Patricia Kemball. A novel

Front matter

VOL. a Nobel. By E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "LIZZIE LORTON OF GREYRIGG," "THE TRl'E HISTORY OF JOSHIA DAVIDSON," FTC. " This life Of error, ifgnorance, and strife, Where nothing is, but all things seem." THREE VOLUMES.— III. f onion : CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY. 1875. LONDON : PEINTED BY VIRTU K AND CO., CITY ROAD. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. J8AP, PAGE I. THE ORDEAL ...... 1 II. UNDER HOME ARREST ....... 23 til. THE OFFER OF FORGIVENESS ...... 39 THE AIR CASTLE ........ 65 IV. V. ADDED TO THE ESTATE ....... 84 VI. THE CLEFT STICK ....... 101 VII. AHANDONED TO HERSELF . . . . . .121 VIII. DISILLUSIONED ........ 147 IX. HAMLEY, M.P. ........ 172 WHAT MILLTOWN SAID ....... 186 X XI. THE LAST LOOK ........ 209 XII. FREE TO TLEAD ....... 237 XIII. THE SHADOW IN THE WOOD ...... 256 XIV. TRUTH AND SEEMING .......

Chapter I. The Ordeal

lVsR. HAMLEY'S making-up day with the bank came round, and his books and cheques were sent up to Abbey Holme as usual. He sat in his private study ; not the larger library where Patricia used to go for big books and brain-bewilderment, and where he was wont to receive his more special visitors when he wished to impress them as a man of culture as well as of substance ; but in the smaller " Growlery," as he used to call it, which the upholsterer and the gilder had made as fine and shining as a newly-minted sovereign. He himself, clad in his gorgeous Oriental morninggown, clean, perfumed, his hair well oiled, his whiskers curled and lustrous, every point of him prosperous, and every line of him magnificent, was a fit inmate of that gorgeous, glittering, florid little room. As he sat in his big arm-chair and balanced his counterfoils VOL. III.

B PATRICLA KEMB.ALL. 2 and his cheques, his payings-in and his drawings out with method and satisfaction, he looked the type of vulgar affluence, of sensual, social content ment. There did not seem to be a crook in his lot anywhere ; not one invading fly to disturb the sweetness of his fat and fragrant ointment. Cheque by cheque and voucher by voucher, scrip and warrant, dividend and rent, all was exact and all satisfactory ; when suddenly he gave a surprised snort and jumped with an undignified kind of bound in his chair. A cheque which was none of his, but which was signed with such a perfect imitation of his handwriting that he could scarcely disbelieve its evidence, came out from among the rest, and for a moment staggered him. " Pay self or bearer one hundred pounds : " signed Jabez Hamley, and dated about three weeks ago.

He might look at it till his eyes ached, he could make no more nor less of it than a cheque with his name to it, and a hundred pounds written off his balance. It was a forgery, but so neatly done that he had to be quite sure of his unvarying exactness not to be forced to accept it as his own. After examining it all round, balancing his figures again and again, hunting through and through his books and papers with no better result than at first he wrote a hurried note to Mr. Wells, the bank manager, and sent off a man on horseback to Mill - town at hot speed ; which note had the effect of bringing up that gentleman, also at hot speed, with a scared and troubled face. "Here's a mystery sornewheres, Wells," said Mr. Hamley, flicking the cheque with his forefinger. " Here's a bit of paper that I never put pen to — that I'll swear !

" "Surely, sir, surely!" said Mr. Wells, in a deprecating tone. He thought the prosperous brewer a little out in his objection. " I suppose I may be allowed to recognise my own handwriting ! " said Mr. Hamley haughtily. " Certainly, sir ; but when a member of your family presents a cheque signed — or apparently signed, let us say, for argument's sake — by yourself, and asks for it specially in gold, one is not likely to suspect any mistake. Especially with such a signature," Mr. Wells replied. "I happen to know all about it, for I was in the bank at the time, and I remember the circumstance accurately." He took up several of the cheques, one after the other, and compared them with the one which Mr. Hamley disowned. Not the cleverest expert could have told the difference between this and those acknowledged.

The method of filling in was precisely the same, and the " Jabez Hamley " was sac-simile. Like many men of his kind, Mr. Hamley had never been able to conquer satisfactorily the mysteries of caligraphy. He spoke pompously, but he wrote meanly ; an uneducated, rude sort of hand, both pinched and illegible. His signature however, was his strong point. With infinite pains he had elaborated a special cipher which he considered inimitable. The way in which the H joined on to the z was to his mind a marvel of ingenuity ; but because it was so ingenious it was also the easiest thing in the world to copy. One " Jabez Hamley " was just like another " Jabez Hamley ; " and the flourish at the end, with the loops intersected at precisely the same point, and the three spots in the middle, was always done as exactly as if it had been lithographed.

