1. V. A CHARGE
The rain fell upon the keel of the old lerret like corn thrown in
handfuls by some colossal sower, and darkness set in to its full shade.
They crouched so close to each other that he could feel her furs
against him. Neither had spoken since they left the roadway till she
said, with attempted unconcern: 'This is unfortunate.'
He admitted that it was, and found, after a few further remarks had
passed, that she certainly had been weeping, there being a suppressed
gasp of passionateness in her utterance now and then.
'It is more unfortunate for you, perhaps, than for me,' he said, 'and I
am very sorry that it should be so.'
She replied nothing to this, and he added that it was rather a desolate
place for a woman, alone and afoot. He hoped nothing serious had
happened to drag her out at such an untoward time.
At first she seemed not at all disposed to show any candour on her own
affairs, and he was left to conjecture as to her history and name, and
how she could possibly have known him. But, as the rain gave not the
least sign of cessation, he observed: 'I think we shall have to go
back.'
'Never!' said she, and the firmness with which she closed her lips was
audible in the word.
'Why not?' he inquired.
'There are good reasons.'
'I cannot understand how you should know me, while I have no knowledge
of you.'
'Oh, but you know me--about me, at least.'
'Indeed I don't. How should I? You are a kimberlin.'
'I am not. I am a real islander--or was, rather. . . . Haven't you
heard of the Best-Bed Stone Company?'
'I should think so! They tried to ruin my father by getting away his
trade--or, at least, the founder of the company did--old Bencomb.'
'He's my father!'
'Indeed. I am sorry I should have spoken so disrespectfully of him,
for I never knew him personally. After making over his large business
to the company, he retired, I believe, to London?'
'Yes. Our house, or rather his, not mine, is at South Kensington. We
have lived there for years. But we have been tenants of Sylvania
Castle, on the island here, this season. We took it for a month or two
of the owner, who is away.'
'Then I have been staying quite near you, Miss Bencomb. My father's is
a comparatively humble residence hard by.'
'But he could afford a much bigger one if he chose.'
'You have heard so? I don't know. He doesn't tell me much of his
affairs.'
'My father,' she burst out suddenly, 'is always scolding me for my
extravagance! And he has been doing it to-day more than ever. He said
I go shopping in town to simply a diabolical extent, and exceed my
allowance!'
'Was that this evening?'
'Yes. And then it reached such a storm of passion between us that I
pretended to retire to my room for the rest of the evening, but I
slipped out; and I am never going back home again.'
'What will you do?'
'I shall go first to my aunt in London; and if she won't have me, I'll
work for a living. I have left my father for ever! What I should have
done if I had not met you I cannot tell--I must have walked all the way
to London, I suppose. Now I shall take the train as soon as I reach
the mainland.'
'If you ever do in this hurricane.'
'I must sit here till it stops.'
And there on the nets they sat. Pierston knew of old Bencomb as his
father's bitterest enemy, who had made a great fortune by swallowing up
the small stone-merchants, but had found Jocelyn's sire a trifle too
big to digest--the latter being, in fact, the chief rival of the Best-
Bed Company to that day. Jocelyn thought it strange that he should be
thrown by fate into a position to play the son of the Montagues to this
daughter of the Capulets.
As they talked there was a mutual instinct to drop their voices, and on
this account the roar of the storm necessitated their drawing quite
close together. Something tender came into their tones as quarter-hour
after quarter-hour went on, and they forgot the lapse of time. It was
quite late when she started up, alarmed at her position.
'Rain or no rain, I can stay no longer,' she said.
'Do come back,' said he, taking her hand. 'I'll return with you. My
train has gone.'
'No; I shall go on, and get a lodging in Budmouth town, if ever I reach
it.'
'It is so late that there will be no house open, except a little place
near the station where you won't care to stay. However, if you are
determined I will show you the way. I cannot leave you. It would be
too awkward for you to go there alone.'
She persisted, and they started through the twanging and spinning
storm. The sea rolled and rose so high on their left, and was so near
them on their right, that it seemed as if they were traversing its
bottom like the Children of Israel. Nothing but the frail bank of
pebbles divided them from the raging gulf without, and at every bang of
the tide against it the ground shook, the shingle clashed, the spray
rose vertically, and was blown over their heads. Quantities of sea-
water trickled through the pebble wall, and ran in rivulets across
their path to join the sea within. The 'Island' was an island still.
