Northanger Abbey - Chapter 23

An hour passed away before the general came in, spent, on the part of his young guest, in no very favourable¹ consideration of his character. "This lengthened² absence, these solitary³ rambles⁴, did not speak a mind at ease, or a conscience void of reproach." At length he appeared; and, whatever might have been the gloom of his meditations⁵, he could still smile with them. Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend's curiosity to see the house, soon revived the subject; and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations, unprovided with any pretence⁶ for further delay, beyond that of stopping five minutes to order refreshments⁸ to be in the room by their return, was at last ready to escort them.

 

They set forward; and, with a grandeur⁹ of air, a dignified¹⁰ step, which caught the eye, but could not shake the doubts of the well-read Catherine, he led the way across the hall, through the common drawing-room and one useless antechamber, into a room magnificent both in size and furniture—the real drawing-room, used only with company of consequence. It was very noble—very grand—very charming!—was all that Catherine had to say, for her indiscriminating eye scarcely discerned the colour of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise that had much meaning, was supplied by the general: the costliness¹¹ or elegance¹² of any room's fitting-up could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture of a more modern date than the fifteenth century. When the general had satisfied his own curiosity, in a close examination of every well-known ornament¹³, they proceeded into the library, an apartment, in its way, of equal magnificence, exhibiting a collection of books, on which an humble¹⁴ man might have looked with pride. Catherine heard, admired, and wondered with more 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 suites¹⁵ of apartments 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 rooms she had now seen surrounded three sides of the court, she could scarcely believe it, or overcome the suspicion of there being many chambers¹⁶ secreted¹⁷. It was some relief, however, that they were to return to the rooms in common use, by passing through a few of less importance, looking into the court, which, with occasional passages, not wholly unintricate, connected the different sides; and she was further soothed¹⁸ in her progress by being told that she was treading what had once been a cloister¹⁹, having traces of cells pointed²⁰ 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 apartment, without comprehending 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 strewed²¹ with his litter of books, guns, and greatcoats.

 

From the dining-room, of which, though already seen, and always to be seen at five o'clock, the general could not forgo²² the pleasure of pacing out the length, for the more certain information of Miss Morland, as to what she neither doubted nor cared for, they proceeded by quick communication to the kitchen—the ancient kitchen of the convent, rich in the massy walls and smoke of former days, and in the stoves and hot closets of the present. The general's improving hand had not loitered here: every modern invention to facilitate the labour of the cooks had been adopted within this, their spacious²³ theatre; and, when the genius of others had failed, his own had often produced the perfection wanted. His endowments of this spot alone might at any time have placed him high among the benefactors²⁴ of the convent.

 

With the walls of the kitchen ended all the antiquity²⁵ of the abbey; the fourth side of the quadrangle having, on account of its decaying state, been removed by the general's father, and the present erected²⁶ 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-yards, no uniformity of architecture had been thought necessary. Catherine could have raved²⁷ at the hand which had swept away what must have been beyond the value of all the rest, for the purposes of mere²⁸ domestic economy; and would willingly have been spared the mortification²⁹ of a walk through scenes so fallen, had the general allowed it; but if he had a vanity, it was in the arrangement of his offices; and as he was convinced that, to a mind like Miss Morland's, a view of the accommodations and comforts, by which the labours of her inferiors were softened³⁰, must always be gratifying, he should make no apology for leading her on. They took a slight survey of all; and Catherine was impressed, beyond her expectation, by their multiplicity and their convenience. The purposes for which a few shapeless pantries and a comfortless scullery were deemed sufficient at Fullerton, were here carried on in appropriate divisions, commodious³¹ and roomy. The number of servants continually appearing did not strike her less than the number of their offices. Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or some footman in dishabille sneaked³² off. Yet this was an abbey! How inexpressibly different in these domestic arrangements from such as she had read about—from abbeys and castles, in which, though certainly larger than Northanger, all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost. How they could get through it all had often amazed Mrs. Allen; and, when Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be amazed herself.

 

They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase might be ascended³³, and the beauty of its wood, and ornaments³⁴ of rich carving³⁵ might 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 same plan, but superior in length and breadth. She was here shown successively into three large bed-chambers, with their dressing-rooms, most completely and handsomely fitted up; everything that money and taste could do, to give comfort and elegance to apartments, had been bestowed³⁶ on these; and, being furnished within the last five years, they were perfect in all that would be generally pleasing, and wanting in all that could give pleasure to Catherine. As they were surveying the last, the general, after slightly naming a few of the distinguished³⁷ characters by whom they had at times been honoured, turned with a smiling countenance³⁸ to Catherine, and ventured to hope that henceforward some of their earliest tenants³⁹ might be "our friends from Fullerton." She felt the unexpected compliment, and deeply regretted the impossibility of thinking well of a man so kindly⁴⁰ disposed towards herself, and so full of civility to all her family.

