CHAPTER X.
THE ELOPEMENT.
ON the evening of the first of April, Mrs. Bowmore was left alone with the servants. Mr. Bowmore and Percy had gone out together to attend a special meeting of the Club. Shortly afterward Miss Charlotte had left the cottage, under very extraordinary circumstances.
A few minutes only after the departure of her father and Percy, she received a letter, which appeared to cause her the most violent agitation. She said to Mrs. Bowmore:
'Mamma, I must see Captain Bervie for a few minutes in private, on a matter of serious importance to all of us. He is waiting at the front gate, and he will come in if I show myself at the hall door.'
Upon this, Mrs. Bowmore had asked for an explanation.
'There is no time for explanation,' was the only answer she received; 'I ask you to leave me for five minutes alone with the Captain.'
Mrs. Bowmore still hesitated. Charlotte snatched up her garden hat, and declared, wildly, that she would go out to Captain Bervie, if she was not permitted to receive him at home. In the face of this declaration, Mrs. Bowmore yielded, and left the room.
In a minute more the Captain made his appearance.
Although she had given way, Mrs. Bowmore was not disposed to trust her daughter, without supervision, in the society of a man whom Charlotte herself had reviled as a slanderer and a false friend. She took up her position in the veranda outside the parlor, at a safe distance from one of the two windows of the room which had been left partially open to admit the fresh air. Here she waited and listened.
The conversation was for some time carried on in whispers.
As they became more and more excited, both Charlotte and Bervie ended in unconsciously raising their voices.
'I swear it to you on my faith as a Christian!' Mrs. Bowmore heard the Captain say. 'I declare before God who hears me that I am speaking the truth!'
And Charlotte had answered, with a burst of tears:
'I can't believe you! I daren't believe you! Oh, how can you ask me to do such a thing? Let me go! let me go!'
Alarmed at those words, Mrs. Bowmore advanced to the window and looked in.
Bervie had put her daughter's arm on his arm, and was trying to induce her to leave the parlor with him. She resisted, and implored him to release her. He dropped her arm, and whispered in her ear. She looked at him—and instantly made up her mind.
'Let me tell my mother where I am going,' she said; 'and I will consent.'
'Be it so!' he answered. 'And remember one thing: every minute is precious; the fewest words are the best.'
Mrs. Bowmore re-entered the cottage by the adjoining room, and met them in the passage. In few words, Charlotte spoke.
'I must go at once to Justice Bervie's house. Don't be afraid, mamma! I know what I am about, and I know I am right.'
'Going to Justice Bervie's!' cried Mrs. Bowmore, in the utmost extremity of astonishment. 'What will your father say, what will Percy think, when they come back from the Club?'
'My sister's carriage is waiting for me close by,' Bervie answered. 'It is entirely at Miss Bowmore's disposal. She can easily get back, if she wishes to keep her visit a secret, before Mr. Bowmore and Mr. Linwood return.'
He led her to the door as he spoke. She ran back and kissed her mother tenderly. Mrs. Bowmore called to them to wait.
'I daren't let you go,' she said to her daughter, 'without your father's leave!'
Charlotte seemed not to hear, the Captain seemed not to hear. They ran across the front garden, and through the gate—and were out of sight in less than a minute.
More than two hours passed; the sun sank below the horizon, and still there were no signs of Charlotte's return.
Feeling seriously uneasy, Mrs. Bowmore crossed the room to ring the bell, and send the man-servant to Justice Bervie's house to hasten her daughter's return.
As she approached the fireplace, she was startled by a sound of stealthy footsteps in the hall, followed by a loud noise as of some heavy object that had dropped on the floor. She rang the bell violently, and opened the door of the parlor. At the same moment, the spy-footman passed her, running out, apparently in pursuit of somebody, at the top of his speed. She followed him, as rapidly as she could, across the little front garden, to the gate. Arrived in the road, she was in time to see him vault upon the luggage-board at the back of a post-chaise before the cottage, just as the postilion started the horses on their way to London. The spy saw Mrs. Bowmore looking at him, and pointed, with an insolent nod of his head, first to the inside of the vehicle, and then over it to the high-road; signing to her that he designed to accompany the person in the post-chaise to the end of the journey.
Turning to go back, Mrs. Bowmore saw her own bewilderment reflected in the faces of the two female servants, who had followed her out.
'Who can the footman be after, ma'am?' asked the cook. 'Do you think it's a thief?'
The housemaid pointed to the post-chaise, barely visible in the distance.
'Simpleton!' she said. 'Do thieves travel in that way? I wish my master had come back,' she proceeded, speaking to herself: 'I'm afraid there's something wrong.'
