CHAPTER XXXIIHERBERT RANDAL
“I beg your pardon. I did not mean to be inquisitive, or to arouse any unpleasant memories,” Brownie hastened to say, but she looked somewhat disappointed, as well as embarrassed.
He saw it, and, after a moment’s thought, continued, speaking more to himself than to her:
“During the last few years of my life I have been led to recognize a higher power as guiding my life, and I have been praying that its bitterness might be removed. I am not sure but what that prayer is beginning to be answered by the events of to-night, and your presence here. So why should I not tell you?”
Then, with sudden decision, he went on:
“Miss Douglas, this place has been my home all my life. Yes,” as he saw her look of surprise, and speaking with great bitterness, “a galley slave is scarcely more of a prisoner than I have been ever since my unfortunate birth. I have never seen the outside of these buildings, excepting four blank walls which inclose a small court; I know not what my surroundings are, what my country is like, and, beyond my own attendants, scarce have seen the face of a human being. I think I must have been born with a deformed disposition as well as a distorted body; for, as a child, I was subject to fits of passion, so furious and of such long duration, that those who had charge of me deemed me insane and unsafe for the time, and used to confine me in yonder cell until I came to my senses. The bolt, you perceive, can be fastened on this side, so that the shaft will not move, and I could not get out until they released me. I used to grow frightened and almost idiotic shut up in that dismal place, with its sepulchre-like stillness, and I really think that in those days I was more brute than human. Forgive me for disturbing you with my sorrow—it will overcome me at times. But, as I was saying, I used to think I should die shut up in there away from every one; so, after my passion exhausteditself and I was let out, I would busy myself, when I was alone in this room, by cutting away this wall, and puncturing these holes; and then when they put me in there, I would creep close to this spot, and, with my ear against these holes, I could hear what was said and done here, and did not feel quite so lonely and wild.”
A shudder seemed to shake his whole frame at the remembrance of those fearful days.
“No one but yourself,” he continued, “knows to this day that the wall has been mutilated thus.”
The more she heard him talk, the more she wondered who he could be—this sad young cripple, who was so gentle, yet repulsive, so intelligent, yet to all appearance scarcely human. She looked at her watch, and found it was four o’clock. The young man, noting the act, suddenly said:
“How thoughtless of me, Miss Douglas, to keep you standing all this time. I suppose you will be obliged to remain here until daylight, as there is no way for you to get back into the Hall except by going outside from here, and, of course, it will be useless to attempt that until the household are astir. If you can be comfortable here for an hour longer, I will do my best to entertain you. I have books, and all the latest periodicals, and there is an easy-chair by the fire, which I know you will enjoy.”
He led her toward the fire, which really made the somewhat dismal apartment very cheerful.
Her thoughts were filled with this young man; she longed to know more of his sad history, and why his life had been rendered such a blank.
It could not be that he was really insane, and that it was necessary to confine him thus! Was she with a madman?
The thought for the moment startled her so that she actually felt faint. But, no; one look into that calm, patient face, with its deep, intelligent eyes, completely banished all fear, and left her more in the dark than ever.
“You are very weary,” the young man remarked, seeing her listless attitude.
“No,” she answered, smiling; “but I am wondering how my explanation regarding my absence and sudden reappearance will be received by Lady Ruxley.”
“Ah! I had not thought of that,” he replied, with a painful start, and a vivid flush crimsoning his white face.
“You are an inmate of the family, then?” he asked, thoughtfully.
“I am companion to Lady Ruxley, although before coming to her I was governess in the family of that woman who entrapped me into yonder cell.” She then related to him something of her troubles with Mrs. Coolidge.
“And it is her daughter who is to marry m—— Sir Charles?” the young man asked, deeply interested.
“Yes.”
“Is she anything like her mother?”
“Very much like her,” Brownie said, dryly.
“A fine wife he will have, I fear!” he answered, with curling lips.
“I am very sorry for him,” the young girl replied, gently.
“He is very nice, I expect,” said the cripple, his lips quivering painfully, while he shaded his face with his hand.
“He is indeed a very fine young man, I am told.”
“Would you mind telling me what he is like?” and Brownie wondered why his tones were husky and tremulous.
She described him as well as she could, and concluded:
“To sum it all up, he is very handsome, and as good—they say—and noble in proportion.”
A heavy sigh was the only reply, and then he appeared to be sunk in reverie.
After an awkward silence, he suddenly aroused himself and said:
“Miss Douglas, you and I are both placed in a very trying position by the events of to-night. It did not enter my mind that any explanation would have to be rendered as to your release from yonder cell, although I should not have hesitated an instant about aiding you had I thought of it. I see now that some account of it will be necessary, but I must tell you frankly that it will bring the direst confusion upon the inmates of Vallingham Hall, when you return and make known the fact of your imprisonment and the manner of your release.”
“I expected it would be somewhat embarrassing to Mrs.Coolidge and her daughter, but how else will it bring confusion?” Brownie asked, wonderingly.
“Because it will have to be known that I was instrumental in it, and there are but two or three people in the world who know of my existence; consequently, it would involve some very awkward explanations on the part of at least one individual, and that is my own mother. Miss Douglas, my name is Herbert Randal!”
“What! are you Lady Randal’s son?” demanded Brownie, in astonishment.
“Yes; and Sir Charles is my brother, although I have never yet looked upon his face; neither do I remember having seen my mother more than half a dozen times in my life,” he replied, with intense bitterness.