They had not realized the force of the elements till now. Pedestrians
had often been blown into the sea hereabout, and drowned, owing to a
sudden breach in the bank; which, however, had something of a
supernatural power in being able to close up and join itself together
again after such disruption, like Satan's form when, cut in two by the
sword of Michael,
'The ethereal substance closed,
Not long divisible.'
Her clothing offered more resistance to the wind than his, and she was
consequently in the greater danger. It was impossible to refuse his
proffered aid. First he gave his arm, but the wind tore them apart as
easily as coupled cherries. He steadied her bodily by encircling her
waist with his arm; and she made no objection.
* * *
Somewhere about this time--it might have been sooner, it might have
been later--he became conscious of a sensation which, in its incipient
and unrecognized form, had lurked within him from some unnoticed moment
when he was sitting close to his new friend under the lerret. Though a
young man, he was too old a hand not to know what this was, and felt
alarmed--even dismayed. It meant a possible migration of the Well-
Beloved. The thing had not, however, taken place; and he went on
thinking how soft and warm the lady was in her fur covering, as he held
her so tightly; the only dry spots in the clothing of either being her
left side and his right, where they excluded the rain by their mutual
pressure.
As soon as they had crossed the ferry-bridge there was a little more
shelter, but he did not relinquish his hold till she requested him.
They passed the ruined castle, and having left the island far behind
them trod mile after mile till they drew near to the outskirts of the
neighbouring watering-place. Into it they plodded without pause,
crossing the harbour bridge about midnight, wet to the skin.
He pitied her, and, while he wondered at it, admired her determination.
The houses facing the bay now sheltered them completely, and they
reached the vicinity of the new railway terminus (which the station was
at this date) without difficulty. As he had said, there was only one
house open hereabout, a little temperance inn, where the people stayed
up for the arrival of the morning mail and passengers from the Channel
boats. Their application for admission led to the withdrawal of a
bolt, and they stood within the gaslight of the passage.
He could see now that though she was such a fine figure, quite as tall
as himself, she was but in the bloom of young womanhood. Her face was
certainly striking, though rather by its imperiousness than its beauty;
and the beating of the wind and rain and spray had inflamed her cheeks
to peony hues.
She persisted in the determination to go on to London by an early
morning train, and he therefore offered advice on lesser matters only.
'In that case,' he said, 'you must go up to your room and send down
your things, that they may be dried by the fire immediately, or they
will not be ready. I will tell the servant to do this, and send you up
something to eat.'
She assented to his proposal, without, however, showing any marks of
gratitude; and when she had gone Pierston despatched her the light
supper promised by the sleepy girl who was 'night porter' at this
establishment. He felt ravenously hungry himself, and set about drying
his clothes as well as he could, and eating at the same time.
At first he was in doubt what to do, but soon decided to stay where he
was till the morrow. By the aid of some temporary wraps, and some
slippers from the cupboard, he was contriving to make himself
comfortable when the maid-servant came downstairs with a damp armful of
woman's raiment.
Pierston withdrew from the fire. The maid-servant knelt down before
the blaze and held up with extended arms one of the habiliments of the
Juno upstairs, from which a cloud of steam began to rise. As she
knelt, the girl nodded forward, recovered herself, and nodded again.
'You are sleepy, my girl,' said Pierston.
'Yes, sir; I have been up a long time. When nobody comes I lie down on
the couch in the other room.'
'Then I'll relieve you of that; go and lie down in the other room, just
as if we were not here. I'll dry the clothing and put the articles
here in a heap, which you can take up to the young lady in the
morning.'
The 'night porter' thanked him and left the room, and he soon heard her
snoring from the adjoining apartment. Then Jocelyn opened proceedings,
overhauling the robes and extending them one by one. As the steam went
up he fell into a reverie. He again became conscious of the change
which had been initiated during the walk. The Well-Beloved was moving
house--had gone over to the wearer of this attire.
In the course of ten minutes he adored her.
And how about little Avice Caro? He did not think of her as before.
He was not sure that he had ever seen the real Beloved in that friend
of his youth, solicitous as he was for her welfare. But, loving her or
not, he perceived that the spirit, emanation, idealism, which called
itself his Love was flitting stealthily from some remoter figure to the
near one in the chamber overhead.
Avice had not kept her engagement to meet him in the lonely ruin,
fearing her own imaginings. But he, in fact, more than she, had been
educated out of the island innocence that had upheld old manners; and
this was the strange consequence of Avice's misapprehension.
