Berris

Front matter

BERRIS PRINTED BY SPOT. IS WOOD E AND CO., 5TKW-STKKKT SQUARE LOS DON B E E E I S BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID AUTHOK OF 'BESIDE THE _____ ' 'A FAITHFUL LOVER ' ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II. bonbon WARD & DOWNEY 12 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1893 [All rights resetted'] CONTENTS or THE SECOND VOLUME CHAl TER -A_K I. A Parting 1 II. When John Comes Home . . . .17 III. Remorse . . 35 IV. Widowhood . 47 V. In Devonshire 56 VI. A Visitor 70 VII. Molly's House 86 VIII. A Vision 105 IX. Another Vision 118 X. A Home VI BERRIS CHAPTER PACE XL A Wish Fulfilled 152 XII. Berris Amuses Herself . . . .161 XIII. Plain-Speaking ...... 174 XIV. Lady Horsham's Harvest .... 188 XV. So.me Years After BEEEIS

Chapter I

A PARTING Berris lingered, though it was time to leave the vessel. Now that she must say Good-bye, she clung to her husband. She had begun in these last few days to realise how much more patient and indulgent he had been to her than any one — than even Molly had ever been. She saw that when John was gone, she should be left without a friend. Mr. Statham's journey had been very B VOL. BERRIS quickly settled. A telegram urging speed had followed the letter, and John had gone into Northminster to consult his old friend Mr. Gledhow. The lawyer considered, and then suggested a way out of the difficulty that had not seemed practicable to John Statham. ' Why not take your wife with you ? ' Mr. Gledhow said. 'You know very wed that I will look after your business and your clerks while you are away.

It will be an amusement to me.' Statham went home and proposed the plan to Berris, but she declared that it was impossible : she had suffered so much in the short journey from Dover to Calais, that she was sure a longer sea-passage would kill her. ' Besides,' she added, ' I should only be a drag on you in the way of speed ; I could not travel as rapidly as you will, and my going would more than double the expense.' Her husband combated her reasons, but she remained firm, and as delay was impossible he prepared himself to go without her. Dr. Yarm had strongly seconded Mr. Gledhow's suggestion, and when Berris persisted in her refusal to accompany her husband, the doctor promised John Statham that he would always be at his wife's service while he was absent. Molly at once offered to go and stay with her sister till John Statham returned from Australia, so that really all hindrances had been taken away from the loving husband's journey.

The worst was over, except that which Statham most dreaded, the saying- Good-bye to Berris. He walked away with her now to a corner of the deck where they were hidden from observation, and he put his arm round her. ' My darling ' — Berris was strongly moved by the sadness in his voice — ' we must say Good-bye. I will be absent as short a time as possible ; when we meet again we will try to b2 BERRIS be still happier than we have been ; won't we, darling ? ' She did not answer ; she bent her head so that he could not see her face, and he thought he heard a sob. He went on, ' Lately, now and again, a cloud has come between us, the fault of both perhaps, or perhaps the natural effects of living together when our previous acquaintance had been so limited. You must forgive me any vexation I have given you, sweet one, and while I am away you must write me all your thoughts and wishes.

When I come home we will try to be as we were in feeling on our wedding-day.' She looked at him ; he was too sad just then to speculate, or he would have seen his wife's surprise. Berris had not guessed at any change in her husband's feelings, she had only found herself disappointed in him. She put her hand on his shoulder and looked sweetly at him. ' You will write to me often,' she said ; ' MoUy will be very kind, but — but she will not be you, John. I shall be so very lonely without you.' They kissed while the bell rang loudly to summon lingerers to leave the vessel. Berris found herself hurried along between Molly and Dr. Yarm, till they reached the quay ; then they turned and stood while the huge steamer moved majestically through the water. Dr. Yarm and Molly waved their handkerchiefs, but when at last they looked round at Berris, she had turned her back on the steamer ; she now asked to go to the railway station.

She looked so sad, so utterly downcast on the home journey, that Dr. Yarm softened towards her. He had not said so to Molly, but he had felt indignant at Mrs. Statham's refusal to go with her husband. Personally Berris reminded him of the coquette who had BERRIS blighted his early life, and he had been inclined to think badly of her ; he now con sidered that this evident longing for her home showed an amount of feeling he hardly expected from her. He had prepared himself to hear her propose a visit to London for the sake of distraction to her loneliness. He resolved not to be hard on her, although he could not yet forgive her selfishness in refusing to accompany her husband. He tried to interest her by talking about her husband's journey ; he had visited Australia during his years of wandering, and he knew the country.

