The Woman in White

Chapter 5

"She has escaped from my Asylum!"

I cannot say with truth that the terrible inference which those

words suggested flashed upon me like a new revelation. Some of

the strange questions put to me by the woman in white, after my

ill-considered promise to leave her free to act as she pleased,

had suggested the conclusion either that she was naturally flighty

and unsettled, or that some recent shock of terror had disturbed

the balance of her faculties. But the idea of absolute insanity

which we all associate with the very name of an Asylum, had, I can

honestly declare, never occurred to me, in connection with her. I

had seen nothing, in her language or her actions, to justify it at

the time; and even with the new light thrown on her by the words

which the stranger had addressed to the policeman, I could see

nothing to justify it now.

What had I done? Assisted the victim of the most horrible of all

false imprisonments to escape; or cast loose on the wide world of

London an unfortunate creature, whose actions it was my duty, and

every man's duty, mercifully to control? I turned sick at heart

when the question occurred to me, and when I felt self-

reproachfully that it was asked too late.

In the disturbed state of my mind, it was useless to think of

going to bed, when I at last got back to my chambers in Clement's

Inn. Before many hours elapsed it would be necessary to start on

my journey to Cumberland. I sat down and tried, first to sketch,

then to read--but the woman in white got between me and my pencil,

between me and my book. Had the forlorn creature come to any

harm? That was my first thought, though I shrank selfishly from

confronting it. Other thoughts followed, on which it was less

harrowing to dwell. Where had she stopped the cab? What had

become of her now? Had she been traced and captured by the men in

the chaise? Or was she still capable of controlling her own

actions; and were we two following our widely parted roads towards

one point in the mysterious future, at which we were to meet once

more?

It was a relief when the hour came to lock my door, to bid

farewell to London pursuits, London pupils, and London friends,

and to be in movement again towards new interests and a new life.

Even the bustle and confusion at the railway terminus, so

wearisome and bewildering at other times, roused me and did me

good.

My travelling instructions directed me to go to Carlisle, and then

to diverge by a branch railway which ran in the direction of the

coast. As a misfortune to begin with, our engine broke down

between Lancaster and Carlisle. The delay occasioned by this

accident caused me to be too late for the branch train, by which I

was to have gone on immediately. I had to wait some hours; and

when a later train finally deposited me at the nearest station to

Limmeridge House, it was past ten, and the night was so dark that

I could hardly see my way to the pony-chaise which Mr. Fairlie had

ordered to be in waiting for me.

The driver was evidently discomposed by the lateness of my

arrival. He was in that state of highly respectful sulkiness

which is peculiar to English servants. We drove away slowly

through the darkness in perfect silence. The roads were bad, and

the dense obscurity of the night increased the difficulty of

getting over the ground quickly. It was, by my watch, nearly an

hour and a half from the time of our leaving the station before I

heard the sound of the sea in the distance, and the crunch of our

wheels on a smooth gravel drive. We had passed one gate before

entering the drive, and we passed another before we drew up at the

house. I was received by a solemn man-servant out of livery, was

informed that the family had retired for the night, and was then

led into a large and lofty room where my supper was awaiting me,

in a forlorn manner, at one extremity of a lonesome mahogany

wilderness of dining-table.

I was too tired and out of spirits to eat or drink much,

especially with the solemn servant waiting on me as elaborately as

if a small dinner party had arrived at the house instead of a

solitary man. In a quarter of an hour I was ready to be taken up

to my bedchamber. The solemn servant conducted me into a prettily

furnished room--said, "Breakfast at nine o'clock, sir"--looked all

round him to see that everything was in its proper place, and

noiselessly withdrew.

"What shall I see in my dreams to-night?" I thought to myself, as

I put out the candle; "the woman in white? or the unknown

inhabitants of this Cumberland mansion?" It was a strange

sensation to be sleeping in the house, like a friend of the

family, and yet not to know one of the inmates, even by sight!