Part 18

The portions of the story which bear upon the Dodson family are in their way not unworthy of Balzac; only that, while our author has treated its peculiarities humorously, Balzac would have treated them seriously, almost solemnly. We are reminded of him by the attempt to classify the Dodsons socially in a scientific manner, and to accumulate small examples of their idiosyncrasies. I do not mean to say that the resemblance is very deep. The chief defect--indeed, the only serious one--in "The Mill on the Floss" is its conclusion. Such a conclusion is in itself assuredly not illegitimate, and there is nothing in the fact of the flood, to my knowledge, essentially unnatural: what I object to is its relation to the preceding part of the story. The story is told as if it were destined to have, if not a strictly happy termination, at least one within ordinary probabilities. As it stands, the _denouement_ shocks the reader most painfully. Nothing has prepared him for it; the story does not move towards it; it casts no shadow before it. Did such a _denouement_ lie within the author's intentions from the first, or was it a tardy expedient for the solution of Maggie's difficulties? This question the reader asks himself, but of course he asks it in vain. For my part, although, as long as humanity is subject to floods and earthquakes, I have no objection to see them made use of in novels, I would in this particular case have infinitely preferred that Maggie should have been left to her own devices. I understand the author's scruples, and to a certain degree I respect them. A lonely spinsterhood seemed but a dismal consummation of her generous life; and yet, as the author conceives, it was unlikely that she would return to Stephen Guest. I respect Maggie profoundly; but nevertheless I ask, Was this after all so unlikely? I will not try to answer the question. I have shown enough courage in asking it. But one thing is certain: a _denouement_ by which Maggie should have called Stephen back would have been extremely interesting, and would have had far more in its favor than can be put to confusion by a mere exclamation of horror.

I have come to the end of my space without speaking of "Romola," which, as the most important of George Eliot's works, I had kept in reserve. I have only room to say that on the whole I think it _is_ decidedly the most important,--not the most entertaining nor the most readable, but the one in which the largest things are attempted and grasped. The figure of Savonarola, subordinate though it is, is a figure on a larger scale than any which George Eliot has elsewhere undertaken; and in the career of Tito Melema there is a fuller representation of the development of a character. Considerable as are our author's qualities as an artist, and largely as they are displayed in "Romola," the book strikes me less as a work of art than as a work of morals. Like all of George Eliot's works, its dramatic construction is feeble; the story drags and halts,--the setting is too large for the picture; but I remember that, the first time I read it, I declared to myself that much should be forgiven it for the sake of its generous feeling and its elevated morality. I still recognize this latter fact, but I think I find it more on a level than I at first found it with the artistic conditions of the book. "Our deeds determine us," George Eliot says somewhere in "Adam Bede," "as much as we determine our deeds." This is the moral lesson of "Romola." A man has no associate so intimate as his own character, his own career,--his present and his past; and if he builds up his career of timid and base actions, they cling to him like evil companions, to sophisticate, to corrupt, and to damn him. As in Maggie Tulliver we had a picture of the elevation of the moral tone by honesty and generosity, so that when the mind found itself face to face with the need for a strong muscular effort, it was competent to perform it; so in Tito we have a picture of that depression of the moral tone by falsity and self-indulgence, which gradually evokes on every side of the subject some implacable claim, to be avoided or propitiated. At last all his unpaid debts join issue before him, and he finds the path of life a hideous blind alley. Can any argument be more plain? Can any lesson be more salutary? "Under every guilty secret," writes the author, with her usual felicity, "there is a hidden brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome, infecting life is cherished by the darkness. The contaminating effect of deeds often lies less in the commission than in the consequent adjustment of our desires,--the enlistment of self-interest on the side of falsity; as, on the other hand, the purifying influence of public confession springs from the fact, that by it the hope in lies is forever swept away, _and the soul recovers the noble altitude of simplicity_." And again: "Tito was experiencing that inexorable law of human souls, that we prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil that gradually determines character." Somewhere else I think she says, in purport, that our deeds are like our children; we beget them, and rear them and cherish them, and they grow up and turn against us and misuse us. The fact that has led me to a belief in the fundamental equality between the worth of "Romola" as a moral argument and its value as a work of art, is the fact that in each character it seems to me essentially prosaic. The excellence both of the spirit and of the execution of the book is emphatically an obvious excellence. They make no demand upon the imagination of the reader. It is true of both of them that he who runs may read them. It may excite surprise that I should intimate that George Eliot is deficient in imagination; but I believe that I am right in so doing. Very readable novels have been written without imagination; and as compared with writers who, like Mr. Trollope, are totally destitute of the faculty, George Eliot may be said to be richly endowed with it. But as compared with writers whom we are tempted to call decidedly imaginative, she must, in my opinion, content herself with the very solid distinction of being exclusively an observer. In confirmation of this I would suggest a comparison of those chapters in "Adam Bede" which treat of Hetty's flight and wanderings, and those of Miss Bronte's "Jane Eyre" which describe the heroine's escape from Rochester's house and subsequent perambulations. The former are throughout admirable prose; the latter are in portions very good poetry.

