Chapter 23

An hour passed away before the general cam e in, spent, on the part of

his y oung guest, in no very favourable consideration of his character. “This lengthened absence, these solitary ram bles, did not speak a m ind at ease, or a conscience void of reproach.” At length he appeared; and, whatever m ight have been the gloom of his m editations, he could still sm ile with them . Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend’s curiosity to see the house, soon revived the subj ect; and her father being, contrary to Catherine’s expectations, unprovided with any pretence for further delay, bey ond that of stopping five m inutes to order refreshm ents to be in the room by their return, was at last ready to escort them .

They set forward; and, with a grandeur of air, a dignified step, which

caught the ey e, but could not shake the doubts of the well-read Catherine, he led the way across the hall, through the com m on drawing-room and one useless antecham ber, into a room m agnificent both in size and furniture – the real drawing-room , used only with com pany of consequence. It was very noble – very grand – very charm ing! – was all that Catherine had to say, for her indiscrim inating ey e scarcely discerned the colour of the satin; and all m inuteness of praise, all praise that had m uch m eaning, was supplied by the general: the costliness or elegance of any room ’s fitting-up could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture of a m ore m odern date than the fifteenth century. When the general had satisfied his own curiosity, in a close exam ination of every well-known ornam ent, they proceeded into the library, an apartm ent, in its way, of equal m agnificence, exhibiting a collection of books, on which an hum ble m an m ight have looked with pride. Catherine heard, adm ired, and wondered with m ore genuine feeling than before – gathered all that she could from this storehouse of knowledge, by running over the titles of half a shelf, and was ready to proceed. But suites of apartm ents did not spring up with her wishes. Large as was the building, she had already visited the greatest part; though, on being told that, with the addition of the kitchen, the six or seven room s she had now seen surrounded three sides of the court, she could scarcely believe it, or overcom e the suspicion of there being m any cham bers secreted. It was som e relief, however, that they were to return to the room s in com m on use, by passing through a few of less im portance, looking into the court, which, with occasional passages, not wholly unintricate, connected the different sides; and she was further soothed in her progress by being told that she was treading what had once been a cloister, having traces of cells pointed out, and observing several doors that were neither opened nor explained to her – by finding herself successively in a billiard-room , and in the general’s private apartm ent, without com prehending their connection, or being able to turn aright when she left them ; and lastly, by passing through a dark little room , owning Henry ’s authority, and strewed with his litter of books, guns, and greatcoats.

From the dining-room , of which, though already seen, and alway s to be

seen at five o’clock, the general could not forgo the pleasure of pacing out the length, for the m ore certain inform ation of Miss Morland, as to what she neither doubted nor cared for, they proceeded by quick com m unication to the kitchen – the ancient kitchen of the convent, rich in the m assy walls and sm oke of form er day s, and in the stoves and hot closets of the present. The general’s im proving hand had not loitered here: every m odern invention to facilitate the labour of the cooks had been adopted within this, their spacious theatre; and, when the genius of others had failed, his own had often produced the perfection wanted. His endowm ents of this spot alone m ight at any tim e have placed him high am ong the benefactors of the convent.

With the walls of the kitchen ended all the antiquity of the abbey ; the

fourth side of the quadrangle having, on account of its decay ing state, been rem oved by the general’s father, and the present erected in its place. All that was venerable ceased here. The new building was not only new, but declared itself to be so; intended only for offices, and enclosed behind by stable-y ards, no uniform ity of architecture had been thought necessary. Catherine could have raved at the hand which had swept away what m ust have been bey ond the value of all the rest, for the purposes of m ere dom estic econom y ; and would willingly have been spared the m ortification of a walk through scenes so fallen, had the general allowed it; but if he had a vanity, it was in the arrangem ent of his offices; and as he was convinced that, to a m ind like Miss Morland’s, a view of the accom m odations and com forts, by which the labours of her inferiors were softened, m ust alway s be gratify ing, he should m ake no apology for leading her on. They took a slight survey of all; and Catherine was im pressed, bey ond her expectation, by their m ultiplicity and their convenience. The purposes for which a few shapeless pantries and a com fortless scullery were deem ed sufficient at Fullerton, were here carried on in appropriate divisions, com m odious and room y. The num ber of servants continually appearing did not strike her less than the num ber of their offices. Wherever they went, som e pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or som e footm an in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey ! How inexpressibly different in these dom estic arrangem ents from such as she had read about – from abbey s and castles, in which, though certainly larger than Northanger, all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of fem ale hands at the utm ost. How they could get through it all had often am azed Mrs. Allen; and, when Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be am azed herself.

