Mr. David Arden, therefore, had made a call at the office of Paller, Crapely, Plumes, and Co., eminent undertakers in the most gentleman-like, and, indeed, aristocratic line of business, with immense resources at command, and who would undertake to bury a duke, with all the necessary draperies, properties, and dramatis personae, if required, before his grace was cold in his bed.
A little dialogue occurred here, which highly interested Uncle David. A stout gentleman, with a muddy and melancholy countenance, and a sad suavity of manner, and in the perennial mourning that belongs to a gentleman of his doleful profession, presents himself to David Arden, to receive his instructions respecting the deceased baronet's obsequies. The top of his head is bald, his face is furrowed and baggy; he looks fully sixty-five, and he announces himself as the junior partner, Plumes by name.
Having made his suggestions and his notes, and taken his order for a strictly private funeral in the neighbourhood of London, Mr. Plumes thoughtfully observes that he remembers the name well, having been similarly employed for another member of the same family.
‘Ah! How was that? How long ago?’ asked Mr. Arden.
‘About twenty years, Sir.’
‘And where was that funeral?’
‘The same place, Sir, Mortlake.’
‘Yes, I know that was——?’
‘It was Mr. 'Enry, or rayther 'Arry Harden. We 'ad to take back the plate, Sir, and change 'Enry to 'Arry—'Arry being the
‘There was, Sir,—and it affected me very sensibly. My niece, Sir, had a wery narrow escape.’
‘Your niece! Really? How could that be?’
‘There was a Mister Yelland Mace, Sir, who paid his haddresses to her, and I do believe, Sir, she rayther liked him. I don't know, I'm sure, whether he was serious in 'is haddresses, but it looked very like as if he meant to speak; though I do suppose he was looking 'igher for a wife. Well, he was believed to 'ave 'ad an 'and in that 'orrible business.’
‘I know—so he undoubtably had—and the poor young lady, I suppose, was greatly shocked and distressed.’
‘Yes, Sir, and she died about a year after.’
David Arden expressed his regret, and then he asked—
‘You have often seen that man, Yelland Mace?’
‘Not often, Sir.’
‘You remember his face pretty well, I daresay?’
‘Well, no, Sir, not very well. It is a long time.’
‘Do you recollect whether there was anything noticeable in his features?—had he, for instance, a remarkably prominent nose?’
‘I don't remember that he 'ad, Sir. I rather think not, but I can't by no means say for certain. It is a long time, and I 'aven't much of a memory for faces. There is a likeness of him among my poor niece's letters.’
‘Really? I should be so much obliged if you would allow me to see it.’
‘It is at 'ome, Sir, but I shall be 'ome to dinner before I go out to Mortlake; and, if you please, I shall borrow it of my sister, and take it with me.’
This offer David Arden gladly accepted.
When the events were recent, he could have no difficulty in identifying Yelland Mace, by the evidence of fifty witnesses, if necessary. But it was another thing now. The lapse of time had made matters very different. It was recent impressions of a vague kind about Mr. Longcluse that had revived the idea, and prompted a renewal of the search. Martha Tansey was aged now, and he had misgivings about the accuracy of her recollection. Was it possible, after all, that he was about to see that which would corroborate his first vague suspicions?
Sir Richard had a busy and rather harassing day, the first of his succession to an old title and a new authority, and he was not sorry when it closed. He had stolen about from place to
Behold him, then, leaning back in his cab, and driving through glaring lamps, and dingy shops, and narrow ill-thriven streets, eastward and northward; and now, through the little antique village, with trembling lights, and by the faded splendours of the ‘Guy of Warwick.’ And he sat up and looked out of the windows, as they entered the narrow road that is darkened by the tall overhanging timber of Mortlake grounds.
Now they are driving up the broad avenue, with its noble old trees clumped at either side; and with a shudder Sir Richard Arden leans back and moves no more until the cab pulls up at the door-steps, and the knock sounds through hall and passages, which he dared not so have disturbed, uninvited, a day or two before. Crozier ran down the steps to greet Master Richard.
‘How are you, old Crozier?’ he said, shaking hands from the cab-window, for somehow he liked to postpone entering the house as long as he could. ‘I could not come earlier. I have been detained in town all day by business, of various kinds, connected with this.’ And he moved his hand toward the open hall-door, with a gloomy nod or two. ‘How is Martha?’
‘Tolerable, Sir, thankye, considerin'. It's a great upset to her.’
‘Yes, poor thing, of course. And has Mr. Paller been here—the person who is to—to——’
‘The undertaker? Yes, Sir, he was here at two o'clock, and some of the people has been busy in the room, and his men has come out again with the coffin, Sir. I think they'll soon be leaving; they've been here a quarter of an hour, and—if I may make bold to ask, Sir,—what day will the funeral be?’
Richard got out and entered the house of which he was now the master, with an oppressive misgiving.
The oak-parlour was a fine old room, and into the panels were let four full-length portraits. Two of these were a lady and gentleman, in the costume of the beginning of Charles the Second's reign. The lady held an Italian greyhound by a blue ribbon, and the gentleman stood booted for the field, and falcon on fist. It struck Richard, for the first time, how wonderfully like Alice that portrait of the beautiful lady was. He raised the candle to examine it. There was a story about this lady. She had been compelled to marry the companion portrait, with the hawk on his hand, and those beautiful lips had dropped a curse, in her despair, when she was dying, childless, and wild with grief. She prayed that no daughter of the house of Arden might ever wed the man of her love, and it was said that a fatality had pursued the ladies of that family, which looked like the accomplishment of the malediction; and a great deal of curious family lore was connected with this legend and portrait.
As he held the candle up to this picture, still scanning its features, the door slowly opened, and Martha Tansey, arrayed in a black silk dress of a fashion some twenty years out of date, came in. He set down the candle, and took the old woman's hand, and greeted her very kindly.
‘How's a' wi' you, Master Richard? A dowly house ye've come too. Ye didna look to see this sa soon?’
‘Very sudden, Martha—awfully sudden. I could not let the day pass without coming out to see you.’
‘Not me, Master Richard, but to ha'e a last look at the face of the father that begot ye. He'll be shrouded and coffined by this time—the light 'ill not be lang on that face. The lid will be aboon it and screwed down to-morrow, I dar' say. Ay, there goes the undertaker's men; and there's a man from Mr. Paller—Mr. Plumes is his name—that says he'll stay still your Uncle David comes, for he told him he had something very particular to say to him; and I desired him to wait in my room after his business about the poor master was over; and the a'ad things is passin' awa' and it's time auld Martha was fittin' herself.’
‘Don't say that, Martha, unless you would have me think you expect to find me less kind than my father was.’
‘There's good and there's bad in every one, Master Richard.