Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (1346 page)

She looked reluctantly at the door of communication.

“Must I speak of him?”

“Only to tell me,” I pleaded, “whether you have seen him since last night.”

She had both seen him and heard from him, on reaching home. “He opened that door,” she told me, “and threw on the floor one of the leaves out of his book. After doing that, he relieved me from the sight of him.”

“Show me the leaf, Cristel.”

“Father has got it. I thought he was asleep in the armchair. He snatched it out of my hand. It isn’t worth reading.”

She turned pale, nevertheless, when she replied in those terms. I could see that I was disturbing her, when I asked if she remembered what the Cur had written. But our position was far too serious to be trifled with. “I suppose he threatened you?” I said, trying to lead her on. “What did he say?”

“He said, if any attempt was made to remove me out of his reach, after what had happened that evening, my father would find him on the watch day and night, and would regret it to the end of his life. The wretch thinks me cruel enough to have told my father of the horrors we went through! You know that he has dismissed his poor old servant? Was I wrong in advising Gloody to go to you?”

“You were quite right. He is at my house — and I should like to keep him at Trimley Deen; but I am afraid he and the other servants might not get on well together?”

“Will you let him come here?”

She spoke earnestly; reminding me that I had thought it wrong to leave her father, at his age, without someone to help him.

“If an accident separated me from him,” she went on, “he would be left alone in this wretched place.”

“What accident are you thinking of?” I asked. “Is there something going on, Cristel, that I don’t know of?”

Had I startled her? or had I offended her?

“Can we tell what may or may not happen to us, in the time to come?” she asked abruptly. “I don’t like to think of my father being left without a creature to take care of him. Gloody is so good and so true; and they always get on well together. If you have nothing better in view for him — ?”

“My dear, I have nothing half so good in view; and Gloody, I am sure, will think so too.” I privately resolved to insure a favorable reception for the poor fellow, by making him the miller’s partner. Bank notes in Toller’s pocket! What a place reserved for Gloody in Toller’s estimation!

But I confess that Cristel’s allusion to a possible accident rather oppressed my mind, situated as we were at that time. What we talked of next has slipped from my memory. I only recollect that she made an excuse to go back to her room, and that nothing I could say or do availed to restore her customary cheerfulness.

As the twilight was beginning to fade, we heard the sound of a carriage. The new man had arrived in a fly from the station. Before bedtime, he made his appearance in the kitchen, to receive the domestic instructions of which a stranger stood in need. A quiet man and a civil man: even my prejudiced examination could discover nothing in him that looked suspicious. I saw a well-trained servant — and I saw nothing more.

Old Toller made a last attempt to persuade me that it was not worth a gentleman’s while to accept his hospitality, and found me immovable. I was equally obstinate when Cristel asked leave to make up a bed for me in the counting-house at the mill.

With the purpose that I had in view, if I accepted her proposal I might as well have been at Trimley Deen.

Left alone, I placed the armchair and another chair for my feet, across the door of communication. That done, I examined a little door behind the stairs (used I believe for domestic purposes) which opened on a narrow pathway, running along the river-side of the house. It was properly locked. I have only to add that nothing happened during the night.

The next day showed no alteration for the better, in Cristel. She made an excuse when I proposed to take her out with me for a walk. Her father’s business kept him away from the cottage, and thus gave me many opportunities of speaking to her in private. I was so uneasy, or so reckless — I hardly know which — that I no longer left it to be merely inferred that I had resolved to propose marriage to her.

“My sweet girl, you are so wretched, and so unlike yourself, in this place, that I entreat you to leave it. Come with me to London, and let me make you safe and happy as my wife.”

“Oh, Mr. Roylake!”

“Why do you call me, ‘Mr Roylake’? Have I done anything to offend you? There seems to be some estrangement between us. Do you believe that I love you?”

“I wish I could doubt it!” she answered.

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“Cristel! Have I made some dreadful mistake? The truth! I want the truth! Do you love me?”

A low cry of misery burst from her. Was she mastered by love, or by despair? She threw herself on my breast. I kissed her. She murmured, “Oh don’t tempt me! Don’t tempt me!” Again and again, I kissed her. “Ah,” I broke out, in the ecstasy of my sense of relief, “I know that you love me, now!”

“Yes,” she said, simply and sadly, “I do love you.”

My selfish passion asked for more even than this.

“Prove it by being my wife,” I answered.

She put me back from her, firmly and gently.

“I will prove it, Gerard, by not letting you disgrace yourself.”

With those horrible words — put into her mouth, beyond all doubt by the woman who had interfered between us — she left me. The long hours of the day passed: I saw her no more.

People who are unable to imagine what I suffered, are not the people to whom I now address myself. After all the years that have passed — after age and contact with the world have hardened me — it is still a trial to my self-control to look back to that day. Events I can remember with composure. To events, therefore, let me return.

No communication of any sort reached us from the Cur. Towards evening, I saw him pacing up and down on the road before the cottage, and speaking to his new servant. The man (listening attentively) had the master’s book of leaves in his hand, and wrote in it from time to time as replies were wanted from him. He was probably receiving instructions. The Cur’s discretion was a bad sign. I should have felt more at ease, if he had tried to annoy Cristel, or to insult me.

