Read Ebook: A moment of madness and other stories (vol. 1 of 3) by Marryat Florence

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A MOMENT OF MADNESS--

CAPTAIN NORTON'S DIARY, 57

OLD CONTRAIRY, 191

'SENT TO HIS DEATH!' 223

A MOMENT OF MADNESS.

FORTHILL TERRACE, CAMDEN TOWN.

It is the middle of July, but the London season has not, as yet, shown any symptoms of being on the wane, and the drawing-room of the Honourable Mrs Carnaby-Hicks is arranged for the reception of visitors. Curtains of guipure lace, looped with pale-blue ribbons, shroud every window, purple irises and yellow jonquils as displayed in art needlework, adorn each chair and sofa; fanciful little tables of silk and velvet, laden with Sevres and Dresden china are placed in everybody's way, and a powerful odour of hot-house flowers pervades the apartment. A double knock sounds at the door, and the Honourable Mrs Carnaby-Hicks starts from the dose into which she has fallen, and seizing a novel, sits upright, and pretends that she is deep in its contents. But she need not have been so punctilious, for the footman, throwing open the door, announces her brother, Mr Tresham. Roland enters the room, looking fagged, dusty, and out of sorts, a complete contrast to the dainty adornments of his sister's drawing-room.

'Well, Roland!' exclaims Mrs Carnaby-Hicks, 'and what is your news? It is an age since we have seen you! I was beginning to think you must have made away with yourself.'

'No such luck,' replies her brother, moodily, 'though I believe it would be the best thing that I could do.'

He is a handsome man of only thirty years of age, but the look of care upon his brow makes him appear older. His dress is not exactly shabby, but it is the dress of a needy gentleman, and did not issue from the tailor's hands this season, nor even last.

'How are you all at home?' continues the lady.

'Just the same as usual; a medley of dirt, ill-management, and unpunctuality! I dread to enter the house.'

'Ah! Roland, it is too late to advise you now, but that marriage was the worst day's work you ever did. Not thirty till September, and with a wife and six children on your hands. It is a terrible misfortune!'

'And two hundred a-year on which to support them,' laughs Mr Tresham, bitterly. 'Don't speak of it, Valeria, unless you wish to drive me mad. And to add to my troubles I have just received this letter;' tossing it over to her.

'Who is it from?'

'Lady Tresham! Her generosity seems to be on a par with his! You see how she writes me word that Sir Ralph is in Switzerland mountain-climbing with Handley Harcourt, but that if he were at home she fears he would be unlikely to comply with my request.'

'Did you ask Ralph for money then?'

'Not as a gift. I wrote to him for a loan of fifty pounds, to carry on the war, but of course I should regard it as a debt. The fact is, Valeria, I don't know where to look for money; my profession brings me in nothing, and we cannot live on the miserable pittance my father left me. It is simply impossible!'

If Roland Tresham has entertained any hope that, on hearing of his difficulty, his rich sister will offer to lend or give him the money, which would be a trifle out of her pocket, he has reckoned without his host. She likes Roland in her way, and is always pleased to see him in her house, but the woman and the children may starve for aught she will do to help them. She considers them only in the light of a burthen and disgrace.

'I don't see why you shouldn't live on two hundred a-year,' she answers shortly. 'Of course it is very little, but if your wife were worth her salt she would make you comfortable on it. But that is what comes of marrying a beauty. They're seldom good for anything else.'

'There's not much beauty left about Juliet now,' replies Roland Tresham, 'but I don't think it is entirely her fault. The children worry her so, she has no energy left to do anything.'

'It's a miserable plight to be in,' sighs the Honourable Mrs Carnaby-Hicks, 'and I can see how it tells upon your health and spirits. What do you propose to do?'

'And leave them at home?' says Mrs Carnaby-Hicks.

'Yes! Juliet should have the two hundred, and I would keep myself. Perhaps if she had only the children to look after, she might get on better. And the happiest thing for me would be, never to return!'

'I will ask Mr Carnaby-Hicks about it,' replies his sister. 'If it is to be done at all, it must be before Parliament is prorogued. But I wouldn't lose all hope with regard to Ralph on account of Lady Tresham's letter. When he returns he can hardly refuse to lend you such a trifling sum as fifty pounds.'

It does not seem to occur to her that she would miss the money as little as Sir Ralph himself.

'I shall not ask him a second time,' says Roland, 'nor Lady Tresham either. They may keep their money to themselves. But how a father can justify to himself the fact of leaving ten thousand a-year to one son, and two hundred to the other, beats me altogether!'

'The money must go with the baronetcy,' remarks his sister coolly, 'and your portion was only intended to supplement your professional income. You ought to have made a competency by this time, Roland. You would have done so, had you not hampered yourself in such a reckless manner!'

At this moment the conversation is interrupted by the entrance of a young lady, dressed in the height of the reigning fashion.

'My husband's niece, Miss Mabel Moore,' says Mrs Carnaby-Hicks, and then extending a hand to the girl, she draws her forward. 'Mabel, dear, this is my younger brother, of whom you have heard me speak. Ring the bell and let us have tea. Roland and I have had a long conversation, and I feel quite fatigued.'

