Marden gaped. The allusion, whatever it imported, was untimely. ‘Indeed, sir, you are merry with me. I’m no hangman, nor judge either.’
‘Well, that’s as may be, my boy. But what of this Robinson woman, as she calls herself? Who is she that she claims acquaintance with you?’
‘Robinson?’ The young man changed colour, for he felt his mistress’s eyes upon him, ‘Does she claim so? I wonder at her impudence.’
‘You need not wonder long,’ said Dr Humphrey, ‘for her impudence is shortly to be dealt with at the Assizes. It seems she was brought before Matters on a charge of horse-stealing. Twas my young Lord Halford’s horse that had been snatched from his stables a se’nnight or more since, and he himself caught her riding it; and though the young scamp has been bedded with the wench, if all tales be true, he takes it very ill that she should prove a thief. And now what does she do but declare, on oath, that she had the horse from a fellow that was killed last month on Dyking Common, which is in Squire Marden’s Fee, she says; and Squire Marden, says she, was a very kind handsome gentleman and would speak for her. So there’s your character, Jack. And let’s hope you can give the wench herself as good a one. Ha ha ha!’
‘Indeed,’ said Marden gravely, ‘but I must say what I can for the unhappy wretch. She is indifferent honest where virtue is in question, but I believe she is not a thief. I must ride over to see your friend Captain Matters, sir, and tell him what I can in her favour. I will go tomorrow.’ He turned to Celia and with a bow added: ‘With your kind leave, my dear Celia?’
She acknowledged his attention with icy politeness. ‘Is it wise to delay so long, since your friend, it seems, is in danger of hanging?’
‘Come, my dear, what’s this?’ cried her father. ‘Tomorrow’s time enough, and the lad don’t want to turn out for a cold ride at this time of day.’
‘We do not know what he wants, father. In his eagerness to save his friend from the gallows he will hardly stay to consider his comfort, let alone ours. It is not to be expected of any man.’
Dr Humphrey shrugged his shoulders and made at Marden a comical guilty grimace. ‘She is resolved to quarrel with us, Jack. Alas, alas, we are in disgrace, my friend.’ He glanced uneasily from one to the other of the lovers and saw that they wanted to be rid of him. He had innocently made mischief between them and he blamed himself, but the matter was beyond his mending. With a sigh and a shrug he betook himself out of the room.
‘Celia, what have I done to displease you?’
‘Why should you suppose me to be displeased?’
He was nettled by this evasion. ‘Twice you have called this woman my friend, and you must know that she is no such thing. It is true that I was of some service to her in her extremity, but that is all. She was seduced by a rogue, who brought her to the Fee, lodged with her at the inn there, and then deserted her, riding off on one horse and leading another. Within an hour of that treachery—indeed within ten minutes of it, if my reckoning is right—he was thrown and killed, embarrassed, as I understand, by the conduct of the led horse. A man called Noke—the rascal mentioned in Father Gandy’s letter—witnessed the accident, secured the remaining horse to a tree, and brought me the dead man to Maiden Holt. It fell to my lot, therefore, to hold an inquest on the matter. And there’s small doubt that by falling from his horse that fellow cheated the executioner of a duty. He was certainly a thief and likely enough a cut-throat. As to that, I need not weary you with the evidence.’
‘You need not,’ said Celia coldly. ‘Already I begin to see the matter more clearly. You are asking me to approve of your friend Mrs Robinson on the grounds that she was a thief’s drab. I confess it is strange pleading, but no doubt there is method in it.’
Marden was not only indignant: he was even stupid enough to be astonished. That women were incapable of fairness to each other was a maxim he had often enough heard and assented to. But Celia was Celia; and Celia, he had thought, was perfection. Stung by her speech, ‘You are unjust, madam!’ he cried. ‘Upon my soul you are. You condemn an innocent woman without a hearing. It happens that I gave her the protection of my escort as far as Upchurch, and during that ride I got from her the whole story. She has been weak and foolish, and over-fond of a scoundrel. But I do not and cannot believe her to be vicious at heart. And I believe that you, too, could you but see her, would think as I do.’
‘At least I can congratulate her upon her advocate,’ retorted Celia. ‘You defend the creature with much spirit, Mr Marden: I might almost say, with heat. Whatever the nature of your debt to Mrs Robinson, I think you may now count it paid.’
‘Debt? I do not understand you.’
‘I cannot believe you so obtuse.’ For a moment her irony wavered, and her anger shewed nakedly. ‘Can you not see that by your solicitude for this woman you insult me? Innocent indeed! You are too ardent. And why, pray, did you conceal from me that you had had a companion on your journey here?’
Why? His mind uneasily echoed the question. It was a small enough matter, but he had preferred not to mention it. Then, it would have provoked no more than mild surprise; now, it wore another colour.
‘I see you have no answer ready,’ said Celia. ‘Do not trouble to invent one.’
He became desperate; his heart cried out to her; but pride and anger would not let him use the language of persuasion. ‘If you are resolved to think ill of me,’ he said stiffly, ‘I cannot prevent you.’
‘If you persist in your officiousness on this creature’s behalf,’ she answered, ‘I shall know what to think, and what to do.’
They left it at that, and for what little remained of the day treated each other with studied politeness, greatly to the discomfort, when he was present, of Dr Humphrey. Retiring early, Celia cried herself to sleep, and woke a dozen times in the drear night, frightened of what she had done, seeing the prospect of happiness slip from her, yet feeling unable to arrest the course of events. She was frightened and lonely and perplexed, a forlorn child, hating Jack, angry with him, loving and wanting him: wanting him so much that she dared not surrender to him but on the terms her pride dictated, for if I yield now, she thought, he will think me an easy conquest and cease to care for me. And with the thought that he cherished a kindness, if nothing more, for that wretched unknown woman, she tried to harden her heart against him; and in this, when morning came, she seemed to have succeeded, for she presided at the breakfast-table without any sign of discomposure, and sustained with him and her father an elegant and unmeaning conversation.
The old man was gleeful at heart, thinking that the cloud had passed out of the lovers’ sky. But to Marden this calm seemed more ominous than open warfare. Nevertheless he saddled his horse and rode away and made his affidavit to Captain Matters. He did what he must; but it was not alone a sense of justice that moved him, and not alone compassion for an outcast woman. Celia had in effect ‘dared’ him, and even had he been so little scrupulous as to be willing to withhold his evidence, he would still have lacked courage to refuse battle with her. If I let her rule me in this, he said, she will despise me for a weakling; and because he was truly weak, because he was so much in dread of losing her, he dared not appear so. But now, he thought, as he rode quickly back to her, now I can crave her forgiveness, even though I have done no wrong. And he tasted in anticipation the sweetness of reconciliation.