A Book of Ghosts/Pomps and Vanities

Colonel Mountjoy had an appointment in India that kept him there permanently. Consequently he was constrained to send his two daughters to England when they were quite children. His wife had died of cholera at Madras. The girls were Letice and Betty. There was a year's difference in their ages, but they were extraordinarily alike, so much so that they might have been supposed to be twins.
Letice was given up to the charge of Miss Mountjoy, her father's sister, and Betty to that of Lady Lacy, her maternal aunt. Their father would have preferred that his daughters should have been together, but there were difficulties in the way; neither of the ladies was inclined to be burdened with both, and if both had been placed with one the other might have regarded and resented this as a slight.
As the children grew up their likeness in feature became more close, but they diverged exceedingly in expression. A sullenness, an unhappy look, a towering fire of resentment characterised that of Letice, whereas the face of Betty was open and gay.
This difference was due to the difference in their bringing up. Lady Lacy, who had a small house in North Devon was a kindly, intellectual, and broad- minded old lady; of sweet disposition but a decided will. She saw a good deal of society, and did her best to train Betty to be an educated and liberal-minded woman of culture and graceful manners. She did not send her to school, but had her taught at home; and on the excuse that her eyes were weak by artificial light she made the girl read to her in the evenings, and always read books that were standard and calculated to increase her knowledge and to develop her understanding. Lady Lacy detested all shams, and under her influence Betty grew up to be thoroughly straightforward, healthy-minded, and true.
On the other hand, Miss Mountjoy was, as Letice called her, a Killjoy. She had herself been reared in the midst of the Clapham sect; had become rigid in all her ideas, narrow in all her sympathies, and a bundle of prejudices.
The present generation of young people know nothing of the system of repression that was exercised in that of their fathers and mothers. Now the tendency is wholly in the other direction, and too greatly so. It is possibly due to a revulsion of feeling against a training that is looked back upon with a shudder.
To that narrow school there existed but two categories of men and women, the Christians and the Worldlings, and those who pertained to it arrogated to themselves the former title. The Judgment had already begun with the severance of the sheep from the goats, and the saints who judged the world had their Jerusalem at Clapham.
In that school the works of the great masters of English literature, Shakespeare, Pope, Scott, Byron, were taboo; no work of imagination was tolerated save the Apocalypse, and that was degraded into a polemic by such scribblers as Elliot and Cumming.
No entertainments, not even the oratorios of Handel, were tolerated; they savoured of the world. The nearest approach to excitement was found in a missionary meeting. The Chinese contract the feet of their daughters, but those English Claphamites cramped the minds of their children. The Venetians made use of an iron prison, with gradually contracting walls, that finally
crushed the life out of the captive. But these elect Christians put their sons and daughters into a school that squeezed their energies and their intelligences to death.
Dickens caricatured such people in Mrs. Jellyby and Mr. Chadband; but he sketched them only in their external aspect, and left untouched their private action in distorting young minds, maiming their wills, damping down all youthful buoyancy.
But the result did not answer the expectations of those who adopted this system with the young. Some daughters, indeed, of weaker wills were permanently stunted and shaped on the approved model, but nearly all the sons, and most of the daughters, on obtaining their freedom, broke away into utter frivolity and dissipation, or, if they retained any religious impressions, galloped through the Church of England, performing strange antics on the way, and plunged into the arms of Rome.
Such was the system to which the high-spirited, strong-willed Letice was subjected, and from which was no escape. The consequence was that Letice tossed and bit at her chains, and that there ensued frequent outbreaks of resentment against her aunt.
“Oh, Aunt Hannah! I want something to read.”
After some demur, and disdainful rejection of more serious works, she was allowed Milton. Then she said, “Oh! I do love Comus.”
“Comus!” gasped Miss Mountjoy.
“And L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, they are not bad.”
“My child. These were the compositions of the immortal bard before his eyes were opened.”
“I thought, aunt, that he had dictated the Paradise Lost and Regained after he was blind.”
“I refer to the eyes of his soul,” said the old lady sternly.
“I want a story-book.”
“There is the Dairyman's Daughter.”
“I have read it, and hate it.”
“I fear, Leticia, that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.”
Unhappily the sisters very rarely met one another. It was but occasionally that Lady Lacy and Betty came to town, and when they did, Miss Mountjoy put as many difficulties as she could in the way of their associating together.
On one such visit to London, Lady Lacy called and asked if she might take Letice with herself to the theatre. Miss Mountjoy shivered with horror, reared herself, and expressed her opinion of stage-plays and those who went to see them in strong and uncomplimentary terms. As she had the custody of Letice, she would by no persuasion be induced to allow her to imperil her soul by going to such a wicked place. Lady Lacy was fain to withdraw in some dismay and much regret.
Poor Letice, who had heard this offer made, had flashed into sudden brightness and a tremor of joy; when it was refused, she burst into a flood of tears and an ecstasy of rage. She ran up to her room, and took and tore to pieces a volume of Clayton's Sermons, scattered the leaves over the floor, and stamped upon them.
“Letice,” said Miss Mountjoy, when she saw the devastation, “you are a child of wrath.”
“Why mayn't I go where there is something pretty to see? Why may I not hear good music? Why must I be kept forever in the Doleful Dumps?”
“Because all these things are of the world, worldly.”
“If God hates all that is fair and beautiful, why did He create the peacock, the humming-bird, and the bird of paradise, instead of filling the world with barn-door fowls?”
“You have a carnal mind. You will never go to heaven.”