It was a signature no more difficult to imitate than so much print, and so far was characteristic of the ordinary knave, inasmuch as it imagined itself inscrutable and was patent. " Which member of my family ? " asked Mr. Ham ley in a tone of surprise. " Oblige me with the name." " One of your young ladies," said Mr. Wells. " And I do not know her name." Mr. Hamley's florid face grew several shades paler. For a moment he did not answer. Was he on the track of a mystery ? beginning with that roll of ten sovereigns, had it gone on to this daring deed of iniquity ? As Dora was out of the question, was it possible that Patricia Kemball, with all her directness and apparent honesty, was in reality only a thief? a forger ? and if so, why ? and under whose instruc tion ? " She was far too big a fool," he said to him self, " to do this thing alone.

Who then, was her confederate ? Who egged her on ? Who backed her up ? " Mr. Hamley was not a cruel man, save to his early patrons or fore-time tyrants, and he was truly sorry for Patricia, supposing it to he she ; for his wife, too ; but he was a magistrate as well as a host and a husband, and he had his duty to society to perform hke a man and a citizen. And he had also his duty to perform to Dora. He thought of all this rapidly. He must have it made quite clear to Mr. Wells that the member of his family, the young lady of whom he spoke, was not his cousin, Dora Drummond. It was bad enough as it was, whoever it might be. Had it been indeed the other ? Even to Mr. Hamley, prosperous, affluent, well oiled, and trimly brushed, life would have lost its savour had Dora Drummond proved a failure.

No, he must have no suspicion rest on her pure head. It was a sad alternative, truly ; and he pitied that misguided young person, Patricia, profoundly, supposing she was to be convicted; but justice compelled him. He rang the bell. " My compliments to the two young ladies, and beg them to step this way," said Mr. Hamley to the servant. In a few moments the girls appeared, both looking as was their wont, save that Dora was just a little paler than usual. Graceful, self-possessed, and yet not in the least assertive, she came in with her pretty bending action and sweet amiability of face, followed by Patricia, tall and upright, with her large inquiring eyes and child-like unconsciousness, looking half-amused and half-amazed as to what Mr. Hamley could possibly want with them. "Be seated, young ladies," said Mr. Hamley, waving his hand magisterially.

The girls, greatly wondering, sat, down — at least, Patricia wondered and Dora feigned that she did. In reality she knew the whole thing by heart, and was aware that Patricia's ordeal, and in consequence her own fate, were both at hand. One glance at the bank manager, at the open cheque-book, and the cancelled cheques — at that cheque lying uppermost, more than all — told her the name of the mystery, and why they had been summoned. But she took her chair peacefully, and sat with meek attention on her face, waiting. " Which young lad}* ? " said Mr. Hamley, not without a secret hope that there had been a mistake, and that the person who presented the cheque might be found to have been only a servant in her holiday clothes ; and of course the ruin of only a servant was but a trivial affair. "That one," answered Mr. Wells, pointing to Patricia.

Patricia looked frankly into his face ; Dora by a side-glance, seeing what she did, turned her pretty head also, and looked up like Patricia at the manager. " You are sure ? " demanded Mr. Hamley ; and, in spite of himself, his voice trembled. He did not like Patricia overwell ; but to find her guilty of forgery was rather different from finding her too full of energy, more direct than he con sidered lady-like, and not half as pliant as she should be. " Ask the young lady herself," said Mr. Wells. " Did you perform this action, Miss Kemball ? " asked Mr. Hamley. He called her by her surname purposely, that Dora's might be held clear. " Perform what ? " asked Patricia. At that moment the door opened and Mrs. Hamley came in. She had no idea of a conclave in which she had not her place ; and where the girls were she felt she had the right to be also.

" Come, this is too strong ! Did you present this cheque to the bank on the third ? " said Mr. Hamley. " I took a cheque to the bank, certainly, but I forget if it was on the third," said Patricia ; " and I do not know if it was that one or not." " Then you did not do this yourself? " Mr. Ham ley demanded. "Do what? — I do not understand," she answered. " I will be explicit. Did you or did you not sign a cheque with my name — a cheque for one hundred pounds, made payable to self or bearer, signed Jabez Hamley in imitation of my usual signature ? — that is, did you or did you not commit this forgery ? " Patricia started to her feet. " Commit a forgery ! — No. Are you mad, Mr. Hamley ! " she cried. " Are you ? " he answered significantly. She turned towards her aunt, and holding out one hand, cried " Aunt !

