Nora and Archibald Lee. A novel. By the author of 'Agnes Tremorne,' etc

Front matter

NORA AND ARCHIBALD LEE VOL. HI, NOM AND AKCH1BALD LEE A NOVEL. BY THE AUTHOR OF "AGNES TEEMOKNE," "THE COST OF A SECRET," ETC. IN THEEE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 19.3, PICCADILLY. 1867. LONDON : PRINTED BV TIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. PAGE The Flight 1 CHAPTEE H. At Last 17 CHAPTEE III. Suspicion 44 CHAPTEE IV. Falsehood 60 CHAPTEE V. Where is She ? VI CONTENTS. CHAPTEE VI. PAGE Me. Osborne's Letter 97 CHAPTEE VII. Once More 104 CHAPTEE VHI. Estrangement 126 CHAPTEE IX. • Mr. Merton Proposes 139 CHAPTEE X. The Dream Fulfilled 161 CHAPTEE XI. Death and Suicide 178 CHAPTEE XŒ. Nemesis 208 CHAPTEE XIII. The Old, Old Story CONTENTS. VI CHAPTEE XIV. PAGE Eeconciliation 255 CHAPTEE XV. The Funerals ....... 273 CHAPTEE XVI. At Home Again 285 CHAPTEE XVII. The Tale is Told NOM AND ARCHIBALD LEE.

Chapter I. The Flight

Nora groped her way to her own room as if she had been struck blind. Her limbs trembled be neath her. She stood, for the first time in her life, face to face with those two harsh realities, shame and self-reproach. Philip's vanity Avould have sorely suffered had he known how httle he or his love occupied her thoughts. His dreadful words, " Archibald married you from compas sion," rang through her ears. She flushed red and turned pale alternately, as she thought of them; and with them recurred the outrage to Archibald, involved in the insult to herself, -when vol. in. B Phdip added, "I love you." Her own folly and blindness had occasioned it all, but nevertheless, or rather because of it, her very soul was em bittered, and she was humbled to the dust. To a high-minded woman there is always ex quisite humiliation in such words as Phibp's. She knows that no man is such a fool as to acknowledge that he covets that which is absolutely out of his reach.

Dian bent down and shone on Endymion before he confessed his love for her. It is im truth a piercing and accusing grief when a woman reahses that what she has considered harmless coquetry has led to this con sequence. How much bitterer is the grief when her heart, as wed as her duty, belongs to her husband, and she considers this shameful homage as much a treason to the loyalty of her love as a sacrilege to the sanctity of her purity ! Nora, day by day, had learned rightlv to un derstand and to love Archibald. Everv com parison she made between him and other men every measure which was accidentally forced upon her of his moral stature compared to the height of other men, exalted him more and more in her eyes. Whatever may be the case with men, it adds so much depth to a woman's love, perfectly to esteem and reverence the man she loves.

It is almost a surprise, and always a sweet one, to find, after the glamour of courtship is over, that the in stincts of the heart have been true, and that the husband is all the lover appeared to be. "Woe to the Psyche whose lamp (of marriage) shines only to reveal the disappearance of the god ! Archibald's love for her, beyond that tender household habit which a nature hke his would feel for the woman who shared his name, she had often doubted ; but never till now had the doubt been so brutaUy forced upon her. To be taken (not chosen) as a toy, as a piece of furniture which was wanting in his house, without love, or passion, or affection, from jrity, was a wrong and an out rage. " I never can forget or forgive it ! " murmured Nora. Of her love for him she was now certain ; so certain that she could but wonder how Phdip, of all men, did not understand her.