They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase m ight be ascended,

and the beauty of its wood, and ornam ents of rich carving m ight be pointed out: having gained the top, they turned in an opposite direction from the gallery in which her room lay, and shortly entered one on the sam e plan, but superior in length and breadth. She was here shown successively into three large bed-cham bers, with their dressing-room s, m ost com pletely and handsom ely fitted up; every thing that m oney and taste could do, to give com fort and elegance to apartm ents, had been bestowed on these; and, being furnished within the last five y ears, they were perfect in all that would be generally pleasing, and wanting in all that could give pleasure to Catherine. As they were survey ing the last, the general, after slightly nam ing a few of the distinguished characters by whom they had at tim es been honoured, turned with a sm iling countenance to Catherine, and ventured to hope that henceforward som e of their earliest tenants m ight be “our friends from Fullerton.” She felt the unexpected com plim ent, and deeply regretted the im possibility of thinking well of a m an so kindly disposed towards herself, and so full of civility to all her fam ily.

The gallery was term inated by folding doors, which Miss Tilney,

advancing, had thrown open, and passed through, and seem ed on the point of doing the sam e by the first door to the left, in another long reach of gallery, when the general, com ing forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought, rather angrily back, dem anding whether she were going? – And what was there m ore to be seen? – Had not Miss Morland already seen all that could be worth her notice? – And did she not suppose her friend m ight be glad of som e refreshm ent after so m uch exercise? Miss Tilney drew back directly, and the heavy doors were closed upon the m ortified Catherine, who, having seen, in a m om entary glance bey ond them , a narrower passage, m ore num erous openings, and sy m ptom s of a winding staircase, believed herself at last within the reach of som ething worth her notice; and felt, as she unwillingly paced back the gallery, that she would rather be allowed to exam ine that end of the house than see all the finery of all the rest. The general’s evident desire of preventing such an exam ination was an additional stim ulant. Som ething was certainly to be concealed; her fancy, though it had trespassed lately once or twice, could not m islead her here; and what that som ething was, a short sentence of Miss Tilney ’s, as they followed the general at som e distance downstairs, seem ed to point out: “I was going to take y ou into what was m y m other’s room – the room in which she died – “ were all her words; but few as they were, they convey ed pages of intelligence to Catherine. It was no wonder that the general should shrink from the sight of such obj ects as that room m ust contain; a room in all probability never entered by him since the dreadful scene had passed, which released his suffering wife, and left him to the stings of conscience.

She ventured, when next alone with Eleanor, to express her wish of

being perm itted to see it, as well as all the rest of that side of the house; and Eleanor prom ised to attend her there, whenever they should have a convenient hour. Catherine understood her: the general m ust be watched from hom e, be-fore that room could be entered. “It rem ains as it was, I suppose?” said she, in a tone of feeling.

“Yes, entirely.”

“And how long ago m ay it be that y our m other died?”

“She has been dead these nine y ears.” And nine y ears, Catherine knew,

was a trifle of tim e, com pared with what generally elapsed after the death of an inj ured wife, before her room was put to rights.

“You were with her, I suppose, to the last?”

“No,” said Miss Tilney, sighing; “I was unfortunately from hom e. Her

illness was sudden and short; and, before I arrived it was all over.”