“Lucky I—if the saints there do nothing but hold missionary meetings to convert one another. Pray what else can they do?”
“They are engaged in the worship of God.”
“I don't know what that means. All I am acquainted with is the worship of the congregation. At Salem Chapel the minister faces it, mouths at it, gesticulates to it, harangues, flatters, fawns at it, and, indeed, prays at it. If that be all, heaven must be a deadly dull hole.”
Miss Mountjoy reared herself, she became livid with wrath. “You wicked girl.”
“Aunt,” said Letice, intent on further incensing her, “I do wish you would let me go—just for once—to a Catholic church to see what the worship of God is.”
“I would rather see you dead at my feet!” exclaimed the incensed lady, and stalked, rigid as a poker, out of the room.
Thus the unhappy girl grew up to woman's estate, her heart seething with rebellion. And then a terrible thing occurred. She caught scarlet fever, which took an unfavourable turn, and her life was despaired of. Miss Mountjoy was not one to conceal from the girl that her days were few, and her future condition hopeless.
Letice fought against the idea of dying so young.
“Oh, aunt! I won't die! I can't die! I have seen nothing of the pomps and vanities. I want to just taste them, and know what they are like. Oh! save me, make the doctor give me something to revive me. I want the pomps and vanities, oh! so much. I will not, I cannot die!” But her will, her struggle, availed nothing, and she passed away into the Great Unseen.
Miss Mountjoy wrote a formal letter to her brother, who had now become a general, to inform him of the lamented decease of his eldest daughter. It was not a comforting letter. It dwelt unnecessarily on the faults of Letice, it expressed no hopes as to her happiness in the world to which she had passed. There had been no signs of resignation at the last; no turning from the world with its pomps and vanities to better things, only a vain longing after what she could not have; a bitter resentment against Providence for having denied them to her; and a steeling of her heart against good and pious influences.
A year had passed.
Lacy had come to town along with her niece. A dear friend had placed her house at her disposal. She had herself gone to Dresden with her daughters to finish them off in music and German. Lady Lacy was very glad of the occasion, for Betty was now of an age to be brought out. There was to be a great ball at the house of the Countess of Belgrove, unto whom Lady Lacy was related, and at the ball Betty was to make her début.
The girl was in a condition of boundless excitement. A beautiful ball-dress of white satin, trimmed with rich Valenciennes lace, was laid over her chair for her to wear. Neat little white satin shoes stood on the floor, quite new, for her feet. In a flower-glass stood a red camellia that was destined to adorn her hair, and on the dressing-table, in a morocco case, was a pearl necklace that had belonged to her mother.
The maid did her hair, but the camellia, which was to be the only point of colour about her, except her rosy lips and flushed cheeks—that camellia was not to be put into her hair till the last minute.
The maid offered to help her to dress.
“No, thank you, Martha; I can do that perfectly well myself. I am accustomed to use my own hands, and I can take my own time about it.”
“But really, miss, I think you should allow me.”
“Indeed, no. There is plenty of time, and I shall go leisurely to work. When the carriage comes just the door and tell me, and I will rejoin my aunt.”
When the maid was gone, Betty locked her door. She lighted the candles beside the cheval- glass, and looked at herself in the mirror and laughed. For the first time, with glad surprise and innocent pleasure, she realised how pretty she was. And pretty she was indeed, with her pleasant face, honest eyes, finely arched brows, and twinkling smile that produced dimples in her cheeks.
“There is plenty of time,” she said. “I shan't take a hundred years in dressing now that my hair is done.”
She yawned. A great heaviness had come over her. “I really think I shall have a nap first. I am dead sleepy now, and forty winks will set me up for the night.”
Then she laid herself upon the bed. A numbing, overpowering lethargy weighed on her, and almost at once she sank into a dreamless sleep. So unconscious was she that she did not hear Martha's tap at the door nor the roll of the carriage as it took her aunt away.
She woke with a start. It was full day.
For some moments she did not realise this fact, nor that she was still dressed in the gown in which she had lain down the previous evening.
She rose in dismay. She had slept so soundly that she had missed the ball. She rang her bell and unlocked the door.
“What, miss, up already?” asked the maid, coming in with a tray on which were tea and bread and butter.
“Yes, Martha. Oh! what will aunt say? I have slept so long and like a log, and never went to the ball. Why did you not call me?”
“Please, miss, you have forgotten. You went to the ball last night.”
“No; I did not. I overslept myself.”
The maid smiled. “If I may be so bold as to say so, I think, Miss Betty, you are dreaming still.”
“No; I did not go.”
The maid took up the satin dress. It was crumpled, the lace was a little torn, and the train showed unmistakable signs of having been drawn over a floor.
She then held up the shoes. They had been worn, and well worn, as if danced in all night.
“Look here, miss; here is your programme! Why, deary me! you must have had a lot of dancing. It is quite full.”
Betty looked at the programme with dazed eyes; then at the camellia. It had lost some of its petals, and these had not fallen on the toilet-cover Where were they? What was the meaning of this?
“Martha, bring me my hot water, and leave me alone.”
Betty was sorely perplexed. There were evidences that her dress had been worn. The pearl necklace was in the case, but not as she had left it—outside. She bathed her head in cold water. She racked her brain. She could not recall the smallest particular of the ball. She perused the programme. A light colour came into her cheek as she recognised the initials “C. F.,” those of Captain Charles Fontanel, of whom of late she had seen a good deal. Other characters expressed nothing to her mind.