One word more. Of all the impressions--and they are numerous--which a reperusal of George Eliot's writings has given me, I find the strongest to be this: that (with all deference to "Felix Holt, the Radical") the author is in morals and aesthetics essentially a conservative. In morals her problems are still the old, passive problems. I use the word "old" with all respect. What moves her most is the idea of a conscience harassed by the memory of slighted obligations. Unless in the case of Savonarola, she has made no attempt to depict a conscience taking upon itself great and novel responsibilities. In her last work, assuredly such an attempt was--considering the title--conspicuous by its absence. Of a corresponding tendency in the second department of her literary character,--or perhaps I should say in a certain middle field where morals and aesthetics move in concert,--it is very difficult to give an example. A tolerably good one is furnished by her inclination to compromise with the old tradition--and here I use the word "old" _without_ respect---which exacts that a serious story of manners shall close with the factitious happiness of a fairytale. I know few things more irritating in a literary way than each of her final chapters,--for even in "The Mill on the Floss" there is a fatal "Conclusion." Both as an artist and a thinker, in other words, our author is an optimist; and although a conservative is not necessarily an optimist, I think an optimist is pretty likely to be a conservative.

GRIFFITH GAUNT; OR, JEALOUSY.

CHAPTER XLI.

"You say the pedler was a hundred yards behind my husband. Which of the two men was walking fastest?"

Thomas Hayes considered a moment. "Well, Dame, I think the Squire was walking rather the smartest of the two."

"Did the pedler seem likely to overtake him?"

"Nay. Ye see, Dame, Squire he walked straight on; but the pedler he took both sides of the road at onst, as the saying is."

_Prisoner._ Forgive me, Thomas, but I don't know what you mean.

_Hayes_ (compassionately). How should ye? You are never the worse for liquor, the likes of you.

_Prisoner_ (very keenly). O, he was in liquor, was he?

_Hayes._ Come, Dame, you do brew good ale at Hernshaw Castle. Ye needn't go to deny that; for, Lord knows, 't is no sin; and a poor fellow may be jolly, yet not to say drunk.

_Judge_ (sternly). Witness, attend, and answer directly.

_Prisoner._ Nay, my lord, 't is a plain country body, and means no ill. Good Thomas, be so much my friend as to answer plainly. Was the man drunk or sober?

_Hayes._ All I know is he went from one side o' the road to t' other.

_Prisoner._ Thomas Hayes, as you hope to be saved eternally, was the pedler drunk or sober?

_Hayes._ Well, if I must tell on my neighbor or else be damned, then that there pedler was as drunk as a lord.

Here, notwithstanding the nature of the trial, the laughter was irrepressible, and Mrs. Gaunt sat quietly down (for she was allowed a seat), and said no more.

To the surgeon who had examined the body officially, she put this question: "Did you find any signs of violence?"

_Surgeon._ None whatever; but then there was nothing to go by, except the head and the bones.

_Prisoner._ Have you experience in this kind? I mean, have you inspected murdered bodies?

_Surgeon._ Yes.

_Prisoner._ How many?

_Surgeon._ Two before this.

_Prisoner._ O, pray, pray, do not say "before this"! I have great hopes no murder at all hath been committed here. Let us keep to plain cases. Please you describe the injuries in those two undoubted cases.

_Surgeon._ In Wellyn's the skull was fractured in two places. In Sherrett's the right arm was broken, and there were some contusions on the head; but the cause of death was a stab that penetrated the lungs.

