Adela bad never seen him so smitten with grave trouble. She knew him in brutal anger and in surly ill-temper; but his present mood had nothing of either. He seemed to stagger beneath a blow which had all but crushed him and left him full of dread. He began to address her in a voice very unlike his own—thick, uncertain; he used short sentences, often incomplete.
‘Those men are on the committee. One of them got a letter this morning—anonymous. It said they were to be on their guard against me. Said the Company’s a swindle—that I knew it—that I’ve got money out of the people on false pretences. And Hilary’s gone—gone off—taking all he could lay hands on. The letter says so—I don’t know. It says I’m thick with the secretary—a man I never even saw. That he’s a well-known swindler—Delancey his name is. And these fellows believe it—demand that I shall prove I’m innocent. What proof can I give? They think I kept out of the way on purpose this morning.’
He ceased speaking, and Adela stood mute, looking him in the face. She was appalled on his account. She did not love him; too often his presence caused her loathing. But of late she had been surprised into thinking more highly of some of his qualities than it had hitherto been possible for her to do. She could never forget that he toiled first and foremost for his own advancement to a very cheap reputation; he would not allow her to lose sight of it had she wished. But during the present winter she had discerned in him a genuine zeal to help the suffering, a fervour in kindly works of which she had not believed him capable. Very slowly the conviction had come to her, but in the end she could not resist it. One evening, in telling her of the hideous misery he had been amongst, his voice failed and she saw moisture in his eyes. Was his character changing? Had she wronged him in attaching too much importance to a fault which was merely on the surface? Oh, but there were too many indisputable charges against him. Yet a man’s moral nature may sometimes be strengthened by experience of the evil he has wrought. All this rushed through her mind as she now stood gazing at him.
‘But how can they credit an anonymous letter?’ she said. ‘How can they believe the worst of you before making inquiries?’
‘They have been to the office of the Company. Everything is upside down. They say Hilary isn’t to be found.’
‘Who can have written such a letter?’
‘How do I know? I have enemies enough, no doubt. Who hasn’t that makes himself a leader?’
There was the wrong note again. It discouraged her; she was silent.
‘Look here, Adela,’ he said, ‘do you believe this?’
‘Believe it!’
‘Do you think I’m capable of doing a thing like that—scraping together by pennies the money of the poorest of the poor just to use it for my own purposes—could I do that?’
‘You know I do not believe it.’
‘But you don’t speak as if you were certain. There’s something—But how am I to prove I’m innocent? How can I make people believe I wasn’t in the plot? They’ve only my word—who’ll think that enough? Anyone can tell a lie and stick to it, if there’s no positive proof against him. How am I to makeyoubelieve that I was taken in?’
‘But I tell you that a doubt of your innocence does not enter my mind. If it were necessary, I would stand up in public before all who accused you and declare that they were wrong. I do not need your assurance. I recognise that it would be impossible for you to commit such a crime.’
‘Well, it does me good to hear you say that,’ he replied, with light of hope in his eyes. ‘I wanted to feel sure of that. You might have thought that’—he sank his voice—‘that because I could think of destroying that will—’
‘Don’t speak of that!’ she interrupted, with a gesture of pain. ‘I say that I believe you. It is enough. Don’t speak about me any more. Think of what has to be done.’
‘I have promised to be in Clerkenwell at eight o’clock. There’ll be a meeting. I shall do my best to show that I am innocent. You’ll look after Alice? It’s awful to have to leave her whilst she’s like that.’
‘Trust me. I will not leave her side for a moment. The doctor will be here again to-night.’
A thought struck him.
‘Send out the girl for an evening paper. There may be something in it.’
The paper was obtained. One of the first headings his eye fell upon was: ‘Rumoured Collapse of a Public Company. Disappearance of the Secretary.’ He showed it to Adela, and they read together. She saw that the finger with which he followed the lines quivered like a leaf. It was announced in a brief paragraph that the Secretary of the Irish Dairy Company was missing: that he seemed to have gone off with considerable sums. Moreover, that there were rumours in the City of a startling kind, relative to the character of the Company itself. The name of the secretary was Mr. Robert Delancey, but that was now believed to be a merealias. The police were actively at work.
‘It’ll be the ruin of me!’ Mutimer gasped. ‘I can never prove that I knew nothing. You see, nothing’s said about Hilary. It’s that fellow Delancey who has run.’
‘You must find Mr. Hilary,’ said Adela urgently. ‘Where does he live?’
‘I have no idea. I only had the office address. Perhaps it isn’t even his real name. It’ll be my ruin.’
Adela was astonished to see him so broken down. He let himself sink upon a chair; his head and hands fell.
‘But I can’t understand why you should despair so!’ she exclaimed. ‘You will speak to the meeting to-night. If the money is lost you will restore it. If you have been imprudent, that is no crime.’
‘It is—it is—when I had money of that kind entrusted to me! They won’t hear me. They have condemned me already. What use is it to talk to them? They’ll say everything comes to smash in my hands.’
She spoke to him with such words of strengthening as one of his comrades might have used. She did not feel the tenderness of a wife, and had no power to assume it. But her voice was brave and true. She had made his interest, his reputation, her own. By degrees he recovered from the blow, and let her words give him heart.
‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘I’m behaving like a fool; I couldn’t go on different if I was really guilty. Who wrote that letter? I never saw the letter before, as far as I know. I wanted to keep it, but they wouldn’t let me—trust them! What black guards they are I They’re jealous of me. They know they can’t speak like I do, that they haven’t the same influence I have. So they’re ready to believe the first lie that’s brought against me. Let them look to themselves to-night! I’ll give them a piece of my mind—see if I don’t! What’s to-day? Friday. On Sunday I’ll have the biggest meeting ever gathered in the East End. If they shout out against me, I’ll tell them to their faces that they’re mean-spirited curs. They haven’t the courage to rise and get by force what they’ll never have by asking for it, and when a man does his best to help them they throw mud at him!’
‘But they won’t do so,’ Adela urged. ‘Don’t be unjust. Wait and see. They will shoutfor, notagainstyou.’
‘Why didn’t you keep ‘Arry here?’ he asked suddenly.
‘He refused to stay. I gave him money.’
‘You should have forced him to stay How can I have a brother of my own living a life like that? You did wrong to give him money. He’ll only use it to make a beast of himself. I must find him again; I can’t let him go to ruin.’
‘Arry had come back to Holloway the previous night to inform Adela that her husband might not return till morning. As she said, it had been impossible to detain him. He was too far gone in unconventionality to spend a night under a decent roof. Home-sickness for the gutter possessed him.
In the meantime Alice had become quieter. It was half-past six; Mutimer had to be at the meeting-place in Clerkenwell by eight. Adela sat by Alice whilst the servant hurriedly prepared a meal; then the girl took her place, and she went down to her husband. They were in the middle of their meal when they heard the front-door slam. Mutimer started up.
‘Who’s that? Who’s gone out?’
Adela ran to the foot of the stairs and called the servant’s name softly. It was a minute before the girl appeared.
‘Who has just gone out, Mary?’
‘Gone out? No one, mum!’
‘Is Mrs. Rodman lying still?’
The girl went to see. She had left Alice for a few moments previously. She appeared again at the head of the stairs with a face of alarm.
‘Mrs. Rodman isn’t there, mum!’
Mutimer flew up the staircase. Alice was nowhere to be found. It could not be doubted that she had fled in a delirious state. Richard rushed into the street, but it was very dark, and rain was falling. There was no trace of the fugitive. He came back to the door, where Adela stood; he put out his hand and held her arm as if she needed support.
‘Give me my hat! She’ll die in the street, in the rain! I’ll go one way; the girl must go the other. My hat!’
‘I will go one way myself,’ said Adela hurriedly. ‘You must take an umbrella: it pours. Mary! my waterproof!’
They ran in opposite directions. It was a quiet by-street, with no shops to cast light upon the pavement. Adela encountered a constable before she had gone very far, and begged for his assistance. He promised to be on the look-out, but advised her to go on a short distance to the police-station and leave a description of the missing woman. She did so; then, finding the search hopeless in this quarter, turned homewards. Mutimer was still absent, but he appeared in five minutes; as unsuccessful as herself. She told him of her visit to the station.
‘I must keep going about,’ he said. ‘She can’t be far off; her strength, surely, wouldn’t take her far.’
Adela felt for him profoundly; for once he had not a thought of himself, his distress was absorbing. He was on the point of leaving the house again, when she remembered the meeting at which he was expected. She spoke of it.
‘What do I care?’ he replied, waving his arm. ‘Let them think what they like. I must find Alice.’
Adela saw in a moment all that his absence would involve. He could of course explain subsequently, but in the meantime vast harm would have been done. It was impossible to neglect the meeting altogether. She ran after him and stopped him on the pavement.
‘I will go to this meeting for you,’ she said. ‘A cab will take me there and bring me back. I will let them know what keeps you away.’
He looked at her with astonishment.
‘You! How can you go? Among those men?’
‘Surely I have nothing to fear from them? Have you lost all your faith suddenly? You cannot go, but someone must. I will speak to them so that they cannot but believe me. You continue the search; I will go.’
They stood together in the pouring rain. Mutimer caught her hand.
‘I never knew what a wife could be till now,’ he exclaimed hoarsely. ‘And I never knewyou!’
‘Find me a cab and give the man the address. I will be ready in an instant.’
Her cheeks were on fire; her nerves quivered with excitement. She had made the proposal almost involuntarily; only his thanks gave her some understanding of what she was about to do. But she did not shrink; a man’s—better still, a woman’s—noblest courage throbbed in her. If need were, she too could stand forward in a worthy cause and speak the truth undauntedly.
The cab was bearing her away. She looked at her watch in the moment of passing a street lamp and just saw that it was eight o’clock. The meeting would be full by this; they would already be drawing ill conclusions from Mutimer’s absence Faster, faster! Every moment lost increased the force of prejudice against him. She could scarcely have felt more zeal on behalf of the man whom her soul loved. In the fever of her brain she was conscious of a wish that even now that love could be her husband’s. Ah no, no! But serve him she could and loyally. The lights flew by in the streets of Islington; the driver was making the utmost speed he durst. A check among thronging vehicles anguished her. But it was past, and here at length came the pause.
A crowd of perhaps a hundred men was gathered about the ill-lighted entrance to what had formerly been a low-class dancing-saloon. Adela saw them come thronging about the cab, heard their cries of discontent and of surprise when she showed herself.
‘Wait for me!’ she called to the driver, and straightway walked to the door. The men made way for her. On the threshold she turned.
‘I wish to see some member of the committee. I am Mrs. Mutimer.’
There was a coarse laugh from some fellows, but others cried, ‘Shut up! she’s a lady.’ One stepped forward and announced himself as a committee-man. He followed her into the passage.
‘My husband cannot come,’ she said. ‘Will you please show me where I can speak to the meeting and tell them the reason of his absence?’
