"I Say No". Wilkie Collins Collins

      No change in her voice, no change in her manner, betrayed any special motive for putting this question. Alban was on the point of suggesting that she should go on to the school, and make her inquiries there—when he happened to notice her eyes. She had hitherto looked him straight in the face. She now looked down on the road. It was a trifling change; in all probability it meant nothing—and yet, merely because it was a change, it roused his curiosity. “I ought to know something about the school,” he answered. “I am one of the masters.”

      “Then you’re just the man I want. May I ask your name?”

      “Alban Morris.”

      “Thank you. I am Mrs. Rook. I presume you have heard of Sir Jervis Redwood?”

      “No.”

      “Bless my soul! You are a scholar, of course—and you have never heard of one of your own trade. Very extraordinary. You see, I am Sir Jervis’s housekeeper; and I am sent here to take one of your young ladies back with me to our place. Don’t interrupt me! Don’t be a brute again! Sir Jervis is not of a communicative disposition. At least, not to me. A man—that explains it—a man! He is always poring over his books and writings; and Miss Redwood, at her great age, is in bed half the day. Not a thing do I know about this new inmate of ours, except that I am to take her back with me. You would feel some curiosity yourself in my place, wouldn’t you? Now do tell me. What sort of girl is Miss Emily Brown?”

      The name that he was perpetually thinking of—on this woman’s lips! Alban looked at her.

      “Well,” said Mrs. Rook, “am I to have no answer? Ah, you want leading. So like a man again! Is she pretty?”

      Still examining the housekeeper with mingled feelings of interest and distrust, Alban answered ungraciously:

      “Yes.”

      “Good-tempered?”

      Alban again said “Yes.”

      “So much about herself,” Mrs. Rook remarked. “About her family now?” She shifted her bag restlessly from one hand to another. “Perhaps you can tell me if Miss Emily’s father—” she suddenly corrected herself—“if Miss Emily’s parents are living?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “You mean you won’t tell me.”

      “I mean exactly what I have said.”

      “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” Mrs. Rook rejoined; “I shall find out at the school. The first turning to the left, I think you said—across the fields?”

      He was too deeply interested in Emily to let the housekeeper go without putting a question on his side:

      “Is Sir Jervis Redwood one of Miss Emily’s old friends?” he asked.

      “He? What put that into your head? He has never even seen Miss Emily. She’s going to our house—ah, the women are getting the upper hand now, and serve the men right, I say!—she’s going to our house to be Sir Jervis’s secretary. You would like to have the place yourself, wouldn’t you? You would like to keep a poor girl from getting her own living? Oh, you may look as fierce as you please—the time’s gone by when a man could frighten me. I like her Christian name. I call Emily a nice name enough. But ‘Brown’! Good-morning, Mr. Morris; you and I are not cursed with such a contemptibly common name as that! ‘Brown’? Oh, Lord!”

      She tossed her head scornfully, and walked away, humming a tune.

      Alban stood rooted to the spot. The effort of his later life had been to conceal the hopeless passion which had mastered him in spite of himself. Knowing nothing from Emily—who at once pitied and avoided him—of her family circumstances or of her future plans, he had shrunk from making inquiries of others, in the fear that they, too, might find out his secret, and that their contempt might be added to the contempt which he felt for himself. In this position, and with these obstacles in his way, the announcement of Emily’s proposed journey—under the care of a stranger, to fill an employment in the house of a stranger—not only took him by surprise, but inspired him with a strong feeling of distrust. He looked after Sir Jervis Redwood’s flighty housekeeper, completely forgetting the purpose which had brought him thus far on the way to his lodgings. Before Mrs. Rook was out of sight, Alban Morris was following her back to the school.

CHAPTER VII. “COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE.”

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      Miss De Sor and Miss Wyvil were still sitting together under the trees, talking of the murder at the inn.

      “And is that really all you can tell me?” said Francine.

      “That is all,” Cecilia answered.

      “Is there no love in it?”

      “None that I know of.”

      “It’s the most uninteresting murder that ever was committed. What shall we do with ourselves? I’m tired of being here in the garden. When do the performances in the schoolroom begin?”

      “Not for two hours yet.”

      Francine yawned. “And what part do you take in it?” she asked.

      “No part, my dear. I tried once—only to sing a simple little song. When I found myself standing before all the company and saw rows of ladies and gentlemen waiting for me to begin, I was so frightened that Miss Ladd had to make an apology for me. I didn’t get over it for the rest of the day. For the first time in my life, I had no appetite for my dinner. Horrible!” said Cecilia, shuddering over the remembrance of it. “I do assure you, I thought I was going to die.”

      Perfectly unimpressed by this harrowing narrative, Francine turned her head lazily toward the house. The door was thrown open at the same moment. A lithe little person rapidly descended the steps that led to the lawn.

      “It’s Emily come back again,” said Francine.

      “And she seems to be rather in a hurry,” Cecilia remarked.

      Francine’s satirical smile showed itself for a moment. Did this appearance of hurry in Emily’s movements denote impatience to resume the recital of “the dagger-scene”? She had no book in her hand; she never even looked toward Francine. Sorrow became plainly visible in her face as she approached the two girls.

      Cecilia rose in alarm. She had been the first person to whom Emily had confided her domestic anxieties. “Bad news from your aunt?” she asked.

      “No, my dear; no news at all.” Emily put her arms tenderly round her friend’s neck. “The time has come, Cecilia,” she said. “We must wish each other good-by.”

      “Is Mrs. Rook here already?”

      “It’s you, dear, who are going,” Emily answered sadly. “They have sent the governess to fetch you. Miss Ladd is too busy in the schoolroom to see her—and she has told me all about it. Don’t be alarmed. There is no bad news from home. Your plans are altered; that’s all.”

      “Altered?” Cecilia repeated. “In what way?”

      “In a very agreeable way—you are going to travel. Your father wishes you to be in London, in time for the evening mail to France.”

      Cecilia guessed what had happened. “My sister is not getting well,” she said, “and the doctors are sending her to the Continent.”

      “To the baths at St. Moritz,” Emily added. “There is only one difficulty in the way; and you can remove it. Your sister has the good old governess to take care of her, and the courier to relieve her of all trouble on the journey. They were to have started yesterday. You know how fond Julia