_Prisoner._ Suppose Wellyn's murderers had thrown his body into the water, and the fishes had so mutilated it as they have this one, could you by your art have detected the signs of violence?

_Surgeon._ Certainly. The man's skull was fractured. Wellyn's, I mean.

_Prisoner._ I put the same question with regard to Sherrett's.

_Surgeon._ I cannot answer it; here the lungs were devoured by the fishes; no signs of lesion can be detected in an organ that has ceased to exist.

_Prisoner._ This is too partial. Why select one injury out of several? What I ask is this: could you have detected violence in Sherrett's case, although the fishes had eaten the flesh off his body.

_Surgeon._ I answer that the minor injuries of Sherrett would have been equally perceptible; to wit, the bruises on the head, and the broken arm; but not the perforation of the lungs; and that it was killed the man.

_Prisoner._ Then, so far as you know, and can swear, about murder, more blows have always been struck than one, and some of the blows struck in Sherrett's case, and Wellyn's, would have left traces that fishes' teeth could not efface?

_Surgeon._ That is so, if I am to be peevishly confined to my small and narrow experience of murdered bodies. But my general knowledge of the many ways in which life may be taken by violence--

The judge stopped him, and said that could hardly be admitted as evidence against his actual experience.

The prisoner put a drawing of the castle, the mere, and the bridge, into the witnesses' hands, and elicited that it was correct, and also the distances marked on it. They had, in fact, been measured exactly for her.

The hobnailed shoes were produced, and she made some use of them, particularly in cross-examining Jane Bannister.

_Prisoner._ Look at those shoes. Saw you ever the like on Mr. Gaunt's feet?

_Jane._ That I never did, Dame.

_Prisoner._ What, not when he came into the kitchen on the 15th of October?

_Jane._ Nay, he was booted. By the same token I saw the boy a cleaning of them for supper.

_Prisoner._ Those boots, when you broke into his room, did you find them?

_Jane._ Nay, when the man went his boots went; as reason was. We found naught of his but a soiled glove.

_Prisoner._ Had the pedler boots on?

_Jane._ Alas! who ever seed a booted pedler?

_Prisoner._ Had he these very shoes on? Look at them.

_Jane._ I couldn't say for that. He had shoon, for they did properly clatter on my bricks.

_Judge._ Clatter on her bricks! What in the world does she mean?

_Prisoner._ I think she means on the floor of her kitchen. 'T is a brick floor, if I remember right.

_Judge._ Good woman, say, is that what you mean?

_Jane._ Ay, an 't please you, my lord.

_Prisoner._ Had the pedler a mole on his forehead?

_Jane._ Not that I know on. I never took so much notice of the man. But, la, dame, now I look at you, I don't believe you was ever the one to murder our master.

_Wiltshire._ We don't want your opinion. Confine yourself to facts.

_Prisoner._ You heard me rating my husband on that night: what was it I said about the constables,--do you remember?

_Jane._ La, dame, I wouldn't ask that if I was in your place.

_Prisoner._ I am much obliged to you for your advice; but answer me--truly.

_Jane._ Well, if you will have it, I think you said they should be here in the morning. But, indeed, good gentlemen, her bark was always worse than her bite, poor soul.

_Judge._ Here. That meant at Hernshaw Castle, I presume.

_Jane._ Ay, my lord, an' if it please your lordship's honor's worship.

* * * * *

Mrs. Gaunt, husbanding the patience of the court, put no questions at all to several witnesses; but she cross-examined Mrs. Ryder very closely. This was necessary; for Ryder was a fatal witness. Her memory had stored every rash and hasty word the poor lady had uttered, and, influenced either by animosity or prejudice, she put the worst color on every suspicious circumstance. She gave her damnatory evidence neatly, and clearly, and with a seeming candor and regret, that disarmed suspicion.

When her examination in chief concluded, there was but one opinion amongst the bar, and the auditors in general, namely, that the maid had hung the mistress.

Mrs. Gaunt herself felt she had a terrible antagonist to deal with, and, when she rose to cross-examine her, she looked paler than she had done all through the trial.

She rose, but seemed to ask herself how to begin; and her pallor and her hesitation, while they excited some little sympathy, confirmed the unfavorable impression. She fixed her eyes upon the witness, as if to discover where she was most vulnerable. Mrs. Ryder returned her gaze calmly. The court was hushed; for it was evident a duel was coming between two women of no common ability.