Much amazed, the committee-man led her into the hall. It was whitewashed, furnished with plain benches, lit with a few gas-jets. There was scarcely room to move for the crowd. Every man seemed to be talking at the pitch of his voice. The effect was an angry roar. Adela’s guide with difficulty made a passage for her to the platform, for it took some time before the crowd realised what was going on. At length she stood in a place whence she could survey the assembly. On the wall behind her hung a great sheet of paper on which were inscribed the names of all who had deposited money with Mutimer. Adela glanced at it and understood. Instead of being agitated she possessed an extraordinary lucidity of mind, a calmness of nerve which she afterwards remembered as something miraculous.
The committee-man roared for silence, then in a few words explained Mrs. Mutimer’s wish to make ‘a speech.’ To Adela’s ears there seemed something of malice in this expression; she did not like, either, the laugh which it elicited. But quiet was speedily restored by a few men of sturdy lungs. She stepped to the front of the platform.
The scene was a singular one. Adela had thrown off her waterproof in the cab; she stood in her lady-like costume of home, her hat only showing that she had come from a distance. For years her cheeks had been very pale; in this moment her whole face was white as marble. Her delicate beauty made strange contrast with the faces on each side and in front of her—faces of rude intelligence, faces of fathomless stupidity, faces degraded into something less than human. But all were listening, all straining towards her. There were a few whispers of honest admiration, a few of vile jest. She began to speak.
‘I have come here because my husband cannot come. It is most unfortunate that he cannot, for he tells me that someone has been throwing doubt upon his honesty. He would be here, but that a terrible misfortune has befallen him. His sister was lying ill in our house. A little more than an hour ago she was by chance left alone and, being delirious—out of her mind—escaped from the house. My husband is now searching for her everywhere; she may be dying somewhere in the streets. That is the explanation I have come to give you. But I will say a word more. I do not know who has spoken ill of my husband; I do not know his reasons for doing so. This, however, I know, that Richard Mutimer has done you no wrong, and that he is incapable of the horrible thing of which he is accused. You must believe it; you wrong yourselves if you refuse to. To-morrow, no doubt, he will come and speak for himself. Till then I beg you to take the worthy part and credit good rather than evil.’
She ceased, and, turning to the committee-man, who still stood near her, requested him to guide her from the room. As she moved down from the platform the crowd recovered itself from the spell of her voice. The majority cheered, but there were not a few dissentient howls. Adela had ears for nothing; a path opened before her, and she walked along it with bowed head. Her heart was now beating violently; she felt that she must walk quickly or perchance her strength would fail her before she reached the door. As she disappeared there again arose the mingled uproar of cheers and groans; it came to her like the bellow of a pursuing monster as she fled along the passage. And in truth Demos was on her track. A few kept up with her; the rest jammed themselves in the door way, hustled each other, fought. The dozen who came out to the pavement altogether helped her into the cab, then gave a hearty cheer as she drove away.
The voice of Demos, not malevolent at the last, but to Adela none the less something to be fled from, something which excited thoughts of horrible possibilities, in its very good-humour and its praise of her a sound of fear.
His search being vain, Mutimer hastened from one police-station to another, leaving descriptions of his sister at each. When he came home again Adela had just arrived. She was suffering too much from the reaction which followed upon her excitement to give him more than the briefest account of what she had heard and said; but Mutimer cared little for details. He drew an easy-chair near to the fire and begged her to rest. As she lay back for a moment with closed eyes, he took her faint hand and put it to his lips. He had never done so before; when she glanced at him he averted his face in embarrassment.
He would have persuaded her to go to bed, but she declared that sleep was impossible; she had much rather sit up with him till news came of Alice, as it surely must do in course of the night. For Mutimer there was no resting; he circled continually about the neighbouring streets, returning to the house every quarter of an hour, always to find Adela in the same position. Her heart would not fall to its normal beat, and the vision of those harsh faces would not pass from her mind.
At two o’clock they heard that Alice was found. She had been discovered several miles from home, lying unconscious in the street, and was now in a hospital. Mutimer set off at once; he returned with the report that she was between life and death. It was impossible to remove her.
Adela slept a little between six and eight; her husband took even shorter rest. When she came down to the sitting-room, he was reading the morning paper. As she entered he uttered a cry of astonishment and rage.
‘Look here!’ he exclaimed to her. ‘Read that!’
He pointed to an account of the Irish Dairy Company frauds, in which it was stated that the secretary, known as Delancey, appeared also to have borne the name of Rodman.
They gazed at each other.
‘Then it was Rodman wrote that letter!’ Mutimer cried. ‘I’ll swear to it. He did it to injure me at the last moment. Why haven’t they got him yet? The police are useless. But they’ve got Hilary, I see—yes, they’ve got Hilary. He was caught at Dover. Ha, ha! He denies everything—says he didn’t even know of the secretary’s decamping. The lying scoundrel! Says he was going to Paris on private business. But they’ve got him! And see here again: “The same Rodman is at present wanted by the police on a charge of bigamy.” Wanted! If they weren’t incompetent fools they’d have had him already. Ten to one he’s out of England.’
It was a day of tumult for Mutimer. At the hospital he found no encouragement, but he could only leave Alice in the hands of the doctors. From the hospital he went to his mother’s house; he had not yet had time to let her know of anything. But his main business lay in Clerkenwell and in various parts of the East End, wherever he could see his fellow-agitators. In hot haste he wrote an announcement of a meeting on Clerkenwell Green for Sunday afternoon, and had thousands of copies printed on slips; by evening these were scattered throughout his ‘parishes.’ He found that the calumny affecting him was already widely known; several members of his committee met him with black looks. Here and there an ironical question was put to him about his sister’s health. With the knowledge that Alice might be dying or dead, he could scarcely find words of reply. His mood changed from fear and indignation to a grim fury; within a few hours he made many resolute enemies by his reckless vehemence and vituperation.
