"Come," he said. "We have had enough of the house. Let us look at the grounds."In the gray quiet of the evening we roamed about the lonely gardens, and threaded our way through the rank, neglected shrubberies. Wandering here and wandering there, we drifted into the kitchen garden--with one little patch still sparely cultivated by the old man and his wife, and all the rest a wilderness of weeds. Beyond the far end of the garden, divided from it by a low paling of wood, there stretched a patch of waste ground, sheltered on three sides by trees. In one lost corner of the ground an object, common enough elsewhere, attracted my attention here. The object was a dust-heap. The great size of it, and the curious situation in which it was placed, aroused a moment's languid curiosity in me. I stopped, and looked at the dust and ashes, at the broken crockery and the old iron. Here there was a torn hat, and there some fragments of rotten old boots, and scattered around a small attendant litter of torn paper and frowzy rags.
"What are you looking at?" asked Mr. Playmore.
"At nothing more remarkable than the dust-heap," I answered.
"In tidy England, I suppose, you would have all that carted away out of sight," said the lawyer. "We don't mind in Scotland, as long as the dust-heap is far enough away not to be smelt at the house. Besides, some of it, sifted, comes in usefully as manure for the garden. Here the place is deserted, and the rubbish in consequence has not been disturbed. Everything at Gleninch, Mrs.
Eustace (the big dust-heap included), is waiting for the new mistress to set it to rights. One of these days you may be queen here--who knows?""I shall never see this place again,"
I said.
"Never is a long day," returned my companion. "And time has its surprises in store for all of us."We turned away, and walked back in silence to the park gate, at which the carriage was waiting.
On the return to Edinburgh, Mr. Playmore directed the conversation to topics entirely unconnected with my visit to Gleninch. He saw that my mind stood in need of relief; and he most good-naturedly, and successfully, exerted himself to amuse me. It was not until we were close to the city that he touched on the subject of my return to London.
"Have you decided yet on the day when you leave Edinburgh?" he asked.
"We leave Edinburgh," I replied, "by the train of to-morrow morning.""Do you still see no reason to alter the opinions which you expressed yesterday? Does your speedy departure mean that?""I am afraid it does, Mr. Playmore. When I am an older woman, Imay be a wiser woman. In the meantime, I can only trust to your indulgence if I still blindly blunder on in my own way."He smiled pleasantly, and patted my hand--then changed on a sudden, and looked at me gravely and attentively before he opened his lips again.
"This is my last opportunity of speaking to you before you go,"he said. "May I speak freely?"
"As freely as you please, Mr. Playmore. Whatever you may say to me will only add to my grateful sense of your kindness.""I have very little to say, Mrs. Eustace--and that little begins with a word of caution. You told me yesterday that, when you paid your last visit to Miserrimus Dexter, you went to him alone.
Don't do that again. Take somebody with you.""Do you think I am in any danger, then?"
"Not in the ordinary sense of the word. I only think that a friend may be useful in keeping Dexter's audacity (he is one of the most impudent men living) within proper limits. Then, again, in case anything worth remembering and acting on _should_ fall from him in his talk, a friend may be valuable as witness. In your place, I should have a witness with me who could take notes--but then I am a lawyer, and my business is to make a fuss about trifles. Let me only say--go with a companion when you next visit Dexter; and be on your guard against yourself when your talk turns on Mrs. Beauly.""On my guard against myself? What do you mean?""Practice, my dear Mrs. Eustace, has given me an eye for the little weaknesses of human nature. You are (quite naturally)disposed to be jealous of Mrs. Beauly; and you are, in consequence, not in full possession of your excellent common-sense when Dexter uses that lady as a means of blindfolding you. Am I speaking too freely?""Certainly not. It is very degrading to me to be jealous of Mrs.
Beauly. My vanity suffers dreadfully when I think of it. But my common-sense yields to conviction. I dare say you are right.""I am delighted to find that we agree on one point," he rejoined, dryly. "I don't despair yet of convincing you in that far more serious matter which is still in dispute between us. And, what is more, if you will throw no obstacles in the way, I look to Dexter himself to help me."This aroused my curiosity. How Miserrimus Dexter could help him, in that or in any other way, was a riddle beyond my reading.
"You propose to repeat to Dexter all that Lady Clarinda told you about Mrs. Beauly," he went on. "And you think it is likely that Dexter will be overwhelmed, as you were overwhelmed, when he hears the story. I am going to venture on a prophecy. I say that Dexter will disappoint you. Far from showing any astonishment, he will boldly tell you that you have been duped by a deliberately false statement of facts, invented and set afloat, in her own guilty interests, by Mrs. Beauly. Now tell me--if he really try, in that way, to renew your unfounded suspicion of an innocent woman, will _that_ shake your confidence in your own opinion?""It will entirely destroy my confidence in my own opinion, Mr. Playmore."
"Very good. I shall expect you to write to me, in any case; and Ibelieve we shall be of one mind before the week is out. Keep strictly secret all that I said to you yesterday about Dexter.
Don't even mention my name when you see him. Thinking of him as Ithink now, I would as soon touch the hand of the hangman as the hand of that monster! God bless you! Good-by."So he said his farewell words, at the door of the hotel. Kind, genial, clever--but oh, how easily prejudiced, how shockingly obstinate in holding to his own opinion! And _what_ an opinion! Ishuddered as I thought of it.