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WYLDER’S HAND
‘He hardly trusts Lake more than he does me, I presume,’ murmured Mr. Larkin, elevating his tall bald head with an offended
and supercilious air; and letting the thin, open letter fall, or rather
throwing it with a slight whisk upon the table.
‘No, I take leave to think he certainly does not. Lake has got private directions about the disposition of a portion of the money. Of
course, if there are persons to be dealt with who are not pleasantly
approachable by respectable professional people – in fact it would
not suit me. It is really rather a compliment, and relieves me of the
unpleasant necessity of saying – no.’
Yet Mr. Larkin was very sore, and curious, and in a measure, hated both Lake and Wylder for their secret confi dences, and was more
than ever resolved to get at the heart of Mark’s mystery.
CHAPTER XLII
A PARAGRAPH IN THE
COUNTY PAPER
The nature of his injury considered, Captain Lake recovered with
wonderful regularity and rapidity. In four weeks he was out rather
pale and languid but still able to walk without diffi culty, leaning
on a stick, for ten or fi fteen minutes at a time. In another fortnight
he had made another great advance, had thrown away his crutch
handled stick, and recovered fl esh and vigour. In a fortnight more
he had grown quite like himself again; and in a very few weeks more,
I read in the same county paper, transmitted to me by the same fair
hands, but this time not with a cross, but three distinct notes of admiration standing tremulously at the margin of the paragraph, the
following to me for a time incredible, and very nearly to this day
amazing, announcement: –
‘MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.
‘The auspicious event so interesting to our county, which we have
this day to announce, though for some time upon the tapis, has been
attended with as little publicity as possible. The contemplated union
between Captain Stanley Lake, late of the Guards, sole surviving son
of the late General Williams Stanley Stanley Lake, of Plasrhwyn, and
the beautiful and accomplished Miss Brandon, of Brandon Hall, in
this county, was celebrated in the ancestral chapel of Brandon, situated within the manorial boundaries, in the immediate vicinity of
the town of Gylingden, on yesterday. Although the marriage was un-
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WYLDER’S HAND
derstood to be strictly private – none but the immediate relations
of the bride and bridegroom being present – the bells of Gylingden
rang out merry peals throughout the day, and the town was tastefully
decorated with fl ags, and brilliantly illuminated at night.
‘A deputation of the tenantry of the Gylingden and the Longmoor estates, together with those of the Brandon estate, went in procession to Brandon Hall in the afternoon, and read a well-conceived
and affectionate address, which was responded to in appropriate
terms by Captain Lake, who received them, with his beautiful bride
at his side, in the great gallery – perhaps the noblest apartment in
that noble ancestral mansion. The tenantry were afterwards handsomely entertained under the immediate direction of Josiah Larkin,
Esq., of the Lodge, the respected manager of the Brandon estates,
at the “Brandon Arms,” in the town of Gylingden. It is understood
that the great territorial infl uence of the Brandon family will obtain a considerable accession in the estates of the bridegroom in the
south of England.’
There was some more which I need not copy, being very like
what we usually see on such occasions.
I read this piece of intelligence half a dozen times over during breakfast. ‘How that beautiful girl has thrown herself away!’
I thought. ‘Surely the Chelfords, who have an infl uence there, ought
to have exerted it to prevent her doing anything so mad. His estates
in the south of England, indeed! Why, he can’t have £300 a year
clear from that little property in Devon. He is such a liar; and so
absurd, as if he could succeed in deceiving anyone upon the subject.’
So I read the paragraph over again, and laid down the paper,
simply saying, ‘Well, certainly, that is disgusting!’
I had heard of his duel. It was also said that it had in some way
had reference to Miss Brandon. But this was the only rumoured incident which would at all have prepared one for the occurrence.
303
JOSEPH SHERIDAN L E FANU
I tried to recollect anything particular in his manner – there was
nothing; and she positively seemed to dislike him. I had been utterly
mystifi ed, and so, I presume, had all the other lookers-on.
Well! after all, ‘twas no particular business of mine.
At the club, I saw it in the ‘Morning Post;’ and an hour after, old
Joe Gabloss, that prosy Argus who knows everything, recounted the
details with patient precision, and in legal phrase, ‘put in’ letters
from two or three country houses proving his statement.
So there was no doubting it longer: and Captain Stanley Lake,
late of Her Majesty’s – – Regiment of Guards, idler, scamp, coxcomb, and the beautiful Dorcas Brandon, heiress of Brandon, were
man and wife.
I wrote to my fair friend, Miss Kybes, and had an answer confi rming, if that were needed, the public announcement, and mentioning
enigmatically, that it had caused ‘a great deal of conversation.’
