There was no leisure for her to consider longer if she would be home again that
night; and returning to the railway she waited on a seat without eating
or drinking till a train was ready to take her back.
By the time she again stood in Warborne the sun rested his chin upon the
meadows, and enveloped the distant outline of the Rings-Hill column in
his humid rays. Hiring an empty fly that chanced to be at the station
she was driven through the little town onward to Welland, which she
approached about eight o'clock. At her request the man set her down at
the entrance to the park, and when he was out of sight, instead of
pursuing her way to the House, she went along the high road in the
direction of Mrs. Martin's.
Dusk was drawing on, and the bats were wheeling over the green basin
called Welland Bottom by the time she arrived; and had any other errand
instigated her call she would have postponed it till the morrow.
Nobody responded to her knock, but she could hear footsteps going hither and
thither upstairs, and dull noises as of articles moved from their places.
She knocked again and again, and ultimately the door was opened by Hannah
as usual.
'I could make nobody hear,' said Lady Constantine, who was so weary she
could scarcely stand.
'I am very sorry, my lady,' said Hannah, slightly awed on beholding her
visitor. 'But we was a putting poor Mr. Swithin's room to rights, now
that he is, as a woman may say, dead and buried to us; so we didn't hear
your ladyship. I'll call Mrs. Martin at once. She is up in the room
that used to be his work-room.' Here Hannah's voice implied moist eyes, and Lady Constantine's instantly overflowed.
'No, I'll go up to her,' said Viviette; and almost in advance of Hannah
she passed up the shrunken ash stairs.
The ebbing light was not enough to reveal to Mrs. Martin's aged gaze the
personality of her visitor, till Hannah explained.
'I'll get a light, my lady,' said she.
'No, I would rather not. What are you doing, Mrs. Martin?' 'Well, the poor misguided boy is gone--and he's gone for good to me! I am a woman of over four-score years, my Lady Constantine; my junketting days are over, and whether 'tis feasting or whether 'tis sorrowing in the
land will soon be nothing to me. But his life may be long and active,
and for the sake of him I care for what I shall never see, and wish to
make pleasant what I shall never enjoy. I am setting his room in order,
as the place will be his own freehold when I am gone, so that when he
comes back he may find all his poor jim-cracks and trangleys as he left
'em, and not feel that I have betrayed his trust.' Mrs. Martin's voice revealed that she had burst into such few tears as were left her, and then Hannah began crying likewise; whereupon Lady
Constantine, whose heart had been bursting all day (and who, indeed,
considering her coming trouble, had reason enough for tears), broke into
bitterer sobs than either--sobs of absolute pain, that could no longer be
concealed.