Berris only took a languid interest in the subject, but she liked to listen to Dr. Yarm ; her eyes glistened at his descriptions, and she even laughed at his anecdotes. ' What a faculty you have,' she said ; ' I can quite see the places you talk about, do you know ? ' Molly smiled. It was rare for Berris to praise, and the gentle elder sister hoped that her engagement was forgiven. Until they reached home Berris had not completely realised her loneliness. She went hurriedly to her room and locked the door ; then she began to sob violently. She shed few tears, but the hard struggling sobbing could not be repressed. After a while she sat up and wiped her eyes. ' Molly said it was selfish of me to let him go alone,' she sighed, ' but I must say I think it was very selfish of him to go away and leave me aU alone ; I call it worse than being alone to have Molly set to watch over me and take note of everything I say and do.' She walked restlessly up and down the room, but she could not quiet herself; at last she went to the window.

Below, in the dark garden, Dr. Yarm and Molly were walking up and down in the semi- BERRIS darkness ; she could not distinguish the expression on their faces, but something in the way he bent over her sister, and in the way Molly looked up at him, told of a true sympathy between them. Berris gazed earnestly at them ; then she stamped her foot. ' I do hate humbug,' she said, ' and those two promised John, I know they did, because he said so, that they would watch over me and devote themselves entirely to me. Why did they promise an impossibility ? If I feel and know that they can make themselves quite happy without me, how can I feel that they are devoted to me ? To think that I am left to myself for six months ! It is enough to drive anyone mad.' Meanwhile Dr. Yarm and Molly were discussing plans for Berris's comfort and amusement. 'That brother-in-law of yours,' Michael Yarm said, ' is decidedly the least selfish man I have ever known.

He would not talk of himself at all ; his one idea was that he must tell me everything that was likely to conduce to his wife's well-being during his absence. Even at the last, he said it did not seem right to leave her, but there was no one to care for those poor children out there, supposing that he arrived too late to consult with his sister ; he said it was just one of those responsibilities that could not be shirked. Do you think your sister fully appreciates her husband, my dearest ? ' Molly was puzzled how to answer. Even to her dear Michael she could not discuss her sister's failings. ' Is it not very difficult to judge ? ' she said. ' I read somewhere that sisters and brothers are not the best judges of one another if they have lived together in childhood ; they have preconceived ideas, and rarely allow for the BERRIS changes which I suppose come to aU except the bigoted and narrow-minded.' Michael Yarm smiled ; he felt that Molly had tacitly agreed with him. ' I shall not come over to-morrow,' he said ; ' perhaps not till Sunday.

Mrs. Statham wid be best alone with you at first, poor soul ; she is just one of those women who wdl not show how much she is feeling, and she will suffer from want of power to do so.' ' She has always been reserved,' Molly sighed ; ' she cannot help it.' ' Well, I must be off ; ' he took a loving farewell. ' You will say aU that is kind to Mrs. Statham, darling ; tell her I thought this first evening she would like to have you all to herself.' Instead of which Berris was disappointed to hear of his departure, and the rest of the evening passed very dismally in spite of Molly's efforts to cheer her sister. Berris looked very gloomy when she came down to breakfast, but Molly was so gay and bright that at last her sister began to talk ; she presently proposed a walk. ' Let us go and call on Mrs. Harrow,' she said ; ' she is sure to have heard that John has gone away, and she is so iU-natured that she will attribute his going to any motive but the right one ; it is better to tell my own news than to wait for her spiteful condol ences on my husband's desertion.

Do not look shocked, Molly ; you really must not lecture me ; you know nothing of the world, and I am low-spirited enough without being scolded.' Molly felt secretly glad that Mrs. Harrow was not in ; she thought in her sister's present state it was much better that she should not come into collision with this woman whom she disliked. Berris had scarcely a female friend, and her sister thought it was very unde sirable that she should make an enemy of BERRIS Mrs. Harrow. Molly had plenty of time to think in, for her sister was silent as they came home along the country road. The weather had been very dry of late, and the road was thickly strewn with fallen leaves ; but though the touch of autumn was everywhere visible, every step of the road was recalling to Berris her last walk along it when there were still remnants of summer lingering on the hedges and on the trees.