It was his poem that had at first opened her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of all this. She began hurriedly smoothing her b ab and arranging the few clothes that had been sent for her from the Combe. She saw her face was blistered and disfigured by tears, and she tried to bathe her eyes and cool them before she rang for Annina. When she did so, she told Annina they must leave Lowater directly. " Have you been vexed, my heart ?" inquired poor Annina, who somewhat enjoyed this holiday from the Combe. " We must go. Put on your bonnet, and let us go directly. I have put up the clothes. Lock that valise ; we will leave that and the hat-box here, to be sent afterwards. Take the travelling: bag. We will walk to the station, there is a train which goes about this tune, I know, to — to " Nora did not know where she was gohif .

All places were ahke hateful. " What is it ?" said Annina, in a coaxing voice. " You are ill ; your hands tremble." " No matter, I must go." With her usual impetuosity, Nora saw but one course to pursue, — instant escape from Philip. It was the right course, but not carried out in this headlong, precipitate manner. After all, she was but a chdd, and acted as a child, poor soul ! She wrote a note, left it to be given to Mrs. Osborne on her return, and then set off. Her brain was so confused that she had not clearly made up her mind whether she should return to the Combe, or seek Archibald. One station below Lowater there was a junction (the Burlton Junction) which united the Chesterton and Lowater branch lines with the main London line. If she reached the junction in time for the 4.50 she would be at home that night.

It seemed a roundabout way, but the all powerful aid of steam made the communication between Lowater and Lee Combe as quick, if not as direct, as by carriage ; and as Mrs. Osborne's carriage had gone to fetch its mistress, it was unavailable. There was, therefore, no other way. If she made up her mind to go to London, and was too late to catch the 4.50, the next train, eighteen minutes later, would take her to London. But should she return to the Combe, or go to meet Archibald ? She could not decide. As they walked across the park, they overtook Mr. Osborne, im a low four-wheeled pony carriage. Directly he saw Nora he told Price, who was driving him, to stop. " Are you going away ?" Yes." " I am glad you have taken my advice. Will you get in?" There was a seat behind, and Nora, who began to feel that she had over-calculated ber strength, got in with Annina.

" Which way are you going ?" "By the train from Lowater." I can drive you to Lee, if you like ?" "Oh, no." "I know something is amiss," he said, "for Ldy has not returned." " The carriage has been sent back for her." "Why did she not return with you? There is something wrong, I know ;" and Mr. Osborne's face began to work with emotion. " I think, sir, I see the carriage now going alongside the North Shrubbery." " Ah, yes ; there she is. Let me out, Price ; I will go to meet her. You can drive Mrs. Lee to Lowater, and bring back the carriage." He jumped out with greater activity than could be expected from him, and hastened towards the bouse. Price paused a moment and looked after him, but when he saw that the carriage would soon overtake his master — in fact would probably arrive at the door at the same time — he seemed satisfied, and, with a murmured apology to Nora for the delay, drove on.

When Mrs. Osborne alighted from the carriage she found her husband waiting for her on the steps of the entrance. " Where have you been ?" he asked, eagerly. " To Oxeter, and then to Torsham." "Why?" "Because I had some business there." "Why did you not take Mrs. Lee with you then?" " Be so kind as to defer this cross-examination, for I am tired, and it is cold and damp. I will answer ad your 'whys' at dinner." She swept past him, and hastened to her room. She looked careworn and anxious. Before she reached it, Evelyn intercepted her. " Here is a note I found just now, in the drawing-room, for you. Mrs. Lee is gone." " Gone ! " She ran her eye over the note. "Yes, so she is ; civil excuses, &c, &c. What is the matter ? Have you been making love to her, instead of to Lydia, and so shocked her ? or has her mother in-law snatched her from this den of perdition ?

She is terribly cooped up at the Combe, is she not?" She ran on, but Philip could not, or would not, answer. "She is a charming person, I think, and were I a man I should fall desperately in love with her." If there was one word Mrs. Osborne pro nounced more disagreeably than another, it was the word " charming." It made one shudder to hear her ; there was so much mocking irony in her tone. In her heart of hearts she cordially detested those of her sex to whom that epithet could be applied. Philip was sdent. At last, with an effort that was not lost upon his subtle auditor, he said, " I do not know what has hastened Mrs. Lee's movements, but I am, unfortunately, not able to alter the resolution I told you of this morning." "What was it?" " That I must leave you this afternoon." " Did you say so this morning ?"