Towards bedtime, old Toller’s sense of hospitality exhibited marked improvement. He was honoured and happy to have me under his poor roof — a roof, by the way, which was also in need of repairs — but he protested against my encountering the needless hardship of sleeping in a chair, when a bed could be set up for me in the counting-house. “Not what you’re used to, Mr. Gerard. Empty barrels, and samples of flour, and account-books smelling strong of leather, instead of velvet curtains and painted ceilings; but better than a chair, sir — better than a chair!”

I was as obstinate as ever. With thanks, I insisted on the chair.

Feverish, anxious, oppressed in my breathing — with nerves unstrung, as a doctor would have put it — I disturbed the order of the household towards twelve o’clock by interfering with old Toller in the act of locking up the house-door.

“Let me get a breath of fresh air,” I said to him, “or there will be no sleep for me to-night.”

He opened the door with a resignation to circumstances, so exemplary that it claimed some return. I promised to be back in a quarter of an hour. Old Toller stifled a yawn. “I call that truly considerate,” he said — and stifled another yawn. Dear old man!

Stepping into the road, I first examined the Cur’s part of the cottage. Not a sound was audible inside; not a creature was visible outside. The usual dim light was burning behind the window that looked out on the road. Nothing, absolutely nothing, that was suspicious could I either hear or see.

I walked on, by what we called the upper bank of the river; leading from the village of Kylam. The night was cloudy and close. Now the moonlight reached the earth at intervals; now again it was veiled in darkness. The trees, at this part of the wood, so encroached on the bank of the stream as considerably to narrow and darken the path. Seeing a possibility of walking into the river if I went on much farther, I turned back again in the more open direction of Kylam, and kept on briskly (as I reckon) for about five minutes more.

I had just stopped to look at my watch, when I saw something dark floating towards me, urged by the slow current of the river. As it came nearer, I thought I recognised the mill-boat.

It was one of the dark intervals when the moon was overcast. I was sufficiently interested to follow the boat, on the chance that a return of the moonlight might show me who could possibly be in it. After no very long interval, the yellow light for which I was waiting poured through the lifting clouds.

The mill-boat, beyond all doubt — and nobody in it! The empty inside of the boat was perfectly visible to me. Even if I had felt inclined to do so, it would have been useless to jump into the water and swim to the boat. There were no oars in it, and therefore no means of taking it back to the mill. The one thing I could do was to run to old Toller and tell him that his boat was adrift.

On my way to the cottage, I thought I heard a sound like the shutting of a door. I was probably mistaken. In expectation of my return, the door was secured by the latch only; and the miller, looking out of his bedroom window, said: “Don’t forget to lock it, sir; the key’s inside.”

I followed my instructions, and ascended the stairs. Surprised to hear me in that part of the house, he came out on the landing in his nightgown.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing very serious,” I said. “The boat’s adrift. I suppose it will run on shore somewhere.”

“It will do that, Mr. Gerard; everybody along the river knows the boat.” He held up his lean trembling hand. “Old fingers don’t always tie fast knots.”

He went back into his bed. It was opposite the window; and the window, being at the side of the old cottage, looked out on the great open space above the river. When the moonlight appeared, it shone straight into his eyes. I offered to pull down the blind.

“Thank you kindly, sir; please to let it be. I wake often in the night, and I like to see the heavens when I open my eyes.”

Something touched me behind: it was the dog. Like his noble and beautiful race, Ponto knew his friends. He licked my hand, and then he walked out through the bedroom door. Instead of taking his usual place, on the mat before Cristel’s room, he smelt for a moment under the door — whined softly — and walked up and down the landing.

“What’s the matter with the dog?” I asked.

“Restless to-night,” said old Toller. “Dogs
are
restless sometimes. Lie down!” he called through the doorway.

The dog obeyed, but only for a moment. He whined at the door again — and then, once more, he walked up and down the landing.

I went to the bedside. The old man was just going to sleep. I shook him by the shoulder.

“There’s something wrong,” I said. “Come out and look at Ponto.”

He grumbled — but he came out. “Better get the whip,” he said.

“Before you do that,” I answered, “knock at your daughter’s door.”

“And wake her?” he asked in amazement.

I knocked at the door myself. There was no reply. I knocked again, with the same result.

“Open the door,” I said, “or I will do it myself.”

He obeyed me. The room was empty; and the bed had not been slept in.

Standing helpless on the threshold of the door, I looked into the empty room; hearing nothing but my heart thumping heavily, seeing nothing but the bed with the clothes on it undisturbed.

The sudden growling of the dog shook me back (if I may say so) into the possession of myself. He was looking through the balusters that guarded the landing. The head of a man appeared, slowly ascending the stairs. Acting mechanically, I held the dog back. Thinking mechanically, I waited for the man. The face of the new servant showed itself. The dog frightened him: he spoke in tones that trembled, standing still on the stairs.