Who could tell how it got abroad in the town that young Mrs. Errington was in the habit of following her husband about; of watching him, spying on his actions, and examining his private correspondence? Mr. Obadiah Gibbs, who could have told more than any one on the latter head, was not given to talking. Yet the fact oozed3 out.
It assumed, of course, a great variety of forms and colours, according to the more or less distorting mediums through which it passed. The fact, as uttered by Miss Chubb, for example, was a very different-looking fact from that which was narrated4 with bated breath, and nods, and winks5, by Mrs. Smith, the surgeon's wife. And her version, again, varied6 considerably7 from those of Mr. Gladwish, the Methodist shoemaker; Mr. Barker, the Church of England chemist; and the bosom8 friends of the servants at Ivy9 Lodge10. Still, under one shape and another, Mrs. Algernon Errington's jealousy11 of her husband, and her consequent behaviour, were within the cognisance of Whitford, and were discussed in all circles there.
The predominant feeling ran strongly against Castalia. There were persons, indeed, who, exercising an exemplary impartiality12 (on which they much prided themselves), refused to take sides in the matter, but considered it most probable that both parties were to blame. Mrs. Smith was among these. She had, she declared, that rare gift in woman—a judicial13 mind, although her conception of the judicial functions appeared to be limited to putting on the black cap and passing sentence. But in the main, public sympathy was with Algernon. He had offended many old acquaintances by his aristocratic marriage; but at least he was now making the only amends14 in his power by being extremely unhappy in it! A great many wiseacres, male and female, were now able to shake their heads, and say they had known all along how it would turn out. This came of flying too high; for, if Mrs. Errington, senior, was an Ancram by birth, her husband had been only a country surgeon—not even M.D., though she called him "doctor." And this justifying15 of their predictions was, in a vague way, imputed16 to Algernon as a merit; or, at the least, it softened17 disapproval18. Then, too, in justice to Whitfordians, it must be said that all their knowledge of Castalia showed them an insolent19, supercilious20, uninteresting woman, who made no secret of her contempt for them and their town, and who, "although but a poor postmaster's wife, when you came to look at it," as Mrs. Smith the judicial truly observed, gave herself more airs than a duchess. What good, or capacities for good, there might be in her, was hidden from Whitford, whilst her unpleasant qualities were abundantly manifested to all beholders.
Poor Castalia, in her quite unaffected nonchalance21 and disregard of "all those people," was totally ignorant how much resentment22 and dislike she was creating, and in what a hostile atmosphere she was living. Her husband's popularity, dimmed by his alliance with her, began to revive when it was perceived that she persecuted23 and harassed24 him, and (as was shrewdly suspected) involved him in money difficulties by her extravagance. Some of the men thought it served him right; why did he marry such a woman? But the ladies, as a rule, were on Algernon's side.
There were exceptions, of course. Miss McDougall stood up for her friend, as she said, albeit25 with some admixture of Mrs. Smith's judicial tendency to blame everybody all round, and a personal disposition26 towards spitefulness. Minnie Bodkin said very little when the subject was mentioned in her presence; but when an opinion was forced from her, she did not deliver it entirely27 in favour of Algernon. She was sorry for his wife, she said. And nine-tenths of her hearers would retort with raised hands and eyes, that they, for their part, were sorry for the young man, and that they could not understand what dear Minnie found to pity in Mrs. Algernon Errington. "A woman who spies on her husband, my dear! Who condescends28 to open his letters—how a woman can so degrade herself is a mystery to me! And they say she actually follows him about the street at nights—skulks after him! Oh! it is almost too bad to repeat!"
"I don't know that all that is true. But if it be so, it seems to me that there is great cause for pity," Minnie would reply. And the answer was set down to poor dear Miss Bodkin's eccentricity29.
There had been, for some time back, a talk of carelessness and mismanagement at the Whitford Post-office. Then Roger Heath made no secret of his loss, and was not soft-hearted or mild in his manner of speaking of it. He complained aloud, and spared nobody. And there were plenty of voices ready to carry his denunciations through all classes of Whitford society. It was very strange! Such a thing as the loss of a money-letter had been almost unknown during the reign30 of the late postmaster; and now there was, not one case, but two—three—a dozen! The number increased, as it passed from mouth to mouth, at a wonderful rate. There must be great negligence31 (to say the least of it) somewhere in the Whitford Post-office. If the present postmaster was too much above his business to look after it properly, it was a pity his high friends didn't remove him to some situation better suited to such a fine gentleman!
To be sure he was worried out of his wits by that woman. It really was true that she haunted the office at all hours. She had been seen slipping out of the private door in the entry. She was even said to have a pass key which enabled her to go in and out at her will. Was it not rumoured32 on very good authority that she had actually gone to the office alone, in the dead of night? What could she want to be always prowling about there for? It was all very well to say she went to spy on her husband, but if things went wrong in the office in consequence of her spyings, it became a public evil. Anyway, it was most extraordinary and unheard-of behaviour, and somebody ought to take the matter up! This latter somewhat vague suggestion was a favourite climax33 to gossip on the subject of the Algernon Erringtons.