“How very strange!” she said; and I was lying on the bed in the dress I had on yesterday evening. I cannot explain it.”
Twenty minutes later, Betty went downstairs and entered the breakfast-room. Lady Lacy was there. She went up to her aunt and kissed her.
“I am so sorry that I overslept myself,” she said. “I was like one of the Seven Sleepers.' “My dear, I should not have minded if you had not come down till midday. After a first ball you must be tired.”
“I meant—last night.”
“How, last night?”
“I mean when I went to dress.”
“Oh, you were punctual enough. When I was ready you were already in the hall.” The bewilderment of the girl grew apace.
“I am sure,” said her aunt, “you enjoyed yourself. But you gave the lion's share of the dances to Captain Fontanel. If this had been at Exeter, it would have caused talk; but here you are known only to a few; however, Lady Belgrove observed it.”
“I hope you are not very tired, auntie darling,” said Betty, to change slightly the theme that perplexed her.
“Nothing to speak of. I like to go to a ball; it recalls my old dancing days. But I thought you looked white and fagged all the evening. Perhaps it was excitement.”
As soon as breakfast was concluded, Betty escaped to her room. A fear was oppressing her. The only explanation of the mystery was that she had been to the dance in her sleep. She was a somnambulist. What had she said and done when unconscious? What a dreadful thing it would have been had she woke up in the middle of a dance! She must have dressed herself, gone to Lady Belgrove's, danced all night, returned, taken off her dress, put on her afternoon tea-gown, lain down and concluded her sleep—all in one long tract of unconsciousness.
“By the way,” said her aunt next day, “I have taken tickets for Carmen, at Her Majesty's. You would like to go?”
“Oh, delighted, aunt. I know some of the music—of course, the Toreador song; but I have never heard the whole opera. It will be delightful.”
“And you are not too tired to go?”
“No—ten thousand times, no—I shall love to see it.”
“What dress will you go in?”
“I think my black, and put a rose in my hair.”
“That will do very well. The black becomes you. I think you could not do better.” Betty was highly delighted. She had been to plays, never to a real opera.
In the evening, dinner was early, unnecessarily early, and Betty knew that it would not take her long to dress, so she went into the little conservatory and seated herself there. The scent of the heliotropes was strong. Betty called them cherry-pie. She had got the libretto, and she looked it over; but as she looked, her eyes closed, and without being aware that she was going to sleep, in a moment she was completely unconscious.
She woke, feeling stiff and cold.
“Goodness!” said she, “I hope I am not late. Why—what is that light?” The glimmer of dawn shone in at the conservatory windows.
Much astonished, she left it. The hall, the staircase were dark. She groped her way to her room, and switched on the electric light.
Before her lay her black-and-white muslin dress on the bed; on the table were her white twelve-button gloves folded about her fan. She took them up, and below them, somewhat crumpled, lay the play-bill, scented.
“How very unaccountable this is,” she said; and removing the dress, seated herself on the bed and thought.
“Why did they turn out the lights?” she asked herself, then sprang to her feet, switched off the electric current, and saw that actually the morning light was entering the room. She resumed her seat; put her hands to her brow.
“It cannot—it cannot be that this dreadful thing has happened again.” Presently she heard the servants stirring. She hastily undressed and retired between the sheets, but not to sleep. Her mind worked. She was seriously alarmed. At the usual time Martha arrived with tea.
Awake, Miss Betty!” she said, “I hope you had a evening. I dare say it was beautiful.”
“But,” began the girl, then checked herself, and said—
“Is my aunt getting up? Is she very tired?”
“Oh, miss, my lady is a wonderful person; she never seems to tire. She is always down at the same time.”
Betty dressed, but her mind was in a turmoil. On one thing she was resolved. She must see a doctor. But she would not frighten her aunt, she would keep the matter close from her.
When she came into the breakfast-room, Lady Lacy said—
“I thought Maas's voice was superb, but I did not so much care for the Carmen. What did you think, dear?”
“Aunt,” said Betty, anxious to change the topic, “would you mind my seeing a doctor? I don't think I am quite well.”
“Not well! Why what is the matter with you?”
“I have such dead fits of drowsiness.”
“My dearest, is that to be wondered at with this racketing about; balls and theatres—very other than the quiet life at home? But I will admit that you struck me as looking very pale last night. You shall certainly see Dr. Groves.”
When the medical man arrived, Betty intimated that she wished to speak with him alone, and he was shown with her into the morning-room.
“Oh, Dr. Groves,” she said nervously, “it is such a strange thing I have to say. I believe I walk in my sleep.”
“You have eaten something that disagreed with you.”
“But it lasted so long.”
“How do you mean? Have you long been subject to it?”
“Dear, no. I never had any signs of it before I came to London this season.”
“And how were you roused? How did you become aware of it?”
“I was not roused at all; the fact is I went asleep to Lady Belgrove's ball, and danced there and came back, and woke up in the morning without knowing I had been.”
“What!”
“And then, last night, I went in my sleep to Her Majesty's and heard Carmen; but I woke up in the conservatory here at early dawn, and I remember nothing about it.”
“This is a very extraordinary story. Are you sure you to the ball and to the opera?”
“Quite sure. My dress had been used on both occasions, and my shoes and fan and gloves as well.”
“Did you go with Lady Lacy?”
“Oh, yes. I was with her all the time. But I remember nothing about it.”
“I must speak to her ladyship.”
“Please, please do not. It would frighten her; and I do not wish her to suspect anything, except that I am a little out of sorts. She gets nervous about me.”