“Impossible! Why, it is too horrible!” ejaculated the young girl, more and more astonished and shocked.
“It is even so. It does not seem possible that a mother could so far forget her motherhood as to willingly condemn her own flesh and blood to what I have been doomed ever since my birth; but it is true, nevertheless. I was born abroad while my mother was traveling one summer, but I was such a misshapen mass of humanity that she went into convulsions upon first beholding me, and has seldom been able to bear the sight of me since. While my father lived I was kept out of the country, and I do not believe that even he knew of my existence; but after his death my mother had me brought here, and hired an old woman and her son to take care of me until I was about fourteen years of age. They often abused and ill-treated me, and I think perhaps it was owing to this that I was so ungovernable at times. Since that time a broken-down professor has had the principal charge of me and my education. He has been paid a high salary upon the condition that he would never betray his trust. I think he would be glad to see me in different circumstances, but he has an invalid sister depending upon him, and he has no other means of support. I am never allowed to go out, except under circumstances of the utmost secrecy, and then only into a little court hemmed in by the blank walls of these buildings, and I live here in this secretchamber, unknown to all but my mother, my tutor, and my servants.”
“Dreadful!” murmured Brownie, almost moved to tears by the sad recital.
“Yon may well say that. It is dreadful to be shut up from the beautiful world—for I read of its beauties, if I cannot see them; but it is more dreadful to be shut away from all affection and kindness. In my youth I could not patiently bear it, and gave way to those fearful outbursts of passion of which I have told you. If my father were living, things might be different, for I have heard that he was a good man. My brother I have never seen, and I suppose he does not dream of such a thing as a relative like me; and while my mother not only cannot bear the sight of her crippled son, she is also ambitious that the one who is a credit to her should profit by all the advantages possible. My first thought when I resolved to release you to-night, was that perhaps the event might open a way of escape for me also, and that I could go away by myself and no one ever know who I am. But your connection with Lady Ruxley, and your having been an inmate of the family, will make it necessary that my agency in the matter be explained. Of course, in order to justify yourself, you will have to tell how you came to be shut up, and the next inquiry will be, ‘How did you get out?’”
“I see,” said Brownie, with curling lips; “and if I proclaim the fact that a young man by the name of Herbert Randal, who has also been kept a close prisoner for over twenty years by a heartless mother’s decree, liberated me, it is going to make it very uncomfortable for Lady Randal. Pardon me,” she added, flushing a lovely color, and dropping the scorn out of her voice, “but I honestly believe the time has come when it is right that the world should know of your existence, and that you should know something of your kindred and the world in which you live,” she concluded, indignantly.
“I sometimes go to a little old chapel, which incloses one side of the little court of which I have spoken. I found an entrance to it through the vaults, and I sometimes go there to read. I might have escaped long agoin that way had it not been for my tutor, whom I knew would be reduced to the most abject poverty if deprived of his situation, and so pity has kept me here.”
“But you might go out and assert your rights. Of course, a portion of all this property would fall to you, and then you could see that he did not suffer,” interposed Brownie.
“Yes, I might do that, and perhaps thereby gain the hatred of my brother. I want his love—oh, I crave the love of some human being!” he cried, almost passionately.
“He has sent you a friend at all events, if you will allow me to be such,” Brownie said, impulsively, and reaching out her hand to him, while two bright tears rolled over her flushed cheeks and dropped upon her black dress.
“Ah! then this is the beginning of good things for me, and I will accept it as a precious omen,” he replied, clasping her hand warmly, and his eyes lighted with a deep, and sudden joy. “I do not mean to complain,” he added, a moment after, “for I have many things to be thankful for, and I thank my Maker every day that He gave me this ugly body rather than a blunted intellect. I have my books, and moderately good health, though that would be better, I think, if I could be more in the air. But I try to feel that all my privations are sent to teach me some great lesson in life, and fit me for better things.”
Brownie sat in deep and perplexed thought for several minutes. There were evidently only two things which she could do; either leave the Hall altogether and hide, as Mrs. Coolidge had proposed, letting her disappearance still remain a mystery, or boldly face them all, and let the guilty suffer for their own wrong-doing.
Herbert Randal read something of Brownie’s thoughts in her troubled face.
“I do not see that there is but one course for you to pursue, Miss Douglas,” he said, “and that is to explain everything in a straightforward way. Perhaps if you could conceal the fact from all but the immediate family that it was Lady Randal’s son who released you, it might save some scandal.”
“Do you not think it right and just that that fact bemade known?” Brownie asked, gravely, adding: “I shall never rest content until I know you are at liberty to go and come at your own will and pleasure, and have your rights.”
“You are very kind. I shall leave it all to your own judgment. If it is necessary, of course the secret will have to come out. You can judge how much of an explanation may be necessary as soon as you reach the Hall.”
He took the candle, and sweeping aside a portion of the tapestry hangings, revealed an iron door. He asked her to draw back the bolt and push the door open.
She did so, and saw a flight of stone steps.
He limped down these, she following, and soon came to what appeared a grated window.
He told her to slide back the grating, when she would see another bolt which fastened the window.
She obeyed, and slipping the bolt, the window swung open on hinges, when, descending two or three more steps, they found themselves in what he had called a court, but what was in reality a small, ancient burying ground, surrounded on three sides by the walls of the Hall, and on the fourth by that of the old chapel.