'When you meet with him in London, he may perhaps ask if you have seen Eunice.'
'My child! he is sure to ask.'
'Break it to him gently—but don't let him deceive himself. In this world, he must never hope to see me again.'
I tried—very gently—to remonstrate. 'At your age, and at his age,' I said, 'surely there is hope?'
'There is no hope.' She pressed her hand on her heart. 'I know it, I feel it, here.'
'Oh, Eunice, it's hard for me to say that!'
'I will try to make it easier for you. Say that I have forgiven him—and say no more.'
CHAPTER XLIX. THE GOVERNOR ON HIS GUARD.
After leaving Eunice, my one desire was to be alone. I had much to think of, and I wanted an opportunity of recovering myself. On my way out of the house, in search of the first solitary place that I could discover, I passed the room in which we had dined. The door was ajar. Before I could get by it, Mrs. Tenbruggen stepped out and stopped me.
'Will you come in here for a moment?' she said. 'The farmer has been called away, and I want to speak to you.'
Very unwillingly—but how could I have refused without giving offense?—I entered the room.
'When you noticed my keeping my name from you,' Mrs. Tenbruggen began, 'while Selina was with us, you placed me in an awkward position. Our little friend is an excellent creature, but her tongue runs away with her sometimes; I am obliged to be careful of taking her too readily into my confidence. For instance, I have never told her what my name was before I married. Won't you sit down?'
I had purposely remained standing as a hint to her not to prolong the interview. The hint was thrown away; I took a chair.
'Selina's letters had informed me,' she resumed, 'that Mr. Gracedieu was a nervous invalid. When I came to England, I had hoped to try what massage might do to relieve him. The cure of their popular preacher might have advertised me through the whole of the Congregational sect. It was essential to my success that I should present myself as a stranger. I could trust time and change, and my married name (certainly not known to Mr. Gracedieu) to keep up my incognito. He would have refused to see me if he had known that I was once Miss Chance.'
I began to be interested.
Here was an opportunity, perhaps, of discovering what the Minister had failed to remember when he had been speaking of this woman, and when I had asked if he had ever offended her. I was especially careful in making my inquiries.
'I remember how you spoke to Mr. Gracedieu,' I said, 'when you and he met, long ago, in my rooms. But surely you don't think him capable of vindictively remembering some thoughtless words, which escaped you sixteen or seventeen years since?'
'I am not quite such a fool as that, Mr. Governor. What I was thinking of was an unpleasant correspondence between the Minister and myself. Before I was so unfortunate as to meet with Mr. Tenbruggen, I obtained a chance of employment in a public Institution, on condition that I included a clergyman among my references. Knowing nobody else whom I could apply to, I rashly wrote to Mr. Gracedieu, and received one of those cold and cruel refusals which only the strictest religious principle can produce. I was mortally offended at the time; and if your friend the Minister had been within my reach—' She paused, and finished the sentence by a significant gesture.
'Well,' I said, 'he is within your reach now.'
'And out of his mind,' she added. 'Besides, one's sense of injury doesn't last (except in novels and plays) through a series of years. I don't pity him—and if an opportunity of shaking his high position among his admiring congregation presented itself, I daresay I might make a mischievous return for his letter to me. In the meanwhile, we may drop the subject. I suppose you understand, now, why I concealed my name from you, and why I kept out of the house while you were in it.'
It was plain enough, of course. If I had known her again, or had heard her name, I might have told the Minister that Mrs. Tenbruggen and Miss Chance were one and the same. And if I had seen her and talked with her in the house, my memory might have shown itself capable of improvement. Having politely presented the expression of my thanks, I rose to go.
She stopped me at the door.
'One word more,' she said, 'while Selina is out of the way. I need hardly tell you that I have not trusted her with the Minister's secret. You and I are, as I take it, the only people now living who know the truth about these two girls. And we keep our advantage.'
'What advantage?' I asked.
'Don't you know?'
'I don't indeed.'
'No more do I. Female folly, and a slip of the tongue; I am old and ugly, but I am still a woman. About Miss Eunice. Somebody has told the pretty little fool never to trust strangers. You would have been amused, if you had heard that sly young person prevaricating with me. In one respect, her appearance strikes me. She is not like either the wretch who was hanged, or the poor victim who was murdered. Can she be the adopted child? Or is it the other sister, whom I have not seen yet? Oh, come! come! Don't try to look as if you didn't know. That is really too ridiculous.'
'You alluded just now,' I answered, 'to our 'advantage' in being the only persons who know the truth about the two girls. Well, Mrs. Tenbruggen, I keep
'In other words,' she rejoined, 'you leave me to make the discovery myself. Well, my friend, I mean to do it!'