The evening papers brought him a piece of intelligence which would have rejoiced him but for something with which it was coupled. Delancey,aliasRodman,aliasWilliamson, was arrested; he had been caught in Hamburg. The telegram added that he talked freely and had implicated a number of persons—among them a certain Socialist agitator, name not given. As Mutimer read this he fell for a moment into blank despair. He returned at once to Holloway, all but resolved to throw up the game—to abandon the effort to defend himself, and wait for what might result from the judicial investigations. Adela resisted this to the uttermost. She understood that such appearance of fear would be fatal to him. With a knowledge of Demos which owed much to her last night’s experience, she urged to him that behind his back calumny would thrive unchecked, would grow in a day to proportions altogether irresistible. She succeeded in restoring his courage, though at the same time there revived in Mutimer the savage spirit which could only result in harm to himself.
‘This is how they repay a man who works for them!’ he cried repeatedly. ‘The ungrateful brutes! Let me once clear myself, and I’ll throw it up, bid them find someone else to fight their battles for them. It’s always been the same: history shows it What have I got for myself out of it all, I’d like to know? Haven’t I given them every penny I had? Let them do their worst! Let them bark and bray till they are hoarse!’
He would have kept away from Clerkenwell that evening, but even this Adela would not let him do. She insisted that he must be seen and heard, that the force of innocence would prevail even with his enemies. The couple of hours he passed with her were spent in ceaseless encouragement on her side, in violent tirades on his. He paced the room like a caged lion, at one moment execrating Rodman, the next railing against the mob to whose interests he had devoted himself. Now and then his voice softened, and he spoke of Alice.
‘The scoundrel set even her against me! If she lives, perhaps she’ll believe I’m guilty; how can my word stand against her husband’s? Why, he isn’t her husband at all! It’s a good thing if she dies—the best thing that could happen. What will become of her? What are we to call her? She’s neither married nor single. Can we keep it from her, do you think? No, that won’t do; she must be free to marry an honest man. You’ll try and make friends with her, Adela—if ever you’ve the chance? She’ll have to live with us, of course unless she’d rather live with mother. We mustn’t tell her for a long time, till she’s strong enough to bear it.’
He with difficulty ate a few mouthfuls and went off to Clerkenwell. In the erstwhile dancing-saloon it was a night of tempest. Mutimer had never before addressed an unfriendly audience. After the first few interruptions he lost his temper, and with it his cause, as far as these present hearers were concerned. When he left them, it was amid the mutterings of a storm which was not quite—only not quite—ready to burst in fury.
‘Who knows you won’t take yer ‘ook before to-morrow?’ cried a voice as he neared the door.
‘Wait and see!’ Mutimer shouted in reply, with a savage laugh. ‘I’ve a word or two to say yet to blackguards like you.’
He could count on some twenty pairs of fists in the room, if it came to that point; but he was allowed to depart unmolested.
On the way home he called at the hospital. There was no change in Alice’s condition.
The next day he remained at home till it was time to start for Clerkenwell Green. He was all but worn out, and there was nothing of any use to be done before the meeting assembled. Adela went for him to the hospital and brought back still the same report. He ate fairly well of his midday dinner, seeming somewhat calmer. Adela, foreseeing his main danger, begged him to address the people without anger, assured him that a dignified self-possession would go much farther than any amount of blustering. He was induced to promise that he would follow her advice.
He purposed walking to the Green; the exercise would perhaps keep his nerves in order. When it was time to start, he took Adela’s hand, and for a second time kissed it. She made an effort over herself and held her lips to him. The ‘good-bye’ was exchanged, with a word of strengthening from Adela; but still he did not go. He was endeavouring to speak.
‘I don’t think I’ve thanked you half enough,’ he said at length, ‘for what you did on Friday night.’
‘Yes, more than enough,’ was the reply.
‘You make little of it, but it’s a thing very few women would have done. And it was hard for you, because you’re a lady.’
‘No less a woman,’ murmured Adela, her head bowed.
‘And a good woman—I believe with all my heart. I want to ask you to forgive me—for things I once said to you. I was a brute. Perhaps if I had been brought up in the same kind of way that you were—that’s the difference between us, you see. But try if you can to forget it. I’ll never think anything but good of you as long as I live.’
She could not reply, for a great sob was choking her. She pressed his band; the tears broke from her eyes as she turned away.
It being Sunday afternoon, visitors were admitted to the hospital in which Alice lay. Mutimer had allowed himself time to pass five minutes by his sister’s bedside on the way to Clerkenwell. Alice was still unconscious; she lay motionless, but her lips muttered unintelligible words. He bent over her and spoke, but she did not regard him. It was perhaps the keenest pain Mutimer had ever known to look into those eyes and meet no answering intelligence. By close listening he believed he heard her utter the name of her husband. It was useless to stay; he kissed her and left the ward.