Dr. Groves mused for some while, then he said: “I cannot see that this is at all a case of somnambulism.”
“What is it, then?”
“Lapse of memory. Have you ever suffered from that previously?”
“Nothing to speak of. Of course I do not always remember everything. I do not always recollect commissions given to me, unless I write them down. And I cannot say that I remember all the novels I have read, or what was the menu at dinner yesterday.”
“That is quite a different matter. What I refer to is spaces of blank in your memory. How often has this occurred?”
“Twice.”
“And quite recently?”
“Yes, I never knew anything of the kind before.”
“I think that the sooner you return to the country the better. It is possible that the strain of coming out and the change of entering into gay life in town has been too much for you. Take care and economise your pleasures. Do not attempt too much; and if anything of the sort happens again, send for me.”
“Then you won't mention this to my aunt?”
“No, not this time. I will say that you have been a little overwrought and must be spared too much excitement.”
“Thank you so much, Dr. Groves.”
Now it was that a new mystery came to confound Betty. She rang her bell. “Martha,” said she, when her maid appeared, “where is that novel I had yesterday from the circulating library? I put it on the boudoir table.”
“I have not noticed it, miss.”
“Please look for it. I have hunted everywhere for it, and it cannot be found.”
“I will look in the parlour, miss, and the schoolroom.”
“I have not been into the schoolroom at all, and I know that it is not in the drawing-room.” A search was instituted, but the book could not be found. On the morrow it was in the boudoir, where Betty had placed it on her return from Mudie's.
“One of the maids took it,” was her explanation. She did not much care for the book; perhaps that was due to her preoccupation, and not to any lack of stirring incident in the story. She sent it back and took out another. Next morning that also had disappeared.
It now became customary, as surely as she drew a novel from the library, that it vanished clean away. Betty was greatly amazed. She could not read a novel she had brought home till a day or two later. She took to putting the book, so soon as it was in the house, into one of her drawers, or into a cupboard. But the result was the same. Finally, when she had locked the newly acquired volume in her desk, and it had disappeared thence also, her patience gave way. There must be one of the domestics with a ravenous appetite for fiction, which drove her to carry off a book of the sort whenever it came into the house, and even to tamper with a lock to obtain it. Betty had most reluctant to speak of the matter to her aunt, but now she made to her a formal complaint.
The servants were all questioned, and strongly protested their innocence. Not one of them had ventured to do such a thing as that with which they were charged.
However, from this time forward rhe annoyance ceased, and Betty and Lady Lacy naturally concluded that this was the result of the stir that had been made.
“Betty,” said Lady Lacy, “what do you say to going to the new play at the Gaiety? I hear it very highly spoken of. Mrs. Fontanel has a box and has asked if we will join her.”
“I should love it,” replied the girl; “we have been rather quiet of late.” But her heart was oppressed with fear.
She said to her maid: “Martha, will you dress me this evening—and—pray stay with me till my aunt is ready and calls for me?”
“Yes, miss, I shall be pleased to do so.” But the girl looked somewhat surprised at the latter part of the request.
Betty thought well to explain: “I don't know what it is, but I feel somewhat out of spirits and nervous, and am afraid of being left alone, lest something should happen.”
“Happen, miss! If you are not feeling well, would it not be as well to stay at home?”
“Oh, not for the world! I must go. I shall be all right so, soon as I am in the carriage. It will pass off then.”
“Shall I get you a glass of sherry, or anything?”
“No, no, it is not that. You remain with me and I shall be myself again.” That evening Betty went to the theatre. There was no recurrence of the sleeping fit with its concomitants. Captain Fontanel was in the box, and made himself vastly agreeable. He had his seat by Betty, and talked to her not only between the acts, but also a good deal whilst the actors were on the stage. With this she could have dispensed. She was not such an habituée of the theatre as not to be intensely interested with what was enacted before her.
Between two of the acts he said to her: “My mother is engaging Lady Lacy. She has a scheme in her head, but wants her consent to carry it out, to make it quite too charming. And I am deputed to get you to acquiesce.”
“What is it?”
“We purpose having a boat and going to the Henley Regatta. Will you come?”
“I should enjoy it above everything. I have never seen a regatta—that is to say, not one so famous, and not of this kind. There were regattas at Ilfracombe, but they were different.”
“Very well, then; the party shall consist only of my mother and sister and your two selves, and young Fulwell, who is dancing attendance on Jannet, and Putsey, who is a tame cat. I am sure my mother will persuade your aunt. What a lively old lady she is, and for her years how she does enjoy life!”
“It will be a most happy conclusion to our stay in town,” said Betty. “We are going back to auntie's little cottage in Devon in a few days; she wants to be at home for Good Friday and Easter Day.”
So it was settled. Lady Lacy had raised no objection, and now she and her niece had to consider what Betty should wear. Thin garments were out of the question; the weather was too cold, and it would be especially chilly on the river. Betty was still in slight mourning, so she chose a silver-grey cloth costume, with a black band about her waist, and a white straw hat, with a ribbon to match her gown.
On the day of the regatta Betty said to herself; “How ignorant I am! Fancy my not knowing where Henley is! That it is on the Thames or Isis I really do not know, but I fancy on the former—yes, I am almost positive it is on Thames. I have seen pictures in the Graphic and Illustrated of the race last year, and I know the river was represented as broad, and the Isis can only be an insignificant stream. I will run into the schoolroom and find a map of the environs of London and post myself up in the geography. One hates to look like a fool.”
