The Trial [120]
not speak; but it was with willing haste, for this was the sort of suspense in which motion and purpose were a great relief after the day's weary waiting. Gertrude, quite spent with excitement and tears, had wisely betaken herself to bed; and it would have been well had Aubrey followed her example, instead of wandering up and down the room in his misery, flushed though wan, impetuously talking treason against trial by jury, and abusing dignitaries. They let him have it out, in all its fury and violence, till he had tired out his first vehemence, and could be persuaded to lie on the sofa while the rough draught of the petition was drawn up, Tom writing, and every one suggesting or discussing, till the Doctor, getting thorough mastery over the subject, dictated so fluently and admirably, that even Tom had not a word to gainsay, but observed to Ethel, when his father had gone up to bed, and carried Aubrey off, 'What an exceedingly able man my father is!' 'Is this the first time you have found that out?' said Ethel. 'Why, you know it is not his nature to make the most of himself! But studying under him brings it out more; and there's a readiness about him that I wish was catching. But I say, Ethel, what's this? I no more doubt who did the deed, than I do who killed Abel; but I had once seen Cain's face, and I knew it again. Is it true that the boy was aware, and told my father?' 'Did he tell you so?' 'Only asked if he had betrayed the secret. If they both know it-- why, if it be Leonard's taste, I suppose I must say nothing to the contrary, but he might as well consider his sister.' 'What do you know, Tom?' said she, perplexed. 'Only that there's some secret; and if it be as I am given to understand, then it is a frenzy that no lucid person should permit.' 'No, Tom,' said Ethel, feeling that the whole must be told, 'it is no certainty--only unsupported suspicion, which he could not help telling papa after binding him on honour to make no use of it. Putting things together, he was sure who the man in the yard was; but it was not recognition, and he could not have proved it.' 'What Quixotry moved my father not to put the lawyers on the scent?' Ethel explained; and for her pains Tom fell upon her for her folly in not having told him all, when he could have gone to Blewer and gathered information as no professional person could do; then lamented that he had let Aubrey keep him from the inquest, when the fellow's hang-dog look would have been sure to suggest to him to set Anderson to get him searched. Even now he would go to the mill, and try to hunt up something. 'Tom, remember papa's promise!' 'Do you think a man can do nothing without committing himself, like poor Aubrey? No, Ethel, the Doctor may be clever, but that's no use if a man is soft, and he is uncommonly soft; and you should not encourage him in it.' Ethel was prevented from expressing useless indignation by the arrival of Mary, asking where papa was. 'Gone to bed. He said he must go off at six to-morrow, there are so many patients to see. Ave does not want him, I hope?' No, she is still asleep; I was only waiting for Richard, and he had dreadful work with that poor Henry.' 'What kind of work?' 'Oh, I believe it has all come on him now that it was his fault-- driving Leonard to that place; and he was in such misery, that Richard could not leave him.' 'I am glad he has the grace to feel it at last,' said Tom. 'It must be very terrible!' said Mary. 'He says he cannot stay in that house, for every room reproaches him; and he groaned as if he was in tremendous bodily pain.' 'What, you assisted at this scene?' said Tom, looking at her rather sharply. 'No; but Richard told me; and I heard the groans as I sat on the stairs.' 'Sat on the stairs?' 'Yes. I could not go back to Ave's room for fear of waking her.' 'And how long?' 'Towards an hour, I believe. I did all that piece,' said Mary, displaying a couple of inches of a stocking leg, 'and I think it was pretty well in the dark.' 'Sitting on the stairs for an hour in the dark,' said Tom, as he gave Mary the candle