On his arrival at Clerkenwell Green—a large triangular space which merits the name of Green as much as the Strand—he found a considerable gathering already assembled about the cart from which he was to speak. The inner circle consisted of his friends—some fifty who remained staunch in their faith. Prominent among them was the man Redgrave, he who had presented the address when Mutimer took leave of his New Wanley workpeople. He had come to London at the same time as his leader, and had done much to recommend Mutimer’s scheme in the East End. His muscular height made those about him look puny. He was red in the face with the excitement of abusing Mutimer’s enemies, and looked as if nothing would please him better than to second words with arguments more cogent. He and those about him hailed the agitator’s appearance with three ringing cheers. A little later came a supporter whom Richard had not expected to see—Mr. Westlake. Only this morning intelligence of what was going on had reached his ears. At once he had scouted the accusations as incredible; he deemed it a duty to present himself on Mutimer’s side. Outside this small cluster was an indefinable mob, a portion of it bitterly hostile, a part indifferent; among the latter a large element of mere drifting blackguardism, the raff of a city, anticipating with pleasure an uproar which would give them unwonted opportunities of violence and pillage. These gentle men would with equal zeal declare for Mutimer or his opponents, as the fortune of the day directed them.
The core of the hostile party consisted of those who followed the banner of Comrade Roodhouse, the ralliers to the ‘Tocsin.’ For them it was a great occasion. The previous evening had seen a clamorous assembly in the room behind the Hoxton coffee-shop. Comrade Roodhouse professed to have full details of the scandal which had just come to light. According to him, there was no doubt whatever that Mutimer had known from the first the character of the bogus Company, and had wittingly used the money of the East-Enders to aid in floating a concern which would benefit himself and a few others. Roodhouse disclosed the identity of Mr. Robert Delancey, and explained the relations existing between Rodman and Mutimer, ignoring the fact that a lawsuit had of late turned their friendship to mutual animosity. It was an opportunity not to be missed for paying back the hard things Mutimer had constantly said of the ‘Tocsin’ party. Comrade Roodhouse was busy in the crowd, sowing calumnies and fermenting wrath. In the crowd were our old acquaintances Messrs. Cowes and Cullen, each haranguing as many as could be got to form a circle and listen, indulging themselves in measureless vituperation, crying shame on traitors to the noble cause. Here, too, was Daniel Dabbs, mainly interested in the occasion as an admirable provocative of thirst. He was much disposed to believe Mutimer guilty, but understood that it was none of his business to openly take part with either side. He stood well on the limits of the throng; it was not impossible that the debate might end in the cracking of crowns, in which case Mr. Dabbs, as a respectable licensed victualler whose weekly profits had long since made him smile at the follies of his youth, would certainly incur no needless risk to his own valuable scalp.
The throng thickened; it was impossible that the speakers should be audible to the whole assembly. Hastily it was decided to arrange two centres. Whilst Mutimer was speaking at the lower end of the Green, Redgrave would lift up his voice in the opposite part, and make it understood that Mutimer would repeat his address there as soon as he had satisfied the hearers below. The meeting was announced for three o’clock, but it was half an hour later before Mutimer stood up on the cart and extended his hand in appeal for silence. It at first seemed as if he could not succeed in making his voice heard at all. A cluster of Roodhouse’s followers, under the pretence of demanding quiet, made incessant tumult. But ultimately the majority, those who were merely curious, and such of the angry East-Enders as really wanted to hear what Mutimer had to say for himself, imposed silence. Richard began his speech.
He had kept Adela’s warning in mind, and determined to be calmly dignified in his refutal of the charges brought against him. For five minutes he impressed his hearers. He had never spoken better. In the beginning he briefly referred to the facts of his life, spoke of the use he had made of wealth when he possessed it, demanded if it was likely that he should join with swindlers to rob the very class to which he himself was proud to belong, and for which he had toiled unceasingly. He spoke of Rodman, and denied that he had ever known of this man’s connection with the Company—a man who was his worst enemy. He it was, this Rodman, who doubtless had written the letter which first directed suspicion in the wrong quarter; it was an act such as Rodman would be capable of, for the sake of gratifying his enmity. And how had that enmity arisen? He told the story of the lawsuit; showed how, in that matter, he had stood up for common honesty, though at the time Rodman was his friend. Then he passed to the subject of his stewardship. Why had he put that trust money into a concern without sufficient investigation? He could make but one straightforward answer: he had believed that the Company was sound, and he bought shares because the dividends promised to be large, and it was his first desire to do the very best he could for those who had laid their hard-earned savings in his hands.
For some minutes he had had increasing difficulty in holding his voice above the noise of interruptions, hostile or friendly. It now became impossible for him to proceed. A man who was lifted on to the shoulders of two others began to make a counter-speech, roaring so that those around could not but attend to him. He declared himself one of those whom Mutimer had robbed; all his savings for seven months were gone; he was now out of work, and his family would soon be starving. Richard’s blood boiled as he heard these words.
‘You lie!’ he bellowed in return; ‘I know you. You are the fellow who said last night that I should run away, and never come at all to this meeting. I called you a blackguard then, and I call you a liar now. You have put in my hand six threepences, and no more. The money you might have saved you constantly got drunk upon. Your money is waiting for you: you have only to come and apply for it. And I say the same to all the rest. I am ready to pay all the money back, and pay it too with interest.’
‘Of course you are!’ vociferated the other. ‘You can’t steal it, so you offer to give it back. We know that game.’
It was the commencement of utter confusion. A hundred voices were trying to make themselves heard. The great crowd swayed this way and that. Mutimer looked on a tempest of savage faces—a sight which might have daunted any man in his position. Fists were shaken at him, curses were roared at him from every direction. It was clear that the feeling of the mob was hopelessly against him; his explanations were ridiculed. A second man was reared on others’ shoulders; but instead of speaking from the place where he was, he demanded to be borne forward and helped to a standing on the cart. This was effected after a brief struggle with Mutimer’s supporters. Then all at once there was a cessation of the hubbub that the new speaker might be heard.