Without a word to anyone, Betty found her way to the apartment given up to lessons when children were in the house. It lay at the back, down a passage. Since Lady Lacy had occupied the place, neither she nor Betty had been in it more than casually and rarely; and accordingly the
servants had neglected to keep it clean. A good deal of dust lay about, and Betty, laughing, wrote her name in the fine powder on the school-table, then looked at her finger, found it black, and said, “Oh, bother! I forgot that the dust of London is smut.”
She went to the bookcase, and groped for a map of the Metropolis and the country round, but could not find one. Nor could she lay her hand on a gazetteer.
“This must do,” said she, drawing out a large, thick Johnston's At/as, “if the scale be not too small to give Henley.”
She put the heavy volume on the table and opened it. England, she found, was in two parts, one map of the Northern, the second of the Southern division. She spread out the latter, placed her finger on the blue line of the Thames, and began to trace it up.
Whilst her eyes were on it, searching the small print, they closed, and without being conscious that she was sleepy, her head bowed forward on the map, and she was breathing evenly, steeped in the most profound slumber.
She woke slowly. Her consciousness returned to her little by little. She saw the atlas without understanding what it meant. She looked about her, and wondered how she could be in the schoolroom, and she then observed that darkness was closing in. Only then, suddenly, did she recall what had brought her where she was.
Next, with a rush, upon her came the remembrance that she was due at the boat-race. She must again have overslept herself for the evening had come on, and through the window she could see the glimmer of gaslights in the street. Was this to be accompanied by her former experiences?
With throbbing heart she went into the passage. Then she noticed that the hall was lighted up, and she heard her aunt speaking, and the slam of the front door, and the maid say, “Shall I take off your wraps, my lady?”
She stepped forth upon the landing and proceeded to descend, when—with a shock that sent the blood coursing to her heart, and that paralysed her movements—she saw herself ascending the stair in her silver-grey costume and straw hat.
She clung to the banister, with convulsive grip, lest she should fall, and stared, without power to utter a sound, as she saw herself quietly mount, step by step, pass her, go beyond to her own room.
For fully ten minutes she remained rooted to the spot, unable to stir even a finger. Her tongue was stiff; her muscles set, her heart ceased to beat.
Then slowly her blood began again to circulate, her nerves to relax, power of movement returned. With a hoarse gasp she reeled from her place, and giddy, touching the banister every moment to prevent herself from falling, she crept downstairs. But when once in the hall, she had recovered flexibility. She ran towards the morning-room, whither Lady Lacy had gone to gather up the letters that had arrived by post during her absence.
Betty stood looking at her, speechless.
Her aunt raised her face from an envelope she was considering. “Why, Betty,” said she, “how expeditiously you have changed your dress!”
The girl could not speak, but fell unconscious on the floor.
When she came to herself, she was aware of a strong smell of vinegar. She was lying on the sofa, and Martha was applying a moistened kerchief to her brow. Lady Lacy stood by, alarmed and anxious, with a bottle of smelling-salts in her hand.
“Oh, aunt, I saw—” then she ceased. It would not do to tell of the apparition. She would not be believed.
“My darling,” said Lady Lacy, “you are overdone, and it was foolish of you tearing upstairs and scrambling into your morning-gown. I have sent for Groves. Are you able now to rise? Can you manage to reach your room?”
“My room!” she shuddered. “Let me lie here a little longer. I cannot walk. Let me be here till the doctor comes.”
“Certainly, dearest. I thought you looked very unlike yourself all day at the regatta. If you had felt out of sorts you ought not to have gone.”
“Auntie! I was quite well in the morning.”
Presently the medical man arrived, and was shown in. Betty saw that Lady Lacy purposed staying through the interview. Accordingly she said nothing to Dr. Groves about what she had seen.
“She is overdone,” said he. “The sooner you move her down to Devonshire the better. Someone had better be in her room to-night.
“Yes,” said Lady Lacy; “I had thought of that and have given orders. Martha can make up her bed on the sofa in the adjoining dressing-room or boudoir.”
This was a relief to Betty, who dreaded a return to her to her room—her room into which her other self had gone.
“I will call again in the morning,” said the medical man; “keep her in bed to-morrow, at all events till I have seen her.”
When he left, Betty found herself able to ascend the stairs. She cast a frightened glance about her room. The straw hat, the grey dress were there. No one was in it.
She was helped to bed, and although laid in it with her head among the pillows, she could not sleep. Racking thoughts tortured her. What was the signification of that encounter? What of her strange sleeps? What of those mysterious appearances of herself where she had not been? The theory that she had walked in her sleep was untenable. How was she to solve the riddle? That she was going out of her mind was no explanation.
Only towards morning did she doze off.
When Dr. Groves came, about eleven o'clock, Betty made a point of speaking to him alone, which was what she greatly desired.
She said to him: “Oh! it has been worse this last occasion, far worse than before. I do not walk in my sleep. Whilst I am buried in slumber, someone else takes my place.”
“Whom do you mean? Surely not one of the maids?”
“Oh, no. I met her on the stairs last night, that is what made me faint.”
“Whom did you meet?”
“Myself—my double.”
“Nonsense, Miss Mountjoy.”
“But it is a fact. I saw myself as clearly as I see you now. I was going down into the hall.”
“You saw yourself! You saw your own pleasant, pretty face in a looking-glass.”
“There is no looking-glass on the staircase. Besides, I was in my alpaca morning-gown, and my double had on my pearl-grey cloth costume, with my straw hat. She was mounting as I was descending.”