The opening rather disappointed expectation. Mrs. Gaunt seemed, by her manner, desirous to propitiate the witness.

_Prisoner_ (very civilly). You say you brought Thomas Leicester to my bedroom on that terrible night?

_Ryder_ (civilly). Yes, madam.

_Prisoner._ And you say he stayed there half an hour?

_Ryder._ Yes, madam; he did.

_Prisoner._ May I inquire how you know he stayed just half an hour?

_Ryder._ My watch told me that, madam. I brought him to you at a quarter past eleven; and you did not ring for me till a quarter to twelve.

_Prisoner._ And when I did ring for you, what then?

_Ryder._ I came and took the man away, by your orders.

_Prisoner._ At a quarter to twelve?

_Ryder._ At a quarter to twelve.

_Prisoner._ This Leicester was a lover of yours?

_Ryder._ Not he.

_Prisoner._ O, fie! Why, he offered you marriage; it went so far as that.

_Ryder._ O, that was before you set him up pedler.

_Prisoner._ 'T was so; but he was single for your sake, and he renewed his offer that very night. Come, do not forswear yourself about a trifle.

_Ryder._ Trifle, indeed! Why, if he did, what has that to do with the murder? You'll do yourself no good, madam, by going about so.

_Wiltshire._ Really, madam, this is beside the mark.

_Prisoner._ If so, it can do your case no harm. My lord, you did twice interrupt the learned counsel, and forbade him to lead his witnesses; I not once, for I am for stopping no mouths, but sifting all to the bottom. Now, I implore you to let me have fair play in my turn, and an answer from this slippery witness.

_Judge._ Prisoner, I do not quite see your drift; but God forbid you should be hampered in your defence. Witness, by virtue of your oath, reply directly. Did this pedler offer you marriage that night after he left the prisoner?

_Ryder._ My lord, he did.

_Prisoner._ And confided to you he had orders to kill Mr. Gaunt?

_Ryder._ Not he, madam: that was not the way to win me. He knew that.

_Prisoner._ What! did not his terrible purpose peep out all the time he was making love to you?

No reply.

_Prisoner._ You had the kitchen to your two selves? Come, don't hesitate.

_Ryder._ The other servants were gone to bed. You kept the man so late.

_Prisoner._ O, I mean no reflection on your prudence. You went out of doors with your wooer; just to see him off?

_Ryder._ Not I. What for? _I_ had nobody to make away with. I just opened the door for him, bolted it after him, and went straight to my bedroom.

_Prisoner._ How long had you been there when you heard the cry for help?

_Ryder._ Scarce ten minutes. I had not taken my stays off.

_Prisoner._ If you and Thomas Hayes speak true, that gives half an hour you were making love with the murderer after he left me. Am I correct?

The witness now saw whither she had been led, and changed her manner: she became sullen, and watched an opportunity to stab.

_Prisoner._ Had he a mole on his brow?

_Ryder._ Not that I know of.

_Prisoner._ Why, where were your eyes then, when the murderer saluted you at parting?

Ryder's eyes flashed; but she felt her temper tried, and governed it all the more severely. She treated the question with silent contempt.

_Prisoner._ But you pass for a discreet woman; perhaps you looked modestly down when the assassin saluted you?

_Ryder._ _If_ he saluted me, _perhaps_ I did.

_Prisoner._ In that case you could not see his mole; but you must have noticed his shoes. Were these the shoes he wore? Look at them well.

_Ryder_ (after inspecting them). I do not recognize them.

_Prisoner._ Will you swear these were not the shoes he had on?

_Ryder._ How can I swear that? I know nothing about the man's shoes. If you please, my lord, am I to be kept here all day with her foolish, trifling questions?

_Judge._ All day, and all night too, if Justice requires it. The law is not swift to shed blood.

_Prisoner._ My lord and the gentlemen of the jury were here before you, and will be kept here after you. Prithee, attend. Look at that drawing of Hernshaw Castle and Hernshaw Mere. Now take this pencil, and mark your bedroom on the drawing.

The pencil was taken from the prisoner, and handed to Ryder. She waited, like a cat, till it came close to her; then recoiled with an admirable scream. "Me handle a thing hot from the hand of a murderess! It makes me tremble all over!"

