He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope [children's ebooks free online .TXT] 📗

that she

would find herself deprived of her only comfort.

 

‘We must just go where he bids us till papa comes,’ said Nora.

 

‘And when papa is here, what help will there be then? He will not let

me go back to the islands with my boy. For myself I might die, or get

out of his way anywhere. I can see that. Priscilla Stanbury is right

when she says that no woman should trust herself to any man. Disgraced!

That I should live to be told by my husband that I had disgraced him by

a lover!’

 

There was some sort of agreement made between the two sisters as to the

manner in which Priscilla should be interrogated respecting the

sentence of banishment which had been passed. They both agreed that it

would be useless to make inquiry of Mrs Stanbury. If anything had

really been said to justify the statement made in Mr Trevelyan’s

letter, it must have come from Priscilla, and have reached Trevelyan

through Priscilla’s brother. They, both of them, had sufficiently

learned the ways of the house to be sure that Mrs Stanbury had not been

the person active in the matter. They went down, therefore, together,

and found Priscilla seated at her desk in the parlour. Mrs Stanbury was

also in the room, and it had been presumed between the sisters that the

interrogation should be made in that lady’s absence; but Mrs Trevelyan

was too hot in the matter for restraint, and she at once opened out her

budget of grievance.

 

‘I have a letter from my husband,’ she said and then paused. But

Priscilla, seeing from the fire in her eyes that she was much moved,

made no reply, but turned to listen to what might further be said. ‘I

do not know why I should trouble you with his suspicions,’ continued

Mrs Trevelyan, ‘or read to you what he says about Colonel Osborne.’ As

she spoke she was holding her husband’s letter open in her hands.

‘There is nothing in it that you do not know. He says I have

corresponded with him. So I have and he shall see the correspondence.

He says that Colonel Osborne visited me. He did come to see me and

Nora.’

 

‘As any other old man might have done,’ said Nora.

 

‘It was not likely that I should openly confess myself to be afraid to

see my father’s old friend. But the truth is, my husband does not know

what a woman is.’

 

She had begun by declaring that she would not trouble her friend with

any statement of her husband’s complaints against her; but now she had

made her way to the subject, and could hardly refrain herself.

Priscilla understood this, and thought that it would be wise to

interrupt her by a word that might bring her back to her original

purpose. ‘Is there anything,’ said she, ‘which we can do to help you?’

 

‘To help me? No God only can help me. But Louis informs me that I am to

be turned out of this house, because you demand that we should go.’

 

‘Who says that?’ exclaimed Mrs Stanbury.

 

‘My husband. Listen; this is what he says “I am greatly grieved to hear

from my friend Mr Stanbury that your conduct in reference to Colonel

Osborne has been such as to make it necessary that you should leave Mrs

Stanbury’s house.” Is that true? Is that true?’ In her general mode of

carrying herself, and of enduring the troubles of her life, Mrs

Trevelyan was a strong woman; but now her grief was too much for her,

and she burst out into tears. ‘I am the most unfortunate woman that

ever was born!’ she sobbed out through her tears.

 

‘I never said that you were to go,’ said Mrs Stanbury.

 

‘But your son has told Mr Trevelyan that we must go,’ said Nora, who

felt that her sense of injury against Hugh Stanbury was greatly

increased by what had taken place. To her mind he was the person most

important in the matter. Why had he desired that they should be sent

away from the Clock House? She was very angry with him, and declared to

herself that she hated him with all her heart. For this man she had

sent away that other lover, a lover who had really loved her! And she

had even confessed that it was so!

 

‘There is a misunderstanding about this,’ said Priscilla.

 

‘It must be with your brother, then,’ said Nora.

 

‘I think not,’ said Priscilla: ‘I think that it has been with Mr

Trevelyan.’ Then she went on to explain, with much difficulty, but

still with a slow distinctness that was peculiar to her, what had

really taken place. ‘We have endeavoured,’ she said, ‘to show you, my

mother and I, that we have not misjudged you; but it is certainly true

that I told my brother that I did not think the arrangement a good one

quite as a permanence.’ It was very difficult, and her cheeks were red

as she spoke, and her lips faltered. It was an exquisite pain to her to

have to give the pain which her words would convey; but there was no

help for it as she said to herself more than once at the time, there was

nothing to be done but to tell the truth.

 

‘I never said so,’ blurted out Mrs Stanbury, with her usual weakness.

 

‘No, mother. It was my saying. In discussing what was best for us all,

with Hugh, I told him what I have just now explained.’

 

‘Then of course we must go,’ said Mrs Trevelyan, who had gulped down

her sobs and was resolved to be firm, to give way to no more tears, to

bear all without sign of womanly weakness.