The posture of affairs in the small world of Gylingden, except
in the matter of the alliance just referred to, was not much changed.
Since the voluminous despatch from Marseilles, promising his
return so soon, not a line had been received from Mark Wylder. He
might arrive any day or night. He might possibly have received some
unexpected check – if not checkmate, in that dark and deep game
on which he seemed to have staked so awfully. Mr. Jos. Larkin sometimes thought one thing, sometimes another.
In the meantime, Captain Lake accepted the trust. Larkin at
times thought there was a constant and secret correspondence going on between him and Mark Wylder, and that he was his agent
in adjusting some complicated and villainous piece of diplomacy by
means of the fund – secret-service money – which Mark had placed
at his disposal.
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WYLDER’S HAND
He, Mr. Larkin, was treated like a child in this matter, and his advice never so much as asked, nor his professional honour accredited
by the smallest act of confi dence.
Sometimes his suspicions took a different turn, and he thought
that Lake might be one of those ‘persecutors’ of whom Mark spoke
with such mysterious hatred; and that the topic of their correspondence was, perhaps, some compromise, the subject or the terms of
which would not bear the light.
Lake certainly made two visits to London, one of them of a week’s
duration. The attorney being a sharp, long-headed fellow, who knew
very well what business was, knew perfectly well, too, that two or
three short letters might have settled any legitimate business which
his gallant friend had in the capital.
But Lake was now married, and under the incantation whistled
over him by the toothless Archdeacon of Mundlebury, had sprung
up into a county magnate, and was worth cultivating, and to be
treated tenderly.
So the attorney’s business was to smile and watch – to watch,
and of course, to pray as heretofore – but specially to watch. He
himself hardly knew all that was passing in his own brain. There are
operations of physical nature which go on actively without your being aware of them; and the moral respiration, circulation, insensible
perspiration, and all the rest of that peculiar moral system which
exhibited its type in Jos. Larkin, proceeded automatically in the immortal structure of that gentleman.
Being very gentlemanlike in externals, with a certain grace,
amounting very nearly to elegance, and having applied himself diligently to please the county people, that proud fraternity, remembering his father’s estates, condoned his poverty, and took Captain
Lake by the hand, and lifted him into their superb, though not very
entertaining order.
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JOSEPH SHERIDAN L E FANU
There were solemn festivities at Brandon, and festive solemnities at the principal county houses in return. Though not much of
a sportsman, Lake lent himself handsomely to all the sporting proceedings of the county, and subscribed in a way worthy of the old
renown of Brandon Hall to all sorts of charities and galas. So he was
getting on very pleasantly with his new neighbours, and was likely
to stand very fairly in that dull, but not unfriendly society.
About three weeks after this great county marriage, there arrived, this time from Frankfort, a sharp letter, addressed to Jos. Larkin, Esq. It said: –
‘My Dear Sir, – I think I have reason to complain. I have just
seen by accident the announcement of the marriage at Brandon.
I think as my friend, and a friend to the Brandon family, you ought
to have done something to delay, if you could not stop it. Of course,
you had the settlements, and devil’s in it if you could not have beat
about a while – it was not so quick with me – and not doubled the
point in a single tack; and you know the beggar has next to nothing.
Any way, it was your duty to have printed some notice that the thing
was thought of. If you had put it, like a bit of news, in “Galignani,”
I would have seen it, and known what to do. Well, that ship’s blew
up. But I won’t let all go. The cur will begin to try for the county or
for Dollington. You must quietly stop that, mind; and if he persists,
just you put an advertisement in “Galignani,” saying Mr. Smith will
take notice, that the other party is desirous to purchase, and becoming very pressing. Just you hoist that signal, and somebody will bear
down, and blaze into him at all hazards – you’ll see how. Things
have not gone quite smooth with me since; but it won’t be long till
I run up my fl ag again, and take the command. Be perfectly civil
with Stanley Lake till I come on board – that is indispensable; and
keep this letter as close from every eye as sealed orders. You may
want a trifl e to balk S.L.’s electioneering, and there’s an order on
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WYLDER’S HAND
Lake for 200 l. Don’t trifl e about the county and borough. He must
have no footing in either till I return.
‘Yours, dear Larkin,
‘Very truly
‘(but look after my business better),
‘M. WYLDER.’
The order on Lake, a little note, was enclosed: –
‘Dear Lake, – I wish you joy, and all the good wishes going, as
I could not make the prize myself.
‘Be so good to hand my lawyer, Mr. Jos. Larkin, of the Lodge,
Gylingden, 200 l. sterling, on my account.