She was vividly recading Mrs. Harrow's words about her husband ; she knew very well that she had never felt the same love or respect for John since she had learned his folly in giving up a profitable case for the sake of a scruple. She lashed herself into fresh vexation as the thought came ; and then she remembered her husband's parting words and the revelation they had been to her that his feelings, too, had changed. How would it be when he came back ? He had said they would begin again as they had done on their wedding day. A look of weariness passed over the beautiful face. ' It will be very nice for a few days,' she thought, ' but it cannot last. I am not a child now, I look at life ready ; this separation will have made us strangers again. At the end of a week or so I shall be as dull as ever.' She paused, for she shrank from listening to the next thought that came to her ; she shrank from it but she did not resolutely cast it out ; it lingered, and only a few steps farther along the dry, dusty road she was telling herself that Sir Joshua had been right, she had been foolishly hasty in consenting to marry a man who held a different view of life from her own.

That inter view with Sir Joshua had greatly added to her consciousness of her own importance. At one time the talk she had heard about the baronet had left an uncertain feeling in her mind with regard to the form his admiration might now take towards her ; but she could BERRIS no longer doubt that if Lady Horsham had died before she engaged herself to John Statham, Sir Joshua would have asked her to marry him. With all her discontent there was a certain loyalty, it may have been a certain self-respect in Berris's nature which kept her from any thought of wronging her husband ; she had determined that if Sir Joshua should write to her or call on her when he learned John's absence, she would neither answer his letter nor receive his visit. She had always expressed herself strongly on the subject of flirtation, and in spite of her love of admiration she had never been drawn into a scrape with one of her admirers.

Mr. Gledhow's guardianship, which was a well known fact in gossipy Northminster, had no doubt been a protection to her, but her own dignified appearance, and her unhesitating haughtiuess if she suspected the slightest attempt at familiarity, had kept her free from any entanglement till the day she met John Statham. She was extremely unsusceptible, as yet she had never found anyone so interesting as herself, and this was perhaps one reason why women preferred Molly to her as a friend ; they easily discovered that Berris did not consider it worth while to be pleasant to a woman. ' As time goes on,' she said to herself, she had really forgotten that her sister was walking beside her, so completely had the memory of that former walk absorbed her, 'we shall drift farther and farther apart : John is so sentimental, he considers married life to be a poem ; to me it is just plain prose.

I think those fine feelings and notions are nonsense, they are so troublesome to live up to. Poor dear John, he should have married Molly ; she has plenty of sentiment, I have seen her cry over a novel.' In the evening Mrs. Statham received a BERRIS letter from her husband ; she turned her back on Molly while she read it, and her sister thought that Berris was crying. Berris did not cry easily, and she certainly was not crying over her husband's letter, though it touched her with a slight remorse for the thoughts she had cherished respecting him. It was a decided relief to find that she could not answer it : he said he should not be able to receive a letter from her till he reached Sydney.

Chapter II When John Comes Home

Molly had tried hard to think only of Berris ; but for all that, the week had seemed intoler ably long. John Statham had started a fortnight ago, but to Molly it seemed like three fortnights since she had seen Michael Yarm. She called him Michael now ; she had over come the awe with which he at first had inspired her, he seemed to her still a being to be worshipped as well as to be loved, and she gloried in noticing the weight that others seemed to attach to his opinion. Molly had been present when Mr. Gledhow told his daughter that John Statham thought of going VOL. II. c BERRIS to Australia ; and he said that he had advised Statham to consult Dr. Yarm. ' His judgment is so clear,' the old lawyer added; 'if he agrees, then I am sure Statham ought to go to his sister.' A few days after John Statham's departure, Dr. Yarm had been summoned to Scotland, to the dying bed of an uncle he had not seen for years.

To-day Berris had gone out by herself; she told her sister that she preferred some times to be alone, while to Molly it had been like a holiday to be able to write a long comfortable letter to Michael, and to be left free to dream about him as much as she pleased. She was stid thinking of him, and of the happy life that lay before them, when he came unannounced into the room. He looked so full of delight, he kissed her so rapturously, that Molly was content with the delicious silence that followed, and did not try to break it. At last she pushed him gently away. ' I thought you did not expect to return till to-morrow ? ' ' Yes, and I am not come to stay. But I got a summons home and I had to pass Woolton, so I slipped in between trains. You will see me to-morrow evening, darling ; the maid said her mistress was out, and I told her I would announce myself.

