child rested feebly in the chair in which she had been placed. Rachel had nothing vindictive or selfish in her mood, and her longing was, above all, to get away, and minister to the poor child's present sufferings; but she found herself hemmed in, and pinned down by the investigation pushed on by her mother, involving answers and explanations that she alone could make.
Mr. Grey rubbed his forehead, and looked freshly annoyed at each revelation of the state of things. It had not been Mauleverer, but Rachel, who had asked subscriptions for the education of the children, he had but acted as her servant, the counterfeit of the woodcuts, which Lady Temple suggested, could not be construed into an offence; and it looked very much as if, thanks to his cleverness, and Rachel's incaution, there was really no case to be made out against him, as if the fox had carried off the bait without even leaving his brush behind him. Sooth to say, the failure was a relief to Rachel, she had thrown so much of her will and entire self into the upholding him, that she could not yet detach herself or sympathize with those gentle souls, the mother and Fanny, in keenly hunting him down. Might he not have been as much deceived in Mrs. Rawlins as herself? At any rate she hoped for time to face the subject, and kneeling on the ground so as to support little Lovedy's sinking head on her shoulder, made the briefest replies in her power when referred to. At last, Grace recollected the morning's affair of Mrs. Rossitur's bills. Mr. Grey looked as if he saw daylight, Grace volunteered to fetch both the account-book and Mrs. Rossitur, and Rachel found the statement being extracted from her of the monthly production of the bills, with the entries in the book, and of her having given the money for their payment. Mr. Grey began to write, and she perceived that he was taking down her deposition. She beckoned Mary to support her poor little companion, and rising to her feet, said, to the horror and consternation of her mother, 'Mr. Grey, pray let me speak to you!'
He rose at once, and followed her to the hall, where he looked prepared to be kind but firm.
'Must this be done to-day?' she said.
'Why not?' he answered.
'I want time to think about it. The woman has acted like a fiend, and I have not a word to say for her; but I cannot feel that it is fair, after such long and entire trust of this man, to turn on him suddenly without notice.'
'Do you mean that you will not prosecute?' said Mr. Grey, with a dozen notes of interjection in his voice.
'I have not said so. I want time to make up my mind, and to hear what he has to say for himself.'
'You will hear that at the Bench on Wednesday.'
'It will not be the same thing.'
'I should hope not!'
'You see,' said Rachel, perplexed and grievously wanting time to rally her forces, 'I cannot but feel that I have trusted too easily, and perhaps been to blame myself for my implicit confidence, and after that it revolts me to throw the whole blame on another.'
'If you have been a simpleton, does that make him an honest man?' said Mr. Grey, impatiently.
'No,' said Rachel, 'but--'
'What?'
'My credulity may have caused his dishonesty,' she said, bringing, at last, the words to serve the idea.
'Look you here, Rachel,' said Mr. Grey, constraining himself to argue patiently with his old friend's daughter; 'it does not simply lie between you and him--a silly girl who has let herself be taken in by a sharper. That would be no more than giving a sixpence to a fellow that tells me he lost his arm at Sebastopol when he has got it sewn up in a bag. But you have been getting subscriptions from all the world, making yourself answerable to them for having these children educated, and then, for want of proper superintendence, or the merest rational precaution, leaving them to this barbarous usage. I don't want to be hard upon you, but you are accountable for all this; you have made yourself so, and unless you wish to be regarded as a sharer in the iniquity, the least you can do by way of compensation, is not to make yourself an obstruction to the course of justice.'
'I don't much care how I am regarded,' said Rachel, with subdued tone and sunken head; 'I only want to do right, and not act spitefully and vindictively before he has had warning to defend himself.'
'Or to set off to delude as many equal foo--mistaken people as he can find elsewhere! Eh, Rachel? Don't you see, it this friend of yours be innocent, a summons will not hurt him, it will only give him the opportunity of clearing himself.'
'Yes, I see,' owned Rachel, and overpowered, though far from satisfied, she allowed herself to be brought back, and did what was required of her, to the intense relief of her mother. During her three minute conference no one in the study had ventured on speaking or stirring, and Mrs. Curtis would not thank her biographer for recording the wild alarms that careered through her brain, as to the object of her daughter's tete-a-tete with the magistrate.
It was over at last, and the hall of justice broke up. Mary Morris was at once in her mother's arms, and in a few minutes more making up for all past privations by a substantial meal in the kitchen. But Mrs. Kelland had gone to Avoncester to purchase thread, and only her daughter Susan had come up, the girl who was supposed to be a sort of spider, with no capacities beyond her web. Nor did Rachel think Lovedy capable of walking down to Mackarel Lane, nor well enough for the comfortless chairs and the third part of a bed. No, Mr. Grey's words that Rachel was accountable for the children's sufferings had gone to her heart. Pity was there and indignation, but these had brought such an anguish of self-accusation as she could only appease by lavishing personal care upon the chief sufferer. She carried the child to her own sitting-room and made a couch for her before the fire, sending Susan away with the assurance that Lovedy should stay at the Homestead, and be nursed and fed till she was well and strong again. Fanny, who had accompanied her, thought the child very ill, and was urgent that the doctor should be sent for; but between Rachel and the faculty of Avonmouth there was a deadly feud, and the proposal was scouted. Hunger and a bad cold were easily treated, and maybe there was a spark of consolation in having a patient all to herself and her homoeopathic book.
So Fanny and her two boys walked down the hill together in the dark. Colonel Keith and Alison Williams had already taken the same road, anxiously discussing the future. Alison asked why Colin had not given Mauleverer's alias. 'I had no proof,' he said. 'You were sure of the woman, but so far it is only guess work with him; though each time Rose spoke of seeing Maddox coincided with one of Mauleverer's visits. Besides, Alison, on the back of that etching in Rose's book is written, Mrs. Williams, from her humble and obliged servant, R. Maddox.''
'And you said nothing about it?'
'No, I wished to make myself secure, and to see my way before speaking out.'
'What shall you do? Can you trust to Rose's identifying him?'
'I shall ride in to-morrow to see what is going on, and judge if it will be well to let her see this man, if he have not gone off, as I should fear was only too likely. Poor little Lady Temple, her exploit has precipitated matters.'
'And you will let every one, Dr. Long and all, know what a wretch they have believed. And then--'
'Stay, Alison, I am afraid they will not take Maddox's subsequent guilt as a proof of Edward's innocence.'
'It is a proof that his stories were not worth credit.'
'To you and me it is, who do not need such proof. It is possible that among his papers something may be found that may implicate him and clear Edward, but we can only hold off and watch. And I greatly fear both man and woman will have slipped through our fingers, especially if she knew you.'
'Poor Maria, who could have thought of such frightful barbarity?' sighed Alison. 'I knew she was a passionate girl, but this is worse than one can bear to believe.'
She ceased, for she had been inexpressibly shocked, and her heart still yearned towards every Beauchamp school child.
'I suppose we must tell Ermine,' she added; 'indeed, I know I could not help it.'
'Nor I,' he said, smiling, 'though there is only too much fear that nothing will come of it but disappointment. At least, she will tell us how to meet that.'
CHAPTER XIX. THE BREWST SHE BREWED.
'Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.' Timon of Athens.
Under the circumstances of the Curtis family, no greater penance could have been devised than the solemn dinner party which had to take place only an hour after the investigation was closed. Grace in especial was nearly