“Tell me the story.”
“I went yesterday—an hour or so before I had to dress—into the schoolroom. I am awfully ignorant, and I did want to see a map and find out where was Henley because, you know, I was going to the boat-race. And I dropped off into one of those dreadful dead sleeps, with my head on the atlas. When I awoke it was evening, and the gas-lamps were lighted. I was frightened, and
ran out to the landing and I heard them arrive, just come back from Henley, and as I was going down the stairs, I saw my double coming up, and we met face to face. She passed me by, and went on to my room—to this room. So you see this is proof pos that I an not a somnambulist.”
“I never said that you were. I never for a moment admitted the supposition. That, if you remember, was your own idea. What I said before is what I repeat now, that you suffer from failure of memory.”
“But that cannot be so, Dr. Groves.”
“Pray, why not?”
“Because I saw my double, wearing my regatta costume.”
“I hold to my opinion, Miss Mountjoy. If you will listen to me I shall be able to offer a satisfactory explanation. Satisfactory, I mean, so far as to make your experiences intelligible to you. I do not at all imply that your condition is satisfactory.”
“Well, tell me. I cannot make heads or tails of this matter.”
“It is this, young lady. On several recent occasions you have suffered from lapses of memory. All recollection of what you did, where you went, what you said, has been clean wiped out. But on this last—it was somewhat different. The failure took place on your return, and you forgot everything that had happened since you were engaged in the schoolroom looking at the atlas.”
“Yes.”
“Then, on your arrival here, as Lady Lacy told me, you ran upstairs, and in a prodigious hurry changed your clothes and put on your——”
“My alpaca.”
“Your alpaca, yes. Then, in descending to the hall, your memory came back, but was still entangled with flying reminiscences of what had taken place during the intervening period. Amongst other things—”
“I remember no other things.”
“You recalled confusedly one thing only, that you had mounted the stairs in your—your “My pearl-grey cloth, with the straw hat and satin ribbon.”
“Precisely. Whilst in your morning gown, into which you had scrambled, you recalled yourself in your regatta costume going upstairs to change. This fragmentary reminiscence presented itself before you as a vision. Actually you saw nothing. The impression on your brain of a scrap recollected appeared to you as if it had been an actual object depicted on the retina of your eye. Such things happen, and happen not infrequently. In cases of D. T.——”
“But I haven't D. T. I don't drink.”
“I do not say that. If you will allow me to proceed. In cases of D. T. the patient fancies he sees rats, devils, all sorts of objects. They appear to him as obvious realities, he thinks that he sees them with his eyes. But he does not. These are mere pictures formed on the brain.”
“Then you hold that I really was at the boat-race?”
“I am positive that you were.”
“And that I danced at Lady Belgrove's ball?”
“Most assuredly.”
“And heard Carmen at Her Majesty's?”
“I have not the remotest doubt that you did.” Betty drew a long breath, and remained in consideration. Then she said very gravely: “I want you to tell me, Dr. Groves, quite truthfully, quite frankly— do not think that I shall be frightened whatever you say; I shall merely prepare for what may be—do you consider that I am going out of my mind?”
“I have not the least occasion for supposing so.”
“That,” said Betty, “would be the most terrible thing of all. If I thought that, I would say right out to my aunt that I wished at once to be sent to an asylum.”
“You may set your mind at rest on that score.”
“But loss of memory is bad, but better than the other. Will these fits of failure come on again?”
“That is more than I can prognosticate; let us hope for the best. A complete change of scene, change of air, change of association—”
“Not to leave auntie!”
“No. I do not mean that, but to get away from London society. It may restore you to what you were. You never had those fits before?”
“Never, never, till I came to town.”
“And when you have left town they may not recur.”
“I shall take precious good care not to revisit London if it is going to play these tricks with me.”
That day Captain Fontanel called, and was vastly concerned to hear that Betty was unwell. She was not looking herself, he said, at the boat-race, he feared that the cold on the river had been too much for her. But he did trust that he might be allowed to have a word with her before she returned to Devonshire.
Although he did not see Betty, he had an hour's conversation with Lady Lacy, and he departed with a smile on his face.
On the morrow he called again Betty had so completely recovered that she was cheerful, and the pleasant colour had returned to her cheeks. She was in the drawing-room along with her aunt when he arrived.
The captain offered his condolences, and expressed his satisfaction that her indisposition had been so quickly got over.
“Oh!” said the girl, “I am as right as a trivet. It has all passed off. I need not have soaked in bed all yesterday, but that aunt would have it so. We are going down to our home to-morrow. Yesterday auntie was scared and thought she would have to postpone our return.”
Lady Lacy rose, made the excuse that she had the packing to attend to, and left the young people alone together. When the door was shut behind her, Captain Fontanel drew his chair close to that of the girl and said— “Betty, you do not know how happy I have felt since you accepted me. It was a hurried affair in the boathouse, but really, time was running short; as you were off so soon to Devonshire, I had to snatch at the occasion when there was no one by, so I seized old Time by the forelock, and you were so good as to say 'Yes.”'
“I—I——” stammered Betty.
“But as the thing was done in such haste, I came here to-day to renew my offer of myself, and to make sure of my happiness. You have had time to reflect, and I trust you do not repent.”
“Oh, you are so good and kind to me!”
“Dearest Betty, what a thing to say! It is I—poor, wretched, good-for-naught—who have cause to speak such words to you. Put your hand into mine; it is a short courtship of a soldier, like that of Harry V. and the fair Maid of France. 'I love you: then if you urge me farther than to say, “Do you in faith?” I wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so clap hands and a bargain.' Am I quoting aright?”