You were not alarmed, were you ? ' ' I am glad Berris is out,' Molly said simply. ' I fancy it must try her to see us together, and to feel that she is alone.' ' Is she so fond of her husband ? ' he said absently ; he was thinking of something else. Molly laughed. ' Why of course she is fond of him ; why else should she have married him ? ' c2 BERRIS ' I see.' But Dr. Yarm still looked thoughtful. ' I came over to-day on purpose to say something, dear girl, and I had better say it before Mrs. Statham comes in. When are you going to mar,ry me, Molly ? ' Molly smiled and blushed. ' Are we not very happy as we are ? ' she said. 'We have not been engaged very long; please wait a little.' ' There must always be truth between us,' he said gravely, ' and I cannot agree that the present state of things is very happy for either of us.

I cannot get out here often, as I could get to Northminster, and we could take care of your sister just as well married as single.' 'Oh, Michael !' — she said it in such a gentle appealing way that he immediately kissed her — ' as if I should have any time or thoughts for Berris then. I can see what a dear encroaching creature you are now, and how my thoughts go always straying after you ; I do not know what it will be when I am with you every day, I am afraid I shall forget everyone else.' ' You wdl never forget what ought to be remembered,' he said tenderly. ' As to Mrs. Statham, you are bound to care for her now I suppose, but I believe so far as her happi ness is concerned, she would be as happy alone. Very well, I will wait till the day after John Statham comes home. You will marry me then ; you will keep me waiting no longer than that ?

Promise me, dearest ? ' ' John said his first letter would fix the time he started on his home journey, but he did not expect to be absent more than three months,' Molly said slowly. ' Then let us settle to be married this day three months.' He kept his eyes fixed on her face as if to compel her consent. 'Do you think Friday is a nice day?' BERRIS Molly was blushing and smiling ; ' I think it is unlucky. Why not say Tuesday? — the Tuesday after John comes home.' ' Little perversity ! ' but he said it lovingly, as he pulled out his note book. ' There, I have entered it as a professional engagement, so you cannot refuse to fulfil it. You must please say all that is kind for me to Mrs. Statham ; I am afraid I must run away, dearest.' Dr. Yarm went off to see a patient in WToolton. On his way he saw Berris coming towards him with a troubled look on her fair face.

She smiled however when she recognised him, and asked if he had been with Molly. ' I have just parted from her. You will find she has a message to give you. I will give it you myself,' he said laughing. ' She has promised to marry me as soon as your husband comes back.' It seemed to Dr. Yarm that the shadow returned to Mrs. Statham's face ; she frowned as she said, ' We do not yet know when that will be ; a good deal may happen between this and then.' She looked so strange, he thought so vexed, that he wished he had not told her. And then he remembered that Molly would do so ; it was much better therefore that he had spoken. Even after Berris had left him, the remembrance of her expression troubled him. This expression was still on Mrs. Statham's face when she reached the end of Wkarncliffe Street ; for an instant she seemed about to turn into it, then she passed it by and went on as if she were bound for Mrs. Harrow's house.

Berris had been walking for more than an hour, striving at first against the thoughts that had been gaining strength dur ing the last few days. An intense self-pity had taken hold of her, she saw herself as if she were someone else, a beautiful young friendless woman, whose life had been wrecked from BERRIS ignorance. She was now convinced that she might have married into the position she coveted ; she had made an irreparable mis take ; the gloom this conviction cast over her had so deepened, that when she met Dr. Yarm she was desperate with misery. And into her terrible consciousness of self-made sorrow, this smiling happy-looking man, too happy-looking Berris was sure to possess any real feeling, had poured out his hope of a speedy marriage with her sister. She could hardly bear to stand talking with him for even those few minutes, so unspeakably selfish and self centred did he seem to her ; and then when she had taken leave and passed on, she told herself that Dr. Yarm and Molly were sure to suit ; they had both the same narrow ideas, the same faculty for making themselves happy with trifles ; it was not possible they could under stand her or enter into her far deeper feelings.

When she reached the end of the street, she felt that she could not go home and listen to Molly's happiness ; she forgot how tired she was when she met Michael Yarm, and she walked on rapidly along the broad frost-bound road. Once more her wretchedness rose so overpoweringly that it seemed as if life was worthless unless she could free herself from its power. Into the midst of this torture there came a new thought which seemed to grow and take fresh proportions while she considered it ; it stood out so boldly and fully in her mind that it shut from her mental sight the clinging misery of these last days : it was possible that John might not be longdived. She wondered why she had said that the mistake of her marriage was irrepar able ; she believed in Providence, she had heard good people, Molly and Clara Gledhow, for instance, say that a good Providence watches over our souls and bodies.