" I think so." " I did not attend, then, for I did not hear you. What takes you away?" " I shall write to you im a day or two." " I am very sorry," she said, and then smded, for she saw he had not heard her. In a very few minutes he in his turn was rushing across the park, towards the Lowater Station. As he arrived at the station he met Mr. Osborne's carriage leaving it. "Am I too late ?" he asked Price. "The train is as good as off, sir. We were too late for the 4.50, and we waited till now, sir. There's tbe bell, sir." Philip flew up the steps, rushed through before the doors were shut, put his purse into the guard's hand to get him a ticket, and jumped into the carriage nearest to him just as the train heaved into motion, and was off. Was Nora going to London instead of to the Combe ? If so, why ?

At the first station after Lowater he jumped out, and walked slowly along the line, looking into every carriage, as if for a vacant seat. As he did so, he saw Nora and Annina alight from a carriage at the farthest end, and walk up the steps into tbe station. He was puzzled, but bad no choice left him but to follow them, for the train, after five minutes' pause, inexorably pursued its way. He entered the station. "Two ladies have just arrived?" he asked a waiter, who was standing in quest of prey at the door. "Yes, sir." "A tall young lady and a foreigner ?" "Yes, sir. The inn is just across the yard. The young lady seemed ill. I will show you the way, sir." Phdip went across the yard and entered the coffee-room. After a httle reflection he rang for the waiter. The man who bad spoken to him answered the beU.

He held a traveding bag in his hand. " Are the ladies going to remain here ? What do you call this station ?" " No. 2 — 3 ; yes, sir. I beheve so. It's Burl ton Station, sir." "Will you go up and ask them if I can be of any use to them ?" " Yes, sir ; the name is Lee, sir ? " asked the waiter, looking at the bag he was carrying. " Yes, yes ; make haste ! " It was true that Nora was ill. The last two days had tried her in more ways than one. She was feverish, and thoroughly exhausted. The long exposure to the rain on the Monday, the agitation and fatigue she had undergone since, had cuhninated in fever and cold. The motion of the train thoroughly overpowered her, and she felt that if she did not rest for a few hours she should be seriously ill. She had told Annina she must get out and rest, and was now lying on the bed almost in a stupor.

Tbe waiter gave Evelyn's message ; but An nina could not understand him, and was far too anxious and perturbed to exert her slender know ledge of Enghsh. She only shook her head, and shut the door upon him. ' The lady is ill, sir ; and the foreigner — " ' Her maid ? " " Yes, sir, the maid does not wish to be dis turbed." A httle of Philip's fiery ardour began to ooze awa}' as this sudden obstacle intervened between him and Nora. He could have sworn at the waiter by way of relieving his feelings, but contented himself with saying, " I will wait an hour or two, at all events." When Nora returned to consciousness, about half an hour afterwards, she started up, and calling Annina to give her her hat, said she must go on. " Carina, you are too ill ; you must wait here." "I must go, Annina. I shall be well when I get home."

Annina shrugged her shoulders. She did not understand how Lee Combe could have such sanatory powers, and was too puzzled by the mystery of trains to know which way they were gomg. " But see, you cannot even stand ! You tremble — you cannot breathe ! " " I will go ! Let me know when the next train stops here. I know that from here, or from the next station I shall be able to get home."' She was so urgent that Annina obeyed her, and went down-stairs. ■ In the had she met Mr. Evelyn. " Your mistress ? " he asked her eagerly. " Oh, my good sir, she is so ill ! she wishes to go on. She will die, I know ! " and the faithful creature wrung her hands. " Let me see her." " No, she must not be disturbed. I am going to send for a doctor." " Yes ; and at any rate she must wait here. She could not get on till the morning, even if she were able to do so, for the time is past.