" Her voice and attitude meant, "Protect me from this man's insults ! " Mrs. Hamley came forward and laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. " The child is incapable of such an action," sho said. Patricia threw up her head with its old free gesture and kissed the long, lean hand fervently. '■ Thank you, aunty," she said, and looked at Dora. Dora was looking down, and keeping silence. " So I think, Lady," said Mr. Hamley with not ungenerous promptness; "your niece does not possess enough knowledge of business to enable her to have played this trick ; but she may be the tool of some one else, and I believe she is. I want to get to the bottom of this, and to know whose hands she is in. The person who gave her that cheque must have known it was a forgery." Slowly the truth began to dawn upon Patricia.

" You say that cheque is a forgery ? " she asked, turning her eyes down to the table and speaking to Mr. Hamley without looking at him. " It is so ; a forgery," he answered. " And any one but myself would have understood this?" " Any one," said Mr. Hamley emphatically. "I should say that no one well out of the egg-shell but Miss Kemball would not have discovered that fact." Again she looked at Dora. Her face had a kind of agony in it, but it was firm too. Dora was gazing tenderly at Mrs. Hainley, her soft voice murmuring sympathetically ; " Poor dear, how I pity you ! " " But you presented this cheque ? " continued Mr. Hamley, after a short pause. " So much you acknowledge ? " Patricia's eyes went back from Dora to the table. " Yes, I gave that cheque, or one like it : what I gave I never saw," she said.

" You got the money for it, however ? " " Yes ; I got a hundred pounds in gold for it." She spoke slowly and distinctly. Mrs. Hamley withdrew her hand "You say you did not see the cheque?" con tinued Mr. Hamley in the manner of a cross examination. " No ; it was folded up when I had it, and I gave it to the man folded." " And you received your hundred pounds in gold ? " "Yes.' " What has become of that sum of money ? — a considerable sum of money for a young lady to lift ! " " I cannot say." " Did you make use of it ?" " No ! " she said indignantly. " Do you think it was for myself?" " Then who had it ? who benefited by it ? " " I will not tell you, Mr. Hamley," she answered. Dora wiped her short upper lip daintily with her embroidered handkerchief, and drew a little sobbing kind of breath.

" Did you hand over the money to the person who gave you the cheque ? " "Yes," she said. "And you had no idea of its being a forgery?" asked Mr. Wells. "A forgery! — I? No, indeed; quite the con trary," said Patricia, with energy. " It was given me bv a person who said the money was their own." She was ungrammatical by intention. To have said her would have betrayed Dora, his would have been untrue. "But how came you to be asked to do such a thing ? Good heavens ! who could have asked you ? " cried Mrs. Hamley. " That I shall not tell," answered the girl. " I promised to keep the secret, and I shall not break my word." " I think," said Mr. Hamley, with unpleasant but yet kindly pomposity, " if I could convince you, my dear young lady, of the injury this piece of paper has done me, you would consider it your duty to deliver up to me the name of the delinquent."

" I am very sorry, Mr. Hamley," Patricia said, not in any manner defiantly, humbly indeed and sorrowfully, yet quite steadily ; " but I promised that I would not." "And if failing your confession, which I have the right to demand, I assume that you are cleverer than your words — that you have concocted this story to account for the forgery — and that you your self have forged my name, trusting to my respect for my wife, your aunt, not to prosecute you — what then ? " asked the master of Abbey Holme loftily. " I shall have to bear the burden," answered Pa tricia in a low voice. " I did not know that I was doing wrong, or being mixed up in anything disgraceful. Still, as I promised, I must keep my word whatever happens to me." " It all seems to me like a dream ! " said Mrs. Hamley. " A forged cheque presented by Patricia, THE OLZDEAL. 13 and she owning to it, with some wild story of its having been given to her by some one, and she promising not to tell.

It is like a nightmare ! " The poor lady put her hand to her forehead. " Can you understand it, Dora ? ' ' " No, dear," said Dora softly. " You cannot guess at anything to help us ? " There was a kind of anguish in the thin v< ice that was infinitely tragical. "No, dear," again answered Dora. " Let us refer back and see what you were engaged in that day," said Mr. Hamley, turning over the pages of a diary. " Where were you, Miss Kemball, may I ask, on the third of last month ? " " Driving with Dora," answered Patricia. All eyes turned on Dora, who met their glances innocently ; then turned her face towards Patricia, as if listening like the rest to a story she did not understand. "Driving with Dora," repeated Mr. Hamley. " Good, to commence with. Driving with Dora ! where ? " " To Green Lanes first, and then to Milltown," answered Patricia.