‘Look at this man!’ he cried, pointing at Mutimer, who had drawn as far aside as the cart would let him. ‘He’s been a-tellin’ you what he did when somebody died an’ left him a fortune. There’s just one thing he’s forgot, an’ shall I tell you what that is? When he was a workin’ man like ourselves, mates, he was a-goin’ to marry a pore girl, a workin’ girl. When he gets his money, what does he do? Why, he pitches her over, if you please, an’ marries a fine lady, as took him because he was rich—that’s the wayladiesalways chooses their husbands, y’understand.’
He was interrupted by a terrific yell, but by dint of vigorous pantomime secured a hearing again.
‘But wait a bit, maties; I haven’t done yet. He pitches over the pore girl, but he does worse afterwards. He sets a tale a-goin’ as she’d disgraced herself, as she wasn’t fit to be a honest man’s wife. An’ it was all a damned lie, as lots of us knows. Now what d’ye think o’ that! This is a friend o’ the People, this is! This is the man as ‘as your interests at ‘art, mates! If he’ll do a thing like that, won’t he rob you of your savin’s?’
As soon as he knew what the man was about to speak of, Mutimer felt the blood rush back upon his heart. It was as when a criminal hears delivered against him a damning item of evidence. He knew that he was pale, that every feature declared his consciousness of guilt. In vain he tried to face the mob and smile contemptuously. His eyes fell; he stood without the power of speech.
The yell was repeated, and prolonged, owing to another cause than the accusation just heard. When the accuser was borne forwards to the cart, a rumour spread among those more remote that an attack was being made on Mutimer and his friends. The rumour reached that part of the Green where Redgrave was then haranguing. At once the listeners faced about in the direction of the supposed conflict. Redgrave himself leaped down, and called upon all supporters of Mutimer to follow him. It was the crash between two crowds which led to the prolonging of the yell.
The meeting was over, the riot had begun.
Picture them, the indignant champions of honesty, the avengers of virtue defamed! Demos was roused, was tired of listening to mere articulate speech; it was time for a good wild-beast roar, for a taste of bloodshed. Scarcely a face in all the mob but distorted itself to express as much savagery as can be got out of the human countenance. Mutimer, seeing what had come, sprang down from the cart. He was at once carried yards away in an irresistible rush. Impossible for him and his friends to endeavour to hold their ground: they were too vastly outnumbered; the most they could do was to hold together and use every opportunity of retreat, standing in the meanwhile on the defensive. There was no adequate body of police on the Green; the riot would take its course unimpeded by the hired servants of the capitalist State. Redgrave little by little fought his way to within sight of Mutimer; he brought with him a small but determined contingent. On all sides was the thud of blows, the indignant shouting of the few who desired to preserve order mingled with the clamour of those who combated. Demos was having his way; civilisation was blotted out, and club law proclaimed.
Mutimer lost his hat in jumping from the cart; in five minutes his waistcoat and shirt were rent open, whether by friends in guarding him, or by foes in assailing, it was impossible to say. But his bodyguard held together with wonderful firmness, only now and then an enemy got near enough to dash a fist in his face. If he fell into the hands of the mob he was done for; Mutimer knew that, and was ready to fight for his life. But the direction taken by the main current of the crowd favoured him. In about twenty minutes he was swept away from the Green, and into a street. There were now fewer foes about him; he saw an opportunity, and together with Redgrave burst away. There was no shame in taking to flight where the odds against him were so overwhelming. But pursuers were close behind him; their cry gave a lead to the chase. He looked for some by-way as he rushed along the pavement. But an unexpected refuge offered itself. He was passing a little group of women, when a voice from among them cried loudly—‘In here! In here!’ He saw that a house-door was open, saw a hand beckon wildly, and at once sprang for the retreat. A woman entered immediately behind him and slammed the door, but he did not see that a stick which the foremost of his pursuers had flung at him came with a terrible blow full upon his preserver’s face.
For a moment he could only lean against the wall of the passage, recovering his breath. Where he stood it was almost dark, for the evening was drawing in. The woman who had rescued him was standing near, but he could not distinguish her face. He heard the mob assembling in the narrow street, their shouts, their trampling, and speedily there began a great noise at the door. A beating with sticks and fists, a thundering at the knocker.
‘Are you the landlady?’ Mutimer asked, turning to his silent companion.
‘No,’ was the reply. ‘She is outside, I must put up the chain. They might get her latchkey from her.’
At the first syllable he started; the voice was so familiar to him. The words were spoken with an entire absence of womanish consternation; the voice trembled a little, but for all that there was calm courage in its sound. When she had made the door secure and turned again towards him, he looked into her face as closely as he could.
‘Is it Emma?’
‘Yes.’
Both were silent. Mutimer forgot all about his danger; that at this moment he should meet Emma Vine, that it should be she who saved him, impressed him with awe which was stronger than all the multitude of sensations just now battling within him. For it was her name that had roused the rabble finally against him. For his wrong to her he knew that he would have suffered justly; yet her hand it was that barred the door against his brutal pursuers. A sudden weakness shook his limbs; he had again to lean upon the wall for support, and, scarcely conscious of what he did, he sobbed three or four times.
‘Are you hurt?’ Emma asked.
‘No, I’m not hurt, no.’
Two children had come down the stairs, and were clinging to Emma, crying with fright. For the noise at the door was growing terrific.
‘Who is there in the house?’ Mutimer asked.