‘Yours, dear Lake,
‘Very faithfully,
‘M. WYLDER.
200 l. )
‘23rd Feb., &c. &c.’
When Jos. Larkin presented this little order, it was in the
handsome square room in which Captain Lake transacted business – a lofty apartment, wainscoted in carved oak, and with a great
stone mantelpiece, with the Wylder arms, projecting in bold relief, in
the centre, and a fl orid scroll, with ‘RESURGAM’ standing forth as
sharp as the day it was chiselled nearly three hundred years before.
There was some other business – Brandon business – to be talked over fi rst; and that exhausted, Mr. Larkin sat as usual, with one
long thigh crossed upon the other – his arm thrown over the back
of his chair, and his tall, bald head a little back, and his small mild
eyes twinkling through their pink lids on the enigmatical captain,
who had entered upon the march of ambition in a spirit so audacious and conquering.
‘I had a line from Mr. Mark Wylder yesterday afternoon, as
usual without any address but the postmark;’ and good Mr. Larkin
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JOSEPH SHERIDAN L E FANU
laughed a mild, little patient laugh, and lifted his open hand, and
shook his head. ‘It really is growing too absurd – a mere order upon
you to hand me 200 l. How I’m to dispose of it, I have not the faintest notion.’
And he laughed again; at the same time he gracefully poked the
little note, between two fi ngers, to Captain Lake, who glanced full
on him, for a second, as he took it.
‘And how is Mark?’ enquired Lake, with his odd, sly smile, as he
scrawled a little endorsement on the order. ‘Does he say anything?’
‘No; absolutely nothing – he’s a very strange client!’ said Larkin,
laughing again. ‘There can be no objection, of course, to your reading it; and he thinks – he thinks – he’ll be here soon again – oh,
here it is.’
Mr. Larkin had been fumbling, fi rst in his deep waistcoat, and
then in his breast-pocket, as if for the letter, which was locked fast
into the iron safe, with Chubb’s patent lock, in his offi ce at the
Lodge. But it would not have done to have kept a secret from Captain Lake, of Brandon; and therefore his not seeing the note was
a mere accident.
‘Oh! no – stupid! – that’s Mullett and Hock’s. I have not got
it with me; but it does not signify, for there’s nothing in it. I hope
I shall soon be favoured with his directions as to what to do with
the money.’
‘He’s an odd fellow; and I don’t know how he feels towards me;
but on my part there is no feeling, I do assure you, but the natural
desire to live on the friendly terms which our ties of family and our
position in the county’ –
Stanley Lake was writing the cheque for 200 l. meanwhile, and
handed it to Larkin; and as that gentleman penned a receipt, the
captain continued – his eyes lowered to the little vellum-bound
book in which he was now making an entry: –
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WYLDER’S HAND
‘You have handed me a large sum, Mr. Larkin – 3,276 l. 11 s.
4 d. I undertook this, you know, on the understanding that it was
not to go on very long; and I fi nd my own business pretty nearly as
much as I can manage. Is Wylder at all defi nite as to when we may
expect his return?’
‘Oh, dear no – quite as usual – he expects to be here soon; but
that is all. I so wish I had brought his note with me; but I’m positive
that is all.’
So, this little matter settled, the lawyer took his leave.
CHAPTER XLIII
AN EVIL EYE LOOKS
ON THE VICAR
There were infl uences of a wholly unsuspected kind already
gathering round the poor vicar, William Wylder; as worlds fi rst
begin in thinnest vapour, and whirl themselves in time into consistency and form, so do these dark machinations, which at times
gather round unsuspecting mortals as points of revolution, begin
nebulously and intangibly, and grow in volume and in density, till
a colossal system, with its inexorable tendencies and forces, crushes
into eternal darkness the centre it has enveloped.
Thou shalt not covet; thou shalt not cast an eye of desire; out of
the heart proceed murders; – these dreadful realities shape themselves from so fi lmy a medium as thought!
Ever since his conference with the vicar, good Mr. Larkin had
been dimly thinking of a thing. The good attorney’s weakness was
money. It was a speck at fi rst; a metaphysical microscope of no
conceivable power could have developed its exact shape and colour – a mere speck, fl oating, as it were, in a transparent kyst, in his
soul – a mere germ – by-and-by to be an impish embryo, and ripe
for action. When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin
when it is fi nished bringeth forth death.
The vicar’s troubles grew and gathered, as such troubles will;
and the attorney gave him his advice; and the business of the Rev.
William Wylder gradually came to occupy a good deal of his time.
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