With respect to their private affairs, things did not mend. Tradesmen dunned, and grumbled34, and could not get their money, and some declined to execute further orders from Ivy Lodge until their accounts were settled. Among the angriest had been Mr. Ravell, the principal draper of the town, whom Castalia had honoured with a good deal of her custom. But one day, not long after Algernon's conversation with his clerk, mentioned in the last chapter, he was met in the High Street by Mr. Ravell, who bowed very deferentially35, and stopped, hesitatingly. "Could I say a word to you, sir?" said Mr. Ravell.
"Certainly," replied Algernon. They were close to the post-office, and he took the draper into his private room, and bade him be seated.
"I suppose, Mr. Ravell," said Algernon, with a shrug36 and a smile, "that you have come about your bill! Mrs. Errington mentioned to me a short time ago that you had been rather importunate37. Upon my word, Mr. Ravell, I think you need not have been in such a deuce of a hurry! I know Mrs. Errington does not understand making bargains, and I suppose you don't neglect to arrange your prices so as not to lose by giving her a little credit, eh?"
This was said lightly, but either the words or the tone made Mr. Ravell colour and look a little confused. He was seated, and Algernon was standing38 near him with his back to the fire, expressing a sense of his own superiority to the draper in every turn of his well-built figure and every line of his half-smiling, half-bored countenance39.
"Why, you see, Mr. Errington, we are not in the habit of giving long credit, unless to a few old-established customers who deal largely with us. It would not suit our style of doing business. And it was reported that you were not settled permanently40 here. And—and—one or two unpleasant things had been said. But I hope you will not continue to feel so greatly offended with us for sending in the account. It was merely in the regular way of our transactions, I assure you."
"Oh, I'm not offended at all, Mr. Ravell! And I hope by the end of this month to clear off all scores between us entirely. Mrs. Errington has not furnished me with any details, but——"
Ravell looked up quickly. "Clear off all scores between us, sir?" he said.
"I presume you will have no objection to that, Mr. Ravell?"
"Oh, of course, sir, you will have your joke! I am glad you are not offended. You see ladies don't always understand these matters. Mrs. Errington was a little severe on us when she paid the account yesterday. At least, so my cashier said."
"My wife paid your account yesterday?" cried Algernon, with a blank look.
"Yes, sir, in full. We should have been quite satisfied if settlement had been made up to the end of last quarter. But it was paid in full. Oh, I thought you had been aware of it! Mrs. Errington said—my people understood her to say, that it was by your wish, as you were so greatly annoyed at the bill being sent in so often."
"Oh! Yes. Quite right, Mr. Ravell."
He spoke42 slowly, and as if he were thinking of something other than the words he uttered. Ravell looked at him curiously43. Algernon suddenly caught the man's eye, and broke into a little careless laugh. "The fact is," said he, with a frank toss of his head, "that I did not know Mrs. Errington had paid you. I suppose she had received some remittances44, or—but in short," checking himself, and laughing once more, "I daresay you won't trouble yourself as to where the money comes from so long as it comes to you!"
Mr. Ravell laughed back again, but rather in a forced manner. "Not at all, sir! Not at all," he said, bowing and smiling. And, seeing Algernon look significantly at his watch, he bowed and smiled himself out of the office.
Then Mr. Ravell went away to report to his wife the details of his interview with the postmaster, and before noon the next day it was reported throughout Whitford that Mrs. Algernon Errington had the command of mysterious stores of money whereof her husband knew nothing; and that, nevertheless, she ran him into debt right and left, and refused to pay a farthing until she was absolutely forced to do so.
This report was not calculated to make those tradesmen who had not been paid more patient and forbearing. If Mrs. Algernon Errington could find money for one she could for another, they argued, and a shower of bills descended45 on Ivy Lodge within the next week or two. Algernon said they came like a swarm46 of locusts47, and threatened to devour48 all before them. He acknowledged to himself that the payment of Ravell's bill had been a fatal precedent49. "And, perhaps," he thought, "there was no need for getting rid of the notes after all! However, the thing is done and can't be undone50."
The necessity for another appeal to Lord Seely grew more and more imminent51. Castalia had displayed an unexpected obstinacy52 about the matter. She had held to her refusal to ask for more money from her uncle, but Algernon had not yet urged her very strongly to do so. The moment had now come, he thought, when an appeal absolutely must be made, and he doubted not his own power to cause Castalia to make it. Her manner, to be sure, had been very singular of late; alternately sullen53 and excited, passing from cold silence to passionate54 tenderness without any intermediate phases. He had surprised her occasionally crying convulsively, and at other times on coming home he had found her sitting absolutely unoccupied, with a blank, fixed55 face. The few persons who saw Castalia frequently, observed the change in her, and commented on it. Miss Chubb once dropped a word to Algernon indicating a vague suspicion that his wife's intellect was disordered. He did not choose to appear to perceive the drift of her words, but the hint dwelt in his mind.