Berris did not think out these points for herself, she pre- BERRIS ferred that such tiresome things as accounts and religion should be done for her by others. Well, then, if she was doomed to become tired of John from his unwillingness to earn money and his absurd scruples about clients, would it not be much better in every way if he were to die young, before they had grown to dis like one another, and to be always quarrelling ? ' How do you do, Mrs. Statham ? ' Berris started, and looked up. Mrs. Harrow was standing before her, with an amused smile on her face. ' You did not see me, dear ; I have been calling on you, and I saw your sister. How greatly she has improved ; she seems quite happy in her en gagement, poor girl.' Berris looked straight at Mrs. Harrow. 'Pray do not waste your pity on Molly, I do not know anyone who needs it less ; my sister is perfectly happy, and she is likely to continue so.' ' Very sweet of you to say so, dear, what ever you may think.

I called to tell you my news ; it is wonderful how money always goes to those who have it, instead of to those who need it.' Berris thought the woman's smile insolent. ' Is it so always ? ' she said carelessly. ' I fancied that when you came in for your father's legacy you were in need of it.' Mrs. Harrow was paler than usual as she answered : ' I did not mean that ; I was thinking of Sir Joshua Horsham. Have you heard of his good fortune ? ' Berris felt suddenly irritable ; there was a very unpleasant look in her companion's eyes. ' No,' she said slowly, ' I have not heard anything about him lately.' ' Dear me, it is quite a romance. I saw it yesterday in the " Northminster Herald." Lady Horsham, as you know, had very wealthy BERRIS belongings — middle-class people ; some of them are still in trade.

I believe they disliked Sir Joshua and his ways, and that this Mr. Braithwaite had said he meant to alter his will. He died suddenly, however, before he heard of his niece's death, and it seems that Sir Joshua has come in for half a million.' Mrs. Harrow looked curiously at Berris as she ended, and she saw the girl's beautiful eyes glisten. ' He was already very rich, was he not ? ' said Berris. ' Yes, and with all his follies he seems to have kept clear of debt ; that is what I meant when I saidmonejalways goes to those who have it.' ' Yes,' Berris said sadly and thoughtfully, ' I suppose those are the people who know best how to use it.' She was not thinking of Mrs. Harrow as she spoke, she was telling herself that if John had ever so much money he would be sure to invest it or do something extra prudent with it, instead of using some of it for the greater enjoyment of daily life.

But Mrs. Harrow, having a skeleton in the house, was apt to fancy that others were as conscious of her husband's daily increasing vice as she was ; she felt sure that this impertinent beauty had meant to hint at Mr. Harrow's sottishness, and her pale eyes were full of anger as she answered Berris. ' You mean,' she said, ' that some people are so mean-spirited that it makes little matter to them whether they are poor or rich. They live only for those that come after them ; well, it is always pleasant to be the child of a careful person. Good-day,Mrs. Statham, Iwill not keep you standing in the cold ; you look chilled.' She meant her words to be double-edged, as she rustled away with a slight smile on her pale, short face ; they would tell against John BERRIS Statham, who had lectured her husband about economy in a way she had resented ; they told also against the improvidence of Berris's own father, who had undertaken business beyond his powers, and they also hinted at her own father's prudence ; Mrs. Harrow being one of those women — there are plenty of them about — who weight innocent sounding words with special meanings.

Berris hurried home : she had forgotten her shrinking from Molly's joyful tidings. Once more a strong tide of regret and anger swept over her ; she saw that her marriage had injured her husband's prospects as well as her own ; if he had not married her, he might have met with some heiress, or at any rate with some rich girl, who would have given him all he wanted and saved him the need of working so hard ; and she might have married Sir Joshua. How much good she could have done as his wife. She could have made liberal WHEN JCHN COMES HOME presents to Mrs. Harrow, she could have set tled such an allowance on Molly as would have made her independent of her husband ; she might even have broken off the engagement. Berris thought this would have been far more convenient ; it would have destroyed all chance of a mesalliance, which would have been far more embarrassing if she had herself risen in position, and it would have put her sister as completely at her disposal as she had been in the old days together.