The Vicar was beginning to enjoy the recital of his long past troubles,
and the thought flashed through his mind that he would have lightened
his burden had he sooner confided in his son. The conduct which seemed
so black and stained, when brooded over alone in his study, did not
seem quite so heinous when put into plain words and spread out in the
light.
"Well," he continued, "in spite of my jealous temper, the first few
months of our wedded life were very happy, and it was not until I had
begun to notice that a very intimate friendship existed between my
young wife and my brother, that my suspicions were aroused with regard
to them; but once alive to this idea, every moment of my life was
poisoned by it. I kept a close but secret watch upon their actions,
and soon saw what I considered a certain proof that the love they felt
for each other was more than, and different to, that which the
relationship of brother and sister-in-law warranted. Betto noticed it,
too, for she has ever been faithful and true to me. She came to me one
day, and seriously advised me to get rid of my brother Lewis, refusing
to give any reason for her advice; but I required no explanation. You
say nothing, Caradoc, but sit there with a blacker look on your face
than I have ever seen before."
"I am listening, father, and waiting for some excuse for your jealous
suspicions."
"I have very little to give but you shall have the story in its naked
truth. I was devotedly attached to my brother; from childhood we had
been all in all to each other, and the difference in our dispositions
seemed only to cement more closely the bond of union between us; but
now my love seemed turned to hatred, and I only waited to make my fears
a certainty to turn him out of my house. Although I was anxious to
hide my suspicions for a time, I could not refrain from sneering taunts
about men who spent a life of idleness while others worked. Lewis
opened his blue eyes in astonishment, and his frank, open countenance
wore a hurt and puzzled look; but he did not go. He bore my insults,
and yet haunted the house, and lingered round the west parlour, now
shut up, but where your mother always sat. I found it impossible to
hide entirely from Agnes my doubts of her love, and I soon saw that my
involuntarily altered manner had made a corresponding change in hers.
The proud spirit within her was roused, and instead of endeavouring to
soothe my suspicions, and show me my mistake, she went on her way
apparently unheeding, holding her head high, and letting me form my own
opinion of her actions. I ought to have told you that her uncle had
been so annoyed at her marriage with me that he had forbidden her to
enter his doors again; and of this I was not sorry, though it roused my
anger so much that I added my injunctions to the effect that if she
wished to please me she would break off all acquaintance with her
cousin, Ellen Vaughan. This, however, she would not promise to do, and
it was the first beginning of the rift, which afterwards widened into a
chasm between us. Her cousin also was too much attached to her to be
easily alienated from her, and the two girls met more frequently than
either her uncle or I were aware of. There was another girl, too--I
forget her name--but she was a sister of Essec Powell's. Agnes and she
had been schoolmates and bosom friends, and they were delighted to meet
here by accident, and I soon found that my wife continually resorted to
Essec Powell's house to pour out her sorrows into the bosom of her
friend; but this I could not allow. To visit the house of my bitterest
enemy--to make a friend of his sister, was a glaring impropriety in a
clergyman's wife, and I cannot even now feel any compunction at having
put a stop to their intercourse--if, indeed, I succeeded in doing so.
A cold cloud seemed to have fallen between me and your mother; and as
for my brother, we scarcely spoke to each other at meals, and avoided
each other at all other times. Still Lewis stayed on, with that
puzzled look on his face, and still Agnes went through her daily duties
with a proud look and a constrained manner.