Tell her so, and that I am here, and will do anything I can for her." Philip ordered a message to be sent for a physician, and requested that he might be told when he had seen the lady up-stairs, as he wished to know his opinion of her. Annina went up and told Nora that it was impossible to get to Chesterton that evening : that Signor Fdippo had said so. "Is he here?" "Yes, poor gentleman. He is so sorry, he will do anything," he says, "if he could serve >) you. " Then I must go at once ! " and hke a poor hunted creature she rose from the bed a "•ain and tried to stand. It was useless : the room swam round her, and if Annina had not caught her she would have fallen. She was obliged to be put on the bed again. " Those letters," she kept mur muring ; " if I coidd only have those letters, and never see him again !

" Annina thought she was delirious, and crossed herself, and caUed on the Santissima, and cried, and was at her wit's end. Finally the physician who had been sent for arrived. He put an absolute veto on her moving that evening, and shook his head, and said the case might be a serious one. He would return early the next morning. Whde one of the housemaids was arranging the room, Annina went down to Phibp and told him the doctor's opinion. Annina did not hke Philip, but in this emer gency his was at least a weU-known face. " My good sir, do not leave us. I shall lose my head if I am here alone." " I will remain to-night," said Phdip reluct antly. It was most marvellous, but it was not the less true, that the picture of Nora struck down by a dangerous illness and fever in this lone inn froze to annihilation his passion ; it was so pro voking, so ill-timed of her.

Still he was not such a brute as to refuse poor Annina. "lean stay to-night," he said, "and perhaps to-morrow ; but I must go then. This is nothing but a little over-fatigue. Mrs. Lee will be well to-morrow." " Dio lo vuole," sighed poor Annina as she left him.

Chapter II

, "AT LAST." The next morning the report about Nora was stdl worse. Dr. Brooks spoke of typhoid symp toms ; and the fever had increased so much that all thoughts of removing ber had to be given up. Annina entreated Philip to stay one other day. He was the nephew of the buon Vicario; and she felt that they were not entirely deserted and alone while he was there. Her superstitious fears were too great to permit her harbouring for a moment the notion of sending for Mrs. Lee. She thought that would seal her mistress's fate at once. Phdip was disposed to write to Lydia to tell her, but durst not do so. He began to be restive. This delay, the dulness of the long solitary hours he had passed in this miserable c VOL. station, had as effectually changed the current of his desires as a March wind blights the for ward blossoms of the year.

He began to be fidgety and nervous ; he thought he did not feel well himself ; the fever might be infectious. After ad, Nora was not exactly the woman for whom a man should sacrifice his whole hfe. She was too chddish, too impetuous, too untamed. Then, after all, it was a sin ; and though carried away by his feelings, he had — yes, he felt he had — a conscience. What arrears of remorse and sorrow he woidd lay up for himself, if he followed out his guilty purpose ! His poor uncle and aunt would be wounded to the heart. Here a moisture rose to his eyes, for he instantly threw himself into the position of outraged affection and indignant virtue which Mrs. Sherborne would assume when she heard of what he had done. Of ad the varied spectacles which human frailty offers to the sight of heaven, there is none so thoroughly contemptible as a bad man putting on tbe severity of virtue to discontinue a vice for which, in reality, he has no further fancy or " AT LAST." 19 inclination.

Philip was so fickle and so shallow that he was constantly in this position, and would cad loudly on the heavy guns of principle to remove from his path the weeds which nothing but his own folly had cast across it. The excitement at the httle by-way station was prodigious. A young lady had arrived who was ill, and who would probably stay an in definite time there — a beautiful young lady, with a foreigner for a maid, and a handsome young gentleman, who was either her husband or brother, or — some relative, was going to remain also. It was quite a romance. Thursday and Friday passed away. All Thursday Phdip hoped that on Friday Nora would be better, and would see him. He hoped in vain. On Friday he went to the Vicarage, inquired for his letters, wrote some, and then returned to Burlton with Lydia's in his pocket, in case Nora should be recovering, and would consent to see him ; but, alas ! there was no change for the better as yet.