 

The gallery was terminated by folding doors, which Miss Tilney, advancing, had thrown open, and passed through, and seemed on the point of doing the same by the first door to the left, in another long reach of gallery, when the general, coming forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought, rather angrily back, demanding whether she were going?—And what was there more to be seen?—Had not Miss Morland already seen all that could be worth her notice?—And did she not suppose her friend might be glad of some refreshment⁷ after so much exercise? Miss Tilney drew back directly, and the heavy doors were closed upon the mortified⁴¹ Catherine, who, having seen, in a momentary⁴² glance beyond them, a narrower passage, more numerous openings, and symptoms of a winding⁴³ staircase, believed herself at last within the reach of something worth her notice; and felt, as she unwillingly⁴⁴ paced back the gallery, that she would rather be allowed to examine that end of the house than see all the finery of all the rest. The general's evident desire of preventing such an examination was an additional stimulant⁴⁵. Something was certainly to be concealed⁴⁶; her fancy, though it had trespassed⁴⁷ lately once or twice, could not mislead her here; and what that something was, a short sentence of Miss Tilney's, as they followed the general at some distance downstairs, seemed to point out: "I was going to take you into what was my mother's room—the room in which she died—" were all her words; but few as they were, they conveyed pages of intelligence to Catherine. It was no wonder that the general should shrink from the sight of such objects as that room must 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 permitted to see it, as well as all the rest of that side of the house; and Eleanor promised to attend her there, whenever they should have a convenient hour. Catherine understood her: the general must be watched from home, before that room could be entered. "It remains⁴⁸ as it was, I suppose?" said she, in a tone of feeling.

 

"Yes, entirely⁴⁹."

 

"And how long ago may it be that your mother died?"

 

"She has been dead these nine years." And nine years, Catherine knew, was a trifle of time, compared with what generally elapsed after the death of an injured 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 home. Her illness was sudden and short; and, before I arrived it was all over."

 

Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid⁵⁰ suggestions which naturally sprang from these words. Could it be possible? Could Henry's father—? And yet how many were the examples to justify⁵¹ 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 eyes and contracted brow, she felt secure from all possibility of wronging him. It was the air and attitude of a Montoni! What could more plainly speak the gloomy workings of a mind not wholly dead to every sense of humanity, in its fearful review of past scenes of guilt⁵²? Unhappy man! And the anxiousness of her spirits directed her eyes 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 much the worse!" thought Catherine; such ill-timed exercise was of a piece with the strange unseasonableness of his morning walks, and boded⁵³ nothing good.

 

After an evening, the little variety and seeming length of which made her peculiarly sensible of Henry's importance among them, she was heartily⁵⁵ glad to be dismissed; 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 master's candle, however, he was forbidden. The latter was not going to retire. "I have many pamphlets to finish," said he to Catherine, "before I can close my eyes, and perhaps may be poring over the affairs of the nation for hours after you are asleep. Can either of us be more meetly employed? My eyes will be blinding for the good of others, and yours preparing by rest for future mischief⁵⁶."

 

But neither the business alleged⁵⁷, nor the magnificent compliment, could win Catherine from thinking that some very different object must occasion so serious a delay of proper repose⁵⁸. To be kept up for hours, after the family were in bed, by stupid pamphlets was not very likely. There must be some deeper cause: something was to be done which could be done only while the household slept; and the probability that Mrs. Tilney yet 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 must ere long be released. The suddenness of her reputed illness, the absence of her daughter, and probably of her other children, at the time—all favoured the supposition of her imprisonment⁵⁹. Its origin—jealousy perhaps, or wanton cruelty—was yet to be unravelled⁶⁰.

 

In revolving⁶¹ these matters, while she undressed, it suddenly struck her as not unlikely that she might that morning have passed near the very spot of this unfortunate woman's confinement—might have been within a few paces of the cell in which she languished⁶² out her days; for what part of the abbey could be more fitted for the purpose than that which yet bore the traces of monastic division? In the high-arched passage, paved with stone, which already she had trodden with peculiar⁵⁴ awe⁶³, she well remembered the doors of which the general had given no account. To what might not those doors lead? In support of the plausibility⁶⁴ of this conjecture⁶⁵, it further occurred to her that the forbidden gallery, in which lay the apartments of the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney, must be, as certainly as her memory could guide her, exactly over this suspected range of cells, and the staircase by the side of those apartments of which she had caught a transient glimpse, communicating by some secret means with those cells, might well have favoured the barbarous proceedings⁶⁶ of her husband. Down that staircase she had perhaps been conveyed in a state of well-prepared insensibility!

 

Catherine sometimes started at the boldness of her own surmises⁶⁷, and sometimes hoped or feared that she had gone too far; but they were supported by such appearances as made their dismissal impossible.

 

The side of the quadrangle, in which she supposed the guilty scene to be acting⁶⁸, being, according to her belief, just opposite her own, it struck her that, if judiciously⁶⁹ watched, some rays of light from the general's lamp might glimmer⁷⁰ 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 must yet be too early. The various ascending⁷¹ noises convinced her that the servants must still be up. Till midnight, 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 appalled⁷² by darkness, steal out and look once more. The clock struck twelve—and Catherine had been half an hour asleep.

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