The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins [best historical biographies .TXT] 📗

leaving him the moment she heard the ring at the bell, without giving him time to pronounce an opinion on Mrs. Frankland’s letter. Accordingly, when Mrs. Pentreath, in a high state of excitement, drew him aside out of hearing, and confided to him, in a whisper, the astounding intelligence that the lady in whom Mr. and Mrs. Frankland were so mysteriously interested was, at that moment, actually standing before him in the house, he received her communication with an air of the most provoking indifference. It was worse still when she proceeded to state her difficulties⁠—warily keeping her eye on the two strangers all the while. Appeal as respectfully as she might to Mr. Munder’s superior wisdom for guidance, he persisted in listening with a disparaging frown, and ended by irritably contradicting her when she ventured to add, in conclusion, that her own ideas inclined her to assume no responsibility, and to beg the foreign gentleman to wait outside while the lady, in conformity with Mrs. Frankland’s instructions, was being shown over the house.

“Such may be your opinion, ma’am,” said Mr. Munder, severely. “It is not mine.”

The housekeeper looked aghast. “Perhaps,” she suggested, deferentially, “you think that the foreign old gentleman would be likely to insist on going over the house with the lady?”

“Of course I think so,” said Mr. Munder. (He had thought nothing of the sort; his only idea just then being the idea of asserting his own supremacy by setting himself steadily in opposition to any preconceived arrangements of Mrs. Pentreath.)

“Then you would take the responsibility of showing them both over the house, seeing that they have both come to the door together?” asked the housekeeper.

“Of course I would,” answered the steward, with the promptitude of resolution which distinguishes all superior men.

“Well, Mr. Munder, I am always glad to be guided by your opinion, and I will be guided by it now,” said Mrs. Pentreath. “But, as there will be two people to look after⁠—for I would not trust the foreigner out of sight on any consideration whatever⁠—I must really beg you to share the trouble of showing them over the house along with me. I am so excited and nervous that I don’t feel as if I had all my wits about me⁠—I never was placed in such a position as this before⁠—I am in the midst of mysteries that I don’t understand⁠—and, in short, if I can’t count on your assistance, I won’t answer for it that I shall not make some mistake. I should be very sorry to make a mistake, not only on my own account, but⁠—” Here the housekeeper stopped, and looked hard at Mr. Munder.

“Go on, ma’am,” said Mr. Munder, with cruel composure.

“Not only on my own account,” resumed Mrs. Pentreath, demurely, “but on yours; for Mrs. Frankland’s letter certainly casts the responsibility of conducting this delicate business on your shoulders as well as on mine.”

Mr. Munder recoiled a few steps, turned red, opened his lips indignantly, hesitated, and closed them again. He was fairly caught in a trap of his own setting. He could not retreat from the responsibility of directing the housekeeper’s conduct, the moment after he had voluntarily assumed it; and he could not deny that Mrs. Frankland’s letter positively and repeatedly referred to him by name. There was only one way of getting out of the difficulty with dignity, and Mr. Munder unblushingly took that way the moment he had recovered self-possession enough to collect himself for the effort.

“I am perfectly amazed, Mrs. Pentreath,” he began, with the gravest dignity. “Yes, I repeat, I am perfectly amazed that you should think me capable of leaving you to go over the house alone, under such remarkable circumstances as those we are now placed in. No, ma’am! whatever my other faults may be, shrinking from my share of responsibility is not one of them. I don’t require to be reminded of Mrs. Frankland’s letter; and⁠—no!⁠—I don’t require any apologies. I am quite ready, ma’am⁠—quite ready to show the way upstairs whenever you are.”

“The sooner the better, Mr. Munder⁠—for there is that audacious old foreigner actually chattering to Betsey now, as if he had known her all his life!”

The assertion was quite true. Uncle Joseph was exercising his gift of familiarity on the maidservant (who had lingered to stare at the strangers, instead of going back to the kitchen), just as he had already exercised it on the old lady passenger in the stagecoach, and on the driver of the pony-chaise which took his niece and himself to the post-town of Porthgenna. While the housekeeper and the steward were holding their private conference, he was keeping Betsey in ecstasies of suppressed giggling by the odd questions that he asked about the house, and about how she got on with her work in it. His inquiries had naturally led from the south side of the building, by which he and his companion had entered, to the west side, which they were shortly to explore; and thence round to the north side, which was forbidden ground to everybody in the house. When Mrs. Pentreath came forward with the steward, she overheard this exchange of question and answer passing between the foreigner and the maid:

“But tell me, Betzee, my dear,” said Uncle Joseph. “Why does nobody ever go into these mouldy old rooms?”

“Because there’s a ghost in them,” answered Betsey, with a burst of laughter, as if a series of haunted rooms and a series of excellent jokes meant precisely the same thing.

“Hold your tongue directly, and go back to the kitchen,” cried Mrs. Pentreath, indignantly. “The ignorant people about here,” she continued, still pointedly overlooking Uncle Joseph, and addressing herself only to Sarah, “tell absurd stories about some old rooms on the unrepaired side of the house, which have not been inhabited for more than half a century past⁠—absurd stories about a ghost; and my servant is foolish enough to believe them.”

“No, I’m not,” said Betsey, retiring, under protest, to the lower regions. “I don’t believe a word about the ghost⁠—at least not in the daytime.” Adding that important saving clause in a whisper, Betsey