‘No one, I think. The landlady and two other women who live here are outside. My sister is away somewhere.’
‘Can I get off by the back?’
‘No. There’s a little yard, but the walls are far too high.’
‘They’ll break the door through. If they do, the devils are as likely to kill you as me. I must go upstairs to a window and speak to them. I may do something yet. Sooner than put you in danger I’ll go out and let them do their worst Listen to them! That’s the People, that is! I deserve killing, fool that I am, if only for the lying good I’ve said of them. Let me go up into your room, if it has a window in the front.’
He led up the stairs, and Emma showed him the door of her room—the same in which she had received the visit of Daniel Dabbs. He looked about it, saw the poverty of it. Then he looked at Emma.
‘Good God! Who has hit you?’
There was a great cut on her cheek, the blood was running down upon her dress.
‘Somebody threw a stick,’ she answered, trying to smile. ‘I don’t feel it; I’ll tie a handkerchief on it.’
Again a fit of sobbing seized him; he felt as weak as a child.
‘The cowardly roughs! Give me the handkerchief—I’ll tie it. Emma!’
‘Think of your own safety,’ she replied hurriedly. ‘I tell you I don’t feel any pain. Do you think you can get them to listen to you?’
‘I’ll try. There’s nothing else for it. You stand at the back of the room; they may throw something at me.’
‘Oh, then, don’t open the window! They can’t break the door. Some help will come.’
‘Theywillbreak the door. You’d be as safe among wild beasts as among those fellows if they get into the house.’
He threw up the sash, though Emma would not go from his side. In the street below was a multitude which made but one ravening monster; all its eyes were directed to the upper storeys of this house. Mutimer looked to the right and to the left. In the latter quarter he saw the signs of a struggle Straining his eyes through the dusk, he perceived a mounted police-officer forcing his way through the throng; on either side were visible the helmets of constables. He drew a deep sigh of relief, for the efforts of the mob against the house door could scarcely succeed unless they used more formidable weapons for assault, and that would now be all but impossible.
He drew his bead back into the room and looked at Emma with a laugh of satisfaction.
‘The police are making way! There’s nothing to fear now.’
‘Come away from the window, then,’ Emma urged. ‘It is useless to show yourself.’
‘Let them see me, the blackguards! They’re so tight packed they haven’t a band among them to aim anything.’
As he spoke, he again leaned forward from the window-sill, and stretched his arms towards the approaching rescuers. That same instant a heavy fragment of stone, hurled with deadly force and precision, struck him upon the temple. The violence of the blow flung him back into the room; he dropped to his knees, threw out a hand as if to save himself, then sank face foremost upon the floor. Not a sound had escaped his lips.
Emma, with a low cry of horror, bent to him and put her arm about his body. Raising his head, she saw that, though his eyes were staring, they had no power of sight; on his lips were flecks of blood. She laid her cheeks to his lips, but could discern no breath; she tore apart the clothing from his breast, but her hand could not find his heart. Then she rushed for a pillow, placed it beneath his head, and began to bathe his face. Not all the great love which leaped like flame in her bosom could call the dead to life.
The yells which had greeted Mutimer’s appearance at the window were followed by a steady roar, mingled with scornful laughter at his speedy retreat; only a few saw or suspected that he had been gravely hit by the missile. Then the tumult began to change its character; attention was drawn from the house to the advancing police, behind whom came a band of Mutimer’s adherents, led by Redgrave. The latter were cheering; the hostile rabble met their cheers with defiant challenges. The police had now almost more than they could do to prevent a furious collision between the two bodies; but their numbers kept increasing, as detachments arrived one after another, and at length the house itself was firmly guarded, whilst the rioters on both sides were being put to flight. It was not a long street; the police cleared it completely and allowed no one to enter at either end.
It was all but dark when at length the door of Emma’s room was opened and six or seven women appeared, searching for Mutimer. The landlady was foremost; she carried a lamp. It showed the dead man at full length on the floor, and Emma kneeling beside him, holding his hand. Near her were the two children, crying miserably. Emma appeared to have lost her voice; when the light flashed upon her eyes she covered them with one hand, with the other pointed downwards. The women broke into cries of fright and lamentation. They clustered around the prostrate form, examined it, demanded explanations. One at length sped down to the street and shortly returned with two policemen. A messenger was despatched for a doctor.
Emma did not move; she was not weeping, but paid no attention to any words addressed to her. The room was thronged with curious neighbours, there was a hubbub of talk. When at length the medical man arrived, he cleared the chamber of all except Emma. After a brief examination of the body he said to her:
‘You are his wife?’
She, still kneeling, looked up into his face with pained astonishment.
‘His wife? Oh no! I am a stranger.’
The doctor showed surprise.
‘He was killed in your presence?’
‘He is dead—really dead?’ she asked under her breath. And, as she spoke, she laid her hand upon his arm.
‘He must have been killed instantaneously. Did the stone fall in the room? Was it a stone?’
No one had searched for the missile. The doctor discovered it not far away. Whilst he was weighing it in his hand there came a knock at the door. It was Mr. Westlake who entered. He came and looked at the dead man, then, introducing himself, spoke a few words with the doctor. Assured that there was no shadow of hope, he withdrew, having looked closely at Emma, who now stood a little apart, her hands held together before her.
The doctor departed a few moments later. He had examined the wound on the girl’s face, and found that it was not serious. As he was going, Emma said to him:
‘Will you tell them to keep away—all the people in the house?’
‘This is your own room?’
‘I live here with my sister.’