This cruel stab affected the prisoner visibly. She put her hand to her bosom, and, with tears in her eyes, faltered out a request to the judge that she might sit down a minute.

_Judge._ To be sure you may. And you, my good woman, must not run before the court. By law a prisoner is innocent till found guilty by his peers. How do you know what evidence she may have in store? At present we have only heard one side. Be more moderate.

The prisoner rose promptly to her feet. "My lord, I welcome the insult that has disgusted your lordship and the gentlemen of the jury, and won me those good words of comfort." To Ryder: "What sort of a night was it?"

_Ryder._ Very little moon, but a clear, starry night.

_Prisoner._ Could you see the Mere, and the banks?

_Ryder._ Nay, but so much of it as faced my window.

_Prisoner._ Have you marked your window?

_Ryder._ I have.

_Prisoner._ Now mark the place where you heard Mr. Gaunt cry for help.

_Ryder._ 'T was about here,--under these trees. And that is why I could not see him: along of the shadow.

_Prisoner._ Possibly. Did you see me on that side the Mere?

_Ryder._ No.

_Prisoner._ What colored dress had I on at that time?

_Ryder._ White satin.

_Prisoner._ Then you could have seen me, even among the trees, had I been on that side the Mere?

_Ryder._ I can't say. However, I never said you were on the very spot where the deed was done; but you were out of doors.

_Prisoner._ How do you know that?

_Ryder._ Why, you told me so yourself.

_Prisoner._ Then, that is my evidence, not yours. Swear to no more than you know. Had my husband, to your knowledge, a reason for absconding suddenly?

_Ryder._ Yes, he had.

_Prisoner._ What was it?

_Ryder._ Fear of you.

_Prisoner._ Nay, I mean, had he not something to fear, something quite different from that I am charged with?

_Ryder._ You know best, madam. I would gladly serve you, but I cannot guess what you are driving at.

The prisoner was taken aback by this impudent reply. She hesitated to force her servant to expose a husband, whom she believed to be living: and her hesitation looked like discomfiture; and Ryder was victorious in that encounter.

By this time they were both thoroughly embittered, and it was war to the knife.

_Prisoner._ You listened to our unhappy quarrel that night?

_Ryder._ Quarrel! madam, 'twas all on one side.

_Prisoner._ How did you understand what I said to him about the constables?

_Ryder._ Constables! I never heard you say the word.

_Prisoner._ Oh!

_Ryder._ Neither when you threatened him with your knife to me, nor when you threatened him to his face.

_Prisoner._ Take care: you forget that Jane Bannister heard me. Was her ear nearer the keyhole than yours?

_Ryder._ Jane! she is a simpleton. You could make her think she heard anything. I noticed you put the words in her mouth.

_Prisoner._ God forgive you, you naughty woman. You had better have spoken the truth.

_Ryder._ My lord, if you please, am I to be miscalled--by a murderess?

_Judge._ Come, come, this is no place for recrimination.

The prisoner now stooped and examined her papers, and took a distinct line of cross-examination.

_Prisoner_ (with apparent carelessness). At all events, you are a virtuous woman, Mrs. Ryder?

_Ryder._ Yes, madam, as virtuous as yourself, to say the least.

_Prisoner_ (still more carelessly). Married or single?

_Ryder._ Single, and like to be.

_Prisoner._ Yes, if I remember right, I made a point of that before I engaged you as my maid.

_Ryder._ I believe the question was put.

_Prisoner._ Here is the answer in your handwriting. Is not that your handwriting?

_Ryder_ (after inspecting it). It is.

_Prisoner._ You came highly recommended by your last mistress, a certain Mrs. Hamilton. Here is _her_ letter, describing you as a model.

_Ryder._ Well, madam, hitherto, I have given satisfaction to all my mistresses, Mrs. Hamilton among the rest. My character does not rest on her word only, I hope.

_Prisoner._ Excuse me; I engaged you on her word alone. Now, who is this Mrs. Hamilton?

_Ryder._ A worshipful lady I served for eight months before I came to you. She went abroad, or I should be with her now.

_Prisoner._ Now cast your eye over this paper.

It was the copy of a marriage certificate between Thomas Edwards and Caroline Plunkett.

"Who is this Caroline Plunkett?"

Ryder turned very pale, and made no reply.

"I ask you who is this Caroline Plunkett?"

_Ryder_ (faintly). Myself.