On Saturday, about two o'clock, the waiters were standing in solemn conclave, discussing the event which had so occupied them, when they perceived ascending the paved steps which separated the railway station from the inn, another traveder. He seemed also making his way to it. A rush was immediately made by the excited officials towards the object of their attention, who had now reached the entrance of the house. " I am likely to be detained an hour or two. Wdl you bring me a cup of coffee, and show me into a sitting-room ? " Watts, the head waiter, stood aghast. Since its existence, the Burlton Station Hotel had never known such a run on the tried, or untried, resources of the establishment. Three travellers in the space of less than a week ! " Well, have you no sitting-room disengaged ? Show me into the coffee-room then."

This traveder — who spoke, using the indefinite article in tbe matter of sitting - rooms as if their number must be necessarily unlimited — was a yet greater prize than even the lady, who they hoped was booked for a long illness, in their best room up-stairs. " AT LAST." 21 "This way, sir." They led the way upstairs into the (not a) sitting-room, flicking their napkins about, and opening and shutting windows as if to carry off the smed of sawdust and fresh whitewash prevalent everywhere ; and then, with the agdity of acrobats, rushed over each other down-stairs, to order the cup of coffee which had been asked for. The traveller seemed very impatient of his enforced idleness and sohtude, for he marched up and down the room, kicking up the shavings which were strewed about as an outward and visible sign of the crude newness of the Burlton Station Hotel, with his hands in his pockets, and his head held down.

At one moment he seemed counting the knots in the planks of the flooring ; or he would pause by the window, and look out on the dreary monotony of the pded-up trucks, the black hillocks of coals, the bounded dreari ness of the gravelly bank, with the flaring httle garden of sunflowers at its foot. Suddenly an expression of great surprise passed over his stern, gloomy aspect. He saw a gentle man cross the yard, enter the station, and after a minute return and re-enter the hotel. The sight of the face confirmed the recognition ex cited by the aspect of the figure. " What in Heaven's name can have brought him here ? " he said out loud ; and if the jerks and twists with which he pulled his black moustache could have been interpreted into words, something ven,' like curses on his own foUy for being there him self might be heard.

He was evidently afraid, however, of being recognised, for he withdrew from the window, and threw himself on the narrow, hard, horsehair sofa. After a pause he drew out of his waistcoat pocket a bttle crumpled note, and read it, with a frown, darkening a countenance which, though handsome, was more adapted at this moment at least to express sternness and ill-temper than benevolence. The note was very short. It ran thus : — " Let us meet at Burlton. Nearer, it would not be safe. On Saturday, at three o'clock, I " AT LAST." 23 shall be there. We have been so often disappointed, that I feel I cannot be sanguine. I maj be there Wednesday ; but it is safest to say Saturday also. You have faded me three times." It was a woman's scrawl, and almost illegible from haste and an attempt to disguise the cha racter of the handwriting.

There was neither signature nor date. "All lies," he muttered; "false as hed — false as herself! " He crushed the note in his hand, and the contempt on his face would have proved to anyone how far from a love-tryst was the appointment he was keeping. As he thus sate the door was hastdy ojiened, and one of the waiters looked in. "Beg pardon, sir; I thought the other gent was here. Oh, here he is ; " and the door being stdl open, the fodowing dialogue was heard, though not very distinctly : — " Dr. Brooks says, sir, he fears the matter is very serious indeed. He would wish to speak to >j you. " Oh, I can be of no use ; I am off directly. Send for " Then there was an interruption, and a woman's voice talking Itahan very fast was audible. " Pray stop. He says she is very ill ; that she has a fever — unafebbreperniziosa."