Shyly, hesitatingly, she extended her fingers, and he clasped them. Then, shrinking back and looking down, she said: “But I ought to tell you something first, something very serious, which
may make you change your mind. I do not, in conscience, feel it right that you should commit yourself till you know.”
“It must be something very dreadful to make me do that.”
“It is dreadful. I am apt to be terribly forgetful.”
“Bless me! So am I. I have passed several of my acquaintances lately and have not recognised them, but that was because I was thinking of you. And I fear I have been very oblivious about my bills; and as to answering letters—good heavens! I am a shocking defaulter.”
“I do not mean that. I have lapses of memory. Why, I do not even remember——” He sealed her lips with a kiss. “You will not forget this, at any rate, Betty.”
“Oh, Charlie, no!”
“Then consider this, Betty. Our engagement cannot be for long. I am ordered to Egypt, and I positively must take my dear little wife with me and show her the Pyramids. You would like to see them, would you not?”
“I should love to.”
“And the Sphynx?”
“Indeed I should.”
“And Pompey's Pillar?”
“Oh, Charlie! I shall love above everything to see you every day.”
“That is prettily said. I see we understand one another. Now, hearken to me, give me your close attention, and no fits of lapse of memory over what I now say, please. We must be married very shortly. I positively will not go out without you. I would rather throw up my commission.”
“But what about papa's consent?”
“I shall wire to him full particulars as to my position, income and prospects, also how much I love you, and how I will do my level best to make you happy. That is the approved formula in addressing paterfamilias, I think. Then he will telegraph back, 'Bless you, my boy'; and all is settled. I know that Lady Lacy approves.”
“But dear, dear aunt. She will be so awfully lonely without me.”
“She shall not be. She has no ties to hold her to the little cottage in Devon. She shall come out to us in Cairo, and we will bury the dear old girl up to her neck in the sand of the desert, and make a second Sphynx of her, and bake the rheumatism out of her bones. It will cure her of all her aches, as sure as my name is Charlie, and yours will be Fontanel.”
“Don't be too sure of that.”
“But I am sure—you cannot forget.”
“I will try not to do so. Oh, Charlie, don't!”
Mrs. Thomas, the dressmaker, and Miss Crock, the milliner, had their hands full. Betty's trousseau had to be got ready expeditiously. Patterns of materials specially adapted for a hot climate—light, beautiful, artistic, of silks and muslins and prints—had to be commanded from Liberty's. Then came the selection, then the ordering, then the discussions with the dressmaker, and the measurings. Next the fittings, for which repeated visits had to be made to Mrs. Thomas. Adjustments, alterations were made, easements under the arms, tightenings about the waist. There were fulnesses to be taken in and skimpiness to be redressed. The skirts had to be sufficiently short in front and sufficiently long behind.
As for the wedding-dress, Mrs. Thomas was not regarded as quite competent to execute such a masterpiece. For that an expedition had to be made to Exeter.
The wedding-cake must be ordered from Murch, in the cathedral city. Lady Lacy was particular that as much as possible of the outfit should be given to county tradesmen. A riding habit, tailor-made, was ordered, to fit like a glove, and a lady's saddle must be taken out to Egypt. Boxes, basket-trunks were to be procured, and a correspondence carried on as to the amount of personal luggage allowed.
Lady Lacy and Betty were constantly running up by express to Exeter about this, that, and everything.
Then ensued the sending out of the invitations, and the arrival of wedding presents, that entailed the writing of gushing letters of acknowledgment and thanks, by Betty herself. But these were not allowed to interfere with the scribbling of four pages every day to Captain Fontanel, intended for his eyes alone.
Interviews were sought by the editors or agents of local newspapers to ascertain whether reporters were desired to describe the wedding, and as to the length of the notices that were to be inserted, whether all the names of the donors of presents were to be included, and their gifts registered. Verily Lady Lacy and Betty were kept in a whirl of excitement, and their time occupied from morning till night, and their brains exercised from night to morning. Glass and china and plate had to be hired for the occasion, wine ordered. Fruit, cake, ices commanded. But all things come to an end, even the preparations for a wedding.
At last the eventful day arrived, bright and sunny, a true May morning. The bridesmaids arrived, each wearing the pretty brooch presented by Captain Fontanel. Their costume was suitable to the season, of primrose-yellow, with hats turned up, white, with primroses. The pages were in green velvet, with knee-breeches and three-cornered hats, lace ruffles and lace fronts. The butler had made the claret-cup and the champagne-cup, and after a skirmish over the neighbourhood some borage had been obtained to float on the top. Lady Lacy was to hold a reception after the ceremony, and a marquee had been erected in the grounds, as the cottage could not contain all the guests invited. The dining-room was delivered over for the exposing of the presents. A carriage had been commanded to convey the happy couple to the station, horses and driver with white favours. With a sigh of relief in the morning, Lady Lacy declared that she believed that nothing had been forgotten.
The trunks stood ready packed, all but one, and labelled with the name of Mrs. Fontanel. A flag flew on the church tower. The villagers had constructed a triumphal arch at the entrance to the grounds. The people from farms and cottages had all turned out, and were already congregating about the churchyard, with smiles and heartfelt wishes for the happiness of the bride, who was a mighty favourite with them, as indeed was also Lady Lacy.
The Sunday-school children had clubbed their pence, and had presented Betty, who had taught them, with a silver set of mustard-pot, pepper caster, and salt-cellar.