"And at Milltown what may have occurred, pray ? " " I left Dora at Martin's, and went on to the bank for the money " said Patricia quite steadily. " Dora ! do help in this horrible mystery ! " said Mrs. Hamley angrily. Dora raised her eyes and looked at Patricia. "I cannot," she said. "All I know is that Patricia left me at Martin's, and went up the street by herself. When I asked her where she had been, she said to the bank to change a cheque. Of course I made no further inquiries. I could have no kind of idea that anything was wrong in the affair, and to say the truth I never gave it another thought till this moment." During this speech Patricia stood like a statue. She neither moved nor spoke, neither looked nor sighed. She might have been struck to stone for the absolute rigidity of her face and bearing.

The whole thing suddenly became clear to her, and she understood for the first time the real nature of the girl she had loved and pitied and put before her as a model to be imitated — if at such a humble distance, yet always loyally. " But you said you did not know anything about it," said Mrs. Hamley irritably to Dora. " Nor do I, dear. I know no more than I have said," she answered deprecatingly. "You should have told us that Patricia went to the bank," said Mrs. Hamley. " A girl of her age and ignorance should not be suffered to do such things unknown." "Perhaps I ought — I know I ought," said Dora, coming close to Mrs. Hamley and speaking with caressing humility ; " but I thought nothing of the fact at the time, and never once remembered it since. Believe me, dear, the whole thing is as dark to me as to you.

I knew and suspected nothing ! " As Dora came nearer to Mrs. Hamley, Patricia drew away. She felt it as an infinite dishonour to seem to canvass for her aunt's good favour while Dora, that false friend, was by her side. >She was not willing to put herself in any kind of competition with her : rather, with the passionate seff-immola tion of the young, she felt, let them suspect her of a crime and praise Dora for her truth and good ness ; the consciousness of her innocence was enough for her, let what would else afflict her ! " Well ! I do not see that I can do more in this affair," then said Mr. Hamley turning to Mr. Wells. " You will please to forget this household scene, this little domestic drama as I call it ; and observe, Wells ! — I accept the cheque. There is a mystery about it ; but hang me if I can find it out ! and I am not a-going to prosecute Mrs. Hamley's niece to get hold of it.

Keep a close tongue in your PATRICIA KEMBaALL. head of what you have seen if you please ; and now, good morning." So Mr. Wells bowed himself out, and went from the presence of the great man burdened with a secret of bigger dimensions than he had ever had before. And when he had gone Patricia's worst time began. Mrs. Hamley, whose family pride and natural sense of womanly justice were no longer called into action by the presence of a stranger, took her in hand, and dealt with her as severely as she had hitherto been lenient. She seemed to forget that she had just now claimed for her innocence against her husband, and, turning round on her, told her that she had disgraced herself, her father's name, and her uncle's memory ; in any circumstance, and put it as mildly as she would, she was still a disgrace to the family, and a shame to herself.

It was her duty to tell. If she had not really done this thing herself, and had been, as she pretended, the dupe of some one else older and more designing, it was still her duty to tell. In keeping it secret she was making herself a party to the fraud ; and was in point of fact as bad as the person, whoever it might be, who initiated this crime. Mr. Hamley followed on his wife's track by talking largely of his " ward's " — if she would allow him to give her this appellation — at all events his "guest's" duty to the state as a citizen, of the obedience due by all citizens to the law whereof he was an unworthy dispenser ; and of the considera tion due to himself personally, as her host and the husband of her aunt. To all of which Patricia listened respectfully enough ; her dilated eyes filling now and then with tears which never overflowed the lids, wondering when her lecture was to be over ; wondering at Dora's infamy and shame in suffering her to bear all this without coming forward to defend and exonerate her ; but, while her intelligence was broad enough to take it all in from their point of view, to see herself as they must see her, clinging to her own higher sense of truth and loyalty, and preferring to bear all rather than betray her trust.

Since Dora had spoken as she had done, disclaiming while seeming to explain so far as she could the mystery she herself had created, Patricia had not once looked at her, nor had Dora looked at her ; so far the latter knew the grace of shame ; and she gave but one unvarying answer to all their threats, their entreaties to tell — " I cannot," or " I must not." Then said Aunt Hamley in a rage, " I tell you what it is, Patricia — you did it your- VOL. III. c self. It is absurd to think that a girl of your age could have been made such a mere catspaw as you pretend. You knew what you were about, well enough. You forged your uncle's name, or you knew that your accomplice had done so. You stole that ten pounds of mine in the beginning, and now you have gone on in your wickedness till you have done this awful thing !

