of her power to bestow, because she was of another world, with

her history written out to the last red streak before ever you knew her.

Adieu; this time adieu for good!

Mr. Camwell stood in her path. 'Blind eyes, if you like,' he said, 'but

you shall not hear blind language. I forfeit the poor consideration for

me that I have treasured; hate me; better hated by you than shun my duty!

Your duchess is away at the first dawn this next morning; it has come to

that. I speak with full knowledge. Question her.'

Chloe threw a faltering scorn of him into her voice, as much as her

heart's sharp throbs would allow. 'I question you, sir, how you came to

this full knowledge you boast of?'

'I have it; let that suffice. Nay, I will be particular; his coach is

ordered for the time I name to you; her maid is already at a station on

the road of the flight.'

'You have their servants in your pay?'

'For the mine--the countermine. We must grub dirt to match deceivers.

You, madam, have chosen to be delicate to excess, and have thrown it upon

me to be gross, and if you please, abominable, in my means of defending

you. It is not too late for you to save the lady, nor too late to bring

him to the sense of honour.'

'I cannot think Colonel Poltermore so dishonourable.'

'Poor Colonel Poltermore! The office he is made to fill is an old one.

Are you not ashamed, Chloe?'

'I have listened too long,' she replied.

'Then, if it is your pleasure, depart.'

He made way for her. She passed him. Taking two hurried steps in the

gloom of the twilight, she stopped, held at her heart, and painfully

turning to him, threw her arms out, and let herself be seized and kissed.

On his asking pardon of her, which his long habit of respect forced him

to do in the thick of rapture and repetitions, she said, 'You rob no

one.'

'Oh,' he cried, 'there is a reward, then, for faithful love. But am I the

man I was a minute back? I have you; I embrace you; and I doubt that I am

I. Or is it Chloe's ghost?'

'She has died and visits you.'

'And will again?'

Chloe could not speak for languor.

The intensity of the happiness she gave by resting mutely where she was,

charmed her senses. But so long had the frost been on them that their

awakening to warmth was haunted by speculations on the sweet taste of

this reward of faithfulness to him, and the strange taste of her own

unfaithfulness to her. And reflecting on the cold act of speculation

while strong arm and glowing mouth were pressing her, she thought her

senses might really be dead, and she a ghost visiting the good youth for

his comfort. So feel ghosts, she thought, and what we call happiness in

love is a match between ecstasy and compliance. Another thought flew

through her like a mortal shot: 'Not so with those two! with them it will

be ecstasy meeting ecstasy; they will take and give happiness in equal

portions.' A pang of jealousy traversed her frame. She made the

shrewdness of it help to nerve her fervour in a last strain of him to her

bosom, and gently releasing herself, she said, 'No one is robbed. And

now, dear friend, promise me that you will not disturb Mr. Beamish.'

'Chloe,' said he, 'have you bribed me?'

'I do not wish him to be troubled.'

'The duchess, I have told you--'

'I know. But you have Chloe's word that she will watch over the duchess

and die to save her. It is an oath. You have heard of some arrangements.

I say they shall lead to nothing: it shall not take place. Indeed, my

friend, I am awake; I see as much as you see. And those . . . after being

where I have been, can you suppose I have a regret? But she is my dear

and peculiar charge, and if she runs a risk, trust to me that there shall

be no catastrophe; I swear it; so, now, adieu. We sup in company

to-night. They will be expecting some of Chloe's verses, and she must

sing to herself for a few minutes to stir the bed her songs take wing

from; therefore, we will part, and for her sake avoid her; do not be

present at our table, or in the room, or anywhere there. Yes, you rob no

one,' she said, in a voice that curled through him deliciously by

wavering; but I think I may blush at recollections, and I would rather

have you absent. Adieu! I will not ask for obedience from you beyond

to-night. Your word?'

He gave it in a stupor of felicity, and she fled.