“Oh, dear!” said Betty, “what shall I do with all these sets of mustard- and pepper-pots? I have now received eight.”
“A little later, dear,” replied her aunt, “you can exchange those that you do not require.”
“But never that set given me by my Sunday-school pets,” said Betty.
Then came in flights of telegrams of congratulation.
And at the last moment arrived some more wedding presents.
“Good gracious me!” exclaimed the girl, “I really must manage to acknowledge these. There will be just time before I begin to dress.”
So she tripped upstairs to her boudoir, a little room given over to herself in which to do her water-colour painting, her reading, to practise her music. A bright little room to which now, as she felt with an ache, she was to bid an eternal good-bye!
What happy hours had been spent in it! What daydreams had been spun there! She opened her writing-case and wrote the required letters of thanks.
“There,” said she, when she had signed the fifth. “This is the last time I shall subscribe myself Elizabeth Mount except when I sign my name in the church register. Oh! how my back is hurting me. I was not in bed till two o'clock and was up again at seven, and I have been on the tear for the whole week. There will be just time for me to rest it before the business of the dressing begins.”
She threw herself on the sofa and put up her feet. Instantly she was asleep—in a sound, dreamless sleep.
When Betty opened her eyes she heard the church bells ringing a merry peal. Then she raised her lids, and turning her head on the sofa cushion saw—a bride, herself in full bridal dress, with the white veil and the orange-blossoms, seated at her side. The gloves had been removed and lay on the lap.
An indescribable terror held her fast. She could not cry out. She could not stir. She could only look.
Then the bride put back the veil, and Betty, studying the white face, saw that this actually was not herself; it was her dead sister, Letice.
The apparition put forth a hand and laid it on her and spoke: “Do not be frightened. I will do you no harm. I love you too dearly for that, Betty. I have been married in your name; I have exchanged vows in your name; I have received the ring for you; put it on your finger, it is not mine; it in no way belongs to me. In your name I signed the register. You are married to Charles Fontanel and not I. Listen to me. I will tell you all, and when I have told you everything you will see me no more. I will trouble you no further; I shall enter into my rest. You will see before you only the wedding garments remaining. I shall be gone. Hearken to me. When I was dying, I died in frantic despair, because I had never known what were the pleasures of life. My last cries, my last regrets, my last longings were for the pomps and vanities.”
She paused, and slipped the gold hoop on to the forefinger of Betty's hand. Then she proceeded— “When my spirit parted from my body, it remained a while irresolute whither to go. But then, remembering that my aunt had declared that I never would go to Heaven, I resolved on forcing my way in there out of defiance; and I soared till I reached the gates of Paradise. At them stood an angel with a fiery sword drawn in his hand, and he laid it athwart the entrance. I approached, but he waved me off, and when the point of the flaming blade touched my heart, there passed a pang through it, I know not whether of joy or of sorrow. And he said: 'Letice, you have not been a good girl; you were sullen, resentful, rebellious, and therefore are unfit to enter here. Your longings through life, and to the moment of death, were for the world and its pomps and vanities. The last throb of your heart was given to repining for them. But your faults were due largely to the mistakes of your rearing. And now hear your judgment. You shall not pass within these gates till you have returned to earth and partaken of and had your fill of its pomps and vanities. As for that old cat, your aunt'—but no, Betty, he did not say quite that; I put it in, and I ought not to have done so. I bear her no resentment; I wish her no ill. She did by me what she believed to be right. She acted towards me up to her lights; alas for me that the light which was in her was darkness! The angel said: 'As for your aunt, before she can enter here, she will want illumining, enlarging, and sweetening, and will have to pass through Purgatory.' And oh, Betty, that will be gall and bitterness to her, for she did not believe in Purgatory, and she wrote a controversial pamphlet against it. Then said the angel: 'Return, return to the pomps and vanities.' I fell on my knees, and said: 'Oh, suffer me but to have one glimpse of that which is within!' 'Be it so,' he replied. 'One glimpse only whilst I cast my sword on high.' Thereat he threw up the flaming brand, and it was as though a glorious flash of lightning filled all space. At the same moment the gates swung apart, and I saw what was beyond. It was but for one brief moment, for the sword came down, and the angel caught it by the handle, and instantly the gates were shut. Then, sorrowfully, I turned myself about and went back to earth. And, Betty, it was I who took and read your novels. It was I who went to Lady Belgrove's ball in your place. It was I who sat instead of you at Her Majesty's and heard Carmen. It was I who took your place at Henley Regatta, and I—I, instead of you, received the protestation of Charles Fontanel's affection, and there in the boat-house I received the first and last kiss of love. And it was I, Betty, as I have told you, who took your place at the altar to-day. I had the pleasures that were designed for you—the ball-dress, the dances, the fair words, the music of the opera, the courtship, the excitement of the regatta, the reading of sensational novels. It was I who had what all girls most long for, their most supreme bliss of wearing the wedding-veil and the orange- blossoms. But I have reached my limit. I am full of the pomps and vanities, and I return on high. You will see me no more.”
“Oh, Letice,” said Betty, obtaining her speech, “you do not grudge me the joys of life?” The fair white being at her side shook her head.
“And you desire no more of the pomps and vanities?”
“No, Betty. I have looked through the gates.”
Then Betty put forth her hands to clasp the waist of her sister, as she said fervently— “Tell me, Letice, what you saw beyond.”
“Betty—everything the reverse of Salem Chapel.”
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