" "Aunt, don't! don't!" cried Patricia covering her face. Then holding out her hands beseechingly, " Say you don't believe this, aunt ! Say it, aunt — dear aunt ! — for my dear uncle's sake, for my dead father's sake ! " " Confess, Patricia ! If you are in earnest, con fess ! " said Aunt Hamley's harsh metallic voice. "I cannot ! I must not, aunt ! Oh, believe in me ! indeed I am innocent ! Dora ! tell them I am innocent ! " "How can I tell them that?" said Dora, with sincere regret — yes, her regret was sincere enough ; but she spoke with meaning all the same, to recal Patricia to herself and the remembrance of her promise. " I believe that you are innocent ; in my own mind I feel sure ; but how can I tell them positively? " " Oh, it is hard ! " murmured Patricia, as with a heavy sob she turned away to the window, where she stood looking vacantly at the sunshine lying on the grass and budding trees, thinking how green everything looked, and what a lovely day it was out of doors, and oh ! if she could only escape into the freedom and peace of nature once more !

They left her to her own meditations for a moment, and then Mr. Hamley went up to her and took her by the hands in a friendly way enough. " Betterminded, young lady ? will you inform us now and confess all you know about it ? " he said. She looked into his face pathetically. " I must not ! " she sobbed, and hid her face on his shoulder. " Dear ! dear ! " said Mr. Hamley, whom the action conciliated, patting her head. " I would give that hundred pounds twice over that this had never happened ! Poor young lady ! How came you to be such a fool, my dear ? I am sorry for you, by George I am ! but you are too big a fool to live ; you positively are ! " And then he put her away. He did not hke to pet her before his wife, and when she had been such a wicked girl too ; nor to let Dora feel, as he phrased it, " as if her nose was put out of joint."

So he lifted up the miserable face and dropped the poor nervous hands ; but he sighed and was very sorry, and somewhat ashamed. " Go to your room, Patricia," then said Mrs. Hamley severely. " Let me never see your face again till you have confessed, either that you have committed this sin yourself, or who is your accomplice. Go, I say. Dora, leave her alone ; she is not fit for you to touch." For Dora, weeping real tears, frightened and remorseful but not brave enough to own to the truth, had made as if she would have gone nearer to her, caressingly. Patricia shrank from her visibly. "Yes, leave me alone," she said in an altered voice. Her aunt and Mr. Hamley took the change of manner and accent to mean so far a confession of guilt in that she felt the stainless purity of Dora as her punishment ; and it thrilled the poor lady like an electric shock.

But Dora, flushing to her temples, drew back — her eyes bent on the ground. She made a beautiful picture at the moment of innocence blushing yet pitiful for guilt ; while Patricia was that guilt, conscious of its own enormity and respecting innocence. So it seemed to the two looking on ; and not an angel from heaven could just then have shown them the reverse of the shield. " Good-bye, aunt ; you have misjudged me. I am innocent of all knowledge, all offence in this," said Patricia, preparing to leave the room. "Leave me silently," said Aunt Hamley rising and waving her away. " Do not dare to come into my presence again till you are invited ; and con sider yourself regarded as a thief — do you hear the word ? — as a thief, Patricia, till you have confessed and made restitution." Without another word Patricia went ; and when she had gone Mrs. Hamley's courage of anger gave way, and she fell fainting into a chair.

" That cursed girl ! she will be the death of her aunt ! " said Mr. Hamley savagely. Providence might take the old lady in an orderly manner as soon as it liked, but he did not want her to die in a sudden muddled-up way like this. When she went he hoped to have all things done respect ably and with befitting state— a doctor in daily attendance and a physician for special consultation ; a nurse sent from the best training school in Lon don, and daily inquiries at the house by all the neighbourhood ; Mrs. Hamley's health the talk of the place, the topic of the hour. To go off in a fit of rage because her niece had forged his name to a cheque was by no means the kind of exit he had at heart for his aged ladywife ; wherefore he said again " That cursed girl ! " and Dora was too much scared to put in a word of conciliation.

Then he looked at Dora and almost whispered, his voice was so soft ; " Oh, you best and dearest ! what should we do without you ! " " Dear thing ! " was Dora's oft-repeated formula as she leant over Mrs. Hamley crying. " Don't cry, Dora," said Mr. Hamley ; but he himself was moved. He had felt deeply the whole affair, and hated the part he felt compelled to play ; but he was curiously torn between anger and pity, and scarcely seemed to know his own mind somehow. " She is not worth one of those pretty tears of yours ; you are too good to pity her, and yet — heaven forgive me for my weakness! — I am sorry for her too," he continued, turning away his head. " She is a fine young woman, if a trifle rough ; and I cannot think how she came to do such a dirty trick, or who could have put her up to it."