"You must write to Lord Seely this evening, Cassy," he said one day on returning home to dinner. He had found his wife at her desk, and, on seeing him, she huddled56 away a confused heap of papers into a drawer, and hastily shut it.
"Must I?" she answered gloomily.
"Well, I don't wish to use an offensive phrase. You will write to oblige me. It has been put off long enough."
"Why should I oblige you?" said Castalia, looking up at him with sunken eyes. She looked so ill and haggard, as to arrest Algernon's attention—not too lavishly57 bestowed58 on her in general.
"Cassy," said he, "I am afraid you are not well!"
The tears came into her eyes. She turned her head away. "Do you really care whether I am ill or well?" she asked.
"Do I really care? What a question! Of course I care. Are you suffering?"
"N—no; not now. I believe I should not feel any suffering if you only loved me, Ancram."
"Castalia! How can you be so absurd?"
He rose from his seat beside her, and walked impatiently up and down the room. Nothing irritated him so much as to be called on for sentiment or tenderness.
"There!" she exclaimed, with a little despondent59 gesture of the head, "you were speaking and looking kindly60, and I have driven you away! I wish I was dead."
Algernon stopped in his walk, and cast a singular look at his wife. Then after a moment he said, in his usual light manner, "My dear Cassy, you are low and nervous. It really is not good for you to mope by yourself as you do. Come, rouse yourself to write this letter to my lord, then after dinner you can have the fly to drive to my mother's. She complains that she sees you very seldom."
"Will you come too, Ancram?"
"I——well, yes; if it is possible, I will come too."
"I think," said Castalia, putting her hands on his shoulders, and gazing wistfully into his face, "that if you and I could go away to some quiet strange place—far away from all these odious61 people—across the seas somewhere—I think we might be happy even now."
"Upon my honour, there's nothing I should like so much as to get away across the seas! And you might as well hint to my lord, in the course of your letter, that I should be very well contented62 with a berth63 in the Colonies. A good climate, of course! One wouldn't care to be shipped off to Sierra Leone!"
"I will write that to Uncle Val, willingly. But—don't ask me to beg money of him again."
Algernon made a rapid calculation in his mind, and answered without appreciable64 pause, "Well, Cassy, it shall be as you will. But as to begging——that, I think, is scarcely the word between us and Lord Seely."
"I'll run upstairs and bathe my eyes, and I shall still have time to write before dinner," said Castalia, and left the room.
When he was alone, Algernon opened the writing-table drawer, and glanced at the papers in it. Castalia's hurried manner of concealing65 them had suggested to his mind the suspicion that she might have been writing secretly to her uncle. He found no letter addressed to Lord Seely, but he did find an unfinished fragment of writing addressed to himself. It consisted of a few incoherent phrases of despondency and reproach—the expression of confidence betrayed and affection unrequited. There was a word or two in it about the writer's weariness of life and desire to quit it.
Castalia had written many such fragments of late; sometimes as a mere41 outlet66 for suppressed feeling, sometimes under the impression that she really could not long support an existence uncheered by sympathy or counsel, embittered67 by jealousy, and chilled by neglect. She had written such fragments, and then torn them up in many a lonely hour, but she had never thought of complaining of Algernon to Lord Seely. She would complain of him to no human being. But all Algernon's insight into his wife's character did not enable him to feel sure of this. Indeed, he had often said to himself that no rational being could be expected to follow the vagaries68 of Castalia's sickly fancies and impracticable temper. He would not have been surprised to find her pouring out a long string of lamentations about her lot to Lord Seely. He was not much surprised at what he did find her to have written, although the state of feeling it displayed seemed to him as unreasonable69 and unaccountable as ever. He gave himself no account of the motive70 which made him take the fragment of writing, fold it, and place it carefully inside a little pocket-book which he carried.
"I wonder," he thought to himself, "if Castalia is likely to die!"
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1
atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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3
oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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winks
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| v.使眼色( wink的第三人称单数 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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impartiality
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| n. 公平, 无私, 不偏 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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imputed
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| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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condescends
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的第三人称单数 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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eccentricity
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| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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negligence
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| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
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32
rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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42
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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44
remittances
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| n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额 | |
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45
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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46
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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48
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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49
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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50
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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51
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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52
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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53
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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54
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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55
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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56
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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57
lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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58
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
despondent
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| adj.失望的，沮丧的，泄气的 | |
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60
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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61
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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62
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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63
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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64
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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65
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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67
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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69
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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