The Story of Antony Grace

The next evening when I went, I found her alone, for her sister had gone to stay a few days with some friends. My news was worse than ever, and there was no fencing the question that night, as she turned very pale when I gave my report.

“But the invention, Antony,” she exclaimed excitedly; “tell me how it is going on.”

“We are working at it as fast as possible,” I replied; “it takes a long time, but that is unavoidable.”

“If you love Stephen Hallett,” she said suddenly, and she looked full in my face, “get his invention finished and perfect. Let it succeed, and you will have done more for him than any doctor. Work, Antony, work. I ask you for – for – Pray, pray strive on.”

“I will – I am striving,” I said, “with all my might. It was a cruel blow for him though, just as success was in his grasp.”

“Mr Lister is here, ma’am,” said the servant, entering the room.

“I have forbidden Mr Lister my house,” said Miss Carr sternly.

“Yes, ma’am, but he forced his way in, and – ”

Before the man could finish his sentence, John Lister was in the room, looking flushed and excited, and he almost thrust the servant out and closed the door.

As he caught sight of me his face turned white with rage, but he controlled himself, and turned to where Miss Carr was standing, looking very beautiful in her anger.

I had started up, and stepped between them, but she motioned me back to my seat, while he joined his hands in a piteous way, and said in a low voice:

“I could not help it. I was obliged to come. Pray, pray, Miriam, hear me now.”

“Mr Lister!” she said, with a look of contempt that should have driven him away – “Mr Lister! and once more here?”

“Miriam,” he exclaimed, “you drive me to distraction. Do you think that such a love as mine is to be crushed?”

“Love!” she said, looking: at him contemptuously.

“Yes; love,” he cried. “I’ll prove to you my love by saying that now – even now, knowing what I do, I will forgive the past, and will try to save you from disgrace.”

“Mr Lister, you force me to listen to you,” she replied, “for I will not degrade you by ringing for the servants and having you removed. Pray say what you mean. Hush, Antony, let him speak. Perhaps after he has said all he wishes, he may leave me in peace.”

“Leave you in peace – you will not degrade me!” he cried, stung to madness and despair by her looks and words. “Look here, Miriam Carr, you compel me to speak as I do before this wretched boy.”

“Hush, Antony, be silent,” she cried, as I started up, stung in my turn by his contemptuous tone.

“Yes: sit down, spaniel, lap-dog – miserable cur!” he cried; and I felt my teeth grit together with such a sensation of rage a as I had never known before. “And now, as for you – you blind, foolish woman,” he continued, as I awakened to the fact that he had been drinking heavily, “since fair means will not succeed, foul means shall.”

“Say what you wish to say, Mr Lister,” she replied coldly, “for I warn you that this is the last time you shall speak to me. If you force yourself into my presence again, my servants shall hand you over to the police.”

“What!” he cried, with a forced laugh, “me? – hand me over to the police? You – you think I have been drinking, but you are wrong.”

No one had hinted at such a thing, but he felt it, and went on.

“I came to tell you to-night, that I will ignore the past, that I will overlook your disgraceful intimacy with this low, contemptible compositor, the blackguardly friend of this boy – the man who has obtained a hold upon you, and who, with his companions, is draining your purse – I say I will overlook all this, and, ignoring the past, take you for my wife, if you will promise to give up this wretched crew.”

There was no answer, but I sat there feeling as if I must fling myself at him, young and slight as I was, in her defence, but she stood there like a statue, fixing him with her eyes, while he went on raving. His face was flushed, and there was a hot, fiery look in his eyes, while his lips were white and parched.

“You shall not go on like this,” he continued. “You are my betrothed wife, and I will not stand by and see your name dragged in the mire by these wretched adventurers. Even now your name has become a by-word and a shame, the talk in every pot-house where low-class printers meet, and it is to save you from this that I would still take you to be my wife.”

Still she did not speak, and a look from her restrained me, when I would have done something to protect her from his insults, every one of which seemed to sting me to the heart.

“I know I am to blame,” he said passionately, “for letting you take and warm that young viper into life; but I could not tell. It shall end, though, now. I have written to your brother-in-law, and he will help to drag you from amongst this swindling crew.”

“Have you said all you wish to say, Mr Lister?” she replied coldly.

“No,” he cried, stung into a fresh burst by her words; “no, I have not. No, I tell you,” he cried, taking a step forward, as if believing in his drunken fit that she was shrinking from him, and being conquered by his importunities; “No, I tell you – no: and I never shall give up till you consent to be my wife. Do you take me for a drivelling boy, to be put off like this, Miriam?” he cried, catching at her hand, but she drew it back. “Do you wish to save your name from disgrace?”

She did not answer, while he approached closer.

“You don’t speak,” he said hoarsely. “Do you know what they say about you and this fellow Hallett?”

Still she made no reply.

“They say,” he hissed, and thrusting out his face, he whispered something to her, when, in an instant, I saw her countenance change, and her white hand struck him full across the lips.

Uttering an oath, he caught her tightly by the arms, but I could bear no more. With my whole strength called up I leaped at him, and seized him by the throat, believing in my power of turning him forcibly from the room.

The events of the next few moments seem now as if seen through a mist, for in the brief struggle that ensued I was easily mastered by the powerful man whom I had engaged.

I have some indistinct memory of our swaying here and there, and then of having a heavy fall. My next recollection is of feeling sick and drowsy, and seeing Miss Carr and one of the servants bending over me and bathing my face.

For some few minutes I could not understand what it all meant but by degrees the feeling of sickness passed away, and I looked hastily round the room.

Miss Carr, who was deadly pale, told the maid to fetch some brandy, and as soon as we were alone, she knelt by me, and held one of my hands to her lips.

“Are you much hurt, Antony?” she said tenderly. “I did not send for the doctor. That wretched man has made sufficient scandal as it is.”

“Hurt? No – not much,” I said rather faintly. “Where is he?”

“Gone,” she said; and then she uttered a sigh of relief, as I sat up and placed one hand to my head, feeling confused, and as if I had gone back some years, and that this was not Miss Carr but Mary, and that this was Mr Blakeford’s again.

The confusion soon passed off, though, and after I had drunk the spirit that was brought me, I felt less giddy and strange.

Miss Carr sat watching me, looking very pale, but I could realise now that she was terribly agitated.

Before an hour had passed I felt ready to talk to her, and beg her to take some steps for her protection.

“If I had only been a strong man,” I exclaimed passionately. “Oh, Miss Carr, pray, pray do something,” I cried again; “this is horrible. I cannot bear to see you insulted by that wretch.”

“I have decided to do something, Antony,” she said in a low voice; and a faint colour came into her pale cheeks. “He will not be able to force his way to me again.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “He is a madman. I am sure he had been drinking to-night.”

“No one but a madman would have behaved as he did, Antony,” she said. “But be at rest about me. I have, after a bitter struggle with myself, decided what to do.”

“But you will not go away?” I said.