I felt so angry with him for being the cause--innocent as he might be--of the shocking scene which had taken place, that Iexceeded the bounds of my duty, and told him the whole truth.The poor, weak, wavering, childish creature flushed up red in the face, then turned as pale as ashes, and dropped into one of the hall chairs crying--literally crying fit to break his heart."Oh, William," says he, wringing his little frail, trembling white hands as helpless as a baby, "oh, William, what am I to do?""As you ask me that question, sir," says I, "you will excuse me, I hope, if, being a servant, I plainly speak my mind notwithstanding.I know my station well enough to be aware that, strictly speaking, I have done wrong, and far exceeded my duty, in telling you as much as I have told you already; but I would go through fire and water, sir," says I, feeling my own eyes getting moist, "for my mistress's sake.She has no relation here who can speak to you; and it is even better that a servant like me should risk being guilty of an impertinence, than that dreadful and lasting mischief should arise from the right remedy not being applied at the right time.This is what I should do, sir, in your place.Saving your presence, I should leave off crying; and go back home and write to Mr.James Smith, saying that I would not, as a clergyman, give him railing for railing, but would prove how unworthily he had suspected me by ceasing to visit at the Hall from thi s time forth, rather than be a cause of dissension between man and wife.If you will put that into proper language, sir, and will have the letter ready for me in half an hour's time, I will call for it on the fastest horse in our stables, and, at my own risk, will give it to my master before he sails to-night.I have nothing more to say, sir, except to ask your pardon for forgetting my proper place, and for making bold to speak on a very serious matter as equal to equal, and as man to man."To do Mr.Meeke justice, he had a heart, though it was a very small one.He shook hands with me, and said he accepted my advice as the advice of a friend, and so went back to his parsonage to write the letter.In half an hour I called for it on horseback, but it was not ready for me.Mr.Meeke was ridiculously nice about how he should express himself when he got a pen into his hand.I found him with his desk littered with rough copies, in a perfect agony about how to turn his phrases delicately enough in referring to my mistress.Every minute being precious, I hurried him as much as I could, without standing on any ceremony.It took half an hour more, with all my efforts, before he could make up his mind that the letter would do.I started off with it at a gallop, and never drew rein till I got to the sea-port town.
The harbor-clock chimed the quarter past eleven as I rode by it, and when I got down to the jetty there was no yacht to be seen.
She had been cast off from her moorings ten minutes before eleven, and as the clock struck she had sailed out of the harbor.
I would have followed in a boat, but it was a fine starlight night, with a fresh wind blowing, and the sailors on the pier laughed at me when I spoke of rowing after a schooner yacht which had got a quarter of an hour's start of us, with the wind abeam and the tide in her favor.
I rode back with a heavy heart.All I could do now was to send the letter to the post-office, Stockholm.
The next day the doctor showed my mistress the scrap of paper with the message on it from my master, and an hour or two after that, a letter was sent to her in Mr.Meeke's handwriting, explaining the reason why she must not expect to see him at the Hall, and referring to me in terms of high praise as a sensible and faithful man who had spoken the right word at the right time.
I am able to repeat the substance of the letter, because I heard all about it from my mistress, under very unpleasant circumstances so far as I was concerned.
The news of my master's departure did not affect her as the doctor had supposed it would.Instead of distressing her, it roused her spirit and made her angry; her pride, as I imagine, being wounded by the contemptuous manner in which her husband had notified his intention of sailing to Sweden at the end of a message to a servant about packing his clothes.Finding her in that temper of mind, the letter from Mr.Meeke only irritated her the more.She insisted on getting up, and as soon as she was dressed and downstairs, she vented her violent humor on me, reproaching me for impertinent interference in the affairs of my betters, and declaring that she had almost made up her mind to turn me out of my place for it.I did not defend myself, because I respected her sorrows and the irritation that came from them;also, because I knew the natural kindness of her nature well enough to be assured that she would make amends to me for her harshness the moment her mind was composed again.The result showed that I was right.That same evening she sent for me and begged me to forgive and forget the hasty words she had spoken in the morning with a grace and sweetness that would have won the heart of any man who listened to her.
Weeks passed after this, till it was more than a month since the day of my master's departure, and no letter in his handwriting came to Darrock Hall.
My mistress, taking this treatment more angrily than sorrowfully, went to London to consult her nearest relations, who lived there.
On leaving home she stopped the carriage at the parsonage, and went in (as I thought, rather defiantly) to say good-by to Mr.
Meeke.She had answered his letter, and received others from him, and had answered them likewise.She had also, of course, seen him every Sunday at church, and had always stopped to speak to him after the service; but this was the first occasion on which she had visited him at his house.As the carriage stopped, the little parson came out, in great hurry and agitation, to meet her at the garden gate.
"Don't look alarmed, Mr.Meeke," says my mistress, getting out.
"Though you have engaged not to come near the Hall, I have made no promise to keep away from the parsonage." With those words she went into the house.
The quadroon maid, Josephine, was sitting with me in the rumble of the carriage, and I saw a smile on her tawny face as the parson and his visitor went into the house together.Harmless as Mr.Meeke was, and innocent of all wrong as I knew my mistress to be, I regretted that she should be so rash as to despise appearances, considering the situation she was placed in.She had already exposed herself to be thought of disrespectfully by her own maid, and it was hard to say what worse consequences might not happen after that.
Half an hour later we were away on our journey.My mistress stayed in London two months.Throughout all that long time no letter from my master was forwarded to her from the country house.