"Yes," added the waiter, catching at the word fever, — "typhus, I beheve." " Good heavens ! " ejaculated the gentleman ; " and she asks me to stop ! I am very sorry, Annina ; but go I must. I must get back to my cousin, Mrs. Osborne ; but I will tell you what you must do — you must send for Mrs. Lee. Only think, I have been here since Tuesday." " Va, birbante senza cuore, " exclaimed the woman he spoke to ; and then one of the speakers entered. " Conway ! " said Evelyn, with a start ; for it was he : "I thought you were in Dresden." " So I was, till last month, when I was sum moned home by telegraph." " Your mother ? " " Is out of danger, thank God ; but too ill for me again to leave England." "at last." 25 There was a pause ; both gentlemen looked and felt awkward. " By-the-bye, how is Lee ?

" said Conway. " You have been staying at the Vicarage, I suppose ? " " Yes. Lee is abroad : he has been im Florence a month past." " How does he get on with that Itahan wife of his?" " She was not an Itahan." " He picked her up in Italy, though." " Oh yes. It is about property of hers he has gone to Italy." " How do they get on ? She seemed such a chdd." Conway asked the question carelessly. His thoughts had been far away; but, pre-occupied as he was, he could not help noticing the flush that rose to Philip's very forehead at the question. At that moment there was a knock, and one of the waiters entered. " Dr. Brooks has been looking for you, sir. The lady has been bled, and is better ; but it will be several days before she is able to be moved." " Good heavens, Evelyn, are you married ? ' Phdip rushed out, having ineffectually tried to stem the eloquence of the waiter.

He nodded bastdy to Conway as he left the room, and ejacu lated, " Married ! thank God, no. I am in a devil of a scrape. If I go, I am a brute ; if I stay, we are both ruined. What an infernal trap ! " Conway's lips formed into a prolonged but scarcely articulate whistle. " What an incorrigible fellow that is, — always mixed up in some petticoat intrigue or other ! " but he was too absorbed im his own affairs to think much of the matter. He looked at his watch, and saw the time had come for his appointment. He did not notice, as he left the room, that the note he had held crushed in his hand had fallen on the sofa as he took his hat. As he went down-stairs he met a gentleman coming up, foUowed by two of tbe waiters. He heard one say, " The name is Lee : I saw it on the carpet-bag." " AT LAST." 27 " Mr. and Mrs. Lee, then?" said the gentleman.

The other waiter here pressed forward. " This gent knows 'em ; " and addressing Conway, he told him that Dr. Brooks wished to speak to him. " You know Mr. Lee ? " said the bland voice of the medical man, " Yes." " Will you tell him that it is quite impossible for me — professionally, I mean — to permit Mrs. Lee to be moved. There is great weakness, and much fever, and I could not answer for the consequences, if she is moved before the middle of next week. I did fear typhus,- but happily, I can, I think, affirm that that danger has past." Conway was confounded. Dr. Brooks con tinued : — " As he was with you just now, I thought I would appeal to you, sir, to use your influence with him. Mr. Lee must take the responsibility on himself, sir, if he persists in leaving." " Lee ! " exclaimed Conway.

" That is the name, is it not, sir ? It was on the lady's carpet-bag." " There is some mistake, I think," said Conway, disengaging himself. "I am sorry I cannot assist you." " A runaway match, I bet you anythink," said the younger waiter, " and Mr. Lee has not told him." A dreadful suspicion passed through Conway's mind. Was it possible that this lady with Philip was Archibald's wife ? Had she eloped with him? But if so, why had he left her so hurriedly ? He recalled the fair innocent face he had. seen but little more than a twelvemonth ago, and now — no, it was impossible, and yet who had a worse opinion of women than he was bound to have ? He went out of the yard, and turned in the direction of the fields. A lady, closely veded, who was standing by a clump of bushes, on a knod a few hundred yards behind the inn, came towards him.