Roland Tresham stares at his new acquaintance with unmitigated surprise. Miss Moore is a tall, dark girl with a commanding figure, clad in a pale, cream-coloured dress that fits it like a skin. Her rounded arms, her well-developed bust and shapely waist are as distinctly displayed as if the material had been strained across them; and the uninitiated Roland gazes at her in astonishment.

'You might as well talk of my going to the moon, Valeria. I should enjoy it above all things, but it is impossible. Only fancy the delight though of change of scene and air and freedom from all the horrors of Camden Town. It would be like a taste of Heaven to me!'

'I am sure you could manage it if you tried! Come here, Mabel, and persuade my brother to join us in our trip to Italy.'

Roland Tresham has not, as a rule, admired dark eyes in women nor commanding figures. His wife is very fair, and slight and fragile in appearance, and when he married her eight years before, he thought her the loveliest creature God ever made. But as Mabel Moore casts her black-lashed eyes upon him, he feels a very strong desire to join the travelling party to Italy.

And then he falls to wondering whether Mrs Carnaby-Hicks intends her offer to be taken as an invitation, and means to defray his expenses. For she must know he has no money to pay them himself. Meanwhile Miss Moore pours out his tea, and hands it to him in a porcelain cup with the most gracious and encouraging of smiles. It is a strange contrast to the man who knows what he will encounter on reaching home, to be seated among all the refinement of his sister's drawing-room, sipping the most fragrant Pekoe from a costly piece of china, whilst he is waited on by a handsome woman clad in a cream-coloured skin, every fold of the train of which shakes out the essence of a subtle perfume. He revels in it whilst it lasts, though after a while he rises with a sudden sigh of recollection, and says he must be going home.

'Don't forget to ask Hicks about the appointment,' he whispers to his sister as he takes his leave. 'Remember, I will take anything and go anywhere just to get away from this.'

'Yes! indeed,' echoes Mabel with a parting glance, 'I shall not enjoy my trip at all now, unless Mr Tresham goes with us!'

'What a good-looking fellow!' she exclaims as soon as the door has closed behind him. 'Aunty! why did you never tell me what he was like?'

'My dear child, where was the use of talking of him? The unfortunate man is married, and has no money. Had he been rich and a bachelor, it would have been a different thing!'

'I don't know that,' says Miss Mabel, 'for my part I prefer married men to flirt with; they're so safe. Besides, it's such fun making the wives jealous.'

'It would take a great deal to make Mrs Tresham jealous,' says the elder lady. 'They're past all that, my dear. So you can flirt with Roland to your heart's content, only don't go too far. Remember Lord Ernest Freemantle!'

'Bother Lord Ernest,' returns the fashionable young lady in precisely the same tone as she would have used the stronger word had she been of the stronger sex.

Meanwhile the gentleman is going home by train to Camden Town: a locality which he has chosen, not on account of its convenience, but because he can rent a house there for the modest sum of thirty pounds a-year. His immediate neighbours are bankers' clerks, milliners, and petty tradesmen from the West End, but the brother of Sir Ralph Tresham of Tresham Court, and the Honourable Mrs Carnaby-Hicks, of 120 Blue Street, Mayfair, has no alternative but to reside amongst them. He has chosen a profession in which he has signally failed, and has hampered himself with a wife and six children, when his private means are not sufficient to support himself. He fancies he can hear his children shouting even before he has gained the little terrace in which they reside. They are all so abominably strong and healthy: their voices will reach to any distance. And as he comes in sight of the familiar spot, his suspicions turn to certainties. Wilfrid and Bertie and Fred, three sturdy rascals with faces surrounded by aureoles of golden hair like angels' crowns, but plastered with dirt like the very lowest of human creatures, are hanging on to the palings which enclose a patch of chickweed and dandelions in front of the house, and shouting offensive epithets to every passer-by.

'Can't you keep inside and behave yourselves? How often have I ordered you not to hang about the garden in this way?' exclaims Roland Tresham, as he cuffs the little urchins right and left. The two youngest rush for protection to their mother, howling, whilst the eldest sobs out,--

'Mamma said we might play here.'

'Then your mother's as great a fool as you are,' replies the father, angrily, as he strides into the house.

Juliet Tresham is waiting to receive him, with a deep frown upon her brow. Any unprejudiced observer would see at a glance that she is a lovely woman, but it is the loveliness of beauty unadorned. Her luxuriant golden hair is all pushed off her face, and strained into a tight knot at the back of her head. Her large blue eyes are dull and languid; her lips are colourless, and her ill-fitting, home-made dress hangs awkwardly upon her figure. In her husband's eyes, all her beauty and her grace have faded long ago. He associates her with nothing now, but weak lungs and spirits, squalling children, badly-cooked dinners, and an untidy home. It is scarcely to be wondered at that she does not smile him a welcome home.

'You might inquire whether the children are in the right or wrong, before you hit them,' she says sharply. 'I told them they might play in the front garden.'

'Then they must suffer for your folly, for I won't have them hanging about the place like a set of beggars' brats.'

'It's all very fine for you to talk, but what am I to do with them cooped up in the house, on a day like this? If you had the charge of them, you'd turn them out anywhere, just to get rid of them.'

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