 

‘You will stay with us till your father comes,’ said Priscilla.

 

‘Of course you will,’ said Mrs Stanbury ‘you and Nora. We have got to

be such friends, now.’

 

‘No,’ said Mrs Trevelyan. ‘As to friendship for me, it is out of the

question. We must pack up, Nora, and go somewhere. Heaven knows where!’

 

Nora was now sobbing. ‘Why your brother should want to turn us out

after he has sent us here !’

 

‘My brother wants nothing of the kind,’ said Priscilla. ‘Your sister

has no better friend than my brother.’

 

‘It will be better, Nora, to discuss the matter no further,’ said Mrs

Trevelyan. ‘We must go away somewhere; and the sooner the better. To be

an unwelcome guest is always bad; but to be unwelcome for such a reason

as this is terrible.’

 

‘There is no reason,’ said Mrs Stanbury; ‘indeed there is none.’

 

‘Mrs Trevelyan will understand us better when she is less excited,’

said Priscilla. ‘I am not surprised that she should be indignant now. I

can only say again that we hope you will stay with us till Sir

Marmaduke Rowley shall be in England.’

 

‘That is not what your brother means,’ said Nora.

 

‘Nor is it what I mean,’ said Mrs Trevelyan. ‘Nora, we had better go to

our own room. I suppose I must write to my husband; indeed, of course I

must, that I may send him the the correspondence. I fear I cannot walk

out into the street, Mrs Stanbury, and make you quit of me till I hear

from him. And if I were to go to an inn at once, people would speak

evil of me and I have no money.’

 

‘My dear, how can you think of such a thing!’ said Mrs Stanbury.

 

‘But you may be quite sure that we shall be gone within three days or

four at the furthest. Indeed, I will pledge myself not to remain longer

than that even though I should have to go to the poor-house. Neither I

nor my sister will stay in any family to contaminate it. Come, Nora.’

And so speaking she sailed out of the room, and her sister followed

her.

 

‘Why did you say anything about, it? Oh dear, oh dear! why did you

speak to Hugh? See what you have done?’

 

‘I am sorry that I did speak,’ replied Priscilla, slowly.

 

‘Sorry! Of course you are sorry; but what good is that?’

 

‘But, mother; I do not think that I was wrong. I feel sure that the

real fault in all this is with Mr Trevelyan as it has been all through.

He should not have written to her as he has done.’

 

‘I suppose Hugh did tell him.’

 

‘No doubt and I told Hugh; but not after the fashion in which he has

told her. I blame myself mostly for this that we ever consented to come

to this house. We had no business here. Who is to pay the rent?’

 

‘Hugh insisted upon taking it.’

 

‘Yes and he will pay the rent; and we shall be a drag upon him, as

though he had been fool enough to have a wife and a family of his own.

And what good have we done? We had not strength enough to say that that

wicked man should not see her when he came, for he is a wicked man.’

 

‘If we had done that she would have been as bad then as she is now.’

 

‘Mother, we had no business to meddle either with her badness or her

goodness. What had we to do with the wife of such a one as Mr

Trevelyan, or with any woman who was separated from her husband?’

 

‘It was Hugh who thought we should be of service to them.’

 

‘Yes and I do not blame him. He is in a position to be of service to

people. He can do work and earn money, and has a right to think and to

speak. We have a right to think only for ourselves, and we should not

have yielded to him. How are we to get back again out of this house to

our cottage?’

 

‘They are pulling the cottage down, Priscilla.’

 

‘To some other cottage, mother. Do you not feel while we are living

here that we are pretending to be what we are not? After all, Aunt

Stanbury was right, though it was not her business to meddle with us.

We should never have come here. That poor woman now regards us as her

bitter enemies.’

 

‘I meant to do for the best,’ said Mrs Stanbury.

 

‘The fault was mine, mother.’

 

‘But you meant it for the best, my dear.’

 

‘Meaning for the best is trash. I don’t know that I did mean it for the

best. While we were at the cottage we paid our way and were honest.

What is it people say of us now?’

 

‘They can’t say any harm.’

 

‘They say that we are paid by the husband to keep his wife, and paid

again by the lover to betray the husband.’

 

‘Priscilla!’

 

‘Yes it is shocking enough. But that comes of people going out of

their proper course. We were too humble and low to have a right to

take any part in such a matter. How true it is that while one crouches

on the ground, one can never fall.’

 

The matter was discussed in the Clock House all day, between Mrs

Stanbury and Priscilla, and between Mrs Trevelyan and Nora, in their

rooms and in the garden; but nothing could come of such discussions. No

change could be made till further instructions should have been

received from the angry husband; nor could any kind of argument be even

invented by Priscilla which might be efficacious in inducing the two

ladies to remain