‘I will ask them to respect your wish. The body must stay here for the present, though.’
‘Oh yes, yes, I know.’
‘Is your sister at home?’
‘She will be soon. Please tell them not to come here.’
She was alone again with the dead. It cost her great efforts of mind to convince herself that Mutimer really had breathed his last; it seemed to her but a moment since she heard him speak, heard him laugh; was not a trace of the laugh even now discernible on his countenance? How was it possible for life to vanish in this way? She constantly touched him, spoke to him. It was incredible that he should not be able to hear her.
Her love for him was immeasurable. Bitterness she had long since overcome, and she had thought that love, too, was gone with it. She had deceived herself. Her heart, incredible as it may seem, had even known a kind of hope—how else could she have borne the life which fate laid upon her?—the hope that is one with love, that asks nothing of the reason, nor yields to reason’s contumely. He had been smitten dead at the moment that she loved him dearest.
Her sister Kate came in. She had been spending the day with friends in another part of London. When just within the door she stopped and looked at the body nervously.
‘Emma!’ she said. ‘Why don’t you come downstairs? Mrs. Lake’ll let us have her back room, and tea’s waiting for you. I wonder how youcanstay here.’
‘I can’t come. I want to be alone, Kate. Tell them not to come up.’
‘But you can’t stay here all night, child!’
‘I can’t talk. I want to be alone. Perhaps I’ll come down before long.’
Kate withdrew and went to gossip with the people who were incessantly coming and going in the lower part of the house. The opening and shutting of the front door, the sound of voices, the hurrying feet upon the staircase, were audible enough to Emma. She heard, too, the crowds that kept passing along the street, their shouts, their laughter, the voices of the policemen bidding them move on. It was all a nightmare, from which she strove to awake.
At length she was able to weep. Gazing constantly at the dead face, she linked it at last with some far-off memory of tenderness, and that brought her tears. She held the cold hand against her heart and eased herself with passionate sobbing, with low wails, with loving utterance of his name. Thus it happened that she did not hear when someone knocked lightly at the door and entered. A shadow across the still features told her of another’s presence. Starting back, she saw a lady from whose pale, beautiful face a veil had just been raised. The stranger, who was regarding her with tenderly compassionate eyes, said:
‘I am Mrs. Mutimer.’
Emma rose to her feet and drew a little apart. Her face fell.
‘They told me downstairs,’ Adela pursued, ‘that I should find Miss Vine in the room. Is your name Emma Vine?’
Emma asked herself whether this lady, his wife, could know anything of her story. It seemed so, from the tone of the question. She only replied:
‘Yes, it is.’
Then she again ventured to look up at the woman whose beauty had made her life barren. There were no signs of tears on Adela’s face; to Emma she seemed cold, though so grave and gentle. Adela gazed for a while at the dead man. She, too, felt as though it were all a dream. The spectacle of Emma’s passionate grief had kept her emotion within her heart, perhaps had weakened it.
‘You have yourself been hurt,’ she said, turning again to the other.
Emma only shook her head. She suffered terribly from Adela’s presence.
‘I will go,’ she said in a whisper.
‘This is your room, I think?’
‘Yes.’
‘May I stay here?’
‘Of course—you must.’
Emma was moving towards the door.
‘You wish to go?’ Adela said, uttering the words involuntarily.
‘Yes, I must.’
Adela, left alone, stood gazing at the dead face. She did not kneel by her husband, as Emma had done, but a terrible anguish came upon her as she gazed; she buried her face in her hands. Her feeling was more of horror at the crime that had been committed than of individual grief. Yet grief she knew. The last words her husband had spoken to her were good and worthy; in her memory they overcame all else. That parting when he left home had seemed to her like the beginning of a new life for him. Could not his faults be atoned for otherwise than by this ghastly end? She had no need to direct her thoughts to the good that was in him. Even as she had taken his part against his traducers, so she now was stirred in spirit against his murderers. She felt a solemn gladness in remembering that she had stood before that meeting in the Clerkenwell room and served him as far as it was in a woman’s power to do. All her long sufferings were forgotten; this supreme calamity of death outweighed them all. His enemies had murdered him; would they not continue to assail his name? She resolved that his memory should be her care. That had nothing to do with love; simple justice demanded it. Justice and gratitude for the last words he had spoken to her.
She had as yet scarcely noticed the room in which she was. At length she surveyed it; its poverty brought tears in her eyes. There had been a fire, but the last spark was dead. She began to feel cold.
Soon there was the sound of someone ascending the stairs, and Emma, after knocking, again entered. She carried a tray with tea-things, which she placed upon the table. Then, having glanced at the fireplace, she took from a cupboard wood and paper and was beginning to make a fire when Adela stopped her, saying:
‘You must not do that for me. I will light the fire myself, if you will let me.’
Emma looked up in surprise.
‘It is kind of you to bring me the tea,’ Adela continued. ‘But let me do the rest.’
‘If you wish to—yes,’ the other replied, without understanding the thought which prompted Adela. She carefully held herself from glancing towards the dead man, and moved away.
Adela approached her.
‘Have you a room for the night?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
‘Will you—will you take my hand before you leave me?’ She held it forth; Emma, with eyes turned to the ground, gave her own.
‘Look at me,’ Adela said, under her breath.
Their eyes met, and at last Emma understood. In that grave, noble gaze was far more than sympathy and tenderness; it was a look that besought pardon.
‘May I come to you in the night to see if you need anything?’ Emma asked.
‘I shall need nothing. Come only if you can’t sleep.’
Adela lit the fire and began her night’s watching.