Catherine’s blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions which naturally

sprang from these words. Could it be possible? Could Henry ’s father... ? And y et how m any were the exam ples to j ustify even the blackest suspicions! And, when she saw him in the evening, while she worked with her friend, slowly pacing the drawing-room for an hour together in silent thoughtfulness, with downcast ey es and contracted brow, she felt secure from all possibility of wronging him . It was the air and attitude of a Montoni! What could m ore plainly speak the gloom y workings of a m ind not wholly dead to every sense of hum anity, in its fearful review of past scenes of guilt? Unhappy m an! And the anxiousness of her spirits directed her ey es towards his figure so repeatedly, as to catch Miss Tilney ’s notice. “My father,” she whispered, “often walks about the room in this way ; it is nothing unusual.”

“So m uch the worse!” thought Catherine; such ill-tim ed exercise was of

a piece with the strange unseasonableness of his m orning walks, and boded nothing good.

After an evening, the little variety and seem ing length of which m ade

her peculiarly sensible of Henry ’s im portance am ong them , she was heartily glad to be dism issed; though it was a look from the general not designed for her observation which sent his daughter to the bell. When the butler would have lit his m aster’s candle, however, he was forbidden. The latter was not going to retire. “I have m any pam phlets to finish,” said he to Catherine, “before I can close m y ey es, and perhaps m ay be poring over the affairs of the nation for hours after y ou are asleep. Can either of us be m ore m eetly em ploy ed? My ey es will be blinding for the good of others, and y ours preparing by rest for future m ischief.”

But neither the business alleged, nor the m agnificent com plim ent, could

win Catherine from thinking that som e very different obj ect m ust occasion so serious a delay of proper repose. To be kept up for hours, after the fam ily were in bed, by stupid pam phlets was not very likely. There m ust be som e deeper cause: som ething was to be done which could be done only while the household slept; and the probability that Mrs. Tilney y et lived, shut up for causes unknown, and receiving from the pitiless hands of her husband a nightly supply of coarse food, was the conclusion which necessarily followed. Shocking as was the idea, it was at least better than a death unfairly hastened, as, in the natural course of things, she m ust ere long be released. The suddenness of her reputed illness, the absence of her daughter, and probably of her other children, at the tim e – all favoured the supposition of her im prisonm ent. Its origin – j ealousy perhaps, or wanton cruelty – was y et to be unravelled.

In revolving these m atters, while she undressed, it suddenly struck her

as not unlikely that she m ight that m orning have passed near the very spot of this unfortunate wom an’s confinem ent – m ight have been within a few paces of the cell in which she languished out her day s; for what part of the abbey could be m ore fitted for the purpose than that which y et bore the traces of m onastic division? In the high-arched passage, paved with stone, which already she had trodden with peculiar awe, she well rem em bered the doors of which the general had given no account. To what m ight not those doors lead? In support of the plausibility of this conj ecture, it further occurred to her that the forbidden gallery, in which lay the apartm ents of the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney, m ust be, as certainly as her m em ory could guide her, exactly over this suspected range of cells, and the staircase by the side of those apartm ents of which she had caught a transient glim pse, com m unicating by som e secret m eans with those cells, m ight well have favoured the barbarous proceedings of her husband. Down that staircase she had perhaps been convey ed in a state of well-prepared insensibility !

Catherine som etim es started at the boldness of her own surm ises, and

som etim es hoped or feared that she had gone too far; but they were supported by such appearances as m ade their dism issal im possible.

The side of the quadrangle, in which she supposed the guilty scene to be

acting, being, according to her belief, j ust opposite her own, it struck her that, if j udiciously watched, som e ray s of light from the general’s lam p m ight glim m er through the lower windows, as he passed to the prison of his wife; and, twice before she stepped into bed, she stole gently from her room to the corresponding window in the gallery, to see if it appeared; but all abroad was dark, and it m ust y et be too early. The various ascending noises convinced her that the servants m ust still be up. Till m idnight, she supposed it would be in vain to watch; but then, when the clock had struck twelve, and all was quiet, she would, if not quite appalled by darkness, steal out and look once m ore. The clock struck twelve – and Catherine had been half an hour asleep.